0:00

Now streaming only on Disney Plus. My

0:02

name is Taylor. Welcome to the Aeros

0:04

tour. I love you guys. Experience

0:09

Taylor Swift's record-breaking Aeros tour.

0:12

We do, we do, baby.

0:14

Does anyone here know the lyrics?

0:17

Ruben. Let's get big, yeah.

0:20

Let's get big. Taylor Swift the

0:22

Aeros tour, Taylor's version. Let's go, let's

0:24

go. With four additional acoustic songs. Now

0:28

streaming only on Disney Plus. What

0:34

kind of a show are you guys putting on here

0:36

today? You're not interested in art? No. Now look, we're

0:38

going to do this thing. We're going to have a

0:40

conversation. From

0:43

Chicago, this is Film Spotting. I'm Josh

0:45

Larson and I'm Adam Kempinar. Line her

0:47

up. You

0:52

only have to be very, very

0:54

gentle. A

1:00

bit more powerful than a punch. That's

1:03

from the new bloody desert thriller from

1:05

director Rose Glass starring Kristin Stewart at

1:08

Harris and the lesser known Katie O'Brien.

1:10

We've got a review of Love Lies

1:12

Bleeding and our William Wyler marathon continues

1:14

with the director's best picture winning the

1:17

best years of our lives. That and

1:19

more ahead on Film Spotting. Welcome

1:24

to Film Spotting. Josh, last

1:27

week marked the glorious return of

1:29

trivia spotting. 90

1:31

film spotting family members joining us for

1:33

some virtual pub style movie trivia. Good

1:36

times were had despite knowing very

1:38

few answers myself. And yet I think

1:41

if I heard our quiz master Thomas

1:43

Todd correctly at the end, my

1:45

team Cinema Toast Crunch did

1:47

just finish off the podium at fourth. You

1:50

were on the podium. Your team took third.

1:52

Made it to the podium. How about that?

1:55

No thanks to me. I can attest to that.

1:57

As a matter of fact, I think I worked

1:59

against our team. Molly Kosoff

2:01

was a team member. One of the

2:03

questions she threw out an

2:05

answer and didn't sound right to a

2:07

handful of others. And

2:09

I just, you know, being the team captain, I thought, let's

2:11

go. Let's go with consensus.

2:13

Sure enough, we got that one

2:16

wrong. I apologize to Molly then. I will

2:18

apologize again because who knows? Who knows? That

2:20

might have launched just a second place, that one question. Good

2:23

point. Yeah, I think I've had Molly on

2:25

my team before. I've been fortunate to have Molly

2:27

on my team before. And what I remember, Josh,

2:29

that maybe you don't recall

2:32

is of the three of us, you,

2:34

me, and Molly, she's the only one

2:36

who's been on Jeopardy. So how about

2:39

not picking against her? See, you know, Molly

2:41

should have led with that because I had

2:43

forgotten it. And yes,

2:45

definitely then I would have said her

2:47

one vote vetoes the five others. Right.

2:51

A couple of ways that you can

2:53

enjoy trivia spotting. You can listen to

2:55

last week's game. We've posted

2:57

it as a bonus episode in the

2:59

special feeds available only to our family

3:01

members. You can also join

3:04

us for a future round of trivia.

3:06

We see ourselves doing this about once

3:08

a quarter exclusively for family members.

3:11

filmsleddingfamily.com is where you can get

3:13

more info. I think I truly

3:15

knew three of the 20 questions.

3:18

That's it. I mean, I feel like Thomas

3:20

came in, came in a little

3:22

hard. A little hot. It's like he's

3:24

aware. He had

3:27

all these great questions pent up or something

3:29

because they were a tad more difficult than

3:31

before. But that's just me speaking. Plenty

3:34

of others had no problems, no issues. So these

3:36

guys haven't called me for trivia spotting in over

3:38

a year. I'm really going to give it to

3:41

them. Exactly.

3:43

Later in the show, FilmSleddingMadness, the best

3:45

of the 1950s, our

3:47

elite eight match-ups are set. Kubrick's

3:50

out. Bergman's out. Two

3:52

Hitchcocks are still in. Two Wilders are still

3:54

in. And is Charles

3:57

Lottin being fitted for a glass slipper as

3:59

we speak? For more info

4:01

or to vote film spotting net

4:03

slash madness Also later in

4:05

the show we get to talk about a film widely

4:08

considered one of the greatest of all time Certainly

4:10

one of the greatest films of all

4:12

time that I hadn't seen until this

4:14

week and this marathon So

4:17

glad I did. I know what people

4:19

are talking about now It's William Wyler's

4:21

best picture-winning 1946 film the best years

4:24

of our lives It is the second

4:26

film in our Wyler marathon more information

4:28

about that is at film spotting net

4:30

slash marathons first up love

4:33

lies bleeding from director Rose Where

4:38

did you appear from Oklahoma

4:45

never been anywhere live here Get

4:55

a lot crazy ass foreigners mostly What

5:02

makes for movie chemistry It's

5:05

a bit of a you know it when

5:07

you see it proposition I could try to

5:09

break it down and offer some sort of

5:11

analytical formula or I could just

5:13

show you George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez trapped in

5:16

a car trunk together in out of sight Unfortunately,

5:19

this is film spotting Adam. So it's our

5:21

job to break it down And

5:24

I want to do that within the context

5:26

of love lies bleeding a new crime drama

5:28

from st Ma director Rose Glass set

5:31

in the American Southwest in the late

5:33

1980s the movie stars Kristen Stewart as

5:35

Lou the scruffy manager of

5:37

a scuzzy gym where she spends most

5:39

of her time Unclogging toilets

5:41

and selling steroids on the side.

5:43

It's a lonely life until the

5:45

arrival of Jackie played by Katie

5:48

O'Brien a Statuesque female

5:50

bodybuilder who is hitchhiking her way to

5:52

a competition in Las Vegas immediately

5:56

Sparks fly isn't that the cliche we

5:58

usually use to suggest? on-screen

6:01

chemistry. But complications soon

6:03

follow, not so much because these

6:05

are two women, but because Lou's

6:07

life includes two very problematic men.

6:10

Her abusive brother-in-law, played by Dave

6:12

Franco, and her criminal father,

6:14

played by Ed Harris. Back

6:17

to that chemistry between Stewart and O'Brien.

6:20

Maybe you'll surprise me, Adam, and tell me you

6:22

didn't think there was much of a charge between

6:24

the two actors. That would be its own interesting

6:26

conversation. But assuming you did,

6:29

tell me what it was about their

6:31

dynamic that was so compelling, what that

6:33

might have taught you about movie chemistry,

6:36

and how all of this plays into

6:38

love, lies bleeding as a whole. Well,

6:42

start with as a whole. We

6:44

don't often, in these reviews, despite sometimes

6:46

talking about movies for 40 to 60

6:49

minutes, urge people to go see

6:51

a movie unless you're like my wife, who

6:54

generally doesn't enjoy very

6:56

violent movies. And

6:58

I think Love Lies Bleeding, as its

7:00

title would suggest, qualifies. I'm gonna say

7:03

this movie deserves your attention, especially

7:05

seeing it on the big screen,

7:07

where you can fully appreciate Glass's

7:09

rhetorical choices. With Saint Maude

7:12

and Love Lies Bleeding, she

7:14

has established herself as a

7:17

daring visual storyteller. Big swings.

7:20

Including her big use of color, her

7:22

bold use of color, brash compositions, among

7:25

other adventurous decisions she makes, which I'm

7:27

sure we'll get into. And I think

7:29

maybe we can get into without divulging

7:31

spoilers. We'll see. To

7:33

answer your question, though, on

7:36

film spotting 1567,

7:38

when we're doing our top five most

7:41

feral performers, Kristen

7:43

Stewart will probably still be my number one.

7:47

She has always been that. Here's a cool

7:49

shove scenario I'll give you to illustrate what

7:51

I mean. I'm convinced that you could cut

7:53

between a close-up of Kristen Stewart's face and

7:56

a cardboard box. And

7:58

any viewer would be sure that

8:00

it's the most attractive, most enticing

8:02

cardboard box ever created. And

8:05

she's not just going to possess

8:07

it, she's somehow going to consume

8:10

it completely. She's going to devour it. She

8:13

just so naturally and forcefully

8:15

exhibits something beyond

8:17

yearning, it's hunger.

8:20

Yeah. Now replace that

8:22

cardboard box with a very

8:24

talented actress in her own right, in

8:26

Katie O'Brien who I'm seeing for

8:28

the first time here, playing a

8:31

charismatic, confident,

8:34

commanding physical presence in Jackie

8:36

who doesn't just like her

8:38

back but kind of

8:40

wants to be devoured. Then

8:42

you've got something combustible. I'm going to

8:45

call this chemistry combustible, Josh. It very

8:47

much worked for me. And

8:49

you, we are so in line

8:51

with this because you've chosen two words that

8:53

I used when I wrote about which will

8:55

oblige bleeding. I called, I said

8:58

the two fall into a feral affair. That

9:00

feral is absolutely what you want to use

9:02

to describe this. And

9:05

then also, yeah, I was thinking about this

9:08

chemistry question and I

9:10

knew chemistry was not the right word and so

9:12

I said they don't have chemistry, they have combustibility.

9:16

And I think it is this sense

9:18

of danger, and this doesn't mean every

9:20

successful example of onscreen chemistry needs this,

9:22

but for these two characters in particular

9:24

and maybe these two performers, for me

9:26

at least, what was

9:30

riveting was that you're never, despite

9:32

that desire they have for each

9:34

other and how it's

9:36

individualized, you're right to

9:38

describe the hunger being very much on

9:40

the part of Stewart and then while

9:43

O'Brien is returning that

9:45

in some ways, there's a little bit of

9:48

almost a softness to her even though

9:50

she's the larger one physically and the

9:52

stronger one clearly. There's something about her

9:54

that you can pay. Maybe that's it

9:56

too. Yes. Stewart's character is

9:58

more knowing. Exactly. is, you know, this

10:00

is another thing you can get into that separate

10:02

from the chemistry, but if you want to talk

10:04

about this as a neo-noir, which it very much

10:06

is, is how we're playing with the femme fatale

10:08

characters here and the

10:11

dupe if there is one, and

10:13

how they both inhabit certain

10:15

aspects of those stereotypes in

10:18

the noir genre. But as far

10:20

as the chemistry goes, yeah, they're riveting

10:23

because you're never quite certain which one

10:25

is more dangerous to the other. Even

10:28

though, in a sense,

10:30

you're rooting for them because

10:32

they are both living very

10:34

lonely, difficult lives. And

10:36

when you find, when they find human connection,

10:38

you want to root for them, you're

10:41

still not entirely sure. Not that

10:43

either of them is playing a

10:46

con, although maybe you could, you

10:48

know, squint and wonder if Jackie might

10:50

be playing some sort of long con.

10:53

That's certainly, it was in my mind for a long

10:55

time in this movie, you're

10:58

just never quite sure who's going to come

11:00

out the worst for wear at the other side

11:02

of this relationship, even as in the moment, they're

11:04

both exactly where they want to be. And I think

11:06

it's that dangerousness that

11:09

does make this unique. And the

11:11

one thing I learned about

11:13

chemistry from this, I think is, again,

11:16

it's less analytical than just what

11:19

you feel when you're watching it. I

11:21

feel like I know if actors have chemistry,

11:23

if it seems like we're invading their privacy,

11:26

the more I feel like I'm invading this moment,

11:28

and I shouldn't be a part of this, then

11:31

I think there's more chemistry between those two

11:34

performers. When the intimacy is

11:36

that that's the way, helpable, when it's so

11:38

palpable. And it is throughout this movie. And

11:40

for me, it's one of the key things

11:42

that, you know,

11:44

maybe elevates it beyond the

11:48

violence you're talking about. There's

11:50

a mean streak in this movie that might

11:53

not sit well for some viewers. But

11:56

I think because of this chemistry and connection

11:58

and intimacy they have, really this

12:01

registered for me as a nightmare metaphor for

12:03

how hard some people have to fight for

12:06

love. And that's especially the case when it's

12:08

a love that's not approved of. And

12:10

that's sort of where I landed, where I came

12:12

out of this movie feeling like it had kind

12:16

of hit something that was really

12:18

meaningful in a way, in an emotional

12:20

way for a movie that is otherwise

12:23

pretty harsh, pretty violent, awfully mean. And

12:26

as we've said, I think at least once, scuzzy as

12:28

well. Yeah, no, I really

12:31

like that choice of word, Josh, and

12:33

I like the choice of intimacy. We're

12:35

using each other's favorite words tonight because

12:37

that's really what you get with this

12:40

relationship. That's really what makes

12:42

it so complex and fascinating. You're absolutely

12:44

right. You don't really know. As much

12:46

as you're rooting for them, you also

12:48

know how terrible it is for

12:50

both of them to be together,

12:52

for them to be with each other. And so

12:54

there's this tension in

12:56

many ways, in lots of different ways that

12:58

runs throughout this entire film. And even just

13:01

in terms of describing them, take

13:03

it separately from their relationship, just describing them

13:05

as people. This is what good noirs do,

13:07

right? Is the

13:09

moment you catch yourself trying

13:12

to explain why either of

13:14

them are actually fundamentally good or I really

13:17

empathize with her. She's clearly trying to do this

13:19

or make a change for this, break

13:21

away from her family. You

13:23

then start cataloging in your head

13:26

all the things you see her do. Like

13:28

if you were explaining to a judge, she's

13:30

a great person, but

13:32

she did these 27 things, it

13:35

would be pretty hard to make that

13:37

case, right? I was trying to

13:39

come up with the

13:42

right comparison here and I'm not totally

13:44

sure I landed it. But

13:46

watching this movie, I felt like I was watching

13:48

a movie we both love, Paris,

13:51

Texas, and it was directed by

13:53

Pozzolini. It might

13:55

look something like Love Lies Bleeding. Take

13:58

those exterior shots, those nighttime shots

14:00

of everything but of the gym in

14:03

particular with the neon colors.

