Latest / All The Right Movies / Road To Perdition (2002) | Ep. 64 - Part 1
Transcript
- 0:04All the right movies. Michael, are you hurt?
- 0:11You saw everything. You are not to speak of this to
- 0:15anyone, you understand Not to anyone.
- 0:20Who's this? It's one of yours.
- 0:25He must have been hiding in the car.
- 0:28Or can he keep a secret? He's my son.
- 0:35Bob enforcer Michael Sullivan finds his world torn apart when
- 0:38his son is witness to a gangland slaying.
- 0:40With his family in tatters, Michael and his son hit the road
- 0:43in search of vengeance and a journey that will test the bonds
- 0:46between them. Sam Mendez's multilayered
- 0:48generational saga transformed Tom Hanks into an unlikely anti
- 0:52hero and gave Paul Newman a poignant farewell performance.
- 0:55Shot by one of the great cinematographers, wrote to
- 0:57Perdition is a poetic tale of violence and loyal in depression
- 1:00to Euro America. My name is Luke, and the two
- 1:02fellas with me who rule this town as God rules the earth are
- 1:06Matt. You're a big baby who doesn't
- 1:08know his thumb for this Dick. And Westie.
- 1:10Let's drink him to God. Let's hope he gets to heaven at
- 1:13least an hour before the devil finds out he's dead.
- 1:16All the right movies are on the road to perdition, and there's
- 1:18only one guarantee none of us will see heaven.
- 1:40Hi everyone, welcome to All the Right Movies, a podcast on
- 1:42classic and hit films that's also fucking hysterical.
- 1:46It sure is frequently, yeah. Very good.
- 1:49Very. Good manner of taste, I suppose.
- 1:51Obviously, yeah. On the show we tell the story of
- 1:54Hollywood one film at a time and this week we're travelling down
- 1:57a rain soaked Rd. through depression era America as we
- 2:00uncover the incredible behind the scenes story of Sam Mendes's
- 2:03haunting masterpiece. Oh, huge.
- 2:07Big one. Before we step into the darkness
- 2:09in 1931, though, he is some information about becoming an
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- 3:32And now it's back to 1931 and this was your pick, Westie.
- 3:35Need I see anymore? A film that you've raved about
- 3:39since it came out. It was only a matter of time.
- 3:41It was only a matter of time. Yeah.
- 3:43It's been one that I've been waiting to put up, one I've been
- 3:45really, really excited to talk about and one that really
- 3:48changed the landscape for me in in cinema in general, in visuals
- 3:52in general, in inspiration, in general.
- 3:55I'd seen, but the films if this ilk had obviously I'd seen the
- 3:58Godfather had seen, but you would deem to be classic taxi
- 4:01driver over this point. But this for me just seemed to
- 4:04just take all of the right boxes technically, visually.
- 4:07I mean, I've watched it in black and white.
- 4:08Obviously, I don't know if you guys have, but I would check
- 4:10that out. And I've frequently just paused
- 4:13it to make notes as I do on any film.
- 4:16And every time I've looked up, I've been like, what a shot that
- 4:18is. And no matter, no matter when
- 4:20I've paused it literally like. Frame.
- 4:22Look at that. This is it's just, it's just
- 4:24outrageously good. Yeah.
- 4:26I think it's Conrad Hall's absolute magnum Orbis.
- 4:28And to me, I mean, I don't know whether I've got more admiration
- 4:32for this. And I do have love.
- 4:33I don't know if it's more of a technical thing or.
- 4:35Technically, it's beautiful. Now we'll dive into it.
- 4:38Is it really as good as I think it is or was it just the
- 4:41impression it made on me in 2002?
- 4:43And you know, I've, I've LED from this and turned into a
- 4:46photographer because of this. This is why I bought a camera.
- 4:49That's why I started taking pictures, why I do what I've
- 4:51done for the last 17 years. So it it really, really made an
- 4:54impact on me. But it's not just the
- 4:56cinematography. I think the editing is
- 4:57fantastic. I think the scores fantastic.
- 4:59I think the lead performances are fantastic and I think
- 5:02there's a lot to get into. Is it all strong all the way
- 5:06through? I don't know.
- 5:07Let's have a chat about it. Let's see where it peaks and
- 5:09troughs. Let's do it.
- 5:11Yeah. Yeah.
- 5:12Well, I pushed against this film when it came out.
- 5:16Unlike you, Wesley, I was just. I was put off by what I
- 5:19perceived was just what looked like a miserable film.
- 5:22The darkness of the film. Yeah, it's kind of what
- 5:24attracted me, though. I know, I know.
- 5:28That's why we're so close. Opposites attract, don't they?
- 5:30Yeah, it's. Attractive that poster that just
- 5:33didn't appeal to me. Shadows and rain perdition.
- 5:37It just looked miserable. Yeah, fair enough.
- 5:40And it is. Yeah, of course it is.
- 5:42It's not lying here. It's not lying.
- 5:44No, no. So I didn't watch it for a
- 5:47number of years, and I was surprised when I did get around
- 5:49with that. It really isn't as bleak as I
- 5:52anticipated. Of course it is.
- 5:54But there is a likeness of touch that Mendez brings to the
- 5:57material, which I think is crucial to make it work.
- 6:00And, you know, what can you say about that cast, the
- 6:03cinematography, the set and costume designer?
- 6:05Amazing. And we're talking about the last
- 6:08film for Conrad Hall, the last live action film for Paul
- 6:11Newman. I mean, he appeared in a billion
- 6:13animated films after this. You said cars wasn't, I think.
- 6:17Cars Cars 3 did some documentaries, but what a way to
- 6:21go out for both of them. Paul Newman, The man was 77.
- 6:24He's still commanding the screen like the legend that he always
- 6:26was. Effortlessly as well, I think.
- 6:29Incredible here. An important film in a number of
- 6:32ways. Conrad Hall, Paul Newman, Tom
- 6:34Hanks turning bad guy, Sam Mendes, a sophomore effort.
- 6:38Just loads going on here. Yes, it's about time.
- 6:41Definitely. What about you, Matt?
- 6:43It's a film I'm almost nostalgic for because I don't want to be
- 6:46that guy, but I just don't think this is the kind of film that
- 6:49gets made anymore. All right, Granddad.
- 6:52Yeah, I know, I'm yelling at. Clouds.
- 6:59But you know, this is something that's just very mature.
- 7:01It's very somber. It's definitely aimed at adults,
- 7:05but all the same, it's got a huge box office saw attached and
- 7:07it was released a pretty decent financial success.
- 7:10And I'm just saying, does that happen with something like this
- 7:13anymore? I don't know.
- 7:14I just feel like this would be dumped straight on the stream in
- 7:17these days. That's where these kind of
- 7:19prestige pictures go. So it does feel like a bit of a
- 7:22relic in that sense. And I don't actually watch it
- 7:25that often. But that's got nothing to do
- 7:26with the quality of it. It's because it's such like a
- 7:29delicate film. Personally, I think you could
- 7:31Overwatch this and spoil it. It's you know it, there's
- 7:34something quite rich about it. I wanted to savor it and kind of
- 7:37only have it on special occasions, like a really good
- 7:38cheese so. Yeah, I know what you mean.
- 7:41Yeah, it's like a pencil sketch, isn't that you're scared of
- 7:43rubbing it out? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 7:45Kind of like to it. Yeah, yeah.
- 7:46But no, it's a great film and I'm just so glad it exists.
- 7:49Yes, very much. I think we all are.
- 7:51We all are, wrote. The Partition was written by
- 7:53David Self, based on the graphic novel of the same name, directed
- 7:57by Sam Mendes and produced by Dean and Richard D Zanuck for
- 8:00the Zanuck Company, and distributed by DreamWorks
- 8:02Pictures in the theaters on the 12th of July 2002.
- 8:05Shot mainly on location and sets in and around the Chicago area,
- 8:08it stars Tom Hanks is Michael Sullivan.
- 8:10Tyler Heckman is Michael Sullivan.
- 8:12No, the other one. Some relation.
- 8:19Paul Newman is John Rooney, and there's a superb supporting
- 8:22cast, including Jude Law, Daniel Craig, Jennifer Jason Lee and
- 8:26Stanley Tucci. Yes, let's get on the road with
- 8:28Michael Sullivan. Some say he was a decent man,
- 8:31some say there was no good in him at all.
- 8:33But we're going to spend six weeks with him in the winter of
- 8:351931. This is our story.
- 8:41The beginning. We're catapulted in the 1930s
- 8:46America in the opening titles as Michael Junior cycles home
- 8:49through the bustling streets and punishing winter.
- 8:51We'll be meeting as real and adopted family soon, but first
- 8:55hopefully you might with that opening.
- 8:56Yeah, I mean, this opening, the titles so evocative with that
- 9:00music behind it. And you can see already just how
- 9:03rich this is in terms of the production design, the costumes,
- 9:06the cars. You just sit and you think,
- 9:08yeah, they've made this one for grown-ups, haven't they?
- 9:11You know, this is this is its own thing, and it's going to
- 9:13take its time. And it does take its time.
- 9:15But Even so, it's still one of the fastest pace scenes in the
- 9:18film, the way that it shows Michael Junior making his way
- 9:20home. So thinking ourselves, yeah, OK,
- 9:22just sadly. And this is the pace we're going
- 9:24out. And I think it just sums up the
- 9:26idea that back in those days, you did become an adult very,
- 9:29very quickly because Michael Junior, he is a child, but he's
- 9:32earned enough money for the household.
- 9:33He's smoking a pipe. And that just has that wonderful
- 9:36contrast when he gets home and all of a sudden wiped out by a
- 9:39snowball from Peter, who's hiding behind a tree.
- 9:41And then it's this childish fun and games, which it should be
- 9:44for him at that age. And his contrast.
- 9:46Yeah, it is. And it's the quiet tragedy of
- 9:48the film that everything about his childhood is going to be
- 9:51quickly and brutally stripped away from him.
- 9:53And then it just stands, you know, his father's back home.
- 9:56This man, he's been setting up in that opening voice over.
- 9:58He approaches him with absolute caution and fear in that
- 10:02bedroom. Tell him that dinner's ready.
- 10:04Yeah. So I'll go from there and then
- 10:05we're into this great setup where we're introduced to the
- 10:08cover image of the Rooneys. This isn't actually who they
- 10:11are. I think it's just a very nice,
- 10:14very nice cover up, very nice guys.
- 10:15And Newman here is fantastic. There's some wonderful moments
- 10:19where I don't want to see them dice.
- 10:21And then the playing with it, you just see he's just very
- 10:23playful and he's just got them both there and it's just them
- 10:26shots of Daniel Craig Smorgan in that room.
- 10:28The way he's introduced, just out of focus and the hold it,
- 10:32yeah, it's wonderful. And then it goes back to
- 10:33Michael's point of view. And that light is just
- 10:35incredible. And it goes back again out of
- 10:38focus and then it cuts into focus.
- 10:39So you kind of think in this guy's unhinged.
- 10:41He's he's unstable. The techniques used in this by
- 10:44Mendez are just second and none, especially which shots he uses
- 10:48for the edit in which he doesn't.
- 10:49And the thing I love about this is you can see the Conrad Halls
- 10:51give him a lot to. Play with and.
- 10:53Everything he's got in that toolbox looks fucking amazing.
- 10:56He's just, he doesn't have a clue which shots to use and then
- 10:59really has to get his head around it because everything
- 11:01could look amazing. I mean, I've heard of an
- 11:03interview with Mendez, I've heard the the commentary and he
- 11:05says to the opening of the film was meant to just be putting
- 11:07together that Tommy Gunn from the the top point of view from
- 11:10the end. As he said, it was just too
- 11:12dark. It's like how you just open it
- 11:13with just him putting together a Tommy gun and then it just cuts.
- 11:16They get, it's like it's not going to work, but it would have
- 11:18been fantastic. It would have just been an
- 11:19amazing opening, but it just doesn't work.
- 11:21There's too much here to play with.
- 11:23And then we'll go to, oh, look, it's Paul Newman.
- 11:25And then he has to give a Paul Newman performance and he does
- 11:27the speeches at the wake. And it's just if anyone could
- 11:30have spoke at my wake would be Paul Newman in this character
- 11:34because it's just it has such eloquence.
- 11:36It had such poetry. It had such depth in the lines
- 11:39are just absolutely fantastic. When he says, you know, I'm a
- 11:42dear and trusted friend, you fucking believe him.
- 11:45But he's full of shit at the same time.
- 11:47And he's, you know, his words are where you have more poetry
- 11:49in the mine. That in itself.
- 11:52That's poetic. It's beautifully poetic and such
- 11:55an uplift for someone who's going to speak after you.
- 11:57But then he does the come over here and shows him that he's in
- 12:00charge. And it's just a great
- 12:01introduction to Mike and his role because when Finn starts
- 12:04going over and over and over, you can see just looking all
- 12:07they looks over at Daniel Craig Carrot and he looks back.
- 12:10Is that right? And he has to go in and he cuts
- 12:12in and absolutely just takes control of the situation.
- 12:15It's very, very subtly done, but incredibly effective filming.
- 12:19Yeah, that's the thing that keeps you at arm's length,
- 12:21doesn't it? It's very subtly done, so you
- 12:23don't really know what the setup is with the dynamic quite yet.
- 12:29No, not at all. So following those speeches,
- 12:31Finn McGovern is ejected from his own brother's wake.
- 12:34A terrible state of affairs, but his behavior just hints at the
- 12:38insidious nature of this family and that something's just not as
- 12:42it seems underneath. Yeah.
- 12:44And in a drunken stupor outside, Finn threatens that he's going
- 12:47to deal with Connor after he's buried his brother.
- 12:49So I suppose in a way, Connor's hand has been forced, We find
- 12:53out later on, and Connor's living in the shadow of his
- 12:56father's power and his relationship with Michael.
- 12:59He wants to be as powerful as his dad.
- 13:01He wants that relationship and that his dad has with Michael.
- 13:03And that. Beautifully reinforced when we
- 13:06go back inside. Firstly there's a wonderful jig
- 13:08being danced that Hawks back to the old country.
- 13:11Is this really awake? Yeah, but it is in more ways
- 13:15than one with this two way piano piece that Michael and John
- 13:18share. Simple lines intertwine and
- 13:21harmoniously. There's a complete simpatico
- 13:24between Michael and John, a mournful piece reflective of the
- 13:27film's themes. I'm pretty sure it's called Lick
- 13:30My Lab Pump. It's quite pretty.
- 13:36Very good. You couldn't get that out fast
- 13:38enough. Very good.
- 13:40It's quite pretty. But the piano tuet in the scene,
- 13:45which is just called Petition, was actually written by
- 13:47legendary composer John Williams because he came on board as a
- 13:50special guest because he has deep ties with Zanuck Hank San
- 13:53Spielberg. Nice.
- 13:55So it's not called like my little pump?
- 13:56I don't think so. Shame.
- 13:59Shame. Yeah.
- 14:00Unless that bit was in commas, maybe at the end, yeah.
- 14:03Petition. Lick my love.
- 14:08Yeah, that works very good. There it is.
- 14:11I mean, you can see it on the screen as well.
- 14:12Well. And Hanks and Human spent weeks
- 14:14practicing the piece together to make their on screen dynamic
- 14:16reflected in their telepathic piano play.
- 14:18And I mean, I just love the way the camera just sits on them and
- 14:21goes. You want to see them playing it?
- 14:22There you go. And sounds fantastic.
- 14:25Yeah. It really comes across in that
- 14:26scene that they are playing it and Connor can only watch on
- 14:30behind that pin it. Smiley's bubbling under with
- 14:32jealousy and. Rage and furious.
- 14:35But of course, it's also fucking hysterical.
- 14:38A great line. He comes down into that light as
- 14:41well, and that light just hits his face.
- 14:42It's just incredibly. Well done.
- 14:43It's excellent, Very reminiscent of the wedding scene in the D
- 14:47Hunter for example, Our Godfather families coming
- 14:50together with loads of pockets of dialogue and dynamism and
- 14:54friendships going on. I really love it.
- 14:56It's great. Yeah.
- 14:56And the fact that it's awake instead of a celebration.
- 14:58Really. Yes.
- 14:59More of a, you know, reflective time.
- 15:01And they've learned that together on that piano, thinking
- 15:03we're going to get more chance to play this than we are.
- 15:05Something has. Going to be a lot of dead
- 15:07bodies. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 15:08So a wonderful setup of the father son dynamics are playing
- 15:11the film in the opening scenes. Yeah, fantastic.
- 15:16Taking his father's request, Connor and Michael pay a visit
- 15:19to Finn McGovern. But they didn't anticipate 1/3
- 15:21wheel coming along for the ride, did they, Westy?
- 15:24They really didn't, no, And I think this whole sequence is
- 15:27fantastic. The shots in the back of the car
- 15:29aren't cheesy or overdone. When you just find him
- 15:31underneath that case and he lifts it up and the light comes
- 15:33in just enough to see who it is, it's not played out too much.
- 15:36This his point of view from the back of the car, which I think
- 15:39you know, it just really reflects the scene, reflects
- 15:41your point of view. You're going to see all of this
- 15:42through Michael's vision. You're going to see from his
- 15:44experiences, You're going to experience it as he does.
- 15:46You're going to kind of see what his dad does, but still don't
- 15:48know exactly what his dad does. So many great shots in this.
- 15:52And it's the first time that we get the water theme that runs
- 15:56all the way through this, which is synonymous with death.
- 15:59And you've got the rain coming out.
- 16:00You've obviously got the ice on the body.
- 16:02We've got the ocean sounds at the start, which then then
- 16:04played again at the end. So much rain in this just
- 16:07basically means, you know, death's coming.
- 16:09Yes, And that's how they do it and that's how they highlight
- 16:11it. And I think that's absolutely
- 16:12fantastic because you don't quite know that yet.
- 16:14And you get that lovely shot, what he's looking through.
- 16:17And there's a back and forth between Connor, even though this
- 16:19is all shot wide. Daniel Craig's fantastic here.
- 16:23He's just electric in the background.
- 16:25He's just so volatile. You don't know what he's going
- 16:27to do or when he's going to spin or when he's going to turn.
- 16:29And the fact you say I'm sorry your brother was such a fucking
- 16:31liar and he's pushing the buttons.
- 16:33And what did you do that for? Why did it have to go that far
- 16:35from Michael Junior's point of view when his dad stands in that
- 16:38frame and he's just that Sergio, the only shot.
- 16:40And his legs are there and he's singing through that.
- 16:42You don't really get the chance to see it until that trigger is
- 16:46pulled. And I absolutely love that shot.
- 16:49That could have been cheese on toast with that being slow
- 16:52motion, but it's the sound design and that it's it's so
- 16:55jarring what you're listening to and you're in shock.
- 16:58I think it's just really, really well played out.
- 16:59It's a fantastic stunt. It looks great, all the
- 17:02movements perfect. There's not too much blood.
- 17:04So it's shotgun. It's from a child's point of
- 17:06view when Finn hits that ground and that Tommy gun goes off.
- 17:10I remember in the cinema thinking that is loud because
- 17:13that's where the kids going to hear.
- 17:14And if he doesn't cover easy is at that point reflecting on that
- 17:17sound design. You think that's a mistake
- 17:19that's being mixed too loud, but you have to get his reaction.
- 17:21It's like the opposite of Nolan dialogue, a little bit too
- 17:26heavy, and then he runs out. And you can always think of
- 17:29Forrest Gump, though when he comes out of the door and he
- 17:31runs towards the game, it's a really Forrest Gump.
- 17:34Run. With the Tommy gun.
- 17:39Yeah, exactly. So that then hits home.
- 17:42But when he realizes that it's Michael Junior and he knows that
- 17:45that's it, but don't know what's going to happen.
- 17:48Connor so volatile, it's not going to work.
- 17:50He doesn't really try to comfort his son at all.
- 17:53You don't speak a word of this. It's not like pick him up and
- 17:55try to ignore him from the situation.
- 17:56He just does not know how to deal with it.
- 17:58But the back and forth between Hanks and Craig here is
- 18:00absolutely wonderful. You can just say there's no
- 18:03trust between them. There's no love between them.
- 18:05They're actually fucking hate each other.
