Amadeus / Redbreast 12 (with Bonus Interview)

0:00 In 1984 director, Milos Forman and star F. Murray Abraham gave the world a scandalous foray into the legendary life of Wolfgang Amadeus. Mozart in 2019. We returned to Europe to try one of Ireland's. Most famous whiskeys. The film is Amadeus. The whiskey is redbreast 12 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 and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob book.

0:47 I'm Reggie. And this week. We are looking at the 1984 film Amadeus. Now, this is the 35th anniversary of the, this Oscar award-winning film 35 years. Yeah. That's a really long time. Hey, It really is one might say it's 35 rotations of the Earth around the Sun. Indeed, today. We're actually coming to you from live from Brad's house spreads, how it is a beautiful summer day. So we decided to sit out on the patio and try some whiskey today. We are super excited to try some redbreast. 12-year, as you all know, Irish whiskey is the best. So, I'm really curious to try this out. Yeah, we've just come off of our summer of bourbon six, straight weeks of bourbon, and this is our first week returning to other whiskies, and The fact that we're done with the summer of bourbon, we're right in the middle of the bonus Bonanza, bonus Bonanza.

1:39 So we're coming at you, with five straight weeks of bonus content, as you know, by now, it's going to be wonderful. We hope that you're enjoying both the bobbin Brad bonus episodes as well as the my favorite movie episodes. Today. We're actually going to do something a little different with the episode. We're going to go a little bit shorter today. I'm sure some of you are already rejoicing about that, but at the end of today's episode, we are going to throw. Over to an interview. We conducted down in Lexington, Kentucky with a great retailer called, Justin's house of bourbon. They specialize in unique and they are purveyors of fine, whiskey, that's right, vintage. That was the word. I was thinking of vintage vintage whiskey. So, so, we're going to wrap up a little bit quicker today, but please stick around and listen to our interview with Justin. Sloan from Justin's house of bourbon. All right, but back to Amadeus, Brad. The million-dollar question, had you seen this movie before this viewing.

2:30 I had never heard of this movie until I saw it on the list that you gave me. Yeah, it's kind of funny because I feel like people who have seen this movie. Really hold it in high regard, but it kind of I mean, it's A Hard Sell. It's a movie about classical music. It's not like it's you know, Bohemian Rhapsody where you can just sell somebody on the idea. Freddy Mercury Bob. Can you tell me how much you loved the movie? Bohemian Rhapsody me, and Rhapsody is my favorite film of all time. Brad. Wow. Yeah, it beat out Casablanca. It really did. Yeah. Can you like really delve? Vin to the depth of the characters portrayed and I don't think a movie has ever been better written than Bohemian Rhapsody, man. We should probably do this next week. I think we should, or we could just stick to Amadeus because it's a million times better.

3:13 So here's the thing, the problem with Amadeus. Let's hear it. It's just too long. It's a long movie. It's a really long movie. And in my mind, I feel like you could cut out, 30 minutes of this and it would be a great movie. You know, what's funny is I have always really, really like. Smoothie and I sat down to watch it with my wife and I said, all right. Listen, it's 2 hours and 40 minutes long and at the end of it I said wow, I still really like this movie but a half-hour was the number. I came up with to, it could have had 30 minutes Less in it and it would have been nearly perfect. Yeah, I remember I got it on an old-school DVD and I actually had to switch the DVD to the other side to finish it. Yeah, and so like literally on the tracker, the bottom and said that I had an hour and 47 minutes when I put on the other side.

3:58 And it said that I had like 59 minutes. Left. I was just like, oh man, I need a drink. So here's the funny thing. You know, I actually made sure that Brad got the old-school DVD because this movie when it came out in 1984, it clocked in at 2 hours and 40 minutes in 2002. The director Milos Forman, had the opportunity to create a director's cut and he did and he screwed the pooch. He upped it to three hours in length. He added 20 minutes of material. Now, there's one scene that was cut out, that a lot of people think, was kind of a key scene where the main character of the Salieri kind of humiliates and shames and Sadducees Mozart's wife, and we'll get into that the the scene where that's been deleted from, but the rest of it, I've been told, is not even worth it at three hours in length.

4:44 And so I said, Brad, listen, if you don't want to be watching this movie for three hours, you need to go to the library and find the old two hour and 40 minute version, because you can't find it on DVD or Blu-ray anymore. They only released the three hour version. Yeah. I think that directors cuts are really interesting beasts. Yeah, because sometimes You do get into a movie that, you know, and love. And you're like, wow, like I wish that this had been in the original showing sure. But for whatever reason, whether it's Studio pressure, or you know, time crunch, they're not always able to finish it the way that they want to, but the problem is a lot of times you get into directors cuts and it's it feels like the directors just indulging themselves. Yeah, absolutely. Well and I think that what really bothers me about this director's cut is that this movie won Best Picture? This movie was on the original AFI top. 100 list and it wasn't the director's cut.

5:32 It was the 2 hour and 40 minute version and in addition to best picture, this movie actually won eight Oscars. That's amazing. Yeah, it's only one picture. Can I can I guess let's do it costume. It one costumes. Well, I guess it wouldn't be original music because yeah, it didn't win for music. Okay. Did any of the actors win? Yes, I'm gonna guess that scalieri or F Murray Abraham one supporting actor. No best actor. He won. Beth Murray, Abraham. Best actor idea? See I didn't know if they would classify him or Tom whole says as the main actor. Yeah. So this is one of those rare years where both of the lead actors were competing against each other for best actor. See ya.

