Levine, Mastrangelo and From Omaha … reunited as a Fustian trio once again. Reviews of CLOUD ATLAS, Tim Burton’s A NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS IN 4-D, I SAW THE DEVIL and Max finally screens Brian De Palma’s CARRIE. The is weeks production news and as a tribute to Halloween, The Fustians will offer each of their 3 selections for THE GREATEST MONSTERS IN FILM OF ALL TIME. Will Faye Dunaway find herself on this Fustians List as well? Stay tuned.
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Category "Steven Spierer Show" RSS Feed
My #1 pic for THE GREATEST MONSTER IN FILM OF ALL TIME is none other than Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger.
Piper Laurie was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Carrie but lost out to Beatrice Straight for Network.
Justin, I admit I think you are the Gene Siskel of the Film Fustians. I respect your opinion on movies just slightly more than the others, but perhaps you were a little hard on Max at the beginning of last night’s show. I hope it was all tongue-in-cheek ’cause I think you “sh*t on his house”. Otherwise, awesome show.
Max’s excessive use of the word “cunt” doesn’t bother me, but I take offense at Justin’s assertion that the show skews to the male demographic. Why so dismissive of the fine female film fustian fan following? My two X-chromosomes haven’t prevented me from listening to every minute of every show since it began. I guess it comes as no surprise that the monster from 2007′s “Teeth” didn’t appear on anyone’s lists.
I loved the discussion on the Disney-Star Wars deal, I hadn’t heard the tax issues Barry brought up in any of the news, nor the situation with the other George Lucas films. I wonder if this means we’re going to see a “Willow” attraction at Disneyland soon.
Can I ask why the Fustians try to keep the show from going long? Sometimes when there are a lot of reviews or the lists start a discussion the hosts try to wrap it up or keep it short so the podcast isn’t long. If the hosts are getting tired I completely understand, but have you gotten feedback from listeners that the podcasts are too long? I don’t mind if the shows are 2, 3, or 5 hours, they always go by so quickly anyway.
Okay, boys, you heard it from the source. Gals are cool with the uncouth language, but length does matter.
I returned to THE MASTER. Have you had enough of this topic? If you’re sick of it, skip on to the next post. If not…Here’s what I came away with after a second viewing.
The Fustians were discussing the dramatic progress, or lack thereof. The final scene shows Freddie on the beach with the sand maiden; a flashback to the opening scenes. Does this indicate he got nowhere? Or was it a thoughtful moment of reflection upon his progress, a contrast from the past? That’s a vital question, and there’s no simple answer.
I’m seeing a key in an early moment, where we’re just getting to know Dodd and his Cause. This is on the ship, when Freddie watches Dodd philosophize before the crowd. Dodd speaks metaphorically about a dragon, a violent creature with bloody teeth. You put a rope around its neck; now it’s on a leash. You tell it to sit and it sits. You tell it to stay and it stays.
That, Dodd says, is where we are now. The dragon will stay. The next step is to teach it to roll over.
That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? This is “The Cause” viewed in its most positive light: Taking control of our inner dragon. A process that takes a lifetime. Maybe more than a lifetime. Perhaps trillions of years. “Trillions” with a “T”, ha ha.
So I did see dramatic progress in Freddie. At the end, the dragon in his head was not to the point of doing tricks. But he could make it stay, at least most of the time. That was the core goal of the exercises. “The Master” wasn’t exclusively a reference to a cult leader; it was equally about becoming master of your own dragon.
At this point in time, we’re all suffering from political overload. What bothers me about politics is the focus on what’s wrong with the other guy. Somebody won’t be reasonable, therefore we must force that person. Which may be valid and important, but it’s also a distraction from solving our own problems. It’s easier to blame someone than tame our dragons. Dodd was correct in saying there would be world peace, if only we could master the animal within.
The dragon isn’t the totality; another angle is heard in Dodd’s words near the end when he warns that every man must follow a Master. That’s true, and it’s a reason to seek a higher power; there may be decent men in the world, but who is worthy of being “Master”? There were hints that Dodd looked to Peggy as his own Master.
Bottom line: THE MASTER fascinates me because it’s asking the right questions. Freddie understood this, and came out of it, in subtle ways, a better man than he went in. Not a perfect man, maybe not even a good man, but a better man.
Post Script: I’m wondering about one tiny detail that struck me as being so weird that I must ask you (“you” being everyone except Justin) what it means.
In the opening scenes of THE MASTER, we see Freddie hacking at a cocoanut with a machete. Some of the milk splatters, and a drop apparently gets on the camera lens and clings, obscuring a small blot of the view. This is the sort of thing that wouldn’t get left in accidentally, because it’s sort of jarring; it reminds you this is only a movie.
The thing is, I remember something very similar happening in THERE WILL BE BLOOD. I think this was likewise in an early scene, in the drilling of a one of the crude oil wells, and a drop of oil from a splatter jumps up and smears a small blot on the lens of the camera, and this remains visible for a moment.
As I said, I doubt it could have been an accident to do something like this even once, but to do it twice would be not only deliberate but seem to convey some motive. Something subliminal? A Rorschach blot?
Does anybody else remember these details, or is it just me? And if so…whatever does it mean?
One more thing. Even weirder than the endless reboots are the twin films in unrelated and overlapping productions. 1993′s TOMBSTONE went against 1994′s WYATT EARP. 2005′s CAPOTE was chased by 2006′s INFAMOUS (or was that “INSIDIOUS”, ha ha?). This year, THE GIRL is mirrored by HITCHCOCK (you noted Toby Jones as a repeat offender). And ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER has now been ripped off by Spielberg’s LINCOLN.
With respect to that last one (and I haven’t see either of these): I’m guessing that Daniel Day-Lewis makes the better Lincoln, but the vampire hunter got the better script. Did I get it right?