156: Remembering Gene Hackman

Alex has spent the past month watching every film the dearly departed Gene Hackman was in. In this solo episode, Alex looks back at Hackman’s career and highlights the dozens of legendary characters he played.

Rest in peace, Gene. We love you, we miss you. 

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Transcript

0:01

What I'm saying, captain, is that we have backup. Now, it's our duty not to launch until we can confirm. You're presuming that we have other submarines out there ready to launch. This. Captain, I must assume that our submarines could have been taken out by other coolies. We can play these games all night, Mr. Hunter, but I don't have the luxury. Your presumption, sir. Mr. Hunter, we have rules that are not open to interpretation, personal intuition, gut feelings, hairs on the back of your neck. Little devils or angels sitting on your shoulder. Captain, we're all very well aware of what our orders are and what those orders mean. They come down from our commander in chief. They contain no ambiguity. Mr. Hunter, I've made a decision. I'm captain of this boat. Now shut the fuck up. Get. Down! Captain! Hey, everyone. Welcome to. What are you watching? I'm Alex Withrow, and I'm here to pay my respects to the dearly departed Gene Hackman. We lost another legend. A lot of people are aware of Hackman's passing because he died under mysterious circumstances. Seems that the story has been straightened out. None of it is good. It's sad. And I don't want to open all that up here. I'm just going to honor the man's work. Of course. We just talked about Hackman on the French Connection podcast. That was a very impromptu podcast. We didn't know we were going to do that. We decided on Oscar Sunday to go for it and record that. But in the week since we recorded that episode, I've done something crazy as I'm prone to do as it's related to movies. And I watched every Gene Hackman movie I hadn't seen, and I did not set out to do this on purpose. There's just there's something wrong with me. Like I'd seen a lot. I'm going to get to that. But I had seen a good amount. I mean, we've talked about them. We went through our favorite roles in our episode on The Conversation, our deep dive episode on Francis Ford Coppola's film. I love doing that episode. So to Nic, there's something about Gene Hackman that everyone picks up on, and it doesn't matter how many movies of his you've seen, whether he was in because he was in some movies that very little people have seen because they're really hard to find. And he's in some of the most famous movies ever made. No matter what movie you've seen him in or movies, he's always good. I am honoring him here on this pod. But I'm not just saying that because he's passed. The man was always good. It did not matter what role he was in. It didn't matter the quality of the movie. He always had it. So in these sad times, I thought it would be fun for us to watch everything he was in. I just I didn't set out to do this to watch everything and then part about it, but I just kept chipping away and all the movies chipping away. Oh, I have this mini left, I have this mini left. And it became a fun challenge of sorts. And when you're never seeing bad performances, some of the movies are stinkers. Yes, but when you're never seeing a bad performance, it just kept in. It was in further encouragement to keep going and keep knocking this one out, knocking this one out. And the movie audiences became aware of Gene Hackman when he played Clyde Barrow's brother in Bonnie and Clyde, 1967, and he exploded it in that movie. He's so good. And in that time he played police officers, sergeants, private detectives. He played crooked cops, military lieutenants, astronauts, sadistic hunters. He played kind reverends. A Polish air trooper. He played the president. He was Lex Luther. He voiced God. His character was. They had affairs. They protected guilty people. They shot criminals in the back. They stole gold, fixed juries and coach sports teams. He was credited with being in just shy of 80 feature films, 78 feature films. Again, not all the movies are good, but some of the most iconic films in the history of cinema and some of his performances will be discussed forever. 78 films. I watch them all and I promise you, no matter the material, the film Gene Hackman was always worth watching. Eugene Allen Hackman was born January 30th, 1930, in San Bernardino, California. He was 13 when his parents split up and his father abandoned the family. There was a clip going viral of Gene after he passed of him on inside the Actor's Studio telling this story, and he gets really emotional about it. I mean, he he had a lot in there when he was 16, he lied about his age. To be able to join the Marine Corps. Doesn't sound like it went very well. Sounds like he didn't get along with his superior officers. Imagine that when he was 32, his mother died in a fire that she accidentally started. So by 32 years old, this man had lived a full life and no one knew who he was. Yet he was not famous yet. His mother died in 1962. His first major film performance is five years later in Bonnie and Clyde. But he had been acting. He'd been doing plays Off-Broadway, meeting people. He booked a steady stream of one off TV episodes, but it was his successful turn in the play. Any Wednesday on Broadway, starring opposite Sandy Dennis, got the attention of Warren Beatty, who put Jean in his first major movie, a one off scene as a distracted husband in Lilith, which is a wild 60s flick. Let me tell you. But I bring up all that backstory because there's, you know, I'm I'm briefly going over a man's life. It's a extremely crude summary, but there was a lot in there. I'm going to talk about it along the way. He had, you know, the stories of being difficult to work with. I we heard a lot of those stories because a lot of them started with The Royal Tenenbaums, and that's when we could really hear all of this stuff. I think social media and entertainment press really latched on to it. And then it's been it's just kept going with Q and A's and stuff and it gets brought up. And yeah, he wasn't the easiest guy to work with all the time, I don't believe. But he by all accounts, that I can find he deeply respected the art form deeply. He was so committed to it. Every time he showed up he was off book. So he had his lines memorized. A lot of actors don't memorize their lines. Al Pacino famously did not memorize his lines. So if you're working opposite an actor that doesn't memorize their lines in your off book, it can be very challenging. And you know, when you have the personality type of Gene Hackman, it doesn't sound like he was ever shy of letting his fellow actors know that. But if you were a professional, in his eyes, it sounds like it went really well and you could have great chemistry together. Directors. It sounds like he was tough on him. He was such a good actor. Almost every director he worked with that I could find who spoke on him either at the time or since, said that his process Hackman, the man, the actor, his process was that he would take his script and take out all the action. So if his character was supposed to cry or if he supposed to yell here or if he's supposed to be sad, Hackman would remove all of that and just see his character's dialog. That's it. Because according to him, he was the best person to dictate what the character would do. He was the best person to dictate when he screams, when he cries, all that stuff. So he would make those decisions on his own. And according again to every director, he had an insane instinct and always got it right, always got it right of all right. This is when you explode. This is when you're kind. This is when you embrace or whatever that action is. His instincts were always spot on and he would give you variations. So that he's not just doing the same thing. Take after take after take would be variations. Now that's going to one. Piss off a lot of writers. And if you're working, I don't know with a writer director could really piss them off. If you're not paying attention to that action, no matter how strict and dedicated you are to your dialog, if you're just completely ignoring that action, I can see both sides of it. If it's someone as good as as Gene Hackman, then part of me is like, well, fuck it. Just let him do what he wants, you know? I mean, and it sounds like that was the freedom he was given later in his career. But when you're working on something like The Royal Tenenbaums, which is, since you're working inside such strict limitations intentionally, that's what Wes Anderson likes. The costuming is so precise. The makeup, the hair, the wardrobe, everything's so precise. The camera movements, it imagine Gene Hackman nailing a take, but then they have to keep doing it because, no, the camera didn't stop in this right position and push it. And of course, we as a viewer, if we like Wes Anderson films, we love this style and we love him for this style. But that's still probably my favorite Wes Anderson movie, Tenenbaums, largely because