6:13 I was right? Yeah. It happens sometimes. Well, that's really what else did It win? So it won best, picture Best Director, best adapted, screenplay best actor, best art Direction and costumes, and sound, and makeup. And that we Define art Direction. It's also been called set Direction in the past. Kind of like everything on screen if a character lives in an apartment, it's how they decorate the apartment. You know, it's is there a bag of chips on top of the refrigerator? All those decisions are made by somebody on set and that's considered part of the art Direction. Okay. So Brad, you said, you'd never even heard of this movie. Before we sat down to watch at this time. Is there another movie called asmodeus? I don't think so about a snake. No, because when I when I first saw the title for this, I would get thought it was going to be like a suspense horror film about like a giant snake like chasing people. All down and killing them before we hit record. We had to remind Brad, that the name of the movie is actually Amadeus and not asmodeus as you like to call it. I'm just gonna just walk on the.

7:11 That's the Wolfgang. Amadeus Mozart. So when you sat down to watch Amadeus, what I did not watch any such movie, what were your thoughts going into it? What were you expecting? I really didn't know what to expect. I definitely was not expecting Mozart to laugh, the way he left. Yeah that I just don't know if I don't know. Is there any historical proof that he laughed? I don't think so donkey. There's not a lot of historical proof that anything that happened in this movie happened. Oh, that's good to know, because it was a very interesting movie to say the least. Yeah, so going into the movie, while forget going into the movie. We should probably just do brushes. Do Brad explains. Yeah. I should probably explain this movie for about 2 hours and 47 minutes. I think.

7:53 So, it might take that long except to explain everything that happens. The very shortest synopsis is this is supposedly Lee a story about the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, however, it's a story that is told Through The Eyes of one of his main Rivals. His musical Rivals, scalieri, salieri, salieri. Yep. Okay. So salieri is this Italian guy who is the court composer in Austria for the emperor? Ed Rooney and Rooney. What's the name of the emperor? Yes forever. Rooney. It's just so funny to see the guy from Ferris, Bueller, that cast, the emperor that threw me off.

8:36 Like when I saw him, come on screen. I was like, wait a second. Is that? Yeah, is that principal Rooney? Yeah. So anyways, it's about their rivalry over the years and how salieri is a older musician, who realizes the Brilliance of Mozart, and he spends his entire life trying to ruin Mozart's career. And according to him at the end. He kills most Mozart rights. And so the whole movie is told as a flashback salieri is in a prison Asylum, basically, Alec an insane, asylum in insane, asylum, and he is giving his confession to a priest. Yep, and he's talking about all the different things that they did and how poorly he treated Mozart and how he pretended to befriend him and the internal struggle that that brought. Yeah.

9:23 It was really well done. Yeah, so I want to talk for a second about Milos Forman, the director of this movie. He actually Very famous in Hollywood at this point, because he directed in 1975. He did the movie One. Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, with Jack Nicholson. And this was kind of like his big return to form. And what I love about what Foreman does in this movie is you could tell he's kind of having fun. Like there's some kind of like weird sadistic jokes going on. In this movie. There's there's a moment where salieri as the old man talking to the priest is talking about his childhood and how his dad was really hard and oppressive on him and then he says, and you know what? And next a miracle and cut to his dad's dead.

10:04 Yeah, and it's like this joyous music. Yeah, and I think it's really cool to see how Foreman isn't taking the sub. It's really serious subject matter, but he finds ways to be really playful with it in almost like perverse ways. Yeah. And one of the one of my favorite things about the movie is that the way he used the classical music, truly portrayed it in the best sense possible. So that You could you could understand why classical music has been a thing for hundreds and hundreds of years. Yep, the way he used it, especially in that scene where you know, salieri says that his dad died and they give that Triumph and bit of music. It's almost it's just perfect if it's everything that he did.

10:47 And so I think really the reason this movie won Best Picture in my mind would be because the music was used. So perfect. Yeah, to illustrate and illuminate, where the characters were at. At any point in the movie? This like this. Seems like the kind of movie, that would come across really pretentious, and stuffy. But for sure, you know what I mean, but then, you turn it on and there's fart jokes and no one's talking with an accent. Everyone has an American accent, right? And I think Foreman is doing this thing where he wants this movie to be as accessible as possible because in order to take you to some of the darker, more theological things that are going on in the story that you have to be on board from the beginning.

11:28 And that's kind of what I love about it is. It's like, We don't care about historical accuracy. We're not going to be speaking a different language. No one's going to have an accent, but you're going to be along for the ride anyway, right. And then like, I could see somebody doing this movie in 2019 or 2020 and doing it all in German and Italian. Yeah, and you know speaking those languages and I could see it being a really beautiful artistic movie, but I couldn't see it winning best picture. No, not at all. So I do want to talk about the story a little bit because this this was adapted from From a play, which had been really successful play and the author of the play, actually adapted it to the screenplay this movie from like the first minute, almost is a movie. That's about someone's relationship with God. F Murray Abraham who plays salieri he's talking about how he saw in Mozart God's gifts of Music, perfected, and he become so enraged.

12:24 And so jealous. Because he'd been trying to please God with his gift for so long and he realizes he's not as good. Is Mozart that. He vows not to make Mozart his enemy, but to make God his enemy and in order to kind of get one over on God, he wants to destroy Mozart and prove that he can win against God. Yeah. He essentially turns Mozart into the Paragon of God, like the the the champion that God has sent to this earth to represent himself. Yeah sure. And he had a misconceived notion that he was supposed to be that champion that he was supposed to. Be the one representing God's musical genius on this Earth and then he runs into Mozart and 10 seconds later. He just realizes I can never come close to this to this young man's genius.

13:12 It's true. And there's something about this that like I related very deeply to salieri because having run track for 10 years. All through middle school, high school and college. You come to realize that it's at some point. I could train like an Olympic Athlete. I could train six days a week. You know two or three workouts a day. I could have all the nutrition. I could do everything right and yet some people are still just going to be faster. Yeah, and they could just roll out of the track eating a Big Mac. Yes. Run circles around and just run circles around me. Absolutely. And I think that's kind of where salieri fell of this sense of like I've worked so hard at this and I do have a moderate measure of talent that has been granted to me, but it doesn't matter. Yeah, and it's not just that there's someone that's better than him.

