22. Bob Roberts
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Manage episode 153347990 series 1089112
My guest for this month is Herb van der Poll, and he’s joined me to discuss the film he chose for me, the 1992 American-British satirical mockumentary film Bob Roberts. You can follow the show on Twitter @cinemagadfly.
Show notes:
- The cast is seriously insane, with Tim Robbins, Giancarlo Esposito, Ray Wise, Gore Vidal, John Cusack, Peter Gallagher, Alan Rickman, and Susan SarandonOh and also James Spader, Helen Hunt, Jack Black, Jeremy Piven and his sister Shira, and Bob BalabanUnless you’ve been living under a rock, you already know we have an election happeningThe film shows some strong parallels to the presidency of George W. BushRay Wise, of course, was famously Laura Palmer’s dad on one of my all time favorite shows, Twin PeaksIn this film, he and Alan Rickman play Dick Cheney and Karl Rove type figuresFolk music is often in the service of liberal causes, and the subversion of that idea is one of the reasons this film is so compellingSpecifically the music here is in the style of Bob Dylan, with Bob Roberts naming his albums The Freewheelin' Bob Roberts, and Bob on BobThe Alan Rickman character also has a distinctly Oliver North vibe to himStrom Thurmond was a terrible human beingThis film feels like a satire of Ronald Reagan’s AmericaBob Roberts himself represents a response to the JFK and RFK erasThe 24-hour news cycle is designed for 9/11 level attacks, not the daily newsI still haven’t seen Toy Story 3, much to my shameThe Mass Psychology of Fascism, by Wilhelm Reich, is the book I was referring toIf for some reason you haven’t listened to Hamilton yet, you really should, it’s phenomenalHerb may be right that most people know Giancarlo Esposito from Breaking Bad, I know him from Do the Right Thing, School Daze, The Usual Suspects, and King of New YorkThis film is very different from other Tim Robbins directed projects, like Dead Man Walking or Cradle Will RockThe film has a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, built on 36 positive reviewsThe Simpsons episode that is named for this film is Sideshow Bob Roberts, from 1994’s season sixJames Spader’s current show Blacklist is about to start its fourth seasonTechnically Miramax is still a studio, but it’s changed hands several times in the last few years, and I don’t think they’re producing new filmsStudioCanal uses Lionsgate for their US distributionI think the involvement of Robert Altman and Gary Trudeau is probably why Criterion released Tanner ‘88This film was an influence on another of my favorite television shows, The West WingI’ve never seen Tapeheads, so I’ll have to take Herb’s word that “Retake America” from this film came from it
Buy the film from Amazon
24 episodes