sycasey 2.0

Never forget.

Man, I love Jurassic Park, but IMO the dopey "It's a UNIX system!" scene alone drops it below Jaws. I'll agree that it does have better effects and better-choreographed action, but in terms of story/character/dialogue I don't think it's close, Jaws wins hands down. I would keep every Spielberg on the list except Saving Private Ryan. Good movie, but there are enough war movies and this isn't so clearly better than the other ones.

I haven't read the book, but knowing that his motivation in the book is that he's trying to avoid getting in trouble with the mob . . . I'm glad the film changed that. It's more interesting that he's just getting pressure from the townspeople who don't want their local economy to crater. There's no outside evil preventing the beaches from closing, just the same kinds of issues we face today with COVID. Anyway, this seems like kind of a no-brainer for staying on the list. Clearly a super-important American film that is also very well-made and iconic. On the jaunty Williams score during the barrel chase scene, I will disagree with Paul and say that actually works well. It reflects a certain false confidence the three men are getting from thinking that getting a barrel attached to the shark will allow them to catch it. That confidence is quickly dashed as the shark pulls the barrel down with him.

Hmm, that would make sense. How Fred Savage knew from the crowd that the whistle led to a warp zone (when no one has seen SMB3 before) is another question.

At one point the kid uses a warp whistle and that somehow boosts his score, but warps don't actually add points in the game.

That's always been my impression of The Wiz as a movie. The energy of the live show didn't translate to the screen, for whatever reason.

Paul & Amy piggyback onto 1934’s Frank Capra romantic comedy It Happened One Night! They ask if this script fits the “screwball” mold, praise Claudette Colbert for subverting the cliches of the genre, and learn how Clark Gable inspired Bugs Bunny. Plus: which romantic comedies would Unspooled listeners add to the AFI list? Help make a campaign ad for (or against) the mayor in Jaws! Call the Unspooled voicemail line at 747-666-5824 with your answer. Follow us on Twitter @Unspooled, get more info at unspooledpod.com and don’t forget to rate, review & subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts. Also check out our live Spool Party episodes on youtube.com/earwolf!

I'd never seen this one (not sure why, it won all the Oscars and is a Capra classic, so I probably should have gotten to it by now), and had no trouble getting into the story right from the jump. I agree with Paul that the movie does a great job of setting up the characters so you understand them immediately, like within the few few minutes of them appearing on screen. Then after that the set pieces where they bump against each other and sometimes react in unexpected ways (like Colbert immediately going along with Gable's playacting for the cops in the hotel room) are creative and varied enough to hold you through to the end. Loved it! At certain points during the movie I would start to think, "Oh, that old cliche." And then I'd realize that it actually wasn't a cliche, this movie invented it and all the other rom-coms followed suit. Seems like a natural fit for the AFI list.

There is no direct reference, but this is the Simpsons bit that came to mind for me while watching this movie:

Being bad at remembering faces would seem to be a problem for a reporter though.

I'm thinking about the comparison to Shakespearean comedies. I think there the big difference is that there's usually some kind of desperate circumstance that forces the subterfuge to happen. Like, Twelfth Night: woman is shipwrecked, penniless, and her brother is dead (she assumes). She needs some way to survive, so disguises herself as a boy in order to get a job. The increased stakes help the comic shenanigans play well, and also naturally make the audience sympathize with the lead. I haven't read any romance novels, but I assume similar increased stakes are typically there too? That level of desperation seems missing from Boyfriend School. The dude has already survived cancer, so what's with rushing him into the dating scene?

Hah, I noticed that too. But given that this is a convention where some people are dressing in costumes and whatnot, perhaps they're saying the scarf was actually purchased at the convention?

Paul was a bit confused about the convenience store selling pre-made coolers full of ice, but given that they seem to be living in some kind of coastal Southern town (per IMDb the actual shooting location was Charleston, SC), it seems plausible to me that local merchants would have these kinds of things ready for vacationers looking to quickly pick up some ice on their way to the beach.

I'll just say that the Asian cultural appropriation and/or Orientalism in this segment was a little bit "yikes." Par for the course in the 80s, though.

It's fine if she wants to check up on his health. She might be overbearing about it, but that's pretty normal. The obsession with his dating life is bizarre.

I mean, I can see why that kid didn't want to talk to anyone except her uncle.

Oh yes, my theory is that this movie is just meant to reveal that everyone in a rom-com is actually insane. Shelley Long's plan is insane. Guttenberg is insane for going along with it and for becoming obsessed over a woman he has only briefly met. Jami Gertz is insane for ever again wanting to spend time with this man (who impersonated a biker Kiwi just to get in her pants) or his meddling sister. As for villainy, I'm not sure that a villain has to have evil intent. Some villains THINK that their plan is best for the world but are severely misguided. See: Magneto. Shelley Long is the Magneto of this movie.

Definitely, she's a persistent liar and manipulator. The whole first scene I'm wondering why she can't just get off her brother's back about dating . . . he literally just finished cancer treatments and you're hounding him like crazy! Maybe if she stopped talking about how terrible it is that he lives alone he wouldn't be so damn miserable.

Paul & Amy crank through 1936’s mechanical Charlie Chaplin comedy Modern Times! They praise the film’s ever-escalating setpieces, learn why Joseph Goebbels banned it in Germany, and ponder how much the working world has really changed since the 30s. Plus: We hear your recommendations for other silent films to add to the list. For It Happened One Night week, what other romantic comedies do you want to see on the AFI list? Call the Unspooled voicemail line at 747-666-5824 with your answer. Follow us on Twitter @Unspooled, get more info at unspooledpod.com and don’t forget to rate, review & subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts. Also check out our live Spool Party episodes on youtube.com/earwolf!

I accidentally watched this instead of City Lights back when the podcast originally did that episode, watched again this week (thanks, HBO Max!). Man, I love this one. It's my favorite Chaplin out of what I've seen. The thing that really strikes me about it is how modern it feels. There are long stretches where you forget you're watching a silent film. Partially that's because of some of the "cheats" in it, like dialogue playing over a speaker, or Chaplin singing at the end, but it's also because the movie is so tight and creative with its visual storytelling and "flows" so well that you don't need dialogue to help you understand anything. As a thematic statement about the evils of capitalism it's also pretty brilliant and eternally relevant. Also, holy cow, Paulette Goddard. She's part of the reason this movie feels so modern; unlike a lot of other silent actresses, you feel like she could just be dropped straight into a modern movie and would not feel out of place. Her look and acting style are very contemporary. She's so energetic and magnetic, she almost steals the movie away from Chaplin. I loved him having a leading lady who was played as an equal. (I'll overlook the "underage" thing, since at that time I don't think an adult marrying a 17 year old would have been too unusual.) So yeah, keep it on the list! Should be higher!

I had never seen this movie before. I found it to be fine, but I don't understand why it's great enough to be in the Top 100. I wonder if growing up during the heyday of the clean, sanitized Western (the 40s and 50s) meant that any movie that even slightly tweaked the formula, like Shane or The Searchers, felt like a revelation. For me, having grown up entirely in a post-Wild Bunch world, pretty much every Western is dirty and morally compromised now. It's not unusual anymore for such stories to be presented that way, and to me Unforgiven seems like a more complete treatment of the same themes Shane addresses, leaving the older film looking a bit redundant on the list. I also agree with Paul's take that technically this film is not nearly as accomplished as John Ford's work was, so if we want an example of a more classical Western we should go with one of his. Glad I saw the movie, but it's a no. Also, yes, that kid is annoying as hell.