Don’t Look Now

Don’t Look Now

girl in red slicker

We’re kicking off another theme month: Movies with the word “Don’t” in the title. We start with this classy, classic, stylish supernatural thriller starring Donald Sutherland. It may not be the most action-packed film we’ve reviewed, but there is a lot to unpack as a couple grieving for the loss of their daughter encounter a psychic with a warning for them from beyond the grave.

don't look now poster
Expand to read episode transcript
Automatic Transcript

Don’t Look Now (1973)

Episode 121, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd:  Hello, and welcome to another episode of 2 Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.

Craig:  And I’m Craig.

Todd:  1 of our loyal listeners made a fantastic suggestion, for our next theme month, and that would be to do movies with don’t in the title. Sure. Why not? So we gathered together a few films that, have don’t in the title. There are more than a few, that, we wanted to do. And I’d say up at the very top of my list, the very first one I thought of was the one we’re going to kick it off with today, which is 1970 three’s Don’t Look Now. This is a British film starring, Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. Craig, had you ever seen this movie before? Nope. Never even heard of it.  Really? Okay. So, this will be a really interesting conversation, I think. This is a very well, well reviewed film. A lot of people like this. It’s on a lot of best movies of all time lists. I think Roger Ebert listed it as one of those films that you must see. It is a very much, I think, ominous sort of psychological thriller as opposed to the sort of horror movies we’ve been doing lately, the overt horror. And so I think it’s a it’s a good one for us to talk about a little bit off of what we’ve been doing lately.  I also found out while we were looking at the trivia for this film that, one of my favorite actors of all time, Tim Curry, this is his favorite horror film.

Craig:  Yeah. I read that too.

Todd:  So, what did you think, Craig, watching this movie for the first time? Just overall thoughts before we dig into it. Man,

Craig:  I was afraid you’re gonna ask me that. Alright. So so here’s the deal. So like you, I, you know, looked stuff up about this and I saw that it’s on all these lists, like, a 100 movies you have to see before you die and and all, you know, just lists everywhere, you know, this movie is on them. And, I get it. Okay. Here’s here’s the thing, I am not gonna criticize this movie by saying that it’s a badly made movie because it’s not. It’s excellently made.  It’s an excellently made movie. The the cinematography is great. The acting is great. The setting, you know, it’s set in Venice and, you know, really cool to look at because Venice is such a cool place and so there’s there’s lots to see. I thought it was boring as sin.

Todd:  Now, what what did I tell you before, before you settled down this movie, I think, a few days ago?

Craig:  You okay, dad. You did. You said, alright. Look. You this one’s gonna be a slow burn. You gotta be ready for it. It’s not gonna be action packed. Well, you were right.  And, like, what often happens when we talk about these movies is that as we’re talking about them, I come to appreciate them a lot more than I did on the initial viewing. So I hope I hope that that’s what happens here. And honest to Todd, I, you know, I I really have nothing bad to say about it from a production, point of view. I mean, it’s really good. It’s really well made. I just thought that it would Todd call it a horror movie just seems like a lie. It’s it’s really a it’s a drama. It’s a a psychological thriller.  It’s not scary in the least or at least I didn’t find it to be at all scary. Donald Sutherland is, you know, a force, he’s a great actor and Julie Christie, you know, these are the 2 leads, they play John Baxter and Laura Baxter, this married couple who are dealing with this tragedy And she is also, you know, well regarded, highly esteemed, and and I think deservedly so. She’s a beautiful woman. She’s a great actress, or at least with my limited experience with her, she seems to be very good. And so, you know, there’s there’s certainly very very positive things to be said about it. I don’t know. I just, I was looking at my watch. I’m like, oh my gosh, there’s still a half an hour left, like, come on, what’s happening? I’ve been looking forward to talking to you about it because I know that it’s a movie that you really like and so I wanna hear you talk about its virtues and I I really believe that by the end of this, you may have at least, changed my mind somehow.

Todd:  Wow, Craig. No pressure or anything.

Craig:  Well, I mean, I don’t care.

Todd:  This will be this will be an interesting exercise. And if Todd could turn me around,

Craig:  you can

Todd:  appreciate this movie I found extremely dull. Well, here here’s the thing. Okay? I think this movie, especially, rewards the viewer upon repeat viewings. I’ve I’ve seen it probably half a dozen times now, and I will admit fully that the first time I saw it, I was scratching my head a little bit because I, you know, I went into it knowing it was a quote unquote horror movie, or as you say, more of a a drama with some terrible elements to it. But, now upon watching it a few times, it is very much akin to Final Destination.

Craig:  Oh, come on. I mean, I can see, like, The Omen or something along those lines. Final Destination really I mean, I feel like I get what you’re getting at. Like, I noticed a couple of the, like, little subtle hinty things going on here and there. And probably, you’re gonna point out a lot more.

Todd:  But don’t spoil all of my gotta give me something to reveal.

Craig:  I get what you’re saying. I get what you’re saying. I caught a couple of things here and there, but ultimately, like, and, obviously, we’ll get there. But, like, the ending, I just didn’t really get it.

Todd:  Fair enough. I I do admit, the ending is is, is kind of abrupt and strange. This is based on a novel by, or story written by Daphne du Maurier. Am I pronouncing that right?

Craig:  I have no idea, but I I was excited. I saw that before we started and she wrote the source material for the birds. She wrote the novel Rebecca.

Todd:  Oh, yeah.

Craig:  You know, this is some great stuff. So I was like, oh, yay, really exciting. And I could see how maybe in literary form, I might have more appreciation for it. Anyway, I’m stealing your thunder. Yes. Great author. Todd source material.

Todd:  Alright. I think first and foremost, this this is a movie about grief. This is a movie about Yeah. Grief and dealing with grief, and it’s I think it’s done very well in that way. And then layered on top of that is a psychic aspect to this movie, a man who has premonitions. If he is paying attention, would have seen a long time ago the warning signs that something bad was going to happen to him. And, the whole movie is warning him about his ultimate doom as we go on and on through the film. And then by the end of it, sure enough, what we are afraid might come to pass does in fact come to pass.  Now, again, this is why I say this is really good upon repeat viewings because the second time around, once you kinda know this is what the movie is about and your expectations are tempered, I think, and again, like you said, you’re you’re not super tired, you’re really open to watching this kind of film, it becomes a really cool exercise in seeing what you can pick out, seeing the clever visuals that this film, that the director puts in here. And the director is Nicholas Roeg, and I boy, I don’t even know if I’m saying that right. It’s r o e g. You know, he directed The Witches in 1990. I thought that was interesting.