13:58 It's that Mozart's better. Than him and he doesn't even try. Yeah, and he, it's almost like he flaunts it, like he can just roll in. There's this great scene where Mozart first gets kind of summoned to The Emperor's Palace and salieri has composed a march to play when Mozart comes in and Mozart. Here's at one time through and says, hey, can I have a go at that? And they're all like what you mean after hearing it once? Don't you need the music? Yeah, and he sits down and basically says, oh yeah, this is really simple and then he plays for men and and he says, oh it just repeats from here. The rest is just the same.

14:47 It doesn't really work. Does it? Did you try? Shouldn't it be a bit more or this? But he's thinking, That doesn't quite work. Does it?

15:31 Why don't we let me do something else here and he basically rewrites salieri's music in front of him. And that's kind of the turning point for salieri. That's yeah, that's where he realizes. I need to destroy this person. Yeah. Yeah, for me. I think, the most interesting thing is the very first scene that you see, Mozart, you see, him chasing his future, wife around an empty room and an in this huge Palace and he is He's obnoxious. He's obnoxious. Yeah, he's raunchy. He's kind of gross. Like like he's making like little little kid jokes. Yeah, basically like you would expect a 13 year old boy to make. Yep. And yet he's I don't know.

16:12 How old would you say? He is at the start. I don't know. I mean maybe 2022. Yeah, so he's supposed to be in his 20s and yet he's acting like a 12 year old, right. And celery sees this and he's like, oh, well, this is Mozart. Like he doesn't take his craft. Seriously. He doesn't care about it the way. I do and this is one of the things I love about this movie. Is it really does. Go to some places in the human psychology where we don't like to admit that we've had these thoughts before, but like when you are presented with someone, who's better than you at something, you kind of do question. Is this Fair? Like, haven't I been working hard enough at this? And how can this person just be better than me? And there's some great quotes that they give salieri to kind of drive this point home.

16:54 He starts talking about how he came to Vienna, and, and he says that, I made a name for myself here. And then he says, everybody liked me. I liked myself until he came. Yeah, and you get this sense that salieri's sense of self-worth is wrapped up in the approval of others. Right? And I think that, at the end of the day, he knows, he's not as good as Mozart and that's what sends everything crashing down is that he knows I will no longer have the approval of others, because they can see just as plainly as I can. That there's someone out there, that's even better than me, but the place salieri goes with it. All right. Well, if I can't be the best, then there is no God. I am the enemy of God and I will destroy God's creation, which is a funny place to come to, because he does kind of say that, like, there must be no God, but I'm going to be the enemy of God, which is like, if there isn't a garden, could you be his enemy? Well, he starts going through these. He really does go through kind of a Dark Night of the Soul though, because he has this great quote, where he he's talking to the priest and about God. And he says, if God didn't want me to praise him with music. Why did he implanted?

17:58 The desire in me like a lust in my body and then deny me the talent. I mean it really is. It gets into these really complex areas of yeah, salieri genuinely did have the desire to make music and for a while, at least he did have the desire to praise God through music, but then he even recognizes the limitations of himself. Right? And he comes to this point where he's still writing music and he's still, you know, writing operas. And at one point, one of his operas is announced as the greatest Opera in Vienna, right? And the Rooney announces him. Yes, you know, the greatest composer that the world has ever seen, right and all this, but you get the sense even in those moments. I think the problem with salieri is that he initially found all of his self-worth and the opinions of others.

18:45 Yeah, but once Mozart arrives, he only finds his self-worth and Mozart's opinion, absolutely. And so, even when the emperor announces him to the public, as the greatest composer in the world, it's not enough. Yeah. And his anger is still present within his heart because he personally knows that he isn't. Yeah. So why do we talk about the performances for a minute? We're going to get ready to break here and drink some whiskey but there really are only two big performances in this movie. And that's F Murray Abraham as salieri and Tom Hulse as Mozart. So Brad tell me about both of them. Which performance did you prefer or did you think one stuck out more than the other or did they work together? Really? Well, that's so hard. Because the there's kind of that that Where if a character annoys, you does that mean that they you know, you don't like their performance or they're just really good at being what they're supposed to be and that's kind of where I would Place.

19:37 Tom holes as Mozart like the way he laughs. Oh, yeah, makes me want to strangle a small cat. Oh, yeah, like I think it's supposed to and that's the thing. It's supposed to. But does that make me like his performance or hate is for for? Yeah. Sure. So he kind of drove me nuts, but it and it wasn't just in the way that he laughed. It's in the way that he approached the world in the way that That he was just so flippant and he was so. But in the end, that's exactly what they wanted him to do. So, yeah, I would honestly say that I think Tom Hulse gave a better performance, you know, I would actually agree, salieri is performance, F Murray Abraham as salieri. He basically gets to walk around chewing scenery all day. Like as the old man, he gets to be this diabolical. Listen to what I did to God's creation. As a young man, you gets to be this sort of vengeful person. And I think the harder performance is Tom Halls. As I'm as Amadeus Mozart, it's asmodeus. Asmodeus.

20:33 And that's because you see where he goes from. You know, what a 20-something Carefree immature to seeing his life, kind of get destroyed piece by piece and how every Opera he writes less and less people come, the emperor is not satisfied with his music. He becomes more and more destitute and desperate for money. And I think by the end where you see Mozart on his deathbed, that vision of that, young Carefree boy is completely gone and I think Tom Halls delivers A fantastic performance. All the way through the film. Yeah, he really showcases the ability to devolve, you know, a lot of characters in a lot of movies that we see, we want to see them grow, and we want to see them move forward and become better people by the end.

