Cameron H.

Don’t let Buzzfeed determine your true self. I dub thee Whisper Willow the Ent

Excuse this for being a bit Buzzfeedian, but what LotR character are you? I thought I was a Merry, but I've been told I'm more of a Gandalf - and not necessarily in a flattering way.

Reminder!!!!

(I just saw this hadn't been created yet) Paul & Amy plunge into the heart of darkness to cover 1979’s Vietnam War fever dream Apocalypse Now. They discover which famous film character screenwriter John Milius inspired, dig into the meaning of the USO show sequence, and are ultimately amazed this film ever came together in the first place. Plus: All of your amazing/terrible Marlon Brando impressions! What character would you be in The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring? Call the Unspooled voicemail line at 747-666-5824 and let us know! Follow us on Twitter @Unspooled, get more info at unspooledpod.com, and don’t forget to rate, review & subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts.

Regarding allegory, this is what Tolkien says in the book: ”I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.” In other words, the reader - or viewer in this case - can interpret the work however it suits them, but it was written without intention. So, Tolkien would probably agree with Paul that the movie is about drug addiction, but would add that he didn’t write the book with a direct “ring equals drug addiction” correlation.

Did anyone else think it was insane that Uncle Eddie’s argument for owning a gun wasn’t “You can protect your family from bad guys,” but “When the shit hits the fan, I am fully prepared to murder you and all of the other stuffed shirted wonks that have been foolishly stockpiling survival supplies.” I mean, that’s pretty much premeditation, right?

If this movie made one thing clear, the one thing Gilbert Gottfried certainly didn't need was some jerk off parent to start dancing around like a jack ass and overstimulating those kids. I mean, Gilbert's obviously already in way over his head. Does he really need some Elvis-fetishizing, dickhead parent to come in, dance up to the second floor, climb over the safety rails, and slide down a pole like he's fucking Tarzan? What kind of example is that? I guarantee the rest of Iago's day was just trying to prevent those freaking poop monsters from plunging to their grisly deaths.

I concur. Back in college, I knew a guy who had his pilot's licence but was working as a retail store's assistant manager. When I asked him about it, he told me he wanted to be a commercial pilot, but you have to log a certain amount of flight time to even be considered for a job like that - which can be both time consuming and expensive. That's why so many pilots are former military as it allows them to accrue a significant amount of flight time at low personal cost. So, yeah, Travolta's dream is to be a pilot, but he doesn't have the means to become one. It's like working as a waiter while auditioning for a acting roles. It would be nice if you could just spend all day every day auditioning, but most people still have to pay the bills.

WAKE UP!!!!! We watched:

My baby would poop all over him. It wouldn’t be personal, though. He just really likes to poop.

I don’t know, though. Even if Christmas isn’t essential to the plot, I do think it’s crucial to its impact. I just don’t think It’s A Wonderful Life would work as well if it were set at any other time of the year.

My baby doesn't know who that is.

I haven’t listened to the episode yet so I’m not sure if the context, but I know my baby is *really* bad around people he doesn’t know. It could be that they were afraid the baby would freak out, which would force them to leave or for HDTGM to put the show on hold while they calmed their child.

I watched it for the first time last year. I’m not sure I remember it well enough to answer your questions, Cinco. Sorry

I’m sorry if the tone of my post came across as too harsh. I didn’t mean it to. I had just read claudewc’s post criticizing the show for not looking at the films critically, and I read your post where you seemed to (at least partially) agree and that you were annoyed by the structure of the show (specifically the factoids and whatnot). Honestly, I was bouncing off and responding to both of those posts - I just happened to quote yours. I wasn’t putting down Film Lit or Art Criticism or trying to accuse anyone of elitism. (I’m totally down for both of those things actually. ) I was just saying if someone is looking for a movie podcast that does deep critical dives into these films, then this might not be the right fit for you. I just feel like a waste of time and energy to criticize a show for not being something it never claimed to be. To me, that’s like getting upset because a tiger isn’t a lion; or that The Good Place isn’t Star Trek. It’s a podcast about introducing these movies to people who haven’t otherwise seen them. That’s what it is. The whole thing is supposed to be fun and chill. As a listener, you can either be cool with that or not, but I feel like complaining about how it isn’t what you wanted or hoped it would be is kind of silly.

No problem! I know just who to call...

