Season Seven Bracket Challenge, Part 2 / Thomas H. Handy Sazerac Rye

0:00 Today on the Film and Whiskey Podcast, I will be drinking my sorrows away as every movie I ever loved has been eliminated. And to accomplish that feat, we're returning to Brad's all time favorite whiskey brand. It's going to be a hell of a hell of an episode, boys. This is the. Film and Whiskey Podcast. Well, hey, everybody. Welcome into the Film and Whiskey Podcast.

0:42 I'm Bob Book. I'm getting drunk. Yes, you are. And your name for the time being is no, I'm not getting drunk, Bob. I'm just sad. I'm drunk on my tears, I think. What's your name, man? Jeez, Bob, if people don't know who I am by now. That's true. That's true. Co host Jake Gyllenhaal. All right. So Jake and I call call me Jake. Jake and I are finishing out season seven of Film and Whiskey today because we are rounding out our bracket challenge. Now if you have not listened to part one of the bracket challenge, I guess honestly, I mean like you did miss some stuff, but you're catching the correct episode 'cause this is where we pick the winner, and here in America we only care about winners. We started with 32 movies from season seven that we put into a Madness style bracket.

1:36 We have eliminated, I don't know how many of them now, Brad 24 of them. We went through two rounds, the round of 32 and the round of 16. We're down to the final eight films and by the end of today we will crown the victor, the victor of the world. And while we do it, Brad, I will be gazing longingly at this little mini bottle that's sitting next to me right now because after seven seasons, we have finally arrived. Brad, we got a press release. We've been drinking B Tac for years now, Bob. Yeah, we have our own B tac. Well, wait, wait to not let me reveal what we're drinking. I hate when you undercut me like this, Bob. Any Any chance I get to undercut? Not only you.

2:19 But also Buffalo Trace, Well, and also to just say like, what's the worst possible audio that we can record? And Brad's like, I got it, Let me not build to that. We're drinking B TAC people. Hooray. We got a A Buffalo Trace press release that said, hey, B Tac's coming out. And as I do every year, I said, hey, give me some of that. And this year they said sure. And they sent Brad and I each a sample. And they said, is that how you phrase it? Hey comma, space, space give me some adapt. Give me that. Yeah, I wonder why you've never gotten. I know, right? Well, even now it's not like we have the full lineup. They told us we can pick only one to try, and we've only had a couple of them, Brad, but the one that we've loved the most.

3:03 And I think still to this day, our highest regarded whiskey in film and whiskey history is the Thomas H Handy Sazerac Rye. I believe the one we tried was the 2019 vintage, so we're trying the 2023 version today, Brad. Four years later, we're back. Baby, we won't be drinking it just yet, but you know, just to tease things. I'm very excited for this. Yeah, I'm super excited too, man. It's rye whiskey. It's barrel strength. It is some of the most sought after whiskey in the world. So I yes, I'm excited to drink this, Bob. Well, before we get into that Brad, we need to return to our bracket. Now, like I said, we left off with this thing still containing 8 films and we need to eliminate seven of those movies from existence. So for a refresher, our 8 remaining films are Ron, City Lights, Rope, 7 Samurai, The Best Years of Our Lives, Paths of Glory, Sabrina, and Unforgiven. One of the last comments we made last week, Brad, was that this would not have been my final eight. It definitely wouldn't have been your final eight. I don't know that I can necessarily say this is the correct final eight, but this is what we have, man. And I think it's going to make for some really interesting conversations, especially coming from your end, noted Hater. Of at least two of these movies, Yeah, I have three of my final eight still in the bracket.

4:36 Let me see what I'm working with on my bracket here Brad. Bob's Bob's going to be like oh which what am I working 08 of eight? I'm. So happy I have seven of eight Brad. The only one that I did not get to the Elite 8 here is Rashaman replaced with Ron. That does make my soul a little happier. That was my winner. And I think you know your winner was was Ikiru. Yep, it sure was. So we're both equally screwed. Ran right over it. All right, man. Truck. Let us dive in with the first match up in the round of eight. Up here in the upper left quadrant, which I believe you call the cruise bracket, we've got the number 16 Seed Ron up against the number nine Seed City Lights. Now this is the player haters ball here Brad. This is your opportunity to shine and truly crap on both of these movies, 'cause I know you don't like either of them that much.

5:36 Yeah, I I like City Lights well enough. Ron was just fine that there were moments I enjoyed, but overall the story was convoluted. It was 40 minutes too long and man, the colors were bright. How did they, How did he do colors that vibrant? Magic. Cinema. Magic. Magic of cinema, Bradley. That's how. Yeah, man, I there's parts of Ron that I really like. The the few scenes that really stick in my head from that are the kind of ridiculous, like fight scenes where they've already taken everything except for like the upper room of the castle and they just like pop in and out and shoot arrows up the the, the place.

6:21 And all of a sudden there's blood spreading everywhere that really sticks in my brain. And then all of the little formations of troops like just running around in circles and every single troop has this giant banner that's like just brilliantly coloured and beautiful like that. All that stuff. It feels like a little toy army running around and it's gorgeous and yet ridiculous and very ridiculous. City lights. City Lights. What was that movie again? Wow. Wow. City Lights is the movie in which Charlie Chaplin is courting a blind girl, and in order to pay for her operation, he befriends A drunken and suicidal millionaire, gets himself into a bunch of shenanigans.

7:05 There's a great boxing set piece in that movie. Oh dude, I forgot about the boxing set piece. Yeah, City Lights moves on. That boxing set piece was. So good. Let it be known, Akira Kurosawa's Ron. Not enough boxing. Not nearly enough. Just had more pugilism, that movie would have won here. Here's the thing, man. That is one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen. Oh, it's so good. It's like just brilliantly timed out. It almost feels like a physical version, like a physical, comedy version of who's on 1st, You know what I mean? Like the way the way he plays rope, a dope with the referee and his opponent and the way he keeps tricking him into thinking something isn't what it actually is. Like, it just feels like Abbott and Costello are doing that boxing match.