14:05

Yeah, yeah. There's that gas station

14:08

shot in Para-Tuxa where it looks

14:10

very much like this. You're

14:12

right. Took me right back and it's

14:14

beautiful but also uninviting.

14:16

There's something unhealthy, something lurid

14:18

about the greens and yellows

14:20

that we get here and

14:22

then in those flashback sequences

14:24

that slow motion and

14:26

the red, the demon red that we

14:28

get and that choice of word I

14:31

think is very appropriate here. I don't

14:33

think Glass is trying to hide anything

14:35

with that connection to the Ed

14:38

Harris character who plays her father.

14:40

But I want to get into the gore

14:43

aspect of this a little bit and thinking

14:45

about it in terms of her previous

14:47

film, Saint Maude, a film we both very

14:49

much liked and put up for our Golden

14:51

Brick the year it came out. I

14:55

could be barking up the wrong tree but I wonder if

14:58

Silence of the Lambs was an influence on Glass

15:00

at all. She was born only a

15:02

year after it came out so she would have

15:04

had to come to that film quite later in

15:06

life. But I

15:08

think about characters like Jackie and

15:11

Maude and real quick that makes me think, saying

15:13

the name Jackie, I want to go back and just briefly

15:16

say you touched on fun it's

15:18

having with noir and femme fatale conventions. I

15:20

love the names of the characters, right? Lou

15:23

who's really Louise as we hear

15:25

at one point but also I

15:27

think another character calls her Lou

15:29

Lou which suggests this kind of

15:31

malleable identity, this searching identity of

15:33

hers and then of course Jackie

15:36

who you could think of as Jack

15:38

or you'd find a character like her

15:40

who's a man in a noir named Lou

15:43

and Jackie. It's what you

15:45

would expect and yet this movie is

15:47

having some fun with all of

15:49

that. I think about Maude,

15:51

I think about Jackie and I'm

15:53

going to get in here Josh, this is where I don't

15:55

think we're really getting into spoilers because it's just part of

15:58

the film. We could go deeper if we want.

16:00

wanted, which we'll hold off on, but it's just part of

16:02

the film proper. I think

16:04

about the little

16:06

physical moments that we get with

16:09

Jackie's character at times,

16:11

especially in times of duress and

16:13

really what I think would

16:15

qualify here as body horror.

16:18

Oh yeah. And I get that Hannibal

16:20

Lecter line about Buffalo Bill

16:22

running through my head where he tells

16:24

Clarice something like he's, he's not changing.

16:26

He's evolving. He's that character

16:29

is trying to force or compel a metaphysical

16:32

transformation through physical means. And

16:34

in glasses films, it's

16:37

reversed. Maybe there's a physical

16:39

manifestation of the metaphysical

16:42

transformation. That's occurring even

16:45

as I want to acknowledge there's a significant

16:47

fantasy element to both St. Maude and this

16:49

film and those, those lines between what's, what's

16:52

fantasy and what's happening inside a character's own

16:55

imagination and what's really happening. We could

16:57

spend hours trying to break down, but

17:00

the point is the body horror. Isn't

17:03

just about a filmmaker being

17:05

adventurous with her choices or

17:07

pushing buttons or pushing boundaries.

17:10

It really is a representation of how

17:13

these women in this film and St. Maude

17:16

see themselves and potentially how

17:18

others may ultimately see them.

17:21

It it's an exalted state.

17:24

These women are experiencing a

17:27

sort of rapture. It's painful,

17:30

but it's a sort of rapture. Only

17:33

one of them is explicitly religious, but

17:35

I think, I think the connections certainly

17:37

visually, the connections are still there. Yeah,

17:40

it ties to the chemistry too, because

17:42

this is a very

17:45

physical reaction. They both have

17:47

to each other. And so to make

17:49

that, then this a

17:51

bodily movie makes sense. And so we get

17:53

those close ups of

17:56

Jackie's muscles and we get, you

17:58

know, this is, I think we can

18:00

say this much about it because it happens in the

18:02

first third of the film, but Lou

18:05

gives her some steroids and once she begins

18:07

taking them, there are moments of stress anger

18:09

where we'll get an insert shot and we

18:11

get...it's a Hulk shot. It's essentially a Hulk

18:14

shot. Her muscles will instantaneously

18:16

grow in an unnatural way. And

18:20

what's interesting in relation to St. Maude is,

18:22

it's been a while since I've seen it,

18:24

but I feel like there was a cleaner

18:26

line there between what was happening in the

18:28

main characters, the title characters, had the

18:30

way she was experiencing the world and

18:33

what was actually happening in

18:35

the quote-unquote real world. And I

18:37

think here in Love Lies

18:39

Bleeding, those lines are blurred a

18:42

little bit more, which some

18:45

viewers may appreciate, some may not in

18:47

comparison to St. Maude, but I do

18:49

think we go back and forth. For

18:51

example, are Jackie's muscles really

18:53

getting that big or is it more

18:55

that that's how she feels? So it's

18:58

this visual representation. The insert

19:00

shot suggests that, but then we

19:02

will get, as the movie moves

19:05

further on, you could say that's Jackie

19:07

looking down at her arm and that's

19:09

the perspective, right? But we'll get a

19:11

full body shot of Jackie that's clearly

19:14

now our perspective of her. She's not

19:16

looking at herself and she hulks

19:18

out again. And so this is where the

19:20

blurriness comes in and

19:22

it does make this fascinating. Yeah.

19:25

Yeah. So I will say in

19:27

terms of that blurriness, even

19:30

though I'm suggesting it's happening in

19:32

her head and not really occurring,

19:34

I don't think we have to

19:36

see her looking at her arm to

19:38

still feel that you're right that the director is blurring it

19:40

and that glass isn't tying it

19:43

explicitly to her point of view. But

19:45

I think the suggestion, because that's pretty

19:47

consistent throughout the whole film, I think

19:49

the suggestion is though, that that

19:52

is what it's another way she is challenging

19:54

us a little bit as viewers because we're

19:56

only seeing it from our point of view, but

19:59

it's still. The idea

20:01

is that it's a character undergoing

20:05

the type of evolution that they want to

20:07

be experiencing in that moment. Well, the other

20:09

possibility is, or is this how Lou wants

20:11

to see her? Is this how, right? And

20:14

that's what I love about the chemistry. Actually, to

20:16

your point about chemistry. Yeah, exactly. Is

20:18

that that fantasy element is something they

20:22

both want to experience and feel,

20:24

that they need from, Jackie

20:26

needs it from herself and Lou needs it from

20:28

Jackie. So based on what you're saying, just

20:31

real quick, a yes or no, we don't have to

20:33

get into spoilers, but I'm going to take it the

20:35

big swing at the very end of this movie worked

20:37

for you then. Oh man, like gangbusters. Okay, good, good.

20:40

Yeah, I mean, it did for me as well. So just

20:42

wanted to get to that. Yeah,

20:45

your note about that demon red,

20:48

you called it. I love how

20:50

there's even a moment, there's

20:52

a hospital scene, and

20:54

Lou encounters her dad there,

20:57

played by Ed Harris, in the hallway, and they have

20:59

a conversation in front of a coke

21:01

machine. Yes. And how

21:03

Glass just shoots this so

21:06

that the light emanating from that

21:08

coke machine is exactly the same

21:10

shade as the red that

21:12

we've seen in other sequences, and

21:15

it's just throbbing. It's so accentuated.

21:19

And yeah, so many shots in this movie

21:21

work that way, where you begin

21:23

to feel like there is no

21:26

reality. No longer is

21:28

there a real world and an imagined world

21:30

or a metaphysical world or all these other

21:32

things we're talking about. The real world has

21:35

been left way behind at a certain point, it

21:37

feels like. Yeah, no, you're absolutely

21:39

right. And that's such a great point

21:41

about the coke machine. And as I recall it, isn't

21:44

it the case where she's having some trouble with the machine

21:46

and he has to help her? Yeah, I think so. Something

21:48

like that, yeah. It makes sense

21:50

that he's completely in his space. He's in

21:52

his natural view. That

21:55

red color is something that he's drawn to

21:57

and can help her out with. I hope.

22:00

Two it's coming across a little bit. I mean, did

22:02

you find this movie and this would be appropriate for

22:04

the Type

22:07

of B movie feel it's

22:09

occasionally going for though. It's impeccably

22:11

shot. Mm-hmm Is it's

22:14

pretty hilarious like a lot

22:16

of bloody gory films. I think it's

22:18

pretty funny. You'll you'll look away in

22:20

disgust and Involuntarily

22:23

laugh at the fate of a certain character and

22:25

when you see it if you haven't

22:27

you'll know precisely the part I mean, I'm

22:30

thinking about even Ed Harris's

22:32

hair choice I'm thinking

22:34

of Ed Harris's snack choice and

22:37

I will not give away the ending but

22:39

the closing image of the film I

22:43

Thought was laugh out loud funny. Yeah, and

22:45

it also tells you Everything

22:47

you need to know about What

22:51

the future holds for the people

22:53

we see in that closing shot

22:55

even as something Terrible is occurring

22:57

in the background or has just

22:59

occurred. This is the line this

23:01

movie straddles It also very clearly

23:03

with its framing choice Also

23:05

wants to make you giggle a little bit and

23:08

I'm okay. Yeah, it absolutely does It's surely intentional

23:10

the moment at Harris shows up on screen looking

23:12

like he's got He's

23:14

like a Sasquatch who had a bad run-in with a ceiling

23:16

fan You know that this

23:19

movie wants you to laugh at

23:21

times And then we're kind of in you

23:23

know, sort of Tarantino territory from that point out Like at

23:25

what point at what point is the comic violence going to

23:27

work for you? the ending

23:30

is so impeccably

23:32

framed and timed and Staged

23:35

and I don't know if it necessarily is deep

23:37

focus We're gonna get to that when we talk

23:39

about the best years of our lives But it

23:42

definitely feels like it at least where one characters

23:44

in the foreground and we're watching their face But

23:47

what's what's crucial is what's happening way in

23:49

the background, right? So it's really well done.

23:51

I I have to

23:53

say part of it also Connected

23:56

to that mean streak I talked about it

23:59

involves a character who I think

24:01

gets, you know, if not

24:03

a raw deal is very much used

24:06

as the violent butt of the

24:08

joke. And so yeah,

24:10

mileage is going to vary how much

24:13

you you laugh at those moments, but

24:15

there's definitely a comedic streak going

24:17

on here as well. Well, I will

24:19

first say that, of course, having

24:21

seen the film, I know exactly what you're referring

24:23

to, and I'll dance around it and simply say

24:25

that I was mostly

24:27

just horrified by that moment and

24:30

not laughing. But I still think

24:32

that in terms of this meanness

24:34

that you're talking about, it's consistent

24:36

with the entire film. And that

24:38

character's duality is

24:40

also completely consistent with all the other

24:42

characters in the film. I really love

24:44

immediately I was looking up at the

24:46

end of this film, who the actress

24:48

playing Jackie was. And I was also

24:50

looking up who the actress who

24:53

plays Daisy, it's Mikhail Brishnikov's daughter,

24:55

Anna Brishnikov. I

24:57

want to see any movie that

24:59

that she's doing next. I think

25:01

all of her scenes with Kristen

25:03

Stewart's character are really wonderful. And

25:06

I like the character so much because the

25:10

camera really showcases her well

25:12

watching. And you take

25:14

that character for granted the same

25:17

way Kristen Stewart's Lou takes her

25:19

for granted. But you come to

25:21

realize, just as Lou

25:23

does along with Lou, that unfortunately

25:25

she's been paying very close attention.

25:27

And these things aren't sliding

25:29

by her, and they're all going to

25:31

come back into play. So watching her

25:33

in that key scene that she has

25:36

with Stewart at the diner,

25:38

where she's playing at least

25:41

two sides, maybe three or four at one time. Yeah,

25:43

that's great. That's a great scene. I loved it. And

25:46

I really can't wait to see

25:48

Love Lives Bleeding again. It is

25:50

out now in wide release if you see

25:52

it and agree or disagree with our takes.

