Word: agamemnon
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...SCENE: a majestic, wide expanse of desert in the ime of Agamemnon. Nothing but lazy dunes and azure sky for miles. The camera slowly pans, and in the background we hear, 'chhht-zzzz.chhht-zzzzz." The familiar rumblings of a Polaroid SX-70. Hardly what one would expect...
...Briton (not so much played as walked through by unknown Craig Warnock), whose parents ive in subservience to hundreds of whirring, useless kitchen apparati and sit transfixed as horrific gameshows prance across the T.V. Kevin retreats to his room, amidst toy soldiers, cardboard castles, and plastic spaceships, reading about Agamemnon's methods of brutality. Not simply another middle-aged prepubescent a la Justin Henry and Gary Coleman, he is a real kid, untainted and imaginative. Warnock's lack of acting ability adds to Kevin's believability...
...seems chosen for comical rather than didactic purpose. The first era represents Napoleon (Ian Holm) as a silly drunk, obsessed with height and puppets instead of the conquest of Italy. Holm is awkwardly funny in a sort of ludicrous, obvious way, not even bothering to sustain a French accent. Agamemnon (Sean Connery, looking at once--and for once--agacious, fatherly, and mischievous), is concerned more with magic tricks than his empire. Such is the toying with history and apparent lack of morality of these middle scenes...
...temporarily dispose of reality to enjoy a fairy tale any more. Yet he returns to the present, and his cynical morality hits home. Kevin "wakes up" like Dorothy at the end and sees Sean Connery as a fireman (like her scarecrow). But he has uncontrovertible proof that Connery was Agamemnon; and his parents are just as oblivious as ever. Thus, he must conclude the opposite from Dorothy: He could not have been dreaming, and there are most assuredly places far superior to home...
Preceded by fanfare, Agamemnon's chariot is drawn to a halt before the door of his palace. He is the happiest of men, or so he thinks. The chorus of crones, clad in ominous black, knows better: Clytemnestra has taken a lover, Aegis thus (Peter Woodward), who now rules the land as a tyrant. He is intimately linked to the origin of the curse on the House of Atreus. All too soon the cries of horror sound as if from some echo chamber in hell. The fates are inexorable: the bodies of Agamemnon and Cassandra are eventually hurled onto...