Category: Season 07

5^th in this series of four Modern Black & White movies (Yep, 5^th!)

Release date:               5/21/82

Universal Pictures

Directed by

Carl Reiner

Written by

Carl Reiner

George Gipe

Steve Martin

Produced by

Carl Reiner

Richard McWhorter

David V. Picker

Cast

Steve Martin               Rigby Reardon

Rachel Ward               Juliet Forrest

This movie was chosen specifically because it’s a comedy, a parody, a satire, and it uses the movies from the 1940s and 1950s interspersed with the modern actors and dialogue.

Initial comments by the hosts:

Tony thought that this movie was the perfect capper to the last month of movies that they’d been watching.  Tony, who isn’t a fan of voiceovers, thought that they were hysterical in this movie.  Darrell agreed in that it was a “relief” after the four more downer-themed movies and it spotlighted and made fun of the tropes that they’d been looking at in the last four movies.  He also compared watching it now to when he saw it when it came out in 1982.  He didn’t have a lot of knowledge about film noir then, so it was simply a comedy film at that time, and not necessarily a successful comedy. Now, having a stronger base comprehension of noir, he could much more appreciate how funny the movie was.  Sam questioned how did that film, relying so heavily on the audience having a noir background, not make it an automatically successful movie?

This brought the discussion back to who this movie is for?  It was a movie that poked fun of movies made 30-40 years earlier, so the audience would need to have a touch point to those older films.  This would be the equivalent to making a movie today that makes fun of movies from the 80s.  Sam brought up Hot Tub Time Machine as such a movie in that filmgoers would need to have some kind of a memory of movies and culture from the 1980s to understand Hot Tub Time Machine.

At this point the discussion turned to the idea that one needs to have particular cultural references to enjoy certain films. Sam stated that American Pie is not going to make sense in 20 years.  Tony disagreed, but Sam thought that technology would advance enough and social interaction will have changed enough that the perils of American Pie simply will not be relevant.  Please feel free to insert your own personal “pie” thoughts and jokes here.  Tony used Animal House as his comparison, and Lena (from the chat room) argued that if Sam’s American Pie argument held up, no one would ever watch Porky’s again.

Sam brought up the fact that everyone probably has a movie or two that, as you watch it again and again over the years, delivers something new each time.  His examples were Blade Runner and Ghostbusters.  Lena also brought up Tootsie and Airplane as her examples of movies that changed/evolved as she’s seen them again over the years.

Other movies that rely on cultural references?  Darrell brought up It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Sam brought up South Pacific and Rent.  Tony mentions North by Northwest as a movie that can’t be remade for modern audiences due to technological or social advancements, stating that a simple phone call clears up the whole problem, but things are too far gone by the time they get to that point.

Some of the hosts’ favorite quotes from Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid:

Jimmie Sue’s father: Don’t go near my daughter again. Don’t try to see her. Don’t write her and don’t phone her.
Rigby Reardon: Can I use her underwear to make soup?

Juliet Forrest: But what does “FOC” mean?
Rigby Reardon: It’s a slang word. It’s when a man and a woman are in love, the man puts his…
Juliet Forrest: No, no. It’s written here: “F. O. C.”

Rigby Reardon: My plan was to kiss her with every lip on my face.

Rigby Reardon: I hadn’t seen a body put together like that since I’d solved the case of the Murdered Girl with the Big Tits

Cary Grant: You don’t smoke, do you?
Rigby Reardon: No, I have tuberculosis.
Cary Grant: Oh, thank heaven for that.

Performers who appear in this film in footage from earlier classic movies include: Edward Arnold, Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, Wally Brown, James Cagney, William Conrad, Jeff Corey, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Brian Donlevy, Kirk Douglas, Ava Gardner, Cary Grant, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Charles Laughton, Fred MacMurray, Charles McGraw, Ray Milland, Edmond O’Brien, Vincent Price, Barbara Stanwyck and Lana Turner.