25:55

You can email us feedback at filmspotting.net. Coming

25:57

up, William Wyler's the best years of our our

26:00

lives, plus 50s badness, Elite

26:02

8 match-ups. But first, a

26:04

couple of very easy ways you can help the

26:06

show, whether you're a longtime listener or just finding

26:09

us, take a minute and give

26:11

us a rating or review on Apple podcasts

26:13

or Spotify. Really easy to do. Go

26:16

ahead, do it right now. While you're listening,

26:18

every new rating or review helps an independently

26:20

produced show like ours reach new listeners. There's

26:23

another way you can support us. You can

26:25

also join the Film Spotting Family at

26:28

filmspottingfamily.com. We want

26:30

to welcome new family member, Kristen

26:32

in Pittsburgh. Kristen wrote in, I'd

26:35

listened periodically before, but episode 769,

26:37

the 1930s starter

26:39

pack is when I became a loyal

26:41

listener. I watched of human bondage after

26:43

your talk about Bette Davis in

26:46

the film. We usually ask our new

26:48

family members if they have a favorite review or

26:50

maybe a top five and Kristen

26:52

chose our top five LGBTQ

26:55

films. Being someone who is

26:57

part of the LGBTQ community. She says, I

26:59

truly appreciated the top five and it brought

27:01

some blind spots to light for me. That

27:04

was episode 923 from last June. If

27:07

you missed it and want to check it out,

27:09

which of course you can, if you're a film

27:11

spotting family member, Kristen's letterbox top four or five,

27:14

I like this list, the departed Anchorman

27:18

whiplash and the artist, and I

27:20

like seeing the artist there, Josh, I don't know how you feel

27:22

about it. It was before you joined the show. I

27:25

know it's super fashionable and easy now

27:27

to tear that film down and it never should have

27:30

won best picture. I gave

27:32

it a pretty positive review. I gave it an

27:34

extremely glowing review. Yeah. I'm with

27:36

Kristen on this one really liked the artist. All

27:39

right. This here, if we're

27:41

going to cheat a little bit, I love

27:43

that Kristen includes a movie called Heshur. Have

27:45

you heard of this

27:47

movie much less seen it, Josh? I have

27:49

not, despite the fact that it has Joseph

27:51

Gordon Levitt and Natalie Portman in it, apparently.

27:53

Yeah. I saw it. I want to say

27:55

it came out 2007 or eight because I saw it at

27:57

Sundance. Ah

28:01

that year but otherwise Not

28:04

discussed on the show and a movie. I'm guessing

28:06

is a major blind spot for folks the last

28:08

movie Kristen saw in a theater Godzilla minus one.

28:10

I'm so jealous minus color Josh.

28:12

How about this a random film or filmmaker?

28:14

She loves Wes Anderson. There you go I'd

28:16

to see how he is developed as a

28:18

director from bottle rocket to asteroid city and

28:20

a movie She credits with being

28:23

a cinephile growing up my mom introduced

28:25

me to Indiana Jones and the Star

28:27

Wars original trilogy Hell, yeah mom. What

28:29

a great mom Thank

28:31

you, Kristen and welcome to the family in addition to

28:34

keeping us doing what we're doing Your

28:36

support does come with perks you get to

28:38

listen early and ad-free you get the weekly

28:40

newsletter You get those monthly bonus shows you

28:42

get to participate in activities like trivia

28:44

spotting You do get to access

28:47

every single episode in the archives

28:49

film spotting family.com Sorry

28:53

for clothes. Well, then what are

28:55

all these people doing here? Drinking

28:57

and having a good time That's

29:01

why we You're

29:03

too stupid to have a good turn There's

29:07

your warning Josh if you can't

29:09

enjoy 1989's Roadhouse you

29:11

are to quote Patrick Swayze Dalton too

29:14

stupid to have a good time It sounds kind of

29:16

mean it does doesn't it? Next

29:19

week we'll have a blind Cow

29:22

review of the one and only Roadhouse a blind cow

29:24

being a case where one of us Has

29:26

not seen the movie blind spotting. The other one

29:29

is Alleging that it's a

29:31

sacred cow. I was gonna say that would be

29:33

me Usually it's a different tier

29:35

of film that gets the blind cow, but you know

29:38

We're using the cow terminology a little liberally

29:40

here But we're gonna we're gonna do a

29:42

blind cow review of the one and only

29:44

Roadhouse Which along with Patrick Swayze

29:46

is the bouncer with a philosophy degree from

29:48

NYU also features Sam

29:51

Elliott as Swayze's best friend

29:53

and bouncer sensei Ben gazara

29:55

as the baddie at

29:57

the Jeff Healy band as

29:59

the house band and the double deuce. Come on, Josh, give

30:01

me a few bars of Angel Eyes. Wow. Every

30:04

element of that description, I just kept getting more

30:06

and more excited. I

30:08

hope so, because I can

30:11

give you a quick anecdote that will explain

30:13

just how excited I am. I probably should

30:15

save it for next week. But I've been

30:18

in a fantasy football league with some old

30:20

coworkers for over 20 years

30:23

now. Whoa. The

30:25

town that Roadhouse

30:28

takes place in, at least the original

30:30

from 89, is Jasper, Missouri. I'm

30:34

from Jasper County, Iowa.

30:37

And there's two of us. I think we're the

30:39

only co-managers, co-owners of a fantasy

30:42

team in the league. So you want to

30:44

know what our fantasy football team name is?

30:46

I'm dying to know. The

30:48

Jasper double deuces. Wow.

30:51

Again, Patrick Swayze doing a karate

30:53

chop, or some karate move, is

30:56

our logo. Amazing. And you've held

30:58

onto that name for 20 years? 20

31:01

plus years. You're like, this is so cold. We're

31:03

never changing it. No, even though

31:05

we really should, because I don't think we've ever

31:07

won a championship. But enough about that. Why

31:10

are we doing this? Well, I guess

31:12

we couldn't find anything better to talk

31:14

about. First and foremost, yes, Josh has

31:16

been deprived of experiencing the film. I

31:18

watched incessantly back in 89. Second,

31:22

maybe not quite a sacred cow,

31:24

but it does have a place

31:26

in Scott Tobias's new cult, Canada. Does that help, Josh?

31:29

Yeah. Yep, getting even more intrigued. You're like

31:31

Scott. In 2008, smart critic,

31:33

he wrote, let us stand in

31:35

awe of Roadhouse, a supremely vulgar,

31:37

winningly goofy entertainment that, to my

31:39

mind, sets Swayze apart from his

31:41

action movie peers. I don't know

31:43

if winningly goofy entertainment is

31:46

quite your cup of tea, Josh. Oh,

31:48

I thought you were going to say that

31:50

sounds insulting to the greatness of Roadhouse. That

31:52

was kind of under playing it there. It's

31:55

a backhanded compliment, clearly. And that's fine. I

31:57

get it. OK, other reasons? Yes. remake

32:00

starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Dalton

32:03

just arrived on Prime Video and surprise surprise

32:05

that completely unnecessary but welcome at least to

32:07

me remake is supposed to be pretty good

32:09

at least according to our friend Matt Singer

32:12

and I'm not going to look at anybody

32:14

else's comments he says this is the kind

32:16

of consistently entertaining movie you could happily watch

32:18

a hundred times without ever actively

32:20

intending to watch it twice again backhanded

32:23

but a compliment. And apparently how you

32:25

spent 1989. It

32:28

is exactly what's really funny

32:30

is before I looked at that line that

32:32

Sam had put in our notes for us

32:34

I actually was going to say I watched

32:37

it over a hundred times back

32:39

at 89 so I know

32:41

exactly of what Matt speaks. So

32:43

next week the double deuce Roadhouse

32:46

89 and Roadhouse

32:48

24. I

32:50

think for listeners like new

32:52

family member Kristen who was all into the

32:54

1930 starter pack

32:57

this this show might be a skip we'll

32:59

see. Or maybe who knows Adam

33:01

like a year from now we might get a

33:03

letter from a new family member saying that's

33:06

the one that hooked me. That's

33:08

when I stepped off my dread it's time to join.

33:11

We can dream the 89 Roadhouse is

33:13

also on Macs and VOD both are

33:15

streaming on Prime Video and

33:17

next week don't fighting that is best of the

33:19

60s final for revealed

33:22

for more info or to vote in

33:25

the current round don't fighting that net

33:27

slash madness. If you're looking for more

33:29

love lies bleeding talk well check out

33:32

our sister podcast the next picture show

33:34

they've got a new pairing and they're

33:36

looking at love lies bleeding alongside the

33:39

Wachowskis bound that one from 1996 makes

33:42

perfect sense yes it does looking forward to

33:45

listening to that one myself. You

33:47

can get the next picture show every Tuesday

33:49

wherever you get your podcasts. absolute

34:00

madness ambassador. Why should

34:02

you build such a thing? This

34:08

is Sparta! Thank

34:12

you, Gerard Butler. Film Spotting Madness is

34:15

our annual Bracket Style Tournament. This year, best of

34:17

the 1950s. The

34:19

NCAA tournament, Josh, it's just getting underway.

34:22

We're already at the Elite Eight. We're ahead of things. Hitchcock,

34:25

Kurosawa, Wilder, Asundrella making a

34:27

little run. Lots of

34:29

fun, or at least we think is

34:31

lots of fun. Elite Eight voting is

34:33

live. It closes though, Monday, March 25th.

34:36

You have until noon central time on

34:38

Monday, March 25th, to get your picks

34:40

in. First up, our

34:42

Sweet 16 results. A

34:45

pair of upsets, technically, because

34:47

they had a lower seed advancing. Neither

34:49

one, a huge surprise to the selection

34:51

committee, or probably anyone else. We do

34:53

have the one through five seeds

34:55

still in the dance. Also,

34:58

number eight, number 11. And

35:00

the number 23 seed, but it's not really

35:02

the 23 seed that we'd call the Cinderella

35:04

of this turning. More

35:06

on that in a second. That 23 seed, by the

35:09

way, your nemesis Josh. Sidney Lumet's

35:11

beloved courtroom drama, 12 Angry

35:13

Men. It took down Kubrick's Paths of Glory. It was close

35:16

53 to 47%. This

35:19

one worries me. This one really worries me. I'm

35:22

thinking 12 Angry Men is

35:24

going to go way further than

35:27

anyone imagined, but we'll see. Aaron Teachman had a

35:29

comment about this. 12 Angry

35:31

Men is a worthy social problem film that

35:33

is competently made. But Paths of Glory demands

35:35

your attention and your conscience with

35:37

an urgency that 12 Angry Men doesn't muster.

35:39

Sam Thompson, this one was easy for me,

35:41

but I'm afraid of people's irrational love for

35:44

12 Angry Men. Paths of Glory is true

35:46

cinema with one of the greatest endings of

35:48

all time. 12 Angry Men

35:50

was maybe prescient 70 years ago, but has lost

35:52

its luster. Here's Ethan Johnson.

35:55

I know Paths of Glory is a better film,

35:57

and I definitely would have voted against Angry Men

35:59

in the last- But I'm a theater guy.

36:02

Dialogue is what brings me in like nothing else. And

36:04

while I admit that 12 Angry Men has lost

36:07

its luster in the intervening years, a

36:09

diamond is still a diamond no matter its

36:11

environment. So Sam, trying to balance

36:13

things out a little bit, balance out

36:16

those scales of justice with the negative

36:18

comments about 12 Angry Men or the

36:20

more positive comments about passive glory. But

36:22

it was passive glory that

36:24

lost 12 Angry Men's moving on. So

36:27

53% of voters said, Sam,

36:29

Aaron, we hear you. And we

36:31

probably like Kubrick too, but

36:34

we do prefer the Sidney Lumet

36:36

courtroom drama. It advances. We'll

36:38

see how far it

36:41

goes and whether or not it will haunt

36:43

Josh's dreams. If

36:45

the 23 Seed 12 Angry Men is not the

36:47

Cinderella of this tournament, then who is? Well,

36:49

it's the 11 Seed, Knight

36:52

of the Hunter. Tuck down

36:54

Bergman, the 6 Seed,

36:56

the 7th Seal in the Sweet 16,

36:59

a commanding win, Josh, 61% to

37:02

39%. Yeah, I don't think

37:04

either of us predicted that, let alone at

37:06

that rate. We

37:09

heard from Billy Ray Bruton, leave it to

37:11

my choice to go all the way, Knight of

37:13

the Hunter, to take down Bergman's classic. I

37:15

think people sleep on just how beloved Hunter has

37:17

become over the years. Thanks to folks like

37:19

Martin Scorsese singing its praises, more

37:21

and more cinephiles have discovered and fallen in

37:23

love with Charles Lotten's masterpiece. Even to

37:25

this day, no film has captured

37:27

the same sort of dreamlike menace as

37:30

this film, and Mitchum gives the ultimate

37:32

villain performance. I want to

37:34

see Hunter go all the way. Can it defeat

37:36

the Seven Samurai? If it can, I believe nothing

37:38

can stop it. Here is my

37:41

trivia spotting teammate, the very movie

37:43

literate Sean Means. Without the 7th

37:45

Seal, we wouldn't have Bill and

37:47

Ted's bogus journey and who

37:49

wants to live in a world like that. As I

37:52

said, very movie literate Sean Means. Strong

37:54

logic there, Sean. Sam

37:56

and I, the selection committee, were talking

37:59

about the Cinderella story of

38:01

the Night of the Hunter, the 11 seed in

38:03

our first iteration of these

38:06

seeds, we had it at number 10.

38:08

We thought it had that much of

38:10

a chance to advance, moved

38:12

it back just slightly, obviously one spot.

38:15

Can't really say we're surprised because we knew

38:17

it was a film our audience loved, but

38:19

then there've been other films I thought for

38:21

sure our audience loved and knew that we

38:23

loved and they would go on and Josh,

38:25

some of them haven't. We'll see

38:27

what Charles Lawton's film can do. Along with

38:29

Night of the Hunter and 12 Angry Men,

38:32

the rest of the films rounding out the

38:34

Elite 8 are Hitchcock's Vertigo and Rear

38:36

Window, Billy Wilder's Pair, Sunset Boulevard

38:38

and Some Like It Hot, Kurosawa's

38:41

Seven Samurai and Kellyanne

38:43

Donnan's Singin' in the

38:45

Rain. The films we had to say goodbye

38:47

to Josh, read this list off,

38:49

it's crazy. Truffaut's Four Hundred Blows,

38:51

Orson Welles' Touch of Evil, Kurosawa's

38:53

Rashomon, Ozu's Tokyo Story. We should

38:55

note though, it won a respectable

38:57

33% of the vote against Vertigo.

