Gooday, Pete Hally here, welcome to you, and see nothing yet. In the movie Podcast, we're our chat to a movie lover about a classic or but loved the movie they haven't quite got around to watching until now. Today's guests comedian filmmaker Monty Franklin, all below.
I want to stay here with you.
Gay to the jobble.
My lake, snake, shock, my fail.
They couldn't happening right, So don't seen nothing here.
This is going to be a fun one. Monty Franklin is back on home soil for a little while at least. He is an ossie comic who has fled his craft in the States. He's Los Angeles based, and I've always we haven't spent a lot of time with each other. Often these podcasts. Mostly it's people who I have spent a bit bit of time, not always. I hang out with Monty in LA like ten years ago. I when I saw him do a gig, he was great. I think it's me Monty and Tommy Little and we just
hung out for a bit. Great guy, fun funny, but I always really admired him going over to the States. We have a lot of buzzie comedians who will go to London. There's a bit more of a pathway. I guess a lot of English and Australian comics that close. Because of the Melbourne Comedy Festival and Edinburgh, it's a much bigger roll of the dice to go to Los Angeles and try to crack it there. But he is I think the only Australian with his name on the wall at the Comedy Store in Hollywood. At least he's
the first Aussie. He plays all the clubs, the improv clubs, the laugh Factory to us all around. He's worked on and with Rob Schneider on a Rob show. He's open for Rob as well and Joe Rogan. He's been on Joe Rogan's podcast. He's had roles in The New Girl. He's just doing it all real. Rob is Real, Rob is the series. You can see that on Netflix. He's a really He's a bloody hard worker. Monty and I've digged it with him a bit. Recently. He's getting his
work up for a big tour playing Hamer Hall. It's a big it's a big room. So get along in Melbourne and all around the country. Booty Funny following you on Instagram, Monty Franklin and more than all of that, a couple of things. One his uncle, he's a great Richard Franklin, who made some great movies, including one of
the first movie I ever saw, the Pirate Movie. I want to talk to Monty about that, but also Blue Lagoon, like some genuinely touchstone pictures Richard made more than that, and maybe leading on from that, Monty is about to go into a production of his own film. It's a passion project. It's got a Great Emu War. There was a film recently that dealt with that, a pretty low budget.
I think a vision was going to be a YouTube kind of sketch, and they get building it and building and building it, and they released it as a film. This one seems to have a bigger budget and certainly a bit of staff power. John Clees is in it. Rob Schneider is in it. It's and Monty is in it. He's written it, he's directed it. So I cannot wait to see The Great Emu War, hopefully imagine maybe later next year, so a while away, but we'll keep you
posted on that. Monty is funny, is generous, he's industrious, he's a bit of an entrepreneur, and I'm bloody stoked to be hanging with him today.
Hi, I'm Monty Franklin. My top three favorite movies. Back to the Future, AE Way.
A Matte Dark. Are you telling me that you built a time machine kind of a doloreate the way I see it?
If you've got to build a time machine into a car, way' not do with some style besides the saineless steel construction me the fux dispersal.
Look dumb, dumba Austria.
Well then gooday, mate, Let's put another ash rimp.
On my barbie.
And I threw tombstone in there as well.
Why Johnny Ringo looked like somebody just walked over your grave?
And the movie that I hadn't seen but should have I don't know why I didn't was cool Hand Luke Last bell is at eight.
Any man knocking his bunk at eight spends the night in the box. There's no smoking in the prone position in bed. To smoke, you must have both legs over the side of your bunk. And a man caught smoking in the prone position in bed spends the night in the box.
You'll get two sheets every Saturday.
You put the clean sheet in the top the top sheet in the bottom the bottom sheet you turn in the laundry board, and a man turns in the wrong sheet spends the night in a box which no one will sit in the bunks with dirty pants on. Any man with dirty pants on sitting on a bunk spends a night in a box. Any man don't bring back his empty pop bottle spends the night in the box. And a man a loud talking spends the night in the box. You've got questions, you come to me. I'm
car the Flora Walker, I'm responsible. Order in here. Any man don't keep order spends a night in the box. I hope you ain't going to be a hard.
Geece drunken, bored, purple hearted, silver star veteran Luke Jackson's screen icon Paul and Human, playing the second most famous Luke in screen history, is arrested for cutting the heads off parking meters. Sentence to two years on a road gang. Luke is made to ernie stripes, but he demonstrates his worth and tenacity by withstanding a boxing bout with the burly top dog Dragline George Kennedy, winning the film's only oscar. The inmates become enamored with Luke and his cool demeanor.
Whether it's taking a barrage of punches or eating fifty eggs, Luke can do no wrong in their eyes. But when news of Luke's mother's death seize, the captain decided a sentence Luke to the box to avoid him turning rabbit and running. It turns this film upside down. This strategy backfires as Luke plans his escape Well Escapes. Directed by Stuart Rosenberg. The Amateurville horror The Pope of Greenwich Village from a script by Frank Pearson from the novel by
Don Pierce. Cool and Luke brings us one of cinema's great anti heroes, Monty Franklin. How many eggs do you reckon? You could eat?
I think, honestly, if you're really pushing it, you could. Maybe you could maybe do twelve, but you'd feel disgusting after twelve.
Four thousand calories.
It is.
I've googled it. Fifty eggs, fifty eggs, and he can physically do it. Oh, it won't kill you, but it's a lot.
I could not believe that that plot in the movie. That was a plot line in the movie. It came from nowhere. He just goes, I could eat fifty eggs. He like, just yills it out, and then everyone just goes, what Norman's fifty eggs before? What do you talk? And then for the next fifteen minutes it's it's got nothing to do with the movie.
It's a montage of egg eating. It's like a rocky montage with eggs. It's so funny.
They just keep going close up on his stomach and beforehand and the big guy who you just said massaging his stomach, We're gonna massage that stomach up, babe boy. Look, and so I can fit the eggs.
Fifty eggs and yeah, I won't get too deep into There's a lot to discuss about this movie, and the fifty eggs will be discussed absolutely. What did you know of Cool Hand? Luke? For disclosure, I watched this in my teen years and very much enjoyed it. But what do you know about it?
I knew it was one of those movies that I probably should have seen, Like I knew it did have Oscar winners. I'm not sure I didn't know.
George is the only one.
Yeah, right, I knew Paul Newman, but I hadn't seen any of his movies.
Either, Right, this is your first part new in Experience first, Paul Newman Side of the Past.
Yeah, and Paul Newman falls into the same category as what's he at Redford? There you go exactly, And so I wanted to see him in his prime because I just remembered him from Souce Bottles. Yes, yeah, and so I was very interested in that. Cool Hand Luke is a movie that Rob Schneider, sorry to name drop, he's a friend of mine, but he talks about it a lot, right, And so when I saw that and I hadn't seen it, I'm like, this is definitely one of those that I
should see. Yeah, you know when you just miss movies like I missed I forgot to watch Gladiator and then I went where did I watch that? And I watched it and I went, wow, I can't believe I forgot to watch that.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, and this podcast is built for this occasion. There's so much I want to talk about. Guns and Roses fans would know Cool Hand Luke because I'm not sure if you're a Guns and Roses fan. But when the User Illusion albums came out in the mid nineties, I think what we have here is fairly to communicate. It was the beginning, thank you of Civil War.
That was what I was trying to figure out where I knew it from?
Yes Ah, and I like guns would never would never have seen this movie, would know be able to quote that verbatim, you know.
But that's why I knew. When they said when you said that line casually Warden does, I just went, why do I know that line?
So?
Yes, that was the first tape I got was usual Illusion one and two.
There you go. Yeah, and what a connection. Now we have lots of talk to you about about stuff you're doing, your history with family history of cinema. But let's talk about your three favorite films, which are it was Dumb and Dumber was in there. By the way, we should actually point out when when I approach you to do the podcast, and I and you've been in the States, which, by the way, the podcast is downloaded bit in the States, but you said, Okay, these are the films that I
would like to cover. And you had like Dumb and Dumber, You had Mirror's Wedding, you had Missus, doubt Fire, This is doubt Fire. You had Yeah, these classic comedy movies, and I'm like, wow.
What kind of comedian hasn't seen Yeah.
I can take one or two of them, but like there's six classic, like the comedy movies you need to see. And it seemed I'm like, I know you're about to make a film the next year, maybe you should check out some of the classics. And then we worked out, no, you maybe slightly mis understood the premise that you hadn't you the lad to have seen the movie. So we got that straight. So I'm glad we did, but yes, you're and Dumb and Dumber was I was very surprised
that you hadn't seen it. I mean, and this has come up many times in people's top three films.
I wonder what it is about that film. It's perfect and silly and stupid and fun, and it's one of those movies that I was when I was eighteen and with friends and sitting around after a night out or whatever. We'd watch it eight times, you know, started again and we'd watch it again. And so that movie I have three prints on my wall. One of them is Dumb and Dumber. It's Harry and Lloyd on the on the mini bike. It's that and then I have Back to the Future and then I have Tombstone. So those are
obviously the reason that I picked those three movies. They just they mean a lot to me. But Dumb and Dumber the classic comedy duo it's been, you know, since Laurel and Hardy and Avan Costella and then I just those two for me, I think was the first time that I was introduced to a duo that and stir crazy and yeah, I think it's the perfect amount of
absolute silly and ridiculous. I love hearing about Jim Carey's story behind Dumb and Dumber, and it was the first movie that he was paid twenty million for that he had written down that you know, that's a goal that he wanted to do. Like the performance that he puts in that is brilliant, and Jeff Daniels as well. Just I don't know what it is why I just still laugh. It holds up too.