of Hackman's performance. But you can see a veteran actor who's won two Oscars, who's had this process for decades, coming into something with the limitations of The Royal Tenenbaums and, yeah, kind of flipping his shit a little bit, I get it. I also get why he would butt heads with the director and I could see the director's side. Absolutely. Because sometimes you want, it was very. Sonnenfeld talked about this. They made Get Shorty and they were just constantly butting heads because of a number of different things. But it can be dangerous to just let an actor do their thing and hey, whatever instinct you think is best, go with it. Because then what if it doesn't work? And what if you're, you know, weeks and weeks into it and you're like, shit, I've let this thing get so off course because they did not have a good instinct for what the character was. That's where I think a lot of the hardship came from. But all this hardship is out of a dedication and an obsession with the work. All this hardship is not based on what being late, being a diva. It's not that shit. He cared about the work. Maybe some would argue a little too much, which I don't know could be a good problem to have. Let's talk about these roles. He has a role as an uncredited police officer in Mad Dog Cole, 1961. I watched it, I couldn't even really spot him. I'm not even counting that one. So moving on to Lilith 1964. Wow. Trippy flick. Let me tell you, Warren Beatty, young Jean Seberg, Hackman's in a one off scene. A lot of his early roles are like this, where he's not in them much. But you can hear that, you know, that high pitched voice, especially if he turned on the southern accent. So he's doing that and he's he's this seems like this kind of defeated husband. I don't know. He has a lot of energy. It's it's a nice little performance. But I really respect Beatty for doing that, for encouraging his pal Gene to be in the movie. It sounds like Beatty was an absolute nightmare working on that movie. So cheers. Hawaii, 1966. This is like white people, you know, coming to this foreign land of Hawaii and telling the natives what to do and all that stuff. It was it was tough. He's a reverend, though. I mean, he was a nice guy. And he played a nice character. John Whipple long movie. Not really for me that this was where, Richard Harris said that Julie Andrews is the worst person he had ever, I think, ever just met in his life, let alone worked with. I think that was because of this film. So we moved to 1967, and before Bonnie and Clyde, there's burning a covenant with death first to fight. He's good in these. He's not in them that much. In a covenant with death. He runs a jail. It's kind of a cool moral conundrum. Like this guy is being put to death for killing his wife, but he actually didn't do it. But in the process of being hanged, he kills his executioner. Like on accident. He like bumps him, and the executioner falls off the platform and cracks his head open. This, and then they find out he didn't kill his wife. And then they're like, well, what the hell? He was in jail for no reason, but he killed this guy anyway. It's a kind of a cool thing, I mean, and he's good. In his first fight, he pops up in like the last third as a sergeant, I see a little, eventually, kind of like what Robert Duvall would do in Apocalypse Now. It's that kind of brass military guy who's coming in and stealing the show for a little bit. And then Buck Barrow, Bonnie and Clyde. And I'm telling everyone, if you have not seen this film or you haven't seen it in a while, this is one of those classics that holds up every time I watch it. I don't watch it all the time. I haven't even seen it. I mean, maybe I've seen it in my lifetime 4 or 5 times, but watching it a week ago and sitting there and paying attention, it moves so well. It is paced so quickly, it just cruises by and it is way more violent than you remember. Like cops getting shot in the eye to the face. And they just I mean, they blow cops away. They do not care. They have shotguns. They just they don't care. And it's a really, really well-made movie. I highly recommend people go check that out, especially if it's been a while. His next two movies are Jim Brown movies, which are a lot of fun to watch. The split was a lot of fun. Hackman is the lieutenant investigating a heist, a heist that was set up by Jim Brown, and they end up joining forces. And it's really it's just a lot of fun. I had a great time with it. Oh, what is it? It's a Parker novel. So Jim Brown is playing that Parker character like Lee Marvin and Point Blank. Robert Duvall in the outfit, Mel Gibson and Payback. So he and Hackman get the team up. They're kind of it, you know, in the bottom third. It was a lot of fun. The riot is another Jim Brown movie, and they are buddies in prison who are trying to they put on a riot as a way to put on a diversion so they can escape. The Gypsy Moths is, oh, it's a John Frankenheimer movie. So I, I never seen these. I ain't seen a lot of these. And he is part of a skydiving group that perform in Burt Lancaster's in the group Good Little Movie. He's really good in it and had a damn and had a strong ending. Downhill racer, a Robert Redford movie that I had never seen. He was Redford's coach. It's about skiing. Redford's coaching it, and like a good, not an asshole vibe at all. Like a good, understated coach, supportive but also strict and could lay down the law but not a screamer as we could come to know. Hackman later. Marooned 1969. This was a lot of fun. John Sturges movie is there's actually a lot of Apollo 13 in here, a lot of The Martian. I can tell that the people who made those movies watched marooned a lot, and Hackman is one of three astronauts stuck in space. And, you know, can they get him back in time before the aircraft runs out of oxygen? Gregory Peck on the ground trying to figure it out? I never sang for my father, 1970. He was nominated for this. Hackman was based on a play. Wow, this was intense. It's an okay movie. Great performances from Hackman and Melvyn Douglas, who plays his father. Just, you know, why is Gene his character's name is Gene as well? Why is he the way he is? He's blaming so much on his father. But it's father, you know. It wasn't. There's just this great conflict. It kind of comes to a head. And Gene Hackman is the star of the movie. But he was young at the time, so he got nominated for supporting actor. I really recommend that one. I hadn't seen it. Doctors wives is one of those movies that does not exist anymore. Is extremely hard to find. It's about a group of doctors and their wives, and one of them is murdered. And you know, that whole thing. But we are in the year 1971, which is a huge year for Hackman because this is the year of the French Connection. He's going to go on to win an Oscar. And if you think that Jimmy Popeye Doyle is the biggest asshole that Gene Hackman played in 1971, you have not seen The Hunting Party. This movie, the Hunting Party. He's playing Brandt Ruger. Oh my God, these guys, this gang led by Oliver Reed kidnaped this woman, Candice Bergen, and her husband, played by Gene Hackman, who we know from, like the first scene is an asshole. Her husband is gone on this hunting party with his buddies, and they, Hackman and his buddies divert and they find out she's been kidnaped and they're like, let's go kill all this gang. But the thing is, like, you don't like Oliver Reed because he's just this sadistic gang leader that you don't like Gene Hackman because he's a fucking asshole at it. Like, I don't even want to say what he does. But the whole time you're watching the movie, you're like, who the hell do I root for here? Her like, I guess her. I hope she makes it out alive. But it leads to this great, like, showdown. It's so 70s. The hunting party. Jesus. So the French Connection talks a lot about. And, you know, I'm going through these movies. I couldn't watch them in order. They'd be too. It'd be too difficult, and it would take too long. So I'm watching when I can get them. I've never heard of a movie made 1972 called Prime Cut. This movie is fucking insane. May 1972. It's directed by Michael Ritchie and Lee Marvin. In the film, Lee Marvin plays a mob enforcer for the Chicago mob and his boss sends him to Kansas City because this sadistic meatpacking boss, Slash butcher, played by Gene Hackman, owes the Chicago mob debt and is refusing to pay it. He's refusing to pay it so much that he's already killed some of these mob enforcer dudes that have been sent. So Lee Marvin is like the third guy. I can't even tell you what they do to the one of the guys they already sent down. Jesus. I didn't know what was happening. You're watching the opening credits. Which scene? Completely benign. And then you find out what you're watching. You're like, oh, my God, this is fucking nuts. So Lee Marvin shows up in Kansas City and just walks in and I again, I don't want to describe what the circumstance that he finds Hackman's character named Marianne in, but it is it's not good. And Hackman Marianne is just sitting there eating cow guts. What a