Latest / Houselights: A Film Director Podcast / Risen (2016) - Kevin Reynolds | Houselights #147

Transcript

Risen (2016) - Kevin Reynolds | Houselights #147 · Houselights: A Film Director Podcast

0:03
Welcome to the nerd Pulty, Brothers and sisters. Welcome to house Lights.
0:23
I am John Mills, and I am pleased to welcome you all back here
0:28
as we continue our exploration in the House of Reynolds, where we are looking
0:32
at the works of Kevin Reynolds, famed Hollywood director and helmer of such movies
0:37
as Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, water World, and the movie we're
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talking about today, Risen, which came out in twenty sixteen, and it
0:46
deals with a very interesting topic. And joining me for this discussion is Roman
0:52
Prefect Darren Moser and Roman Tribune Tristan Riddell as we pursue this topic and try
1:00
to figure out what it is that makes this movie work. Tristan, you've
1:06
been hard at work on this case for some time now, and welcome.
1:11
And so I want to ask you to just let's just jump right in here,
1:15
because you know, everybody presumably has gone over to Apple Podcasts and given
1:21
us a rating and review for house Lights, So we appreciate that. Thank
1:25
you very much. If you haven't, you have time to go do that
1:26
now. It demands it, Yeah, Caesar, you know what the Emperor
1:30
demands it because he wants peace in the Apple Podcasts reviews when he shows up
1:37
in Judea. But Tristan, you come to this movie and I just I
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want to ask you that when this film came out in twenty sixteen, was
1:48
it even anywhere remotely on your radar? Were you aware that this was hitting
1:52
theaters or is this one that just slipped right by you? Well, you
1:57
know, I really looked jess Finds performance because I thought it was really intense
2:01
and it just really liked how, you know, like he would, you
2:07
know, like he would really enunciate with what he was talking about. And
2:09
I totally didn't have to turn on the subtitles, so it was this was
2:15
a really good, I think portrayal of showing the other side of the event
2:19
of Joshua and his rise up until you know, that's a terrific point because
2:28
with the sound levels in this film, turning on subtitles makes you feel like
2:32
it's a foreign film set in a different era. Yeah, because you need
2:38
them sometimes to understand less aramaic than you know, the passion, So you
2:43
know, it has that going for itself. Under Caesar, what is Caesar's
2:47
you know, I think that's that is that is very very true. That
2:52
is very true. You know, we're we're moving on, We're moving on.
2:58
I'm sorry I go on to I like. I love Joseph Fines,
3:01
I really do. I think he gives a great performance. But good lord,
3:07
there was so much mumbling in this movie. But see that. That's
3:12
one of the things that I would get at. Where boy, we're going
3:15
in full board right off the bat. I agree with you. There are
3:17
moments and it's not just Fines where the talking is. I have actually excellent
3:23
hearing. It's a joke in the house because I hear stuff that everybody thinks,
3:28
you know, people shouldn't be able to hear, and I'm like,
3:30
I heard that and it just completely flies by everybody else. I would lay
3:36
that squarely on post production, because if they can go back and they can
3:40
amp up Banes lines in the Dark Knight Rises to make everybody happy, they
3:46
could have fixed this in post I think didn't they Some of them they did.
3:53
You can tell when it's a re recorded and when it's an amped up.
3:57
But and I wish they never had quite frankly, just keep up.
4:00
But I can tell you that I would lay this at the feet of the
4:05
production because the actor is giving what he's being asked for on set, and
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it would not be the first production in history for the sound engineer to sit
4:15
there and say, maybe a little more gain here, maybe you know,
4:19
maybe we can just tweak this, just a touch to make it. But
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to answer to answer your question, I know, I had no idea this
4:27
movie existed. I don't remember seeing a trailer. I don't remember seeing a
4:30
poster. I saw nothing about this movie, not a single thing. I
4:34
didn't even hear about this movie until my parents told me about it. Where,
4:40
you know, because my parents they like watching Christian films, you know,
4:44
like stuff you've never heard of, maybe stuff with Kirk camer and I
4:46
don't know, And so when this came about, they're like, you know,
4:48
no, Trystan, you got to see this one. And I'm like,
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okay, yeah, sure, okay, su sure, Like yeah no,
4:54
I'll totally take the time to watch it. But then, you know,
4:57
later on to find out like, oh wait, no, jez Joseph
4:59
Finds is in it? Oh directed by Kevin Reynolds. Oh this is legit,
5:01
Like this isn't fireproof with Kirk Cameron, Like this is a legit movie.
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I'm glad you mentioned that, and Darren, I'll kick it over to
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you because this likewise slipped past me, and I will I will completely own
5:15
up to the fact that I frequently have had friends say, oh, no,
5:19
this is a great Christian film. You should see it, and you
5:23
know, just putting it out in the open, because we have put it
5:26
out in the open before. All three of us were men of faith.
5:28
We are Christians, and so you would think we're a target audience sort of
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thing. But to Tristan's point, when somebody's like, oh you got to
5:36
watch this Christian movie, I'm kind of like, it's okay. I like
5:40
to watch things with production value. But Darren, did you know about this
5:45
movie. Is this a movie where you saw it and you said, oh
5:46
wow, this is coming out, this looks like something I want to see
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or is this something that likewise snuck past you when it came out in twenty
5:54
sixteen. We saw this in theaters. It came out in like February of
5:58
that year, so it's kind of hitting that pre Easter crowd. You know,
6:00
obviously it's an Easter story. But yeah, it's it's funny because you
6:06
know, will often rewatch. We'll be watched this pretty much every Easter,
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just it's you know, that's that time to watch. As much as I
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love throwing on the Passion of the Christ, you know, every Easter,
6:18
because that's that's like popping in Schidler's list, you're not quite ready for it.
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Every every that's like a once a decade watch. That's yeah, yeah,
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stay with you. It does so. But I would almost say that
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this movie is is kind of a companion to it where it's following like if
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you were doing a double feature, I think Passion of the Christ with mel
6:41
Gibson's one, and then this would be a really interesting double bill. You'd
6:46
feel terrible at the end of it. But and then no, that that
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actually that that ties in beautifully, and I think Tristan and You were about
6:54
to probably jump in there where this was originally under to say the same thing.
