A Few Good Men / Nomad Outland Whisky

0:00 In 1992 director Rob Reiner and star Tom Cruise gave the road an electric courtroom drama that pulls no punches in its search for the truth in 2022. We try it Whiskey that Embraces the heart of a traveler. The film is a Few Good Men. The whiskey is Nomad Outland whiskey and we'll review them both. This is the film and whiskey podcast. Welcome to the film and whiskey podcast, where each week, we review a classic movie at a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob book, I'm Brad G and this week we continue the Rob Reiner train that we have rollin with 1992's. A Few Good Men.

1:00 Brad basically the same thing as misery. You know, we've talked about how Rob Reiner is just kind of all over the place when it comes to genre exercises. And the same is true again this week. So now this is the fourth Rob Reiner film, we've done on the podcast and we have gone from When Harry Met Sally to, This Is Spinal tap to misery to A Few Good Men, which, you know, just they all seem like very logical steps for Rob Reiner to take. Right? Yeah. It's pretty obvious. If you're going to be moving your directorial career along, you should just jump from genre to genre as you go, it's the best move. Absolutely. It's what everyone always says, they can't pin down. What kind of things scorsese's all about? You know, it's like he he made that one gangster movie that one time, but he never really returned to that Jean. Ah, yeah, exactly.

1:51 And that's that's what makes him so great. Exactly. All right. So I don't have too much to say about this movie Brad other than this is just a really Movie in. Oh yeah. Yeah, that's it, man. All right, look it up, sewed. Those drink the whiskey and get out of here. Bob. I think what I love about A Few Good Men is that you have a Sorkin screenplay just with the perfect actors to execute what he is going for on the page? You know what I mean? Hmm. Yeah, I mean this was adapted from a play that Sorkin wrote and it's very obviously a play like this just feels like it was meant It to be on the stage. The scenes are very long, they're very dialogue heavy. I mean, of course, it's dialogue heavy its Sorkin but even more than most of his screenplays, this feels like a stage adaptation and what I really love about Sorkin and he's a guy that has in some ways, kind of come full circle, and become like a parody of himself.

2:48 I think these days. But what I really love about Sorkin is that he has one foot in the present with the way that he writes dialogue and his ear for dialogue. And he also has one foot In Classic Hollywood like there are, there are lines in this movie that work in the context of a movie and they work. Because how do I explain it? It's almost like we know that a scene is building to that payoff line and then every single time a scene is building to a payoff line. Or, you know, if it was a comedy, we call it a punch line, but every single time the scene is building to one of those lines, he delivers. Yeah, there's just this incredible tension that builds in each. Seen and as we as we hit those scenes, it just feels like Tom has an ability to nail the emotional Timbre of the seen every single time.

3:45 I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Tom what? Tom Tom you said, Tom, which time are we talking about here? Our boys are boy Tommy. See our boy, Tommy see here. It is the one and only I just love that. You're on a first-name basis with him at and first name only, like he's Madonna. You know? It's just Tom. Yeah, obviously I mean, yeah. I mean do you owe me calm like Thomas Crews? Know, I don't know. You're absolutely right. This is a stellar Tom Cruise performance and Tom Cruise is kind of a good microcosm for how I feel about this whole movie Brad and I promise, we'll get into the meat of Episode here. I'm kind of just like going off on tangents but up until about the last 25 minutes of this movie. I was watching it and saying, like, it does everything a movie is supposed to do and it does it pretty darn well, like this is a solid eight and a half and it's a site. Like it's the kind of eight-and-a-half that everyone in the world would agree that this movie is like an eight and a half.

4:47 And that's why everyone loves it. But it's not quite has a 7.7 on TV. Yeah, exactly. But it's Not exactly like the greatest movie I've ever seen and then they'll last 25 minutes of the movie happen. And I said, oh, this is way better than eight and a half. And I think Tom Cruise's performance kind of mirrors that for me for most of the movie. I'm like, you know, Tom Cruise is holding his own here and he's doing a pretty good job, but he's leaning on some of the old Tom Cruise standbys and then the last 25 minutes happened and I was like, oh, this is one of the best, Tom Cruise performances of his whole career. Easily. I think that when he comes back to the apartment and he's drunk because you know he's found out that their he's found out that there are spoilers ahead Bob. Yeah, exactly.

5:38 He's found out that Colonel markinson has killed himself and that their entire defense has fallen apart. And you know, Galloway is continually trying to get him to essentially like keep fighting and he just Loses his mind and like, ends up throwing everything off the table. He, you know, slams it off the table and he's screaming at his coworker and it's just absolutely electric and you can feel the tension in the room and I it's moments like that where I'm like, man Tom is just one of the best actors of Our Generation. Picture and Tom from Myspace.

6:20 Every time you do that like man, Tom, what a good guy, what a great guy, Thomas. All right, it is time for us to get into Brad explains, which is America's favorite segment of this show. This is the part of the podcast, where Brad breaks down the plot of the film that he has just seen often for the first time Brad. This is not your first time seeing a Few Good Men, right? Hmm. No, definitely seen it before. This was probably three or four. Okay, I've seen it a few times before. It's probably been, maybe six or seven years since I last saw it though. So it's been a minute. Was this a cable movie for you? Or was this a, like, I saw it on, you know, VHS or I saw it on DVD or whatever. Bob, I don't know if you knew this or not, but I did not have cable growing up.

