Gift for Isagel by Destina (Spy Game)

[fv_poster]

Title of vid: Resolution Road
Recipient: Isagel
Vidder: Destina
Fandom: Spy Game (2001)
Music: Resolution Road by Karine Polwart
Summary: Who looks like you do?
Content notes: I prefer not to give content notes (viewer proceeds at their own risk: could be anything)
Signed length: 03:25
Signed URL:

See the vid here.

Lyrics
Resolution road

Who’s your friend and who’s your foe?

How do you tell the one from the other?

Who’s on the inside, who’s undercover?

Who looks like you do?

Resolution road

Round and round and round we go

Who makes the circle and who’s in the middle?

Who talks in reasons and who talks in riddles?

Who looks like you do?



CHORUS

Don’t speak without thinking

Don’t sleep with a stranger when you’re drinking

And don’t jump in a ship when it’s sinking



Resolution road

Learn to speak your heart in code

Try to embody the laws of encryption

And try to defy all the laws of description

Who looks like you do?



Resolution road

Buy a ticket for the show

Who talks in riddles, who talks in reasons?

What kind of endings do you believe in?

Who looks like you do?



CHORUS X 2



Resolution road

Who’s your friend and who’s your foe?

How do you tell the one from the other?

Who’s on the inside, who’s undercover?

Who’ll be your Lazarus? Who’ll be your lover?

Who looks like you do?

Who looks like you do?

Who looks like you do?



Words and Music: Karine Polwart (Bay Songs Ltd)

Comments

[isagel]

MY HEART!!! "What kind of endings do you believe in"!!! All the shipper feels, I am having them! Really, given how I feel about Nathan and Tom, I hope you can imagine the kind of overwhelming OTP moment this vid is giving me.

And it's such a smart vid, with such sharp cutting and such insightful clip choices for the lyrics. The first "Don't jump in a ship when it's sinking" made my heart seize up, and the sequence with the repeated "when it's sinking" at 2:15 is breathtaking. And "learn to speak your heart in code" (that whole verse) really, is just perfect.

This made makes me so very happy, festidder! Thank you! <333

[destina]

I am so, so, so thrilled that you liked it. I mean, you wanted a Nathan/Tom vid! When I read your request, I was over the moon; we are completely on the same page with this movie. :D Thank you for the lovely comment.

[violace]

That is a super intense vid even as someone unfamiliar with the movie. So good.

[destina]

Thank you!

[xenakis]

Oh that was brilliant! I remember proto-slasher!me shipping them so hard at the time! Awesome song choice, awesome vid!

[destina]

Thank you very much!

[swizzlespoon]

Oh this is excellent! I love this movie so much and it's so great to see a vid for it. Excellent song choice that really works with the film and for the characters.

Yay! Go you!

[swizzlespoon]

Returning to note that this is one of my absolute favorite vids of this year of Festivids (I've not quite seen all of them yet, but have seen most of them) and not merely because I love the source and thought I might never see a vid for it.

I hadn't thought this was a source that could be vidded, really, for the same reasons that it's among my favorite movies about spies and spycraft: because so much of the action involves meetings and faxes and rather mundane things to look at. Not the flashy stuff of most spy movies.

The song is just absolutely perfect for this movie and these characters. I love so many moments, some that others have noted in comments far better than I could. I love that even though it's a vid about two men, you also show us a lot of the other people in the movie as well and tell the story so well in such a short span of time.

Seriously great work here. Yay! Happy flailing from a person who rarely flails!

[destina]

Thank you so much for watching, and commenting, AND coming back to leave this amazing follow-up feedback. I had the same misgivings about vidding the movie, because so much of the "action" is in conversations. But the more I listened to the song, the more I was sure it could be made to work. (And I was lucky to have excellent betas who helped.) I am so thrilled that this caused some happy flailing! :D

[cofax7]

::flappy hands::

I have been desperate for someone to vid THIS SONG for about a decade!

And I'm so glad it's this good. This is marvelous, and it makes me want to watch the movie, which I never did.

So well edited, such a great use of clips and lyrics, all the uncertain allegiances, and the great emphasis on Pitt & Redford's resemblance. Great job.

[destina]

I know you've been waiting for a decade, because you gave me the song that long ago, and I promised you I'd vid it! You know, I can't help it that it took me a decade, what do you want from me. *g* Thank you for the lovely comments. (You should totally see the movie, and then you will know how completely perfect the song is for it.)

[cofax7]

HAH!

