One Hour Photo (2002) was directed by Mark Romanek. Although this is our second Robin Williams movie, he is not the subject of the episode: Michael Vartan is. This one is truly interesting, and beautifully shot.
One Hour Photo (2002), directed by Mark Romanek, is our second Robin Williams film, but he’s not the nudeman. Romanek has only directed 3 films, and this is his second. I wish we had more Romanek in our cinemas, but until then we’ll need to treasure this one. I would be surprised if you haven’t seen it, but we had a fantastic time talking about it.
It’s streaming on HBO Max (at least as of 11/29/2021)!
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Well, hello there. Welcome to on the Bitte, the podcast that uncovers full frontal male nudity and cinema. My name is Laura and I am joined, as always, by my co host, Ryan.
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Oh, hello.
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Oh, boy. Is that your tone just going into this movie? Because it's like, Ooft.
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I mean, to be fair, it's like walking into a deep, dark void going into this film. We've survived it.
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Yeah, we did. I got to be honest, the build up to watching it was worse than actually watching it. So that's something because I think I was worn so many times about how rough this movie can be.
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Yeah.
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And then we watched it, and I think maybe that maybe over prepared me for what I was going to see.
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Yeah. I guess because we're going to give the title of the film and I think I'll get there eventually. Yeah. I think people will be relatively quite excited to hear us talk about this film, to be fair, because it's one of those.
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It's one of the most famous Dick flicks, I think, out there. Infamous, perhaps.
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And also it's strange. And the shot that we're talking about for this particular film is probably one of my favorite shots in any film is it fucked up that I want a gift of it so I could just randomly send it to you when I'm not having a good day. So you know how I feel like, well, no, if you're just sending it to me.
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Yeah, just. You right.
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I do kind of feel personally that's a little bit exploitative, but, um, yeah, if you're only sending it to me and I fully understand it, then yes, that would be fine.
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I'll get on that immediately.
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Maybe we should let the, uh, listening audience, I mean, they've already clicked on it. They probably already know what it is.
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Yeah. Because titles are the film titles.
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And we tell them all week in advance if they follow us properly. Because if you don't, then that's your fault.
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Yeah. Well, that's one more thing that you can add to your Todo list today, everybody. The film we are going to discuss today is the I don't want to call it a crime neonoir drama.
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I'd say. Yeah, I'd say it's a, uh, crime drama. That's crime in it. One of the pivotal moments in the movie is horrific crime.
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Bad Lieutenant.
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Yes.
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Bad Lieutenant. Bad Lieutenant, starring Harvey kitel and directed by Abel Ferrara.
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Yeah. Okay.
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Take it away, Rye.
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Yeah, we can talk a little bit about Abel. I do like Able stuff. I do like Able for Error stuff. I've probably mentioned Able for Error in one of the other episodes. I think we were talking about Home Improvement.
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Oh, God, why does that come up so much?
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I don't know, like the six degrees of, uh, Home Improvement. But you were talking about Taylor Thomas Jonathan Taylor Thomas JT. Yeah. And obviously we don't really ever want to get into a massive conversation about Tim Allen. Well, certainly if we ever wanted to ever discuss his books. Tim Allen's books, we don't do books on this podcast. Our eye opening. Well, I think one of them is called Never Stand Next to a Naked Man or something like that. I think it's what it's called. We were talking about, um, using, uh, power drills and stuff like that. Uh, and you didn't believe me. There's a film out there called Driller Killer.
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Yeah. And that actually was showing recently at the local cinema. And I didn't go watch it, but then it just all came around that this is a real thing.
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Yes.
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That's awesome.
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Yes. So 100% it is real. And it was directed by Abel Ferrari. Now, technically, Driller Killer is, let's say, his second debut as a director.
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I thought it was his first, but you would know better than me.
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Well, the thing is, he directs a movie called The Nine Lives of Wet Pussy, and it's a porno, but he directs it under a pseudonym. I think the pseudonym is Jimmy Boy. L there's a line. And I got this from Wikipedia, whether or not it's true or not. But 100%, this film exists. It's a 70 minutes porn. Also stars his then girlfriend at the time. And one of his quotes is saying, it's bad enough paying a guy $200 to fuck your girlfriend. Then he can't get it up. So there's actually seen we're able for era has sex with his then girlfriend on camera in the movie. This man has lived a life. So let's, um, just say he's more known for, let's say, provocative, somewhat controversial, neonoir gritty, urban, uh, set films. Um, yeah, in a slight way. I would say he reminds me a bit of, uh, a Kimji Fukushaku and his Yakuza movies. And then I kind of go even further into that in terms of the level of the tone. I think about kind of takes slightly more earlier stuff, like middle stuff. I mean, that guy has made like, probably like fucking over 150 films. So let's just say once he gets into the double digits, that kind of period of his filmmaking.
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Um.
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That'S what we know able forever for. So in terms of his filmography, he made a bunch of shorts. Driller Color comes out in 1981, is a movie called Miss 45, which I'm still yet to see, but I think it's pretty much like you would recognize it if you kind of saw it, because it's the woman dressed as a nun. I think she was like, abused or attacked as a youngster, and then she seeks out revenge for.
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Right. And those are the type of movies, if it just straight up as like, rape, revenge, I'm usually not interested. I don't want to watch them and I shy away. I just don't want to deal with that in my day to day life.
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Yeah, I guess maybe because as I've gotten older, you start to be a little bit more aware of where your morality stands and stuff like that. Because I think as a young filmmaker, I was probably more interested in slightly more controversial and extreme forms of storytelling, I suppose, like for a turn. And I mean, I don't know, you've read some of my stuff and things and the things I like to write and things and I guess like, I guess I'm like. I think this is actually pretty good. And it's like, this is fucking horrible.
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I have said that to you before.
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Yeah. You've said certain things. But we're all aiming for our own things in life and to figure out like to finish up the filmography aspects of it in 80. Uh, four, he makes Fear City, which we saw recently, the Tom Barringer Melon movie, got Billy D. Williams in it as well.
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Yeah.
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Uh, that movie's got that fantastic fight scene at the end of it, I think beats the shit out the Kung Fu murderer.
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Yes. And I think that movie is on one of the streaming.
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We watched it on prime.
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It's an incredible cover.
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Yeah. It's well worth watching. I think it's also on crackle, isn't it? The thing is, this was completely unrelated. But we watched another movie called Strip to Kill, which is effectively the exact same plot of Fear City, because if Nobody knows, Fierce City was a story about Tom Barringer sidekick. But basically they have an agency, uh, they look after strippers who work in the strip clubs in New York. And for whatever reason, there's a dude going around attacking, uh, and murdering the strippers and basically just putting the fear into them. Pretty much the script to Kill is pretty much the exact same story. So after Fear City, he makes the Gladiator, he makes Crime Story. He makes another film called China Girl, another film called The Loner.
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And another film called Cat Chaser.
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A lot of these are kind of made for TV or like TV show pilots, um, that are screening only on TV.
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Okay.
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But, uh, in 1990, his next feature film effort is one of my personal favorites, which is King of New York, the Christopher, um, walking movie. I mean, there's a lot of people in that movie. It's like Wesley Snipes in that movie. David Caruso is in that fucking movie. It's very much a kind of gangsters versus cops sort of foray. And it's, um, a gritty crime drama. And we all know how much I like those.
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You sure do.
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Yes.
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And I like that movie as well. I saw that when I worked at Hollywood Video. I kind of went through the entire drama section and just watched as many crime and mob type of films as I could. And went through all of them.
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Yeah.
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So I saw that back in the day.
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Remember picking up the specialization, um, DVD of that movie, that movie, that movie is really good.
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You don't expect Christopher Walken on the front of something like that for some reason.
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I would wholeheartedly expect him on the front of something like that. Yeah. Uh, um, because not only that, Christopher Walken also is in his other, uh, film, The Funeral. And that is primarily probably one of the reasons why Christopher Walkin plays the character he plays in True Romance.
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I was about to say that that works for me.
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Yeah.
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Because he's very scary.
