Latest / Houselights: A Film Director Podcast / The Hurt Locker (2008) - Kathryn Bigelow | Houselights #256

Transcript

The Hurt Locker (2008) - Kathryn Bigelow | Houselights #256 · Houselights: A Film Director Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the ned Palty.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to House Lights, specifically the House of Bigelow,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: where we have deployed to look at the works of
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Catherine Bigelow, and we are here this week looking at
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: her oscar winning entry The hurt Locker from two thousand
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: and eight starring Jeremy Renner, and I am one of
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: the hosts of this show. I am your grizzled slightly
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: unstable squad leader, and I am join John Mills, and
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: I am joined by my two compatriots, the ever stallwart
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: by the book, Darren Moser, and the person I'm most
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: likely to shoot in the leg when I'm trying to
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: save him, Tristan Riddell. Welcome, Hi, everybody.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: I knew before or you even open your mouth. I
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: was going to be the nervous guy who gets shot
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: in the lake.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: You know that it's inevitably going to happen, and if
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: any of the three of us are going to do it,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: it's gonna be this guy right here.
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: It's true, you know it's true.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: With a three man podcast and a three man EOD team, Yeah,
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: I was gonna be get the I was gonna be
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: the one who's.
• 1:19
  Speaker 5: Got spit to clean this blood off the giant bullet.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a tense scene, a tense scene. So anyway,
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: here we are with The hurt Locker, the movie that
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: very famously Jim Cameron's ex wife upset him at the
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Oscars by winning Best Picture, won a ton of award.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: It's a lot of a steam. It's a very in
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: depth personal portrait of people in the Iraq War with
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: a lot of real world vibe to it, and it
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: got a lot of positive press at the time.
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: And here we are.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: It's hard to believe it's almost been two decades since
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: it came out. Now, Darren, I know that you saw
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: this previous to this viewing. Did you see this in
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: the theater or was this one that you watched at
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: home after all of the esteem and the awards buzz
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: had washed over you.
• 2:11
  Speaker 6: Yeah, this was probably due to the Oscars. Back in
• 2:15
  Speaker 6: the day when I cared about the Oscars, we would
• 2:17
  Speaker 6: often watch, you know, movies.
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: That were either up for Best Picture or you know,
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: or if it won, it was like.
• 2:25
  Speaker 6: Okay, give this a shake. So usually that was enough
• 2:27
  Speaker 6: to try it out. So I don't believe I caught
• 2:30
  Speaker 6: this in theaters, but yeah, it was one of those
• 2:34
  Speaker 6: where I mean not talking about the first time watching,
• 2:37
  Speaker 6: but in my recent rewatch, I was streaming it and
• 2:42
  Speaker 6: this maybe was my something with my earphones, or maybe
• 2:45
  Speaker 6: it was something in the mix. I want to confirm
• 2:47
  Speaker 6: with you guys, but for me, the mix kept going
• 2:50
  Speaker 6: between ears at different times, and I don't know if
• 2:54
  Speaker 6: that was something weird or special, because it kind of
• 2:58
  Speaker 6: enhanced it, like when you put the suit off, it
• 3:00
  Speaker 6: was like holy in what a year and it felt
• 3:02
  Speaker 6: really claustrophobic, and I'm like, but I don't know if
• 3:04
  Speaker 6: that's actually the mix.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: So I listened. I listened to headphones too. Now, granted
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: we probably weren't listen we weren't watching the same streaming source,
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: but I was listening in headphones too, and I didn't
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: hear that.
• 3:17
  Speaker 6: Okay, I was watching it on Amazon, so it was
• 3:20
  Speaker 6: probably something with their mix. So I don't want to
• 3:22
  Speaker 6: give the movie too much credit for Amazon.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: It's mistake, but there was This is a total tangent,
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: But there was one time I was listening to an
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: audio book about Connuti and Singh and it was after
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: I got like halfway through it, and I started talking
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: to a friend of mine and I said, I was like, man,
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: this this book is so nonlinear. It's so much fun.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: It's so great because it just goes from one time
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: period to another. It's completely out of order. And I
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: was like, I'm really enjoying it. And the guy I
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: was talking to actually had actually read the book. He's like,
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: that's not a nonlinear book. And the jackass that I
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: I when I ripped the CD from the library, I
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: ripped it out of order. And when I made the
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: audiobook file nice spousing it like I was like, oh,
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: this is such great nonlinear Taranty.
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: Wrong, professor, My way is better.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: You created art, Tristan, you were an AI precursor right there.
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: Just so your book's on shuffle there you go. It's
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: a good idea.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: So you know, Tristan, this is your first time seeing
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: the hurt locker.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: That's correct.
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: How did this one pass by you?
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: I mean you know, like, is it something that where
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: you were just always like I'll get around to it
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: and it just sort of like faded.
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: What was the reason you missed it?
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah? This this was not one of those where Okay, So,
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: like I put off watching Breaking Bad for many seasons
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: because people wouldn't shut up about it, Like people would
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: would not stop talking about Breaking Bad, and it got
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: to almost like a cult like status where I just
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: roll my eyes whenever somebody would bring up Breaking Bad.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: And so I just refused to watch it because people
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: were bugging me. I know, it's kind of hipster thing
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: to do, like, you know, not watch something.
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: I thought that was one of the people bugging you.
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: So I, yeah, that sounds right.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: Oh my god, we've been friends for a long time. Yes,
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: but this was not that situation. Like, this was not
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: that situation. It was when I saw that at one
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: Best Picture, I was I was elated that, you know,
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: like a the first that a woman finally won Best
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: Best like a female director one Best Picture, and uh
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: it only happened, it would be women were only nominated
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: for Best Picture four times before in the history of
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: the Academy. But for some reason, I just I just
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: never got around to it. It was always it was always like, oh, yeah,
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: hurt Locker, I should watch that. I like Jeremy Rayner,
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: I should watch that. Catherine Bigelow, Sure, why not? Just
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: it just completely escaped me all those times. That's fair enough,
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: I mean, no real reason.
• 5:57
  Speaker 6: As a podcasts made us better people because that watch
• 6:01
  Speaker 6: the things we should have watched.
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: There you go missing frame or something.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's about say, it's like a missing frames
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: here on the nerd party.
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: Check that out too. But were you familiar with it?
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: Had you? Was there anything that had been I.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: Feel this was one of those movies that I feel
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: definitely integrated itself into the zeitgeist, like everybody was mentioning it.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: There's pop culture references that, Like the first thing that
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: pops in my brain is when Jim and Pam come
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: home with the baby and they're trying to put the crib.
