There are 3 messages totalling 599 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Bi-Monthly Reminder 2. Season Four dvds: Chivalry 3. Season Four dvds: wrath Of Kali ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2004 23:50:01 -0500 From: Debra Douglass <ddoug@catrio.org> Subject: Bi-Monthly Reminder (updated 8/1/00) HIGHLA-L Bi-Monthly Reminders The address to send your LISTSERV commands to is LISTSERV@LISTS.PSU.EDU. The listowner can be contacted at ddoug@CATRIO.ORG If your posts to HIGHLA-L are being "submitted to the moderator of the HIGHLA-L list" please check out the section below titled "WHAT TO DO IF THE LISTSERV SAYS YOU ARE NOT SUBSCRIBED TO HIGHLA-L:" ----- All of you received the Membership Rules when you first subscribed to this list so I'm not going to repeat them here but I will hit a few high points. Also included is a few LISTSERV commands to change your subscription to this list. No Flaming Is Allowed. 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Davis/Panzer Productions their their own WWW site which contains information about the TV series, the movies, and available Highlander merchandise. http://www.highlander-official.com/highland/ Rysher Entertainment also maintains a Highlander site about the TV series. http://www.rysher.com/highlander/ -Debbie Douglass (HIGHLA-L list owner) -- .------------------------------------------------------------------. | No flames were thrown in the creation of this email message. | |-----------------------------.------------------------------------' |Debra Douglass \ |ddoug@catrio.org \ |http://www.catrio.org \ `---------------------------------` ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2004 16:18:03 -0400 From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com> Subject: Season Four dvds: Chivalry Okay, nobody seems particularly interested in talking about The Wrath of Kali, so let's push on ahead... This episode commentary, w/screen captures, can be found at: http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/Season4/Chivalry.htm COMMENTS: Gillian Horvath comments that this episode was shot "during a period when everyone and their brother was showing their backside on television, so I think the fans had basically just been waiting for it and couldn't believe their good look when it finally came along." AP says that Ann Turkel (the actress who payed Kristin) was very passionate about doing Highlander and was the "one and only female Immortal that saw MacLeod naked. Coming out of the bath was the first time I think anyone had seen MacLeod's butt, and she probably saw a lot more than that." (Note: It is canon that Duncan has bedded just about every Immortal female he encountered. Unless they did it with their clothes on, it seems unlikely that they never saw his bum, or all of his other 2000 parts.) Gillian said that Ann allowed as how she got the best view, and Gillian says that "to give Adrian credit he was kind of the instigator" of the notion. This episode was filming while the writing department was in Denver at a the first Highlander convention. They were working on the next script and got a phone call from the set. It was Adrian calling David saying, "We're about to shoot the bathtub scene, and I'm getting my butt powdered and we're ready to go!" That explains why Adrian wound up with a cold for that convention, and if you listen carefully during the episode, you can tell he caught a cold sitting in that bathtub. Ann Turkel was a great guest star, she loved Highlander, and even brought her own outfits which were much better than they could have provided. The costumes in that episode were generally "better than they deserved", since the flashback costumes were the Oscar-winning costumes from the movie, "Restoration", which they rented, so everyone looked fabulous. Gillian talks about how the appearance of Methos in this episode really paid off in later stories because he starts showing signs of "having a hidden agenda" and that he's not being completely straightforward with MacLeod. That deviousness came about largely because of the way Peter Wingfield played it, which was more mysterious and ambiguous than they had envisioned. At first the writers were shocked, but decided the almost-nastiness worked and created a question of what Methos has against Kristin. They haven't met, because she doesn't recognize him, but it's clear (Gillian thinks) that Methos has reason beyond just what MacLeod knows to believe the woman is trouble. Peter W. comments that Methos is totally unfazed by the "whole thing." In Methos' view, "she's bad, she's dangerous, you whack her. It's not complicated." He notes that, for MacLeod, there are lots of complex arguments about her being a woman, that he has a history with her, but Methos is very pragmatic. AP says Methos has no problem and no scruples, and makes a few amusingly deprecatory remarks about the ease with which Methos lies and the lack of consideration he gives to the notion of honor, whereas MacLeod has honor entrenched in his psyche going back from the Samurai all the way to his childhood PW says Methos' attitude made sense to him. Methos has seen it all, done it all, and he's