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Yeah. He's got, uh, a presence about him. So after King of New York, we then have in 92 Bath Lieutenant Mahari Kaitl.
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Here we go.
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What is the film about? What is the synopsis?
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The letterboxed synopsis is while investigating a young nun's rape a corrupt New York City police Detective with a serious drug and gambling addiction, tries to change his ways and find forgiveness.
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Okay.
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That works for me, actually.
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Yeah. That's 100% spot on.
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Yeah.
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Um, we're going to talk about particular scenes and stuff like, you hear that synopsis? That is effectively what that's the beginning.
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The middle and the end of the film.
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Yeah. I mean, for the most part, like the gambling aspect, because it's between the playoffs with the Mets and the Dodgers. Like this seven game playoff that he's betting the World Series.
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Right.
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The World Series. Yeah. So this is probably one of the only things other than the crime with the none being rated is the only thing that pushes the elements of the story forward, or at least it gives us this sense of something's happened and something continues to happen. And here's the conclusion to these two. These two instances.
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Right. So, like, at least the gambling thing and the World Series is escalating.
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It drives it forward effectively.
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Yeah.
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Because everything else, the rest of the film is a collection of scenes and moments that highlight how fucking horrible either he is as a person or the world that he is inhabiting and how fucking hellish is.
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Is it weird that there's part of me that wants to say he's not really that terrible?
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No. Because I feel like, at least by its conclusion, or at least his character arc, let's see, is that he does gain, like, a level of redemption.
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Yeah.
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It just really depends how you personally feel if he deserves any level of redemption. You know what I mean?
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It's also that kind of Christian, Catholic sense of forgiveness, uh, in religion, where you can be a fuck up and be a horrible person, a horrible piece of shit and do horrible things to yourself and others for your entire life. And as long as you show remorse.
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You can pull it on your deathbed if you want.
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Yeah, absolutely. Which is essentially what happens and what happens with the criminals in this film.
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In a way, yes. But the problem is it's your reward for bad behavior, and it's something that just. I'll never be able to wrap my fucking head around oh, yeah.
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But that's religion.
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Yeah, but his dissension, his escalation, I guess. Him just like. He's like his choice. Like, bulldozing through fucking life. Like, it is fascinating. Like, where it goes.
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I can, um, give you the tagline as well, which is kind of obvious.
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Fuck.
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Gambler, thief, junkie, killer, cop.
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Yes, I like that tagline.
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He killer.
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Mhm.
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He didn't kill anybody. No, just himself.
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In a way, yes. They could have cut that out because it's maybe one word.
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Gambler, thieves, junkie, top. It probably would have sounded better.
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I would say, like, Bad Lieutenant is probably his best known, but I wouldn't say that bad Lieutenant is his best film.
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Yeah. It's certainly quite shocking. Or it can be, and probably certainly was to audiences back in 1992. But I think he tried to mitigate the shock based on the poster, because the original poster is Harvey kitel full blown naked with the words Bad Lieutenant covering the whole thing. His privates are in shadow. You've seen updated photos and cover art for Bad Lieutenant, which makes it look like a cop procedural, which it is certainly not.
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It is not very far from it.
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And it's weird that they. I don't know, they're trying to get, like, a different kind of audience for this movie based on the cover art.
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Well, the thing is, I wouldn't say it's genreless, but it kind of skates very fine lines between genres. It's definitely a drama.
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Yes.
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Uh, the thing is, it falls under the crime arena purely on the basis that we're focused very much on a Lieutenant and crime start happening. That's not primarily the focus, because what Bad Lieutenant effectively is because Harvey cottage character doesn't have a name. He's just referred to as the Lieutenant. It's just a character study. It's a meditation on guilt, for the most part.
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Guilt, redemption, attempted redemption. I mean, this is basically ten days of the end of someone's life.
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Yeah, pretty much. It's painfully obvious. Like, this kind of the spiral that he's been traveling down has been going on far, far longer, probably years, for the most part, than the short amount of time that we see them depicted in the film.
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We get to see a full on rock bottom.
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Yeah. The main thing, and we'll talk about tone and things regarding this film, but there's very few films that I feel like, genuinely encapsulate that tone, or at least that look of utter desolation.
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Yeah.
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And I fucking love it.
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It drips with despair.
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Yeah. It's kind of like, uh, if you think about the depictions of hell and, like, what hell would be like and things, because it's an unfathomable concept.
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Right.
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But to believe in hell, you also have to believe in heaven, and then there's some level of believing in a higher power and all this sort of crap, which I don't really do.
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Well, he does. He's Catholic.
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He does. I'm thinking about myself. Right.
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Okay.
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And I'm thinking about like the depictions in the film and things. And if you ever let your mind wander, I kind of feel like when Kitel's character is just traveling deeper and darker into these places, I'm like that's, um, kind of like an endless stairwell.
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He's digging his own grave every single day. He digs a little bit deeper, and it's almost like he wants to get to the bottom. He wants it to end. He's so miserable, and he just is just piling on trouble after trouble. He just wants it to be over.
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Yeah. So, I mean, Harvey Kitelle plays the Lieutenant. Who else is in this movie?
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I wrote them down, but we didn't really meet anybody else other than Zoe.
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No.
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Who's played by Zoe Lone, who is also the I have some notes about her.
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She's the main star of Ms 45.
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She is indeed, yes. And she also co wrote the screenplay of this film.
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Oh, shit.
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Okay. And Frankie Thorne plays the nun. That's the only people I was going to bring up. But let me tell you about Zillow.
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There's some interesting side characters of the cops, relatively recognizable names. They don't have really any part in what's happening.
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Victor Argo plays one of the cops, and I know that he's a frequent actor in Abel's films.
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Yeah.
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And Paul Calderon. But for the sake of this film, it is a full on Harvey Train, Tooting. Through this movie.
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Yes.
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No one else really gets much screen time.
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Next up, cocaine.
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Cocaine City. Oh, it's like crack City. There is a full on crack epidemic happening in New York.
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We're going to be going through a lot of, like, not really kind of the things, but it all kind of falls into the controversial aspects of this film. Very specifically, it's a lot of the drug use.
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Speaking of drug use, let me tell you about Zoe loaned. She is credited as a co writer of the screenplay with Abel Ferrara. But she also said that she wrote the screenplay alone and that Abel had very little to do with it and was not very involved.
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Okay.
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And she also said that she codirected several scenes. She said that Ferrari didn't contribute much to the screenplay at all.
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Okay.
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She's got a bit of an anger inside of her for whatever reason.
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Okay. Thing is, let's be perfectly honest, Abel Ferreira has already kind of cut his treads with quite a few films. So if he had every single hand he had to make in King of New York, she can see what the fucking wants. Really?
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Well, I didn't know this, but she's basically an unapologetic heroin addict.
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Or was she died a shame.
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She died from heart failure at the age of 37.
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Well, it's one year off.
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I know.
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I can only assume that the drug scenes in Bad Lieutenant are all 100% real. Well, certainly on her end.
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Well, they did actually shoot up, but it was a saline, uh, solution saying that they did in Trainspotting, same type of thing. They did physically use a needle. She's like, we could have used a retractable needle, but we wanted it to be real and long and arduous and difficult to watch. So that's why they just held on those shots for so long. And you see that needle going in and you're like.
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Jeez, that's also the main issue. I feel like the film has with the ratings board is because of how. Yeah, I think we'll get into the style.
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But let's just continue on with Zoey Lewis had an extended relationship with cocaine for a really long time. And when she had moved to Paris, she kind of got off the Brown and back into the white. But it was her heart failed because of extended cocaine use in her life. But she was just adamantly in love with heroin and didn't give a shit. She constantly was advocating for drug rights in the States, um, for recreational use. But, I mean, no one's going to say, yeah, we definitely should legalize heroin anyway. Abel Ferrara had been taking drugs at least since he was a teenager, and he was taking drugs mhm all throughout the filming of this movie.
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Okay.
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And most of his films, he was on drugs for most of his films.
