"I'm sorry, but my friend down there was wondering. Are you alone?"
That is the last line in the finale of season five of "Mad Men."
I've just watched it again, and like everything that is good--unless you are Harold Bloom--you have to watch it again. And maybe again.
"You only live twice/ Or so it seems./ Once live for yourself/ and one for your dreams."
Nancy freaking Sinatra, for God's sake. But. . . perfect.
But the show stealer--on second viewing--is Pete's soliloquy in the hospital with Beth. After electroshock, she does not remember him. The not-so-subtle sadness is overwhelming. When Pete, who had come to visit her after her electroshock masquerading as her brother, realizes she has no idea who he is, says, "I've come to see a friend."
"What's wrong with him," Beth queries?
"He got involved with another man's wife," he answers.
Beth: "Why did he do it?"
Pete: "All the regular reasons, I guess. He needed to let off some steam, he needed adventure, he needed to feel handsome again, he needed to feel that he knew something — that all this aging was worth something because he knew things young people didn't know yet. . . . And then he realized everything he already had was not right either. And that was why it had happened at all. And that his life with his family was some temporary bandage on a permanent wound."
Pete: "All the regular reasons, I guess. He needed to let off some steam, he needed adventure, he needed to feel handsome again, he needed to feel that he knew something — that all this aging was worth something because he knew things young people didn't know yet. . . . And then he realized everything he already had was not right either. And that was why it had happened at all. And that his life with his family was some temporary bandage on a permanent wound."
The "temporary bandage on a permanent wound" is what haunts us. Well. . . and much more.
Everyone is alone at the end of the episode. Pete in headphones at home. Peggy watching two dogs fuck outside her cheap hotel room on her grand trip to Richmond. Roger on LSD looking out his window, arms spread, at Manhattan. Don in a bar.
I have a clip, but you will have to watch it on "The Daily Beast" as it will not show full screen here:
link
And some others.
"Are you alone?"
"You Only Live Twice."
My God! It arrived early. O.K., then, here's the post.
My God! It arrived early. O.K., then, here's the post.
that bandage line got to me too...in oh so many ways! Don't think I can't watch it again right now.
ReplyDeleteI love the title sequence by Maurice Binder. The one he created for Dr. No is great also:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahz_nfwWy74
And the one for Charade:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltnH36_yKQ0&feature=player_embedded
You can see where he was influenced by op art and the early computer technology--the spinning wheels and flashing lights.
This last one for Casino Royale, the work of Daniel Kleinman, is absolutely stunning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnzgdBAKyJo&feature=related
I may have to do a blog post about this--fantastic site, Art of the Title, here:
http://www.artofthetitle.com/2011/01/24/quantum-of-solace/
R, Of course.
ReplyDeleteA, Oh my, thank you for those. It is all very good. It brings the era into a good, sharp focus.