The podcast episode of *Blank Check* offers a reflective and personal deep dive into the career of director Peter Weir, focusing particularly on his final film, *The Way Back*. The hosts explore the film’s difficult, raw production—shooting through harsh elements over four months—emphasizing Weir’s dedication and the emotional labor behind it. Despite its modest release and critical reception, the film is presented as a genuine, heartfelt culmination of Weir’s long career. The discussion highlights how the film industry has failed veteran creators, citing studio egos, shifting trends, and lack of support as key reasons Weir felt forced to retire. The hosts contrast Weir’s consistent quality with the dismissive treatment of his work, especially after *Master and Commander*, which was celebrated but then forgotten. They also touch on broader film culture, including the Coen Brothers’ legacy, Sean Penn’s Oscar win, and the absurdity of film memory. The episode blends personal anecdotes, group text dynamics, and humor to argue that Weir’s career is a testament to artistic integrity amid industry neglect. Ultimately, it serves as both a tribute to Weir and a commentary on how the film world often undervalues enduring, authentic storytelling.
[MUSIC] In 2023, four men walked into the blank check offices to record a podcast. They had survived a three hour and 28-minute record on Fight Club. This episode is dedicated to them. So, is this a tagline? No, this is the title card that opens the phone. Okay, okay. You didn't want to do the tagline I found? I can do that as well. I think it sucks. Yeah, go ahead. Their podcast was just the beginning. Indeed. They're escaped at the beginning. But how about this tagline? Every loss is another fight. So, every loss is another podcast. Every podcast is another fight. Yeah, I mean, that's sort of true. One battle after another, if you know what I'm saying. That's the tagline for the film The Way Back. Oh, sure. With Ben Affleck. I was going to step down. Yeah, I was going to make-- Okay, so what was your good-- I was going to say it's really weird that Peter Weir came out of retirement to make this high school basketball movie. It wouldn't be that weird of him. Sounds like a good movie. My bit was going to be-- It's weird that Peter Weir made this like 80s throwback Water Park movie. Okay, so that's what I was about to do the other tagline. So, I had a two-stage bit which was going to be one, just let's get this out of the way. We all agree this is Ben Affleck's best performance, right? Did you do that? Then I was going to pretend I had watched the wrong movie. Then I was going to say no, of course I'm joking. It is surprising that Peter Weir came out of retirement to make an 80s Water Park movie though. Well, or I mean, you could say we're talking about the way way back at this point. Right, that's a different film. Not a sequel to this movie. Right, but you could argue like, yeah, it's funny. I did not anticipate the sequel being about, you know, you got it. They came out pretty close together. Did they not? The way way back is 2013. And it's got a great tagline. I really want you to hear it. I can't wait to hear it. My ears are open. We've all been there. It's just like-- Hell yeah, but just walking into the theater and just like collapsing into a coma, reading that tagline. Yeah, brother. I remember-- We've all been there. I remember saying-- Weir, the way way back, which is sitting in the back of a car. OK, read the cast of the way way back. I'm about-- Alex, sometimes you and I are just-- I was like, I have to read this cast aloud. Steve Curl, Tony Colette. Rooster himself? [LAUGHS] Is that the show, the new show? Yeah, I'm gonna get better. We just completed rewatching the Pacific and every time we started an episode, there was an ad for Rooster. And it became every time I would go, oh, it's Rooster. Rooster. I've been HBO Maxing and it feels like they drop a Rooster ad. Every mid sentence, every line of diet. The utter sickness of Bill Lawrence, who obviously has contributed good things to our society. But now, we're just like doing another show. And he's like, sure is the guy. I don't know. He's got to learn a lesson or something. Where's my money? Yeah, but your forecast a really famous guy in the role. David, you're forgetting something. Tell me. A Rooster is like the biggest hit show HBO Max's head in like five years. It is not. They have claimed a bust. They had the night of the Seven Kingdoms. They have said it is their biggest premiere. Sure. Five years. Uh-huh. Biggest premiere, we're starting Steve Carell set in a university or whatever. It's amazing. Right. I mean, after foul. Yeah. Right. This is our biggest chicken related, poultry related drama. So stay way, way back. The other thing you have to remember is it was an incredible chess move against having to lead the scrubs reboot. Which is right. He's nice. Is he just collecting a check on the scrubs reboot? I mean, he must say he blessed it. Yeah, he came in and threw a football around for a day. David. David. Terrible news. He's stuck in an overall deal with Warner Brothers. Oh, no. He wishes he could run scrubs. It feels like a normal writer's room. A very flesh and blood writer's room, you know what I mean? Humans. Air brought in and out of the lungs in that writer's room by all the participants. The people who are giving notes are people and not cybernetic partners of humans. Steve Carell, Tony Collette. A little miss Sunshine so far. Allison. Jenny. Wow. She's not great in that movie. She wouldn't mind five that year. Okay. That's insane. That's the one she should have won the Oscar. Anastasia Rob. Yeah. We love her. Was she Carey? Was she young Carey? She wrote the diaries. Sam Rockwell. He's being a jerk, right? Or is he nice? No, he's nice. Okay. He's nice. He's Carell. Who's a jerk? Yeah. Carell first build his weird outside of his star panel star. Sam Rockwell is like Bill Murray and meatballs where it's like this guy's too cool for school and then he takes the sad kid under his wing and he's like, I'm actually sensitive too. Cool. You know, he's the mentor. Sounds like a loser. My Rudolph. My Rudolph is his wife or long-term partner. Great. Rob Cordray. The tail end of Cordray being like sneak me on to the poster. Yeah. I think Cordray and Amanda's hospital still are there. Amanda Pete. Fun friends. Amanda Pete. But rudely below Rob Cordray. Yeah. And then, and Liam James, is that the kid? Yes. He's been dashing to the theater. Yes. This is a coming of age movie with only adults in it. And Liam James. And then it's a theater rock. Right. But that's true. No, but I know children in the overwhelming amount of like, look, there's guys from gentle Sundancey comedies of other, you know, it wasn't this a giant Sundance movie. It was. It was. It was a big purchase. Like 20 million sale, two million gross kind of thing. Oh, yeah. It wasn't quite a full happy Texas, but it was maybe a ten in a five. Let's find out. Let's find out. I'm guessing it was a ten in a five. I don't think anyone today other than people watching the skies at that time, remember happy Texas. You know, happy Texas is only remembered because of the sun, it's not even like I feel like now people like him to sometimes people are like secretly a good move, but I feel like happy Texas only comes up in this. I don't think it's like on streaming. I was going to. It feels a little lost. Happy Texas. I remember liking. It's like. Perfectly. Perfectly fun. My brother and I being at like the video store, couch potato video, cross the stream. My brother Jamesy and I being like, what's this? And my dad's like happy Texas. That's like the most expensive Sundance by of all time. It flamed out. And we were like, interesting. Watch it like four years after it's a relevancy and like that. Critical Tarlings podcast under the blank check productions banner that I've been executive producing. Didn't episode on train dreams and the history of like Sundance movies at the Oscars, especially as it's now like the original form of Sundance has now come to an end. And I was just eagerly typing in the notes, bring up happy Texas. Happy Texas must be discussed. You must go through the process of explaining happy Texas to BenFresh. It is important that it exists as a cultural reference point forever. We cannot let it slide into oblivion. I need to correct the record on the way way back. Okay. FOX search I purchased it for $10 million. I guess that Sundance, which was a lot like that was a big deal. But it made $21.5 million in North America domestically, domestically, and then additional five worldwide investment or so more than the way back. Yes. They snuck it. I guess because they had an extra way. So that's, but I mean like, do we agree that if we're ranked, if we're ranking, if we're ranking way backs, Affleck, I would put one and way, way is a solid third. Or are we putting Peter, we're in third. I would not. I like the way way, but fair enough, now if you're ranking, if you're winking, these are three films that are not really going for a lot of, if you have to way way or watch Richard E. Grants, Wawa, which would you prefer way way or Wawa, look, way way is team move adventure land, but I like adventure land so much I'll settle for off brand adventure land. I struggled with this movie a bit. I think it is very well made. I'm not like, I meant to, yeah, I meant to put the sound all the way up the ocean so that it just the whole episode sounded blown out and just like really harsh and hard to listen to. Good. So that it mirrors the movie. Yes. Oh, sure. Yeah. Okay. Yes. And then should our faces like kind of crinkle and get all dried up and our lips get all like chapter. If we want to get an Oscar nomination, sure. Let's make up this movie is only major and I'm going to have to confiscate all of the liquids. Yeah. No, I'm drinking. I watched on the Blu-ray. There was a feature at there was like a 30 minute making of with all the actors. And Ed Harris has the most blown out audio I have ever heard. It sounds like he was recording in the middle of a tornado. It is insane because you're watching and you're like, oh, I guess they must have done this one over zoom or something. And then you're like, no, it was 2010. It's great. You're talking in a special feature making up. I'm talking making. Ben's talking about the movie. Yeah. The movie itself. Yeah. Also bad. Yeah. Well, maybe it was the same sound guys. Same sound department. I was feeling in pretty harsh condition. It's a windy movie. Yeah. Sure. You don't have to fuck with windscreens in here. It would be funny if they all had windscreens. Yeah. This is a wind screen. Yeah. This. No, I mean. Oh, sure. Oh, sure. Like comment. I was like, I'll knife you when he's holding up a windscreen. It's not funny if they were all like holding up loves between their fingers even though the clip is the part that's supposed to go on your shirt, but they were doing like the tick-tocker thing. That's what the tick-tockers do. You know who doesn't know about tick-tockers? The characters of the way back. Yeah. Wow. And immediately that was that was depth and immediate reveal of how little I had ever engaged with this movie until watching it last night, like seriously engaged. It starts and like from that first title card, I was like, oh, this movie isn't
about Irish people? I just assumed you got. - Because Colin insert sure. - And I'm like, sure, just swings Irish a lot. I know he's actually British, but I feel like he plays Irish a lot. - He's definitely played Irish, I think, yeah. - Right, and I'm like, at Harris could play Irish. I was so confident this was a movie about like the fucking potato family or something. - I know. It is one of those movies with a poster. You're like, I don't know, it looks, looks like these guys are having a bad time doing something. - I know. - My full level of engagement with this movie is these characters are struggling. These actors on the poster are struggling in some way, and I think they're walking a lot. - That has the same game that sometimes we do a movie like not this, but bigger ones. Like, you could say to like somebody before they watched the year of living dangerously. What do you think this movie is about? - Yes. - And it's one of those things where people are like, I don't know, I've heard of this title forever. - Right. - I mean, maybe it's about like an alcoholic relationship of people that really, you know, it's a days of wine and roses kind of thing. - Or it could be like, yes man, it's like he does one year living really dangerously. - He says the most dangerous way of doing everything. - Sometimes we throw that out as a challenge when we're watching something like famously at home on a never seen rain man. And before I started it, this was years ago. I said, this movie is about, she said, it's about like a guy who's like a savantic gambling and he makes it rain in Las Vegas 'cause all she'd ever seen was the shot in the casino. - And I was like, that's what you think this entire movie is about. This is like a gambling 21 to bring. - And that's why it's 21, Jim Sturgis, right? - It is. - Okay, so she thought it was like 21. Like a guy who fixes gambling. - I was looking at the timeline because social network comes out the same year as this movie. - 20 cents, sure. - Yeah. - Andrew Garfield just fucking blew Jim Sturgis to the black wall. - It's a black wall. - Like who market corrected Jim Sturgis? Like I was looking at that too. - She was really, they were pushing him hard and then I thought completely slipped into oblivion and watching it I was just like, oh, this brand of like intense sensitivity in the face of adversity became, you know, like one Andrew Garfield superpowers. - I neglected to look up Jim Sturgis so that we could have fun. - We'll have a look at Jim 'cause it is like my wife was like, who's that? You know, 'cause it's like Colin Farrell. - Whoa, so she wrote into this and she's like, and who's that? And I'm like, Jim Sturgis, but I might as well just be going, like, blah, blah, blah, blah. - Like it's just like, it's like the name of a handsome sounding guy. - But like four years was a thing. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Are we gonna say he was universe? - No, we're gonna do his career. - Okay, we're gonna do it. - I'm arguing like was he ever a thing? Hollywood was trying to make him a thing. Hollywood was a thought that he could be a thing. - I think Hollywood was acting like he already was a thing. - But that's what they do all the time. - Yes. - And sometimes it works. And sometimes it's the Colin Farrell thing where people are like, we sort of agreed that he was a thing, but you're trying a little too hard to make him a thing. - Yeah. - Right in a way. - Yeah. - And then after a few years, they're like, no, he was a thing, let's get it back. Let's get, open up the box. Colin go. - I mean, we'll do it, but it's so funny to actually go through the Colin Farrell filmography item by item, because you, you think of it in your mind as like, oh, and then he totally bottomed out, and then he had a clean comeback, and then he bottomed out. It's always up and down. He never stops working, but it's always like a good choice, a bad choice, two good choices, three bad choices. - It feels like someone paid the bills. - I think if he had been, if Colin Farrell here in this movie, five years earlier or five years later, people would have really lined up for him. - Yeah. - Like earlier, it's like the man this guy can do anything. And later it would be like, Colin Farrell's like, always kind of good. - Yes. - And it's cool that he's in this big altar movie in a small part. We love Colin Farrell. - He's fantastic. - But at this point, like, that's enough of this guy. - Yeah, also, it's like five years earlier, he would have been the Jim Sturgis part. - And then he would have been the legitimate. - Colin being in this movie was so excited to David Sims. - Yeah. - That's like Peter Weir. - Didn't see it for 14 years. - But this is what I'm saying. - It's like Peter Weir's making his follow to Master in Cranor. I'm like, sounds good. And they're like, it's like a true story drama about, and I'm like, okay, sounds fine. I'm like, but Colin Farrell's in it. I was like, I love that. - He's got the aunt. - He's got the right. - He's got the sort of plumb supporting role. - Peter Weir's letting him do a character actor. - And then the film came out and everyone was like, it's okay, sort of handsome. And I was like, oh, and then it was gone, like from theaters. And I was like, okay, well, I guess I missed it. - Yeah. - I guess I'll wait for Peter Weir's next movie. - Never. - Still waiting. - I have very clear memory of trying to see this at Union Square and just not getting around to it. - Like you were like walking around the hallways. - No, I just like back at that time, like you would just wait down, you just write down show times and be like, yeah, this week I could go see it. And I just, I remember post it note, Union Square, the way, but you know, it's like, oh, I could go see that like this week or next week, because I really want to go see it. - Yes, it didn't happen. - Never happened. - I thought years ago, but I started to see it. - Years after that. - I assume we saw it as part of one of your sort of projects. - Yes. - And we can talk about that, but we should first say what the project is. - Projects and watching good movies. - Of course. - The Eternal Project, we're all part of, what's the podcast? - This podcast is called Blank Check with Griffin and David. I'm Griffin. - I'm David. - You almost just fell for it. You almost, you started looking at an email. You almost missed the cue. - I almost did. - You were very sick and slow. - Someone actually texted me, who do you think will win Blank Check March Madness? - I didn't. - I didn't date this episode record, yeah. - Right, and I was like, oh, and I had a little, my brain did a little. - I should vote while you guys are on some tangent. - Who texted you and how are you going to answer? - Ellen Cushing, host of hits different. - You're a super podcast. - It's not a secret. I wanted everyone to listen to it. But I said, I'm still thinking it's gonna be Marty Tony. And I think I bet Tony, but very soft. Like, I put a flutter down, like a 10 bucks on Tony. Like I'm not feeling too secure. - Also, much like Wes Anderson movies often have one burst of a static violence. - Yeah. - Right. - Perhaps he just shanks Tony Scott. - It would be funny if we're like, oh, Tony's a juggernaut and then, right. Like, he gets blown in half by Wes Anderson in a very artful way. - Yeah. - But no, I think that would be my guess. I mean, what's your guess? Is it for carbon dating the episode now? - I feel like it's swinging Tony, but maybe he's very wrong about that. - I'm just making the Tony guests on the, we've already said the sort of like, well, there's just the mildest backlash to Marty, the juggernaut. - Sure. - And so maybe Tony benefits. - Don't tell me who I'm gonna vote for. - Right. - But that's, I don't really know. - Yeah. - I can't keep getting the brains of these crazy people. - They voted for Chris fucking Columbus over Halloween. - Here, I was gonna te you up for that. - You can't predict anything. - And I think he's gonna sneak by whoever he's up against today. He's got to spend sand, right? - That was a war crime to watch. Speaking of sending to the gulag, like, 5,000 gulag seats needed for people that looked at the last 10 years of Columbus. - I vote for Chris Columbus. - Yeah, I really want them to cover pixels and Christmas Chronicles 2, but not 1. A pixels episode would go fairly hard. - Christmas Chronicles will be a nightmare. - There's a couple on my pizza. - And the fucking Thursday murder club. - Oh, yeah, Jesus. Yeah, the Netflix run is really bad. But I mean, Chris Columbus is currently like a folding Gus Van Sant, like one of his flannel firsts, right? Here's the insane thing she's been edging by. - Obviously my support of you guys doing Oliver Stone needs no introduction at this point. Here's the insane thing about people voting for Chris Columbus. - Here we go. - You'd have to keep covering his movies. - It is true that we would be setting up. - Don't they realize that this kind of makes like a necklace of shit every two years? - I'm happy to report this. I wish him no ill will. He seems very healthy. - He does. - Like, I'm not looking at Chris Columbus being like this guy's near retirement. - No, he seems like he's in great shape. - He's got four decades of bullshit less than him. - But he could honestly like, you know, he could, there's no bottom to what he could end up making next. - Now, I want to share with you Adam to the ledger. - Oh yeah. - JJ and our group Fred, our researcher, was saying he secretly wants Columbus. - Yeah, in fact, he doesn't understand with, I'm keeping quiet about this. So it's really. - He wants us to share it on that. - So that he can have several months off because you guys would cover someone. No one writes about it, it gives a fuck about it. - Right. - His dossier should be like one page. - Be like, yeah. - I mean, like pixels was released on this date. - It's Christmas Chronicles, too. - It was like, yeah. - It was like a dumb idea, Adam Sandler. - He figured out the way to like, "Viala Stock is like a job." - Yeah, this movie had one public screening. It was like the Family Heartland gala at the Nebraska Film Festival. Columbus did one interview for it. Here it is. - It went with family heartening. - It went like the "Dove Family Gentleness" award. - Chris Columbus has made three of the most successful films ever made in the history of Hollywood. - We're saying on the line. - Homelome. - Homelome Mrs. Dalfire and Harry fucking Potter. - Sure, so. - Yeah. - Two Harry Potter's, two homeless Mrs. Dalfire - Exactly the sequels, which are less exciting. - But five of the highest grossed films in the history. - I love even Beth Cooper made a Bill Five, right? - It did, but that's the rust bump. We can't give that to you. - We can have rust on that episode. - We could. I have no idea how he feels about that. - I think he probably wants to do Percy Jackson instead. This is a podcast about filmographies. Directors who have massive success are really on in their careers and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion products they want and sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they walk a really fucking long way. - This movie should be called The Long Walk, right? I assume they eat because of the fucking Stephen King. - Look, I assume so. Obviously it is based on a book called The Long Walk. So it's interesting that they did not, but yeah, maybe they were worried they would come off as an adaptation of a Stephen King story. - Call it the longest walk or something. I'm like, the way back tells me nothing. And this movie starts and I'm like, oh, the premises, they have to walk. - I know. They're also not going back anywhere. They're going somewhere. - No, they're not.
