Alien / EH Taylor Small Batch

0:00 Robots radio presents in 1979 director Ridley, Scott and stars Sigourney Weaver. Gave the world. A harrowing tale of interstellar horror that firmly cemented the genre in the public eye. In 2019, Buffalo. Trace gives us a bourbon that can't stay on store shelves. The movie is alien. The whiskey is eh Taylor small batch and we'll review them both. This is the film and whiskey podcast.

0:45 Welcome to the film and whiskey podcast for each week. We review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob book, I'm Reggie and this week we are looking at the 1979 film Alien, Brad. I know you like to give me crap for Anniversary editions of our episodes but this movie is celebrating its 40th anniversary. It is an icon of sci-fi and horror genres. And you know, ethnic it sets us up pretty nicely for Halloween. We are in the week of Halloween. So we thought, why not do our first really true horror movie and to help us with our first horror movie. We are joined in studio today by our frequent collaborator and guest host General hours.

1:25 Jen, how you doing today? Doing great. Thanks for having me on the show again. Now, Jen, we're We're super excited to have you. You are our first guest host of season 2. How does that feel pretty? Awesome. I feel like, I just won an award as you should. You basically did your name should have just gotten announced on The Price is Right. So I want to say up front, you know, Brad you've told me on numerous occasions that you are not a huge horror movie buff, you know, you don't really care for horror movies. It's not your preferred genre. And so we thought we should bring Jen on because Jen is like The resident horror expert Among Us. She loves horror films, and I think she's really going to help us dissect this movie. I think all, but one of my top, five of all time are horror films.

2:11 Probably alien included really? Yep. Oh, so, we're right off the bat. We're dealing with someone who has this movie, in their top five films of all time, bread. That is a very fun statement. Oh, this does not bode. Well, Jen, no, I'm ready to put on my boxing gloves. So I can't wait. I'm just going to sit back and let you two go at it. No, I'm really excited for this. I was intrigued to finally sit down and watch this movie. Like, like you said, Bob I'm not a huge fan of horror. There's a lot of different elements about it that I just don't care for, but it was, it was interesting for me to finally sit down and say, you know what, we're going to expand my film Horizons today and watch the movie Alien.

2:55 I mean it's a classic of the horror genre anytime you hear about sci-fi horror, this is the Movie people talk about. So I honestly was really excited to watch this movie despite my misgivings about the genre. So Brad is it fair to say then that you had not seen this movie prior to this viewing? I had not seen this movie prior to this viewing Bob Brad. You want to hear something interesting. You know, I do this to you all the time but this week's film and next week's film are on that list of movies for me that I don't know if I've ever sat down and watched this movie front to back in one sitting before, Wow, yeah. So I yeah, it's kind of refreshing, isn't it? Yeah, it is Bob's not quite as cool as he thought he was.

3:37 That's very true. This is one of those movies that I feel like it was on TV. A lot growing up, you could catch it on cable. I've seen like, you know, a ton of the, the big key scenes of this movie. And in fact, I know, I know for a fact that I'd seen the ending of the movie before, but I actually went to the movie theater a couple weeks ago with Jen. We went and saw this movie as a fathom event because they just re-released it in theaters and IMAX I have to tell you as of movie-going theater-going experience, this was such a fantastic movie to see in the theater. Yeah, I completely agree. It was really amazing to see in the theater and definitely a different experience than watching it at home especially because of the darkness. Yeah, that's something that I was thinking about.

4:18 As I was watching it in my house, there are certain movies that just do better on the big screen and alien definitely feels like a movie that if, you know, Fathom, ever did another event for it may be for its 50th anniversary in 10 years. I would I definitely would think about going back and watching this in theaters again just because of how cool it would be to see on the big screen with the massive speakers. And like you said, Jen the darkness. This is a really dark film and so it is something that you would want to watch in the darkness as much as possible, so you can catch as much that's going on on the screen. So brat, as you sat down to watch this movie, like, what did you know about it? Going into it.

5:00 Were you familiar with the concept of the movie Alien? Had you heard a lot about it before? Yeah, so I had seen the movie Prometheus before. Which now having watched both movies I think Prometheus kind of spoiled a lot of this movie for me. Because from what I remembered from atheists, it feels like a remake of the movie Alien in the same universe Jen, you could probably confirm or deny that for me, but it really felt similar like shot to shot and a lot of different ways which may be disappointed in. Prometheus for not like daring to move on from the original. But yeah. So I did have an idea of the alien premise, I have obviously heard about it in the past. You know, I had seen the seen before of the alien popping out of the chest, you know, on the medical bed. So I had an awareness of, a lot of the basic premises of the movie.

5:53 Yeah. You know, I actually, I went to go see Prometheus when it came out in theaters, and I was so pumped to see that movie and having now, Alien in its entirety in one sitting like I just think alien is such a better made film, it's so much more economical. It's so much more efficient and it asks questions that don't need answers and I feel like that's where the movie. Prometheus like, took a wrong turn for me, is that it gave all the backstory to the mythology of the alien franchise. When in reality what makes this film great? Is it is a cat-and-mouse sort of Chase and it's a suspenseful Horror ride about people getting picked off one, by one on the ship. And I think that in the year since the franchise of alien has just gone off into many different directions and they've kind of lost sight of what made the first one great Prometheus tries to answer the questions that shrouded viewers and mystery for 40 years.

6:49 And I think that it just didn't go there and answer those questions. Jen, I totally agree with you. Now having seen both films, there's certain parts of the mythology that is Interesting to learn about, you know, sure, maybe but were those the questions that people had been asking for 40 years? You know, I kind of doubt it. So, Brad, maybe we should kind of rain ourselves back in from talking about the extended alien universe and let's just kind of focus in on this one movie. I am so excited to hear you get into our favorite segments. Brad explains. So, can you offer our listeners and explanation of the film Alien? So the movie Alien it takes place in somewhere in The distant future, a ship named the Nimrod or something like that is flying through the this silver Galaxy of beautiful space and there's some sort of or holler.