39:02

All About Eve is also gone, losing 44% to 56%

39:04

against Some Like It Hot. And we are also saying

39:10

goodbye to Bridge on the River Kwai. Yeah,

39:12

boo-hoo, I don't feel bad. It beat out

39:14

Rio Bravo, even though I love Bridge on

39:17

the River Kwai, I'm still mad

39:19

at that film. Elite 8,

39:21

Josh. Four matchups, so we

39:23

don't need to do all the different categories,

39:25

the upsets, the tough to pick, the tough

39:27

to predict. Let's just run through them. I

39:30

think you'll agree with me for the most part,

39:32

if not across the board here. There

39:35

are two matchups that would have

39:37

to qualify. It's pretty easy for us to vote in.

39:40

Rear Window versus Some Like It

39:42

Hot and Singin' in the Rain versus

39:45

Twelve In agreement. Agreed though. I will

39:47

note, the first one, Rear Window versus Some Like

39:49

It Hot is only easy because Rear Window

39:51

is the greatest film of all time. Right. I

39:53

knew that was what we were talking about

39:55

here. And

39:57

similarly, well, no, not similarly. really

40:00

like 12 Angry Men but it's singing in the rain.

40:02

It doesn't have a shot. I

40:04

didn't hesitate for a second in picking singing

40:06

in the rain. I also didn't hesitate for

40:09

a second in picking rear window. Okay, the

40:12

next one was tougher for me, certainly

40:14

than those two, and I'm guessing for you as

40:16

well, Josh. Charles Walton's

40:19

Night of the Hunter. Here it is. Billy

40:21

Ray said it. If it can take

40:23

down Seven Samurai, then it might go on to win

40:26

it all. But it is going to be very

40:28

difficult to take down that formidable

40:31

group of Samurai. How are you

40:33

voting in this one? It just

40:35

doesn't seem right to get

40:38

to the Final Four with no Kurosawa. And

40:41

it's strange enough that Bergman's gone, and

40:44

now we're going to boot Kurosawa

40:47

potentially, and yet just

40:49

looking at those two films alone. I

40:51

know. Right? And then trying to put

40:53

the Kurosawa aside, the body

40:55

of work, shall I say, this

40:57

stature as a cinematic

41:01

master aside, and looking

41:03

at the two films, I might

41:06

have to go with Night of the Hunter. But this

41:08

is why it's so unfair, because I'm only doing that

41:10

because I think, well, but this Kurosawa

41:12

is great too, and that one is great too, and

41:14

that one's also great. Well, they're all gone. So

41:17

that shouldn't matter, but somehow in my brain I'm

41:19

justifying it? I don't know. I don't know. I

41:21

think I'm leaning Night of the Hunter, I

41:24

am too. I know that's me being

41:26

on brand because it's now my thing

41:29

to apparently dislike the Seven Samurai. I

41:31

adore Kurosawa, and I agree with you

41:33

that I can't believe this would mean

41:35

Kurosawa was out of the tournament. But

41:38

I'm with our audience. This is how strongly I

41:40

feel about the Night of the Hunter. I

41:43

love that film, and I'm just imagining not

41:46

just my kids, but 100 random

41:49

cinephiles who hadn't seen either film, and

41:52

I had to pick only one. I

41:54

know how important a film, The Seven

41:56

Samurai is, but I'd say you got to

41:58

see the Night of the Hunter. of it

42:00

too, you know, that I

42:02

don't know that there is another film

42:05

like Night of the Hunter. And

42:08

I do know

42:10

there are other historical

42:13

action samurai

42:15

epics. You could argue Seven

42:17

Samurai is the best one. And so

42:19

then you lose that logic. But

42:22

it is in some ways a genre film. And

42:25

there are other excellent examples

42:27

of that genre. What

42:29

do you call Night of the Hunter? I

42:31

mean, it's been tried to be pigeonholed in different genres,

42:34

but I don't think you can really do that. And not only is

42:36

it a genre question, it's a

42:39

visual question. What other movie looks like

42:41

that one in so many

42:43

of those shots? So I think for me, that's

42:45

part of my thinking as well. Yeah, I think

42:47

that that is a great point. And I just

42:49

want the world to know and I'll move on

42:51

quickly here that Josh is saying just watch the

42:53

Magnificent Seven. You'll be fine. Well, maybe

42:56

even the remake just watch the Magnificent Seven remake. I

42:58

don't know if I'd go that far. Okay,

43:01

then is this one the toughest

43:03

one for you or not? Because it was the toughest

43:06

one for me. It sounds like Night of the Hunter

43:08

versus Seven Samurai was the

43:10

hardest for you right at this

43:13

moment. I still

43:15

don't know which film I'm taking here.

43:17

It's another Alfred Hitchcock film, Vertigo,

43:20

up against Billy Wilder

43:22

and Sunset Boulevard. Of the two Wilder

43:25

films that's in this tournament, I have

43:27

Sunset Boulevard ranked way higher than

43:29

Some Like It Hot. And it's

43:31

my second favorite. I think I have it

43:33

as my second favorite Wilder film after Double

43:35

Indemnity. We could use

43:38

the logic that Hitchcock's already got one

43:40

that's advancing and doing quite

43:42

well. And we'll probably I haven't looked

43:44

at the results at this point in

43:46

the voting, but probably will beat Wilder

43:48

in that other matchup. Do I want

43:51

to vote for Wilder here? I think I do, Josh. I

43:53

think I do. I think just in terms of kind of

43:55

the same application, which movie do

43:57

I want to put in and rewatch again right

43:59

this moment? Which one do I want to

44:01

make sure is still around so I could show my

44:03

kids? Of course, I feel that

44:05

way about vertigo, but if I have to choose I'm

44:08

I'm gonna go sunset Boulevard I think yeah, and

44:11

for me it's the it's the logic which I

44:13

use throughout the tournament of There's

44:16

another film by that filmmaker still available your cop-out

44:18

you mean yeah pretty much and it's a film

44:20

I like better It's you

44:22

know, I feel strongly about that having

44:24

just done that visit Revisitation of both

44:27

Titles and I would similarly

44:29

feel bad not to have any more Wilder

44:31

after this point. So So

44:34

yeah sunset Boulevard for me as well. Okay,

44:37

let's talk about the bracket contest.

44:39

We have over Predictions

44:43

submitted after the sweet 16.

44:46

We're down to just one leader

44:49

Hey Ricky Kendall in

44:51

the UK we heard from Ricky Sam

44:53

our producer reached out Got a

44:55

little bit of background on Ricky here Josh

44:57

to say your email was a surprise would

45:00

be a huge understatement I had to double-check

45:02

the bracket to make sure you see to

45:04

totally misquote Shakespeare though this be madness There

45:06

is absolutely no method in it. It's

45:09

a total fluke I just went on gut

45:11

instinct with a zero research planning or forethought

45:18

But as the bracket doesn't lie a bit

45:20

about me, my name is Ricky and I

45:22

am a teacher from the UK I've been

45:24

listening to film spotting since 2017 after

45:26

coming across a video Josh did with the

45:28

British critic Mark Kermode The

45:30

range and breadth of movies from around

45:33

the world that are intelligently discussed in

45:35

the different sections of film spotting make

45:37

it stimulating And refreshing an ideal podcast

45:40

hearing you guys attempt British accents on

45:42

Massacre Theatre is a particular joy Okay,

45:45

I'm glad it's bring joy to someone. We try Ricky

45:48

My favorite film is it's a wonderful life

45:50

Ricky says I've seen it over 100 times

45:52

and it never fails to revive my faith

45:54

that Humanity can rise to greater heights. No

45:56

matter how bleak things may look my

45:59

prediction packet title, so again we

46:01

are defeated, is a translated quote

46:03

from Seven Samurai, the film I

46:05

credit with opening my eyes to

46:08

a world of cinema beyond the

46:10

Anglophone sphere. I also love

46:12

that Adam passionately defends the exorcist in the

46:14

face of Josh's skepticism. That

46:16

being said, I have both of Josh's

46:18

books and heartily recommend them to all

46:20

keep up the excellent work. Well, thank

46:22

you for that, Ricky. Yeah, thank you

46:24

indeed. And mentioning books and the exorcist

46:26

and Mark Kermode. Kermode literally wrote the

46:29

book on the exorcist, the BFI

46:31

version of that. Last week's leaders,

46:34

Damon Miner, Monica Silva in London and

46:36

Adam Croce in LA, all

46:38

slipped a little. Damon and

46:40

Adam, they took the Kempinar fall. They're down

46:43

to 78th, Frankenstein for first. They

46:45

missed three in the Sweet Sixteen. Monica is

46:47

hanging in there. Fourth place

46:49

only missed one. She's

46:51

just behind. Come on. In

46:54

second place, Madna's

46:56

godfather, Mike Merrigan. He won it all last year

46:58

and he's back at it. I just don't know

47:00

what it is. Have we launched an investigation yet?

47:02

I mean, it's high time. I

47:05

guess it's fitting, but it

47:08

just makes me mad, Mike. And you're a nice

47:10

guy and I don't want you to make me

47:12

mad. Our internal bracket

47:14

contest is Mike as the

47:16

madness godfather, but also as last year's winner,

47:18

going up against me, you and

47:21

our producer, Sam. We like to see not so

47:23

much who comes out on top though, who really

47:25

comes in last and has to serve some kind

47:27

of movie related punishment. Who's going to be watching

47:30

Space Man? Let's just say it. Yeah,

47:32

I think it is. The latest from Sandler

47:34

on Netflix. Mike is obviously in the lead

47:36

and almost surely not going to be caught.

47:39

He only missed two picks so far through

47:41

three rounds. It was Imitation of

47:43

Life, Beating Sleeping Beauty in round one

47:46

and then he did have the searchers

47:48

advancing to the Sweet Sixteen. I

47:50

only missed one this round and it was

47:52

choosing the seventh seal overnight of the Hunter.

47:55

That bumped me all the way up, Josh, from 202nd to 113th. Not

47:59

bad? You moved up to

48:02

from 341st to 193rd. I

48:05

will take it. Yeah, you missed

48:08

the same one. You picked 7th seal

48:10

overnight of the Hunter. Our producer

48:12

Sam, still doing well. He's in 89th

48:14

place. He also picked the 7th seal

48:16

over the night of the Hunter. Now

48:18

Sam has seen some things that I

48:20

haven't seen yet. You

48:22

both made some

48:25

bold choices in this Elite 8

48:27

round that it seems may

48:29

not work out well for you. Could

48:31

this be related to a group

48:34

of men who are angry? No. Oh.

48:37

I'm not sure that it is actually related to them. Okay, I'll

48:39

have to check the bracket. Though, you

48:42

know, Hitch always seemed like kind of an angry man to

48:45

me. Maybe he's the angry

48:47

man that I'm talking about. We will see

48:49

how things look. Next week,

48:51

Elite 8 voting is

48:53

open. Vote now at

48:56

filmspotting.net or filmspotting.net/madness. This

49:01

is Monastery. It's

49:04

the fourth house in here. I

49:07

wonder if Wilmer's home. Say,

49:11

how about the three of us go

49:14

back to Butch's place? We'll

49:24

have a couple of drinks and then we can go home. We'll

49:27

go home now, kid. Harold

49:32

Russell, Frederick March and Dana Andrews. In

49:34

that early scene from William Wyler's The

49:36

Best Years of Our Lives, it's the

49:38

second film in our sixth film, William

49:40

Wyler Marathon. First up, a quick

49:43

programming note. I don't know that anyone caught

49:45

this besides filmspotting archivist, Bill McGaughlin in Colona,

49:47

British Columbia, but he did point out, and

49:49

he was right to point it out, that

49:51

if you looked at our marathon's page, Josh,

49:53

we did have Mrs. Miniver next ahead of

49:55

the best years of our lives because we

49:57

do usually go in chronological.

50:00

order, but we had

50:02

put off that Mrs. Miniver decision for a while

50:04

and when we did decide, I

50:06

updated it on the marathon stage but not on the

50:08

show schedule. That's what all of us reference. So Sam,

50:10

you know, rightfully put in Best Years of Our Lives

50:12

as the next movie up and here we are jumping

50:15

all the way ahead to 46. I don't

50:17

know. I'm losing faith in

50:19

the spreadsheet system, Adam. Yeah, I know. If this

50:21

is what happens. It's troubling, isn't it? We will

50:23

get to Mrs. Miniver in a couple of weeks

50:25

and Ben Hurr after that. For now, let's talk

50:28

about the best years of our lives, which came

50:30

to theaters in December 1946, just

50:33

over a year after the end of the

50:35

Second World War in September 1945, following

50:38

the atomic bombing of Japan

50:40

and that country's surrender. The

50:43

film opens with three soldiers trying

50:45

to make their way back to

50:47

their hometown of Boone City, Frederick

50:49

Marches, Army Sergeant Al Stevenson, Dana

50:51

Andrews, Air Force Captain Fred Derry,

50:53

and Harold Russell's Petty Officer Homer

50:55

Parrish. As the scene you

50:57

heard suggests, their return after years abroad

50:59

is filled with anxiety. Marches

51:02

Al, a middle-aged banker who volunteered

51:04

for an unglamorous assignment in the

51:06

Army, is reunited with his

51:08

wife, played by Myrna Loy, and kids. They

51:11

are grown-up Teresa Wright and high schooler Michael

51:13

Hall. Andrews Captain Derry escaped

51:15

a life of poverty to become a high-ranking

51:17

hero in the Air Force, only to return

51:19

to a life with few career opportunities and

51:22

a new wife he hardly knows, played by

51:24

Virginia Mail. And Russell's Homer

51:26

Parrish, a former star athlete in high

51:28

school, returns home to his loving family

51:31

and fiance as a double amputee.

