Patrick R

Not to drag this out more because it seems like you understand where I'm coming from, which is all I wanted to achieve, but it's worth noting that one's interpretation of any given movie is subjective and in particular I personally disagree with your read on The Searchers. I think The Searchers is racist because of how it others native Americans, mostly playing them for fear and inscrutiny (the attack on the homestead is a brilliant bit of film-making but also pretty racist in how inhuman they come across), and all the stuff with the Squaw. I think there's also a wacky Mexican character a la Stagecoach, but I can't remember exactly. So I will not argue The Searchers isn't racist, albeit in a way I find common among films of it's genre and era. But as far as the depiction of John Wayne's character Ethan, I think it's more complicated than you are giving it credit for. His "heroism" is depicted as alienating zealotry more offten than not. The IMDB plot summary says it's about "A Civil War veteran embarks on a journey to rescue his niece from an Indian tribe." but really, it's about a Civil War veteran who embarks on a journey to kill his niece, because he is such a twisted racist he thinks 1) death is better being raised among/than living with/being implicitly raped by Native Americans. 2) once she's had sex with a Native American she's tainted and beyond saving. The film presents these beliefs as aberrant and disgusting. You just need to see everyone's reaction to him shooting out the eyes of the dead native American to know he's more Travis Bickle than Ringo Kid. His nephew(?) joins him on his journey explicitly because he feels if he doesn't Ethan will do something terrible. I think casting an actor like John Wayne in this role is a challenging and confrontational choice that really makes you reconsider what you thought of his characters fighting Native Americans in films like She Wore A Yellow Ribbon and Stagecoach and Fort Apache. Ford's career was fascinating in how he both created and deconstructed myths of the west and while I would never imply that he was a force of social justice (outside of The Grapes of Wrath; he was a big time New Deal Democrat and goaded Wayne every chance he got about how he never would have had a career without FDR), his tendency to be self-critical or, at the very least, critical of those who tell stories and the stories that make up our histories, means that movies like The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance are about more than what they're about. The most heroic thing Ethan does is put aside his beliefs at the end and not murder his niece. But he's still a crazy racist and realizes that while he has been instrumental in bringing back some sort of chance at normalcy (again, normalcy defined by white imperialist American life) to his family, he has no place there. And there is a certain tragedy to that. I think it's one of the few times the film actually asks you to empathize with Ethan and I don't personally see anything wrong with films asking viewers to empathize with immoral or awful characters, if only for a moment or two. I think that's what psychologically complex art often does. ---- Now of course you may completely disagree with all that, and that's fine. But the assumption that people are giving racism a pass is first the assumption that people are seeing the same racism you are. And, given our different interpretations of how much of a "hero" Ethan is (again, because The Searchers inspired Taxi Driver, I wonder how much of a hero Travis Bickle is), that clearly isn't always the case.

Absolutely, but while erasure in 2016 means they change the role to a white woman, in 1930 it meant (And The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933) is another good example of how canon defines itself and how much more complicated racism is than just making something 'rotten to the core', because at the time this film was considered beyond the pale and disgusting because it dared to tell a story of a white woman falling in love with a Chinese man and racist audiences, churchs and early feminist groups found the concept revolting. But when I saw it in theaters last year the audience found it disgusting because of the yellow-face and general exotic orientalism and a Beauty and the Beast sort of story of a woman falling in love with her captor. In truth it is a movie that tries to tackle racism and succeeds in some ways and mostly fails in others but is still beautifully shot and acted and has important things to say about the willful ignorance and condescension of those who think they are doing acts of charity and isn't this all much more interesting then saying it's rotten to the core.)

I should say, I am constantly offended by most media I consume, so the act of embracing works I do not agree with politically is something I'm very well-practiced in. The racist, hetero-normative, ablist, transphobic, body shaming, misogynist, etc. etc. etc. world we all live in always shines through in some way and deciding that some movies are cool because the director probably didn't mean it and some movies are not because they are "rotten to the core" feels incredibly arbitrary and antithetical to actually having discussions about art. Also, if you want to talk about movies before the 70's (and most of it after the 70's, just to diminishing degrees) you have to already accept an insane white supremicist world view in which America doesn't include people of color, except to occasionally open the doors for the white main characters. You have to accept that gay people don't exist, except maybe as a winking prancing punchline. Just because a movie doesn't feature any people of color to be racist about doesn't mean it's not racist. In fact, that usually means it is. Erasure is a big deal.

I disagree that modern films and older films are equally sexist and racist. I couldn't disagree with that more.

