That intro may be the best thing I've ever seen. *insert Pirates of the Caribbean lieutenant here*

I'm going to assume your version of the film doesn't have the intermission, given it seemed to go off sync about then (you commented on the bad day for night during the previous scene where it was night for night). Maybe insert that info into the description.

I've seen The Searchers for a film class at University, which I only vaguely remember. It was selected by our lecturer because it didn't conform to some of the stereotypes of westerns, but we hadn't watched other westerns prior, so I think the effect was somehow lost on us.

I also lived in the tiny village in Ireland where The Quiet Man was filmed for almost a year, so I've seen that one. I'd never heard of it until I moved there, but it's a large part of Cong's tourism appeal for Americans. That and the castle, which obviously was there when the movie was filmed, but is never seen in the film. Which is quite funny because at times you know that if you just tilted the camera left, or if they kept walking around that corner, you'd see a huge castle within spitting distance. http://www.ashfordcastle.com/index.html

That's what happens when you kill a hooker in Toon Town.

I can't believe you guys went this whole commentary and never brought up City Slickers, where Jack Palance plays the John Wayne part and middle aged yuppies replace the young boys learning to lead cattle across the range.

I've not seen this one, so it's on my list. I'd also not seen City Slickers, so I'm watching this one too.

Thanks guys. That's what it's all about.

I watched both The Cowboys and City Slickers this last week. They are very different movies.

The Cowboys is about kids leaving their families for a summer job. The summer season is brought up twice to demonstrate the timing involved. One of them dies. One is terribly traumatized. One stops stuttering by cursing at John Wayne. All of them are supposed to earn $50 for their work and, arguably, are learning a trade. Along the 400 mile drive, they kind of become men. A the end, they don't do what John Wayne would have wanted, they do what he would have done.

City Slickers is about a group of man-boys approaching their 40's. They are paying to attend a few weeks of cattle driving (they say it is 2 weeks and 200 miles) [The grocery manager also says he worked weekends for a year to afford the trip so the rancher is making serious money]. While the owner says it's not a dude ranch, it IS a dude cattle drive. Between Curly and two hands, they have the very small herd handled. The guys are just along for the ride and to make the job easier as they will certainly not learn everything they need to know on the drive. But, along the way, Billy Crystal learns 1 thing, one buddy learns he isn't becoming his father, and another buddy starts dating Supergirl. The rest of the characters gave up and learned not a thing (except the dentist son who might have learned his father wants to spend time with him).

I am still torn about listening to the podcast before/after watching the movie. Watching after made the 'big black cock musical number' scene amazing. But, watching before listening meant I completely understood the comments about Bruce Dern psychologically scarring a young boy. Watching while listening, of course, means not paying complete attention to either. And, I refuse to not pay attention. FIYH is the best movie commentary track podcast I've found and it is heads-and-shoulders above both the half dozen others I listen to regularly and the dozen or more that I have found and stopped listening to.

Thank you and keep up the good work.

Great commentary! Kudos all around.

So yeah... John Wayne was conservative. I thought you would touch on this gem.

For me  Howard Hawks, Hatari (1962) is my all time favorite John Wayne movie. For the little old me it was perfect, Africa, animals, adventures, what's not to like. I was really young when I first saw it and I literally fell out of my sofa laughing. That particular scene was when the young elephants were running after Dallas when she was kidnapped. It was a perfect scene for me. The pacing, the music and the physicality of the elephants moving… it was just perfect.

Having said that, this is by no means a perfect movie. This movie would never, ever be made today. There are serious undertones of  racism, colonialism, misogyny and the treatment of the animals would never be tolerated today. The reasons to say Fuck this movie are plenty but I caught it so young these things flew totally over my head. The move was made in 1961-62 so what are you going to do?

Since then I've seen this movie too many times to count. But I've got a strange connection to that movie. Most personal of them is that one of my best friend was raised in Tanzania. I still remember when I told her that my favorite John Wayne movie was Hatari. Not only was she raised in the town that serviced the movie Moshi but her friend lived in the house that was rented for John Wayne during the production. That house still had the bullet holes John Wayne shot into the walls when he was staying there. Maybe he was just drunk shooting for fun but the theory is that he was he was shooting huge insects that sometimes crawl into the houses. These bullet holes were a definite conversation pieces for sure.

Another weird connection to this town Moshi is that my four year old's best friend here in Iceland is half Tanzanian and so it happens that her mother is from Moshi and she also has a bunch of stories from that time. And she lived just a stones throw away from the house John Wayne rented. So this movie has weird albeit small connections to my life.

p.s.

I was also kinda sure this would be mentioned in the commentary. Always makes me laugh.

Generally I don't sing, it's my gift to humanity, but if I have enough beers in me one of my party tricks is singing this song drumming along. I've loved this song ever since I saw it in Smoke Signals way back

Last edited by AshDigital (2014-07-26 13:35:07)

Hatari was the only John Wayne movie I'd seen until watching this episode. I saw it at my Aunt and Uncle's house when I was 13 years old and I still remember parts of it to this day, 21 years later.  Definitely need to see more of John Wayne's work. 

After Paper Moon and The Cowboys, I want Trey's list of films he keeps bringing up because those two were both excellent.

Ooooh.  Challenge accepted.

What parts still stuck with you? For me it was the hunts.

Spielberg pulled heavily from Hatari when he made Jurassic Park: The Lost World