HIGHLA-L Digest - 19 Jul 2005 to 20 Jul 2005 (#2005-91)
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Wed, 20 Jul 2005 22:00:10 -0400
There is 1 message totalling 288 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Season Six DVD commentaries: Justice
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Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 18:35:18 -0400
From: kageorge <kageorge1@verizon.net>
Subject: Season Six DVD commentaries: Justice
html version, complete with screen caps available at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/Season6/Justice.htm
Donna Lettow tells us that of the "spin-off" episodes, "Justice" is her
favorite because Duncan is not just an observer, as he is in the
others. There is a parallel theme of Duncan losing/killing his own
child, as the protagonist in "Justice" has, and plays into the whole
underlying arc of season six of him trying to distance himself from the
world and putting away his sword, so that his relationship with Katya
made it seem like it was really a show about Duncan, with a really
strong guest star.
Composer Hal Beckett tells us that a lot of the episodes in season six
use music written by Roger Bellon written originally for other
episodes. Some examples are shown from the episode where tense, subtle
music underlies a scene. However, no matter how much pre-written music
you have available, there's always some unique aspect to every episode
that must be underscored, and they show the scene of Duncan and Katya
dancing to semi-classical jazz music.
Donna says the search for the "spin-off chick" was difficult because
they were looking for someone with the unique combination of a good
actress, who also had good physicality who could look natural with a
sword, whether or not she had previous training in swordsmanship. For a
lot of women, and a lot of men, Donna says, you put a sword in their
hand and it just doesn't look natural. There was also a parallel
problem of finding a character to create that could sustain her own
show. The first character they had tried was Biker Bitch from Hell
("Sins of the Father"), while "Patient No. 7" had them using a bodyguard
which created the need for physical strength. For the third female
character they tapped into a more specifically female strength, namely a
mother's passion and love. For purposes of the one episode, Donna
thought it worked well, but it probably could not have been turned into
a series because she couldn't go around avenging her daughter's death
every week.
OUTAKES: We see the audition of the actress who played Katya. It is
the scene from "Sins of the Father" where the female character holds the
bad guy at gun point in the car.
RICHARD MARTIN COMMENTARY: Martin did a running commentary as he
watched the episode. As with most director commentaries, they tend to
talk about the physical and logistic issues rather than the
psychological and thematic ones, which I find frustrating. He mentions
such tidbits as the fact that executive producer Marla Ginsberg was the
one who wanted the actress to have a severe, square haircut. He also
says that in one scene where a camera on a crane comes down to focus in
on Adrian as he turns around, the crane kept going and (Martin slams a
fist into his palm) "Just nailed him. Adrian wasn't impressed."
Despite the fact that they had an especially made, lighter sword for
Justina (the actress) she was a slight woman and handling the sword
wasn't easy for her. But all the same, she did the sword work quite
well. Portraying the relationship of a mortal child with an immortal
parent, where the mortal grows up until the immortal parent has to be
seen as the younger sister of the mortal was tricky and only sketchily
described in the script, so those scenes were ones Richard came up with,
and really only worked in the Highlander universe where such
juxtapositions were "real".
Richard points out that the guy who played the Argentinean son-in-law
was a soft-spoken British actor, and the sound of his real voice was
very different from what was heard in the episode.
Richard says that the whole episode was about the horror of losing a
child, a circumstance that, as a father, was abhorrent to him. The
scenes of Katya and Duncan in the barge were kept deliberately dark
because Richard wanted her face to almost float in a pool of darkness.
He says he talked to the actress about how he would go home at night and
see his own child and imagine how "incredibly awful" it would be to lose
her.
He mentions at one point that MacLeod now is wearing white clothes,
while Katya is now into the long, dark flowing clothes as the
vengeance-seeker. "But the bangs," Richard mutters with a smile.
"What's with the bangs?" Clearly, he didn't like her hairstyle.
At the end of the commentary, he notes that it has been said that when
your child dies, you die - you merely survive it - and that was what the
story was about. Survival.
EPISODE: The prelude shows a beautiful woman on a rooftop carefully
assembling and loading a crossbow, and aiming it. Cross-cut with that
scene is one of two men in fencing costumes sparing inside an elegant
fencing club. The clear winner of the spar is revealed to be MacLeod,
while the other introduces himself as Armando Baptista. Baptista is a
former Olympic fencing contender who is impressed with Duncan's
abilities and invites Duncan to lunch at his home that afternoon.