- 18:07And when you know, because John's actually said they would
- 18:09take Mike with you, Oh God, right.
- 18:13Because you're not going to be able to do properly.
- 18:15And that's the point here. Connor's got the upper hand on
- 18:18him. He's better than Mike now
- 18:19because Mike's made a mistake with that kid there and he is
- 18:22loving it. There's so much Glee on this.
- 18:25And when his walk away and that little wave just reminds me of
- 18:28he's Ledger in the Joker, just that little moment.
- 18:31And I think he's just really hamming it up and it's perfectly
- 18:33done. Nice night for a stroll of one
- 18:35you've lost. Let's see what happens.
- 18:37It's a brilliant, brilliant setup for a brilliant scene.
- 18:39Yeah, he slams his way out of that scene.
- 18:41He's great. I think some perspective needed
- 18:44as well, because this is Daniel Craig.
- 18:45Before he was Daniel Craig, before he was Bond, before he
- 18:49was in Layer Cake. He was a relative nobody.
- 18:52So he puts in quite a performance.
- 18:54Oh, he's amazing. So after the hit, the rock sets
- 18:57in, in both families, I suppose we think that Connor is slippery
- 19:02as an eel, and that's confirmed during the next scene, where he
- 19:04gives Michael a reminder to give to Tony Carvino, who's light
- 19:08again on his payment. Wonderful scene.
- 19:12The music pulses with menace intermittently, just hinting at
- 19:15the danger in the background, taking the jeopardy just up a
- 19:18notch. And there's a really understated
- 19:20one shot as they walk through that jazz club, the Lightnings.
- 19:24Wonderful, deep, joyous Blues in the club, and then a dangerous
- 19:28red in the back, where all manner of unspeakable acts take
- 19:31place. Lovely, lovely.
- 19:33And then we're in Carvino's office.
- 19:35Mike hands him the letter and his whole cocky demeanor
- 19:38changes. It's a really good silent
- 19:41performance from Doug's Bonooza. I haven't seen him anything
- 19:44else. He's great.
- 19:46He doesn't even have a wiki page, that's how hard the radar
- 19:48is. Wow.
- 19:50Completely baffled at what he's reading.
- 19:52On that note. And the dread just seeps into
- 19:54his body and you can see that on screens.
- 19:56Great. Yeah, it's the active players.
- 19:58When Mike walks in, he's like, hey.
- 20:00Yo, what am I like again? Yeah, exactly.
- 20:03It's fantastic. Great.
- 20:04He is great, but Michael can see danger on my love, and he can
- 20:07see that gun poorly concealed under the magazine as well.
- 20:11Yeah, and Calvino and his goon wiped out ruthlessly without
- 20:15hesitation. If we didn't know the menace
- 20:17that Michael packs, or we kind of were unsure about it because
- 20:20it's Tom Hanks we know now, but there's always that sense of
- 20:24reluctancy with Michael and his work, particularly now that the
- 20:27cat is out of the bag with his son.
- 20:30He's bearing that shame and that weight, but without it being
- 20:33explicit, I think you can tell that he feels bad for taking the
- 20:37goon out just on account of their nice little back and forth
- 20:40in direction on the way to Calvino's office.
- 20:42That's great. So on the surface level, it's a
- 20:44great scene. Technically excellent.
- 20:47Great storytelling as well, with very, very little dialogue.
- 20:51Love it. And then after this, you get the
- 20:53whole turning point of the entire film, which is obviously
- 20:57the killing of Annie and Peter. And I will say 11 flaw in the
- 21:01film is that Jennifer Jason Lee is just so underused in this.
- 21:04Yeah, yeah, I think so. I mean, I know obviously Annie
- 21:06can't have much of a story yourself, and she's there to
- 21:09sort of Michael's revenge arc, but all the same, it's Jennifer
- 21:12Jason Lee. It's Jennifer Jason Lee.
- 21:13Yeah. She's always awesome and you do
- 21:14one more. But the fact is, she is so good
- 21:18with so little. And that makes it all the more
- 21:20shocking when this scene comes along because it is ripe with
- 21:23tension. That cut from Michael
- 21:26frantically hitting the phone in the office to make the
- 21:28connection to that shot of the Sullivan's phone just dangling
- 21:32out of its cradle. Or it just makes you feel so
- 21:35sick because you know, he's late.
- 21:37He's way too late. I mean, that is visual
- 21:40storytelling at its finest. And it's the realism of it.
- 21:43Like when he appears at the bathroom door and his first
- 21:45reaction isn't to beg for mercy or even try to fight back, throw
- 21:49something upon it. It's the motherly protection
- 21:51Shields. Peter straight away turns back
- 21:53Eve. No, it's going to do no good
- 21:55realistically. But it's the double scream that
- 21:57she does. Like the first one is just this
- 21:59one of pure shock and horror and then no.
- 22:01And it really hits home hard. Just got this realism to it, and
- 22:06the moment that really gets me in this moment is pure
- 22:09Hitchcock, is when Michael Ceney gets there and he thinks Connor
- 22:12has seen him on the porch, which is why he's pulled the scarf
- 22:14down from his face. Yeah, it's really.
- 22:16Hitchcock, yeah. But then that could shows he's
- 22:18just looking at his own reflection instead.
- 22:20In the glass. Oh, that's great.
- 22:22Oh. It's so good and the tension of
- 22:24Michael and silhouette on the porch barely able to breathe in
- 22:27case Connor nordicism. I mean that is drawn out so
- 22:30effectively because Connor only takes a few seconds to compose
- 22:33himself. Black feels like 2 minutes,
- 22:35Yeah, it feels like he stood there for ages with Michael just
- 22:38like 2 foot away from him. It's a very tough scene to
- 22:40watch, but it's massively put together.
- 22:43Oh, it's absolutely amazing. And we have a possible Mendez
- 22:46shot in story order. Chronologically, that's the
- 22:48better track the characters emotional arcs.
- 22:50The murder of Annie and Peter Sullivan took place in Week 2,
- 22:53allowing Hanks to explore the full weight of his characters,
- 22:55despair and fury. So you that was hanging over
- 22:58like the performance for the rest of the shoot.
- 23:00Yeah, amazed and stuff, just seeing Tom Hanks cry and it's
- 23:04just a good punch, yeah. It's when it's the reaction with
- 23:07it, no and just hearing it. But this is where you see that
- 23:11fake nose and that's when it's really obvious.
- 23:14It's like Dick dastardly. You just need one of them
- 23:16tashes. It's got exactly the same nose,
- 23:20which is quite weird. It kind of pulls me out with the
- 23:21scene a little bit because it doesn't quite look like it is a
- 23:24strange choice, but that that despair of that shout might look
- 23:27upstairs and it's just the the speed within which he snaps out
- 23:31of that and and knows what he has to do.
- 23:34Yeah, it's pure revenge from the.
- 23:36It is. It is.
- 23:36It's great. Great setup.
- 23:38Yeah. So the Sullivan family are
- 23:40ripped apart and the ruin your family aren't far behind.
- 23:43A devastating first act. Yeah, the director.
- 23:52The man in the director's chair was Samuel Alexander Mendez, a
- 23:56theatre director who was coming off the back of the roaring
- 23:59success of his debut feature, American Beauty.
- 24:02Indeed. So his work on his sophomore
- 24:03efforts and what I think he shines is in his cast and
- 24:06choices. OK.
- 24:08The obvious thing to note here, First off, is that it's Tom
- 24:11Hanks playing hugely against type.
- 24:13It is cold blooded killer, but it's all right because, you
- 24:16know, tanks. He can get away with anything.
- 24:19But then if you look at the rest of the cast, Newman's playing
- 24:21against type as well. He's done morally ambiguous in
- 24:24the past, of course, but he's never played the likes of a
- 24:26gangland boss. And then look at the actors that
- 24:30in 2002 we weren't that familiar with.
- 24:33Daniel Craig and Jude Law, Alfie and James Bond, their roles in
- 24:37this film are certainly not the blueprint for what was to come
- 24:40in their career. No.
- 24:42And they both put in terrifying performances.
- 24:44Very believable considering what we couldn't expect from them
- 24:47down the line. Yeah.
- 24:48And even Stanley Tucci's playing Chicago's most Fiat Mafia head.
- 24:52Yeah. Yeah.
- 24:54Struggle to believe that one slightly.
- 24:55He's. A little bit of a stretch.
- 24:59But I think Mendez does great work in corks and these
- 25:01loathsome performances out of Craig and out of Law as well,
- 25:05who are largely affable actors. Yeah.
- 25:09Craig and Law don't come out with any redeeming qualities.
- 25:11They're just pure evil. But Hanks and Newman, he adds in
- 25:14just many more layers of ambiguity.
- 25:16We can see the good in Michael and in John, despite all of
- 25:19their, you know, mad killings and stuff.
- 25:22Yeah. And none of that is on the page.
- 25:24Mendez often held shots for a beat or two longer than was
- 25:27expected and just allow an emotion to hang in the scene
- 25:30that little bit longer. And I think you can feel that.
- 25:33Yeah, I think the genius comes from Caston 2 actors who we have
- 25:37such affection for, which gives them an instant emotional
- 25:39vulnerability, making it difficult to root against either
- 25:43of them. No matter who wins, we lose one
- 25:45way or another because we, these two actors are beloved.
- 25:49Yeah. And so we bring that emotional
- 25:51baggage already because we're already in love with these two
- 25:53actors. I think it's the classic case of
- 25:56show don't tell. And I think the film is all the
- 25:58better for. It's just subvert and
- 25:59expectations all the way along. Yeah.
- 26:01I think it's a real step up from American Beauty.
- 26:04As we've said, he comes from a theatre background for that in
- 26:07Spielberg. Ham picked him for American
- 26:09Beauty, and I think if you go back and look at that film, you
- 26:12can see his theatrical background.
- 26:14This is all over that film. It's very interior.
- 26:17That famous scene across the dining table with Spacey and
- 26:20Annette Benin of the scenes are just in bedrooms and bathrooms
- 26:23and offices. It's very kind of closeted and
- 26:25the performance is quite theatrical.
- 26:26It wouldn't take much to put that film on stage with minimal
- 26:30changes. So to then move to something
- 26:32like this and just a second film which has such a scope to it is
- 26:35something where I don't even know how you could put this on
- 26:37stage would be entirely changed. I think it's hugely impressive
- 26:41how Mendez makes that step up, but doesn't really miss any kind
- 26:44of beat. And doing so, he turns the
- 26:46performances down, he moves that camera a lot more.
- 26:49He opens up the scale of it. He sets so many of the scenes
- 26:52are outdoors and out on the open road.
- 26:54And it really feels like he's been doing it his entire career
- 26:57at this point, not for the first time on only his second film.
- 27:01And yes, granted he surrounded himself with the likes of Conrad
- 27:04Hall, Thomas Newman, but all the same, I don't ever feel like
- 27:07they are carrying him through this.
- 27:09I think he has that vision in the augmented and deliver it for
- 27:12him. The not see him in the day for
- 27:14him ever at any point. I think this film disputes he's
- 27:16got a real cinematic eye. Yeah, I think he is the one
- 27:19who's responsible for getting the best out of the cast and
- 27:21crew. Yeah, definitely.
- 27:23Yeah, I think for me it is the theatre background here and I
- 27:26think it's the use of block and the use of frame and it's so
- 27:28important and it puts you in that room or in that space.
- 27:31It's the use of sets as well. I think the set design is
- 27:33incredible because you can't really tell what to set isn't.
- 27:36No, you can't. And like Matt was talking about
- 27:38the American Beauty to me feels like a small town theatre.
- 27:41And this feels like Broadway. He's just got, he's got a
- 27:44bigger, he's got a bigger rig to play with his lightnings a
- 27:46little bit better. He's got a bigger stage that can
- 27:48be, you know, you can rotate it round.
- 27:51And I think what Conrad Hall brings to this is that it's a
- 27:53bigger audience and he moves the camera as an audience would
- 27:56move, keeps it still when it needs to be still frames
- 27:59everything impeccably. There's nothing in that frame
- 28:01that shouldn't be there. The miss on sense, absolutely
- 28:04spot on. Everything about this is so
- 28:06assured and so well thought through.
- 28:08When I compare this to American Beauty, I don't think it's
- 28:10concise or it's considered in its edit or the way it flows.
- 28:13I think a lot of this was done in the edit.
- 28:15A lot of these, a lot of these decisions were made later on
- 28:17based on how is this going to work?
- 28:18How is this going to flow? So it doesn't have such a tight
- 28:21knit structure for me, this film actually, I do feel like it goes
- 28:24open, it goes down. Mendez was very, very sure about
- 28:27some parts. But I think when you watch this
- 28:29in its entirety, you can see the bits where he's not too sure.
- 28:32And he's it'd be, you can see it's his second film because I
- 28:35think there's a lot of confidence in where it needs to
- 28:37go a little bit darker. There's a lack of confidence
- 28:39where the light moments are. And I think they're a bit too
- 28:41late just in case people didn't get it.
- 28:43Then there's some themes running through this that he really,
- 28:46really reinforces. And if you watch it a good
- 28:48couple of times, it's just to me, a little bit hard hitting
- 28:51and a little bit over the head when he's like, Michael Junior
- 28:54is not going to be like his dad. That's the theme with the film.
- 28:57It's like, I know and it's constantly reinforced,
- 29:00constantly bang, bang to the last one of the last lines of
- 29:03the film. It's like, I fucking get it.
- 29:05Don't be so scared of the audience not getting it.
- 29:07Because I think he thinks, well, if you get that, then you get
- 29:10the film. I can make on the mistakes, but
- 29:11that theme has to go all the way through it and really has to
- 29:13work. It does kind of shave the edges
- 29:15a little bit and take some of the sharpness out of some of the
- 29:18scenes. I'll never tell you of seeing
- 29:20that. I think it's an incredible
- 29:20achievement for a second film, but without Conrad Hall I don't
- 29:23think this has worked at all. Well, he certainly brings
- 29:25something unique to it doesn't. Right.
- 29:27Yeah, 100. Percent.
- 29:28We'll be talking about him later, certainly.
- 29:30Yeah, yeah. In Mendez encouraged this cast
- 29:32to walk through their blocking without dialogue, allowing their
- 29:34faces and body language to tell the story.
- 29:36And that's tricky, picked up from his Theta days in this
- 29:39approach, to pay a dividends in the scenes between Sullivan and
- 29:41the Sun, because they often unfold through glances and
- 29:44gestures as much as words. Yeah, it's a very.
- 29:47Visual film, Yeah, 100% yeah. And drawing on his theatre
- 29:51background, Mendez, along with Conrad Hall and the production
- 29:54designer Dennis Gassner, spent seven months planning every
- 29:57aspect of Rd. Editions visual design before a
- 29:59single frame was shot. Yeah, incredible.
- 30:02Gassner designed sets that would reinforce the visuals of the
- 30:05film. The Rooney mansion was built on
- 30:07a sound stage entirely out of grey and Blackstone, with
- 30:10strategic pops of brown and green to avoid total
- 30:12monochromia. Which is a shame.
- 30:16Cheerful. Yeah, colored lenses were used
- 30:19to further to saturate the woodwork, fabrics and props.
- 30:22Even the car seen on screen were carefully chosen, repainted to
- 30:25match the films visual scheme, which really works for me.
- 30:27It's. Beautiful.
- 30:28Yeah, You can tell the detail and time that's gone into this.
- 30:32Yeah, and Gastner sets were constructed to exacting
- 30:34specifications inside the massive Armory building in
- 30:38Chicago, and it was a former National Guard training facility
- 30:41repurposed into a sprawling soundstage.
- 30:43The Covenant space, loud haul, complete control of the light,
- 30:46and which he kept intentionally oppressive and dank throughout.
- 30:49Production did have to move on from the site later on though,
- 30:51as the fire damaged it beyond repair.
- 30:53Well. Make the Shiner.
- 30:55Yeah, hello, Shiner. Despite extensive use of those
- 30:58sets, the plan was always to make use of as many practical
- 31:01locations as as possible. Chicago's faded Art Deco glamour
- 31:06and factories scarred grittiness.
- 31:08Pullman in particular. A neighborhood about 30 miles
- 31:10South of Chicago, has a wealth of period accurate exteriors
- 31:13that required very few changes. And production took over entire
- 31:17city blocks, restoring buildings and street cars to their former
- 31:211930s glory. Nice.
- 31:23It just feels legitimate. It feels like in the 30s, yeah.
- 31:26Yeah, it's very, very authentic. It is.
- 31:29So Water Petition was based on a graphic novel of the same name
- 31:32by Max Allen Collins, and we'll talk about that more later.
- 31:35And after his published, Colin's literary agent sent a copy of it
- 31:38to Dean Sanok, who was then a junior development executive
- 31:41working for his legendary producer father, Richard D
- 31:44Sannic. And obviously we know him for
- 31:46producing the likes of Jaws, Cocoon, Dr. Miss Daisy, Yes,
- 31:49yes, all the classics. All the classics straight Miss
- 31:52Daisy, you know that's. Not an export.
- 31:55It's pretty much all this film, isn't it?
- 31:59Michael Sullivan, junior, around Chicago.
- 32:03Hasn't got quite the same ring to it as well, I mean.
- 32:05You can tell I've never seen drive Miss Daisy.
- 32:10Dean Zannick loved the book, showed his dad a copy who also
- 32:13loved it, and bought the rights. Xanax Senior sent it to Steven
- 32:16Spielberg, whose DreamWorks studio had a first look deal
- 32:19with Xanax production company. And obviously Spielberg loved it
- 32:23as well. Of course he did.
- 32:26Of course he did get it in there.
- 32:27Love. This.
- 32:30Lone wolf and cub. I fancy this one.
- 32:34The word is that Spielberg was interested in directing, but he
- 32:37already had his hands full with other projects.
- 32:39And this is where Sam Mendez comes in.
- 32:42OK, so in the spring of 2000, he was hot stuff on the back of his
- 32:46Oscar win and featured filmmaking debut American
- 32:49Beauty. Like we've discussed.
- 32:50And because he was the hottest sticker in town, he had a number
- 32:53of screenplays drawn his way, including A Beautiful Mind, K
- 32:56Pax and The Ship and News K Pax, Not So Much Music in.
- 33:02I think he's he's chose wisely here.
- 33:04He did. He has.
- 33:05Chosen wisely. He says.
- 33:07I was looking for a story that was different from American
- 33:09Beauty in almost everywhere. I didn't want to wake up and
- 33:11find that I'd made the same film twice.
- 33:13Yeah, and he was drawn to the contrast in dialogue to American
- 33:16beauty, he said. It has a sparseness, A leanness
- 33:19to it. It speaks in images rather than
- 33:21words. It really does.
- 33:22Yeah. Yeah.
- 33:23He was inspired by the nonverbal simplicity of things like Once
- 33:26Upon a Time in America, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,
- 33:29Kurosawa's all of Kurosawa's films.
- 33:32All of them, yeah. Yeah, and he also loved the
- 33:34father son dynamic and the family element of the story, but
- 33:37not the mafia family in it. And he said on the surface it's
- 33:40a very simple story of a father and son's journey, but actually
- 33:43it's a film about a father who's trying to turn the son into
- 33:46something other than himself. It's about the battle for the
- 33:49boys soul. Yes, a point that you've made, W
- 33:52Ian. Yeah, the film makes many times.
- 33:54Many times when Mendez met with Richard D Zanuck, he said
- 33:59something that was music to Xanax is he said, I don't want
- 34:02to make a film about guns. I want to make a film about
- 34:05fathers and sons. Wow.
- 34:08Very nice sons and roses love it.
- 34:15The Sons of Navarone, So an important step in the career of
- 34:21Sam Mendez, who made possibly his best film so far.
- 34:25Definitely the cast. A cast full of talent.
- 34:34We're talking about Hanks, Newman, and child prodigy Tyler
- 34:37Heckman. In the words of the great man
- 34:39himself, we're firstly talking about Don Mustache with a hat
- 34:42on. Tom Hanks as Michael Sullivan
- 34:44senior. Indeed, at this point in his
- 34:46career, Hanks was probably the biggest actor on the planet. 2O
- 34:49wins under his belt. The nicest man on the planet.
- 34:51Everybody loves Hanks. Yeah.