Yeah, Well, because it's silly, isn't it Like, and silly doesn't has never gone out of fashion, I don't think, even though I believe that sometimes we underrate silliness as a society and even sometimes when we watch comedy because it's a fine line isn't it like that? There have been many movies that have attempted to do what Dumb and Dumber has done before and after, and some are
just it's too silly. But there's something about Dumb and Dumber, even though it's not really trying for much else other than silliness, there's a lot of I think there is a heart to the story between the two. There's a chemistry between. Yeah, it does have a heart, and that may be the secret source.
Maybe yeah, Well, it's it's interesting when you say, a lot of other movies have done similar to that, even the scene where Harry goes in and goes to the bathroom and has an obnoxious time in the bathroom. So many movies have done that, and I now cringe a little bit at them, like here we go again, and it's the same fart jokes and blah blah. That one is flat out hilarious, and it's the same premise that everyone else is trying to use someone just struggling in
the bathroom. But the way that he did it, everything about it was silly and fun and at no point did I think, oh, this is too much, or this is overdone or anything like that. So when you say silly is the key to that is the king of comedy is silly. I think that's Steve Martin's that's what the best is. And if it's not too polarizing and everything like that, and you're really just talking about the silly goo goof stuff, I think that's what brings people
in the most and then the heart to it. And there was so much hard in that toilet scene.
There was certainly fluids. But what I have good point that many people have tried to do a similar scene. And then there's other funny toilet scenes that obviously, but you know, there's something about Mary comes to mind, but there's if you can find a way, whether it's in
the performance, is to make it a little different. And it's like somebody told me, you know, we have a discussion with another comedian about Jerry Seinfeld, who I think is the goat, you know, and if you look at Jerry Seinfeld's set list, it would be what everybody what a critic would consider a hack set list like or you know, like cool comedians would go, you know, it's a hack, it's men and women, it's your relationship, it's
popped tart exactly. But He always finds a way to find a new angle about stuff that has been explored for years and years and years, but he finds a fresh angle somehow.
That is the key, and that is what angers good comedians the most. When you see someone do a premise that's been done before, but they wrap it up in a different packaging and you go, ah, why did I not see that angle of it? And that is definitely what Jerry does. And you're right, he is the goat. And he is like a craftsman too, like no word is wasted. He's like trimm down his act to a perfect And when you watch him and he runs on stage and he goes up, thank you and leaves like
it's so professional, the way that he delivers silliness. It's just it's remarkable to watch.
Sometimes I watch him and I need to kind of, you know, because I will waste words. Will like when I'm in the head of the joke. I don't. I don't like sometimes around I can't. I have a more conversational style. But you do have to kind of check him with this affe game. I'm not but I'm not. My brain is different than Jerry Seinfeld, and he's probably got OCD or he's something going on where he's just in the way he lives his life. Yeah, I've listened
to many interviews with him. That's just the way he is and that's reflected with this comedy. So I think you find you know your voice. It love's just a reflection of who you are, and I think it has to be unless you are going full character with it.
I think with Jerry, a big part of his life is the trans transcendental meditation, right, which is very rhythm. Didn't that didn't? That didn't? What you're meant to do? It's a mantra that you say, So he probably brings that into a lot of his comedy, which is it's a rhythm, it's a mantres, which I like. You are more of a storyteller. So You're sitting around the dinner table and I've got a I've got this interesting story.
So I do sort of an arm my way through a little bit because I'm going on that journey with you on in this story, whereas Jerry is giving you his greatest hits of funny, right, it's different. It's like watching Stephen Wright, who's completely different than you and I delivering jokes but they're kind of like one liner's bang, one line of bang, just and he'll have a B and C in his head if he knows that's killer, he is a sleeper. Here's one just for the you know,
just for the run of the mill. So it's all just different styles of comedy in the end. But yeah, it's silly, silly.
Yeah, it's absolutely And I did think of something, as you'll say, Jerry Seinfeld, And we do apologize if Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels listening to this and going hang on, Jerry Sifeld wasn't then dumb and dumb? How did we get onto it wasn't how did we get get under this? Jerry Siffler's book actually that he released with I think it's called is There Something in This Sort? And it was his joke. It's interesting to see how they were written.
They were almost written almost like poems. They weren't written in long, long sentences. It was to your point about the rhythm. It was very interesting. Back to the Future has also it's right up there with the most as far as top three films go. It's been there a lot. We covered it with Nick Cody Live in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival keeps coming up. It is, as I always say, a perfect film.
Wait, had Cody not seen Back to the Future?
Correct?
God, I don't have to talk to him about.
That, And like it's Back to the Future is one of those like I thought I would never find anyone who hasn't seen it. There are some films going to go I won't. Everyone's seen Star Wars.
It's like the Simpsons. Someone says, I've never seen the Simpson Like, how are you alive?
I married to one of those people. Yeah, she's good in many other ways. But yeah, Back to the Future keeps coming up. And it was I finally yeah when Cody said, and it was a couple of years ago, and I just just hold off. We'll find time to do it, you know. And and and he held off watching it for like, you know, two hears and he finally found the time to do it live because I wanted to do it live because I thought it was a great film to do live. He did at the
Melbourne National Comedy Festival. And yeah, he loved it, obviously. But I think it's a perfect film.
They say it's the one of the perfect written films or trilogies that all the beats of our screen writing is meant to be done. They hit every mark perfectly. The characters are really really well defined, Like even Marty's brother, for instance, could have a show of his own. Is
that defined of a character. So I think when you're talking about actual screenwriting and writing the perfect script back to the Future, they say Star Wars is as well, but Back to the Future is a perfectly written beat wise of how you read like Save the Cat, which is about screenwriting and stuff and the actual beats of writing a script. Back to the Future does it perfectly, and they loop in things from the beginning and settle them. By the end, everything's done exactly as it should be.
It always bothered me because I've back if You've just been my favorite movie since I was a kid. I used to sleep in my clothes because Marty McFly did it. Like I was just obsessed with Back to the Future. But then when I got older and realized, oh, everyone loves this movie. It's not mine. I thought, oh, I
should find something that's mine and cooler and stuff. But then I realized, just like what you like, and so I beg, I reckon, I know more knowledge about that movie than most people, because I just kept liking it and kept watching it, like I'll watch it every few months. I watched the trilogy. It's like one of my favorite things to do, just sit there. The music just makes me so happy. The Little Twinkles and everything that John
Williams did, And obviously he's the greatest composer ever. Sorry to but the well, if you think about it, Home Alone and everything that John Williams anyway.
Credit John william I often think with John Williams. I think I've asked somebody if they gave me a satisfactory answer, But like, would how would if John Williams was alive in the in the age of Mozart, Mozart and Beethoven, where would he be?
Like?
Is he as good as those guys?
Yeah? I wonder because what he is good at is pairing at with a dramatic scene in a movie or a comedic pet in a movie. That's his skill. Yeah, And when you look at the movie and it does the little twinkle and it gives you that, oh, something's happening, Like he evokes that emotion in you. But just his music per se, I wonder. I know that He's obviously very talented and knows how to write music, but him scoring is that's his thing.
I do wonder if if you hear Indiana Jones or Star Wars as a piece of music, and it's impossible for us to possibly take away the images and the feelings we have in nostalgia. We're connected to those movies in those moments. But I wonder if you just heard, if you played to somebody who hadn't seen those movies, that music alongside, you know, Beethoven's nine, I'm making that up. I'm not sure if it's Beethoven's Night.
Six per Sistine Chapel.
I think it's Rembrandt's second. How would it compare? What feelings would they have?
Unless we've just grown in a custom now. But you can pick a John Williams score from if he's doing a new movie or something. This is John Williams. You know his style. But he still does come out with new ones that are belters. And he did it with I mean, it's Jesus twenty years now, but it was Harry Potter. He still comes up with them. So I do think that a year back in the day, if his music was because he would have gone into that world rather than the scoring world, which ye, I don't know.
I saw him live at the Hollywood Bowl and playing to Back to the Future. So John Williams was there with the orchestra playing along to it as you watch the movie. Incredible and then they did bugs Bunny cartoons and did it along to that was so great.
I can't think of another movie that's been scored so well and then got a soundtrack that is also so connected to the movie. I mean, you cannot listen to Huey Lewis and not think of Back to the Future, Power of Love and Out of Time, Top Gun, Top Gun. But I the story is good in top it is pretty good, but I would have Back to the Future ahead of it.
Yeah, yes, and all all of the songs that came out of that and Huey Lewis, and I love Hue's cameo in it. You're just too darn loud his song like it's just everything's perfect with that.
It really is great film. Let's talk about your next film, which is a Tombstone. I've got a recollection that had coming up maybe once on this the great Kurt Russell of course and Vel Kilma.
Now in his prime in that was his best holiday.
I saw a T shirt almost brought it recently with Doc Holliday saying I'm in my prime.