Craig:  I know. And I love that movie. And when I when I saw that he had directed that, I was really excited. And, again, I think it’s really well directed.  I I I mean, as far  as quality goes, I think it’s really good. So Okay.  Yeah. Let’s just dive into the meat

Todd:  of the film. And let’s Todd about it. You you know, you’re I’m I guess, I’m laying all these premonitions. You’re laying all these premonitions for me. This is becoming a very self referential, podcast before we even begin. The the key here is red. There’s a very highly symbolic, visual of red coming into this movie. And one of the very first scenes that we see, as soon as the credits start rolling, we see some imagery of water and some some rain sprinkling on some water.  We see some plastic curtains, in front of a very distinctive window that has round panes of glass in it. And then, we get the title of film over some of this and then boom, we have a girl. And this girl’s running through the countryside, and she has on a very bright red kind of rain Like a rain slicker? Yeah, Craig slicker. Right? It’s very bright red. It’s very stark. It’s basically the first strong image that you see in this film. And in this dreary day, in this dreary countryside, for her to be running around in this, it really jumps out at you. And this is a color that’s going to appear throughout the film And, it really is one of those premonitions that, again, if you watch it the second time through and you’re really looking for it, you see it prop up in some really cool ways.  At the same time, Donald Sutherland’s character, and his name is John, he’s like a an art historian slash restoration artist. So he is at his table looking over some some slides of a church that he’s going to be restoring soon or doing some research anyway for it, while his wife, is sitting in the same room in front of a fire, reading and looking up information. I think it’s some encyclopedias or something, about an interesting question that their daughter had about whether the Earth would be round. And it’s flashing back and forth between the scenes of them sitting in here, doing their work very quietly, and this girl running around out outside.

Craig:  Well, there’s 2 kids. There’s a boy and a girl. They’ve got a son and a daughter. The girl is the the primary focus, and I didn’t know exactly what to expect or what was going on here, but, you know, you’ve got these kids playing out there by themselves and the the the parents inside and there’s all this water and, like, they keep focusing in on these small bodies of water. You know, it’s not like they’re playing by the ocean or anything, but they’re, you know, there’s these small bodies of water that they’re playing around.

Todd:  Todd.

Craig:  I kinda predicted what was going to happen. What does happen is that the husband and wife are talking and he’s looking at a slide. In the slide, it the focus is on the window, but it’s in this church and the camera kind of directs our attention to what looks like the daughter because it’s somebody in a red rain slicker sitting in one of the pews. And, he I feel like he goes to hand his wife something or I don’t remember exactly what he does, but he tips over, a glass with water or some other kind of liquid in it, and it spills onto the slide for reasons that I don’t really understand, but but it doesn’t matter. It’s important for the imagery. The the slide starts to bleed, and the it it bleeds directly off of the red girl, into this I don’t wanna say a pattern or a symbol But it is.

Todd:  But the reason of that

Craig:  but it is because because it shows up later again. And all of a sudden, he gets this really troubled look on his face, and the wife’s, like, what’s the matter? And he’s like, oh, nothing. But he goes running outside. And as it turns out, as he’s running out, his son is running towards him crying for him. And it turns out that the young girl has fallen into one of these small bodies of water, and she’s drowned. And he he jumps in and finds her, and it seems like it takes him kind of inordinate amount of time to find her, and then he he pulls her out. You know, I get it. It’s very tragic, and and, like, the whole scene was very tragic.  And he is, you know, acting his heart out. You know, he’s devastated, and he’s pulling her up, you know, into the mud. The whole time, I was just, like, CPR. CPR. Like, come on. And I feel like eventually he, you know, makes a small attempt at CPR, but she’s gone. And and that’s the tragedy that kind of, you know, sparks the rest of the story.  That’s

Todd:  right. And within this very, I think, emotionally powerful, maybe you could say, I don’t know, maybe you think he’s overacting a little bit? Maybe you thought it was just trying Todd?

Craig:  No. I don’t really. I mean, I can’t imagine how I would act in that situation. He’s clearly devastated. It’s it’s very sad and effectively so, I would say.

Todd:  Well, in this sequence here are just a lot of things. It’s basically jamming in about 10 minutes of very strong imagery that is going to repeat itself. It’s going to repeat itself a lot during the rest of this movie, and other parts of the movie are gonna call back to this, and things that happened at this time are going to happen again later. Just very small things. For example, as the kid’s riding his bike around, he rides his bike over a pane of glass which shatters underneath it. The girl is is walking across a log, and the camera pans down so we see her reflection of, you know, again that bold red rain slicker reflecting in the water as she walks across this log, and that’s mostly what we’re focused on. As you mentioned, there’s that part of the image that bleeds over. And then a little bit later, it flashes over, and it’s like that image has has bled up, but circles back around in a kind of kind of a cloud like pattern.  Yeah. Like you said, it’s hard to know, but then there’s the spilling of the of the glass. And, all of this just happens, you know, one right after another, and it’s it’s a very missense scene. It’s it’s very much a very strong montage. I think very skillfully put together. Their their transitions there, their leaps in time, it can be very confusing. But like you said, at the end of it, he’s come out. He’s done this half hearted attempt at CPR for her, but most of that’s kind of in slow motion.  And the camera chooses to focus on odd moments in this as well. Like when he’s pulling her out of the water, we’ve got this slow motion scene of her of him just, you know, with her body and kind of thrashing around as he’s trying to stomp his way out of the lake, and the camera seems to zoom in a little bit on the way he’s holding her hand. Lots of little things here. I’m not gonna list them all off, but we’ll probably talk about them a little later. The way that this ends is it and this is another really scary I don’t know. You know, this is not because I have a son. You know, you don’t have to have a kid to be able to appreciate this. But I think there’s this a really interesting tension here in that we know that something horrible is happening outside, and he just had this premonition to be able to stumble out there into it.  But we also know the wife has yet to discover it. And it keeps kinda flashing back to her, and she’s in the kitchen, and she’s kind of walking through, absently making her way toward the back door to kind of see what’s going on. And it’s back and forth and back and forth, and then it goes back to her and shows her through the windows of the house. There’s there’s going to be a lot of imagery through windows and in mirrors here, And she turns around and looks, and we don’t even see what she sees. We know what she sees. Right. Instantly just screams. And this the scream is so piercing and so loud and so jarring, and I think so heartbreaking.  And then immediately jumps into a jackhammer. You know, that sound becomes a jackhammer and jump completely to what would be what did they say? How many years later? Just a couple Oh,