- 34:53Yes, What about you? Wesley Hanks is Michael
- 34:55Sullivan, senior. Big fan.
- 34:57I mean, I was a big fan, Hanks, at this point, because we've had
- 35:00Saving Private Ryan up and now that thing you do now, you know
- 35:05which I absolutely love that this performance is wonderful.
- 35:08It's against tape. Is Hank scared to go a little
- 35:11bit too far into the role? Is he skirting on the outskirts
- 35:14and doesn't want to be a complete badass?
- 35:15Are you threatened by him or is it still Tom Hanks?
- 35:18Does it actually work? Is it that deep?
- 35:20It's on the cost. A lot of questions.
- 35:21I think it's on the line. I think there's some elements
- 35:24where if it wasn't mentioned that he was a war hero, I think
- 35:27would lose all that dynamic where he has that regret and
- 35:30that pain about killing people. He kills people out of love for
- 35:34John Rooney and that's that's why he does it, because he feels
- 35:36like he owes and. Yeah, debt of gratitude isn't.
- 35:39It Yeah. And he's good at killing people
- 35:40and he doesn't want to be. He wants to be a better father
- 35:42and he doesn't know how to be. So I think there's all of that
- 35:45conflict which really comes across.
- 35:47But I think the way that the film sold, and I think why it's
- 35:50so divisive, I think is because of Hank's performance.
- 35:53So I think it's very conflicted with how you think this
- 35:56character behaves. I think he's very conflicted
- 35:58character. And I think that's what Hanks
- 35:59was trying to get across, that it isn't just A1 dimensional.
- 36:02I'm a gangster who kills people. No, there's a lot of levels
- 36:05here. Is the film long enough to
- 36:06explore all those levels? Is there enough that happens in
- 36:09the film where he gets to really pursue that and really push
- 36:12that? I don't know if it does.
- 36:13I think it might just be a bit fast for the amount of depth
- 36:16that he tries to bring to the character does work Expect that
- 36:19dynasty, and that works for me, absolutely.
- 36:21The death of Fanny and Peter, that really works for me.
- 36:23That strikes home. Even when he's just telling them
- 36:26which churches to go to. That really strikes home and he
- 36:28reaches over the bloods on his hand.
- 36:30He's all these little nuanced bits and all them bits really
- 36:32work, but those are the bits where it feels like it was a bit
- 36:35of a missed opportunity. And he just kind of turns into
- 36:37Tom Hanks and he just kind of pulls the parachute a little
- 36:39bit. And you know, there's a safety
- 36:41if you just have Tom Hanks. So I think it's down to Mendez
- 36:44as well as Hanks being like, at which point can I go?
- 36:47At which point am I going to be reined back in a little bit?
- 36:49At which point am I going to fall back in just the Tom Hanks
- 36:52that everybody knows to make the film safe?
- 36:54And I think there's there is that element of him stepping
- 36:55forward and stepping back. But I think a lot of people are
- 36:58conflicted with that. If you just accept that and
- 37:00realize you're not going to get all the answers from this
- 37:02character to realize they're not spoiler alert, but he's going to
- 37:05die with questions that need to be asked about who he was and
- 37:08what his motivations were and how confused his life was.
- 37:11If you can handle that and you're OK with that, you'll
- 37:13really enjoy this film. And I can handle that and I'm OK
- 37:15with that. But I think there's a lot of
- 37:16people who aren't. And if Hanks had played this any
- 37:18straight without all them elements of depth, I don't think
- 37:21we'd still be talking about the film now.
- 37:22I think it really, really works. But another half an hour on it,
- 37:25he might just the nailed it completely.
- 37:27Possibly. I just think that it's Tom Hanks
- 37:29and he never stops being Tom Hanks in the film.
- 37:32Well, the story is that. Yeah.
- 37:33What, does he kill at least 15 people in the film?
- 37:37Yeah. In cold blood, yeah.
- 37:39But he doesn't disappear, Andrew.
- 37:40What he's the most believable as the character is when you don't
- 37:43see it's Tom Hanks doing the shooting, you just see the
- 37:45effects of it. Yeah, that's right.
- 37:47That's perfect. Yeah.
- 37:48That's the character. That's Michael Sullivan.
- 37:49I think unfortunately he just keeps you at arms length because
- 37:52it is Hanks. Yeah, I understand that, Yeah.
- 37:54I mean, still brilliant and he still plays the new ones of the
- 37:56character great, I think, yeah. And Hanks was Mendez's first
- 37:59choice for the role of Michael Senior, and he said he saw in
- 38:01Hanks's innate likeability the chance to craft an anti hero
- 38:05whose gradual humanization might sneak up on audiences.
- 38:08He said I wanted to slowly reveal his character rather than
- 38:11pushing her to the foreground. Hanks wasn't looking for a bad
- 38:14guy role, but he responded favorably to the scripts.
- 38:17Father son themes, of course. Yeah, at the time, he was a
- 38:20father of four, including a young son not much older than
- 38:23the character of Michael Junior. So the idea of struggling to
- 38:26keep his son from following in his father's dark footsteps
- 38:29struck chord. Yeah, not that he's got dark
- 38:32footsteps. It's Tom Hanks for goodness,
- 38:34Yeah. Yeah, and Hanks also loved the
- 38:35idea of the strong silent type amount of actions, not words.
- 38:39Almost like a western style gunslinger.
- 38:41Mendez saw Hanks casting as an opportunity to subvert his *
- 38:44persona and audiences expectations of his character.
- 38:47Mendez said. You see him as an anonymous
- 38:49silhouette before you see him as Tom Hanks.
- 38:51It's like he's coming out of an old myth or a forgotten dream.
- 38:55I mean, a very romanticized version of the film that it's
- 38:57there if you really want to look for it.
- 38:59But I mean, yeah, I mean, but you'll be searching a while 10th
- 39:04page of Google if you're searching for that.
- 39:07Mendez keeps Sullivan at arm's length from the audience at the
- 39:11start of the film, never really shown his face fully in frame.
- 39:14It's only gradually, as his relationship with the sun
- 39:17becomes stronger, do we see more fangs behind the shadows.
- 39:20A specific choice, and I think that's effective for the film.
- 39:23To further distance the character from his movie star
- 39:25charisma, Mendez asked Hanks to adopt A period appropriate
- 39:28pencil moustache and slick his hair.
- 39:30Back contact lenses turned the act as blue eyes brown, further
- 39:34muddy in his appearance. Yes.
- 39:36And of course, you've mentioned the prosthetic nose, which,
- 39:39yeah, feels like an indulgence to be quite honest.
- 39:42Yeah, an unnecessary indulgence. Yeah, yeah.
- 39:46So a very surprising role for Hanks in 2002, or any time for
- 39:49that matter. It's certainly the darkest role
- 39:52in his career, a career which is all the better for it.
- 39:55Yeah. Oh yeah.
- 39:56Really is. Next up, bonafide Hollywood
- 40:01royalty, the legend that was and always will be Paul Newman as
- 40:05John Rooney. Another top of the list cast and
- 40:08choice, the legendary Paul Newman, 77 years old at the
- 40:11time. This was his beautiful swan
- 40:13song. Matt, it's over to you.
- 40:15I mean, what you're doing when you cast Newman in this is you
- 40:18bring in the weird of an iconic 50 year career to this role.
- 40:22You're bringing in someone who's already head and shoulders above
- 40:24everyone else on screen, even Tom Hanks at this point, I would
- 40:26say. And there's an ingrained respect
- 40:29to that. And that's what Newman brings
- 40:30when he starts talking, everyone should show up and pays
- 40:33attention instantly. And there's no question that
- 40:36John is a man to be feared underneath that kind of unclear
- 40:39image that he has. Like when they have not sit down
- 40:42at the table and he thumps that table in.
- 40:44Angrid Connor, you would like to apologise?
- 40:48Try again. You can see everyone around that
- 40:52table holding their breath. Yeah, so do we because we don't
- 40:54know where this is going. And we know John is steeped in
- 40:57blood to hold the position that he does.
- 40:59That was an ad Lib from Newman as well, wasn't it?
- 41:01Was it? He just said the Mendez.
- 41:03He said I'm going to do something.
- 41:04He's like, well, what you say I'm just going to do something.
- 41:06Then again, when you hit that table, you can see every because
- 41:08just the stuff lives off. Oh yeah, properly, everybody
- 41:11surprised. Yeah.
- 41:13And I think the the take of Daniel Craig to standing up and
- 41:15being gentlemen, my apologies, was straight after that, which,
- 41:19yeah, excellent, real. No, it's incredible scene.
- 41:21But at the same time, as we've been saying, this is guy who
- 41:23played Butch Cassidy and Cool Hand Luke.
- 41:26He's played so many good guys and he's got so much movie
- 41:29charisma and he's still got that twinkle in his eye here, like
- 41:32when he's playing dice for Michael's boys and he's just
- 41:35been the lovable uncle of the lovable granddad.
- 41:37It's not an act. That's also who he is and that
- 41:40makes him much more interesting than just being an out and out
- 41:43cold blooded murderer. And ultimately you're talking
- 41:45about a character not in it that much really, but he's got to
- 41:48leave an indelible impression. If everything I've talked about
- 41:51there, all those different elements that constitute this
- 41:54man who strikes the fear of God and the people one minute and
- 41:57then he just makes kids laugh the next, Yes, you can only have
- 42:01very few actors who can do that instantly.
- 42:03And Paul Newman was one of them. And yes, as we've been saying,
- 42:06he would go on and do voices for the Pixel movies, cars and the
- 42:09sequels, but this is his last on screen performance.
- 42:13And I can't think of any other actor who obviously unknowingly
- 42:16took their leave with one of their very best performances.
- 42:20You know, I mean, what an actor he was, what a career he had and
- 42:23what a way to sign off. Yeah, well said.
- 42:25It's some end chapter, isn't it? Oh, really?
- 42:28Is, Yeah. And for an old man, he still
- 42:30packs some wallop. Doesn't.
- 42:32He he's posture, you can just see he's like Atlas.
- 42:35He's just holding up the whole world.
- 42:37But if you believe he could do it, it's like it's fantastic.
- 42:40And he's final words in the film as well.
- 42:41When we get into that scene. I'm glad it's You are kidding.
- 42:44Yes, man. Yeah.
- 42:46Yeah, those are his last on screen words as well.
- 42:50Wow. Yeah.
- 42:51Mendez saw Newmans weathered face and world weary eyes, the
- 42:55embodiment of his character John Rooney, most powerful man in
- 42:58town, now reduced to petty in family squabbling as his empire
- 43:02disintegrates along with his relationships with his
- 43:04biological and adopted sons. I love that setup, that dynamic.
- 43:08Yeah, that layering of the the sons, biological adopted sons.
- 43:12Fantastic stuff, yeah. Newman was intrigued by the
- 43:14script, finding echoes of his own portrayal of pool hall
- 43:17hustler Fast Eddie Felson in The Hustler and in The Color of
- 43:21Money. Certainly got the ambiguity.
- 43:23He's not. He's not straight up and down,
- 43:25is he? As Eddie Felson.
- 43:27No, and then to help capture Rooneys Irish accent, Newman
- 43:31drafted in Angeles Ashes author and Irish native Frank McCourt.
- 43:34Newman had record record all of his lines so he could study the
- 43:38cadences and rhythm of a native speaker.
- 43:40Nice. Yeah, he would go into his
- 43:42trailer and listen back to the tapes kind of systematically to
- 43:45make sure he wasn't fever and off course.
- 43:47Yeah. Right.
- 43:48Nice. Any intimidation Hanks may have
- 43:50felt acting opposite a screen legend such as Newman quickly
- 43:53eased as Newman and he fell into a deep, loving relationship
- 43:57friendship. Yeah, nice, Yeah.
- 44:00And they were 25 years apart. But they bonded over shared
- 44:03affinity with race car driving and games of badminton.
- 44:07Hanks called Newman Pop and Newman reciprocated with son.
- 44:12Oh, very nice, you have. Beautiful, isn't it?
- 44:14Yeah, I'm just going to have to brush up with me badminton and
- 44:17race car drivers in case I meet somebody I need to be very good
- 44:21friends with because I would be fucked in that scenario.
- 44:26Imagine you get the meat. Who would be your ultimate?
- 44:29It would be someone like Bobby Duvall for me.
- 44:32Oh yeah. Well, Wesley, I mean, I think
- 44:35he's, he's more like 50 years you're saying.
- 44:39And if he's still doing badminton, I think.
- 44:42Yeah, still in good nick. Great Nick.
- 44:45Great, Nick. That's how he got in a great
- 44:46neck for Apocalypse Now. The original Great Nick.
- 44:50It's playing playing badminton on the beach one day during
- 44:55film, and cinematographer Conrad Hall was setting up a shot of
- 44:58Paul Newman through his viewfinder.
- 45:00He broke down in tears. When asked what was wrong, Hall
- 45:02said. He was so beautiful.
- 45:04He was so beautiful. Wow.
- 45:06Wow. Incredibly, and this has taken
- 45:10on extra poignancy because Wrote a Petition was the final film
- 45:13that worked on together, having collaborated on four others
- 45:17including Cool Hand Luke and which casting this.
- 45:20Incredible stuff. So a top performance, one of
- 45:24Newman's best, and a fit and weird to end such an illustrious
- 45:27career. Live action, at least.
- 45:29Really. Was.
- 45:32Next, a child actor, an unknown in a cast of huge names.
- 45:36But Tyler Heckling more than held his own as Michael Junior.
- 45:40Now, I wasn't expecting much from Heckling on the 1st watch.
- 45:43To be honest, I kind of already made me mind up that it was a
- 45:46child actor's performance. He's just going to get swallowed
- 45:49by this huge cast. But I was happily blown away by
- 45:52him. For a 14 year old kid to hold
- 45:54his own against Hanks and Newman is remarkable enough, but he he
- 45:58does more than just keep up. Those eyes of his are doing some
- 46:02incredible work throughout the film.
- 46:04You can see in process and everything the violence, the
- 46:07revelation about his father, the loss of his mother and brother.
- 46:10He can fears all of that confusion and fear without ever
- 46:13overplaying it or overstating it.
- 46:16And what I love most is how he shows Michael Junior gradually
- 46:20harden as the film progresses. At the beginning, he's obviously
- 46:23this innocent kid playing with his brother.
- 46:25By the end of the point that you made, Matt, there's something
- 46:27different behind those eyes. Not quite adult, but no longer a
- 46:32child either. And he charts that
- 46:34transformation just fantastically well.
- 46:37The moment where he drives away with his dad's shot, he's
- 46:40processing what's just happened, his face gradually crumpling as
- 46:43the reality hits. It's heartbreaking to watch a
- 46:46child with this kind of cherubic face.
- 46:49I think most adult actors would struggle with that level of
- 46:52emotional complexity, but he nails it.
- 46:54And he doesn't ever feel like a typical movie kid.
- 46:57There's no kind of like smart ass cautious dialogue or forced
- 47:01wisdom beyond his years. Yeah, exactly.
- 47:04I mean, from this part, 2002. Imagine if this was like Hayley
- 47:07Joel Osmond of the back of the 6th century.
- 47:09Like, what on earth? It'd just be far too much.
- 47:12It just feels very, very natural.
- 47:14He just feels like a real boy trying to understand an
- 47:17incomprehensible situation. And the chemistry between him
- 47:20and Hanks that feels genuinely paternal.
- 47:23You believe that these two are father and son, which is
- 47:25essential for the film to work. Mendez asked Hanks and Heckland
- 47:29to improvise dialogue for the scenes of bonding on the road.
- 47:32And that conversation beside the fire about nature of good and
- 47:35evil was largely the result of this improvised approach.
- 47:39Right. It just works fantastically.
- 47:40It does. Yeah.
- 47:41I think he's just made for the big screen.
- 47:43He's just got that look. And he reminds me a little bit
- 47:47of Christopher Cerrone, who plays the young Henry Hill and
- 47:49Goodfellas. Oh.
- 47:50He does. Yeah, similar look.
- 47:53Kind of like almost like cherubic, those piece and eyes.
- 47:56Yeah, amazing. The voice overs are quite
- 47:58similar as well. Yeah, they are.
- 47:59I think it's one of the most underrated child performances,
- 48:02one which definitely gets lost under the weight of Newman
- 48:04Hanks, Conrad Hall, Sam Mendez, all of that.
- 48:08Yeah, Buddy, Scrape. And the search for the right
- 48:10child to play Michael Sylvan Junior was epic and scope.
- 48:13Over 2000 young actors from across the US and Canada
- 48:16audition for the role and this was eventually narrowed down to
- 48:19200 contenders and each submitted a screen test opposite
- 48:22Hanks. Yeah, and these were whittled
- 48:23down to 20 semi finalists flown out of Chicago for in personal
- 48:27auditions from this group. 13 year old Tyler Heckman was can't
- 48:30pick by Mendez and knocking his reading out of the park.
- 48:33Yeah, I mean, that's a lot for Tom Hanks to contend with, isn't
- 48:36it? 20 semi finalists.
- 48:38Yeah. The little shit I've got us
- 48:41alongside. But to help build their natural
- 48:45father son dynamic further, Mendez had Hanks and Heckland
- 48:49spend loads of weeks off camera. They played catch.
- 48:52They worked on improving Heckland's driving skills, and
- 48:55by the time the cameras were ready to roll, their
- 48:57relationship just felt lived in. Felt really.
- 49:00Yeah. Yeah.
- 49:01They play badminton. No badminton, and that was
- 49:03reserved just for Newman. Just for Newman, fair enough.
- 49:05Yes, fair enough. Yeah.
- 49:07Heckler went on to find success in television, landed major
- 49:09roles in family drama 7th Heaven and the supernatural teen spin
- 49:13off series Teen Wolf, but he was eventually cast as Clark Kent in
- 49:16Supergirl and the spin off Superman and Lewis.
- 49:19So he's done well for himself if he hasn't been a presence really
- 49:22in film after this. So a superb cast on a road
- 49:26edition. We've talked about Daniel Craig,
- 49:28we briefly mentioned Jennifer, Jason Lee and there are more to
- 49:30come. But in Hanks and Newman you've
- 49:32got 2 screen legends, and in Heckland we've got a
- 49:35considerably underrated child performance.
- 49:37Three of the best. Yes, very good.
- 49:42The middle. We've seen the initial
- 49:46devastation of Connor's actions, and now we get the ripple
- 49:49effect, starting with the Rooneys Westie.
- 49:52Yeah, I mean, their reaction is quite a reaction, isn't it?
- 49:54The only reaction is quite a fucking thing.
- 49:58So yeah, this is just an it's a very, very short scene, but one
- 50:01that I always remembered when I left the cinema.
- 50:04It's one that's always stuck with this.
- 50:05And I think it's just the way that Newman just owns this and
- 50:08attacks it and the way that it's lit in the way that it's shot.
- 50:11He has that strip of light on his face where you see just
- 50:13enough emotion, but it's almost like he hasn't got the energy
- 50:16left. And this is just one thing.
- 50:18Just don't get anything else wrong and I'll live the rest of
- 50:21my life doing things right. And you've fucked it now.
- 50:23You've fucked everything. And just the lines are amazing.
- 50:25It's just the delivery of these lines.
- 50:27Yes, I curse the fucking day you were born.
- 50:31And he's like Rippy. I fucking curse it.
- 50:33It's like he really means it. Craig's reaction here where he's
- 50:36just, he's just a wimp. He's just a whimpering mess.
- 50:39He doesn't stand up for anything.
- 50:41He doesn't say what he's done is right.
- 50:42He knows what he's done is wrong.
- 50:43His dad knows that this is what he's going to be like when he's
- 50:45gone. This is what he's Empire's left.
- 50:47This is his legacy left to this guy.
- 50:49And he's just all of that frustration and what, like 3
- 50:52minutes. And it's the way that he turns
- 50:54from the beaten to the God help us to the Father, embrace full,
- 50:59God help us, God help us. And he's like, that's it.
- 51:02Now I just don't know what to do.
- 51:03It is just really, really powerful because their
- 51:05performance reinforces Michael Sullivan's character.
- 51:09Yeah. They're now scared, he's now
- 51:11scared, really scared, and you think, oh shit, what is he
- 51:14capable of? What we're going to see from
- 51:15now? And it really sets up the second
- 51:17act and really starts the film rolling.
