Ep 12: F**k The Flowers Of St. Francis!

Hello this is Sean and welcome to fuck your opinion a movie review podcast. Before we get started, please make sure to like follow subscribe, write a review of this podcast wherever you are listening right now and please be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. All those are linked in the description. Enjoy the episode. Hey everybody, welcome to fuck your opinion. How do I begin this? Oh, I got a I got a good idea Giannis. So earlier. And this is like when we were figuring out what we wanted to include and not include in our allies for this podcast. One thing that I kind of made I don't want to say off limits, but I said you know, let's not venture into this territory is that I have a little annoying how thing called prostitute is not very fun. It's not very glamorous. It's not it's kind of a gross topic that you don't really want to know about. buy buy buy for us. You know, I know why we're talking about this. Giannis. Why are we talking about this? Well, Sean, speaking of butts, I went to the doctor a couple weeks back and long story short, it's a promise to Titus. Oh my god. Are we like his buddies? Oh yeah, we're prostu Titus buddies. We are we are in this to win this. I don't know if you can really notice that didn't come out right. That's white pasta Bros. That's all nice. It sounds like that's like another name for a male prostitute. That's what it's saying. No, I soon as i said that, I realized that I'm like, Oh, no, that's not that's not what it should be called. We got to have a better nickname. what what what's a good nickname? Giannis? I don't know. But all I can think of is the fact that a male prostitute would probably also have prostitute is considering you know the daily activities in his line of work. Is that how you got it? I mean, like in our first episode, you mentioned you know, following the Midnight Cowboy Jon Voight route. I wish it was something at least that interesting, but no, it's probably for when they I was I was enesta sized and estefy enesta sized in this anesthesia. And this the ties anesthetize ns this ns Nesta tie Oh my god, just stop. I was put down for a surgery in mine and they put a catheter in me, you know, and they rip that catheter out. And that's probably what gave me prostate Titus. If that catheter out, oh, yeah. Probably very careless nurse when I had kidney stones, and I went to that similar careless in their story, so I had to go to the origins of the room and the nurse stabbed me six or seven times in order to get blood. She went all down my first arm, my left arm, because that was the preferred arm and she could not get blood I have just seen folks I have very skinny arms and I have very skinny veins. So this usually ends up being some kind of problem but most nurses are pretty good about this anyways, so this nurse, I must have been three or four times on my left side and then she called an another nurse to help her out and that nurse also struggled on my end they had a gift. They said, Oh, we were a stabbing too many times on the left side. So that one's out. Let's let's try the right hand side. So they tried they went for the right hand side and then after a couple times, they finally got it doubled. Now that's not the right word. Tag teaming. Er. So yeah, they would you say they with the needle I made with the with the with the IV would you say they they penetrated your skin twice that it was a double penetration? It was like a bit more than that. Oh, man, they pay attention that story they gang bang that arm? Yeah, they they they gang banged it into oblivion. You know that that arm kind of walk straight for a week? When I went to process data storage, oh man, I really going to see my urologist tomorrow. I've got to find out some pretty I don't know, maybe heavy news. Who knows what's gonna happen but Oh, man. Oh, man. I took the antibiotics. Things are still Yeah, burnin. They don't they don't work. So folks, if you ever this for our male listeners, if a doctor ever says you have prostate, Titus, what they really mean to say is you have some kind of problem, your genital area, and they have no idea what it is. They have some clues, but they don't really know what it is. So it's a smaller prostate. They don't know what causes it though, necessarily. It could know but it's not necessarily even a swollen prostate. I'm pretty sure mine is not actually a swollen prostate. I think it's other things. But anyways, they're always going to prescribe antibiotics at first just to make sure it's not going to be right very few cases that's actually going to help so just be aware if you need some help and you have power tytus feel free to email us at fuck your opinion podcast@gmail.com and that's actually fk because Gmail would not let me actually do a fuck for an email and they also wouldn't let me do the star star so I had to do the next best thing which is fk your opinion podcast@gmail.com you know what that means? Shawn was I mean, he was like, as far as you're concerned, Google just couldn't give a fuck. Ah, oh. Maybe when when we've gotten you know, once we're getting those big cottonelle dollars for advertising cottonelle or you know, male catheters you can buy yourself a hat that says fuck your opinion the name of the show on it and you can wear that during the podcast indoors at 8pm at night a couple couple things I want to comment on. First of all, I can buy my own fuck your opinion hat if I wanted to whenever the fuck I want to. Okay, second of all, Giannis is commenting on the fact that I am wearing a New Jersey baseball cap on right now. Because as much as Albemarle, New Jersey, I still love New Jersey. So fuck y'all. Fuck New Jersey, that's my motto. Third of all, I'm wearing a baseball cap because I have a bad habit of scratching my head a lot causing a lot of dandruff. So I've been wearing baseball cap more and more. I don't normally wear baseball caps. I kind of hate wearing baseball caps, but I want to wear it to kind of just stop myself from you know, reaching up and doing that. So you know, you didn't even know that. But you know, there you go. Fuck you. yonny Fuck you. But anyways, and the last thing I want to mention, because you mentioned sponsors, we're not going to get fucking catheter sponsor. I mean, I don't even know what the catheter brands are. Why would they? Why would they ask a podcast that advertise? I mean, you'd go on at first of all, it'd be on a medical podcast. That's like number one. No Second of all, I've seen them advertised on tennis channel before during. Okay, yeah, what's the brand what's the brand I can't tell you the exact brand but okay, it's an older guy. And he flies planes despite his leaky phallus. So they were well, well, catheter brand. Our door is open. I send my email. I said the email before fk your opinion podcast@gmail.com. So you know, we're all on in but tune in to who will inevitably be our actual sponsor Yogi green tea. Oh, God, not again. So first time listeners I drank Yogi green tea to keep my wits about me late at night as we record this podcast late at night, two hours before the time that it is where I am currently I go to I want to sleep at like 930 last night I'm I'm early Early to bed guy you know. So anyways, the yogi green tea quote of the day is May this day be the day to lead us to peace to happiness and to joy. I think that's very appropriate for this film. You know, joy and shit. That's the movie. I guess. I'm also Giannis. Do you want to tell I'm double fisting right now. It looks like your double fat fit staying Yogi green tea and a glass of water with ice cubes and it's whiskey. It's whiskey. Okay. Oh, you put Now what did you What are you drinking that you put ice cubes in it? Probably it's a whiskey class. It's not jack. It's like the cheapest Trader Joe's one. Oh, that's even worse. I like a call. What's wrong with that? I guess nothing. You know, if you're a surf if I'm a white surf sir. I'm being I'm being relevant to the movie to see I'm being relevant to the film we watched because it was during the Middle Ages. And there was serfdom. rampant all over Europe at the time wasn't a good movie. No, there wasn't then why the fuck does that even matter? Who cares? Because hundreds Oh man. Did you know Did you know? The 1200s What else happened to 1200? So let's see. There was also people in China you know that those Chinese people in the 1200s they also existed you know that's relevant because 1200s they are doing things why don't we do the intro? Hello listeners and welcome to fuck your opinion. A movie review podcast where my co host Giannis and I trade off you're not gonna get me this time. You're not gonna get me this time we trade off picking movies one week I pick a foul the next week he only picks a film. The caveat is that we know the other person is more obsessively going to hate the foul. Look at you learning words. Yeah, yeah. So we pick ones that are near and dear to our hearts. That the other one It's going to pray that they never watched set upon some joke. Did you just did you just joke? Before you even announced the name of the movie as a bit of money? I mean, they would have clicked on it. It says in the episode description flowers of Saint Francis. I wonder God I wonder what it is I Gee, I wonder or it could have been a hospital. St. Luke's St. John's. Yeah, this is the hospital drama flowers for St. Francis. in which an approximate height his patient goes into surgery to get his prostate removed, goes back out of surgery, doctors like Oh, sorry, didn't work. You're gonna die. And then someone gives him a flower at his funeral. That's flower flowers for St. Francis. This. It's the flowers of St. Francis. That's the title of movies, the flowers of St. Francis. That's how much I care. Okay, so anyway, we do what do we do in this podcast? So yeah, we picked it and then we trash each other's films as you kind of hearing one. No, I want to I want to say an intro that you kind of like steered me away from as I've been thinking about our relationship like who we are as podcast hosts. I feel like you are the ben shapiro of this podcast. That is such a compliment. Thank you so much. You're welcome. You're a great debater, you are really good. You got your facts, you know what to say? You're also an asshole and I hate you so much. I just I kind of just want to punch your face every time I see it. You know, Shawn, and now that you've said that I've put some thought into who you are in this podcast relationship. And I've decided that you're the you're the Joe Rogan. No, don't do it. I'm the Bill Simmons. I'm the belts him and that's mine. At the best I can't read the Joe Rogan I can't be that Joe Rogan he's so dumb. Don't do that. No, no. I listeners I Joe Rogan is a person that I mean, he's essentially one of the biggest podcasters out there. I never understood why. And I legitimately tried listening to some of his YouTube clips recently, and I just listeners if you listen to him, please explain to me why