51:34

Russell was an actual war vet who

51:36

lost both hands during military service. The

51:38

best years of our lives was nominated

51:40

for eight Oscars. It won seven, including

51:42

Best Picture and Director for Wyler. Russell

51:44

won both a Best Supporting Actor Award

51:46

and an Honorary Award for Bringing Hope

51:49

and Courage to his fellow veterans. March,

51:51

one for Lead Actor and Robert E.

51:54

Sherwood for Screenplay. There are a lot

51:56

of places we could start with this movie, Josh,

51:58

where I want to begin. is with

52:01

a little insight that you get when

52:03

doing a marathon like this, watching films

52:06

mostly in order. Last week we talked

52:08

about Dodsworth, released ten years before. It's

52:10

a movie about a couple in transition,

52:12

trying to figure out who they are

52:15

to each other. Now that

52:17

husband Sam has sold his business and

52:19

wife Fran can start to enjoy the

52:21

carefree and luxurious life abroad that she's

52:23

always pined for and always thought

52:25

she deserved, things don't

52:28

go great. And things only

52:30

go a little better for the three

52:32

couples in transition that we get here in the best years of our

52:35

lives. Yeah, and in

52:37

so many different ways, even

52:39

though the essential root of

52:41

their struggles, their challenges, are

52:44

these now veterans returning home and trying

52:46

to assimilate back to their previous lives. I

52:49

was looking at them, I had known because

52:51

I had seen this a number of years

52:53

ago that it had appeared on at least

52:55

one top five list over

52:58

the years that I put together. And so

53:00

I was looking just in some old notes

53:02

and stuff and it came up in

53:05

top five married couples, something

53:07

like that, or marriage movies. And it wasn't a

53:10

pick of mine. I'm pretty sure it was long

53:12

time listener Peter LaBouza who

53:14

wrote in and suggested it. So I just called that out

53:16

as an honorable mention. And

53:18

it's very much for what you're talking

53:20

about, is we're getting this triptych portrait

53:22

of marriage in the aftermath of war.

53:25

And I think of that

53:28

moment where Al and Millie are

53:31

reunited. And this is

53:33

very early on, the excitement,

53:35

the hubbub has worn down a little bit

53:37

from the kids greeting him. And this

53:39

is a surprise to all three of them that he's shown up

53:41

home. And they

53:43

both look at each other, things have quieted down, and

53:45

they both ask each other, are you all right? And

53:51

they know, they're the oldest couple that

53:53

we meet. And so I think

53:56

we're going to talk about this. So

53:59

many little aside. or moments

54:01

that hit you so hard in this

54:03

movie and they may not

54:05

be the point of the scene. Like this is

54:07

almost something that is said in passing. I think

54:09

they're they're just coming to each other in the

54:11

hallway and like I said it's

54:14

been a moment to take a breath and they look at each

54:16

other. Each asking each other

54:18

are you all right? Acknowledging that

54:21

this isn't going to be just an easy

54:23

celebration and I want to know what

54:25

happened to you. I want to know what you've been

54:27

through. Contrast that to

54:29

what happens with the

54:31

youngest married couple that we meet

54:33

Fred and Marie where

54:36

she complains somewhat

54:38

about the nightmares he's having

54:42

and but never really asked them what they're

54:44

about and never takes that next step to

54:46

explore and the movie doesn't paint her entirely

54:48

as a villain. It's one of the things

54:50

I liked about it. It's somewhat understandable for

54:53

her to have that reaction right? She wants to

54:55

pick up right where they left off. She thinks

54:57

he's going to come home and

54:59

they'll just go back to their lives and

55:01

they were essentially even though they had married

55:04

you know still in the infatuation stage so

55:06

she doesn't want to think about that being

55:08

stopped now that he's home. So those are

55:10

just two examples of the way

55:12

marriage is looked at differently and richly in

55:14

this movie and then when we get to

55:16

Homer who's engaged you know what

55:18

we'll get into I'm sure how the dynamic

55:20

plays out there which is in a completely

55:23

different heartbreaking yet

55:26

deeply romantic and affirming I

55:28

feel like register. Yeah and

55:30

I think that couple

55:32

Wilma and Homer are

55:35

the youngest couple in terms of their actual

55:37

ages but as far as being a couple

55:39

they've known each other their entire lives. That's

55:41

right. We're together for a long time then

55:43

yeah before he went off to war and

55:46

came back and they're contemplating marriage and you're

55:48

right you've got Fred and Marie who are

55:50

married but know each other far less than

55:52

Wilma and Homer. I'm gonna give you I

55:54

thought I would bring this up later but

55:56

when you talk about these little touches where

55:59

the scene isn't necessary necessarily about that

56:01

moment. But it's one

56:03

of the indelible things you

56:05

remember about the scene and you can add up

56:07

about 20 of these over the course of this

56:09

film. There's a scene and

56:12

the scene itself is touching enough,

56:15

but there's a scene that's going

56:17

to come back into play later. It's going to

56:19

be mirrored later. At this point, it's Homer going

56:22

to bed and we see what

56:24

the process is, what the procedure is when

56:26

he goes to bed. His father knows that

56:28

every night he's going to come

56:30

in and help his son get

56:33

ready for bed. Getting ready for bed

56:35

means that because Homer has now hooks

56:37

for hands, he can do a lot

56:39

of things as we see later, but

56:42

he can't do everything. He can't completely

56:44

get changed into his pajamas

56:46

and get into bed. One

56:49

of the things that the dad does that tells you

56:51

so much about these characters as human

56:53

beings in this routine, Homer's

56:55

smoking a cigarette like a lot

56:58

of people in the movie do at various points.

57:01

He says something to him or nudges

57:03

him, grunts like, give

57:06

me the cigarette kind of thing. Before

57:09

his dad takes it, Homer takes

57:11

one drag off it, one good

57:13

long drag. It's the kind of thing that

57:16

happened so many times so far through these two

57:18

Weiler films, especially in the best years of our

57:20

lives where it would be so easy and in

57:22

so many other movies, we would see this. The

57:24

character would be smoking because they're just smoking.

57:27

It happens. It's habit. They're

57:29

smokers. It's time for the dad to

57:31

take it and start the routine. The

57:34

character gives it up. The dad takes it. What we get

57:36

here is Homer taking one last

57:38

drag because he knows that if he decides

57:41

later, maybe that he wants to get a cigarette,

57:43

it may not be that easy. This is just

57:45

the way it is for him and he's going

57:47

to enjoy that moment before his

57:49

dad takes it away. It's just such a

57:52

beautiful moment that

57:54

gives that character authenticity

57:56

and humanity. That

57:58

is the brilliance of Harold R. Russell's

58:00

performance. so even though he's he's a non

58:02

professional this is the listed did end up

58:04

way back and twenty forty. This is why

58:07

I watched best years of our lives have

58:09

been a member. I couldn't quite recall why

58:11

I had just out of the blue watches,

58:13

but it was because I want to consider

58:15

Russell's performance for top five performances by not.

58:18

And you know he. He did lose his

58:20

own hands in a training accident, he was

58:22

featured in a military so about rehabilitation and

58:24

that's how he came to the attention of

58:27

Hollywood A. And what I talked about for

58:29

that list is. How you know there are

58:31

line readings you could probably quibble with here

58:33

where you see a sauce in dialogue with

58:36

professionals right? That he is new to this,

58:38

but he doesn't matter because. What?

58:40

He does his embody this experience so

58:42

thoroughly. It's in gestures exactly like what

58:45

you talked about. Adam knowing that that

58:47

is, that is something he probably lived

58:49

through how many times? Hundreds of times

58:51

and so it may have not even

58:54

been something he planned or was directed

58:56

to do. But it's just

58:58

how he knew to live in

59:00

that moment. And I think that

59:02

is a different type of acting

59:04

that does need to be recognized.

59:06

It's how he he sits on

59:08

the bed and I love how

59:10

Wyler leaves the camera in that

59:13

scene with his father on the

59:15

upper body so that we see

59:17

Homers face and we're not thinking

59:19

about his hands at that moment.

59:21

We're not what we're been forced

59:23

to see him as the human

59:25

he is better. And yet, the

59:27

movie doesn't. Disregard or or want

59:29

us to ignore what I'm faces.

59:32

It real opposite the i want us

59:34

to record watches that here's the moment

59:36

that a it's a dick is are

59:38

like little grace notes were talking about

59:40

and here's the one that. Just.

59:42

As like I, you know I've taught. For those I

59:45

don't like cry at movies easily at all. As a

59:47

matter fact is, I see a plumbing. There's no way

59:49

I'm going to. They have to sneak up on me.

59:51

and I had somehow forgotten. It's been ten years since

59:54

I watch this. The first time. The moment

59:56

that did this and so what happened again. this

59:59

is very or early on when the three

1:00:01

of them have reunited the very same day

1:00:03

that they come back, they've gone to their

1:00:05

families and are so uncomfortable that they each

1:00:07

find a way to get back to this

1:00:09

bar, butchered at Homer as told them about,

1:00:11

right? And how relieved are you as a

1:00:14

viewer to see them get back there together?

1:00:16

I'm ecstatic. You're so happy, right? I mean,

1:00:18

I'm so happy. Not that you want them

1:00:20

to flee their families, but you know, you

1:00:22

can see their itching in their skin and

1:00:25

you know that they've immediately formed this camaraderie.

1:00:27

So you're so happy to see them. Al

1:00:30

has his wife and daughter with, they've been

1:00:32

out going to clubs and he

1:00:34

wants to introduce them to Homer. And

1:00:37

this is how he does it. Oh, he got the Navy to convoys. Huh?

1:00:40

Of course, we got to get one thing straight. Homer

1:00:42

lost his hands. He's got those hooks instead. They don't

1:00:44

worry him. So they don't need to worry anybody else.

1:00:46

Right Homer? Right. Right.

1:00:50

Now let's get seriously to work. It's all there.

1:00:52

This is just, it's

1:00:54

very different from Homer's future

1:00:57

father-in-law not letting Homer

1:00:59

light his cigar in

1:01:01

the scene. Whereas Al and Fred,

1:01:04

the first time they meet, willingly

1:01:06

allow Homer to light their cigarettes. They're

1:01:09

going to acknowledge what he's been through, but

1:01:11

they're not going to define him by it.

1:01:14

And the way Al just says, this is how

1:01:16

we're all going to handle this, just

1:01:19

it makes me cry to see that sort

1:01:21

of grace extended. And I think the

1:01:24

beauty of this film is how we recognize the

1:01:26

pain and the difficulty and the hardship that these

1:01:28

men are going to face. And

1:01:30

yet just when they and us are about to

1:01:32

despair, we get a little grace note like that

1:01:35

that carries us through and we hope and believe it's

1:01:37

going to carry them through as well. Yeah. I

1:01:40

do want to go back a little bit because I

1:01:42

just want to underscore some of the things you're saying

1:01:44

about getting to know these three men, the

1:01:47

power of this film, the moments

1:01:49

that it captures and

1:01:51

the sophistication of Weiler's direction

1:01:54

here, that

1:01:56

opening, that first 20 minutes or whatever it

1:01:58

is, where we get. To

1:02:00

know who these three men are we get to

1:02:02

spend time with them in a way that few

1:02:05

movies Really allow us to

1:02:07

spend time with characters and really just get

1:02:09

to understand their behavior and who they are

1:02:11

I'm thinking about another war movie or was

1:02:13

in the moment that I'm guessing the best

1:02:15

years of our lives was an influence on

1:02:17

and That's Michael Chaminos the deer hunter You

1:02:19

think about the sure thing of that film

1:02:21

right and that town and those characters and

1:02:23

all the time it spends Before we even

1:02:25

get to Vietnam just hanging out with these

1:02:27

guys that flight That

1:02:30

they take Not just

1:02:32

a vehicle literally for them and

1:02:34

for the plot a vehicle for the plot to get

1:02:36

them home It becomes this extended

1:02:38

encounter this chance for them to bond

1:02:41

with each other to learn

1:02:43

about who they are as men to

1:02:46

understand their anxieties and

1:02:48

those shots even are so glorious Josh of

1:02:51

The city or the land as they're

1:02:53

flying over the top. We're not in

1:02:56

a plane. Yeah, middle America What we're

1:02:58

saying? Yeah, we're going over middle America

1:03:00

in what seems like all of

1:03:02

its beauty But we know already

1:03:04

a little bit about the angst of these men

1:03:07

what they're coming from what they might be

1:03:09

facing how they're feeling and their fear about

1:03:11

what they might be facing and That

1:03:14

line that one of them says

1:03:17

I didn't write down who exactly it is It

1:03:19

might have been Homer but someone says playing golf

1:03:21

just as if nothing ever happened Yes idea right

1:03:23

that yeah great. We get

1:03:25

a few echoes of this in the movie

1:03:27

We know that you suffered back at home,

1:03:29

too. You had to make sacrifices. Everyone did

1:03:32

their part Whatever you don't know

1:03:34

what we went through and you don't

1:03:36

know what we're going through now when we come home and

1:03:39

yet Life just continued to go

1:03:41

on and it continues to go on Beneath

1:03:44

them as they're about to land we

1:03:47

return to this later in the film But seeing the

1:03:49

junkyard the scrap heap of all those

1:03:51

planes the visual metaphor of that tying

1:03:53

to these men these once very

1:03:56

Capable very powerful machines

1:03:58

now not the abandoned,

1:04:00

right? Just like we fear they're

1:04:03

going to be. And the other thing

1:04:05

you realize early on, if you're paying

1:04:07

attention to the dynamic and the uniforms they're

1:04:09

wearing and the way they talk, you realize

1:04:12

that what we've gotten here is men

1:04:14

at three different stages of life in

1:04:16

terms of age, experience, and

1:04:19

as we noted, they're coupledom or

1:04:21

their marriages. Again, Homer is hopefully

1:04:23

going to get married to Wilma,

1:04:25

but not yet. But also, they're

1:04:27

different ranks in the military. They're

1:04:29

three different branches of military. We've got

1:04:32

Army and Air Force and Navy. And

1:04:34

then what we get upon landing is we

1:04:36

put it all together and we realize that

1:04:38

there are three different classes as well,

1:04:41

right? With Fred, the

1:04:43

lower class in this case, Homer, decidedly

1:04:45

middle class, and Al, a

1:04:48

banker, more upper class. It sounds

1:04:50

maybe a bit too on the nose. There's

1:04:52

nothing on the nose about this. No, it's

1:04:54

actually really beautiful. It's effortless in the way

1:04:56

that it's handled and in the way the

1:04:58

movie doesn't draw too much attention to it.

