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This week, the TGTPTU boys return to prison for more fun and games, this time stopping this 4x4 season’s first round drafted director Robert Aldrich’s run with inches to go. For the final film of the first four and to cap the Aldrich coverage, Ken drafted THE LONGEST YARD (1974).
Following Ryan’s fumbling the intro and benched as provisional cohost, this season’s four host run the tape back to explore Aldich’s plays in prototyping the sports underdog movie and somehow manage to avoid speaking too ill of the Sandler 2005 remake.
The first of the four initial films of Season 13 not to be based on a novel, The Longest Yard was a smashing success and a standout in an era of cinema that defined both the sports underdog and spirited prisoner genres. As Ken and Thomas cover this ep, Aldrich needed the win after the failure of Aldrich Studios (introed last episode).
For your amusement this episode, Ken spits fresh lyrics during his Burt Reynolds Rap (hopefully not censored by the parole board) before providing summations on Aldrich’s career and films accompanied by odd ambient squeaks this week provided by Thomas’s dog.
Note that next week will not be the start of four films by Lars von Trier but will instead be Rebels of the Neon God (1992), Tsai Ming-liang’s feature film directorial debut.
Season 13’s 4x4 marches on with the most ill-mannered, ill-disciplined hosts that it’s ever been you’re your displeasure to meet, sergeant. That’s right, the dirtiest voices in the TGTPTU’s army are getting filthier covering Robert Aldrich’s THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967).
It’s a story of twelve convicted army men, who don’t bath, until they do and the man chosen to whip them into shape: Corporal Lee Marvin fresh off an Oscar win in the role of Major Lee Marvin a.k.a. Major Alcohol a.k.a Major John Reisman. Their mission: to kill Nazi officers, women, and, if you got them, children and cute puppy German Shepherds too.
The WWII picture was immensely successful for Aldrich. Wade through episode commentary and takes about the movie’s plot structure and whether this is secretly a sports movie and how Aldrich recast around actors who were leaving the film and declining scenes to get to a teaser at the end of the episode for a further discussion of Aldrich Studios, the endeavor this film allowed Robert Aldrich financially when he sold his stake in The Dirty Dozen for an endeavor that will run (and run into the ground, spoiler!) in the interval between, and be cause for, next week’s film, The Longest Yard. And then wait a week for more information. (Or use the internet, ya geek. Or get a book from your local library {shout out}!)
For those familiar with the bit, famously Francophobic Jack takes exception to the line “free the French, kill the Germans.” Meanwhile, the boys snicker and make references to Ernest Borgnine’s secret to eternal youth (available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I_PeLNzxNQ). And for major stans of the cast, Ken pulls back the curtain to reveal the pre-record ritual rhyme the hosts chant as a mnemonic to execute a perfect show.
Cast aside your Batnipples! As a certain Patrick Bateman lookalike once said, “Well, a guy who dresses up like a bat clearly has issues,” and this week, TGTPTU tackles these issues in Sir Christopher Nolan’s entry into the franchise that would define his middle career with BATMAN BEGINS (2005). Former cohost Jack returns from France to talk Bat and comics with a Gen Z take. Meanwhile, Ken, Thomas, and Ryan grapple and claw and melee in difficult to parse action sequences to control the mic and effuse about this first of the three Batman films covered this season of NOLAN VOID.
After Insomnia, Sir Nolan’s efforts to get his and Jim Carrey’s project (a Howard Hughes’ late-in-life insanity film) off the ground (or out the hotel penthouse) were stymied by Michael Mann developing The Aviator, a film that would take off with Scorsese as captain. Without a script of his own or film in development, Nolan would meet with the Warner Bros (and maybe their sister Dot) to launch a “reboot” of the Batman franchise with Hollywood’s resident comic book aficionado David S. Goyer.
Together with production designer Nathan Crowley who’d worked with him on Insomnia for Warner Brothers, Sir Nolan worked to create a realism beyond what had come before in comic book films. In fact, per Nolan, “Everything we did was about being in massive denial that there was such a thing as [a comic book movie].”
Casting Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne (Batman takes nearly an hour to appear onscreen) and making use of his split persona from American Psycho, Bale is joined by a series of heavy hitters, including Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, Rutger Hauer, pod-fav Ken Watanabe, the estimable Mark Boone Jr (back from Memento), and, perhaps oddly cast and not-to-return to the franchise, Katie Holmes.
Exclusive this week! Hear the Batman Baggins summary delivered by Ken but written by our guest director, someone really famous and from New Zealand and whose name rhymes with Jeter Packson, who may have confused Nolan’s film with his own take on rebooting the Dark Knight as so many directors took a stab at the reboot post-Schumacher Schumacher Schumacher (hopefully you weren’t reading this aloud before a mirror). Also, enjoy this week an experimental sound mix to cover for Thomas’s brief absence from the mike as he deals with a dog releasing mind-altering gas.
So listen and continue to download and listen through the remainder of Nolan Void, for there will be a Batman in the pairing for all remaining episodes. What, you ask? Will the hosts this season get caught by their very own temporal pincer movement by reviewing The Dark Knight Rises before The Dark Knight? Stay tuned to upcoming and exciting (perhaps, anything’s possible, but most at least one of the following four episodes will be moderately amusing) episodes to find out.
Now please forgive us. We have to return some videotapes. D-FENS.
Pt. Two: Russell Crowe was still a year from being a worldwide superstar starring as Maximus in Gladiator when he puffed up and got gray hair for The Insider (1999). It's about tobacco and old-world journalism (based on an epic piece in Vanity Fair) without a mention of clicks, blogs or website banners. One of Mann's most critically praised film with his most Oscar noms. Al Pacino plays Johnny 60-Minutes trying to get Crowe (as Johnny Tobacco) to, well, crow about big tobacco in what would be a watershed monent in America after a lot of hemming and hawing about the truth and corproate timidity/complicity. Crowe wears a convincing wig, by the way, it ain't real. Christopher Plummer swoops in and steals the show as Mike Wallce, grinning a lot like Timothy Dalton in Hot Fuzz, weirdly. Big time disagreement on this one, folks. Again, a fight almost ensues.
Pt. One: After Manunter and a number of false-start projects, Michael Mann swerved hard from modern crime and neon into the historical epic LAST OF THE MOHICANS (1992). Daniel Day-Lewis built a time machine to go back in time to 1757 to research his role as Hawkeye (not the M.A.S.H. character or the superhero) and it shows! Between Mann's notorious attention to detail and Day Lewis's hardcore method acting prep, Mohicans still stands out as a stone cold period piece classic that is also the most effectively romantic of Mann's films.
Pt. Two: Russell Crowe was still a year from being a worldwide superstar starring as Maximus in Gladiator when he puffed up and got gray hair for The Insider (1999). It's about tobacco and old-world journalism (based on an epic piece in Vanity Fair) without a mention of clicks, blogs or website banners. One of Mann's most critically praised film with his most Oscar noms. Al Pacino plays Johnny 60 Minutes trying to get Crowe to, well, crow about big tobacco in what would be a watershed monent in America after a lot of hemming and hawing about the truth and corproate timidity/complicity. Crowe wears a convincing wig. Christopher Plummer swoops in and steals the show as Mike Wallce.
Michael Mann is from Chicago and it has featured prominently in a number of projects. CRIME STORY (1986-1988) was a series that began IN Chicago, 1963, and was an early precursor to the serialized TV we have today. Dennis Farina and his mustache goes toe-to-toe with Anthony Denison as sadistic criminal Ray Luca, whose violent rise from Chicago hood to Las Vegas mogul is chronicled in S1. Mann directs the penultimate episode of season one, TOP OF THE WORLD, where Farina and his squad finally get enough juice to take down Luca. We talk the episode and the series itself and how important it is in not only Mann's subsequent work, but for TV in general.
ALI was Mann's intense collaboration with Will Smith as the legendary boxer and his most turbulent era ('64-'74) as he slowly actualizes himself as a person. Ali was a muted failure upon its 2001 release and Mann has returned to it with an immediate home video director's cut and a definitive, new cut in 2017, shortly after Ali's death. It's a difficult movie to wrap your head around, thematically and narratively but the 2017 cut may fix those issues. *may*. We get into an argument about this one.
1986'S MANHUNTER, made after two years serving as the showrunner for Miami Vice, was little-seen upon its release but, arguably is Mann's most lasting genre effort. It created a template that has been repurposed approximately five million times: serial killer, profiler, victim in trouble, all leading to an explosive climax. Is William Peterson the Citizen Kane of film FBI profilers? The first, oft-imitated, but never topped? Brian Cox as Hannibal Lektor along with the limp Ratner remake RED DRAGON (2002) will also be discussed. Mann continues an unparalleled streak of casting here and it was clear, even in 1986, he knew how to make actors at the fore and the background pop like few other directors.
