Back from their internships at the Parallax Corporation, Matt and Adam have a couple paranoia thrillers this week. Z (1969) is the realistic portrayal of a progressive politician who ends on the wrong end of a club. Fascism, mob violence, a political cover-up? That would never happen today.... In The Parallax View (1974), we meet a mysterious corporation up to no good (29:30). Warren Beatty does his best, but we just don't like him.
Have your own recommendations? Contact the show:
24theroadshow@gmail.com
Back from their internships at the Parallax Corporation, Matt and Adam have a couple paranoia thrillers this week. Z (1969) is the realistic portrayal of a progressive politician who ends on the wrong end of a club. Fascism, mob violence, a political cover-up? That would never happen today.... In The Parallax View (1974), we meet a mysterious corporation up to no good (29:30). Warren Beatty does his best, but we just don't like him.
Have your own recommendations? Contact the show:
24theroadshow@gmail.com
1, 2 Welcome to Two for the Road, Movies with Matt and Adam. I'm Matt. And I'm Adam. We are a movie pairing podcast. Once every four months, we will pick a theme, recommend a movie to the other guy he's not seen, based on theme, watch, and discuss. It's been a while. Yeah, three months I guess you said. A little over three months. Yeah, because I was opening the old file. I was like, oh, yeah, January 15th, that was a while ago. Yeah, went to Florida and never came back, almost. It's funny because you'retired. I don't have any kids yet. Too busy to do a one hour movie podcast. I haven't been home at all either, too. Oh, well, here we are. Yeah. And our theme for this week is? Paranoia, government, something like that. Paranoia, that's good enough. Paranoia, yeah. So we got a couple of, I would say, classics of the genre. And this is one of my favorite genres. I don't know why I haven't watched more of these. Very interesting stuff. Yeah, very. And the first one is Z. Best foreign film in 1969. I believe I won two Oscars. And there was some controversy around this movie even coming to the States, right? Right. Best foreign language film and best film editing. That was 1970 Oscars. Yeah, because this is based on a true story in Greece in 1963 where some corrupted officials get arrested and you know blah then four years later there's a junta, military junta, the corrupted officials are rehabilitated and the prosecutor is arrested. But this movie this takes place in Greece Everyone'speaking French, right? Yeah, yeah. Is the director French? I know Yves Montand is really the only person I know in this film. Irene Pappas too, I guess. But they're French. The director is Greek. Costa... Gavras. So is it a situation where you couldn't make this movie in Greece? That's why they need it somewhere. Probably, in Greece. Yeah, because the whole time I'm watching, I'm thinking, is this supposed to be France? Where is this supposed to be? Because they never mention, they never mention the country. But you know, you see there's a little fascism involved and things like that. A dusting of fascism. A little dusting of fascism and stuff. But yeah, it's just, it just, this movie just lays it all out. It just, there's, I don't know. It just kept rolling. It was not bored at all. But yeah, I would say both of these movies have in common that like, you don't, you don't even, there's no like, hey, let's hang out and meet this person. What's this person's motivation? It's like, nope, on to the next person. Like who, what's the other layer? Right. What's the other level that we can kind of like investigate here or kind of like shine a light on, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, so yeah, it's Especially the second movie, you know, but yeah, this is this is a really tight movie That I had never seen Yeah, yeah, I know that it was always Thought it well of and stuff like that. So I said, let's watch this. I've never seen it I would say it was a bit of a, it was not boring, but it was a bit of a tough watch, just because it's filmed in such a realistic style. It's just like, enough with these people. Everyone's yelling also, which I'm never a huge fan of just people yelling at each other. Yeah. Yeah. I don't want to sound like a big old racist, but like people yelling in a foreign language, just like, ugh. Yeah. It's like, I don't know what you're saying, and you're saying it loudly. Yeah, it's tough to watch because it is filmed very strangely, I think, compared to most films, especially at that time. Yeah, right. We're talking about 1969. But the story is interesting. It's about a corruption in the police force and everything else. You know, man, is he murdered or is it an accident? Do you think it's up for debate? Not that we've seen it. But that's why, the whole story was, I can't believe they're even saying it was an accident. Because everyone saw it. There's hundreds of witnesses, but nobody's coming forward and saying, no, this was not an accident. But that's what makes it work. That's how it really is. So you want to jump into it? Yeah. I'm going to announce some of the plot. So the movie opens with this great scene of this, again, police force slash military, like thin line between those two. I got the vibe. I think he was military. And he's talking to the president. And he's essentially saying like, we have a problem. We have these cockroaches or whatever in our system. It's