BONUS The Friday Show - Listener Feedback Part 2: The Sequel
Marc:Oh my God, wait, so now I'm just trying to picture this movie with Samuel L. Jackson with an afro.
Guest:It would be worse.
Guest:It would be so much worse.
Guest:Too comical.
Marc:Yes, too comical.
Marc:Also, all that brain, little itty bits of brain.
Marc:It would never come out of the afro.
Marc:Right.
Guest:Hey, Chris.
Guest:Brendan.
Guest:What's good, baby?
Guest:We're picking up where we left off.
Guest:It's just like, you know, cliffhanger right into the next episode, right?
Guest:And it's like Dune, right?
Guest:Dune 2 just starts right where Dune 1 ended.
Guest:You're just getting right back into it.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:Let's get back in the sand.
Guest:Let's slop them up.
Guest:Pound my worm.
Guest:It'll come right out of the sand.
Guest:That didn't mean what I thought of that.
Guest:Well, what we're going to do is what we said we were going to do.
Guest:We're going to continue on with the things you've been sending in to us on the comment page.
Guest:We've had a lot of stuff and just week to week, we keep pushing it off, pushing it off.
Guest:We push it off no longer.
Guest:Let us get into the things you've been sending in to us here at the Full Marin on the Friday show.
Guest:These comments came into us when we did our New York movies episode.
Guest:We called that.
Guest:I happen to like this town.
Guest:If you want to go back and listen, Darcy from San Francisco said, I lived across the street from the firehouse on North Moore street while they were filming ghostbusters.
Guest:And it was so fun.
Guest:When they're not shooting, the firemen that live there would show us the ghost mobile, Ecto-1, I should call that, and the cool props.
Guest:And she also recommended the movie The Out-of-Towners as a New York movie.
Guest:I'm assuming the original, which is much better than the Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn remake.
Guest:But but yes, so out of town.
Guest:It's very good.
Guest:And the Ghostbusters fire station, which is still in use today, is one of the great things to just be sitting there in New York.
Guest:Anytime you walk by it, it makes you smile.
Guest:Right now, I think they're using it as like a commercial promotion for the new Ghostbusters movie.
Marc:Yeah, like one of those things where they set it up as if it's a real thing.
Marc:Yeah, I just passed by it when I went to see Pulp Fiction with you.
Marc:It's like right after the Holland Tunnel.
Marc:It's like one traffic light.
Marc:It's great.
Guest:Yeah, Northmore Street.
Guest:And the great thing when it's not being used as a promotional thing...
Guest:is it just looks like a firehouse.
Guest:And if you know that shot from Ghostbusters, there it is.
Guest:It's the Ghostbusters firehouse.
Guest:It's sitting right there.
Guest:But if you go by when the fire engine doors are open- You see inside?
Guest:You see the Ghostbusters sign in there.
Guest:Yeah, it's great.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Now, is it the original one or is it the two one?
Guest:No, it's the two.
Guest:Yeah, it's the two.
Guest:Ghostbusters two.
Marc:I'm partial to the two version.
Marc:I just think it's fun.
Guest:Yeah, where the ghost is halfway stepping out of the circle with the line and giving a two with his fingers.
Marc:That movie, Ghostbusters 2, is underrated, in my opinion.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, yeah, sure.
Guest:I mean, it doesn't match the original.
Guest:Well, let me jump then to what Sally in Colorado has to say.
Guest:She says, I just listened to the New York movie segment, and I have to disagree with why Ghostbuster movies have delved into ghosts after the first one.
Guest:I think the main reason is that Dan Aykroyd developed it and didn't have Harold Ramis keeping him grounded.
Guest:Ghosts and that whole kick have long been an immense fascination to Dan, and there would have been a lot more of it in the first one if Harold hadn't said no.
Guest:Now, Sally, you are absolutely correct about that.
Guest:And I didn't basically want to throw Dan Aykroyd under the bus, but I have said that many times in my life, is that the worst part about Dan Aykroyd being involved in the current iteration of Ghostbusters is that the thing Dan Aykroyd thought was most important in Ghostbusters was ghosts.
Guest:Like, he loves ghosts.
Guest:And there are some great...
Guest:I remember one in Vanity Fair about the production of the original Ghostbusters, and the first script was insane.
Guest:The level of supernatural lore that Aykroyd had put in it, they go to hell.
Guest:at the end of it.
Guest:It was unfilmable, and it was Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis took it away for a weekend.
Guest:They went on, I think, two weeks or something, and worked on it nonstop and basically turned it into the version that you came to know as Ghostbusters.
Guest:But yes...
Guest:Dan Aykroyd and his fascination with the occult drove quite a lot of the... But the thing is, in the original Ghostbusters and in Ghostbusters 2, it's to the benefit of the film, right?
Guest:Because you have that structure that we talked about in that earlier episode about how streetwise New York the whole movie is.
Guest:And then you have all the Bill Murray wisecracks.
Guest:But when it peppers in the ghost stuff, it's such a perfect level of esoteric...
Guest:Like the idea that there's this thing called Tobin's spirit guide that they keep referring to.
Guest:And that like, you know, Ray, the Dan Aykroyd character will just rattle off something from it.
Guest:Like, oh, this is like when the Sumerians and the necromancer and blah, blah, blah.
Guest:You know, it's like, oh, that little bit of flavoring helps so much.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:It's a salt and pepper.
Marc:Yeah, you don't want it to be the number one thing.
Marc:No, no.
Marc:But peppered in or, you know, just flaked on top.
Marc:Perfect, you know?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Okay, so this came in from Chris.
Guest:He said, the films of Abel Ferrara, particularly Bad Lieutenant and King of New York, are some highly recommended New York movies.
Marc:I never watched Bad Lieutenant before.
Guest:No, but I've watched The King of New York and I haven't watched in a very long time, but I could absolutely see it being, you know, kind of a New York movie staple.
Guest:But he also recommended some movies from where he grew up, Austin, Texas.
Guest:And he was saying like some quintessential Austin movies are Blood Simple, first movie of the Coen brothers, Slacker by Richard Linklater.
Marc:There better be a movie in here that I know.
Marc:Come on, keep going.
Guest:Well, Waking Life is another Richard Linklater movie.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And then Office Space.
Guest:That's a very Austin-centric movie.
Guest:Wait, what about Dazed and Confused?
Guest:Isn't that the Austin movie?
Guest:I guess so.
Guest:I think he didn't want to just include, you know...
Guest:only Richard Linklater movies got like two of them in here.
Marc:Yeah, I guess so.
Marc:I guess so.
Marc:But yeah, those are all great.
Marc:Slackers for sure.
Marc:But yeah, Dazed and Confused, that's where you go with Austin for me.
Marc:Like I've been to Austin twice.