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: Not the crib, they're trying to put the car seat
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: into the car, and they keep freaking out because they're
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: going to wake her up. And He's like, oh my god.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: It's like the hurt Walker, you know. Like we kept referencing,
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: we kept hearing references like that all throughout pop culture,
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: and I would see certain scenes here and there. I
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: always hated the poster because the DVD was such a
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: bad photoshop job of Jeremy Renner. I always thought it
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: looked like Treat Williams instead of Jeremy Renner, or like
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: the dude from their first substitute. I know, Treat Williams
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: using the second substitute, but like the dude from the
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: first substitute, I can't.
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: Remember the bearer.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: Yes, Tom Behringer on the cover. He looks like Tom Behringer.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: It's so weird anyway, But yeah, it's one of those
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: movies you see a blockbuster, you see the poster of
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: and you just you're like, oh, yeah, that one best picture.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: I should get around to it. And also a shot
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: in sixteen millimeter, and I love movies that are shot
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: in sixteen millimeter, so I have no excuse.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: So you know, Darren, that's a question I'll throw to you.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: Is Tristan mentions it's shot in sixteen millimeter. This movie
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: is created just you know, it's post digital switchover for
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: film and stuff like that. But it's definitely got, you know,
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: it's living in a weird time. It's living during that
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: transitional time before digital is completely taken over and the
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: look of things is sort of going back and forth.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: Do you feel that there was a visual consistency to
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: this Do you feel that there was any sort of
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: a mix of visual like did it look like the
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: camera and shutter speeds and everything were shifting too much
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: or did it look very consistent throughout now.
• 8:05
  Speaker 6: I think this is one of those movies that, because
• 8:08
  Speaker 6: it was made at the time it was made, it
• 8:10
  Speaker 6: would be really not impossible, but it would be much
• 8:14
  Speaker 6: more difficult to get that look back nowadays, because now
• 8:18
  Speaker 6: we have the advent of you know, really small cameras,
• 8:22
  Speaker 6: sports cameras. Things like this totally would have been shot
• 8:25
  Speaker 6: on a fleet of iPhones or go pros or something
• 8:28
  Speaker 6: if it was made nowadays. The fact that she's shot
• 8:30
  Speaker 6: in Jordan, you know, and in the summer, like you're shooting,
• 8:34
  Speaker 6: so you get a lot of environment. I think by
• 8:38
  Speaker 6: doing film, yeah, not only do you get the grain
• 8:42
  Speaker 6: and that kind of.
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: Old worldly.
• 8:47
  Speaker 6: News interviewer like you know, it's on location shooting a
• 8:50
  Speaker 6: piece for National DG or something like. It has that
• 8:54
  Speaker 6: kind of vibe. But apparently it was very, very difficult
• 8:58
  Speaker 6: because they did a lot of editing in Jordan, like
• 9:01
  Speaker 6: as they're shooting, because there was just hundreds and hundreds
• 9:04
  Speaker 6: of hours of footage, so it had to be like
• 9:07
  Speaker 6: hand curried to London for dailies and ship like because
• 9:13
  Speaker 6: they didn't want to maybe get it exposed by the
• 9:16
  Speaker 6: X rays and it was just it sounded like just
• 9:19
  Speaker 6: one more wrinkle that made production not pleasant besides all
• 9:24
  Speaker 6: the other parts of this movie.
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: But through all that, I.
• 9:28
  Speaker 6: Think, like I was saying, you would have to work
• 9:32
  Speaker 6: harder to get that look. Nowadays, I think something else
• 9:35
  Speaker 6: would look cleaner, would because I don't I look at
• 9:41
  Speaker 6: this movie and I don't think shaky cam. I don't
• 9:43
  Speaker 6: think it like it's very stable, it's very even when
• 9:46
  Speaker 6: they're running around, it's I mean, yeah, there's there's moments obviously,
• 9:50
  Speaker 6: like when there's a frenetic but on the whole, you know,
• 9:59
  Speaker 6: as we've said several times talking about different movies, I
• 10:04
  Speaker 6: think of like the sniper scene, for example, when they're
• 10:06
  Speaker 6: pinned down.
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: That is an interesting scene.
• 10:09
  Speaker 6: Where we know where the snipers are, we know what's
• 10:13
  Speaker 6: behind them, we know what's to the left of them,
• 10:15
  Speaker 6: like we're in the middle of nowhere, but we know
• 10:17
  Speaker 6: where we are, and that it's the visual storytelling is superb,
• 10:22
  Speaker 6: so very good, Mark.
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: So so Tristan.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: You, how strongly do you disagree with Darren about the
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: camera movement?
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: Oh? Like almost completely? Yeah, I know, I mean, okay,
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: there are there are moments when you're going full on
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: green grass but there are a lot of times when
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: you're not. So it's it's not like it's shaky camp
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: all the time, and there are a lot of Born movie. Yeah,
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: it's not a Born movie. It's not Green Grass, you know,
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: it's it's just although there is a moment that made
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: me feel like it started to become a Born movie.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: But we'll get to that. But uh, it was it's
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: like right off the back you're getting I mean, and
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: this was so first decade of the two thousands. This
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: was so two thousands with this documentary style feel where
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: like like right off the bat like you get that
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: super zoom, like it's not quite like the seventy zoom
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: snap zoom, but it's that like, oh we got to
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: zoom in refocus because I'm there. I'm shaking because I'm
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: the camera and I'm near the explosion. I'm actually here
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: with them, but they're not acknowledging my presence. It's kind
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: of like the Office but not really. Uh it's a
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: I know, I feel I sound like I'm mocking the cinematography,
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: but I'm not because of a shot. You if you are,
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: but but it's just no, just the style of the decade.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: It was so it permeated that decade so completely. Like
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: you like even in the like TV TV shows, like
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: when you look at Battle Circalactica or Firefly, Like I know,
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: it just gave two sci fi examples, but it you
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: have that snap zoom and that like that you see
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: them focus in real time. That was very much this movie.
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: Like that was the cornerstone of its action cinematography. But
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: was it there even when they were in the humy
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: or when they were just like talking to the barracks.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: No, yeah, I h the thing is to speak to
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: the you know, you say that goes full green Grass.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Barry Ackroyd, the director of photography, did work with green Grass,
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: and so it makes sense city he felt very comfortable
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: with this type of film. But more importantly, you know,
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: here we are, we've watched all of these Bigelow movies
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: up to this point. Do you feel that this is
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: a director fully embracing her true style, her true nature.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Do you feel this is an evolution of Bigelow or
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: do you feel that this is big Alow adapting for
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: a certain storytelling style.
