172: Serpico (1973)

The WAYW New Hollywood Film Project continues with a ‘70s classic, Sidney Lumet’s “Serpico.” Alex and Nick discuss Al Pacino in his first starring role, Lumet’s 50-year career, police corruption, whistleblowers, roast beef sandwiches, the real Frank Serpico, the maniac who co-wrote the screenplay, and much more.

For WAYW, the guys briefly review new films from Benny Safdie, Guillermo del Toro, Richard Linklater, and Yorgos Lanthimos.

Part 8 of the WAYW New Hollywood Film Project.

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Frank. What do you say? 100 a month, just for expenses. For my secretary and my business. License and payment. All right. You split. Frank. Share. From now on, each month. Hey, everyone. Welcome to. What are you watching? I'm Alex Swift, and I'm joined by my best man, Nick Doe. So how are you doing there, Serpico? Whoa. Great name. Great name for a movie. A great name for a movie. Oh, come. Does this past year I hate name movie titles. Piss test, you pisser. No, it doesn't, but it's a real name. Yeah, no it doesn't. I still in I think it's wow, though. Okay, okay. All right, all right. Let's let's. All right. I was thinking this one might pass your test because I'm jumping all the way to legacy, but like this. If you call someone Serpico, if you hear someone called Serpico in a movie like Gwyneth Paltrow calls Brad Pitt, that in the beginning is seven. You know what that means? Like the cops going out? Yes or no? Yes. I yes. You bring up a great point. The legacy of it, it has actually developed. And because, I mean, the lore behind it is like anytime you're talking about something, corrupt or unjust and someone's fighting it. All right, go to go, Serpico and is a great name. Okay. All right. Yes. This does pass. Yes, yes. Okay, fine. Yes, I yes, I yes, Serpico. All right. How do you feel to be here? Serpico, Al Pacino, Sidney Lumet? Funny. See, I think that's the best present I can do. So this is an interesting addition to the new Hollywood film project, because I think a lot of people, you know, they see that we're doing a Sidney Lumet movie, and there are there are just more famous titles. Two in particular, in the 70s by Sidney Lumet. Yeah. Dog Day Afternoon in 1975. Network. In 1976, the man made a shitload of movies, and I thought it would be fun. First of all, I didn't want to go with the most, you know, the most popular movies of those years. So we went with shampoo for 75, which was great. And then our what the hell do we do for 76? I don't even remember anymore. No, I do, I do, I do, I do Marathon Man. Yeah, there's platinum, I think. Marathon Man that was second. Okay. Yes, that was 76. All right. So why are we doing Serpico? Well, we're going to get to all those reasons, but it's not a movie that gets, you know, it doesn't have the biggest cultural relevance in terms of Al Pacino movies, Sidney Lumet movies, blah, blah, blah. But it's still a really good movie. Like, you put it on and you go, oh, this is a 70s cooker. Like, this thing is a little over two hours and it cruises. Yeah, yeah. It doesn't get the, like the adoration for being an Al Pacino Sidney Lumet movie of the 70s. What it does is the exactly the title. Everyone knows the idea of what Serpico is, even if they've never seen the movie like they've heard of it and they're and and that is something to say. But I mean, that's that's really more a testament to the real man because I yeah, you know, this is just what this whole situation was. But yes, in terms of Sidney Lumet and Al Pacino, I feel like this does kind of fall under the radar of that conversation of a absolutely awesome film. Yeah. And it's I mean, it is what we are trying to capture in our discussion about these new Hollywood movies is this thing is gritty to the bone. And so if you watch it, you're going to go, wow, okay, gritty New York movie. One of the things that helps Sidney Lumet be known as like the gritty New York director. But then if you keep digging a little bit, there's so much wild shit about the real story behind this movie where it's the 70s are the one of the areas where events are happening in real life, and then like 18 months to two years later, they're just releasing Oscar nominated movies about this French connection, Bryan Song, a TV movie, but like very, very famous event, very famous TV movie. Dirty Harry is based on the Zodiac Killer, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, 12 hours. It at Munich is based on Munich. All the President's Men, Norma Rae all this shit is happening and there, because the studio is giving these crazy directors and writers the backing to go do this, they're like, yeah, who cares? Serpico was shot like what? I go through the real time line. It is insane how quickly the movie got made. Like, it's just nuts. It's wild. And I love that's another reason that I wanted to do that, because we've done some like we did The French Connection, but that doesn't really emphasize the true story ness of it all, not the way this does. When, you know, from the get like, this is a real dude. Yes. And and that actually has to factor into what we will find in my, and w, my, the, the, the w a y w and he got it. Yes, you did it. You just have to sound out each syllable. Wow. That that took all of my focus and concentration. I was about to say, what are your initials I that I almost blacked out. It's gonna faint. No more fainting. I want to know before I get into the timeline, all that. All that stuff. When we first heard about it, when we first saw the movie. I have known about this, the movie, as just a pop culture thing from birth, because my parents had, you know, books on the bookshelf in the basement. And this paperback, my mom Serpico paperback with Al Pacino's face on the cover. It was exactly the the poster for the movie. I'm like, what is this? And I pulled that off the shelf. I'll never forget it. Like, and kind of flipping through. And then when I got older, I older meaning like I read that or parts of it as much as I could when I was like ten and my mom showing me this movie when I'm 10 or 11. And again, I'm going to be honest, it was not one of the ones that when I saw it early, I'm like, yeah, that's one of my movies. The next year when I saw Dog Day Afternoon, immediately one of my movies, the next year, I would have watched network or a few years later, immediately, one of mine. But Serpico, that's where we're, resurrecting Serpico as much as we can. As much as this podcast could. Not that it needs a resurrection. Like there's a great 4K, yada yada. But when was the first time you became aware of this movie? When was the first time you saw it all that. So, I mean, I think I've always been known of the lore of it because of the name, as I remember, getting into acting because this was around the time that I saw it. But, you know, I gotta say, I feel like such a fucking idiot because I realize this happens so much now. This is the thing I was laughing about earlier was that, like, a common pattern seems to be for me. And this podcast, which is a thankfully this podcast is fixing all of this, is that there are so many fucking movies that I watched when I was younger that had zero appreciation for, and this might have been the top of the list. I like, actively thought this movie sucked. I, I how old were you though? Like, I, you know, like I was probably in my early 20s or maybe my, like late teens. And I had problems with Chinatown two. You said you did lower than hell. Yup. Yeah. And this was probably around that same time where I was like, all right, let's find this Serpico business. And I put it on and I, I just I remember at one point turning it off because I thought it was so boring, and I thought it was. And all I could remember from it was, I'm like, God, these, these awful costumes, this awful hair. Like what? I just feel like every scene he looks more and more ridiculous and it's not untrue, but, but it's actually funnier now, looking back and seeing how much of, like, as we've gone over the years like that, the style isn't really all that outrageous anymore. Yeah, yeah. So so so. Yes, this was my first relationship with it. And I was, I'm embarrassed to say how how, awful. I thought it was, and I knew it wasn't. I knew it wasn't. There's no way like I could look back and actively say, no, Serpico sucks, right? I just knew, like, my first viewing of it, I just it went completely over my head. I wasn't paying attention. I wasn't actually listening to it. So. So seeing this now was like seeing it for the very first time. Yes. So it's like, is this the first time you've seen it since? Yes. Well dude, good for you because I didn't. I will say that like I, I make very strong recommendations. I'm kind of the, the DJ a lot of the time for the parts. So I'm like, I would like to do this in 73. I actually did what the first movie I pitched to him, folks, what was it? It was The Exorcist, and he goes, but we've already done that. And I'm like, not, you could never do it enough. So that got shot down. And then I went, all right, how about Serpico? You don't know what? I don't know what that movie is. The bit needs to fucking die. All right, you know what the movie is? I just. You know what? It's going to die. It's going to die when your stipulations, however long that. Oh, you go, you love. You love going first in the list. Come on. You love to go first. That's the only stipulation. It's it's. We're five years in. Nick goes first. We know that. Yeah. You do the you know, you get us kicked off here with your with your great energy. You're kicked off the air. Oh my God, I don't even know what the hell I was talking about. Neither do I, no, I, I was, I was saying that I was commending you of you being accepting to cover the movie because it's like, hey, I mean, you didn't say, like, I hated that movie the first time I saw it. You didn't say that. You're just, like, giving it another chance. And and that's. I think that's good. And that's part of what will make this a fun discussion, because there may be some people out there who tried that, like you did years ago or something, and they're like, this is not Dog Day or whatever. This is not The Godfather. This is not dirty Harry. What? This is not the French Connection. And it's not. It's not so, you know, yet. Maybe they'll go given another chance, or there's probably a lot of people who haven't seen it. And there's probably no way that, you would probably let me get away if we were, if you were to bring up the idea of the. Hey, I'm thinking we're doing Serpico for this. And I say, now, that movie's a piece of shit. Like it's true. Like you'd be like, well, hold on. Yeah, you. We don't have to cover it, but I don't know about that. Yeah. And then he would and then was like, when's the last time you saw it? How did you see it? Then we would have had this conversation. You'd be like, all right, I'm going to need you to rewatch this. And then you tell me after you rewatch it, if this is an okay movie that we should do on the pod. So. So, yes, after rewatching it and actually paying attention and actually taking in the movie for what it is, it's so awesome. Good. I'm so glad. Always so glad when you investigate something more and you like it. I actually bought, I didn't own this, did I? No, I didn't, and they released it on 4K, so. And. All right who we it just this these 74 K's are my favorite because that I don't I'm not a nerd enough to know like the name of the film stock that they're using. And each individual movie. But whatever it was, the graininess of it, I just God, I love it. It looks as good as you might imagine. It looks amazing. And I've got some very, very high praise, as we'll get into throughout this, this episode on Al Pacino's acting good. There's good there. I mean, there's a reason why, he's Al Pacino, and this is an early, early, early on Al Pacino. Like, this was the movie that was that. Yeah. And, it's his first true starring part. It is because every other movie he'd been in was a two hander. He's either right there with someone else or it was The Godfather. That was this is fourth movie overall, like total, his fourth movie. And he I mean he is he's in every single second pretty much. Yeah. And what what he does in his characterization, how he goes about it. And then my God, the writing. Yep. Jesus Christ like have a lot of fun talking about the writing. Yeah, yeah. Oh it's and you know, and and I know we've got another episode coming out soon, with the same writer and. Yeah, I'm floored by these two pieces of work. These are. Yep. Flawless screenplays. Yeah, we're doing I I'll just say it. We're doing two in a row. We're going to do Serpico or 73, and then we're doing our 1977, The Great Saturday Night Fever, both of which are written by Norman Wexler. And we're going to talk about him in just a little bit because this guy was a character. But yeah, what a cool double feature. I mean, I've yeah, I thought I saw that and I was like, oh, same writer. And then I'm thinking I'm like, well, I mean New York, they're both about kind of like outsiders. They're people learning things about them. Like there's some parallels here like this. What makes a good double feature discussion? You know, that's a very cool discussion to have about double features, because if you were to take a just based on the writer. Two movies that really don't really have a lot in common in terms of like plot content, things like that. But if you just take a screenwriters two works and watch them together, I could almost bet that that'd be a pleasurable experience and you wouldn't really be able to pinpoint why if you didn't know that the double feature was based on the writer, especially like a writer, where people might not be familiar with the name. Like exactly like a writer like this. Like no one, for the most part, is like, oh, Norman Wexler's writing. Like when you think of writers, you think of, like Quentin Tarantino. You, you know, you think of a certain type of screenwriters that have developed a certain reputation. And but when you're talking about, like, these old school Hollywood writers, where they just were like behind the scenes, just fucking doling out fucking masterpieces and no one knows. So I'm just going to jump to him now, a break in by, outline order a little bit here. So Nora Wexler. Okay, I'll break it. Yeah. This guy was a he was a lunatic. He's born in 1929. He gets nominated for his first Oscar for writing Joe in 1970. That's a movie directed by John Galveston, starring Peter Boyle and Susan Sarandon. I will just say it's one of Tarantino's favorite films that should be telling enough. Like, it's a wild script about Peter Boyle hates those goddamn fucking hippies and wants to go kill him like it's it's it's wild. He's trying to rescue Susan Sarandon. But anyway, Norman Wexler gets some money for that. He writes Serpico gets a nomination, he writes Saturday Night Fever, he punches up other scripts. He also had bipolar disorder and was arrested in 1972 for threatening to shoot President Nixon. He gained such a wild reputation that Andy Kaufman creates obnoxious persona Tony Clifton that is based on Norman Wexler. So Tony Clifton, oh, Tony Clifton, I mean, my favorite Andy Kaufman character is based on Norman Wexler. That be that is one crazy fucking dude like that. Dude must be nuts for Andy Kaufman. So what? I found out what? I