Marc:First place I ever went with my wife.
Marc:Oh yeah?
Marc:Yeah, it was Austin.
Marc:We actually went there recently.
Marc:And it's changed so much.
Marc:It's like completely fucking different now.
Marc:But yeah, Austin, great fucking town.
Marc:Great town for tacos.
Marc:Great place for movies, apparently.
Marc:I was just watching the – I started watching the Before trilogy.
Marc:Oh, right, right.
Marc:Because my wife's never seen it.
Marc:I never saw the first one.
Marc:I saw only the second and third one.
Marc:And I got to say –
Marc:It's been great.
Marc:Like, what a fun treat, man.
Marc:Like, it's just fun to be with those people.
Guest:Although the problem here is that it's like, we're talking about Austin movies.
Guest:It's all the same guy.
Guest:Yes, I know.
Marc:Are there other Austin movies, for fuck's sake?
Marc:I guess Mike Judge.
Marc:Right.
Marc:I mean, Office Space, that is a movie that I, I've, I, man, the movies that I've bought on VHS and DVD and like this one, I wore out both of them.
Marc:Like this movie was such a great fucking movie.
Guest:Well, it's also, it's funny, Office Space came out the same year as Fight Club.
Guest:So it was definitely like a, there was something in the air, like Fight Club, Office Space, The Matrix, like all of these late 90s worker ennui.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Mundane work life sucks.
Marc:So how can you subvert it?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's like, ah, you've been missing some work, haven't you, Bob?
Marc:I wouldn't say I've been missing it.
Guest:uh one person uh said if it's okay to bring up woody allen movies and it is sure uh they recommended radio days and i will say for a very long time that was my favorite woody allen film really not any hall no no i mean like i think it goes from being a kid and like if you're a kid and you're watching anything related to woody allen
Guest:uh radio days is relatable because it's a kid protagonist and uh you know it it has like the same feeling of like a christmas story like that era and it's a there's it's a nostalgia trip for people uh i really like that movie radio days young seth green is the is the kid in that movie no shit um wow yes yeah
Guest:And I don't know how it holds up because I haven't watched it in a very long time, but I do remember that, like, that would be the thing I would say, oh, that was my favorite Woody Allen movie before I got older and watched Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And then the last thing on New York movies comes from Ben in Minneapolis who said he recommends Man Pushcart, which I never saw, but I remember very...
Guest:I remember it was like during the period of like the nineties independent film boom.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Uh, and, uh, I never got a chance to see it and that's a good recommendation.
Guest:I really should check that one out.
Marc:That was in the time when like, I remember there was also a movie called dark days, uh,
Marc:Yeah, I saw that.
Guest:That one I did see because that was a documentary and it was about the people living under the subway.
Guest:That was the type of movie.
Guest:Yeah, but Man Pushcart, I've never seen.
Guest:I should totally check that out.
Guest:Well, speaking of 90s independent cinema, let's go to some of the comments on the Quentin Tarantino series we've been doing on the QT podcast.
Guest:Uh, and someone wants to know if we're going to include, uh, true romance and four rooms in our rewatches here.
Guest:Uh, someone else asked about from dusk till dawn and look, we, you know, this isn't exactly a movie podcast.
Guest:We're not doing movies every week.
Guest:So I think we probably will pepper those things in our overall discussion.
Guest:Like we did, you know, talking about the context of pulp fiction at the time and true romance having been released before that.
Guest:But I don't think we're going to like, I mean,
Guest:Speak for yourself, Chris.
Guest:How do you feel about those movies?
Guest:Because I just feel like it's all of a piece.
Guest:They'll come up, but we're not going to devote a specific episode.
Guest:Yeah, that's right.
Marc:I mean, I've actually watched both of those movies before Pulp Fiction, just because I'm a weirdo.
Marc:I...
Marc:I don't remember.
Marc:I remember seeing Four Rooms maybe twice, but I don't remember.
Marc:That was one of those things where Quentin Tarantino directed like the last section of it or something, right?
Guest:Yeah, the last of the four.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, and yeah.
Guest:And it's the okay one.
Guest:It's fine.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The Robert Rodriguez one is the best one.
Guest:Right.
Guest:With the two kids.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And then the other two, I can't even tell you what.
Guest:Oh, there's a terrible one with the witch's coven.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Madonna.
Guest:It's really bad.
Guest:And then I can't even, I don't even remember the fourth room.
Marc:If you put a gun to my head, I would not be able to... No.
Marc:Same thing.
Marc:What is that last room?
Marc:Don't know.
Marc:Stay out of that room.
Marc:It's the shining room.
Marc:I don't feel a need for us to... Yeah, like you said, it'll come up.
Marc:True Romance.
Marc:I was watching that and...
Marc:There was a movie that Sandra Bullock was in with, I think, Dennis Leary.
Marc:I want to look this up.
Marc:Oh, Two If By Seat?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And they used the same music from True Romance.
Marc:And I always found that to be so off-putting.
Marc:I'm like, why are they using the same soundtrack or the same score?
Marc:But anyway, amazing that you remembered that movie.
Marc:But yeah, True Romance...
Marc:It was very good.
Marc:Enjoyed it.
Marc:You know, and I, yeah, I don't, I don't think we need to devote an entire episode on.
Guest:That used to happen though, in specifically in nineties movies.
Guest:I remember watching scream two.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:And scream two was fast tracked.
Guest:It came out a year after scream one.
Guest:Oh wow.
Guest:So they made it very quickly and probably did not have time to make a score and
Guest:or at least not score it with completely original music and i remember the score for the from the movie broken arrow what popping up in the middle of scream 2 like not incidentally like it was being used as the score no for scream 2 and i'm like wait i fucking know this because i like the broken arrow score
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they're using it in this movie.
Guest:And that was the first time I learned about that, that like, yeah, if it's from the same studio or whatever, they might just license the music from the person who did it for another one of their movies.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:That's crazy.
Marc:I would be, I mean, I'm guessing they get paid for it, right?
Guest:Yeah, yeah, right, right.
Guest:It's like having your song being played on the soundtrack.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:But yeah, see, I love that sort of stuff, where just your ear was like, wait a second, I know that.
Guest:Oh, totally.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:This is from Chuck in Madtown, who's written to us before, but he said, I watched Reservoir Dogs for the first time in close to 20 years after last week's pod.
Guest:I thought it was just okay when I saw it in my 20s, but after watching it with fresh eyes, I have a new admiration for it.
Guest:It's a great entry into one of my favorite subgenres, movies where everything goes wrong.
Guest:You got to love it when a plan comes together, but it's even more entertaining when everything goes to shit.
Guest:That is a fun genre to discuss, although it might be a kind of narrow list.
Guest:And I think that is a good, I mean, there's, it kind of falls into two categories almost.