8:02 It's it's pitch perfect. Fun fact, I just looked at my bracket, Brad. Even though Rashaman was the number one seed in my list, apparently I could not part with it because City Lights is actually the champion of my bracket. Wait, what? Yeah. What? Yeah, Bob, what's wrong with you? I I put Rashaman above it, and then when it came time to throw one into the fiery furnace, I was like, I can't do it to my boy. You know what the problem with Rashaman is? Not enough boxing. All right, so City Lights is our first entrant into the Final Four. Here we're moving down into the lower left area of the bracket. For our next match up, the number four Seed rope up against the number 12 Seed 7 Samurai.

8:50 Now this is a battle of films that Bob Books really likes. Brad, you you like Rope more than I remembered you liking it based on your rankings, but still not as much as Dial M for Murder 7. Samurai is a movie that. I I think you even forgot in the last episode how highly you rated it, 'cause you were like, you know, I think I did give it a 9 1/2 or something like that. So yeah, I'm interested to hear like, which one comes away with the victory in your mind here. I think 7 Samurai does. I think that Rope is a really great movie that other people have done similar work. I mean, honestly, I think about high and low and and there's a level of similarity in the way it plays out in the apartment and the nerves and the tension where I'm like I I've seen rope before in in various ways. I don't think I've seen something quite like 7 Samurai and and I say that knowing that Seven Samurai inspired a million spin offs and it's almost a trope in its own right. But to see what Kurosawa did with Seven Samurai all the way back in in what was it 5253 like? It's an incredible film.

10:07 It's a great feat of film making and it's better than Rashomon. So I I'm just going to try to mention that as often as I can. And closer to being a boxing movie just due to the presence of rope, right? Yeah, Yeah, that. Yes, that. That's true. I, I and I'm trying to think, I feel like Toshiro Mifune would like he would totally be down to get into a boxing match with anyone at any point 100%. So yeah, no, I'll go with my boy Mifune and and move him on. I did put rope moving on in my bracket. I will say this though, I don't care which one moves on. This was by far the hardest of the 8:00 to pick a victor for and.

10:51 You know, I'm going to force a coin flip here, I guess, but if rope loses, it's definitely losing to a worthy adversary. So Brad, you do know that like, I don't give a rip. Which one wins here? Which means I'm going to win. That's true. It's when you least care, and I most care that that things matter. OK, so rope being the higher ranked seed, it's going to be heads. 7. Samurai is going to be tails. Brad, flip the coin of destiny for a spot in the final four. Bob, That's a heads. The street continues for me, man. You have won 6, dare I say seven in a row. The streak is a lie.

11:39 What is turning into a statistical improbability, my friend? What is going to happen is I will win every single coin flip until the very, the very last one which will be for the championship and then I will lose. Yes, that's what's going, but at that point you'll have won every single one and so the two in the top, you know the the finals you're going to be happy. I will have. Stacked the deck too much at that point. Somehow I'm not going to flip heads or tails. It's going to be the the point OOO 3% where it lands on its side. So, well, sorry Bob, they're both in the Pirate Furnace now. So we have our first two entries into the film and W4 here, City Lights and Rope Brad. Before we move into the other half of our bracket, it's time for us to give out our end of Season Film and Whiskey Awards, better known as the Filmies.

12:27 The Filmies. The fact that we still haven't thought of a better title for these is it's a perfect title. It's a perfect title, Bob. It's not it apply any film related award could be called the filmies. Like, there's nothing unique about these at all. The film. They're not the filmies, Bob. They're the film and whiskey filmies. Got it, got it. At the end of every season we do these film and whiskey awards. Some of them are based on actual data and some of them are based on what Brad ate for breakfast that morning. The first three that we're going to get into are based on cold, hard data. This is always fun for me, this. Is always fun for me because Brad forgets that we do these every season and so I really do catch him off guard with these first three.

13:14 What we're looking at is the scores that we gave to a film when we rated it versus what the general public thought of that movie, and we call that from the IMDb rating. So Brad, the first award we're giving out today is probably the most negative award we give out, and that is most overrated movie. This is where we measure the disparity between our low score and the general public's high score. So which movie would you peg as being most overrated this year? Oh man, what's a movie that? Oh, The Shining. That was confident that that that has to be. I mean we we didn't give Shining like a crazy low score, but I I feel like it has to be The Shining. It is not The Shining, oh oh great dictator. No.

14:08 Oh, I want you to guess like all 32. All right. Is it notorious? It is Notorious, Brad. Third time's the charm. We came out to a 6.75 on average on Notorious. Versus an 8.2 on IMDb. That is a Top 250 movie. Notorious is a Top 250 movie. It sure is. Man, what? That's insane. Remember I told you Roger Ebert called it one of the 10 greatest films ever made. Yeah, Roger Ebert. What does he know? Yeah, yeah. All right, so Hitchcock, come collect your posthumous overrated award. As we move into perhaps my favorite award, the complete opposite, the most underrated, The movie that Brad and I will champion until the day we die versus the general public. Brad, which do you think was the most underrated film this year? Oh man, I feel like Paz A Glory might be up there. I think we both gave that a 10 or maybe maybe we average out to 9.75.

15:13 So I I would say Paz A Glory has a shot. Maybe Dial M for murder. No, everybody likes Dial M for murder. Dial. M was close. Oh, really? OK. I'm gonna tell you what it was, and then I'll tell you why This is a hard one to predict. Brad, the winner is the best years of our lives, OK? We gave that movie. I expected that. Well, it's 'cause we gave that movie A10 and it is a really highly rated movie on IMDb. Again, I think it's top 250. It has an 8.1 average. And when you think in terms of like IMDb averages, 8.1 is incredible because a Nine is the highest rated movie of all time. Yeah, so like when we give it A10, we've got a 1.9 point disparity here.

