Lincoln

[00:00:01] Blank Check with Griffin and David Blank Check with Griffin and David Don't know what to say or to expect All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check

[00:01:01] My name is David Sims and I can't do it either, but I didn't really try We are capable of doing one thing and that's a hashtag being the two front We're also capable of doing another thing which is hosting the podcast Blank Check

[00:01:12] Blank Check with Griffin and David Let's see if we can get it Clothed in immense power This is a podcast about directors, filmographies People who have massive success early on And are given a series of Blank checks by Hollywood To test out their limits The creative limits

[00:01:32] I'm trying variations here Sometimes those checks clear They do, sometimes they do Sometimes the checks clear Often Sometimes they bounce, baby Also often But we are going through the filmography of students We'll work one film at a time

[00:01:48] We're nearing the end of our mini-series, Pobby and If You Cast Pobby and If You Cast It's only the films that Spielberg made We found a DreamWorks And this is where we're coming up on the last dying breaths of DreamWorks Yes, one of his biggest hits though

[00:02:04] Yeah, weirdly For sure Big hit Like greatly outgrossed a lot of on paper more commercial accessible movies True It's interesting It is interesting I mean, I would say like on the one hand like of course Lincoln's Seems like a box office gimme, you know

[00:02:23] Stevie Spielberg, Oscar winner, famous president That's the kind of movie you imagine does well In the 90s Be a big hit But in 2012, you might not be so sure Yes And Spielberg started developing an Abraham Lincoln film in 1999 Long time ago

[00:02:44] He was working with Doris Kerns, good one Correct And she said like, hey, I'm working on a Lincoln book And he was like, what's the deal with Lincoln? She started telling him stuff and he was like cool dude Into it Want to make a flick about him

[00:02:57] And for years and years, series of different screenwriters come through the doors I think, was Eric Roth working on it for a while? John Logan John Logan, right And his version was mostly about Lincoln's relationship with Frederick Douglass Yes I think it was kind of a two-hander

[00:03:14] Yes, Paul Webb, a playwright Took a big pass And they set that up And they had Niesen Liam Niesen was going to do it Niesen ready and that was in about 0506 And then Spielberg decided he didn't like the script And so, forget it

[00:03:31] And that script was more of a classic biopic that was Span the life At least the whole presidency Like Lincoln, the president Right And then, you know, Stevie had just worked with a little nobody by the name of Tony Kushner A little Pulitzer Prize-winning nobody

[00:03:48] On the film Munich And he said, hey Tony That's their first collaboration Right, hey Tony, what do you... This is how Steven Spielberg talks about it We haven't done his accent yet On the show But hey Tony, what do you think Lincoln? This is how Spielberg talks

[00:04:01] Now, now, now! I want that draft now! And Tony Kushner's like, oh yeah, yeah, Lincoln, he's a good guy Let me, I'll take a look Yeah No, he's good Kushner stopped unloading those boxes down at the docks And took a pass at the Lincoln story

[00:04:13] Lincoln, yeah, I knew that guy He said that he knew almost nothing about Lincoln But knew that he really liked him And so he wanted to try to figure out what it was That made him feel such a fanny for a man

[00:04:22] That he knew very little about other than The very obvious accomplishments, right? So Kushner buries himself in In Lincoln material For years, just reads like every fucking book on Lincoln And yeah, in 2008 He joked that he was on his 967,000th book About Abraham Lincoln Right

[00:04:41] And he submits a 500 page draft Which to be clear would be a film that was about 8 or 9 hours long If, if, just put to page You know, page to screen And this is, so this time between like 2006 And 2011 where the film finally gets Uh, rolling

[00:05:01] There were these sort of series of legendary table reads Like once a year or maybe, you know, twice a year Spielberg would sort of send out the beacon And you'd get this crazy ensemble cast Of like 40 or 50 great actors, right? Obviously, Neeson and Sally Field

[00:05:19] But then like I know at one point Alden Ehrenrich was reading the Joseph Gordon Levitt part I know like Maria Bamford has talked about The fact that she was called in to play Like all the sort of small female roles Oh hello, I'm, you know, made Yeah, okay

[00:05:36] But there'd be these weird calls And for depression There'd be these, yeah It sounds a lot like This is Lincoln, yeah Not what Maria Bamford sounds like Yeah, she's got a little I don't, that's not good either I don't know, I fucking can't help it

[00:05:51] I'm never gonna get on mad TV Um, she, uh, just said like She got the call out of nowhere And like that would just happen People would be like, do you want to read a part And Lincoln would be like, oh my god, holy shit

[00:06:02] They'd read it and they'd be like Does this mean I'm gonna cast in a movie And then nothing would happen for three years You know, it'd just go on and on and on 2009, uh, very shortly after Natasha Richardson It's in 2010 The lie 2010 Sorry

[00:06:17] Natasha Richardson, his wife, Liam Neeson's wife Had died a year earlier, sadly And he had also In a very tragic freak accident Also a year earlier Had this crazy career revival taken Yep, suddenly he's Mr. Taken He's in a weird space Because on one hand

[00:06:30] He's the most bankable he's ever been And he's now like an action-leading man On the other hand He's going through a devastating emotional heartbreak Right And he's said since then that he dealt with it By working as much as he could Um, right

[00:06:43] Yes, he just sort of took any project That was thrown at him Right, but I think there's a difference between Like being like, fuck it I'm gonna do, uh, unstoppable Right, I'll do that one No, non-stop Non-stop Non-stop Non-stopable Um, there's a difference between

[00:06:58] Don't worry about it, Ben Yep, don't worry about producer Ben Ben Dusser Poet Laureate Mr. Positive Mr. Positive Mr. Positive Birthday Benny The Tiebreaker Third bike Benny Soakin' White Benny White hop Benny Soakin' White Benny The Farts Attack The Meat Lover And this episode's very personal for you

[00:07:15] Because you are, of course, we know a close Personal friend of Dan Lewis Absolutely You're also the peeper Yeah You see you in the sheets Called you the fuckmaster Yeah You see you on the streets You wish you a hello fennel Do not Oh, true Don't

[00:07:30] Do not call him Professor Crispy No Man, you can't No, don't do it No, no, no I stand by that You're being a rebel rouser here Yeah Okay He has a course I'm a radical On this podcast You're the thaddeus Stevens of this episode Exactly

[00:07:45] He has a course graduate discern tells Of course a different major Such as producer Ben Kinobe, Kyle, Ben Ben Aitram, Len, Ben Cahit I like to see David Going through this Save anything I'm in the room with this Ailey Ben's with a dollar sign Yeah, good, great

[00:08:00] Hey, I'm here We're gonna need a Spielberg name For you soon, Ben That's true Yeah, what are we gonna do? I don't know I don't know what stands out to me Yeah We'll have to think through it I'll just take a brief sort of glance

[00:08:13] At the films we've covered Catch me if you, Ben You know, we already did I know Yeah Come on, I mean Yeah Saving private Ben Reiben Character and saving private Ryan A great character Ed Burns' character Brooklyn Boy One of the top 20 characters Saving private Ryan probably

[00:08:34] I'd say probably unquestionably for me One of the top 20 characters That Ed Burns has ever played I think it might be the best character Ed Burns has ever played That is a much worse list What about that McMullen fuck? Brother McMullen, motherfucker Right Nisen, you know

[00:08:50] Was throwing himself into action films But I think to throw himself Into a project that was this Manding He claims He says no He says he fired himself He just thought he was too old And it was ridiculous for him To play Abraham Lincoln

[00:09:02] He's at this table where he says It's like a lightning bolt moment And he goes, I can't do it And everyone goes, oh fuck The movie's not gonna happen now It already was stretched out over so many years Who do they get to replace Liam Neeson?

[00:09:11] And Stevie throws a Hail Mary pass A man he had previously corresponded With about playing the role And every time he had gone A men's honor Thank you for thinking of me Can't do it Not gonna do it I'm not interested, yeah I don't think

[00:09:22] He said it was preposterous Right Spielberg makes one final plea A handwritten letter And Del Day Lewis finally I'm sorry Actually, no That's not the full story Okay, Ben, as What happened with your friend? I got a call from Steven Okay And I said, alright

[00:09:40] I'll put in a call to Dan I called Dan I always said Dan, check it out Listen, I know you're worried about Playing a presidential You know Like an important figure In American history I mean, I get it He's an Irish man You're an Irish guy

[00:09:53] You're representing this huge figure In really world history Yes Yes It's a lot to put on your shoulders But baby, you're Dan Lewis And I pepped him up and he did it Um, this used to be a No Bits podcast

[00:10:07] I just want to get that on the return Well, I'm not For your service Yeah, no, no, no, bit Come on This used to be a No Bits podcast You're right though Since we've revisited the best of Yeah We've sort of brought that back Let's say

[00:10:22] The show used to be A lot more serious than it is now Right It might be time to buckle down And get a little more focused Question though Question though Lock the gates That sort of seems like I haven't done that in a while

[00:10:35] That seems like a bit That's a great bit We should do it right now Lock the gates Now, now, now Clothed in immense gates I don't know Locked in immense gates This is seriously still No Bits No Bits Alright, enough Dan Lewis says yes Dan Lewis says yes

[00:10:55] Yeah, sure I haven't made a movie since 9 Right Maybe he's thinking like I don't want 9 to be the last movie I made Because there's always this In When Dale Day Lewis makes a movie Where it's like Maybe he just doesn't make a movie ever again

[00:11:05] Like it's always possible 9 more like 4 Yeah I think that's even general Generous I think I'd give it a 3 I just think Daniel D. Lewis Would give it a 4 Yes He was in it Yeah 9 is also I know we've been talking about 9 A lot recently for whatever reason

[00:11:20] 9 was also an example of It was developed for years As Javier Bardem And then Javier Bardem dropped out And they were like Why make it if you can't get Javier Bardem Who would be a better choice than Javier Bardem And then they were like

[00:11:33] Daniel Day Lewis everyone was like Oh shit This one just got real And then everyone saw it And they were like This was a bad idea Daniel Day Lewis is Undoubtedly The number 1 actor who If he's in a movie You are interested in it

[00:11:45] As if a famous director is making a movie You take it seriously It's like Oh Daniel Day Lewis wants to do something Right He hasn't made a movie since Lincoln He is now making a movie again With Paul Thomas Anderson Who have directed him

[00:11:56] And there will be blood But 5 years ago Lincoln That was his last performance Takes it easy It was even like surprising at the time That 9 came only 2 years after Or 3 years after 9 is the weirdest thing in the world He worked with a bad director To make a part

[00:12:11] To be in a party was all wrong for Like in a musical Which no one really figured him for That's the only I mean no He's made out of the decisions that are A bit of a head scratcher Scratch my head Sure

[00:12:23] But that was a real head scratcher Well I'll tell you I fell down a weird YouTube rabbit hole Of watching 9 Clips the other night Because I was just like He was a fucking musical And everyone makes fun of like Oh the Daniel Day Lewis process

[00:12:37] How DP immerses himself You know he goes off into the wilderness Whatever Yeah But like you look at something like Lincoln And it's like okay He spent some time Like thinking about that character And building it Yeah no he ran for office Right

[00:12:49] And then he held a series Of debates around the country With a no you go ahead You look at 9 And you look at how shortly it came After there will be blood And you're like Yeah maybe he does need that many years to like

[00:13:00] Maybe he just needs 4 or 5 years To just spool up you know Yeah Because you watch 9 and you're like That character's not totally big Maybe he just wanted out a Daniel Plainview Yeah Well the other thing is In 9 he's playing a musical Character that had been originated by

[00:13:14] Ronald Julia And then was played by Banderas And which I saw on stage And he was wonderful So he wasn't playing like His character that he could like Create from the ground up No But maybe that I don't know I mean also it's just kind of crappy movie

[00:13:29] Rob Marshall is kind of a crappy director He is buddies with Steven Spielberg though So maybe Yeah Maybe that was part of why Spielberg Got him on board for Lincoln And I will say this too Downing Lewis does have a nice singing voice Perfectly fine

[00:13:41] I think he looks uncomfortable In those musical numbers But I actually think he has a quite Lovely voice I think he just was like Maybe I should just sing Like you know No You think he was just in the shower one day Yeah And then was like No

[00:13:56] And then he went No He's like wait a second No I gotta share this with the people Alright Lincoln and Shot in 2011 It comes out in 2012 They bring back Sally Field Yeah Sally Field basically like Stored outside Steven Spielberg's house Being like

[00:14:12] I will be playing Mary Todd Lincoln And you're not gonna stop me Well because she was the right age at the time They started developing the project Right Yeah cause she's too old for the role now Which is pretty rare That you have an actress

[00:14:22] Who is too old for a role Yeah and she's like I've been living with this character For like you know Fucking like Seven, eight years I'm ready to do it I'm ready to gain the weight She is 11 years older than Daniel Day Lewis Yeah Yeah

[00:14:34] But they make it fucking work No I think they do Yeah and then they add A fucking murderers row Of actors The cast in this movie is insane I mean he's been doing it before But this yeah This cast is terrific This is the one where you're like

[00:14:47] Wait, Walton Goggins is being introduced this late? Well it's just because It's a show It's a movie about A congressman And various like Civil servants Secretaries of State and war That you can just have You know Spielberg can just be like Hey Walton