You know, I know I gave you the song because it was on one of the Geekfest cds, but I have no recollection of your promise. But that's OK, because it's awesome.

And yes, I will definitely watch the movie.

Brilliant vid, you!

[sakana17]

Wow, this is beautifully made! I love the editing. The song choice is perfect. This is gorgeous. I love it!

[destina]

:D Thank you very much! klia's stellar influence can be seen in the editing. *g*

[anoel]

This is so great and well done even for someone whose never seen the movie :)

[destina]

Thank you! :)

[valoise]

This is so intense, very good!

[destina]

Thank you!

[echan]

ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT. I haven't seen Spy Game in ages, I must go rewatch it and then rewatch this vid. This vid had so many twists and turns and who's on who's side and just how many sides are there and do you know who you can trust and how far would you go for them and JUST AWESOME and so much of what I loved from the film.

[destina]

eeee, thank you very much! I'm especially glad it does capture the twists and turns, because so much of that happens in conversation and not in the action. What makes it an excellent movie makes it a difficult movie to vid. *g*

[astolat]

This made me want to immediately rewatch the movie, then come back and rewatch the vid! It is fantastic even with just my very vague memory of events.

[destina]

*happy flail* Thank you! :D

[fairestcat]

This is just great. Excellent song choice.

[destina]

Thank you!

[aris_tgd]

Ahhhh, this is great, hitting so many of my shipping and terrible-people-working-together-brilliantly buttons. Great job!

[destina]

Thank you very much!

[chaila]

This is great! I have never seen this movie, but your editing made this very engaging, and what an excellent song choice!

[destina]

Thank you! (I highly recommend the movie; it is wonderful.)

[rhoboat]

Wow, the tension in this vid is palpable throughout. I really enjoyed this.

[destina]

Thank you! :D

[dorinda]

FANTASTIC! Oh gads I love this, and I look forward to reveals so that I may download it and keep it close to my heart.

It's so hard to pick favorite bits! There's the first "don't jump in a ship when it's sinking", where Tom does the painful thing Nathan taught him, 'throw out the bottle'--the very thing that Nathan, in the end, can't do to Tom. There are the different satellite photos on "What kind of ending do you believe in?", a heart-clutching choice. There's the powerful use of the head-shot/Nathan gasping awake, on that crescendo conclusion of the repeated chorus, punching us with the thing Nathan has been trained/trained others to face, but that he absolutely cannot face.

And so much more! (The echoed helicopters, both Vietnam and Dinner Out... The intercuts of Nathan clutching the arms of his chair as the vid tensely builds to the shot/waking...) But possibly edging out the rest for me is the "learn to speak your heart in code" verse. I mean, the scene with the flask, the original Dinner Out, that is so perfect. And "Try to embody the laws of encryption/And try to defy all the laws of description", with those intimate, intense, warm scenes between them, great use of shot-reverse-shots, with the way Nathan smiles at Tom and Tom gazes at Nathan. Those lines are who Nathan is, and the "try to" is how he teaches Tom, who is trying--but then you end it with that bitter rooftop fight, the barrier they keep running up against. And I love how you then let it spin out and away from the roof on the lyricless notes before the next verse, giving us that silver-grey stillness before we go back into those shadowy/dark-brown paneled rooms full of spies.

Sorry to go on, it's just that I LOVE IT. Thank you for making it!

[destina]

Dorindaaaaaa! I am especially thrilled that you liked this, because you are one of the few Spy Game fans I know of AND you write gorgeous fic for it, too. Thank you so, so much for this incredible feedback. I AM OVERWHELMED WITH JOY. :D

[dorinda]

OMG IT IS YOU. *dances you around* Thank you for a big ol' keeper of a vid! It will be a comfort-squee for me, forever after. \o/

[deirdre_c]

Love the intensity of the pacing and the great Redford/Pitt chemistry and all the movement to match how the movie keeps you off-balance. Wow, terrific!

[destina]

Thank you thank you! :D

[kuwdora]

this is an incredibly nuanced vid and bravo on the song choice. I'm unfamiliar with the source but there's enough going on here that I was able to follow along with the lyrics. What kind of endings do you believe in? indeed!! this is gorgeous and soooo well constructed. I love the shot of the lie detector needles a lot at 0:56 with the change in music. just beautiful, this is fucking amazing.

[destina]

eeeeeeeeeeeee not gonna lie, I may have shrieked out loud when I saw this comment AND THEN your rec. You made my night. Seriously. Thank you so, so, so much. :D

[franzeska]

I like the parallelism here.

[destina]

Thank you.