Latest / Houselights: A Film Director Podcast / Contact (1997) - Robert Zemeckis | Houselights #248

Transcript

Contact (1997) - Robert Zemeckis | Houselights #248 · Houselights: A Film Director Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the ned Palty.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to House Lights, our director discussion show here
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: on the Nerd Party Network. This week, we're continuing to
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: look at Zamechas of the nineteen nineties with nineteen ninety
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: seven's Contact with a story by Carl Sagan and Anne Duran.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Will this podcast last eighteen hours or no time at all?
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: I'm your host Stargazer Darren Moser, and I'm joined again
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: by my friends Head of the National Security Council and
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: wear of some fine cologne, John Mills and recursive billionaire
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: tr Raddell. This film is shocked full of fi wonder
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: both and it's cast and its effects. If we don't
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: convince you with our sizeable ratings, well that would just
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: be an awful waste of space. Gentlemen, this movie some good,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: meaty sci fi. I can seek my teeth then too.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: I'm so excited.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: My first question for everybody, I gotta know I've read
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: the book that this is based on. Have either of you?
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: I have not.
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: I know a lot about the differences between the two,
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: but I haven't read the book.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: I highly recommend the book. I I this is a
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: classic example. It's not like Shining Level two different things
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: sort of thing. But all of the decisions they make
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: to streamline makes so much sense in the film, but
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: then when you read the book, you're like, oh, like it, actually,
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: I would kind.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Of more Jurassic Park, where Jurassic Park really goes into
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: the minutia versus the movie.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: Uh yeah, I'd say that's closer than like with Shining,
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: Like there's no yeah, yeah, that stuff a very apt comparison.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: But there is definitely a lot of streamlining with this film,
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: but also some decisions that actually the special effects will
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: touch on that I can't wait to talk about.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Yay, Well, Starry about streamlining, Tristan, did this feel like
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: a streamlined film? Because it's two and a half hours long.
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: This is the Mechis's longest film, which is crazy to
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: me because you think Forrest Gump or Castaway I would
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: have sworn Yeah, yeah, no, it's a I would not
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: call this a streamline film. But you know, when comparing
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: it to the book and like the scientific discoveries in
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: the book and the intellectual you know, philosophy and everything
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: like that, and when you look at the differences between
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: the how many people went at the end versus just
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: ellegoing at the end and everything like that, like it's
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: it's a it's a Hollywood streamline when compared to the
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: source material. But yet I have some struggles with that
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: because I can't criticize it too much because it needed
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: to do these things. But at the same time, it's
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: two and a half hours and you feel.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: It, you do feel it. I would say that for
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: all the streamlining that they did, there is still something
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: that could have streamlined even more out of it, and
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: it would have been probably closer to two hours and
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: it still would have been fine. And you know, I'm
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: not saying that to like tip my hand in terms
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: of my reaction, but I remember seeing this in the
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: theater at the time, and my reaction was fairly typical
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: from people who saw it where they were like it
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: was everybody. Everybody who came out, regardless of whether they
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: loved it or not, all said, well, you could have
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: cut maybe this part of it or tone. You know,
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: you've felt gotten at a point faster there. Yeah, And
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: that's what's odd is like rewatching it this time. It's
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: the first time for me in years, and it definitely
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: I definitely felt the length this time, like it definitely
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: definitely felt like a two and a half hour film.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: So all right, well, Tristan, we have to know Riddell
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: family favorite or did this one mix? It was it
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: a VHS DVD or Blu ray purchase, because yeah, it
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: tells how how quickly they wanted to adopt it to
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: the library.
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: This was this was a Redell family favorite.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Ah I called it.
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: And this was such a Riddell family favorite that all
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: of us saw it in the theater when it came out.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we were all all of us except for my
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: sister who's a black sheep of the family who's not
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: a nerd uh. You know, she had like friends in
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: a social life. But no, like all the three of
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: like my parents and me were stoked for it. We
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: were just like, wait, a science heavy film and it's
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: based off of Carl Sagan book. Yeah, okay, we're gonna go.
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: And also like we were all big Jodie Foster fans,
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: like my mom was like hardcore into Nell. You know
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: when the right right before this before.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: That's a poll, that is a poll I have. I
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: don't think people even knew Nell was out when Nell
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: was out, so okay, she was.
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: The one she was the one one went to the
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: theater for it, but no, we we loved it. It
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: was actually like the opening scene, you know, where we
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: get the pull out, you know with the radio frequencies.
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: Classic scene, really really greatly done. I always like, I
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: have this memory in my about this movie, like the
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: when I think about that scene, I think about my
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: mom where it's completely silent in the movie in the
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: in the theater and I hear my mom whisper. I
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: hate it when they don't start with music, and then
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: all of a sudden you start to hear the radio
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: frequencies and everything, and then I hear a.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Oh okay, well, which is funny because for that scene
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: just gave me the impression of well, I know where
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: a quarter of the budget went was for licensing all
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: of these media bits for this long intro.
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: Maybe not the quarner, but you know, and Men in
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: Black has ruined it for me. Honestly, by the time
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: we get to the end of it, I expect to
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: see aliens, you know, playing with marbles, playing marbles. But
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: actually this was one of the first DVDs that my
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: dad ever bought.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: Oh interesting, I would have one of.
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: The clamshell cases, not the clamshell, but the kind that
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: open up on the side.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, tab yeah up front.
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And that was that Jody Foster commentary was great.
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: That was one of the first commentaries I ever truly
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: listened to. Was this one.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: Interesting see I think that you know to the story
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: with your mom like that is. There were people who
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: definitely I remember on my first viewing, it would have
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: been great had they started the film with like a
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: card saying it's supposed to be silent for a while,
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: just don't talk, trust us. The sound is broken because
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: you could hear people start to fidget and everything. People
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: don't know what to do if they're if they're not
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: bombarded with noise, and it's like, you know, I got
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: my camp and we're sitting there, We're like, oh wow,
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: this is really Yeah.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: And other people like just two thousand or one, where
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: again you have the music playing, but it's just black
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: screen and it's it's jarring, like we are not used
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: to that.
