Latest / the arc.fm / The Princess Bride - How Has Anyone Not Seen This Fairytale Masterpiece?

Transcript

The Princess Bride - How Has Anyone Not Seen This Fairytale Masterpiece? · the arc.fm

0:01
You know, people always say like they wish they could go back
0:03
and see something for the first time.
0:05
You're in that position.
0:07
It was fun.
0:07
I felt like, says I'm Inigo Montoya.
0:10
You know the line.
0:10
You killed my father. Prepared to die.
0:12
You killed your father before.
0:14
My name is Inigo Montoya.
0:18
You killed my father.
0:20
Prepare to die.
0:23
When you're talking about the odd couple and the.
0:25
What was missing from it was the callback of the flight attendants.
0:28
I feel like one of the things that works the most about the princess Bride.
0:31
Not the most.
0:32
One of the things that really works of The Princess Bride is the callbacks.
0:35
It does callbacks really well.
0:37
Repeatedly, like everything it talks about, it brings back.
0:40
There's a lot of things that it seeds,
0:41
and then it tells you it's going to do it and it does it.
0:44
It's really it's like comedy 101.
0:46
The thing that like as I was watching it last night, it was the kissing.
0:50
Like every time the kissing comes up, you, you automatically go back into it
0:54
to the boy.
0:55
And the first time he mentions it, it's like, hold on, hold on, hold on.
0:58
Is this a kissing book?
0:59
And then the second time I think, I think it's the grandfather who does it.
1:03
And he's like, wait a minute, there's some kissing here.
1:05
And then.
1:06
And then the third time, like, it's about to end and he's like,
1:09
yeah, it's just kissing. And another voice like, I don't mind.
1:12
I'm like, there's so much planted in that.
1:15
So yeah, it's really great.
1:17
Well, it's like a full character arc, even for the kid.
1:20
Really sweet.
1:20
Yeah. And another time, I thought it came up.
1:22
I mean, it came up a couple of times. Callbacks. The one.
1:25
I'm sorry. I'm two views into this.
1:28
Okay. So I would invest a lot.
1:30
So feel free to correct me because I feel like this is a lifelong love of yours.
1:34
Yes. But.
1:34
So when he says I'm Ingo Montoya.
1:39
And Nico.
1:39
Nico. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:41
He says I'm Inigo Montoya.
1:43
You know the line. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
1:46
You killed your father. Prepare to die. It's like he says it.
1:48
Then he says it. That he says that. He says that. He says it.
1:50
Yeah.
1:51
And so, you know, like the six
1:52
finger guy is coming back, like, that's brought up really early on.
1:55
And then.
1:56
You know, rewarded in the end.
1:57
And then he gets to say all of that.
1:59
Oh it just hit the at the top when they're,
2:01
they're climbing up the cliffs of more, which is what they're really called.
2:05
But I don't think they're that in the movie.
2:06
But they're at the cliffs. The cliffs of insanity.
2:08
The cliffs of insanity. Like it's a second viewing.
2:11
I took notes. Yeah.
2:12
That's great.
2:13
On the Cliffs of Insanity.
2:14
And, Montoya goes right, I'm left handed and then they fight left handed him,
2:20
and they're in this duel, and he's like, What you don't know
2:22
is that I'm fighting left handed.
2:23
Just like they plant stuff.
2:25
And then they immediately, sometimes immediately call it back.
2:28
Other times they call back later.
2:29
And I think they do that really successfully.
2:31
And the way they ramp it up is also really nice too,
2:33
because this isn't
2:34
isn't the same the first time they do it to the second times to the third,
2:38
like it really
2:38
ratchets up the tension in the scenes and makes it like not repetitive
2:42
and not boring.
2:43
And that's why it's like such a nice combo of action and comedy.
2:47
Because it is. You have so much tension.
2:49
But then that that's like good comedy, right, is to release that tension.
2:52
Yeah.
2:53
That build of it.
2:54
And then it's a callback and then you're like, oh, I knew that was coming.
2:56
Or they said that was going to happen.
2:57
I'm like people, we love that.
2:59
I think it's humans.
3:00
Yeah, I just so I actually I want to like,
3:04
had you seen this before,
3:05
you said you were two viewing, so you had never seen it before.
3:09
I was very easily scared as a kid.
3:10
So I think the, rodents of unusual size.
3:13
Yes. Yeah.
3:15
Which is amazing. Viewing it now because they're just.
3:17
They're so funny.
3:18
Yeah.
3:19
But. So, no, I'd never seen it, and I don't know how I got away with it.
3:22
I really don't know how I, I hadn't, I hadn't seen it until Thursday.
3:25
So what was your like when you first when you like on Thursday when you saw it.
3:30
What was your.
3:31
I have a problem of
3:34
deciding on something before I've seen it, so I didn't like it
3:38
the first time I watched it. Okay.
3:40
Because I was like, I knew it and knew I wasn't going to like it.
3:42
And I almost texted Cole to be like, yeah,
3:44
I don't know what I'm going to tell Robbie when I get there.
3:47
So I made myself watch it again because I knew that I would feel very differently,
3:50
and I really enjoyed it on the second watch. Oh, cool.
3:52
Do you remember it?
3:53
Do you remember what you didn't like about it the first time?
3:56
Like, it. Just makes it. It's funny.
3:57
It's like a weird childhood thing.
3:59
Like it made me feel uncomfortable.
4:00
I can't really describe it.
4:02
It's like, I don't know, I've never known.
4:04
It was like. It was like I was a little kid again.
4:06
And so I don't I take things very seriously.
4:09
So I think I was like, oh, this is scary and sad.
4:12
And then like, being like, no, it's not, it's none of those things.
4:15
Like, it's a really funny fairy tale.
4:17
And it it's doing a really smart thing where it's like combining fairy tales
4:20
and comedy and so viewing it like much more as like
4:24
in process and as a maker, it was much more fun.
