Raising Arizona (1987) vs. The Big Lebowski (1998): Part 1

<v Speaker 1>Hey, everybody, Welcome back to the Surely You Can't Be
<v Speaker 1>Serious Podcast. This week, we are diving into two of
<v Speaker 1>the most beloved comedies, one from the eighties, one from
<v Speaker 1>the nineties. I'm here with my good friend Dee Graves.
<v Speaker 1>You look a little stressed out, man, What's what's going on?
<v Speaker 2>I just I want to be a good man and thorough. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>a good man and thorough. But there's a lot of
<v Speaker 2>strands to keep straight in old Duder's head. Man, I'm
<v Speaker 2>really I'm stressed out. I'm like, I'm like, there's this
<v Speaker 2>beautiful girl who takes my picture when I get arrested,
<v Speaker 2>and I got this big crush on her, and I
<v Speaker 2>just can't work up the right words to speak to her.
<v Speaker 1>You look way more stressed than Hi when he gets
<v Speaker 1>arrested and it's getting his picture taken by Edd. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it's very undoued of you to be so stressed out, man. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>you mind if I do it? Jay, I think you
<v Speaker 1>mathembnig anymore. Today we're diving into Raising Arizona versus The
<v Speaker 1>Big Lebowski. Do the best from the Coen Brothers. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>the Coen Brothers. I love their movies. I have not
<v Speaker 1>seen them all.
<v Speaker 2>I think every movie that I've seen of theirs, I
<v Speaker 2>loved it the first time that I watched it. I
<v Speaker 2>started with Raising Arizona. I know that I watched Barton
<v Speaker 2>Fink close to the time that it came out. I
<v Speaker 2>watched The Hudsucker Proxy close to the time that it
<v Speaker 2>came out. I had no idea that these guys were related,
<v Speaker 2>probably until I get to The Hudsucker Proxy and I'm like, well,
<v Speaker 2>these are the same guys. And then of course Fargo
<v Speaker 2>came out and I was like, whoa, these are guys
<v Speaker 2>who've done something completely different. Now, I hadn't seen Blood Simple,
<v Speaker 2>which is kind of their tough rr slash thriller thing,
<v Speaker 2>but Fargo seemed far removed and I totally bought it.
<v Speaker 2>Like when they start Fargo with everything in here is true,
<v Speaker 2>I was like, oh wow, okay, yeah, no, So that
<v Speaker 2>turned out to be a total lie, but it was
<v Speaker 2>such a different experience. And so then by the time
<v Speaker 2>Big Lebowski rolls around in nineteen ninety eight, I mean
<v Speaker 2>that's eleven years after Raising Arizona, I go and watch it.
<v Speaker 2>And by the way, this time in my life I
<v Speaker 2>was doing Jay's pretty pretty and I kind of had
<v Speaker 2>an idea about what it was about, and so when
<v Speaker 2>I went, I was definitely under the influence, right, I.
<v Speaker 1>Was feeling the vibes. I walked out of that movie.
<v Speaker 2>The first person that I talked to, first friend that
<v Speaker 2>I talked to about it, they were like, what'd you think?
<v Speaker 2>And I was like, I loved it, and now I
<v Speaker 2>have to see it not high to make sure that
<v Speaker 2>I really did love it. I saw it again in
<v Speaker 2>the theater when I was living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and
<v Speaker 2>I was like, this is one of the best movies
<v Speaker 2>I've ever seen in my life.
<v Speaker 1>Really, Okay, these are two sort of off bullseye movies
<v Speaker 1>for me.
<v Speaker 2>Well, and you're not alone there. Like, both of the
<v Speaker 2>movies were not widely accepted when they first came out.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, there was kind of a with Raising Arizona,
<v Speaker 2>the critics were expecting something different because the only experience
<v Speaker 2>they'd had was Blood Simple, and I mean you go
<v Speaker 2>from you know, thriller horror to basically a Looney Tunes episode, right,
<v Speaker 2>And then with The Big Lebowski kind of the same thing.
<v Speaker 2>They've just come off of Fargo, very deep, dark, risly
<v Speaker 2>murder movie and then you come in with The Big Lebowski,
<v Speaker 2>and the initial reaction from everybody but a handful of
<v Speaker 2>folks including me, was man right until a couple of
<v Speaker 2>years later, and then somebody shows, you know, one of
<v Speaker 2>the film critics shows up at a midnight showing of
<v Speaker 2>The Big Lebowski like two years after it's come out,
<v Speaker 2>and it's developed like a rocky horror picture show style following,
<v Speaker 2>Like people show up say the lines to each other.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, you know, we use the word cult following
<v Speaker 2>all the time. This is genuinely a cult, and so
<v Speaker 2>I'm not a member of that cult. I'm gonna be right,
<v Speaker 2>there's gonna be no information for me as far as
<v Speaker 2>those cultish things go. But I am a lover of
<v Speaker 2>the movie, and so the beginning was sincere. I am
<v Speaker 2>stressed to the max, but I've decided I'm just gonna chill.
<v Speaker 2>I'm just gonna you know, the do divides.
<v Speaker 1>Just take a look at the rug man and just
<v Speaker 1>realize that, you know, it all pulls the episode together, right,
<v Speaker 1>really ties the episode. Hey, you mentioned something I wanted
<v Speaker 1>to touch on before we got off of that. My
<v Speaker 1>understanding is that one of the Coen brothers went to
<v Speaker 1>the movie one day and there's a big line of
<v Speaker 1>people and he's like, what's going on here? They were
<v Speaker 1>like in costumes and stuff, and she's like, Oh, we're
<v Speaker 1>all dressed up for this great movie called The Big Lebowski.
<v Speaker 1>It's a lot of fun. You should come. You probably
<v Speaker 1>like it.
<v Speaker 2>To the Coen Brothers, Yeah, yeah, to Joel, Yeah, that's hilarious. Well,
<v Speaker 2>before we get fully rolling in the episode, there's a
<v Speaker 2>couple of people we need to talk about.
<v Speaker 1>Yes. Absolutely, So last week we dropped our top five
<v Speaker 1>songs of nineteen eighty eight. Yes, and we've got all
<v Speaker 1>kinds of feedback on that, most of it positive. A
<v Speaker 1>lot of people disagreed and wanted to plug with their
<v Speaker 1>own songs, and that's great. We encouraged that conversation. We
<v Speaker 1>love it. But I'll tell you one doubt to me. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>we got an email from a woman named Beth Sloan
<v Speaker 1>Okay that we hadn't really interacted with. I think she'd
<v Speaker 1>hit us up on Facebook a couple of times, but
<v Speaker 1>nothing really really personal. And she took issue with the
<v Speaker 1>fact that I called Father Figure a giant panty dropper.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, Oh yeah, well you you kind of went over
<v Speaker 2>you gushed on that. It was the girls are chasing
<v Speaker 2>after you, throwing their panties as you have the car.
<v Speaker 1>The music from your car's that's right. She said it
<v Speaker 1>was gross. Well, she wasn't real comfortable with the lyrics
<v Speaker 1>of you know, call me your daddy and all this
<v Speaker 1>other stuff. I think she used the word EU. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>but here's what she said. Okay, So she didn't just
<v Speaker 1>trash my list. She said, guys, here are the top
<v Speaker 1>five panty droppers of nineteen eighty eight.
<v Speaker 2>So not just the top five songs, but the top
<v Speaker 2>five panty droppers.
<v Speaker 1>Panty droppers of eighty eight. And when a woman tells
<v Speaker 1>you this is the top five panty droppers.
<v Speaker 2>You probably should listen. You listen, Okay, Yeah, so what
<v Speaker 2>is it?
<v Speaker 1>I'm dying?
<v Speaker 2>It is all right, all this build up and tell
<v Speaker 2>me what she said.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So according to our new best friend best Loan, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>this is what she says. Number five, Hands to Heaven
<v Speaker 1>by Brief. It was a good one. That's on my
<v Speaker 1>low dance. It was on my last yeah for sure
<v Speaker 1>eighty eight. Okay, Number four, she says, Eternal Flame by
<v Speaker 1>the Bangles. Well, sure, she's anna Hoffs.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, say no more, my gosh, those are you know,
<v Speaker 2>boxer droppers.