found that out. I was like, oh, that that's all you needed to tell me. Tony Clifton was based on Norman Wexler, so he must have been. He must have been a real character. But. And he wasn't the only writer he came in on Serpico after the fact and punched up, not punch up. He wrote a second draft of the script, and they used elements of both. But yeah, he I mean, God, what a character. Tony Clifton I love Tony Clifton. Tony that's crazy. I wow, I did I did not know that one. All these connections that's I've, I didn't know like Bob Rafelson founding the Monkees. Like I had no idea. Yeah. The five Easy Pieces part. I'm like, what? It's great. All right, back to our very first Serpico 19. So it wasn't a project or it was. Yeah, it was, because French Connection was, a soft opening. It was an unofficial, there's got to be a term for it, you know, unofficial starter to a series. That's great. Obviously, when we talk about 70s movies, when we're in this project, they're spoilers. I mean, this is kind of a, I mean, you know, the guy, you know, whatever. He was still alive. They made a movie about the guy. Like he was still alive. So. Sure. Yeah. How many spoilers can that be? But here you go. Real Frank Serpico September 1959. Serpico joined the NYPD February 3rd, 1971. He shot in the Face in Brooklyn in October and December 1971. He testifies. That's how this movie ends. June 15th, 1972. Serpico leaves the NYPD. Early 1973 the movie rights are secured before the book based on him is even released. March 1973 the book is published. It is a massive hit. Peter Maass Peter Massa's book Serpico Massive Hit July 1973. The movie begins filming films for 51 days. December 5th, 1973 the movie is released in New York. 1036 days from Serpico getting shot to the movie being released. That's just wild. I mean, they're like cooking this thing into production, and the whole thing was developed with a completely different director. Sidney Lumet is brought in like, right before, I don't want to say right before they begin filming, but they are down the line. He did. This is crazy. Sidney Lumet did not cast Al Pacino. This great partnership in film happened by complete circumstance like it was completely inadvertent. But yeah, how crazy is that timeline? It's just fast, man. It's so fast. And there's a, I was watching Sidney Lumet talk about this, and apparently this is how he, his is how he says he starts all of his shoots. He would always start like his first day of shooting as doing a bunch a bunch of like pick up or insert shots. And he was really cool. Yeah. Like he would just do it where it's like, all right, we're going to film in like eight different locations and we're just going to do all the scenes where al is like walking or walking into a building doing all this. All right, moving on, moving on. And he did it to sort of set up this sort of pace and understanding for the crew more than anybody else, like, hey, we're going to be fucking going here. And it was his way to weed out anyone that wasn't able to, like, keep up with this. And he would just fucking fire them. It's genius. They went there day one and they're on the street and he's like, yeah, I had al walk into that shop and they do one take and he looks in. Lumet looks at the camera operator and he goes, you good with it? Yep. Okay. Cut print. Moving on. And the entire crew was like, what the fuck is going on here? And Pacino's come off the Godfather. Yeah. Very meticulous. You're going to do a lot of takes. You're threatening to get fired every day, all that. And. But I think Pacino was okay with Lumet saying he's like, hey, all right, cool. Let's we're moving. But then the crew is like, heart. And then, yeah, picking up and going to like 4 or 5 different locations on your first day of shooting, you're testing the crew literally. How fast can they pack everything up and loaded on to trucks? How fast can they get to the other location and unload everything? This is what it means to make a movie. This is mostly what you're doing. You're loading, unloading, setting up here. The shortest time on a movie set is the time between action and cut. That's it. Yeah, it's a just a few minutes. Basically, it's a few percentage, you know, like minutes out of your day. It is not much of a percentage of your day. And by doing that. Yeah. He's says when people out. Yeah. That key grip is slow. Get him out of here. I'll do I'll talk about Lumet now because he's born in 1924, in Philadelphia. He was raised in Lower East Manhattan. He was a child actor of the New York theater. Like right away begins working on TV, directing TV. In 1950, he directed his first feature film, 12 Angry Men, one of the greatest films ever made. In 1957. He makes 42 subsequent films in the subsequent 50 years 43 films in 50 years. Serpico was his 19th film. This man is a crank artist. What's crazy is that Serpico, like I said, it wasn't even set up by Lumet. This was. Here he is again, John Galveston. This is a John Galveston movie. He was. Now he's most known for directing Rocky. Like you mentioned, he also won director for that. But in the early 70s, he's part of this new Hollywood movement, trying to gain his footing as best as anyone can. Joe is a moderate hit. People like it. But producers Marty Bregman and Dino De Laurentiis, they start producing Serpico. They hire this guy, Waldo Salt, to write a draft of the script. Pacino meets with the real Serpico. He's like, in Galveston's brought on to direct. Alverson doesn't like salt screenplay. He brings on his pal and Joe screenwriter Norman Wexler to rewrite it. Bergman and De Laurentiis hate Alverson. They don't get along with him at all. They fire him, they hire Sidney Lumet, mostly because of this thing we're talking about. He has done so many films and he got his start in television. He can Sidney Lumet, you hire him, he can give you quality and a very quick amount of time in a very short time period. But you got to do it his way. So he goes, yeah, I'll do it, but I'm going to be out there in the streets. We're going to be on location. His cinematographers, this guy Arthur J. Ordnance, who also shot many in Moskowitz I literally when I was watching Serpico, I thought of Minnie and Moskowitz. And then I looked it up just before we started recording and I went, that's fucking crazy. Like, I didn't because I didn't recognize that name that Arthur J. I, I it doesn't have name recognition. I'm like, well, there it is. That's nuts. And I would have been two years earlier in 71. So you. Wow. I don't know if I'm crazy or if this is like I already know the answer, so I'm just looking too much into it. Call me crazy, but I feel that rush nature in Serpico in all the best ways. I feel this authenticity in this urgency to it. Like move, move, move. We're running. We're doing 1 or 2 takes. That's it. Go, go, go. And it all plays into it. It all does. It absolutely does. Yeah. There is a you know. Yeah. Coming off of my thing I'd be like this movie is so slow. And but when you do watch it, there is, there is just an energy that's in the movie that it just serves it because there's a tension that this character's going through from the get go. Like there's one scene where there's actual just genuine like happiness, where al is good and it's the scene where he's playing with the kid in the, in like the water, like the fire extinguisher. Yeah. It's like the only actual he like, he actually smiles. Like you get to actually see him smile. Yeah, yeah, you're so right. That's like the only time it's the same. It's the only time. And, And then. Yeah, and then the whole entire thing you are feeling and and, I mean, I think, like you and I both can kind of like, know after, you know, making something that there the energy that goes behind the way that it's made, it just can't help but transfer into the actual product. There's no there's no real way to pinpoint it. I think it's a very real thing where, you know, you could be watching a movie that's probably like, maybe it's considered bad, right? But you could tell in the watching of the movie that there's something fun about it. And that might be because the cast and crew are having an absolute blast and you're like, yeah, this movie's not very good. But you know what? I enjoyed my time with it. And because it's there's there's an energy that's coming through and you hear it all the time where cast members will be like, yeah, that didn't really turn out the way that we wanted to, but I would work with that director in that crew any day. Yeah, because it was such a fun experience. It's a real thing. It is. It's like the good hang. And sometimes they say the more fun you're having on set, the worse the movie will be. But yeah, I think that's why even like a comedy that doesn't work 100% of the time, you can feel that vibe ness of it or like a scary movie. Not all scary movies work, but, you know, I think it's tapping into that at self as well. All right. Pacino oh yeah, this is our first Pacino. Yeah, this is our first Pacino in this series. So that was another reason. I mean, again, we could have gone could have done Dog Day, but we're here doing Serpico. Where is Pacino in 1973? He's had three. That's it. Three major roles before Serpico, panic and Needle Park, directed by Jerry Schatz for The Godfather, and Scarecrow, also directed by Jerry Schatz. Bird Panic in Needle Park and Scarecrow are two handers. He's in there with another person. Scarecrows. Gene Hackman I've talked about that movie a bit since Hackman passed. It's really good. It's really weird. And then obviously The Godfather is a huge ensembles, but servicos him. It's the first full scale Al Pacino movie. It is his big face on the poster and on the book. It is his name above the title. It's him. And then, you know, yeah. He went on to have a a pretty decent career after that. He was in a few things, but it's a bit of all right. In 1973, he's in a good place. And the, the fact that that he was teamed up with Sidney Lumet is just so he was teamed up with him by chance kind of is just great. It's so funny to me because they're going to go on to do Dog Day, which is just I'm what I think one of the all time performances in screen acting history. And I love that movie and, you know, all that stuff. But I love that it started here by chance. There's a quality that Al Pacino has in here that he really doesn't really exude as much in his work. It's in dog Day, but there's a goodness because, you know, and that's the beauty of The Godfather is like, you're watching the goodness drain out of somebody growly. Yeah. And and, literally. And then his like, last word of the movie, it's God or you just screams at her enough. You're like, yeah. Wow, there he is. There's there's the Godfather. There's there he is. And so and you know, and it's something because that's, that's not necessarily when you look at Al Pacino's like legacy, you know he's got he is like there's he's he is going down as one of the all time greats. He's already been considered that for for decades. He's been in that conversation. And but there's something that exists about his work in the 70s that, it goes away a little bit as he gets older. And I think it's just because the look changes. You know, he been the voice and and the and the voice. Yeah. Because when you start getting into like that work in the 80s, in the 90s, he's a different type of man. He's a different type of, of it's a different type of heart that comes through. There's a very distinct before and after in his career, and that is Scarface. Everything changed in Scarface. Yeah, it's the time. Yeah. Sends it up in such a big way. And then he does, and then he goes away after that. He's in one movie Revolution. Scarface is 83. He's in Revolution, very little seen in 85. And then basically his girlfriend, Diane Keaton is like, what the fuck are you doing? Get back out there. And then he's in a sea of love in 1989, and he's old. He's old Pacino all the sudden. And he wasn't. I wouldn't even consider I would not consider him old and cruising in 1980 at all. I think he's still young. Pacino. Scarface just changed in his face. That's where the voice is. Come raspy after that. It's. It's really wild to think about. Sorry. Go ahead. Yeah, I just I totally agree with everything you're saying. And so seeing this, it's, it's a really, really, it's amazing performance. He's doing so much in every single scene. And I know that there's a lot that, you know, he's taken from from the real man, because that's what you do. I actually do like, because this was a similar thing that happens to, on deliverance where, you know, like these, these people want to be on set and, and, you know, so Frank Serpico, you know, because he's going through it like, he like, you know, he's at home, this book was made and he he just wants to be involved. And then Sidney is like, you gotta you can't be here because al, as soon as they started filming. Yeah, as soon as they started filming. Hey, thanks for being here for prep and pre-production, but now we have to go make the thing. Yeah. He can't be looking at you. Just like James Dickey had to leave the set of deliverance. Well, he was also knowing the shit. Well, he was annoying. Shit. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, it's. Yeah, it. And I honestly can't think of, I think at a certain point, because I know I was just listening. I haven't seen the movie yet, but Jeremy Allen White was talking about how Bruce's screenplay that was on set the whole time, every day. And that's this is why I don't like these new movies, because they're just these glorious, like, puff pieces. And so you can hit on, like, 1 or 2 bad things from my past, maybe. But if the person is standing there the whole time, how, like, deep can you go, like, you know, to get in the to the messiness? I haven't seen the film either. Yeah. So we don't know. But but but I know I've heard Jeremy Allen and White talk already about it seems like he's he says that he's kind of had a positive experience with it, but he does like, say like it was tough at first because he's like, I'm trying to do a thing. And then off right in the corner is the man. And right there and, and and he's like, I got used to it. But, and that's what you just have to do is the actor, like, if that if that is your situation and you're not really in a position to be like, hey, I need you to, leave, you know, like. Yeah. And then I love Lumet telling that story because he was like, I think he was, devastated and, yeah, just crushing. I think it crushed him and just, ruined him. But that's, part of the film business. That's what that says it like. Yeah, I think I crush his heart. My kid, you love. That said, he was really bad for this, but he just doesn't. So, matter of fact, again, that's a guy who's like, I mean, he doesn't he didn't get the DePalma treatment necessarily, or the Mr. Scorsese treatment. And these you know, DePalma, that documentary where they just go through the entire filmography. Yeah. And that's exactly what Rebecca miller is. I finished Mr. Scorsese. You on Apple. She goes every, every movie and that's it. Just like you sat him down. And there is a, I think it's called by Sidney Lumet. And they don't do every movie because there's too many of them, but they do. They go through enough. But I think that was like straight to straight to streaming, like on HBO or something. But that's where I've heard a lot of his stories, too, about this stuff. And there's great. He's a great storyteller. He is. He really is. But my next thing is to jump to the outline of the film and just go through it. But I have a little, a little side quest here. It's going to be a runner, it seems like, for about the next, the next, I don't know when it's supposed to come out. Social Network two. We've been breaking up the social record on the pod. You know what it's called? I was like, okay, so number one, do you know what it's called? How do you feel? Because it just seems a little, heavy handed, the social reckoning to me. And then, number two, I just learned that they are they recreated, the January 6th riot in Canada, and they're filming it for the movie. So, it's it's going to be good. Mikey Madison's playing a journalist who, like, exposed something. I, I will see anything. She is in. I'll see the film. But, like. I don't know, man, I don't know. Anyway. All right, that was our film. Nowhere to break out. Well, thoughts on that? Briefly. No, I mean, hey, I, I got I was an open mind. He's having an open. Yeah. No I got, I got, you know, you just don't know how something's going to shake out. True. I don't have the issue with, with, Aaron Sorkin as the director that you do. You haven't seen all the work, my friend. It's true. Go watch Being the Ricardos and then we can talk. It's on Amazon Prime right now. Oh, you're going to text me and be like, what the fuck was that? I mean, my dad liked it. Like, it's a little it's a little kind of fluffy, but it has. It has a big quote unquote payoff moment at the end that it's just complete nonsense and like, didn't happen. And I'm going to come on like, what was going on there anyway anyway anyway. Anyway. Okay. Social network to the social social reckoning. So stay tuned for that one folks. We're going to talk a lot more about it as we get closer. I just what I like I have no idea what it's coming out of. They're filming it now maybe probably next year at this time. But you know, we'll it'll we'll just lead up to it and we'll lead all the way up to a live commentary. We'll go to a theater, will rent it out for right now or to commentary. Yeah, we'll turn the sound all the way down so we could, like, just barely hear it. That's how it watch it for the first time. Or we can just be smart and not see the theater. Just wait till it comes out on streaming and then do a commentary, like first watch commentary. Just tossing out ideas, guys, I don't know. All right, let's get back to Serpico. I broke this into parts because I didn't know how to break it apart. Here. Here we go. Read them to the to the fine folks, part one. Clean shaven. Because that's how we meet him. Part two mustache, part three goatee, part four beard. And then part five. He seems to be rocking a ponytail. So I was like, I think his hair's grown a little longer, but I love that. That is. Speaking of runners, like there's never a title card in the movie. It doesn't tell us when we jumped back or anything. If we just track his facial hair now, it keeps growing it. It's I mean, it's kind of a funny gag and all the undercover costumes. So where, like, you'll just cut to a scene and he's. And he's like this, Hasidic guy. Like what? Yeah. It's funny. It's really funny. Yes. I thought this was a great way to break this down. And, and it's just it's fantastic. I mean, shot one Al Pacino shot in the face. You're like, whoa, okay. Minute two. You hear a cop say the line, I know six cops. They said they like to be out. Shoot Serpico. That's the implication. Boom. Like I said, no title cards. They're not letting us know what year it is. Good. I love that this is what I remember most from my first viewing. Again, is this. We say this a lot like this. This is certainly not the first movie to start with a scene that's going to happen later on. Like kind of start with an end scene and then boom, jump back. But it was definitely one of the first times I saw that in the movie. And just I already knew who Al Pacino was. So being like, whoa, Al Pacino shot in the face like second one. Okay, cool. And then we jump back to the beginning of, you know, his involvement in the NYPD. It's just a really cool way to start the movie, and it injects a lot of energy into it right away. And you're skipping ahead, my man. You're skipping ahead already. Okay, we got to know about what I thought. All right? The sound, my man. The sound. Oh, yeah, the sound. The sound does the sound. It's what we hear first from nothing to a slow thump. And then you get the sirens, and then you get the breathing, and then you get the window wipers and you're getting all of this, and it's just getting louder. And then you see it everything, and you don't know what's going on. And then the question is formed without even really being asking is, did a cop shoot this man? Yeah. It's not necessarily like the question of the movie. But it does sort of start out a narrative feeling and understanding to be like, so it's this is a thing. Why would that happen? What would. Yeah, you know, what led to this. Yeah. And then the way we're seeing like the shot composition of these faces like he does, it almost reminds me. I mean, does it remind like I feel like the Coppola took this for a rumble fish. Like the way that. Yeah, you get those, like, strange sort of close ups at an odd angle of faces with people in the background, like, you're you're seeing this all the time. And, and I just was like, oh, wow, it's so cool to kind of like, you just remember it, like there's just a visual that's happening here. That happens a few times in the movie, and it just sort of sets you up for a visual style. That I thought was just great. Part of that is also we're seeing, like, a lot of faces, like you said, you're being introduced to a lot of people. But then this one guy, Police Chief Green, played by John Randolph, I love this guy. He's like the person we're seeing who has some authorities coming in and checking on him. And I mention this because it is so powerful when in the in the real chronological narrative, our first scene with him. But he's like making a sandwich and yelling at Serpico, you think you can't get up there? Testified. You're like, oh, this is the guy who's going to become kind of like his father figure. But yes, we we jump back to Frank Serpico joining the NYPD and I love movies like this when we don't really know, like, where we're going. We know we're going to lead up to him getting shot in the face. But how do we get there? And it all starts. Things like this. This corruption. It usually it always starts with something small. Yeah. It's something as small as soup or roast beef sandwich. And you know, he goes with his first part of this scene I do too. Like I love this goes with his first partner. Like maybe it's his first day, first week or something on the job. I go to the deli and the guy who owns a deli, you know, offers up. What is it today? And it's soup. But Pacino, the young cop, Serpico, he just wants a roast beef sandwich, and he realizes that you, the older cop, tells him how you just take what the guy gives you because you just sort of take what Charlie gives you because it's free. But he was like, well, I can I just pay for my roast beef sandwich because he served a, you know, a bunch of fat, like a bunch of roast beef fat leftovers. And right there, it's like, kid, just go with the flow. Yeah. Keep your mouth shut. Take the soup. Maybe tomorrow you get a sandwich and that's that. And like that, I. That little sandwich is the catalyst for the entire movie. It is. There it goes. I love this. So real. I mean, before I take it easy, know. Sit down. Somehow. Don't be so fussy. It's free. I fussy, I don't know how to eat. This isn't. Charlie's an okay guy. We give him a break on double parking on delivery. Come, I pay for get what I want. Frank. Generally just want to thank. What Charlie cuzif you, it's a it's honestly a brilliant way to set up this character for any character, any time that you can kind of whatever you this the way that this character's like modus operandi is, if you can sort of set it up in a way. And this is why this is brilliant, because it's speaking to not just the character, but the environment. Like, yeah, he could have been like, you know, this scene could exist in a way where he was by himself going to a deli and he gets a different type of sandwich and he's like, oh, this isn't what I wanted. I'm going to go back and I'm, I'm going to be kind about, you still get the same thing, but you're getting the fact that it's sort of like, hey, Zach. Well, you're saying like, this is free play by play, play ball, kid like, and and he doesn't want to and it's, it's so great. And you just hear it in his voice. He's like oh he's got really good cuts of meat over there. Like, hey, I'll pay for it. I don't mind. Yeah I'll pay like, yeah, I'll pay for it. But he's like, I just want what I want and I want to do it the right way. That's it. There. There you go. Yeah, I want something good and I want to do it the right way. That is Serpico, literally in a nutshell right there. Yeah. And he never I mean, beyond that sentence, he never really goes on to describe like, why does he have these morals? Why does he have this belief system? He just does. Like he's just like, this is a guy who wants to do the right thing, who wants to be an honest to goodness cop and not be on the take, whether that's, you know, stealing money from drug dealers or getting free food. Yeah. Or, you know. Yeah, that's very nice. Give me the free cup of soup, if that's what he wants. But goddammit, if he wants a roast beef sandwich, he's happy to pay for it. But no play ball, kid. Got to flow. It's such a great scene. Oh, I mean, this whole opening sequence, when he's clean shaven, he's. We're really getting. We're seeing everything through his eyes. Kind of like for the first time. Like he breaks up that that really horrific rape in progress. Oh, and I mean, you know, he chases after the guy himself, takes him back to the station. And that detective who he looks like he's on the second day of a three day bender. He's all, like, sweaty, just starts beating the shit out of the suspect, first of all, with a phone book and servicos like, what the hell? Like what? What the hell's going on here? He sees that he's having to take guys down on his own. He's not getting a lot of backup because other cops are just lazy. He brings in the guy and the detectives are like, well, no, this is our collar. Like, you gotta, you know, you gotta let us, like, take this and he's just seeing all these. It's kind of like these, I don't know, micro corruption. He's not seeing anything full fledged big yet, but it's all these little instances of. And I'm not suggesting it beating up on it. Suspect it's micro, but he's seeing things that he is not liking and he's wondering why no one's doing anything about it. Yeah, he's seeing that it's wrong and he's going to do it his way. So this is one of my favorite scenes of the whole entire movie, is when he pulls that guy out of the line and he goes outside and he goes say, hey, I'm, I'm going to take you over, cross that street for a cup of coffee. We're going to talk. Is he he knows he needs to get he needs to get the other guys that were a part of this. So like, there is an overall mission here to, to a bigger to a bigger catch. But he's like, well, I'm not going to do it that way. I'm not going to beat you up because even the guy's like, you're not going to have your fun. He's like, that's not my kind of fun. At some I kind of fun and and he's like, I'm gonna take off your handcuffs. But if you run, I'm going to shoot you, you know? So he does like play it. He lays it out, but he's like, but I'm going to take you across the street from a cup of coffee on handcuffed. Don't fuck me. And and let's talk this out. Look at you. I can't eat, you can't. I don't understand you. You know that. What are you what are you obligated to? Those guys? Fuck it. They left you whole in the bag. You don't know them. Nothing. They're going to put you away, you know. No. What can I get? In that scene in the coffee shop I love. Look, one of the things I want to bring up about this production design is that I know we're talking about, like, a running gun situation, but if you kind of pay attention to all these scenes, there's so much busyness going on in every shot. Like even in the coffee shop, they're standing like around, like all the magazines, all the candy, all like, there's so much. And then when you go into, like, these offices, there's paper everywhere, there's binders, there's there's just shit everywhere. It's like the Manchester by the sea when he's in his boss. I was just thinking that the boss office. Yeah. It's just like drowning and all this just work. You're drowning and. And it's just a great metaphor because you. What you're realizing is like Al Pacino's character, even from the start, even though we haven't really gotten to his absolute boiling point, but he's just entered into a world where it doesn't matter, like it's you're just drowning in a bunch of shit. But I just love the coffee scene. There's something I don't know, man, I don't know how do you explain it? But there is just, you see, like the steam coming from the cup, you see, like the way that he's, like, pouring it and giving it to him. I don't know why all of this matters so much. Well, it's Lumet and his authenticity. Like we're in a city. Let's. If it's junkies, junkie, if there's shit everywhere, there's shit everywhere. And yeah, goddamn it, the coffee supposed to be hot and like, the cup is not like a nice cup. Like you could tell it is bent a little bit. And, I don't know, I just it just makes everything so real. And then the way that he's talking to him with kindness and the way that he's just sort of like, listen, man, like, like you don't want this. Like you know, like I'm, I'm going to help you here and, you know, and it leads to actual like, like the way that he does it works because he finds police work, good police work. And then he finds the guys, takes him down, but then it gets taken away from them again. He's like, well, no, I brought these guys. That's what I mean. Like, he calls for backup and they're like. And, we're your guys not here. He's on vacation. And like, I, you know, and he as a as a uniformed detective or a uniformed officer is in plainclothes. Arrest these two guys on a basketball court with a bunch of other people around, takes them in to be processed. And the detectives, a lazy ass. Detectives are like, you know, it would mean a lot to us if you, Or not even that. They're basically like, fuck off. At this point. They're like, fuck off. This is our collar. Like, good job, kid. We'll write you in the report. But like, no. And he's going, well, wait a minute. I did all this work and I didn't have to beat anyone with that phone book. And like, now you're taking my. You're taking credit for my shit. So. Yeah. Right here we're get. We're off and running. Yep. Serpico. Don't fuck with Frank. I mean, seriously, and then. And then this is, I absolutely love basically the way that he sort of gets really kicked out of this precinct that he's in is the way that they accuse him of essentially being gay. Yeah. You know that this precinct is tired of them and the way they just create a complete