7:09 Oh, really? Oh yeah, no side. Never watched cable movies. I think it's why I never understood like the Shawshank. Yes, appeal, yes. So yeah, I am not really familiar with movies being shown on TV. Okay. Well, it's funny. You bring that up because I do think like, if I'm going to compare this move, eat anything today, it's going to be Shawshank because I think this has a very similar Vibe just in the way it's structured. But yeah, I forgot that you lived under a proverbial rock as a child. So you've seen this movie three or four times and not divide it up by commercials, which is, I think crucial to one's enjoyment of this movie. Yeah, I feel like if You had a 10-minute interval of like Swiffer commercials and I'm like, I don't know, but it was probably shown in like the early to mid-2000s so like Axe Body Spray commercial. Yeah.

8:01 Like I don't, I don't think that would really accent the movie very well. Come on, man. You when I'm watching this movie, though, I'm thinking of like, hey, you know, it sounds really good right now, A Quiznos Sub and then there are the commercial Power Pro Quiznos used to have this like Like roast beef, steak house sub. That was freaking killer. I never never had Quiznos. I feel like I've missed my chance now. Yeah, I think you have, I don't know if they exist any, they've been swallowed up by the Jersey Mike's Cinematic Universe. Now, there's like a little business heaven where, like, you can go to Blockbuster and then next door.

8:42 There's a quiz know who's inside of a Circuit City. Yeah. All right, dude, we are way off course. It's time for Brad explains. We've got 60 seconds on the clock. Can you break down in a spoiler filled fashion? The plot of A Few Good Men. Tom Cruise is a just kind of a d-bag lawyer who gets by on plea Bargains. But he is tasked with defending two marines who have been accused of murdering one of their fellow Marines. He travels down to Guantanamo Bay to learn more about the case and has an interaction with the environment. Infamous Lieutenant Nathan are Jessup, Colonel heard and Colonel. Sorry.

9:23 Yeah, he very clearly wants to be called Colonel, he goes back and mounts a case to defend these men going through all sorts of trials and tribulations in the meantime by the end of it. The only way to prove their innocence is to get Colonel jessep to admit that he ordered a code red which is a disciplinary measure that's a little bit off the books he does this in spectacular fashion helping His clients along the way. Boom yente boom. That might that might have been one of like that's a good one. Like mechanically one of my best and you came in like eight or nine seconds under time to. Yeah, that's impressive. Nicely done.

10:04 It drink some whiskey to myself as you should. All right man, let's jump in and let's start talking about performances because we've already mentioned Tom, as we like to call him. I do think this is one of Cruz's best performances and we've done a few Cruise movies on the show. I think a few weeks ago, I don't remember what episode it was, but I was talking about the slight variations that he did on the same general douche-baggy character, for such a long time and like in Top Gun, he does it one way and then the next year, he does the color of money with Scorsese, and it's a very different take on the same general Cockiness. And he has that here where I mean like this is a really interesting one to hold up against Maverick.

10:48 Top Gun because in like at that the root of both of those characters is this thing with their parents and how I think is it Mavericks dad is dead or something or like his dad was like a really important flying ace and he can't live up to that and then in this movie his dad was a really important lawyer but they're motivated by different things. And I think it's a really interesting study and how Crews didn't really stretch himself in terms of the types of characters he played. Jade. But at the same time I don't think he gets enough credit for the different shades that he brings to each incarnation of this kind of same stereotype. I think it's just fascinating that he very clearly had some daddy issues and yet never worked with Steven Spielberg. Well, he's worked with Steven Spielberg many times. Oh, that's true.

11:38 Minority Report War of the Worlds War of the Worlds. I guess. That's to maybe not many, but but it to a couple for sure to that's fun. Like literally, as I said it, I was like, wait a second. I agree with you, Bob. I think that he brings a Nuance to this character and I think one of the things that helps the most with it is his interactions with his his co-leads. I think that Demi Moore and I'm Kevin Pollak just really bring out all of the different shades of his character that he needs to bring out the actions with them reveal a much deeper and kind-hearted person than you get at the very start.

12:25 When he, you know, he's wheeling and dealing and and talking about how he's gonna have him doing paperwork for up to a year. If you don't take this plea bargain. And and the the cheesiness at the start is kind of paid off with a much deeper character, by the end of the film, for sure, and you've mentioned his to co-counsels Kevin Pollak and Demi Moore, and I'm going to wait to get to Jack Nicholson. But let's talk about Demi Moore for a little bit because It is a rare thing, Brad to find an actor. Who can deliver Sorkin, dialogue believably, I think, you know, like at its worst sorkin's dialogue or I guess, the actors in a Sorkin movie are just kind of like vessels to get the dialogue across.

13:13 And there are times when the dialogue in a Sorkin movie always seems to showy and it seems too much like Sorkin is trying to go for like these verbal fireworks and it's sometimes really Obvious. And I think that Demi Moore does a really good job in this movie, especially by the end of the film. But in the early going, I definitely noticed that she was just saying dialogue, and I was noticing the dialogue more than I was noticing her performance. I don't know. That's fair. But, you know, now she's fine. Yeah, I don't know if I've ever seen a Demi Moore movie that I was like super impressed with uh-huh. You know, her performance.

13:53 I think that. This role though, she does what she needs to do in that she she highlights the Nuance of Cruz's performance and helps, you know, dry. She challenges him, which is what he needs to make him a better lawyer, and a better person. And so, I think she stands up for herself in just the right ways and her performance has a tenacity to it that I think stands up pretty well, when you look at the The other performances which I think are really spectacular. Alright, Kevin Pollak, I think does a really good job in a pretty thankless role. I mean, he's just there to kind of be like the Buddy, he is the goose to Tom Cruise is Maverick.

