During the opening sequence of the Prisoner, we observe the Prisoner having resigned his job, goes back to his house, collects two suit cases, into one he puts two colour photographs, but that is just what the Prisoner does not do!
For years, I had wondered why the Prisoner, when obviously he is in such a hurry to get away, that he would bother himself with two colour photographs. I thought that perhaps they had something to do with where he was going, some South Sea Island perhaps. But I was wrong, and so was anyone else who thought as I did. Because close observation has discovered that they are not two colour photographs, well they are, but in two folded glossy magazines! Such is the misconception discovered with the aid of a DVD disc and a computer DVD player and picture editing programme. Also in that film sequence, the Prisoner collects his passport, and an airline ticket to Europe.
BCNU
I have always recognised those as travel brochures; right from when I first saw them in grainy black and white, in 1967. It always seemed obvious to me that they were meant to be the old-fashioned travel company brochures of those days. A vital component of The Prisoner for the viewer was there there was no mystery about why he resigned or where he was going afterwards. Because it was OBVIOUS, we could immediately symapthise with his annoyance at the Village questions and his simple DEFIANCE at not giving them a straight answer.
ReplyDeleteDefiance by refusing to answer stupid questions is a natural human response - unless you have been conditioned to think you owe other people an explanation for whatever they might wish to know.
Hello Moor Larkin,
ReplyDeleteAn interesting comment. I too watched 'the Prisoner' in black and white back in 1967, and have done so once since, just to remind myself what it was like.
It is easy for the Prisoner to show his defiance to those asking stupid questions, by not giving straight forward answers, because it is merely a televison series. We can try and do the same in the real world, but for how long can we defy them, those who ask the questions? Recently a census was held. I didn't mind answering the questions, because the questions were not instrusive. In fact I was surprised on just how little information about me the census wanted to know. And besides, not to complete the census would have resulted in a huge fine.
Regards
David
BCNU