WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Highway to Hell 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:05.400 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind production of My 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:15.360 Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:19.080 Rob Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And today we're looking 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:21.880 at a movie that, uh, well, I think with the 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:24.360 idea of it is that somebody said, what if we 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:29.160 made a film adaptation of Orpheus and Euridice, except in 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:32.600 the sort of early nineties highway horror style of a 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:34.640 movie you might expect to see to come on at 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:38.479 like one am on T and T after the credits 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:43.640 roll from a previous showing of Psycho three. Yes, yes, 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:49.440 we're talking about the film Highway to Hell, which I'm 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:54.080 positive that I watched on television back in the early 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:57.840 nineties at some point early to mid nineties, I guess, uh, 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:00.280 but I was. I was trying to just trying to 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:02.000 figure out what I wonder where I saw it, And 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:03.680 for a little bit there I was like eighty percent 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:06.800 positive that I must have seen it on USA up 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:09.720 all night back in the day. Um. This this ran 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:13.520 from on the USA network from about I don't know 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:15.800 if if that would have you would if you would 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:18.360 have been in the position to to watch this. Joe, Oh, 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.440 uh well, I I don't remember ever seeing this movie 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:25.279 on TV, but it has exactly that fragrance that USA 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:28.360 Up All Night fragrance. Yeah, USA Up All Night was 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:31.800 basically like it's late at night on cable. Let's show 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:34.040 some let's show some B films. Let's let's show some 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:36.960 cult films. And uh, just to spice it up a 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:40.280 little bit, you had a host there, Uh Gilbert Godfrey, 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:42.920 the stand up comedian who will come back to in 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:46.640 this this episode, served as host. At first was the 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:48.960 soul host I think when they would do it on Saturdays, 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:51.800 and then they added a second night. I guess it 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:53.760 was so successful they started doing it on Friday nights 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:56.840 as well. It was this um person by the name 0:01:56.840 --> 0:02:00.040 of Caroline Schlitt, but then she was replaced by on 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:03.000 To Sheer, and Rhonda Shear was the long time Friday 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.560 night host. Um, who is this? You know, this this 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:12.520 charismatic blonde, uh, comedic performer. And so they would host 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:16.160 these with these you know, cheesy bits of of of 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:21.800 early nineties comedy and introduced these strange films. And I 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:24.640 was thinking back on it, and you know, I'm very 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:28.200 quick to to reference Mystery Science Theater three thousand is 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:30.160 a is a way that I, you know, early on, 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:33.440 got into many of these weird and you know, arguably 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:37.200 bad films and B films and whatnot. And then another 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.320 big influence was was was Monster Vision on T and T. 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:43.520 But I often forget to give USA Up All Night 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:46.320 any credit. I think USA Up All Night maybe where 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:50.799 I first saw Friday thirte part eight Jason takes man Haaf, 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:56.239 the one that takes place mostly on a boat. Yeah. Um. 0:02:56.520 --> 0:02:59.720 I was actually just looking at some lists of films 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:01.760 that were featured on USA Up All Night over the years, 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:04.400 and also a spreadsheet that I think fans put together, 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:07.639 and there were a lot of Friday to thirteenths on there, 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:11.040 a lot of really like well known B films. Like, 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:13.560 thinking back on it, I there's a part of me 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:17.120 that wants to just attribute to the trashiest films to 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:19.600 USA Up All Night. And maybe it was just because 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:21.480 there was something about it, Maybe it's something about the 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:24.360 host segments to that it felt a little scandalous to 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:26.240 be watching it as a child, like I should not 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:31.000 be up watching. Yeah yeah, but but in many cases 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:32.640 the other of these lists, I'm like, oh yeah, these 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:34.400 are all great genre films, and they would have been 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.760 edited for television obviously, how else will the children learn 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:44.280 about chud exactly? So um but one of those things 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:46.280 that I found out looking at the list is like, oh, 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:49.080 I guess there isn't any evidence that I have I 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:51.960 can find right now that Highway to Hell ever aired 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:54.080 on USA Up all Night, So maybe it never did. 