Re (Assignment)

"It is people like you, William, who are destroying the moral fabric of the country."-- Patrick McGoohan, Anglicized reactionary

Outland's cultural interplay  operates on levels with a number of tranches. It is an obvious homage by Hyams to High Noon, which in itself isn't really a western, but a question about what kind of country America is, but the narrative is also about Connery's frustration with the Fleming formula. It has its weak spot, the worshipful wife doing an early version of Skype. Kira projects Carol O'Niel as little more than a moon child who wants to be dominated by self-made virility. Don't we all. Beyond this, it offers a fulfilling neo-realism which makes the difficulty of transliterating science fiction all the more rewarding, posited in a plausible futurist technocratic frailty. Walter Hill may not have had a direct influence on Hyams's work, but someone was paying attention.

Methink's Hill's protestations out forced gender switching are disingenuous, but I am not ready to challenge an entertainment icon on his understated political consciousness,  and prefer to go through O'Neal first, and know I have to move: the man is sick, seemingly in need of money-- but I am also barely holding it together. My "essay-ish" piece on The Driver is not slated for Rolling Stone, as its cultural insulation makes me queasy: Wenner switched sides, thus not invalidating arguments about sexuality and choice-- but in recent searches, debated pitching the entertainment icon a slant. It would not hurt. Freelancers get ignored hundreds of times a day-- but I am staying my hand, as they seem to already eat Hill like ice cream. I am trying to probe a little more deeply, much as the juxtapositions in The Prisoner keep the viewer off balance. It too is science fiction dressed up like a primitive comic book (much like The Good Place, which sends up smugness rather cheaply and isn't enough).

For now, this is all I can manage. If I haven't broken the law and assaulted Trudy Richardson, at week's end, perhaps I will have crept through my own physiological torments enhanced by corruption.