6:58
This was under development as a film called The Resurrection of Jesus Christ,
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and they envisioned it as, Oh, we're going to make a sequel to
7:05
Passion of the Christ. Not to say that mel Gibson or anybody else from
7:10
that production was involved with it, but they viewed it as, oh,
7:13
we'll pick up the torch we'll grab the baton and we'll run the next you
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know, it's like, no, they are actually doing I think you know,
7:23
there have been rumors for that. For so, Passion Too is sort
7:26
of like an Avatar sequel. They talk about it constantly. I see it
7:30
released, I'm not going to buy it, that sort of thing, but
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yeah, I know, I know the world kind of telling jokes and everything
7:34
like that. But it's it really amuses me when like when you bring that
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up, they're like, oh, there's rumors that you know, there's going
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to be a sequel Passion of the Christ. They're like, what are you
7:44
talking about, Like, how is there going to be a sequel? I
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was like, well, things happened after he died, Like you know,
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right, there's a lot to talk about. And this is one of those
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movies that specifically, Risen is one of those movies where they're like, yeah,
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yeah, a lot of stuff happened after he died. It's not just
8:00
like he was crucified and then you know, rose and then that was it.
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Like no, there's there's a lot to do. And so this this
8:07
film was under development for quite a while and Reynolds came on board and had
8:13
a hand in the script after twenty thirteen, and since this is a director
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focused podcast, I want to get right into it and say, you know,
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I'll kick it to you first, Tristan, do you look at this
8:24
and you say, oh, yeah, that's a Kevin Reynolds film, Because
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I when I sat down, I didn't know Kevin Reynolds directed it, And
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once I saw his name in the credits, I immediately said, Okay,
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I'm expecting a certain level of production value here. Did it meet or exceed
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those goals? Did it? Did his name in the credits mean that you
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saw a Kevin Reynolds film from that point forward? No? Quite, Honestly,
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and right up front, I did not see Kevin Reynolds in this.
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I was. I was a little confused as I was watching this because you
8:58
know, like my parents pumped it up for so long, Like I even
9:01
texted them where I said I was like, oh, hey, I'm halfway
9:03
through Risin. They're like, isn't it fantastic? And as I'm watching it,
9:07
I'm just like, it's like, well, you know, it kind
9:09
of starts off a little slow, you're a little weird, but you know,
9:11
I'm liking it more and more as it goes on and you know,
9:16
like as in that first part, even though I thought it was a little
9:18
slow at the beginning, you know, I'm looking at the cinematography, I'm
9:22
looking at the production value. I'm like, oh, you know, I
9:24
bet, I bet with Risen. With this kind of timeframe, we're gonna
9:28
get a lot of you know, it's gonna be evocative of Prince of Prince
9:33
of Thieves or maybe even a little bit of conamount of Crysto, just because
9:37
it's a period piece. But I didn't see any of that. Like the
9:41
cinematography felt very different, very different from from what we've seen before. Like
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there was there was a lot of overexposed film, There was a lot of
9:54
lower angles, there was a lot of close to the camera talking even though
9:58
you couldn't understand them, And it was not as presentational as Prince of Thieves
10:05
or kind of Money Crystal, because like with Prince of Thieves and kind of
10:07
Monty Crystal, it's very you know, Shakespearean. It's it's very like,
10:11
you know, like basically talking to the like you're monol like you're having a
10:16
dialogue, but it's kind of a monologue and you're you know, and you're
10:18
talking to the camera and it's very big and open, and with with Risen
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it's it's it's very it's very close to the chest. It's very just like
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you know, like leaning and talking, you know, like have you're happier
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hafier, And he just felt like, look, look, I'm looking up
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the cinematographer now, and he is the master of the sequel because he's done
10:37
like the second and third installment of you know, Behind Enemy Lines two Boogeyman,
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three, Starship Troopers, three Wrong Turn, three Mirrors two Sniper Reloaded.
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So this is the first one that I see that's kind of standing out.
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And he did the twenty nineteen Hellboy, the one with David Harvard Harbor.
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Yeah, so yeah, it although I want to give the director a
11:05
little more credit because I feel like one of the things we've talked about many
11:09
times with Kevin Reynolds is that his gift is assembling the actors and getting an
11:16
act what he gets out of them, and I think that is still true
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in this I think, you know, yeah, Tom Felton, it's it's
11:24
really hard not to see Druco malfoy. I mean, that's gonna be kind
11:28
of that's a him thing, but he don't want to be pretty decent.
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I don't want to overtake your point. I'm totally gonna leave a finish your
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point. I felt the same exact way, because like when Tom Felton come
11:39
on came on, I was just like, Oh, it's Malfoy and I'm
11:41
only going to see about this season. You know, it's his name is
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even Lucious, which is Malfoy's dad's name in Harry Potter. But like after
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that initial scene, like after his first viewing, or like when he first
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came unto the movie, I didn't see Malfoy anymore. I was like,
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oh, cool, okay, cool, cool, cool cool, And so
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I just want to say, yes, Darren, I completely agree with you.
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Please continue. Yeah. No. And I felt similarly that after that
12:07
initial oh it's mal because I mean, he just he has that look like
12:11
you you recognize him instantly. But no, I feel I feel he got
12:18
the right people for this particular type of story because it's a really interesting perspective
12:24
story. Like I think that's what really hooked me from the beginning, is
12:28
this. You know you're following a I forget is he he's a tribute or
12:35
as Triturian. He's a tribune, so you're following this tribune, you know,
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I'm kind of learning about the geopolitics of Rome and how things are going.
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And it's almost like a mystery because we know as Christians, like exactly
12:48
what's happened, and he has no idea, but of course he wouldn't know.
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And so that is what's interesting, is, yeah, what is this
12:56
perspective of someone who doesn't have the Bible in front of them and knows what's
13:00
happening, but instead they're like, oh, they're taking all of the natural
13:05
assumptions instead of the supernatural ones of they're like, oh, well his followers
13:09
stole the body, or oh this must have been what happened. And so
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it's a it's just a really clever perspective's film, I think in general.
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And that is something that Reynolds specifically brought to it because apparently earlier versions of
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the script had Peter in it much earlier. Peter, you know, the
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Rock of the Church was in it much earlier, and Reynolds apparently was one
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of the ones that said, pull it back and let's focus in this confusion
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with that. It's like, is this a Peter's story or is this the
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tribute story? And I think I think that reynolds perspective, if I remember
13:45
correctly, was basically, and I'm condensing the point here is it's more interesting
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to go with the skeptics point of view. Peter's a believer, and so
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it's more interesting just to focus on the skeptics point of view because it really
14:01
leans into that detective story. But Tristan, to answer your point, I
14:07
think that some of the shot selection stuff that you're talking about and some of
14:11
the way it's shot is a very experienced, intelligent director compensating for a much
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smaller budget than people usually work with. Because if that is really tell this
14:24
was my second time seeing the film, and a lot of those tight shots,
14:30
it was like, Okay, we're gonna we've got to make the most
14:33
of what we can, so we can't show a lot of the city.
