Talking Pondo: Assault on Precinct 13 and Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai

 In this episode, Marty gives Clif the movie Assault on Precinct 13 to watch and Clif gives Marty Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai to watch.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to season two of Making Pondo and Talking Pondo. Talking Pondo is a podcast where Cliff and Marty give each other a film to watch and talk about them in detail. Some episodes will include a special guest. Making Pondo is a podcast where Cliff and Marty talk to people they have worked with and discuss their experiences on set. Alright, Marty, here we are. Back again, Talking Pondo. Oh, talking Pondo this time.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Well, the guests are the movies we watched along the way.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Oh my god. Uh so what do we got here? Season two, episode 19. 18. 18. I mean 18, which is uh overall, what, 54?

SPEAKER_01 0:46

54. Yeah. A long-awaited episode for us. You at home, you have no idea, but for us, it took us a while to get to this one. But we're finally here. Should we tell that story before we get started? It's a fun story. It's a fun story. It proves that we're becoming real podcasters by the second, because that's that's like a rite of passage. That's a that's a rite of passage. I think the wrong thing, yeah. I think that's a rite of passage.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Watching the wrong thing, forgetting to hit record, forgetting to hit record, yeah, having to redo the episode. We did that one, yeah. Having to redo the episode, we did that one. Um haven't lost completely, but so we gave so so first off, we uh I gave you Ghost Dog, Way of the Samurai, and you gave me Assault on Precinct 13 from 1976, the original episode. Yes, the Carpenter version. Um and I and so uh a couple of weeks ago, yeah, three or four weeks ago, I think it was, um, we s we got together to to record this episode, and you're we're you know, like we do before the show, we we kind of do a little pregame, kind of talk, you know, chit-chat, and then we're like, all right, you ready? Yeah, you got your notes, yeah. I got my notes, okay? And I go, and you were like, yeah, assault on precinct 13, this is gonna be a fun one. And I said, What does Assault on Precinct 13 have to do with the taking of Pelham 123? Which is the fucking movie that I watched instead of watching Assault on Precinct 13.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

I'm thinking you're joking, you know, well ha that's funny. And then it was like, no, seriously, I watched seriously. And the way that happened is you wrote that movie down, the uh taking of Pelham, because you were looking for it, and then you wrote the assault next to it, and later you saw that and just went, oh, that's the movie, because they both had numbers in it.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

That's it.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

So at some point in the future, stay tuned for the taking of Palm 1, 2, 3. We'll throw it at you when you least suspect it.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

So yeah, we um we have some interesting um thematic uh episodes and weeks and months coming up, kind of like we did with the spooky season. We did a Halloween and we did a Thanksgiving and we did a Christmas. Well, we've got some other sort of interesting takes on that type of stuff that will be rainy in the future. But as for now, let's let's stick to uh our two movies this week. Yeah. So uh Ghost Dog, Way of the Samurai, and Assault on Precinct 13. Which one do you want to go with first?

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Okay, so we've uh done a couple Carpenter movies already on the show. We uh covered Darkstar. Uh we covered Escape from New York, right? So those were the two so far. I I think those just those two, right? Yeah, I think so, yep.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

And so we haven't died of the other big ones.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Yeah. This is his second movie, which really kind of feels like his first movie. I guess let's talk about this one first. Sure, sure. It feels because you know, compared to Darkstar, this one feels like a John Carpenter movie compared to it. And I had uh this one on my docket probably since we started the show, because it was supposed to come after Darkstar pretty quickly, because I was gonna do it. Speaking of thematic, I was gonna throw this, you know, early John Carpenter thing, and then we started, you know, being like, Oh, oh, I'm watching that. Well, I guess you're watching this. And so the next thing I know, things like Master and Commander enter the the chat, and and so this it takes us this long to get to Assault on Precinct 13 from 1976. What is this film?

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Uh well, the first off, the podcast is what happens when you're making plans, Marty. Um, let me give you the log line of this film, and then I'll give you the storyline. Uh log line a highway patrol officer, two criminals, and a station secretary defend a defunct Los Angeles precinct office against a siege by a bloodthirsty street gang. Uh let's see, storyline. Police ambush and kill several gang members in Los Angeles. Gang members make a pact of blood to strike back at the police and conduct a siege on the police station which is almost abandoned and due to be closed. Staff of the closing precinct and the criminals being held there while in transit must work together to fight off the attacking gang members. And that's basically it. I mean, that's that's the perfect summary of the movie.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Yeah, they they they talk about Terrifier 3, and you can't you can't kill kids in the horror movie. And let's go back 50 years and say, hold my beer, because oh my god. That that scene still gets me when they kill that kid early on, which was kind of the inciting incident in a way, you know.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

It it was pretty shocking, yeah. Well, I mean, I I yeah, the the part of this storyline is like the I don't remember, did I miss it? Did I blank out on it? Did I was I not plugged in when I when I with the police ambushing and killing gang members in LA? Did I miss that part? Or because it to me it it's did it it it just starts off with these guys cruising around looking for people to kill.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Yeah. Right? Yeah, they're almost like zombies, but they're gang members, you know. It's it's very, very crazy like that, and then they uh start fucking with that ice cream man, and then they end up killing that kid's kid, and then that guy picks up his kid, runs into the police precinct, and proceeds to freeze up and never tell anybody why he ran in there or what happened, so they don't know why all these gang members are attacking them. And it's one of those kind of almost like Poseidon adventure, remind me a little bit of okay, we've set up all these characters and they all have their little stories, and now they're all going to converge, just so happen to be in the place at one time in the police precinct, and now can these people from different walks of life, including the prisoners, stave off all these insane NPCs that keep trying to storm into the uh police precinct? It reminds me of like here's here's John Carpenter showing up fully formed in 1976 with this after Darkstar, which doesn't even feel like him at all in many ways. And this one made me think, oh, I kind of wish there was three or four more 70s John Carpenter movies, because this feels like his 80s movies, right? But everybody's in their 70s decor and even the way it looks and the coloring, and I just got a kick out of that.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

I think that I mean, I the in Darkstar there were you can see Al Salton on Preseek 13 in Darkstar, and but it's made you know where it mainly is, and the extra shit that they shot to make it a movie. Oh, that makes sense. Like, you know, the the beach ball alien and all that all that crazy tunnel stuff and the walking across the beam and all that, that's got all that carpenter kind of look and feel to it, in my opinion. Um I feel like O'Ban may have had a lot more influence on on the the the student work that they then turned into that film. But um, you know, jumping back to to Precinct 13, yeah, I mean uh Nancy Loomis is in this, so right away you get it you get a nice little Halloween tie-in. And Charles Cyphers. Yeah, Charles Cyphers was also in this. Am I supposed to be rooting for the bad guys? Because I feel like in the beginning I'm kind of supposed to be, but then they pull up, they roll up on that little girl getting ice cream and blow her up, blow her away. It's just and it's that's like super violent. Like they they squibbed her. That's a kid that you just you know, I mean, those squibs are supposed to hurt, they're not supposed to feel real good. So it's pretty fucking surprising. Um is it a John Carpenter score?

