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igenlodeOof -- now compared to that first half, that was intense...
I didn't remember much of the plot at this point, so was under the impression for a while that they had decided to kidnap all the confessors in London so as to smuggle Aramis in as a substitute -- however, I did recognise the word Палач from the previous film, where it occurs memorably! And of course at that point I knew what Mordaunt was going to do :-(
I'm still not clear what Athos was *hoping* to achieve underneath the scaffold, but I did remember his being there -- and will presumably unravel the details when I proceed according to my previous custom, by reading the relevant section in the book and then rewatching with the phonetic subtitles so that I can look words up. Although of course when they're not in the dictionary I never know whether this is due to obscurity of vocabulary (my larger Russian/English dictionary is only 34,000 words, and not aimed at historical fiction; it lacks the word 'boyar', for instance, clearly considered irrelevant to the bright new era of the 1970s :-p) or simply because the software mis-heard and generated nonsense words! (It definitely does, because there are occasions when even I can see that it is misinterpreting mumbled dialogue -- and proper nouns, naturally enough.)
But the scaffold scene was genuinely harrowing for both Athos and Aramis (and for d'Artagnan and Porthos, unable to bring themselves to watch) -- and while I have absolutely zero recollection of d'Artagnan climbing up to Mordaunt's window or of Cromwell 'hinting' that it would have been better for the King to have disappeared quietly at sea (a little out of character, since the whole idea of a formal execution was to prove that even kings were not above the law), the entire sequence that followed was nail-biting. And very much comprehensible, at least on a broad-brush level, apart from my normal problem with simply not being able to identify characters in the dark.
I have no idea whether in the book d'Artagnan duels Mordaunt by a selection of lots, or whether the latter escapes through a concealed passage behind the fire(!), but I found myself unpleasantly conscious that despite his eagerness and vigour it was a question of a man of forty fighting one of twenty-three who is quite ruthless. Nor did I remember the barrels of powder on the ship (shades of "Phantom of the Opera"), but from the moment that Athos tells d'Artagnan to take a dagger with him if he is going alone, even on a short errand, the tension is clearly being cranked up ;-)
And so *that's* where that song fits... I don't think it really works in the context of the film, but it's a good song; the previous number for Mordaunt gets relegated to the credits(?) of Episode One, so I'd guess that the music was written first, as a 'concept album', and then they had to try to find places to fit it into the adaptation!
And of *course* Athos can't just sit there and simply watch a man drown in front of his eyes without lifting a finger to prevent it, even if that man has been trying to kill them (not entirely without reason...) Exactly what happens after that is extremely obscure, both because it's dark and because of the way it's shot -- we don't even see Athos go into the sea, though he disappears from the boat -- but I assume Mordaunt's sole aim is to take at least one victim down with him, and that they struggle underwater.
I do remember the final line from the book: "I have a son, and therefore I wished to live"...
(And the episode is still not over, apparently -- but that's about as much as I can take in one chunk!)
I didn't remember much of the plot at this point, so was under the impression for a while that they had decided to kidnap all the confessors in London so as to smuggle Aramis in as a substitute -- however, I did recognise the word Палач from the previous film, where it occurs memorably! And of course at that point I knew what Mordaunt was going to do :-(
I'm still not clear what Athos was *hoping* to achieve underneath the scaffold, but I did remember his being there -- and will presumably unravel the details when I proceed according to my previous custom, by reading the relevant section in the book and then rewatching with the phonetic subtitles so that I can look words up. Although of course when they're not in the dictionary I never know whether this is due to obscurity of vocabulary (my larger Russian/English dictionary is only 34,000 words, and not aimed at historical fiction; it lacks the word 'boyar', for instance, clearly considered irrelevant to the bright new era of the 1970s :-p) or simply because the software mis-heard and generated nonsense words! (It definitely does, because there are occasions when even I can see that it is misinterpreting mumbled dialogue -- and proper nouns, naturally enough.)
But the scaffold scene was genuinely harrowing for both Athos and Aramis (and for d'Artagnan and Porthos, unable to bring themselves to watch) -- and while I have absolutely zero recollection of d'Artagnan climbing up to Mordaunt's window or of Cromwell 'hinting' that it would have been better for the King to have disappeared quietly at sea (a little out of character, since the whole idea of a formal execution was to prove that even kings were not above the law), the entire sequence that followed was nail-biting. And very much comprehensible, at least on a broad-brush level, apart from my normal problem with simply not being able to identify characters in the dark.
I have no idea whether in the book d'Artagnan duels Mordaunt by a selection of lots, or whether the latter escapes through a concealed passage behind the fire(!), but I found myself unpleasantly conscious that despite his eagerness and vigour it was a question of a man of forty fighting one of twenty-three who is quite ruthless. Nor did I remember the barrels of powder on the ship (shades of "Phantom of the Opera"), but from the moment that Athos tells d'Artagnan to take a dagger with him if he is going alone, even on a short errand, the tension is clearly being cranked up ;-)
And so *that's* where that song fits... I don't think it really works in the context of the film, but it's a good song; the previous number for Mordaunt gets relegated to the credits(?) of Episode One, so I'd guess that the music was written first, as a 'concept album', and then they had to try to find places to fit it into the adaptation!
And of *course* Athos can't just sit there and simply watch a man drown in front of his eyes without lifting a finger to prevent it, even if that man has been trying to kill them (not entirely without reason...) Exactly what happens after that is extremely obscure, both because it's dark and because of the way it's shot -- we don't even see Athos go into the sea, though he disappears from the boat -- but I assume Mordaunt's sole aim is to take at least one victim down with him, and that they struggle underwater.
I do remember the final line from the book: "I have a son, and therefore I wished to live"...
(And the episode is still not over, apparently -- but that's about as much as I can take in one chunk!)