7:42 That's bringing their riches back to Earth. But lo and behold, they find this planet and they explore the planet. And on that planet, they find bad things and that bad thing tries to suck the face off of one of the members. And instead of just letting In the member died, they bring him back into the ship, and in the ship, the thing plants, a baby inside of his chest and that baby pops out of his chest in a bloodfest and then that baby gets really big really fast and instead of taking it on together as a group, they decide to go one by one into this. Massive freaking ship that only seven people are running. And one by one, they get picked off till we get.

8:25 Nice old Sigourney Weaver. Valiantly fighting for her life, trying to blow. Oh, up the ship and Escape, which she does. But, wait, the thing went with her and she is, but it's really cold and it wants to snuggle with her, but she blasted off into the cold abyss of space. The end. Yeah, that was actually an incredibly entertaining. Brad explains tell me that wasn't pretty much everything that happened. I mean, it's true. Oh, I didn't talk about the robot, the one dudes. A robot who doesn't give a rip About the rest of the crew and he just wants to bring the alien back to turn it into a weapon for like, humans to kill each other. Yeah, and Brad, I'm really glad that you brought that point up because I don't know at what point you want to talk about this, but I think it needs to be talked about because that's probably the biggest twist in the whole film. And if I'm going to nitpick, like, one area of the movie that I'm not sure if it completely works, it's turning a character into a robot and not that they turned him. You know, he was a robot from the beginning but like, Like we were under the impression that he was kind of an evil human and then he gets turned into a robot by the plot. I do it kind of pulled me out of the suspense of the movie and took this weird little detour for a while. How did you guys feel about that plot Point? That's really interesting.

9:47 That was actually I love that twist. Like when it turned out, that he was a robot for I will say this, we have imagined robots so differently in the 40 years since Alien that, when they popped his head off, I thought another one of the aliens had implanted itself inside of him, right? And it wasn't until that they said, oh, he's a robot. I was like, oh, that's what robots look, like back in 1979. But as far as a plot device, I actually really liked it, I thought that it gave just enough back story to what's happening, you know, on the colony that they're bringing the shit back to to go oh, like, you know, There's larger political forces at play here.

10:32 I loved it myself because until it's revealed that Ash is an Android. You don't expect it because his action seems so logical as a science officer and that's what I think is. So brilliant about it is that it brings into question scientists and their views of things and their morals. Yeah, I don't, I don't hate the Twist and it makes a lot of sense. And when we get into the analysis of the movie, I think it actually serves a much bigger purpose than Even we've been hinting at so far. I think the only thing for me that kind of took me out of the film is up to that point there hadn't even been a mentioned made that, you know, the corporation had started using Androids and I understand that all the characters in the movie were kept in the dark about this. But I think as an audience member, I would have at least kind of like to have known in the back of my mind that Androids were being used and maybe it, maybe they talked about it and I just missed it but it was such an out-of-left-field thing for me that Wasn't even like on my mind at all.

11:32 That it kind of took me a minute to adjust to this new world of. Oh okay, we're using Androids now. Yeah, I will say it kind of felt like they were trying to install HAL 9000 into the movie. Yep. But like disguise him so that you wouldn't realize, oh, there's actually an evil computer trying to ruin things. So they kind of like smuggled a Sci-Fi staple into the movie, which I thought was interesting and well done. I think it's really interesting that you bring up HAL 9000 because you know, Ridley Scott has talked about the three films that influenced alien more than anything else and he has always sided Star Wars. A New Hope. He has cited 2001 A Space Odyssey and then the third one was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for the way that they use blood in that film. So Brad you're definitely on to something this movie owes a debt to not just the Sci-Fi films of the 50s like Invasion of the Body Snatchers or the thing from another world. But it Also owes a huge debt to Star Wars especially in some of the the way that some of the shots are set up and also to what Stanley Kubrick did in 2001 this movie came out after Star Wars and in fact had difficulty being made just before Star Wars came out.

12:46 And once it was released every Studio was trying to get their hands on any kind of sci-fi script. They thought would be successful at the time. And so Star Wars really helped alien be made. Yeah, for sure. And I think you can see a Out of the influence in Star Wars, even like at the beginning of this film, The Very opening scene, they kind of show you the enormity of the Nostromo from the outside and it really did remind me of that first opening shot from Star Wars Brad that we talked about on that episode, you know, months and months ago. I love the credits because when they open up and you see the ship coming towards you, it reminds you of the Star Wars credits and away. But then you get on the ship and it's just totally different and becomes a horror film.

13:30 Yeah, Jen. I really love the opening scene because like you said, it kind of reminds you a little bit of a movie like Star Wars but it's the music that just is eerie and it's kind of Haunting and it's this melody. That just it quickly informs your heart that it is in for a wild ride Brad. You know what was so funny I'm in the theater and I'm watching that opening scene in the credits and how slowly the title alien kind of creeps onto the screen. And I'm listening to that music and I'm thinking. Wow. Is this, this really dissonant discordant music? What does this remind me of? And it immediately snap me forward. Three years in the future 1982, John Williams, opening titles to ET.

