For Screen and Country

The day has arrived. Brendan and Jason finally dive into the first part of Masaki Kobyashi's monster nine-hour epic - The Human Condition! Allowing him to avoid the draft and marry his sweetheart, Kaji takes a job at a forced labour camp manned by Chinese prisoners. A modern man with modern ideas, Kaji tries to reform the camp system through better treatment of prisoners. Can he cut through the gr...

Marching forward on the list this week as the fellas discuss the Korean War and a return to director Samuel Fuller with Fixed Bayonets! Yes, the title DOES have an exclamation point - isn't that fun? Brendan and Jason talk about Fuller using small sets for big ideas, differences between this one and The Steel Helmet, the themes of bravery and responsibility, the insanely tense minefield scene and...

This week? Why, it's the big one with the little Austrian corporal in 2004's Downfall! As the Red Army closes in around him, cooped up in his Fuhrerbunker, Adolf Hitler tries to ignore defeat. Eventually, he does a good deed and puts a gun in his mouth. What more do you need to know? Next week: fix those bayonets! Questions? Comments? Suggestions? You can always shoot us an e-mail at forscreenandc...

In which our fellas head back to Lebanon this time without the steel armour. Ari Folman was there in 1982 as a young man in the Israeli Defense Forces. His memories are fragmented, however sometimes crystal clear, others bits and pieces and some blank altogether. He knows he was present at the infamous Sabra and Shatila massacre but he remembers only a few images. Through conversations with memory...

This week, the fellas ask the ultimate question: IS THIS MOVIE A WAR MOVIE OR IS THIS MOVIE NOT A WAR MOVIE? America's favourite gameshow commences with a discussion of Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped. They discuss Bresson's way in which he films hands, the slow, methodical and procedural style of showing the prison escape, the justifiable use of voiceover and much more. Next week: back to the list...

A podcast is a very delicate thing. Now then, know that it is the year 2024. This one, hosted by Brendan and Jason - the Fathers of Podcasting - is in tumult! Brendan, in search of the universe’s most valuable commodity - Sam Adams - descends upon Boston, a vile hive of scum and villainy. Ergo, this week, instead, the listener will be taken on a watch-a-long Voyage… to a special corner of the gala...

Hey, thanks for coming to the podcast. Really appreciate it. You want a water? Soda? Orange whip? Just want you to be comfortable. Ok, so go ahead and lay down on the floor here. Yep - right on top of the pokey thing. Yeah, it'll be fine; it's like a massage. Cool, cool, great. Okay, don't move! Please, whatever you do! Good. Now, if you'll continue to stare at the dentist TV in front of you witho...

Sometimes ya just gotta kill some Nazis. It's as simple as that. Brendan and Jason grab their rifles and go out huntin' with Sisu, a film about a badass Lapland prospector who just wants to keep his gold and will kill any Nazis in his path. They gush about the insane and creative kills, the badass women hostages that get to have their own unexpected moments, the joy of a "meat-and-potatoes" movie...

We talked about Kanal so why not talk about another Wajda War™ film - Ashes and Diamonds. While this one focuses less on war itself and more of the implications of post-war and one's own morality, this is our podcast so don't tell us what to do, MOM!!! Ahem. Anyhoo, the fellas chat it up about this film and discuss the scene with very realistic (if not real?) drunk acting, the stark imagery partic...

BRIT PICK! Stand up and salute the Union Jack, 'cause Jason keeps us seaborn with this week's film THE BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE! Can it hang with the other films? Did Paste Magazine even watch this one? It's Powell and Pressburger, for chrissakes. Next week: The director of Kanal is BACK... in pog form. Questions? Comments? Suggestions? You can always shoot us an e-mail at forscreenandcountry@gma...

You wanna go down, son? You wanna go all the way down? This ain't no Jim Cameron tour, fella, this is mortal combat at 150 feet below! Light up a Lucky and peel your shirt off 'cause it's getting real sweaty down here in 1958's Run Silent, Run Deep. Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster and Don Rickles crammed in a tube! Man... I wish Rickles was the captain. Now, that would have been a film! But no - they...

The Duke is back and this time, he's very patriotic! Wait... what do you mean "this time?" Uhh... anyway, this week the guys discussed the John Ford WWII film They Were Expendable centering on some PT boats following the attack on Pearl Harbor. The guys discuss if this John Wayne performance is worth anything, the character "Dad" who seemingly wandered in from another movie, the delightful Donna R...

