Transcript of 70mm’s Smokey and the Bandit (1977) Episode.
SLIM Hey, it’s your old pal Slim and this is 70mm, a podcast for film lovers just like you. Every Monday, I chat about recently watched movies with my close friend and artist, Danny Haas
DANNY [laughs]
SLIM And my close friend and movie insider, Protolexus.
PROTO Top your oil and crank your rod, it’s time for Smokey and the Bandit.
SLIM Every month we have a new theme that guides our featured presentation for that episode. And this time around, we’re continuing with 70s Month and Danny’s pick: Smokey and the Bandit starring Burt Reynolds and Sally Field. If you want to skip right to that discussion, you can use the chapters in your podcast app. But is the TransAm the best thing about this movie? Or were we smitten with a chemistry between this lovable cast? Let’s find out… now.
[70mm theme song ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
SLIM The VHS Village Top 100 results are in. I think we mentioned it a few weeks ago, we talked about our submissions. We talked about the Sight & Sound list a couple of weeks ago about how all these critics and filmmakers pick the best movies of all time, they do it every 10 years and McKenzie from our community, co-host of the Austin Danger Podcast, took it upon herself to make the Top 100 of our community, the VHS village. And the list is out, the results were in as of today, as of recording. It’s big. There’s some shockers in there.
DANNY Is there?
SLIM So the top five isn’t exactly shocking to me. There’s one in the top five that shocked me.
DANNY Really? Which one?
SLIM Jurassic Park?
DANNY Really?
SLIM I never would have expected that. But maybe it’s more… mainstream. I don’t know, among our community. More nostalgia fog-ish.
PROTO Wow.
DANNY I don’t know about that. Nostalgia fog? It’s a perfect movie.
PROTO Didn’t we all give that five stars? [Danny laughs]
SLIM I know, but just because I gave a five stars to a movie doesn’t mean I should consider one of the greatest movies ever made. I gave Robocop five stars and it didn’t make my top 10 list.
DANNY Well, it didn’t make the top 100.
SLIM Didn’t make the friggen’ Top 100. [Danny laughs]
PROTO Robocop wasn’t in your top 10?
SLIM No, I posted my top 10 and I viewed it away from movies that I just like love. I viewed it as, I love this. But I can also see this being critically acclaimed and called when the greatest movies ever made.
DANNY Right. I didn’t vote for Rocketeer.
PROTO Wow, you guys put a lot of thought into this. [Slim & Danny laugh]
SLIM So what was a shock to you out of this list, Proto? Anything out of these 100 movies?
PROTO I mean, the big shocker I think that everyone’s talking about is Tommy Boy sneaking in there at number 100.
SLIM Number 100.
PROTO There was collusion within the village, confirmed.
SLIM They confirmed their own collusion!
PROTO And no one’s doing anything about it. Where have we seen this before?
SLIM Police states.
PROTO But it’s okay, it’s all right.
SLIM Fascist nations. [Slim laughs] I couldn’t even spit that one out. So it’s no surprise of anyone there was collusion in the voting escapade in the village and they confirmed it and Tommy we made 100. So the top 10 will go through the top five. So number five, The Matrix made it as the fifth greatest film of all time. Best film ever made.
PROTO Sounds about right.
SLIM I don’t have any problems with that. That’s up there. Hundo. Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg, number four. Fantastic film. Not gonna disagree with it being a fantastic film. 2001: A Space Odyssey number three.
DANNY Huge film.
SLIM Did you hear the whispers that Cinenauts is back, the Cinenauts podcast, the journey through the Criterion. And that the cinnamon knots will be covering 2001. Did you hear whispers about that? Is that real?
PROTO Is that in the Criterion?
DANNY It’s not.
SLIM We’ll need to get our — Dale, can you? He’s gonna go go phone up the Criterion. He’s gonna see what he can make sense of.
DANNY Mr. Criterion.
SLIM He’s going to call up Bill Criterion. Number two is The Godfather.
DANNY Yeah, I can see that.
PROTO White American men getting their moment. [Slim & Danny laugh]
SLIM Holding that loaf of bread in that poster, the godfather himself. I would agree, you know, that’s up there. Wasn’t on my list necessarily.
DANNY Really?
SLIM I don’t think so. No. The number one movie, top 100 movies of all time, as voted by our community, 450 films were in these ballots — Parasite, Bong Joon-ho.
DANNY Absolute banger.
SLIM That was on your list, wasn’t it, Danny?
DANNY I will say the top four were on my list.
SLIM You saw it coming.
DANNY Yeah, of course. I have my finger to the pulse of the village cinematic community.
SLIM What a weird sentence. Jaws made the top 10, I agree with that. Jaws made it number eight. Silver Samurai, number nine.
DANNY The what samurai?
SLIM Silver samurai. [Proto laughs] Seven Samurai, number nine. Do the Right Thing, number 10. I was happy to see that make the top 10. That was in my list. Portrait of a Lady on Fire, seven. Hell yeah. When are we doing that movie again?
DANNY Oh, that’d be a great one to revisit.
SLIM Mamma Mia.
PROTO Portrait of a Lady on Fire on Redux.
SLIM In the Discord this week. I told her to read something again. And I tried to find his screenshot of the portrait, but I couldn’t find it.
DANNY Oh my gosh.
SLIM Yeah. And then the final movie in the top 10 At number six was The Fellowship of the Ring, Peter Jackson.
DANNY I like this top 10. This is a pretty good top 10.
SLIM It’s a pretty good list. The Dark Knight is in the list. Movie we covered, number 63. Knives Out placed ahead of the Dark Knight. Danny, how do you feel about that?
DANNY Um, no, that’s wrong. There’s a lot of things wrong on this list as you keep scrolling
SLIM Call him out.
DANNY Here. I’ll give you I’ll call one out. What was up so high that I was shot social. I was Max Fury Road.
SLIM Where’s that up? On the list?
DANNY 18. Way too high for that film.