21:14 Yeah, you can't say that about Mozart. No, and so to turn in a performance, that Tom Holtz did of showcasing somebody's descent into madness descent into destitution and poverty. He really, portrays. It in a phenomenal way. Mmm-hmm. Talk to me about Elizabeth barrage is performance. I'm really curious about what you thought about her in this move. I don't know what I think about her and I think in some degree like Milos Forman cast that role perfectly because she kind of just does come across as like a little girl. Yes that she doesn't she's completely oblivious to whatever is going on. But at the same time, I don't know that she's a fantastic actress. Yeah. That was my struggle. I couldn't tell if she was trying to be cute. Cute or if she just kind of like was cute but didn't really know how to act.

22:03 Yeah, and the thing is I thought she did certain parts really well when she when she got really angry about things. Yes. I thought she came across really strong. Yep, that she was angry with Mozart's, dad for mooching off of them. And and she gets angry with Mozart for the way that he's treating her and just spending money and not working on the things he needed to work on. Yeah, so and those moments, I thought she turned an extremely convincing performance, but for the rest of the movie when she's just kind of this You naive little girl. You kind of Wonder like I didn't know if there was really any acting going. Yeah, completely agreed. So I was a little unsure about her. How do you feel like the rest of the Supporting Cast did as a whole? I think everybody played their role as well.

22:43 But everyone else in the movie is kind of a one-dimensional character, so it wasn't like they were really flushing people out. If you were a good guy, you were a good guy. If you were bad guy, you were a bad guy and that's who you played and if you're the emperor you the a you're the emperor. Yeah. Yeah, and and that's where I kind of. With this movie a little bit. I just felt like there was so much Focus paid on salieri and Mozart, but but with it being a two hour and 47 minute movie, you did spend a lot of time with other characters and I just didn't know if I felt like the actors in the movie really did a great job and all the supporting roles. Yeah. Brad. There's a ton of directions we can go with this. I run. I'm really excited to get into more of our analysis after the break, but for now, I think that we need to hop over to Ireland.

23:28 And that's Rising whiskey. So we are here. Trying some Redbreast Irish whiskey. It's a 12-year. Yeah, this is their standard whiskey. So they they basically start out at 12 year. What I did was we actually bought a sample pack of red breast and it's just comes in these 50 ml shot sizes. So Brad and I are sharing the 12 year. They also have their lust ow and their 15-year. But today, we're just sipping on the redbreast, 12. Now, this clocks in at 80 proof. So, pretty much just a standard whiskey, right? Brad. What are you picking up on the nose of this one? It kind of smells like a stream coming out of the mountains. Oh, wow, like like a little bit of moss. This sounds like complete BS.

24:13 I was just like he's just making this up. No, I'm serious, man. It smells really refreshing. You know, I'm getting two things on this and its really interesting. I'm getting some smoke that I'm used to getting on a scotch. Not necessarily Pete, but definitely, some sort of smoke. And I'm getting a ton of fruit as well. I got a lot of like, pair on this. Yeah. I don't know if you're picking up fruit, but I definitely am. So, how would you score? Or this out on the nose. I'm gonna give this a seven and a half on the nose 7 and I'm really enjoying where it takes us. Yeah. I think I'm gonna give you a seven on the nose. It's definitely interesting and it makes me want to try it. All right. On the taste Brad. What are you picking up on the taste? So it's a little thin. Yeah. I think it's a little bit thinner than I would expect and I know that the, a lot of the Irish whiskeys, they don't have the heaviness that you get from a bourbon, but this one, I don't know.

25:01 It's, it's thin and it's not bring a lot of flavor. Very sweet. It is thin. It's like a darker fruit flavor. It's not Citrus. I can't tell if I can't place it yet. It's almost got some weird. Like, tropical notes to me. Yeah, like a mango or pineapple. I was literally just thinking. It does kind of have that, that sweetness that you would get from like pineapple. Yeah, for sure. So, not the pair that I was picking up on the nose. I do get a little bit of smoke and I'm kind of surprised at that. Yeah, it kind of hits you a little bit on the back of your tongue that Hits and its pleasant. It's really nice. I am wondering why they watered this down to 80 proof. I feel like this could be a phenomenal 90-95 roof.

25:43 Yeah. It really just thinking like 90 to 95. Yeah, would be great for this whiskey. Yeah. It's a little too thin, but I don't know if that really goes into taste for me. I like the taste a lot. I think I would give the taste an eight. I'm going to give the taste of seven and a half, the first moment. It hit my tongue. I was a little disappointed. Yeah, but the more I've sat here and sipped on more of it. I'm really enjoying this a lot. I feel like this could be a really dangerous whiskey because it goes And so smoothly because it is a thinner whiskey. Oh, there's not a harsh burn or an aftertaste. Yeah. This is a good one to sip on, for sure. Which leads us into finish. Yeah. What do you think about the finish? The Finish is smooth, man. It's super smooth. You get that little hint of smoke on the back of your tongue, but the longer it sits on your palate. The more that sweetness comes very pleasant. And I don't feel like I get that with a lot of Whiskey's. A lot of times.

26:28 I feel like you have that Rai in there and that Rai will sit on the back of your tongue and almost sours. Yeah. Whereas this the longer It's on my tongue and my palate. It tastes more and more sweet. Definitely. So I'm going to give the Finish an eight and a half, eight and a half while it's sitting super well for me. Yeah, it really is refreshing and, and it doesn't dry my mouth out. It doesn't burn going down. I do wish that there was something more to it though. And I think I like it, its pleasant, but it's just not enough for me. I'm going to give the finish a six and a half. Yeah. I think this is one that as I'm sitting here, we're drinking it straight like we always do. Sure, I could see this one being good chilled. Oh, absolutely. Whether or not you put an ice cube in or you put it into a chilled glass.

