HIGHLA-L Digest - 22 Oct 2004 to 26 Oct 2004 (#2004-196)
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Tue, 26 Oct 2004 22:00:09 -0400
There are 3 messages totalling 348 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Season Five DVD Commentary: The Valkyrie
2. `Best Of' DVD set?
3. Stupid mistake
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Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 14:45:25 -0400
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Season Five DVD Commentary: The Valkyrie
Commentary w/screen captures at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/Season5/Valkyrie.htm
COMMENTARY: David A. says “Valkyrie” was successful because it asked a
question that world leaders have asked for centuries: Is it okay to kill
100 today in order save thousands tomorrow? He also liked the direction
and thought that the woman who played Ingrid was wonderful, that Methos
was used perfectly in the show and that Adrian had a great emotional
line where he had to at first protect, then attack someone he cared for
a great deal. He thought the flashback was excellent and that Yan
Triska’s performance (as Inspector Breslin) was “really perfect and
wonderful.”
There are two additional reasons he thought the episode was wonderful.
One was the end sequence with all the cutting back to the images of the
Third Reich during the Quickening, that it was incredibly effective. The
second was a fabulous script by James Thorpe. David mentions one
favorite scene where Insp. Breslin thinks he killed Ingrid, whom he
didn’t think was evil, but he felt he had to stop, and he takes a puff
of a cigarette, “Maybe if I die a little tonight, it will even things
out between me and God.” It was a great line and delivered perfectly.
Thorpe talks about how his hiring was a quirk of fate. There were two
writers under consideration, and David liked both of the scripts they
had submitted equally, so he flipped a coin. Thorpe lost, but the other
guy already had a job, so by default the job went to Thorpe. James T.
comments that, “It’s hard enough to get a job in this down, but when you
miss the flip of a coin and you still get the job, it shows you what a
long shot this business can be.” Both David and Thorpe comment on what a
great working relationship it had been since then.
Rex Raglan, Production Designer, says Valkyrie was done right on the
heels of “Little Tin God”, and he used the sets from LTG, reworking them
for Hitler’s hideaway. The interior of the temple was used for the
interior of the bunker, with a key element the huge fire blazing behind
Hitler. The special effects guy kept turning the flames down during
filming because they were getting so hot, but Raglan insisted that they
be high, symbolizing the fires of hell. He was very pleased with the way
it all came together, and it was fun to change the Moche temple into
something completely different.
Richard Martin was the director of the episode, and it was his first
television directing experience. He says he really enjoyed it, with a
solid script, a great moral dilemma and he was “discovering the whole
world of Highlander.” It seemed like an ambitious project, but he
approaches all situations as though he were making a mini-movie, and
that episode has always “kind of remained special in my heart as one of
the best.”
OUTTAKES: We see the scene in the fight club, where Adrian first blows a
line, then they keep going and seem to be enjoying the scene until then
Peter blows a line (“They could get real bad hurt…”) which makes them
all laugh. On a second take of the same scene, they are obviously still
chuckling over the scene, and Peter breaks up before they can even
start. Then when they try again Adrian takes a bite of popcorn, makes a
terrible face and literally spits it out making gagging noises, and
finally going for a bottle of water. In a third try, right in the middle
of one of Peter’s lines, a cell phone rings.
We see them staging a shot of Ingrid’s feet as she walks around a car,
but on one of the takes we see three raccoons trek across the shot in
the background.
In the scene where Methos and Duncan buy the newspapers, they have to
start over because some crows are cawing too loudly close by. A second
try gets them all the way to the end, where for some unknown reason
Peter breaks up.
VIDEO COMMENTARY: This episode was accompanied by running commentary by
Richard Martin, the director, and Adrian Paul. This was the first of
nine episodes Richard directed, and remains his favorite. In describing
the opening scene, he talks about the character being an aspiring
dictator who talks about how you can control people through fear by
giving them a focus for their hatred, by convincing them they are in
danger, by lying about weapons of mass…, then he says, “Okay,” and
changes the subject.