<v Speaker 1>I think we love Susannah Hoffs. Here at the Shirley
<v Speaker 1>Candy Series podcast number three, she said the Flame by
<v Speaker 1>Cheap Trick. Okay, that was my first out okay, and
<v Speaker 1>we had talked about that. I think Brad Moore that
<v Speaker 1>was one on his list. So we are totally with
<v Speaker 1>you on the Flame by Cheap Trick. And number two
<v Speaker 1>she's got I'll Be There for You by bon Jovi. Sure,
<v Speaker 1>New Jersey can't beat it. I'm not gonna split hairs
<v Speaker 1>with her, but that's definitely an eighty nine song for me.
<v Speaker 1>That's like Summer eighty nine. Yeah, okay. And then number one,
<v Speaker 1>her top penny dropper of nineteen eighty eight, Yeah, I
<v Speaker 1>Want Your Sex by George Mine.
<v Speaker 2>So she she throws you for picking father figure, but
<v Speaker 2>her number one is I want your sex.
<v Speaker 1>Hey, I don't care. Yeah, that's a good answer. That's
<v Speaker 1>a good answer, good answer.
<v Speaker 2>That's right, she's right and you're wrong.
<v Speaker 1>But yes, yeah, I believe. When we did the George
<v Speaker 1>Michael episode we called that that song sounds like a
<v Speaker 1>wet pornographer.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so yes, so having to edit that one.
<v Speaker 1>Beth, that was amazing. She's actually Chris Webber's cousin. Oh cool,
<v Speaker 1>and Chris had turned her onto us. So Chris, thank you, Beth,
<v Speaker 1>thank you, thanks for reaching out. Good to hear from
<v Speaker 1>both of you guys on our top five of eighty eight.
<v Speaker 1>If you miss that, go back and check it out. Awesome.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, well you know that's just like.
<v Speaker 3>Your opinion, man.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, So for this episode, we've got a new Patreon
<v Speaker 2>member that is our executive producer of our Cohen Brothers episodes.
<v Speaker 2>This guy joined our YouTube page. If you haven't done that,
<v Speaker 2>go do that. We don't put out a whole lot
<v Speaker 2>of YouTube stuff, but when we do, it's it's gold. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>you can check out Jason going to all of the
<v Speaker 2>locations for Rumblefish and the Outsiders.
<v Speaker 1>That was a lot of fun, right, I was. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>And then he joined Patreon.
<v Speaker 4>I know.
<v Speaker 1>So you you texted me this morning, Yeah, and you're like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>we got a new Patreon. I'm like, awesome, who is it?
<v Speaker 1>You're like this guy named Cason Grover, like Caseon Grover
<v Speaker 1>went to high school with Cason Grover. Oh there you go,
<v Speaker 1>So Cason, thank you very much, buddy. We appreciate you.
<v Speaker 1>I'm so glad I didn't even know he listened. It's
<v Speaker 1>so good to hear from you and appreciate your support
<v Speaker 1>and Caseon I've been friend for decades. Wow, that's awesome,
<v Speaker 1>So thank you, Caseon. Appreciate your sport. Guys.
<v Speaker 2>If you want to help support the podcast and listen
<v Speaker 2>to all our super special top hits you frequently one
<v Speaker 2>hit wonders of the eighties and nineties, go to atreon
<v Speaker 2>dot com backsplash and then again every time Backslash Shirley
<v Speaker 2>podcast and you can join for his little five bucks
<v Speaker 2>a month. Okay, are you ready to jump into the
<v Speaker 2>Coen Brothers.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, then I'm glad you said I.
<v Speaker 2>There are so many quotes in these two movies, and
<v Speaker 2>some of them overlap like that. Okay, then right, These
<v Speaker 2>are both movies that we routinely quote in my house.
<v Speaker 2>I cannot tell you how many times I say, if
<v Speaker 2>you're not into the whole brevity thing or phone's ringing, dude,
<v Speaker 2>or okay, then one of.
<v Speaker 1>The things I quote around my wife all the time
<v Speaker 1>is just I do the t ig e R yes, mine,
<v Speaker 1>you don't cut yourself Mornecai take these huggies and whatever.
<v Speaker 1>I can't.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, college friends, if they're listening right now, they're gonna
<v Speaker 2>they're gonna be waiting for me to say this right now. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>you got the balloons that come in the funny shapes,
<v Speaker 2>not unless rounds funny.
<v Speaker 1>My buddy Bomber, who's a patriot. I remember Chris Bauer.
<v Speaker 1>We used to He used to get me in trouble
<v Speaker 1>in church all the time. He cracked me up in
<v Speaker 1>sunny school and stuff, and he'd always be quoting that
<v Speaker 1>seven hundred and nineteen one hundred and twenty ah Bush.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we're gonna have a hard time quoting the Big
<v Speaker 2>Lebowski without dropping the F bomb.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, listen to this before we get started. You got
<v Speaker 1>a statistic dute, I do, I do? Huh. We have
<v Speaker 1>one hundred and forty seven man's okay, we have one
<v Speaker 1>hundred and sixty one dudes. Yeah, we have two hundred
<v Speaker 1>and ninety two F bombs, two hundred and ninety, two
<v Speaker 1>hundred and ninety two.
<v Speaker 2>The dude is said about half as much as the fop.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, okay, yes, and we have five Shut the f ups.
<v Speaker 2>Donnie, Donnie, you're like a little child who wanders into it.
<v Speaker 1>Hey, what's the better ass? Shut the f up, donnye.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, So I'm gonna give a little history here, a
<v Speaker 2>little history, a little history, just a little.
<v Speaker 1>I can't, I just I cannot.
<v Speaker 2>I could spend years like sinking into these movies and
<v Speaker 2>devouring what they are. And I can tell you that
<v Speaker 2>there are a ton of people who have analyzed these
<v Speaker 2>movies and said, oh, this is about the reagularra and
<v Speaker 2>the economics and the relationship between the rich and the
<v Speaker 2>poor and all this other stuff. And I can also
<v Speaker 2>tell you that the Cohen brothers basically turn their noses
<v Speaker 2>up at everybody who does that. So I'm not about
<v Speaker 2>to start doing it. I'm not going to try to
<v Speaker 2>do it. What I'm gonna do is I'm going to
<v Speaker 2>tell you about the cool things that I like that
<v Speaker 2>they do, and I'm going to I'm going to abide, Okay.
<v Speaker 2>So Joel Cohen born November nineteen fifty four Ethan Cohen
<v Speaker 2>born September nineteen fifty seven. First, let me just say this.
<v Speaker 2>Their paternal grandfather was Victor Cohen and a barrister of
<v Speaker 2>the Ends of Court in London before he retired to
<v Speaker 2>Hove with their grandmother. But that's the only kind of
<v Speaker 2>old time information I'm going to give you on that,
<v Speaker 2>all right, Okay, I'm not leading all the way up.
<v Speaker 2>So they're born in the fifties, they grow up, and
<v Speaker 2>their movie experience stems largely from the movies that come
<v Speaker 2>on late at night in the sixties. And you'll find
<v Speaker 2>with those movies, the later you get, the kind of
<v Speaker 2>weirder you get. And a lot of the movies that
<v Speaker 2>were that they were watching. Are we the old black
<v Speaker 2>and white private detective movies that were movies based on
<v Speaker 2>Raymond Chandler or dash O Hammett or these other kind
<v Speaker 2>of pulpy mystery writer guys. Right now, I didn't mention
<v Speaker 2>where they were born. They were born in a small
<v Speaker 2>town just outside of Minneapolis named Saint Louis Park. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>are you familiar with another park in Minneapolis?
<v Speaker 1>How about Paisley Park? Yes, Prince, Paisley Park is not
<v Speaker 1>again suburb of.
<v Speaker 2>Minneapolis, right right. And it turns out that they got
<v Speaker 2>together later on. They said, hey, we like your stuff.