Then we talk COLLATERAL (2004), Mann's attempt at taking a fun blockbuster-type concept (stony hitman in a cab driven around LA by a meek cabdriver that has to learn how to be a man) and infusing it with his masterful visuals, knotty themes about life with brooding, violent characters. Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx bring every ounce of movie star charisma and bravado to this odd marriage of a movie. Is this a good match? Ken, Jack and Thomas almost get into a fistfight disagreeing about this one. Is the pod over as a result? Find out!
Also: we receive a voicemail complaint from an anonymous film director about Jack's harangues against just about everyone. What will he learn about being a Man this week?
This week we discuss two divisive Michael Mann epics. 1983's THE KEEP saw Mann take a der leften turn from his focus on the gritty crime and law enforcement settings of his TV work and feature debut to supernatural Nazi horror. As we will see later, Mann pivoting hard will yield a masterpiece in Last of The Mohicans but does it work here? Well, they ran out of money, the author of the source novel hates it, and Mann doesn't like talking about it - which sounds like a bad marriage or a bad movie (maybe all three). We'll take a look and let you know.
Then the film that has gone through the most intense re-appraisal in Mann's storied career, his film version of MIAMI VICE. Vilified upon its release for being muddy, obtuse and a disappointing slog (by one of our co-hosts!), it has since become one of the favorite films in Mann's career. Why? That is two questions: 1) why did no one like it back in 2006 and 2) why, 15 years later, does everyone with a twitter come en masse to say it is a masterpiece? Is it the salsa dancing? The non-stop police and crime jargon? Making Miami look menacing with digital photography? What is its secret? Jack, Ken and Thomas are joined by theme song maestro Ryan to figure it out. We also check in with pod friend Erik, who is also a huge fan of Vice (the movie).
This is gonna be a fun one. 85% guarantee. Also: Co-host Jack gets harassed by the cops - what he has learned from watching Michael Mann movies.
In our earnest and sincere desire to give lessons the Jack about being a man by watching Michael Mann movies we've reached dodgy ground as both our our Mann movies this week feature protagonists who are criminals. Criminals who find brief succor in the arms of a woman, but cannot escape their nature (which is stealing shit).
PUBLIC ENEMIES (2009) is Mann's first all-digital project and features Jack Sparrow as John Dillinger and Batman as Melvin Purvis, the dogged Bureau of Investigation agent trying to capture him. Too long a list of a great actors support both these fellas as one robs and the other tracks. A dynamic not unlike Mann's masterpiece Heat which, at times, feels like this is remaking taking place in 1933. Any good? Any life lessons about being a man?
Then Mann's theatrical debut, 1981's THIEF, starring James Caan along with James Caan's shoulders, which prove so wide they got separate billing (that is a fact, check it out on IMDBPro, our new sponsor!*). One of Mann's most enduring films for the Mann Fans, does it teach us anything about being a man other than stealing is a viable enterprise right up until it really isn't? Listen and find out!
Between the two films, made nearly 30 years apart, we can definitely trace the lines of Mann's preoccupations with men lost to the primacy of their "jobs" and inability to find peace in what we think of as "the real world," try as they might. A couple bangers as we begin covering the more notable films in his filmography.
In 1979 Michael Mann made what amounts to a statement of purpose in THE JERICHO MILE, a TV movie about a Folsom prison inmate who finds succor in running and attracts the eye of both professional trainers, the Olympics, and every racially segregated gang inside. Peter Strauss stars as Lickety Split in a performance so good you'll wonder why he didn't become a household name in the 1980s. The supporting cast begins what will be a Mann strong suit in the decades to come: crack supporting actors at every level and some real life prisoners sprinkled in there for verisimilitude. This is a gem and definite must-see for any Mann fan.
In 2011 David Milch and Mann collaborated on one of the biggest swings-and-miss series of the golden age of premium TV. LUCK lasted one season with 9 episodes (because Milch couldn't finish the script for #10 on time). Cancelled early in production of S2 in 2012 after three horses died, we can consider it a mercy killing of a very troubled dynamic offscreen. Despite the fascinating mosaic of horse racing with great character actors along with two aging stars in Nick Nolte and Dustin Hoffman, this thing simply did not work.
Mann directed the pilot, which we talk about here.
What does it take to be a man? We have no clue. One of our hosts, Jack, is young enough he can still figure it out so we ware watching all of Michael Mann's directorial efforts to assist. In our first episode we will watch and dissect Mann's mainstream directorial debut in Police Woman S4 E6, The Buttercup Killer, 1977 and 2015's BLACKHAT, his most recent effort starring THOR-BEFORE-HE-WAS-FUNNY and shot on iPhone 6s! The hosts watched different versions of Blackhat and it turns out there are tons of differences. In both Young Thor plays a hacker recruited to stop a different hacker from manipulating world events to make a buck. Also in both versions: mood for days and Thor with his shirt off (contractual, we believe). Police Woman was a television series that ran for four season between 1974-1978. Mann had worked in the writing ranks for earlier series' such as the gritty anthology Police Story and Starsky and Hutch before he was given the chance to direct The Buttercup Killer episode of Police Woman in S4. While he did not write the episode, it bears some of his later flourishes, despite being a perfunctory TV procedural with little to remember other than his name in the credits. The story concerns a mysterious nun killing Greeks who have dark family secrets. Guess the twist based on the title of our episode!
Join us on this journey to the Aisle of Mann in the Podcast Store.
October, 2021 is special for the GPU hosts! Later this month standout joke-maker, divisive lightning rod Jack is turning 18! Also later in the month sad sack Ken is getting MARRIED! Not only that but Jack is his best man AND third cohost, smooth criminal Thomas, is officiating the ceremony. Furthermore Ken is marrying Andi, who sang the theme song for season's 1-3. It's all a bit... like the royal family, if you know what we mean. Basically Ken has zero friends other than this podcast is what you should glean from all of this.
To celebrate we are watching a birthday movie and a wedding movie!
BIRTHDAY: PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS (1991) - this is Thomas' choice, a movie he claims is PERFECT. Is there a birthday in it? There better be! We'll find out!
WEDDING: READY OR NOT (2019)- Jack's choice. It's the one where a new bride has to kill of all her in-laws. Is it a documentary from Ken's future? Find out!
We return briefly to our Cage project to talk about his latest bid for midnight movie supremacy, PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND (2021). Directed by Sion Sono, Prisoners is a neo-western with samurais, cowboys, zombies and end time whackos from a Road Warrior test reel. Cage is tasked with finding the Governor's "daughter" who tried to escape but ended up in Ghostland, which is basically Burning Man with a giant clock. Cage is a prisoner to begin with and has bombs on joints and his balls if he messes up. This sounds pretty good.
Sono directs his first American film and it is important to note he did not write Ghostland.
The posters all quote Cage himself as this being the wildest movie he has ever made. Quite a claim, Mr. Cage! This all *SOUNDS* like bonkos movie mayhem the way we say we want it but... does it work?
Ken, Jack and Thomas all return to Cage Uncaged to figure it out.
Join TGTPTU for an hour, a day, a week—the approximate runtime of, how long it feels listening to us talk for, and the delay in releasing the episode due to internet issues, respectively—as we respectfully cover Sir Christopher Nolan’s DUNKIRK (2017) as part two of our third pairing in our NOLAN VOID season.
Surprisingly his shortest major release film, Sir Chris employs his time bending chops to retell the heroic(question mark) story of England’s bravely running away, away, bravely turning their tails and fleeing from the Nazis and the French through three intercut and overlapping tales with a cast strictly from the British Isles: young WWII soldiers played by mostly unknowns (with one notable Millennial icon exception) over a presumable span of a week try evacuating the French beach; cutie Barry Keoghan on a civilian boat sent to help evacuate Dunkirk over a day tries surviving a head wound caused by shell-shocked Cillian Murphy while Mark Rylance keeps a stiff upper lip and carries on; and, finally, over an hour of flight due to leaking fuel, Tom Hardy (Bane on a plane) provides air support shooting his machine gun from his Spitfire: pew-pew-pew (and if the movie feels like a run-on sentence, then perhaps this verbose paragraph is justified).