15:58 But like, people love this movie. It's not. It's not as if like we gave a movie A10 that had a 6.2 on IMDb. Yeah, no, I I think for me anytime I see something at 7.8 and higher on IMDb, I'm automatically like oh OK, this is probably got a chance of being a good movie. Except for Bohemian Rhapsody, which I just I I will never understand how folks got so bamboozled by that movie. Bob, can we can we make like a blood pact to at least like 6 * a season Just rip into Bohemian Rhapsody? It's it's so bad. It's a horrendous like it is one of the fakest movies I've ever seen in my life.

16:44 Like if you've been listening the podcast for a while, I'm very big on sincere filmmaking and performances and just things that feel authentically lived in. That is the least authentic movie I've ever seen in my life. Like, I would rather watch General Hospital for like an authentic, meaningful, emotional experience than Bohemian Rhapsody. Boom. There it is. And that is a perfect segue into our our third award of the day here, the most divisive or do you say divisive or divisive? Which kind of person are you? It depends on how Snooty I'm feeling. Yeah, I've never heard a non Snooty person say divisive, right? You know what I mean?

17:25 All right, so this is where Brad and I have the biggest disparity in our scores. It could be because Brad rated something higher than me or I rated something higher than he did. Which movie sticks out to you? Brad is the most likely candidate for most divisive Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind final answer. That is the winner every season, forever, eternally be the winner. Oh man, it's got to be an Akira Rashman. Yeah, Rashman. Is the easy choice here. I gave it A10. I think it's one of the best films ever made. Brad gave it a 6.5 for for a full 35% difference here.

18:05 Yeah, that's generous man. I I almost gave it like a 5 1/2 or a six. That is crazy, dude. I I yeah, that's that's what I'm going to force you to rewatch one of these days, Bob, I want you to give me 3 metaphors on how crazy it is. No. Because we have to fit three more awards in here, Brad, we're moving into the segment of Brad G awards. These are completely off the top of Brad's head, which is the best way to do this. And each season we give out an award starting with the most unexpected. Now what this is, is, is based on Brad's impression of the film, it could be something that he was not looking forward to that caught him by surprise. It could be something that he was looking forward to that even then exceeded expectations.

18:49 Brad, as you look at this season's list of movies, what was the most unexpected man? Bob, I I would say that Akiru would be in the running, although you had kind of described the film to me before and I was pretty intrigued. So you know, pretty intrigued would say like yeah, hopefully that's an 8 out of 1010 out of 10 is a little bit of a jump. Dunkirk definitely took me by surprise. I I had heard mixed things on that as far as Nolan films go and I I ended up really, really liking it. I think I'm going to go not because my initial watch was the greatest thing ever. I'm going to go with high and low. I think how much that movie has captured me post watching is one of the most unexpected things that's happened this season. I love it when that happens.

19:38 Like, you know, because I always. I never want to get my hopes up that you're going to change your opinion on something, and it's not as if you had a low opinion of that movie. But yeah, I I think I gave it an 8 1/2. Right. But it's just always great when you watch a movie and then you just can't shake it afterwards and it completely, it doesn't change your criticisms. It doesn't mean it's a perfect movie or it doesn't have flaws, but like, it just gets its hooks into you, Yeah. Yeah, 100%. I mean, Fargo's still like that. I I've watched it maybe once or maybe twice for sure once since we watched it and even the after that. I'm like man, Fargo just sticks in the brain, man. It's like there's blood spattered on the side of. My brain all right.

20:20 So high and low is the most unexpected. The flip side of that biggest let down. Maybe a movie that you had seen before and upon revisit just doesn't hold up. Could be a movie that you really built up in your mind and it lets you down in that way. Brad what is the biggest let down of Season 7? Yeah, this one unfortunately is a little easier. I think a top contender for this award is definitely The Great Dictator. I I was like so excited, 'cause this is a movie that I actually had heard about and you know it's this great parody of Hitler and and it's one of Chaplin's finest works and and I just wasn't impressed. Like it was good. There was some very funny moments. The the moment of him dictating as Hitler to the to the typist was brilliant and has been done over and over and is so funny. I think though the biggest let down for me, and I'm placing this solely at your feet, Bob, is rash, man. I was so excited to get into the world of Akira Kurosawa and for years now you had been telling me Rashaman, it's it's it's accessible.

21:33 It's a 90 minute movie. You're going to love it, Brad. It's so, so good. And then I sat there and I kept waiting for the so, so good part to happen. And then the credits rolled and it didn't happen, Bob. It didn't happen. I didn't get my great moment. Well, I mean, there's not really much I can say to that, Brad. I I understand that it's the biggest let down for you. As I give you a gesture on camera here that the folks can't see, so Brad's biggest let down is Rashaman. Before we move back into the bracket, do you have any other made-up awards you want to give out this season? I 100% have a made-up award. I feel like I always end up giving a a version of this award, but you you kicked this off with the the boxing remarks. I am curious which character, Not not the actor, but which character could defeat Toshiro Mufune's character in Rashomon in a boxing match And that could be Toshiro Mufune from high and Low.

22:35 Who knows? Great. Great question. Are you going to answer it for us? No, I'm going to let you answer first. When I got a look at the movies, man, boxing, I'll say this I think that is it. George C Scott from Doctor Strangelove. Is he the is he the crazy? Like hard ass general? I think that that would be a perfect film. Just a little short them, like preparing for the fight for like 10 minutes and then a boxing match for another 10 minutes would be one of the funniest films ever done. OK, I I have two movies in mind. I have to ask a really horrible question. I love really horrible questions. Is is Homer from Best Years of Our Lives disqualified? Because if not, I think he's really got a chance to win that match that is so bad.