you like him. Can I just do I get it but I really don't get it because it's just not it's like the most stream of consciousness thing I've ever seen where I'm just like, do you are you even making a point right now? What do you even the fuck you talking about? I mean, what's going on here shot if it's any consolation, I only said Joe Rogan because he's literally the only other podcaster I know of. Bill Simmons gave me the bills. Okay, here's what I'll say about Bill Simmons. I listened to a lot of the ringer podcast. I love Bill Simmons as a podcast host. He's very engaging, very funny, very witty, but, you know, I feel like we were on similar wavelength. You know, like he's not if if he had ben shapiro on his show. I'm sure ben shapiro would probably transom because ben shapiro is a great debater and an asshole. Yeah, he trounced me, you know, he beat me Not gonna lie. What ben shapiro beat you. Yeah, he beat me. He beat me. That's why I add the black guy right here. Wait, what day did he beat you on? Was it yesterday? And the day before that, and the day before that, and he didn't beat you yesterday? Because yesterday was the Sabbath and he's an Orthodox Jew. You're caught in a lie. You have been caught in a lie, sir. Oh, man, man, I'm so sorry listeners because you totally believe that would ben shapiro? Yeah, no, it's very believable. They don't even know when we actually record this listeners. Did you know this was a Sunday night we recorded this I guess now you know, but they didn't kind of worked through but it didn't. My dad caught you caught you and your lie caught you and your web spin in that way. Let's talk about this movie. So we watched flowers for St. Francis of right for flowers. So we watched Francis. So we watched flowers. Oh, St. Francis by Roberto Rossellini. It's from 1950 Yeah, yeah. Why don't we Why do you Why do you like this movie? Well, you know, you know a couple things about me that I would definitely provide evidence enough for why I would like it. You also left out that it wasn't just directed by Roberta Rossellini. It was also written in part by Federico Fellini and part part when you stress the in part, two big Italian neorealist filmmakers of the 1940s 1950s they teamed up for this one and I really enjoy it. This is a movie I was introduced to at a very young age, something my mom was actually a VHS rented from blockbuster. If you'd believe it back in the day. I really don't believe that. I know. It's kind of an obscure film right now. You're right. It's kind of weird, but she also rented I just got to ask what was it next to in the video section? I'll what was it next to how would I write categories go? I think it was probably in And films probably like where the seven seal was. I also watched the seventh seal around the first time around. I also watched seven seal for the first time around then. So a lot of introduced to a lot of old foreign films that time and my mom sat us down all the kids in the fam sat us down and we watched flowers of St. Francis tried to follow along as best we could didn't really make a make too much of an impact on me then. But I think a lot of kids watching slow moving relatively slow moving, not action, heavy. foreign films with subtitles aren't going to retain a lot of that they're not going to have any sort of great interest in it. And I didn't really get into the film for years, it was probably over like 10 years until I watched it again. And a lot of it resonated with me. I didn't think it I didn't expect it to. But a lot of the messages in the film are as timeless then as they are now 100 years ago, but that's not why I chose all the films I made 800 years ago, but the message the message was being conveyed in the early 1200s. Actually, I could have watched it exactly 800 years after the events of the film adaptation. It's Trent film hasn't been made films only like 150 years old or something like that. So like, I don't know, I don't know. However, none of that is why I chose to watch this film this week. The reason I chose this film was that while we were watching Wonder Woman we got to the trench see in the so beloved tread sheen seeing that Shawn just just oozing over and I see Wonder Woman walking around in the trench and she passes this French woman and her daughter who have been in the trenches for a year apparently and it's supposed to be cold outside they don't look particularly well clothed and Wonder Woman's got this big old coat on and when she decides to get up and do her big badass sprint into the battlefield she just rips that coat off and throws it right in the mud throws it right in the mud instead of giving it to literally anyone else in the trench who might need it and I thought didn't do that. You know who did it do that should net bro. Jeanette bro from flowers of St. Francis. Oh my god, he gave his only article of clothing away twice. Why is the runtime of this slice? God? What a fucking moron. So I thought you know what, I think we should choose a film. That's what got you to watch this movie. First of all, I gotta ask is it chenette pro or Juniper? Cuz I was reading I know is Jeanette pro and the movie. It's a tower I saw since and Jeanette Pro is the Italian name. It's the Italian for Juniper. So I'll refer to him as Jeanette Pro. Okay, we're gonna I'm going to refer to all of them by their Italian names. Okay. I'm not for Francis because Francesco it's hard because the name Francis, I got I got some nicknames, guys, I got some nicknames. Okay, but actually, in part, because that inspired me to want to watch a movie that inspired me to want to watch a film about an actual group of humans who actually change their world for the better instead of a fictional one who did not. So that's why we watch flowers of St. Francis show. Okay, how would you summarize this film? And now I was trying to think of this beforehand. What's a good summary? And you're not I'm gonna admit, I didn't think of one so I'm just going to improvise this. I want to improvise this after that. Okay. Oh boy. Here's that level zero. coming in. Oh, man. Oh, man, my my how my week my like five weeks of improv training coming out who yes and Oh, that was object work. Then I was doing the who, but you didn't see it because this is the podcast. I would my short Plot summary would be a group of think this real quick. You know, you really rode me out two episodes ago for not coming up with my summary beforehand with one I'm pretty sure it was. It wasn't human tornado wasn't Wonder Woman. It was probably tank. cash. Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, buddy. No, no, we're going to sit here in silence until you come up with a summary. You do know I cut the silence right? There's a quick little function delete silence. That's how I cut up half the time of the episode. It's a joyous happy group of priests frolic around. Was it Italy, France, was it? I don't know. Are they speaking French or Italian at the film? Is the title in Italian or is it in French? A group of joyous happy go lucky, fun loving priests traveled the world. A group of happy go lucky joyous, fun loving priests journey around Italy defined higher meaning and spread their goodwill. Wow Janette pro just always does the dumbest thing he possibly can. The pros while the actor who well no not the actor, by the way, while the stunt double for the priests who played unipro gets his earns his paycheck. Yeah, he earned his paycheck. Oh boy, Danny, by the way, they don't travel the world until the very end the entire events up to the point I restarted my description. I restarted my description because I realized I was getting into the mistake territory that was wrong. I was wrong. I've made I was wrong. I unlike you, I could admit when I was wrong, I'm infallible I that's now. That's fine. But I'm it's important. It's literally impossible for me because I'm right all the time. Wow, that sounds like a real stubborn son of a bitch who learned literally nothing from this movie. Is that your father? Sorry, movie is about love and humility and all this kind of stuff that you just like, you're like, I love this movie. But I didn't learn a single fucking thing from it. You're the kind of guy who watches this movie goes, I love it. I should be a better person. And then when you see a homeless person on the street, you just spit into them. And this keep on rockin man spits liquid can hydrate you. Oh my god. Cool. Well, let's get into this. So first section normally would be story, folks, we're gonna experiment a little bit right now. And probably for the next couple episodes, what we normally have been doing is running through the entirety of the story detailing the plot and everything, partly because we want to give you context for everything. But the drawback of that is that the episodes have grown so long that it says annoying for me to edit and annoying, I'm sure for you to listen to to a degree. So we want to scale that back and kind of just very briefly talk well, not very briefly, but we want to talk about the plot in a more condensed fashion, which is a bit convenient. Because this film, it's not story heavy. It's divided into like nine vignettes that are connected, but not totally like you can very easily watch one vignette without having watched any of the others. And I really liked that. I really liked that about that this film, it's easy to just watch one scene or watching a handful of scenes. It's also not terribly long, either. It's an hour and 27 minutes with credits. I will say that really helps. I was watching this during lunch breaks from work. So I just you know, pop in a senior to go Okay, cool. I can Peace out, come back in. Oh, no, I just watched that one, it was a bit longer. I'll come back later is doing that back and forth. I'm gonna preface all of this by saying what I usually say when we're watching a film discussing a film that isn't technically perfect. It's it's not it's it's not a perfect film. I think when you're analyzing a film, typically you need to apply some sort of structure to it or analyze it within its genre, if you polled to the construct of genre in art. Typically, you would, and I suppose if you want to do that, if you want to say hey, there are certain goals that you should strive for when you're writing a story when you're filming something when you're editing it together. I'd say yeah, technically, it's a very imperfect film a lot of problems with it structurally in terms of character development, action stakes, literally anything else. Well, no junipero has a pretty interesting art. Yeah, sure. Watch it's if you stand back and you take in all the all the nine parables or vignettes, what you realize is that the film is telling the story of the foundation of the Franciscan Order from where it begins, as its I don't know what the proper term is for it. It's not my not my credo. But I their order was officially endorsed or something by Pope Innocent. Then they come to Umbria, which is a city in Assisi. And then they build their order they