The Hill (1965) — "We are all doing time, even the screws."

Weary way. The hill Sean Connery bold, exciting explosive to see that hill, I. Says, I came in. We built its special two tons of sand and rock them a lot of labor and sweating. Start out eyes, not you, Roberts.

You're going to continue downlink. Roberts, Hello Sean Connery, as you have never seen him before? On your feet? Have you written the Hill? A story of men pushed to the breaking point and beyond?

Both regulars? Do you drop up dead? Man and inspecting if your daughter? Oh you quit a I quit the army And. This is right, dick, a pretty justice.

You're going into the common inject flight this lag. Unless you've got a top hat and a bone to put through me nose. Give this mediac out out there. Any serious illnesses like what any recent incapacities? Well, I wouldn't brag about it, Roberts.

In this place, it pays to give a plain answer to a simple question. And yes, where are you sending me? Yes? That's fine? What kind of bloody food are you trying to make a The complaint against Williams came from staff Harris.

Harris, what have you told him? I told him the truth? But truth what the hell are you told him that, William, that's me me who runs this place. I made charge of Debra any outside, and then you'll look after your department and I look after my don't tie cat out of my owners. I'm running this place.

Yea running this place, burg William Dad, Hello everyone, and welcome to the Culture Cast. I am your host, Christashu, at least for the time being. That's what I've been told to say. And I am joined by my good friend. He put the Mike White in Mike White March or May this year.

I guess not March. It's May, your friend of mine, the host of the projection booth, Mike White. Don't talk back it different colored, bastard. Oh my god, good lord. I was really expecting to go.

You to go. No, you'll muck it up. No, y'all muck it up. Oh dude. I would just burn out the whole signal if I did that, if I started screaming like Sean Connery.

Yeah, screaming like Sean Connery is a great name for a song on this episode of the Culture Cast. If you don't know what we're alluding to, we're gonna be talking about the first film in Mike White may all of the Well, I would say all the the films of Sean Connery, because there's not enough time or energy in the world for us to do that. Though I don't know if it's a rather long list, but these are the films of Sean Connery, as curated by the projection booths Mike White. So, Mike, I'm curious before we talk about the Hill, let's talk a little bit about the month. What inspired you to pick the films that you pick?

Well, these are all films that I've been wanting to see. I think I've only seen one of them in the past, which was the name of the Rose. If we're giving spoilers as to what's coming up last month. Everything else was stuff that I've been wanting to see for the longest time, and I decided to use this opportunity to sit down and talk with my Palchris and say, let's look at some of these non bond films. We've talked a lot about Connery as bond, Well, let's talk about some of these non bond and hopefully we're getting some cream of the crop.

I, like I said, have not seen them, but I've heard good things about these. This first one, The Hill with from Sidney Lamett. I've heard that it was great, and I've I need more Sidney Lamet in my life because what I've seen of his usually, I don't think I saw that one with Vin Diesel that he did towards the end of his career. But I've seen a lot of Lumett's and I've enjoyed every single one that I have seen so far. So yeah, very excited for these.

So, like Mike mentioned, on this episode, we're talking about The Hill. On the next episode, we're talking about the Anderson tapes. After that we're doing the Offense than like Mike has already mentioned the name of the Rose, which yes, we have covered in the past, but we'll be covering it again like a decade almost a decade later. And then to round out the month, we'll be talking about wrong is Right? So yeah, not a single bond title.

Uh, the one I'm most disappointed by. And maybe I can shanghai you to do a bonus episode before the end of the month. Little League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, My dude, you're fail. Mike's already left. I have to do this podcast by myself now, Mike left because I I even brought it up.

I saw the thing in theaters. Man, I did two. I did two. Yeah, so I would say that I, like yourself, I have not seen any of these films, but looking into them in kind of a cursory level ahead of time, they all seem, like you said, good examples of Sean Connery as an actor outside of the mainstream things that he's known for. Namely, well, that's what I was gonna say before we get into this movie, specifically in your perception of things as a you know, as a film watcher, as a movie podcaster, as someone who's appreciated film your entire life, like I have, what is the most popular thing Sean Connery is in.

It's James Bond. Right, it's gotta be yeah, I mean he was broadly right, Oh yeah, yeah. Well and specifically never say never again. So totally you only live twice when he's in yellow face. For me, that's yes Sean Connery.

Yeah, you know, I mean other than Zardas, I. Don't Red Outfit for me and that one. Oh god, I love that movie. It's so so off, but I just yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, I mean, even going back to his Well, it's interesting his top four on IMDb.

Number one is Doctor No. Number two is The Untouchables, number three is The Rock, and number four is the name of the Rose. Interesting. Yeah, Indiana Jones is not on there. Huh no, oh no, that might be one of his more popular things, or even like, uh, what was it, You're the Man now dog?

No? Not finding Forrester, why dmn D man, Mike White, good lord Man. A couple of people that heard that and popped for that real hard. I was a big fan of that sight me too. The dramatic reading of things or the batman doing the yeah hym ytmn D is a man you know, if you.

Don't know, you used to make some of this really Oh yeah. So good. You're the Man now dog? Yeah. That for me is that's a that's a Sean Connery ism that he's known for.

I would say for me, like I understand the James bond of it all, but and I mean this genuinely for me, I think if Sean Connery as James as Indiana Jones's dad, because I watched that a lot more as a kid than I did any of those Connery bonds. I was not a huge fan of the Connery Bonds as a kid, because I think this is understandable for someone who's like in their early you know, like young young, like young adulthood or childhood. Like those movies are kind of boring, you know, they're not the most exciting or entertaining comparatively to like a Live and Let Die or you know, the movie that I would have seen originally initially gold and I like Doctor No is no Golden and so I always think of Sean Connery as as Indiana Jones's dad, Like I didn't see.

There being a whole generation of people that that's their. Biggest thing, and I think that they're Indiana Jones movie is way better than it has any right to be because of Sean Connery and Harrison Ford's chemistry. Yeah, I'm saying in that movie, you know what I mean, they don't really need one because they're so good. I get it. I don't think it's that great of an Indiana Jones movie.

But in in fucking retrospect. Oh yeah, to what we got after that? Come on, man, Like, I know some people may not think it's great, but you know, retroactively reappreciating it might be a better way of looking at because four and five shit the bed so hard. Yeah, but I mean I get the James Bond of it all. But yeah, for me, Sean Connery really like Indiana Jones's dad, and then I would say probably then James Bond, and I did see The Rock growing up, so like that that might be my third point of reference.

Yeah for me, I mean, you know, he was always a presence, you know, growing up, he was just always there. And I obviously was not old enough to have experienced him as Bond in the theater. Other than never say never again, I'd mostly remember him from things like I mean I saw The Untouchables when I was way too young to see The Untouchables. I remember seeing you see. It until two years ago with you and Father Malone, Like I can't even use that as an example.

I love that movie. And then when it comes to I mean really, we'll talk about this on the Anderson Tapes episode. I remember that movie being on television a lot, so I was pretty exposed to him that way. But then the end, he was a presence. I mean, when I was working at the movie theater, I remember Medicine Man coming out, Like you said, Indiana Jones three.

I mean even things like just cause or as I would like to say, just because and yeah, the Rock and what was the one with him and Catherine Zeta Jones say, Raman is that right? I mostly just remember her in that movie, but I do remember his kind of modeled skin that he had at that point in his life. And you know, to be fair, I would say that, you know that the maybe the measuring st and the thing that I would insert into this conversation, not unseiously, is Daryl Hammond's impersonation with Sean Connery on Celebrity Jeopardy. He was so ubiquitous that Daryl Hammond could do that imitation, and that's one of I mean, like, that is not Sean Connery. That is just Daryl Hammond doing a very broad stereotype of him, like a caricature impersonation.

