BONUS The Friday Show - On the QT: Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Marc:I have to get to the top floor of an airplane one of these days.
Guest:And hopefully there are flight attendants dancing.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:I mean, that's what they do there.
Guest:I mean, until proven otherwise, that's all they do.
Guest:It's like it's five seconds where the movie is suddenly Austin Powers.
Guest:No, no, no.
Guest:That's not the only five seconds.
Guest:Yeah, because Roman Polanski looks like him.
Marc:Hello, Chris.
Marc:Hello, hot stuff.
Marc:We've reached the end of the line, buddy.
Marc:We have.
Marc:It is bittersweet, but I'm so excited to talk about this movie.
Guest:I'm sure you are.
Guest:I mean, it's definitely, I mean, part of it is that it's the most recent one, right?
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so, you know, we've kind of had it in our lives most recently and in real time, as opposed to these other ones, which we are revisiting.
Guest:And if you're new to what we're doing here, we have been for almost a year now, nine months, we've been looking at every movie of Quentin Tarantino's in order to get our definitive ranking for Chris and I of our favorite Tarantino films.
Guest:And why don't you tell us, Chris, coming into today...
Guest:where your rankings stand.
Marc:So coming up at number nine is Death Proof.
Marc:Eight is Kill Bill, both one and two, weirdly.
Marc:Seven is Django Unchained.
Marc:Six is Reservoir Dogs.
Marc:Five is The Hateful Eight.
Marc:Four is Jackie Brown.
Marc:Three, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Marc:Two, Inglourious Bastards.
Marc:And number one, Pulp Fiction.
Guest:Alright, so mine is number 9, Death Proof, number 8, Kill Bill.
Guest:I have Jackie Brown at number 7, Reservoir Dogs at number 6, The Hateful Eight at 5, Inglourious Bastards at 4, Django Unchained at 3, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood at 2, and Pulp Fiction in the number 1 spot.
Guest:So Once Upon a Time in Hollywood comes out in 2019.
Guest:It's four years after his previous film, Hateful Eight, which you and I had not seen in the theaters.
Guest:We had talked about that, that we waited until it was on Netflix to watch it.
Guest:It wasn't even a DVD thing or something.
Guest:So we're coming off of that, like about maybe two years removed of last seeing a Quentin Tarantino film.
Guest:And I remember when this was announced that his next project was going to be a movie, basically was sold as a movie about the Manson murders.
Guest:Like that's how it came across, right?
Guest:Oh, he's going to cover, you know, the Tate LoBianco murders, or you just thought it'd be the whole deal.
Guest:And I remember listening to...
Guest:Karina Longworth's You Must Remember This podcast about the Manson murders.
Guest:She has a great, I think, nine or 10 part series about the murders.
Guest:And I just figured it was going to be that, right?
Guest:Like he would be doing a filmed version of that type of narrative, right?
Guest:Right.
Guest:Which is kind of weird because we can get into it, but like this movie does still have like that DNA.
Guest:Like if you remember the story of the, like her, uh, you must remember this narrative around it was kind of building up to the murders, all about the like satellite Hollywood people around Manson and how they were at the spawn ranch where movies were made.
Guest:And there was this stuff.
Guest:Stunt man who hung around all the time and he was involved with the murders.
Guest:There's stuff there that definitely, if you're watching this movie, you're like, he had to have listened to that whole thing, right?
Guest:He knew that.
Guest:But yeah, so this was what we were led to...
Guest:believe the movie was i also i mean frankly just knew the dude was obsessed with manson like it's evident in his work like going back to natural born killers right like this whole idea of like the serial killer as the spree killer as celebrity uh even right up through uh daisy in the hateful eight when he was out doing press for that he was saying oh she's like a manson girl that's what i you know patterned her after she's like a manson girl out in the old west and
Guest:And yeah, no, even Kill Bill has Manson elements.
Guest:Like that's a little cult.
Guest:Kill Bill is like a cult leader, you know, Kill Bill.
Guest:I call him like he's like calling Bruce Willis Die Hard.
Guest:Die Hard or Taken.
Guest:Yeah, Taken.
Guest:Oh man, this is the part where Payback shoots the guy.
Guest:Totally.
Guest:But so yes, that was what was leading up to it.
Guest:And then, man, that first trailer for this movie hit like a ton of bricks.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Because it was like, wait a minute, what is this going to be about?
Guest:Like, there's barely anything about Manson in that first trailer.
Guest:I'm not even sure in that first trailer, do you see Manson?
Guest:I think maybe at the end of the trailer, you see them walking up
Guest:uh cielo drive right like that's that and you're like oh that's what this is but the whole thing like just look like this technicolor saturated wonderland of hollywood right so you're like what the hell are we gonna get into here and uh yeah i don't know did you have how are you feeling when you i mean since we're close enough to it it's only five years ago how were you feeling when you uh first headed into this movie
Marc:So when I first heard that it was about the Mansons or perhaps about the Mansons, I did exactly what you did, probably because you told me about it.
Marc:And I listened to that whole, you must remember this podcast.
Marc:And I feel like...
Marc:That sort of set the table for me because, you know, before that, I did not know anything really about the Mansons except, you know, he... And, like, I thought that he killed those people.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:You know, so, like, it was, like, a whole bit of education for me.
Marc:I just remember...
Marc:being, like, I studied for a test, and I was super ready to go into that test and get an A. And that was how I was feeling going into it.
Marc:And, like, the trailer, the cast, everything about it was so exciting to me because this is something he hasn't done before.
Marc:It's, you know, in the 60s, in Hollywood.
Marc:Like, this is...
Marc:It just looked so crisp and so fresh.
Marc:I was so excited about it.
Marc:So, yeah, I was salivating when I purchased my ticket.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I guess my biggest thing, I've had the same thought.
Guest:I was like, well, you know, this could be amazing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And my biggest, I don't know if it was hesitation, but just like the thing that made me kind of question where this was going to go was wondering how he was going to match the tone that I was seeing in the trailer and any clips from it with this horrible situation that, you know, unfolds.
Guest:And, you know...
Guest:If you think, then you hear, you know, hearing about it after the fact about how he put it together.
Guest:This, like a lot of his projects started as a novel.
Guest:You know, a lot of things he winds up abandoning or turning into something else.
Guest:Like he starts writing them as a different thing.
Guest:And this started as a novel, which is interesting considering he makes a novel about it afterwards.
Guest:It took him five years to put this together.
Guest:And it's also, it's interesting.
Guest:This is the first time he's completely severed from the Weinsteins.
Marc:Oh, and that was a joy.
Guest:Well, it's not only a joy and you don't have to see Weinstein shit when you rewatch this movie, but it's also you think about it as like, this is the first time he's out there on the market, right?
Guest:Like he takes this movie out and has a bidding war over it.
Guest:Because this dude is now a brand, right?
