#Douglas Campbell

[greatmuldini]

The Iron Harp

We’re all in prison together, Johnny, one way or the other.

Act 1

Outwardly, Joseph O'Conor's play is a simple tale of love and loss in times of war: set in rural Ireland in early April of 1920, the action takes place on the property of an English industrialist whose mansion has been taken over by a contingent of IRA volunteers. Their leader is Michael O'Riordan, a gifted poet-musician in civilian life and conveniently the peace-time manager of the Englishman's estate. Michael has recently been wounded in action; now blind as a result he is no longer on active duty but still responsible for an English prisoner of war. Being a man of his word, Captain John Tregarthen has made no attempt to escape, earning Michael's trust and eventually his friendship. He also earns the friendship and love of Michael’s cousin Molly Kinsella, with whom he spends long days roaming the extensive grounds of his idyllic prison. Dreaming of a future life together, the lovers are oblivious to the feelings of their “best friend” – who ends up sacrificing his love for Molly in what he hopes will be a lasting gesture of selflessness only to find that Fate intervenes, with devastating consequences for them all.

Completing the quartet of characters is the dark and “indistinct” figure of IRA commander Sean Kelly, a dark and "indistinct" figure who emerges from the shadows to immediately assert his authority not only in military matters but - crucially, and disturbingly - in those of the heart as well. Specifically, it is the heart of Michael O’Riordan that Kelly claims to know better than O’Riordan himself. As a flesh-and-blood character Kelly is difficult to pin down: cold and calculating by his own admission, he expresses admiration for Michael's hot-blooded fighting spirit. Michael's own startled response to Kelly entering "like Nemesis himself" is ambiguous at best, and even his description of Kelly as a “good friend” comes on the back of a warning to Johnny that "he won't like you."

When Kelly tells Michael that he has never been wrong and does not know what it means to feel regret, the sense of foreboding is inescapable, yet Michael never seems to give in to the negativity emanating from his old wartime comrade who admonishes him to see his friends “as they really are” and not as “you want to see them.” Ironically, Michael refuses to see an enemy in John Tregarthen, but he is equally stubborn in applying the same criteria of honour, loyalty, and friendship to Sean Kelly, who seems troubled by this flaw in Michael’s character: "you love people too much."

Michael's emotional warmth stands in stark contrast to Kelly's impersonation of infallibility - which Michael seems to accept as a token of his friend's unassailable integrity. He continues to defer to Kelly's judgment when a messenger arrives with bad news from the front: three IRA fighters have been killed in skirmishes with British forces, and reprisals must be carried out. Twisting the metaphorical knife in the very real emotional wound, Kelly as the commanding officer nominates blind Michael to be the impartial instrument of God's justice. Forced to select three victims for execution, Michael all but collapses when one of the chosen names is that of Captain John Tregarthen.

Act 2

After he has persuaded Johnny to flee the country and reunite with Molly back in England, Michael is left alone to guard the now empty house. Blind and unable to defend himself, Michael is powerless against two marauding Black & Tans who break into the property and proceed to taunt and abuse the solitary occupant. It does not take them long to realize their victim is an IRA member rather than a civilian enjoying certain protections. Further violence is prevented only by the surprise return of Captain Tregarthen, armed and in uniform, who holds the attacker at gunpoint until Kelly and his entourage arrive to take the men away. Where any other human being would have expressed relief or gratitude at the discovery that the life of his friend has been saved, Kelly’s reaction is characteristically impassive, betraying, if anything, a degree of irritation at the unforeseen complication that has shown the condemned prisoner – the enemy – to be capable of compassion and self-sacrifice in saving the life of his friend. Human qualities that Kelly explicitly claims not to possess. As if to prove the point, he responds with the formal announcement of Tregarthen’s impending execution.