Steve Martin suggested using footage of William Hartnell, Red Skelton, Jerry Lewis, Jack Benny, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.  But Carl Reiner refused, believing it would be funnier if they used footage of actors who spent their careers away from comedies.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Sam

This episode was recorded: 2/29/2012

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4^th  in this series of four Modern Black & White movies

Release date:

10/7/05

Warner Independent Pictures

Directed by

George Clooney

Written by

George Clooney

Grant Heslov

Produced by

Grant Heslov

Cast:

David Strathairn

Edward R. Murrow

Initial comments by the hosts:

For an independent film, the hosts agreed that it didn’t have the look or the feel of an independent film.  Darrell liked the movie and thought it had a nice feel to it.  Even though it’s a serious subject, he thought that you could really sit back and enjoy the film.  Jill agreed and thought it was tight and finely crafted and had excellent acting and an interesting subject matter.  She liked that the story was confined and George Clooney didn’t try to make it a complete biography on Edward R. Murrow.  Tony agreed and thought they made some interesting choices on the stories that were about the people in the newsroom as side stories, but they weren’t necessarily directly tied to McCarthy or Murrow.  He thought it was a subtle way of bringing out those extra stories.

One of the underlying themes of the movie was how much CBS Corp. was so deeply in bed with all of its advertisers and in fear of trying to keep their advertisers to keep their programs on the air.  Darrell found it interesting how relevant the story still is.  How you can remove the word “communism” and replace it with “terrorists” and still have the same story today.  Also, the point still stands that news is driven by entertainment value and advertising dollars.  Jill liked the speech “bookends” of how the story was set up, how it kept your focus.  The hosts also liked the jazz singer, Jill likened her to the Greek chorus who explains the story but this also gave the viewer time to process the information you’d been given between the scenes.

In discussing acting, they all loved David Strathairn’s portrayal of Edward R. Murrow.  Darrell thought he had Murrow’s voice and mannerisms down cold.  They liked that every clip of Joseph McCarthy was the actual footage of McCarthy from that time.  Also, some of the video used in the monitors was actually Murrow, as well.  Darrell found Murrow to be a cold, unsympathetic man, but Jill disagreed and found that to be passion about doing the right thing and telling the truth.  She liked the use of facial expressions, silence, fading to black (to the point of making it uncomfortable for the viewers), to convey his conflicted emotions and his struggles.  Tony thought that as much as Murrow seemed aloof, he also seemed disconnected.  He didn’t seem to know a lot about the things happening directly around him because he was so focused on what he was doing.  The hosts also singled out the performances of Robert Downey, Jr. as Joe Wershba and Frank Langella as William Paley.

Jill believed they did a nice job at incorporating archival film footage into the movie and made it look seamless.  Tony learned, through this movie, some of the underhanded tactics that McCarthy used to get information.  He also gained a respect for journalism during that time.  Journalism today is completely different, the integrity is lost, and no one can (or would) do today what Murrow did then.

In discussing the use of actual McCarthy footage (instead of using an actor to portray him), Clooney said that 20% of the people who saw a test of the movie didn’t know who McCarthy was and wanted to know who was the actor portraying him.  Clooney also thought that no matter which actor played McCarthy, he would be played as a jerk.  Instead, if you’re watching the actual footage of McCarthy, you can see how some people could have understood and took his side.  Clooney wanted this movie to be a conversation starter.  It also shows the “other side” in which McCarthy had a good idea in that there was something to be afraid of with communists infiltrating the government, but he took it to a level of zealotry that became a problem.

As Jill mentioned this speech earlier in the podcast, the text of Edward R. Murrow’s speech bookending the movie was taken word-for-word from the actual keynote address he delivered to the 1958 RTNDA (Radio-Television News Directors Association) convention. The actual conclusion to the speech, after Murrow’s line about television, used strictly for entertainment rather than education, being nothing more than wires and lights in a box, went as follows: “There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful. Stonewall Jackson, who knew something about the use of weapons, is reported to have said, ‘When war comes, you must draw the sword and throw away the scabbard.’ The trouble with television is that it is rusting in the scabbard during a battle for survival.”

The film was shot on color film on a grayscale set, then color-corrected in post.

The entire set was built on one floor. The elevator interior was built on a turntable, so it could be rotated to a new “floor” during unbroken shots.

The American Film Institute named Good Night, and Good Luck as one of the Top Ten Movies of 2005.