our job to get rid of them. Yeah. Right, right. He's talking about the leftists. Yes. The progressives. It's always the leftists and the progressives. Why does everyone hate the progressives? All they want is like a 40-hour work week, like, you know, human rights. I don't get why. You know, especially in countries like this where the leaders, it might be military, it might be police, but it's rich people, rich powerful people who are behind them. So they don't want 40-hour work weeks. They don't want any of that. They don't want strikers, they don't want unions, they don't want any of that. They don't want people demanding rights. So it opens up with that, you kind of get the vibe of, okay, this dude is talking to the president, but you kind of get that he's running the show. At least in this town or this territory or this whatever we are. The president takes off, and then next we see these, how would you call them, like the leftist local party leaders? and I'm gonna I'm gonna talk about this movie without using anyone's name because I don't even know that they set them in them you know set aside from the main guy whose name I don't remember mm-hmm like it's like I don't know your name I just know your function yeah so got these like low like mid-level party leaders actually the main guy's name is Z, that's what they call him, yeah you know now the film title makes sense yeah so they're kind of they're welcoming Z right they're picking him up, and there's a lot of like, where can he do his speech? What's gonna happen? They're gonna try to shut us down. And I love that they keep going to these halls. What a great time, where you just had a hall. Like, we're going to the hall. It reminded me of that movie, Leto, where they're like, this is the hall where you can play punk rock music. Nowhere else, this is the hall for that. Russian, yeah. So trying to find a hall, people are like, no, actually, you know, like, what's it like, have an inspection coming, or something's broken, and they're like, we have a contract, and yeah, anyway, obviously they've been gotten to by someone higher up. Yep. And so, there's all this back and forth, the, I mean, the viewers just take them all over the place, right? We're in this office, that office, this hall, the police are talking about it and finally it's decided that Z is going to give his speech across the street from his hotel. So he's got to walk across the street in this crowd of like it's I mean what was your vibe? It seemed like mostly angry people but there's also people who are just like oh a crowd. Yeah it was a little bit of it was people on his side. No. It was people on the other side and it was people were just curious. And then like the military was in the military was all lined up in the middle you know whatever police or whoever they were you know yeah there was it was just people checking it out I think there was a lot of people and there was a lot of paid thugs there of course you know and these thugs are such bitches yeah right for lack of a better word like well they're running behind someone and then like push them or something yeah run off into crowd. Yeah, they're not tough thugs. Yeah, real tough guy moves. So Z has to go across the street. In the process of going, someone runs up behind him and hits him. Right. But he'staggered, but he's not down. Right. Frazier's on his feet. So he makes it up to his hall, and they have these speakers outside. So he starts giving his speech about whatever, equality. Yeah, some leftist Bullshit. So the crowd, he's just enraging the crowd. So then when he comes back down, he's got to walk back across this like plaza area to the motel or whatever. And that's when someone rolls up and clubs him. Hits him in the head again. He's already been hit once and he was reeling from that. Now he gets hit again. Down goes Frazier. And then the police claims it was an accident. Car accident. Car accident with these drunks. Yeah. and one guy jumps in the back of the jeep, that was pretty ballsy, and then it's just chaos, and then we get these back streets of this Greek city, or wherever the hell we are, and people are fighting in the back of the truck, they're trying to figure out what happened, some people seem to be in on it, trying to cover up for them, some of the citizenry is kind of alarmed, Yeah, I don't really know what to do And then Kind of all then just starts happening right then like we start seeing like how this event Unfolds in like these different people's lives right so we have the guy who was involved in the attack He goes to the press Yeah, try to recall this. I know you watch this movie like what three months ago Yeah, he goes yeah, he's got a friend of his in the press Is he a gay friend or just a friend? Friend, I think. I'm not sure. Maybe... I couldn'tell. Might be a little gay thing. The way that he was dancing out of it, I'm just trying to imply that these two guys are involved somehow. They are Greek. Sorry. We made it barely ten minutes with that. So the guy's like, well, I'm going to put it in the paper, and then he comes back and says, don't put my name in it. It's actually, because I don't even know that if he knew the guy died, right? Right. So once it becomes serious, he's like, whoa, that we're just messing around here. And I did like that angle of like the thugs. First of all, they seem to be very like, non, like they were angry, sure. But if you pointed at something