- 51:20That God help us line. That's the line he repeats
- 51:22later. Yeah, yeah.
- 51:24With Nitty, isn't it? Yeah.
- 51:25Yes, with Nitty, yeah, that reinforces what you're seeing.
- 51:28Like what is Michael capable of? But it reinforces the religious
- 51:32imagery which is just coursing through the film as.
- 51:34Well, it is, yeah, 100%. But in the next scene, we see
- 51:37that Mike Senior has ice running through his veins.
- 51:40This house is not our home anymore.
- 51:42It's just an empty building. He leaves behind the broken
- 51:45dreams of half of his family in a heartbeat.
- 51:48He knows that if he shows any weakness, it'll be Michael
- 51:50Junior who suffers. Great.
- 51:52That symbolism of the bike as well, just leaving his childhood
- 51:54in the snow. Yeah, yeah, that's great.
- 51:57Great shot. And then after that, an
- 52:00incredibly swift scene. Mike visits Jack Kelly to find
- 52:03out where Connor is. Kelly plays it as cool as a
- 52:06cucumber because he doesn't think he's in any danger.
- 52:08And neither do we, because this is Tom Hanks.
- 52:11Yeah. And that's the great trick that
- 52:12Mendez pulls throughout the film.
- 52:14It's Tom Hanks. He's not a cold blooded killer.
- 52:16But. Oh, I beg to differ.
- 52:20He is you. Give John a message.
- 52:22What is it? Bang.
- 52:23Cold blooded execution from Joshua Baskin.
- 52:26Unbelievable. Now anything's possible.
- 52:30Yeah, that camera pushing as well is just beyond genius.
- 52:33Who? Really.
- 52:34Is it? Is that moment?
- 52:35Yeah. Quick zoom?
- 52:35Yeah, great. Yeah, and then the same that I'm
- 52:38going for comes after this, and it's slightly longer.
- 52:40And, you know, I picked this one for the obvious reason, which is
- 52:43my deep Biden for the Untouchables, of which Frank
- 52:45Niddy, played by Billy Drago, was a huge part.
- 52:48And I know what you said earlier about Stanley Tucci, isn't it?
- 52:51He doesn't quite work. But actually I really like this
- 52:53custom because for me, it's the contrast.
- 52:56You know, this isn't the horrible assassin you got with
- 52:58the Palmer. That's true.
- 53:00You know, I mean, tips, he's always excellent.
- 53:02But I think Nitty shows the reason why Capone got away with
- 53:06so much is because he put on the front of being a businessman and
- 53:09he ran his empire like it was a business.
- 53:11So Nitty, he's like a HR manager here.
- 53:14He's got a secretary, He's got a whole line of people with a
- 53:17whole host of grievances that the one pass him say, right,
- 53:21I'll see him first, then get that guy in.
- 53:23And like, if anyone's ever held any position of management,
- 53:26you're part of the job is having difficult conversations with
- 53:28someone, which is obviously ramped up by what the
- 53:31conversations are about. You know, and there's so much
- 53:34great dialogue here. You know, will one more body
- 53:36make a difference? That's great.
- 53:38The whole scene where Laser Michael, what the ramifications
- 53:41will be if he goes through this door.
- 53:43All that loyalty and all that trust will no longer exist for
- 53:46you. Just really well spoken black
- 53:49and white. But it's not a threat.
- 53:51It's so rationally and calmly explained to him.
- 53:54And as he says, he's not protecting Connor, who were
- 53:56protecting our interests, Mike. So it really lets you know where
- 53:59everyone stands in this film going forward.
- 54:01Yeah, yeah, Really. It gives you the hierarchy of
- 54:04this organization. Yeah, there's that amazing shot
- 54:07when they come into Chicago. They labeled the Dorothy
- 54:11arriving in Hall's shot where Michael Junior first sees the
- 54:15Chicago skyline. They used a complex 3 camera rig
- 54:18to capture a 180° background place and the cameras were set
- 54:23up in an overlap and a rear and the resultant footage was
- 54:25stitched together to create a a wrap around environment that
- 54:29could be mapped onto the car windows in perspective as the
- 54:32main camera moved around with the vehicle.
- 54:35Unbelievable stuff. Yeah, it's fantastic.
- 54:37A really complex shot. That's how you see Ji as well,
- 54:40to reinforce the story. Yeah.
- 54:42Incredible stuff. And Tucci was hesitant to take
- 54:45on the role at first, as he generally avoided playing
- 54:47gangster parts to sidesteps, stereotype and of Italian
- 54:50Americans. However, the chance to work with
- 54:52director Sam Mendez oddly convinced Tucci to accept the
- 54:54part. And there's a deleted scene from
- 54:56the film with Anthony La Paglia is Al Capone.
- 54:59But it was good because Mendez thought that Capone was far more
- 55:02menacing is an unseen presence and Alfred Molina was originally
- 55:05in the frame for the world. But he could make it because the
- 55:07scheduling conflicts you. Would have been good.
- 55:09He would have been great. Lopaglia.
- 55:12Wow. Yeah, yeah, he's great.
- 55:15So with the rejection from Nitty, the Sullivans are out on
- 55:17their own and losing friends fast.
- 55:23The walls are closing in on the Sullivans and there's someone
- 55:25else they need to worry about. And that man is Weasel.
- 55:28Fierce sneak. Harlan McGuire.
- 55:33Good description. There's a wonderful kind of
- 55:38reverse Dolly shot of him walking under the train tracks
- 55:41in the opening shot. Yeah, Almost like we're being
- 55:44forced into an introduction we don't want.
- 55:46It's really, really good. Yeah, it's really great.
- 55:49And with that music as well, it's really unsettling.
- 55:51It is Harlan, such a nasty piece of work, who takes pictures of
- 55:54dead bodies, even finishing the job of some of them if they
- 55:58haven't quite popped off. This scene where he first
- 56:01suffocates that guy with a knife in him kind of reminds me a
- 56:04little bit of Holy Grail, Monty Python bring out your dead.
- 56:10I feel happy but he's such an odd character.
- 56:17Really seedy pictures of actual dead people hanging up in his
- 56:21house. Yeah, yeah.
- 56:24So we know he's not to be trifled with.
- 56:25It's a really great character intro.
- 56:28Jude Law was obviously piping hot when he was cast in the
- 56:31film. A heartthrob, you might even
- 56:33say. So a credit to him that he was
- 56:35willing to push against this persona for the role of Alan
- 56:38McGuire. He needed to be immoral and
- 56:41repulsive, Law said. There's something stinky about
- 56:44him. He's like a bad smell.
- 56:46Yeah, he is awful. Yeah, to achieve the desired
- 56:50rodent like quality, Law parked on a few extra pounds, makeup
- 56:53artist Fern Butchner give him Park Market skin, rotten teeth
- 56:58and greasy comb over. I mean, he's here is ludicrous.
- 57:00And I think that was down to to Jude Law as well.
- 57:02Just wanting to have that kind of vibe.
- 57:04Yeah, he really. Yeah, that heartthrob persona
- 57:07that you had the contact lenses turned his eyes and that ice
- 57:10blue, Mendez said. We wanted to have ACD
- 57:13countenance. And you got that?
- 57:17And as mentioned, the walls of his rented room and dark room
- 57:20were decorated with the sieves of graphic real life crime scene
- 57:22photographs in 1930 Chicago. The black and white images were
- 57:26carefully chosen to evoke the work of famed Tab like
- 57:28photographer author Weegee Fellig because he was a
- 57:31freelance photographer from the era whom Holland was based on.
- 57:34Yes, yeah, Ouija got his name. A riff on the term Ouija because
- 57:39he eerily managed to reach crime scenes before the authorities.
- 57:43Somebody suspect that he had an almost clairvoyant sense for
- 57:46when and where crimes would happen, but in reality he paid
- 57:49for tip offs through the emergency services and sold his
- 57:52pictures to the press. OK, he was a bastard.
- 57:56Yeah. I mean, I'll just continue
- 57:59talking about Jude Law because when everyone mentions this, for
- 58:02me it's the dynasty I think of first and foremost.
- 58:05Outstanding, yeah. Outstanding.
- 58:06Believable. Because when Water Petition
- 58:08wants to really wind up the tension, it really does it
- 58:12effectively. And I think this seems the best
- 58:14example of that because I think there's this ambiguity of Harlan
- 58:18and Michael in the scene. What do they know about each
- 58:20other? You know, I don't know.
- 58:22Has McGuire underestimated Michael here?
- 58:24Or is he simply enjoying the thrill of the chase?
- 58:27And he likes the fact that, you know, maybe Michael recognizes
- 58:29him because Michael straight away sees the red flags
- 58:32everywhere. Soon as he sits down, it's like
- 58:34his ears prick up, the yellow teeth, that false trollery he
- 58:38has with the waitress, which is completely insincere.
- 58:41And that same in sincerity, carries into the conversation
- 58:45that they have because we know McGuire knows who Michael is,
- 58:49but we're not sure if Michael knows who McGuire is.
- 58:52And if he does, does McGuire in turn know that?
- 58:55So you're not quite sure who has the upper hand here?
- 58:57That's great. Yeah.
- 58:59Because if he does, then this whole conversation, they have to
- 59:02be paid to do what you love. And that the dream, it's got a
- 59:05whole different context to it. And the way McGuire goes machine
- 59:09parts, that's wonderful. Can barely keep the sarcasm out
- 59:15of his voice. I say I think he's enjoying the
- 59:17thrill of the chase. I don't think he cares if he's
- 59:19giving himself away. I think I get from the character
- 59:21as well as like, I'm going to use that.
- 59:23That's fucking brilliant. Yeah, that's excellent.
- 59:26That as well, and I love the simplicity that Mendez shoots
- 59:29this with. Just that simple back and forth,
- 59:31nothing elaborate, nothing Troy, just very simple shots.
- 59:34Until bam that revelation. I shoot the dead, Dead bodies,
- 59:38that is, and then you get just that single bead of sweat so
- 59:42slowly trickling down Michael's face, because every question
- 59:45from McGuire now was so loaded with menace and double mean.
- 59:48And you know when he saw him about the dead bodies, You never
- 59:51seen one terrible thing. But the cheer makes you feel
- 59:53alive, don't it? So this whole thing, it just
- 59:56dances that line of ambiguity of what does one counter know about
- 59:59the other, and does the other counter in turn realise that
- 1:00:02they've been made by the other? Because McGuire was certainly
- 1:00:05caught up by Michael subtly swiping that knife away.
- 1:00:08And I think Mendez just draws the scene out magnificently.
- 1:00:11Yeah, sound design and the scenes unbelief.
- 1:00:14I just love the introduction of the carrot.
- 1:00:15He's loading that camera like he's loading a gun and puts it
- 1:00:18on the table. He's right in front of him.
- 1:00:19Yeah. Hanks does a real good job of
- 1:00:21playing dumb. Yeah Yeah.
- 1:00:23And not alerting him that he's under love it, Yeah.
- 1:00:27Mendez encouraged Jude Law to find some dark humour in McGuire
- 1:00:31and he effectively played him as the Wiley Coyote to Hanks's
- 1:00:35Roadrunner. Nice, that's.
- 1:00:37Great. That's great.
- 1:00:39The deal of the boat, that whole diner online as well that is
- 1:00:41found. It right?
- 1:00:42Yeah, it's great. I might look into that. 2020
- 1:00:46grand, isn't it? Yeah, that's right.
- 1:00:47Yeah, Unbelievable. It's a great set.
- 1:00:50It is amazing. Yeah.
- 1:00:52So we'll go from that scene. Is it the last?
- 1:00:54We're going to see if McGuire. I'm not too sure.
- 1:00:56But we still have to wait. And we're going to the Robin
- 1:00:59Banks. This is what we need to do next.
- 1:01:01You know, even Rocky had a montage, so we kind of need to
- 1:01:06put that in there somewhere. This is where it slightly comes
- 1:01:09off the boil for me. It feels like it's a little bit
- 1:01:13too light hearted. It feels like it's a little bit
- 1:01:15too much of A breath of fresh air.
- 1:01:17I'd know that it might be needed and that's OK, but is it a
- 1:01:21little bit over long? Is it just pulling the car up
- 1:01:23really slowly? Is that just a little bit too
- 1:01:26funny for what we're trying? To do a bit like, oh brother,
- 1:01:28isn't it? A little bit, yeah.
- 1:01:30But I mean, oh, brother had that tone and it did not want to dip
- 1:01:33in and out of it. And it doesn't go too far to
- 1:01:35kind of say, you know, did you get that?
- 1:01:37It's light hearted now. You can relax for a bit.
- 1:01:39You know, you there's always there elements where it could
- 1:01:41snap back in here. I don't feel like it's ever
- 1:01:43going to snap back here. You feel like you've got a good
- 1:01:461520 minutes to kind of get your breath back, right.
- 1:01:49We've been through, and I don't know if I like that or not.
- 1:01:53I think the first time I saw it maybe.
- 1:01:55But I've seen a lot of films that have been a lot heavier
- 1:01:57than this and have been just, you know, the pace of it and
- 1:01:59putting you through it all to some kind of conclusion.
- 1:02:02And I feel like it's just a bit too much of A light touch for
- 1:02:05me. There's a level of threat and
- 1:02:07the lack of threat just completely disappears at this
- 1:02:09point. Yeah, you don't feel like
- 1:02:11anything bad is going to happen. So for me, it kind of dips here.
- 1:02:14I lose attention a little bit, and that might be because it's
- 1:02:17kind of broad daylight, the lightness.
- 1:02:18It's not a strike and it's not as atmospheric, It's not as
- 1:02:21emotional. Just a little.
- 1:02:22Just to keep that sense of threat just behind the scenes
- 1:02:24would have been good for me. Yeah, I think it does serve a
- 1:02:28good purpose in that it's building up the relationship
- 1:02:31between the two Michaels. Yeah.
- 1:02:33Yeah, I do like that. However, I think that that's
- 1:02:35kind of blunted with the scene later on that I'm going to talk
- 1:02:38about, but we'll talk about that later on.
- 1:02:39OK, OK. And one of the first scenes
- 1:02:41filmed was this montage of Sullivan and his son Robin
- 1:02:45Banks, cross cut with newsreel footage of Herbert Hoover's
- 1:02:48inauguration speech. And this were quite seamless,
- 1:02:51indicating between colour and monochrome footage re screen
- 1:02:54projection in hidden camera cars.
- 1:02:56Yeah, it's one of the most complex scenes in the film.
- 1:02:58It's certainly the most joyous, whether you like it or not.
- 1:03:02Fair enough. Yeah.
- 1:03:03I think it adds some much needed levity to the film, but if you
- 1:03:08like it, then make the most of it because that won't last long.
- 1:03:11Yeah, no, it's not a lot. No, no.
- 1:03:16The crew, a very talented, classy crew on Road Edition.
- 1:03:23The cinematography and music are coming, but first, it's the
- 1:03:26screenplay by David Self, adapted from the 1998 graphic
- 1:03:30novel of the same name. Matt, your thoughts on the
- 1:03:33screenplay? I think it feels very surprising
- 1:03:35that this comes from a graphic novel.
- 1:03:37It's not something like Sin City, for example, where you're
- 1:03:40watching it go, yes, I see that working visually on a page or
- 1:03:44something else physically holding me hand and turn over.
- 1:03:46Yeah, 300. Yeah. 300, yeah.
- 1:03:51This, I've done so much and you know, I have gone and looked at
- 1:03:54it online and read a bit and again, it doesn't strike me as
- 1:03:56something you'd immediately go, yes, put this into a script now
- 1:04:00it's going to work. So I think probably the most
- 1:04:02impressive thing is how they've identified the elements that
- 1:04:04won't just translate visually but also translate into theme
- 1:04:08and plot and structure. I mean, we've said already so
- 1:04:10much in here about fathers and sons carrying the sins of the
- 1:04:14fathers, the ramifications of violence, all intertrined with a
- 1:04:18lot of great dialogue as well. I think the dialogue really
- 1:04:20stands out and I think like much of the film, it's just about the
- 1:04:23simplicity of it. It's very stripped back.
- 1:04:25It's very down the line, which is maybe the one element where
- 1:04:28more seeds root in the graphic novel because that format, I
- 1:04:31think it tends to be quite simple because of the nature of
- 1:04:34it. So I think for self to pick up
- 1:04:36on all of that and then expand on it the way he has done.
- 1:04:39But then that's Mendez and Hall expand on it even further in a
- 1:04:42visual sense. It's very good job indeed.
- 1:04:45Yeah, I think for me, it's these elements of dialogue that is
- 1:04:49kind of grounded in the authenticity, but it's also the
- 1:04:52exploration of like the family dynamic with a really dark tone,
- 1:04:56a really shadow tone. You know, it's not showing the
- 1:04:58the positive side of the family dynamic.
- 1:05:00It's shown the grief and the pain and the heartbreak that you
- 1:05:03have to go through and hold a family together through it sort
- 1:05:05issue on that other side of it. And what I get from this, I
- 1:05:08mean, I've got the graphic novel, but I've not read all the
- 1:05:11way through it because to me it's just so different.
- 1:05:13So it's it's really different in tone.
- 1:05:16It was harder. It's a lot harder of a story.
- 1:05:18It's a lot more harsh in its tone.
- 1:05:20And I think that's what Self was trying to get at.
- 1:05:22I think he did have that dark tone on the page.
- 1:05:25And I think that works visually when it's gone over the Conrad
- 1:05:28Hall and it's gone to Sam Mendes.
- 1:05:29But I do think that it has been softened quite a bit.
- 1:05:32I think this sort of been great on paper because you would
- 1:05:34imagine it, right? OK, You know, father and son go
- 1:05:36and start robbing the banks and start taking away all the
- 1:05:38gangland's money, and they're just trying to disrupt
- 1:05:40everything. And you just think, right,
- 1:05:42that's going to be strong, That's going to work.
- 1:05:43And then for that to be then turned into a montage.
- 1:05:46And visually, I don't know if that kind of takes it away.
- 1:05:48I think it's all there. There's some incredible dialogue
- 1:05:51and there's some really great things and really great themes
- 1:05:54that are being explored. And I don't really think this is
- 1:05:56a screenplay where people have gone.
- 1:05:57Anyone could be in this film and it works.
- 1:06:00I think if you if you read the screenplay and you have two
- 1:06:03people that are cast wrong and you don't have Conrad Hall
- 1:06:06shooting it, you don't have Thomas Newman doing the score
- 1:06:08and you don't have Mendez sitting on the edit as much as
- 1:06:10he did. And you know, being very
- 1:06:12meticulous about what works where.
- 1:06:13I think this works because it's a complex jigsaw.
- 1:06:16Self has all the pieces, but I think his jigsaw looked very,
- 1:06:19very different to what Mendez does with the pieces.
- 1:06:22Yeah, we've talked about it's a very visual film and I think the
- 1:06:25screenplay gives the framework for Mendez's visuals and I'm
- 1:06:29just a big fan of the layers in the writing and the double mean
- 1:06:32into everything underpinning this incredible multi layered
- 1:06:35father son narrative. Like we talked about the
- 1:06:38position of the title is literal and metaphorical.
- 1:06:41It's the place where Michael's aunt lives and it's going to be
- 1:06:43their literal safe haven. But the word petition means hell
- 1:06:47or damnation. So when they get there, the
- 1:06:49devil metaphorically comes for his Jew and Michael Senior
- 1:06:52doesn't make it. Of course, again, I mean that's
- 1:06:55a beautiful thing when you look at the right and having that as
- 1:06:57the place at the go on, but it's only mentioned once and it's not
- 1:06:59done subtly. No, no it's not.
- 1:07:01It's like slam down your throat, like the ideas great sort of
- 1:07:04when right, let's have them see it.
- 1:07:06It's in petition and then the whole it's almost like the stop
- 1:07:08a minute and look at the audience go.
- 1:07:09Do you know what petition is? Are you understand what that is
- 1:07:11right, let's move on yes, there's no some reason that
- 1:07:14direction. Did you get it?
- 1:07:15And I think that there's a lot of that all the way through this
- 1:07:17film. Yeah, there is.
- 1:07:18There's a bit of heavy handedness, I would say.