SLIM My goodness. Interesting. No, thank you. Oh, Jazzy points out in chat. The Truman Show at 75.
DANNY Haven’t seen that in years. I know Psycho is on here. That’s pretty high up. Oh, I got 10 out of 10 on this list. JK.
PROTO I’ve got the film that used to be the king of these lists, always number one, for a long time Citizen Kane considered the greatest movie ever made. And it’s made the list but it’s at number 40.
SLIM Yeah. It’s ahead of Phantom Thread though.
DANNY You want to talk collusion? Hot Fuzz over Citizen Kane.
SLIM I’m not even engaging with that sentence.
PROTO I mean, you should smile top 200 Like what’s going
SLIM on people with maybe a plug on reel on his podcast? Don’t plug. We’re not going to say the name you almost almost did. I’m not saying it. collusion? refused. I refused to take part in the collusion that presented some of these movies. T2 number 99. Yikes. Roman 94. I don’t even know if Rome was in my list. Maybe I should update my list. It was not. Roma should have been higher. I had children of men in my top 10
DANNY Toy Story is over Roma. Can we talk about that?
SLIM I don’t want to talk. Talk about it. So it’s a great list. That just is an amazing list. There’s so many amazing movies in this list. Having said that, oh, February right around the corner. What do you want to do February? We did 70s month, we’re wrapping it up over the next two weeks. What do we do to top 70s month one of opinions about 70s month a lot of smoking the band had quote couldn’t finish it. Quote DNF remember these you see the meme? Danny was supposed to be the chosen one. That’s what I’m thinking of one day he made the spec. Some people were DNF.
PROTO He’s in a lion’s den right now.
SLIM So for February the theme for the month is the VHS Village top 100 movies of all time. Every movie that will be chosen for a future presentation for that month will be a movie from this list. Heck yes. So McKenzie put this list together and McKenzie will be helping us close out the month. McKenzie will be coming on to the pod Jesse movie from this list. So we will be giving back bringing the focus on these amazing films. Proto, you’ve been eyeing on this list? Have some ideas what you’re gonna choose?
PROTO Yeah, I’m I am zeroing in on a picture that that has I’ve been trying to figure out a way to do this movie since the inception of our of this podcast so maybe it’s time.
SLIM Hellraiser again. Danny, you probably have like 30 ideas in mind.
DANNY No, no, I’m locked.
SLIM You’re locked already.
DANNY Oh 100% and that’s why I rearranged our order. I’m going first that month baby.
SLIM Oh my god.
PROTO Love to see it.
DANNY I’m excited.
PROTO Your bravery.
SLIM God, there’s so many good picks on here. There’s so many things. They said it couldn’t be done. It’s sick. righting the wrongs of 2022 Let’s see, let’s say a lot of new patrons are joined this week. Salman Josh and Joseph all joined this past week at access to the Veterans Village discord on Patreon discounts on Danny’s prints and we just posted The Last of Us episode just for our supporters from our pilot season. A lot of fun watching that. TV show a lot of fun chatting about it. A lot of fun. Wait until you hear Danny’s thoughts on this show. I was getting texts. I was in the hockey locker room this week. Oh my friend of mine telling me he was shocked to hear what you had to say.
DANNY With each other with towels talking about The Last of Us ep.
SLIM Did you have a camera in there? How did you know that we were doing that? We like to have fun in there.
DANNY It’s like the opening of Carrie in there. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Stupid ass. Oh my god. Proto, you’ve been on a run this year. You’ve been trying to start fresh proto 2.0 It’s been called the movie insider starting a new leaf. What did you watch this week?
PROTO Got some more films. Watch this week. Yeah, I’ve been keeping a good pace. I’m gonna have a good start. I think something that’s helping me is that I started a new list watch lists 2.0 Whoa. Yeah, this watch list public list. And all I’m all I’m using it for is to kind of line up the next two or three movies that I’m planning on watching. Because you know, things will pop up on streaming. And I’ll even have it on my watch list. And I’ll be like, oh, I want to watch that. But then you know, you go to sit down and watch movie and you’re like, what was that movie that I meant to watch and I’ve been getting I’ve had this problem. If I go to my watch list, they filter by streaming and I’m still clueless as to what I’m trying to find. So I figure if I you know have this special list, but things on there so this has been serving me well I’m always prepared when I have a spare few moments. My children in the other room to begin another flick. Yeah, so I’ve been watching some movies i i got to watch the new Noah Baumbach flick on Netflix white noise which as classic you know, classic Netflix rollout no marketing. No one knows it just appears suddenly Adam Driver starring in this movie. What is this movie? Nobody knows. No one’s heard a thing about it. There it is. But I watched it and I had a great time with this movie. I really wasn’t sure what to expect the reviews the reviews weren’t really selling it as like a clear win to me at least the ones I had read. But I had a great time It stars Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig. And there it’s based on a on a novel and he’s he’s a professor of Hitler studies excuse me, and there’s this event that happens in their in their town. It’s called the Airborne Toxic event. And it’s a very it’s a very quirky movie. You know, the dialogue is very bizarre, but I found it really funny. It really worked for me I gave it four stars. And then I know, Slim you watched it as well?
SLIM I did, fired it up. Date night with my wife. She couldn’t stand the movie thought it was the weirdest thing she’s ever seen. This is after we watched skinnable rank so she was ready to just unplug all our internet access, I think.
DANNY Off the grid.
SLIM Cut the cord. I had enough. Yeah, I thought it was I mean the budget for this was like through the roof. I think it’s so weird that Netflix. I guess I’ve seen his feet tweets about how we’re talking about how Babylon is like, quote a bust for Chazelle or whatever. But like, no one is talking about how white noise and emancipation on Apple TV also cost like $100 million. And no one is talking about how like people talk about this movie for a day and then it’s gone. Like who knows what What is the success for this movie? But yeah, I thought it was weird. I thought it was funny. I thought Adam Driver is hilarious. He has such great comedic timing when they’re in that when the car and it’s spinning. Yeah, and he’s just like making the hand motions like to his wife so funny. I think I read the description I thought it was gonna be more about the actual Airborne Toxic event. But that’s really kind of over in the first third. And it drifts into May 1 Third first half it drifts into a different kind of path from there but the end credits are insane.