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: I remember a sign uh on the door walking into
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: Last Jedi when it said towards the end of the film,
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: there's an explosion followed by silence. This is totally part
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: of the movie don't come and complain. I softballed it
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: to you, and I didn't realize it. I was I
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: couldn't help in trouble, like five words into that.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm like the sniper. I had to take the shot.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: I had to take the shot.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: Come on anyway, all right, Well back to Contact. Yeah,
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: this movie, not only you know, had a heavy influence
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: from Carl Sagan, you know, NASA influence, all these pieces
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: coming together. Let's talk talking about the cast, because this
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: cast is bigger and better than it had any right
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: to be, I think in nineteen ninety seven. Also in
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: just a sci fi way. Now, some of these are
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: movies that they're going to do later, which I guess
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: doesn't really apply. But you have you Matthew McConaughey with Interstellar.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: You have David Morse is going to be in Twelve Monkeys,
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: you know, major pedigree coming from Tom Skirt with Alien
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Captain Dallas. You have John Hurt Alien again with Cain.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Even Angela Bassett was in Critters four where they were
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: on a space station. I know low Low Hanging Fruit
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: or Jake Push.
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: I know Angela Bassett, Right, doesn't everybody have that Blue
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: rais all right?
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: All right. All that's to say for being a science
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: a hard science type movie where they are trying to
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: put a lot into it. Yes, there's fantastical elements this cast.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: Every time someone new came on screen, I was like, oh,
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: it's got even better, Like well that I mean how
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: I perceived it.
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but think about it. By this point, Zamechas has
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: done all of these movies we've talked about up to
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: this point, and then he won the Oscar for he's
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: coming off a forest Gump. All he has to do
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: is call somebody and be like, hey, you want to
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: be in my next movie? Yes, sir, I do. I
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: will work for scale. I have no problem with that,
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: because you just want to be in the Zamechas movie
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: because it's like, well, look at what this guy is
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: capable of. You know, I might suddenly get all of
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: this esteem. I think that interesting. And this is one
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: of the one of the things that they committed to
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: that I guess is okay, but they Zamechas makes such
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: a such a decision to root it in the world
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: of our time at the time that he made a
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: change where Angela Bassett had It's been a true adaptation
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: of the book, she would have been the president, and
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: instead they make the decision, no, we're going to root
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: it in our world, and I feel like that's it. Yeah.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: They There was actually a little bit of controversy about
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: the fact that they clipped Clinton talking about the Mars
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: landing and camped them in, and there was a conver.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Larry King like it. It kind of blew If this
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: was on the TV and the background as you know,
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: movie of the week, you might not know for a
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: moment if it was a movie.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean the lighting on Clinton was obviously outdoors,
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: comped in.
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: Hey, you know that's going to be ruined it for yeah,
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: you know, really ruined it. You're just like, oh man,
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: he's clearly in the sun.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: And which which you know, blows my mind because I'm like, well,
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: you could have just comped these other people in and
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: not you could have had to be in the Rose
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: Garden like it would have been okay. But I mean
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: the decision to root it in nineteen ninety seven, basically,
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: I mean, was that a mistake? Like does it lose
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: some of its own because now it's an historical piece
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: and you know that didn't happen in history. Should it have
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: been set a little bit further in the future so
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: that it felt a little more, you know, not of
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: our time.
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: No, I can now, I can firmly say no, no,
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: that never really occurs to me whatsoever I think I mean,
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: if anything, I mean the first satellite dish that she
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: was at. I can never remember the name of it. Darren,
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: you probably remember, Oh.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: Is that the one that's collapsed now?
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: It is here, It laps in twenty twenty, and it
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: was in James Bond. It's been all around.
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: It was in the X files at one time. Yeah, No,
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: I think it was. It was interesting to put to
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: put Clinton in there. I don't think it was the
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: wrong move. I don't think it was a bad move,
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: but I feel like there could have been a little
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: bit more elegant ways to do it, where even if
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: we just saw him on TV right the scene with him, Yeah,
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: that would have been I think that would have been fine.
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: That would have been absolutely fine.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I would take it a step further, and I
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: would say it would actually make it even better because
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: he could be on TV and somebody could say, oh,
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: you have politician going for the glory? Were the ones
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: working in the ditches sort of thing, you know, like
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: emphasizing how the person on TV doesn't necessarily have anything
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: to do with the work that's actually going on sort
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: of thing, but they're always the you know, the spokespiece
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: of it.
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: And what a theme of a like of a of
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: a triad in this movie where you have faith, science,
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: and politics all combating with each other all at once,
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: all throughout the movie. I thought that was I know
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: that that's not what we're talking about right now, but
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: that was something that I felt. I really felt this
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: time while watching it as an adult. I mean, I've
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: seen it before as an adult, but in this rewatch
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: that one that really hit me.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: Well well, I mean sticking with that though, the thing
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: that it always struck me really strikes me now more
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: than anything as I watched this is I'm going to
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: try to state it like the way it is in
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: my head, which is, if somebody like a Carl Sagan
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: type figure were to write this book now, I don't
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: think it would treat the theme of faith within sciences
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: as politely as Magnet, you know, like it wouldn't have
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: treated Matthew McConaughey's character as anything but an irrational goof
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: as opposed to even the book treats that character as
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: he's on to something. Maybe you know like that that
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: there is an amount of faith that you have to
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: put into something. And that's what I think is beautiful
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: as the movie carries that forward, that there is still
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: faith you have to put in to somebody who makes
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: the discovery or the person who's saying, no, this is
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: what this means or what this is. There's still some
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: faith involved in that. Trust you know what is faith,
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: but trust, like you essentially have to trust that person
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: to be telling dealing straight with you. But I think
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: that that is actually the thing that jumps out to
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: me now more than ever, is that I don't think
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: something would have treated that character as graciously as this
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: film does.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: Now, Yeah, I can I can see that. I think
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: it goes around to the question you posed earlier of
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: rooting this in ninety seven, I feel is the right
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: call because this is the world we were in in
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: ninety seven. It's a pre nine to eleven world. It's
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: you know, the different types of politics that are going on.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: I totally agree that this is how the government would
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: probably take over that kind of investigation if a signal
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: did come in. But you know for that, I liked
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: how you could see it coming where you know, James
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: Woods was there and his you know, his goons with
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: the guns are there and they're slowly encroaching, and you feel,
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: you know, for for Jodie Foster for air Away, because
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: you see it coming, you know it cannot the hammer
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: is going to drop. But yeah, overall, I think besides
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: being rooted, it's also just all these actors. These are
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: these are peak ninety seven actors, like everything screams this time,
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: which I think works well. So we've talked a bit
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: about the actors. Actually not not enough. I want from
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: each of you, who was your besides Away, besides Jodie Foster,
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: who is your favorite kind of performance out of this?