- 1:07:20Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's the sins of his past
- 1:07:23catch matching up with him, Michael, since the past that he
- 1:07:26doesn't want to pass on to his son.
- 1:07:27They've travelled on this road to hell together.
- 1:07:30And Michael Senior is trying to protect his son from falling
- 1:07:32into this world that is hammered hole.
- 1:07:36Yes, Yeah. And ultimately, you know,
- 1:07:38Michael Senior had to die. It's in the title of the film.
- 1:07:41But he can die a happy man that the chain has been broken and
- 1:07:44his son is not on the same path as him.
- 1:07:47But I also love the complexities in the father son narrative that
- 1:07:50are taken one step further when looking at John Rooney.
- 1:07:53Michael isn't his son, but he's got a better relationship with
- 1:07:55him than his actual son Connor. But ultimately blood is thicker
- 1:07:59than water and bad decisions are made despite how destructive
- 1:08:02they are. I think John knows he's going to
- 1:08:04die, but he can't turn his back on his son, no matter how
- 1:08:07horrifically he's behaved. So it's the ties that bind us
- 1:08:11together. And it all tapped into that
- 1:08:12quote from the film. Sons were put on this earth to
- 1:08:15trouble their fathers. Yeah, in one way or another,
- 1:08:17that's exactly what the film's about.
- 1:08:19Rooney is damned by his son. Sullivan is saved by his.
- 1:08:22Yeah. So I do like the right in there,
- 1:08:24particularly from unlikely source material.
- 1:08:27There's some real depth to the right in here for me, yes.
- 1:08:30As mentioned, Wrote a Petition is based on the graphic novel of
- 1:08:33the same name written by Max Allen Collins in 1998,
- 1:08:36illustrated by Richard Pierce Reyna Collins drew inspiration
- 1:08:40from a number of sources. One was the 70s manga series
- 1:08:43Lone Wolf and Cub. There you go.
- 1:08:45That tells a story of a disgraced 17th century assassin
- 1:08:48who travels the country seeking revenge with his infant son and
- 1:08:51tour. I mean, it's the Mandalone.
- 1:08:53It's been coming. It's coming around again and
- 1:08:55again and again, isn't it? It's always there.
- 1:08:57Another inspiration was the trials and tribulations of real
- 1:09:00life Midwestern gangsters John Patrick Looney and his Doom son
- 1:09:04Connor. John Looney.
- 1:09:06John Rooney. I see what they did there.
- 1:09:08I get Yes. Connor was murdered by his
- 1:09:11rivals, supposedly in an attempt to assassinate his father.
- 1:09:14John Looney managed to survive the attack, but his criminal
- 1:09:17organization crumbled in the aftermath.
- 1:09:19Yeah. So Spielberg drafted in
- 1:09:21screenwriter Dave itself to adapt it for the screen because
- 1:09:24he'd been impressed by his work on 13 Days, which is a really
- 1:09:27great film, by the way. It is great.
- 1:09:28He later commissioned him to write the screenplay for the
- 1:09:31remake of The Horton. Less said about that one the
- 1:09:33better though, because there were significant rewrites on
- 1:09:36that. That's right.
- 1:09:37Yeah. So really self can't be blamed
- 1:09:40as such. So individually, yes, Self was a
- 1:09:44lifelong comic book fan who had once interned at Marvel Comics,
- 1:09:47were under the legendary right artist Frank Miller, and through
- 1:09:51various rewrite Self screenplay moved away from the source
- 1:09:54material. The nuts and bolts remained, but
- 1:09:56there was some big changes. So Newman's character kept the
- 1:10:00surname of the mobster he was based on, John Looney.
- 1:10:02And you've lost character Harlem McGuire.
- 1:10:05He's little more than a footnote in the novel.
- 1:10:07There's a big difference in the depiction of violence.
- 1:10:09It was significantly toned down for the film with some scenes
- 1:10:12being removed completely. And Collins novel Michael Junior
- 1:10:15kills someone whereas he does not in the film.
- 1:10:17Yeah, well, I mean, that's what this entire film is built on.
- 1:10:20Yeah, and I think at the end he turns into a preacher, isn't he?
- 1:10:22That's right, Yes, he does. He has a confession and that's
- 1:10:26how it ends. That's correct, yes.
- 1:10:28And that was a scene that was shot for the film but didn't
- 1:10:30make it. That's a bit too far, and it's.
- 1:10:32Yes, it is. Iconography, I think.
- 1:10:35It is definitely. Yeah, we get it.
- 1:10:37Yes, I understand that. I'm fucking surprised it's not
- 1:10:39in there to be honest. Yeah, so I think the change is
- 1:10:43mostly served to kind of move away from the pulpy crime saga
- 1:10:48that the novel is and give it a more of a pristine Sheen.
- 1:10:51That's what Mendez wanted to do. Yeah, it's more of that deaf
- 1:10:54touch, isn't it? Definitely.
- 1:10:56Well, with that we have our first question from an ATRM
- 1:11:00patron. OK.
- 1:11:02And then we mentioned at the top, become an ATRM Patreon
- 1:11:05supporter. You can ask the questions of the
- 1:11:06film that we're talking about. And this first one comes from
- 1:11:09Ryan Douglas. Hello, Ryan.
- 1:11:11Hello, Ryan. Ryan Says wrote Petition has one
- 1:11:14of the great underrated film quotes in his opinion.
- 1:11:17So this is the life we chose, the life we lead.
- 1:11:20There is only one guarantee. None of us will see Heaven with
- 1:11:23Sullivan Reply and Michael could fantastic.
- 1:11:26Yeah, yeah, wonderful. What underrated film quotes are
- 1:11:29your favorite? So I'll pick this straight away.
- 1:11:31Yep, up your street, this one. Yeah, yeah, straight.
- 1:11:35Away Everyone that we do together is probably underrated.
- 1:11:40Yeah, That is a great line that you've picked out there, Ryan,
- 1:11:43as well. Very nice.
- 1:11:44Great writing. I'm getting straight in there
- 1:11:47with the familiar one, Zodiac. Dave Toski, thank you.
- 1:11:51Thank you for breakfast. That's my second one on me.
- 1:11:53List. Oh, really?
- 1:11:54Yeah. Yeah.
- 1:11:58We've said it before, but it's just stuffed with me that of
- 1:12:01course he is obviously thanking Christmas for breakfast, but
- 1:12:03he's also thanking him for solving the mystery, for giving
- 1:12:05him freedom, for breaking his shackles.
- 1:12:08I use it a lot, but in situations which probably isn't
- 1:12:11quite as meaningful as Dave Toski, the.
- 1:12:15But the intention's still. There.
- 1:12:16Yeah, mine's just literal. Yeah, he still don't pay for it,
- 1:12:23which he does. And from score says he's the
- 1:12:27king of comedy. After Rupert poker and stand up
- 1:12:29bit, he wraps it up by saying better be king for night and
- 1:12:32then schmuck for a lifetime. And he really believes that.
- 1:12:35I mean, he's going to jail for a long time, but it's a great way
- 1:12:38to sum up the reverence and thirst for celebrity, no matter
- 1:12:41the cost. I think it's an underrated line.
- 1:12:44I really like that. And on a different note, in that
- 1:12:46same film, that picture of his pride and joy, I can't get
- 1:12:48enough of that. You want to see a picture of my
- 1:12:50pride and joy? That's.
- 1:12:52But I think I'd love that. It's great.
- 1:12:56Westy, what about you? Leave the gun, take the cannoli.
- 1:12:58Oh. Nice.
- 1:13:00I think that just really kind of sums up most of the film without
- 1:13:03getting too deep or too far into it.
- 1:13:05It's kind of like, you know, leave the violence, take the
- 1:13:07heritage, but you look after the heritage with the violence.
- 1:13:10I think it's just really great. Could be throw away, but again,
- 1:13:12really works. Everyone mentions the tears and
- 1:13:14rain speech from Blade Runner. I've got, I think, a far more
- 1:13:17important line. It's too bad she won't live, but
- 1:13:19then again, who does? The delivery on that,
- 1:13:21incredible. And it just when it comes back
- 1:13:24as well and the director's Courtney and he, he hears it and
- 1:13:26he just goes right. Well, you need to live your life
- 1:13:27now, then. Yeah, you could die at any time.
- 1:13:30That's not the point. It's not the point.
- 1:13:31She's a replicant. It's about living your life.
- 1:13:33It's about you to live with her again.
- 1:13:34Who does exactly? I absolutely love that.
- 1:13:37And one of the funniest ones. And I mentioned this on a few
- 1:13:41episodes ago, OK? And it absolutely smashes me in
- 1:13:45every single time. And it's the delivery on this as
- 1:13:47well. I think it's one of the funniest
- 1:13:48lines in any film. And it's from the Blues
- 1:13:50Brothers. And when when he says you're
- 1:13:53going to look pretty funny trying to eat caught on the Cobb
- 1:13:55No far country. I think that's one of the best
- 1:13:59lines. And I remember first time
- 1:14:01hearing that. And just a bit real behind that
- 1:14:03delivery. It is just so brilliantly done.
- 1:14:06And I laugh every time I hear it.
- 1:14:08And not enough people, not enough people know about it.
- 1:14:10It's just great. No fucking truth.
- 1:14:13Absolutely. Yeah.
- 1:14:16I love that line. That is so funny.
- 1:14:18I remember watching that when we did that video analysis for The
- 1:14:21Blues Brothers a few years back, and I hadn't seen The Blues
- 1:14:24Brothers for a few years, and it came to that scene and it just
- 1:14:27took me completely off guard and I was on, I was decked.
- 1:14:31Yeah, it's. Great, hilarious.
- 1:14:34What about you mass Underrated lines?
- 1:14:37I've gone from one CV Swan to comic wands.
- 1:14:39The CV Swan is Paddy Considine's voice over and dead man shoes.
- 1:14:45God will forgive them. He will give them and allow them
- 1:14:47into heaven. I can't live with that.
- 1:14:49Yeah. That's amazing.
- 1:14:51That sets you up brilliantly. That is an underrated film, an
- 1:14:55underrated film, an underrated line.
- 1:14:57Everybody should see that film. Everybody needs to see dead
- 1:15:00punch shoes. Yeah, and then in comic ones, I
- 1:15:03mean, it's a Tom Hanks line, and it's from the burps.
- 1:15:05And it just from the very first time I saw this, made me laugh.
- 1:15:08And it's when Hanks's son and that is explaining how he's got
- 1:15:12that theory about what the Club X were up to.
- 1:15:15And he says it's because Ricky Butler told him.
- 1:15:17And Hanks just says really sarcastically, Oh, Ricky Butler
- 1:15:20said. And that's whenever I hear
- 1:15:24someone, like see someone just speak absolute bullshit on TV,
- 1:15:27like a politician or football manager making excuses, I'll
- 1:15:30just go, oh, Ricky Butler said. Just the.
- 1:15:33She is disdain Hanks puts into that he's.
- 1:15:36Amazing towards his son as well. Oh, Ricky, Butler said.
- 1:15:41Ricky Butler says yeah. You just know from that moment
- 1:15:44on, don't believe anything. Ricky Butler.
- 1:15:45Says yeah, he's full of shit, yeah.
- 1:15:47There's so many great lines in the burbs.
- 1:15:49I mean. That wrote the petition.
- 1:15:51That's amazing. Yeah, those are beauties.
- 1:15:53Going to build something with those.
- 1:15:59And the other one from one of our all time favorites, and we
- 1:16:02do say this quite a lot and it's from in Bruges and it's when Ken
- 1:16:07is on the phone a hurry trying to make an excuse for rare not
- 1:16:09being there. And he says he went to pizza's
- 1:16:12and he says, how was it? And he just goes, well, you
- 1:16:14know, Pizza Hut pizza. You know, there's something
- 1:16:18about a line. It's so funny.
- 1:16:19And again, it's one where like I tried bring that into
- 1:16:22conversation if someone that something was where it's really
- 1:16:24obvious what it would be like. Well, you know Pizza Hut.
- 1:16:29It is what it is. Yeah, it is what it is.
- 1:16:31Yeah. Matt, you've shown a lot of
- 1:16:34restraint by not saying I like from the Bruce that I may have
- 1:16:37thought you said. Well, just go back, listen to
- 1:16:40the In Bruges episode to hear that one in it's.
- 1:16:42In there all the old buildings and that.
- 1:16:45You use this word and various other quotes.
- 1:16:52Yes, we could be here all day to.
- 1:16:54Be honest. Yeah.
- 1:16:55So there you go, Ryan. Thank you for the question.
- 1:16:58We liked our lines. Yep, not ours.
- 1:17:00You know, we pulled them from films, but delivery is
- 1:17:03impeccable. Indeed.
- 1:17:05So impressive writing from David Self, adding a Sheen of class to
- 1:17:10a pulpy gravic novel. Yeah.
- 1:17:12Yeah. Next up, we have the music in
- 1:17:17the film composed by Thomas Newman.
- 1:17:20Our thoughts on the music. I think it's quite somber, but
- 1:17:24it gets under your skin in in a very, very beautiful way.
- 1:17:27There's this horn and piano theme that just breaks my heart
- 1:17:31every time I hear it. It's so simple, but it carries
- 1:17:34all the weight of Sullivan's guilt and love for his son.
- 1:17:38I think the Irish influences Newman weaves in give this whole
- 1:17:43kind of folkloric, almost mythic quality.
- 1:17:46Like when you're in an ancient tragic ballad, there's pipes and
- 1:17:50penny whistles if they don't feel forced or obvious.
- 1:17:53It's not like we're we're in Boston, so we have to hear
- 1:17:56those. Those kind of like Irish
- 1:17:57flavours. Dropkick Murphy's Dropkick
- 1:18:00Murphy's, yeah. But they just add a layer of
- 1:18:04melancholy that makes everything feel just a just a bit more
- 1:18:08timeless. And what I love is Newman's
- 1:18:10restraint. He knows when when to pull back
- 1:18:12and let the silence do the work. In those quiet moments between
- 1:18:16Michael and his son, the absence of music becomes just as
- 1:18:18powerful as the presence of it. It never oversells the emotion,
- 1:18:23and it captures the film's tone just great.
- 1:18:25It's mournful without being manipulative.
- 1:18:27You must feel like this. Yeah.
- 1:18:30Yeah. Beautiful without being
- 1:18:31sentimental. I think it enhances the visual
- 1:18:34poetry of whole cinematography without competing with it, But
- 1:18:38it does a bloody good job of enhancing it.
- 1:18:40It really does. It's not sure we are memorable
- 1:18:43in where some scores are, but it's deeply affected.
- 1:18:47It's very subtle. I think he understands that the
- 1:18:49stories about love and loss, not guns and violence, and his music
- 1:18:51reflects that. One of those scores that you
- 1:18:53don't really notice until you try to imagine the film without
- 1:18:56it. Then you realize that it's
- 1:18:58absolutely essential for the whole experience.
- 1:19:00Yeah. Yeah.
- 1:19:01Absolutely beautiful stuff. What about USD?
- 1:19:05Yeah, I bought this score the day after I saw the film Stray
- 1:19:08on CD because I kind of just wanted to experience it more.
- 1:19:12And you can see this music, you can see the textures.
- 1:19:16It's. Visual.
- 1:19:16Yeah, you. Can see the color palette, you
- 1:19:18can see how it all works. It's not too sentimental, like
- 1:19:21you said, Luke, and it's a great use of atmosphere.
- 1:19:23On some moments. There's final shootout with
- 1:19:25Rudy, and that's just pure atmosphere that's got nothing to
- 1:19:28it. Then the strings come in and you
- 1:19:29start to get this melody that seems familiar, but then it's
- 1:19:32just lost on the wind. I think a lot of this is just
- 1:19:35feels like it's coming past year and you experience it as it
- 1:19:37happens, but you can't stick it in your head.
- 1:19:40So every time I listen to this soundtrack, and I listen to it
- 1:19:42quite a few times just independently of the film, and
- 1:19:46it does evoke all of this emotion, but it's just like a
- 1:19:48fleeting moment. It doesn't stay with you.
- 1:19:50It doesn't kind of hammer itself home.
- 1:19:52And you go, well, you know where you just go, but you know the
- 1:19:54end of wrote the position. What does it go like?
- 1:19:57And you just go, oh, I know what it feels like.
- 1:19:59I can't tell you what. I can't really tell you what it
- 1:20:01sounds like, but I know exactly how it feels.
- 1:20:03And I think that's the point. I think it's really, really hard
- 1:20:05to do. And Thomas Newman is made a
- 1:20:06career off that. So yeah, it's emotional without
- 1:20:09being cheesy, without hammering it down your throat.
- 1:20:11And to be able to support them. Visuals, he doesn't really need
- 1:20:14to do much. And I think he does more than is
- 1:20:16absolutely necessary to bring that to life.
- 1:20:18And he really does a good job. Yes, he does great job.
- 1:20:20What about UMass? Thoughts on the music?
- 1:20:22Just complete agreement really. It's very gentle for the most
- 1:20:25part. It is very subtle.
- 1:20:26It mixes and elements of folk music, but also elements of noir
- 1:20:30when the mood of the film darkens.
- 1:20:33And yeah, it's one way. It is tricky to talk about it
- 1:20:35because it's not, you know, overflowing with eworms, which
- 1:20:39this one isn't. But it serves the film.
- 1:20:41You know. If the scene is melancholic,
- 1:20:43Newman nails it. If the scene is tense, Newman
- 1:20:45nails it. If the scene is light hearted,
- 1:20:46Newman nails it. And it's over the film in a very
- 1:20:50subtle manner where it doesn't grab your attention.
- 1:20:51But if it wasn't there, you would miss it.
- 1:20:53You know, even the most memorable ones like Raw to
- 1:20:55Chicago, which is just that simple piano riff.
- 1:20:58It's simple, It's not massively overact, but it really works.
- 1:21:02I mean, Mcguire's theme, all it is are those like dissonant
- 1:21:05strings sound a bit off. Nothing huge and booming, but it
- 1:21:08really works. Yeah, it really does.
- 1:21:10Mcguire's theme sounds like what Williams did, with whom alone
- 1:21:13that diddle in. Yeah, it really is.
- 1:21:18And that makes you really off, off center, yeah.
- 1:21:20Yeah, it does. Thomas Newman came on board
- 1:21:23after Mendez drafted him in for American Beauty.
- 1:21:25So they built up that sympathical relationship.
- 1:21:29Yeah. And that's why he wanted them
- 1:21:30for this. To evoke Rd. to petitions, 1930s
- 1:21:32Prohibition era Chicago setting, Newman incorporated subtle Irish
- 1:21:36sounds like we're talking about in the fabric of his score.
- 1:21:39Hypes, penny whistles and mandolins are often woven
- 1:21:41through the film, making a marriage of the old country with
- 1:21:44the new country, Ireland and America.
- 1:21:46Yeah, it really works Well, Yeah, Newman wrote almost two
- 1:21:50hours of music for the film. Somewhat overkill for me,
- 1:21:54considering this is just under 2 hours.
- 1:21:56You can't have all music. Yeah, exactly.
- 1:21:59Yeah. But Mendez only wound up using
- 1:22:02about 30 minutes of it sparingly and perfectly.
- 1:22:05Yes, I think so, yeah. So Thomas Newman doesn't flex
- 1:22:09his muscles or outstairs welcome with his music, but he certainly
- 1:22:13adds to the texture of the film. Yes.
- 1:22:18Finally on our crew list, a legendary cinematographer, one
- 1:22:23of the greatest in his field. It is Conrad Hall bowing out
- 1:22:27beautifully. Yeah.
- 1:22:29Wesley, over to you. Conrad Hall, Cinematography.
- 1:22:32I mean, this is the culmination of a full career and a very,
- 1:22:35very, very talented man who had everything, who did everything
- 1:22:39and had everything in his locker.
- 1:22:41And I don't think there's anything in this film that he
- 1:22:43didn't use that he's learned in his long career.
- 1:22:45He's not left anything out. And at the same time, he doesn't
- 1:22:48overuse anything. It's a portfolio of work in two
- 1:22:51hours. It's a portfolio of his life, of
- 1:22:53what he's learned. One of the moments I paused was
- 1:22:56one that you'll easily miss. And it's after John and Connor
- 1:22:59have that bit where the he's beating them down and cursed the
- 1:23:02day you were born, right? And then it cuts to the doorway.