not impressed by theories or modes of thoughts that don't stand up to the test of time or the "fiery furnace of life experience." AP tells us he thinks MacLeod hated the idea of killing someone who had been a teacher of his, but also someone who was also a reflection of him. If those people had been good at some point in their lives, but eventually got "seduced to the dark side", then what does it say about MacLeod? PW says one of the things he liked about playing Methos was that he had a simplicity in difficult situations, and he had all the best lines, and repeats, "Well someone had to do it," then throws his arms back and groans, with a big grin of enjoyment. Gillian says previously Methos had been played as some unassuming graduate student who you wouldn't expect to enter into, much less win a sword fight, to it was a real turning point for the character. AP says, "poor Richie was always getting involved with these women that he shouldn't be getting involved with, which was unfortunate, but I'm sure he enjoyed every moment of it." Stan says what he most remembered about the episode was that the sex scene was done the first morning of the shoot, and the actress was bold, was clearly more experienced at doing such things and wasn't self conscious about it. Stan says it was overwhelming, but "an awful lot of fun." They asked her to do things that some actresses might not "have been up for", especially given that Richie was naked at the time, and notes that, "by the time we got to the second scene we did, we were fairly well acquainted." He says the rapport they established was great, and that Ann was very social and they all hung out a lot and spent a lot of time together off screen. The disparity in their ages was written into it, and what Ann brought to the table made it all very exciting. She was very physical and "went with" the notion of toying with Adrian (Note: All the ensemble actors tend to use character and actor names interchangeably, but Richie does that more than most) and flaunting her relationship with Richie when the three of them were on screen together. And "Richie was just a very horny bastard," he adds with a grin. SK says he was getting tired of doing the Naive!Richie storyline, but acknowledges that given that they were going to do it again, it was a lot more fun under the circumstances of this episode. OUTTAKES: Gillian described the transition between Duncan's confrontation in the limo, to the flashback, the shot that was actually used had the limo window opening to a blue screen, which could then be replaced with the flashback. The original concept, however, had them carrying the limo door to the flashback location, and was set up so that when the window slid down, it would actually reveal Duncan in the bathtub. In order, however, for Duncan to be in two places at once (both reflected in the window as well as behind the window), a life size cardboard stand up of Duncan was created (which was sold at auction at one of the conventions). They show both takes, of the "real Duncan" pounding on the window, which lowers to reveal a blue screen; then of the cardboard Duncan shown as a reflection, and the window lowers to reveal Duncan sleeping in the bathtub. The camera moves around so that in one shot, they get Duncan waking up and Kristen framing him and observing, "A work of art." The outtake shot continues through Duncan getting out of the bathtub, revealing quite a bit more than what was actually seen in the episode. In an outtake they've titled "We Do This For a Living", we see a couple of takes of flashback to Duncan finding Kristin in the carriage, one of which has him commenting on the non-male anatomy of whom he finds in the carriage; and of Adrian laughing and fooling around as he's supposed to be injured on the ground. Gillian notes that the kata Adrian performed in the dojo was not easy to do, take after take, without missing a move or whacking into a prop. They show the kata, and AP gets through about 90% of it, when Methos comes in and takes off his coat, at which point, Adrian accidently slams the katana in an upward move into a light. The actors continue the scene anyway all the way to where Duncan pushes Methos to the floor, at which point the director yells, "Cut!" and we hear Adrian laughingly say, "Did I hit the light, or what?" They show the shot of the transition scene, continuing the scene in the dojo where Duncan takes a katana off the wall and he and Methos take poses to start the spar and the camera pans to the (ugly) portrait) of Duncan. Once the camera moves past, we see Adrian and Methos play-sparing for a few seconds, with Adrian tapping his blade playfully against Methos sword. Finally, we see a blooper from the last scene, where Adrian blows his "I dislike death, but there are things I dislike more than death line," and mugs for the camera. EPISODE: (I'm going to keep this description relatively short since the commentary was so long.) Duncan is trotting along the road in France in 1659 (which makes him 67 years old), quoting Shakespeare to himself, when he encounters a carriage being beset by highwaymen. He feels an Immortal present, and once he has dispatched the