14:13 Remember, we talked about how that score started off in this weird Eerie spot. And I honestly think John Williams might have been trying to kind of pull a bait-and-switch, you know, with Steven Spielberg because we talked about how the beginning of e.t. is almost set up like a Horror film. So I'm wondering if they kind of played off of the success of alien with the start of e.t. Yeah I actually think you could be right on that especially even if you just look at the titles of the two movies, they are both words for creatures that are foreign to our own Planet. You have an alien or you can call them an extraterrestrial. So like they're kind of both playing on this thing and since ET came out second you're right it's almost like they were playing off. Oh the fear of an alien that's going to snatch your body or Body in pop out of your chest or so, it's actually just a nice little flower plant.

15:04 Loving, eco-friendly guy that heals your wounds and gets you drunk. All right, so Brad clearly still hasn't recovered from ET at. So maybe we should move on to talking about Ridley, Scott, the director of this film Ridley, Scott has become one of the most famous and well, regarded directors in Hollywood. And yet I kind of feel, like, in some ways Ridley, Scott has always been like one movie away from being a legend, all of his movies. Are really, really good, but I think very few of his movies, have reached the level of greatness of like a Spielberg, or a Scorsese and it's kind of interesting to me because he's been working as long as those guys have, but he still somehow hasn't cracked like the stratosphere.

15:45 But when I go back and watch this movie, I'm reminded of just how great of a director, he is Brad. What did you think about the job that release God did with this film, man? I was amazed with Ridley, Scott in this movie and you are right, his too. Movies really would be alien and Gladiator. You know, obviously Blade Runner was really huge as well in 82, but you are correct Ridley. Scott's, one of those names where when you talk about great directors, I don't know if I would hear the average person ever say, oh well Ridley, Scott can't forget about him. And yet, when you look at three of his best movies, I would say these are three phenomenal movies. So it is interesting that he hasn't cracked that, you know, legendary status Brad.

16:27 I totally agree with that Ridley. Scott's One of my favorite directors and Gladiator. Blade Runner and alien are Classics undeniably. Yeah. And specifically with alien, I think that you have Ridley Scott where he is absolutely airtight and his filmmaking, he moves you from shot to shot seamlessly. He doesn't give you unnecessary information with lighting with sound, with the movement of the camera. Every time, the camera moves, it's for a very specific reason. He does it in a very specific way. And I was really impressed with the cinematography of this movie. Yeah, I was too, and the direction over all is well, this was a movie that at multiple points I kind of stepped back out of the viewing experience.

17:14 And it was just kind of giddy with the filmmaking because this is the work of a person who is in total control of what he's doing. He completely understands every shot that he wants to set up and what blew me away about this movie was how Innovative it was. What do you when you? Watch films from 40 years ago, and if you want to take Star Wars as an example, because it was almost a contemporary to this film. The way that Ridley Scott uses the camera in this film is so vastly different than what you got in a movie like Star Wars you. There's a lot of handheld and, and sort of documentary feel going on. But then at very key points, he has these long tracking shots at other points, it's completely stationary. There's this one, beautiful shot, I keep thinking of and it's in the scene where Harry Dean Stanton goes looking for the cat and meets his demise Eyes and you get a point of view shot from him as he's walking into that room where all those sort of chains or hanging and the camera pushes in through the door and it is just this gorgeous shot. But what blew me away from Ridley? Scott?

18:14 Was it the way he mixed different kinds of cameras, when the search and rescue team goes out to the the abandoned ship to see what where the distress signal is coming from. He actually shows as the cameras point of view, the sort of like T cam footage from inside their space suits and I was really shocked by that and kind of blown away because that was the kind of, you know, inventive thinking that you weren't seeing on screen in 1979. I totally agree. I'm thinking of a shot near the end of the movie. When you know, Sigourney Weaver is the only crew member left and she's kind of like stumbling through the halls and the cameras moving fast. You know it's tracking away from her but he does this really cool thing where Eventually the camera starts slowing down. It's still moving away from her but the it's zooming into her face and you get extremely close with her and it gives you the sense of motion that she's still moving forward, but it's slowly captures the horror and fear on her face. And so you kind of get this frantic motion of, you know, you're still moving.

19:20 But you as the audience member are being drawn into the fear, that is in her eyes in the sweat on her brow in the jerky movements that she looks back. Back to see, if the aliens behind her, she looks back forward to see if it's in front of her. It's a really beautiful way of filming fear the expressions of the actors and actresses in this movie really convey Their Fear. And I also think that that kind of documentary style filmmaking just wasn't done 40 years ago before this movie. So maybe this is a good time to kind of get into talking about Sigourney Weaver, and her performance in this movie and we can touch on some of the other players in the film. But this is very clearly and very, obviously Sigourney Weaver's movie Brad.

20:04 What did you think of her performance in this film? I was really Blown Away. Bob, I just could not get over the sincerity with, which she played her role, you know, where she really cares about the other members of the crew. But she also takes her job very seriously. And you kind of see that dilemma at the start, where she kind of comes off, you know, a little mean when she enforces the protocol to quarantine them outside of the ship. Ship. Yeah. And she comes off and kind of a cold way but I think what really Scott does well is that he chooses to film her as she tells them that she will not allow them in. She's not this disembodied. Voice coming over the loudspeaker you're not spending time just with the people who are outside the ship, you see her as she's delivering these lines and I think that she gives a depth of sincerity with her eyes that convinces you that she genuinely is a good person who To let them in but knows, the danger of what might happen if she lets them in. So, I have to say Sigourney Weaver's character. Ellen Ripley is probably my favorite female character of all time and especially in a horror film, traditionally, especially before 1979, when this movie came out, women and horror movies are portrayed, as idiots.

21:22 You're constantly going, no, I wouldn't do that, who would do that? But the whole time you're watching, Ellen Ripley in this. Movie. She's logical. She's pragmatic. She does what anyone in the audience would want to do in those situations? It's not that she's a woman that's at the center of her character. It's that she's a pragmatic. Rational person who's making the right decision scene to scene. So you can relate to her no matter what gender you are. So Jen, let me ask you this then because like, you're huge horror movie fan. And like one of the biggest horror movie tropes is the idea of like the final You know, like in every horror movie, the serial killer, the slasher kills everybody.

