Blockbusters and Birdwalks

This is part of a series about movies from 1971.  *** Referenced media: “The Big Doll House” (Jack Hill, 1971) “The Omega Man” (Boris Sagal, 1971) “The Last Movie” (Dennis Hopper, 1971) “The French Connection” (William Friedkin, 1971) “The Last Picture Show” (Peter Bogdanovich, 1971) “The Big Boss” (Lo Wei, 1971) “Duck, You Sucker!” (Sergio Leone, 1971) “Fiddler on the Roof” (Norman Jewison, 1971)...

This is part of a series about movies from 1971.  *** Referenced media: “The Big Doll House” (Jack Hill, 1971) “Crimes of Passion” (Ken Russell, 1984) “Deep Throat” (Gerard Damiano, 1972) “Behind the Green Door” (Artie Mitchell and Jim Mitchell, 1972) “Whore” (Ken Russell, 1991) “E.T.” (Steven Spielberg, 1982) “Pretty Woman” (Garry Marshall, 1990) “The Transformers: The Movie” (Nelson Shin, 1986)...

This is part of a series about movies from 1971.  *** Referenced media: “The Big Doll House” (Jack Hill, 1971) “Benson” (Susan Harris, 1979-1986) “First Cow” (Kelly Reichardt, 2019) “Dances with Wolves” (Kevin Costner, 1990) “Unforgiven” (Clint Eastwood, 1992) “Bonanza” (David Dortort, 1959-1973) “Gunsmoke” (Charles Marquis Warren, 1955-1975) “M*A*S*H” (Robert Altman, 1970) “Nashville” (Robert Alt...

This is part of a series about movies from 1971.  *** Referenced media: “The Big Doll House” (Jack Hill, 1971) “The Deuce” (George Pelecanos and David Simon, 2017-2019) “Halloween” (John Carpenter, 1978) “Friday the 13th” (Sean S. Cunningham, 1980) “Red Dragon” (Brett Ratner, 2002) “Manhunter” (Michael Mann, 1986) “The Silence of the Lambs” (Jonathan Demme, 1991) “The Godfather” (Francis Ford Copp...

This is part of a series about movies from 1971.  *** Referenced media: “The Big Doll House” (Jack Hill, 1971) “The Muppet Show” (Jim Henson, 1976-1981) “The Benny Hill Show” (Benny Hill, 1955-1989) “Saturday Night Live” (Lorne Michaels, 1975-now) “The Critic” (Al Jean and Mike Reiss, 1994-1995) “The Simpsons” (Matt Groening, 1989-now) “Manhattan” (Woody Allen, 1979) “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”...

This is part of a series about movies from 1971.  *** Referenced media: “The Big Doll House” (Jack Hill, 1971) “Jurassic Park” (Steven Spielberg, 1993) “The X-Files” (Chris Carter, 1993-2002, 2016-2018) “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” (Stanley Kubrick, 1964) “Wag the Dog” (Barry Levinson, 1997) “Natural Born Killers” (Oliver Stone, 1994) “Citizen Kane” (Orson...

Garrett Chaffin-Quiray and Ed Rosa learn something new about the birds and the bees: avoid “the Great Imitator”. *** Referenced media: “Johnny Dangerously” (Amy Heckerling, 1984) “Gone with the Wind” (Victor Fleming, 1939) “Leave it to Beaver” (Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, 1957-1963) “High School Confidential” (Jack Arnold, 1958) “Reefer Madness” (Louis J. Gasnier, 1936) “The Explosive Generation”...

Garrett Chaffin-Quiray and Ed Rosa glory in Mae West as the avatar of Pre-Code Hollywood *** Referenced media: “Looney Tunes” (Leon Schlesinger, Hugh Harman, and Rudolf Ising, 1930-now) “Angels with Dirty Face” (Michael Curtiz, 1938) “I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang” (Mervyn LeRoy, 1932) “Call Her Savage” (John Francis Dillon, 1932) “Safe in Hell” (William A. Wellman, 1931) “Footlight Parade” (L...

