Unforgiven / Benchmark Top Floor

0:00 All right, everybody today's episode is sponsored by blind barrels. A company that offers an exclusive blind, whiskey tasting experience, Bob and I tried their product in season 6 and it led directly to the sad because we are such huge fans of what they are doing. If you are interested in sampling, the very best in American craft whiskey, then use our code film 10 at their checkout for 10% off a yearly, or quarterly subscription or even office. Single box to try it out. And remember if you're hunting for rare Whiskey's, you can always buy. By the whiskey you've tried on their website often at prices cheaper than MSRP. Check them out at blind. Barrels.com and use code film ten for ten percent off on your order.

0:57 Hey Bob. I'm over here, man. Hey man, what's going on? Dude, it has been like a month. Where have you been in my life? Dude, I have like barely come out of my house. I'm so nervous about season 7. I feel like I've just been looking at my computer. I've been looking at SEO keywords. I've been building a new website. You're off having babies Brad. What are we gonna do man? Like what if what if we go into season 7 and we just like don't have the magic anymore. I was born with the magic baby. This is going to be the smoothest. Ooh this off season we've ever had and season 7 might be our greatest season. So I think you're worrying about a little bit too much here. I don't know, man.

1:39 I think I need a drink. What are you drinking today? Ah, dude, I am drinking some of the greatest swill ever created on God's green earth. Listen, man. I think what we need to do. We just need to podcast this out. I just saw a really good movie. I want to introduce it to you for the first time and I don't really know how else to do that except podcast it. So will you just in the middle of this? Bar, will you do this with me right now? Let's do this. In 1992 director and star, Clint Eastwood gave the world a morose review of the world of Western killers in 2023. We try the first of Five Buffalo Trace bourbon has the film is Unforgiven.

2:22 The whiskey is Benchmark, top floor and we'll review them both. This is the film and whiskey podcast. Mmm. Welcome to the film and whiskey podcast, where each week, we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob book, I'm Brad G and this week we are kicking off season number seven, Brad should.

3:02 Um but a bum Brad for the for the people who may be joining us for the first time. Can you walk us through the format of season 7 a little bit? Yeah, we're going to watch movies and drink whiskey. Bob, boom. That's all you need to know. That's pretty much it. For those who are interested, though, we are going to be going through movies. Three to five at a time, by specific directors. We're going to take little mini reviews of directors, pair them up with something. Credible Whiskey's, or in the case that the next five weeks average Whiskey's that may or may not live up to the dollar value will see and see where it see where the the good Lord takes us there it is. Wow, that you really sold our podcast there, man. Dude, you know, just gonna have to wing it and see what happens. Welcome to the film and whiskey podcast. All right.

4:01 Brad. As you know, and as our listeners, Do not yet know Season 7 is going to be our biggest and best season yet. We've got some great guests lined up. We have spared no expense in revamping this podcast. You will hear some fancy Jingles that we've gotten produced for some of our segments. We've got some new segments lined up as well, and the first of which, we're going to be calling, pull up a chair. And this is our segment for you film. And whiskey listener. We're inviting you in to our pretend bar that we have made at the beginning of this podcast. The bar that exists here in Bob's basement and I don't have A name for this bar yet. Brad. Do you have anything in mind names for the bar? I think Brad's bar has a nice ring to it.

4:42 Brad's bar in Bob's house in Bob's house. Brad's Brad's Barn Bob's house. It's like it's like when they named the football field inside of the stadium. Yes. Maybe it's like safe light field inside of Ohio stadium. Yeah, it's obviously the best thing to do in order to make a lot of money. Well, listen, if we're going to keep running with this sit at the bar B, what we needed. As we need to say film in whiskey Nation, send us your suggestions. What should the pretend film? And Whiskey Bar be called that we're inviting you into, right now. It's an unnamed establishment with no sign outside. So enter at your own risk, but we're inviting you to pull up a chair. Alongside me. And Brad, as we sip on today's whiskey Brad, tell the people about today's whiskey a little bit.

5:27 If we're really going to be smart, Bob, it's going to be first energy bar. The rocket mortgage rates. Are we really need to sell out to this little bit? That's right. That's right, man. Today we are going to be drinking some Benchmark, top floor. So this is an 86 proof, whiskey coming out of the Buffalo Trace. Distillery obviously my favorite distillery in the world and this is going to set you back $15. Wow, that is the perfect amount of dollars to spend on something. I mean I think there's a lot of people who would disagree with you fifteen dollar mattress.

6:08 Probably not worth it. Not worth it, you know, back in season 2. I think it was two or three we did a thing called the springtime of swill and we just rankle I remember it. We just drank a bunch of really inexpensive whiskies and we were trying to determine 80 in missed. Canadian Mist, man. We were trying to determine. Is it good or is its will. And we're kind of doing that here. Not that I necessarily think Benchmark is swill, but we're going to be doing Five straight weeks of Benchmark products because they've released this new line of Whiskey's that are all Benchmark branded and have these different kind of gimmicks about them. And we're going to determine like, which one is the best and are they or are they not swill? So for 15 bucks, you know, I'm happy to share my whiskey when it only cost $15 brat it makes it a little bit easier on the on the old wallet, that's for sure. All right, Brad it is time for our first standing segment of the day.

7:02 It's a little I meant we like to call Brad explains Brad's gonna give us the movie plots with only 60 seconds ticking on the clock. So let's go ahead and do you take with this little segment that we call? Brad explains. So, Brad explains is America's favorite segment where Brad breaks down the plot of the movie that he has just seen often for the first time Brad, you know, we introduced these movies to you and 98% of the time. You've not seen the movie. So that's a little. I mean let's call it nine. Maybe 90 kind of want to go back and do the math. I'm gonna stack. It is going to be ninety. Nine point two. I we're gonna say 85.

7:42 All right, we'll say 85% of the time. That's the official take of the film whiskey podcast. Brad was this your first time seeing the film Unforgiven? Yeah it sure was Bob. All right man. That's so you have 60 seconds on the clock to break down the plot of this movie for our listeners so that they have an idea of what we're talking about. And And go Clint Eastwood is a very old cowboy turned hog farmer whose wife passed away and he is trying to take care of his kids. A young man comes by saying that he has an opportunity for him to go kill some folks and make a thousand dollars, they would split a thousand dollars which fun fact is a lot of money back in 1889 or whenever this movie was set so he has this opportunity to go make money. Any, he recruits, his old friend Morgan Freeman and they go off and they find themselves in the clutches of Gene Hackman, who is an evil Sheriff who rules with an iron fist. They kill the Cowboys, but Morgan Freeman gets killed in the process and so Clint goes in and just annihilate half the town's men and rides off into the rain. Alright, so there you go.