Guest:Right.
Guest:And you'd think, like, if anything, that it might show some cracks or some sense of, like, you know, a bit of a different end product.
Guest:Because he's... If you think about movies as this thing, like a product, right?
Guest:And they're kind of built within the factory that they come in.
Guest:Like...
Guest:The movie studio should have a lot to do with that then.
Guest:The support they give you, the kind of people working on it, all this stuff.
Guest:And one of the fascinating things about this movie is he takes it to an entirely different studio, a bigger studio, Sony.
Guest:And he says while he's making it, this is the hardest movie I've ever made.
Guest:He admits that many times during the shooting of it.
Guest:There are plenty of clues, if you were paying attention before this came out, that this might not turn out well.
Guest:Or it might be difficult for him to have made this transition to an entirely new environment.
Guest:And to me, that makes it even more remarkable of what the end product is.
Guest:Because it's not that there's any cracks in it.
Guest:In fact, this is the most polished product.
Guest:his thing has ever looked like it's the, it's forget about what we'll talk about in terms of the quality of the actual movie and the experience in terms of just what you're seeing on the screen.
Guest:And I can just attest to this by going one through nine, like we have, it looks the best.
Guest:And it's, it's like, it's like his best looking composed put together movie.
Marc:Yeah, it's as if he got to get out of the basement of Miramax and was able to play with all the toys.
Guest:Totally.
Guest:It's almost like they were tricking him.
Guest:Like, it's like Rapunzel's keeper, her stepmother, right?
Guest:Like, convincing her through her whole life that this was the way it should be and it's great.
Guest:And now he's finally, like, let down his hair and out of the tower.
Guest:And it's like, oh, wait, you could do a lot more.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:You want to have a shot where a guy rides a horse in the best possible way?
Guest:Like, we'll do that.
Guest:Crane shot.
Guest:Watch this guy go through the mountains.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Well, you know, so my experience seeing it for the first time, not just going into it, but then actually sitting there experiencing it.
Guest:And I wonder if you had this same situation that I watched it and I was loving it for two hours, whatever, but the dread of knowing what was coming was,
Guest:was just there.
Guest:Like a, it was like having like a sitting on a seat that has a, a giant pin in it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And like, I couldn't actually get comfortable because I'm just waiting for what I know is horrible.
Guest:That's going to happen.
Guest:And yeah,
Guest:The dread of that and that they play up the dread of it, right?
Guest:The way he's counting down the minutes to it happening with Kurt Russell narrating this toward the end of the film.
Guest:And you've spent this time two plus hours with this just wonderful story and characters and people you like.
Guest:And you're like, this is going to be such a fucking bummer, dude.
Guest:Like I am dreading what is going to happen.
Guest:The, for lack of a better way to talk about this, since if you listen to this, I assume you know the movie, the fake out of it
Guest:I didn't know how to deal with it when it happened.
Guest:In particular, because I was like, oh, he's doing this again, right?
Guest:Like Inglourious Bastards and Django, and now this thing of him rewriting history.
Guest:I'm like, I don't know if I like this.
Guest:Like, I don't know how I feel about this happening.
Guest:Did you feel the same or different or how, how, how did it land for you when you saw it the first time?
Marc:The first time I saw this movie, I'll never forget it because again, I was, I was, I did the work.
Marc:I knew all about the Manson family and I,
Marc:there was this dread.
Marc:It was like this dread that was seeping in from the corners of the screen, like the hippies walking down the street and just going to the old ranch.
Marc:Spawn Ranch.
Marc:Spawn Ranch.
Marc:Like, there was all this dread.
Marc:I'm like, oh, man, is Cliff going to join the Manson family?
Marc:Yes, because you know about that stuntman from the real story.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:So there's just this dread.
Marc:Also, like, you know, just the first shot of going to Cielo Drive, it's shot like...
Marc:Friday the 13th or Halloween.
Marc:It is like a horror movie and you're just waiting for Jason or Michael Myers to show up.
Marc:And like, there's, there's also like the spooky music, which is like the illustrated man commercial.
Marc:Like it's all so sinister and it's all so, so excruciating when it finally gets to the turn and
Marc:I was, I just stared at the screen for that first screening.
Marc:And I, I too was like, I don't know how to feel about this.
Marc:Like, like we did this already, right?
Marc:You did this is the same trick.
Marc:You're doing the same trick over again.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:But then the second time I watched it, it was a completely different experience.
Marc:That's true.
Marc:Man, the movie shifts into another gear that was there the whole time.
Marc:But I just was, I was like listening to the background track instead of the main track.
Marc:And it sings.
Marc:And it is a glorious, glorious movie.
Guest:Well, he does this very sneaky thing in that the actual ending that you're watching in the film is...
Guest:is as brutal or more brutal than the actual murders.
Guest:I mean, the murders, if you've heard about them on that podcast, if you've read Vincent Bugliosi's book about them, it's horrible.
Guest:And, you know, like it was not something I wanted to watch.
Guest:I did not want to watch these people get murdered brutally.
Guest:Murdering these Manson people the way that they do in this is so sickly satisfying.
Guest:And it's horrible.
Guest:He smashes that one woman's face to a pulp, like a, like an unrecognizable pulp.
Guest:He lights the other woman on fire after breaking her jaw and nose with a flying dog food canister.
Guest:Like he curb stomps fucking Elvis to death and,
Guest:Like it's just the most brutal fucking killings.
Guest:And he turns it into glory.
Guest:It's a sick thing to do, but still totally satisfying.
Guest:And I will say, you, you know, you said it was like when you went back in to see it a second time, it like changed everything.
Guest:I saw it a second time a week later.
Guest:And I would say that my experience with it, the second time started happening quickly.
Guest:almost immediately after seeing it once, like it was just lingering in my mind day after day.
Guest:We went on a vacation, my family, and I'm just sitting there on vacation being like, I can't stop thinking about that fucking movie.
Guest:And starting to kind of like piece together like that,
Guest:experience of like what he put me through to go through this what you know expecting to see the real ending of the story and then realizing like from the get-go he's been telling this fantasy and frankly he's been telling a fantasy his whole career of like what the movies can do what can you do with the movies what is the power of the movies and
Guest:And to take this with all these genre trappings, like you said, they feel like horror movies at some point.
Guest:It feels like this terrible domestic suspense at some point.
Guest:And, and, you know, you know, in the home invasion thriller at one point and to turn them all on their heads and bring it back to this, what he was feeling was the golden age of Hollywood, which was ending right at this time and give it its last shot in the sunshine.
Guest:Um,
Guest:I couldn't shake it until I went back to see it.
Guest:And by the time I went back to see it a week later, like I had had all that piece together and was like, that was how it unfolded for me in the movie.
Guest:Like, like it was, as you said, two separate experiences that I was then able to merge.