But it is one of the things I think of when I think of Sean Connery g abs, and it has nothing to do with Sean Connery. Sean Connery is kind of a prickly individual. I mean, he talks about beating his wife multiple times, and he doesn't. Every woman should be slapped from time. Yeah, like and there's no no repentance for it.

But you know, I never perceived him to be the outright asshole the way Daryl Hammond characterizes him. But it's very funny. Oh god, it's hilarious. You know, I forgot. I grew up with him really watching Highlander, even watching sort of The Valiant.

I remember him in showing up in that, and then Time Bandits. He was what was agamin mon in Time Bandits and he was like the surrogate father to Kevin, the main character, and he was like when you meet him, you're just like, yeah, he should be your dad, Like stick with this guy. He really knows what's going on. He treats Kevin nicer than his parents, nicer than anybody, and it's like kind of a real missed opportunity. When they steal him away and take him back through time again, it's like, oh no, he was like the best father figure that you had.

So yeah, I definitely had a real affection for him growing up, and then since then it's like, you know, it's funny because I'm not picking movies that I love, like the Man who would be King the Great Train Robbery Outland, like he was knocking it out of the park. For me anyway, at least in the seventies. Well, and that's the thing for me as someone who's in my mid thirties, because you and I are only separated, and you know, I would say, I guess you could be my dad in age wise, you'd be like a younger but I think you and I are closer in age is like an older brother younger brother situation. So like I was never able to see those movies that you saw because we're just a part in age enough. I remember seeing the VHS for Outland at my grandparents' house where I watched a lot of my movies growing up, and it had a really large impression on my formative years.

I mean, my dad wrote it in my birthday card this year. He wrote the birthday card had a VHS tape on it because I used to go with my grandfather all the time to Blockbuster and we would just come back with all kinds of stuff, to the point where we came back with movies that got turned off five to ten minutes in, like Maul Rats. But the Connery that I honestly remember now just taking a glance at his list of the movies that I could have seen in my childhood Dragon Heart, which I do remember seeing as a kid, where what just does the voice of the drag? Yeah, and then the other one and you will laugh. And I am being dead fucking serious when I say this.

I watched The Avengers a lot growing up, okay, VHS and DVD. I remember that's the Sean Connery plays the villain who can control the web the Winter. Yes, yeah, Winter with a Y. Yes, and it's Ray Fines and it's Thurman. Yeah.

Yeah, that's what I thought. I remember them in that movie. I think you're right. Yeah, I remember them all dressed as Teddy Bears, And I wondered which came first the APHX twin video where they're all dressed to like Teddy Bears or that. I think James mc patrick McNee is in there, like.

Oh yeah, doing a little fan service there. Yeah, Jim Broadbench is in there as well. Like I watched that movie a lot, I haven't seen in a really long time, honestly. I mean, I was joking about leaving Extraordinary Gentleman as like a bonus episode, but I would honestly might just do an Avengers episode by myself, because I have not seen them since I was a kid. I saw that a lot as well.

I think I rented that on VHS. Was that VHS? Or would would that have been DVD? It would have been right at the cusp It was ninety eight, which is like what matrix is ninety nine? Yeah, here's the matrix for you.

This is for your birthday. Yeah. So all of this to say, uh s, I would say, I mean to segue, I think easily into talking about the Hill, the thing that always surprises me about Sean Connor versus, and just to use Bond as the segue. He's the only actor to play Bond to win an Oscar Yes for a movie like you said, that is really good. I didn't see it until much more recently with The Untouchables, which is where he won for Best Supporting Actor.

But Sean Connery, I think is maybe and I mean this maybe not controversial anymore, but he's the only actor with a capitol A that's played James Bond. Because he's a real actor. I would say, honor is. He's the working man's actor. He's like a he's a toned down Richard.

He's a tone down Oliver read for me, because you can see that in him as a person, especially with like the women deserve a good slap and just kind of he was prickly, but he is a a working man, blue collar guy turned into you know, and has real acting chops, And again, like, I think that's interesting because it kind of gets lost in the conversation about James Bond. I think only Connery could have really brought the gravitas necessary to elevate Bond into something worth like getting the Hooks into pop culture, because Connery is such a convincing everyman, even though Bond is not the everyman. Connery plays the everyman so well that you want the every man you want to be. You want the everyman to be James Bond, because we are, in turn the everyman you know, and Daniel Craig just doesn't doesn't ever feel like that.

And with something like The Hill, I get to see what I would perceive to be, at least as as a film watcher and movie podcaster, the first film I've ever seen where I'm like, holy shit, Sean Connery just the guy was just an immensely talented actor. Naturally, it doesn't feel at all like a puto. No no, The performance he gives in this is remarkable and it all adds up for me when it comes to this film and you you have such an amazing cast in this. It was so nice seeing part of me, young Assy Davis in this. I've really, over the last few years, have really started to fall in love with Harry Andrews.

He shows up in some interesting places. We just watched Entertaining Mister Sloan a few months ago for the Projection Booth and he is so good in that one. And yeah, just like everybody is firing on all cylinders. Great seeing Roy Kanear show up in this, and almost the first time I see him, I'm just like, is that for ucasaut? Dad?

Like, is that really? Am it? Sure enough? Yeah, we just watched him and it wasn't the seven percent solution I think it might have been. Was it Sherlock Holmes's smarter brother.

I don't remember he was. He was a henchman in one of those. It is. Okay, he was really good in that, very very funny, and this one he's so great. It's just so venal and just such a little shit and you just want to I don't know, boxes Ears.

Most of the time, I really feel like all of this goes together so well. I was very shocked to read that there was a version that we probably should have watched that was aired on TNT. I think it was back in the late eighties, a colorized version of this film, because I really think that's what was missing from this movie, is you know, the lush color photography. Yeah, totally. I would go as far as to say the one of the things about this film that I really love is that it is a stage play.

It totally is. It's a stage play, Like, this is a one stage play. You need for setting to get this done. This would be a very economical stage play. I'm actually surprised nobody has done this recently in any sort of extended form.

Maybe we should, I don't know. Like it's one of these things where when I was watching this, I was like, this feels so insanely prescient and topical for the way things are now and the kinds of people in the world that we are dealing with. But for me, if I were to watch a colorized version of this movie, it would take away from the timeless nature of it. There is something so timeless about black and white, and I don't need to see the blush cinematography in a film like this, because the starkness of the environment and the starkness of the lighting and just the look of everything helps add to the kind of overwhelmingly cynical and I think, uh, I don't know, I wouldn't say disturbing, but you know, disturbing nature of what the film is even getting.

Yeah, I mean again, like everybody's going to come in at a different level on some of this, but I I think, you know, ultimately, I think it helps just the stark contrast of the lighting and the black and white helps just further be more unsettling, more off putting, and I think it works in the film's favor. It's it's interesting to look at the cinematographer's body for work. Reflections in a Golden Eye has some similarities with this. I think that there was a version of that that had like this yellow sheen on it. But yeah, like looking at like, you know, he did Fiddler on the Roof, he did Sleuth, he did the macotash Man, he did Scrooge, he did The Man with the Golden Gun.

So one of the. Last thing was also dark Crystal. So he's had a very broad body of work. Yeah, he worked with the Met a few times. I think, didn't the Met actually do the Whiz?