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It sounds like it. The funny thing about that score is that's why Donald Pleasants is in Halloween, supposedly. Is I think the story goes, might not have all my facts right here, but I think the story goes, Donald Pleasance's daughter said, Oh yeah, do that Halloween movie because I really like the score that guy did in Assault on Precinct 13. Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Yeah, okay. Um there's a scene where we meet the the hero, this this highway patrolman, um, played by oh, who's that played by? Uh Austin Stoker. Uh Ethan Bishop is the character's name. So Ethan's driving in the car, and in the background, if you look, if you watch his driving scenes, there's a lady in a car and she keeps pulling up to the car, paralleling it, and then looking into the car and then dropping back. She does it three times in the background of the movie. And it just it like the first time I noticed it was so distracting. I noticed it over and over again. Um I could think of is why does this lady keep looking into this car? Like, does she know this guy? Is she gonna I expected her to pull up to him and like boom, you know, try to kill him or something as part of this gang thing, but it was just just I guess some weird background thing. I don't I don't know if maybe she's a stunt woman who was trying to control traffic around the car as they were doing their driving or something, but I mean, I don't know. It was weird. The the truck driver, the the the um ice cream truck driver, he looks like Ghost Dog's boss, only younger.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

He looks, you know, the the the what's his name, Vinny or the Italian guy that he works for. He looks that's he looks like Ghost Dog's boss.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

Weird. Yeah, it was funny the other day I was watching being from another planet, the Mystery Science Theater episode. I'm like, hey, that's that guy from Assault on Precinct 13 who's playing Lieutenant Plummer in that movie.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

And it's very much uh shows John Carpenter's Western influences, that he was influenced by Westerns a lot. I think he cites Rio Bravo a lot. That's a good one as an inspiration for this one, and he's like, I was just read, I was just making that, you know, that's what he claims.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Um Rio what's it's interesting he would do Rio Bravo because Rio Bravo is uh I think I think it's the original, but they did a remake of that El Dorado, which is basically the same movie with instead of Ricky Nelson, it's James Conn, or instead of James Conn, it's Ricky Nelson. One comes before the other, I can't remember which, but I think it might be James Conn first.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Um it's very brutal. It doesn't it doesn't mess around this movie. This movie it's a little bit of a slow burn, and then yeah, once it starts, it just oh, it just keeps going. And that's that's what I find uh the most fun about it. It's kind of like it has the blueprint for a lot of Carpenter's future film ideas in it, and they're kind of like all crammed in here, and then he kind of spreads all those concepts out over the rest of his catalog. But you know, I can even feel like they live vibes and you know escape from New York and the big trouble in Little China, any of his action-y type stuff, especially when they start blasting NPCs over and over again as they come through the come through the winter.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Yeah, it's it's very Escape from New York. It feels like it's got a little bit of Warriors in there too. Oh yeah, Little Knight of the Living Dead. Little Knight of the Living Dead in there, yeah. Um it's a it's a weird movie as far as the choices make that people make. Like, you know, you're just shooting a guy and just walking away, and then, you know, uh the guy gets out of the car and he, you know, the guy gets out of the car with a machine gun, and the other dude gets out of the car with a pistol, and he just dives back in the car, and the dude shoots up the car, and the guy gets out with the pistol and is like, ha ha! Pow pow pow pow. And it's like, come on. Video game logic, yeah. It's very weird logic, yeah. Um, I haven't heard the pew-pew sound in a long time in a movie is for gunshots, so that's always fun. Um so first off, the crazy guy that they're all worried about, the one prisoner that they're all worried about, he looks like Damone's dad from fucking Fast Times Ridgemont High, dude. That is Damone's dad. Like, if there were any scenes of Fast Times Ridgemont High where you needed to meet Damone's dad, that guy should have been cast.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Right. And now we know why he wasn't in the movie, he was doing hard time.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Ah, your point.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Well, spoiler, I'm sure they let him out when they both walked out together, you know.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

There's that weird scene in the beginning where Ethan uh Bishop he shows up to the precinct to take control over it, and the other captain is there, and he's just like looking at him and being all menacing and like loading a shotgun. And then he's like, let me just put that in this crate and lock it up. And because that's what you do, is you just load weapons and put them away.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Well, that's the Chekhov's gun, right? It's like, oh, that that's gonna come into play later because don't they bust the lock off of it and then do the classic game. Yeah, but I mean they could turn and boom, it's almost like a Cam Raimi maneuver, you know.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

Yeah, I I get I mean, I guess he's lucky that it was loaded then, you know. Sure, yeah. Um it's just a weird, again, weird choices. The movie makes a lot of weird choices. Um, it does seem like it was a fun movie to shoot. Like there's that one scene where the gang's outside and they're just shooting the shit up out of the building, they're just shooting it up. And so, you know, two smart things that Carpenter did. Uh, he used silencers so that he didn't have to show a lot of uh sound effects or show a lot of gunfire. And then everything else is just he's just basically just got a camera on a wall and they're just breaking shit off of the wall and it's falling off, and they're like, hey you go, gunfire. You know, really smart. Um that way.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

I like that they're using the silencers in the story because that what there's nobody out there. It's like it's just being gaslit by the people who are trying to attack you. Eventually, the the cops do notice what's going on, but it takes them a while.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

It does. There's probably just a little bit of overkill with how much you know, like they're shooting the shit out of that police station. Like there's a like this, it's two or three minutes of just shit flying off the walls and people crawling along the floor, you know, and and and you know, uh, you know, because you there's no they're all silencers. My funniest uh the funniest thing in this movie though is and I was expecting to see it because back in the day these types of movies weren't super worried about being realistic, and so there's like two people that have revolvers with silencers on them, and it's like that's not a thing. Right. There's there are no like that's the that's pointless. There's no fucking point in have putting a silencer on a fucking revolver. Um but yeah, I thought that was really funny.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Speaking of two and a half minutes, that's how long the opening credits were. Oh, really? They just go and they go, and I think for much work, though, right? That's one of those top-loaded like they used to do.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Um excellent broken arm effect. They did a really good uh job of that. Um it's uh I I love that Damon's dad is just a stone cold killer. Like that dude, you know, like put a gun in his hand, let me out of here. You know, yeah. Um he doesn't like he doesn't even bother to reload the shotguns, he just like throws it on the ground and grabs another one. Like, fuck that gun. Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

I don't remember the remake being as fun or as exciting. Yeah, it's interesting, but it was kind of like yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

It's Denzel. I mean, I I'd watched Denzel paint a house for two hours. I I I don't I you know, trying to modernize it or something. You they lost something in the process.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Other bizarre choices in that one, from what I recall. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So who was the prisoner in that one? Ethan Hawk?