14:38 Like, if we're being honest here and he does a good job with it. Yeah he talks about his kid and says that she called him dad and Tom Cruise. Like she's pointing at a mailbox. Yeah. I guess that's the extent of our conversation about Kevin Pollak. So it's time for Jack. Nicholson. Hmm who has entered a phase of his career here where it's kind of like Pacino where once Pacino hits Scarface in the early 80s. He can't not be Pacino in a movie anymore and I think Nicholson has kind of hit that at this point. You know, this is post Batman. So he's already done. The Joker thing he is once again, one of the biggest names in Hollywood, he is commanding an incredible salary.

15:20 I think he gets five million dollars for this movie for doing 10 days. Of work and went on the record afterward and said, like this is one of the few times that amount of money was worth it, but Rob Reiner raved about working with him said that, you know, when they were doing the courtroom scenes, you know, when you're filming something, you do what's called coverage, we're like, all right, we're going to get the shots of both of these guys. Tom Cruise, and Jack Nicholson talking with each other, whether both in the shop, and then we need to film it from jessup's point of view, only looking at Tom Cruise, and so, Jack Nicholson's office, Gene. And in a lot of time, a lot of cases, what you'll have is like a script supervisor, or someone will be just reading the lines. And Tom Cruise is just reacting and he said that not only did Jack Nicholson stay and do all of his lines, but he did it in character at like, level 100 the whole time, no matter Mecca and I was there it is. No matter if the camera was on him or not like he really did give his all for 10 days and got five million dollars for it. Yeah and I guess I'll say this man if you're Getting paid five million dollars to work for 10 days and granted you know, movie shoots are intense days.

16:30 He's probably there for like 12 to 14 hours but I think it's not, you know, too much to ask for him to just go balls to the wall the entire time. Yeah, here's the thing. All right, so I said all that about Nicholson to say this, I don't know that he's necessarily believable as a marine Nicholson made his bones on being counterculture. Like he was in Writer. Hmm, right? And all through the 70s, he played these countercultural, whether it was in Five Easy Pieces or even in the Last Detail, where he is playing a member of the military or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, where he arrives at this, you know, mental institution and wreaks Havoc.

17:11 I don't all the time. Go ahead. Sorry. And also was, you know, charged with raping underage girl, right? You know. No big deal in that movie not in not, in this is not Jack Nicholson. This is yes, Nick Murphy in Portent detail. I don't know that I trust trust I don't know that I buy him as a lifelong member of the military but I Do by him as Jack Nicholson outsized actor, who is there to chew scenery and kick ass and in that capacity putting him up against Tom Cruise. I think what makes it compelling is like it's not even so much Jessup versus Kathy as It is, you know, Nicholson versus Cruz.

17:57 And so like even if I don't totally buy the character of Jessup, played by Nicholson, I'm invested in watching these two actors bounce off each other. I think that's ridiculous. Bob. Alright, I think that Nicholson has an incredible ability to embody the best worst part of the American Military. In that that crude snide - that looks down on the people. It protects. And I think that from what I have heard, you know, my brother was military for for eight years, I've had some other good friends in the military from what I've heard, there are those people who you know and unfortunately it seems like our country gets further and further away from appreciating the military. But a lot of people in the military feel that distance and feel further and further from want In to listen or care for the people that they're protecting. And so I would honestly say that in my mind, the character of Nathan Jessup played by Nicholson is eminently believable, that's fair.

19:09 I mean I guess I will say I buy Nicholson as a hard-ass and I think he's playing a hard-ass here. I just don't know if I'm ever going to look at Jack Nicholson and be like, Oh yeah, this guy who wears big sunglasses and sits courtside at the Lakers games, you know, is Clearly a member of our military. Do you know what I mean? Like, it's just, I'm so familiar with the Persona of Jack. Now that it's hard to detach from that, I think I would just call the Tom Hanks. Effect. Yeah. Like, you know, Tom Hanks is Tom Hanks is Tom Hanks, whether he's in big or, you know, Mister Mister Rogers or anything. It's just, it's just Tom Hanks. All right, before we go to break, let's talk a little bit about Reiner and Sorkin, and I guess we'll kind of I don't know, we'll go in and out of both of them, but I think, with Reiner, we've talked about this already, he always knows how to align himself with a really good script, and then just be efficient at movie making. Like, when I watch this movie, there's not much fat on it and it's because it's a script that doesn't have much fat on it, but Reiner also is wise enough to know not to add a whole bunch of like extraneous details and things. That Don't really belong in this movie, you know, we've knocked him a little bit for not being the most artistic director of all time, but because I feel like he knows his limitations, I guess is what I'm saying because he knows to pick a script that he doesn't have to do anything extra to and then just direct to the script and then you have a

20:42 great movie. And it's a formula that seems to work time and time again for him because it works again here. Here's the thing, though, I agree with you 100%, but I think when you want to look for artistic touches, I think that the oh, Winning scene of this film is actually pretty brilliant. Like you get a solid 3 to 4 minute scene of, you know, Marines basically doing a gun choreography when you know, where they're flipping their guns back and forth. And there's like, probably, like 20 Marines, moving through this really intricate choreography and the the song playing in the background I believe is Semper Fidelis and It builds this this idea of order in the midst of chaos. This this idea that no matter what happens, the Marines will be in.

21:35 Perfect Unison, will be in perfect lockstep with one another as they move throughout this movie and that sets up the core tension of the film, which is what happens when you have that sort of Unity come into, you know, fly in the face of a character. Like Lieutenant, Daniel kaffee, and what's going to happen when the Marines have to eat their own, where they're no longer able to work in lockstep anymore. And so, I think that, that opening scene is Reiner setting, the stage for everything that's to come and I found myself really impressed by it. Yeah, that's a really good point and I do I do really like that opening scene wordless and, you know, without a score like you're right. It's just, it's just the marching band. I thought when you said that you were talking about The opening scene, I thought you were talking about the very opening which is where they show Santiago get attacked. Oh yeah.

