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Monday, November 19, 2012

The Mentalist "Red Sails in the Sunset" Review

The Mentalist in a nutshell: It's all an ILLUSION (read: VISUAL LIES); Patrick Jane's life, like Lisbun's butt, is a dream.

 Dr. Linus Wagner: Everything you told me, Mr. Jane, is total fiction, isn't it?  See B.S.

Lorelei floats Jane's boat in "Red Sails in the Sunset," but his ROY ROY life is just a dream. From the Opening Shot there is a illusory quality to "Red Sails" as Patrick Jane runs in slow motion to a theater playing "North by North West,"  "Double Indemnity,"  "Mis(s)ion to Moscow." and "Cas(a)blanca." While watching an illusion  - Cary Grant is shot with blanks by Eve Marie Saint in "North by North West," Jane hatches his dream with Stiles to free Lorelei from prison.

 


 Speaking of Cary Grant, catch Jane's impression of Ol' Cross Eyes buying Foster Grant sunglasses.   (Hint:  It's a CHARADE)

 

The Jane-Lorelei road trip and the beach scene (Jane waking up to a wet dream of  Lorelei's "Twin Peaks" in the surf) in particular have an "over-exposed" illusory quality, but it is Jane's encounter with the mesmerized kid (Simon's son) at the lunch counter reading the "Twin Peaks" menu - (Fire, Walk with Me) that had a distinct "David Lynch" feel  that it's all a dream.  It's not a surprise as  Daniel Cerone also wrote "Ruby Slippers" and "Devil's Cherry," both playful homages to dream states of "Oz" and "Alice."

 


Misdirection: The Hitchcock film ""North by Northwest" title was taken from Hamlet's quote "North by Northwest I am but Mad north by northwest;  when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw,"  which refers to Hamlet's shifty nature of reality.  Grant plays a man with many names who hides in plain sight under some famous noses. Interesting that  "Mis(s)ion to Moscow" also appears on the marquee as it is considered an illusion - a false representation of a RED serial killer, Joe Stalin.  It has been called "unquestionably the most blatant piece of pro-Stalinist propaganda ever offered by the American mass media."  While the RED title on the marquee was juxtaposed with WHITE HOUSE "Cas(a)blanca,"  the home of serial killer -presidense George W. Bush - both Warner Brothers (also The Mentalist studio) pictures were considered anti-Nazi in nature.  The title "Double Indemnity" may refer to an accidental death that is at the root of Jane's illusion.  Interesting too Jane concocted the car crash ruse to let him off Scott-Free in the Lorelei escape plan, else Lisbon had to read him his "Miranda" rights.  Speaking of, did Red John kill Miranda by leaving her in chains or was that just an illusion?  In this episode so many things are not what they appear to be, such as the Park Ranger concluding Lorelei had the drop on him when it was Jane in plain sight who was DIRECTING the shots.

A-S Altered States  the truth is Red John is Patrick Jane's imaginary evil twin, his "perfect symmetry" alter-ego (Jane/John),  Professor Moriarty character in a TOMMY WESTPHALL imaginary world like "St. Elsewhere's" snow globe and "Life on Mars" that is the dream state of  Jane.  NB. The fake Jane character in "Red Moon" where a corpse was found in a burned car was named Ellis Mars (El - He is Mars). 

Ellis Mars: The mind is a powerful weapon. It can create reality.

 Who's a Lyin'? Jane or Mar-tinsS

Jane: Perhaps we can see each other again.
Lorelei: That’s not up to me.
Jane: Oh, you have no say in it?
Lorelei: None at all. It’s very "Westphall."
Jane: I don’t follow you.
Lorelei: I do what Red John tells me to do.