flick. Total 70s. I bought the 4K after I watched the movie because I really liked it. It's not prime cut. Lee Marvin and the boys are coming to town. Gene Hackman and his boys are waiting for them. Next, Mario. You eat cats? Yeah, I like them. Yeah. 1972 The Poseidon Adventure. I love these 70s disaster action flicks. This might it might be the best one. I mean, you know, earthquake, Towering Inferno. They were really, really common. He's the good guy in this. He's the reverend who's, you know, got this, crisis of faith in when the movie's beginning. But then he's the one who kicks into action and is helping out throughout the movie. So it's it's good. He's the lead and he is the big, you know, he's the hero. Cisco Pike also 1972 I hadn't heard this. This is him playing a shitty crooked cop who convinces Kris Kristofferson to start selling a bunch of drugs, split it with me, and Kristofferson's, like, just got out of jail. He doesn't want to do this shit. So it was, you know, fun to see Hackman go a little loony there toward the end, Scarecrow, 1973. This is a Jerry Schatz bird movie. Very good. If you haven't seen it, go seek it out. You know Schatz Bird didn't make like, big, big movies. This the plot is a little Midnight Cowboy ish. Not. No it doesn't all the way go there, but it's Al Pacino and Gene Hackman. They meet in California and they're thinking about starting a business together in Pittsburgh. So they're traveling to Pittsburgh. Their words are big, their dreams are big. But what is actual reality? You know, it's that kind of movie scarecrow. Very little scene, but very good. Highly recommend it. The conversation, 1974 I mean, absolutely one of his best, maybe his best. How to Harry call God dedicated whole episode to it. Just want a nice fat recording. Also 1974 Young Frankenstein. One of his best friends in real life was Gene Wilder. Mel Brooks just gave him this part. Gene Hackman accepted it without knowing anything about it. He gets one of the best taglines of the movie. It is a great tag if you've seen it. Harold, the Blind man. What a fantastic one seed. Just one seed in it. I love him in Young Frankenstein. Sandy's Bride, 1974 I never heard of this movie directed by Young Troll probably pronouncing that wrong. Swedish director. So this is Gene Hackman and Liv Ullmann. Hackman's character is a cattle farmer and orders a bride. Really for the sole purpose of birthing sons. That's it. He's not a romantic guy. He does not know how to express himself. Not going to lie, the beginning like the first 30 minutes or so, it's pretty grim. He's an asshole, this guy. And then we meet his parents. And his parents treat everyone like shit. The dad treats the mom like shit. The dad treats the kids like shit because the dad treating the mom like shit. The mom can treat the kids like shit. So it's this cycle and you're like, oh, this. I mean, this is not a developed person. The Hackman character, like, not emotionally developed at all. It was really interesting to find that there were way more layers to the film and to Hackman's character, and but I'll tell you, like, there's four minutes left and I'm going, you know, I'll say there's ten minutes left. And I'm like, what the hell is going to happen here? Because I don't know how far we've moved the needle along here. And it really landed. It really did. Not perfect. But Dante's bride, I recommend French Connection two. Wow, wow. I had seen this once, I did not. I remembered some bits of it. I don't want to say everything because I am highly encouraging people to go watch this. It is not as good as the first one. It's not. That would have been very hard to do, but you got John Frankenheimer directing it. The whole thing takes place in Europe. That's probably, a huge problem for a lot of people that you were not in, you know, the nitty gritty of New York. I get it, I get it. He is back. Hackman is back as Popeye, and he's, you know, just trying to hunt down the connection that he missed out on, on in the first one. My selling point for this film, no bullshit. There is a central 40 minute long sequence of someone being forced fed heroin over, like on the whatever on the hour, being dosed like strategically so that they are so out of it. They don't know how much time is passing. We don't know how much time is passing. Effectively, this mob is getting this person addicted to heroin. And we see how this works. And then at X time later they stop and they leave. So this poor person who's never had heroin before is now addicted to it. So we've just seen, I don't know, about 20 minutes or so of them getting addicted to it. And then we see 20 minutes of detox. And this is some of the most convincing heroin use I've ever seen in a movie. In the movie should be talked about for this, because this is not a short scene. It's really, really long. Highly recommend it. Just for that alone. I was like, God damn, they're really going for this. This shit is nuts. 1975 Lucky Lady, a movie that barely exists. It's him and Liza minnelli and Burt Reynolds. Burt Reynolds told a funny story that a lot of funny stories in his memoir that Liza just had this, you know, attitude where maybe seemed like she wasn't taking everything as seriously as Hackman did. So actually, we just occasionally, like, be upset, probably reading his script and just have an outburst. It's a lie to shut the fuck up. And, you know, I mean, one of his greatest lie deliveries ever is in Crimson Tide. What he that tell you? So shut the fuck up. So you could just hear that voice, like, coming from, way back. But do we think Liza minnelli, Academy Award winning actress, like to be told to shut the fuck up on a movie set? Probably not. So, yeah, you can. You can imagine it would be hard to work with him at times. Night moves. Damn. I'm not gonna be able to stop epic. Gene, I love you. Night moves, 1975. Rewatch it. This is Arthur Penn. Same directors, Bonnie and Clyde. Oh, this movie's so good. He he's a Los Angeles private detective, and he gets a new case. You don't know where it's going with a lot of twists, a lot of turns, double crosses. An extremely young Melanie Griffith shows up. She's the girl who's missing. James Woods, of all people, says the line, I came in second place in a fight because in the French Connection part, I don't know if I said Hackman says that, but if I did say that, then I was wrong. But I knew that line was, at least in the movie. It's a great line, fun movie. Really highly recommend. It's only it's like 100 minutes long and should be easy to find right? Moves. Deli isn't around here anymore. You can and you wish you could be. She visiting friends, she meditating. She Jordan commune delays. I of a common is her and the guy on top of. When's the last time you saw screw off Mr.. Hey witness what happened to your face? I won second prize in a fight. Where was the last place you saw deli bite the bullet, 1975. Good Western. I mean, no, it was, parts of it were a slog, but it's kind of designed to be that way because the whole thing is a race. It's a 700 mile horse race in, like 1900. So you're gonna end whoever wins gets a cash prize like $2,000, which is a lot of money for back then. How can plays a former Rough Rider and he's, you know, he's a good guy, but he he's a rough guy but. Well, he he has morals. He definitely has morals. His character Sam Clayton good movie. But those race movies can be a pretty grueling experience. Jump to 1977. First up, The Domino Principle. This movie rocked. I'm just going to read the IMDb logline. A Vietnam War veteran who's been in prison for murder is offered freedom if he agrees to commit a contract killing for a shady organization. Come on, like, come on. Hackman's basically sprung from prison by shady government dudes to become a hitman. It's great. What could possibly go wrong? Fantastic ending. I love these paranoid political 70s thrillers. Like an amazing final shot Stanley Kramer movie. Gene is just great in it. A Bridge too far. If I had seen that, I don't remember seeing it. That's the Richard Attenborough film. The movie itself. God damn, this thing is long. You know, World War two, epic, three hours. You feel all of that? It's a huge, huge, huge cast. Like, I think anyone who is an actor at the time was in it. And he plays a Polish paratrooper and he's he's one of those guys. His character is like, put me in, put me in, coach. Like, what the hell? Why haven't you dropped this yet? We can go help. We can go help. So he's in the movie throughout. But his his siege because he's in charge of this entire group of men, this these Polish soldiers. So it's a good, strong military performance. The the movie was good. It I get what they were doing back then. Like if you if someone did a cut of a bridge too far of just the action, it would still be a long movie. But damn, it would be thrilling, especially for 1977. But you know, half the movie are way more than half. It's just dudes talking in rooms, talking strategy. But that's how it was at the time. Moreover, though I don't know if I've missed this, I don't know if I ever knew this