HIGHLA-L Digest - 28 Jun 2004 to 29 Jun 2004 (#2004-123)
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Tue, 29 Jun 2004 22:00:03 -0400
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Topics of the day:
1. Season Four dvds: Reluctant Heroes
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Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 11:39:14 -0400
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Season Four dvds: Reluctant Heroes
This episode commentary w/screen captures, at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/Season4/Reluctant%20Heroes.htm
COMMENTARY: Bill Panzer notes that revenge-over-time is experienced on a
grander scale by Immortals. Then Bill summarizes the whole plot of the
episode, and notes that it was an interesting and somewhat complex moral
process for MacLeod to deal with his own desire for vengeance, yet
accommodate someone else's need for justice.
Neill Fearnley was supposed to direct the episode and directed most of it,
but then had a car accident and couldn't shoot the last few scenes.
AP tells us that the director was in an accident and cracked his sternum.
Evidently he turned green on the set and said (Adrian gasps in imitation) "I
can't continue," and someone asked Adrian to step in to direct the final
scenes. Adrian says jokingly, "I'm never a reluctant hero. I'm always there,
ready and willing, and... sometimes able, to participate in anything to do
with Highlander." He says he was on the spot, and knew the choreography of
the fight. Having the experience over time of doing those fights over the
years, and watching how a variety of directors did it gave him an advantage
in doing it on the spur of the moment. They shot that day in the meat
locker, and it was really a matter of getting the shot done on time rather
than doing anything "artsy" with it, although he tried to create that.
BP says directors sometimes have a funny "thing" about showing up and doing
a "mop-up" of somebody else's work even though this was for perfectly
legitimate reasons. So sometimes they can be a little slow or have a point
of view that's inconsistent with the rest of the show, or has a certain
style, but Adrian seemed very amenable and was actually on the set, so they
used him.
Adrian says it was fun because it was his first chance to put some things
together, even though it was done on the fly. He says as a director, he got
better as he went along, and this gave him more experience. [This comment
confused me because it sounded like he did this episode before he had done
"Homeland", but obviously that wasn't the case.]
OUTTAKES: We see Duncan and Richie talking about how Duncan is going to go
after Kinman even though Kinman may be a better swordsman. (That's what we
see in the episode). However, as Duncan drives away in the car, we see
Richie watch solemnly, saying seriously, "Note to myself: Don't piss off
MacLeod." (I don't know whether that was an ad lib by Stan or a line that
got cut, but it didn't make it into the final version.)
There is a blooper showing a discussion between MacLeod and the shopkeeper
as the shopkeeper tries to explain how he got into trouble with the
moneylender. Duncan looks at him, listening solemnly, then picks up an item
off the shelf, holds it up to the camera and smiles widely and says, "You
should have used Pam! It stops all sticking from any cooking surface, and
you can get it for $5.12 here at Adrian's Corner Store. If you want to buy
it anywhere else, we'll match that price. Come to Adrian's Corner Store. We'
ll be waiting!"
EPISODE: MacLeod has taken Richie to see a foreign film, and Richie is
grousing about it ("There's two hours of my life I'm never getting back.").
MacLeod is unsympathetic, teasing Richie about his low-brow taste in films
as they pass a neighborhood grocery store. Richie and Mac feel another
Immortal and a masked man approaches brandishing a gun, pointing it at the
shopkeeper. Duncan tackles the shopkeeper, saving his life, and as Richie
and Duncan chase off after the masked Immortal, the shopkeeper's wife
approaches and collapses in his arms, having caught the bullet intended for
him.
The masked Immortal throws away his mask and ducks into a parking lot with
Richie and Duncan on his heels. Richie finds him first, but Duncan
approaches and they recognize each other. Duncan seems very pleased to see
him and they face off. There's a brief fight that Mac is obviously
relishing, except the police arrive, arresting the guy (Kinman) as he tries
to flee and Mac and Richie both hide in the shadows.
We get a flashback to England in 1712, where Queen Mary is playing croquet
with Lord Dennis Keating, and one Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod,
relatively newly arrived from the Highlands, but who cleans up well and has
adapted to court life with relative ease. Queen Mary is portrayed as strong
willed and opinionated, and Lord Dennis, who is Duncan's patron (Duncan is
described in the chronicles of the time as something of a novelty at court),
is indiscreet in his vocal opposition to the war with France, and how the
Scots were expected to fight for England, yet be taxed into poverty by the
crown. Later at an inn, as Duncan is counseling Dennis to be more diplomatic
in his speech, Lord Dennis is goaded into a challenge by a foppish Immortal
(Paul Kinman). Of course, Duncan's friend is killed in a nicely done dueling
scene.
In a second flashback to the court of Queen Anne, Duncan has been summoned
by the Queen, where she tells him Dennis' death was an assassination, paid
for by those who wish to see the war with France continue. Duncan anxiously
comes close, kneeling before her to tell her that he cares nothing for court
intrigues, he only cares about justice, and wants Kinman. In a tense speech,
the queen tells him that her people are divided. "I will not give them a
battle between a Catholic Scotsman and a Protestant Englishman that will
divide them further." Duncan protests that she cannot ask him to do nothing
about it. "I can ask what I will, I am your Queen!" She demands that he give
his word that he will not fight Kinman. He tells her it would be better to
ask for his life than that. She stands up, and commands the scene even
though he towers over her, telling him that there is more at stake than
Duncan's pride, that she has a nation to protect. "I will have your word,"
she says coldly. "And I will have it now." After a moment of consideration,
Duncan kneels, swearing to her that as long as she reigns, he will not fight
Kinman.
