Category: Back Seat Producers

Release date:  11/24/1966

Universal Pictures

 

Directed by

• Francois Truffaut

Produced by

• Lewis M. Allen

Screenplay by

• Jean-Louis Ricard
• Francois Truffaut

Story by (novel)

• Ray Bradbury

Cast

Oskar Werner

• Guy Montag

Julie Christie

• Clarisse/Linda Montag

Cyril Cusack

• The Captain

 

Darrell hadn’t seen the movie in a long time and thought it wasn’t bad; it had problems but it was a decent interpretation of the novel Fahrenheit 451.  Jill thought it had some good elements and was surprised at how prophetic the film was, especially in its use of language.  The hosts also commented on how a lot of what was written in 1953, especially the anti-socialism aspect, has come true today.

Darrell brought up the feud between Truffaut and Werner and how that affected the portrayal of Montag.  Tony liked the movie (both now and years ago).  He also likened Montag’s character to the concept of The Seven Year Itch in the way he reacts to his wife vs. Clarisse.  He thought some of the performances were robotic, on purpose, but it didn’t necessarily work.  The hosts all agreed that Julie Christie’s performance as Linda and Clarisse were very good.

Jill thought that the soundtrack acted almost as another character in the film and that the music drew you in.  The opening montage with only the spoken word introductions was also a brilliant move.  They also loved the scene in which Montag picks up a newspaper and the viewer sees that the newspaper is drawn as a cartoon and has no words at all.

The theme of narcissism, how the characters were almost programmed to be that way was an interesting contrast to The Captain’s earlier speech of how the only way to make everyone happy in society was to make everybody equal.

Jill liked the scene in which the older woman burned herself with her books, both as the woman’s stance as an individual and how the books seemed to come alive as they burned.  The group of people at the end of the film, who all memorized and subsequently “became” their book, brought up the very difficult question of, “Which book would you pick, which book would you BE?”  Tony would be The Stone and the Flute by Hans Bemmann.  Jill toyed with the thought of picking/being The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.  Darrell brought up an interesting point regarding the people who have chosen to memorize and become a book to preserve that particular work.  There are certainly many more books than there are people to memorize them (as far as the film goes) so there will still be many more books lost than kept alive.

The hosts discussed censorship today and what they remembered when they were younger.  None of them were alive when there really did burn books but they all remember the PRMC and music censorship.  Today there is internet censorship, but what exactly gets censored is interesting, which brought up the age-old question of who decides what should and should not be censored and how.

Movie trivia bits n’ pieces:

Among the books burned by the firemen is the film journal Cahiers du Cinema, which was written by director Francois Truffaut.  Also among the books burned are The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451, both written by Ray Bradbury.

According to producer Lewis M. Allen, it was his idea to have Julie Christie play both main female roles, as Truffaut thought that the characters should not be good vs. evil but should instead be two sides of the same coin.  Allen said that Terence Stamp, who was originally slated to play Montag, then withdrew from the movie because Stamp felt that with two parts, Christie would overshadow him.

 

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Jill

This episode was recorded: 6/13/2012

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Release date:  11/6/2009

Lionsgate

Directed by

• Lee Daniels

Produced by

• Lee Daniels
• Gary Magness
• Sarah Siegel-Magness
• Oprah Winfrey
• Tom Heller
• Tyler Perry

Screenplay by

• Geoffrey S. Fletcher

Based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire

Cast

Gabourey Sidibe

• Precious

Mo’Nique

• Mary

Paula Patton

• Ms. Rain

 

In honor of the passing of Ray Bradbury (and keeping with the Recently Dead Guy Podcast convention), our next movie review will be Fahrenheit 451.

Also, before the hosts dig into the movie, all of you lucky home-listeners get a nice little history less about the naming of movies and the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America).  There may or may not be a test at the end of the movie review.

 

Initial comments by the hosts:

Darrell thought it was a movie worth watching, but not worth watching twice.  Lena really liked it and was pleasantly surprised by how good Mo’Nique was, and she probably would watch it again, although there were definitely parts that were tough to get through.  Tony thought it was a great movie but it was hard to watch because of the subject matter.  The way this very tense and uncomfortable subject was written and portrayed was very visceral and real.  Darrell classified it as one emotional punch right after the other.