22:05 And then there's one final girl left, and there's usually like, rules that go along with it. Like, she's the virginal one, or something like that. And I feel like for all of the advances, this movie made, you still kind of have the final girl. Do you think that this movie like falls into that trap? Or is it kind of transcending it, or subverting it somehow? I think it's transcending it because the last girl is, Really. They're in a horror film by coincidence by chance because they happen to get away and not because of the logical decisions that they make from moment to moment. Yeah. I think the other way in, which she kind of transcends that is that she isn't killed in the end of the movie, you know, she fights and survives.

22:50 And like Jen was saying, how does she frightened survive? She uses her logic. She notices how cold the alien is she puts herself in, you know, to a space suit? That she can continue to lower the temperature and she uses her intuition to say, this is probably the alien is going to do. I know how I can maneuver him so that I can launch him out of the hatch and eventually blast him away with, you know, the afterburners of the Space Shuttle, like she really kind of kicks it into sixth gear, at the end of the movie when she realizes that like she has to turn to Desperate Measures to kill this alien. Ellen, Ripley is a problem. Solver, she's solving a Problem in half of these scenes, probably.

23:32 And I think that's really cool because I love that scene, where everyone's in the room and they're all freaking out and then she goes. Come on, let's just figure this out well, and I think you guys are touching on something that's really important about her character, too. And it's that she's the only one that's thinking like the audience thinks, like, throughout the whole movie. And I was kind of wondering to get your guy's opinion on this to like, is it a deficiency in the script? Because every character that's not named Ellen, Ripley. Is kind of an idiot, like, in the sense that they're, they don't seem scared enough of the fact that this alien creature is just hiding out on their ship somewhere. And they're like, oh, I'm kind of uneasy about this, but maybe we should go hunting and even after the first person gets killed, they're like, all right, yeah, we should really find this thing and kill it because it's going to murder us but they still don't really seem terrified enough.

24:24 And then you have Ripley who's like, am I the only person here? Who sees the The danger that we're actually going up against want anybody saying that's what I'm thinking. Unless somebody has got a better idea, we'll proceed with Dallas's plan, what? And then, don't let the others know, you're out of your mind. You got a better idea? Yes. I say that we abandon the ship, we get the shuttle and just get the hell out of here. We take our chances, just hope that somebody had a up. The shuttle won't take four. Well then why don't we draw straws and straws? Damn thing right now, okay.

25:12 Well, let's talk about killing it. I guess I'm just wondering, like, did you guys think that the other characters in the movie, we're just poorly written, or how did you interpret them? I definitely think that she was the only one acting in a logical rational way, but to me, it wasn't an issue because it's a commercial space ship. I don't think that they're necessarily after Geniuses. Mmm, they were sort of just like those two guys just kept talking about all. I think we need a raise. Oh yeah, I was going to say kind of a similar thing to Jen. I think they do a good job of establishing the fact that there's only a few people on the ship that you know, our science type people that are you know, more logical and rational and they really do a good job of setting up from the very start that all of the other characters outside of Ash and Ripley you are very emotional.

26:03 They wear their colors on their sleeve and it doesn't mean that I don't like the other characters. I do think that they act. Lee and a lot of those situations. But it doesn't surprise me that they act poorly but I would agree with you. Bob, I do wish that some of the other characters were more were more rational than they are portrayed. Yeah and for me it's not even so much that like I wish they were more rational as it is that the only person that I thought was reacting with actual fear was the character of Lambert played by Veronica Cartwright. She gets very terrified very quickly and I'm like yes if I was there I would absolutely be as terrified as you but I didn't think Think that their reaction to having this thing, loose on the ship was quite how I would react. I actually thought that their reactions evolved throughout the film.

26:53 I think that they evolved with the size of the creature as it evolved from one to the next. And I think that I noticed a big difference in some of the characters fear, after the alien was full-grown. It may just be that they were a little bit too well lubricated with the the golden nectar. Of the gods that we like to call whiskey to fully appreciate the problem that they were facing. So how about we join them in partaking of this beautiful thing called whiskey. Yeah let's get to this eh Taylor small batch Alright, so today we are drinking eh Taylor small batch.

27:35 Now Bob, can you tell our lovely listeners of the film in whiskey Nation? Anything about this beautiful whiskey? Yeah. So, eh Taylor is a Buffalo Trace product. It's a fairly affordable bourbon in the state of Ohio. It's going to set you back $40. The problem is that like Weller? And the whole Weller line, the, eh Taylor line has a Really dedicated following it, especially blew up years and years back. There was a tornado that ripped down, you know, one of the Rick houses and, uh, Taylor turned into a huge marketing thing where they released a bunch of bottles called Tornado survivors. And there was a really limited availability for a while. And so, eh Taylor blew up and now they only really do a release of eh Taylor at least in Ohio around once a year and these bottles fly off the shelves, there are different levels of uh They're small batch and Single Barrel at all, that kind of stuff today. We're just going with the small batch which is sort of their entry-level offering, so this is a bottled and bond bourbon so we know it's 100 Proof Brad.

28:39 What are you picking up on the nose of this? Eh Taylor small batch and I don't feel like I've been able to say this in a while. This is a classic bourbon this so funny because the first thing I wrote down in my notes. Classic bourbon notes. Yeah. You're 100% right man I just it's okay. Okay, it's caramel, it's spice's. I got some cinnamon some pepper on there, it just it really smells like what you would expect a bourbon to smell like yeah, having done this podcast for long enough. Now, this is what I would expect out of a bourbon. I can't imagine it smelling any differently. Jen, what are you picking up on the nose? I'm picking up some warmth Apple, mmm, a little bit of fruit, some cinnamon, some caramel, maybe a little bit of butterscotch, like Bunch of different random stuff, basically, all at once, I'm loving it, I'm gonna go ahead and give this an 8.5 on the nose.