Marc:Mm hmm.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And rewatching it this time, I actually went back to the first time that I watched the movie.
Marc:I was like, oh, this is suspenseful again.
Marc:Like I kind of forget or, you know, it just fades that, oh, yeah, this is just like kind of a hangout movie.
Marc:No, like the suspense is there.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:You if you have never seen it before, you don't know what's going to happen to Cliff Booth in that ranch.
Guest:Like he very clearly seems like he's going to get killed, you know?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And it's and then the fact that not only does he not get killed, he just lays waste to the place and like fucking owns it.
Guest:Ladies.
Ladies.
Marc:That's also... This movie is highly quotable.
Guest:Oh, well, we got to get into all the quotes and all the humor in it.
Guest:But I will say, here's the thing about watching it in the theater.
Guest:Another thing that was magical about this movie was seeing it in a movie theater.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:There are few movies I can ever say in my life that seem as enjoyable as this one in terms of going into a...
Guest:closed room and having the lights go down and he fucking shows you this in the movie with sharon tate going in to watch herself in the movie like he indicates in the film what is so special about this feeling and i guess she's watching herself and that's even adds to the experience for her in the watching her own film in the movie theater but like you get that feeling in this thing
Guest:Lights go down.
Guest:You're in there with a bunch of people all experiencing this thing.
Guest:And you take a fucking time machine back to the Hollywood 1969.
Guest:Like it is the every shot of that era is impeccable.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And.
Marc:Like just her reaction to the audience's reaction to her on screen.
Marc:Like that's what it is.
Marc:And let me tell you, when I saw this movie a second time and a third time, I think I saw it in the theater.
Marc:I think I saw it four times in total.
Marc:I was cackling at the end for the second through fourth time.
Guest:I was doing what she was doing.
Guest:I was looking around at other people because I wanted to know how someone watching this for the first time is experiencing it.
Guest:Like it was exciting to me.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And like, that's the thing.
Marc:Like, that's what makes movies great.
Marc:And that's what sucked.
Marc:I mean, part of, of course, what sucked about the pandemic was that, oh, yeah, we can't do that anymore.
Marc:And that was so disheartening.
Marc:And I'm so, so glad we're back to a place where we can all pile into a movie theater and watch a movie and have a shared experience.
Marc:And yes, Quentin captured that.
Marc:And it was definitely something that I was longing for during COVID.
Guest:Well, you mentioned you thought you saw it four times.
Guest:I went back and checked exactly, like, see if I could find, like, in my credit card.
Guest:yeah to see like how many times i saw this i saw it five times in the theater in its original theatrical run i i saw it twice with you we went to see it i think i think the the third viewing i had of it and maybe your second viewing uh we we saw it together and then we went back when they did a a brief like re-release in october
Guest:So the movie had come out in July.
Guest:And then in October, they were like, we're going to add some scenes to the end.
Guest:And it was like, it wasn't like so much extra scenes, but it was like more of the filming of the Bounty Law show.
Guest:Some commercials.
Guest:Some commercials, right?
Guest:It was filming of the, what's the name of it?
Guest:Lancer.
Guest:The one that- With Luke Perry.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:tim olofen and luke perry are in right so it didn't like reveal anything it was just like more environment right yes uh but so that was i was my fifth viewing and then you and me and our friend chris rosen went to see it a sixth time in the theater for me six time uh in like 2021 it was like after covid
Guest:Like we were like, oh, it's back in theaters.
Guest:We're going back.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So, you know, like there was this was definitely, as you said, like a full on experience this in the theater type of movie.
Guest:But I will say I've just watched it so many times since, you know, was on like cable stars or something like that.
Guest:And anytime it was on, I just jump in at any point.
Guest:It's a great movie to do that.
Guest:You can watch it at any point.
Guest:and and it's and then watch it from there to the end and i i wouldn't be able to know this for certain but i definitely have seen this comparably to the amount of times i've seen pulp fiction and probably reservoir dogs so i would say these are like i can't possibly tell you which one i've seen the most but those three i've seen you know around an equal amount of times yeah gotcha
Marc:Yeah, I'd say the same.
Marc:I think I've seen Pulp Fiction more than Once Upon a Time.
Marc:But yeah, it's definitely up there for the Quentin Tarantino movies.
Marc:And can we just go into this movie?
Marc:Because I just love the music.
Marc:We just need to talk about the music of this movie.
Marc:The soundtrack, the score of this movie is the car radio.
Marc:A car radio, that's it.
Marc:Yep.
Marc:And...
Marc:Everyone's listening to the same radio station.
Marc:And there's also, the soundtrack is also like television and movies.
Marc:Like, you know, the score from those movies at the time.
Marc:And it's awesome.
Guest:And you know what it very pointedly is not?
Guest:What?
Guest:The rest of the world, right?
Guest:Like there's one moment on the radio where you hear them saying something about Vietnam and Nixon.
Guest:And it's when they're in the parking lot of Musso and Frank.
Guest:And the camera is literally going the other way.
Guest:Like it's an overhead shot that is pulling back, right?
Guest:And you kind of hear this in passing.
Guest:It's almost like this idea of like, yeah, the real world exists out there,
Guest:But and this is like you're 15 minutes into the film.
Guest:If that it's very clearly showing you like we're not concerned about that here.
Guest:Like we will let that exist in the background.
Guest:And and now we're never even going to hear it again.
Guest:Right.
Guest:It'll fade out.
Guest:Fading out from this.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And also in that scene, that overhead scene that you're talking about, like the, you know, you see Cliff driving the car and there are arrows on the parking lot going the, you know, pointing in the way that Cliff is not driving.
Marc:Like he's going out through where you're supposed to go in, which is so subliminally like such a message, you know?
Guest:The whole thing is about the old running away from the new.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:So, yeah, just love this soundtrack and just love the whole feel of this movie.
Marc:It is a whole thing.
Marc:And, I mean, just scene after scene, there's Al Pacino doing, you know, schwoz.
Marc:Like it's Spaceballs.
Yeah.
Marc:I love Leo's stutter.
Marc:That was such a great choice for him.
Marc:Apparently all his, too.
Guest:Amazing.
Marc:He's like, I'm going to give this guy a stutter.
Marc:Amazing.
Marc:And I love the cutting to, you know, anybody order fried sauerkraut?
Marc:And like, just...
Marc:You can connect all the other movies.
Marc:Like, yes, Bounty Law is about a bounty hunter.
Marc:That's Hateful Eight sort of thing.
Marc:And Django.
Marc:And, you know, the Nazis with Inglourious Bastards.
Marc:Sure, you can make those connections.
Marc:There's the Jackie Brown hallway in the background of the opening credits.
Marc:Great opening credits, by the way.
Marc:I have to get to the top floor of an airplane one of these days.
Marc:I just have to do it.