else and said be angry at that, they would have just Yeah, their heart wasn't in it. They weren't like principled. They were getting paid to do it. And that's all they cared about. So once they found out, it was more seriously, they back off. Yeah, the whole time, before it happened, they pretended they were getting drunk in these bars. And so everybody was a witness. They were all drunk, blah. And they weren't really. So it was all set up, yeah. Then they take Z to the hospital. It's kind of touch and go, at least in the beginning. call his wife, she's kind of like, well, it's bound to happen. This is what he gets. I'm trying to think what like the through line through this whole thing is this photographer. So this photographer is kind of bouncing around, kind of seeing what's happening, sort of putting the pieces together. Prosecutor gets involved. Yeah, prosecutor, they bring in the attorney general or whatever, and he appoints this other guy to run the case. And at first it seems like the attorney general just wants it swept under the rug, you know, just act like you're doing something. And at first the guy is kind of doing that, then he finds out, wait a minute, this wasn't an accident, this was, you know, a murder. Well, there's a scene where he walks through a door and the suspect is having dinner with the cops. He's like, what is going on? Yeah, so he knows something's up. And he is the one honest person. Pretty much. He's the one person who has honesty, integrity and courage. Those three things together. Yeah, because he's going against the heavies. As he unravels the case, he finds out, oh, it's this guy, it's this guy. Oh, my God, it's really high up there. These are not, you know, little politicians. These are big players. So he has to kind of tighten his belt and go for him because that's what he decides to do. And then there's another key person who was also a victim of the attack, got injured during the escape. Right. And he's like, no, I know exactly who it was. And so they try to off him somehow, in a very bumbling way. This guy sneaks in with a club or something. Yeah, they like to use the club. Yeah, the Greeks, big clubbers. Big club people. I've never heard of a knife. Yeah. So, that guy's also like a key witness, talking to the photographer. And then, I'm sure I'missing some really big steps here. Oh, the party leaders are in disarray. Right. They're like, oh, we gotta do something, but they're just kind of feckless. Without Z, they don't really know what to do. were really fired up about his candidacy, you know, because he wasn't even in the election that long. You know, back then they just, oh, it's April? Okay, I'm gonna run for president instead of three years, you know, before. So as soon as he is killed, the Democratic Party just falls apart. It's known to step up. Nobody wants to set up. You get Hubert Humphrey, who's boring, you know, Eugene McCarthy, he's too liberal, but they just fell apart and they lost to Richard Nixon. Which, we all know what happened. But it's very similar, this party just falls apart because they don't have, like you say, their head has been cut off. So now the photojournalist has some leads, so he starts going around with someone, I think it's the guy who has the injury, right? who's pointing out, like, talk to that person, talk to that person, talk to that person. And it's essentially this blue-collared network of thugs. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, they're like right-winger, like, I don't know what they are, but they're just thugs. I like that, like, it doesn't matter. They're just angry. What are you angry about? I don't know. So, yeah, he kind of goes around, started getting some information from all of them, and then one guy like basically lays it all out for him. I forgot what their deal was, he got him something. They made some kind of a deal. Yeah, I can't remember either. Yeah, oh well. It's not critical to the plot. The important thing is the deal happens, and then the guy kind of rats out everyone. And now he's got the story, it's going to get published, one of the main guys comes barging in, It's like, oh, you can't, you know, my name's in the paper. He's all freaked out. And they're like, your name's not, it's not published yet. Who told you that? Right. So you realize there's another level, right? Is it the press? Is it the police that are leaking this? Yeah, who is it? Where does it end, man? There's all sorts of levels going on here. And then the movie ends with everyone, so like, it's revealed that it goes like very high up and nothing really happens to it. They're all arrested. They're all arrested, but then at the end of the movie there's a little thing that says that oh, in so many months there was a junta, you know, and then those who were arrested are set free, and the prosecutor is arrested, blah. And the photojournalist is sent to prison for reviewing official documents. Yeah, so... Good guys lose on that one. Yeah, it's like, I was thinking it was, Yves Montan is Italian, so is the Fertile Journalist. So, Irene Pappas, who played Z's wife, is Greek, so there's a bunch of... It's a multicultural... It is, yeah, so. But, yeah, the whole time I'm watching it, I'm thinking it's France, you know? But it wasn't anything. I mean, it was supposed to be Greece, but... I think it'supposed to be Greece, but I think it's also supposed to be like, This could happen anywhere. Yeah, well, that's the point, that fascism trumps everything. Sorry. We'll just let that sit there. Matt couldn't resist himself. Yeah. I don't know. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was really well done. It was a tough watch, because it was an unusual. There's not a lot of, we don't learn a lot about a lot of people. We don't learn anything about anybody. It's just events happening. It's like All the President's Men. Or it's like, what's Bob Woodward like? I don't know. He's the blonde one. Right, right. Yeah, we don't know anything. But that's what makes it kind of cool. What did you think? I liked it. It was definitely different. Different than I was expecting, and different than pretty much anything you would see from that era, just the way it was filmed and how expansive it was. And it accomplished a lot in a very short period of time. I did like the sort of mindlessness of it all. Like when you step back, why is this even happening? And there's really no answer, it's just like- We don't see the buds of the fascism and like these low-level dock workers, we just, these guys just wanna club someone. And the people, it really does give you the sense that none of it works if you don't have this really hardcore group of people on the street. And then also the military buy-in. Because when it's all going down, the military just stands there. It's like, it's people just following orders. But you get a sense of how, yeah, all this could happen. Like, right, like, it just takes a couple of people doing some terrible stuff. And then a bunch of other people just keep their mouth shut. Well, that's very similar to our country during the Vietnam War, when people would protest, there were certain groups of like construction workers and people like that, who were very anti-anti, you know. And they would cause problems, they would beat people up, hippies, you know, that kind of stuff. So, very similar to what happened in this country. You know, you could think about it couldn't happen in this country. It's happened in this country. Great. Yes, yes. What did you think about the soundtrack? God, I don't even remember it that much. No, really? Yeah. It's pretty great. It's like this Greek, psychedelic rock. Yeah, yeah, that's right. It's really very motivating. Yeah, yeah, now you say that, yeah. I don't know why I thought it was French, but now I look at it, yeah, it was Greek. Yeah, it's a very interesting sound. Let'see, shout out this guy, I'm gonna say his name wrong. Mekis Theodrakis? You want me to take a shot at it? If you want to. Yeah, it's a pretty rocking soundcheck. It holds up. I feel like if we're hanging out at an opium den, I'd be like, Matt, put on the Mekis record. He won the BAFTA award for the music, pretty big, can, con. Con. Any other comments or thoughts about Z? Who do you think stole the show? I like the reporter. The journalist guy? Yeah, the journalist. I thought the military guy was good. Oh, yeah, he was good, too. He was right up that, if he was a little bit more buffoonish, he'd be a buffoon. But he reigned in the buffoonery just enough to be a foolish jerk. Semi-buffoon. Yeah. Yeah, the journalist won best actor at COG. Oh, wow. And the director won the jury prize. He was nominated for the Oscar. I always like to go to these foreign films, like, oh, the photojournalist. I wonder if he had a career. He's got 136 entries in 90p. He's like, OK, I'm sure he's well known in France. Jacques Perrin? Yeah. Well, his first movie was with Bridget Bardot in God Created Woman by Roger Vandam. Well, yeah, he did have a pretty good movie career anyways. The Conformist. Anyways, I enjoyed it and I think people should watch it. And I agree with you, this kind of film makes any kind of conspiracy, journalism kind of thing has me hooked right away I think. Yeah, there's like a big network of people kind of behind the scenes pulling the strings. I'm like, tell me more. I think I actually but this one it's all kind of laid out mm-hmm well what's up we'll talk about the next one do you want to get the scores all right I think this is very only 31,000 people oh that's not good for that film it's a foreign yeah from the 60s man I think it's pretty high I probably seven nine He went low. 8-2. Wow. That's one of the highest scores. I mean, that's gotta be like in the IMDB. I wish they had like where it ranked in all of the... I think they do if it's in the top 100, but it's not. But I mean, it's gotta be like right up there. It's gotta be there. Yeah, that's pretty high. Well... That's pretty high. So the ones who know. Mm-hmm yeah so once you Oscars did we yeah I think it was best foreign language and editing okay France swab bone that yeah I mean we I mean we should probably shout out the editing because there's a version of this movie that is just doesn't make any sense that's like so it's way too long and all these places or leaves out certain things right it was very tight A very tight movie, yeah. Very tight. I'm at Rotten Tomatoes. Over 5,000 people, 51 critics. 91. 