One thing I find encouraging is that I've had more than ten times the usual amount of traffic on my blog since I posted the piece about "The Fugitive" on Friday night. Some of that traffic is obviously the HTF crowd, but there's also evidence from my blog statistics that people are noticing the music replacement themselves, or at least reading about it on Amazon, and searching the web to find out more. In short, it may not be only the hardcore DVD-buying crowd who cares.
And speaking of Amazon, it seems to be pretty well filibustered on this issue, but I noticed that so far the Netflix page for this release has only one customer review. It is a negative one, focusing on the music changes ... but it looks a little lonely there all by itself.
Regarding ESCAPE TO BLACK, that train was smoking along, man. Even if Gerard orders it stopped, that will take a minimum of at least 5 seconds for the order to be given and the cable pulled. It would then take several seconds for the train to slow enough for the cops to get off. They would be A LONG WAY from Kimble with no clue which way he's headed. And it's dark by then. Sure, Gerard could've tried it, but Kimble has escaped much tougher scrapes than that without the head start.
My take--Gerard knows Kimble won that round.
Switching gears, it would be really nice if more than just hardcore fans raised a stink. Really, really nice.
Last edited by Carabimero : 06-16-2008 at 02:52 AM.
Regarding ESCAPE TO BLACK, that train was smoking along, man. Even if Gerard orders it stopped, that will take a minimum of at least 5 seconds for the order to be given and the cable pulled. It would then take several seconds for the train to slow enough for the cops to get off. They would be A LONG WAY from Kimble with no clue which way he's headed. Sure, Gerard could've tried it, but Kimble has escaped much tougher scrapes than that.
Gerard knows Kimble won that round.
I agree trains take a very long time to stop and Kimball could have still got away.
Regarding ESCAPE TO BLACK, that train was smoking along, man. Even if Gerard orders it stopped, that will take a minimum of at least 5 seconds for the order to be given and the cable pulled.
Which brings up another "gaffe", IMO, that exists in that scene -- the train was "smoking" along pretty good, indeed...which should have meant that Kimble should have suffered some serious injuries by jumping from a train that is "smoking". A broken leg at least. Instead, he suffers nary a scratch. Just not believable at all.
Still, as mentioned, a great episode nonetheless.
And Gerard, knowing his "I'll Never Stop" attitude should certainly have attempted to stop the train and make an effort to nab Kimble on the spot. Knowing Gerard's tenacity, it's surprising that he, himself, didn't jump off the train and run after the good doctor.
Yes, it figures Kimble got banged up. And he well might have. We don't see what happens, so we don't know.
Gerard even comments that Kimble has always had "some intangible" working for him. Maybe that's part of it.
But I agree...as much as I want to explain it away, the good doctor would have at least sustained some broken bones, you would think.
So thinking that way, it would make more sense for Gerard to stop, because even if it took time to find Kimble, chances are the fall would have killed or immonilized him.
You're right.
(But it's still my favorite episode!)
Last edited by Carabimero : 06-16-2008 at 03:10 AM.
I agree trains take a very long time to stop and Kimball [sic] could have still got away.
Sure, but does that mean the cops would have just thrown up their hands and said "Well, that's it boys; he jumped; we can't do a darn thing now"?
Knowing Philip Gerard's obsession, it's silly to think he'd just let the train continue on and let Kimble get away.
Plus, knowing that Kimble did, in fact, jump from a fast-moving train, Gerard and his police cohorts should have probably been of the following mindset as well:
"Gee, Kimble just jumped from a train moving 65-70 MPH. He's very likely got a broken leg (or two) now...which means he's probably not going to be doing his Carl Lewis imitation as he attempts to run away from this train...which means even if it takes a minute or two to backtrack to where Kimble jumped, we've got a pretty good chance at catching the probably-now-wounded doctor from Stafford."
Yeah, but it's been a while, as evidenced by the dialogue in the phone call. He could have recovered.
But not very long. Kimble, being the eternal nice guy that he is, wanted to make sure Betty Garrett heard from him in very short order....because, to quote Kimble, "I knew you'd be worried".
I think I'll approach Act IV of "Escape" this way:
I'll pretend that Gerard, et al, really did stop the train and went back and searched for Kimble. But this activity was off screen and was simply not shown in the episode (due to time constraints, let's say).