I'm pretty sure, so he worked with him on that as well. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, and then he did the Man who would be King who you know, we were just talking about that, so yeah, great, great cinematography. I love just how stark this thing is. All of the shots of the sky where it just looks like the sky is just oppressive.

I mean, so much of this movie is oppressive, especially when it comes to the hill. I love that we start with the movie kind of already in progress in media res, with the guy who's trying to make it up the hill and then him falling down the rest of the way, and it's just like, okay, boom, we're into it. You know, let's get going here. We're yeah, we'll save the opening credits for a little bit, but we're gonna start with this right now. Well, And I mean, I love, like you said, the fact that the movie is just it's it.

There's no like, oh and that's what this is and that's what the Nope, We're we're just right here, like we're we're right there in it. And I think it helps add to a level of disorientation with the audience, because that's the other thing, Like it takes a while to not to figure out what's going on here, but to understand exactly what the stakes of what is going on here are because it's not made imminentely clear. Once we you know, kind of pick up, like you said, INDI in media res with things, what the fuck is actually going on, it takes a second to understand like, Okay, this is a place for not deserters per se, but where you take people in the military that are not living up to the rules and regulations as they're written down, and we put them in the middle of the desert.

Okay, yeah, it almost doesn't make any sense until we understand like the point that there's a further point to why this is the way that it is and the expectations. And I mean, at one point in the movie, one of the characters I forget which one says like, you know, this place is as much for us as it is for the guards. The guards are here too, They're stuck here, like these guards are the complete fucks of their own like stripe of things. And it's very interesting that like even when the movie, the movie doesn't acknowledge that immediately, but just like you said, the oppressive nature of where the film is set gets that point across more or less immediately. Well, it's pretty early in the movie that they're like talking about the commandant of the whole camp, and you know, we find out very quickly that Harry Andrews, even though he acts like he's in charge, is not the man in charge has cut to the CEO with this prostitute obviously outside of the camp, probably like downtown Cairo kind of thing.

And it's like, all right, yeah, we're finding out about this, and yeah, this guy, the Harry Andrews character, is just such a little tyrant and we've seen this type of character in films before. There was a lot of feel for me watching this of a film that would come I think two years later. I kept thinking of cool Hand Luke and just this whole idea of the you know, the guy who comes into this prison camp and who I don't want to say he bucks authority, because authority just immediately is like he's special. We need to tear this motherfucker down, We need to make an example of this guy. And then it's interesting that they try to break them but they're not going to and they end up breaking the wrong person.

But yeah, they're just like, oh, he he thinks he's special. We're going to tear this motherfucker down. Whether it's even his fellow prisoners, like the one guy who is just such a hard ass and thinks that he knows best about everything and it's like m m no, you uh, you don't know what time it is, and them like us, you know, a very smart move to have these five new prisoners coming in because we learn the ropes with them, we learn how this camp works. You know, we saw the guy falling off of the or falling down the hill earlier. We see the two guys who are getting out, and it seems like they've got some okay camaraderie with the with the Harry Anders guy.

But you know, seeing these five new prisoners and just the way you know they are going right after Ossi Davis. I mean, it's this whole idea of if you're different, if you're special at all, we're gonna found you down into the ground, you know. Or they're going to pick on Worry kinnear because he's fat. They're gonna pick on Ossi Davis because he's black. They're gonna pick on the one guy who's married but keep insinuating that he's gay.

I'm not sure where that's coming from, but I guess they just like spot weakness. Like he loves his wife. That's why he got into trouble was because of what was that whole thing? He was head of his wife's letters and stuff. Yeah, it's like all right, yeah, not a really horrible crime, but he gets it the worst of all of them.

It's very telling to me, and I think it's also very kind of important to the narrative. Like you said that the audience, the viewer, gets to experience how oppressive this world is firsthand through the eyes of those characters. Because I'm not saying it wouldn't have worked otherwise, but I think what works about it for me is that there are these moments where we get to see things like through the eyes of the characters. I mean, there's a point where one of the characters has a gas mask put on and he's forced to run up potentilar hill. We see that from the first person view, and it's I mean, it's just it's out of control.

I mean, it's it's it's completely insane, and but it it helps put you, as the audience in a place where there is I think an immense amount of sympathy and empathy for the main characters and the understandable lack of that for the people in charge, because the people in charge flaunt how terrible they are but refuse to own up to it when presented with the evidence of their wrongdoing. Does that sound like anything else? Yeah, yeah, I kind of does. Yeah, just still andy. It's ironic of a fucking name for a film.

Yes, yes, there is a lot of irony there. Yeah, yeah, it. I mean, you know, I mentioned cool hand Luke. I'm trying to remember the other film that this was really reminding me of, which I think was an earlier one. It'll come to me eventually, but it's just like, yeah, like to see these relationships.

I mean, another later one. I kept thinking of the boot camp scene in Starship Troopers, you know, just that whole like the yelling at people and chasing after them and like beating on them and all this kind of stuff, and and there it's just like, I mean, it's Verhoven, so he's presenting it as comedy, but then when you look at it, you're just like, this is really fucking horrible. I mean when he throws the when the zim throws the knife and it goes right into Jake Busey's hand, it's just like, oh my god, Like, this guy is fucking crazy. I could see Harry Andrews doing the same thing if you could actually throw a knife. Well, and like you said, the the kind of over the top nature of the people in charge, I mean in that film, it's the kind of CEOs in this film.

They're not CEOs per se, but they act like CEOs. Like that's you know, that's because this is military, Because this is you know, again a military prison run by military commanders. We have you know, we have this like there's a level of just like entitled assholary that you wouldn't necessarily get otherwise with another kind of narrative. I mean, you know, Sidley loo May, I think what's interesting is, you know, twelve angry men obviously in this I feel like are very of a piece with one another, and in a way that it doesn't feel it doesn't feel forced to make that connection. I think for me, what's interesting is it it's tackling a similar thing, you know, injustices within the system.

I think Twelve Angry Men is a little bit more hopeful than this movie. Yeah oh yeah, yeah. Me personally. But I think there's a level of like, I think there's a level in that here. I just don't think.

I think that's not really the point of what Ray Rigby is trying to get across. Yeah, the shit. Oh first off, so I don't remember who I was talking with, but I said, Sidney Lametz, name the way that you just said it, Loomay, because that's how it looks right being a man of the world. Squire. You see that, and you're just like, yeah, I got corrected hardcore by whoever it was.

Was just like, no, it's Lamett. I was just like, holy cows. Was it by the ghost of Sydney Lumet? It was somebody else. I think it was somebody that worked with him.

So I was just like, Okay, my Baron. It wasn't Alan Baron, but they came on, came on like a ton of bricks. So I remember what the other movie was that it reminds me of, which is Passive Glory, which is another thing where it's just like I guess it was because the Hill and in that movie they were also talking about the Ant Hill, and in that it's the three prisoners you know that you've got with uh, you know, Timothy Carey and and Kirk Douglass and who's Joe the guy who was the bartender in uh in the Shining and he was also the guy who created the replicants and Blade Runner like those three and then just all of the petty dictatorshipness of George McCready in that film that. Yeah, it's just we've seen this kind of stuff before where it's just like these little guys who have a little bit of power and they're just gonna make everybody's lives miserable.

Very very Stephen Miller. I was gonna say, very Uh, what's the guy from who's the guy from Ice that they ran out of Ice? Oh? Yeah, I can't remember that dude's name. And he was but that was the other guy, Yeah, the other other guy that got ran out of Face.