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna cheat and say both. That is because because
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: I believe that, like you specifically, John, like You made
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: a lot of really great points as we as we
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: went on, because you were very keen in talking about
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: the cinematography and the geography and the editing and seeing
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: it progress from Near Dark all the way up to now.
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: And you talked about the evolution of Bigelow style. And
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: you can see a clear through line all the way
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: through from Near Dark to today or I shouldn't say today,
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: but back tonight in two and nine with hert locker,
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: and you see the confidence and you see what's going on.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: And even though she shot, I think it was something
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: like a two hundred to one ratio of how much
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: she shot how much she used.
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: That's like Copola level.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: It's insane. Yeah, that's like Heart of Darkness Coppola level
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: type filming. But unlike Copola, everything that she wanted to
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: be in the film that was shot was put in there.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: Like there was not a single scene that was cut. Now, granted,
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: I'm sure there were scenes that were trimmed down. I'm
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: sure there was things that were left out that were
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: involved in certain scenes, just like any film that you make,
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: but this movie she had final cut, which is awesome.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: And she also she was along in the writing process
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: and saw what she wanted to do, made it happen,
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: and then that's what came out like this was this
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: was her baby, like she like, I think Jim Cameron
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: gave her the script and said you should direct this,
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: and she helped fine tune it with boll And I
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: think that's how you say his name, and they they
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: storyboarded it out. They're like, this is what we want
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: to do. This is what we want to make, and
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: they made the film they wanted to make. This is
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: this is bigelow at her back, like she she won
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: Best Picture. This was this was a clear and concise
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: honoring of her work and effort and craft up until
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: this moment. It's just like she's been doing this for
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: decades and boom, this was. This was the result.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: So Darren, you know, with her coming in and being
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: confident and knowing the story she wants to tell. There
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: are a couple of names here in the cast where
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: when you see them you're used to like, oh, well,
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: that that person will be in this movie for a
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: little while. You know, David Morse is in it for
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: like what ten seconds or something like that. I still
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: like and even on this rewatch, like David Morse walks on.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, David Morse, he's really great. Where'd he go?
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: What's happening? I'm not sure why.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: Point of that. I'm sorry it didn't rerail your question,
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: but what the was the point of having Morse's care
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: not just Morse, but like Morse's character in there.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: I think he communicates, uh, sort of like that that
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: testosterone Leyden machismo, bravado type of character. That's that like
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: he he has that sort of ara about him. Maybe
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Morse was chosen and when the script was earlier on
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: and it whittled down to just that one scene, I
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: don't know.
• 15:37
  Speaker 6: No, Yeah, this this casting is is really good. I mean,
• 15:42
  Speaker 6: besides the fact you have your your three, you know,
• 15:44
  Speaker 6: your little triad of of the unit. But uh, I
• 15:49
  Speaker 6: think we were choking earlier, like when when Guy Pierce
• 15:52
  Speaker 6: shows up and you're like, sorry, guy, I don't think
• 15:56
  Speaker 6: kind of gonna make way for the lead character coming
• 15:58
  Speaker 6: up rights.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: The moment the moment you see appears, you're like, WHOA,
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: You're not Jeremy Renner and you're not like a Brad
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: Pitt name, but you're a big name. And so I
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: have a feeling this is kind of a glorified cameo
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: and you're gone.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: As soon as you see him put on the bomb suit,
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: you're like, oh, okay, cool, cool, I know where this
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: is going.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you know what.
• 16:25
  Speaker 6: We know who's supposed to be bombsuit guy. We need
• 16:28
  Speaker 6: a vacancy how to get that?
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: Which one of these people is not coming?
• 16:34
  Speaker 6: Oh, it's right, But then you have like, uh, you know,
• 16:36
  Speaker 6: Ralph finds like that was really cool seeing him, although
• 16:40
  Speaker 6: in that scene he kind of like disappears like he's
• 16:43
  Speaker 6: there and then like I guess were they waiting out
• 16:48
  Speaker 6: the stiper.
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: But then everyone else just like went home.
• 16:51
  Speaker 6: I don't know. It was really weird because we know
• 16:54
  Speaker 6: he never kept cutting over to the people.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Well he got he got killed really quick, and and
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: I think like his other guys got dropped because there's
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: one guy get that gets dropped. Yeah, he gets shot
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: while they're while he's trying to draw a beat on
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: the other people, which I thought. I mean, that was
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: a really well executed scene because I think that what
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: that communicated. The tension in that scene reminded me of
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: the first time I saw Platoon, when I was far
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: too young to have seen it in the movie theaters
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: and the Hey, gen X, we loved seeing stuff too.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: You're gonna say, weren't you like ten when Platoon came out?
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: It was like twelve when I saw it in the
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: movie theater or something like that. That's okay. My cousin,
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: who was four years younger, was sitting next to me. Whatever,
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: what are you gonna do? Sorry?
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: I feel like I feel like all of us.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: Who took him should send an apology note at this point.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: But anyway, the scene where they have that standoff and
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: they're going back and forth actually reminded me very much
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: of the tension of Platoon where they are on the
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: night patrol and Charlie she is awake even though he's
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: not the one on watch, and he's just sitting there
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: and the camera comes up over and he's like just
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: sitting there. He's like, I don't know what I'm supposed
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: to do right now. Like I look at that scene
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: and I don't know how to play with Uterus, and
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: like I look at that scene and like I'm so
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: unnerved because I'm like.
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: I don't know what I would do in this situation.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: Like I'm like, I wait, I have to sit here,
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: and it's just a war of attrition basically at this point, well,
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: eventually we're everybody on one side or the other is
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: going to die? Which side am I on? Like, that's
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: I can't imagine the tension in that moment.
• 18:33
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I just want to say first, for that scene,
• 18:36
  Speaker 6: the thing that drew me in was when they're making
• 18:39
  Speaker 6: their shots and they're close but they have to like compensate.
• 18:44
  Speaker 5: It made me think of like every first person shooter
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: video game.