<v Speaker 2>He goes, hey, I like your stuff. They said, maybe
<v Speaker 2>you should.
<v Speaker 1>Be in our movie. He said that sounds great, and.
<v Speaker 2>So if you look at the closing credits of Fargo, yeah, you.
<v Speaker 1>Will see next to.
<v Speaker 2>The character name Victim in Field, not Prince Rogers Nelson
<v Speaker 2>because he wasn't going by the right you will see
<v Speaker 2>the sign of.
<v Speaker 1>The artist formerly known as prent.
<v Speaker 2>I don't even think he was actually in the movie, Like,
<v Speaker 2>I don't think they could make their schedules work, but
<v Speaker 2>they thought, well, we'll just give him credit anyway.
<v Speaker 1>That's cool.
<v Speaker 2>So you if you'll watch the scrolling credits of Fargo,
<v Speaker 2>you will see the sign of the artists formerly known
<v Speaker 2>as Prents back when he was going by the symbol exactly.
<v Speaker 1>Okay.
<v Speaker 2>So in addition to those detective movies that they were
<v Speaker 2>watching on late night TV, they also saw Fellini stuff,
<v Speaker 2>They saw a Son of Hercules, they saw Tarzan films,
<v Speaker 2>Jerry Lewis, Bob Hope, Doris Day. And you can see
<v Speaker 2>from just that little bit there's a wide spectrum of
<v Speaker 2>influences that are coming into play once they start making movies.
<v Speaker 2>So in the mid sixties, Joel saves his money from
<v Speaker 2>mowing lawns and buys a Super eight camera and they
<v Speaker 2>started remaking movies with their friend Mark Zimmering, who they
<v Speaker 2>called Zeimer's as the Star. Okay, all right, all right,
<v Speaker 2>they had They remade a sixty five movie called The
<v Speaker 2>Naked Prey and called it Zimer's. In Zambizi, they remade
<v Speaker 2>the nineteen forty three lassie Come I'm a Home and
<v Speaker 2>they called it Ed a Dog, and Ethan played the
<v Speaker 2>mother role and his sisters two to two.
<v Speaker 1>This, I mean, this sounds like the same stuff we
<v Speaker 1>used to do with the our parents' cameras when we
<v Speaker 1>were kids. You know, I had an.
<v Speaker 2>DL movies and we would make dumb movies. I had
<v Speaker 2>a stop animation with all of my he Man figures
<v Speaker 2>as they attacked the Castle of Gray School. So after
<v Speaker 2>they get done with high school, they go to a
<v Speaker 2>local college for a little bit together, and then Joel
<v Speaker 2>goes to NYU and starts studying film. He then goes
<v Speaker 2>after he graduates, he goes down to University of Texas
<v Speaker 2>in Austin, but going down there because he was following
<v Speaker 2>a woman he had married who was going down there
<v Speaker 2>for linguistic studies, and that marriage didn't last and so
<v Speaker 2>he dropped out once he was divorced from her. Ethan,
<v Speaker 2>instead of going to NYU, he went to Princeton University,
<v Speaker 2>got an undergraduate degree in philosophy in nineteen seventy nine,
<v Speaker 2>and his senior thesis was a forty one page essay
<v Speaker 2>on the two views of Whittingstein's later philosophy. Whitting Stein
<v Speaker 2>is considered the greatest philosopher of the twentieth century. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>fascinating stuff, right you, I got you.
<v Speaker 1>I can tell right now, I'm with you. Okay.
<v Speaker 2>So, after Joel gets done with NYU and his brief
<v Speaker 2>stint at the University of Texas, he goes and starts
<v Speaker 2>working as a production assistant and he works on a
<v Speaker 2>whole bunch of industrial films and music videos. And then
<v Speaker 2>he has a very special movie that he works on
<v Speaker 2>where he makes a very important friend. And that movie
<v Speaker 2>is a movie that my friends have asked us to cover.
<v Speaker 2>And that movie is The Evil Dead by Sam Raimi. Yeah, okay,
<v Speaker 2>So he and Sam Raimi hit it off. He is
<v Speaker 2>he is the associate or assistant editor in Sam Raimi's
<v Speaker 2>The Evil Dead. Sam Raimi talks to them about some
<v Speaker 2>of their stuff. They've started working on a script together
<v Speaker 2>for Blood Simple, and he says, you guys have got
<v Speaker 2>to get this thing made. He starts introducing them to people,
<v Speaker 2>and they shoot a brief kind of teaser pitch thing
<v Speaker 2>with a guy crawling along in the highway. The guy
<v Speaker 2>is Bruce Campbell, the star of Yeah. And so they
<v Speaker 2>start going door to door showing this to people, and
<v Speaker 2>they build a budget for their first movie by talking
<v Speaker 2>to dentists. For some reason, dentists always seem to be
<v Speaker 2>the guys that are investing in movies.
<v Speaker 1>Rights. I have a lot of money, and they're always bored.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, right, I have to be a dentist every day.
<v Speaker 2>How about I get to be the producer of a
<v Speaker 2>Hollywood movie?
<v Speaker 1>Right, That's right. So they get that.
<v Speaker 2>They get the guy who invented the pump for Windex.
<v Speaker 2>He donates some money to it. Wow, Sam Raimi's dad
<v Speaker 2>donates some money. They just they get all of this
<v Speaker 2>money together, basically get I think something like seven hundred
<v Speaker 2>and fifty thousand dollars together and decide to make their
<v Speaker 2>movie called Blood Simple.
<v Speaker 1>Hey, you know you mentioned the name Sam Raimi. And
<v Speaker 1>I've got a list of people who call The Big
<v Speaker 1>Lebowski one of their all time favorite movies. Okay, and
<v Speaker 1>this includes people like Jennifer Lawrence, Seth Rogan Jonah Hill.
<v Speaker 1>And one of those people is Sam Raimi. Yeah I
<v Speaker 1>didn't know they were friends though. Yeah, yeah, so Sam.
<v Speaker 2>I mean the First Evil Dead was a struggle for Sam.
<v Speaker 2>I mean he ran out of money in the midst
<v Speaker 2>of production. Bruce Campbell gives him his own money so
<v Speaker 2>that he can finish production. And so that's why Bruce
<v Speaker 2>Campbell is in every single one of Sam Raimi's films,
<v Speaker 2>just about is because I mean, this is the guy
<v Speaker 2>that saved his very first movie, right right, And so anyway, yes,
<v Speaker 2>they've made this special meeting with Sam Raimi, who's now
<v Speaker 2>influencing their movie career. He ends up being he's got cameos.
<v Speaker 2>I think he's got a cameo in a couple of
<v Speaker 2>their movies. One of them is Miller's Crossing. I think
<v Speaker 2>he's got a kind of good shootout scene in Miller's Crossing. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>But anyway, Blood Simple, the girl that they want to
<v Speaker 2>play the kind of key part in Blood Simple.
<v Speaker 1>We all know Holly Hunter to hurry it up coming
<v Speaker 1>touch with Daft, Yes.
<v Speaker 2>But she wasn't available, so she says, hey, how about
<v Speaker 2>you use my roommate. People say, we're a lot alike
<v Speaker 2>the roommate Francis McDermott.
<v Speaker 1>That's crazy, right, they're roommates. Yeah, which you know, part
<v Speaker 1>of the reason why they have such great chemistry and
<v Speaker 1>raised in Arizona because they know each other exactly. By
<v Speaker 1>the way, just to come in on that, Holly Hunter
<v Speaker 1>does give an uncredited voiceover for Blood Simple. Oh really, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>she does.
<v Speaker 2>So the other very important person that they meet when
<v Speaker 2>they make Blood Simple is this guy named Jeff Dawd.
<v Speaker 2>So they produce Blood Simple, they write and direct it.
<v Speaker 2>They for a long time just one would get the
<v Speaker 2>writing credit and the other would get the directing credit.
<v Speaker 2>I think until like Brother where Art that was finally
<v Speaker 2>the first one where they finally got to get double
<v Speaker 2>billing as directors.