8:58 There's the plot of Unforgiven, according to Brad. Do to choose the question. Good, good. Now, here's the question I have, for you, Bob. Hmm. Who is this movie for? Who is this movie for? Yeah. Like who's gonna walk away from this? And just be like, heck, yeah. And also like, what's the kind of person who might walk away from this being, you know, a little less than impressed. All right, I'll give you a serious answer and a slightly facetious answer the sea. Siri is answer is anyone who doesn't like westerns I think would really like this movie not because it is like the anti-western like it still uses all of the formula and the conventions of a western but it really focuses on asking the question of is this all worth it?

9:44 What was it all for? Why do we mythologize these people? And so if you hate the idea of you know John Wayne rides in and saves the day and there's no Fallout from his actions then Like this might be the movie for you. I also think remember in the movie Inception when Ken Watanabe is character has that whole monologue at the beginning about like to DiCaprio where he's talking about like you don't want to become an old man filled with regret. Yeah. I think if you're an old man filled with regret, this is the movie for you. Like this is it? This is it. This is like it could have just called this movie Old Man. Filled with regrets because this is the theme of the film. If it was a Japanese film, that would be like the rough. Translation of the title.

10:30 So, that's who this movies for Brad. I love it, man. I'm excited for people who have not seen, or heard of forgive unforgiven to jump into this because I will spoil my thoughts a little bit. Here is a really good movie. Bob, this was a phenomenal movie Brad and, you know, we met up in person a couple weeks ago. So I could meet your new baby. We were talking about this movie and I had said, you know, I started watching it the other night. I think I'm going to have to go back and restart the whole thing because I Couldn't finish it and I hate leaving a movie unfinished and I said man I got like a half hour in and I was so tired and I can't tell if it's just boring or if I was just sleepy and I was really dreading going back and finishing this movie because we've only done one other Clint Eastwood directed movie on this podcast.

11:15 It was Million Dollar Baby, the other film that he wins best picture for in addition to this one and we were pretty cool on Million Dollar Baby and so I was, I was worried that this was going to have the Same Fate on our show and man, when I went back and watched this movie all the way through it is staggering and I don't know what, what's the word, man? There's just such a profound by know it's bands about hanger, but it's like, it's a heavy movie, too. You know what I mean? Like it. Yeah, constantly making you reckon with the myths that we build up around our heroes and it's just so much more effective at that than Million Dollar Baby was.

11:56 Yeah. Well, I mean, I think that when you look at the character of the kid, the Schofield kid, he represents everything that you want of like a generation that mythologize has violence and, you know, being a badass and, you know, all of these things, it tries to make those things seem like the coolest thing in the world, but when you actually get down to it, killing people is really terrible. It's It's pretty brutal. Yeah so I think that he does a really incredible job of drawing out the dichotomy between what we think we are seeing when we hear about the the old old west and what actually happened a hundred percent and you know it's not by accident that it's Clint Eastwood that's doing this. This is a guy whose entire career had been built on the western from his time in TV to his time with Sergio Leone and his Lee, you know directorial films, they're all westerns and you start to see as he gets into the 70s and 80s that he's making these.

13:04 I don't want to call them revisionist westerns but they're definitely they're getting a little bit more morally grey and they definitely call into question. Some of these mythologies that we've built up about the American West, and the idea of the Holy good hero and the holy bad bad guy and then it kind of all culminates here. And what I really love in a, you were already talking about this, but one of the major themes of the movie is just the idea of what killing a person does to your soul. And there's not a lot of talk about the soul. In this movie, there's definitely some, you know, when Eastwood has a fever he's having some sort of fever dream and there's there's a semi spiritual element there.

13:45 Hmm. But I mean, if we can describe it in spiritual terms, it's all about what happens to a man's Soul after. He kills another man and you start to Like, by the time you get to the middle of this movie, Brad every single scene is a recitation from different characters, points of view of one of, you know, maybe two things and it's the demythologize in of the American West and or what killing a person does to your soul. And it's like, it never gets old. It never seems repetitive, but the theme is really hammered home. Yeah, I mean, just the other day I re-watched. Network Sidney, lumet's, Masterpiece and it. This conversation makes me think about, you know, if you want to go back and listen to our episode on that, it's probably season 3.

14:36 I think. Maybe for there's a reality we're at the end of that film Max Schumacher goes to Diane and basically says, Hey, like I'm the only thing, the only thread that is keeping you attached to humanity. T, and if you let me go, you're just going to be, you're not even going to be a human anymore and he leaves and she doesn't keep him. And the next scene you see her, ordering the death of the, of the human being the man who got her the position where she's at now. And it's like, there's just this reality where humans don't like to think about it. But our actions have consequences upon our soul and they change us.

15:25 They they form us into a new person and if you don't think about stuff like that, then you're going to end up like William Munny, Clint Eastwood at the end of Unforgiven. Well, the framing device of this movie to, it's like a classic setup for a western. So these two Cowboys have ridden into a town and they go to the brothel and one of the, you know, one of the hookers says something to him and he attacks her with a knife and he cuts her all up and mutilates her and essentially gets away with it. Go ahead the opening of this movie like I'm not a, I'm not a squeamish person, but I do, maybe my mind wasn't in the right place for it.

16:05 Maybe I was ready for a slow, build up Western. No, but the first five minutes of this movie are brutal. Yeah, I was sitting there like, oh, oh god, oh, what is happening? Very jarring and, and I mean effective. And that's the thing is, like, when Eastwood uses violence in this movie, it is incredibly effective because it accomplishes the purpose. It sets out to accomplish violence is never glorified in this movie. Killing is never glorified in this movie, and I guess that's what I'm trying to get at is the framing of this movie is, you know, this prostitute has been attacked. No one will come to their defense. The sheriff is kind of covering not covering up, but okay with what happened and not seeking real Justice. And so they put out a call to anyone who will come kill. These two Cowboys who mutilated one of Our own and it gets to the point where the movies asking. We've seen this guy, do this thing. We as you know, viewers of movies who like watching people get killed, we should like watching this guy get killed. He's getting his comeuppance.

17:12 He did something terrible. And yet when he gets killed, it happens when he's sitting in an outhouse like, you know, taking a dump like honestly, it's like a it's a major plot point that the person who kills him. It's his first time killing somebody, and it breaks him inside because he realizes, I killed a guy and I didn't even give him any dignity when I did it. And, and I think it like, for a movie like this from a person like Clint Eastwood to ask the question, does anyone really deserve to be shot down like this even if you're taking their worst action into consideration, like it's an unexpected place for someone, like Clint Eastwood to go and yet it's a theme that he's been mining throughout the remainder of his career and I think we'll see it in the following films that we're going to watch in this little mini series to. Yeah, and then you get two million dollar baby and he's just smothering people.

18:09 But I mean, if you think think, think about, you know, if we take the, the concept of violence, right? It could be physical violence, in terms of abuse, it could be shooting people. It could be emotional violence Million Dollar, Baby. This movie actually really helped me reframe Million Dollar Baby a little bit because it made a lot. More sense. When you think about how Eastwood's entire Mo from this point, on as a director, is the effects of violence upon people's lives and million-dollar baby. Like, it's a movie about how someone is just a brutal boxer. And then when you see the consequences of that violence inflicted upon her and you see her in this vulnerable and broken State, its kind of the exact same thing that you're seeing in Unforgiven just a different genre.

18:53 Well and not just just the the violence that she endured as a boxer because like a big point of that movie was that she didn't start boxing till she was way too old to do it. Yeah, it's the violence upon her soul, that her childhood with the terrible family. And I, if I remember correctly, she has like some bad boyfriends and bad jobs and you know the violence of living life had led to this place where the violence of boxing was the only answer for her and then that gets taken away from her and all of her Freedom gets taken away. Away. And it's like what are you supposed to do? Hmm, I think that the line that that Eastwood gives in Unforgiven, you know, after the Schofield kid gets his kale and he admits you know to him hey like that was actually my first kill.

19:42 And Clint just calmly coldly almost a calculatedly. Gives this line where he's like you take everything the man had and everything the man never would have had. Yeah and that's it. Yep. That like period end of sentence, nothing more and like as he delivers it you can tell that he has no personal like it's almost as if he's realizing it as a director for the very first time and there's a depth to that statement like can you could you take some everything that a man ever had? And everything they ever would have had in a moment?

20:24 Yeah, there's something about I disagree. That it's the first time he's thinking about it because I think that's his whole character. His whole character is, I am suppressing and trying to get past these horrible things that I've done that, I will never forget. And a major point of this film is You know, his wife has died. And his wife was the one that really reformed him that, you know, brought him to religious faith that got him to quit drinking and a major point in the movie is when he reaches over and picks up the bottle of whiskey for the first time you're like oh gosh like this is, he's embracing it now and there's such that scene with the Schofield kid after Schofield kills you know one of the two Cowboys. And Clint Eastwood is watching The Horizon to make sure they haven't been followed and everything has really come to a head.

21:11 This kid is like crying and he's chugging whiskey and Clint's, almost coaching him through it and it's like the saddest thing you've ever seen because he's been trying to avoid it for himself and to that point he has kind of still successfully avoided it for himself and he's watching this kid, like have all these emotions, spilling out of him and he just has to take a drink kid, like the only way to suppress this. This is to stay drunk and he says it himself in the kid asks him like, you know, what do you remember about that time in your life when you were killing people and he's like I don't remember any of it. I was drunk most of the time because that's the only way to deal with these horrible things that he's done. It's like Brad.

21:51 I mean I'm making the sound like a profoundly sad movie and in a lot of ways it is but I don't want to take away from the fact that at the end of the day this is still an incredibly well acted and Incredibly well made well Haste and entertaining movie that still has this layer of really deep philosophical questions to it. Yeah, I do think that, in that scene with the Schofield kid, he would have been like, rolling on the floor, pissing his pants. Drunk for how much whiskey he was drinking. I said they're going damn son, he put it away. I think that scene has my favorite line in the whole movie though. And you know the kid is trying to talk himself into being In justified in what he did knowing that he never will and he's, you know, he says yeah, I finally got my first kill, I shot him three times and he's like talking about how the guy was like on the toilet, right? And he starts crying again and he goes well, you know, I guess, I guess he had it coming and Clint just says we've all got it coming and it's like, that's the moment where you're like. OK, I get the thesis of this movie. Now the thesis of this movie has nobody deserves this under any circumstances.

23:04 And yet this is like what? Glorify when we when we tell these stories. Yeah, I mean, when you take that line and you pair it up with the final line that Clint gives to Gene Hackman, we haven't talked about yet but we need to but he says to it, you know Gene Hackman is like I don't deserve this. I was building a house and Clint just looks at him and goes deserves. Got nothing to do with it. It's just it's so brutal but so honest. Yeah, like Clint doesn't care. If he deserves this or not, it's gonna happen. I just love this whole sub, genres of movies. I mean, this movie has a bunch of subgenres it fits into, but, you know, just a few weeks ago, the new John Wick movie came out and John Wick falls into this Trope again, to of, like just when I got out they pull me back in kind of thing.

23:55 Yeah. But in this movie, you really get the sense of the tragedy that it is that the man has to take on the mantle of the Angel of Death again, right? Like when he goes Goes into that Saloon at the end of the movie, and he kills everybody in there, it is not a heroic thing. And you may as an audience member still feel Vindicated because he's avenging the death of his friend, but even as he's delivering these kind of classic cool and cold, Clint Eastwood lines, you're realizing that he's embracing. In a way like his Destiny is to never be able to shake this image of the angel of death. And in order to move on from it, he has to become an again. It's so much more tragic than when you watch a movie like a John Wick or, you know, any of those movies. Like, because there is no valorisation there. Yeah, he is, I think angel of death is the right description and when you look at how everybody responds to his entrance, into the bar, where, you know, Gene Hackman is trying to put together a posse to go find them, and he just shows up in their Saloon, ready to kill them. All the the reaction that they give is impeccably just awesome because they, they're completely awestruck and terrified. And it just It's alright man.

25:22 We've gone pretty long talking about like the philosophy of this movie. Do you think we should hit pause here and come back and talk performances or do you want to hit a couple and then go to break? Let's let's talk about a few of the minor roles and then afterwards I want to get into Hackman Eastwood, you know, Freeman. And you know the big guys. Sure. All right, who do want to start with? I'm curious what you think about the ladies of the night. Billiards ladies, if you will. I feel like if there's any characters in this movie that are under written, it's them like they just, they're there to be scared and they're there to spout. Some Exposition. Every once in a while, I did really love. What's her name?