• 18:49
  Speaker 6: I've ever done, and how in those you take for
• 18:54
  Speaker 6: granted the fact that your gun will shoot exactly where
• 18:57
  Speaker 6: you expect it to, and you have an amazing aim
• 19:01
  Speaker 6: and so bad guys over there, no big deal. But
• 19:03
  Speaker 6: when all of a sudden you introduce the fact that
• 19:06
  Speaker 6: I might not actually hit what I'm aiming for and
• 19:10
  Speaker 6: I only have so many round like it, that itself
• 19:13
  Speaker 6: added way more tension than anything.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: Yes, Yeah, well yeah, because you know, another big applause
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: for the movie, because it takes into account the fact that, like, okay,
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: at the distance that you're at, wind is going to
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: affect where the bullet goes. There's going to be recoil,
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: there's going to be like one guy is looking and
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: telling him where to go, but he's also looking through
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: a site, but they're off by a couple of you know, inches,
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: and so that's going to affect the trajectory of the
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: bullet and everything. Yeah, it's it's a pretty amazing scene.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: I think at the very least Tristan did. Was that
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: a standout scene for you? Do you feel that the
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: movie was able to get to that tension level with
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: all of its scenes or was it more of a
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: slow burn for you.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: I think that one was a little bit of a
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: slow burn for me because because so many people died
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: early on, because like the British folk died, and and
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: so I was just like, Okay, our guys are probably
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: safe because they killed all the British folk pretty early on.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: So just in the realm of storytelling, like if this
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: was a standalone scene, I probably would be a little
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: bit more amped up. I'd be a little have a
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: little bit more anxiety. I think there were there were
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: scenes in there that I definitely had more anxiety at
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: the beginning of the movie than I did at the end.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: And I think that's probably just a fact of the
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: of the structure of the film, where it's just like, Okay,
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: is this a movie, or is this seven scenes where
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: you diffuse a bomb and by this, you know, by
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: the you know, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh time where
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: you're diffusing a bomb, the anxiety is kind of gone
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: because you're just on edge the entire time, like our
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: body has to, like our mind tells our body, Okay, relax,
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: it's not real. You cannot sustain this the entire time,
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: and so you're not going to get that anxiety reaction
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: that you did in the first two or three times.
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: And so by the time we got to that scene,
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: even though it's a good scene, I like how it's shot,
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: I like how it's acted. I really like that moment
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: with the juice at the end because I think seeing
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: Anthony Mackie just kind of shut down a little bit,
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: like he can't he can't stop, he can't stop paying attention.
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: He's he's clearly affected by what he just did, and
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: he's so amped up that he can't take his attention
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: as away. Renner's like, Okay, just have some juice, you know,
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: get your sugar level up. You know that that. I
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: like that moment, but I feel like the anxiety dwindles
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: as it goes on, and then it kind of peeks
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: back up again at the very end with the with
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: the dude in the suit with the with the vest
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: bomb because you're just like, Okay, who are they going
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: to kill off this time? Are we going to do
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: a big bomb where everybody dies? Is it going to
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: be shait experien or is every good to back away?
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: You don't actually know, but all this stuff in between,
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: you know everybody's gonna walk away.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: So, Darren, do you think that the ebb and flow
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: of the tension and you know, at the very beginning
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: of the movie, the last three words or four words
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: that are on screen from you know, it starts with
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: two lines and then the last four words to sit there,
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: war is a drug, and it goes on. Do you
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: think that that tension spike, ebb and flow speaks to
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: that theme the idea that Tristan is talking about where
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: it's like you get a little numb and then it's
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: like you need you need a stronger and stronger hit
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: to maintain.
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, and that's.
• 22:40
  Speaker 6: I mean definitely what's happening to James to Jeremy Renner
• 22:45
  Speaker 6: Because in the first few Disarmaments, he's it's like another
• 22:50
  Speaker 6: day at the office, Like he is, so he's too chill,
• 22:54
  Speaker 6: and he's just like, oh yeah, look cut the red wire, blah.
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: Blah blah, here we go. We're do to do, you know.
• 22:59
  Speaker 6: And I kind of like the moment where he like
• 23:02
  Speaker 6: takes off the suit and is all like, there's enough,
• 23:04
  Speaker 6: Like this, dude's gonna do nothing if this goes off,
• 23:06
  Speaker 6: like I'm dead, so I might as well be comfortable.
• 23:09
  Speaker 6: And I'm like, I'm sure that's not you know, standard procedure,
• 23:13
  Speaker 6: but but I do. Yeah, the EBB and flow, I
• 23:17
  Speaker 6: think they do. You can tell they're trying to not
• 23:20
  Speaker 6: one note it. You know, where you have you have
• 23:24
  Speaker 6: the detonation killing the inter or not interpret the psych officer.
• 23:29
  Speaker 6: So that's the that's the bomb that no one saw coming.
• 23:33
  Speaker 6: Then you have like the bomb vest, which is the
• 23:36
  Speaker 6: one where we get to see our hero not be
• 23:39
  Speaker 6: able to succeed in disarming it and and someone loses
• 23:42
  Speaker 6: their life because the other ones are all just just
• 23:45
  Speaker 6: got to get them all cut before the guy hits
• 23:47
  Speaker 6: the button. Like that is the same kind of thing,
• 23:50
  Speaker 6: with slight variations. I mean, that iconic shot of him
• 23:54
  Speaker 6: tugging on the cord and like five.
• 23:58
  Speaker 5: Bomb is so I mean that's why it's on like.
• 24:00
  Speaker 6: Half the posters is it's so you're just super unrealistic,
• 24:04
  Speaker 6: super stupid, but really great shot. But all that to say, yeah,
• 24:11
  Speaker 6: I like the progression of Renner's character where you can see, Okay,
• 24:18
  Speaker 6: the cup is full, it's starting to overflow.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 24:21
  Speaker 6: I don't know how long he's been on tour, I
• 24:23
  Speaker 6: don't know how many deployments he's done, but you can
• 24:26
  Speaker 6: tell it's finally the cracks are showing, and I don't
• 24:31
  Speaker 6: know what his next door is going to be, like
• 24:32
  Speaker 6: a whole nother year, but something, you know, hitched up
• 24:36
  Speaker 6: his boots and he's ready to go back, like he
• 24:39
  Speaker 6: can't see another world beyond this job, the beyond the herdlocker.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: Speaking of the cracks showing, Tristan to to Darren's point there,
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: what did you think about the subplot of him mistaking
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: the dead body for the young boy and basically that
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: sort of mental break thing he has where it is
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: affecting him on an emotional level.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: Heyed it. That was my least favorite part of the movie.
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: Frig and hated it. It completely took me out of
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: the picture because that's one of the moments where it
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: kind of stopped being Okay, Okay, I know that movies
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: aren't documentaries, even though they really wanted to shoot it
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: like a documentary. Movies are not documentaries. Movies are fun,
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: movies are interesting. Movies are dramatic, and they're not real life.
