Hola, Sneakers! This week on Sneaky Dragon we have movies, movies, movies! That’s right! Our call out to listeners for Top Ten lists has gotten quite the response so we’ll be spending the next few shows talking about the moving pictures!
This week, Ian and Dave admit the show stays the same; are house breakers, visit the little town I used to live in; get moving day; find that everything is gone; miss wang on and wang off; enjoy some defenestration; listen to some community complaints; explore low quality rentals; feel the coldest bathroom; have some good cat news; give out a Full Marx sampler; dig deep into Norm MacDonald; are routinely inappropriate; marvel at David Letterman’s narrow escape; tackle the tricky sexual predator defense; wonder if there are any more comedy sacred cows; jealously kick This Hour Has 22 Minutes when it’s up; enjoy violence and boobage; and, finally, Dave’s wife Lezah sends in her Top Ten list of movies (and many more!):
- The Royal Tenenbaums
- Fargo
- Peewee’s Big Adventure
- The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit
- Kiki’s Delivery Service
- Arrival
- My Life as a Dog
- Lean on Pete
- The Tree of Life
- The Great Gatsby (Luhrmann)
- Boyhood
- Sleeper
- My Neighbor Totoro
- Three Days of the Condor
- The Shining
- Reservoir Dogs
- Gallipoli
- Bambi
- Juno
- Boogie Nights
- Edward Scissorhands
- Fight Club
- The Birds
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
- Mad Max 2
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show
- Monty Python and The Holy Grail
- Shaun of the Dead
Thanks for listening.
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Hi David and Ian!
Really enjoyed this episode, as I always do.
A few weeks ago, Ian, you said you think listeners want a shorter and succinct show, one people can count on being like an hour. I disagree, sir! When I see the length of a Sneaky Dragon or Full Marx (or either of your other spinoffs) podcast episode at two-plus hours, I am completely delighted! So thank you for making me so happy AGAIN!
David, I agree with you that once people have done their time in prison for the crime committed, they should not be shunned or kept from working! OR voting!!! Yes, in the case of a pedophile, there had better be restraints and limits, but work helps with rehabilitation.
Seems like there was another thing I wanted to say… so I may have to write again. Honestly, I feel I should take notes when I’m listening to you two, so I can remember my comments!
Again, thanks for the LONG shows!!! 🙂
Dear SD,
In response to Dave’s speculations about Gallipoli (Episode 354), you are absolutely correct that Australia’s involvement in WWI, and particularly the Gallipoli campaign, was fundamental to constructing a national identity.
All Australian children are taught about Gallipoli and the ANZACs (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) in school from a young age. And, although ANZAC Day (25th April) honours all fallen Australian service people, the WWI experience is iconic and provides the day with its central imagery. It is universally known that the Gallipoli campaign was a major military disaster of the time, in which bad management and logistics resulted in ANZAC troops being deployed to a heavily defended and fortified beach, resulting in a major loss of life.
The film Gallipoli was written by one of Australia’s foremost playwrights, David Williamson (whose plays are usually concerned with the mores of contemporary Australian life). The film is an explicit and self-conscious attempt to reflect through the film medium of the time the sense of national identity that the ANZAC experience created. The result has universally been lauded in Australia, and is frequently shown in high school history classes.
Glad for the chance to contribute to your discussion.
All the best,
Chris.
Hi guys!!
I was having trouble coming up with a top ten list, so decided to vary things a little and go for a favourite movie of every decade since the 1920s. Not quite the dawn of feature films, but when they became the dominant form. Even then, I had to sneak in a runner-up for each decade. And I could change my mind tomorrow. No Wilder? No Bergman? No Coens? That doesn’t seem right.
1920s
The General
First full-length silent film I ever saw. Sherlock Jnr is my favourite Keaton, but at just 45 mins falls short of feature length. I know Dave loves The Navigator, but I’ve only seen it in a very degraded print with a horribly unsympathetic organ soundtrack, and couldn’t, um, get on board.
Runner-up: The Kid
1930s
Duck Soup
Along with Horse Feathers, the Marxes’ Penny Lane / Strawberry Fields Forever moment. Some prefer A Day at the Races. Many of them are fine people. But they’re wrong.
Runner-up: The Awful Truth
1940s
My Favorite Wife
Cary Grant, Irene Dunn, Gason Kanin… A worthy companion piece to the Awful Truth, and one of the last great screwball comedies.
Runner-up: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
1950s
Night of the Hunter
Hands down, my all-time favourite movie. I get why some folk find the acting hammy and the sets stagey. If you go with it, though, it’s a poetic, humane, slyly satirical masterpiece that delivers more each time you view. And I always well up. Not just once, either.
Runner-up: Forbidden Planet
1960s
A Hard Day’s Night
It was going to be this or The Graduate, but how could anyone put Simon and Garfunkel over the Beatles at their Beatlest? Not just a great pop movie, it’s brilliantly funny, and surprisingly tough in its portrayal of a post-WWII England that was still stiflingly conventional, inhibited and class-conscious.