[00:15:00] You ever wanted to be in a Steven Spielberg movie? I got two scenes for ya Right You know right Like show up Yes well A I mean honor to work with him B I think honor to work with Down Day Lewis Like everyone wants to see

[00:15:10] That guy working up close There are a million characters Within the story naturally But also Because it's Kushner And it's such a verbose movie The thing is Mary Todd Lincoln was Nine years older than Abraham Lincoln Really? Yes so it does make sense It does make sense

[00:15:27] Want to get that on the record Okay well I was gonna say I think I knew that It was seen as an unusual match At the time And it's part of the reason A lot of people think Abraham Lincoln Was gay Yes And hence log cabin Republican

[00:15:39] Because Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin That's all scarless But that is where they came up with the idea Yeah What I was You're with me Benny What I was going to say is That because this is a Kushner script

[00:15:53] And it has such a love of language Even if you're a day player in this movie It's not like your part's like Hey Mr. Lincoln call for you Like anyone who has one line In this movie is such an Exquisitely written piece of language

[00:16:05] That it's like even if you're only working a day You're just like You're gonna get to dig in Right it's like you're being Given a nice paté Right It's like driver's part In the film Yes Like he stands out And he's memorable Exactly

[00:16:17] Why wouldn't you do that one scene You get to act with L.A. Lewis You get to be directed by Steven Spielberg And your dialogue is interesting What if you're an Adam driver And it's like the call You're gonna be telegraph operator He's like Nope Abraham Lincoln only

[00:16:26] I am offer only for presidents But you hear I have to have my shirt off Yeah I'll play Andrew Johnson His vice president Who became president That counts Yeah The president of the Confederacy Andrew Johnson completely absent From this movie There was a rumor for a long time

[00:16:42] That Harrison Ford was playing Andrew Johnson Even like before the film was released After it been shot They were like they're keeping it secret But Ford's in the movie as Interesting strange, strange idea Would have been exciting though If he showed up and was like

[00:16:55] In a real movie Fuck you Lincoln You know Andrew Johnson He's an asshole He's kind of yeah He's kind of a Listen Lincoln Also Andrew Johnson was like a real Southern gentleman Like real Southern And I don't really buy Harrison Ford As like a real Southern dude True

[00:17:13] Famously got drunk at his inauguration Andrew Johnson Oh I thought you meant Harrison Ford Well I mean you know You're not the president yet Do you want to hear my impression Of Harrison Ford Doing a Southern accent Just because you said You think you can't do it Sure

[00:17:28] Goes a little something like this Goes a little something like this Get off my fan boat That was not worth One second of anyone's time That was great Thank you, Ben I'm giving it two comedy points Sure too Okay I can buy two But Kushner makes this

[00:17:47] As he's developing the script He goes like What if I only focus on the last Four months of Lincoln's life Well I think right Kushner just sends this 500 page script Spielberg's like Look a lot of good stuff here I'm not going to make an 8 hour movie as much

[00:17:59] As that might be fun Maybe he should have I don't know In my opinion He should make a sequel To this movie Starring Jared Harris As Ulysses Grant I agree I would love to see that movie Jared Harris in three scenes That's his arresting Well you know

[00:18:13] Jared Harris has talked about this a lot But like it just independently He's just like Let's do it Steve Not Spielberg doing it But he I think he was on He locked the gates with Mark Maron And in his WTF episode Jared Harris like Maron was like

[00:18:30] Oh you had a small part in Lincoln You played Grant That must have been exciting right And he was like I took that research I took that seriously Yeah sorry I was in Lincoln I'm sort of doing a decent job I'll say this

[00:18:42] I don't know if it's going to play If you can only hear the voice But the face and the body language You're doing right now Is so Jared Harris He was pretty good in Allied Yeah he's such a good act there Allied Oscar nominee

[00:18:53] This is our first podcast After the Oscar nominee Yeah should have gotten more No Yeah No no Also very good in certain women Great in certain women His last in certain women Great in certain women Anominal And a great example of Jared Harris He can do any accent

[00:19:11] Yep He'll play anyone So of course he can play President Grant Yes he said that he really Is fascinated by President Grant As a man And is very desperate To try to play him again He wants to He's not going like Oh I'm calling up Stephen every day

[00:19:26] He's not pulling like a Tom Arnold True Lies too Where he's like begging the director To bring him back But he has talked about That he would like to play that character in full I'm all for it Me too All for it Jared Harris is

[00:19:38] How old is he 55 Yeah Grant died he was in the 60s So like Great we got time Yeah So yeah they focus up the script They decide to make it Mostly about the 13th amendment Mm-hmm They make it about right Right after his re-election In 1865

[00:19:56] His the three months spent On passing the 13th amendment Which abolished slavery Right And then before the war ended Right There was sort of race against time To get it through Before the war ended So that when the South rejoined They you know It would be the law

[00:20:10] It would be in the constitution And they wouldn't be able to do anything about it Which is That period of time is contained within The last four months of his life Right And then he went He got himself shot Yeah He went and Saw a play

[00:20:23] If you catch my drift I don't catch your drift Much like You know Fidel Castro Saw a play last year You're saying Fidel Castro was assassinated By a disgruntled actor? No I'm using Saw a play as he Just to mean died Death I see

[00:20:39] He was actually one of the like Lead or like The best actors of the time Right It would be like It wasn't like Tom Cruise But it would be like if like Michael Shannon Shot you or something Like a very Very respected actor Yeah Right Jared Harris

[00:20:53] Was just like I've had enough of you Abraham Lincoln Well do the Jared Harris impression Oh It's just a bit of his grove What was the first thing I guess the first thing I saw him in Was when he played John Lennon Way back when

[00:21:06] Oh and a back beat Backbeat Yeah That's like from the 90s He's been around for He's in Deadman And I'd love and have seen Deadman But I don't remember him in it He was trucking around For years and years and years Anyhow The movie we're talking about today

[00:21:20] Is Lincoln The film that they ended up making It's called Two of Us Backbeat's a different one Right Oh right The one that was him in Okay thank you Backbeat is with Ian Hart I think Yes And Steven Dorf Ian Hart is also very good Very underrated actor

[00:21:36] Ian Hart's an excellent actor Who doesn't seem to want to do a lot of acting No he was He was He was in the pilot of Vinyl And I did not recognize him I just I didn't put together that it was him And he was like

[00:21:51] Fucking phenomenal to watch work So why wasn't he in the rest of Vinyl I don't know I have no idea But lovely guy Fucking unbelievable actor Cool Alright Lincoln Can I throw up my first complain About this movie You have a complaint? I do

[00:22:05] This is a great movie I have two complaints about this movie I know it is too good I have two complaints about this movie And they're not major And one of them might be Really fucking petty Okay That you're not in it I'm sorry Griffin

[00:22:18] I auditioned to play Lincoln To play Lincoln When Neeson dropped out They were just sweating day-louis I sent him a self-tape Look we'd like you to play Lincoln We have this guy We got a good guy He's an unknown Griffin Newman Now now now Go ahead

[00:22:34] They said you know Griffin Newman who played the third lead In Beware the Gonzo Alright what was your What is your complaint? My complaint is People talk about this movie As if it's a biopic I would argue this is not a biopic Okay

[00:22:48] I would argue that this movie Is a film about the passing Of the 13th amendment In which Abraham Lincoln is the lead character It's a historical drama Right in the same way that Like Selma is not a Martin Luther King Sure fine It's more of a 13th amendment

[00:23:01] Passage biopic than it is I mean a classic biopic Of course would be like You open on a log cabin Sure And they give birth and they're like Oh very presidential looking baby Right That fuck He comes out and they put a stove by bathroom Right

[00:23:16] Like Selma is a movie about the Selma marches In which the lead character Is Martin Luther King Yes Junior Super fucking petty What But it irks me then That the movie is called Lincoln That is very petty I prefaced it by saying it was That is a stupid

[00:23:33] Ben will you just lean in right now And say that's a really stupid opinion Um that's a stupid opinion You gotta market a movie I mean Jesus I'll give you that I'll give you that But But I would call it Lincoln Versus the 13th amendment

[00:23:47] He was in favor of it He was fine That's the twist They team up It's an early twist in that movie It's like X2 X-Men United Magneto and Wolverine have to work together It's not really a twist in X2 It's more of like a plot element

[00:24:02] That is then discarded They have to beat striker What was that It could be like Lincoln's last days Sure It could be a terrible God That sounds like a Gus Van Sant movie Well that's what I was trying to say It's like just Lincoln in bed

[00:24:16] Just being like I don't know what to do with myself There's Well there's the John Ford John Riffon to move a young Mr. Lincoln That is explicitly about him as a young man Kind of like how Barry is about Only young Barack Obama or whatever Right, when, yeah

[00:24:30] Before he changed his name to Barack They could have called this movie The Old Mr. Lincoln Or the as old as he was ever Gonna get Mr. Lincoln They called this movie Lincoln wisely What's your second complaint? It better be better than that one Yes it is

[00:24:44] But it's on that same path Is it that they shouldn't have done the last scenes Well I think I agree with that I think you guys would all agree That's for sure I think we should end 10 minutes earlier

[00:24:54] And I think there are a couple other little moments across The way of the film that I'll get to When I get to them Where I feel like it is making sort of biopic gestures I think that's the only major one And I do think it's an error

[00:25:07] Spielberg makes the same error And Bridges Spies it's a much more minor error Where it's like Yo why this last scene You literally Edited the film with an ending Like the film literally ends And then it cuts to a new scene Like it fades You're like good

[00:25:23] It's the most satisfying dramatic payoff That the movie could have It's the thing the whole movie's been to And we'll get to that And boy I can't wait Have we been tracking this though With Steven throughout the miniseries Because I feel like it's been coming up

[00:25:34] With a lot of the recent episodes It's a common complaint Especially the one two punch of A.I. Minority Report The common complaint about those movies Became like Ah too many endings Like even though I would dispute Maybe some of those Some of those films

[00:25:48] And I think Munich people complain About the sex scene at the end Very often it's like The last scene Munich has the sex scene And then the scene where Jeffrey Rush approaches him And is like So good job right And he was like No I didn't like it

[00:26:00] And we're like yeah well we got that already You know And it's not a bad scene But you're just kind of like We know We get it Well and I feel like people used to have That complaint About catching if you can too

[00:26:11] You can catch if you can as well It has too many endings I feel like every Spielberg movie we've covered Has had that complaint essentially Maybe save for 10-10 It's just I think it's partly a problem of being Steven Spielberg I agree

[00:26:24] Not a ton of people are going to say no to you Yeah Maybe if you're a slightly less well known director Someone will be like Honestly Like let's end it right here Right whatever And I think With time and distance Some of those movies have been

[00:26:35] And the endings have been re-evaluated And they go Oh actually the ending isn't what it seems to be A.I. Minority Report I would say are the best ones Right In that But I think it also falls into You know the thing we've been talking about

[00:26:45] Is this whole period of Spielberg's career Right Like Pochunler's List He starts his own studio He has this money Yeah He's gotten taken seriously as an adult director Right He's gotten out of his like The big boy director Popcorn yes Let's use the Let's use the full

[00:27:00] He's a big boy director Yeah he's a big boy director He starts making these movies that exist In moral shades of gray Absolutely About unanswerable questions Absolutely All the movies are about that Right really I mean pretty much every movie in this movie is serious

[00:27:11] And this is the beginning of what I would call Spielberg's constitution phase Yes And it's also he becomes a real classicist I mean he starts going like I want to make fucking John Ford Capra Absolutely Howard Hawks movies Yes I want to make Capra movies Right You know

[00:27:28] But with a little more Maybe a little more sort of like Of a questioning like you know Yeah Like shades of gray Kind of element to them Like maybe A little more of a melancholy tone But at the time that everyone Is starting to like

[00:27:39] The Ambulin homage era Is starting to really ramp up Right like super eight People making super eight Comes out the same year as this Or the year before Ah It's either 11 or 12 I think it's 11 But I can look it up Super eight motels Super eight 2011 Okay

[00:27:55] So you know That coming in Spielberg Produces that Yes It's not like that's just a rip off of him Spielberg is assisting In the making of a sort of 21st century ET But that kick starts this thing Of people going like I want to make movies that feel

[00:28:08] Like those little Ambulin movies And people keep on talking about that In interviews right There's that which is like Very explicitly an Ambulin homage And same thing with Fucking Stranger Things But there are other things in between Where like Fucking Sean Levy's real steel

[00:28:20] Which Spielberg produces as well He was like I just wanted to make Something that felt like You know All these weird fucking things Sean Levy now in Oscar nominee Yup For producing a rival Hey man Yeah Good job producing that good movie And he also produced Stranger Things

[00:28:32] He's in this phase where He wants to produce other people's life Sean Levy's actually a decent producer He actually makes a lot of Interesting stuff I think he is I didn't like Stranger Things I think he has good taste in selecting Projects for other people to make Yeah

[00:28:43] Anyhow He's a mediocre director The point is Spielberg is getting further and further Away from the thing that people are trying to Umage him for doing And I feel like he gets stuck in this rub Where people are like Oh it's another one of those Spielberg movies

[00:28:58] It's gonna be like fucking homework Like I feel like there were a lot of people With this and the British buys Yeah some people take these movies As like broccoli movies right Like uncle movies Yeah exactly Like dad movies, dad movies I mean British buys