<v Speaker 1>But they always work in conjunction, both writing and directing.
<v Speaker 2>And producing, and so they make Blood Simple, and with
<v Speaker 2>that very first movie you get their genre twists where
<v Speaker 2>they're taking things that don't seem to belong together and
<v Speaker 2>smashing them together, like horror and film noir, and they
<v Speaker 2>put in simple story, but they've got crazy plot twists.
<v Speaker 2>And then the fancy you know, film school word mesensong
<v Speaker 2>where they've got special set decoration with special blocking of
<v Speaker 2>the actors to create this real picture. Because the thing is,
<v Speaker 2>they won't explain their films, right. That's what I was
<v Speaker 2>consumed by, like understanding the depth of these movies, but
<v Speaker 2>they won't talk about them in that way. They'll talk
<v Speaker 2>about what inspired them to write the movie, but they
<v Speaker 2>won't say what it means, right, And that's kind of
<v Speaker 2>the point. They want you to get your own meaning
<v Speaker 2>from it. They want you to just sit there and
<v Speaker 2>enjoy the movie, but also leave it broad enough and
<v Speaker 2>vague enough that you draw your own conclusions. Their real
<v Speaker 2>key to their success is the art that they create.
<v Speaker 2>The combination of lighting, cinematography, the beauty of the pictures
<v Speaker 2>that they shoot, the creativity of the language that they use,
<v Speaker 2>and the combination of these weird styles that no one
<v Speaker 2>would expect to come together is really what makes a
<v Speaker 2>Coen Brothers movie a Coen Brothers movie.
<v Speaker 1>That and usually somebody sitting behind a desk.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, So I'm saying that to say, I'm not going
<v Speaker 2>to try to figure out what raising Arizona means. I'm
<v Speaker 2>not going to try to figure out what the Big
<v Speaker 2>Lebowski means. I'm just going to talk about how much
<v Speaker 2>I love watching them. Okay, Okay, yeah, sounds good. So
<v Speaker 2>they have great success with Blood Simple. It gets awards
<v Speaker 2>at the Sundance Film Festival and the Independent Spirit Awards.
<v Speaker 2>And the next project they have is with Sam Raimi.
<v Speaker 2>Sam Raimi is directing a script that they write, and
<v Speaker 2>that one was called Crime Wave, and that is a
<v Speaker 2>lesson on how other people should not direct scripts that
<v Speaker 2>the Cohen Brothers.
<v Speaker 1>Write, really because it was.
<v Speaker 2>Too weird, Like Sam Raimi is a great director, but
<v Speaker 2>he didn't get their feel right.
<v Speaker 1>It was just too weird.
<v Speaker 2>But Sam Raimi and Joel that next year, in nineteen
<v Speaker 2>eighty five, they have a cameo in a movie okay,
<v Speaker 2>and you know this movie, okay, wearing machine guns and
<v Speaker 2>they're dressed in suits, okay, in suits, in suits and suits, yep.
<v Speaker 2>And the guy who is on screen with them as
<v Speaker 2>they're guarding a drive in movie is BB King and
<v Speaker 2>he suggests to Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase that they
<v Speaker 2>go in have a pepsi cola.
<v Speaker 1>Have a pepsi. Spies like us, you got it, Spies
<v Speaker 1>like us. Yes, so spies like us.
<v Speaker 2>You've got a cameo by Sam Raimi and Joel Cohen
<v Speaker 2>before they were ever big.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, okay, that's cool. That's a great little nugget. Thanks. Okay.
<v Speaker 2>So then two years later they do their second movie,
<v Speaker 2>the movie that we're here to talk about to day,
<v Speaker 2>raising Arizona.
<v Speaker 1>Hey, I'll tell you the first time I watched this movie,
<v Speaker 1>a couple of guys went over to a friend's house
<v Speaker 1>after football practice. We did the classic you know, swing
<v Speaker 1>by Blockbuster, grab a couple of movies and some you know,
<v Speaker 1>popcorn or whatever, went over to a guy's house and
<v Speaker 1>we laughed our rears off at this movie. So right
<v Speaker 1>from the get go, I thought this was a hilarious movie. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>now it was odd, it was odd, but man, it
<v Speaker 1>was funny. Well, it is completely in your wheelhouse.
<v Speaker 2>Because we talked about them mixing up some kind of
<v Speaker 2>weird combination. How about a kidnapping movie. It's combined with
<v Speaker 2>Looney Tunes style?
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely right, absolutely.
<v Speaker 2>And how different of a movie to do right after
<v Speaker 2>you've done blood simple. I mean, it's just their night
<v Speaker 2>and day different, which turned off a lot of critics
<v Speaker 2>they're not expecting it, But I'm with you. First time
<v Speaker 2>I saw it, I was like, this movie's fantastic. Hilarious.
<v Speaker 2>I was eating up the dial that they exchanged because
<v Speaker 2>it's so crazy the way that they write. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>these buffoon kind of you know, trailer trash characters speaking
<v Speaker 2>in this way. And what they did was they combined
<v Speaker 2>the style of writing that they found in magazines of
<v Speaker 2>the time with the Bible.
<v Speaker 1>I know that was with the two things they slammed
<v Speaker 1>together to write this script. It's crazy. And you know,
<v Speaker 1>after watching Raised in Arizona, it took me a while
<v Speaker 1>to allow Nicholas Cage to be a movie star, action hero,
<v Speaker 1>a list actor, because I'd seen him be a complete goofball,
<v Speaker 1>weirdo trailer trash guy, yeah in Raised in Arizona.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and we know from even from when we talked
<v Speaker 2>about his first.
<v Speaker 1>Really big movie, Rumblefish. Rumblefish. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>He likes to improv things and he likes to put
<v Speaker 2>his own spin on things. And Joel and Ethan are
<v Speaker 2>meticulous about how they write scripts, and so even though
<v Speaker 2>they had mutual respect for each other, their ways of
<v Speaker 2>doing things did not line up, which is why this
<v Speaker 2>is the only Cohen Brothers movie that he is in.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>I read a little bit about that, and they did
<v Speaker 1>allow him to improv and then they just cut most
<v Speaker 1>of it out. Sure, go ahead, Nick, do whatever you want. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>you can tell the true Nicholas Cage moment when he
<v Speaker 1>falls over being tied to the chair, his head slams
<v Speaker 1>on a cheese wall and he just starts screaming his
<v Speaker 1>head off. You know, there's so many funny parts of
<v Speaker 1>this movie. When he gets in a fight inside the
<v Speaker 1>confined spaces of the mobile home and he raises his
<v Speaker 1>hands to like do an overhead karate chop punch. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>and he scrapes his fingers on the on the bubbled ceiling. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>And he's like, I mean, it's such a cartoon. And
<v Speaker 1>if you get it wrong just a little bit, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>the whole thing goes in the tank. You can just
<v Speaker 1>take the movie and throw it in the trash Allah
<v Speaker 1>Last Action Hero. He tried to make it a satire
<v Speaker 1>kind of funny, kind of poke funny, and it didn't work,
<v Speaker 1>and the whole movie is trash yep. And instead they
<v Speaker 1>hit it right on the nose and it's it's hilarious. Right.
<v Speaker 2>So, in addition to People Magazine and The Bible, they
<v Speaker 2>had influence of a film director named Preston Sturgis and
<v Speaker 2>I sent you this. I think this is probably their
<v Speaker 2>favorite film director and his style. You can definitely see
<v Speaker 2>how they've drawn their influence because his is all about
<v Speaker 2>that dialogue. The story is secondary to that fast paced,
<v Speaker 2>kind of cutty, fun speaking that all of these characters have.
<v Speaker 2>And then the in addition to the crazy things that
<v Speaker 2>they say, the characters themselves are.
<v Speaker 1>Bigger than life, right.
<v Speaker 2>I mean you just you think about the brothers John
<v Speaker 2>Goodman and William Forsyth and the goofball nature that they
<v Speaker 2>have and still their kind of educated way of speaking.