Gabourey Sidibe, in her first major role, and Mo’Nique, who was known solely as a stand-up comedienne and from her roles in various comedies, both turned in fantastic performances as Precious and her mother, Mary.  Darrell was amazed at how raw and brutal Mo’Nique portrayed Mary.  All of the hosts liked Lenny Kravitz’s role as Nurse John and Mariah Carey’s role as Ms. Weiss.  They liked how both characters were humble and understated.

The language used in the movie was rough and raw, but completely necessary for both the area that the characters lived in and the time frame of the movie (1987).  Lena asked the hosts what they thought of Precious’ fantasy/dream sequences.  Darrell thought some of them were a little weird but understood what they were trying to accomplish.  The most telling one, they all agreed, was the fantasy where Precious was looking at herself in her bedroom mirror but the reflection that comes back to her is of a thin, white, rich girl.

The conversation turned to what Tony rightly called the elephant in the room… not just the fact that it was a “rapey” movie, but fact that Precious was repeatedly raped by her father (it was also mentioned that her grandfather raped her, as well) and impregnated twice by her father.  Mary (Mo’Nique) had a monologue at the end of the movie in which she explained what her life was and what she was upset about, which was mind-blowing, to say the very least.  That scene left the viewer running through every emotion during her 15-20 monologue, even to the point of almost feeling sorry for her, or possibly, having a little bit of empathy for her.  Even though Mary is seen as a purely evil character (and she pretty much is), you begin to see traces of humanity and pain.  The difference, though, is that Precious had no say in the unspeakable things that happened to her, but Mary did, and regardless of the fact that Mary was also damaged by it, she still could have stopped what happened to her daughter.

The way that Precious began her journey into self-discovery was handled very well, it was a slow progression and very real.  There was no light-bulb or Ah-ha moment, there were small steps taken over time as Precious began to realize that she was more than she had always been told she was.

Darrell wrapped up the review by stating that if you want to see a movie that’s raw, plays with your emotions, punches you in the face and then makes you feel good about it afterwards, this is the movie to see.

Trivial bits and pieces:

Precious was shot in five weeks.

During the scene in which Precious slaps a fellow student for calling her fat, Sidibe was instructed to slap the other actress as hard as she could, and the other actresses were not told about the slap beforehand, so their reactions were all unrehearsed and real.

The Awards for Precious (this is an abridged listing):

Mo’Nique

• Academy Award
• Critics Choice Award
• Golden Globe Award
• Independent Spirit Award
• NAACP Image Award
• Screen Actors Guild Award
• Sundance Film Festival – Special Jury Prize

Gabourey Sidibe

• Independent Spirit Award
• NAACP Image Award
• National Board of Review Award

Geoffrey Fletcher

• Academy Award
• Independent Spirit Award
• NAACP Image Award

Lee Daniels

• Independent Spirit Award
• NAACP Image Award

Precious

• American Film Institute Award (10 Best Movies of 2009)
• Independent Spirit Award
• NAACP Image Award

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Lena

This episode was recorded: 6/6/2012

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Release date:  5/30/2008

Roadside Attractions

Directed by

• Tarsem Singh

Produced by

• Tarsem Singh
• Ajit Singh
• Tommy Turtle

Written by

• Tarsem Singh
• Dan Gilroy
• Nico Soultanakis

Cast

Lee Pace

• Roy Walker/Red Bandit

Catinca Untaru

• Alexandria/Red Bandit’s daughter

 

Before discussion of the movie even begins, there is a necessary and sexy discussion regarding David’s beard, it’s transformation and the future of his facial hair.

 

Initial comments by the hosts:

Darrell thought it was a very strange movie (in a good way!) that sucked you in, in the way that it kept falling into the fantasy and Alexandria’s (Catinca Untaru) imagination of what Walker’s (Lee Pace) story meant to her (how she translated it in her young mind).  He also thought that between the sounds and the visual beauty of the film, you kept falling down this rabbit-hole, not knowing where it was going to end.  David adored the movie and loved that this film fully explored the visual medium.  He was very impressed with the fact that there were no special effects used in the movie.  He was less interested in the story in the hospital, but thought it was still fantastic.

 

The hosts all agreed that the little girl stole every scene she was in.  Because most of Untaru’s acting consisted of reacting to what was given to her and not having very much of a scripted dialogue, she gave a very natural performance.  Tony said that when he finished the movie, he was still processing it, and it wasn’t until later that he could fully embrace how good the movie was.  The hosts all appreciated how the film was less about the story itself and more about the relationship between Walker and Alexandria.

