Episodes
Thursday Dec 28, 2017
Cool Hand Luke (1967, Paul Newman, George Kennedy): SPOILER Episode 40
Thursday Dec 28, 2017
Thursday Dec 28, 2017
"He's a natural born world-shaker"
This week we’re watching Stuart Rosenberg’s classic prison drama ‘Cool Hand Luke’ and the team are all getting steamed up over how devastatingly attractive Paul Newman is. But while Paul is happy to ogle him online and try to emulate his lean, he is not totally convinced by a film that seems like a badly stitched together set of sketches. In an attempt to get to the bottom of exactly why he didn’t connect with ‘Cool Hand Luke’, Paul asks Andy and Rachael to explain why the film is considered a classic. While Rachael goes straight to her beloved music and sings the praises of composer Lalo Schifrin’s jazzy score, Andy pinpoints performance as the key to the film’s brilliance. While no-one’s that taken with the heavy-handed religious angle, Andy and Rachael struggle to convince Paul that a symbol of oppression is worth anything if they happen to be dead. Still, everyone enjoys the egg-eating scene and, despite once believing it was impossible, Andy unearths details of the current record-holder in boiled egg eating, who has bested Luke’s record by some considerable distance. Also, the team discuss whether the life story of ‘Cool Hand Luke’ screenwriter Donn Pearce would make a better movie in itself.
Elsewhere, inspired by the numerous collaborations between Stuart Rosenberg and Paul Newman, Rachael looks at some other long-term actor-director partnerships.
This week’s scale: Cool Hand Luke or Cool Hand Puke
Thursday Dec 14, 2017
Thursday Dec 14, 2017
“The D is silent”
This week we’re watching Quentin Tarantino’s revisionist western ‘Django Unchained’ starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio and the team are in two minds about its uncomfortable mixture of tones. While Paul wonders if presenting Spoiler has made him extra-sensitive, Rachael discusses her differing reactions to cartoonish splatter and realistic brutality, while Andy feels that the film merely uses slavery as a catalyst to stoke the flames of the audience’s bloodlust. While Rachael cringes at Tarantino’s decision to include jarring modern music on the soundtrack when he had access to the supreme Ennio Morricone, Andy suggests that Tarantino’s penchant for homage may undermine his own unique voice. Paul explains the etiquette of watching violent 18 rated films in coffee shops and the team discuss whether revenge films are morally acceptable in a society that is perhaps too in love with violence already. On the plus side, everyone adores Christoph Waltz. And is Quentin Tarantino really comparable to J.K. Rowling?
Elsewhere, Andy explores whether real life tragedy can ever be successfully combined with fiction, with reference to the ‘X-Men’ films, ‘Quantum Leap’ and Jerry Lewis’s lost item of cult obsession ‘The Day the Clown Cried’.
This week’s scale: Taranti-no or Taranti-yes