fabrication. Yeah, he's a weirdo. His hair's long. He, you know, he we see him buy an apartment or gets a puppy, meets a lady, he goes to ballet. He's like dancing to ballet in the office, you know, he goes to hippie parties. He has a reputation of being a weirdo. They don't like it. When you look through the script of Serpico, there are words that are said by damn near almost everybody. Weirdo pops up so much. Goof. Yep. Strange. You see, Al Pacino actually embody in his way with other things because there's a kindness. There's a charm there. I mean, like in that one scene, I know I'm skipping ahead, but like, when he goes with that one girl to that party, he's the hit everybody. Yes, they love him. He's so enjoyable. I love the line of you notice that everyone even introduced me to is on their way to being someone else. It's great when she's like, oh, yep. And and so you like you see like he's he's bringing so much to it. But like you do have to sort of get justification for when everyone does call you these things. And it's also that's your roadmap as the actor's first thing. What are other people saying about me in the text, like out loud to other people or to my face that is like gold where you can start from so you do get the sense that he is weird. He is doing ballet. He is, you know, he's got these little gestures. He's got like these things egging them on to, you know. Yeah, he he's like the bullheaded detectives like mess with and blot. What's the guy's name? Bardo. Blotto is Fox. Is that guy. Yeah. I mean, eventually it gets so full on where he's got the mouse. I know he's, like, playing with this mouse, and they're like, what the. All right, come on. Yeah, this is the mustache mode. This is when he's rocking the mustache and he's doing everything you know, building up his life but getting called a weirdo. And yeah, he requests requests a transfer and gets one. And I love this because this, you know, this new, captain gives him carte blanche. He's like, yeah, dress how you want. You can wear your facial hair how you want. That's fine. And you're almost like, this is weird. He's getting kind of this pass. And then we see right away the first time we see him on this new beat, he almost gets killed by cops. Yeah, because he looks like, you know, he's out here undercover. And I love that. I mean, that fear in his voice. But he has the badge and he's like, no, no. You think they're just going to come around the corner and blast him? And I love the line. If I buy one, you motherfucker, I'm not going to buy one from you. Oh, God. So and then those cops just, like, what have to do before they're like, you know, you did really shoot up our car. This is going to look really bad if we don't take this prisoner. And can we have your collar? He's like, God damn it again. Like I'm out here busting my ass alone. At this point in the film, up until this point, he's seemingly the one honest cop in the NYPD, not, hey, I'm a police officer. Hey, let's face up. Account, okay? I have a police officer. Police officer? But I'm an office. I'm a police officer. Frank. How was I supposed to recognize you? Stupid fuck. Like I didn't know you. You didn't know me. You're fired. I'm looking. You're fired without a warning, without a fucking brain in your head. Oh, shit. If I die one, you motherfucker, I'm not going to buy it from you. It's these most the most, like, decent, like, person who's ever lived. Basically. Yeah. But, dude, I love that scene so much because, yeah, the fear in his voice. And also just where he's like, if I can shoot without looking like, yeah, you shoot without a warning. Yeah, that was crooked. You can't. Cops can't do that. You have to go. Freeze! Police! Yeah. Start shooting. Yeah, I fuck, you know. And one thing we haven't brought up about this movie is where, I really do think that in the times we're living in right now, this is an absolutely culturally relevant movie. When you when you look at what has been going on in the police system for the last. I mean, how long is this? 50 years. This fucking decade? Yeah. It hasn't changed. It's just gotten worse. You watch something like this and this. I know I'm skipping ahead a little bit, but I feel like it's it's something to point out, you know, in terms of, like, what makes this a new Hollywood movie, a movie that is so unapologetic and just showcasing the flaws of what we put a lot of faith in as an American society. We put a lot of faith into what's supposed to protect us, what's supposed protect our rights, our safety. And this is a movie that questions the validity of that. And and we are certainly not in a time where we need to stop questioning it. And so this movie does that and it's, it's just wanted to point that out, because what we're talking about here, because I was saying about body cams, like, if this scene happened in today's time, there'd be body cams where Serpico could be like, the fuck are you doing? Give me that body cam. You shot at me like you're fucking in trouble. And, yeah, I mean, there was a movie nominated for the Oscar for best documentary short last year about this. About this killing where they didn't announce the captain, make an announcement and shot a guy dead. And, yeah, Serpico is still very topical today. With everything that's going on, I mean, I pull yes, yes, I go driving in DC and you can see things like, yeah, it's whatever, and it's proving it again that like the shit doesn't change. It just goes in circles and cycles. But that brings us back to Serpico part three, the Gotti sequence, which opens with one of my favorite scenes in the film, a bunch of cops getting high as part of the job. Oh, yeah, it's part of the job. Okay, they are, but I will never forget my brother. I saw this movie before him, but when he saw this, when he was like, I don't know, he's probably 15. So it would have been like 12. And he thought this was him and his friends. Probably right around the time they discovered the same drug were they just thought it was the funniest scene in the history of movies. Like all these cops just lighting up these shots. It's important for I mean, it's literally trading day. He's like a good cop should have narcotics in his system. That's a good point here. Like it? Tony Roberts is Bob. I love Tony Roberts like some pretty good shit. And then it just low key. It very subtly cuts them at the subway station. But they're stoned as hell. They're like trying. They have the munchies and I, I just I don't know, I love that scene. I love that scene so much. That whole sequence between I was like, oh, we're getting high today. Yeah. God, I love it. And that's the goatees a quick portion, then we move to the beard. The beard kind of stays throughout again. Yeah, leeway here, but, he's been moved again. He just keeps getting bounced around all these precincts, different boroughs. And right away, first day in a new precinct, he's handed an envelope of dirty money. Yeah, like, hey, buddy, this is yours from the take today. And Tony Roberts. Bob helps him run it up the chain. But it's a dead end. And it's the first high ranking official he tries to talk to about this. The guy eating the giant lobster lunch. Yeah, which is not a very good look for, you know, a civil servant. He's like, you have two choices. Essentially, you can forget about it or you can die. Yeah, and he's not saying I'll kill you, but he's like, you'll end up in the river. And right there you're going, oh, this is. I was told I could trust you. And boom, that's your first door closed. I love the lobster lunch. I love that detail so much. It's perfect because it just sets you up to let you know. Like that. Like this wall is real and it's handled by the rich. It's handled by, you know, the this isn't going to get easier if you can't if I'm telling you and you and but it's just all symbolic of it all. Yeah. It's. Oh yeah. And you can really like you see the butter on the lobster I know he's like oh he's taking his time with it. It's like, you know, he's eating by himself and also in the background I want to say we're focusing on like Serpico and his job. The movie does attempt to develop the, you know, the love connections. And it's like, oh yeah, that lady then with another one and how there is this, there's a wall with him of like, I want to do, I want to do honest police work, this and that. And he seems it seems like this comes first before them. And I just I didn't want to slight any of that because at this point, the movie's already on to the next lady. Well, and, and and I do want to point out like there's some scenes that are happening in, in between there where you really get a sense of like the, the sweetness of this guy, but then also like the guarded nature of it, like, like, I mean, that scene in the, in the garden where he's like where he tells her he's like, you know, you love a man's garden. You gotta love the man. Yeah, yeah, I love that. I love the way that this movie shows his personal life. Because you start with him in the dog, like the way that he gets that dog. Like he's living by himself. There's these people, like, they just have a box of puppies and they're selling them for cheap. Yeah. And, and they look at him like he's a weirdo for buying it. And the way that we kind of see the way he's alone, the way that we kind of just experience his loneliness, even when he's around people. But then, you know, he he's he's like, he's charming, he's flirtatious. He has a personal life. He's got a romantic life outside of this job. But in that first relationship, it interferes. And. And the girl can't handle these, like, he like she wants to move forward, and he doesn't. He's he's doesn't want that stuff. He he's he's got to be with this. And then he meets this other girl in that scene in the courtyard is again the production design. Like, I like I can see that tray that he brings out for himself. Yeah, that little thing of, like, that European coffee and, and he's sitting down and he's Caesar and he's not shy. He's immediately flirting with her. And you know, so there's just like these levels to this character that are so beautiful to watch. It's so human and it's he's fun, but at the same time, like he's like, no, this is not right. And it needs to stop. And then that just eats him up. Yeah. And maybe even where, you know, would it be so bad, Serpico, if you just chilled a little bit? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. What what's the harm in that? Like, why are you going so hard at this? What what difference can you make and what of it? And I think it's a valid question to ask. Yes. Like yes. As the movie progresses, it will lead up to consuming his whole life to where he's, like, flipping out in his apartment at one point. First he yells at Bob, then he yells at his girlfriend. She's like, oh, don't start yelling at me. And he just, you know, he's completely unhinged. And it's one of my favorite lines. He's like, God damn it, I hate it. Yeah, right. Oh God, I love that scene. I love that scene. But after the lobster launch, he does get another transfer. He goes to the Bronx plainclothes division, and immediately he runs into an old buddy on the job. And that guy extort the guy for $200 right there. God damn. So again, it's Frank. What's the problem? Take the money. Keep your mouth shut. Everyone will be cool about it. And then he gets paired with a new partner. And new partner takes money. It's like everyone is on the take. There's a goddamn racketeering system going on here. And he is? Yeah. He literally takes him to a house that's just, like, staved off for, like, you know, like hiding a bunch of shit. Yeah. It's like what goes on in this damn apartment? Yeah, yeah, it's just not. It's interesting. I mean, this is going to lead up to. We're going to get to it. But that that meeting in the park with like, all the crooked cops and he, he's like, hey, I'll walk up here, I don't give a shit. And they're like all right, Frank, so what's going on? I'll get to that. But once once we get into the pony tail stage of the movie, he meets that captain who's on his side but isn't very helpful. And then Bob's like, let's go to the mayor's office, actually get shot down. Everything is a dead end. And he does the math. That just in the Bronx, in this one precinct, there's $250,000 a year at least, being taken down just in those little payments and those little collections. That's one precinct just in one borough. What the hell is going on? Department wide and no one cares. And no, this is where we get the great, the I hate it, the great argument between, you know, Frank and Bob go at it. Oh it's great. And then I think, and in this time too, is when you get like that great, like improvised line, with I forget the guy, but they're, they're, they're outside. It's like when he's walking underneath and they're, they're that park area and. Yeah. And he's basically telling them like, hey because is he undercover yet. Like is he weren't he because they're trying to build a case. But every time they try to build it up it goes nowhere. Yeah. It hasn't because we're actually right now we're right up at the scene when he meets up with all the dirty cops. Yeah, because all these cops in this precinct get payouts. But one cop has been basically pocketing servicos share, so all the other crooked cops are pissed, and they're like, Frank, just take take something. He's like, no, I'm not going to. But it's, you know, do your thing. Like whatever, do your thing. And then we get it's my favorite quote. We immediately cut to him in the apartment and he said that they would take all out an emergency, put it into straight police work. We'd have the city cleaned up in a week. It clean up, there'd be no crime. If I to work alone, that's the thing. See if I could just get work alone. But they don't like that. So they want. They don't want that. They want to suck in. You go over the same thing, but go so fucking corrupt. Everybody. Everyone. Nobody giving a shit. There's got to be a way to wipe it out, goddamn it. There's got to be a way. Let's get out of here. That is something that is still emulated in The Wire decades later. And they're like, if we just stop the corruption, corruption and do straight police work, we would have the city clean. But, you know, they can't. And yeah, the whole thing's just killing him. Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is like, this is just a we're cruisin in this part because he meets up in the park. I love that we get that great quote fights with his girlfriend. The whole thing's killing him. And then, I mean, because he's still so effective at his job. And this is the scene where he arrests that guy who's like, clearly all the take. And then he goes and does something, comes back. He's just chump the criminals just chumming it up with all the officers and we get a fucking great Pacino flip out and he loses his mind processing this guy in front of everyone. I love this, it's my favorite scene in the movie. It is. It's mine too. And then you like. You think he's Duddy? He's all calm. He goes over and then he just throws the chair there. Just breaks a chair. He's, you know, go in that booth, puts the paper, the typewriter and then the perfect little button to the scene. He gets the guy's rap sheet, the chummy goes all cool with the cops because he pays them off. Look, you want to see, you want to see. Did 15 years for killing a cop. He's a cop, buddy. Yep. Boom and boom. And they still don't really even seem to know. They still don't as much as they should. Yeah. And that is a very, very earned freak out scene, because the tension that's been building up in this man up until this point, like it's you. I remember like watching it. And I was like like, yes, we're watching, you know, a great a Pacino freak out, but it's earned because every like, yes, this guy does not have an outlet. So like when all of this happens, it's like, this is now just a human being that needs to release some steam and like that chair break, you know, and then exactly like the way that he's like, stay the fucking out of it. He rips Brooks's pants off. He like a racist bare ass and then throws him into the cell like lodges. Hey, I on the 4K, there's a commentary between two historians and they're like, they? He just let him loose and they didn't know he was going to react like that. And you can you can see when Pacino gets it's like we already reference that. That enough from The Godfather. That's like you see a little snippet. Yeah. And this is four minutes of that just rage. It's great. Oh, it's so good. It's so satisfying to, like, you're just sort of like. Yeah. I mean, see, like. Yeah. And you see like. And like. And you do you feel his eyes are like got see, like, what is wrong with you all? And I think it's that I wonder what the direct that that must have been a director. That must have been Lumet to have like, I don't know how many other cops there, like eight other cops, ten other cops are in that room when that happens or it's. Yeah. Looks like and they you to your point, they all have that reaction where they don't they don't seem to care that this guy's a cop killer. Yeah. Like like to to be able to be able to show here in your face this is the guy that you are all buddy buddies with. And they're like, cause me, you know, like like, exactly. It's on and off. Like it like that is. That has to be the choice. Because every one of those guys acts like that, and it just makes this sinking feeling even larger for for Serpico. Yeah. Yeah. Great. And he has been meeting with that older guy. And you know, he's kind of he's like, what's going on? Like they're and they meet under the bridge. That's where my yeah where am I going to go. And then he, he's like what is why haven't you done enough. And that's when he admits I've been outside agencies and oh they don't like that. So that gets. But at least at this point we have a team. So it's like 90 minutes into the movie is the first time he's linked up with honest cops who actually care like his buddy Bob cared, but his buddy Bob didn't didn't have any sway. In the words of Colonel Stephen J. Lockjaw. And then, you know, after now, now the case is building. Like you're going to have to testify before grand jury, like I don't give a shit. You're going to have to. And then boom! Excellent smash cut to Chief Green making the sandwich, just screaming at Serpico. And if you know, if you've been paying attention, you realize this is the guy from the beginning. But I love that first smash cut to him. You're like, well, they don't seem to get along, but, you know, and in less than a 30 minutes he's going to be like his, you know, surrogate father figure who's going to like, see him in the hospital. And yeah, that's it just gives a little little punch, little injection to the movie. And you're like, all right, cool. 30 minutes left. What the hell? How is this dude going to get shot in the face? Like what's about to happen? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He testifies in front of the grand jury. Doesn't think they pushed hard enough, which is just great. He's like, I want to answer that question. Or like, no, it's okay. Yeah, I know, it's pretty good chance for it again. Yeah, yeah. To Manhattan I love it. He goes where he gets asked me China. Yeah exactly. And then here in Manhattan we do things different here. Serpico. They just threaten him with a knife right away. And he's got a it. It's like he's in prison. It's like every time he gets moved to, like, a different ward of the prison, and he has to prove himself. But then I love this new place because this is where he gets partnered up with that captain who really does care. Yeah. He's like, you've known to work with. They all work with these. Serpico. I love that guy. Yeah. And yeah. And I love that one line where he's earned that bridge and he's like, it's my life. Fuck yeah. It's like, seriously. It's basically this is like, you know the part and wish it could be this good. I did think about that movie a lot, and it has. Serpico has to be a huge reference. Oh my God. I mean, it's very entertaining, but come on. But, you know, go watch Mr. Scorsese see people. You'll see him talk about how he was absolutely baffled that that is the movie that got a best director. He really thought he was going to win for the Aviator. And he's like, I don't know, The Departed. Like, sure. Anyway, sorry. Keep going. Say reality TV. What? God damn it, I hate it, I hate, but yeah, when he when he improvs like it's my life. Fuck. Like that's that. That was all just, like, out of, like, the actor. Because he's far away, right? Like, he's like, he knows where the shot is, but the mic is still on him, so he's just living in the fucking emotion of the circumstances. And like when he yells that line, you fucking feel it. And, and, and Sidney Lumet because, oh, we're keeping that like that's and exactly that gives the director a choice. You're not like improvising and torpedoing a written line. You're adding a button to it that if the director does not want to include. Yeah, it is very easy to hack that off. Speaking of the departed, this is what Jack does a lot too. So when he's like, oh yeah, he fell. Funny that that's him. Like the scene is done when that woman shot in the head and then when he goes, oh, she fell. Funny. That was a little button that he added and of course you decide, okay, give me something cool. And if you want to include it, like, who knows, maybe Pacino did that at the end of every scene and some of it didn't work. But that's what a skilled actor will do. You're helping a director there. You're giving your director choices. Not like, no, I'm gonna say the line this way, like right now. And no, it's like, that's not what this is. Add your little thing, but don't don't messed with the text. Yeah. Don't hijack the scene and like and be of service to like, whatever you can kind of be in like that environment of the scene and and and don't. And if you've got those impulses, do them because it's not going to hurt because you're exactly right. You're the the director has the choice. Yeah. Especially in like the scene like that the scene is over. We just need a shot of this guy walking away. But Al's just in his fucking being and just, you know, I like, you know? Yeah. Yelling out like my life. Yeah. I love that. And, you know, and I remember feeling that line like when he screams, I was like, oh, I felt that. And then, you know, like something that story of. And I go, that's fucking why, that's just al just fucking being in love it, love, love that shit. And of course, he's in Manhattan now. And he quickly realizes that the shakedown is way bigger in Manhattan. So they go to the New York Times that backfires. He's immediately grouped with a bunch of cops who allow him to get shot. I actually thought of Copland a lot. There's a scene when Harvey Keitel is like faking trying to get into a door to save that person. He's was is supposed to save, is sleeping with his wife. So like, he doesn't. And this is kind of that, like, he's trying to get into a door and there's a bunch of his fellow officers on the other side of the door at him. Also have to do is kick the door in, but they wait. They do nothing, and he gets bam blasted with what looks like a Luger to me, like a German Luger. Very powerful gun and just that whole. And it's damn cheek and you're like, Jesus. I mean, it's it's really startling and like, really shocking. And he gets shot in the face and there is ten minutes of movie left. We are going to be out of here in ten minutes. What's going to happen? And then. Yeah, and then you get that scene in the hospital. Yep. That's a great scene. I mean, it's like we're going to offer you promotion. You finally got your gold badge. He rejects it, he weeps. And you know, what was all this for? Like what? Yeah. To what end? Like, I got shot in the face. And, you know, we can call it a downer ending, but it's just real life. And this is why I love 70s movies. Like he testifies before the Nap commission. It's a big deal. He gives a good, you know, good testimony. And then we get some title cards telling us that he resigned from the NYPD and he moved to Switzerland. The end boom. That like that is it. And you're like, oh, well, you know, like what happened to the dust? And, yeah. And all corruption within the NYPD cease to exist. Yeah. Like, come on, what do we know? It's just it's a story that I'm really glad he did. I'm glad he blew the whistle that exposed corruption that was there. But it's like it's a drop in the bucket. It's a drop in the bucket. Yeah. And it's a really. It's a it's one of those. It's another ending that just absolutely hits like every ending we've done in this series. Just boom. It's not quite as pessimistic as Chinatown, but it's like it didn't this guy did not achieve glory. Like after this. Yeah. The book, yes, he got the book became famous. The movie was famous. The actor playing him is probably one of the most famous actors in the world. And he gets nominated for an Oscar playing you. The movie has your name, but it wasn't. You know, it's not like he went on just as this, I guess, you know, he's a hero of sorts, but it's something he had this, like, easy, cushy life. That's all I'm saying now, in terms of the true story of it all. Yeah. Like, there's there's no real significance that came of it in, in our society. It's just the truth in terms of what he was fighting against and what he was fighting for ultimately doesn't really it didn't make a difference. That's something that's a that's a thing I want to bring up in our, our new Hollywood categories. We're here, baby, we're here. Look at that smooth transition. You're a smooth operator. Number one, the y w new Hollywood film categories. Here we go. What is your favorite thing that makes Serpico a new Hollywood movie? I you know, this is 1973 American movies are now are not afraid to look inward into their political systems, their justice systems, their society, these cultural problems that are there. And so for a movie to literally in the timeline that you brought out for us earlier in the pod for when this happened to Serpico, Frank Serpico, the real man to when he testified to when the book came out to when the movie came out, like there was no like, oh, ten years ago, this is what happened. This is, it reminds me a bit of, when, that Monty Clift movie came out, about the Holocaust. Yeah. That movie. Yeah. The search. Yeah. Like that was still happening. It was still. It was like. Yeah, it was still like it was that. It was. It was sort of the a bit of the end of it, but it was still going on. And this was a movie that let's actually give you a fucking true story of what is going on here, and it doesn't need to have a happy ending, like how it's like, because the whole entire point is raising the questions, like here, yes, yeah, here is the fucking thing. And if you don't believe us, this isn't 20 years ago. This was last year. Yeah. Last year. And this is, fictional movie because it's a movie, but it's based on the real fucking situation. And this motherfucker's off and living in Switzerland because of it. Yeah, he's been excommunicated. Ostracized? Yeah. Based out so. So I think this is what makes this a new Hollywood movie because, I think in 1973, like, American movies are for the first time being unapologetic in, in their let's, let's really question what our true country is. I more or less have the same thing. And I and I mentioned them earlier, but like dirty Harry, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, All the President's Men, I'll just pick those four. Those are all based on very recent real life events, dirty Harry, the least of which it's not a one for one zodiac thing, but they're based on very recent events. And the the the recency of those events is a huge selling point for the movie. Like this shit just happened. It's a huge, huge selling point. So we're talking like we're doing I'm having a little fun with the social reckoning. I'm going to see it. Yes. But that it's like, imagine if there was a legit January 6th movie that a documentary like a movie released like 18 months after that, came out with one of the biggest stars in the world, and that star is going to get nominated for Oscars, and the script is going to get nominated for screenplay. I'm not talking about some hacky thing. I'm talking about, like a really good movie that gets made right after the events take place. It's not an easy thing to do, and this was one of the few times they could do it and leave sentiment out of it and just tell it like it was. And yes, that's what I that's one of the reasons why I love New Hollywood as a movement. So. So I feel like you know, like you're really excited about Nuremburg. That looks really bad, man. We already have the guys. We already have it. Yeah, we all change at Nuremberg. It's three hours. It has one of the best performances of all time from Montgomery Clift. Judy Garland is also amazing at it. Everyone's amazing. I don't need what is. It was it's like, was the head Nazi competent for trial? He was confident enough to have all those fucking people killed. He can be like, I don't. And Rami Malik's the Star and Russell Crowe. Look at this Oscar winning cast. None of this is the selling point for me now. I'll be skipping that film. I'll just stay home and watch Judgment at Nuremberg instead. Or one of these movies. Number two is this Sidney Lumet's best film? I have a longer answer, but you give me your answer. I, I am going to say, respectfully, no, I agree. I, I, I think if I was to really kind of like put together like, I how can it not be network? Oh, wow. I didn't know you were going to give that to me, so. Yeah. Wow. You just do that out. Well, pin that for like, 45 seconds, and, I'll answer 45 seconds from now, though, I think I think I, I think I know what yours is. I think I know what you're going to say. I think you're gonna go dog day. Maybe you don't know anything. No. Well, I don't understand how. You don't understand me, baby. It's good luck. Anyway. Sidney Lumet, as I said, 43 movies in 50 years. He cranked them out. Not all of them are good. He would have admitted that two. But he was a studio director. It's like one movie a year for a lot of years there, sometimes a few. I had chipped away, but last year made a very concerted effort to finish all of them. Maybe that was two years young at this point, so I watched them all. Like every single damn one. Tracked them all down. And I'm going to give you a top ten nice and quick. Wow. Number two. Yeah. Number ten I never heard of it. It's called The Morning After with Jane Fonda and Jeff Bridges. May 1986. She first scene, she wakes up, she has just come off a bender, and she doesn't know if she killed a guy. Whoops. It's, it's just kind of that. Not perfect, but I really liked it. She got nominated for actress. Wow. Love Jane Fonda. Number nine Fail-Safe. Not a perfect movie, but very, would make a really good double feature with Kathryn Bigelow's The House of dynamite, which is now on Netflix and which, as predicted, the ending of which is angering everyone I know who watched it. Friend of the pod. Taylor fucking hated it. And I'm like, hey, I said to the pod that people are going to hate this, but fail safe is like. Or the Russians are about to nuke us. Do it. It's it's again. It's, it's a serious version of Doctor Strangelove, and it's a little too kind of overwrought sometimes, but, you know, Henry Fonda is the president. All good? Number eight. Good girl. Thank you. Number. I don't even know what I said. Number eight, the car broker. Oh, overwrought. 