Guest:Hopefully there are flight attendants dancing.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:I mean, that's what they do there.
Guest:I mean, until proven otherwise, that's all they do.
Guest:It's like it's five seconds where the movie is suddenly Austin Powers.
Guest:No, no, no.
Guest:That's not the only five seconds.
Guest:Yeah, because Roman Polanski looks like him.
Guest:He's wearing Austin Powers costume.
Marc:Like legit Austin Powers.
Marc:I'm like, what is happening right now?
Marc:But going back to Pacino, I love Pacino talking to Rick about, you know, oh, you know, that's an old television trick where they have you getting beat by this guy and this.
Marc:And I love it because he's literally talking about like old wrestling booking.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, it's totally wrestling.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And it's like, oh, yeah, no, you're going to get jobbed out and you're going to get this guy over and this guy over.
Guest:It's just a little thing.
Guest:But I want to hit on something that we've talked about now almost every movie is that he has perfected.
Guest:He's gotten so much better to the point where it's as close to perfect as you're going to get.
Guest:of putting his arcane knowledge into these movies in appropriate ways where you're not just stopping the thing cold so somebody can tell you some factoid right this makes sense to the whole story and to his character that like this was how they treated stars on the way up and the way down and
Guest:And when you read the novel that he wrote after this, where he puts all this stuff together in a kind of expanded version of what you see in this movie, there's all sorts of this stuff, right?
Guest:And he could have gone way overboard in telling you these little details.
Guest:you know, stuff about like horses, how you, it's, it's, it's, you, you get a premium on a horse who knows how to fall.
Guest:And like, it's all these little like bits of information that he has talked about.
Guest:He talked about it with Mark on, on the episode that he did with us that like, he learned about this stuff, sitting around with Burt Reynolds and Kurt Russell.
Guest:Like they were telling him stories about old Hollywood and these shows they worked on Bonanza and Kurt Russell on all Disney stuff.
Guest:And like, he learned, pick up these things.
Guest:And yeah,
Guest:You know, he he wanted to get them into the film and he finds a way to get all of this stuff in without it ever feeling creaky.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And there there's that moment when Kurt Russell is narrating and he's saying, oh, yeah, you know, Rick didn't didn't like that Tower of Babel shooting style.
Marc:And I'm just like, that's what you're talking about.
Marc:That's the same thing.
Marc:It's like he has this little knowledge.
Marc:He wants to put it in the movie.
Marc:And that's the perfect spot for.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Right there.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because it's a character motivated for the reasoning around that bit of information.
Guest:Like, you know, you're learning about Rick dealing with making these spaghetti Western movies and it's some little bit of information Tarantino has about how those movies were made.
Guest:Well, good.
Guest:I can incorporate it into his character motivations.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He wants out of there, even though he's getting kind of fat and high on the hog, you know, making these easy money movies.
Guest:He, he's, he feels empty because he doesn't like the way they're shot.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Speaking of the way it was shot, this movie is shot so well.
Marc:Like you can go back and just watch what's in the background of all of these scenes.
Marc:Like the don't cry in front of the Mexican scene.
Marc:There's a Musso and Frank oldest in Hollywood sign right in the background when, when, uh,
Marc:when Rick was telling Cliff that he's- Just looming over them.
Marc:Yes, which is great.
Marc:Angel death style.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:There's also the scene with Maribel where Rick is talking to her about Easy Breezy.
Marc:And the scene is just shot so, so beautifully.
Marc:Rick is in the foreground, Maribel is in the middle, and then in the back is just old Hollywood scenery.
Marc:It's just-
Marc:It's like a work of art, man.
Guest:It is just... Well, he's got a ton of those that are just artful shots to be artful.
Guest:There's the fucking shot of Timothy Oliphant coming on a horse behind the slate posts of the porch railings, and it looks like The Horse in Motion, that Edward Muybridge film that was basically considered the first film.
Guest:It's like...
Guest:That doesn't it doesn't like it's 100 percent necessary for that shot to be in there.
Guest:But with it in there, it's adding untold amounts to your perception of what's going on here.
Guest:And the more you are aware of it, the better it is.
Guest:But it does.
Guest:You don't have to be.
Guest:You could just be sitting there and watch go.
Guest:Oh, here comes this guy riding into town on a horse.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:There's the Cliff leaving Rick and driving home to his trailer.
Marc:Like, that might be the best commuting sequence in movie history, I think.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:And the...
Guest:what they had to do to do that too.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Like it's all practical.
Guest:It's all, it's not like freeway system to do that for however many hours that night, like to get this guy to zip around on the 10 or wherever he is.
Guest:Like, that's crazy.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I mean, look, it's that and the office space beginning are the best commuting scenes in all of movie history.
Guest:The entire opposite.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Full traffic or, you know, a guy driving with ease through the most densely packed part of America.
Marc:There's also, like, there's fantastical things, like the dog food, wolf's tooth of dog food.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Like, obviously, you know, a homage, I'm guessing, to Pulp Fiction and, you know, the wolf was my guess.
Marc:But, like, there's, like, bird, raccoon, and rat flavor dog food.
Marc:I just got a kick out of that.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:just like him opening up the cans of dog food first of all great great plot point it's going to come back at the very end there where you know like don't no no i don't want to hear you whining i'll throw this right in the trash but the him taking the dog food out and it's splattering onto the bowl and then him like ripping open the the mac and cheese like it's it's like this you know rube goldberg machine like i it reminded me of like reckoning for a dream like the the
Guest:sounds and everything's happening quickly well also he's he's fully incorporated with this editor now right like we had talked about how you know he had to basically you know kind of pass the editing baton once his original editor sally menke had died to to this assistant editor and they have to kind of become
Guest:in concert with each other just the same way he does with the cinematographer richardson like they have to you know kind of work together get through some movies and now you're at this i guess what was this the fourth or fifth time they've been working together as a team and it's all working now like now there's like you can have a sequence like this where you're like oh this is like out of a scorsese film the way this is shot and cut right
Marc:Right.
Marc:And then, you know, you meet Sharon and they go to the Playboy mansion and that whole scene is set up.
Marc:I loved that.
Marc:Like, I just thought that was a great vibe.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:She's dressed as the bride in Kill Bill, which was hilarious.
Marc:And then...
Marc:For me, I think it's the best sequence of the movie.
Marc:And I think it's the best sequence that Quentin has ever done.
Marc:And that is the February 9th, 1969.
Marc:That whole day for all of our leads.
Marc:And he sets it up so wonderfully.
Marc:Like Sharon going to pick up the book.
Marc:Meanwhile, Cliff is fixing the antenna.
Marc:And Rick is starring in a TV show.
Marc:In Lancer, yeah.
Marc:In Lancer.
Marc:That...
Marc:that day is the best thing he's ever done.
Guest:Well, you know, I mean, this part of the movie is actually the closest to Pulp Fiction, right?