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To be fair, he's not the first prominent film, uh, director to have known to have taken drugs. I mean, certainly everyone who was making films back then had some, um, level of habit. Old Marty, uh, Martezie is probably the most famous one poster child for cocaine use. Yeah, we all know what happened there. He got clean and he made Raging Bull. But I would also kind, um, of point out that probably the more prominent one would be Sam Peckingpa. And there's loads of fucking stories of his life. Uh, he spoke weed a lot. He used to drink on set. Used to have a gun. Used to brandish a gun on set. Who is this Sam Peckenpa?
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Tell me, what has he done? What would I know from him?
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Well, most notably, he made The Wild Bunch.
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Uh, I haven't seen that. Is that a Western?
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Yeah, he made, like, hyper violent movies. I mean, he made Cross of, uh, Iron. He made Convoy. No, he made Convoys on streaming.
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That's okay.
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Uh, it's a good movie.
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Uh, is that also in the desert?
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No, it's Chris Christopherson in a semi, traveling, uh, across the Valley. He's on the convoy things.
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Convoy?
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Yeah, it's got his own fucking song.
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Is that from that movie?
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Fuck, yeah, it's from that movie. Chris Christopherson wrote the song and did the song for Convoy.
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Really?
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Yeah.
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Okay, I'll watch that.
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He made a movie called Bring Me the Head of Michaela Estrada.
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Okay.
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Yeah, that's the one where maybe they rip that moment. Quentin Tarantino rips. He's, like, talking to the head that's inside the car, like in the box, driving on the car yeah, like Tarantino just stole that for him. Stole that for Kill Bill? Uh, or I think. I think it was killed, though. One of his other shit films.
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Maybe. Convoy will be my second favorite semi truck movie. Yeah, after over the, uh, Top.
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He made that Billy the Kid movie as well.
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Okay, I haven't seen it.
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He's more known for making Westerns, but he had, like, prominent problems with alcohol and drugs. He was alive, Wire. He was mental. Absolutely fucking.
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Other than you, I only have one other friend that really likes Westerns, and maybe she'll be into The Wild Bunch.
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That's fine. I mean, I like all films. That's the difference. You've got your blinkers on and you're just like.
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There'S too much sale.
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And romantic comedies and all the other sort of trash that I can't really sit through.
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Wow, you calling me out. That's not true.
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You pulled me out just earlier.
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What could you like? Desert films.
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What's wrong with a good desert film?
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It's just too Sandy.
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The, um, problem with the proposition that movie is a desert movie.
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It's got Guy Pearson.
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It Guy Pearson. Ray Winston.
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Yes, I've seen that.
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It's a good fucking movie.
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It's fine, but I don't want to watch it again.
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Music by Nick Cave. What do you not like Dunn? Yeah, well, there you go then. So you do like desert movies anyway. You like The Mummy. The Mummy is like one of your favorite songs ever. What are you talking about? So we need to get back on track, so we've established the key players.
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Oh, hold on.
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Oh, wait. Sorry.
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I didn't even finish my quote from Ferrara. He said about this film, the director of that film needed to be using, um, the director and the writer, not the actors. He said it in that way.
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Kind of awkward for badly bad Lieutenant. Uh, so the writer.
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Which was Zoe, who was a lover of heroin and Abel. So they were both using. And they said that Kytel was not using, but I think Keitel, uh, had been into drugs in the past.
26:07.256 --> 26:08.238
Well, again.
26:08.384 --> 26:15.410
And this was kind of like a cathartic thing for him.
26:15.410 --> 26:39.406
He's a mainstay of Crusades movies and stuff like that. Again, I see anybody who survived the 70s coming in and still making movies. They're coming out with a fair amount of baggage. You know what I mean? I don't feel like you can get yourself into the system without kind of coming out with some level of fuck upper happening.
26:39.528 --> 26:50.294
Well, kitel and, uh, I don't think he was married to, but he was in a really long term relationship with Lorraine Bracco, and they had just got Lorraine Bracco.
26:50.342 --> 26:51.130
No idea. Here she is.
26:51.180 --> 26:52.470
Karen.
26:52.470 --> 26:53.710
Oh, yeah.
26:53.760 --> 27:08.110
Good fellas. Yeah, she's in a million things. She's in your favorite movie? Hackers. So he had been going through a long, kind of tough breakup with her during, um, this movie. So maybe that kind of helps him put it all out on the line.
27:08.220 --> 27:16.950
Okay. Because this is a very intense he exposes himself in more ways than one in this movie in every single way.
27:16.950 --> 27:18.514
It's rough anyway.
27:18.672 --> 27:53.110
Yeah. Yeah. I guess, like how you feel about Harvey Kitel's performance in this movie really kind of dictates whether or not you like this movie. I feel, yes. Because primarily he's the only reason to be watching this film for the most part. And if you can get past some of the stomach churning stuff he does in the film, then I think it's perfectly, perfectly balanced in it, let's say in a varied quote, like enjoy it.
27:53.280 --> 28:08.494
Let's say there's so many things in this movie that will make you or at least make me uncomfortable that I ended up laughing because it's so ridiculous and it's so awful. The only way to make myself feel comfortable is to just laugh about it.
28:08.532 --> 28:17.730
That's why this was kind of like this choice for this film. We were going to have to cover it. I mean, I've pre warned you beforehand because you've never seen it before.
28:17.730 --> 28:29.606
Yeah. I cannot believe I haven't seen this movie. And I mean, I've obviously seen the Nicholas Cage Bad Lieutenant, Port of Call, New Orleans.
28:29.738 --> 28:31.718
Yeah. It's a very different beast.
28:31.754 --> 28:48.390
No, it has nothing to do with this. But I saw that movie and I thought I'd seen this movie. There's images of this movie that are so vivid and that kind of stick with you. Whether or not you actually seen it. You would recognize these shots.
28:48.390 --> 29:11.770
No, I haven't seen it recently. I would agree with you in that regard, because I think we're not really going to talk too much about the plot because there isn't too much of one. It's kind of more we're going to be examining things that you guys have probably if you've seen the movie, like, immediately stick out in your head, like particular scenes. But it's kind of more of a bit. Yeah. I guess it's going to be more of an examination of, like, its tone and what it's trying to do.
29:11.820 --> 29:19.762
Do you remember in the beginning of the movie, very beginning of the movie, where he picks up his kids because they forgot the bus they missed, uh, the bus to school?
29:19.896 --> 29:26.790
Well, yeah, they're at home. And he basically has to drive them to school. Yes.
29:26.790 --> 29:43.474
The kids are in the car. They're listening to the baseball game. He is yelling at his kids, basically telling the kids to disregard their aunt because she's in the bathroom for too long. Like showing a blatant disregard for, uh, other people and women especially.
29:43.632 --> 29:46.050
Yeah.
29:46.050 --> 30:09.870
And then when he drops him off at school, he's just doing bumps of Coke. He doesn't even move. You can see, like the Rosary beads hanging from his rearview mirror. It's like the shadow of the crucifix on his face as he's just doing blow in his car. It's really funny mhm. It really set off the movie in a strange way for me. I loved that part. It was hilarious.
30:09.870 --> 30:16.010
If there's ever a dull moment in the movie, he's, uh, usually just like neck and into some cocaine.
30:16.070 --> 30:16.546
Yeah.
30:16.668 --> 30:18.958
He's just like getting it done. You know what I mean?
30:19.104 --> 30:31.430
Because the first 20 minutes of this movie are quite the roller coaster. And we were talking about this last night. It's so front loaded. Chaos, utter chaos.
30:31.550 --> 30:42.418
All of the things that you remember, or at least what characterizes bad Lieutenant as a movie is all within the first, say, 20 or 30 minutes.
30:42.564 --> 30:43.126
Yeah.
30:43.248 --> 31:08.970
So what happens after that 30 minutes, though, is I wouldn't say like it becomes a victim of its length or, uh, anything like that. But because all the stuff is so front loaded, you're expecting things to either escalate or become something else in the second half of the movie. But really kind of what they establish is a kind of level of status quo.