Craig:  I don’t know. If even that, I don’t know how long it’s been. Could be a year. Because she we come to find out that she is still very much struggling. Now I don’t know why he was looking at this slide. So presumably, this is a job that he was going to be going to anyway, and that’s what happens. They they go to Venice. We we find out later that their son is in boarding school in England and that’s why he’s not with them, but they’re in Venice together, and, he is working on renovating, this old church.  But one of the first things that we see that happens with them in Venice is they go to lunch, at a restaurant. And before we even get into that, I just have to say again, you know, Venice, I’ve never been there. I’m fascinated by it. The the fact that it’s just kind of this city on the water, like, it’s it’s so Todd, but it makes for such a cool setting for a movie because everywhere they go, they’re traveling via canal, you know, they’re on these gondolas, they’re running over bridges to get across the street. And at the same time that it looks so cool, they also do a really good job of making it kind of run down. You know? And I don’t know how much work they had to do to do this, but, like, it, you know, it looks it looks a little bit rundown and and scary, I guess. I mean, it’s just really Todd. And Yeah.  I read that filming in Venice was actually very difficult because the tides would come in and out and it would affect continuity and there was all kinds of stuff. The thing that I found kind of interesting was that apparently nobody lives in Venice because because all the time, these characters are running around the streets and there’s nobody else there. Like, where are all the people? Yeah. But I I think that that was intentional. I think it was to isolate them and, and and it was effective in that way. One of the very first scenes is they go to lunch at this very fancy restaurant, and the wife notices that these 2 old ladies are, like, staring at them. And eventually these 2 old ladies, get up to go out, but they have a little bit of difficulty. I I don’t even remember what happens.  They have a little bit of difficulty and the wife’s like, oh, I better get up and help them. I guess one of them has something in her eye or something. And so she, she helps them to the ladies’ room, And then that’s where we meet, these 2 women who will be an integral part of the story, and their names are Heather and Wendy. And, they’re they’re both elderly, and Heather has these, cloudy eyes because she’s blind. Then that’s really where this big psychic element comes into the story.  You’re so sad, and there’s no need to be. My sister’s psychic. She wants you to know. I’ve seen her. And she wants you to know that she’s happy. I’ve seen your little girl sitting between you and your husband, and and she was laughing. Yes. Oh, yes.  She is with you. She is with you, my dear. And she’s laughing.

Todd:  This whole scene is filmed in the this very small bathroom. And because it’s so small that it most of it’s filmed in the mirrors in the bathroom, and it’s not like there’s one big mirror. This mirror is segmented, and you can turn the different panels. Like, you know, you wanna look at different sides of your hair or something like that. And there’s also a a person sitting in there at the same time, a woman, older woman who’s just, like, sitting there, like, she’s the bathroom attendant or something like

Craig:  that. I couldn’t tell if she was just peeing. Like, I didn’t know what  she was doing.

Todd:  Yeah. But, again, just sort of like I said in the beginning, the camera does seem to linger on her just just a little bit Todd much to the point where you get a little uncomfortable, and you think, what’s going on, and why is why is this woman important? And this is another technique that you’ll see this director use throughout the movie is that there are insignificant characters in this film that are given a certain kind of significance by the camera, and you don’t really know why. It’s very unsettling, I think.

Craig:  Yeah. It’s sinister. It’s it’s, you know, it makes you yeah. Like you said, it makes you wonder why are they important and and they seem somewhat sinister. And really, I would say 98% of the time, there’s nothing to it. It’s just a method of kind of making you a little bit at unease, I think.

Todd:  Yeah. Well, it gives the impression, I think, you kind of hit the nail on the head there when you talk about Venice. I’m fortunate enough to have to have been to Venice, and I I loved it. It was a beautiful city, and it was just every bit as romantic as it seems in in other movies as they make it seem. I was actually quite shocked at how true truly romantic and fun that city was. And that is in stark contrast, as you pointed out, to how this movie portrays Venice. Venice is this cold, kind of sinister, seems to be a very scary place. And they’re they’re very much alone here.  And when they’re not alone, it it just seems like there are shady characters who are just staring at them a little too long, like they’re completely out of place. In a way, I would say almost like ghosts. Mhmm. That is the subconscious feeling you get when you watch this movie. And so, anyway, the psychic woman delivers this message. And, of course, this shocks the mother, but it shocks her in a in a way that, really comforts her. And as these these ladies leave, Laura runs back to the table very excited. And it’s not that she’s been moping around, you know, for the, I don’t know, 10 minutes that we see her after the death of their daughter, but as we, you know, as he mentions later, she just hasn’t been herself that affected her deeply.  And whereas it seems like he might have been able to move on from it a little bit, you know, and kind of get on with life, she’s was still had this bit of hang up. And that all goes away for her, it seems, in in her excitement and hearing this message, this comforting message from the psychic. And, again, you don’t really know how good or bad this is going to be, because these women end up being portrayed in a very sinister way in the film. Even though by the end of it, you go back and you think about it, this lady’s okay. She’s got some kind of psychic gift. Right? She obviously does, and she obviously gave this woman some comfort. And every time they come on the screen, they’re helpful or, you know, at the very most kind of confused to be swept up in the events. But otherwise, they don’t do anything bad.

Craig:  No. They’re just nice old ladies. They are,

Todd:  but the movie is not going to allow you to consider them to be nice old ladies.

Craig:  It’s just not. Right. Right. Right. Yes. There’s certainly an air of mystery, around them and and you question their motives. And I think that the movie does that intentionally because there are some points where, like, I feel like Laura is trying to explain to John, oh, you know, I talked to them and they’re psychics and they told me this and blah blah blah and he’s either he or somebody else is questioning and then the movie will just cut to the 2 sisters laughing maniacally. Mhmm.  So and then and then cut away from it. With no context, you have no idea what’s going on. So you wonder if they have some sort of sinister motives, and and I think that that’s intentional and it keeps you on your toes, but ultimately in the end, you find out, no. They they really don’t. And in fact, if anything, they just kind of got swept up in this, you know, like they don’t really have any motivation at all. Yeah. It just turns out that, you know, Heather is a psychic and she can see these things and she just kind of passes on information. There’s really no benefit to them in in any way, you know, aside from helping these people.

Todd:  That’s right. Yeah. They’re not trying to scam her.

Craig:  No. No. But but but you question. Maybe they are. You don’t know.  You have  no idea what’s going on.  Yep.  Well, and so she’s all excited, I guess. And I guess in her excitement, she faints. And so they take her to the hospital, but, she tells you know, after she’s examined, the doctor says she’s fine. Laura.  John. Laura. Listen.

Clip:  I’m perfectly alright. In fact, I haven’t got as good as this in months months. I feel really fine. I don’t need pills. I’m not going crazy. I feel really great. John, I wish you’d believe me. I really feel fine.  I really feel good at last. I  feel good. I believe you. Seeing is believing. I believe you.