The order is to be carried out within three days, enough time for Kelly to travel to headquarters - and return with a firing squad. But first he must interrogate the captured Tans. While Kelly is thus occupied, Molly manages to convince the love of her life to take her with him. Johnny only agrees to the plan on the promise that Michael will convince Kelly to rescind the execution. If Johnny and Molly can make their way to Belfast on the early morning goods train, and from there to England, all will be well. Michael knows how to distract the guards, and Molly can bribe the train driver to let Johnny jump aboard. Three loud whistles will give the all-clear. With hopes of future happiness rekindled, Molly and Johnny each rush off to their respective tasks, and Michael is left alone with three empty glasses that he cannot see – a detail that does not escape Kelly’s notice as he re-joins Michael to formally accept his plea for clemency. Which he says he will duly submit to "the general," but in his estimation the chances of success are slim. "For God's sake, don't build up hope," he tells Michael before agonizing – to himself – over how to soften the blow for Michael: by bringing the execution forward and keeping it secret, he is certain he can spare Michael the pain and the guilt of having to witness the event.

Act 3

In the pre-dawn hours of the following day, Michael and Johnny are wide awake and waiting for the sentries to change and the train to whistle. Thinking the house empty and their enemies far away, they pass the time in a dreamlike state of high anxiety, reciting heroic poems and melancholy songs in whispering voices, so as not to miss the stroke of six to mark the end of their nightmare and the beginning of a new life – only to see Kelly standing in the door, with orders for Johnny to be executed at dawn, 24 hours earlier than they were told originally. Michael's world is falling apart, he pleads with Kelly, he begs him to show mercy, but an almost equally distressed Kelly reminds him that "I have never promised you hope." Johnny declines the comfort of a priest or minister and is led away to meet his fate offstage while, also offstage, Molly will be waiting in vain for the love of her life to board a train that will never arrive.

Left on stage for their final confrontation are Michael and his Nemesis, both knowing full well that nothing they can do or say will change what Kelly might term the preordained outcome of their efforts. To Michael's accusation of "trickery" (by which he means Kelly's surprise return before the agreed time), Kelly offers no subterfuge, no defence, and no evasion. Instead, he says, Michael’s agony is self-inflicted: it was, in fact, his own stubborn insistence on hoping against hope that has now led to anguish and pain. The only way for Michael to end all suffering, Kelly explains, is to give up hope. Unless he manages to see past the private pain of the moment and becomes a distant observer, Michael will forever be "tortured by hope."

Here Kelly is borrowing from the Conte Cruel tradition made famous by Edgar Allan Poe but named after a collection of short stories by the French symbolist writer Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam. A useful definition of the genre is that it concerns "any story whose conclusion exploits the cruel aspects of the irony of fate." Not only does Kelly borrow the concept, and the title from Villiers' tale, The Torture of Hope, he even recounts the plot to underline his point:a hapless victim of the Inquisition escapes his prison cell only to stumble into the arms of the Chief Inquisitor. The lesson for Michael is that, like the victim, he keeps on hoping for release only to suffer defeat over and over again. There are no similarities, however, between himself and the sadistic Inquisitor, Kelly says: his mission is to ease Michael'ssuffering, not to prolong it.

We are given no reason to doubt Kelly’s sincerity, but neither can we reconcile the apparent contradiction between his declared intention and putting Michael’s best friend before a firing squad. If Kelly wants to end all suffering, as he says, surely, a good start would be to save Captain Tregarthen’s life? It is the argument that Michael himself is trying to make, by reminding Kelly of his god-like powers. Michael’s understanding of those powers differs fundamentally from Kelly’s own. Michael’s life-affirming principle of hope and Kelly’s seductive all-consuming fatalism are the two opposing philosophies that take centre stage in the final scene – while John Tregarthen dies a largely symbolic death offstage.