1964. The Pawnbroker, starring Rod Steiger as a Nazi concentration camp survivor. One of the first instances I can think of of an American film using radical jump cuts to where he'll be thinking and he'll see like a gate and then or no, no, no, he'll be like, be on the subway going home in New York. And we'll get like, I'm telling you, for like ten frames of him on a train to the concentration camp, and you'll just go boom, and it'll cut. And he's like losing it. Really good, really effective. Number seven, his final film before The Devil Knows You're Dead, starring the great Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke. That was his last movie. And that movie fucking rips. That movie is so hard core. I love Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Do you know, I heard Ethan Hawke talk about this. I think I think Sidney Lumet did to those two actors on the set that they didn't find out till after they were done shooting. This was Ethan Hawke is telling the story. He's like, so I'd show up every day, goddamn it, if there wasn't one fucking time during earshot, he didn't know I was right there where I would just hear him tell some crew member, some producer, someone that he was talking to. He's like, man, that Philip Seymour Hoffman's is like an absolute revelation. Like, I just like I like is like every scene is like blowing my mind. I can't believe I'm weeping behind the monitor. Yeah. I'm like, what a treasure. What a treasure. And so Ethan's like, God fucking damn it. Like, I'm just like, I mean, I agree, but I mean, like, oh, I gotta fucking, I gotta, I gotta process all this and then, movie's over. Him and Phil are hanging out, talking. He goes, I got to tell you, Phil, like, every day. I just couldn't fuckin stand it. Like, all I'm hearing is how fuckin great you are. Every single second of the day. And Phil just goes, are you serious? Because that was what I was hearing about you. Build them both up. But, like, yeah, it gets perfect for their dynamic in the movie. It's perfect for their dynamic. I love when they're in the the bar and he's just like, you know, he's standing over Hawke. Hoffman is isn't just like, so you didn't do it. And Hawkes like stops lucky to be like that Andy oh they look nothing alike and they are some of the most believable brothers I've ever seen in a movie. I love that movie. I love, I love it so good. Number six Prince of the city. Prince in the city. May 1981. I'm, just remember Prince in the city, 1981. Also about a corrupt cop or about a whistleblowing cop played by Treat Williams. Big epic. Like almost three hours long. Great film. Number five. The movie we're talking about today, Serpico, released in 1973. Number four. Is it Paul Newman's best performance? The Verdict, released in 1982. What a fucking movie written by David. It always holds up. I still will, I'll watch that. Like once every two years. Wow. Wow, I love it. Number three, his first film. What a great top ten I was first and last movie on here. I didn't even do that on purpose. I mean, how many I don't know with all these, like I would, I couldn't do that for Birdman, who has I. I wouldn't do that for Woody Allen. They both. They have huge filmographies. That's just crazy. First movie 12 Angry Men, one of my favorite. Yeah, just written scripts of all time. Number two, Dog Day Afternoon, 1975. And number one, I am mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. Network. And believe me when I tell you like network in Dog Day, they're we're talking the highest tier. Both might make my top ten of the 70s of the entire decade like that. I love them, love them. Dog Day Network and Serpico were all my mom. My mom showed me those all so young and she my God, she loved Dog Day. That was definitely the first movie I saw talking about, trans characters. I was like, whoa. Yeah, I mean, I, I just, I had no idea that's what the movie's about. And I was young and going and not, now making fun of it at all. At all like, you feel the deep love that these people have. So. But yeah, Sidney Lumet, one of the best directors who ever lived. And again, it's kind of fun to talk about servico because we both agree it's not the best movie made. And that's okay. It's still a really great movie. It's it's fantastic. Which begs the question number three, is this Al Pacino's best performance? And if not, does it hit your top five? I thought if you made a top five, it'd be fun. I don't know if you made one. Did he forget? This is so hard. I know it's this was possible and I'm not even really that happy with. Neither am I being honest. Neither am I. A ten would be easier, but five is tough. Five stuff. I'm five. I want to see how many old and new and young Pacino you have. And I do think I would consider Scarface a young performance, but everything after that is old Pacino just to me. So I'm curious to see where we split. And it made me feel like this. I mean, I mean, we do these a lot like we, you know, I'm sure if we were to break down, like, you know, we just did this for our PTA. So, one battle after another, if we do our top five. Leo. So I feel like these would change if we were to put together an actual Al Pacino episode where we, like, break down our, like, top ten and his performances. So I feel like as of right now. Yeah, this is where I stand when we put these in the middle of an episode. It's more of like an unofficial how we feel right now. If we did the Al Pacino episode and we go through every movie, that's when I'd be like, all right, no bullshit back all these up. But it's just for fun. We haven't done it before. At least I can't remember if we had. I don't know how I feel, but let's get into it. Top five. All right, here we go. Here we go. Hit it! Five. Give it. Godfather two. Holy shit. Hey, you know, whatever. It's. You know, I'll. I'll put it this way. That is also on my list. Just a little bit higher. But, hey, at least I made the cut. I mean, that was. I. I'm looking at everything, and, I mean, like, I can't, like, these are all so interchangeable. Like, I don't know where I would put any of these or like, so yeah. So I just that was how I sell that I go, it's number five. It's number five. Goddamn it. My number five. And this is what you're saying, like it's right now. And maybe it's because we were doing this, but I put Serpico because it was his first starring role, and I'm like, hey, this is I see the value in this. And yeah, like, it's not a one note Pacino performance at all. Like, it is not that he is, man. There's a lot of depth to him. And I also love that nothing is really explicitly spelled out of like, why did you do this? Why are you doing this? Just doing it because it's the right thing to do. Serpico. All right, number four. I got scent of a woman who, harsh disagreement there, but that's okay. It's just too. It's a little too big for me, but that's fine. It's fine. I mean, the reason I'm giving it to this is because I know. I mean, there's there's obviously, like, a lot of, you know, the movie's known for a lot of things. There's like the speeches that he has, but he's blind and it's so believable. Like, I'm sorry if I'm talking about acting like that's really hard. Like, I can't imagine it like, hey, I had to take this into account. Yeah. Like, he has no prosthetics over in, like, Jamie Foxx, Sephora, no glasses. He just. He made the decision to, like, not make eye contact with anyone that it's it's it's an enjoyable movie. It it's like it's a fun movie. The speech at the end. I'm not saying great. Yeah. I'm not saying it's like the best movie that he's done. And I'm not saying it necessarily. It should be the movie that he won the Academy Award for, because, you know, but I'm looking at this filmography, and I've seen this movie a few times, and I'm like, every time I fucking see it, the fact that this man is playing blind so believably, and he's clearly able to see because, like, you like, it's it's it's the truest definition of acting. I am truly acting because this is completely false and I have to make it believable. So because of this, I'm putting it at number four because I can't. I'm like, it's it's he's blind. We tried my friends and I one friend and I tried to memorize that speech. We watch it over and over when we were kids. I don't have all of it anymore, but I have, the only class in this act is sit next to me, and I'm here to tell you his soul is intact. It's, It's just not good at all. I show you out of order. It's just so great. Like when he walks in and in the music, it's like teen and he's walking in. It's like the, you know, the chauffeur, and he's. And he room up there for me. Charlie. Oh, it's just great. You know, kind of like Sade retired and he's like that. His parents get out and make the trip from Oregon. So I'm hearing this instead. This is great. But it is. It's just really good. Like all those choices that he's making throughout and, it's it's just, it's really, really good work. And, and you know, that that the longing that he has for like, when he's talking about women. Yeah. You feel all of that? Like it's, it is a it's a very, very good performance. Stand by it. My number four the same year, Glengarry Glen Ross. I love Ricky Roma. God, I love him. Such car seat acid. Got in his fucking veins in his blood. I can't really do many, quotes from that one because I might get in trouble. Let me. I don't know, but even, like, not even the screaming like the the scene he has with Jack Lemmon in they're putting on. Oh no, this show in front of, Jonathan, you know, Mr. Link. Mr.. Oh my gosh, it's so good. Art. That's your check went out. Your check went out two weeks ago. Oh, God, I love him, I love and that was, written for Joe Montana, like, the original stage play. And he did great. And the way that you know it, of course, it's Pacino's Pacino, but he still brought his own ness to it, and I, I yeah, I love a minute. So that's that's interesting. Our number four are is 1992 movies. Number three. Very cool for number three dog day afternoon. Wow okay okay. Yeah that is interesting because again might come up for me. Number three, this was a late one for me because I have two old Pacino Glengarry and then I'm like, I am missing one here, man. What the hell am I missing? And then it was ding ding ding. The insider I'm getting two things curious and pissed off. I mean, we did a whole deep dive on that, and I fucking love him. And that movie, Russell Crowe, it's my good. It's my favorite Crowe, but he he took the the spotlight a little bit because you know starring role after L.A. confidential. But Pacino should have been nominated for that too. Like they both should have. He's so good. He's the anchor. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Your number two. Number two. Man. Serpico. Wow. Oh two. Oh, so I had no idea was going to make it. Oh, that's really cool. Oh, man, that's fucking great. I, I honestly think that this is a really great movie. If you were to watch a movie completely as an actor looking at a movie just for performance, pay attention to the the invisible thread that this character has in this script. Like, think about it as if you're reading the screenplay. You have got a character that is that has a point A to point B, and you have to follow that thread and his and the way that he follows that invisible thread throughout this movie is textbook. If you wanted to actually understand how to actually like, try to do this. And again, those choices that I'm talking about, like looking at everything that's in the text, honoring it, finding your own way of bringing it to life. It's so nuanced in the way that he loves, in the way that he's angry, in the way that he's charming. Like he's really putting in every, like, even that one scene with the girl where he's talking with her there on the first date and he's like, so you're a dancer? And he does like this silly little ballerina move. Yeah, he's. And that that's al being able to like that's that, that's that's him bringing himself to this role that he's serving. I mean, I really can't think of, I mean, there's a lot of different movies that I might recommend for, like, hey, if you just want to watch the actor from start to finish put together, this is how you craft a performance. It's just I that's why I'm giving it number two. What a flawless what a journey. What growth from a piece of shit that you couldn't pay attention to. To second best Pacino performance. Hey, I mean, it happens. I love that I did not know that was going to hit that high. My number two was your number five, Michael Corleone in Godfather Part two. Important distinction. Not that he's not great in one, but we see it and I don't know why, but I'm always so fucking drawn to the scene with him and John Cazale when John Sayles like, how do you say Banana Daiquiri and Genius goes, yeah, banana daiquiri. Like I loved. It's when you know, why can we done this before? And the way Pacino's just studying him and like kind of figuring it out, I love I mean, it's the other two. I think the reason why is because, you know, we see in one there's like that active transformation. Yeah. And that's what's that's what's beautiful to watch about his performance in that one. But in the second one, it's all about the unexpressed emotion going on inside of him. Yep. Everything. And he's hiding it because he has to. Yeah. He can't show his cards to these bosses that he's with. He can't show his cards to his family, he and and everything. And when it does bubble out, he just puts it right back because he has to. And you feel the tragedy of a man who can't express himself. It's great. And there's fucking scenes with Strasberg, his teacher. You know, when Moe Green died, I didn't say anything. And he's doing that. That thing. Oh, my God. Yeah. And, Jesus. And I know it's something we don't really talk about, but I actually think his performance in Godfather three is great. Oh, it is, it is that that movie just gave maligned. He is not a problem of that performance at all. Or rather of this movie at all. That movie I, you know, but I don't think. Yeah, I love The Godfather. I would not like this to be the final conversation on The Godfather, on what are you watching? But the the, The death of Michael Corleone, the coda, the recut he did in 2000 is better. It's just much better. But the things that are wrong with the movie can't be saved. And if you want to watch that and go, Sofia Coppola is giving one of the worst performances in the history of film, like, okay, okay, but then also accept that and