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:57.120 But I stand by what you said. This is the 0:03:57.400 --> 0:03:59.800 this this film should have aired on USA Up all 0:03:59.880 --> 0:04:02.800 Night because it has all of that same energy. Rob, 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:04.960 is it fair to ask if you have sort of 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:08.640 a secret secondary career ambition to one day be a 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:12.920 basic cable horror movie host like al Lewis, l Bira, Joe, 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:16.279 Bob Briggs, somebody in that vein. Uh you know maybe 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:17.760 in another life that would that would have been That 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:21.279 would have been interesting, but um it it's weird to 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:23.080 look back on it. I never thought about those being 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:26.520 actual jobs that people had somehow, you know, I I 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:28.120 guess I didn't think long and hard about it, like 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:32.880 why is why? Why is Rhonda shear or or Grandpap Monster? 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:34.960 Why are they? You know, what are they doing? I 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:36.920 guess on some level, especially when I was very young, 0:04:36.920 --> 0:04:39.560 I thought, well, they're there at the studio. It's their 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:43.279 job to play this film like when like off camera 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:46.800 they're setting there watching it it air or something. You know, 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:50.920 there's something about the horror movie host role on TV that, uh, 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:54.360 it does serve a function which is suggesting the spirit 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:57.360 in which you should receive the movie we are showing you. 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:00.720 So it puts you know, Grandpa Unster is there to 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:03.240 help put you in a mind frame to not just 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:05.760 react to a trashy movie on TV and be like, 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:08.359 what is this junk? But to react to it with 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:10.920 with with jolly nous and the spirit of kind of 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:15.279 ironic adventure. Yeah. Yeah, And likewise, I think Rhonda Share 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:17.840 and Gilbert Godfrey were there to to make you feel 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:19.680 like you're, you're a little bit up to no good 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:22.480 by watching this film like you're having a um, you know, 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:25.240 a wild night out by staying in and watching a 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:29.000 Friday the Thirteenth movie. Uh. Joel and the Bots and 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:30.840 Mike and the Bots. You know, they were all about, 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:32.760 you know, showing you that it was it was all 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:35.359 right to laugh at these films and take pleasure in 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:39.960 their uh, their goofiness and uh, and I guess Joe 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:43.080 Bob was there to to to to uh, you know, 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:46.719 to cast a you know, a similar vibe. You know, 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:49.640 maybe maybe it was a little less about about you know, 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:52.640 making fun, but it was more, you know about embracing 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:55.120 the you know, the weirdness of it. Now, wait, did 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:57.200 we come about this in a total have we actually 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.440 introduced to the film yet? I don't recall, well, we 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:05.239 said the title it is film Highway to Hell, which 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:09.400 does not feature the A C D C song, which 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:12.960 for which it was clearly named. I think some trailers 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:15.719 for the film feature that the song, but otherwise you 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:17.760 will not hear that song in the movie. I read 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:20.480 a trivia claim on the internet. I can't verify this 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:24.080 is true, but the claim is that they originally wanted 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:25.839 it to be the theme song in the movie, but 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:28.360 then found they could not afford it, so instead we 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:32.719 got a kind of off label prescription use of alternative rock. Yeah, 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:35.039 and uh, I look forward to discussing the music in 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:38.200 this one, because it's it's it's all over the place. Now, 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:40.760 this is uh, this is an Arizona movie. This is 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:44.120 kind of a nice part two, following our episode on 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:47.359 Hands of Steel. Um. Almost all of this is filmed 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:49.640 in Arizona. I think they might have filmed just a 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:52.240 tiny bit in Utah as well, But uh, this, the 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:54.720 filming of this movie takes us back to Page Arizona, 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:57.760 but also to Phoenix, Arizona. And yeah, you don't have 0:06:57.800 --> 0:06:59.479 to watch much of this film to realize, oh yeah, 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:01.960 this this has a lot of Arizona in it. It's 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:05.520 got a lot of tumbleweed diners, just like Hands of Steel, 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:10.360 except there was nary a arm wrestling competition anywhere in 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:12.920 in Highway to Hell, and I was a bit disappointed 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:16.920 by that. So uh, at this point, I would like 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:19.160 to ask this question, uh, you know, for you, for 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:22.520 anyone else who's who's seen this film, what what exactly 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:25.000 is this movie? Is it? Is it a horror thriller? 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:28.320 Is it a broad Beetlejuice style horror comedy? Is it 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:33.520 a dark fantasy adventure? Is it Mad Max or Death Race? Uh? 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:37.080 Is it a is it an MTV era Dante's Inferno? 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:40.040 I feel like I can't answer the question. It feels 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:43.080 like it's all of these things in different at different 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:46.440 and different degrees at different points throughout the film. Yeah, 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:48.720 I mean, I guess the most distinct way to put 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:51.080 it would be to say it's a horror comedy, but 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:54.520 it's but yeah, it has elements of everything else you mentioned. 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:57.080 There was quite a bit of of Mad Max kind 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.800 of road battle uh content in there. Yeah, almost like 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:03.440 if you if you get the filmed in Arizona package there, 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:05.880 they tell you it's like all right, well, well here's 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.560 your highway link that you can use, Um, how many 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:10.320 cars do you want to blow up? And like, well 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:12.360 what this wasn't going to be a car chase movie 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:14.280 and they're like, well it is now because you're filming 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:18.120 an Arizona baby. Speaking of of numbers of cars, how 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:22.040 do you think they they created the scene where you 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:26.200 were on the highway in Hell with hundreds of VW Beatles, 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:32.360 Remember that all the folks swagons. Somehow they source those cars? Um. 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:33.640 I mean, I don't know if there's a little bit 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:36.120 of screen trickery involved, but but also probably just a 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:40.680 lot of of actual bugs, I guess. Um. I think 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:43.080 that scene is one of many in this film that 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:47.880 it it does drive home that that this is a 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:50.280 film with a unique vision. There are things that this 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:55.400 film wanted that I don't think anybody else was asking for. 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:59.400 I don't think maybe they're they're even the things that 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:01.800 they're they're doing at times in this film really even 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:05.760 all you know of work across the board. But you 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:09.839 can't fault it for having a unique vision of things. Um, 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:12.400 it's it's it's ultimately ultimately a lot of fun. Yeah, 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.240 you never know what exactly is gonna come next. You 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:16.640 just know that it's going to be in this sort 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:21.000 of weird MTV era kind of vibe. But yeah, at 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:24.559 heart horror comedy, I can agree with that, and it 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:27.200 is it is an orphic story. At heart is it 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:31.840 is about going into the underworld to retrieve your lost love, 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:35.720 which of course is a is a longstanding mythic trope 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:39.120 and one that we continue to define throughout our media. Now, 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:41.280 before we go any further, there's one thing that I 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:42.960 wanted to flag at the beginning. I thought it was 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:45.640 kind of interesting about this movie. It has what I 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:49.560 would call maybe an omni mythological view of hell, in 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:53.800 that it's the hell setting in this movie is not 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:58.240 just the Christian hell, but it is a hell that 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:02.760 essentially incorporates l elements from every type of vision of 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:07.920 hell or any negatively inflected afterlife, from all of all 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:11.000 of mythology or or even just you know, other pop 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:14.400 culture from the twentieth century. So it's got you know, 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:17.720 sort of cartoon devil kind of stuff. It's got deals 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:20.280 with the devil devil and Daniel Webster kind of things. 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:25.000 It's got some classic Christian uh Dante's Inferno stuff. But 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:27.640 then it's also got, as we said, this Orpheus and 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:32.160 euridicy Basis, so there's a lot of Greek mythological visions 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:34.880 of Hades in it. Yeah, and then all of this 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:38.640 of course set very much in the American desert um 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:41.040 and and interestingly enough to this is we're dealing with 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:45.280 a a. The writer was American, but the director who 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:47.800 discussed here as Dutch. So you wonder to like, how 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:51.199 much of this is like an outsider's view or understanding 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:56.439 of America and the American desert through the lens of cinema, um, 0:10:56.480 --> 0:10:58.640 et cetera. So yeah, you have all these different energies 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:00.880 going on. And oh yeah, let's even got kind of 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:03.679 a dusty tumbleweed grand Pappy on the side of the 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:06.880 road to offer wisdom and give the hero tools he 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:10.200 needs in order to complete his quest. Oh yes, yes, 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:13.920 and he's wonderful. Yeah, it's got Obi wan kenobi and overalls. 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:17.880 All right, well, let's go ahead and listen to just 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:19.920 a little bit of the trailer here, but not a 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:21.680 whole lot, just just a little bit of it, because 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:24.440 this is a dumb trailer in my opinion, and and 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:26.559 certainly don't watch it, because this is also one of 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:29.040 those trailers where and maybe this had to do with 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:31.240 like the fact that this movie set on the shelf 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:33.679 for a little bit before they finally released it. They 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:36.439 took the approach of let's just put every special effects 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:40.480 shot in the film in the trailer, including like major 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:49.920 character deaths and so forth, joining us on a dazzling 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:59.520 cinematic adventure down the Highway to Hell ad that stretches 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:10.520 from Highway to Hell an unforget journey some softeign pictures. 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:23.240 Now we ll have some fun. Now, does the trailer 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:29.079 give away the identity of Satan? Because give everything everything 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:32.400 that's criminal. I hate it when you know I am 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.680 I am very much of the teaser school of trailers. 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:38.280 I really like it when the trailer gives you one 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:40.800 thing from the movie and try instead of trying to 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:45.400 cram in little glimpses of tons of things. Yeah, and yeah, 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:48.560 this one definitely makes that mistake. It's just little glimpses 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:51.240 of everything in the film. Once you've seen this trailer, 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:54.439 the film has nothing new to give you, really, except 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:59.520 except maybe extended improv lines from Ben Stellar, which gets 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:03.520 I noticed you were down on the Ben Stiller part. 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:05.520 I thought it was I thought there were some some 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:09.560 of his improving was okay, but he's so. Ben Stiller 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:12.679 plays a cook at a diner in Hell called Pluto's Cafe, 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:15.520 which is kind of funny. And so he's grilling stuff 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:19.400 on the sidewalk outside and and he says, why use 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:23.319 mesquite when you've got concrete? You know. I liked it. 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:27.840 It was It's fine, It's fine, but it felt like 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:30.880 there was a lot of it. Also, Ben Stiller is 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:33.480 jacked in this movie. Did you notice that he's been 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:36.080 working out before they maybe? Yeah, I mean I think 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:38.240 he was always jacked. Is a thing about Ben Stiller, 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:40.560 Like if you if you go back and watch you know, 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:43.880 various early appearances. Yeah, he was always pretty jack. He 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:45.960 just you know, generally had a shirt on, but you 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:49.120 could see it's pretty muscular underneath there. I was impressed, 0:13:57.760 --> 0:13:59.400 all right, so let's start at the top with us. 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:06.080 The director is Dutch filmmaker Alt Young born nineteen fifty three. Uh, 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:08.559 he seems to have he seems to have shifted to 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:12.200 American projects after doing an episode of Miami Vice in 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:16.200 seven and then he went on to direct this obviously, 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:20.720 but also dropped Dead Fred, starring Phoebe Kates and Rick 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:26.040 Mayle of who's famously of the young ones. Um And Uh, 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:28.680 you know, I have not seen drop Dead Fred, which 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:31.440 is a like a grown up with an imaginary friend, 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:37.000 like a whimsical imaginary friend, uh, type of a plot. Uh, 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:39.040 But we were I was looking at the reviews. It 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:41.280 seems like nobody liked this when it came out, none 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:43.720 of the adults anyway, Because when we were talking to 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:45.920 our producer Seth, he said that when he was a 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:48.440 child and he watched this film, he very much enjoyed it, 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:50.560 and therefore he has like kind of a warm spot 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:53.360 in his heart for it. So I don't know, I'd 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:55.840 love to hear from anyone out there who has who 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:58.400 has opinions on this based on especially watching it as 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:00.600 a child. Well, you know what, you love it, more 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:03.440 power to you. I gotta say it looks intensely annoying. 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:06.760 But then again, stars Phoebe Kate's, I mean, the imminently 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:08.600 likable Phoebe k It's a lot of people probably know 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:12.520 her from Gremlin's you know. And Rick, I mean, Rick 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:16.000 is terrific. Uh. Rick, Rick is amusing and everything, and 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:18.720 I've seen him in some terrible films, but he always 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:23.920 brings that wonderful, manic energy of his to a performance. Now, 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:27.480 as for young Uh, it seems like like basically, like 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:30.000 I said, he had some some Dutch films before he 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:33.120 came to the US. He directed these two films, both 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:35.960 of them you know, very much kind of supernatural comedy 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:39.560 type deals, and then he seems to have for the 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:42.360 rest of his career he's just largely been about more 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:45.320 independent and uh in many cases, you know, more far 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:48.520 more European films. Um, a lot of them look like 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:51.000 they're a lot more serious. So I don't know. I 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:52.760 guess he got in had a taste of that, you know, 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:56.840 that that mainstream American filmmaking, and maybe decided, uh, he'd 0:15:56.920 --> 0:15:59.240 rather do other things. But he seems to have had 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:03.880 a long and seemingly a successful career. Uh passed highway 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:07.400 to hell. Now, the writer for this film is actually 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:10.840 a major name. This is Brian Helgoland born in X 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:15.520 one Academy Award winning screenwriter for l A Confidential. Oh 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.080 that's a great script. Yeah, yeah, yeah it was. It 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:22.080 was wonderful film. Now pre l A Confidential. Um. He 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:24.680 he seemed to work in horror quite a bit, so 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:28.000 he wrote the fourth Elm Street Movie. Was that one 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:29.840 of the good ones? Oh? Yeah, I'd say that's one 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:33.120 of the better ones. Yeah. He also did nine seven 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:36.960 six Evil as well as episodes of Friday Thirteenth. The 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:40.800 series is nine seven six Evil. That movie about a 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:43.400 phone number that when you call it, it kills you. 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:45.360 I think it is. I don't know that I ever 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:49.280 saw that one, but that also feels suitably like late 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:51.920 eighties early nineties, the idea that there are evil phone 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:55.160 numbers that you dare not call, and they're probably advertised 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:57.520 during USA up all night at the time. Oh. It 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:01.480 was directed by Robert England, who plays Freddie Krueger in 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.760 the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. And yeah, okay, so 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:09.080 people who who dial nine seven six Evil in this movie, yeah, 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:11.960 they get some kind of curse or they they turned 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:15.080 into murderers. I think I haven't seen this one, but 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:18.240 I do find it interesting that there is a movie 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:21.720 of this type for every technology. So You've got The Ring, 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:24.080 which is about a you know, videotape that when you 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:26.960 watch it, it kills you. And there's fear dot Com 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:29.440 about a website You go there and it kills you. 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:33.200 Here's a phone number, you call it and it kills you. Um, 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:36.160 you've got the Mangler that's about I think washing machine. 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:38.760 You use it and it kills you know, industrial washing 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:41.639 machines will kill you. Yeah, but you know what, they 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:44.119 never got to. They never got to a reclining chair 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:47.680 that kills you. Oh, I think they did. I think 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:52.719 they did eventually, but not not not during the twentieth century. 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:55.240 But I think I did run across some sort of 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:58.000 a killer sofa, killer lazy boy type of the movie 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:04.199 Century years. Yes, in one century film, but as far 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:06.920 as I know, Helgoland had nothing to do with that. 