31:08.970 --> 31:15.274
Like slower, kind of darker, more methodical and more sad. Yeah, I think.
31:15.372 --> 31:24.850
Yeah. Because again, this isn't really a film with an elaborate story. It's just a character study.
31:24.850 --> 31:37.330
Front loaded into the beginning of the film is what I think is the best part of the movie. And mhm, this is the Dixie.
31:37.330 --> 31:38.330
Oh, right.
31:38.440 --> 31:56.810
At eleven minutes and 48 seconds. So right in the beginning of the movie, we're just getting to know this character and then you get to know pretty much everything you need to know about him from one shot. From one single shot. I think you kind of get to know him.
31:56.810 --> 31:58.566
The Dick shot that we're going to talk about.
31:58.628 --> 31:59.990
Yeah.
31:59.990 --> 32:14.862
Because we're into the Dick scene. Because we've already established, um, he's betting on the World Series. He's not very nice to these kids. He's not very nice about people in general. He goes to a crime scene. He's very kind of.
32:14.996 --> 32:20.146
He seems fairly professional. Ish like, he's very kind of muted.
32:20.218 --> 33:10.338
It seems like there seems to be like, a respect for him. I think he's been on the job, um, for such a long fucking time. And this is the thing, I guess I wrote scenes like this for when I was doing the cop show is that the crime is one thing, like dealing with the crime and dealing with that, because that's your job. You can quite easily separate yourself from that situation to just kind of talk about your normal life. I mean, I remember writing a scene for and it's all true. You write a scene. The couple of coppers were waiting for the mortuary truck, uh, to come over to pick the body up in this room. And they're just sitting in the room talking about what they did the day before in full view of a dead body that's just lying on a bed. It's just something that you normalize yourself to in everyday daily situation.
33:10.484 --> 33:13.198
Yeah. It's like disassociating from the horror.
33:13.294 --> 33:23.566
Yeah. For the most part, he's dealing with there's just murders of people getting killed in cars. And that seems to happen quite a few times within the course of the movie.
33:23.698 --> 33:26.286
That's true. I didn't even think about that.
33:26.348 --> 33:28.098
It's a foreshadowing to what happens.
33:28.184 --> 33:30.390
Yeah. Those two girls are murdered in the car.
33:30.500 --> 33:38.730
Yes. Those two girls are murdered in the car. And then it kind of happens again. And that's when that other scene where he's like, specialist drugs, but he dropped them.
33:38.900 --> 33:40.258
That was very funny.
33:40.354 --> 33:40.650
Yes.
33:40.700 --> 33:48.830
That cracked me up. Yes. It was like a car was pulled over. Was there a dead body in that car?
33:48.830 --> 33:49.830
Potentially.
33:50.080 --> 33:52.698
Uh, and he's just digging through the car, looking at it.
33:52.844 --> 34:06.830
Well, I think it's also a car. It was a car that I think he noticed when he was on the phone making bets, because there was that dude who was going from car to car, opening up bonnets and things like that and lighting, um, stuff out the bones and stuff in the car either way.
34:06.830 --> 34:29.242
Well, he found a gigantic bag, um, of cocaine in this car that was part of a crime scene. And he grabs it and really not elegantly shoves it into the front of his coat. Then he steps out of the back seat of the car and drops the Coke on the floor. Looks around. The cops are looking at him. The detectives are looking at him. He goes, Put it into evidence.
34:29.386 --> 34:31.490
Yeah.
34:31.490 --> 34:39.830
Oh, I laughed so hard. That was so funny. I'm like, you fucking idiot. He's probably high as hell. When is he sober?
34:39.830 --> 34:42.630
No. In every scene, he's doing something. Yeah, he's doing something.
34:42.680 --> 34:47.926
He's just like, big old bag. But let's get back to the big scene.
34:48.058 --> 34:48.606
Yeah.
34:48.728 --> 34:49.122
Wow.
34:49.196 --> 34:50.110
That was a bear.
34:50.230 --> 34:53.270
Sorry.
34:53.270 --> 34:58.506
The scene kind of starts. It starts with a couple that we don't know.
34:58.628 --> 35:00.170
A couple of ladies.
35:00.170 --> 35:01.858
I think it's a dude and a lady.
35:01.954 --> 35:02.394
Really?
35:02.492 --> 35:10.470
Yeah, I think it's a dude and a lady. Cool. All right. Yeah. It's kind of like an androgynous man, I think is the other lady that you think it is?
35:10.520 --> 35:11.298
I love that.
35:11.384 --> 35:23.098
Yeah. So they're on the bed, um, they're kind of doing things to each other. They're going to go any sexy. They're doing sexy stuff. And he's sitting in a chair with, like, a bottle of vodka.
35:23.134 --> 35:49.138
He has a bottle of vodka in his right hand, uh, and a glass in his left hand, uh, and he pours the vodka into the cup, and he's kind of reclined in his chair, leans back, takes a little glance at the cup, then just pours the vodka into his mouth. He's chugging the vodka out of the bottle while holding the cup of vodka. And then he just spills it all over his face. Oh, man. Topless. He's not wearing, um, a shirt.
35:49.234 --> 36:05.142
Yes. It's so funny, because I'm trying to remember the probably not supposed to be funny to me. You were the only one laughing because you're watching it and you're just like, Holy fuck. Because I'm trying to remember the order of the shots as well.
36:05.276 --> 36:09.922
I do remember. So after that, I think, is when they dance.
36:10.006 --> 36:16.190
The hugging slow dance thing. Yeah, yeah. I love it.
36:16.190 --> 36:23.530
The woman's wearing saggy underwear, which, you know that I hate. Very saggy white underwear. But she's topless.
36:23.650 --> 36:27.966
You saw the stick of the absolute state of the place they are living in, though.
36:28.028 --> 36:32.854
Yeah, it was awful. I don't like saggy underwear. It makes me very uncomfortable.
36:33.022 --> 36:39.946
But the house itself has a permanent thing yet. Like, it's so dark in some of the corners. So unbelievably dark.
36:40.018 --> 36:57.814
Yeah. But they're having a weird slow dance, and the. Androgynous human, whoever they are, comes over and dances with them and they're kind of doing a slow dance. And from what I remember, right after that is the Dick shot.
36:57.982 --> 37:28.374
Yes. Probably my favorite shot in this film. It's maybe like one of my favorite shots in any film. Like, it's so good. And I'm not watching it and looking at it and being like, it's incredibly fucked up, but it's just incredibly exposing. Uh, yeah.
37:28.532 --> 38:00.770
I mean, we talk about penises in film, penises in cinema, and how they usually will be there to reflect something happening within the character or happening to the character. So we have in 28 Days Later, Kelly and Murphy laying there, and it's a vulnerability thing. And I think the same thing is happening here where he's just shedding everything that he has and just exposing himself fully. And he's completely vulnerable and he's completely miserable.
38:00.770 --> 38:14.986
There's like a mirror behind him. His arms are outstretched. Um, he's got a cross necklace around his neck and he's effectively sobbing.
38:15.118 --> 38:19.410
Yeah.
38:19.410 --> 38:37.958
That shot reminds me, uh, of the opening of Apocalypse Now when Martin Sheen is drinking in that hotel room and he goes mental and he punches the mirror.
38:38.054 --> 38:38.638
Okay.
38:38.784 --> 38:59.270
Because that whole scene is completely like Martin. She is actually drunk. They were in that room for like 12 hours. And he punches the mirror, cuts his hand. He rolls over, he's naked. I don't know if we see his Dick or anything in Apocalypse Now, but he's naked and he just starts crying. His hands, like, cut and bleeding. Blood everywhere.
38:59.390 --> 39:00.930
Wow.
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And I look at that and I'm like, okay, that's fine. I look at path. Um, Lieutenant. And I'm like, that's better. If you didn't know what you were in for, that shop 100%, uh, tells you what you're in for. It's like, if you can't take this level of, say, character actor vulnerability.
39:31.278 --> 39:32.066
Yeah.
39:32.248 --> 39:47.650
Because if you can't take that, then there are some things that are going to happen where you're like, okay, maybe this isn't for me. Maybe I should just stop watching.