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It's very much sort of like a Star Trek sort of thing, where it's
14:39
like we're just going to show precisely where they're standing, and then we move
14:43
the camera over ten feet. They're at a different location now. And I
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would have a million budget, which is not a lot in twenty sixteen,
14:52
dollars when you made a movie that was almost two hundred million dollars, and
14:56
then you in nineteen nineties money and then in twenty seeing these money. Yeah,
15:01
in two thousands of money, you're making a twenty million dollar movie.
15:05
Your career has followed a specific trajectory that is the inverse of what most directors
15:09
want to pursue, which is not a knock on Reynolds. I'm just saying,
15:13
like most directors are catering budget of Lord of the Rings. If that
15:18
that's that's the catering budget for the production staff on on Lord of the Rings.
15:22
Basically, yeah, I mean that's the thing is that I didn't really
15:26
feel the production I should say lack of production value, except in that first
15:33
battle where they're going uphill. Like it was cool because like they used the
15:37
whole turtle thing and like they climbed up the turtle and everything like that,
15:41
but it was so narrow it felt I'm not trying to be a jerk,
15:46
but it almost felt laughable. I was like, this is your opening fight,
15:50
Like you're you're going, yeah, let me ask you this then,
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and Dared, I'll throw it to you first. Do you think think that
16:00
that opening shot was necessary for the trajectory of the character, or do you
16:03
think it would have been better simply to have him start coming back covered in
16:08
blood with a little bit of narration going to pilot, so that you get
16:12
the sense of, like, this is a guy that's been in the trenches
16:15
and now he's back. Do you think they or do you think that while
16:21
we can look at the limited production budget and that opening battle, do you
16:26
think it alleviates that problem or do you think it creates more problems? No?
16:30
I think they needed it because I mean, anytime you can show versus
16:34
a narration or a scrolling text it says and then the tribute left the bloody
16:40
beat, like that is not gonna work. But I think it goes into
16:45
the fact that this is just this guy's life. This is Thursday. For
16:51
us, it's like the most miraculous time of history, but for him,
16:56
he's like and so you need to feel that monotony of I'm smelly, I
17:00
just was in this fight. Yeah, I gotta go check in from my
17:03
orders, Like it has to feel like every other day, but it's the
17:07
whole day without the other day. Yeah, So no, I would I
17:11
would say it, Yeah, yes, could they have put a little more
17:15
money, you know, a couple more denius into it, sure, but
17:19
it works for what it is. I would much rather keep it. And
17:22
this is all armchair quarterbacking sort of stuff, but I probably would have done
17:27
a scaled down version where it's like after the battle and you see all the
17:32
bodies laying everywhere, and then he walks up and because I think the real
17:37
payoff of that scene is when they have the rebel leader Barrabas sitting there and
17:41
he says, Oh, the Messiah is going to come and then Rome will
17:44
be laid lower whatever the specific line is, and he looks at him,
17:48
he goes, all right, well till then and he kills him with a
17:52
shot to the head. Like that's the essence of the moment. Like if
17:55
I see bodies everywhere, I know it's the end of a battle, and
17:59
you and maximize that limited budget by just getting to that one scene. Again,
18:04
film too, where they like show the aftermath because they don't show the
18:10
battle that we don't have the money for. That could have worked. I
18:14
guess it just depends on striking that balance. I liked the scene because because
18:18
of the reasons that Darren talked about I like the purpose of the scene.
18:22
I should say I like the purpose of the scene because I feel like if
18:27
you had a more experienced cinematographer where you you would you would utilize more of
18:34
what you what you had where you're just like, don't show the whole literal
18:38
uphill battle, you know, like do tights do frenetic cinematography failings? Like
18:48
I want to be yeah in put the key like you're in the middle of
18:51
the of the shield turtle back, Like that would be amazing. That's the
18:55
thing is like have the camera in the crap, you know, like in
18:57
the battle where who don't know what's going on. It just needs to be
19:02
chaos. That's all it needs to be. Is just needs to be chaos.
19:04
This is his every day, this is his Thursday. And then he
19:08
finally gets out of it and then maybe they've they've conquered whatever. He's back
19:12
at base camp. I don't know, he's at the end of the hill,
19:15
and then they bring the rebel leader to him, you know, like
19:18
it just needs to be craziness, and then we have that whole but not
19:22
today thing because I think him as a leader of men, he's in with
19:26
his men he's not like I'm gonna go stand on that hill and you guys
19:30
go fight and die, and it establishes what kind of a person he is,
19:33
what kind of man he is. Well, I also give credit because
19:37
even though it's sort of a trope, I enjoy the fact that it does
19:41
show him in the midst of the battle with everybody and they give him.
19:45
Granted, it's a trope, but it's one that I like where he has
19:48
a couple of moments where he just dodges his head a little bit to the
19:51
side as the arrow flies by, to give you the sense of like he's
19:53
he's just he's such a seasons a seasoned veteran. Yeah, yeah, I
19:56
love that. I don't care how many times it's used. I don't care
19:59
how many times. Let's see, I love it. I love it.
20:00
Yeah, he's just so hyper aware of everything that's going on in a battle.
20:04
He's like, Okay, you're not because that's important though, because he
20:08
is a person of status, he is a leader, and so that is
20:14
coupled with what happens later and the fact that he is the skeptic and he
20:18
is I mean when and it's not Caesar, but his his higher up is
20:22
like, oh, he just abandoned us, like that has to meet that
20:25
means more. But he's this kind of mid yeah with Pilot versus oh he's
20:30
foot Soldier number seven, Like okay, well, the story could happen to
20:33
him, but it would have a very different impact. You know. Speaking
20:37
of Pilot and Darren, I'll go ahead and throw this view because you mentioned
20:42
Pilot. We've seen a lot of interpretations of Pilot through the years. Yeah,
20:48
one of the things, I'm not going to spoil it by giving my
20:51
opinion of it, but what was your opinion of the way they portrayed Pilot
20:55
in this Do you think that this was a pilot that you believe, Like,
21:00
do you believe that this pilot could have existed in this moment in time?
21:03
Or is this a two showy sort of pilot that's like Okay, we're
21:07
gonna have a symbolic Roman guy. That's too much. Yeah, I mean,
21:15
it's got to be puncious pilot, because it's this is puncious pilot story.
21:18
But it is weird to see Pilot and not the the scene, the
21:23
whole you know, freeing Barabbas and like all of like that is this is
21:29
like seeing the Aftermath Pilot like, which is kind of weird, but I
21:34
can also picture it as being some other mid level bureaucrat like I don't it
21:41
has to be pilot. Pilot is part of Jesus's story. As far as
21:45
is it showy or piece of it, I don't know. It's hard to
21:48
place. I just I want as much screen time of Clavius, like,
21:56
like, the more we spend with him, I think the better in general,
22:00
because he is just it's his eyes that we're supposed to see through.
