The Big Picture

The 1976 Movie Draft

132 min
May 18, 202613 days ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

Sean Fennessey, Amanda Dobbins, and Christopher Ryan conduct a six-category draft of the best films from 1976, joined by guest Tracy Letts. The episode explores how 1976 represents a pivotal moment in cinema history—balancing creative, character-driven films with emerging blockbuster trends—and concludes with a humorous debate over who deserves the show's coveted third chair.

Insights
  • 1976 was a transitional year in Hollywood where high-concept blockbusters (Rocky, Jaws aftermath) coexisted with sophisticated character studies and paranoid thrillers, representing the last gasp of New Hollywood before franchise dominance
  • The scarcity model of theatrical release and delayed home viewing created longer cultural footprints for films in the 1970s compared to today's immediate accessibility, which has degraded both cultural impact and theatrical attendance
  • International film eligibility in retrospective drafts requires flexible rules around release dates, as many foreign films took years to reach US distribution, creating ongoing ambiguity about canonical inclusion
  • The year's strength lies in a concentrated cluster of elite films (All the President's Men, Taxi Driver, Network) rather than deep bench strength, making mid-tier selections challenging and category-dependent
  • Guest scholarship and critical perspective—demonstrated by Tracy Letts's 56-film Robert Duvall deep dive—has become a measurable form of cultural contribution that influences podcast credibility and audience engagement
Trends
Theatrical scarcity as cultural amplifier: Films stayed in public consciousness longer when theatrical availability was the only option, versus today's on-demand saturation reducing cultural staying powerParanoid cinema as zeitgeist mirror: 1976's success of both cynical thrillers (Taxi Driver, Network) and optimistic underdog stories (Rocky) reflects simultaneous cultural anxieties and desires for redemptionAuteur-driven blockbusters as endangered species: 1976 represents possibly the last year where studio blockbusters maintained creative ambition before post-Jaws/Rocky risk-aversion and franchise consolidationDocumentary prestige in awards discourse: Harlan County, USA winning Best Documentary Feature signals recognition of social-impact filmmaking as culturally equivalent to narrative cinemaInternational film gatekeeping: Criterion Channel and physical media releases are retroactively canonizing foreign films from the 1970s, reshaping what counts as 'the year' in retrospective analysisGenerational taste divergence: 1970s cinema preference correlates with age and professional experience; industry veterans are more critical and selective than casual audiencesGender representation in romantic comedy: Cousin Cousine's French approach to infidelity and desire contrasts sharply with American remakes, suggesting cultural differences in how cinema frames female agencyHorror film grammar evolution: Assault on Precinct 13 and Carrie established editing and visual language techniques that became codified in horror but have rarely been matched in subsequent decadesSports cinema as character study: Bad News Bears and Rocky succeed because they prioritize character development over sports spectacle, a formula rarely replicated in modern sports filmsDirectorial control battles: The Outlaw Josey Wales production conflict between Clint Eastwood and Philip Kaufman led to DGA rule changes preventing stars from replacing directors mid-production
Topics
1976 cinema as transitional moment between New Hollywood and blockbuster eraTheatrical scarcity versus on-demand accessibility and cultural impactInternational film eligibility and release date ambiguity in retrospective draftsParanoid thriller as 1970s cultural expressionCharacter-driven blockbusters versus concept-driven franchisesDocumentary prestige and social-impact filmmakingAuteur filmmakers working within studio system constraintsGenerational differences in film taste and critical perspectiveHorror film visual grammar and editing innovationSports cinema as character study versus spectacleFemale representation in romantic comedy across culturesDirectorial control and production conflict resolutionPhysical media restoration and canon formationChildhood media exposure and artistic developmentPodcast guest scholarship as cultural contribution
Companies
The Ringer
Employer of Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins; hosts The Big Picture podcast and related film discussion shows
Criterion Collection
Streaming service and physical media distributor mentioned for 1976 film availability and restoration efforts
Letterboxd
Film tracking platform used by hosts to curate lists and reference film selections during draft preparation
Disney Plus
Referenced as example of modern on-demand accessibility that has degraded theatrical scarcity and cultural impact
Warner Bros.
Distributor of 1976 films including The Outlaw Josey Wales; mentioned for physical media releases
Lionsgate
Production company founded by Robert Altman that released Welcome to LA, one of the first films under the label
Studio Canal
Physical media distributor providing 4K restoration of The Man Who Fell to Earth
Arrow Video
Physical media distributor providing 4K releases of 1976 horror films including Alice Sweet Alice
People
Tracy Letts
Guest participant in 1976 film draft; conducted extensive scholarship on Robert Duvall filmography
Sean Fennessey
Co-host of The Big Picture; leads draft discussion and curates thematic analysis of 1976 cinema
Amanda Dobbins
Co-host of The Big Picture; advocates for female-centered films and international cinema
Christopher Ryan
Co-host of The Big Picture and Rewatchables; focuses on cinematography and directorial technique
Jack Sanders
Podcast producer who determines draft order; subject of humorous criticism for perceived bias
Martin Scorsese
Director of Taxi Driver; discussed for visual orchestration and De Niro collaboration
Robert De Niro
Star of Taxi Driver; praised for portrayal of mental illness and menace in lead performance
Sidney Lumet
Director of Network; discussed for managing diverse acting styles and satirical tone
Paddy Chayefsky
Writer of Network; praised for prescient satire and soliloquy-driven dialogue style
Robert Altman
Director of Buffalo Bill and the Indians and Welcome to LA; discussed for satirical approach to American myth
John Carpenter
Director of Assault on Precinct 13; praised as major genre filmmaker with modest budget innovation
Sylvester Stallone
Star and writer of Rocky; discussed for character-driven approach to sports blockbuster
Elaine May
Director of Mikey and Nikki; praised for psychological insight into male relationships and anxiety
Clint Eastwood
Star of The Outlaw Josey Wales; discussed for directorial evolution and emotional vulnerability
Brian De Palma
Director of Carrie; praised for innovative editing and split-screen techniques in horror
Pauline Kael
Critic referenced for November 1976 essay grappling with Jaws' impact on cinema
Barbra Streisand
Star of A Star is Born; defended by Amanda as culturally important despite critical dismissal
John Cassavetes
Director of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie; discussed for tortured artistic vision and nightclub aesthetics
Agnes Varda
Director of Daguerréotypes; praised for unique perspective on Parisian street life and human dreams
Wim Wenders
Director of Kings of the Road; discussed as blueprint for Linklater and Jarmusch road movies
Quotes
"I think we're about one or two months away from me and him texting and just being like, why don't we just ditch these losers, start our own podcast."
Tracy LettsOpening segment
"This is a movie that like shouldn't appeal to 13 year olds given what it's about. But when I saw it, I was just taking it was like on a magic carpet ride away into like the rest of my life basically."
Sean FennesseyNetwork discussion
"If you've ever encountered somebody who's having an episode or who is mentally ill, but also has you feeling them the capacity for violence, there's a something happens inside you, right? So, fight or flight impulse that takes hold and D'Niro just absolutely taps into that."
Tracy LettsTaxi Driver analysis
"I think the world is going to be a harder place. And so I'm trying to extend their childhood as far as I can."
Tracy LettsParenting discussion
"I think there's a kind of more conversation to have about Godfather part two, but it's a 50 year old movie. We don't have to have it now."
Sean FennesseyGodfather Part II debate
Full Transcript
I'm Sean Fennessey. I'm Amanda Domes. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about 1976. We are drafting again and CR is here, of course, but we also have a special guest, the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth chair, Tracy Letts. What number chair are you? Remind us. You want to have this third chair discussion now? Let's save it for the end of the podcast. It tantalizes you. People fighting over your attention, your affection. No, that's not what it's about. No, it's about who belongs, who gets to sit and canonize with us, really, in perpetuity, I think. I think we're about one or two months away from me and him texting and just being like, why don't we just ditch these losers, start our own podcast. I tell you what, give it a shot, see what happens. So we are here to draft. This is the third episode of Tracy that we've gotten this week. How are you feeling? Great. Yeah. I'm always happy to be with you guys on the mics or otherwise. Oh, that's beautiful. Very nice. Made a little rhyme, I didn't mean to. Yeah. 1976. Yeah. You were alive? I was. What was going on? Tell us about it. You know, it was our bicentennial year. Sure was. And I'm born on the 4th of July. So I turned. I didn't know that about you. It's true. I didn't either. I should have Googled. I'm sorry. I explained. You better say happy birthday. It's not the 4th of July yet. That explains so much about what you represent to this fine country. There you go. I turned 11 when the country turned 200. And I remember it very well. My dad had, he was a college professor and he had become disenchanted with teaching or the institution he was teaching at. So he quit. And he and my mom built and operated a grocery store out at the lake. He became a gentleman grocer for a year. It was a disastrous experiment. I was about to say this sounds like my dream. I know what it's going to sound like. I found two people more temperamentally unsuited to be, to run a grocery store. It sounds like a less exciting version of Mosquito Coast. I think that's very appropriate. We lived in a, in a trailer park and my birthday gift on our bicentennial was a Honda 50. I got a little, a little minibike to scoot around the lake on. We used to really know how to raise kids back then. We used to go swimming in the lake, me and my friends unsupervised. How did we not drown? I can't even fathom it. So you had a little dirt bike going around a lake. Yeah. That's one of the scariest things I've ever heard. Yeah. It looked like a little ghost, right? Just like perennially sunburned. This is like seriously out of gummo. This is like a little guy. And we were, you know, we were at the movie theater seeing a lot of these movies we're going to talk about today. Afternoon Delight was playing on the radio. Songs in the Key of Life was on our turntable all year long. Hell yeah. It was a great time to be alive. CR, you were just a glimmer in my dad's eye. You were on the corner. Sure. You were not quite there. Yeah. You look at the landscape of 76, the cinema of 76, the culture of 76. Sure. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you feel? I was thinking a lot about the pregnant moment before, you know, obviously Jaws is 75, correct? So we're living in a post-Jaws world and when you read like Pauline Cale from November of 76, she's still like grappling with Jaws. She's still reckoning with what the shark means for movies. But I think while all that nervousness is happening, like we get like an absolute diamond of a year that is maybe one of the last of its kind before all the big, we can make Jaws money. Kind of movies really start to come in and this is one where even like the blockbusters are just really creative and interesting and some of them are just throw away like exploitation movies or whatever B movies. But it's just, it's, it's decidedly free of franchises. It's decidedly free of premeditated blockbusters and I think you can see that in like the variety of work that comes across here. What struck you? So I probably first came to this as an Oscars year, right? As an Oscars nerd and you start doing the history and this year and the year before it are probably the quote unquote two greatest Oscar best picture lineups in history. Yeah. Maybe both times with not the winner I would have chosen, but you if you come to this moment by, you know, studying all of the Oscars, you see all of these movies. And then this is your introduction to what was going on in the 70s movie wise, which is, you know, what the Oscars taught me over the years. This is still my pick for the best year. So even even for the lineup or for the year itself for the for the lineup and I guess probably. Maybe for the year, but it's going to be interesting, right? Because there's, I mean, there's so much top line stuff. There is so much recognizable, great works of cinema canonized in part, you know, by the Oscars, but also just because of what we reference. And then there's a lot of, there's not that much in the middle. I found at least while preparing for this. I was kind of shocked by the number of comedies I just had to turn off. And I was like, well, I'm not laughing. And also that is not an appropriate representation of that person in 2026. I would watch Amanda watch. I'm just like, I mean, not even that one. So can it be great if it's just like all the big names, all bold faced stuff? Is it the greatest? I mean, not to be captain obvious, but like, yes, you've got network, you've got taxi driver, you've got all the president's men. You've got Rocky, you've got, you know, it's those are heavy hitters. But I, you know, it's, it was, it was interesting to see what else was going on because when you think about 76 and you think about young Tracy going to the movies every week and like living like in the heyday of cinema, they're not all network. No, I was in the theater for in search of Noah's Ark. I saw that in the movie theater. I wrote about that in the newsletter last week and just the idea that that movie was the, was it the number nine or number 10 grossing film for the year, which was a documentary. And did your parents bring you to go see that movie? No, I'm sure I went by yourself. No, with my older brother probably. And what, what spurred that? Was it just because it was a kind of phenomenon? We had one screen in town. Yeah, there you go. And that's part of how it works. And I think that's part, I don't, I, I probably would disagree with what you're saying because I find the middle of this year very soft. And this makes for a very interesting draft because there is somewhere between seven and 10 extremely desirable titles this year. And then the way that we do the categories, they're a little weaker. We had to do a little bit of navigating and managing around it. And just thinking back to 1975, we drafted for 1975, four years ago on the pod. And here are the movies that were taken just among the three of us. I'll just list the 15 movies we took in 75. My slate was Barry Linden, the man who would be King, Jaws, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Dolomite and Rollerball. Chris's was The Passenger, Night Moves, Shampoo, Nashville, Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Race With the Devil. And Amanda got Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Stepford Wives, Three Days of the Condor, Dog Day Afternoon, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and Grey Gardens. You just can't, that's not. Wait a second, I got Grey Gardens in 75. You did. Was that the year? Well, I'm going to have to. Hold on, just Google in some release dates here. Grey Gardens was on the letterbox list that you made. It was. I think it's because we let it go through because it played the New York Film Festival in the fall