23:33 I'm just Listen, man, you asked the question, who would win? I'm just saying. I mean, it's a boxing match, so they're still going to strap boxing gloves on it. Oh, that's fair. OK, well then my answer is Judah Ben Hur. Let's go dude. My boy Charlton is going to mess up to Shira buffooning. All right, so those are our highly controversial film and whiskey awards for season seven. Let's get back into this bracket, Brad. All right, Well, Speaking of Homer and his boxing abilities, we're moving into the upper right quadrant of our bracket. Where we have the best years of our lives, our number two overall seed facing off against paths of glory, the seven seed. This is well, it might be the highest ranked match up of all of these Brad in terms of like the seeding, but this might have been the easiest pick for me in terms of what is moving forward. That's interesting.

24:33 I Here's the thing, Bob. I didn't tell you this last time. My finals match up was Kiru versus High and Low. Wow, I was very big. So you you do like Kurosawa more than more than you let on. Yeah. And I told you before we started recording, Hey, Bob, I I think you'd actually really like how my bracket shook out. And you're like, no, Brad, you're a peasant. That's true. Get that weak stuff out of here. That's usually what I say. It's Bob's. Bob's go to phrase, get that weak stuff out of here. OK, so but high and low has been eliminated in in favor of Paths of Glory. So what made this a challenging match up with Best Years of our Lives? Well, I I really love Best Years of our lives. But as I considered it compared to Paths of Glory, there there's enough similarity and themes that I it just took me. It gave me an opportunity to really reflect on Paths of Glory and man, oh man, I like that movie, Bob. So that's what's moving on for you. I I haven't thought about like I've thought about it. I haven't decided yet.

25:41 That's that's where I'm at. So tell tell me about about best years of your lives. I did move best years of our lives on and this is the thing I gave the movie A10 Brad. It's probably like my softest 10 of all time. Like I it's it's a 10 based on the effect it has on you. I don't know if that makes sense, but like, it is a hokey movie. It has cheesy moments. It also has really earnest and sincere and well earned moments of emotion. I just think that like I I can understand someone watching that movie and appreciating it but not loving it. But I still at the end of the day, I just moved it on over Paths of Glory, a movie that.

26:22 I used to be in my top 50 of all time. That is kind of moved down, you know, to be like a 9 1/2 out of 10 for me now. But again, I don't know that you can really make a wrong choice here. These are both really, really great movies about war and the effects it has on people. Yeah. And I think that's why I was starting to more seriously consider Paths of Glory. I'm with you that that Best Years of Our Lives is a soft 10, and I think it's a deserved soft 10. Like the It's an incredible, incredible film. But past the glory, the more I compared the two, it really snuck up on me. I think I'm going to stick with you, though. I think that when you take into consideration the fiery furnace, the fiery abyss that we're about to toss a movie into, I don't think I could get rid of of Best Years of Our Lives.

27:14 All right, so that ended up being more painless than I thought it would be. Best Years of Our Lives is moving into the film and W4 here, and joining it will be one of the following two movies. The three seed Sabrina versus the six seed Unforgiven. This is where my Unforgiven thing comes out. Brad, like you, you said it would be the Dark Horse. And as I looked at these two movies, Sabrina, a movie that I was very that might have been my biggest pleasant surprise of the season. I never expected to call that movie perfect coming into it. And I I will say like functionally, structurally it just, it works perfectly. It's like a When Harry Met Sally almost kind of movie. I think Unforgiven is the quote UN quote greater movie. Like there's just, it hits another layer beneath what Sabrina can reach.

28:07 And it has it. It's just it's like an earworm when you hear a song that you can't get out of your head. It is. It is my what movie were you saying has stuck with you high and low? Like, it's gotten its hooks in me and I can't get away from Unforgiven. And I had to move that into my Final Four Bob. I've I've been, you know, putting up with your your love for Unforgiven. I'll be honest with you, man. That's one of the movies that has stuck with me the least this year. It it was a good movie. I enjoyed it. I don't think that it was the revolutionary Western that was advertised for me. It was great. It was interesting. I liked the character arc that that Clint Eastwood has. I think that Morgan Freeman is good, not great. It feels like a pretty just, you know, solid A minus Morgan Freeman performance that he always turns in. OK.

29:00 Let me ask you this two questions. Do you think that Unforgiven was the best of the Eastwood movies that we watched this season, Mystic. Unforgiven. And yeah, it was. OK, related to that, do you think the fact that every single Clint Eastwood movie we watched this season, including a rewatch of $1,000,000 Baby having to do with the same theme, may have diluted the power of Unforgiven a little bit? You know what I mean? Like they're they're all saying the same thing. I I think Unforgiven does it better than any of them by a lot. But I I think $1,000,000 Baby is close.

29:40 I I really like $1,000,000 Baby. I I think that you are probably correct that because they're four such similar themed films. Yeah, I mean, the impact might have been diluted a little bit. Here's the thing, man. The more I watch about the world of cinema, the more I'm really blown away by Clint Eastwood as a director. Like, you know how much, how much balls it would take to put your stamp of approval, your name as director on a film where you just kind of casually start filming, tell your actors, yeah, go whenever you want, and then when they're done, you say, all right, wrap it.

30:24 We're done. Like that is the opposite of auteur theory. That's like full faith and trust in the entire team. Like, not just the actors. Like you're trusting that your cameramen got the the shots exactly the way you wanted, that the sound crew had everything set up just right, that like everything went right with this thing. And as we know, film productions are a massive thing. So I, I, I have grown in respect for Clint Eastwood massively over the course of this series that we did on him. And just, you know, we've watched a decent amount of Clint Eastwood at this point. But, but I I'm going to move Sabrina on.

