Latest / The Director's Chair Network / The Siege
Transcript
- 0:04 [Music] [Applause] 0:14 [Music] 0:25 welcome everyone to another episode of zwix flick the Ed zwick podcast I'm I am your host Ryan and with me today I have 0:32 another special guest first time appearance Scott how you doing today the Reverend my apologies the Reverend Scott 0:38 how you how you doing I am fantastic uh a real privilege toh be on this uh this 0:44 new podcast of yours I'm excited yeah it's a miniseries there is an end in sight unlike some of my other podcasts 0:50 that I've done uh they've not dragged out but they've they have become beasts of their own nature and uh excited to do 0:57 the ones that I do the Rocky and the rambl the ramble 's retired it's done the Rocky one we're halfway through but 1:03 this this series The zwix Flicks or Edward zwix films is definitely designed to be a minseries one episode for one 1:10 movie 13 films in his Studio filmography I kind of like the idea that there's a 1:16 beginning and an end and I get to have a variety of different guest co-hosts come on and share their thoughts so Scott why 1:22 don't you just go ahead and plug the I know you do a couple podcasts uh my main podcast is called The Church of 1:28 Tarantino it is in its third season getting close to the end of it for season 3 we have been covering nothing 1:36 but aspects of Pulp Fiction for its 30th Anniversary release for this year by the time the season is done there will be 1:44 about 45 total episodes not all of them dedicated to Pulp Fiction but 25 of them dedicated to Pulp Fiction I do a bunch 1:51 of special anniversary ones and stuff like that in there and then I have uh two podcasts that I do with my co-host 1:57 Steve Smith that is on the of the action heroes podcast network uh the first is 2:03 the cheeky bastards are the men of action we pit basically action movies against each other we're just about to 2:09 start by the time this is heard we're starting season three and we are pitting 2:14 this uh season uh sequels against one another and we open up with Lethal Weapon 2 versus Die Hard 2 Lethal Weapon 2:21 two there you go that's my winner done next episode and then uh we also do which is probably why I'm on this 2:27 episode for this is I also do with Steve uh the dropping a Bruce where we have been looking at his 40 uh as I call him 2:35 straight to straight to uh uh streaming or whatever but the STDs of his uh we are 2:42 almost halfway through that so we still got another year and a half to go before we make the 40 there are 40 of them and 2:48 then I will be starting a small kind of what you're doing a little miniseries kind of thing called kill Mary smash eat 2:53 where I have a bunch of my friends who I podcast with we pick a movie or TV series and we decide who from the cast 2:59 we will kill Mary Smash and eat it's just a fun 30 35 minute your uh best of 3:05 the worst podcast was one of the ones that kind of uh inspired me to do that fun little venture oh nice well I'm 3:11 happy for that yeah thanks for the plug on that one check out the worst of the best podcast folks yeah Scott it's a pleasure to have you on indeed when I 3:17 reached out to you to do an episode with me on this series I said hey what film 3:23 do you want and I was not surprised and I was happy that you chose the siege with Bruce Willis because of your coverage of dropping Bruce yes again you 3:30 are doing the Lord's work dropping to Bruce his straight to video uh movies 3:36 they're tough watch uh but you crack them down you crack wise on them and poor Bruce but we're gonna talk about 3:41 Peak Bruce this episode we're talking PE Bruce I'm excited well let's get into it what is your background or Phantom 3:48 regarding Edwards Wick his filmography did you know anything about him before coming on the show that's the great 3:54 thing about your show so one of my favorite episodes you've done already is Glory it's it's my favorite movie of his 4:01 being a Tarantino podcaster and doing some others is there are some guys who have really big names right like there's 4:07 the ones that everyone knows you got your seses your copas your Spielberg's your Tarantino and then there are guys 4:13 like edwick which you don't realize how in depth his career has really been and 4:18 it's not until you do something like this like I knew of Glory but then as I've been listening to yours and going 4:24 through the filmography it's like he also did Blood Diamond you're kind of like oh my God I didn't know he did that you know it's like oh did The Siege 4:30 courage Under Fire like there's a lot of these ones you don't realize he's done yeah um but Glory was the one I knew I 4:36 absolutely love Glory like glory is one of the greatest war movies ever made it's an absolute gem I was so surprised 4:43 to listen to your episode and find out just how shitty Matthew br's mom is holy 4:49 [ __ ] that was fun that was a fun Discovery yeah I did not know that crap what the [ __ ] you you were very po I 4:56 would call the far worse things than you guys did try to uh channel the energy that Ed channels when he's given the 5:02 stories that yeah he was very calm about that right he's at peace now but during the time he did he did say like I 5:09 mentioned that when he did the his book that he says I'm gonna tell some stories but I'm not telling them out of anger 5:16 it's just a history this is what what I went through this is what I experienced but as of right now I'm at Zen with it 5:21 and life is fine but this is what I went through but he shared that story about Matthew and his mom very interesting very interesting stuff uh have you seen 5:28 the other films of course like Legends of the fall that we covered have so oh I 5:35 I want to preface this I saw Legends of the Fall when I was 19 years old okay perfect age that's a great age I think I 5:41 think we're the same age what year are you born yeah I was born in 7 late 75 I literally should be born in 76 I am 5:46 three weeks before 76 starts okay so I was born December 11th of 75 so I mean 5:52 so and again I I want to preface anyone who's listening and especially if K isai I know she loves that movie sure I hate 5:59 hated it I was so tired of Brad Pit riding off on that [ __ ] horse that if 6:05 he rode off anymore now I'm not saying the scenery wasn't beautiful but again this is 19yearold Scott you know right 6:10 so this little bit gels of the Brad I think I was just like oh my God this guy if we had to see his hair Flow In The 6:16 Wind one I know right now bald but like I'm so tired of watching maybe that's why you're 6:22 bald the gods of Brad struck your hair probably but I I have to admit that I 6:27 have to give it a new a reappraisal because a 19-year-old watching it and not 6:32 enjoying it and look I'll also be honest this came out shortly after Pulp Fiction came out and also you've got sh so there 6:39 were some movies that I had probably fallen in love with more and probably was a little bit jaded in my viewing of 6:47 the movie and not giving it probably it's just due so I will this week rewatch it and be fair to it because 6:54 yeah I realized today I was listening to you in the car like I was 19 like I gotta go back that was a long time ago 7:00 was 30 years ago I gotta go back and and give this another a fair shot because 7:05 19-year-old Scott and 48y old Scott they're different people absolutely of 7:10 course of course I mean I've watched two of his films now that I would not have watched back when they came out of we 7:15 covered leaving normal and about last night I I didn't watch those films back when I was a teenager or around that age 7:21 when they came out because of what I thought of what they were going to be like but yeah as an older individual now yeah you can go back and watch films in 7:28 a different lens and light and life experence experiences and but yeah you'll still see a lot of sweeping hair and stuff but I would give it a I give 7:34 it you have to give it a rewatch there's more to that film than sweeping hair I sh yes there probably is that's all I 7:40 remember always being angry about him riding off I remember looking at my bu go this rides off one more time I'm 7:46 walking out of the theater but again I was 19 but other movies like The Last Samurai blood diamond right uh the movie 7:53 we're going to talk about today like you I'm thankful for you starting this 7:58 hey man just like with Craig starting his about R Palmer rman the Palmer and 8:04 when you look back at some of these you know you look at the totality of their filmographies you you realize oh my God 8:10 like I didn't it's sometimes films unfortunately for some directors the film is bigger than who they are and so 8:15 you lose who they are when they come out and then it's not until you get something like this or unfortunately 8:21 when they pass away right like usually we have like a director will pass away and then you start to look back at philography and you go oh my God I 8:27 didn't realize that they made this film where was in their C you their catalog you know like the score like I said the 8:33 the the big names we always know but it's these other guys who I don't think get as uh as much appreciation so agreed 8:40 podcasts like this and what craiger is doing it's really really awesome and commendable for you guys because as a film buff it gives me a chance to now 8:46 also go oh crap that's right I want to check out this I didn't realize that's what we that's what we hope yeah well great I'm glad and uh yeah it was 8:53 actually Craigs Brian DePalma podcast that got me this totally I I think I gave him the shout out the very first 8:59 episode because I was like it was his idea like oh crap I love that idea so here we are ZX flicks now we're going to 9:05 talk about The Siege came out 1998 did you see this in the theaters or did you see it later on VHS do you recall I do 9:11 believe I saw this in the theaters however my recollection for it is going to tie in really nicely to how why we're 9:17 talking about this today as well you're in the military currently right I was in the military when 911 happened I was a 9:24 military policeman and my unit was sent to guard the p gon 3 months after 911 9:31 happened as was being rebuilt and there was a lot of belief and rumor that there was going to be like the city there was going to be attacks in the city kind of 9:37 thing kind of like what we see happen in this film our commander rented this movie on the bus we took up so we had a 9:44 long drive from Fort Benning Georgia up to Washington DC we watched this on the 9:51 bus and this is where I actually remember most vividly remember seeing it is watching this film again on the bus 9:58 as we went up and it's kind of chilling to now rewatch it again it's been a long time I think it's been since that bus 10:04 ride since I've seen it and this was the number one rented movie at least in 10:10 America after 911 which is amazing so so wild yeah with this podcast we don't go 10:15 plot By plot that's not what we're doing people people can watch the film on their own we will talk about plot pieces 10:21 we'll talk about the actors we'll talk about things that we like that they did in the film but we'll go all over the plot when we do that I I don't want to 10:27 give a the synopsis is pretty simple you know it's a uh a terrorist uh attack in 10:34 New York uh the the city's held under siege martial law is given people are rounded up because they look a certain 10:40 way and they're trying to get terrorists from that group of people that's basically the plot of the film but and I 10:45 think we should talk about it this film wasn't very quotequote big at the box office and the part of it was the 10:53 criticism from the some groups of people and their organizations saying this was anti- this and anti that I mean was made 10:59 for 70 million it did 120 million at the box office so you know it made a little bit of money it wasn't you know it didn't take money away from the they 11:05 probably broke even at the end of the day but yes the DVD sales or the uh VHS rentals after 911 probably got all their 11:12 money back and then some C let's talk about it because this is the bread and butter of the situation here this film 11:19 depicted I think very accurately how a country like the US might act in this 11:25 situation where you have terrorists let's talk about the bus right away at the beginning of the film there's a bus 11:31 scene held by hostages that we don't really ever see all we see it's it's greatly filmed we never see the hostages 11:37 we never see them make the demands or even hear their demands with Denzel's character on the phone we don't even see who they are all we see are the hostages 11:44 plastered up against the Windows like pleading with their eyes get us out of this situation they're up against the glass the bus and they let the children 11:50 go so you the viewer like oh cool they've