39:47.650 --> 39:51.730
Yeah. Wiggling out the ones that can't take it.
39:51.730 --> 40:31.090
Yeah. Because I'm going to talk about a little bit about extreme cinema and just kind of how, um, far films can sometimes go to get responses out of people. Because certainly, uh, I think I might have mentioned this before, but certainly George Lucas probably said it best where he's like, if you ever want to get an emotional response out of an audience, just Chuck a bunch of kittens and puppies into a bag and then beat the bag.
40:31.090 --> 40:31.790
Oh, my God.
40:31.840 --> 40:36.818
That's how you elicit an emotional response out of your audience. It's like, it's not hard.
40:36.904 --> 40:40.266
So is Kytel, like, our bag of kittens and puppies?
40:40.398 --> 41:16.726
I mean, it's the sort of behavior that it starts to blur the lines between you're not just playing a part. Like, how much of yourself is put into a role, you know what I mean? How far do you take a moment like that? And as yourself as a filmmaker? When do you know when to say cut? When do you know when enough is enough? Like, how far do you take it?
41:16.788 --> 41:20.906
Well, that's what they wanted to do with this particular film.
41:20.978 --> 41:53.434
I guess I kind of see it more in general. I think it's kind of like, where does the practice outweigh the performance? How far do you go? It's always something that's always going to fascinate me. From talking from filmmaker to filmmaker to filmmaker. Why does Stanley Kubrick need mhm to take 127 shots of Jack Nicholson walking up a set of stairs towards Shelley Deval? Why does he need to do that?
41:53.472 --> 41:56.170
And why does William Fred can go? All right, I'm good. One take.
41:56.220 --> 41:56.362
Yeah.
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We don't want to do it again. No, moving on.
41:58.620 --> 42:00.682
And why do they both work?
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Yeah. Why are they both?
42:01.812 --> 42:31.202
Yeah. So you go from that extreme to this other extreme. Like, where does the practice come back in from when the performance you feel like the performance is there? So I feel like this is why I like this shot, and this is why I like where this goes, and it's why I'm like, oh, I talk about, like, Apocalypse Now in that moment with Martin Sheen. And then I talk about this.
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Right?
42:32.200 --> 43:10.566
And I just feel like this for me personally, it nails it, and it requires a level of analysis. And this is kind of one of the reasons why I feel like this is one of the films. One of the moments where I feel like this podcast is totally deserving of its existence is because of moments just like this, because it wholeheartedly convinces you that the only way that we fully understand what's happening to this character that Caitlin is portraying is that he has to do this in this frame.
43:10.698 --> 43:15.242
This way, I wholeheartedly agree with you.
43:15.316 --> 43:15.806
Yeah.
43:15.928 --> 43:43.538
You've heard me argue about those torso mid shots and how you're not you kind of feel like you're missing out on something, and that would ruin this movie if you had kind of like a mid shot torso. You know what I mean, if him just crying and sobbing and swinging back and forth naked, you need everything. You need the shot that it has, because the shot that you get is perfect.
43:43.624 --> 43:58.930
I've jumped from film to film to film being like, justify why you're putting a Dick in it. All right. And sometimes I agree with it, and other times I don't. Right. Let's just put it that way.
43:58.930 --> 44:00.110
I always agree with it.
44:00.120 --> 44:10.750
Um, I know, but in this instance, like, the amount of impact you get from seeing this full visage is fully justified, in my opinion.
44:10.750 --> 44:11.570
Yeah, absolutely.
44:11.680 --> 44:23.370
He can't justify the things that he does later on in the movie. If we don't have this level of bare naked character analysis.
44:23.430 --> 44:48.942
I feel like it would all be a lot more cruel and less sad. I would agree it would look just villainous rather than desperate, which it still is villainous and horrible. But, yeah, this kind of gives you what you need to understand him or to understand where he's at. Maybe it's more appropriate.
44:49.026 --> 44:52.070
Yeah.
44:52.070 --> 44:55.906
I mean, that's the poster of the film. Is that shot.
44:56.038 --> 45:04.158
Yeah. There's a reason why. It's one of the reasons why we're looking at just getting the poster for the office space.
45:04.244 --> 45:05.598
I know I do want it.
45:05.624 --> 45:08.750
And I'm like, yeah, fuck, why don't we have that already?
45:08.750 --> 46:01.258
Yeah, maybe next time we do a weebly. Um, there's really one other scene in particular that jumps out to me as being memorable. And perhaps seared into my brain is the scene where he walks up, there's two young girls in a car car is parked, and he asks them for their license and registration, which they do not have. And it's kind of funny, like, oh, ha ha, yes, sorry, we don't have it. And then he's questioning them, and he becomes more and more not angry, but more tougher every single time he asks them a question. And more frightening to me. And, oh, you don't have your license. Why not? Oh, is this even your car? And they're just joking around going like.
46:01.284 --> 46:05.450
Hey, man, this is like the longest scene in the entire film.
46:05.510 --> 46:05.842
Yeah.
46:05.916 --> 46:15.670
As well. And certainly you can feel it as it continues and it escalates. You kind of already have seen Tytell do some questionable things.
46:15.780 --> 46:16.198
Absolutely.
46:16.284 --> 46:24.614
I've, uh, seen he's like a couple of kids go from a robbery. He's pockied the money himself. He's led himself to some of the shop keeps belonging.
46:24.662 --> 46:29.310
I mean, we've seen him shoot at or. No, he free based some heroin.
46:29.310 --> 46:29.962
Yeah.
46:30.096 --> 46:33.926
Taking drugs, selling evidence. Drugs, uh, to drug dealers.
46:34.058 --> 46:38.786
Yes. Questionable things are happening.
46:38.848 --> 46:39.734
Several here.
46:39.832 --> 46:51.878
Yeah. Without any sort of level of either purpose or kind of level of recourse. It's kind of almost as if this is just the way the system is.
46:51.964 --> 47:03.130
That's, like, opportunistic on his part. Like, anytime he finds an opportunity to do something that he. I don't know. I don't want to say benefits him necessarily.
47:03.130 --> 47:24.578
His motivations and things that motivate him is like, you can't really put it down to simple things. Like he likes to have sex, so that's why he's doing it. He likes to make money because that's why he's doing it. It's kind of all kind of predicated upon, like, how much darker can this character go and how more fucked up can it get?
47:24.724 --> 48:03.530
It's almost like he's testing the limits of how deep and dark he can get before it does bottom out, which is what I think he's doing. Maybe he is just testing mhm the limits. Is there a God? Where is my redemption? Where does my sin end or begin? Because he's constantly struggling with his face. Because that's a huge part of the scene as well. It happens later in the movie where he's yelling at a vision of Jesus, uh, a crucified Jesus training. Where are you? Where were you?
48:03.530 --> 48:20.698
That's another really cool shot in the movie as well, because he spends a long time, certainly, um, I think when he has moments of clarity where he's like, he realizes either what he's done or what he's doing. It's like the classic Hype. I tell pain scream.
48:20.794 --> 48:31.710
Oh, my gosh, that's another time where I started laughing.
48:31.710 --> 48:36.570
I know he does it in other films because Reservoir Dogs is also.
48:36.570 --> 48:40.650
Do you think there's a super cut somewhere? Maybe on YouTube.
48:40.650 --> 48:42.358
Screams probably.
48:42.504 --> 48:43.654
Okay, probably.
48:43.812 --> 49:52.437
But when he gets super upset in Reservoir Dogs, I think it's when Tim Roth tells him that he's an undercover cop, he does the exact same thing. So it's a Harvey kitel thing. He's got, um, that in the gamut. Uh, but I would, uh, say, I think you guys should watch the movie. I would say the story or at least the plot or his character changes, is when the nun is raped and he's, uh, I don't know if he's so much entrusted with the case, but it's not so much that we ever at any point see him solving crimes. He's committing more crimes than he's solving. Let's put that that way. Yeah, but when the none gets raped, uh, it's such a shockwave through the community, because, again, I guess my level of understanding with that idea is that as a family, your family, you go to Church, you have your pastor, you've got your confessional and things. Something like that. Something horribly and tragic like that happens. It's like happening on your doorstep.