Duncan and the woman both feel Immortal presence as Duncan leaves the
building, and Duncan spots her on the roof of the building across the
street (quite a distance away, actually). As she takes aim at Baptista
as he also leaves the building, Duncan interrupts her, introducing
himself - evidently unaware that she's got a crossbow in her grip. She
shoots him as he dives for cover, taking a bolt in the shoulder. She
tells him not to get in her away again and walks away, and Duncan spots
Baptista getting into a limousine and deduces that he was her real target.
We learn that Baptista is a newspaper publisher aggressively going after
corrupt politicians. Duncan goes to lunch at Baptista's estate, taking
the bolt with him and telling him he is the target of assassination. In
the meantime, the woman - Katya - sneaks onto the grounds and finds Mia,
Baptista's small daughter, whom she obviously knows. Duncan senses her,
but in the end Katya isn't found, the daughter denies seeing Katya, and
Baptista is now suspicious of who Duncan really is and what his motives
are.
Baptista coldly declares the lunch over and takes his daughter inside,
but Duncan lingers, still feeling the presence of another Immortal. He
ultimately disarms her, demanding to know why she is trying to kill
Baptista, and she says it was because he killed Elena, her adopted daughter.
FLASHBACK: Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1958. Katya encounters a six-year
old beggar and is moved by her plight, adopting her and devoting her
life to Elena's care. Eventually she told Elena what she was, and they
moved around so no one would notice Katya wasn't aging. As Elena aged,
Katya went from being Elena's mother to being her older sister, to being
her younger sister. Then, in 1966, Baptista - Elena's husband - shot
and killed her.
Katya tells Duncan that because Baptista was influential he was
acquitted and that mortal law failed her, declaring that, "My little
girl will have justice."
Baptista, obviously a devoted father to Mia (his daughter by Elena)
extracts from Mia that she saw her "Aunt Katya" that afternoon, and
realizes that MacLeod had been right that a woman had visited. He
orders an investigation of MacLeod.
Duncan visits a suspicious Baptista at his office, mentioning Elena's
name in order to gain entry. Baptista recites the facts of his
investigation into Duncan's background, noting suspiciously that
everyone who knew Duncan as a child was dead, then quotes Oscar Wilde:
"Losing one parent is a tragedy. Losing both is carelessness."
Duncan refuses to rise to the bait of Baptista's insistence that his
history is suspect, focusing on telling him that Katya is out to kill
him. When Baptista asks him why his life is so important to him, Duncan
responds that, "All life is important to me, Mr. Baptista. Even Elena
Moreno's." Then Duncan asks him why he killed her.
We get a flashback as Baptista relates the story of Elena's marital
infidelity with Baptista's protégé. When shown pictures that prove her
betrayal, Baptista is incensed. He returns home to confront her, only
to hear the two lovers in bed together. He finds a gun and goes
upstairs and shoots them both, then collapses to the floor, weeping.
(Interestingly, a goodly portion of the flashback is from Katya's point
of view, showing a scene between Katya and her daughter to which
Baptista could not have been a witness.)
Duncan accuses him of getting away with murder, but Baptista insists it
was a crime of passion and that he suffers for it every day when he
looks into his daughter's face, and that Mia doesn't know how her mother
died.
When Baptista demands to know what Duncan thinks he ought to do, Duncan
tells him he hadn't come to tell him what to do, or how to live his
life. "That's your choice," Duncan says, and leaves.
Katya comes to the barge that night, telling Duncan that Baptista and
her granddaughter have disappeared and demanding to know where they
are. Duncan ignores her demands and calmly fixes her dinner instead.
Once she has calmed down a little, she tells him she came there thinking
she might have to kill him. Duncan jokingly accuses her of "not getting
out much lately," asking if she had been "too busy being the sword of
justice?"
When she asks why Duncan is protecting Baptista he tells her it's not
about Baptista, that her emptiness won't be filled by anger or vengeance
or hate, that what she needs is to feel life. He pulls her up and
dances with her. The dance evolves into a slow seduction and eventually
they make love under a skylight with rain sluicing off the glass and
distorting the light as she weeps and he wipes away her tears.
The next morning, she is still brooding about the fact that Baptista got
away with killing her daughter and that the system was his to
manipulate. We get a flashback to England in 1362, and Katya is a
hardworking tavern wench. A young nobleman (William) is in love with
her, but she tells him their affair is over, that she won't be a
nobleman's whore, that she wants a family and won't raise a nobleman's
bastards.