Guest:There's like the everything goes wrong movie and also the one bad day movie.
Guest:And a lot of those, it's funny, they happen to be New York movies, right?
Guest:Like if you're going to have one bad day, it's going to happen in New York.
Guest:A lot of them are ones we've talked about.
Guest:So like you've got the paper, right?
Guest:It's just celebrated its 30th anniversary, a dog day afternoon after hours.
Guest:Um,
Guest:uh you know for some people some people love uncut gems i'm not a huge fan but i like it definitely that's definitely a one bad day movie yes but you know which one i automatically thought of when he brought this up uh chuck did this is like it's definitely not in one day but it's definitely an everything goes wrong movie that i remember very clearly from my youth the money pit oh fuck yes money pit
Marc:That is a great movie.
Marc:A movie I used to watch on repeat when that fucking tub goes crashing to the ground and Tom Hanks is just staring at it and laughing.
Marc:Holy shit.
Marc:That's like an all timer.
Guest:it was the tub i think the thing with the money pit is and why it has lasted in my consciousness is like there are just things from that movie that i'm like oh i hope that doesn't happen in my house like just things that like like there's that scene where he walks into the room and he's like stands in the middle of a rug and just sinks into the floor and then is stuck in the hole in the floor because it
Guest:The rug is pulled tight around him.
Guest:I don't know why.
Guest:There's no danger of that happening in my house, but I do think about it a lot.
Marc:yeah oh man that's great that is a that is a great subgenre the one bad day uh genre or genre we'll have to come up with some more and see if we can talk about it yeah yeah but man money pit that's a movie i i want to seek that out i guess that that was a movie that was on and who there was a woman from cheers right shelly long yeah was this like her big breakout
Guest:uh it well her big breakout was the movie with um michael keaton and uh henry winkler uh why am i blanking on the name night shift night shift oh right night shift yeah yeah yeah right and then this was this was after she left cheers to make movies and this was one and she made troop beverly hills and then there was one where she was dead and came back i think it's called hello again
Guest:And all of them were financially unsuccessful, which was why she didn't really have the career that they thought she was going to have when she left Cheers.
Guest:But yes, these were the big Shelley Long movies.
Marc:Yeah, Judgment Night is in that with One Bad Night sort of thing.
Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Marc:Yeah, for sure.
Marc:Oh, man, that's great.
Marc:But yeah, thank you for that question.
Marc:And it's so great to watch a movie like Reservoir Dogs again for the first time.
Marc:Because like, you know, it's a movie that's like was on in my life previously.
Marc:And I've grown up and I've matured.
Marc:And yeah, it's great to watch this thing again.
Marc:So yeah, I'm glad you had that experience.
Guest:Well, Justin H. wrote into us and he said, this is great.
Guest:I'm so glad somebody wrote this in because I know the backstory of this.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:He said, my first exposure to Pulp Fiction was on VHS and it always cracks me up that in the photo of the cast on the back of the box.
Guest:Sam Jackson has a completely different hairstyle than in the movie.
Guest:No curly wig, no elaborate facial hair.
Guest:He has arguably the most iconic, memorable look in the whole movie.
Guest:And that picture is of Samuel L. Jackson, the actor, not Jules.
Yes.
Guest:It must have been a photo from long after the movie wrapped and he didn't want to put the wig back on.
Guest:Anyway, I always thought that was funny.
Guest:Well, I'll tell you, you weren't the only one, Justin, because Chris and I are both nodding affirmatively at this.
Guest:But also, when Pulp Fiction had some anniversary, maybe it was like 25 years, you know, five years ago or something, Seth Rogen...
Guest:like responded to something posting that picture.
Guest:And he was like, since I was 12 years old, it irked me that Sam Jackson has different hair in the promo pics than he does in the movie.
Yeah.
Guest:So the story of that is that was a picture for and I know this because I used to get these magazines.
Guest:That was for the Entertainment Weekly Fall Movie Preview cover shoot.
Guest:And if you pull that up, Entertainment Weekly 1994 Fall Movie Preview, you see that picture is the cover of the magazine.
Guest:And the thing is, so it's a photo shoot at wherever they were shooting it in New York or L.A.
Guest:They had to send the costumes.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:That is it.
Guest:Holy cow.
Guest:And so they sent the costumes.
Guest:And when they opened the box, the one thing that wasn't in there was Sam Jackson's wig.
Guest:So they had to take these pictures and he just had to be himself.
Guest:He couldn't be Jules.
Yeah.
Guest:The amazing thing about that, that I didn't know until many years later, Sam Jackson told this on one of the late night shows might've been Colbert that the wig itself was a mistake.
Guest:What do you mean?
Guest:That in the script, it was an Afro like a, like a big Afro.
Marc:Like, you know, I know what an Afro is.
Guest:And somehow when the wig arrived to the set, the,
Guest:It was this Jerry curl wig and like Tarantino was all bummed out.
Guest:He was like, no, this is, this is not it.
Guest:I want an Afro.
Guest:And Sam Jackson actually convinced him like, no, no, no, dude, this is cooler.
Guest:Like this is what everybody would have.
Guest:Like, like he's like, he's like, he's got, he's got, this is, this is totally what this guy would have.
Marc:Holy shit.
Yeah.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:Wait.
Marc:So now I'm just trying to picture this movie with Samuel L. Jackson with an afro.
Guest:It would be worse.
Guest:It would be so much worse.
Guest:Too comical.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Too comical.
Marc:Also, all that brain, little itty bits of brain.
Marc:It would never come out of the afro.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:They probably wouldn't have made it out in time.
Marc:It would take way too long.
Yeah.
Marc:Probably his hair would have gotten shot up.
Guest:Wow.
Marc:That was a mistake.
Marc:Yep.
Marc:What can I just say?
Marc:If I'm Quentin Tarantino, this is my first, well, first big movie where I got Bruce Willis.
Marc:I got John Travolta.
Marc:I got Uma Thurman.
Marc:Like, holy shit.
Marc:This is a cast, right?
Marc:And I have to...
Marc:like trust that this wig this jerry curl wig that i did not order oh my god i don't think i honestly think if i was in his shoes i'd be like no this is not gonna work you cannot convince me this is going to work like this is my ass on the line it's not your ass like oh my god that's insane like can you think of it again can you imagine that brendan
Guest:Oh, I mean, well, I can imagine it from the sense of like, I've been in a situation many times where you have to make do with something, right?
Guest:Sure.
Guest:But I think, you know, in this case, he was young enough and inexperienced enough that he was going to take the advice of a veteran actor and one that he, I'm sure, respected.
Marc:Yeah, I guess so.
Marc:Also, they use this Entertainment Weekly photo on the VHS back cover.
Marc:That's bananas to me.
Marc:Like, how does that happen?
