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meteordustAs soon as he goes up there, you *know*, you know what he's thinking. It's like before, when he wanted to go back home, and it's all come full circle, and this time he does make the choice, because this time he's really going home.
So you get Sam standing on the roof of the police building, the sweeping 360 of the Manchester skyline around him, sun blazing in the blue sky, music swelling to a crescendo. Is there life on Mars?
And now there is an answer. Yes. There is life on Mars.
That leap off the building - it's the biggest damn hero moment of the whole damn show. It's triumphant, and inevitable, and heartstopping, and magnificent.
I still believe 1973 is real. Maybe it's in his head. But it's also real. And 1973 is where he is needed. To be that voice of reason, to be there to argue, to push, to lead, to teach. He isn't needed in 2005. He is a product of that society, but the battles have already been fought and won there. Back in 1973, those battles are still in progress. He needs to be there, fighting to create the world that made him.
Part of the hero's journey is learning that you can't go home again. You don't fit in anymore, you've changed all out of shape. You can bring back what you've learned, sure, but Sam can't do that, he can't bring 1973 to 2005. But he can bring 2005 to 1973.
In Episode 1 of Series 1, when he's alone in his flat in the past, he knows no one there, he doesn't belong, and all his family and friends and loved ones are in the future. That is where his life is. But by Episode 8 of Series 2, it's the other way around. 1973 has become his home. That is where his heart is.
Vale, Sam. You did good.
So you get Sam standing on the roof of the police building, the sweeping 360 of the Manchester skyline around him, sun blazing in the blue sky, music swelling to a crescendo. Is there life on Mars?
And now there is an answer. Yes. There is life on Mars.
That leap off the building - it's the biggest damn hero moment of the whole damn show. It's triumphant, and inevitable, and heartstopping, and magnificent.
I still believe 1973 is real. Maybe it's in his head. But it's also real. And 1973 is where he is needed. To be that voice of reason, to be there to argue, to push, to lead, to teach. He isn't needed in 2005. He is a product of that society, but the battles have already been fought and won there. Back in 1973, those battles are still in progress. He needs to be there, fighting to create the world that made him.
Part of the hero's journey is learning that you can't go home again. You don't fit in anymore, you've changed all out of shape. You can bring back what you've learned, sure, but Sam can't do that, he can't bring 1973 to 2005. But he can bring 2005 to 1973.
In Episode 1 of Series 1, when he's alone in his flat in the past, he knows no one there, he doesn't belong, and all his family and friends and loved ones are in the future. That is where his life is. But by Episode 8 of Series 2, it's the other way around. 1973 has become his home. That is where his heart is.
Vale, Sam. You did good.
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Date: 2008-04-03 03:11 pm (UTC)(Witchblade was the other show that really got me appreciating camera shots)
It's a call back to the 360 shot when he wakes up after the accident - another one that has always affected me.
It's a British thing, I maintain, much as I love the ambiguity and complicated morality of shows like "The Wire", say, that they can make the Big Damn Hero Moment the same thing as - in a particular interpretation - suicide.
Ad you say, the *inevitability*...
It's all been leading to that moment.
What else can I say?
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Date: 2008-04-05 04:54 am (UTC)Apparently, the BBC was a bit nervous about the ending, although they liked it. But when a preview of the finale was screened at the BAFTAs, as soon as Sam started running, the whole room burst into applause.