 

One thing that resonated with Darrell was the way that Walker used and manipulated Alexandria to procure drugs for him (morphine), as an addict does.  Tony and David argued that neither of them felt that Walker was an addict, but was only trying to kill himself.

 

The manner in which Alexandria pulled the characters (the hospital workers in dual roles) into Walker’s story was reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz and very well done.  The hosts also liked how Walker used his relationship with his Evelyn and Sinclair/Odious to shape his story for the little girl.

 

Tony and Darrell brought up how the sounds of the outside world would bleed into the story and impact it, as sometimes happens in dreams.  They also liked how Walker had to keep adapting the story to keep Alexandria interested, as one would have to do for a child.  Another fantastic piece was how Alexandria believed the story was real throughout most of the film, but when Walker began to kill off the characters at the end, she insisted that Walker was making that part of the story up.

The hosts all enthusiastically recommend this film

Trivial bits and pieces:

This movie was inspired by the Bulgarian movie, Yo ho ho.

The film was shot on 26 locations over 18 countries.

Catinca Untaru initially believed that Lee Pace was really a paraplegic, and Tarsem Singh found that this brought an added level of believability to her dialogue, so he decided to keep almost the entire cast and crew under the same impression.  It was difficult to keep up the lie, as a makeup artist almost passed out from shock after walking into a room to find Pace standing up.

The hospital scenes with Untaru were shot in chronological order, as the child’s English improved over time; she grew taller and lost her two front baby teeth before filming started.

Alexandria’s misinterpretation of the letter E as the number 3 in the “morphine” note written by Walker was an actual mistake by Untaro.  Singh realized he could adapt that into a clever twist in the story.

 

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• David

This episode was recorded: 5/9/2012

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Part 5 of our 5 part Rock ‘n Roll series

Release date:  3/2/1984

Embassy Pictures

Directed by

• Rob Reiner

Produced by

• Karen Murphy

Written by

• Christopher Guest
• Michael McKean
• Harry Shearer
• Rob Reiner

Cast

Rob Reiner

• Marty DiBergi

Michael McKean

• David St. Hubbins

Christopher Guest

• Nigel Tufnel

Harry Shearer

• Derek Smalls

1:03  2012 RPG Podcast Listeners’ Survey – TAKE THE SURVEY!

http://rpgpolls.com/fill/survey/2012-RPG-Podcast-Listener-Survey/The-Podge-Cast

3:28  Prometheus – Happy Birthday, David.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFyU10B5Jt0

4:05  David discusses watching Michael Fassbender urinate.

5:10  Host reviews.

8:00  This is the one time the pod didn’t open, why didn’t they show all the other times?

8:25  David (unless you’re Tony, then he’s Adam) has hairballs.

8:50  David’s the only one at the table who could shave and pull off a Wolverine.

9:25  David admitted that he fast-forwarded every time a song started… you what??

9:35  Big Bottom… Sex Farm.

9:40  I’m gonna plow your beanfield!

9:48  My silo is rising!

10:10  The hosts loved the cameos.

10:42  David: Who’s Angelica Houston?  Jill: (sighing) Oh my God.

11:40  What Jill liked…

12:10  What Tony liked…

12:25  Rob Reiner’s awkward hand movements.

12:45  Rob Reiner in spandex?  There isn’t a pod big enough!

13:12  Some else’s vomit.  You can’t dust for vomit.

14:15  The bass player with the pipe, he’s the intellectual one.

14:45  Jill dared to say it… Nic Cage is not aging well!

15:00  David will take any Nic Cage he can get.

15:10  How did Lenny Kosnowski become David St. Hubbins?

15:52  Stonehenge sh*% was hysterical!

16:10  We have armadillos in our pants!

17:23  Trivia time with Jill.

18:00  Is Spinal Tap a real band?

18:40  Darrell discusses Spinal Tap’s DVD releases and copywriting issues.

19:20  Help, we are going into the pop business!

20:00  Well, we’re huge in Japan.

20:34  The hosts get sentimental with lyrics.

20:35  My baby fits me like a flesh torpedo, I love to sink her with my pink torpedo.

20:45  Talk about mud flaps, my baby’s got ‘em!