It was also nominated for six Oscars at the 2006 Academy Awards:  Best Picture, Best Director (George Clooney), Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (David Strathairn), Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction, and Best Cinematography.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Jill

This episode was recorded: 2/15/2012

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^3rd in this series of four Modern Black & White movies

Release date:               11/2/01

USA Films

Directed, Written and Produced by:

Joel Coen

Ethan Coen

Cast:

Billy Bob Thornton     Ed Crane

Frances McDormand  Doris Crane

Michael Badalucco     Frank

James Gandolfini        Big Dave Brewster

Initial comments by the hosts:

Sam thought the movie was “decidedly meh.”  Darrell thought it was pretty good.  It had a slow pace but eventually got into the story.  If you’re a film buff, you’ll really like it; he liked the cinematography.  Tony thought it was a good noir picture but the story ambled along without any deep meaning.  Sam thought that the movie meandered through the story just like Ed Crane meandered through his life.

Tony thought Billy Bob Thornton was fantastic, Frances McDormand was great (she successfully created a very unlikeable character) and he always enjoys James Gandolfini and this movie was not a letdown.  All the performances were equally solid.  Darrell talked about how every other character was over-animated against Ed Crane’s cardboard cut-out character that everything and everyone moved around.  Lena (from the chat room) thought that Ed Crane literally looked like cardboard and Darrell added how Crane’s suit was always pressed, his barber’s smock was tight and neat, adding to that appearance.  Sam loved Richard Jenkins’ Walter Abundas character.  They also talked about how the relationship between Ed Crane and Birdie Abundas seemed to be developing into something weird (romance or father/daughter or both?), until you realize that each of them has developed that into a completely different relationship than the other.

Tony enjoyed all of the performances.  Sam didn’t think McDormand was that great in this movie (or Fargo).  Lena mentioned (chatroom) how Frank (Badalucco), was more like a character in a play, and Tony added that since Ed is so quiet, the others have to have something to do or say to fill the void.  They also discussed the narration and even though not all of the hosts are fans of narration, they agreed that it was necessary in this kind of film.  Telling the story would not have been as successful without Ed Crane’s narration.

Darrell brought up the use of light and shadow.  The movie was shot in color and then transferred to black and white, and Tony questioned the intention of doing it that way.  Darrell explained how, when you shoot in color, you can then adjust all of the black and white shadow patters and you can do more with that than if you shoot in straight black and white.  It’s also more difficult to shoot in black and white.  Darrell also brought up the scene where Big Dave’s widow visits Ed Crane’s house and how, in her shots, she was in stark contrast to the darkness of then night behind her and when the shot turned back to Ed, you see all the moving shadows of the leaves.

Sam thought that, in general, the movie was a great representation of the late 40’s/early 50’s.  Tony and Darrell disagreed on the life that Crane was living.  Tony thought Ed Crane was content with his miserable life but Darrell thought that he was dying but didn’t know what to do.  Sam countered with the fact that Crane seemed to stumble through his entire life, not actually making any choices but letting the choices be made for him.  When Crane made his big “decision” in the movie, is it because he truly wanted to change his life or is it because, after finding out that his wife isn’t who he always thought she was, this was just one more decision that was placed into his lap for him to simply follow, just like everything else?  Even in the scene where Crane stabbed Big Dave, was that simply a reflex reaction of self-defense or was that Crane taking some kind of a stand with his own life?  In turning their discussion to the perspective of Big Dave, it was brought out how Ed Crane comes across almost as cold and heartless.  The argument easily goes both ways.

Tony thought that Ed Crane’s biggest failing was that he truly believed that he was invisible and that he could get away with things because he thought people didn’t notice him.  Inasmuch as he was part of the background, he was always acknowledged, he was always noticed.

Who is this movie for?  Film noir fans, Billy Bob Thornton fans, Coen brothers fans.

Joel and Ethan Coen came up with the story for The Man Who Wasn’t There while working on The Hudsucker Proxy.  During a barbershop scene, they saw a poster of 1940s haircuts and developed a story about the barber who cut the hair in the poster.