like, ignore it, try to ignore it a little bit. And there there's a lot of good in that movie. There, there is I, I don't I agree there. The biggest mistake was not paying Robert Duvall his money. You just want a little bit more money. And they get a really bad feeling for him that like his nephew or son, his son and you just don't you don't need that. No no no no, his son's in there. But it's it's George Hamilton who comes in and plays like this. The broker guy. It's just stupid. Anyway, I don't know what your number one is going to be, so I, I'm, I'm giving it to heat. Oh, nice. Nice. I was good at you. Tricked me there I, I was going to slide in Marvin Schwarz. Oh, no. Oh. Like, you know, you know, he can he. I'm not going to lie, folks. He was my number three. And then right before we hit record on this, I went, no, it's the insider. That's what I was thinking of. And fine. Yeah. Like if he does your number one, that is in terms of I mean in 2025, that is that's the like the prototypical Al Pacino performance for anyone who knows anything about movies, you have those, you know, you got those things, those flip flops. And it just but the whole thing isn't defined by that. Because like Serpico, his scenes with his with Diane von Nora, his wife is barely teetering like it's barely there. You just believe all that in their last meeting. I mean, when they're in the hospital and he gets that fucking page and he knows, like, Jesus Christ, this is the one I've been waiting for. He's still here. He's. And he just has to sit there. She's like, you know, you can go if you if you want to know. That's all right. And he just fucking runs out of there like, yeah, it's a great it's a great performance. And my favorite, my favorite moment of that performance. His final thing on screen when he lets out that sigh. When I'm getting chills. When they fucking hold him. Yeah. In the way that he has. His face looks so like it's satisfaction, it's heartache. It's there's so much in it. It is not joy, it's not it, it's not satisfaction. Like, I got my guy. It's just like, wow, this fucking thing is over and fucking Moby's taken off. God damn, I love that moment. Told you it wasn't going back. Oh that's great. My number one was daughter number three. Dog day, baby dog day. The first time I saw it, Sully has been my favorite Pacino performance. Him on the phone end. Jesus Christ, it's just I yeah I love I've always been so drawn to sunny, but, you know, it's Pacino. But yeah, Dog Day, Dog Day and Godfather two have always been right there at one two. Yeah. Great stuff. You'll be happy to know. I don't really have anything for what happened to them. I just wanted to point out that f Murray Abraham is one of the, one of the cops, one of the dirty cops there at the end with him? Yes. He was uncredited, even though he has lines. So it's just it's nice to see him pop up of course I got one. You have. What happened to them? I do, oh, well, let's hear it. I've got nothing. Strickland. From back to the future. Yeah. Oh. Yep yep yep. You're right, you're right. That's a good one. He is like, Jesus, did I ever have Harris? Yeah. No. He looks the same age as he does it. Back to you. It's exactly the same. They're rereleasing that for because it's 2025, so they're going to put that in Imax like now or like in a couple weeks. Hey, good call though. Good call. Because when I saw him I was like, oh yeah, yeah, I know that guy. Favorite scene or favorite shot? I do the, the, the way it starts with kind of the end. Again, something that we see in kind of every. I saw Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein last night. It does that too, like so many movies do this now. But when I saw that at a young age, I'm like, oh, cool. We're like doing this and then jumping back. But my favorite scene is that flip out. Just manhandling that guy up, ripping is smashing the chair. Great. It's it's mine too. But if I didn't want to kind of just like, give it that, then, my second option, I would go to the actually the coffee sequence when he takes the whole call, when he when he pulls them out of the line, talks to them, brings them for the coffee. I love that my favorite quote, if they would take all that energy, put it in straight police work, we'd have the city cleaned up in a week. And that's a whole movie to me. I think that exactly. I wrote that one. I mean, when you look at just the overall writing, this is like one of those scenes we were talking about Chinatown, where it's kind of hard to actually pick one singular line because the whole entire movie is written so well. So I wrote that one because I think that it is like encompasses the entire film. I do love it's my Life. You fuck. And and then and then we talked about it already. But how come all your friends are, are on their way to being someone I love that yeah, it's a it's a it's a great line. It's great. I don't know if we've done this one yet. It's added in a new category. I thought it would be fun if you had to pick a double feature pick for Serpico. What would you go with? I'll go first because it would be Prince of the city. Prince of the city, 1981, directed by Sidney Lumet. New York a guy trying to bust up corruption within the NYPD. It is a great, great double feature and almost like an epic because it's, you know, it's long. And tree Williams when he passed away recently and that was the first thing I put on. And he's later generations like he's like a TV dad. It's like kind of what he got known for. But man, seeing like a young starring performance from him, it's a great movie. Three hours. Let's go. Yeah. Like 240, I think. Something like that. Okay. It's no joke. I had two options here. One is serious and one's not. All right, I think. I think Serpico and Copland is a great. Absolutely, absolutely fantastic. And, Yeah, you could you could do Serpico in The Departed if you wanted. The departed, you could. You could fuck them. You could. I'm so it's still an honor to I, I do I can't enjoy it. You are so I, I know you're so far out on it. It's it's my opinion in my life since we've had this, since we've had this podcast. Just to be clear to listeners, my opinion on it has never changed. I always thought it was very silly but wildly entertaining for as an editor and watching it going, they saved this and editing this movie, it's the plot wise is nonsense, like they just did. So yeah, it's it's just absolutely batshit. And if you've been a fan of Scorsese from the jump or from birth like I was, that's the movie he went for. And still they've never embraced him again. They'll give him nominations, but they've never given him anything again. It's fucking hilarious to me. It's, he's wild. Some others from 1973 that I consider genuinely this thing. I did think, yeah, maybe that'll be fun. American Graffiti we talked about Paper Moon and of course, The Exorcist, but we went with good old Serpico live and Let Die, baby. Yeah, yeah. One of my favorite James Bond movies is that you love more. He loved I love Roger. He is sir. Sir Roger Moore to you. Okay, sir. Roger, a little slap. That was Connery. But, yeah. Who's going to be the next James Bond? You think? You think someone. We don't really know that. Well, so, I mean, you don't have to give me names, but do you think it'll be a name, do you think? Because, like, keep in mind, people like Daniel Craig was, I think when he was announced, he was maybe like the fifth in line. Everyone thought I was going to be Clive Owen. And he was like, maybe the fifth in line. And then when that was announced, everyone was pissed and he wasn't. He was like the ninth lead in Munich. I don't know who's going to be like, they've an unofficial offer to Aaron Taylor-Johnson to do it. That's what I've been hearing. I feel like for a year or two, and I feel like that this is the Clive Owen of 2006, because it was. That's because Clive Owen is coming off closer, like Oscar nomination and that's that's who's going to be the next James Bond. He's perfect for it. But I think they deviated from expectations because Clive Owen looks, you know, not unlike Pierce Brosnan not unlike Timothy Dalton. So I've been hearing Aaron Taylor-Johnson for years I feel like can I I think maybe they'll throw us off that scent. I don't know if it'll be him. Hey we'll see. We'll keep our. We'll see. It's kind of they, they're I mean it's got to be something soon, but no more stalling. This is the moment everyone's been waiting for. And Nicholas. Still, still hot take for Serpico. Oh, boy. Oh, yeah, I, you know. Okay. This one, this one is not a very good one. All right? Not all of these are going to be Halloween, okay? Not all of them can be the best things that you're ever going to hear on any podcasts anywhere. So I recognize that, you know, when you nail one out of the park, sometimes it's like Sidney Lumet, it's hard to you. Yeah, you're gonna you're gonna have some. But I feel like I've had enough of a win streak here where if I. If I throw, if I lob one out here, it's going to be all right. But this is my only thought that I had. This didn't actually happen. If this wasn't a true story, I would have not believe that this man got shot in the face and survived point blank. Oh, absolutely. Agree. That's what it would be. Stranger than fiction being like, okay, guys, this talk about overwrought, I'd be like, yeah, you want me to fucking believe this? That a cop got shot at point blank, blank range in the face and in the face. Yeah, you're right, you're right. And then the only other great that I had was if that. And because that did happen, maybe we could have gotten the makeup department to do something a little bit more until than than what's basically looks like a big pimple that, that's 1970s for you. But yes, I can't disagree with that either. Go watch Mo Green gets shot in The Godfather right through the I like it, you know. Or Taxi Driver, you know, shoots the guy in the face. Yeah. It looks like something hitting like Play-Doh or Clay. It's like. But yeah, I'm. It's like a baby gun hit. Yeah. You know. Yeah, yeah. But but that's it. Yeah, that that was my only thing is, like, if this did not really happen, I would have been like. I mean, you could have done anything if this if this wasn't a true story, if you didn't get shot in the face and he truly survived it, then you could have shot him, like in the arm, you know, like, and just cops left him for dead. You know, the idea is that he was shot and left for dead, but. Yeah. So that's my. That's it. That's my hot take. I think it's a good, not very good one, but it's I think it's good. And I think it, far surpasses the Halloween one. Yes. And then I'm going to add my, my, my, my, addition to the, to the. We did this once before. Oh yes. Yes, yes, please. It's the AIW. Q o t m questions of the movie. What? Okay. Very good. Do you think that this movie, poses for the audience, to give you, start to give you some ideas? Because I know I'm just bringing it. Launching it right on you. Do we ever really, truly make a difference? Yeah. It that's that's one of, I think you've got the kind of inherently built into something like this. Like, can corruption ever be beaten? Is there really any good left in, in our, in our systems? So these were some of the ones that I was coming up, but I think the one that really kind of grabs me the most is like, do we ever really make a difference? Yeah. Like it. Yeah. Oh my God, I totally meant to write a note about this and I forgot. Small ax. The one with John Boyega. It's a lot about this. It's a lot about an honest cop race has to do with that. He's. Yeah, yeah, yeah. His fellow white officers are like, leave this guy out there to dry. But it's a lot of like, a cop, a different sort of cop. And he's he's a weirdo. And Serpico and and, Steve McQueen's film Small Ax. He's black. Okay, so we're bringing in an outsider to a corrupt police force, and, like, can you assimilate yourself in there? And, you know, if this were to happen today, would. I don't know if there are still whistleblowers, put a lot of whistleblower movies, which is, of course, my frame of context. What happens to them in the end? Yeah, they die. They go into obscurity like it's look at fucking Snowden. He's still living in Russia. I mean, you know, it's it's yes, it's a very interesting question that is so absolutely pertinent today. Absolutely. Yeah. Adding a little flex category here. I need two minutes, judge. And it's going to be a lot of fun because we're going to talk about the movie was nominated for two Oscars. It lost screenplay. It was also nominated for Best Actor. And we've already referenced the chain event of this Best Actor win, and I'm just going to run through it really quick. Best actor, really good year. There's a pattern and one of the funniest sliding doors in Oscar history. Ready in 1959, Jack Lemmon is set to win Best Actor for Some Like It Hot. Ben-Hur sweeps the Oscars and Charlton Heston wins best actor. If Jack Lemmon won, we could have avoided a lot of nonsense to follow. Jump to 1973. Jack Lemmon is nominated for Save the Tiger, a really solid film from John G. Alverson, but no one thinks it's Lemmon's best work. It looks like Al Pacino, fresh off his nominated performance for The Godfather, will win Best actor for Serpico. Lemmon wins. Many consider it a career best actor Oscar. If Lemmon won in 1959, he would not have needed to win in 1973, and Pacino could have won. Jumped in 1992. Al Pacino is nominated for scent of a woman, a decent film from Martin Brest, but no one thinks it's Pacino's best work. It looks like Denzel Washington, fresh off his win for glory, will win Best actor for Malcolm X. Pacino wins. Many consider it a career best actor win. If Pacino won in 1973, he wouldn't have needed to win in 1992 and Denzel could have won go to 2001. Denzel finally wins Best Actor for Training Day, an award no one can argue against. But but if he had won in 1992, that 2001 Oscar could have gone to Will Smith for Ali, and he would have had his Oscar and therefore not had to need to be nominated and lame shit like King Richard. So he wouldn't have even been at the Oscars ceremony that night and no one gets slapped. What I'm saying is Chris Rock getting slapped is Charlton Heston fault? Wow. He's. Thank you. I spent ten whole minutes writing that. Thanks, guys. I'm going to take my bow wow. All right? I was being funny. I was being funny and cute. The 2001 stuff. But 59, 73 and 1992 are three of the most talked about best actor races. For this reason and there are all these sliding doors that's just funny and ridiculous. Ridiculous and funny for an idiot like me to pass out for a podcast. The legacy of the film, we already talked about it. Serpico is kind of the just the name is synonymous with. Did I lose him? He's laughing. It's synonymous with, you know, the gritty cop for the cop whistleblower. You you hear it used all the time like seven. Another piece of legacy. The poster for the film. Oh is on John Travolta's wall in Saturday Night Live and Mark Wahlberg's wall in Boogie Nights. So I love that, that little. And is there any other movie poster for that movie that exists? It's the DVD cover. It's the fucking poster. Go. Yeah, I mean, it's just his face. Is Jason fucking right there? The hair. Exactly. It just looks like a headshot. All right. Well, I w we made it this up. Been a really fun discussion, I thought. I'm