Guest:Like you've got a day in LA, you've got multiple interweaving stories.
Guest:It's, it's a, it's a timeframe that is both compressed and, and fluid, right?
Guest:You're never really sure what's going on at the same time versus what is in sequence.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But then it all, you know, it's like,
Guest:you're going to connect all these eventually, right?
Guest:Somehow everything touches each other and they do.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So like, this is, we, we, we've talked about that before about how, you know, he, he puts these kind of grace notes in films where they almost kind of get connected and there really hadn't been anything before.
Guest:like that with Pulp Fiction.
Guest:And I think basically part of that is because outside of, you know, some things in Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown, they're not really like L.A.
Guest:movies.
Guest:Like Pulp Fiction feels like L.A.
Guest:Like you're in L.A., you're seeing L.A.
Guest:And this is as well, but it's very specifically Hollywood L.A.
Guest:Like you're in...
Guest:Just straight up Hollywood on the strip and at on movie sets and in a movie theater.
Guest:Like all of this is like his version of a gold sun soaked day in Hollywood.
Marc:I loved Cliff's imagining of what happened with Bruce Lee.
Marc:And I think we need to talk about it because I feel like at the time there was some unnecessary controversy about this scene.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And now looking back, especially since, you know, I know now I can see things.
Marc:I've seen it so many times.
Marc:So this Bruce Lee interaction happens and it's all in Cliff's head.
Guest:He's remembering back to why he got fired and can no longer work on sets that Kurt Russell is on.
Marc:By the way, just love Kurt Russell.
Marc:Like, he killed his fucking wife.
Marc:Like, just love that line delivery by him.
Guest:I don't dig him, and my wife don't dig him.
Marc:The way that Leo has to defend Cliff, I think of that when I feel like you would have to defend me having me on every Friday.
Marc:It's like, yeah, he's a war hero, dude.
Guest:You know my favorite thing he does about him is that he's like, just do whatever you want to him.
Guest:Throw him off a building.
Guest:Light him on fire.
Guest:Whatever you want.
Marc:Hit him with a car.
Marc:I just love that.
Yeah.
Marc:But then we, you know, Kurt Russell obliges and we then see Bruce Lee and Cliff interacting.
Marc:And it's such a fun experience because obviously Cliff gets his ass kicked.
Marc:And then all of a sudden...
Marc:And it's like a movie trick.
Marc:Like there were obviously tons of people there, you know, watching this interaction.
Marc:And then as soon as Cliff gets up and Bruce Lee goes to do another kick at him, there's all of a sudden no one there.
Marc:And it is obviously a figment of his imagination.
Marc:His imagination is saying, oh, you know what?
Marc:I actually kicked his ass.
Marc:I went toe to toe with him.
Marc:And I just thought that was awesome.
Guest:What did you think of
Guest:Oh, I mean, that's absolutely what it is.
Guest:I never took it as controversial.
Guest:People, I guess the idea was that they portrayed Bruce Lee as like an arrogant asshole who would get his ass kicked.
Guest:And yes, it's totally missing the point that this is the other arrogant asshole's idea of what happened back then, right?
Guest:Like when you're seeing Bruce Lee start that scene off being all, you know, arrogant and pompous, it's because Cliff didn't like him.
Guest:He thought he was.
Guest:Now, whether he was or wasn't is irrelevant.
Guest:This is his memory of the guy.
Guest:And yes, then everyone's sitting around watching them fight.
Guest:And it's that there's, I don't know, what would you say?
Guest:20 to 30 people standing around them, right?
Guest:Yeah, about.
Guest:And there are some shots then when they're fighting, when they're actually fighting, not just when he goes flying into the door, but when they're fighting, like you could see some people, but then people are gone or whatever, but it's when...
Guest:Kurt Russell's wife, who's the stunt coordinator on the film, comes out and sees that they've been fighting and that her car has a huge dent in it.
Guest:That's when you see no one is there at all.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Completely blank.
Guest:And you would have seen them leave.
Guest:right if what you were supposed to be seeing was literal right it is not literal although my feeling is that this part is literal right that the idea that there's nobody around right and this lady's just reaming him like he's remembering what actually happened there when he got kicked off the set and the reason he got kicked off the set was because
Guest:he got in a scuffle with bruce lee the secondary lead of the show and they fucked up her car they probably like in a clinch and like fell into it they didn't he didn't throw him from 20 yards away like he does in that shot right and and then you know the idea that you go back to him on the roof and he's like yeah fair enough like yeah
Guest:he can't he can no longer allow the fantasy to override the reality right like like it's again it's like the magic of like a movie like in your brain you could try to convince yourself like oh no it was great we had this awesome fight and then you you're just slammed with reality no no i got fired from that job because of doing that
Marc:Also, Zoe Bell, best she's ever been.
Marc:Like, don't you fucking Janet me, you fucking asshole.
Guest:Again, dude, going back, we've talked about it a bunch of times.
Guest:He wants to put these people that he's friendly with or whatever.
Guest:He feels good about them.
Guest:He puts them in the films.
Guest:Sometimes he doesn't find the right note for them.
Guest:He puts them into a point that's not like, you know, think about like that Michael Parks thing in Kill Bill or Zoe Bell in Death Proof.
Guest:And it's like here...
Guest:Perfect.
Guest:She works great in this.
Guest:You know why?
Guest:She's playing a fucking stunt person.
Guest:Right.
Guest:She is.
Guest:And now she's a pissed off stunt person, so it's great.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And also in that scene where right before Brad Pitt does parkour, 50-year-old Brad Pitt doing parkour, but he goes to the tool shed and we see the flamethrower on the ground.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's like that's one of those things where like you watch this movie a second time.
Marc:You're like, oh, shit.
Marc:He fucking was laying seeds out so that you can follow this moving forward for the end.
Guest:I always love when DiCaprio is telling Pacino about the flamethrower and he's like, I had to practice with that fucking dragon.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:oh man dude leo's acting is top notch all right well let's let's go to this here because brad pitt's very fun in this movie he won the oscar for it he uh is you know it's clearly having a ball and tarantino is having a ball with a full-on movie star giving a movie star performance taking his shirt off just being fucking brad pitt up there great no complaints by the way no love all of it yes
Guest:No one is better in this movie than Leo.
Guest:No one.
Guest:He's, in fact, probably the best performance that's ever been in a Quentin Tarantino film.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's just... It's flawless.
Guest:Every level of this guy comes through.
Guest:You meet a guy from the start of this movie.
Guest:You know nothing about him.
Guest:And by the end of this, you're like, I know everything about this dude.
Guest:He is... I believe every...