4:27
But as, like a person who was just going to watch a movie,
4:30
I don't know that I'd write.
4:32
I don't know why. And I don't have the nostalgia.
4:34
I think there's a big there's a.
4:36
Huge nostalgia because you saw.
4:38
It in the theaters.
4:39
Yeah, yeah, I saw it in the theaters when I was, I think, yeah, it was 16
4:42
the first time I saw it.
4:43
I didn't know what I was watching, like it was this.
4:46
It was the thing where there are two stories going on and
4:49
and it was like a fairy tale, but it wasn't a fairy tale, and it was
4:53
a kissing like it was a kissing movie, but it wasn't a kiss.
4:55
Like I had a really difficult time, like processing what it was.
4:59
And I didn't laugh at it until Count Virgin
5:04
knocks Wesley unconscious and the screen goes black.
5:07
And the friend and I, who I saw it with both,
5:09
thought it was the most hilarious thing we've ever seen.
5:11
It's pretty much the reason I went back the second night.
5:13
The night after was because I was like,
5:15
I'd experienced it once before with pee Wee's Big Adventure.
5:19
Like.
5:20
Like I saw pee wee's Big Adventure for the first time, and I was like, no,
5:24
I do not like this.
5:25
This is ridiculous.
5:26
But I went back like a couple days later.
5:29
No, no, a couple of years later and watched it on videotape.
5:32
I like on video, which ages me definitely.
5:36
Yeah.
5:38
And and thought it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen.
5:43
The nostalgia factor is huge with The Princess Bride, because everyone.
5:47
I don't remember a lot of people laughing in the movie theater, right?
5:50
But I do like it was something different.
5:53
And like, I think I want to say, I don't know if it's if it
5:57
if it's for sure, but I want to say that my mind
6:00
was like trying to process exactly what it is that.
6:03
I actually think that's it for me, too.
6:05
It's it was something new and different.
6:07
And even today, even in today's society, it was new and different.
6:11
And I didn't know because what I was going to text call was, I just don't get it.
6:15
I don't get it.
6:15
Which is like in light of maturity, that has happened
6:18
a lot like I was, I yeah, I actually much more enjoy it.
6:21
Almost everything upon a second or third viewing like.
6:25
Yeah.
6:25
And I think we're going to talk about the style
6:26
coming up in a different episode,
6:28
but the studio with similar, you know, like I didn't like the first episode.
6:32
I was like, this isn't for me.
6:33
This is dudes.
6:35
Well, the first episode was bad.
6:36
Yeah.
6:37
Okay, great.
6:38
That's different.
6:38
Okay, I'll just say that out loud.
6:42
I liked it more, but.
6:47
I mean, I forget Seth Rogen.
6:48
I know I working on this, and I get it.
6:51
We can't. We can't admit. That.
6:53
It reminded me of, in college when I was like,
6:57
I saw gone With the wind for, like, film study class.
7:00
I. Was like, this is so derivative.
7:02
I've seen this so many times.
7:04
And my teacher was like, yeah,
7:05
because everything that came after it was inspired by this.
7:09
And that's how watching this felt like I caught myself much faster.
7:12
But it was like, this has been done 100 times.
7:15
It's like, right, because they did it first.
7:17
It's a very sophisticated movie, even even.
7:20
And it's so simple.
7:21
But even now, it's like I was I was watching it and it just feels very
7:26
it feels very fresh to me.
7:27
And I hate using that word like like that.
7:30
But like, I think I've seen the movie 30 times.
7:32
I was wondering, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like once you you're on 30.
7:35
When was the last time you saw it?
7:37
Before this week.
7:39
Maybe a year ago.
7:41
We tried to, We tried O'Connor.
7:44
We tried to show
7:45
kind of kind of wasn't into it, and I was a little bit upset with him for that.
7:48
I blamed him, which is.
7:51
Which is. Right.
7:51
Yeah. And and fired my kid.
7:55
And then I have to remember, like, I didn't like it the first time I. I
7:58
so. Yeah.
7:59
So it was like a couple of years ago.
8:01
And so afterwards I was like, well, what's wrong with it?
8:03
And, and there's nothing.
8:06
The people that I know that I've ever mentioned
8:09
this to or that who ever mentioned it to me,
8:12
they all would fire me as their yeah, friends, ex, etc.
8:16
if I did not like it. You can't even be my ex.
8:20
Yeah yeah yeah yeah.
8:21
Which is I mean, so I have lied about having seen it for a very long time.
8:26
I did too, by the way.
8:27
I've lied for you like literally
8:29
a whole bunch of my friends were like, what do you mean you've never seen it?
8:32
What? Like, oh, yeah.
8:34
Sorry. Yeah, it's very interesting.
8:35
Okay. Yeah.
8:37
I quote Pulp Fiction a lot, and Reservoir Dogs,
8:39
I used to, and I have never seen them.
8:43
Really. Quarter pounder, what is it? Royale.
8:45
Which is very I which is.
8:47
Wow. Well, I just, cut that part.
8:50
It's.
8:51
I mean, you know, in, in, in, in one sense, you're missing a, like,
8:56
like it is these really great movies, but in the other, yeah.
8:59
You know, people always say like,
9:00
they wish they could go back and see something.
9:02
For the first time. I saw you're in that position. It was fun.
9:05
I felt like I was really doing something yesterday.
9:07
Push and play, being like, yeah, it's my first time.
9:10
And I will say
9:12
on second view, those, the rodents were so fun.
9:16
And then I looked it up and perhaps everybody knows this, but I did not.
9:19
There's stunt guys in rat costumes.
9:23
Yeah, I don't know what else
9:24
I would have thought they were, but like the idea of them
9:26
just being these, like, little dudes in
9:29
ridiculous rat costumes, right?
9:32
It was really, really joyful.
9:33
And I also had the voice.
9:36
The or the sounds they make is Rob Reiner.
9:38
Rob Reiner. Yeah, yeah, yeah, which is really impressive.