At approximately half the cost of INTERSTELLAR (preceding film yet to be discussed this season), Dame Thomas considers this a low-budget production of only $100M that used real equipment from the era for an air of verisimilitude. As mentioned last episode, experiences gained shooting on water will prepare the Nolan team for the wet work in TENET (subsequent film already discussed). Despite or because of this historical piece’s bending the war genre with little dialogue and absence of enemy combatants (Germans) portrayed, Dunkirk earned Sir Big Daddy Time his first Oscar nom for director but (spoiler for our second episode) not his last.
TGTPTU recommendation: Dunkirk is best watched in IMAX if you’re gonna.
A VERY special return to our Eastwood project! After watching every Eastwood for season's 1-3, Ken and Jack are back to talk about what may be Eastwood's swaniest swan song yet! Eastwood is 91 and probably working on half a dozen new projects but, mathematically, we gotta treat this like it may be his last, right? We are realists, not fatalists, and Eastwood would tip his hat to that, we hope.
CRY MACHO (2021) is based on the novel of the same name by N. Richard Nash, a screenwriter in the mid 1970s who wrote it as a script first and then, when he couldn't sell it, turned it into a novel that then became a hot screen property that has bounced around with some interesting names ever since. That sounds great.... until you hear Nick Schenk of Gran Torino and The Mule did a polish. We love us some Torino but The Mule is badly written by any objective estimation. Eastwood says he had to wait until he was old enough to play the main character but... the dude in the book is almost sixty years younger than him. Anyway, it's great story to remind us he said the same thing about his unassailable masterpiece, UNFORGIVEN. Is Cry Macho a return to form after the sloppy and missed opportunity of THE MULE? Is this the potential send-off we've been waiting for of the greatest screen legend of all time? Yes, all time.Fight us. Or... is it more late era Eastwood where you wish it was good and 65 years of goodwill makes you give it a pass? We are the reigning podcast experts on Eastwood and will let you know!
Superstar guest Annabel has moved to the other side of this crumbling planet and, as a final binge before she left, she requested we all watch the Twilight movies and then do an episode talking about it. Actually she agreed on the first film in the series but somehow we ended up watching all of them.
Ken, Jack, Annabel. Thomas and Ryan discuss all five Twilight films, the first of which was practically shot in our backyard here in Portland, OR, and its ongoing legacy on cinema in general, particularly the affection Gen Z has for the series (is it ironic? genuine?!?).
A modern model of decompression, the ten+ hours of the Twilight movies tell a story about a human girl and a vampire boy who wants her so badly it physically makes him ill. There are also werewolves and vampire dandies and... Peter Murphy?? They all end up fighting and there is a weird baby an adult man sincerely falls in love with. We nimbly discuss the series' meteoric rise and equally precipitous fall and rise again. It's pretty much Citizen Kane but with more brooding, really fast running and pieces of exploded jorts all over the forest.
Vampires in the sun do look like Sour Patch Kids, FYI.
In our landmark 50th episode we bid a fond farewell to the films of Nicolas Cage. It has been fun, frustrating, illuminating and occasionally educational, but it is time to move on.
We end with a brief dive into 2021's Willy's Wonderland, which has been a bit of a cult favorite in certain circles. Why, Certain Circles, why?!?!?
Then Jack, Ken and Thomas go over our top five films, performances, hair, car crashes and much more, also listing our least favorites because we are nerds.
BONUS: Special guests talk about their favorite Cage moments.
BONUS: SEASON FIVE DISCUSSED!
REMAINING CAGE FILMS: NONE - we started with 20 Cage films and ended up watching 26. So there, daddy-o.
GREATEST THEME SONG OF ALL TIME, "EVERY NIC HAS HIS CAGE" by HOWLING FANTODS
CHAPTERS: THOMAS & LEIGH: 01:06 INTRO/WILLY'S WONDERLAND: 08:17 THINGS WE MISSED: 36:01 CAGE LIST-O-RAMA: 40:05 THOMAS & MEG: 1:43:41 KEN & ANDI: 1:53:07 KEN & ERIK: 2:03:09
PIG (2021) was filmed in Portland, Oregon! Our podcast is based in Portland! Will we see anything we recognize resulting in that Leonardo DiCaprio meme from Once Upon a Time In Hollywood? That would be annoying. Nevertheless, a VERY SPECIAL EPISODE! Made in Portland! Our very first *new* movie!
Cage plays a hermit with a pig that finds valuable truffles buried in the fertile dirt carpeting their secluded paradise. We are not 100% sure what a truffle actually is even after seeing this movie but the pig? Amazing. Then truffle in paradise as a brutal pignapping separates Cage and his pig. What follows is a somber tale of Cage's search for the missing pig, which leads him back to Portland. Along with his truffle manager (agent? dealer?) played by Alex Wolff, Cage's journey goes from the violent depths to the cruel heights of the hilariously edgy cinematic Portland restaurant scene.
SPECIAL NOTE: Shortly after this film was made Portland erupted in riots that destroyed the entire city. It is rubble now so cancel any visiting or moving plans you may have had. Trust us. Don't look at google for confirmation. Portland is uninhabitable so visit or move to St. Louis, which we hear is totally like Portland was in 2012 when it was cool.
REMAINING CAGE UNCAGED: WILLY'S WONDERLAND AND FINAL THOUGHTS
Super-guest and theme song wizard Ryan of HOWLING FANTODS rejoins the GBU team to discuss Cage's unlikely late-career masterpiece MANDY (2018). As bracing and indelibly stunning a film as any in Cage's deep filmography, Panos Cosmatos' sophomore effort delivers as much mood, style, nerve and bravado as any film this century. This late in almost any actor's career almost nothing they do *should* come as revelation but Cage approaches that here with a wild performance equally as restrained as it is unrestrained. It is a marvel he matches the material at every step. CAGE UNCAGED would not exist if not for MANDY!
In 2011 Cosmatos released his debut feature, BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW, which stylistically serves as dress-rehearsal for Mandy. Equally as moody and stylish, Rainbow takes cues from early 1980s sci-fi with more a Cronenberg chill than Mandy's raging grindhouse revenge aesthetic. Cosmatos financed Rainbow with residuals from Tombstone, which his late father, George P., directed. Made for a little over a million dollars, Cosmatos' clear vision is here from the start; He likes 1983, red filters, cults, and soundtracks that firmly plant you into his unique universe. One of a kind x2 this week!
BONUS: Our #RestoreThe AviVerse campaign succeeds in bringing back our favorite versions of classic marvel superheroes! EXCLUSIVE CASTING ANNOUNCEMENT!
In order to properly assess one of Cage's earliest and most indelible roles in Joel and Ethan Coens second film, RAISING ARIZONA (1987), we are pairing it with BLOOD SIMPLE (1984), their first feature. Blood Simple is one of the great directorial debuts in film history and the two followed it up with one of the most beloved comedies of all time, not only avoiding a sophomore slump but eradicating the very idea such a concept exists.
All three of us are huge fans of the brothers so if you are looking for us to dunk on either movie, sorry.
Blood Simple has been called the most auspicious film debut since Citizen Kane and the greatest independent film of all time. Is that hype? I mean, geez, take it down a notch, fellas, breathe into a paper bag or something.
Raising Arizona was NOT as well received at the time of its release. Critics thought it too stylized, affected, self-aware and even mean-spirited toward its characters. Maybe it's hindsight but those critics were dead wrong - Raising Arizona is not even close to being a Wes Anderson movie. Cage has never been better and the Coens have rarely been quite as warm hearted. Movies can be magic and Raising Arizona is proof.
REMAINING CAGE UNCAGED EPSIODES:
13. BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW & MANDY
14. PIG
15. WILLY'S WONDERLAND & FINAL THOUGHTS/CAGEMATION
THEME SONG: HOWLING FANTODS
CAGE UNCAGED: ASSMAN AND ROBBIN’ **BONUS EPISODE**
**BONUS EPISODE** Another bonus episode covering a corner of Cage's career that has been under-represented thus far in Cage Uncaged!
This week we tackle the fertile cinematic era between Moonstruck (1987) and Leaving Las Vegas (1995), when Cage would appear as often in quirky indies as studio fare before he became a superstar Oscar Winner. This week we look into a few so-called neo noirs, a popular trend at the time before Tarrantino came along and made every crime story ironic and referential. The trend may have begun nine years earlier with the film debut of the Coen Bros., BLOOD SIMPLE (which we will cover as a double bill with Raising Arizona next episode!).