SPEAKER_00 16:48

God, it's been so long since I've seen it. I have no idea.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

I wonder what the twist was or where they switched it around a little bit. Because usually when they would make the remakes, they'd do one thing different, so it's almost like a what-if scenario.

SPEAKER_02 17:01

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

Yeah. Um We knew Julie was never gonna make it. The minute she started complaining, we're like, she's dead.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

That's like horror movie rules. Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

I do like the strong female presence in the movie. I like that she's she's capable, she fights off, she fights off people several times, and even with a busted arm or at least a wounded arm, she just switches to the other arm and keeps killing.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Yep. They're crawling through the pipes and boom, as soon as you get off the pipe, boom.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Their crazy little plan to get them all down in the what in the basement and then blow them up or whatever they did. Like you just gotta get that one shot.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Yeah, with creating that wall. I mean, that's never gonna work. That could be a force is gonna keep gonna kill all of you.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

It's like, yeah, why not my guy for it? You know, sure African queen, but to like the extreme of extreme. I can do that now that you mention it. I can build that crazy device. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

That's true. Um, we forget all about uh blanket dude completely. Like we forget all about the guy that that like, and the only time that we remember him is when they head down to the basement, they're like, Don't forget blanket dude, and they grab him and take him down with the other guy at one point. He's comp I did too. He's completely worthless in the movie.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

He does other than in being the inciting incident, he has no other and he never tells them why why it happened or anything. He's so he's so shell-shocked from what happened. Yep. Yep. And then Carpenter goes on to make Halloween two years later. So he was really just set up right there, and then boom.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

Well, this is 90 minutes. Um it's it's tight. Like you said, it it I wouldn't say it's a slow burn, but it's a slow setup. Yeah, that's what I meant. Like, yeah, I mean, once it gets going though, about 15 minutes in, it's it takes off. And at 90 minutes, it's tight. Like there's nothing wasted, there's no there's no moments of like two characters, you know, where you're like, oh god, keep going. Come on, move on. Everything's done in a manner where just to keep that pacing going and moving and moving and moving. Um, really, really well done by him.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

Anybody can die at any moment. It's one of those movies, yeah. It doesn't take any prisoners. Like, oh, I guess that person's gone. I wasn't wasn't quite expecting, you know, I didn't know who was gonna make it. A lot of bullets flying around.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

So I love that dude keeps asking for his cigarette and she finally gives him one and lights it. Yeah, she's like, here's your cigarette. You know, it's like, oh, he's finally gonna get his cigarette. Yeah, you got a light.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

Yeah, you got a light, yeah, yeah, it's great.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

It's got its moments, it's got these great moments in it that are a lot of fun. Uh that that line, two cops wishing me luck, I'm doomed. That's that's great. That's a great line. Um, that's probably my favorite line in the film. Or actually, my favorite line in the film is I was born out of time, which is both corny and a pretty great line. Right. Had you ever seen this before? I think I saw it on like television a long time ago. Like, you know, like a Sunday night movie type of thing on on television. But it's been a long time. It's it's one that um it's one of those ones where you go, I forgot how good this was.

SPEAKER_02 20:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

You know, I forgot this is actually really good. It's not perfect. And um kind of like they live, where you're like, you know, this is one, and I mean, and I'm not trying to shit on that movie at all, but in in to me in his Pantheon movies, it's kind of lower down. But it's still a great movie when you go back and watch it, you're like, oh, that's that's actually a really good movie. I mean, there are people who absolutely love that movie and think it's one of the best things ever made, but and I I think it's great. I think it's one of the great satire sci-fi pictures, but it's again, it's that weird where you're it's cop carpenter's forgotten stuff, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Yeah. I I had seen this one for the first time after reading about it for years in the early 2000s on DVD. Oh finally I can see this movie, you know, and and I don't think I had watched it since then. This might be my second viewing of it. Yeah. I remember enjoying it then, thinking it was very brutal then, and now it's like, oh shit, I could really see it reminds me of the the movie MASH. When you watch that, it has all the seeds that would become the TV show in it. And then when you watch this movie, Assault on Precinct 13, like I was saying earlier, it has all the seeds of what John Carpenter's future career would be. Oh, that little element? I'm gonna make a whole movie about that. Oh, that okay, that'll be big trouble in Little China. That that'll be Escape from New York, that that'll be the fog, you know, etc.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

Oh, and speaking of Escape from New York, the dude, the iconic actor with the with the spiked up hair and The teeth and all that from New York, he's he's the guy, he's the inciting killer in this right. So that was that was fun to see. Um I don't think I've seen him in much else, honestly. Yeah. So he was already getting his uh group of actors that he was working with continuously. Well yeah, Cypher Loomis, you know, that guy. Yeah, there's I mean, um, it feels like a play. Yeah. Like it feels very much like a play, especially the lighting. It's very much theatrical stage play lighting. You know, they they do a lot of that emphasis on the eyes with the you know the blinds and that type of thing, which uh to me always kind of screams early filmmaker, you know what I mean? Um but it I mean it works, it looks great.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

Yeah, it's another good example of uh only a couple characters and limited sets is because you know the budget was low and being very effective with what they had.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Well, it was smart too in the way that he was like, look, we don't have a lot of money for stunts and stunt men, so we're not gonna have a lot of hand-to-hand combat or a lot of shooting back and forth. You guys are gonna climb through these windows, we're gonna shoot you, you're gonna fall down. And then everything else is basically just them running around outside until you get to the end with the hallway. Yeah, and that's pretty basic. Like that's a that's a pretty basic, straightforward scene. Um I I wonder why they didn't bust open the crates. There's crates everywhere. And to me, it was like if you were gonna I wonder if the remake they do that, where they're like, haha, we found shit in the crates to you know to use. Because it seems like a perfect um a div perfect device where they open, oh, here are the shotguns, here are the pistols, here are the other things that we need that were gonna be carted off, here's the body armor, you know, or whatever. Of course, this is the 70s where cops didn't really have that shit.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Yeah. Yeah, I only watched the remake once, so I don't really have much memory of it. Other than they did change a few things, or it was like, oh, like I think, I think they killed the the woman off earlier in the remake who survives to the end. I was just kind of like, what? Well, that's a that's a choice. You know, there's more of these weird choices, if I'm recalling it correctly. But for a movie that's almost 50 years old, it still kind of packs a punch, it's still effective.