Really Yeah. How's the scene when he's flipping his little glass around with Johnny Johnny, look, honey, it's Johnny ringo. Johnny does his gun flipping thing and then he gets his little cup and it's so funny how they brought him so much comedy into that quite serious story of White And there's a good doco on Netflix that just came out the other day that I started watching, which prompted me in my mind to think of Tombstone again. It's all about White Earth, but they go into the
more serious side of it. And the reason that I really love Tombstone is, first of all, I love the while the West I always pitch. I think it's interesting as men. When you watch the Wild West, you picture who would I be in the West. Would I be the nervous bartender, here's your whiskey. Would I be the guy in the corner just playing the piano, don't hurt me. Would I be the tough guy turning his mustache, or would I be Wide Earth? Would I be the hero?
Would I be Clint Eastwood, and most I like to think that I would be Clint t Eatwood, but I think i'd get shot on the first day and just well, I tried my best.
I think i'd be the local dentist. I think shut the Blinds.
In the Street.
But it is a great film, and we could talk about for longer, but there's a few things I want to talk about, Yes, before we get to cool hand. Luke your uncle, which I'm not sure if I don't think, I don't think I knew this that you reminded me or at least told me a week or so ago when we will have a gig together. Is the greatest strain director Richard Franklin. Yes, And the connection I have with Richard Franklin is he made the first movie I ever ever saw at Greensboro twint. I was swaging about
it this on this podcast before. Can you guess which movie it was?
Well, now I'm going to change. I was going to say it was Patrick, but I don't think you'd fall in love with that. That was a horror film, So I think it was the Is it the nil One?
No?
No, okay, it's the Pirate movie.
What it's called the Pirate Movie Pate movie. Yes, oh I don't know it?
Okay, so well too. And actually Nikki brittin how there's one of her three favorite films.
Really, Yes, so I can watch my uncle's films that I haven't watched the Pirate.
But now when I was looking through the films your uncle had made, it made sense because he made the Blue Lagoon. Yes, And Christopher Atkins is in the Pirate movie. Ah okay, and I think it's Christy McNichol okay or Cursty McNichol. And this is a movie that was shot down in Wherreby like at whereby mansion kind of area,
and it's it was. I still remember going to the movies and having they had you know, they had little tis with at the candy store, you know, and they had like a little treasure chest and had like candy and I remember and I fell in love with that and the smell of the popcorn. And I love the movie. I actually got it. I got it on DVD, like I found it on DVD about ten years ago. Yeah, So what was it like growing up? Was obviously the cinema loom large in your in your house and.
The yes, to a degree. When I was younger, I would go around to my uncle's house and he would show us films before anyone else. We saw Blue Lagoon before anyone else. We saw the Land before Time before anyone else. I remember bragging about that it's cool, I've already seated, and so we would sit and kind of watch some films with him. But I was way too young. I didn't understand what it was to be a filmmaker
and stuff. And then but then when I was a teenager and I started to I used to make lego films for my friends at school, little stop start motion films, and then I'd take them and see which bits they liked and stuff. And it was this I was very interested in it always. And then I would go on set of my uncle's film. So he was doing a TV show called Beast Master in my teen years on the Gold Coast, and I went and watched a lot
of that, and then I saw how production worked. And at Warner Brothers movie or you can do the backlot tour yep, and you can see how they do the sound and everything.
I did the sound of the lethal weapon, yeah exactly, yeah, And they'd throw the crate into the water when they crashed and stuff, and my Mum said, I just wanted to do that all day.
The girls wanted to go on other rides and stuff, but I just wanted to do the backlot tour because I was with it. And so then that's where my uncle was shooting on the back lot of Warners with beast Master, And so I just fell more in love with the idea of making a film and the idea of storytelling, which is essentially what we do, but on a much grander scale and with props and everything like that.
So the idea of making a movie has been a dream of mine since I was a kid, and something that I've been lucky enough to experience through my uncle's films and be on set and stuff. Like you said, the idea of going to the movies, and the smell of the popcorn, and the even the previews. I love watching previews. I make sure I'm very early to watch previews. I'm just obsessed with it.
Yeah, I love it as well, and very exciting. The Great Emu War, which we might chat about at the back of this podcast, but very excited, goes in production early next year. We some massive comedy icons involved. It's insane. But we'll chat about that later on. Let's get into the film. We are here to talk about today.
What we've got here is failure. Duke Milke, some man you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants. Well, he gets it.
I don't like it.
Anymore than you me.
Okay. Nineteen sixty seven a massive movie year. We covered the Graduate recently, same year with Damon Harriman, ye same year. In the Head of the Night was the same year we've covered that, And there's a couple of other movies. Well call him Luke obviously, and I guess he's coming to dinner. The best actor Oscar that year was insane. It was like it was Paul Newman for coll Ann Luke, Rod Steiger in the Head of the Night. It doesn't Hofpen for the graduate specer Tracy. If I guess he's
coming for dinner. It was just insane. It was insane. Rod Steiger won. But anyway, getting ahead of ourselves. Monte Franklin nineteen sixty seven, starring Paul Newman George Kennedy, directed by Stuart Rosenberg. Did you enjoy cool Hamluck?
Surprised how much I enjoyed it excellent. I love it, which is interesting because I knew it was an old film. I knew I was coming into a slower paced film than we're used to these days. And I was wondering beforehand, will I be bored because of the way that YouTube and everything has made our senses. I need the thing now,
I need the thing now. And I was so relieved and happy ten minutes in that I was like, oh, thank god, yea that I personally still can appreciate and see great storytelling, great acting, and appreciate older styles of cinematography and the way they used sound and what they had at their disposal and the way that they use them back then. Like now you think, oh, well they did great work with CGI and they they didn't have any of that, So how do we make this cinematic?
How do we make people sit there and just go oh? And the way that they did it was just so fun and it's almost like there was a lot of zoom ins to the mirrored glasses and then scenes playing out within the glasses, and it's almost like it would be what a student film would try and do. They're like, oh, that's cool. But it was cool. It was cool, and when I watched it, I was like, this is it cool?
Yeah, it really is a cool film. This is I mean Shawshank comes, you know, twenty or so years yeah, you know after this, maybe twenty seven years after this, and Shaw Shanks a great film. But you can see the influence cool hand Luke would have had comp Shake Redemption. I mean, Luke does feel like Andy Dufrayan, like a cooler Andy Dufrayan coming in and shaking things up. I
love this film. I watched it when you know, my late teens, probably off the back I'm not sure if it was off the back of the Guns N' Roses album, but maybe around that time. I loved it. I hadn't watched it, I don't think since, so when I sat down to watch it again, I was like, I wonder if I'm going to enjoy it as much? And I really loved it. I think this is a stunning film. I don't think I get spoken about enough. I think it's you know, it's occasionally it's referred to as a
cult classic. I think it deserves to be more than a cult classic. I think it's and out in that classic I think Paul Newman, maybe we should have start there. Paul Newman, your first Paul Newman experience. What did you make of this again?
Yeah, he's dreamy, That's all it comes down to. That's the thing that people always talk about, Oh, they've got star power, or they've got this. You gut it, keed, you gut it. But when people have it, you can't help but stare at them. It's like Harrison Ford, just you stare it, and every word that comes out of the mouth, you're like, oh.
Like that.
And there's people that you meet in your lives that have that just around too. Sometimes you're just like, Wow, this person's captivating.
What is it?
What is it about them? Is it the way they carry themselves? Is it their confidence? I'm not sure what it is. But the first second that he drops down to the ground after trimming all the parking meters, you just get a sense of this guy that you want to be mates with him, that you want to hang out with him, that you want to get drunk and cut parking meters off with him, That I'm with you, And that's what you want in your lead character in a movie, don't you want? All right, I'm with you.
Where are we going with this story? What are you telling me? I'm here? And instantly I felt that with him.
We did the sting just recently with Frankie McNair and we both loved that. We both were watching it for the first time, both loved it. It's Paul Newman and at Redford together again. After following up from Buscashi and The Sundance Kid, I was reading that Paul Newman was advised not to do it because comedy, he doesn't have the light touch for comedy. And you watch, You're watching
Koland Luke again. No, that's such bad advice. Like he does have this charisma and that smile and the laugh, and like he brings a lightness, you know to this character where it could have been played differently and have a real kind of heaviness to it. But like you said, that first shot where he drops to the ground, he's sitting up against the parking meter, he's cut the head off and he just breaks in. The cops coming, he breaks into a laugh and the title comes up, Koland Luke.
It's like I'm in Yeah, I'm in here.
I mean, where's this guy going? I'm coming with you. It's yeah. In the that's what you want in your lead character. It's it's almost He reminded me a lot of like Ryan Gosling of what Ryan Gosling's doing these days. He's bringing comedy very very well, but in such a such a subtle way. He doesn't need to sell it too much, and by saying need to some people sell it and sell it great. Jim Carrey is one of the best salesmen of comedy that there has ever been.
But sometimes people can bring it right back. Harrison Ford again very good, just bringing it right back to just a word or just a look, and that is enough to sell the comedy. And the people around him in the Chain Gang were more over the top and he was a little bit more reserved, but he was the one that you kept looking to. He was the center and focal point, and the attention was always what's look doing? Yeah, my god, it's cool. Yes, he's cool, hand Luke, but
he's cool as well. There's something really gravitos to what he's doing.
Yes, yes. And the actor is also I think, uniformly great. Like the shots in this movie which almost like a painting strickt Rosenbig does a really good job of this, like creating, nobody dominates, you know. It's certainly Luke's picture, and Lukey is the guy, and that's how you want to feel. That's that's what they're feeling.
This.