I guess I just don’t feel like they’re trying to convince anyone of anything. And, call me an optimist, but I feel like people who would be interested in listening to Unspooled in the first place are the type of people who are capable of formulating their own opinions without regurgitating what they heard on a podcast. As for me, I’ve agreed with some of their points and I’ve disagreed about others. Such is life However, I absolutely respect their opinions, interpretations, and their right to express them. Like I said before, for most people, this podcast is a first step. If a listener feels inspired to follow the path any further, then they will. And who knows where they might end up

I was going to stay out of this whole thing, but I just wanted to jump in on this point. From the beginning, this podcast has only ever been about - and ever claimed to be about - a film expert and a film novice going through the "Great American Films." Paul (as the self-stated novice) is a stand-in for the majority of the audience who has never seen these movies before. That's who this podcast is for. It's not for Film Lit major's and Art Critics. It's not for people who have watched these movies a gajillion times and know all the ins, outs, and esoteric minutia regarding them. It's for people who are just being exposed to them for the first time. So, no, you're not going to get in-depth analysis here. You're going to get trivia and the hosts' off-the-cuff opinions. Paul is giving his thoughts on the movies as a first time watcher, and Amy is giving hers as a person who has made a career out of watching and critiquing movies. However, it's not about serious film criticism. They're just shooting the shit about these movies for entertainment purposes. This show is like AFI 101. That's what you're getting. The hope (I would suspect) is to encourage people to watch these movies (for, most likely, the first time) and perhaps inspire those listeners to learn more about these movies for themselves. So, yeah, I get it if this show might seem remedial to some, but just consider that you might not be the target audience either. However, I, for one, love it and the hosts. That's where I'm at (I think it's also important to separate "Amy the Casual Movie Watcher" and "Amy the Critic." She's allowed to have an opinion about a film that might be contrary to her academic appreciation of the it. I hate that I have to say that, but it just seems like Amy is more often maligned for having a positive or negative opinion about these movies than Paul. I'm going to just imagine that's the reason for it, even if my gut screams differently.)

You’re a Master of Evil, ChunkStyle...

100% It’s not scary.

I try not to comment too much before I’ve listened to an episode, but AN, for me, is a movie I appreciate without actually loving. In fact, my first Letterboxd review basically said I’d probably never watch it again unless for academic purposes, and well, here we are I guess What I appreciate about AN is its commitment to surrealism. It’s like a Salvador Dali painting. It’s interesting to look at, but like Dali, the absurdity can seem at times to be almost too calculated. For me, this results in a kind of emotional detachment. So while I can marvel at the technical ability, I don’t feel particularly drawn to either AN or Dali. In my opinion, Platoon does a better job of getting you into the shit with the characters. It feels more real because the characters feel more real. However, from a sound and visual aspect, AN is the more interesting movie to ingest. That being said, I’d be far more likely to rewatch Platoon over AN even if it’s the more prosaic of the two.

Agreed. We can really only speculate, but I'm guessing Gamma was supposed to be the most prestigious. But really, I don't think it would have mattered much anyway. I would guess that to Lee all fraternities are the same. Dap wouldn't have wanted him to join any fraternities. And the only only reason why Dap hates the Gammas in particular was because of Julian - and that's because, in a weird way, Dap kind of respected him. One of my favorite lines in the movie was when Dap says about Julian: "No, Julian is smart, Rachel. He's confused, but he's smart." It was nice to see a character recognixe that just because people disagree with one another doesn't just automatically assume that they're dumb. Dap recognizes that Julian is smart and that's part of the problem.

My interpretation is just that he's desperate for a sense of belonging. Through the whole movie, we see all these different groups of people tying themselves to particular identities , and in some way or another, usually for something arbitrary, all these groups are against each other. That's why the "wake up" scene is so important. It's that realization that there's a need for unity. Half -Pint is looking for "brothers," but it's a false brotherhood. At the end, we see Julian and Dap standing together giving hope that if they can finally put all the phoney shit behind them, they can actually start to make things better.

I was never in a fraternity myself (in fact, one of the things I liked about my school was that it didn’t allow them), but I had friends who were. Ideally, from a social standpoint, I think they help people make friends and give a sense of belonging - which can be important when it’s your first time away from home. Also, Post-college, they can help establish a professional network that you might otherwise be difficult to build from the ground up. That being said, there’s no denying that fraternities seem to foster a toxicity and elitism.

Try harder!