- 1:23:05It's that searcher shot and it cuts the doorway.
- 1:23:07And Michael Junior is just standing in the yard and he's
- 1:23:11got the suitcase and just pause that moment because he's framed
- 1:23:14in the doorway. He's lit from the side the way
- 1:23:16that Michael's lit without knowing where the lights coming
- 1:23:18from. Then he moves the camera.
- 1:23:20Then he puts Sullivan in the frame.
- 1:23:22Then he pushes forward and actually moves with it.
- 1:23:24It doesn't need to be that good. The shot doesn't need to be that
- 1:23:27well thought through or that well executed.
- 1:23:29There's not a frame in this that isn't absolutely impeccable.
- 1:23:33I don't really know what else to say about it, because you watch
- 1:23:37it in black and white and it works.
- 1:23:39Watch it without dialogue and it works it for me.
- 1:23:41The dialogue is getting in the way of this film most of the
- 1:23:43time because it is just so visually stunning and so
- 1:23:46beautifully executed. I mean, to put the Vertigo shot
- 1:23:49in the halfway section of a film to introduce a villain
- 1:23:51character, Yeah, that's what do it in a way that people haven't
- 1:23:54really seen it before. And you don't look at that and
- 1:23:56go, that's Jaws or it's Vertigo. You look at that and go, fuck,
- 1:23:59I've never seen that before. That was his version of it.
- 1:24:02That's what he's learned. There's such a varnish over this
- 1:24:04whole film, such a meticulous attention to detail.
- 1:24:07It's hard not to love this in the way that it celebrates
- 1:24:10cinema as a visual medium. It pulled me in more than any
- 1:24:14other film had at that time, and I'd seen a lot of films up to
- 1:24:17that point. 2002, this really pulled me.
- 1:24:19And it just said, this is like walking around a museum and
- 1:24:22every painting that you look at is one that resonates with you
- 1:24:25and one that you want to see. And each one gets better as you
- 1:24:27move through the museum. And then you leave and you go
- 1:24:29out in the daylight. You think I just want to go back
- 1:24:31in? Wow, the same interview.
- 1:24:33He was so humble. And if I was produced in a film
- 1:24:36like this, even if it was my last film, I would be an
- 1:24:38absolute Dick until I died. I.
- 1:24:46Love that honesty, West. How can you help?
- 1:24:49You want to put a masterpiece? Yeah, yeah, one of the best to
- 1:24:52ever do it. What do you think?
- 1:24:54My Conrad Holtz work. I just want to contrast it to
- 1:24:57American Beauty really, because that film, it's so vibrant.
- 1:25:01That red in particular really pops off the screen.
- 1:25:03The way he uses that. And then this, which is so
- 1:25:06muted, it's so elegant. It's like the music and that.
- 1:25:08It's all about serving the atmosphere, surfing the sorry,
- 1:25:11not overwhelming it when the camera moves and moves in a very
- 1:25:14measured wave. And if it ever moves quickly,
- 1:25:16it's startling, but then it should be startling.
- 1:25:18It provokes an emotional response in you.
- 1:25:20It's got this wintry, melancholic feel to it, the
- 1:25:24subdued Browns and blacks that this entire film has filled it
- 1:25:27to the use of shadow. Even when it's light, it's not
- 1:25:30broad daylight like say, it's that wintry light instead.
- 1:25:33It's just so integral to what this film should feel like, and
- 1:25:36it's what we said about the music.
- 1:25:37It's texture. Condor to Holt gives this film
- 1:25:40the texture and I think the look of this film.
- 1:25:43It is the one thing that I take away from this more than
- 1:25:45anything else. Yes, yeah.
- 1:25:47I mean, it's artwork, this. That is.
- 1:25:50Visual storytelling that it's most beautiful, most elegant,
- 1:25:54the way you use the shadow and light.
- 1:25:56Obviously masterful characters are constantly emerging from
- 1:25:59darkness or disappearing into it, which perfectly mirrors the
- 1:26:02ambiguity of the story. The colour palettes desaturated.
- 1:26:07That works brilliant because everything feels just drained of
- 1:26:10life, bereft of hope, which reflects Sullivan's emotional
- 1:26:14state. And when you do get the
- 1:26:15occasional splashes of colour, it's usually blurred.
- 1:26:17They hit like a gut punch. Yeah.
- 1:26:20And it's a composition work. He frames characters and
- 1:26:22doorways and windows, empty spaces around them.
- 1:26:25Like you were saying, that searches shot Westie, which just
- 1:26:29creates a sense of isolation even when people are in the same
- 1:26:32room, the few miles apart. Completely different to that on
- 1:26:36the other side of the scale, those Chicago skyline shots make
- 1:26:39the city feel magnificent and oppressive at the same time as a
- 1:26:42concrete jungle where violence echoes through the streets.
- 1:26:45He does that with one shot without any dialogue.
- 1:26:48Incredible. And there's not a single
- 1:26:51throwaway shot. He may be very modest and say,
- 1:26:54oh, that was just a happy accident or something like that.
- 1:26:57Nothing was just right. OK, cut, Prince.
- 1:26:59Let's move on. Everything's measured.
- 1:27:01Everything's considered. Everything's important.
- 1:27:03Everything means something. Yeah.
- 1:27:05I mean whole at the peak of his powers when he was an old man,
- 1:27:09Yeah, but one of the finest examples of his work.
- 1:27:12Yeah, it's a master at work. Mendez, as you said, Matt, he'd
- 1:27:15built a relationship with Conrad Hall, who shot American Beauty.
- 1:27:18He managed to get him on board with this film by sending them
- 1:27:21the script with a note that said a man lives his life in black
- 1:27:24and white but dreams in color. You love that straight in there.
- 1:27:27Yeah. Trying to steal that.
- 1:27:32What was that again man? Just.
- 1:27:36Put chiseled on me gravestone. And Mendez and Hall traveled to
- 1:27:42each prospective Illinois shooting location that we spent
- 1:27:45hours walking around with the viewfinder discussing how each
- 1:27:48building or street corner might be used to maximize dramatic
- 1:27:51effect. For Rota Petitions color
- 1:27:52palette, Hall proposed a stark, nearly monochromatic scheme of
- 1:27:55desaturated earth tones, shadow St. blacks and washed out Grays.
- 1:27:59Reds and oranges would be sparingly, like you said, look
- 1:28:01with the blood that really works and only the signal danger.
- 1:28:04Like you said, bloodshed. Yeah.
- 1:28:06And then that really works because when you see that it
- 1:28:08really impact. And costume designer Albert
- 1:28:12Wolsky and his team were encouraged to keep the costumes
- 1:28:14within a grim spectrum of charcoal Grey's, mossy greens
- 1:28:18and sepia toward Browns. The various pinstripe and three
- 1:28:21piece gangster suits retailed from fabric specially woven and
- 1:28:25dyed to maintain the intendants of dude look.
- 1:28:27The costumes of the film were specifically created.
- 1:28:30None of them are from the period, right?
- 1:28:32Yeah, there's legitimacy in that work.
- 1:28:34It looks amazing. Mendez and Hall studied, as
- 1:28:37we've talked about, The Godfather, Miller's Crossing,
- 1:28:39and Once Upon a Time in America. It deconstruct how those films
- 1:28:42use shadow and negative space to generate unease and dread.
- 1:28:45Yeah, I love that even though Conrad Hall was one of the first
- 1:28:49names in cinematography, he's still looking at things that
- 1:28:52came after him to inform what he does.
- 1:28:55Love that. And he also drew heavily from
- 1:28:59the work of artist Edward Hopper to establish the film's sombre,
- 1:29:02shadowy aesthetic. Mendez was particularly
- 1:29:05influenced by Hopper's use of light and shadow to convey
- 1:29:08characters in emotional States, and that's the technique he
- 1:29:11applied to the character of Michael Sullivan.
- 1:29:12So yeah, the 1939 Hopper Pain in New York movie Depends.
- 1:29:16In a pensive usher, shrouded in darkness was a key visual
- 1:29:19touchstone for Mendez and suggesting Sullivan's hidden
- 1:29:22emotional journey. Mendez said.
- 1:29:25In that one image, you begin to imagine what's on the other side
- 1:29:27of the frame. You know the words.
- 1:29:29What's important is what's off camera.
- 1:29:32Yeah. Seeking to create a palpable
- 1:29:34sense of danger and corruption through visual means, Hall
- 1:29:37employed his trademark dirty light and techniques.
- 1:29:39The aimed lamps directly into the lens causing light to flare
- 1:29:42across actors faces and reflect off rain St. windows and puddle
- 1:29:45strewn streets. That creates so much atmosphere.
- 1:29:49Oh, it really does. Yeah, yeah.
- 1:29:50Well, Conrad Hall's legendary work brings with it a legendary
- 1:29:54question from a patron. This is our second of the day.
- 1:29:58This one is from Daniel Holland. Hello, Daniel.
- 1:30:00Hello, Daniel. Daniel said.
- 1:30:02Hi, fellas. Longtime listener, first time
- 1:30:04caller. Great.
- 1:30:05Nice. Oh nice.
- 1:30:06Conrad Hall cinematography often let's scenes play out in shadow
- 1:30:09or soft light. How does this visual approach
- 1:30:11shape your emotional response to the story?
- 1:30:14And do you think the Edward Hobbit influence is the right
- 1:30:16look for the film? Great to have your question,
- 1:30:19Daniel. Thank you.
- 1:30:20And a cracking one that it is, absolutely.
- 1:30:22What are your thoughts on Daniels question?
- 1:30:24I mean, yeah, I think it's absolutely the right look for
- 1:30:26the film because this, this isn't a bombastic film.
- 1:30:29So it can't look as bombastic as something like the Untouchable
- 1:30:32Stores, even though it's obviously the same time period.
- 1:30:35It shouldn't look as epic as something like Once Upon a Time
- 1:30:38in America because this is a much more intimate film.
- 1:30:41You know, it is very wide screen, but it's also about
- 1:30:44huddled conversations on church pews and then diners in the
- 1:30:49middle of the night. You know, it's melancholic.
- 1:30:51And I think that's where you get in this work.
- 1:30:53And I think what Hall does is he keeps me slightly removed from
- 1:30:56it in that emotional sense. I think that's how he shapes my
- 1:30:59emotional response to the story because this isn't a film that
- 1:31:02makes you want to cry. It makes you want to feel
- 1:31:04somber. And the thing that Hall does?
- 1:31:07Yeah, I think what's brilliant about it is how it mirrors the
- 1:31:09moral ambiguity of the story. When characters are literally
- 1:31:12shrouded in darkness, we're never quite sure what they're
- 1:31:15thinking or feeling. Tell that thing where Sullivan
- 1:31:17sits in his car outside the Church of his face is in shadow,
- 1:31:20half in light. Visual storytelling.
- 1:31:22We've been talking about it, a man torn between his violent
- 1:31:25nature and his desire for redemption.
- 1:31:28And the soft lighting creates this kind of dream, like, almost
- 1:31:31memory like quality to the scenes.
- 1:31:32It makes everything feel slightly unreal, which is, I
- 1:31:36think, perfect because it's a story being told in retrospect
- 1:31:39by Michael Junior as an adult. Yeah.
- 1:31:42We're seeing these events through the filter of time and
- 1:31:44trauma, so that ethereal quality feels emotionally honest.
- 1:31:48I like that. And yeah, I mean, I'm not know
- 1:31:50much about the artsy, but I'm aware of Hopper's work.
- 1:31:53It appeals to me, and it fits very nicely for the film.
- 1:31:57He generally depicts Late Night Lawn as an empty streets, a
- 1:32:00perfect visual to carry the narrative of the film.
- 1:32:03That kind of existential loneliness, despite Michael
- 1:32:06being surrounded by his family, he's emotionally cut off from
- 1:32:08him, and I think that is emphasized by the visuals and
- 1:32:11the influence of Hopper as well. That's great.
- 1:32:14Yeah, I mean it's just has that in messy to it.
- 1:32:16I think a lot of Hopper's pants do have that intimacy to them,
- 1:32:18even if they are wide shots. You kind of diving into what's
- 1:32:21that character thinking, what's their motivations?
- 1:32:23And it's hop as use of shadow as well, I think really works and
- 1:32:26it's really translated here. Light and shadow does kind of
- 1:32:29bounce off each other. There's a duality to the
- 1:32:31cinematography, there's a duality to the whole film.
- 1:32:33There's a, you know, a light and dog up and down.
- 1:32:35There's a charity which really, really works.
- 1:32:37And I think how that buys into that 100%.
- 1:32:40The most I get from the cinematography in this and the
- 1:32:43look and the shape of the emotion is that it's a character
- 1:32:46in itself that creates this own world that has an authenticity
- 1:32:49to it. But you don't care if that
- 1:32:51authenticity is carried further in by the characters.
- 1:32:55And what I mean by that, I'll give you an example in this.
- 1:32:58In this time period, every single man who walked into a
- 1:33:00room, bought into a house, bought into a building, would
- 1:33:03remove the hat. It's suspicious if you don't
- 1:33:05you. We don't care about that because
- 1:33:07it looks better. It works better for the film.
- 1:33:09It's through the child's eyes. We're not bothered about that
- 1:33:12level of authenticity because you're getting such a level of
- 1:33:14authenticity through the cinematography, through the
- 1:33:16light and through the feel of the period.
- 1:33:18You don't want it to be too real.
- 1:33:20Try and do this again, it's impossible.
- 1:33:22Yeah, it is. Yeah, it's striking, absolutely
- 1:33:24striking work. So an outstanding crew.
- 1:33:28Great, right? The understated beauty of the
- 1:33:30music, but it's all overshadowed, naturally, by
- 1:33:33Conrad Hall's outstanding cinematography.
- 1:33:35Yet again, another Fitness One song.
- 1:33:38Yes, yeah. The end.
- 1:33:46The Sullivan Bank Robbins spree doesn't last long with the
- 1:33:48accountant pulling the plug on Chicago's money.
- 1:33:51I guess we should pay a visit to this Mr. Rance Westie.
- 1:33:54We should, yes, Mr. Rance, he is great.
- 1:33:58He's fantastic. Really comic performance.
- 1:34:00I would like an egg. I could run it.
- 1:34:04What is this? It's just, you know, it's very,
- 1:34:07very good. I love that performance.
- 1:34:09It is brilliant. And here there's a great build
- 1:34:11attention, some great setup, some some great payouts.
- 1:34:14And this is where I was talking about the sound design.
- 1:34:16You know that teletype machine starts going.
- 1:34:19You know that Mcguire's coming over the road.
- 1:34:21You get disguised from the sound of the hornies and coming up the
- 1:34:24stairs, you can hear the horn still going outside.
- 1:34:26You don't quite know what's going to happen.
- 1:34:27When's he going to come in? Branch then just runs into that
- 1:34:30other room. Gunshots go off before that.
- 1:34:32Even McGuire doesn't notice because the car's painted.
- 1:34:35And then he's obviously paying the woman in the hotel room, so
- 1:34:37he's distracted, and that's when Michael goes in.
- 1:34:39So everything's got a moment. Everything kind of makes perfect
- 1:34:41sense. Really welcome, really well
- 1:34:45staged. And then the gunshots going
- 1:34:46through the wall, you say, well, how to grant style.
- 1:34:48Oh, yeah, obviously the damn gunshots going through the wall.
- 1:34:50That makes sense. But this is the kind of the
- 1:34:52beginning of the end for Michael Sullivan.
- 1:34:54I think because McGuire is still hired at this point, he still
- 1:34:59has a job to do and this is where it gets personal because
- 1:35:02you forget about McGuire at the after the sequence.
- 1:35:05You do. You look at these hands, you
- 1:35:07just don't see what's going on. It's not really hit home enough.
- 1:35:09You're focused on some of them getting shot and him getting
- 1:35:12better. Then there's one last thing to
- 1:35:13do. There's two huge scenes coming
- 1:35:15up and then it comes back. This one kind of skips past them
- 1:35:19two scenes and has a real kind of Arc and a real moral arc.
- 1:35:23Regrettable 1. And it's great because this is
- 1:35:26set up in such a way where it feels like a finale where you
- 1:35:29have films where they're just to get shot and then the bad guy
- 1:35:31disappears. And I think it's great that the
- 1:35:34play on that and that comes back later on the horn.
- 1:35:37And it's one of their moments where I don't even think he
- 1:35:39meant he just wanted them out the way.
- 1:35:40He just wants the files. You know, if they could have
- 1:35:42just had a conversation. McGuire it's been like, look,
- 1:35:44I'm going to kill Rooney. This is all going to be over
- 1:35:47with. I get the files.
- 1:35:48You can just leave. I'll pay you the money.
- 1:35:49I've got the money here. That's what you want.
- 1:35:51So it becomes a real personal vendetta because of what Michael
- 1:35:55does. And it's heartbreaking when you
- 1:35:57see the scene with the second time, third time you watch it,
- 1:35:59known for a fact that it is setting something up that is
- 1:36:02unavoidable. Yeah, yeah.
- 1:36:03I really like that, that the scenes after this, like you
- 1:36:06said, are larger than life, bigger than this scene, even
- 1:36:09though this scene is huge. Yeah.
- 1:36:11So this character, you forget about him.
- 1:36:13He slides into the shadows and then that's it.
- 1:36:16Exactly. And then and then.
- 1:36:17Yeah, of course. Yeah.
- 1:36:19Only forget about this guy. Yeah, exactly.
- 1:36:21And in the scene where McGuire is stalking up to the Geneva
- 1:36:25Hotel across the ward with the shotgun under his court, there's
- 1:36:28a store that looks like it's been done out to look like from
- 1:36:30the period, but in actual fact, it's actually a Starbucks.
- 1:36:33Oh. Really.
- 1:36:34Yeah, yeah, production took it over for four days, shut it
- 1:36:37down, ran the Kraft Food Services out of it for the cast
- 1:36:39and crew, and retained all the Starbucks staff to make coffees
- 1:36:43for every everybody. On that.
- 1:36:46Yeah, Andy me know Starbucks, Yeah.
- 1:36:48Starbucks Now Michael gets out of there alive, but he is badly
- 1:36:54injured shot and this sequence afterwards feels a little
- 1:36:58contrived and by the numbers for me, I love it.
- 1:37:02But I also have a quite a few problems with this scene.
- 1:37:05As soon as he passes out, they're very fortuitously find a
- 1:37:08farm with some very friendly residents and one of them can
- 1:37:13remove bullets, which all is all very pleasant.
- 1:37:15Isn't this how handy we've seen this nursing back to health
- 1:37:20scene a million times. It feels paid by number.
- 1:37:23It's it's like witness. We've seen them many times.
- 1:37:26But what doesn't feel like paid by number is an absolutely
- 1:37:29stunning scene. Father and son around the table
- 1:37:32finally acting like father and son.
- 1:37:35I absolutely adore it. But it's almost as if that
- 1:37:38montage scene that I said before Westie didn't happen because of
- 1:37:42the way that Michael Senior treats Michael Junior in this
- 1:37:45thing. Yeah, it's like he doesn't know
- 1:37:47him. Exactly.
- 1:37:48It starts off very formal. Michael Junior's had a bad
- 1:37:51dream. Take a seat if you want.
- 1:37:53He sees that his dad is doing math.
- 1:37:54He says that he hates it. And what follows The
- 1:37:57conversation that just appears to be between two strangers.
- 1:38:01Yes. So what do you like?
- 1:38:03It's Google. What did you like?
- 1:38:05I mean, why doesn't he know this?
- 1:38:07He has been on and they have been up to some form of
- 1:38:10joviality when he's been teaching them how to drive and
- 1:38:13Robin Banks and all that kind of stuff.
- 1:38:16It's a beautiful scene. It's heartbreaking because
- 1:38:19Michael Junior, he says he likes Bible reading at school because
- 1:38:22he likes the stories. Just very childlike.
- 1:38:25Yeah. And then the emotion starts to
- 1:38:27tumble into the scene because he asked his dad if you like Peter
- 1:38:30more than him, and he said he was different with him.
- 1:38:34And he is the big emotional pole.