RED ROCK WEST (1993) is directed by John Dahl from a script by Dahl and his brother (or a guy with the same last name). Cage plays an everyman drifter with a bum knee who is mistaken for a hired killer in a speed bump of a town in rural Wyoming. Twists and turns ensue with Dennis Hopper showing up with a knife and fork ready to cut up and chew scenery. Lara Flynn Boyle, JT Walsh and Dwight Yoakam round out a small, but crack, cast that ooze a definitive sense of early 90s style.
Two years later in Barbet Schroeder's remake of KISS OF DEATH (1995), Cage plays the villain to David Caruso's career as Caruso haplessly attempted to be a legitimate A-list leading man. With a screenplay by pod fave Richard Price and a supporting cast that includes Helen Hunt, Samuel L Jackson, Michael Rappaport, Stanley Tucci, Kevin Corrigan, Hope Davis, Phillip Baker-Hall, and all-time fave Cage costar Ving Rhames, this movie had the look of a brilliantly cast, high end studio classic. But... it has since disappeared so deep into the memory hole that certain members of the pod *may* have had to resort to pirating it to even be able to watch it in 2021. Pirating hurts artists, don't forget. Was it the movie itself or did 1995 audiences get it wrong? How can we blame Tarrantino? Find out! We actually disagree a LOT on this movie.
REMAINING CAGE FILMS: PIG, RAISING ARIZONA, WILLY'S WONDERLAND, MANDY. DEEP BACKGROUND FILMS: BLOOD SIMPLE, UNDER THE BLACK RAINBOW.
On our last episode it was decided late-era Cage, despite being filled with missteps and perplexing DTV fare, was under represented. In order to fully understand THE CAGE, we needed to face this era full on. Jack and Thomas were tasked with picking a Cage released in the last ten years.
GHOST RIDER: SPIRITS OF VENGENANCE (released late 2011 for Oscar consideration, 2012 wide release) is Thomas' pick. It's the sequel to Ghost Rider (2007) which is as bad as you remember it. But the sequel has real spirit to it! From the fellas who brought us the Palme D'or Winning Crank series so you know it's got depth and meaning.
Chosen by Jack, COLOR OUT OF SPACE (2019), was the last film of 2020 Jack and Ken saw together before everything closed down. Richard Stanley is back after decades in Director Jail to adapt an HP Lovecraft classic. Lovecraft and Stanley are tough sells in 2021! Can we separate the art from the artists?
SPECIAL GUESTS: RYAN AND JASON, MEMBERS OF THEME SONG GENIUSES HOWLING FANTODS!
FINAL CAGE MATCH: RASING ARIZONA & MANDY
UNDERCARD FOR THE FINAL CAGE MATCH: BLOOD SIMPLE and BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW
PREMIERE CAGEMATCH: PIG!
CAGE UNCAGED EPILOGUE: WILLY'S WONDERLAND and FINAL CAGE THOUGHTS
TRIGGER WARNING: Con Air does include potential sexual assault as a story element that we discuss.
1997 featured Cage's most impressive box office feat when CON AIR and FACE/OFF were released within weeks of each other, turning the summer into an all-out action battle between Cage, dinosaur sequels directed by pod fave Stevie Lost World, Smith and Jones 4EVA, Bat Nipples and President Indiana Solo v. Winston Churchill.
We're calling the fight, 24 years later, for Cage. Not even close. Who watches that other crap anymore?
(Fine, Men In Black still slaps. Don't write in angry.)
CON AIR was written by Scott Rosenberg, directed by Simon West and produced by longtime Cage collaborator Jerry Bruckheimer, a group of creators that, frankly, aren't that good! And yet Con Air remains one of the singularly alchemic blockbusters of the era. Why? Start with the once-a-decade ensemble cast with prime Cage at its center and go from there.
FACE/OFF is within the exact same genre as Con Air, the over-the-top action movie with comedy that was so pervasive in the 90s. John Woo is given free reign to direct a script so ludicrous it is impossible to imagine it getting made today the way it was made then. Does it hold up?
BONUS: A very special programming note meaning a few more Cage Uncaged!
LORD OF WAR (2004) has Cage give his all in a movie that looks great on paper: The Kiwi Idea Man of Truman Show and Gattaca, Andrew Niccol, writing and directing an epic, Scorsese-like film about the rise and fall of an arms dealer taking place from the 80s through the 00s? With era-appropriate songs? Cage narration? With future Oscar winner/publicity lightening rod Jared Leto as a substance-abusing partner/brother to Cage along with Ethan Flippin' Hawke as a globe-trotting Interpol Customs Agent with a grudge? Ian Flippin' Holm, BILBO BAGGINS y'all, as an older, international arms dealer ALSO WITH A GRUDGE??? The violent son of an African dictator obsessed with Rambo's gun??? Cage using a calculator while sitting on a fallen statue of Lenin??? Time-lapsed plane demolition in Africa?? BORSCHT??? SIGN US THE HELL UP! It sounds so far up our collective podcast alley it's practically on the other side of the street (?).
But, as we know, what looks good on paper... does not always translate. Or does it? We'll tell you.
Then, the nadir of Cage's career, the late aughts and teens, hits hard with LEFT BEHIND (2014). It's the one on a plane where people get raptured, based on the 300 page best selling novel that got off the plane before page 40. You know the drill - Cage spends most of the movie in a plane, but not in a bitchin' Con Air sort of way. More of a disaster movie, second rate Twilight Zone kind of way. Thomas read the book and watched the Kirk Cameron film version as prep. Does that make the Cage version more or less appealing? Listeners of The Good, The Pod and The Ugly get Free Rapture Passes after listening to this episode! Be a jerk and still get to heaven! email us @ thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com for your Rapture Pass today! Seriously. If you email us we will send you a pass.
LORD OF WAR: 5:27
LEFT BEHIND: 56:38
Our FINAL FOUR Cage Films: Con Air, Face/Off, Mandy, Raising Arizona
For the first in our third set of NOLAN VOID pairings this week, TGTPTU hosts Ken and Thomas take on the surprisingly linear INSOMNIA (2002) with newly appointed co-host Ryan to introduce a new drinking game guaranteed to kill any participant: take a dose of an alcohol every time Kenneth says something about not wanting to compare Nolan’s adaption to the 1997 Stellan Skarsgård-starring Norwegian original… and then does exactly that.
Perhaps one reason for the linearity of Nolan film starring three previous Oscar-award winners (Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank) was it has the unique distinction of being his only film without a screenplay credit by. Rather, scripting the adapted Insomnia was the work of Hillary Seitz who is also credited with writing a grand total of three movies: a never-released dark comedy Early Bird Special (small role with Jon Hamm), Eagle Eye (starring Indiana Jones’ son later of Transformers fame), and, in 2021, The Unforgivable (starring Sandra Bullock, Viola Davis, Vincent D’onfrio who we all know as Thor in Adventures in Babysitting), which received limited release and was Netflix top film for two weeks before being bumped by a film starring Mother!, Margaret Thatcher, Madea, Willy Wonka, Howard Hughes, and Hellboy (yes, of course, we’re mentioning the unmentionable Don’t Look Up).
Returning from Memento are both Wally Pfister as cinematographer (and will stay with Sir Chris until DK Rises) and Dody Dorn as editor (who leaves for Ridley Scott flicks after this) while old-timer David Julyan scores again (having done so previously for both Following and Memento).
This week, along with Ken gripes regularly comparing Nolan’s to the original, in a surprising twist Ryan and Thomas find themselves aligned in enjoying this Americanized thriller.
Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma were best buddies in the free wheelin' 1970s who, by the late 1990s, were Hollywood legends with instantly recognizable cinematic styles. Cage was in his box office prime in in 1998 and 1999 with De Palma's SNAKE EYES and Scorsese's BRINGING OUT THE DEAD. Two old timers whose kinetic stylish flourishes met their match in big studio era Cage? Perfect, right?
Snake Eyes has energy to spare behind and in front of the camera but is it empty calories? It's a follow-up to director De Palma and screenwriter David Koepp's 1996 smash hit Mission: Impossible, which similarly uses deep-pocketed studio resources to go all-indulgence with obsessively elaborate set pieces. It begins with a 15-minute tracking shot! Yay, cinema!
Bringing Out the Deadreunites Scorsese with Taxi Driver writer Paul Schrader and composer Elmer Bernstein. Can the old guys recapture the magic of their 1976 masterpiece while adding Robert Richardson's halo-centric lighting and a crack supporting cast? Cage plays an NYC EMT who can't sleep and sees ghosts. Whoa!