22:32 And I have to say that the few times that it seems like Reiner /, Sorkin /, William Goldman. Who did a touch-up on the screenplay do anything? That's outside of what I think would be in that play. You know? I mean like there's just a couple moments where they like they kind of cut away to something else or they do like a flashback. There's only a few Scenes like that in the movie and I honestly think that they're the only few things that kind of date the movie, like the way that that scene is filmed the very first scene where the you should were. You see the attack? It just looks like a movie from 1992. The way that the slow-mo works, and the sound effects and like, it just looks.

23:14 So dated and the rest of the movie feels like it hasn't aged a day and so that's part except for the score. Oh my gosh. You have, the score is terrible. Dun dun dun. Oh no, dude, I don't know what it is about the 90s and their use of like, not quite synth piano. I don't even know what you would call it is. It's like sympathy for sure. Yeah, it's it's terrible, it's so bad. Like, I want this movie to be remade, just so that it has a normal score like orchestral score, because this movie would be Kick-Ass if it had one. Well, so like that's a great point but to the extent that it affects Reiner.

23:55 I guess what I'm saying is like the few times that it actually seems like Reiner is trying to do something a little artistic or do something that's not just strictly on the page. It also seems like he's kind of caught up in whatever was really popular at the moment and those are the moments of the film that seemed to data and it was the same thing with misery, like we talked about all of his little weird, cheesy flourishes, in the first half of that movie before, he just kind of took a backseat in the second half to the Script and then the movie got a lot better. And I think that in misery it worked a little bit better because this, this sounds bad. For those of you are fans of horror movies.

24:35 I apologize. But like when you're writing a horror Thriller, I feel like it's almost expected to have some of those cheesy moments that set up the movie. Whereas when you have it in a really serious legal courtroom drama, then for me, they'd attracted a lot more and I I'm with you that that opening scene. I don't know. I've watched a lot of NCIS with my wife to the point where this movie just feels like an extended episode of NCIS. Yeah. You know, with some things change but that that opening, you know, oh no. Here's the mystery. That the the team's going to solve the rest of the show, like that's what that felt like. And yeah, I don't, I didn't watch TV in 1992 being, you know, one to two years old.

25:24 So, I don't know if that was a thing before then, you know, maybe a Few Good Men set. The, the stage for all legal television, dramas for the next 20, 30 years, but it didn't work great for me either. Yeah, there's definitely I will say this movie. I think really is on the Forefront of that, because every Military Tribunal TV show that comes after it or even just courtroom drama like Law & Order follows this same structure, right? Like the murder happens and then when he Briscoe says something smart-alecky And Dot da Papa, but like, it's just the way that these things work. But I think that this is one of those instances where we've had 30 years of copycats come after this movie. And so, it's a little unfair to read back into this movie, the copycats, and, and to hold the copycats copycats against this movie.

26:16 And I think that's where Sorkin script really really shines. Because at the end of the day, this is still 10 times better than any episode of NCIS of Ever seen and it's because of that script. Yeah easily. And you know you got Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson. You got you got Tom? No. No offense to Mark Harmon. But uh, all right so let's go to break here in just a minute. But as a send-off to the first half of the episode and in honor of Aaron Sorkin Brad, you know, the script is famous for the. You can't handle the truth line but I'm wondering Brad aside from that line. What is a Doubt line from the movie for you, because there was at least one for me that as I was watching it, I was like, oh, that is a good line and, and wrote it down, just specifically to talk about. I really love when Galloway comes to talk to to Caffee and she tells him that she doesn't think he's fit to handle the defense and he goes, you don't even know me ordinarily. It takes someone hours to discover. I'm not fit and Elizabeth.

27:24 As there's like so many little moments like that that cruises comic ability just shines and and I think that it's those little moments where I really actually appreciate Demi's and Tom's chemistry. But yeah, that was that was one of the lines that stood out to me. Well and I think that's really indicative of the fact that Sorkin is a student of movie scripts. Like that is the kind of lining that Cary Grant would deliver in Arsenic and Old Lace. Or, you know what I mean? Like, in a 1930s screwball comedy. That's exactly the kind of punch line you're going for it. Kind of feels like a billy Wilder, like Yak lemon, throw a type of thing hundred percent I think for me there's a line that is on the more dramatic side but it's also I guess I don't know what to call. What do you call a dramatic punch line Brad and I can't be going to keep calling it a payoff line because the whole scene builds to it and it's a moment. Between Kevin Pollak and Demi Moore where she asks him. Why do you hate these guys so much? And he goes off, granted, he goes on this rant about like, they, they have Dishonored, the Marines and blah, blah blah. And then she starts walking away and he says, why do you like them so much?

28:42 And again, it's like this is, this is like the formula for how to write a script so much, so that like in anyone else's hands, this scene would be excruciating Lee bad, but he says, You like them so much and she Wheels around and just looks at him in the eyes and says, because they stand on a wall and say, Nothing's Gonna Hurt you tonight, not on my watch, and then she walks away and I was like, holy shit, what an incredible line. Like, that's the kind of line that someone delivers and you're like, Demi Moore. I don't think you're great in this movie, but if you wanted a campaign for an Oscar, that's your Oscar clip right there. Yeah. That's exactly what that line is for. And It works.