PROTO Yeah, the last third feels very different feels kind of like a different movie and it all and that shot where they go. I won’t spoil anything but there’s a scene where that go to a motel it felt like it. It felt like no no bomb Bach was kind of flexing on us with like, because it looked like a horror thriller with all that neon and the rain was gorgeous. Yeah, it really was.
SLIM I mean, he got $100 million better look gorgeous, I guess for this little drama. I mean something some of the shots like the gas station with the sign the Shell gas. Yes, that was insane. I gotta want to kind of almost see like a horror movie from Noah. Which is bonkers thing, but gret his hair.
PROTO Oh my god.
SLIM Greta Greta. Great work. Great work in this doing great
PROTO Greta. Keep it up his boats
DANNY just tapped your upper lip. What are we doing?
SLIM Garage white noise. You’ll want it maybe I’ll feel the same. But yeah, it was fun. I love Greta. What else?
PROTO Um, uh, one other movie I watched I had on my list for a while because I it’s another Ken Russell movie, who did? The lair of the white worm. I watched that because our friends over at Benton spider covered that movie. But he had another movie I saw called a billion dollar brain. Starring my dear friend Michael Caine, a young Michael Caine from 1967. And this movie is very bizarre, really bizarre movie. He plays a secret, a British secret agent who’s retired to be a private investigator, but then he gets pulled back in by his old boss to go on, like this mission. And he has to meet like with this contact. And it’s it has like a lot of high jinks where he’s kind of like, dropped off at a place he has no idea what else to do. And it’s it’s Michael Caine kind of like just like walking around, like stumbling into like, where he needs to go. And very much kind of like that, you know, James Bond, like thriller environment where, you know, he doesn’t know who’s good or who’s bad. And you don’t really know what’s going on much. And it feels okay for a while. But then you realize you’ve watched three quarters of the movie, and you still have no idea what’s going on. And like, none of the scenes have like much connective tissue and it just feels very weird. But then there’s like these flashes of brilliance with like, these really like beautiful shots in the movie. And just like, these really compelling characters, I was taking, like screenshots and taking videos, because I was just like, I was like, it was such a bizarre experience. Because at the end, I was like, this movie is not good. But there’s just like, some really compelling scenes in it. And it’s, at the end of it, it’s really bizarre. So it’s about this billionaire who spends a billion dollars to create a computer, but it’s a computer from like, the 1960s. So it’s, it has the, like, the punch hole cards for like memory and stuff. It’s like, it’s that old, they actually use the Honeywell, they give like a thank you at the end of the movie, they use the Honeywell and factory to shoot it. Like you Honeywell. But yeah, it’s like it’s this like oil baron billionaire in Texas who wants to destroy communism. And he has like this bizarre plan and he use this computer. And it actually has like, amazing parallels to I think like modern times was just like the, the power that like billionaires have currently. So it was really interesting to watch it and just like see that and how like relevant it still was. So if I don’t know if you like weird movies, you know if that suits your fancy, I would say to you know, seek it out. It’s not really it doesn’t have much availability. I just finally popped up on Pluto TV. So that’s how I was able to watch it. You were bearing the lead
SLIM with saying Ken Russell, Ken Russell’s director of altered states Yes, someone come on now.
PROTO He has got he’s got a lot of good work. I want to watch his other movies. I really enjoy what he does the devils Yes, that’s the other ones like
SLIM it’s gone for shutter though. Religious month. Didn’t art have like a zingy title for potential month? Do you remember that? Was anybody in chat? No. Start asleep. Please art.
PROTO Someone ping art.
SLIM Danny, what about you?
DANNY I mean speaking of RT, RT, RT dear friend of the show logged the sound of double oh seven, a documentary talking about you know the creation of the James Bond music over six decades how they got the theme song how they got into pop culture within and artists, right? Keep going if you want math like I just did and it was really good. I really liked it to streaming on Amazon Prime. And it’s an interesting look at, you know what they were trying to do in the beginning with John Barry. I mean, there’s me speaking of Michael Caine, Michael Caine’s interviewed in this as well because he either lived with a roommate with a couple nights with John Barry while John was writing the James Bond theme. And he said he couldn’t he wasn’t sure if it was sleep at night because John Wooden stopped playing the piano. And then one morning he woke up and John Barry was like Michael, you have to hear this. I’ve created the John the James Bond thing. It just plays it from the piano for Michael Caine. Which is crazy.
PROTO exactly was he holding a hoagie in the interview.
DANNY But then it goes through all the decades of you know, Paul McCartney and bonobo and all the people a lot of Billy Eilish and Phineas and it’s really cool interviews and a lot of I mean, the music of bond is pretty iconic and it was great to watch it all
SLIM What about Gladys Knight Licensed to Kill my favorite bond song Did they talk about that at all that song hits horde?
DANNY License I mean I think they do but they I think they lean more into the conversation about diamonds are forever but yeah, it’s great. It’s fantastic.
SLIM lead into something though. Yeah, you open the box.
DANNY It was you know, I I just I love I want to love I love James Bond. That’s the thing. I love the idea of James Bond. I love certain movies from James Bond. So I got back on my journey. And then I realized that I was at my end with Roger Moore so I fired up a view to kill a View to a Kill 1985 It is a great song. And actually I liked this one. This was a three star good time. This is probably Rogers best performance may because he was out the door after this one. But it’s got a great Duran Duran song. Grace Jones is amazing in it. She’s awesome. And I just agenda I enjoyed this one this had a lot of I think maybe because I was expecting not to enjoy it. But now I’m excited to be in the Timothy Dalton era. Oh my god. I know. I know. I’m finally here. I’m in.
SLIM We want it is really good. I can never remember which one it is.
