Thursday, January 17, 2013

Shakespeare in The Twilight Zone: “The Passersby”

“The Passersby.” By Rod Serling. Perf. James Gregory, Joanne Linville, Warren Kemmerling, and Austin Green. Dir. Elliot Silverstein. The Twilight Zone. Season 3, episode 4. CBS. 6 October 1961. DVD. Image Entertainment, 2005.
I haven't yet seen the new movie Lincoln, but, true to Lincoln's character, the film contains (as I gather) a fair bit of Shakespeare.

I told you that to tell you this: When Abe Lincoln shows up in The Twilight Zone, it's with Shakespeare on his lips.

This episode, which is on the dramatic side, features a road—a road that the dead of the Civil War walk as they leave this earth. I hope I'm not giving away a spoiler by saying that Lincoln has to walk this road as well.

As he does so, a line from Julius Caesar seems fitting to him:
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come. (II.ii.34-37)
Perhaps because they're too familiar, Lincoln leaves out the first two lines of Caesar's words—the more famous part of the speech:
Cowards die many times before their deaths,
The valiant never taste of death but once. (II.ii.32-33)
The result is that the speech seems more sensitive—less prone to accusations of bragging—and that, too, seems in keeping with Lincoln's character.

Links: The Episode at Wikipedia.

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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 17, 2013 at 6:02 AM

    Great timing with this post (Lincoln killing it at Awards season). I put the quote in my new book as something a character says. I was too afraid to use the second half and went in for 'Coward die...' and then I was so overcome with guilt for leaving out the second part I ended up putting the whole bit in. I guess some readers will think I quoted too much but maybe once in a while someone will dig it. I respect Rod Serling big time for having the balls to just use part 2 standalone

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  2. e meritus praufJanuary 17, 2013 at 3:28 PM

    While you're waiting to see Spielberg's "Lincoln,", you might want to read Guelzo's "Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates that Defined America." The drama of the debates are the best preparation for the drama of the movie. Great tandem pieces.

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  3. e meritus praufJanuary 21, 2013 at 5:31 AM

    Now I can't wait to see how Caesar delivers these lines in Gregory Doran's African setting of the play.

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