SPEAKER_00 24:16

I can see why it's a cult classic, I can see why people dig it. I I feel like it was um smartly made. Um I I mean budget estimated is $150,000 in 1976. That's not much. That's that can't be more than than sets and film film and camera rental and shit. That can't be much.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

That's another one of those that it was a big marijuana influence. Because I'd watched this in the early 2000s, and it's like, oh, look at Carpenter. He's not making horror first, he made the action first, you know, and it's like we can make a goofy action, you know. And obviously, marijuanos is not assault on precinct 13, but I was inspired by we got the we got the goofy right. Got that right. Got the uh we're supposed to have that whole A Mountain Crater siege sequence kind of at the end, but quite get there.

SPEAKER_00 25:09

So glad we don't shoot an A Mountain anymore. Um the uh the end where this there's that great ending after it blow after everything blows up and and that the smoke clears and they're all standing there. Yeah. That great shot at the end. Uh and I love how yeah, and I love how Ethan Bishop's the character is uh pissed off at the other cops who were gonna put the cuffs on him. He's like, get out of here, leave him alone, you know.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

Right. He's earned that shit now. It's like, yeah. It's like I think your time served now. You can go beat Damone's dad again. You can help him pay for Stacy's abortion and job on his gremlin.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

Mike Damona's a little prick. He's gotta sell those tickets to fucking um oh god, what's that shitty eight band from the 70s?

SPEAKER_01 26:06

Yeah, almost ended up working 7-Eleven. Blue Oyster Cold ate two pairs last time around.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

Ate 10 pairs last time around.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

I thought he just flew in for games. Well, that's the little kid's line, right?

SPEAKER_00 26:17

I thought he just flew in for games.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Shit, kid. Well, now I've uh gone off on the uh see that that's the future Patreon content. Whenever somebody goes off on a little tangent for about five minutes, that's the little snip, and there you go.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

That's right, folks. This is the stuff you won't get when later on when we monetize the podcast. So enjoy it while you got it.

SPEAKER_01 26:43

Um I'm gonna give it a two and a half, leaning towards a three. You know, I'm gonna give it a I'm gonna give it a three.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

I think it's I think it's definitely a classic. I think he did a great job. Like I said, it's it's tightly paced. It's pretty well put together. There's a few goofy weird choices and some other things, but it's it's well made for a kind of a campy movie.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

Yeah. How did it compare to the taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3? Um the accidental feeling.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

Yeah, honestly, um both very good. I mean, both good movies in a little bit different ways. Um I mean, you've got Robert Shaw and taking a Pelham 1, 2, 3 along with Walter Mathau. Um, you've got early um oh my goodness, what's his what's the uh bald guy's name? Hector Elizondo. You got early Hector Elizondo in that, and um it's really pretty good. Plus, um I can't remember who the other uh actor is. I want to say it's uh the same dude that was married to Shelley Winters in Poseidon Adventure. Oh wow. Um but anyways, it's it's a great cast and it's a t kind of a tight, tightly pa it's not as tightly paced, but it doesn't need to be, right, for that type of movie. But anyway, I I like them both. I thought they were good. I'd recommend either one of them. The guy who played Marty. Yes. What is his freaking name?

SPEAKER_01 28:11

It's on the tip of my tongue.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

Oh, that's just annoying, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 28:18

He's not ridiculous. It's just, folks, if you're listening, we apologize. That's the cognitive decline. Ernest Borgnine.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

Ernest freaking Borgnine. Ernie Borgie. Ernie Borgie. So three stars for me and two and a half for you, huh?

SPEAKER_01 28:37

Yeah, leaning towards the three. When we did the review of the end of the season, that might be one that I say grows on me.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

Well, I can see why. Like I said, I I I think it's good. I I I like it.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

Yeah, some of our future episodes you're about to hear in weeks to come, listeners, uh, have different guests, as I think we've already alluded to. And I've already some of those movies have already started to grow on me because we record these when when we can, and we release them in an interesting, fascinating, mm-hmm order for you. The three most said words on this podcast, I think. Interesting, fascinating, and me going, mm-hmm. And now I've noticed it's spreading. Me going, um yeah. Uh for about the last 10 weeks or so of the regular talking pondos, Cliff has given me movies that I have not cared for that much. Not necessarily outright despised or anything. Some of them were I was pretty low on, but some of them were just kind of like, yeah, you know, I haven't really got that that feeling since like the holdovers or maybe like breaking away. I like to keep going back to. But that's over with this week. The Stone Cold classic of Ghost Dog, the Way of the Samurai, which I don't think I'd ever seen before in from the opening shots of this movie. Yeah, you you you you've done good. From the opening shots of this movie with the the birds flying in the sky, it was immediately haunting, I thought. So, what is Ghost Dog?

SPEAKER_00 30:07

Ghost Dog, The Way of the Samurai. Uh, this is a crime drama from 1999, it's rated R. Um Log Line is an African-American mafia hitman who models himself after the samurai of old, finds himself targeted for the death for or finds himself targeted for death by the mob. Um, storyline. Let's see here. A hitman who lives by the code of the samurai, works for the mafia, and finds himself in their crosshairs when his recent job doesn't go according to plan. Now he must find a way to defend himself and his honor while retaining the code that he lives by.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

It's like if a monk's friends was good. Yeah, I can see kind of what you're saying there. This is the movie Drive wishes it was. Yeah, and it, you know, it it also made me think of gross point flank a bit too, because sometimes you're just suited to that life. You know, they tested you and they said you're gonna be a hitman, you know. Yeah. I I mean I really, really enjoyed this one. It almost every moment of it hits, the soundtrack is perfect, the the pacing is good, the way that it really shines through, and what an indie can do where you don't have studio involvement telling you you gotta remove all that philosophy stuff, you gotta cut this and this. And Jarmous just made the movie that he clearly wanted to make. And you know, before I'd seen it, I'd just seen the trailer, and you know, how trailers can be completely deceiving. And I remember seeing a trailer in a theater, and people were laughing at the trailer because it the trailer is not indicative of the movie, it's a bad trailer. It is like a moving piece of art in a way, it's like a moving painting in a way, and there's there's so much humanity in it, and just yeah, I I was pretty blown away overall. Yeah. It's been a few weeks since I watched it, so I'm not as fresh, but I still remember liking it very much.