PROTO What is this poster I’m looking at that you have is the Michelin man. Yeah, on the job title.
DANNY I don’t know why it was an option on letterboxed but the Michelin man have you to kill poster was what I went with on Boeing. So I’m really thankful for letterbox and this new feature of changing your posters. For this reason alone,
SLIM how about the how about the watch he was wearing? You were talking about
DANNY that Seiko chronograph he’s wearing after his incredible ski slope escape. Oh yeah. To an iceberg submarine with a woman waiting for him
SLIM didn’t he also like wasn’t on like one ski at 1.21 ski
DANNY jumps and then knocks hooks a guy off of a snowmobile jumps on the snowmobile with one ski and does a great leg shake to get that ski off. Canada’s hilarious shake, got to do the leg shake.
SLIM I remember getting to his era movies and like because we talked about ad nauseam, but years ago we did. We started this journey to get ready for the new bond. And I remember being excited to get to the Roger Moore era. And I mean, insert audio of a balloon deflating. That was like the worst hire experience watching those movies.
DANNY It’s it’s incredibly bad and he did so many. And he had some of the best posters which was also in Orange
SLIM County when so many he was also on Cannonball Run. How neat how Needham the circle is gonna be bullied more just around the corner Nope.
DANNY Holy cow she’s probably plays a bond s character and cannibal I can’t remember that movie now
SLIM Jimmy band is probably his name just a reminder around the corner smoking the bandit use the chapter if you want to cut through all this BS get right to the main course Smokey and the Bandit, Sally Fields and Burt Reynolds. It’s a little bit right to the main course tonight what that main course is Burton is tight as jeans. The opposite of Barry Lyndon male diapers. Every week we give out a free year of letterbox pro gets rid of ads, you can get some urine stats disclaimer. I’m a letterbox employee. This week’s winner is tragic sands on Twitter who quote tweeted our Barry Lyndon episode. Still don’t know if I want to see this film or not. Once again, the guys are funny and interesting enough that I don’t need to see the movie to enjoy the podcast, smiley emoji. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. I haven’t watched a ton I watched the menu.
DANNY I want to talk about that a
SLIM lot of people losing their ass about this venue the movie the year. Unexpected instant classic from Mark my LOD. And it has Anya Taylor joy. Actually it’s Ania Taylor, Joy. Sorry.
DANNY Thank you. Thank you. Okay,
SLIM we’re gonna get ditches here proto exhale, so we won’t spend too much time on this movie. We don’t need to get any negative reviews coming our way. Listen, you
DANNY watch this as the end. Oh, yeah. Did. And I always feel like, worried to talk about this movie. And I don’t know why. Maybe because James Franco’s. I don’t know, right? But I remember losing my mind watching this movie. It was so funny. So I’m taking it. Take a sip. And I really want to watch it again. Now that you dropped your review.
SLIM I also have like, a vague memory of thinking this was hilarious. So I’m going through my 21 Jump Street era movies. I mean, this crew of people, it’s insane. They had a run like you couldn’t watch a comedy without one of these losers writing or executive producing. Sec guys named Adam Spiegel. That guy the guy who’s doing comedies? I mean, he did like 30 comedies in the span of like three years in the 2010s. The beginning is hilarious. Like they go to James Franco’s house and all those celebs are there and they’re playing themselves. And it said Michael Cera famously high on cocaine, being hilarious. It runs is actually one of the things I didn’t write my review, because I went with a snarky review was it felt like a COVID movie? Because the world is ending everything explodes outside of James Franco’s house, and they’re forced to stay indoors and nothing really is filmed outdoors so it almost felt like this could have been filmed in last few years. It definitely wore on me like it’s Seth Rogen Jonah Hill in a house for like, what felt like two hours it wasn’t two hours. So it’s up to you of like, does that sound interesting to you? If not, don’t bother some of the some of the jokes are still hold up pretty well, but a lot of it is just like this is this is like a 10 minute movie. drugged out into 90 minutes but I don’t think anybody’s gonna short it’s based on on like a short movie. Your mileage may vary. Speaking of your mileage may vary. Smoking the bandit. We’re here are 150/4 episode this week from 1977 70s month. Burt Reynolds Sally Field Jackie Gleason the king. What’s this movie about?
PROTO Breaker breaker. Bow Darvill race car driving American darling known up and down all interstates from Nevada to Alabama. Goes by the moniker bandit as he out maneuvers and outwits the Smokies whether it be highway road, dirt path, gravel, walkway or overgrown, grassy shoulder. He’s got his biggest challenge yet transport a truckload of course, from Texas to Atlanta in under 28 hours and not just that, but the runaway frog he picks up rides his rocket all the way to pay dirt. Top your oil and crank your rod. It’s time for Smokey and the Bandit.
SLIM We need to brainstorm some kind of post or something with that text on a mug. Something Oh, boy 1977 Things were a little different back then.
SLIM Who’s the Burt Reynolds of today?
DANNY Timothée Chalamet. [Slim & Danny & Proto laugh]
SLIM Timothée Chalamet with a mustache in the remake of this movie. Danny McBride driving the snowman in the 16 Wheeler. Oh my god, I actually really want to see that. Picture this instead of Sally Field, a little outside of the stadium idea: Florence Pugh.
DANNY What a stretch.
PROTO Wow.
SLIM I know that’s outside of the realm of what most people would think. But can you imagine? Directed lights
DANNY is the bandit. Or gender swapped?
SLIM Okay. Oh my god. Timmy is leaving a wedding. He’s on the side of the road and the drives by I don’t know
PROTO if I don’t know man could achieve and fit though into Burt Reynolds. She
SLIM would explode any other human being in those jeans. They would. I mean, the first 10 seconds of this movie. He’s strutting his stuff and I am zeroed in on him and others. I’m trying to triangulate what’s going on down there and how he’s not in some kind of pain. We’ll get to that don’t worry. We’ll get to that. Maybe Greta Gerwig could direct it that’s another outside of the box think right there what did you know about this movie grown up anything?