It's like this guy, you know, like you said, I want to be his mate. But I think they're all from the acting the actor's company in New York, so I love them knew each other so that he felt like this there was a camaraderie between the actors. I love it. I think George Kennedy is really good, you know, like I think you know, they're obviously in different categories. I think Paul Newman, you know, I would loved from the Winn and Oscar for this, he wins it for
the Hustler? Is it the Hustler? Years later? That wasn't like he's been better in other films. It was good and that absolutely, but this was I think his best performance that I've seen.
All right, So just touching on you said, sometimes it's like a picture that they're painted. There was a scene where it cuts to a storm coming and I think it's actually just a painting. It's a still shot. It doesn't have a movement to it, and this storm is coming and it's the noise of a storm, like it's just a still shot of clouds. It's very funny.
That's nineteen sixty seven. I was still working their way through what they could do and what they can't do. Let's talk about the eggs. You brought it up earlier. It does come out of nowhere, which is kind of like is it is a comedic scene. And we've spoken a little bit about the light touch of pon human in this and the comedy in it. It's not necessarily a comedy though it's and I hate that we get to this point where we have to label a film. Is it a comedy? Is it a jam? Is it
a GM? Germany is a dirty word?
Now?
Like it's it's let films exist as they are, but we need yeah, we don't need to work out which part of the video section. I think that's probably where it really, you know, what we needed to label films. But certainly there's fun in this film, but there's also it packs a bit of a punch. So my belief of why the eggs this exists as opposed to just a comedic moment where he eats fifty eggs and comes out.
I think he starts seeing himself potentially the opportunity to be a leader or is this a natural born leader? And he believes that by doing something this silly and fun is going to raise the morale of the inmates, and this becomes I think, you know, we see it later on when they're tarring the road as well, that's his that's what he sees his purpose because it's tarring of the road. I think is fascinating because Luke, he's
not he's not fighting the system. He's not there like if the authorities, you know, saw him as an asset, like and kind of forgetting. It was almost like watching it for the first time. I kind of knew some of the beats, but I couldn't remember it all. And I was thinking at one point, as part of the what they do is do they try to keep him longer? Like Dofrain in Shoshank, they keep him longer than he needs to serve because he's become beneficial to the warden's business.
So I thought, is that what they do here as well? They keep looking longer than they need to because he's so helpful, and the tarring of the road, they tar it quicker. They tar with energy. You know, they're they're they're upbeat that they're happy about the work they've done there. It's such a great scene, made weird only by the fact that the nine news theme comes in.
It was so funny.
So the composer, it's his original that the Channel nine news theme was written for cool Hand Luke, and which is the in the in America is the eyewitness news theme. So the composer kept on getting people like, I love the score you did for the cool hand. Look, but why did you use thee with this news.
The breaking news, breaking news?
So outside of that kind of the slight weirdness for us, you know, watching it many many years later, it's it's such a such a clever and different way of doing it. Where Luke wasn't looking to rebel, he was looking to engage and lead. But what the authorities see is somebody they don't want the leader in that in that camp they want they want sheep. Yeah yeah, And all of a sudden they have a man who the inmates will follow admire that is dangerous to them.
It's interesting that you think he wants to be the leader.
Whether he wants to be or is a natural born leader of but please.
Yeah, I don't think he wants to be a leader, and I don't think he thinks himself as a leader. I think I think he just saw himself as someone who could. I think he was entertaining himself and other people came along for the ride. I think with the eggs thing, he just in his head he thought, I think I can eat fifty eggs. I'm just gonna see if I can eat fifty eggs in front of these guys. I don't think he thought, oh, this will rally everyone,
this will excite people and give him something. I just think he was there and then the tarring of the road, he just in, this is what I thought, like in his head, he was just doing it slowly and then thought, why don't we see if I can do this as quick as I can and just see how that goes. And then everyone else rallies in and stuff. And because at the end he doesn't say, there we did it, guys,
they go, what do we do now? He goes, it's just to sit here and enjoy this, and then they all then they're all looking to him like he's some kind of leader or messiah or something like that.
Right, Well, it's certainly a messiah thing going on.
Yeah, definitely, but I don't think he ever ever buys into that.
Yeah, it's a really it's an interesting discussion point, and it's possible that both things are true. You can eat eggs because you think this will be this is going to entertain Yeah. Yeah, this kills an hour of my time. Yeah, you know, out of two years, a lot of eggs. If you do it every day, I feel like, well, well for me, I think to have complete investment in look, it needs to be more about himself than it needs to be about something more than himself. And we see
when he you know, his mother comes to visit him. Yeah, yeah, we get a great insight and that's an incredible scene.
Incredible that one I actually paused and I thought about for quite some time because these days you would never get a scene like that.
Eight pages of dialogue.
I was that really had nothing to do with the story, rather than us realizing that he has a mother and a family and he's a person and he's loved so in your head you think, oh, there's someone on the outside for him. But they didn't need to come into that much detail of the conversation. But there was so much power to what she was talking about, and she touched on a lot of things that didn't need to be but were really interesting. That she loved one of her sons more than the other one.
Well, she loved Luke Moore than she loved his brother. So she was leaving all her assets and property to.
Because she felt bad that she didn't love him as much as she loved Luke. What an interesting thing to put in there that didn't need to be in there. But when I heard her, I just went, Wow, that's really interesting. It's dramatic. It hits you in the soul and you're like, wow, people do think.
Let's have listened. Let's listen to uh these monm practically saying goodbye.
I think it's just never the way they seem or you know that man's got to go his own way.
I guess I just gotta.
Gotta love you let go.
I guess.
I ain't asking what you're gonna do when you get out, because I'll be dead and it don't matter.
He never did want to live forever.
I mean, it wasn't such a hell of life.
Oh I had me, I had me some high old times.
You old man, Luke. He was He wasn't much good for sticking around, but damn it, he made me laugh.
One of the things. I I agree that you don't necessarily need this for story, but I think it tells us so much about Luke, and I think maybe you can it is in it has it is connected to the story because she says nobody controls Luke. Nobody controls Luke, and she says, I guess I just have to love you and leave you, or that line was and that's the kind of cracks And that's the danger that Luke represents to the authorities that they can't control.
All right.
I like that a lot, right, Yeah, And if his mother not that the authorities are watching this, but as an audience, we can see if his mother can't control Luke, what hope that the authorities have. And the idea also in there that and that comes back later on with his confession, and the church will get that a bit later on. But he hasn't been dealt a good hand, you know, and his father basically didn't know his father, So that that just gives us a little bit of
an insight. Do we absolutely need it, Maybe not. And a lot of these movies from this era wouldn't give us that information. We've spoken a lot about even the graduate, how little you know about Benjamin Braddock outside of you know from from you know, seeing one to the the scene. You don't really know what he was studying and all these things. So this is I think reasonably uncommon for a movie from ninety sixty seven to give us such backstory.
I think it'd be uncommon these days. Like if you were writing the script, and I've had script notes from executives and people, and they would look at that and go, you don't need that. That doesn't progress the story, That doesn't every inch of the way progress the story, and everything like that. But like you said, that actually broadens and richens the story so deeply that it's an integral part of the overall what we want to get out of this character, and that he is untamed, you know,
he shouldn't be caged, so to speak. And then the rest of the time that we're watching him in it gives us more of a sense of oh, that they don't have control over him. Anything could happen. He could tar the road quickly right now, he could run off to the bush and pretends he's running it like we don't know what he's about to do. Yeah, So that definitely plays into that, doesn't it.
And the turning point is the horrific choice that the authorities make when his mother passes away. He gets it, gets word, and instead of showing compassion to this inmate who's behaving and getting work done more efficiently and having boosting morale within the group, they punish him by putting him in the box to lessen the chance or the risk of him going rabbit and fleeing to get to his funeral. And that's basically the turning point of the film.
Yeah.
It's almost like a dog that's being really well behaved and then you put it in a cage and you're like, what did you do that for? Because he's great, Yeah, he's great with the kids, he's great. Like what are you doing that for?
Yeah?
And yeah, that was that really changed the way that I was watching the film. I was laughing at fifty eggs and then let's start the road quickly, and I'm like, well, these guys are going to do next?
This is so fun.
And then I was like be mean to Luke.
Why are you doing it to my baby boy? Yeah, yeah, it's but you do feel when he's put in the box, you know, like you think about that his mother has just passed away, and he gets somehow punished for it. There's that great line, I think, the famous line where he says, you know, I'm just doing my job and he's just calling it your job. Don't make it right, boss, Yeah it was. It was a fantastic line.
And parallels to share Shank that you're mentioning. That's exactly what happens when he's little mate that he's teaching English too, gets killed. He gets put in the box for a week. And it's exactly the same, isn't it.
I think the only real difference, obviously there's different, but the only the end, which we're going to get to a bit a bit later, But you know one has a more of an happily on the beach and he goes where and he made love under and this says a different ending obviously, But yeah, that mother seen the actress both the theater background, so they're worried about the time it was going to take to do eight pages, but because they were just absolute pros and theater, they
just they did. It almost came in under time.
Eight pages is eight minutes, so that did not feel like eight minutes. No, it felt it felt really it felt so real and honest and a real conversation between two people, between a mother and a son. It was really well done.
And not having like resisting the temptation to for a big you know, not romantic emotional would be a wind choice. How bad it They just.
Passed, but he wasn't allowed to go to that area of the car. There's no look you stay there, yes.