31:06 Man, I love that movie. I've loved that movie since I was a kid. I think that Audrey Hepburn is incredible. I mean, we've already had Audrey Hepburn as a winner of a season before she was in charade. And I think for me, she just continues to be one of my favorite actresses of all time. And on top of that, as you said, Sabrina is a pitch perfect romantic comedy. That it it just, it hits all the right buttons. It's incredibly earnest and sincere and funny. And I yeah, I think, I think everything about that movie works. All right, well, we are headed for a coin flip here. I will say even if Sabrina wins, I will. I will take a little bit of credit and feel good about myself That my incessant badgering of you, that that movie is perfect.

31:56 Did make you reconsider a little bit because you were like, yeah, it's a it's an 8, it's an 8 1/2 whatever you gave it. But I'm glad that it's hanging around in your mind still. Yeah, Yeah. And and like I said, it's partially the nostalgia factor mixed with the fact that, man, I love that movie. It it's an it's such an easy movie to come back to over and over again, you know what I mean? All right, Sabrina will be heads. Unforgiven will be tails. Brad for a spot in the final four. Flip that coin, Bob. That is a Heads.

32:39 The streak is broken. The streak is broken, baby. And so we have our final four films, City Lights, Rope, The Best Years of Our Lives, and Sabrina. With Sabrina, a film from 1954, being the most recent movie Season seven Final Four. Man, not crazy. Anybody listen to this season? No, man. All right, well, let's get some listeners back because it's time for us to drink some whiskey, and we've got a very recent whiskey to try. Today, it's time for us to drink some B Tac. Brad, what do you say? Let's get to it. All right, so we are trying Thomas H Handy Sazerac Rye, by far my favorite entry in B TAC from all the ones that I've tried.

33:28 Brad, this is something that I've been looking forward to getting another year, another version of for a long, long time. Yeah, I I remember drinking that first version back in 2019 and just being blown away by the depth of flavor, the explosion of of richness. And yeah, I remember having very fond memories of this whiskey, and I'm excited to try it again. So according to Buffalo Trace, this Thomas H Handy Sazerac ride was distilled in the spring of 2017. It clocks in at 124.9. Proof it came off the still at 130. They've got a whole bunch of stuff here.

34:09 No one cares about some of this. If you really want to know the warehouse and floor number, Warehouse S 3rd and 4th floor. It's six years and two months of age at bottling. They do not disclose the mash bill. Brad, I am not going to say any more about this because what really shines on B Tac products is the tasting notes and it's time for us to get into it. I'm drinking it live. You've tried it already. Walk me through what you think, man. Yeah, this nose is powerful. The the first thing I noticed was a really nice sweetness to it that I I just kind of felt like was a simple syrup. And as I moved on from the simple syrup I it just has this powerful rye nose. There's a ton of cinnamon, nutmeg, bits of dark chocolate. There's a little bit of tobacco.

35:00 This is complex, deep there. There's a lot going on here. I think that it leans so heavily into the spice arena that I'm a little worried about the complexity. Maybe, but I'll give it an 8 1/2 out of 10. Yeah, I'm kind of in the same place, man. Like this kind of smells like every really good rye we've had in the last two years. Like it? It smells like a a bourbonny, a bourbon forward rye. And there is, there's some dill, there's some mint here. I actually almost got like a blast of like Vick's Vapo rub. There was, It was so minty at one point for me, but then it tipped into the more dill side of things.

35:40 It doesn't have the layers that that 2019 release did. And it seems, you know, it's definitely not one note. But I think from the moment we popped that bottle of the first one we tried, Brad, it was like, oh, this is going to be a life changing whiskey. I'm not really getting that yet and I don't want to Ding it on that, but like, I need to drink it to, to learn more. Yeah. And and when I got into the pallet, man, I I'm going to let you take a sip. All I could think of was an atomic fireball. Like, wow, that does grow. There was so much cinnamon on this I I don't know if I have ever tasted a whiskey that is so cinnamon.

36:27 Forward cinnamon is not my favorite flavor in in in candies. I actually quite despise it. It is. It is very tasty here. I think that my third and 4th sip when things started to settle down a little bit. You still get a huge punch of that cinnamon, but a lot of like really nice rich vanilla cheesecake caramel frosting really started to come through and the the complexity that I was worried wasn't there, ended up arriving. It just took a little while to get there because guys I'm going to tell you what, I have had a lot of barrel proof whiskey in my life.

37:11 I don't know if any of them has have punched me as hard as this one. Did. Yeah. Brad, this is an interesting one. I think that from the moment it touches your tongue to the moment it hits your mid palate. It's actually softer than I anticipated it being. Like, it's it coats your tongue. There's a lot of dust. There's some kind of raw, not raw rye grain, but like like you get the dill, you get some honey, it's really pleasant. And then when you go to swallow, it's like a detonation happens. And I think if I could use one word to describe the drinking experience here, it would be aftershocks, because you'd think that the wave has spread across your tongue.

37:54 And then it's like, Nope, here's BA boom, BA boom. There's two or three more that continue to radiate out from the center of my palate. It's like this is barrel proof as as barrel proof gets right. Like it's it tastes hazmat. Now I will say Brad, we we tried real hazmat whiskeys when we were in New York this year, judging for the New York wine and spirits competition. This doesn't have the sort of like it's leaving blisters on my palate sensation. But it's it tastes as if it has that much alcohol in it. I don't think it detracts from it though, but it doesn't have the viscosity that the the prior one we tried did.