PROTO I’m not really honestly when when when Danny said smoking the bandit. I had no idea who Smokey was who the bandit was or what any of this mat really? I had no idea there’s I was trying to even think what was the TV show with like the two brothers who would do that? Yeah, I had no that’s what I like. I confuse that with this. So that’s where I’m at all right.
Good old boys.
SLIM Yeah, that is I mean that’s the whole thing with the good old boys that flag on that the car. What was the car called the Duke generally God can we do any What about you girl? I believe I held it for that long.
I’m impressed.
SLIM Did you grow up with Smokey and or the bandit?
DANNY I did. I feel like every every male in my family had this on whenever we went over to their houses. It was either this or Dukes of Hazzard. I feel like it was on TV at some point. Or like the Andy Griffith Show. But there was so much I feel like I watched the Dukes a lot but my dad played this quite a bit. Or at least he had it on once in a while when he wasn’t watching like the Miami Dolphins lose or something. Right,
SLIM Dan? Oh, you know, blowing it in the thinking he ever won a cup. A Super Bowl
DANNY home. No one knows what’s gonna get
SLIM lost. Yeah, no one knows. Fire of 1990
DANNY But yeah, this was I feel like smoking the bandit was a big deal. And my dad was a not a TransAm driver but he had a Camaro and it was like he was a car guy and I I’m a I’m a I love cars probably ingrained in me from him. But yeah, this was this was kind of a big deal.
SLIM I remember last week, saying that. I think this was on a lot when I was growing up. But I think I might have confused this with Cannonball Run, because I don’t really remember seeing any of this movie before. So I’m somewhat morbidly curious to now go watch Cannonball Run, which bird is also in and is driving cars and I think wears a cowboy hat.
DANNY How need them again?
SLIM How does it again she Shabak bangers chances. So we’ll start off with Danny since this was your pick for 70 This month, we’re almost done seven each month. Stay tuned to find out our plans for next week at the end of the show. But Danny, what do you want to talk about first when it comes to this film?
CB radios
SLIM Oh,
DANNY I remember there was a time even in my driving era, which would have been I don’t know 2000 ish. I still want a CB radio in my car. And then watching this. I still think it’s the coolest thing ever. Like I want the giant antenna on top of me then I had like a Saturn. So I was like put the CB and my SATA please.
SLIM Probably worth more than your car.
DANNY Right? Exactly. I don’t know there’s something about having like this network while you’re driving to talk to people. I know it’s still a thing in semi drivers and stuff like that, but I don’t know I watched this I’m like, can I get this again? And my Honda Odyssey?
SLIM I had a line in my notes as well quote, I want a CB right and i They’re like actually not not common but like in people who like put money into their Jeep, you’ll see a lot of CB radios. Yeah, dash are in the corner. And when we were looking at Jeeps a couple years ago there, there was a Jeep that we saw that had a CB radio. Hello.
DANNY Oh my god. But it’s
SLIM just looks cool. It looks fun. You have the little like speaker that connects to the radio. What would you use the hell out of that? I don’t know who I talk to. Maybe Amanda at home probably Ireland or ASOF be trying to use the CVRA to talk to her at home.
DANNY She’s switching right now. She’s like, What? What’s slim talking about? The by part of where
SLIM do you stand on CB or ham radios?
PROTO Yeah, I mean, it’s it’s so cool. It’s fascinating, too. I mean, it sounds like people are, you know, everyone is screaming each other. Everyone’s so happy to talk to one another. It’s like the complete opposite experience of like, talking to people on the internet. You know, it’s like, man, I’ve had some dark conversations on the internet. You know, but you know, CB radio seems like everyone’s real friendly. I don’t know what the range is on those. Does anybody know the range? I don’t know.
DANNY 20 clicks 20 clicks 25
SLIM clicks maybe depending on the model.
PROTO I mean, you know, your best friend could be out there you just don’t know yet. Oh, on the other end of the season
SLIM God using the radio in the beginning of contact remember making contact with aliens using the pins. Paul left the note in chat CBR is of the range of about three miles that’s far right. Oops. I’ll save it for later one of my notes my top three is quote Burt’s penis we’ll get to it when the time’s right maybe just to stay on the kind of like I want one of these is the TransAm itself. Oh my gosh, man. It looks it looks awesome. And is it just because all like 70s cars 70s Kind of like sports cars looked awesome that this still holds up? Because I was trying to think of like if this movie was made today What the hell car would they use? Like what’s that a cool looking
DANNY probably a shitty Camaro or shitty Mustang? Yeah,
SLIM because this I mean these cars were pretty affordable back then. Or this transient cost like six grand probably back then
DANNY probably. I mean this car for what I remember. They this the the model that’s in the movie wasn’t out yet. They had contacted Pontiac because I think how had saw like an advertisement for this. So Pontiac gave them for 1967 models and put the new 1977 fronts on them. And by the end of filming they had destroyed all four cars. Oh my god. I did I think they destroyed one on the bridge jump. And how because he was a former stuntman drove that jump oh director of the movie.
SLIM That’s pretty cool. Yeah, some comments in chat mentioning a Tesla actually did have that mind as to like what these Tesla Roadster but also just makes me physically ill thinking about
PROTO do they use them fast and furious because that’s kind of like the equivalent of 1967
SLIM shows older cars. They use like Honda Civics that were like, souped up or whatever to we I mean we can we dream cast the dead. It’s up to the powers that be to figure this out.
PROTO We have it all cast. It’s all lined up. Ready to go.
DANNY We don’t even need it to be modern. Just put it back in 77. Yeah, give us our TransAm back.
SLIM Did they do that with the Dukes of Hazzard? Or what was another show that they remade with like Ben Stiller as one of the dudes Oh live Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson. In one of those remakes. Can anyone confirm this? And challenge Starsky and Hutch, thank you. Movie. Oh, yeah. I mean, they had her speak at a comedians that had a run. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson were writing their own checks back then. Part of what’s the first thing you want to talk about when it comes to this movie?