let the children go how amazing is that great okay cool and it is so 11:57 well done when they say let's let the old people go and they're coming out of the bus and then the bus blows up and I 12:04 thought that was well done by the movie goers because it's shocking it's sad it is shocking it's unsus because we 12:09 thinking okay now the Allelujah are going to go especially for 1998 right like in 1998 when this film comes out 12:16 this is you know America the the worst thing that's happened so far in America outside of like a an attack uh you know 12:22 by Pearl Harbor by the Japanese that was a war you know that was a war effort at that moment yeah um but was Oklahoma 12:28 City which had happened uh it was in ' 95 so it's three years earlier so we're you know we're three years from that and 12:34 so that was that was homegrown terrorism for the listeners who are of our age will remember even the before because I 12:40 think it was it 92 was the first attack on the Trade Centers where they tried to bomb it from underne just like you said 12:46 about uh Yellowstone having him having to have watched Legends of the Fall I feel like the writer of this definitely 12:52 used the 92 bombing that didn't wasn't successful as a basis a jumping off 12:58 point for what there going to tell with this story but in those 90s late 90s through the 2010s like while we were at 13:03 War there was a real sense that we were going to join the community of Europe 13:10 and the Middle East and Africa of being the Brethren of having terrorist attacks on our soil when it failed and then we 13:17 had the Oklahoma City bombing was a weird time here especially in America because the Cold War was over so the 13:22 enemy for the longest time was the Russians we're like oh we're afraid of Russia we were not afraid of any terrorist attacks that was we were more 13:28 afraid that Russia or China would invade us or something like that and then once 13:34 that imminent threat or enemy is gone there's always a vacuum and all of a sudden sometimes especially in America 13:40 we have created our own enemies we have a lot of times we have as they talk about in this film where we train people 13:47 or we've got you know we were part of the muad we were trying to we were helping the afghanis fight the Russians 13:52 and then we left them behind just like they're kind of using in this and so then that kind of creates oh Bin Laden I 14:00 went to Iraq Isis is started by the upheaval we created in that region with 14:05 Iraq so sometimes especially in America we seem to be creating a lot of our enemies as of late and so this movie and 14:13 that scene was palpable because it was for the first time we were actually kind of 14:19 seeing what's going to happen what it could be like who could have guessed that three years later it was going to 14:24 be worse than this if you could have chosen you would have chosen this over what came but what I love about as a 14:30 filmmaker's perspective is zwick never brings us up to them other directors 14:38 will give us more of a like we need to feel sorry for the the faceless people there in front of us on the bus we never 14:45 see them except from where they are and what it does is it makes us we're now in Denzel's spot we're trying to get closer 14:51 without getting too close so we can only see what he can see and I love that that we're kept at that distance the little 14:58 trick that it's such a great smart play letting the kids out makes everyone in the audience go okay all right yeah 15:05 they're not gonna hurt the kids and then you know why don't we just let the old people out when the doors open again you're like okay and then no boom we we 15:12 blow everybody up at that moment in the film you realize okay this is going to 15:17 be more realistic this is not just going to be some John Wayne where the good guys always win which there are a few of 15:23 those scenes in here but it's going to be more of man we are going to be on our 15:28 back foot the whole time and the terrorists are really running things and I think it gives you as a viewer you 15:34 know back then especially because now we're well versed in how this goes after 911 but back then it was giving you the 15:41 sense of oh this is what it's really like with terrorism like it's it's not 15:46 like you're you're trying to talk someone down who's a who's having a mental breakdown and they've got people gunpoint in the house and we got 15:51 negotiators who going to talk the situation down and and I think that's even handled like that by denzo 15:57 Washington's character he thinks going to be able to talk him down he feels confident when the kids come out he's almost like I've got this you know he 16:04 starts that's why he starts to get you know calm and approach the bus and yeah then zwick and the filmmakers pull the 16:09 rug up from under our feet and the actors and we all of a sudden realize we're in for a long dark ride it doesn't 16:15 pull any punches it doesn't cater to the audience it doesn't cater to both sides I think it's I think it's showcasing 16:22 that there is a group of people that this is tough you do a movie about Nazi Germany nobody seems to the I don't know 16:29 why this is I don't know how this works and I don't want to speak out of turn here but like we watched the Indian Jones movies and they have the Nazi 16:35 soldiers and Andy punches them in the face and he throws them over the plane or shoots them up and nobody bats n it's 16:41 just all those terrible Nazis they were terrible and of course they were German too we but we recognize as Germans and 16:47 not all Germans are Nazis but all Nazis were German and well not anymore but yes 16:54 I know what you mean yeah you know I'm say I know exactly what you mean yeah there's always exception to every rule but the point is everyone that was a you 17:00 know an SS Soldier was was German of course there was you know people within Germany that hated that regime did not 17:07 like but what I'm getting at is it seems like there's a group of people where 17:12 they will declare a war on another group of people when they come from that country I should say not everyone in 17:19 that country feels that way but the people that are causing the damage come from that country so this is where this 17:25 and I'm being vague on purpose because I'm not trying to point out any One race or national because I'm saying if you had a bunch of Canadians in the US 17:33 pounding on the White House let's say and we're like we had guns or we had bombs and we're attacking let's say yeah 17:39 you had Canadians attacking the White House or downtown New York you would 17:44 then say well gee not every Canadian are these terrorists but all the ones that are doing this right now have claimed to 17:51 be from Canada so we kind of might have to round them up somehow so how do how do you round up a bunch of white guys 17:58 who look look like Canadians with flannel shirts I don't know but the point is this is the tricky part of you 18:03 tell them that hockey sucks that's what you're doing we got him we got him the ones that freak out the ones 18:09 that freak out that's them I'm not trying to be glip here but the the reality is that this film delves into 18:15 that sense of talk with saying hey we have a group of people who have declared themselves war on our territory on our 18:22 Sovereign soil how do we gather them up and it's a great push and pull from the 18:27 film from the Denzel character from the Bruce Wills character you have the military perspective you have the humanarian perspective both sides are 18:34 given equal play the pros and cons of both side some of it works some of it doesn't work so what I love about this 18:39 film it doesn't go USA Harrah Harrah or the holy war that these people have 18:45 declared is all evil either they really showcase that there are great people who live within your nation that come from 18:50 those countries that are living great lives or on the FBI themselves and it's an interesting study on this very 18:58 complicated situation so again folks see the film to see how it plays up let's talk about some of the the players of 19:04 this film we talked about Edward zwick of course I'd forgotten this now Lance reick was in this film and you probably 19:11 recognize him he of course was in the John of Wick films he when he plays the hotel guy in the John Wick films he just 19:16 Rec passed yeah yeah he did yeah he did recently pass and it's heartbreaking because he's he's an actor that I've 19:22 enjoyed in so much stuff so John Wick films was he was big in those he was in 19:27 some TV shows the wire the wire and speaking of the wire Wood Harris had a cameo in this you recognize him he's 19:34 also in the Creed films he had nice early role in this film he's also an oz of course the wire oh he was a lost 19:42 Bosch Legacy in the Bosch TV show which I love my wife and I watched those so he was actually had a couple episodes come 19:48 out after he passed and I told my wife I was watching like yeah that guy just died like it sucks great actor and he 19:53 was great in this very kind of semi small role he had a few speaking Parts he was Denzel right-hand man he died in 20:00 the explosion there at the end there with the terrorist explosion at the end there the nice thing I guess with age is when you relook at these films you get 20:06 to look back on guys who now you now know like back then when he was in that film Nobody he was just a bit actor that 20:11 you'd probably seen someone else before but again yeah Denzel's in this movie so 20:17 when Denzel moves or takes a dump you're watching Denzel like you just you're pulled to Denzel but some of these other 20:24 great girls um I forget the one gentleman who also passed I think his name was Danny in the film he was on The 20:29 Sopranos like so there's some guys who who come in and out of this film who you've seen before yeah and it's not 20:34 until you get further down the road from when it originally comes out that you start to recognize oh yeah that's right 20:39 these guys were also that they like their path to now stardom that we know like the wick films started Way Way Back 20:45 in 1998 for him and then you know he would then make it into the wire and make it on to these other shows and 20:51 these other projects and so it was nice to see him again it was like oh that's right it's almost like you get to see his uh his career in retrospect now that 20:58 he's passed and get a chance to be like damn he's he's been good ever since and I'll be honest he still looked I mean I 21:04 know he still L the same age then as he did recently so I can't tell if he was old then or if he was just young now 21:10 like he was just he didn't die old he wasn't old when he passed so he's just I know he's just got that look to him 21:16 where he yes he's almost like a was it the Dick Clark he just doesn't seem to age he's just like this Timeless look 21:21 for him yeah he died at the age of 60 that's yeah that's young I mean in modern days is very young yeah yeah of 21:28 Health complications of course yeah he died in 60 so he was born in 62 so he was 36 look great yeah okay all right 21:36 yeah David Provo is the guy you're talking about on The Sopranos yeah he's got that face when you see him oh yeah that guy that guy all right so the big 21:43 four here we got Tony shaloo course played Monk on the TV show there what 21:48 did you think of Tony in this in this film love Tony I've always loved Tony Tony's a great actor and I'll be honest 21:53 with you I I wasn't 100% sure I knew shaloo was probably 21:59 an Arab name or possibly a Palestinian name but I was 100% sure so I actually last night while I'm watching it was W 22:04 competing him to see what his National was then he actually is because he was very his Arabic was very believable and 22:10 I was like that doesn't sound like a dialect coach that sounds like a man who has actually spoken Arabic before I thought he was great and outside eyes 22:17 might say oh okay yeah we've got to have an Arab guy on the thing but I think we did we we needed someone because what 22:23 this story is telling it is a very tough story because we're no longer in a time frame releas the enemies we've either 22:30 created or are dealing with there's no more uniforms that so like you said with the SS so yeah we could say F those 22:37 Nazis right we could we could say that because we saw them we knew who they were they had the uniform but now it's 22:43 very like hard to tell it's you've been overseas the general population pick out 22:49 the bad guy you don't know until it happens Tony SCH was able to give us the idea because his son when they basically 22:55 turned America into World War II time when we did the West Coast where we did the Japanese once Pearl Harbor happened 23:01 we rounded up all Japanese all Asian Im so why amending it's just Japanese anyone who was Asian was literally