22:04
So I would even sacrifice, you know, all their shots for that same
22:10
question to you, Tristan, is this Pilot too showy? Is he too
22:14
herod in Jesus Christ Superstar? Or is this a or is this a bureaucrat
22:19
that you believe came out and said what the buzz i was? Like,
22:22
Okay, yeah, I guess Jez out right. This is probably my favorite
22:27
portrayal of Pilot in cinema because Pilot was a frigging monster, Like he was
22:37
a horrible person who did horrible things, And this guy could go either way,
22:44
Like when you look at him, like you see him as bureaucrat,
22:47
you see him as bureaucrat Number seven, because he's you know, he's freaking
22:49
out about the Emperor, he's freaking out about the higher ups coming and visiting
22:52
him and everything like that. But you know that he would do what needs
22:57
to be done in order to techt his province and protect his own position.
23:03
And so I could totally see him being a monster without actually seeing him be
23:06
a monster. Like, since we talked about Passion of the Christ, I
23:11
hated that portrayal of Pilot really is oh my gosh, yes, like the
23:15
whole Like like when when we see Pilot, who's introspective, when it's just
23:18
like, oh what is you know? What is truth? What is truth?
23:22
You know, it's like they show him as some sort of reluctant philosopher,
23:26
and Passion of the Christ and Pilot was not a reluctant philosopher whatsoever.
23:30
And so I want to see him either as a monster or as a bureaucrat,
23:34
and we see him as a bureaucrat. Here, Uh, well,
23:37
song, as we're talking about bureaucrats and people who are protecting their possession of
23:41
power, want to see one more thing. I'm sorry when I go ahead,
23:47
go ahead, So okay, So one thing I did appreciate. Was
23:48
like Darren, where you talked about how you know, this is the aftermath,
23:53
like this is we don't like Pilot's key thing is you know, washing
23:57
his hands of it and you know the know in you know, crucifying Jesus.
24:02
I liked that when he was talking, when he was telling Clavius,
24:06
like, oh, you know, like I crucified him when he said that
24:08
he's literally washing his hands in the in the pond or whatever and like in
24:15
the decorative pond. And I was just like, that's a nice touch.
24:18
I like that. Like maybe it's a little on the nose, but I
24:21
liked it. No, it was a nice touch. It wasn't like this
24:23
I literally did these motions and then he was crucified, you know. But
24:29
but speaking of bureaucrats and people who like to protect their power, and Darren,
24:33
I'll throw this you in terms of the san Hedrin who come and you
24:37
know, Caiaphas comes up and he's he's he's talking with Pilot, same sort
24:41
of question. There is a flair for the dramatic when presenting them. Do
24:45
you feel that this is a more rooted in believable history sort of group that
24:51
comes to Pilot to petition for certain things like do you get the sense of
24:56
subtle political maneuverers or is this a too flat no? I think again,
25:03
overall, I will say that it's a really well cast movie. You know,
25:10
you have all these bit parts that you could think of as just bit
25:11
parts, but they have to work together. If one of them feels like
25:15
this guy feels like he fell out of twenty sixteen, like that's not gonna
25:19
work. You know, this needs to feel like you need to not break
25:23
the Thursday illusion. And I think these guys just act like romans are like
25:29
what we expect romans to be. But but I mean, you know,
25:33
the Jewish Council and specific coming to him, right, like are they because
25:38
you know, again yeah, the whole not to go back to Jesus Christ
25:41
Superstar every time, but like there can be a very showy like like thing,
25:48
right. I I thought it was appropriate because I think, you know,
25:53
like they they showed that there are people of that, Like there were
25:56
was high level people in Judaism who sympathize with Jesus, and there was high
26:02
level people in Judaism who didn't. And the people who didn't, they weren't
26:06
twirling their mustache as you know what we as we've seen in stories and we've
26:11
seen in previous movies. You know it Pharisees, it all would have worked
26:15
out and Christy been here forever. It's like, not, no, it
26:18
was they were bureaucrats. They're they're people in positions of power who were wanting
26:22
to protect their power. Whether they're Jewish, whether they're Roman, whether they're
26:26
Chinese, whether they're British, whether or they're American. That is what bureaucracy
26:32
is. It doesn't matter what nationality, what ethnicity, what faith they were.
26:37
If you're in a position of power, you want to protect that power.
26:38
And that's what they showed, and they did it without the mustache whirling.
26:44
Yeah, I agree. I always I found it to be a really
26:48
interesting and also what I found interesting about I guess you could say the subtext
26:53
of it was the big act had been done and so they were just showing
26:57
up knowing they'd already asked for the huge favor from Pilot, and they're like,
27:02
you know, just as a side note, just you know, it
27:04
could hurt us both if a certain thing happened. We think that like they're
27:10
much more they know they'd ask for the big favor, and they've spent almost
27:15
all of their political capital, and so they want to really gingerly bring up
27:18
a couple of things like it might be good to do something additional, but
27:22
you're gonna proclaim it, right, You're gonna proclaim it? Yeah, right,
27:26
right, right, right right. I didn't say I declared it now
27:33
in terms of bankruptcy, right, In terms of these these performances, in
27:40
terms of the production value, in terms of finding Reynolds Darren, do you
27:45
get the sense of a director who is and I mentioned this only because I
27:49
don't see any other credits to Reynolds's name. He's seventy one. Now,
27:53
I think, does this feel like a Swan Song movie? Because this is
28:00
the last thing on his filmography right now? Does this feel like something where
28:04
somebody is coming in and doing it and this is his last why not moment?
28:10
Like where he says, Okay, I've done everything I've set out to
28:14
do. I can hang my hat on this and walk away. Does it?