that is true. I don't, I think this is like a fairly good movie. I think it's fairly well done. We got to get it. It's well made. I think the answer to all of our questions is like, don't make this movie. Make something else. Just make something else. Who are you talking to in this? Peter here. Like where I'm just like, I, you know, if this is going to be your last thing, and you're going to put a lot of effort into it, I think you should do something. But do you think he called this was his last thing? And I'm not sure that he did. We can look at the reason. I want to put forward. Do we think, you know, Ethan Hawking, this interview recently, because this is a mini series on the films of Peter Weir. It's called "Podniket Hinging" cast. Our guest today, of course, is Alex Ross Perry. We're turning after my banishment has been lifted. We're getting pin in this pin. I have some news in this. What? This is his 10th episode. Is that right? Of main feed. Wow. Of main feed unless I'm wrong about something. I'm going to read them out now. And I brought gifts for you guys. Can I try to guess them? Sure. Fuck. You want to go in order? I forgot to wear my hollow man hat today. I was going to do that to memorialize your run. Okay. So it starts with insomnia. It starts with insomnia, which I rewatched recently. Good movie. Yeah. Because my insomnia has been out of control. And I was like, it's time to check in with detective dorm. Let me sleep. garbage bags. The garbage scene is in the scars guard version. Yeah. When I rewatched, when I watched the original insomnia, it was a ton of criteria. I bought it at some point. And just announced as a new deluxe second site. Four kids. Okay. I'm fine with my criterion. Blu-ray. But where's the scene where scars guards like picking up garbage from like, wow, this is just all in the original. Yeah. I do think the Nolan's better. I agree. I haven't yes, it is definitely better. Okay. Okay. Okay. It's really good. Insomnia. Then it's is it hollow man and then the keep? Hollow man and then taking what's that? There you go. Taking those are the ones I remember doing at audio boom. Those are the first four in studio. The fifth was a remote episode. And that was always when it was, can I pick the least relevant film? Which I have done. Again, I argue. We've come back around to it because then when we get on to zoom, it swings into lucky numbers, was it relevant? Oh, you're right. That's that's the end of the irrelevancy. That's a Ben's landlord who bought the tape and kept it sealed. But it's a relevant to most people. We still have it here in the office. Yeah. On DVD and VHS. Yeah, well, I brought the DVD and then Ben brought the tape. And then it swings around to four of the most important movies in your history as a person. So then it's Halloween or right, Halloween. Correct. Into fight club. No, you're missing one. Bit of a contentious episode. Now I have to think of what we did at Ben's house. Clockwork Orange. Correct. And so the Halloween and Clockwork Orange, those were at Ben's place. Sure. And then the most recent two he did. I mean, Clockwork Orange was here. Nope. No. Was it Ben's house? It was a rope you home after. Okay. That must have been a fun ride. I have referenced this on the podcast before. It was. You worked it out. We didn't have to work out. I think everything was in me. Was everyone on this Reddit is always like Jesus. You could cut the tension. Right. We got home early in the drive. We analyzed the career of McColley. Yeah. Well, David while David blasted the prodigy and so I listen to this song every day. So I wasn't like Alex. It was really fucked up in there. I'm really mad at you. Like there was no atmosphere. David was like except in the room. He was like you see when MC Max and reality entered into this this particular phase of his rhymes. But wait, there was one after fight club, right? Correct. His most recent elephant. Okay. So that's nine. And this is 10 and you are back to maybe the less relevant episode. But I also never done the last movie. You've never done the last film. Never been here for a ranking. Oh, that's right. Although we're going to have to fit our ranking and record it later. Yeah. I haven't. I mean, I've seen all the movies. Yes. But I haven't rewatched year-of-living dangerously yet. I've only seen that film once. I've never seen that. And I've only seen Master and Commander one. So I desperately need to rewatch. I have a feeling that Master and Commander might be number one on my list, not to spoil. So that one you guys haven't done those episodes. Yeah. Those are the two we haven't done. Correct. We're either of you present at Lincoln Center for the Peter Weir retrospective around when this movie came out. No, he was there. I just didn't. He came a week of Q&A. Yeah, that's what it was called. Yeah. But it was centered around this. I believe so. I could be wrong. In my mind, it was 2010. So I think it was sort of in conjunction with this movie. If you was doing a retrospective, I mean, that makes sense. Yes, it was January 2011, which is when this I mean, it was when this is probably going wide. This film came out. Oh, no, I didn't. Isn't it early 2011? Came out early 2011. Yeah. So it was like it has a qualifying run in 2010 gets nominated. No, it didn't have it. No, wait. I think it's a festival 2010. It's a festival 2010. It's a proper theatrical 2011. Right. Because it loses to the wolf man for makeup. Okay. Yes. And that's the. No, that is the 20. So must have had some like aesthetic qualifying. It must have a pathetic piece of shit qualifying run. I mean, truly it, yes, Griffin, December 29th, 2010, Los Angeles, California. They don't even allow that at the Oscars anymore. They're kind of like, what? We coughed it onto theaters for like one day on like New Year's Eve. I mean, this was an image and new market. Yeah, whole distribution. Yeah. So but it came out and it's not even wide, but like sort of 600 screens January 2011. So neither one of you, you were not present at this. No, it was great. No, I didn't have any money. It was well, I mean, you can go see a movie. No, you're forgetting Alex did it infinitely cost $1,000,000 a ticket. Oh, that's right. We have retrospect. It was great, but he was there for almost all the Q&A. Yeah, I saw him do a Q&A at a double feature of you're of living dangerously and the mosquito coast. That's cool. And then I think he just gave like a talk. I think there was like a 90 minute like discussion some other day. His muggiest movies. Yeah, those are the two most kind of like damn-beard films. I had already liked those movies, but seeing them at Walter Reed on film with him, it was like, man, these are the best like this guy. And I saw Gallipoli there. I saw a bunch of movies because I was kind of filling in the gap. Sure. And it was really a really successful series for me. I mean, he's, this has been a successful series for us. He's made really interesting great movies, some of which I know well, some of which I'd like seen zero to one times. And they were all rewarding. And even this, which was the true, I'll get to it. I know I should see. I know Peter we made it like for like basically the last 15 years. I've been like, no, no, I'm planning on getting to that. That's strange because to me, this is an incredibly easy to watch movie. I found this from so hard to watch. Like the, I'm getting to that is like, well, it's 170 minutes long. Everybody thinks it's bad. This is like 133. Yeah, but that's short. Yeah, but it's rock 'em sock 'em. I would say very early in the movie. You just described this movie as rock 'em sock 'em. I did not find it as hard as I'm unsurprised to learn Gryffin from this. I don't think this is a bad film. And it wasn't like, I was like squirming in my seat and discomfort, but I did find it to be a bit of a slog. A hand song. Would you have enjoyed this? Well intentioned slog. In a 40x re-release, because there's no question. This movie would, if the steps were happening, the subtle steps were like, like you coughing, the seat coughs for you. A treadmill screening. Yes, I'd love a slow treadmill squid. It would spray dirty water in your face. Yeah, mosquitoes would come out. Well, but imagine how satisfying it would be when they get to the water in the middle of the desert and suddenly they're just spraying water directly into your mouth. I'd look like a fucking water. I would say I thought this film was going to be a little more brutal and tough to watch and slow. And I was, I was when I was like, no, this moves, because I'm like, right, because Peter wears like a good director. And like this isn't quite the slog I thought it was going to be. I would not call it rock 'em sock 'em. You don't think the the gulag break is rock 'em sock 'em? I reserve that term for robots only. Yeah, real steel is a rock 'em sock 'em movie. Yes. It is. I mean, if it wasn't, then they really blew the aside. Nothing is good. It does have that Sean Levy feeling. You saying I would tell Peter we are just make something else, right? I think so. I was watching this, this 30 minute making of thing. And everyone is talking about how difficult an experience this film was. But they're talking about it in the window between when they have wrapped and when the movie is released. And they all clearly feel like this is going to be a historic effort. Everyone is going to talk about, you know, there's no reason not to think that he had told you that at this point for almost 30 years straight. But this was like a four-month shoot of them fighting the elements. Sounds good. You know, and they're all like, and by like day 20, the line between acting and reality is blurred and we're feeling the real things. And we're all in it together. No one has any egos and we felt such a responsibility to tell this story. To like go through such a herculean effort to make this movie and then have it treated with such a shrug, you know, just like a complete kind of, it just, it doesn't exist. Ethan Hawke and that interview I play this movie in cinematics all the time. It's a smart play. It's a good play. Ethan Hawke had that interview that gets recirculated all the time where he said like, oh, my buddy Peter Wears retired. After years of people being like, Peter, we're going to make anything again. And he said, Peter's retired and the industry kind of broke him. And it stopped knowing how to make the kind of movies that he wants to make and he's good at. And also he got broken by like movie star egos. And the two things he cited were how difficult a time he had working with Crow.
on Master and Commander and that the other thing was it supposed to be after this that he was going to make Shanta Ram. That certainly was. And we can talk about it. I'm sure that was Johnny Depp's passion project. And he said the process of dealing with Depp in development for like two years. Now that's interesting. I haven't heard anything about Johnny Depp being tough to deal with. And Ethan Huck pinned it just on the industry changed and he stopped being able to deal with a list leading man who were no longer collaborators who were sort of, you know, dictators, right? Whereas before he had been this guy, where a list man would trust him to mold them. I also, I watch this and I'm like, I get why he retired to put this much into making this. Right. And just have it just with the truck. Right. It seems like he from you guys have more research, hopefully, than I do, which is zero. Seems like he tried other things after this. He wasn't like I think there was right. There was some sort of, but he's now just said like, I don't have the energy. Right. And like, it's interesting because Master and Commander is now a movie that was liked at the time has now become this like canonical movie. I think he appreciates that. But then there's also the kind of the sort of melancholy of like, I didn't get to make another one. I wanted to like Master and Commander had like eight Oscar nominations, right? 10. It's crazy that it just went up against Return of the King. And it's still snuck a couple. Aside from it, just not winning, but it's just crazy that that catapulted him to nothing. That makes me feel like Shanta Tram might have said or whatever. Shanta Ram. Shanta Ram. Good thing that didn't get me. I mean, I think that became a TV show. It became Apple Plus original series. Well, that's what Charlie. Yeah, we all know. It was almost near in a year Peter Weir. And I think there was a third major director who almost made it with Johnny Depp. And then like 10 years later, it became an Apple Plus series that no one wants. It was a good thing. We didn't have to learn how to actually say that. I just do remember. Yes. What? That there was a Hulu original series about Sean Penn going to Mars in which they never actually went to Mars because in classic streaming series, you know, fashion season one ends with them, like going to go to Mars. He's discovered a new plan in our telescope. And then like, they're like, no one watched this season to his big cancel. So you didn't actually even get to watch Sean Penn go to Mars. It was the first, right? Yes, that's right. Yes. I truly forgot that existed until you mentioned it right now. I think that's what he was promoting when he was on Marin saying he's retiring. Yes. Yeah, I've done every felting his Oscar this whole time into books. We all love his books. Yeah. Of course, Bob Honey, who do stuff. You read both of you read Bob Honey, who do stuff to your daughter's every night. Yeah. Every day. Honey, honey, honey, look up the cover of Bob Honey, who do stuff. Look up, honey, who do stuff. I believe it. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. How do you think you spell honey in the title of Sean Penn's novel? Like honey. No, no, think a little bit more when he the poo H UNN. You're on the right track. EE. I don't know. Something like that. Yeah. I'm seeing him in a tiny spot regular. I will. I will. I will. I refuse to revise my memory of what the title is. That's a true show that doesn't exist. And I want to correct this. I'll shant around with Charlie. I think my joke about the first was two kinds. Season one would end with someone making the telescope. This is for kids who would end with them. No, no, it's how you introduce your kids to sophisticated political satire. This is a book for growing ass people. I think he's written multiple Bob Honey. I do. The Bob Honey crime. It's like some kind of, it's not far as gumpy, but it's like some kind of character who like drifts through history, I think. Everything I'm pulling is from a 10 year old episode of the. Yeah, but like a forest gump as character. I don't know. Yeah, sure. This was and don't correct me. This was him saying like, I'm dumb with movies. Fuck them. I'm doing this full time. I did this Hulu show. That's my final thing as an actor. And then he won a third Oscar. There are eight actors in history with three acting Oscars. He is the eighth. Yes. He won it for an incredible performance in a movie that I think will be very well remembered that one best picture. And when he won, everyone was like, he didn't show up. It's just so weird. I'm not showing up. People will forget that he won. I think Hulu will become a like who won best supporting actor that. And like, apart from Walter Brennan, who God bless and we love him. Walter Brennan is the weirdest of the winners. I'm Drew Bergman, Katherine Hepburn, Jack Nicholson, right. Sean Penn is five. Ben's friend. Ben's friend, Daniel DeLewis, Merrill Street. And there's one more. McDormand. She's got a bit of a hard face these days. A bit of a fix. You know, tough stare. And she even has four Academy Awards. Three, I guess four if you kind of producing. Yeah, she's three acting wins and a best picture. You would think Penn and Weir would have overlapped. You would. They kind of hit the same. You're very the same stride around the same time. Yeah, I wonder if he ever even considered him for one of his favorite movies. Something I always loved about Peter Weir. Younger watching these movies is what you just said. Like, man, he really just has these like awesome men at the center every time. And they're just doing some of their best work consistently. The crazy thing is that Brennan won three Oscars in a span of five years for playing. I mean, I haven't seen all the movies that he won Oscars for, but I assume basically doing the same shit every time because that's what Walter Brennan always did. Yeah. And he was only nominated one other time. So he has a 75% track record of winning if nominated. Merrill Street, you're like three Oscars. Yeah, 21 Noms. She sucks. I don't mean she's always striking out. I don't mean to be rude. Yes. Is there not some weird explanation for the Walter Brennan thing that the rules of the Academy changed? Uh, well, you're thinking of, possibly, well, wasn't there a thing where he was nominated for both lead and supporting or something? Like then just pin that I tried to steer the conversation back to Peter Weir and David immediately brought it back to this trivia factory that we're all tired of hearing at the end of Oscar. It is, it is true that Oscar season's over and it is kind of like, who cares? I very definitely tried to turn this Sean Penn came up. What do you mean? We're on our great run, but then I brought it back. The honey thing. I brought it back in David who likes things to keep going in a tangential direction. It was like, hang on, we'll talk about Peter Weir in a second. Walter Brennan, who never worked with Peter Weir. Yes, we know of. I'm going to solve this. I know, I know, I feel like I know what you're talking about Griff, but I'm not totally sure. Oh, yes. Oh, this is what it is. Yeah. In the early years, extras could vote. There makes no sense because like, what does that mean extras could vote? But they realized basically that he was always whipping votes from the extra. He was like a nice guy that everyone likes. So they saddle up next to them at lunch and they be like, he's a man of the people because there's the other thing where like, what is it like, Betty Davis got a right in vote. And then there's the other thing where like someone was nominated for both lead and supporting and one in support. I don't know, but that wasn't to clean up other rules. That's not Walter. No, who was that? I don't fucking know. Look, please find it. It's Alex's 10th appearance on blank check. You're here, Alex. You're claiming you've been banned from the show. I mean, like, you just didn't do an episode in 2025, but it's only March. But at some point in that year, both Emily O'Shea and I conferred that you guys had gotten too big for us for sort of the, you know, twin flames of blank check and you had just outgrown some of your core voices. Okay. So and we favor of heavies and famous. Excuse me. I mean, what it really is, you guys both left the city. No, no, no, no. Okay. There's a bigger thing here. Okay. Okay. Bigger things you were chasing cloud and fame. The bigger thing here is the Coenbrother series and the early Spielberg series were both long, right? Those two series basically comprised a full year. We knew we were doing Lynn Ramsey after Spielberg. Is that right on the timing? No, no, no. Spielberg. No. Then it's Heckerling and then it's Coens. Oh, yes. I'm sorry. That's what it is. We knew we were doing Lynn Ramsey after Coens. So we didn't book Yoshida on a Coens because we knew she had to do more Vern Keller. The thing with you is we have a group text called News and Deals. It is the three of us. Hitmaker Simons. David Lowry and Sean Fantasy. Sean Hollywood Fantasy. Yes. Tim Hitmaker Simons. David, everything's bigger in Texas. David, really lovely man. Lowry. Gentle soul. In a thread that's like heavy on shit talking, David's really there for like I feel like a really a more pure energy. I invited David to it because I was simultaneously getting a endless flurry of texts from the this group text and David the day the first one battle after another trailer came out and I was like, David, would you like to just combine these brands? This was similarly. We had a group text with fantasy. We had a group text with Tim. Right. Both of them were trending towards physical media news and deal announcements. We combine them. And then I had this is maybe the single act I'm proudest of in my entire life. Wow. That's just going to be what I'm going to say. One day I say to the group, what do you think about introducing ARP to this group text? It was important because things are a little too straight here. Right. We're all a little too aligned here. Everyone kind of agrees on everything. There's no friction. There's no spot. Like the biggest controversy is Hitmaker not like in Zodiac. Who cares? You know, we all know he's riled up about it. Right. He shares you and it's been the great it's been the greatest choice. It's you roll a grenade in there. It's improved all of our lives. You bring us so much joy and happiness. I just don't have much else to do. But I can devote a lot of time and thought. I'm a father. But very often we will give news and deals first crack. That's true. If we've settled on a mini series or we're like, hey, March Manus feels like it's trending this way. That happened in this mini series and I said two movies and you're like, Oh, that's gone already. Peter, we're yeah. What did he say? The second you said we're doing where I was like, I just revisited Truman Show, like JD's doing Truman show. Yeah. When the Coins looked like they were going to win March Madness, we thought to you guys, what were your Coins picks B? Everyone else has a choice.
You say, okay, he has it up, so this is gonna be a verbatim line. Because your sheet of brought this up to me and was like, yeah, Arpen, I have been complaining that we both feel like we've been shadow banned. I'm like, you're here doing an episode right now. - How's it going? - And this is what Arpen's just explaining to you. You said, "I'd request Hale Caesar, a movie that so doesn't exist, it took me 20 minutes to remember." - This is me talking. - Yes. - Yes. - Then Simpson's-- - Another Gray Cinematrics play. Because no one remembers all these people there in the movie for one scene. - No, we thought you were just making a comment about the public rudely not remembering this film. - I want to see him say-- - CBS Films failed that one. - That's a great art, that was inside Lewin Davis. - Okay, whatever. Hale Caesar was universal. - Sure. - David says, "That's a great art pick, a great film." - And then like a month later, I was listening to some other episode, and someone day was like, "Oh, I just got a text from a friend of mine, she's gonna do a Hale Caesar." And I was thinking, I guess that's-- - There it goes, that's your-- - I say five-star masterpiece, you give it a thumbs down. - Yeah. - You respond another chance post-Halo Man to talk about what a dud Brolin is to me. - That's right. - I say Alex, you're coming in ice cold with this shit. - You are. - You were. - I reversed course on Brolin for weapons, I really liked him in that. - He's good in weapons. - But then he was in something else after that that he was bad in again. What else was he in in the back half of last year? - He was in the Running Man and Wake Up Dead Man. - Yeah, I was Wake Up Dead Man, and I was like, this is boring. - I mean, I feel like Wake Up Dead Man, he has kind of a boring role. - Go ahead. - Later, Fantasy Swingian, with his love of Buster Scruggs, you give that a thumbs down. - Relevant for the film today, because this to me is almost as good of a last film as you guys have covered. And that is to me, almost as bad of a last film as you guys have covered. - This is exactly the kind of spice and flavor-- - This is the spice. - The blank check needs. - You said that you can see watching this movie that Peter Weaver fell like he was ready to hang it up, which is what I felt watching Buster Scruggs at Walter Reed, a truly disperiting screening. - Fantasy Swingian. - For now, Alice Tully. - The Netflix effect makes it nonexistent, sadly. You go that plus it's a gentleman six. It is so funny to me how unsuccessful when you don't drive away dolls or financially, I've seen neither. - Still true. - And then Sean Post a picture of Tom Weitz, "Panning for Gold," and writes, "Alex looking for Hot Takes." - Yeah. - I saw a little meme there. - Yeah. - A little group text meme. - Then Simson's to me, his breakout text with you, one-on-one. - We love it. - Oh, I think it's from years earlier. - Yes, right. - The Coen Brothers are old guard with nothing new to offer. Buster Scruggs was embarrassing. - Truly embarrassing. - I dug it up. - Hillsees should have been the last one. It's just Coen's by the numbers. - That's right. - Yeah. - Kind of, when they have numbers, they're pretty good at IMO. - Like four months ago, you text us. You went far-goed socks. - No, I didn't say it's embarrassing. - And there was Francis Vittorman. - It is. - That is an embarrassment. That is an embarrassing. - When did you spend six months being like, the blank check guys are big timing me. They won't have time. - You were saying every Coen Brothers thing is embarrassing. - Not everyone. Just to me, like, Peter Weir is a guy. I don't think I have a movie of his in my brain that's below a three-star film. - So great that we got you one for this. - That is true. - That is what I want you to do Weir for a long time. - It's horrific. - But to me, I feel like that is a body of work. - I'm with you. - That has some real lows for me. - I would agree that Peter Weir's basement is three stars. - Yeah. - Which is, like, I can't make a bad movie in my opinion. - No. - You did not make a bad movie. - Changes what he's doing so much. - Sure. - Yeah. - And because oftentimes his instincts are just, this is what's so sad to me about the industry failing him. - Yes. - As Mr. Hawk pointed out. And as obvious from this movie's release and everything, like, how can we fail a guy like this? - Sure. - But did we fail him? He had an enormously successful career. - He did, but the contraction that happened in the 2010s, you know, he's like the kind of guy you picture a scene. Like, some guy who's been at the company for 25 years has been a top salesman, gets brought in. It's like, listen, we're just making some cuts and we got to let you go. And it's like, I've been here forever. I've done so much for you. And it's like, it's not personal. We just, we just got to kind of say goodbye. Like, you're going to offer you an early retirement. But I still have work in me. It's like, no, I'm sorry. You just kind of have to go away. And he's someone. It's like, if even he couldn't get the means after, and this is a good movie. Like, this isn't like Yikes. Tarantino's right. People really should hang it up. This is everything in it that he's good at. - Yes, this is a respectable final film. - Right now, I'm always saying Tarantino's right. This is the moment for that. - He's right about everything. - He keeps getting more right. I don't see anybody selling any Tarantino with a dope shirt. - Maybe Paul Dana should sell some of his friend. - I just think like, McDormand's embarrassing win, 'cause Emily Watson should have won. - Sure, Emily Watson obviously very powerful. - Obviously, I hate this kind of like hindsight. - Yeah, well, it's a bit about that. - You know, she's gonna get two more awards, but like, she's barely in the movie. I mean, for 30 minutes. - Well, that's true. - I mean, you're just immediately, you're just on the crazy trip. - If she won, if she won, if she won for supporting, I'd be like, fine, whatever. The Emily Watson performance and breaking the waves is, I think, one of the 10 best screen performances I have ever seen. - It's an incredible performance, but this is just silly. It's like, it's the Oscars. The movie where Emily Watson is the, he even got nominated, constantly, because Dylan Skarskark