really glad we got to do this. Well, let's do the first one, and I'll be. I'll be nice. But tell us what you thought. No, you could be. Whatever you want to be is. All right. Well, so so we've had some back and forth text messages, everybody about, about Benny Safdies The Smashing Machine. Yes. There's nobody that loves this movie. There's no like, I don't think critically. I don't think audience wise, I don't think that there's, I mean, I'm sure some people do, but, it does not. The rock, the do. Well, yeah. Yeah. I don't think there's a single thing that the Rock has ever done that he does not think is the greatest thing that's ever been done. It's, it's a great, accurate sentence right there. Yeah. Yes. I love the rock. Don't get me wrong, I know, I yes, I know, I know that man. But that man believes in himself. He did a fantastic job. I, I, I think this movie was tailor made for what he, for the heights of his of his abilities as an actor. I think this is a complete, like, wheelhouse type thing. And I think he absolutely, did a great job. My overall kind of thoughts on this movie were, and where they differ from yours is that I think the movie is a little bit disjointed in what it is trying to say and do, which is a problem. However, individual scenes I was moved more than I've been moved emotionally in almost all of my 2025 moviegoing experiences, but we're just talking scene work. We're just talking acting, to be honest. We're just talking like, I really, really I know you do not agree, but I, I loved every single bit of Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson scenes together. I loved the, scenes with him and his friend in the hospital where he's I love that. I love that, like, there's these individual scenes that are happening in this movie that I'm like, fuck, I was honestly emotionally moved by in different ways. And I yes, I, I'm with you. I like, like here's, here's the thing where you're probably going to think I'm crazy. Because now I'm not saying that I enjoyed the movie from start to finish in this way, but I did not feel for a single second anything to what I felt in this movie that I felt when I watched Caught Stealing, F1 or any of these movies of this year. One battle. Oh, totally different conversation. No one battle another. That's what we're talking about. The movies where we're like, that was good for a 20, 25 minutes. Yeah, yeah yeah yeah, yeah. I'm talking about my moviegoing experiences of this year. Know one battle after another, that's, that's that's not going to be a beat. That's that's number one. Yeah. I, I challenge the rest of this year to for the love of God, I challenge bring it on to bring something that gets to that. But that's that was my experience with the movie, and that is what I liked about it outside of. Yeah, I think it's, glaring problems that it does have. I did think it had some problems. I thought everyone was well-intentioned. It seemed like everyone wanted to be there. They wanted to make it. And the thing is, I liked their acting together. The first scene when they had or the first time they had this hellacious argument about essentially they they just don't understand each other at all. She just. Yeah, has no concept of what it takes to be a fighter. She has no concept of what it takes to be sober, and she doesn't care. And I just felt like we were seeing them fight about the same thing over and over and over. But I really wanted to like it more. I did, because I feel like they've been shoving that movie down our throats with promotion. I have seen that trailer before. Every movie I've seen since. Yes, it was a lot. I feel like it was just all the time. And I'm not sitting here like shitting all over it at all because it doesn't. It doesn't deserve that level of hatred. But I, I have since learned that the whole structure of it is based really heavily on a documentary, The Smashing Machine, from the early 2000. I've never seen that, but I was just on Reddit and again, I haven't investigated this fully because I just I didn't love the movie, so I'm not going to do this deep dive. But people on Reddit were like, he was too married to it, looking and being exactly like the documentary, like do your own thing. I can't really speak on that, but I don't know, it just it seemed like in my letter box review, I said it felt like my stroke because it felt like a collection of deleted scenes. I didn't know what I was supposed to care about, but yes. Yeah, definitely. At some scenes when that trainer, when his fucking tendon gave out, oh yeah, he had to shoot him up. That was my favorite scene. And that game that that's just like a horror story where you can be training and you can just throw one wrong punch and everything. You're like, what the fuck just happened? And, I got and just the way. Yeah, like it was not everyone really seemed to care. It seemed like an authentic, like, come on, let's do it, guys. Let's do it. It just didn't work. It just didn't fully connect. 100% agree. And yeah. And that's that's what I mean. Like these individual moments that are happening in this movie. Like I'm like, fuck man, there's there's some power here. And like, I feel like that it's somewhere there is probably a really great version of all of this. Right. And but that does also bring up the age old conversation, like when you do are talking about something like this is like, does a documentary serve better? Like what of what? Like you, you do have to kind of get to a point where it's, I even could make this argument for roof man. Like what? We said that in our review, we said, like, I think a documentary about this subject would be better and more compelling and could honestly bring the humor out, because seeing like those real people, which, you know, no, it's not really a spoiler, but you see some interview clips of the real people during the credits, that closing credits of Roof Man, and that was my favorite part of the movie. Yeah, yeah, it was. I mean, other than Kirsten Dunst, who was just a performance that came out of nowhere. That's incredible. But yeah, yeah, I, I agree. Yeah. So yeah. So that was that was my thoughts on that one. All right. Cool, cool. I'm glad you saw it. I'm glad we got to talk about it. This is going to be extremely quick. There are going to be no spoilers I have seen Begonia, the new Yorgos Lanthimos movie starring Emma Stone. Jesse Plemons. Loved it. I loved Yorgos, and, not even remotely as sparse as something like Kinds of Kindness. If you saw that and that turned you off and you're like, what the fuck is this? This is not a difficult movie to understand. It is pure him. And I fucking loved it and I'm going to see it. I got to go to an early screening, so I'm going to see it a bunch more. You know what? I'm excited. That was the only thing I was going to ask you, because I feel like because I'm such a fan of Yorgos, that I feel like what's so interesting about him as a filmmaker is that there's versions of him that's the it's it depends who writes the script. If like a white dude who's American or British writes the script, it's a little easier to follow. Not like a lot. And then if a Greek person writes a script, it's going to be fucking nuts. And this guy is an American dude. Yes. So there you go. So like that, like you kind of know where you stand a little bit in his work because like, if you, if you want killing of the sacred deer, dogtooth and like kinds of kindness, most people are turned off by all of those ones there. They're like, I like the favorite. And I liked poor things, but I wasn't really into kinds of kindness. And so I love those that he's got that capacity where it's sort of like, hey, I'm going to be weird and I'm going to be myself. But if there's like my way of doing it and then my director way for someone else's material, but it's all serviceable. I love that he's got to be also one of our directors today that is just shelling out material like, oh, that's, that's and yes, I agree. And he just announced that he's going to take a break. Oh well tough. Yeah. But but to yeah I mean for ten years like I discovered Dogtooth when that came out because it was nominated. So after it was nominated and then it was like nothing. He made this other one called Alps, which is really, really sparse to me. But I had to wait five years to get to the lobster. And then since lobster, he's been for him. He's been doing, you know, a lot favorite. Yeah. Sacred deer, port things, boom, boom boom. Well, I mean, he was I mean the essentially in the last two years or three movies basically. Yeah. Yeah. And and one was a huge Oscar winner. Yeah. And he's taking a well-deserved break, I suppose. But, Oh, let me do one more solo, a quick one. I did see Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein last night. It's going to be on Netflix soon. I'm not going to say a lot. It's very long, 2.5 hours and you know, okay, good for a 2025 movie. Oh, boy. That's what I'll say. But then, yeah, let's finish up with another one we both seen. I gotta say, I did not I did not know what to expect. Upon walking into the theater, I knew that Richard Linklater is one of my all time favorite directors. I but I made sure I did not see a single trailer. The only say, the only information I had to go on was the movie poster where I did see. I was like, okay, he's got some makeup, he's got he's there's a certain characterization that's going on, and there seems to be an idea of elegance that seems to come off of this poster. Could never have imagined that we were going to get what we got here. And for my theater loving heart could not have been more, pleased with the final result. Like just. And this isn't like and like, like like a, like, oh, this is like, the greatest thing ever made, but just what a solid piece of business. My God. And what's it called in Blue Moon? Blue moon? I went through all that believable. Directed by Richard Linklater. Yes. Yeah. And I'm with you like I. You gave your endorsement, so I had to double feature Blue Moon and Frankenstein for the double feature. Double feature. And I mean, we, like, come on, people like this man needs a Best Actor nomination. This, this. Wow. Were to force this, like, really something. He was so good. Yeah. Not the not the best movie he Linklaters made, but not a lot of people. I think you're going to see this, but can we say what to me is the biggest selling point about it? It's not like a spoiler, but it's it's another real time movie. It essentially takes place in real time. It's just one night in a bar, the night that Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma has opened, much to the chagrin of Lorenz Hart, played by Ethan Hawke. This is I mean, my dad would. I bet if my dad sees this, it'll be like his favorite movie of the year. I just yeah, I loved it. I loved it like a lot. Loved it. Conversation 100 minutes long. It's a play. It's literally it's it's it's even more of a play. Even though he did tape, which is an actual play, this one truly, actually feels like a play. Like it's. Yeah. The way that he sets up the camera, the way that he has these conversations play out in the in the very, very few locations. It's all in one building. It's all essentially it's all it's all there's three rooms that we see in here. There's the bar, the lobby and then the closet, the coat check here. And all of these conversations play because tape, there's a lot of cutting. There's a lot of there's a lot of things. But like he keeps it. So close. So you it sort of eliminates the feeling of of a play. But these are like shots where we see the whole space takes, you know, takes and, and and I mean, I the, the composition and editing of it is really because it's, I think it's made for you to feel like that. But Ethan Hawke, I just this morning saw an interview with him where he was talking about this, and he's like, this is my ninth film that I've done with Richard, who is, you know, and he's like, and this is one of my best friends, and we've worked together. We have a personal and professional relationship. And he goes, and this was the hardest that he's ever been on me. And, and and he said that, they're like one example of it was like, there was a concert that apparently the whole cast and crew was like during production, they were going to go see this concert, and someone was like, Ethan, are you going to go? He's like, yeah, yeah, I, I could, I could go to that. And then Richard overheard him say that he was going to go to the concert, and he just walks up to him and he goes, Ethan, how good this movie turns out to be is solely because of you. Maybe don't go to the concert. Stay home, rest up. Yeah, like, because they're shooting tomorrow. Like they like, you know. So. And and when you see this movie, it's not like exactly like that's an unfair statement to make because yes, it's a movie. There's other characters and there's a lot of other moving parts, but this is a completely driven character performance. This movie does not work if for a single second Ethan Hawke's performance is off and it's not, and it's my God, I cannot say enough good things about this man. I love him so much so someone could say it's the best performance of his career and you wouldn't even be reaching. He's just like remarkable in it, I don't know. So you need you. Lord knows you need a whole train behind you to win an Oscar. You need all this stuff. And this is a pretty small movie, but he really needs to be nominated for it. It was. It's just a perfect performance. He's completely authentic. He has 3 or 4 shots of liquor throughout the movie, and he plays it as it goes. So perfect. Like, you see the different stages of intoxication. It's fantastic. And and and he doesn't even really ever get like hammered. Hammered like it's not exactly. Yeah, exactly. Just push it like that. No. There's just tiny little like he's just slightly a little bit more, open to maybe expressing himself in a way he wouldn't have expressed himself. Yep, a shot earlier. That's it. And then you also get that idea that this is a problem for him based on the way that he treats it and the way everyone else around him treats it, which is also excellent. Like directing, it is very much a play on film, you know, and it's not it's designed to be like that, I think. And, and I know that's a tough sell. Like that's a lot of people will get uncomfortable like, man, these guys have been talking for a long time. Like, yep, he's going to keep talking. We've been talking for a long time. So this is a lot of fun. Serpico I had no idea this was going to be, you know, number two favorite. Al, I love that I loved your hot take fun to catch up on smashing machine blue moon we got. You know we're we're getting here. Get in there. November, December. We're going to make it months left. We're going to make it. We go yeah we got two months left us to wow us with, all these movies coming out. We'll see, won't we? We will see. Let us know what you're watching, what you think on socials at white W underscore podcast. But as always, thanks for listening and happy watching. 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 Nick is making me say this. If you have not seen Saturday Night Fever, please watch it before listening to our next episode. We promise it is not the movie you think it is. Give the movie a watch and then come back and give us a listen. Stay tuned. For. My life.