build up their monastery will begin to build it up and that they arrive at the point where the brothers Francis believes are ready to go out into the world to begin preaching the Word of God are prepared to do that. Dammit, how do I say this? They arrive as a common ugly fucking tapestry. No, it's not a beauty. It's not an ugly tap. I don't want to call it necessarily a tapestry. It's more like a, I'd say it's closest comparable piece of artistic medium would be something like a triptych, which is three, you know, panels of three tableaus of art contained within one piece, I'd say it's like a knock tick or something. It's nine pieces simultaneously existing together that kind of tell a very fluid story, but ultimately don't. They form a whole piece but they are independent on their own. That's kind of what it is. Only Yani can walk himself out of his own metaphor that he created previously. Yeah, no, it's cuz you call it every film a tapestry until this. So I don't know why this can't be but anyway, no, it can be a tapestry. But I think it's if you're going to call it a tapestry, it's like a tapestry that you cut into nine pieces, or it's like maybe nine tiny little tap, like nine little miniature trees that are beautiful in and of themselves. I don't want to hear you talk anymore. I got your boy. To go off of this nine part thing. I will say one of the things that I really liked about this movie was how is divided how it was oddly structured. But it was something that really worked for what it was going for and what was doing. I think that's one of my favorite parts of it, because it's different and it's refreshing, but it's something that works well for what it's trying to do. Anyways, what I wanted to say was because I've increasingly found Yani to be, you know, difficult person to kind of combat against, I had to do my homework. For example, with Wonder Woman, I rewatch that movie twice. And I watched a couple superhero origin movies, this week's homework the films that I watched, in addition to flowers of St. Francis, were the passion of Joan of Arc, roam open city, wet curl dryers or Fellini's nice Rosaleen is not Fellini's Oh, really Carl, Dre? Okay, all right. Yeah, keep going better than that's where they all say all these movies are about I don't disagree. I don't disagree passion of Joan of Arc. I would love to watch that. But it sounds like you didn't hate it. It sounds like you liked it. I thought. I had issues with the morals of it. But filmmaking wise it was good room open city, which I had watched in. And yeah, I don't think you're aware of this when you pick this movie. I took an Italian cinema class in college. So let me let me just show you the book. I have this Italian big 600 page Italian cinema book that I still have from college. That thump is that book. Out of this 600 pages of the text of that book. You don't know how often flowers of St. Francis mentioned Nick Wilde Weiss you're right twice when it was mentioned. It was only mentioned the say Rossellini wasn't doing that Italian do realistic shit anymore. He was transitioning out of that phase. That's the only times they've mentioned that the say he's just not doing Italian neorealism anymore. I don't like okay, but anyways, back it was more obscure. Yeah, that's why I could I pick this now. Anyways, I watched Rome open Cydia this morning. Watch that in the class. Remember, like a lot. I walked it today. It's a fucking masterpiece. It is. Have you seen rothen city? You know that really irritates me because I love that movie film. I have to have to. I have to hold on to myself there. I gotta gotta stand my ground with the film. Tonight. I've already have what I've dug myself too deep here. Yeah, it's a great film. I love it so much. And I was really hoping to discuss it on this podcast at some point so pick it still pick it's it's so good. You love it though. So we can't watch it. It was fucking incredible. Like I'm not gonna I'm not gonna get again to it because I could we could just talk the entire podcast but how amazing that movie is But anyways, other homework movies I watched on Berto D. Fantastic as well. Yeah. And then I watched a non story with Audrey Hepburn Okay, not as good as the others but way better than I was expecting. Especially for two and a half hours I was expecting to be really bored there stuff that can be cut but I thought overall was a really strong film not room up and city. But anyways, point is I still like Italian films. I took that class hoping to watch the good, the bad and the ugly for a film class. But you know, first day professor was like, we're ain't doing that get a Western shit. And I said, fuck me. Oh, poor guy. Oh, man. Oh, man. Wait, how did we get set? What are we talking about? We were talking about the tax about my homework talking about Yeah, you did your homework and do your homework. Why? Why did it matter? Why did it matter to have a fuller discussion of depictions of Christianity within film? Most of those films deal with Christianity to some degree or another. I mean, Rome open city doesn't but it's not fully about that by epic Rome open city because it's a movie. I know. I like and that's another Rossellini film. Also, just side note, I was like Alexa, how old is Rome? Open city. Now she's gonna say sorry, I don't know how old Rome city, Indiana. Thanks For Nothing, Alexa. And then she said, Oh, it's 76 or 74 years old and what? Holy shit. That film. Is that all that good? Fuck me, man. Anyways, well, yeah, beard oil film doesn't necessarily make it. Have you seen the third band? Right? I haven't seen the third man. But no, it's not that lesson. I love Chaplin. And I love Keith And like I like old movies, it's just I can watch stuff that's even 20 years old and go, man, this feels really dated. So for a movie that is older than people's lifetimes, a movie that I'm pretty sure everyone involved is dead. That the that the fact that that can still hold up is incredible. I like Italian neorealism. I like those. They're strong films. They're good character pieces, which is interesting, because as you were saying earlier, this is not a character piece. I mean, it's a lot of things. But it's not a character piece. It's very opposite of I can't say, of all Rosaleen his work beforehand, because I've only seen Rome open city, but it's there like night and day that no, you're not wrong. Totally night and day in style of filmmaking. Well, I don't know. Maybe you can make an argument for cinematography too. But definitely when you look at character when you look at message, ultimately, at the end of the day, flowers of St. Francis is working towards this goal of humanizing the saint tanking the myth, the legend, the, you know, the man who received the stigmata who talked to birds calm the wolf down, began a brotherhood multiple Brotherhood's and even the Little Sisters of St. Clair help found all that taking that guy and turning him into just somebody you would meet walking down the street, regular human being and I think it succeeds a lot. Not always because it's it never feels preachy to me, but it does feel a little wooden at some point that the dialogue maybe it's just because of the way it's being translated into English. I wish I could understand perfect Italian and watch it and maybe a dialogue would be a little Hey, you know, I could I'm learning a couple other languages right now. I could just pile that on top. Yeah, maybe it would seem a little less clunky but as it stands with the current English translation by the way, there was like there was an English dub that was released in the North America back in the 50s by the way wasn't on criterion channel kind of glad it wasn't because I just hate dubbed live now. I agree and disagree. I agree on I hate dubbed live action films. But I mean of the time period, at least with the spaghetti westerns, I really love how they dub it I if, if I saw a spaghetti western that was subtitles, I think that would take away from it. Now I i understand they're very different types of movies. I would just be curious what the job would be like, I'd be interested in seeing it. Of course, yeah. Ultimately, it's like poetry. It's like translating poetry, you can't really translate poetry, you just have to understand the language of origin. It is it's interesting that you bring that up. And kind of what I felt when I was watching this movie is that I wasn't watching something that was literal, you know, like, I was watching parables, I was watching kind of lessons. I wasn't necessarily watching people, if that makes sense, as it's interesting. I mean, the closest film that I could think of as a comparison, this is a really weird comparison. And it's based off of something I admittedly haven't read, but the Beowulf movie where you're taking material that's really old, and still sticking so true to it, in a sense that and like, I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean, in a really good way that it makes the story really interesting because you're watching characters from that lens that aren't necessarily like the characters we would watch. It's not like the stories that we would watch. It's, it's just so different, but so unique and interesting because of that. Does that make sense? No, it makes sense. It's funny, you mentioned Beowulf, because Beowulf is probably only at the most 300 years older than the it was written 300 years before the events of this film, probably at the oldest so to take something that's completely myth and then set compare it to something that is like a tested historically, but this is kind of mythic, in a sense, these characters, it's like you You can say, and I totally understand the argument. I don't 100% agree, though, that like, Oh man, this is humanizing these people. It is I think, in the essence of just the nature of film that you're seeing actors portraying this but I do agree that it's kind of what in a lot of times and these characters are acting like fully fleshed out characters and more like symbols and more like what the theme or parable or idea wants the or Nizam to be. And I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way. I just mean you're trying to say something about something and this is the way I you get what I'm saying no, I understand you don't have to explain it to me I get it. I'm part of this why stop and honestly part of part of what why I think it comes off so wooden in some places, is that the actors were for the most part non actors that main characters anyways, they Were they were brothers. They were priests from the no Sara inferiore monastery in Italy. They did not have acting experience they were all just doing their best only like really major actor was the guy who played Nikolai the tyrant who I was. He was That's right. Very different character very different, totally polar. If we're talking about in terms of realism. realism, one's a deep nuanced portrayal. The other is a buffoonish caricature. myka live attire it just started bug eyed caricature of a soul If