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: But certain movies have a veneer of real life. This
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: movie had a veneer of real life, just like Saving
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: Private ryin even though there was a lot that happened
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: in Private Ryan that was not realistic. This is kind
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: of had that same tone where you're just like, oh,
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: I feel like I'm watching something real. Even though people
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: who have gone through EOD, are gone through the Iraq War,
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: Afghanistan or something like that can recognize that it's not
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: real life. Certain things are, like the emotional aspects of
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: the movie are are real, Like when they get to
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: the core of what it's like to deployment, what it's
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: like to go through something like this, that's that's real
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: and that's cinema. You know this, This isn't a how
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: to manual, and it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be, and
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: that's not what I'm saying. But this moment really took
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: me out because it stopped being a movie. About a
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: soldier on duty or a soldier going through a rotation,
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: or a soldier going into a group for EOD and
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: everything like that, and started becoming more like a Born
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: movie where this guy is going out on his own.
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: The entire idea that this this this guy is sneaking
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: off base to you know, track a lead that he
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: doesn't know is real, because like that's the thing is
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: that like he can't he's gonna trust this guy who
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: sells bootleg DVDs to take him to the right place.
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: He could he could have been and probably was in
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: some random person's home, some absolutely random person's home. And
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: also like when he leaves, he's just a random, short,
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: white guy, you know, running through bagged. It's just no, no,
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: and like no, it just it completely took anut of
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: the film, Like like if he was found out, he
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: would have been disciplined, he would have been sent home,
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: like that kind of crap doesn't stand. And it just
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: it really took me out of it. And I'm really
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: glad one saving grace and I'm not saying it actually
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: saved it, but one attempt at saving Grace was that
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: it was a completely fruitless endeavor that really helped the story.
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: I think, in my opinion is that it was completely
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: fruitless because it was a stupid ass decision.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: So Darren, you know, given everything Tristan has just said,
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: you know, I would offer the counterpoint that that's probably
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: the scene where the commentary about interventionism and stuff like
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: that is layered in there. You know, it's a you know,
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: sort of a comment about like, he doesn't actually know
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: who quote unquote the enemy is. He's not sure what's
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: really going on. He mistakes something and he goes, you know,
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: it sends him over the edge and he goes and
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: he does something without thinking. You know, given those two
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: very separate polls that Tristan and I find ourselves at,
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: where do you find yourself gravitating more toward Yeah?
• 28:15
  Speaker 6: I think you know, the middle is kind of the
• 28:17
  Speaker 6: next him going off book scene when he's like, oh,
• 28:22
  Speaker 6: this thing was blown up. I know there's a boogeyman
• 28:25
  Speaker 6: in the dark, so let's go get him. And even
• 28:29
  Speaker 6: Maggie's like, we got two plitudes of guys who like
• 28:32
  Speaker 6: their job is to go get right there. That should
• 28:36
  Speaker 6: have been the end of it, like in the real world.
• 28:38
  Speaker 6: But yeah, and then they are just like, hey, let's
• 28:42
  Speaker 6: go off. And I think while he does make choices
• 28:47
  Speaker 6: and has lack of consequences that do bend from reality,
• 28:52
  Speaker 6: even when he's doing those choices, there is the ever
• 28:56
  Speaker 6: presence you're in a war zone. No door is safe,
• 29:00
  Speaker 6: no corner should be unchecked, like that is present throughout
• 29:04
  Speaker 6: the entire film, and I think they communicated that, So
• 29:08
  Speaker 6: I'll give a mark for that. Even if the choices
• 29:11
  Speaker 6: the characters were making, I mean I was even like,
• 29:14
  Speaker 6: why are you guys punching each other like that sounds
• 29:16
  Speaker 6: like a stupid way to get on the you know,
• 29:18
  Speaker 6: in the medical bay when you should be out just
• 29:21
  Speaker 6: arm me. It's like, oh, sorry, I can't disarm bombs
• 29:23
  Speaker 6: on Tuesday because I have you ruptured by spleen when
• 29:27
  Speaker 6: you punched me in the gut at point break Sure
• 29:29
  Speaker 6: that sounds like a great idea.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that scene obviously is just more commentary
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: on sort of like the adrenaline junkie testosterone laden environment
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: that they're in, just like how it's out of control
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: and you know, there's no like I find it very interesting.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: We made reference to the therapists who or psychiatrist I'm sorry,
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: who you know blows up because he decides to go
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: out Oh yeah, I'll try to understand better what you
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: guys are going through.
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: And blows up.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: But it is you know that that is one of
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: those things where you see sort of what the uphill
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: battle is like. There is no like I think one
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: of the core questions of the film is is there
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: a point to that psychiatrist being there? Like can you
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: possibly have a quote unquote healthy environment when this is
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: what you're doing right? Like is having somebody there to
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: sort of process things like? Is that even possible? And
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: then you know, and then Renner goes home and it's
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: like he can't even go back to to a civilian life,
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: like this is just this bizarre world that they that
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: they live in, and you know, the bizarre world that
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: they live in, you know, Tristan, it's easy enough to say, well,
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: the hurt Locker is the friends we made along the way.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: Sorry bad joke, but you know that hurt Locker. What
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: do you think the title is trying to say? Is
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: it trying to say that they're the ones trapped in
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: the locker, that they put the pain in there, they
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: can't process it adequately. What do you think that title
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: is trying to say.
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: Well, hurt locker is doesn't it mean like in military vernacular,
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: like when you get yourself in a bad spot and
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: you get hurt because of it.
• 31:15
  Speaker 4: I've never been in the military, so I don't know.
• 31:18
  Speaker 6: I'm milang for the bomb suit.
• 31:21
  Speaker 5: It's while I was reading it, but I don't know.
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't. I don't actually know, so now I
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: need to know.
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: So, Okay, here's what it is. Hurt locker is US
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: military slang meaning a place or situation where someone is
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: in extreme pain, danger, or serious trouble. It's not specific
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: to bombs. It predates the Iraq War and was used
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: in Vietnam. So I feel like this is pretty up. Oh,
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: I feel like this could be used in a lot
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: of different variations. So that's what I think it means.
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: I think it means that. Uh, it's when you're in
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: the Pooh.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: Well, okay, in the Pooh, Yes, that's a very popular
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: phrase with the with the soldiers that are deployed.
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: Yah, the soldiers use that phrase a lot.
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, in the Pooh. Definitely in the Pooh.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: So you know we're going through And what's funny is
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: there's a thing where you know, music obviously is a
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: big part of the film experience. But you know, Darren,
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: was there music in this movie? Like where was it
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: when it happened?