Cool, I guess the long post I made last night never posted. Always fun. The continued use of the word "we" implies that you are not just describing how you feel but how everyone should feel. Your assertion that these films are "rotten to the core" as opposed to just merely offensive, or reflective of their time, or flawed or whatever is completely subjective. If a large number of critics consider The Searchers one of the greatest films of all time I assure you it is because they have thought a lot about it and have come to that conclusion and not because they never considered it's racism. Everyone has considered The Searcher's racism. It is a film about race. It is a film where the lead character is a racist. It is a film about how the people he encounters feel about his racism. It is a film in which John Ford grapples with his own racist legacy. I assure you, no one is giving The Searchers "a free pass". No one is "avoiding judging those works". But more importantly, the tone of your post implies an aggressive approach to curating canon, which I think is always a mistake and wasted energy. No one needs to define a canon, canon defines itself. Every time. Sight & Sound, Pazz & Jop, and lists like this can be good historical documents and thermometers into the culture, but they aren't prescriptive. I hate Jean-Luc Godard but his works are canon because people still watch and enjoy and discuss and are inspired by them, not because Criterion or a Letterboxd or IMDB or Film Threat or Cahiers Du Cinema list told us they are. How many best picture winners and box office smashes do people never talk about or watch anymore? How many flops are now so popular people don't even remember they tanked at the box office? I discovered the other day that The Shawshank Redemption was a big box office bomb and was flabbergasted. Canon always defines itself. By all means, despise The Searchers and It Happened One Night (though what about the latter you find beyond the pale I have no idea, unless it's just the standard sexist attitudes that are in most rom-coms of every era) and don't be shy about it. But I find your approach, the "we must strike these from the canon, down with those who give them a free pass" tact, to be backwards and presumptive. I really don't know how to be polite about this except to say I disagree super fucking hard with this.

Maybe the real problem is the premise of an Everyone Must Watch list. I think that Everyone Must Make Up Their Own Minds About What They Want To Watch, but the premise that those who accept that art made in the past reflects the culture of that past are "giving something a pass" just because they understand how history works is annoying and myopic. If you only love things that are pure that probably means you aren't directing strong enough scrutiny at the things you love, and just because you don't like The Searchers doesn't mean anyone who does just doesn't care enough about racism.

If you would like to discount all art that is problematic you will not be left with too much.

I started listening to the Beastcast because I couldn't take Dan on Bombcast anymore, then I started listening to the Bombcast again for a month because Dan was on the Beastcast but now I guess I will go back to Bombcast next year? It's like the fox, the goose and the grain up in this piece.

I started reading The Remains of the Day and I adore it so much and I realize, between this and The Sense of an Ending, I am totally enamored with British first person novels based mostly in memories and re-examinations of vital moments in their past. Are there other novels like this? I suppose the English setting isn't mandatory but it'd be a plus.

I watched that Multibowl stream while on vacation and it made me so so so happy.

It's Scorsese's Taxi Driver but also Mann's Thief but also Hill's The Driver but also an Italian crime film.

You want a trailer like or

The one thing you guys forgot is that, over the plinking piano, you always hear a little girl's voice singing "I heard the news today, oh boy..." super slow.

Sean's "That's a really good point, Chris." was totally wonderful. Everything I missed in one moment.

After the fact. But when people say "There's more to animal classification than what animals look like what." he just repeats "But a reptile looks like an amphibian!" He never seems curious, only combative. If he truly acknowledged he was dumb and wrong he would eventually stop starting arguments and start asking questions. I think "I know I'm wrong and I'm dumb." is just his emergency exit out of any conversation he can no longer handle.

Didn't he do the opposite and keep fighting what people were saying without anything to back it up?

I made this a couple days before the theme was announced, but I can definitely recommend this recipe for Shrimp Fried Rice with ********* and toasted Coconut. Mine didn't look as good as the picture on the site, naturally, but it was very tasty. Sweet, but with a kick. EDIT: ...is ********* censored on this forum? EDIT EDIT: Yo, it's like a pine plus an apple, you put it together into a spiky fruit, you can figure it out.

I don't want to jump to any conclusions but I think Don't Go In The Woods is a bad film. EDIT: I'm about to eat 4 hot-dogs. Also, that's my new rap name. 4 hot-dogs.

What was better, when Spaff said "Procedurally generated" like he was a robotic James Mason on the fritz, or when Spaff said "Actually Chris, steel doesn't conduct electricity"?

This Japanese Stephen Spielberg TV documentary is kind of incredible. If you have any interest in Spielberg, this is great unguarded stuff, maybe peak overgrown child state. And at some point he calls Scatman Crothers in Twilight Zone (which there is some on set footage of) "the black ET", which is both accurate and a perfect encapsulation of why his segment of The Twilight Zone movie is racist garbage.

Nothing to add except that I liked this episode a lot!

Hunt for the Wilderpeople is pretty damned good! Very predictable quirky indie dramedy "let's build a family" beats, but very funny and heartwarming.

Lone Star is not really a western, really, but in fact a merging of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Citizen Kane and Do the Right Thing. It's every bit as ambitious as it sounds and it pulls it off perfectly. Way more affecting and meaningful sort of "multiple intersecting stories" film than Crash or the work of Iñárritu or even Magnolia. Definitely one of the great American films of the 90's.

Did Nick say in the Nature Box ad that he's no longer working at Telltale? Is this the first announcement of this?

I hope you guys get time to throw that second Wizard Jam stream on YouTube soon!