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:11.960 After the success of of Vale Confidential and Assassins, he 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:15.240 went under a writer's a string of big scripts, including 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:19.880 Conspiracy Theory, The Postman, Payback, A Night's Tale, Mystic river 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:25.199 Man on Fire. Um oh he he uh. He had 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:28.680 Also early on both he wrote and directed an episode 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:31.000 of Tales from the Crypt, and he went on to 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:34.040 direct a Slight Case of Murder along with Payback, A 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:37.879 Night's Tale forty two, uh and and many many more. So, 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:40.200 what I'm saying is the script for Highway to Hell 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:44.879 is just above reproach. I get the sense that a 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:48.119 lot of what's on screen has been significantly sort of 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:52.320 ad libbed or built upon, uh, beyond what's on the page. 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:54.960 I can't say that for sure, but I at least 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:57.360 I've seen that alleged with like all of Ben Stiller's 0:18:57.440 --> 0:18:59.840 parts which are said to have been ad libbed. And 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:02.880 I don't know. This feels like a movie that incorporates 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:05.760 a good deal of improvisation. But yeah, conceptually there's a 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:09.480 lot of good gags in it. Yeah. Alright, well, let's 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:12.280 talk about our core character core cast here. So first 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:13.840 of all, we have our our main hero here, we 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:17.280 have our our orpheus and and this is the character 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:22.399 Charlie played by Chad low Born. At first, when I 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:24.480 saw him, I was like, wait a minute, I didn't 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:27.560 know Rob low was in this, And then I realized something. 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:30.960 It wasn't quite there. It was Rob Low in the 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.199 like you know, wrestling video game character creator. But somebody 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:37.399 has moved the sliders around just a little bit, and 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:41.400 then I realized, oh, okay, this is Rob lows extremely 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:45.600 similar looking and sounding younger brother. Yes. Yeah, and and 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:47.520 I have to say low Low is perfectly fine in 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:50.800 this playing our brave but naive boyfriend who has to 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:54.800 travel to Hell to get his girl back. Um. Chad 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:57.560 Low did a lot of TV work, including Spencer Life 0:19:57.560 --> 0:20:01.640 Goes On Melrose Place e er twenty four, Pretty Little Liars, 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:04.480 and I think more far more recently, Supergirl. I would 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:07.320 say both of the main two actors in this this 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:10.600 the movie doesn't require a lot of them in terms 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:13.960 of dramatic nuance, but but for what it does require, 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:17.040 you know what, they're both good. Yeah. Yeah, and so 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:20.760 his the girl that he must retrieve from. How is 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:26.320 that the character Rachel played by Christie Swanson B nine. Um, 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:28.320 if you're not familiar with it, this is the original 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:31.800 Buffy the Vampire Slayer from the movie that came out 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:35.040 before the series. Yeah, I've never seen the movie. Yeah 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:37.960 it's um, I've forgotten most of it, but I mean 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:41.639 it exists, and I think Paul Rubens is in it Okay, 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:45.360 but but yes. Swanson was also in Dude, Where's My Car, 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:49.000 Ferris Beeler's Day Off and Flowers in The Attic. TV 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:51.760 Viewers might also know her from the series Psych All 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:54.600 right now. In the Joseph Campbell theory of the myth cycle, 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:57.600 your young hero has to have a mentor figure is 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:00.240 sort of like wise older figure who appears to give 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:04.200 supernatural aid near the beginning of the story and encourage 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:06.639 the hero to sort of like breach the boundaries and 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:09.719 go into the underworld or the other world. And in 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:12.440 this movie that character is played by is is the 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:17.719 dusty grandpappy we talked about earlier played by Richard Farnsworth. Yeah, 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:22.840 Farnsworth play Sam and this brings the second future Academy 0:21:22.880 --> 0:21:26.720 Award winner into this picture. Uh So. Farnsworth was a 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:29.920 longtime stunt man uh turned actor. He did a lot 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:32.960 of Western work, but eventually popped up in films and 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:36.240 it was acting roles um films like The Two, Jake's 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:39.840 Misery and and probably most notable of all, his final 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:43.760 film role The Straight Story by David Lynch, in which 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:46.359 he plays an old man who makes this long journey 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:49.800 by lawn mower to mend his relationship with an ill brother. 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:52.400 And one of the things about this is that again, 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:56.640 this was Farnsworth's last role. Uh. He was actually terminally 0:21:56.680 --> 0:21:59.840 ill during the filming, and I went on to earn 0:21:59.840 --> 0:22:02.399 an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. So what I 0:22:02.440 --> 0:22:04.720 said earlier about him being a winner, he did not 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:07.480 win the Academy Award for this role, but was nominated, 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:09.760