29:33 This is a very impressive whiskey thus far. I'm excited to get into it. So I'm actually going to out myself right now and say that I actually sampled this also last night before we recorded this, and I tried it in three different glasses for nosing, because I can't quite pin down, what the best glass for nosing. A bourbon is yet. So I just took my sample a night border into three different glasses and I will say that I started to pick up Up some more like a stringent notes on it. It smelled a little bit like paint and I wasn't like crazy about some of the notes I got in certain glasses. So here are the film of whiskey podcast. We are trying this bourbon out of rocks glasses. No, Glenn. Karen's nothing with a weird angular.

30:13 Sort of look, we're just trying it out of rocks, glasses. Brad. I'm going to go ahead and give this a seven out of ten. You gave it an eight and a half. Jen, what would you give it on the nose? I'd give it an eight and a half. I really like the nose and it's It's definitely complex in a good way. So I guess that means it's time for us to take a sip Yeah. Right. Is that touches my tongue? You get that nice caramely sweetness and as I kind of swish it around and get it to the back of my mouth, you get some of those peppery kind of cinnamon notes that Jen was talking about. I am really enjoying this. Yeah, I think it's funny you say that because I had almost the opposite experience in terms of like how the flavors presented themselves, I thought that it was really spicy up front, like on the front of my tongue. It was a ton of pepper and Baking spices. And then in the middle of my palette it was really really sweet.

31:07 And then it had sort of a classic bourbon finish to it. But yeah, my experience went almost opposite of yours but I enjoy it. Just as much as you do. I love the taste. I think that it's a bourbon that I could, it's an easy sipper. I would, I would sip on this for a couple of hours and I can't say that about all Bourbons but it's complex but not too strong, definitely something that I would use to introduce somebody to A bourbon. Yeah, I think it's a good way to put it. So I'm going to go ahead and give it an 8 on The Taste. Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and give it an 8 as well. The nose definitely was like slightly better but this taste is still really, really good. All right so what do you think about the Finish then Brad? Because I mean it goes along with the taste. Like I said, I thought that it was a pretty standard bourbon finish.

31:54 It was really spicy for me, but it didn't have a lasting bitterness to it. I did get kind of a slightly medicinal taste to it. When I tried it out of that angular glass last night. I almost got like a bitters flavor like an orange peel or something. But out of the rocks glass, it really does just tastes like a classic Bourbon and that goes all the way through to the finish. At least for me. I love the finish. I could it's something that I still taste in my mouth now and don't mind at all. And in fact I'm really enjoying that. I'm still tasting it. I will say for me the finished kind of sours at the end just the tiny bit. It has the good flavors on the back end. And but I am struggling a little bit with the finish.

32:36 I'm gonna give it a seven on the Finish. Yeah, I also gave it a 7 on the finish. I did finally pick up on some of those fruit notes that Jen was talking about and I think that's a good thing. But I did have a little bit of a struggle with that slightly medicinal taste to the finish. So I'm going to give it a 7. I didn't pick up on the medicinal thing that you guys are talking about, but I did pick up on some richness like sort of like a dark chocolate kind of thing, but I also Rishi added that it wasn't too Oaky or too spicy after. So I'm going to give the finish a 7.5, all right? And that takes us to overall balance. Now, this is the nose taste and finished kind of all wrapped together as one thing I think. Overall this is a really, really well-balanced whiskey. Nothing stands out in a negative way. But I also would say that nothing really stands out in an overly positive way.

33:29 It's just a really solid bourbon. So I think I would give it an 8. On the balance and I'm really curious to see what you would say about it. Brad honestly, for all the same reasons I'm going to give it a seven and a half, I think that the balance is good. It did struggle for me as it went on from the nose, all the way to the Finish. But overall I was very impressed with this. I'm gonna give it a seven and a half. I'm gonna give it a seven because what I got on the nose, wasn't what I got on the Finish necessarily. Well that brings us to overall value. Now, like I said, we were rounding up here and saying this would cost you $40 in the state of Ohio, the website for the Ohio, Liquor Agency actually has it listed as 3806. However, it is really difficult to find this at face value. A lot of people are buying this on the secondary Market, or they're in a state where it's not price controlled, so we can only evaluate this on the price that we paid for it. And in full disclosure, we actually did not pay for it. One of our fantastic listeners, Jamie Miller, and he's on Instagram at lawyer.

34:34 Donated the sample to us. So I, first of all, I want to say thank you to mr. James meller, for this wonderful sample. What a guy. What a guy we have fantastic listeners. Yeah, filming whiskey Nation coming through big time but we can only evaluate this based on what we would be paying if we were going to buy this and that is 38 dollars and six cents. So Brad. What kind of a score would you give this based on that figure? Honestly, I'm gonna give it a seven and a half on value. This is a Really, really good bourbon that if you ever have a friend who's like yeah, I drink a lot of scotch. I drink a lot of Jack Daniels are drink, a lot of Crown Royal but I want to try bourbon.

35:14 What should I drink? This is a phenomenal bourbon for you to introduce your friends to on value. I would give it an 8. I'm judging it based on what I go to the store and buy this myself and I would buy it. I think that's the bar that we really try to set here. Is, would you buy this for yourself at this price? And I think all of us would say, yes, I don't think this is an astronomically priced bourbon. I mean, I think it's fairly priced if it was $50. I think I definitely be re-evaluating it a little bit, but at $40 know, this is a really, really good bourbon and that brings me out to a total of 37 out of 50. Brad. What's that bringing you out, too? I'm at a 38.5 38.5 and Jen Lauer's.