93 from the audience, 94 from the critics. Wow. Yeah. That's one of the highest scores we've ever had for both. Yeah, very high. Yeah. This is The Crazy Consensus. Powerfully effective, this anti-fascist political thriller stands out as both high-conscience melodrama and high-tempo action movie. That was pretty good. I don'think of it as like being an action movie. No, no, but now you think about it, there was. And a lot of that goes back to the editing. The editing was so good. It just made it feel like there was more action. Yeah, because you got to put something in the trailer, right? Right, right. You can't just be this photojournalist talking to a guy in a hospital bed. Right, yeah. Alright, so we will take a break and we'll come back and talk about Parallax View. Paranoia Thriller It's like, especially in this movie, it wasn't even like he was acting. Well, I think this is probably the only Warren Beatty starring role that I've seen outside of Dick Tracy. Which was terrible, I thought. Objectively awful. A movie that can only have been made because of cocaine. Yeah, I mean, I liked him in Heaven Can Wait, Bonnie and Clyde, but yeah, but he's that kind of guy, it's like, okay, you know, give me Ryan Gosling or something. It seems like he's more famous than he is talented for sure. Who was his contemporary? Was it like Paul Newman? Paul Newman, I think. Steve McQueen, maybe. I don't know. He didn't do a lot of action stuff. He did more like shampoo. That's a comedy? Mm-hmm. Heaven Can Wait is a comedy. So he's a funny guy? He's funny because he'so straight, almost. He's almost one of those guys, you know. But yeah, I mean, his sister's a better actor, Shirley MacLaine. But, I don't know, he was a big heartthrob back in the early 60s, you know. And I never got it. I mean, he's fine. I don'think I've ever seen him in a film where I thought, Oh, nobody else could have done that. Right, right. You know, nobody else could have done, you know, maybe. But in this movie, yeah, there's not a lot for him to do. No, there's not. No. How long do you think the script was in this movie? 25 pages? Wasn't very long. There's not a lot of talking. Yeah. Well, I don't know the writers at all, But the director Alan J. Pakula, he did what they called the Paranoia Trilogy, I think, which his first movie was Clute, which we saw, which we both enjoyed, I think. This movie was the second one, and then the third one was All the President's Men, which is in my top ten. I like all those movies. I feel like he finished Clute and he was like, yeah but what if there was like no emotion mm-hmm and then he made this and then he's like yeah but what if it yeah what if it was just like it's what if there's even less motion it's just process right he's like all the parents is like perfect yeah he nailed it in that I think but yeah this is like yeah there's not a lot of emotion there's not a lot going on it's Like it's interesting and it's a really cool idea, but it's hard to care about what this evil Evil, maybe they're evil. I don't know they seem evil organization is doing because First of all, I don't care about Warren Beatty. Mm-hmm. I don't really I kind of liked his editor Hume Cronan Yeah, but other than that there wasn't anybody else like the guy in the boat. I know he's famous. What was his name? William Daniels. Yeah, like it's kind of like Oh, Mr. Feeney, that's who he was. Mr. Feeney was on the boat, yeah. I liked the guy, the FBI agent, who was in the little train, and he was telling him what to do. But yeah, there was nobody I really liked. Paula Prentiss, she was the reporter who got murdered. Yeah, I mean, she's on screen for two seconds. Right. She really wasn'that great either. you know, and yet I enjoyed the movie. I enjoyed it too. You know, he can go all... because I just think Warren Beatty, this is not something that... there's not a lot for him to do in this. You know, I don't know if he has that much range anyways, but this was very limited range. But it was interesting, kind of a cool idea. Yeah, it's a cool idea. It's not long, and it's got like 6 or 7 really cool moments. And that's kind of like all you need, right? To keep it together. Because it did feel like something bigger was happening. Yeah, I liked the dam scene. I liked that one. I liked the video they showed up. You know, to psychologically test him. And that went on for probably 45 seconds longer than I thought it would. And as I was watching, I was like, if I was in the movie theater with a bunch of people silently watching this, that would have been pretty fucking cool. Yeah, because they're all doing the same thing, getting reactions from all these pictures. Yeah, I kind of re-watched it today. Just that part? No, most of the movie, and I kind of flipped through that again. But the first time I watched it, I went, oh, this is kind of interesting. You know, you start out... You're starting to get some feelings, some emotions. Yeah, I'm going to kill people. It's just, you're like... But yeah, it's just, it was, it was a movie that... Very interesting idea, but there wasn't a lot going on. A lot, a lot to do for the actors. There was no emotion. There was nothing that we connected with. Maybe there's no room for it. So it starts off with a cool scene of a parade. And you just know, I mean, immediately you're like, This isn't going to end well. For this candidate, like, not even knowing the premise, you just know already. That's just like, the mood is established. A presidential candidate is at a parade, they go up to the Space Needle. Didn't know you could go up to the Space Needle. Didn't realize there was a little lounge up there. It's a restaurant. Have you been up to the Space Needle? I have never been up there. I've been to Seattle a few times, but I've never been to the Space Needle. I don't like heights. Especially when you're kind of open with the windows and I'm not going to walk out. I'm guessing this movie did not make you want to go to the Space Needle. No. So, you go to the Space Needle, Warren Beatty can't get in, this other woman, Paula Prentiss, is she famous? She was. She was very popular in the 60s and 70s. Her and her husband, Richard Benjamin, who was also an actor, director. He was in Catch-22, you know. He mostly ended up directing, directed my least favorite movie. What was that? The least favorite movie I've ever seen in a movie theater. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids? No, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Damn, I can't remember. It's a George Hamilton vampire movie. Oh, did we watch that? Yes. I can't remember. Love at First Bite. Yes, yes. The only movie I ever walked out in. It was terrible. So bad is good. Yeah. So she gets in, there's a crowd, a lot of glad-handing at this presidential thing, and you see these waiters start looking at each other, like something's going down. And it turns out someone's got a gun, takes a shot at the president. Senator, yeah. Senator, sorry. There'some skirmish, one of the waiters runs up to the roof, The secret service or police, whoever go after him, then he rolls off. That made me, being up there made me nervous. I don'think he'supposed to go up there. I don'think so. I'm guessing that part's roped off. But that was a pretty cool scene where he was shot because William Daniels and Paul Apprentice, William Daniels is the guy's, he's running his campaign, running the senator's campaign, he's gonna run for president probably, and they're standing there, and right above them you can see the senator, he's on the microphone, his wife is there, and he's talking, so it's through this glass window, and all of a sudden shots ring out, and blood hits the window. I thought that was pretty cool. It was cool. Nice shot. That was cool. Then fast forward, and then we get this scene of the justice system. Yeah. Like this commission that looks a lot like a fascist, you know. It's like this shadowy like renaissance painting of like these jurists. Old men. Deciding that. Old white men. It was a lone shooter. Right. And this is, again, this is basically what happened with Bobby Kennedy. It happened with John F. Kennedy, they have a commission. No, it was just a load, there's no conspiracy here. But there's always a conspiracy. Always. And recycling's not real. So that happens. Fast forward, you see Warren Beatty. This woman comes to visit him, right? That's how that goes down? Yeah, she comes. And I guess they had a history a little bit. I mean, 1974, I assume everyone's banging everybody. Warren Beatty was banging everybody. Right, it's like a sweet spot between birth control and AIDS, you know, what are you going to do? So she's basically just like, hi, here'some exposition. Yeah, it's like, all right, that's fine. And so, yeah, basically, we find out that people who were there are getting picked off one by one. Yeah, six people in this picture have already are already dead. This is three years later. Car accident, suicide, heart attack, whatever. And she'saying they're after her now, and he doesn't believe it. Yeah. And then she's dead. She's dead. So he goes to figure out what happened to her. She was in some, wait, not her. He goes to find someone else who was in this small town, right? Well, he's looking for, I think, the William Daniels character. I think he was up there fishing or something in this, I don't even know where it was, Washington, I don't know where they were, I don't know, Seattle. Let's call it Oregon. So he goes to try to find him, he gets into a bar fight, mildly entertaining. This guy's like, no, you got it wrong, let me take you out fishing last time, this is the last place we saw this guy. This is the sheriff. He gets in a fight with the deputy. Yeah. But the sheriff says, nah, you got it wrong, come on, we're good guys up here. He's just a pain in the ass. And so they're out fishing and then something tips him off that the deputy points a gun at him. Oh, was that it? Well, he says he brings him up there because he says he's going to interview the guy who runs the dam. Yeah. And so Warren Beatty's out there fly fishing. I don't know. Does he fly fish? is he would you know anyways the sheriff says you know by the way there is no whatever the guy's name is and he's pointing a gun at him i thought there was like a sound or something that like tipped you off before am i am i crazy well no well the whole they're letting the water out you know they're opening up the dam so they're all standing and this water is coming all right so he's pointing the gun on that and then he my bad he hits him with the fly the pole or something They have a skirmish and the sheriff ends up in the water. They both do, yeah. Well, one gets out. So then he goes back to another cool scene, he goes to the sheriff's house and he's going through his stuff, and that's where he discovers the Parallax Corporation. And so he's kind of looking through that, and then the deputy shows up, and you kind of see them moving in opposite directions. In the house, and then the phone rings and the deputy answers it. and he doesn't even know where to go if there'somebody here. So he gets out and steals the cop car as a mild chase scene. Need something for the trailer. Yep. End up in a grocery store. Oh yeah, that's