• 32:22
  Speaker 6: You know, Actually the music in this one was really good,
• 32:26
  Speaker 6: but it's a different kind of music where it is
• 32:30
  Speaker 6: very subtly underscoring certain moments, like when you start to
• 32:34
  Speaker 6: hear the music, you're like, Okay, it's about to get real.
• 32:37
  Speaker 6: Either something's gonna go wrong or something's gonna happen. So
• 32:41
  Speaker 6: it was used very sparingly. But this is the kind
• 32:44
  Speaker 6: of movie where music and like sound design, like those
• 32:49
  Speaker 6: are working in harmony because the sound design is the
• 32:53
  Speaker 6: music of this movie. The sound of an explosion, the
• 32:58
  Speaker 6: breathing while you're in the vest, you know, the the
• 33:04
  Speaker 6: five minute long bullet casing shot as it ricochets and
• 33:09
  Speaker 6: pings off of the.
• 33:10
  Speaker 5: Okay, it wasn't five minutes, but I love.
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: They shot this, and speaking of early two thousands, they
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: shot this on the Phantom, which shoots something like two
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: thousand frames a second. It's insane, it's insane. I loved
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: the Guy Pier. I loved Guy Pierce dying. I'm just
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: gonna I'm going on record and I'm saying that I
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: loved Guy Piers dying because it was shot on Phantom
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: and I love explosions in slow motion. I just absolutely
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: love it, and this movie did it so well at
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: the beginning, like when with the with the rocks just
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: kind of rising up, and one thing like, even though
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: this movie only has a veneer of accuracy, one thing
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: that I really like that it did is that it
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: didn't look like Hollywood explosions. It looked like actually like
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: what it looks fireballs like, no firebills wouldn't. Yeah, thank you,
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: thank you, Darren. That's exactly right.
• 34:00
  Speaker 5: Sorry, I'm saying your words before you say them.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: Like any elite team, over time, we can complete each
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: other's thoughts.
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: That's that's very very.
• 34:11
  Speaker 5: Give each other's ratings. You know, we're so in tune.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: Sandwiches, and that's what that's why nobody should ever miss
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: a show, is because their rating will be given for
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: them and it will be accurate and immovable. That's very
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: very true. So, you know, I like what you're saying
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: about the music and the sound design working hand in hand, Darren.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: I think that's very true. It's very accurate for this.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: But a big part of this as well, you know,
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: is the ratio of footage shot to footage used and
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: telling the story and whittling it down. You know, obviously
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: you have Chris Innis and Bob Morowsky. I think they're
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: at least at the time they were married, so they're
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: working on the film. Tristian, I love to throw the
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: editing question to you at first all the time, but
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: is this another case of like you said about merch
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: invisible editing where it doesn't draw attention to itself or
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: do you feel that this editing does draw attention to itself.
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: I think the cinematography does the heavy lifting of drawing
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: attention to itself. I feel like the editing itself gets
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: you where you need to go. This is this is
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: this is more merch than not because you don't think
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: about the editing. You're you're thinking about the cinematography. Like
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: people who are you know, cinema fans, film fans, movie fans,
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: whatever you want to call yourself, Like when you pay
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: attention to those things, and it's you know, tangent, it's
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: it's always so strange when I talk to somebody and
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: like I was talking about how I was like, oh,
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: that movie was garbage, and they're like oh yeah, but
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: her performance was so good, so it was a great movie.
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: And I was like, no, No, the cinematography was garbage,
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: the editing was garbage, the writing was garbage, the directing
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: was garbage. They're like, yeah, but Meryl Street was so good.
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: I was like, I don't care. You know, like, it's
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: so strange. How often like that is that that's your
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: general audience right there. But you know that was also
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: one of the benefits of the movie is that you
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: have this indie feel but yet it's made. It didn't.
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: It didn't have that big of a budget actually, but
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: it had an indie feel, but yet it had that
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: big promoting it had, it had good people in it,
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: and it was dealing with a subject that you couldn't
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: do with just an indie film. But yeah, to answer
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: your question, the the editing I think was really well
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: done because it wasn't excessive, like you didn't need that, Like,
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: this wasn't black Hawk Down. Like if you watch black
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: Hawk Down, I feel like that's I feel like that's
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: a fair comparison movie. Right, Yeah, if you're watching black
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: Hawk Down and this is not a knock on that. Uh.
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: The editing brings itself to attention a great deal because
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: it's it's Ridley Scott, you know, like it was Ridley
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: Scott in that era of Ridley Scott where he wanted
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: to he was really flashy. This is not a flashy
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: film in terms of it, but it was in cinematography,
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: and I feel like it made a lot of really
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: solid choices in cinematography.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: Darren, you know, speaking of that cinematography and the editing
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: a movie I can't help but think of I want
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: to ask you if you've seen it. Have you ever
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: seen Jarhead with Jake Gillenhall.
• 37:17
  Speaker 6: I have not, but it does feel like, you know,
• 37:21
  Speaker 6: when we have those duo of films, not that they're
• 37:24
  Speaker 6: exactly the same, but it's like, oh, our minds like
• 37:28
  Speaker 6: to see patterns of like, oh, look at these two
• 37:30
  Speaker 6: films that are very similar, but they're obviously also very different.
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: I think I think would be very interesting and testing.
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you've seen Jarhead, but like, I
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: think it would be very interesting to watch these two
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: movies side by side, because as I recall Jarhead, it's
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: it is a more polished, more big studio type of thing,
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: although it's dealing with the very similar sort of thing
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: about trying to process, you know, going through these type
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: of wartime situations and what it does to a person
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: and how it can change them and divert them. And
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: you know, it would just be very interesting to see
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: those two films put against each other.
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it definitely deals with the mundane of being a
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: soldier a little bit more than hurt Locker.
• 38:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's true.
• 38:18
  Speaker 6: Herlocker is more like we're a specialist team with a
• 38:22
  Speaker 6: very specific mandate and job description versus like a jar head,
• 38:28
  Speaker 6: a grunt yea, Yeah, I.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: Just I think it's interesting because hurt Locker is a
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: movie that instantly jumps to mind when you start talking
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: about cinema, that that's about dealing with a wartime situation,
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: a modern wartime situation. But you know, I made reference
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: to Platoon before there were so many, so so many
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: Vietnam movies in the eighties, like from the seventies, Like
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: it was just non stop, it was like one every
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: six months was coming out. Now, I learned a lot
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: about war film and film in general by watching all
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: of them growing up, and it definitely, you know, shapes
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: your tastes over time. But I mean, Darren, why is
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: it you think that hurt Locker sticks. You know, we're
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: almost twenty years in. Why is it, with this very
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: content rich environment that we're in, why is Hurtlocker the
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: one that's sticky? Why is that the one that stays
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: in everybody's brains?