put 23:08 into these camps in the west coast their businesses were taken from them and never to be returned to them even though 23:13 they were US citizens like there's a lot of terrible things that happen during that time frame they kind of get swept under the rug and I like that they kind 23:20 of brought it a little bit to light what it was like but then he put in the east coast when you're rounding up all the 23:25 the Muslims from Brooklyn his son gets taken and he's an FBI agent and they 23:31 won't release him and Bruce Willis is like I'll look into it which means as we 23:36 know in the military it's not happening right if you're commanding officers I'll look into it that means go f yourself 23:42 it's not happening Nothing's Gonna Change so to have Tony in there and him be a part of it also showing you can't 23:49 paint a a broad brush with all the Muslims he's an American citizen he was 23:55 a immigrant living there 20 years now American citizen working 10 years for the Bureau of Investigation on terrorism 24:03 it just shows that don't judge a book by its cover kind of thing and but to have him he was a Central Key figure because 24:10 we don't get to know what it's like what he's going through because otherwise now we have to have introduce a new character who doesn't make sense to 24:16 right because we need to know what he's going to see from first person perspective that he's as affected by 24:22 what's going on as the people that it's being H is happening to so I thought he 24:27 did a great job and when you're the second maybe the third to Denzel and you're holding your own that's it's 24:34 probably why you got the show Monk and stuff because he you know stood his own with one of the greats ever in Denzel 24:40 absolutely uh yeah he was great and I think it's is a little bit um I want say 24:46 it's an obvious like it's almost too obvious that of course Denzel's partner happens to be yeah you know but but they 24:53 did that it's a story Point meaning they just wanted to Showcase how this affects even an FBI agent or a cop or but so for 25:01 the story purposes we couldn't cut to another person across the city whatever profession they we had to keep them 25:06 close to the main storyline but still tells the story of how the average family so to speak are still being 25:12 affected by this rounding up of Muslim kids and and teenagers and adults or whatever so yes it happens to be the 25:18 character but it's just showing you this is happening to people but we can't you know have five different story if it was like a minseries sure you could have a 25:25 different family you know showcasing their storyline but for the sake of a 2our movie movie you have to have this character close to Denzel's character to 25:31 see the that story be told he's in the terrorism so it's you know I mean if he was in counterfeiting that might he 25:37 might be like okay now we're really just shoehorning a character in for the purposes but it does make a little more 25:42 sense that there would be someone of Palestinian descent who is working in the terrorism part of FBI makes sense 25:48 why he was brought in he knows the area he knows the people he would know the language it would be a person who could 25:53 get them connections that they don't have like a person like me a white man like me is not going to be able to embed 26:00 themselves or get information from a tit neck group of people that I have one a language barrier and also don't have any 26:07 you know reference of to play Devil's Advocate just a little bit you could argue I mean you could argue if you want 26:12 to talk about we'll get to the Bruce character Last by the way we're gonna go we're we're g to save him for last when you get to his character he's this 26:19 General he's of course he's he's the general or sorry he's the war mind of the of the US government he is that his 26:25 character just represents the the war machine that's his characters representation just how the military 26:30 will handle things it is the broad brush there is no feelings on the matter it's just we have to get this job done 26:36 whether you like it or not the feelings to be damned yeah uh so but that hey that is a tactic that it has its place 26:44 and there's a reason why the military is the military and it's not Sunday school but what I'm getting at is You could argue well maybe the best candidate for 26:52 terrorist is the son of an FBI agent that's the thing yeah so dis Devil's 26:57 Advocate just because your daddy is it in the FBI counterterrorism that's the 27:02 perfect one to rebel against his father and Authority so there's a little bit that turn in this film there is a turn 27:08 in that film it's a great it's a great ending so we don't really want to spoil that any I say I always said I think you 27:14 can listen to our shows even when we talk about plot points because we go we do go all over the place that the the story is told better than we do our job 27:20 is not to tell the story per se it's for you to just to listen to his talk about the movie okay yeah Tony did a great job 27:26 let's get to Denzel because this is the third episode the third episode that I've talked about Denzel so I've already 27:31 given a lot of thoughts regarding Denzel regarding Glory we talked about that and then courage on the fire when I've when 27:37 I did that episode of course a lot of Denzel talk but this is your first time on the show so what are your overall feelings on Denzel Washington as an 27:43 actor in his films he is Barone one of the greatest top five if not top three 27:50 ever ever ever to to do it so there's a lot of great actors but you know you got 27:55 your character actors you got all kinds of different people but as far is Leading Men he's the meril stre of male 28:01 actors in my opinion like whatever there he's in you're watching what whatever he 28:06 is you just believe it he emotes so much emotion he emotes so much the single 28:12 tier like you said in glory the blood running out of his nose after being a part of the bomber and he's talking and 28:17 he's delivering the speech and yeah you you're just so invested in what he says 28:23 what he's doing you believe every moment you know it's Denzel but you forget it's Denzel and that's hard for amazing 28:29 actors to do right like when Sean Conor's on screen it's Sean conry and I don't mean that in a mean disparaging 28:34 way it's Sean Conor right like you go hey it's Sean connory and you're like all right what's he gonna do today but when Denzel takes a takes a job you know 28:42 it's Denzel you're going to see it because it's Denzel and then you forget it's Denzel and you believe he's King 28:48 Kong ain't got nothing King Kong ain't got [ __ ] on me you know believe 28:54 everything he's doing no matter what character he plays whether he's a good guy a bad guy he's tough he's soft it 29:00 doesn't matter he's a slave he's a FBI the head of the FBI terrorist organiz or terrorist task force in New York City 29:07 you just believe Denzel I absolutely love watching Denzel yeah you know we're 29:14 getting up an age and there's gonna come a time but I mean he's gonna be out soon in the new Gladiator 2 and yeah which 29:21 looks great because he's in it like I'll be honest with you yeah because he's in it people are like we're GNA go see this 29:26 movie and because you know that Denzel is going to deliver he could read the phone book and you would be absolutely 29:34 mesmerized by it so no he don't that gave you enough for how much I love Denzel I really do love Denzel I love 29:40 him too and I thought he did a fantastic job in this film I think Ed and Denzel 29:46 this is their third and final film to work together I was thinking man I wish they did more together because I think they seem to have some sort of Edward 29:51 just seems to know how to allow Denzel to be Denzel they have a very good relationship working relationship and 29:57 it's too bad they never never connected again over the years I think Denzel just got bigger and bigger and bigger I he just went on to such big things and not 30:03 to say that Edwards Wick you know couldn't handle big personalities of course he does Tom Cruz in two films later in our series we'll get to that it 30:10 would have been interesting to see more of Ed and Denzel this is Denzel's third movie with Edward zwick all have a war 30:16 theme which I thought was interesting too interesting and this one though I think is his best acting of the three 30:21 films even though Glory was amazing he won an Academy Award for Glory but I feel like this film Denzel's he has a 30:29 few scenes but there is a scene of course it's the torture scene where they've got the captive oh yeah and 30:34 Denzel this is what I love about this film because we have these conflicting ideas about how do we handle prisoners 30:41 getting information torture and of course this is something that was echoed as you said later after post 911 torture 30:47 gon moay and this stuff was a real thing a real a real Hot Topic we have Bruce wills's character saying look it's 30:53 better this one guy perish than than hundreds perish like let's pull off his fingernails get information out of this 30:58 guy and there's a party like yeah I like I understand L like I logically 31:04 understand if it meant my daughter wasn't get blown up at school if he pulled off this guy's finger so be it 31:09 yeah so it's tough like where do we put the value of one human life over 100 and Denzel's speech is delivering his 31:15 reasons that scene is just amazing and the way I've seen it like a 10 times in a row on YouTube you can watch it and 31:21 he's just the way he acts is just so Denzel few people insane what are you 31:27 talking about the time has come for one man to suffer in order to save hundreds of lives one man what about two what 31:33 about six how about public executions huh feel free to leave whenever you like Asian hover come on General you lost men 31:40 I've lost men but you you you you can't do this what if what they really want what if they don't even want to shake 31:45 have you considered that huh what if what they really want is for us to her 31:51 children in the stadiums like we're doing and put soldiers on the street and and have Americans looking over their 31:56 shoulders bend the law Shred the Constitution just a little bit because if we torture him General we do that and 32:04 everything that we have bled and fought and died for is over and they've won 32:10 they've already won man that guy he can deliver and you'll catch when Bruce Wilson's character scored him out of the 32:17 torture room Denzel sits on the sink I don't know if he caught that so he's been told to leave but he sits down he 32:24 sits down on the sink as the soldiers come to him and they go to kind of grab not like roughly but grab his arm 32:31 to to lead him out of the bathroom he whips up his arm like don't you freaking touch me the way he I I wonder if that 32:37 other actor knew it was coming you know what I mean because like yeah I love it throws that arm off like I wonder too 32:42 like was that script it did did Ed tell Denzel I want you to sit on the I don't think so I think it was Denzel and I 32:49 think that was all improv I guarantee you that that wasn't written I want you to do it this way that was just Denzel 32:54 taking the scene and making his own yeah we can't say enough good things about Denzel but unfortunately it's kind of 33:00 sad because this is the third film I got to talk about Denzel and now it's over this is it this it he has those moments 33:06 like he did some he did stuff with Tony Scott like he does like he does have these moments of like falling in love with the director and then moving on to 33:13 another director which is I mean which is why we love Den zels because you just never know what you're gonna get when you get it another scene that I liked of 33:19 him it's when he arrests a net Benning when they go into the the house where she's picked up the first time they meet 33:25 yeah the yeah the first time they officially meet yeah yeah cuz they meet before and then they meet officially 33:31 when when he shows up there when they when and he takes a seat in the chair and he just come on share something with 33:38 me Elise enlighten me you can tell me now you can tell me downtown you know 33:43 one phone call and he's mine you know the number I have about uh you have the 33:49 right to remain silent you have the right to an attorney that's what you also have oh come on hey do you have any 33:55 idea what you're starting here what kind a [ __ ] storm this could turn obstruction of justice assault get her out of here I 34:05 love swarmy kind of cocky like [ __ ] Denzel too like because he can do that 34:10 so well like yeah it's almost like if you want to [ __ ] with me he shows you like it's like that it's the old thing 34:15 [ __ ] around and find out and it's kind of like that's