pretty cool. And he got out. Yeah, there were a lot of cool scenes. Everybody's pointing at him, he's like, put that away! That away! But he gets away, meets up with his editor, says this is where I'm working on. and Eddard is basically like, who cares, don't do it. Goes down to Florida to find this guy in a boat. Los Angeles. Clearly paying attention to this movie very closely. Yeah, it was in LA. And that was a... Marina Del Mar or something. Mr. Feeney, he gets, you know, he's kinda like, yeah, people have been trying to kill me. Yeah. Famous last words. Yeah. So he's blown up. That was another pretty cool scene. He'sitting up, you know, Beatty just walks up to the front of the boat. The other two guys, Mr. Feeney and his lover, I think, they're in the back. And all of a sudden, boom. Everyone thinks that Warren Beatty's dead. So that's now he's got cover to move around and figure out like what's actually going on with this Parallax Corporation. Goes back to the editor and says, like, I'm going to infiltrate it. He takes the test that he found It turns out like they're looking for psychopaths. Yeah, he takes it to a psychological department of some college and they have some whack job, some sociopath take the test for them. Right. And he passes. I thought that was like kind of an interesting, like, I've never seen that before in a movie, like, you know, you see these like evil organizations, like, how do they recruit? Well, they have a test. Right. You gotta apply just like everyone else. And this organization, we find out later, it really doesn't have an agenda. They're just capitalists. Whoever hires them, that's it. It doesn't matter if you're left, you're right, or whatever. They're just, you know, getting people out there to murder people. And they're getting paid to do it. Yeah, and so he meets up with a representative from the organization He's like kind of tested him and he's acting a little bit crazy. Yeah. Yeah, he did a good job and throws a cup on the ground and, you know, acting a little like he was really angry. I thought he did a good job of being a person trying to act angry. Right, right. Yeah. So he's in, right? He gets recruited. He watches that video. And then he follows this guy onto a plane who's got like some suspicious package. You know, puts two and two together, it's a bomb. He realizes that the guy's not even on the plane. He just put his suitcase on the plane, but he realizes a senator, who's running for office, running for president, or something, is on that plane. So then he realized, oh, he's gonna get blown up. So he tries to write it with soap in the bathroom. It's like, ah, this isn't working. And he hands a note to the stewardess, and she's going through all these napkins, right? Yeah, he sticks this note in a stack of napkins. And so she's going up front, she's handing napkins to everybody. Finally, she's, after almost to the front, she finally sees it, takes it up to the pilot, the pilot turns the plane around, and they get back to LA just in time. Just in the nick of time, Matt. So at this point, back then, you could pay for your seat on the plane. Yeah. My god. Yeah, I was watching that like, wow. Like, I used to think it was crazy, like in the 90s, when people could, like, walk up to like the gate to say goodbye to you, but now, but back then, so yeah, pay for your seat on the plane. Fake cash right there. What a world. People smoking. Having cocktails. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Something very weird. It's a different, there's two candidates. Oh, this is a different one? Yeah, because when they were on the plane, and the senator and his guy that runs his campaign or whatever, were looking at the newspaper, and it had a picture of that senator, and then it had a picture of the senator that gets killed at that event. So there's two guys running. They're going to get rid of both of them. Oh, okay. Because somebody wants to pay for it. In long story short, the president of Canada gets killed at the dress rehearsal for this event. But first, the editor gets killed. Oh, right. They murder the editor. Because Warren Beatty taped the conversation he had with the representative. And then he killed the editor and took that. But they're on to him, they know. Now he's a patsy. Right, a prisoner's gonna get killed, Warren Beatty's there, they think it's him. So the security guards, who also work for Parallax, right? Probably. So it looks like he did it, they kill him. So then everyone in the audience is like, oh, that first scene! Maybe that guy was a patsy. And then we get the judicial system saying, was it one man, shooter acting alone? Yeah, that's it. That's it. Yeah, whenever I see movies like this, I'm like, I always have this question of like, do I want to know more? Like, did they reveal enough about this evil organization? Could I have seen a little bit more that would have been better? Or is it like they said, too much? I thought this was just the perfect sweet spot. Yeah. Like, you don't really know what's going on in there, but it ain't good. you just know that this probably really happens and that's all we need to know you know and these commissions they have they're just bullshit and you know I was telling Gloria that I said yeah you know the Warren Commission found it you know he worked he Oswald worked alone but you know there'so much evidence that says no right how do you get on the parallax of mailing list. Like how does a small town sheriff have that stuff? Ads in the paper. That's what they said. They said put ads in the paper, you know, are you not satisfied, blah, we can help, blah. Yeah, but, yeah, how does that guy get, and why? Right. What are they going to use him for? Well, how do they know that William Daniels or somebody who was up there that got murdered? Yeah. It wasn't William Daniels, but it was somebody else. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of And for that in the building they had was so Fascism told till tap tower, you know ism or whatever, you know, and how do they make that kind of money? Well, I mean, I mean political assassinations got to pay pretty well. Yeah, I'd imagine yeah, I would think so And then, you know, they're probably all over foreign countries. Like who knows what they're doing in the sedan, you know, yeah, Libya Yeah, forget about it. Not if there's any real parallax view. I think that was all just done on the open. Yeah, our fascists are elected. But yeah, that's how it ends. He's the Patsy. He's always a Patsy. Oswald, perfect Patsy. Sirhan, perfect Patsy. ドレム・ゼロ・レイ、パーフェクトなパーティーだったよ。 そうだね。 パーティーは大事だね。 他に何かあったことはありますか? セナーターが撮影された時、 ゴルフカートに落ちて、 彼はずっと走っていた。 嬉しかったね。 Yeah, it was kind of cool. I was like, yeah, just keep it rolling. Keep it rolling. I enjoyed it. You know, I liked his other two movies more. I think, I think Clue. I like this one more than Clue. That's interesting. Clue was so weird. Yeah, but I just think, I think part of the problem with this movie for me was Warren Beatty. Yeah, I didn't like him. Yeah, I think a guy like Dustin Hoffman or somebody would have done a little more with that part. Yeah, Dustin Hoffman probably would have been perfect for this. Yeah, so Warren Beatty, you can look at his films and just go, okay, yeah. Women love him, but I don't get it. I don't get it either. I'm trying to remember this movie. He wasn't prancing around with his shirt off or anything. No, no. I had a lot of hair. Yeah, you always had great hair. Still does, I think. Is he still alive? Oh, yeah. Married to... What's her name? Annette Bening. He was a lifelong bachelor until about 25 years ago, and then he finally got married to her. I guess if you're going to settle down. Yeah. He was born in 1937. Wow. So he is 87 right now. Yeah, he hasn't been in anything in a long time. Yeah, he married Annette Bening in 92. He was in his 50s. They have four children. Wow. He was good friends with Gary Shandling, too. That's an interesting combo. Yeah. Annette Bening, 21 years, his junior. Well, she'still working. Yeah. Wow, okay. Interesting. I didn't know that they were married. Really, yeah, Warren Bray is one of those guys that's like totally off my radar. I think the whole Dick Tracy thing turned me off too much. He burned me when I was a kid. I like Shampoo. I thought that was pretty good. That's what people say. Oh, you want to, oh, Soundtrack. Pretty good. Good like, kind of like creepy... It's the same, almost same soundtrack as Clute. Yeah, I like it. That kind of weird, kind of... It's unnerving. Yeah, yeah. It's like something's gonna happen. I thought it was a lot of the same, which is good. I liked it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Do you want to get some scores? Sure. 22,000 people checking in on IMDB. I might be going a little high, but I'm going to say it's at the Scarecrow 74. Scarecrow 73. 73. That has been a while since we've done a show. Yeah, yeah, 73. 7.3 Oh, who's was it? What'scarecrow was now? It was 7.3 when we started the show. Um, 7.1 Hmm, that's about right. Yeah, it's a 7.1. I mean, I don't know if I'd ever watch it again. Maybe I would. Would I recommend it? Yeah, I watched it twice. It was all right. Um, let'see how well it's doing on Rotten Tomatoes. 44 reviews from the critics. I will go 82. 86. And over 5,000 people for the audience. Eight. 78, yeah, pretty close. Pretty close. And this is the consensus. The parallax view blends deft direction from Alan J. Pakula and a charismatic Warren Beatty's performance to make a paranoid political thriller that stands with the genre's best. Wow, I didn't. Charismatic is kind of a big word. That's not what I took away from it, but to each his own. All right, so we are hoping to be a little bit more regular with the show, possibly next week or the week after. So maybe we can do two or three a month, we think. Next theme is going to be movies about movies. Yep, and we're going to watch 8 1⁄2, Fellini's masterpiece. My first Fellini. And I'm going to have Matt watch a movie, which is not a masterpiece but it is a movie about a movie and I'm curious what he thinks about it um it's pretty recent last couple years called black bear okay with a Aubrey Plaza not sure how you feel about her I don't even know who she is okay well but I'm sure I'll recognize her coming in neutral love it all right Alright, you wanna get out of here? Yep. Peace! Bye. He's a philistine. What's a philistine? It's a guy who doesn't care about books or interesting films and things. Then I'm a philistine. No, you're interested in books and things. No, I'm a philistine. You've been shitting in my yard. I have not. You want me to hold the chicken, huh? I want you to hold it between your knees. So, Jane, what you do here affects the count of owners. I am... A revolutionary! Come in the kitchen. You are as bad as hell, and I won'tolerate this anymore! It's fun!