<v Speaker 2>It is perfect poetic. It's surprising, and it's wonderful to watch,
<v Speaker 2>and if you've got the right actors doing the job,
<v Speaker 2>you don't have to work too hard at it. So
<v Speaker 2>in addition to Preston Sturgis in that style, they also
<v Speaker 2>had William Faulkner, they had Flannery O'Connor, who's one of
<v Speaker 2>my favorite authors. She's Southern style author. They took it
<v Speaker 2>influence from her. They put their script together and they
<v Speaker 2>showed it to the film company and they said, this
<v Speaker 2>is our complete opposite movie of Blood Simple, and the
<v Speaker 2>company named Circle Films, agreed to finance the movies.
<v Speaker 1>Hey, before you leave that, I called you the other
<v Speaker 1>day and I told you that their style reminds me
<v Speaker 1>of Elmore Leonard, who is Southern and dialogue based. Yep.
<v Speaker 1>There's a sort of rhythm to their speaking. Yep. So
<v Speaker 1>think justified. Right, it's all about edgy dialogue and unusual
<v Speaker 1>characters like a drug dealer or a marijuana grower, Texas
<v Speaker 1>ranger and all that stuff. We're asked in raising Arizona
<v Speaker 1>to cheer for kidnappers. Yeah, you know, trailer trash kidnappers,
<v Speaker 1>kidnapping babies, kidnapping babies. Yeah, they got more than they
<v Speaker 1>can handle. High. By the way, d while you are
<v Speaker 1>gathering your thoughts there, David Wright and Van Allen Plexico
<v Speaker 1>about a podcast that we're going to be recording with
<v Speaker 1>them tomorrow, a Ready Player One, the movie.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, if you haven't caught the Ready Player One, the
<v Speaker 2>book that we did with Van and Allen Plexico and
<v Speaker 2>David Wright last week, go check it out. It's on
<v Speaker 2>the White Rocket podcast with Van Allen Plexica.
<v Speaker 1>That's right, and the sequel coming this coming week.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, I'm gonna jump back to what I said before. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>I mentioned that they had met a guy who's helping
<v Speaker 2>produce this movie whose name was Jeff Dowd. Right, the Dowter,
<v Speaker 2>the Doubter, Eld Douderino, if you're not in the whole
<v Speaker 2>brevity thing. So Jeff Dowd had a definite way about him.
<v Speaker 2>He was a part of a group, the Seattle part
<v Speaker 2>of the Seattle seven, that was a real group. It's funny,
<v Speaker 2>you never know with Cohen Brothers movies when they bring
<v Speaker 2>stuff up whether this is going to be a real
<v Speaker 2>thing or just they've made something up. So when the
<v Speaker 2>dude says he's he was a part of the Seattle seven,
<v Speaker 2>you know, me and six other guys. He that was
<v Speaker 2>a real thing. Right, So they meet Jeff Dowd and
<v Speaker 2>they they love this kind of kooky guy that smokes pot,
<v Speaker 2>has his beard belly. Now, the guy that they have
<v Speaker 2>who is the cinematographer for Raising Arizona is a guy
<v Speaker 2>that you probably heard of named Barry Sonefeld.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's right. Do you know why you've heard of him?
<v Speaker 1>I mean he did. He's been a director for other
<v Speaker 1>famous movies.
<v Speaker 2>Men in Black, Yes, that's kind of a big one.
<v Speaker 2>Men and Black's all of them. He also did get Shorty.
<v Speaker 1>I mean he get Shorty Elmore Leonard. Yeah, there you go.
<v Speaker 2>Right before that, he was a cinematographer also for Big
<v Speaker 2>which we've got coming up pretty soon, we do, so
<v Speaker 2>that'll be very soon, very soon. Yes, he introduces them
<v Speaker 2>to this guy named Peter x Line. Peter Xline is
<v Speaker 2>a vet. I know where you're going. It's not the
<v Speaker 2>Walter character yet, all right. Yeah, but he's a guy
<v Speaker 2>who is retired and he lives in a ratty apartment
<v Speaker 2>and he has this rug that really ties the room together.
<v Speaker 2>So Peter x Line he introduces them to his friend
<v Speaker 2>named Lewis Abernethy. Lewis Abernethy is also a vet, and
<v Speaker 2>Lewis Abernethy is in the guns. He's a private investigator
<v Speaker 2>and one time Louis helped Peter track down.
<v Speaker 1>A high school kid.
<v Speaker 2>Who stole his car because when they found the car,
<v Speaker 2>Lewis Abernethy found the homework in the seats.
<v Speaker 1>That is unbelievable. That made it all the way to
<v Speaker 1>the big screen of Big Lebowski. It was hilarious. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>it's crazy to think that these are real events that
<v Speaker 1>actually happened.
<v Speaker 2>So obviously, Lewis Abernethy is a key inspiration for the
<v Speaker 2>Walter character. Jeff Dowd is a key inspiration for the dude,
<v Speaker 2>as is Peter x Line. And in this process they
<v Speaker 2>also meet John Millius. John Millius, the director of Conan
<v Speaker 2>the Barbarian, John Millius, the writer of Apocalypse Now. John
<v Speaker 2>Millius close associations with Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas,
<v Speaker 2>but a different cat altogether. And if you haven't seen
<v Speaker 2>John Millius, you go take a look at his picture
<v Speaker 2>and you're gonna immediately think of Walter.
<v Speaker 1>That's exactly right. I He also worked on Dirty Harry
<v Speaker 1>and Jaws. Yes, this guy's a heavy hitter from Hollywood, absolutely,
<v Speaker 1>but he's one of these sort of kooky right wing
<v Speaker 1>military lots of guns.
<v Speaker 2>We got hired to write a script. You know that
<v Speaker 2>we want you to stay in this place and write
<v Speaker 2>a script. And his requirement was that there were babes, beer,
<v Speaker 2>and motorcycle as much as he wanted. And that was
<v Speaker 2>that was how he wrote the script.
<v Speaker 1>Right.
<v Speaker 2>So the first movie that John milly Is directed was
<v Speaker 2>this movie called Big Wednesday. Okay, okay, it's a surfer movie.
<v Speaker 2>Jan Michael Vincent I believe is the kind of Key.
<v Speaker 1>The world's greatest athlete. Jan Michael Vincent got it? You
<v Speaker 1>got it?
<v Speaker 2>So Jan Michael Vincent's character was based on this guy
<v Speaker 2>named Jim Ganzer, and John Millius introduces the Cohen's to
<v Speaker 2>Jim Ganzer and Jim Ganser's name. Nobody calls him Jim Ganser.
<v Speaker 2>They call him the dude.
<v Speaker 3>Wait, let me, let me explain something to you. I
<v Speaker 3>am not mister Lebowski, your mister Lebowski. I'm the dude.
<v Speaker 3>So that's what you call me, you know that? Or
<v Speaker 3>his dudeness or duder or you know, el dud Reno
<v Speaker 3>if you're not into the whole brevity thing.
<v Speaker 1>Ah, this is great. This is a hodgepodge of real
<v Speaker 1>people they pull together and it all lands in.
<v Speaker 2>This movie exactly after raising Arizona. They had gone on
<v Speaker 2>and done Miller's Crossing in nineteen ninety. And that's a
<v Speaker 2>gangster flick. I haven't seen it, but it's supposed to
<v Speaker 2>be very good. It came out the same day as Goodfellas,
<v Speaker 2>which you know, it's hard to have another gangster movie
<v Speaker 2>out the same day as Goodfellas. But I'm sure that
<v Speaker 2>this one holds its own in an entirely different way.
<v Speaker 2>Then they do Barton Fink, which is not terribly successful either,
<v Speaker 2>the Hudsucker Proxy, which does even worse. Both of those
<v Speaker 2>movies I absolutely love and they.
<v Speaker 1>Want terrible names. That's the big thing. Maybe I did.