Guest:I guess it was the only promo picture they had, right?
Guest:Because if you think about it, it makes sense.
Guest:There's no way that Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis were ever on the set at the same time as each other or as Uma Thurman.
Guest:No, I take that back.
Guest:It's just Uma Thurman because there is the one shot of...
Guest:Well, it's not even necessarily.
Guest:You don't know that Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson are there at the same time in that one scene.
Guest:But Uma Thurman, she only shares the screen with John Travolta.
Guest:So if you wanted to take promotional photos, you had to get them all there at one time.
Guest:And it was famously the first big indie film that was being distributed by an independent company.
Marc:But you would think they would use just insert shots from the, you know, still shots from the movie, you know?
Guest:I guess there's a whole episode to do on VHS box art.
Guest:Yeah, for sure.
Guest:You think about it, that so much of it had to do with, like, getting people who had no idea what this thing was to take it off of the shelf.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Exactly.
Marc:Like, and I guess this photo from Entertainment Weekly best encapsulated that because the cover is, by the way, the VHS cover and the movie poster is so iconic.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:So I guess you're hoping that this fantastic Pulp Fiction cover looks like a Pulp Fiction book, that that's going to make you pick up the box.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And when you turn the box around and you look at the back of it, you're like.
Guest:It's like these movie stars.
Guest:Oh, movie stars.
Guest:Exactly.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, man.
Guest:They're not covered in blood.
Guest:See, that's the other thing.
Guest:If you just put stuff from the movie, it's like, oh, you mean where Bruce Willis just broke free from the ball gag?
Guest:Blood dripping down his face?
Marc:Right.
Guest:Uma Thurman is recovering from her... Yeah, that shot of her in the car after the adrenaline shot where she looks like a zombie.
Guest:Now, this came in from Brian, and it's lengthy, but I'm going to read the whole thing here.
Guest:Brian says, I profoundly disagree that Pulp Fiction is stuck in 14-year-old mode.
Guest:This is what I said, you know, paraphrasing what I said there, but I was saying that it didn't feel as mature as some of Tarantino's later work.
Guest:So he says, Pulp Fiction takes the 14-year-old backdrop of the film to make Jules' speech at the end pop.
Guest:Quentin hints at the profound by having Jules quote Ezekiel 25, 17 throughout the film, but for the wrong reasons.
Guest:Yes, Jackie Brown is a more mature film.
Guest:I love it equal to Pulp Fiction.
Guest:But Pulp Fiction as art is at least as mature.
Guest:And here's why.
Guest:Quentin breaks the fourth wall in the most obvious hidden in plain sight way.
Guest:The title, Pulp Fiction.
Guest:The first scene actually is a shot of the dictionary.
Guest:Pulp.
Guest:"...popular or sensational writing that is generally regarded as being of poor quality, fiction, literature in the form of prose that describes imaginary events and people.
Guest:Quentin knows he made a comic book in movie form."
Guest:But in that Bible scripture, Quentin hides the profound message that great movies, Hollywood movies always portray within the Pulp Fiction universe.
Guest:At first, Jules quotes it for the wrong reasons when killing.
Guest:But then he uses mercy in the end of the film at the coffee shop.
Guest:By the way, Bruce Willis also completes the hero's journey by earning the watch, as you guys stated.
Guest:But finally, John Travolta did not complete the hero's journey because he stayed shallow.
Guest:In true 14-year-old mode, he didn't catch up as Mia Wallace indirectly told him to through the joke.
Guest:As a result, he died.
Guest:Thesis.
Guest:The movie is profound and in the most caricature movie like way.
Guest:If Rob Zombie were to review it, he'd say it's more movie than movie.
Guest:Thanks for reading.
Guest:This was my favorite Friday bonus WTF.
Guest:And thank you, Brian.
Guest:And look, that's a great reading of the film.
Guest:And frankly, I have read many things like it over the years because I devour everything having to do with Pulp Fiction.
Guest:And what I will say is as much meaning as you could take from everything in the film, and I agree, and frankly, it's why it's on the top of my list of Tarantino films.
Guest:The last thing you said is the most important, though.
Guest:It is more movie than movie.
Guest:It is a movie movie, or as a lot of people regarded it at the time, the kind of most important demarcation in postmodern filmmaking.
Guest:This was now where film and television had reached a saturation point in the consciousness where you could now make a film that was made up almost entirely of reference to things that had come before.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And that I do believe is part of the greatness of Pulp Fiction.
Guest:But I am curious to find out.
Guest:which Brian's comment did not answer for me, whether I will find more heart and soul in his other films.
Guest:I'm fully on board with a movie that exists for movies sake.
Guest:That is that.
Guest:And that has a profound message about the stories we can tell, whether it's through the Bible or through pulp comics or,
Guest:That is 100% the greatness of Pulp Fiction.
Guest:But will I find something that is more emotionally satisfying through that in his other works?
Guest:I am open to it.
Guest:Stay tuned.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:All right.
Guest:This is on our Madam Web episode.
Guest:If you want to go back and listen to that, it's called Kitsch of the Spider Woman, which I was very proud of that title, by the way.
Guest:You did a great job with these titles.
Guest:And Sarah wrote in to say, a bad superhero movie I cringed through is Elektra.
Guest:Jennifer Garner tried her best, but I'm not convinced of her ninja skills.
Guest:And then someone else recommended it.
Guest:It's a bad movie you want to rehash?
Guest:Argyle.
Guest:Must be Argyle.
Marc:Oh, boy.
Guest:So, listen, here's the thing.
Guest:I am not opposed to doing Argyle.
Guest:I am also definitely not opposed to doing Elektra.
Guest:However, I would like us to maybe pick something before Elektra.
Guest:Maybe Argyle.
Guest:Maybe something else.
Guest:Because I don't feel totally great...
Guest:with just tearing a new one of female led comic book.
Marc:Oh, good fucking point, dude.
Guest:It's like, it's not their fault that these movies suck.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like, and if it's only like, like let's get back to Electra.
Guest:I have again, no problem with it.
Guest:It looks like it would be a fun time, but yeah, maybe the next one won't be another female centric comic book movie.
Marc:Goddamn, I wouldn't have thought about that, but when you put it like that, it's definitely not to one of those movies next, because that's a bad look.
Guest:Someone else recommended Highlander 2 The Quickening, which this person says, I often go to as my worst movie ever reference.
Guest:It completely undoes everything that the original did.
Guest:It turns out that Highlanders were aliens, and...
Guest:Really?
Guest:And more of them come to Earth, which somehow resets everything and brings Sean Connery back from the dead.
Guest:Tons of other ridiculous plot leaps as well.
Guest:Oh, wow.
Guest:Madame Webb.
Guest:So that does seem like a good one.