21:00  The looser the waistband, the deeper the quicksand.  Or so I have read.

21:08  Drives me out of my mind.  How can I leave this… behind?

21:27  Lick my love pump.

21:35  It’s a mix between Mozart and Bach.

22:00  Oh, she’s dead.  What?  No.  Yeah.  No.  No, she’s not dead.  You’re right.

22:45  Geoff: Part of the brilliance of the movie was the gradual deterioration of the band’s success as represented by dwindling Americana.

23:09  And the puppets have a bigger dressing room.

23:55  Odd sexual references to Deuce and Luke.

24:45  Mr. Bentley from The Jeffersons.

25:30  Their other movies; A Mighty Wind, Best in Show, For Your Consideration, Waiting for Guffman.

25:55  They named the drummers after the different “Curly” characters from The Three Stooges.

26:25  A nice wrap-up to the Rock Series.

26:35  David was disappointed by the lack of penis in the movie.

26:50  Well, there WAS the cucumber!

27:23  Instead of a movie where a nobody becomes a rock star (Rock Star), this was a movie about how a rock star can become a nobody.

28:00  Back to Rock Star, lamenting the fact that Jennifer Aniston didn’t get naked.

28:36  David wants Tony to record a parody video, playing the part of all three characters.

28:45  Challenge accepted (yet… I’ve seen no such video).

29:00  Spinal Tap-only karaoke at David’s Cinco de Mayo party.

29:44  Broken mailboxes and more vomit.

30:10  David’s beloved track pants.

30:30  Darrell wraps this party up by stating that This Is Spinal Tap is rated by The Library of Congress as one of the Top 100 Movies of all Time.

31:10  David’s turned on by lists.

31:20  Melina calls David to get the story straight.

32:30  Relationship pro-tip from David.

33:18  Is that Sauron’s University?  U of I?

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Jill
• David

This episode was recorded: 5/9/2012

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Part 4 of our 5 part Rock ‘n Roll series

Release date:  9/7/2001

Warner Bros.

Directed by

• Stephen Herek

Produced by

• Robert Lawrence
• Toby Jaffe
• George Clooney (executive)
• Mike Ockrent (executive)
• Steven Reuther (executive)

Written by

• John Stockwell

Cast

Mark Wahlberg

• Chris “Izzy” Cole

Jennifer Aniston

• Emily Poule

Dominic West

• Kirk Cuddy

 

Initial comments by the hosts:

Darrell points out that this movie was inspired by what happened with Judas Priest when they replaced lead singer Rob Halford with Tim “Ripper” Owens (who had been in a Judas Priest and Pink Floyd tribute band.)

The consensus from all three hosts was that the movie was… okay… filtered, lackluster, problematic in how the story was told.  The basis of the story was less about realizing your dream than it was in living someone else’s fantasy.

David wasn’t thrilled with Jennifer Aniston’s performance, but Darrell and Tony both thought she wasn’t all that bad.  Their complaint was in how the character was written.  Emily (Aniston) seemed completely oblivious to the “rock star” life and her reactions to hers and Izzy’s life were very unrealistic.  The movie seemed to be pandering to much less of a rock ‘n roll audience than a mainstream audience.

Tony listened to the commentary track after watching the movie and stated that some of the most interesting parts of the movie seemed to have been cut out, including one scene in which Emily’s character had taken drugs with some of the other rock wives and girlfriends.  The movie appeared to be designed to make Izzy’s character sympathetic so that the audience would approve of Izzy and Emily getting back together at the end.

Their biggest complaint was not in the acting or the actors, but in the editing, writing, deleted scenes.  Tony would have liked to have seen Izzy’s character be a bit darker, which would have fit more into the story.  They all thought Aniston was miscast in this role.  She was still doing Friends at the time and they thought that having Aniston portray any type of unpleasant character might not have gone over well with fans of Friends.

One of the other issues the hosts brought up was that in Izzy’s life, there was no conflict; he liked his day job, he loved his music and his family and friends were supportive of what he did.  Even when Emily broke up with him, there was no conflict!  The only time Izzy faced any kind of opposition was when he brought some of his own music to Steel Dragon and they dismissed him.  This is what ultimately caused Izzy to leave Steel Dragon (in the same way he joined Steel Dragon).