SPEAKER_00 32:04

Yeah, I I I like this. Is probably my favorite Jarmouche film. I feel like this is the one where he's the most coherent, where he's really just trying to tell a he's not trying to tell too tricky of a story. He's basically trying to talk about his fascination with the samurai and the code of the samurai and how that would work in a modern society and how that would work if it was inside of the mafia, which seems like a good place for you know, for that type of thing to to be to to flourish, or at least to be.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

It's the avenging the uh death that you drop into at the other end. So very much like in things like Boys in the Hood, when does it ever end? You know.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

Right, right. Um, what got me right away with the film, and what really stood out to me that I saw this movie 20 years ago easily. Um, and I come back and I visit it occasionally. Uh first thing that got me was the soundtrack. Riza's soundtrack is fantastic. It's it's hip-hop, but it's not hip-hop, it's not your standard type of hip-hop, it's just hip-hop beats, hip-hop sounds, hip-hop mix. It's a score, a hip-hop score, and not hip-hop music. Um, and but what I mean by that is you know, there's not a lot of rapping over it, a few songs here or there. Um apparently for uh Jarmouche found out that uh mafia guys in prison like to listen to hip-hop. They like it. And so that's why he included hip-hop in the soundtrack. That's why one of the dons talks about flavor flavor. And that's why that's why he's uh uh Forrest's character, Ghost Dog, is is and that's why they did that.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

One of the things I really like is Ghost Dog's relationship with Raymond, the ice cream vendor. And the ice cream vendor speaks French, and and Ghost Dog only speaks English, so they they don't understand each other, but they totally do understand each other. One will commonly say what the other one just said, but in the other language. And you were saying that this came out at some point without the uh French subtitles in it, and then they put that back in. And it it that does lend a different thing, because then you're like Ghost Dog, you don't know what he's saying, but then when they put it in, you can get both. You can be like, oh, I know Ghost Dog doesn't know what he's saying, but now as a third viewpoint, I know. Which is kind of because then Roshamon, which this is surrounded by in the story a lot, multiple viewpoints. So multiple viewpoints, exactly. I like him giving the book to the little girl and that whole relationship with you know, read this and then tell me what you thought about it. I mean, when you watch the movie viewer, this will make a lot more sense. You know, I'm talking about it, it doesn't sound like emotionally engaging, but when you watch the movie, it's it's done really well. You know, really well.

SPEAKER_00 35:05

It's got tons of Japanese themes running through it. Um I love how right in the beginning of the film the movie tells you who Ghost Dog is. He's a modern-day samurai, he's already dead, you know, all these things are are really given to you right up front so that you can understand who he is. There's a great scene where he he loads his briefcase up and he leaves his place and he and he lives on top of a of a building. Um he keeps pigeons, and that's how he talks to his boss. He sends his boss a pigeon, his boss sends him a pigeon back saying, sends the pigeon back saying, I need to meet with you, and that's how he gets his jobs. And he's a he's a he's a contract killer. He's a he's a hitman for hire. Well, well, not for hire. He's a hitman in service to this one guy, basically.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

Yeah, because he uh saved his life because he saved his life back in the day. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 35:57

And so that there's this great scene early on where Ghost Dog comes down from the top of the building and he leaves his building and everybody he walks by doesn't see him. The guy sweeping the stuff stair the guy sweeping the store turns just at the time when Ghost Dog walks by and Ghost Dog and he doesn't see Ghost Dog. Then the two the two dudes that are the two kind of street guys that are standing there also are talking to each other and they turn to talk to each other just at the time he walks by. So nobody's kind of seeing him, which is a really I don't know, it was a very cool visual. I thought it was very, very cool.

SPEAKER_01 36:29

I mean, this this movie does things like a close-up of this dog that keeps following Ghost Dog around, and just it's holds on the dog's face, and you feel emotion just from the shot of the dog's face. That's that's good filmmaking. I mean, yeah, yeah. It's doing something so simple and having it be meaningful. I mean it's things like that is why this movie is so perfect, I think, in many ways. Yeah. Big surprise, because I didn't know what to expect going in.

SPEAKER_00 37:02

Um it's it's it's an indie pick that feels like it's got a mid-level budget. Like he he he made it he spent two million dollars on it. So he got everything. I mean, this guy, he's got a helicopter shot in this movie uh at two million dollars. That's pretty pretty great. Um I love how they used Forrest's younger brother for the flashbacks. So when so we flash back to see him getting beat up by these guys and he's about to get killed, and this this uh guy who works for the mob uh basically shoots these dudes and saves his life. Um I thought that was really well done.

SPEAKER_01 37:38

I like uh when he encounters that hunter with the bear. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

Yeah, I like that. You know, bears were what does he say? Something about bears were thought to carry spirits or something like that. Yeah. Um the the mob in this movie is kind of dumb. Those three old men are you know, they it and I also love the fact that the they're these three old men are kind of broke. Like at one point in the movie, the guy, the social club that they're in, the dude who owns it comes in and is like, you haven't paid rent in three or four months. If you don't pay rent, you're out of here. And he isn't even scared of them. He's not scared of any reprisals or being beat up or shot. These are just deadbeat wise guys who can't pay their bills anymore. You know, they're not they're not these, um, you know, they're not the height of their of their uh glory days anymore. And that scene where so the in the film basically what happens is Ghost Dog gets sent to kill this guy, and the he kills the guy, but he doesn't realize that there's a woman in the room, and he lets her live, and she happens to be the daughter of a well-known mob boss. So this so this mob boss's daughter was sleeping with this other mob boss. So he kills that mob boss, doesn't kill her. Well, the three guys want him dead now. The three the three mob boss guys want him dead because he wasn't it's it's a weird logic because he did what he was supposed to. He killed the dude. Yeah, but because she was there and he killed the dude, he's done with it all of a sudden, and he has to die, right? Yeah. And they're mad at that.