I had to describe him, I would just say like a baboons beating his chest. That's the character completely. I mean, folks were were introduced to this guy, he's wearing a suit of armor so large and cumbersome and exaggerated, that it has to be held up by chains in order for him to stand in it. Yeah, like, beats him. I don't even think he can move around in it right like he couldn't move and he couldn't move his he could swing his arms but he couldn't. You can't walk around and duck down in the suit to look through the crack between the mouth cover and, and the breastplate. It's It's ridiculous. It was ridiculous. And also, it just didn't look convincing at all. It was very clearly just a prop. You know? It was Yeah, it kind of seemed out of place but at the same time, it also doesn't considering that a lot of the film's run time is dedicated to not necessarily jokes but more humorous scenes more humorous setups I mean you have Giovanni the is considered by humans. We don't mean funny just humorous, light hearted, light hearted Yeah, light hearted. Well, no, I think they're some of the stuff with Nikolai I say is legitimately actually funny when he's in the tent with Jeanette, bro. And he's he, whatever the actor's name is his real check. I hated that scene. That was ridiculous. What about when Jeanette bro is trying to make enough soup for two weeks and he's somehow hoisted up all those trunks and hung that giant pot and Giovanni just keeps throwing sticks into the pot. Okay, I'm gonna I should have mentioned this before, but I did mention before I really want to get into it what my character nicknames are for everybody. So St. Francis is like snow white in the Seven Dwarves. So we got a different character or different dwarves. So as you might guess, jeffro is dopey he's dopey. Stupid his character. He's everything he does is just like really pro like okay. Oh, I then you got old man. He's the grumpy he's grumpy. You know body grumpy and then St. Francis is Birdman. That's when I call him for an entire time Birdman because of the lens everyone else does not matter. Okay. Yeah, you don't get a lot of the other don't get a lot of the other brothers yet pig's foot guy who somehow hunts so there's this one. One of the one of the scenes. One of the is are they brothers or priests because they call her father ordained. They're not ordained. Okay, just so. So one of the brothers is sick and dopey is like, hey, I want to help you out. What can I make? I'm such a great cook. I can make you anything. I can make this I can make it that guy's like, I just want some pig's foot and I'm like, Okay, I guess this is all but who the fuck just asked for a pig's foot. That's a bit odd. And then Toby just goes out. Just like frolicking around a confirmed fucking peg and he's like, Hey, buddy. Hey, buddy. Hey, little pig a little piggy. Let me help you out. You're gonna help me out, buddy. Help me out. They go behind the bush. And then he This is hidden by the bush. But you just see the bush shaking the pig crying out in pain. And then he cuts the pig's foot off and just leaves it there and then takes the foot. I'm like, you son of a bitch. What's wrong? No, he doesn't just cut off. He takes the whole leg. He cuts Yeah, he takes the hallway and he has the bone through the bone. Yeah, yeah. Like it's something where you just gonna let that peg be without a fucking leg. What kind of monster are you? He apologizes. St. Francis. Okay, Africa hits the pig's foot. Listen, if you're gonna do that to a pig, kill the pig, so it doesn't have to suffer. And that way everyone can eat it. I mean, are you kidding me? Like, I'm not gonna defend your death row on that. And that was so stupid. He's a little he's a little dopey there. But he learns that while he learns later on the point of ginebra is to I guess, convey that even the most simple of us, even the most simple of us can be role models can teach can can can bring about some sort of great change, even if it's not necessarily at the very start of your of your path. Sometimes it takes a little bit of work it takes it definitely takes almost the entire runtime of For him to get to that point, but but if you're if you if you think that he just winds he ends up as Adobe as he starts at the beginning, you're forgetting the most important problem learns. He learns. He learns that his actions are more important than his talk. Yeah, that he has to he has to live the word, live the word of love and of God more than he has to preach it. It's at the beginning of the second parable, Francis, more or less says that I'm paraphrasing, but he says you have to live the word. That's how you teach. He comes back to it, he returns to that point, which napro at the beginning of the siege parable, and then it plays out and you see exactly what Francis was talking about that he was able to accomplish much more by just putting his neck on the line than saying anything at all. So I went to Catholic school for most of my life for 12 years and chenette bro. dopey is the kind of priests just like, he's funny, but and I feel like he would get along with the kids. I feel like they had all make fun of him behind his back and he'd have no idea. And that's fine. That's that is fine, because he does even if he did learn about it, it wouldn't affect him. Jeanette bro doesn't care. He's too busy being joyous with life. All right, what's the parables Do you want to talk about? I want to talk about the one that is resonated with me since I was a kid because it terrified me then and looking at the effects the special effects makeup that they did they were looking at the special effects makeup they achieved in 1950 to this day still kind of haunts me a leprosy glad you bring this up. Yeah, you know, I want to hear your take on it first because I feel like I have to end discussing this specific parable. Now. I would say the leper parable is easily easily easily the best parable in the film like trounces all the others. It is really strong like this is the best compliment I'll give the film there is a bit of I feel like a little overacting on this the part of Birdman but in general, it's really good because essentially, it's late at night. I think Birdman is like praying or something and then a leper crosses by and Birdman accepts and tries to give them love. I think he tries to give him a hug or he has no does. How am I he does hug him he succeeds. He hugs him giving him a full brace for a couple moments. Yeah. And then the leopard keeps on walking into kind of like the distance almost like it's not walking to the sunset because it's late at night. But just walking away in this really beautiful shot and the whole scene, there is no dialogue at just expression. And it is pretty great. I'm glad I'm glad you like it. It's I was if you were about to say anything else bad about it, which, okay, I don't remember the name of the brother who plays St. Francis. He's good in almost every aspect of the job except for crying. He does this kind of. It's almost like this chick where he just he hides his eyes. Yeah. For like 30 seconds and then pulls away. And he's fine listeners, I wish you could see us It literally just puts his hands to his face on top of his eyes. And like shakes his head back and forth. Like it's almost as I don't know, maybe that's how your child is trying to pretend to cry in order for their mom to give them a cookie or something. And the moms like you're not buying that, like actually cry. It's the worst crying I've ever seen in my life. He doesn't milk it, though. He doesn't it doesn't last that long. So thank you, listeners, whatever you're doing, if you're listening to this, or you're viewing it somehow, then you probably have a camera hidden in my apartment. But that's watch it, keep it you know, laugh at it, pause the movie, and then just keep you know, hit play and keep going knowing full well that you've taken care of that one criticism because the rest of the film and especially this parable more than anything is great. It's that the leper is quite literally it's the centerpiece of the film. It is number five in the nine. So it's the exact dead center of the film. And you're right, not a single word of dialogue is spoken between the two characters. That scene does begin with Francis meditating in a field praying, he doesn't see the leper first doesn't see the leper, he hears the bells. And it's something I didn't pick up on as a kid that I picked up on recently. A couple years ago when I last what last watch this film is that the bell was a warning for anybody in the surrounding area and anybody in the environments to know that there was a leopard. Leopard. Yeah, liberar is a leopard company guys are rare. Oh, I got skin problems. Well, I'm gonna bite. The bell wants to indicate that there was a leopard impending in the area and so you'd better clear And he wore it himself to warn people to stay away from him. Once you're thinking about it, you're able to get into this character's mind and realize that he is actively going out of his way to ostracize himself from the rest of society, which not necessarily a bad thing, because leprosy was much harder to treat back in the day, I'm not entirely sure if we have a full cure for it. But you very, as a viewer, you very seldomly think about the psychological implications of some sort of disease ailment like that. You rarely think about how somebodies solitude affects them, especially when they're hurting. Externally already. It's enough to be in physical pain, but also to be feeling emotionally just so separated, so isolated from the rest of humanity that you feel like you have to constantly cast people away, because you know, you have to, and that's who this character was. That's who the leper was. You don't find out anything about him. It's the only scene he's in. He walks in it, and he walks literally right out of it. Yeah. The only thing that stops him for a moment is a law. Frances Yeah, and great God, the performance to not doing anything, he's just walking in the makeup is horrifying. It's almost grotesque. It's so dark that you don't get enough, you don't get a lot of gory detail, but it's just light enough for you to tell that these are open wounds that are not healing. And Francis gets up from his prayer and he watches the guy hitching along through the field and he starts trailing him and one point he starts touching him just to let him know that he's not afraid of the disease. And finally, he steps in front of him, stops him and embraces him for like three seconds. And for a moment, the leper does not push him away. He accepts his embrace, he accepts the love. And then almost as if it's instinct pushes Francis very gently away and continues walking on and as he's walking on, Francis just falls to the grass overcome with emotion. There are so many things that could be coursing through Francis's mind at that moment, whether it's abject sorrow or joy, or just a smattering of everything and everything in between such a beautifully constructed