Travis Bickle On The Riveria: You Need More Significant Bullets

Welcome to Travis Bickle on the Riviera, a movie podcast where Tucker Stone and Sean Witzke talk about movies and you get to listen to it! This is the second episode, where themes start to emerge. That logo above? That's from Michel Fiffe, which is why it's so awesome.



00:00 - 01:13 - INTROS

01:14 - 10:38 - HOMEWORK - Tucker had Sean watch the theatrical cut of Miami Vice (2006) directed by Michael Mann. Sean also (briefly) mentions Michaelangelo Antonioni and the pilot of the Miami Vice tv series. That pilot features some of the most zen shit ever shown on network television. Tucker brings up the 1978 British tv show Sandbaggers. Then Sean also uses the term "highfalutin" like that's a word that people who aren't ridiculous say, even though it isn't.

10:39 - 11:30 - HOMEWORK - Tucker didn't do his: there will be ramifications!

11:31 -  18:57 - Tucker watched Werner Herzog's The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974), Tucker also discusses this huge Herzog box set. The conversation derails - Sean kind of misrepresents how helpful he is at building an 11th grade english curriculum - the truth is: not very! Then both of us talk about how amazing Herzog is as a person. This includes - Herzog saving Joaquin Phoenix, Herzog getting shot, and Herzog battling Tom Cruise for the love in the hearts of this podcast.

18:58 - 26:57 - Sean watched Kevin Smith's Red State (2011), starring Michael Parks and John Goodman and Badger from Breaking Bad. Also we talk about Kevin Smith in general. And we mention the weirdness of David Lynch on twitter.


26:58 - 35:52 - Tucker watched the history of badass Charley Varrick (1973), directed by Don Siegel. Starring Walter Matthau and Joe Don Baker and the guy who played Scorpio (and I never realized - he was also is the Dad in Hellraiser). Because we're talking about Don Siegel, Dirty Harry comes up, as does Magnum Force.



35:53 - 44:34 - Sean watched The Knack... and How To Get It (1965), directed by Richard Lester.  Sean then brings up Steven Soderbergh's sort of autobiography Getting Away With It and talks about Richard Lester as a director for probably too long.



43:35 - 53:47 - Tucker pulled the most unexpected of moves and watched Hachiko/Hachi A Dog's Life (2009), directed by Lasse Halstrom. Starring Richard Gere and a really really cute dog and just listening to the plot almost made Sean cry. We also talk about Richard Gere as an actor.



53:48 - 58:24 - Sean watched Margot At the Wedding (2007), directed by Noah Baumbach and starring Nicole Kidman, who Sean really doesn't like all that much (although, now that he's typing this a week later - Dead Calm, Eyes Wide Shut, Days of Thunder, Birth - he pretty much hates post-botox Nicole Kidman).



58:25 - 1:04:15 - Tucker watched All Good Things (2010), directed by, as Tucker describes him, the co-founder and CEO of Moviefone. Starring Kirsten Dunst and Ryan Gosling and carpentry genius Nick Offerman. We also mention Mr. Brooks (2007), the movie where Kevin Costner kills Dane Cook.

1:04:16 - 1:08:16 - Sean watched The Crimson Kimono (1959), directed by Samuel GOD DAMN Fuller, patron saint of telling a story like a bad motherfucker. Then Richard Gere comes back up again, and we end up discussing G-rated movies we like.



1:08:17 - 1:15:39 - And finally Sean watched (too many movies this week, I mean jee-zus go outdoors, studio tan) Howard Hawk's Rio Bravo(1959), starring John Wayne and Dean Martin, and written by Leigh Brackett. Also mentioned are Rio Bravo influenced films Assault on Precinct 13(1976) and Jackie Brown(1997). Because it is almost impossible to finish an episode of this podcast without discussing John Carpenter.

1:15:40 - 1:20:31 - NEW HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS, including Tucker's double penalty assignment, directors who put their wives in their films, and Tucker tells a quick story of the day he watched all the Resident Evil movies.

Download Travis Bickle Is Burning In Hell ; not a significant bullet

Comments

[Abhay]

Oh, I really liked the Lester Three Muskeeters (though I think my dad swears by one of the black and white versions). But I remember really just digging Three-- but not as much the second half of the story, Four Musketeers? I know they filmed them at the same time and they're all of a piece, like Sean mentioned, but I remember all the long elaborate action set pieces I loved in Three just felt like they drug on and on and on forever in Four. I remember Four being the more dramatic material, too, which maybe accounts for less interest on my part.

I don't remember the Knack-- I just remember despising it. I saw that and the original Alfie around the same time, maybe as a double-feature-- miserable, miserable experience.

I think when Tarantino talked about Rio Bravo, it's not as a siege movie but he classified it as a hang-out movie-- like I remember him mentioning it alongside Dazed & Confused. That thing of how you feel about Dazed & Confused after the first time you see it, it isn't how you feel about it if you see it a second or third time...? Rio Bravo has that same thing, where it's one of those movies that if you flip onto it in the middle, when it's on Turner Classic or whatever, you're kind of right back in it... that song with Dean Martin and the kid may not work the first time, but if you see it again... like, I'm sitting here remembering the song fondly...?

[mb]

just wanted to say that i very much enjoyed the first episode, and hope you guys continue with this series

[Sarah Horrocks]

Kicking and Screaming is a good old Bambauch movie to see. It's like a Whit Stillman typa-movie. Prime Parker Posey witticisms too.

Also very much in lock step on Kevin Smith. I used to think I liked that guy, and then he found pot and twitter. Bleaugh.

Stroszek is my Herzog recommendation. I like his Bruno S. collabs a littttle bit better than his Kinski ones, even though I love them both.

[Sean Witzke]

Sarah - Stroszek and Kicking and Screaming are on my to-watch lists. I love Parker Posey but I'm a little wary about it from reading about it. I do want to see Francis Ha quite a bit. Stillman - I still have only watched the Last Days of Disco, and it was so long ago I barely remember it. With Kevin Smith - the twitter and pot thing would not be a big deal if his work was great is the big problem. I mean, I still love Madlib and Doug Benson with all my heart.

Abhay - I remember Tarantino talking about it as a hangout movie, and I can really see that being the case. I'm definitely going to watch it again soonish. Actually I come off harsher than I really felt about the song, I just thought it was a weird decision.

The Knack next to Alfie would make it far worse, there's nothing even close to Caine's presence in it. I think it might have been way better if it had better actors - but as it is, the ideas are just so dated and gross.

The Lester Musketeers - I really don't remember the first two as separate movies at all. I think I've only ever watched them as TCM double features. Return of the Musketeers is really fantastic, though, and it's one of the rare good director's last movies.

[Jon Burr]

FInding this podcast is the equivalent of finding money in an old pair of pants. Fanfuckintastic.

[Jon Burr]

I should mention that, in a bizarre coincidence, I've been live tweeting old episodes of Miami Vice. You may have to scroll through some of my fantasy football bullshit, but there's about a hundred tweets of Vice-ness in there. @MasterJonBurr is where to go.

[Jon Burr]

Sean - I think you will absolutely love Straight Time. It's got M. Emmet Walsh at his skeezy best, along with a truly insane and very young Busey, and, to top it off, my 2nd favorite Harry Dean Stanton performance (after 92 In The Shade). I THINK it's got an Eddy Bunker cameo, as well, as it's based on his writing.

[Troy Olson]

It's about time someone did a movie podcast worth listening to. Fantastic stuff here. And Tucker better watch TENEBRE this week (and keep pronouncing it like it's a German beer) because I want to hear you guys talk about Argento and the fucking awesome title song to the film by Goblin.