49:52.437 --> 50:12.210
Uh, well, and they're also just what I would consider to be a protected entity. Your priests. Well, whatever about the priests. Fuck that. But your nuns are protected. Just even people who aren't religious can't imagine. Why would someone want to hurt a nun? Why would someone want to hurt something so pure?
50:12.270 --> 50:14.230
Yeah, they've done nothing wrong.
50:14.230 --> 50:22.350
And they're only there to help other people. So, yeah, it's quite the scandal, quite the horror.
50:22.470 --> 50:29.714
Yeah. And it is grounded in real situations that, uh, have happened in the time as well.
50:29.872 --> 50:41.574
Yeah. That happened in Spanish Harlem in New York a few years before they filmed this movie. So, yeah, it's unfathomable. Absolutely disgusting.
50:41.742 --> 50:46.322
Yeah. We didn't finish talking about that memorable scene either.
50:46.396 --> 50:56.594
Oh, right. Okay. He has the underage girls. They're kind of fairly jovial about the situation. Apparently they had in their father's car.
50:56.692 --> 51:08.966
Taking their father's car. They're young, they're under age, and they kind of truncated a little bit. Harvey, Caitlin basically asks them what they would do to get away with this.
51:09.028 --> 51:12.614
And effectively, what happens if I do something for you? You have to do something for me.
51:12.652 --> 51:12.818
Yeah.
51:12.844 --> 51:24.626
Effectively is when my mouth, my jaw drops. You were watching me while we were watching the scene, and my mouth is a gap going, like, how bad is this going to be?
51:24.748 --> 51:28.150
Oh, yeah. Uh, it's really bad.
51:28.150 --> 51:32.258
I hate to say it could have been worse, but let's say this happened to someone in real life.
51:32.344 --> 51:32.882
Yeah.
51:33.016 --> 52:16.050
Traumatized forever. That's what when you were talking about how cops or firefighters and people in films that have those jobs, they tend to just be their jobs, and that's all they are. Mhm and when you grow up, at least when I was growing up, it is ingrained within you to trust the police and trust your authority figures. And if you're in trouble, call the police. If you see a police officer like you can trust them, they can take you home. And imagine for these girls who are in this car and they have this police officer, and they think that they're safe, and that's the last thing that they are. And he's sexualizing these very young girls, and it is hideous.
52:16.230 --> 52:18.810
Well, it ends with him master being on their car door.
52:18.990 --> 52:24.422
He has the one girl bend over and show him her own. I'm going to tell I'm going to say it.
52:24.436 --> 52:24.614
Yeah.
52:24.652 --> 52:48.202
And then he has a girl kind of like, replicate what her mouth would look like if she was given a blowjob. It's so horrible. And then he's just beating it on the side of the car, saying horrible things to this probably 15 year old girl. And that's another scene where you just I started laughing because I was so uncomfortable.
52:48.346 --> 52:50.510
Yeah.
52:50.510 --> 52:52.018
That was a very shocking scene.
52:52.114 --> 52:52.734
Yeah.
52:52.892 --> 52:56.326
I mean, his sweaty face. Oh, it was nightmarish.
52:56.458 --> 52:59.450
And then he just walks off.
52:59.450 --> 53:01.530
Just zips up and walks away.
53:01.700 --> 53:02.810
Yes.
53:02.810 --> 53:05.326
These poor girls. And that scene goes on forever.
53:05.458 --> 53:08.422
Yeah. Uh, it's a very long scene. Very long scene.
53:08.566 --> 53:38.458
I mean, for me, the only other scene that I really wanted to touch on was when he ends up going to speak to the nun who was raped and is, um, unhinged. He looks horrible. His hair is a mess. He's very wet, very sweaty, and he's so tired. And he just tries to get on the ground to kneel next to her.
53:38.544 --> 53:55.450
There's also that moment where he goes to the Church the night before. He ends up probably sleeping there. And the next thing is, like, the crime scenes there, and they're, like, investing in there. He just wakes up and he comes out from one of the pews that he was sleeping behind, and it's like, all right, back to work.
53:55.500 --> 53:56.602
I don't even remember that.
53:56.676 --> 53:57.346
Yeah.
53:57.528 --> 53:58.318
Oh, my God.
53:58.404 --> 54:13.038
Yeah. As a character in conflict, he's trying to figure out why this nun just will not name the boys who assault eater.
54:13.194 --> 54:15.638
She knows who they are, knows what they look like.
54:15.664 --> 54:19.090
She knows them because they're part of the community.
54:19.090 --> 54:21.078
Yeah. They live across the street.
54:21.174 --> 54:42.850
So the community, even though the community knows who the fuck they are. So it's not so much a case of, like, they're not, um, able to arrest them. It's more that, like, the none. For better or worse, her faith is preventing her from taking action on it.
54:42.850 --> 54:51.010
She has forgiven them, therefore, she won't press charges pretty much. And I think that she isn't there.
54:51.010 --> 54:52.406
Won't stand for it.
54:52.528 --> 55:15.918
No. I feel like at one point in the movie, she said that she felt bad because she couldn't help them. They were doing this horrible thing. And even though she forgives them, she feels like she committed a sin for not helping them and not showing them the way.
55:16.064 --> 55:24.946
Pretty much. Yeah. Like their last resort was sexually assault or it's mind boggling stuff.
55:25.068 --> 56:13.274
Yeah. And for him, as a police officer who is some sort of moral code within, he just doesn't understand why. Because he also feels which I can understand, that you're letting these two boys back out on the street who have committed this horrible crime. And what is stopping them? They basically got away with one of the most unimaginable crimes known to humankind and got off scotfree, no charges whatsoever. And what's going to happen next? What's going to happen? And he said, you're not the only nun in the world. You're not the only woman in the world. What is stopping them from doing this? Again? You are the only person that can stop this. And she's just like, essentially, you need to find God. Do you even believe in God? Which is tough.
56:13.382 --> 56:23.218
Yeah. Lieutenant obviously does believe in God, even to the point where he does meet Jesus and calls him a rat fuck. He does. Yeah, he does.
56:23.364 --> 56:29.258
That's a really long scene of sobbing. There's several in this film, and this is by far the longest.
56:29.354 --> 56:31.170
Yeah.
56:31.170 --> 56:33.226
It's another really tough thing to watch.
56:33.348 --> 56:48.618
Yeah. I think we've tried to get across a sense of the flavor of this film. Yeah. I guess.
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Tastes like sweat.
56:52.470 --> 57:43.202
This film will be forever imprinted on the pantheons of extreme cinema history. You know what I mean? It's up there with a bunch of large font rear movies. It's up there with Takashi Mikey films and all the video nasties that you want to talk about. And I watch this film uh, and it reminds me a lot of, like I said, Mike stuff. It reminds me of very specifically of his remake of Kinji Fukasaku's Graveyard of Honor, which kind of falls a very similar sort of style. It's very simplistic stylistically, I feel, because a lot of the scenes are one shot. Yeah. You see a character traveling to this location, then it's pretty much just one shot, like a two shot. And I guess that's where, personally I feel like.
57:43.336 --> 57:45.386
Because the film never cuts away.
57:45.448 --> 57:47.454
It'S always very bare faced.
57:47.622 --> 57:49.550
The film never cuts away or cuts away.
57:49.600 --> 58:28.120
Uses a cutaway to kind of get away from things. I feel like that's where a lot of the controversy kind of comes in is that it feels like a lot of the drug use because it drags on for quite a fair amount. Looks instructional. And that's where a lot of see where the UK has the issue. Mhm. And I feel like, well, in Ireland, it's slightly different because they have more issues with, say, the rape of the nun, something else. And I don't know if that film is still banned or not in Ireland. I don't know if that film will ever be accepted by the Irish Film Board.
58:28.120 --> 58:29.306
Uh, I would say not.