9:40
So good.
9:41
Yeah, but what about the are you SS rodents of unusual size?
9:46
I don't think they exist. Oh.
9:53
I do.
9:54
Who doesn't want that credit if you're the director, right.
9:57
And also rat voices.
9:59
I'm very bad.
10:00
Cole can attest to voice acting.
10:03
So that would maybe not be the job I'd do.
10:06
You should be good.
10:08
Should be. Great. Voice.
10:10
I don't know.
10:11
What happens when I try to use it.
10:12
I just I leave my whole body and just start.
10:16
I can't, I can't because for method I, we had to say one word.
10:19
It's hinged.
10:20
The whole film is hinged on me saying, shit, I just don't like shit.
10:26
I feel like turned southern shit.
10:28
Yeah, like I couldn't act like I never spoke before.
10:32
How did you get her to get it?
10:33
We hired the most expensive sound production house in the world.
10:38
Right.
10:38
Okay. Like, you know, was like.
10:42
We didn't it?
10:43
We did. It.
10:44
We fixed it in post. Post.
10:46
Okay. Yeah,
10:49
yeah. It's wild.
10:51
So the second time you saw it, was there something that plugged you into it?
10:55
I'm a person who.
10:56
I think the best surprise is a ruined surprise.
10:59
So I like to know what's ahead.
11:01
And so I loved like, oh my God, the end.
11:05
As you wish.
11:06
With the grandfather. Yeah, yeah.
11:08
It's me. Absolutely.
11:09
So all sins are forgiven when that happened.
11:12
And I have, like, a real thing with my grandpa.
11:13
He's like my favorite human who's ever existed.
11:16
And, like, it just killed me.
11:17
And, like, watching Fred Savage's character
11:19
go through his little character arc and be so sweet.
11:22
It just it was like all sins were erased.
11:24
So going in already, knowing that and then seeing I love,
11:28
you know, watching things get planted
11:30
and then knowing that they're going to come back in really smart way.
11:32
So it just was like I by the time I got to the end, I realized how smart it was.
11:36
Like, I think I had felt like, what is this?
11:38
And it's very dumb.
11:39
And the second viewing, I was like, it's actually really smart.
11:42
It's like the Muppets, right?
11:43
Like they're taking it really serious, but they're also very much in on the joke.
11:47
And they know it's silly and they know it's fun and there's all these sort of
11:50
like little goofs and continuity issues, but like, it's fine.
11:55
You know, I think it's.
11:55
It was like, oh, this is like joyful.
11:58
Everybody's having fun doing it and it's smart
12:01
and they take it seriously, but also like, not in a pretentious way.
12:04
And so I just was like much more like ready for the ride
12:08
and got to be like, oh, look at how funny those rats are.
12:10
Or like, oh, it's so silly and make this love story isn't stupid.
12:16
It's like really.
12:17
Sweet. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
12:20
A word that I love teasing about the earnest.
12:22
The joke behind that is that everybody who knows
12:25
me knows that I'm a very earnest person.
12:27
No, you're not an earnest person.
12:28
They don't know what the nobody much like in this.
12:31
Oh, man, I don't think you know what that word means is literally
12:33
what I've said to you.
12:34
People call me earnest all the time. It doesn't make sense.
12:37
He's not earnest.
12:38
They don't. Nobody knows. Go like I know. Go. Rabbit.
12:41
Do you know that call is not earnest?
12:42
I don't actually he's not okay.
12:44
I don't think you know what that word means. To quote a great.
12:47
Inconceivable that I'm not.
12:49
Inconceivable.
12:50
Inconceivable.
12:52
I remember that first, as you wish, from from Peter Falk, the grandfather.
12:57
At the end, I wanted to cry.
12:58
And I was so shocked by my response to it.
13:01
I did cry.
13:03
And then I forgot, like it was a long time between
13:06
and when I got it on videotape and like, I forgotten about it.
13:09
And then we're getting to the end point and I was like,
13:13
oh my God, something's going to happen here.
13:15
What's going to happen here?
13:16
And then I was like, oh my God. And then he said it.
13:18
And then I was like, this is the sweet.
13:19
And I love the closeups on his face.
13:21
And this like, you know, he's is like his face is so his hair is wide
13:25
and he's got the wrinkles and it's got so much personality
13:28
like the angle that it gets.
13:30
And that just amazing.
13:31
Like just so touching.
13:33
It did it. That got me the first watch.
13:35
So it was, it was really like, yeah, I mean I cried.
13:38
This.
13:38
Is it really I love, I love a sentimental, I love, I just love a sweet callback.
13:43
I fall for it. I like I think it's a bit of a trick.
13:45
Yeah.
13:46
I had check, you know, like a book end in a callback.
13:49
All in one to me is sort of a magic trick of story.
13:53
Yeah, yeah.
13:54
You fall for it, you know, for me, too.
13:56
I mean, there's certain types of manipulations that are great that are.
13:58
Yeah, I. Yeah, I. Love a little heartstring pull.
14:01
The as you wish is to at the beginning, I was like, the first time
14:04
you meet Buttercup and the first time you meet
14:06
Wesley is just like he just says, as you wish.
14:08
And and she just kind of walks away and then there's the second one where he's
14:12
looking at her, and the camera slows down a little bit and she notices something.
14:16
And then the third time is just like him reaching up to grab.
14:20
I don't even know if he says it.
14:21
I love, I love that progression, and I also love
14:25
that small section is then stretched out for the whole movie.
14:30
And also the thing about the relationship changing between the grandfather
14:35
and the grandson, Fred Savage does this really small thing
14:38
where like, he's about to leave with the grandfather's about to leave,
14:42
and Fred Savage does this thing where he reaches
14:44
for his grandfather and is like, you know, if you want, you can come back.
14:48
And it's just this like, very sweet and vulnerable,
14:52
like it adds to the like to the change in their relationship from like,
14:57
the grabbing like and the grabbing of the cheek and rolling his eyes and then
15:01
and then just wanting his grandfather there the next day is like
15:04
is incredibly sweet.
