Speaker 1: Get a Peter Helly here.
Speaker 2: Welcome to you Ain't Seen Nothing Yet the movie podcast,
Speaker 2: where our chat to a movie lover about a classic
Speaker 2: or beloved movie they haven't quite got around to watching
Speaker 2: until now.
Speaker 1: Today's guest actor writer Rob Carlton, all below.
Speaker 3: I want to.
Speaker 4: Stay here with you, little job.
Speaker 1: My late snake shocked, my.
Speaker 5: Frail would be having a written nothing.
Speaker 2: Rob Carlton is one of those oussie actors like you're
Speaker 2: Steve Curry, like your Damon Herriman, who has just been
Speaker 2: around forever.
Speaker 1: He started very very young.
Speaker 2: I think his first role was in nineteen seventy seven
Speaker 2: in a series called Young Ramsey. I'm not sure that
Speaker 2: the neighbors related. I must say, I'll confess never saw it.
Speaker 2: He's been in a country practice e Street, police, rescue,
Speaker 2: home and away. There's so many water rauts, all saints like,
Speaker 2: there's not a show he hasn't done Blue Heelers, a
Speaker 2: Cloud's Daughters. And then he came to my attention when
Speaker 2: he made a series called Shandon Pictures.
Speaker 1: It was so funny.
Speaker 2: He was the creator of it, he directed it, he
Speaker 2: was a producer.
Speaker 1: It was so good.
Speaker 2: He's been like the Hollow Man, which was awesome. He
Speaker 2: won a g LOGI or his portrayal of carry packer
Speaker 2: in Paper Giants. I think that's probably when he really
Speaker 2: burst into a lot of people's households. But he is
Speaker 2: just an incredible performer. I've always loved watching him. You
Speaker 2: can see him now in that flicks's Boy Swallows Universe.
Speaker 2: He's just so good in everything he does, whether it's
Speaker 2: comedic or dramatic. His ability to process something and then
Speaker 2: articulate it in real time is incredible. He is smart,
Speaker 2: he's funny, he's passionate, and I'm bloody stoked to be
Speaker 2: hanging with him today.
Speaker 4: Hi there, my name's Rob Carlton, and my three favorite
Speaker 4: films are The Sting.
Speaker 5: Oh, poor Jacks, you owe me sixteen grand taw must
Speaker 5: have left my wart in my room. Don't hand me
Speaker 5: into That's crap. When you come to a game like this,
Speaker 5: you bring your money. How do I know you won't
Speaker 5: take a powder?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 1: No, no, no.
Speaker 5: I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll send a boy
Speaker 5: around your room five minutes. You better have the money.
Speaker 5: It's going to be all around Chicago that you're.
Speaker 4: Welshed with nail and I.
Speaker 5: I called him a punce, and now I'm calling you
Speaker 5: one punce.
Speaker 4: Would you like a drink? What's your name?
Speaker 5: Marc? Fuck?
Speaker 6: I don't know what my acquaintance did to upset you,
Speaker 6: but it's nothing to do with me. I suggest you
Speaker 6: both go outside and discuss it sensibly in the street.
Speaker 4: And the outsiders.
Speaker 3: Can I see now?
Speaker 2: Well, then bleach you quick cut you Bony is.
Speaker 6: Here.
Speaker 4: This really makes me look tough. Not until the last week,
Speaker 4: I'd never seen stand by me. I talked into the night,
Speaker 4: the kind of talk that seemed important until you discover girls.
Speaker 4: All Right, all right, Mickey's a mouse?
Speaker 3: Donald to Duck too a dog? What's Goofy? If I
Speaker 3: can only have one food for the rest of my life,
Speaker 3: that's easy.
Speaker 5: Pass joyfullyvor pass.
Speaker 6: No question about it.
Speaker 4: Goofy's a dark He's definitely a dog. I knew the
Speaker 4: sixty four thousand dollars question was fixed.
Speaker 3: There's no way anybody can know that much about opera.
Speaker 3: He can't be a dog, wears the hat and drives
Speaker 3: a car. Wagon trains, really cool show.
Speaker 4: Did you ever notice that they never get anywhere?
Speaker 6: Just keep wagon training?
Speaker 4: God, that's weird. What the hell is Goofy?
Speaker 2: One? Of us mentioned Ray Brower, but we were all
Speaker 2: thinking about him. Yes, it's nineteen fifty nine, ten years
Speaker 2: before the Summer, immortalized by Brian Adams and four boys
Speaker 2: from Castle Rock. Here of a dead body along the
Speaker 2: train tracks about thirty miles out of town, hoping to
Speaker 2: get their pictures in the paper.
Speaker 1: Remember that the.
Speaker 2: Boys head off with their rugsacks and not much money
Speaker 2: between them two dollars thirty seven for Stephen King fans
Speaker 2: paying attention. The four boys all have stuff going on.
Speaker 2: Gordy played by Will Wheaton, a wanna be writer grieving
Speaker 2: the loss of his older brother John Cusack Chris, a
Speaker 2: forever young river phoenix, struggles to put the legacy of
Speaker 2: his idiotic brother behind him and dreams of breaking out
Speaker 2: of Castle Rock. Teddy Corey Feldman, a hothead who may
Speaker 2: have inherited this from his father, and Vern played by
Speaker 2: future Jerry maguire quarterback Jerry O'Connell in his film debut,
Speaker 2: who Okay, doesn't have that much going on outside being
Speaker 2: a bit chubby. Will they get to the body first
Speaker 2: or will local thug Ace Keifer Sutherland and his hoods
Speaker 2: get their first Based on the Stephen King novella titled
Speaker 2: The Body, directed by the Great Rob Rainer, stand by
Speaker 2: Me is a testament the friendship, even if those friendships
Speaker 2: don't end up spanning a lifetime. Rob Carlton, have you
Speaker 2: ever had to carefully remove a leech from your scrotum?
Speaker 4: I think when it comes to leech removal and scratum's
Speaker 4: careful is not really a factor. You just got to
Speaker 4: get you get off quick son. Honestly, man, I'm not
Speaker 4: slowing down at that point to go be careful of
Speaker 4: the crackash.
Speaker 1: So you removed the few over the years, I.
Speaker 4: Had to really remove a leek my wife's LaPier. Oh
Speaker 4: long ago.
Speaker 2: Oh I'm glad I went in and demanded an answer.
Speaker 4: Look, I couldn't fault the leech's intent, but I had
Speaker 4: to question his timing. We live in as A it's
Speaker 4: a moist area up there on the central coast, my bride,
Speaker 4: So to be honest with you, I may have done
Speaker 4: it to myself, but once I did that, it seems
Speaker 4: to have removed all other leech memories.
Speaker 2: And why wouldn't it. Why wouldn't it. That's an amazing
Speaker 2: where it's a hot start. You ain't seen nothing yet.
Speaker 2: I was not expecting you weren't expecting. I wasn't expecting
Speaker 2: to say.
Speaker 1: It, mate, So glad to have you on this. I
Speaker 1: was watching this.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I watch movies and I think, I really hope
Speaker 2: the guess is enjoying this. I hope they've got something
Speaker 2: to say about it. I was watching this, not necessarily
Speaker 2: knowing if you're gonna enjoy it or not. But I
Speaker 2: knew you were gonna have something to say about it,
Speaker 2: and I can't wait to get to it. But why
Speaker 2: hadn't you seen stand By Me? Because this is a
Speaker 2: movie for me I'd seen many times and that was
Speaker 2: a pretty big movie amongst my friendship group, and it
Speaker 2: was hit at the right time.