[00:29:10] That's a classic but the fuck is this I'm sorry I'm not even gonna say what that text was What? Was it a text that makes you look really cool? No no no no no No no no no no no I think it was It was

[00:29:26] It was from Taylor Swift We started hanging out That'd be great If Taylor Swift dated you that'd be great Yeah it was a long pay off After saying that I thought We would be friends Yeah we didn't like Attack on the Paw guys Right Yeah I was correct

[00:29:38] We really like each other Nothing romantic But we just we get each other So you're like her new Ed Sheeran You're like her new little like shit boy Yeah I'm her new shit boy She crades around Yeah exactly she keeps me on a leash Not a fuckboy

[00:29:49] She crades around No shit boy Not my shit boy Fuckboy is too good for that Yeah she crades me around And she goes shit now And I pull down my pants And I shit in the street corner Which you're great at I'm really good at that

[00:29:59] You apparently need to be asked Yeah I could shit On moments notice Okay Lincoln Lincoln You're saying it's an Eat your vegetables movie Oh this is what I was going to say Okay Spielberg His supporters and his detractors All have the same point

[00:30:14] Which we've said a bunch of times Which is he's a very emotional Visceral director right He's an expressive director He hits fine points about like You know the amblin catharsis Here's the payoff Here's the that right When he's making these movies That exist in these areas

[00:30:30] Of moral grayness Sure I think he sometimes doesn't Trust himself to not end it With a very clear statement That's fair right So yeah a little bit Look Even if it isn't verbalized There's some visual moments At the end of this that are just

[00:30:42] Like too much paprika in the sandwich Too much paprika in the sandwich Look here's my thing Catch me if you can Ending goes on a little while Not sure he needs to visit His goddamn family home again Somehow completely implausibly But nope don't Don't let me finish

[00:30:56] I thought that way at the time Now let me finish It basically works But he catch me if you can I didn't know that that guy Right like me 2000s cinema goer Probably doesn't know that That guy goes on to work for the FBI

[00:31:08] And figure out like you know Like interesting Tell me that Lincoln I know that Lincoln got shot Like I'm aware We all know A title card is all I need Which is just a month later Or what I don't need everyone to be like Oh Lincoln's dead

[00:31:24] Don't you want to see his young son React to the news That his father was assassinated Crying it loud like We are all ready for that It's a famous thing about Abraham Lincoln Is that he got assassinated And also the movie has Dramatically concluded itself

[00:31:40] Yes if you want to make a movie About his assassination Like Robert Redford did with the conspirator Like Oliver Stone did with JFK One can do that That's a different movie But I don't need him walking You know and then it's like What's that Whatever fine

[00:31:56] But that falls into like my Complaint is My complaint isn't that literally The movie is called Lincoln and that's a complaint That was your complaint You got that Lincoln log My point is now I am a got him Lincoln log And I can lay a Lincoln log

[00:32:09] In a moment's notice My point is that I feel like that is emblematic Of that pressure of like We're trying to make the definitive Lincoln movie Let's call it Lincoln Let's include the assassination at the end Like 90% of the movie is so focused

[00:32:23] On what it's trying to do And what it isn't trying to do And then 10% feels like Okay The Joseph Gordon Levee 95.5 Yes I think that also falls into like Biopic territory Yeah, the Joseph Gordon Levee plot is interesting Yeah, it doesn't work It feels really didactic to me

[00:32:39] In a way the rest of the movie does I just think it's not I don't think it's didactic I just think it's not dramatically as interesting As they think it is But they want you to know Why Mary Todd Lincoln is coming Coming apart at the seams

[00:32:51] And so that's why he's there He's not really there for his stuff Which is I agree Not that interesting It's more because she is roiled by the fear Of losing a son And I feel like She lost all her children except for one Yes Gully McGrath Yeah, okay

[00:33:05] And so that's why that's there But I agree You know if I was like Trying to fast forward button head problem I also I feel like this I like the legislative stuff Yeah, yeah I mean there's a courtroom drama But it's a weird approach to a movie

[00:33:17] Because it's a courtroom drama In which the main character Never appears in court No it's a courtroom It's not a court It's like the movie I know it's not literally a courtroom drama It's a court drama Is that what the movie is called?

[00:33:27] It's about buying off the jurors It's not it's like It's a courtroom drama where the courtroom scenes Don't really happen until the verdict So it's more just about Lincoln's like Let me see these jurors Yeah, he has a couple you know A couple scenes of Lee Pace, Peacock

[00:33:40] This movie is weirdly structured In a way that I commend It's a very It's beautifully structured It's a very odd unconventional approach To how to tell this story Well I think we talked about this on Armistad This is This is the movie That he wanted to make

[00:33:51] That Armistad should be And obviously Armistad can't be Because it's Look if you're going to make a white savior movie About slavery Yeah Abraham Lincoln is probably a better target Right For your movie Then John Quincy Adams And Matthew McConaughey And a bunch of other randos Yes

[00:34:07] And some slaves who can't even speak English You know like Right Armistad's an interesting movie Yeah Not to be given to Steven Spielberg Uh huh Armistad's an interesting movie In someone else's hands maybe And he shies away from the dramatic embellishment Of Armistad to just be like

[00:34:22] This is how things went out Like it's a process movie Which I find interesting Yeah Right And yeah And Armistad also It's like a stirring movie With the end of his like And that began the civil rights movement And you're like You do one bit of reading

[00:34:35] And you're like No it didn't Not the civil rights But the abolitionist movie You know that began the Civil War And in Lincoln they're like And that freed the slaves And you're like Well it did The 13th Amendment Fairly important Yes Right

[00:34:48] So at least the weight of the film Is more justified Than something like Armistad Yes I also I feel like What I find interesting about this movie I remember there was a lot of eye rolling You know aside from the Excitement over the down day Lewis

[00:34:59] I feel like there was some like Eye rolling and scoffing about like Spielberg making a Lincoln film How inspirational is that going to be Like Evan was just like Sure It's the most idealistic president You know Absolutely It's the director who wants to see the best in people

[00:35:11] Or had for the first 20 years Of his career really focused on that Right Well so he had just made war horse Yes So people were really like God is Spielberg just turning into Like Mr. Schmaltz in his old age Right

[00:35:21] It's like yeah is that what this is going to be Right because war horse is Hellish Schmaltz It's Apple dumpling game Right Yeah But this movie is What I find most interesting about this movie Is that central thesis is like Here's this guy who is just so

[00:35:36] Like lionized You know For good reason Lincoln Yes Fairly famous And the movie is explaining how he had To do a lot of shitty stuff In order to do something really Great and important Okay Like it's a movie about dirty pool It's about how muddy politics were

[00:35:52] From the beginning You know The second you include that many people How muddy it gets Sure And it's like where it's very easy to just go like Lincoln freed the slaves And daddy did It's like Lincoln had to fucking Like work the system

[00:36:06] Ben you want to say something I was just stretching but I guess now yeah Bureaucracy Yes it's all about bureaucracy This is all about just the bureaucracy Right The back rooms Yes The channels The TV is all that shit to make a bill happen And all the concessions

[00:36:20] You know they have to be made on all sides Sure You know the sacrifice you have to make In the name of a greater good Not only that though And that's what I call this This is constitution movie Just like bridge of spies

[00:36:30] Like it's a movie about like Uh The things not feeling very legal As they happen Yeah And like the sort of weird fungible nature Of our government That Lincoln is not afraid to push Although he doesn't want to destroy it Obviously Yes And I mean

[00:36:47] I think that's what Kushner is fascinated by Cause so many of these scenes Are kind of ruminating over like What is my role in all this Like And playing a little dirty pool He's playing a dirty pool To get the end result he wants Hindu Kush Hindu Kush

[00:37:00] Hell yeah Um That's also where this movie benefits From having such a stack supporting cast Cause if it's like a scene Where they're gonna talk to A fucking senator And he's only got one scene It helps to have that guy pop Do you want me to just

[00:37:13] I mean should I run through Some of this cast baby Let's play this game okay Oh my god Let's take Tern's name and cast members Into one of us can't remember another cast member No that'll take forever Damn day Lewis Gloria Rubin Sally Field

[00:37:24] Wait are we saying who's poppin? Yeah Yeah this is too much man Tommy Lee Jones Pops Esa Patham Erkesson They all pop Walton Goggins Steven Henderson Hal Hallbrook But you see we're not giving these guys Their fair do I want to give them their fair do

[00:37:38] Not just race through them I'm just trying to list How many fucking people there I'm not doing performance review And I'm saying I don't like that idea Geez Right there you go Let's take it to court Yeah let's take it to court baby Hey what's up

[00:37:50] Hi I'm Judge Ben Okay Let's do it appropriately And go through the names One thing I want to say Yeah I've ruled Speaking up cause I noticed him He's dismissing your role No no I'm with you I noticed him in this And then he of course

[00:38:02] He's in Bridge of Spies And we gave him lots of credit But maybe not enough credit On our episode for the visit Peter McRobbie baby Yes Peter McRobbie I feel like I just saw him And now I have to Yeah Peter McRobbie Who plays an old racist

[00:38:19] In this movie He plays George H Pendleton Who is a racist democrat Yes And he is the John Dulles The director of the CIA In Bridge of Spies Also very good in this film And he's a poopy diaper man In the visit Yes Another person who's very good

[00:38:36] In this film Connor Ratliff AKA David Costa Bile He really He would be a good Connor Ratliff In Connor the Connor Ratliff story Or Connor would be good in Costa Bile David Costa Bile's story Absolutely he plays James Ashley Yeah He's actually terrific cause he's like

[00:38:54] He's playing one of those guys Who will sort of go to Lincoln And be like Oh Lincoln Why are you being such a pain in the ass And Lincoln's like Let me tell you a story about an old mill You know Yeah So I love that Yeah

[00:39:11] Whatever I just said Yeah you did love that That is true I can attest You really liked it I'm looking at David's face And he loved what he just said Peter McRobbie Yeah Yeah Walton Goggins Well and let's talk about You know Christopher Evan Welch The great

[00:39:25] The clerk of Congress or whatever The late great Christopher Evan Welch I mean Talk about a guy Cause didn't Christopher Am I wrong No he didn't do The narrative for that Christopher Evan Welch did the narration For Vickie Christina Barcelona Is that right Yes he did

[00:39:39] He was the priest giving the eulogy in Sinecta Key New York Yes it's Sinecta Key And then played Fuckin' What's His Name Why am I forgetting Not Gavin Velson The other one Peter Gregory Peter Gregory in Silicon Valley And then died at the end of season one

[00:39:53] You're forgetting he was in Rubicon One of my favorite TV shows Yes But a guy who is so good Oh he's also the pig fuck in the master Yeah pig fuck in the master You pig fuck That's right He's the guy who

[00:40:05] Is causing some problems at a meeting Yes Yeah he's saying like Hey this is a Scientology's a bunch of shit Which is by nature a cult Uh great actor Christopher Evan Welch And he's That's what this movie is You see a guy and then you have five minutes

[00:40:19] Thinking on that guy's whole career Right And then he's gone His role is essentially to Read the role called He just reads the names of congressmen Yeah And they go like yay And then just marks off a checker and axe But he makes it sing

[00:40:32] Walton Goggins, Clay Hawkins Yes No He's a great crack An idiot Walton Goggins Very textured, clever You know plays a lot of real smart Sort of crafty guys on TV In movies usually plays like The biggest hick you ever did see Right I'm thinking of the hateful eight

[00:40:54] What else do I think you have Uh Well G.I. Joe Retaliation obviously Obviously He plays Cobra Commander's Handler And the Baseman Django and Chain obviously Yes Like do you need some The worst like southern piece of shit Walton Goggins is your man

[00:41:12] Like do you want him to give like Eight extra layers? Oh, see him on TV Check him out on Justified We haven't talked about my favorite part of them Which is you know When Chris Gather was on our Revenge of the podcast performance review

[00:41:25] He talked about his Jedi wrecking crew He talked about Plowclown Yachty Mundy Kid Fista Of course Kid Fista And he felt like those three characters Were having this off-screen adventure Where they're just three Jedi's Who fucking tear shit up And just fucking rip it in general

[00:41:39] With these killer personalities And amazing back stories right Uh huh But you don't really see them Functioning as a wrecking crew together Okay This movie gives you A bureaucratic wrecking crew Who's your wrecking crew Pff I'm fucking fucking James Spader James Spader and Tim Blake Nelson, John Hawks

[00:41:56] Yeah, the John Hawks is kind of Your quiet, you know Tim Spader, James Spader he's like Yeah, John Hawks is the Plowclown He's the Plowclown James Spader is obviously Kid Fista Unquestionably He's the real He's the cannonball Yeah, he says fuck He does say

[00:42:10] Uh, well I'll be fucked I believe I love it He's cracking long knots with a hammer Abraham Lincoln says I certainly imagine so Or whatever you like His name's fucking Bilbo His name's possible to me His name is Bilbo And uh, and then In the middle there

[00:42:26] You've got uh, old Tim Blake Nelson Who's kind of like Coyote Mundy Well the way I see it is You know, like I have weird facial hair You can't take your eye off of it It's like a mustache and sideburns Maybe Hawks is Mundy

[00:42:39] And uh, Nelson is Plowclown Sure, I Because he's the weird looking one You're trying to get a read on Yeah, it's hard to get a read on Look, I mean He's got a cockroach face Uh, the thing with uh His cockroach Uh, his sideburns and mustache

[00:42:54] He should have said to Lincoln Like, hey My facial hair And your facial hair get together We got a full beard on our hands Chin plus mustache and sideburns I got half, you got half When we form like Voltron We become the Wolfman

[00:43:08] And just to be mentioning it I mean, Lincoln would have been like Oh, that's interesting Let me tell you about an old mill How did this movie not win Uh, hair and makeup? Uh, it's a good question Who beat it?

