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ladyshadowdrakevia http://ift.tt/2zx40Cj:
esteefee:
hedgehog-goulash7:
robertdowneyjrfanfacts:
His advantage, my injury. My advantage, his rage.
Sherlock Holmes in this sequence – on the balcony at Reichenbach – has dropped all pretense of joking, shedding his Trickster persona and becoming his true self, the Detective, all business. He’s filled with horror at what Moriarty has planned, and he KNOWS he will probably have to die to stop Moriarty from murdering John and Mary Watson and, oh, yes, stop the terrible war, or at least delay it. It’s all seriousness now, and Holmes attains a sort of magisterial splendor, centering himself, calculating the odds. Both Downey and Harris play this sequence to perfection – ah, “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” is such an underrated movie! It is made with such deep love for the Sherlockian canon, and it deserves far more study and attention.
(Although, to be fair, “Game of Shadows” and its predecessor are the most popular Sherlock Holmes movies in history, having made more than a billion dollars worldwide – which is part of the reason they tend to be underrated. Popular “blockbuster” movies tend to get short shrift from critics and academe, and that’s both unfair and a missed opportunity for assessment and study.)
What kills me about this scene is Holmes had flat-out warned Moriarty he was willing to go this far when they first talked chess in Moriarity’s study. Moriarty tried to warn Holmes off, saying “Rest assured, if you attempt to bring destruction down upon me, I shall do the same to you.” And Holmes tells him straight up, “If I were assured of the former eventuality, I would cheerfully accept the latter.”
Moriarty’s fatal mistake was in not remembering or maybe believing how dead fucking serious Holmes was about that. In the chess game above the falls, the only way to win was to fully commit your king.
(Your picture was not posted)
esteefee:
hedgehog-goulash7:
robertdowneyjrfanfacts:
His advantage, my injury. My advantage, his rage.
Sherlock Holmes in this sequence – on the balcony at Reichenbach – has dropped all pretense of joking, shedding his Trickster persona and becoming his true self, the Detective, all business. He’s filled with horror at what Moriarty has planned, and he KNOWS he will probably have to die to stop Moriarty from murdering John and Mary Watson and, oh, yes, stop the terrible war, or at least delay it. It’s all seriousness now, and Holmes attains a sort of magisterial splendor, centering himself, calculating the odds. Both Downey and Harris play this sequence to perfection – ah, “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” is such an underrated movie! It is made with such deep love for the Sherlockian canon, and it deserves far more study and attention.
(Although, to be fair, “Game of Shadows” and its predecessor are the most popular Sherlock Holmes movies in history, having made more than a billion dollars worldwide – which is part of the reason they tend to be underrated. Popular “blockbuster” movies tend to get short shrift from critics and academe, and that’s both unfair and a missed opportunity for assessment and study.)
What kills me about this scene is Holmes had flat-out warned Moriarty he was willing to go this far when they first talked chess in Moriarity’s study. Moriarty tried to warn Holmes off, saying “Rest assured, if you attempt to bring destruction down upon me, I shall do the same to you.” And Holmes tells him straight up, “If I were assured of the former eventuality, I would cheerfully accept the latter.”
Moriarty’s fatal mistake was in not remembering or maybe believing how dead fucking serious Holmes was about that. In the chess game above the falls, the only way to win was to fully commit your king.
(Your picture was not posted)