15:06
At my first viewing,
15:07
I also had to get past some of the like, oh my god, baby Fred Savage.
15:11
Yeah oh my got big little love.
15:13
Oh yeah.
15:14
And I was like, Is Mandy Patinkin Yeah.
15:17
And yes yeah yeah yeah. It's hot.
15:20
And and then there's the teacher from clueless.
15:23
And like, once I could get past all of. Those things.
15:25
I can better enjoy.
15:26
I didn't know who Mandy Patinkin was the first time I saw it.
15:29
I didn't know who Robin Wright was. I didn't know who anyone knows.
15:31
Gorgeous in that movie. Just. Yeah, yeah.
15:35
The only person I knew was Andre the Giant fan.
15:37
Yeah, yeah, yeah, because he had. A real career in the 80s, right?
15:39
Yeah. Yeah. Huge career.
15:42
Yeah.
15:42
Well, the wrestling career, my dad was really into wrestling.
15:45
So my dad looks like Hulk Hogan.
15:46
Guys. Does he have the.
15:48
Yeah. Yeah.
15:49
White, white big old handlebar mustache.
15:52
He looks like
15:52
if, Hulk Hogan didn't go into wrestling and he owned a ranch instead.
15:58
So bring it back to what you were talking about.
16:00
I thought that I had seen it was certain I had seen it.
16:04
Can quote most of the first.
16:08
Third of it.
16:09
And the moment I realized,
16:12
oh, I have not seen this was the.
16:14
As you wish as the man in black is rolling down the hill.
16:19
Yeah.
16:20
I was going. To say that that it comes back there to.
16:22
Yeah, that was beautiful.
16:24
I was glad because I was like, we're supposed to know
16:25
that Man in Black is Wesley, right?
16:28
Yeah.
16:28
I was just, like, wanting him to ask you guys a
16:30
when were when were we supposed to know as an audience that that is Wesley.
16:33
I was wondering that, too.
16:34
If you were paying attention.
16:35
The only difference in the face is like the little mustache he has, actually.
16:38
Yeah, it's eyes are the same. Yeah.
16:40
So I was like, we're supposed to know, right?
16:41
And so I was a little bit like,
16:42
how long are we going to pretend that this mask is enough?
16:45
I don't know if it was meant to or not.
16:47
I don't think they really cared, though.
16:49
It wasn't like they tried to hide. It because it could have been a huge reveal.
16:51
He could have been, like in a whole suit
16:53
and like, we didn't know for the whole movie.
16:54
Like it wasn't a big reveal kind of movie or like.
16:57
Yes. Plot twist.
16:58
Right? It was it was like, yeah, I don't think they cared.
17:00
It's like, if you didn't notice, great.
17:02
If you did notice, I was glad she noticed.
17:04
Soon. Yeah, I needed that to happen.
17:06
It reminded me a lot of like improv class. Right.
17:09
And it was always like, just get to the thing, like,
17:11
stop talking about the thing, since doesn't always work along those lines.
17:15
Like, I do wonder if the information you're giving about about someone
17:18
kind of makes you look past certain things.
17:20
She thinks he's dead so she doesn't notice.
17:23
I wonder if that works for us as well.
17:24
Like we think he's dead and so we don't really notice.
17:28
Or I have watched movies with people before who who seek those things out,
17:33
you know, and they want to know before everyone else does.
17:35
It's like, oh, that's Wesley.
17:37
And and I know those people always ruin movies for me sometimes.
17:41
Yeah. I'm, I'm that douchebag.
17:43
Yeah.
17:43
That's me. I'm, I'm so I.
17:45
And I pride myself on it.
17:46
Yeah.
17:46
I'll call up call and be like, when did you know?
17:48
Because I knew. Right? I knew before the movie started.
17:53
I knew before they wrote the movie that they were going to do that.
17:55
I'm exactly. That. That person. Yeah.
17:58
I also think the way that you obviously the way you take in
18:01
this movie is very much of like,
18:03
depends on who you are as a human being and how your mind works.
18:07
And I'm always just like, what's next? What's next for sex?
18:09
And there are movies that I've seen before where like,
18:12
I've seen it the first time and then I'll go through it again.
18:16
You know, there'll be a big twist at the end. Sixth Sense.
18:18
And the first time I was like, whoa, like, what a great, like, what a great twist.
18:23
Like, I didn't know that.
18:25
I'm not going to say it because I don't want to ruin it
18:26
for anyone who hasn't seen it.
18:28
But, but then the second time I went through it
18:31
and I looked for everything,
18:32
and I thought it was like I thought it was kind of cheap.
18:34
Yeah, it's it's just a little cheap to me.
18:37
And that's not to say that it wasn't skillful
18:39
or it wasn't a good movie or wasn't effective.
18:41
It was just like it was just like, oh, God.
18:44
Like it didn't appeal to me, but that's just me.
18:46
Like, I'm not, you know, I'm
18:47
not one to call it, Night Shyamalan and say, let's call him.
18:51
This is no, I don't know.
18:53
I imagine you're like this and call probably you as well, which is I watch
18:56
I have different viewing experiences, like I make myself do different things.
19:01
So sometimes I just want to enjoy it.
19:03
And then sometimes I want to watch for certain things.
19:05
So sometimes I want to find the twist the fastest.
19:07
Sometimes I want to rewatch and see when it when I really do learn it.
19:11
Other times, or, you know, I want to focus on camera angles or what
19:13
like and sometimes it's like, just enjoy it, right?
19:16
Like I do.
19:17
So I enjoy some really ridiculous things because sometimes I can just enjoy it.
19:21
Like what? Hobbs and Shaw.
19:23
Oh, okay. I'll just shut. I just kept going.
19:26
Oh, I like that.
19:27
Yeah. Movie. Yeah. We should talk about it.