26:06 Frances Fisher in this movie as kind of like, you know, the head prostitute. I don't know if there's a hierarchy of prostitutes but she seems to the matron. Yes, the matron the matron sure. Because I just saw her again a few months ago when I went to the theater and re-watch Titanic. So, Roses mom, who is at. She was at the theater. She was, she was like, that's me. I'm Rose's. Mom wow, Fred's is Fisher. What are you doing here? What are you doing in Fairlawn? Oh Ohio. But yeah, it's just I mean I'm only used to seeing her as Rose's. Mom, she's not an actress that I've seen in a lot of things, even though she's been in a ton of projects but for her to be a pretty substantial role in to best picture, winning films that are considered, you know, among The top 100 American movies ever made, you know, in a five-year span like this, a pretty nice little feather in your cap.

27:01 Yeah, no, I would say. So, I think for me, the girl, who, who plays The Prostitute who got cut up, I think that they give her just enough lines, and she takes them and uses her facial features to really enhance the small bits that she gets. I just think that that she makes an impact where she sees the world in a much greater tone than a lot of the other characters that she sees the goodness of the younger cowboy, who didn't really have anything to do with the fight, and she sees the goodness and William Money in the the way he carries himself even though nobody else really does and I wish that she had a little bit more screen time because I think they could have Her and her relationships, a little more but I liked her a lot.

27:56 Yeah, that actress's name is Anna Thompson. I'm with you, man. I thought she was really, really good. I don't know if this character is small enough to fit into your small characters category Brad, but can we talk about James wool vet as the Schofield kid for a minute? Hmm. He is like the most underplayed. Like he just takes the role so subtle in, like, yeah. Oh, thanks searching. All right, so I have I have thoughts on him because the scene with Eastwood where he's breaking down, drinking whiskey is maybe the best scene in the whole movie and it's the best scene in the whole movie because both actors are like on their a game. It's one of the, it's one of my favorite Clint Eastwood scenes I've ever seen but that kid brings the goods in that scene. Yeah he really does.

28:46 The problem is, you know his character is supposed to be over the top and a little too Juvenile and a little too. Green and naive. And even then I feel like he does that and he does it in a very annoying way, which which is like right in line with how Morgan Freeman reacts to him the whole movie. But I still don't know if I think that he's like a very good actor. Brad. Yeah. Yeah. The entire time I was like, he feels like if you told like a college theater major, to play a really hyperactive, Of imagina T imaginative. You know, kid who is idolizing violence?

29:29 Like go play that and they did, he just plays it up way too much throughout the entire film. I don't know, man, it's hard because I texted you this earlier. It's almost like I think he did everything that Clint Eastwood asked him to do, but so I it's hard to say like, oh, bad performance, But it just wasn't good and I don't know if that's fair to him or not, but that's kind of how I landed on. It's just so weird because usually when we see a performance like that, it's consistent throughout the movie and then you've got this one scene where it's like, oh this guy could have been nominated for an Academy Award, you know. Yeah, that's true. It's almost like he was, you know, like when you're taking a class and you're like, sitting in the D range and your teachers, like hey you really got to nail this final or you're like in danger of failing.

30:18 He's like all right, cool, these studies all night and then he comes in. This one scene and he's like, boom, be - for the course because of the way I watched out. So now that's obviously a really really good metaphor. All right man. Anybody else you want to talk about before we go to break? Can we talk about my boy Dumbledore? Mmm, Richard Harris, dude. I it like took me a solid five minutes but there were just a few specific like phrases and and the way he delivered lines that I was like Wait a second, is that freaking Albus Dumbledore dust mine? Ears? Deceive me.

30:59 You know, what made me really sad to see how much he had like physically degraded by the time you got to Harry Potter because, you know, here, he's like, I think he's, like, 60 62 when this movie comes out, and everyone in this movie is a little bit older. That's the point of the film. So you think, like, okay, 10 more years like he's 72. He's going to be, may be slowing down just a little bit. The man has lived. He's lived very hard and, you know, he dies in 2002 from all the complications of his alcohol and everything else. And so I'm only used to seeing him at like his most frail in Chamber of Secrets and then see here only a decade earlier and he is so much more athletic and you know just like got his wits about him a little bit.

31:45 It's kind of shocking for someone who's only used to seeing him in Harry Potter. Yeah. What did you think about him here? Here, I thought he was good. I thought that his character again might be a little under written because his character is kind of just a plot device to get Beauchamp. The biographer in front of Little Bill and he's like the first example of somebody having their mythology come crashing down around them. So it's a really good like academic example of what the movies trying to do. But then his character gets put, you know, in a buggy and escort. A town. You don't hear from him again. It's kind of like, well I'm glad we got Richard Harris to come do this movie but I feel like you could have gotten 50 people to come do that character. I don't know that there was anything specific to Richard Harris.

32:33 That made that character. Any more or less memorable. Yeah I think for me his whole the whole purpose of his character felt like a you know another person being D mythologized but be it was to set up Gene Hackman as this Abel Titan of, you know, law and defense of the town. And you know, his ability to defeat this incredible man was, you know, that's kind of what he was there for. I thought he was fine. I thought he turned into a good performance. Honestly, I think my favorite plot device that Eastwood uses as a director is the writer Beauchamp. If only for the fact that he kind of jumps from mythology to mythology, he's like, yeah, I'm going to write this. This thing on the Duke of the Duke of death, I think they calls and they call him, you know, and then oh he's kind of actually not that great.

33:30 So I'm going to write it on this. Incredible Sheriff, who is, you know, defending the townspeople and rules with an Iron Fist and you know, I'm gonna write this thing, I hope he got killed too. Well I guess I'm going to follow this new guy. This William money. You know he's a he's a legend. He's all these things and I love how Eastwood shows. If if he only understood that, if you actually wanted to follow and mythologize these evil evil men, you would die like like that's the end of the story for Beauchamp. He can either try to follow William money and get killed by him or run run away and like run as far and as fast as he can from what you termed, Bob the angel of death. Right?

34:18 Well and that's a great thing about his character 2 is and Saul rubinek plays him really really well because I can't tell how Savvy his character is if he's naive or if he's like in on it and just really cynical because it seems like he is as swayed by the idea of mythologizing people not just because it's successful business strategy but because he really likes the idea of the myth as much as anybody else is and so like you know Clint Eastwood's telling him like Hey I know who the next person I'm going to kill is if you don't get out of here. Right now and he finally takes off running but I don't know if he realizes that. The only reason that Gene Hackman keeps him around is so that Gene, Hackman can inflate his own story like he's dictating him, you know his own story so that he can get it out there that he is this big bad person and I honestly can't tell if Beauchamp knows he's being used that way or not.