William goes to his father, saying he is in love and is going to marry
Katya. The outraged father initially tells him absolutely not, but the
son persists. William goes to Katya with some elegant clothes, giddily
telling her that his father has consented and wants to meet her. Turns
out, however, that it was all a setup to charge her with witchcraft and
have her stoned to death.
"Men's justice," she bitterly tells Duncan when she concludes her story
with waking up from her first death in a charnel pit. When he tells her
that's not true of all men, she says she doesn't want to kill all men,
only one, and walks away.
Katya breaks into Baptista's house, knocking out the security guard, but
Duncan is already there, and asks her if this is about Baptista's
guilt, or hers. He tells her that she was a good mother and could have
done nothing to stop what had happened. She says the only way Duncan
can stop her is to kill her.
"I haven't come to kill you or to stop you," he tells her, but to tell
her if that she does this, her wound will never heal. "Nothing will
ever be the same," he says, stroking her gently. "Let it go." Then he
turns and leaves her to her own choice.
Katya confronts Baptista with a gun, but then tells him to pick up one
of the several swords on display, as she finds one for herself. They
fight and she soon has the sword at this throat but they are interrupted
by Mia's cry of fear when she enters. They both insist that Mia leave,
then when is Baptista at Katya's mercy and assuming she is going to kill
him, he implores Katya to take care of Mia.
We see the estate gates open and Katya walks out, with Duncan waiting
for her. "Mia loves him," she says, and Duncan nods and smiles and
pulls her in for a hug.
In a final scene, Katya and Duncan walk along the Seine holding hands
and talking about the losses of their lives. Katya says that their not
being able to have children is really a blessing, that no one should
ever have to lose a child. They kiss and part, each one looking back
once as the other walks away.
MY COMMENTS: I liked this episode for a number of reasons. It was
fairly Duncan-centric, to begin with, and explored the changes in his
outlook since Richie's death in a far more tangible way that we had seen
since the beginning of Season Six. The actress who played Katya was
pretty good, although she isn't someone who demonstrated the ability to
hold my attention on her own and there weren't any real sparks between
her and Duncan, although I'll address that more specifically in a
moment. The story was an interesting one, and I liked the tension shown
between the mother and the daughter when the daughter gradually grew
older in appearance. The production values were generally high, with a
sustained rich and believable 'look' to the flashback scenes (with the
exception of some poor accents and a cheesy wig on the young nobleman in
the second flashback).
One issue I found especially interesting was that Duncan had a subtly
different attitude towards mortals, their attitudes and issues. It
seemed as though he was distancing himself emotionally, even though his
fundamental value system was not changed. When he tells Baptista that
he values all life, the notion seems more of an abstract concept rather
than a personal one. Yes, he will do what he can to defend life -
including warning Baptista of the danger Katya poses - but he isn't
prepared to take life in the process.
I found Baptista's delving into Duncan's current persona very
interesting. We hadn't previously heard about how Duncan's background
had been built, and once again Duncan's reaction to Baptista's research
was cool and detached - no worry that this inquiring newspaperman will
reveal his secrets, no anger, no passion. Has Duncan finally managed to
slough off his own sense of mortality, of his connection to his more
human nature? Or has he just shut down, barricading an over-sensitive
heart against further pain? It was rare to see Duncan come across as a
true Immortal - slightly removed and slightly alien (or alienated) from
mortal-kind.
Duncan's seduction of Katya was also somewhat detached. It was about her
needs, with his own not particularly present in the equation. He was
giving her comfort without seeming to find any for himself. It was only
in the end - after he had aggressively pushed her towards a non-violent
resolution to her grief and they parted on the quay with a tender kiss,
followed by a second, more passionate kiss, followed finally by a look
back of regret at what might have been if they had met under other
circumstances - that we see a glimpse of what Duncan has shuttered away,
at how much he wants to connect, but feels he can't.
There is a great deal going on in this episode, not all of it obvious or
immediately apparent, and I like that. But that analytic distance, that
lack of passion, is also its weakness. There's no real emotional
resonance. The episode comes across as an object lesson, and like
Duncan, we are left feeling like observers to other people's lives
rather than having any visceral feelings of our own, even as a reflected
reaction of what we see.
MacGeorge
All episode commentaries available at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/indexframeset.htm
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 19 Jul 2005 to 20 Jul 2005 (#2005-91)
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