19:33
In this
19:33
context, is Hobbs and Shaw a great story?
19:37
I'll have to.
19:38
Because those are.
19:39
I don't know if those are different.
19:40
If they are different, I felt I found it again.
19:43
That was Hobbs.
19:44
And Shaw was very much also a viewing experience that I enjoyed.
19:48
So it's, I'll always love it because I watched it like on my first
19:52
the first birthday, I was sober and I had the best milkshake that
19:55
I've ever tasted in my life on like an air conditioned day at Alamo Drafthouse.
20:00
And like it was, I thought it would be bad.
20:02
And it turned out it was so fun, you know, like, you're just fun.
20:06
And I feel similar about Top Gun Maverick.
20:08
Like, very similar. Like, I went to the wrong theater.
20:10
I was supposed to meet Cole. He was like, in Brooklyn.
20:12
I was like, in my head, whatever.
20:13
We were like it totally different places.
20:15
And I didn't have time to get to the movie we were supposed to see.
20:18
And it was hot and I was angry and I was overwhelmed.
20:20
And then like, I had an iced tea and I was like an air conditioning,
20:23
and I went to see this movie that I thought I'd hate, and I loved it.
20:25
So I don't know, but I think we should watch and find out
20:29
because I doubt it's a good story.
20:31
I really, but I think it does some heartwarming things that I love.
20:35
I fall for heartwarming.
20:36
Things, In a way that I think great. Cole does.
20:39
Not in a way that you might, Robbie, but Cole does not.
20:43
Do you.
20:44
When they've given me every excuse to fall for them?
20:49
Yes. Big time. Yeah.
20:50
Like sloppy tears.
20:52
The end of the Princess Bride.
20:53
Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
20:55
They really earned that one.
20:56
Sometimes I just want to be entertained.
20:58
So I don't know that it's a good story but I was entertained.
21:01
Top Gun Maverick great story.
21:03
I have not seen it.
21:05
And we'll disagree right now.
21:07
I mean I've seen it and I didn't understand it at all
21:10
really I really didn't. Yeah. Yeah.
21:12
Like I was a lot of people that I respect and whose opinions I respect for like
21:17
this is a great movie.
21:18
And when I watched it I was like, this makes.
21:20
And it actually, part of my part of that
21:25
probably has to do with my relationship with Tom cruise.
21:28
I understand how skillful he can be.
21:31
And so and so I was just like, so was this movie made just to congratulate?
21:35
But the Mission Impossible movies I love.
21:38
I feel like I need to say with Top Gun Maverick.
21:41
Cause like, we got to go back.
21:45
Because I've seen
21:46
all the beats of Top Gun, I've seen like, every standout scene of it.
21:51
Was basically going to make an uninformed decision
21:53
while trying to make the case that it's informed.
21:55
Well, go.
21:59
Each of those things
22:00
individually makes me want to cry like happy tears.
22:04
Oh my goodness, this is so perfect.
22:05
Yeah, but with The Princess Bride,
22:09
my reaction is like, this is pretty terrible.
22:12
He made.
22:13
But yes, it's making me cry and laugh at every moment
22:17
because the story within it is just boom, boom boom boom, turn.
22:21
Voice, airplane.
22:22
What do you mean? Terribly made?
22:25
Robbie.
22:26
No. I'm curious.
22:27
People name when.
22:30
You. Go back and watch it.
22:32
No, no, seriously. What what what?
22:34
Because, it's go ahead.
22:36
No, no, no, I love to. Well.
22:39
Do you want to take. I'm sorry. You should take it.
22:41
I have a I have an easy out for you.
22:44
I want to hear your easy out.
22:46
Even just, budget.
22:47
I mean, the Top Gun Maverick movie is, like, bazillions of dollars,
22:51
the highest possible production value, right?
22:53
And there's no way that you would argue the same.
22:56
It's not the highest production value movie.
22:59
They had the Princess Bride.
23:00
Yeah, yeah.
23:01
No no. No no. No it's not.
23:03
Yes. Yeah, yeah.
23:04
You're but I thought oh that was like, I mean, what I love about that
23:10
is, is that it feels intentional, like it's a storybook.
23:15
Like it really takes that.
23:17
So it's it isn't trying to be like, it's it isn't trying to be of this world.
23:21
It's trying to be of its own world. And so one of the reasons.
23:24
I really me, it isn't exactly what you meant,
23:26
but it's it's it feels like Mister Rogers Neighborhood feature length.
23:31
Like it, like it had a low budget.
23:33
And there's a lot of, like, continuity stuff.
23:36
There's a lot of like, you see production stuff happening, like you see hands in.
23:41
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
23:44
A lot of the.
23:45
Yeah, a lot of the production elements are things that we three
23:49
could pull off just outside of the studio on the street and be like,
23:54
oh, that's the shot of somebody falling, which is just a GI Joe.
23:58
Yeah.
23:58
Felt, oh.
23:59
My God, there are so many points where you could tell it was a dummy.
24:01
It was so funny.
24:02
Like, it would be like I was supposed to believe this.
24:05
It was like a high. School production of it.
24:07
Again, those are things that I'm like, I think
24:10
because I'm so involved in the movie and like, they're going into.
24:13
Cliffs of Insanity when it goes to the, like long shots, the wide shots, it's
24:17
it's like so clearly they just they just strap dummies out of.
24:20
And so it's like so clueless three dolls on him crawling up the thing.
24:24
And then it cuts back to the close shots and it's like the people.
24:27
And then it goes far.
24:28
And then when he becomes, they send in that
24:31
like Helen of Troy, sort of Trojan horse.
24:34
Audrey the giant is dressed in black.
24:36
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
24:37
It's it's like I had to rewind it
24:41
like three times because it's so obviously a dummy that they set on fire.
24:44
But it's supposed to be like Andre the Giant talking right?
24:47
So just like little moments like that.
24:49
And I think that that they did that.
24:51
Like they do it with love.