But but what like you can imagine, like the temptation to go she lunges out him and gives him a hut or he does that, and there's emotion, but they withhold that, they even physically keep them apart, and there's actually a barrier there, like there's you know, it's a choice to have her in the back of a car in a van where it's.
He waves to her oddly in the end, if you remember, because I think he has to show both of his hands for the security guards. And so he stands back from the thing and says by mum with two hands like that, saying goodbye to his mum who will never see again. Just the way that he says goodbye is so it's so weird, but it's so you feel for him. You're like, I can't even say goodbye properly because he's in this because where he is, which.
Is really clever because it sets up that he's already been had this kind of weird repress, kind of farewell to his mother already. So then when she does pass, you really feel it. And that scene where he gets the news and everyone just gives him his space, everyone out of respect, and they they all just part I really loved.
I didn't say anything either. Yeah, I didn't need to. They just all left and let him sit in his bunk and play on his ukulele.
Let's have listened to Paul Newman classic Jesus.
Get Yourself the Sweetened Dollar dressed him Panstorm stating Shell going ninety scary cause I cut the Virgin Mary the shoeing and I welcome hell.
So good. The tear this comes down the cheek, you know that. No, that's that's all acting these days. Back in nineteen sixty seven, you can add that his impost puns.
The tear down the cheek got me. I realized, Oh he's good, he's really good. Yeah, that scene I was actually watching, and my girlfriend walked in and went, what are you watching? And I was like, fully just staring, almost crying myself. I'm like, it's brilliant.
I love him. Yeah, and then he just goes, he goes with a refrain, He kind of digs in.
And there's a bit of anger in it.
Yeah, it's really it's really cool. The car wash, we gotta get to the car wash so funny.
Another scene like the fifty eggs didn't need to be there, but the fact that it is is just why the movie is so great. I think. Yeah, the the the way that the men were getting so riled up, they were squirming, they were that riled up. It was so funny. It was so funny.
Yeah, bordering on ridiculous. It's almost more ridiculous than that the eggs scene, but you know, it does it does show, you know, the restlessness and the urges of men who have been you know, imprisoned. Yeah, it's it's so over the top of that. And I'm not sure if this is the first sudsy car wash that was committed.
That's what I assumed it was. That's why I was laughing so much. I go, this is where all of the subs, all the rest of them have come from. Yeah, and it's full ridiculous, Like she's fully pressed against the window at the end, scrubbing back and forth, and her breasted like in the in the in the foam. It's it's so.
Funny because the house is you know, you can barely even spot the house for memory. You know, she could have done it close to the house. But she, I mean, so the act the actress who who was cast to do this car wash, she has been on record to say she wasn't really aware of how sexually charged this scene was and in her performance was, and she didn't realize what all this meant now right, I mean, I find that somewhat when you watch it, like she said, literally cleaning a window with her breasts.
Yeah, she's ringing out the sponge on her breasts.
Yes, it's impossible to think. But do you think the character knew what she was doing? Do you think I mean, I suspect she Oh.
Yeah, that was the line that one of them said, because she don't know what she's doing. And then Luke goes, she knows exactly what she's doing. She did, of course, she got all those guys paying attention to her. That's exactly what she was doing, like the character. And I just think the fact that she did it in nineteen sixty seven would be very rare, wouldn't it.
I think so.
And then just the nature of it, the unnecessary scene in the movie but necessary in the end, and like the eggs and everything, which is what led to it to be such an interesting film and to watch. But that scene, I was audibly laughing.
Yeah, so ridiculous, you know. I suspect that you're supposed to be laughing. I don't think it's one of these things it's like, let's let's laugh at it behind the filmmakers back. I think it's it's intentionally funny.
You know.
The reactions are you know some of the lines. Yeah. I think drag Line says, Lord, if you're going to strike me down, wait five minutes or something, yeah, or something like that. Drag Line is an interesting character. He's like the big bear, top dog of the group, and he's the one I guess Luke has to go through to get acceptance, and he does so through this fight. I think it happens after the carwash when drag linees going on about how amazing you still fantasizing about him,
and Luke says, this is not helping. You're not helping anyone here.
And he goes, you get your sleep tomorrow we fight.
And then it's on. It's on. But what did you make of the fighting scene.
I thought it really cemented you to understanding Luke that he's he's a never give up, you can't cage me type of guy. I'm not even going to be caged in this fight. I'm not even going to go down in this fight. I'm going to I'm not going to talk my mouth off. I'm just going to keep going.
And the hilariousness of some of the shots missing by a foot at least and then going I just liked it because I knew the year that it was made in the still and I'm like, okay, I'm going to put myself in nineteen sixty seven watching this film, and this is this is great. It was very interesting that the big guy what was his name, drag Line. Dragline
starts off very tough, very gruff. We're going to call you no he is because you don't listen like very like this, and then after after that fight, it's oh, it's my babie boy. Oh mad, it's my beautiful boy. This changes completely.
It is a switch. But I reargue with you. If you when you watch your back, you can kind of see that he is. He's not the brighter spark in that.
That's exactly he's big.
He's the big guy. Yeah. I do love that scene. And we've seen you know, I'm sure it's not the first scene of like stay down, man, stay down, and the character just keep on getting up. But I really, I really like it. I also feel like you really feel the sweat, you know, and the and the dirt like look being pummeled into the dirt and getting back up.
When he gets back and there's so much dirt on his back, I kind of want to go, oh, someone dust him off a little bit.
That's too much. That's too much.
But it's so real and honest and doesn't look like a makeup artist put it on. It looks like he actually went down.
Well, they shot that over three days, and that they were both knacked after because look, it's it's not necessary from the punching, obviously, but from the from the hitting the ground and and all that. So I love it.
It's interesting to point out the drag Line is the big guy, but he's not a leader, is he? It seems when you go in there that he is the leader, but he's just the biggest and the loudest. But then you're right comes in who's an actual leader and everyone just turns to him. They never turned to drag Line that much. They were just kind of scared of him, which is This is something I wanted to bring up quickly of why men, I think would enjoy that movie
a lot more than women. And I think men like watching prison movies because we think which one would I be? Would I be the big guy? Am I the leader? A? Am I the scared guy? Am I this?
And that?
And then it parallels in society of what man am I? Am I an alpha male? And everything like that? Right out in the world, Tom Cruise is an alpha male. I look to him, I think he's a legend, he's great, But in prison he's five foot two, he's not. He's not the guy, is he? So it's a different pecking order, and you wonder in your head would I make it? Would I be okay? Would I be carrying the corner? Would I cry? What would I do? And then women
watch true crime documentaries. And it's because I don't know, maybe they think, well, every man watches prison films, so they desperately want to go to prison. So I have to make sure that I know everything they could possibly do to avoid being by these paths.
I was actually discussing with my wife this morning. My wife, I'll get up. My wife gets up usually before me. Sometimes I write late into the night, that's an excuse. But I will get up and she'll be, you know, there's there's don't think she kind of you know, she likes to do before she can sit down and have a tea. But she'd be watching some true crime.
And I'm like, first thing in the morning.
Watching true crime and she was murdered, and then she's make my tea. But she made the point that true crime is feels removed enough. If it was it's usually American true crime. It's a lot of those shows that you know, yeah, and then they feel like they're historical almost where she goes, I couldn't watch like it was like a true crime about the abuse of a child. I couldn't watch that. I wouldn't start my day. But it feels like it still feels like entertainment, you know,
which you know? I imagine I think we all know watch true crime as entertainment. I heard somebody want to say, I want to I want to write true crime at fiction.
It's funny that women like watching true crime, but I dare say most women hate watching animal documentaries because animals get but the lion attack the gazelle and I can't make it. You watched eight episodes of this killer who went through the Midwest. Yep, that's far removed from real life.
You can't watch the end of bandy. Let's we mentioned earlier there was christ like, there is a Messiah thing going on here, and it's a lot of us about hero worship. These inmates just look at Luke, and I think he gives them hope. And whether he has decided that that's his role or he's a natural born leader, everyone can decifer themselves, but I think there's certainly the hero worship thing going on. And we see when he comes back in from the grave and he has a Degeah,
it's a great scene. It's like, well, have you put dirt in the sheriff's grave or whatever it is?
And yes, there's no way he can win there's no way he can win.
He can. He has to dig it and then fill it back in and then dig it again, and he ends up being pushed into it.
That reminded me, Sorry, that reminded me of the scene in the Castle with Robert Redford when he kept making him move those bricks from one side to the other. Remember, yeah, yeah, see. That to me is the difference. But he was a he was a general in the army or something. But he definitely was a leader and rallied everyone in that film, didn't he see Luke doesn't do that as much, but he definitely has them all looking at him like they did it Robert Redford in the Castle, like they look
to him as the leader. I just I didn't really feel like he said, right, I'm the guy. I think this is just what I got that he just went, all right, I'll be the guy man for me.
He's just a yeah with the I agree he may not articulated to himself that I'm going to lead this group, but I think he's just such a natural born leader. He has natural charisma. He said. From the moment we saw him on camera when he was laughing, we wanted the bees, mate, You know.
So maybe that's what he is, is like your mate who you all follow to the pub because you know, he's the fun one. And he's not necessarily a leader, is he. He's not going to take you into battle.
But no.
But but leaders can be you know, leaders can be the you know, the fung whoever organizes the bucks party. You know, he doesn't always have to be about battles and and but I think there is certainly a messiah thing going on the way they look at him the whole way through. And then but when he gets out of the grave and he.
