Prismatic Reflection

    Prisoneresque, to mean like ‘the Prisoner’ in some shape of form, in part or whole. Or said to have been inspired by ‘the Prisoner.’ Films such as ‘The Truman Show’ in which the whole life of Truman has been documented live on television. A life which Truman took to be reality, turns out to be nothing more than a reality game show. He is nothing more than a Prisoner living in a false American town, which he can never leave, otherwise Truman would discover the reality of his existence. When     ‘The Truman Show’ hit the cinemas in 1998, at the time it was deemed to be ‘the Prisoner’ Hollywood feature film, without having to remake ‘The Prisoner!’ Another such film is ‘The Cube,’ a Canadian film, made on a budget a year earlier. It concerns 6 prisoners who find themselves incarcerated in a Cube. Each one is there for reason, each having constructed part of the Cube, but not knowing what it was for. Why are the Prisoners in the Cube? Who is behind the construction of the Cube? A Cube within a Cube, but what is outside the Cube? Again this film was seen at the time as a feature film of ‘the Prisoner’ without having to remake it. If you think ‘the Prisoner’ is difficult to understand, and you haven’t seen ‘The Cube,’ I suggest you do so. Other films which can be described as being Prisoneresque;
Dead of Night - 1945
The Clouded Yellow - 1950
The Prisoner - 1955
Vicious Circle - 1957
The Manchurian Candidate - 1962
Danger Man episodes - ‘Colony Three’ and ‘The Ubiquitous Mister Lovegrove’ - 1965
Crossplot - 1969
The Man Who Haunted Himself - 1970
Welcome To Blood City - 1977
The One Game - 1988 an ITV Central region television series
    The Double Team - 1997 - starring Jean Claude Van Damme, in which counter-terrorist Jack Quinn misses his target, Stavros, on the eve of his final mission. From there, he is sent to “The Colony,” a rebirth for presumed-dead assassins’ from which he eventually escapes.
    Village Day - 1998-1999, an art house film inspired by ‘the Prisoner, and set at the time of the original series, in which a new Number 6 is forced to take up residence in the Village for his own protection. The Prisoner has been on the trail of his brother, a trail which leads to his abduction and subsequent arrival in the Village, and the final discovery of who Number 1 is.
    Jekyll 2007 a television series starring James Nesbitt, a modern adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,’ which enjoys Prisoneresque moments between the characters of Jekyll and Hyde.
    Cape Wrath 2007, a television series which at the time was considered the new series of ‘the Prisoner.’ Instead of the Village there is Meadowlands, a town where people are taken, people who all have a secret. They are given new names, new identities, but who remain the same persons they were outside Meadowlands, and bring all their problems with them.
    There is no leaving Meadowlands, which looks to be a typical New England town, no way out, people are there for life. And like the Village in THEPRIS6NER-09, Meadowlands is in the middle of nowhere. There is nothing but barren landscape for hundreds, and hundreds of miles in every direction.
    And more recently ‘Inception’ starring Leonardo Dicaprio who plays a man who travels the world gaining industrial secrets from within the subconscious mind of industrialists, while in their venerable state of dreaming. But it’s Pris6neresqueness has more in common with THEPRIIS6NER-09 series than it does the original.
     And of course there is THEPRIS6NER starring Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel, of which I am a particular enthusiast.
     All the listed films are described as being Prisoneresque, because they contain scenes which are of a type which appear in ‘the Prisoner’ series, or are very much like ‘the Prisoner’ in total. Of course there is also a slight difference between the listed films, those which were produced before ‘the Prisoner’ are seen by aficianados as being inspirational towards ‘the Prisoner.’ Those produced after 1968, are said to be inspired by ‘the Prisoner.’
     Something being described as being Prisoneresque is not something confined to film and television, the world of literature also contains works which are deemed to be Prisoneresque. Kafka’s ‘The Trail’ 1914-1915, and ‘The Castle’ 1922, are said to be Prisoneresque, as well as being inspirational for ‘the Prisoner, so that works both ways. Other such Prisoneresque literary works include;
Dance of the Dead - {anonymous} circa 1810
William Wilson - Edgar Allen Poe - 1839 a boy who suffers his perfect double in his class at school.
The Crooken Sands - Bram Stoker {date unknown} A man comes face to face with himself in Scotland.
    The Midnight Express - Anthony Noyes 1935, a boy is intrigued by a book bound in red buckram. So much so, that the book stays in his mind into the boys adult life, until one night on a platform on an otherwise deserted railway station, he comes face to face with himself! So you see literature is packed with characters meeting their other self, as Number 6 encounters himself in ‘Fall Out.’
    All of these works have one thing in common, they precede ‘the Prisoner’ by at least a decade, and going back to over a century. And for any of them to have played any inspirational part on ‘the Prisoner,’ would mean that Patrick McGoohan, or any of the script writers, and directors would have had to have seen the films, and have read the stories that predate the series. And if that is not the case, and none of the above played any inspirational role, which is all too possible, then all aficionados of ‘the Prisoner’ have created is a great deal, of what I am pleased to call “noise.” But then again does not ‘the Prisoner’ series itself create a great deal of “noise? Patrick McGoohan certainly made enough “noise“ of his own about ‘the Prisoner‘ for many, many years after.
     So why do aficionados, and I include myself in this, persist in seeing works such as those noted here, as possibly having played an inspirational role in ‘the Prisoner?’ Simply because there is that possibility, and that’s enough for any enthusiast of ‘the Prisoner.’ It’s not that they did or didn’t, it’s that they might have been. And after 45 years, who is to say they didn’t? However on the other hand, it’s good to see that in turn, ‘the Prisoner’ has played it’s role in being inspirational in both feature films and television series during the past decade.

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