38:35 This is like, this is probably the best rye I've had in the last year or so, Brad. I don't know that I would rank this particular whiskey in like my 10 best whiskeys I've tried since we started the podcast. Kind of a thing, No. I I don't think I would either. I gave this like an 8 1/2 on the flavor. I I think it's really, really good for me. Where it it really shines is the finish I get. I gave it a 10 out of 10 on the finish Bob. Yeah, I'm with you man. The the rye and the cinnamon. Just bomb that hits your tongue, really settles in nicely after the palate, and you get a ton of like black pepper leather. Some of the vanilla really sticks around for a long time. I The finish here is what you where you're getting your money's worth.

39:30 Yeah, I totally agree. And it gets like a a creaminess to it that almost reminds me of like a creme brulee on the finish, something that I haven't really gotten on a rye in a long, long time. I do. I am kind of wonder like if this was aged a little bit longer, would that creaminess? Carry over to more of the palate instead of on the finish 'cause this is reminding me a little bit more of that Thomas H handy we tried before. Brad, this is still really, really good. I mean, you know, if I'm adding up my scores like we're talking eight and a half 910 like this is, this is over a 40 out of 50 for sure. And I think it would probably be one of our two or three highest rated whiskeys of the season if we had it on a regular episode. Huge stamp of approval, but folks, come on, it's B.Tech. Like we expect this from B.Tech.

40:14 Yes. Yeah. I I think that my score would probably be just without the value because we don't have to get into value today, Bob. If I was scoring this without value, I'd probably be in the 3536 out of 40 range. Oh, 100%. Like it's it's it's a 90 or above. If we're just talking flavor, yes, and I am. I am here for it, man. I want to say thank you to Buffalo Trace for sending us this sample. It's really cool to revisit this brand with you, Brad. Yeah, it it really is, especially considering how long ago not just chronologically we drank that but but in our whiskey journey like that was a really early example of what whiskey could be for us. And I think it's set the standard for a really long time. And so to come back, you know slightly more experienced in in our palates and in our understanding of whiskey, I think it's fun to give it a a fair assessment. For where we're at now and and still come out to a place where you're like, yeah, well, damn it, B.Tech, you did it again. All right, man, we are down to our final Four movies. It's time for us to keep eliminating three of these from existence.

41:25 What do you say? Let's get to it all right. On the left side of the bracket, we're not beating around the Bush anymore. Brad, we've got 2 movies, City, Lights and Rope. If I'm being frank, I would choose either of these movies over both of the movies on the right side of the bracket. So this is hard for me. It's hard in that, like, I don't want to pick one to be the winner here, but I will pick whatever comes out of this side of the bracket to win the bracket. Like, I'll just tell you right now, City Lights won my bracket, so I think I am gonna pick City Lights here. But Rope is like my beloved movie way more than it is yours, and so I'd be OK with Rope winning here.

42:08 I'm gonna throw you a curveball, Bob. How about we Pit City Lights and Best Years of Our Lives Against Rope and Sabrina and we'll just have a double winner? No, because that's confusing. I think that's something that you and I do. Next time we get together, we've had a couple drinks and then we like, make an alternate bracket. But like, sure, the bracket is the bracket. Man, you can't. This is a sacred thing. We can't violate this. I think that would actually be interesting. Instead of doing our our top 32, we pair like the number one seed with the number 32 seed as like a a duo and see how far they get.

42:53 When you have the bottom dragging down the top, that's fun. That is fun. But here we are and City Lights is up against the road. Bob, I'm just going to I I don't have a dog in the fight here. I'm going to pick whatever movie you don't pick so that you don't have to pick. Cool. The Coin of Destiny is going to decide for you. How do you feel about that? That sounds great. So you're picking rope. I picked City Lights. City Lights is the #9 overall seed. Rope is the number four seed. So we go by what you know. Which one is heads and which one is tails is based on which is the higher ranked movie. So rope will be heads. City Lights will be tails. This was a quick one, but we need to establish our championship here.

43:36 Brad, for a spot in the finals. Flip that coin. Bob, the higher seeded rope will be moving on to the finals, so officially both of our bracket winners are now kicked out of existence. Brad. That's all I wanted. How do you feel about having rope in the finals? Weird. I don't like it. You don't like I? Just don't. I just don't think Rope is good enough of a film to be in the Film and Whiskey Bracket Challenge finals. Like when I when I compare it to things like The Two Towers do the right thing, like it just doesn't. I don't know.

44:26 I just don't think it matches up. I understand what you're saying, actually, because City, I mean, City Lights won my bracket. But like, at least with City Lights, even if I wasn't a huge fan of that movie, I would understand that there's like the weight of history on its side that, like, most people recognize that it's a great movie. Yeah. And I, I'll just say you had the chance, Brad, to just put City Lights there. You wouldn't feel so weird about it and you didn't do it. No, no, I I I wanted the coin to decide. I mostly didn't want your bracket winner to win. And on top of that, I think that you chose a poor batch of 32 because I I think that Season 7 might be our weakest entry into the winner's circle.

45:12 It wouldn't have been if you had allowed Rashaman and Unforgiven to get to the finals, but that's fine. Yeah, if if you had allowed Akiru to get through, we would be in a great place right now. Bob. Here's the thing, man. I I would put Akiru up against almost any other movie that has won A bracket. I'm proud of you, man. I'm glad you gave it a chance. Thanks, dude. All right, moving to the other side of the bracket, we've got the number two seed to the best years of our lives up against the number three seed, Sabrina. A battle of Titans here. I honestly think that I want to put Sabrina in the finals at this point. Brad I I'm living for chaos at this point. An agent of chaos, Bob book I would not.

