Friday 30 January 2009

Doug Bradley on AMR download link...

So here's the link to download last night's radio show with Doug Bradley:

http://files.filefront.com/AMR+Movie+Show+Episode+69mp3/;13135406;/fileinfo.html

If you're looking for it in the archive it's Episode 69.

No, your MP3 player is not playing tricks on you, we really did record for an epic 4 hours. Doug is on there for the first two hours. There's a point in that two hours where I don't say anything for ages - that's because I really badly needed a wee! After that we meant to cut it short but got into a huge debate about the Oscar nominations. And if you make it to my Milk review, about 3 and a half hours in, I apologise if it's a bit rambling - it was about 1 in the morning on a school night at that point.

EDIT: Have just skipped to the end and realised it's 'only' 3 hours 10 minutes, apparently due to technical difficulties, though I suspect more likely due to not wanting to put off everyone from listening to it. I also wonder if anything we said after that time made any sense at all. Still, the Doug Bradley interview is there in its entirety, as is the Oscar debate - just the reviews are missing.

One thing I did want to address - someone wrote in to the show and mentioned that they didn't watch westerns. This isn't an attack on that person, just a reaction to an opinion I've heard my whole life. On the show we all suggested two must-see westerns - I said Magnificent Seven (one of my top three favourite films ever) and Django (best opening in a film ever). But thinking about it, that doesn't even come close to covering all the westerns you have to see - off the top of my head High Noon, Seven Men from Now, Gunfight at the OK Corral, El Topo, Hour of the Gun, High Plains Drifter, Rio Bravo, Stagecoach, Ride the High Country, The Wild Bunch, The Searchers, anything with Audie Murphy in...and I'm not even a hardcore western fan. My dad could could list ten times that amount. And these aren't just films about men in hats being men, and guns and posses and so on - these are films about politics and communities and relationships and everything else great stories are about - like all great genre films it's never about what you see, there is always more going on there it's just that the filmmakers have chosen to fit that story and its themes into a popular template. But it's also not just about the genre - the ones mentioned and the others I'm sure other people could mention - they're just good films, great films in fact. And films that have had a huge influence on cinema today. Saying you don't like westerns is fine, but you can't claim to have an interest in cinema history if you don't watch westerns.

And that's okay. You don't have to have an interest in cinema history. I just wish more people did.

On an unrelated note, I have to thank Brother D and Bren at Mail Order Zombie for reading out my shameless 10 Dead Men plug on their podcast. It's a great show and one that is a huge supporter of no budget film-making. If you're into zombie cinema at all it's practically essential listening.

8 comments:

Richard Hawes said...

I'm not a western fan. Or war film fan. Never have been. They're not genres I ever warmed to. Not against watching some of those but I wouldn't make them a priority.

Chris Regan said...

See, I'm not a war film fan either but Guns of Navarone, Paths of Glory, Big Red One, Apocalypse Now and so on...they're all essential viewing. The same rule applies.

Richard Hawes said...

Your feelings toward westerns are echoed in my own toward Bollywood. I just can't convince anyone to give them a go. There's some great stuff out there. If you've never seen one check out Don. It's more Hollywood than Bollywood and the songs are great.

Chris Regan said...

I will check that out, but I notice there are two versions (1978 & 2006) - which version is best? Are all remakes generally bad in Bollywood as well or is it the other way around?

Richard Hawes said...
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Richard Hawes said...
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Richard Hawes said...

I apologise for not being clearer. It was the remake I was referring to. But it's worth watching both versions. And if you watch Uwe Boll's Postal you'll hear the original Don music.

Bollywood remakes are not automatically bad. The remake of Sholay was bad! It was kalled Aag. Beware of that one! In terms of the Hollywood remakes, they're a rather shameless mixed bag. Identity was remade almost scene by scene (Khamoshh...) but had a different twist ending and was quite decent. While the remake of Christine (Taarzan: The Wonder Car) just has to be seen to be believed!

Recently a movie based on a Tamil movie loosely based on Memento (keep up) came out and it was excellent. It's called Ghajini. Well worth seeing.

Chris Regan said...

Cool, I've got Postal and keep meaning to watch it. I'll check out those other films too - having never seen any Bollywood films until now I'm quite interested. The Memento one sounds ace.