The Twilight Zone excelled in telling tales of terror, exploring the darkest aspects of human existence in myriad ways. To celebrate the Halloween season, we’re counting down the 31 most frightening and unsettling moments from The Twilight Zone, one for each day of October. We’ll be revisiting some of the episodes we’ve already covered and looking ahead to episodes from the final three seasons of the series. -JP
#20 - The Chancellor is Consumed, from “The Obsolete Man,” season two, episode 65
Written
by Rod Serling, directed by Elliot Silverstein, starring Burgess Meredith and
Fritz Weaver
Rod Serling’s “The Obsolete Man” is a
uniquely frightening take on dystopian futurism in the style of Geroge Orwell’s
1984 and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. It is one of the
bleakest episodes of the series and presents a nightmare scenario in which
personal freedom is a thing of the past, government purges are common, and
televised executions are society’s chief form of entertainment. What Serling
and director Elliot Silverstein add to the familiar formula is an idiosyncratic
style which contrasts huge, minimalist sets with cramped, cluttered spaces to
juxtapose the indifferent conformity of the government with the unique
individualization of the person. The episode plays out like a spy thriller in
which the individual manages to get the best of the government agent using the
government’s own crude tools of discipline. As compelling as this surface story
is, the most disturbing moment in the episode is when the Chancellor himself is
deemed obsolete after an off-hand remark about God in a moment of panic. Instead
of the cold, formalized session which judged Romney Wordsworth obsolete, it
appears as though the Chancellor is physically consumed by a chanting
congregation at something resembling a black mass. It is a haunting moment seen
through twisting, skewed camera angles so unlike what previously unfolded. Burgess
Meredith and Fritz Weaver, both repeat performers on the series, turn in
powerful performances and the episode remains a triumph of design and direction.
Trivia:
-Rod Serling appears on-screen at the
end of this episode to deliver his closing monologue. This is the second and
final time he does so. The only other time in which Serling appeared at the end
of an episode is the first time he appeared on-screen at all, for the final
episode of season one, “A World of His Own.”
Read our full coverage of “The Obsolete
Man” here.
This is an excellent choice of scene and a great episode. I love Burgess Meredith and also like Fritz Weaver. Did George T. Clemens photograph this? I wonder how much of the shot choices can be attributed to him as opposed to Silverstein. Clemens really made the series something apart from any other show.
ReplyDeleteClemens did shoot this episode and I'm certain it was a collaborative effort with his director as Clemens was highly adaptable over the show's run. His efforts for Douglas Heyes show this adaptable trait well.
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