1:05:00

And then like you said, Josh, by the

1:05:02

time they're saying goodbye to each other, all

1:05:05

I'm thinking about is how I pray

1:05:07

they're going to reunite. And I'm not totally sure they

1:05:09

would. This is the first time I've seen the movie.

1:05:12

I don't know whether or not we're now

1:05:14

going to get their three different stories and whether

1:05:16

or not they're going to completely intersect. And

1:05:18

how elated am I to your point? Later

1:05:21

that same day. It's not

1:05:23

just later, a couple weeks down the road. Later

1:05:25

the same day they end up at Butch's bar.

1:05:28

Even if for those characters, I wish

1:05:30

the circumstances were a little less precarious.

1:05:32

They're all three men in that moment

1:05:34

who cannot be themselves at home. They

1:05:37

cannot be at home. And in Fred's

1:05:39

case, he literally can't even get in

1:05:41

to his home with Marie.

1:05:44

It's one of the best, I want to

1:05:46

call it one of the best opening scenes

1:05:48

ever, but it's really just one of the

1:05:50

best first 30 minutes or so of any

1:05:52

movie I've ever seen. And how about the

1:05:54

cab ride specifically? Oh yeah. It does everything

1:05:56

you're describing

1:05:58

beautifully in miniature. And it doesn't feel

1:06:01

repetitive at all because we feel the tension rising

1:06:03

the closer each of them gets home

1:06:05

they share a cab home from the airport

1:06:07

and Homer's the first

1:06:09

to get dropped off and he is reluctant to

1:06:11

go and the other two

1:06:13

and then Alice That's exactly that's the thing is

1:06:15

like the other two are yeah, I think they

1:06:17

say like it's time to go home now Right,

1:06:19

but when it's time for them to go home

1:06:22

They are a little more

1:06:24

jittery each themselves and how about the shot

1:06:27

of Fred? Looking out. I

1:06:29

think Fred is the last to leave. He is

1:06:31

so after Al gets dropped off Fred

1:06:34

looks out the back window of the taxi

1:06:36

and an unbroken shot There's no cut the

1:06:39

car pulls away and we just see Al

1:06:41

through this tiny oval window getting

1:06:43

further and further away and it's

1:06:45

that shot and And the

1:06:48

the longing in that shot the the

1:06:50

longing for camaraderie Which is why we're

1:06:52

so thrilled when they get reunited in

1:06:55

the bar Well, and how

1:06:57

about Josh the fact that Fred at this

1:06:59

point and I think throughout the film We

1:07:01

can still say as much time as it

1:07:03

gives to all the storylines He's the central

1:07:05

character and at the beginning he is the

1:07:07

first character we meet us We

1:07:09

meet the other characters because of Fred. So how

1:07:11

about that decision when they do stop at? Homer's

1:07:15

house. He's the first one to get out We

1:07:18

know he's nervous and the

1:07:20

cabs about to take off and Fred says no

1:07:23

park it and they stay We get

1:07:25

to watch that scene. Yeah, so desperately want

1:07:27

to see we want to know for Homer's

1:07:29

sake What kind of welcome he gets and

1:07:31

we get to see it because Fred and

1:07:33

Al? Yeah stop to watch it because they

1:07:35

desperately want to see how it plays out

1:07:38

to and the double power of that where

1:07:40

They care about Homer. They've already developed enough of a

1:07:43

bond that they care about Homer and they want to

1:07:45

see But it just now

1:07:47

occurs to me that of course they also probably are

1:07:49

curious to Oh sure right themselves They

1:07:51

don't know what's awaiting them. And so they want

1:07:53

to see what kind of welcome Homer gets and

1:07:55

it's a delay tactic It's you know, it's gonna

1:07:57

keep them maybe five minutes further from having a

1:07:59

house that moment themselves. Yeah,

1:08:01

absolutely. So I want

1:08:03

to get to the scene that, and there were multiple moments

1:08:05

in this film, Josh, that

1:08:09

made me react, that it got a little dusty

1:08:11

in the room. The one that did destroy me. And

1:08:14

I'm guessing it's a more obvious choice than

1:08:16

yours. I'm guessing it's one that has this

1:08:18

impact on a lot of people. It's

1:08:21

the scene that comes closer to the end between

1:08:24

Homer and Wilma in the

1:08:26

bedroom. This is now the... Incredible.

1:08:28

And at the same time, the second time

1:08:31

we've seen Homer go

1:08:33

through this process, as I mentioned earlier first

1:08:36

with his father. And I

1:08:38

did read this earlier today, Josh, that of

1:08:40

course we take this for granted now.

1:08:43

But back then, we don't totally take it

1:08:45

for granted. Sometimes we talk about this. I even brought

1:08:47

it up in the context of Dodsworth a little bit

1:08:49

that I thought it was pretty bold in its frankness

1:08:51

about how it was handling some of the adultery

1:08:54

and things going on for a movie that was

1:08:56

governed by the production code at the time. So,

1:08:58

as far as racey as a movie could get

1:09:00

in 36, I suppose, well,

1:09:02

here in 46, that scene between

1:09:06

a couple, whether married or not, or

1:09:08

maybe especially because they're not married, being

1:09:10

in the same bedroom together and

1:09:12

the man is undressing, even if we

1:09:14

never see him actually undressed, but we

1:09:17

see him changing into his pajamas, that's

1:09:19

too intimate for the production code. That

1:09:21

never would have been allowed. And

1:09:23

yet, because of the

1:09:25

tenderness of that scene, I mean, I don't know

1:09:27

what their thinking was or whether or not they

1:09:29

did consider it, but it seems as though it

1:09:31

was a scene that you would not get in

1:09:33

any other film, and it stood in the best

1:09:35

years of our lives because even the damn production

1:09:37

code people couldn't overlook

1:09:41

its power. And the power of seeing

1:09:43

Homer in that moment, finally, so

1:09:46

reluctantly, but so thoroughly being

1:09:49

vulnerable. And to

1:09:51

go back to your point about how it's shot, similar

1:09:54

here, focused on the upper body,

1:09:57

camera, motionless, still,

1:09:59

while or letting the movements

1:10:01

occur unadorned before us, all

1:10:03

of a sudden I felt like I was

1:10:05

transported into a documentary. I was

1:10:08

now watching a documentary as if Weiler

1:10:10

said, I'm going to give my audience

1:10:12

a visual how to guide for empathy,

1:10:15

not pitying, but empathizing,

1:10:18

understanding, you're going to see I'm gonna

1:10:21

I'm going to make you watch what

1:10:24

this is like, what this moment is

1:10:26

like for a man in Homer situation

1:10:28

and other men like him. I

1:10:32

could barely talk about it. I want to move

1:10:34

on. It's that heartbreaking. This

1:10:37

is when I know I'm helpless. My

1:10:39

hands are down there on the bed. I can't

1:10:41

put them on again without calling to somebody for help.

1:10:45

I can't smoke a cigarette or read a book. That

1:10:48

door should blow shut. I can't open it and get out of

1:10:50

this room. It

1:10:53

was dependent as a baby that doesn't know how to

1:10:55

get anything except cry for. Well,

1:11:01

now you know, now you

1:11:04

have an idea of what it is.

1:11:07

It's the enacting of

1:11:09

what Al said in the bar. It's

1:11:12

the recognizing like, look, this is

1:11:14

the situation. Homer knows the

1:11:18

situation. He's dealing with it.

1:11:21

And so we're going to follow his lead and do the

1:11:23

same. And that is what Wilma

1:11:26

does. Kathy O'Donnell's Wilma does.

1:11:28

She is there

1:11:30

for him, how he needs

1:11:32

her to be. And to your point about the

1:11:35

code, this is

1:11:37

not just romantic. I think it's downright

1:11:40

sexy. Yeah. Like if

1:11:42

it made them feel uncomfortable

1:11:44

and consider, you know, banning

1:11:47

or not allowing it in,

1:11:49

I wouldn't have been surprised

1:11:51

because this, it is

1:11:53

the scenario. You know, she's kind of sneaking

1:11:55

in like his dad is supposed to be

1:11:57

doing this, but instead she's. sees

1:12:00

him in the kitchen from outside and she snuck

1:12:02

in and he brings her upstairs and yeah, this

1:12:04

is not how things are supposed

1:12:06

to go, but it's back to the intimacy.

1:12:08

That's what makes it so sexy is that

1:12:11

you are seeing these

1:12:13

two connected away. You've

1:12:15

been hoping for them. They

1:12:17

have each individually been hoping for each other, but

1:12:19

they've not found a way to get there yet.

1:12:22

And now they're getting there. And how

1:12:25

about the moment where she, her

1:12:27

hands hesitate between

1:12:30

reaching out to assist him and

1:12:33

holding back and pausing

1:12:35

and then he lets her

1:12:38

button his pajama shirt. And

1:12:41

just real quick Josh, it's one of those

1:12:43

moments that you feel like absolutely could have

1:12:45

been blocked in advanced and planned or was

1:12:48

a completely authentic or natural reaction in

1:12:50

the moment. Where we all

1:12:52

do it when you see someone who needs

1:12:54

help with something. Our

1:12:57

reaction is at once to

1:12:59

try to reach in and do it for them.

1:13:01

And then we have to tell ourselves that's not

1:13:03

our role, that's not our place. And we see

1:13:05

that moment play out with her. And this is

1:13:07

again to the just the

1:13:09

excellence of Russell's performance.

1:13:13

This is all about how he's holding

1:13:15

himself in that space and responding to

1:13:17

her physically. There's very little

1:13:19

dialogue at this point. And so all of

1:13:22

those moments where he might be

1:13:24

a slightly stiff in the line reading or you

1:13:26

see that O'Donnell is clearly a pro. That

1:13:29

falls away here. And

1:13:32

instead what you're watching and

1:13:34

this is hard to talk about, instead of

1:13:36

what you're watching is something for the first

1:13:39

time that you hope in your deepest

1:13:41

heart is going to happen for the two of them

1:13:43

for the rest of their lives. You

1:13:45

hope and the movie maybe gives us enough

1:13:48

of that sense of hope even as with

1:13:51

at least one of the other relationships we

1:13:53

don't necessarily get that. And

1:13:56

I do just want to go

1:13:58

back briefly. You're talking about Russell and his

1:14:00

performance. And I know you're praising it as

1:14:02

much as you possibly can.

1:14:04

I get what you're saying about

1:14:06

maybe some of the line readings.

1:14:08

Is he Fredrick March? No, he's

1:14:10

not. Is he Dana Andrews? No.

1:14:12

That doesn't take away anything from

1:14:14

this performance or even how

1:14:17

polished I think the performance is and

1:14:19

go back to the airplane where

1:14:21

they're coming into town and it's morning. And

1:14:24

we get that close up. And what

1:14:26

Russell does, what Russell and Weiler do

1:14:28

in that close up of him,

1:14:31

of Homer, as he looks out at

1:14:33

the heavens over the clouds and

1:14:35

the complexity of everything he's feeling in that

1:14:37

moment, he transmits all of that. His

1:14:40

close up in that moment is just as good as

1:14:42

any close up we get from Dana Andrews or Fredrick

1:14:44

March, and I think they're both great in this film.

1:14:47

Agreed. Totally agree. That moment in

1:14:49

the plane, I purposely said it's

1:14:51

like we're flying over the fruited plane

1:14:53

because I think this is a point

1:14:55

to talk about, the thing I talked

1:14:57

about with Dodsworth too is Weiler's relationship

1:14:59

with America as an idea. And

1:15:03

there is such an

1:15:05

ambivalence about being

1:15:07

American, about the country as

1:15:09

a whole, about how it

1:15:11

treats its returning soldiers. I

1:15:13

don't think he's gone to cynicism

1:15:17

at this point. I wouldn't say that.

1:15:19

This is not like Billy Wilder. You

1:15:21

know, we've talked about him in comparison

1:15:23

to Billy Wilder, but there's definitely an

1:15:25

ambivalence. And you see that with

1:15:28

these gorgeous landscape shots in the plane.