information and I have forgotten it. If that is the case. Seems like something pretty silly to forget. It is so obvious that Steven Spielberg studied this film before Saving Private Ryan hit the first and last battle in Saving Private Ryan. That Normandy sequence, and then the sequence in that town that's all in a bridge too far. Not like as obviously Spielberg use it as influence and heightened it to like an insane degree. But it's so here and then what? I'm like, wait a minute, Richard Attenborough directed this. There has to be. I don't know if this is true, but when Spielberg cast him is the old dude in Jurassic Park. You have to imagine he's just mining Attenborough for stories the entire time about a bridge too far, knowing that eventually, Hugh, he will gear up for something like Saving Private Ryan. So if you're a fan of Private Ryan and you watch A Bridge Too Far, you are going to see a lot of battle parallels in terms of the action. I swear to God, some of the sound effects were exactly the same. It was so, yeah. And Hackman's Good March or Die, directed by Dick Richards. I never heard of this movie. This is Hackman playing a French Foreign Legion officer. Honestly, this is this is why I love movies. Because the movie is okay. It's not, you know, it's like 105 minutes. It's not anything crazy long. It has a good cast. It, it it's fine. Like it's good, some good battle sequences. But I had heard the term French Foreign Legion and I'm like, oh yeah, I've heard of that. I didn't know what that was like, I really didn't. And the movie is talking about them a lot and teaching you about them. And I went on a Wikipedia deep dive and just internet deep dive after the movie about French Foreign Legion that was longer than the movie. So I don't know. That was fun and I learned stuff. He's a total asshole. This hack is like an absolute asshole. Get your fucking ass up there and fight. Oh, you might die. I don't care. Oh, you might get shot, I don't care. Get the hell up there and fight. What the hell do you know about war? I've come from the trenches of World War One. Fuck you. That's the attitude. His next two roles, 1978 and 1980 Superman. Superman to Lex Luther. Probably his most seen roles. And they will live forever. Him as Lex Luther. The line deliveries, his work with that baby like it's just iconic. And it was so fun to rewatch those. I got into the Superman two. There's that, you know, the Donner cut. So I got into that a few years ago and watch those and kind of study those a little bit. But what more can you say about one of the titans of comic book filmmaking, Superman All Night Long, another one that's hard to find doesn't really exist well, anymore. It's Gene playing opposite Barbra Streisand. Everyone's okay, and it's Gene Hackman son, a baby face Dennis Quaid is sleeping with Barbra Streisand, who's married in the movie. Gene Hackman starts sleeping with her. I don't think they're sleeping together at the same time, but. And, you know, Hackman's married, so now it's this. Yeah, it's that whole thing. Like, not only are you also sleeping with the woman that I liked, but you're cheating on my mom, so it's, you know, not anything necessarily to seek out Reds in 1981. Warren Beatty's Reds. This is hilarious because this movie is very long. I have seen it three times and it's once I first time was in college. The second time I think it was for this part where we talking about someone in it. Or maybe I just wanted to watch it, rewatch it for Jack because Nicholson scenes are great. He's playing Eugene O'Neill, but Hackman always said this was an extremely hard film, just an extremely hard production you can imagine. Warren Beatty was a perfectionist of perfectionists. It's amazing he ever finished a movie, but when you go watch the movie, Hackman's in two scenes totaling maybe five minutes of runtime. This is a long fucking movie. So this means one of two things. Either Beatty shot way more of the movie that was cut. Totally reasonable for an epic like this. So maybe Hackman was in more material. Maybe he actually acted in more scenes, some scenes that were grueling, or this means that the two seeds that Gene Hackman were in were so difficult that when he's asked about Reds decades later, he talks about how hard the production was. Just two scenes. God. Warren Beatty, what a character under fire in 1983, a political thriller. Some journalists and photojournalists abroad in Nicaragua, there's kind of a love triangle that forms between them. Nick Nolte and Joanne Cassidy are really the stars, and it's Gene Hackman is the supporting part. But this movie features it's an okay movie, you know, it's nothing. It's nothing too crazy. But wow, it features an on screen death that is haunting. It is not gory, it's violent, but not gory. But the violence is in its stillness. Like Nick's favorite movie, blow. We talked about blow a lot when we meet Pablo Escobar, and that the way we're so far away because we're in Johnny Depp's point of view, like we're so far away, there had to be some influence from Under fire from that. But then I found out that this murder that I'm talking about, the way it's staged, the way it's it's very, very scary because it's so real. And it could just happen. And it reminds us, the audience and the characters in the movie where just because you have a press badge or you're wearing, you know, you're holding a notebook instead of a gun or a camera instead of a gun. You are not necessarily safe here. I mean, not at all safe. Wow. It's just it's really, well, stage. And based on a real killing of a real journalist, I heard. So it's kind of. It's weird to say that the movie, like, it leads up to that scene and it makes the movie worth it. But that's like a grim thing to say. But it shifts my it shifted my focus into attention, and I went, oh, you've been building up to this moment, and you did it very well. Two of a kind, uncredited role voicing God. This is kind of a lame rom com. It was John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Their first time back together since grease. You don't need to see this. Uncommon valor is one of those 80s action war movies, just pretty much rocks. Gene is playing a retired U.S. marine colonel, and he thinks his son is still in Laos after the Vietnam War and is being held hostage there. So he's like, hey, I'm going to put together a team. Patrick Swayze, he's on the team. Fred Ward. He's like, let's go get my son back. Fun movie. You know, no one's trying to win Oscars for stuff like this. But if you like these kind of 80s thrillers, it's a hardcore one. You. Eureka! Not very good. It's a Nicolas Roeg movie who's always been hit or miss for me. But the influence Roeg's had on cinema, like, come on, you know, don't look now, I absolutely, I get it. I want a movie starring Gene Hackman, Rutger Hauer, Theresa Russell, Mickey Rourke and Joe Pesci to be a lot better than this. This is this is about a prospector, a gold prospector, Hackman, who strikes at Rich. And then we see him living out his life, and it just gets so damn weird, like, so, so weird. There's cult stuff comes up. There's, like, some orgy, I don't know, it's it's long and you feel it, and I don't know, like Mickey Rourke and Joe Pesci, they're both so young as actors. Almost all their scenes are together, and they just have them doing, like, the dumbest shit and just talking about dumb, like, business related stuff. I don't know. However. However, saying this again, Eureka does contain one of the most insane onscreen deaths I have ever seen. The one from Under Fire is like, scary. And it's staging. This one in Eureka is one of the some of the gory is shit. Not like bloody gory, but just gruesome gruesome shit. I seen that was it's just it just keeps going and going. And I was like, Jesus. So talk about shifting focus back into attention. It was, really something misunderstood. 