They start playing songs to him, to everything, the guy gets the katari goes, oh, this is all I can do to help our messiah. That starts playing to give him something that's to show that they're all there with him.
Yeah.
And then and then he gets out and he begs a stomp, and that's when they turn on him.
They turn on him quickly.
Yeah.
And I think there's a you know, lots of religious kind of you know stuff going on in his motifs, and him getting out of the grave could be seen as Jesus is going to getting out of the tomb and rising again. But he right, you know, and he he begs and they tear up the picture.
That he instantly tear the picture up.
Yeah, when does that happy? They place him on the table? Does that happened?
After the they place him on the table with the eggs.
And the eggs he might be after the eggs, and he's in a crist like, deliberately christ like pose. He's on the table pose his feet that crossed over.
Is only you're right, and very specific.
It was very and thirty seventy is his number, and thirty seven refers to a particular passage in the Bible. So there's a lot of obviously it ends, you know, in the church. But what what did you what did you make of their turning against him? Because it is a bit you know, come on.
Guys, Yeah I did definitely that was that was me fully on Luke's side, and I'm like, all right, he's gone through a lot. But they instantly ripped up the thing. They all turned their backs on him as he walked through, whereas fifteen twenty minutes earlier, they all gave him the respect when his mother died and left him to in that same room, and then they all acted like he wasn't even there. They dropped him that quickly that I really I was angry at them. I was like, come on, guys,
we're in this together and he's gone through it. You need to stand by him like he stood by you and has been the rock that you've needed. And they turned him so quickly. And it was interesting later when Dragline runs away with him and says, oh, you were playing this the whole time, like he wanted him to say, yes, I was, and he goes, no, I wasn't. He broke me,
and drag Line couldn't accept it. He wanted to know that Luke was always the Luke that they had put into their messiah eyes, and when he didn't and broke, they couldn't handle it. And it was really interesting when drag Line said that. He goes, oh, you were playing us the whole time, and when he realized, he goes, no, tell me you were playing us, like he really was begging him to just at least tell me that. So I think it was interesting.
Yeah, absolutely, And he actually said I've never planned anything in my life. Yeah, And I did think when he said that, I did go, well, hang on, how did you that first escape? You know where it was there obviously was a plan.
It was funny how they didn't show it at all for the movie, did they? They just started doing it. I really love that they did that. Like usually in a movie Shaw Shank Redemption, half of the plot is showing how he did and how he gets to it and everything. This just they're having a loud Fourth of July party and he's just got a sore and then you're going, oh, he's breaking out. I didn't even tell us. They didn't prepare us for this.
And then then he's out and they don't show him being captured, which again I kind of I kind of liked.
I really liked it. It reminded me a little bit of is it Peter Sellers and the Panther when he just kept getting brought back in the anvil? Yeah, just brought it back immediately.
But those scenes when he when he is and the dogs that are chasing him there while the crashing through fences and apparently that was that was happening, and the actor was just like, I guess I'm just gonna have to go underneath, and like that they were literally being pulled. I mean, you know, dogs can only act this a certain amount. Yeah, I do like when they he comes across these these two boys. I think it's his second escape. And let's listen.
How to take your pants on.
The best ways to get rid of them when they're going?
What you mean?
Strong enough?
Strong enough for what?
You couldn't have to an act?
Can too?
But you can't can to?
Bet you can't can too.
I'll bet you can't.
Can.
Well, then go get it man?
What's your name?
Boy? Ben?
Ben?
Have you been taking those starts off her pants?
You know it?
Kid?
M hm, you want to see something real funny. You're going in there and you get me a chili, powder and pepper and Korean and lake land of it all right.
I think that the two kids were really good, and I really felt that the kid's disappointment when he thought he was going to be the one who heaved the ass and and then Link said out let me take it, Yes, And this goes behind and he buries his head in his hands and kind of felt his pain.
I thought it was going to be part of it. Got your axe, But.
I I the escapes aren't fun and and and I think obviously a massive part of that the second act, but I you know, when he's returned. I think the inmates are kind of happy to see him again, like the Yeah, They're not like, oh damn, he didn't get out. They're like, okay, it looks back.
Yeah.
They need him because I think he represents hope. I think that's a big thing as well. I think to them represents hope. So when they break him and he begs for mercy, I think they see that as Hope being lost.
Yeah. Yeah, I just still think they turned too quickly. Absolutely interesting in that scene, and it reminded me. Throughout the film. You can hear birds chirping in the background a lot, and I was listening to it because the sounds very interesting. Nineteen sixty seven, they didn't use much sound. There wasn't much of a score. There was a lot of silence, and it really played into the gravity of certain scenes, and I really liked it. I liked the
lack of needing to cram too much sound in. But the birds in the background for me was very interesting because it was almost like throughout the whole thing, it showed that freedom and outside is there, it's in reach, and so while he's in there and insular and they're having this world and they're and they're fighting, and they're boxing, and they're you know, they're digging holes and everything. Freedom and a different existence is chirping in the trees. You can hear it the whole time.
Yeah, that's a great point. That's a great point because you want Yeah, I mean, somebody could drive by and have access to enjoy those birds and and and and the smells. But all of a sudden you put change on, you know, and you are incarcerated. It changes you're experience and your will view. Yeah, it's yeah, I love it. What did you As we move towards the back end, what do you make of it? So we think Luke
is broken, that he's conformed. He's helping, you know, the the authorities, retrieving a turtle that's been shot.
Yeah.
Oh, by the way, we haven't cover the authorities, so we've got our old mate. The failure to communicate.
Great performance, great and very subtle. Probably has four lines of dialogue the whole film.
So so good in the delivery method, and you're not sure whether he is does he want to be liked?
It's funny because you don't. There's not enough of him to hate him, there's not enough to understand him. Or anything. I did draw parallels to the warden in Shawshank Redemption, because when in the end of that one, when he ends up shooting himself, you're like, good, I hated that guy. But this guy you'd never got a sense of. But he came in and he had the authority and you knew what he was, but you never got enough of him to to to really feel a presence of what
he meant. But it was enough. He's like the prince at school. You never really see the principle, but you know he's there.
He looms large. But I mean there is that scene, the failure to communicate scene where he whacks him and he rolls down into the forefront of the frame. It's a beautiful shot. And this film is so such a good looking film. You know, I'm not just on about porn humaneous. It's absoutely gorgeous. In fact, the director was getting a bit frustrated because he thought he wanted this to be a grittier kind of film. It's a it's
a beautifully shot film. The merit sunglasses we mentioned earlier, but that's this is a great character and I believe the thinking behind it is and I think this is why I often cops or prison guards would often wear at a certain time merit sunglasses because it kind of it reduces the the you know, the chance of having apathy or humanity if you're just looking into you can't see their eyes. And obviously there's a little payoff in the very final moment with that. But so Luke's final escape,
he's he's shaking the bush and all that. Very clever. He escapes and he gets so this is actually sorry, this is the that's the second. In the second one, the car jumps into the car and takes off, drag line jumps in. You mentioned, Neil, we're free and knew you were, knew you were you were faking it, and then they go their separate ways. What are you thinking at this point?
I'll tell you what I was thinking. When he started running and getting the gun and killing the turtle and everything. I felt betrayed by Luke. Yeah right, I felt, how could you We were a team? You are now just one of their shills, said the roy word. I felt very betrayed by him, and I thought, please please come back, Yeah, which is what they were all feeling.
Which is fascinating, isn't it. This maybe made in nineteen sixty seven, and you have felt about Luke from the first moment you see him, and that's exactly what the director wants you to feel exactly, And now you're feeling exactly what the direct exactly.
They Yeah, I was a perfect audience member that they wanted. And as soon as he got in the truck and drove off, for a second, I thought, was he allowed to drive that truck and he's going to get something? But then when there was some speed to it, I just went, oh, thank god, he's back.
It looks back. He's back.
And I wanted him to say I was playing it the whole time like he did as well, But when he didn't, I still said, Nah, he was in my head. I still wanted him to be that weird, but I wanted to believe that he was playing that he hadn't been broken.
Well, I still wonder if maybe I'm in the same boat as you're just wanting to believe it. But I'm like, may share you sure that's subconsciously please back recesses of your brain. You thought, you know, I need to if I play the part, Yes, if I played the part, the moment will come.
Yeah.
So they go their separate ways, and Luke finds at church, and this is I think it's a fascinate sequence of events. Let's have a listen to look in the church.
I know I'm a pretty evil fellow. Kill people in the war, and I got drunk and chewed up municipal property and the life. I know I got no call to ask for much. But even so, you gotta admit you ain't helped me, no cards in a long time. Getting it looked like you got things fixed, So I can't never went out.
And signed outside all them rules and regulations and bosses.
You made me like I am and just where am I supposed to fit in?
Oh?
Man, I gotta tell you, I started out pretty strong and fast, but it's beginning to get to me.
When does it end?
What do you got in mind for me?
What do I do? Now?
It's you know, he's come out. I think he said in the Korean War, I think is the war there that they refer to.
Yeah, but he won purple hearts and stuff like he was a hre.
Yeah, he is absolute hero and he's come back. And this would have, I think, spoken to a lot of the servicemen and women's experience coming back from from conflict, just feeling lost and forgotten. Yeah, really, when when you when you, if you frame it like that, and if you remember that. As he's saying all this, I think he's extremely powerful, very sad.