Guest:note of this guy the way i would if you were if i was having to tell a story about someone in my family right like right out down to him like out in his bathrobe drinking the margaritas out of the picture in the in the in the park in the driveway like this guy is so fully drawn and every emotional yeah
Guest:impulse that he has is true like you're like yep that's what that guy would be doing right there he would be on the verge of tears because he fucked this thing up like i believed every second of it yes and the the character arc is so beautiful like it is it is just
Marc:It is just the best character I think he's ever written.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:This is a fully formed human being that we can see.
Marc:And yeah, you're right.
Marc:Just true emotion.
Marc:And man, when he's talking about Easy Breezy...
Marc:Like, that scene breaks my heart, man.
Marc:And it's great.
Marc:And him freaking out in the trailer is just incredible fucking work.
Marc:Like, just being so disappointed in himself.
Marc:It's like fucking Marc Maron over there.
Marc:Just like, you're fucking freaking out.
Marc:And then just, man, the fucking scene with Lancer.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:The whole goddamn scene is so awesome.
Marc:Like, he brings it.
Marc:It is a fully formed... And I can't believe he did not win the Oscar for this movie because it is a beautifully told story.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:And he lost to fucking Joaquin in a role that he didn't even like.
Guest:uh it's fucking brutal but it's fucking brutal you know what it's like there's no need to even it's like yeah okay fine they didn't give him the the the gold man fine it's like this is this is one for the ages and give give me sexy hamlet give me sexy hamlet evil sexy hamlet
Guest:But another kind of miraculous turn that this is able to pull off is that once he kills the hippies, or one of them, as he says, I torched one, my buddy killed the rest.
Guest:And he is the hero now of the film, the hero that he believed he was never going to be again in the movies, right?
Yes.
Guest:And he's having that conversation with Sharon over the intercom of her driveway gate.
Guest:And she says to him, are you okay?
Guest:That is... That kills me that he is able to take this moment that...
Guest:this murder victim, this person in real life who died a horrible, brutal death is able to recognize that through us as the audience, we have felt so bad for this guy, like who feels like a loser, who feels like he lost all his glory that we need her to help us feel reassured that this guy's okay.
Guest:And he goes like, yeah, I am.
Guest:I'm okay.
Guest:Like, thanks.
Guest:That's a perfect deal.
Guest:ending for his story like that that if you're really talking about what is this movie ultimately and it's this kind of celebration of the restorative power of of both the old and the new way to make movies right what we're all visualizing is the the old way it was done and what tarantino is doing in effect is the new way right he's saying i'm going to use all the tools i know of in 2019 to make this thing right and
Guest:It is accomplished in this moment of fantasy between the two of them, this person who did not survive a terrible situation and this fictional person who had to be redeemed, right?
Guest:I just don't think there are many situations in which you can make that land and not have it feel either...
Guest:weird or exploitative or like you're being disrespectful to the actual memory of what happened like no for some reason it feels totally fine and feels totally uh relieving and in fact sharon tate's own sister uh who said of this movie like this was a beautiful thing to do for my sister like to to basically give her this dignity that she was not afforded in life like that's that's a huge huge thing
Marc:Yeah, for me, the Sharon Tate talking on the intercom, like, she's talking from heaven.
Marc:That's how I first interpreted it.
Marc:And, like, when she says, you know, Rick's name, it hits me in the feels, like, every time.
Marc:And then the gates are opening.
Marc:It's as if, like, the gates of heaven are opening.
Marc:Like, it's just – and then there she is.
Marc:She's alive, pregnant.
Marc:History is corrected, like –
Marc:It's an overwhelming moment.
Marc:It is a beautifully told moment and goddamn, it is pitch perfect.
Guest:Well, it makes me realize after seeing it so many times and now after having watched all of his movies together, that no matter how you end up on the rankings of these or which one is your favorite versus somebody else's favorite, I don't think it's arguable that this is his most personal film.
Guest:Like this is the one that fully encapsulates who he is because Hollywood is magic to him.
Guest:It saved his life when he was a kid.
Guest:It gave him his career and fame.
Guest:And these fuckers killed that magic at that point in real life.
Guest:And he did not think that was correct.
Guest:And he wanted to correct it through his own vision.
Guest:And it's interesting that he talked about with Mark that,
Guest:during their episode it was something that just came up like coincidentally that Mark brought up to him having read and interviewed Mark Harris about the book Scenes from a Revolution and Tarantino's like that's the best book about Hollywood and
Guest:You know, it's like you think about it.
Guest:It's like that book is about one thing dying while one thing is being created.
Guest:Right.
Guest:The transition between old Hollywood and new Hollywood.
Guest:And if he believes that's the best book and that's his like he's drawing from the lessons of that.
Guest:This is his statement of like, I'm the bridge, baby.
Guest:Like I'm going to keep the old alive and I'm going to keep the new moving forward.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:it's really, it, it, it winds up being his culmination.
Guest:Like it's so we've talked about this before, but if this dude is so dead set on ending at 10 movies, which is silly, but okay.
Guest:Say you are guaranteed.
Guest:This is, you want to end on 10 movies and,
Guest:dude just go back and pretend they kill bill is two movies and this is number 10 and you're done like this is perfect this is your culmination it's not you're not going to make a more personal film or one that better reflects to the world who is quentin tarantino because i think a lot of people think quentin tarantino is the guy who cut off another another guy's ear right like that's in their brain oh he's the guy you know with the gimp right or like
Guest:like if you're if you're just a cursory tarantino knowledge person you're like oh he's like violence guy that's quentin tarantino and it's like nope i just watched nine movies in a row over nine months and this is who he is this movie this movie is the guy who went and bought two old movie theaters and restored them so that he could show his movies there all the time
Marc:Yeah, he sure is.
Marc:And yeah, it's it is just a testament.
Marc:And like, just just put this on his gravestone.
Marc:Like, this is it.
Marc:This is the movie.
Guest:Well, there's other things, too, from the other movies that we talked about all the time, you know, like like going back to Jackie Brown.
Guest:He's very interested in the idea of the passage of time and of getting older and getting better.
Guest:and kind of finding yourself as you get older who are you as you age how are you different from the person you used to be that's all here in this movie and in a very literate legible way all his previous allusions to you know how the power of film is made manifest like that's been showing up time and again you know it's like
Guest:Whether it's the, you know, Shoshana character in in Bastards or, you know, all the all the movie talk that that like gangsters have in in Reservoir Dogs or in Pulp Fiction.
Guest:It's like, nope, you come around to it.
Guest:Ultimately, like he's like the power of movies is in making the movie.
Guest:Not just talking about it, not just like having a recollection of it, but actually doing it.
Guest:And in doing it in this one, I mean, we made mention about some of the shots and particular aspects of it.
Guest:He is clearly at the top of his craft as a filmmaker here.
Guest:And it's just, it's everything.
Guest:It's the set design.
Guest:It's the locations.
Guest:It's the TV shows he recreates in it.
Guest:You know, Bounty Man.