Adrian says he asked the writers whether or not he had had a
relationship with Ingrid, but that it was left ambiguous. He found it
interesting to explore how MacLeod would have felt about the events if
there *was* a relationship there, and it meant playing the same dialogue
a slightly different way. He says he really liked the actress who played
Ingrid (Luceta), and that Richard Martin was one of his favorite
directors, and came up with a lot of creative and interesting ideas for
unusual shots.
Both Adrian and Richard talk about changing to 8 frames per second as a
new way of showing the “buzz” effect of an approaching Immortal, and
Richard says that Adrian liked the effect so much that he stole it for
the Horsemen episode he directed. He also mentions that he hadn’t wanted
to film the flashback conversation between Duncan an Ingrid as a static
shot, so Adrian suggested that they dance. He and Luceta choreographed
the moves themselves and Richard shot it.
Adrian talked about his enjoyment in working with the great actor who
played Inspector Breslin. He also liked the shot that Martin set up for
their initial scene together (while Richard talks about how Adrian would
come and look through the cameras to see how the shot was done). Adrian
also says he loved Methos’ character because he had such a non-Immortal
look, laid back, “just a guy”.
Richard also mentions how they did a lot of research about the
circumstances of the attempted assassination of Hitler and tried to make
it as accurate as possible. The series of events of how the bomb got
into the bunker and then got moved away from Hitler was what actually
happened.
When they get to Breslin’s line about when he was a child he thought
everything was black and white, but when he grew up he found there was
only gray, Richard says, “*That’s* the Highlander, where there is only
gray and he is so conflicted.”
In the scene where the racist is giving his speech, Richard says most of
that was ad-libbed by the actor. He liked the effects of the Quickening,
and in the last shot between Methos and Duncan, he says it was “a real
live moon up there.” He took advantage of it to have it hanging there
almost as the eye of God shining down as Duncan asks who judges him.
THE EPISODE: The prologue takes place in Moscow, where we see Igor
Stefanovich watching himself on tv giving give a hate-filled speech. He
comments that they love him because he gives them someone to hate and
blame for their retched lives, like Jews or other minorities. A
provocatively dressed woman arrives, claiming to be his bed companion
for the evening. She ends up assassinating Stefanovich, and is killed by
his security guard. As the guard calls for medical help, we see her
revive, kill the guard and calmly walk away.
After an initial amusing scene of Joe, Methos and Duncan watching a
charity sports (boxing) event, the Immortal assassin (Ingrid Henning)
arrives, spooking Methos into leaving. Duncan greets her warmly, and we
get a flashback to Berlin, 1935. Ingrid and Duncan are dancing in a
tavern, talking about Hitler and Duncan’s work in British intelligence.
A young Jewish boy arrives, having been beaten up by Hitler’s
brown-shirts. The thugs arrive and start to hassle the boy again, but
Duncan tells them he’s the boy’s brother, and proceeds to easily take
them out when they get nasty.
At the sports arena, police suddenly arrive, including a craggy faced
man chewing on a toothpick, and Ingrid hits the fire alarm. Back at
Duncan’s loft, Ingrid is cagey about why the police were after her. It
is clear that Duncan is fond of her, but he gets suspicious when she
first denies knowing who the guy was who they thought she had killed,
then notes that the world was better off with Stefanovich dead.
The next day, when buying newspapers with Methos, Duncan spots an ad for
a white supremacist speaker in town, and realizes that Ingrid is after
the guy. At the arena, the guy is practicing his speech (“White is
right!”). Duncan arrives, feels Ingrid, tries to stop her but she is
determined. Their confrontation draws attention, they struggle over her
weapon and she yells that he’s got a gun, so it is Duncan who is caught.
In a wonderful interrogation scene, Interpol Inspector Breslin, the guy
with the toothpick, recounts Duncan’s unlikely story of encountering an
unknown female assassin. He has a drawing of Ingrid and wants to know if
she was the woman Duncan had seen, but Duncan denies getting a good look
at her. Breslin obviously knows about Ingrid, and that MacLeod was not
involved, but he thinks Duncan may know something more.