Garrett Chaffin-Quiray and Ed Rosa embrace a soap opera in the sky. *** Referenced media: “Airplane!” (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker, 1980) “Zero Hour!” (Hall Bartlett, 1957) “One on Top of the Other” (Lucio Fulci, 1969) “Stunt Rock” (Brian Trenchard-Smith, 1978) “The Twilight Zone” (Rod Serling, 1959-1964) “An Officer and a Gentleman” (Taylor Hackford, 1982) “All the President’s Me...

Garrett Chaffin-Quiray and Ed Rosa visit where the eagles cry, on a mountain high, far from the world we know, where the clear winds blow. *** Referenced media: “Police Academy” (Hugh Wilson, 1984) “Top Gun” (Tony Scott, 1986) “Entertainment Tonight” (Al Masini, 1981-now) “Conan the Barbarian” (John Milius, 1982) “The Road Warrior” (George Miller, 1981) “Annie” (John Huston, 1982) “Rocky III” (Syl...

Garrett Chaffin-Quiray and Ed Rosa assess prestige kitsch and consider carrying a spathae to defend a London-born Egyptian matriarch. *** Referenced media: “My Fair Lady” (George Cukor, 1964) “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” (Mike Nichols, 1966) “Rome” (John Milius, William J. MacDonald, and Bruno Heller, 2005-2007) “All in the Family” (Norman Lear, 1971-1979) “Kill Bill: Volume 1” (Quentin Tarant...

Garrett Chaffin-Quiray and Ed Rosa consider Johnny Cash, a man with many chapters in his book of life, and wonder if they got to see the right one get made into a movie. *** Referenced media: “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (James Cameron, 1991) “Ray” (Taylor Hackford, 2004) “Happy Days” (Garry Marshall, 1974-1984) “Bohemian Rhapsody” (Brian Singer, 2018) “A History of Violence” (David Cronenberg, 20...

Garrett Chaffin-Quiray and Ed Rosa examine one middle brow entertainment that earned an inflation-adjusted box office gross of over $1,000,000,000 in North America. *** Referenced media: “The Bridges of Madison County” (Clint Eastwood, 1995) “Indecent Proposal” (Adrian Lyne, 1995) “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” (George Lucas, 1977) “In the Heat of the Night” (Norman Jewison, 1967) “On the Wa...

Garrett Chaffin-Quiray and Ed Rosa analyze the sleeper hit of summer 2023. *** Referenced media: “The Passion of the Christ” (Mel Gibson, 2004) “Law & Order: SVU” (Dick Wolf, 1999-now) “God’s Not Dead” (Harold Cronk, 2014) “First Blood” (Ted Kotcheff, 1982) “Columbiana” (Olivier Megaton, 2011) “The Equalizer” (Antoine Fuqua, 2014) “Survivor” (Charlie Parsons, 2000-now) “Spider-Man: Across the...

Garrett Chaffin-Quiray and Ed Rosa consider whether it’s worth having the best-paid, part-time job in the history of movies. *** Referenced media: “Saturday Night Live” (Lorne Michaels, 1975-now) “Gran Torino” (Clint Eastwood, 2008) “A Star is Born” (Bradley Cooper, 2018) “Bohemian Rhapsody” (Brian Singer, 2018) “Green Book” (Peter Farrelly, 2018) “The Favourite” (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2018) “American...

Garrett Chaffin-Quiray and Ed Rosa discuss Alma, a high school girl boiling over with sexual curiosity in a small Norwegian town. *** Referenced media: “Top Gun” (Tony Scott, 1986) “The Hunger Games” (Gary Ross, 2012) “American Pie” (Paul Weitz, 1999) “American Reunion” (Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, 2012) “The Avengers” (Joss Whedon, 2012) Audio quotation: “Turn Me On, Goddammit!” (Jannicke...

Garrett Chaffin-Quiray and Ed Rosa consider how Herman Melville’s novella, “Billy Budd”, was translated into a movie that the 2022 “Sight and Sound” poll of the greatest films of all time maintains is the seventh greatest ever. *** Referenced media: “Dune: Part One” (Denis Villeneuve, 2021) “Blade Runner 2049” (Denis Villeneuve, 2017) “Chocolat” (Claire Denis, 1988) “High Fidelity” (Stephen Frears...

Garrett Chaffin-Quiray and Ed Rosa feel the weight of what really is the most intense horror story ever made. *** Referenced media: “Band of Brothers” (Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, 2001) “Eddie Murphy Raw” (Robert Townsend, 1987) “The Day After” (Nicholas Meyer, 1983) “Avatar” (James Cameron, 2009) “Kill Bill: Volume 1” (Quentin Tarantino, 2003) “Kill Bill: Volume 2” (Quentin Tarantino, 2004) “...

Garrett Chaffin-Quiray and Ed Rosa sink into the first half of what might be the “greatest” horror story ever made. *** Referenced media: “Parks & Recreation” (Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, 2009-2015) “To Be or Not to Be” (Alan Johnson, 1983) “To Be or Not to Be” (Ernst Lubitsch, 1942) “The Twilight Zone” (Rod Serling, 1959-1964), Season 3, Episode 9: “Deaths-Head Revisited” (Rod Serling, 19...

Garrett Chaffin-Quiray and Ed Rosa respond to a moody and twisted police procedural. *** Referenced media: “Sicario” (Denis Villeneuve, 2015) “La La Land” (Damien Chazelle, 2016) “The Shape of Water” (Guillermo del Toro, 2017) “Zodiac” (David Fincher, 2007) “The Sixth Sense” (M. Night Shyamalan, 1999) “Happy Days” (Garry Marshall, 1974-1984) “Little Miss Sunshine” (Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Fari...

Garrett Chaffin-Quiray and Ed Rosa mourn the decline of theatrical movie-going and celebrate sentimental entertainment. *** Referenced media: “Belfast” (Kenneth Branagh, 2021) “Don’t Look Up” (Adam McKay, 2021) “Drive My Car” (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2021) “Dune: Part One” (Denis Villeneuve, 2021) “King Richard” (Reinaldo Marcus Green, 2021) “Licorice Pizza” (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021) “Nightmare Alle...

Garrett Chaffin-Quiray and Ed Rosa ponder old cowboys. *** Referenced media: “The Simpsons” (Matt Groening, 1989-now) “The Terminator” (James Cameron, 1984) “Barry Lyndon” (Stanley Kubrick, 1975) “Blood Simple” (Joel Coen, 1984) “Psycho” (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) “Batman Begins” (Christopher Nolan, 2005) “The Dark Knight” (Christopher Nolan, 2008) “The Dark Knight Rises” (Christopher Nolan, 2012) “...

In this idiosyncratic history of post-World War II movies, we conclude with “Summer of Soul” and Nostalgia. Past podcasts in this series: “Rome, Open City” (Robert Rossellini, 1945) “The Killers” (Robert Siodmak, 1946) “Rashomon” (Akira Kurosawa, 1950) “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” (Howard Hawks, 1953) “The Seventh Seal” (Ingmar Bergman, 1957) “North by Northwest” (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) “Midnight C...

In this idiosyncratic history of post-World War II movies, we continue with “Parasite” and Commentary. Future podcasts in this series: “Summer of Soul” (Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, 2021) Past podcasts in this series: “Rome, Open City” (Robert Rossellini, 1945) “The Killers” (Robert Siodmak, 1946) “Rashomon” (Akira Kurosawa, 1950) “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” (Howard Hawks, 1953) “The Seven...

In this idiosyncratic history of post-World War II movies, we continue with “Persepolis” and Memoir. Future podcasts in this series: “Parasite” (Bong Joon-ho, 2019) “Summer of Soul” (Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, 2021) Past podcasts in this series: “Rome, Open City” (Robert Rossellini, 1945) “The Killers” (Robert Siodmak, 1946) “Rashomon” (Akira Kurosawa, 1950) “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” (...