29:25 Can I ask you though? And you know obviously things were different between Cuba and the u.s. in 1992 than they are now was the premise believable. Because I feel like they just constantly like build it up, like Nathan are Jessup. And at the very least, I believe that he believes this. But like they believe that nuclear Armageddon could ensue if they don't properly, you know, walk along that wall and if he wears his his officer's uniform then he's going to get shot by a Cuban and I'm like, I don't know what things were like back then but I don't feel Like the Cubans were just ready to be like, hey, let's go shoot an American officer and and cause a war between us and America, that's a great idea.

30:19 Yeah, I'm with you, like I don't think, you know, especially like post fall of the Berlin wall and, you know, yeah and Gorbachev and like, you know, like the USSR is cooling off. Cuba is not a threat to America at this point. However, I think it says, a lot about what's organist, Trying to get at with Jessup, right? That if you're in the military, you have to be convinced that you are protecting America, from any impending threat, right? And on this base, the impending threat is right outside, their Gates. And whether or not it is a is a legitimate threat Jessup. Has convinced the people on this base that it is a legitimate threat. And I think his his sway over everyone Underneath Him. Is crucial to the premise of the movie. Like The Code, Red doesn't happen if those guys aren't 100% on board with what Jessup is selling. So for me, like, even if the lake geopolitical aspect of it doesn't work so much.

31:22 I think what it all boils down to still does. Well, I guess and that was kind of my question that in the end. Like do you think that Sorkin tried to keep that reality as a premise to make, you know, Jessup appear more? Lionel. Hmm. Oh, good, like, like, like Brando in Apocalypse Now? Kind of, yeah, honestly, yeah, tell me that. There's not certain. I don't know comparisons between Brando and head. That's true. Because you, I mean, you could have just as easily set this on a base that was closer to Russia or closer. Know, you know, you know, we're in Desert Storm at this point, right? So why not send it overseas? I think that would make more sense. But yeah, that's a good point. I think, I think maybe you're onto something there. Well, I think we need to get onto this Nomad whiskey Bob. Dude, I cannot wait.

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33:23 All right, so today we are checking out, Nomad Outland, whiskey Brad. This is a bottle that I picked up when my family took a little weekend vacation, to the Finger Lakes and we were, you know, all over New York State and up in the Buffalo area and I happen to stop into a liquor store that had this on the shelf and it is one of the coolest looking bottles in my collection now. And then I looked at the bottom of the it and it was $35 and I said, you know what, I don't know. A thing about this, I'm just going to take a chance and I bought it and it has been sitting on my shelf for about a year, have not cracked it yet and so we're drinking this together in. This is the first that I've had of it. I gave you a full half of this bottle, which is unlike me because I try to hoard my whiskey and not share with you, but I gave you half of it. So I'm hoping that it's really, really good. This is a blended Scotch whisky, it's a blend of over 30 malt, and In Scotch whiskies Blended by the master blender from White and Makai named Richard Patterson, who's like a really, really famous, whiskey blender.

34:27 Like, if you look up anything on YouTube, if you just type in whiskey blending, he's the first guy that comes up on there. And so, this is, this is a product of this master blender. And it's aged 45 years in Sherry butts and then it is shipped over to Spain and aged for an additional year in PX casks. So, this is like extra extra Sherry finished. Scotch. I'm pretty pumped about it, man. Why do you think that they call it Sherry butts, but everything else, it's barrels. Well, so it has to do with the size of the barrel. First of all, like a butt is a particular size of barrel. Yeah. When you get into like, reading about different casks, it's really interesting because the shapes are slightly different.

35:08 The volumes are different. I know that Laphroaig makes a variant. That's called Laphroaig quarter cask, and it's aged in really, really small. Barrels that are quarter Cask sized. So yeah, there's a hole is a hole terminology that we haven't come up against any butts on this podcast except for Sherry Sherry butts. So yeah, I was gonna say I feel like the only time I ever heard hear the term but is with Sherry. So I just figured it was a weird like, layover from ancient term or something. Not just, but just but just a but. All right. So this is clocking in at 82.6 proof. So pretty, Lo proof, it does have color added to It, which is typical for scotches.

35:50 Scotch does not make any sort of Regulation that you can't add coloration to it. So it has a really nice almost bourbon e color to it, but that's because they've added some caramel coloring to it. Brad we have it poured out here in front of us. What are you picking up on the nose of this Nomad Outland? Whiskey man. This is like, incredibly grape forward. It almost like to me. It almost smells like grape drink like like now. Just grape juice like this kind of smells like grape drink plastic jug? Yeah, let's drink. Yeah. Yeah, there's a little bit of cherry. Some orange creamsicle. I start to get the barley as I sit with it for a while and then at the very end I after after being in the glass for a bit, I got a little bit of cinnamon going on. Just a tiny bit of spiciness that I really enjoyed. I think, I'll give it an 8 out of 10 on the nose. Bob, yeah, I'm right there with you. I think I'm gonna give a 7.5.

36:49 Five on the nose, it doesn't smell like inexpensive blended Scotch like I literally just had some Cutty Sark the other night, and Cutty Sark is phenomenal for $14. This is not smell like that, and it may just be that the Sherry butts have rounded off the sharp edges of this. But this smells more like in line with something that we would try like a Glenmorangie. You know what I mean? Like it just it just has that really doesn't like softness and roundness to it, it's not. Are complex and it still does smell a little bit flat from being honest but it smells good. So I'm gonna give it a seven point five out of ten. Yeah and then Bob I got into the taste of this thing.