of 75. Okay, and we counted that as American release. And it was released in theaters February of 1976. Okay, that's fine. Now, this is an ongoing issue that I think will be an issue in this episode, and we should probably talk about it. Upfront, or do you want to? Upfront, because. Deleting that from Wildcard. There's a whole raft of, let's just say, international movies, movies that were made overseas. And the years in which they arrive in the 1970s, sometimes it takes three or four years, or sometimes not at all, for a movie to be released. There's been a lot of chaos with Japanese animated movies in the 80s and 90s drafts as well, where it's like, I don't really know what year this movie should be eligible. But for like seven beauties this year or whatever. Yeah, well at least seven beauties was nominated. December 75, right? Yes, but it was nominated for the Academy Awards for 76. But there's a whole host of them. One of the fun activities to do when you're preparing for this is just go to the Criterion Channel and type in 1976. I did do this. It was really fun. And there's a ton of things there, probably more than half of those things, never even opened in America. So the rules that I created when we were talking about movies from the 2000s, which was what was the US release date as the guide for what we can draft, it's a little squishier here. So, Greg Gardens would have been eligible, but since you took it in 75, maybe not so eligible. We don't want to repeat it. I don't know, what do you make of how we're navigating all this? I think we should just play with love and trust. Yes, do the best that we can. That's beautiful. It's a fundamental belief system in this podcast. I would just say, when you're out in the world talking about the big picture, not on this podcast, it's maybe with love, but not trust always. Yeah. How do you mean? I would say that you have some feedback about our taste that you've made public on Blank Check and other places. I've made no bones about the fact that I disagree with you guys 60 to 70% of the time. But I've said it to Chris, that's part of the magic of the show, that you can disagree with you guys as much as I do and listen to the show and it's not a hate watch, it's not a hate listen. I don't listen to it because you piss me off. Thank you. I listen to it in spite of the fact that's why you listen to the watch. Do you listen to the big picture? Do I listen to the big picture? Yeah, I do. What do you think of it? It's an interesting experiment in social privilege. How often do you agree with their taste? Maybe more so than I do. Somewhere, I mean, I am usually in agreement with one or the other, if not both. I mean, I like a lot fewer things than you do, but I think that's the way it's supposed to be. I think given the various jobs that we have, I think we like the right percentage of stuff. Well, I have found the more folks that I get to know who have worked in this business, the more you find that they don't like a lot of things, that they're actually quite critical of a lot of things. Of course, they will never ever say that they don't like something for a variety of reasons, but it's always fascinating to me here why someone who has worked in film, television, theater thinks something is a failure. It's usually because the director photography on that is a jackass to be one. Sometimes, but sometimes you get such fascinating critical insight that I just wish I could share or wish could be broadcast in a way, but that's because folks like yourself understand how some of this stuff works in ways that we never will. Also, there, of course, there's also a generational component and we've had this conversation that the ringer itself, there's a kind of 90s love across platforms here at the ringer that I don't share. I prefer the 80s to the 90s in terms of movies. That's a fight I love to have and keep having, but it's not a deal breaker. Not a deal breaker. This was proffered on the Robert Duvall Hall of Fame that the movies from the 70s are better than the movies from the 80s, the movies from the 80s are better than the movies from the 90s, and so on and so forth. We found it both with Robert Duvall and Robert Redford. Very true. Yes. But I wonder if the, are the Robert Redford movies from the 90s better than his movies from the 80s? They might be. Yes. They might be. Is sneakers 90s? No. Look at our whole thing. Sneakers is 90s. Sneakers is 92. We got to start talking about stars were in their primes in the 90s. That was the other thing is who was in their prime at that time. Right. That's a factor. Anyhow. Up close and personal. Do you think East, never forget. Not a great one. Eastwood in the 90s better than Eastwood in the 80s. Oh yeah, no question. Yeah. Not even close. I can't conjure the titles. I mean, Unforgiven. In the line of fire. Perfect World. Bridges of Madison County. That's some of his best movies are in the 90s. Yeah. The exception that proves the rule. Okay. I had a, I think we'll probably end up doing every year from the 1970s at some point, hopefully with you again in the future too. But this year and the point that you were making about Jaws had me thinking about an exercise, which is I find that because the 70s is so critical to shaping the future of cinema, not just in America, but worldwide, each year gets a movie that I feel like is the movie that represents something meaningful box office wise, critically cultural, cultural impact beyond both of those things. Kind of what it means to the character of the country, the character of the business. And I just this morning just banged out what I think the movie of that year is. So for 1970, I thought MASH. It wasn't the number one movie at the box office, but it's a movie that kind of changed the tenor of what a movie could be and be a very successful film. And you think it captured like the anti-war sentiment that was growing in the country at the time? Yeah. Something in the zeitgeist. A little bit of the like pranksterism too that I think came out of the 1960s. 71, I chose the French connection. 72, I chose the Godfather. 73, I chose the Exorcists. That's two Friedkin movies. 74, I chose Blazing Saddles over things like the Godfather part two. Right. Your anti-Godfather two agenda continues. We had some conversation about this on Robert Duvall. And did I hear you on the Talk Easy podcast learn that maybe your father was... My father did not like Godfather two. At least he didn't when he was reviewing it apparently. A cash grab. Yes. He called it. Can you imagine my dad now? Like having wrecked with cash grab. I thought he would have been a great third chair. I think there's a kind of more conversation to have about Godfather part two, but it's a 50 year old movie. We don't have to have it now. It's not the right year, but we'll get there. 75 Jaws of course. 76, the subject of our draft is probably Rocky. Yes. And we'll get into that when we go through the draft. 77 is obvious Star Wars. 78 I think is Superman. And 79 you can pick your poison. Apocalypse now is the end of something. Alien is the start of something. What do you make of that? Do you feel like that's a little easy Monday morning? Do you want to talk about 76 specifically? Because I think the rejoinder to the Rocky would be like, but what about all the president's men and put a capstone on Watergate? And you know, it's like this, but it... I'm curious to somebody who was there and also somebody who's obviously thought about this process. Like, why Rocky and not... How tapped in were you to Watergate at age 11? Oh my God. Yeah. Very tapped in. My father red faced and screaming at the television for two solid years. No, incredibly tapped in. That's so interesting. Some of my earliest memories, my parents screaming at the television. It was just total engagement. And enragement. Did you... did he read the Woodward and Bernstein book? Of course. Did he... did you send anticipation for that movie in your household? Absolutely. That is interesting. Not surprising. And I'm not trying to derive all the president's men, obviously. I just made a podcast about it two weeks ago. It's an interesting exercise to be like, you know, you might want it to be one way, but it's actually another way. Well, I think... What do you think? Because Rocky is very different from most of the movies on that list. Right. And then it wins best picture. So it's a little bit Oscar coded your choice, but you're really doing more of what does this mean for the movie industry and the types of movies that are being made as opposed to personal favorites or even what you think the quote unquote like best example of cinema is with all respect to Rocky, which is fun. And I've been on the steps doing the pose myself. I think that makes sense. I mean, it's good list making. I think that the list mostly favors... I mean, it is an industry measurement list rather than an artistic list, but that's okay. Even though they're good movies out here. I'm looking to blend both with the idea that like... Well, and the popular imagination too, but in 1975, nobody thought Jaws was going to win best picture. There wasn't even a consideration. Right. That movie was not going to win best picture. You knew it was going to be one of the other movies and Cuckoo's Nest obviously barreled through the same way. That's why Rocky was such a shift. It was a real shift. You had these other undeniably great films and then this heart of a champion movie, you know, it was a head scratcher. I think there's a prevailing thought that the new Hollywood ends a lot earlier than people think it does and that it's really... It's not Star Wars, but it's that double whammy of Jaws and Rocky that augurs the massive shift at the corporately held movie studios to push in a different direction. And Star Wars seals the deal. Right. There's a... So the kale essay that I was referring to is this like November piece she writes that's... You know, it's a lot of it is about Jaws, but then some of it's about Clint Eastwood and some of it's about John Wayne and some of it's about Alfred Hitchcock. Oh, I've read this piece. Yeah. It's an amazing like kind of snapshot of a moment in cinema, but I was struck by the fact that in November of 76, she's still kind of like turning Jaws over in her head and turning over like what it meant to movies for this to happen. Do you remember compared to say now, because this is something that comes up every once in a while on this pod and others, how long things would stay in the consciousness and like something like Jaws just kind of like occupied more mind share for longer than say something now where it's like, man, it shows amazing for eight weeks. And then it just seems to like nobody mentions it again until Emmys or nobody mentions it again ever or a movie, for instance, like project. I use project Hail Mary as an example where it's like a wildly hugely successful movie, but I don't know like it's never going to have the footprint of Ghostbusters, you know, like it's never going to have the footprint of something that's like... No, but I think that there's a way, I don't mean to cut you off, but I think there's a way to read that movie, the same kind of sociocultural way that Kale was so good at, which is that there's kind of like a optimism in that movie. Yeah, absolutely. That I think that people kind of desperately want right now because of a lot of what's going on externally in the world. And it also reminds us of like earlier, more comfy times in movie culture. And so you kind of smash those two ideas together. I mean, that's my favorite thing to do is to kind of over read something in the culture like that. In 76 though, like the fact that the two things are hitting against each other, that like the kind of cynical or more paranoid kind of film could be really popular and also Rocky could be really popular. Like what does that mean that they can coexist? Right. Yeah, I guess I don't have a good answer to that, though part of the answer to that is has to do with accessibility. I mean, you had to go to the movie theater and pay money to see these movies. You couldn't watch them at home. You could wait until it showed up on broadcast television. But other than that, you had to go to the movie theater. So there's is something about that to something about that actually keep the ball in the air. In a sense, in terms of culture and conversation longer, because it's a it's a little harder to see. My kids watch the same movie every day, right? Yeah, a week or two weeks. It's like, I didn't have that wasn't possible for me as a kid. Well, let me ask you one other thing about that, because when I was a kid, the longest period of time that could transpire was the period when I missed a movie in movie theaters. I was waiting for it to come to blockbuster. That was it felt like an eternity and it was often eight months, seven months. If you missed a movie in movie theaters and it doesn't sound like you missed many, but if you missed a movie in movie theaters that you wanted to see, were you like were you anticipating the opportunity to see it on TV? How did you find out it was going to play on TV? Like, can you talk about that gap in time? Well, I read the TV guide religiously. I looked for when those things were going to be on TV. I sought them out. And of course, with certain things, they'd bring them back. I saw most of the Bond movies, most of the Sean Connery Bond movies in the movie theater on re-release. That's how you saw that stuff. Godfather also, right? You see Godfather, one of its biggest box office years is like 74, 75 when they re-released Godfather. Because again, we talked about this on the Hall of Fame, Duvall Hall of Fame podcast. They didn't know how to put it on TV. It's an R rated thing. And yet it was the most popular movie, the biggest box office movie of all time. So how are we going to see it? These kids don't know how good they have it. It's incredible how accessible everything is. Just the idea of Disney Plus makes my brain melt. Because scarcity was the whole point for years and years and now it's full blown accessibility all the time. Do you think it has degraded the culture? I do think it's degraded the culture. I mean, my child was just screaming to watch box jellyfish videos before he went to school this morning. And I was like, you know, what has my life come to? But it's also degraded the business, right? The fact that nothing is as special means that the kids and we all expect that we can have whatever we want exactly as we want it immediately. And we're not willing to go out of our way. We're not willing to go to movie theaters. Nothing feels quite as special. So that's a bummer. Luckily you guys have a lot of plastic and you're fighting that off. We're doing well with that, I think. You know, the silent film days that make the circuit. And then once the silent film was finished making the circuit, it threw it in the trash. Yes. Which is why only 10 percent of silent films have survived. Because like, well, this is done and they just chucked it. That's Amanda proposed that for the MCU and they said, no, we're going to hang on to those. Dreams Day plays once in every city. They shoot it in the sun. You want to draft? Yeah, yeah, let's draft. Any other open thoughts? Okay. Well, the only thing I'll say is that there is a kind of... I like your list. I think your list is good. I think there's an answer to every one of the ones on your list. No doubt. That is, I mean, yeah, MASH 1970, but you could also say Patton 1970, which in some ways is the flip side of the same coin. But there are still some amazing... It's not all rah-rah Patton, right? No. It's written by Francis Ford Coppola. There's complexity there. Totally. The scene when he's scolding the officer who has PTSD is the most obvious, like the two generations misunderstanding each other scene in the movie from that year. And I think Patton probably made a lot more money than MASH at movie theaters, I'm guessing. I think they're pretty close. Really? I think they're pretty... And that was part of what I was thinking was what movie as a box office hit, a critical sensation and got into the culture in a way that felt impactful. But, you know, everything is debatable. I mean, Star Wars and Jaws are inarguable. Clearly, they're inarguable. They really changed, right? Hollywood movies in the 80s are very different as a result of not