Hola, Sneakers! Bienvenudo a Sneaky Dragon! This week we welcome Ian back from Spain by annoying him while recording his voice!
On the show, Ian and Dave talk: sleepy times; tired interview; improviser’s brain; irresponsible travellers; airplane etiquette; airline grumperoos; travel scams; no hablo español; infoporns; soup is a dish best served warm; artistic Bosch up; the gallery of missing bits; wall art; cheap travel; Wakandough; passé sidekicks; leave-ah Las Vegas; wolf packs; going too far; a Martin Scorcese sitcom; something about Chevy Chase; 23 complex emotions: overwhelming realizations; bittersweet wistfulness; self-destructive thoughts; ineffective frustration; self-willed indifference and others; and, finally, Ed Draganski’s Top 10 list:
- The Empire Strikes Back
- A Night at the Opera
- The Avengers (2012)
- The Great Race (1965)
- Star Trek II
- Heaven Can Wait (1978)
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
- 1941
- Only Lovers Left Alive
- The Godfather Pt. 2
Thanks for listening!
Want to get in on the fun? Would you like to send in your Top 10 movies list for Ian and Dave to peruse, abuse and enthuse? Well, feel free to contact Ian and Dave through the usual channels: Tweet, Facebook, comment down below or email your lists to sneakyd@sneakydragon.com
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Damn hard this movie picking business. The obvious top few being no problem, but then things go blank. Then there’s too much. Then then the ,”Crap! Know I’m forgetting something obvious I’ll remember tomorrow.”
Narrowed in the end to 13 and eenie meenie miney moed the last three to finalize my top 10 today. Ask me next week…
Here ’tis
10. Apocalypse Now
9. A Little Princess 1995 version
8. Vivre Sa Vie
7. Valley Girl
6. Ordinary People
5. City Lights
4. Diner
3. The Right Stuff
2. On The Waterfront
1. Bonnie and Clyde
Again, big thanks for my top 10 list on podcast 356! Sneaky Dragon, like Full Marx before it for me, has become part of my daily regimen. I thought I’d write out a few post thoughts about my top 10 list so you and everyone knew where I was coming from. This really isn’t my “TOP” 10 list, which changes all the time anyway, but a list of films that have effected me in one way or another, tested through time or was worth mentioning so it could be a recommendation on my part.
So based on recommendation alone, I strongly recommend “Only Lovers Left Alive” heavily, I think you guys will really like this take on the vampire mythos. It also has two strong performances by both late actors Anton Yeltsin and John Hurt. My wife actually found this film first and she’s not into vampire films, it’s just a really different take on the modern day vampire story. It’s almost like watching a graphic novel come to life.
“1941” and “The Great Race” are truly screwball comedies and I was raised on screwball comedies. My life is a screwball comedy. I used to wait all year long for “The Great Race” to come on and “1941” was actually screened right here in Dallas for the first time by Spielberg back in 1978. The test audience hated it, many of them left holding their ears saying it was too noisy. I guess in my mind, these films have always seemed as if they were like cartoons come to life in some magical way. The scores by John Williams and Henry Mancini are also held in high regard for me for both films, which also has a lot to do with my liking them.
“Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” came around exactly when I needed it to, there was NOTHING like it at the time. The Summer film landscape in 1988 was so dead, then this cartoon rabbit comes out of nowhere and blows the entire Summer away. I was mesmerized how this was even possible. I mean all these cartoons live in this place and hang out together? I suppose the entire concept of the film transcended the film itself and my mind was blown just thinking about it. That, and the fact that Roger came out of nowhere and became a superstar overnight….toons.
“Heaven Can Wait” has become a completely different film from when I saw it as a kid. Where it was once a quirky film about one man trading places within another man’s body, this masterful film has taken on a much deeper meaning for me. Directed by both Buck Henry and Warren Beatty, I see this as a film about one man’s destiny and how he chooses to redeem himself in the time he has left, even if he struggles to do it from another man’s body. Simple quarterback Joe Pendleton changes the lives of many using the resources and wealth of Leo Farnsworth. Starting out, Pendleton is somewhat selfish about wanting to play quarterback in the Super Bowl, but as he lives out his last days in Farnsworth’s body, realizes he can change so much of the world around him and fall in love with Betty Logan (Julie Christie). Pendleton is rewarded with the permanent placement inside the body of Jarrett, the Ram’s quarterback, who is tragically injured but wins the Super Bowl after Pendleton steps into his expired body. But I’m always saddened by the bittersweet ending where fate and destiny bring Jarrett and Betty Logan together because I still wonder where the soul of Joe Pendleton went. Most likely to it’s final reward. This film gives me much to think about.
Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan was my gateway launch into Star Trek. Before seeing it, I wasn’t all that into Star Trek because I hadn’t given myself enough time to understand it. After Wrath of Khan, I was all into watching the reruns on television and by the time the “Whale of a Good Time” came out, I was a full-blown Trekkie. Live long and Prosper, Ya’ll.
The Avengers is simply something I have been waiting for since I was 10 to see, the same thing with Justice League and all the other superhero films. I used to design movie posters and cast actors and actresses as I drew up full blown illustrations of Avengers, Fantastic Four and X-Men movie posters. So you can imagine how ecstatic that 10 year-old inside me is right now. I’m in hog heaven with all these comics come to life.
