Antidote to "The Source"
I have the Highlander season 5 box, and last night, after posting my gibbering about the film, I watched two S5 episodes I hadn't actually seen yet -- "Haunted" and "Little Tin God". They were remarkably apropos, actually, being as they both deal with what more there might be than the here and now, especially for Immortals.
Then today I rewatched "The Messanger" and treated myself to the Extras disk -- the short on the first Highlander Celebration ("Will you sprawl on the couch for us, please?" WoooT!) and "Peter Wingfield: the man who became Methos". The whole PW thing is lovely -- Peter barefoot, wading in the sea :-) -- with lots of fun stuff, and interesting anecdotes and it is very "Peter". Then, at the end, Methos tells the story of his and Alexa's first night on their travels.
And it's all there. It's the real thing, with all the emotion and perspective and immediacy and everything. Love, in the Moment.
[Methos didn't need the source -- he already has it. I'd venture that even though proximity to the source theoretically weakened or attenuated one's immortality (but what about one's quickening? Where did that go? What happened to it?) Methos' was still perfectly Immortal. How reliable, after all, are the sources of the information? There was a great deal they didn't understand about what had happened to them. Further thought on that line -- Reggie didn't loose his head, so, once the cosmic weirdness has passed, why shouldn't he revive? they didn't bury himn very deeply -- and Methos would go back for him, I should think.]
Anyway. If you have the disk with the Peter Wingfield thing, put it in. Watch the last 10 minutes. That's why we're fans. That's what this show is really about, and why we love the characters and the actors.
Edited to add More thoughts on the film itself, and my reaction to it
From a production/story standpoint, they had me very skeptical with the voice-over, and lost me completely with the Stupid Beyond All Belief astronomy. I mean, I thought that HL was nominally set in *this* world, not an unspecified future. What's up with the post-apocalyptic stuff? What was/were the devastating event(s)? What is Duncan doing in Eastern Europe? There is no apparent connection or rationale that relates to the previous movies or episodes. Even the production values are nightmarish -- the choppy editing, the truly bizarre color, no basis for character action, the gratuitous gore, the over-the-top costuming. (Don't get me wrong, I *like* Methos in leather, but there was no story-reason for it!). The utter predictability of too many of the deaths/events/progression of the story.
If it hadn't been for my wanting to see it with my own eyes in order to incorporate (or deliberately Not incorporate) it into my understanding of the Highlander universe, plus the (admittedly) train-wreck appalled fascination, I wouldn't have lasted through the first commercial break.
As a fan, I started talking (yelling, squawking, hurling imprecations, you get the idea) at the screen withing moments -- so Mary Sue, acknowledging just enough of past canon to make nonsense of what they are saying now. Jerking the character relationships around. I *wanted* to like it. I wanted to find things to like in it. (And I did -- PW is consistently worth watching, and manages to channel Methos even when the script is working against him; as Jim Byrnes does Joe.) There are some tiny, wonderful moments (Methos knew Jesus. Of course he did. The continuing spark between Duncan and Methos, even when Duncan does his best to ignore it. Methos being essentially in charge of a high-tech, underground network of clever immortals ... stuff like that.)
But the fact is that fandom *has already written* the things this film is attempting to address, and *done it better*. Post-apocalyptic? Jay Tryfanstone: Alien Corn -- here , Or Maygra and MacGeorge's Immortal Nations here.
The tv series did a far better job of dealing with metaphysics than this does. And that is just disappointing. There was so much potential for wonderfulness.
There's an actually interesting idea buried deeply under the execution -- and I look forward to seeing what people manage to do with it with fic. But I strongly suspect that as far as fandom goes, this is going straight into the land of denial.
Then today I rewatched "The Messanger" and treated myself to the Extras disk -- the short on the first Highlander Celebration ("Will you sprawl on the couch for us, please?" WoooT!) and "Peter Wingfield: the man who became Methos". The whole PW thing is lovely -- Peter barefoot, wading in the sea :-) -- with lots of fun stuff, and interesting anecdotes and it is very "Peter". Then, at the end, Methos tells the story of his and Alexa's first night on their travels.
And it's all there. It's the real thing, with all the emotion and perspective and immediacy and everything. Love, in the Moment.
[Methos didn't need the source -- he already has it. I'd venture that even though proximity to the source theoretically weakened or attenuated one's immortality (but what about one's quickening? Where did that go? What happened to it?) Methos' was still perfectly Immortal. How reliable, after all, are the sources of the information? There was a great deal they didn't understand about what had happened to them. Further thought on that line -- Reggie didn't loose his head, so, once the cosmic weirdness has passed, why shouldn't he revive? they didn't bury himn very deeply -- and Methos would go back for him, I should think.]
Anyway. If you have the disk with the Peter Wingfield thing, put it in. Watch the last 10 minutes. That's why we're fans. That's what this show is really about, and why we love the characters and the actors.
Edited to add More thoughts on the film itself, and my reaction to it
From a production/story standpoint, they had me very skeptical with the voice-over, and lost me completely with the Stupid Beyond All Belief astronomy. I mean, I thought that HL was nominally set in *this* world, not an unspecified future. What's up with the post-apocalyptic stuff? What was/were the devastating event(s)? What is Duncan doing in Eastern Europe? There is no apparent connection or rationale that relates to the previous movies or episodes. Even the production values are nightmarish -- the choppy editing, the truly bizarre color, no basis for character action, the gratuitous gore, the over-the-top costuming. (Don't get me wrong, I *like* Methos in leather, but there was no story-reason for it!). The utter predictability of too many of the deaths/events/progression of the story.
If it hadn't been for my wanting to see it with my own eyes in order to incorporate (or deliberately Not incorporate) it into my understanding of the Highlander universe, plus the (admittedly) train-wreck appalled fascination, I wouldn't have lasted through the first commercial break.
As a fan, I started talking (yelling, squawking, hurling imprecations, you get the idea) at the screen withing moments -- so Mary Sue, acknowledging just enough of past canon to make nonsense of what they are saying now. Jerking the character relationships around. I *wanted* to like it. I wanted to find things to like in it. (And I did -- PW is consistently worth watching, and manages to channel Methos even when the script is working against him; as Jim Byrnes does Joe.) There are some tiny, wonderful moments (Methos knew Jesus. Of course he did. The continuing spark between Duncan and Methos, even when Duncan does his best to ignore it. Methos being essentially in charge of a high-tech, underground network of clever immortals ... stuff like that.)
But the fact is that fandom *has already written* the things this film is attempting to address, and *done it better*. Post-apocalyptic? Jay Tryfanstone: Alien Corn -- here , Or Maygra and MacGeorge's Immortal Nations here.
The tv series did a far better job of dealing with metaphysics than this does. And that is just disappointing. There was so much potential for wonderfulness.
There's an actually interesting idea buried deeply under the execution -- and I look forward to seeing what people manage to do with it with fic. But I strongly suspect that as far as fandom goes, this is going straight into the land of denial.