only those two films, but those two filmmakers. But, yeah, there's a flip side to all of those coins. Well, I welcome the feedback and I won't be looking at it. It's about community. So, for this draft, we do have six categories. I'm going to read those categories before we settle on our draft order. The categories are as follows, drama, comedy or horror. Or sci-fi, right? Or sci-fi. We've done that because, as Amanda indicated, this is a tricky year for comedy. I think we could have pulled it off if we kept it tight. It would have been pretty funny to laugh at us, but not to laugh at these movies. That's right. Thriller or action is also a category. Blockbuster, now the threshold here is $20 million. And there are only 10 films that qualify for that threshold. Then Oscar, which means any film that was nominated for an Academy Award from that year. And then, of course, Wildcard. Okay. Jack, is there a Jack Sanders selection that we'll be able to hear? Hello. It is I, producer Jack, coming from the past to deliver the highly anticipated 1976 movie draft order. As always, I have denied Tracy Letts's bribe of a $100 bill for the first overall pay. Because I have integrity. Selecting first, Amanda Dobbins. Oh my God, I'm so happy. I really wanted it and I wasn't going to say anything. First overall draft pick. Feels like a pretty sacked year. It feels like a deep year. I personally would want the turn. Selecting second overall, Christopher Ryan. Wow. So rigged. Wow. It's so far rigged. This is the first first pick I've gotten in like six months. I do feel pretty bad. I feel like every draft race has been a part of. I think I may have given him the last overall pick. So I'm selfishly hoping he's third overall here, but we'll see. God damn it. Sean Fancy will be third, which means Tracy Letts will be first. The turn's good. Happy drafting. Fascinating. Okay. I know exactly what I'm going to do, but I did just change categories because I was a little light. Yeah. So I think this makes sense. I think this makes sense. Hang in there, mama. Hang in there. We haven't even started yet. You got this, mama. I'm ready to start deleting. Okay. I think in thriller, I will take all the presidents men. Okay. Interesting. Which all the presidents men was going to be my number one draft pick. If I got the first pick, it is my favorite movie of this year. One of my favorite movies of all time. And also a movie educationally that certainly introduced me to the Alan Pakula, William Goldman, and then, you know, all the backstage gossiping and fraught nature of production that William Goldman details in its adventures in script writing. Right. I think this is probably where I learned to Gordon Willis's taught me about the power of gold chains as worn by Robert Redford. It taught me, you know, this is a very, very, very important thing. You know, this is how I learned Watergate because I wasn't around. And I probably saw it before we got to Watergate in whatever truncated Republican American history course I took in high school. You know, they never really made it past. They never get to Vietnam. Yeah. They never get to Vietnam or they didn't in our day. Maybe they've gotten there. They did in my AP American history class. You know what? Honestly, even in my AP, they were just like, yeah, I got yada, yada. And then Richard Nixon resigned. So, but this is an amazing, electrifying, like beautiful movie about a bunch of dudes sitting in rooms talking. And it really did show to me, like the power and the possibility of people talking smartly in rooms and everything that you can do with that, like visually and emotionally. And I did all of my research for 1976 and then I saved this. And this is the one that I picked to watch, like right before I went to bed last night. I didn't even watch all of it. But then this morning I was like, oh, I got 30 minutes here while I got it, while I do my hair and I set it up because I just, I wanted to watch the speech where Jason Robards as Bren Bradley comes out and, you know, like from the, from his house at night and tells him not to fuck up again. And it's, I don't know. It's an American classic. It's probably when I say that I think 76 is better than 75. It's just because I love this movie so much. And I think this and a couple others to me are like the highest of highs, whereas 75 is everyone being really, really good. But yeah, I'm thrilled to have it. Great pick. I don't know if I would have guessed that this would be the number one over. Was it consensus number one for you? Yeah. And for you as well. Yeah. Interesting. This is also like a, for draft nicks, a crucial, a crucial title to be taken off the board because of its flexibility. Yes. Yes. I think it would have been acceptable in four of the six categories. Yeah. So you took it in thriller. It did. Excuse me. Five of the six categories, which is fascinating. In thriller though, is really interesting to me. That is not what I would have done. I will be honest. I didn't read the changes that you made last minute until we were drafting. And so I, I didn't know that it was thriller or action. Got it. Okay. I didn't know that. I didn't, I didn't understand that horror and comedy were grouped together. Okay. So. I don't think it'll impact you that. Okay. Thank you. Well, Chris, you've got the second pick. Are you excited? Are you reeling? How are you feeling? I don't think anybody's going to have a bad movie in the first round of, not a bad movie, but I don't think anybody's going to be upset. Nothing soft coming out. Yeah. Nobody is like, God damn it. This is a three movie draft and I get the fourth pick or something. I'm going to take taxi driver and Oscars. I would be happy to take it. Or I have you take a bunch of other movies here with the second pick, but taxi drivers won. I revisited recently and. Pretty good. Yeah. And also like, I forgot. Excellent. Yeah. One of my favorite movies ever made. I forgot how like a beyond being like sad to watch a man descend into hell. It's also melancholy. And you know, it's like an incredible portrait of loneliness and an incredible portrait of like a guy who doesn't know like how to relate to the rest of the world and how that drives him insane ultimately, but also obviously just like one of the great New York films. One of the most incredibly orchestrated movies when it comes to like the visuals matching up against the sound, the score, which is always what kind of haunts me about this. And then some of the most virtuosistic dazzling sequences, you know, that you can imagine from Scorsese and De Niro kind of in a zone that few people have ever gotten to. So tax driver, you know, normally if I lost out on the Pakula movie and the Scorsese movie, I would be absolutely devastated. But you're number one. Yeah, this is beautiful. My hands and I feel so comfortable. But that's the thing is if I had taken this, what you're about to take, you probably be like, also, I'm going to go ahead and delete it. Yeah, I would have been, I would have been a little bit disappointed because this is my number one. The number one on my board is coming. But any other thought, I mean, Taxi Driver, it's on the list of movies that I watch every like 18 months or so. And I feel like it, what it's exploring and what you just described kind of never goes out of fashion, unfortunately, it feels like it is right on top of the surface all the time. And a lot of that is due to Paul Schrader tapping into something that I don't think expires. Some of a lot of it is the De Niro performance. A lot of it is the sense that like, there's always somebody who's unhappy in this country about how the politics is going and that the movie really taps into that too. Or at least they use their dissatisfaction with politics to project something from their own unhappiness. And just that idea alone makes it a timeless movie. I have my favorite scene always changes with this movie, but it's always a scene where Travis is talking to someone and they're like, what the fuck is wrong with this guy? You know, when it's like Peter Boyle outside of the diner or any civil shepherd interaction that he has or, you know, anytime he's got somebody in the back of his cab and they're chatting. Well, that in those scenes sometimes Travis is like, what the fuck is wrong with this guy in the backseat like Martin Scorsese. Yeah. The way mental illness is portrayed in movies is interesting. We were talking about this with Captain Newman. The history of that's very interesting. You know, you want to be thoughtful about the way it's portrayed. And in Taxi Driver, he's not only sick, he's not only ill, but he's scary. He's realistically scary. If you've ever encountered somebody who's having an episode or who is mentally ill, but also has you feeling them the capacity for violence, there's a something happens inside you, right? So, fight or flight impulse that takes hold and D'Niro just absolutely taps into that. But he's, it's not the strange unhoused person shambling down the street. He's very still in the movie. You know, he's that different kind of menacing that is even scarier where you feel like he actually is in, at least believes he's in control as opposed to someone kind of flailing their arms and going crazy. It's still just such an amazingly impactful movie. I saw almost every movie we're going to talk about in the movie theaters. My parents took me to see Taxi Driver when I was 10. Wow. To a drive it. And they were like, here's your dirt bike. And here's your unsupervised. Before you go any further, I have to ask you a question about this because I'm thinking about this with my own parenting. You know, I feel growing up being exposed to things at a young age got me where I am today. Yeah. For better and for worse. I agree. I think it's the way that I was matured by the culture. But I'm now thinking a little bit harder about what the impact of that would be on my kid. And you know, you turned out wonderfully, but you did also write Bug and Killer Joe. Yeah. And so. And look how that worked out for him. Yeah. And we're lucky to have those. And the thing about that is obviously touched by, you know, a genius quality. You got to get, that's luck of the draw. That's just like, you got it or you don't got it. If you don't got it and you watch Bug, if I showed Alice Bug at 11, the way that you saw a taxi driver at 11, how would that go over? How would that get into her bloodstream? Well, I saw a taxi driver at 10. Remember, I had seen Serpico at six. I mean, my folks exposed me to a lot of the, and I really just think they just didn't want to pay for a sitter. That's another reason why I wanted to. And I think differently about it with my own kids. I mean, I think my kids are going to have it tougher than I had it. I think the world is going to be a harder place. And so I'm trying to extend their childhood as far as I can. Oh, that's beautiful. So I'm not exposing them to stuff like this yet. Okay. Now, I did say to Haskell the other day who was asking about something. I said, when you're 14, you can watch everything, watch anything, watch anything on the shelf. I don't care. Okay. But even Russ Meyers up. You can watch Russ Meyers up at 14. That's exciting. But Taxi Driver is the first movie they ever took me out of. We were in the drive. And when they go back to Jody Foster's place, which is fairly late in the movie. My mom said, Dennis, I'm very uncomfortable. And we drove out and they went back the next night and saw. And I didn't see it until. Well, God forbid you didn't see the day. That would have been a little tough to endure that. Final stretch. That's my, that's another thing. Speaking of the times, that's a wonderful detail that I think is in the Mr. Scorsese doc. And they talk about this film, but just the way in which they change the color tone of that final sequence because of concerns from the, the MPA board and the rating and, you know, that sort of Fantasia of violence that Bickel goes on and how just turning that. The blood and brown. Yeah. And making it seem like it seems like a descent into hell, but it's also a little bit harder to tell what is happening in each individual bullet hole. And, you know, that's one of those things where some of that is chance. Some of this, that is artistic. Some of that is a product of the times and what was allowed and what was not allowed. But anyway, great. The thing that haunts me about this movie, I think you're talking about this being a harder world to grow up in than the one that maybe Taxi Driver entered, but it's, it's gift in its curses. I think it was very prescient about a sentiment of a great weight, you know, a rain will come and wash all this away. You hear that echoed in a lot of extremism now. And like a kind of just inhumanity and hatred for, for people that I think is sadly like very on the nose of like when you read about like some of the stuff in the world and you just are like, Jesus Christ, like, you know, we've really fallen. So way to go, Paul Schrader. You got us nailed. Tapped into something. Okay. Do the thing, brother. Go for it. Well, I'll be taking network in drama, which is a movie I've spoken about quite a bit on this show, and we just spoke about it on the Duval Hall of Fame and his scene in that movie, which is one of the most electrifying examples of acting that I've ever seen. But if I didn't think a little bit about like why I got into journalism and writing and broadcasting and all these things that I find myself in, this relates to all the president's men, two with three or four best movies of the year being about these worlds. I never thought I would be having a camera in front of me while I speak. Sure. And yet here I am. Yep. Howard Bealing, my way through this. I've said before, like this is the movie that really, I think made me feel like a grownup that taught me a bit more about how the world really works or I thought how it really worked. And it's been called Pression many times, Chayevsky's script being having like such an eerily predictive quality and more so every year similar to Taxi Driver. It kind of never expiring. The other thing about this movie though is that it's a lot of fun. It's very entertaining. I think that's a little bit lost in the discussion of it because it feels so powerful and so stoked by this kind of paranoia and corporate malfeasance in the work of journalism and in the work of telling the truth. But like, what Ned Beatty's doing in this movie is a lot of fun. What Faye Dunwoody is doing in this movie is a lot of fun. Robert Duvall is a lot of fun. He's having a great time and that kind of like pop opera that Chayevsky was so good at that really, really clever style of soliloquy writing that he was best at is just really entertaining. And this is a movie that like shouldn't appeal to 13 year olds given what it's about. But when I saw it, I was just taking it was like on a magic carpet ride away into like the rest of my life basically, which. Well, it should. It understands that what it is talking about is that its subject is manufactured to be as broad as possible. And it's showing you the machinery, but also recreating the product. That's right. Especially once he is not just when he's looking down the barrel of the camera and talking about how, you know, he's had enough bullshit. But once he starts becoming the host of a variety show effectively in which he is, you know, a tent revival preacher speaking about how politics, God and the self operates in society. Like we have so many examples of people who do this now. So, you know, This one is also such an incredible mishmash of acting styles. I was rewatching some scenes from last night and I was like, how did they get Peter Finch and Deb Beatty on this? Side of like Ham and then Duvall and Faye Dunaway doing this very kind of like loose, but very present realism in their in their performance and then Holden is just fucking pickled and dying in front of you. The entire movie. Yes, you know, the saddest performances of the 70s. But how do they have Lumet making all of that work in the same frame, same scene, same movie is just always amazing to me. Superb. You took it in drama. I did because that's another one could go in several categories. It could be a comedy could be Oscar could be a wild card. I certainly laugh a lot while watching it. Okay, you've got two selections. I knew those were going to be the first three