35:11 And I think that's honestly the best way to play that character. Yeah. And I think that's more of how we should have gotten the Schofield kid. Like I think that's what makes his performance. So Rocky for me is the fact that you have a similarly motivated character in Beauchamp, that's just played a lot lot better. All right man, I think we're in a good spot to hit pause here. We've been talking about this Benchmark all day. So far. I'm excited to dive into it. What do you say? We get to this whiskey. Well, let's get to it. All right, everybody. Today we are talking about Benchmark, top floor, as I said at the top of the episode, this is an 86 proof, whiskey coming out of the Buffalo Trace, Distillery.

35:59 And according to them, it is aged on the top floor of their warehouse and it ages, comparatively more quickly, because I'm quoting their website, heat rises. It sure does. So, you know, who do I do love that? Like, I love. Gimmick here, which is, we're gonna bottle just the top floor because in theory, scientifically, heat rises and so it should evaporate more things out of this, whiskey quicker causing it to expand and contract quicker causing it to age quicker. I understand that. But what they're essentially saying is like, you're not gonna sell something on being rapidly aged, unless you're kind of implicitly admitting that, this is not aged very long.

36:46 Yeah, yeah. I mean you're not going to be like hey this is lagavulin 16 but we agent on the top floor so it's really like lagavulin 28. You know what I mean? Like right. There's a reason that they're doing it with the fifteen dollar Benchmark here. This is a nonage stated bourbon so we're assuming that it is at least 4 years old, at least, you know, in the blend it is. But we don't really know how long it's been aged and it sounds like they're trying to pass off some really young whiskey that might Tastes a little more matured but they know what they've got on their hands, I guess is what I'm saying age-wise. Yeah, I was just saying, it has been aged long enough to charge $15.

37:27 So if that tells you what you need to know then here we are. So it's been a long time since we've had Benchmark episode 1 of filmin. Whiskey was Benchmark Benchmark over fellas. Good. Phil what an episode, what a film, what a picture. What? A moving picture. So it's really hard to compare. However, We will be drinking Benchmark here again in a couple of weeks. I will explain that as we go on in the episode. But for now, Brad, let's talk about Benchmark. Top floor. What do you picking up on the nose? For me, it's it gets a little bit nutty at the front end. I almost like an almond shavings, like kind of like a sliced almond feel.

38:09 And I say that because I actually I like almonds. But of all the nuts out there. They don't have a ton of flavor or nose to them. They're just kind of generically nutty and that's kind of what I'm getting here. There's some vanilla going on. There's like hints of caramel, it's not overly sweet. Eat. But I'll be honest, man. There's not much to detract here. Like I like, I like, this knows. It's generically Pleasant with a little bit of nuttiness, I'll give it a 7 out of 10. This is not an overly grainy nose. Although I am picking up a little bit awry here, but where it smells young Brad is kind of like every once in a while. I see this note in Bourbon knows things about Greenwood, which is basically just like, you know, unaged. What this does smell like almost like fresh cut. And it almost has that like slightly sour smell to it of like brand new chopped down tree kind of a thing. And so like there's a little sour note on the nose for me, that is just taking away slightly from The Experience. I'm with you on the Almond though, for me, it's more like an almond cake.

39:17 Like I get like a pound cake with almond extract in it, but that's our would note is making me think that it might carry through a little bit to the flavor. So I'm just going to give this a 6.5. I've on the nose. Yeah and as we get into the palate it turns very Oaky on the palate and then that you know there's a little bit of caramel the vanilla turns almost into a like a bright cream soda, it's almost got that you know bubbly taste to it for me the part that's hard is that it's like a little bit overly done toast like kind of slightly burnt a little bit car. Knee.

39:59 I'm coming down a little bit from the nose but not too far. It's a decent taste in whiskey. I'll give it a six out of ten. It's not a very sweet whiskey and I think the first note that I got was that would like that unaged would and it almost coats your palate. It's kind of oily that way. And then you get that kind of classic Buffalo, Trace spicy note to it but I will say, like, not a bad whiskey, I just don't know. Like, I feel like this would go really well. Well in a cocktail where you're adding some sweet elements to it, but it doesn't have that kind of classic round caramely bourbon note on its own. So if you like a spicier Boulder bourbon I actually think that this flavor profile might be the way to go as you know, Brad I like my sweet Bourbons. So this is not like my preferred wheelhouse but I'm gonna give it a seven out of ten on the flavor. Oh wow.

40:54 Yeah so on the fin the finish I think I'm going to just cut it down the middle and 26 and a half. It's short and sweet. Doesn't last a long, long time. For me, it almost turned into a tiny hint of tobacco and the vanilla really stuck through to the end. Nothing to write home about, but, you know, solid, yeah, I think that's this is where this kind of suffers like the, the wateriness of it really comes through this point. Even at like, 90 proof. I wonder how much better this might be, but it's not unpleasant and for an 86. Proof whiskey, that costs $15. I was expecting a worse finish than this, so it's kind of like, do I grade it objectively, or do I graded on the curve? Based on what I was thinking, I would get I think I'm with you. I'm gonna give it a six point five on the finish here. Yeah, and as far as balance goes Bob, this is just like a really honest delivery through the entire experience, like the nose sets you up for the taste which sets you up for the finish. And it doesn't have any really high highs or lows I'm going to give it a 7 out of 10 on balance, like it, there's not enough complexity here for me to give it a higher score than that, you know.

42:07 I think this is its As far as scores go but yeah man it's fine. It's a well-balanced $15 whiskey. Yeah, Brad I think I'll also give it a seven. I was tempted to give it an even higher score than that. But I think for now I'll give it a 7 because I want to reward it even more on the value. Now, these have just recently started being sold in Ohio, I actually don't know if they're like Statewide yet. We had to go to Kentucky to pick up these five bottles of Benchmark, which is just hilarious to say that we went to Kentucky. 2 by 15 Dollar whiskey, but, you know, we do it for you film and whiskey Nation. So, in Ohio, Brad, what have they set the price for top floor at Bob, it is $14.99, this is at least an 8 out of 10 on value. And now that they don't make Like Heaven Hill, green label anymore.

43:01 I don't know what you can get for $15. It's better than this because even like, Evan Williams, white label is at least 20 now. yeah, like I'm going to give it a 9 out of 10 on value. Yeah, I'm gonna give it a nine and a half by like I think this is an incredible value at $15. This is a whiskey that if you wanted to you could sip neat. If you wanted to put it in a cocktail that would be the best place for it. But like there's a lot of people who are spending Thirty to forty dollars on cocktail mixers and I would tell you any day of the week, go by some top. For like it's got some flavor to it.