<v Speaker 1>I saw Madonna on the Arsenio Hall Show talk about
<v Speaker 1>how much she enjoyed the movie Barton Fink. Wow, pulling
<v Speaker 1>that right out of the nineties, that's awesome. And then
<v Speaker 1>of course Tim Robbins is in The Hudsocker Proxy. Both
<v Speaker 1>of those movies went completely under my radar in the
<v Speaker 1>nineties just because that title didn't captivate me.
<v Speaker 2>So I'm telling you and all of the Shirley fans
<v Speaker 2>out there, the Hudsucker Proxy is worth the watch. It
<v Speaker 2>is great fun. I mean, if you like Raising Arizona,
<v Speaker 2>this is movie watch. It is full looney tune style fun.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, it is great. By the way. Yeah, you know
<v Speaker 1>what company h I McDonough works for in Raising Arizona.
<v Speaker 1>Hudsucker Industries. There you go. They have this own little
<v Speaker 1>universe that everything lives in.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and they also have like a go to cast
<v Speaker 2>that they always use. You've got Francis McDorman, which is
<v Speaker 2>she's been in virtually everything that they've done.
<v Speaker 1>You know why, Well, she and Joel got married. They
<v Speaker 1>got married. I mean that helps. Yeah. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>So she's in Raising Arizona. You got Steve Bushimi who's
<v Speaker 2>in Big Lebowski. You've got John Goodman who's in both.
<v Speaker 2>You've got John Polito who's in Big Lebowski. You've gone
<v Speaker 2>John Tuturo who's in Big Glebowski. These guys are in
<v Speaker 2>so many of their movies. And they also have go
<v Speaker 2>to Cruise.
<v Speaker 1>Right. They've got Sir Roger Deakins. I mean, he is
<v Speaker 1>the man.
<v Speaker 2>He's the godfather of cinematography and probably wouldn't be there
<v Speaker 2>had it not been for his work with the Coen Brothers.
<v Speaker 1>Wow. Okay.
<v Speaker 2>So also in that time in between Raising Arizona and
<v Speaker 2>The Big Lebowski, they see this play called Miputa vide okay,
<v Speaker 2>where they see a guy named John Taturo who's playing
<v Speaker 2>a Hispanic character who is sort.
<v Speaker 1>Of a pederaste. What's a pederaste? Shut the Jason John
<v Speaker 1>Tuturo who goes on to star as Jesus. Nobody else
<v Speaker 1>with the Jesus.
<v Speaker 5>You said it, mom, Nobody was with the Jesus Jesus
<v Speaker 5>Roles was a movie that came out later that was
<v Speaker 5>not directed by the Coen Brothers, in which failed miserably.
<v Speaker 1>I didn't even know that thing was a thing.
<v Speaker 2>I was excited about it, and then it was like,
<v Speaker 2>oh no, this is an absolute trainer.
<v Speaker 1>So hey, you know what, though he was in The
<v Speaker 1>Batman and we loved him in The Batman. He did great.
<v Speaker 1>He was he was great.
<v Speaker 2>He's I really I don't know that I've seen him
<v Speaker 2>in stuff that I don't like him. Man, I just
<v Speaker 2>haven't seen that Jesus Roles movie. But talk about one
<v Speaker 2>of the best character introductions in all of TV and
<v Speaker 2>movie history. I mean the Gypsy Kings playing their version
<v Speaker 2>of Hotel California and his his one painted cokenail on
<v Speaker 2>his pinky with all those rings and the pink unitard
<v Speaker 2>bowling suit.
<v Speaker 1>And the hairnet and the licking of the ball. Yeah yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I mean it is art. You know, they amazing. They
<v Speaker 1>gave him plenty of space to do what he does
<v Speaker 1>and it was John Detrro's idea to lick the ball.
<v Speaker 1>And to you know, he put a sack of birds
<v Speaker 1>eat in his pants when he had to go door
<v Speaker 1>to door telling people. He was a pederass. Yes, and
<v Speaker 1>he just was over the top, he said when he later,
<v Speaker 1>Yeah he was embarrassed. Oh no, he's like, ah, really fantastic.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, it's fantastic. He created a character that's very memorable. Indeed.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, so they've done Fargo and it blows up. I
<v Speaker 2>mean Fargo, Francis McDorman wins the Oscar, It gets all
<v Speaker 2>kinds of Oscar nominations. They are they have moved from
<v Speaker 2>you know, movies that don't make back their budgets into
<v Speaker 2>this massive hit, and that brings us to them writing
<v Speaker 2>the movie that falls around all of these crazy stories
<v Speaker 2>that they've heard from these guys that they've met in
<v Speaker 2>their time in the movie business, and they they decide
<v Speaker 2>to take it and write it in a Raymond Chandler
<v Speaker 2>style episodic Private Dick style kidnap adventure. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>The plot on this is a little bit fuzzy.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and I had to write it down.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean it's it's a little bit weird. He
<v Speaker 1>just kind of whinds. Yeah, and even the Coen Brothers
<v Speaker 1>has said, the plot's really not that important. It's just
<v Speaker 1>hang out with these characters. Yeah, it's and they are right.
<v Speaker 1>They are right.
<v Speaker 2>Like, after my first probably two or three viewings, I
<v Speaker 2>probably couldn't have told you exactly what happens in the
<v Speaker 2>movie other than there's this really cool guy who's laid
<v Speaker 2>back who gets involved.
<v Speaker 1>With this weird kidnapping for this trophy.
<v Speaker 3>Wife.
<v Speaker 1>I had to call you and I'm like, okay, so
<v Speaker 1>is my understanding this right? Is this what actually happened?
<v Speaker 1>You're like, yeah, that's what happened. So yeah, So this
<v Speaker 1>was only my second time to see this movie. Oh nice,
<v Speaker 1>So but I was hilarious. I laughed my butt.
<v Speaker 2>Off, right, awesome, Well, what do you think Let's talk
<v Speaker 2>about casting. Let's jump back to Raising Arizona and talk
<v Speaker 2>about casting. Now we've already talked a little bit about it.
<v Speaker 2>We got Nicholas Cage was his first choice for h
<v Speaker 2>I McDonough.
<v Speaker 1>Well he won the audition. Okay, but you know Kevin
<v Speaker 1>Costner auditioned for this three times. Wow, he almost got
<v Speaker 1>the part. Could you see that? This is eighty seven?
<v Speaker 1>I mean that was this is pre Untouchables? Wow. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>So Kevin Costner had been in Fandango, but he was
<v Speaker 1>an up and comer. But this is pre Boulderham. This
<v Speaker 1>is pre Field of Dreams. This is pre Untouchables. Wow,
<v Speaker 1>Kevin cost auditioned three times and almost got this part. Nice,
<v Speaker 1>We should go ahead and mention raising. Arizona released on
<v Speaker 1>March thirteenth, nineteen eighty seven, on a budget of a
<v Speaker 1>little over five million bucks. That is super tight.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, they had They said they had to have it
<v Speaker 2>very well organized before they started production because the budget
<v Speaker 2>was so tight.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, wake up, son, I've been taking these Huggies and
<v Speaker 1>whatever cash you got. Okay, here I'm gonna throw I'm
<v Speaker 1>gonna blow your mind on this one.
<v Speaker 3>Okay.
<v Speaker 1>You know who else auditioned for the role of h
<v Speaker 1>I No, Richard Jenkins? Does that name ring a ill
<v Speaker 1>with you? Yes?
<v Speaker 2>Richard Jenkins? Oh, man, I saw it and I can't
<v Speaker 2>bring it. I can't find him in the mental mansion.
<v Speaker 2>Tell me who he is.
<v Speaker 1>Richard Jenkins is the dad in step Brothers. Yes, the
<v Speaker 1>guy who's like you crash my boat, you goons.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, see, he's another he's another standard Cohen Brothers.
<v Speaker 1>Go to guy. That's right. Yep. How about that nice,
<v Speaker 1>that's a good one. Okay, this was mind blowing to me. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>you know who auditioned and turned down the role for
<v Speaker 1>Edwina No, Miss Willie Scott. Kate Capshaw herself turned down
<v Speaker 1>this role.