1:15:30

Homer even says, sure is beautiful, but

1:15:32

then we get those notes you mentioned

1:15:34

about the Gulf, you know, and we

1:15:36

see this kind of questioning of,

1:15:38

is it as perfect as it looks like from

1:15:40

up here? We get Al's

1:15:42

speech at the banker's dinner

1:15:44

where he's trying to hide

1:15:46

his disgust at capitalism

1:15:48

over, you know,

1:15:50

he's obviously standing up for fellow veterans who want

1:15:53

loans and maybe don't have collateral. This is the

1:15:55

gist of the conflict at work, right? And Al

1:15:57

wants to give it to him and

1:15:59

the bank. is saying that, you know, no, it's not,

1:16:01

it's risky. And so Al is almost like, Al

1:16:04

is almost representing this more old fashioned

1:16:06

bootstrap, you know, pull yourself by your

1:16:08

bootstrap mentality and his bosses

1:16:11

are just more pure capitalism, right? We're,

1:16:13

we're, yeah, this is going to be

1:16:15

post-war boom and we're going to take

1:16:17

advantage of it, even if it means

1:16:19

leaving behind those who helped us win

1:16:21

the war. Yeah, but they'll play the

1:16:23

patriotism game when it serves them. Exactly.

1:16:25

And Al is part of that. He's,

1:16:27

he's kind of like this token. I

1:16:30

want to tell you all that the reason for

1:16:32

my success as a sergeant has due primarily to

1:16:34

my previous training in the Corn

1:16:36

Belt Loan and Trust Company. The knowledge

1:16:39

I acquired in the good old bank, I

1:16:41

applied to my problems in the infantry. For

1:16:45

instance, one day an Okinawa major comes up to me

1:16:47

and he says, Stevenson, you see that hill? Yes, sir,

1:16:49

I see it. All right. He said, you

1:16:52

and your platoon will attack said hill and

1:16:54

take it. So I

1:16:56

said to the major, but that operation

1:16:58

involves considerable risk. We

1:17:01

haven't sufficient collateral. I'm

1:17:03

aware of that, said the major, but the fact remains that

1:17:05

there is the hill and you are the guys who are going

1:17:07

to take it. So I said

1:17:09

to him, I'm sorry, major, no

1:17:12

collateral, no hill. So

1:17:15

we didn't take the hill and

1:17:18

we lost the war. I

1:17:22

think that little story has considerable

1:17:25

significance, but

1:17:27

I've forgotten what it is. I

1:17:30

think this movie is more interested

1:17:32

in these individual men's stories, but

1:17:34

I think with just this idea

1:17:37

of Weiler again, as coming from

1:17:39

Europe and making these

1:17:41

American films of how

1:17:43

he's processing that in his movies. I

1:17:45

don't think this goes as hard as

1:17:47

something like Born on the 4th of

1:17:49

July and its critique of America or

1:17:51

its depiction of, you know, a returning

1:17:53

veteran who's facing disability. It

1:17:55

doesn't go as hard as that, but I still think

1:17:57

this is incredibly bravely honest for 1940. 46

1:18:01

yeah, absolutely and here we should probably give

1:18:03

some credit to McKinley Cantor who

1:18:05

wrote the book that this was based on Glory

1:18:07

for me in 1945 But

1:18:09

yeah, this movie's coming out in 46 Josh and

1:18:12

you mentioned born on the 4th You go

1:18:14

back a little earlier than that, you know

1:18:16

I looked this up today just to make

1:18:18

sure I had the dates, right? But Vietnam

1:18:20

ends in 75 coming home comes out in

1:18:22

78 you get apocalypse now being made 79

1:18:24

and being released then You

1:18:27

get those movies of the 80s

1:18:29

like platoon They kind of started that launched

1:18:31

this right this spike

1:18:33

in the Vietnam War film genre

1:18:36

Looking back now with some distance on

1:18:39

America's involvement in Vietnam and the entire time I

1:18:41

was watching this film I just kept shaking my

1:18:43

head thinking how can it be 1946? How

1:18:46

can the war just have ended and how can this

1:18:48

movie be I think I've used

1:18:50

this word at least once I'll use it

1:18:52

again How can it be this sophisticated? Yeah,

1:18:55

how can it be this sensitive and insightful

1:18:57

without the benefit of That

1:18:59

time and I did read

1:19:02

something today. Josh that said Weiler had been Honorably

1:19:05

discharged from the military McKinley Cantor

1:19:07

himself was in the war. So

1:19:09

these guys knew yeah They

1:19:11

had do of you watch the film and you

1:19:13

get that sense I didn't know watching it that

1:19:15

he had a military background But you understand that

1:19:18

this this doesn't feel like just

1:19:20

a director for hire kind of picture

1:19:22

This is this is something Weiler seems

1:19:25

to intuitively Understand

1:19:28

and it does capture all

1:19:30

of the things you're talking about for me

1:19:32

What really stood out Josh was the

1:19:35

way not just how Al or

1:19:37

his military record is used but in the case of

1:19:39

all three men Whether

1:19:41

they want this to be true

1:19:43

or not, they're proud of their service, but

1:19:46

it's not like they want it to define them

1:19:49

It's not them who continued to define themselves

1:19:51

that way. It's everyone around them It's

1:19:54

everyone around them who doesn't let them forget and

1:19:56

so you've got someone like Al who it turns

1:19:58

out is gonna get this cushy job.

1:20:00

And it's really just because they want to be able

1:20:02

to say, we have a vice president, who's

1:20:05

decorated, who's a decorated military man.

1:20:08

And the line they give

1:20:10

him about, well, who

1:20:12

understands these men better than you do when

1:20:14

he exhibits that he really does understand them,

1:20:17

they get angry. Yes. And they want to

1:20:19

punish him for it. Fred is someone who

1:20:21

they say, well, just because you're a

1:20:23

military guy doesn't mean you're going to get your old job

1:20:25

back. And they're constantly bringing

1:20:27

it up for better or worse. It's

1:20:30

society that won't define them

1:20:32

in any other way, and either uses

1:20:34

it against them, or uses it in

1:20:37

ways to benefit them, but not the

1:20:39

not the servicemen. Yeah. Yeah,

1:20:41

no, you're, you're absolutely right. And the

1:20:43

fact that it stays so

1:20:46

personal, while also representing,

1:20:48

you know, each of these men

1:20:50

are representing how many thousands, a

1:20:52

million out there who are going

1:20:54

through this. And the fact that

1:20:57

it's a movie that's willing to

1:20:59

question the costs this

1:21:01

soon after the war, I have to

1:21:03

imagine, you know, that's

1:21:06

why it's so shocking to me just having

1:21:08

been taught and learned about and it might,

1:21:10

you know, my grandfather was in the Navy

1:21:12

in World War Two, and he didn't talk

1:21:14

about it much, but it was always communicated

1:21:17

more around him than what he communicated to

1:21:19

your point you just made, how

1:21:22

wonderful it was that he was in the

1:21:24

service, right? It was just kind of always

1:21:26

something that others sort of

1:21:28

like held around him like banners, and

1:21:31

he himself never really talked about. And that was

1:21:33

always curious to me. And then he sees something

1:21:35

like the best years of our lives. And

1:21:38

it kind of clicks, right? And what you

1:21:40

were just describing about how they don't want

1:21:42

it to define them, explains

1:21:45

a lot of that. And to think

1:21:47

that a movie is willing to explore that

1:21:49

this soon after the war, when it had

1:21:52

to have been, I would imagine like, everyone

1:21:54

want to focusing on the boom and the

1:21:56

victory And the honor and

1:21:58

the glory And what? The truth? there

1:22:00

might be in some of those elements. Here's

1:22:02

a movie that's also wanting to say yes,

1:22:05

but. And that had to be

1:22:07

radical Islamists. I imagine they had be radical

1:22:09

baby. not as it went on to how

1:22:11

you this much Oscar success? you know? Yeah,

1:22:13

it's hard to know and part of that

1:22:15

to. I was really struck by there's multiple

1:22:17

references to A, but there's one early on

1:22:19

that's really kind of startling. You.

1:22:22

Think about the indignity of

1:22:24

these men coming home being

1:22:26

defined by their service, seemingly

1:22:28

people wanting to exploit them

1:22:30

for that they've suffered. Or.

1:22:33

They're walking into situations with a

1:22:35

lot of trepidation. and then you

1:22:37

get people saying. Casual. Things

1:22:39

like well the next time we go to

1:22:41

war. We're. All just be blown

1:22:44

to bits with a push up

1:22:46

about. how about that? Had thought

1:22:48

that the fatalism of this film

1:22:50

be acknowledgement of the the specter

1:22:52

of of now post World War

1:22:54

Two. the Atomic bomb. What war

1:22:57

means now. And that's all.

1:22:59

fine, that that's powerful enough in and of itself.

1:23:01

just. but then think about it in terms of

1:23:03

what the movie does. It makes us think about

1:23:05

that in terms of. Characters:

1:23:08

These characters who have lost so much,

1:23:10

who sacrificed so much, who did all

1:23:12

this and when they come back. Not

1:23:14

only do people really not seem to

1:23:17

care that much about their sacrifice, their

1:23:19

faced with things like. Will.

1:23:21

Your the last ones that will every that have

1:23:23

to go through this. That's what the thought was

1:23:26

at the time anyway, because now war will never

1:23:28

be like that again and we're all probably just

1:23:30

going to die anyway. So why did you waste

1:23:32

your time? That isn't that. That's what Bush says,

1:23:34

right? Play by Hoagy Carmichael. I think he's the

1:23:37

one who makes that comment. The next war is

1:23:39

his phrase wall didn't get blown up. That was

1:23:41

shocking to me to you know at the guy

1:23:43

and I'm experiencing history very much through the lens

1:23:46

of movies, which may be as of the wisest

1:23:48

thing, but I always like video. I always think

1:23:50

about, you know, the fifties. are when when

1:23:52

when nuclear anxiety became a real

1:23:54

thing there are a few moments

1:23:56

of nuclear anxiety in this paired

1:23:58

that's the one Butch saying that about the

1:24:01

next war. How about Al's son? Immediately the

1:24:03

first night he gets back saying, you

1:24:05

were in Hiroshima, right? Did

1:24:07

you see any victims? Did they... He

1:24:10

wants to know if they looked like

1:24:12

burnt or something like that. He knows

1:24:14

the horrors and he's asking about it.

1:24:16

And he's talking all about how they're

1:24:18

learning about atomic energy. And you realize

1:24:21

that, again, the perception is

1:24:23

that the US helped win World

1:24:25

War II and everyone just had a party for

1:24:27

the next 10 years. And

1:24:30

it's like, no, people

1:24:32

realized what this meant, how that war

1:24:34

was won. The devastating

1:24:36

effects of that and what that

1:24:38

meant for the entire globe was

1:24:40

something that caused deep anxiety. And

1:24:42

here again, is a movie willing

1:24:44

to talk about that? Yeah.

1:24:47

The scene we mentioned with

1:24:50

Wilma and Homer at bedtime,

1:24:53

that is reflective of something that

1:24:56

Tyler is maybe just the best at. I'm going to

1:24:58

proclaim that after seeing two films of this marathon and

1:25:01

I think six of his films overall. I'm

1:25:03

going to describe it as the business

1:25:05

of scenes, giving characters

1:25:07

something to do while

1:25:10

they're doing something else that

1:25:12

reveals something about them and or advances the

1:25:14

story. And I say that scene with Wilma

1:25:16

and Homer is reflective, but not

1:25:18

an example because that scene is

1:25:20

very much about the intimacy of her helping

1:25:23

him and putting her hands on him and

1:25:25

his clothing, what his hooks are doing, what

1:25:27

her hands are doing. That

1:25:30

brings me back to Butch and

1:25:32

the business of scenes. It's

1:25:34

hands that we get when Homer

1:25:37

here very early in this first scene where they all

1:25:40

reunite at the bar makes his

1:25:42

big speech. He talks about what he

1:25:44

wants from his family and how he wants to be treated.

1:25:47

And you've got Hoagie Carmichael playing the piano.

1:25:50

The dexterity of his fingers, a

1:25:54

counterpoint, a very deliberate one,

1:25:56

a counterpoint to Homer and

1:25:58

everything he's saying. And

1:26:00

yet it's a moving scene, Josh, not just

1:26:02

because of what Russell is saying and how

1:26:04

he's delivering it, but because by

1:26:07

playing the piano and

1:26:09

not being self-conscious about playing the piano,

1:26:12

Butch is exhibiting exactly what Homer wishes his

1:26:14

family would do. He's

1:26:16

not acting aware. He's not treating him differently.

1:26:18

He knows that he's talking about hands while

1:26:21

his hands are showing off, and yet he

1:26:24

keeps playing. He

1:26:26

keeps going. And then here

1:26:28

it is, that deep focus, the deep focus

1:26:30

in that scene of them in the foreground,

1:26:33

but the other characters and what's happening in

1:26:35

the bar, life continuing to go on around

1:26:37

them. Even as they're

1:26:40

having this moment and this character is

1:26:43

making this very vulnerable speech, Weiler

1:26:46

is always keeping that

1:26:48

in the context of life

1:26:51

swirling around them. And there's other examples.

1:26:53

There's so many other examples. How about

1:26:56

the work of getting the

1:26:58

drunk Al to bed that

1:27:01

Murniloy has to do as

1:27:03

Millie, the business

1:27:06

of him humming and

1:27:09

rocking. And how

1:27:11

did they coordinate that? The actual choreography

1:27:14

of that, despite the fact that he's

1:27:17

seated upright, sitting in bed the

1:27:19

whole time, but she's trying to get, actually,

1:27:21

I can't believe I'd ever made the connection before, a

1:27:23

pajamas scene. It's a pajamas scene,

1:27:26

isn't it? And she gets him

1:27:28

into his pajamas, but that

1:27:30

swaying back and forth that the drunk

1:27:32

man is doing, again, could have been

1:27:35

a scene where we spy them for a

1:27:37

few minutes as she helps them get undressed

1:27:39

or takes the shoes off and throws them

1:27:41

into bed. Weiler gives

1:27:45

them business to do that

1:27:47

makes us understand how familiar they are

1:27:49

with each other. Murniloy

1:27:51

is so good in this, in a

1:27:53

role that's probably in terms of screen

1:27:55

time and further down the list,

1:27:57

but man, does she make every moment work as out of the box.