Craig:  They leave the hospital and they are on a gondola and, they pass by a church and she says, I I wanna stop at this church. And so they do and she says that she she wants to light a candle and say a prayer, for her daughter, which she does. And there’s just again, I think that this is a credit to the film making. It’s a very natural scene where, you know, she’s kneeling there Craig and he walks up and he’s like, I don’t like this church. And and she’s like, well, I do. So and and and and I read that there was actually, you know, a big scripted scene for this. What happened was they were just they were rolling film, and what we see him saying, I don’t like this church and her responding, that was just the actors interacting with one another, but they felt that that was far more natural than what they had scripted, which the director ended up thinking by comparison was pretty heavy handed, so they just kept it. And I think that that’s, you know, that’s that’s good filmmaking when you can, you know, assess things in the moment, and it’s true.  You know, it did feel like a very natural moment between a husband and wife and and that’s what he was hoping to establish, especially moving into the scenes, that we’re getting into. Now they meet they meet with a bishop of a church that he is renovating, And I I thought that this guy was gonna be important, so I wrote down his name as Bishop Baragio or Barbara I don’t know.

Todd:  Something

Craig:  something Italian. And he’s restoring the church. But then we get this scene of the 2 of them, and it’s just kind of a domestic scene of

Todd:  the 2 of

Craig:  them in their hotel room. Okay. Okay.

Todd:  Alright, Craig. I’m gonna have to stop you.

Craig:  I was alright. I knew it. What am I missing? What am I missing with the Boraga Baragio guy? No. You’re definitely I

Todd:  mean, we’re we’re plowing very much through the plot as well we should. But one thing that

Craig:  I wanna get to the good sexy part.  Oh, yeah. We’re doing the sexy part.

Todd:  We’re doing the notorious sexy part for sure. But, but what but what I wanna get to is the the imagery and the visuals and the symbols that crop up during this time, that we’ve Okay. We’ve talked about. Let’s go back, for example, to her fainting. Alright? When she faints, she knocks over the table. It’s very slow motion. Again, it’s a slow motion with lots of water falling and things like that. That’s a bit evocative of him at pulling his daughter out of the the the lake.  And then it does close-up on the glass of, I think it’s oil and some water and stuff that tips over on the table and plops down. It even flashes back to, one of the very first visuals that we get of the movie of rain going on some water to make these obvious visual comparisons and flashbacks. But John is not as happy as Laura is. John is a little disturbed by this psychic thing or at least by what Laura is doing. But you can see this conflict in him where he’s happy that his wife is happy, and he kinda comes around to that idea that she is okay. She’s comforted by this, but he really wants to have no part in it. And he’s even just a little too unsettled by it. For example, in this scene when they’re in the hospital, and she is looking through the the window, it looks like, at a nursery, I think.  It’s some kids playing around it. Yeah.

Craig:  A kid. Well, not it’s not babies, but it’s it’s children.

Todd:  Younger children. Yeah. And we’re getting, again, through the glass, and this is this is hammered hammered home these visuals through the glass, through mirrors and things like that, reflections just like water, just like all the visuals of glass and reflections and water that we saw in the beginning of the movie. She’s watching these kids, and one of the boys is tossing a ball up in the air. And the ball that he has is a little ball, and it has a little red pattern on it. It’s not exactly the same pattern, but it’s the same color and same kind of ball that the girl had that she was tossing around and playing with. And we’re gonna see this ball show up again and again because it turns out at one point when they come back to the scene we’re going to get to in a minute, we even see that they they have this ball with them. It’s in their luggage.  You know, it’s something they’re kind of holding onto, but it’s not really very explained, but it pops up. Yeah. And, on their way to this church, as they’re going through the canals, they pass by, a hearse and a scene. There’s some police there. It’s it’s a little unclear what’s going on. They pass through. There’s some words exchanged in Italian. There’s a bit of a crowd, but not an excited Craig, just a looking crowd.  And there’s even a guy up on a banister, you know, up a few step stories up who stares at them as they go through. And this guy will pop up in odd and insignificant ways later on in the film as well. But you get this feeling. This is this is where you start to get this feeling that, again, like I said, if they’re isolation, maybe they’re being watched and these things kind of happening around them. And the first time through, you don’t really know what what this is, what’s going on. But as the movie plays out, you realize this is the first of a series of crime scenes

Craig:  Mhmm.

Todd:  That they are coming through. And there’s apparently a murderer, who is loose in Venice right now and killing people, and they happen upon the crime scenes every single time.

Craig:  That’s funny. I totally miss that. Yeah. It it wasn’t until much later in the movie where John witnesses a body being pulled out of the canal. That was the first time I even noticed Oh, yeah. The murder stuff. Oh, sure.

Todd:  And I think that’s either the second or third time it happens, but you’re right. It’s not obvious. And and this is one of these things that kinda gets revealed to you later. And why I say whether it’s a good thing or not, it it definitely rewards a second viewing once you kind of get an idea of what’s going on. But anyway, they pass by a hearse. There are all these guys looking at them weird. And when and when they go to this church that you mentioned, he does see the blind woman and her friend there at the church.

Craig:  Oh, he does? I didn’t notice that either.

Todd:  Oh, yeah. He sat he he sees them out of the corner of his eye, and he runs over and kneels down like he’s praying and has his hands over his face, but but then kind of looks up as because he doesn’t wanna be seen by them, but at the same time, he wants to see if if if if he’s seeing them. And sure enough, they walk by. They’re they’re touring through the church, and, so he sees them, but he doesn’t really say anything to her about it. When they meet up with a priest at this other church, the priest says something very telling to them. Now the the actor I read who played this is is Italian. He didn’t know any English. So he looked quite literally Mhmm.  Didn’t know what he was saying. He just learned his lines phonetically and said them. And as you said, he has kind of a sinister presence.

Craig:  He Mhmm.

Todd:  He really just I think the best way to describe it is seems fixated on John in a way that he’s seems like he’s a little disturbed or troubled by John, almost from the get go. Mhmm. And there’s some imagery, some close ups on his cross, and the 2 of them are noticing it. And at some point, he make he asked some comment if she’s Christian and and such and such and such, and then he makes a comment to John, this priest does.

Craig:  The churches belong to God, but he doesn’t seem to care about them. Does he have other priorities? We have stopped listening.

Todd:  We’ve stopped listening.