27:11 Yep. I could see this being really good just a little bit of chili. Yeah. Alright. So overall balance, Brad knows taste finish. What do you think? I'm gonna give it a seven and a half. I think it's a solid balance from start to finish. The nose does not necessarily give you everything. You're going to get ya on The Taste, but it's really well balanced. It's very smooth. Yeah. I don't think any component of the nose taste finish. Stuck out or led me to believe something else was going to happen, you know. Right from the time. We smelled it. It was very bright. It was very fruity. You knew what we were getting. So I'm gonna go ahead and give it a seven on the balance, which brings us to our last category. Now, that category is value redbreast is an expensive whiskey. It just is they label it on the bottle as coming from a single pot still.

27:56 I don't really know how much difference that makes it think that's mostly just marketing, but a fifth of redbreast in the state of Ohio will put you back 64 99 60s. Sixty five dollar bottle of whiskey. I did not know that. Yeah, this is, I mean, this is in the upper tier of Irish whiskeys. This is what you get. If you're going classy, it's not Jameson. It's not tell them. Or do you get a bottle of red breast and people know that you mean business? Wow, I did not realize it was going to cost that much. Yeah. Honestly that obviously that's going to push my score down a little bit. Yep. Honestly, this is a really good like you can taste it. This is a sixty five dollar bottle of whiskey. I would pay like 40 to 45 for yeah. Top. Soooo, so, I guess I'm going to give it on value a four and a half.

28:39 I think I'm right there with you Brad, because if this was an 80 proof, I think I might feel differently, but the fact that they watered it all the way down to the lowest possible proof that you can call something whiskey and then charge $65 for I struggle with that. Yeah, I do too. All right. So what does that bring you out to that? Brings me out. We were good. We're doing really well. I thought we might break the 40 Mark. We are. I'm at a 35.5. It brings me out. 33. Yeah, yeah, so that brings us out to a little bit over a 34 out of 50, you know, not terrible, but we're at about it, you know, where 268 out of 100 now, what really brought it down was that value score, you know, if you really like Irish whiskey and you want to have a nice recognizable, fancy classy bottle on your shelf, then, you know knock yourself out but I don't see myself ever spending $65 on this. Yeah.

29:29 I've had some some bourbons and Whiskey's and scotches that I would much rather pay. Fifty to seventy dollars you more than this. Yeah, kind of a disappointing way to end it because like like we both said, it's very pleasant. You enjoyed it a lot. I mean, it's a very good whiskey and if we didn't add in the value category, I would have been at a 31 out of 40. Yeah, which is a really good school. Yeah. Absolutely. That value, man. Your pain. That's a lot of money. That's just too much. Yeah. So this has been redbreast 12. Brad, any final thoughts. And would you recommend? I would recommend it's a good Pleasant, drinking whiskey. If you're out at a Our and you can find it reasonably price get, you know, a glass of it. I'd say go for it.

30:10 Yeah, I mean, you know, just knowing what the price of the bottle is. This is probably going to put you back ten to twelve bucks to try at a bar. Right? I think it's probably worth that just to say you tried it. Yeah. I just don't know if you're ever going to need to spend 65 on it. Right? I would recommend based on what the whiskey itself is not based on the price. Yeah, and honestly, I'm going to I'm going to give away a little bit of my Amadeus. I kind of feel similarly about the movie. So interesting. It's a really good movie. It's solid. It's fun. It's interesting. There's just too much of it. But there's there, whether it's a price, the amount of dollars. You're going to spend on this bottle of whiskey or the amount of minutes. You're going to spend watching this movie. Yeah. It's just a little bit too much and I think if they cut it down about 30, yea, whether it be $30, or 30 minutes, you'd have yourself a phenomenal whiskey / movie. Well, let's talk about it.

30:57 Why don't we get back into our analysis on? Yes, asmodeus. Alright, so that was redbreast, 12 kind of a disappointment, kind of kind of. It's hard to explain. Yeah, it's only the dollar amount that makes it a disappoint. Absolutely. Alright, so getting back into Amadeus, I think it's time that we kind of, you know, put on our thinking caps a little bit and we get into what this movie is trying to say because they are dunce. Caps off. Well, you thinking caps put on, right? Like we said, at the top of the episode, this movie is intensely theological. It's all about what people think. Think of God and how people react to God.

31:40 And I think that this movie has a lot to say and Brad, I wanted to ask you about the big turning point for salieri, is when he throws that crucifix Into the Fire and he makes a vow that he's going to ruin Mozart. And the way that he talks about Mozart is by calling him God's Incarnation. And he says, I'm gonna ruin your Incarnation. And my question is does salieri succeed, because he says that he kills Mozart. And at the end of the movie, the priest is in Such shock and salieri gets this one last kind of cackle where he gets to prove that he was right all along and that he has defeated. God. How do you view the the overall message of this movie does salieri win. Bob?

32:21 He's in an insane. Asylum. Yeah, talking to a priest. Yeah. He did not win. You don't think so. So, and honestly, the reason I would say it is the very opening scene of the movie when he is with the priest. Yep, and he plays the piano. Yeah, and the Goes? No, I don't think I've heard that tune before as well. I wrote that tune. Yeah, and then he plays a tune by Mozart. He goes how I have heard that tune before you and he starts humming it. Yeah. And salieri says that was his to, yeah, something along those lines. And I think that that's the answer your question right there. Did he win know, Mozart is the one that people remember Mozart, is the one who will last throughout the agent. Not solely re well, and I think, and the fact, the UK, Even pronounce his name correctly.