how Denzel is in a lot of his uh movies is if you mess with him 34:21 you're going to find out what that is going to entail later down the road so you know his little banter with with the 34:27 net is really amazing is there not a character or when he's in a film that he 34:33 doesn't seem to have a good rapport with I mean he could hate that person for all we know in real life like they could hate each other on set but as soon as 34:40 the Director yells action you buy every interaction he's ever had yeah with 34:46 anybody whether it's a good one a bad one like like you said threw that arm off I'm sure like you said it was uh it 34:52 was completely ad lived but you could feel his disdain for that guy even 34:57 thinking about putting his hands on him to remove him from the thing and oh and the the other scene at the 35:04 end where he you know he and there's the The Showdown it's the Mexican standup between the FBI and the soldiers and 35:11 he's like give him the order General go ahead make a murder I serve my country why don't you try serving 35:18 yours you have anything else agent hubard yeah one more thing this is a RIT 35:24 from the US District Court ordering the release of all persons being held in the state my authority over rules of course 35:29 your Authority ends now General William Deo you are under arrest for the torture 35:35 and murder of Tariq husseini an American citizen just some kind of a joke you see 35:41 me laughing gentlemen or do your men to lower their weapons hover can't do that General do it now the law states I am 35:49 the law right here right now I am the law you have the right to remain silent G you have the right to a fair trial you 35:57 have the right not to be tortured not to be murdered rights that you took away from Tariq husseini you have those 36:03 rights because of the men that came before you who wore that uniform because of the men and women 36:09 that are standing here right now waiting for you to give them the order to fire give them the order General do you think that I would hesitate to kill you or 36:15 every other federal agent in this room if I thought it was in the best interest of my country no no no you wouldn't 36:21 hesitate I know that but they might oh man you know like as a Bruce Willis fan too like at that time Bruce Willis had 36:28 never been in a film really where he'd been like talked down to like that right like even in Pulp Fiction we got 36:33 marcelus Wallace being the antagonist and but even in that he still rises above everything he's the one who saves 36:39 him at the end in this film Bruce isn't John mlan in 1998 that's a kind of a a 36:47 weird thing to see for the first time because you know he hasn't really had that transformation yet in his career 36:52 where he he did a little bit a little bit he remember he played the bad guy in The Jackal The Year previous so he was dabing a little bit but this one is like 36:59 but he's supposed to be this like you feel like he's an American hero kind of thing you know so it's a weird thing to for him to not be the official bad guy 37:06 of the movie and that's the other thing this movie does a great job of is we pivot on who the bad person is or who we 37:12 right perceive to be the bad person I forget who said it there's someone famous who said that one man's terrorist 37:19 is another man's Freedom Fighter sure it's you know the funny old there were you know contractors working on the desk 37:26 when they blow up but there is something to be said about that there's like cafeteria workers on 37:32 the Death Star who died and everyone's like cheering there's a dance for it's like you have been blown to bits so I 37:38 know I just work here it's all perspective exactly got clean someone's got to clean the toilets it's not it's not an evil janitor he's 37:45 just he hates his job as much as you yeah he hates working for the Empire but he's got a family to feed he's these 37:51 Stormtroopers can't no one can't any they can't hit the [ __ ] toilet this everywhere yeah they don't want to be a 37:57 part they're trying to lose they want to lose they want Vader to be outed yeah for sure that's funny before we get into 38:03 the last two actors of the film The main two actors of the film let's let's go over a little bit of trivia shall we sure the film initially was going to be 38:10 called holy war that would have been maybe a little bit too on the nose maybe another one 38:16 was against all enemies that one's all right it's not bad it's not it's a vague it's vague it's better than holy war 38:22 because it wasn't really a holy war someone got disappeared off the face the 38:27 Earth by the United States military uh because they blew up an army Barrack so is this back and forth of good bad and 38:34 they holding him for whatever reason they decided to hold him and now his supporters are going to raise hell in 38:40 New York City until they get him released and so just becomes that like are we 38:46 meddling in Affairs we shouldn't should we have just arrested like there's a whole geopolitical subplot that is kind 38:51 of like just quietly which I think is probably best for the film we just kind of push that to the side this film could 38:57 have gotten mired in a whole lot of stuff that that would have bogged it down and not made it the film that it truly is but yeah I and I think we 39:04 already said it but I want to say it again and maybe we didn't say very well but to the point that I think Ed and the Gang did a great job of exploring all 39:11 sides of the issue there was no real good or bad that it's just complicated humans are complicated and it just 39:18 depends what side of the world you're born on yeah absolutely It's Tricky it's a tricky thing my friends what so what I 39:24 like about this title though against all enemies unlike holy war you know obviously One Nation says holy war over 39:30 another Nation but against all enemies what I like about that title is yeah who 39:36 we're all enemies against all enemies when you swear in in Canada I don't know what you're swearing in but for soldiers 39:43 here you swear to protect the Constitution against all enemies both foreign and domestic so I think the 39:49 against all enemies is leaning towards what Denzel was talking about like yes the foreign ones are the ones who've 39:55 come over and are bombing but now the domestic one seems to possibly be Bruce Willis's character who is having his own 40:03 war on the streets of New York City and doing his own thing so against all enemies and let you know they might have had to again it's a little thing they 40:11 could have shown someone swearing in or whatever you know to help that's cool I like that I've seen that of course of movies with you guys with you guys 40:17 saying that in those movies and stuff uh it was later though became the title of a post 911 non-fiction book all the same 40:24 against all enemies so I think the siege Works according to interview that screenwriter Lawrence Wright gave to CBS 40:30 in 2007 the film initially performed poorly the box office we mentioned that but re attributed this faillure to 40:36 protest from Muslim and Arab communities who picketed theaters in response to the film's portrayal of Muslims and Arabs as 40:41 terrorists which they felt perpetuated harmful stereotypes then of course we mentioned that there was there were Surs 40:48 of popularity with the post 911 Ed talks about in his book he did share in his book that when he did come with this 40:54 film he felt this backlash from people and he kind of felt a little bit of a sort of like a pariah but he said he 41:00 went from Pariah to propit after 911 happened all the same people that called him terrible for doing this almost 41:07 hailed him a hero for predicting it is that odd I know the Twin Towers making an appearance three times in the actual 41:15 film sure most Eerie is when Bruce Willis's character is standing near the 41:22 Brooklyn Bridge with lower Manhattan behind him which has the two towers behind him so you've got the Brooklyn 41:28 Bridge I mean look this a well setup shot like come on I mean if you're going to if you're going to get some iconography of New York City this is how 41:34 you do it but it's set up where you've got the Brooklyn Bridge and you can also see the twin towers as he's declaring 41:40 martial law on especially the burrow of Brooklyn it was felt Eerie to me last 41:46 night I got some chills when I watch it because three years later those are I mean they're gone three years later I mean just stuff they're talking about 41:52 it's gone it's it's not very long man three years is not a long time it's insane how close these two events happen 41:58 yeah I mean the video was probably on DVD or at VHS for like a couple years after its theatrical run if you think 42:03 about it so this was like just pass a new release point on VHS shelves by the time 9911 happened all right one last 42:09 piece of trivia before we go back to the actors you mentioned Star Wars there was 42:14 a bit of a box office bump because of the phantom menace this is pre- internet right now we have trailers all the time 42:20 on YouTube and what have you but back then 1998 the internet was kind of still 42:26 your dial in you're you're waiting you know 5 minutes for that nipple to show there was no real movie trails the way 42:31 we see it today so people wanted to see the new Phantom men 16 years they've been waiting for a new Star Wars film 42:38 they want to see that even then they wanted to see on the big screen not some pixelated screen at home so they bought 42:43 tickets because they knew or had heard I don't know how you get word of this because I don't even know what one 42:48 person goes to the movie and says it you know that's that's back when water cooler talk was a real big thing you 42:54 talked about things around the water cool people passed it on it was the old communal sitting around the campfire telling stories type of thing that's how 43:00 we used to pass things around to each other no I also heard a lot of people left the theater and some of these situ 43:05 why would you leave just go just watch the movie you've bought it why not watch are Star Wars fans not able to watch I'm 43:11 a Star Wars fan but they are some of the worst freaking goddamn fandom there ever 43:16 is they're awful and I don't mean to be mean but you just go on the internet they troll people they can't handle if 43:22 if women are in something if people of the different color which is odd because you've got all the different aliens 43:28 painted up different color like it's a great fandom but it's also the shittiest fandom that's out there so agree so just 43:34 doesn't surprise me at all that no one would do it nowadays with the prices of tickets no one's throwing 43:40 $16 to see a just a trailer that's just the Phantom they waited 16 years to see 43:45 some new footage I get it here's five bucks eight bucks I want to watch the new footage go home but I I suspect a good portion still stuck around to watch 43:51 the movie but so maybe some of the box office bump was from that I saw this in the theaters I should have said that I 43:56 did season in theater so I probably saw The Phantom Menace trailer and I was probably excited by it but I stuck 44:02 around and watched the film all the same okay let's move on to our next actress I shouldn't mention ages here but we have 44:08 Annette Benning Annette Benning is one of my favorite actresses I love Annette Benning I've always have I guess you 44:13 could say I've had a mil crush on her throughout my life I've well yeah I love her look I love her short hair she's 44:19 very sexy in this film it's it's a very well she's 40 she's 40 in this film the next year I believe in 99 she comes out 44:25 with American Beauty correct where she also got like an Academy Award nomination I don't know if she won for that or not but the very next year she's 44:31 on another high pedestal yeah she's great I love her she's to me she's kind of like um like a Kate Blanchett type 44:37 personality which I also I know I'm going to have celebrity crushes there's a few actresses that they're very I 44:44 don't know how Regal is the word but they're very like the way they are uh like I think Merl Streep's fantastic and 44:50 I think she's a great actress but I don't think I've ever had a crush on her I she's lovely woman don't get me wrong I and I love her but there's something 44:56 about Anette Benny that I've just always loved since I was a young lad and I've enjoyed her films you know Bugsy and 45:01 things like that and you know bless waren Batty's heart to getting her and and they're still together they're still 45:06 together as a couple it's fantastic yeah she was great in this film what do you think of Anette Benning in this film 45:12 just I mean mesmerized by her I don't want to gush too much on Denzel as your buddy said I don't want to be washing his 45:18 balls yeah we