Speaker 1: I was eleven when it came out. Why hadn't you
Speaker 1: seen it?
Speaker 4: That's right, And I didn't know it was first question
Speaker 4: my wife asked, she's way, you've never seen stand by Me.
Speaker 4: In fact, it was the same tone you rudely took
Speaker 4: when I said I hadn't seen stand by AP when
Speaker 4: I was. It was hurtful. But let's press on. So
Speaker 4: I'm there going I don't know why you know, And
Speaker 4: maybe I was because I too. I was fifteen when
Speaker 4: it came out River. Phoenix is just a year older
Speaker 4: than me, So it was the zeitgeist. It was the movie,
Speaker 4: and at the time, I'm saying to my wife, maybe
Speaker 4: I've just wasn't at that party that afternoon, but I'd
Speaker 4: never seen it, and I knew that i'd never seen it,
Speaker 4: And anyway, as I was watching it, I came to
Speaker 4: realize and remember kind of why I hadn't seen it,
Speaker 4: and it wasn't a mistake. I think I got told.
Speaker 4: So what I knew about the movie when it came
Speaker 4: out was it was about four really close friends and
Speaker 4: there was the picture stand by me, the four kids
Speaker 4: and walking along the train line, so I knew that
Speaker 4: about the movie. Then I think somebody had said to me, Oh,
Speaker 4: it's a movie about four friends and someone dies. I
Speaker 4: thought one of those kids was going to die, and
Speaker 4: I never wanted to see the movie because of it.
Speaker 1: I liked that.
Speaker 4: I remember watching looking at that picture, so I remember
Speaker 4: this as I was watching the film, It's like, oh
Speaker 4: my god, that's right. That's why I never watched this
Speaker 4: film because I did not want to. I couldn't put
Speaker 4: myself through it because they looked like such an kids,
Speaker 4: and I think that's what happened to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: So I'm glad I finally watched it. Well I did
Speaker 4: I watch it? A spoiler alerts we do on this,
Speaker 4: I guess you've got to get to it.
Speaker 1: They'll be spoilers through out of it.
Speaker 2: We'll come back to this stand by me because I
Speaker 2: do want to talk about your three favorite films. First
Speaker 2: all excellent films. I've seen two of them actually, and
Speaker 2: it's certainly on my list to do the first one.
Speaker 1: You mentioned this Sting. I have not seen the Sting.
Speaker 2: I remember watching for this podcast, which case in the
Speaker 2: Sundan's Kid, watching that and going wow, that was like
Speaker 2: the first movie that I actually watched for the first
Speaker 2: time for this podcast. So I thought, this is what
Speaker 2: I'm doing this podcast. This is not just about introducing
Speaker 2: other mates who are, you know, movie lovers to films
Speaker 2: I hadn't seen, but also for me to see films
Speaker 2: I hadn't seen. And that came up and I was
Speaker 2: been thinking, these two were said to my wife in
Speaker 2: the morning, these two are, so do you know how
Speaker 2: good looking Robert you know Newman and Robert red Redford
Speaker 2: Paul Newman over coffee that they are stunning I was showing.
Speaker 2: I was googling photos of them, and I remember thinking
Speaker 2: after that, I gotta watch The Sting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I still haven't go around to it.
Speaker 4: Well, it's a terrific film on that. With regards to
Speaker 4: how good looking they are, I mean, this is how
Speaker 4: deluded any young boy he can get. And I think
Speaker 4: we'll probably get into delusions of nature as of who
Speaker 4: we are when we start getting into standby me, because
Speaker 4: there's a bit of that in there. But to disavow
Speaker 4: your audience of any who thoughts they may have on me,
Speaker 4: whether I'm deluded or not, I'll give them a head start.
Speaker 4: When I was a young actor, I thought, well, I've
Speaker 4: got the same name as Robert Redford. Perhaps I too,
Speaker 4: and I love Robert Redford from The Sting and it's
Speaker 4: like literally that was as for me, it was like
Speaker 4: me and Robert Redford are almost the same. I had
Speaker 4: no idea at that stage of the ridiculousness of his
Speaker 4: good looks, and certainly when lined up against this funny
Speaker 4: looking head, I was never in the same lane. But
Speaker 4: it was enough for me to convince myself that I
Speaker 4: might be. Because I had the same name as Robert Redford.
Speaker 4: The reason I loved The Sting was because to me,
Speaker 4: it was there was so much going on in that film.
Speaker 4: It was the first sense I had of a wrong
Speaker 4: been righted by the underdog. It was this beautiful sense
Speaker 4: of there's a mental mentee relationship in that struck me.
Speaker 4: There was the daring do and the courage of a
Speaker 4: young Redford and the brains of a newman, and there
Speaker 4: were so many beautiful stories, and then there was the
Speaker 4: there's a bit goes on where you're suddenly not sure
Speaker 4: which ways up and it broke my heart, and then
Speaker 4: the final resolution put my heart back together and let
Speaker 4: me sing all the way hard.
Speaker 2: It's a beautiful film. I gotta I gotta watch it.
Speaker 2: I'm embarrassed I have. It's taken me so long with
Speaker 2: Nail and I. I watched it for the first time
Speaker 2: for this podcast again. Limo, of course he hadn't seen it.
Speaker 2: It was embarrassed he hadn't seen it because it's a
Speaker 2: it's a movie. It's a British cult comedy classic. It's
Speaker 2: not necessarily one that.
Speaker 1: You know. It's not Four Weddings and a Funeral. It's
Speaker 1: not one of those.
Speaker 2: Every scene very big in the comedy and theater world
Speaker 2: because it involves a theater actor theater actors, and Limo
Speaker 2: he was lukewarm about it, and I wonder if it's
Speaker 2: the kind of film that plays better closer you saw
Speaker 2: it from its release.
Speaker 4: Perhaps was that a gentle way of saying it's.
Speaker 2: No no, Because I watched it again and by the
Speaker 2: end of discussing it, we both actually said, oh, we're
Speaker 2: going to give it another crack. So I think this
Speaker 2: podcast is always about somebody who's still processing a film.
Speaker 2: You've literally watched you stand by me a couple of
Speaker 2: days ago, Limo watched it the night before.
Speaker 1: Somebody were watching it that morning.
Speaker 2: So often what happens in this podcast if somebody doesn't
Speaker 2: necessarily hasn't loved the film, after an hour of discussing it,
Speaker 2: they're like, actually, man, I think about it.
Speaker 1: I liked it more than I thought.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And that makes sense. I mean not to sort of,
Speaker 4: you know, pull the magic sheet away from the presentation,
Speaker 4: but you are when you're watching a film for this podcast,
Speaker 4: you're in a slightly different audience space as well, because
Speaker 4: you're trying to lock a few things in. I am
Speaker 4: interested to in that notion of with Nail and I
Speaker 4: and the response to it. I was in my late
Speaker 4: teens early twenties, which is right around just a couple
Speaker 4: of years younger than the Leeds at that point, and
Speaker 4: so at that point what it had explored to me
Speaker 4: was this notion of unprescribed futures, the notion of we
Speaker 4: do not know how this will play out, but there
Speaker 4: is an energy in me that will hurl me towards
Speaker 4: the future, and I will just grab it by its coattails.