Craig:  Yeah. I guess, I might have to watch it again. Because they saw some of these little things, you know, like, she kisses his ring, you know, when they meet and then he asks if she’s Christian and then after he’s gone, the wife’s like, why would he ask if I’m Christian? And the husband’s like, well, you kissed his ring. What would compel you to do that? And, like, all these little things going on, I just I, you know, I I I think they must have kind of flown over my head a little bit. I I don’t know. I guess I just didn’t have the context. But now that you’re pointing them out, I mean, even like, I can’t believe that I didn’t see that he’s like, eventually, he sees these these these ladies everywhere. Like, they just pop up all over the place, but I totally miss them.  I didn’t see it there. Yes. Can we get to the sexy part yet?  Let’s do it. Where’s the sexy part? We’re already there.

Todd:  Take it away, Craig. Thanks.

Craig:  Okay. So, then they like, there’s just this domestic scene with them in their hotel room, and, like, they talk for a little while. And then, you know, they’re just getting I don’t know. They’re going to dinner, I guess. So they’re getting ready for dinner and they’re both just naked and, you know, getting ready in the bathroom, like, brushing their teeth or whatever, and she kind of teases them like he’s gained weight or whatever and so he goes and weighs. And, you know, it it’s it’s all just very natural, but it ultimately leads into this big sex scene. And, like, you know, I can take or leave sex scenes most of the time, whatever, especially in horror. They’re usually just super gratuitous and, like, laughable, really.  But this scene, I actually thought was just a a a really beautiful scene. Like, the way that it was shot, and it’s it’s it’s pretty darn steamy.

Todd:  It is. But at

Craig:  the same time, it didn’t feel porny.

Todd:  No.

Craig:  It was a, you know, a nice intimate scene between these 2 and for years years years, there was speculation that this scene was not simulated, that the actors were actually engaged in intercourse in this scene. And at age 83, Donald Sutherland, you know, address it on some panel somewhere and said, oh my god. It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. There was nothing sexy about it. Like, we were under these hot lights in this tiny room. Apparently, in the 19 seventies, the the the cameras were very Todd. And then so it was super Todd, and there were 2 the director and, I guess, the DP were in there both with cameras, filming and he was, like, they you know, it was 15 second shots between the director saying, okay, lick her nipples. Okay.  Get between put your head between her legs. But, ultimately, he also said that that’s one of the favorite his favorite scenes that he’s ever done in film because he felt like it was actually representative of making love, you know, not just boning, but, you know, making love. And it comes across that way. It’s good and I I feel like really I I appreciated the scene because it really invested me in their relationship. I believed them as a married, loving, intimate couple and that was helpful moving forward, because there it it raised the stakes, you know. They they really care about each other and they’re concerned about each other and, so good job sex scene.

Todd:  Well, part of the genius of it is what surrounds it too, you know. Like you said, it’s just this it’s this very casual kind of playful where they they’re they’re 2 married people and they they get naked. You know? They’re kind of dressing and they get distracted and so or get un undressing and they get distracted and she’s taken her bath, but she doesn’t run up immediately and throw a towel around herself and start dressing, you know.

Craig:  Right.

Todd:  They’re hanging out there. At one point, the maid pops in and he’s a little, you know, oops. Yeah. Sitting there at his table naked. It’s just it’s just very real. Yeah. You know? And and then, the sex scene, all of this really sexy stuff that that we’re talking about is intercut with the scenes of the post sex operation, which is the putting on of the clothes and the dressing up to go out. So it really gets you with this mindset, like, they’re taking a break Yeah.  To do this thing that varied couples will do sometimes when the mood strikes them, And then they’re gonna get on with their day and go out and kind of have a nice dinner. So it literally intercuts between this and it does it in very good ways to where it’s not jarring, but once one visual kinda plays off another of, you know, him kind of rolling her over. And then it’s suddenly it’s him turning around a little bit and and then tossing his shirt on and then, you know, him close-up with his hands on her breast and then, a shot of her, like, putting on her her sweater or whatnot and starting to button. And, it’s just it’s so odd, but it just feels so right. And it grounds it, like you said, in this reality, in this beauty of sex as a natural act that you loving people do, and not this, you know, ape fest of just, you know, honking all over each other and

Craig:  roping and, you know, like Well, yeah.

Todd:  Even though there’s an awful lot of that happening.

Craig:  Yeah. And I like the point that you bring up that like it’s just, you know, that’s, you know, they do it and then they get dressed and they go out to dinner. And as they’re walking out of the hotel, you know, he’s got his arm around her and he’s holding her close and it’s just very it’s you’re right. It’s real. I mean, those of us who are grown ups and who have experienced love and intimacy, you know, that that happens. You know? Anyway, it’s nice. But let alright. We better move on.  Now this is a part that I I think that you’re gonna have to explain to me because they go out and they’re looking either they’re looking for the restaurant that they’re going to or they’re done and they’re trying to find their way back home. I don’t know, but one way or another, they kind of get lost a little bit and they end up in this dark alley and they’re they’re still having fun, you know, they’re still kind of teasing one another and and whatnot and, but they get kind of in this dark alley and he’s certain that he knows where he’s going, but then they get to the end of this alley and he’s, like, oh, wait. No, this isn’t right. And so she turns around and goes back the other way, but he lingers there for a moment and he like is touching the wall and he says, I know this place and then he hears someone cry for help and it looks like he sees this person crying for help, but he just ignores it and turns around and and rejoins her. And and when she’s like, did you hear that? I heard something. And he was like, oh, it was just a cat or something. What was that all about?

Todd:  Sure. Well, I’m glad you asked. It’s not clear. It’s it’s never gonna be a 100% clear, but he’s obviously getting that feeling of deja vu. And we’re getting the sense that, and it hasn’t been explicitly told to us yet, but we’re getting the sense that he is getting some premonitions here. But what he does witness is something very real, and, again, it’s only through after watching the movie that you realize what it is, and that is he has seen, the killer. There’s a window, like you said, it pans up. He’s standing at the at the end of this, alley, and there’s a canal ahead across them, and then there’s another building in front of them.  And, up the top, there’s a sound of a scream, but a a very domestic thing of, I think a woman just, you know, whips out her laundry, and then closes the shutters. And as the camera pans down, you see this small red figure with a slicker, just like his daughter, you know, wore, scurry across, a door not a doorway, but an opening in in the alleyway across the way. And I think Todd his mind, he wasn’t he didn’t really trust his senses here. He’s looking at this, and he sees somebody fly by in a red slicker, but he knows that his daughter’s on his mind. And so he’s not sure if he really saw anything at all. And again, just because everything in this movie is subtle, it could very well have been a cat scream. You know? He does it’s not like he looked up, there was a shadow of a of a dagger in the window, and then he heard a scream, and then he saw a person small snippet of the aftermath of a of a murder. I was across the street.  I heard something, didn’t really think of it, thought it was a cat, saw a person run by, wasn’t even sure if I saw a person run by, and that’s that. And they just, you know, walk away from it. And it’s not until later that he thinks in his head after he sees more of this that maybe there’s some connection