Guest:They're watching FBI.
Guest:it's like it's amazing it's it's it's or the scene in uh the great escape it's it's yes it's seamless like you don't you don't watch that scene and feel like it's like some thing from like a george lucas thing or or no you know i hope this doesn't come off as harsh bobby z right it does not feel like one of those it feels like right
Guest:They legit pulled off a magic trick and put DiCaprio in The Great Escape.
Guest:And it's amazing.
Guest:You know, we talked about the highway driving, the horse riding.
Guest:And then we have to talk about what I think is the best scene in the movie.
Guest:And it's not the best scene.
Guest:You mentioned this day, right?
Guest:Which is like about like 45 minutes of the film.
Guest:I'm going to pull out...
Guest:I don't know, 90 seconds of the film.
Guest:And I think it's the best part of the film.
Guest:And probably his signature moment of his career is as the Rolling Stones out of time is playing and you're getting the full view of Cliff and Rick returning from Italy.
Guest:And this is gonna be the end of the road for them.
Guest:They're no longer gonna be partnered up.
Guest:We're gonna have to end their relationship.
Marc:How do you say goodbye to someone who's more than a brother, a little less than a wife?
Marc:I mean.
Marc:Perfect line.
Marc:Perfect.
Guest:But so this scene is already filled with like emotion and great song choice and everything's, you know, lining up the way you would expect it to line up, having it been set up like that.
Guest:And then he makes the decision to button this scene with the shots of all the neon lights coming on the various locations throughout Los Angeles.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I legitimately think that's the best sequence in any movie he's ever done.
Marc:It is fantastic.
Marc:It is like when, when the Cinerama comes on.
Guest:And they all have the sound of the neon engaging.
Marc:That's the thing.
Marc:Oh, that's what makes it, puts it over the top that, that sequence.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:That is great shit.
Guest:I want to also, before we wrap up here, I want us to talk about the cast a little bit.
Guest:What a cast.
Guest:Holy shit.
Guest:I mean, the cast is great, and the performances are great, but beyond the principals who deliver all the great lines and great scenes, and Margot Robbie is great in this movie, and she was another one who I think there was unfairly this...
Guest:controversy about well she doesn't have a lot of lines and this and that it's like she has right this amazing presence through the whole thing she's like the the center of the film yes yeah um but it's interesting to me that we've we have known through all these movies we watch of him that he does these like reclamation projects of actors right people who haven't been around in a while the ones in this movie is quite interesting that it's like emile hirsch
Guest:This guy who like was basically kicked out of Hollywood from like getting in fights, right?
Guest:The woman who plays Cliff Booth's wife, Rebecca Gayhart, she like had a hit and run or something and also got like drummed out of Hollywood.
Guest:He has all these people with these like scandal-ridden pasts that he's like, no, you know what?
Guest:They're in my movie about people with scandal-ridden pasts.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:putting them in here there's also it is it just cannot be a coincidence that there are all of these for again lack of a better term nepo babies throughout this movie harley quinn smith is one of the manson girls kevin smith's daughter rumor willis bruce willis's daughter shows up
Guest:and and these are not substantial parts they're like it could have been played by anyone so it's not an accident that these like these newbies of the old guard are populating the rest of the movie maya hawk right sitting there sounding exactly like her mother uma thurman in the back seat of that car uh lena dunham's like the queen of the nepo babies like right
Guest:Everybody that I think that's that term started with Lena Dunham.
Guest:And, you know, Margaret Qualley, who's got a pretty substantial role, but also, you know, daughter of Andy McDowell.
Guest:Right.
Guest:It's also pretty wild that he has so many future stars.
Marc:So many, like the 21st century, greatest actors, you know, you got awesome Butler, you got Sydney Sweeney, like just up and down.
Guest:Like Mikey Madsen.
Guest:She's going to be Oscar nominated this year for a Nora, you know?
Guest:Oh, she's like the front runner to win the Oscar.
Guest:And, and she's, uh, I, I, I told you, I like, I thought this the first time I saw this movie, uh,
Guest:I was like, this poor actor who plays this Manson girl who gets lit on fire, like, she's never going to be able to live this down.
Guest:Like, this is the end of it for her.
Guest:Like, you know, I just figured she's going to be like the guy, the cop in Reservoir Dogs.
Guest:Oh, you're the guy who got his ear cut off.
Marc:Well, can I tell you, she does reprise basically the same role in one of the Scream movies.
Marc:Yes, she's the villain.
Marc:And the exact same thing happens to her.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:She gets a little on fire.
Marc:It's great.
Guest:Yeah, well, I mean, but yeah, it's one of those things, too, where it's like, well, he's always had that eye.
Guest:He's had that eye for, like, who works, who pops.
Marc:Talent, just talent.
Marc:He just has an eye for talent.
Marc:And, like, Kurt Russell narration is great and ominous.
Marc:Like, that whole sequence of that day leading up to the would-be murder.
Marc:The TikTok of it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's so, like, gut-wrenching when it's happening.
Marc:And, yeah, it was perfect.
Marc:Just fucking perfect.
Marc:And, of course, Rick making margaritas at 12 o'clock at night and, like, complaining about goddamn property taxes up the butt.
Marc:Move that mechanical asshole off the property.
Yeah.
Marc:He is throwing a thousand right in this scene.
Guest:Well, we really didn't talk about it and we, we, we're not going to be able to get into it too much, but the comedy in this movie, like this is his funniest movie by far.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Like there's just so many things that like, just even just in little brief moments, like when they sit down to watch the, uh, the FBI and he's like, uh, you know, uh, it's like Mr. Science 3000.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Oh, right.
Guest:And they're like making the comments about it.
Guest:Like, oh, this guy, big asshole.
Marc:Yep.
Marc:That guy's a dick.
Marc:Yep.
Marc:Oh, nice, nice leap there.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Just like all these little asides.
Guest:He says to him, like, do you want to smoke this thing?
Guest:He's got that acid dip cigarette.
Guest:And he's like, nope, my booze don't need no buddies.
Yep.
Guest:All these little jokes throughout it.
Guest:Everybody is on the same wavelength with the humor too.
Guest:Like nobody, nobody breaks.
Marc:No, it's all of a piece.
Marc:Like they're, they're all like rowing at the same time on a boat.
Guest:Well, I think it's very clear.
Guest:We could probably talk about this for another hour if we wanted, but we should cut it short and we should get to the thing that we've been building toward for nine months here.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I will say, I specifically went to see Pulp Fiction at the Vista earlier this month because I felt I had to watch it again as the movie sitting at the top of my list here.
Guest:And in particular, because when we talked about it back in, I guess it was March, I had a little kind of feeling of like...
Guest:hesitation about it.
Guest:If you remember, I said, I love this movie so much.
Guest:It's still just the funnest ride, right?