Our six remaining Cage Films: Con Air, Face/Off, Left Behind, Lord of War, Mandy, Raising Arizona
Sometimes to past is refuge, as with PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED, 1986, one of Cage's earliest mainstream breakout films, directed by his Uncle Frankie, Francis Ford Coppola.Kathleen Turner goes back in time 25 years to high school and engages in, well, morally dubious behavior. Cage plays her husband in 1986 and her aspiring singer boyfriend 25 years earlier. This was the third and last Coppola film our maximalist hero was in (after Rumble Fish and Cotton Club). Nicolas Cage was reportedly a bit much on set in Peggy Sue, as we discuss, and it resulted in Coppola casting Andy Garcia in Godfather III and Keanu Reeves in Dracula instead of Cage, roles he wanted. What coulda been! Heck, Cage taking Sofia Coppola's place would have made a world of difference in Godfather III.
Other times the past is prologue to a current crisis, which resembles a global-sized escape room, as with National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007). The second of the epic National Treasure duology, Cage must clear his family name as it is smeared by being associated with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Everyone from the first film still alive returns and pretty much does the exact same thing. For fans of location work and practical effects in this depressing age of green screens, this one does have its merits!
Two movies about time from wildly different Cage eras; one right before he broke big and the other right before he broke small. We may talk hair for a bit.
PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED: 00:06:17 NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS: 00:52:49
Our eight remaining Cage Films: Bringing Out The Dead, Con Air, Face/Off, Left Behind, Lord of War, Mandy, Raising Arizona, Snake Eyes
MOONSTRUCK was one of Cage's early mainstream breakthroughs. Directed by Hollywood journeyman Norman Jewison and heralding the arrival of writer John Patrick Shanley from Broadway to film. This is the one Cher won an Oscar for because she slaps Cage and tells him to snap out of it. The late Olympia Dukakis also won a much deserved Oscar for her portrayal as Cher's mother.
Speaking of Oscar... Leaving Las Vegas is the moment Cage went from cult legend to mainstream Hollywood box office star. He won an Oscar, made The Rock, then became a dependable box office draw that lasted a solid ten years. Cage stars as a Hollywood alcoholic who goes to Las Vegas to drink himself to death while hanging out with Elizabeth Shue.
Do both of these Oscar -winning films hold up decades later? What clues do they offer as to the growing legend of Cage and his revolutionary Maximalist acting style?
LEAVING LAS VEGAS: 00:07:39
MOONSTRUCK: 00:51:00
Theme Song by: Howling Fantods
Our ten remaining Cage Films: Bringing Out The Dead, Con Air, Face/Off, Left Behind, Lord of War, Mandy, National Treasure II, Peggy Sue Got Married, Raising Arizona, Snake Eyes
City of Angels (1998) is Brad Siberling's decidedly American take on Wim Wenders masterpiece Wings of Desire (1987). Where Wenders went philosophical and spiritual, Angels goes purely romantic. Cage plays Seth Plate, an Angel (though they never say "Angel" EVEN IF IT'S IN THE TITLE) who can hear people's thoughts and take dead people to heaven like the grim reaper. He falls in love with a heart surgeon played by Meg Ryan. Somehow he can also visit her and can physically do things as an angel but can't "experience" touch? We have no clue about these Angel Rules in this movie.
Then we have JOE (2013) directed by David Gordon Green. None of us had seen this film but co-host Ken was in a barber shop recently discussing Cage and one of the other barbers said Joe was terrible and the most depressing movie he had ever seen. Sounds great! We here at GPU love us some depressing movies. Based on the novel by Larry Brown (which Thomas read for this episode!) it features Cage as Joe who runs a crew of tree-poisoners in rural Texas, befriending Tye Sheridan as a 15-year-old with a violent, spiraling-out-of-control drunk of a father. Cage and Sheridan are the only professional actors in the film. Does that work or is it too awkward?
Was Ken's barber right? Is this one of the worst movies ever made or a little-seen gem?
CITY OF ANGELS: 00:07:02
JOE: 00:51:01
Theme Song by: Howling Fantods
Our twelve remaining Cage Films: Bringing Out The Dead, Con Air, Face/Off, Leaving Las Vegas, Left Behind, Lord of War, Mandy, Moonstruck, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Peggy Sue Got Married, Raising Arizona, Snake Eyes
EPILOGUE: WILLY'S WONDERLAND
CAGE UNCAGED: THIS HERE ZIPPER MASK IS A SYMBOL OF MY INDIVIDUALITY
Andrew Kevin Walker wrote the textbook for cool, edgy nihilists (teenaged and otherwise) with 1995's SE7EN, directed by pod fave, overexposing messiah David Fincher. For fans, Walker's spiritual and numerical follow-up, 1999's 8MM was something of an event! Nicolas Cage as a PI hunting down the origins of a bonafide snuff film? Sign us up with a gallon of hand sanitizer and five needed showers with NIN blaring afterwards! Then the studio and director, Joel Schumacher, as fascicle as ever, got involved making significant changes and, 21 years later, Walker hates this movie and wants it remade. Walker was paid 1.75 million (dollars!) for the script and that didn't make things a wee bit better? Can Cage elevate the uneven material like he has so many times before (and after)?
David Lynch was a cult figure in the 80s, given carte blanche by producer Dino De Laurentiis after the infamous Dune (1984) debacle. Lynch made 1986's Blue Velvet as a result, one of the greatest films of the decade and one that found him fully in control of his own distinct style. Then Twin Peaks exploded in 1990 and his weirdness reached full zeitgeist in the mainstream for a few months.
So his film follow-up to Blue Velvet, 1990's Wild at Heart, based on Barry Gifford's slender novel of the same name, with Nicolas Cage as leading man along with Laura Dern on a sexy, crazy road trip? The anticipation (amongst fans of a certain age) was unbearable! Then it came out and fans (of a certain age) were all "Huh? What's with the Wizard of Oz stuff?" How does it look thirty years later? Is Cage the greatest actor Lynch has ever worked with? One of the legendary directing stylists ever paired with our favorite actor! Then what makes this so difficult a follow-up? Listen and find out. Maybe it isn't!
Explore the breadth of Cage in the 1990's as he goes from cult icon coveted by great directors in 1990 to full-fledged Oscar winning leading man by 1999 coveted by bland corporate studios for blander blockbusters. Does Cage keep his credibility intact?
WILD AT HEART: 00:04:04
8MM: 00:50:00
Theme Song by: Howling Fantods
Our fourteen remaining Cage Films: Bringing Out The Dead, City of Angels, Con Air, Face/Off, Leaving Las Vegas, Joe, Left Behind, Lord of War, Mandy, Moonstruck, National Treasure II, PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED, Raising Arizona, Snake Eyes
This week Ken, Thomas and Jack talk the pairing of WICKER MAN (2006) and BAD LIEUTENTANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS (2009). Neil Labute and Werner Herzog both made excessive... um, well, sequels/sidequels/remakes/whut here. We may be at Peak Cage of the 00's in both films but are they any good? This match-up is Jack's winner from our last episode and both feature Cage as a pill-popping cop who suffers trauma in the first reel. Any other comps? Probably! Listen and find out.
Everyone loves Herzog, an international filmmaking legend. But how does everyone feel about the prickly Labute, who is a filmmaker and playwright with a troubled reputation (particularly with women)?
Both films are more recent than Cage Match 1 (Vampire's Kiss and Adaptation). How has Cage's acting evolved? Or has it? Hairline Tracking has also commenced.
Please follow us on Instagram (thegoodthepodandtheugly) to see our complete lists of Cage films!
THE CAGE COP CAGE MATCH IS ON!
WICKER MAN: 00:04:14
BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS: 00:36:23
Theme Song by: Howling Fantods
Our 16 remaining Cage Films: 8mm, Bringing Out The Dead, City of Angels, Con Air, Face/Off, Leaving Las Vegas, Joe, Left Behind, Lord of War, Mandy, Moonstruck, National Treasure II, PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED, Raising Arizona, Snake Eyes, Wild at Heart
The Good, The Pod and The Ugly will trace the historic and maximalist acting career of Nicolas Cage through 20 of his films over the course of 10 episodes. How the 20 films were picked is simple: We argued about them. Two films will be paired from our master list based on theme and each episode we'll present our latest Cage Match.
For week one it is from Thomas, LITERARY NICOLAS CAGE as we cover Vampire's Kiss (1989) and Adaptation (2002). Cage plays a writer or an editor in each. Well, he technically plays TWO writers in Adaptation. Anyway, writing plays a part in each. Also Chris Cooper's teeth!!
In Kiss Cage plays the quintessential 1980s yuppie, a Manhattan literary editor, whose life starts unraveling as he kinda sorta transforms into a vampire. Flashdance is in this movie, either as a vampire or an ex. We aren't entirely sure.