1:28:00

wife just she always knows more than she's

1:28:02

letting on the scene but doesn't insist on

1:28:04

it or push it and then when she

1:28:06

gets a line at one point Peggy Teresa

1:28:09

Wright wonderful also we everyone's wonderful in

1:28:11

this but Teresa right wonderful you

1:28:14

know her her adult young adult daughter is saying

1:28:16

how you guys have you don't understand you've always

1:28:18

had it easy as a couple you know and

1:28:20

and I think she just says and she says

1:28:22

this to Al not to Peggy her daughter she

1:28:25

does it to Al how many times have we

1:28:27

had to fall in love all over again just

1:28:29

kind of telling Peggy what she needs

1:28:31

to hear by saying that to

1:28:33

Al but yeah I want to go

1:28:36

back to your your discussion of that

1:28:38

scene with Butch and Homer at the

1:28:40

piano in Butch's bar and the deep

1:28:43

focus cinematography Greg Toland

1:28:45

here the cinematographer and I

1:28:48

think Butch's piano bar whenever I

1:28:50

hear someone talk about the best

1:28:52

years of our lives that's the set that comes

1:28:54

to mind immediately and crucial scenes are take place

1:28:56

there but I think it's also because that's where

1:28:59

the deep focus is so

1:29:01

brilliantly employed that I have an

1:29:03

understanding of the richness of that space there's

1:29:05

a lot of booths and butches there's a

1:29:08

lot of little cubbies and because of the

1:29:10

deep focus we can always see what's going

1:29:12

on everywhere so so it feels alive it

1:29:14

feels full and there's a later

1:29:16

shot that is another mirror it's

1:29:18

another pairing Adam to the one you just talked

1:29:20

about oh yeah where I have it on my lane

1:29:22

and call scene the phone

1:29:25

call scene again it's Butch and Homer

1:29:27

at the piano but this time which

1:29:29

has been teaching Homer how to play a few

1:29:32

keys with his hooks and then Butch plays as

1:29:34

well and so they have a little duet going

1:29:36

and they're showing Al this Homer is basically say

1:29:38

yeah look what I've learned and

1:29:40

so the three of them are in the foreground and Al's

1:29:44

distracted because he's just had an

1:29:46

argument with Fred with Fred

1:29:49

and what happens is the conversation is among the

1:29:51

three of them the action the piano playing the

1:29:53

business to your point is with the three of

1:29:55

them but the deep focus allows us to see

1:29:58

at the back of Butch's in a phone booth

1:30:00

Fred is making a very crucial and I'm dancing

1:30:02

around it just in case no one seen and

1:30:04

they're going to after this but he's making a

1:30:06

very crucial phone call we know it's crucial so

1:30:08

does Al and we're allowed to

1:30:11

be in both spaces at once

1:30:13

it's it's just one of the most effective

1:30:15

uses of deep focus and it made me

1:30:17

realize we spent some time talking about blocking

1:30:20

in Dodsworth and Weiler's

1:30:22

use of that it made

1:30:24

me realize that deep focus is kind of

1:30:26

like blocking on steroids if

1:30:28

it makes every person's position count

1:30:31

no matter how far back

1:30:33

they are in a scene

1:30:36

and we get this again later in a wedding

1:30:38

scene where okay I maybe we beat me to

1:30:40

it okay yeah that was that was a perfect

1:30:42

handoff of the baton

1:30:46

to where I wanted to go because here

1:30:48

again thank you William Weiler thank you Greg

1:30:50

Toland the wedding scene

1:30:52

where we now have these

1:30:54

men these couples all

1:30:57

reunited after everything we've seen

1:30:59

them go through you've

1:31:02

got these three characters

1:31:04

now in different stages of their

1:31:06

lives and in different places with

1:31:09

their relationships and that

1:31:11

camera Toland's camera between

1:31:13

the cutting that we get and

1:31:16

the use of deep focus either shots

1:31:18

that showcase all three men

1:31:21

together or shots that maybe

1:31:23

focus on Homer but we see one of

1:31:25

the other men in the background and we

1:31:27

cut between them but it unifies them in

1:31:30

this space but it does so much more

1:31:32

than that to Josh where we're always

1:31:34

aware of those

1:31:36

different stages we're aware that this is Homer

1:31:39

and Wilma hopefully embarking

1:31:42

on that journey together a happy one

1:31:44

an intimate one one in which they

1:31:46

share things with each other at the

1:31:48

same time where here great use of

1:31:50

focus we get we get Fred and

1:31:53

we also get to see Peggy in

1:31:55

the shot and what that may

1:31:57

mean for their future but then we're always

1:31:59

looking as well at Al

1:32:02

and Millie. And the thing about Al and

1:32:04

Millie is you know that they

1:32:07

may have the longest road ahead of them of any of these

1:32:09

three couples. That where they're

1:32:11

at in their relationship, where

1:32:14

he's at because of his drinking. Yeah that's

1:32:16

true. The way that Millie at this

1:32:18

point seems to be lovingly

1:32:21

but more than anything kind of

1:32:23

putting up with him, it

1:32:26

just it's so neatly and

1:32:29

visually suggests all of

1:32:32

this. We understand all the dynamics of

1:32:34

their relationship and their relationship to each

1:32:36

other. Yeah. Now my mind is spinning.

1:32:38

You know you're hopeful at the end of this film I think

1:32:42

for all three couples. But you've

1:32:44

got me thinking you know who is

1:32:48

who's got the hardest road ahead of them.

1:32:50

I think it's them. I do. It

1:32:52

might be you know and I think I think

1:32:54

this is to the movie's credit is that it's

1:32:57

not tidy at the end. No. I

1:33:00

don't think that would be honest to everything

1:33:02

that it showed us before. Each

1:33:05

of these couples have a fraught future

1:33:07

in different ways. And

1:33:09

so you know there's a bit of

1:33:11

a grimace to the to the smile

1:33:14

you have on your face still. You're hoping

1:33:16

for them but it's

1:33:19

the very thing that this movie is not doing. This movie

1:33:21

is not going to put a shiny happy face on American

1:33:24

involvement in World War II. It's just not going

1:33:26

to do that. And so it's not also

1:33:28

going to do the same for

1:33:30

each of these individual marriages that

1:33:32

has been really like

1:33:35

thrown over by that conflict in

1:33:37

a way that wouldn't have been before. Is there anything else

1:33:40

on your list? I mean I have more notes

1:33:43

but maybe we stop here. I already envisioned that

1:33:45

10 years from now we're gonna revisit this film

1:33:47

again. Yeah let's save some stuff. I don't think

1:33:49

either of us feels like we've exhausted it. We've

1:33:52

exhausted it at all and we do have awards

1:33:54

and I don't know I mean hopefully

1:33:57

we've convinced anyone who's been hesitant. It's almost

1:33:59

three hours. And if

1:34:01

it sounds like I don't know

1:34:03

like it maybe this sounds good to people

1:34:05

like a post-war staid Mellow

1:34:08

drama about soldiers returning home. It's

1:34:11

so much richer than that might suggest Yeah,

1:34:14

and I'm going to echo what you said

1:34:16

I'll restate it here just to make sure

1:34:18

people understand because I went into it

1:34:20

maybe feeling a little bit this way I'm like,

1:34:22

oh this is gonna be really serious and heavy

1:34:24

and it's three hours long And I've

1:34:26

got a lot of things to do and as much as

1:34:28

I'm eager to see this film. Can I really? Can

1:34:31

I really commit? The the

1:34:33

time and energy to it or do I just have

1:34:35

to kind of get through it and Josh? I sat

1:34:37

down on a Saturday morning and I didn't

1:34:40

look away from it for the next three hours

1:34:42

It yes, it is all the things we're saying

1:34:45

but it's also a thrilling movie in a lot

1:34:47

of ways and For

1:34:49

its seriousness and its

1:34:51

somberness It certainly should

1:34:53

not be a movie that anyone is hesitant

1:34:55

or scared to watch and there are light

1:34:57

little touches to real quickly What an example

1:35:00

is when Millie and Peggy mother and

1:35:02

daughter. This is the first night They've

1:35:05

chaperoned these three men who have reunited

1:35:07

and gotten drunk They're putting them

1:35:09

to bed or at least a couple of them to

1:35:11

bed and and they just share a laugh together This

1:35:14

is one of those this is one of those great

1:35:17

right totally not necessary for the plot But after the

1:35:19

men have been put to bed mother and daughter look

1:35:21

at each other like what the

1:35:23

hell just happened to us tonight

1:35:25

And that was ridiculous and they

1:35:27

giggle and then they go to bed And

1:35:30

so there are there are moments of of lightness

1:35:32

in this as well There are the

1:35:35

best years of our lives is currently streaming on

1:35:37

prime video and available VOD or

1:35:39

interlibrary loan in two weeks time.

1:35:41

We'll get back to our while

1:35:44

of marathon We have more important things to do. We got

1:35:46

to take a trip to Jasper, Missouri We got to go

1:35:48

to the double dudes prior to a drink or two Josh

1:35:52

you can have black coffee like Dalton. You'll you'll

1:35:54

learn that about him. He's he's sober We

1:35:56

will get eventually to 1942's mrs. Miniver than

1:36:00

her after that

1:36:03

one. Josh, that's our show. If

1:36:05

you want to connect with us

1:36:07

on Facebook, Twitter, or Letterboxed, Adam

1:36:09

is at Film Spotting and I'm

1:36:11

at Larson on Film. Film Spotting

1:36:13

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1:36:15

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1:36:18

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1:36:20

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1:36:22

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1:36:24

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the Film Spotting family at filmspottingfamily.com. For

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you can listen to the show early

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and ad-free. You'll also get a weekly

1:36:36

newsletter, monthly bonus shows, and access to

1:36:38

the entire Film Spotting Archive. In that

1:36:40

archive, you might want to look up

1:36:42

our top five Kristen Stewart scenes. That

1:36:44

was way back on episode 627 and

1:36:48

we didn't give a full review, unfortunately, to Rose

1:36:50

Glass's 2021 feature debut St. Maud,

1:36:52

but it was a Golden Brick nominee, came up

1:36:54

on episode 813 and

1:36:56

then later that year as part of

1:36:58

our Golden Brick nominees show. Reminds me

1:37:01

real quick, speaking of movies that

1:37:03

have incredible performances across the board, we praised a

1:37:05

lot of people and love why he's bleeding. I

1:37:07

really love Dave Franco too. I don't

1:37:09

think we called him out. I did not realize

1:37:11

it was him. I did not recognize him. He's so good.

1:37:14

Yeah. filmspottingfamily.com. I don't know how

1:37:16

many Dave Franco reviews we have on the

1:37:18

archive. We'll have to look

1:37:20

that up. In limited release, Josh, you can

1:37:22

see your beloved The Boy and the Heron,

1:37:25

number one film last year. I might have

1:37:27

to do that. I might have to catch

1:37:29

it a third time. Hey, allow me to

1:37:31

plug though. This reminds me a video essay

1:37:33

I made on Miyazaki for

1:37:35

the day job over at Think Christian. I did

1:37:38

what Miyazaki and Christianity have in

1:37:40

common and give some attention to

1:37:42

a little bit of attention to

1:37:44

The Boy and the Heron there, but obviously mostly to

1:37:47

previous movies like Princess Manonoke and

1:37:50

Panyo. I had a

1:37:52

lot of fun making this one. Perhaps too much

1:37:54

fun. YouTube banned it, even

1:37:57

though it's totally fair use. So,

1:38:00

I'm afraid you'll have to go to thinkchristian.net

1:38:02

to see that one. We'll maybe link to

1:38:04

it in the show notes. Okay. We

1:38:07

will link to it indeed in the show

1:38:09

notes. Late Night with the Devil also out

1:38:11

in limited release. I've been excited or curious

1:38:13

certainly to see this one since the Chicago

1:38:15

International Film Festival last October. Got

1:38:17

a lot of good buzz. David Dasmalchen is

1:38:20

a 70s era late night talk show host

1:38:22

who accidentally unleashes evil into the nation's living

1:38:24

rooms. Our friend Brian Talarico writes, some questionable

1:38:26

choices, but I do love how much it

1:38:29

commits to its bit. Riddle of

1:38:31

Fire is also out. This is a

1:38:33

neo fairy tale film from director Weston

1:38:35

Rizzoli about three mischievous children who embark

1:38:38

on an Odyssey when their mother asks

1:38:40

them to run an errand.

1:38:42

In wide release, you can see Ghostbusters

1:38:44

Frozen Empire or Immaculate that

1:38:46

stars Sidney Sweeney as a young

1:38:49

nun who joins an illustrious Italian

1:38:51

convent only to discover that it

1:38:53

harbors dark and horrifying secrets. They

1:38:55

always do. In streaming, you can see

1:38:57

Shirley, a biopic about Shirley Chisholm, the

1:38:59

first black woman elected to Congress that

1:39:01

stars Regina King. It's directed by John

1:39:03

Ridley. And yes, Roadhouse

1:39:06

with Jake Gyllenhaal out now.

1:39:08

Prime video. We're going to watch that. We're

1:39:10

going to talk about it and I'm making

1:39:12

Josh watch Clockwork Orange style 1989 Roadhouse starring

1:39:16

Patrick Swayze. I'm sure

1:39:19