The Twilight Zone - Changing of the Guard**
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Often overshadowed by the renowned "Night of the Meek", the wonderful "Changing of the Guard" was also set during Christmastime, with Donald Pleasence (in one of his best roles, in my opinion) as a poetry professor told by the headmaster of his college that he must retire, the contract with the school not renewed for another semester after 51 years. Essentially told he was antiquated and young blood would need to replace him, Professor Ellis Fowler doesn't respond well emotionally to such news. Learning of this at Christmastime doesn't exactly help matters. A gun in his desk drawer at home on campus, pulled from its sheath, could very well be the answer to Fowler's agony...unless certain specters from the past encourage him to realize that his entire career, his life up to this point, has worth and value, leaving an impression and imprint on the students in previous years. This Twilight Zone episode does feature Serling's penchant for a protagonist's looking back at his life, reflecting on perhaps what he done right and/or wrong. Pleasence, in aged makeup, seemed to really understand this character despite not being nearly as old as Fowler. The gravity of Fowler's self-pity is quite pronounced as that huge moment many retirees face eventually emerges...going on about how he would probably teach until he was 100, recalling the students with fondness, particularly certain memories of significance to him, only to be stopped in his tracks by the headmaster (Liam Sullivan, the TZ episode, "The Silence") with his "bad news". That feeling of rejection, "dismissal", as if dispatched and discarded, conjuring that phrase, "put out to pasture" wears on Pleasence's face, tears stringing down, the end sinking in. It is a performance rich in brevity and pathos. I think it is most definitely relatable, too. Perhaps that is what Pleasence did: he read the script, felt the character's pain, and was able to draw from what many retiring geriatrics might suffer if their chosen profession, which they were passionate about, comes to an end (...especially if against their will). Philippa Bevans, as Fowler's sympathetic and concerned housekeeper, must listen as he denounces his entire career as meaningless. It gets worse before better as Fowler approaches the statue of a great educator, wallowing further in his misery. Then his "former" classroom "rings", calling Fowler to it, where he is "greeted" by deceased students from previous years (going all the way back to the 20s) who remind him of what his course (the poems and his teachings of them) meant to them, shaping them into brave young men of integrity, courage, valor, and dignity. Whether or not they are "ghosts" or just his mind's way of snapping him out of his depression and funk (I prefer the romanticized spectral visitation instead, but each viewer must decide for themselves), this works for Fowler as he realizes that despite retirement thrust on him unexpectedly his life isn't over and what he did previously for 51 years mattered. The carolers at the end-students of his that clearly appreciated him-and the housekeeper assuring the headmaster things were okay show that Fowler was respected and admired for his work, allowing him to accept a future instead of suicide. I like the message of hope for someone of advanced age realizing it isn't over just because his career met its finality. Should perhaps be a Christmas season stalwart, but the story and central performance have remained beacons of excellence every since the very day the episode premiered.
Often overshadowed by the renowned "Night of the Meek", the wonderful "Changing of the Guard" was also set during Christmastime, with Donald Pleasence (in one of his best roles, in my opinion) as a poetry professor told by the headmaster of his college that he must retire, the contract with the school not renewed for another semester after 51 years. Essentially told he was antiquated and young blood would need to replace him, Professor Ellis Fowler doesn't respond well emotionally to such news. Learning of this at Christmastime doesn't exactly help matters. A gun in his desk drawer at home on campus, pulled from its sheath, could very well be the answer to Fowler's agony...unless certain specters from the past encourage him to realize that his entire career, his life up to this point, has worth and value, leaving an impression and imprint on the students in previous years. This Twilight Zone episode does feature Serling's penchant for a protagonist's looking back at his life, reflecting on perhaps what he done right and/or wrong. Pleasence, in aged makeup, seemed to really understand this character despite not being nearly as old as Fowler. The gravity of Fowler's self-pity is quite pronounced as that huge moment many retirees face eventually emerges...going on about how he would probably teach until he was 100, recalling the students with fondness, particularly certain memories of significance to him, only to be stopped in his tracks by the headmaster (Liam Sullivan, the TZ episode, "The Silence") with his "bad news". That feeling of rejection, "dismissal", as if dispatched and discarded, conjuring that phrase, "put out to pasture" wears on Pleasence's face, tears stringing down, the end sinking in. It is a performance rich in brevity and pathos. I think it is most definitely relatable, too. Perhaps that is what Pleasence did: he read the script, felt the character's pain, and was able to draw from what many retiring geriatrics might suffer if their chosen profession, which they were passionate about, comes to an end (...especially if against their will). Philippa Bevans, as Fowler's sympathetic and concerned housekeeper, must listen as he denounces his entire career as meaningless. It gets worse before better as Fowler approaches the statue of a great educator, wallowing further in his misery. Then his "former" classroom "rings", calling Fowler to it, where he is "greeted" by deceased students from previous years (going all the way back to the 20s) who remind him of what his course (the poems and his teachings of them) meant to them, shaping them into brave young men of integrity, courage, valor, and dignity. Whether or not they are "ghosts" or just his mind's way of snapping him out of his depression and funk (I prefer the romanticized spectral visitation instead, but each viewer must decide for themselves), this works for Fowler as he realizes that despite retirement thrust on him unexpectedly his life isn't over and what he did previously for 51 years mattered. The carolers at the end-students of his that clearly appreciated him-and the housekeeper assuring the headmaster things were okay show that Fowler was respected and admired for his work, allowing him to accept a future instead of suicide. I like the message of hope for someone of advanced age realizing it isn't over just because his career met its finality. Should perhaps be a Christmas season stalwart, but the story and central performance have remained beacons of excellence every since the very day the episode premiered.
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