43:42 It's got a little bit of spice and for being 86 proof. It doesn't come across as a low proof whiskey know. So I like, I don't know what better value you could get at $15. There are very few 86 proof, Whiskey's that I think would give a cocktail enough of a backbone to justify themselves. Like, when I make cocktails, I use hundred proof bourbon but I think that I could get away with this 86 proof because it has so much That spice to it and it would work really, really well. So yeah, I'm going to give this a huge recommendation. It's a 36 out of 50 for me. Brad, what are you coming to Bob? The world has come to order at last.

44:25 I came to a 36 as well. Oh, nice! Yeah, look at us now. Would you recommend trying or buying or both? See, I don't think I'd recommend trying, I wouldn't either because like, minimum it's $3 a poor You're right. I mean, like it's got to be more. I don't think I've ever seen a whiskey for $3 a port. That's what I'm saying. So minute. Yeah, let's call it 35. That's already a third of the bottle, right? So I mean, if you really wanted to buy a poor, but if you want to be wise with your money and Steward it, well, go buy a bottle. Is there a whiskey Brad?

45:05 And this is one of our one of our new questions were going to ask each other. Hmm. Is there a whiskey that you think would be a better pairing with Unforgiven? Oh, I mean I mean I guess I would say hi. West, like like you have to drink High West with western movies, right? Oh yeah, yeah like yeah, if you're gonna watch a western, you gotta watch. Are You Gotta drink a western whiskey? Yeah. I think that like, you know, the themes of the movie probably demand something. A little more complex than this whiskey can offer, but this probably tastes pretty similar to what? Whatever was in that bottle, that that guy was consoling him with.

45:46 So yeah, it's two thumbs up on Benchmark. Top floor for us. Brad. What do you say? We get back into talking about Unforgiven, let's get to it. All righty. Bob that was Benchmark. Top floor, whiskey that for $15. You are getting your bang for your buck. You are getting a bang for your buck. My real question is. Do you think that the Schofield, kid? And Morgan Freeman were getting a bang for their buck with all the freebies truly. It was, it was The Benchmark value of old west hookers.

46:27 Very judgmental statement. Bob, we liked it. We like to The Benchmark. I we did it. Did you like The Benchmark hookers and they seemed to they seem to be the hey there freebies. They did seem to enjoy it Bob. I think it's time to get into Canada's. Favorite segments to fax in a falsehood is gonna try to stop you ball. All right. And what is wrong? Two facts. And a faucet to fact in a falsehood. This is where Brad tries to stump me and my extensive movie knowledge. He has gone through the annals of the, IMDb trivia page to find things that we're not sure are true, but he has pulled out, two, facts from that page and he has invented a third item that he's going to pass off as a fact.

47:19 And the task ahead of me is to determine which one is the LIE Brad? I'm starting over I'm 0 for 0, so far. I do not have a losing record yet. Hit me with your two facts in a falsehood fact number 1. The score for this film was created by Lennie niehaus with the exception of the main theme Claudia's song which was composed by none other than Clint Eastwood himself and fax number to Clint Eastwood chose the name William Munny based on a childhood bully he endured stating there is something mean in that kid right from the start seem to fit, what I Is looking for, hmm? Fact, number three, the boots. That Clint Eastwood war in Unforgiven are the same ones that he wore in Rawhide and are now a part of his private collection in 2005, they were loaned to the Sergio Leone exhibit at the Gene, Autry, Museum of Western Heritage and Los Angeles, California.

48:16 The boots bookended Eastwood's, Western career. Nice. That sounds kind of Drew and I think one sounded pretty true. I don't know anything about two. They also implausible, I'll give you credit for that. Hmm, let's go. When I was listening to the main theme of this movie, I was wondering if Eastwood composed it. And so I watched the end credits long enough to see who composed the movie and it clearly wasn't Eastwood, but it sounded like the kind of simplistic little Melody that Eastwood likes to make the main themes of his movies because he started scoring his own movies after this. So I'm gonna assume one is true if it's not true. I think it was a huge inspiration on him. Musically.

49:04 And I'm going to say that too. Is the falsehood? Just because I don't know anything about Clint Eastwood's childhood. So I'm going to lean towards that. Well, Bob, you are starting off the year want to know, nailed it. You have nothing. You've not yet. Gotten Good at lying. Give you a couple of weeks and you'll be right there. I'll be right on it. Bob, I actually really enjoyed fact. Number three. That the boots he wore in. Given are the same ones. He wore in his very first acting job Rawhide. That's incredible, right? I like that guy. Like, I don't think that I will want to wear boots from my 20s when I'm in my 60s.

49:47 Like I want more. The Pedic boots at that point you're not a you're not a be a William Munny type then right well alright so I have 1 and 0 on two facts in a falsehood. I'm feeling pretty good about myself Brad as we segue Back into talking about this movie. I do want to say that our big thing for this month is this we're trying to grow this podcast. We want more and more people to hear about filmin whiskey, and we want to encourage you. If this is your first time listening and you're enjoying it or if you're a longtime listener and you just haven't taken the plunge yet. Go to our website, film whisky.com, that's film whiskey. With an e on the top of the homepage. You'll see a button that says reviews, leave us a review. It helps us so much in the algorithms on Spotify. And on Apple podcast for you to just leave us a quick five star review and write a couple sentences about us. You know what honestly Brad even if you just think we're a four-star podcast because surely we're no lower than a four-star podcast.

50:45 Honestly review us, leave us a review on the platform of your choice by going to film whisky.com and you will be entered into this month's giveaway. We are giving away copies of the new movie Scream Six starring Courteney Cox and Jenna Ortega. We will choose a few winners at the The end of the month from the people who leave us a review on film whisky.com. So if you'd like a copy of scream, I've heard really good things about it. Head over to film whisky.com. Leave us a review. Bob, I want to know this is my burning question for the week. How long has Morgan Freeman been 67 years old? One of my favorite facts about Morgan Freeman?

51:26 Is that in the 1970s he was on a show called The Electric Company which was a children's show and it was kind of like a spin-off of Sesame Street I think. But it was for like slightly older kids. Okay? And it was like one of his first big breaks as an actor. Uh-huh. He looks 47 years old in the electric company and then you get to like Unforgiven and Shawshank and it's like, oh, this guy, Already 60 something years old. And the thing is, I think now Morgan Freeman is in his early 80s but the math doesn't add up because he's been 54 like 76 years. Mmm. Yeah. I don't know how the man does it, but he just has looked the same for forever. Like I saw meme the other day that was like, it was like an AI generated picture of famous actors with like, young them and older them.

52:17 Did you see this? No And it's like, it's like cheesy 90s family pictures, where like old Leonardo DiCaprio is like standing with his hands on like, Titanic Leo's shoulder, right? Okay. There's a few of them. It's like Leo and a few other people and then it gets the Morgan Freeman in the bottom right and it's just the same Morgan Freeman as as both of himself and I felt like yeah that's that's Morgan Freeman and I feel like Unforgiven Morgan. Eamon is his age and everything I've ever seen him. Let's talk about his performance a little bit because I have thoughts on his performance.

52:59 I don't feel like he is an important enough character in this movie, and, and they try to make him important. Like he's clearly important to will money and that's his best buddy, right? But when he leaves towards the end of the movie, it's like, you know what's gonna happen to him and if you do feel his absence, A little bit and I almost feel like similar to what I do with him in Shawshank and his performance in Shawshank. I think it's just better than in here because he's got a little bit more to chew on. But part of these Morgan Freeman roles from the early 90s are that he's like just slightly more naive or simple than the main character. Like in Shawshank, Andy is a genius and red is constantly amazed at all these cool things and he does. And in this movie, there's a little bit of like, You know, they're on the same level but he's still a little bit more reactionary, he's not as cool headed. As will money is and I feel like when you start to see Morgan Freeman, really come into his own in leading roles later on in the 90s and in the 2000s, I think we kind of realized what we missed a little bit and I think they could have given him a couple more layers and some more meat to chew on in this movie than they did.

54:16 He does a great job. I just I wonder if his character is a little bit simplistically written. Yeah, I think that was the big thing for me. I also entered this for some reason, thinking that he won best supporting actor in this film. And, you know, it turns out that was actually a Gene Hackman, very well deserved. And so it almost made me struggle even more where I was like, man, how did he win a best actor, you know, supporting actor for this? Because he just didn't have enough to do. And I feel bad saying this, but I'm like, this is just a really forgettable Morgan Freeman performance. And I hate to say that because he's, you know, incredible.

54:59 He needs to narrate everybody's lives. I like him a lot in this movie but you're right. It feels, he feels less. When chole, then he should. Yes. Yeah. That's that's a really good way of putting it. He just kind of shows up and basically calls, you know, money out on like world now and things have changed and it's not the same anymore and Clint Eastwood just keeps going like yeah, yeah I get it. Yep. We we've changed and then when it comes down to it he can't shoot the Cowboy and he's, you know, developed a conscience and the guy who supposedly developed a Agents and Clint Eastwood kills him. And so I his character just feels a little confusing to me, I think.

55:45 All right, let's talk a little bit about Gene Hackman, who does win best supporting actor and I'm with you, man, I thought for the longest time Morgan Freeman won an Oscar for this movie, it's like a Mandela effect thing for me. Hmm, I don't understand it. But it's Gene Hackman. And that makes a lot more sense. Because Gene, Hackman's really, really good in this movie. This is I think only our second Gene Hackman movie surprise. Ali. I was going to say we have not seen him very much. What was the other movie Bob? The Royal Tenenbaums? Oh, yeah, yeah. And you could not get more different performances, really like. He's so good here though. And I think the thing that bothers me when I'm reading about this movie is that in every summary of the movie, and I get that like, you know, it's always reductionistic to summarize a movie, but they talk about how callous and how evil he is.

56:37 Is and he is, certainly the most ruthless and the least moral person in this movie. But you also understand his point of view you like, if you believe that he actually does like being a Lawman. And I think that's kind of what this whole Theory rests on. Then you understand the extent that he goes to impose his will on that town and to uphold what he views as the law. He's not he's not a morally, good person and he certainly has a very verted and twisted idea of what the law is, but he falls right in line with Will money. And I think that, you know, when you're talking about these two foils in each other of will money and Little Bill like it's not a mistake and it's not an accident that it's will and Bill. They are in some ways like the opposite of each other but they're the mirror image of each other in a lot of ways as well. And I think Hackman really plays that brilliantly. Yeah.

57:34 Yeah, he feels like the law version of William money in his prime, right? If William money is the evil destructive force. He is the Iron Fist. That keeps everybody safe at the expense of their own freedom and so, you understand that in a world where there are William money's there, there will necessarily be little bills and In a certain sense this whole movie is basically saying the world is moving on from both of those types of people, right. You know, the final text we get basically says after this one final desperate act of violence, money moves his kids to San Francisco and opens up a dry goods store and like that was that he washes his hands of it. And so you realize that bill is there as a necessity because of people like Money boat as people like money disappear. People, like little Bill need the bit disappear to. All right, man, that brings us to Eastwood. I can't believe that we've gone like I don't know, 50 minutes without talking about Clint Eastwood's performance. I think that when we did Million Dollar Baby, I commented and this was like, what?

58:50 Four years ago now Brad. So I don't remember, but I commented on how I thought it was maybe the best Eastwood performance and then I watched this and I was like, okay, never mind like this. He he's incredible. And he's always been Has been an underrated actor. Because, you know, he's the kind of guy that's like De Niro, where if you can do the face, you can mimic him a little bit and but he's so much more than just doing the Clint Eastwood face. And for me, it was two scenes. It was the one that we've already talked about where he's, you know, talking with Schofield. About the man, he just killed, but then it's also the scene where he comes down with the really bad fever and he's having those like, hallucinations by the campfire. Mmm. And it's because that is the most ridiculous and ludicrous dialogue that anyone in this movie has to Liver and the fact that he does it convincingly, like I'm not even joking. I think that's actually a really, really huge feat that he pulls off.

59:43 Just to make that scene work, he is such a good actor in this movie, Brad. Yeah. And even like the eminently giftable scene where he is like, crawling out of the bar, like the camera just won't move away from the agony that he's in, from the, the fever from the rain. And the Beating that he just received. Like I think that Eastwood is incredible in this movie and I like, I'm a little bit surprised that he didn't win best actor this year. Like you know, I know that Unforgiven wins for other Oscars but man. Oh man was Eastwood just incredible in this film and like you've said, multiple times the scene between him and the Schofield.

