The Village. In the Village there are those citizens who are described as being “brainwashed imbeciles,” they are like the members of the local Town Council. It is unsure whether they can laugh, cry, or are capable of thinking. But even so there must be a remnant inside their heads to desire to be a human being again. And then there is the sad case of Roland Walter Dutton, he ended up as a mindless individual all because the doctor would not believe that Dutton had told him all that he knew, that he had no more to tell him, because there was no more! So what exactly is the correct definition of brainwashing? I consulted a number of authorities, one of whom has brainwashing as to change a persons ideas, or beliefs by physical or mental conditioning, used over a long period. While Webster puts it more simply - intense indoctrination.
So where is this leading I hear you ask? To the question of the possible brainwashing of fans by ‘the Prisoner,’ or perhaps more directly by Patrick McGoohan. The opening sequence was the most powerful of it’s day, it grabbed you, captivated the mind, it‘s compelling stuff. Dark clouds gather over a long deserted runway. A clash of thunder, and out of the distance hurtles a green and yellow nosed sports car. The opening sequence is as powerful today as it was 45 years ago. So what is it about that opening sequence that captivates so? I think it is the power of the imagery, combined with the theme music that draws the viewer into the world of ‘the Prisoner,’ or perhaps that should be Village. The episode ‘Arrival’ has the power to transfix the television viewer to the point that the television viewer cannot wait to see more and more and more.
Who is this man? Where has he come from? Why is he so angry? And what is that letter he so forcibly lands down upon the desk so? The plain and simple fact of the matter is, that at that particular time we simply do not know who the man is, where he has come from, why he is so angry, or that we have witnessed his resigning his job!
This man then drives through the busy London streets, at least we know where he lives! But then he’s packed and ready to leave, yet it is too late! Why the hearse? What do the two Undertakers want with this man? The last he sees of London are the skyscrapers through a window of his house having been nerve gassed…….he wakes up in the Village!
And now the questions persist. Where is the Village? Which side runs the Village? Who is Number 1, who is Number 2? Why did the Prisoner resign? You see, it’s questions, questions, questions, and already you have become a prisoner of ‘the Prisoner,’ because you want answers to the questions you have been asking yourself. You have been drawn into ‘the Prisoner,’ the Village, and it was so simple to do. You will want to keep watching because of all the questions which buzz around inside your head, you want to know if the Prisoner known as Number 6 will eventually escape or not. It is conditioning, a form of brainwashing. What’s more, the more you watch it, the greater the conditioning, until you cannot let it go. Oh there is escape, for the lucky ones. Somehow they are able to walk away, to forget ‘the Prisoner,’ but yet become prisoner’s of something else. For people like me, there is no escape. We continue to share the joys and sorrows of the Prisoner-Number 6 as he thinks he has escaped, only to discover that post 14 had his wrist watch set the Greenwich meantime, and not Polish time!
We share Village life with Number 6, from the moment he takes a taxi ride, to the General Store where he wants to buy a map of the Village.. We discover with him who are the prisoners and who the warders, the people he can trust as he finds his reliable men. We share his victories, his failures, and both his joy and pain. But are liberated by the fact that ‘they’ are doing it to someone else!
And so it is that with the closing credits of each episode, ends our current session of therapy treatment. We put ‘the Prisoner’ back in his Video or DVD box. And perhaps in that there is another parallel, between ‘the Prisoner’ and Pandora’s Jar. In that Pandora opened the jar and released all the evils into the world, including hope. The false kind of hope, that was no good for mankind. This in the same way that Number 6 was given “false hope” in ‘Many Happy Returns,’ and that was an evil. Like the Village, Pandora’s jar can be interpreted as being a prison. The jar certainly serves as a prison for all the evils Pandora released. And so each time we open the Video or DVD box, we release ‘the Prisoner.’ I’m not saying that that makes you or I Pandora, but perhaps a warder, releasing ‘the Prisoner.’ And because of that release, we put Number 6 through a vicious cycle of torment, with only false hope as a companion.
Be seeing you
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