In the scene where Scarlett Johansson’s Birdy character is playing the piano for him, Thornton made it look like Ed Crane had an erection.  When the Coen Brothers later found out, they made it clear that Ed would not be aroused in the scene.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Sam

This episode was recorded: 2/8/2012

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^2nd in this series of four Modern Black & White movies

Release date: 4/2/99

Zeitgeist Films

Directed by:

Christopher Nolan

Written by:

Christopher Nolan

Produced by:

Emma Thomas

Jeremy Theobald

Peter Broderick

Cast:

Jeremy Theobald         The Young Man/Bill

Alex Haw                    Cobb

Lucy Russell               The Blonde

John Nolan                  The Policeman

Initial comments by the hosts:

Sam wasn’t really all that interested until the last eight or so minutes, and then it ended up being an OK movie, not a great movie (Tony was convinced that Sam would change his mind by the end of the discussion… he did not).  He thought it took too long to set up the premise and he also thought some pieces were sloppy (fight scene) and some of the cuts were not very good.  Jill agreed in that parts of the movie were slow, but overall, she liked it.  She knew it was going to follow the same formula as Memento (Christopher Nolan’s 2^ndfull-length film) so she was already looking for clues as she watched.  The idea that he made this for 6 million dollars with only two or three takes per shot and the way he had the film structured, which was relatively new at the time, solidified Nolan as a genius filmmaker to her.

Darrell liked it and thought it was a nice tight little drama.  He said that you can get a lot out of this film.  Tony also really enjoyed it, too. He said he could completely see how Christopher Nolan got every other job he ever got after Following.  Watching it through a 2^ndtime, he saw how many little things were laid out from the very start.  Nothing is actually hidden, but it’s obfuscated by the nature of jumping through time.  Tony also said he almost wished they hadn’t reviewed Clerks earlier so that they could compare the two to show what a great director (Nolan) can do against what a great writer (Smith) can do.

The hosts all thought that the acting as a whole was OK, unimpressive, passable.  Alex Haw (Cobb) was the best actor of the bunch. As for Lucy Russell, they all pretty much agreed that she was probably very lucky in that her bad acting played well into the cold character she portrayed.  Jill countered that female characters in film noir usually aren’t multidimensional characters.  Tony added that they tend to play damsels in distress, vamps, ice queens… and she played all three of those, but still all “cold”.  Lucy Russell’s character struck Sam as a more jaded Ilsa from Casablanca.  Darrell said to keep in mind that she’s playing The Blonde as cold because she’s setting Bill up, but she truly cold/stoic throughout the scene.

Jill thought that she was dressed in black in every scene except the one when the gangster is leaving the house and she’s waiting for Bill to arrive, in which she’s dressed in white.  Sam said that she’s also in a white shirt in the last scene when she tells Bill how he’s been set up.

Cobb tells Bill, as they’re going through someone’s apartment, “You take it away… to show them what they had,” and this is the recurring theme in the movie.  What Bill doesn’t realize is that Cobb is flat-out telling this to Bill that this is what he’s doing to him, but Bill doesn’t realize this until the end.  Bill only sees what’s going around him and not what’s literally being put right in his face.  Tony brought up that it’s similar to what M. Night Shyamalan does not too long after in The Sixth Sense, when the boy tells Bruce Willis that he sees dead people.  They don’t know they’re dead yet, but they are.  The boy is telling Bruce that he’s dead but he doesn’t see the big picture right that’s right in front of him.

It’s a very short, compact movie; 70 minutes long including the credits.  Sam notes that the ending is very abrupt.  All the “webs” that are set all comes together in the last eight minutes and then it’s over… nothing extra, noting unnecessary.  Tony compares the ending of Following to the ending to Usual Suspects, differentiating by adding that the ending of Usual Suspects almost feels like a “cheat.”  The audience never sees any of the clues in the Usual Suspects until they’re all laid out at the end, as opposed to Following, in which the clues are throughout the movie.  The audience is shown the clues and they get to enjoy the discovery of piecing it together themselves. The audience is not given this opportunity in The Usual Suspects.  The beauty of Following and The Sixth Sense is that you can go back and see the clues that you might not have caught the first time, the clues that were easily glossed over until the ending is fully presented.  It’s an intellectual puzzle for the audience to solve.

Sam thought that Following was more of a master’s thesis, so to speak, that sets the style for Christopher Nolan films.  Sam is still not convinced that this was a great film.  Ultimately it was slow and it came together too quickly at the end.  He thought it didn’t have the amazing visuals (Batman Begins), the creative storytelling (Dark Knight) or the jaw dropping reactions (Memento) of Nolan’s later films.  In essence, it’s like watching his first “student film.”  You can see a lot of artistry and craftsmanship in this first film.

Even though Nolan chose to film this in B&W, for budgetary reasons, but none of the hosts can imagine this film in color.  This is the resume for the rest of Nolan’s career.  This is the film in which you can see what he has to offer in all of his later films, in how he tells a story both visually and through dialogue; it’s creating his brand in the same way that Do The Right Thing IS Spike Lee and Clerks IS Kevin Smith.