37:33 Bob I'm going to say this this very very slowly. This is a 10 out of 10 on taste. This is delicious. Oh my gosh. There's like, bro, there's so many layers to this. So OK, on the tip of my tongue, it is, it's blended Scotch, right? It's Cutty Sark, it's whatever you want. Actually, it probably tastes closer to an Irish whiskey than a scotch to me. Like it does really similar to that Bushmills. We had a few weeks ago and then about halfway back on the pallet you start to get that Sherry finish coming out pretty significantly you go to swallow. I get some like really dark almost concord grape kind of elements to it and then as soon as you swallow it is like when you Crack open a fresh bag of brown sugar dark brown sugar.

38:25 And it's just like, Hey, do you remember bourbon? Here's a reminder of bourbon at the very end of this Sherry finished scotch, and it's just a wave of brown sugar. And then, like, like pure maple syrup for me, it is a fantastic dude. It's absolutely incredible for me. What stuck with me was how like, on my lips, my lips tasted like, Like a cherry candy like like a cherry cordial. The flavor that sticks around his incredible. There's all sorts of brown sugar on the back end. Like you said, there's those hints of barley that hit you throughout that remind you that this is a scotch and and not like in a bad way like it's like, hey here's like a pallet of sweets and there's this nice little Foundation of barley underneath that.

39:18 That holds it all together, I think. This is an incredible palette Bob. Wow, this is I just poured a second poor of this. That's how much I liked it. And once you taste it, you know, I mean, it's like an obvious thing to say, but like now that I've tasted the brown sugar, I'm going back to the nose and there's brown sugar all over the nose on this now. Like it is man, this is good. Let's talk finish here. The Finish is not, I don't know what the word is. Its long-lasting, it's very, very sweet. It's like candy, sweet. There's no chest burn at all going down for me. So like, there's not much of a reminder that you had whiskey in terms of, like, alcohol burn. Yeah. But the the Finish is very mouth-watering. I wouldn't call it super long.

40:01 I definitely call it like a more medium finish, but if you like sweet Whiskey's, the way that I do, this is like a dream finish for an 82 proof whiskey. I think I'm going to give it to me. Give it a 9 out of 10 on the finished bread. Yeah, I'll give it an eight and a half. I think that, like I said, The Barley kind of sticks around. There's some orange it. It's creamy. It goes back into that really heavy grape drink flavor and then it's almost like a burnt sugar. Almost like a creme brulee. Yeah that is just beautiful the way it sticks around. And I, yeah, man. I I'm in love with this whiskey, man. I'm going to see his now, dude.

40:41 I like and I'm sorry to interrupt you but this may not be if all that, if all else is equal this may not be the best whiskey we have this season, you know? I mean like I wouldn't rank this up there with like the best btech we've ever had. Hmm But we're going to get to Value in a minute but even setting that aside, this may end up being my favorite whiskey of the season because I just tried it knowing nothing. Out it and I can already say I am trying to find a bottle of it now so that I can continue to have this on my shelf whenever I run out of this like from now on as long as I can find it there will be a bottle of this Whiskey on my shelf. Yeah I I'm with you 100%.

41:23 It kind of reminds me of like why I like to watch movies without knowing anything about them where you're like yeah you look at the bottom you're like sure blended Scotch. Let's try it. Pinion 0px finished. Great. Eight. Oh my gosh Bobby. Yeah this is this is great. I think balance score. I'm going to give it an 8 out of 10. The nose and finish are like solid above average but it's paired with one of the best pallets I've ever had. And so I think it's pretty easy to say that even though this is an incredibly complex whiskey and I think that kind of bumps the score down a tiny bit as well. You like once you've tasted it you know what you're getting and it's it's incredible man.

42:05 Yeah, I You think just because of that fact, I'm going to give this a nine and a half on balance. So the only thing that stood out to me as being lesser than the rest of it is the nose, but it's not because the nose was the, I think I said flat the first time around and I think that I would probably amend that to say, it's almost like it was playing its cards. Really close to the chest or close to the vest, whatever the the saying is like, it seems like it was trying to not give itself away when you go back for a second. Nosing of this, everything that's on the palate is there. And it's just beautiful man. Like I think this is a superbly. Well, balanced whiskey. It's a 9 and a half for me and that takes us to value.

42:48 Now, unfortunately, this is not for sale in the state of Ohio. So I know, right? So we have to look elsewhere. And this is selling at weird price points, all around the internet. So I saw this for sale as high as $200 somewhere, which is outrageous. Which leads me to believe that maybe this has been discontinued. And I certainly hope not because I need to get it for the rest of my life. But in the places, where I'm actually seeing it in stock, like, I'm looking at some binney's locations out in the Chicagoland area. It looks like it's about 40 bucks there. And like I said, I got it last year in New York for $36. So, I mean, let's just call it 40 bucks. If you can find this anywhere near you, I expect that you would be paying around.

43:31 Forty dollars retail for this, this is a 10/10 Brad, I have. Nothing else to say like it's just I can't think of a better 40 dollar whiskey than this. Yeah, yeah, this is insane value in the world of scotch ten out of ten for me. Bob, that brings my total to a 44.5 out of 50. I'm going to 46 out of 50. This is one of the highest rated whiskeys I've ever had on this show. That brings us to a 90.5 out of 100. We finally hit the 90 Mark Again Brad. Hey let's go for a 45. 825 out of 50, dude. I'm so happy. I had no idea what this was going to be. Like I had never heard it like bread. We've had so much whiskey and I'm on Whiskey Instagram all the time.