He was the guy who looked like he was drawn by John k from Ren and Stimpy. He looks like I wouldn't say short Hitler, yeah, but maybe short Girbels. Yeah, more of a short Gurupels. Yeah, short Gurbls. I don't even know how tall Gurbels was, but yeah.

How tall was I love the Yeah, the like you said, give a give a little man a little bit of power in he'll try to act like a big man. Like it's this is that, like this is a a a intro not an introspection, but an inspection, a condemnation of that kind of sentiment. And you know, yes, this is a film that's set in the military, but you could transpose this to any you know, anything, any sort any sort of setting where there's a hierarchical expectation within it. You know, you give one person any modicum of power and some people will just go completely apien. Yeah.

I was reminded of the Stanford prison experiment while I was watching this, just that whole idea of like, okay, you tell these people their guards, you tell these people they're prisoners, and watch how these people at our guards just lose their shit and start to brebble in their power. Right. It takes a lot of restraint and withholding oneself emotionally to not become involved in them, which is why finding people to do those jobs well is really hard, because most people that want to have those kinds of jobs do get off on telling other people what to do and treating them like garbage. Absolutely, yeah, I mean there are so many times where it's just like why did you become a cop? Is it because you want to protect and serve?

Or is it because you want to lord stuff over people? And this movie is a really good I would say, once again, you know, examination of what that looks like in a military setting and the level to which people will go to to treat people poorly, you know, I mean I think about you know, just one thing in specific, you know, them measuring out the food for no reason, them forcing them to like run in place with their food for no reason. I mean there's I mean, you know, Sean Connery says it, I would say, kind of in the climax of the film. It's just you know, like, what are all these rules and regulations good for if none of it really matters? And it's always in the it's and it's all in the service of just like making people feel awful, Like what is the point?

And it's just. Wow, I have to break these people down so that I can build them back up again. Yeah, it's like break them down to what for what? And why and. Just all these little petty things just that like, oh, sorry, we made you run up and down the hill a few extra time, Sean Connery.

So you know what, you don't get to eat because we didn't let you go out with the rest of the men who are spilling their food everywhere because they have to run in place and because they have to run down these steps to you know, take their food back to their place to eat. I'm surprined there's not a mess hole here that they eat in their cells. But yeah, to your point about this feeling very much like a stage play, here's your set. You know, we were going to do most of this stuff in this one location. I mean that's I think what eighty percent, maybe seventy percent of the film takes place in that cell, and the rest of it is mostly outside and just under that blistering heat.

And even though this is black and white, you can just feel the heat coming off of this thing, especially seeing all of the sweat. Like the first time Conry takes off as his hat and I was so curious because I'm like, Okay, what's this hair going to look like in this movie? When he takes off his hat, just drenched in sweat and you just see it on all of these men's faces, except oddly enough, Davis doesn't seem to sweat very much at all. Can I just say how much I love Ozzie Davis in this movie. He's so good, He is so good in this.

Yeah, I mean everybody is great in this really, I mean, from the asshole guards in charge to the other asshole prisoners that are in there with Connery, But I mean Ossy Davis for me is the I mean, it's him and Connery one A, one B and then probably Harry Andrews one sea of like the best parts of this movie. Ozzy Davis. He's just so good as an actor and kind of feel bad because and you're gonna laugh. The only other thing I think I've seen him in I've seen things he's directed, obviously thanks to you. The only other thing I've seen him in is as Black JFK in Bubble Hotel.

Yeah, oh yeah, I'm so glad that he got that role because he was so fucking good in that movie. Oh God, it's like him, and I mean for someone to upstage Bruce Campbell, Oh yeah, as Bruce Campbell's playing Elvis in a role that I would say Bruce Campbell is like made to play for him, to upstage Bruce Campbell. Yeah, it's pretty impressive. Ozzie Davis is He's honestly, he's probably the best part of Bubba, a movie that I think kind of is good, but isn't. I think I've seen it enough times now where I'm like, I have my problems with this movie, namely like the third act.

Yeah, yeah, still last Fatu. Yeah, yeah, we're still waiting for that sequel. Hunt. Yeah. I think I grew up mostly with him being in Do the Right Thing, that him as the Mayor and that one.

But yeah, I know I've seen him in just a ton of other films, maybe even like Avenging Angel. He was in one of the Angel movies. I don't know if you've ever seen any of those, but yeah, and then he was, like you said, behind the camera with a lot of movies that you know are kind of my favorite things. So yeah, didn't he do did he do both the Cotton Comes to Harlem films or just the one? I think just the one?

It is the one? And then he also did Gordon's. War right, and I think it's a Black Girl, So. Yeah, he's harvest. I mean he did those four movies seventy seventy two, seventy three and seventy three.

He did those four just like bang bang bang bang bang bang bing bang bang bang bang bang bing bayebee. Yeah. Can you imagine showing this movie now? Like can you? I mean, like, the thing that's really funny about this movie is the pression to nature of the way it shows people in power abusing power.

But then, I mean, look, people abusing power is nothing. No, no, my. High school teacher that I loved the most, mister Minard, you say absolute or what was it? Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and it's just like, yeah, these guys have no checks and balances. Dad's away.

Dad is literally out fucking around like with prostitutes. More power too on. But he's just like yeah, all right. And then you've got Harry Andrews just like jocking for that job, so he's gonna do whatever. It can't approve.

What a big man he is. Oh, what a big man you are. Let me buy you. I could each other to chew it. Yeah no, and that for me, you know, like I think about the idea of you know, we have all these like little men in charge because the big man is away.

You know. It's I mean, it reminds me a little bit of a RoboCop in a way. Ronnie Cox's character, who is you know, he's the one seemingly in control of things and pushing the pushing the way things are well, you know, the the old man, as it were, is just away at the switch, you know, and I I you know, when we when we look at something like this and we see all these little men in charge because the you know, the daddy is away. It really it's such a it's such an interesting play on things because with Connery's character refusing to back down it, I mean, you know that it's gonna come to blows eventually and that nothing good can come of this for I mean, anybody involved, really. But the thing that is so funny is we have these little men who are so big until they're confronted with their own misdeeds and then they just refuse to own up to it.

And that's the part that I think really is the topical part here, because if you do bad shit and you don't own up to it and you get caught doing it, you should just fucking admit it and deal with the consequences of your fucking actions. Yeah, but they're rest of us. Do you know, they're going to look for any excuse including oh, you know this guy happened to die, didn't you say that he was okay for this stuff? Yeah, let's let's do that. Let's nuts omit all the torture and let's just talk about, you know, how it was your fault.

Doctor. I mean, this is really, at the end of the day, it's prison movie. So you've got a lot of the tropes that we see in prison films, this whole idea of the doctor being the only one who has any sort of moral center and is he going to say and do the right thing or is he not going to say and do the right thing? And there's always that eternal struggle, you know, And it seems like most the time in prison films, it's like, Okay, where's the doctor at what's that that compass for us? You know?

Is he in the the hip pocket of the warden or is he not? You know, I'm surprised there wasn't a doctor. Maybe there was, it's been a long time since I've seen it, but there was no doctor character that I remember in Shawshank, But you know, you're dealing with a whole wow Clancy Brown both in Shawshank and Starship Troopers. You're dealing with like a whole mountain of Clancy Browns. When it comes to this, would you say to hill, it could be a hill of Clancy Brown's, which is not a hill I'm going to die on.