1:00:24 Kid is heart-wrenching. Yeah. And Eastwood just gives a beautifully subtle performance at just the right. Time to really kick this movie up a notch. All right. Brad. I don't really have too much more to say because we went so deep on the themes in the first half, like what else about this movie? Do you want to get off your chest before we start moving into final scores here? But you know, Bob I feel pretty confident like we nailed it. We knock this out of the park, 10 out of 10, on our analysis. Well that means that it's time for our final segment of the day, which is called. Let's make it a double Nowhere near the end of the episodes of thanks for listening to the film and whiskey show.

1:01:08 Let's pair another film with this one. Even if it's struggle, it's a final segment of the day. Now let's make it a double. This is where Brad and I pick a film to match up with this one to make the perfect double feature Brad. When I think about making this a double, there are so many directions I can go because I literally just made a list of movies that kind of fall into this genre of, like the angel of death or Like the guy who gets reluctantly pulled back in, there are so many movies that are influenced by this and that influence to this movie. Like I thought about heat the movie that we just did at the end of last season. Like, you know, it kind of reminds me of after die-hard came out Hollywood.

1:01:51 Did this thing for, like, the next 10 years where they were just like, die hard on a boat, and they called it, this die hard on a bus. And it was speed with Keanu Reeves, like, it was just die hard on a blank. And I think that Unforgiven is like, sneakily, just as influential, because it's Unforgiven on a blank heat is Unforgiven with the mob. And I thought about that movie, the wrestler that Darren Aronofsky did. And and the way that that movie is about the effects of violence on somebody's life and that movie with Brendan Fraser that just came out the whale like Logan the superhero movie like, that's a that's Unforgiven with superheroes. Yeah, the movie that I think I would pair this up with the most And then I lost the most respect for, on this re-watch, is a movie called Road to Perdition. It's a Tom Hanks, movie directed by Sam Mendes and it comes out in 2002, and it is one of the most, gorgeously shot movies I've ever seen.

1:02:49 And I did not realize until today how it is. Just, it's just a complete ripoff of Unforgiven. It's based on a graphic novel, so I can't like totally knock the movie for it. But even just like having this climactic shoot, Out out in the rain, at the end of the movie, and the way that it's all about, like, how violence affects a man's soul. And the kind of men, we are as a result of what we've done. Like, I think Road to Perdition is the perfect pairing to go with this movie. Yeah. I think that I am going to go with the Departed. Hmm. I think that the Departed gives you such a bleak, look at policing and Criminal. No activity.

1:03:34 And how? It's almost impossible to tell the good guys from the bad guys, that just fits with what you have here in Unforgiven like is William Munny, a good man. Is he a bad man is Gene Hackman's character, a good person or a bad person. There's just so much ambiguity when it comes to violence. I think that Scorsese kind of captures that in The Departed and you know, 12 years after this one. Alright. So there you have it. I'm going with Road to Perdition Brad's Going with the Departed way before we get out of here. Today, we do want to say that we're starting a really cool project over on our patreon. So we went back and listened to the episodes that we did back in season one Brad.

1:04:16 And you know, if we can be frank with our listeners, they don't sound that great. You know, we were we were a little baby podcasters and we didn't really have very good microphones back then. And we kind of started to think hey we should re review these like it's time for us to revisit this. Now that we've done almost Hundred films on this podcast. And so we're going to start going through one by one the film's from season 1 and redoing them in a completely new format. Like we are not just revamping what we did in season one. We're re-evaluating them and we're going to be releasing those to our patrons. So if in addition to all the other patreon, exclusive content, we give out. If you would like to hear these full-length episodes, where we revisit our films from season one, which we will be starting in just a few Ooh, weeks here with Million Dollar Baby to go. Along with the Clint Eastwood theme, you can find us on patreon.com film whiskey where you can support us at three different tiers, A3 A5 and A7 dollar-a-month. Tear, we'd love to, have you join the community tons of perks.

1:05:20 Like a special Discord server in addition to all these great bonus episodes. That's patreon.com, Silman, whiskey Brad, it's time for us to give our final scores on this movie. If you're new to the podcast, we give fine. Scores out of 10 we can give half points but we don't get any more granular than that. Brad, I think I'm kind of tempted to give this movie a 10 because of its cultural impact because of I mean, how well it holds up and the questions that it, it asks and doesn't answer. It has that great ambiguous. Like ambiguity to it. That I love in movies. Like Gone Baby Gone. I will say the first like half hour to still doesn't really work for me. That well, it's, it's a little stilted and it's a little cheesy.

1:06:03 Easy. And you know, obviously it's because they're trying to set up this kind of idyllic life that he has with where he's going but it really isn't until about the 45-minute Mark where you get that first scene of English Bob and Beauchamp in the jail with Gene Hackman that I think the movie really starts to click for me and from there on out it's like a perfect movie but because of that I'm going to ding it just a little bit. I'm going to give it a nine point five out of ten. Yeah I think I'm pretty close to you. Bob, I think this is a nine. Attend movie. I think that Eastwood as a director is probably at his best here, but you can tell that there's just enough slow moments.

1:06:43 And I think that there's just enough acting issues here that, keep it from being like a top-tier movie that we've reviewed on this podcast. But I mean it's a nine out of ten. It's still a really, really great watch. I think if you're a fan of classic westerns, you know, I said at the beginning of the episode, if you hate westerns you might Like this. But it is so cool to see the influence of movies, like, high noon on this, you know, at the end of the movie where he's just yelling at the everyone in the town like it's just it's so similar to High Noon. There's so much of the Searchers in this to about, like the guy who's not a good guy and is carrying the baggage of it with him. Wherever he goes, there's a lot of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, which is all about myth-making and the legends that we tell ourselves. Like it's just it it I think what it does. So well Brad is it fits in perfectly With the rich tradition of the Hollywood Western at the same time that it is calling them all into question. It doesn't feel like it's disrespecting them, it just feels like it's presenting the other side of the coin and I think that's why I love it so much. Yeah, the the omage to the Western is so clear throughout but you're right.

1:07:54 The questions, it's asking about what the effects of a life lived like that are really real and honest and raw. And I yeah, Eastwood is an incredible actor and director here. And as always, if you want to join the conversation on our social medias you can find us on Instagram Facebook or the Cesspool that is called Twitter at film whiskey or jump onto our Discord. Discord is an incredible place for communities of like-minded individuals to talk about the things that they love. So, join our film and whiskey Discord, you can find a link to it at the end of every single one of our show notes next week, we're going to continue. In you rolling along with the Clint Eastwood train as we watch. 2003's Mystic River.

1:08:38 So join us for that one but until then I'm Bob book, I'm Brad G and we'll see you next time.