[00:43:20] Uh, do you want me to look it up? 2012 At the 85th Academy Awards Yeah, who do you think beat it? Oh Is something really dumb? Yes, and Lincoln wasn't even nominated Outrageous Because I think they don't give enough credit for facial hair

[00:43:34] But the facial hair in this movie is insane The grooming in this film is unbelievable Everything it looked And even they had to do makeup on Day Lewis Of course Make him look like Abraham Q. Lincoln Yes I don't know his real name was Hubert

[00:43:48] Uh, do you know who won? It's such a bad winner It was like a dumb blockbuster movie No, no It was kind of an Oscar favorite I guess it's not a good movie Made a lot of money 2012, I don't know what was it Les Miserables Oh

[00:44:03] Like, I mean, I guess the makeup is fine in that I guess It's a little over the top It's a lot of dirt They just put dirt on people's faces A lot of dirt Yeah So the design of Lincoln And it did win best production design

[00:44:13] It should have won best cinematography Which went to fucking life of time More like life of jerking me off Yeah I would have given it to something else With a master I would have given it to the master To me this is Was Moneyball nominated that year?

[00:44:25] No, Moneyball's the previous year I always think Moneyball's 2012 Okay, 2011 Um, no, to me this is Yanush At his best They're making the White House look like it would have looked Which is basically dark Yeah No lights Shitty, looks like my apartment You have candles

[00:44:39] You have a few gas lights Yeah And a part from night, better open them windows That's the only way Yeah Cold Are you the Secretary of State? Here's an old blanket You're gonna need Because it's fucking cold Dranked in a man's blanket It's February in Washington, DC

[00:44:57] And they don't have any heat This one does have some amazing blanket work It's got the best blankets in the goddamn world This is an A plus number one blanket movie Yeah This is before they invented The Sweater So it was just like

[00:45:09] Look, I got a blanket or I got nothing I'd say this is the number one blanket movie of all time Number two is probably Elmo and Grouchland In which the blanket is the McGuffin You know, Elmo has to chase the blanket into Grouchland And then retrieve it

[00:45:21] That's the sort of plot catalyst Number three, blanket movie Do you count the Peanuts movie? You know, certainly it gets Grandfathered in there because of Linus But on the other hand they just kind of give the Blanket short change in that movie

[00:45:38] So it's like you're only giving it because of the legacy Of Peanuts, the strip and the specials When the movie itself in and of itself If you'd only seen the Peanuts movie What do you think of that as a blanket movie primarily? Boy, that's a head scratcher

[00:45:50] David is filing a pee Sorry, I just got a weird question I have to answer But go on So Lincoln opens Does it open with the dream? It does Great dream And I'll say this Great look and dream It looks like an 1890s Like weird like a Nickelodeon

[00:46:13] Yeah, it looks like a Nickelodeon You know where it's sort of like this faded, weird image Blown out, yeah like blown out whites and stuff But it's all like it's like sepia-toned And it's him on a ship in his narration Look at me, I'm Abraham Lincoln

[00:46:28] Here I am on this ship I think that's the open line of the film, right? Yeah, it's something like that Tony Kushner has to establish who it is Where they are Yeah, here I am Tony Kushner loves that Which is every time anyone walks in there

[00:46:40] I'm Secretary of State Seward and I'm in the room now Hello everybody, my name is Abraham Lincoln Here I am on a ship Don't get worried, it's only a dream Very soon we'll cut to real life And you go, ah the sounds of Kushner Immediately

[00:46:51] You got my good hands, the hands of a master Feed me the music of your words I think there has been a title card That says something along the lines of like it is 1865 Abraham Lincoln's just been re-elected You know the Civil War is in its last month

[00:47:04] I think there's also You're using a blanket because it's very chilly No the first shot is of the Is not the first shot of the Civil War Of a Civil War battle It's these people just throwing down in the mud Banditing each other

[00:47:15] The dream comes like fucking eight minutes in What the fuck are we talking about? He and his team talking to David Yellow and Coleman Domingo Which rules and we talked, we forgot fucking those two guys are in the movie There's a lot of good cards

[00:47:24] Alright you want to just do the whole episode over? Okay yes, so the movie starts with a title card that says A DreamWorks slash Reliance slash 20th Century Fox production And then it cuts to The War And some really graphic like little baby Seven Private Ryan stuff

[00:47:39] People stomp each other's faces Well I mean yeah I mean obviously there's been many a Civil War movie And Spielberg's not making a Civil War movie But he does want to remind you that In 2001 the Civil War was super gross Yeah it fucking sucked

[00:47:50] It was not fun to be in Yeah like blue Because part of the movie is like Lincoln is prolonging this war So that he can achieve this goal And at this point the war basically involves Just like throwing people at each other Or just bombing his own country

[00:48:05] You know just to batter the south into submission This was the first war where they used human catapults Right to throw people at each other Yes exactly they would just throw They would just put people into people catapults And just launch them at each other

[00:48:18] And also the giant acme slingshots Like Wiley Coyote slingshots Exactly right Ben? You're a student of history Ben Yeah no this is all correct And you're certainly a student of slingshots Oh I know all about the slings That's right yeah I've built catapults Derp like Benny

[00:48:34] You built a catapult Like how big a catapult I wouldn't put it past the other Ben I 100% believe it Hey this is also the first war To like use really like modern ammo and weapons Yeah right this is where it's starting to get like Easier to kill people

[00:48:48] Yeah it's fucking bad It doesn't take ten minutes to reload Right They're not marching out like They have like gaddling guns and all that I mean the south was sort of fighting almost like I mean this is gonna be a little controversial

[00:49:00] But they were sort of doing terrorist tactics For sure I mean what is And the north were doing you know They were essentially arriving in cities And burying them This shit was crazy though It was pretty crazy because it was all happening in America

[00:49:12] Wait Ben did you say crazy or greasy Oh at greasy though It was a greasy god damn war But the other thing that first image is showing you Is that a lot of the troops on the northern side were black Yes

[00:49:25] And you know these were people who were like Sacrificing their lives for their country You know like But for what Well right well it's certainly right Like this is on Lincoln's mind as well Like you know we can't just end the war

[00:49:38] And be like fine south you know like We get it Right You can keep some of your traditions or whatever Yeah right So he's sitting And you don't see him for I think the first two or three minutes of the movie Maybe he sees back

[00:49:52] Back of his head You see other people fighting You see other people coming and talking to him Yeah he's sitting in the rain So I mean okay look You know how people say things are folk People's positions are folksy

[00:50:03] And this is like this is an era where politicians Were really folksy Actually folks They were folksy people Not like pretend folksy Billionaires who you know Get up on stage and suddenly have a southern accent Or a midwestern accent Like he was a folksy man Yes Abraham Lincoln

[00:50:21] He grew up in a folksy log cabin He wore a goddamn stove pipe hat He was like a lawyer back when lawyers made Like you know four bucks a week Or you know like and he was just like the town lawyer Right Lawyer the vitro God damn it

[00:50:35] Please Am lawyer the visual merchandiser of its day Uh wow Uh boy Wow Let's try to make a joke about it No thank you thank you And then I just want to This is a guy who you cannot Fucking ask him like what time it is Yes

[00:50:57] Without him telling you about like an old lady In 1829 who Yes You know shirt broader go down the street Mine's been a day Now here's where it gets complicated Now I uh He's like grandpa Simpson Yes The part of this film that I find most impressive

[00:51:11] Is right at the moment where you're like Jesus Christ Another story The movie's like we're fucking one step ahead of you But we'll get to that scene When we get to that scene Right Um so you're watching people kind of come up to Lincoln

[00:51:22] And try to tell them the story It's almost like it's like a book signing Right at borders where people are like waiting in line To come up and be like Hey uh so my actually you know my brother My brother uh and he's like oh great

[00:51:32] So who should I make it out to And it is a lot of that It's like yeah no we saw you you know this time And he was like uh huh Yeah he's like nice to meet you And it's like actually we met before you know

[00:51:41] But so there are two Essentially two pairs of people who come up to him In this scene you've got Davidiellowo And Coleman Domingo as two uh Union soldiers Later to co-star in Selma Coleman Domingo by the way great act I mean obviously Lo has become a huge star

[00:51:55] Coleman Domingo is one of my top like Everyone should know who this guy is actors Dude Love him in crappy TV shows like fear the walking dead Is he on that? Yeah good reason to keep up with that show Oh I like that show

[00:52:07] They're on boats in the water True Wet zombies Playing a real scary zombie video game right now Actually it's real don't like it It's actually alarming me I don't like it at all Real tense Resident Evil 7 Hey what's that behind you Okay so uh Lincoln

[00:52:25] He's talking to these guys And Coleman Domingo is more being like It's great to meet you Thanks so much for being president And Ayala was kind of poking him And Ayala was like I don't know man Like you actually gonna get anything done here

[00:52:38] Yeah and he's quoting his speeches back to him Remember when you said that Where's that? When's that happening? And I love this scene Yup As a setting up of the personality Like Daile Lewis is inhabiting here Which is like essentially Lincoln Is taking things on board

[00:52:52] He's not rebutting him exactly But he's also not like Apologizing or equivocating He's sort of like Yeah you know I understand Like he's interested in a philosophical exchange But he's not gonna go too far Like he has some persona built up around him And also talk about folksy

[00:53:09] I think the first moment where the camera spins around And we actually see his face Is him talking about how hard it is to cut his hair My last barber Hanging himself They're loving it I mean he's fucking killing He's funny He knows how to be funny

[00:53:22] And Coleman Domingo is like Did you get JFL new faces this year? Cause that's like a tight Like a tight five You never made a Lloyd team You never made a Lloyd team, Lincoln Never made a Lloyd team And then two honkies You did do monologues at Ascot

[00:53:40] Two real honkies walk up there Yes Played by Dane DeHaan and Lucas Haas Two of our best tired looking Young actors Two of our best double A name Right? Dane DeHaan and Lucas Haas Yeah DeCaprio's friend and the guy who everyone's decided Has to be the next DeCaprio

[00:54:00] Boy is he not But they decided He's got two movies coming up this year I'm gonna see him Careful Wellness next week We'll see Orver and Cast We should do it Yeah And they come up And they just start reciting the Gettysburg address Yeah They're like mega fans

[00:54:15] They're like the guy coming up to Shatner At the convention And being like remember in episode 24 You know That's what they are They're Lincoln And he shoes them away And they're just a yellow woe Kind of big foots them by the end

[00:54:27] Being like I remember how the Gettysburg address ends By the way PS Hold on I don't think I have your fucking number My shit I was keeping it cool I'm a fucking Lincoln geek too Now this is a movie that doesn't have a lot of

[00:54:38] Major black characters obviously It has a lot of peripheral black characters But no like You know whatever No one on the sort of The main characters in the movie are probably like Lincoln, Seward Young, Daddy's Young Right you know Daddy's young, Steve and Steve Mary Todd

[00:54:54] Daddy's young, Power Ford For the Indiana Pacers Yeah Mary Todd Right And I feel like it came under some criticism At the time For that Right You know you're making like another movie About the American institution of slavery A different angle on it obviously

[00:55:09] A totally political inside baseball Politics You know Red tape angle Right But still And it's about You know the white people who did good Well that's the one thing I kind of like about I think Kushner and Spielberg are trying to At least Force some

[00:55:28] You know perspective in on the sidelines of this movie Obviously The people in Washington You know the people in Congress were white I mean this was a racist society That did not allow black people to vote Right and I was going to say

[00:55:40] The one thing I kind of like about that scene In the middle With Stephen Henderson and Gloria Rubin Or which scene The scene where Lincoln talks to Gloria Rubin Outside Oh yes The event I forget where they're It was the earlier play they're going to right It's outside

[00:55:54] Isn't it at a Mary's party Or I can't remember I can't remember But when he makes it clear that like It's not a personal steak thing for him You know in the same way it is Or that is Stephen certainly

[00:56:05] It's just that he believes in like basic decency In human rights Right I mean I think the movie does a good job of deflating That it isn't like Abraham Lincoln was like the woke president Sure But it was just like on a basic level

[00:56:21] He was like why should anyone have less rights than anyone else Yeah there's a lot of debate that still rages over Yeah what war Lincoln's real politics Or his motivations Because he's on the record earlier in his career Saying things where he's like

[00:56:31] I don't really care about slavery Or like you know I don't care about these institutions But also like You only have these sort of vague written records To go on Right And obviously he was a politician who was As you see in this movie

[00:56:43] All these politicians are trying to navigate Their stances in a changing I mean fucking Barack Obama was anti gay marriage Right Until like 2012 Right You know like There's always kind of about that Of like you have to choose your battles

[00:56:56] You have to pick the things you're going to fight And in that scene he sort of says like Look I'll be honest Like on a level I don't specifically care about black people Right Which is a kind of ballsy scene To put into a movie that's about Lincoln