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: And you can go down the list, it doesn't have
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: to be, you know, on the on the top marks.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna say, I really enjoyed Tom Scaret. Again, you
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: can't for me, I can't look at him a Nazi
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: Dallas like that that charm, that captain, that father kind
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: of vibe that he just gives off. And he's the
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: politician in this really, he's the sensible bridge between science
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: and politics that you know, puts his hat in the
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: ring and and you know is the original test pilot.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: But I thought for the size of the role it
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: was he was giving it one hundred and ten percent.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: I didn't need any backstory on this guy. I knew
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: exactly what to expect, what he was going to give me.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: So that that's my recommendation. What about you, John, which
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: one kind of just struck you? In this rewatch?
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: There there are a couple. I mean, I always have
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: to tip my hat, you know. James Woods has always
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: been so good at playing that sort of like hard
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: ass jerkface, like he's just got a gift for it.
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: But honestly, I think William Fickner as Kent Clark, I
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: think he's an underappreciated actor in this role because he
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: is He's a fully like He's a side character that
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: feels fully developed and fully real, and that's a not
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: common thing within a large scale film. I believe that
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: Kent Clark exists is basically the way that I would
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: say that, and I will credit Fickner with that, and that,
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: you know, not just because he's an incredible actor, but
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: I think that he just found a way to make
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: that character seem.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: Alive well and he's he's the best friend really, and
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: the fact that he keeps showing up like he's in
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: the whole movie, from the very beginning to the very end,
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: and I think that really shows about not just the acting,
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: but also the character is that we want this guy.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: He's kind of an anchor point to our story that
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: we're gonna see it as he's experiencing the event.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: What about to me?
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: To me, I I'm always impressed with McConaughey in this
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: because I've a I've always been a fan of McConaughey's.
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: I know that he had the maconnaissance you know, in
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: the you know, in the in the New Century, but
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: I've been with him for a long time and it's
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: it's interesting because he's on the poster, he has second billing,
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: but yet you don't really think of this as a
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: McConaughey film, like this is a Jody Foster film through
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: and through. It's contact and Jody Foster. That's what it is.
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: And so I feel like he's often overlooked, but I
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: really like the charm that he brings, the chemistry that
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: you don't expect between Jody Foster and Matthew McConaughey. And
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: just he kind of grounds everything and he does some
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: things in the name of faith, and you know, being
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: an advisor to the president, being on the committee and
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: everything like that. He makes hard decisions, but you never
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: feel like he's a jackass about it, right, And that's
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: that's really hard to do, especially being a love interest
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: of Jodie Foster, but also being a foil at the
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: same time. He walks a tightrope and I think, I
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: mean that a lot has to do with the writing
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: and Zamechis's direction, of course, but Matthew McConaughey, he easily
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: could have played this as smarmy or over zealous or opportunate,
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: like opportunistic, but he doesn't. And so yeah, i'd say
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: Matthew McConaughey for me in this one.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for me.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: With McConaughey, it was kind of a pleasant surprise because
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: I haven't watched this movie in a long long time,
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: and my memory had started to combine McConaughey's role with
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: Jake Busey's role, which obviously is our very differ ends
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: of the spectrum. But so I was almost expecting him
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: to the shoe to drop and he would start to
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: really push her around faith and things like that, and
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: that ever happened because that's not the character. And so
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: I was like, Okay, that's right. These are two very
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: separate characters that represent different things. So that was a
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: pleasant surprise that my memory was faulty.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that McConaughey here in retrospect, he's giving
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: a hint of the McConaughey that we're going to get
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: to know as a more dramatic actor. But at the
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: time that this came out, this was the aberration rule.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: I would say this is sort of his career after
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: contact is sort of what we expected the snap back
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: to be for like Tom Hanks after Forrest Gump or Philadelphia,
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: where it's like, Okay, he's going to go back to
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: what's his bread and butter, and we didn't get a
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: full delivery on sort of the nuanced performance he was
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: capable of until later, to be fair.
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: To be fair, A Time to Kill came out a
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: year before this.
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: Sure, but I'm talking about after this, like there was
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: a there was a period where he sort of went
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: back to Oh okay mc connaugh Hayle, like that sort
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: of snapback. So this felt like a brief you know,
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: pissed up and then I would have. I'm glad for it, though,
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: because when he came back to the dramatic stuff, he
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: came back with a vengeance and really really shines now
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: like you you know, we all understand, you know, his
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: skill set. But I'll give a lot of credit honestly
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: to Zamechis for bringing out, you know, such a great
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: performance from him, because you know, you mentioned A Time
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: to Kill. If I were to compare, I barely remember
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: anything about his character from A Time to Kill, But
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: if you ask me about contact, I can. Okay, Yeah,
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: I know who Palmer Joss is and you know what
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: what his goals, his objectives are, all of those sorts
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: of things. He's not this character that you know, like
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: an amorphous character that just sort of like serves a purpose.