off the board. Yeah. So I was just like, just just not last anything but last as I was last time. It's very clear the fix is in. I understand. You think Jack Sanders has done something to you get two picks here. You could really upset the apple cart. Yeah, I know. And I'm you're about to do that. Do my best. Okay. I want to acknowledge that the best three movies of this year to my mind have been taken off the board. Is that a consensus? I think so. I think those are always going to be the first three picks. That's the argument that you're making. Yes. This year is this year because it's got these three movies. Those three movies are like top of the top all time in like still referenced still. We could say, you know, both like reflective but also predictive of where we are for all three of them. If we were doing a draft of our favorite movies. Yeah, the hundred greatest movies ever made. And the greatest performances, screenplay, you know, all of it. I agree. In blockbuster, I'm going to take Rocky. Okay. A movie with personal residency. Yes. You want to speak about that? Deleting it. I saw it in movie theaters in 1976. It's a terrific experience to watch in movie theater with people. It's such an exciting movie and such a such an excellent screenplay. You know, the moment when Rocky knocks down Apollo the first time is such a in some ways now feels like such an obvious sports movie moment. But watching that film, something about the way that moment was disguised was such a surprise. I mean, people leapt out of their seat when they saw it. So a thrilling movie to see in the movie theater. Now I've done this movie called I Play Rocky, which is coming out later this year. So I revisited Rocky and I put it on for me and Carrie and Carrie is like, oh, we're going to watch Rocky. Like she's seen this. She knows it. And I asked her a question about the end of the movie, which she got wrong. So we watched the movie and she was like, again, like most things we watch, she was like, oh, I've never seen this. And we got to the end of the movie and she said, I thought it was a sports movie. I didn't realize it's a character study. And see, this is why this is why everybody dislikes me because I think they should have stopped making these goddamn movies after Rocky. I think the world would be a better place if they had stopped at Rocky, if they stopped at Alien. I think they should have just stopped. Well, now did they make a billion dollars? Yes. And that's an interesting opinion. And that's why people don't like you. You're beloved. Um, Rocky 2 is very good. And there is there are people who believe it is better than Rocky 1. They're wrong. No. They're absolutely wrong. I prefer watching Rocky 2. Rocky 1 is extremely slow. Not slow. It is deliberate in its character study in a way that I can't really find a little dull at times. And now the final 20 minutes. My wife did not find it dull. Never did she find it dull. Well, she also wouldn't have been excited by more boxing in it though. Right. Like she wouldn't have been like, oh, I thought I thought that this was there was going to be more sports. Like she was like, I avoided. So maybe it's a question of what you're looking for in a movie. What was the question that she got wrong? Does Rocky win at the end? Yeah. Oh, that's okay. Yeah. He does not, of course. Spoiler alert for Rocky. 50 years ago. Um, you know, I was thinking about as a person who likes Rocky and has never loved Rocky, would I have drafted it at all? Like would it have been inauthentic to have drafted it before you worked on I Play Rocky? Would you have described yourself as a rocky person? I would have described myself as a person who really loved and enjoyed the first film and diminishing returns for me after that. I saw two in the theater. I saw three in the theater or at home. That's pretty fun. And I, four is Dolph Lundgren. It is. Yeah, that by that time, he dies. He dies. I was out. So I feel about Sierra on these drafts. Um, Philadelphia, Rocky thoughts. I mean, he's, he's obviously a city icon. I, I probably care more about at this point in my life, I care more about the creed, the creed character played by Michael B. Jordan than I do about Rocky. Interesting. He has supplanted Rocky as the, your Philly icon. Well, I just think it's like a, it's okay to move on. Like Tracy said, like we've made so many of these movies. Celeste or Salon has refused to let go of it in a lot of ways or did. And I just find myself like kind of being energized and, and, and stimulated by like a new take on it, you know, and a new take on the mythology of the boxer. You know, Uh, I play Rocky. It's good. You're going to like it. Uh, that's my selection. Shall I move on? Did you ask to do this draft just so you could promote your film? You know me. The reason I like to come on here is to tout. To try to run up his numbers. I see your lungs. That's Rocky took first and your second pick. Uh, in comedy horror, I'm going to take Carrie. No, I dammit. Come on. I mean, I knew that I knew I wasn't going to get it, but I'm bummed out. Oh good. I'm glad somebody's upset about my. Yeah. Uh, if I were to get that, I would have felt very good. Um, I think Sissy space X should have won best actress. Okay. Listen, she's incredible in it, but like don't, don't bring that to fade down away in network, which is the most important performance. I think Sissy space X should have won best. And I think Piper Laurie should have won best supporting act. I'm good with that, but fade down away. Keep your Oscar. She does win for coal miner's daughter. Right. She gets hers. I think she's an underrated actress. She's tried to get the Palma and director somewhere. No. Okay. Uh, I also think they should have stopped making jump scares after care. I think jumps because I hate jump scares. I think they should have retired them after care. There's not been one as good as the jumpscare. You know what's funny? The jump, this movie's jump scares are all editing tricks that were used before this and are now used after it. But for whatever reason, the diploma cut just feels different than other director's cuts. And you feel it in the, in the, in the prom scene, you feel it with a hand coming out of the grave, like that couple of moments where you're just astonished by what's just happened. And you can be like startled. It's not the same as being astonished. There is something different in this movie, the kind of film grammar that he's working with that is so great. I'm really bad. You got this. Uh, Amy Irving lives in my little town in New York. Hi, Amy. I think she's looking at the big picture. I don't know. Okay. Well, you can say, hey, I said hello to you on a podcast recently selected crossing the Lancy one of her best films. I wonder whether what you're reacting to is what he cuts to because like there's jump cuts, there's jump scares in the Conjuring movies and it's like in the dark, it kind of like okay looking ghost and just the cut is scary. Like you're like, oh, yeah. But when he cuts, he's like, and like, and now this goddamn image. Like the use of split screen where you're seeing two things at the same time and your mind is expected to process them both and they're both scary. It's the look on her face and the fire and something falling in the gymnasium simultaneously that just creates like an energy inside me that like most modern horror movies just can't really, they can't, they can't pull that off. Carrie, she just needed somebody to say you got this mama. So true. This is still probably the best movie about high school ever made. I think in addition to obviously being like a technical high school movies. Yeah, but it's a technical achievement. Yeah, a posting council and high school movies. You got to explain that joke that we weren't recording when that was discussed. I know you're talking about the great opposing councils in the bathroom. That's what happens when these three men go to the bathroom. Do you think we should start bringing the mics to the bathroom? They all just, they were like, going to the bathroom before I record that came out and we're just being like, Kevin Bacon and a few good men. He is very good in that even though Tracy doesn't like that movie. Moving on. You're a big dog. Okay, so Carrie. I want to carry him bummed. Carrie and Rocky and I'm up. Okay. Well, I know what two movies I'm going to take and I don't know. You only get one pick, right? Sorry. I'm going to take one movie I'm going to take. I know what two movies I want. I got to figure out what is the right category for them both. In blockbuster, I will take the bad news bears. Now some of the, now this is in my opinion, the best comedy of this year. And also the last truly great to me blockbuster is a funky blockbuster year. Sure is. And Carrie, I was betting on Carrie there. That didn't shake out too well for me. Bad news bears. Top five sports movie ever made. One of the funniest and sweetest and sincerest, but also mischievous movies of its time. The great Michael Ritchie, Walter Matha, Never Better, this butter maker. Elite stuff from Jack Earl Haley and Tana Monio. Do you also believe they should have stopped making bad news bears, movies after bad news bears? Yes. A thousand percent. I do. And I saw this in the movie theater and it was a fantastic time. Yeah. For a little 10, 11 year old boy, it was a great time. Did you say you just checked, you just saw it for the first time? Yeah, I remember that I watched it while we were in Vegas for Cinemacon. That's right. And obviously, you know, I knew bad news bears because of the remakes and also just as kind of a reference point, like a thing that you say now, but I sat down to you and I said, hey, that was so charming. Yeah. I'm just absolutely delighted by every minute of it. And also genuinely funny, which as we've said, you can't say for many of these comedies. Yeah. And like a pretty good representation, I think of what Little League is like to be honest with you. Oh yeah. You know, Ritchie had such a great, as I recall, Ritchie just had such a great feel for that kind of middle class suburban lifestyle. Smile was his movie right before this about teenage beauty pageants. And that movie, like this one has a similar kind of sensibility about just showing people a very, very relatable milieu. Yeah. And he's really good at movies about competition, you know, like downhill racer, the candidate, smile, the bad news bears, semi-tough, all that whole period of movies is all people competing with one another and what it kind of brings out in you and what it awakens in Buttermaker, what it reveals in these kids. It's a really, really fun movie. His five movie run, downhill racer, the candidate, crime cut, smile, and then bad news bears. For my money, it's the best five movie run of in American movies. Have you said that on this show? I know you've said that to me before. I don't know if you've ever mentioned that. I probably said it on letterboxed. Damn. There you go, brother. Didn't we put downhill racer in the Red Herd Falls? You didn't say it then. One of our faves. You know, I'm an old man. I repeat myself a lot. It's okay. You know, also Wildcats, Digstown, like he kept making movies in this world. He is the great sports movie maker of our time. Anyway, feel good about that. Is that me now? Now it's your turn. Don't fuck me. Well, don't fuck me. I'm going to take... Go ahead. It's okay. It's fine. You can. No, no, no, no, no. It's fine. I took...it's okay. It's all right. I'm going to take...I'm going to look deep in your eyes right now. Okay. And I'm going to take the Omen and Blockbuster. Okay, good. That's good. Okay. Thank you. Because this...we're running out of... I've heard of this, but I knew that you guys would take it right. It's all for you, Damien! Right. And this is also...so his name isn't Damien Omen. It's not Damien Omen. But that's what Bill calls him. Yes. Bill is a reference to him by his son of Jim Omen. Sure. Jim and Judy Omen. Okay. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. It's still a pretty disturbing movie. You know? Yeah. I enjoy this film. I think I like to laugh with this movie more than I am afraid of it. But there's some great set pieces. It's got a pretty good backbone of story. Gregory Peck's decent in it. Wonderful score. One of the great scores. There's the... The woman throwing herself out the window is still...fucks at you a little bit. It's a plate glass window. That's a great kill. I think it won the Academy Award for score. It's Jerry Goldsmith. Yeah. It's a really good score. A franchise I don't quite understand. I've tried to. I think I got pretty deep into the Omen franchise when we did Omen on rewatchables and I was like watching the Sam Neill version of grown up, Damien. Yeah. Have you seen the first Omen? Do you know about this? Yes. I did. The movie came out a few years ago. But wait, that was good. That's when I became aware of Damien Omen. From the first Omen. Yes. No. Yeah. Yes. Because it was back in the news. This was a terrific night with the big bucket of popcorn in the movie theater in 1976. Yeah. Remember it very fondly. You got it in Blockbuster, right? I did. Yes. Never one of my movies as somebody who's really obsessive about the history of horror. I don't...for whatever...I think...my thing... I don't really know how scary it is. I think it's because it's made by Richard Donner who's clearly not that interested in horror. And there are things about the movie that he's interested in, obviously, like this kind of uptight elite couple having something come into their lives that disturbs their gentle, upper middle class lifestyle. But it just kind of feels like everybody's slumming it a little bit. Gregory Peck's slumming it a little bit. You say that, but I will say that I like when actors of his generation, like him, Bert Lancaster, like guys who are just like, yeah, I like working and I'm going to try this out. And I'm going to play with my image and I'm going to play...he's made some pretty provocative stuff over the course of his career. He's kind of...I don't know if he's held up as still one of the great Hollywood actors, but... That's a good question. Gregory Peck. Well, not only that, but I mean, obviously, it's made in the wake of the Exorcist, which just made so much money. Now, we can cite a thousand examples of low budget, low rent, Exorcist knockoffs. Here was an example of a studio going, we want some of that Exorcist money too. And it's just big budget Hollywood filmmaking, get us big stars. The kids will come see it for the demonic possession, but we're going to get the adults to come see it because Gregory Peck and Lee Remaker in it. And it's parental anxiety. And we went as a family. I remember...my folks wouldn't have gone. My folks did not go to see the Exorcist in the movie theater. And it's in a tradition of the haunted child going back to the bad seed in movies like that too. So there's some tradition there. Flaking. And I noticed you're wearing the Steely Dan Goucho sweatshirt. If you wanted to be on time with 76, I think it would have been the Royal Scam. Do you have a Royal Scam sweatshirt? I don't. Okay, well, so much for that. I did have a Grizzly T-shirt. The film Grizzly. Yeah, but I didn't wear that. Oh, too bad. My favorite traditions is when you correct people and or movies for having anachronistic movie, a music, cues or references in the film world. I think since you brought it up, I should... Oh yeah, please show the pants. I'm showing it back, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Nice. That's really nice. Now are you purposefully evoking the era right now with your garb? I'm not. Oh, like he's like the guy in Goucho, like try again tomorrow. Like I'm dressing for the 1976 podcast. I was just asking. I did not dress for the 1976 podcast. Sorry. You got two now. I do. Okay, I know what I'm going to do. In Oscar, because many of my Oscar picks are already off the board because again of the way this draft works. So I will be taking Marathon Man in Oscar. I'm sorry. No. I honestly just don't like any of the other blockbusters and I'm trying to take movies that I at least feel like I have a relationship to, but this is one of my favorites. This would have been my second pick maybe, honestly. It's so good. It really is where our interests meet. Roy Scheider in Paris. A spy thriller, Roy Scheider in Paris. The movie for