44:18 I have never seen this bottle. I have never heard of this bottle. This was a complete bind Blind. By, to be honest, I gave you half of it because I was worried, it would suck and I wanted to move, I wanted to move some product off my shelf. It's phenomenal. I can't recommend this highly enough. Yeah, go Go find a bottle of nomad Outland. It is spectacular. Whiskey. That honestly, you should pull out and drink while you're watching A Few Good Men. A spectacular movie. Well, let's get back into talking about that movie. Brad, what do you say? Let's get to it. Bob All right, everybody, that was Nomad Outland. Whiskey finished in heaven. I think?

45:02 Yeah, for sure, that was Brad. Like, I have lost my ability to speak in a coherent way. Well, hopefully that continues as we get into two facts in a false issue, facts, and a falsehood where Brad tries to stump Me by presenting three items. As fact, one of which he has completely made up and it is up to me. Decide which of these facts is actually a falsehood. I feel like when you get it wrong, I need to just be like, boom stumped, lawyered below yer'd. All right. Brad, hit me with your three facts. Supposed facts about A Few Good Men. Alrighty Bob fact, number one and unnamed executive gave Aaron Sorkin this note.

45:45 If Tom Cruise in Demi Moore aren't going to sleep with each other. Why is Demi Moore a woman he responded? I said the obvious answer women. In had purposes other than to sleep with Tom Cruise. Fax number two with Jack Nicholson only being on set for 10 days Reiner one to make sure that the final bits of the trial scene were perfect. So he shot those scenes right away, making it the first scenes shot in the movie fact. Number three, the word sir is used 164 times during the movie which makes it an average of once every 50 seconds. I think three is true. I mean those two marines, say Sir all the freaking time and I was as annoyed with it as Tom Cruise was once a day they use, they use that word.

46:36 So with such versatility. Yeah, to express contempt, respect disappointment, frustrate like it's incredible. One also sounds plausible to I mean obviously sounds like it could be plausible but I don't know if I don't know if Nicholson was available at the start of the shoot. Like I'm sure that they spent the majority of his time shooting those scenes but like was that the first thing in the whole movie that was shot. I don't know. I'm going to say one is true. I'm going to assume three is true so I'll say to is the falsehood here. Brad. Bob you are 100% correct.

47:16 Yeah. You handled the truth. Yes I did. Oh man, that was well that was a really relatively painless one today. Yeah, that was good. Going back to your comment about the two Marines saying, Sir with so much contempt and everything else. My other favorite part of this movie. Is right at the end when Tom Cruise has finally won the respect of the one guy and he turns around and salutes him and then says he says ten-hut there's an officer on deck that like I'm not gonna lie, I cried a little bit oh dude it's so cheesy so cheesy.

47:56 I don't know why it was so effective because I was like this is this is horrible this is what they teach you not to do in screen writing classes but also you know what, it reminded me of is that famous In in To Kill a Mockingbird which, which Sorkin has now done an adaptation of, and, yeah, it's been running on Broadway for like the last year year to nice. But, you know, when when the the Reverend says to Scout and Jem, you know, stand up your father's passing and it's just like, wow, what a line right there, this is his version of that. And for me, as cheesy as it is, it works. I was going to say, at the very start of this episode, you mentioned how this movie is like an eight and a half.

48:37 Laughs and then the final bits of the courtroom scene are just they just take it to a whole nother level and it honestly made me think of To Kill a Mockingbird which made me start wondering are all courtroom movies average until the very end and there's something about either Justice being served or like a miscarriage of justice that just hits at the human soul in a way that most movies don't. I think there's just something so inherently dramatic. About the courtroom, right? This is my Law and Order Works Law and Order wouldn't work if it was called order in law. Like if if, if the courtroom stuff came first and then the police investigative stuff was the second part of the episode that show would suck.

49:20 Like there's something about watching people in a confined space argue with each other and build a case. And and it builds this mounting tension to the point where there's some sort of a Smoking Gun and they say ha and that's how the person gets found out right. Like there there's Just something and maybe it's just because I'm a dad now and this is like perfect dad movie fodder, but I will never say no to a well-made courtroom drama. Yeah I think that it just has a certain. There's just a reality that humans like resolution and like a gavel being banged on the on the judges, you know, whatever.

50:03 Whatever. It's what do they call? The thing that you bang it on? This is called a block. Isn't it a block? The gavel being, you know, just hammered onto the bottle being gobbled? The being gaveled the gavel of nations of the film is going. We're facing up. Yeah, I gotta say, is when the movie finally ends and the sentence is red and the gavel is hammered. Like it's just there's something about that. That feels so satisfying and there. The finality of it is is just good for the human soul and I think that's why courtroom dramas just work. All right, speaking of other lines that are really great in this movie.

50:47 That last line, that Tom Cruise says to Jack Nicholson where he just says, don't call me son, I'm a lawyer and I'm an officer in the United States. Navy at you're under arrest, you son of a bitch. Like, it is so good. It's amazing in that moment. He's been fighting. No, being a lawyer for the military, the entire movie. And he finally like stands up to the occasion, realizes who he is and just delivers that line with such tenacity and oh, dude, it's so good. All right, Brad, it's time for us to make this a double. I think we've already kind of hinted it. That two movies. That would be really, really good.

51:28 Pairings to go with a Few Good Men. Do you want to stick with To Kill a Mockingbird or do you have something else in mind? Oh no. Bob, do I have something else in mind? In mind I have another courtroom drama from the year 1992 about a lawyer who has never actually practiced law in the courtroom. Do you know what movie I'm talking about? I do not. My, My Cousin Vinny Vinny is a this with My Cousin Vinny Bob. It's a great movie. Like, there's nothing to be ashamed of. I mean, this is, that's an oscar-winning film. Yeah, it sure is that. It's Joe Pesci. Just being perfect, being Joe Pesci.