• 39:28
  Speaker 6: I think, you know, there's something about it being about
• 39:31
  Speaker 6: a more modern war, you know, the Iraq War, not
• 39:35
  Speaker 6: being that far there. It's not like World War two
• 39:38
  Speaker 6: or Civil war, you know, where it's almost into legend territory.
• 39:44
  Speaker 6: You know, it's just so far back and all the
• 39:46
  Speaker 6: stories that have been told. But I think, you know,
• 39:50
  Speaker 6: Bigelow strikes that balance of a narrative story because you
• 39:56
  Speaker 6: have to have a narrative, but also you know, root
• 40:00
  Speaker 6: in an interesting tale, you know, a single man's struggle,
• 40:06
  Speaker 6: you know, like all the main points, like it's a
• 40:08
  Speaker 6: well constructed film narratively, uh, even though it does kind
• 40:13
  Speaker 6: of feel a little vignette like they're different. Each day's
• 40:17
  Speaker 6: mission is a little like chapter of the Week, because
• 40:20
  Speaker 6: there's no two things are the same.
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: But it isn't bad.
• 40:24
  Speaker 6: It's and like Tristan was saying, you know, it's a
• 40:27
  Speaker 6: film of maybe those five interesting days happened over a year,
• 40:32
  Speaker 6: but of course for us, they're going to happen in
• 40:33
  Speaker 6: a weekend because we have to keep the story you know, interesting.
• 40:38
  Speaker 6: But I think that's the main My main takeaway is
• 40:43
  Speaker 6: that you know, by setting it in a in a
• 40:45
  Speaker 6: modern war, going deep enough into the characters and their struggles,
• 40:51
  Speaker 6: but also keeping it, you know, interesting enough that you're
• 40:55
  Speaker 6: that it's not an edge of your seat, Like there
• 40:57
  Speaker 6: are definitely moments, but it's not like The Rock or
• 41:01
  Speaker 6: some other movie where the percussion hits you and it's
• 41:05
  Speaker 6: like here we go and you know, we're storming in
• 41:09
  Speaker 6: or or aliens where we're like, you know, we're merging
• 41:13
  Speaker 6: satire with like otherworldly invaders.
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: I'm surprised, is not surprised that we haven't done House
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: of Bay Since you bring up The.
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: Rock, I'm not surprised we haven't done House of Bay.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: That just seems like such dangerous territory to get into.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: But Trisan, this is your first viewing. Why do you
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: think with this first viewing behind you? Now, why is
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: hurt Locker such a sticky movie? Why is it one
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: that stays on everybody's brains? I mean AFI selected this actually,
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: if I recall, yeah, National Film Registry selected it in
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty for being culturally, historically, or esthetically significant.
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: Why do you think hurt Locker lands.
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: I think the reason why it lands is because you
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: could this movie in any war at any time, and
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: it would still land the same Because in this movie,
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: it doesn't matter what the backdrop is. It doesn't matter
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: that it's the Iraq War. It doesn't matter that it's
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: the Afghan War or Desert Storm Vietnam, World War II,
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: World War One, it doesn't really matter. It's about the
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: human experience in war. And you have these archetypes. You
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: have the cowboy, you have the wild card. You have
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: the the pup who is innocent and you know, is
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: concerned about like who's feeling guilty. You have the person
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: who wants to have a life afterwards, but yet feels responsibility.
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: It's you have people going home and not knowing how
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: to interact with the public or interact with their family
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: because war is all that they know. Now. It has
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: such universal themes and this is this movie does such
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: a great job and I don't say this as a knock.
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: This movie does such a great job being a political
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: that it's it's about the experience of war and men
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: through war. And it's not about like, oh, you know
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: Bush lied, or you know, like we went you know,
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: we we went to war under false pretenses, or the
• 43:14
  Speaker 3: Iraqis don't want us there or anything like that. It
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: has I mean, all the subtext is there, of course,
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: but it's that's just what it is. It's subtext. This
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: is about Jeremy and Rinter, Anthony Mackie and forgive me
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: what's his name about? Jill Garty? Thank you, Brian Garrity,
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: who I know from True Blood? Who you know he played?
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: He played. The only thing that I recognize him from
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: is in True Blood he played a soldier in the
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: Afghan War.
• 43:45
  Speaker 4: See.
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: The thing is I actually recall him from Flight was
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty twelve Za Mecha's film, which I think is
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: a gorgeous film and absolutely magnificent overlooked film.
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: But anyway, we're here to finish talking about it.
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: But yeah, that's that's my answer, is that, like it's
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: it's about the experience. It's about the experience of war
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: more than the war itself.
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: Fair enough, fair enough.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: So I think we've we've gotten some we've gotten our
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: thoughts out, we've we've we've gone through we've processed this.
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: I think we're we're here, We're at the moment where
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: we're going to give our final thoughts and ratings. And uh, Tristan,
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: since this is your first go round with the hurt Locker,
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: what are your final thoughts and the rating that you
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: land at here with Catherine Bigelow's award winning Best Picture
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: winning hurt.
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: Locker, I'm I'm happier that Bigelow one with Best Picture
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: and that it won so many noms than it is
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: that I am for it winning Best Picture. I think
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: this is a great movie. I think it's really good.
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: I think it has some great performances. It has it
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: has some it has something to say about the experience.
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: I think Jeremy Rinner and Anthony Mackie give great performances.
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: And and and by the way, I didn't get to
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: talk about this, but I'm very much team Mackie when
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: it comes to I am very much on Falcon's side
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: when it comes to who's right and who's wrong. I
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: would be friggin' pissed as hell. I would punch my
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: team leader if he did the things that he did
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: in real life that he did in this movie, like
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: taking off his headset, not like refusing to give an
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: answer when he throws us friggin' smoke bomb at the beginning,
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: like all those things, all those things, I'm like, Jeremy
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: Rinner in this movie is a friggin' jackass. And some
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: people might say, like, oh, well, you know, like you know,
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: he was down to earth and concerned about his campandres
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: you know, when it mattered. I don't care. That's great
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: that he does it when it's mattered, when it matters,
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: But I want him to be a good person the
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: entire time, not just part of the time. But the
• 45:50
  Speaker 3: thing is is that I can't remember who said it,
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: but some famous person said, I've served with the very
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: best of men, and I've served with the very worst
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: of men, and that's how you get in the military,
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: and this is very evocative of that. I think the
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: cinematography is great, even though it's very two thousands, and
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: I love that it shot in sixteen millimeter, And like
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: I said, great performance is great direction, But there's just
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: certain points here and there where I'm just like it
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: feels very vignette and it's there were like there were
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: points that really took me out of it, like the
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: Born legacy point where he you know, goes rogue and
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: goes off base. So I give it four stars because
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: it's a really good movie. It deserved all the accolades,
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: and Bigelow definitely deserved it. But it's this is not
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: a perfect film.