me does drop off slightly in quality spoiler alert once Roy Scheider is no longer in the picture. Well, then it just becomes a movie about dentistry, which you're not afraid of. True. I think Marathon Man is probably why. What a zag for you, a movie about a dentist. Right, sure. But is he using the dentistry for good? Well, he's a Nazi. So, you know, not really. Yeah. Roy Scheider in Paris, spy thriller, really, really delightful. And Olivier was nominated in supporting actor, I believe. Then in drama. Hold on. Can I tell a quick Marathon Man story? Yeah, please. So, it's Mike William Goldman. My friend, TJ Jagadowski, do you know him? No. He's a great improviser. He was one of the greatest improvisers alive. You might know him from the Sonic commercials. He was on them for a long time. Very funny guy. Anyway, he's a Chicago and he's on the train in Chicago. And he's on the train and there's a young couple on the train, 20 years old. And the boy is explaining to the girl the plot of Three Days of the Condor. He's watched the movie and he's telling her the story of Three Days of the Condor on the train. Right. TJ has his back to them. And he's fascinated not only that this 20-year-old kid has watched Three Days of the Condor, not only that he feels the need to describe the entire plot to his girlfriend, but that he's so good at it. It's a really replete summation of the plot points of Three Days of the Condor. And TJ is kind of fascinated to hear this kid because, you know, there's some, it's a convoluted... Some specialty. Absolutely. ...takes her all the way through it until he gets to the climax of Three Days of the Condor and he says, and then Homeboy made him eat a bunch of diamonds. TJ so wanted to turn and ask why he was like... Really? Really good. ...what was happening? Really good. ...fall asleep on the couch, watching one and wake up at the end of the other one. That's amazing. That's the most like I plagiarize this from AI I've ever heard. Can you imagine if you just took every movie with a twist and then Brad Pitt gets out into the desert and then Homeboy makes me a bunch of diamonds? That's crazy. How strange. Oh, that's funny. I think of it every time. I think of Marathon Man. We just watched recently, Me and the Nanny. Great fun. Terrific movie. It's a delightful movie. Okay. What I'm going to do here, and this is taking a little bit of risk, but I think that this is what would probably go next if I know my audience. So in drama, I'm going to take Mikey and Nikki. The Elaine May masterpiece that explained men to me, you know? And I spend a lot of time with them, even though I'm not privy to the bathroom conversations. If you watch Husbands and Mikey and Nikki in succession, those are all the boys in your life. It's really, you know, and now I'm raising the next generation. So I'm trying to study, I'm trying to learn, I'm trying to avoid the mistakes of the past, which are enumerated in excruciating detail in Mikey and Nikki. And at least none of them are gangsters. Sure. As far as you know. Yeah. That's, you mean the, in Mikey and Nikki or in our life? In our life. Yeah. Yeah. As far as I know, but we don't, we don't know what's going to happen to my sons. So. That's a great point. You took that in drama? I took it in drama. Okay. Great, great. Great movie. Wonderful movie. I would just add that Cassavetes is very powerful to me personally. Is your speed, huh? Yeah. Even, you know, given, despite all the problems, very evident in this film and everything else. I just, I really, really get it. Their board is very strong. Thank you. She's looking very solid. Yeah. A good, good picking spot, I would say. Nice to have the number one pick. I think, yes, but she's chosen well. Completely. Thank you. I'm not going to just put it all on the spot. She's chosen well. It's not over yet. This movie is, I think a lot of like our guys are very influenced by this movie. And a lot of the tone where this movie doesn't have the tone of a gangster movie, even though it's about gangsters and it makes a lot of choices. Men on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Yes. It's a lot of like the personal anxieties. Philadelphia men also on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Even down to Ned Beatty as the hit man who is the most unlikely of hit men who's kind of bumbling and not suave and not cold-blooded. Big year for Ned Beatty. Awesome year. Network, Mikey and Nikki and Silver Streak. That's right. We may get to Silver Streak. We'll see. You grabbed two? I did. Marathon Man and Mikey and Nikki. Very good picks. Sierra, you're up. In action thriller, I'm going to take out Law Josie Wiles. Hot fucking damn it. Hot fucking damn it. One of the great Clint Eastwood movies, one of his best performances, a very interesting film to read about the making of Philip Kaufman's involvement with it. The Eastwood rule that came in because you're not allowed to get rid of a director and replace the director with yourself if you're the star apparently. Okay. Yes. Which I think, I wonder if has happened kind of behind the scenes a couple of times, but at least officially this became like a DGA thing, I think. A story about a Confederate soldier who tries to run to Texas after a huge confrontation with the Union and disappear from the war and disappear from a life of violence and the war just won't let him go away, get away. So absolutely gorgeous movie to look at and to think about his style evolving out of his experiences with Leone and his experiences on TV and everything and really starting to find his own voice and his own editing rhythm, his own photography. Is this Sirteez shot this? Fucking incredible look at the movie and a beautiful 4K. I'm so glad somebody said it before I did. I'm so glad I did not have to break a beautiful. Honestly, you got that steel book? I just got the Warner one. You just couldn't let it go. Good shit. I think that this is in the conversation for his best performance too because he's asked to play something that he very rarely plays in movies where he literally breaks down crying in this movie when his family is killed. And he resisted that a lot of times as a star. He didn't really let himself get into that. And he's also got what is the name of the Native American actor in this film? Chief Dan George. Chief Dan George and their chemistry is so wonderful in this movie. This was, God, I really, I maybe should have taken this in the first go round because it's definitely one of my favorite Clint movies. Yeah. And I was, you know, you can also feel this is a guy who's watched Kurosawa movies. This is a guy who actually has like a kind of international sensibility when it comes to applying it to Western. So it just, and this is also one I used to watch with my dad all the time. This would be on TBS. This would be on movie channels, we had on tape and it would just kind of be on a lot. This impale writer. A little bit of a pickle here. Yeah, you are. You are, because I got two picks coming down the track. Yeah, you sure do. I don't think there's, there's not, I don't think there's anything that could be taken away from me that would devastate me at this point. So I need to just follow my truth for the rest of this draft, which means I will lose this draft, but have a slate that I enjoy. Okay. I'm just going to foreground that. Okay. Because there's a couple of movies I wanted to get coming in here. Has everybody picked Blockbuster? I have not. You have not. You have? I did. You have. I have. That's why I picked the Omen so early. Got it. Boy. It's okay. You have network. No, I'm very pleased to be. No, I'm not. I'm very pleased about that. It's not a disaster. And you have Bad News Bears, which is incredibly charming. In thriller and action, I will take a salt on priest in 13. Okay. Which is John Carpenter's second feature film and among his best, and as directly inspired by Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo and as a kind of trapped in one place shootout movie that is absolutely scintillating and like an example of terrifying in some places. And like a great example of what can be done on a modest budget. And is definitely the skeleton key for I think a lot of where his movies are going, even as they got bigger in scale, the like style tone, smart out. And more thicker. The wide style that he looks at great performances in this movie, underrated performances. And just the announcement of like a major genre filmmaker who is one of my all time face. Was watching this last night and I forgot how unnerving those opening scenes with the gang driving around LA with the rifle with the silencer pointed out the car window and they keep stopping at different people and eyeing them up. And then they fuck up that ice cream, man. What? Who is what is the actor's name? Is it Austin Stoker? What happened to Austin Stoker? She's still with us? Did he pass? I don't know. Let me take a look. Yeah, I guess he passed in 2022. Have you seen the remake of this? I did. It's Ethan Hawking, Lawrence Fishburne and I kind of liked it. Oh, who made it? You know? I'm not sure. And while we're on the topic, have we seen the remake of Bad News Bears? Oh, sure. Richard Linklater. It's not very good. Yeah. Disappointing. Billy Bob. Interesting that both of these movies are so good. Both of these movies have been remade. Jean Francois Richet, who also made no other movies that I've ever heard of. Not a movie that needed to be remade. That's all in Precinct 13. Good pick. Thanks. Was that in your realm of interest? Absolutely. Okay. I certainly had it on my list. Wasn't trying to take anything from you per se, but you know. All right. I'm going to take a bit of a category, category reach, but I think it qualifies. In action thriller, I'm going to take the killing of a Chinese bookie. This is fucked up. This was my other, yeah. It was literally either a solo in Precinct 13 or this. I chose my Kandicky instead of this for my... There were two Cassavetes on the board this year. But this is the one that my husband was willing to watch with me. He was like, hey, I heard you're doing 76. What do you got to watch? And then he picked killing Chinese bookie. Which cut? The longest one. See, I don't, I disagree. I like the shorter one too. I do too. I think those, well, there's a great story, right? Is Gazzaro's is the long one? Is it Gazzaro who's like, this is too fucking long? No, I thought it was the reverse. I thought it was Gazzaro. You got to show me when I'm doing this. And then Cassavetes... Is that what it was? Cassavetes is shorter. Yeah. The director's kind of shorter. It's 108 minutes versus like 100... No, I thought it was the theatrical cut. I thought they screened the movie at 135 minutes and Gazzaro didn't like it. Oh, and he made him cut it. And he said, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's the other way around. No, I think now I think you might... I thought he wasn't done editing and they were like, you have to put this out. But then the edit, the 108 minute version. He moves those scenes all over the place. Like the movie is very different. Very different opening. And there's a lot less stuff, I guess, in the nightclub. I've just got a lot more patience for a Mr. Sophistication than I did as a younger man. Now I can sit and watch Mr. Sophistication all night long. This is... Man, fucked up this draft. This movie, I think is one of the better movies about where the lead character is like a stand-in for the filmmaker. The idea of a person who's like... What I'm really interested in is the design and the world and the artistry that I'm putting into this nightclub and everybody's there to watch girls dance and to be entertained. And that you come to show business for the pomp and the circumstance. You don't come for the artistry and Cassavetti's being totally tortured. I love that idea that's in the movie that's at the forefront of it. All the scenes of him just calling the club, being like, no, no, no, who's on stage right now? What song are they singing? Guys, she out there alone. It's really, really, really good. They're going to be movie about Los Angeles public transportation. Best use of Playboy playmates, I think, ever in a film. Over Apocalypse Now. You got me. You got me. But those are not real. Are they real playmates? One is. One is. One is. One is. One is. One is. One is. One is. One is. One is. One is. One is. I think I saw one just studio heads to come sit and be in the crowd of the club, but then He like like blurred all their faces purposefully so you can't see them. Which is just like with the way that the lighting is set up. So he thought they were being gratified by being able to appear in a movie and then he fucked them over. Which is such a little, he's such a little fucker. When Seymour Xcel and all the guys take Ghazara to like the deli on sunset and they're just like all like huddled in this deli drinking beers and, and like are like, so let's take out a third mortgage on your house. Pay off your poker debts. I always am happy to see Timothy Kerry in a movie and he's great in here. And I also have special affection for this because I saw it at, I saw it in Dallas, Texas with a Q and A with Cassavetes afterwards. Oh, shit. I was excited to hear Cassavetes talking about the movie. A guy trying to get money together to make a movie. He's like all he was, all he was about. So interesting. Okay. You got another pick. Ew. Does everybody have drama? I don't. I do. I do. So interesting that thriller action is all filled up. I feel like that's a healthy category. No, it is. It was a little bit about the cat, the last minute category shift. So I just wasn't as. It may work out for you really well. In drama, I'm going to take lifeguard. You are the number one lifeguard fan on this podcast. You've brought this film to so many people. Yes, no, I haven't. You should watch it. I think you would like it. I think you would too. I'm sure that I would. This is the Sam Elliott. Sam Elliott. I was just thinking about the pants, which is, has that episode come out yet? That has not come out. Oh, yeah. As physical media come out by the time people are through this. So complimenting people on their pants and complimenting Sam Elliott on his pants. Is what kind of thinking about pants story. Yeah. Um, I'm just going to forget about that. It's been a long week. I just it's just a terrific movie, Carrie. And I were just we watched it together. We'd never seen it. We were both just kind of knocked out by what a what a good film it is. And a film that. That as Tim was saying the other day on the podcast, it kind of gets deeper as you get further into it. It seems to be a very light thing when you start and by the end of it, it's actually. It's actually gets kind of deep. And it's a great Sam Elliott performance early and Archer and maybe first Kathleen Quinlan appearance in lifeguard. I think I'm done. OK, Fenrock. I've got another pick, huh? So I'm currently missing comedy and horror comedy or horror. Oscar and wild card. Oscar, what a fascinating Oscar year. Most of the big dogs were taken up front. There's also some good movies left, though. Yeah, some movies I really like. I think. I think what I'll do is I'll just take a movie I really love, which is Harlan County, USA and awesome fucking you fucking mother fucker. You fucking fuck you and the horse you fucked. Sorry. Sorry. No, you guys did that 900th show and that little boy listens to the. Yeah, not anymore. He does. And if you're listening, I just want to say. Me. You. You fucking. Listen, Nico, it's just me and you here. I don't think it was Nico. He's so sweet. He made Sean cry. I was so touched by that. I really was. He's really wonderful. Factory owner shit right here. You know, yeah, I mean, I have probably said on the pod before, I think this might be the greatest American documentary ever made. Barbra Cople's film about what happens in a Kentucky coal mine and the company that owns it and the folks who work in it and the way in which they organize and stand in the face of the corporation. A movie about real people that shows real people as they are in a direct way, which is very hard to do. And this movie. It being recognized in its time, I think, is really fascinating and really powerful at winning best documentary feature. It's that collision of social impact and filmmaking artistry. And, you know, Cople's made a lot of