the actors and actresses in this film especially the main four 45:24 well the really three Tony and her really do most to the scene work with Denzel sure and Denzel is he's really 45:31 starting to work into his powers because he's like again he's just three years away after 911 we're talking about but he's three years away from he's getting 45:38 his other Academy Award for training day yeah so Denzel is is is a big star he's 45:43 43 in this film both him and Bruce are 43 in this film by the way wow these so these other actors I mean n Ben is no 45:49 schlub right means but they no are able to hold the screen just as well as Denzel they're able to not be sucked 45:56 into the black of his Charisma and his magnetism and who he is and I thought she was great she I mean they go 46:02 toe-to-toe with each other she's very seductive at moments like she really plays this great 46:08 CIA person who's kind of like walking between the two worlds dangerously very 46:13 dangerously and she sells every second of it the only thing that was 46:19 disappointing is the ending of the film for her she expired pretty quickly for a gutshot wound that's all I'm saying she 46:26 was well she's a woman so I'm just joking every don't turn off 46:34 your dial welcome to ZX dick flick here we go dick flick that was the only part of 46:41 the film I was kind of like oh I was It was kind of quick I like oh she got shot in the gut I guess she just don't want 46:47 to drag it out like she died from Mortal gun we don't want to say who or how it 46:52 got her so that's fine but yeah she was she was killed at the end there and uh yeah she was great I think you nailed it 46:58 by saying the you as a viewer like is she kind of a bad guy is she a liar yeah who's she lying to is she lying to her 47:05 informant is she lying to Denzel is she lying to everyone but then she's got a different name at one point I realize 47:11 her real name you know yeah it's great she did a great job it was a classic 90s fem fatel which I love I love that 47:17 Sharon Stone from U basic ins type it was just that without being like yeah 47:23 without being like she was allowed to be a professional to be good at what she does but there's that there was that there was a sensuality wasn't there 47:30 there really was something seductive about her which then I think is part of her whole tradecraft which is what they 47:35 mentioned a couple times like I think the whole part of it is she is meant to be a bit disarming a bit oh because she 47:41 says that one time to Denzel something about bed being good in bed or something like that like she's like throwing things at him and trying to almost bed 47:48 him as well which I think would be again for the ability to get him to do pillow talk and so just gonna say get something 47:55 out of him pillow talks a real thing folks is there's a reason why that word exist or that saying yes because 48:00 apparently men we're very stupid and if a woman we see a boob we we'll give her 48:06 government secrets Jesus Christ men get it together giving everything away yeah 48:12 I loved her in this I thought she was fantastic I've seen her quite a quite a few films it was just nice to watch her again kind of disappeared a bit like and 48:19 that's unfortunate that happens to women especially like Denzel's got a career that's keep going right so true true but 48:26 she did just come up with a movie on Netflix which I haven't seen yet funny enough with Jordie Foster who is my favorite actress of all is Jord is 48:32 Jordie Foster oh yes yes and funny enough jod Foster was originally approached to do this film knowing how 48:38 Annette did it Jodi would have nailed it to so I don't think one would have been better than the other one though I love 48:43 Jody so here's I love Jodi Foster a lot like I mean she's my favorite actress so not a thing against that Bening but it 48:50 would have been kind of fun to see Denzel and Jordy go head-to-head well you get a chance if you see the Spike Lee movie uh insight man oh yes of 48:58 course they were that yes there you go I love that film but jod Foster ended up B started I think I haven't seen yet but 49:03 it's on Netflix was like it's a true story about a a swimmer about I think Crossing yes I can't remember yeah the 49:09 the English Channel or something like that I think something on that that line she was nominated for either for Golden 49:15 Globe or or a Oscar for that film so inette like you're saying she might be not as prominent as she was in the 80s 49:21 and 90s but she's still getting uh nominations and awards so good for her she has a total of 10 Golden Globe 49:28 nominations oh wow any wins uh two wins okay good she has one Emmy uh she has 49:35 one bafta oh she has five Academy War nominations no wins overall for all the 49:40 major Awards she has 94 nominations 26 wins so she's no slouch in the acting Department yeah oh that's right it's 49:45 called NAD all right so Jordi Foster wasn't considered for that role but that's fine and that was great and it 49:50 was and jod of course I think she's had an okay career I think she was fine not taking his role she seems to rebounded 49:56 she's I think she's okay she's all right yeah okay uh last is this the best for 50:02 last I don't know let's let's talk about it ruce Willis as general Deo so what 50:07 did you think of Bruce Willis in this film Mr Bruce Willis podcaster this is 50:12 one of those ones where again I don't want it because I do a Tarantino but I feel that Pulp Fiction has a role to 50:20 play in this where Bruce has learned that he can also be a side character not 50:27 the main star because he's not in this much he pops in in the first and second 50:33 thirds of the film and then he's very prevalent in the last third of the film right I think he does a great job at 50:40 being a general now one of my favorite moments from him is the speech he gives about do not use this option General the 50:49 arm is a broadsword not a scalable make no mistake we will hunt down the enemy 50:54 we will find the enemy and we will kill kill the enemy and no card carrying member of the ACLU is more dead set 51:01 against it than I am which is why I urge you I implore you do not consider this as an option 51:09 there's been another bombing they've just hit the Federal Building they've all been brought to a hearing uh Bill 51:14 Clinton is is the president in the film but he's not in the film like they they just use him as like you know he's there 51:19 stock footage or whatever yeah stock footage but you know so they've got his cabinet people together and they're talking and they're trying to decide 51:24 what's the what can they do and there I don't know if this is cliche but they have this like Southern 51:31 Southern you know Senator who's like I you know want he just literally you know feels like an like a really 51:37 stereotypical Southern person like ah let him lose skill them all I don't care kind of thing um but Bruce Willis's 51:43 character is asked and he says this is not an option you want to use you do not want to use the War Powers Act you do 51:49 not want tanks rolling down the city in New York City you don't want us doing 51:55 martial like it's not an option you want to use so he's a complicated character too CU he did announce to him like this 52:02 isn't something you want so I think people misunderstood his character within the film that this was something he wanted this was his own personal War 52:09 I think when the order was given he turns it on say this is what do yeah he 52:14 really leans into it once it has been given or he's just really good at being like hey I don't want it because the 52:20 guy's response was and the president's going to say then that's why you're the perfect man for the job so again we 52:26 don't know is Bruce's character being truthful or is he being koi and telling 52:31 them what he thinks they want to hear in order to get what he wants it's it's hard to tell my theory is is just like I 52:37 was saying that I think he was telling the truth that you don't you guys don't want this but if you enact it I will 52:43 enforce it and I'll be B about it to to the freaking te I will do this to the letter and Beyond well the reviews of 52:51 this film were pretty much Universal across the board in that everyone did what we just did they they praise 52:56 Benning Denzel of course because you cannot but praise him he was amazing in this film and Tony but boy the critics 53:04 were unanimous and I want you to hear your thoughts on this they were unanimous both present day and during the release in 98 of Bruce's acting in 53:12 this film they thought it was terrible he nominated he actually got nominated for the razy award and they got three of 53:19 them that year so like like they I think there's something the because this's this not the first time obviously on this this podcast I do he was not in 53:26 2020 for three razes for the only three films he did now he lost but GE like 53:32 sometimes it does feel like they maybe Bruce maybe Bruce pissed someone off at some point who does the razes and they pile I watched the film in that one 53:39 moment last night that I think Bruce Wills was out of place now I will be fair and say that I also watched 20 of 53:47 his straights to demand video movies so he is absolutely firing an all what what 53:54 film are you on right now we are about to do uh the 20th a cosmic sin it's a 54:00 sci-fi movie it's the second one in a row of sci-fi movie here's what you're dealing with my friend so IMDb Cosmic 54:07 sin has a rating of Two and a Half out of 10 Stars Y is that tracking for what you guys are experiencing oh God yes 54:13 yeah we've got six films already of the of the 18 films we did like so the 18th will be coming out probably right around 54:19 the time or right after this pod before this PO this episode comes out and of those 18 six have got Z zero critic 54:26 rating on Rotten Tomato so a third of the movies we've watched have a zero critics rating the highest rating you 54:32 have to go has a 4.3 yeah oh yeah yeah it's but but you have to listen to the 54:39 show to understand how you know because it's fun like it's a right when you do it the way we've done it there's one 54:46 that got a zero that we actually really enjoyed that we gave a Bruce because it was fun but again you have to watch the 54:52 stuff we watch leading up and we don't try to compare we're not not we're not comparing this to his die hards to his 54:59 unbreakables to his six sents to the 12 Monkeys to Paul fiction to all the great movies he's been in that's not fair it's 55:05 not fair to him but I don't think the review of him but again I will say I may 55:11 be seeing this with different eyes because I've been on a different Journey for a little bit so from time to time I 55:16 have to watch a good Bruce Willis movie just so I can kind of you know that's right what Bruce does but I thought he 55:22 was good I thought he was fine I'm actually surprised that they would even he wasn't as good as yes Denzel or 55:30 net I think they were missing the point of how a general might act he's not supposed to be some batshit crazy 55:36 General because you wouldn't allow him to do it if he comes in being Denzel right like King Kong ain't got [ __ ] on 55:42 me he comes in doing that kind of thing right or if he's that southern gen uh Senator and he's like a we should 55:48 release the dogs and two them up and spit them out kind of thing right then you'd be like oh man this is this is a 55:54 very odd performance but he's supposed to very professional he's a two-star general his [ __ ] is tighter than a 56:01 frog's butt as he would say there's no water getting in this guy he's been there he's done that he knows everything 56:07 what he's doing I thought he was just fine I wouldn't even say just better than serviceable I thought he was great 56:12 I thought he was he's not as M as the other ones but then again we spent two-thirds of the movie with them before we ever get to Bruce and Bruce is not 56:18 meant to go toe totoe really with Denzel that's that's not the point of this film for him or this role for him he's the 56:26 other piece of the all enemies thing is what happens if we turn the military 56:32 loose on citizens what happens if there is a general who has spent too much time 56:38 in the sandbox who's got too much skin in the game who has lost soldiers on the 56:43 other side he starts to become the zealots who want their leader released he starts to feel that same way like you 56:50 can kind of see why he starts to get a little bit Loosey Goosey I wish Ed this 56:56 is 98 so again I have to you know obviously think about that too but the torture scene it's bad but it's not 57:04 because we hear the audio which is fine but the way it ends seemed very abrupt and sudden and kind of like it like it 57:10 was almost like it was forced we hear the two screams and then I don't want to give