When Duncan finally arrives back at the loft, Ingrid is there, and in a
tense conversation Duncan learns that Ingrid had been working and
training for the past fifty years as an assassin, killing those she
believes deserve to die. We get a flashback to Berlin again, where we
learn that Ingrid and Duncan were in on the plan to kill Hitler in
Operation Valkyrie, with Duncan playing a German officer in order to
gain access to Hitler’s bunker with a bomb, and Ingrid being their
driver. Ingrid expresses her doubt and guilt about killing mortals,
which she has never done before.
Back at the loft, Ingrid recounts Wilkinsons’ hate-filled, murderous
past, and says he has to die, that she doesn’t want to look back in
later years and regret that she could have stopped him.
At the bar, Methos is nasty and snide about “MacLeod tussling with
another of his moral dilemmas.” (MacLeod: “There are times I really
don’t like you.” Methos: “That’s okay. There are times I really don’t
like myself.”) Duncan says Ingrid failed to kill Hitler in ’44 and has
been making up for it ever since. In another dramatic flashback, we see
the assassination attempt played out, with Duncan in the bunker as
Hitler rants, and the other officer who brought the bomb-filled
briefcase exiting. The briefcase gets moved too far away from Hitler to
be effective, and when Duncan dives to move it back, it goes off. Hitler
stumbles out of the burning bunker, ranting about how, “The hand of God
Himself protects the Fuehrer!” Ingrid, shocked to see him still alive,
raises her gun and tries to shoot, but hesitates too long, and is killed.
Methos derides the whole notion that any one person could alter the
course of history. Joe says that, history aside, what matters is that it
was Mac’s friend who was at risk. (Methos: “Pretty smart for a kid.”)
Duncan is in a quandary because part of him agrees with her, and he
doesn’t know how to stop her. “Don’t you?” Methos asks disingenuously.
“No! I don’t!” Duncan growls back, and leaves.
“You know you really can be an arrogant pain in the ass sometimes,” Joe
sighs at Methos.
“Guilty as charged,” Methos answers.
Back at the dojo, Breslin takes Duncan into custody after Ingrid was
seen coming out of his building. In another wonderful scene, Breslin
interrogates Duncan, saying he is only really interested in Ingrid,
wanting to know what Ingrid was to him. (Breslin: “Old friends are the
worst. They claim more of your soul.”) Then he recounts the story of his
own father, who was shot by the communists for the poetry he wrote. He
admits that some would say killing Wilkinson would be a community
service. Duncan says he wants to stop Ingrid, too. Then Breslin tells
Duncan his lawyer has arrived, and lets him go. Turns out his lawyer is
Methos. Duncan argues with Methos that Ingrid believes she is making the
world a better place, but Methos responds that that was what Hitler
believed, too.
Ingrid ends up shooting a policemen who spotted her, and Breslin goes to
Duncan with the irrefutable evidence that she killed a cop, insisting on
knowing where Ingrid is. Duncan tells him he doesn’t know.
Breslin sets up a trap for Ingrid, and she falls for it. Breslin shoots
and kills her (Breslin: “What a waste!”) He and Duncan end up at Joe’s,
drinking. Breslin lights a cigarette as a replacement for his toothpick,
saying that maybe if he dies a little tonight, “It will even things out
between me and God.” Breslin acknowledges that Wilkinson’s speech is
back on, and that “this time he is on his own.” He notes that, “When I
was a little boy, everything was black and white, good and evil, you
see. Then I grew up and discovered that there was only gray,” and
apologizes for killing Duncan’s friend. Duncan tells him he did what he
had to do, that the Ingrid he knew wasn’t the woman Breslin killed. But
even then Breslin isn’t convinced he did the right thing. “If this
fascist scum becomes your president in the next five or ten years, how
am I going to sleep at night?” Duncan tells him he would have made the
same choice.
At the arena, during Wilkinson’s speech, Duncan and Methos arrive.
Methos tries to get Duncan to leave, but Duncan is convinced Ingrid is
there, finally figuring that Ingrid had used a bomb, just like when they
tried to kill Hitler. He confronts her behind the building, where she is
waiting with a remote control device. He begs her not to do it, that
dozens of innocent people will die, but she says innocence is relative.