robbers, angrily yanks the carriage door open to find out why the man hadn't bothered to help - except that it is an elegant, beautiful woman, who holds her sword to his throat briefly before she aggressively moves in and kisses him. The woman is Kristen Gilles, who takes Duncan in, and after observing him display the full monty as he emerges from a much-needed bath, dresses him in fancy clothes and teaches him about food and fashion and about the more exotic arts of lovemaking. He is with her about a year or so, but gets restive and uncomfortable with the lifestyle of a "gentleman" ("'Tis all appearance. It has no meaning to it!"). Eventually, Duncan announces his desire to leave, but Kristin orders a kilt and fancy sark for Duncan, engaging a lovely young woman painter, Louise Barton, to do a portrait of him in Highland garb, and when he implies he will leave when the portrait is done, she interrupts with, "You shall not leave me, Duncan MacLeod!" Duncan ends up falling in love with Louise, and after Kristin finds out and Duncan tells her he's leaving, Kristin explodes in anger, saying that Duncan was nothing when he came to her and she will be the one to decide when he leaves. That pisses Duncan off and he pushes her away. When he turns to leave, she draws a sword and tries to kill him. He easily disarms her, but can't bring himself to kill her. Then Duncan finds Louise's body in the lake. Duncan confronts Kristin, but she denies having anything to do with the death, saying, "How could you think me such a monster?" Though he is still suspicious, he decides to leave, and she unsuccessfully tries to kill him in a jealous rage. All this is told in a series of flashbacks interspersed with the present day story, which has Methos unexpectedly showing up at the loft to tell Duncan that Kristin has arrived in Seacouver and is opening a modeling agency, and that Richie has run into her. When Duncan is surprised that Richie hasn't told him about it, Methos smirks and says, "He probably hasn't gotten out of bed yet." Sure enough, Richie has a friend, Maria, who had aspirations to be a model, and he accompanied her to her audition. Kristin takes a liking to Richie, and the next thing you know, she has signed Maria as a "Kristin Girl" and Kristin and Richie are going at it hot and heavy, with Richie blown away (er, so to speak) by the whole experience. Duncan is convinced Kristin is up to no good and Richie is in over his head, but can't convince Richie of that, since Richie's circulatory system has bypassed his brain and is concentrated between his legs. The best scenes of the episode are between Duncan and Methos, where Methos' pragmatic, coldly calculating side emerges when he advises Duncan that any hesitation about killing Kristin is foolhardy, that Duncan's sense of chivalry is outmoded, outdated and impractical and he ought to just whack the woman. In the dojo, Methos watches Duncan perform a graceful sword kata, then asks to see the katana. When Duncan hands it over, Methos threatens Duncan with it, telling him he's a fool for giving up his sword, and that if he doesn't kill Kristin, eventually Kristin will kill him. Duncan looks nervous and uncertain as Methos pins him against the wall with the katana to his neck, but Duncan finally frowns, and shoves back, landing Methos on his ass before he goes to the wall and pulls a spare katana from its scabbard. The two snipe at each other as they spar, and after some exciting exchanges this time it is Methos who ends up with the katana at his throat just as Richie walks in. NOTE: The tension in this scene is palpable, and the contrasts in the two characters are beautifully drawn in only a few moves and lines and looks, such as when Methos rubs his thumb across his neck where Duncan had held the katana, conveying relief, speculation, and a whole host of other potential meanings. Another great scene between them is when Duncan has roped Methos into helping him paint the porch of the house he is restoring, and they discuss Duncan's frustrations in trying to get Richie to recognize Kristin for what she is. Once again, Methos derides Duncan's notions of honor and chivalry, saying he hadn't stayed alive for 5,000 years without worrying about anyone but himself. Duncan looks dubious, then half-smiles and swipes Methos' prominent nose with his paint brush, leaving an undignified white streak behind. "Really? Could've fooled me," he answers wryly. [NOTE: And that demonstrates the wonderful complexity of their relationship and of Methos' character. If Methos is only concerned for his own welfare, what is he even doing there, putting himself in the middle of someone else's relationship mess? As Gillian Horvath pointed out, there appears to be much more going on than meets the eye.] When Maria wants out of her contract to take advantage of another great offer, Richie tries to convince Kristin to release Maria from the contract, but Kristin shows her true colors. ("Nobody leaves me.") When Richie begins to realize Kristin is more than a little disturbed and tries to leave, she stabs him in the back. ("Nobody leaves me," she announces again. "Not Maria, and certainly not you!") As she