Many of the musicians in the movie are actual musicians:

Mark Wahlberg – Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch

Jason Bonham (Steel Dragon drummer) –Bonham, and he is the son of John Bonham (Led Zeppelin)

Jeff Pilson (Steel Dragon bassist) – Dokken

Zakk Wylde (Steel Dragon guitarist) – Black Label Society, and he played with Ozzy Osborne

Blas Elias (Blood Pollution drummer) – Slaughter

Brian Vander Ark (Blood Pollution bassist) – The Verve Pipe

Nick Catanese (Blood Pollution guitarist) – Black Label Society

Stephan Jenkins (Black Babylon singer) – Third Eye Blind

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• David

This episode was recorded: 4/25/2012

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Part 3 of our 5 part Rock ‘n Roll series

Release date:  11/9/1998

Miramax Films

Directed by

• Todd Haynes

Produced by

• Christine Vachon
• Michael Stipe
• Bob Weinstein
• Harvey Weinstein

Written by

• Todd Haynes
• James K. Lyons

Cast

Ewan McGregor

• Curt Wild

Jonathan Rhys Meyers

• Brian Slade

Christian Bale

• Arthur Stuart

Toni Collette

• Mandy Slade

Eddie Izzard

• Jerry Devine

 

Initial comments by the hosts:

Darrell isn’t a big fan of “flash-back” story telling but he liked this movie and thought it offered a nice little history of glam rock.  Jill loved it, thought it had a lot of layers but didn’t see it as a historical piece.  She looked at it not to look back at history but to look forward to where we are now.  David thought he would hate it, but he really enjoyed it because it wasn’t about the music itself, it was about the human interaction.  Tony liked all the pieces of the movie but wasn’t blown away by it as a whole.  He thought that acting, the music and the visuals were great.  Jill, being a big David Bowie fan, said she constantly finds new references every time she goes back to watch this movie again.

The hosts get into an interesting discussion regarding whether culture today embraces the different musicians/styles/visuals the way that Britain did in the early 1970s, and specifically whether America did versus the way Britain adapted to that style.  They also agreed that the movie is more about Arthur’s (Christian Bale) character than either of the musicians.

Jill liked how the music was used to push the narrative along with abstract music video pieces, performance pieces and soundtrack pieces.  It was also impressive that both Ewan McGregor and Jonathan Rhys Meyers both sang for this movie.

Tony brought up that he found the story line very similar to Eddie & The Cruisers in that the lead character faked his death and a reporter tries to figure out what really happened, but the similarity pretty much ends there.  The story itself is more about the reporter trying to figure out who he is, his experiences, and how he related to that movement.

David appreciated that this movie tackled relationships not in a childish way, which he tends to see in music-themed movies, but in a more realistic way that shows relationships as “complicated, messy, and broken.”

It was agreed that all of the acting was outstanding, with extra kudos to Eddie Izzard for stealing every scene he was in.

David brought up the question of whether music played an integral part in your development as a person.  Jill emphatically said “yes” and followed it up by saying that this movie is an indictment of the United States in that the cultural references die away in this country, more so than others.  David stated that, which he has specific memories tied to some music, he doesn’t have any emotional connections to music.  Jill found that this movie resonated with her in that you can be an “alien” and find a world of other aliens/alienated people, through music.  David would have been perfectly fine if this movie had removed the soundtrack because the human narrative spoke more to him than the music did.

The parallel of podcasting is brought up, and both Tony and David talk about how podcasting (though not necessarily in the genre of movie reviews) is an essential part of their lives at this point.  The friendships that have been gained over the years through this shared forum are often closer and/or stronger than friendships gained through childhood.

It was brought up that there were a lot of critical complaints about this movie that there was no real completion to the story lines.  The hosts disagreed with those complaints; arguing that there were, in fact, completed story lines (What happened to Brian Slade?) and also arguing that there didn’t need to be a completion regarding Arthur Stuart’s character.  You don’t know what will happen next with him, you just know that he will move on, move forward, and he’ll be fine.

Jill asked about the similarities between this movie and last week’s movie, Almost Famous.  Tony correlated Russell Hammond and Stillwater to Curt Wild.  One is about being the musician that they want to be and the other is about striving to be an iconic figure/performer that the fans will adore.  Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee, Almost Famous) is the one who wants to be an icon, while Hammond just wants to play his music.

A few trivia bits and pieces:

Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ewan McGregor sang their own songs, but a few of Rhys Meyers’ songs were overdubbed by Thom Yorke (Radiohead).