Johnny’s death is symbolic in that it is not the tragedy at the heart of the play. Michael O’Riordon is the conventional male protagonist whose existential crisis we are witnessing; Michael is unable to prevent the execution of his best friend; and to make that very point, his best friend must die. Michael’s blindness contributes to this failure in the course of the play but read as a metaphor it turns Michael into “one of us.” His blindness leaves him vulnerable to attack and it echoes our own sense of powerlessness in the face of an overwhelmingly hostile universe. The reverse, however, is also true: being blind, and being a poet, puts Michael in the illustrious company of the Blind Bard, an archetype of Western literature since at least the (mythical) time of Homer: the blind singer/seer whose “inner vision” surpasses that of sighted humanity. His Irish equivalent – and explicit model for Michael - is the (dwarf) Harper of Finn, whose iron-stringed instrument has the power to move its audience to tears. Michael O’Riordon is both vulnerable and endowed with the superpower of emotional insight – fundamentally human qualities that Kelly admires in Michael, and which he admits he does not possess.

Kelly is an abstract concept in human form; even while he is evidently the cause of human suffering, in his denial he appears to be channelling the sadistic Inquisitor. The apparent contradiction is of our own making, though: Kelly is Cruel Fate personified. He represents that which we like to imagine as the source of all our woes - the betrayals, the injustices, the disappointments which inevitably end in what we define as tragedy and what to the rest of the universe, that hostile universe, is of no consequence whatsoever. If we substitute “hostile” with “indifferent,” then Kelly becomes the antithesis to Michael’s humanity – his indifference is as inhuman as the infinite, indifferent universe. Conversely, Michael is not concerned with an infinite universe; his frame of reference is on a human scale, and very finite. Finite. When Kelly challenges Michael to take his place and adopt his abstract, God-like perspective on life, death, and the universe, Michael does reject the responsibility – but also the indifference required for the position. If the promise of a pain-free existence did not convince Michael to abandon hope, Kelly's failure to shame him into admitting defeat is a testament, at the very least, to human perseverance: we will forever be prolonging the agony to delay the inevitable. (1/4)

#Patrick McGoohan #Patrick Macnee #Katharine Blake #Douglas Campbell #played the four characters in #The Iron Harp #on Canadian TV in 1959 #the plan was to explain EVERYTHING in one brilliant post #well the good news is there will be four posts now wahoo #but I'm already posting out of order because I can't decide on the illustration to go with the historical background #as for the play itself #if you have made it this far and you still care #whether the characters are consistent with the general message the author is trying to convey #your powers of perseverance are truly heroic #the problem I think is that the story does not always align with the metaphor #which I still maintain is the human condition #we cannot ever beat death but we carry on regardless #is it just me or does that cryptic cry from #Free for All #obey me and be free #sound like something the evil Inquisitor or Sean Kelly would say #For Fleetstreetpauline #miss you always

[rwpohl]

#oedipus rex #tyrone guthrie #sophokles #1957 #douglas campbell #william shatner #obst & gemüse oder der kunde ist könig

[scenesandscreens]

The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew (1983)

Directed by Rick Moranis & Dave Thomas, Cinematography by Steven Poster

"We'll always have our memories. The Colonel's dead. Here we are still enjoying his chicken."

#scenesandscreens #Steven Poster #rick moranis #dave thomas #strange brew #The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie #Tom Harvey #Douglas Campbell #Len Doncheff #buddy the dog #Chris Benson #max von sydow #Lynne Griffin #mel blanc #Brian McConnachie #paul dooley #Angus MacInnes

[unabashedqueenfury]

Reign 2013-2017/02-21

Toby Finn Regbo as Francis Valois

O for a voice like thunder, and a tongue

To drown the throat of war! - When the senses

Are shaken, and the soul is driven to madness

Who can stand? When the souls of the oppressed

Fight in the troubled air that rages, who can stand!

When the whirlwind of fury comes from the

Throne of God, when the frowns of his countenance

Drive the nations together, who can stand?

When Sin claps his broad wings over the battle,

And sails rejoicing in the flood of Death;

When souls are torn to everlasting fire,

And fiends of Hell rejoice upon the stain.

O who can stand? O who hath caused this?

O who can answer at the throne of God?

The Kings and Nobles of the Land have done it!

Hear it not, Heaven, thy Ministers have done it!