1984 weepy drama, another Jerry Schatz Berg movie. It's more of a star vehicle for Henry Thomas, who was probably trying to find his footing after E.T.. And you know what? Can we give the kid from E.T.? Let's give him a role. And his mom dies. And his dad, who's been an absent, workaholic father, Gene Hackman. And they have to, you know, come together and, like, help each other in this time of need and that whole thing. Twice in a lifetime, 1985. Of all the movies of his that are extremely hard to find now because I don't know rights issues, no one cares. They're not on streaming services, they're just hard to find. This one was my favorite because I had not. I hadn't even heard of this. And this is Gene Hackman is happily married to Ellen Burstyn. But there's no you get the sense that there's no, you know, no spark, no flame. You also get the sense that while he is an affable guy, he's coming up on a midlife crisis, and he meets a lady and Margaret, and they start having an affair. And the movie turned into actually a really serious, realistic portrayal of a couple who've been together for a while and then breaking up. And there was this argument scene between Hackman and Ellen Burstyn where he's not being an asshole, like he's admitting, yes, I'm I'm sorry that I'm doing this to us. Like, I'm sorry that I fell for her. And they argue about, you know, how the sex went out of their marriage and all that and the complacency that's gone on. And you see both sides of it, like I heard, I'm not saying what he's doing is okay. I'm not saying that at all. What I'm saying is they should have had this argument, you know, before the affair, obviously. But that's doesn't make for good drama. It was a much better movie than I anticipated twice in a lifetime. But York and directed it. Amy Madigan was nominated for it, which is really great. She deserved to be. She plays one of his daughters and she is not happy with what daddy has done. It's a good movie if you can find it. Target 1985. He's back with Arthur Penn. Love that they kept the relationship going. I have a soft spot for these political mystery thrillers. You're just, you know, you're meeting a married couple, Gene Hackman and his wife. And then out of nowhere, she's kidnaped. And their son, Matt Dillon is kind of this dummy. He's just this aloof guy. And suddenly, whoa, mom and dad are actually. They used to be spies for the CIA, so we have to go get mom back. That whole kind of thing. It's just so fucking improbable. It's so ludicrous that some of these movies botch it up. Like, I mean, I can bend a little bit, like, I'll give you a little bit, but you can't. Like, there's no way they would allow. What is he, 18 year, 18 year old son to just be a part of the CIA mission? But, you know, again, Bonnie and Clyde was probably trying to win Oscars. Target is not power. Teaming up with Sidney Lumet. More like a vehicle for Richard Gere, Julie Christie, Denzel Washington, a young Denzel Washington. It's a decent movie. Nothing stand out. I did it as part of my Lumet binge last year. Actually. It's not certainly not one of the best movies Lumet made, some of the best movies anyone involved in it made, but it's not bad. Also, 1986, one of his most popular and one of his best performances. Hoosiers coach Norman Dale, welcome to Indiana basketball. David Anspaugh directed this film. He would also later go on to direct Rudy. And my favorite story about Hoosiers is that Gene Hackman absolutely hated making the movie. He hated it. He thought it was a piece of shit. He thought the director had no idea what he was doing, and he was essentially refusing to come back and loop his dialog, which they call ADR. You know, you get some lines that they need to say, again or not a movie like this, there's so much crowd noise. ADR would be really important. I bet they had to re loop stuff or just record things for the first time, and he thought it was going to be such a piece of shit, and he was so miserable making the movie and treated the director with so much disrespect that he said, you need to show me the movie, but I you say it. He told the director, you need to show me the movie first before I record my additional lines. Hagrid watched the movie, came out, looked at the director and said, I don't know how the fuck you did that, and then recorded his additional lines. And Hackman always said that, that he absolutely thought the movie was going to suck and he had no idea how they got that good of a movie out of it. So, God, I just love Eugene, I love it. Welcome to Indiana basketball. I'll make it. You know, 1987 No Way Out starring with Kevin Costner. They got along great. Costner still says that the best actor he ever worked with was Gene Hackman. He says a lot of actors were great, but Gene Hackman was the best. There was also another. There's a viral video, somewhat viral video, of Costner talking about this on a talk show from, I think, like 2017, and he gets a little emotional talking about it because, you know, you can tell how much Hackman meant to him. So I love that. Also, 1987 first Superman movie I saw Superman for the quest for peace. What's not to like about this colossal disaster of a movie that is ingrained as a part of my childhood, and I will love it forever. I cannot help it. In 1988, he's in five movies, and these aren't like one of them. Kind of little scene, but one of them gets him an Oscar nomination. So first up, bat 21. I never seen it, never even heard of it. It would make a good double feature for behind Enemy lines because in bat 21 it's Hackman who's the pilot who's been shot down, and now he's behind enemy lines. And then the pilot trying to help him that he's coordinating with is Danny Glover, and I did not realize they were in a movie before. I thought it was just Royal Tenenbaums. So it's nice to know that they had a relationship before and their chemistry. It's great you're getting that diehard thing, you know, where the majority of their relationship is over walkie talkies, but you still really feel their chemistry coming through and you can tell they got along. Split decisions, a boxing drama that, not very good costarring Jeff Fahey. He's the dad. Gene is. It was okay. I watched it a few years ago. And so, like, I don't know, whatever. I try to watch every boxing movie. The boxing is not good in it. But Gene, he's shown up. He's absolutely showing up. Full moon in blue water. I watch this for the first time yesterday. This is just not a good movie. It's the studio romantic comedy, you know, late 80s. Gene Hackman owns a bar on the water, but he's depressed because his wife has been missing for a year. So he just watched his home video footage all the time, and he has visions of his wife. Then there's Terry Gar right in front of him who's like, I notice me and, you know, it's I mean, Elias Curtis is in there who I love, and he's great. Burgess Meredith is great. It's just it doesn't move how you want it to move. It's like, all right, this is whatever. Mississippi burning. He was nominated for this. This movie. This movie's intense. I'd only seen it. I think I'd seen it twice. But this is based on a true story. It is about the KKK. It is about racism in the Deep South in the 60s. It is tough. And Hackman's performances, he's he's like insisting on being by the book as he's an FBI agent. So like, I'm by the book, but then the whole time you're watching it, you're like, is this dude as racist as the people of this town? Is this an act to curry favor with the racists like you? He's so dangerous in that way. And that's why he was such a good actor. So, like, which way is he going to, I don't know, way. Is he going to go? It's, it's a good movie. You're going to see if you haven't seen it or you haven't seen it a long time. It's a murderer's row of character actors. They're just. Everyone's great. This year for the Oscars, he lost to his good friend and former roommate, Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man. And if you wanted to go watch that speech, Dustin Hoffman speech. When he wins, he immediately stands up, walks over and gives Gene Hackman a kiss, and then talks about him in his speech, which is great. 88 another woman is playing Larry Lewis. This is a film directed by Woody Allen. And I know what that the name alone can signify for a lot of people. And I get it. Trust me, I get it. Selling points for the movie. I've seen every movie Woody Allen's made. It's my favorite one. It's one of his least discussed movies. It's only 77 minutes long. My main selling point is if you have seen Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries, this is not a remake of it, but it is dealing with the same themes, same themes of looking back at your life, what relationships matter. It weaves in flashbacks and it could the whole thing could be a play, but it he's using the language of cinema so well. It's a really good movie. Gena Rowlands is the star. She's fantastic. She's married to Ian Holm, who's just this, you know, highfalutin New York intellectual piece of shit kind of guy. And her one time romantic interest was Gene Hackman, was this guy, Larry, who's a friend of her husband's, but he's so infatuated with her, and he's not he's not in the movie a lot, but the scenes he's in are so moving. He's. This is not asshole, Gene. This is nice, compassionate Gene. It's really, really something. And the the movie arrives at a conclusion that I've always found moving. Not because everything's so beautiful, but everything just works. And it kind of clicks. And it's not a movie that's asking a lot of you. It is even filmed by a Bergman cinematographers, Van Nyquist. And moreover, if you are not a Woody Allen fan, I all but guarantee if you skip to the credits of the movie and you didn't know it was directed by him, you would have no idea. It doesn't feel like one of his movies. Not really deeply dramatic, another woman says Nick's favorite Woody Allen film as well. I love this film. The package, just a fantastic Andrew Davis action thriller. I love this shit. Gene Hackman, he's got a transport. Tommy Lee Jones, he's got some, I mean, it's just great. They're on the run. You love to see this stuff. Tommy Lee Jones and Andrew Davis teamed up later for The Fugitive. Great stuff. All right. I had never I had never