28:18
Do you get that sense? Like what I'm trying to get at is
28:22
a lot of times when it's a director's last movie, they really want to
28:26
go out with flair and they really want to make sure that you watch their
28:29
last movie. There's this is their big thing. I fully expect that when
28:33
Christopher Nolan does his last movie, he's going to accidentally crack the planet in
28:36
half. Right, He's going to shoot in actual space. He's actually going
28:41
to shoot on the moon for his last movie. Yeah. I mean again,
28:47
it's all conjecture. It could have been that, Yeah, this is
28:49
his last film, and this is what he was given. So it's like,
28:53
I gotta make do with what I got. It's not the it's not
28:57
water World two. It's not some big, you know, showy kind of
29:02
spectacle. But but this movie, it's a religious movie it and that has
29:07
a lot of connotations with it. It's got a smaller budget. You have
29:12
to kind of tiptoe around it a little bit, like you you know,
29:18
there's an expectation of kind of what you're putting forth. And I think he
29:22
is spending his directorial capital in the you know, the skeptic outsider looking in
29:32
view like that. You could see his choices in the direction of this,
29:37
and like I've said many times, like and also the assembling of the actors
29:41
and what he gets out of them. But yeah, I guess as a
29:45
Swan song it you know, hey, if this is my final movie,
29:48
you know, I would say that's a great note to hit it. It
29:52
made money. It made forty six worldwide off a twenty million budget. Like
29:56
that's not bad. It's doubled, and then some that's yeah, it's not
30:00
like a two hundred million dollars and it was never going to be like you
30:03
could put anyone on this and it's not going to be a two hundred dollars
30:06
box office movie. It's just not. It doesn't have the story and the
30:11
you know, the audience to generate that. So yeah, again, this
30:17
is all conjecture on his thought process, but I could see him just being
30:21
like, yeah, they I could do that. I'm assuming he's a Christian.
30:25
I don't know if he is, per se, but it would feel
30:27
odd for a non Christian to want to tackle this particular story. I feel
30:33
like he hits it with a good nuance. But yeah, I'm not surprized
30:37
with the creatives in the industry. Yeah I think that. I think that.
30:44
I mean, we have Life of Brian on one side, and we
30:47
have you know, Risen. One of my favorite is a freaking masterpiece,
30:52
but one of my favorite minor anecdotes is Ann Rice, the novelist who wrote
30:57
Who's Who's most famous for her Interview with the Vampire. She wrote the Interview
31:02
of the Vampire books and a whole bunch of other books. She started to
31:04
write books about the early childhood of Jesus. Okay, I don't know.
31:11
I can't remember exactly how she got started, but she wasn't a Christian,
31:15
and she was just like, I want to I want to write about that,
31:17
and so in her research and as she writing this, she's like,
31:19
oh, damn, I'm a Christian now, this guy's real. Okay,
31:23
she became a Christian through the material, and I love that story. I
31:29
love that kind of thing where you just she gets she immersed herself in Jesus
31:33
and became a Christian because of it, even though she wasn't when she started.
31:37
But she she started the project just because she was fascinated with it.
31:42
I feel like there's there's plenty of times when when creatives are fascinated with the
31:48
story of Jesus, like you know, Scorsese, you know, like,
31:49
I have no idea if he's a Christian, but he did a movie he
31:52
was, he was raised as such, and last Sentation of Christ is a
31:59
really well, I mean smartin Scorsesey. He's pretty good at what he does.
32:05
It's a fascinating film. It's a really fascinating film. And I remember
32:08
specifically the really really fervent protest about the film that was rough at the time.
32:17
It was it was something else that happened at the time. But it's
32:23
a really well made and interesting film. I think that when you have this
32:30
topic, I agree, it's easily very fascinating because there are so many angles
32:36
from which to attack it. You know, we've made several references to Passion
32:39
of the Christ, and I actually, I actually think, even though I'm
32:44
a believer, that one of the most startlingly important statements that that movie makes
32:49
is about political dissent and how simply saying something the crowd doesn't want to hear
32:55
when the crowd believes a certain thing results in a specific outcome for you.
33:01
That it's always dangerous to go against the political will of everyone, which I've
33:10
just always found an interesting aspect to the story. But this story doesn't deal
33:14
specifically with that. This is a skeptic coming to believe. So I think
33:19
that whether Reynolds was a Christian or not become secondary because the mission statement of
33:23
the film is obvious from the beginning, like this is this is the thing
33:29
I struggle with, and trist I'll toss it back to you as much as
33:30
I might be able to sit there and say, oh, I can see
33:34
Reynolds here. I can see in the specifically in the bath scene where where
33:40
they're sitting there and Pilot is talking to him about his ambitions and where do
33:45
you see yourself going next? I can see Reynolds in there a little bit
33:51
in terms of the colors of the scene, like because we're specifically watching it
33:57
through that perspective, there were certain things where I said, this looks like
34:00
something that would have been shot and count of Monte Cristo or Robin Hood.
34:05
It looks like that. I can I can see that because that's one of
34:08
the few scenes that's actually very warm in this movie. Because we get a
34:14
lot of stark white, a lot of stark desert, we get heat,
34:17
but not warmth. And I think with that particular scene, it's two men,
34:22
you know, connecting on a level that we don't. We don't see
34:27
that much throughout the movie, and where he's talking about peace he's talking about
34:30
you know, you know, getting a piece, getting a piece of land,
34:34
you know, like having a family and just you know, it was
34:37
basically his Maximus moment talking to Marcus Aurelius saying I want to go home,
34:43
you know, but Clavius is saying he wants to build a home. And
34:45
so yeah, I think, yeah, I totally could see that in Prince
34:50
of Thieves or or kind of Monty Crystal. Yeah. Yeah, I think
34:53
out of the entire piece, that's probably the most Reynolds I agree with you
34:58
on that. I mean when he started turning the dial, letting more and
35:00
more steam into the bathroom and like, yeah, that was that was a
35:02
weird direct callback. I don't think it fit. But hey, you know,
35:07
you gotta put your signature like John Mood with the gubs. You know,
35:09
you just gotta you just gotta figure out what it is. Two men
35:12
in a very stevy room. It's my signature. I got it, gotta
35:15
do it. I know that I have to ask though, because this is
35:19
a question I love to ask, and Darren, I'll throw it to you
35:21
first because Tristan hates talking about this type of stuff. The score did anything
35:27
from this score resonate with you or was this just and off the shelf?
35:32
So the screeny score, I mean it was it had its moments, but
35:37
I mean, you know me, I'm like, if there's not a you
35:40
know, John william esque theme for Jesus every time we see him on screen,
35:45
it's hard for me to remember it. And I'm just so used to
35:49
that kind of audio queue. So, I mean, again, I don't
35:55
have much to say on the score. Really, it's it's it leads you
36:00
through the emotion points. But honestly, more the more emotional parts for me
36:07
was like you know, when they're in the upper room and they're like this
36:10
is where it was like those moments like and something about the you know again
36:16
at the at the grave, you know, like seeing Yeah, just things
36:22
like that impacted me more. I don't know, I don't know much to
36:23
say about the score itself. John, if you like started that sentence with
36:30
Man's it was weird that this movie didn't have a score. You know,
36:32
it was like Network where there was no music. I'd be like, oh,
36:37
yeah, okay, cool, that's interesting. I didn't notice that,
36:42
but yeah, I believe it, Like I couldn't. I couldn't tell you
36:45
a single note. I couldn't tell you a single note. And that's what's
36:50
so odd to me is when you go to Last Temptation of Christ, Passion
36:55
of the Christ, greatest story ever told, the usually accompanied by this sense
37:02
that the composer comes in and says, Oh, okay, it's big thing.