She says the cop she killed was just a soldier, like the soldiers who
died protecting Hitler, that Duncan was her friend. Duncan finally draws
his sword, weeping, saying this went beyond friendship. He keeps begging
her, saying he can’t let her kill everyone in that room. She says they
are a group of arrogant, racists bastards, but he says it doesn’t matter
what they are, and draws his sword back, telling her to put the remote
down, that she had no right to do it. “But you have a right to stop me?”
she insists. “How is that different, from my killing them?” With tears
pouring down her face, she moves to press the button, and he swings.
As Wilkinson continues his racist rant, Duncan takes the Quickening, the
choral climax of Beethovan’s 5th Symphony plays, we see Hitler’s image
superimposed on Wilkinson, and lighting plays all around Duncan and the
building while Wilkinson’s crowd (and Hitler’s crowd) roars with
approval. Duncan slowly carries Ingrid’s body away.
Later, Duncan is leaning up against his car, looking drained and sad,
watching the crowd leave the arena. Methos asks him if he’s okay, and
Duncan notes that Ingrid asked what the difference was between her
killing them and Duncan killing her.
“Good question. Right up there with the chicken and the egg.”
Duncan asks if Methos is saying there is no answer, and as the bright,
full moon looks down on them, Methos looks at Duncan. “No there is an
answer. The real question is whether you’re ready for it. Stefanovich
killed and Ingrid judged him. Wilkinson killed and Ingrid judged him.
Ingrid killed and you judged her.”
“So who judges me?” Duncan barely manages to ask.
“You hungry?” Methos asks casually, and walks away.
MY COMMENTS: Shades of gray, indeed. This was a beautifully written,
extraordinarily well acted and well directed episode, almost a
mini-movie in the breadth and depth of its theme, story and
characterizations. Breslin was an absolute wonder of a character, rich
and complex and fascinating. Ingrid was well done, and Methos was at his
absolute enigmatic, wisecracking best.
There were many great scenes, in addition to the pure storytelling power
of the flashbacks. The scene in the bar between Joe and Methos and
Duncan was chock-full of intensity (despite the odd and inappropriate
presence of some anonymous waiter in the background), as Methos
not-so-subtly pushes Duncan to solve his problem with Ingrid by killing
her. The impetus behind Methos’ attitude of non-involvement is played
out vividly when he expresses the view that no individual can actually
effect change in the grand sweep of history. His unwillingness to risk
himself to right what Duncan (or others) might perceive as a “wrong”
makes sense if you figure that even if you kill Bad Guy A, there will
always be another one to take his/her place just so long as the
“zeitgeist” is ripe for bad guys. Perhaps that was how he explained his
own past to himself – that the times were different, that if he hadn’t
been Death on a Horse, someone else would have filled that role, so why
not go with the flow?
That’s just speculation, of course, but in addition to all the nuances
we learn about Methos, we get Duncan’s guilt and struggle with taking
one life to save another terrifically played out. And in the end there
are no easy answers, no facile explanations, and that, to me, is the
best of Highlander.
MacGeorge
All episode commentaries at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/indexframeset.htm
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Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 15:12:05 EDT
From: Donna Sorenson <DonnaS4@aol.com>
Subject: `Best Of' DVD set?
I'm happy to report that my 2 DVD sets arrived on schedule today. The
packing slip was correct and I checked with my credit card to make sure there
weren't any hidden charges.
I find it interesting that Amazon and Best Buy both show Season 6 has been
delayed until Feb 8, 2005.
Donna
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Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 18:26:35 -0400
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Stupid mistake
I made a reference to Beethovan's 5th Symphony in my Valkyrie
commentary. A kind and thoughtful soul pointed out that it was
Beethovan's 9th. I knew that. I really, really did, having performed
the piece about 20 times in a multitude of venues.
MacGeorge
(feeling particularly stupid)
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 22 Oct 2004 to 26 Oct 2004 (#2004-196)
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