33:08 I think is what really salieri. It's not the Eyrie salieri. Yeah. No, but, but even before that seen, the very first scene of the movie, salieri still living on his own. And what looks like some sort of like retirement home in the 1700s and he's locked himself in his bedroom and they break down the door and they found that salieri has slit his throat that he's trying to kill himself because he feels so guilty about what he did to Mozart. And so the character that we get for the rest of the movie, the the conniving sort of salieri. He's just playing a game. He's toying with the priest and I think the he beats the priest, but I don't think he's beaten God because it's clear that he's still. So racked with guilt about what he did that. He can't really feel justified in his actions or comfortably feel like he has one in this game against God. I think his his struggle with God starts because he just has a terrible view of God.

34:01 Yeah, I think that his conception of who God is and what God does is slanted from the beginning. You know, he tells God that his desire was for God to make him a composer, but he doesn't just say, make me a composer. He says make me a composer and make me be immortal. He wanted something from God. He wanted what God could do for him. And I think his deal was, as long as you keep giving me Fame and recognition, then I'll serve you but the moment that it was kind of uphill sledding for him, the moment. It got hard. It's very clear where his intentions were it was never to honor God. It was to get recognition for himself, right? And and the problem with that, that I With is the fact that Mozart doesn't seem to have any intentions towards God or anyone other than himself.

34:42 Yeah. He just wants to write his own music and enjoy his life. Yeah, and, and you almost see him rewarded for that with immortality, even though his current life was a struggle, right? And so it's interesting because Sally re really desperately wanted immortality, but what he got was a pretty comfy life as the court, you know composer, right? Mozart wanted a Glee. Eful. Joyful life or he's chasing women and you know, doing his own thing and he didn't get that by the end. He got poverty and destitution and Madness but what he did get was immortality. Yeah. So you almost see that both of the characters wanted what the others had. Yeah, for sure.

35:24 Well, and getting back to what you were saying to. I think, when you look at a guy like Mozart, who wants not, doesn't seem to want anything to do with God and and creates this beautiful music that's you know, as salieri sees it. Like God inspired. I think there's two ways to On to that one way is to read the movie in a really cynical kind of atheistic way, which is to say there is no God. Or if there is a God he doesn't care about classical music and you get to be a good classical musician by being a good classical musician. It's the story of hard work. I think the other way to see it is to see the flaw in salieri's thinking from the beginning. Because salieri saw it as a servant of God versus a pagan. Yeah, but I think the point that you and I are trying to make is that I don't really think salieri was a servant of God. Odd to begin with.

36:08 He might have thought himself that way, but he was kind of setting himself up for a fall, based on what he wanted from God, right? And I think that's one of the big things where, when you're dealing with with issues like this. There's a level of self-awareness to know that what I want isn't always the best. Yeah, and usually that comes out in community and they're the ones that are able to help you with that self-examination. And salieri doesn't have that know. He doesn't have anybody to Call him out of his pride and his desire to be immortal and part of that is the circle of people. He's with everyone that surrounding the emperor is a yes, man. Oh, yeah, you know what? I mean? So there's no keeping each other in check because everyone's just backstabbing and trying to get ahead. And when that's the community of people you surround yourself with, then you kind of Bring it on yourself, right? So Brad, I want to take a really hard left turn here, the hardest, the hardest of left turns, we're going back to Tarantino.

37:03 I'm just getting that you said at the beginning that you had not even heard of Has right? And I do think that this movie has really fallen out of fashion with people. I don't think a lot of people will have heard of it. But that doesn't mean that this movie is not still influencing media today, and I want to do a little experiment here. If you'll just give me a second. So I've got a clip to play for you. Brad a bit of a thought experiment. Yeah. So if you remember the very first scene in the movie where salieri's talking about the first time that he heard Mozart's music. Yeah, he starts wax and poetical. Yeah. It's saying like this is the voice of God through music. And then suddenly high above it. An oboe.

37:49 A single note, hanging their unwavering. Until a clarinet, took it over. Sweetened it into a phrase of such Delight. I want to throw your memory back to one of our favorite TV shows and they did an omage to the movie Amadeus in an episode titled, best burger in New York Robin. It's so much more than just a burger. I mean that first bite. Oh what heaven that first bite, is the bomb like a sesame freckled, breast of an Angel resting gently on the ketchup and mustard below flavors. Mingling in a seductive Pas du du and then. A pickle, the most playful, little pickle, and then a slice of tomato, a leaf of lettuce, and a Patty of ground beef. So, Exquisite swirling in your mouth breaking apart and combining again in a Fugue of sweets and savories. So delightful.

39:08 This is no mere sandwich of grilled, meat, toasted bread Robin. This God. speaking to us through food, So as you can see, I'm a day. Is it still going strong in pop? Culture? Brad? Yeah, that's crazy to me. I obviously, I've seen all of How I Met Your Mother. If you haven't seen it, go watch it right now. Joe. It's a really good show. But yeah, that clip I would have never known that. Until this moment. We were watching that and I was like, this seems familiar. And then all of a sudden, I remembered Marshall. Eriksen talking about his Burger. All right. So let's wrap this up, Brad. Can you give this movie A score and would you recommend? I would give Amadeus innate? Okay, and I I would recommend. Yeah, it's a solid movie.

39:51 It's really well done. There's flaws. I think that all of the minor could supporting characters could use some development and maybe better actors. Yeah. I think there's issues and the main minor character is his wife who has a pretty major role in the movie. Sure, but overall, I think that F Murray Abraham gives in a B plus to a minus performance. I think, Tom holsters Phenom. Yeah idea to he really gives an A+ perform a duty to this. So yeah, I would give it an 8. It's a really Good movie. Yeah, it's not something that I would go back and watch again anytime soon. Yeah, but it's a good movie. You know, I had this movie at a 10 on my IMDb and after this viewing I was like I'm ready to take her down to an eight. I don't know if one viewing should really lower it too far. But I think for now I'm with you Brad. I think I am going to give it an eight this movie really could have been 25 to 30 minutes shorter, but it's definitely worth seeing and if you have never seen Amadeus, I'm telling you.

