HIGHLA-L Digest - 22 Mar 2004 to 23 Mar 2004 (#2004-55)
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Tue, 23 Mar 2004 22:00:10 -0500
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Topics of the day:
1. Seasons Three dvds: Courage
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Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 11:34:42 -0500
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Seasons Three dvds: Courage
COMMENTARY: Charles Wilkinson was the director of this episode, and tells us
that it could be classified as an anti-drug episode, made during the "Just
Say No" era. Many of the anti-drug programs on television at the time
"sucked" and the reason they sucked was because they moralized and preached,
and only showed how horrible and stupid it was to take drugs. That message
simply didn't ring true to kids, who would say, "Where's the good part?"
because they knew there *was* a good part - a reason to take drugs in the
first place.
This episode showed why Cullen took drugs, that he got this momentary rush.
But the episode was also about the consequences of that rush. Wilkinson
describes the happy-other-worldly look of Cullen when he was in the opium
house (and we see a clip from that scene). When he hands the pipe to Duncan,
you can see Duncan look at it and say, "If only...," but Duncan had a sense
of the consequences of surrendering to momentary gratification.
Don Paonessa describes the difficulty of creating a special effect for when
Cullen hits a bus head-on with his car. He wanted something that created a
sense of impact, a visual that would connect with a moment of death. What
they wanted to do was something special, but because of budget limitations,
what they ended up with was something a lot of people considered "cheesy".
[They showed the effect, and he's right. It's this cartoon rainbow explosion
that's really juvenile. All they need is "KABOOM" written across the screen
to complete the effect. Oddly, until he had pointed it out, the idiocy of it
had never really registered on my consciousness.] Paonessa says he's sorry
they did it, and apologizes for it.
Bill Panzer comments that people who live a single lifetime have moments in
that life (during war, during emergencies, during life crises) when they
have to be courageous, but they only have to be courageous for a while. But
as an Immortal, you are "forced to be courageous forever." One of HL's
favorite themes, is "How is Immortality like real life, only more so." To
find a guy who gradually, at an Immortal pace, is falling apart, is like the
guy Patton slapped because he had battle fatigue. He drinks, he fights, he
does drugs, and does the same thing the 'human' part of him would do, and
eventually, "he has to be put down like a dog."
[SIDEBAR: I thought the director's comments were somewhat shallow with
regard to what, in my opinion, is one of the more emotionally compelling
episodes of the series. Bill Panzer articulated far more of the essence of
the important issues in this episode, but then that shouldn't be too
surprising since he was far more immersed in the HL world. Presenting an
anti-drug message was the secondary theme, at most. The primary theme was
how constant, never-ending battle to the death, year after year, century
after century, could erode your soul, eat away at who you were until you
lost yourself entirely. Cullen is who Duncan could easily become, and Duncan
knows that and fights to find meaning in life *other* than the fighting.
*That* is the important message of the story, not "Just Say No."]
OUTTAKES: They show a take from the breakfast scene with Duncan and Anne
Lindsay. I'm not sure what the point of it was. Then Gillian H. tells us
Duncan and Anne's dinner was supposed to be on a rooftop, with candles and
flowers, very romantic, but production considerations meant that it had to
be shot in the daytime. It didn't look right and it was so windy that the
sound recording was bad, and the film was unusable. They actually had to go
back and reshoot the whole scene inside Joe's. But we see a little of it as
an outtake.
They also show some the final fight scene. In the original sequence, Cullen
stabs Duncan through the fence. That part was eventually cut because it was
considered too violent. We see the stabbing sequence from two angles. Even
though we can see that AP truly isn't run through with the katana, the sheer
physicality of the stabbing, AP's reaction, then his fall to the ground, is
pretty amazing and gruesome, even knowing it's just 'acting.'
EPISODE: In Joe's (coincidentally), we see a ratty looking, stringy-haired
guy being a drunken asshole, but reacting when Richie walks in, so we know
he's an Immortal. He tries to pick a fight, but Richie declines. The drunk
tells Richie he is lucky there's people around or "you'd be beggin' my ass
for mercy." Richie refuses to rise to the bait, and when the guy tries to go
after him anyway, Richie barely has to move sideways before the guy falls to
the floor, passed out.
Then we see Duncan, jogging along a trail crowded with bikers, and
(coincidentally) he and Anne Lindsay literally run into each other. They
flirt a little and Duncan asks her to dinner. As she peddles away, he finds
that she has dropped her beeper on the ground.
