“The point is not to avoid the war. The point is to win it.”
Alright settle in kids, I’m about to go film production geek (as always) and rave about how much I LOVE EYE LIGHT. So I’m a huge classic movie fan and one of my favorite parts of old movies is the way they lit their subjects. A common thing on single shots (especially with leading stars) was to highlight the faces and eyes with soft light which gave the stars a twinkle in their eyes and an angelic glow.
This is the scene that made me fall in love with Michael Sheen. Hanging on a close up of him showcased the immense talent and emotion Michael brought to Aziraphale. He conveyed so many micro emotions and wow be still my heart. But it was the the LIGHT REFLECTED in his eyes and his glow against the darker background that absolutely sold it to me. Like that setup portrayed him as a literal angel to me and I just gotta say I LOVE EYE LIGHT.
Gabz breaks down the cinematography of Good Omens (part 1/?):
Alright, so I won’t be going in order while I do this, I’m just going to start with the way Heaven is shot.
I’ve seen posts on here and Twitter criticizing the direction and cinematography of the Heaven scenes, so I’m stepping in to back Douglas Mackinnon (the Director) and Gavin Finney (the DP) on their choices.
People think it feels weird, out of place, and uncomfortable. Well guess what? That’s the point.
First, those extreme low angle shots are reminiscent of what Orson Welles did with Citizen Kane, so immediate praise is required. But what they represent is a position of power, an elevated position, which makes sense because this is the land of the angels and they literally live and work above everything.
The shot size and lens choice work together to reflect the inner emotional state of Aziraphale. While Heaven is an open and bright space, Aziraphale is under constant anxiety and uncomfort while he is there. It’s like he cannot breathe, it’s claustrophobic.
Gavin Finney used a wide angle lens to distort the features of the subject and make the viewer feel uncomfortable as the faces fill almost the entire screen. He also used close ups to emphasize that anxiety and binding Aziraphale feels talking to his boss. We feel uncomfortable because Aziraphale is uncomfortable. The faces filling the frame give us anxiety because Aziraphale has anxiety and feels constricted in a literal infinitely vast space.
If the interactions in Heaven felt awkward or strange on screen to you, then Douglas and Gavin did their job well. It’s brilliant technique on their part and shows a mastery of using the camera to reflect the emotion and thoughts of a character. Seriously, cheers to Douglas and Gavin! I got made respect for them.
Folks let me talk about Crowley and sunglasses, because I have a lot of emotions about when he wears them and when he doesn’t, and Hiding versus Being Seen.
We’re introduced to the concept of Crowley wearing glasses even before we’re introduced to Crowley, by Hastur: “If you ask me he’s been up here too long. Gone native. Enjoying himself too much. Wearing sunglasses even when he doesn’t need them.”
Honestly Crowley’s whole introduction is a fantastic; we learn so much about his character in a tiny amount of time. The fact that he’s late, the Queen playing as the Bentley approaches, the “Hi, guys” in response to Hastur and Ligur’s “Hail Satan”. I like this intro much better than the one originally scripted with the rats at the phone company, but I digress.
Crowley wears sunglasses when he doesn’t need them. Specifically, he still wears them around the demons, and when he’s in hell.
You know where Crowley doesn’t wear glasses? At home.
We never once see him wearing glasses in his flat, except for when he knows Hastur and Ligur are coming. That’s an emotional kick to the gut for me. Here’s one of the only places Crowley’s comfortable enough to be sans glasses, and when he knows it’s going to be invaded he prepares not just physically with the holy water, but by putting up that emotional barrier in a place where he wasn’t supposed to need it.
An argument could be made that Crowley actually never needs glasses. We’re shown that it’s well within the angels’ and demons’ powers to pass unnoticed by humans. Crowley and Aziraphale waltz out of the manor in the middle of a police raid, and going unnoticed by the police takes so little effort that they can keep up a conversation while they stroll through. Even an unimaginative demon like Hastur apparently doesn’t have trouble with the humans losing it over his demonic eyes. The humans in the scene at Megiddo are acting like “this guy is a little weird” and not “holy shit his entire eyeballs are black jelly”
That means that Crowley’s glasses are a choice, just like Aziraphale’s softness. Sure, he could arrange matters so that nobody ever noticed his eyes, but he doesn’t want to. Crowley wants acceptance, and he wants to belong, and he’s never, ever had that. He didn’t fit in before the Fall in Heaven, he doesn’t fit in with the demons in Hell. With the glasses, and with the Bentley and his plants and with the barely-bad-enough-to-be-evil nuisance temptations, he’s choosing Earth. This is where he wants to fit in, perhaps not with the humans, but amongst them.
Even after Crowley is at his absolute lowest, when he thinks Aziraphale’s dead and he’s on his way to drink until the world ends, he takes the time to put a new pair on when the old ones are damaged. He needs that emotional crutch right now, even with everything about to turn into a pile of puddling goo he’s not ready for the world to see his eyes.
Which is why I swore out loud when Hastur forciblytakes them off.
It’s about the worst thing that Hastur could have done. Rather than leading with a physical threat, his first act is to strip away Crowley’s emotional defences. It’s a great writing choice because god it made me hate Hastur, even more than all the physical violence we see him do.
It’s also the moment that Crowley really truly gets his shit together, and focuses all of his considerable imagination on getting to Tadfield and Aziraphale to help save the world. He’s wielding the terrifyingly unimaginable power of someone who’s hit rock bottom and realised it literally could not get any worse than this. He doesn’t put another pair of glasses on after discorporating Hastur, and he spends the majority of the airbase sequence without them.