(William Blake, Prologue, Intended for a Dramatic Piece of King Edward the Fourth, Poetical Sketches, 1783)

#francis de valois #toby regbo #season2 #02×21 #i am the king of france #my reign will not end without a fight #louis de condé #sean teale #mary stuart #adelaide kane #frary #mary×francis #face expression #william blake #british poetry #poems #lullaby #loreena mckennitt #douglas campbell #spotify

[windswept-fields]

Wes Anderson movies + text post part 3/11 (or until I give up)

Asteroid City edition

#wes anderson #asteroid city #jones hall #augie steenbeck #jason schwartzman #conrad earp #edward norton #schubert green #adrien brody #midge campbell #mercedes ford #scarlett johansson #june douglas #maya hawke #montana #rupert friend #woodrow steenbeck #jake ryan #jj kellogg #liev schreiber #Hank #matt dillon #shut up pretty boy

[fashiontimeless]

Anna Sui Spring 1993

#fashion #supermodel #1990s #1990s fashion #90s fashion #vintage fashion #90s supermodel #90s #1990s style #90s style #anna sui #susan holmes #naomi campbell #meghan douglas #runway fashion #runway #fashion show #runway show

[savelindsaylohan]

Prada Spring/Summer, 1993 Ready-to-Wear

#yasmeen ghauri #linda evangelista #naomi campbell #helena christensen #kristen mcmenamy #susan holmes #kate moss #meghan douglas #prada #uploaded

[destinyc1020]

Awww...their daughter is so pretty...

My gosh, Uma's son looks JUST like her! 😳

Yaaass......Helen Mirren. Get it! 👏🏾

Naomi just NEVER ages I see lol...

#2023 Cannes Film Festival #michael douglas #catherine zeta jones #uma thurman #helen mirren #naomi campbell #elle fanning #cannes

[practically-an-x-man]

Me realizing how many of my OCs have pets...

Madison has Bravo, a 150-pound wolfdog. She also used to have a golden retriever named Elrond. Canon to her main fic.

Robin has Yoda, a tuxedo-coated Cornish Rex. Canon to her main fic.

Indigo has Zero, a ferretlike creature with silver scales and a ruff of colorful feathers. Canon to her main fic.

AJ used to have a dog named Heathcliff and a cat named Church. Canon to her main fic

Katherine has four sun conures back at her childhood home - Tango, Waltz, Skip, and Jazz. Canon to her main fic.

Ophelia has Amadeus, a black sphynx cat. Decided separately from her main fic, but will be canon

Jasper has a golden retriever named Frankie, an Abyssinian cat named Columbia, and a dapple-furred dachshund named Ruff N' Tumble. Decided separately from their main fic, but will be canon.

Nikoletta has a black cat named Baron and a gray American shorthair named Barbershop Quartet (Barbie for short). Decided separately from her main fic, but will be canon.

#my ocs #madison douglas #bravo the wolfdog #robin cassidy #yoda the cat #ophelia octavius #amadeus the cat #oc indigo #aj campbell #oc katherine johnson #jasper wilson #nikoletta bordeaux

[chicinsilk]

Italian actress, Gina Lollobrigida arrives at London Airport, to attend the premiere of her latest film 'Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell' (directed by Melvin Frank), at the London Pavilion, February 5, 1969. Photo by Douglas Miller.

L'actrice italienne, Gina Lollobrigida arrive à l'aéroport de Londres, pour assister à la première de son dernier film "Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell" (réalisé par Melvin frank), au London Pavillon, le 5 février 1969. Photo par Douglas Miller.

#gina lollobrigida #italian actress #italian icon #london airport #buena sera mrs. campbell #melvin frank #london pavilion #february 1969 #style 60s #douglas miller

[adamwatchesmovies]

Antiviral (2012)

Writer/director Brandon Cronenberg follows in his father’s body-horror footsteps with Antiviral. Weird and unsettling, you won’t see anything like this one anywhere else.

