There's a certain hierarchy to filmed media entertainment. Top of the pile in the prestige stakes is cinema...then comes the inferior television programming (followed by pop videos, advertisements, daytime soaps with reality TV bringing up the rear). But occasionally an episode of TV can compete with the very best that cinema has to offer. TV is a rushed medium...scripts are written by committee and 45 minutes of footage are filmed in 7 to 10 days (compared with a 60 day shoot for your average 90 minute movie)...so these jems appear infrequently. However, Two Cathedrals, the season two cliffhanger from U.S. political drama The West Wing is one such masterpiece.
If you've not seen The West Wing, it follows the day to day hullabaloo of first term President Jed Bartlett (Martin Sheen) and his team of advisers. Like all great uplifting dramas, things have to get bad before they can get better. So by the end of the season Bartlett has revealed to the nation that he's been diagnosed with M.S., his political support is bleeding away, that a dangerous military situation is brewing overseas, the biggest tropical storm in history is baring down on the capital. And, most importantly, his longest family friend, advisor, secretary and confidant has died tragically. The bloke is down. A religious man, he even feels that God has turned his back on him too.
It's mythic nature comes from placing the familiar characters into archetypal roles within a simple, recognisably mythic story structure (a boy with daddy issues leaves home to save the world and, with the advise of a trusted wise-person, conquers his own fears and his enemies)...think Star Wars or this year's Star Trek. So we're shown Bartlett's domineering father, jealous of his son's intelligence as well as Mrs Landingham, the woman that pushes him to achieve more and more.
As the mythic elements are laid in place, the story builds towards the climax of the episode...which is a choice; to either go for re-election or to step down, given the onslaught of opposition. In most myths the hero must confront his darkest fears in a cave (as Luke does in Empire on Dagobah or Frodo does in Return of the King in Shelob's lair)..and so it is here, with the Oval Office doing cave duties, as Barlett awaits the pivotal press conference in which the choice will be revealed. From this point there's an almost supernatural feel to the episode as Barlett confronts the ghost/memory of Mrs Landingham about his options.
The final five minutes are virtually without dialogue as Bartlett travels with his colleagues and friends in the storm, accompanied by the haunting Dire Straits track Brothers In Arms. It's tense and powerful stuff, all leading to that one, final moment at the end of the episode where Barlett's decision is revealed.
And it's inspired.
Although the character never actually answers the question of re-election verbally, when asked, it is communicated visually by gesture (which the audience has been clued into earlier). Only John Spencer's Chief of Staff knows what to look for and it his utterance of "Watch This" at the finale that sets the massive emotional punch, of the choice, up. Because everybody else in the story isn't aware what the gesture means, the audience feels like its privileged and in-on-the-surprise.
Like The Shawshank Redemption, V For Vendetta or Cuckoo's Nest this is a profoundly affecting 'fuck you' to those that would oppose you, tear you down and tell you what is and isn't possible. It's shows the power that people possess to overcome their own doubts and inadequacies and to battle authority if you know it to be the right thing to do. This is writing (in any form) at it's very best, coupled with unusual directorial choices (for TV land) that give the movie boys a run for their money.
Perfect.
No comments:
Post a Comment