35:58 Alright, so for the total score for me, I'm coming out to a 38.5. Yes, you're right in line. With Brad and we're all very close to each other. If we average out my score and Brad score, that puts us at a thirty seven point seven, five or a. What is that? 75 and a half 75 point five. This is a really good bourbon, Brad. Would you recommend it? Highly recommend this bourbon. I would also highly recommend this bourbon. It's definitely one I would have on hand, especially if I had friends over. Who told me they weren't familiar with bourbon? Yeah, I think this is a really good whiskey to kind of just cozy up on the couch and watch a movie with which means it's time for us to do the same. Let's continue talking about the 1979 classic alien.

36:46 Alright so that was eh Taylor small batch. We're going to continue talking about the movie Alien, but before we do that, it's time for our newest and probably most fun. Segment, hot takes. This is where we find one star reviews of these classic movies that were talking about on the podcast and we get Brad's reaction to them. And today, we actually have the benefit of getting Jen's reaction to them. To Bob, you need to get better at your announcer voice. Oh, you want me to do me to give a good intro? Oh yeah, hot cakes. Now, it's time for For hot tea. Exactly. Yes, yes. There we go. Alright, here's our first one star review. It comes from st. Just on IMDb. And the title is, what do people see in this film? What do people see in this film?

37:33 I am not one for horror films though. I do like this alien stuff. Nothing happens in the film, nothing we spend most of the time, waiting and waiting for something to happen. This movie could have been cut to half an hour easy. There's a saying That says fear is being scared of the unknown, something that the X-Files has done really well. Unfortunately, this film has tried to do this too and has gone too far rather than waiting for something to happen while the edge of our seats. We wait and wait and wait and wait, we barely get to see the alien in the special effects are pretty. Poor sure it was a long time ago, so we can't expect too much but look at Star Wars which came out around the same time. They were much better than alien and Lucas had half the money alien is simply a boring movie, that Deserves no credit one star so can I, can I awkwardly give them credit for one of their takes you like Star Wars a special effects better.

38:27 I think you can objectively say that Star War's special effects were better. Partially. The one thing, I'll specifically say, is the explosion of the ship. At the end, looks like it was from the 1950s. And when you look at how well, they do explosions in Star Wars, that was the only point. Of the movie where I was like, oh, this movie's 40 years, old, other than that, I thought the special effects were pretty well done. I think, if we're looking specifically at the creatures from Star Wars, I prefer the alien over all of the creatures and Star Wars, even though that's one of my favorite films also. But overall, I would agree the special effects in Star Wars, or better as a whole. Yeah, I think I'd agree with both of you. The explosion of the ship, at the end of alien really, is it, looks terrible. 40 years later.

39:15 However, I Will agree with Jen to. I think the creature design is better here and I think the fact that really Scott knows what he's doing with shrouding it in darkness. Kind of like what Steven Spielberg does with the T-Rex in Jurassic Park, it really adds to the effect of that creature design. So hey, maybe that one star review wasn't too bad. After all well, it was a pretty bad review. All right. And our final, our second and final hot take for today comes from Harry Plunkett 14. And the title of his review. Twisted Scott is a lousy director, a great visual artist but not good at directing GE GE is a degenerate who painted monsters and hellish images all his life and the whole horror genre is by and large a pit of degeneracy. This film is an effective horror and it does impress visually in many ways.

40:09 It also has a memorable soundtrack, but at the end of the day, it is just nasty. And I am sick and tired of nasty imagery. Poisoning, my mind, shove it down the toilet one? Star you, filthy degenerates, get off my lawn. I love how this guy like can't actually get through a sentence without crediting the movie for being really, really well done. But just essentially saying he doesn't like it or agree with it, but it's like every sentence. Hey this is a great movie. Also, it's degenerate. Yeah. It's it's interesting to me because you didn't necessarily see reviews This for the Dark Knight but it's interesting how you get into a specific genre, like horror and I think you get certain people who are going to critique this movie based on the entire, you know, film library of horror and not just the movie Alien. And I think that's really unfair to do to any movie. You know, you can't just pigeonhole a movie based on the genre, it is, you have to let the movie stand on its own legs. Well, this guy actually hinted at something that I think we can segue into and that is the design elements of the film. He was talking about h.r.

41:24 Giger who designed the alien creature and a lot of the interior of the space ship as well. And Jen actually has been, like chomping at the bit to talk about the design elements of this movie because the imagery really is Iconic. So, Jen, take it away. The imagery is, definitely my favorite thing about this movie, I could have 20 pictures right now of just images in my mind from this movie, On the walls in my house. I love the facehuggers. I love the chest bursters, I love that alien that sitting in the chair which was somehow nicknamed, the space, jockey in the making of that movie. And I just love everything about it. I think it's terrifying. It's something that I've never seen before outside of this movie, and also Giger insisted that the alien have no eyes, so that it would appear more cold and emotionless, and I think that was a really good move.

42:16 Yeah. I mean this this is one of those films where the alien creature truly does look alien. And they do a really good job of disguising, its whole body. You know, you really just get a lot of profile shots, and a lot of the shots of the head. And so it doesn't for most of the time. It doesn't look like a person in an alien costume. And what I really love is the sort of even more gross aspects they add to it, like the fact that it bleeds acid or the crazy amounts of like goop and saliva, Are coming off of it at all times. It's a really fascinating creature design. And I think you could really go in on like psychoanalyzing, what's going on because of the way that it has that thing that shoots out of its mouth. It's this.