37:07
I really gotta, I really got, I really got to step up
37:09
to this. And I wonder if it's more a product of the fact that
37:12
they're not dealing with the Jesus story in specific as a target. They're dealing
37:16
with this guy's story, which is a smaller side story. So it's a
37:22
smaller scale sort of thing. There's no Super Bowl with this, like there's
37:25
no you know, like like they treat Jesus, because we see the end
37:30
of Jesus's crucifixion, you know, like, but it's not treated as this
37:35
big triumphant things. It's not treated as like, oh my God, like
37:38
even with the earthquake, you know, it's treated like a what the hell
37:42
is that? You know, like in any other movie that's gonna be like
37:46
the whole he did do with the girl in the Spider's Web, Tristan the
37:52
same composer. I don't know that. Yeah, that wasn't a good thing,
37:55
dear movie, you'd like that's all movies. It's funny. It's funny
38:01
you mentioned the earthquake because of the fact that Lucius says, Poseidon must be
38:07
angry, and Lucius is a Roman, he should have say said Neptune.
38:12
But that's okay because you know, yeah, whatever I mean it. The
38:15
Roman stole the Greek gods anyway, so it's doesn't matter. Oh well,
38:19
they he's old schools stolen. They you know what, they rebooted the Greek
38:23
gods. They win in and they have it's a lot more sweating. I
38:31
want to talk about the structure a little bit about this movie because this is
38:35
something that kind of pissed me off. So in the in the opening of
38:40
the film, it's very much CSI Jerusalem, you know, like it kind
38:45
of felt that way where you you know, Clavius is the guy who's who's
38:51
trying to figure out this whole Jesus thing. And a side note, I
38:54
really appreciate that they pronounced it properly, that it was Yeshua not Jesus,
38:59
like, not this Anglico way of saying it. So we're looking for j
39:02
C. He's somewhere, He's somewhere here well name is John Doe, j
39:07
C. Hewhere blame the Greeks for the way they wrote it, and then
39:12
the Romans the way they transliterated it. So yeah, no, I did
39:15
appreciate that. So, like, even though it was kind of slow and
39:19
kind of at the beginning, for me, I appreciate what they were doing.
39:22
But the problem is is that the opening was it's okay. This movie
39:29
was the epitome of the opposite of show, don't tell. This was tell,
39:32
don't show, and I think that kind of hurts it because of the
39:36
nature of what it is. It's it's this guy, you know, investigating
39:39
what he hasn't seen, and all the interesting parts happen off screen, and
39:45
that's frustrating. But if you do it like something like True Detective or Mine
39:52
Hunter, you know that is the investigation is the interesting part. But with
39:57
this movie, the investigation was probably the least interesting part because of how it
40:00
was treated, where you're just like, I'm not like I know this story,
40:05
like I know how this is going, so there's no mystery. Are
40:09
okay, okay? I want to I want to hear your disagreement. I
40:13
totally do and but there was a huge tonal shift once he actually sees Jesus
40:19
alive, which I really liked, Like it was it was really cool because
40:22
they kind of skirted that line for a long time for like the first half
40:25
of the movie. You're like, okay, so like there's no outright determination
40:32
that Jesus is the son of God, that Jesus isn't full of crap.
40:37
Like it was very much like a you know, we have no idea because
40:38
it's all just from Clavia's perspective. But then when he sees Yeshua among the
40:44
disciples as an audience, I'm kind of like I see that, I'm like,
40:47
oh, you know, like I'm pointing at the screen. I'm just
40:51
like, oh my god, it's him. It's him, you know.
40:52
And that and and that's a really cool moment that's hard to tailor because you
40:58
know, like as Christians, we believe in Jesus, the historical Jesus and
41:00
the and the Christian Jesus. And then when when you actually see him on
41:05
screen, even though we've seen him dead on screen, like see him Risen
41:07
were you know, I was excited when I when I saw that. I
41:10
know about you guys, but then after that it was almost like a completely
41:15
different movie, and so it felt very odd to me. And so John,
41:19
I want to hear what you think about the about the investigation in the
41:22
opening. I think the I think the investigation works as it's constructed, specifically
41:27
because this is not I think that Reynolds smartly constructs a film that does not
41:35
lean too hard into the fact that a lot of people in the audience it's
41:39
preaching to the converted, and he instead approaches the film as this is a
41:45
guy where this is his job. He doesn't really want to be doing it.
41:50
He's tired of having to deal with this crap. He just wants to
41:53
go and he just doesn't even want to really be doing this. And I
41:58
think it really actively in its tone and it's pacing, communicates the idea that
42:05
this is a guy where he's not expecting to find anything special. He's expecting
42:10
to do his job and go to bed and just have it over with and
42:15
great. At the end of the third day, I've sealed this tomb.
42:19
I've sealed the crap out of this tomb. You'd have to have an army
42:22
to get this tomb open. You asked me to seal it, and I
42:27
way over delivered on this. There is zero percent chance anybody's getting in here
42:30
without a small army to move everything around. So he's just very he's tired,
42:36
and I appreciate that. I think that is what makes the scene when
42:40
he sees everybody gathered in the upper room. I think that's what makes it
42:46
so effective because it is the moment where he suddenly realizes, oh, I
42:52
really didn't expect to find this. This is not at all what I thought
42:57
this was going to lead to, and he's absolutely gobsmacked, and I think
43:01
that's I think that's what is one of the things that makes the movie work
43:05
as well. So, Darren, do you want to be the tiebreaker here?
43:08
Tristan and I are just disagreeing about this part, But do you want
43:13
to be the tiebreaker? Who? Who? Where do you fall on this
43:15
scale? I believe in Jesus, guys, I'm sorry, I'm just I'm
43:22
in the in the mind now movies accomplished its goal. Yeah, I wasn't
43:27
a believer before. Not just kidding, that's totally not true now, Yeah,
43:34
No, I like, like Tristan said, I like that tonal shift
43:36
pre the what's it called him seeing Jesus and seeing like things happening, and
43:44
I like that change. It's but yeah, it when you were talking about
43:50
like True Detective or mine Hunter or man Hunter, mine Hutter, whatever that
43:52
one Mine Hunter earlier. Like it's funny because like I I know, we
43:58
know that Jesus story. It's not like we need to be shown it again.