[00:57:07] He's not someone who's right Taking like the American slaves on his back And it's like I am your champion Right But as Kushner has identified In his you know million Lincoln biography repeating marathon Lincoln did decide Like no we have to get the 13th Amendment into the Constitution

[00:57:27] Well you misspoke I think he decided now now now Now now now He was cloaked in immense Clothed in immense power And he And a blanket And a couple blankets Let's be honest Bunked in every room Cloaked in immense blankets A chicken in every pot

[00:57:39] Blank in every room He just He decided to spend all His political capital When he did not need to And prolonged the Civil War When he did not have to To do this And so there is certainly some Thing to grab on to there

[00:57:54] Which is you know this did this This was not inevitable It didn't have to happen And he did Put his weight behind it To make it happen I wish the film And as you see when Johnson's president After Lincoln dies Things began to fall away Almost immediately

[00:58:06] It took a president who was Very forceful about these things You know things could have been Settled into stasis Much faster I wish the character had more Black characters as a consequence And I wish the character The character had Already were in the film Had more screen time

[00:58:21] Yeah, because it's tough Because you have these scenes Where like that great scene Where little Lincoln What's his name Gulliver McGrath Talking about Tad Talking about Tad Lincoln played by Gulliver McGrath How do you know this little guy? I'll tell you how Because he played the youngest son

[00:58:36] In Dark Shadows Sure And that was a movie where they did One of those marketing campaigns With individual character posters For every character And they went deep enough into the roster That Gulliver McGrath would never been In an American movie Got his own poster

[00:58:49] That said like Gulliver McGrath is And then just a picture of his face In Dark Shadows I remember seeing that And going like Okay, the individual character Poster thing has gone too far Because who's gonna choose to see A movie because they're like

[00:59:00] Oh my god, Gulliver McGrath is In Dark Shadows Well his mom saw it And she went Yeah, she went That's true, they got those Ten dollars Gulliver McGrath GMG Anyway, he's playing Tad And he asks I believe asked Steven Henderson's character Let me get that guy's name

[00:59:16] Actually, because he's a real per... If he was a slave If he was a slave Right Because Gulliver McGrath Jesus Tad Has become obsessed with these Dergatypes What do you call them? They're... They're little pleats They call them Of slaves It's like whatever He's taken some sort of

[00:59:32] Weird personal childish interest in this Like you might look at He's also very invested In the Confederate War I mean he's wearing The Uniform all the time He's like going around his makeshift little Like His wagon Like he's fucking He's caught up in the

[00:59:48] The events of the day And so he asks William Slade That was who was Lincoln's ballot Are you a slave And Slade says no I was born free And yeah And for one Steven Henderson What a fucking guy Who is incredible Great in fences this last year

[01:00:04] Great in Tower Heist six years ago Great in Manchester by the sea And one scene What a good fucking one scene performance Literally one shot I believe that scene is a One or Yeah it might be Yeah Whatever I might switch back I might do a little cover

[01:00:18] Over the shoulder if you know what I'm saying I might do a little bit over the shoulder And you want more of that But you know So yes You want more of that And then of course Gloria Rubin Comes in and he could ask her

[01:00:28] She was a slave And she says like Off-handedly Like I was beaten with a fire shovel Before you know Right I was fucking five years old Right You little Torp Right you wish the movie Spent a little more time From the perspective of people

[01:00:42] Who are most at risk Within this narrative Sure but of course this was a country That spent no time with these people But I also I give the movie credit for I think going out of its way To deflate the white Savior button I think so too

[01:00:54] Like even though it's about the white people They make it clear that Lincoln's Not just some fucking Like Selfless hero We're gonna get this on the record We're all A bunch of white idiots Yeah we're a bunch of white dummies And we're going with the fucker Talking about

[01:01:05] Oh yeah white systemies In a small room Talking about it Small whites Very white Was one of the whitest rooms Yeah So Linky Linky So Linky has But the other thing I wanted to say is like Every scene You're kind of like

[01:01:20] Oh I want to learn more of this You know There's so many little narrative Directions you could spin off And It's also just the dialogue Is so fucking rich in this movie It's like such a like I'll admit I saw this movie In Theors When It Came Out

[01:01:34] And I kind of put off seeing it In The Oscars season Because it was a broccoli movie right And I finally was like Okay Free day Movies long I'm gonna go see it now And I went to go see it at Lincoln Square And like 45 minutes in

[01:01:46] The projector broke Oh man Interesting And they were like Yeah we're not gonna get it back up It was in the big screen At Lincoln Square And they were like Yeah it's done Here's your vouchers You can go see it another day Right

[01:01:58] And it was tough to them be like Fuck I already watched the first 40 Like how am I gonna go See it again So I put off seeing it for a while And then And then yeah Finally saw it in Theors Later But I've always

[01:02:09] Ended watching it last night At home Always had a hard time staying awake During this movie Interesting Not because I think it's boring But because I actually think the movie Is very calming It is calming Like the language is so Like musical It is a tranquil movie

[01:02:23] And it's got this like This kind of very calm Like brownish color palette You know But it is You can just kind of like Lie back in the language Of this movie This is a time when everyone spoke well You know But also it's Tony Kush Right

[01:02:38] It's Tony Kush writing a time When everyone spoke well So it's like They got that dank kush Hindu kush We go from the scene where he's talking To all his Lincoln fans To his dream To his dream Now he's on the ship And now he goes

[01:02:53] Hi I'm Abraham Lincoln I want to share this dream Let's move it on the last This bit And then To him in his bedroom With Mary Todd Talked about his dream I think Sally Fields' performance Does not get enough credit in this movie Fantastic performance

[01:03:06] She got an Oscar nomination She did But this is a really fucking Committed performance And Hathaway Yeah I mean Sally Field has two Oscars So I don't know if she's ever They weren't going to give her a third But It's an excellent performance Yes It's very It's unsettling

[01:03:22] Like you know Or whatever She's unsettling She's playing a woman Struggling with mania Yeah And struggling with probably What you know A polar disorder Just called maybe Certainly depression And who had lost a child And you know But she's a hotly Struggled with the spotlight

[01:03:40] Of being First Lady She's a hotly contested figure In history There are a lot of different theories About her And about the nature of their marriage And all these different things And so she has to play this Sort of fulcrum point About all the questions

[01:03:51] In Lincoln's personal life You know All the things that were Kind of kept at bay And from like The first frame of her Turning around You're like Haunted fucking woman Holding on by her fingernails You know Right Definitely Yeah Without overplaying it It's like this performance

[01:04:09] It's like a physically palpable It is Sort of And also you only Fragility She Well she has the one scene Obviously at the party Yes Which is another good scene Where she Is kind of talking too long To Tommy Lee Jones To Thaddeus Stevens Right And Thaddeus Stevens

[01:04:27] Is just kind of like Knotting and grinning And being like Oh here's the Mary Todd Lincoln I know so well Essentially you know Like she's kind of playing Into his image of her It's the Ronnie Blakely And Nashville scene Where she can't stop Doing the introduction

[01:04:39] Oh my god But mostly her scenes Are just confined To the bedrooms Or you know right Like she does She feels kind of locked in The private life She has that final scene I guess where they're In the carriage She's occasionally outside But usually

[01:04:52] It just sort of feels Like she's cooped up And like that's not helping Anyone Yeah And her husband's fucking Hard to read Like she's losing her mind And he's just like Well reminds me of a time You know Right yeah no he's When he locks it all away

[01:05:06] And of course there's that one scene Where he's like Look I don't like That my kid's dead either By the way He unlocks the emotional gates Right he does Yeah Then he locks them again He locks the gates He doesn't talk like that Yeah Locks the gates

[01:05:19] Who are your presidents I remember I used to Work the door at a congress And then Garfield came in I got caught up with his crew That was bad Okay Started doing speed balls With Garfield So Sledding to my DMs Like Giffield Second bits on bits baby

[01:05:46] I hate it So this is A vignetti movie Would you not agree I would agree That's what I'm talking about I don't mean this in any Sort of negative way It's such a weirdly structured movie No it is Oh my god It's great though Yeah It's great

[01:06:04] Yeah but it's ballsy to be like There's no Yeah there's no sense of Straight forward progression No Lincoln says to William Seward played by David S David Strathairn D Strathairn The only thing So good The only thing more enjoyable than watching One of his performances

[01:06:19] Is saying his last name Strathairn Strathairn I always feel good when I say his last name If is Strathairn If Tommy Lee Jones wasn't in this movie And Strathairn had maybe one more scene I think he could have been an Oscar nominee Yeah He's so good

[01:06:33] In this movie Yeah I mean probably his best performance Since the spider-whip chronicles Fuck off Piece of shit He's creating the spider-whip I have not seen the spider-whip I haven't either So William Seward His secretary of state Yeah He's like Man Man Linky

[01:06:50] Sure you want a 13th amendment We could end the war And can do one or the other Yeah And Lincoln's like You know He's so noncommittal even And then finally He's like What if I could Get you an amendment that does both Finally he gets his whole secretary

[01:07:07] His whole cabinet together And they're all like I don't know Should we do this Should we do that Including Jeremy Strong from The Judge You want me to go through Talk about this cabinet Bruce McGill Ooh the great Bruce McGill With the biggest beard you ever did see

[01:07:21] Secretary of War Stanton Big beard, big man Who's mostly Like he's got that great scene Where he's like Alright so we're shelling Wilmington Yeah And Abraham Lincoln's like Two mice fill into a bucket of milk And he's like

[01:07:34] No no you're not going to do another one of these Right I was guessing that's my favorite moment in the movie Because at that point we're like He's like for fuck's sake The movie's been going on for an hour And 45 minutes of those have been comprised

[01:07:44] Of just three different stories And he's just like I can't fucking deal with it I just love the image of someone yelling At Abraham Lincoln essentially Like shut up He had gas bag you know Like stop it with this

[01:07:57] That is one of the funniest moments I've ever seen in a drama It is very funny Also Bruce McGill He brings it Yeah Bruce McGill what did we just see him in Where he plays Oh he's in Elizabeth town Oh right As like the guy where they're like

[01:08:08] Bruce McGill don't let him near you That man has poison coming out of his pores And then he shows up and he's like Where's the ketchup Bruce McGill Also a D-Day from Animal House Yes It's just I always find that so fascinating

[01:08:22] Because he's like so fully reinvented himself As a return character actor Yeah That's hard to remember that like That's where he started I love Bruce Love him Yeah he you know Who's the black guy He usually plays like a cop Or he's incredible

[01:08:36] Matchstick man he's the guy that they're conning Right so um Joseph Cross Yes Love Joseph Cross He'd been in milk a couple years earlier He's wide awake in this movie I gotta say he's giving John Hay Oh yeah right Well yeah of course A wide awake performance

[01:08:47] He's the wide awake boy As we all know I remember that time he was sleeping He was doing the thing again He couldn't even wake up In the movie's gone wide awake Great um Jeremy Strong As he mentioned from the judge Right And what else was he in

[01:09:04] He was in Selma He was in big short He was in big short Yeah he's a good character Who else you got Dakin Matthews Who's also gonna be in Bridgespies Who is headmaster Charleston And Gilmore Girls He's an asshole in both this And Bridgespies

[01:09:18] In Bridgespies he's the judge Okay You remember the judge who's like Yeah You know yeah I know you're supposed to be This lawyer or whatever But stop being a lawyer yet jerk Let's talk over it just a minute Great Great cabinet And they agree Alright 13th amendment fine

[01:09:34] So then Lincoln goes to the conservative Republicans Led by one of the The blearest eyed What right Like the most wet eyed actor there is In Hollywood today Hal Holbrook Is there anyone with wetter eyes Than Hal Holbrook Can I say something that might come off Is insensitive

[01:09:51] Hal Holbrook could play an old bloodhound In a movie Like without any makeup You'd be like oh it's an old bloodhound Oh wait actually now that I'm closer That's Hal Holbrook Disney should do a live action remake Of Fox and the Hound with Hal Holbrook Um

[01:10:05] What were you gonna say that's controversial I, I, not controversial but insensitive Uh huh I can't believe that guy's still Fucking alive It is crazy How old is Hal I think he's like 93 at this point maybe He is 91 years old Hal Holbrook looks like

[01:10:20] Someone who ran for like president In like 1956 Like for the, he got the Democratic nomination He lost you know by like 80 points What's also And he was like oh you know back in my day We were all for you know mailboxes You know it's

[01:10:36] He got nominated for Into the Wild When he was like I won Kentucky Like where are you from He gets his first Oscar nomination For Into the Wild when he's like 82 He's like 82, he's amazing And everyone was like that's nice They gave him one before he died

[01:10:48] And then like this comes out like five or six years later And also promised land came out the same year He had like two choice supporting performances In movies and you're like Wow like Hal Holbrook looks like he doesn't have much time left

[01:10:59] And now it's like fucking five years later We still got Hal Holbrook He's nice Don't be an agist old people can act He can certainly act He can act the pants off at anybody Yeah and if, if he's got wet eyes that's okay

[01:11:09] Yeah he's got wet ass eyes There are some wet eyes Um So he got Hal Holbrook and he's like I don't know us conservative Republicans We just kind of want things to stay the way they are So got him to deal with it