too much a but you know how it ends 57:16 and I was kind of like shot but it was felt like fast like it was just felt like you know why I have a theory go 57:23 please please do because it was confusing it was bothered me last night I just felt like all the things in the film that were handled pretty well I 57:29 felt that okay I can appreciate them not wanting to show the the torture which which which is fine this 98 is not this 57:35 is not what edwick does right this isn't isn't his this Scorsese a Tarantino this is we're gonna see it right but that's 57:42 not how edwick you know designs his films the quickness of which all we've got to try to get information it was 57:48 very fast they kind of cut some things on we don't know what that's the great thing about the audio just hearing him scream yeah but then there's a gunshot 57:55 well well because he didn't have information they ended up torturing an innocent man yeah so they killed him it 58:01 was a used tissue paper they threw it out it was to show you how brutal and uncompromising they are like yeah well 58:08 it turns out it was useless but we can't have this guy alive and squeal on us so they yeah that was my thought process 58:14 too is that's what they were that's what they were leaning without saying it but so I leaned towards it was brutal and it 58:19 was just so the way he just walks out of the room wiping his hands like like he just squished a spider I think there I 58:26 thought for Bruce in this at this part of his career like he's a Hitman in the Jackal so we're not surprised he's 58:31 supposed to be this but he's not bad in the sense of he's now the war machine he's like I've got a job to I'll extract 58:38 information so you can't make an Al without breaking some eggs he broke an egg here yep wasn't the right guy but we're going to go find another one to 58:43 torture it was just yeah as soldiers or as military people you currently and and me former and having B to Iraq and end 58:51 the war in 03 to4 this is why you don't televise a war they maybe hard for 58:56 listeners to grasp who haven't been in the military and this is why he said you 59:01 don't want to bring wartime things to a civilized peacetime area him saying in 59:09 that scene this man's life is not as important and there's not a single 59:15 person who's been in the military who would not give that man's life up to keep their buddies safe from you know 59:21 from learning about you know a possible Ambush an attack coming up right to save 59:27 like it's kind of what Jack Nicholson says in A Few Good Men there are men who 59:33 guard the walls and those men have guns it's how you sleep quietly at night 59:38 sometimes how freedom is kept and I'm not saying this is right or wrong but this is sometimes where it has to go 59:45 sometimes things that you don't want to know about yeah you don't sure and you don't need to know about it and 59:51 unfortunately we're live in a time where everyone wants information and they can't handle well you you can't see it through some eyes I'm not saying the 59:56 torturing thing is great I'm trying to you know I don't want God that guy's a [ __ ] he's a war 1:00:02 criminal no I'm just saying like there are things that happen in in war zones on both sides that are not right but 1:00:10 sometimes when a decision needs to be made and the decision is always what is 1:00:15 the most effective course of action to save the most amount of lives sometimes a decision like that is 1:00:21 made and if it's wrong it's bad obviously but it's a judgment and when 1:00:28 given the fact that if you look at the totality of the movie how much is happening the panic in New York City is fever pitched there are attacks every 1:00:35 other day it feels like you know obviously because it's a movie we got two hours so we're gonna feel like it's happening every other minute time is 1:00:41 running out and you've called this option in to stop more deaths and you've just had the you know the Federal 1:00:47 Building exploded which is why now we've got the the Army on site it's why we had the Army on site for two three years 1:00:54 down in New York City while they rebuilt like yeah it's why you know there was Army in the terminals everywhere of every train 1:01:00 station major cities for a while why they have it over in Europe and stuff sometimes you know it's a tough 1:01:07 situation but when you have an enemy that doesn't wear a uniform this this is why this movie does a great job of of 1:01:12 making you think it's like it forces the people who have never been over there or have had to deal with this stuff to look 1:01:19 at the tough decisions and how much of a like Rubik's Cube it really is to figure 1:01:25 out how to do this properly and save lives and not take lives that you don't need to take the person who sits on the 1:01:31 couch and never been there will be like well how could he do that and it's terrible to watch and hear but at the 1:01:37 same time we've all been in places where it's like that in Wartime there there have been decisions like that throughout 1:01:43 all the history of War on both sides of the fence you know not just the American but everyone's side where decisions have 1:01:49 to be made and sometimes sacrifices have to be made in order to keep people safe and keep things from happening and so 1:01:55 that where that gray matter gets and this is what this film does a great job of it's like here's both sides you know 1:02:01 you know and how do you want to protect yourself pick your poison hope that you can change the minds of the people who 1:02:08 feel this way or possibly unleash this dog that has his own ways he wants to do 1:02:13 things so I think that alone Bruce did a great job delivering that I would say 1:02:19 that anyone who disagrees go join the military and tell me you don't know a two- star general like this they're 1:02:24 stoic they're not going to give their cards away when the uniform turns from civilian to the the bdus or the the 1:02:31 camos there's a reason they're two star you know what I mean you learn quickly they are in charge that's when I like 1:02:37 when he says to Denzel you really think you have authority right now you don't think I'm I'm in charge I'm not your boss right now that's awesome yeah thank 1:02:44 you okay are you ready to now hear some words of Ed and some of the behind the scenes stuff here absolutely the first 1:02:50 clip is Ed talk about just how they got the script Linda Ops the producer with a 1:02:55 deal in 1997 Linda opst a producer with a deal at 20th Century Fox sent me an 1:03:01 original screenplay called blowback written by Larry Wright it was about a group of terrorists to bring a nuclear 1:03:08 device into New York Harbor I demurred but the spread of Islamic terrorism that was beving most of Europe was something 1:03:15 I'd read a lot about that America would eventually have to deal with the threat seemed obvious to me in fact we already 1:03:21 had I met with Tom Rothman president of fox and told there was a movie to be 1:03:26 made from Larry script not a Race Against Time action movie but an in-depth conjectural look at how law 1:03:33 enforcement might deal with terrorism when it arrived at our Shores I assured Tom that it would also have some kickass 1:03:39 action what I like what Ed does is he's always about the character study and that's what I love about his film he has 1:03:44 all these characters we've said it before other films big cast but I never once felt like any of the characters 1:03:50 were wasted or they're kind of tossed aside everyone seems to have a story I he has a great ability to get you 1:03:58 invested with each character from the general played by Bruce to Denzel of course and just everyone seems to be 1:04:05 important in in their Arc within the story and it is about terrrace in the 1:04:10 city it's not there is action sequences sure but it's not an action movie like Die Hard 3 was a terrorist action film 1:04:17 this is psychological film oh absolutely 100% this next clip I titled it inside 1:04:23 help from an agent but as we were being escorted out of the building a veteran 1:04:29 field agent who happened to be a movie afficianado mentioned having liked a couple of my films and wanted to know 1:04:35 who might be playing the lead FBI agent when I mentioned Denzel Washington his eyes lit up love to meet him when he's 1:04:42 in New York he said offering me his card and scribbling his personal cell number on the back I asked Denzel to come to 1:04:49 New York and invited the agent to join us for dinner after a few glasses of wine a couple of Hollywood anecdotes 1:04:55 notes and an autograph he reciprocated by proudly revealing just how massive the nyds and FBI's counterterrorism 1:05:03 efforts had become profiling surveillance wir tapping undercover informance infiltration of mosques 1:05:10 everything we knew to be happening abroad was happening here with little attention paid to the niceties of civil 1:05:16 rights he went on to detail how terrorist cell members had gained entry into the country by means of student 1:05:21 visas and how their operations were financed from abroad he even me mentioned enhanced interrogation 1:05:27 techniques used by the CIA on prisoners held at black sites around the world that's a great insight scop there from 1:05:33 that agent then they used those points throughout the film showcasing all that stuff the student visa in particular torture stuff and so it's amazing that's 1:05:41 what I mean that's why this movie might have been very prophetic and they had a guy telling them hey this 1:05:48 stuff is happening on our soil that's why I like he's telling this stuff is happening right now here well I believe one of the hijackers in the got into the 1:05:54 country on student visa one of the and was on the watch list that's the other 1:05:59 thing is a couple one of the guys that they say the gentleman's finger who they find after the bus explodes and to find 1:06:05 out who it was you know kind of who was perpetrating this he had been in the country he he got through on the watch 1:06:11 list he been on the watch and they're kind of figuring out how does this guy on the Terrace Watchers make it in it's Eerie to look at this film knowing that 1:06:18 this came out three years prior to 911 yeah and how close you could tell 1:06:25 research that was being done or the things that were happening in real time real life that Ed was able to draw from 1:06:31 and and got some you know obviously people like this gentleman he's talking about help them scary that this was 1:06:37 happening three years prior and we're just all living here in America just kind of like like cows grazing in the field not realizing about to be turned 1:06:43 into burger just kind of like yeah we're fine everything's good and all a sudden the next thing you know 911 happens and 1:06:50 life has not been the same since no it has not yeah here's an antidote here about Anette Ed I loved working with 1:06:57 Anette in addition to being brilliant gracious hardworking and fun she wasn't 1:07:03 intimidated by Denzel's strength and was willing to go toe-to-toe with him at the 1:07:08 same time she could always be counted on to find unexpected humor even in the most serious scenes one night after 1:07:14 she'd finished giving her new baby a 2 a.m. feeding and put her to sleep in her trailer Anette and I were sitting in our 1:07:20 chairs waiting for Roger deacons to finish a huge lighting setup you know Ed 1:07:26 she said with a mischievous look we met 10 years ago it took me a moment hoping 1:07:31 I hadn't done anything unto but then it all came back to me I'd been in New York 1:07:36 casting 30s something and seen a Ned in a lovely play called Coastal disturbances I do remember I said you 1:07:44 came in to read for Ellen and for Melissa you were wonderful except you didn't cast me 1:07:50 knowing how well things had turned out for her since then I had the presence of mind to say I know 1:07:56 and you never thank me well done well done zwick well done 1:08:02 sir it's funny how life is like I know it's so cliche but it seems to happen a lot in Hollywood as a big example like 1:08:08 when one door closes another opens you always hear about that star of a TV show like a big one was uh Lisa kudro was 1:08:16 supposed to be on Frasier uh playing the operator to pH Fraser's operator in the 1:08:21 booth there and she didn't get the role and it went to Perry Gilpin Who start Perry Gilpin um is that her name yeah 1:08:27 this is Perry Gilpin I think anyway she's great I love Fraser and I love friends so I don't know if that would have captured Lisa's the way she is I 1:08:34 think more of who she is is the Phoebe character that shot her to stardom so it's just interesting how you might 1:08:40 think you lost a big spot and uh but no she goes on to you know one of the number one comedies of all time so 1:08:47 that's why the Ed sa here it's like hey I