really great movies over the years. But this one, similar to some of the movies that we took at the top of the draft, also feels as though it is not expiring, still very relevant. Oh, very. Still very. Maybe more so than it has been a long time. Yeah. Yeah. And very watchable. I mean, there's sequences in this. I mean, even just the descending into the minds in the beginning, I mean, like we're like, well, this is as good as anything in any action movie from this this year and some real like I don't really understand. Like there are moments where you're like, I can't believe there was a camera here for this. Yeah. She also just there's a there's just a filmmaking style where you could have made this movie as purely observational, but she gets this just into camera testimony from people on the scene frequently where you see them and they don't feel like blinkered by the idea of media. It's not like a performance that they're giving because they're being asked a question with someone holding a camera. It feels authentic. It seems like an insufficient word to explain the way in which they're communicating about what's going on. And some of that is the trust that couple has built with the people in the community. Some of that is just people not knowing how to be any other way. But yeah, this movie is like a is a one on one for documentary filmmaking. I was going to rewatch it for this draft and didn't and then realized, oh, it's OK. It's pretty it's pretty imprinted. I mean, I feel the same way. I watched it in college. I probably watch it one time since, but definitely one of my faves. I think on DVD on in the criterion collection, but I don't think it's not a great idea. No, not on Blu-ray and hope I would love a barbocouple box set. I only say this for the kids out there who might want to know it's important. Yeah. I just didn't want you to think I was turning this into a physical media podcast. I recognize. All right. CR, you have a pick here, bud. What do you have left, Chris? I got drama, wild card and comedy horror sci-fi and drama. I'm going to take Kings of the Road. This is Vin Vendors is rather epic, but also very intimate road movie about a very depressed therapist and a film projection repair man driving around Germany and talking about stuff and about their lives and, you know, going to hang out with X's and their dads and really just trying to, you know, it's basically a blueprint for Linklater. It's a blueprint for Jarmusch. It's shot by Robbie Muller in an extraordinary black and white photography. It's a hangout movie and it's a thinker, but it's it's kind of just like you can just kick back and watch these guys wash their clothes and walk around in circles and fill up the tank with gas and stuff like that. It's very durational. It's very just just watching life unfold. But for me, it's it's the cinematography that I really come back to. Muller winds up, you know, obviously shooting stuff like repo man and to live and die in LA and Jarmusch movies like down by law, I believe, and, you know, is one of my favorite cinematographers in film history. So to watch him kind of cook and watch him just really get like an expansive canvas like this, it's just just a really lovely movie. The long movies are called. The hours. And it's kind of it's the last. Pure German movie that vendors makes right for a long period of time, the American friend comes right after this and then he kind of goes on the his sagas of America and makes Hamot with with Coppola and Paris, Texas and what not. Great movie. OK, Amanda. Yes. I have two picks. In blockbuster, I will take a movie that I like, even if the rest of you are being snobby, A Star is Born, the 1976 version starring Barbara Streisand. I don't know why I always have to come on this podcast and be like, Barbara Streisand is important and Barbara Streisand is important. And the movies that she makes that made millions of dollars at the box office are also important and you all just kind of like stare at me. What? But it's not a good movie. But OK. Here's why I'm staring at you. I've never seen any version of A Star is Born. Really? I haven't seen this one. But I don't mean that in a cocky way. Chris Christofferson's kind of bringing it in this, in my opinion. Oh, that's what he's doing. And so and you know, they have some heat that I responded to at the age that I was. Such a boring movie. That's fine. You can say that. And I had a nice time and it was the second most second highest earning movie of the year. So there's a very big hit. Yeah. You've not seen a single A Star is Born film. Well, it's unpacked that. I don't have a good reason. OK. There's no it's not it's not like I'm boycotting A Star is Born. I mean, Judy Garland. The Judy Garland is lights out. Until that's the one I have to say. I mean, that is one of the great screen performances, in my opinion. You really should watch that. And I mean, and I both absolutely love Bradley Cooper's version. You might disagree with us as you often do on contemporary. How can I disagree with you? Is it? I haven't seen it. Is it because you hate films that center women? Like what's the issue? I'm not responding to your tyrannical questions. Good. Good for you. Good. Nice to see. Yeah. But you will and you do hate films that center women. I understand it. Is that correct? Not submit to the tyranny. OK. That's one that's in Blockbuster. Yes, Blockbuster. And then in comedy horror, this is one of the international ones where depending on where you are, you get a different year. But this this film performance from this film was nominated for the Oscars that we keep referencing. And it was released in the US in 1976. So I will be taking Cousin. Cousine. Oh, yeah. Sure. Which I had not seen until preparing for this and was completely delighted by. It's a French for weddings and a funeral. And, you know, and it's organized. It's a romantic comedy organized around two people who who are our cousins, but by marriage. So there's no kind of bloodline issues going on here. And it is France. They are also married, unlike in four weddings, and if you know both of them. And they keep meeting over a series of family functions and then ultimately decide that, you know, it's happy ending that they want to be together. They they are believable, but the all of the family functions and sort of the weird slice of French 70s life is so funny and memorable. And every weird character is like gets a moment and makes you laugh. And. I, you know, they're not a lot of not a lot of great comedies and certainly not a lot of romantic comedy. I love this. Yeah, it's really good. But is it Marie Christine Barrow? Yes, she was nominated for Best Actress. Anyway, delightful movie. Did you know there's an American remake? I did, but I've never seen it. It's called Cousins and I believe it's made by Joel Schumacher. Sure. Bill Peterson and Sean Young and a bunch of other people. This was discussed when we spoke about to live in Diane L.A. on the rewatchables because this was one of the movies that Peterson chose as he was kind of dawning as a movie actor that didn't really hit and making that choice instead of some other he was he was offered in this exact same timeframe. The film Goodfellas reportedly turned it down to do this Joel Schumacher movie. Didn't work out. Good pick, though. Thank you. Very good pick. This film was nominated for not one, not two, but three Academy Awards. Thanks. See, I was back to you. Wait a minute. Didn't you have two? Did you make two? Yeah, I did a Star is Born, which you never seen because you don't care about a life in the arts. Having having heard those picks, do you still feel that Amanda is winning this draft? Yeah, I do. OK, I mean, it's fine. We did let women into the frame, but it's OK. I have failed on a way. I respect women. In horror comedy and sci-fi, I am going to take the town that dreaded Sundown. Wow. Which is intriguing. You know, it has a mixed reputation for a very good reason. It's a very scary film that then has a very stupid B-plot of the law enforcement trying to capture this serial killer called the Phantom, who's terrorizing Texarkana, I believe. Yes. It's made by Charles Pierce, who's from Arkansas and made a bunch of really interesting 70s genre movies set in and around the Southwest. And used to distribute them out of the back of his pickup truck, driving around theater to theater and made fortunes. But when you watch Town the Dreaded Sundown, it's just kind of like. Especially the opening is really inventive with this voiceover of almost like you're watching a documentary about people getting back from World War 2 and this town that's thriving and then this killer that starts terrorizing couples. But when the cops, the Texas Rangers, I think, come into this, it kind of turns into smoking the bandit a little bit. And there's a lot of like gee, Willikers, where are we going to get the gas for this car? And I was just really playing to a lot of a lot of different kinds of audiences. But the Phantom is a really scary slasher. And I think you can see elements of like Zodiac in this. You know, I don't know if Fincher likes this movie. This was actually remade. This century, I don't remember what year the Town the Dreaded Sundown remake came out, but it's pretty good. And it's in the movie, the remake, it is about how they made the first movie about the Phantom and the town. So it's a little like 2017-ish around that time. Pretty decent movie, though. And yes, I'll do that for her. Thanks. Interesting how many movies were remade from this year. Yeah. All right. That's a good film, a good pick. I think I need to pick from that category. I think I do. I'm missing Wild Card and comedy and horror. And you tell me if you think this is a comedy, because I do. I'll take Buffalo Bill and the Indians or Sitting Bull's history lesson. But you're going to see in the room. It's okay. Yeah, it's a comedy. It's a comedy. I think so. Yeah, sure. What do you think it is? I don't remember a lot of like laugh out louds on that one. It's a cynical view of the world and I guess entertainment. An embittered satire of the falsity of the American myth. OK. It's what would be it's not lol. It's like laughing silently to myself as a satire. Stroking. This is a movie that we did speak about on the Paul Newman Hall of Fame episode. This is the first of two collaborations that he had with Robert Altman, one of my faves. A movie about Buffalo Bill Cody in the later stages of his life after hiring a publicist and a producer and putting on a big old circus show in the middle of the West where he re-enacts some of his quote unquote greatest achievements, along with a whole cast of characters. Unbelievable cast in this film that includes Bert Lancaster, Joel Gray, Geraldine Chaplin, Big Harvey Keitel year. Sure is. I might try to grab. Maybe you'll try to grab another Harvey Keitel movie before we're done here. I think this is one of the great underrated Altman movies and like very much in keeping with this obsession that he has with people who put up a front and don't reveal the truth about themselves. Do you still have comedy? I took Carrie in comedy horror. OK, just out of curiosity, if if we started throwing things all over the studio and saying you can't have some comedy, I'm curious what your comedy would be. It would either be up the Russ Meyer movie, which actually came up on the physical media episode. And I watched the first time yesterday, had a nice time, did it without my family at home. It is very it's very funny. I'll bet you laughed more up than you did out loud at Buffalo Bill. Certainly. Yeah. I was titillated as well. That's a topic for another time. Great. The physical media high council, which is really all those guys are up to. There are some horror movies that I like that are left on the board, but I probably would also consider silent movie, the Mel Brooks film, which I think is not like one of his best, but it's one that I know. But you know what, there's more pics to be made. So you're up for two. I saw Buffalo Bill for the first time in preparation for this draft. I've never seen it before. Little on the nose. OK, I love this Altman style. I love all the cast. I love I think that Newman is fantastic in the movie. It's cool that they did it, but also it's they they are belaboring the point. A little bit. Oh, damn, Joe, like a Star is born. Really subtle. Sorry. I feel making Joe Gray, man. Joe Gray was to stand out for me in that movie. I thought Joe Gray was superb. He's really great. Bert Langcaster hated making the movie and did not like Robert Altman. I'm not surprised by that. He's always supposed to be shooting my scenes. Is that your Bert Langcaster? No, my Bert Langcaster. I love this dirty town. I have Oscar and I have Wildcard left and I'm making both of those pics right now. You are. Those are the last two picks. Then we go back up. We sure do. What do you guys have left? I just have Wildcard. Wildcard. Wildcard. Oh, it's like that, is it? But I would choose my Wildcard for Harlan County if. Right. It was on my. Regardless, my Wildcard pick, but it was apparently also my Wildcard pick for 1975. So. Was the seventy five draft when he took Barry Lyndon and you went, was that that? Did I do that for Barry Lyndon? Yes. Why? I don't know. No, because you're a brat. But why did why did I? I don't remember this. Maybe it was an Oscars draft or something. It was more recently we were in this room and you were like Barry Lyndon and you just went like it was really one of the funnier. Anyway, but I like Barry Lyndon. Well, perhaps I got the moment wrong. I'd have to go back and see. I'm going to go on movie drafts. I'm going to take in Wildcard. The man who fell to earth. What category would this movie be eligible in? I was like, that's why I asked about sci-fi. Yeah. I have to say. There are some movies, your relationship to them changes over the years as you watch them, and sometimes you go back to a movie, Godfather Part Two, and you go, I'm not liking this as much as I used to like this. Absolutely. But what's thrilling is when you see a movie and you don't like it and then you go back and you revisit it and you go, oh, there's more there than I thought. And then you see it a third time and you go, how did I miss this? That's how I felt about Michael Mann's black hat. There you go. Well, that's how I feel about the man who fell to earth. My third viewing of this kind of knocked my socks off. Perhaps due to the beautiful 4K presentation on the Studio Canal Steel. Studio Canal in the room with you now. I appreciate all the work that Studio Canal does. I haven't seen this particular 4K transfer. Do you guys know the man who fell to earth? Certainly. No, I haven't. Haven't seen it. David Bowie. Rip Thorne. Yeah, I know that. Candy Clark, great performance. So that's my wild card. And in Oscar, I'm going to take. You've been really stumping for Nick Rogue on these pods since he came back here. He he he there's a pocket. There's a Nick Rogue pocket. It didn't last long, but it's great. I'm fascinated by those later ones, though, insignificance and eureka. And those movies are interesting. Right. The Witches. The Witches. Angelica. When do you introduce your kids to The Witches? Pretty scary. I saw it very early on and it fucked me up. I was a big role doll reader. I the Witches is my favorite of the role doll books. And so I will probably start with that. But it's pretty scary. It is pretty scary. And that's I would say that my kind of line for my kids right now is is it going to cause a nightmare that I have to deal with, you know, at like 2 a.m. We've had a lot of like I had a dream about a scary robot recently. Because of Star Wars, so Witches would be would be intense, but amazing movie. I think maybe Danny the champion of the world is my favorite role doll book. You've read that one? I was not a big doll guy. Really good movie about a boy and his father who is a mechanic. Because you like because you like dolls, views on no, I said I I I I I I I reject that about him. Doesn't show that. Right, does it? I can play the game. I know how to respond to these questions. I've been writing them my whole life. I know he was a wretched anti-Semite, but a wonderful writer and creator of stories. Did you get to see Giant yet? No. The stage play with John Lithgow where he plays Roldol. Oh, interesting. Probably going to win the Tony Award for