McShane didn't do it, but Genius.com did the next best thing by roping in David Milch, the writer/creator of Deadwood (and thus McShane's old boss), to read the speech from the books instead.
The speech is widely regarded as one of the highlights of George R.R. Martin's writing and his "unromanticising" of medieval warfare.
The genius of Deadwood (and The Wire, and Shakespeare) was the poetry of its dialog and Martin often achieves this - nowhere more than in this epic monologue. For the GoT showrunners to hire Ian McShane and entitle the episode "The Broken Man" and then NOT use the poetic monologue is the most passive aggressive attack on art in the history of television.
ReplyDeleteThis is quite removed from Ivanhoe. A remarkable bit.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately even that speech was not enough to make AFFC into a worthwhile read - if I had known I would have just given up on the books to wait for the TV series to come out.....quite the Meereenese Knot!
ReplyDeleteJohn: Try reading these essays: https://meereeneseblot.wordpress.com/essays
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