SPEAKER_01 39:23

It's like, oh, you killed him, so we have to kill you. Like which is like that's what you sent me to do in the first place.

SPEAKER_00 39:30

Like, that's so weird.

SPEAKER_01 39:31

Well, they apparently weren't happy with it, right?

SPEAKER_00 39:34

I guess, yeah. So they send Louie, so they so they summon Louie, who's who's Ghost Dog's retainer, and Louie shows up and has to explain who Ghost Dog is, which is a fucking hilarious scene. Yeah, yeah, because he's like, Passenger pigeon to that old man, that old man who just has these weird extinct from 1949. 1918. All this weird, it's like, what the hell?

SPEAKER_01 40:03

And then they get the note off of and they read it, and it's like, what does that mean? It's like the one the main guy knew exactly what it meant. He knew it was he's coming for everybody. Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_00 40:14

Yep. Um, there's some really great moments of pure surrealism in the film. Um the the mob bosses with the flavor flav thing, the passenger pigeon uh at the end where he's like the when when he shoots that old the old man has the heart attack, he doesn't even shoot him at the end, he just goes like oh my god. There's these weird moments of dark comedy buried in this movie that are very, very good.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

There's so much stuff with animals in it. Not only works, it works like too well, and that's that's so hard to pull off. How do you make the shot of the pigeon flying in the sky haunting?

SPEAKER_00 40:55

And somehow they do. They do, yeah. All the pigeons, all the dead pigeons were is pretty disturbing too. Uh my my I remember my wife when I w when we watched it, she's like, those aren't real dead pigeons, are they? I'm like, I'm sure they're not.

SPEAKER_01 41:07

Yeah, it just makes it go a little more John Wickish on the whole thing, you know.

SPEAKER_00 41:11

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:14

But not the one pigeon. That one survived.

SPEAKER_00 41:18

Yep. Um This could be any city on the East Coast. Like it doesn't, it it's not New York, it's not Philly, it's not New Jersey, but it's it's somewhere in there.

SPEAKER_01 41:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:30

You know, it's somewhere in there. It's it could be any of those cities. It's and and I think that's intentional. You know, he doesn't he doesn't identify the license plates that Ghost Dog Switch are fake license plates, they're not real. Um they look like New Jersey and Philadelphia, but they're not. So it's this weird sort of I don't know, fugue world that he's that he's creating, dream world. My favorite line is after he shoots him and tells him he doesn't mean in many disrespect. Yeah, he shot me in the same class again. I don't mean you know disrespect. I'm your retainer. And I guess a dead pigeon in your bed is better than a dead horse head.

SPEAKER_01 42:19

I well yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:25

Um one of the things I noticed about this film is that there are no there are no match cuts or jump cuts. Um it's all fades. Everything in the movie is fades. Fades in, fades out, fades in, fades out, fades in, fades out. Uh at least between scenes. I mean there's there's definitely cuts as far as the film goes, but it's all fade in fade outs for scenes. Um I found it interesting that the whole that whole mob gang is all old guys. There's not a young there's no young kids working for them. There's no young people at all. In fact, Ghost Dog's the youngest guy in the movie, basically, except for the kid and the ice cream person. Like everybody dealing with this mob, they're all old. It's very weird.

SPEAKER_01 43:21

That book that he gives the girl is the book of the samurai. Which is basically the the warrior code. That makes sense. It's it's weird. It like it has a a story, but at the same time it's more about its subtext, I feel, than the story it's presenting.

SPEAKER_00 43:45

Um I have a note here that says I I I like how if you just follow the movie, it will it will make things clear for you and take you where you need to go, but it isn't gonna hold your hand while it does that. Right. You know, it's just like you just have to sit and watch the movie and everything becomes very Oh, that's why he did that. That's why this is happening. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 44:04

It's one of the better examples of movies from around the year 2000 that were trying to hit this type of tone. You know, and we've even covered some of them before. Like SLC Punk comes to mind, was trying to have some kind of art house intense vibe to it. And this this is one that actually does it. It's like it reminds me of all the Bruce Lee, you know, art of doing it without doing it type thing, you know. And that's how it's happening, because they're not trying to make it happening to make it happen, they're just letting it happen. Capturing lightning in a bottle, kind of.

SPEAKER_00 44:43

Yeah, it's I mean it's it's character driven to an extent, but it's it's just more about the events, the story, and the character all together. You know, I mean, without the events, Ghost Dog is basically just sort of in stasis. You know, I mean, his whole purpose is to serve his retainer. And his retainer, what is his retainer when he wants people killed? So without that, there's nothing really, you know what I mean? It's almost like he doesn't exist in a weird way. Um I don't have a lot of notes on the movie. Um apparently it was it's it's um inspired or it's it pulls from La Samurai from 1967, which is uh French film. Um I haven't seen it, but might might might drag it onto the show at some point. Um in my opinion, the film ends in the only way it can, which is in death. That's kind of that's kind of the point to a certain extent. Um but done in a really beautiful way and and um yeah, told really well. I don't know. I I I I really recommend that people watch this movie. It's I think again it's Jarm Moosh's best movie. You know, he's got he's had other more interesting ideas, you know, um Down by Law, Dead Man, um Night on Earth. He's had other things that are a little more like, I don't know, um stretching his artistic ability, but this is just a compact, really well-made movie. You know what I mean? And it is a little long. I mean, I think it's almost two hours. Um but it it it but it needs to be. It needs to take you where it's gonna take you.

SPEAKER_01 46:25

And and I I like how it kind of just serves as this vehicle for all these uh philosophy that they throw in every 10 to 15 minutes. Like this this is one that stood out at me. The in the words of the ancients, one should make his decision within the space of seven breaths. It is a matter of being determined and having the spirit to break through to the other side. But it's just like, you know, it's your almost like your typical anger management thing, like think about it, take, you know, calm down first, but also you should still be able to make the quick decision within that frame and strike because a samurai can't sit there and in RPG terms miss turns, you know, you're missing rolls. You gotta be quick, but you have to be thought out at the same time. It's just just I liked all these different ones, you know. I could find them all and read them all, but they were they were all pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 47:24

Yeah, I I I like that quite a bit. Um the I noticed that the book that she's reading when he goes in to kill that guy, and and she's just sitting there and she's reading Rashimon. And and Rashimon is about the same story, you know, a bunch of different people tell retell the same story, but they all have different the story's different from each person's point of view. And check out Rashimon. Yeah, and Louie and Louis and Ghost Dog have different versions of how they first met. Their versions of how they first met are definitely different. So I thought that was interesting. I mean, and Ghost Dog doesn't even have I don't think he speaks for the first 30 minutes of the movie. He doesn't have a line. Right.