scene, if you can, if you haven't seen the film don't have access to the criterion channel. Don't want to go get it don't want to rent it anywhere. Just look up this one scene on YouTube. I'm sure you can find it. Oh, listen, there's there's a version on YouTube that doesn't have English subtitles. You don't need any subtitles for this scene. So just pop on in there. Just check it out. And you're good to go. And that's all you need to watch this movie. I disagree. Moving on any other standout parables that you want to talk about? I really like all of them. If I say I guess one that stands out to me as one that I can't really get the point of was the visit of St. Clair to the monastery and it kind of just, like, totally zoned out and forgot about it. Yeah, it's a short it's a short one, too. It's a short episode. I think it's maybe five minutes total possibly left less. It's just St. Claire's coming for dinner. The monks go out of their way to dress up the chapel and dress up their living quarters as nicely as possible with flowers. And then St. Clair arrives they pray I think junipero is no that's right, Giovanni. This is the second time that junipero has given away his cloak in 15 minutes. Oh, my note was dopey he should be a security guard because you know he's a security guard for like a bank someone walks in and because this is tied to the his lines, someone will go in and be like hey, can I get some money and DOB will be like listen, I can't give you have the money but if you take it I'm not gonna stop you. He was getting he was gonna give us but it's really different because he was giving up the shirt or essentially the shirt on his back when the beggar he didn't have alms to give to a beggar. But also keep in mind Birdman told them before like after he did that he did this one time then Birdman says don't do that again. Don't just give the shirt on your back. That's stupid. And then he does it again. And he literally says Birdman told me not to give away my my shirt because you know it was stupid. I did the first time but if you take it off my back I won't resist now it knows it I get I get it I get the point that is trying to make is just as an actual living breathing person. You wouldn't say that person is, you know, the brightest. He wasn't going to be inventing the printing press anytime soon. You're right. But it's it's it's ingenious innocence. And it's charity probably at its most shining. Maybe that's the only point to this whole to this whole specific episode because after that St. Claire and the three sisters that came with her just talk with literally just talk with St. Francis for the rest of the evening. And then when I think he cries again there's some narration saying that The sky was lit on fire by their discussion. And that's how it ends. Yeah, not much to it. It's interesting. Everything's well shot. You know, St. Clair was a big part of St. Francis's life and St. Francis's mission, he's started the Little Sisters with her other charity group. Otherwise, they don't really do anything else in the film. So I'd kind of interested to see what else was left on the writing room floor that could have been injected into this instead of St. Clair. But if it's all the same, I don't have any real problem with it. I liked the episode. I like all of them. The only other episodes that I really want to talk about are the one where Adobe meets Nicolas and stops the siege. They feel like we've lost on it, but we didn't really get into it. And then the last one, those are the only ones unless there's another one that you particularly want to talk about. No, those are the last two I actually wanted to talk about also. Okay, cool. I'll just describe what happens with Adobe in the siege and Johnny will correct me afterwards so there'll be goes out he's by a waterfall. He sees some kids playing around on a seesaw across the ways he yells out to them not realizing that he can't be heard. I understand this is a point to the story. Oh, you should be teaching through example, an action not through just talking but for literally like a minute. He shouts out to these kids, and his voice is drowned out by the waterfall and he doesn't get it. I mean, this guy's just something anyways, he does that like three or four times he finally realizes, oh, man, maybe maybe I'm being drowned out by the waterfall shit. He goes down to the kids. We're playing on the seesaw kicks on the kids off the seesaw. starts talking while they're seesaw. Kids like oh yeah, the town's being siege next door. By the way. There'll be like, Gee, thanks, buddy. Immediately hops off goes to the town. He's like, Hey, guys, the barbarians are like, Who the fuck are you and just grab them and just thrashing around. And when I say thrashing around, I don't mean like they give him a good beating. I mean, it's imagine a rock climber jump rope with him. Literally. Yeah, now he's a human jump rope in this scene. It's like imagine you know when rock stars are crowd surfing, imagine that but really violent and ridiculous looking like these guys just want to fucking kill them. It's insane. Yeah, so anyways, like Yani said they literally play jump rope with him. You've never seen this in a movie before and I'm sure you'll never see in a movie. afterwards. They play jump rope with him. They throw him like spider man he grabs on to the ledge miraculously, even though he should be dizzy or some shit anyways, as he jumps up he has that spider man Uncle Ben moment where he just suddenly comes them Oh man, I should lead by example. He hops down like a 20 foot high he hops down that's again like spider man. I can't really suspend my disbelief for that but okay, he hops down. He's on her nose shattered ankles ugly fucking tapestry I will never let you have that down when the threads are when each thread is bad it's an ugly fucking tapestry anyways they drag them off to Nicholas the warlord who we talked about isn't that crazy suit of armor and is just like a bad boon barbarian so he and what is not really explained beforehand but is the is the context of the story Nicholas was it's Nicolas right it's not something else right Nikolai Nikolai okay in the eye so I actually read the original text and I think it was Nicolas I think they changed it to Nikolai for those so Nikolai he was told beforehand that an assassin is going to come and beggars clothing and try kill him naturally when they see this beggar who is clearly giving away his shirts willy nilly. Oh man, this guy must be an assassin look at it. Look at that face. That's a killer face right there and they go oh man so they bring in the Nikolai I forgot the exact questions but he questions don't be saying things like are you are what is your purpose? Are you here to kill me and don't be taking bird man's lesson to heart to not lead by preaching but lead by example. He just walks right into his own kind of like deathtrap and says all the wrong things like I'm a sinner. I do bad things. Instead of saying, Hey, you know, I'm with Francis over there. So anyways, they're all set on killing him because again, he could have easily said, Yo, I'm just a simple monk. So actual breeze comes by He's like, yo, don't kill him. This guy is with Francis. He's a monk. He's not gonna kill anybody. He's a fine guy. And nicolaes like, oh, oh, oh, I don't know about that. And then, Nicholai struggles to get out of his armor and to Prove that dovie is who He says He is throws him into nicolaes tent they have a confrontation for about five minutes and this is kind of like vaudeville but not funny just vaudeville comical back and forth. We're Nikolai is testing, dopey just thrashing around pushing him getting up in his face pressing down on his eyes and dopey just has this in the text. He's supposed to be humble and through his humility, he persuades nickoli. In reality, it's more so his tenacity and perseverance and the fact that he doesn't actually challenge like, despite being pushed around, he makes no attempts at fighting back that is knowable. At the same time. The actor does such a bad job with his facial expressions. He just smirking like a smart ass is like I know better than you you're you're an idiot. Like I'm the smartest guy in the room. I'm you know, it says his face does not work at all. And again, you finish no and again barbarian just thrashing around just comically and again, this is the good actor he was so good in Rome up in the city, so I understand that this is a choice not like he's a bad actor. Anyways, he says, you know, you convince me by saying not a single thing, yo, we're gonna peace out leave this village to go goodbye to this siege. And then in the text, he actually dies right afterwards, but you know, that's not in the movie. We don't get that invested in Nicola. And they just decide that this ends with them setting fire to like all of their lodgings everything all the structures they built in the in the forest and it's just beautifully shot. So in wides all the black and white flames, the smoke pouring into the air. I also want to say positively gorgeous. Yeah, I don't know if you could tell this easily. The one I hated the most. I did not like this one. You know, I, I can't say I hated it. And I can't say I was in love with it. But I think it's obviously the longest episode for a reason because it's, it conveys the most important message of the film or it's it is a it's an actuation of the most important message of the film. You see Francis's words and action and you see how they can succeed. I think the problem that you have with it more than anything, and the problem that I can admit is an actual problem is the execution. Yeah. Now the execution the actor who played Nikolai is bug eyed kind of it's a little bit too. I thought it was funny. You thought it was over the top. Yeah, he's chewing the scenery. Definitely. But I thought it was a little bit too comical. I would have loved if it could have been a little more serious. And that was if I think if that whole episode was taken more seriously, it would have worked. If we had lost that stupid armor thing. I understand the point of it. But at the same time, it just it took any seriousness and gravity out of the scene. Also when they were abusing him. It's a it's it's legitimate abuse. It's really bad, but it's almost so over the top that you go like, Oh my God, that's horrible. But at the same time, what the fuck, it's like this seems to be a little more straightforward than it actually was maybe a little bit more straightforward, but not totally straightforward. No, no, I agree. nature that was it was because the rest of the nature the remainder of the runtime is joyous and lighthearted. And to get real, like super real to go from the lover of St. Francis to Rome, open city in one scene. Well, the thing about the leper scene is it's not it is serious and it also isn't because not nothing really happens. I think it's the most important interaction in the whole film, but I don't think it's there's just something about it the way that