WhenMorag and I went to the Cinema to see the film Inception, for which I had seen the adverts on television, and could see, straightaway, the comparison between the film and both series of’ the Prisoner.’
As we sat in the dark, in the row of seats, in front of the back row, I was amazed to see, as the film began, Leonardo De Caprio waking up in the surf on a beach somewhere, much in the same style that Jim Caviezel wakes up lying on the sand in the desert in Arrival of THEPRIS6NER. The film is basically about a team, led by a man called Cobb, played by De Caprio, who infiltrates a man's dream, and makes that dream last longer by the aid of a drug to keep the subject heavily sedated. This is much in the same way that Two in THEPRIS6NER maintains his wife’s sedation by the use of drugs, so that her dream of The Village just goes on and on. When someone wakes up in Inception, the dream the person has created begins to collapses, when M2 wakes up in THEPRIS6NER, holes begin to appear in The Village!
The infiltration of a subjects dream, and the manipulation of, is reminiscent of the Prisoner episode A B & C, how the doctor-No.14, was able to use a drug to get into No.6's dream, and manipulate it.
Inception contains a couple of nods to the original series of ‘the Prisoner,’ such as when early in Inception, Cobb manages to gain access into a safe in order to steal an envelope, which contains nothing but blank sheets of paper. This in much the same way, when in ‘Hammer Into Anvil,’ No.6 hides an envelope containing blank sheets of paper! Then there's Leonardo De Caprio's characters name Cobb, being a characters name in the Prisoner episode Arrival.
For Morag and myself there is no doubt whatsoever that the film Inception, is just like THEPRIS6NER series, and what's more contains nods to the original series. What's more an old friend of mine wrote to me of Inception's likeness to the Prisoner episode ‘A B & C.’ It's just a pity that he did not see the likeness of Inception to that of THEPRIS6NER, but seeing as my old friend does not like the reinterpretation of the original series, his eyes, and his mind are closed. Pity, he's missing out on something quite remarkable. And one must not forget, that Christopher Nolan who co-produced and directed ‘Inception,’ was to have originally directed a Hollywood
DAS - BCNU
By chance I was watching "Inception" recently on TV. According to the word of mouth it was to be an extraordinary SF-work with stunning visuals, a new approach to the realm of fantasy, the dream and alternate reality subject.
ReplyDeleteHowever, having seen it I'd tend to keep it low key. Overwhelming visuals? I'd say I saw exactly 1 (in words: one). That's when a whole district of Paris, just by the power of imagination, is folded upside down upon the character's reality. A sense of wonder, here it is. Otherwise I hardly found anything new, nothing in the way of, say, David Lynch's disturbing b/w images of his early "Eraserhead". There was only the notion of an overblown "Twilight Zone" episode instead.
That's something I'd call unflattering for a movie experience and not unlike our P09. Nothing bothering me in particular. A commuter train full of characters none of whom I didn't care switching in between dream-realities. The unfolding action with lots of gunfire and bullets flying left me rather unaffected compared to that of "Heat" (alright, it's a bit unfair, they are very different films). Because you are watching but all you do is take notice of it. You've seen it before, "The Matrix" and its boring nonsensical kung-fu fights; ever read stories by Philip K. Dick, seen "The Sixth Sense" or "Dark City"? Then you know what the end of it was going to be like. A fair fantasy film, well it is. Hardly more. And a bit disappointing keeping in mind that Nolan was slated as director of a proposed "Prisoner" feature film of which I'm more than sure that I wouldn't want seeing it ever released. - BCNU!
Hello Arno,
DeleteThat's a fair enough comment. Yet the film does have a Prisoneresque quality, and it was that very Prisoneresqueness that first drew me to the film in the first place. The fact that a team had infiltrated the subconscious dreams of a man. And the fact that THEPRIS6NER-09 series takes place in the subconscious mind. I could see the parallel.
Oh there was never any great danger of a film of 'the Prisoner' ever being produced. Yes there was a great deal of talk, and for a very long time. But that is all it was, talk and nothing more. Yet having said that, today I know someone who has written a manuscript based on 'the Prisoner.' It's set in the original Village, which not is a very good novel, but would make an excellent film, nay television series!
Kind regards
David
Be seeing you
Yes, I can see this point. And most probably I will add "Inception" to my own list of prisoneresue movies or TV films. Deserves it. But ultimately, to me, the majority of all this alternative reality stuff tends to stay far below the imaginative writings of Phil Dick in his very best novels or stories that is, such as "Martian Time Slip", "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich" and, of course, "Ubik". Thus, I'd like to see a movie made of "Stigmata". No, I wouldn't. Instead keep remembering my own images of it. No. 6: "I like my dreams". Perhaps I was expecting too much of "Inception". - BCNU!
ReplyDeleteHello Arno,
DeleteI can see your point about 'Inception,' I do wonder that if it was not for it's Prisoneresqueness would Morag and I have been drawn to the film in the first palce? Probably not. And in that case, really it is a poor thing to be drawn to something, because one sees the influence of something else, and not for it's own entity.
Kind regards
David
Be seeing you