• 46:39
  Speaker 4: Fair enough.
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: I will actually say that, while everybody loves to talk
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: about the fact that you know, this this one and
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: she beat Cameron, it was a very packed field in
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: two thousand and eight, and I will agree with you.
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: I think that the hurt Locker benefit benefited from that
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: because just because I pulled it up just out of curiosity,
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: the hurt Locker wins the two thousand and nine Awards
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: for two thousand and eight movies. So you have the
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: hurt Locker, Avatar, the blind Side, District nine in Education,
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: in Glorious Bastards, Precious a serious man up and up
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: in the air. That is a crowded field. That isn't
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: a good year. That's an insane yeah. And somehow the
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: Dark Knight wasn't in there. But whatever, And you have
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: a situation here where it's like, I mean, this is
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: the more everybody wanted more films added cool. I get it.
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: It makes sense. We don't want it to be just
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: five that are up there because the one we loved
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: won't ever get nominated. But you split the vote, and
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: you split the vote in such a way that the
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: eventual winner is going to benefit. I mean it's you know,
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: the following year you have the King's Speech wins, but
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: that's a year that's got the fighter inception, the kids
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: are all right, one hundred and twenty seven hours. The
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: Social Network toy story three True Grit Winners was like,
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: how like, I'm not trying to take anything away from
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: Bigelow's victory because I understand why it won. But you know,
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: I definitely think that in another year, if you whittled
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: that down to like a true quote unquote top five,
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: I think hurt Locker has a longer shot, you know,
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: longer odds at winning. All that to say, I agree
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: with you, Tristan. This is a four star film. It's
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: a strong four And while I, while I defend and
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: I understand what she's saying with his you know, going
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: off bass cowboy moment, I did, I similarly sort of
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: like disconnected because I was like, wait, what movie am
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: I watching?
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: Now?
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: What's what's happening here? And then at the end when
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: they go off after the people, I agree. I'm like
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: the veneer of reality, to use your term. Mackie isn't
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: just saying no, we got a platoon of guys. It's like,
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: I'm going off after him. He's tackling him, putting him
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: in an arm bar and like zip tying him. It's like, Okay,
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: this guy's had a psychotic breaks. He's trying to do
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: something completely insane. He's not going off base ever again,
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: you know, like and they're going to take him off
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: for evaluation. So four stars, Darren. That brings us to you.
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: Where do you land with the hurt Locker?
• 49:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 49:19
  Speaker 6: This was while it's not a movie I had watched
• 49:22
  Speaker 6: again recently, you know, it's it's been a while. I
• 49:25
  Speaker 6: did really enjoy going back into this world, into these characters.
• 49:30
  Speaker 6: You know, I think a lot is to be said
• 49:34
  Speaker 6: on what was pulled off.
• 49:36
  Speaker 5: Like it's not a guarantee. Oh we shot in Jordan.
• 49:39
  Speaker 6: Oh we sat in the summer, and it's gonna all
• 49:42
  Speaker 6: look real and and come together and work, and our
• 49:45
  Speaker 6: character is going to be likable and interesting, and you know,
• 49:48
  Speaker 6: the tension is going to be there, Like you have
• 49:50
  Speaker 6: to build all of that and and she did it,
• 49:54
  Speaker 6: you know, all the while it was you know, financially
• 49:58
  Speaker 6: successful and did well. You know, it's not not making
• 50:01
  Speaker 6: Avatar money, but that's okay, nothing else it does.
• 50:04
  Speaker 3: But I mean that's the that's the thing though. I'm
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: glad you brought that up because that's something that we
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: didn't talk about. This is the lowest grossing Best Picture
• 50:11
  Speaker 3: film so far.
• 50:13
  Speaker 5: It's like forty nine million, like fifty million, that's it.
• 50:17
  Speaker 3: And at the time of its release, it was like
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: they only counted domestic it made its budget back, not
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: even marketing costs. That's crazy.
• 50:28
  Speaker 6: Well, you know, we could just make an oscar category
• 50:30
  Speaker 6: the most box office and with I don't know if
• 50:34
  Speaker 6: that would be worth winning. But no, I'm I'm giving
• 50:37
  Speaker 6: it a four to two. I think we're all in
• 50:39
  Speaker 6: agreement fours across the board. And it's it's a fun
• 50:43
  Speaker 6: like I said, it's a fun film to revisit. It
• 50:46
  Speaker 6: is nice seeing you know, MACKI and you know when
• 50:51
  Speaker 6: you see him, because he's he's not the protagonist, but
• 50:55
  Speaker 6: he is kind of leading the squad a little bit
• 50:57
  Speaker 6: like you know, he's a little more straight man, a
• 51:00
  Speaker 6: little more like I'm going to keep you all live
• 51:03
  Speaker 6: because I'm going to make the right decision. So anytime
• 51:06
  Speaker 6: seeing him on screen is always a pleasure.
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: Now, I will interject really quick that big a low,
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: I think a few years later is undone by the
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: number of nominations for Best Picture when Zero Dark thirty
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: loses to Argo, which I'm taking nothing away from Argo,
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: love the film, but like that was another one where
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: it was like that, you know, it was like nine
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: Insane Movies, and it was like, oh well, zero Dark
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: thirty actually kind of kinda is better, even better than
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: the hurt Locker, like you sort.
• 51:37
  Speaker 3: Of yeah something what you're up against?
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: Huh yeah, yeah. So anyway, there you go. There are
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: our thoughts on the hurt Locker. We are closing the
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: doors on this wing of house Lights, which we are
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: calling House of Bigelow, and uh, it's setting us up
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: to shift now to look at another director, Darren, Why
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: don't you let the audience know who that's going to be.
• 52:02
  Speaker 5: That's right, We're going to be covering Luke Bisson of
• 52:05
  Speaker 5: the nineties, starting with lafem Nikita from nineteen ninety here on,
• 52:11
  Speaker 5: house Lights
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: Join the Revolution, Join the Nerd Party.