Speaker 4: I was still in that place, and then watching with
Speaker 4: Nail and Eye characters go through that they were just
Speaker 4: at the end of that phase where they were truly
Speaker 4: hoping they were going to get flicked off, but the
Speaker 4: hope was starting to fade. It was all starting to
Speaker 4: drain away. And so for me it was that sense
Speaker 4: if I still had that young man's energy, and watching
Speaker 4: the shine come off it and couple of characters just
Speaker 4: a couple of years further forward, it was kind of
Speaker 4: like it was almost like a giddy upsun better get
Speaker 4: going because this could turn bad. It was exciting.
Speaker 2: You talk about movies that you see at an important
Speaker 2: time in your life. It could be a song that
Speaker 2: you hear at the right time that hits you. You know,
Speaker 2: it sounds like you know, you got you still think
Speaker 2: yourself as Robert Redford probably at the stage pot and
Speaker 2: you see whitneyl And which is a nice little dose
Speaker 2: of reality and like you said, a bit of a
Speaker 2: giddy up. So yes, I love when movies hit you
Speaker 2: or a song at the right time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, Yeah.
Speaker 1: The Outsiders.
Speaker 2: I read this book at school and then we watched
Speaker 2: a movie at school. I love this for those who
Speaker 2: don't know, perhaps what the greatest future cast of all time,
Speaker 2: as far as the meds in this.
Speaker 4: Unbelievable and possibly the three best words stay or four
Speaker 4: if you count pony Boys two stay gold. You know
Speaker 4: what a thing to say to someone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's beautiful. So see Thomas Howe is pony Boy.
Speaker 2: You got Patrick Swayze in there, Ralph Maccio, Tom Cruise,
Speaker 2: Diane Lanes in their Emilio Estevez made a Mat Dylan
Speaker 2: of course, Matt Dylan. Let's still for Johnny. Let's still
Speaker 2: for Johnny Man. Matt how good is Matt Dylan by
Speaker 2: the way, He's extraordinary great?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, because he jumps all over the genres
Speaker 4: and then he came and showed us his comic chops
Speaker 4: in the area. Yeah, so I think he's just wonderful
Speaker 4: and he's going he's one of those classic guys and
Speaker 4: he almost it's hard to feel sorry for them, but yeah,
Speaker 4: I call them true artists trapped inside the body of
Speaker 4: a matinee idol. There's a few people around like that,
Speaker 4: I think. I mean Australia's got a couple Simon Baker.
Speaker 4: I would consider Simon Baker a true artist trapped inside
Speaker 4: the body of a matinee idol. Yeah. I think his
Speaker 4: performances have always been wonderful. I've loved watching Simon's work
Speaker 4: over the years, and he went over to America and
Speaker 4: of course his first big, big gig was The Guardian
Speaker 4: and then went on to The Mentalist. So he's been
Speaker 4: kind of in those big end but in those big
Speaker 4: network shots. But his work since coming out of that
Speaker 4: and the films that he's been directing show and speak
Speaker 4: to his sensibilities. Yeah, but I think people don't necessarily
Speaker 4: see them because he's got that ridiculous smile and he's
Speaker 4: extraordinarily handsome. Anyway, I think Matt Dylan might be one.
Speaker 1: Of those And when you see the Outsiders.
Speaker 4: The reason this film stuck with me. I was so
Speaker 4: terrified for everyone involved. I was so upset. Do you
Speaker 4: know what was the film warri Is come out and
Speaker 4: play Warry?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Do you remember there was? There was like a gang
Speaker 4: in New York trying to find their way out of
Speaker 4: New Well, that's something you've got to see, because that
Speaker 4: was that was an epic classic. But again I mentioned
Speaker 4: that film because I watching that as a teenager, was
Speaker 4: desperately terrified and couldn't believe, like it was almost like
Speaker 4: watching a horror film. For me. The Outsiders I found
Speaker 4: so desperately sad, so desperately tragic. The socials or the socks.
Speaker 4: How did you pronounce that? I think, yeah, I always
Speaker 4: went socious, But you know, the jury is still out.
Speaker 4: So the socias, I remember just seeing hating them so much,
Speaker 4: and then I couldn't believe they were bringing knives out
Speaker 4: and all of a sudden, I'm watching Teenagers and I'm,
Speaker 4: you know, a teenager growing up on the northern beaches
Speaker 4: of Sydney, and I'm looking at this film and I'm
Speaker 4: seeing guys my age with knives and guns. I just
Speaker 4: remember being so desperately worried for everyone involved. That's how
Speaker 4: vested I got in that story. And what I loved
Speaker 4: about it was the kindness, the tenderness with which these
Speaker 4: so called rough kids handled each other, and then you
Speaker 4: could see the decisions. I think the Coppler's gift in
Speaker 4: that film was that you could see the compassion and
Speaker 4: the tenderness and the love that underpinned their violent choices.
Speaker 4: And that's a really interesting thing for a storyteller to do,
Speaker 4: especially if you target as young men like I was
Speaker 4: at the time, and being able to watch these guys going,
Speaker 4: I get that feeling. I get that sense of being
Speaker 4: put upon or not believed or you set aside, and
Speaker 4: that violence and that race that young man's testosterone can bring.
Speaker 4: I can see it all. But I can see that
Speaker 4: ultimately these guys just want to be kind to one
Speaker 4: another and they just don't understand each other. And so
Speaker 4: for me, it was so frustrating watching the inevitable fallout,
Speaker 4: but so beautifully done by Coppler to make me feel
Speaker 4: so worried on behalf of those tough guys and lovely
Speaker 4: guys and sweet guys and mean guys.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the film.
Speaker 2: We are here to talk about from nineteen eighty six,
Speaker 2: directed by Rob Rainer, from the novella by Stephen King.
Speaker 1: What an eighties cast.
Speaker 2: It's got Will Wheaton, Corey Feldman, you've got River Phoenix.
Speaker 1: Of course, KEITHA. Sutherland, Richard Dreyfuss is in there. John Cusack,
Speaker 1: I just want to.
Speaker 4: Talk about Keith A. Sutler trade up now. He went
Speaker 4: Ziggy Stardust on us in this one of you. You
Speaker 4: said that he just looks so kind of hot and cute,
Speaker 4: so like he's got I make cup on his black
Speaker 4: Mascar and he's kind of looking all Pixie and it's.
Speaker 2: It's kind of his Lost Boys, you know, kind of face,
Speaker 2: because Lost Boys would have been around this time where
Speaker 2: he I think he played a lot of mean guys,
Speaker 2: a lot of young guns that maybe turned it around.
Speaker 4: For him, Okay, but it was so sort of bordering
Speaker 4: on kind of like, as I say that Ziggy Stardust,
Speaker 4: that kind of almost effeminate, hot nasty guy. Very confusing,
Speaker 4: especially for me, given that's the part I would have played. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean, for your listeners that don't know my work,
Speaker 4: I've played pretty much every bully, every nasty, every standover
Speaker 4: over the years.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned in the intro, I mean Logi Award
Speaker 1: winning for playing.
Speaker 2: Some might say Australia's one of Australia's greatest bullies.
Speaker 1: Yes, he's the Kerry Packer.
Speaker 4: That's right, that's right. So I was looking at that
Speaker 4: and I'm like, first of all, of course, like Sutherland's
Speaker 4: got my role, and then I'm not all, but he's
Speaker 4: doing it well and he brings a sex appeal that
Speaker 4: I'm not.
Speaker 1: Sure I could have.
Speaker 2: We're going to get to all of this very soon,
Speaker 2: but I need to ask you, did you enjoy stand
Speaker 2: by me?
Speaker 4: Absolutely loved it. And again I think if we go
Speaker 4: back to those observations on the Outsiders, what I was
Speaker 4: witnessing here was again these boys are largely pre pubesson
Speaker 4: twelve of their young kids just coming into that notion
Speaker 4: of teenage life and agency. Yeah, if you will, that's
Speaker 4: the I mean, this is a story about agency. The
Speaker 4: fact that you're thinking on it now. The whole thing
Speaker 4: is exactly about that agency and a world where people
Speaker 4: have already judged you. And that's certainly River Phoenix's dilemma
Speaker 4: that he's wrestling with so strongly. But what I loved
Speaker 4: about this is that notion of four young friends ultimately
Speaker 4: trying to wrestle the world into a shape that will
Speaker 4: have them, and it's it's a beautiful thing to contemplate,
Speaker 4: especially when you've got those nasty forces as represented by
Speaker 4: Keifer Sutherland's gang. And let's just have a look at
Speaker 4: how every time you cut to Keith of Sutherland's gang.
Speaker 4: I don't know where their fathers were, but they were.
Speaker 1: There's no else in this whole movie.
Speaker 2: Basically there's there's Gordy's dad, who's you know, not nice
Speaker 2: to him at all, and and and.
Speaker 4: Everyone else is eating porridge.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's there's no police, there are no Keifer's gang.
Speaker 4: They kind of loaf around like calm, kind of like
Speaker 4: lizards on rocks, around around a pond, and they're Either's
Speaker 4: just sort of what I loved about that one scene
Speaker 4: there was one guy just getting the homemade tattoo of
Speaker 4: I think that the Cobras, I think is their gang,
Speaker 4: and Keifer's just they're just polishing, polishing car parts just
Speaker 4: to within an inch of their lives. So you've got
Speaker 4: these nefarious, dark forces. I mean, there's always so much tension.
Speaker 4: These young twelve year olds are always in such jeopardy
Speaker 4: all through the film, whether it's the train coming, or
Speaker 4: Keifer's thing, or the dead body, the arrival of the garden,
Speaker 4: or bleaches leeches on the scroden. God bless those leechers.
Speaker 4: There's always saying. And in the middle of it are
Speaker 4: these four kids try to be themselves in a group,
Speaker 4: keep them hold themselves to account, and ask the best
Speaker 4: of each other while not being put upon. Ultimately, it's
Speaker 4: the great conflict that we all face the whole time,
Speaker 4: all of our lives, and it's just wrought so beautifully
Speaker 4: with these four young boys inside this eighty minute film.
Speaker 2: I mean, the premise is such a beautiful premise to
Speaker 2: explore these childhood friendships. You almost forget to Stephen King
Speaker 2: based on the Stephen King material until you remember, oh,
Speaker 2: there's some really dark stuff. They're going off to find
Speaker 2: a dead body.
Speaker 4: Met there's death everywhere. Body's older brother died just before.
Speaker 4: I mean, they do not we have we have dream sequences.
Speaker 4: Got his dream sequences. When he's at his dead brother's
Speaker 4: funeral and they're putting him to the ground, he remembers
Speaker 4: his dad saying it should have been you. I mean,
Speaker 4: it's pile upon pile upon pile upon Every family structure
Speaker 4: in those boys is absolutely tattered to smithereens. It's utterly
Speaker 4: brutal mate.
Speaker 2: If you lay out those things, it sounds like a
Speaker 2: really dark kind of film, and it's got darkness in it,
Speaker 2: but the way Robertina shoots it, it's it's summer and
Speaker 2: it's it's lightness. And the friendship between these boys does
Speaker 2: seem tight. They don't over explain anything, but there's there's
Speaker 2: the in jokes. They've got these beautiful in jokes that
Speaker 2: they have that they don't explain it then doesn't need
Speaker 2: to know, but it's showing you, as opposed to just
Speaker 2: telling you that these four in this time in their
Speaker 2: history are really close.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right, and they trust each other and they
Speaker 4: like each other.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's no doubt watching this film in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 2: and if you've watched it in any time over in
Speaker 2: the last you know, probably fifteen twenty years, he can't
Speaker 2: help but watch his film and look at River Phoenix's
Speaker 2: performance and grieve. As a fan of cinema, you know,
Speaker 2: selfishly what we missed out on and what the world
Speaker 2: has missed out on. He didn't make many many films before.
Speaker 2: He's tragic passing, but he's so good. If you're putting
Speaker 2: a movie's date in package together, it's almost he predates Lenarda. DiCaprio,
Speaker 2: Like you wonder if it would have been River Phoenix
Speaker 2: on the Titanic, it would have been him, you know,
Speaker 2: in What's Eating Good at Grape like there is there's
Speaker 2: such similarities, but I think River Phoenix his performance is
Speaker 2: so effortless. So he's playing Chris, who's like he's the
Speaker 2: cool kind of rebel, but to be honest, he's got
Speaker 2: a soft center and he's been he's living his older
Speaker 2: brother is an idiot, you know, Aces Cohort, and he's
Speaker 2: living in the shadow and it's not the last shadow
Speaker 2: to live in. But his performance is incredible. So his character,
Speaker 2: Chris has there was an incident involving him stealing allegedly
Speaker 2: some milk money from the.
Speaker 4: School, which and I love the idea, the milk money.
Speaker 2: Milk money, which is Yeah, they're lovely references that do
Speaker 2: put it in nine to fifty nine for us. I mean,
Speaker 2: the film made in the mid eighties. But let's ever
Speaker 2: listen to that scene where he explains what to Gordy
Speaker 2: What really happened to the milk money?
Speaker 3: No one even asked me if I took the milk
Speaker 3: money that time. I just got through devacation. Did you
Speaker 3: take it? Yeah, I took it. You knew I took it.
Speaker 3: Teddy knew I took it. Everyone knew I took it.
Speaker 3: He never knew it. I think maybe I was sorry
Speaker 3: and I tried to give it back, tried to give
Speaker 3: it back. Maybe, and maybe I took it to old
Speaker 3: Lady Simons and told her and the money was all there,
Speaker 3: but I still got it through devcation because they never
Speaker 3: shut up. And maybe the next week all Lady Simon's
Speaker 3: had this brand Sudam when she came to school.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, I was brown and had thoughts on it.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So let's just say that I stole the milk money,
Speaker 3: but old Lady Simon stole it back from me. Just
Speaker 3: suppose that I told this story me Chris Chambers kid
Speaker 3: brother to Eyeball Chambers. Do you think that anyone would
Speaker 3: have believed it? Oh? And do you think that that
Speaker 3: bitch would have dared tried something like that if it
Speaker 3: been one of those douchebags from up on the View,
Speaker 3: if they had taken the money, oh way, I don't know,
Speaker 3: but with me, I'm sure she had her eye on
Speaker 3: that skirt for a long time. Anyway, she saw her
Speaker 3: chance and she took it. I was the stupid one
Speaker 3: for even trying to give it back.
Speaker 4: I never thought the teacher.
Speaker 3: Oh fuck.
Speaker 4: Anyway, just as.
Speaker 3: They could go someplace when nobody.
Speaker 2: Knows me, it's an extraordinary performance, like even when Will
Speaker 2: wait and her thing's really good as Gordy when Hay spakes.
Speaker 2: And obviously they're in different places, but you just hear
Speaker 2: the difference between the performance in a way and River
Speaker 2: Phoenix had done a take. Rob Rainer thought he could
Speaker 2: do better, and when I took him aside and said,
Speaker 2: just think of a time an adult has left you,
Speaker 2: let you down, And he said, the next take he
Speaker 2: shot was the take they used in the movie. And
Speaker 2: he said he never told him who he was thinking about,
Speaker 2: whether it was a parent or a teacher or not,
Speaker 2: but that was the thing that brought out the response
Speaker 2: in him.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, And it reads that way. It reads so personal,
Speaker 4: it reads so specific. There's nothing general about that performance.
Speaker 2: No, you actually believe it happened as opposed to you know,
Speaker 2: when you were talking earlier with some of those in jokes.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you're aware that you're watching a movie. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: got lost in this story.
Speaker 4: That's it. That's it. And you know, the dilemma that
Speaker 4: he talks of is so heartbreaking because it's okay, he's
Speaker 4: already the fallen angel, so he's already stolen the milk money.
Speaker 4: Jumans love a redemption story, and so here's a kid
Speaker 4: that knows he's done something wrong and then he's decided
Speaker 4: to own up, and then the institution that he has
Speaker 4: owned up to lets him down. And it's you know,
Speaker 4: it's a great dramatic device because it takes that audience
Speaker 4: and goes, fuck you school teacher, fuck you world, fuck
Speaker 4: you institutions. I'm now firmly on the side of these kids.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you truly are.
Speaker 2: I mean that it's the kids against the world, isn't
Speaker 2: it that the parents have let them down, the teachers
Speaker 2: have let them down, their older brothers have let.
Speaker 1: Them down, the town's let them down. So yeah, on
Speaker 1: that older.
Speaker 4: Brother thing, it's interesting. I know, I keep going back
Speaker 4: to Keifer because I wanted his look and his role.
Speaker 4: But what's fascinating about Keifer's character is that he's loyal
Speaker 4: and he wants his bat like he doesn't like he
Speaker 4: wants control, but he doesn't like it when he gang's
Speaker 4: not together. Have you like there's something about Keifer he
Speaker 4: wants people around him. He's lonely. He's just as lonely
Speaker 4: as all these other people too. It's just you know,
Speaker 4: he's a couple of years older, and so from a
Speaker 4: storyteller's point of view, he's already beyond redemption. But there's
Speaker 4: still a desperate need for love and affection. Yeah, even there,
Speaker 4: it's a niche year. There's a lot going on there.
Speaker 1: The boys are very clearly drawn, aren't they? Which is
Speaker 1: you know you do have?
Speaker 2: And I mentioned it in intro, But Gordy is bookish,
Speaker 2: you know, he's smart, he's obviously the lead character.
Speaker 1: Teddy's is a hothead, Vern.
Speaker 2: Is the class clown, and Chris is the cool kid
Speaker 2: who the misunderstood cool kid.
Speaker 1: I think they're all very clear outsider. Yeah.
Speaker 2: In interesting to me that the two biggest I think
Speaker 2: Stephen king movies don't lean into the horror. We think
Speaker 2: Stephen king os is the master of horror. But the
Speaker 2: two biggest ones, I would say, stand by me and
Speaker 2: the biggest one probably the Shawshank Redemp shit don't really
Speaker 2: they have dark themes in them, but they don't lean.
Speaker 1: Into horror as much. I find them really kind of fascinating.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I think what Stephen King does with these
Speaker 4: stories and those dark themes, and that you never get
Speaker 4: the true measure of someone until you've seen them under
Speaker 4: real pressure. So if we kind of extrapolate that into
Speaker 4: a relationship dynamic, then we truly don't know how good
Speaker 4: a friend we have or how much this means to us.
Speaker 4: If everything's just peachy keen. Each of these characters have
Speaker 4: these desperately sad backgrounds. That darkness is what leads to
Speaker 4: and honoring that twelve year olds can have emotional responses
Speaker 4: and experiences, and this is what kind of bugs me
Speaker 4: out the modern dialogue. I'm not sure that's appropriate for
Speaker 4: that age. And it's like, man, I've seen kids deal
Speaker 4: with the most propressing things, not because it's appropriate, but
Speaker 4: because their dad's a fuck wit. What I admired normously
Speaker 4: about this story is that it goes hard in a
Speaker 4: tough place and leaves you feeling hopeful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it goes hard, but it's never heavy handed. It's
Speaker 2: still of very enjoyable. It leaves you hopeful. It's a
Speaker 2: very enjoyable movie to watch, and there's set pieces along
Speaker 2: the way. It's got almost like a Western field. It
Speaker 2: completely does. It's got that journey. I mean the introduction
Speaker 2: of the train.
Speaker 1: Track train is an amazing scene.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you know the train's going to come.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, the train is going to come, and you feel
Speaker 2: it because they go they go across a shorter bridge earlier,
Speaker 2: and I think it's just the train scene like I
Speaker 2: sent it for a few years, and then that's a
Speaker 2: short it's a shorter bridge, and then in the massive
Speaker 2: bridge and you know it's got to cost that he
Speaker 2: drops a penny down, you know, through the crack or something,
Speaker 2: and you know he says it's.
Speaker 1: The one to come remember beautiful, And I mean that's.
Speaker 4: Just the lovely notion of he brings a cone so
Speaker 4: that when they get discovered and have to have their
Speaker 4: photo in the newspaper, their hair will look good. That's
Speaker 4: that's Vern's offering and seven cents.
Speaker 2: It's so funny and so I don't know, maybe I
Speaker 2: feel very nostalgic the idea in watching this in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four with you know, everyone can have their photos
Speaker 2: in places way more powerful than in the newspaper. To
Speaker 2: see these kids, the inspiration to going off the Finest
Speaker 2: Dead Body was to get their photo in the paper,
Speaker 2: Like getting your photo in the paper.
Speaker 1: My dad still talks about getting his photo in the paper.
Speaker 4: Because it's not just the twelve year olds, it's Keifer's
Speaker 4: gang as well. Yeah, they want their photo in the newspaper.
Speaker 4: The whole final bit is a standoff over who's going
Speaker 4: to get their photo in the I mean we could
Speaker 4: have renamed it that.
Speaker 2: Thinking about this movie and other movies, you know, The
Speaker 2: Breakfast Club and lo those John Hughes movies, there's going
Speaker 2: to be a lot of films in the eighties about
Speaker 2: kids dealing with their shit, you know, like from you know,
Speaker 2: thirteen to fifteen, sixteen year olds. I might be wrong,
Speaker 2: but I feel like that those movies don't really get
Speaker 2: made anymore where it's that age group dealing like they
Speaker 2: kind of cut to it's all of a sudden that
Speaker 2: they're on a fantastical adventure as opposed to these smaller,
Speaker 2: you know, invert commas films, but are actually dealing with.
Speaker 1: Kids going through turmoil. Might be completely wrong.
Speaker 4: It's interesting, isn't it. I mean, I think about the
Speaker 4: sort of the hit films in Australia for that age
Speaker 4: grew paper Last at a while. There's not many, but
Speaker 4: Paper Planes was one very different sort of feel, honoring
Speaker 4: the emotional wherewithal and the emotional distress anybody can go
Speaker 4: through it at that age, and wrapping a film around it.
Speaker 4: I mean, whether that's to do with who's going to
Speaker 4: the movies and who's buying tickets and where the money's
Speaker 4: I don't know. But there's also something interesting in that
Speaker 4: American space is that often I find the complex emotional
Speaker 4: dilemmas at play in stand By Me are dealt with
Speaker 4: in a much more emotionally intelligent fashion for twelve to
Speaker 4: thirteen year old characters than a lot of their other
Speaker 4: movies when we're looking at sort of the mid twenties,
Speaker 4: and I think they fall away a little bit as
Speaker 4: they get older. And is there something cleaner and neater
Speaker 4: about a twelve or thirteen year old facing someone something,
Speaker 4: getting a resolution and moving on. It's is it easier
Speaker 4: as an audience to buy that they've had that win?
Speaker 4: Do we project a sense of they're still young enough
Speaker 4: to repair and to have that northern star be clear
Speaker 4: enough for them to follow for the rest of their futures,
Speaker 4: because that's all we're witnessing of their lives.
Speaker 2: Interesting, you mentioned the win. What is the win in this?
Speaker 2: They don't get their picture in the paper. There's the
Speaker 2: emotional growth. That's the wind, really, isn't it. They come
Speaker 2: back into town and the town feels different, It feels
Speaker 2: smaller because they've seen in a way that they feel
Speaker 2: like they've seen the world.
Speaker 4: The winner is agency. They were backed into a corner
Speaker 4: where every single time up until this point they would
Speaker 4: have got rubbed out or moved on or told what
Speaker 4: was going to happen next. And Gordie takes that gun,
Speaker 4: points it at Kifer and says friend not today. And
Speaker 4: he does it when he's protecting his friend Chris because
Speaker 4: he does not want to get pushed around anymore. That's
Speaker 4: their win. It's that notion of do not treat me
Speaker 4: like a twelve year old anymore.
Speaker 2: I want to mention a hat. Oh yeah, did you
Speaker 2: have the same thought like the hat? They took the
Speaker 2: hat just.
Speaker 4: A step too far? Mate? Yeah, I was taking a hat.
Speaker 1: Wondered if in that the gun scene where the hat
Speaker 1: could have made.
Speaker 4: A ah, I'm with you.
Speaker 1: Give me the hat.
Speaker 4: I rarely give over so quickly to a new position, pete,
Speaker 4: but you've got me with hat. Yeah, because it would
Speaker 4: have been the final Although if he'd done that, would
Speaker 4: we have thought he's been petty. No, it wasn't petty.
Speaker 4: It was his brother's past hat.
Speaker 2: That's the most important thing in the wor that's more
Speaker 2: important than the dead body. Yeah, Robert and has been
Speaker 2: asked about it, actually, and he said that ace would
Speaker 2: have been so little to him, he would have thrown
Speaker 2: it a way. Well, I want him to be reunited
Speaker 2: with his brother's hat. And I just thought, in that moment,
Speaker 2: if that was the wind just getting the hat back.
Speaker 4: Isn't that interesting Because there's moments where you just think
Speaker 4: that's enough. When I took that hat, every muscle in
Speaker 4: my body was just like, that's unfair. That's his brother's hat,
Speaker 4: and you should know about his But I think he
Speaker 4: told that's the one point where you think, Okay, we're
Speaker 4: gonna have some we're gonna have a sense of outcome.
Speaker 4: Right now he's going to say that was my dead
Speaker 4: brother's hat. And Keith of Southern's character is just going
Speaker 4: to go. Oh dear in me, I wasn't aware you
Speaker 4: can have that back, because that's way too special for
Speaker 4: even me to keep. But they didn't do that. No,
Speaker 4: it was devastating he was.
Speaker 1: And then he'd never seen the hat again. So I thought,
Speaker 1: when the when the gun came out, that might have
Speaker 1: been a time.
Speaker 2: Let's have a listen to that gun scene and and
Speaker 2: see if you can spot on my war could have
Speaker 2: squeezed the hatty man, why don't.
Speaker 3: You go home and fuck your mother some more?
Speaker 4: You're dead.
Speaker 2: Christ's wit.
Speaker 5: You're not taking one.
Speaker 4: Man's crazy.
Speaker 3: They're not taking it.
Speaker 4: He's gotten nightmare. He's come on, man, you're gonna have
Speaker 4: to kill me. Ace you no problem.
Speaker 2: You're not taking him.
Speaker 4: Nobody's taking him.
Speaker 3: Come on, kid, just give me the gun before you
Speaker 3: take your foot off. You ain't got the seck to
Speaker 3: shoot a woodchuck.
Speaker 4: Movies.
Speaker 3: I'll kill you, I swear to God.
Speaker 4: Come on the shance, give me the gun. You must
Speaker 4: have at least some of your brothers good sense. Suck my.
Speaker 2: Cheap dime store hood?
Speaker 3: What are you going to shoot us all?
Speaker 2: The first one I want to say, the cheap dime
Speaker 2: store hood kind of stood out to me a little bit,
Speaker 2: and then I thought, is that is that a written line?
Speaker 2: But I give it a pass because Gordy is a writer,
Speaker 2: So there you go. I go, Okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 2: He maybe he's probably thought about Ace and maybe he's
Speaker 2: had already concocted that line previously.
Speaker 4: I got two spots to sneak it in. Okay, So
Speaker 4: the first one I think Chris could have done it
Speaker 4: before Gordy even got there. Yes, try this on for
Speaker 4: sized Pete ye, why don't.
Speaker 6: You go.
Speaker 4: Fuck your mother some more and bring back my friend's hat.
Speaker 4: Just sneak it in straight off the back of sort
Speaker 4: of filial devotion, if you will. So that then Chris
Speaker 4: could have done got his mates back, and then or
Speaker 4: another part of the scene, which is slipping in with
Speaker 4: what we've got there, is so Gordy comes back, shoots
Speaker 4: the gun and he says, you're not taking him, nobody's
Speaker 4: taking him. It's sunny out and he's not wearing a hat,
Speaker 4: and then work in the hat that way. But other
Speaker 4: than that, I didn't feel dramatically like it was going
Speaker 4: to serve the scene. Every time I squeezed it in
Speaker 4: Pete it felt.
Speaker 2: Like, I kind of thought you had this a little
Speaker 2: bit of restructuring. There's one where he says, give me,
Speaker 2: give me the gun. When he says give me the gun,
Speaker 2: you give me my hat back.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but it's interesting. But Gordy wasn't interested in negotiation.
Speaker 4: He was, and this was the whole thing about like,
Speaker 4: I think your agency doesn't require the Okay, I like
Speaker 4: it if Chris says it, yeah, fuck your mother some
Speaker 4: more and bring me my friend's hat back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because again it puts it back the friendship.
Speaker 4: That's it. That's it, and it doesn't take away from
Speaker 4: the main thrust of that scene.
Speaker 1: Is Gordy a.
Speaker 2: Good writer, Rob Randon? Did you know kind of toss
Speaker 2: and turn about what kind of story would he tell?
Speaker 2: And the idea is he basically grows up to be
Speaker 2: Stephen King. This is kind of based on Stephen Kings.