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: Like he's an actual character to Darren's point, where it's
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: like we see him actually functional in the story and
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: with his own journey through everything.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: All right, Well, let's talk a bit about Zamechis. We've
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: talked a lot about the plot, a lot about the actors,
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: and it's kind of a two part question. One. Let's
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: start off with this feels like an interesting choice for
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Zamechas's next film after Forrest Gump. This, Maybe you have
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: a different opinion. This does not feel like the standard
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: you got a blank check to do whatever you want
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: after you dominated at the Oscars. This feels like a
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: stepped in to fill someone's shoes and help somebody out
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: and then cast away. Next film feels like the blank
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: check movie. Do you guys kind of agree with that
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: or what's the vibes for you?
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: I think it would be fair to say that I'm
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: not going to agree with you completely, but I think
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: it would be fair to say that Zamechas, having seen
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: him through the movies we've already looked at, would see
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: a movie like Contact as a challenge, like a puzzle
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: to be solved. And there are a lot of technical
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: and construction considerations, and I think that only somebody at
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: the time who had Zamechas's pull would have been able
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: to put this movie together. I don't think that there
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: are many other directors active at the time who would
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: have been able to come in and say, no, we're
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: going to do this thing, that thing I did over
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: in Forrest Gump, We're going to reverse it. We're gonna
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: take Bill Clinton we're gonna put him in the movie,
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: or we're gonna do this and we're going to drop
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: people into the movie who are real people. Like I
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: think that he saw something interesting and I you know,
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: if he had read the book, you know, I read
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: the book, I would have if somebody came to him
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: and was like, hey, do you want a direct contact? Yeah, sure, absolutely,
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: let's figure this one out. And like he obviously takes
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: it takes a bit of time because you know, as
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: we've been watching, it's you know, ninety ninety two, ninety four.
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: He takes a whole three years between movies, so you know,
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: obviously there was a lot, a lot to consider and
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: work on.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: No, all very good points. What do you think, Tristan,
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: I feel like this is.
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: This, this feels like a content. Castaway doesn't feel like
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: a blank check movie to me. It really doesn't, because
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: in terms of filmmaking, once you take out the crash,
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: it's in Castaways, it's much more basic filmmaking. Like you know, shooting,
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: shooting on the locations is of course a struggle, and
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: like filming, it is a struggle. But from a technical standpoint,
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: this one was was much more, much more exhausting, to
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: do because of like, this was Jodie Foster's first experience
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: with blue screen. This was the very first experience with
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: blue screen. And she said, like when she went in,
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: you know, and did the scene on the beach, it
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: was like it was a blue wall, it was a
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: blue floor, it was a blue ceiling. She's like, it
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: was really hard. And and also like you have the uh,
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: you have the machine which is incredibly hard to create,
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: which I think was originally designed for Terminator two.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was meant to be the go
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: back high machine.
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: Uh. And also like from a from a visual storytelling standpoint,
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: I feel like this is this is much more of
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: a continuation. It was a machus from Forrest Gump because
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: if you look at the classic clean movements of the
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: camera and the way the like where he puts the
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: camera in the scene, where he puts it geographically and
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: how he blocks his actors and everything like that, it
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: feels very much like a can like this feels like,
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: you know, as we often reference Wes Anderson goes through
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: different eras, this very much feels like a particular type
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: of era for Zamechas, and some of it holds up
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: some of it doesn't like the Clinton stuff is ambitious,
• 26:14
  Speaker 4: and you could tell that, like John, I think you're
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: on the money when he said he's like this time,
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: like we can posited Hanks in Now we're gonna you know,
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: we're gonna composite the footage out, you know, like something
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: like that, Like you know that that's the real one
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: of the big reasons why he did it. And the
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: machine I think doesn't hold up as much as i'd
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: like it too in certain shots.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: The actual CGI, because he does cg little like pre
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: two thousand CGI. It they look and so they all
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: fault it for that.
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: I'll give him credit though they tried really really hard
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: to make it look like they like he he knew
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: enough to put it in the distance where there's like
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: atmospheric stuff that like we know without knowing, oh yeah,
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: the light, would you know, mess with the way that
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: it looked a little bit. I still want to know
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: what happened to the rockets that they used to turn
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: that final ring, because I never saw them land So
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: I hope that everybody's okay where those rockets landed. But yeah,
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: I think that all of your points are very valid. Tristan,
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: I mentally like they spent a long time trying to
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: get this movie put together. There were a lot of
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: different screenwriters and directors attached to it, and the one name,
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: because you know it's a director focused podcast, is a
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: director that we've covered before, George Miller. And I think
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: to myself, I'm like, I want to find I want
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: to build this machine to take me on a timeline
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: where George Miller's Contact was made, because man, that would
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: be interesting to see that movie. That would be crazy crazy.
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: Apparently Copola sued the production company because apparently Sagan was
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: supposed to make a movie or a TV show or
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: something based off of Contact for Zoatrup. I don't know how, Yeah,
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: I don't know about or how it ended.
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: But see, this was in the in the era of
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: the streaming series. I could easily see this being an
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: eight episode series like that would work in today's TV environment,
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: which it's basically like a long film cut up into
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: you know, eight chapters. But I mean, actually one of
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: the screenwriters was, you know, you talk about Coppola. One
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: of the screenwriters attached along it was James V. Hart,
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: who made Francis Ford Coppola's Gary Oldman as Bronstoker's Dracula,
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: so like you know that that's that's a pedigree right
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: there too. And I don't know, though, I mean I do.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: I think that Zamechis is the guy who had the
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: cachet at the time. It makes sense that he's the
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: one that they that's able to pick up the ball
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: and run it across the goal line. Like I don't
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: see many other directors at the time being able to
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: manage this.
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: And if we're talking VFX, we got to talk about
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: the medicine cabinet.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: Oh yes, the yeah, I shot that broke our minds.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: I still watch it over and over and I know
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: how it is made, and it still breaks my brain
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: every time I see it.
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: Just months ago, I saw this shot discussed on YouTube,
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: and like in a YouTube short of a bunch of
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: guys who break down VFX videos or like VFX scenes
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: and movies and everything like that, people are still talking
• 29:35
  Speaker 4: about it. They're still teaching it in film schools, like
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: this shot is so seamless and so beautifully done that
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: it will be continued to talk about for decades to come.