Runner-up: The Graduate
1970s
Dog Day Afternoon
Career bests for Lumet, Pacino and Cazale. By turns tense, comedic and moving, it grips from the first scene and captures the zeitgeist of the times brilliantly.
Runner-up: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
1980s
This is Spinal Tap
Christopher Guest and friends invent a genre and set an almost impossibly high standard for anyone else to follow.
Runner-up: The Accidental Tourist
1990s
In and Out
Fantastic screenplay, packed with great one-liners and performed by a superb ensemble cast . Nobody could claim it as a cinematic masterpiece, but, damn, I love this movie and have watched it so often I could practically recite the script.
Runner-up: GoodFellas
2000s
Pan’s Labyrinth
Could just as easily have picked Devil’s Backbone. Del Toro moves so easily between the natural and supernatural worlds that both seem equally real.
Runner-up: Spirited Away
2010s
Scott Pilgrim Vs the World
To paraphrase Kenneth Tynan, I don’t think I could love anyone who doesn’t love Scott Pilgrim.
Runner-up: Pride
Ian! You didn’t get (or acknowledge) Dave’s HILLARIOUS reference to “It’s a wonderful life” where Nick (in the alternate universe) wants to throw out “You two pixies!” I think that you should re-record that show, and this time, at least acknowledge the great impersonation of Sheldon Leonard that Dave does.
I apologize to David and to you. We’ll be going on tour with David impression shortly.
Thanks, Brent. I forgive Ian because I’ve done the same thing so often!
Doing the show, sometimes our minds are ahead of where we’re talking, trying to come up with a dumb joke or a good talking point. For that reason, I can rarely remember what we talked about after the show is over (much to my wife’s frustration).
So I guess I got some ‘splainin’ to do. I won’t go over all of them, but will touch on a few.
#4 The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit (Disney). Purely a sentimental favourite, as the horse Aspercel, looked a lot like the horse I had growing up, and competed in the same discipline we did. This was a film that was shown at our Pony Club Christmas party EVERY SINGLE YEAR so lots of ‘good feels’ there. Add to that the fact that a lot of the footage is authentic footage from horse shows of the time – Madison Square Gardens, but also smaller shows – it’s a great exploration of some of the styles, and we also see many of the top riders of the day. It provides a wonderful look at the sport from the viewpoint of the outsider looking in (the book does an even better job of it). Then there’s my favourite part, where the horse, feeling rejected as the teenage daughter has lost interest (so real!), runs away from home, and the dad, being the only one available, goes after him (humorously and very inappropriately wearing big fluffy bedroom slippers); they settle their differences, which leads into a great chase scene.
#5 Kiki’s Delivery Service (Miyazaki). This was a favourite in our house – the girls had repeated viewings, and it never lost its charm. It was the first Miyazaki film I saw and I was captivated by the very painterly backgrounds so reminiscent of Europe, while the characters were obviously more Japanese influenced, but I felt the blending of the two styles was masterful. As well, I think its probably one of the best coming of age films as Kiki doesn’t really have a clue what she’s going to do, but she just keeps on going in such an independent, optimistic way. Her eagerness and boldness help to make everything, even a simple bike ride, an adventure. At no time do I worry about how things will end up for her, unlike the character in Spirited Away, which feels to me like a bad dream from start to finish.
#6 Arrival – the whole concept of time being other than a linear construct just blew my mind. And the choice the mom makes about the daughter says so much about love. I enjoyed this film so much I had to go read the short story that inspired it (Story of Your Life) which is as good, but in a different way – that got me all obsessed with Fermet’s Law of Least Time, which is ultimately very revelatory.
#8 Lean on Pete. In this film, the boy is the horse – like the horse, he’s a runner, tall, coltish, and tousle-haired. He’s at the mercy of those around him as much as the horse is a victim of his own ruthlessly unsympathetic environment. When the boy rescues the horse, he’s really rescuing himself; it’s one of the first times he acts, rather than is acted upon. The film is based on a book by Willy Vlautin, and as with many of his books, we see a raft of disadvantaged characters who try to help in spite of their own dire circumstances. The film broke my heart with its portrayal of an impoverished America. There is an unsettling juxtaposition of the beautiful landscapes out there in the American West that are populated by invisible Americans, the damaged and rejected humans who are barely getting by. It was a sad but lovely film.
#9 The Tree of Life – the way Dave says music shoots a blue beam of light into his brain? – well, this film is the equivalent of that experience for me. I think this film describes all life – it’s about the beginning of life from the beginning of time (the real beginning of all life, that reduces us to insignificance) and about the difficulties of life that can mold and shape us as much as big, traumatic events can. And in the end, we all end up in the same place. It’s like a big melting pot of human-ness from start to finish, and it’s big and messy and lovely and humbling.
#10 The Great Gatsby. The message here is about what is important to you – status? money? love? And it raises the question, how far are you willing to go? The film really speaks to my students at school, who are, for the most part, the offspring of very, very wealthy people – these are kids who know excess, and they embraced Gatsby’s excess whole-heartedly. Learning through literature is a great thing.