This week, the fellas return to the muddy pit of 1917 in Stanely Kubrick's Paths of Glory, and boy howdy do they ever get a twofer! It's a war movie upfront and a courtroom drama in the caboose! When you talk about value, Stan gives it to you in a neat 90-or-so-minute package. That's why they always called him Value Kubrick! (Ed. note: they did not. No one ever did.) Next week: The Duke is back! Q...

This week, your hosts lead you into the Crusades with Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut. This is the version on the list so this is the version they discuss, baby! They talk about all the blue tinting, Orlando Bloom's divisive performance, the insanity of cutting out most of Eva Green and Michael Sheen's material from the theatrical cut, David Thewlis possibly playing a spirit and m...

When Jason reached out and asked me, retired and also dead crooner, Dean Martin, to say a few words about Stalag 17, I was confused, as I had nothin' to do with the picture, jack. I wasn't even in the service for very long, myself. Hernia, they told me. It was at that point that he got real hot and some words flew around and we settled things with a bottle of the good stuff. Eventually, I was able...

Back to the list this week as the Two Dudes with Attitudes talk all about Days of Glory, a film that exposes the racism of the French troops as they treated their colonial soldiers like garbage during WWII. The guys debate the true feelings of Sgt. Martinez, the real-life consequences resulting from the film's release, the ultimate act of disrespect and much more. Plus: a very special friend comes...

Reinhard Heydrich sucks. Like real bad. Like he's in blue ribbon contention at the Nazi 4H show. You know... where kids raise Nazis themselves and show them off at the Exhibition before sending them off to slaughter as a character-building exercise? We're getting off track here. Big picture: He sucked so bad that people killed him. He needed killin', sure, but it also cost the world the village of...

This week, the fellas take in another Clint Eastwood joint but this one likely forgotten in the annals of time - Heartbreak Ridge. The fellas talk all about the vintage 80s movie homophobia (though even more than you might expect), comparisons to Stripes, Stitch Jones, the better-than-usual romance subplot and much more.   Next week: One more before we go back to the list! Questions? Comments? Sug...

Brendan's mentor and dear personal friend Ronny Maxwell makes a big blue-gray splash in 1993's Gettysburg: the story of the pivotal American Civil War battle and the various monologues and wistful bittersweet remembrances that changed a nation. Ronny gives the war a grandeur steeped in myth and Lost Cause attitudes (though nowhere near its embarrassing sequel Gods and Generals) and some of the mos...

The boys go back into the Oliver Stone-verse with a Vietnam War film focusing mostly on the "pre" and "post" eras of America's controversial battle - Born on the Fourth of July. They discuss Tom Cruise's dynamo performance, consistent Vietnam War songs, the film containing three separate tones, the rally scene and much more.   Next week: the most movie that ever movied. Questions? Comments? Sugges...

Jonathan Glazer returns to the fold on this week's special presentation! Not content with the worlds of sexy criminal maniacs and sexy alien maniacs, the venerable director turns his sights on those decidedly unsexy, genocidal maniacs - The Nazis with 2023's The Zone of Interest! The banality of evil - a murder machine run by boring people in a boring society shutting out the horrors around them e...

This week, the fellas discuss the 1979 adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front... this time on the SMALL screen! They talk all about Ian Holm's standout performance, the lack of differences between this and the 1930 original, Jason not liking any of the Paul Baumers so far and much more. Plus: a debate about the "murky" look of the film.   Next week: A new movie! Oscar-nominated! Questions? C...

There ain’t but two kinda of people in this world: those who listen to us and those who dig. Congrats - by downloading this podcast you’ve saved yourself from manual labour when we get our own gold. Until then, we ask Our Question: "Is This Movie a War Movie or Is This Not a War Movie?!" The Civil War rages around them, but do Blondie and Tuco help with the war effort? Why is Angel Eyes a sergeant...

This week, the fellas head to 1950s Korea with the Anthony Mann film Men in War! They debate if the movie takes Benson or Montana's point of view in terms of battle conduct and then discuss other topics like the career of James Edwards and the unfortunate "legacy" of Stepin Fetchit, the movie infuriating the Pentagon, the use (and absence) of music and much more.   Next week: It's gonna get good,...

It's once more unto Revolution! Finding Cuban politics not to his taste, our pal Che makes a break for Bolivia. Ripe for its own revolution, Che decides to bet it all on red just one more time. Brendan and Jason do the usual bits, Jimmy Stewart drops by for a minute, come on! By now you should know what you're in for! All this and much, much more!   Next week: Men are in war in Men in War. Questio...