45:55 Knowing you, as long as I've known you, Bob, I would not peg you as an agent of chaos. I had unforgiven in the finals, and I think that that is the worthy movie on this side of the bracket. But looking at Best Years of Our Lives and Sabrina, I think the weight of history, quote UN quote, would probably lean slightly towards Best years of Our Lives. But that movie doesn't have the weight of other city lights. Like even, you know, even if more people recognize it, it's not like it's some, you know, super popular old movie, right. So, and that makes. Me feel like I've never heard of it, right? And that makes me feel like I can just put Sabrina in the finals and it's like functionally the same thing. Yeah, yeah, Bob, I when when I saw that high and low got eliminated, Sabrina was my second choice as this sides winner. So I yeah, I'm moving Sabrina on too. Man, I would never have pegged this to be our finals, folks, but we've got rope going up against Audrey Hepburn and Sabrina, and that is the film and Whiskey Season 7 championship battle, which we will get to right after we break down our top five whiskeys of the season. Brad, we can't get out of here today without telling people what the best whiskeys we tried this season were, and I've got the list right here.

47:14 And if you don't remember some of the movies we've watched, Brad, I can guarantee you you're not going to remember some of these. Whiskeys. Yeah, the man After. After seven seasons of this, the whiskeys do start to all blend together, if you don't mind me using a pun. I don't think we realized it at the time, but the middle of this season was a golden era of film and whiskey because of the five top five whiskeys we had here, four of them were between weeks 11/14/16 and 18. So we tried four of our five best in a seven week span there but. Yeah, I was going to say we drank some whiskey near the end of the season, that I did not like it all. And I remember thinking to myself, man, it's been a while since we had a whiskey that I was not like like at least 37 out of 50.

48:07 All right, well, starting with the number 5 best whiskey of the season, we have Rabbit Hole Bourbon, also known as Rabbit Hole Cave Hill. Now last season, yeah, last season we tried Rabbit Hole Derringer or Derringer. I still don't know how they like to pronounce it and we were kind of day manner about. It it's it's kind of like day man, day ringer, day ringer. We we were not like crazy about it. And so when we got around to the Black Label Cave Hill, we were like all right, I hope this is better. I think that one is their four grain recipe and it is really, really good and it's pretty affordable too. Yeah. And and that's the big thing We have to take value into account the fact that the The Cave Hill is affordable and has it had a nice complexity about it that I remember.

48:54 And that's a good good start for our top five. Our number four on the season is the most recent one we tried. It's the Glenfiddich Fire and Kane. Now this was a limited release that I think is only like 90 or 92 proof. It's an easy sipper, but man, it just was decadently sweet and I had so much going on I wasn't expecting it from Glenn Fiddick. I really, really loved it and we averaged out to a 42.25 out of 50. Man, yeah, what a what a great offering. The the smokiness that just it's almost like they smuggled it in, man, I I really like that stuff. All right, #3 is the Tam do 10 year that we tried way back in Week 11.

49:38 One of just a few Scotch whiskies this season, Brad, that really broke that 40 mark for us. Dude, that Tam do. So I I have like a special area of my house where I keep like my top whiskies and there's like maybe like 12 bottles on the shelf that Tam Do immediately went on to that shelf. Man A, the bottle is gorgeous and B, that stuff is delicious. All right, coming in at #2 on the season, Brad is Shivas Regal Mizunara Cask. This is back from week 16. This is only the second time we've had a Shivas Regal product on the show after their regular offering, which is like from season. 1 Yes, which is like a fine entry proof blended Scotch. I was not expecting much from this, Brad. It's a 43 out of 50 from us.

50:30 Yeah dude, I was blown away also. Are Are we becoming whiskey snobs, Bob? Probably. Two of our two of our top three are Scotches. I I don't know what our top overall whiskey was, but if it's a Scotch, we might not be very approachable anymore. The funny thing is, I bought all four of our top 4 whiskeys in the Ohio Liquor Bureau Bureau. Last Call Section Bob, I would like to formally lodge a complaint on behalf of friends of mine who are very angry with you. That you kept purchasing Last Call Whiskeys because they cannot find it. Now they're like, Oh yeah, you're talking about this incredible Glenn, Fiddick, Fire and Kane and I want it.

51:14 And then you're like, well, the Village Score is hard to determine because it was on the last Call shelf. Now you can buy it elsewhere, you can have it shipped to your house. People, what? What I think it's really boils down to is stop making it so that Brad and I have to buy the cheapest possible whiskeys, you know? Give us some sponsorship money. Sign up for the Patreon we'll we'll buy the non last Call. We'll buy first call whiskeys. First, call whiskeys. We're not quite there yet, Bob. Are you ready, Brad, for the best whiskey of Season 7? I sure am, Robert coming from week 18, coming not from Scotland but from the nation of India. It is on. Root fusion dude. I am so happy that that's our top rated whiskey. That stuff was mind blowing.

52:03 So good. It's one of those ones that I popped the cork like just to pour a sample for you. And the aroma of it, I was like, oh, OK, noted. Like I will, I will catalogue that for the next year until we actually drink this on air, because this smells incredible and it's one of the few that the aroma lived up to the the taste, that finish, man, it is like, yeah, mind blowing is a great word for it, yeah. I if I remember correctly, is that the only whiskey we've ever had a true mango note on? I believe so. Yeah, just fruity and delicious and like, Oh my gosh dude, I wanted I There's very few that, you know, people talk about, like getting drunk on whiskey.

52:51 I do not like drinking that much whiskey. I could drink that much Amur Fusion so good it could get you trashed. All right, that's what we're going for here on film and whiskey. And Brad, now that we've determined the best whiskey of the season, it is time to finally crown the champion of season seven. So why don't you get us back into our championship match up? So here at the end of season 7. The end of All Times Director Season #2 finishing up, we somehow came to the point where we have Rope versus Sabrina 2 movies that if you asked me if we if if DraftKings took notice of our wee little podcast and started to create odds on which movies would be in the championship match.

