Did you ever get news that both enthralled and worried you all at the same time? Like remember when you were a kid and you heard you were going to Disney World but first you would have to drop off your sick puppy at the vet for a little nap? That's the feeling my gut got when series creator Shawn Ryan said Fox might make a Shield movie if demand called for it.
The question actually sparked an interesting and light-hearted war of friendly curses between the cast and Sons of Anarchy star Ron Perlman who was also on the dais to grub for Emmy nods. Walter Walton Goggins, the actor who brilliantly played the daft and overly cocky Shane Vendrell, uttered "That is bull#*$&!" since his character killed his family and then shot himself in the final episode just as the Barn closed in on him. That's not a direct quote, by the way. He may have used different punctuation marks.
It does bring up an interesting point. If the noise for a Shield movie reaches Spinal Tap levels, exactly how would they continue the story? Shane is dead and the new script would have to refer fairly heavily to him since he had such a huge impact on Mackey's own story. Would they bring Shane back in a flashback a la Sonny Corleone in The Godfather II? Would he appear to Mackey in some kind of dream to help guide him away from the sad path he has carved for himself and his family? Would Shane return to Earth as Mackey's guardian angel where he would show Vic what the world would have been like had he never been born?
I'm a big fan of The Shield and particulary of the final episode. It's one of the better and tighter closures to a long-time dramatic television series that still leaves just enough a mystery to let you carve your own future for Mackey and company. It even served as a good personality litmus test for the viewers who had followed Mackey and the Strike team up to their sad endings as they weighed Vic's options and tried to decide for him what he would do when he leaves the office with his trusty hand cannon. A movie would ruin that.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-05-2009 @ 4:44PM
Midnight13 said...
No on the movie. I've stated my reasons on an earlier post but I will restate them here. First going widescreen would ruin the "Cops" hand held following the team as they make a bust feel that the series always had. There's a reason why "The Shield" never aired in widescreen. The look of the show works well for television, not for a widescreen movie theatre. If they changed the look and used steady camaras and the like it would change the whole look that "The Shield" had.
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6-05-2009 @ 9:43PM
Adam said...
Dude, Cops is shot in HD now (which is widescreen), and it has been for a few years. Null and void my friend, null and void. Also, films like 28 Weeks Later and Children of Men use grainy effects on their film like The Shield utilized for that gritty look, and handheld style film making is almost common these days.
6-05-2009 @ 6:12PM
ral said...
dammit! season 7 was the only one i hadn't seen yet and i read the damn spoiler. ugh.
no, i don't blame you Danny Gallagher, I blame myself.
okay, maybe 1% you. but that's still 99% me.
dammit!
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6-05-2009 @ 6:33PM
Preach said...
Danny, it's Walton Goggins, not Walter...
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6-08-2009 @ 1:02PM
Chris said...
I trust Shawn Ryan. I think a prequel could totally work (pre-Terry Crowley shooting). I'm surprised there's been no talk of this!
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6-05-2009 @ 7:17PM
punksrus said...
This is almost as bad an idea as the Wheldon-less Buffy movie. The final episode of The Shield was so great! Whether you loved Vic or hated him or both, thinking of him tied to that cubicle having lost everything is how it should be and how it should stay
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6-07-2009 @ 10:32AM
eric f. said...
Exactly! The story is finished.
A prequel would be ok, but Mackey ain't getting any younger...
6-05-2009 @ 7:59PM
Diego M said...
yes, his contract was only for three years.
three years later after his contract with ICE is up and he is free what then? after his family? private protection business?
He risks it all to save some kids and disobeys order? seeks redeemption?
could be a great movie but it would have to maintin the format it had.
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6-05-2009 @ 10:29PM
8bitjeff said...
prequel?
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6-06-2009 @ 11:52PM
BobBaft said...
If they take their time and work out a great story line, then I'd love to see it...
How about 3 years in the future when Vic's about to be done with his tour and he's been working on a way to spring Ronnie from jail with the same tactics we're used to seeing Vic employ....all the while he's got the hottie blonde he f'd over in ICE and Dutchman trying to take him down for something he missed in his confession.
They never took Dutchman stangling that cat anywhere either....Dutchman could be a closet serial killer trying to pin stuff on Vic.
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6-08-2009 @ 9:47AM
kurt said...
Summer viewing for me is season of the shield. Watching this show reminds me of how intense this show was during first runs. I would love to get that rush again from a movie. How about a couple of made for tv, like they did Matlock. I think they could pull off a prequel, how the strike team came to be. That would bring back Lem and Shane.
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6-26-2009 @ 12:43PM
Rudebwoy381 said...
Boo to a prequel, but I think a movie, whether made for TV or cinema, could work. As far as not including Shane? Well, why the hell would it? He's dead. They didn't bring Lem back, and you never heard him crying about how it was unfair or calling it bulls&%!. The characters are there to serve the story, not the other way around. I think a compelling movie could be made based around the following:
Mackey makes a deal with the devil (Antwon Mitchell): he'll whack someone Antwon really needs killed on the outside, and in return, Mitchell will use his ultra-mega-clout in prison to break Ronnie out. Dutchman and Claudette team up again to try and bring them down once and for all. The stress is too much for Wyms and she dies; this finally pushes the Dutchman over the edge, and he goes on an all-out mission to destroy Mackey by any means possible, joined by Olivia from ICE, who's crazy pissed that Mackey walked away from his ICE job.
The problem with this scenario - or really, ANY scenario for a 'Shield' movie - is that one of the most compelling aspects of the show (Mackey's attempt to balance good vs. evil, cop vs. borderline criminal) is gone. Now Mackey and Ronnie are just plain old criminals. Honestly, though, I'd like to see them both struggle with that; to try and reconcile the fact that they are now the men they once abhorred.
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