got paralyzed. And like, the fucking insane Laura's one true movie. It's like, the nom is the reward. Like, stop being crazy. - You were also coming in, you were coming in harsh on other areas of Fargo. You were coming in, generally. - I generally, my rewatch event, I was really bored. And also like, - I hate being in the movie. - Yeah, I know, I couldn't. - I want you to understand that we don't shadow ban you from the show. Sometimes we strategically go, if you come on a Fargo episode and go, obviously - I didn't want to come on a Fargo episode. - They will rip you apart like Gladys. - No, I didn't want to come on a Fargo episode. Also, at that time, I hadn't seen it in 15 years. And I'll say this. I asked after you guys roasted me on group chat. I asked, every single person I worked at Kim's video with, what do you think of the Coen Brothers and Fargo? This is like, seven people I asked. Every single one of them was like, nothing. - This is maybe the sample of. - One person was like, I haven't seen since it came out. No interest in revisiting. I stopped watching their movies. One person said, the best movies for normies. One person said, now, wait, hold on. - I'm just saying, I'm just saying. - Hold on. - Quick question. - I think people hate to go into fucking videos. - Or saying that often, were they contrarians? - No. - No. - Snarky, snarky, friendly, open-minded, open-hearted, friendly, cinema lovers. - Uh-huh. - Okay. - I'm just saying. - Front facing. - Yeah. - It's very interesting to me. - Big, strong eye contact. - Yeah. - I'm simply saying. It's very interesting to me that you can turn from one side to the other and have two 180-degree different opinions on the exact same body of work. - Sure. I was hearing opinions from my old co-workers that in other contexts would be sacrilegious. - Right. - Right. - And then. - I would say yes. - You guys were saying opinions that if I brought to them, they'd be like, who are these fucking dorks? - I agree with you that it is interesting that different people can share that can hold different opinions. I also think if our listenership was like, "Oh, great. I can't wait for the Fargo episode." - No, Fargo? - I never wanted to. - No, no, he was never gonna be. He's never gonna be in his business. - In his days later movies, Lewin Davis's side that I found dire. - Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm riding with all of them. - You know what the thing is about Hale Cesar that none of you brought up? - What? - While we talk about the long walk. - Fist just stickly muddled sense of the 1930s. You did write that in text. - Yes, yes, yes. - Just drives me crazy that no one points this out. People who supposedly know what movies are. - Uh-huh. - Every time they go to a different scene. - It's set in the '50s. - Then why is there a fucking Esther Williams synchronized one thing that made those from 15 years? - 'Cause it's funny. - Who cares? - I care. - Well, clearly, I mean, that is obvious. - Nothing in. - No, no. - No, no. - The membrane was 1952, I will say. - That is like, that's like saying, uh, never say never again was, you know, in. - I did, I believe that's exactly what it's like saying. - It is like saying it. - But it is like saying it. - It's not presented as like, wow, we're making one more of these. And it's just crazy to me that this movie that supposedly steeped in Hollywood history and the fucking, the, the Ray Fiends thing. That is a 30s movie. He's visiting like a Rubin-Mum-Mullion comedy of manners. - I think it's a. - And then they go to the specific. - It's supposed to be a little bitch, but yeah, sure. - That's also not what it is. - Oh, yeah. - Not really. - I mean, these still kind of exist. - I'm having such a good mood. - Everything you're saying is like. - The magic is bad. - These movies from the '30s coexist with these movies from the '50s and this pointless phantasia of nothingness. - I know. Nothing can be realistic like your favorite film of all time, Damon Chisel's Bapelon. Another film that I think presented Hollywood exactly is it was, right? Like that's the opinion you share. You're not saying anything so will carry on. - Yeah, the testable work of art. Alex's body is slowly from the toes to the top of his head, turning red. It's working up his body, like a thermostat. - Hale Caesar, look, you should yell at this at the cone. They probably go like, "Okay, yeah, I'm gonna get that good so." - But Griffin, only because Griffin said, this is a movie you can feel the guy being like, "I'm kind of ready to hang it up and I don't feel that in this movie." - No, no, I don't feel him saying that while make. I don't feel the movie saying that. I understand why the response to the movie would make him say that. That's the point I'm trying to. - Do you think he cared that much about the sort of fallout of his work after that much kind of career ups and downs? - So much harder for him to get this movie made. - PW. - Well, let's have other films, right? - To discuss this. - He had to make it in a much scrappier way. - Wow. - It barely gets released. - Guess who steps up to the plate. - Image. - Big yellow triangle. Second, National Geographic Film Covered on Blaine Check. - I miss. - Can I take a look at the one maker? - Yeah, and I would say. I can't believe you missed that logo because
It's long. It's a really, really long pre-roll logo. But this movie really reminded me of K-19. I think it's better than K-19. But similar kind of like, why did you think anyone was really gonna be hot for this story? - National Geographic. - Like two movies where it's like, and then they suffered. And then they suffered some more. And let me tell you, it's true. - They had this directive at the time of like, let's dry. - It's dry, everyone's doing an accent, but they're different accents. - It's a lot of emotionally closed off Russians. - Yeah, let's tell the Russian side of things. - Yeah. - The National Geographic's 2000s. - M-O. - And basically, when you cover a third National Geographic. - Okay. - What else is a National Geographic? - And I don't remember now. It's weird, I kinda thought maybe these were the only two, but there's actually others. - I'm gonna figure it out. - I will figure it out. - And I will crack up with the dossier. Here's some other obvious ones. Of course, March of the Penguins. But we're not gonna count. - No, no, we're just gonna count the-- - Narrative historical. - Yeah. - I remember that one, that's a documentary, too, though. - Yeah. - There's really not much. - This is kind of, yeah. - That's why I was fascinated to see that big yellow square of postgenic-- - There's the Justin Chad that I filmed the first grader. I think that is a drama, which is about, like, Kenyan education. - Okay. - There's that movie, "Amrica," remember that? Which is about, like, a Palestinian family moves to Chicago. These were all, like, good, you know, like, you know, civic kind of movies, you know what I mean? Like, like, sort of weighty issues, mostly it's documentaries. - Yeah. - So this is the final National Geographic film to be covered on "Blank Check." - Dad, I think there's no question. - Yeah. - All right. Well then it's-- - Unless we work with the penguins. - Yeah. What would that be? - You do Penguins Patreon? - We've already done both happy feet. - It's true. - No, no, no, no. - You're farce of the Penguins, March of the Penguins. You're marcher than you first. I mean, perfect, perfect series. - A little of this, a little of that. - So following the release of "Mastering Commander," which Alex pointed out, got 10 Oscar nominations, 12. And was successful, although, as I'm sure we discussed last week, was not hugely successful. - Incredibly expensive. - It was very expensive and they wanted it to make more. - It was basically a financial break even. And you asking, like, why didn't he immediately gain, like a new wave of momentum from "Mastering Commander," I think part of it was, well, is this a series that he's gonna stay on? And then it was kind of in a place, a midpoint for a while of, like, we can't decide whether or not to make more of these. - Yeah, and Crow is, like, I'm only getting more addicted to sandwiches, guys. So if you want me, you know, to fit into that vest. - I mean, they're throwing phones or eating a whole thing. - 'Cause, like, Robin Hood is, which is this year, I think, is 2010, right? - Yeah. - That's the last where he's, like, I went back to the gym and it's like, he's, like, walked through the gym. - He tightened it way up. - As way up as he could. - But body allies is right before that. And body allies, he's God bless. - Well, it's just the character demanded. The character's on the phone all the time, meeting sandwiches, and I love sandwiches. - I sent you last night in our, in our text with Sean Clements. - Oh, that fucking Crow movie, what's it called? - Yeah, I'm gonna send you a Crow poster. I just want your reaction on Mike to this, Alex Wall. - What's the film called again? - Let me, let me just get, all right. - All right, well, so, yes, so, Peter, we're, you know, in between 74 and 8060 makes eight films. In between 87 and 20, 2003, he makes just five films. So he's gonna take longer and longer to make movies, take some seven more years to make the way back. But in between, here are some of the things he was attached to, because there were other projects. First is-- - I was surprised he did not have the beloved separate Wikipedia page of list of unmated, unrealized projects. He's a guy that should. - He probably should, he has a time. You know what, he deserves that. And if someone could get on that, please, someone make it. - First one is the war magician, right? A cruise Wagner at Paramount project based on a nonfiction book about a patriotic British stage magician who volunteered his illusionist abilities to help the Nazis. I mean, this sounds like Harvey Wein seems like let me out of prison. I can release that shit. - Am I insane for thinking the band of Cumberbatchers tried to revive that recently? Or is there a different band of Cumberbatch wartime magician movie that is being-- - Well, obviously he was a Dr. Strange who fought the Infinity War. - Of course. - This is what I love about Peter Weir is that here was this brand of like, well, this is a vast historical challenging thing that would have a lot of really great roles for our finest movie stars. He should do it. And he had all these projects for years. - Well, Tom Cruise, a guy it's actually surprising he never worked with because it felt like Tom Cruise was a bit checklistsy at that point. - Yeah, I mean, I imagine there's a guy who you would imagine he's both meeting with and saying, what do you wanna do? And also anytime he options a book, we're thinking though is that when Cruise was doing that, we were in the kind of other key of Dead Poets and Green Card and fear it like-- - Fearless, yeah. - But I mean, running through the early 2000s. - But if we're making two more movies, yeah. - But, you know, he just started taking a long time between projects. All right, look, Cruise had one point but attached it. This point, he's just a producer on it. Cruise Wagner split from Paramount obviously in 2006. - Amicable, I'm sure. - Very good. - There was no problem. It checks notes here, cool and normal. At that point, Cruise actually reattaches to possibly starring, but we are let's it go. Mark Forster, your best friend, gets attached. And indeed Benedict Cumberbatch was eyed to star. - There we go. - Now it is that. - The Swiss Maestro himself. - Just quick pause because I sent Alex a poster image and I want you to do-- - It's called Bear Country. - Your favorite blank check segment, describe a poster. - So, I get to do this. So Russell Crowe is doing a yoga pose. - Well, what's the first thing right at the top of the poster? - Says from the director of Unhinged. - Oh, that's the car movie that he made that came out. There was like in theaters. - It was in like 30,000 theaters. - May 2020, let's put this thing wide. - It got to break the record of being the first movie to new released open theaters. But okay, from the director of Unhinged, that's like a scrappy fucking shlocky like B movie action film. - That's the tone you imagine is going to transfer to the rest of this post. - Beyond Pinkfont with a kind of rounded look, it says Bear Country. He's doing a yoga pose in front of a pool with a palm tree, with the ocean behind him. What I can only imagine is Australia. - I would argue he's dressed like DJ Khaled. - I haven't gotten to the clothes yet. - Okay. - Because he has on-- - Noise canceling headphones. - Noise canceling headphones. Spikey Crazy Hair. - He's got, it's orange tinted sunglasses. - Or orange tinted sunglasses. (laughing) - A kind of like the lower looking track suit. - Yeah. - It is orange, but yeah. - I would say Khaled asked for sure. - Yeah. - But despite the yoga pose, which conveys tranquility by his feet is a gun, a hand gun that looks like it is a cartoon that was drawn on to this poster. (laughing) - Yeah. - It's not the most realistic. - It's also just got a couple loose bullets. - Yeah, the bullets are high from. Teresa Palmer is listed beneath that. She's Australian. - Yeah. - Luke Evans is listed there. He might be Australian. - He definitely is. - Or orange. - Orange. - Is he not, I thought he's Australian. - And there's some other names. And it says with Nina's belt. - He's both. - What am I? - What am I talking about? - And Aaron Palmer. - Not necessarily who you want with the end to excite the movie. - I know if it's Aaron Palmer, but right, you do not want him in your end. - And then there's some lady who's probably sexy, but we can't see her in a lounge chair on the other side of the pool, but she's blonde. So you know she's Australian. - It might even be Teresa Palmer. - It could be. - Very possible. - You could show me her face and it wouldn't be. - Well, I'm telling you. - And I was holding a lot of Teresa Palmer stock throughout the-- - And that's Berycron's one of the things. - I guess that's Berycron's for any stocks. - I did. - But I was holding. - Well, while we're on that subject, while David reads these off, above what Griffin just texted me as a series of unresponded to text messages where I was asking questions about gifts for Ben. - This is a good one. - While Griffin has put me back, and it's just worth mentioning that Griffin doesn't respond to one-on-one text, but if I ask the same question in a group text, he responds literally within seconds. - It is an interesting phenomenon. - So I need not be embarrassed. - Everyone else, inventory of some objects for Ben, which I will now-- - Okay, in the middle of the attached East conversation, I guess we can just bring out a gift for Ben. - It's a clean segue. - So Ben, this is for you. - Oh shit, do you see what it is? Can you make out the proper name of this? - Ben's gonna come get this. - This is a vintage boxed-- - There I say really good condition, spawn action figure from T-Dog Mac, and what is the character name on here, Ben? Look on the side, and on the top right there. - Future spawn. - This is spawn from the future. - So it's sort of like a spawn 2099 type situation. - Yeah, but it's like a robo spawn, mecha spawn. There's a little like a sticker on the upper right hand that describes what his deal is. - And this is machine, part human. All spawns. - It's very Robocop, ask. - Now it's funny you give me this, which thank you. This is awesome Alex, I really appreciate it. - I just feel like future spawn is in line with your like pitches for spawn. - They now have a future spawn. - Oh here, it's here. - You're making me a future sponsor. - Clearly they had it all along. - And I just brought it here with me, rat city. - Rat city. - I just read the first six issues. It's great. - Talk about happy to give you this thing that I bought 30 years ago and immediately was like, this is gonna be worth. - Thousands. - Yeah, this is gonna pay off. - Has anything ever sounded more like a Ben Haasley pitch than, hey, I got a great idea for a comic book. It spawn in the future. - Yeah, so he's like a demon from hell, right? But yes, now he's in like a robot machine. - Right, and you're like, cool. I assume it's called future spawn. No, it's called rat city. That's why you would call it. - I feel like Ben's always bringing lovely gifts and I wanted to return the favor. - Thank God. - It's so kind of you. - This is so appreciated. Damn, there's some really good other toys here too. - Yeah, the line on the back promises a lot of good stuff. - Have I finally broken Ben and becoming an action figure collector to make a set of forever crack this guy? - Do you see, do you see, he's got a violator on the-- - Yeah, nah, I saw that. That's the bendy one. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't.
and bring you something you already had. - Yeah. - Damn, this is great. - April 2004, a variety announced that Peter were-- - Put a picture of that in the carousel of some of the content for this episode. - He was attached to direct an adaptation of William Gibson's novel, "Pattern Recognition." - Okay. - 2004, you said? - Yes. - This is right after Mastering Commander. - Yes, I feel like that was a 2003 novel by Gibson. I feel like that was also a project that got passed around a lot. He re-wrote it with DB Weiss. - Okay. - Nothing ever came of it. He said, "I couldn't get the script right and pulled back out of it." I don't know, fair enough. The major one, of course, as we already mentioned, is then to the October 2004 Warner Brothers purchases the film rights to the novel "Shantaram" for $2 million at the urging of Johnny Depp. It's a 1,000 page book. He wanted to beat out Russell Crowe, who was also really into that book. And now, I don't know what Depp saw in a role like this. An Australian heroine at a convict of robbery escapes from a prison and flees to India and reinvents himself as a doctor in Bombay and gets involved in counterfeiting and smuggling and gun running, which leads him to Afghanistan, where he and a mob boss battled the Russians. That is what the book is about. - I will say, as a weird fan at the time, and a Depp fan at the time, really. - Yeah. - I was like, for sure. A height of death. - I was truly like, let's fucking go. - I was gonna say. - This sounds so good. We're gonna shoot all over the world. It's gonna be hard as hell. - It's gonna be like 100 million plus budgets for like an adult tent pole. And this is, Johnny Depp is so at the peak of his powers right now, that this isn't like a fuck, Disney's agreeing to option Shantaram in order to make Jack Sparrow happy. This is Warner Brothers. A company he doesn't really do movies with. - Everyone is just-- - Everyone is just-- - He starts putting some crimes. - Sure. - But everyone's real and on screen. - Everyone's truly anything Depp wants to do, we will make and make at his requested budget level with whatever creative team he wants. - Yeah, he wants to crack open the window. - Yeah. - Six. - Six. - Six. - Secret, though. - I mean, it would be funny if in 2004 Depp had pitched the crimes of Grindelwald, and then be like, what? And he's like, don't worry about it. - It's gonna-- - But this sound-- - We're gonna make it. - It sounded great. - This is all true. - I mean it sounds like crazy, but-- - I'm not sure. - I'm not sure. - I mean, it sounded crazy, but-- - I'm not sure. - To me, it was always kind of like the great unmade one. 'Cause he was really at peak of his power, even though he's probably in his 60s by now. - Yeah, he'd be in his early 60s, I guess. - After Truman and Master and Commander, it was like, man, this guy, he's just-- He's still the best. Mosquito coased at this point 20 years ago. He's still got this power over movie stars and environments. - Eric Roth is brought in for a rewrite, so obviously this has been taken very seriously. That's a heavyweight screenwriter. In 2006, Weird does enter the project, but then apparently he and Johnny Depp were unable to get on the same page. And he decided the pairing wasn't meant to be. - The page was, how many bottles of wine should we drink an hour? - Yeah, Weird says I was involved for a period. I went to India, I talked to Johnny Depp about it. It's his film, I just wasn't, you know, it wasn't the right combination. - That's him being very diplomatic. - Correct. - But I think it's going back to what we're saying, that it used to be like these guys would go to him with their passion projects and say, I want you to get something out of me that I don't know how to get out of myself. And now it's like, people like Depp and Crow trying to call the shots and be like, no, you work for me. - I think we are also at that point is a little paralyzed by having made a couple like really heavyweight movies and just being like, well, if I want it to be really special, I want it to really speak, you know, like he's not just like, well, let me make a movie 'cause like it's good to make a movie. - He is the best director nominated for Mastering Commander. - And for Truman Show. - And his turn. - And for Dead Poets. And witness, does he have four? - It's four total, but yes, those are the four, I think. - Yeah, he wasn't nominated for Green Card or Freelice. - But two consecutive best pictures. - Best director. - Best director, yes. - Truman was snubbed for picture, but he was nominated. - Yeah. - Obviously, yeah, again with Mastering Commander, it's like, you know, he's a-- - He's undeniable. He's a six-time nominee total 'cause also a best picture nod for Commander and writing nod for Green Card. - He's just one of the best, like at this time. He's just undeniable, like a totem of studio filmmaking where at this time the script is everything. - I gotta get a great script and a great star and there's nothing more to it than that. - And now he's always his formula. - I've invoked it. - If there is a formula. - In other episodes, but it's a quote that stuck with me in that same Ethan Hawke interview. He goes, he was that rare thing, which is an actual popular artist. He was like an artist of like intelligence and skill who made entertainment. - A weird thing for Ethan Hawke to respect so much. Some other minor ones that sort of cross his desk, the Fox 2000 project Shadow Divers about people discovering Hitler's lost sub. - I got fucking rules. Was anyone ever attached to that? - I mean, that feels like another project that I had occasionally hear about 'cause it's like, it would be these nonfiction bestsellers, right, usually about World War II. And, you know, it's like, yeah, why did they get optioned and they sort of pass it around? But no, it's never been made. So, Peter Weir says, the thing that changes, I no longer work with the studios, right? - What is he saying? - Like, he's saying this in a 2012 interview, but he's saying like, from Witness Through Mastering Commander, that's my studio period. They no longer make those kinds of films. Someone from a studio said to me recently, we're not in that kind of business anymore. I've watched the market change. This is all from around right after, right around when this movie comes out. - When he is not yet clean. - He's not retired, but he's like, what's changing? He says, I watch the market change, moving towards what I would call children's programming. Okay, Peter. - Okay. - I'm surprised that even amongst acquaintances and my friends of my children in their 30s, you revisit childhood by going to the cinema as an adult. I find that quite fascinating. I feel like when he says, I find that quite fascinating. He means I don't like that, or I think that's stupid. - Uh-huh. - Anyway, so he doesn't really want to make what he thinks of as a kids movie. He wants to make a large canvas movie, which is basically what he's been doing. So he's looking around. - That is fascinating. As this contraction happens, that he's not like, I guess my move is looking at dead poets, looking at even something like fear. His move isn't like, I've done that really well also. I have made fairly small character dramas also. - Right, like a kind of a more widely-patch. - That seems like a lane I'm in now. And it's not like, well, I've grown out of that. - Sure. - Even Truman Show was kind of that, even though it's fairly large-moving. - The book he reads, the heat in Classic Peter Weir Fash, which I feel like is always the case with the movies he makes, is like, he can't stop thinking about it, he can't let it go. Is this book, The Long Walk, which allegedly details a true story, although it seems like it's a very kind of like, we're not really sure, totally sure how sure it is. - Real, did it happen to the guy who wrote it? Did he steal someone else's story? - He wasn't like a folk tale. - Right. - And then we're here himself as admitted that basically he wrote a fictional movie based on this sort of gen- - The account that is questionable. - What if you escape from a Soviet labor camp in Siberia and marched by foot through Siberia, China, the Goby Desert to Baton, the Himalayas, all the way to India? And what if you had to walk so fucking far? - He is like, he read an Applebaum, my coworker, an Applebaum, works at the lake, her book Gulag. He gets very interested in the Gulag and like, you know, all this and then the feet of endurance and the tenacity of human beings and survival stories, I guess he's never really quite made that kind of a movie, but that was kind of a movie in the '90s, really. - Yeah, right, like a lot. - Peter Weir says, I've gotten really interested in Gulag's and American studio heads are salivating. - Like, he could not be swinging further away from the interests of the studios at this moment. - Yeah, they want, you know, Guantanamo. That's like a cool prison for us. Now, we don't wanna see Russians in prison. - In 2016. - And any Guantanamo-related filming, this was an era where they were all hitting big at the box office. People wanted to see movies about. - Peter, are you interested in imprisoning men from the Middle East or just Russians? - 'Cause we'll keep greenlighting those despite audiences telling us, please stop. - Now, I can't, I will mispronounce the name of the author of this book, Slava Mirrochit. Roich, I'm not sure. - I think that's correct. - But BBC Radio 4 in 2006 had attempted to verify his account. They walked away being like, this is likely not true. - That's offensive also that they walked away 'cause that's kind of like hitting the murderers. - He was a prisoner in the gulag. We can't find evidence that he escaped. Possibly someone else escaped and he's telling their story, something like that. So we're, it gets jumpy and it's kind of like, okay, well, fucking, like, I don't wanna do it then, if it's like, you know, controversial. But then he finds that three men had to done a walk like this. - Yes. - And they do more research. And so he decides to kind of re-fictionalize it. He wants, that's why he retitles the movie. Not because of Stephen King, because he's like, I don't wanna be presented really. It's like a straight adaptation of this book that's a little, you know, muddy. He goes and talks to these people. - The one guy. - The one guy, Glynnski, we'll talk Glynnski who lives in Cornwall. - Who he's set. - Who he's set. - Basically was like his first major hire and was the primary consultant on the movie. This making of thing on the Blu-ray has a lot of him talking to all the actors about how to do everything and what it physically felt like. Come on guys, one foot in front of the other, you know the deal. - But basically, yeah, this guy is like a survivalist who decided to like, it'd be an interesting challenge to see if we can do the thing from this book, did it with a group of guys. And then he basically writes a fictional movie based on this guy's account of what the emotional experience was like. - Right. - Name me to other people who had maybe trekked through the Himalaya.
