The Kulturecast
· Season 1 · Episode 6 · Latest episodeRequired Viewing 06: The Eiger Sanction
A spy spoof written by a film professor, played dead straight by Clint Eastwood, with a mountaineering film inside it that cost a man his life. This week on Required Viewing, we rope up for The Eiger Sanction (1975), Eastwood's fourth film as director, which casts him as Jonathan Hemlock, an art-history professor and retired government assassin blackmailed into one last "sanction" on the deadliest face in the Alps — where one of the climbers on his team is the target.
We get into Trevanian, the pen name of a University of Texas film professor who wrote a parody and watched Hollywood miss the joke; Eastwood climbing Monument Valley's Totem Pole himself and hanging off the Eiger without a double, in the same production that killed a young British climber on its second day of shooting; John Williams' only score for Eastwood, written the same year as Jaws; and Perlmutter's question of what it means when the Western's last icon climbs in John Ford's Monument Valley for a spy picture. Three movies in one — which one is the real one, and is the climb the only part that holds up? From every angle.
Media scholar Dr. David D. Perlmutter and Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, cut the rope.
———
The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast from Weirding Way Media, hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Now home to sub-feeds including Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study with Dr. David D. Perlmutter.
New episodes weekly.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376
Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY.
Back the show: https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecast
We get into Trevanian, the pen name of a University of Texas film professor who wrote a parody and watched Hollywood miss the joke; Eastwood climbing Monument Valley's Totem Pole himself and hanging off the Eiger without a double, in the same production that killed a young British climber on its second day of shooting; John Williams' only score for Eastwood, written the same year as Jaws; and Perlmutter's question of what it means when the Western's last icon climbs in John Ford's Monument Valley for a spy picture. Three movies in one — which one is the real one, and is the climb the only part that holds up? From every angle.
Media scholar Dr. David D. Perlmutter and Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, cut the rope.
———
The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast from Weirding Way Media, hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Now home to sub-feeds including Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study with Dr. David D. Perlmutter.
New episodes weekly.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376
Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY.
Back the show: https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecast
About this show
Chris Stachiw's weekly film and culture podcast, running since 2014, with a rotating table of guest co-hosts. The Doctor of Podcasting asks less "was it good" and more "what did it do." Home to three series: Required Viewing with Dr. David D. Perlmutter, Kulture Meltdown with Bryan Renfro, and Changeover with Mike White.
Hosts
- Chris StachiwHost and producer
All episodes (717)
- 1:26:52
- 1:10:40
-
1:54:32EpisodeThe Name of the Rose (1986) — "Have you ever known a place where God would have felt at home?"
-
1:21:46EpisodeWrong Is Right (1982) — "The U.S. of A. may not always be right, but God knows we're never wrong."
- 1:13:18
-
1:19:44EpisodeMortal Kombat II (2026) — "Come with us, Mr. Cage, and discover the man you were meant to be."
- 1:19:33
-
1:36:50EpisodeThe Offence (1973) — "Nothing I have done can be one half as bad as the thoughts in your head."
- 1:34:34
- 1:19:28
- 1:18:04
-
1:10:11EpisodeBugonia (2025) — "There's Andromedan code all over your Instagram. You're barely even hiding it."
- 1:10:14
- 1:16:33
- 1:13:16
-
1:15:49EpisodeDéjà Vu (2006) — "I'd try."
- 1:16:33
- 1:47:28
- 1:01:24
- 1:08:05
- 1:03:31
- 58:47
- 50:26
- 1:22:31
- 1:28:38
More from the network
See all shows-
80s TV Ladies
Four-time award-winning podcast revisits your favorite 80s TV legends!
Explore the show -
Bollywood Cinema Club
Rotating-contributor introductions to Bollywood, Kollywood, and Tollywood cinema.
Explore the show -
On Seagal: A Steven Seagal Podcast
A monthly filmography retrospective on Steven Seagal's film career.
Explore the show -
Midnight Viewing
Horror anthology and themed-series coverage.
Explore the show -
The Kolchak Tapes
A completed retrospective on Kolchak: The Night Stalker, with occasional later specials.
Explore the show