As for “The Empire Strikes Back”, ask anyone that knows me and they’ll tell you I bleed Star Wars. It’s dead center within my inner circle of fandom and culture. I grew up right along with it every step of the way and when the Prequels came around, was able to share the same experience along with my son.
But before Star Wars there was The Marx Brothers, my first fan interest and cultural awakening. The reason for “A Night at the Opera” being THAT Marx Brothers film within my top 10 list is simple…it was the first Marx Brothers film I ever saw and that’s how I initially remembered them. My local Dallas affiliate never showed the Paramount films, only “Opera” and later films, along with “Go West”, “At the Circus”, “The Big Store” and “A Day at the Races” first. If I had to pick the quitesential Marx Brothers film now, you’re right, it’s pretty much “Monkey Business.” “Monkey Business” and “Animal Crackers” are the ones everyone picks as their films that best introduces someone to the Marx Brothers having never seen them before. “Opera” still seems very broad and wide open to me, as if I could step right into that Opera and watch them wreak chaos before my very eyes. But then again watching the boys run amuck on an ocean liner is pretty fun too.
I recently noted somewhere (IMHO) that if you were to compare The Marx films to Beatles albums, “Monkey Business” and “Horse Feathers” are like the “Rubber Soul” and “Revolver” albums, whereas “A Night at the Opera” has a much larger feel to it and can be compared to “The White Album.” (Perhaps I’m biased here since “The White Album” was my first Beatles album not unlike “Opera” being my first Marx film) Go figure.
Jeez…wordy and long winded just like me. But Thanks again, I hope you don’t mind me feeding back like this. How about this Ian and David, I’d like to make an open invitation to you guys that if you ever visit Dallas, let me know and I’ll buy you both dinner. It’s a long way away and you’re bound to be hungry once you get here…
Hail Freedonia, Avengers Assemble!, Live Long and Prosper…..and May the Force Be With You!
Press the button, Edward, and come with me to the Sweetheart Tree! I’m not sure how it holds up now, but as kids, my siblings and I were also huge fans of The Great Race and its cartoony look and action sequences. I also liked the romantic/battle-of-the-sexes subplot. The film is self-aware about the different movie genres it’s spoofing/paying homage to, especially the Prisoner of Zenda section. Tony Curtis plays his role with a twinkle in his eye and, literally, in his tooth. Jack Lemmon gives funny broad comic performances in both his roles. I’d only seen Peter Falk as Columbo up till then, so it was fun to see him doing slapstick comedy. As a girl, I enjoyed Natalie Wood’s wily and resourceful Miss DuBois – a driven career women fighting for respect in a field dominated by men. I especially liked the costumes: the Great Leslie’s all-white outfits and Prof. Fate’s all-black villain get-ups and all of Maggie’s fetching ensembles. I have a special fondness for arrival in the Russian village scene and the ice floe scene and the fact that, although it’s not culturally-sensitive by today’s standards, it’s the only Hollywood movie I know that references the Kwakiutl (a west coast indigenous group).
Oh Louise!! I raised my kiddos to love The Great Race just as I loved it growing up. To this day, we always say “Push the button Max!” when pushing a button…The Great Race was released in 1965, the year I was born, so I grew up watching it on television every year. I guess it’s been imprinted on my DNA over the years because it never gets old. It’s the simple things about it that attract me: The shark faces on all of Professor Fate’s vehicles, the way Leslie always stays confident, clean and white, the entourage of character actors that show up along the way. Larry Storch, Dorothy Provine, Vivian Vance, Denver Pyle and the GREAT Ross Martin. The pie fight, when Max gets hit with about 25 pies all at once, my God. I even thought as a kid watching it that Fate’s Blimp Bicycle was real and that you could make such a thing.
The MUSIC! I’m a film score nerd and I’ve always followed Henry Mancini’s work. And of course the triumvirate of Wood, Curtis and Lemmon is just about perfect. Lemmon is wonderful as Crown Prince Frederick Hoepnick…he pulls off that dual role so easily. I’m sitting here trying to think of my favorite part of the film like you mentioned yours, and I can’t! I love every scene.
I’ve even gone as far as to dream cast a remake. I know it’s usually frowned upon but it’s for fun. I’ve imagined George Clooney as Leslie, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Maggie and if he was a bit younger, like when he acted on Deadwood, Ian McShane as Fate. This cast is a bit older, so if I had to trend a bit younger, maybe Brad Pitt as Leslie and Robert Downy Jr. as Fate and Rachael McAdams as Maggie.
So what is the Kwakiuti? That’s the scene where they snuggle to keep warm, right? Of course Leslie has champagne….
Leslie: I was once on an anthropological expedition to study the Kwakiutl Indians. In the winter, one Kwakiutl Indian in a blanket froze, but two Kwakiutl Indians in the same blanket…
Maggie DuBois: Yes…?
Leslie: …Were warmer.
Oh that Sneaky Leslie!!
So I guess Leslie was an anthropologist, race car driver, stuntman, thrill seeker all in one. And years before Buckaroo Banzai..