That's right. Yeah, I'd love that. There's no music in this film, or if it is, it's very minimal. I don't remember one one beat of music. I just remember the ever present noise of these guys just being drilled over and over and over again.

It's just constant in the background. You just constantly hear these real search and just screaming and yelling at these guys. And all you see in the yard are all of these guys just standing in place doing calisthenics, running here, running there. You know, like every once in a while, I see like the guy who's got a blackboard who's kind of teaching them things. But for the most part, it's just physical activity all the time.

And that's all you hear is these guys just screaming and carrying. On and to what end, right, right, like it's It's one of those things where when you think about people that act poorly or act badly, it's like, you know, you could just be normal, you could just stop, you could just make things not be this way, because you're choosing to make things this way as it is. I mean, Harry Andrews character, like why is he doing I mean we know why he's doing this. I mean I'm not asking like why is he doing this? But like, at the core of it, why don't you just be Why do you feel the need to be constantly on and refuse to be off in any capacity?

And it's like, dude, just you almost wanted to just grab him by his shoulders and be like, chill the fuck out, Like what is the point of running these guys ragged? I don't They're already locked up. These guys are being treated worse than prisoners are. It is a prison movie, like you said, but shit in prison movies, they're not being done any of this. This is like next level.

Oh yeah, yeah. I don't know how Rasa Kanf would run his prison in jailor, but I think he has much more of a better relationship with its men. Invoking there where's the where's the Bollywood remake of the Hill? Man? Uh, don't put it past them dancing up and down the hill, singing, singing at the top of the hill.

Talk about the hill for a minute. That the hill, the actual through your lar hill, the titular hill through your lens. What is your perception of the meaning of the hill or the symbolism of the hill? I mean, for me, kind of going back to uh Paths of Glory, you know, the thing that they're trying to capture in that movie is a thing that they call the ant hill, and it's this whole like if we go up this hill, we're gonna get slaughtered. And for me, this is just this and also kind of going back to the whole idea of cool hand luke, that whole sequence of what's my dirt doing in Boss so and So's hole?

And then what's all my what's you know? Why is all this here? Like just keep opening up holes and filling them with dirt and then dig another hole and then fill that one with dirt. I mean, this is just this exercise and futility to have these guys just running up and down this hill all day long. I mean, it's it's a torture device.

For me, it's just them going up and down. And then I think that the actual way that the hill looks with all those white stones on the side, Yes, I know they're stones, but it might as well be skulls, right. Yeah. The one really telling moment for me is when you get the three guards coming up over the hill and it's just like, you guys are having too much fun. You know, you're you're not being drilled properly.

So here we come, and we're going to set your minds right boys. For me, it exemplifies the ultimate Sissiphian task. I mean, you know, Sean Connery's character is the one who runs up and down it with the most speed in ferocity, which is why they try to break him the hardest, because anyone who's physically fit to the level of Connery's physical fitness in this film can get up and down the hill easily. But it's that juxtaposition of Connery with an old guy, a fat guy, a guy who, like you said, is being painted as like effeminate or more in touch with his feelings and emotions, which you know, as we all know, is gay, the gayest of gay. And then yeah, we have a character who's black, which is you know, for this film at this time, that's a difference enough, right, Like you know, they they drop the N bomb several times in this movie, and I think, I mean it's used to rather dramatic effect.

I mean, this is you know, you know, Quentin Tarantino could take a couple of notes as to how to use that word to give it some emphasis without forcing it into every other fucking sentence in every scene, Like it's used here in a way that really emphasizes how awful the situation is for anyone that isn't just a physically fit, white looking and presenting man like the guards, because that's the other thing. All the guards look, even though we see them out of their uniforms several times, I mean we see we see Williams running up and down that hill or attempting to. I mean, he can't even do it, and he's not even in his fucking outfit and he can't do it, like and. He does have his kid on his back. Yeah, you know, it just it's interesting that the expectation is, you know, it's like the Hitler youth, right, like, blonde haired, blue eyes, physically fit, like you know, there's not that they don't have any of the the I don't say any of that in this movie, but they kind of do when they address Aussie Davis's character.

Mm hm, and also making this set during World War Two and having Assie Davis be like, I'm a subject of the King, just like you are. You know, I'm a British subject and they just basically laugh at them. They're just like, oh, look at this black bastard trying to say that he's British just like us, you know what a piece of shit. And this being released in what sixty five, I mean, there's this is the the I can't say it's the end of colonialism, but there's a lot of shit going on in the world right now around colonialism. In sixty five, I mean, this is you know, all the Congo crisis is still going on.

So many problems are happening in Africa with former colonial powers either on purpose leaving or being forced to leave their colonies either in Africa South America, Like there's a major sea change happening here. So it really makes a big difference with him being what from the West Indies and you know, saying I'm a citizen just like you are, and them just not taking him seriously. Right, which is crazy because they're all in It's like it's again like look at all, Like the rats are all pointing at the one rat with mange, Like you're all that's in a fucking rat, like in a rat bucket together, Like where's no special anything about anybody? This is like for all intents and purposes, they're all in the same boat together, like there should be no like I don't know, there should be no difference between any of them, you know, but when the guards single them out one by one, because that seemingly is the guard's only job.

Exactly, well he I love the part where Rossi Davis is just like, what do you expect me to you know, have a bone in my nose, you know, like this is how you think we dress anyway, and he just strips off all of his clothes. I mean it kind of reminds me of a chef from Apocalypse Now after the tiger incident incident. I think he strips himself too after that. And you know, madness is a major part of this thing, with the one character who loses a shit, you know, and like just you know, you've got Roy Kneer starting to give some orders and you see just how brain dead the one he is, the quote unquote effeminate guy is, and he's just like, okay, yeah, no, he's just starts he's so trained to listen to orders, even Roy Kineer just saying bullshit out loud.

He starts following those orders, and they just get the biggest hoot out of it. I mean, it's one of the biggest tragedies that I can think of. It's just these. Guys just hooting and holler and watching this guy who's basically lost his mind at this point, and they just think it's a joke, and what do you know, next thing you know, he keels over dead and that becomes it. I can't say it's the inciting incident, but I mean that's like the big change of the film is after he dies, it's just like, well, fuck, that's a real thing.

A man just lost his life in the quote unquote care of these sadistic guards. And then it's all about, well, shit, now we've got to cover our tracks. I was gonna say, with the with the Sean Connery of it all, we never see Connery in that seat. No, he's there though, right, he is there. Because he he runs up to uh, he runs up to him.

He's the one who takes Stevens's pulse to see that he's dead. Right, Yeah, but. Yeah, no, like, I don't I don't remember seeing him egging him on. No, I don't either. You don't get a close above him laughing at that point.

No, no, it's it's really I mean, and you know, I think, you know, for me, Roy Kanear is like the worst of the people there. Like he's obviously you know, the the McGrath character is almost guard adjacent. You know, he's trying to be a hard ass. But by the end of the film, even he realizes, like the don't give a fuck about you, even if you're trying to present yourself as someone who understands what they did was wrong, and they're having to be like, you know, sorry, and you know, like, you know, show that they understand what they did, like even they don't fucking care about you, dude, Like, and I love that he even he realizes that by the end of the movie. But man, Roy Kanear I think plays one of the most weasily snively shithead characters I've seen in a film in a very long.

Yeah, he does such a great chat with it. You just for all of the hatred I have Harry Andrews and the guards, Kenear just like, oh, you piece of shit, you are just the worst. And it's not to the point where I laugh at him when he's just like, I'm fat, I can't do this, I can't do this. It's but I'm just like, okay. Kind of reminds me of a private pile from a Full Metal Jacket, where it's just like, you know, oh, we see weakness in this guy.