<v Speaker 2>Wow, okay, And let's see that was eighty seven. That
<v Speaker 2>would have been post Temple of Doom.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I mean she's hooking up with Steven Spielberg at
<v Speaker 2>that point.
<v Speaker 1>She doesn't need to work. She doesn't need to work.
<v Speaker 1>You know what other role she turned down that was
<v Speaker 1>like been huge for her, Diane Chambers in Cheers. Oh wow,
<v Speaker 1>she turned down that role.
<v Speaker 2>Interesting, okay, Kate Nuggets Capshaw, nice, Okay.
<v Speaker 1>She also auditioned for some roles in The Outsiders, which
<v Speaker 1>we talked about at the time. Yeah, okay, so some
<v Speaker 1>other people in raised in Arizona. We talked a little
<v Speaker 1>bit about John Goodman.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, he's in Coen Brothers movie after Coen Brothers movie,
<v Speaker 2>after Coen Brothers movie. You know, if they call that recidivism.
<v Speaker 1>They got a name for people like you, Hi.
<v Speaker 4>That name is called recidivism, repeat on Fender.
<v Speaker 1>Not a pretty name, is it high? No, sir, that's
<v Speaker 1>one bonehead name. But that ain't me anymore. You're not
<v Speaker 1>just telling us what we want to hear, No, sir,
<v Speaker 1>no way, we just want to hear the truth. Well, then,
<v Speaker 1>I guess I am telling you what you want to hear.
<v Speaker 3>Oh I didn't we.
<v Speaker 1>Just tell you not to do that? Yes, sir, Yes,
<v Speaker 1>I think he got the part in Roseanne right around
<v Speaker 1>the same time. I mean, that's on his way to superstardom. Right,
<v Speaker 1>he had played the coach in Revenge of the Nerds.
<v Speaker 1>You know, Wow, okay, good one. You guys lost to
<v Speaker 1>a bunch of g D nerds.
<v Speaker 4>Nerds, you just got your asses whipped by a bunch
<v Speaker 4>of nerdsrds.
<v Speaker 1>All right? Then you mentioned William forsythe I mean he
<v Speaker 1>goes on. He plays like a battie in like Steven
<v Speaker 1>Sagall movies and stuff.
<v Speaker 2>He's so much better as the goofball. I like him
<v Speaker 2>so much better as the goofball than as the bad guy.
<v Speaker 2>I guess probably because that's where I saw him first.
<v Speaker 1>Was that right? Right? He was in Cloak and Dagger,
<v Speaker 1>the movie Cloak and Dagger. Was he Yes, he was
<v Speaker 1>like the computer guy that Henry Thomas brings his disc
<v Speaker 1>to for him to check it out. It's been a
<v Speaker 1>few decades since I've seen Cloak and check it Out.
<v Speaker 1>Childhood favorite of mine too. Okay. You also have Sam McMurray,
<v Speaker 1>who plays Glenn.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, he's also in Christmas Vacation, which we covered a
<v Speaker 2>couple of Christmases ago, that last Christmas.
<v Speaker 1>Is he in Christmas Vacation? Yeah, he's the coworker of
<v Speaker 1>Chevy Chase. That's right, he is. Okay, So anyway, he plays.
<v Speaker 2>Glenn, and I guess that's a way Homer.
<v Speaker 1>It's Pope wear a funny hat. Yes, it is kind
<v Speaker 1>of funny Glenn. This character is hilarious. And then of
<v Speaker 1>course you got Francis McDermott. I want to mention m
<v Speaker 1>Emmett Walsh, the guy from The Jerk. He's been in
<v Speaker 1>a million different movies. He's kind of a that guy.
<v Speaker 2>He was a go to for them. He was the
<v Speaker 2>kind of he was a key character in Blood Simple.
<v Speaker 1>Okay. Interesting. He was in Blade Runner, which we talked
<v Speaker 1>about early in twenty twenty two. Yep.
<v Speaker 2>He is the guy who I quote routinely when I
<v Speaker 2>say no, not.
<v Speaker 1>That mother scratcher. All right, And we would be remiss
<v Speaker 1>if we did not talk about the great random texts.
<v Speaker 1>Cobb as Leonard Small's Lenny.
<v Speaker 2>Small's Lenny Small's name right out of John Steinbeck's of
<v Speaker 2>Mice and Men. They said text Cob was a little
<v Speaker 2>tough to work with. He's more like a instead of
<v Speaker 2>an actor. He's more like a force of nature. I
<v Speaker 2>don't think they will be hiring him again as what
<v Speaker 2>they said back then. Obviously he's passed away since then.
<v Speaker 1>He was in Uncommon Valor, right, Yes, yeah, he was
<v Speaker 1>in Fletch Lives.
<v Speaker 2>Oh wow, Okay, he's got a very unique face. And
<v Speaker 2>I think they must have done something with his nose
<v Speaker 2>in this particular movie because it was even bigger. They
<v Speaker 2>said he was part bloodhound, but he.
<v Speaker 1>Was a heavyweight contender. Yeah, this guy is a badass,
<v Speaker 1>Yes he is. You don't remember when Fletch Lives. When
<v Speaker 1>he when Chevy Chase gets thrown in jail and he says,
<v Speaker 1>bend over. Chevy's like Ben good to meet Jenny. No,
<v Speaker 1>And then finally, TJ. Kewne is one of the many
<v Speaker 1>children who played Nathan Junior, which, interestingly enough, they had
<v Speaker 1>to fire several children because they kept getting too old
<v Speaker 1>and they would walk instead of crawl, so they had
<v Speaker 1>fire kids left and right. Yeah. Tjkewn is now a
<v Speaker 1>realtor in the Phoenix area. Wow.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, so this is a sad bit of trivia here
<v Speaker 2>that I just happened to know. Okay, the kid when
<v Speaker 2>he's having his dream at the end of the movie
<v Speaker 2>and he's seeing one of those he's seeing Nathan Junior
<v Speaker 2>scoring touchdowns on the football kid who played that older
<v Speaker 2>Nathan Junior was tragically murdered in like a street rage
<v Speaker 2>incident when he was only twenty three years old.
<v Speaker 1>Really, yeah, man, that's terrible. Okay. So casting on The
<v Speaker 1>Big Lebowski, Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, then they got
<v Speaker 1>Jeff Bridges to play the dude. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Now, I will tell you that they had John Goodman
<v Speaker 2>in mind for Walter the whole time.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they worked with him many times before.
<v Speaker 2>They had Steve you Shimmi the whole time in mind
<v Speaker 2>for Donnie, But they didn't know who they were going
<v Speaker 2>to have play the dude, right, top contender mil Gibson.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, how about that. Yeah, he didn't really take it seriously. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I don't think he quite got the gist of the character.
<v Speaker 1>He would have been wrong.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I'm sure he has the acting chops to
<v Speaker 2>do it, but he would have been wrong.
<v Speaker 1>I Mean, we're talking mid nineties. Yeah, this is Martin Riggs.
<v Speaker 1>This is Braveheart Mel Gibson at the peak of his
<v Speaker 1>Hollywood powers. Yeah. I think Jeff Ridges did an awesome
<v Speaker 1>job and they didn't need mel Gibson for this.
<v Speaker 2>No, Jeff, I mean, Jeff Bridges is a force himself.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, but I really props to him because he's
<v Speaker 2>frequently playing the handsome man, right, I mean, he's a
<v Speaker 2>good looking guy and is typically playing that part, and
<v Speaker 2>so he keeps himself in pretty good shape. But when
<v Speaker 2>he got the part and he met Jeff Dowd, he's like, oh,
<v Speaker 2>kind of let my waistline go for this, and they
<v Speaker 2>said they didn't. The only direction that they needed to
<v Speaker 2>give him, and the he would ask for is before
<v Speaker 2>each scene he would go, so, guys, do you think
<v Speaker 2>that the dude burned one down on the way over
<v Speaker 2>to this scene? And they said most of the time
<v Speaker 2>the answer was yes, And so if the answer was yes,
<v Speaker 2>he'd go over the corner and rub his eyes really
<v Speaker 2>hard and then go and do the scene.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Jeff Bridges says, he's basically playing himself from the
<v Speaker 1>sixties and seventies. Yeah, he can identify with this character, right, Sure, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>all right, so you mentioned John Goodman. Julianne Moore plays
<v Speaker 1>maud Lebowski. Yes, she got this script while she was
<v Speaker 1>working on Jurassic Park The Lost World.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, so glad that she did both, because had she
<v Speaker 2>only done Jurassalic Park The Lost World, I don't know
<v Speaker 2>that her career would have been as successful.