40:41 It's not the kind of movie. You're probably expecting it's not really pretentious and stuffy. It's a movie that that asks big questions. But in a way that's accessible to people. Yeah, it's amusing. It's fun. It draws you in the drama of the movie. Spirals into Insanity in a way that you don't often see in movies. It's really well done. But there's something about it that keeps me from giving a 9 or 9 and a half, which would be my definition of, you got yourself a heck of a move. Yeah for sure. So there's just something about it. That keeps it from that level, but we're still talking about a movie. That's an 8 out of 10. Definitely is a really good movie. I think it did deserve better. S picture and all the other awards that got. And I would definitely recommend. Well guys, we thank you so much for hanging in there with us today.

41:25 I want to get us over to Lexington, Kentucky, where I sat down with Justin Sloan the owner and founder of Justin's house of bourbon. Let's listen to this interview. Hey everybody. Welcome to the podcast. I am coming to you live from Lexington, Kentucky. We are at Justin's house of bourbon. I'm sitting here with Justin Sloan. Who's the owner of Justin's house of bourbon? Justin. How are you today? Pretty good. Get a whiskey in the hand. That's right. Yeah, we are day drinking. So we're doing real. Well, so no, nyet. No, no, not even close. Don't look at the clock. That's a rookie mistake. So, Justin is operating one of the coolest little liquor stores that I've ever seen, because it's Solis. Enter Don Bourbon and they specialize as well in vintage Bourbon.

42:12 And so I came in here, yesterday. We had found them on Instagram and Justin and I started up a conversation and he offered very graciously to have us. Come in and do a little interview and he has poured us a couple nice pores here. So why don't you tell everybody what we're sipping on today? Yeah, right now we're hitting a the American Spirit 15-year from Wild Turkey. It's a limited edition. They did a few years ago. Probably is before Campari bottom, so I can't remember the year, but came out probably. Thousand Seven or not seem like that but it's a fantastic. Fantastic whiskey. And we also have a 15-year Knob Creek a barrel. Pick that we did recently. That was pretty, pretty weird one who picked it. But to have that many old barrels. We ended up with Five Barrels over 14 years old and 3:15. So, it worked out great for us.

43:00 And we ended up buying them all and it's a great whiskey, to why don't we try this American Spirit? Cheers? Yeah. Cheers to you, sir. That's everything you want. No Walter. I'm sorry. Wild turkey on steroids. Yeah, great proof, Justin. Why don't you tell me a little bit about the history of this place and how you got into collecting vintage burdens as well? Start with myself and just was a hobby that kind of went rogue. We or I I was buying a bunch of whiskey and if I liked it, I would buy multiples and was in an IT world before this. And so had a little On the mess with. So was fine, whiskey and met my business partner. JT the other Justin around town.

43:48 He's in Lexington and, and his brother. Seth and they their friend, Bob did the bourbon Review magazine. So, got him with those guys and I was planning on taking a couple years off of work, and I think two weeks later, I was a bought into the magazine and couldn't couldn't hardly stand it. So it got got dope into there. And then whenever we got wind that house, Bill 100 was going to be passed. I approached JT and said, hey, let's do this. We've got the wherewithal, we got the collection and we can do something really cool that nobody's done and kind of beat everybody, the punch, and the law went into effect January 1st, and we were open February, like, six or something. So it's been been a little bit of fun little ride there. So we've been open since February 6, 2018 and and we're working on a little location now, so it's a going to be going to be fun.

44:39 I can explain. A little bit to our non Kentucky listeners. What this law? How it helped you get open? Oh, it's been such a good thing for the state. But basically it allows us to purchase unopened whiskey or really spirits that there's a like, three things are criteria. Can be open, can't be owned by Distillery. So, hence, we couldn't bypass the distributor and it can't be available from distributor. So if it's if it meets those three criterias, we can buy it from an unlicensed individuals. Violin resell it by the poor or the or the bottle. Wow, so it opened it up a lot and I'll tell you the first, you know, coming into this, I'd say I would say, you know, half half the people that came in would be tourist but it's about 80 to 85 percent of the people that walk in our door are from out of town.

45:26 So it's been great for towards more in Lexington. So can imagine what that's going to do in Louisville, and, you know, yesterday, I was sitting here for probably a half hour and someone came in from Chicago. Yep, and this morning, someone's already come in from Washington DC. So it's really cool. I mean, tell me, It's like as a business owner. To know that people are coming from far and wide just to shop in your store. It's crazy. And we had a Canada. I got from Canada yesterday. So I mean it's a it's pretty, pretty humbling and pretty cool. That, you know, obviously we're getting the word out there. We don't spend a lot of money on Advertising. We let the bottles kind of do the, do the advertising on Instagram and, and, and that kind of stuff. So it's really cool that the word is getting out, and I got a text message from a buddy, who's a doctor in Illinois yesterday, and he said, hey, a guy came in was talking about bourbon.

46:10 And who you were and all these. Like, I thought I was pretty cool. I was like, that's pretty cool. So, I mean, it's the words getting out there and like I said, is, you know, you can look on our views and it's nothing but five star, five star reviews on Google Facebook. And we really pride ourselves into talking to every customer that comes in, whether they're going to spend 10 dollars or twenty thousand dollars. We talked on the same. We spend the same amount of time with them. You can, the way our store set up, you can't walk in without being greeted. Yeah. So we, that's kind of what we've, you know, instilled in our Our employees and they do a fantastic job. Most of the reviews actually will mention an employee's name in the review. So it's been a, it's been a very cool thing and humbling thing there and that the employees take pride in and doing what they're doing and it's kind of given us an edge on on any other really, you know, little mom-and-pop liquor stores or the big guys, but you know, we don't have to really compete with those guys.