He puts them back on again, I think, at the moment that he really lets himself hope. When he thinks ‘shit, there may be a real chance that we get through this to a future that I don’t want to lose’.
The vulnerability is back, and he needs Adam to trust him. In Crowley’s mind being accepted by a human means he needs to have his eyes hidden. Someone give the demon a hug, please.
Interestingly, there’s only one time in the whole series that we see Crowley willingly choose to take his glasses off around another person. Only one person he’ll take down that barrier for, and even then he’s drunk before he does it.
Dear God/Satan/Someone that makes my heart ache. Crowley’s chosen Earth, but he’s also chosen Aziraphale. He’s been looking for somewhere to belong his entire existence, and it’s with the angel that he finally feels it.
When the dust settles and the world is saved and they finally have space to be themselves unguarded, I like to imagine Crowley takes off the glasses when it’s just the two of them; the idea of being known doesn’t scare him quite so much anymore.
also OH MY GOD THAT LAST GIF I NEVER NOTICED THE WINK BEFORE?????????
Aziraphale in the paintball scene, though. I mean, seriously, y’all
Look
at
this
absolute
nerd
Especially that last gif! This is an angel that is literally thousands of years old, he helped create the motherfuckin’ universe, and he is p o u t i n g at Crowley over some paint on his jacket that he could EASILY remove himself.
But wait! There’s more!
Not only has Aziraphale already shown Crowley the stain, but Crowley has already circled him to assess the damage for himself.
And yet, after saying, “Well, I would always know the stain was there,” with that little pout, he turns to show Crowley the stain again.
And then! AND THEN!!
He gives Crowley this look.
Do you see the little raise of his eyebrows??? LOOK AGAIN
He could very easily get rid of this stain himself, but he is doing E V E R Y T H I N G in his power to get Crowley to do it for him.
“I could do this myself,” he’s saying, “but I’d rather you do it. You can do it better than me, can’t you? Please? Please, won’t you???”
The funniest part about this, fam, is that we all know Crowley needs very little prompting to actually indulge Aziraphale’s whims. He’s incredibly indulgent, anyways, we see ample evidence of that in Hard Times.
But this…I think (?) this is the first time that we see Aziraphale actively seeking out and trying to manipulate his way into getting one of those acts of service that Crowley so does like to give to him.
Like, sure, back during the Shakespeare scene, Aziraphale gives Crowley that very hopeful, “oh, WILL YOU?” look when Shakespeare mentions needing a miracle for Hamlet, but that is so different from this.
This is Aziraphale KNOWING that Crowley indulges and using that knowledge for his personal gain.
AND CROWLEY GIVES IT TO HIM. HE JUST. DOES.
That is the face of a spoiled angel that has gotten exactly what he wanted–a certain demon’s love and attention.
And that look Crowley gives him is just as devastating to me as Aziraphale’s sunshine smile over getting what he wanted.
That is a look of UTTER INDULGENCE.
He absolutely knows he’s been played but is happy to let it happen, because there is nothing quite as satisfying as indulging Aziraphale.
That is a look that says, “You’re so obvious, angel, and it’s adorable.”
He’s made his angel happy, what the fuck does he care?
More than 20,000 Christians have signed a petition calling for the cancellation of Good Omens, the television series adapted from Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s 1990 fantasy novel – unfortunately addressing their petition to Netflix when the series is made by Amazon Prime.
The six-part series was released last month, starring David Tennant as the demon Crowley and Michael Sheen as the angel Aziraphale, who collaborate to prevent the coming of the antichrist and an imminent apocalypse. Pratchett’s last request to Gaiman before he died was that he adapt the novel they wrote together; Gaiman wrote the screenplay andworked as showrunner on the BBC/Amazon co-production, which the Radio Times called “a devilishly funny love letter to the book”.
But Christians marshalled by the Return to Order campaign, an offshoot of the US Foundation for a Christian Civilisation, disagree. More than 20,000 supporters have signed a petition in which they say that Good Omens is “another step to make satanism appear normal, light and acceptable”, and “mocks God’s wisdom”. God, they complain, is “voiced by a woman” – Frances McDormand – the antichrist is a “normal kid” and, most importantly, “this type of video makes light of Truth, Error, Good and Evil, and destroys the barriers of horror that society still has for the devil”. They are calling on Netflix to cancel the show.
Gaiman responded to the petition on Twitter, writing: “I love that they are going to write to Netflix to try and get #GoodOmens cancelled. Says it all really. This is so beautiful … Promise me you won’t tell them?”
The publisher and science fiction critic Cheryl Morgan tweeted: “Miraculously God has already done it. Don’t tell them She put it on Amazon instead.”
Return to Order is based on the writings of the author John Horvat II. It “calls upon Americans to put principles into actions by working toward what is called an organic Christian society”. Another of its petitions in April called on Walmart to “stop selling Satanic products” following a 2018 protest against a “blasphemous ice cream chain called Sweet Jesus”.
You know who’s responsible for making them think it’s Netflix, right? Yeah? 😁🤣🤣
I JUST SNORTED RICE KRISPIES UP MY FUKGING NOSE THIS IS THE FUNNIEST THING I’VE SEEN ALL WEEK
Tony loses the Tesseract, he falls in front of Loki’s feet and what does he do? He disappears and creates a new timeline, our beloved god of mischief🗡️
