HIGHLA-L Digest - 22 Jul 2004 to 24 Jul 2004 (#2004-132)
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Sat, 24 Jul 2004 22:00:05 -0400
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Topics of the day:
1. Season Four DVD Commentaries: The Blitz
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Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2004 16:18:31 -0400
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Season Four DVD Commentaries: The Blitz
This episode commentary w/screen captures can be found at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/Season4/Blitz.htm
COMMENTARY: David Abramowitz says that this episode disappointed him the
most. The concept was great, that Duncan would survive, but with guilt
and with pathos and pain was what they wanted to show. But the story
just didn’t play with the spirit and poignancy that Abramowitz wanted.
He had great hopes for it, though, to have a story with a moment in it
where the mortal believed that they weren’t dying alone, that they’re
facing it with you (meaning Duncan), “but that you know in your heart
you’re going to wake up again and they’re not.” It was a great
opportunity for drama.
Adrian says this episode presented a no-win situation. Duncan knew she
was going to die, but that he would survive, was heart-rending for him,
but the only way Duncan could make sense of it was to make her passing
“as gentle as possible.” He thought the flashback story was great, and
if they could have just stayed in the flashback it would have been a
better episode. The present story was necessary, but it was confined in
a tunnel and there “was nothing you could really do”, where the
flashback had a lot more depth and breadth to it. The problem with the
flashback, AP says, is that it was intercut with the present day story,
and when you have a constrained amount of time to tell the story, you
don’t get to see the development between the characters, therefore you
don’t care as much about them.
Adrian says he loved playing the flashback, the “Bond” type of scenario,
the style of the 40's.
DA says he thinks the episode was pretty emotional and MacLeod was
pretty emotional. DA says that perhaps if he had overseen the script
better it might have worked better, and obviously blames himself for the
episode's failings. DA says they ran parallel stories because you need
something “to kick off the flashback,” and DA though it all “should have
worked.” When you do episodes without Immortals in them, without a
villain you could center the story around, the episode “played down a
little bit.” David says that he knew a political speech writer who told
him that the episode he convinced his girlfriend to watch Highlander
with was The Blitz, so maybe it was the moment, maybe it was the sex
scene they cut out of the episode that was “so hot and heavy.”
Steven Geaghan talked a little about the collapsing debris in the
stairwell in the flashback, which he thought worked pretty well. They
did the collapsing tunnel scene in the same building. They had existing
elements of escalators and exposed beams that they used, and dropped in
a “huge number” of 3'x5' simulated concrete beams that were made out of
carved styrofoam, plus a tremendous amount of debris.
OUTTAKES: We see an outtake of Duncan searching for Anne in the tunnel,
during which someone off camera makes a “crying-out-in-pain” sound,
which makes Adrian laugh and comment, and the crew breaks up.
Then the we’re-having-a-baby scene is shown with Anne grimacing and
sweating with Duncan coaching, with the other actress telling her to
“Push! Push!” Then the baby is born, and they hand her a plastic baby
doll with huge, heavy eyebrows painted on, and Lisa Howard screams and
laughs.
THE EPISODE: A portion of the subway has collapsed an
Intrepid!Pregnant!Anne and her paramedic companion go into the tunnels
by themselves to try to help the injured, against the explicit
instructions of the fire chief. Okay, okay, we all know that, as a plot
premise, this makes Anne look like a complete idiot, and therefore puts
the whole episode on a teetering edge of implausibility. ‘Nuf said.
Duncan and Richie are putting the final touches on the house Duncan has
renovated when they hear on the radio that, due to a secondary
explosion, Anne is trapped underground. They head to the disaster sight
and sneak past the same (obviously less-than-competent) fire chief to
get into the tunnels to search for Anne. As they search, Duncan compares
the damage to similar damage he had seen in World War II in London.
FLASHBACK: To London during the war, at a cocktail party, where we meet
a lovely young woman (Diane Terrin) obviously known to Duncan, and she
complains that it’s “not fair that British intelligence should have a
stronger hold over you than I,” but Duncan insists he was just away
looking at horses. Turns out she is a reporter, and as they hear air
raid sirens go off, the radio broadcast originating at the hotel (there
was a dance band playing), is shut down. Diane wants to move the
equipment to the roof so she can broadcast from there, but the
technician isn’t interested in risking his neck. So Duncan grabs the
equipment and take it up on the roof to set it up for her. She gives a
vivid description of what is happening over the air, and makes an
impassioned plea for America to join the war. Once the air raid is over,
with their adrenaline still pumping, Duncan and Diane make passionate
love under the stars. Later, they dance and smooch in the deserted
ballroom and the radio engineer who had refused to help her earlier
thanks both of them for what they did, telling him every one heard and
that there “wasn’t a dry eye in the house.”