58:29.428 --> 58:59.982
Probably not. You can, um, understand that. But, yeah, I guess there are varying versions, uh, of this film. I think I was quite, for one of a better word, lucky. But I think I have the fourth UK DVD version, which was the only version that was available to me, obviously, to buy it's 96 or 97 minutes long. Yes, pretty much. I think that's the Uncut version.
59:00.126 --> 59:00.578
Yes.
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Other stream versions or versions that we've found here in the US are 91 minutes. So stuff has been taken out for obvious reasons.
59:09.966 --> 59:19.710
Right. And I think that's really interesting because Ferrari wanted this to be an NC 17, which I guess in the UK is an 18.
59:19.830 --> 59:21.010
Okay.
59:21.010 --> 59:41.170
But he specifically wanted this movie to be in NC 17 just so he wouldn't have to deal with any restrictions. He had a lot more freedom. He goes, I don't care. This is going to be an NC 17, because this is what I want my movie to be. I don't want to deal with it because he knew what was going to happen.
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He wrote a goddamn script, or at least he says he did.
59:45.490 --> 00:31.510
Yeah. I mean, it was definitely a co writer situation. But the only reason that we have, at least in the United States and our rated version, is because of the video rental world blockbusters your Hollywood Videos. They did not carry NC 17 films, and it was just, uh, something with the companies themselves. So they requested if they wanted this film to be available to rent for people in their stores, that they had to make an R rated version. So Abel Ferrara had to make an R rated version and cut out scenes, and he actually had to cut out so many scenes and he had to go to the cutting room floor, essentially, and put in more scenes to make it a feature length amount of time.
00:31.510 --> 00:31.910
Okay.
00:31.960 --> 00:34.030
For Blockbuster and Hollywood.
00:34.030 --> 00:49.390
Yeah. I don't know. I guess I'm thankful. I think the version we have is because I've never seen the film in white screen. If it was shot white screen, I've only seen it for three.
00:49.390 --> 00:50.710
Okay.
00:50.710 --> 01:24.546
So I don't know how different the film is because it's very. You see in four three, and again, you're watching a four three format film on obviously a 60, uh, nine TV with a blackboard is on the side. It's very much like you're looking through a small window. So it always gives you that. It gives you kind of a sense of the isolationist and the kind of very constrictive sense of the world. Because when he goes to see that drug dealer, I forgot to bring this up. Like the wallpaper, there's even wallpaper on the fucking door.
01:24.618 --> 01:28.997
It's the same when he goes see Zoey dealer.
01:28.997 --> 01:33.842
Uh, that's, uh, some of the most claustrophobic stuff, I think, in the past.
01:33.856 --> 01:34.286
Yeah.
01:34.408 --> 01:45.074
Because a lot of it is characterized by the use of the shadows and things like that. That's a very kind of bright space. But I'd immediately walk into a space like that. I'd be like, I need to leave because I can't fucking deal with it.
01:45.112 --> 02:14.778
He shot a lot of the scenes, at least the shots of Harvey very, uh, wide, just to kind of show that isolation that he had. A lot of his shots, his nude scene, his nude shot, and a lot of the scenes of him taking drugs or when he was in Zoe's house with a wallpaper. He's kind of alone for a lot of it. I mean, she's there, but a lot of times she just steps away and you just see him alone. Just constantly alone.
02:14.874 --> 02:41.270
Yes. I like that stuff. Um, yeah, all kind of makes sense. You're really going to get that across. But a lot of the scenarios, a lot of the locations and things like that nightmarish. Absolutely nightmarish and how they look and how they are and what they're doing. Yeah. There's a massive amount of the use of the production design and stuff to get across that tone. That thing is very effective.
02:41.270 --> 02:49.850
You also have that very gritty New York. And the New York at the time was, as I mentioned before, going through an epidemic of, like, crack.
02:49.850 --> 02:50.538
Yeah.
02:50.684 --> 03:02.854
Crack exploded. They were making jokes in the commentary about just going up to certain areas where they were filming, just stepping on bags of crack, which I think was probably a joke.
03:02.962 --> 03:04.070
Okay.
03:04.070 --> 03:04.614
Maybe.
03:04.712 --> 03:16.746
I guess, like, New York's going through has gone through quite a massive amount of change, but I'm trying to figure out who it was that kind of came in because I hear a lot about Giuliani was the Mayor of New York.
03:16.808 --> 03:20.334
A lot of people say, like, these are pre Giuliani days.
03:20.432 --> 03:21.090
Okay?
03:21.260 --> 03:28.854
So perhaps he's responsible for that.
03:29.012 --> 03:51.694
That's what I read. That's what I hear. He's primarily the reason why New York has cleaned up to gentrify. Yeah. I think about how New York is depicted in the 70s. I think about, like, Taxi Driver and stuff like that. My only interaction, um, with that city is just how it is depicted in cinema.
03:51.802 --> 03:52.602
Yeah, fair enough.
03:52.676 --> 04:27.166
Because you've got, like, that depiction, and then you've got, like, once upon, uh, a time in America where it's fucking beautiful, right? It just looks fresh. It looks amazing. Well, not fresh, but the way that, um, Sergio Leone is able to kind of look at a place like that, and he, uh, puts that fucking Western edge on it. I would, uh, say there's plenty of filmmakers over the time that have created different visions of what New York is, because I feel like it's such an elaborate and colorful palette, say, from your Spike Lee to your Scorsese.
04:27.298 --> 04:35.794
Because it's also a personal look at how you view the city. And it's so large as well. So you have so many different boroughs and districts and areas.
04:35.842 --> 04:37.774
Giant framework of culture.
04:37.822 --> 04:50.682
So depending on what you use New York for or what your experiences, uh, then that is available to you to have so many different perspectives on the city.
04:50.816 --> 05:14.326
Yeah, no, I kind of feel like there's varying degrees. There's Panic and Needle Park and stuff like that. It's another movie as well. I like the palette, um, at which the city brings so much kind of life and difference to these different depictions.
05:14.458 --> 05:16.010
Yeah.
05:16.010 --> 05:28.420
Because very much the way that it's depicted here, it feels very much like a hellscape. So, I mean, I quite appreciate that the way it is. This isn't Seinfeld.
05:28.420 --> 05:33.570
Uh, would you recommend this movie?
05:33.570 --> 05:45.330
Yes. Here's the thing. And, I mean, I kind of did it to you just before you watched it as well. It's like, brace yourself, because this might not be for you.
05:45.330 --> 05:57.730
Yeah. I thought it was going to ruin my night, and so I wasn't sure how I wanted to watch it, what state of mind I needed to be in to watch it.
05:57.730 --> 06:33.858
If you're quite desensitized and you've watched a lot of cinema and you can kind of separate yourself, like, you can separate what's happening in the film from, say, real life and not feel too kind of subjected or affected by it, uh, then I'm like, you're probably fine with bad Lieutenant. I think there's, um, just a few things, like, you just have to stomach some quite awful, horrible behavior. But it's all part of what this film's identity is, you know?
06:33.944 --> 06:34.970
Absolutely.
06:34.970 --> 06:49.978
When he says when they call him a bad Lieutenant, he's bad. He's very bad. He's doing bad boy things. Yeah. He's not a very good Lieutenant. That's not what the film is. Called.
06:50.004 --> 06:58.042
He's also not a good father. He's not a great person. No, I don't know if he has any friends either. Probably not, uh, a very good friend.
06:58.056 --> 07:01.890
He probably doesn't need any friends the way he's kind of behaving.
07:01.890 --> 07:02.986
I'm sure he did it.
07:03.108 --> 07:10.170
I think at one point he thought Jesus was his friend, and Jesus let him die. Ouch.
07:10.170 --> 07:53.990
I also would recommend this movie. I was warned, as you've heard, and I'm surprised I hadn't seen it before. I think it's because I thought that I had. But I was wrong. I was dead wrong. And I enjoyed it. I weirdly enjoyed it. It is uncomfortable. It is moving. Just the fact that you really see Harvey kitel just lay it all on the line. And it is hard to watch, but it's really quite intriguing. I mean, you're watching, uh, Harvey kitel, just give it everything he's got and more. He must have been exhausted. I mean, he's really going for it in this way. And it's wonderful. It's really wonderful.
07:54.110 --> 08:07.946
I would only say. And here's the main thing. I feel like the second half of the movie, it is worse because of how strong the first half hour is.
08:08.068 --> 08:11.682
I won't lie to you. I fell asleep.
08:11.766 --> 08:12.906
It's a bit sleepy.
08:12.978 --> 08:36.850
I did fall asleep also because I warned Ryan, if we put something on after 09:00, P.m., I will fall asleep. And like clockwork, I did, but I also pushed to watch it. So that's on me. Yeah, that's on me. But I did fall asleep. It's very quiet. The end of the film is, um, so quiet. And I don't know if that's because of the music rights issues and everything that happened with that.
08:36.850 --> 08:56.594
That's also something that comes on board when you talk about the different versions of this movie, as well as some of the song choices that weren't the problem of the movie itself, but ended up being problems that, uh, involved Led Zeppelin having to take people to court for using samples of them.
08:56.632 --> 09:03.110
They had unlicensed music that they put in the film.
09:03.110 --> 09:11.578
Was unlicensed samples from Led Zeppelin in a song that was chosen by using the movie that they had to remove.
09:11.674 --> 09:12.042
Sure.
09:12.116 --> 09:17.790
That's the difference. I can't remember what it was called, but.
09:17.790 --> 09:19.202
It was from Cashmere.
09:19.346 --> 09:26.318
So they wouldn't let him use Cashmere in that song. But they let Pete. Did he later on use Cashmere for the fucking dodzilla song?
09:26.414 --> 09:33.050
Yes. Not even that long after, like, within a couple of years after. Better to ask forgiveness than permission.
09:33.110 --> 09:46.890
I don't know which is wrong. Yeah. And anyway, Led Zeppelin had already had a pretty strong track record of, like, taking people to court and fucking them over because they felt like they are stolen material had been stolen.
09:46.890 --> 10:06.922
Yes. I wanted to give my film rating, which I might actually update after this conversation, which rarely happens. Rarely we upgrade. We almost always downgrade our ratings after watching the movies, but I gave it a three and a half last night. And after talking about it, I think going up to a four.
10:07.116 --> 10:07.654
Okay.
10:07.752 --> 10:16.150
Going up to a four for the film. I'm going to do it right now. But yeah, I think the more that, um, we talk about it, the more I actually like it.
10:16.200 --> 11:32.062
The thing is, I like the fact that the film is quite stark. Even though there isn't really much in the way music. There is not one track. I'm trying to remember what it was called. You've heard it before and like Scorsese movies and stuff like that. Forever, my Darling, I think it's called. I'm not too sure. Okay, very good. It's only an old song and it's kind of nice. I quite like it because, um, it helps to kind of set an underlier for what you're seeing. Yes, very much the kind of jumps the position and it's kind of you take the lyrics of the song and you're trying to be like, oh, how does this relate to the film and stuff like that anyway? But yeah, I do like it stark nature. And I think last night I was going to give it a three because it was a little bit sleepy and I was like, well, hold on. I'm like, you can't be this congratulatory of the movie, talking to it now, obviously in the hindsight, just giving it a little bit more time to breathe. Because the first time I saw this years ago, fucking years ago, probably when I first bought the DVD and they're watching it now. And I'm like, you know what? Still probably deserves the four. I don't think I can give it any more than four.
11:32.196 --> 11:35.278
No, I don't think so. Personally, I wouldn't either.
11:35.424 --> 11:58.750
It's too front loaded. It's kind of imbalanced. I feel like as a film in terms of its content, because a lot of the stuff that happens near the end, it's just a lot of shots behind Harvey, Caitlin walking in locations. And I'm like, okay, that's fine. And effectively end up doing the same things where he's, um, getting drugs from people and pretty much mirror shots that have happened already.
11:58.800 --> 11:59.266
True.
11:59.388 --> 12:53.966
So it's kind of just like, okay, I understand what's happening here. Maybe some of those scenes maybe should have been written slightly differently so it didn't feel so same. But when you think about the powerhouse performance and the way I feel about that Dick shot as well, to the point where I'm like, I want to fucking poster over on the walls. What am I even thinking about? And you think about moments in cinema and the things that you enjoy and stuff like that, you're like, oh, fuck, yeah. Like things that kind of help characterize, uh, yourself as an artist, if that's who you are, or just someone who likes a certain tone or style of things. I think it's quite important. So I would say, yeah, I say It Deserves. Deserve A For, uh, Something That Not A Lot Of Other Films Can Do Effectively.
12:54.098 --> 13:15.742
Especially I Can Appreciate A Film That Will Make Me Think, uh, More. I Won't Really Stop Thinking About It For A While. It really Does Stick With You, and When You Ruminate On It A Little Bit More, It Definitely Deserves More, and I'm Happy I Gave It A Four.
13:15.816 --> 13:16.450
Yeah.
13:16.620 --> 13:33.334
What About The Dixiene Five? Yeah, Obviously. Okay. Yeah, It's A Five. It's Only Five. I Mean, You Want To Bring It Down For Context Because He's Actively Sobbing, but, um, It's So Early Days In The Film, So It Still Needs That Five As Well.
13:33.492 --> 13:44.930
Again, I Feel Like This Is A Moment Of The Films Of The Stuff That We Are Covering That I'll Be Comparing Other Films To.
13:45.040 --> 13:45.794
All Right.
13:45.952 --> 14:15.550
I Kind Of Feel Like It's A Bit More Of A Benchmark For Me Personally And, Like This Journey That We're Undertaking, so That's Kind Of How I Feel About that, and I'll Always Kind Of Bring I'll Be More Heavily On The Context As Opposed To Isn't It Great? It's Just There. I'll Be Like, Tell Me Why It's Fair Enough. I Like A Challenge Because I Think That's A Smarter, More Common Sense Analytical Approach To This Whole Process, So That's Kind Of How I Feel About It.
14:15.550 --> 14:17.742
All Right, Well, This Is My Podcast.
14:17.886 --> 14:18.930
There's The Candy.
14:18.990 --> 14:22.682
And Listen, We're Going To Do It How It Needs To Be Done.
14:22.756 --> 14:28.010
I'm Terrified. Laura, Please Don't Look Like that.
14:28.010 --> 14:31.506
Is There, um, Anything That We Missed, Anything In Your Notes That You Wanted To Talk About?
14:31.628 --> 14:38.154
No, I Don't Have A Lot Of Notes For The Movie, Anyway. What A Fantastic Tale Of Self Destruction This Was.
14:38.252 --> 14:48.162
The Only Thing I, um, Wrote Down I Didn't Mention Is That They Shot This In 20 Days, So It Took Less Than Three Weeks To Make This Film, uh, Or To Shoot It, so I Like that.
14:48.236 --> 14:49.370
Yeah.
14:49.370 --> 14:50.302
Thank You, Ma'am.
14:50.446 --> 14:57.210
It Doesn't Feel Like It Needed That Much To It, Though. That's The Thing. So, I Mean, It's Like, There You Go. We're Done In 20 Days.
14:57.380 --> 14:58.910
Yeah.
14:58.910 --> 15:03.810
Luc Besson Wrote Leon The Professional In Less Than Two Weeks.
15:03.920 --> 15:06.162
I Love That Movie. Uh, yeah, I Love It.
15:06.236 --> 15:11.390
It Can Be Done, People, If You Know What You're Doing.
15:11.390 --> 15:18.830
Well, thank You So Much For Being Here With Me Today, As Always, Ryan. Yeah, I Appreciate You.
15:18.830 --> 15:20.766
Yeah, this Is A Goodie This One.
15:20.828 --> 15:44.000
Yeah, I Agree. Thanks Again, Guys. Make sure To Follow US On The Social Medias, And, uh, We Will See You Next Time. Time I've Been Laura, Ryan, Ryan. Thank you. Bye. Uh.