47:01 So we're kind of our own thing. So it's kind of cool. Yeah, now obviously the bourbon boom that we're experiencing is helping you guys a lot but you know, my sense is that You are an OG bourbon Drinker. And so when you were coming up and you were starting to collect all these vintage bottles, like what was your most prized possession, man? I remember just loading up on the age Taylor tornadoes and just loving those and just drinking them. I mean, I remember events that we go to and we would just be drinking out of the bottle. I mean, that's just it didn't matter. We were, you know, we're just crushing those things. And, but those, those were the fun. Those were the fun times and stuff like the American Spirit was on the Shelf, you know, you could as a new Bourbon, you know, somebody was getting into bourbon. You could find these things on the shelf and really explore. What is now harder to explore, but there was a lot, you know, less things on the Shelf than there are today. I mean, we have a whole wall of stuff. That's the new stuff that's out.

47:55 So the Contemporary kind of stuff. So that's very exciting to see that, you know, this whole thing has just blown up as far as the the options are out there the the you can go as expensive or cheap as you want to. There's great bottles for under 30. Under 40 bucks. Something that's a it's definitely not like the old days but it's still, it's still really fun. Yeah, I mean, has it been hard to walk that line. Now as a business owner knowing that you have to price stuff it competitively but also like as a bourbon lover to know that some of these really great Bourbons just aren't available anymore. Yeah, it's tough to price things as a business owner. You know, we have to have replacement cost income payroll, everything because we are doing it legal. So we have to have all that stuff built into our cost and it is discouraging sometimes.

48:39 But At the end of the day, we don't have a problem selling things. I mean, you know, we it's supply and demand and and people are going to pay for it. And if one person one customer, doesn't pay for it. The next one. Well, so I mean, it's the, you know, it's a luxury to be able to walk in here and find anything you want to on the shelf. And some people willing to pay that some art and it for me, it's like I'm happy to be able to provide that to you know, anybody anybody that can come in and like like I said, we have bottles from, you know, $12. All the way up to 20,000. So, you know, we'll find you something in your Wheelhouse, in your, in your budget, and your palate wherever you want when you come in. Yeah, and it's super encouraging to be able to walk into a store and see the whole line of Weller. What btech or, you know, Pappy and it's available for purchase. It's not just for show.

49:28 So what you guys are doing here is fantastic. And I don't mean to hit pause on our interview. Yeah, but I am itching to try this Knob Creek. It's a good one. So now, this is a barrel pick that you all did. It's a barrel. Pick, we did. Yeah, so we like I said, we picked Five Barrels. I think. And, and we've got some chugging there. But we were lucky enough to get it early in the year, when a bunch of them were were coming out and at the older age statement. Now, I think they're all back to not attend every now and you'll get a 15 or 14 thrown in there. But man, it's a 450, you know, 56 58 bucks. A bottle. It's incredible. I can't believe that's what y'all are going to price this at. Yeah, so and then that What we we price them all but I think starting July 1st, the the price of Knob creaks going up little Insider information.

50:16 There are 88 dollars a bottle is going up Kentucky and 16 Nationwide. So I'll side of Kentucky. Yeah, so get by Knob Creek now before they goes up I just to make you all jealous. This is I mean just on the nose. It's just a bomb of maple syrup and brown sugar and I cannot this is this might be the most special whiskey we've had on the podcast so far. So I'm going to make sure to rub it in to my co-host Brad, but let's give this a taste. Oh, yeah. Oh my goodness. That might be one of the better ones we've brought in now. Is this a barrel proof as well? That's 120 proof. Well, they they brought it down a little bit. I can't remember. Going going when we did the barrel that probably was, you know, probably close to a hundred thirty or so and they probably brought it down.

50:59 Yeah. This is great. Really smooth? Really Smoky on the, thank you. Great. So Justin, as you guys look to expand, you know, you said, you're starting another franchise out in Louisville. What do you what are your Ambitions? What are your hopes for the house of bourbon? Man, we're really kind of locked into Kentucky and we could go to a couple different markets. But right now we're just want to focus on on servicing Kentucky and the tourists that come to Kentucky. Louisville was not expected to be this soon after we open Lexington. But we, you know, were fortunate enough to be very successful here and want to expand to Louisville and and kind of dive into that the bourbon culture there, which is such a great City. Such a great growing bourbon Hub and probably Ground Zero for for, for most of bourbon things that are going on.

51:43 So it's a, it's exciting to go to go there and expand, but after that, I'm not, not really sure. We don't really have haven't looked too far ahead. We want to get want to get level up and going and see if we can handle a little Bland Lexington. That's what it's a little scary. Well, I have to say, first of all. Justin. Thank you so much for your hospitality. Thank you for this. Wonderful burden. Thank you guys for coming in if you are ever in Lexington. Kentucky, if you're ever looking for a specialty bourbon, or you just want to talk to a couple guys who know everything about, Out this product, come down to Justin's house of bourbon. It's right downtown. They and they will absolutely find what you are looking for. And it's going to be available either on their shelf or in their bar. So, Justin Sloan, thank you so much for getting the podcast. Thank you so much for having me.

52:26 Look forward to seeing you guys again. So that was Justin's house of bourbon Brad. Seriously. Cool. Cool place. I next time I am in Lexington. I will be getting out to Justin's house of bourbon. Absolutely. Lee Justin gave us that bottle of Knob Creek, 15 year and I brought some up for Brad to try. I cannot wait for you to pop the cork on that bad boy. I am super excited to try that next week. We're going to be back talking about the 1954 Best Picture Winner on the waterfront. We're on weirdest on a best picture. We are, we're finally back in the Oscar race, meant for the film. And whiskey podcast. I'm Bob book. I'm Reggie. We'll see you next time.