44:02
But that is kind of one of the differences of this movie and that
44:05
you don't show like the difference of it's not like they're showing us the audience
44:09
what happened and then the character doesn't know. They're not showing anybody and you
44:14
just kind of you read the book, so you know what happened, like
44:20
that the world has read the book. The book, you know, the
44:23
most bestseller book called the Bible. It's been around for a while. But
44:30
yeah, now I don't know. It's all that to say is I think
44:32
it's trying to do that. I'm not showing you that part the interesting part
44:38
because you already know it, but because it's I don't know, it's it's
44:42
in this weird predicament because it is the Christ's story, which is a very
44:47
known so it's like you almost kind of need to show a little more of
44:52
it, because then you're showing your tone of it. I don't know,
44:54
I see see again, like it's his, it's it's his story. And
45:00
for somebody who's not even there, he's not even in town when this is
45:04
going on, and he comes back, he's like, oh, by the
45:06
way, I crucified a guy, I need to go take care of it.
45:09
And he's like he's literally still covered in blood and filth and he's like,
45:13
oh, okay, I can't even all right, all right, I'm
45:15
still working, Okay, okay, like that. Initially thought it was going
45:19
to be like I thought the story was going to be like the centurion you
45:23
know who, you know, pierced his side and all of that, like
45:28
actually hands on and not Joe was over the hill during that day, I
45:34
mean, which again is the way they took the story. And I think
45:37
it's a really interesting one. But yeah, it's kind of second hand,
45:42
you know it. It's like CSI Las Vegas and CSI, you know,
45:46
La Crossover. You weren't in town when it happened, but we need you
45:51
to pull you in on this case so you can figure out where this Yeshua
45:54
is. And I think I think that I think that additionally, the you
46:00
have the the the you know, the upstairs room, and while you don't
46:07
have all of the lead up and he was out of town while this is
46:10
all happening, you still see him perform a miracle and cure the leper.
46:15
And then you have the actual ascension, which, boy, they they actually
46:22
leaned into you know, little little showiness there on that ending. I was
46:29
I was wondering how they're going to handle that. I was like, are
46:30
they actually going to see him go up? Like are we gonna see him
46:34
float to Evan because that's that's what happened to the Bible, And but it's
46:37
not very cinematic, but they pulled it off, like with him being at
46:42
the at sunrise where you can't really see him anymore, but then the camera
46:45
does that quick tilt up just at the last second to show him ascending into
46:50
heaven. I was like, that was very cinematically done well. And then
46:53
you have that sort of like concussion wave hit them. Yeah, that that's
46:57
really to your end. There was like, you know, hey fever all
47:00
around like there was like like like it was Paul and everywhere in particulates in
47:06
the air. I would say, actually that as well. It's when he
47:10
sees Jesus performed the miracle of curing the leper. I think that's actually the
47:16
most emotionally affecting moment, and I enjoy the fact that that feels like a
47:23
real payoff moment where even after he has the moment in the upper room and
47:30
he is he's going along, he's there's still some of that skepticism left and
47:36
like that's the final moment, and I think Finds plays it really really well
47:39
of him going okay, this wow, all right, this is all this
47:44
is legit, this is really the real deal. Okay, Like I think
47:47
it really has a good impact to that scene. Well, even like Bartholo
47:53
Mule, which is hard I can't say that would name Bart. He you
48:00
know, he's like, you know, like Fins asked him, like you
48:02
know, like why you know, I mean, why did you follow him?
48:06
Like if if you didn't really know, if you if you had your
48:08
doubts, like why did you follow him? And then you know, he
48:10
cures leper and then Bart says, you know, like oh that's why,
48:14
you know, speaking of which I think what doesn't say He's just gesturing like
48:19
m right, that will smith me. Yeah, I think, I think
48:27
to show it's this This movie frustrates me because there's so many things that I
48:34
like and there's so many things that I don't, and I think, like
48:37
to go back to Bartholomule. I loved that scene with Clavius and barthol Lemule
48:44
because I love the betrayal that Stephen Hagen did for barthel Lemule, because he
48:49
is like he's like, he's like my God, like I had, I
48:53
got to meet my God, I got to talk with him, I got
48:55
to touch him. He died, he came back, and God's real,
49:01
you know, like he was like he was super excited. This was not
49:04
Robert Powell in Jesus of Nazareth portrayal, like where everyone's just like dour,
49:10
super serious, you know, like and like everybody is just like just like
49:16
a Bible quoting robot, you know, like, no, like this is
49:20
these are these were real people experiencing real emotions and going through real traumatic events,
49:24
but yet real joy and knowing that God is real and that you know,
49:30
like you got to meet him and you're gonna be the You're gonna be
49:31
one of the leaders that spread the word throughout nations and like Bartholomil knows that,
49:37
and he is just the epitome of that. I love that betrayal.
49:42
But then we have the Mary Magdalene scene, which felt like a repeat of
49:46
that but yet done in a much different way. And and like I think,
49:52
once we got to that scene, I'm just like, oh my god.
49:53
You know, it's just like, oh, I got it's dragging.
49:55
And also, once again, I ate, I hate that they made Mary
50:00
Magdalen a prostitute, you know, like I'm so sick of that and popular
50:05
culture and move on, Let's move on. She wasn't a prostitute, you
50:08
know, like this was a mistake in history. Let's move on, let's
50:12
not propagate this in pop culture. And it's just it was one of those
50:16
things where it it felt like a repeat. One worked, one didn't.
50:21
And I think that was a lot of what happened in this movie, where
50:22
we see one thing that doesn't work, and then another thing that doesn't,
50:25
and then we see one thing that does work and then another thing that doesn't.
50:28
It felt very back and forth, back and forth, and I think
50:31
like the structure those moments frustrate me. Well, it definitely sounds like something
50:37
frustrated you about this film, so I think we'll toss it to you first
50:44
in terms of your rating, your final rating for Risen release in twenty sixteen,
50:49
the last film we are going to talk about for House of Reynolds,
50:52
and it appears to be the last film that Kevin Reynolds has directed or will
50:58
direct, Tristan. Where do you come in for your ratings with Risen?
51:05
I think the performances are what really make this movie, and in Darren you
51:10
were spot on about like what makes that Kevin Reynolds film is bringing a cast
51:15
together the right people at the right time. I thought Fines, Felton,
51:21
Firth, Curtis, you know, other days, like everybody did a fantastic
51:27
job. And I love how it's crazy that Cliff Curtis is the most accurate
51:32
portrayal of an a cinematic Jesus that we've seen, and he's of Maori descent.
