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I kind of wanted Maria to gun some fools down at the end

Haven't gotten to the episode yet, but I just want to dedicate this post to the perfection that is EGOT winner Rita Moreno. (And if y'all haven't seen One Day at a Time pls do because it's great and Netflix is dumb for cancelling it.)

I'm also not sure if this really counts, but I've always loved this bit:

Wouldn’t the police simply ask neighbors if they had seen anything unusual? And someone might say “ Come to think of it there was a 45-year-old man outside making a snowman at 2 o’clock in the morning.”

As someone who is currently making his way through Elvis’ filmography, I just wanted to say Elvis does not have a knife in Jailhouse Rock. He kills a man with his bare hands! That’s what lands him in jail. Also, Elvis dies in Love Me Tender, his first film role, and Flaming Star, one of his Westerns. There may be others as well. As far as whether or not Elvis would be a good Tony, personally, I don’t think it would be a good fit. However, it's not that I don't think he could pull it off acting-wise. I’ve seen quite a few of his movies now and the issues with them are rarely due to his acting. He feels like a part of whatever world he’s in - even if that world is completely ridiculous. I think he would be capable of handling the material, but he’s incapable of not being Elvis. (I’ve wondered in some of my Letterboxd reviews why they don’t just call all his characters “Elvis” because he’s not fooling anyone.) Again, it’s not that he can’t act, but his look is so iconic that it becomes a distraction. I think he would have come off as too sexy as well. I think Tony needs to feel a bit sweet and vulnerable. And while Elvis had a great voice with remarkable range, I don’t think it would be great fit for West Side Story’s style of music. He also never did an accent. I’m not saying he couldn’t, but maybe that would have been beyond his capabilities. I don’t know, but with New York being such a crucial backdrop, having your lead speaking with a thick Southern drawl might look and sound a bit silly. Still, I think Elvis was a solid enough actor that had he been given better material, he could have done well. Or at least, better than he did. Oh, and since I'm on the topic, Clambake and Stay Away, Joe would both be good candidates for HDTGM The first one is just flat out ridiculous and the second has Burgess Meredith made up to be a Native American. It is upsetting.

The podcast mentioned on today’s doughboys double with the weird keg guy was bx angeles, right?

would have been cool for "try month" they went on a bunch of other podcasts as guests to help bring in some new listeners to the show

I’m commenting as I’m listening, and I hate to break it our hosts, but yeah, Maria doesn’t date again. She doesn’t move on. We have to check our cynicism at the door and accept that what Tony and Maria has is True Love. You don’t just move on from that. And remember, this is Romeo and Juliet. And while Maria may not physically die like Juliet, her notion of romantic love certainly does. She will not recover from Tony’s death. But if you want to know what happens to her, I think the movie gives us some visual clues. First, the image of her holding Tony is reminiscent of La Pieta, the statue of Jesus’ mother Mary holding his body after the crucifixion. And of course the image of her in the shawl at the end further evokes the image of the Virgin Mary. (Not the movie image, but the moment I’m thinking of) So given these images and the tragedy of the situation, I think it’s a pretty safe bet Maria becomes a nun. It’s not the end of her literal life, but perhaps it’s the end of her worldly life.

I'll just repost my Letterboxd comments to get the discussion going: I understand that the casting of the leads isn't that great and that the use of white actors in the Puerto Rican roles looks bad to modern eyes and that not every scene is perfectly exectuted, but whatever . . . as soon as one of the many brilliant dance numbers kicks into high gear it brings tears to my eyes, every time. Has group choreography ever been shot and edited this well? I was also struck this time by how relevant the themes about American race relations have remained, which suggests an evergreen quality to the material. At times, West Side Story still feels trenchant and caustic in its commentary: witness the cops treating the white hoodlums more kindly than the brown ones (though still not that kindly), the poor white folks complaining about how the immigrants are "taking over" . . . are we sure this was written 60 years ago? I guess they do also say things like "Daddy-O."

Beantown Duck Boats have nice names like Symphony Hal and Charlie River

I did not find this episode any louder than the usual live episode and remain baffled that the first comments are about that. As for the movie: aside from the confusing plot and character motivations, I was also constantly disoriented by how the camera just kept drifting aimlessly around the actors, even in scenes where they're just delivering exposition at each other. It was like Alfredson decided he wanted to try directing a CSI episode or something. Why is the camera always moving?!

