MID SUMMER NIGHTS a fae-themed fanvid for THE STING (1973) dir. George Roy Hill *
Fae king Oberon, on the lam in the human world from a traitorous court, grows a soft spot for the cute mortal conman who suddenly stumbles into his limbo world between dream and day.
song credits: "Prologue" and "Twilight" -- Electric Light Orchestra
you can read my extended notes on the video's plot under the read more! thank you so much for watching!
a book-cover-esque description of the first half of the video:
Following the death of his mentor Luther at the hands of the vindictive crime lord Lonnegan, Johnny Hooker's dreams are filled with death. Through bouts of fitful sleep and waking nightmares, he somehow finds himself in Chicago and in the presence of Henry Gondorff, an enigmatic old conman and a good friend of Luther's. Gondorff apprehensively agrees to help get revenge for their mutual partner, and finally, the dreams of shootouts and stabbings and blood begin to ebb. But somehow Hooker's waking world has become even more peculiar... and he can't figure why all of Gondorff's friends, even his closest allies, only call him Shaw.
Gondorff is not what he seems. The king of the fae escaped into the human world uncounted years past, and only the last meager vestiges of his power have kept him shrouded from the hunting parties of his old court, living a drunken human half-life in the shadow of who he once was. This is fine with "Shaw." But Luther got tangled up in Lonnegan -- the human shell of his mutinous advisor -- and Oberon is bound by Hooker's unwitting possession of his true name to claim an eye for an eye. Yet Hooker is not quite what he seems, either. His brutish act hides his scared, vulnerable, human core. And Gondorff likes the kid. So he quietly brushes away Hooker's nightmares where he can, and gathers his connections both mortal and fae for one last con.
a scene-for-scene description of the rest of the video:
one day hooker overhears gondorff in conversation with an impish man... discussing lonnegan with words like fairy, using names like oberon. the imp notices hooker just as gondorff explodes -- "hooker couldn't leave limbo even if he wanted to. until lonnegan's gone, hooker stays. im not letting that fae bastard get to him," and stalks off.
later, hooker sustains further waking injuries in his dreams. when gondorff offers him a drink, hooker -- not entirely believing what he's heard, but still suspicious of what he meant -- refuses and asks when he can leave. gondorff is shocked into hurt silence and changes the subject.
hooker is thrashed by lonnegan outside oberon's realm of influence, and gondorff can only peer worriedly into the dream from afar as lonnegan lies and sows doubt in hooker's mind about gondorff.
gondorff's night is sleepless, as he dwells on hooker's distance and distrust.
but gondorff is the consummate professional. in his human guise shaw brazenly cheats lonnegan out of his wallet
as lonnegan's fury bubbles over, he sends his cronies to track down hooker in the night and kill him for good. running for his life -- no longer in a dream -- he hits a dead end and panics. but suddenly he sees in his mind's eye, clear as day, the human shaw. he lights his cigar and with one flick puts out the match. and in the same flick hooker is suddenly sitting in an ornate chair, in an expensive lounge, dressed in a fine suit, hair gelled... with gondorff smoking casually in the corner, as if nothing strange at all happened.
"you did that? you can do that?"
the real con graciously exposed, gondorff tells an amazed johnny everything, and demonstrates a few impossible tricks that in time even hooker could master. johnny is enthralled. but there's still lonnegan, and there's still... well, reality, out there. the human world that hooker belongs to. but when gondorff begrudgingly tells him the truth, hooker finds himself faced with an impossible choice.
on the day of the last con, with both lonnegan and synder in their trap, hooker betrays shaw and leaves, as lonnegan planned. but in a rage -- with the dreams colliding all at once -- oberon shoots from the hip, and no one is there to save hooker as he falls to the ground. a fed instantly shoots down oberon, to lonnegan and snyder's shock. and as they both lay on the ground bleeding out--
hooker stands, unharmed, staring into the face of his own corpse.
the bed is finally empty. hooker is free, back in the real world for good. but the feeling is hollow. it turns out hooker didn't betray gondorff at all; as gondorff explained, the only way for hooker to leave the world of dreams for good is to kill the true dreamer of the limbo. oberon. but at the last moment, when hooker decided he couldnt go through with it, gondorff forced both their hands and kicked off the double murder.
"leave lonnegan to me, ill make sure he thinks you're dead for good. go on, get outta here."
but hooker cant stay away.
he descends back into the dream, using all the tricks he picked up from gondorff to truly see the con through to the end. the money, the real money, is all theirs -- lonnegan thinks theyre both dead -- and synder is out of their hair for good. but oberon is still... well. either hooker has more talent than either of them knew, or oberon's not as weak as he imagined. but he'd be a poor trickster king if he really had let his old pal hickey put a bullet through his gut, huh?
before he "died," gondorff explained everything to hooker. even how little power he really had. "i've done all i can. it's on you now to see things through, whatever you choose to do. and you have my name. luther earned that -- you never had to. but you have it, and i trust you." and his trust wasnt misplaced. hooker is quite the clever protégé. and it seems that now, at last, henry gondorff can finally turn in for a little sleep himself.