53:48 I would probably put both of these films around like a A + 3000. Oh yeah, +4000 like that. You know, not bottom of the barrel, but not very close to the top. Nope. My goal with rope was like, if I can get Brad to agree with me that this is like a hidden gem and the kind of movie that you tell your friends about, that's like, oh, you liked North by Northwest. You got to check out Rope. I never in a million years would have thought like, oh, and it will also be in the Championship of the Bracket at the end of the year. Yeah, I. I am not. I don't know how to feel about it, man. It's it's Hitchcock.

54:31 I I think it's so hard for me because I liked Dial M for Murder so much. I think that's what's really throwing me off here. You could just pretend that it's dial in for murder if you want. Yeah, but I I understand reality and that this is not dial in for murder. It's style R for rope. The last thing I will say about this movie is that I watched it in a movie theater with a crowd of people, most of whom had never seen it before. You could tell just by their reactions to it. And I think I said on the episode, it's really cool to watch a movie this old in a theater and have it work this well. Like, people were legitimately gasping at moments of the movie and and laughing at most of the laugh lines. And like there wasn't, you know, like every now and then Farley Granger's little drunken outburst would cause someone to laugh because they're really over the top. This movie worked like gangbusters. And then I went and saw a double feature of Hitchcock movies the following week, and North by Northwest was one of them. And it played to that crowd as well as Rope played to the crowd the week before.

55:35 So, like, I mean, I think I'm a little bit spoiled in my estimation of this movie now, Brad, because I'm like, it would have been really cool to have you with me and to have your first experience with Rope be in a theater full of really receptive people. I don't know if that would have changed your opinion overall, but it's just I know the movie still works and I think that's part of why it it is still near and dear to my heart. Yeah. And I think that's totally fair it. It is such a different experience to watch a movie at home versus watching it in the theaters. And like, at the end of the day, man, if we were just filthy rich, I would just go rent out my local theater and watch all 32 of our movies in the theater, invite all my friends, and I think that would probably be the way to go.

56:18 Bob, why? Why aren't we doing that? Yeah, it's because we have to peruse the last call sections, man. No. Yeah, we're patreon.com/film Whiskey. Let's come on guys. We need a tier that's that's just rent the theater tier $1000 a month. Send it our. Way oh man. Dude, my local theater was like 150 bucks a month or 150 bucks to rent out the theater. Oh, we could totally do that. Yeah, Patreon, my pig is Sabrina. I'm going to go rope. Yeah, I think like we we got at least end it on a on a coin flip because we can't end it on you just like shrugging. That's like the worst ending to this season. There has to be some.

56:59 Even if the drama is manufactured, there has to be some drama here. You go ahead and manufacture Bob while I flip this coin. All right. Sabrina's going to be heads because that is the number three seed rope is tails. Brad for the crown, Flip that coin. Robert Yes, Sir. The winner of season seven of the Film and Whiskey Podcast Bracket Challenge is none other than Alfred Hitchcock's Rope. Yeah, we did it. We did it, baby.

57:44 We started at the bottom. Anything is possible, man. How you feeling now? Dude, I I mean, I'll say this. I think it'll look nice to film Bros Oh yeah, we will look like the most sophisticated. Yeah, watchers of obscure films. Yeah, Hitchcock's #7 best film is, like, going to just make so many people cream their pants. Oh yeah, well, on that note and with that mental image, I would like to segue us into saying we want to know what your final four films were. So if you've been following along, if you've downloaded a bracket, please let us see your final film and W4 by using the hashtag film and W4. We really want to see it on social media. You guys have been doing a great job of it the last couple seasons, so let us see where we got it wrong by showing us your film and W4.

58:42 Brad, what do you think is going to be the audience favorite this year? I mean prestige, obviously. That's true. I forgot about the Nolan movies. That's a no brainer. Man, that. Obviously, Obviously, what would be the highest rated? I'll be honest with you, Bob, we watched a lot of really old movies this season. We sure did. I liked them for the most part, yeah. I'll say this though. I was looking at my director average rank. Now that's, you know, when I when I rated MY1232 just by the heart, none of the directors stood out from the others this season.

59:24 All of them were ranked in like the 15 to 17 range. And last season there was like a genuine disparity between like the top four or five directors in the bottom. You know like 2 where like there was a large range in the scores. And I I think for me this season, I'll be honest with you Bob, it wasn't my favorite. I don't. I I I'll say this, I don't know if there was any like one or two movies other than Akiru that like stood out to me as like, man, this was majestic cinema. You know what the problem is with the season like this? First of all, it was kind of designed to be a more of like a completist season.

1:00:10 Like, I wanted to make sure we saw a a bunch of the IMDb top 250 that we hadn't gotten around to. I think that this season had fewer lows than some last of the prior seasons, but it didn't have as many highs either. It was kind of like a lot of eights, A lot of 7 1/2's, a lot of 8 1/2's. You say fewer lows, but we did watch Point Break Bob. Well, hey folks, that does it for us for Season 7, but we're not totally going away. Brad and I are taking a break in the month of December. Season 8 kicks off at the very beginning of January. We do have a few special episodes planned in the interim where you'll hear our voices like our patented Thanksgiving and Cruise Miss episodes. Let's go.

1:00:52 But over the next month, we're actually turning over the podcast feed to our friend Zach Johnston from Up Rocks. He has. We've given him free reign, honestly, to go interview people from all parts of America about their whiskey making process and to pair the whiskeys and the interviews he's doing with these distillers with a region specific movie. So starting next week you're going to be hearing Zach Johnston's Whiskey Tour of America on the film and Whiskey feed. Brad, I cannot wait to listen into this. I am like, I'm not Privy to any of this. Like, just like you guys aren't. So I'm going to be on the edge of my seat listening to to Zach, just like everybody else. Yeah, just a just a little preview. I've heard that he has chosen 4 NC 17 and erotic thrillers to review. So in depth.

1:01:39 Get ready, folks. All right, that does it for season seven. I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad G and we'll see you next time.