There are a couple of lovely scenes between Duncan and Diane where we
learn she loves to take foolish chances, and that Duncan both admires
and is exasperate by that. A few nights later, Diane and Duncan talk
about what the future holds for England and Duncan vividly describes how
England always seems to come back from disaster. Diane encourages Duncan
to teach and write, “after you’re retired from the spy business.”
[NOTE: The episode cuts back and forth between the flashback and the
present day, but I’m generally telling the stories separately rather
than as shown.]
Diane asks, “Are we together because the world is full of adrenaline, or
is it something more than that?” Duncan answers with a kiss, and she
tells him, “that’s good, but it’s not an answer.” He is clearly dodging
the question when the air raid sirens sound, and Duncan wants them to
head for a shelter. Diane says she can’t, that her job is to be a
witness. Duncan insists and finally they head down into the shelter
tunnels, but before they get to the bottom, a bomb explodes nearby and
they are trapped by debris at the top of the stairs, and a collapse
below them.
Duncan berates himself for dragging them down there, then realizes he
can smell leaking gas. He tries to dig them out, but there’s too much
debris in the way. Diane tells them how she had fantasized about them
growing old together, dying together, and she admits that she’s scared.
As they run out of oxygen, Diane talks about how she always wanted to go
to Colorado, to see Gothic, a valley where a favorite aunt had lived. He
holds her as she talks about her fears and her regrets for what she
hadn’t done. “At least we get to die together,” she sighs.
With tears flowing down his face, Duncan breathlessly and vividly
describes Gothic to her, the sounds, the color and profusion of the
wildflowers, the sunlight and how it looks like a giant cathedral.
“It’s beautiful,” Diane sighs softly, and she dies, but Duncan continues
to describe, until he, too, dies. Eventually, rescuers find what they
think are the two bodies in the tunnel, but once fresh air is let in,
Duncan revives. But of course Diane is still dead.
Back in the subway tunnels, Duncan and Richie find a little boy, and
Richie takes the injured child up while Duncan looks for Anne. Mike, the
paramedic, is dying and Anne goes into labor as she tries
(unsuccessfully) to save him. As the woman they had pulled from the
debris (Karen) is trying to help, Richie convinces the fire chief to let
him lead a rescue team from above, and Duncan finally finds Anne. Karen
delivers the baby as Duncan holds Anne. Anne names the little girl Mary,
after Duncan’s mother.
In the tag, Anne and Mary are visiting the newly renovated house, and
Duncan gives the keys to her, when she hesitates to take them he
haltingly says, “Anne, look, I put in both your names. I wanted you and
Mary to have it because..., well you’ve got a lot to think about now,
and I just didn’t want you to worry about anything. And I just wanted
you to have a part of...,” he shrugs and doesn’t finish the sentence.
She accepts.
MY COMMENTARY: Well, I liked the flashback. I liked Diane and her
outrageousness. I liked the look of them, and of
Dashing!SecretAgent!Duncan. And that sex scene on the roof, even without
showing any real skin, generated a *lot* of heat. The final scene as
Diane dies in Duncan’s arms is really nicely played - sad and poignant
and lovely, especially knowing Duncan will eventually wake up alone.
I was surprised that Abramowitz never acknowledged the fact that the
whole present-day plot premise was mega-dumb, and made an already shaky
character look terminally stupid and thoughtless. Adrian got a lot
closer to a correct analysis in his commentary when he said the two
stories didn’t work particularly well together because they didn’t allow
time to develop the relationships between the characters, so you had
less invested in them and it made the whole thing less effective. Like
Adrian, I would have preferred to see an entire episode concentrated on
the characters in the flashback.
The nicest moment in the present day plot is Duncan’s hesitant
explanation of why he wanted Anne to have the house. Clearly, what he
wanted to say, but couldn’t was that he wanted them to have “a part of me.”
MacGeorge
Commentaries on all episodes done to date can be found at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/indexframeset.htm
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 22 Jul 2004 to 24 Jul 2004 (#2004-132)
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