The Prisoner, Rome news, and actors who get m/m dynamics
I'm going to start with the remake of The Prisoner, because I watched all six hours yesterday when I wasn't feeling well. But for those of you who aren't interested, please to be skipping down below, where I have something that might be relevant to your interests.
So, really, it was all a dream. And Neo 6 is really The Highlander, who won the climactic battle with 2 (except for how 2 inexplicably gave up) and so he gets to shape his own reality? Except instead of sitting on a mountaintop with his beloved, he's sitting with a woman who is completely incapacitated by her mental illness in the real world and is a vacantly-staring, disenfranchised slave to the needs of The Village in the created world. Meanwhile, The Velveteen Rabbit Pinocchio 1112, who is gay, murders the only other gay character (for no discernable reason), smothers his mother, and hangs himself.
As an added bonus, the ghostly image of what looks exactly like the World Trade Center hovers in the background, giving me goosebumps, and not in the good way.
I hung in there until the end, but the ending made me sorry I did. Are people actually calling this brilliant TV? I never saw most of the original, but I thought part of the charm was that the central mystery of who 6 was and what The Village was all about was never revealed, only hinted at. I wish they'd left it that way. It would have been easier to swallow. Bleh.
Now on to better things. First, for you fans of Rome, Kevin McKidd says a movie script is actually being shopped! Even better, he says Vorenus is alive. WOO-HOO.
And just for fun, here's a selection of quotes from actors, writers, and directors, regarding various movies and the relationships between characters: Sherlock Holmes (starring RDJ and Jude Law), Shawshank Redemption, Ben Hur, and Big Eden. I'm so happy when actors and directors really get what it is that makes their movies special. The fact that they can articulate it is part of what gave the movies enduring magic. Hopefully Sherlock Holmes will fall into that category too. *g*
Shawshank: (interview from 2-disc edition special features)
When these two men see each other again, it's like you get the feeling that they're only living for that moment when they could come together again. It's such a love story. It's so complete as a love story. - Morgan Freeman, speaking of the movie's ending
It's a friendship that transcends time, and space, and race...and is as deep a love story in terms of friendship as you'll find on screen. - Gil Bellows, speaking of the relationship between Red (Morgan Freeman) and Andy (Tim Robbins).
Big Eden: (interviews from 2-disc edition special features)
I don't know how much Dean is wrestling with his sexual orientation, so much as he is wrestling with his sexuality with *Henry*. - Tim DeKay (Dean), speaking of his (mostly straight) character, who has an intensely intimate friendship with his best friend Henry
Everybody wants to know whether Dean is gay or straight, and I think the interesting answer is, it's somewhere in between, that Dean just *is*. - Tom Bezucha, the director
This movie lets people dream, especially people who are gay, who are, you know, whether they're Indian or black or white or Chinese, or whatever. That impressed me. Eric Schweig (Pike), speaking about Big Eden in general
Sherlock Holmes: (from People magazine)
What I was most interested in was the friendship between Holmes and Watson. My job was to try to fuse [Robert and Jude] together. Mind you, they pretty much got on with it naturally. - Guy Ritchie
Ben Hur: (from The Celluloid Closet by Vito Russo)
I proposed the notion that the two had been adolescent lovers and now Messala has returned from Rome wanting to revive the love affair but Ben Hur does not. He has read Leviticus and knows an abomination when he sees one. I told Wyler, "This is what's going on *underneath* the scene -- they *seem* to be talking about politics, but Messala is really trying to rekindle a love affair," and Wyler was startled. We discussed this matter, and then he sighed, "Well, anything is better than what we've got in the way of motivation, but don't tell Chuck." I did tell Stephen Boyd, who was fascinated. He agreed to play the frustrated lover. Study his face in that scene, and you will see that he plays it like a man starving. - Gore Vidal, screenwriter for Ben Hur, on the pivotal love/hate relationship between Ben Hur (Charlton Heston) and Messala (Stephen Boyd), made in 1959.
So, really, it was all a dream. And Neo 6 is really The Highlander, who won the climactic battle with 2 (except for how 2 inexplicably gave up) and so he gets to shape his own reality? Except instead of sitting on a mountaintop with his beloved, he's sitting with a woman who is completely incapacitated by her mental illness in the real world and is a vacantly-staring, disenfranchised slave to the needs of The Village in the created world. Meanwhile, The Velveteen Rabbit Pinocchio 1112, who is gay, murders the only other gay character (for no discernable reason), smothers his mother, and hangs himself.
As an added bonus, the ghostly image of what looks exactly like the World Trade Center hovers in the background, giving me goosebumps, and not in the good way.
I hung in there until the end, but the ending made me sorry I did. Are people actually calling this brilliant TV? I never saw most of the original, but I thought part of the charm was that the central mystery of who 6 was and what The Village was all about was never revealed, only hinted at. I wish they'd left it that way. It would have been easier to swallow. Bleh.
Now on to better things. First, for you fans of Rome, Kevin McKidd says a movie script is actually being shopped! Even better, he says Vorenus is alive. WOO-HOO.
And just for fun, here's a selection of quotes from actors, writers, and directors, regarding various movies and the relationships between characters: Sherlock Holmes (starring RDJ and Jude Law), Shawshank Redemption, Ben Hur, and Big Eden. I'm so happy when actors and directors really get what it is that makes their movies special. The fact that they can articulate it is part of what gave the movies enduring magic. Hopefully Sherlock Holmes will fall into that category too. *g*
Shawshank: (interview from 2-disc edition special features)
When these two men see each other again, it's like you get the feeling that they're only living for that moment when they could come together again. It's such a love story. It's so complete as a love story. - Morgan Freeman, speaking of the movie's ending
It's a friendship that transcends time, and space, and race...and is as deep a love story in terms of friendship as you'll find on screen. - Gil Bellows, speaking of the relationship between Red (Morgan Freeman) and Andy (Tim Robbins).
Big Eden: (interviews from 2-disc edition special features)
I don't know how much Dean is wrestling with his sexual orientation, so much as he is wrestling with his sexuality with *Henry*. - Tim DeKay (Dean), speaking of his (mostly straight) character, who has an intensely intimate friendship with his best friend Henry
Everybody wants to know whether Dean is gay or straight, and I think the interesting answer is, it's somewhere in between, that Dean just *is*. - Tom Bezucha, the director
This movie lets people dream, especially people who are gay, who are, you know, whether they're Indian or black or white or Chinese, or whatever. That impressed me. Eric Schweig (Pike), speaking about Big Eden in general
Sherlock Holmes: (from People magazine)
What I was most interested in was the friendship between Holmes and Watson. My job was to try to fuse [Robert and Jude] together. Mind you, they pretty much got on with it naturally. - Guy Ritchie
Ben Hur: (from The Celluloid Closet by Vito Russo)
I proposed the notion that the two had been adolescent lovers and now Messala has returned from Rome wanting to revive the love affair but Ben Hur does not. He has read Leviticus and knows an abomination when he sees one. I told Wyler, "This is what's going on *underneath* the scene -- they *seem* to be talking about politics, but Messala is really trying to rekindle a love affair," and Wyler was startled. We discussed this matter, and then he sighed, "Well, anything is better than what we've got in the way of motivation, but don't tell Chuck." I did tell Stephen Boyd, who was fascinated. He agreed to play the frustrated lover. Study his face in that scene, and you will see that he plays it like a man starving. - Gore Vidal, screenwriter for Ben Hur, on the pivotal love/hate relationship between Ben Hur (Charlton Heston) and Messala (Stephen Boyd), made in 1959.