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: I don't think I think most people have no idea
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: that it even exists. As an effects shot, like I
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: think it is that that's smooth. You know, if you
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: move outside of people who watch YouTube video it was
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: like us about dissecting effects shots and everything. Like if
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: I showed this to my wife, God love her, she'd
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: see it and it wouldn't even occur to her that
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: it was an effects shot. It would just be there.
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: It would just be a thing, you know, like And
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: I'm not saying that to be pejorative. I'm not saying
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: that to like be dismissive either. I'm saying that just
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: as support nobody caught it at the time, nobody thought
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: of it as such at the time, So you know,
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: like that's how good it is. And yeah, it does
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: hold up for sure.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: I again, my memory for some reason put that at
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: the beginning of the movie, you know, when she's with
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: her dad, and it's obviously not till a good chunk
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: in where she's remembering that as we've learned that he
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: has passed. But yeah, it again, like I said, I
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: know how it is made, but it's I it tricks
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: me every time, every single time.
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: Sure, you know, we haven't gone back to talk about
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: Jodie Foster like we like we talked about all all
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: the other actors were like, well, do Jodi Foster. We
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: haven't done that yet. And you know, Darren, I want
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: to ask you, you know, in the realm of Jodie
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: Foster movies, where does this ring for you? Is this
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: mid level Foster? Is this top tier? What do you think?
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: It's pretty top tier? I'm trying to think in my
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: mind the movies of hers that I have seen. Obviously,
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: you know, you have like Silence of the Lambs and
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: things like that Panic Room, you know where she's she's
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: obviously often in movies where it is her, it is
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: like every shot is her and she is definitely the lead.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: But in this one, yeah, it I think she strikes
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: the tone well of someone who is committed to their
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: vision and has to kind of throw their weight around
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: a bit to get stuff to happen, but is not unlikable.
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: And that is kind of a narrow road to walk,
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: because you can easily be the scientist that's a jerk,
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: that is the one who has to go get funding,
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: but you also want to be the main character. You
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: want to be the leading person that we want to
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: root for, and we're also watching her on this journey
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: of figuring out her own faith, in her own what
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: she actually believes. And so when your protagonist is in transition,
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: they're not firm, concrete in the ground. That is another
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: acting challenge to act throughout the course of these events.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: So I think she did a great job in this.
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: It must have been exhausting because, like I said, she
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: is in practically every single shot of this movie. I
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: think the only time she gets a reprise is when
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: it's young Jodie Foster in the flashbacks.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: A young gentlemen alone in just a stellar performance, you know, yeah,
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: I mean Foster is great. You know, you use the
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: old joke that you usually reserve for like Gene Hackman,
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: where you're like, oh, she's great and everything you know,
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: and it can seem so dismissive to be that way.
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: Do I think that this is a role that when
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: you say, hey, what are the great Jodie Foster roles
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: that she jumps to mind? I can say no. I
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: think that she is up against a very large task
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: that she is very much up for, but the movie
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: doesn't do her any favors. The movie does not, I think,
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: give her the chance to shine the way that she
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: can in a dramatic role. And I'm not saying that in,
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: you know, in a way to diminish her. I'm saying
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: that the thing that I think, Oh God, Tristan, you
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: might have said this at some point, or maybe it
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: was you, Darren, about how Zamechis could fall into the
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: trap of being a very I guess clinical or technical director,
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: and I think Contact is that type of movie, and
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: I think it undercuts Foster's performance. I think she's great,
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: but I think the movie doesn't permit the audience as
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: much have a chance to connect with her as I
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: want to. And maybe that's not true for you guys,
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: but for me, it's sort of like some of that
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: overly technical, sterile direction undercuts her.
• 34:37
  Speaker 4: I feel like we we as an audience, really connect
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: with her after the explosion, which might be a bit
• 34:45
  Speaker 4: too late in the movie. So I get what you're saying.
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: I don't think it. I don't think it necessarily affected
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: me too terribly. But you're not wrong because I think that,
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: you know, like after the explode and you start to
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: feel how lost she is, she doesn't know what to do,
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: and then she's confused when there's she's there's a second
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: one and I love. I can't remember if it was
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: American Dad or Family Guy or something like that. Like
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: they were talking about this movie and they're like, really,
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: just build another one. They just did that without anybody
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: finding out. Yeah you wait, And I.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: Feel like I quote that all the time. It's like,
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: why build one when you can build two for twice
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: the price?
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: The price, that's right, My dad would do that, like
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: that creepy John Hart where he's it's like want to
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: go over ride because of this movie. And but yeah,
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: it's just like you know, like we we we feel
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: how apprehensive she is when she walks into the ship,
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: and like the journey that she's going through when she's
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: like okay to go, okay to go, you know, everything
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: like that. And then of course the much parodied should
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: have sent a you know, it sucks so much because
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: it's such a moment.
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: It does because terrible. All I could think of was
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: a very early Family Guy when they find the Twinkie factory. Yeah,
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: that's it. That's what's in my.
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: Brain that I think Family Guy who's ruined so many
• 36:15
  Speaker 4: moments for me.
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: Yep uh.
