Reign: Cliff Notes

[cactuswatcher]

The story of religious fanaticism and its side effects on this week's Reign was bloody, but no more outlandish than usual. But the show did find one of my pet peeves, the convenient cliff. You know how it goes. The writers of the movie decide to make the fist fight between the hero and the villain or the car chase more exciting. So out of nowhere there is suddenly a cliff for someone to fall off or almost fall off. The worst offenders are like the first Indiana Jones movie when somebody is trying to push somebody else out of or off a moving car and suddenly without warning there is a cliff beside the road for them to fall off. Not just a steep slope to tumble down painfully but a cliff to plummet straight downward from. For general reference, it is abominable story telling to not at least let the audience know ahead of time there is a cliff in a near distance, even if the characters don't. You'd have a heck of a time passing such a thing off in print. Handsome Fred punched black-hearted Jocko again and again. But Jocko suddenly leg whipped Fred to the edge of the 100 foot cliff, which somehow I neglected to mention during this epic three-page fight. So why do we put up with it in movies and TV? The 1960s detective show Mannix added an additional treat. Not only would a car go off the cliff beside the road in episode after episode, but every one of the cars would blow in mid air long before hitting bottom.

Questions for you, if you've read this far. One: How close is the nearest dangerous cliff to where you live? Walking distance? A short drive (less than 10 minutes)? A medium drive (less than an hour)? A long drive (more than an hour)?

Question two: How likely is it that you would not be aware there was a significant change in elevation ahead, at your local cliff? You might not be aware of the cliff but you'd know the land/water ahead was a lot lower.

Question three: Do you enjoy driving on the edge of cliffs? How many times have you been on a horse or in your car with a sheer cliff immediately beside the road?

I'll give my answers in the comments.

Comments

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

1) Actually there was a dangerous cliff a very short distance from my house. The road beside my old house ran down into the bottoms through what could only be described as a short ravine. It must have been an old wagon road down the hill over soft ground that badly eroded into a deep gully over a short period of time. When the road was widen and improved, the sides of the gully were cut away and left vertical. Tree roots on both sides kept the soft earth from sliding down on the road immediately. Not hundreds of feet tall, but tall enough you'd break bones if you slipped off and might die if you were running through the woods and blundered off the edge onto the road. (Incidentally, I don't know of anyone who ever fell off). Here in Phoenix there are cliffs all around town, though all are more than a ten minute drive from my house. It takes a hike to get above these cliffs, but hikers do get seriously hurt or die falling from them every year.

2) In a narrow canyon situation like at my old house there isn't a lot of warning. On mountain drives like they had on Mannix, you'd know.

3) I love driving in the mountains, even with steep slopes beside the road, and even though I'm afraid of heights. Roads along cliff sides? I hate them with a fiery passion. I've only been on two roads with cliffs immediately beside road and not beyond sturdy barriers or significant shoulders. Both scared me pretty bad. You want to try something similar? Take the mule ride down into the Grand Canyon. People have, on rare occasions, been seriously hurt falling from mules on those trips, but I don't know that anyone has died. There are enough people walking along the edge and hiking down into the Grand Canyon that fatal falls aren't uncommon.

[atpo-onm.livejournal.com]

The area surrounding the city where I live is more known for its "rolling hills and farmland" than cliffs, but about a 30 minute drive from my home brings one to the Susquehanna River, and there are quite a few cliffs at points thereabout. You'd need to hike to the majority of them.

Typically, at least once or twice a year, someone does fall off them and is injured or killed, but they aren't in a car.

It's quite a beautiful area, and I hiked around there regularly when I was a teen. Much of the land is protected, so it's still fairly scenic.

This pic was taken waaayyyyyy back in the mid-70's. I was in my rowboat out in the middle of the river near where the Pequea Creek empties into it. You can see the fairly steep hills behind the bridge.

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/atpo_onm/3310469/4333/4333_original.jpg

( ~ sighs~ Still one of my favorite pics, even after all the years and pics that have happened since. But, of course, you can't go home again, can you? It's true. )