think you're did just fine that I didn't cast you my TV show in the 90s 1:08:52 that got cancelled after three seasons so you're welcome yeah he right there n Ned did go as we mentioned toe-to-toe 1:08:57 with you know she stood her own with with Denzel she really did an amazing job she did they did great when they're like yelling at each other and stuff or 1:09:03 whatever it was yeah you could tell obviously they're acting but you can also sense the confidence that Anette 1:09:09 would have to have as an actress to to stand up to Denzel's a person because he see he's intimidating that's yeah he's 1:09:16 very you know I'm saying he's like he's intentionally trying to be intimidating but he's just Denzel he has an AA about 1:09:21 him yeah strength confidence intelligence of course it's in I'm dumb you know the next one is a clip about 1:09:27 how Denzel of course Nails it again I think Ed's writing out stories about how good Denzel is that's why I stopped 1:09:34 working with him yeah yeah he's too good Denzel played the FED with studied calm but as the story progresses you can feel 1:09:41 the rage Rising inside him until it explodes in a beautifully played ARA when he finds a naked prisoner being 1:09:48 tortured so that was just that clip there about the uh the torture scene and boy that was a tense moment of the film 1:09:54 all right the next clip is is uh about Tony and his first day of shooting you you'll be surprised to hear what his 1:10:00 scene his first scene was H the big surprise was Tony shaloo when I cast him 1:10:06 he had a few days left to shoot on the movie but neither its production manager nor ours anticipated a scheduling 1:10:12 problem that was before disaster struck his other movie and it went 3 weeks over schedule I was 1:10:19 crushed but there was an alternative to recasting him Tony just had to finish 1:10:24 work on his other movie by 400 p.m. get to LAX by 5: take the redey in New York 1:10:30 City arriving on set with us at 3:00 a.m. never having met me tried on a costume or rehearse the scene then in 1:10:37 subzero weather shoot a scene that had to be completed before Dawn which also happened to be his character's most 1:10:43 dramatic scene in the movie in the scene he looks desperately for his son among 1:10:48 those Arab Americans who've been rounded up and imprisoned in a stadium finds Denzel and tears into him Tony nailed it 1:10:56 on the first take a heartbreaking performance that's one of the best scenes in the movie The Crew knowing 1:11:02 what he had pulled off burst into Applause Tony shaloo is the epitome of a money player wow I mean that's that 1:11:10 scene is amazing it's heart-wrenching it's really the moment in the film where things flip like you start to see things 1:11:16 from which is great about the film you see things from two perspectives listen anybody out there who can't who's having 1:11:22 a tough time figuring out how to motivate yourself a man finished the got on a flight had to run to LAX I've 1:11:28 been to La it's not quick to get to LAX get on a flight not this is you know he's on a flight flight he's sitting 1:11:34 with other people he's sitting with people who are you know whatever and he's flying across the country he's 1:11:40 losing time as he flies across obviously because he's already three hours behind New York by time he flies so he's losing 1:11:46 hours as he to get to New York gets to New York getting out of JFK laguard is in freaking nightmare and then he's in 1:11:52 freezing cold weather gotta go in and then do the most intense scene with never even working with Denzel yet yeah 1:11:59 now how good are both those actors because if you told me that if now listeners hearing this see that scene 1:12:04 and go this is the first day that they are standing together they doing one take no rehearsal no rehearsal you know 1:12:11 they say happy accidents the stress of 1:12:16 all the things he had to do to get there helped because now he's already got this 1:12:22 anxiety you know I mean he's probably able to tap into that to now be looking for his son which 1:12:28 another great thing you think about this he hasn't even met the guy who's playing his son no so so there's no you know 1:12:34 what I mean so like he's literally in his mind go I've got to try to figure out which one of these people is my son 1:12:40 so he can go from cage to cage looking for someone he thinks might be playing his son and he has no idea so that's 1:12:46 kind of a just another element but man that's that's that's the great thing about movies is we always forget they're 1:12:51 not shot sequentially they are shot no you know they're not you know if see Iron Man and he's in this room and he's 1:12:58 in it seven times in the film and there's seven different times they shot it all in one week and he had to be told 1:13:04 what is going on he had to get into a mindset so acting is you know people think it's just so easy but it's not 1:13:10 like when you shoot films out of sequence it's pretty impressive for Tony to first shot be the most pivotal moment 1:13:17 of his scene which is after all the other stuff and now he's got to go in reverse he's got to forget all this and 1:13:22 forget what's coming and just what what great job I mean well said yeah I agree and that's why Tony was probably the 1:13:29 perfect guy to be the second to Denzel yeah he was great with Denzel absolutely 1:13:35 great right this next one talks about Bruce and yeah well I want to hear your 1:13:40 thoughts about what what is said here and this also will explain oh man is this be another 1:13:47 another Matthew bradrick oh no no no not as bad no no not as bad as Matthew I 1:13:52 mean Bruce was 43 now but uh I mean gota keep in mind Matthew was like barely 21 or 1:13:58 20 but he was just a kid still a nightmare of a mother holy [ __ ] after 1:14:03 listening to that recording of that episode and the audio book that we drew from I came to the conclusion like even 1:14:10 afterwards like I think the mother was just manipulative I think if the mother wasn't the b word it would have been a 1:14:16 different story like I think the mother kind of controlled Matt a little bit too much okay here's modern Annie wils I'm 1:14:22 surprised Edward didn't get his legs tied to the thing broke his ankles to change the script for I'm sorry no 1:14:28 that's fine so this is interesting there's a reason why Bruce is in the film The listen there's a reason why 1:14:34 Bruce is in the film the way he is and how much he is where he might even seem shoehorned a bit okay okay Tom Rothman 1:14:43 decided we needed more star power he convinced me to cast Bruce Willis as the general who imposes martial law in the 1:14:49 city come to think of it I'm not sure he really gave me any choice if I wanted him to Greenlight the movie anyway I had 1:14:55 known Bruce since his days as a bartender at Cafe Central and I had worked with Dei on about last night they 1:15:01 were married the year after that film came out and Liberty and I had had them to dinner at our house I figured I could 1:15:07 make it work Bruce flew into New York only hours before shooting unlike Tony 1:15:12 he wasn't prepared and his performance was wooden and uncomfortable as if he'd stepped off another set and onto ours 1:15:19 Paul atanasio had come on to write some brilliant but difficult dialogue for Bruce's character and despite my best 1:15:26 efforts and perhaps attributable to the Aphasia I and the rest of the world would learn of much later Bruce barely 1:15:32 managed to stumble his way through and the authenticity of the third Act was irreparably hurt by his 1:15:38 performance wow so wow strong now Ed he's human he's not always right this is 1:15:44 his story his experience but there's two things he says at the end of that I was like wof like really so one I don't 1:15:51 think his performance was as bad as he's saying I'm I'm wondering why he's throwing not Bruce under the bus a 1:15:57 little bit but because it's not a perfect film I don't think he's mean to do it but I think there's a part of the 1:16:02 part of him that's echoing what the critics have already said so he's kind of safe to do it that Bruce was the weakest link and though he may have been 1:16:09 as far as yeah compared to Denzel and Anette and Tony but he wasn't a weak 1:16:15 link he might have been the weakest you know what I mean by like he might not yeah but I again it was more than 1:16:21 serviceable I think it was fine in fact it was good to see Bruce out of sort not out of sort out of his typical type of 1:16:28 character I think he played the wooden General Persona very well I think that's how I took the performance and then the 1:16:34 other thing I found surprising that Ed said talking about his mental disabilities back when he was 43 I does 1:16:40 it show that early that's a little bit of a I thought that was odd to talk about that 25 or 30 years before it show 1:16:45 showcase itself what do you think of that so he's there he's filming you've got 1:16:52 Tony SLO just done something amazing you've got Anette Benning who's killing it and you've got obviously Denzel 1:16:57 Wasington he's now in his third film with him so he's already got some people who are killing and if Bruce shows up and not 1:17:03 prepared that's on Bruce like you know so that's a fair criticism the film is already happening so I think they 1:17:08 already kind of had their team spirit they had all this Aid lless type of acting quality going on and Bruce kind 1:17:14 of comes not Bruce Willis but someone's got to be the straight man in the film too though for a little bit right like so you know T Tony's doing a good job up 1:17:20 until we do initiate martial law and we've got to take his son so now Tony is actually he's being pulled in two 1:17:27 directions so his character has to have a reaction we already know n Benny's character is being pulled in 27 1:17:32 directions like Denzel says to her you don't even know who you're [ __ ] you know like so and then Denzel is he's our 1:17:39 hero can go up and down wherever he wants right we want his range we want him to be soft when he needs to be soft 1:17:45 low his mouths that's why we we're watching Denzel we don't need Bruce to add a fourth person who's lost their 1:17:51 [ __ ] he loses his [ __ ] when he needs like went towards the end well we need someone to be a stalwart like he's a 1:17:58 general he's supposed to be a stalwart however however I will say something 1:18:03 else has happened and edwick is being very very kind or keeping it quiet 1:18:08 something else has happened because the last part he has said is twofold that it's twofold one is it is a shot at 1:18:18 Bruce without it being too you know on the nose but there's no 1:18:23 way of Asia was get 43 I'm sorry if you watch the journey I'm watching you you can see when it's starting to peek in 1:18:29 it's around 2018 2019 it really starts you go oh [ __ ] sad sad Ian because you 1:18:34 know when you don't know you can watch his acting you go oh God this is terrible but he also knows that SAS 1:18:41 fasia one he's not listening to this two he doesn't remember anything that's happened so it is a little bit of a cheap shot maybe down the maybe Bruce 1:18:47 did something to him I don't know and and Ed's going to be polite enough to know like look I'm edwick he's Bruce 1:18:53 Willis it's like going against Taylor like I know that there's more people are going to come for me if I'm a little too 1:18:58 neat to information yeahia was kind of like a that was a 1:19:05 little bit of a low blow it was a little bit of a low blow he he he was 43 so I don't because he did some incredible 1:19:12 films after that still there was no way I think this is weird that he brought that up you know maybe Bruce didn't want to be in it was just like you know what 1:19:18 fine I'll just do this I'm gonna get a good paycheck they want me in it and maybe he got something off of it clearly he and Bruce never buried the C for 1:19:25 whatever the real issue was like he did with Matthew but listening to your glory episode and listening him talk [ __ ] 1:19:31 Matt's mom is far more a pain in the ass than whatever Bruce did to him and he was being like polite as best he could 1:19:36 to her because he knows maybe Matt will listen to this one day I think like in this one he's like well Bruce is never 1:19:42 gonna listen to it so [ __ ] I'm gonna cut out his knees he's never gonna say anything but he was kind of like really real Cy he wanted to call her the SE 1:19:50 word and he just was very nice about not doing so I just thought it was a little weird that he would then like 1:19:55 In that clip attack Bruce in that manner like but not a very professional but 1:20:00 it's a very passive aggressive attack on them it's kind of like well you know 1:20:06 look I'm not saying anything against him maybe the aasia it's like wow wow the aasia fasia speaking through so you're 1:20:12 saying that