Best Actor. Lithgow is going to win that. Have you seen it? No, I will not be going to see it when I go back to New York next week. I'm going to see a different play. In protest of Dahl's views? No, just out of my own personal curiosities. What are you seeing instead? Becky Shaw. Oh, okay. I hear it's great. Alden Ehrenreich. I hear it's great. Passing ball from the pit. I hear Alden's great in it too. I can't wait. You've always supported Alden. I have. In the theater? I do. In Oscar, I'm going to take Seven Beauties. Linda Vertmueller's movie starring Giancarlo Genini. Was he nominated for Best Actor? Giancarlo Genini? I do not think he was. He was nominated for Best Actor. Great, funny, horrifying, hilarious, upsetting, all those things. And a great performance. He's really great in this movie. I put this sort of in the bucket of, this is a movie you kids should see if you haven't seen it. Kids ought to go out and have you seen Seven Beauties? No. I'll go out and see Seven Beauties. One of the great things about this year to Amanda's selection of, is it Cousin Cousin? Cousin Cousin. Get ready for Cannes, my guy. I've just never been one of my skills. I'll do my best. Just like now, a lot of international films would find their way into the nominations across the 1970s. And we're pretty solidly represented throughout those years. So that's it for you. You're done. Yeah. How do you feel? You have Carrie though. I think that's pretty important. In more ways than one. Yeah, that's true. In some ways, that's all you have. What did you pick, Tracy? Just you. I got a wild card here, huh? Gosh. Well, I don't know. I don't know what I want to choose. What's my favorite movie that's left on the board? I don't know, Sean. Tell us. I will momentarily. Okay. Do you know what you're going to do for wild card, Christopher? I'm trying to decide between three things. Oh, wow. Look at you. I'm wondering if you've seen a movie that I just watched and how you would feel about it. Bernardo, she's 19. Actually. Okay. Five hours. I don't know. Is 1900 eligible in this year? Why? Because it lasts longer than the year? I don't really know. Didn't it come out in 77 or 78? I don't care for that film. So it means it's got some more. Because it was not in the English language or what was the reason for that? Because I find it to be quite dull and somewhat offensive. I'll just keep some consistency with my own. Just really on your principles today. Yeah. And I'll take Alan Rudolph's Welcome to LA, which is not his first film, but his first film under Altman's guidance. One of the first films, the first film released by Lionsgate, not the Lionsgate that we know, but the production company that Robert Altman launched on his own and released a handful of films, only four that he did not direct. This was the first of them. It's a movie, a kind of arch drama about vapid people in Los Angeles gathering and thinking that they have problems when in fact they do not. It is, features many of the players from the Altman classics, Keith Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Harvey Keitel appears in this movie. Lauren Hutton's in this. Lauren Hutton, Sally Kellerman, Sissy Spacek is in this movie. It's kind of centered around this songwriter musician played by Carradine. Can I just stop you for one second about this? Yes. One of the things that stopped me from seeing this film for such a long time is on the cover of the video box, Carradine has the worst facial hair, perhaps in American history. Well, in the film he does. Yeah. It is a really like an abomination of a chin whisker. It recalls Shaggy from Scooby Doo. But he's supposed to just be like the coolest guy moving through LA. Yes. But he's also, the movie is also very cleverly like this is the Nepo, right? Like his father is a powerful music executive. He's kind of put him in position to be this much sought after songwriter. Richard Baskin, speaking of your girl, Barbara Streisand, who has dated Barbara Streisand for years, plays a singer in the film and wrote the songs that are performed in the movie. Just a really kind of acidic, seemingly soft, but very jagged portrait of, honestly, a milieu that's very familiar to me. I just feel like I know a lot of the people in this movie, even though it was made 50 years ago. Cool. My turn? Your turn. So wild card. Gosh, we all feel a little grim here in the later round. I just like, you know, that's the thing is these lineups cannot stack up to the 75 lineups. That's why there's not as much depth. I don't know. I've got all the president's men and marathon man. You got a Star is born and Mickey and Cousin Cousin. Cousin Cousin is great. I had the fucking Stepford wives in 75, which is incredible film. I'm sure, but also kind of flavors the point. We get it. My God. Since when is subtlety so important to you? This is not something you've expressed in previous episodes of this show. Just saying. I can speak my truth, which is, you know, I think I'll just for the hell of it take Logan's run. Sure. Which probably winds up influencing more stuff that I liked than me loving Logan's run itself, but is a real head fuck of a movie when you think about like, you know, some of the things that the character goes through. It's basically about a guy who, you know, it's like a sort of hunger gamesy society where after a certain amount of time, people get like sort of farmed out into a competition to see if they can still live, keep going and living. Let me tell you all about it. And yeah, I believe Michael York placed the main character who is one of the hunters of those people, but then becomes the hunted and learns a lot of truths about society in the process. To Tracy's point about the Rocky films, do you think that we should all tap out at 30, that at 30 years old we should be eliminated from society? No, I'm thriving. It would be an interesting way to start, you know, thinning out the amount of chairs in this draft is to, you know, it's like once you hit a certain amount of drafts, you're done. The bad news would be that this show would never have existed. So yeah, I'll go to Logan's run for last one there. Okay, Manna, you've got one final. I have wildcard and I'm going to do a discovery, another discovery that I made while watching this and also another documentary. My original plan was to do Grey Gardens in wildcard, which is also what I did in 1975. So maybe I think the lineups are comparable because for me, they were going to be sort of the same. Anyway, I'm going to do a different documentary, DeGario Teep, which an Agnes Varda film that was 75 in France, 76 in the U.K. in the U.S. So it's eligible and is a very charming and interesting snapshot of life on the Rue Daguerre, which is the street where Agnes Varda lived for decades. And it starts with the perfume shopkeepers. Yeah, shopkeepers, yeah. And it is mostly about the shopkeepers, but it starts with one perfume shopkeeper and his wife. Like her daughter goes in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And she's interested in them and how they got there and starts following everybody else along the street and asks them when they came to Paris and what they do and follows them along and follows some pretty disgruntled shopgoers. But it's the 70s, so they don't think to just be like, no, no, you can't record me. And is idiosyncratic in the way that all Varda's films are? At some point she starts asking them about their dreams, like literally what their dreams are, not like what do you hope to be. It's not an American thing, it's a French thing. And it's just a way of looking at the world that only Agnes Varda can. And so the documentary communicates that and you can experience it from anybody else's camera. And I liked it a lot. That's awesome. It's a really good movie. I don't know that movie. Yeah. Don't know it at all. Definitely worth checking out. Great. Very short, is that a call? Just like 80 minutes or something? 80 minutes, yeah. And it's streaming on criterion right now. Bang. Honorable mentions. I already regret my wild card because there are some good honorable mentions. Well, let's talk about them. Yeah, I'm looking at my honorable mentions and thinking it looks better than my lineup. It's like how the hell did that happen? Roman Polanski's The Tenant. Just rewatched it recently. Excellent. That guy knows how to shoot an apartment. Cars at 8 Paris. Yep. What's this, 76? I thought so. Okay. I honestly don't remember. I think so, yeah. Two pulpy crime-ish movies, one of which, or maybe both of which, I got off of Tracy's Letterboxed, Small Town in Texas, and Jackson County Jail. Jackson County Jail with Tommy Lee Jones. That is a fucked up movie. Police Python 357, which is an Alan Cormo movie that is basically French Dirty Harry with Yves Montan and is in a great Radiance box set. I was expecting you to take Yakuza Graveyard, which is also 76. No? Yeah. I like to expand beyond the Yakuza, you know? Sometimes I want to, you know? Okay. You know, there's another Brian DePalme movie from this year called Obsession, which is a movie that I think is bad that I love. Well, one of the crazier plots that I've ever heard or seen is Obsession. Why don't you recap it right now? Quite a turn at the end of this movie. Was that? Why don't you recap it in three sentences right now? Don't spoil it. Okay. Well, people can... And then he made him eat the diamonds. Then Homeboy made him eat a bunch of diamonds. The Ebert quote around Obsession is, I don't just like movies like this, I relish them. Because overwrought excess can be its own reward. That's boss. More honorable mentions? Well, we should probably mention King Kong, which is not a very good movie, but certainly had delights for a boy who turned 11 in 1976. Sure. That was one of two more remaining blockbusters that were not selected. The others are Silver Streak. Almost. The prior, and nope, the prior and Gene Wilder film with Jill Kleberg. Which opens with just like 30 minutes of Gene Wilder seducing Jill Kleberg in a way that I did not find to be credible personally. Do you want to watch it? I did. Or watch it on a train? Yes, on a train. Yeah. It was a big hit. Huge hit. I saw it in the movie theater and I'm telling you, when Richard Pryor appears, he shows up about halfway through the movie, the movie theater just became electric. He just electrified the crowd. That's why that movie was such a big hit. One of two movies in which he did that exact thing because he shows up about halfway through car wash and the movie car wash comes to life. The other movie was The Enforcer, the other Clint Eastwood movie from that year, which is the third dirty Harry movie. Not my favorite. I don't like it. Yeah, not very good. Tyne Daily? Yeah. What else you got? Fellini's Casanova. Yeah. Never seen it. Not for all tastes. Obviously, Fellini, there's amazing things in it. The front. I just watched this again yesterday. Martin Ritz movie with Woody Allen about people. Blacklist, right? Blacklist, people name and names. Very good movie. Zero Mostel, very good. I like it a lot. I think it's very good. I think because of everything with Woody in the last 30 years, it's maybe doesn't have the same place it does because it's just effectively a pure drama. What's what? Woody? You got to check out some, check out the newspapers. Face to face, Ding-Mar Bergman from this year, which I watched for the first time yesterday. It's not Bergman's best, but Liv Ollman. God damn, man. Very good. She's very good. I agree with you. She's really something. Hollywood Boulevard, terrific drive-in movie. It's no more than a drive-in movie. It's an 85-minute comic romp. Very low budget, very Roger Quarman. Alan Arkesh, right? Yeah. Edited by Joe Dante. You mentioned Up already, but I think Up is really fun and really funny. My wife liked it a lot. That makes you seem like not a pervert, but all right. Mr. Klein, I think was made in 76, but wasn't available to us because it wasn't released until later, but it would have been my drama choice for sure. Had it been available. Yeah. Joseph Losey. Heart of Glass. It's a Herzog movie. I watched it last night for the first time. Do you know this movie? I do. In which all the actors are under hypnosis. They've all been hypnotized. For how? To what end? It's about a 17th century Bavarian community, and they are known for their rose-colored glass. But the guy who has the secret formula to the rose-colored glass has died, and the town has gone into shock. So to create this very sort of eerie feeling of a townspeople in shock, they're all hypnotized before every take. Is this what Asteroid City was taking from? Remember that they all get hypnotized and asked? Yeah. Could be. That could have been the inspiration. But you don't get to see them. You don't see them. Yeah, you see them acting under hypnosis, which mainly means they talk kind of slow, and they have some very odd gestural language. It's quite a beautiful movie, really. Next Stop Greenwich Village. Some people don't like this. They're wrong. It's a really terrific comedy. And it's a Paul Mazursky movie, who I'm always championing on this show. You should watch Paul Mazursky movies. And Next Stop Greenwich Village. Why didn't you draft it? Why didn't you draft it? Well, because we combined comedy and horror, and I had Carrie out there, and I had to get Carrie. Let's do it. Yeah. Yeah, I wanted Carrie. You could have taken Next Stop Greenwich Village. Like 7% solution. You ever seen that? I watched it for this. It was entertaining, you know, in the way that I found myself reading and learning about a lot of like gripping mystery thrillers from this year. And then I watched all of them with my dumb 2026 brain, and I was like, well, this is not that exciting. This is kind of taking a while, but it has fun. We just had the exact same conversation about it when we did the Duvall Hall of Fame. Yeah. Also, that accent is not with respect to Mr. Duvall. It's not what you want, especially for the voiceover. And do you find opposite Olivier and Nicole Williams? Yeah, that's tough. Do you find Murder by Death amusing? I turned it off because I was, first of all. Because Peter Sellers. Yeah, because Peter Sellers, it's not what you want. And then it was also really boring. And not, you know, I'm like... Racializing from Peter Sellers? Yeah. Can you do the voice? Please don't. Please don't. I saw that multiple times in the movie theater when I was 11 years old. That was the high-dicombing. Did you think it was funny? When I was 11 years old. Okay. Is there anything panther this year? Yeah. Strikes Again. Strikes Again. That's, that would be my Peter Sellers preference, and it was on my long list, but I... I used to cry with laughter watching those when I was a little kid. I thought they were so funny. He told me. We went to the movie theater to see those. My mom loved dumb comedy. That was her favorite kind of movie. When they would fight and destroy whatever room they were having her play in, I was just like, this is the dream in life. More, I've got quite a few. Okay. You want to keep going? Yeah. Anybody else got more? Rip it. Alice Sweet Alice and the House with Laughing Windows are two horror movies that I would love to love and are very important in the Jalow movement, but they're not movies that I do love. There are wonderful 4Ks available from Arrow for both of those movies. I watched Alice Sweet Alice for getting ready for this. Yeah. It didn't make my list. Not, not the best. I really love Larry Cohen's God Told Me To, which is a, you haven't seen this? A paranoid thriller about a society that has become violent and turns against one another because of some sort of premonition that they are receiving. That's weird. Really cool movie. Burnt Offerings. Have you guys seen this horror movie? Yeah. About a couple or family that moves into a new home. You haven't seen this? I think I keep going. Who directed it? I think it's, is it Dan Curtis? Yeah. Right? Who made, who then became TV guy and made Night Stalker and, Oh yeah. He's had a show, Shadows. Help me out. What's the other? Dark Shadows. There's a bunch of TV movies over that time. This is one of his few theatrical feature films, but very, very good. And is it? Oliver Reed. Who is the old? Betty Davis. Betty Davis. Thank you. What else is on that list? You know, Lipstick is a movie that I watched for the first time when I did the Unboxing