[01:11:21] What's his name, place his daughter The mom from Transformers Oh Gene Smart Who's great Not Gene Smart Jesus Julie White There we go There we go Right Um so they're kind of like he's Lincoln is looking at all We're taking in all his obstructions right Yes

[01:11:39] His obviously the next obstruction is You've got Jackie Earl Haley My bad guy Yeah now you've worked with Jackie Earl Haley My little bad guy What do you think Jackie Earl Haley feels about Where they're like they call him on the phone And he's like

[01:11:50] You're making a Lincoln movie Let me guess Let me guess what part you've got for me Let me guess Is he in the Confederate States of America Guess number one Is he a little weasel Yeah He's playing Alexander Stevens Uh huh Vice President of the Confederacy

[01:12:05] Who's trying to negotiate peace What a good introduction he gets Yes It's like he gets such a Spielberg introduction Where it's like oh man They're like introducing him with power I'll let you know this is a fucking bad dude But did you meet Jackie Earl Haley

[01:12:20] When you made like Is he just like He's one of the nicest people I've ever met I'm a working actor It's great to play villains Like that's my niche in Hollywood Cool cool cool Or does he have any kind of hint to like

[01:12:31] Yep they called me for old you know Freak face Right like that's who they thought of Jackie Earl Look we didn't have a conversation Which he said the words They call me old freak face Well I call him old freak face Jackie Earl Haley you said the scariest

[01:12:44] IMDB picture ever I was frightened of it With the glasses and the goat thing Yeah I know what you're trying to talk about Now he looks a little more He is truly one of the loveliest people I've ever met That's great I love Jackie Earl

[01:12:56] And he's very soft spoken And very um Sort of introspective But very kind That's good Um You know he strikes me as The thing that I respect the most Which is just like A fucking roll up your sleeves Here we are What's the scope What's the roll

[01:13:14] Like he just Does the work And I think uh He I mean you look at how much Fucking different work he's done I think he gets cast a lot as A Weasley villains or psychopaths Or whatever Because a lot of actors Are too protective of their image

[01:13:28] To want to fully Yes of course Right and then Whereas Jackie Earl That's his image Right and you look at some little children And like very few people would have the courage To play a role like that With that much empathy For a guy who's struggling

[01:13:39] While simultaneously being monstrous Right And so I think he has just Not fought against that image Yeah And allows himself to play that Also plays a variety of other roles Yeah Love you Jackie Earl But he's certainly type casted this Uh huh Uh Okay

[01:13:54] Love Jackie can't wait to punch him in the face So and then we've in Congress On camera Not off camera We've got the Democrats Led by Peter McRobbie Shout it out already Diaper man from The Visit Yeah Who plays a big poopy diaper

[01:14:05] Of a man in this movie Right talk about being type cast Every time they call him up He goes let me guess I'm gonna throw a poopy diaper In someone's face Let me get this You got a 14 year old You want me to diaper face

[01:14:15] Alright and then Lee Pace As Fernanda Wood Former mayor of New York Very handsome man Lee Pace very handsome Who plays I mean I think his first scene He essentially is saying words That I can't say on this podcast Yup Uh to Congress He's shouting them

[01:14:30] To the assembled congressman That's a weird part of this movie That almost makes it feel like Um Especially now Like at the time this way came out Obama was in office It felt like it was kind of like Okay here's a pat yourself on the back movie

[01:14:41] About like look how far we've come Yeah And now the movie which is A period film Feels like some weird Some thing to aim for It's like a John Carpenter Like this is where we may be In 10 years movie Sure right We're in the senate

[01:14:54] They're just like openly Like dropping n bombs Uh it's very It's very unsettling to see Uh people Uh throw those words around So casually with no guilt whatsoever Just to be like today I ordered a sandwich You know they're just like Saying things

[01:15:10] Uh just want to shout out A few other congressmen Michael Stolberg Oh the guy Michael Stolberg As George Eamon I want to point out when you Google any of the um The congressmen these people are playing The facial hair They always got it exact

[01:15:22] Like you're looking at Stolberg You're like really all chin Yeah All the way to the cheekbones And nothing else You look at them You're like yeah that's That's what that guy went for Yeah this movie should have won A fucking Oscar It was hard to shave

[01:15:35] Yeah you didn't have an electric razor Or disposable Or just let it go You know Because you want to eat sandwiches You don't want to get food in your face Well I mean sandwiches Didn't really exist We want to eat like stews A lot of broths

[01:15:47] A lot of broths Oh for sure Can I tell you what I would rock In this time In this day and age Talk about this This conflict I would go A chin strap ZZ Top beard Hell yeah You know what I'm saying Oh for sure No mustache

[01:16:02] So your mouth is open All the way down To the belly button I would just chop the fuck out of my face Just so fucking chopped up All right Lightning bolts in your sideburns Hell yeah Wait oh Stephen Spinella Right Stephen Spinella Yeah As Aseliton Yeah yeah yeah

[01:16:22] So you got some congressmen Murder's row Then you've got Tommy Lee Jones Yes that is Stevens Big TLJ Not the last Jedi Tommy Lee Jones Yeah As Thaddeus Stevens Who is like the leader of the radical Republicans Who are basically like Once we could be

[01:16:39] You know once we get the south Let's seize all the land And give it to black people Yeah You know like essentially people who are like Let's have reparations You know When this is over Yeah They declared war on us They should be punished Right

[01:16:51] Which is not what happened But let's not forget Thaddeus Stevens biggest accomplishment His most lasting legacy Which is being the man Who makes John Travolta Think that his wig collection Is naturalistic Now Tommy Lee Jones What's his hair situation In real life

[01:17:08] Because famously when he won the Oscar For the fugitive in 1994 Beginning of 94 Q-Ball He was bald and his first line Upon getting the Oscar was like I'm not bald this is for a role Right But in this movie he's bald Correct

[01:17:23] In a lot of other movies he's been bald Yeah Uh he's a man with TLJ bald No he's a man with very thin hair I mean I think what you see him Have in What he's posing as something this year Uh well the thing I'm fucking thinking of

[01:17:38] As a criminal But Jesus Christ He's got a far back hairline And very thin hair Yeah And he sort of swoops it over Back into the side And I think that's his real hair And I think He is just comfortable shaving His head entirely Tommy Lee Jones

[01:17:54] Basically looked like this Have you ever seen Cold Miner's Daughter Which is like one of his early roles I've never seen that no Great movie Basically looks like Thaddeus Stevens and Cold Miner's Daughter Like he's an old craggy man He always has been

[01:18:06] He's got a lot of character in his face I'll say watching this movie I would say that he has What's like a big He's got the entire cast of Nashville To shout that back in his face And so many characters are in there

[01:18:16] He's got shortcuts in his face Right He's got an Altman Kaleidoscopic ensemble picture Yeah he's got a prairie home companion Entirely within his face Right he's got a Predaporte Underneath each eye If he just like cocks an eyebrow You're like I just got told a whole story Right

[01:18:34] Like what a face The face on this man He should have won the Oscar God damn it No he shouldn't Philips and Mojave should have won the Oscar Oh he's so good It's tough because both Philips and Mojave and Christoph Walter Were both nominated that year Yeah

[01:18:48] You're right Philips and Mojave This was notably the year We're both kind of quasi-leads But not quite in their movies Like dominant But not in all of the movie If that makes sense I think that's Fyze Size number one best performance

[01:19:00] And now we know that it's like the last time He was going to work Right up there Sinecta Key and the master of the two He's so good in the master Yeah But put it this way And I love, I think Christoph Waltz

[01:19:11] Is a lot of fun in Django Unchained I think he's great I don't think he should have won another Oscar No let's talk about that's the weird year Where Everyone was a winner All five nominees had already won once Who were the others Or twice before

[01:19:23] De Niro who had won twice Was nominated for Silver Linings Playbook Right he wasn't going to win But won once was nominated for Lincoln Hope Seymour Hoffman for the master Christopher Waltz, Django Unchained And then the fifth person would have been Alan Arkin For Argo Yeah for Argo

[01:19:38] Go fuck yourself Argo fuck yourself Right They should have nominated John Goobin Yeah they should have If they were going to nominate someone John Goobin's never going to fucking nominate How's that possible It's outrageous I mean look Arkin's fun in Argo He's fun Yeah he's fun

[01:19:51] It's not a great performance More like Alan Argo More like Alan Argo He's fun in that movie He's fun He's having a good time He's having a great time I think he's really fun That's not like a great performance No It's him showing up in like

[01:20:02] He's as good in that as he is And get smart He's fun to get smart He's an ornery old man He's a consistent actor Yeah he's really He always shows up He does his job well I agree Anyway I love TLJ in this movie

[01:20:15] How can I hold that all men Are created equal Where here before me Stands stinking the moral carcass Of the gentleman from Ohio Proof that some men are inferior Endowed by their maker with dimwits Impermeable to reason with pulled Cold pallids slime in their veins

[01:20:31] Instead of hot red blood You are more reptile than man George So low and flat that the foot of man Is incapable of crushing you That is the greatest line Yeah like Drump He will ever deliver I was gonna say this king draw

[01:20:46] He literally calls someone a lizard person On the floor of the house And represented it This movie's essentially What if Tim Lee Jones did Jeff Ross' roast battle And he fucking wins You know He beats Mike Lawrence handily I uh What was I gonna say

[01:21:02] Oh the thought I kept having Watching this movie is God I wish Tim Lee Jones did More 3D films Cause that's a face built for 3D You just wanna live in the What about like an inter space Film but they don't go into Tommy Lee Jones

[01:21:15] They just go in the crags They go in the crags It's just like They're climbing Mount Rushmore But it's just his craggy face Just underneath one of the eye bags So you got all crack face McGee And crack face One of our finest living actors Crack face McGee

[01:21:30] Academy Award winner crack face McGee The problem is not that he wants to Stop the Absolutely not He wants to go further Yup And he's on the record And Congress is saying I don't just believe in Abolishing Slavery I believe in racial equality He's like the Bernie Sanders

[01:21:48] Of his time Sure Tear it all down And so Lincoln's like too much too fast Well Lincoln just You know Lincoln's kinda staying Out of it the whole time But you know everyone else is Kinda like look fucking hell One thing at a time or whatever

[01:22:03] He's the character I would say Probably a lot of people watching The movie yeah like you say Identify with cause you're Like you know you're someone With more of a 20th century Out of things It's a modern perspective Yeah And so his great moment

[01:22:17] Is that he has to Go before Congress and sort of Kind of like he's like You know 13 minutes fine Like you know right He has to sort of like whisper it Under his breath Like I don't believe in racial Quality okay Yeah And then everyone's like

[01:22:29] Why'd you do that And he's like you know We gotta do it Like our president Has asked us to pass the 13th Amendment so we gotta do it He starts tackling He does some amazing crowd work He bites back at the audience I mean he's Todd Barry

[01:22:39] Leveled crowd work Yeah Yeah absolutely And that's just him riffing Yes He's just riffing He's just riffing But you know what You guys can tell me what Never made a Lloyd's Never made a Lloyd's Did Maude Yeah he did Maude Did Maude For a really strong character

[01:22:55] And sketch work Yes Alright so there are your Obstacles right Yeah And then you bring in The wrecking crew Oh my god They start to you know Promise some jobs To outgoing Democrats Right Lincoln starts going Like look I need to Ensure that I get enough votes

[01:23:09] Because I'm not Going to vote Because I'm not Going to vote But I'm not Going to vote But I'm not going to vote Because if I put this thing up And it fails We're all in a lot of trouble If we're putting it out there

[01:23:20] It's got to pass baby And obviously He has to pass by two thirds It can pass But it has to pass by a super Major Right so they hire these guys Who he's not supposed to directly Talk to So he has a culpable You know plausible Denyability rather

[01:23:33] And um And they go out And just Have fun Start bugging people I mean this part of the movie Is just fun It is it's fun I mean and it's Like I think that's one thing That attracts a school bringing It's like Nobody knows like how dirty

[01:23:47] And silly Like so much of Nineteenth century politics was Because I mean There's no phones There's no constituents You just go to like a hog farm Yeah And you know Some hog farm is like I'm the congressman from Ohio And you're like Alright Jesus What do you want

[01:24:03] You want this bag of feed You know I mean these guys Didn't have toilet paper Toilets That is very true They were pooping in a pot They put under their bed And then they would dump it out the window I mean it is kind of crazy

[01:24:15] And then they would sign some shit that like Has affected the country forever That is still in the constitution They might not have washed their hands We don't know Yeah meanwhile they still got mud In their butt crack What did they do Do they have like water

[01:24:29] What did they do What was their situation They pour a bottle of Evian on their butt They would use their hands Amen And that's why you know You would uh You would not use your dominant hand Because that's the hand you would eat with And shit too

[01:24:42] Right because there's lots of cultures You had a poopy hand There's lots of cultures right where it's like If you like reach out with your left hand Or whatever to shake someone's hand Billing Hey wait a second Get that thing away from me

[01:24:50] Now Ben you're on the record As being a huge fan of old technology in films Oh absolutely How do you feel about this film's Approach to shitting Ah well they don't They don't want explored enough For me to really sink my teeth into it Sure

[01:25:04] But I'm gonna say I'm gonna go ahead and say I feel the stink Yeah it's a stinky movie I feel the stink in the rooms Yes I really do so Yeah I think they do a good job there Um I love Also great horse work Oh 100%