heard of the movie Loose Cannons from 1990, costarring Dan Aykroyd. It's a Bob Clark movie. This I have to read. I've gotta. I watch it on to be. Let me just read the two B description, because this thing is nuts. How are you not going to watch this movie? A DC detective and his new partner break open a case that involves the FBI, Nazis and Israelis in a fight for possession of a porno starring Hitler. Sold. Also 1990 postcards from the edge. That's a mike Nichols movie screenplay by Carrie Fisher, starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine. This movie so good. Semi-autobiographical on Carrie Fisher, narrow margin. God, just another one of these is a Peter Himes movie. Went on a huge Peter Himes kick last year, watched all of his movies. Is a train movie, you know, hard to go wrong with one of those. And it's Gene Hackman and an archer on the run, and they're getting chased the whole time. He's kind of caught up in something like, hey, what's going on? This all starts because of, a harmless blind date that just goes way, way wrong. It's a great thriller, actually. I'm tempted to buy it because it's on 4K, and I do, I love this movie. Narrow margin. Watch it for the first time last year, though, so if you haven't seen it in a while, or if you haven't seen it, give it a shot. Class action 1991. This is when they used to make American legal thrillers. There was like one every month. Here we have Gene Hackman on one side of the legal aisle, and his daughter, played by Mary Elizabeth Mastriano. Mass tornado. You know, that's a tough one, though. That's a tough one. It's a tough name. I love her, she they are great together in this. They don't get well. He's he loves her. He loves his daughter. But she's like you're a piece of shit. What you put mom through in the past. She's holding on to the past as his daughter has a right to. Wow. They have an argument in this for the most of it. He's very affable. He's kind of charming. Kind of like a, you know, light. But they have an argument in a kitchen or in a living room that is really believable. And you really believe that it is a father and daughter arguing. And I'm watching this like, goddamn, they are going for it. Not a perfect movie, you know, American legal thriller, but shot by Conrad Hall, Academy Award winning cinematographer, scored by James Horner. Next favorite has Laurence Fishburne, Fred Dalton Thompson. It's a good movie company business. This is Gene Hackman teaming up with Baryshnikov. It just, you know, Maggie, a former CIA up and it's the CIA is bad, the KGB is bad. And the only two people who can take both down are Hackman and Baryshnikov. Amusing. It's a Nicholas Meyer movie. It wasn't bad. It was just that some of these movies are so dated like this. It's just so 90s. This class action, there's so 90s. A lot of the movies I talked about in the 80s, they're just so 80s and I bat 21 is so damn 80s. Split decisions. I love that shit. 1992 Oscar number two, Sheriff Little Bill Daggett I love Unforgiven, I adore this movie. This is one of my favorite westerns. The fact the whole narrative around it about how Clint had avoided making Westerns for a while and this was going to be his at one time, it was proposed as his swansong. This is Clint's last movie, so why not go back to the Western genre? A bit of a revisionist western little Bill? He's so good in this, Hackman. So good. He's such an asshole. Sheriff. We're out of this town a bit sadistic and, God, what a terrible carpenter, I love it. I misfire, get the son of a bitch. He's so good. Rightfully won his second Oscar for this. And it is a great speech. Unforgiven cannot say enough nice things about it. Boys better move away. All right, gentlemen, he's got one barrel left. When he fires, I take out your pistols and shoot him down like a mangy scoundrel. He is the firm. The next year, 1993, directed by Sydney Pollack. A star vehicle for Tom cruise. Here he's playing. Hackman is playing Avery Toller. What a great name. He's just meant to handle the new guy, Tom cruise. He's such a oh, he's such a corporate sleazeball, such a legal corporate sleazeball. What I love most about this movie is just from the get from the first time he meets Tom Cruise's wife, played by Jeanne Tripplehorn. Gene Hackman is acting like he is the most attractive man with the most swagger who has ever lived. Like, he's just behaving like there's absolutely no question at all that I can get this woman. There's just no who. I don't care if she's married. Like there's just no question. The way he's so slimy and like, gross and he's so good at it. Oh, God, I love the firm. It's way too long, but it's still. I love that movie. Geronimo, an American legend, to my knowledge, I had never seen of it. A few of these movies were kind of ubiquitous in the 90s. They were always just on. I was bummed to see that he was credited second. Hackman was, but was not in it. A lot more over. I was stunned how much Matt Damon is in this Matt. He narrates the movie. Matt Damon is definitely the second lead of this Jason Patric, Matt Damon, Wes Studi, Robert Duvall, and then Gene Hackman way down just in terms of running time. But I would say this is the movie Matt Damon was in the most before good Will hunting, but he talks about courage under fire. School ties way more than Geronimo. So I don't know. That's interesting. Leiter 1994. Teaming back up with Kevin Costner. He's playing Wyatt Earp. Dad, I love him in this tombstone, I think is the better movie that can be debated back and forth, but he's really good in this, and the movie does really look good, like it's got this great sweeping scope. I had not seen that. I watch it for the first time just a few years ago, for I don't know, for something, what are we doing here? Doing something on the part. And I went, God, I've never seen that. I really needed to check that one off. Was I watching all Kasdan's stuff? Who can even say anymore? The quick and the dead, another ubiquitous movie of my childhood that I don't remember seeing all the way through. So sitting down watching it, God, he's chewing that shit out of the scenery in this. Hackman is very flamboyant character because, you know, a Western and he's the head honcho in town, the biggest gunslinger. So we've seen him do characters like this. We've seen Hackman on a horse before, but he plays this so well, just he knows what he's doing. He's leaning right into the flamboyant nature of this type of character. And I really, really liked him. And it's not a perfect movie. That's fine. You know, it is a perfect movie. Also made 1995 Crimson Tide. Fuck yeah, captain Frank Ramsay. God, this is never a bad time to put this movie on. Why? It is not available in 4K? I don't know, I'm holding out for it. I don't own this one, which just seems silly. One of my favorite Tony Scott films, one of the best performances. Hagrid did his chemistry with Denzel. Like it's actually brilliant staging the way that Scott shoots this because when they are going at it, which for, you know, an action 90s action movie, the best scenes of the movie are Hackman and Denzel screaming at each other the way that it is staged and shot. They're in the same shots, so it's like you're watching a play because they're talking over each other, and I should just loop one of the scenes in because it's it, and I agree. What are you waiting for, Marty? Sir, this is expressly why your command must be repeated. It requires my assent. I do not give it in. Furthermore, you continue upon this course and insist upon this launch without confirming this message. First I will be chief of the ball. By the rules of precedent. Captain. Commanding officer, may I offer you one place on your left to take charge of Navy regulations? I say I leave. I order you to command all caps under arrest on the charge of mutiny. Got it? So good. But then you get him saying, you know, ending that great rant with that shut the fuck up. Is is just one of his best line deliveries. And oh my God, I love him. Great film. Never a bad time to put Crimson Tide on. Get Shorty 1995. Harry Zimm it's Barry Sonnenfeld is one of the great bullshit artists, great speakers. How much of what he says is true? I don't know, but there there's a lot of lore about this movie and Hackman in it because of director Barry Sonnenfeld and the fact that John Travolta apparently did not memorize his lines. Infuriated Hackman so much that he was just an asshole all the time. And according to sound, Feld took it all out on Sonnenfeld, but the performances of performance, it's such a sleek, cool movie. I love this movie. Another really fun movie. Teaming back up with Mike Nichols, The Birdcage. Nick loves this movie here he's playing stuffy conservative Senator who has to go hide out and I mean the madcap, farcical nature of all of them at that dinner. It's it's just brilliant. And Hackman is playing this so well that you're surprised by the end. That's simple. And you know what he has to do and how he has to dress up to pull off the last big ruse. Everything plays so well. He is so good in it. I love The