More Than One Lesson

We start with two dead men. One of them is still breathing, speaking, and growling humbugs at everything joyful and hopeful in the world. The other is as dead as… well, as a doornail. But both of them are quite dead indeed. And as Charles Dickens wisely instructed us on the very first page of A Christmas Carol, “This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate.”

[...]

In this episode, Tyler and Josh are joined by Reed Lackey to discuss William Friedkin’s The Exorcist.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN
00:00:47- Intro, Halloweentimes shirt
00:04:00- BP Top 50 Horror, MTOL Amazon store
00:06:30- Podcast Awards
00:08:00- Reed Lackey
00:15:40- What scares us
00:31:15- The Exorcist
01:32:50- Episode wrap-up

DOWNLOADABLE MP3

Let me put all my cards on the table. The Exorcist, the 1973 movie with all of that gushing pea soup, is my favorite movie of all time. But before you write me off as a demented lunatic or worse, I’d like the chance to tell you why that is. So please… sit down, try to relax. Grab a milkshake.

[...]

Do you remember that scene where Jesse, at one of his most bitter and harsh moments, is playing a first-person shooter video game? The screen holds on an image with two words: “Quit” and “Restart”. For a lengthy moment, Jesse’s cursor hovers over the word “Quit” before ultimately flicking over and selecting to “Restart”.

[...]

Let me start with one of my favorite jokes from The Simpsons. Homer Simpson, suspended severely high above the ground, folds his hands and says, “I’m not normally a praying man, but if you’re up there, please save me Superman!”

[...]

I read Twilight. Once. I also saw the first movie. After this, I and the franchise parted ways for mutually exclusive reasons that don’t need to be detailed here.

When I saw the trailers for Warm Bodies, my first thought was: “Oh… now zombies have a Twilight movie.” However, loving zombie films as much as I do and bolstered by a striking number of positive reviews, I gave it a viewing. And—cutting to the chase—I absolutely adored it.

WARNING: SPOILERS

[...]

Fans of J. J. Abrams’ 2009 reboot of Star Trek, if not already familiar with the franchise, might find themselves interested to go back and watch the original series of movies to see what they have to offer. If that’s you and if you should decide to start from the beginning, you will most likely find the experience quite jarring.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in striking contrast to Abrams’ vision, is not an action-packed, humor-filled thrill machine. It is a deliberately paced, methodically executed science fiction story with precisely three—yes, three—moments of humor. It’s also a pretty excellent piece of cinema if you know what you’re facing and perhaps the most underrated of the Star Trek films.

SPOILERS

[...]

1. THE EXORCIST

Being a sincere, born-again Christian who cites a graphic portrayal of demonic possession as my favorite movie ever, I should expect some puzzled second glances and more than a few questions. The film’s subject matter definitely isn’t for everyone (I actually discourage people who are particularly sensitive to its such things from seeing it), but it is also often highly misjudged based on its reputation as “the scariest movie of all time” and the viewing of a few popular scene clips. At its core, The Exorcist is an examination of how we cope with evil in the world around us, particularly when that evil attacks the innocent among us. For those who don’t already know, the story revolves around a young girl and her actress mother whose imperfect but comfortable little world nearly comes undone when the girl begins to exhibit evidence of demonic possession. The mother’s only hope for her daughter lies in a young priest whose faith is wavering and an elder priest who health is failing. My affections for it almost entirely lay in the film’s quieter moments, but I also admire that the film presents the devil as horrific and malevolent rather than cool or charming. Its script is a powerful exploration of the persistent struggle we each have not only to overcome evil in the world around us, but to try to understand it and this theme is a constant source of fascination for me (the moment when the elder priest provides his theory for why this is all happening is profound). Despite its occasional theological awkwardness, The Exorcist presents us with the message that the only way to ultimately overcome evil is to lay down your life and even though this message might be obscured for some by the film’s more extreme moments, it’s a message that resonated with me so strongly that it placed this movie as my favorite. My favorite moment in the movie (one that I think best captures the movie’s heart) comes after the younger priest has lost a psychological battle with the demon and is forced to retreat from the conflict. As the young priest sits sulking in self-pity and confusion, the girl’s mother steps in and quietly asks, “Is my little girl going to die?” In that moment, the young priest casts aside his self-absorption and with a confidence he never had before, declares “No.” before rising back up the stairs to fight again for the soul of the little girl, and his own.  There is genuine ugliness and horror in The Exorcist, but there are also moments of striking beauty and grace and perhaps such is true of life itself as well.

2. PSYCHO

Alfred Hitchcock is my favorite director of all time and Psycho is unquestionably one of his greatest thrillers. It has been analyzed and discussed ad nauseum and there’s so much that I love about this film that it’s hard to narrow down precisely what I love most. Within the context of a riveting suspense tale, the film explores how guilt and desire can make us “all go a little mad sometimes.” That observation, in all its haunting simplicity, is what makes such an outlandish story as Psycho so frighteningly human. We may never go as far as the characters in this film go (outright theft and cold-blooded murder, for instance). But what the film doesn’t come right out and tell you is implied pretty strongly: The only hindrances to the unleashing of your criminal impulses are often motivation and opportunity. This theme of the good and evil that lies within all of us has always fascinated me and Psycho certainly has some rich depth of creative exploration from that arena. But what I love the most is that it’s simply a gripping story, well-told by an unparalleled master of the suspense genre.

3. UNFORGIVEN

Eastwood helped to redefine the Western for American audiences and he cited Unforgiven as summing up everything he felt about the genre. The film is about big ideas in a very small world. Amidst simple confrontations of violence and revenge are examinations of identity, politics, violence, and (most notably) the deconstruction of legends and myths. When I first saw this movie, I didn’t care very much for it because it consistently gave me what I didn’t expect. However, as multiple discussions and repeated viewings occurred, I became enthralled by what the film had to say about what happens when we play games with the darker shades of our humanity. Characters move arrogantly through the story until finally one of them (like a flesh and blood angel of death) literally cleans house in one of the most compelling climactic shootouts in film history. In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the point is made that “When legend becomes fact, print the legend.” In Unforgiven, you could almost imagine someone saying, “When legends become fact, you’d better arm yourself.” It’s a staggering character study about the nature and power of modern myths (particularly the myths of the old west) and the more I see it, the more compelling I find it to be.