Boy for 1976, which helped me start to prepare for this episode, which stars Margot and Mary Elhemingway and Chris Sarandon and is genuinely upsetting film about a sexual assault on the aftermath of it and rendered very realistically in a way that you just don't see Lamont Johnson directed it. I would recommend it, but it's really hard to watch. Bonkers ending. The last five minutes were just like, what is going on? The movie goes crazy. Yeah. And kind of pretty entertaining. It just like turns into an exploitation movie. Missouri Breaks, Arthur Penn, Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando. You think would be better? Yeah. It's not better. It really has been one of the movies that has like followed me around for my whole life and I only watched it in the last couple of years and I was like, this, this wasn't very good. Yeah, it's all right. I think Nicholson, he spoke about it, that he was very intimidated by Brando on the set. He was really, he was freaked out that he was working with Marlon Brando. He was also like, I've decided I have a new character. I'm like, yeah. I think he's great. In the movie. Brando, yeah, it doesn't matter. I always find him entertaining, watchable, hilarious and sort of more interesting than everything else going on. Even in Guys and Dolls. Guys and Dolls, that's the one I put on when Carrie needs some sleep. She hates guys and dolls. One of the very last Hitchcock films, Family Plot, not a very good film. Don Siegel's The Shootest, pretty good, pretty good late period John Wayne movie. John Wayne movie. Is it his last film? It is his last film. I'll tell you one of my favorite Kung Fu movies, Master of the Flying Guillotine. Have you guys seen that one? Probably. Kids I have. I haven't. Pretty sick movie. I mean, what you've just described there in the title seems compelling. It's in the tradition of the one-armed swordsman films. Sure. If you have a flying guillotine, it would be good to be the master of it. Ideally. Yeah, you don't want to be the novice of the flying guillotine. Right, the yeoman of the flying guillotine, not ideal. Flying guillotine for beginners. The target of the flying guillotine. You know, a movie I haven't seen, but was Oscar nominated and popped up on a bunch of lists as Voyage of the Damned? Have you seen this film? Yeah, it's of another era. Okay. It does. I mean, of an earlier era, the 1976. A little old fashion. Stuart Rosenberg? Yeah. There's some international films. I didn't know where to put Carlos Soros, Criacuervos, Lino Bracas, Enchang. I don't know. I don't know what to do. I don't know. I don't know what you're in the realm of the senses. The realm of the senses. Now, the one movie that I wanted to bring up to you guys, I don't know if any of you have seen it. I presume you have is Robin and Marion. Yeah, I've seen it. Which I thought was pretty good. Yeah, it's charming. I liked it. Yeah. It's a kind of a late period reimagining of the Robin Hood myth with Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn. This is the movie I'm in. I was saying, I wonder if you've seen it because you might like it. I was just reading the ending of The Voyage of the Damned, which I was really upsetting. Oh. And apparently they handle it all in footnotes. What the fuck? I haven't seen it. I'm really, I'm not going to, but excuse me. Can I tell you, I bought it on Blu-ray. Didn't watch it. All right. Robin and Marion is Richard Lester in the aftermath of the Three Musketeers movies. Kind of in this, he's in this moment where he's making these kind of historical dramedies, his swashbuckling movies. But I thought Connery and Hepburn were phenomenally. Yeah, they're lovely. Really lovely. And it's a nice movie kind of about like. Robert Shaw too, right? I think Robert Shaw, Richard Harris, a great Richard Harris performance is King John. And somebody else, there's one other, oh, Ian Holm, so funny as who's King John's brother? Or maybe it was King. No, Ian Holm is King John. No, King Richard and Prince John. Yeah. And Richard Harris is Richard the Lionheart. Yes, that's right. I don't know. I thought it was really good. Yeah. Thought about drafting it. It feels a little lost of time. A little baggy in the middle, but very sweet. I've never seen this, but obviously I would like it. This is in my interest set. I think you would enjoy it. Yeah. Well, that's all I got. Shall we recap? Let's recap. Well, Amanda, you selected first so you can read your group first. That's so exciting. I did. In drama, I have Mikey and Nikki. In comedy or horror, I have Cousin Cousine. In thriller or action, I have all the president's men. In blockbuster, a star is born, which Tracy Letts has never seen in any iteration. In Oscar, I have Marathon Man and in wildcard, D'Gario Teeps. I can't believe you got Marathon Man and all the president's men. That's tough. In drama, I took Kings of the Road. In comedy or horror, I took the town that dreads sundown. In thriller or action, I took the outlaw, Josie Wales. In blockbuster, I took the Omen. In Oscar, I took Taxi Driver. And in wildcard, I took Logan's Run. In drama, I selected Network. In comedy or horror, I selected Buffalo Bill and the Indians or Sitting Bull's History lesson. In thriller or action, I took John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13. In blockbuster, I selected the Bad News Bears. In Oscar, I chose the documentary Harlan County, USA. In wildcard, I chose Welcome to LA. In drama, I took Lifeguard. In comedy or horror, I took Cary. In action or thriller, I took the killing of a Chinese bookie. In blockbuster, I took Rocky. In Oscar nominee, I took Seven Beauties. And in wildcard, I took The Man Who Fell to Earth. You know, when we read them all out loud like that, it's more even than I thought. Everybody's got good stuff and everybody's got marginalia. Weird year. Your claim at the top fascinates me. It's just three of the all-timers, which to me, you know, it matters. It says something about how you organize taste. It's true. Be the best. That's what I ask. Shall we talk third chair? Was this the time? Speak now. Go ahead. Okay, so I got on the plane to come here and record. Is this the last one to air? It is. So I came to record three podcasts for the big picture. And I want you to know that when I got on the plane to come here, I had decided to concede third chair. To concede third chair. So that would suppose that you, it was yours to concede. To concede the fight. This is a race that we were both running. Just concede the fight. Because I'd listened to the 900th episode. I had sent in a voicemail for the 900th episode, which was not played. How'd that happen? I don't know. Well, that's Jack's fault. It was not played. But Jack's tossing Tracy Lenn's voicemails out. Yeah, he's tossing out my voicemails and he's always putting me forth. How convenient that Jack also went on vacation that we could arrive. Did you notice that? Yeah, I did. What do you think that means? So in that episode, not only did you not play my voicemail, but you then took what, 10 minutes to sing heroic poems to Chris Ryan. Later in the episode, Amanda suggested that we should take Teddy Roosevelt off of Mount Rushmore and replace him with Chris Ryan. We should replace... Did I actually do that? You did. In fact, you decided we were going to replace TR with CR. I think in general, my relationship with the people... The hero of San Juan Hill. The trust by the... The trust by the... ...represented on Mount Rushmore is disinterest, right? But if I was on it, wouldn't that make it more interesting? I'm sure. But I think the... I think it would lower the interest in it as a historical monument. The conversation was about what Teddy Roosevelt did to earn being on Mount Rushmore. And neither of us were particularly clear on that. That's absolutely untrue. What if he... Go ahead. I said National Parks a lot. Spanish-American War, right? Yeah. Yeah, also led the country through a time of extraordinary tumult in the aftermath of the Civil War. Not to mention the trust buster. I mean, he was essential. Yeah. And essential. Crusaded on behalf of the individual in this country, one of the great individualists. I would like to replace him with Chris Ryan. So it's very clear to me that the fix is in. I'm Al Gore. He's W. And you're the Supreme Court. So I was like... That watched me get the drugs. It sounds like Jacque Sanders is the hanging chad from the T-Vision. So I was like, you can't fight City Hall. So I was ready to concede. Yeah. But I've decided to redouble my efforts. Oh, how exciting. I'm going to tell you why. My constituents. Who are they? They are the people of America, my friend. They're the people in the streets. I'll dub them right now. Are you ready? You know what they're called? The Letts lads. You think they're men? Well, frequently, yes. Yeah. And they want to see more of what I'm cooking. And so my hat is still firmly in the ring. You guys can try and block me out if you want. But I am play over key. Now, I can't believe I'm even entertaining this because of the work I do for this pod and for the other pods on the Ringer podcast network where I have a perspective. Saturday night spent podcasting about the fucking Sixers. But here's what I'll do with you. That doesn't have anything... Because I'm interested in content. This is a no Sixer zone. So that's not going to be taken into consideration. Should we have a November 6th election for third chair? And Tracy and I can make our cases? Now, this is a man with great confidence in the aftermath of C.R.M.A. Who is willing to put it to a public vote. I didn't say that. I'm just saying we can use an electoral college system if you want. We can have different states have different weights. But if this is what you want, if you really want to drop gloves and go fisticuffs. Well, here's the thing. I'm not sure that there are only two contenders. I mean, there are other people who could potentially... Who the hell are you even talking about? You know, there are a great many beloved guests in the history of this show. The physical media high council did not start with either of you gentlemen. It started with Timothy Simons. Oh dear. Well, he is not available. And second of all... He's quite literally not available. He's a boss. He hit Chris. Chris is already the first chair on the watch. He is chair 1A on the rewatchables. He is a basketball expert. He's not watching 56 Robert Duvall movies because he's got to watch the goddamn basketball. So now it's about... No, this must be said because you haven't heard this yet. But I'll say what Tracy Letts did for the Robert Duvall episode. Is among the most titanic acts of scholarship that have been applied to this program. What did you do? Did you watch all his TV appearances or something? I watched a bunch of those and I watched 56 Robert Duvall movies. Okay. If I only had to do five pods a year, I'm sure I could do the same thing. This is my point! Yeah, okay. He's making my point for me. What would be a better life? Would it be to be... Tracy Letts? Yeah. You would be pretty cool. You would serve Tony Awards. If I was married to Kerry Koon and I got to swan in here five times a year, that would be pretty awesome. I could fucking show up in a Catherine Bigelow movie and go, yeah, that would be awesome. Instead I'm out here watching fucking Joel and B and walk back to the locker room, come back right to the court. 73815, when are we going to start? Yeah. Amanda, what are your thoughts? Yeah. I don't think we have to decide today. Okay. I think that it can... But you think it should be decided at some point. Well, I don't know. There's a will-they-won't-they element to this that keeps the podcast going over time. How many seasons can we play? Yeah. I think what we all learned from that is don't make decisions. I'm interested in who you think H. Ross Perot is in this equation. Who is the outsider and surgeon candidate? Well, I always love talking to Alex Ross Perry. He brings a completely different energy than either of you ever could. He's a bit of a villain in a way that I always find appealing. He's been on the show many times over the years. He also, to his credit, if I ask him for an act of scholarship, he will bring it when it comes to that sort of thing. He also makes a lot of memes. So he's been very crucial. Memes, memes, yes. Mostly of Sean. Yes. So he's been very crucial. Funny, you're not on text with him, right? Publicly share these memes? No. Okay. He privately generates several memes featuring photos of me from the Void recordings. Yeah. And then takes literal quotes that I share on episodes. I know also that one South by Southwest photo of you with your card, you know, like you're preparing for a presidential address. Oh, yeah. Which I did not approve the posting of that photograph. No, I'm sure. I can't believe you sat for it, but that's okay. Nevertheless, yeah. Are there any good Kyra Gerber hands memes that I should check out? Are you aware of this, Lore? Yes, I saw the picture. Okay, okay. But you're not on Instagram. How'd you see it? As a person who's frequently... I don't know. I heard you guys talking about it, so I looked for it. As a person who's frequently surrounded by attractive people when you're going to photo up, do you just hand on the back, go for it? Yeah, there's a photograph somewhere of a bunch of us at that screening of House of Dynamite and it looks like... Is her name Willa Fitzgerald? Yeah. The strange darling? Yes. It looks like we are a couple with everybody else around. Just like we... Yeah, you put your arm around her. I put my arm around her. Just like, oh, this feels unfriendly. I'll put my arm... Sure. And now the photo makes it look... How did she respond? You know, she was not threatened. Warmly, I don't think. Okay, okay. Interesting. Do you think I should have done that with Kyra? I don't know. I met Kyra Gerber, we're both in Saturday night and so I met her at screening of that. And as we met, you've never seen two people who had less to say to each other. I find that so interesting. She's a woman of letters herself. And apparently you guys hit... Not that we didn't. She was all totally pleasant. I'm just saying she didn't have anything to say to me. Interesting. I wouldn't say she had things to say to me, but she did say things to me. Yeah, that's right. Like it's Wednesday. Hi, Sean. You're a person. I'm Kyra. You're alive. You're alive. Yeah, okay. I mean, listen, I appreciate all of your efforts. I've got, you know, 17 more years, 18 more years of experience with Chris. Sure. You've entered our lives like a shot. Let's face it. I forced you all to be my friends. I forced my way in here and forced you to be my friends. Absolutely ridiculous. I feel maybe there's an inter... like a turmoil. Well, I don't like, you know, I admire Tracy very much. Like that. Waiting for the butt. Like I got to let the dogs off the leash. Like, you know, like, it's not going to be pretty. So I'm begging you. Yeah. Don't make me go to the mattresses here. Regardless of how this works out. I love all of you. I love being on this. It's been a real pleasure. I've had a great week. This has been an excellent week. Thank you for coming. Thank you for participating as always. I don't think I've ever, I don't think I've laughed harder than I did during physical media in a long time. Oh my God. I've been laughing all week just thinking about it. Just really. It was a very good time. Thank you to Lucas Kavanaugh and Sarah Reddy for their production support on this episode. Thanks to Jack Sanders. Thanks for nothing, Jack. Yeah, Jack was not here today, but he did do the selection and excitedly shared the results, which fucked me and Tracy over pretty badly in this draft. At this time, what is happening? When is this? I think this episode is airing while we're in at the Cannes Film Festival. God willing. Yes. I said the opportunity for us to do a coup. No. What would you guys even talk about? Tracy and Chris at the movies? Come on. Okay, great. I wish you guys luck. What feed will you be posting this show on? I'll figure it out. I just love to remind you, he is an editor at theringer.com. That's right. So I've heard. Thanks to everyone for participating in this draft. I hope you've heard of some of these movies and we will be back. I think our next episode, we will be covering the Cannes Film Festival. See you then.