In Adaptation he plays Charlie and Donald Kauffman. Charlie is hired to adapt a book about orchids but ends up making the script - and movie - about Charlie Kauffman. Alternate title: CHARLIE TWITTER.
Ken and Jack will be joined ALL SEASON by fan favorite Thomas, who is an expert in all things Cage.
Please follow us on Instagram (thegoodthepodandtheugly) to see our complete lists of Cage films!
VAMPIRE'S KISS: 00:06:58
ADAPTATION :00:38:39
Theme Song by: Howling Fantods
Our 18 remaining Cage Films: 8mm, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Bringing Out The Dead, City of Angels, Con Air, Face/Off, Leaving Las Vegas, Joe, Left Behind, Lord of War, Mandy, Moonstruck, National Treasure II, PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED, Raising Arizona, Snake Eyes, Wicker Man, Wild at Heart
EPILOGUE: WILLY'S WONDERLAND
EASTWOOD: TIGHTROPE ***FINAL EASTWOOD EPISODE SEASON FINALE***
TRIGGER WARNING: Tightrope's central plot is about a serial rapist.
Hell of a thing, startin' a pod covering every Eastwood movie. You talk about every movie he made, and, someday, it ends.
Today is that day.
63 Eastwood movies and the first episode of Rawhide down. We watched and talked about them all. Now we wrap up season three and the Eastwoods with reflection, tears, a few jeers and a few beers.
TIGHTROPE from 1984 is the last on our list. Richard Tuggle wrote Escape From Alcatraz (S3 E8), one of our favorites from the late 70's early 80s era we have covered in this final season. This is one of Tuggle's few credits after Alcatraz and it has been long rumored Eastwood himself directed much of it without credit due to... The Eastwood Rule put in place by the DGA following Phillip Kauffman being removed from The Outlaw Josey Wales (S3 E1) and being replaced by... Clint Eastwood. Wales was covered in our season three premier so everything comes full circle!
We'll talk about the movie, Eastwood's lasting legacy as an actor and director and we will both announce our rankings for every Eastwood film we have covered. All 64.
It has been a hell of ride with some epic peaks and some depressing valleys watching all of Eastwood's films. Did we learn anything? What will we do next? What are our plans for 2021's CRY MACHO, Eastwood's latest film? Is THE GOOD, THE POD AND THE UGLY over? WHAT ABOUT CRY MACHO (2021)? Listen and find out!
TIGHTROPE: 00:05:26
EASTWOOD RECAP, COUNTDOWN 64-1 FROM JACK AND KEN: 00:34:46
1985's PALE RIDER is Eastwood's first western in nine years and the third of four he would direct (High Plains Drifter, Outlaw Josey Wales and Unforgiven). A play off the classic SHANE template, Eastwood stars as a mysterious stranger named Preacher who helps a small town against unscrupulous miners. He's like a ghost but we swear it is different than High Plains Drifter.
1984's CITY HEAT is Clint's one and only collab with fellow box office star (of the era) Burt Reynolds. Their careers went in vastly different directions after this movie, which we will talks about with our friend Rick.
THE GOOD, THE POD AND THE UGLY began by watching Eastwood's latest (Richard Jewell, S1 E1) and his earliest (RETURN OF THE CREATURE, S1 E1). We then watched one movie moving forward and one moving back, initially separated by SIXTY-FOUR YEARS, until... THIS EPISODE where we are watching and talking two movies that came out within a year of each other.
TRIGGER WARNING: One of the films covered in this episode, Sudden Impact, has a major plot point concerning sexual assault.
1983's Dirty Harry epic SUDDEN IMPACT, is Eastwood's only film in the series as director. Made after personal project Honkytonk Man (S3 E12) in 1982, Clint is in clear "one for them, one for me" mode here, casting Sondra Locke (her 6th and final Eastwood film) as a vengeful woman whose tactics are not dissimilar to Harry's. But they are illegal. But if they are, then aren't his? Potentially intriguing themes but is Locke the key that makes it work or is there a reason they never made a movie together again? This is the most financially successful Dirty Harry movie ever. Good, right? "Go ahead, make my day," is one of the top five most memorable quotes in film history, according to this one poll on the internet we saw! The Enforcer (S3 E2) was supposed to be Clint's final Dirty Harry movie, having ended with Harry walking off, once again, after the system being a failure (also once again). A few tough breaks at the box office (Bronco Billy, Honkytonk Man) along with smaller films Clint needed studio backing for and he was pulled back in to the old shoulder holster (and banked a reported THIRTY MILLION for his efforts). For good or nah? The Dead Pool (S3 E12) would follow and end the Dirty Harry series five years later.
1986's Heartbreak Ridge ends (spoiler) with the invasion of Grenada. Clint plays a guy named Thomas Highway. He trains a group of ragtag marine youths - RECON!! - with discipline problems. Does he get them ready to invade Grenada? What's Clint getting at with this odd little character piece, anyway? It's either boldly enigmatic and unknowable or... something else. Mario Van Peebles plays the ultimate 80s supporting character: Stitch Jones, the Marine Recon rock and roll front man who sings, among other classics, "I love you (but I ain't stupid)."
American Hero and Iraq veteran Larry returns to help us figure it all out and see what Ridge got right and got wrong.
DISASTER IN THE STUDIO: As resident plot recapper, who keeps every episode nominally moving, Ken takes copious notes when watching every Eastwood movie to use when recapping plots when we record. KEN LOST HIS NOTEBOOK SHORTLY BEFORE RECORDING THIS EPISODE! Can the crew survive without his notes? He has no idea who the heck is in these movies! Will we even know what movie we are talking about?
This week TGTPTU goes deeper into Season 12’s NOLAN VOID with TENET (2020), a title spelled the same forward and backward, and the progenitor of TGTPTU’s “temporal pincer movement” description of our podcast’s episode pairing methodology.
Instead of spoiling the episode with notes, here’s a transcript spoiling cohost Thomas’ plot summary:
We’re following one main person, played by John David Washington, who gets his guy but when he returns to get rid of bombs, he himself is saved by someone who is not from his crew nor the police nor of the terrorists but has a noticeable red charm like for identifying airport luggage on his pack.
Unfortunately when he gets back to the van, Washington’s undercover character appears to have been made, and so he’s getting his teeth pulled out at a train depot and is unable to take his cyanide pill but his buddy is able to slip him his and our protagonist is not dead but awakens with new teeth and has passed his test as the suicide pill was not real. Instead, it was all test; he’s now considered dead and can pursue a deeper danger that is only known as “Tenet” (and interlocking fingers).
Because of arms dealing or something, Protagonist meets his handler Neil (Robert Pattinson) who knows all about Protagonist, including that he prefers cola to soda water. They slingshot themselves onto an impenetrable building to meet an arms dealer who informs Protagonist the real baddie is a Russian oligarch who’s getting info from the future.
Protagonist travels to brunch with Michael Caine who plays Michael Caine to inform Protagonist that his entry point to the oligarch is his wife Katherine “Kat” Barton (Elizabeth Debicki) who had an art scam she’s being blackmailed for by her husband, so she meets Protagonist for dinner and husband oligarch (still unseen) isn’t happy and his goons arrive to take Protagonist into the kitchen to rough him up but instead get the business end of a cheese grater from Protagonist.
So now we’re at like Minute 40 and it’s a two-and-half-hour movie.
Oh, Branaugh’s got a fitness tracker, the radioactive material from heist is really the final piece from the future’s doomsday device that might not be set off in the future as Branaugh now has all the pieces and that fitness tracker is a deadman’s switch so Washington’s Protagonist and an army with turnstyle technology on a boat and Pattinson’s Neil get divided into two teams (one going forward, one backward) to raid the facility with the device while Debicki’s Kat is on a yacht with Branaugh to keep him from suiciding, although she wants to kill him.
Neil swaps sides between forward and backwards during the attack to save the day and, after saving the day because it hasn’t happened yet from one timeline maybe, needs to go back to the past—and his likely death (although Protagonist keeps this information compartmentalized).
Neil lets Protagonist know they will be friends in the future because that’s where he’s from and Protagonist notices a red doohickey we saw from the Opera scene. Movie continues because there was a cell phone and we find out that Protagonist appears to have mastered timey-wimey things because he saves Kat from being killed by the arms dealer from earlier to protect the Tenet secret by killing the arms dealer first, and everything’s fine and there are no repercussions. Yay!
Oh, spoilers. But you already knew that. Or you will.