• 36:17
  Speaker 4: And then of course, like when she's trying to defend
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: herself against James Wood, as many people do. And it's
• 36:26
  Speaker 4: it's terrible because I always feel I know you're supposed
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: to feel this way, but the injustice that I feel
• 36:33
  Speaker 4: when Angela Bassett says there's eighteen hours of static, I'm like,
• 36:37
  Speaker 4: what somebody should tell somebody.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: That, yeah, yeah, it should have led with that, yeah,
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: uh yeah it But through all of that, And that's
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: an interesting point you were saying, Tristan of are we
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: drawn firmly onto her side too late in the game
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: to really feel that resonance because this is a movie
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: where there's a lot of great showing, and there's a
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: lot of great telling, and there's some not so good telling,
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: and there's some not so good showing, like where I
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: feel like, I love how we're meant to connect with
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: her through her dad and her and her upbringing, but
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: kind of the times and the places and the way
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: they show the flashbacks is kind of scattered. And there's also,
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: you know, like the poet part where we're shown and
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: I get it, it's ninety seven and you're supposed to
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: show the most fantastical visuals and have your act or
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: react to nothing and convey emotion. I think you know
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: something that did it better would be like Interstellar, where
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: they don't focus on the visuals of space, they focus
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: on the heart of our character watching a recording of
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: his daughter aging through time. We're connecting with the human
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: element rather than the fantastical element. So so back to contact, Like,
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: I don't know, did anybody else nod with me when
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: I was saying, you know, different times when showing was
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: good and telling was good. Did it feel kind of
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: like that to you guys where there were sometimes where
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: they were really trying to show, but they were shoving
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: tell in the way. I think that's how the poet
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: part feels to me.
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: I not necessarily because in that scene, like you get
• 38:42
  Speaker 4: to see some really cool stargate effects that's true, you
• 38:46
  Speaker 4: know true, you know, like where she's going through and
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: everything like that. And then they did some really really
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: interesting editing where zamechis. What he did was he had
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: Foster record it three or four different ways with different motions,
• 39:01
  Speaker 4: and it was you know, excited, it was sad, it
• 39:04
  Speaker 4: was scared, and then the editors would blend that footage
• 39:08
  Speaker 4: together and more literally more for her face with different
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: reads of the moment and even through in GenAm alone
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: in there, like, I freaking love that stuff. I love
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: that stuff in sci fi, especially hard sci fi, And
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: so I feel like that kind of excuses that that
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: section because it's so technically it's so it's built so
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: technically well and interesting, and even with the beach scene,
• 39:36
  Speaker 4: which you think is a little bit of a cheat
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: where you're just like, oh, we don't get to see
• 39:40
  Speaker 4: an alien civilization, and I feel like this was the beat.
• 39:44
  Speaker 4: I know it's happened before, so guys, don't don't you know,
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: message me or email me. I know this has happened before,
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: but I feel like this was the tipping point for Oh,
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: I'm in an I'm presenting myself in an image that
• 39:58
  Speaker 4: your mind would be able to comprehend or make you comfortable.
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: That is used almost in every single sci fi franchise
• 40:05
  Speaker 4: moving forward after this movie, and it's just an excuse,
• 40:10
  Speaker 4: like in a Star Trek episode to have a bottle episode,
• 40:12
  Speaker 4: which is like why are we on the Defiant? It's like, well,
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: I guess he wanted to make us more comfortable.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: Why did you possess Captain Bacad because then Patrick Stewart
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: could play the villain.
• 40:25
  Speaker 4: But in that scene, you know, like the sand is
• 40:29
  Speaker 4: done in an artistic way that the water is moving backwards.
• 40:34
  Speaker 4: The clouds are unique in every single different shot. You know,
• 40:38
  Speaker 4: it's trying to show you that it's ethereal and that
• 40:40
  Speaker 4: it's fake at the same time, but not in a
• 40:44
  Speaker 4: way that is poorly done, like it's fake on purpose
• 40:48
  Speaker 4: to make you feel like something's off, something's wrong. And
• 40:52
  Speaker 4: also the technical stuff, it's kind of just that. It's
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: part of the territory of hard sci fi. You gotta
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: get through it, like we just I think we just
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: have to applaud them for not doing putting a piece
• 41:06
  Speaker 4: of paper together and then piercing it, Oh, with a pencil.
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: How do warbles work? Well, do you got a piece
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: of paper at a pencil? Because that's how I'm going
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: to show you you're right?
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: You're right. So that's an unnecessary zing. But outside of that,
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: I think that the thing that I struggle with with
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: the film is that I think I don't know what
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: the specific right cuts or changes would have been. I
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: know that probably a lot of what I think in
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: terms of excizing something has to be addressed at the
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: script level, Like when you're just first conceiving everything together.
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: This isn't something where you could come in and be like, well,
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: I know, I'll just cut that. I can't be uh,
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: you know any of a lot long line of producers
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: who are like, I'm just gonna cut this twenty minutes
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: out and the movie's gonna be one hundred times better.
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: It's not that, but there is definitely something where the
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: Zamechas needed a little more courage to say, this is
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: a gigantic book. There is no way I can include everything.
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: So I'm going to cut even more and I'm going
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: to streamline it even more and get from A to
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: B to C to D even more quickly. And I
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: think that that would help some of what you're talking about, Darren,
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: where the spacing of the flashbacks is too far apart.
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: It's it's it almost feels staccato as opposed to rhythmic,
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: Like there's a flow to the storytelling in Forrest Gump.
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: There's a flow to the storytelling in all of Samecha's books,
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: but it's specifically this one where it's like, like it
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: it's like the gears don't catch some of the time,
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: and it's unfortunate because there are some legitimately great moments
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: that would have, like I I'm prevented from emotionally connecting
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: with it because I have to rewarm myself up to
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: get back into that flow. And then the movie jumps
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: and I'm like, oh, okay, I have to change where
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: I'm looking, at what I'm thinking, and I just I
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: there's a part of me that thinks at the script level,
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: they could have and should have had the courage to
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: basically possibly just get rid of the or not get
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: rid of, but completely restructure how they approached the accident
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: in the first like the sabotage that happens.
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: With the first one.
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: I may have even moved it earlier because the fact
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: that it blows up and it's like, oh my god,
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: we are in our darkest hour. Oh wait, no, that's okay,
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: we got another one. Like it just feels right. It's
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: a two and a half hour movie. But I'm like,
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: that's the part that feels too quick. I'm like, you
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: should have the thing up there, and then like she
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: goes back to everything and it's like, oh no, we
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: just need more time to completely it's the second Death
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: Star just took a few more years, you know, that
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: sort of thing.
• 44:04
  Speaker 4: It's one of those things where when it blows up.