24:54
And that's what makes it better than in a lot of ways, Top Gun Maverick,
24:57
because it is actually like more fun
24:58
and more joyful when they didn't have 80 million.
25:00
So yeah, like poorly, maybe it wasn't like they were doing something really fun
25:04
and intentional and it's well made, but also.
25:08
Right, right. I see what you mean.
25:09
Yeah.
25:10
I would argue that this the love and the story behind it.
25:13
Story behind it.
25:14
Yeah.
25:14
Makes you forget about almost all of it.
25:18
Like my reactions to the things where I was like,
25:21
oh, this is quote unquote poorly made.
25:24
It was still I mean, I'm into it.
25:26
Okay. Okay. Cool. Yeah. Yeah.
25:27
No, that makes this.
25:29
You're I do think that's
25:30
a great point is like a worst told story or worst written story.
25:35
You'd be less inclined to.
25:36
Yeah, it would just be like, this is just a bad movie right there.
25:39
And there's a lot of examples of that. I think in the world.
25:42
That was my, my.
25:43
And the point with Top Gun of I won't buy a Top Gun story,
25:47
even with all the production value in the world.
25:49
I do buy The Princess Bride there.
25:51
Yeah.
25:52
And I think Top Gun Maverick for me is like 101.
25:55
Like if you
25:56
if you put a movie into a laboratory and grew a perfect parts
25:59
and put them all together, it's like food science, right?
26:02
Like like what's the perfect crunch?
26:04
What's the perfect salt? That's what Top Gun Maverick is.
26:06
It's like, what is the ultimate movie experience?
26:10
They took all those elements and then like Lego did them together and it worked.
26:13
It did work for me.
26:15
Okay?
26:15
I was like, that's it's actually, I think impressive to learn from
26:18
because I do think it's like, what is the A+ way to make a film, right?
26:22
Does it just say that it's
26:24
the only way, the best way or the way everyone should do it.
26:26
But I think there's a lot to learn from
26:29
that.
26:30
It's like pop music.
26:31
It's like Britney Spears in a movie. Yeah.
26:33
Do you and I love Britney Spears?
26:36
It's you, it's you.
26:38
I, I will definitely come back to that.
26:39
But I have this question about that.
26:41
Do you feel like it's a blockbuster
26:44
or just like when you say like, it's like a what?
26:49
You just say like the like it's a movie. Like, what is it?
26:51
It's not a film.
26:53
It's not for pansexual mixologists in Bed-Stuy.
26:57
Right?
26:58
It's a it's a movie for normal America.
27:01
It's for normal Americans who like movies.
27:03
Yeah, it's a movie. I do. Yeah, yeah.
27:06
I mean, I give it to me and I give it.
27:07
You probably blockbuster, but I think there is.
27:09
I think anything it does
27:12
the magic
27:12
tricks so well that I think anybody could learn from it.
27:16
But again, you don't want to make a Top Gun Maverick.
27:18
I want to make I'd rather make a Princess Bride.
27:21
And I think Princess Bride actually takes some blockbuster
27:25
lessons and turns it into this funny thing with it's like action and it's romance.
27:30
Like, it does a lot of things.
27:31
And then like kind of Athens, it turns it inside out
27:33
and sort of makes fun of it, but while also not.
27:36
There's also a love for it, like especially the the sword fighting scene.
27:40
It's such good swordplay, really.
27:41
It's so much fun. And they did it.
27:43
They did have. Yeah they did. They learned it. Yeah.
27:45
The only the only thing that he didn't do was the flip around
27:50
the like the whatever the, the bar where we flip something to his feet,
27:56
you know, it's a, it's a storybook.
27:58
So like, it's, it's sort of a fairy tale of the heroes.
28:02
All the people that you really like, like, Wesley and Buttercup and, and
28:07
and are very honest and very forthright and very, very into each other.
28:11
Very friendly. Like.
28:12
Yeah.
28:13
The conversation they have before the sword fight about an egos
28:16
father and, and, you seem a decent fellow.
28:19
I hate to kill you.
28:21
Yeah. You know, is is all really great.
28:23
And all the other villains are are are duplicitous.
28:27
Good.
28:28
Very good. Arms.
28:31
He didn't fall.
28:33
Inconceivable.
28:35
You keep his in the heart.
28:37
I don't think it means what you think it means.
28:39
But there is something about count again.
28:42
That's very like.
28:43
He is my favorite villain because he, he and Humperdinck are, like,
28:47
have a genuine relationship.
28:49
It isn't based on love, it's based on opportunity.
28:51
And it's based on, like, Humperdinck allows me to torture people
28:56
and and and unfettered by any, any limitations.
29:00
And and the Humperdinck is like, I really like this guy.
29:04
I trust him, and he just lets me do what I want to do.
29:07
And he's and they're very honest.
29:09
But Carrigan is also a little bit warm.
29:12
Yeah. And so you like.
29:14
I like I'm drawn.
29:15
I mean, it's Christopher Guest, so he's kind of.
29:17
He's the best. It's best.
29:18
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I felt very distracted.
29:20
I was the other thing when I was like, baby Fred Savage.
29:23
I was like, Christopher Guest.
29:25
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
29:26
Actually I'm not like Christopher Guest.
29:28
But you like him a little bit.
29:29
Even though I was like, I was awful. Him exactly.
29:32
I was like.
29:33
Yeah, I like him, I love that.
29:35
But it is very fairytale.
29:36
You're right.
29:36
It's very like the good guys are good guys are the bad guys are bad guys.
29:39
And you mentioned the undermining.
29:40
Like everyone's not perfect.
29:42
Everyone has these like wants that aren't being fulfilled.
29:45
Or when an ego is chasing ruin to the halls and can't ruin goes through the.
29:50
And he can't get through the door and he can't, you know, he gets over there.
29:54
He's like yelling at him like, I need you to do this, I need you.
29:57
It's it's like such a human.
29:59
Like it's a, it's such a boy tantrum type of.
