Lucas North saturation? [Spooks 9 spoilers]

Still working on the video. Have now picked out and integrated all of my clips; all that’s left is to fine tune the editing (cuing clips precisely to music, for example). Just discovered that iMovie 8 has almost no effects included, and that’s what I have, so it’s going to be a story video rather than an eye-candy one. Actually, this is embarrassing because since I’ve talked about it so much I’ll have to show it even if I am not totally satisfied with the result. I know one issue, already, will be that it’s not going to look as nice in youtube compression as it does on my screen. Oh, well, it’s been an interesting learning process in so many regards. I’m not really a visual thinker, but it turns out that my narrative impulses fill in for that somewhat. Also, I got the feeling that Spooks is filmed with a lot of camera techniques used in music videos, as in some places these clips just seemed to lay themselves down into the music. (Did I mention this is a Lucas North video?) I guess we’ll see when we see, huh?

But what I wanted to say is that watching these tiny pieces of Lucas North over and over again while looking for the perfect excerpts has made me realize how much I loved this character, especially in season 7 and parts of season 8. He really was a hero in my eyes, and anything I learned about John Bateman’s pre-MI-5 days does not mitigate my respect for Lucas North’s sense of ethics and will to self-sacrifice after his return from Russia. I was reminded again of everything I loved about the person I thought was the real Lucas while doing this project. After his re-emergence, John Bateman (in 9.8) says to Ruth that he’s in credit as far as killing people goes. That statement is intended to sound cynical and self-serving and it does; and maybe I am too empathetic at the moment toward the devastation created by broken dreams and the malaise that descends upon one after having been misunderstood or mistrusted or taken for granted a few times too often. Or maybe I am too ready to believe in the possibility of redemption. At the same time, I did end up believing that John sought — and found — redemption as Lucas North. Perhaps not intentionally. But the point of something being a mitzvah is that it is done by divine commandment, not necessarily by human will. And trying as best we can to perform good deeds can make us better people, even if the past is always with us and we remain flawed.

A promotional photo for Spooks series 8; Lucas runs back toward the hotel to try to save Ros and the Home Secretary. Source: Richard Armitage Net

I think I’ve posted this photo before in a post about how I’d missed Lucas in the break after season 8. Do you know what always gets me about this photo? The shoelaces. You can see the outline of the body, the strength, the exertion, the stress, the hurry, and the way that the dress clothes are contorted by wind and by Armitage’s muscular to accommodate the bidding of his body. But the detail out of control is the shoelaces. They’re just whipped around in every direction. There’s a metaphor, there, for the vulnerability of Lucas, the little boy hoping for affection, which I also saw in my reviewing of these video clips. It’s Armitage’s power in this role that he manages to get both the hard man, the hero who mustn’t stop to consider his feelings, and the vulnerable, lonely one, into the same body and the same gestural repertoire. I often had tears in my eyes today while watching, and yet I never tire of seeing Lucas.

~ by Servetus on December 23, 2010.