Movie Mindset 11 - Cutthroat's Anthem: Hangin' with Hawks
A chance meeting of Will & Hesse at a screening in NYC brings you a special bonus episode of Movie Mindset. In lieu of covering this summer’s cinematic event of Barbie/Oppenheimer, we discuss two westerns by American movie master Howard Hawks: 1959’s Rio Bravo and 1966’s El Dorado. We examine the essential place of The Western in American consciousness, and how the western is essentially about taking a bath with the homies.
Comments (80)
I think with El Dorado and the much darker tone and the kid killing himself on account of being gutshot the difference is that Rio Bravo was made in 1959 and El Dorado was made in 1966, the latter was made during the Vietnam war and the idea of young men dying for no reason was in the public consciousness
Just watched John Ford's "The Long Journey Home" and found it very compelling. Anyway, another Movie Mindset possibility.
Watched El Dorado last night, was amazing hearing John Wayne and other legends repeatedly say my name
(Mitchum plays Sheriff J.P. Harrah and they all relish saying it)
Oppenheimer and Barbie both rule-see the former in 70mm if you can. Love you guys
I keep hearing that Oppenheimer is good, but I know when I see it it's gonna be exactly as boneheaded a take on history as you'd expect from Christopher Nolan. Stop lying to me dammit.
It’s surprisingly good politics, though true movie mindset heads can enjoy reactionary art. Truman is correctly shown as an evil hick, McCarthyists seen as spiteful and Oppenheimer as a non committal halfway crook dingus who “wants to be remembered for Trinity, not for Hiroshima”
Was just reading Secret Agenda and learned the Watergate burglars had Movie Mindset: the night of the final break-in on June 16, the crew ran into Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon who were filming Scorpio at the Watergate Hotel. Frank Sturgis met Tha God Lancaster at the Howard Johnson's across the street, then Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy rode the hotel elevator with Delon and chatted with him. The film also shot scenes at Richard Helms' own home.
Best episode so far.
Great episode guys. I am really hoping you guys activate the new Patreon feature that allows you to listen to premium episodes on Spotify.
we're gonna do that as soon, certainly by time Movie Mindset returns in for the horror movie run in the fall
Happy birthday will!!! ☺️
All movies suck ass
What about the foreigner with Jackie Chan
Oppenheimer was no good, very bad film. Barbie was great, but I’m gay so who knows.
Oppenheimer was good actually because of bad parent representation.
This was the most enjoyable podcast episode I’ve listened to in quite some time and the complaints on here are very funny lol. Blank Check pointed out that there’s a “Film Director Barbie”, not sure if it’s connected to the actual movie or just happenstance but an amusing note on the back of the package says she (the doll, the titular Barbie) isn’t meant to stand alone. That absolutely resonates with the Hawks ethos.
No one gives a fat shit what you think
You guys are the best, I promise I won't complain and get sued about your delay on the Barbie/oppenheimer overview. Jesse's comment about the bucket used In rio bravo to clean dean Martin being " a bucket bugs Bunny would use to jump off a high dive" is the kind of thing that has me look forward to listening to you guys just bullshit about the movies. Thanks for a fun listen, and I hope you keep doing these, I think they're great!
I use Overcast for public/unlocked episodes, this ep has appeared there.
Same here.
This hasn’t appeared in my RSS feed yet, anyone else having this problem?
Yup
On the homiesexuality of the Howard Hawks western, we cannot forget Red River with its incredible Montgomery Clift / Cherry Valence gunplay scene: "There are only two things more beautiful than a good gun: a Swiss watch or a woman from anywhere. You ever had a good Swiss watch?" There is a hilarious line in the Ebert review of the film that really drives the home the whole male thing: "And “Red River” is one of the greatest of all Westerns when it stays with its central story about an older man and a younger one, and the first cattle drive down the Chisholm Trail. It is only in its few scenes involving women that it goes wrong." Which is true.
Okay, who got to the San Antonio Public Library Blue Ray holds before I did???
Was dumb enough to give you the chance.
What movie is Hesse talking about? There's a 1943 western called the western by Hughes and Hawks, but it's also 15 years too late to be among the first talkie westerns.
The movie is THE OUTLAW which, apart from being super gay, was also heavily informed by Howard Hughes' fixation on big ol titties; thus every shot of Jane Russell uses her puppies as a focal point. I think that part of the conversation was a bit sped thru so in some ways it sounds like Hesse implied it was the first talkie western, I'd chalk that up to, whatever, chit-chat. They cited The Virginian (certainly one of the early days ones) and Stagecoach (very much NOT an early one BUT arguably the first Prestige western, after a decade of them mostly being relegated to skid-row status) (but that's also not true because you've got Cimarron which won Best Picture, but it sucks ass so......) (my point? I dunno, I'm just having my dang coffee over here)
MOVIE MINDSET SURPRISE LETS GO
On PocketCasts this episode appears in the public feed but not my Patreon feed
Sergeant York is one of the best movies ever!