Jill mentioned how the movie was shot on Saturdays because everyone (cast and crew) had full time jobs.  The cost of making the film ($6 million) came out of Nolan’s pocket.  Darrell brought up how Nolan had the actors were made to practice their lines so that he would only have to have one or two takes per scene, to conserve film and time.

Bill’s apartment, with the Batman sticker on the door, was Bill’s real apartment.

Christopher Nolan came up with the idea for Following because his home had been broken into and he wondered what the people thought as they went around looking at his belongings.

As Nolan’s debut film, it was designed to be as inexpensive as possible to make.  He mostly used available light to save on the expense of professional lighting equipment.  Apart from providing the script and direction, Nolan also did the photography, editing and production himself.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Jill
• Sam

This episode was recorded: 2/1/2012

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1^st in this series of four Modern Black & White movies

Release date: 10/8/83

Universal Pictures

Directed by:

Francis Ford Coppola

Screenplay by:

S. E. Hinton

Francis Ford Coppola

Based on the novel Rumble Fish, by S. E. Hinton

Produced by:

Francis Ford Coppola

Doug Claybourne

Fred Roos

Cast:

Matt Dillon                 Rusty James

Mickey Rourke           Motorcycle Boy

Diane Lana                  Patty

Dennis Hopper            Father

Initial comments by the hosts:

Tony wasn’t sure what to expect, as he went into watching this movie with an expectation of seeing something more akin to The Outsiders, but by the end he really liked the whole presentation.  Darrell thought it was a pretty good movie but thought that; overall, the plot was convoluted.  You had to carefully pay attention to get everything out of it.  Tony also added to that by bringing up the how the score was part of the story; when the dialogue really didn’t matter much, the score rose.  The music showed you that hearing what they’re saying isn’t necessarily the most important part right now, and you needed to focus on what’s on the screen instead.

Jill loved this movie and said it is one of her all-time favorite Coppola movies.  There is so much going on, visually, there’s so much complexity, that you can (and should) go back and find things you didn’t notice the first time.

They discussed the use of black and white and what the meanings behind it might be, as there are numerous uses.  Is it primarily because Motorcycle Boy has not been able to see color since he was a child, or is it because, once you strip the color away, once you take away the “distractions” of color, you only see the contrasts because everything becomes sharper?  Even though it’s black & white, the story is shades of gray.  The only colors you ever see in the film are the red and blue rumble fish in the pet store and Rusty’s reflection in the police car at the end.

Jill mentioned that Coppola refers to Rumble Fish as his “carrot” for finishing The Outsiders.

Darrell added that Coppola wrote this screenplay on the Sunday he had off while doing the Outsiders.  He also used a lot of the same cast and crew, and filmed it right after The Outsiders was finished.

Everyone agreed that Mickey Rourke and Dennis Hopper were amazing.  Jill and Tony agreed that the scene with Hopper, Rourke and Dillon in the bar was one of their favorite scenes.  Jill also loved Tom Waits’ character.

Mickey Rourke reminded the hosts of Marlon Brando in the way he portrayed Motorcycle Boy.  He seemed distracted in the way he delivered his lines.  Rourke said that he approached the character as if he was “an actor who no longer finds his work interesting.” Darrell classified it as a gangster who just doesn’t want to be a gangster anymore; who’s outlived the reputation and realizes how stupid it all is.  Motorcycle Boy is also still very child-like, even though the character is said to be 21.  The cut of his hair, his level of play when he steals his father’s whiskey bottle, his laughter, the hugging scene on the mattress with his dad and brother; all still boy-like qualities.

Jill thought Matt Dillon did a really good job of showing pain without looking weak and showing angst without going over the top.  He reminded her of James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, in the slow flow of his lines, and how it worked for Rusty James’ character.

The first rumble scene reminded Tony of “Beat It” and Jill of “West Side Story” in that it was such a theatrical scene.  Darrell thought the whole rumble scene was designed to look like a stage.  The boys are playing roles, they’re not being true to themselves and they’re playing at being 1950’s-esque gang members.  The movie is also designed to not let you know exactly when it’s taking place until you later get to the scene where someone is playing a video game and you hear the Pac Man music… and Diane Lane’s big 80’s hair!