Birdcage. That movie that's another one is going to live forever. Extreme measures, not a good movie, you know, like a medical thriller from the 90s. At the most extreme thing, this movie does is posits that Hugh Grant could whip the shit out of David Morse. Like peek David Morse. Are you fucking kidding me? So, yeah, if you watch this, it's filled with other little delightful pleasures such as that. This is Gene Hackman playing the evil mad doctor. You know, who is morally in the gray. Not very good. The chamber. Likewise. You want this to be better? Directed by James Foley, Glengarry Glen Ross, based on a John Grisham novel. Would you know they're really hot, The Firm, Time to Kill. And I don't know if the book is good, but this movie just doesn't work. It's about a kid. He's Chris O'Donnell. He's a large part of the problem. He was not, you know, all these kids of this generation, they got their John Grisham movie. It was Tom cruise, got the firm. McConaughey got a time to kill Damon got the Rainmaker like so it. And he's just not equipped for this. He's playing. He's playing. Gene Hackman's grandson, gene Hackman, is in prison for a racial bombing that killed a few kids several decades earlier. So he's trying to get him off being sent to the gas chamber. And, you know, X amount of time. Faye Dunaway plays Gene Hackman daughter, who's a like a mess Robert E Raymond J. Barry. These are really good character actors. They're in it. It's just boring and dumb. And Hackman is great. Hackman is always great. He has one of the most insane line deliveries of his career. The way that he says bullshit is, I don't know, he just he came up with a new way to say the word bullshit. In this movie. He puts on an accent that his character is not had previously. I can't loop it in here because there's a word that he says earlier before that I detest, and I'm not going to put it in in a video clip, but yeah, it's, it's really something. And that's the thing I remember most about the movie. Absolute Power 1997, reteaming with Clint here, Gene is playing President Allen Richmond in total fucking asshole. We see him kill someone in scene one and there's a jewel thief, Clint Eastwood, who's who. Watch the murder happen of a really fun Clint political thriller. Like, not taking itself seriously. I mean, it does, but it's not trying to win Oscars, I'll put it that way, you know? Yeah, I just I really like this one. It's a good movie. Twilight, 1998. Not the vampire movies. This is the Robert Benton film costarring Paul Newman, Susan Sarandon. You also have Reese Witherspoon, young Stockard Channing, James Garner, Liev Schreiber, you know, private detective. Got to go find the missing girl type thing. Not a bad movie. Doesn't come together quite as excitingly as you want, but it's not bad. And she was a voice character. An answer. I didn't revisit that one. And I think that's okay. Enemy of the state 1998 team and back up with the great Tony Scott. As we discussed in The Conversation podcast, a lot has been made that Edward Brill, like Gene Hackman's character an enemy of the state, could be seen as a sort of extension of Harry Cole from the conversation. They have a lot of similar interests. They have the same demeanor, especially if especially if Harry Cole had to deal with everything that he'd been dealing with. And, you know, you could just kind of see him turning into Brill. Or maybe Brill is Cole. He just changed his name under suspicion. Year 2000, we're going to count. I'm going to touch on some absolutely dated movies. This is not a bad the material is not bad for Under Suspicion. But the movie is just edited into fucking oblivion, like people coming into scenes that they weren't in, like in the flashbacks and talking in them. And so it's that thing like Morgan Freeman's the company's interrogating Hackman, the whole movie, but then Hackman will have a flashback, and now he's in the woods, and then Freeman is like, right there next to him talking. So there's like 1 or 2 times, okay. But like all the time you're doing that, the sped up motion, there's a techno music score. It's just it is not. When I wrote my letter box review, I said it would be amazing to see what someone would do with this raw footage and just tell the movie straight, have your double, triple, quadruple crosses, but not with all this crazy shit going on. That all, said Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Monica Bellucci, they're all great. It's a good movie. Morgan Freeman talked about this movie win and his Oscar dedication to Hackman just a few weeks ago. Coach Jimmy McGinty, The Replacements One of Nick's favorites. He loves this movie. This is a really fun movie. Reportedly, Keanu Reeves took a pay cut so that Gene Hackman fee could be met and therefore he could be in the movie. The younger generations always wanted to work with Hackman. Duke. You'll hear that a lot that you know I'll do anything. Like Denzel was thrilled to work with Hackman. Do whatever it takes. The Mexican, he's only in one scene. This movie's a real stinker. Like it didn't work at the time, I hadn't. I sat in the theater with my dad the weekend. It came out in 2001. We didn't like it. It's not a good movie. James Gandolfini is in a completely different movie, and he is going for an understated supporting actor nomination. And he's great. Hackman and his one scene is great, but it's like Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts were not on that wavelength, so it just doesn't come together. But Hackman gets a scene in the end. I liked him. Heartbreakers. It's this, you know, madcap high comedy from 2001, Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt. One of them will marry a guy, and the other one will start having an affair. And they'll get all the guys money and they split the money, that whole thing. Hackman is their new mark. They really don't give Hackman a lot to do in this, but watching the movie the whole time, because Hackman's his whole character thing is he is a chain smoker. Is is terrible cough the bad teeth, you know, that's like as far as they go with his bit. And it kind of feels like he's warming up for things he wants to try as Royal Tenenbaum because they filmed Heartbreakers first. Maybe I'm looking too much into this, I did. I do not have this verified anywhere. Also, only time I've ever heard in the history of my life. My last name used in a movie. Never heard it before. And it is in the end when it was said out loud and I was like, what the hell, Mike? I got to show my ailing grandmother that clip because the movies on Netflix or Prime or some such shit, and I pulled up the wedding clip at the end for the first time, everyone, Mr. and Mrs.. And I was like, what show? To my grandmother. She was beside herself like it was just cool, I don't know. And Ray Liotta is in it. Not a bad movie. What can I say? Heist fuck David Mamet, 2001 I love this film. Rewatched it last night, I love heist. Holy shit. Jean leads a crew of thieves. Delroy Lindo is in the gang, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ricky Jay and they're good at pulling off jobs and they're sense played by Danny DeVito. Just a total assholes withholding payment until Gene and his crew do one last job and, you know, things go awry. It's great. It's got the snappy Mamet dialog. It's incredibly well-written. And, you know, one of the biggest criticisms that Mamet gets is too much damn dialog, too much talking, too much repetitive. I get all that. I hear all that it's true. You got to lean into it to enjoy it. If you don't do that, then I get it. You're going to be like Nick. But this film features a few high scenes in the core central high scene is extended. It's a long sequence with no dialog. They have it down. They have not told us the plan at all. So it's one of those kind of heist movies. They're just referencing it before the movie starts. Or as the movie's going, they are talking about it. They're just not showing us those boring details. So when we're in the heist, we're seeing it all and learning about it all for the first time. Great film. I love heist. It's why they call it money. Hey, buddy, I forgot your change makes the world go round. You said gold. Some people say love. Yeah, that right two is love. It's a lot of gold. Nobody gets the goods like you, Joe. Anybody can get the goods. The hard part is getting away. Playing a good enough getaway. You could steal Ebbets Field. Ebbets field is gone. But I tell you, we got to go ahead. We got a firm date on the Swiss thing. He's broke his time. Cops looking for him. I gotta get out of town, I gotta go, I give you the money now and you're gone. I bankroll also 2001 behind enemy lines. Holy shit, this movie sucks. Wow. I saw it in the theater weekend. It came out. And this is. This movie is more dated, I swear to God, than Bonnie and Clyde. Because you can watch Bonnie and Clyde and be like, wow, it takes place like way before it was made. But like, yeah, I can tell it's like sick, I don't know, behind enemy lines, you watch and you go, that movie was made and released in 2001. There's