PROTO I was really enamored with the character Buford T justice. Oh
DANNY my gosh.
PROTO So he’s, you know, he’s the villain. He’s the sheriff from Texas who is chasing the bandit, because he’s trying to get back his his emasculated sons bride to be which did not die. Look. He kept me reminded me so much of Billy Crudup.
SLIM We just recast it it’s done we did.
PROTO There it is. But yeah, Buford man. He is his his like line delivery. I was just like obsessed with the way he talked. But that scene where he goes into the diner to get a sandwich and he’s talking to the bandit and doesn’t know it and like the mouth no All users that are making I wasn’t having
SLIM How about him buying two burgers and a soda for a $1.25? What is going on in this country?
PROTO What happened to this country?
SLIM What happened?! Our mortgage is through the roof and the rate pay has not gone up with the cost of living. And this movie is just making me pissed off thinking about it.
PROTO You couldn’t get a paper cup for $1.20 today. [Danny laughs]
SLIM $1.25 for two cheeseburgers. I can’t get over it. You know how much we’re spending for cheeseburgers as some kind of ritzy, you know, Shake Shack.
PROTO It’s $2 to add cheese!
SLIM You think the average family can afford to go to Shake Shack once a week? Please. Once a year, my friend.
PROTO You’re enrolling in the Shake Shack credit card if you’re going there.
SLIM That’s not a bad idea, I’m already up to my ears and debt with PayPal credit. I read on the wiki Paul delete that he’s trying to cc my wife and he, I think the wiki said that, like he popularized the use of some bitch in this movie, like a pitch and a one word and that was like, set it off. When he’s done flying the movie, in my opinion, is when he’s trying to catch up to the bandit. And he gets pulled over by the COP. COP and he’s like getting an earful. So he yells at him, he tricks him into apologizing and then he has the line where he goes Apology accepted. Now if all I mean is delivery is so good in this movie. It’s amazing. I do have to call out that he was Minnesota Fats in the hustler, which I watched maybe for the first time two years ago, and he was amazing in that as well, which is a classic billiards movie billiards, which reminded me of Pardo’s comments about a pool hall movie. Danny number two
DANNY Sally Fields in this film. I mean, I don’t know that I have seen another movie that has Sally Fields in it. But she is Sally Field Excuse me. She’s adorable. And I always thought I thought that it was called Smokey and the Bandit because she was smoky because she was smoking hot. That’s what I thought this move after I thought she was smoky. But me and she’s so great. She’s funny. Her trying to smoke a cigarette was hilarious. I just I just found her incredibly adorable. And I love her. Oh yeah, Miss Doubtfire? I’ve seen Miss Doubtfire Oh yeah.
PROTO I love the scene where they’re trying to switch seats and they I think they try it twice and give up close times. That’s great.
SLIM Yeah, she didn’t she have a line I think I’m in love with your belt buckle under her breath their chemistry was off the charts and apparently they started a relationships during Yeah, how could you not get off? Bert playing the game you and he knows how to play the game. Yeah, her introduction her in the car. The stunt with her looking back did they jump the bridge when she was like in the no she did they did some son was like holy
DANNY crap goes off road and goes through the mailboxes hasn’t been make his own lane and she’s like holding on backwards. Insane. Yeah,
SLIM she is fantastic. In this movie. I’m gonna see if I had any other notes. I think I had one note about them doing the stunt when she was driving. It looks like she’s like she’s driving. But I could have sworn I saw her wearing a beard in the stock like they have a they only could get a snug man that had a beard to drive as her it was cracking. My number two salad was in my list as well. Let’s let’s just get into Burt’s jeans. Let’s just get everything out into the open right now. How does he How does he do it? How does he do it? Like how does he get into these jeans? There needs to be a full video investigation. A metaphor see when he’s walking in that fair photo? What do you think?
PROTO Was his penis in a cast? The definition? How thin are those? Are those? Are they jeans? What kind of material? Are we talking? They’re just
SLIM does anyone have a screen I think it’s the scene where he’s in the fairgrounds and he’s walking around the corner to talk to the brothers.
DANNY They gain a little anus.
SLIM I couldn’t concentrate. Honest to God couldn’t concentrate. That’s probably what Sally Field was thinking as well. And everyone
DANNY had a movie? She did. Yeah, she used the zoom feature. I didn’t know you can.
SLIM Easy man. 20% Please.
PROTO Enhance. Enhanced
DANNY CSI episode.
SLIM I do want to talk a little bit more not about his genitals. But just Bert in general. I think he’s had a fascinating career. You know, he was I think the wiki said that he was like the number one star in movies at this time. And he decided to do this movie. I think they were friends him and how I sent him the script. And how I originally was going to play Burt’s role, but nobody was accepting it so Burt’s like yeah, I’ll do the movie. Apparently, he also just read the script and thought it was like dog s but he’s still like, did it anyway, and so many of the scenes were improvised that were in the movie. But his films are really like a blind spot. Like, I think deliverance where he has the bow and arrow that’s deliverance, right where they go on the camping trip together with the friends. Yeah, I haven’t seen that in maybe 10 or 15 years. But his his career is kind of a huge blind spot. And I remember growing up as a kid, my parents would watch evening shade, which was like a sitcom that he was in in his like older years. So I thought this is like it for really what I’ve seen in his films. What about you, Pardo?
PROTO Um, yeah, I watched deliverance last year for the first time it that’s really bizarre because he shaved his iconic mustache in that, so it almost doesn’t even look like him. My main thought in this though, is like he is so much like, the the like the ideal of a man or like, like an American man of this time. That I was also wondered like, is he like too much of a man? Like he just exudes like masculinity to like such a level? That it’s kind of like overwhelming in a way as as you watch this. But yeah, I loved I just if they improvised a lot of stuff that would make sense. Like I love the scene where they get to where they get to pick up the beer, and he just like hops on the forklift. And like, runs it into the warehouse and knocks over all the cases like that. That was pretty hilarious. Like, yeah, yeah, a lot of good, like timing with that kind of stuff.