Rusty James created a fictional life memory in that he’s still admiring the yesteryear gang brotherhood and he longs for the time “when the gangs come back,” as if that was the Golden Age.  He has an idealized vision of his older brother and what he did and that’s where the myth, in his mind, is born from.  Darrell talked about how everybody talks over Rusty’s head and he can’t make the connections to what is all means.  This added to the tension between him and his father and his brother, because they always seem to be talking “around” him and he’s sitting on the outside wondering what’s going on.

Tony said that the one scene that really drew him into the movie is the one in which Rusty James is beaten up in the alley way and then has an out of body experience and floats above everything.  This is where he had to reevaluate what the movie was saying.  It’s such a bizarre departure; it doesn’t fit with anything else that happens in the movie.  He stopped thinking about the linear story because it’s not as literal as what they’re putting up on the screen.  Nothing is being fed to the viewer; you have to look for your own answers.  Darrell commented that this is the driving force behind why Motorcycle Boy left Tulsa years earlier, to find his own answers.  Rusty James keeps saying that if he can just get out of here, things will change, but he’s so attached to the myth of his brother, gangs and his own fear, he doesn’t want to leave the world he knows.

Motorcycle Boy knows that he failed at his intended goal, although we never find out what that goal is or why he failed.  He only says that, “California got in the way.”  In the pet store scene, you realize that Motorcycle Boy knows he’s going to die, and he uses this to try to “force” Rusty James to be free.  He tells his brother to take his bike and go to the ocean; leave this place, find your own life.  Rusty James had previously said that he never had a reason to leave, and now his brother is giving him that reason.  Darrell didn’t care much for the scene as a whole, he thought the tension was a bit too “weird,” and he just didn’t like the way they put it together.  He understood that the scene was critical, but it wasn’t to his liking.

Time flow is a very key part of the story; there’s a clock in every scene, the lengthening shadows, moving clouds, ticking of clocks. Clouds crossing over through the pet shop window is an image that is burned into Jill’s head, from seeing it in the theater when she was younger.

It’s also agreed that one of the things that Coppola and Hinton do very well (Rumble Fish and The Outsiders) is to show the intimacy of male bonding and love between brothers.  It’s not something you see very often, but it’s handled very well in this film.

Francis Ford Coppola has said that Rumble Fish is one of his top five favorite films of his own.

Coppola was drawn to S.E. Hinton’s novel Rumble Fish because of the strong personal identification he had with the subject matter – a younger brother who hero-worships an older, intellectually superior brother, which mirrored the relationship between Coppola and his brother, August.  A dedication to August appears as the film’s final end credit.

Coppola initially intended to have an experimental score to complement his images.  As he began to work on it, he realized that he needed help from a professional musician… enter Stewart Copeland (The Police), who he asked to improvise a rhythm track.  It wasn’t long before Coppola let the far superior composer take over the soundtrack.  Copeland recorded street sounds of Tulsa and mixed them into the soundtrack with the use of a Musync, a new device at the time, that recorded film, frame by frame on videotape with the image on top, the dialogue in the middle, and the musical staves on the bottom so that it matched the images perfectly.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Jill

This episode was recorded: 1/25/2012

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Release date:  10/15/04

Paramount Pictures

Directed by:

Trey Parker

Written by:

Trey Parker

Matt Stone

Pam Brady

Produced by:

Trey Parker

Matt Stone

Scott Rudin

Cast/Voices:

Trey Parker:

Gary Johnston

Joe

Kim Jong Il

Hans Blix

Carson

Matt Damon

Drunk in Bar

Tim Robbins

Sean Penn

Michael Moore

Helen Hunt

Susan Sarandon

(Others)

Matt Stone:

Chris

George Clooney

Danny Glover

Ethan Hawke

(Others)

Kristen Miller:

Lisa

Masasa Moyo:

Sarah

Daran Norris:

Spottswoode

Phil Hendrie:

I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E.

Chechnyah Terrorist

Let it first be noted, and never forgotten, that this movie was Sam’s pick!  Partly because he loves this movie and partly because it fulfills the Recently Dead Guy Podcast formula (Kim Jong Il).

The MPAA rated this movie R, with a specific explanation, “For graphic crude and sexual humor, violent images and strong language – all involving puppets.”