the scene is composed the lighting, the blocking the acting, yeah, don't wait. Great, you can move on. I know. Well, I What I'm saying is it is serious, but not as serious as a guy getting dragged around a pile of bones of human I imagine human remains maybe horse remains to and then being plopped down on the executioner's block to have his head chopped off. All of this sounds way more serious than it is portrayed? Yes. And it probably should have been. Yeah, I was sick the whole time. I was watching Nikolai. I was thinking this is a zero muscatel character. This is this is the guy from the producers. This is the guy Groucho Marx and it kind of Groucho Marx. Yeah, no, this. This, this doesn't belong here. This belongs in duck soup. What are we doing this? But it is so because I had the most problems with this parable. I actually looked up the original text that translated English text from little flowers of St. Francis. And it's like all the same things happen for the most part. I mean, there are changes like that tent scene doesn't happen. What really happens is As soon as the priest comes in explains who doby actually is nicolaes like oh shit is with Francis Francis is a good guy let him go so we don't get all that which is to say that's a conscious choice by the director and the writer and I understand why they did it I understand why they felt like they'd need to add more and the all the dragging scene so you're mentioning how doby gets dragged along and everything really violently when you just read it as the text it's is pretty effective it because of the nature of a parable you kind of put in that imagination of what it's supposed to be at you put in how brutal and how drastic it is in reality you just go this this feels like Charlie Chaplin being dragged behind a car this looks less violent and more dislike again like vaudeville silly. Less Ben Hur, more Sherlock Jr. Yes. So that was that one that was that scene didn't dislike it nearly as much as you did. And so let's move on to the to the last parable. Okay, cool. Yani take us through this last parable. So the last parable begins with the brothers announcing that this family has arrived to step in as the caretakers of I blink. I believe it's St Mary of the angels, or I don't remember exactly the name of their monastery, but they've stepped in to take care of the place. While all the brothers go out into the world and begin spreading the word they get a little rundown. They let them know that they've left them a bunch of food to eat to start as they begin their stewardship. And then the brothers go out and they walk into the city. I believe it's Umbria, Umbria and as they're walking through, people are donating things to them giving them all these people are coming up and stopping them one by one handing them the whole bags of food, loaves of bread, things like that. And as soon as they get the food or the money or whatever it is in their hands, they immediately turn around to the poor and start doling it out to them as if they didn't even need it. And that happens with almost all the food all the donations they get. I don't think they leave with a single thing they've given as they walk through the city center go into the church, they say I'm telling you, he kept his shirt on this time, dopey bandages to walk in and out of this city with his shirt on goes into the Church says Brown has a character, they receive a blessing. And they exit the city. And as they leave the city, they fall they go down to a river and they're trying to determine where they're going to wind up preaching where they're going to begin their itinerancy. And it's this like, it's this funny, really quirky kind of silly moment, but I love it to death Francis tells them that they all need to start spinning until they're dizzy and fall down. And so everyone does it everyone in the group except Giovanni, the oldest member grumpy and he's he keeps spinning for like an extra minute after everyone else has fallen to the ground. And Francis is even like, are you getting dizzy yet there? Do you think you're gonna fall down here yet? Gio kind of missing my point. Finally he does fucking. And he tells them okay, whatever, whatever direction you were facing in when you fell, that's where you go to. And so they one by one get up and start walking towards the cities that they were facing when they fell down. And that's more or less how the filament is. I want to talk about that moment. Real quick. Symbolically, it's pretty good. But if you think about it, literally in that do some nitpicks It's okay, I got I got all these knits here. If you want, you can come and grab. Yeah, so let me get this right. They're all spinning. They're all getting dizzy. When you're dizzy. Correct me if I'm wrong, you're really disoriented as to like, where you are spatially. Right. So I want to clarify, right? So if I'm really dizzy, and I'm falling in everything, am I 100%? Sure, like exactly where the direction was, I was pointed at didn't cheat at all at all. 100% I got the right direction. You think some of them allied a little better, like I was more or less pointing in this direction. Also, I can't speak to people all the time and as to how they were directionally but they really really really were good at knowing exactly the cities they were pointing that that was really spot on guys. They're like Okay, cool. That's Florence in that direction. Really? We're on a random fucking road you're positive that's what what's there Yeah, you got that? Okay. No signs or anything. So those are two of them. And then you mean to tell me that none of them fell in the same direction? like none of them were like Oh shit, we pointing the same way. Oh, fuck what what do you what do we do? Do you both go to the same place? I mean, like we split this how do we do you hit rock, paper scissors. Two of them do at the start to have them do they might have said padonia I don't remember what city it is. But two of them at the start did say that they were going they fell in this direction of the same city. Okay, but I said you know what I was thinking this Same thing, how do you spin and know exactly where you're falling when you fall and you're too dizzy to know exactly. If you're too dizzy to stand up, how do you know exactly where you were facing? And at the same time? It's like, are you actually saying which city were facing when you fell? Or are you saying the city you want to go to your hometown? You just go back to stay with your parents. Is that what's happening right now? It's less like I'm a little dizzy. I might be this but like, let me just shimmy a little bit and then you know, Bada bing, bada boom, I'm going I'm going to like rich town where they're just gonna pamper me. Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's, you know, it's, you know, you know, I could totally see Don't be doing like, he goes in the direction of a town. That's the most persecuted that they would definitely kill him. He says like, I'm on that way and every other everyone else is like, I shifted a little bit so I didn't have to go there. And he's like, I'm there. I'm going to I said, Go to burgers. Berg. I'm going to pillow town. Okay, what what? Let's just ask Jon Burge. Let's, let's ask an honest question. How long do you think doby lived after this movie? How long do you think like he made it? Well, I can tell you for a fact that I know that Francis died at the age of 44. I think it was 44. And that was in 20. Sorry, 1226. And I believe that this event, specifically the the big division that occurred before they all went out and began preaching throughout Italy was sometime before 1219. That's your nipro was I think he was in his early 20s. At the time, I don't know when he died. But here it would not surprise me to learn that he had only lived until like 33. two things. First of all, this film is based off of that little flowers of St. Francis. But it's also based off of something about Dolby to some book about Dolby. So I'm sure if we read that we would figure out how long he actually lived. I'm not talking about that though. I'm talking about movie Dolby movie. Movie. How long do you think movie ginebra will live? I give him six months tops. I think if barbarians can play jump rope with you and you survive that, I think at least another five years and you Yeah, he's that sexually if you're going to a civilized area, okay, he's got superhuman abilities, so we can last a little bit longer, but he's got decision making of like a two year old child. It's like pros and cons here. So it's like, Is he gonna make it to his destination? I doubt it. Is he gonna get stabbed along the way? I'm fairly sure. Is it going to survive that stab? I guess so. He probably would. And he would say you know what, there's a hole in it. But do you want my tunic you can have it to? If you're desperate enough to stab me. You could have the tunic. He gets stabbed. And then he goes, Hey, you look a little pale. You want some of my blood and it just squirts it onto the guy. I'm the universal donor. Take my blood. Road now. What Why do you have to turn everything into Fury Road? Because Figaro. It's a great movie. It's I'm not saying it isn't. But this is 12. The 1200s early 1200s we're talking about here less than madmax at least took place in the 1300s nickoli is basically the Charlie Chaplin version of immortan. Joe, am I wrong? Am I wrong? No. I don't think he's I again I stand by zero mustache. I think if this were an American film A Mel Brooks film you would have zero MMA style playing him but he's still no more and Joe Right. I mean, yeah, yeah. Joe Sure. He is know that he's wearing a big goofy suit of armor he's surrounded by a bunch of bulky dudes there's a wait a second that means that section is basically Mad Max Fury Road. If you think about those those barbarians or boys those barbarians are the warboys Bros Mad Max Yeah, he totally is. He doesn't say a lot. Freeze and he freeze the town. He manages to free the town from the warlord Oh my God. That's That's really funny. What's the name of the director Mad Max? I'm totally blanking George Miller, George Miller you plagiarizing son of a bitch it basically took flowers the St. Francis combine that with the general and said here's the Mad Max Fury Road don't think you're safe George. We're coming after you. What's the war boy phrase? Like going to Valhalla or Oh a witness me witness May as they're doing jump rope like witness a witness me Oh, this is so badass. And yeah, that's that's that's basically the plot that's more or less the plot. There's no plot guys. I mean They all become priests. That's the plot. You know, again, no they don't become priests. They're still monks at the out of them. They all become monks. Their Big Mo they start as monks they end as monks. It's just they get a lot more understanding about God and shit. Yeah, if you want to put it like that, yes. even talk about the birth scene. There's a so we all know the birth scene with St. Francis of Assisi all know what