SPEAKER_01 48:08

I was starting to think he wasn't gonna talk at all.

SPEAKER_02 48:11

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 48:13

Even if one's head were to suddenly be cut off, he should be able to do one more action with certainty. It was the things like that where it's just like, wow. It's great. And then you see it kind of play out each one of the quotes as they they lay it out. So and I know it suffers from I had watched it almost a month ago. Otherwise, I probably would have blathered to a 90-minute episode, but it's more like just go and watch this if you haven't seen it.

SPEAKER_00 48:45

Yeah, yeah, I I agree.

SPEAKER_01 48:47

Um if you have, it still holds up.

SPEAKER_00 48:50

So I mean, Jar Jar Moosh has publicly stated that if Whitaker had turned the role down, he wouldn't have made the movie. He wrote the movie for Whitaker, period. So, and and I I think every now and then these movies come along where an actor's had a foot role written for them and it's the perfect role for them. And this is kind of the one of the perfect roles for Whitaker. Whitaker's a great actor. I mean, that dude is a fantastic actor. And I've we've been, you know, I've been watching him most of our lives since Fast Times and probably another fast times.

SPEAKER_01 49:23

Yep. You found the connection between the two movies.

SPEAKER_00 49:26

But, you know, I mean, he's he's he's he's really great in this, and I I really recommend that people see it.

SPEAKER_01 49:33

Yeah, he's he's another one of my birthday buddies, another July 15th person. And so all the I'm like, oh, here's this cancer guy, and all this fucking moon imagery in the movie. I think I even watched it on a full moon, and it was just like, oh, this is totally speaking to me.

SPEAKER_00 49:51

Good. Well, it's it's good. I'm I'm I'm glad. It's been it's been months of of me handing you movies going, well, he'll like this. I remember that I yeah, this. And you know, finally I was like, if he doesn't like Ghost Dog, I don't know what the fuck I'm gonna do. And you know, I kind of feel the same way. If you don't like Ghost Dog, really? Yeah, this is a film, this is a filmmaker's movie. If you're a filmmaker, you appreciate film, you appreciate actors acting, story, storytelling, thematics, elements of of you know, all that shit. This is a movie that's really gonna get to you, that you're really gonna like. Even if you don't like violent movies or if you don't like movies about mobsters, it's not that type of movie. It's not it's not goodfellas with a black guy who thinks he's a samurai. That's not what the movie is. Don't think that. We keep talking about mobsters, but it's like we like I mentioned earlier, these mobs, these are the most neutered mobsters you've ever seen. They can't even pay their fucking rent. You know? Um weirdly, they can't pay the rent on their social club. So they're and they're all old and kind of falling apart.

SPEAKER_01 50:53

Um one of them is uh I just thought they'd for just being stingy and not paying the guy.

SPEAKER_00 51:00

Right?

SPEAKER_01 51:01

They got money and they just refuse to pay. But you're probably more on the head, though.

SPEAKER_00 51:06

One of them is uh Henry Silva. Yes. Who has been in, I mean, that dude's been in so much stuff.

SPEAKER_01 51:15

Oh yes, uh MST episode 705, Escape 2000 is the Henry's golden film. So we have three people in MST movies from both of our flicks today. But he was in everything, Henry Silver.

SPEAKER_00 51:29

Yeah, dude, that dude was in everything. I mean, Henry Silver's had a career going back, I think, to the 50s or the 60s. Oh, at least. Um, his he's got he's in 143 movies according to IMDB. So, I mean, he's had quite a career. Dude was in Cannibal Run too, for Christ's sakes.

SPEAKER_01 51:48

Shot here in Tucson.

SPEAKER_00 51:50

Shot shot in Tucson. Yeah, he's in the Manchurian candidate. Yeah, he he would um, you know, early on he got cast a lot as a Native American or as an Asian. Uh he would he would get those Asian roles where he's you know the Asian assassin or one of those people. He would get those. Good actor. I think he was on uh had some Buck Rogers experience. He's been in some stuff anyway. So um what else? You got anything else on this one? Oh, I'm sure after we stop recording, I'll probably punish it to say, but um I will last thing I'll say is that uh this was this was uh kind of a hit for Jim Jarmouche. He he again two million to make it, it did nine million worldwide, uh three million in the US, and then it went to DVD. Yeah, so that that second window and that cable's always you know extra money. So probably pretty is it a Criterion collection movie now? Yep, yeah. Yep, yeah. I'm hoping for I the only copy I have is DVD. I would love a Blu-ray copy of it.

SPEAKER_01 53:01

Yeah, I thought that was like like 720 or something. So it was like, yeah, it was a decent looking.

SPEAKER_00 53:10

Yeah, it's a my copy's unfortunately just a just a just a DVD.

SPEAKER_01 53:14

No, it's just DVD.

SPEAKER_00 53:15

Well, sometimes those DVD transfers they made them pretty good, and some of them still Yeah, that Ghost Stock copy's pretty pretty good for that criterion copy of it's pretty good. But I as soon as it hits Blu-ray, I'm gonna grab a copy.

SPEAKER_01 53:26

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:27

And I'm hoping for more than a lot of people. Yeah. Oh, I'd I'd dude, I'd watch that on a big screen any day of the week. Any day of the week.

SPEAKER_01 53:36

Um, it's great when you put on a movie that you have no expectations for and think it might actually be bad, and then you come out the up the end of it and you go, well, that's clearly four and a half stars. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:53

Is that what you're giving it four and a half?

SPEAKER_01 53:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:55

Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm I'm going four and a half myself. It's it it's got a couple of small, just small things that detract from it being five.

SPEAKER_01 54:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 54:05

Just a couple of small things. They're not worth pointing out, but they are worth saying, eh, you know, it okay, can't do a five on that. But most of it though is so damn good, it's it's just it's hard to it's it's hard to look away when that film's on. It's just really well made. Yeah. Well, finally, man, got you something, got you something that you liked. I'm so happy about that. I mean, something I'm wrong, I love torture you with a bad movie, but you know, 10 times in a way.

SPEAKER_01 54:40

Which I I I think I'm following the real Sean Baker on Letterbox now, and I think he likes Hell Knight.

SPEAKER_00 54:48

That's hilarious. But Sean Baker's great. I I I I can't wait to watch um Florida Project and Red Rocket. I'm really looking forward to those in a Nora.

SPEAKER_01 54:57

But uh yeah, this is not only a great movie, but it's like an all-timer. Yeah. I hold this up there and you know, among some of the best movies probably ever made.

SPEAKER_00 55:09

I think it I think especially as a as a as a mafia picture, it's a standout. Like there's not another there's not another mafioso type of picture like this at all, period. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:23

It's like this is like you would hope that like if Bruce Lee had lived the type of movies that he would have made would have been something like this. Awesome. Oh, I would have loved that. Because it blends the philosophy with the action in the mob is a perfect place to have that samurai playground of the story with the vengeance and the and the drive-by the mob hits, and yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:50

And it's just again, it's paced well, shot well, and that soundtrack. I can't say it enough. What a great soundtrack that is. That Riza soundtrack is fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 55:59

Yeah, form is emptiness, emptiness is form. One should not think that these are two separate things. Just always, and you're going, What? Yeah, and you're sitting there thinking about that while you're watching the next, you know, 10 minutes of the movie until it throws another one at you, and it it all kind of comes together. At least I think it does.

SPEAKER_00 56:22

Nah, it feels like it feels it feels like there's it's a deep picture. There's a lot under the surface going on in that picture. It's not you're not just watching this surface thing about this guy who's a killer.

SPEAKER_01 56:34

And when you try to combine that much d disparate stuff into one thing, a lot of the times it comes out like, what the fuck? But this one's uh this one's a perfect blending of it. This is made by somebody who knew exactly what they were doing and got to make the movie that they set out to make, is at least the feeling I got from it. Because it it's always a different movie than you expect. But what this bloomed into is you know something else.

SPEAKER_00 57:04

So yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_01 57:06

Very violent, though. So if that puts you off, you know. But at the same time, I think, you know, that if you can handle average action movie, you're gonna be able to sit through this. I mean, shit. Well Deadpool Wolverine's way more violent than this movie.

SPEAKER_00 57:21

Oh yeah, for sure. For sure, way more violent. Um, another great part of the movie is that it's not it's violent, but it's it doesn't it doesn't languish in it. It's violence. Exactly. Violence is there for a purpose.

SPEAKER_01 57:34

Yeah. It's part of the code. It's the Mandalorian, you know.

SPEAKER_00 57:40

Yeah. So, folks, if you're listening, Salton Precinct 13 and Ghost Dog, go see 'em. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:47

Tell us for crazy for not remembering the remake.

SPEAKER_00 57:52

I don't know. I almost thought that they remade Ghost Dog for a second, and I was just like, oh my god, what are you talking about? I'll do that.

SPEAKER_01 57:59

Don't do that. Now I'm back in fast times again. Don't do that. No, please. No, don't do that. When Brad's talking to the mirror. Come full circle. Okay, so next time on Talking Fondo.

SPEAKER_00 58:19

What do you got for me?

SPEAKER_01 58:20

Oh, you know, we're getting down to that final 12 of my original list here. I put the what more what order to give them to you?

SPEAKER_00 58:30

I changed it again. I don't I don't I don't know. I know, like I said, I have a group of films I pick from, but I don't know what you're gonna. I still I'm looking at a list right now, I still don't know what I'm gonna give you.

SPEAKER_01 58:41

And I decided, I think, uh, for pacing purposes. Your film next time is from 2021, and uh you're gonna have to watch it on Tubi or somewhere like that, you know, because that's the only place it is. It's uh called Joyride. It's starring Bobcat Goldwaite and Dana Gold. It's kind of a documentary, in a way, about how they did a tour together. A comedy tour, and they get in this uh car accident towards the beginning of it. And it's it's a pretty compelling movie. It's not very long. I think it's maybe like maybe 70 minutes or something, so it should be a pretty breezy viewing for you, even with commercials on a streaming service. But it's one that I've been wanting to get to for a while, and I was like, well, this seems to be the only way to watch it, but at least we can watch it. So it's a palette cleanser of a sort. It's it's funny, you know. Bobcat and Dana, they're pretty hilarious.

SPEAKER_00 59:40

Okay, well, in that case, um, do I give you something to compliment that, or do I give you something else? Um, we also think I'm gonna Okay. I'm gonna go ahead and give you uh this film. This is a film from let me just get pull this up here. So um I don't think we've actually seen this actor in any movies yet. Um this is a little bit of an intense one. So this is uh, and I don't I know we haven't covered this director yet. So this is from 1977, and I'm gonna give you Sorcerer.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:20

Oh, you give it to me before I give it to you. Cool. So it's gonna be a blind pick at some point. That's awesome. That totally was gonna be because I, you know, it's using the show to get to the movies you haven't watched yet, and I figured that would be a good one because I hear it's so awesome, and I've never seen it.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:36

Same. Well, it was either I and I wasn't sure if I should give you Wages of Sin first, which is what it's pulled from, which is I think a French, the French film it's pulled from. But we'll go. I I'm a big Roy Scheider fan. Um that may get us backwards into Steven Spielberg's work with Jaws, who knows, or you know, maybe all that jazz or something like that. Some bossy. No telling. No telling. But yeah, so yours is going to be 1977's The Sorcerer, which is about four guys who um take a truck full of dynamite that's so old it's sweating nitroglycerin across the jungles of South America. Shit fucking intense.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:12

These movies do have things in trouble. Car trouble. Car trouble. That's where they go. Okay, they have in common car trouble.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:19

Almost like we planned it. Almost. Of course you did. You scripted this out.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:25

No, we don't think that far ahead, guys. That was we did that 25 years ago when we write a script, but I still am not going to break that Kfabe after all this time.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:38

All right then. So uh Joyride from 2021 and from 40 years earlier, 34 years earlier. Sorcerer.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:47

44 years earlier, my bad. Sorcerer. Sweet. A movie that was overlooked because of so many other blockbusters, namely Star Wars.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:56

Yeah. Well, it's Freakin' too, so Freakin's a hell of a director, so this should be pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:01

And you thought we were going to cover the Exorcist part two.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:08

Alright then. Well, until next next time, Marty, I don't mean you know disrespect. Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:13

Uh that all things are provided for by nothingness is the meaning of the phrase. Emptiness is form.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:22

Anybody got a smoke?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:25

Anybody got a light? See ya.