He's heavy, so we're gonna go right after him. You know, We're gonna check his foot locker for donuts those kind of things. But I mean it's funny because he's kind of a mix of the two characters. He's it's kind of the Roy Kaneer build, you know. And I know he was not fat very much at all in uh Full Metal Jacket.

I mean, Benafrio is just a little heavy in that, but he's heavier than the rest of the people in the squad. But then the whole thing, you know, when the when the sergeant comes up to him, when when I'm just looking right now at our the army, when our the army comes up to him and he says, because his name is Lawrence, He's like Lawrence Lawrence of Arabia, are you Are you a Peter Puffer? You know? And he just starts like questioning as sexuality, you know, and it's like, all right, so he's being labeled with that or painted with that same brush, and again like you are the outsider, you know, we don't want you, and he becomes the object of derision for the entire squad. He's the guy that they code red.

And again I to your point about kind of the characters and what they're doing and how they're being portrayed, and the way that they're being taken advantage of because of their weaknesses. I do love that, you know, we because we only have one character who externally presents as someone that they can gang up on, you know, all the other ones they have to have a varying degree or variety of things that are I would say believable as reasons to be you know, kind of antagonized. Further, but I do love that we then get the Sean Connery, who is just the one that they cannot break no matter how hard they try, and that for me, I think is it's and I don't know if you would agree like that characterization is a slippery slope to go down, because it almost if you do not hit that characterization correctly, that character will be very flat.

And I don't find his character to be flat at all in this movie. But it could have been. It really could have been, because he is expected to be like, yes, we're experiencing this through the eyes of all the characters, but ultimately we are experiencing it through the eyes of Sean Connery's character. And because that's the case, it almost might have led to an under characterization of his character. But I don't think that's here.

I think he actually has a fair amount of kind of autonomy as a character, and I think he takes Sean Connery takes the role some very interesting place. Yeah, well, he his position in whatever unit or whatever he is set apart because of him being in a more superior place. You know, he's probably the highest ranking of all these guys. He might even rank higher than these guards. I'm not sure he might even rank higher than Harry Andrews.

I don't know, but it's it's and I kind of sometimes wish I knew the military ranks a little bit more. And I know that even in the trivia there's like, oh, this person's from this type of unit, this person's from this type unit. That still doesn't make a whole lot of sense for me, but yeah, like him, he's put into this position of being almost like a father figure to them when they you know, when the one guy is starting to really lose a shit, he like comes to Connery and it's just like, oh, you know, this is going on, and he's starting to break down in front of Connery and then yeah, you get those great close ups of Connery's face. I mean, this movie, and that's the one thing I like about Lamett so much is that he knows the power of the close up.

You know, there are some just amazing close ups in Twelve Angry Men. You know, I think of the old Man, you know, and I mean that whole movie is just faces. You know, It's like, you've got these twelve guys around this table. How are you going to make this thing interesting for an hour and a half. You know, he sure knows how to do it, and he knows how to use a moving camera, knows when to you know, I have the still camera as well, but there's a lot of camera moves in these little spaces, and they do a really good job of knowing when to break from that and cut to a close up.

And you've got these great faces with all of these actors. I mean, Harry Andrews's face. I love that big chin he's got and everything. But those amazing close ups of Connery and Connory is just so god damn handsome in this movie. He is that.

You know, I'm not gonna say Connory wasn't when he got older. But no, he was still a very handsome man, but young cut with. The hair like oh yeah, and the mustache and the just yeah, yeah. He is such a good looking guy. Like it's one of those things where you look at him and you're like, man, you don't belong in this setting, just based on the look of it alone.

But then when he opens his mouth and you hear him talk, like no, he totally does. Like he he looks. His look is one thing, but his like presence is another. The gruffness that he has, the kind of I don't know, unyielding right like righteous indignation that he has because it is righteous indignation. Oh yeah, it just it comes through because Connery has such, like you said, such a good face, just such a good face.

Mm hmm. Yeah. And I think the death of the the one soldier happens just about at the midpoint of the movie, and then it becomes like I said, that whole okay, how are we going to cover this up? Who are we going to put the plane on? You know that they have to go to that setting outside of the camp where you have that woman belly dancing, and then it's like, oh, hey, commandant, you know somebody died at the camp.

You know you might want to get back there eventually, and he's just such a useless fuck. Yeah. Well I do love you know, because, like you said, we have one of the characters die and his death ends up being the kind of the overwhelming inciting incident, and then you know, it ends up bleeding too. And I think this is I mean again, like this is not going to be like a shocking opinion. But I think the best scene in the movie obviously is where it's I would say it's like Sparta Kiss adjacent really, where we have all the prisoners banging on the walls with their canteens and their dinner plates, you know, saying the name of Stevens, who is the guy who obviously he's the one who dies at the hands of the guards, and so we have we have all of them advocating for him because there is it is clear that you know, the information has gone out and been disseminated through the barracks that you know, the guards killed one of the prisoners, and the prisoners don't want to stand for it.

Now almost nobody sticks up for what actually happened, but the people that were in the cell do because they're the ones who know. Everybody else is just kind of getting the message out there. But for me, that scene is immensely impactful and really kind of arresting in the way that it's shot. Oh yeah, yes, yeah, and again like going around and you get like it's like a medium close up where you've got people behind our main character. They're all doing the chanting and then just seeing the different ways that our who is it at that point, our four main guys are reacting to the other people's chanting his name and seeing their looks.

I mean, Roy Kaneer looks like he's like going out of his fucking mind when he's going Steve and Stevens. I'm just like, you're one of the worst ones. You're you're the one who basically laughed the loudest when this guy passed away, Like you could be considered to partially to blame for this stuff. Well, he's what it gave those initial orders. Yeah exactly, Yeah, so he is partially.

And you see those guys coming in with the fucking fire hoses, and you're just like, these guards are not playing around. Something bad is going to happen. I'm surprised that it doesn't end in a fucking prison riot. Well, and I think it's also a testament to the level of control that the guards have over most of the populace, probably to the level that they're broken. That isn't one because they are very much by everything that happened.

Absolutely, yeah, no, I'm nobody for him at the end, and nobody says fucking shit when they're like, when they should have their moment of let's riot, it becomes no, no, yeah, we'll go back to ourselves. It's okay. Thank you commandant for giving us, you know, the barest of bare minimum. Mm hmm exactly. I love that, you know, And because we have Williams who is the guard that's effectively the one in charge of doing most of the terrible stuff, and then Harry Andrews is just the one kind of reinforcing that it's a good thing.

I do love that A lot of why Williams does what he does is because of him trying to get a promotion. So it's like, the the lack of humanity that you are kind of projecting is because of your wanting to get ahead and exist within the system. And you know what you want is, you know, to get ahead in the world. So you're just going to completely dehumanize your fellow man. And it's like, to what end?

Is that really a good idea? Right? Right? Yeah? I mean it reminds me of working a nine to five job where you're just like like, this is all just pretend.

You know, why why are we playing these roles here? You know, it's just it's like what you just get along to get along? Like why why do you feel like this? I mean, why do you feel like these jobs are that important? You know, we're not hearing cancer, we're not discovering alien life, we're not finding new cures for uh, for autism or anything.

We're just pushing around pixels on pages and stuff. And I'm sure that most of the people that are listening to this like, look at your job, is it really important? And you look at this and it's just like solid. So much of this is just pomp and circumstance. It's guys who agree, we are all in this fighting unit, and we just all have to do whatever these people tell us.