DANNY Like the whole movie was unhinged like that. There was everything felt improvised. Yeah. Yeah. So much of it.
SLIM Yeah, I definitely zoned out during some scenes, because I just like had I had no recollection of what was happening. I mean, we barely even talked about the plot outside of part of synopsis, like, you couldn’t get Coors beer. South of it was the state of the Mississippi, the Mississippi. Yeah, it’s like Disney and not having Marvel properties in Florida. Mason Dix. But I also had to like Google that I was like, What is kind of a law is that what yours is this, and then apparently, Coors didn’t have like artificial anything in the drink or sweeteners or preservatives so that if not refrigerated, it would literally just be rancid and not drinkable in a week or something like now,
DANNY so they could make it from Colorado to the east. So that’s why they had a time limit.
SLIM Like he had to literally get it to like in you know, in in in drunk. What the idea of it is just so strange. Like he so they get the beer. I don’t even know if they paid for it. Really they just took that on. They rob him note.
DANNY The kicked in the door. Yeah,
SLIM I couldn’t believe he started kicking that door. I was I would have been like freaking out as my friend like, we can’t do this. No, Cletus was on board. Snowman was about snowman was on board. But they they ship it, but birds entire job is to just distract local cops. If they get close to the bus. So he’s just he’s his job is high jinks the whole movie? It’s crazy. It’s Rancors. I don’t know.
PROTO Yeah. Well also as they’re driving around this idea that you could find each other without cellphone like they just like connect each other and I guess the radio helps but I’m just thinking like Man You’re getting ahead of people you’re going down these turns you don’t have a map you know you don’t have a cell phone you don’t have GPS bird how you getting back on the main highway how you find your way out here when they drive off to go have sex in the woods and never get out of there
SLIM why would you there yeah they’re calling out mile markers that like you like I wouldn’t know what the hell mile marker I’m even it would be a total disaster My God let’s see protos turn I think number two
PROTO um well yeah I guess about that about the rows I love in this how every single person they meet knows bandit and they know that he was coming they knew what was going on as if like this was like, you know, whisper down the highway for hundreds of miles Yeah, that everybody knew that. Oh, bandit. He’s making a quarters run. And we got to get out here and help. And then the wait like they’re unhinged. Everyone else is unhinged. Like that scene near the end where? Buford? His so his car gets pretty much totaled and at one point the door is left open. And then this guy driving by and like a truck, sideswipes his car and knocks the door off. And it’s just like giggling to himself. Like as if like yeah, this is gonna work out great for me. Like there’s no repercussions for anyone. This is like Mad Max.
SLIM The original Fury Road right here. You talked about Buford? I don’t want to shock anybody tell me but I think we got a voicemail that we need to listen to. Oh, we need to play at mid mid discussion. Oh my god. I don’t know a whole lot about this. It just says Buford VM on it. So let’s give a lesson. This Do you see Daddy? Yes.
Right. And I had this little pop case what Sam Hill kind of talk show with 70 am
smoking again, not bad at all. My song China’s brand is short. We’re not going to be ashamed to give a timeline to our barbecue is yours when I’m too. My roof. Ba Have you know this had that tarnish my reputation?
No nice Smokey Bear. In fact, I’m still coming forwards as
SLIM you kids run around in the background via my
PROTO great grandkids. I’m just gonna be 120 years old now.
SLIM Buford, don’t be a stranger. If we ever do the sequel, or the third one be sure to leave it as the fourth or the fifth or the show or whatever the hell they did for this thing. Old Buford up to his old tricks. Let’s see. I think we are up to Danny’s final point.
DANNY Jerry read the snowman wrote and sang the theme song plays through the entire Yeah. Movie. I saw that. I was impressed that apparently. He wrote it played it for how and how said if you change anything, I’ll kill you because he loved it so much. And apparently was the highest his best song ever, ever wrote? I didn’t know I did any more. Even though Jerry. I think he is the lead actor and smoking made it three. Yeah. But I was impressed. That song is so catchy and I hated it by the end
SLIM how about a snowman scene in that restaurant with the bikers to increase in their own home? Oh my gosh. And I think we’re doing
DANNY a destroyed those bikes he gets
SLIM beat up and I was kind of a depressing scene because he’s just like walking out limping getting his ass beat gets in the truck. I was worried at the dollar. I thought they might have done something to dog the dog. So you’re worried about the dog. And then he runs over their bikes far out. Amazing. Far my final point we’ve covered just about everything. One of the just some random notes it looks what Buford is interrogating those kids by Sally Fields car it looks so hot. Like I can just feel the heat In the southern heat in the scenes in some of the shots he was sweating as a off like he could see it his shirt and his back. Oh my god, it just felt so hot.
DANNY Because that scene was uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable him interrogating those kids.
SLIM Yeah I’m too pooped to pop. Huh great line
DANNY the smack your mama lie.
SLIM Oh yes. At home the floor I do is punch your mama in the mouth. Oh my god. Bro final point.
PROTO Ah, yeah, I’m kind of out of things as well. I like how Buford refer to anything he didn’t like as communist. Also, I still didn’t understand what a chokan puke was, or why it’s called that.
SLIM I think it’s a diner. I actually had to look that up too. I thought he was. I thought he was talking about the Winnebago if you get my drift. Oh, I thought that’s what he was talking about. But I think he meant a diner.
PROTO Yeah, I’m just maybe uncomfortable. Someone saying that. Yeah, some of the innuendo and this was pretty far out and say so. Yeah, but yeah, I loved I love Buford. His vernacular.
SLIM Danny honorable mentions final rating for smoking the bandit.
