Hugh DiMauro
May 19th, 2006, 06:26 AM
Comrades:
I started watching back "On Demand" episodes of HBO's DEADWOOD and I must say, for a serial western, holy smokes! What jumps out at me, first and foremost, is the dialog and its cadence. I've never heard such lilting (for lack of a better adjective) dialog in ANY production. It almost sounds like a ballet, how perfectly the actors deliver the written lines. That screenwriter's (I think NYPD Blue's David Milch) work is definitely something to study very closely. Is that how the spoken word had been uttered so long ago during the gold rush? Ian McShane as Swearingen just blows me away. I must now add a third actor to the men who make my jaw drop whilst they perform: Charles Durning (I saw him on Broadway and walked out of the theatre in a daze. The man makes his performance appear effortless and natural), James Gandolfini (his portrayal of Tony Soprano amazes me. His timing and facial expressions are perfect) and now Ian McShane in Deadwood.
If you ever get the chance to see Deadwood either "On Demand" or its first season on DVD, please, do so. It brings the western genre to a whole new level.
I started watching back "On Demand" episodes of HBO's DEADWOOD and I must say, for a serial western, holy smokes! What jumps out at me, first and foremost, is the dialog and its cadence. I've never heard such lilting (for lack of a better adjective) dialog in ANY production. It almost sounds like a ballet, how perfectly the actors deliver the written lines. That screenwriter's (I think NYPD Blue's David Milch) work is definitely something to study very closely. Is that how the spoken word had been uttered so long ago during the gold rush? Ian McShane as Swearingen just blows me away. I must now add a third actor to the men who make my jaw drop whilst they perform: Charles Durning (I saw him on Broadway and walked out of the theatre in a daze. The man makes his performance appear effortless and natural), James Gandolfini (his portrayal of Tony Soprano amazes me. His timing and facial expressions are perfect) and now Ian McShane in Deadwood.
If you ever get the chance to see Deadwood either "On Demand" or its first season on DVD, please, do so. It brings the western genre to a whole new level.