we've been learning about it for decades where he talks a card he says hey, Bernie party Hey birdie birdie. How you doing birdie birdie love. I'm preaching Love, love all God's creatures, and he says the Lord's prayer and he doesn't say the Lord's Prayer he says the prayer of St. Francis now let me tie my B guys learn I be what what is it Tom here in the Catholic school and I learned nothing not that is not so important to be loved as to love to be understood is to understand for dissing, giving that we receive pardoning that we are part in and dying that we are born to eternal life. Yeah, whatever. Anyways, praying it's cool. Yeah, birds. It's a It's a beautiful prayer. The only issue I have with that scene is that no matter how many times I watch this film, I will never not think the shots of those bird story Francis's prayer are not edited too rapidly. Like seriously, we get maybe one or two seconds per bird. And then we jump to the next one. And I don't know why I can't just Yeah, it's a prayer I need. I need those birds. Like I really want to fixate on those birds. I want to know everything about those birds who they are, who their mothers are, who their fathers are, how they came up how they grew up, you know, what's their life story? What do they have bring to the table? What are their hopes and aspirations birds I want to know everything about those fucking birds I feel Yeah, I feel the same way Giannis not enough bird actually don't ask me you don't I'm speaking from strictly editing from from strictly editing terms. I just don't know why I did too quickly. You know what you know what you know what they should have added for us the what occurred at cricket you know far. Just walks up to the tree he gets pulled out his fingers he just turns very slowly wakes with the one eye he can awake with and puts his back to Francis and walks away. Now I legitimately just want to see like still the same clips from the crying game and are cut between that and St. Francis's prayer. So it's just like just timing it like is better to love and be loved and then cut the Forest Whitaker. So let's move on to characters as we always do when we get to this section. We already talked about them doby. He's dopey Birdman. He's birdie grumpy. We didn't really talk about him. He's kind of funny. He's kind of witty. He's kind of grumpy. And then everyone else exists. They're their pigs hook guy. He really wants a pig's foot. You know, there's not much more to say. He's fasting. That's that he's fat. When he comes into the heart, he's sick and as a self inflicted wound, it's not like a man I caught something. He's just fasting. Like, Bro, I understand the importance of fasting. He's sick, and he's fasting. Why is he doing both? Because he's a monk. It's just it's what it's what he's known for. And that's something that junipero even says, as he's going in he says you you're fast more than anyone you shouldn't be fasting right now though, because you're ill Yeah, that's kind of stupid on his part. Yeah. Maybe by today's standards. Yeah, of course. Like how are you going to serve God if you just die like he can't go out and preach if you're just like Ah sorry, sorry God even though he gave me this food I just don't want to eat it Well, I think it's about this I it what was really keeping him to the idea was this. This isn't hunger of long term commitment, long term commitment to an ideal and being afraid that if you depart from it for even a moment, you're going to be somehow divested of the grace that you're given. It's it's a little bit ridiculous, especially when the worlds in which you exist is supposed to be one where your your God is forgiving. So yeah, maybe he wasn't mentally all there at the time. pig's foot guy. Yeah, some issues. But you know what, you're still not as stupid as doby. It's like, as soon as you start questioning pig's foot you go, man, I don't know buddy. And then dopey. He just does dopey. He just does his thing. And you go, Oh, you know, you brought me back in dopey did your thing. Again, I need to stress I'm not talking about the actual person. I'm literally just talking about the depiction in this movie. Yeah, you know, you're not you're not wrong on all fronts. You're not all wrong. Other characters. I mean, that's basically all of them. Yeah, there's not really any. I think brother, Nazario Gerardi did a great job balancing this sense of authority but also deep, immense humility of the two Characters obviously have that sense of humility, but they all look up to Francis. He is the leader. He's the leader of the group. He's the one who assembled all of them. He is like Kevin venger example. Yeah, sure. He's like Captain America even though I think Tony Hawks more the uniting force behind the Avengers to say Tony Hawk, pro skateboarder Tony Hawk, pro skateboarder Tony Hawk I read yours together, we'll films movies. And Tony Hawk. You're a pro. You're a pro skater Tony and a pro venture. Tony Robert Towne Robert toady Jr. Tony Hawk. I can't think of what is his last name, Tony Stark, Tony Stewart's Stark, dark Stark, Tony Stark. I like Tony Stewart. It was our driver now. Oh, geez. United The Avengers almost as well as St. Francis. United the Franciscans. Oh my god. Yeah. Franciscans against Thanos. Yeah, I feel real sad. For Thanos in that lineup, and that, that that show off right there. It's a show off, they be showing off. I mean, the brothers would just be humble the entire time. And Thanos would be doing like kick flips with his skateboard. Because it's a skating contest. Just listeners, I want you to imagine like, I really want you to look up that scene we were talking about earlier with Jeanette pro versus Nikolai. I just want you to imagine it was Thanos instead, and I was just as like one punch at the Infinity Gauntlet and junipers like skulls bashed in and it says like, oh, you're trying to prove a point. I mean, Sorry, buddy. Like, I don't think that would be all fatals would need to see a little bit of humility, take that glove off, and he'd go to his farm without killing anyone. And he would harvest cabbage. It takes a lot of humility to Heinz cabbage. Yes, because people don't really like cabbage all that much. They like lettuce but cabbage it's a it's a tougher vegetable, a tougher leafy green. Getting back to this characters. junipero great in theory, good in some scenes, not great and all of them mostly just the acting again, non actors. It is what it is. Can I say my thing about characters? just super quick. Go ahead. Birdman. Kind of the I mean, I get what Giannis is saying. I thought it was pretty clear. He was a non actor. He didn't convince me one bit, there is some okayness to it. I wasn't into it moving on cinematography, not really a bad frame, man. There wasn't like one shot where I was paying special attention because I wanted to see like okay that this has done not look good at some point. And it didn't whether it was the fires being set in the forest during the siege episode or the arrival of St. Clair. And something we didn't talk about either kind of flew under both of our radars, but it's a it's a great scene. It's Francis and one of his brothers discussing what true happiness requires and what the answer was and and as they're walking through the countryside, you're seeing all these seeds flying through the air, just flurries of seeds. Yeah, that was a great shot. And yeah, it just gorgeous. The one note I did have about that scene is that if there was a character that I'd say most closely resembles either of us in that film, I'd say it's the homeowner that not only not only kicks Francis and his fellow brother out of his home for asking for alms for the poor, but also proceeds to bash them in the head heads also. You cuz you're exactly the sort of thing you would do. I'm not gonna charge my owner. Listen, just because some Mormons come to my door doesn't mean I'm going to bash their head in for asking trying to convert me No, I want to say no, thank you or not more likely just not open my door. That's what I do. I think it's almost more disrespectful not to open your door. You're worse than the homeowner you are worse than that, man. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm I'm worse than politely ignoring them, then beating them and kicking them down a flight of steps. Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know where your morals are. At least clearly someone didn't watch this movie. At least one of those two things requires acknowledging their humanity Shawn, how does beating them acknowledge their humanity? Well, you have to acknowledge that they're there to hit them if you just swing at the air inside my mind is more of a polite No thank you. They don't feel bad for me not opening that door. Listen, let me let me just say real quick so a little bit more about my history for about a week maybe two weeks I did door to door for something called campaign for the environment and or something like that. So I was going to door door collect donations for climate reform, you know, helping the environment I was like a trainee without getting into it I really hated I did not last very long I was really bad at it but you know what most people just didn't open the door and that was fine. That was fine. That was acceptable. But people that open the door said in their their nice little desert areas mansions and said, Oh, I'm sorry, not at this time. Oh, I'm sorry. I can't those are the acil Sure. Yes, absolutely. You think a guy a tie dye shirt? a bandana and a large long beard. Do you think what do you think that guy is selling marijuana door to door? He's going around selling marijuana in Texas? Yes. Abs in Austin. Yes, absolutely. He's probably not a good businessman, but I could definitely see it happening. Look, I'm not saying he's successful. He was a he was a genetic bro. You know, he just didn't have his wits about him to sell weed. Not really thinking it through. But you know, anyways, yeah, I thought cinematography wise to look good or look nice. I know. I didn't really haven't done a ton of comparison because the movies are so different. But I've got some topography and growing up and city was better. I think I think the cinematography in here though is I don't think it was consistently amazing. I think it was consistently solid with some shots in particular, like the shot you talked about or the final shot in the leper scene. Those shots are really beautiful. There was a lot of really great I think a wider shot more so than close ups. But yeah, yeah, I agree with that. Yeah. Direction waving that direction that Rossellini, he said you know neorealism depression, I'd rather got a little hope more awful, you know, all nicer. Well, he's, you know, that's just emblematic of his dynamicism. As a director, he can go for Neo realism, slightly depressing, while not more than slightly depressing. Oh, winning the other end of the spectrum with totally unabashedly joyous and chosen the diverse set of characters you have from the comical