Sam could not contain his excitement from the very beginning, before the discussion of the movie even started, setting a clear tone for the night, “God damn it America, f**k yeah!”

This is the MOST animated I have seen Darrell… (granted, I’ve only been listening for a couple of months, but still!)

The initial comments by the hosts:

Darrell thought it was the funniest thing he’d seen in a while, and the funny/odd part is that a lot of the stuff talked about in the movie has sort of come true.  Tony thought it was funny and a great parody and social commentary in that both sides of the issue are equally skewered.  Trey Parker and Matt Stone make everyone look ridiculous.  Sam thought that it’s the greatest modern satire or our era and that Stone and Parker are this generation’s best satirists because no one is safe.

It was also agreed that Parker and Stone couldn’t have gotten away with covering any of this subject matter with actual actors or even as an animated movie (South Park-ish).

Team America: World Police hit on so many movie clichés – the tragic love triangle, the character who is a jerk for no other reason than to be a jerk and the reluctant hero hitting rock bottom and then finding his courage, to name a few.

In the opening scene in Paris, all the bricks on the ground are actually croissants.  Tony also notes that in this opening scene, Parker and Stone show, in extremes, what the rest of the world sees Americans as.  We are the cops for the WORLD… We’ll take care of things for everyone else, whether they like it or not!  The fact that Team America levels almost every inch of Paris… the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triumph, the Louvre, leaving the residents of Paris with looks of terror and dismay on their faces as Team America makes their “triumphant” departure back to the U.S. is not only priceless, but also introduces that attitude of arrogant Americans.

The opening scene also included a puppet puppeteering a smaller puppet, which completely freaked out your happy note taker (Lena)… because those puppets aren’t creepy enough on their own!

Everyone wholeheartedly agreed that the puppetry was very good.  They loved how, during the fight scenes (which Sam dubbed “Puppet Fu”), the puppets just flail wildly at each other but during the sex scene, the intricate puppet maneuvers were painstakingly choreographed.

This sex scene initially garnered the movie an NC-17 Rating by the MPAA.  The scene was edited 12 times before they were finally given the R rating Parker and Stone were aiming for.

Tony also loved that Kim Jong Il was really an alien cockroach that gets into his rocket ship and flies away at the end.

The music in the movie also played a huge part in adding to the mood and movement of the story.  And thank you, Sam, for singing bits and pieces of the songs during this part of the discussion!  Sam also mentions that, at the very end of the credits, there is one more uncredited song sung by Kim Jong Il, “You Are Worthless, Alec Baldwin.”

It’s also noted that song being played in the bar (Derka Derk) is the Star Wars Cantina theme played backwards.

As for the infamous “D**k, p***y, a*****e speech , as much as I would love to get into this, not only could I not do it proper justice, but it would just be line after line of asterisks… so I highly encourage you all to listen to this entire podcast!

While discussion the overt racism and how necessary it was for Parker and Stone to make their points, Scott notes (from the chat room), “It’s so racist it’s like it loops around just ridiculous, back through racist again and back to nuts.”

Sergio states (also from the chat room) that this film is made for high school boys, college men, basically the male population of the world, except for Koreans.  {Lena’s additional note: as none of the above, I’m just going to have to disagree with Sergio on that one… I LOVED this movie!}

It’s much too easy to dismiss this as a simple film about puppets who swear and have sex – UNLESS you actually take the time to watch it, think about it, and discuss it!

Darrell noted that there were shades of Quentin Tarantino in the film; namely the scene with Team America walking down the hall in the palace on their way to battle with the “Battle Without Honor or Humanity” from Kill Bill.  (This was featured in the movies Kill Bill,Transformers, Shrek the Third, Hotel for Dogs, Team America: World Police )  Also, in a nod to Tarantino, is the big shootout, filled with gore, blood and guts flying all over the place.

In the overhead shot of Gary lying in his own vomit (perhaps the most favorite scene of the hosts), it’s actually Trey Parker wearing a pair of fake legs so the proportions are right.  The “vomit” was a mixture of soup and beer.

Matt Stone referred to the puppet technique they used as “supercrappymation.”

Sean Penn was so insulted by his portrayal in Team America that, in his letter to Parker and Stone, he closed it with, “a sincere f**k you, Sean Penn.”

Matt Damon was originally written as an intelligent puppet, but when they saw the finished product, they thought he looked dumb and decided to portray him as such.  Also, Matt Damon and George Clooney were both quoted as saying that they would have been offended if they weren’t in the film!  Alec Baldwin also reportedly round the project very amusing.

The Michael Moore puppet was filled with ham before they blew him up.

I couldn’t find anything “official” but I did find a few YouTube links (one below) for “You Are Worthless Alec Baldwin”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfOXhGbwdm0

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Sam

This episode was recorded: 1/18/2012

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Release date: 9/23/11
Lionsgate (home video release)
Directed and written by:

Kevin Smith

Produced by:

Jon Gordon

Cast:

Michael Parks – Pastor Abin Cooper
John Goodman – ATF Special Agent Keenan
Melissa Leo – Sarah
Kyle Gallner – Jared
Michael Angarano – Travis
Nicholas Braun – Billy Ray
Stephen Root – Sheriff Wynan

The host reviews were just slightly mixed.  Tony was a Kevin Smith fan up through Jersey Girl but believes that Smith’s movies have not “grown up” over the years.  Darrell had to force himself to watch the movie.  Jill felt that it could have been good as one or two different movies but Smith didn’t solidify what this particular movie was going to be; things were meshed together and just didn’t work out.  Even the credits at the end were broken up into three groups (Sex – Religion – Politics).  All of them did agree that the performances by Michael Parks and John Goodman were fantastic.

Red State was billed as a horror movie, but once you get past the three teenage boys being captured by the Five Points Trinity Church, there is no more “horror.”  When the phone rings and wakes up Agent Keenan, this introduces almost a “second” movie.  The violence from this point on is more akin to an action movie than a horror movie.

This same dividing line, the introduction of Agent Keenan, also divides the two political statements in the movie; that of religion and that of the government.

The hosts all agreed that there are two elements of evil in this movie (Cooper and the government) but neither is the one true monster. The hero is Agent Keenan but was he truly redeemed at the end?  Yes, he was.

Darrell didn’t like the hand held camera shots, he found it very distracting and thought it didn’t add anything to the filming.  Tony thought there was too much off-screen violence; he wanted to have a more visceral reaction to the film.  Jill questioned if Smith’s message was that we (the audience) are being duped… the media portrays all of these right-winged groups as monsters but the real ones still exist in the shadows and we’re being distracted from what the real monsters are doing.

Darrell brought up that Samuel L. Jackson was considered for the role that eventually went to John Goodman.

Smith wrote the role of Pastor Cooper for Michael Parks after seeing his performance in From Dusk Till Dawn.  Smith said that if Parks had not agreed to be in the film, he would have dropped the project entirely.

Smith did not initially know that Michael Parks was a country singer early in his career (1960s & 1970s).  Many of the country-gospel songs sung in the film were suggested by Parks during filming.  Three of the six songs listed in the soundtrack were performed by Parks.  After the film was completed, Parks re-recorded the songs onto an album.

Smith had stated that the original ending of Red State continued through with the trumpets signaling the Rapture.  After Cooper tells Keenan to shoot him, Cooper’s chest explodes, followed by the remaining family members’ chests and the government agents’ chests exploding one by one. During these deaths, the ground shakes and splits, and Keenan curls up on the ground and closes his eyes. When he opens his eyes he sees the last agent killed with a giant sword coming out of his chest, which is being wielded by an enormous armored angel. The angel looks at Keenan, puts a finger to his lips, and says “Shhhhh”. The angel then flies off into the sky, and as the angel banks out of the picture the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse descend.

It has been widely acknowledged that there are ten “easter eggs” in this film.  One is known, but the remaining nine will only be discussed by Smith once they are discovered by fans.  I searched online for quite some time but I couldn’t find if any one had uncovered any of the other easter eggs.  The first one is that Sheriff Wynan enters and exits the film with a shot to the face.  Tony wonders if another one is that Keenan was named after hockey coach Mike Keenan, as Smith is a well-known hockey fan.

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell
• Jill

This episode was recorded: 1/11/2012

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Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• David
• Darrell

This episode was recorded: 1/4/2012

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Tony’s Interesting Point (TIP):

• Note what David says at the end of this about Kathy Bates… then make sure you listen to what he says about her in the next episode.

Your Producers for this episode:

• Tony
• David
• Darrell
• Jill
• Charles

This episode was recorded: December 28, 2011.

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