Craig:  there. Yeah. I I was lost. I didn’t know what was going on, but

Todd:  okay. Well and one other thing I wanna point out just because I’m gonna I’m not gonna point out every little detail because that would get annoying, but there’s another thing that I think is really interesting, and that is their whole relationship with the hotel that they’re staying in. I think it’s interesting that when they leave that hotel scene This is another one of these scenes that just seems to linger a little too long, and you’re really not sure why. They leave the hotel, and they exchange some words with the hotel guy, the owner or whatever. And there’s another person just sort of standing there. And he asked, are you guys gonna eat in? They’re like, no, we’re gonna go out and eat. And he’s like, okay, blah blah Todd, be safe, and and they go. But the camera doesn’t follow them out.  It stays in the hotel on this guy, and he just kinda watches him go. And he turns around. He says something to the staff, and he looks back, and then he just kinda goes back in about his business. And then the camera pans slightly left to the furniture in the hotel lobby, which is all covered with sheets. It all seems very strange, but then as the film goes on and we come back to them in this hotel, we realized the hotel was closing. They’re, like, basically the last guests in this hotel. Right. This is an interesting choice too, I think, because it again, it adds to that sense that they’re alone in this city.  It’s it’s like they’re here. They’re foreign. They don’t belong. People are staring at them everywhere they go, and even the hotel they’re staying in is closing up behind them.

Craig:  Well, to be fair, I mean, I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but aren’t they just closing for the season? Like, I feel like it’s like a  Yeah.  A seasonal deal. It could be. Because he goes back he goes back after they’re closed. And and we’re skipping over some stuff. I’ll come right back to it. But the he goes back and he’s and he talks to the manager, and he’s like, it is my vacation. Like, so I I think it’s just closed up for the season. But yeah.  I mean, it definitely adds to the atmosphere that all the it definitely adds to their isolation. They they run into these ladies again. Well, first of all, they’re they’re at the church that he’s renovating. And I know that you’re gonna wanna mention this because she sees these ladies again. She talks to them and she’s like, can you contact the dead? And at first, Heather, the psychic, is like, I don’t know. Not really. You know, it’s it’s not really my place. And and she’s like, no.  My intentions are good. Would you at least try? And she’s like, okay. So she wants to go, but John doesn’t wanna go. So he goes and waits for her, like, in a cafe while she goes and and meets with these ladies. Heather, the psychic, has like a moment where she, like, rubs her boobs and, like, moans for  a while.

Todd:  Yeah. It’s pretty odd.

Craig:  And and and we don’t really hear what she says, but then and and and John is worried about her and tries to find her in the flat, but can’t find her and everybody’s just kind of suspicious of him, like, snooping around. But when she comes back out and finds him

Clip:  Todd, when I was there, she she went into the most incredible trance really Concentrate. Now, John.

Craig:  Yes? She said

Clip:  that that your life is in danger while you’re in Venice. She get on and on and on saying it.

Craig:  But he’s angry, about this whole shenanigans. But he does agree. He says, I will talk to the bishop and see if I can get some time off and I’ll take some time off. Meanwhile, in the middle of the night, they get a call that their son John was in an accident at school in England. And so in the middle of the night, they make arrangements for Laura to go, to England. She gets a charter flight that she gets the last seat on this flight, but he stays. And so the next Todd, when he’s going to be telling the bishop that he needs to go, he’s checking out these mosaics, in the church, like, they’ve they’ve gotten new tiles to restore these mosaics and, he wants to check to see if they match. So he climbs up this scaffolding and gets on to this, like, window washer.  I don’t know what Todd call it. Elevator kind of thing. And he’s checking the mosaics. And now I noticed this. Did you notice, mister cluey man, that the stain on the wall was the same as the stain on the slide?  Oh, of course.  Yeah. Oh, of course.

Todd:  Mister cluey man.

Craig:  So anyway, the scaffold that he’s on or this hanging scaffold that he’s on collapses and he’s hanging on this rope, and he’s way up high. I mean, I would say a good 2 stories high. It’s a very tense scene and, you know, everybody’s freaking out and they’re trying to help him. Eventually, they get him down. Now I I had read that the stuntman for this scene refused to do it because they hadn’t cleared it through the insurance yet. And so Donald Sutherland just said, well, fine. I’ll do it myself, and he did and he was connected to a safety wire and and they filmed the scene and it was fine. You know, everything went okay and and there was no problem, but, later he was talking to the or a stunt coordinator, I don’t know, and the stunt coordinator said, you know, that that wire that you were hanging from was not designed to be twisted around because when he’s up there on the rope, he’s flailing about and like he’s kind of twisting around And he said, if you had let go, that wire probably would have snapped.  So it was a a dangerous scene, but it it’s, you know, it’s kind of a cool scene and then he’s like, oh, Craig, you know. He even talks to the bishop afterward and he’s like, my wife got this premonition from a psychic that said I was in trouble, and that I was gonna die. But he didn’t and he feels relieved about that.  And then they go ahead. Can can I interrupt? Just just real quick. I I

Todd:  I swear I’m not gonna go too too deep into this. But but they’re just they’re like you said, as mister cluey man,

Craig:  I have an obligation to pop in

Todd:  a few extra clues here. The way that the scaffolding starts to fall is there is a board up in the the rafters that just tips over. It’s not like a person knocks it or whatever. It just seems like it was bound to happen. And, it it tips over, and it whacks a pane of glass that was on some some equipment that was attached Yeah. To this thing that he’s standing on, and it shatters that pane of glass. It’s very reminiscent of the pane of glass just in the very beginning of the movie that the kid ran over with the bicycle. It’s

Craig:  it’s it’s

Todd:  a definite call to that. And in in this scene, you’re right, is absolutely tense, and it looks dangerous even for a stuntman to do. I’m pretty amazed with all the stuff falling and hitting him as he’s dangling and, you know, there that that that didn’t happen. But it’s really key, to point out that when she met with the psychics, one thing that she very specifically said to Laura was your husband has the gift. Yeah. Has the gift. And that’s the first point where it’s explicitly told to us that maybe all of this this weirdness that that he’s feeling is not totally in his head. Maybe he is having these premonitions.  And I think that is the point in which the viewer were clued in to start really looking for these things that have been there all along, And they deliver them. They really do, I think, deliver them in spades. But that point at which she comes to him and she’s so excited, this is also kind of a a breaking point for him.