42:58 Weirdly like sexual thing, there's a lot of employing people getting impregnated with the Facehugger and I think GE GE was going for that on purpose, but it's super unsettling and I think really effective. So the guy who wrote the script Dan O'Bannon, he actually said that his His goal was to make the men in the audience, feel as uncomfortable as possible because prior to 1979 there were a lot of horror films coming out like last house on the left that had violent rape scenes and that he felt like the goal was to make women feel uncomfortable and he really wanted to turn that around. So he tried to evoke imagery of pregnancy of rape.

43:41 I think it's super effective. I mean every aspect of the way this alien invades you it It's a violation. I mean, whether it's, you know, going down your throat, to impregnate you or if it's whatever it does to people's heads eating the brains or whatever. It's this like weird phallic symbol of something that's like penetrating and yeah, I thought it was really effective. Brad, do you have thoughts on the creature design? Honestly, one of my first thoughts when you were talking about the creature design was, what is another, you know, character that is meant to be fearful and meant to induce of state of Horror and people. And I think that you need not look any further than Alien vs. Predator.

44:22 And when you look at the Predator character design, he's just not as terrifying as the alien he's more familiar. He's more humanoid. There's something about the character of the alien that is so utterly. Foreign that every aspect of him is truly horrifying. And I think that his character design was brilliant. If the goal was To make people, you know, quake in their seats. Brad, I think that's a great point. And you actually bring up something that I think we should talk about, which is the cultural impact of this movie is had, you know, without alien. I don't think you get a predator film. And certainly alien was influenced by movies like Jaws. I mean, this is essentially Jaws in space, but I think that you can't underestimate what Ridley Scott's film Alien did for the Sci-Fi and horror and eventually even the action genres as well. What do you think about, you know, some of the movies that you've seen that remind you of alien? The crazy thing to me about watching alien was that I was like a quarter way into the movie. And I was like, wait a second.

45:27 I feel like I've seen this before and as somebody who watches very little horror and by that, I mean, I've probably seen two to four movies before alien. That could be considered true horror films. I immediately was like, I feel like I've seen this movie before and so I Looked back in my brain and I thought about it, I was like, wait a second, deep blue sea, is literally a remake of alien, but instead of an alien, it's a shark. And instead of being in space, there in the Pacific, Ocean or somewhere, I think they're in the Pacific. It's literally the exact same movie except for those slight little differences. I think this is a story that's been done again and again and again, just like you said Prometheus is essentially just another remake of alien Oh yeah, this is like your typical monster movie and who's to say where it started. I think at this point they all influence each other but this is the first film that I can recall seeing some like really hardcore sci-fi tropes, like things getting sucked out into space. I don't recall seeing a movie that came out before this where, like, somebody opens I hatch and things get sucked out into space, like, and that's something that you see all through the alien franchise and in tons and tons of other space, you know, set films.

46:45 Well, even in a The form of media. I can think of tons of video games that involve sucking things out of a hatch into space. You know, to kill your enemies. Like, I think about Halo 2. That's like, literally one of the first missions. You kill the Bad Guys by sucking them out in the space. Like, this is a common Trope. In the Sci-Fi genre, that transcends movies. All right. Before we wrap up here, I do want to say something about what I think is going on with the, the larger meaning of this movie. If there is one because at the end of the day, it really He is just a fun kind of, I mean, it's a rollicking good time watching these people get picked off one by one by this alien, on this spaceship.

47:26 But I really love the insertion of the ash character as an Android because I think it hammers home, the point that this movie is called alien. But to me it was really about what it is. That makes us human, you know, you have on one hand this alien creature that, no one understands that is called the perfect organism. ISM that adapts and survives without any semblance of remorse or morals. And then on the other hand you have Ash the Android who has been programmed to Value the mission above human lives. And you know even after they kill Ash in the kind of revive him to ask him about the mission that he's sabotage. He says about the alien I admire its Purity. How do we kill it?

48:10 There's got to be a way of killing it. How how do we do it? You still don't understand what you're dealing with, do you? Perfect. Welcome ism. It's structural Perfection is matched only by its hostility you admire it. I admire its Purity Survivor. And I will close it by conscience, remorse or delusions of morality. I heard enough of this in. Am asking you to pull the plug.

48:51 Nice. I can't lie to you about your chances, you have my sympathies. And so, on one hand, you have the alien on the other. You have the Android. And I think, what Scott Ridley Scott is doing here is he's really drilling down deeply into these things that make us human. It is our morality. It is the fact that these people weep and mourn for each other, it is the fact that they feel fear, and at the end of the day, it's really Skeptical, I think of the sort of technological advances that it portrays in the movie, like, it clearly doesn't think the Android has the, the upper hand from a moral standpoint.

49:35 And I think it reminded me of what it is that we Champion about humanity and what makes us who we are. I will say though, that Android had the upper hand if the goal was to spin really fast and just shove a magazine down, someone's throat. Yeah, yeah, that was the moment where R like, I guess I'm going back to the very start of the podcast and talking about Ridley, Scott as a director. But like, even as he was like, shoving the magazine into her mouth and he was pushing away. The other people, I was like, man, how could a human, you know, gags somebody so easily with one hand and push the other ones off. And I still had no idea that he was an Android, like, but is, but isn't it super interesting how they draw that that one, little subtle comparison even between the Android and the alien because the way the alien, you know, kills people is by putting something in their mouth and killing them from the inside out. And the way that Ash is trying to take down Sigourney Weaver, is by stuffing that magazine down her throat like somehow. His first instinct was to do the same thing, the alien does and I think that really just drives home. The point that on this spaceship there is human, and there is a lien and this movie is championing. What it means to be human.