is, well, you know, he's coming to it as truthful as he can. He also hired an apple, I had no, I should have emailed in. I mean, she's a bigger shot than me, but she does work at the Atlantic and I've been on many a Zoom with her. - Is she in the slack? Can you, like. - She's in slack, yeah, I could probably. - Can you ask, right now, like, "Hey, anything you want to tell us about gulags?" - Oh, my God. - But it takes on gulags. - She's on the gulag beat for the Atlantic yourself. - She writes about, like, political oppression in Eastern Europe, by a large, yeah. - But she talks a lot about Russia right now. - She does man the gulag desk. - I really, honestly, cannot be flipping about this. - I'm not being flooded. - No, I think our joke is more that what she's doing sounds very serious. And I like the idea of someone talking about political oppression in Eastern Europe and you being like, so here's who has three Oscars and why. - Anne says. - David, I wrote the book on the gulag. - Anne says that Peter, please love sending me memes to the Slack. - Use the "Mis-A-Sounding" board. And then she and other professors direct them to survivors and all that. Look, the way back, what you're also hearing in my, like, accounting of all this is this took years. Like, this is his process just seems so slow because he's so meticulous. - But that also used to be allowed. That also used to be forgivable for these filmmakers that prioritize, like, authenticity, research, very similar to their storytelling. It used to be like, you're vaguely being paid to develop this while you do research for two years. And I'm sure Master and Commander had a similar kind of heavy lift of, like, approaching the time period. - Yeah, so talk about that. - Yeah, I think absolutely. - On the Truman Show episode, but like, because Kerry's dance card is so full, he gets two and a half years to prep that movie while he waits for him to run through his other contractual obligations. And like, when movies have major budgets like this and people go, "Why did it cost this much?" Sometimes, like, those are major factors and those are things that studios refuse to spend money on now, I would say, basically, is like, we'll let you work for like a year and a half with, like, a small staff to just figure out how you're gonna approach this. - Yeah, and he really did the most with that kind of thing. - And that's the kind of thing where if you had a list actors attached, they would grant you that because they were like, well, if it's Mel Gibson, if it's Harrison Ford, if it's Russell Crowe, we think we will make back that investment. - Yeah, right. - The money we spend on your research. - But the thing is, we'll be with Kate opening week. - But I lament that it's obviously dead and gone that he represents, it's like, whether they knew it or not, almost every time these were forever movies. Like, obviously, year of living dangerously is not like, you know, a basic cable classic, but buying, you know, these movies last forever. - Master Commander is a great example of that, where I'm just like, certain that movie has gone into profit many times over now. At the time of release, it was seen as a, you know, break even dead poets just to coming, like, what it is. - But that was a major hit at the time and then has just become like, an enduring. - Yeah, but these are forever movies. - He really just had this instinct of making something that wouldn't age at all. But that was not the way they were thinking at that time. And you also imagine if Peter Rear's like, cool, I'm gonna like, not rush and take my time to develop this movie every six months that he spends working on this film, the chances of this getting made in any traditional way are like cut in half. - Also, like, this only gets more old out of fashion. - That's what I'm saying. - Yeah, it's just like, with each passing year, it's like you're losing the last development exact at each studio who would maybe green light something like this and have the power to do so. - No studio is making this. Instead, it's funded by exclusive media group, Spitfire Pictures, Image Nation Entertainment, which is the film division of Abu Dhabi. - Image Nation is still very active in this, but none of these are obviously like-- - They pay for a lot of shutter movies. - You'll see that logo a lot. - No, I know the logo very well. It's a very cool-- - I know the logo. - And I think it's a gravitation on your dress. - That would be weird. - So, but that's when, that's when shit gets very depressing for me of this generation or the shovel of filmmaker where you see the independent cobbled together finding out things from all the people who are probably in jail now for one reason or another for-- - Yes, the red granites of the world. - Yeah, financial crimes in their own country. And just the idea that he's going hat in hand to the Middle East, trying to get $5 million for a chunk of his epic, this is just really bad when this starts happening. - I mean, but you're asking-- - Because we sit here in the shambles of Roque, the collapsing nature of being able to support things that are just obviously of interest to audience. - I haven't done a deep dive on Roque, but-- - Well, we keep sending you the links. I don't know what's holding you. - I looked at one of the articles, but it doesn't seem like they were like, we think there's a market for this stuff that's not really getting picked up at film festivals right now. And then they're like, it turns out there's not a huge mark, there might be a reason a lot of people aren't picked up. - Yeah, Roque distributor that has-- - They did Deadman's Wire, right? - Right, basically formed a year ago, where we got a lot of financing and there's more product than there are distributors these days. They're getting left at the table at festivals and also there's not enough stuff being put in the theaters. We'll buy these movies and we'll back them fully and we'll overpay because we know we basically need to pay a tax on being so new that filmmakers are wary to trust that we'll support their film crowd. - What they forgot is when you do that, you have to fail for like two years. - Right, and instead they failed on one movie and are now insolvent. - Well, obviously. - And there are like five other movies they've bought that are now like are we ever coming out? - I sent the best triptych of images to illuminate this narrative. But, new mark, the Duff, 30 minutes later, out of business. But this new market is to me like seeing that logo, looking it up, this is their penultimate movie. They're out of business, probably when this movie's coming out, essentially. And this is just super depressing. - Yes, and this is, I mean. - They're final, do you know what, did you look up new market, the new market chronology? 'Cause their first film, much like National Geographic, 'cause another film you've covered. - Memento? - Yeah. - Yeah. - I mean, that's right. - So they have this like 10-year miracle run that ends basically with this followed by the Joseph Gordon Levitt Heavy Metal Movie Hesher. - Oh, right. - I mean, they're done. - 'Cause I'm a mistaken that they were a production company and they couldn't find a buyer from Memento and Bob Bernie was like, fuck it. I'm gonna figure out how to release their ourselves. - What we now call a black bear. - Yes, it's a bit of a black bear. - Can't find a buyer for the rifles of Amzaya King? - Fuck it. - They release it ourselves. - They will show you guys how much money there is and be keeping thrillers. - They were primarily financier production company, but then they have this run of fucking Memento Doni Darko. Real Woman have done it. - Well done it was a giant bomb. - But real Woman have curbs. I mean, the real rider was a monster hit. - And the passion of the crisis, the most successful independent film in history. - They probably didn't have a very favorable split on that with Mel. - No, Mel took home the lion share, but it is crazy that they released passion of the crisis. They successfully got that movie to record breaking numbers that records that still hold and seven years later, they were done. - Yeah, no, they're a major player in this mid-Autz boom time of kind of like big small movies. - Yeah, but they could like last four years of struggle, whereas like Roke can't survive one movie. And if the way back screened at TIFF last year, Roke would have been the only place that offered. - Yeah, or it's like the Eden, Ron Howard's movie that's like kind of a similar Peter, but that's kind of, I like that movie. I don't know if you guys saw it. - I didn't, I did not care for that movie at all. I think we were all agree, it's very strong. And, but that is to me like, that was a release by Vertical. - Yes, but that is the state of the Peter Weir type of moving now is that it's like, why did this person make this? What were they thinking? Who on earth would release this? And then it comes out and everyone's like, what is this? - Well, no, to your earlier point where you're like, why wouldn't at this inflection point in the industry, we're pivot back to something like Dead Poets Society that is easier to make. - He could have made three more of those. - Right, 'cause it's like that movie had a budget that maybe a studio wouldn't give him, you know, the answers he doesn't want to do that anymore. He says I want to work on a big camera. - I was about not interested. - So like, right, you could more easily make a cheaper version of Dead Poets Society than you can make a cheap version of the way back. But I do think there's almost like a lifestyle creep, a like scale creep. - You say Peter Weir is ballin', like he needs the money. - It's beyond that. I think these guys get addicted to the challenge of how difficult it is to mount these big productions, especially if you're successful at doing it. You know how to do it and like, maintain the story thread within it and like, hold on to dramatic, you know, in artistic integrity. Then I think it's hard for you to scale down. Like Ridley Scott is a weird-- - I thought a lot about Ridley Scott. - Exception who will just throw in a like fucking good year in between-- - I thought about Ridley Scott with this movie a lot because they're very similar in a lot of ways in the scope of what they do and in their kind of hit ratio of forever movies. And for some reason Ridley Scott just figured out how to never slow down. - Well, he works fast and the movies he makes can be a little sloppy as a result although often they really are good. He also, you know, works with big stars which I feel like Peter Weir is clearly getting sick of. - Eden I think is a really good comp for the way back because that movie is also really dreary and about survival and like, you know, it's these people who went to live on an island and it's like, it's based on a true story. And they're like, what do you think happened when in 1931 like a bunch of Randos decided to live on like a random island in the Galapagos Islands? I'm like, did it go badly? And they're like, oh, yeah, it did. We were hoping to surprise you with that. Like, you know what I mean? Where they're like 50 minutes in. They're like, it's starting to get worse. And I was like, "Yeah, I called the--?"
that from the beginning, Jude Law and Sydney Swini, we're not gonna recreate society. - Sure, but that movie was also, hang on, Q or five of the hottest people, they're gonna be, they don't do sex. - They don't do sex. - That's like her mediated to restart society. Sydney Swini showed up, she shows up, cause in trouble. - No, that's the thing, it's like, it's like, oh, it's Anadar Maas and Sydney Swini and you're like, oh, do they look good? And it's like, no, they're like starving and like their pieces are dirty. - David's really throwing some shade on these beautiful actresses here. - I thought it was solid to a fault. - This is the same with Nuremberg where everyone's like, oh, Nuremberg was good and couldn't have her friend out on the commentary. - Second best movie there. - And I'm like, no, you guys are forgetting how good these movies used to be, that would be stunk. Like, it's no good and it's all gray and like it's, anyway, forgetting how good they used to be. - The way back. There's always a temptation to cast a nationality. We are says, but that gets in practical, sure. He didn't want all American. He didn't want all English guys doing accents. So he wants a mix of guys. He sure gets a mix. - Matt Harris started talking to you guys like, that's cool. He's just not doing a voice. - Yes. - I did briefly go like, oh, so right, are we just doing, but then Colin is like, oh, he's American. - Colin speaking Russian. Like, he's not doing, and I'm like, okay, so we're not doing that. We're not doing everyone. - I was gonna respect it though. 'Cause I'm going into the movie, originally thinking, I'm gonna hear Ed Harris full Irish brogue for two hours and 10 minutes. And then the movie starts and I'm like, Ed Harris could be playing any nationality. - I don't know. It got this cold in Ireland. - It's true. - I'm looking at this poll. - That's why the potatoes died. They froze. - Looks like the Arctic Circle here. This is crazy. - So, Ed Harris is obviously, has already worked with Peter Weir. - Yes. - They respect each other. - Yeah. - And so, that's an easy decision there. - Is kind of keeping people. Not forever. - Yeah. - A couple of forwards, a couple of mels. - Sure. - A couple of heads. - A couple of heads. - Interesting that Ed. - We'll have a couple of heads. - But Ed's like his, like in the pocket, supporting MVP both times. - Yeah, for sure. For sure. - And it might not surprise you guys to hear that in this making of a special feature, Ed Harris seemed really activated by how difficult this shoot was. - And he was, no, he was really into, I think he's also just into Peter Weir 'cause Peter Weir's similarly intense with like, let's fucking figure out like what bread they ate or whatever, you know what I mean? Like let's do deep research, get into the character. - Ed Harris, he's obviously in the news lately with the Arm Candy for Amy Madigan. - Yeah. - He's just the fucking best. - He does well. - He's like, one of these, like, has been, he's never, ever been bad. - Truly. - And has never really been given credit for how consistently awesome he has been. - Okay, that's a great question. - Forever. - What's his worst performance. - What is Ed Harris in where you're like, 'cause he does a ton of movies where he's like, okay, he's phoning this in. - But that is, to me, I stopped watching Westworld, but that's not what I love to the most. - He was great. - Yeah, but then he started giving interviews where he's like, well, I'm phoning it in now because they changed the character and I don't like this new character. - It is, right. It is true that they kind of like twist by the way, now you're a robot and he said he was sick of it. He was still good. - He was like, I sign up to play the man in black. Now I'm the man in white. I'm phoning it in now. But like, I'm looking through here. - Ian McCellan said that once upon a time. - I don't think I have seen an embarrassing Ed Harris perform. - He could have embarrassed himself if he tried. - Like, I haven't seen radio, but I imagine he acquits himself better than anyone else in the cast of that film. - That's pretty close though, because I haven't seen that either. - It's embarrassing that he's in it. - Sure. - I would say that's also the era, the sort of post, he gets a bunch of non-zero, that early 2000s where you kind of feel like him trying to sniff for an Oscar. - He's on the poster. - He's hard. - Well, Polly, he got so close. - But then see a beautiful mind, which he's good in. He's really good. - I mean, at the gates where he's-- - Which rocks. - I was thinking about him. - He's doing an accident. - We're talking about Great Russian War narratives. - The hours which like is an undeserved Oscar. He's not like bad in it, but that's my least favorite part of the hours. - But that when it's film movie I like. - That's when he felt like he's in auto territory, and it's inevitable he's gonna get one so soon. - You know what I've never seen is the human stain, which is a book I love. - Right, I've never seen that either. - But, and he has the most interesting part, and if it's the part from the book that I remember, but I know that was forgotten. But I also think he's starting to get into this era where like beautiful mind, for whatever reason, I was like driven to rewatch the trailer recently, 'cause I was like, is my memory correct about this? - That the marketing of the movie was just selling the fucking CIA shit so hard. - He's the other name on the poster. - Exactly, I mean, the poster is Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, and the trailer. - No, it's no, it's Russell Crowe, a beautiful mind. - Yes, Ed Harris. - Ed Harris. - But like Jennifer Connelly's barely in the trailer. They obviously don't show the Paul Bettany stuff. Like that movie was so-- - But they can't. He's not real. - Right, we can't put him in the trailer. - That movie sold itself as a badass story about a cool CIA analyst. - And so the trailer and all the marketing was so Ed Harris heavy, and then you watch the movie, and you're like, oh, Ed Harris is the red herring. And I feel like history of violence is the same thing. - Well, he's obviously remarkable in that movie. - He's so incredibly, but you're like, this should have been an Oscar nominee. You're like, well, but then will he ever come up and send it to me? - He's not by her. - Right, the same kind of thing happens with Jennifer Connelly and like-- - Well, he's used in a way that's making it easy to take him for granted because you don't walk out of the movie thinking about his character. - We haven't even started talking about it. - Have you guys re-watched Pollock recently? - No, I actually-- - It is. - So good. - Yeah, Pollock rock. - It is such a good movie. - He's so good in it. - Yeah. - Well, he directed Appalooza. - Do you ever see that? - He wrote Appalooza. - I believe. - I believe he directed too. - He's directed it. - Let me look it up. - Didn't he direct the Beethoven movie? - Beethoven set. - They don't care. - Yeah, they don't care about the same thing. - I'm trying to tee you up here. - Oh, yes, yeah. You had written directed. Written and directed. - I saw Appalooza. - I saw Appalooza. - I saw Appalooza. - Do love a modern Western. - Right. - It's very solid. It feels like he kind of wanted to make it go. - I always confuse it with Hidalgo because they both have Vigo, and they both have names where you're like, "Huh, yeah." - I think Appalooza is a place and Hidalgo's a horse. - Correct, yeah. - But those are the only two movies he directed. - It's interesting he hasn't done more of that. He's just awesome. - I interviewed him and he was so scary as I brought up many times on this podcast. - Jim Sturgers makes a comment in the special feature saying like, "I always pity the PA "who had to go up to head Harris "and tell him we were campers were ready." - Pity the fool. - He pities the fool. - Okay, so Jim Sturgers. - See him into Killamockingbird. - Yes, I interviewed him for. - Yeah. - Yeah, that was why I interviewed him. - He was good. - You can't act like talking about Ed Harris isn't talking about this. - Yeah, can I bring up the Ed Harris stuff relevant to this movie? I wanna say, finish your anecdote. - No, no, what? - No, I'm sorry. You interviewed Ed Harris. - No, it's fine. - What were you gonna say? - He wants to talk Sturgers. - David loves Sturgers. - David loves Sturgers, he's got a lot of Sturgers things. No, that he was like, he likes the good burn so much that they talked about, they built a set for the woods where they could control the elements, just in case like, you know, the scheduling didn't line up. They tried to shoot most of this movie chronologically. So they had a large indoor wood set that they could redress and have a snow machine or have sand or whatever the fuck. And Ed Harris would like get to set every day and be like, Peter, come on. Let's just go out there. Let's just go out there and do it. If it's snowing, we'll wake all these guys up at two o'clock in the morning. Everyone would do it. That he like really wanted to be in pain. - Yeah, he was the best. - He was good in love life bleeding also. - He's great in love life. - He's great in love life bleeding. - He's good, he's a guy who's now the only problem with love life bleeding is he's like, I'm your dad and I'm like, you're like 78 years old. - He's so cool. - But it doesn't really matter. - It's like Deval when we were saying after he died, it's just like, this guy just was awesome forever. - Deval was awesome forever. - And also was a guy where he was like, yeah, but he's like kind of scary in a pain in the ass. And you're like, yeah, well, I don't give a shit. Like, it's so rough. - But only because he has such an intense amount of integrity for the craft of acting. - Yes. - The other adherosanic though was that they, he was like, they were saying that when they'd be setting up adheros would like wander off like a hundred miles away from where everyone else was and just stand by himself and he was like, it's great being in nature. You're in these places where no one is and you can just-- - Never sound like Clint Eastwood. - You can really hear things. - We are comparison to Clint Eastwood. - Says like I think he has a bit of a Clint thing. - He was like, this is the privilege of being away from all the noise and the cacophony and you can actually listen to nature except to make a movie and there's always a hundred and forty fucking people yapping about. - Sorry Ed. - And it's just as like, so one day adheros like the PA comes over and adherosan starts screaming can everyone be quiet for five minutes. We need to connect to the land before we film and then everyone's saying like and he was right and it was incredible how different the next take was. Like this is all the stuff in the interviews. - Sure. - With that felt very serious. - Where they're like, I'd squat tattoo. - Yeah, like in the way back, which of course I assume at this point has been nominated for 10 more Oscars. - Beyond that it's like, do you know that like Vincent Denofrio gained 60 pounds for full metal jacket? Like everyone assumes they're telling the stories that will go down to history about the commitment to the craft and the struggle in this movie. (upbeat music) - Jim Sturgis, ascendant as we said possibly. We were says he saw across the universe, okay. If you say so. - You're questioning whether he saw it? - It doesn't really feel like something he'd run to. - Probably like the Beatles. - Yeah, maybe, right. He thought he had a quality and then he said, in meeting him, he has a very interesting manner. He's got a kindness to him. I was keen to not have a typical hero. I'm willing to believe that Peter Wierf feels this way. My whole thing with Jim Sturgis is I'm like, he never has read as much of anything to me. - Even watching the movie. - He's fine. He's like an adequate looking guy who's fine. - He blends in with like these other five guys in the movie, even though he's the lead. There's no doubt.