• 44:06
  Speaker 4: It's far enough in the movie that you look at
• 44:09
  Speaker 4: your watch, yeah, and you go, well.
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: Wait a second, they're not done.
• 44:13
  Speaker 4: So they're not done yet, So what's going on here?
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: And I think you're right, like that's the first, you know,
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: climax point of the movie is that explosion. And not
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: to go too deep into rewriting territory, but something along
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: the lines of you know, taking you know, doctor Drumlin,
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: you know who died in that, who obviously was kind
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: of set up as a secondary father figure to Jodie
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: fire Like, you know, because obviously someone took care of
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: her after she was nine years old, you know, when
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: her dad died. So that would have been an interesting
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: thing if if he was the second father figure and
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: they were very close, like not even antagonists at all,
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: which is what we got in this, and then he
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: dies like that, I think would have been an even
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: deeper connection.
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: I agree, I agree, I think I might have even
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: not even might I probably would have cut the the
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: sabotage aspect of it, because they have a very pointed
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: argument at one point where she says, you're not supposed
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: to have all of this extra stuff, the schematics don't
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: talk for it, And I would have had him die
• 45:28
  Speaker 3: in a mishap because the weight was off or something
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: like that, Like he goes into the prototype and then
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: that goes wrong, and it's like that becomes a thing
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: where they're like, no, we have to build exactly what
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: they told us to do. We can't we And that
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: would even reinforce the whole idea of like we can't
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: think that we can outsmart this. We have to either
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: do what they told us to do or not do
• 45:50
  Speaker 3: it at all. And I think that actually would have
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: resonated with the themes better because here I am earlier
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: talking about oh, well, you know the Matthew mcconaughe character
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: deals with you know, faith in a very mature and
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: respectful manner. But then it's almost like they just couldn't
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: help themselves but have Jake Busey play crazy religious guy
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: just to be like no, no, no, no, no, he's he's a
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: good one, but like they're all the rest of them,
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: they're all nuts. Like it's sort of like, yeah, like
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: the character is there, and Bucy does a great job
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: with him. Oh he does an amazing job, but it's
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: just it, I don't know that that's again though, like
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: that's all script level stuff that's not this movie.
• 46:32
  Speaker 4: I don't know, Okay. I like that there's a duality
• 46:37
  Speaker 4: in every single section of this movie where you have
• 46:42
  Speaker 4: you have Jodie Foster's character who kind of represents the
• 46:44
  Speaker 4: positive side of science, and you know Tom Skarett, who
• 46:49
  Speaker 4: is the negative. And then you have McConaughey who is
• 46:52
  Speaker 4: the positive side of religion, Bucy who's negative, and you
• 46:57
  Speaker 4: have Angela Bassett the positive side of politics, and James
• 47:00
  Speaker 4: Wood as the negative. You know, like you have these
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: this duality for every single.
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: I want to see that report Tristan write a paper
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: on that as amazing.
• 47:11
  Speaker 4: It just it works, It works, it feels real, it
• 47:15
  Speaker 4: feels nice because I think that's one of the reasons
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: John and like you were talking about, if this movie
• 47:19
  Speaker 4: was made today, you wouldn't have that duality. You would
• 47:22
  Speaker 4: not have that duality in politics or religion. You would
• 47:26
  Speaker 4: not have the good and bad of religion, you would
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: not have the good and bad of politics. You have
• 47:30
  Speaker 4: bad politics, bad religion, good science. And this is coming
• 47:34
  Speaker 4: from science loving people on this podcast, and it's just
• 47:39
  Speaker 4: a show a change of the times, like the nineties
• 47:43
  Speaker 4: were people who weren't born yet. The nineties were so
• 47:46
  Speaker 4: different from today, even from post nine eleven. It's as
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: so different as somebody.
• 47:51
  Speaker 3: Who was alive and very aware in going through them.
• 47:55
  Speaker 3: It was a cooler time. I'm just gonna say, let's
• 47:57
  Speaker 3: go ahead, gen X. We were having the time the nineties.
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: It's pretty fun.
• 48:01
  Speaker 4: I'm not going to argue with you, like how Darren,
• 48:04
  Speaker 4: how many?
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: How?
• 48:05
  Speaker 4: How often do we go back to the nineties in
• 48:08
  Speaker 4: this podcast?
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: Ge so so many times? Great films now for decade.
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: By skateboarding, no doubt, great music, you know, great fashion,
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: very easy fashion back then. Oh my god, it was
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: so nice, comfortable in my day.
• 48:28
  Speaker 4: Hey, I feel like I feel like we're I feel
• 48:31
  Speaker 4: like we're reaching the end here. I want to give
• 48:33
  Speaker 4: I want to give my rating.
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: Yes, we we are all the way around. We're about
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: to drop through the machine. Tristan start us off then
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: with your rating of contact Everdell family favorite.
• 48:45
  Speaker 4: I'm giving this four machine rings. I genuinely like this movie.
• 48:51
  Speaker 4: I think it's well made, I think it's well acted,
• 48:54
  Speaker 4: I think it's well performed. I think it was ambitious
• 48:58
  Speaker 4: for what it tried to tackle. I wish Carl Sagan
• 49:02
  Speaker 4: could have seen the completion of the movie because he
• 49:04
  Speaker 4: was heavily involved and died during the filming. That's why
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: the movie was dedicated to him. And I think the
• 49:13
  Speaker 4: structure is a is a little weird, could have been trimmed.
• 49:17
  Speaker 4: That's why I'm knocking down a star. But this is
• 49:21
  Speaker 4: to me, this is a top tier Jodie Foster film
• 49:25
  Speaker 4: for me. I love her performance in this. I love
• 49:28
  Speaker 4: the character. I love that, I love the chemistry that
• 49:32
  Speaker 4: she has with McConaughey. I love that she's an atheist
• 49:34
  Speaker 4: in real life and McConaughey is a Christian in real life.
• 49:37
  Speaker 4: I feel like they they brought it, they brought that
• 49:40
  Speaker 4: to the movie and it just works and scare it.
