Highlander vid: God's Gonna Cut You Down

[sholio]

... um, I made a thing? Many thanks to gnine for the vid beta! Let me know if you have any trouble viewing/downloading and I'll see what I can do.

Title: God's Gonna Cut You Down
Artist: Johnny Cash
Fandom: Highlander
Summary: Methos & Cassandra episode/character vid for "Comes a Horseman" and "Revelations 6:8". (Massive spoilers for both episodes, obviously.)
Content Warning: Contains (non-graphic) scenes of sexual assault

Right-click and download MP4 (32 Mb)

Streaming: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rjL2X0PyE0

ETA: Since I'm cross-posting this to vidding comms, a note for new people coming in - I'm watching the series for the first time, so please no spoilers for late season five/season six in comments? Thank you!

Comments

[juniperphoenix]

Ooh, I like this! I particularly like that the identities of the various people named in the song — the gambler, backbiter, etc. — seem to shift throughout the vid; I think that fits well with the moral and interpersonal complexities of these episodes.

[sholio]

Thank you so much! And, yeah, that's exactly what I was trying to do with it -- it's an incredibly complex episode, where punishment and blame are not at all simple, and I wanted to do justice to that in this vid.

[keerawa]

Agreed, the intentional shifting of those identities was a great choice, given the canon.

[ellensmithee]

This is SO excellent - and really weird because I was JUST telling a friend about an old Horsemen RPG I'd been in literally in the same moment as you posted it.

[sholio]

Thank you so much! :) And, hee! Serendipity!

[amalthia]

I LOVED your vid!

[sholio]

Thank you very much! :)

[mackiedockie]

Very interesting juxtapositions, and the song is just right.

[sholio]

Thank you so much! Isn't it a perfect song for that part of the series? It came up on iTunes right after I'd watched these episodes, and I had no choice but to vid it. *g*

[giglet]

Oh, I liked this very much.

[sholio]

Thank you! :)

[scrollgirl]

Okay, I planned to save this until I finished my satedan_grabass fic, but I couldn't resist! Soooo good. Seriously, it's like you vidded exactly the twisted, tangled relationship between Methos and Cassandra, and between them and the other Horsemen. I LOVE that you slotted Cassandra in with the Horsemen as one of the "sinners" of the song--the midnight rider, running and running. I also love that Kronos, Methos, Duncan (mostly implied), and Cassandra all take turns being GOD. (And I love that you end it on Cassandra being God. *g*)

Great clip choices, especially the "Prophecy" ones--I agree with the comment on LJ about you choosing fresh clips. I like that you kept them moving and on the beat. Also, I'd never heard this song before, but wow, does it ever work.

I don't know if you watched Batman or Batman Beyond but one of this year's festivids used a Johnny Cash cover and it was wonderful. (My rec post.) I mention it because your vid and that one have a similar, dark and bitter quality.

[sholio]

Thank you so much for the wonderful feedback! One thing I really wanted to do with this vid was not make it simple, because I loved the wonderful, twisted complexity of the episode. And particularly, I didn't want to downplay Methos's past crimes or the legitimacy of Cassandra's POV. So I was trying to balance that in the vid ... And yeah, isn't it a perfect song for these episodes? I had already been noodling around with the idea of making an HL vid already, but that song came up on iTunes immediately after I'd watched the episodes and that was it, I couldn't think about anything else 'til I'd vidded it. *g*

And thank you for the link to the vid - it's not a fandom of mine, but I'll check it out! I don't know if it's possible to vid Johnny Cash songs in a way that isn't dark and bitter, unless you're going for total crack ...

[facetofcathy]

I really enjoyed this a lot. I really appreciated the way you respected Cassandra, and the other characters too. They all make choices and fill different roles in this episode. You made me remember why I actually liked the show as well as the fandom.

[sholio]

Thank you so much! I think one of my big goals in making this vid was to be sympathetic and respectful of Cassandra's point of view at least as much as Methos's.

[lannamichaels]

This is *amazing*.

And, oooh, you're watching for the first time? *cheers for a new Highlander fan* Were you spoiled for Comes a Horseman/Rev 6:8 before you started?

[sholio]

Thank you very much! Yep, it's all new to me. :) And no, I wasn't spoiled. I had picked up the vague idea that there was something big in Methos's past that we weren't told at first, but I had no idea what it was. (Heh, my best guess was that he had something to do with the origins of Immortality itself. Which, well, no.)

[blue_druid]

This is brilliantly done. Gave me chills.

[sholio]

Thank you very much!

[keerawa]

Oh, that's fucking brilliant. Perfect song choice. It might take thousands of years, but Methos's sins WILL catch up with him. There's this sense of inevtiability. I especially like the way you cut with the handclaps in the first 30 seconds, and the inter-cutting of Methos's hand sliding up Cassandra's thigh righ at the end.

[sholio]

Thank you very much! Yes, that sense of dark inevitability was exactly what I was going for - he can move on, and he can change, but all his crimes are still there in his past. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[calime]

Watching this for the n-th time ... it's a nicely circular ouroboros thing, isn't it - your past will always catch up with you and, in a way, you're the god, your own judge and jury and executioner...with immortality, it might take a longer time, but be even more sure of coming.
In a way, it has some of the weight and taste of the old Scandinavian wyrd in it, the inevitable destiny where one has to play one's part, once one is in the game, and there is no getting out - the domino tiles are all falling...
And also the second layer - ther eis no pure 'right and wrong', the past will catch up with you, but nothing you do can erase it, it has already shaped what is and will be -in a way, I'm sure Methos will judge himself not only for his actions in the past, but also in the present. With our contemporary morality, it is easy to put a heavier weight on the scales of having to atone for the past of the Horsemen and Cassandra and thinking maybe that choices should come easier - but I cannot keep from thinking about the 'times were different' - I'd wager a thousand-year-long brotherhood would have carried a lot of weight in, lets say, 'positive' sense once upon a time. No matter which way one goes, one is trapped like a fox in a trap, and only way out means gnawing off something that has meaning. Moments like this, it might actually be pretty clear how living for a looong time might be a damn curse...

[sholio]

Thank you again! :) Yep, that's pretty much what I was going for - that the things you've done have already happens and you have to bear the consequences of them; that even with the best of intentions you can't escape your past. And yet, it's not simple because Methos really is not that person anymore, and the life he's built for himself now is real, too. I loved the ambiguity and moral nuance of the episode, and I wanted to get that in the vid, as well.

[rhi]

Man. Nicely vicious and I love the shifting of who's which roles in the song, because yeah, really... all of them have tangled pasts. Thanks for this.

[sholio]

Thank you very much! Yes, that's precisely what I wanted to get across -- that it's not just a good guy/bad guy thing on anyone's part. It's complicated.

[keerawa]

Back for a re-watch. So powerful. I loved the sense that each of them was playing their role in this drama, this Greek tragedy, all of their choices and flaws and sins come home to rest.

[sholio]

Thank you so much! :) This is still one of my favorite vids that I've done; thank you for taking the time to comment on it. :) (Getting feedback years after posting is the best thing. :D)