that at this time we're told like this is a guy that you really want to put in the center of the moon. - And he probably like, you know, he'll do it. Like, right? He'll fucking do four months in bulk area for you. - He wants to do it. He wants to be like, I'm getting like the real serious actor, heavy lift shit. - Yeah. - You also, you talk about this phenomenon all the time, Art, but like the guy who is bankable, who you can get a green light for any project with this guy for like exactly two weeks, you know? Or Hollywood's just like, we think if we invest in this guy now, two years from now, he will be worth five times as much as we paid. So he is like a go picture green light activator. I mean, and it's a guy who either has like hits that you can't credit to him or hasn't had a hit yet, but the charisma is so strong in movies that didn't make money. - But this is what I don't understand. 'Cause he's in the carousel now. - No, so that's the, okay, but we must remember. We are kind of wants here, clearly, is like Mel Gibson and Gallipoli. - Yeah, sure. I want to be finding someone with a bit of a, who's young but has a little bit of earth to him or so. But like across the universe was a colossal bomb. - Yes. - It was incredibly expensive. - It's like '07, '07. - Then in 2008, he's in the other Berlin girl, which is a movie that I think like made its budget back and did fine, but was really poorly received. - I do not, I don't even remember him in that. - He's the, he's the fucking, he's a poster. - Isn't the poster a banner? - Because Ben is doing this one girls are thinking girls, he's, he's Ambulance brother. - I was gonna say he's the other Berlin guy. He is the other Berlin guy. - But across the universe sort of the, the, the, the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead of the other Poland franchise. - He was a, a Julie's him or discovery. - Yes. - This is Amy Pascal or Sony. - Mm-hmm. - Across the universe is delayed for a long time. - Okay. - And Amy Pascal loved like discovering stars and like keeping them in the stable and betting on them. So they throw them onto 21, which is also Sony. - And he's the face of that movie, like he's a front center on the poster. - And that movie is a hit. - Yeah, it's a solid. - 'Cause they let him, they let spacey be frank in that movie. There's only one reason you make the money. Let him be frank. - And so that movie has made money. Like it made like 80 mil domestic, like it was like a saw. And after that, I mean, I assume we're getting close to when this movie starts to be made, but it's crossing over a K-A woke crash. - Right. - Which went nowhere. - That was also delayed for years. - Right. - Because Sean Penn was in it and he demanded they cut him out of it. There was a whole plot line with Sean Penn where he didn't like the politics of the final movie. And he said, he's somehow at the power to get his whole story chunk removed. - Bop, bop, honey, do stuff. He was in the film Heartless, directed by The Great Philip Ridley, which I've never seen, which is sort of like the last time Ridley made a movie. This year, obviously, as the insane one, two punch of way back in Legend of the Guardians, the Alps of Kahul. - He's the main voice in Kahul. - Right, I mean, so I mean, at this point, his agent is basically just imagining like how big, how big a vault will I need for the gold coins I'm gonna be making off this guy. - And then one day with Anne Hathaway and Cloud Atlas are like the last two movies of what feel like the things that he got on after 21. - Cloud Atlas is one of my favorite movies and it's one of those things where you're like, oh, right, and Jim Sturgis. - Yeah. - You know, like all the other guys, you're like cool. And then he's there too. 'Cause then it's five years of movies you haven't heard. - No. - And then like Dean Devlin tries to make him the hero at the center of GeoStorm. And then it goes back into movies you've never heard of. - I think he's done some TV. - Uh, yeah. - No way to know. - There kind of is no way to know, but he was the star of Feed the Beast. - Of course. - On AMC and then he was the star of Home Before Dark on Apple TV with Brooklyn Prince. - Of course. - And then he was the star of Jesus Mixed Tape, which premiered on Binship. Why are you saying things we all know? - What the fuck is going on? You're wasting air time. - Okay, so he cast Jim Sturgis, like that sounds great. - It just feels very, yeah, like Griffin says, it's like, if you need a guy of this age, he's, I'm sure 10 people passed on this move. - Right, but like 10 years earlier, it's, or not even like five years earlier, it's you and McGregor or it's Colin Farrell, or it's, you know, - John Hall. - Yeah. - With Farrell, as we often will hear about Farrell, I feel like they meet and Peter were like, he's really fucking fun to talk to and hang out with. He had the, like, I was not going in, thinking this was his part. He walked out with the part. - He's relishing. - It feels like this is the opportunity. - This is to Eastern promises. In terms of ours. - This is '07, maybe? - No. - Yeah, it is. - Yeah, it was '07. - Really? - Yeah. - He thought it was like nine or 10. - Right, seven. - Okay, so tolerance for like tattooed Russian convicts is high. - Through the roof. - The queue score is immense. - The public is demanding it. They're angry every time they show up in a theater and that kind of guy doesn't show up on screen. - Where's the guy with like a weird knife that he talks to? - This performance, I found very subtle and moving. - Oh, yeah? Ben. - I do. I fucking love what I love about the way back. - Yeah. - Is that you're like, "Okay, then they're all gonna die." And we're like, "No, actually only a couple." And some of them will just kind of stop walking for other reasons. - They're just like, "You know what? "I'm tapping out." - Yeah, Peril's just like, "Ah, Mongolia. "I fucking love Stalin, though." - I was like actually bummed he didn't get a big dramatic death scene. - Or just a big dramatic anything. - Yeah. - This is a tattooed crazy convict whose best friend is a knife. - He calls this. - What did you think of this part of the movie and the general dryness of this movie? - Well, it was a subtle performance. - Best friend is a knife. - His best friend is a knife. You know, it's like one of the few objects he has left. - Yeah. - So of course I understand why it's so important to him for reminding him of, you know, before he became, I mean, a gulac prisoner. - If Peril wasn't going big in this movie, it would be tough. - I was like, I mean, I'm just like-- - Everyone else is pretty low key in this movie. - Peril getting the and in this movie, it starts immediately. Peril has the juice and I'm like, "I'm gonna hate it when he's out at the end of the first act." - Right, right. - Because he's so front-loaded that the only reason he would get the and is if he has an early exit. - And so it's no more strong. - That's more strong. - Yes. - It's in the first act and Peril exits in the second act. - Yes. Okay, but Russian prison tattoos are fucking awesome. And it was definitely something that went across my desk at one point in my life. - And there was like that book that was everywhere. - Exactly. - It was like Urban Outfitters on the counter. - Totally. Like a Russian tattoo. - Yes. - That's why you have those diamonds on your kneecaps. - Right. Well, of course. - Sir Sheronen, I mean, there's no, you don't need to explain casting her. - Yeah. - But as Peter Weir says, she's got an old soul. She's, you know, so talented, blah, blah. I mean, like, obviously you fucking cast her. - She was my experience watching this movie last night. You see her, just her frame off in the distance, right? The guys see someone walking towards them and I was like, oh my God, yes. Here we go. Sir Sheronen, oh no, wait. This is one of those movies where she's still a child. - Right. - Just immediately was like, oh, right. She's a little kidness. - Yeah. I mean, she's probably like 14. - I think there's a Peggy Siegel Jeffrey Epstein email to that same, that same effect. - Almost definitely. - She would have been about 15 or 16, which made me-- - Really? - Yeah. - Okay. - Yes, she's old. - Yeah. - When's Atonement? - Atonement, so seven. - Seven. - You can't remember. - Right. - And then Lovely Bones is O8 and City of Ember is O9. - Well, everyone knows that. Everyone knows that. - Everyone knows that. - I haven't checked in with the City of Ember recently. - So she's going great. - So this film was shot in Bulgaria and Morocco. Some shooting in India, I think right for the end. So the Bulgarian forest became the Siberian forest. Crazy. Morocco is the Gobi Desert, crazy. Okay, cool. They weren't actually going to be able to film in the real Gobi Desert or Russia because of problems that would come up with doing that. The Bulgarian area obviously has like old Soviet-era studios. They're being used now. I mean, this is how you make the fucking any movie these days. - Sure, yeah. And they had to shoot on location. It was an advantage visually. It was an advantage psychologically. I wanted to create true emotion for the audience to connect with these people. I mean, you know, it's what you're talking about Griffin. It's like they're all talking about this movie with so much integrity and so seriously. And it was so fucking hard to make it. And they're all giving these interviews, I assume. 'Cause these all interviews are all from January 2011. Being like, but it was all worth it to make the way back. - I just want the listener to know that ARP has entered the bathroom. (humming) We just need to move quickly. I think give some space to make sure no toilets are broken. No oops are loudly uttered. I just wanna, we're a little bit on edge until we hear the flush, right? Just knowing the history of ARP in this bathroom. - I was going to try to find if there's any other, you know, there's nothing else that's like really bad interesting about how they made this movie to me, honestly. - It is, they shot on location, it was really hard. - Yeah, we were kept saying he had this running bit and the making of thing about how he had to approach casting the locations like he was casting actors. Because they couldn't film in most of the real places that they walked through. So that's like which country is gonna double for which other country. But this movie truly like had four months of filming across multiple continents. - Right, right. And then the film exits production and doesn't have a distributor. - Yeah. - Like they can't find or just, now it is like, it's post recession I guess. - Yeah. - Like that's what we're is saying. - Okay, we're hearing a flush, we're hearing a flush all good so far. - Okay, the seat is down. - Okay. - But it basically takes until they play at the Telluride Film Festival and new market signs on. So that's in September 2010. - Right. - So it really was like, touch and go if this was even gonna get released in 2010 I guess. - Yeah, and I'm sure you remember, it was just on all these lists of like, and maybe there's a chance for like, - Yeah.
career, there wasn't like a focus on campaign, Harris career cap, but there was essentially, it's not. There's a Peter Weir movie that many people haven't seen, but like it, it might be able to score a few categories. And then looking through it, it's like, it basically got zero precursor norms anywhere, not even critics groups, and then just kind of got the surprise makeup nomination. You pointed out, like, both publicly and privately, that even by this time, the strategy of like the Oscar hopeful movie comes out December 25th, was just kind of cooked. It's like nightmare. Even then you couldn't, you couldn't do it. Put it in there that late, especially with like a distributor that's probably like, at that point, just one person sitting on the floor in an empty office answering the phone. Right. Right. Right. It's like, if you're going to do that, you need to push like a incredibly major campaign to get it like in in front of everyone in this movie, it's like, no, but they walk right there's skin got so dry and people are like, oh, Ben, I mean, you like the dryness, right? One of the one of the drier movies, it's very dry, because you were probably because you're watching mosquito coast, you're like, this is damp and muggy. I don't like this. Yeah. No, it looked really unpleasant way too buggy. Except for the mosquito part of this movie, which is fucked up. It's so fucked up. I have to say that it looked unpleasant being in the desert. So you figured walking across the desert by yourself with no possessions would be easy. But actually, it seems like pretty shitty. Yes. Now, Ben, you were saying that you ran out of your, um, Lawson says that you're fixated on now. Have you considered sucking on pebbles? Hot pebbles, not just any pebble. Yeah, it will keep your mouth salivated. A little moisture out of that. You don't have to keep buying them. You can just find them and carry them around in your pocket. Yeah, you save money less sugar and take two by far. I kept thinking, you know, pebbles have almost no sugar. It's actually crazy. We don't need them all, but I'm surprised people have been came in one day saying like, you know, what I've started doing is sucking on rocks. I think I'd be a little alarm. I didn't say you'd be a wouldn't be alarm. It says you wouldn't be surprised. And then we find out selling bags of rocks. I become a rock influencers. My new diet trick. Yeah, rocks suck on rocks. Um, I kept, I mean, everyone in this movie is shedding the pounds. That's true. Yeah. They're looking true. It'd be funny if like good stuff. So I started kept getting fanner. I'm like, how are you doing this? Like there's one guy on this. He's got a stash of fluff. Yeah. He's like saying much is really. Yeah. I actually found a cotton candy machine. I might have told you guys. That's always a good bit. Did you overall like this movie? I think this movie is pretty good. Yes, I sat like I was basically like dreading watching it a little bit. And certainly there are parts of it that are that are sad. And I was sad when people died and so on and so forth. But like this sort of procedural. I just felt like it wasn't too heavy on the like, Revenant style. This was so punishing. Sure. You must be punished as they were punished. I had this thought many times while watching the film. Like I definitely prefer this to the Revenant because it's not doing that. It's not like shoving your face into the dog shit. Yeah. And like the many a true story type movie that we won't don't you understand like how bad this wasn't I'm like, yes, I'm a maybe it's because I never thought this movie was that just because it was at a time where that wasn't really in vogue of like the point of this movie is a miserable well experience. But my other fear, of course, was there's going to be kind of trickly of this sort of like, ah, the human spirit in jurors, which doesn't have that at all. It's not that at all. Right. The end is truly like, right. See you guys. Instead, it has like lovely little moments that I like of dialogue and like, he's just such a there's so much stuff in the middle of the movie where like just his eye is so great. Like his some of the like, this is a guy Peter where you know he's making people wait around to get a 10 second shot at sunset. Totally. You know he's making everyone stand in one place for 45 minutes until the sun is perfect for a shot that serves no narrative. And the shot is worth it. It doesn't feel like it's indulgence, right? It doesn't feel like it's sort of himself stylizing. And then Harris is there like shadow boxing being like, this is what we're here for. Yeah, just wait in the hot setting. Right. I feel like everyone's on board it. Yes. Right. Right. Like this is what I want to be doing. So they like the focus. They like the discipline. Do you like like survival? That's what I was going to ask you to move you to your time out the Revenant, which doesn't occur to me at all. I'm watching this thinking like Papillon runaway train. Sure. I'm thinking of like people who break out of jail. And the movie is like, if you don't keep moving, you will get caught and you will die because you guys famously are outdoorsy people love hiking. So I was wondering how you related to that aspect. I mean, I simply would not do this. I don't know what I asked. Would you survive? If I'm in the movie way back at minute five, I eat a bowl of bullets. I just swallowed them. I did. I'm in the gulag. I kept saying to forky, like I think by this point, I'm dead. By this point, I'm definitely dead, like dead here, dead here. Yeah. I think Griffin would do well in the gulag. I don't think you'd want to leave. That's actually not a guy's being like, Hey, I drew like a naked lady on a piece of paper. You know, three cigarettes, please. Sorry, hots in a cot. I don't think they got a lot of hots or condes. Okay, it was pretty rough there. One cold in a floor. Yeah, it's kind of more than one and a half colds in a floor. I do like a mattress. So that's maybe where I'd be struggling. But I do think I'd make friends. I'm imagining you showing up to the gulag and they're like, what's your name? And you're like, just FYI, I do like a mattress. I feel like Griffin's role in my file. His role in the way back is kind of Rob Schneider and Judge Dredd, where you're just walking across the wasteland. Everyone's like, this guy is still talking. That's the meanest thing you've ever said to me. If you were in the way back, not in real life. But I think if it was life or death, I think that would be the vibe you bring. I think I'd be at the midpoint between that and march wrong. Okay. Right? Well, this guy doesn't really want to escape. Right. But I like that consumption of weight of care. You're that guy. It's like he talks. That's the marks from right. He talks about his napkin as a way to kind of get. Or you'd be like Mr. Burns when it's the fighting health or the flying health fish flashback and he wakes up on the cotton. They're like, hey, you're not dead. Yes. Pat, I would just sit to your like pappy on the movie. I find a smidge. It's a bit bit of a slog. It's got cool stuff. Run away train. I like because one, it's on a train. Well, that's true. And two, that movie is bananas. Cold. Cold. It is cold. But I mean, that's something where John Foyte was like bigger and the director was like, uh-huh. And John Foyte was like, what if I went even bigger? The director was like, uh-huh. And they just kept going and going. Yeah. And Eric Roberts, he's insane in that movie. Have you seen that in a way, Trink? Yeah. These movies are more like to me. Because this is a World War II movie, but not really. This is where he's not barely at all. But if it fits into our at home syllabus of World War II, but even rewatching it, it's interesting because the Russian, the Russian experience of World War II is entirely inscrutable to Americans. You're never taught it. It's not part of history. I mean, it is, but it's not part of the history you learn. And the average person couldn't just scribe even vaguely what Russia was doing during World War II because they're both like, average American. The average, well, yes, not the average human on Earth, but like, it is very hard to understand. Yeah. And this movie is that. But it also sort of. I mean, well, it, I mean, literally partially, but you know, it's a World War II movie in spirit, but it has no combat. It's not about the eastern front. And these are all enemies of the Soviet Union, which is why they're in the gulag. But you know, who else was enemies of the Soviet Union? Adolf Hitler. Yeah. See, that's why people get confused about this. They sure do. It's like, wait, if the, if if they were fighting against the Nazis, why are they imprisoning people who seem okay? And it becomes very confusing. And as Anna wanted me to point out, Russia was just basically in the middle of purging their entire population anyway. Right. And they were using this as a fine opportunity to continue their essentially reign of terror. And I like the setup. I mean, it's just, I guess, historically accurate, but that the gulags at this point in time are like half criminals, half political criminals. So you got guys like Colin Farrell, alongside guys like Ed Harris, who's just like an engineer who moved to Russia for work, and is now right. That's subversive. And so he's, you know, in like Yanush, Jim Sturgis is Polish. And of course, the Soviets conquered Poland when they were allied with Hitler. His wife sells him out at the beginning of the movie. I mean, assuming that she will coerced into, right? Right. And then she thinks he will break. Right. Yes. In interrogation. I mean, I agree with you guys that this movie is good, right? Like, I it's like pretty good. I mean, I did not think it was a masterpiece. I was like, I was sort of a little, you know, wellmed, but I had fairly low expectations. So I was like, right, no, this is a well-made movie and he's a good director. And what was I thinking? I just don't think he could fumble. Even with half the resources he wants, his eye, his instincts, like, I hate this phrase. I hate when people are like, this director always knows, exactly where to put the camera. It's like, so does everybody in front of the actor. Like, this is an insane sentence. But his instincts of like visual storytelling are so muscular, even in a drama, even in dead poet society. He can't ever frame things in a way that you're not like, this is cool looking. This place feels real. These actors are in the moment. And he's in complete control. And this movie is totally solid. Like, I'm not saying it's even, you know, it could only not be in the top five of his because his highs are untouchable. But I mean, the response to it or the new market dumping of it, it's nonexistence is totally undeserved. Well, it's a really strong representation of this exact moment in film history where things are just kind of like falling apart. And no one knows, you know, like, is there a way to make these movies anymore? That's why I found it fascinating and called it months ago. Yes. Because it is that to me. And he's really just, you know, I mean, he would have been the top of anyone. I'm sure there was a time where he was ahead of Ridley Scott on people's lists. Yeah, I also, I think like, but he never made, like, what's it? Like, you know, he didn't have a way. Ridley had a really terrible 90s. I mean, like in between Tom and Louise and Gladiator really make
