Month: April 2016

In hopes of creating the most awkward episode to date, Dad and I watched The Hateful Eight, Quentin Tarantino’s violent pressure cooker of a Bounty Hunter story. Taking place almost exclusively inside a general store during a blizzard, this ultra-violet Western takes on an enormous amount, exploring nothing less than the history of racism in America, while at the same time taking elements from murder mysteries, horror films and of course, previous western bounty hunter sagas. And being a Tarantino film, it is of course chock full of extreme violence and language, often in the form of N-words. The highlight for me was certainly discussing Samuel L Jackson’s signature monologue in the center of the film with my dad. It’s worth a listen for that alone. Topics of conversation also include the genius of Ennio Morricone, the generational gap when it comes to Tarantino’s output, the merits of meta filmmaking, how one’s supposed to feel about violence against despicable characters, and of course, the definitive conversation about race in America. That’s right, it’s actually happening on this podcast, where my Dad and I watch a Tarantino film and discuss it! Well, we mostly just talk about what we think the ending means. Honestly, it’s a film so loaded with purpose and intent we could probably do another episode about it. Although Dad probably wouldn’t be too keen on that. Also, as this film is pretty filthy when it comes to language, we get a little blue in discussing it. Unavoidable!

Afterwards, we discuss Season Five of Game of Thrones, which we totally spoil, if anyone still cares, and I have a few words to say about some recent genre films, Midnight Special and Green Room. Next time, we’ll be watching the Randolph Scott revenge picture, Seven Men From Now.

The Hateful Eight stars Samuel L Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Demian Bechir, and Bruce Dern. It was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino.

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This episode delves into the 1985 Lawrence Kasdan Western homage Silverado. The first appearance of Kevin Costner on the podcast, Dad and I have a good time reminiscing about watching this particular Western excessively in the 1980s, where it introduced me to the genre. The nostalgia extends back to a famously ugly piece of shop class memorabilia, discussed at length and seen in picture right here. Behold, the Silverado vase!

Then in the discussion of the film itself, we run into our first experience of disagreeing on a film in somewhat significant ways. I’m a bit disappointed with the stock nature of the plot and characters, while Dad is much more transported by the commitment to honoring the style and tone of the old school studio pictures. Conversation ranges from an uncharacteristically playful Kevin Costner, the character actor whack-a-mole game you can play while watching the film, the question of whether it’s a difficult or very easy film to follow, the legacy of Lethal Weapon, and Brian Dennehy’s sadly unrealized performance as Santa Claus.There’s a lot of talk of Dennehy, in fact. He’s terrific. So, get ready to listen to me disappoint my dad with my lack of enthusiasm for one of his favorites!

It’s not that heavy. Lots of cracking each other up. Maybe a bit much of that, in fact. At the end, we briefly discuss a few old movies no one’s talking about just now, Babes on Broadway and Lady Snowblood. We also neglected to give our star ratings, which actually just drives me up the wall. For the record, 3 out of 5 for me, 4 out of 5 for Dad. I’m sure we’ll mention it on the next episode, in which we discuss last year’s major Western release, The Hateful Eight! More Kurt Russell super violence, coming soon!

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