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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   2099 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 31, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Last week's thread included a comment about Mad Men being a good example of a tv show that let the past be a foreign country. There's a great 1967s tv limited series that goes to show just how foreign the 1960s were: The Prisoner. A sharp-dressed man drives a British Racing Green Lotus 7 through London, enters a restricted office, and dramatically resigns. He's followed home and, as he packs for a plane trip, sedative gas is pumped through his front door's keyhole. He wakes up in a facsimile of his living room but finds that the world outside is an Orwellian open-air prison for people who know too much, with charming, eclectic Mediterranean-inspired architecture (filmed in a Portofino-inspired resort-town in Wales) and garish, eccentric fashion as a veneer for a sinister and oppressive culture. He's invited to the home/office of the warden, "Number 2," and told that he is "Number 6." Number 2 needs to know why he resigned and, no, the prisoner may not know who Number 1 is. In addition to the very best in 1960s fictitious technology, mad science, and dystopian social practices, the sheep are kept in line by a sheepdog called Rover, a seemingly sentient weather balloon that can go anywhere and literally envelope those who test the Village's boundaries. In each episode, a new Number 2 tries to crack the prisoner, the prisoner tries to escape, and/or the prisoner tries to play a mind-game of his own against Number 2. In an episode that wasn't originally shown in the USA, The Village is replaced by an analogous Old West town, eventually revealed to be a mock-town in which the Village staff gave the prisoner hallucinogenic drugs; the stated reason for the American affiliate not showing this episode was the reference to hallucinogens, but many suspect that the real reason was that the plot could be interpreted as an allegory for the draft. The infamously baffling (and, consequently, spoiler-proof) series finale includes the personification of Youth being put on show-trial, a literal unmasking of Number 1 to show the prisoner's own face, and a shootout to the tune of "All You Need Is Love."

What bohemian, contrarian mind gifted us this glorious rejection of conformity? A staunch Catholic who twice turned down the role of James Bond. In a 1980s interview:

Interviewer: John Drake (the star/creator's previous character) never carried a gun but was one of the more violent weaponless peacemakers on television. How do you describe his character?

Patrick McGoohan: Number Six didn’t carry any weapons either. Both characters were able to settle their mutual predicaments by old-fashioned fisticuffs: a much more gentlemanly manner than James Bond’s. (Laughing) Your dear President Reagan called James Bond a great symbol for American Freedom… for young children to emulate. This is a preposterous idea when you look at the less than ideal manner in which the Bond character conducted himself. The President has made a lot of miffed statements, but that one is undoubtedly one of the most absurd. I was watching Rich Little the other night on television doing an imitation of him and, let me tell you, it’s just not funny anymore. That doting caricature is no longer funny when faced with the realization that you’ve got four more years of this guy.

Here's a good video interview of him about the meaning/intention of The Prisoner - the past is a foreign country, indeed.

One of my favorites. I remember reading an old fan club questionnaire that McGoohan filled out... I have no idea if he was doing it deliberately in character, or if Number 6 really was just in line with his own personal views.

Honestly, it would make for a good Culture War discussion starter, too. You don't have to look far into A Change of Mind to see parallels..

I was very interested to learn a few years ago that Patrick McGoohan is a distant relative of mine on my mother's side. My grandfather was from Kerry in the southwest, but moved to Dublin for work. In the sixties some of his Kerry family came up to Dublin to visit, having heard that their Nth cousin was starring in a film (Ice Station Zebra) - I don't believe there were any cinemas in Kerry at the time. They went with my grandfather to see it, and were apparently so scandalised by the film's contents that, upon leaving the cinema, looked up to the sky and ruefully commented "no wonder there's rain".

Do you know what he found scandalous about Ice Station Zebra?

No idea, I've never seen it, and nor had my mother who told me this story. Is there onscreen kissing in it? It may have been something like that.

No, it's a not-quite-epic-enough John Sturgis Cold War thriller primarily set on a nuclear submarine. It's worth watching for some terrific shots of submarines diving and surfacing, filmed in 65mm by the same 2nd unit cinematographer who rigged the on-car 65mm cameras for "Grand Prix," a few years prior.

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