You know, these these guards, these officers, you know, the whole, the whole, the whole systems out of order. You know, it's not you that's out of order, it's the system. It's the systems out of order. And I think that's a lot of what I mean. I don't know every film that Sidney Lamett directed, but I know the ones that I connect with a lot are the ones where he's you know, questioning that type of authority, Like I mean, just to see some of the stuff where you're just like, really, he's uh okay, okay.

I didn't realize, Chris, that we are going to be covering multiple laments. I didn't realize that he did the Anderson tapes and the offense. So that's kind of funny, like three out of four or three out of five movies, we're talking about this month. Are all Sidney Lamett films with Conery? I guess they got along pretty well.

Yeah, and it would seem rather uh, rather well, if there's if there's three more. Yeah, it's too bad you didn't pick Darby O'Gill in The Little People. Well, you know, I felt that Conery just got too too much on his high horse after doing that one, and he's just he would throw that around all the time and be like, oh, you want to tell me how to act? I was in Darby O'Gill and The Little People, how about you? You know, suck on my left one.

That's where he got off on his high horse was dark. Oh yeah, exactly. That just made a monster out of that guy. Oh that's amazing. I love that Little Men Getting Power is exactly It yields exactly what one would expect.

And I love that that is the point of this movie. And I love that we get Connery playing against type as not the one in charge, not the one in power. And you know, I wanted to ask you about the end of the movie, Like the end of the movie is just oh god, whoof man? Like even down. Right, it's such a it's not a down it is a downer, but it's not a downer like they get what they deserve in the end, but to what end?

Right? At what cost? Yeah? Yeah, exactly. I mean, because the system is not going to change, they're giving up the whole thing of changing the system by taking the law into their own hands.

But at the same time, I'm just like, would anybody have getten gotten sent up for this? Would anybody be court martialed for this? I would hope so, But the way that things work, I don't think so, you know, I think it's what you're talking about earlier. As far as the bad guys keep getting away with it. I mean, we're living in a society of Rollo Tamasis right now.

They're always getting away with stuff, and you're just like, how is that? Like, you might as well just do these crimes on TV and broad daylight in front of everybody. You know, you could. You could walk up and kill somebody on Fifth Avenue and you would get away with it. And that's the world we're livinging, and that's the world that this is showing us as well.

I mean, I'm surprised that this is a sixty five film because this feels like a seventies film, just with the cynicism of the end of this movie. And that final shot is so cynical. It's just, you know, dab Sean Connery make it all the way to the final frames of the movie and be able to I would say, stay on his high horse, as it were, and all the way to the end of the movie he's on his high horse, and then these other two guys muck it up, as it were. I find it very interesting because he is able to stay relatively unscathed in terms of his morals throughout the entire film. Sean Connery does, which shows, like even to the point where his foot is broken and they are ignoring what he is saying, like even then, he doesn't, he doesn't break.

He is morally righteous and good throughout the entire film, even in the waning moments where Williams is more than likely going to kill him. Is what it feels, which is why Williams ends up dying. I'm assuming they kill him. That's what I think too. I think it's mob justice at the end.

Yeah, right, So I'm curious, and I think you've already or you know, kind of answered this a little bit. It's justified right, Oh for me, yes, same same, Like the system was never going to change. And I'm not saying that this kind of thing is always justified, but in this specific scenario where it is clear that like the inmates are not running the asylum, the monsters are running the asylum, and somehow the inmates look better than the monsters, there will never be any sort of justice, as it were, because those who can meter out real justice either cannot, are unable to, or just don't care enough. And so the people that are in those positions are metering out their own version of brutal like military kind of like unjustifiably transgressive violence towards other members of the military.

Like That's the other thing that's very ironic, right, is these are all military, right, and the men that are there who have been put there to be in charge of these people, because they too are also terrible people, they can't see that, but the men who are there can. And that's the ironic part. Right, right, Yeah, like you said, or like the movie said, you know, it's the screws are doing the time, just like these guys. Are, right, and they just don't understand that. What's the whole thing, there's a thing Harry Andrews says about was it the when Connery asked for a transfer to Egypt, is that when the fighting was getting heavier in England.

I think it almost sounds like he's trying to say that Connery's character is a coward, which I think is absolutely diametrically opposed to the truth. Right. I mean, it takes a lot to do what Connory does in this movie. I think Connory is anything but a coward. Oh god, yeah, he man, And there are moments, you know where you see he's quiet in a lot of this movie.

But when he loses it, Yes, Connor's very you know, he's kind of just like, okay, you know, this is what we're gonna do. You know, pretty pretty plain, you know when it comes to the stuff. But when he loses a shit against Harry Andrews like a hour and a half into the movie and just is going off on him, it's one of the best performances. I mean, it's right up there with the end of him with him screaming you muck it up. But like just these guys going back and forth.

It's so good, to the point where that noise I was talking about with all those guys thrilling. They all fucking stop. There's not a you know, you could hear a pin drop, there's no noise, and all those drills are gone at that moment. No, And I was gonna say, you know, like to your point, like that scene with Connery where he finally loses it is it is. It's so good.

I don't understand why Connery and you know, again like not to use like the Oscars as any sort of indication for anything. But he didn't even get nominated for this movie, which is this. Movie didn't get that many good reviews. People didn't like this. No, it sure did.

And as the scene is playing in the background, Connery does laugh. In the scene where Stevens dies, there are shots of him on the Okay, so there is that moment of like because I misremembered it as well, like it wouldn't track with the character. But I would say, in the defense of the character, like you do see that moment where they're all throwing dirt at one another on the hill, which is objectively not a fun thing to be doing. But I think taking solace in those small moments, I think is maybe what the film's trying to get across and it obviously just goes way too far. Yeah, I mean, looking at varieties review, harsh, sadistic and brutal entertainment, superbly acted by an all male cast and made without any concession to official them Sendney the Mets.

Force full and authoritative, authoritative direction gives added power to the production. I mean, yeah, the critics liked it, but apparently just the audiences didn't really go for it. Is it got it fun of bafter awards or nominations, But yeah, just apparently it didn't hit well with the public. And I guess I can see why, just because it's unpleasant to think about, and especially unpleasant when you're thinking about, like you said, these are soldiers torturing soldiers. It's not like these are you know, what we're going to see in the eighties where it's like, oh, let's live out our Vietnam fantasies and let's have Rambo go in and rescue all these POWs from these brutal, you know, Vietnamese guards.

Like there's no other ring here of these guards. These guards are the same type as the prisoners, other than Assie Davis who gets that single single dot of treatment. But yeah, it's like, Okay, that's why they're looking for anything, because these are just white guys with other white guys for the most part, soldiers with soldiers, So they're going to look for whatever those differences are, just like you know, are the army has to have, like every person in full metal jacket. He's always just like, okay, you know, your nickname is this, and your nickname is that. He's always going to try to find those weaknesses and start to, you know, pick on those people.

I mean, don't forget Sorr, just snow or Private Snowball. You know, as soon as he sees one black guy, he's just like, okay, yeah, your name's Private Snowball. And he always has to like whatever those weaknesses are, you know. I I'm surprised that there isn't even more brutality when it comes to these assholes that are running this camp. Well, and that's the other thing I was going to say, like, I actually appreciate that the film shows some restraint because I don't really need the film to push the level of violence or kind of brutality any more than it already does, because the oppressive heat and where they are does a good enough job of adding to it without them needing to have people being beaten to death and bludgeoned and you know, bloodied and you know, gored, Like I don't need to see any of that, because like the setting that they're in adds enough of that without it.