30:02
And it was like they needed to get Wesley to, like, you know, to save Buttercup.
30:06
But he was like, I know, I know you're busy, but, like, I really need you to.
30:09
Get this right. Yeah. Yeah.
30:11
It was pretty fantastic.
30:12
Yeah, yeah, that was sweet.
30:15
There
30:15
are some parts there's that are so obviously
30:18
like, when kids make films, that's how they shoot them.
30:22
When Inigo is chasing count again and they go down the stairs.
30:28
It is just so basic.
30:29
Yeah. You know, there's no frills, there's no anything.
30:32
And it absolutely works for me.
30:34
Like, that's, it's just like, okay, this is going to happen now.
30:38
This is going to happen. No, this is going to happen.
30:39
No, this is going to happen.
30:40
And then boom, you're going to get a knife in the gut and then
30:44
and then and then everything is going to continue.
30:46
When you said that it wasn't sophisticated or you.
30:49
No, it wasn't good filmmaking,
30:51
I got a little defensive because I was like, yeah, you're right.
30:55
You're like, I don't love it.
30:56
Yeah, yeah.
30:57
It's kind of it's like just.
30:58
It it's perfect in its way. Yeah.
31:00
Right.
31:00
Like that's the thing is it's it's like not good.
31:03
But that's what's good about it. Yeah.
31:05
Yeah I think tackles point because the story works.
31:08
Because yeah that's why I'm in love with this as a first story
31:12
to talk about the story.
31:14
For me it just carries everything for it.
31:16
At many points I could close my eyes and just listen
31:20
and know exactly what was going to happen next and see it in my head
31:24
because, like, the story wouldn't let you see anything else.
31:27
Yeah, yeah.
31:29
Yeah.
31:29
I was like rooting for them.
31:31
Like the actors and the filmmakers. Yeah, yeah.
31:34
I made like a little film in high school.
31:36
And I remember we had like a little Matchbox car.
31:39
He tried to kill the prom queen.
31:40
And so we like, ruined her brakes.
31:43
And we drove her car off the side of a cliff
31:45
and, like, so my friend had a car and we had a matchbox car that matched it.
31:48
And so we took the matchbook car and, like, threw it into grass and then, like,
31:52
lit it on fire and used hairspray to, like, make it blow up.
31:55
And it was just so dumb.
31:57
But that's how this felt.
31:58
But it was like, you get what's happening.
32:00
I was like, it's like.
32:01
Well, we have budget for.
32:03
And that's kind of felt
32:04
like I felt that with this, but it was like I was rooting for them.
32:07
I was like, I'm in.
32:07
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you strap dummies to Andre the Giant.
32:10
And then you pulled him up a rope with like,
32:11
a green screen of the cliff some more behind him. And I'm in.
32:15
I do have one
32:16
quote that I really like that I also think is the mantra of 2025,
32:20
which is, you're trying to kidnap
32:22
what I've rightfully stolen.
32:25
It's so well written in that regard.
32:28
I also like they're going into the fire
32:29
swamp and buttercups like we'll never survive. Wesley goes.
32:32
Nonsense.
32:33
You're just saying that because no one ever has.
32:36
Oh, I feel like.
32:38
That's like, advice Cole gives me.
32:40
Yeah,
32:42
I really like the.
32:43
You mean Humperdinck? Wayne's.
32:45
Jesus, where did you read me this thing for?
32:47
Like, it's like it's.
32:50
It was.
32:51
So I was with him.
32:53
Yeah, I totally understand.
32:55
I thought it was cute how, like, grandpa stopped in the evil thing.
32:58
Like the little meta moments where. Yes, like I did.
33:01
I was curious of your thoughts about the narrative structure,
33:03
about having this narrator reading the story.
33:06
And I know, I guess it's a book. You have the book sitting here.
33:08
You've read the book I have not.
33:10
When I'm looking at any story, there's always like two things going on.
33:14
There's like the story that's being told, and then there's the story
33:16
underneath it, and the story that's being told us.
33:18
Like, I broke up with my partner
33:20
and I'm going to I'm going to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.
33:24
Like, you know, that's the thing I'm going to do because,
33:25
you know, I want to get over my girlfriend or boyfriend or whoever.
33:28
And then there's this other thing, which is the story that goes underneath
33:32
it, which is like there's like a wound that has to heal,
33:36
that has nothing to do with Mount Kilimanjaro, has nothing to do with the
33:39
with the breakup of the relationship,
33:41
but has everything to do with the person who's telling the story.
33:44
And with this one, like it's mind blowing because you have two overarching stories
33:49
that are happening at once, of which is you want
33:52
Princess Buttercup and Wesley to get together,
33:55
and then you have this other one
33:56
where there's this kid who's just getting over being sick,
34:00
and his grandfather is coming over to read to him, and the grandfather
34:03
is just going to read him a book, and the kid doesn't want to.
34:06
And what was so skillful and so nice
34:09
and so fun and seamless is that there's a rhythm to a movie.
34:13
The first 30 minutes, the second 30 minutes
34:15
in the third, 30 minutes when it's broken down into its basics.
34:19
And these two stories are working together
34:22
to get you to the point where everything is resolved.
34:26
And I thought that the rhythm of it, which is like
34:29
there are two separate things at the beginning, there's like
34:32
the grandfather and the grandchild, and then there's Wesley and Buttercup,
34:37
and the movie keeps pretty consistent, like we're going to tell this story,
34:41
we're going to tell this story, and this is happening now and then.
34:43
This is happening now, and then this and then and then as the movie
34:46
goes along, it's more the fairy tale.
34:50
But every once in a while, the grandfather and the and the kid chime in.
34:54
It does it so skillfully that you don't know that it's happening.
34:57
And that's it.
34:58
And I love that.
34:59
Like, as the fairy tale goes along, you also see the grandfather
35:04
and the grandchild getting closer and the grandson buying into the story
35:08
and being affected by the story, then fighting about the story
35:11
like it's so great and as you said, it can go.