In the near future, celebrity worship has taken a new form. Avid fans of people like Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon) want a part of her inside them, want to feel what their idols feel. Some eat cloned celebrity meat. Others get the viruses that make their favorite celebrities sick injected into their bloodstream. At the Lucas Clinic, Syd March (Caleb Landry Jones) sells pathogens to his clients and makes money on the side smuggling these exclusive commodities on the black market. To bypass his work's security measures, he incubates the viruses within himself. When his latest acquisition proves fatal to its host, he must find a cure before it's too late.

The very concept of Antiviral gives you the willies. What’s worse is that it doesn’t seem THAT far-fetched. We live in a world where you can very easily feel like you’re a part of a stranger’s life because you see everything they do. Going to a restaurant so you can eat the replicated flesh of someone you love - even though you’ve never met them - is extreme… but is it more invasive than looking at a leaked sex tape? How many degrees of unhealthiness separate getting a celebrity pathogen from taking a stranger's advice as gospel when it comes to products you should buy, apply on your skin or eat? The people of this world are eating human flesh and making themselves ill because they WANT TO.

Psychologically, the concept gives you the creeps but Antiviral doesn't stop there. Psychologically, it's sick. Physically, it's also sick. Admit it, you get a little squeamish when some medical professional shows you a needle but at least deep down you can feel comfort knowing that this small moment of unpleasantness is for the greater good. You relive that discomfort over and over while watching this film. You see how ill Syd becomes. You can imagine yourself in his shoes thanks to that one time your arm became inflamed after a flu shot. We've all been bedridden with a dreadful cough, thinking we were dying. He's actually dying.

Then there’s the actual plot. What’s worse than willingly giving yourself the same herpes variant some attractive lady contracted? getting some new disease you didn't realize was lethal. Now, this isn’t a pandemic film. We’re not scared that Syd will accidentally cause the end of humanity - this future has measures to prevent diseases from spreading to people who didn't pay. What’s chilling is that this disease might not be natural. Syd was never “meant” to contract this thing that’s in him. More and more, we begin to suspect this bug was manufactured. If it was, for what purpose? In addition to body horror, this is what I’d describe as a "terrify-inc." film; a story that shows how unscrupulous and dangerous big corporations can be when all they care about is money while the government regulations protect them rather than us.

The metaphors in Antiviral are not subtle and some of the characters might be thin but at what it wants to do above all, Antiviral excels. One look at Caleb Landry Jones in those clinically-white rooms and you’re filled with unease. Every shot of a needle penetrating the skin, of blood, mucus, saliva or slime fills you with a new sensation but getting an injection isn’t new… it’s just that something has changed. The ending, in particular, makes you feel a whole lot of “ick!” I mean that in a good way. (On Blu-ray, October 24, 2021)

#Antiviral #movies #films #movie reviews #film reviews #brandon cronenberg #caleb landry jones #sarah gadon #douglas smith #joe pingue #nicholas campbell #sheila mccarthy #wendy crewson #malcolm mcdowell #2012 movies #2012 films

[luckydiorxoxo]

Opening Ceremony Gala Dinner Arrivals - The 76th Annual Cannes Film Festival

#Cannes festival #Cannes dinner #brie larson #Paul Dano #naomi campbell #Mohammed Al turki #carys zeta #catherine zeta jones #fan bingbing #Michael Douglas #cindy bruna

[ukdamo]

Tobermory Bay

John Douglas Sutherland Campbell

In the vapour and haze on the ocean,   Where the skies and the waters meet, There's a form that drifts, phantom-like, onward   As it follows the grey clouds' feet.

O'er the sea come the winds and the billows,   And they howl to the rocks, and they cry, They will bring them a wreck on the morrow,   Ere the joy of the tempest die.

The shade looming dark in the distance   Is naught but a galleon proud; And the spray has long battered her turrets,   And loosened each yard and each shroud;

But not on the surf-beaten islands,   Nor yet upon Morven's land, Does she drive, for her rudder, unshattered,   Is firm in the steersman's hand.

No mist wreath, no cloud, was the shadow   That moved on the height of the seas; Like a castle how steep are her bulwarks,   Her spars like a forest of trees!

She is safe from the gales for a season,   In the shelter and calm of the sound; A harbour named after the Virgin,   The "Well of Our Lady" she found.