Guest:Now, Randy wrote in about Madame Webb and said there was one moment you two were wrong about.
Guest:Hmm.
Guest:Cassie, Madam Webb, knew about the warehouse with the fireworks because she was at that location during a lengthy rescue scene near the beginning of the movie.
Guest:Remember where she tries to prevent the death of O'Neill, her African-American coworker?
Guest:Someone mentions that they must prevent the fire from spreading to that warehouse.
Guest:I think she has a premonition of one of the emergency vehicles crashing into the building.
Guest:But that may have been one of my delusions.
Guest:Look, Randy, this is the problem.
Guest:Because that scene is the first scene where you're trying to...
Guest:figure out what her power is how is this working and it's so confusing i i would give you a medal for understanding that that was the same warehouse how would you possibly know that in watching that scene yeah was the pep i guess the pepsi sign must have been there right and that's why i guess
Guest:I was too busy wondering if O'Neill was that guy's first or last name.
Guest:And then when the credits showed up, it just said O'Neill.
Guest:I was like, ah, curses.
Guest:I'll never find out.
Guest:They only called him O'Neal.
Guest:Randy also says he brought up the fact that she took this trip to Peru, an international flight, and she is a suspect.
Guest:She is a known kidnapping suspect.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:Which we know from the magic newspaper, which revealed that she is a kidnapping suspect.
Marc:Yes, post 9-11.
Marc:It's not like you could just fly wherever.
Marc:This is post 9-11.
Marc:She's lucky they didn't think she was Al-Qaeda.
Marc:She's on some watch list somewhere.
Marc:Hey, to be a white lady, what's the worst that could happen?
Marc:Exactly.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Now, this is from our episode about soundtracks and movie scores.
Guest:We called this Killer Soundtrack, if you want to go listen to that.
Guest:First off, to the person who was so furious, this person sent in no fewer than four separate comments for that episode, and then multiple comments the following week.
Guest:probably in real time as they were listening, about how we don't know anything about music and we're embarrassing ourselves and just stop talking.
Guest:Like, this is just really bothering this person.
Guest:And look, all I can say is this.
Guest:I'm sorry that you didn't like the episodes, but my apology is limited because if I tell you what kind of food I like, that doesn't make me a fucking chef.
Guest:Like, I don't...
Guest:I'm not here as, as a goddamn pitchfork reviewer.
Guest:Like you, you absolutely should not listen if that's what you're expecting.
Guest:This person wanted us to make note of the composers, which I will, in our defense, say we did for many of them.
Guest:But I also want to say we were rattling stuff off off the top of our heads.
Guest:We're not thinking about this in that regard.
Guest:But I also do want to say to this person, without giving them too much time...
Guest:This person signed off by saying that the whole talk was, and the quote was, total bro shit.
Guest:And I can assure you that that is probably the first time in my life that I've been called a bro outside of my actual brother.
Guest:So...
Guest:i mean they definitely the the version of me in many iterations throughout my life that would have like been like oh i'm a bro like i've been actually very pleased by that uh you know maybe not now at 44 but yeah there were times where it would have been nice to have been called a bro yeah yeah i i don't i don't think anyone is confusing you with dave portnoy or anyone like there's oh wait i can't do my pizza reviews outside the place
Marc:There's a very distinct difference between the two of you.
Guest:No bro vibe?
Guest:I don't give up a totally bro vibe?
Guest:No.
Guest:No, sorry.
Guest:I'll keep trying, I guess.
Guest:Amy wanted to add some good soundtracks to the list.
Guest:Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet.
Marc:Everyone fucking loves that soundtrack.
Marc:When I was working at Sam Goody, that was like the first that everyone would just buy that.
Guest:You're turning it off for Don't Stop Believing every five minutes?
Ha ha!
Marc:wasn't that love me love me was that is that the song yeah the cardigans uh-huh yep i remember uh donnie darko as a soundtrack yeah that has the uh the tears for fears mad world uh sure does that's a great one
Guest:Moonstruck, fun for cooking too.
Guest:I don't remember the music for Moonstruck.
Guest:I don't remember anything.
Marc:I just remember Snap out of it and Nicolas Cage looked fucking great.
Marc:I want to talk about Bro Talk.
Marc:That guy was built like a brick warehouse.
Guest:Fireworks in him.
Guest:uh amy recommends marie antoinette seven uh eternal sunshine of the spotless mind which is scored by john bryan who came up in one in some of our other conversations there we go is a composer there you go good job by name good job by you uh empire records the craft oh here's one i'm surprised we didn't mention this one this is a great great soundtrack
Guest:Gross Point Blank.
Guest:Oh, God, yeah.
Guest:I listen to that a lot.
Marc:Yeah, that's a great one.
Marc:So was Empire Records.
Marc:So was Empire Records, by the way.
Guest:Empire Records.
Guest:Wait, there was original music on that, wasn't it?
Guest:Maybe the Gin Blossoms?
Guest:Yeah, maybe.
Guest:I think there was a Gin Blossoms song that premiered on that soundtrack.
Guest:Juno, which I think is a lot of the moldy peaches, and the TV show High Maintenance, which that's interesting.
Guest:I don't even know what music is on that show, so I'll have to check that out.
Guest:Oh.
Marc:Wow, that's a show that I've always wanted to watch, but I never got into it.
Guest:Exactly, but it also seems short.
Guest:I think they're like 15-minute episodes, maybe.
Guest:Maybe I'm wrong about that.
Marc:And they're all like, none of them interconnect, right?
Marc:You can just watch an episode.
Marc:Yeah, that's a show.
Marc:If I had more time, I would totally watch these shows.
Guest:Amy also wanted to appreciate our mention of Boogie Nights, which she said a lot of those songs played at my wedding.
Guest:Great summer vibes, which they absolutely are.
Marc:That's a great wedding, by the way.
Marc:That is a banger.
Guest:You should do a full on Boogie Nights wedding.
Guest:If anyone out there does a wedding that is at a poolside and it's made to look like Jack's party at Boogie Nights, that would win for like wedding of the century.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:I got to lend you.
Marc:I bought the Weird Al Yankovic movie.
Marc:Oh, Weird.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Have you seen it?
Marc:I have not.
Guest:I'll lend it to you.
Marc:I have Roku, so no, I didn't see it.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So I'll lend it to you.
Marc:But there is a very deliberate Boogie Nights reference.
Guest:I have seen that scene.
Guest:Oh, that's great.
Guest:I have seen that scene.
Guest:That scene was definitely on YouTube or whatever.
Marc:Gotcha.
Marc:But yeah, that's great.
Marc:Man, I would love to be just invited to a Boogie Nights themed wedding.
Marc:Just I'd be shooting off fireworks as you're trying to get drugs from the Bud dealer.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:That'd be great.