DANNY Enrolled mentioned the only movie to outgrow Smokey and the Bandit in 1977. Was Star Wars. Wow. Which I thought was incredible. Wow. This is a three star movie. Let’s just be honest. It’s good. It’s fun. It’s a quick romp. If you love a good car chase movie, this is a good one. I guess. I love Bert. I love Sally. I love the TransAm so I’m at three stars for this had a good time. The 4k didn’t look that special. By the way. I didn’t think it looked great. I didn’t watch it. I don’t think it was like oh, this is incredible. 4k.
SLIM Dom delouis is in Cannonball Run. Just wanted to make a mental note. Like close that tab. Okay, sorry. I had I had a few villager tagged news and I lost the tab. I’m sorry. I want to read some of them. The South is strange. One of my notes. Excuse me. 3k an hour for 28 hours. Yeah, I think the currency would have been their job was like 350 grand today’s money for this job. Holy cow and then they went double or nothing at the end. They shall take the money for the chowder. knots. I was not expecting that at all.
PROTO Is that what happened is that does it just pick up in spoken banter to right there. I
SLIM think Gleason Gleason and Sally Field return so maybe what is Bert? Yeah, yeah. They look great. I’m gonna give a three and a half stars. Oh, oh boy. Yeah, Lord have mercy. Definitely drug I don’t even know if I was paying attention for 10 minutes towards the end, but you didn’t miss anything. I didn’t think so. Some of the the chemistry between Sally and I actually just all the characters was a delight. So three and a half stars.
PROTO Yeah, this was just a fun ride. I just enjoyed it. You know, it’s silly. It’s goofy. You know? It’s not asking to be anything more than that. I give it three stars as well.
DANNY I mean, if your best friend can come into your room and lay on top of you on the bed and tell you let’s smuggle beer for $80,000 in those jeans, you jump up. Those are those are best friends.
SLIM For Do you remember when we used to bust your chops about tight jeans and I would send Kramer trying to get out of a tight I just had a mental image of Bert trying to get out of those jeans.
PROTO Yeah, it was you know, the joke was that it would take me 10 minutes to get out of my jeans. So I have to start
SLIM I mean I’d love Yeah, I’d love to see a video Bert trying to get out of these jeans.
DANNY I mean, someone takes them off him guy that yeah, he’s got up you know, he’s
SLIM got to cut them cut them off. Cut them off set every day. Just close
DANNY them down the paint and rubs right off.
SLIM So that is Smokey and the Bandit. I don’t think we have any letters for Smokey. So that means we have to announce next week’s movie. So it will officially close out 70s Month.
DANNY Who’s pick is it?
SLIM But we’re not going to do it alone. Okay, we’re not going to do it alone. We’ll do this together. Most folks know by now that I also work on The Letterboxd Show podcast, I also co-host, edit, some of those episodes, Weekend Watchlist, The Letterboxd show proper and we just launched a new show called Best in Show focused on awards season. And one of those hosts is a perfect fit for 70s movies and that’s Mia Vicino aka BRAT on Letterboxd.
PROTO The big one.
SLIM She’s going to be coming on and close out 70s month to talk about her boy.
DANNY Talk about him.
SLIM These two don’t even know the movie yet.
DANNY I know, I’m sweating!
SLIM This is breaking news. Talk about her boy, John Cassavetes.
DANNY Oh my god.
PROTO Ohhhh, I knew it. We’re going back.
SLIM Not only John, but Gena is coming back too. So her pick for this movie, Opening Night, 1977, actress Myrtle Gordon is a functioning alcoholic actress who is a few days away from the opening night of her latest play concerning a woman distraught about aging. One night a car kills one of Myrtles fans who is chasing her limousine in an attempt to get the stars attention but Myrtle internalizes the accident and goes on a spiritual quest, cc Proto, but fails to find the answer she’s after as opening night inches closer and closer, fragile Myrtle must find a way to make the show go on.
DANNY Oh my gosh.
SLIM 4.2 on LB, streaming on HBO Max and the Criterion right now.
DANNY I’m excited about this, holy cow.
PROTO Oh, Cassavetes also stars in it.
SLIM He’s got some greys going on right now on this background image.
DANNY There’s a lot of Rowlands in this. Lady Rowlands, David Rowlands, Catherine Cassavetes.
SLIM Paul in chat thought was gonna be Mikey and Nicky. I also thought there could be a Mikey and Nicky pick. But I believe Mia said this is her favorite Cassavetes. We’ll find out next week the details when she comes on the pod.
DANNY I’m excited. This looks awesome.
SLIM Yeah. Number 202 on the Letterboxd Top 250, Aaron points out.
DANNY Was it in the VHS Village top 100?
SLIM No. We’ll ask Mia’s opinion on that as well next week. And maybe get her finger on Tommy Boy being the 100th movie in the list. So yeah, 70s month has had some interesting picks. I feel like we’ve gone in an unexpected direction for 70s Month. Sometimes that’s necessary when you need to innovate.
DANNY But we’ve covered so many 70s movies.
PROTO It’s true.
DANNY So we were out there, we put ourselves out there.
SLIM The innovation never ends. Keeps us up at night.
PROTO Yeah, also no Jeanne Dielman on the VHS Village Top 100 says at all.
SLIM Didn’t even make the top 100. Number one on Sight & Sound. And then so as we mentioned at the top of the show, VHS village top 100 movies of all time will be the theme for February we will only choose movies from that list. The world is our oyster, Proto, as we close out this month. Do you have any final thoughts as we venture into Opening Night next week with Mia?
PROTO Well, yeah you know what this month was kind of unexpected the way it went. We still got one more movie, you know, who knows how it’s gonna go? What was the other one we did? A Woman Under the Influence. Man, what an ep that was.
SLIM Peter Falk.
PROTO Peter Falk in that picture. Good lord.
SLIM Drinking those beers.
PROTO Well, I’m excited I think this is going to be a banger with a banger guest. What more could you ask for?
SLIM Danny looks nervous. 144 minutes points out Art. So set your schedules accordingly. We’ll see everybody next week for Opening Night.
[70mm theme song ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