[01:25:17] Great telegram work Oh absolutely Great telegram work to Amanda Trubber Good tapping Yeah they tap away in this movie Um I love the moment in that sort of montage Where they play some jaunty music And the wrecking crew goes out Right yeah

[01:25:29] Um when they literally run into the guy at the bank Right And then are like oh look at all this money Can you just hold this money for a second Like that it's that blatant Amen But I do like because it's so easy to look at Lincoln now

[01:25:41] And just be like Great president did that great thing Was such a great man And it was like oh wow oh wow Oh why long for a time where politics were like that And it's like politics were always dirty Always dirty

[01:25:53] You always gotta play dirty to get something good done There's that scene right in the middle of the movie Yeah Where he Lincoln suddenly monologues about like Look my emancipation proclamation was Kind of like a war thing That made ton of constitutional sense

[01:26:08] You know like all these things were doing I feel like they're the right thing to do for the country Yeah But it's gonna kinda have to get sorted out in the courts later And a lot of it might be deemed illegal Well in that whole siege

[01:26:20] This is what we do His whole metaphor I forget what his metaphor is He has some like story The lawyer the woman Oh it's when he lets the woman out of the backdoor So she can just run away Right Because she hit her husband Right It's good

[01:26:33] Right but he put it in the will He said I suspect she has killed me Or whatever And if I come back I will have my revenge Yeah And that's like that story is like a fucking like Eight minute like one or Dan Lewis Good actor Is

[01:26:47] I mean we really should call Mr. Lincoln Mr. Lincoln his honorable self Uh huh Dan Lewis is Is one of my favorite actors And it feels like such a Really? Wow Bullshit dumb thing to say But it's true Yeah So much in this movie Yeah

[01:27:04] Do you know people don't talk about enough with him What how good he is Yeah Well they focus on the chameleon thing Right They focus on that he's a cobbler He's a yeah Right and he's close friends with Ben

[01:27:15] Ben's the one who always has to talk him off the bench To make another movie Like for the ballad Jack and Rose He actually wrote a whole ballad My beautiful laundry He actually opened a laundry Right Uh you know for For the boxer

[01:27:29] He spent years folding and taping up cardboard boxes And then he realized it was about boxing So he had to go be a boxer Start over to delay the movie for five years The age of innocence he literally became completely innocent Yes

[01:27:40] He actually just went into the Mississippi river And floated for a while Yes In the unbearable lightness of being He became so light that he floated above the air What am I talking about I mean the craziest one for the movie Nine took 42 years off his age

[01:27:53] And it for He killed all the last mojiquas So he could be the only one That is true And for Room with a View He literally moved in his house So the room with a better view He used to live in the basement Yeah

[01:28:06] He would have to go upstairs He's living in the room with a view I'm moving on up Alright that's enough of that Um I think that I think people don't talk about enough Dude is so fucking charismatic And when you think about charismatic actors He is very charismatic

[01:28:18] Tom Cruise, charismatic in all movies He plays himself Yeah but he's playing someone who's charismatic In an unusual way Right But you look at like fucking Daniel Plainview and Lincoln Both of them have is just like There's something charismatic about him When they start talking You gotta listen

[01:28:30] And those are two guys I'm total fucking opposite ends of the spectrum Like when Dan Lewis launches into a long story You just kinda lean in Yeah you lean in You can't wait It's like you're by a fire Where yeah where's Daniel Plainview Starts talking

[01:28:40] You're like is this man Literally about to murder me Or is his head gonna explode Scanners style Yeah I mean scary Yeah He also I feel like he doesn't Take me out of the period No As like other actors It's sort of like

[01:28:54] Oh it's that guy with like Dumb fucking stove pie If you see someone playing Abraham Lincoln You're probably gonna think Like there's Ben Hosley as Abraham Lincoln Like I don't really think that's Abraham Lincoln Well that's not true Ben really blended into that role

[01:29:06] I'm gonna say it's true He's just crying like a fucking Blunt and blunted What was the word I was looking for I have no idea I don't know Bended in Yeah he did bend it like Beckham So we should We should just

[01:29:17] Yeah is there other stuff you guys like What do you guys like We've talked about a lot of things Oh the point I was gonna make Was I like that people Want to sort of Honey coat The past and be like Politics used to be pure

[01:29:29] And it's like they're always fucking bad Yep You know And you always had to do bad things To do great things And what he did was he Like that's the thing We focus on these moments Because he actually accomplished something Of measurable value Right Like today Yes

[01:29:45] He made something so important That Ava DuVernay Made a whole documentary about it Just last year Yes Whereas you know Yeah and that's what We latch on to And say like oh what a great man Right And it's more like no but like You know

[01:29:58] There's a fucking nail in the wall You can't get out And at the time the movie came out It was like oh my god You watched this movie and in Here Rare today we have a black Present that's unbelievable Well right And then you watch the movie

[01:30:07] Present day and you're like Oh Jesus Christ Why can't we have A Lincoln in the world Yeah Well let's talk about The Spader performance He is such a bad motherfucker He's a bad motherfucker He's so good He's like the shaft of this movie Hell yeah Hell yeah

[01:30:26] I love the fucking The walnut business The walnut good The walnut bit's good There are these moments where Lincoln has to actually Descend into the muck Right Usually he's Like there's the one scene Where he talks to the congressman Who lost Lost boys

[01:30:40] Not the movie The Lost Boys But he lost his sons into the war Yes And he's trying to convince This guy What seems a good actor I'm fucking forgetting now Anyway yes Shit I'm not He's a really good character David Warshowski Yeah Something like that The ginger man

[01:30:55] The pockmark face Good character Yeah And he's saying to him Like will you vote for the bill And the guys that are saying Like I really hate this I hate black people Yeah And like I hate this He's like I'm going to be honest with you

[01:31:07] Don't like him never And Lincoln does not say Oh you're awful Neither does he say Come on Deal it for me Maybe He's just kind of like Okay Like I understand that you've suffered A great loss I've done what I can do Right

[01:31:22] And then when that guy votes no He does vote no In the final roll call scene Like I don't know You just have more Yeah To that Yeah you care about I mean as you do with all the other You don't care about the big care

[01:31:35] About what's at stake Exactly As you do with like You know Stephen Spinella Or Michael Stilbar go all these people Yeah And then there's the scene where he meets With Spadey Yeah Where Spadey says Well I'll be fucked Drain the swamp This guy steps into the swamp Deep

[01:31:50] And that's again It's like you know You see like how far he had to Sort of put his political life on the line Like just to get this over the edge And we should mention He's playing a lobbyist He's playing a very early version of a lobbyist

[01:32:04] And I mean What a representation of what they continue to be Which are fucking awful monsters That are somehow integrated In our fucking political system Yeah these fucking Walnut smashing assholes Walnut smashing Still to this day Still to this day Right to your congressmen and senators folks

[01:32:23] Yeah you know what And plain Sent him a broken walnut in the mail Check their pockets for a walnut hammer I just thought they carries the hammer around With them all the time He's got a little walnut mallet Gotta be prepared Um

[01:32:39] So I'm just trying to find some other I feel like we're done I mean destruction of this movie Yeah it's like going through We've covered all the major stuff The roll call scene is really amazing Considering that it is just people's names Being read out And going like

[01:32:50] Nay Yeah and Michael Stoddberg goes Aye That's good I like that He tries to hit a high note He goes Aye Let's talk about the Jessica Gordon Leavitt So I'll plot a little bit Not too much Okay but yeah then let's wrap it up

[01:33:05] His son wants to fight in the war Lincoln does Lincoln's trying to use his executive power To block it The son has this Chip on his shoulder Because he's Robert Todd Lincoln The son of a great man He feels that he does not want to be coddled

[01:33:17] Or given any benefits Because of who his father is He wants to prove that he is his own man I think he knows deep down And he says at one point I cannot be you Right But I have to be something Right

[01:33:28] And so there's this sort of side track To the movie That is Lincoln trying to scare him Scared straight him Yeah he kind of takes him to terrible scenes Of you know Soldiers and recovery And things like you know The hospitals and it's gross Right

[01:33:42] He finally allowed him to be like Grant's secretary or whatever He was like his Carry or his mail carry He delivered the messages And then he became a very famous lawyer And then he became Secretary of War for Jesse R. Arthur

[01:33:55] Like you know he was a famous person He proved himself Yeah I just think these scenes are not What the movie is really about I think in order for that to work It would have to be like A Lincoln family movie

[01:34:06] That was really concerned with the Lincoln family You know I mean it's like The movie does such a good job of I think Representing Mary Todd But not inserting Mary Todd into the plot In ways that distract from what the movie's actually about

[01:34:19] Whereas every time they go to the Gordon Levitt stuff I'm like this feels like it's out of a much more Conventional life of Lincoln story Agreed I don't love this stuff And I guess it's sort of what makes it A four and a half star movie

[01:34:31] Instead of a five star movie for me It is Something I can deal with I guess it's the best way to put it I'll take it But it's definitely where I kind of glaze over Or make myself a cup of tea Yeah My favorite moment in the movie

[01:34:45] Aside from when Bruce McGill flips out over the story Is when they're in court And they have the argument about What's the fucking thing that James Spader Has to run with the letter What? I don't know They're like stuck at a stalemate

[01:35:00] And they go like we can't do this Unless the president does this Oh it's where Lincoln has to say There are no negotiators for peace Right And so Lincoln sort of fudges it by saying Like as far as I know there are none in Washington

[01:35:13] Because they're in Virginia Right and what they're trying to do is Delay the hearing So that they don't even have to deal with it for a while They're like we have to postpone this We can't even vote on the amendment Unless we know And then James Spader's like

[01:35:25] I got a fucking idea Writes it downward for word Runs it over to him Joey Cross The widest of Awakes Follows right behind him The widest too Okay I'll get through that And then Jeremy is strong behind him And there's a great scene where

[01:35:40] Just Cross is arguing that it's like an obstruction of power Yeah And You cannot lie right now Yeah And Lincoln's like listen to me Give me your hand He takes his hand And then he gives the letter to James Spader And he's like run this back

[01:35:54] You think it's like he's going to grab his hand So we can look it in the eyes An old meal with a couple of mice And some bucket of cream And he's just like I want to make sure Your hands aren't available Occupied They go back They vote

[01:36:07] It's thrilling It's exciting It's satisfying And then as we discuss Tommy Lee Jones takes the bill He takes the bill You can't take that original document He's like I'll return it tomorrow with Chris I wish I could do his accent With Chris but I can't do it

[01:36:18] Brings it to Espartha Merkerson Who plays his In history was like the lady of his household They were not officially married But it's now presumed Because they had a romantic relationship So he comes home And you think he's just talking To sort of his housekeeper

[01:36:33] And then as the conversation continues They both undress He takes off his wig And they get into bed together I think it's a pretty successful Spielberg kind of just like Not hitting it too hard You know, I love that he holds that off

[01:36:46] Until the end of the movie So you kind of just think that he's like An ornery asshole Although an ornery asshole Fighting for the right thing Right And you realize like oh this is his personal state Yeah Love A little bit It's a little cutesy

[01:36:59] But it is history So it's sort of hard to argue with And then after this The movie cuts to I think The Grants Lincoln porch conversation Yeah, I guess so I can't remember how it all unfolds Which I think is how the movie should end

[01:37:14] I would end it on that scene With some kind of button I could even end it on his conversation With Steven Henderson with William Slade And then he walks, you know Off and it's very Spielberg-y And he's cutting the Lincoln profile or whatever But that's fine

[01:37:28] That he's walking to his doom So that's the moment that I start to get irritated I agree But if it ended right there You'd be less irritated It's that it's that And then you're like Then he went to the play Bad news I'll be honest with you

[01:37:42] That's the moment where I threw up my hand Alright, well I don't care And I'll tell you what it is It's the three cuts back To Steven McKinley Henderson Looking at Lincoln And giving the like Man, what a great man Maybe make it one cut

[01:37:52] Right, he does three And it's this moment of like God, what a hero As if McKinley Henderson Knows that the man's about to die There's something to the fact I think for both Kushner and Spielberg That like he did this And then died almost immediately after That's crazy

[01:38:09] And it really was Like he put his life on the line It happened And then he was literally Shot for his political beliefs Here's what I would do Also because, you know Old Boothie was a little That scene where they're talking In the cabin head

[01:38:22] And then McKinley Henderson comes in And is like Hey, 730 play We should get in the road Yeah And he's like Oh, well, I must go Even though I'd rather be here I would end it there And with him walking away Without the fucking McKinley Henderson

[01:38:35] There goes a hero close up And that would be the end of the movie I think the second they keep on cutting back And the music swells And he's in silhouette He starts gilding the lily Way too hard And then you add in Oh, here's the misdirect

[01:38:47] It's a play But wait This isn't the American friend Oh, it's Gully McGrath Seeing a play Who? The kid from the Dark Shadows Character poster Enough, enough And then they tell him that he's dead And then he cries And then the scene of everyone in the

[01:39:00] It's like a fucking It's too much And then you cut to after all this Hello, Baloo A shot of him Delivering his inaugural address A few months ago Which is fine If you want to make that your little It's the milk ending

[01:39:14] Where you cut after his death to You gotta give him hope That's fine You gotta give him hope And it's such an image as well Because it is like As we've already heard with the Gettysburg address Like most people can't even hear him You know, he's a