A great deal of the dialogue stems from the writings of Oscar Wilde.

The name of Brian Slade’s persona, “Maxwell Demon,” and his band, “The Venus In Furs”, are references to two of glam rock’s biggest artists: Maxwell Demon was the name of a band in which Brian Eno performed in England in the 1960s, and “Venus In Furs” is a Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground song.  Both artists are on this film’s soundtrack.

Curt Wild’s character is largely inspired by David Bowie’s relationships with Iggy Pop and Lou Reed.  Iggy Pop hailed from Michigan and, for a time, had long blond locks, while Reed was forced to undergo shock therapy for bisexuality as a teen and was also rumored to have had an affair with Bowie before their later falling out.

When Brian first sees Mandy, he asks “Do you jive?” This is what David Bowie reportedly said when he first saw his future first wife, Angela Bowie.

During the scene where we’re first introduced to Curt Wild’s character, during the Festival scene, Ewan McGregor was only supposed to moon the audience.  He had been so inspired by Iggy Pop that he improvised and dropped his pants to his ankles and began to jump around the stage.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Jill
• David

This episode was recorded: 4/11/2012

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Part 2 of our 5 part Rock ‘n Roll series

Release date:                           9/15/2000

DreamWorks and Columbia Pictures

Directed and Written by         Cameron Crowe

Produced by                            Cameron Crowe

                  Ian Bryce                   

Cast

Billy Crudup                           Russell Hammond

Patrick Fugit                           William Miller

Frances McDormand              Elaine Miller

Kate Hudson                           Penny Lane

Jason Lee                                Jeff Bebe

Initial comments by the hosts:

Before discussion of the movie began, the hosts talked about how difficult it was to find Almost Famous in streaming form.  It’s available for rental, and even that is limited, and the movie is also broken up into 12 parts on You Tube.

This is a semi-autobiographical movie of how Cameron Crowe got his start and you really get the sense that this movie feels a biopic, even though it’s a fictional story.  Darrell points out that there are lots of little inside jokes in the movie (some of these will be listed at the end of the notes).  Darrell thought it was funny that, only in the 1970’s, could a 14 year-old boy get a job with Rolling Stone Magazine, go on tour with a band and his mother does NOT completely freak out over this.

Lena (from the chat room – watcher of the You Tube version) noted that it was nice to be reminded that Kate Hudson is actually talented.

Tony thought Frances McDormand was fantastic; her character was a force in this movie.  He also was impressed with the acting talent throughout the movie, not only of the main stars but also of the background/secondary characters, such as Fairuza Balk and Anna Paquin (The Band Aids), Zooey Deschanel, Jimmy Fallon, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, to name just a few.  Every character had a distinct voice and Crowe did a very good job at capturing and realizing these different people.

Billy Crudup did a very good job at portraying Russell Hammond, the lead guitarist of Stillwater, who struggles through his ascent from musician in an up and coming band to a Rock God.

Two of the favorite “quirks” of controlling single mom Elaine Miller (McDormand) was her referring to Simon and Garfunkel as the devil’s music and her making her kids celebrate Christmas in September, “when it’s not commercial.”

Jason Lee was good at portraying Jeff Bebe as the leader of Stillwater, both insecure and someone who knows what to look for, what can (and eventually does) cause a rift in the band.

Patrick Fugit, as William (Billy) Miller, was able to capture the innocence of a teenager in the 70s, the excitement of a fan travelling with a band and the eye-opening breaking through from adolescence to adulthood as he begins to see what life is really like outside of the world his mother created for him.

The critical scene, near the end of the movie, shows not only the band members crumbling under the threat of their plane crashing, but also Billy Miller’s transformation from boy to man when he confronts the band about how they treat their fans… specifically their biggest fan, Penny Lane (Kate Hudson).

Trivia notes for this movie (this is only a small selection):

This film was Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical account of life as a young Rolling Stone reporter. The actual group that Crowe first toured with was The Allman Brothers Band (Gregg Allman kept asking him if he was a narc).  The near-fatal plane crash happened while traveling with The Who, and the character of Russell Hammond is based on Glenn Frey (Eagles).