35:15
There's so many ways
35:16
that that can go wrong or or it can break the rhythm of the movie.
35:21
And in this case, like, it's just it's seamless.
35:24
Because it doesn't it doesn't distract.
35:27
Like I think the, the grandfather and the grandkid could really distract
35:30
or it could just get dropped, like it could just sort of show up as a book.
35:32
And at the beginning of the end,
35:34
for a while, I thought that the grandpa was going to end up being Wesley.
35:38
And I'm glad that that's.
35:39
Not the case.
35:40
Like, I was glad that there wasn't like another reveal.
35:43
It could be too much exposition where it's sort of like the grandpa was like, well,
35:47
and that doesn't happen at all. Like it's very light.
35:49
And the thing I didn't do is time.
35:51
How much, how long? Fred Savage and Columbo
35:55
are on are on screen.
35:57
But I would say it's probably like seven minutes.
36:00
Tops, right?
36:01
Like it's a. Very small amount.
36:03
And they still have this full character arc that successfully
36:06
makes most of us, all of us, me and Cole for sure, cry.
36:09
And yeah, that to me is amazing.
36:11
Like, it was so efficiently done and it was the perfect ending.
36:15
What's so nice about it is that that's what stories do.
36:18
You know?
36:18
Like you share stories with people, you know,
36:20
like when you go through something with someone.
36:23
A very specific example I can come up with.
36:25
I used to have this baseball camp
36:26
and my first year there,
36:27
there was this kid and I who really did not like each other at all.
36:30
His name is Robbie as well,
36:32
but we both went to this camp for the same number of years,
36:35
normally in the same session, and we never planned it because we
36:37
because we didn't like each other.
36:39
And then in the last year that I was there,
36:41
we were in the same cabin, and it's two weeks where we're in the same cabin.
36:45
You're playing baseball, you're doing all these sports
36:47
together, you're going camping together.
36:48
And both of us were very resistant to, to each other.
36:53
But as the first week went along, like we went on this camping trip
36:57
and we were dealing with the same people and, and and then we started talking
37:01
and then we were at this, like at this campfire.
37:04
And he's like, you know, I didn't like you a lot,
37:06
and now I like you a little bit.
37:07
And I was like, yeah, I feel the same way. Like, I didn't like you at all.
37:09
And and then the second week of camp was really great.
37:12
And I think about him now a lot as I'm going through my life because
37:16
like, our relationship sort of evolved over the course of seven years.
37:20
I mean, you're looking at books, I mean, you're looking at movies.
37:22
And when you're looking at plays, when you're looking at podcasts
37:24
or you're looking at anything, it's a sort of thing, but it's a shared experience.
37:28
And if you go through it together and you're arguing about it
37:31
or you're talking about it, it brings you closer.
37:34
A good book or a good story provides you the
37:38
the scaffolding to build a relationship on
37:42
an even if it's like a, even if it's a longer term relationship
37:45
or even like you and I spent two hours together watching this movie.
37:49
We laughed and we showed this experience like,
37:53
those are the experiences that bring us together as human beings.
37:57
Those are incredibly important things for human beings to have.
38:00
I'm sure you know, Connor doesn't want to, like,
38:02
watch The Princess Bride now, but maybe he'll be in college
38:05
and one of his college friends will go, hey, let's watch this.
38:09
And then he'll watch it and he'll say, oh God, I totally
38:12
missed the boat on that one.
38:13
And then I'll come back to me or he'll say, you know what?
38:16
I still don't get why like it?
38:18
And then we can argue about it and talk about it and.
38:20
What happens there.
38:21
And like in my experience too, is he'll probably love it
38:25
because of you and the experience there.
38:28
Right.
38:28
So it's like, even if he doesn't like it,
38:29
he'll always love it because of the engagement you had.
38:33
And like, you guys fighting over it. Yeah, yeah.
38:35
These are also stories that like bring people together, if not immediately.
38:39
Then over time.
38:40
Like my grandpa used to say, got any salt every meal?
38:44
And what that meant was, I'm not going to fucking get up and get it.
38:47
But you can.
38:48
And it was so irritating.
38:49
It was like, grandpa, you know, we have to stand up, walk over and get it.
38:53
And now it's like my favorite thing about my grandpa, right?
38:56
It was just like, that's my grandpa.
38:57
I just whenever I think about him, I'm like, we got this old.
39:00
Yeah. And so similar.
39:01
It's like it's the moment
39:02
and the shared experience and the passing it down on generations.
39:06
Yeah.
39:06
Used to be a, like, oral tradition and that like it does it in this movie.
39:10
Right where he was like, I read this to your dad
39:12
and now I'm reading it to you and.
39:13
Yeah, yeah, I think that's why for me, anyway, that's why
39:17
that that part of the movie
39:19
with the grandfather and the grandson is so affecting, like affecting,
39:23
because it was obvious at the beginning that the grandfather liked,
39:27
like the grandkid, but the grandkid was like, oh my God, he's
39:31
going to pinch my cheek again and just rolling his eyes.
39:33
And he brought in the book. Yeah, yeah.
39:35
And but but over the course of that thing,
39:38
that's what they build the relationship on and they become closer because of it.
39:43
But I feel I felt like that watching it now, like I was a little
39:46
because I can get very like,
39:48
oh, if it's popular, I don't want to be a part of it, you know.
39:50
And so I think it was like there
39:52
hit like a threshold where I'd never watch Princess Bride.
39:54
So I was never going to.
39:55
And then watching it now I saw a little bit like,
39:57
why didn't I let myself have like, all of that shared
40:01
community and experience, you know, like that would have actually been fun.
40:04
Yeah.
40:05
And like, I didn't have to deny myself this thing.
40:07
Yeah, yeah.
40:08
Because it does.
40:09
It has like a real decades long loving community and shared thing.
40:13
And like, I wouldn't have cared about that at all.