Kinman, of course, ends up taunting and goading Duncan in public. Duncan
barely manages to hold his tongue, but is humiliated in front of his
friends, who call him a coward.
Back in the present, it is the shopkeeper, David Markam, who truly can't
understand Duncan's unwillingness to testify against Kinman, and who puts
enormous emotional pressure on Duncan, accusing him of being bought off by
the killer, of being a coward, and he refuses to accept Duncan's assurances
that it's better "this way". He even brings his daughters to the dojo to try
some emotional blackmail. When Duncan still refuses, he offers Richie
$200,000 to testify. Richie is momentarily tempted, but doesn't take the
money.
As a subplot, we learn that the "super-tough", attractive FBI agent, who
puts on a nasty front when she questions Kinman, is actually his lover, who
ends up helping him escape.
Later, when Richie points out that he doesn't get it, that Mac is usually
the first one to talk about justice, about doing what's right, Duncan
responds that is what it's about, but Richie wants to know what about
Markham and his little girls.
"Mac, you kill Kinman, you get satisfaction!"
"It's not about my satisfaction!"
"Yeah, right."
"He's done this for centuries!"
"Bull, Mac. You kill him, they'll never know about it. They'll spend the
rest of their lives thinking he got away." (You tell him, Richie!)
"And that we let him, I know."
Mac goes to see Markham, asking why Kinman came after him. After an angry
confrontation, Markham admits Kinman was after him, that he had gotten into
debt with a loanshark (Vince Petrovic), who then tried to demand 50%
ownership of the store. Mac decides to go ahead and testify, but also makes
a visit to Petrovic, warning him to stay away from Markham and as an
incentive, "takes care" of Petrovic's bodyguard.
The FBI agent Kinman is schtupping not only facilitates Kinman's escape from
custody, she kills her own partner. Unfortunately, Kinman then coldly
murders his erstwhile lover. Kinman goes to Petrovic for his money, meeting
him in a meat locker, and Petrovic arrogantly refuses, so Kinman shoots him
in the leg. Petrovic is appalled and unbelieving, but Kinman just
philosophizes about how there are no real challenges left, that the elegant
weapons and methods of yesteryear and been reduced to the use of machines
(guns), and kills Petrovic, apparently just because he felt like it. Then
Duncan arrives, telling him that if he wants a challenge, he's got one.
Kinman is a swordsman of trickery and style, but of course, MacLeod
prevails, and before he takes Kinman's head he advises him to, "Close your
eyes. Think of England."
In the Quickening, there is this odd moment where we see two images of
MacLeod separate, then come back together again. That can be interpreted in
any number of ways, but it was a harbinger, in my opinion, of the bizarre Q
that we will see in a few episode after Duncan takes Coltec's head. After
the Q is over, Duncan turns and looks behind him, like he's expecting to see
someone or something, but there's nothing there.
Duncan visits Markham at the store. Markham thinks Duncan was the one who
killed Petrovic, and thanks him, but Duncan tells him it wasn't him, that it
was Kinman. Although Markham is appalled that Kinman will get away with yet
another murder, he seems to be dealing better with his grief, guilt and
anger, and thanks Duncan for what he tried to do, but says, "I just wish
there had been some justice for Alice."
Duncan turns to leave, then turns back around, obviously changing his mind
about something. "Mr. Markham," he calls. "Kinman didn't get away with it."
There is a long look exchanged between the two men, then Duncan leaves.
MY COMMENTS: This was another one of those herky-jerky plots that, for me,
didn't fit together particularly well.
The present-day plot of the unlikely relationship between the tough lady FBI
agent and the effete Immortal assassin just never worked for me. I actually
felt the actress was good, but there was no heat between her and the actor
who played Kinman, and whatever (lame) justification they came up with for
her betrayal of her profession and her murder of her partner was
insufficient to get me there. The way Kinman was being played, in my
opinion, the plot device would have worked better if they had used a guy
rather than some masculinized female agent as the erstwhile lover/FBI agent.
In contrast, the flashbacks were really nice, visually rich, and each
character was well played and interestingly incorporated. The actress who
played Queen Anne, though tiny in stature, was a big presence on screen.
Duncan's anger and humiliation at being believed a coward were palpable, and
it is that residual humiliation, methinks, that is far more of a source of
Duncan's quest for revenge than any long-dormant anguish over Lord Dennis'
demise.
And that's where the heart of the story lies. Duncan wasn't really out for
justice for his murdered friend. He was on a quest for vengeance for his own
damaged pride. While he never actually admits that, Richie's questions and
goading eventually prompt him to go ahead and testify - and that is the only
time I can think of in canon where it is Richie's views, morals and beliefs
that change Duncan's, rather than the other way around.
And that Quickening wierdness? The double image? What did that mean? And
Duncan looking behind him as though he thought someone was there? Was this a
deliberate foreshadowing of the Dark Q? Maybe it was just Adrian Paul's own
directorial desire to do something "different" with the Quickening. Maybe it
was just post-production madness. I wish TPTB had said for certain.
On my like/don't like scale, this episode fall somewhere in the middle to
low range.
MacGeorge
note: All commentaries available at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/indexframeset.htm
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 28 Jun 2004 to 29 Jun 2004 (#2004-123)
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