Guest:uh okay and oh one more person recommended the soundtracks to last night in soho and death proof as good road trip soundtracks uh but this person said judgment night on the other hand was uh the soundtrack to driver's education uh which uh i i would imagine would you know potentially be a detriment to driver's education you'd like be driving too fast listening to judgment night yes
Marc:Oh, but, man, there's a De La Soul song on Judgment Night that is, like, really, like, it's great.
Marc:And I listen to it all the time.
Marc:Traveling at the – oh, it's just great.
Guest:But that's with your paper route.
Marc:Yes, yes, it was with my paper route.
Marc:And Fallen.
Marc:No, no, yeah.
Marc:So, yeah, it's called Fallen, and it's with Teenage Fan Club and De La Soul.
Marc:Great goddamns.
Marc:Teenage Fan Club, wow.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:All right.
Guest:On to our Oscars episode with the the best bests.
Guest:This was when we picked out like our list for the best of the best.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:This person has an interesting comment because in 2008, the Academy Awards were known as the No Country for Old Men versus There Will Be Blood Oscars.
Guest:In an alternate universe where Paul Thomas Anderson and There Will Be Blood wins Best Director and Best Picture instead of the Coen Brothers and No Country, what do both of your all-time picks for Best Director and Best Picture look like?
Guest:And this was because, Chris, you said the Coens would be your Best Director pick of all time, and I said No Country for Old Men would be my Best Picture pick of all time.
Guest:And so if that's no longer available, right, if it loses to There Will Be Blood, what happens to our picks?
Marc:Gotcha.
Marc:So why don't you go first?
Marc:What would be your best picture then?
Guest:So I would not replace it with There Will Be Blood.
Guest:I would go on my list and it would be The Godfather, Original Recipe Godfather.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So the Godfather part two, for sure.
Guest:That's still, that was yours, right?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:So then you and I would each have picked Godfather, but part one and part two.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And so what would yours be for best director with no, with the Coens off the board?
Marc:Man, this is so like...
Guest:What were your five?
Guest:Do you have your five?
Marc:Yeah, I have Silence of the Lambs, Jonathan Demme.
Marc:I have Francis Ford Coppola, Godfather Part II.
Marc:William Friedkin for The French Connection.
Guest:That was my pick, yeah.
Marc:Yeah, Steven Spielberg for Saving Private Ryan.
Marc:And you're saying instead of No Country for All Men, I would have There Will Be Blood.
Guest:Essentially, you would pick one of those four or Paul Thomas Anderson.
Marc:for there will be blood i'd pick there will be blood because you would i would because that movie has some of the most cinematic scenes i've ever seen just like the opening dolly like do you remember that like i do it was dollies in that that are amazing
Marc:And they just go on forever.
Marc:And I'm, I, I'm a sucker for that shit.
Marc:Like I am a fucking sucker for that.
Marc:Like all the extras, all the background people, the sky, everything's in, you're just continuing on and on.
Guest:I mean, it's exactly why when we wind up talking about once upon a time in Hollywood, why I love that movie so much.
Guest:Cause it's just the expanse of the shots.
Guest:And it's like, Oh, he wanted to have a shot where a guy rode a horse in the greatest possible way.
Guest:Any guy could ever ride a horse.
Guest:There it is.
Marc:It's right there in the middle of this fucking movie.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So for me, I would put for best director, Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood.
Guest:No real argument for me on that one.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I'm a fanboy through and through.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Now this, this is speaking my language here.
Guest:This question.
Guest:This person says, I love Amadeus.
Marc:Come on.
Guest:So after your talk about the theatrical versus director's cut, I went and looked up the differences.
Guest:Most people seem to think the added scene between Salieri and Constance was vital to make her attitude toward him at the end play with power and not fall flat.
Guest:Curious as to your views on that.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:So here's what I will say about this.
Guest:Constance is a good character, well played by that actress, Elizabeth Berridge, but her motivations are completely tangential to the film.
Guest:I'm not saying irrelevant, but the movie's power...
Guest:is salieri's struggle that's what the movie is that's what you as a viewer are supposed to be most tapped into her attitude at the end of the film needs to only go as far as how she feels about mozart who dies and
Guest:She and Salieri do not need to have an iota of history between them.
Guest:All that matters is that Salieri, the movie is about, sees what he did to these people.
Guest:That's it.
Guest:So if anything, it really just needs to be that he's watching a mourning wife, a grieving wife, as her husband dies.
Guest:The scene that this person brought up is the perfect example.
Guest:That's why I'm so glad it was brought up of why this scene
Guest:so-called director's cut is worse than the theatrical version and why editing is so important to a film.
Guest:Now, you could just say with the director's cut of Amadeus, the best thing you could do is just trim out the fat.
Guest:If you trim out the fat, you get down to the lean version that was released in theaters.
Guest:That's all that matters.
Guest:And frankly, I don't think they ever really intended for this production
Guest:so-called director's cut to be the version that everybody sees like they do now.
Guest:It was for DVDs at the time when everyone was releasing extra material.
Guest:But for this, let's go to this scene that this person is writing in about.
Guest:In the theatrical version,
Guest:The scene that is in question here is one of the true great moments in the film.
Guest:This is when Salieri is looking at the sheet music of Mozart's and is totally overcome by the talent that he feels on the page.
Guest:And you hear in his narration...
Guest:that he feels that this was not just a person writing music, that this was God speaking through the page.
Guest:And he drops them on the floor in anguish.
Guest:And it's like being overcome by God in the moment.
Guest:And when he comes to, he leaves in anger and is, you know...
Guest:says nothing leaves.
Guest:Constance is confused as she should be.
Guest:This guy just like, she just thinks he's rejecting them as, as artists or whatever he, but he's so overwhelmed with emotion.
Guest:And then we cut to the next scene and,
Guest:He is declaring war on God.
Guest:He puts a crucifix in the fire.
Guest:That's the next scene?
Guest:It absolutely is the next scene.
Guest:He says, this is unjust that you gave this vulgar infantile creature this gift, and we are enemies.
Guest:Huh.
Guest:It couldn't be a more powerful scene.
Marc:Because in the director's cut, it's... Yeah, let's just call it the DVD version.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:He sees all this, puts everything on the floor, and then he propositions her, right?
Marc:Correct.
Guest:So instead of just seeing the sheet music and being overcome with emotion, he decides in that moment, he's going to get some kind of revenge through Constance.
Guest:He makes her meet him later that night, and she understands the score.
Guest:She understands this is a sexual proposition.
Guest:So she goes there prepared to offer herself to him.
Guest:He lets it progress to a point, and then he leaves in disgust.
Guest:She's humiliated, and now he takes it out on God.
Guest:right?
Guest:It totally loses the power that it had as a scene.
Guest:And let's be perfectly frank.
