Acceptance Of Things As They Are
Many of the Village citizens have accepted the situation of their imprisonment, whilst others have been brought to the village of their own free will. And that does not account for those born to the village, and therefore know nothing else.
There are exceptions to any such rule, and they are No.6, No.48 a rebellious youth, No.12 who saw the Professor as a "crank," and carried out an act of sabotage in No.6's cottage. Also on the list are malcontents, Jammers, and Unmutuals. Life suddenly doesn't look so cosy in the Village, does it?
Yet there is both a good side to the Village as well as bad. Because the Village and its administration does look after you for as long as you live, and that reflects upon the welfare state in which we live. Although the welfare state does on occasion, struggle to look after all of our welfare needs. After all the hospital may be full of patients, but surely not all must be undergoing therapy, aversion therapy, leucotomies, and experimentation at the hands of No.40 and 22. Reason must determine that there are patents in the hospital who are there for what we are pleased to call "legitimate illnesses."
There are exceptions to any such rule, and they are No.6, No.48 a rebellious youth, No.12 who saw the Professor as a "crank," and carried out an act of sabotage in No.6's cottage. Also on the list are malcontents, Jammers, and Unmutuals. Life suddenly doesn't look so cosy in the Village, does it?
Yet there is both a good side to the Village as well as bad. Because the Village and its administration does look after you for as long as you live, and that reflects upon the welfare state in which we live. Although the welfare state does on occasion, struggle to look after all of our welfare needs. After all the hospital may be full of patients, but surely not all must be undergoing therapy, aversion therapy, leucotomies, and experimentation at the hands of No.40 and 22. Reason must determine that there are patents in the hospital who are there for what we are pleased to call "legitimate illnesses."
How Does It Work?
The Village Credit Card System, well from what I have observed, in that it works rather like the ration card system of WWII and for some little time after. In that your ration card was clipped, and the small clipping retained. And in the same way, when a customer presents his or her credit card, the Shopkeeper, waiter or waitress then clips the said credit card, and retaining the clipped portion.
The Schizoid Men!
We all have a double somewhere in the world, so they say. I'm a double for Patrick McGoohan as a matter of fact, as he was, and how he looked in later life. And in ‘The Schizoid Man’ we see that Number 6 has his own double right there in the Village.
Now we all can understand that No.1 and Number 6 are one and the same. The one the alter ego of the other. But that's all in the mind isn't, what about the physical side to the matter. If Curtis wasn't suffocated to death by Rover in ‘The Schizoid Man,’ couldn't Curtis be playing the role of Number 1 in ‘Fall Out?’ His brain having been "tilted" by the time he's spent hidden away in the Village, and the treatment he has possibly undergone in the hospital. And then here he is, Curtis, having to double for Number .6 once again in the further manipulation of Number 6 in ‘Fall Out.’ I mean that's enough to tilt anyone’s brain!
I'll be seeing you
When we see the cloaked figure of No1 confronted by No6, it clearly cannot be a physical doppelganger of No6, since the hooded figure is a good six to seven inches shorter than No6. This rules out the possibility that it might have been Curtis, re-dressed.
ReplyDeleteHello Moor,
DeleteYes, but the face of Number 1 is still the same, that of McGoohan!
However the cloaked figure of Number 1 is played by Roy Beck, a background artist {actor} who in 'Fall Out' was a Boom operator, and was wounded during the shooting scene....So one could say that Roy Beck has been Number 1 all along!
One thing which could be derived from the height difference between Number 1 and Number 6 is this: If the good and evil aspect has been physically separated, one could say that there is more good than there is bad, seeing as how Number 6 is six feet two and a half inches tall!
Regards
David
BCNU
Given the mental state No6 appears to be in by the time he gets inside the sanctum of No1, after the whole palaver he's endured with the President and his clappers, one way to interpret the scene is that we see what No6 sees, rather than that there actually two No6's. So rather than seeing the usual crazy Bond guy, the *hero* sees a mad-crazy version of his own face, and by this mechanism we the viewer are informed that the worst enemy we have is ourself.
DeleteThis seems another reason why McGoohan kept the whole thing so fleeting; he was looking for just a subjective moment, rather than trying to impose a reality that had to be explained. The crazy guy runs off and and hides in his escape-rocket like any self-respecting Bond villain would, so in that sense of *a reality* it's all tied up quite neatly.
Back in the day I missed that it *was* the amd face as No6, but the idea that the ultimate evil was "crazy" seemed quite sufficient as an explanation to me, and I ceretainly *got* the monkey mask idea of man and beast.
Hello Moor,
DeleteVery well explained. Man and the beast - evolution. The escape-rocket {yes I like that term} but escape to where for Number 1, and if things had not panned out the way they did, he would have taken 48, the "late' 2 and the former Number 6 with him, hence the Orbit Tubes.
Yes I did get McGoohan's meaning of our being our own worst enemy, but not until years later after the original screening. We all want to be Number 1, we all look after Number 1, because if we don't, then who will?
To my mind the former Number 6 turned down the offer of ultiamte power, turning down the opportunity to be Number 1. But he is Number 1, but then perhaps he didn't want to be Number 1 any longer, is that why he resigned? In any case there was certainly a "falling out!"
Regards
David
Be seeing you
"It's said now that people
ReplyDeletewill be shorter in height,
they can fit twice as many
in the same building site.
(they say it's alright)..."
Genesis, "Get em out by friday"