Guest:Like you just, you're, you're rarely going to have a better time just enjoying Pulp Fiction from start to finish, let alone in a movie theater.
Guest:But,
Guest:But my question was, does this movie rise above that level?
Guest:Is there enough heart in this?
Guest:And I was really trying to reconsider that the last time I watched it.
Guest:Like, well, this is a movie about redemption and being kind of true to yourself and putting your ego at bay.
Guest:And does that allow you to achieve a higher level?
Guest:And there are characters that it works for and there are characters that don't, that die, right?
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:And I like that.
Guest:It's a good way to look at it as a thing.
Guest:But that's kind of like, it does go back to what I was saying.
Guest:It's like almost like fortune cookie wisdom, right?
Guest:Like a younger person would think that's a sophisticated idea, right?
Guest:Like I'm going to show what true ego death is and whether you can achieve it or not.
Guest:And we'll do it through this kind of philosophy.
Guest:fictional universe that you'd only see in, you know, dime store novels and comic books, right?
Guest:Okay, cool.
Guest:This movie, like, achieves that in spades and it's not even close in terms of getting at that heart.
Guest:And...
Guest:I think the thing to just to lay all my cards out on the table here for the last several months, I was like, I think Once Upon a Time might be its best movie.
Guest:And watching it again this time, I'm less surprised about that being my final conclusion with this and more surprised at just how clear and obvious a conclusion it is to me.
Guest:Like, I don't have any doubt this is his best movie ever.
Guest:And it probably took having to watch all of them in a row like that to finally kind of get over my initial.
Guest:It's like it's like, you know, breaking up with a first love.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Or like or finally letting that first love out of your mind.
Guest:Like, you know, she doesn't have to hold you in thrall for the rest of your life.
Guest:You can move on.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And I kind of feel like that's what I did with this.
Guest:And well, I'll turn it over to you.
Guest:How how did you feel after watching it this time?
Marc:Well, I did, just like you, I didn't see Pulp Fiction in the theater.
Marc:I watched it at home again because I, too, was thinking, like, oh, my God, I think Once Upon a Time might be the best.
Marc:So I just had to go back to Pulp Fiction.
Marc:And you're right.
Marc:It is like an old love.
Marc:It is like a movie that's been with me basically my whole life.
Marc:And, you know, watching Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and seeing the love that Quentin has for just the art of moviemaking and seeing what he does in this movie with these characters...
Marc:And all of the complex just machinery of it all, he could not have made Once Upon a Time in Hollywood without being on the shoulders of all these other movies.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And I do think it is...
Marc:absolutely his best movie and it yes it does move up my rankings and i i wasn't surprised uh like like you were saying i wasn't surprised either because it's just kind of a no-brainer like this is yes a start to finish great movie to to you know be in and i love it and once upon a time in hollywood is my top movie
Guest:Why don't you run down what your list was when we started this adventure, you know, back in February?
Guest:And let's hear where you're at now as we're finished.
Marc:All right.
Marc:So back in February, I had a number nine, Death Proof.
Marc:Eight was Hateful Eight.
Marc:Seven was Django Unchained.
Marc:Six was Kill Bill.
Marc:Five was Inglourious Bastards.
Marc:Four was Reservoir Dogs.
Marc:Three, Jackie Brown.
Marc:Two, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Marc:And one, Pulp Fiction.
Marc:Now, my list is nine, Death Proof.
Marc:Eight, Kill Bill.
Marc:Seven, Django.
Marc:Six, Reservoir Dogs.
Marc:Five, Hateful Eight.
Marc:Four, Jackie Brown.
Marc:Three, Inglourious Bastards.
Marc:Two, Pulp Fiction.
Marc:And one, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Well, so mine, when we started, was Death Proof at number nine.
Guest:Kill Bill at number eight.
Guest:Inglourious Bastards at number seven.
Guest:Hateful Eight at number six.
Guest:Reservoir Dogs at five, Jackie Brown at four, Django Unchained at three, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood at two, and Pulp Fiction at one.
Guest:And now, nine months later, I'm at Death Proof at nine, Kill Bill at eight.
Guest:Those are back where they were, back where they started.
Guest:But I've dropped Jackie Brown down to seven, Reservoir Dogs down to six.
Guest:And then five, The Hateful Eight.
Guest:Four, Inglourious Bastards.
Guest:Three, Django Unchained.
Guest:Two, Pulp Fiction.
Guest:And one, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Guest:And I would say my biggest takeaway of this whole excursion is...
Guest:is that I find myself a bigger fan of him now than a fan of who he was.
Guest:I think he is a better filmmaker now.
Guest:And I frankly think that if I watched Hateful Eight, I don't know, three, four more times, Inglourious Bastards, three, four more times, right?
Guest:I might leap them up higher.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like I feel like these last four movies he's made, they're in my top five.
Guest:And Pulp Fiction just kind of is hanging around up in there because of its legacy to me.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And and I just really think, you know, who he has been over the last 15 years is.
Guest:is the filmmaker I appreciate more and the movies that I like more, Pulp Fiction notwithstanding.
Guest:And so that's the ultimate surprise to me of this exercise is that I did not know how much I really liked and appreciated the more recent things he'd been making.
Marc:Yeah, absolutely.
Marc:Brendan, can I just say thank you for indulging me and having me part of this exercise.
Marc:This was really fun.
Marc:I'm glad I got to experience it with you.
Marc:I hope everyone listening was able to watch some movies or all of them.
Marc:That would be great.
Marc:But seriously, thank you, Brendan.
Marc:You are honestly a really great friend.
Guest:Oh, well, thank you, man.
Guest:I appreciate it.
Guest:You are as well.
Guest:You're one of the greatest, most fun people to do a project like this with because, you know, we can just talk about it.
Guest:We can talk about it on the mics here, but we're going to talk about it again at, you know, great length at other times.
Guest:So always have people in your life like that.
Guest:And I'm fortunate to have you doing that with me.
Guest:And we're both fortunate that our listener, Ryan, brought this up to us in the first place.
Guest:Great idea, Ryan.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Thank you for that.
Guest:And any future suggestions for things like this, we'll take them.
Guest:So go to the link in the comment section there.
Guest:Click on it and let us know what you think.
Guest:What are future things you want us to watch or take interest in?
Guest:Maybe, you know, I was kind of thinking about this too, Chris.
Guest:Maybe it's like time for us to start...
Guest:taking in things we never really saw or didn't really regard like maybe it's kind of like a uh first timer thing for us for things we should have seen already uh that that might be interesting or like a second opinion on something maybe we didn't like or didn't really appreciate and should give it another go uh
Guest:I don't know, lots of ideas we could toss around, but we don't have to come up with them today.
Guest:That is for another time.
Guest:And until that time, this has been The Friday Show.
Guest:I am Brendan, and that's Chris.
Guest:Peace.