Guest:It was added back into the movie because there's nudity.
Guest:And that was 100% what they were doing at the time with all of those extra footage cuts.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I mean, in some things that were like, you know, the 40 year old virgin or, or American pie, they were like explicit about that.
Guest:Like, right.
Guest:Oh, there's, you know, more unrated scenes, you know, more sexy time or whatever.
Guest:But that's all that was going on here.
Guest:It was to sell DVDs.
Guest:And that scene is so much worse.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:As it exists there than if it was what it was originally intended.
Guest:That is why editing is the soul of cinema.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because you get to the essence of what will make this connect most strongly with the viewer.
Marc:That's fascinating that that was, like, I'm picturing in my head, and I gotta say, I think I would...
Marc:have appreciated that movie a bit more.
Marc:It's like you absolutely would have, but you watched a bad version of it.
Marc:God damn.
Marc:I need to go on the dark internet and find this theatrical version.
Guest:I will say I have always been a fan of director's cuts that are shorter than the theatrical release.
Guest:That is a good key.
Guest:Example.
Guest:Do you have one?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Blood Simple, which we mentioned earlier, Coen Brothers movie, is shorter.
Guest:Blade Runner is probably the best example.
Guest:And these are usually what you're dealing with here is movies where the studio has forced some type of addition into the film.
Guest:Famously, with Blade Runner, they put all this voiceover narration in there.
Guest:And the director's cut cuts it out.
Guest:That's always a flag to me.
Guest:When I see director's cut shorter than theatrical cut, I know that that means the director is taking control of the thing from someone else who meddled.
Marc:Gotcha.
Marc:Which Blade Runner cut should I be watching?
Marc:Is it like the final cut?
Guest:There's like so many cuts.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:That's the hard thing because there's so many.
Guest:The final cut's fine, but the regular old director's cut, which showed up on like LaserDisc in the 80s, that's fine too.
Guest:It's like...
Guest:The things that were removed right away, which were the things that were put in for the theatrical release, that's all that matters.
Guest:Just to get rid of the voiceovers and that.
Guest:I think the one kind of explicit difference in the final cut, final, final cut, is that there's that dream sequence.
Guest:It's very brief, but he's dreaming about a unicorn.
Guest:And so then it makes that little origami unicorn connected to it.
Guest:It's not a ton.
Guest:And frankly, the, you know, Blade Runner is all about mood anyway.
Guest:So like that stuff doesn't tend to really matter.
Guest:But what absolutely matters is that you don't have to be spoon fed what Blade Runners are and what the whole universe they're operating in is.
Guest:You should just let that stuff wash over you.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Let me close this out here with some things that came in from people who have probably been on board with the Friday show since we first started it, because these are folks who have questions about wrestling.
Guest:And if you're new to the Friday show, you might not be aware that we started this over a year ago because of wrestling fans who came to the full Marin because of Mark's wrestling series with the AEW wrestlers and and and
Guest:And myself talking him through the world of wrestling.
Guest:And some people wrote in, they still have some questions about stuff in the world of wrestling.
Guest:And I thought, hey, it's a good way for us to satisfy some of these inquiries here on this show.
Guest:So here's some of the stuff about wrestling that came into us.
Guest:Two things coming from this unnamed person.
Guest:That says, I've rediscovered wrestling since being a fan in the Attitude Era, and I started watching AEW Dynamite, which I really enjoy, especially the women's matches.
Guest:What's your opinion on how women's wrestling has progressed since the 90s and where it can continue to improve?
Guest:And then there was this similar question from Sonia.
Guest:who said, I totally get you guys wanting to talk about a variety of things that you're into, but I do miss the rasslin' talk.
Guest:And since you discussed it a while back, I'm especially curious if you're happy with how AEW's women's division is evolving.
Guest:And so now all of this was discussed on an episode we did on August 4th, called that show Coffin Flop 94.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But we had a long discussion about women's wrestling and particularly how we think it's being handled in the modern environment.
Guest:And I guess my feeling, Chris, is that I think if you go back and listen to what we were saying there, it's proving to be true.
Guest:that once there was a sense, I think, from AEW, I'm not going to speak on WWE or elsewhere in the wrestling world, but from the perspective of the people running AEW, when they had a kind of certainty that their future on television is secured...
Guest:they've been more likely to broaden out the programming, which includes more women's matches.
Guest:And one of the things they just did is make a free agent signing for apparently an eight-figure deal for a woman by the name of Mercedes Vernado.
Guest:She goes by Mercedes Monet now and was Sasha Banks in the WWE.
Guest:It's also, if you watch The Mandalorian, she's one of the Mandalorians.
Marc:I didn't realize that, by the way.
Marc:I saw that in the video package.
Marc:I was like, oh, she was in that, huh?
Guest:Cool.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And that is kind of a signal that they plan on making the women's programming on the show very prominent because you're not going to spend that money on someone if you don't do that.
Guest:And so to me, my thing is always...
Guest:give the women on the show the same attention you give to the men.
Guest:They're not a side project.
Guest:They're not a one segment only thing.
Guest:And if this is the way that you do it by featuring like, you know, your version of like John Cena, but it's a woman, that's great.
Guest:That's the great way to do it.
Guest:How has that progressed since the 90s?
Guest:It's a world different.
Guest:We're in the 90s, particularly in America, where it was all being driven by Vince McMahon, who we know his deal now.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Not great.
Guest:Not great, Bob.
Guest:It was not great for anyone, but definitely not great for the women.
Guest:So where it can continue to improve is, I think, everyone, the audience and the promoters, taking the performances as seriously as they do the men.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And hopefully the people that are watching just get on board because this shit is as compelling as the male wrestling.
Marc:And if you don't think that way, there's another wrestling company that you can enjoy whatever wet t-shirt contest they're doing.
Marc:But this is...
Guest:Chris, I'll give them credit because they have approached this this way, I think, largely when Vince has been gone.
Guest:Oh, WWE.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So now The Rock is back on the TV there and primarily on the SmackDown show.
Guest:And when he wasn't there, it was Roman Reigns was the other big draw.
Guest:But Roman wasn't on every show and The Rock wasn't on every show.
Guest:You know who was the main event when those guys were not on those shows?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Who, Rhea Ripley?
Guest:The women.
Guest:Well, it was primarily, for a good portion of a year, this group called Damage Control.
Guest:They were a heel group, and it was led by Bayley, and she had underlings with her.
Guest:And they were the main event for most of the year when it wasn't Roman Reigns, and they held the ratings for it.
Guest:So they have done...
Guest:Enough of training their audience away from the, you know, bad old days of the objectification.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:And, you know, I do think it's overall moving in the right direction.
Guest:And, yeah, you just got to not take your foot off the gas.
Guest:That's the key.
Guest:You got to, like, keep it up and people just get used to it.