I HAVE to finish this episode now. This is a travesty!

As a Jason fan, I was very upset that he implied that Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) was a George Harrison number. As that song rips off Bob Dylan and not the Chiffons, it is clearly a John Lennon piece. Having not read any of the previous replies, I'm going to assume that all three pages of this topic are about this travesty.

I will admit to being 100% done with complaints about yelling since "Can't Stop the Music" dropped and everyone said Cameron Esposito was awful but Pete Holmes was fine. (Check out that thread. It was wild.) I have definitely heard Jason describe HDTGM as "people yelling about bad movies" so I don't really understand why people are shocked. I know sometimes the volume or levels or whatever on the live eps are off. This is why some people say they prefer the in studio episodes. But my only real "solution" to the problem is a) don't listen or b) adjust your volume. I agree with Cameron H that it's not really constructive. It's also not really a correction or omission which, in theory, is that the boards are for. (Except we go off topic all the time.) I do agree with the criticism that they didn't go into the plot of the movie , which they usually do. I'm still not really sure who the killer is. But it sounds like they were so confused that it was a special circumstance. ETA: Also, we all know Taylor Anne is here to burn the fucking place down, not to make friends.

Oh this is hilarious to me. I love calling a trend boring and then getting called a fascist. I also love being told I'm "Reddit" and apparently they hate me over there lol!

It was only somewhat directed towards you, because you directly responded to me the first time trying to distance yourself from the hate that had been directed towards Erin, rather than owning up to the fact that you replied to the comment that directly pointed out Erin and agreed with that person, only to seemingly cover yourself by naming two others as if that makes it okay. But then other people came in and named Erin and then Bryan and it started this trend. And the point that I'm still trying to make is that no matter what, like Cameron said, it's not a constructive comment. It's boring and takes away from the enjoyment a lot of us get from these forums. But yeah a lot of us are veterans here, and when I say that these comments are starting to get boring, it's not just because 4/5 of the first comments were about Erin's loudness, it's because we've seen this so much when a woman is a guest and especially on a live show. Anna Faris is the only female guest I've seen get hate from an in studio episode and every other one is a live show. So it's a huge pattern that is absolutely ridiculous.

It's especially noticeable to those of us who are here most often. We see the pattern of people who either dust off or create an account just to complain about a guest, and more often than not, those guests tend to be women. What annoys me about it further is whether the person they are complaining about is a woman or man, gay or straight, or even if the complaint is completely justified, there's nothing constructive about it. The episode has been birthed. It's out there in the world and there's nothing anyone can do about it except...not listen. I know people like to think that their opinion is going to matter, but I seriously doubt Paul does pre-show huddles backstage at Largo with Jason, June, and the guests and is like, "Okay, we got some complaints from first time poster AssDisaster39 on the forums about yelling into the mics. So let's try to keep the energy low tonight for the live audience. Also, I printed out the plot synopsis from Wikipedia, so let's try to keep on topic and take it beat for beat . You know structured: the essence of improv." My point is, no one needs the negativity. You don't have to love every episode or every guest. But unless your complaint is valid, and not just grousing, and you have a workable solution that might actually help the show, keep it to yourself. No one on the show or at Earwolf is taking you seriously - at all. Constructive criticsm isn't, "My ears were bleeding!" Constructive criticism sounds more like "I think the levels were off during the episode. It might be an issue with the sound needing to be properly Normalized, Compressed, and the the loudness matched." This is a polite, workable complaint that doesn't mention anyone by name and could maybe even be corrected. Anyway, if you truly have a problem, your best bet is to not listen. If HDTGM notices a steep drop in downloads for Live episodes, I'm sure they'll look into the problem and correct it if they feel it's necessary. However, I don't think there's quite the numbers to justify that quite yet. I think the episode, or the first half I've listened to anyway, has been great!

I wish the baby was born plaid

Morning robot! Warm my cheese!

Yes. Definitely

I think Sean’s prodigious nipple drip was too loud for other shows.

It's a time...

I’m asleep clown

Bump bump bump. I just watched this and boy is it perfect for HDTGM. They've already done Superman 3 and 4. This is right in that wheelhouse.

This movie is perfect for HDTGM because it features so many otherwise good actors giving terrible performances. Faye Dunaway, Peter O'Toole, Mia Farrow...how the hell did they get these people?