Clip:  I really think we have to leave, Venice. It was a warning. It was Christine. She was trying to warn us. How can I oh, we must leave, John? John, do you hear what I say? It was Christine, our daughter.

Craig:  My daughter is dead, Laura. She does not come peeping with messages back from behind the ing grave. Christine is dead. She is dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.  Dead.

Todd:  That is the point at which he decides he’s gonna have to let her go back, but he’s he’s not gonna go just yet. He doesn’t I don’t think he really believes that he’s in danger. Or if he does, he just doesn’t know what to do. And I and I think this just sort of rings true to life. It’s like we don’t get these clear signals in life about the next step we’re supposed to take or the next decision we’re supposed to to make. Sometimes we just get a sense of what maybe we should do or maybe we don’t, but we don’t really come to a decision, so we really don’t for a while. Mhmm. And I feel like that’s the the area in which he’s living in right here.  He’s a little uncomfortable. He’s a little disturbed by what’s going on. Maybe he’s getting these premonitions, but he’s just not willing to just lay down and accept that. So he just the decision he makes is to kind of not really make a decision. He just is like, okay, then you go home if that’s what you wanna do, and maybe I’ll follow you soon. Right.

Craig:  Yeah. Yeah. I think that he was going to be yeah. Because he said he would take the time off. I’m glad that you brought that up because it’s certainly important that the psychic lady says your your husband has the gift Todd. That’s why your daughter was trying to contact him. She says, when I saw you in the restaurant, she was trying to talk to your husband. And you know that’s just an interesting conversation that we could have that would take another 55 minutes or whatever.  Yeah. I I think everybody’s a little bit psychic, you know. And I don’t mean that in the, you know, we all see things or have premonitions or whatever, but you have feelings. You know, you have good feelings about some things. You have bad feelings about some things, and I think for some people, that’s more heightened. And and you really kinda get the sense in this movie that if he was more in tune with that maybe somewhat  heightened ability that he  has, that that would help him. Signs, you know, like, go with your gut. But he Right. Doesn’t. He doesn’t. Yeah. Go with your gut. But he Right.  Doesn’t. He doesn’t.

Todd:  Yeah. And it’s not and it’s not final destination in that death leaves these signs that if you’re good, you can find them. But it’s exactly what you described. It’s it feels like a more real kind of when you feel uneasy about something, even if you can’t pinpoint why, your brain probably knows

Craig:  Right.

Todd:  Better than your consciousness does, and it’s a good idea to heed those those feelings for even if you can’t explain them away

Craig:  Right.

Todd:  With a little with a little supernatural element thrown in here. You know, it’s not explicitly supernatural, but I think we’re I I would go on record saying this movie is definitely paints him as having a psychic gift, just as these women legitimately have some psychic gift.

Craig:  Right. At this point okay. So he’s talking to the bishop after this whole accident, and they they see, a body getting pulled out of the canal. And that was really kind of the first time that I even noticed that there were these murders going on. But apparently, there’s a murderer on the loose. He has to like you said, he has to leave the hotel because they’re closing, so he’s leaving. Now I got the sense that he was headed like, he was gonna leave for England. Like, he was on the canal and he was gonna leave for England, but he sees Laura and the old lady sisters on a boat on the canal.  She’s supposed to be in England, so he’s Laura is and so he’s totally weirded out. And so he calls out to them, but they don’t respond. But he goes to the police because he’s worried about this murderer and the fact that his wife is supposed to be in England, but she’s not. And he tells the police that, you know, she’s not a well woman. I’m I’m concerned about her. And the police kinda blow him off, and again, this is another instance where the the the chief of police or whoever it is that he’s talking to comes across as being kind of sinister, like, you can’t really tell what’s going on in his mind. The police, you know, basically just kind of dismiss him, but they put a tail on him. And he goes and he’s been looking for the sisters building, but he hasn’t been able to find it.  But eventually, he does find it, but their room their hotel room is empty. And so, he’s he’s still very concerned, but then he calls his son’s school which I don’t know why he didn’t do this from the very beginning.  Yeah.  He he calls his son’s school and he’s like, is my kid okay? And they’re like, yeah. Do you wanna talk to your wife? And he’s all surprised, but she’s there and she’s been there and she’s fine and the kid is fine So he doesn’t really know what’s going on. Meanwhile, the police have arrested Heather and Wendy because he said that they may have something to do with his wife’s disappearance and and he finds that out and he goes to the the police station and Heather, the blind one is there, but Wendy has gone like like she goes to her embassy, I guess because they’ve been arrested and she wants help. The police let them go and so he walks, Heather home. By the end, Heather explains, you know, we switched hotels. There was nothing ominous going on there. And, he takes her there, and Wendy’s already there. And, like, they offer him a drink, but he just has some water and he stays and he’s apologetic and he feels really bad and but he leaves.  Meanwhile, Laura has gotten back to Venice and she was taken immediately to the police station because that’s where he was supposed to be, but he’s not there. So the police give her the address to Heather and Wendy’s flat and she heads that way, but she doesn’t get there before he leaves. They kind of cross paths in the night like he leaves and then she arrives immediately after. And Heather has this vision where, again, she has, like, a seizure.

Clip:  Please make him fight. Action. Action.

Craig:  And so Laura goes out looking for him, which, again, I thought this was just kind of a funny scene because she just runs around Venice like it’s like a like like it’s a block. Like like like if she just runs around the block a couple of times, eventually, surely, she’ll find him. He is out there and sporadically throughout the movie, he has thought that he has seen his daughter, I guess. I mean, it’s this small person in a red rain slicker and he sees this person again and he starts following her and Laura is chasing him around and eventually he finds her and he corners her in like a room or a corner or something and she’s standing there with her back to the wall and then she turns around and then I have no idea what’s happening.

Todd:  Well, this is this is the murderer. Okay? So so what what has happened here? And I’ll just flat out explain it. And, you know, it’s

Craig:  Please, because I have no idea.