She may rest in that haven, hill-girdled,   Near the shade of the woods on the shore, Where the hush of the forest is deepened   By the waterfall's song evermore.

How grandly her masts rise to heaven,   How glitters the blest Mary's form, High placed o'er the stern, and upholding   The Prince of our Peace through the storm!

Now waters their orisons murmur   As they fold her bright robes to their breast, Where they mirror the galleried windows,   And the flag and the face of the Blest.

Again with that sign and the banner   Of the gold and the crimson of Spain, Shall this ship front the foes of the Virgin,   And the English be chased from the Main.

Yes, again on the heretic Saxon   Her cannon shall thunder in scorn, Till in triumph through insolent England   Shall the Faith and King Philip be borne.

But the rows of dark mouths that have spoken   Defiance with sulphurous breath, Glisten black, stretching forth in the silence,   And in vain ask the presence of death.

Yes, repose and surcease of all hazard,   A truce to all war for a time! The cliffs and the pines only echo   The laugh of a sunnier clime.

And gaily the dark-visaged seamen   Quaff, cursing the mists and the rain; Gravely drinking from goblets of silver   Sits their chief, Don Fereija of Spain.

But the souls of the men to whose nostrils   Had risen the smoke of the fight, Soon tired of the shore and of slumber,   Soon yearned for the red battle light.

And courtesy fled from the weary,   From idleness arrogance grew; And all they received as a favour   They haughtily claimed as their due.

Then answered the Islesmen in anger,   "The food you demand as your own, By our people's free favour long given   Shall be bought by your gold now alone."

"Now, down with the savage's envoy,   Set sail and away on our track! Carthagena's sweet girls shall deride him,   And jeer the red locks on his back."

Below, in the dark narrow spaces,   The Islesman gropes, down in the hold; Unnoticed, and one among many;   What harm can his hatred unfold?

Swarm the men to the rigging, and swiftly   Shine clouds of white canvas, and clank The links of the anchor's great cable,   Creaks, trampled on deck, every plank:

Swings round the huge bowsprit, and slowly   With motion majestic and free, The galleon, vast, gilded, and mighty,   Passes on, passes forth, to the sea.

Her colours still paint all the ripples,   Repeated her banners all seem, Her sails, and her gold, and her cannon   Float on like a gorgeous dream.

Came a flash, and a roar, and a smoke-cloud   Rushed up, and spread far o'er the sky; Sank a wreck, black, and rugged, and blasted,   While the sound on the winds swept by.

And the mountains sent back the dull thunder   As though to all time they would tell The vengeance that pealed to the Heavens   From the Harbour of "Mary's Well."

#poetry #sinking #spanish galleon #John Douglas Sutherland Campbell #wreck #tobermory #Isle of Mull #armada

[marleybee]

African American Power Rangers

#aisha campbell #Karan Ashely #shelby watkins #camille hyde #tanya sloan #nakia Burrise #zack taylor #walter emanuel jones #tj johnson #selwyn Ward #jack landors #brandon jay mclaren #Ethan James #Kevin duhaney #Noah carter #John Mark Loudermilk #Kevin Douglas #Najee De-Tiege #Devon Daniels #Rorrie D. Travis #power rangers #power rangers universe #mighty morphin power rangers #power rangers spd #power rangers dino charge #power rangers dino thunder #power rangers megaforce #power rangers samurai #power rangers beast morphers #power rangers zeo

[fashiontimeless]

Supermodels backstage, 1990s

#fashion #supermodel #1990s #1990s fashion #90s fashion #90s #vintage fashion #90s supermodel #1990s style #90s style #meghan douglas #naomi campbell #ines rivero #patricia velasquez

[rainingmusic]

The Nails - Home of the Brave

#youtube #the nails #the nails band #home of the brave #mood swing #mood swing album #marc campbell #steve o'rourke #george kaufman #douglas guthrie #david kaufman #new wave #post-punk #punk rock #music #music is love #music is life #music is religion #raining music #80s #80s music