no question, because like terrible cinematography, terrible editing, slow motion, sped up motion, techno music score, you're like, what the fuck is going on in this? I know this is not some prestige movie. By God, I did not enjoy it at all in the arc of Hackman. It's just so. It is so one note and stale because he's an asshole. He's an asshole military admiral in the beginning, right? When he needs to really care about Owen Wilson, who stuck behind enemy lines, then boom, he immediately becomes the father figure. There's no lecture issues. It's just white and black asshole. Father figure. All right, 2001 The Royal Tenenbaums. Why focus on all the stuff we know? Like him, he had a tough time with Wes Anderson. He took out a lot on him. Bill Murray played referee, and we have one of the best performances Gene Hackman ever gave. I mean, I don't know, what do you want me to say? I love the movie. It's probably my favorite Wes Anderson film. I love Gene in it. He's absolutely hysterical knowing that he had worked with Danny Glover before. It makes those moments so much more special to me. Royal Tenenbaum will live forever. The shit that comes out of that man's mouth. My God, what we get on the screen is one of the best performances Gene Hackman ever gave. Should have been nominated. Criminally ignored 2001 decent movie year, terrible Oscar year. Jesus 2003 Runaway Jury based on a John Grisham novel. This is. I mean, this is again when they were still just cranking out these courtroom thrillers and they would they get much, much more nonsensical as they go. And this thing is one of the most batshit, unapologetically nonsensical movies ever made about the legal system. This movie is fucking nuts. What are they like? It posits this guy Hagrid is playing rank, and Fitch has basically like surveyed every viable potential jury member in this city, in the city of New Orleans, like every like dozens of people who could be caught on this jury like what? I don't know, it's just it's so improbable. They got every they got the jury that did have the jury room bug. No, they don't have that bug. But they got the courtroom bugged like every place is bugged. But Gene Hackman is absolutely delightful. Like he's just chewing the shit out of the scenery. And the only time his former roommate and dear friend Dustin Hoffman and he acted on screen together in the movie is two hours long. It's got a lot of nonsense in it, but it also has a scene and a bathroom. It's just the two of them. It lasts for about 3.5 minutes, and it is absolutely everything you would want. Seeing these two act on screen together. It's well shot there. They're almost always in the same shot. So they're making it clear that like this is a standoff and I love it. It's fantastic. It makes the whole movie worth it. You're like, okay, good. This is why I've sat here the whole time. So I know that movie is popular and it's all and it's always on, like every streaming platform. So I've seen a lot of people talking about it and, you know, improbable. Fine. Entertaining. Yes. I did something very fun today. Fun for me. I woke up and I knew I had intentionally been saving two movies to watch. So I spent today, got up and watched the first feature film the Gene Hackman was ever in. It had speaking lines in 1964 as Lilith, and immediately after I watched for the first time the last film Gene Hackman was ever in. Welcome to Mooseport, released in 2004. It's of course it's not good, but it's a studio comedy from the mid 2000. It's it's what it's this very high concept comedy that is you get it, you get it. There's no there's no nuance to it. Hackman's game, he's fun. He wrestles with Ray Romano at one point like it's it's fine. Yes. The love interest is more attorney witch okay. And another love interest becomes Marcia Gay Harden. So yeah, there's decades of age disparity there. But hell yeah. You know whatever. It's it's a silly movie. It's designed to be silly. It I don't know if the filmmakers knew that it was going to be Hackman's last movie, but it seemed like he had been ready to retire for a while. Should. There's always talk like, oh, he should have ended with Tenenbaums. I mean, who cares? Like, honestly, who cares? I love that scene with him and Hoffman in Runaway Jury and welcome to Mooseport. I had fun, like I laughed, it's I mean, it's dumb. Come on. But he's fine in it. He's fine. He's playing the former president and he's kind of like, he's like obsessed with Clinton about outperforming Clinton and being better than Clinton. I don't know, it's fine. It's funny. After Welcome to Mooseport, he quietly retires. It wasn't some big thing. He got interviewed a few years later, a few months after the movie came out, and said he would be retiring for certain, and that's what he did. He moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife. He moved there to paint, to write novels and relax, and he went out from the business in his own way, and I respect it. He gave us some of the most legendary performances ever. Buck Barrow, Jimmy, Popeye Doyle, Marianne, Harry, Carl, Sam Clayton, Lex Luther, God, coach, Norman Dale, Sheriff Little, Bill Daggett, Avery Toller, captain Frank Ramsey, Brill, Lyle I love these guys. Joe Moore from heist, I love Joe Royal Tenenbaum. These characters are going to live forever. Hackman's official date of death was February 18th, 2025, although we found out a week later he died at the age of 95. He lived a full life before anyone even knew who he was in the acting world. He lived a full life, and then he gave us decades of notable material that fans of cinema are going to be talking about forever. Nick had never seen The French Connection and didn't know much about it, and was completely fucking blown away by it. I'm telling you, like he was engrossed the entire time. It can still work. It doesn't matter what year movie was made, it doesn't. If it's good, if it's well put together, and if the performances are strong, it can fucking work and it can still thrill you. His movies, a lot of them are always going to do that. Some of the movies I never seen, Prime Cut is my favorite. I mean, I bought it, I'm going to watch it tonight after I record this, but I'll watch that 4K and I'll probably rewatch Hoosiers. I didn't revisit that for this because I've seen it. God, I've seen that so many times. But just talking about it, I'm like, I want to go back and see it. But these characters, everything's represented here, there is the romantic lead, of course. There's the angry asshole, there's a supportive coach, there's the kind man who just wants to help the comic book villain, the president. It's all here. Soldiers, cops, lawyers, criminals, thieves. I love Gene Hackman. Actors love Gene Hackman. Every actor you hear talking about their favorite actors not not every. But so many of them love Gene Hackman. He really had it, and he gave it to us. And every performance. My. What are you watching? Well, I am going to go watch Prime Cut. Please give another woman a shot just despite who made it, if that bothers you. But I get it either way. You know, I get it either way. I first saw the movie several years ago, more than a decade at this point on Netflix. They used to have way more obscure movies like that. I don't know if it's available anywhere, but it is worth it if you're into that kind of movie, like a slow Bergman movie. It's only 77 minutes. But Hackman oh, he's just so good in it. He's so tender. So I would say another woman, I would say prime cut. I would say heist, because I don't know how many people have actually seen heist. And that movie rocks. Gene, I love you. We want you to rest in peace. Thank you for the performances. Thank you, everyone for listening to this solo performance of me Remembering a Legend. Let me know what you're thinking about Gene Hackman. Let me know when you're watching. What Hackman performs is already watching. What do you love at Wawa? Underscore podcasts on Twitter, Instagram, or Letterboxd is honestly where this account posts the most because I am on there all the time and I have some really fun conversations with people in the comments. So check out all my Hackman reviews there. But as always, thank you so much for listening and happy watching. And the Oscar goes to. Gene Hackman in Unforgiven. Thank you very much. Quick thanks to, David Valdez, our producer, David Peebles. Writer. Oh, boy. All the wonderful actors Richard Harris, Morgan Freeman, Frances Fisher, and especially to Clint, who, kind of made it all possible for me and, for everyone else in the film. It was a wonderful experience. I'd like to dedicate my part of this evening to, my uncle Orin Hackman. He was wonderful guy. Thank you very much. Hey, everyone. Thanks again for listening. Send us mailbag questions at What Are You Watching podcast at gmail.com or find us on Twitter, Instagram and Letterboxd at wri w underscore podcast. Next time we're going back to the 90s as we pick our top ten favorite films of the year 1997. It's a year known for one film in particular, but there's a lot of gold to dig through. Stay tuned.