 


Scrambled Eggs:   Jane appears to be a Sherlock Homes super-sleuth character but in reality is a mental patient with a cracked eggshell who suffers from paranoid delusions due to feelings of extreme guilt in the deaths of his wife and child who were burned as he was (CBI = intensive burn care?)  in a horrific car accident involving a driver named Tanner when he failed to stop at a Blinking Red Light - hence the RJ symbol - while he was driving intoxicated and spends his days watching TV shows, which generate his ideas for the delusional episodes.  Note: Jane's eggshell blue car - a vintage 1972 Citroen DS 20 that Warner Bros., producer of "The Mentalist" for CBS, had in its inventory. It was used in the 2008 movie "Speed Racer." For "The Mentalist," the car was shipped from Germany and painted eggshell blue (it was originally red).

Burning clues:Jane burns his Red John files with a bottle of booze.  "The Mentalist" is obsessed with fire, as in half the episodes it plays a significant plot point.  Out of the Frye-ing pan into the... As Kristina Frye discovered, when you get too close to Red John, you get burned.  "Tiger, Tiger burning bright, they were "Au-burned.In the "Red Mile" episode Jane arrives at a crime scene outside Auburn, California.  Shouts from Alabama football fans of "Roll Tide" first appeared during the Alabama-Auburn Tiger IRON BOWL game in 1907. Curiously, a corpse was found in a burned car in "Ruby Slippers," in which Jane discovers the identity of Fifi Nix, like Jane's Phoenix, has risen from the ashes of his past life.  In "Red Dawn" Jane is given a desk next to a fire extinguisher that is there, then it's gone, then it's there again.   Fake Red John read all about it - catch the fire-y headline on the front page of the newspaper Tim Carter was reading before Jane shot him.  Red John appeared to Jane in the burn mask.  Jane:  It's not my fire.

 
                         Red Face to Face
The Mentalist logo.svg

Mentalist in a Box

  

 Drink Scotch Whiskey all night long and die behind the wheel


The Man with Two Names -- Red John's alias is Roy Tagliaferro (read: "cut iron").   The ROY CUT IRON  anagrams are "court irony" and "you r citron."  How ironic that Jane, the court jester who arrives at the crime scene in his Citroen,  a master reader of how others' emotions control them and our need to leave the past behind,  was a prisoner of his own (IRON-ic) chains to the past.  Until Jane frees himself from the chains to his past  and RED JOHN,  The Mentalist is on the mental list, a PRISONER of his own device.





ROY, ROY, your boat,
Gently down the stream
Lorelei, Lore a lie
Jane's life like Lisbun's butt is a dream.


Read John "Seven" Come 11:  my mental list of  7 scripts so you can dream along with me
 
"DRAGON STAR 
Logline:  Code-cracking prodigy tracks a serial killer who returns after seven years to terrorize his hometown. Tagline: You can go Holmes again.The second greatest story ever told Download DRAGON_STAR_-_Final[1]

 MIDNIGHT RIDE
Logline: Garage band cruises a small Pennsylvania town on a  stormy night that changes the course of rock music.Tagline: “She loves you and you and you, yeah, yeah, yeah.”

"DIVE"
Logline: An American naval officer is forced to pilot a Colombian cartel submarine loaded with cocaine into San Diego harbor. But there's something else on board.   Tagline:  Sub-text: it's hidden between the lines.

"COLUMBIA ROADS" 
Logline:  US embassy investigator in Colombia discovers prophecy that threatens civil war in the US. 
Tagline: All Roads lead to Columbia.  Download -COLUMBIA ROADS-


 FACESPACE 
Logline:  CIA Deep Throat recruits a conspiracy writer to stop a  mind control plan using social network websites.    Tagline: Who is like FACESPACE and who can defeat it?    Download FACESPACE 7-21

"SPYDER AND THE FLY"
Logline: A black op team gets caught in its web of deceit.   Tagline:  "Come into my parlor said the Spyder to the Fly, but who was the Spyder and Who was the Fly?"

 "THE 11 O'CLOCK NEWS"  (2021)
Logline: Two bloggers, Richie Scalia and John Scott, get in way-over-their-head trouble.  Tagline:  Hindsight is 2021


1 comment:

  1. It seems like there is an anagram to the movie sign clues, there are clearly letters missing and it's very unusual why some letters are in different colors, there's not a simple juxtaposition.

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