movies. Gladiators. Why would you rather watch white squalor master and commander? It's a top master and command. Okay. It's a toss up. You're saying that's a toss up? Oh, yeah. Both of these guys took to the sea. Sure. Right. But I think the better, largely similar results. I think the better, the better a comparison is if gladiator had performed, or rather, if master and commander had performed the way the gladiator did, both financially and at the Oscars. What do the next 15 to 20 years of Peter Wayer look? But I also feel like versus that was like the second way that like gets to the next 25 years of really shot being unstoppable. Peter Weir could have made gladiator. Yeah. Really Scott could not have made master and commander. I think really Scott could have made master and commander just wouldn't have been as good. Of course he could have made it. But it would have not been a gladiator in Peter Weir's hands is I think an equally great movie. Yeah. This is my struggle with this film. And I think I put it at the bottom of my Weir rankings. At the bottom. Look, I think the guy's never made a bad film. So I'm just raining. He's definitely putting it at the bottom. Things three and above. You don't like war. I don't like war. You're a real 4F. Absolutely. I'm flat footed at shit. I got bones spurs in my arms. I got those spurs in my brain face. Yeah. Yeah. Carry on. Carry on. I think what I was struggling with and it's frustrating because I'm like it is because Peter Weir has so much integrity has such like control of the dial and it's like not compromising the story to meet the sort of like commercial demands of the moment that I felt like I was struggling to find a handle on it. I think this one is like impeccably made. I think basically everyone in the cast is like good to great. Like Sturgis is probably the worst and he's solid. He just doesn't really register and everyone above him is like shades of excellent. All the sort of stuff that could be seen as like Burvado, we're gonna go out here and struggle. I'm gonna fight to get like a 10 second shot just to prove that I'm like this serious of an artist like all of that is on screen. None of that is like performative chest lumpy shit. But I kept being like do I need this movie to have 10% of some Hollywood bullshit in some area. Do I wish this had like 10% more adventure because basically from the moment they escape, it's just we have a really long way to walk. The conflict is are we going to die before we finish this walk? But unlike the sort of prison escape movies you're talking about, there's not the kind of like we're being chased shit. I don't want Tommy Lee Jones on their back. But from the moment they escape and the escape is not that much of a movie. No. Right. Then you're just sort of in like is this a funerial march? Right. How many guys are going to die? How long is this going to go on for? The other thing is you keep thinking like well, for example, we'll call him fair. I'll turn on people. He's obviously the wild card. He can't be trusted. We'll search her own and she's introduced where it's like what's this girl's deal? She's lying about her background and the answer is like she lies because like she wants to have a more sympathetic sounding background that my parents were political distance. Yeah. Yeah. No more lies. I was on a quote. Right. But like it keeps not doing the more dramatic sort of thing of like they fight with each other. They betray each other, which I respect. I'm respecting that it's not doing the endurance of the human spirit. There's not they don't fucking come across like a bear that like tries to eat them. I might have been fun though. There's no. The wolves are settled really quickly. Yeah. Anytime it gives everyone is very respectful to her. Yes. Right. There's not like a creepy sexual element in her character. And her dynamic with that Harris is probably my favorite part of the movie. But as you said, these are all like really small graceful character brushstrokes. Even the snake. Beautiful moments. You're right. Like the snake attack. He's actually following the snake to one. Yeah. Because the one I said, why does that look good to me when they're eating the snake? Because when hungry people are eating in a movie, it looks really they make it look good. Yeah. But it basically. Also those wolves looked great. I mean that that that scene happened is like even in 2010, you're like, shit, he got real wolves. And it's like, Peter, we're not fucking around with CG wolves. Like it basically. He's telling you like the actors. Like keep your hands of keep your hands where the wolves can see them. Totally. They're they're not trained. It refuses to like turn any of these things into like Roland Emmer set pieces, right? It refuses to like create like artificial interpersonal drama between the people. There are moments and there are tensions and whatever. And I just kind of kept being like, I'm having a hard time staying with this because it just feels like, yeah, this sucks. I agree this sucks. And it continues to suck. And I don't mean this backhandedly, but I kept thinking while watching this movie and then watching this fucking special feature of all them talking about how difficult it was. And I'm like, that's not in vain. All of that is on screen. But I like flash back to being in an acting class in my 20s with the Gradle Elizabeth Camp RIP, who is the best acting teacher I ever worked with. And there was a guy who wanted to do a long days journey into night. And in this class, rather than just like do the text of the scene, she'd be like work on the character and then present to us like a moment. If it's a private moment or an improvised thing, but I don't want you thinking about how to say the dialogue, right? I want you to try to explore your take on the character, right? And so the guy just leans into playing the sickness. And he's just sort of like curled up in a ball, sort of like an alcohol withdrawal, like shaking and crying. And we just watched this for like seven minutes. And I'm sitting there being like, God, this guy's a good fucking actor. This is crazy. I don't have this kind of like physical control and like emotional like, you know, recall and whatever. And then she goes like, um, are you, are you done? Do you feel like you've done everything you wanted to show us? And he's like, uh, yeah, I guess so. And she goes, good. Okay. So now we know you can do that. Right. Yeah. What did you probably told the story before? What did you bring into this session? That's a good question. You rolled into a ball. 70 minutes. I I feel like I was doing Tom and glass managerie. But then I also remember. You weren't allowed to like bring in, you know, like a monologue from the usual suspects or something. Yeah, I think you could have. Okay. Uh, in fact, I probably did at some point bring in some movie character. But, uh, that I also ended up getting thrown into other people scenes a lot where it's like part of it. Well, this, this woman's working on proof. Can you be the Jake Gyllenhaal part? And I'd be like, great. I'm really good at improvising math. So what did you think? Who did you think was? Okay. So now that we know you can do that in this movie, we're or I think the whole movie has a little bit of that vibe where it was like, it's not that this is showy. It's not that this is, you know, hollow. This is like incredibly skillful and is like rooted in something really honest and like powerful. But then she said, like, we know you can do that. But like, now let's work on how can you actually tell a story? And it's not that I feel like this movie isn't telling a story, but I kept feeling like unlike the Revenant, which I feel like, as I said, is pushing your face in the dog shit and saying, like, can you believe how hard this is and trying to make you suffer along with the characters? I think this movie is maintaining a distance and is showing you the suffering that is mirroring what everyone was going through while working on the film. And I'm sitting there a little bit and going like, I agree. This is like very impressive that they did this. This is objectively insane to consider any human beings going through this. I don't quite understand what I'm supposed to take away from this. I'm not looking for like a GI Joe PSA at the end. Do you like castaway? I love castaway, which is very schmaltsy, but it's very schmaltsy. And I'm not begging this movie to be a schmaltsy, but I do feel like castaway has the kind of like Hollywood building blocks. He needed a Wilson. Yeah. Well, the night. I mean, the night, the night, the night, the night, the sunset of the movie, you're right. Yeah. And truly like me, they send out promotional knives for this movie. I mean, did you get a promo knife for this movie? Yeah. New market was famous for their swag. Mento had some promo stuff. But I was like, if this has an electric young leading man, does it, does it carry me through the whole thing? Yeah. I mean, I know, I know Sturgis is really taking some hits from us today, but I do feel like he's not bad, but he's just not kind of, just he's fine. But he's, I think if you stacked up everywhere movie and you rank the lead performances, he's the bottom. No question of it. Only because that is literally Mount Rushmore. Right. He's a rare guy that really did not pop in the hands of, of, of, of, we're, I mean, even he launched the career of Napoleon and fucking Bill and Ted's excellent adventure. That's, you know, you know, it might maybe helped. What? And this is a part of the book that was not included in the film. There are Yeti like creatures in the Himalayas that they mentioned spotting. A pair of Yeti. It would be funny if like one hour and 55 minutes into the movie, they're like, oh, and by the way, we fucking saw the abominable snowman. Anyway, moving on back to India, you know, like, what is it? And the snowman takes them inside his layer and they're tied up and they have to escape. That's what happens in Tintin in Tibet, not to spoil it. Wow. But Griffin in like, in the hopeless survival narratives, like the moment where they come to the gates of where they've been going. Sure. And there's like Stalin on the gates and they're like, oh, this is coming as to we have to just turn around. Yeah. Does that not satisfy the urge of like a tragic ironic story beat that beat is very interesting, but it's played very quietly. I really like that beat because I like them being like fuck like it's everywhere. And we are enemies of this particular ideology. So we can't go like we can't settle here or whatever. This is where I am just personally struggling with the film and not making a larger indictment, right? And then I love coming from being like, I like Stalin too much to go here. Anyway, I love it as well. But I'm like, this is a fascinating scene in of itself. I'm really
engaged in this scene. The scenes aren't like building upon each other for me and it's just the nature of what the narrative is. We're the fact that it's like, oh, they get here and there's this like dramatic irony of, oh, now we have to like find another way. But also five minutes earlier, the movie lost Colin Farrell, the most interesting character because he was like, I don't want to get to that ideological threshold. And now I'm like, okay, so now the movie's like hit a cold assack. And also, we lost Colin Farrell, whose character bowed out of the movie because he thought this checkpoint was going to go differently. But now Sasha Ronin kind of is stepping up to be like the third lead when he's gone, which I think she's great. Yeah, kind of Griffin beats are when he suggested that who should be on his butt. Yeah, that's your that'd be your move. And then of course, Stalin on his asshole, being threatened with a knife. And the guy who just can't see and freezes the death. Well, that's who I would play. Yeah. Like what happened to Griffin? I was like, I don't know, he has bad eyesight. Oh, there he is. He's frozen. What happened to Griffin? He slept in. He missed the escape. He couldn't hit his like alarm, which is just like a bunch of sticks. Oh, he hit it, but he hit the fucking snooze stick 80 times. It is nice to see good stuff start scars guard. An actor I always enjoy. Obviously is largely, you know, mostly the Swedish movies. But yeah, he's really good in black bag. Yeah. He was good in Oppenheimer. He's good. And yeah, and he's good in Westworld, actually, to speak of at Harrison's favorite role. So Griffin, you feel like the movie goes off a cliff when Farrell stays in Russia. I think it goes off a cliff. It does slow down a little bit. It loses a lot of juice. Sertia Dying is a really like well done scene. It's beautifully done. Actually, it is. I was beautifully acted and done. Yeah. But I am like, yeah, I'm I'm I'm a little deadened to the movie. I think Farrell's the spark plug. I think Farrell is the equivalent of adding you into the news and deals group chat. Like, you need him there to create the like innate tension of like, where's this guy going to go? Yeah. Yeah. And I'm expecting, I'll take that right. And I'm expecting that like as much as I'm going to be sorry to see him leave the movie early, it will come to like a head in a very dramatic fashion. There's nothing like that. Well, the elements are like that. The sandstorm is that. The mosquitoes are that. Yeah. That when when she takes off the mosquitoes, the way they deal with is they ask one guy like, how do we deal with this? And he's like, easy. Put this shit around your neck. There's some guy wandering wandering around Mongolia. Yeah. Yeah. When Sertia Ronan takes off her shoes and her feet are all fat on it just goes, I remember this part so well. That's the favorite part. It's like what? It is kind of striking because they're like, I don't know. And she's like, I mean, you know, I've been walking a lot. And everyone's like, you're used to the blistering. We're supposed to look like this. Like, you're going to be fine. I'm used to the blistering sores of feet and stuff like this. You're not used to this weird kind of puffiness. So then someone else has it later. Yeah. Very, very well-earned makeup. Like, yeah, the makeup business is incredible. And it is so subtly done that you have to keep reminding yourself that it is makeup. From the mosquito bites to the dehydration, you just feel like you're watching a documentary. It lost her course to the Wolfman because that has a wolf. Well, the Wolfman swept that year. I feel like it was kind of the return of the king of the character's character. Brick Baker, the supporting wolf, the goat. I have always disliked the look of that character. We've talked about this, right? You're not a big fan of the Baker job. And that's sort of like one of his big like later and like jobs. Swansong. I think it's his last Oscar win. And he basically talked about the process of making that movie drove him so insane that he was, he had his own kind of Peter Weir. Like, I guess I'm not aligned with this industry anymore moment. Yeah, right. I mean, he still did men in black three. He like filled a couple legacy jobs. But he basically starts pulling back after Wolfman. Yeah. And he views it as like that was the last time I got away with doing what I want to do. And I've just never left this one is the other one he did. But he didn't win for that or he did. Uh, he, no, he didn't even get nominated. And so he just, he just worked on the movie. Yeah. I, yeah, I don't get that design. So once the movie progresses, because it's, you know, it's, it's such a simple, literal movie. There's like, yes, you know, there's very little like, oh, what about this part? It's basically like, what about the mosquitoes about when they find the water well and they all start drinking water. So removing the schmaltz from the equation, right? What about the Mongols give them a sack of water. Like, and they say they're too poor for horses and they're just like, okay, well, we have no questions about why you people are wandering around out here. I like all of these moments. Cast away. I, I am a sapokontrarian and a goofball. Do you like Jerry? Yes. Oh, the fence and that's the best. That movie. Yeah. I put this movie closer to Jerry than the revenue. But Jerry is like, abstracting everything to the million, which is so cool. I mean, Jerry rocks. So the character bring bring back Jerry, Jerry too. Jerry's castaway comparison is Van Sands still on the, uh, still on the board. Well, he's going up against your favorite filmmaker of all time, uh, Chris Columbus right now. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Right here. Uh, castaway cast Columbus, the structure of problem solving, which is what I think I like in this type of movie when I connect to this type of film. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is the fun of send help even like any. I totally also, I mean, this is insane. Chris Columbus is winning. Who the fuck wants this over a psycho remake episode? I would love very much love to discuss the psycho remake a movie. I love. Um, but the other like to us like in the movies we like watching at home, there's like the two kinds of this kind of movie you're describing is something like the Martian, which hasn't kind of identical problem solving. Yeah, structure. And then there's the kind of, um, like seafaring adventure shipwreck in the heart of the sea, where it's just like another thing of like, can these people survive? But in the heart of the sea is one that nobody likes because that one's not nobody. Yeah, a lot of people like that movie. I think a lot of people find that to be like a really worthy, a lot of seafaring adventure people. Yeah. Definitely. I think I'm very popular. A whale is writing that right now. I think a lot of people like that movie and wanted to come back even like all is lost, which is not my favorite movie and is similarly like very small. That's not your favorite movie. It's not in fact my number one favorite movie of all time. Sight and sound pole number one. I know people think I'm up it. I know these are unranked, but just to be clear, all of this loss is number one. All four slots on my letterbox for. Yeah. Um, it's not. Some has lost. No, it's all as you have to respect the all. I always thought that was your favorite movie. This is why I'm trying to correct the squirtless rumor. Even all of this loss, which is not your favorite movie, please finish your thought. And it's so stripped down and obviously like most right, listen, whatever has that kind of like, okay, here's this one problem. He's got to solve this where I feel it stacking up. And I think this movie I rewatched day after tomorrow. A movie that fucking rules that David's wrong about. But that is a movie where I'm always fascinated by its Hollywood junkiness where it's like we can keep escalating the type of natural disasters that happen. And then you feel two thirds into the movie them go fuck. There is no way to resolve this film. Right. They can't undo the weather. No. And there's nothing for them to conquer. There's no way for them to score a win. Red equate can't fly a train into this. And then they're like, because they have to fight wolves. I guess like Dennis Quaid has to come to him. I always forget how late in the movie that's right at the end, right? Even starts his journey. It's over an hour before he's like, fuck it. I'm walking. I'm going to do my own long walk. And then that's pretty expeditated. And I feel this movie being like, Peter, we're pitching this to studios. Studios being like, cool. So can every 15 minutes something insane happen? The guys have to try to kill each other. There have to be like big kind of like conflicts that they can like score wins over. And he's like, no, that's not the kind of movie I'm making. And he has like saying he's distancing it. Yes. And then he's overclocked. No, nothing happens so far into the, well, if I'm not making it with a studio, then I'm making it exactly the way I want. And I'm not going for any Hollywood bullshit artist. And I'm like, I could use like five to 10% more kind of like not wins. But I mean, what you're describing is the way mosquito coast is structured. Yes. Which is like a series of builds and activities and ice transports and little things that arise and sort of endless obstacles that he's facing. It's so focused in its bleakness. It's not like selling out the message of the movie and the integrity of like, you know, the character study and all of that. But it does have that kind of build that I think I was just kind of struggling told on to here. Every scene would happen. I'd be like, this is a good scene. And then the next scene would start. And I'd be like, okay, this scene has to win me over again from zero. Where do you guys? I when once we hit the monks is when I'm like, I'm parking my ass here. This is great. I want to hang out with you guys. Like, this is great. I don't want to go to keep walking. They leave at Harris there. And I'm like, why are you not staying there? It's just like, I got to get home run. I got to get home to my fucking wife. Honest comment at the end or me down the river. Our rewatch was like, I did not know that the point of this movie was like this eternal love that he has to return to. I feel like they debut that notion pretty late. I know it is the first scene in the movie. It's the first scene in the movie. And then you have a couple times where it's sort of the vision of the door, which I like. Yeah. Yeah. That's that. I mean, we're just good at that stuff. He's good at that stuff. But there's so much of that in Truman show. Again, because this movie doesn't have like overlaid kind of monologues of like guys being like, yeah, that's my wife. I love her so much. You know, like the photos and the helmet. Right. It does take a while for him to be like, Oh, no, by the way, like we got across the Himalayas right fucking now, even though like clearly the wisest man you've ever seen. Yes. Was like, not a good idea. It's the winter. Like wait until spring. Yeti's yeti's there be yeti's. Yeah. This was another thing I thought while that was the that was the mission. That's a mission. for me. The other thing I thought was, would this movie benefit from
starting one week earlier, rather than starting in the interrogation room, giving you like Sturgis in Poland, being rounded up, but let's also say maybe, maybe it's a guy with a little more juice than Sturgis, right? Who is that? I mean, I don't want to go down this rabbit hole at this point, but it's a really good one. In 2010, at this moment, it's tough. We can keep pointing at this point. And this is also when like male actors started, but like if it's hunting for sport, who is new then? Is that more interesting? Or do we shoot higher? Do we get like Matt Damon? Do we get like a very established actor? It's tough because it's like, if it's 2000, the options are overflow. Yeah, but then you could end up with like a Toby McGuire, where you're like, that looks like, you know, I don't know why I'm going to him, but he did occur to me. Sturgis asking his gentleness. I just think I realized too late in this movie, much like it sounds on it did. Oh right, the thing that's driving him is wanting to see his wife again. Sure. Mm-hmm, which this movie and I mean, Sturgis is not a fucking James Franco. Like who made a survival thriller this year? Now we're talking. Yeah, although like that's the better survival thriller for him to be him. It is. I'm not, you know. But you mean like a guy who's just kind of innately charismatic? Can be, although sometimes Franco, you're kind of like, did you forget to plug in today? But I think him at that time would put himself in the hands of a master like we're in he would he would rise to the assignment. One would have at this at this time. I do think he wants a certain emotionality in this role, though, right? Like he wants a certain, but he also but the script doesn't support that because there isn't any of those moments of like, yeah, what are you going to do with what's the first thing you're going to do when you get back? Right. Kiss my wife. What about you hug my mother? Like there's none of that. I'm like, does it need to start a week earlier so that there's some status quo of their relationship rather than it's starting with him in the interrogation and her like setting him up. Sure. And him falling on the sword. You know, it doesn't make sense to because. And I guess the characters at that time don't know this, right? That the war will eventually end. But even beyond the war, like the occupation, exactly as we see, right? So it's like the chance of him being able to go back and see his wife. It doesn't seem like it could happen like within his life. The post scripts that like follow the fall of communism are very it's like, wow, this is really consolidating decades of history into a series of title cards with footsteps over them because it's like, oh, right. He hasn't gotten to the end of his problems. The war continues. I think a lot of prison movies too, like you got to see some amount of their life on the outside before they go in to understand what they've lost. I don't think with X without exception, but I felt like I didn't have enough of a grounding in this guy to have him be the one driving the movie. I guess because we watch like 30 World War II films a year kind of in a row. Yeah, I'm like, I know what he was doing last week. I know what happened. Sure. I didn't know it was less. You know what happened to Poland. I have. I have. Yeah. Do you like those movies? I love it. You like the Spielberg treatment of a World War II. Well, he's only seen same Preva Ryan one time gave me a fucking panic attack. I had to start the way, but I do on the steelbook. I own the 4k. Thank God. A commitment to rewatching it at some day. Did you fuck with Fury? I like Fury, okay. I'm sorry. On a said last night after this, for so excited to rewatch it, then she goes, man, what a great movie. Really comforting. I could see watching this once a year. And I said, really, once a year. She goes, yeah, I mean, it's not like, like really intense and something that's hard to watch, like Fury. And I said, you want Fury all the time. She goes, okay, well, not Fury, but like something that will be more intense than Fury. Like two months ago, I texted you, Art, I want to make a pitch, what if we put you on? And I named a bigger movie. Well, you're probably have announced that in the next case. We'll announce at the end of this episode. Okay, great. You can announce it in the middle so that people have to listen. And then you were like, why would I not be doing the way back? And I was like, well, I assumed you only put your finger down on way back because of the like most irrelevant movie in a filmmaker's career. And you were like, you're forgetting that I like more season. You don't know about more season. You're not fucking. I knew. Can you share with the listener? Yeah. So basically like 15 years ago, we were driving up to Vermont for the weekend. And we bought some DVDs at a gas station as one did at the time. One of those DVDs was Ed's Wicks Defiance. A film we had not yet seen. We go to a snowy cabin. We watched Defiance turns out to masterpiece. Just fucking incredible. I mean, that's a movie like this also. Just like the Ed's Wicks movie. Yeah, it's incredible. Defiance for me is a perfect example of Oscar nomination morning. Defiance gets zero noms. I go, what a relief. I never have to watch that. Drag to recycle bin. It is better than if that movie came out last year, not last year, but two years ago. It would be like, well, this is the best movie of the year. If it came out last year, would he put it above or below? Above. Okay. Defiance is an excellent film that is really well made with three incredible performances from Craig Shriver and Jamie Bell. It is such a good for it is what you are saying you want from this movie. Man, it is an endless slog of hopeless survival set against inhospitable elements, but with that Hollywood sheen and the melodrama layered over it with romance. So we watched that and we were like, this fucking rules. Defiance is great. We go home, our neighbors ask us to cat sit. We're feeding their cat. We look on their DVD shelf. Two things there that we're interested in. Shindler's list and Shoah. Take them upstairs and we watch them in the week. That sounds like a fun week. So now we're thinking this is Holocaust season. So then we spend like five years to clear my head. This is my hands. We spend like five years in the dead of winter. Then can we commission a shirt that says, and now we're thinking it's Holocaust season. Now wait a minute with a cartoon depiction of our sort of sort of the prologue because then we're a slayer. So for like five years, every February March when it's just the worst out. Grey cold cold shirt. You've been in winter for months. Every year we're like, okay, so let's do like, you know, five, 10 Holocaust films. Yeah, the Holocaust of seasons. Eventually we run out of Holocaust films. Uh-huh. Or at least, you know, the ones that you need to see or revisit. So then we say, now it's war season. We've expanded this. This is now an entire season devoted to World War Two in cinema. Now there's, we could do this for the rest of our lives. We wouldn't run out of moving. There are a lot of World War Two and we do this every year. I take it very seriously. I put together a sort of dossier, not it, but I check JJ style dossier, but a one sheet that I make our list on every year. Right. And is it always fresh films every year? No, no, there's stuff that's been on there forever. Like there's stuff that it's like, we just watched Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. Okay. And I was like, this has been on the list since before I started printing them. Oh, like I have handwritten pieces of paper. I mean, are they all blind watches? No, we always rewatches are a very important part of it, such as the way back. Uh-huh. On a birthday was a few weeks ago, since your night of your birthday, anything you want, what do you want to do? And she goes, "Shinler's list." I was like, this is fucking great. So we watched it. We watched half of it the next night. We finished it. And I was like, you know, the finishing night was like an hour. Yeah. We watched like two hours. And I was like, what do you want to, what do you want to do? It's only it's still a little bit early. And she goes, feels like we should watch an episode of the Pacific. I was like, this is unbelievable. Her commitment to it exceeds mine by a thousand percent. Yeah. But Anna loves nothing more than World War Two. I would say it's very much World War Two that Oh, yeah. Yeah, like the thing I always say is this was on like an SNL where I think it was like a five-timers club sketch where Tom Hanks was talking to Andy Sandberg and he goes, you know what I love Andy? He just goes World War Two. That's pretty good. Yeah. That is on a two-a-t. And we curate Worsie. Like, I start working on the list like in the summer where I'm like, oh, there's this new movie. Like I, or whenever I'll be like at a film festival and I send her a picture of some poster for a Norwegian film with a swastika on it. And I'm like, adding it to the list. Like it's got to go on the list. And we end up putting together like a really diverse collection of war films that tell the totality of the story from the Eastern Front South America after the war this. And like, like, what do we just watch? A music box, the Coast of Goffers film. Oh, sure. Which I'd never heard of. And I think either came up when I was reading something about it was just an accident or it came up on like a Cinematrix with what's her name, Jessica Lang, and I was like, what is this movie? It has a swastika on the poster. I also feel like Wesley Morris brought this up. Maybe that's a big picture. Maybe that is like this is the exact kind of movie we don't make anymore that used to be important to the book. It came into my brain somewhere. And obviously it wasn't on my printed list because I printed that list in January. Yeah. So we were able to squeeze it in anywhere. Is that her dad is a Nazi? Yeah. Or is being accused of having been a common done. Yeah. Have you seen number 24? Wait, is that the, is that the, is that the, is that the. It's the Norwegian. We watched that last year. That was like the, what made you watch that? I don't know actually. Other than I was looking for something to watch on a flight. Yeah. Is that about the formula for heavy water? Is that right? This is about a guy who was part of the resistance in Norway. Oh, the resistance fighter. Oh, yeah. And then it's like kind of a dark war too. And there's like scenes of him talking to students in it. Yes. Yeah. Cutting between that and his like various experiments. Yeah. That's right. Something I find very interesting and unheralded in like the endless morass of Netflix. Slop is that every year Netflix will drop like 10 international films about World War Two that I've never heard of. And you watch them and they're all like solid. And you look, it was great. You look it up. And it's like, oh, this was this country's submission for the Oscars didn't get released. Never heard of it. David Sims never saw basically all quite on the Western front. One of those that. Yeah. But they put, they put up like 10 of those a year. Yeah. Now there's one, you know, a will. There's one called like Blood and Gold. There's one photographer of math housing that was like a Spanish concentration camp movie. Like