Marc:Yeah, and yeah, I'm loving where the women's division's going.
Marc:I mean, I'm still loving the Toni Storm and Mariah May storyline.
Marc:Like, their slow simmering arc has been just awesome, where Mariah May is just a, like, different version of Toni Storm.
Guest:Yeah, a mini-me.
Marc:Yeah, it's just really great stuff.
Marc:Like, I'm just, like, chef's kiss to the women's wrestling programming.
Guest:Well, then we had this comment come in from Alec and he said he would like a Friday show episode or two regarding wrestling entrance themes.
Guest:Well, I've got news for you, Alec.
Guest:We did one of these.
Guest:You might not have heard it because it was from June 16th of last year.
Guest:Uh, but if you go back to that, Chris and I did our favorite entrance themes.
Guest:Um, and, uh,
Guest:he also asked whoever did the ultimate warriors theme was, uh, an unsung hero.
Guest:And we sung that hero's praises.
Guest:That is Jim Johnston, uh, of the WWF back then, then WWE.
Guest:Uh, but yes, he did a lot of those great guitar themes back then.
Guest:Uh, go listen to that episode.
Guest:If you want to hear us talk about it back in June 16th of 2023.
Guest:Uh,
Guest:And then this last comment came in from Joe in the UK.
Guest:And I thought I'd just read this whole thing because it's less of a question for us and more of just a statement of purpose.
Guest:And I really liked it.
Guest:So here's from Joe.
Guest:As a longtime listener, day one WTF Plus subscriber and lapsed wrestling fan, I was very interested in the Wrestling with Mark series and delighted that this led to more wrestling related episodes.
Guest:My fandom dissolved by the time I was at university.
Guest:I had developed deeper interests in music, film, novels, video games, politics, things which, unlike wrestling, I shared with friends and partners.
Guest:Developing a sense of identity as a young person, wrestling didn't seem to fit neatly amongst my other interests.
Guest:I had no problem burrowing into niche scenes and having tastes that perplexed some peers, but while the negative perceptions I was conscious of or experienced in relation to music and movies and books did not bother me as much as the idea of being publicly outed as a wrestling fan, which I found was fearfully embarrassing.
Guest:Oh man.
Yeah.
Guest:Hearing thoughtful and intelligent discussion about wrestling on your show prompted me to reflect on my long dormant fandom and then re-engage with it through AEW.
Guest:I started at All Out 2019, skipped through the empty arena era, and then began watching almost everything from the summer of 2021 onwards.
Guest:I'm up to September 2022 and have loved not only the many excellent matches and shows I've seen so far,
Guest:but reintegrating wrestling into my cultural diet after around 20 years away and talking openly about it with my partner.
Guest:I chose Kenny Omega, Hangman Page versus the Young Bucks from Revolution 2020 as the example match to show what I like.
Guest:That is a good one.
Marc:That is.
Guest:So thank you for reengaging my interest.
Guest:I'd be interested to hear more on the show about your own experiences as fans with the cultural perception of wrestling.
Guest:Now, Chris, I mean, I don't know about you, but did you ever have that feeling?
Guest:Like, it seems like you bowed out early enough in your life that that wasn't like a fear.
Guest:And now coming back into it at this stage in your life, like, what the hell do you care?
Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I skipped over that sort of like, oh, this is a guilty pleasure of mine.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Because like it happened right before I or right during my first girlfriend where I just kind of checked out or, you know, got other interests.
Marc:And now I'm just like, you know, older person and I don't care what any other anyone else thinks.
Marc:I think I think it's fucking cool.
Marc:And so.
Marc:I'll talk about it with my in-laws or my brother-in-law and my friends.
Marc:And it's just another thing.
Marc:It's like, oh, you're into rock climbing?
Marc:Cool.
Marc:I'm into seeing these guys super kick people into another universe.
Marc:Right, right.
Guest:Well, I haven't, though.
Guest:That's the thing.
Guest:I bailed, you know, primarily around the, you know, distasteful stuff that they started to do on the show.
Guest:And then once it turned into all these guys dying and, you know, Chris Benoit murdering his family and all that negative stuff, I developed a terrible taste in my mouth through it.
Guest:But that was in my 20s when that happened.
Guest:And, you know, in my earlier years, through...
Guest:you know, grade school, high school, college, even after college, I had a substantial amount of people that I watched wrestling with.
Guest:So I think that's the big difference.
Guest:It's like, do you have a community around this?
Guest:Do you have a way to basically enjoy it without having a feeling and having to explain yourself why you like it?
Guest:That was a kind of a thing I had to kind of educate Mark about when we started watching it was like, this is not about it being fake or not.
Guest:this is not about people thinking that something that just happened is real this is about people enjoying the artistry of it about enjoying the way that the stories are told the way that the whole thing comes together as a production and once he got that he was in on it like he we sat there watching and he was like it didn't take long and it just just kicked in like i i get it now right and
Guest:And I feel like I have had people with me for the whole way to do that.
Guest:Now, just like you, now that I'm at this age, it's like, I'll just like what I like.
Guest:I don't really care.
Guest:But I also wouldn't be just liking it if it was what it still was in the 90s, 2000s, 2010s.
Guest:It definitely took something like AEW to present it in a way that was appealing to me rather than the presentation that had been going on for 20 years.
Marc:And I will say it's nice to have a friend in all this.
Marc:Like it's nice to be able to like text you and be like, holy shit, did you see that?
Guest:You know?
Guest:And like, that's just like why you have sports in your life.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You have, you know, movies or, you know, movies.
Guest:any kind of club any club you belong to do you right you do go play pickleball anything like that it's it's not because you think it's the most important thing in the world it's a fun way to engage with other people that's how i look at it yes yes because otherwise you i don't really engage with too many people to be honest with you i i live a very like isolated life you know so it's like nice to branch out a little bit yeah you know yeah
Guest:Well, and, you know, we started this Friday show to engage with other wrestling fans, but we're very thankful that other people on the full Marin subscription stuck on board, hung out with us.
Guest:And now it's kind of this end of the week wrap up show where we do WTF talk and we talk about.
Guest:movies and entertainment and other things in the culture that chris and i are tapped into but always we will uh we will never fully turn our back on our wrestling origins and roots so if you have any wrestling questions or things that you like about the world of professional wrestling always send those in to us in the comment section down in the episode description just go to that wherever you're listening to this click on it
Guest:Also, while you're there, I'm going to make my last request for you to send us stuff for the Ask Mark Anything episode, which is going to come up soon.
Guest:And we've been getting great response from full Marin listeners only going to keep that going.
Guest:So right there in the episode description, there's a link for Ask Mark Anything and you can ask him and he will answer.
Guest:But until next time, I'm Brendan and that's Chris.
Peace.