[01:39:25] He's a Politics was a more reduced thing back then But if you want that to be your capper Okay But like lose the Lose the tenets I'll tell you what I'd do I would do I must go Even though I'd rather be here He walks away

[01:39:39] You don't cut to Henderson's reaction You see the silhouette And over that You hear the audio Sure That would be my ending Because even getting into That clip of him giving The address Spielberg does The most Spielberg move which is They go, we've lost him He's officially gone

[01:39:56] And then they cut to a close-up Of the lamp And the flame flickering And then the flame transitions into My friend What? Don't you fuck with the Steven Spielberg Flame of light Flame of life I get it Alright Let's play the box office game

[01:40:13] I don't disagree with you I just think you may be Ten percent more angry about this I am I think this movie's very good That stuff always has prevented me From being able to love It's a great movie Being my top ten of that year For sure

[01:40:25] It was nominated for many Oscars Daniel Day-Lewis, one best actor The first actor Directed by Steven Spielberg To win an Oscar Is that? That's insane Isn't that crazy? That's very bizarre That was the first performance Steven Spielberg had directed That won an Oscar

[01:40:40] Which is rude of the Oscars But good to give it to Daniel Day And yeah, it was his third lead actor He's the only one to have three leads And he's now tied with The most any male actor Has had period

[01:40:50] It was cool to give me a shout out In the speech He did And he listed all your nicknames I know Like it bit into most of it They were playing him off Yeah, it was I mean, it was like such an honor He's not Professor Chris

[01:41:00] Box office game Box office game Was that the one where he knighted Like he got knighted by Tilda Swinton? No, is that the... Meryl Streep gave him the Oscar And they made the joke about How he was supposed to play Margaret Thatcher

[01:41:14] And she was supposed to play Lincoln And they did a swap And it was a great joke He fucking killed it He was really funny So Lincoln opens number 15 At the box office Number 15 Oh, oh, because it opened Limited first week On November 9th 2012 It opens limited

[01:41:26] It's first week 11 screens Makes $85,000 for screen Not too shabby Let's go to its first wide weekend No You want to do the limited weekend? Yes I feel like in the past When a movie is open on less than 100 screens We go to the first wide They're the same

[01:41:41] For crying out loud It's just one of them Has Lincoln in it So let's just do the other one We can do both Tell me who's number one Okay, so it's what? October 2012 November 9th 2012 Number one at the box office this week Makes $88 million in its first weekend

[01:41:58] It is the 20th film in a series Uh, it is the movie Skyfall It is the movie Skyfall Okay Number two is an animated film Animated And its second weekend makes 33 million 93 total so far What does it end up at? It ends up at $189 domestic

[01:42:18] Okay, so it wasn't a Pixar picture I see it in theaters And love it, it's my best animated film of the year I think Really? Yeah It's a DreamWorks? No Did it win best animated film of the Oscars? No It lost to a very inferior Pixar film Interesting

[01:42:38] It lost to an inferior Pixar film Fusually inferior What do you consider to be an inferior? Think about it buddy Pixar I believe the last Pixar movie to win a Oscar I believe Yes 2012 The other thing is that Paranormal was nominated Such a good movie

[01:42:55] He's gonna do his 003 Ended up at 180 189 I think CGI? Uh, yeah, the sequel is coming I believe Oh, oh, oh, oh, wreck it Ralph Wreck it Ralph I did the 00 Love that movie Number three You love wreck it, we've talked about it so many times

[01:43:12] Number three is from your man A director you like I like two but I think it's bad now We discussed one of his movies briefly earlier Tim Burton Nope Another director Yeah, I like Tim Burton, okay I mean just not now Same with this guy again

[01:43:26] Keep on poo-pooin' that miniseries though Yes, I do It's a bad idea That's a great idea No it isn't Great idea Uh, okay he's bad now I like him a lot I still defend him Do I defend this movie?

[01:43:38] I don't actually know what you think of this movie It was nominated for I think a couple Oscars Maybe three total Not too many but you know a couple big Oscars Aw, it's a drama It's a grown-up drama It's a straight grown-up drama

[01:43:54] It's got some epic stuff in it But it's not like a big fancy blockbuster Budget was $31 million And you hate it I've never seen it I refuse to see this movie Oh, you're against the very idea of the movie I know that I can't handle it

[01:44:10] I can't handle this movie This movie has the one thing that I really try to avoid When I'm seeing movies Farts? No, I'm fine with farts Give me the box office again It's second week It's making 14 mil, 47 so far And it grosses 93 total

[01:44:28] Wow, so that's good performance for drama Nominated for two Oscars Including an acting Oscar A supporting? Lead 90 From a director you like And I like But I think maybe the shine's losing Losing luster When would you say the shine The bloom came off the rest? 2000

[01:44:49] The last movie I really liked by him was in 2000 Not English, it's not Steven Soderbergh No, I love Steven Soderbergh I'm thinking about people who made good movies in 2000 Sure Not really Scott No He made two movies in 2000 This director did? Yeah So he pulled a Soderbergh

[01:45:05] The same movie that Soderbergh pulled a Soderbergh Oh, oh, oh It's a movie by Bobby Zemeckis Correct And it is called Flight Yes Have you seen it? Yeah, it's not great I don't love it I think it's good stuff in it You like Bobby Z

[01:45:20] I like Bobby Z But flight's not your cup of tea No, I think Allied's much better I think Allied's a wonderful film Number four is the best picture winner of that year Best picture winner of 2012 is 12 Years a Slave No No, that's later What beats Lincoln the artist?

[01:45:34] Nope That's the previews here Fuck Argo Correct Fuck yourself Argo, fuck yourself Yeah Which in its fifth week has made 85 Mill On its way to 136 total Yeah, wow Good play Number five is a sequel Starring an actor we discussed Who was not in Lincoln But could have been

[01:45:55] I mean, you know He was almost in Lincoln Oh, Liam Neeson taken two? Taken two Okay Four million 131 million It makes 139 Is it two? Is it TOO or is it the number two? It's the number two, unfortunately The premise of Taken Two is unbelievable

[01:46:15] And the movie drops the ball so hard But it's like the best concept for an action sequel That anyone's ever had Uh, yeah? Yeah Why? Well Taken One is like They kidnapped his daughter He has to kill a bunch of like nameless faceless Yeah You know

[01:46:30] What's Taken Two? Taken Two opens with The father of all the people he killed in the first movie Being like, God damn it And they're like, we finally found an image of the man And he looks And it's essentially a movie about the collateral damage

[01:46:43] Of all these like Undeveloped characters who just get killed by action heroes Um, and he like They're burying like all his nephews And like sons and everything And he looks at the picture And he's like, I'm gonna find him It's essentially retribution for all the people

[01:47:00] Liam Neeson killed trying to get retribution For his daughter in the first movie Like it's all the guys in action movies that are just like It's almost a movie about like Moral gray area and how everyone's a villain to someone else

[01:47:12] And then it sort of drops the ball half way Yeah Bad director, Olivia Megaton, bad director And the next weekend When Lincoln goes wide It jumps to number three It does like 20 Uh, it does 21 And then it goes up the following weekend Lincoln had a great run

[01:47:27] It did 121, 25 And then it makes 182 domestic It's insane For drama that's insane 25 worldwide Great, great total Like, so I think the rights had been in paramount for a while And Brad Gray didn't want to make it Because he was like, look at Amistad

[01:47:43] Amistad like, tapped out at a pretty small number This is you doing the same thing It's gonna be another Amistad But you know, got that Oscar buzz It had Daniel D But he talked about how he was like He couldn't get this movie made

[01:47:54] Yeah, they were afraid it would be another Amistad Like literally the producers were like I don't want to give you more than like 40 million dollars Because it could be another Amistad Like one of the five most successful dramas The last ten years Linky

[01:48:04] And so the other, the movies in the top ten In the top five that week are Skyfall Wreck-A-Roll Flight But the number one movie that we Was the final film in a five film Young Adult Saga Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part II What was its opening weekend gross?

[01:48:20] Please, I ask you I beg 154 141 Yeah You overshot What the fuck Yeah, those movies did very, very well 141 million dollars Like it's not like Hunger Games where you could tell Enthusiasm was waning by Mockingjay Part II Like they start, like that's crazy Didn't the second one make 160 something

[01:48:41] Opening weekend? It's possible Yeah Yeah, no 142 for New Moon 141 for Breaking Dawn Part II 138 for Breaking Dawn Like they, very consistent Eclipse weirdly opens only to 64 But it was a five day It opened Wednesday Yeah, right, right I remember seeing What's the second one's New Moon Correct

[01:49:04] I saw that midnight That's like the real boring one Yeah, that one fucking blows But I saw that midnight Opening night because I'm Riders IK Stu and especially was at that time Yeah And the level of Excitement and finacism in that theater It was like watching

[01:49:20] Like the Beatles play Ed Sullivan For like three glorious years That was the thing When the Summit Entertainment logo came up The logo for the studio that produced the movie The applause was so thunderous and screaming And I turned to my friend and went

[01:49:34] I will never get that response to anything I do in my entire life No one will ever be as excited Never know About something I do as they are By the Summit Entertainment logo Yeah, Limb Biscuit also got a round of applause Like that too

[01:49:45] Let's take it easy Anyway, that's Lincoln He makes this film It does crazy well Gets a bunch of Oscar nominations It only ends up winning two And Spielberg then goes on to Decry the modern state of Studio filmmaking and going like Dramas don't exist anymore

[01:50:04] They've been killed off It's all blockbusters He and Lucas make this joint kind of like Old man complaint even though they're the guys Who created the blockbuster And he's like I can't even get movies made anymore And it's like you just got a 60 million dollar budget

[01:50:15] To make a movie that made almost 200 million dollars That's what I say to that Yeah But yeah, it's true He does start to grouse What do you want Ben? Oh, I've got just two things before we wrap up Two things, go for it Alright, so this movie

[01:50:29] The thought I had was This is definitely going to be played in history classes Yes This is like a history class movie But I think it's a really good one I was thinking that too while watching this I was like would I be excited if this came on

[01:50:40] In a history class And was like oh wow this is better than I expected A movie I'm watching in a history class to be Like I remember Glory was the one That's what stands out in my mind Sure, history class Yeah, it's certainly a much better movie

[01:50:52] I do think that probably also Goose the box office I feel like this is a movie where like A lot of field trips happen Oh sure, yeah You know What's the other thing? But no I just want to say So with that

[01:51:05] You can also play this podcast at your school Or for your students Yes, yes, 100% Absolutely, it's really educational So maybe as they like Even like build it into the lesson plan 100% Play the movie then play the podcast History teachers that listen to the show

[01:51:20] People have been talking a lot Asking us about when Merch is going to be available We're still working on it We're having a lot of problems with offshore manufacturers But Ben, there is a Like a blank check lesson plan Like there's a package you can buy

[01:51:33] It's all paper materials And then cassette tapes It comes in a big clamshell like Muzzy And It's how to teach along with blank check Using it as an educational tool in the classroom So look forward to that Okay last thing I'll wrap it up quickly I'm so hungry

[01:51:50] Now alright, I don't know why I came across this When I was looking in like IMDb's dump Oh but quick pause before I forget We forgot to mention that Chet Hayes Is in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull You see The scene with the motorcycle chase

[01:52:01] Where they end up in the library of the college And they land at the desk of a kid who's working And he's like Professor Jones about that question And he gives him the note And then the joke is that like He's doing homework Okay That's Chet Hayes

[01:52:13] Well listen, I don't know why it was in the IMDb Facts trivia thing But it mentioned Colin Hanks That they said that Their family is related to Lincoln So Tom Hanks, our national treasure boy What Is related to Lincoln, yeah It might not be Tom Hanks

[01:52:30] Because it might be Tom Hanks' mother That's all I have no idea No it says Tom Hanks This says Tom Hanks It says Tom Hanks It's just funny that you're like Colin Hanks He's related to Lincoln's mother Yeah His mother Nancy Hanks Is related to Lincoln distantly

[01:52:49] And that's cool That's very cool So that's my history lesson And again, that would be in the lesson plan Yeah Well That has been our episode on Lincoln Tune in next week when we're discussing Bridget O. Spies More like great movie I'm so excited

[01:53:09] More like the best fucking movie It's the best fucking movie Spoiler that I already watched Bridget Spies And it's the best I just bought the blue the other day Can't wait to spin that I bought it on etunes but so good

[01:53:19] I got the blue so I could also get that digital copy You know what I'm saying? Yeah, you'll purchase it can do both I know I just, but I needed that Bridget Spies right now I was like

[01:53:28] Yeah, but I wanted to be able to look at that plastic case I wanted that amray case You know what I'm saying? Yeah, but I wanted every time I opened my Apple TV To see Tom Hanks' face Surrounded by the American and Soviet flags

[01:53:38] Look, you're making a sound argument And this is the whole point of Bridget Spies It's the gray area of morality It's which is the better purchase For how to own Bridget Spies in your collection Physically or digitally Who knows? Things are not this black and white

[01:53:50] We will discuss that film next week I'm very excited, David It's very excited, Ben I'm really excited Is checking his phone Thank you all for listening Please remember to rate, review, subscribe Check out the reddit Backslash, our backslash, Blankies And as always

[01:54:09] Now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now It's better It got a little better, right?