Occasionally still got a good new holocaust. Did you see David, it was a TIFF movie. Irina's Val. - No, I've at least heard of that one, but that's highlighted this year's "Worsies." - Fair enough. Total like classy surprise of like really, really good movie. - Have you seen, I wrote a piece about talent scars guard and I've never seen this one. Good evening, Mr. Wallenberg. - No. - This was a talent scars guard breakout movie. It was a big movie in Sweden where he plays a famous Swedish figure, a diplomat who is instrumental in saving the lives of thousands of Hungarian Jews during the holocaust. Never seen it, but it looks like the kind of sort of handsome, Oscar submission that was big in its country, but not really big outside of it. - So many of those, even still. - Anyway, that's all. - Yeah, but this is a very important part of our viewing. So I think we initially watched this movie as part of that. And as just Peter Rear fans, but man we love "Worsies" in. It's almost over, but we're in it. We're still in it. - Anything else? Any other watches this year? - I mean, yeah, we've been doing it for months at this point. - Are we almost pulling out of "Worsies"? - Yeah, yeah, it's getting a little too warm. But then when it gets warm, you can watch things that take place in the jungle. You can kind of migrate to the Pacific. - Do you pin the end of "Worsies" on a calendar date or is it-- - Yeah, Memorial Day, okay. - We can drag it out to Memorial Day, but not consistently. We can like, I think one year we saved Midway from Memorial Day. - We were so excited when Midway was coming out. - Yeah, we're so excited that I waited like two years to watch it at home on Memorial Day. But I feel like in those two years, you were constantly texting. That movie is, I guarantee you, an eight out of 10 at the worst. - And it was. It was a very, very solid movie. - Is that the one with Glenn Powell or was that-- - I know, that's "Devotion"? - Oh, that's right, that's right. - Which starts Midway and we're the second actor that both the title has disappeared. - Oh, who was that? - Jonathan Mayters. - Oh dear. - Midway was Patrick Wilson. - Patrick Wilson. - Dennis Quaid. - Yeah, and it is a role in Emmer. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Dennis Quaid is, is he MacArthur in it? - I couldn't tell you. - He's, he's, hi up, he's brass. - Yeah. - Yeah, so anyway, we watch hundreds of horror films. - Yeah. - And I can throw this on and be like, well, of course, this guy was rounded up in the Communist purge and he's being accused of being an enemy of the state. And we're off to the races. And it's kind of fun to continue the conversation of expanding the conflict of the war and never needing to like pause or take a break from it because you can kind of just jump into whatever. And no, because the thing that you're missing in this movie that is like really what makes good war films great is that great war films can distill the essence of the entire war into a single moment. - Yes, that's a good call. - Often either the beginning or the end of the movie, Shinler's List does this, the opening statement private Ryan. It distills the essence of World War II into a scene. - Right, two soldiers meeting in the middle of the battlefield from opposite sides, both tending to a war horse. - And this movie, Dwellsher, and this movie doesn't have that scene. It doesn't have the moment. - That is a good call. - That stands in for like, and that is what it was about in Russia during World War II. - I also think everyone in this movie you meet is so thoroughly broken already that I, just me with this not being my chosen genre, I think I usually need the emotional in of, here's what they lost, and what is hanging over the movie emotionally is them trying to get something back. - Do you like old, 'cause to us like the history of, I mean obviously they started making World War II films like before the war, all over too. - Yeah, like, but the kind of first wave, the man on a mission movie is, which are just pure action films. - Yeah, you like those movies and all? - I prefer that. I feel like this is something I can't picture you watching 'cause you're not like a dad in the '70s. - Yeah. I mean, I watch them. That is not my favorite kind of war movie because those do tend to have a little bit of a formula to them, but they're fun. - Like, I mean, do you, yeah. - This is the tough guy, this guy's kind of the smart guy. - Do you like, do you like those two movies? - Yeah, but I'm like heroes of telemark, and of course, I'm like, doing in my head like, what's my favorite war movie? And I'm like, oh, my answer is like best years of their lives, which is a post-war movie. - Oh, or a word. - The romance is a very important part of war season. - That series of lives is an incredible war. - An incredible film. But I think- - But it is, obviously. - And Gallipoli, like, truly has shot way up on my old time war list. - I was watching it for the first time. - I saw it at Walter Reed with Peter Weer in attendance. - Yeah. - We just, another war season one this year was the Gernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society speaking of Glenn Powell. - That is a movie that is weird. - You know, it got brought up. - Yeah. - You're like, oh, this will be really chill. And it's like, no, it's a better volume of the Nazi. - Yeah. - But it's actually quite fraught. - But it's important to have for us, like, you don't want to watch this movie every night. You don't want to watch, like, an action- - Sure. - Oranted movie. - So to have the occasional wartime romance, which are often, you know, quite nice. And then, like, did you see Beast of War, the, like, Australian shark World War II POW moving? - No. - It just came out. It's, like, a shutter original that came out. It was, maybe at festivals last year. It's a true story. It's, like, basically a bunch of Australian fighter pilots were just on a plane, and then it goes down roughly 15 minutes and it's just a little bit of a Wikipedia page. - No, I wasn't. - I was surprised it didn't have a Wikipedia page. It's like a legit movie. - Wow, sure. - And, you know, it's, like, it's like this, but on a boat, but with a shark. - Yeah. - I would say this looks a little less Tony than I was. - No, no, so that was, like, a Saturday night where tired war movies. - Sure. - Sometimes you need something that's, like, horror action. - Yeah, no. - So this is why you're, like, this is, when you come on the podcast, we want to make it count. And if the schedule, I hope that comes up, we can have you a couple of times in one year than it is, but I'm like, I'm sitting around and just, like, thank God, we got you on this one. - What's this fucking way back episode, which is just us, otherwise being like, I mean, this is what made it handsome. It didn't really resonate with us. - It is, but it seems cold. - You know, it's a, you know, it's a thing. - Sometimes hot, but hot. - Can we get bombas to sponsor this one? This feels like one of, oh my God, you're so right. - Bombas gave up on us. - Really? - Come back bombas. - They, yeah, it's been a minute. - What if for every one ad read we do for them, we do an ad read for a shit of your business? - They should have, they should have done a promo for this. You know, it's a bad war. - We got to brought them back, man. - That you guys might do some day, although it seemed not likely with the way voting goes. Is Miracle at St. Anna? Like, a spiky movie no one has seen. - I've seen them. - I've never seen it. - Well, I've seen them. - It is, I mean, defiled bloods is like, one of my 10th grade. - Well, that's, I mean, but we'll see it now. It's a whole other thing. - All right, no, but that movie is a failure. I mean, I haven't seen it and I like spikyly, but it's one of his most like, misshaped maps. - I have this interesting stuff. - It's not like without merit, but it's odd. - It is nearly without merit. - Yeah, it's not very good. I can't really defend it. - We were motivated to watch it years ago. - Well, because you're like, how could this be that bad? Like, this must be interesting. - It must be something. - Yeah. - Yeah, but that, you know, stuff like that can still get made at least at this time. - Well, like, even that's 2000. - That's him cashing inside, man. - Yeah, it's like nine or 10, but yeah. - Yeah, yeah. - The difference between-- - That's when he got to fight with Clint Eastwood. - Yeah. - He's like, "I'll show off some of that." - Sure. - But that's like the shift of like, he's one of the last guys who, A, like, inside man, is enough of a blank check to make that, and B, they let you make that under any conditions. - Do you like the two Clint movies? He's making that response, too. - I really, really disliked flags of our fathers. - It's a good movie. - And he was like, "I respect it." - What if-- - You and Jim is in-- - What if surprise-- - Yeah, I get this as good. I don't enjoy watching it. - What if surprise you for me to say that I really like flags of our fathers and think Ewo Jim is a very bad movie. - Wow. - It would surprise me a little bit, just the second part. - Flags of Rose is a good movie. - Let us hear me Ewo Jim. - Yes. - It is, I think, the worst-looking movie I have ever seen that is made with any budget. - Well, it did not have much of a budget. - No, but I'm talking like, yes, you could show me a $2,000 movie that looks worse. Whatever digital technology was being put in front of him at that time, it is the worst-looking movie that I think has been made by a major Hollywood studio with a major director. - He comes in late. You know, you're like, "Is Alex out of hot takes?" - He's like, "But more." - It's strange, 'cause it was made concurrently with a movie that looks entirely different. - See, I remember-- - I think you're being a little hard on any of you. - I also, I remember feeling that way about flags of our fathers. I remember seeing that theaters and being like, "I hate the way this fucking looks." This movie is so blunt over the head, restating every thematic point six times. I thought, like, across the board, most of the cast is bad. Like, I felt like it was basically wall-to-wall bad performance. - It has a little bit of the Clint Cast Faces problem where it's like, yeah, not all the actors are that good. - And the script is so unsettled that it would need massaging to bring the performances down to something specific. And instead, you got right and Philippe like, kind of walking through it. - They kind of got real worried about those guys. - Yeah, a little bit. - Those guys got real worried a little bit. - Very solid film. - Yeah. - But I have it mid to low on my Clint list. - Yeah. I mean, I'm just realizing in this conversation that every war film that I would say I love is a movie that basically by narrative design obfuscates the war to some degree. - Are you like Vietnam movie set? - Well, do I like all Vietnam movies? - I saw all of them. - Yes, you're right. I like all Vietnam movies. We all know that my favorite movie of all time is all is lost and I like all Vietnam films. - It's too bad you'll never cover any of them on the show. Thanks to people voting down on the show. - I mean, it's obviously Father Verstone won. We would be covering half of all Vietnam movies. I don't love Vietnam movies. That is one of my less favorite war genres, but there are some great Vietnam movies. - I think there's, it is likely we cover Spike eventually. I'm trying to think who else has a Vietnam movie we have in cover. I mean, do we do far scum? The great way about that. - We can do Michael Chimino. - Do far scum, yes. - You're not doing far scum again. - We could do gums. - No, but his movie is as a director. - Yeah. - Yeah, of course.
The interesting thing about a lot of these World War II tropes is like, they stopped making World War II movies during Vietnam largely because the idea of making like celebratory rock run in the mood. Metal animation movies went away. Coppola. I've heard of him. De Palma. De Palma. De Palma. Yeah. De Palma, to be honest, he's another one of these guys like we're that the ignominious end of his distribution and his opportunities is just such a bummer. Yeah. De Palma is tough. I mean, supposedly he's working on something now. Should it be good? I don't know. How can he go from, it's hard mission impossible to like not being able to get a movie made. It's hard to end a series on the war. You know, it is a thing to try to avoid. I think this is as good of a final film as my vague recollection of every final film you've covered if you're saying definitively final ones. Yeah. Yeah. And like a guy sort of choosing to call it. No one's going to stand up for this movie and be like, actually, that's Peter, we're a secret masterpiece, but you know, the basement on final movies in the mini series is quite low. Operation Dumbo Drop. I'm looking through a list. We do need to cover that. Who directed that? Was that Orson Wills? It was Orson Wills. No, of course it was Simon Windsor. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Never seen it. This is the best thing about dropping elephant Ben's choice that Ben hasn't seen is like my, that's a mini series, perhaps like a page. We have Griff, I won't remind you. This came up when it was revealed Ben had never seen Bushwack. We've covered a wincer. We've covered one wincer. Yes. Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles. He did go to Los Angeles. When there's a movie that is so, and we might cover the Phantom one day. We are made for Ben. And he just for some reason missed it. It is bizarre that Ben hasn't seen Bushwack. How'd you miss Dumbo Drop? Dumbo Drop is good. I don't know. Do you know? Do you want to know what Dumbo Drop is? The big three. I think we're going to play the bar. Danny Glover. Dennis Leary and Ray Leota. And their job is to get an elephant across. I've never seen a doll look at me. I have seen it. I've seen it. It's kind of the way back with an elephant. They're like walking the elephant by foot. And then at a certain point, they're like, this is taking too long. We got to get the elephant in a plane and then drop the elephant with a parachute into its final landing spot. Yeah. Where is it? It's part of the one that's right. You know, it's our best movies ever. The reason for your movie that I didn't see was the the fairly one. The greatest beer roll. Oh, sure. I'm surprised you haven't seen that. Don't be. Really? Yeah. Don't be surprised. Why would I see that? You like war movies? You watched the men's movies. No, no, no. That movie was about work. You just said that you watched war movies all the fucking time. No, World War II movies. I am not a psychopath. You don't fuck with Vietnam. I do. But we certainly don't favor those movies. There's way less variety in the, I agree. There's so much less variety. They tend to be one to two kinds of movies. Yes. And the sort of, but, you know, similar to World War II, I think one of the better genres of the Vietnam movie is the soldier after Vietnam, which is what you like. That's good. I'm real like, yes. Yes. It's exactly what you're saying. I'm looking through the Vietnam list here. And it is like, I like PTSD movies because that's an emotional story in the wake of war. Yeah. Yeah. Even if it starts with active war. What's my favorite war movie? I don't know. I love war movies so much. I'm like, Alex, and I like any movie that makes me Google shit. Yeah. Now, do I need every movie to be like that? No. But the way back where I can be like, and how many people do live in Mongolia? Yeah. Like, I love these things. It gets into what Ben would call a homework movie. But this is the interesting thing that we love splitting the difference on of curating war season is like, there's movies that, like Nuremberg, that you're like, this is one to one. This is a Hollywoodized version of everyone in this movie is a real person. And then there's stuff like this where it's like, these are, this is sort of based on a thing. And what really went out of Vogue kind of posts, saving private Ryan for a long time, we even know that movie is fictional was making these big ticket war movies of like, no, we just made this up. Yeah. It became much more popular in the 2000s to really like be like, this is a true story. Based on true story. We're adapting a memoir. We're adapting something true. Whereas prior to that, Schindler's list was almost like an outlier where a lot of these movies, even music boxers, I just watched are like, well, it's kind of inspired by this thing. But like mostly we're just trying to tell a good story. And then it becomes like, turn it because it was like the profundity. Just more war war two movies before that for a long time at this level. They were being made in other countries and there's a lot of good foreign war films in the 80s. And France was making a lot. And they sort of tried to grapple with their horrible history. America just did Vietnam was invoked for over a decade, kind of until Schindler's list made World War two big business. Well, it's also the generation starts to shift. And like boomers want to watch World War Two movies because their parents served in World War. It's just that's how one day maybe we'll get more, we're probably like 10 years away. More films about the Clone Wars now that cyclically, it's kind of coming back, you know, it's like anything. The distance between these things started getting really short for that. Yeah. I mean, it's not a joke. That's a great statement. Okay. That's what I wanted. I want to profundity points. But to us, we do love David's Googling of like, what is this movie based on? We do love David's Googling. Thank you. So I kind of comparing like, oh, so I looked it up. It turns out like Charlotte Gray, the Cape Landship movie, like, you know, where it's like, this is a true story. This is like some remarkable figure who needs a biopic versus the ones that tend to be like, this is a kind of interpretation of life during wartime in fill in the blank. Just to be clear, Charlotte Gray is not about a real person, but it is based on the novel. Wait, what's the other one? There's another one with a nearly identical title. Veronica Garen. Yes. That's the IRA movie. Yeah. Right, right. But I'm getting those confused. Okay. What am I talking about? I fear a war movie of all time is small soldiers. Yes. Of course. And that's based on true story. The war of that kid's house. Alan Abernathy. January 21st, 2011. These are going to be rough. This is a terrible. That's why it's a fun box office game. The way back is January 2011. Okay. Number one. Number 15 on 678 screens to 1.2 million dollars and it's going to let that out. To 2.7 million dollars. It's not a great show. That's a third of a blackout. It makes it's about a third of a blackout. What does it make? It makes a blackout 6.5. Yeah. Yeah. It makes 24.1 worldwide. So it's a little better overseas. Unsurprisingly, I guess. Civilized country. Yeah. But number one at the box office is kind of like. Was that was that it's widest? Did it go beyond 600? It's a good question. Is it like immediately down to? Like because I feel like they're like, okay. We'll expand it. Like, and then it's like, no, we won't be expanding it. That was it's widest. 678 screens. I mean, theaters. So number one is I would say a film that's like kind of tonally very similar to the way back and you know, has the same kind of energy. I'm joking. I'm joking. It's a comedy. Okay. It's opening number one to 19.6 million dollars right at the start of January. America is like, we want to laugh. We're ready to laugh. We want to see some romance. It's not a freebergseltzer. No. It's a romantic comedy. It's a comedy from a very well-known director. Is it a Gary Marshall? No. But, you know, it's sort of like an old hand. It's an old. Not quite as old as Gary Marshall, but he only had one more film left in him after this one. He only had one more film left in him after this film. Tell me about the stars of this picture. Well, for who's the distributor of this find? Of course. It's from the great people of Paramount Pictures. Okay. When was this director most active? The 80s. An 80s director. An 80s director has only got one left in him and tell me about the stars of the picture. Well, there's a lovely lady and a handsome young man. Now, the lovely lady is about to win an Academy Award. Okay. Interesting. This threatened to be her Norbit. This is no strings attached. That's right. With Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher and Ivan Wrightman, of course, would then make Draft Day and be so exhausted by the ego of one of the stars on that movie that he retired. That was his way back. He was like, I can't deal with him for new and asking me endless intern questions. Yeah. We have to stop for five minutes so I connect to the office. I had to take a long walk down that hallway and try not to spill coffee and I failed. Congratulations on being able to differentiate no strings attached and whatever the other one is. That's the benefit. That's the benefit of the other one. But the reason is everyone sort of remembers everyone just thinks they're both called no strings attached. No strings attached to the title people. It's better title. It's also the better of those two films. It's a good move. It's pretty fun. Yeah. Pretty fun. I thought we'd wrap up. Oh no. Don't worry about it. I think I forgot about that. Number two at the box office is a film that came out a week earlier. So truly at the top of January opened fairly well. It's an action superhero movie. Did. Okay. What is the origin of the superhero? Is it the green horn? It's the green horn. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Wow. So January release. Like a January like second release. That was right. That was a big thing. Was it had a summer release date? We're pushing it back six months in order to put 3D post conversion 3D on it and release it in January. And people were like, oh, fucking dumping ground. Is this thing like? Then it did pretty good. And then it did well. Yeah. Made a hundred million dollars. Would that be it? Do wait. You didn't do pulp heroes yet. No. With that count. But that's like TV. You know. Yeah. Yeah. pulp heroes is like fucking radio and comic books. It's shadow, phantom, dick, crazy. I put green horn in. Yeah, so we all remember I don't direct a green horn. Right. We're not doing his ass anytime. You're being broken. Macrile being gasoline. The we in the eye. Come on, David. The pot in the cast. Moot in the go. These are these are heater episodes. I just want more like of the energy of been getting to do like the 90s comics and I listen to the mortal combat episode. Like that's just such a we're offering a lot of energy. I would not worry. Yeah. Number three of the box office.