- 1:38:36Peter was such a sweet boy, but you were more like me and I
- 1:38:39didn't want you to be. Yeah.
- 1:38:41He's been called an approachable Michael senior towards the sun
- 1:38:44because he didn't want to follow the same path.
- 1:38:46And now we understand. I don't think that Michael
- 1:38:49Junior quite understands the reasoning, but he understands
- 1:38:52that his father has just opened up to him emotionally, probably
- 1:38:54for the first time in his life. And then a completely arresting
- 1:39:00moment. Devastating.
- 1:39:01Michael Junior gives his dad a hug.
- 1:39:04Something that should feel like the most natural thing in the
- 1:39:06world takes Michael Senior completely off guard.
- 1:39:09My heart drops. It's such a beautiful moment.
- 1:39:13Yeah. That is a perfect cap on that
- 1:39:16scene. It was a great scene without it,
- 1:39:17But that is just a beautifully judged moment.
- 1:39:20Poignant. Someone's chopping onions here.
- 1:39:24Incredible stuff. It's.
- 1:39:25A beautiful. Thing it really is.
- 1:39:27And then after this, you get the scene was built up to probably
- 1:39:30the most quoted scene in the film as well, which is really in
- 1:39:33the church and then the basement.
- 1:39:35And I think there's always something really evocative about
- 1:39:38people like Rooney who've built an empire on bloodshed, lived a
- 1:39:41brutal life, but they also take their religion and faith very
- 1:39:45seriously. He's not there at the church to
- 1:39:48play lip service. His faith is real.
- 1:39:51And if his faith is real and he's a very conflicted man
- 1:39:54because he knows what he's done and he can pray all he likes for
- 1:39:57forgiveness, but as much as the Catholic doctrines, God will
- 1:40:01always forgive. What if he makes an exception?
- 1:40:03Because if he's going to make an exception, it's going to be for
- 1:40:06someone like John Rooney. And I think that subtle fear and
- 1:40:09conflict is very, very palpable in nuance performance and in the
- 1:40:13same because. He's not sat there head bowed
- 1:40:16and pray. And it looks more to me like
- 1:40:18he's lost in his own thoughts, like what he's done is beyond
- 1:40:21redemption, so what's the point in prayer?
- 1:40:23And he knows the end is coming from soon because he's an old
- 1:40:25man of Lee. And then after Michael reveals
- 1:40:28he sat behind them, you get the scene in the basement and it's
- 1:40:31the same way. Really, I just want to quote
- 1:40:32every single line of dialogue because it's scintillating
- 1:40:36stuff. Not great.
- 1:40:38He murdered Annie and Peter. There were only murderers in
- 1:40:41this room. It's mind blown how good the
- 1:40:44dialogue is. You know, the line we've come
- 1:40:46back to again again, because, you know, we have the question
- 1:40:48about, you know, this is the life we choose, the life we
- 1:40:50lead. Just wonderful stuff.
- 1:40:52And you know, it's and again, this point is being made over
- 1:40:55and over again. It's not about revenge.
- 1:40:56It's about saving Michael Junior from going down the same mode of
- 1:40:59his father. But just when you watch Newman
- 1:41:02and Hanks going head to head here, you can almost see Hanks
- 1:41:05having to elevate his game just to keep up with Newman.
- 1:41:09I mean, I mean, Hanks is generally a better actor than
- 1:41:11everyone else in the film. So I kind of feel sometimes he
- 1:41:14doesn't have to try that hard to be great, accepting the same
- 1:41:18because he's not quite as good as Paul Newman, but he's going
- 1:41:20to raise his game to try and keep up with them as much as he
- 1:41:22can. And it ends up the two of them
- 1:41:24at their very best. Yeah.
- 1:41:26Peak Hanks. Peak Newman.
- 1:41:28Absolutely, it is amazing. I love that notion of blood is
- 1:41:31thicker than water and that's completely evident.
- 1:41:33And they say no matter how how bad Connor behaves, no matter
- 1:41:37what he does to damage his reputation, to damage his life,
- 1:41:40he'll always stick with him because his blood.
- 1:41:42Yeah. Love that.
- 1:41:44It's just, you know, I'm on the son that I've lost.
- 1:41:48Yeah, fantastic. Wow.
- 1:41:52Yeah, that's great. So with Michael's final olive
- 1:41:55branch snapped off, he has no alternative than to turn into an
- 1:41:58Angel of vengeance. Michael does stuff, is all
- 1:42:04faithful, and prepares to do battle one last time, one last
- 1:42:07thing, and then it's done. Yeah.
- 1:42:10Oh, and what a one last thing it is.
- 1:42:12Yeah, John Rooney and all of his men enter the rain drenched
- 1:42:16streets, the rain beaten down on the road so hard it looks like
- 1:42:20they're lost at sea, which of course they are.
- 1:42:23A blanket of blackness surrounds their existence in glorious slow
- 1:42:27more. Mendez has turned into John Woo
- 1:42:29as it's revealed the driver has been plugged and they're all
- 1:42:33sitting ducks. John knows what's happening
- 1:42:36immediately and you can see that he's accepted his face.
- 1:42:39He knows it's coming and the music is almost like a costly
- 1:42:43lullaby as the flash of light from the gun slashes through the
- 1:42:46darkness, cutting Rooney's men ribbons.
- 1:42:49It's poetic violence, no blood. The strings swell as Michael
- 1:42:52conference John 1 resigned look. And then I'm glad it's you.
- 1:42:58Oh dear me, this is poetry in motion.
- 1:43:00Yeah, yeah, it's amazing. And the pain on Michael's face.
- 1:43:03He knows what he has to do, but it's killing him.
- 1:43:07Yeah, But by doing this, he does sever the ties between the old
- 1:43:11and the new world, which offers a better life for his son.
- 1:43:13Obviously thematically relevant. We've talked about it, the shots
- 1:43:17of people looking out of their windows as well as if they're
- 1:43:19cast in judgement over Michael. He's truly going to hell now.
- 1:43:24But it was worth it for his family.
- 1:43:25Yeah. Yeah.
- 1:43:26A stunning scene. Oh, it's astonishing.
- 1:43:29If you listen to Mendez on the commentary, he said he just
- 1:43:31couldn't get this right. He couldn't cut it right.
- 1:43:33It wasn't working. He didn't know why it wasn't
- 1:43:35working. He came back to it a few days
- 1:43:37later and it was when he cut all of the sound out on the dub,
- 1:43:39which was a bit of an accident because they played it back
- 1:43:41without the sound. Oh, wow.
- 1:43:43And the thought, oh, shit, right, That totally works.
- 1:43:45Now, then let's just put the score over it.
- 1:43:47The way that that score is silenced by the Tommy gun and it
- 1:43:51just cuts above it. And the way the tanks looks
- 1:43:53down, you know, he's falling. Yeah, it's back up.
- 1:43:55It's an incredible piece of work, This.
- 1:43:57It's just unbelievably good. Outstanding it is.
- 1:44:00It is. And originally the scene was
- 1:44:02scripted to be set in an empty Chapel and it was actually shot,
- 1:44:05but Mendez felt that something was missing.
- 1:44:07So this then motivated the scene to be shot on the rain drenched
- 1:44:10streets. And Mendez said he was able to
- 1:44:12take advantage of the blurry Halos of St. lamps and, as he
- 1:44:16said, the inky void of the night sky to create a more ominous
- 1:44:19existential mood. Gray line, inky void of the
- 1:44:22night sky. Very nice.
- 1:44:24And yes, the whole scene was shot over 4 nights.
- 1:44:26It required 32 times squib detonations, a techno Korean
- 1:44:29cable of Verizon 6 stories and half a dozen rain machines
- 1:44:33working at full blast. Wow.
- 1:44:35And it's still. The one the most beautifully
- 1:44:37relaxed and heartbreak and meditations I've ever seen in
- 1:44:39cinema. It's just captivating.
- 1:44:41It's like watching a bride cry. Got much experience of that
- 1:44:50Westie? Wow.
- 1:44:53I've seen it. Get that on the poster.
- 1:44:58It's like watching a bride cry, Westie.
- 1:45:09So then after this, there's one more person Michael's got to
- 1:45:12take care of and we know this has been coming.
- 1:45:14And what's been interesting is throughout this before said
- 1:45:17there's like 1 scene in the film we have a slight issue with and
- 1:45:20this one's mine because I think it's set up brilliantly.
- 1:45:23That phone call with Nitty given up Connor is going to end the
- 1:45:26feud. And I love the look on the faces
- 1:45:29of the bodyguards is that just let Michael through the hotel
- 1:45:31know what he's going to do Because it's like, yeah, you
- 1:45:34know what kind of deserves it? He's been an absolute asshole
- 1:45:37back there. So, you know, I'm quite glad.
- 1:45:39He's got a backstage pass, hasn't he?
- 1:45:41It's great. Exactly.
- 1:45:41Yeah, it's great. But the issue I have is it's the
- 1:45:44one part where I think Mendez has been too restrained and too
- 1:45:48artful for his own good. It looks incredible the way that
- 1:45:52the door swings back to short Connors reflection in the Mirror
- 1:45:55Now that Michael shot him and he uses in the bath.
- 1:45:57But it's the one bit where I want an emotional release.
- 1:46:00Don't get it. You know, this guy murdered
- 1:46:02Michael's wife and youngest boy. You want the moment of revenge?
- 1:46:06You just don't get it. It's very dispassionate.
- 1:46:08And I know there's an argument for that.
- 1:46:11The Michael's just like whatever I've had to kill his father.
- 1:46:14This guy means nothing to me. But all the same, that's his
- 1:46:16personal choice. And that's fine.
- 1:46:18But my reaction is personal in my reaction is this feels like
- 1:46:21an afterthought. And I'm not saying he has to be
- 1:46:23like slugging him around the hotel room or anything like
- 1:46:25that. But if you go back to the
- 1:46:27graphic novel, in this scene when Michael has Connor at
- 1:46:30gunpoint, Connor says I'll see you in hell.
- 1:46:32And Michael's reply is hell will be heaven if I can spend
- 1:46:35eternity making you pay for what you did to her.
- 1:46:38Now that's magnificent line. That's one-on-one from this
- 1:46:41scene. Why is that line not here?
- 1:46:42Yeah. I can't fathom why that line's
- 1:46:45not there. It's amazing line dialogue.
- 1:46:47Yeah, that makes the scene. It does, yeah.
- 1:46:49So from there to, it's a happy ending, isn't it?
- 1:46:51We're absolutely fine. Yeah, they've even got a dog.
- 1:46:54Yeah, they've got a dog there. The actor told you there was a
- 1:46:57dog and Zach driving. He's he's heads out the window.
- 1:46:59Mike Sullivan has completely let his guard down, his collars
- 1:47:02open. He's grown his hair a little bit
- 1:47:04more. He's just, you know, he's shirts
- 1:47:05on, tucked his waist coats not fast.
- 1:47:07And he's ready to just call it a day.
- 1:47:08And that's it. He's ready to settle down.
- 1:47:10And we're all ready to settle down with him.
- 1:47:12And I love that moment where The Walking across the beach and
- 1:47:15it's beautiful. But then he says, is that the
- 1:47:17house? So I fucking hope so, because
- 1:47:19there's nothing else. Why we otherwise?
- 1:47:23Absolutely. Miles is like, no, there's three
- 1:47:25more down the bottom, which would normally be quite
- 1:47:27realistic. No, that's not the house.
- 1:47:29It's that little one that we can afford down there.
- 1:47:32But yeah, it's great. I'll just love that.
- 1:47:33The way it's it's set up and it's it's done in such a joyful
- 1:47:36way because we are at once in probably the most brightest
- 1:47:39scene in the film and it is just feel almost overexposed after
- 1:47:43everything else we've seen. It's like Michael Mann, isn't
- 1:47:45it? Yeah.
- 1:47:46And once, you know, a false sense security and you know,
- 1:47:49it's a beach scene, but we're forgetting.
- 1:47:50We've seen Sullivan junior on the beach at the very start
- 1:47:53looking at the water. We've forgotten about that.
- 1:47:55We forgot about a lot of things which are going to come back to
- 1:47:57home in a minute. And there's that tracking
- 1:47:59through the house and he shouts, we're here, Sarah.
- 1:48:02And there's just that amazing reflected shot where my son was
- 1:48:07looking out and then you see him waving and it's just that pang,
- 1:48:11that pang. And it's just, it's just so
- 1:48:13heartbreakingly, beautifully played out.
- 1:48:16I think it's Hanks just trying to hang on and not not fall to
- 1:48:20the floor. And then when he does, you just
- 1:48:22see that reveal of that shadowy figure and just the camera
- 1:48:25getting picked up and you think, oh, for folks think, why did I
- 1:48:30forget about that? Why did I let me guard down?
- 1:48:33And it does it to the audience because you let your guard down
- 1:48:35as soon as he does, and as soon as he does, he's punished for
- 1:48:38it. And then when you see that smile
- 1:48:40and he takes the picture, he's just the most loathsome.
- 1:48:43Character. Yeah, he is horrific.
- 1:48:45And you think you're benefiting from this moment and you just
- 1:48:47invested in the Sullivan's at this point.
- 1:48:49You just think, yes, we're going to get there.
- 1:48:51And now we have this sledgehammer from Mendez
- 1:48:54Juniors. Got a gun, Mike Sullivan.
- 1:48:55Don't do it, don't do it. Go on and give us a gun back.
- 1:48:58It was a gun back. And there's probably the this is
- 1:49:00the one shot that I really dislike in the film and it kind
- 1:49:02of pulls as I was when that triggers pulled in, the gun goes
- 1:49:05off and you get that shot of why you get that chart.
- 1:49:07Jude Law just it's slow motion, but it's like a strange kind of
- 1:49:12slow motion doesn't really feel like it fits.
- 1:49:14And I think if you've got Conrad Hall there, there's there's a
- 1:49:16couple of ways to shoot that. So it has an ambiguity, but who
- 1:49:19pulled the trigger and what happened?
- 1:49:20And I think that just happens a little bit fast, falls to the
- 1:49:23floor, and you know for a fact that Michael's pulled the
- 1:49:25trigger. In the end, you get that line.
- 1:49:27I couldn't do it. I know, yeah.
- 1:49:29And it's almost said, I know, I know where, you know, everyone
- 1:49:33fucking knows that I couldn't do it.
- 1:49:34Yeah, OK. Did really have to put that in
- 1:49:36so you could have shot that. You don't know who pulled the
- 1:49:39trigger. Yeah, yeah.
- 1:49:40But it's just so quickly swept away, like, don't worry, guys, I
- 1:49:43couldn't do it at all. Yeah.
- 1:49:44It's fine. It's tied up in a nice little
- 1:49:46ball, isn't? It it is tied up in a little
- 1:49:48bit. It is nice and it's fine.
- 1:49:49I think that's in 2002. That's what audiences needed.
- 1:49:52And I think someone like Spielberg's going, you know, you
- 1:49:54need the kind of just make sure that's emphasized.
- 1:49:56But we could lose some money here if you don't make that a
- 1:50:01little bit more obvious. And it made its money back and
- 1:50:03it really hits home and that's absolutely fine.
- 1:50:05But it's that return to the farm for me.
- 1:50:07And that voice over. Yeah, beautiful.
- 1:50:09I do love the reveal of the scarred face of Harlem Aguire
- 1:50:13smile. It's shocking.
- 1:50:15Yeah, it is. And Mendez instructed Jude Law
- 1:50:18to play Mcguire's death as if he were the Wicked Witch of the
- 1:50:21West from The Wizard of Oz, slowly sinking out of existence
- 1:50:24rather than expiring suddenly. Fantastic.
- 1:50:27Yeah, it's a great fall to the floor.
- 1:50:28I love that that reverse shot. Yes, a fit and ending.
- 1:50:32And he's another fit and ending. Our third and final period on
- 1:50:36QUESTION. OK, this comes from Rob Ball.
- 1:50:39Hello, Rob. Hello, Rob.
- 1:50:40Rob says. Is there a movie that makes you
- 1:50:43feel more hollow and sad at the end of it?
- 1:50:45The sun is safe and perhaps we'll have a new family.
- 1:50:48But the most important people in his life are gone, and he has a
- 1:50:51terrible secret at the center of his life.
- 1:50:54Yes, Rob. Yes, indeed.
- 1:50:56A good punch, Westie, I'm certain you've got a number of
- 1:51:01good punches in your holster. A plethora.
- 1:51:04A plethora. Why do you say I have a
- 1:51:07plethora? Brilliant.
- 1:51:14Yes, El Vapo, this I mean, there's there's too many to
- 1:51:19really mention, but I've gone for the top three hard hitters.
- 1:51:21OK, one that's not as hard because it's one of my favorite
- 1:51:25films of all time. But I also find it quite hollow
- 1:51:27and quite reward. I mean, it's a really rewarding
- 1:51:29film and you know that that's going to happen.
- 1:51:31But the end of the Assassination of Jesse James by the covered
- 1:51:33Robert Ford, there we go, is hollow.
- 1:51:36It's sad, it's reflective in start voice over.
- 1:51:40It's just incredibly poignant. You know, they're not going to
- 1:51:42pay $0.15 a stand in the rooms he grew up in.
- 1:51:44He's nothing. It's failure and that was it.
- 1:51:47And then just the way you get shot in the way that stage is
- 1:51:49beautifully done shot by taking nothing else to say about that
- 1:51:52apart from it finishes and I go back and watch it again.
- 1:51:58One that I can never what? Well, there's two I can never
- 1:52:00watch again. Actually the the first one that
- 1:52:02I was on the floor in a ball in foetal position sobbing was
- 1:52:06Dancer in the Dark. Oh wow.
- 1:52:08Lost one trio. Can't.
- 1:52:11I can't revisit that. I can't go back to that.
- 1:52:13I can't think about that very much.
- 1:52:15Absolutely shattering. But then again, it's a large
- 1:52:17frontier film. What?
- 1:52:18Exactly what you. Expect.
- 1:52:20But you know, Bjork's in it, there's a bit of dance and I
- 1:52:22thought he might have just mellowed slightly, but no way
- 1:52:25was I wrong. And the last one for me that was
- 1:52:28so, so hard to bear was the Mist.
- 1:52:31That ended. Yeah, that ending is, come on,
- 1:52:34shattering. But again, I mean, it's
- 1:52:36brilliantly executed. All these are brilliantly
- 1:52:37executed and brilliant films, two of which I'll never see
- 1:52:39again and one that I'll watch, you know, as often as I can,
- 1:52:42really. But yeah, if you haven't seen
- 1:52:44them, I mean, just prepare yourself.
- 1:52:45Yeah, yeah. What about you, Matt?
- 1:52:49Yeah, I've got 3 as well. First one, I'm going to say The
- 1:52:51Fly, because that's the way that I always forget.
- 1:52:56Like whenever I go watch that again, it ends with Veronica,
- 1:53:00the Geena Davis character, obviously killing Seth, Jeff
- 1:53:04Goldblum's character to put him out of his misery.
- 1:53:06And Goldblum is brilliant in that film.
- 1:53:09Like you never ever doubt that. Still Seth underneath all the
- 1:53:13you know, the disgusting special effects and it's got that thing
- 1:53:16where the monster is tragic and you feel sorry for throughout
- 1:53:20and this is thing she kills him and then cut to credits.
- 1:53:23It's like. Well, yeah, there you go.
- 1:53:24Deal with that. Deal with that.
- 1:53:27Wow. So yeah, that one, a film I've
- 1:53:29already mentioned, went on about favorite quotes, but Dead Man
- 1:53:32Shoes again, that that mission of revenge, he goes on, he gets
- 1:53:36it, but at what cost? At what cost to him?
- 1:53:39You know, you get that feeling at the end.
- 1:53:42And one that I've mentioned on a paper on episode recently, I
- 1:53:46won't go into it too much because it's still quite recent.
- 1:53:48So OK worry about spoilers but after some that has got.
- 1:53:52All right. The last five minutes that will
- 1:53:54just knock you off your feet. Yeah, if you haven't seen it,
- 1:53:58check it out, but be prepared. Bleak bleak bleak bleak On this
- 1:54:03question I thought about Mystic River because we've talked about
- 1:54:06recently on Double feature yeah it's just a devastating film
- 1:54:10that just shows that it will affect when something life
- 1:54:12changing happens in the community in the impact poor
- 1:54:15Celeste, played by Marsha Gearhart she's left with nothing
- 1:54:18by the by the end or. It's a lot of exhale in here.