Bruce didn't have his mental faculties back what I mean I thought it was odd that mentioned that early he's 43 at the time me because he a year 1:20:20 later he's doing the six sents and then he's coming out a year later in Unbreakable like he looks like he's in full capacity in those films so yeah I I 1:20:28 think it was odd that's why I found the oddest thing to bring I think Ed might have just been hey and you know we don't 1:20:34 know he was look it I'll give I'll give him credit he didn't give up the he didn't give up the dirt he didn't give 1:20:40 up why he feels this way and so there's probably more the story more the on this 1:20:45 oh there's more to meet the ey a Transformer situation here it's more to meet because of Bruce's current 1:20:50 condition this is a fairly new book I don't I think as like let sleeping dogs lie the poor guy gu his family just that's it yeah the aasan thing probably 1:20:57 could have been whatever whatever it might have been his way of saying he sucks as far as I'm concerned but what 1:21:03 this blame is medical dog [ __ ] but I'm pretty sure it's the AAS who was speaking through 25 1:21:09 years earlier ho [ __ ] anyway all right here is some early reviews of the actors 1:21:15 from critics the movie played well in previews despite some audience resistance to Bruce so often cast is the 1:21:21 outof control Action Hero now playing a button- Down senior military officer Denzel and Annette were judged fabulous 1:21:28 adversaries Tony's performance was regarded by all to be deeply moving and the depiction of our country's reaction 1:21:35 to the arrival of terrorism on our Shores was strong and unsettling so again just that echoing of the Rie poor 1:21:41 Bruce but I think he also names the reason right like I General yeah and we're used to him 1:21:49 like like I said even in Pulp Fiction he is an unhinged boxer a bit he's you know all these movies he's been in he's 1:21:54 always a guy who like a Denzel like if Denzel was playing an a quiet accountant 1:22:01 we'd all and he doesn't have like a a Denzel moment where he gives a big speech or he has a big explosion or does 1:22:06 something we'd probably like oh is Denzel quitting acting is he not caring anymore so when you're used to Bruce the 1:22:13 action star who is just well so this is what 98 so is this the same year that 1:22:19 Die Hard 3 came out 95 It was 95 so it's three years ear so we're used to you know we've got John mlan in our head we 1:22:26 got all these other things he's done so yeah I can understand why people think that Bruce might be mailing it in but at 1:22:32 the same time Armageddon was also 98 there we go Armageddon okay so he's playing look at I mean he's playing all 1:22:38 these right Bruce typical roles and now he's a quiet guy who does which he would 1:22:44 also then lean into in two movies he does with M my Shyamalan because he leans into the quiet private 1:22:52 investigator type when he plays in the six sense you know he's not a big voice 1:22:57 guy there and even in Unbreakable he's a very shy unassuming security guard I 1:23:03 guess maybe if those movies had come out first people might have been like this is Bruce doing something different again 1:23:08 I'm not trying to save Bruce from no that's why I brought at the same time 1:23:14 I do feel like uh Ed kind of maybe had hit the the nail on the nose when he 1:23:20 said that people aren't used to Bruce being this wooden buttoned up very 1:23:25 serious military guy sure yeah I mean look if you look at some of our military ones you know like uh you've got Patton 1:23:32 you know like that's that's not a button- down guy even when you watch Sav and Private Ryan we get to know them so 1:23:38 well technically Tom Hanks guy would probably be a button- down type of guy he's a former English teacher excuse me 1:23:43 English teacher you know in in the movie there's more to the story of why Mr Ed zwick and Bruce Willis didn't get a he's 1:23:52 said head logger heads with him because of whatever happened I don't know I here's some more early review 1:23:59 talk but after a couple of early press reviews I began to feel some for boing about the story's reception by the 1:24:06 chattering classes I sensed resistance from both left and right one side 1:24:11 fearing the stereotyping of arab-americans the other objecting to the heavy-handed portrayal of law 1:24:18 enforcement the one thing everyone seemed to agree upon was that a major terrorist attack on Manhattan 1:24:24 was implausible wow well how are they wrong about that e this will never happen they 1:24:30 said Jesus Christ this is what this will never happen they said this film has again I like would probably prefer 1:24:37 this film to be something that no one remembers and stumbles upon because someone tells it as opposed to it having 1:24:43 a legacy that's kind of whether it wanted to be or not is tied to 911 it it 1:24:49 is a it can't help but be that yeah it's a precursor it it really is when you and 1:24:55 that's why we watched it which is bizarre as we're heading up to guard the Pentagon as it's getting rebu moment for 1:25:02 you guys H let's get going it's kind of like but yeah but you sitting there watching it and you realize it's three years early and you're kind of like holy 1:25:08 [ __ ] like you know it's a movie but sometimes art imitates life and and this 1:25:13 time life imitated art in a far worse way because there's that one overhead shot and again look the the CGI or the 1:25:21 effects from 98 especially when I'm watching it on my home television even though it's 1:25:27 4K you know when they do the overhead shot of like what's supposed to be like the crater of and I think it's trying to 1:25:32 emulate what happened it's it's trying to emulate what happened at um the Oklahoma Oklahoma City because that's 1:25:38 that's the biggest thing we can think of right so it's just and and even in the footage we see from the barracks blowing up it's always a car bomb that blew up 1:25:45 the side of the building so you can kind of see it ripped open even that is still it's it's Eerie like it's Eerie and and 1:25:52 you look at that and you go my God there's a you know the thing was huge where Ground Zero was it was just right it's so it's 1:26:00 this is such an eerie film that how close they got some of this to be right 1:26:05 and how I mean it was a forewarning that it was trying to tell 1:26:10 the American people and people just really weren't listening you know like it really was trying to tell like like 1:26:17 the enemy that you think is the enemy the the reasons are different than you really believe them to be and as Annette 1:26:23 Benning says go the person who has the most almost balls is the one who wins you know the one who blinks last is the 1:26:30 one who who wins and you know as we found with some of the terrorism that we we dealt with they were willing to Blink 1:26:38 BL and that's why those two buildings came down we even though this just a movie we had uh the first attack on the 1:26:45 Trade Center in 92 and then you had our home attack of 95 when it was Oklahoma City and it just I think America just 1:26:53 was like this will never they said this will never happened to us it's never going to happen and we now know what really did happen and this yeah like 1:26:59 just watch this movie again was just so like it drummed up so many different feelings and thoughts that I hadn't had 1:27:05 in so long just like reliving like it was like a time it almost like it's like going back to a time before something's 1:27:11 happen like before the dawn of the cell phone you know that all movies have to deal with the dawn of like especially 1:27:17 smartphones this was a time of like before terrorism was really a thing here it was always something that was 1:27:22 somewhere else you guys had to deal it I remember it last year it was end up being a reckless driver but someone 1:27:28 ended up hitting the toll here near near n Falls and yeah and everyone thought oh 1:27:33 my God it was a terrorist attack but end being someone who two party people yeah yeah people yeah little little drunk and 1:27:39 they disintegrated themselves against the barrier but I remember there was a lockdown you your border are the border 1:27:45 between here and uh by New York and you was shut down it was just our people your people everyone was kind of like on 1:27:51 [ __ ] pucker tight high alert and then once they finally realized and they got the camera footage and they realized it was just two parters who just either 1:27:59 didn't see it or I don't know what the hell they're doing but they then then everyone was like okay but it was big 1:28:04 news it was big news in Canada was big news in United States at the same time we we thought uh oh was something you know something new a foot we wouldn't 1:28:11 have felt that way back in 98 we just been like just like the people in this film like ah it's not gonna happen 1:28:16 that's right we're invincible and this last clip is uh some of the push back that was felt the demonstrations were 1:28:22 small but honestly slow news day the message resonated with the first strings of journalistic wokeness here was yet 1:28:29 another Hollywood exploitation film turning an oppressed minority into villains the film critics liked andzel 1:28:36 and inette hated Bruce and were mixed about the movie The Box Office was okay the studio received several bomb threats 1:28:43 and posted armed guards at the gate Bedford Falls received word through a contact in the CIA that our office was 1:28:50 being targeted it wasn't really we eventually learned but only after we had security for a couple of weeks there you 1:28:56 go interesting times for the filmmakers for the studio for Ed what a time what a Time the word wokeness that was 1:29:03 impressive too he's he's two for two on the under in the on the siege one he really bringing them all out I wonder 1:29:09 how again I'm sure he's very diplomatic for the most part on what he wanted to 1:29:14 say I he did write a letter he wrote a letter like like a what do you call it a um not an apology so much as he 1:29:22 expresses yeah like the film I think he wrote it I think it was published at the time but he reads it in his book it's 1:29:29 really well written and I think it explains his feelings on the film overall why it was made the thought 1:29:36 process behind it and all that good stuff yeah it's what an interesting time for for Ed and for the crew and it's 1:29:43 it's hard to believe Scott that his next film is The Last Samurai well he's like look I'm we're gonna go back in history 1:29:49 I can't offend anybody apparently or or prate something oh I'm I know I know we 1:29:55 got the Scientologist to play a white Samurai how dare they yeah I know I yeah I know so Scott thank you so much for 1:30:02 coming on thank you for having me on again I appreciate it you're the perfect guest with your military background with you being you know just your time and 1:30:08 place in history during the time place of this movie and the events after with 911 it was a great Insight from your experiences with that and of course 1:30:15 you're uh you're the Bruce expert on her last of the action heroes podcast Network you're the Bruce expert doing 1:30:21 the Lord's work those films uh at the three out of 10 star films that Bruce 1:30:26 poor guy again where can people find you so you can find me at the church of QT 1:30:32 pod for my church of Tarantino you can find me at The Cheeky bastards for our men of action and at dropping of Bruce 1:30:38 for all the 40 run of Bruce's straight to demand stuff and we're almost halfway 1:30:46 there so still got another year and a half to go yeah it's a long still a long slot but you want to rush it you don't 1:30:51 want to rush it you don't want to rush it has been fun like yeah some of them are crappy movies but we really it's 1:30:57 given us a new appreciation on movies and also kind of the ability to sometimes you got to look at a movie for 1:31:02 what it is and not go into it thinking everything is going to be Oscar worthy not every movie is made for that if we 1:31:09 cover on stuff on the Last Action podcast not all those films are meant to be you know St great movies but they 1:31:17 they there's a time and a place and a Nostalgia to him and I don't know just film is fun good bad whatever indiff 1:31:23 it's just just it's fun so guess we try to do is have fun Edwards Wick he so far 1:31:29 with the one two three four the six films that we've covered on the series so far we're almost halfway done his 1:31:34 filmography if you can believe it speaking of halfway so far no stinkers yeah yeah he's good films these 1:31:42 are good films I mean were six films deep into fil filmography will The Last Samurai be the first stinker find out 1:31:49 folks find out on the next episode of Wix flicks well thanks everyone thanks for joining us again 1:32:14 [Music] 1:32:24 all