It's odd that most every other Route 66 episode that's similar to this one: lots of moralizing, a neurotic female or two, characters who must "find themselves", etc, etc...are a real bummer for me. But this one-- largely due to the dramatic, engaging direction of Allen Miner, kept me very involved.
Imaginative concept of combining Mozart's Don Giovanni (1787) and the "real world" story of Lee Philips--who was surprisingly effective playing a tough, nihilistic thug. The scenes in the bar are engrossing-- dark, densely packed with people, country music playing non-stop; you can almost smell the place wafting out of your TV screen.
Jo van Fleet is very good, yet her performance always seems on the verge of an emotional collapse; less would have been more in this case, since the actress certainly had the skill to do anything the director asked.
As a result, the emotional extremes of the two major characters, fascinating and unpredictable as they are, often strain our sense of credulity. Ultimately, Lee and Jo seem to be symbols of the author's own artsy pretensions, which makes for some pretty frustrating viewing.
What I appreciate was the fact that the much-overused "Trapped-in-a-Cave-in" scenario worked very well in this show; the big cave-in was surprisingly realistic, and--overall-- there wasn't an excess amount of time spent on the ordeal, since there was too much else going on in the show: the opera with Tod backstage, Lee Philip's son (with the charcoal-stained black eye), the relationship of Lee to Linc, AND...the excellent performance of Marion Ross as the abandoned wife; you real feel her pain.
About Tod's final lecture to the son: his moral equivalence and ambivalence towards the kid's father, IMHO, weakens the impact of the show's closing moments. In fact, Don Giovanni as portrayed in the opera is a totally amoral reprobate and rapist, a lying, manipulative, devious (but very attractive) creep who uses the rank of his nobility to seduce practically every woman he encounters (as his servant Leporello recounts in the outrageous "Catalogue" aria). And in the final scene, Giovanni remains defiant to the bitter end, and thus is rewarded by a one-way ticket to Hell. Yet Tod Stiles, in an intriguing twist on the concept of morality, leaves us scratching our heads wondering what in the world he's teaching the kid about right vs. wrong.
The final denouement and closing scene were unexpected and powerful (except that no opera house could perform Don Giovanni 7 nights a week, unless it's entirely double cast; the vocal rigors are too demanding).
A flawed, but pretty unique show. LR
Imaginative concept of combining Mozart's Don Giovanni (1787) and the "real world" story of Lee Philips--who was surprisingly effective playing a tough, nihilistic thug. The scenes in the bar are engrossing-- dark, densely packed with people, country music playing non-stop; you can almost smell the place wafting out of your TV screen.
Jo van Fleet is very good, yet her performance always seems on the verge of an emotional collapse; less would have been more in this case, since the actress certainly had the skill to do anything the director asked.
As a result, the emotional extremes of the two major characters, fascinating and unpredictable as they are, often strain our sense of credulity. Ultimately, Lee and Jo seem to be symbols of the author's own artsy pretensions, which makes for some pretty frustrating viewing.
What I appreciate was the fact that the much-overused "Trapped-in-a-Cave-in" scenario worked very well in this show; the big cave-in was surprisingly realistic, and--overall-- there wasn't an excess amount of time spent on the ordeal, since there was too much else going on in the show: the opera with Tod backstage, Lee Philip's son (with the charcoal-stained black eye), the relationship of Lee to Linc, AND...the excellent performance of Marion Ross as the abandoned wife; you real feel her pain.
About Tod's final lecture to the son: his moral equivalence and ambivalence towards the kid's father, IMHO, weakens the impact of the show's closing moments. In fact, Don Giovanni as portrayed in the opera is a totally amoral reprobate and rapist, a lying, manipulative, devious (but very attractive) creep who uses the rank of his nobility to seduce practically every woman he encounters (as his servant Leporello recounts in the outrageous "Catalogue" aria). And in the final scene, Giovanni remains defiant to the bitter end, and thus is rewarded by a one-way ticket to Hell. Yet Tod Stiles, in an intriguing twist on the concept of morality, leaves us scratching our heads wondering what in the world he's teaching the kid about right vs. wrong.
The final denouement and closing scene were unexpected and powerful (except that no opera house could perform Don Giovanni 7 nights a week, unless it's entirely double cast; the vocal rigors are too demanding).
A flawed, but pretty unique show. LR