50:52 Yes, I think the beauty of this. We, you know, if there is anything beautiful in it, is that you see the relationships between these humans grow. And, and form, as they face adversity, and I think that's probably one of the most important things about the human condition is that when push comes to shove humans, have this Relentless drive to bond together to overcome the problems that they face. And I think that really hits at what you were talking about Bob that Humanity's morals and values Are important. And it is important for people to have an overarching good that governs their lives. And one of those overarching goods is the fact that we need to bond together and help each other rather than tear each other down.

51:40 I also love that the characters have a lot of complexity even Dallas his decisions that he makes throughout the film aren't necessarily consistent morally or emotionally. He wants to bring cane back onto the Ship. But then later when that dead body is launched out into space, he's kind of just like anybody have any last words? Nobody says anything. And he just launches the body out. I think that someone who's so compassionate in the beginning and then someone who later doesn't know how to react in that situation is realistic because as human beings were really, just making decisions moment to moment, and that's what this movie is about. It's about your morals, your emotions, and the decisions you make from moment to moment. Problem solving in your life and she drops the mic on us yet again.

52:29 Brad. Yeah, that I think that really is a good place to end things on the movie Alien. But the final thing we have to do is give it a score. So, Bob, Jen would, what kind of a score would you guys give alien? Well, I want to throw it over to Jen first because we know this is in her top five of all time. So if she gives it like a 6 out of 10, I'm going to be really confused. So I'm wow, I thought about this for about three days straight after we watch this movie. At the fathom event. And I was thinking, what score would I get this? It's one of my favorite films, but that doesn't necessarily mean. It has to be a 10/10 and I was really looking for things I could pick apart about it. Some of the special effects came to mind that didn't necessarily hold up now, but then I thought about how it was made 40 years ago and it still holds up, I think even though some of those special effects, we could do better now. And I can't fault it for anything that I can really think of right now.

53:24 So I would give it a 10 out of 10. Yes, I'm kind of in the same boat. Jen is, you know, I did have a few small faults with this movie. I thought that the way the characters reacted to some of the things was a little eye-rolling. But you have that in any horror movie that's just a horror movie Trope. You know some of the special effects are a little bit dated. Absolutely. But I was gripped from this movie from minute one. You know. I do think that we have redefined in some ways what makes a horror movie in the last 40 years. I don't know that I would say this movie terrified me. Down to my core, but it was really, really suspenseful. And the jump-scare still worked on me. Jenn can attest. I jumped like three or four times in the course of the movie, so it holds up and I don't know if I would give it a 10 out of 10 because I don't think it's perfect but darn it. If I'm going to give it a nine point five out of ten, this movie still works and it is still worth talking about as an absolute icon of the genre man.

54:18 Yeah, I am not surprised with either of those scores. Honestly, in my head I played the game of like what? I'm going to give it. What is Bob going to give it and I put you guys both at a 10 and a 9 and a half that you guys gave it for me. I agree 100% with what you guys are saying, you know? Sure is some of the special effects dated yes. Is that okay? Yeah, you know, it's not the end of the world. Would you kind of expect that when you watch an older movie? I am going to give alien and 8.5. And honestly, I would give this movie a 9 but I do. Do have a bias against the horror genre. It is not my favorite genre. I don't like how it makes me feel. I don't enjoy.

55:04 I I can't quite put words to the things that it evokes in me. But there's the part of me that I look at the horror genre and and I'm not somebody who's going to say don't make horror films because I think horror films have a lot to offer the film industry. But my struggle is, do we really have to go to these places? Says of horror and Terror and fear to learn the lessons that horror films teach us and I know that Jane would probably say yes we do. And I would bet that Bob might say, yes, we do as well. I just don't know if we do, and I really do struggle with horror films in general, but it doesn't stop me from giving this movie and 8.5. It is directed.

55:48 Well, the script is tightly wound. It is suspenseful. It is interesting. It gives you just enough. Enough of a backstory to let you know what's going on, but it doesn't give you so much that you get bogged down in it. I mean, this is a phenomenal movie that I was very impressed with Brad. I actually really appreciate the. You said all that man, that was that was a pretty good, summing up of your thoughts on horror. Thank you very much. Well there you have it Brad gives it an eight and a half. I give it a 9 and a half. Jen gives it a 10 that brings the average for me and Brad to a 9 out of 10 or a 90 out of 100. I think we both agree. We know what whatever our On the horror genre that this film holds up and it is still effective to this day, but we want to know what you have to say. So please get on social media.

56:33 You can find us on Facebook on Instagram or on Twitter at film whiskey or you could give us a call, please call our call in line interact with us. Leave us a voicemail. We'd love to play it on air. Our number is two one. Six eight hundred five nine, two, three. Once again that's two one. Six eight hundred five nine two three. Brad. Why don't you tell the people what will be back reviewing next week? Next week we will be reviewing 1989 s When Harry Met Sally. I'm so excited to talk about that one Brad, because I also had not ever seen that film. So I'm still in the Brad G shoes for another week, isn't it? Beautiful, my friend for the film in whiskey podcast.

57:14 I'm Bob book. I am Reggie. I'm Jen lowers, we'll see you next time. The who set robots radio get a lot of questions from people who are interested in, starting their own podcasts about how they can start, how they can grow their audiences.

57:58 How they can create good content, even what microphone to use and what software to use things like that. Well, we're changing things up at robots around table to talk and share about the things that we've learned the things that work and the things that don't Don't, we're sharing with you are actual real world experience. How can you launch a show like The Fallout lore cast and get as many listeners as we did early on and rocket to the top of the charts on Apple podcasts. How do you create a show in such a crowded Marketplace as it is today as opposed to 10 years ago? We're getting together every week to share, I answers with you, just look up the podcast.

58:46 Professor A robot's Roundtable with the hosts from robots radio.