to the more grave and the diverse set pieces that he tackles, whether it's something so simple and intimate as the leper segment, for instance, or as enormous and paced as the siege segment, he builds each scene so masterfully by this stage in his career, you could call him easily call him a master of cinema, because he'd been a filmmaker for I believe, 10 plus years at this point he'd made roam open city, he'd made Python he Terminator zero. Yeah, just immensely emotionally gripping films, the kind of thing the kinds of films that stick with you, well, after you've walked out of the theater, or turn the television off, and it shows I think this movie easily could have been overly saccharine. I think a lot of Christian media tends towards that. Yes, it trends towards that being saccharine and not being willing to present any sort of stakes or any honest arguments, any realistic. God's not dead grounds. God's not dead, God's not dead twice the deuce. What I'm saying is this movie very easily could have been exponentially worse in the hands of an inferior director, and inferior or even just not even inferior. I guess that's a bad way of putting it of a Ok, director. But I don't think an average director could have written this or chosen to direct a film of this caliber of this ilk. I think only somebody with an understanding of both Italy's most recent and ancient history. And another writing partner who understood the same could have tackled the Submit subject material, and humanize the characters and the story and the experiences as well as Rosalina. did. Yeah. I mean, I certainly think it could have been worse. I mean, I don't I haven't seen enough of Rosalie's work to kind of like say, oh, man, this versus that. I can only go off of Rome, open city, they're extremely different. And I think as for what the director is going for, I think he accomplishes his goal much more in that movie than this one, correct me if I'm wrong, because I don't know enough about Rosaleen his work, but from what I've read, and what I've seen about him, this is like a film. That's a diverging point. So I'd have to imagine that the stuff he does later on, it's just more so gets refined from this point where I feel like this is probably like that transitional moment where he's still figuring some things out. I think direction wise, what I was saying earlier about how this reminds me of Beowulf, how this feels like a parable that's taken almost literally not meant to be real. You know, it's meant to be a lesson it's not meant to be kind of this thing that's taken as seriously in the sense of I'm watching life happen right now. I this is a lesson that I'm being told I think that as a direction is very interesting. I've seen very few films do that and actually accomplish that in a way that's satisfying or interesting. I think this film accomplishes it to a degree, I just feel that by by going in that direction, some of the messages just feel more so like messages as opposed to kind of earned feelings and moments. So kind of the lessons that are being told feel like lessons, they don't necessarily feel like I learned about humility or God's love through this story. And I at least not in my heart. I didn't feel it. You can say it doesn't. Fellini apparently traveled around Italy, while a while after finishing the film, and showed it to different monasteries. And apparently, it would always cause a divide with the bunks in the monasteries over whether they liked it or not. So even even the guys whose stories he's telling can take either side on this on whether he know I was aiming for Yeah, yeah, I mean, I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't 100% if you're saying his aim was to be kind of like this as the real kind of not set in a reality kind of storybook with lessons for kids. Yeah, I think you achieved what you're going for, if it was more so to really impart kind of the wisdom and compassion and feelings on everybody young and old. And to really get me to feel for all those lessons in that compassion, that humility, and like a monk, carry that on over to the audience member. They almost feel like through the film, I was taught that lesson, I was taught that sentiment, and I want to go out and not necessarily preach like a monk, but live my life in a different way. I don't think that film accomplished that. Oh, the only sanction that came close was that leper section, everything else. I feel like you're just preaching to me, you know, not necessarily bad. Just have to agree to disagree on that one. Like we said, we're, we're taking either side of the line here. Okay, what else you want to talk about? You want to just wrap it up? Well, we've kind of we've kind of talked about everything. We've talked about directing, we've talked about cinematography, and I keep on talking and let's just I'm gonna say wrap it up. Okay. Okay, folks, characters most hated love scenes. We talked all night. We've talked and we've talked we've cheated and we chat. Okay, I'm fucking done with this movie. Okay, Giannis. Final Thoughts on you know what I never did? Yeah. What my final thought is coming around here coming full circle. I forgot to provide my rating for this at the very start. Oh, probably Yani. Hey, hey, you forgot to Yeah, what I don't care also forgot, I don't care. You're losing like dozens of subscriber dollars or however, I don't care. Like dopey doesn't care about the rest of the pig. After he cuts the leg off. Hey, they donate the pig to the poor. They they get the pig and immediately that's after, but I'm saying right after he cuts that leg off. He says goodbye, Peggy. Good luck with the rest of your life, buddy. I hope everything is well, you know, have fun. So it'll grow back. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if he actually thought that. Okay, well, it's already. I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure Listen to this. Everybody can tell. I'm willing to admit when there are flaws in a film that I like I always am. For the most part, sometimes I'll make arguments for why it's a more of a triptych, or whatever the nonagon or variation of that term is, I don't really know what it is. I don't know if it exists, instead of a tapestry. Or maybe it's nine little tapestry side by side and maybe the individual little tapestries that don't fuck reading, but on the whole, I think it's a solid film. I'll definitely watch it again. It's something that's going to stick with me for probably the rest of my life. It's something that I'm going to want to watch with my kids and speak with them about so keeping all that in mind keeping the technical aspects the direction acting kind of as a detractor from the overall score. I'd say I place it somewhere on the same level that I placed for Monty maybe like a 7.6 because Full Monty I gave us 7.7 if I'm allowed to do decimal points here every time you ask decimals and he always fucking do a decimal every time No, you might read egg you might renege. You might take away the you might take away the Why would you give whatever fucking rating you want? You want to switch to ABCD you go ahead and do jokes. you edit out my best jokes just because they're racy. Yeah, I do. Folks, I had a great giant a fan tastic joke that I can't say now because he'll just get rid of it as the mcburnie joke. I Garrard I guaran damn tee you that I had a great joke in this episode surrounding Bernie Mac that he cut out and I hope so so you credit so you rally together and you protest shot you say we want that birdie back joke anyways, okay so you give it a shot and seven points showing what is your rate? I mean remember your decimal 7.6 I'm going with a 7.6 Sean my ratings here what you have to give this film here's what I'm telling them notice if it's a movie, there's some features that I like about it, but I'm still not really on board. They usually lands around the six range so that's why I'm gonna give this six out of 10 you know three out of five Okay, I honestly can't be that angry with it. I cannot be with that. I think I feel like a five is unjustified it was watchable. I found it washable the entire way through. I didn't find I didn't go oh man. This is really boring. Even even at times where I wasn't a big fan of it. I didn't straight up hate it. Now let me tell you there were some Italian films I watched in my class that I'd rather blow my brains out than watch again. This is not what what's what's what's a list of those movies? And can you send them my way? So I'll tell you why the list of those films and King red desert red desert we watched you know that I haven't seen it, but maybe I should just so I it maybe later just put it in my back pocket. It's the equivalent of watching paint dry as a movie that that's the best way I can describe. I really wanted to watch Pasolini. I really wanted to watch so long but it wasn't on criteria. And so sorry. It is a criterion for those of you listening who didn't know but it's not on the criterion channel. Man criterion you done fucked up or satra Khan or Canterbury Tales, which I think are I'll take draw a lot of inspiration from Rossellini's film flowers of St Francis because they're all vignettes all vignette stories okay while we're inventing criterion mistakes criterion you got Police Story you got Police Story too, but you don't got Jackie Chan's super cop What up with that? I just feel like you got a complete trilogy. Come on, guys. Get that super cop. That's the best one. So before Sean starts off on another another masturbatory Jackie Chan rant. What are we watching next week, Sean? All right, Giannis. Well, I'm glad you asked. So yesterday there was a couple of directions I wanted to go with for next week's film one direction was well if we watch some happy go lucky priests. What if we watch some not so happy go lucky priests. I was thinking about maybe doubt maybe a spotlight. But then that was too obvious. That was too easy. Then I thought you know would be a great one velocity pastor. I watched the last night and it was really fucking great. And I knew Giannis would love it. So Okay, next that off the list. So then I had to think after unnecessary thrashing of Wonder ones logic, I said to myself, what's a movie where logic doesn't even matter? A movie that has no depth, no deeper meaning that throws logic right out the window like a brick that says, fuck logic. I don't give a single shot. Giannis. We're watching the Bollywood film. Rowdy Rathore. What? I really enjoy it. I really like it. But objectively, it's not the best movie. It has plenty of flaws, which is perfect, cuz you're gonna hate it even more. All right, please. It's not three and a half hours. Not another one. No, it's two and a half. Okay? Because if if you give me another three and a half hour one, I'm giving you one of my three and a half hour ones and let me look it up real quick. To do to do 223 I guess I can manage that. But still, Shawn as always go fuck yourself and fuck you to Yani. Every time you're gonna do that, alright, yeah.