51:38
I think that's crazy. I think it's I think it's crazy that he
51:42
was smiley in Training Day. But that's just me. But I loved Peter
51:47
the Rock Simon or Simon the Rock Peter aka Dwayne Johnson. No, I
51:53
really I loved his performance in this I thought he was great. I thought
51:57
it was a little silly. A Peter would have known better than to sneak
52:00
up behind a trained Roman soldier with water. You could have just walked straight
52:05
towards him. You didn't need to sneak up behind him. I mean,
52:07
I think it deserved to get its calf slid, you know, sliced open.
52:10
But it was There's so much, you know, I've talked on and
52:14
on. There's so much that works with this movie. There's so many great
52:16
little moments. I loved the the the casual brutality of the crucifixion because you
52:23
know, like we talked about this, like there's there's so many other cinematic
52:27
movies where that is the end game. That is the big deal. That's
52:30
the super Bowl, you know, like that is that is something that is
52:31
that is huge, that's high, Like that's the climax. That's where every
52:36
you know, like you know, composers like this, I'm bringing my a
52:38
game here here, I you know, I don't even think there was music.
52:43
And then when they dropped one of the guys who was crucified, when
52:46
they just dropped him on the ground, the camera didn't cut away. You
52:50
saw that body drop on the cross on the ground and it was final and
52:57
it was devastating, and it was casual. You're like, this is Tuesday.
53:01
They just throw them in the pit, you know, behind like unceremoniously,
53:06
And that's how it was with the Romans. I mean, they gave
53:07
out crucifixions like parking tickets, and it's yeah, I mean, it's that's
53:15
the thing. It's just like, there's so much that that works, but
53:16
there's just the structure and that and the schizophrenic duality of the pacing. It
53:22
just honestly, like, I give this a two and a half. I
53:29
think this this movie is I don't think this is a great movie. I
53:31
don't think this is necessarily a good movie. I think it's it fights itself
53:36
too much, and so I give it a two and a half as mediocre,
53:38
not bad, but not good either. Wow. So, Darren,
53:43
given the fact that you spoiled at the beginning of the show that you watch
53:45
this film semi regularly, I'm guessing you might have landed higher than a two
53:51
and a half. So I'm curious to know where you come in with your
53:53
rating. Yeah, no, I'm giving it a three. I think it's
53:58
a you know, maybe every one to two years. You know, there's
54:02
some Easters where we're busy and we're not like, oh but we gotta find
54:06
time to sit down and watch Risen, Like, but I it's it's the
54:10
beginning of the church. It's the it's that next day after, you know,
54:17
after Easter, and it's kind of this fresh breath of air of like,
54:23
look at what was started and look at how it began, and it's
54:29
it's it's a nice new take on on that story. Really well acted.
54:34
Again, you know, not the best. It's not winning Oscars left and
54:37
right, but for for what he pulled together for a twenty million budget,
54:42
Like, it's a dang good movie for a religious topic story, you know
54:49
that is not focusing on the big climax of the Bible, but instead like,
54:53
well what happened on the next page, you know. So yeah,
54:58
I've given it a three. Cool with what I gave Water World Ulysses cut,
55:04
I think, yeah, I think if this is his swan song,
55:07
I'd be proud of it. This is you know, a very decent movie
55:12
and like I've said, I is rewatchable. I do enjoy. You know,
55:15
we're watching it. It's not too you know, it's got impact,
55:20
but it's not too violent or too you know, a little mumbly, like
55:24
like Kristen said. But that's why I got invented subtitles. I feel like
55:30
pad, I shouldn't say that, you know, don don't be ashamed of
55:35
that. That's a good deal. The audio engineering is definitely ah. I
55:39
think he read the book first. That's I don't think they're gonna top that.
55:45
I actually wind up coming in higher than either one of you. When
55:50
I first watched the film, I wound up giving it a four. And
55:52
that is because I think partially I was so shocked that a Christian product that
56:00
I had never heard of was decently put together. Listen, I saw Fireproof,
56:07
and I remember friends of mine saying, oh, Fireproof is a great
56:09
movie. And I looked at it. I was like, oh, okay,
56:13
I love and respect you. And this was the same production company,
56:16
dude, this was the same production company. And my Proof made bank.
56:22
But it was not a good movie. It was not a good movie,
56:24
and I do I did not like it. But that movie made money.
56:29
Christians will just make it rain with movies like that. And I think it's
56:34
crazy that a firm that's the name of the Christian Production Company of front,
56:37
which is the most successful production Christian production company. Film Production Company of all
56:43
time is a Sony subsidiary, and yeah, Filos thirty three mill but it
56:50
made it on a five hundred thousand dollars budget. Yeah, yeah, it's
56:53
all it's all proportional for sure. Yeah. I think probably if you look
56:59
at if you compare the box offices, it's one of those things where maybe
57:02
the lesson of this one for them was it doesn't matter whether we spend half
57:06
a million or twenty million, We're going to make forty million, and you
57:09
know, so they've sort of found their cap. But I gave it a
57:14
four the first time I watched it. I'm giving it a three and a
57:16
half this time because I think it's an effective film. I think it's an
57:20
interesting film. I like the performances. I appreciate the fact that Reynolds does
57:28
not rely on portrayals of these characters previous to his film. This feels like
57:34
somebody making their own version of history. This is not somebody saying, well,
57:38
I got to portray Pilot this way because of this, or I got
57:42
to portray the sand Hedron this way because of this, or I have to
57:45
make it this way because of this, This is somebody with the wisdom to
57:49
say, no, it's my movie. I will make this the way I'm
57:51
going to make it. So I give it a three and a half.
57:53
It could go up in the future, I don't know. Depends on emotional
57:57
mood, but that's where I will land with it. So that ends our
58:02
tour of the House of Reynolds, and we're going to be doing something a
58:07
little bit differently starting next week. Where we are going to do It's like
58:13
this is going to be one of those things where we're going with a theme
58:16
more than a singular director because we think it'll be a lot of fun,
58:21
sort of like when we did our exploration of the Bond character and how different
58:24
directors brought different things to it. We are going to go into the Wing
58:29
of King Arthur and we are going to examine the Arthurian legend as interpreted by
58:35
a wide range of directors and studios through time, bringing us all the way
58:39
up almost to the very modern day. But we will be kicking it off
58:44
next week. The Wing of King Arthur starts with the Disney classic question mark
58:51
The Sword in the Stone from nineteen sixty three. So get on over to
58:54
Disney Plus if this is one of the ones they haven't taken off of the
58:59
service yet, and join us next week. Here on Houselights join the Revolution,
59:05
Join the Nerd Party.