Once again we see the asshole Immortal driving erratically along the
highway, singing to himself, obviously high and enjoying himself in his own
drug-altered state. Somehow, he has managed to track down where Richie
drives along on his motorcycle. The other Immortal follows and the two race
along the highway until the guy slews his car around to try to run Richie
off the road. Richie eludes him and drives on, but the guy in the car smacks
head on into a bus (and we see the stupid cartoon crash effect).
At the hospital Emergency Room, Anne is preparing to deal with a bus-load of
incoming patients, and Duncan is there to return her pager. Duncan watches
for a few moments as she cares for her patients with empathy and
professionalism. The drugged-out Immortal is brought it on a gurney and left
in a hallway, and Duncan 'feels' him. The guy regains consciousness (it is
unclear that he actually died since Duncan could feel him, but why they left
an injured, unconscious man lying in the hallway unattended is unclear). He
struggles off the gurney and stumbles to a storeroom, where Duncan finds
him. His name is Brian Cullen. Duncan is appalled at Brian's appearance, and
it is clear they are old friends.
FLASHBACK: Switzerland, 1810. Brian and Duncan are in an open carriage
driving along a forest road on a long trip to France. They are passing the
time drinking and talking, when they are accosted by a young man (not an
Immortal). As the two Immortals climb drunkenly out of the carriage to piss
by the side of the road, the young man announces he wants to fight Brian,
evidently just because he is "the best swordsman in all of Europe." Cullen
tries to decline, but the boy will not be dissuaded.
"Why don't they stop coming?" Brian asks Duncan.
"Because you're the best," Duncan answers.
Back in the present, Duncan takes Brian to his loft to find him a change of
clothes. Richie is in the apartment, and Cullen and Richie almost get into
it, but Duncan stops them.
FLASHBACK: Duncan is escorting a young woman back to her rooms (Mrs.
Fotheringill's Residence for Women), through the rough-and-tumble streets of
San Francisco in the Gold Rush. Their almost-tryst is interrupted when
Duncan feels another Immortal. He leaves his hat with the girl, promising to
return, and we see Duncan at the docks, looking for the other Immortal. It
is Brian, and Duncan is delighted to see him. Brian wants them to leave
immediately to go have a drink, trying to pull him away, but they feel a
third Immortal. Brian says he is "in no mood to find out" who the other
Immortal is, but along comes a big, hulking guy (Zolton Lazlo) to challenge
Cullen, but Cullen disappears, leaving Duncan to deal with Lazlo, who
(fortunately) is only interested in Cullen.
Back at the loft, Brian backs off from his challenge to Richie, and leaves.
Duncan tells Richie to be careful of Cullen, that "he used to be the best."
Duncan goes to see Anne at the hospital and offers to buy her breakfast. At
an idyllic spot on the water, they talk about the difficulties Anne deals
with in her work, especially when she loses her patients. She also tells him
about all the amphetamines they found in the car of the guy who ran into the
bus, and it is clear Duncan has figured out it was Brian.
FLASHBACK: To an opium den in San Francisco, where Duncan goes to look for
Brian. [Visuals here are excellent, with the slightly seedy, but happily
dazed denizens recline in smoke-filled booths.] Duncan is deeply concerned
about Brian, who offers him opium. Duncan holds it for just a second, then
declines, asking what happened with Lazlo. Brian tells Duncan he was "scared
to death."
"Never thought it would happen, did you?" he asks. "You and me, both. This
helps me to forget what I am, and what's waiting out there.... Don't ever be
the best, MacLeod. Everyone wants a shot at the best. God help you if you
lose your nerve, and they keep coming."
In the present, we see Cullen snorting a line of coke, and really enjoying
it, then he buys a large amount (and snorts some more) from a drug dealer.
They are interrupted by the police. Cullen fights them, they shoot him, but
he fights on and escapes, snorting more coke as he goes.
Duncan finds Cullen back at the loft, still snorting coke. "I'm trying to
remember who you used to be," Duncan tells him angrily. "There wasn't a
better swordsman in all of Europe, or a better friend." He offers to help
Cullen, but he has to stop using the drugs.
"Don't pity me, MacLeod. One day it will be you."
"Immortality isn't one long fencing match," Duncan argues. "What about all
the times we've had, all the things we've seen?"
Cullen tells him he would trade his Immortality in a minute for chance at a
normal life.