Speaker 2: That's the Thinking's not necessarily the screen, but it's what
Speaker 2: they were, the thinking behind the whole thing. The reason
Speaker 2: I asked, is Gordy a good writer? I think he
Speaker 2: shows promise. I think Gordy is a kid, shows promise
Speaker 2: as a writer. But then I'm not sure if the
Speaker 2: closing moments of the movie and the article that he
Speaker 2: writes that he's very proud of. He turns into Richard
Speaker 2: Drayfus by this he's very proud of. He's almost kissing it,
Speaker 2: like Emilio Estevez kisses hisso Anthony Michael Hall kisses his
Speaker 2: little thing that he wrote on behalf of all of them?
Speaker 1: Is that kind of proud of what he's written? But
Speaker 1: what the show is that good?
Speaker 4: I didn't know where I was going to bring this
Speaker 4: hat today, Pete, but you've stumbled upon something that I
Speaker 4: think what I got from the end of the film,
Speaker 4: and in actual fact that last bit of the line,
Speaker 4: So have you got written down something along the lines
Speaker 4: of you know, he never had look back on that time,
Speaker 4: and I've never had good of friends as I had
Speaker 4: when I was twelve, But Jesus does anyone. So I
Speaker 4: would hazard a guess that if a middle aged writer
Speaker 4: hasn't had better, more rewarding friendships than the ones that
Speaker 4: we've just witnessed in that film, then no, he can't
Speaker 4: be a good writer because he's not much of a man.
Speaker 4: The reason I say that, and which brings me to
Speaker 4: then what I was actually going to say, Pete, And
Speaker 4: this is controversial is that I believe that notion that
Speaker 4: they try and capture at the end of that film
Speaker 4: is why America is in such a state of partless
Speaker 4: hope at the moment, because he's basically saying, the best
Speaker 4: relationships we have when we're twelve, they never get better
Speaker 4: than that, and that's kind of the high water mark.
Speaker 4: A lot of my dealings with Americans, a lot of
Speaker 4: them do have kind of juvenile aspirations as to what
Speaker 4: a good relationship is like. It's like they're niggling and
Speaker 4: they fun but never getting to it and never talking
Speaker 4: about actual proper stuff and always been good time people
Speaker 4: and moving on to the other thing before we can
Speaker 4: actually truly resolve the problem. So yeah, I'm not convinced
Speaker 4: that God he was a good writer. It's heartbreaking now
Speaker 4: for all the people that love the film, it's predicated
Speaker 4: on a lie. Thanks Peter.
Speaker 2: No, these are just opinions, and please remain strong. I mean,
Speaker 2: I love this film, but I mean this does nothing
Speaker 2: but it made. Good films will do this. They make
Speaker 2: you think about your own life. And I was thinking
Speaker 2: about the friends that I had in prim and I'm
Speaker 2: still like what I would call my in a Circle
Speaker 2: is still that the kids I went to school with.
Speaker 2: In a way, I've got other friends I've met through
Speaker 2: you know, comedy and life and who are you know,
Speaker 2: just as important to me. And I found it strange
Speaker 2: that they had this intense experience and then they basically
Speaker 2: didn't know each other. They didn't have anything to do
Speaker 2: with each other, you know, as adults. And then I
Speaker 2: kind of thought about it more and I thought that
Speaker 2: actually kind of rings true. And maybe I'm thinking more
Speaker 2: of the movie version of what that would be like.
Speaker 2: And as much as I have kept in touch with
Speaker 2: you know, a lot of my mates just referred to
Speaker 2: the man in Circle, but even then I might only
Speaker 2: see them once or twice a year. To be absolutely honest,
Speaker 2: it's not that surprising that these for people who really
Speaker 2: are only friends because they live in the same town.
Speaker 2: One wants to bust out, one wants to join the army,
Speaker 2: so they've all got different ambition. Thinking about it so more,
Speaker 2: I kind of liked the idea that it was honest
Speaker 2: enough the movie to kind of go the more shinyer
Speaker 2: Hollywood version of this is like, and we were best
Speaker 2: friends forever.
Speaker 4: Yeah, But I think I mean, this is what these
Speaker 4: movies in the eighties were really good at doing, which
Speaker 4: was acknowledging and buffing and shining a moment in time
Speaker 4: and holding it there beautifully. It's kind of like the
Speaker 4: mosquito caught in the sap. It's that thing of oh
Speaker 4: my god, that's there, but it's a time and a place.
Speaker 4: And so that end of the film is interesting in
Speaker 4: that it does acknowledge that people move on and people change,
Speaker 4: but we can look back on that time. The bit
Speaker 4: that did bug me was like they were the best
Speaker 4: friends I ever had, and it's like that to me
Speaker 4: was so I just didn't trust that was still the
Speaker 4: twelve year old speaking as opposed to the adult writing,
Speaker 4: and there was Oh, I mean I can understand that
Speaker 4: there's still that wonderment and joy and that notion. There's
Speaker 4: a beauty of nostalgia. I mean, nostalgia Pete can do
Speaker 4: all sorts of things to people's logic.
Speaker 2: Well, this movie kind of is so funny because neither
Speaker 2: of us were born in ninetin fifty nine, so we're
Speaker 2: not nostalgia for that, but you recognize the time, you know,
Speaker 2: and then you become the nostalgia for No. Eighty six
Speaker 2: as well. Because of you know, the actors involved in
Speaker 2: the kind of filmmaking. So it works on a number
Speaker 2: of levels of nostalgia. Very powerful. I mean, does he
Speaker 2: get spoken enough in we talked about Spielberg and you
Speaker 2: know Copplers and John Hughes gets spoken about, I think
Speaker 2: more than robberrain sometimes.
Speaker 1: But Rob Rainer give us a list.
Speaker 4: What do we got?
Speaker 2: His first film is this is Spinal Tap. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: that's the groundbreaking mockumentary style was born. The Office doesn't
Speaker 2: exist without this. The Christopher Guest films don't work without this,
Speaker 2: the sure thing, great little film. I've said that John
Speaker 2: Cuzzack is great. Then stand by Me. Then The Princess Bride,
Speaker 2: This is a good run. When Harry Matt Sally, Yeah,
Speaker 2: Misery another Stephen King adaptation, I think my favorite of
Speaker 2: the Stephen King horror patients a few good men. Then
Speaker 2: he makes a little film called North which doesn't necessarily hit.
Speaker 2: Then The American President, very underrated a little.
Speaker 4: Oh it's gorgeous.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was gorgeous, and then probably doesn't make you know,
Speaker 2: many hits. He makes films like years later, the bucket List. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's probably you know, the high point named about six
Speaker 2: that run he had, that's an extraordinary run. He made
Speaker 2: one of those films, and your a legend. He's made
Speaker 2: I reckon six at least films that are spoken about.
Speaker 4: But when was the last time iment, So we talked
Speaker 4: about that notion of legacy, and I guess that's what
Speaker 4: you're talking to, is you know you started by saying,
Speaker 4: you know, he's not spoken of in the same waight
Speaker 4: he terms as a Spielberg or it's say, it's interesting
Speaker 4: because a lot of the stuff that he did with
Speaker 4: the big films were lightly beautiful touches, you know. I mean,
Speaker 4: When Harry Met Sally was an iconic film of its day,
Speaker 4: but it's a slight film. It's gorgeous and funny and lovely.