Very powerful, very sad. I was, you know what, I think parallels a lot of and I only can experience what I've experienced as a man. So for men, exactly what he said still rains true today. I started out with dreams, and I started out strong and trying my best, and I've been beaten down. Give me a break, what's next for me? Here's a lot that goes on through men of a certain age, probably around thirty five to
about fifty five, it is. And so watching that scene, you massively feel, yeah, give us a go, like we're trying our best. Yeah, And I really really felt that in that scene, and it was said it was very interesting. I thought it was quite good to his character. Drag Line. He said he's a little bit of an idiot because Luke's looking up talking to God. Track Line walks in and like looks up, like where are you looking? And it's a lot of so funny that they added that
in He's like look, baby boy. And then he goes like, who are you talking to? Like you're at a church, you know who he's talking to. You don't have to look up.
But I guess Luke obviously has some faith. It's been rocks and it's probably been discarded, and maybe it's his last chance. He's tried to escape, he's been found every time. Maybe he's just he's just looking for one last little pace of gardens. And I think then he does get on his knees and and and ask for help on my.
Knees asking, Yeah, that's what I thought. I guess I'm pretty tough to deal with, hard case. Yeah, I guess I gotta find my own way.
M M.
That's your answer, man, I guess you're a hard case too.
I love that line. Yeah, yeah, but yes he has he has for help, and he sends drag lining, and like you said, he looks he's looking around. But you know, like drag Line doesn't have that, I guess in his life. You know, he doesn't the idea of talking, you know, right, possibly, possibly, but what a bad choice by drag line. I was frustrated with drag line here.
Oh, very why did you lead him to Luke like.
Would have worked it out. Yeah, And I think, to be honest, I think subconsciously, you know, like he's probably thinking, I'm caught. I can't survive this now with what I know now of how life can be in the camp with Luke in it. It's better with Luke in it. So I'm gonna I'm gonna take him back with me.
They definitely showed that part of drag Line's character when they separated, and he just kept looking longingly like he'd left a dog in the woods, like how could you leave me here? He even walks off and looks back. He takes steps back towards Luke. He doesn't just look back. He goes oh, and then doesn't know what to do with himself. So when he does get caught and stuff, and he's like, oh, I'll take him to Luke and
then then we'll be back in our bunks. But in an hour, you know, and he even says that he goes only pin and how we'll get out back. We can go back to the way things were, yes and right, Yeah, I was definitely in that. I'm like, I have you idiot.
Yeah, I wasn't.
I wasn't disappointed in him because it's his character. But I was like, you idiots, we were almost free. But also I felt a little bit with that money Luke saying my knee's here talking to you and stuff, I felt like that was a little bit of acceptance of his fate. Before you heard the cops and everything come in. I felt like he kind of went, all right, well, whatever it is is like yeah, I really that's what I felt in that moment, that almost that he couldn't get a run away from his fate.
I certainly felt that when he said I guess you're a hard case too. Yeah, I certainly felt there. But that's really interesting. I mean you could almost see that, to be honest, that is dragline Judas in this It is a betrayal. It's like, you know, Judas was paid the Three to point Jesus out or to betray him and Dragon.
I think he's done and didn't realize that he was Judas.
Yeah, yeah, I think I think he's been played. But like I said, and then you mentioned all that stuff about the bunks week we give be back, I think he probably wouldn't tell himself that he's betrayed Luke. But I think subconsciously. He certainly has like he's led the cops. Luke would have been fine, Yeah, drag Line, yeah, absolutely gets caught.
Yeah.
And but then he also says they've got us, like they got yeah that he just like, oh, well they've got us, let's go back to our bunks and talk about it. What he wants, Yeah, he wants to talk with his mate in the bunk.
They go back, goes to the window. It's a great it's a great refrain of the line. What we got here is a failure to communicate. Yeah, we're you expecting. What were you expecting at this point?
Absolutely not what happened.
Yeah, And.
It shocked me, which again a class accordience member playing into exactly what they wanted. I went, no, oh, he's not going to die. And it was as soon as he started saying the line, I knew where what he was doing, and I instantly just went, oh, it's good. But I did not expect the shot.
The shot was. It actually took me. I think I jolted a little bit when it happened. And and then he's taken out, he's walking. I would have liked I would have liked drag Line to carry him out. I kind of think he looked because do you believe he's dead at the end.
I believe he's smile.
And I believe that too, But I would have liked him do like I carried him out, he looks like he was walking okay enough, and then he's dead, which I'm not saying couldn't happen, but I just kind of think, I know, more poetically, perhaps him, you know, lifting him out, putting him in the car to smile, because he says that was Luke's power, like he's smiled in their face of authority. He wasn't. He was never trying to defeat them.
Really, he's I thought it was interesting you bring that up too, because when he walked out with him, I thought, this is interesting that they're playing it this way. But that was his character the whole time he was standing. Yeah, I guess it's And if drag Line had carried him out, we would have felt more like Dragline should have gone, why why did this happen to us? And it would have changed the perception of Luke to the very end,
being untamed. You can't of entame him in death. He's still going to do it his way.
Yeah, I think that's a really good point. I like that. I do like that. And he does say in the fight when he's when he's down, he keeps on getting down, and he keeps on getting up, and they say stay down and stay down, which is I guess is you know echoes in this scene, you know he's not going to stay down. He's going to he's going to walk to his death. But he says, you're going to have
to kill me, and this is what happens. But and he he's still smiling, and they cannot take that from Luke, you know, they can't rob him of his who he is. And then there's the running over of the mirror glasses, which I take that mean that Lucas had an impact, the man who's made them suffer more than maybe anybody else.
It's almost like his armor is off, yes, and it's broken.
But look has a legacy, almost that Lucas had an impact, and.
That it seemed a little bit insignificant in the end, like look how easily you can smash those glasses. Look how easily this guy can be broken. Like when drag Line went up and shook him, he did cower. He didn't stand above him. Fight back, hit him with a gun. He didn't go get away from me, coward and it was interesting to watch him. And the whole time he was stoic. In the movie. It was a big four. He had that gun. He chewed a bird out of
the sky with one shot. That this guy is But then he cowered in the end, and he was so easily broken, his glasses, his armor was so easily just shed to one side. It's interesting.
Yeah, And if those glasses were to represent, you know, having a certain inhumanity, those glasses removed and like you said, cowering all of a sudden, he does seem very human. And that's what Luke has brought into the camp. That's his legacy. I think it's I think it's great. I think it's great, mate. I think this podcast comes with homework. I always say, and you have gone above and beyond. You are you are busy. You are getting ready for your huge national tour. You are playing Haimer Hall.
Yeah, Blarodie Hell, it's two thousand seats seats, terrifying.
You're going to have a great time. Gret tickets. That's happening in November. But I want to talk to you about the Great Emu War. I've been hearing about this for quite a while. I wasn't sure where it was up to. But you're shooting early twenty twenty five and Rob Schneider, who we know your mates with and you work with, is in the movie. John Clees is in the movie. Like, because your mates we've robbed, you've probably
you know, and you've worked with him before. You know, that's exciting to bring him to Australia and to work on a movie. But John Clees, did you know John?
Or So? I wrote the film with Rob. We'd written a bunch of drafts of the script and I sent it to John Clees's daughter, Camilla Clees, comedian in La I knowna well, and I said, look, I wrote a part for your dad if you ever want to And she said, when it's ready, I'll take it to him. And we got it to a really great point. She took it to him. About forty eight hours later, my phone rings John Clees here and I was just like, hell,
I thoroughly loved the script. How would you feel about me coming on and writing the next draft with you? So I picked myself up off the floor and I rang Rob and I said he went dude, and so Rob, myself and John kind of lived together in a house in Arizona for about six weeks and wrote the most recent draft of the script together. Jim Jeffries came out
and wrote with us. So at one stage there was four of us sitting around the back, laughing our asses off writing this script together, and I am piecing together. Between us, we realized there was like one hundred and eighty years of comedy, one hundred and seventy coming from John. But I was great to piece his genius with Rob's character genius with Jim's style and then mashing it all into this beautiful script. Has a lot of heart and a lot of comedy, and there's a lot of John
Clee's in there, which is fantastic. And he's playing my father in the movie. I'm playing the lead soldier who goes out to fight birds, trying to impress his World War One hero far John Clees, and I lose to birds, embarrassingly, making things way worse. Rob Schneider is the head of the Australian Army. His Australian accents really really funny. Jim Jefferies is playing the mayor of this small town where everything's happening and stuff. So we got Res Darby in
there as well. Just flat out hilarious. And there's some other people that I can't mention, but really really fun. And yeah, we're going to be shooting, starting pre production early next year. So, like I said before, been my dream since I was eight to make a film, and this is my baby. I've been working on this for well ten years, but I've been building to it since I was eight.
Are you directing? Yeah, that's amazing. I made a film in twenty ten. I didn't directed, Dana redirected it.
I thought you directed that. I'm not sure what a lot.
Of people say that. I always said after in interviews sometimes alive I had to go directed, But I've directed it so of television in to date and how to say married and and it's a bit you know, it's a really cool thing. But for a movie there, I'm sure there are people along the way. He kind of said to you, how about we get some of the director, or how about.
We've had other directors on what happened we had We've had two American directors, but what was happening was they weren't getting the comedy that Australians are willing to give up to the rest of the world without feeling like we're getting the piss taken out. Yes, and they were going, wouldn't this be funny? And I go, no, that's actually really embarrassing, and you can't actually, and they didn't get it. And I found myself having to explain a lot of stuff.