is another comedy star driven from a big director. - Is it a holdover from December? - No. - It's a January release. - It came out, it came out, I guess, a week before. - Okay, it opened against Greenhorn. - Yeah. - It's a big director, it's a January comedy. - Yeah. - Distributor. - Universal. - It's universal. - And this director usually works at the universal. - This director usually works with him. - I don't know. - Especially this time. - I'd say so, especially at this time. - I think his production company was sort of. - Comedy director or a jack-of-all trend. - No, well, he made a lot of comedies, but no. But at this point, a prestige director. - No, say no more. It's Ron Howard's The Dilemma. - That's right. - Which was a bit of a flop. - It was a bit of a flop, it's a bad movie. - But Kevin James had hit so hard with Paul Blarton January that they were trying to make him the King of January. - Yeah. - And this was a hot project. The cast of that movie is so bizarrely stacked. - James, you're wearing. - You've got Jennifer Connelly, Winona Ryder, Channing Tatum, Queen Latifa. - How could it be bad? - I think it's definitely bad. - As Sean Fennesy would say, is in fact quite poor. - Right poor. - But, and just one of those things where the poster is just like Kevin James. - It's a guy on the, it's just Vaughan have his hand over his head. - Both of his hands. - Both of his hands. - He's like, I don't know what to do about this. - I've got a dilemma brewing. - That had an ad above my subway stop. - Yeah. - Like that they just left up. - But it's like, Kevin James is just smiling like an idiot. - Yes. - Like Kevin James looks like he was born two seconds ago. - I mean, do you guys remember what the kind of thing is? - Well, that's the last one. - It's like, do I have to tell you? - Yes, he sees his wife kissing. - He sees his friends. - Yes. - Kevin James's wife kissing somebody. - The entire maiden? - Yes. - Yeah. - And like, do I tell him or not? - Kevin James is married to Winona Ryder. - Right. - Winona Ryder. - Okay. - Is having an affair with Channing Tatum. Vince Bond witnesses it. - Yeah. - And the whole movie is him being like, "Do I tell my friends or not?" - Oh my god. - It's gonna make him feel bad. And it's one of those things where you're just like, "Fucking tell him." This isn't an interesting topic. - Oh my god. - Stop talking about it. - I want to find their way. Go away. - Which do you think is the better act as a friend? Decide that and stick to it. - No, it's a dilemma. You'd never do Howard. - It's so long. - It's so long. - Yeah. Let me pause just to keep the games. Let me pause the game so people have reason to keep listening. - Yeah. - So I am leaving these. This is gonna be like a reverse, a memento kind of story. I'm gonna leave these blue rays for Tracy Lutz. - Oh yeah, of course. - Right, right. - Right, right, right. - So we'll have paid off, hopefully. I'm leaving three sealed blue rays, two of which are reference quality of my own films to contribute to bless, 'cause I think I'll watch these, but more like it's almost a badge of honor to have these in the archive. - So this is vinegar syndrome, her smell and paper syndrome pavements. And then the British Eureka masters of cinema listen up, fill up, which is the only blue ray release of it ever. - And that's a blue ray DVD combo pack? - Oh, yeah. Dual format edition contains both blue ray and DVD editions. Because of rights issues, this can't be issued on blue ray in America. - You've been trying to work this out, right? - Yeah. - Don't, do you know what Ben has purchased for Tracy Lutz? - No, I'd like to know. - I think Ben might go three for three. - Well, he's definitely, I'm definitely going three for three. I'm gonna write him a nice note too. I'm gonna toss this goody bag to Griffin. - Great. - And this is, you know what half of this is, but it'll still be fun. - It's awesome to be me. - So I've been bought for Tracy Ace Ventura pet detective. - Steele book. - Oh yeah. - For K-Steel book. - A recent release. - Spawn. - Nice. - Arrow 4K. - Sort of, then that's Ben like sharing his culture with Tracy, right? - Sure, sure. - And then of course, naturally trash humpers. - Nice. - Which maybe Tracy has that one? - It's the one I think he would have a open contempt for the work of Harmony Korean. - I might imagine it's not his cover. - When you give him Spawn, make sure he's looking at Fender Spawn, right, I'll have it. - But yeah, they'll add it to the display. - This will hopefully not have paid off in like shame and confusion. - Yeah. - This bit that I'm now contributing to, because one of my favorite razzings of Sean is in the, like YouTube clip of Big Picture when Tracy was like, what's that name of the director with three names and Sean, without pausing, just goes, Paul Thomas Anderson. And he goes, no, no, the one who's on your show. - David, do you think you're gonna have a chance to buy discs? - That's my plan. - Okay. - Why do you wanna just leave it to Ben? I don't know, I'm trying to sneak it. - No, no, no, no, no. - I was trying to go yesterday, but then I realized I closed on Monday. - Where would you go? - Night owl. - All right. - I respect that. - But yes, even to contribute to the archive of his would be. - The sonner. - I'm still getting to lay a commemorative brick. - I mean, I can also dig around in my collection 'cause I have a fair amount of dupes. But I'm like, I think it has to be sealed. - I think it has to be sealed. - If you send me a list on my way home today, I can stop or-- - But I was just, I was hoping to go and buy it. - I think you gotta go and buy it. - This is like one of my all-time worst bits, which is the bit that King size candy isn't offering to the king from his subjects, which I, you know, that's kind of what we're doing here. This offering to be true, Emperor Physical Media. - Yes. - And you make an offering. - I mean, you're used to collect this. - Just to finish. - Yeah. - Just to finish. - And then Griffin can open this. - I mean, Tracy shows up with like his dupes and throws them at Chris Ryan. - It's okay for him to do it. - Of course he's there. - You're not giving him your sealed. - Yeah, these are sealed. - I imagine. - These are offerings from other subjects that he has no need for. - The King can throw his scrap. - Speaking of the King. - Well, before the box office, wins best picture in a couple months. - The King's speech, that's right. - And number five. - What's it up to at this point? - 57. - And it's gonna make it to 130? 135. - Has Epstein gotten his DVD yet? By this point, do we have one? Was that email sent? - Number five at the box office. - I think he has not gotten it yet. It is crazy to consider that it's still, in January, he used to have a thing that was 80 million away from its eventual box office total because of a best picture. - I thought you were gonna talk about Jeffrey Epstein and I was about to pick up my stop sign. - The New York financier. - Yeah, number five at the box office is a film from Alex's favorite directors who he said such lovely things about on this episode. They're biggest hit ever. Also a 2010 best picture nominee. - They are. - True grit. - I gave it away. - I think maybe my favorite comic brother's moving. - I love this movie. - Yeah. You've also got Black Swan, as mentioned, so Natalie's got two in front of him. - I'm excited for people to respond to that take of mine. I love-- - A true grit, is your favorite one? - No, no, just the earlier thoughts. - Yeah, they'll both. - Oh, really, really even handed it over. - Just that I think Fargo is like good. - Number seven. - What is Black Swan up to at this point? - Black Swan's up to 83, so it's also got some run to go. Little, the little fockers are on their way out. - Oh, those troublemakers. - So much comedy. - Number nine. - So much comedy. - So much comedy. - So undeniably, not Hollywood's best comedies. - None of this. - When you're like, I wonder why Hollywood's not making comedies. And you're like, the dilemma, little fockers. - Like, oh, little fockers makes it twist off 100 domestic. - Yeah. - No, no, little fockers made 148 domestic. - That's insane. - Yeah. Friends with benefits makes it to like 80 or 90 domestic. - Are you talking about no strings attached? - Fuck yes. - I gotta write the first time. - We made it to 70 domestic, 150 worldwide. - Okay. - Yeah, so like, okay. - Yeah. - And the dilemma, which I think was a bomb, made 48 domestic. - Yeah. - So that's flopped territory. - We are what have killed for that. - On this film. - Yeah. - Also like most studio comedies would kill for 48 domestic now. And that was seen as a disaster. - I can't believe how little money the way back made. - It's crazy. - Number eight is the fighter I can. Nobody wants to see that shit. And I like to, number eight is the fighter. Number nine is Yogi Bear. - What's fighter at? - Fighter is at 72. - Yogi Bear is at 188. - Fighter makes it to you. - Does fighters stay at 93? - 93. - And number 10 is of course the comedy of 2010. Number one, Tron Legacy. I love that movie. - By digital jazz, man. - That's right. - Why don't you go and just place in the other rankings? - If you do a point. - Well, I'll tell you why we're gonna splice a man. - Right here. - Here are rankings for Peter Weir. (upbeat music) - Okay, this is the pickup on our ranking. Now that I've rewatched Mastering Commander and we have recorded all the episodes. David, do you want to go first? - This is a very hard one. I don't know if you found that Griffin. - Incredibly difficult. - Because it's a lot of great movies. A lot of movies I admire for different reasons. - I am like centimeters in between these positions. - Yeah, 100%. - It's basically interchangeable. Did you include the plumber or not? - I included the plumber. - Okay. - So, my list is, and really it's tough, because yeah, a lot of these are fun. Number one, Mastering Commander, that was not tough. - Sure. - I'm just going from top to out. - One to top, one to down. Number two, the Truman Show, number three, witness. Number four, picnic and hanging rock. Those three are all movies I just think are sublime, and they all fell a little interchangeable. Number five, fearless, number six, green card. Number seven, mosquito coast. Number eight, last wave. Number nine, you're living dangerously. Number 10, Gallipoli. Those are all movies I think are pretty interesting and tremendous. - Yeah. - I'm sure your list is different from mine. - It is, although you know what's interesting. I mean, Mastering Commander is unsurprisingly lower for me, but then our rankings are the same for the next couple. - That's interesting. Okay, I have Truman at number one. Witness at number two, picnic and hanging rock. Number three, agree with that block you just established. Then I have fearless at number four, which is the same as you minus Mastering Commander at the top of that list, right? That's the order you have Mastering Commander. - I have Gallipoli at five. - Jesus, this is so fucked up and insane. - mosquito coast at six, Mastering Commander at seven, last wave at eight, green card at nine, you're living dangerously at 10. - And then I have my last four, our way back at 11, plumber at 12. Cars at 8, Paris at 13, Deb Poet's Society at 14. - Wild, so yeah, I have a totally different order there. I have cars at 11, cars 2 at 12.
No, I have cars that are Paris at 11 dead poets at 12 plumber at 13 way back at 14. I would say the top 10 are all degrees of excellent for me and cars that are Paris dead poets and plumber are all very good and the only movie of his I like don't enjoy is the way back but I also don't think it's a bad film. I don't think he ever made a bad movie. No, but that's it. That's it. So we cut you back to that episode. Wow. Oh my god. I can't believe it. The way back number one for me across the board. We really changed our mind. Debuting in theaters this week is also the company men. The John Wells film. A film I hate. What if the bosses had a title? It's actually one of my least favorite movies. Don't remember what that is. It's about a bunch of like little managers or whatever. Yeah. And how much they struggle in the recession. These guys used to have who are the who are the exact customer a fleck Chris Cooper. It's comely. These are some guys. I know. This sounds watchable. Yes. This sounds very watchable. Kevin Costner is non-executive. Costner is a Joe the plumber who hates Ben Affleck his brother-in-law who's never worked a real day in his life. These guys used to play golf. Mm-hmm. It's got a point. Yeah. It's a terrible movie. It's directed. Written and directed by John Wells. That's right. I believe. He is a drug associate counter later. Yes. Like is that? Yeah. And then he gets burnt. Well, you know who can answer that question for you. Who? Trace and us. Good. Uh, now of course he's back on the pit. Right? Yeah. Thank God. He's off our movie screens. Yeah. Making good TV for us. Yeah. He was like my least favorite middle brow director. I mean, it's interesting because I also actually associate him with ERs decline and I associate him with the Westwings decline because he took over the Westwings. But like he obviously was important at ER, but he becomes too powerful later in ER and he starts to infect with to me special episodes. It's fine. It's fine. But the pit's good. And he's great. I guess. He's my best friend. So next week on the podcast, of course, we're going to talk about disclosure day because that's going to be pretty new. Yeah. Brand new, I think. On the 12th, um, but then Griffin, what are we going to do? Then we're going under to see, yes, we will be looking for someone. Who could we be looking for? We'll be trying to find Nemo. An episode we offered to ARP. I was offered finding Nemo. You said something to the effect of I, I don't really have any relationship to finding Nemo. I've seen it twice. Finding Dory. I've obviously seen 25 times. Astrid preference is finding Dory. Your daughter. Also my daughter. Why is that? Because Dory's so cute at the beginning with her big little eyes. Well, I guess so. But I mean, the whole thing, most isn't in aquarium. My daughter also, well, but my daughter is really a cream because she loves to do the septipus. Yeah. Well, I like the blue go the blue go well with the vibrating cranial. It's got good characters. Yeah. I mean, it's a fine film. Good character. I just don't know. I just don't know why she gravitates towards that. I think just because it's like, it's the classic kid thing of like, well, Dory's the best character anyway. So like a movie with more Dory. Yeah. It's just like more. I was underpants. You solved my only issue. I just didn't think I would have that much insight. I said, it's a neurotic father. Alex neurotic. He's not neurotic. No, I know. You shouldn't kill. This was the best episode we could have gotten you on. But yes, in two weeks, we started talking the walk, a secret side talking the walk. You did say this. This is kind of a talking the walk. We'll replay this. So you're doing Andrew stands. We're doing Andrew stands. So I didn't want to cut off your actual promotion. So people can be excited. Because first three films are the cleanest installation of a blank check arc. We will cover. So true. So true. Finding Nemo. Big hit. So he makes his, like, sort of like more ambitious animated film Wally and then uses that to make something crazy. The action film people have tried to make for a hundred years in Hollywood. The biggest scale imaginable. Does it have a cool title from the books? Absolutely. Absolutely. A title. Sean Carter. End of title. A title when Sean Wells would come up with. And now wait a minute. Where's the rest of the title? You won't learn where he's from. Basically the definitive is what is Mars called Mars in the movie. No, it's a bar soon. Oh, okay. Arguably the definitive bounce of the last 15 years, the last 10 years. The most definitive. It is the shorthand. It has replaced water world. It is the one of our era and it destroyed Disney in a way. It absolutely broke Disney. Changed everything. Then he rebounds with Finding Dory. He has this cushion that he can go back to his most successful film. And then in the year 2026, he returns with two films in the blink of an eye, a Hulu original that came out months ago. Everyone knows this, yeah. We all know this. And then what is guaranteed to be another one of the highest grossing films of all time, Toy Story 5 coming out this summer. I think I was loathe to cover on main feed, but David twisted my arm. And I can see that maybe it is time to do Andrew Stanton. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I really had to bully you into this one. I'm excited. I'm excited to talk about it. Thanks for having me on this one. Of course. Griffin has his gift bag. Okay. I'm going to open my gift bag. Let's see. It's a lot of stuff you know about it. What's your number one Peter Weir movie? I mean, if it's not Master and Commander, it's Mosquito Coast. It was definitely Mosquito Coast for a long time. Sure. And then. Very Alex movie. Rewatched Master and Commander when we did like a C series during the pandemic. And I was. I always liked the movie. I was like, oh, I forgot this is like one of the 50 canonically greatest films ever made period like in a by hands, by human hands. I have a bumper sticker that says, please stop honking. I'm trying to watch the 2025 major motion picture pavements. Much appreciated. Then a lot of merch here. It'd be funnier though if it was like Trombow or something. Oh, like. These I've been asking you. Yes. This is Stanton. Which I movie promotional stickers of my face from. Oh, thanks. Oh, these are bags I got. Are they the full band or these just me? Yeah. Just the full band, but I brought the ones that had you in the front. Thank you. I really appreciate it. I just want to shut out with the bumper sticker that today I pulled in right after ARP into the parking garage. And I knew it was him because he had the pavements. I put that sticker on my car, inherited the car from my grandmother. And I covered up the Biden Harris bumper sticker that I couldn't take off with the pavements bumper sticker. Good call. Pavements hat. Pavements ball cap. The tick versus Arthur VHS collection. Oh, it only has the one episode. It's a classic 21 minute VHS. That's right. But you found this and I immediately realized this is quite a pricey VHS on the second-hand market. Wow. The tends to be going for over a hundred dollars. It goes for over a hundred dollars. Yeah. That was a dollar when I bought it. It's crazy. Yoked up Arthur carrying Carmeleda, his love interest that we never got to in the live action show. I've had that waiting for you for nine months. All of my love interests were not human on the show. And then of course the buddy Christ. As seen in the hit film dogma. You guys are benefiting from me getting all the stuff from my dad storage lockers. I really appreciate this. All these sealed toys I forgot about. And you know what? We're going to take pictures and post it on social. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely part of the carousel. What was the other thing you said you wanted the carousel? That bends. Oh, future spawn. Yeah. ARP, thank you for being here. Yeah, thanks. Hey, you had two movies last year. Yeah. Both of which people should watch. So for this year? Zero. Interesting. For now. For the year. I'm calling my shot. You're calling your shot. Yeah. I'd rather explore Sunken World War II summaries than get out of bed at 6 a.m. to go be yelled at. Well, I believe you do get probably get out of bed at 6 a.m. to be yelled at. But not by like a parent of a young child. Not by like an AD. Right. Yes. Um, yeah. Well, video heavens on Criterion channel. That's the only thing I care about people watching because I benefit directly from it. Well, but payments is on movie. Payments on movie. But I'm not going to see a dime there. But video heaven like. That's my movie. You own like the movie out right. Can you give the quick pitch to people who don't know because if you listen to this podcast, it's it's true real nerdy. If you've made it to Cusp of Hour 3 and a podcast, you would probably enjoy a three-hour essay film about the history of video tape as a medium and video stores, told entirely through clips from movies and television depicting video stores as physical spaces. Yes. I made this movie has 180 film TV show clips in it accompanied by a essay read by my hawk. And if you're hearing this and going, well, this sounds a little, a little, I don't know if I can listen to three hours of playing. I can watch a three hour movie. A little educational little dry, uh, let, let's you be concerned. The last three minutes features are just doing a drive by on like 15 early 2000s independent films. It does feature Amy Heckerling's loser. It does. I spent 10 years on this movie, Gryffin walked out of seeing it and said, what no freaky tales. This is our running bit that I keep asking why freaky tales didn't make the cut and I keep demanding that news and deals respects the existence of freaky tales, just that it exists. Maybe give Tracy let's a 4K of freaky tale. Fuck, I don't know if it can arrive in time because that's Lionsgate limited. I don't know what their quickest shipping option is. He's canning here in like three days. I was looking at overnighting some Amazon stuff and freaky tales. That's why I train right from upstate there's the Lionsgate studios on the Hudson. Uh-huh. I'm sure you guys have seen this David. It's like a near Yankee Stadium. You've ever seen the Lionsgate studios? It might be pass Yankee Stadium. Um, probably. We had to actually send one of our hats to that location because they're the production company that's involved with the John Ham show. Did that ever come out? It's coming out soon. I literally got a text from a friend today watching a screener being like, are you guys aware of John Hamill? Yeah. That's why I mean, that's what we should plug you're in an upcoming episode of our friends of the neighborhood.
- Forget about your friends and neighbors. - Passion film that I spent 10 years on and loved dearly watched this Apple show. - I love video heaven. - Yes. - I love it too. And it's on the Criterion channel for the foreseeable future. - Great. - It's excellent. But people are really watching it on there. - It's great. - That's great. - They kept running out there like what's popular these days and it was always up there. - It's highly recommended and I just wanna clarify that Fat Cocked Gentlemen Thieves in New York City are always listening to the Halloween episode of Blankcheck featuring Alex Ross Perry as depicted in the Apple Plus series. - Blankcheck fans can say they were there first. - Yes. - People are always like, wow, that movie. It's two hours and 50 minutes. That's insanely long. And I'm like, guys, if you listen to Blankcheck, you have an episode of that Blankcheck. - Remember when you told me you're like, it's gonna be a three hours. And I was like, oh, it's pretty long. You're like, I figure anyone who's watching this is cool with watching it for three hours. - If a Blankcheck episode comes out, it's 250. People are like, I guess David had to be somewhere. (laughs) This is a crazy amount of time to not spend marinating in the love of cinema. - I wanted to point out to you that we are-- - We're about to hit three hours. - About to hit three hours. - I also feel like we wrapped up half an hour ago. - We wrapped up a fucking hour. - I looked up, it was 230. I felt like it. I felt the exact same way, and now I feel less good, but I feel okay. - I think we're doing great. And I think everyone's gonna be really happy. - What's David? - But David, look on the brighter side. There's more toys. - There's more toys. - Just what I love, just what I love. - For sound insulation. - So this is his new thing. By the way, it's justifying that. - Oh, just letting he suffocates us, then maybe at least there's that. - That sound, it's absorbing sound. - Yeah. - So tune in next week for Disclosure Day. Hope that rocks. And then we're doing "Interestant." And then we're doing everyone, when "Marchman" is sued. I assume Chris Columbus. - Yeah, do you want to claim one of those episodes now? - He's a Centennial man. - If he wins, I will tell on Mike the story. I'm about to tell you guys about why I find it so aggravating whenever you're like, and he's the nicest guy in Hollywood. - Can't wait. - I'll tell the story privately right now. And then I promise if he wins, I will come on and may people feel bad about this victory. There's no chance he's going to win. - No, I don't think so. Maybe he wins. - You've given me an idea here. Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe. Tune in next week for Disclosure Day. Thank you all for riding the high seas of Peter Weir with us. - Absolutely. - And ARP, I'm going to read you a deadline announcement that just happened, then can we bleep out the announcement and I just want to get ARP's reaction to it. - Good, good. - Okay. - So bleep out what I'm about to say and then get ARP's reaction. - Brings to direct and to script. - Spin off. - I mean, this is going to get the shit back on track. This is what the people want. - It's a real bummer. - This is definitely what the public wants. - When I think, I think these three faces. - Look at, I mean, I appreciate that all the progressive gains of the last decade have been erased by the current political climate, but this is a bridge too far. We can't let people like this run Hollywood again. - And as always, that was the end as always. - Yeah, that's it. At some point, they'll be a lag and I can start unboxing this bag of presents. - I can't wait. - I'm excited. - Nothing for David, but what do you get for the man who has everything? - A little bit, yeah, people having this, I'm gonna turn 40 in a month and everyone's like, we're all right. - Look what he's got recently. - The stop sign? - Correct. - And it's two-sided. - Okay. - This is to shut Griffin up, I think, is the idea. - Sometimes he feels like - He's still the stronger construction site. - He's going by too quickly and he's just slowing. - Slow is definitely not something we really need to use. - Link check with Griffin and David is hosted by Griffin Newman and David Sims. Our executive producer is me Ben Hossley. Our creative producer is Marie Barty Salinas and our associate producer is AJ McKeon. This show is mixed and edited by AJ McKeon and Alan Smithy. Research by JJ Birch. Our theme song is by Lane Montgomery in the Great American Novel with additional music by Alex Mitchell. Artwork by Joe Bowen, Holly Moss and Pat Reynolds. Our production assistant is Minick. Special thanks to David Cho, Jordan Fish and Nate Patterson for their production help. Head over to blankcheckpod.com for links to all of the real nerdy shit. Join our Patreon blank check special features for exclusive franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us on social @blankcheckpod. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter checkbook on Substack. This podcast is created and produced by blank check productions.
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
The podcast *Blank Check* reflects on film history, focusing on Peter Weir’s career, especially his final film *The Way Back* and its production challenges.
The hosts discuss the difficulty and emotional weight of making *The Way Back*, noting Peter Weir’s dedication and the film’s raw, elemental production process.
The conversation explores how the film, despite being a financial and critical underdog, represents a heartfelt culmination of Weir’s career.
A recurring theme is the industry’s failure to support veteran directors—Weir felt broken by ego, studio politics, and shifting tastes, especially after *Master and Commander* and the loss of momentum.
The hosts critique the lack of recognition for Weir’s body of work, contrasting it with the success of other directors and the irony of his final film being overlooked.
They also reference other films and directors, such as Sean Penn and the Coen Brothers, to highlight personal biases and the subjective nature of film appreciation.
The episode includes a meta-commentary on group texts, audience dynamics, and how the podcast community engages with film criticism, including playful banter and "shadow-banning" humor.
Summary:
The podcast episode of *Blank Check* offers a reflective and personal deep dive into the career of director Peter Weir, focusing particularly on his final film, *The Way Back*. The hosts explore the film’s difficult, raw production—shooting through harsh elements over four months—emphasizing Weir’s dedication and the emotional labor behind it. Despite its modest release and critical reception, the film is presented as a genuine, heartfelt culmination of Weir’s long career.
The discussion highlights how the film industry has failed veteran creators, citing studio egos, shifting trends, and lack of support as key reasons Weir felt forced to retire. The hosts contrast Weir’s consistent quality with the dismissive treatment of his work, especially after *Master and Commander*, which was celebrated but then forgotten. They also touch on broader film culture, including the Coen Brothers’ legacy, Sean Penn’s Oscar win, and the absurdity of film memory.
The episode blends personal anecdotes, group text dynamics, and humor to argue that Weir’s career is a testament to artistic integrity amid industry neglect. Ultimately, it serves as both a tribute to Weir and a commentary on how the film world often undervalues enduring, authentic storytelling.
FAQs
The tagline for 'The Way Back' is 'Every loss is another fight.'
Peter Weir retired due to a combination of industry changes and personal challenges, including difficulties working with high-profile actors and feeling the industry no longer supported his unique vision.
The Long Walk is seen as a challenging, difficult-to-watch film that reflects Peter Weir’s dedication to his craft, despite its slow pace and unrelenting nature.
While not universally acclaimed, 'The Way Back' is regarded as a solid entry in Peter Weir’s career, demonstrating his ability to deliver emotionally resonant and well-crafted films.
The podcasters recall 'Happy Texas' as a cult favorite from the Sundance era, noting its unique place in film history and its status as a forgotten gem with a small but devoted following.
The podcast describes the process as extremely difficult, involving a four-month shoot in harsh conditions, with cast and crew feeling the elements so intensely that the line between acting and reality blurred.
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