"We don't get to choose," Duncan tells him. "Is it worth less because it's
longer?"
But Cullen says they could lose their heads tomorrow, and asks what kind of
Immortality is that?
"We either live it or we throw it away," Duncan tells him, and argues that
when Cullen slams his car into a bus, he doesn't die, other people do, and
he snatches the bag of coke away.
Then Cullen gets really angry, accusing Duncan of taking the drugs because
he thinks without them, he can beat him, and challenges Duncan to a fight.
"Go away, Cullen," Duncan growls.
"Keep it, MacLeod," (referring to the drugs) Cullen sneers as he leaves.
"You're gonna need it."
Duncan looks emotionally stunned as the loft door slams down, and the phone
rings. It is Anne, who asks if anything is wrong. "No," Duncan answers
hesitantly. "I was just saying goodbye to an old friend."
They make plans for dinner, and there is a cute scene with Richie as Duncan
leaves for the date. Anne and Duncan are at Joe's, which is closed for the
night. They talk and dance, but just as things get interesting, Anne is
beeped by the hospital and has to leave. As she does, he feels another
Immortal, and Cullen suddenly attacks him. They bare-knuckle fight for a few
minutes, then the swords come out, as Duncan yells at Cullen that "You don't
have to prove anything to me." In a few moves, Duncan has Cullen down, but
refuses to kill him, saying, "Next time I'm not going to walk away."
Richie is still at the dojo when Mac returns, and berates Mac for not
killing Cullen, but Duncan says that Cullen just has some problems, that "he
's gonna pull through," that it's not him, it's the drugs. We have a third
flashback to the opium den again, and Brian is in the midst of a paranoid
delusion, with a sword to the throat of an old man he had thought was trying
to take his opium. Brian ends up begging Duncan to help him, and weeping
against Duncan's shoulder.
"Fear," Duncan explains to Richie about why Cullen is the way he is. "It can
take your soul. It can take your heart." He tells Richie that who you are
can depend on who you meet, and speculates about what a different person he
might have been if Connor hadn't found him, or if he hadn't met Fitzcairn,
or Tessa or Richie.
Richie tells Duncan he knows who he'd be if he hadn't met Duncan - he'd be
dead. He asks if Duncan can be that guy for Cullen, too.
"I don't know," Duncan answers. "Maybe it's too late."
Cullen is off getting more drugs from his dealer and stealing his van. He
calls Duncan and begs for his help, saying he's trying to kick the drugs.
Then we have what I think is the most brutal fight scene in all of HL, as
they meet in a deserted parking garage, and Cullen tries to run Duncan down
with the van, finally crashing into him as Duncan stabs through the
windshield with his katana. They revive about the same time, but both are
stumbling, bleeding wrecks, and at one point Cullen slashes Duncan across
the neck in as close a call as we ever see to Duncan losing his head. At the
end, though, Duncan prevails, more through will than skill, and just before
the final stroke, he sadly tells Brian goodbye. In the aftermath of a
painful Quickening, we see him sitting up against the fence, quietly weeping
in grief.
There is a short tag scene where Duncan is sitting moodily outside the
hospital, and this time it is Anne who offers to take Duncan to breakfast.
MY COMMENTS: This is, in my opinion, one of the top ten episodes. We see the
corrosive effect of Immortality on someone who was not a bad man at all, one
who was a good friend and companion (and probably a teacher) to Duncan. The
flashbacks were all beautifully done down to every detail, and the final
fight scene was just stunning and the most emotionally wrenching of any
fight scene in all of Highlander, IMO. The conversation between Duncan and
Richie about the influence of the people you meet was very telling in Duncan
's view of the power of relationships - one of the governing aspects of his
life. I see two great differences between Cullen and Duncan: First, Duncan
focuses his life on the everyday, the non-Immortal aspects of life rather
than letting his life be driven entirely by the Game; and 2) Duncan is a
person of enormous (if not obsessive) self-control and discipline, and
however much he, too, would like to escape the ugly side of Immortality, he
knows there are consequences to that escape, and refuses to give in to that
temptation.
My disappointment is not with the episode, but with the commentary, since a
discussion of the fight choreography would have been far, far more
interesting than the director's comments about this being an anti-drug
episode. I would love to have seen a discussion of that between F. Braun and
AP and maybe the actor who played Cullen.
MacGeorge
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 22 Mar 2004 to 23 Mar 2004 (#2004-55)
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