• 49:45
  Speaker 4: I mean as Drumlin is perfect, He's absolutely perfect for
• 49:50
  Speaker 4: this role. He because he's not a bad person. He's
• 49:56
  Speaker 4: not out let me rephrase. He's not an evil person,
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: but he's not opportunist, and he knows how to play
• 50:03
  Speaker 4: the game. Foster character doesn't know how to play the game.
• 50:06
  Speaker 4: I've worked in education, I've worked in medicine, I've worked
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: with scientists and doctors. Those who know how to play
• 50:12
  Speaker 4: the game get funding. Scaret knew how to do that anyway. Regardless,
• 50:20
  Speaker 4: I think this is a great movie. I love this movie.
• 50:22
  Speaker 4: It's one of my favorite Zamacas films. Four stars.
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: Oh awesome. Well, mister composition of Clinton, John Mills, what
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: is your rating for this movie?
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: We didn't even really talk about the controversy or the
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: fact that the White House got all up in arms
• 50:40
  Speaker 3: about about the use of Clinton's image, even though Warner
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: Brothers insisted that they sent them a print before the movie.
• 50:47
  Speaker 3: Blah blah blah blah blah. Like he said, she said,
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: sort of.
• 50:50
  Speaker 4: Figure, he's a public servant. We got his image.
• 50:52
  Speaker 3: Hey they didn't. Hey, I know right, they didn't ask
• 50:55
  Speaker 3: anybody's permission Forrest Gump, So you know, fair play, right,
• 51:00
  Speaker 3: and you know what open Ai is hoping that argument
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: holds up in court too. But I think that this
• 51:07
  Speaker 3: is a film that I don't love. I like it
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: a lot, I don't love it. I definitely think that
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: there are things Trisa, and I hear what you're saying
• 51:15
  Speaker 3: about duality. I accept it, and you're right. No, No,
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: you're right. It should probably stay as a result. It's
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: just I'm so trying to solve the exploding thing that
• 51:28
  Speaker 3: I'm like, I don't know how to move it, how
• 51:30
  Speaker 3: to change it sort of thing. So be that as
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: it may. I think for the technical breakthrough stuff, I
• 51:38
  Speaker 3: gave a lot of grace to Back to Future Part
• 51:41
  Speaker 3: three for it. I gave a lot of grace to
• 51:42
  Speaker 3: Death Becomes Her for it, and so I'll extend that
• 51:45
  Speaker 3: saying grace here that this is a four star movie.
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: That's a very good movie, but it's not a great movie,
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: and I'll probably sit down and watch it again at
• 51:55
  Speaker 3: some point, but I don't love it. But it's something
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: where I have to at least admire and respect it.
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: So I'll give it a four.
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah for this movie. It I think the more I've
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: watched it, the more I've enjoyed it, especially as we're
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: going through Zamechas right now and really seeing it in
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: the context of his his filmography. It totally is a
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: Mechas film from and we talk a lot about, oh,
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: we put Bill Clinton in just like the other president's,
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: but there's also just all of the aspects. I'm you know,
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: the in the drop ship sphere. It was this time
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: that I noticed, as her point of view is looking around,
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: that is the only part that is becoming transparent is
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: her POV. It's not just oh it's clear below you,
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: it's clear over here. It's like no, no, it's following.
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: It's It makes me think of the Volume right now
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: where they have the fake you know, it's all digitally rendered,
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: but the area that the camera can see is like
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: hyper rendered, and it's like this little tiny window that
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: moves around so it's always in the frame. I think
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: they could have made this on the Volume in like
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: five minutes. I think Jodie Foster would have had a
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: much more enjoyable time. But yeah, but overall, you know,
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: con you know, special effects aside, acting aside, I think
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: this movie just accomplished what it struck out to do,
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: to make you discuss it, to make you question things
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: and wonder. You know, there's a lot of wonder in
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: this movie, both on the side of faith and on
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: the side of science, which is very interesting. So yeah,
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: I think across the board we're giving this this four stars.
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: It's a great movie. I should revisit it more often.
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: It had been far too long since I had watched this,
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: So all right, so con Tact was four stars across
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: the board. But we're not done.
• 54:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm I'm okay. So we were we weren't sure
• 54:07
  Speaker 4: if we were going to do this because we're like, okay, no,
• 54:11
  Speaker 4: we really do like to stick to themes where we're
• 54:13
  Speaker 4: just like, okay, it's we're just doing the screen franchise.
• 54:16
  Speaker 4: Oh we're doing Craven, We're doing all of Tarantino, or
• 54:22
  Speaker 4: we're doing you know, Emeric of the nineties or you
• 54:26
  Speaker 4: know Rhiner of the eighties. But I want to do Castaway.
• 54:32
  Speaker 4: I just it just feels like a logical progression after contact,
• 54:36
  Speaker 4: and so that I want to do. I want to
• 54:39
  Speaker 4: do that, guys, I want I want to do it.
• 54:41
  Speaker 3: Okay, I'm totally game. I I gladly will watch Castaway again.
• 54:47
  Speaker 3: I look forward to rewatching it and talking about it absolutely.
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's the whole point of having your own
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: podcast is you can make the rules and you can
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: break the rules. And we want to continue to thousand.
• 55:00
  Speaker 3: It's part of the nineties, right if you're ten years technically,
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: the New Millennium didn't start till two thousand and one.
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: Tech there you go.
• 55:08
  Speaker 4: So there, I knew you were that type of person.
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: I'm just saying it. Tech to have I.
• 55:15
  Speaker 4: Could have told you without you saying a word that
• 55:18
  Speaker 4: John would be fine with us doing Castaway because include
• 55:21
  Speaker 4: the millennium.
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: Oh no, Actually, I'm more fine with it because I
• 55:25
  Speaker 3: remember loving this film and I want to see if
• 55:27
  Speaker 3: I still do.
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: All right, well, you heard it here next week Castaway
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: from two thousand here on house Lights.
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: Join the Revolution, Join the NED Party.