Speaker 4: Stand By Me was kind and gentle, but it had
Speaker 4: kids as the leads.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I don't know whether it's because he's playing in a
Speaker 4: space where ultimately he's trying to make people feel there's
Speaker 4: something about those films. I mean, even a Few Good
Speaker 4: Men was trying to get more into that weightier space,
Speaker 4: but it still had a pretty sumptuous, kind of gobblable
Speaker 4: center to it that was that was pretty easy to
Speaker 4: easy to absorb. Maybe that's people resent that the fact
Speaker 4: that he's they're pretty slick, absorbable.
Speaker 1: Stories that sort of a few good men. You know,
Speaker 1: there are comedies as well.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I mean people think comedy is
Speaker 2: easy as far as but it's acting on screen and
Speaker 2: directing it on screen very difficult. This is a beautiful scene.
Speaker 2: This is Gordy breaking down and river Phoenix, Chris comforting him.
Speaker 3: Don't say that it should don't see that, man, My
Speaker 3: dad's added a little good. It doesn't keep you. No,
Speaker 3: he just doesn't know you.
Speaker 2: It's it's oh good.
Speaker 3: Should gonna be a great water or something? Gordy. You
Speaker 3: might even write about us. Guys, if you ever get
Speaker 3: hard up from material, I guess it has to.
Speaker 5: Be really hard enough.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a lovely line because obviously we know that
Speaker 2: we're watching a movie about the story that he's told.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Again, it's it's a real phoenix, Like, how good is
Speaker 2: it to have a friend the right moment in your life?
Speaker 4: What I loved about that saying is that it completely
Speaker 4: honors the emotional truth of the characters at that age.
Speaker 4: It was a beautiful thing to be reminded of. So
Speaker 4: I'm fifty two. Now I've got twenty year old sons.
Speaker 4: My boys had a good friend that went through an
Speaker 4: illness and I went on a camp with the Boys
Speaker 4: Rights of Passage camp for Making of Men experience. And
Speaker 4: one of the things that became apparent to me when
Speaker 4: I was away with one of my boys was that
Speaker 4: the health of his friend was with him every minute,
Speaker 4: was with him every minute. So that was one, and
Speaker 4: then my other boy it became apparent when I went
Speaker 4: on the camp with him we went separately that his
Speaker 4: greatest sadness when he was in year seven was his
Speaker 4: best friend left the Central Coaster go and live in Brisbane,
Speaker 4: and he was devastated by it. He was upset and
Speaker 4: he told me he would cry himself to sleep because
Speaker 4: he missed his friend. And so that scene in that
Speaker 4: film was another trigger reminder to me to remember whenever
Speaker 4: you're dealing with anybody at any age, but certainly with
Speaker 4: younger people, you can go ah, you can say, don't worry,
Speaker 4: you won't won't matter to you. When you're older, you'll
Speaker 4: forget about that. No, that's not important, son. And it's
Speaker 4: really really easy to whitewash the emotions of younger people
Speaker 4: because we from an older perspective, know that the sands
Speaker 4: of time will stand the edges off that that heartache
Speaker 4: and you'll be fine. But in that moment, it is
Speaker 4: everything to those children, and it needs to be honored
Speaker 4: and admired when they can find each other and express
Speaker 4: it to each other. So those tiny little things. I
Speaker 4: remember it coming out the fact that I had listened
Speaker 4: to my boy and had that moment with my boy
Speaker 4: and realized how difficult it was for him to lose
Speaker 4: his mate to Queensland. It played out beautifully a little
Speaker 4: while later because we were talking about our Christmas holidays
Speaker 4: and we're going to fly down to Melbourne for Christmas
Speaker 4: holidays and that was that, and Jimmy just asked quietly,
Speaker 4: old what day are we going to fly down to
Speaker 4: Melbourne for Christmas holidays? And we said, oh, this day,
Speaker 4: and he's gone, oh ah, well, and then he said
Speaker 4: the name of his friend. He said, I'll call him Pete,
Speaker 4: because you're here. Pete's flying down just that day and
Speaker 4: if we leave that day, I won't see it. And
Speaker 4: my wife didn't wasn't aware of his emotion connection to this.
Speaker 4: Kids said, oh, you'll be able to talk to him
Speaker 4: on the phone and you'll be able to. I'm sure
Speaker 4: you'll catch up with him on another holiday. Because we
Speaker 4: were just in that logistics space and my boy didn't
Speaker 4: say any but I clocked him. His whole body went
Speaker 4: like that. And my wife didn't know because she wasn't
Speaker 4: aware of this emotional thing that he had going on.
Speaker 4: But she basically had said to him in that moment,
Speaker 4: you don't matter. That's what he heard.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you heard.
Speaker 4: And at no point did my wife everything that because
Speaker 4: she loves that boy beyond measure. And as soon as
Speaker 4: we had a discussion, that was completely changed around. But again,
Speaker 4: just as we travel through our lives with people that
Speaker 4: aren't at the same space and place and time, whether
Speaker 4: it's age, culture or sojo, economic demograph, whatever these things,
Speaker 4: when everyone's different to us, it's easy to project your
Speaker 4: own sense of it'll be fine. But what's beautiful about
Speaker 4: this movie is it takes you back to a space
Speaker 4: and you see these young boys looking after each other,
Speaker 4: and you go, God, wouldn't it have been nice for
Speaker 4: their dads to hear that conversation? And that was the
Speaker 4: most beautiful thing I took for it. It's like they
Speaker 4: were beautiful friends in that moment because they just stopped
Speaker 4: and listened and didn't judge. And I think they do
Speaker 4: that in this film better than I've been doing a
Speaker 4: bit lately.
Speaker 2: This podcast comes with homework. You are a bloody busy man.
Speaker 2: There are some projects that you are working on. That
Speaker 2: secret squirrel stuff at this stage. I mean, feel free
Speaker 2: to announce him if you like, but very exciting.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you finding time to watch the movie
Speaker 1: and tetitleus about it.
Speaker 4: Pete, thanks so much. It was an absolute joy. If
Speaker 4: anyone's listening and thinking I haven't seen stand by me,
Speaker 4: it's lovely eighty four minutes. It's really beautiful to roll around,
Speaker 4: and so I thank you man for offering it up
Speaker 4: and taking something a little surprising into my putting something
Speaker 4: surprising into my week. And that's what I've been looking
Speaker 4: for lately, Pete. A little bit more.
Speaker 1: Surprise, excellent, mate, Love you take care for it. When
Speaker 1: the name has come and the land is And that
Speaker 1: was so much fun.
Speaker 2: Rob Carlton, he can process things very quickly and then
Speaker 2: articulate them in ways that make me envious. He is
Speaker 2: an extraordinary block to hang out with. Very passionate, wise, intelligent,
Speaker 2: funny and love watching him perform. And you haven't seen
Speaker 2: him on Boys Swallow's Universe check him out there. Of course,
Speaker 2: he's Logie Award winning Kerry Packer. Thank you to everybody
Speaker 2: who listens to the podcast. I love your support. The
Speaker 2: best way to support the show. It's all free. I'm
Speaker 2: not asking for the pony up at all, but if
Speaker 2: you would like to support the podcast, go to iTunes
Speaker 2: and give us a rating. I suggest five stars, but
Speaker 2: you know whatever you like really, but five would be nice,
Speaker 2: and leave a review if this keeps.
Speaker 1: The algorithm moving in the right direction.
Speaker 2: And so we leave Old Pete safe and salt, and
Speaker 2: to our friends of the radio audience, we've been a
Speaker 2: pleasant good night