DEADPOOL, the wise-cracking meta-superhero is not the same as THE DEAD POOL, from 1988, the final Dirty Harry film; running on thin enough fumes that podcast fave Buddy Van Horn (S3 E10) was called in to nominally direct a script written by a trio of antioxidant advocates with zero film experience (none of whom would ever work on a film again). Liam Neeson and Jim Carrey are both in it, pre-fame, so it has that going for it. When a remote control car chase is a major selling point, you may be looking up at the bottom of the barrel. Or is The Dead Pool a misunderstood masterpiece that turns genre convention into meta-commentary for next level satire?
Then 1982's Honkytonk Man, a little seen labor of love for Eastwood and an early stretch as director. It's a road movie about a Depression-era singer with TB (not Tom Brady but tuberculosis) and his nephew going to the Grand Old Opry. If "depression-era " and "tuberculosis" are on your vision board as things you want in a movie, this may be your pot of gold! Our pal Patrick, a DJ and record store proprietor, joins us once again to tell us the value of this movie if it were a vintage LP.
1982's FIREFOX was not about a future web browser but about a Soviet plane during the Cold War that you can fly with your brain or eyes or showtunes. Just go with it - Brain Plane. Eastwood plays the only man that can sneak into Soviet Russia and steal the plane and take it home so America can use it to bomb them. Lotsa spycraft-type hijinks ensue before he can try and steal the plane. Does he? Are there accents in this movie? Does Eastwood attempt speaking Russian?!?!?
1988's BIRD, the first film of Eastwood's directorial career he did not star in since podcast fave BREEZY in 1973 (S2 E7)! He would not direct another he did not star in again until 1995's less-than-good Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (S2 E10). A passion project about troubled jazz legend Charlie Parker, Bird was a major turning point for Eastwood as a director and how critics viewed him. But is it any good or is it one riff too many with excessive improvisation gumming up the story? (we don't understand Jazz so we hope that reference works for jazz fanatics). Celebrity chef/screenwriter Erik joins us once again on tenor sax!
Buddy Van Horn was a legendary stuntman (doubled for Eastwood numerous times) and stunt coordinator (Million Dollar Baby, baby!) but he also directed what may be the least essential of films in Eastwood's 65 year filmography. This week we coincidentally get two of those films, 1980's ANY WHICH WAY YOU CAN and 1989's PINK CADILLAC.
Any Which Way You Can brings the whole gang back from Every Which Way But Loose and sets them on another comedic adventure not at all dissimilar to the first one except maybe with even less on its mind. Clyde is in it so you know what's what. Enjoy as Jack, who slept through 90% of this movie, clearly thinks Ken is making up the plot up as they go along. But, nope, there is some weird stuff in this thing. Also there is a lot of camera punching. We love Clint punching the camera. Where is THAT supercut, YouTube?
Then marvel at the sizzling hot synopsis of the never-made third Which Way film, Either Which Way You Go, which would have also been directed by Van Horn in '85 had Ruth Gordon not sadly passed away.
Pink Cadillac, on the other hand, is not dissimilar to podcast not-fave The Gauntlet, right down to the Nevada setting. A comedy-adventure about a mismatched couple with a group of bad guys trying to get them. But Caddy has Bernadette Peters instead of Sondra Locke. There is that. Who doesn't like Bernadette Peters? Simply adorable and an American icon! Is that enough to keep things afloat? What is the signature Buddy Van Horn shot, anyway? Find out in this episode!
Ken and Jack are joined by NO ONE this episode because we couldn't find any guests who wanted to sit through these two cinematic sensations.
One of Clint's most ambitious films prior to Unforgiven, 1990's WHITE HUNTER, BLACK HEART is covered here in detail. A roman a clef about John Huston prepping The African Queen, toxic masculinity, white imperialism, and malignant narcissism all fuel Eastwood's studied take on Huston's patrician airs. Jeff Fahey appears as foil to Clint's destructive spiral in trying to bag an Elephant. Possibly Clint's most daring role as an actor his entire career. Is his aim true or is he gored by hubris?
1980's Bronco Billy was a gentle turn from Eastwood's until-then screen persona of cynical loner tough guy. Here he plays a... well, a loner tough guy, yeah, granted, but NOT a cynic. He plays the title role - a captain or king or head ramrod - of a band of misfits putting on western shows in Idaho/Montana. It collects so many actors from Eastwood's 70's output it is as close to The Avengers as Clint will ever get. Co-star/paramour Sondra Locke's performance does the film few favors, but it remains well-regarded by most Eastwood enthusiasts. But who cares about them? WHAT DO WE THINK? We are joined by podcast fave Thomas to get to it.
A few major disagreements this episode. Does anyone cry as a result?
1979's ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ, directed by podcast fave Don Donald Siegel (Coogan's Bluff, The Beguiled, Dirty Harry, Two Mules For Sister Sara), remains one of Clint's most memorable films. Turning down the laffs and winks that dominated a good portion of his 70's output, Eastwood is as taut here as Siegel's film detailing the heist-like planning and execution of... well, it's in the title. Ken saw it in theaters in 1979 and for years remembered it as being in black and white. Guess what, young Ken? It isn't! How does it hold up compared with the 639 other Eastwood films we have covered? Find out!
Then 1990's THE ROOKIE, co-starring Charlie Sheen as a man who killed his brother (no, Emilio!!!) as a child or... something? They jump off a roof we think? Then, even though he is rich, he becomes THE ROOKIE to Clint's grizzled old pro of a donut-chomping, cigar-smoking cop. Also featuring Raul Julia and Sonia Braga as, um, German car thieves?!?! We think? Yeah, we have no idea either. What the heck is going on here? We will talk about the infamous scene between Clint and Braga, so don't worry or... worry. A lot. It's one of a kind, we will give it that. Eastwood made this for Warner Bros to pay back them after financing the little-seen White Hunter, Black Heart earlier in 1990 and The Rookie subsequently bombed as well. Go figure. When Lara Flynn Boyle is a beacon of good sense and tranquility in your movie, you are in trouble. Jack Green's reliably crisp and dark cinematography slaps so it is not all confounding.
Unforgiven was two years away so this story ends well but Clint was stumbling bigly at this point, both artistically and at the box office. Huge turning point in his career looking back. But does that make it worth watching? Listen and find out!
ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ: 00:03:30
THE ROOKIE 00:43:05
EASTWOOD: UNFORGIVEN PART TWO: LEGACY W/SPECIAL GUESTS
S3 E7 THEY GOT A SIGN ON THE POD? OUTSIDE OF GREELY'S?
We conclude our lovingly epic discussion of 1992's Unforgiven by talking with a number of our friends. We speak with Erik, Larry, Andi, Leigh, Thomas and Rick about their experiences with Unforgiven, both when they first saw it and in re-watching it in 2020 for this show.
This is the best movie Eastwood has ever made and we could probably talk about it for ten episodes. Alas, our tribute ends with two episodes and four and a half total hours of yakkity yak about it.
Every pod's got it comin, kid.
Guests:
ANDI: 01:46
ERIK FIXING HIS CONNECTION WITH A GIN & TONIC RECIPE: 17:52
The only reason there is a Clint Eastwood podcast (incidentally called The Good, The Pod and The Ugly) and that is because we love this movie and wanted to watch everything Eastwood made before and after it like some kind of sun holding all the others in orbit. It's not only the best movie of Clint Eastwood's storied career but one of the greatest films of all time. Yes, all time, and we will fight anyone who says otherwise.
We'll dig into the amazingly dense David Webb People's screenplay, the long road from script to screen to one of the morally darkest films in Eastwood's catalogue also serving as a potent cultural counterpoint to the screen violence Eastwood doled out casually for decades.
We have a lot of fun and shower a lot of love on the film and its plot here in part one of our Unforgiven coverage. Next episode will include the thoughts of all our friends and film luminaries.
YOU GONNA UNWRAP THAT PRESENT OR WHISTLE DIXIE? XMAS 2020!
S3 E5 We take a much-earned break from the epic (and endless) filmography of the World's Greatest Movie Star/Director, Clinton Eastwood Jr., for the Holidays!
Ken and Jack have each chosen a "Christmas Adjacent" movie to screen. We don't know what they are until they start. The only rule is it cannot be a standard Christmas Genre movie where the season reminds someone of food and family, truey meanings and all that. And it can't be a Shane Black movie because that would be too easy. They are just movies that happen to have Christmas in them, either as a setting or even one scene (e.g. Eastwood's own True Crime, not a Christmas movie at all, ends with the main character Christmas shopping). Kinda dumb, yeah, but also a lot of fun the think about if you are a seriously ridiculous movie fan.
If you listen to us regularly you know we will have a lot to say with very little substance.
WHAT ARE OUR TWO CHRISTMAS ADJACENT MOVIES??? Listen and find out. Did we pick movies you'd pick? Let us know!
NOTE: Our next episode is Unforgiven. Please remember Unforgiven is one of the best films ever made!
(If you have read this far, the two Christmas Adjacent movies we picked are In Bruges and LA Confidential).
In the Line of Fire (1993) was Clint's victory lap film following Unforgiven. Directed by Wolfgang Peterson, this is one of two films Clint has been in since 1990 he did not direct. If you know the other film you win a prize (the prize is watching Amy Adams!). Clint plays a confident - yet haunted - secret service agent who engages in a cat & mouse game with a would-be presidential killer played by John Malkovich, who is by turns sadistic, over the top and beguiling. Running afoul of bureaucrats, Clint must impose his will on a broken system filled with yes-men who value good press over real crime fighting in order to find this maniac... wait a dang second, is this Dirty Harry? It sounds like Dirty Harry. Anyway, Renee Russo plays a female agent 24 years years Eastwood's junior so you know there won't be any romance there because that is a sizeable age difference (wink-wink).
Then we get to one of the strangest and most enduring films Eastwood ever made, 1978's Every Which Way But Loose. It's the one with the orangutan! And bikers! And Sondra Locke. You betcha, Tim Tom Jim James Fargo (1976's The Enforcer) returns to direct another Eastwood epic. This movie made a lot of money and was the first Eastwood film Ken ever saw in theaters back when he was mumble-mumble years old! He liked it then but... HISTORY FACTS, he was a dumb kid with a runny nose so let's wait and see what OLD Ken, Jack and superstar podcast guest Thomas think.
1977's The Gauntlet is the first vehicle specifically for Clint and then-muse, Sondra Locke. She was nominated for an Oscar years prior and Eastwood claimed she would be again for this film. Was she? The Gauntlet is a road movie with a mismatched couple who start off not liking each other but... through adversity somehow find love. Also 16,000 bullets are fired in this movie. That is a lot and no one seems to be able to hit a tire on a moving bus. The Gauntlet was also Clint's directorial follow-up to the masterpiece Outlaw Josey Wales after letting someone else direct 1976's The Enforcer.
Clint's follow-up directorial effort following his masterpiece Unforgiven (after taking a victory lap with someone else directing for In The Line of Fire) is 1993's A Perfect World, a road movie featuring Kevin Costner on the run with a little kid in tow while Clint, Jurassic Park and West Wing guy are in pursuit in 1963. Following In The Line of Fire, this is the second consecutive 1993 Eastwood film in which 1963 plays an integral role - a fact only interesting to a select few.
Ken and Jack navigate biker gangs, corrupt cops and escaped convicts, and are joined by superstar dancer and cultural influencer Annabel!
Our Nolan Void Season continues with the first of our second pairing MEMENTO (2000). Many of you might suspect we would try writing these show notes in reverse, but, as that’d be too meta for us, we’ll leave that to some other aspiring writer with memory problems we know.
Speaking of self-referential memory problems, Memento was actually the film that couldn’t find distribution that Steven Soderberg claimed could be the bellwether of the death of the 90’s indie cinema wave (see our erroneous show notes for FOLLOWING, Season 12, Episode 1).
Listen past the awesome intro song for a surprise guest giving the plot synopsis this week, dogs barking not on command, and, to the eagle-eared listener, the return of the squeaky chair.
Sir Nolan upon reflection stated there was a greater leap between his first feature Following and Memento than any between project. He had to trust another behind the camera (Wally Pfister, who’d shoot this and the next six Nolan films and win an Academy Award for INCEPTION) and had union rules and budgeted shooting schedules (losing some days when relocated from Canada to the States). Eventual Dame Emma Thomas would not be the executive producer as she was working at a different company. Memento also would star professional actors, a stellar lineup perhaps thanks to the early interest of Brad Pitt in the role of the Leonard instead played by the amazing Guy Pearce and costarring two actors hot off the success of the MATRIX: Carrie-Anne Moss and Joey Pants.
Written concurrently with his younger brother (no “Sir”) Jonathan Nolan who’d develop his premise into a short story “Memento Mori” published in Esquire, the movie Memento follows an amnesiac and heavily tattooed protagonist Leonard (the former attribute part of but latter absent from the short story) as he pursues seeking revenge on his wife’s mysterious killer, having himself somehow contracted a condition similar to Sammy Jenkins, a man who allegedly retain all of his memories up to a specific moment of trauma but afterwards could form no new memories. But is there more similarities between Jenkins and Leonard than his memory triggered by the tattoo “Remember Sammy Jenkins” allows?
To unravel this story told backwards and to find a deeper understanding as its paired with next week’s TENET, cohosts Ken and Thomas are again joined by the provisional host Ryan, who also recorded the intro/outro music.
DIRTY HARRY IS BACK! And he is shooting some... bad bridges in.... Iowa?
Sadly, no. In 1976's The Enforcer, Harry Callahan returns in his third outing, where he drops pretense of political ambiguity of the first two installments and goes full on law & order with society crumbling while he teaches Tyne Daley how to be an Inspector and she teaches him to find his heart before everyone dies on Alcatraz. Then he walks away again but will eventually be back with the SFPD because the donuts are great. (Spoilers)
Then we cover The Bridges of Madison County, from 1995, Clint's most directly romantic movie until the amazing J. Edgar (it's true!). Meryl Streep brings out something special in Eastwood as they portray two lost souls over four days in rural Iowa in 1965. Clint does shoot bridges here, but not Jeff Bridges and not with a .44 Magnum. He plays a photographer shooting the bridges in the title with his sweet camera set up. Meryl Streep plays a woman who takes a bath in the tub Eastwood just showered in but it's not as weird as that sounds. It's good! We are joined by podcast superstar Meg to figure it all out and leave a very special google review of our own.
THE ENFORCER: 00:04:21
BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY: 00:24:22
EASTWOOD: ABSOLUTE PRESIDENT OUTLAW **SEASON PREMIERE**
Clint Eastwood's Outlaw Josey Wales, 1976, inspired The Eastwood Rule in the DGA. What is it? Why is it? Does it limit squints per film? Generally considered Clint's first masterpiece as director, Wales also features the first of six pairings with Sondra Locke, whose contentious offscreen relationship with him will form a behind-the-scenes story that will stretch well into 1996. We will be covering the other five films later this season. This is pretty much the Sondra Locke season. You have been warned.
Then 1997's ABSOLUTE POWER reunites Clint with Gene Hackman, who plays a president who seeks to wield... well, it's in the title. Clint plays a hamburglar who comes for a Big Mac but leaves with a whole mess of trouble! This is the first of two movies Clint would release in 1997, the second is the execrable Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, as covered in our S2 finale. Clint had a busy time off-camera and kept his film crew family working so it's hard to get too angry at his '97 output. Unless you had to sit through them, anyway.
Ken and Jack are joined once again by a fave guest! Screenwriter, host and film scholar, Erik!
THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES: 00:03:36
ABSOLUTE POWER: 00:35:40
EASTWOOD: THE GOOD AND EVIL SANCTION *SEASON FINALE*
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is Eastwood's second movie in 1997 (preceded by next episode's Absolute Power). Based on the blockbuster true crime (the title of a film in LAST week's episode) novel of the same name by John Berendt. John Cusack has the unenviable job of acting alongside the director's daughter, Allison Eastwood, as he meets wacky southern characters and future problematic poster boy Kevin Spacey, in full "Ah say Ah say" mode. There is a murder trial and a garden but not a murder trial inside a garden where the tomatoes throw themselves at a lying witness - it's the movie we need, not the movie we want.
1975's The Eiger Sanction is also based on a blockbuster novel of the same name by the mysterious Trevanian (kind of a 1970s satiric thriller version of QAnon but clearly labeled as fiction). Clint trained his ass off to prep for this movie about spies, assassins, mountain climbing and George Kennedy. He plays a retired assassin called back into the game because... it's personal. Duh. Someone is going to kill someone on a big mountain and... it doesn't make a lot of sense but plays into Eastwood's natural affinity for rugged, physical filmmaking. Ken and Jack are joined by famed songstress and beauty Andi to discuss both films. Then a rundown of season two favorites and least favorites. Probably some google reviews. Maybe a marriage or a birth or a shooting to get y'all to come back for S3.