Love these.
Samuel Fuller's DEAD PIGEON ON BEETHOVEN STREET (side note, that's a title that can fuck all night) has a scene where the Yank protag goes to a German cinema to watch RIO BRAVO dubbed, and he's just loving it, talking at the screen and whatnot. That is the proverbial game recognizing game.
Great episode, just a lovely miniseries.
Just two absolute heaters
Oppenheimer is mostly medium shots of talking people. if i went out to see it again, i would avoid Imax.
It was also a lot of massive wide shots and some of the most intimidating music and sounds I've ever heard. If I saw it again I'd see it in imax
Love Wayne rifle-whipping a dude in the bar for lying to him
And then a moment later, making sure Dude gets the final word.
The actor who plays the cowboy murdered by Joe Burdette is an uncredited Bing Russell, whose grandson is Wyatt Russell (EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!!, TV’s “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”). Wyatt’s father and mother are also movie actors.
Thanks for making this public! Also shout out to Nick Newman, a mensch and a scholar
Thank you God for this meager sustenance.
Chisom is the best John Wayne western. Bravo is a tight second
will this show up on iTunes eventually?
I would never be mad at Will or Hesse.
Accidentally started the ep over a minute in but I don’t mind cus the intro song is good 🥰
Hell yeah. Mas movie mindset!!
Only slightly mad will called Opp “a very good serious movie” … 😵💫 the avengers style JFK name drop, the blatant female erasure, the omission of the bombs (long and short term) effects on the Japanese, Kenneth Branagh & Casey Affleck… not good!
I mean sure if you’re gonna be that soft about it
What a blessed day, we can all go back to the lobby 🙏
I haven't seen El Dorado in a decade but I still have huge chunks of it memorized.
And like he said, it shouldn't have taken four of you.
Hell yeah dude
Hot diggity dog, we got one Dougie. Helllllooooooooo
I just want to apologize in advance because I imagine I'm going to reply a bunch. Hawks is, on most days, my absolute top filmmaker, across all eras and languages. This means RB is usually my favorite, but realistically it's tied with 10 other Hawks films, including (what I guess might be called) deeper cuts like I WAS A MALE WAR BRIDE and AIR FORCE. I've written about him several times over the years, including an unfortunately aborted essay collection on Hawks, for which I contributed an piece on HIS GIRL FRIDAY. This is what I wrote about THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD on my 2022 Sight & Sound ballot: "Never content with making one picture, Howard Hawks always made two, simultaneously – time and time again he managed that impossible balance, that of treating a play for genre like a lark, and, in the same gesture, establishing a high-water mark in that genre. This notion of two films in one, naturally combative yet forced, by Hawks, to work together to complete a set of tasks, manifests itself as 'a Nyby picture', of which we know precious little, and 'a Hawks picture', about which we celebrate half a dozen or more specimens before we get to this one. To me, this film's seeming determination to keep its head low and pass as 'just a B-picture' conceals the most provocative challenge contained in the Hawks corpus. Probably Hawks didn't 'direct' it. But if one had a meter, like in the film, to detect levels of Hawks-ness, it would redline from the first to the last frames. I've watched it more times than I've called my mother." Much of this applies to RB and EL DORADO; the latter was one of the Hawks film that I struggled with and recently learned to stop worrying and love it. Ok I'll stfu now and listen to the ep. Thanks Will and Hesse for posting up with the good shit mid-week.
All Westerns are gay in that they're about men settling their differences by shooting hot loads into each other.
You joke but read Robin Wood on RB! Pretty cogent, persuasive queer analysis
Robert Mitchum and Dean Martin are great bathers
FUCK YEAH
Rio Bravo is one of my all time faves, so stoked for this one
such a perfect hangout movie
Put in holds for both Blu-rays at the library in case fellow piggies try to grab them before me
Yes... Ha ha ha... YES!
Please for the love of god watch a movie I’ve actually seen before.
I guarantee you will love Rio Bravo or I will apologize
John Carpenter's commentary for the Rio Bravo DVD is pretty essential
bath houses are praxis
More homework I guess.
Let's gooooo
More Hesse! More Hesse!
I'm so in for this.
is that you, Bull?
Praying for a Killers of the Flower Moon episode or general Scorsese ep
I saw this at Cannes (yes, this is me bragging) and I’m pretty positive Will and Hesse are gonna love it
Surprise movie mindset making my Wednesday 🙏🙏🙏
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
I’m in there like swim wear
📽️🎬
Yesse*
Yesssss