52:11 Yeah, I also love that it's like Joe Pesci in Peak to pay mode. Oh yeah, you know, yes. That's a great pick. I think I am going to pair this with Shawshank and it's for a lot of reasons. I think one of them being that this has that episodic feel to it, that it's a perfect cable movie where every 20 minutes you take a little break, there's there's a, there's a nice little button on the end of the scene, that's a great line. And, you know, they say that line and then you go to commercial break and you come back and you're in another location, it just it works that way, it has that very early to mid-90s feel to it and I know that like, Nothing I'm saying is really tangible or substantial, but these movies just have a really similar vibe to them right down to how in Shawshank, you know, Morgan, Freeman's narration doesn't really sound like how people actually talk.

53:05 They sound like how people talk in the movies and I think there's something to be said about a movie that is self-aware. Enough to know how people talk in the movies and Sorkin does it so. So, well, here, and for all the problems, I Was Shawshank like I think it's a really good movie. I don't know if it's like a great great movie, it does that really well? And so I think that watching this and Shawshank back-to-back would just be one of those. Hey, I'm gonna watch two movies in a row that are like guaranteed to be a 9 out of 10 experience and I'm just going to fully Embrace dad mode on a Saturday afternoon, in the fall, watching AMC or whatever it is. And I think you'd have a good time if I had to give Shawshank a, let's make it a double I think I do.

53:50 To go with Green Mile. Well, sure. I feel like those two movies at the same movie, but just slightly different. I mean, same director, same author. Yeah. It's they really are the same movie. I'd honestly didn't know that. Yeah. All I knew is that I'd seen them both and felt like they were the same movie. Yeah, definitely. I mean, they're both Stephen King. I gotta adaptations by Frank Darabont like, there you go. Yep, it's me. Not going back to our thing about Scorsese making the same movie over and over. Nailed it. All right, so those are our two picks for let's make it a double. I like them both man and you could throw in To Kill a Mockingbird and and and make it a triple I guess. Yeah. I if you want to spend like eight hours nine hours, watching courtroom dramas just three courtroom dramas the That's it man.

54:39 All right, Brad, it's time for our final scores. I'm wavering between a nine and a nine and a half because this, not a perfect movie, and there are parts of it where I'm like, this is not even real. Great movie and certain characters are just caricatures. And there are many many times where the dialogue is cheesy, and yet it just works. I don't know that I would put this in like my top 100 American movies ever but I would definitely put it in the best screenplays ever written. It's like an airtight screenplay. And if we're going to say that we love dialogue by people like Billy Wilder who know how people talk in the movies and not in real life. Sorkin's really, really damn good at that and It is a prime example. I think I'm going to give it a 9 and a half out of ten Brad man. Yeah, I think I'm going to give it a 9 out of 10 for most of the movie.

55:28 I was I was sitting around in 88 and a half. Those final few scenes man, just rocketed up to a nine and a half and then there's the the officer on debt ten-hut and that brings it back down to nine for me. So yeah, let it sit, let it be known, let it be known this Veterans Day filmin, whiskey Nation. That somebody saluting an officer in the United States. Navy is something that Brad dings holds against the film. Yeah, it's an automatic Half Point deduction saluting saluting an officer boo. I think, at this point filmin, whiskey Nation knows that if there's anybody who has respect for our military Bob, it's me, it's Bob book. Definitely gonna be me.

56:17 All right. Well, we just want to say Veterans. Day is this Friday? Day. And we do want to thank anyone in our audience. Who is a veteran who has served in any capacity in the armed forces, this is a movie that I think on its surface, Brad might seem like a weird pick for Veterans Day. Like, I mean seriously, that's like the way it's all over, but it doesn't though because it's I mean, it's I'm trying to make a serious point. Like I think that it's also a movie about what it means to have integrity in an institution like the military. And if you look at it from the point of view of somebody like, Cruz who earns the respect of everybody around him by understanding what it actually means to be an officer in the military. Like, I think that it is, I don't know, I think it's a really effective movie and maybe I'll leave it at that as you continue to crap on our Armed Forces, I have not crapping on armed forces, I if anything I think that Sorkin probably is, you know, just taking a guess at people who live in the world of New York, you know, Broadway.

57:20 And l.a. Hollywood, I'm guessing he's left of center to put it nicely. Now, I would imagine that he wrote this movie with a bent against a certain type of person in the military, maybe not against the whole military, you know, who knows? I'm not in the guy's head, but I personally would think that he meant this as a scathing polemic against certain types of people in the military. And I don't know if he gets, It totally right because I don't know if there's very many Colonel Nathan R jessup's out there but I could be wrong. Maybe there are maybe our military friends can call in and be like now he he kind of hit the nail on the head, who knows? Man, I think this is a great question to ask our audience. When you watch this movie, do you view this movie more as in, Praise of the people who stick up for the little guy or a movie that is intending to condemn those in power. And I think the way Way that you answer, that question, really does inform how you watch this movie. And so I'd like to hear from filmin, whiskey Nation on that. You can find us on all of our social media accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tick-Tock at film whiskey or you can join our Discord.

58:35 We are on our Discord every single day, talking to you guys. And put simply Discord is just a really cool social media space. That is curated with only the people and content that you want to talk to and talk about so jump on. There, you can find a link to it at the end of every one of our show notes. Next week, we are following Rob Reiner into another genre yet again, we're going back a few years into the 1980s to look at a movie that a lot of people say as a perfect script and that is William Goldman's The Princess Bride. So we'll be watching that next week. Join us for that but until then I'm Bob book I'm Reggie and we'll see you next time.