- 1:54:23Hope. You're happy, Rob.
- 1:54:26He's the biggest exhale of them all.
- 1:54:30One that came to mind immediately.
- 1:54:32It left me bereft. Absolutely bereft.
- 1:54:35Hollowed out. I was not Luke anymore.
- 1:54:38It is Manchester by the Sea. Yeah, the title sounds quite
- 1:54:43playful. Fun seaside town.
- 1:54:46Oh no, there was an emotional dread, like just all over, just
- 1:54:51imposing itself on the film. Casey Affleck's character
- 1:54:55carries this unbearable secret and guilt, and the film holds
- 1:54:59back for so long that you're desperate to find out the source
- 1:55:01of his pain. But then it's revealed and you
- 1:55:04wish it wasn't absolutely horrific.
- 1:55:08It'll have to be a good reason to revisit that film again for
- 1:55:12me. Fantastic film and all of that,
- 1:55:14but fuck me. Not going on a classic anytime
- 1:55:18soon, is it? I'm.
- 1:55:19Not watching that now. But thank you very much for the
- 1:55:23question, Rob. Fitting ending.
- 1:55:26Yes, yeah, we're going to sleep well tonight.
- 1:55:27Yes. So we've lived a lifetime on the
- 1:55:30road. In the winter of 1931, was
- 1:55:33Michael Sullivan a good man, or was there no good in him at all?
- 1:55:36One thing is for certain, he was a father.
- 1:55:39Yes. Deception and awards.
- 1:55:46After a 72 days shoot, Mendez and his editing team were left
- 1:55:49with a mammoth seven months in the cutting room, 12 hours a
- 1:55:52day, seven days a week. Of the scenes that didn't make
- 1:55:55the code were the home one that was mentioned earlier.
- 1:55:58And there was also a deeper back story with Jennifer Jason Lee's
- 1:56:01character Annie, in particular, her role in protecting the boys
- 1:56:04from the life of crime that their father leads.
- 1:56:07But that got good because Mendez felt it slowed the pace too
- 1:56:09much. Just a shame.
- 1:56:11Like I say, we need. More JGL.
- 1:56:13We need more Jennifer. Yes, absolutely.
- 1:56:15And finally, a scene that Mendez agonized over was one that had
- 1:56:18Michael Junior confessing his dad's sins to a priest.
- 1:56:21Yes. That played just before senior
- 1:56:23dies. Mendez felt it blunted the end,
- 1:56:25its impact. As discussed, probably a little
- 1:56:28too on the nose. Yeah, I think so, yeah.
- 1:56:31Wrote a Position was originally slated to be released in the
- 1:56:33winter of 2001, but Mendez requested more time and set his
- 1:56:38sights on a July 2002 release. An odd choice for a film of this
- 1:56:42nature to go up against the likes of Men in Black 2 Minority
- 1:56:45Report Gold Member. I know which one I'm watching
- 1:56:50first, which one scroll on afterwards.
- 1:56:53Gold member Yeah, men there saw it as an opportunity to separate
- 1:56:56from the pack, a move which proved successful on a big time
- 1:56:59$80 million budget, which is big broader petition returned a
- 1:57:03healthy 296,000,000 ended up as the 16th highest grossing film
- 1:57:07of the which is just not happening.
- 1:57:10No, in this day and age, definitely not.
- 1:57:12And it wasn't just box office figures that were impressive.
- 1:57:14Review is largely waxed lyrical about the film.
- 1:57:17Richard Corliss in Time magazine said.
- 1:57:19Brilliantly photographed, meticulously directed and acted
- 1:57:22with utter confidence, it's a movie in which every note seems
- 1:57:25perfectly pitched. High praise.
- 1:57:28Yeah, Yeah. And Empire gave it 4 out of five
- 1:57:31saying this is supremely crafted grown up movie making that never
- 1:57:35escapes its pulp origins. The themes are well worn and the
- 1:57:38structure predictable, but these are gangster cliches is gift
- 1:57:41wrap by Fortnum and Mason in the grandeur of the film slips down
- 1:57:44like fine caviar. Ah, fantastic.
- 1:57:48Don't disagree with that. And I will triumph the big man
- 1:57:52himself, Big Roger Rebus. What do you think?
- 1:57:54He gave it out of four. 3. 33 third time's a charm.
- 1:57:59You got it all right. He healed it as a masterful and
- 1:58:02eloquent film by a director who understands that action is the
- 1:58:05character, but also said that he felt emotionally detached from
- 1:58:08the characters at times. And I knew I admired it, but I
- 1:58:11didn't know if I liked it. Yeah, it is cold and holds us
- 1:58:15outside. Right, that's.
- 1:58:16What I think you said at the top, Westie?
- 1:58:18Not a love and admiration, I think.
- 1:58:20Yeah, very much. And now Rd.
- 1:58:23Petition has 82% on Rotten Tomatoes, and an IMDb score of
- 1:58:267.6 out of 10. Sadly, Conrad Hall died around
- 1:58:30seven months after the release of the film, his final work of
- 1:58:33art. A fitting way to go out.
- 1:58:35He posthumously was awarded the Best Cinematography Oscar.
- 1:58:38Mendez picked it up on his path. And choking back the TS in the
- 1:58:41speech, he paid tribute to a career that began in black and
- 1:58:45white and ended in a blaze of colour.
- 1:58:47And if you watch it on YouTube, you can see in the audience
- 1:58:50Hanks and humans to watch on very tearfully.
- 1:58:52No surprise. Yeah, beautiful.
- 1:58:55No surprise. The Road to Position was
- 1:58:56nominated in five of the categories of the Oscars, Sound
- 1:58:59editing, Sound, original Score, Art Direction and supporting
- 1:59:03actor Paul Newman. Lovely callback that.
- 1:59:11Love it. But alas, it missed out on all
- 1:59:18of them. The winners that year?
- 1:59:19It was well balanced. Can you remember what won Best
- 1:59:22Picture? Chicago.
- 1:59:26Oh, yes. Well done, Matt.
- 1:59:29Yeah, that won best picture. Polanski won for best out for
- 1:59:32the pianist. I mean, those two decisions, I'm
- 1:59:35certain if we had a redo there would be made different.
- 1:59:39There would be something different.
- 1:59:41Yeah, come on. So in the busy summer months of
- 1:59:452002, Wrote Up Edition stood head and shoulders above most of
- 1:59:48its contemporaries and even got some justified awards
- 1:59:50recognition despite being released six or seven months
- 1:59:53before award season, A testament to the stay and power of the
- 1:59:56film. Yeah.
- 1:59:57Yes, sequels and influence. Despite the graphic novel having
- 2:00:05many follow-ups, nothing has materialized on the big screen
- 2:00:09in the shape of a sequel. So what of the film's influence
- 2:00:12and legacy in the years since it's released?
- 2:00:14Westie, where do you stand on that?
- 2:00:16I think we saw a few very similar types of films, Gangster
- 2:00:20Squad and failed and Enemies came out and and didn't do as
- 2:00:28well. And I honestly think of Conrad
- 2:00:30Hall had lived longer and he was maybe 5 years younger and he did
- 2:00:34this film. I think he would have just been
- 2:00:35right when he do a Conrad Hall film, much like you know what
- 2:00:38happened with Deakins once he got recognized after the Coen
- 2:00:41brothers stuff and he's doing Blade Runner and Blade Runners
- 2:00:43like a feeling of Deakins joint. Do you know what I mean?
- 2:00:46It's safe because of Deakins. It has an identity now and
- 2:00:50Mendez took that and who was the best person to go to after this
- 2:00:53Deakins? So that's the short jaw head
- 2:00:56with him and try to keep to maintain that.
- 2:00:58So I think the influences, especially on some Mendez was,
- 2:01:02you know, the confidence to move forward, but also the importance
- 2:01:05of cinematography. And I think we've seen a leap
- 2:01:07massively since the death of Conrad Hall in much improved,
- 2:01:10much more thought through cinematography throughout
- 2:01:12cinema. I think especially moving into
- 2:01:13the digital age, I think people appreciate it now when they look
- 2:01:16at it differently. And I think this was the film
- 2:01:18that made people wake up. Yeah, fantastic.
- 2:01:21What about you, Matt? I'm going to go TV for the first
- 2:01:23influence. I think Boardwalk Empire, just
- 2:01:26the look of that series. I mean, obviously petition can't
- 2:01:29claim credit fraud being set in that particular time period.
- 2:01:32It's a fascinating period all the same.
- 2:01:35But Even so, I think Boardwalk and by just shares a lot of this
- 2:01:38film's DNAI think the casting of Hanks, I think that's had an
- 2:01:41influence because that short that sometimes you don't always
- 2:01:44have to cast the obvious choices for Stone Cold killers and men
- 2:01:47of violence. So I think even though it's
- 2:01:49completely, totally different, you get something like Bob
- 2:01:52Odenkirk and nobody similar kind of thing.
- 2:01:54Like I wouldn't expect him to be that.
- 2:01:56I think that comes down Hanks. I find myself saying this quite
- 2:01:59a lot, but quite a lot of these films, it's about the influence
- 2:02:01on the director himself. And I think Mendez doing this,
- 2:02:04as I said, the top, so completely different to American
- 2:02:06Beauty and it work. And for the most part, I just
- 2:02:09think it gave him the confidence to keep doing that.
- 2:02:12Because I think looking at his career, the interesting thing
- 2:02:14about him is apart from when he came back to do a second Bond
- 2:02:16film, when he did Spectre, he's never revisited the same genre.
- 2:02:20He's always moved on to something different, which is
- 2:02:22what I really like about Mendez. So I think this one work and as
- 2:02:25much as it did probably had a lot to do with that.
- 2:02:27Yeah, I think going to repeat quite a few things that you
- 2:02:30fellas have said. The visual influence, Conrad
- 2:02:32Hall, cinematography that's become a a template for how to
- 2:02:35shoot morally ambiguous crime dramas.
- 2:02:37You can see it all over the likes of The Dark Knight, Blade
- 2:02:40Runner, Deacons, like you said, Westie acknowledged studying Rd.
- 2:02:44of additions, use of light and shadow for that.
- 2:02:46Yeah. And Tom Hanks, he was kind of
- 2:02:49like an everyman up until this point, but this opened the door
- 2:02:52to be a little bit more morally ambiguous with his choices.
- 2:02:56Not over the top, but he certainly made a few more
- 2:02:59different choices than he was making in the 90s.
- 2:03:01Yeah. Significantly, though, I think
- 2:03:04wrote the edition helped prove that comic book adaptations
- 2:03:06don't have to be about superheroes.
- 2:03:08No, yeah. Sure, Hollywood, that graphic
- 2:03:10novels could be source material for serious adult dramas.
- 2:03:14Things like History of Violence for example.
- 2:03:16Yeah, yeah, yeah. Spielberg called it a permanent
- 2:03:19masterpiece, and I think that's been proven as well.
- 2:03:23All of these years on, it's still the gold standard for how
- 2:03:25to make a beautiful, melancholic crime film that doesn't
- 2:03:28glamorize violence but examines its true cost.
- 2:03:32So no sequels, but a wonderful legacy and, as discussed at
- 2:03:35length, a beautiful way to go out for 2 Legends of the Silver
- 2:03:39Screen. Yeah, yes, absolutely.
- 2:03:44All the right movies ranking. We've reached the end of our
- 2:03:48road and there's only one guarantee none of us will escape
- 2:03:51without giving our final verdict.
- 2:03:53This is the world famous ATRM ranking math.
- 2:03:56Could you summarize and give you score out of 10 for Rd. of
- 2:03:59edition please? It's a really, really beautiful
- 2:04:02film. It's stunning in so many ways,
- 2:04:04as we've said, so much that comes down to Conrad Hall.
- 2:04:07I think there's a lot of confidence in a lot of ways from
- 2:04:09NSA to do something very different to what he'd
- 2:04:11previously done. And and Newman, as I said, he
- 2:04:14just signs off with one of his greatest roles.
- 2:04:16But when I was thinking about this, I was asking myself the
- 2:04:18question, why don't I watch it more often than I do?
- 2:04:22And I think, you know, there are some scenes I don't quite work
- 2:04:24tonally like the one I mentioned.
- 2:04:26I don't get the release at the end when he kills Connor that I
- 2:04:28think I should get. Yeah.
- 2:04:30I kind agree with Wesley about the montage scene.
- 2:04:33It feels a little out of place. I mean, Hank Hanks is great, but
- 2:04:36could that have been pushed a little further?
- 2:04:38I think maybe. And I think it does come down to
- 2:04:42what Rod Riebert said in his. I think this is a film to really
- 2:04:45admire rather than love nothing. That's where I am with it.
- 2:04:49And we've talked about Edward Hopper a lot.
- 2:04:50And I think if I had like an Edward Hopper downstairs, I'll
- 2:04:53just be really glad to know that I have it and it's down there.
- 2:04:56I wouldn't look at it every day. It would be something where it
- 2:04:59catches my eye when I'm not expecting that I'll go, fuck,
- 2:05:02that's a beautiful, beautiful picture.
- 2:05:03And that's what it wrote to petition for me.
- 2:05:06It's not want to watch a lot because like I say, it's just a
- 2:05:08little emotionally distant for me for large parts of it, but
- 2:05:12it's a beautiful thing nonetheless.
- 2:05:14So it's an 8.5 for me. Still a thoroughly decent score.
- 2:05:18Yeah. What about you, Westie?
- 2:05:20Really tough one for me this, to be honest, because there is so
- 2:05:24much admiration from it that I don't know whether that
- 2:05:27overshadows parts of what a film should be and what we'd look at
- 2:05:31the other films that are on the on the board and films that I've
- 2:05:34give top marks to. And they are just perfect films
- 2:05:38for me all the way through. And I would find it quite hard
- 2:05:41to argue with somebody over the montage sequence.
- 2:05:44I found it quite hard when Matt was saying about the Lexington
- 2:05:47Hotel. I'm like, yeah, yeah, you know,
- 2:05:50that's, that's right. Yeah, you're all right.
- 2:05:52It does have flaws. I mean, if I was going on
- 2:05:55cinematography, this would be 20 out of 10 of.
- 2:05:57Course. It's it's easily it's easily one
- 2:06:00of the best films I've ever seen visually and watch it in black
- 2:06:04and white as well, if you haven't.
- 2:06:05And I'll keep banging about that, but it's a completely
- 2:06:07different experience and it's a wonderful thing.
- 2:06:09So I'm not going to tell people how to do it.
- 2:06:10I've got methods of, you know, change and saturation on my
- 2:06:12television. All televisions are different.
- 2:06:15So I don't want people getting in touch with we're going me
- 2:06:18Telly's now fucked and I'm watching everything in Spanish
- 2:06:20or something. So that's up to you if you want
- 2:06:23to do that. But again, it just has that
- 2:06:25layer and that layer, unfortunately, is visual and
- 2:06:28it's not content wise. And I love the sentiment.
- 2:06:30I love that. I love the way that's played
- 2:06:31out. Are you not always cheer up at
- 2:06:33the end? Because I have a son's nine
- 2:06:34years old and I have that kind of relationship and it really
- 2:06:38works, that father son dynamic. And it's really well addressed
- 2:06:41in the film. But again, it feels like
- 2:06:42Spielberg's kind of tapping him on the shoulder.
- 2:06:44Don't go there, do this, be safe on here, go that far there, go
- 2:06:48there. It's a beautiful thing.
- 2:06:50I'd ask anyone to watch it but I find it really hard to defend
- 2:06:52because it does have its flaws but it's still a nine out of 10
- 2:06:54for me. Nine.
- 2:06:56Yeah, very nice. A great score.
- 2:06:58Well, I think this film does get better with every viewing for
- 2:07:01me. And what struck me most this
- 2:07:03time around was how restrained it is.
- 2:07:05I think the less capable of hands.
- 2:07:07It could have been just a flashy gangster film.
- 2:07:09It could have maintained its poppy roots.
- 2:07:11But Mendez shows incredible discipline and letting the
- 2:07:14emotion breathe between the violets.
- 2:07:17Hanks gives a great performance. He subverts his screen persona.
- 2:07:21It doesn't feel forced, but it doesn't feel a 100% believable.
- 2:07:26Yeah, yeah, yeah. But Paul Newman, I mean, bloody
- 2:07:29hell, yeah. What are we to bow out?
- 2:07:32Every scene he's in crackles with decades of accumulated
- 2:07:35screen presence. Visually, I mean, Connie Hall
- 2:07:38moving through a series of Hopper paintings given depth in
- 2:07:41more ways than one of the visuals.
- 2:07:43Yeah, I mean, just artwork. And I really do like the
- 2:07:47writing. I've had a couple of criticisms,
- 2:07:50but it is very stylized. I don't think it's possible to
- 2:07:53absolutely shake its comic book roots.
- 2:07:56And that's a personal choice just because I'm sure that
- 2:07:58appeals to a lot of people. It doesn't necessarily appeal to
- 2:08:01me. Yeah, of course.
- 2:08:02And because it's got that veneer of Sheen that prevents me from
- 2:08:05becoming that emotionally attached to the story.
- 2:08:08It should be heartbreaking. And I'm an easy mark, but it's
- 2:08:11never been that emotionally effective to me.
- 2:08:14Right. Yeah.
- 2:08:14A stunning film nonetheless. Great to look at.
- 2:08:17Great work overall, it's an 8.5 out of 10 from me.
- 2:08:21Right, OK. So a little bit of consistency
- 2:08:24there with three scores. The final score for Rd. of
- 2:08:27Edition comes from our incredible period supporters
- 2:08:30who've been written the film whilst coming to our amazing
- 2:08:33community. Thank you guys.
- 2:08:35Yes. Thank you so much guys.
- 2:08:36Before I reveal the score, let me pick out some wonderful
- 2:08:39comments, Jamie Beckett said. A beautifully rendered film with
- 2:08:42lovely cinematography and framing.
- 2:08:44Always felt a bit emotionally shallow.
- 2:08:47That said, it seems to get better with repeated viewings.
- 2:08:49Some superb performances as well.
- 2:08:52Yeah, well said Jamie. Lou Noon said Tom Hanks with an
- 2:08:56unbelievable performance and really shows his acting chops
- 2:08:58throughout. Newman's incredible and due laws
- 2:09:01performance is one that stays with you.
- 2:09:03What an under appreciated movie in a tremendous piece of cinema.
- 2:09:07As Billy Bob once said so eloquently in Varsity Blues 10,
- 2:09:12I give it a ten. Wow.
- 2:09:14Deep cut Blues, deep cut. Love it.
- 2:09:18I didn't know where he was going without.
- 2:09:21And finally, from Ian Joyner. Ian said staggeringly beautiful
- 2:09:24at times, but there are a better written takes on the Prohibition
- 2:09:27era. Jude Law's character Jazz at
- 2:09:29times with the otherwise serious and somber tone.
- 2:09:31And as fantastic as Hanks is, we never see or understand exactly
- 2:09:35why he's such a fear enforcer that can't be just taken out
- 2:09:38with the strength of force available to the likes of Capone
- 2:09:41and maybe. Yeah, 8.
- 2:09:43Right. OK, so a mixed bag.
- 2:09:45A lot of positives there. Yeah.
- 2:09:47Thank you for joining in, everyone.
- 2:09:49What do you think Road to petition averaged from our
- 2:09:52parents, fellas? I'm.
- 2:09:54Gonna say probably 8.5. Yeah, I'll go 8.5. 8.50 just
- 2:09:59missed out nine out of 10. Oh, OK, nice.
- 2:10:02I'm happy with that to be honest.
- 2:10:04Of course. Yeah.
- 2:10:06So that means that road to positions.
- 2:10:07Overall ATRM score is 35 out of 40, not quite reaching the
- 2:10:12summit, but mixing it with some elite company for certain.
- 2:10:15Yep. Yeah.
- 2:10:16Join us again on all the right movies.
- 2:10:17In two weeks, John, Westie and Matt will be jumping centuries
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- 2:10:30Oh, can't wait for that. Yeah, this month on Double
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