But then, like even working with John and Rob, I had to explain that won't fly with Australian audiences. We are very particular with the line that we will cross, and then once you cross that line, we will all turn our backs on you. So it was great when Jim was there because I go, right, Jim, and you go yeah, yeah, we can't say that, or yeah no, we can't do that, or we can do that, but
not that, because that's it's very particular. But I love walking that fine line and it was great to have a gym there because he and I both too around the States doing comedy and walk that line the whole time of what we want to expose to the world about Australians and what we want to keep to ourselves. It's a reason why the Castle was so popular here. But didn't work overseas. That's for us, that's us. Red
Dog was for us. But this movie we want to make for the world Ala Crocodile Dundee, which is still for us and we're proud of, but for the world to fall in love with again. So it's a broader, broader comedy. But the thing about John two is I've now spent time with him. I have dinner with him, and he's a friend. He's more than that. He's like a We've had these conversations. I My father left when I was young, he never had a son. We've developed
a father son relationship. We just talk about life and he's the most He's exactly like you want him to be and even more. And what he taught me was you can be silly, but not be the clown. You can be goofy but demand the utmost respect from people. And to watch him do that, just out at dinner with waiters and waitresses and say the silliest goofy thing but still say it in a way that everyone was like, oh thank you sir. Like that all right, you're making
a scene. Yes, so fun. Like we'd be out at lunch or something and then we're walking back to the car, and this happened in Phoenix, and we looked in there was a puppet store, and he goes, I love puppets, and we went in there and bought eight puppets, and then went back to his place and did a puppet show for his daughter. It was just me and John making stuff up, but that was for no one else's benefit than us, and to make his daughter laugh.
That's amazing.
It was just so much fun. And he's so fun.
I've interviewed him a couple of times on the project, and he's he's still really fascinated and curious about new ideas and new people. So like the idea that he got back to you quickly in a way, it doesn't surprise me, only because I've interviewed him. Eric Idol I spent some time with backstage. I've interviewed him couple of times too. But we did just for laughs at the Opera House and there were like six comedians myself, rove Reyce Nicholson was there a few others.
And we just.
Hanging, you know, just hope in this moment would last, knowing if he would say at some point, okay, I should head off and We're there for like an hour, an hour and a half, and then we went to a bar afterwards and it was just yeah, like those to meet your heroes is daunting sometimes, but I'm so glad. I've even just got to interview John a couple of times. You're working with him and now are his son. You
must go, hang on, what has this? I mean, I've met Hoagues a couple of times and that's been you know, that's been a thriller, so you really Yeah, it's nice as they get older and it's still so so funny and willing to work and sharp. Yeah.
And he I would argue that he is the elder statesman of comedy in the world right now. I think he's the oldest. I think he's done the most. I think he's written the most. He's talked about creativity in a way that has developed comedy and the most influential that's alive today.
He's talks on creativity. Great joined YouTube and he's had a.
Great book on it. It was great working with him when we would work right, we'd start at ten am and he would come out and sit down out the back of the house. It was during twenty twenty, so we were meant to all sort of be separated, and so we would sit there and it was very interesting. We'd laugh and we right scenes, and then suddenly he'd go, right, the comedy has left the building. Let's go and get lunch.
And in my.
Professional life, work wise and stuff, I have to dig a hole all day or I didn't do any work, so I'm banging my head thinking, no, no, we need to keep working. But we would go and have lunch and we would talk and laugh about what we just talked about and come up with more ideas, and then I'd come back and sort of filter them into the script. And I realized after a week of doing that we did vastly more than if I'd done eight hours every
day banging my head against the wall. And that's why you talk about creative ideas coming to you in the shower. That's why they come when they do. But he notices them and knows when the energy of the idea is gone and everything, and he's just a craftsman at that right, it's gone, let's go for lunch.
I'm glad you mentioned the check because I was thinking about it, because that's part of his book. It's a little while it's like it will take you twenty minutes, twenty five minutes half out of break.
It's called creativity.
Yeah, it's really good. Check out. But I did the same thing where I've decided that I'm developing a few things and we just basically two hours to you know, two and a half if we're flying at the end. But generally I do feel when he said, comedy has left the room, like you feel it. And even it's if it's energy or something, you know, all the good ideas have been. You can't be on fire for eight hours in a day, so just short, sharp sessions. Come back to it later on in the afternoon if if
you want, but go do something for a walk. Absolutely, mate, it's been an absolute pleasure.
Thank you, it's been fantastic.
I'm hanging out. I'm glad you enjoyed. Cool Handlet you can go back to Rob Schneider and say you've seen it, seen it and I love Paul Newman and you well, mate, go watch Buschcassie in the Sun, dance Kid, and seriously, it's just ridiculous. He was on new was on number nineteen on Nixon's enemies list back in the day. Yeah, just because you know all the all the you know, the all the communist stuff that was going on. Yeah. So Warren Beady was the other person nominated for Bonnie
and Clyde's another film for nineteen sixty seven a year. Yeah, if you've hard facts coming out here, fun facts. Newman ate only about eight eggs. I reckon some fancy editing going on, and he did vomit. Afterwards. The actors did tar a mile long stretch of road for the county. I'm not sure if that was on top of what they did, or that was imagine he's probably kept on going or as part of the film. The author of the novelist Don Pierce, didn't like the film at all.
Didn't like the casting of human thought he was too scrawny. Didn't like what we have here is a failure to communicate speech. Reckons. Somebody in that position wouldn't have used a redneck wouldn't have used had those thoughts. I don't think it was high for Litton kind of thoughts, to be honest. No, you know, I'm trying to think which bit wouldn't have occurred to somebody.
But he's in that position too. Yeah, he's in a powerful position. He should be articulate to some degree.
You think so, you'd think so. Wives were banned on set because they they wanted to have this pent up feeling.
For the car wash scene.
For the car washing well, speak of the car wash scene, I'm not sure. Apparently it's ninety sixty seven. The producers tried to convince Joy Hannon to smoke some marijuana to free up her inabitus, which is I hate to almost leave finished on this note, but what a creepy feeling. They did have somebody else stand in for some of the takes. It was like a fifteen year old. It gets creepy, a fifteen year old cheerleader from a local school. She was in an overcoat though, so making that watch you will.
There was ninety sixty seven. Didn't Elvis marry a fifteen year old around then too? It's just there was different times, people different times.
This is good behavior. But mate, thank you so much. Good with the tour it film and yeah, thanks.
Thanks for having me. This is one of my favorite things to do talk movies and it was really great. Thank you.
For Sweden dressed Kim Ryanston setting of our Belonge show. Good Money scary because I've got the Virgin Mary assuring me that I won't go.
He a natural born world shaker, Luke Jackson, cool Hand Luke. Paul Newman went to the writer, the screenwriter, Frank Pearson. He said, I hope you're not going to write this for me, meaning I hope you're not going to write this for Paul Newman the actor. Write it for cool Hand Luke the character, and I'll find a way to play it. And he does. I think out of the performances I've seen from Paul Newman, this is my favorite. I think this is a great, great film, really great film.
I'm really glad Monty enjoyed it. If you haven't seen it, check it out, and if you have seen it previously, watch it again. It stands up. It's so good. I don't want to compare it well. I will compare it to at the Shaw Shank and we had compared to shaw Shank, but I don't want to harp on about it. I don't want to say which one is better. It's just too hard. Shaw Shank is a great film. I'm not taking anything away from shaw Shank, But if you like shaw Shank, watch cool Hand Luke so much to love.
Thank you for listening to you and seeing nothing yet we truly appreciate it. There are times where I'm like, I'm going to wrap this podcast up. I'll be honest, it's time consuming, but I keep on thinking bloody hell. Every time I sit down and I watch a movie, I just love it. And then I have this conversation with a mate or you know, somebody who I don't know as well as I like Monty, and it's just brilliant. There's more people I want to get on, more films
I want to cover. But I would love to hear from you, either via speak pipe, go there, leave a message. We'd love to hear your voice, Requests for guests, requests from movies, anything we've said that you want to pick up on and take. We'd love to hear your voice. Or you can email at Yasney Podcast at gmail dot com. Love hearing from you next week on the show. This
exciting and somewhat unexpected in a way. One of the comedians making the biggest waves at the moment is from across the Ditch, a man by the name of Rayo Leary. Australians are falling in love with ray as Am I He is a great guy. I like hanging out with him. We caught each other shows in Brisbane at the Powerhouse. Recently he popped into my show and then I said, well, if you're doing that to my show, I'm popping into your show. And we caught each other shows. Very funny man,
very funny man. He went to Edinburgh, had a great time over there killing it on how you been paying attention? Thank god you're here. He is one of the men of the moment and the rayo Leary, the man in the gray suit, the dry tone, will be covering little French film the World fell in Love With many years ago. Amie, that's right. The idea that ray Leary is watching Emily for some reason makes me laugh. But I'm looking forward
to it. I saw Emily when it came out, and you know, I always say I was besotted by it, but a lot of people were and I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it. People started doing the nome thing became a reference point. It was a moment for French cinema and yes, beautiful film. Ray Leary. Next week on you Ain't Seed Nothing yet watching Amale until then back an hour and so we leave old Pete save van Sult, and to old friends of the radio audience we've been a pleasant good name.