The roles of Russell Hammond and Penny Lane were originally offered to Brad Pitt and Sarah Polley.  Polley dropped out to work on her own project, and Pitt worked with Crowe for months before finally admitting, according to Crowe, “I just don’t get it enough to do it.”  Kate Hudson, who took over the role of Penny Lane, had been originally cast as William’s sister.

Crowe wrote the liner notes (at age 18) to the “Frampton Comes Alive!”, and Peter Frampton returned the favor by acting as a music consultant for the film.

Frampton taught Billy Crudup how to play the guitar for the concert scenes.

Stillwater’s songs were written by Frampton, Crowe and Nancy Wilson (Crowe’s wife and member of the band Heart).  This was mentioned early in the credits, although the music acknowledgments credit Russell Hammond and Stillwater as if they were real authors/performers.

Mike McCready (Pearl Jam) provided the guitar track for Stillwater’s songs.

Not only did Patrick Fugit’s voice break during filming, but he also grew three inches, forcing Billy Crudup to wear platform shoes.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell

This episode was recorded: 4/4/2012

Note: Six years ago today, we released the first episode of Fanboy Smackdown… which became Back Seat Producers.  Thanks for 6 great years.  Let’s ROCK!

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Part 1 of our 5 part Rock ‘n Roll series

Release date:  9/14/1979

The Who Films

Directed by

• Franc Roddam

Written by

• Dave Humphries
• Franc Roddam
• Martin Stellman
• Pete Townshend

Produced by

• Roy Baird
• Bill Curbishley

Cast

Phil Daniels

• Jimmy Cooper

Leslie Ash

• Steph

 

This recording starts with a discussion about the finale of The Walking Dead.  It contains spoilers so… fair warning… if you haven’t seen the finale yet and don’t want to know what happened or if you don’t watch The Walking Dead and want to skip forward, the section runs from the beginning to 9:55.

 

Initial comments by the hosts:

David likes The Who (or other “old British bands – The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Rush” but I’m not really keeping score) but this movie makes him not like The Who.  Darrell said it was hard to watch but he made his way through it and kind of liked it, or at least liked the movie.  Tony found the movie almost unwatchable at points.  He thought the movie was trying too hard to be A Clockwork Orange and it was a failure.

There was also a general consensus… or was that confusion… that there was a great deal of naked males but NO naked females.  Even during the sex scenes, there were no female bits and pieces to be seen.

Some of the scenes were much too long, with 360 degree tracking shots and some scenes that seemed more like time fillers.  The hosts thought that the movie could have easily been cut down to no more than an hour (running time is 117 minutes) and been more interesting.

Tony thought that Phil Daniels (Cooper) looked and acted like Christian Bale and David thought that this movie should have won an award for the “most actors who look like other people.”  He thought that one of Cooper’s friends looked like one of the Weasley twins (doesn’t matter which one).

Scott (from the chat room) summed it up with the statement, “This is a cast made up of ugly British people.”

David admitted to jumping ahead in five minute intervals out of sheer boredom and correctly assumed that he really wasn’t missing much.  Tony didn’t understand the angst that the movie was trying to convey.  Cooper comes from a working class background and he has a job.  Given, he doesn’t really like his job but he still HAS a job, which is a hell of a lot more than most of his friends have.

When the discussion turned to the Steph character, Tony thought that the character was written to be a hated person.

Tony admitted that the hosts made the conscious choice to watch Quadrophenia as part of the Rock ‘n Roll series over Pink Floyd’s The Wall… at least he’s proud enough to admit that this might not have been the wisest choice!

 

And now on to… The Hunger Games! (Starts at 32:07)

It was widely agreed that the best parts of The Hunger Games were Lenny Kravitz (Cinna) and Woody Harrelson (Haymitch).  Tony thought the movie overall was good, David thought it was great (your happy note-taker agreed with David).  They also liked the characters of Rue and Thresh, but David’s only complaint was the District 11 scene (after Rue is… ) because they broke the 1^st person immersion.

David thought that the Katniss character was a strong female heroine that hasn’t been forced into a female “gender” role.  She’s all business throughout the movie and she doesn’t break out of that role.  He also would have liked to have seen more of an interaction between Peeta and Haymitch.

Tony didn’t think the movie lived up to the hype.  Neither did David, but that didn’t change his opinion that he really liked it.

Also listen to Tony’s idea for an earlier story line on Cinna and Haymitch.

 

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• David

This episode was recorded: 3/28/2012

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