prepares to take his head, Richie jumps out of the window and takes a long fall. (Later in the loft) Methos: "You dump her, then you turn your back on her?" he asks incredulously. "Talk about the blind (looking at Duncan) leading the visually challenged!" Richie goes off to find Maria when Duncan tells him Kristin is likely to go after "someone you care about", and Duncan and Methos go to Kristin's estate, where she is in the process of drugging Maria with the intent of shoving her in the pool to drown. While Methos hangs back to watch, Duncan demands to know where Maria is, and Kristin gives almost exactly the same speech she gave so long ago in her protest that she hadn't killed Louise Barton ("How could you think me such a monster!"), and this time Duncan responds, "Because you are.". Methos spots Maria in the pool and they pull her out just in time, then Duncan goes off to confront Kristin on the beach. He asks her why, and she tells him, in essence, that she met her first death past her prime and ever since she always needed proof that she was loved. He tells her she is still beautiful, but when she demands that he prove it to her, he declines and she challenges him. In short order he has her on the sand and swings twice, but he can't bring himself to take her head. "Stay away from me!" he snarls, at last. "Stay away from my friends," and walks away, but then Methos approaches. "Pick it up," he tells her, indicating her sword. "Who are you?" "A man who was born long before the age of chivalry. Pick it up." Duncan turns away, refusing to watch. The battle is brief and decisive, and Duncan only turns after Methos has taken Kristin's head. The two exchange looks. "Someone had to," Methos tells him as the Quickening mist envelops him. In the tag, Methos tells Duncan Kristin would have kept coming and Duncan acknowledges he was right. "And still if you had to do it again, you wouldn' t kill her, would you?" "Probably not." Duncan asks if Methos knew Mencius, and then quotes him, "I dislike death, but there are things I dislike more than death." "Therefore there are occasions when I will not..." Methos adds to the quote. "... avoid danger," they finish in unison. "Death before dishonor," Methos says with a note of derision. "For some of us," Duncan answers, studying his paint swatches while Methos looks at him dubiously. FINAL COMMENTS: Obviously, this is a terrific episode, as we get so much mor e exposure to Methos (and to Duncan, for that matter <g>) than we got in the "Methos" and "Finale" episodes. We don't really learn a whole lot more detail than we knew before, but we do get a peek under some of the layers of his complex personality, and it is fascinating. Ann Turkel was a powerful presence on screen, and Kristin's domination of Young!Duncan and Young!Richie was quite believable. Lots of television episodes, when they leave unanswered questions about motivation and character, are frustrating and feel incomplete. That is not the case with this one, even though more questions are raised by Methos' actions and words than are answered. What they managed to do was leave us satisfied with the story, but eager to learn more and see more of Methos. I have always thought Duncan's inability to kill Kristin had little to do with chivalry. I think it was that Kristin had been his teacher, and teachers held a special place of honor in his mind. And he *had* allowed himself to be kept by her only to fall in love with someone else despite all she had done for him. He felt a sense of debt, of obligation and of guilt for his own less-than-honorable treatment of her. It was about chivalry only in the sense that Duncan couldn't ignore that lapse in his own behavior, which played directly into Kristin's own fears and insecurities. This episode combined all the elements I like best about Highlander. Great visuals (yes, in every sense of the word <g>), exciting action, snappy dialogue (yes, Methos does get all the great lines), and the exploration of a complex issue that uncovers the cracks and flaws and humanity in what otherwise might be considered completely heroic characters. MacGeorge NOTE: I found the chronicles for this episode for the various Immortal characters particularly interesting, and have transcribed them. They can be found at: http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/Season4/ChivalryChronicles.htm all episode commentaries are found at: http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/indexframeset.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2004 19:21:29 EDT From: Highlandmg@aol.com Subject: Re: Season Four dvds: wrath Of Kali Well, while it say this one is not one of my favorites I do like it. I do also like the fact the "Mrs. Ramsey" loses her husband and I hope she goes back to England and see just how the regular people leave. Boy if watching this episode and having a minor character die this one (Ramsey)sure deserved to die. somehow I feel Mrs. Ramsey will get her claws on someone else. Mary ------------------------------ End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 1 Jul 2004 to 2 Jul 2004 (#2004-125) *************************************************************