<v Speaker 1>As it was. Right, So her character was based on
<v Speaker 1>Yoko Ono. Carolee Schneeman.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, CAROLEE Schneman actually created art naked hanging from a string.
<v Speaker 1>I know. I googled that right before we got started.
<v Speaker 1>I thought this can't be right, is it?
<v Speaker 2>Did you find her work strongly vaginal?
<v Speaker 1>Sorry? Did they make you uncover word itself? And find it?
<v Speaker 1>Hard to say? But, oh my gosh, the Google pictures
<v Speaker 1>that I looked at it was it's just so weird
<v Speaker 1>for me. She's swinging around, just making marks on the floor. Hey,
<v Speaker 1>to each their own. So but this is the one
<v Speaker 1>that really got me. Okay, yeah, so big Lebowski, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>the big Jeff Leboski, the older man, right, this is
<v Speaker 1>who they wanted for the role. Robert Duvall would have
<v Speaker 1>been great. Anthony Hopkins would have been great. He didn't
<v Speaker 1>want to play an American, which I think is strange
<v Speaker 1>because that's what we call acting. Yeah, okay, Gene Hackman
<v Speaker 1>would have been great. Yeah, all these guys, George Scott
<v Speaker 1>would have been perfect. Yeah, Jerry fallwell, wow, that's weird. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>stay with me. Andy Griffith, Okay, that was that would
<v Speaker 1>be odd. And then finally Marlon Brando is the guy
<v Speaker 1>they really wanted, but his health wouldn't let him do it. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>so they end up hiring David Huddleston.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, which I does a great job blazing saddles. Like
<v Speaker 2>immediately I'm like, oh, there's the guy for blazing saddles.
<v Speaker 1>But yes, he's brilliant in this. Yeah that is he
<v Speaker 1>wasn't blazing saddles. There you go. Okay, let's talk about
<v Speaker 1>Tara Reid for a second. Okay, Tara Reid in nineteen
<v Speaker 1>ninety eight. Yeah, she's bringing the heat. Yeah that's just
<v Speaker 1>before she went crazy.
<v Speaker 2>Blow on them to blow on Yes, I can't blow
<v Speaker 2>that far.
<v Speaker 1>Oh my gosh. Remember her. She had that TV show
<v Speaker 1>Terodise where she was in a reality show on VH
<v Speaker 1>one and it's all about her just being crying. Did
<v Speaker 1>not watch Terrordise. I didn't watch Arodise either, but I
<v Speaker 1>mean she lost her mind in the eighties.
<v Speaker 2>In the nineties, yeah, yeah, but she was. She was
<v Speaker 2>very young and beautiful and the perfect trophy wife back then.
<v Speaker 1>For the character of Bunny Labowski. They wanted Charlie's star
<v Speaker 1>and you know, would have been a good choice. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>she would have been a good choice.
<v Speaker 2>You know, interesting comparison of the two main female characters
<v Speaker 2>in this. You've got Maud, this headstrong independent feminists and
<v Speaker 2>the trophy wife and infomaniac.
<v Speaker 1>Right, And when you talk about Maud, when I'm watching
<v Speaker 1>her do those weird things in bed and I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>what's she doing? And then I realized, oh, she's trying
<v Speaker 1>to get pregnant. Yep, okay. And then of course you've
<v Speaker 1>got John Tuturo as Jesus. By the way, Sam Elliott,
<v Speaker 1>they had in mind the whole time.
<v Speaker 2>Of course, Now, Sam Elliot, you know you've we've talked
<v Speaker 2>about this being a Raymond Chandler thing, and then you've
<v Speaker 2>got these unusual hippie character and Vietnam vet bowling and
<v Speaker 2>this random adventure. But the movie starts off with a
<v Speaker 2>tumbleweed and the narration by the most Southern drawl narrator
<v Speaker 2>that you can imagine, perfect voice.
<v Speaker 1>You're just like, what is this a Western? What is
<v Speaker 1>this here? Right?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, but it's this great comparison of the Do and
<v Speaker 2>his anti herooness and the standard American cowboy.
<v Speaker 1>And Sam Elliott didn't get it. It didn't matter.
<v Speaker 2>He's just got to say his lines and act like
<v Speaker 2>Sam Elliott, just like the cowboy. But he's like, I
<v Speaker 2>really don't understand what I'm doing.
<v Speaker 1>But he was there for two days. He shot his
<v Speaker 1>parts in two days. Two days. There you go. Sometimes
<v Speaker 1>you eat the bar, sometimes the bar each you. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>that's pretty much what I have for the cast. But
<v Speaker 1>I do have a nugget that I want to blow
<v Speaker 1>your mind with. Okay, Okay, I'm excited. Okay. So the
<v Speaker 1>Big Lebowski Mansion, Yes, is a famous filming spot in
<v Speaker 1>Beverly Hills. Okay. So it is a stand in for
<v Speaker 1>a lot of quote unquote rich people's homes in movies
<v Speaker 1>and stuff like that. Okay. It's actually owned by the
<v Speaker 1>city of Beverly Hills. Oh Okay, it's called Graystone Mansion. Okay, Okay.
<v Speaker 1>It's actually very very close to the Playboy mansion. It's
<v Speaker 1>like you can see it from the front lawn or whatever. Nice.
<v Speaker 1>That's perfect. Okay. So it has starred as the rich
<v Speaker 1>person's home in these movies all of me. Gold Member
<v Speaker 1>Death becomes her Ghostbusters two, which we did with the
<v Speaker 1>guys at the film by podcast.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, which I'm trying to remember. I can't remember a mansions, don't.
<v Speaker 1>I don't really remember that either. Maybe it's like where
<v Speaker 1>they were doing the artwork or something. Maybe yeah, maybe
<v Speaker 1>Indiecent Proposal, Spider Man one, two and three. You mentioned
<v Speaker 1>Sam Raimie, Yeah, yeah, perfect x Men yeah, okay, okay.
<v Speaker 1>And these music videos okay, brace yourself here, I Do
<v Speaker 1>Anything for Love by meat Loaf Okay. And a video
<v Speaker 1>that we've talked about before, Oh, Pretty Woman by van
<v Speaker 1>Halen was shot at the Greystone Mansion. Wow. The van
<v Speaker 1>Halen video where the midgets are assaulting that woman at
<v Speaker 1>the beginning of the video. That's awesome. The big Olebowski mansion.
<v Speaker 1>That's fantastic, man, that is great. Okay.
<v Speaker 2>So my only bit of trivia for this last little bit. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>the car that was actually stolen that belonged to Peter
<v Speaker 2>x Line, that was found by Lewis Abernathy was a
<v Speaker 2>Chrysler LeBaron, and that's what they wanted to use for
<v Speaker 2>the movie, but John Goodman was too big to fit
<v Speaker 2>inside of it, and so they had to use a
<v Speaker 2>Ford tourn.
<v Speaker 1>Oh Man, John's lost some weight since then.
<v Speaker 2>He I'm sure he could fit inside the LeBaron at
<v Speaker 2>this point, but I just thought that was interesting.
<v Speaker 1>He was a big dude. It was a big dude.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, guys, that does it for the first part of
<v Speaker 2>our raising Arizona Versus The Big Lebowski episodes come back
<v Speaker 2>next week. We're going to talk to you about production itself.
<v Speaker 2>We're going to talk to you about composers and the
<v Speaker 2>music used in the movies, and our final judgment on
<v Speaker 2>which of these two movies is the best Coen Brothers
<v Speaker 2>movies of the eighties and nineties.
<v Speaker 1>Come back next week.