It's you know, it's all yeah, that passive level of being fucked up that I don't doesn't need to add to it. Like there's there's no adding necessary. Right right exactly. Yeah, you really feel just how this atmosphere is, like I said, with all that sweat and everything, and then to find out that they shot this what was it that was one hundred and fourteen degrees. It was a lot of days that they were shooting this thing.

They had to truck in all this water for this stuff because the people were passing out all over the place. I mean, the making of this movie sounds tortuous itself. Right. Well, that's the thing. You know, you can't fake this environment.

You know, either are there or you're not. So it's clear that they were there, right Like, it's that is clear that they were there. Oh yeah, and it. Looks at and I think the film benefits from actually shooting on a location like this one because it, oh, you know, everything about it just works really well. In some of these shots.

I mean right at the beginning when we're you know, like showing the guys who are leaving the camp, and there's a shot I don't know, I mean, obviously it couldn't have been a drone shot at that time. I don't think it's a crane and I don't know if it's a helicopter, but like the camera moves outside of the camp for a little bit from a high place. I'm just like, Okay, in twenty six, that would be a drone shot. I don't know how you did that, but it was really good to set this place in a particular area and just show how desolate things are. Yeah, I mean it's you know, it's it's sweaty, it's dirty, it's gross, and it adds such a unique quality and field to the movie that is unreplicatable if you're just not there.

And I think it adds to you know, like the helplessness of the characters is just further personified by having them be in such a you know, inhospitable place, Like what do you do if you escape? Nothing? Like you can't even get away if you get Away. No, you can't have it. Is twenty miles of denult directions.

Right, you'll probably drink this oil before you decide to kill yourself. Okay, you went there. I was doing Bealloch from Reganda's Lost Art. I was doing a bond adjacency. Yes, no, I like that.

I like it. I really like this movie. This is a really strong start to the month. Mike. Yeah, yeah, I'm really glad to be doing this with you because, Yeah, although I take it back, I have seen the Anderson tapes.

I have seen in the Name of the Rose. It's been decades probably for both of them. But some of these other ones, like the Offense, I've never seen in my life. So another Lament, another Connery, bring it on, man, I'm ready. Well on that note, yeah, let's let's take a break and we'll play a preview for the next Culture cast of Mike White.

Mate. Hi, I'm Susan and I'm Sharon and where are the hosts of Eighties tv Ladies. Check us out wherever you find your favorite podcasts. And please like and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. At Eighties tv Ladies, you.

Can find interviews and exclusive behind the scenes content on all of your favorite eighties TV ladies. Eighties TV Ladies is the place to go. Please join us, Hi. This is Age from Noise Junkies, and this. Is Father Them Alone from Dark Destinations.

Please join us as we examine one of the greatest sitcoms in television history. Taxi on Night Mister Walters a taxi podcast. Good night, mister Walters, Good evening, and welcome to Night's Gallery. Thank you, Rod, and I want to welcome everyone to Midnight Viewing, where once a month we talk all about your follow up to The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling's Night Gallery. They say it's Rod to Ling's Nightgoing, and it isn't really Rod to Las Night Gallery.

It's somebody else's. Oh we know, we talk about it a lot. Your curators at Midnight Viewing are the Projection Boots, Mike White. What can happen to human beings when trust is wiped out by suspicion. And culture casts, Chris Stashuo.

Small boy Incased in the Crystal Ball, and I'm Father Alone the kind of thing that usually infests nightmares. Join us monthly at Midnight Viewing the Night Gallery Podcast at Weirdingway Media dot com. Doesn't belong to me. I have no proprietary interest in that at all. Three thirty four pm.

I'm gonna procride meal location House, Internal Security Committee Surveillance AD two seven one T forty one. I'm trying to revenue service surveillance hid Angelo case six four two d Z seven one three. Someone is listening. Someone is watching Everlease of balance July sixteenth, four forty five pm. What sort of people live in Oh?

We have a variety. There's uh a fag decorator upstairs and. A doctor downstairs, all though they say he's an abortionist. They're all loaded rash. You know what I'm gonna do?

I know the back up a moving vamily. Then it's still that cuts out of the whole place. I need you to bridge some burglar alarms, open doors, cut some telephone circuits. I got a job, laid out beat, a good driver with a cool head. I want schedules of services.

I want hours and names of me, Storm and Janety who works. Come to take it at your halls and not a moment too soon. What do you think? I think that's stings? What are we screwing around.

With stuff like this? Even if he scores it's less than one week's taking our worst horse groom. Someone is listening or someone is watching. This guy's moving a muscle. It's got every move laid out.

It's like a military operation. Oh you okay to do. I'll give you the money, but the finance we want sixty four. Everyone knows it's an improbable crime. Yet Duke Anderson may pull off the impossible.

Yes, what the hell is? How do I over. It? Bother me? The best seller that bugged the world of crime unreels its power on the screen.

So that's right. On the next Culture cast of Mike White May, we're gonna be talking about the the Anderson tapes, which which Mike just kind of mentioned offhand. So it'll be another Connery movie, which you know, so far, so good. One down, we'll see where we go from here. Yeah, like you said, another Siddley, Loomy or Lumette.

Excuse me all the one person who corrected Mike the one time. Yeah, give Mike like PTSD because of it. I mean it should be pronounced loo May. Come on, he looks like the May. Yeah, it looks like lu May.

Sounds like lou May. Spelled like lou May. It should be loo May, but it's Lumette. Yeah, but yeah, another Connery, another Lumet, So it's interesting. It's almost like a Connerylumet month, almost not all the way but almost no close close.

So yeah, until then, Mike, where can people find you and the things that you work on? Well, pretty much everything that I do is available at Weirdingwaymedia dot com, which is maybe where you downloaded this from. And no matter where you downloaded or from, thank you and thanks for listening to this, and yeah, come on over and check out some of the other shows that we work on. Chris and I are on a bunch of shows, and we've got a whole bunch of friends that aren't on our shows that we really like to talk about. How about you, Chris, No, like you just said, Weirdingwaymedia dot com.

That's where you can go to find this show and all the other shows. So yeah, head on over there and give it a listen, give it a look. There are some of our podcasts around YouTube as well, but everything can be found at weirdingwaymedia dot com other than ranking on Bond, which it's in its waning moments. Speaking of James Bond, we covered the Connery movies years ago at this point, but all of those episodes can be found on our patreons. Mine is patreon dot com slash Culturecast, Mike's is patreon dot com slash the Projection Booth, and those episodes are there and they will always be there if you want to listen to them us talking about Bond.

But yeah, that's the only thing that can't be found at weirdingwaymedia dot com. So like, rate and review this show on iTunes or Spotify, which is where you should be getting it if you're not. And uh yeah, come on back for the next episode where we talk about the Anderson and Mike thank you so much for joining me for this month and programming the films. And you know, I don't know if they're going to be as good as those Japanese new wave films, but or those Francis Weber films and their remakes, some of their insufferable respect to you know, got it? You know, well the originals were good, right, the originals were good?

I mean yes, but you know, then subjecting ourselves to all those English remakes with Martin Short, just like anytime I see Martin Short now, I'm just like, uh, yeah, yeah, but yeah, come on back for the next episode where we talk about se Andersons by. The basis for the bass. For the bass people, the Boss competents in the bins from the Boss stupids for the books, for