Todd:  It’s convenient for the story. It’s one of those, you know, writers things where okay. Alright. These are just a series of coincidences that are just gonna propel the story along. But this killer has been wearing this red rain slicker the entire time, that she’s been seen be seen by him and out and about. And so, you know, it just so happens that his daughter, you know, wore that Red Reigns similar Red Reign slicker. So, you know, when he thinks he’s seeing her out and about, he’s probably he’s actually seeing the killer. And so when he chases this little person, this red rain slicker, down into this alley, and it turns around.  It’s it’s not his daughter. It’s this killer, and he is the he is the the next victim. So she just hacks him with a knife. And this point here, where he gets cut with a knife in the neck, and he falls down, just starts to bleed out to death. I’ll liken it to spoiler alert. If you’ve if you haven’t seen The Usual Suspect, cover your ears right now. But this is the this is the Kaiser Soze moment of The Usual Suspects in a way where it’s flashing back to a lot of these symbols that and and premonitions that were given to us in the movie. It’s it’s connecting things a little bit.  It’s showing, the him coming face to face with a statue that looks an awful lot like this kind of hag like woman that ends up being this murderer that he gets face to face with. It’s it’s bouncing back and forth with these visuals that I a lot of which I haven’t pointed out, but some I have, the breaking glass and then the one point where they had the breaking glass, and and and back and back and forth, and trying to visually tie some of that for us together because this may be the only time we see the movie. Right. So it’s it’s pointing out all of those things quite explicitly through a back and forth cut. So he dies. I mean, that’s it. He’s he’s dead. And the final finale is that, sure enough, they’re on a on a hearse floating through is this is his wife and the 2 ladies.  And what he had seen was a premonition of his own funeral. Right. That’s the basically, the image that it leaves us with more or less, as as the credits roll.

Craig:  I have to say that this convention, and it is a convention, you don’t see it all the time, but where there’s a killer and you know there’s there’s all this intrigue and mystery and then it turns out that the killer is somebody that you’ve never seen before and you have no idea who they are. That irritates me a little bit.  Yeah. I agree. Well

Todd:  and that’s the thing like this. That’s because the movie is totally unconcerned about the mystery of the killer. Like you said, we don’t even really get a clear understanding that there is a series of murders going around until, like, maybe the 3rd time. And then it’s like, oh, yeah. So that’s what they had been seeing the last few times. The movie isn’t really trying to set this up as a a murder mystery along with, you know, this couple’s grieving and and this psychic weirdness. It’s it’s purely just plot driven device.

Craig:  Yeah. And and I feel like it’s it’s more kind of a a character study, you know, of these characters, Todd on around, and if he had been or even if he had listened to the people who were trying to warn him, that he might have escaped this fate, and and I do think that that’s more important. But when this person turns around and she’s this little she’s, I don’t know, like, 4 foot something, and she’s just this little squat old lady and I’m like, what?  Where did this come from? Yeah.

Todd:  Well, am I supposed to because you’re me well, you’re thinking, am I supposed to know who this is? Right? Is this, like, a reveal or something? And it turns out not to be. And that, I think, is a weakness of the film. I honestly agree with you there. I think that this whole ending seems a little contrived. But, you know, there’s even, like, you know, some of these back and forth. One thing that we really haven’t talked about, because I’m not gonna go out and point it out, but when you watch this movie a second time, you need to look for the red. Just look for the red. It is everywhere.  Because most of Venice, like you said, and most of this movie is is fairly dreary

Craig:  looking Yeah.

Todd:  Fairly muddy looking. It takes a beautiful place and really makes it not as beautiful as it should be. But what really pops is the red. You’ll notice in every scene, almost, there is some red, and it comes back in some really unsettling ways. But I think the first time you see it through, at least what the director’s trying to do is make this very subconscious. But it sure seems very clever once you start watching this movie from the beginning again and looking for this red. And, I don’t know. I just I just as like you said, as a as a movie put together, it’s really well made.  I think that it’s it’s done like a painter paints. You know? The it’s very concerned about the visuals, puts a lot of time and thought and energy into these tiny little details that are in the scene that are all very significant, but are not immediately obvious to you while you’re watching the movie. I think they just all combine to give you an overall effect. And that is the bed that underpins the plot, which you like you said, it’s more a character study. It’s not it’s not as interested in the plot as it is with instilling us with this feeling of grief and loss that these people are going through, and the loneliness that, they that they experience because of it, and the tension that puts on their relationship. And then with that psychic element thrown in, how, you know, not really paying too much attention to those things and those signs leads to his ultimate, you know, demise.

Craig:  Yeah. I I would be really interested in reading the source material. The the author of the source material contacted. I don’t know if it was the director or one of the other filmmakers but contacted them after seeing it and said that she thought that they did a great job, that she thought that it was a great adaptation of her work and an excellent film, and it feels literary, you know, it feels like you you have to pay a little bit more attention than your especially your standard horror flick, and that’s not being critical of those because I love those Todd, but there’s there’s a lot going on here, and and I I believe you. You know, I think in watching it a second time, there would be some satisfaction in picking up on some of the things that I didn’t pick up the first time. So, you know, overall, again, as I’ve said from the beginning and I stand by it, I think it’s a really, really well made film. But I I think you’re right that, you know, to really appreciate it, you’re probably gonna have to see it more than once.

Todd:  Yep. For sure. And and, you know, is that is that a sign of a good film? I don’t know. You know, honestly. I

Craig:  don’t know.

Todd:  I don’t know. It I feel like you have an obligation as a as a producer of art to not try deliberate You’re supposed to be communicating something. If you’re deliberately masking, you know, things, too much, then you’re really working against what you’re trying to accomplish. In this sense, I don’t think they’re doing that, but is it too subtle? You know? Is there is all of this a little too clever for its own good? Should you really have to rewatch a movie to be able to pick up on all these things, and the first time around, you’re more confused by it than anything else? Yeah. I don’t know. We we can argue both sides of that, I think.

Craig:  Yeah. I mean, if it weren’t as well made as it is, I would say, yeah, that’s that’s crap. You know, don’t don’t just don’t just force me to watch it again for the sake of making me watch it again, but this is this is well made. I think it’s well crafted and well put together and well thought out. And, again, it’s it’s not my favorite movie. I still thought it was a little boring, but I can appreciate and understand why people give it such praise and and why it ends up on those must see lists. I get it.

Todd:  Well, it’s a good way to kick off our month of don’ts. Yeah.

Craig:  This is

Todd:  a but the I think that the distance between, don’t look now and say, don’t look in the basement is going to be significant, probably. Thanks again for listening to another episode. If you enjoyed it, please share it with a friend. You can find us on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher, wherever you find your favorite podcasts. You can also find our Facebook page. Like us there. Go to our home page at 2 guys dot redfortynet.com, where we occasionally post some written movie reviews to supplement our podcast. Until next time.  I’m Todd. And I’m Craig with 2 Guys and a Chainsaw.

1 Response

  1. Nick says:

    I just found you guys with this episode and I almost turned it off when Craig said it bored him, but I’m so glad I didn’t. I enjoyed the conversation so much I’m slowly binging through the entire backlog and I’m loving it.

    I would like to suggest a movie, 2011’s Manborg. It’s a super silly sci-fi lowbudget film with cyborgs, karate fights and WW2 vampires. I’ve shown it to every person I can. Here’s the IMDB link https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2060525/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *