Tron: Ares, The Cat from Outer Space, and Diane Keaton may not seem like natural companions. TFT accepts the challenge. Jett and Gareth consider the latest Tron while remembering Keaton and the rare quality she embodied so completely: the courage to be unmistakably, gloriously yourself.
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Jett Loe (00:01.161)
Okay, Gareth, Gareth, hear me out here. When we talk about the new motion picture, huge, big budget, spectacular Tron Aries, we also have to talk about Disney's classic, the cat from outer space.
Gareth (00:04.29)
Yes.
Gareth (00:15.598)
Why?
Jett Loe (00:18.343)
Well, let's find out, folks.
theme music and then whenever you're
Gareth (00:28.194)
Welcome, dear listener, to another episode of the Film Talk. It is as my dear friend Jett Lowe says. One big conversation about the art and meaning of movies. Jett's here with me. I'm Gareth Higgins. We're going to talk about Tron Aries and we're also going to talk about a beloved star creative artist who has just...
Jett Loe (00:53.235)
Jared Leto.
Gareth (00:59.244)
Who has just left us. That is, course, Diane Keaton. Jared Leto has not left us. He is still with us. Jed, what did we talk about first?
Jett Loe (01:10.793)
Still with us.
Jett Loe (01:17.373)
Let's get right into Tron Aries, because this film fascinates me, and I made a little joke about the cat from outer space, but I am completely serious when I say that's got to be part of the conversation about Tron Aries, as well as Disney's The Shaggy DA. But let's get into a clip in a second now. For folks who are not familiar with the whole Tron franchise, if that's the right word, what's the story with Tron Aries? What's the plot like in a nutshell, in a sentence?
Gareth (01:19.213)
Mm-hmm.
Gareth (01:42.04)
So Tron Aries is the third in what will apparently only be a trilogy of Tron films. It's... I know, and before we get into it, I have almost thoroughly enjoyed two of them and enjoyed one dimension.
Jett Loe (01:49.417)
I'm amazed the first one got made. These are never been successful films.
Jett Loe (02:05.095)
Yes.
Gareth (02:09.44)
No pun intended, one dimension of the new one. And I'm really, really perturbed, curious, intrigued by the other dimension that we'll get into. Basically, it's what happens when a computer generated world collides with ours and Jeff Bridges waxes philosophical while people run around on brightly neon colored bikes.
Jett Loe (02:37.306)
And we've got a clip, folks. In this clip, there's not much dialogue, thankfully. It's more about the vibes. By the way, I don't wanna be flippin' here. I wanna take this film seriously, so I apologize if I seem negative about it, but the film is a, well, it's something. In this clip, we've got, amazingly, yes, Greta Lee from Past Lives is in this film. Why, you ask? There's a question. Greta Lee along with Jared Leto-Orleto.
Gareth (02:58.574)
Mm-hmm.
Jett Loe (03:05.448)
They're escaping on a light cycle. They're in a beautiful computer cyber world. It's supposed to be a thrilling chase, I think, but it's not really thrilling. It's just more vibes. It's kind of chill. We listen to some music from Nine Inch Nails. You want to imagine the visuals? You ever see Flash Gordon? You know how that's all about the vibes, the great 1980 film.
Gareth (03:25.966)
The Mike Hodges.
Jett Loe (03:27.522)
Mike Hodges, only the director of Get Carter could do Flash Court, which is a great movie. But that's got scenes of like Flash escaping on flying bikes and stuff. And this is very, very kind of a similar thing. Let's listen in.
Okay, whenever you're ready, my dear friend, Gareth Higgins.
Gareth (03:48.77)
And that was Tron Aries. I want to say this right off the bat. You already mentioned the word vibes and that's what these films are. They're they're they're all about vibes. There's something deeply missing from this particular one that I don't think was absent the first two. But let's be honest, neither Tron nor Tron Legacy are known for the
eloquence or erudition of their scripts or the dialogue they're in. They're sort of slightly knowing. I started to watch Original Tron the other night and early in that, the way the, I guess you call them the Jeff Bridges avatar inside the computer world, the way he speaks is a bit like the robot from Buck Rogers in the 21st century. There's some knowing stuff, there was always a bit of humor in there.
but the point was the vibes, both visual and auditory. These films look fantastic. There's great creativity behind the movement in them. And there's this kind of unusual thing in that each of the three films was scored by someone who you might call a real musician, right? Not.
Not a, I mean, that's probably going to sound insulting to some people. don't intend it that way. mean, someone, I mean, who, and yes, I like, that's really what I mean. An innovator who would have had, and actually in the case of these three musicians or musical acts,
Jett Loe (05:15.172)
It is an innovator, an innovator.
Gareth (05:33.141)
an independent career in their own right away from the movies and whose music would be called cinematic even if they'd never scored a film. That's Wendy Carlos for Tron, Daft Punk for Tron Legacy and Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor and Atticus, I guess it was Atticus Ross working with him on this or not. mean, these scores are incredible.
Jett Loe (05:47.57)
Fantastic.
Jett Loe (05:53.993)
I always assumed Atticus Ross was another pseudonym for Trent Reznor. Yeah.
Gareth (05:59.054)
for Trent Reznor.
Jett Loe (06:02.514)
Let's talk about, and folks who don't know Wendy Carlos, I mean, she did scores for Clockwork Orange, the incredible title sequence for The Shining, so she was a go-to for Kubrick. Real groundbreaking electronic artist, and of course Daft Punk is fantastic.
Gareth (06:06.091)
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Gareth (06:12.343)
Mm-hmm.
Gareth (06:16.535)
So these scores are the kind of scores you can listen to all the time, divorced from the film. And I do actually, I listen to the Daft Punk Tron Legacy score all the time. And I will listen to this, yeah.
Jett Loe (06:28.368)
Me too. And I know a bunch of people who do. They listen to the Daft Punk score all the time.
Gareth (06:33.547)
Yeah. And I will listen to the Nine Inch Nails score for Tron Aries frequently as well. It sounds fantastic. And the thing looked fantastic. But what's going on in it? At one level, it's anybody's guess. At another level, the plot is so simplistic as to just kind of disappear into the ether. And the strangest thing of all is
And you know me, Jett, and Dear Listener, know me as well. I don't like to criticise for its own sake. And I certainly don't like to personalise criticism. There's no, yeah, mean, thinking, the best criticism of bad is the practice of the better. But sometimes you do need to kind of name what the problem is. I think it's because I think what's happening in this film, the problem with this film,
Jett Loe (07:05.916)
Yes.
Jett Loe (07:12.594)
Sure, not helpful. Not helpful.
Jett Loe (07:22.15)
Is that why you're working on a new transcript?
Gareth (07:30.606)
is emblematic of a problem in a lot of large scale blockbuster action type movies today. The ideas are not even, they're not even half baked. The ideas are simply mentioned. You the idea of what would happen if an AI generated humanoid could achieve consciousness. The idea is just mentioned. It's not developed. It's not tested. There's no sense of dramatic stakes for that character.
What would happen if David Warner's character from the first Tron, the great David Warner, who I like to think of as a friend of the film talk, although I have no evidence whatsoever that he ever heard the show. I'm sure he would have been a friend of the film talk.
Jett Loe (08:12.656)
You know, the things you cast, sure, he would have done the show. mean, he didn't turn down work. The thing with David Warner, it's not like you can put him in a film and hope that there's a twist where the audience realizes he's a villain towards the end. Because once you see David Warner, you go, look, it's David Warner. And he's always great. He's great, I mean, he's...
Gareth (08:18.443)
He wouldn't have, yeah, I
Gareth (08:26.945)
He's the best. Well, in Tron, in original Tron, in original Tron, it's obvious he's bad from from the start. But.
Jett Loe (08:39.292)
Yes, because when the titles say Ann David Warner, that's when you know.
Gareth (08:42.475)
Yes, you know it. You know it. So, you know, what if David Warner had a daughter who wasn't as bad as bad David Warner, but her son was worse than worse than David Warner on his worst days? That's an that's an interesting idea, but it's kind of just mentioned. Greta Lee is is a wonderful actor, but I couldn't tell. Well, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, she's a wonderful actor, but she she's not.
Jett Loe (09:09.732)
Everyone is a wonderful actor in this film. Evan Peters, Arturo Castro, one of my favorite comedians. I kind of say a shout out to Arturo Castro. He must have been so excited when his agent told him, you are going to be in the neutron, you're going to be the comedy relief. He was maybe thinking of Anthony Anderson, Transformers thing. And you have never heard in your life, dear listener, more comedy lines, just go flat. Now, that may be because I was literally, this is true, my hand to God, I swear on the film talk, I was the only person in the audience.
Gareth (09:11.105)
Yeah, there's, there are, yes.
Gareth (09:38.369)
You swear on the film talk? that, hold on, I was gonna say, is that a way of saying this is a substantial oath or it's an oath that's not worth the paper that it's written on? There's no hair oath that's wearing on TFT.
Jett Loe (09:39.94)
I swear there is no higher oath.
Jett Loe (09:49.289)
There's no higher oath for me. No, no, no higher oath. Well, unless I do a Godfather, I swear upon the lives of my wife and my children. That's higher.
Gareth (09:59.273)
Well, we'll get to it. We are going to get to the Godfather later in this episode.
Jett Loe (10:02.66)
Okay, but Arturo, I mean, he's supposed to become relief and the lines they give him about, breakfast burritos, which they keep revisiting, it's poor.
Gareth (10:10.061)
So much of it is just predictable dialogue. And it's miscast, again, not in the sense that these people are poor actors. They're just the wrong people for these roles. But maybe the roles haven't been fleshed out enough. There is one really genuinely imaginative scene in it. And that's the one scene where Jeff Bridges shows up and they go back into original Tron world. And what appears to be happening is that Ares is
having a dialogue with a sort of a highly advanced chat GPT imaginative version of what Jeff Bridges might be like based on all the knowledge that Aries has absorbed about that character. That's kind of interesting. But you really could watch this film with all the dialogue silenced and you'd probably have a better time. And I'm not being snarky when I say that, because the thing looked and felt wonderful.
You're going to not like what I'm about to say, Chad, but I say it with great.
Jett Loe (11:10.02)
Okay, and by the way, I'm going to get back to you about this script being silenced because that directly ties into what I talked about at the beginning of the picture with the cat from outer space. But anyway, keep going. Yes.
Gareth (11:17.291)
the cat and the Shaggy DA. I'm going to watch this film again. I'll have it on in the background. I'll have it on just to look at it and listen to it. But I, I, I find it so it's, it's sorry. Can you cut some data there?
Jett Loe (11:23.026)
Sure.
Jett Loe (11:37.04)
It's okay, you're getting emotional. You're getting emotional.
Gareth (11:42.062)
I'm going to watch this film again. I'll have it on in the background. I loved how it looked. I loved how it felt, but I'll have it with the, know, I'd love someone to bring out a version where the dialogue is silenced. And I am not saying that just to kind of repudiate it or be critical for its own sake. I think it's, it indicates something about what's wrong with blockbuster filmmaking. What's crept in. Like you used to have with a film like, here I saw a cranky old man.
Jett Loe (11:43.74)
Yes.
Jett Loe (12:11.74)
Yes.
Gareth (12:12.185)
There are plenty of blockbuster films in which there are actually ideas and there are scenes that deserve to be in the picture and there is a plot and there is action that moves forward and there are reversals for the protagonist and there are surprises. This can be done. know, as you know, the gold standard for me of an action film with ideas is The Abyss. Which you still haven't watched. It's not an action film.
Jett Loe (12:32.386)
Field of dreams. Field of dreams.
I'm gonna watch Field of Dreams. Dear listeners, if you're a new listener, if you're a new listener, you do not realize for the 10 years we did the show, however long we did it, Gareth kept trying to get me to watch Field of Dreams. I have now bought one of those 4K Blu-ray players and Gareth has given me, he's sent over a 4K Field of Dreams and I am gonna watch it. We'll do that as a bonus episode. Sorry, sorry for the derail. Yes, it was hand delivered. Yes.
Gareth (12:56.641)
I had it hand delivered. I had it hand, I had it hand delivered. So I think this is the gold standard that you can make a totally gripping, massive scale action film that actually has ideas. Earlier this summer, the new Mission Impossible film, we both thought this is amazingly captivating, a lot of fun, totally insane at some level, actually has something to say with characters who you believe in.
But so many films, and I'm not talking about films that are intentionally B movies or whose budget you wouldn't expect a screenplay of substance to match the, or to go beyond the cheap special effects. This is a film that cost over $200 million. There are apparently, and, and, and,
Jett Loe (13:44.845)
that hurts. You could buy a White House ballroom for that much money.
Gareth (13:50.508)
You know, and I know people joke about it's a pity they couldn't spend the money on the script. I have no idea what happened to the script. We both know screenwriters who have the experience of they worked their asses off to do the best job they can do and then something happens in the translation of this work to the screen. So I don't know if the screenplay was so diluted by the time they came to make the thing that there was not much left or if it was the case that...
this kind of mass produced huge scale thing, all that's required at the level of the executives who greenlight the thing is just mention some ideas and we'll be fine. And the pity about that is it's likely now there'll not be another Tron film because it has flopped. And I often think when I watch films like this and I see these gaps,
In all sincerity, Jett, why don't they hire you to take a look at their screenplays before they shoot? Let's start a campaign. Let's start a campaign. Let's start a campaign. It looks great. It feels great. The vibes are great. I'll watch it again. And it's a huge disappointment.
Jett Loe (14:52.444)
God bless you. God bless you, Care. Well, we could, and actually...
Jett Loe (15:02.716)
Well, this, were you expecting much though? Well, but we can go into that because this is the weird thing about Tron. These films were never, even when the original one came out, I went back and looked at old reviews like Jeffrey Lyons, what have you. Even when the original Tron came out, it was clear, this is not actually like a good film. It was innovative for its couple of minutes of CGI. The bizarre, not bizarre, but maybe to modernize, but even back then the optical process is pretty funky they did for the illumination of the.
Gareth (15:20.909)
No, it's a vibe.
Jett Loe (15:31.945)
the suits and I think probably that as I recall correctly one of the people that originated the film there was you know a technique developed and they sold like local TV commercials for promos and stuff you could do this cool special effect and then they worked that into a work that in into a movie. You know a whole bunch of things here and you have hit upon stuff that I wanted to talk about. You know we don't talk about the movies ahead of time before we record. You talk about wanting to watch it without the the audio you can do that with some of these discs. I did the dialogue.
Gareth (15:57.986)
Without the dialogue, I want the music. want the... Yeah.
Jett Loe (16:00.56)
Well, here's the thing, because of Field of Dreams, he sent me Field of Dreams, I bought that 4K Blu-ray player. The very first film I bought is Life Force, the wonderful, for so many reasons, Tobe Hooper film. And you can, they give you the option to have the dialogue off and just watch it with the music and you know, just fantastic visuals in Life Force. John Dyke.
Gareth (16:15.495)
Hmm.
Do think there might be people out there who would like to listen to the film talk with the dialogue off?
Jett Loe (16:26.332)
Yeah, I'm one of those. Anyway.
Dear listeners, Gareth said he doesn't have much to say and he said, yeah, we'll do 10 minutes on this. And this is probably gonna be like an hour long show, right? So you can watch Life Force with, I mean, I like the dialogue. For me, Life Force dialogue is one of the main things of the motion picture. But anyway, I mentioned the cat from Outer Space. And here's the thing, for listeners aren't aware, Disney used to make these movies like,
Gareth (16:36.459)
you
Gareth (16:49.409)
Yes.
Jett Loe (16:55.548)
these sort of family friendly, you can show them the kids, adults won't really like them too much. did a whole bunch of, yeah, Escape from Witch Mountain, but there's that triptych, the trilogy of films with Kurt Russell where he plays a college student, he keeps inventing stuff, one them becomes invisible, one becomes super strong, and my favorite, the computer work tennis shoes, he gets a computer brain. The Shaggy D.A. where District Attorney becomes a dog. All these films, here's the thing, they're kind of middle brow to low brow.
Gareth (16:59.755)
escape to which mountain?
Gareth (17:12.961)
War tennis, shesha.
Jett Loe (17:24.867)
family-friendly, safe films. They were very cheap. The Cat from Outer Space only cost three and a half million dollars, and they all made money. The scripts were not great. They come across as sort of like a script you would imagine, something like for, you know, late 70s. Rockford Files was better, but kind of like, you 18, kind of not rare, not good scripts. And we see this in The Black Hole. And The Black Hole looks incredible, like Tron Ares.
Like Tron, the black hole looks incredible. The script is this middle brow, odd, anachronistic, we're in the future, but yet they refer to the fact that one of the characters, Ernest Bergenin, works for a newspaper, and they use phrases like Mexican standoff. It's very poor. And here's the thing with when I was watching Tron, Cole, and Aries, it was like one of those films. It was like Cat from Outer Space or Computer War Tennis Shoes or the Shaggy D.A. or Black Hole in that the script was this very middle brow,
Gareth (17:54.722)
Mm-hmm.
Jett Loe (18:22.93)
dull, unimaginative piece of work. And what's so strange about these movies, and Gareth has touched on this, is the film looks incredible. Shot by Jeff Kronowitz, you his dad is an amazing cinematographer and Kronowitz has done a bunch of finchers. Darren Guildford was the production designer who did the last Tron which looked great.
Gareth (18:41.837)
Is that the collective is that the collective known a bunch of Finchers?
Jett Loe (18:46.108)
He did a bunch of Finchers. Yeah. You gotta be careful late at night in London, because you might get into a gang, you might see a gang of Finchers. You gotta be careful when you're walking, when you get into the night bus. But the production designer did The Force Awakens, and he did Oblivion, which looks great. He did Idiocracy, which is so pertinent to our current times. So it looks incredible. These films, know, amazing soundtracks. Wendy Carlos, Nine Inch Nails, Daft Punk.
Gareth (19:06.637)
Mm-hmm.
Jett Loe (19:16.134)
The question is why do they not also do the equivalent on the script? They're spending so much money and it feels to me it's because they have this Disney heritage. The original Tron was Disney. It still has baked into the DNA this kind of frankly crappy low brow, half ass, I'm sorry for swearing there, vibe about the script. And you talk about wanting to watch the dialogue off and I have mentioned this I think throughout the years and I'm gonna do it dear listeners. I've decided now while I've been talking with Gareth.
Gareth (19:19.873)
Mm-hmm.
Gareth (19:24.333)
Mm.
Jett Loe (19:43.517)
The Black Hole, which is one of Gareth's favorite films, maybe the first film he saw in the theater, right? Looks amazing, incredible matte paintings, incredible models, takes place in outer space, a giant spaceship looking like a cathedral, obviously influence on Event Horizon, orbiting a black hole. Looks great, terrible script. Why not rewrite the script? You do a crowd source things and we get actors and we do a whole new dub.
which we keep the John Berry music, had to be nonprofit and we just write a new script. I've got a great idea that changes the whole notion of the motion picture, especially the ending. So that's something for me to work on. I'm not gonna reveal it now. The people got to do the Kickstarter. Come on now, marketing. So that's the strange thing about that sort of Disney heritage. The thing is that this movie costs $200 million. The cat from Outer Space only costs three and a half million bucks, 3.4 million. So if this film had cost a buck and a quarter,
Gareth (20:14.413)
Tell me. Tell me the idea. Tell me the idea.
Gareth (20:24.909)
Yes.
Gareth (20:30.541)
Hmm.
Jett Loe (20:39.204)
still look, you you still have some fun visuals. I think they'll be fine. We're in this bizarre situation where the film, these films cost so much money. And again, my hand to God, I swear, no higher oath almost. I swear on the film talk, I was the only one in the theater and it wasn't like I was there at 11 o'clock in the morning. And Gareth, dear listeners, here's what happened when I left the theater. The usher outside asked me, how was it? And I went into a long rant about its poor qualities.
Gareth (20:49.613)
Mm-hmm.
Gareth (20:56.749)
Me too! I was the only one in my theatre too.
Jett Loe (21:08.648)
My hand to God, this has never happened before. This just happens. I saw it yesterday. The manager of the theater came over and I have proof of this, Gareth, because I sent you that photo on my phone. She apologized for the quality of the film and she hand wrote me a guest pass for two tickets to see Black Phone 2. And I kept telling her, no, no, you don't have to do it. It's not your fault. It's a poor film. She insisted. I said three times, please don't do this. So I'm going to go see Black Phone 2 tomorrow.
Gareth (21:18.625)
Yes. Yes.
Gareth (21:38.221)
Why did she not just give you a free ticket for a film of your choice?
Jett Loe (21:39.396)
It's interesting that she had, yes.
Jett Loe (21:45.34)
Well, apparently because the system's corporate, she had to make it specific. And she tried to do it on the computer and she couldn't do it, so instead she hand wrote it and signed it. It's a great document I have.
Gareth (21:49.197)
Okay.
Gareth (21:54.958)
Keep it. Frame it. Auction it. Auction it as part of the Kickstarter for Black Hole Redux.
Jett Loe (21:56.605)
frame and maybe not even...
Jett Loe (22:02.684)
Well, you know, I liked the first Black Phone. I thought that was actually kind of great. And so I'm actually really looking forward to Black Phone 2. Let's talk about it on the show. But this is the weird thing about these Tron pictures. It was never successful. The second film, vaguely successful. How these Trons keep getting made is weird. You kind of figure, is there like a secret, like, know, in the chat GBT in the Matrix Tron vibe?
in cyberspace that is manipulating people and getting the films to be green. It's manifesting itself. Is Tron manifesting itself in the sequels is my question.
Gareth (22:43.031)
This is a question I'm sure is on probably nobody's lips other than your own. What should people watch? If you can't get access to Tron Ares with the dialogue silenced, what should people watch instead?
Jett Loe (22:55.207)
Yes.
I would say watch, if you like this whole idea of the bizarre futuristic cityscape and things going wrong, watch a Jacques Tati film like Playtime. Yeah, watch Playtime. You can't go wrong with that one. Well, folks, that was Tron Airs. I'm looking forward to Black Phone 2. Let's talk about something else, the passing of someone that meant a lot to a lot of people. She meant a lot to
Gareth (23:08.513)
Play time.
Gareth (23:25.089)
Diane Keaton died last week and you know, God bless her on her journey. And what's sort of been surprising to me is like people love Diane Keaton, but I suspect that, you know, most of the people who kind of consider themselves Diane Keaton fans, they might love her for, how should I put this? The more frothy.
items that she made. was looking at her filmography earlier and she made a lot of films since 1981. And between 1972 and 1981, she's in three genuine masterpieces of American cinema that are all totally distinct from each other. And her performances in each of them are also totally distinctive as well. And I'm not saying she didn't make anything good since 1981.
Most people who have substantial careers in cinema have about a 10 year run when they're making the best stuff. That's just the case for most people. And Diane Keaton did make some good films after that time, not least of which is a sequel to one of those films from 1972. if we were to headline her career or summarize what's
about Diane Keaton. It's three films or one trilogy and two other films. That's the Godfather trilogy. And listeners know that Jett and I are huge advocates of the third Godfather film, not just to be contrary, but because it's actually a great movie. Annie Hall, I'd also add a couple of the other films she did with Woody Allen. Manhattan Murder Mystery is a lot of fun and she's really sassy in that.
And Reds, which a case could be made that Reds is the best American film of the second half of the last century. And as I thought about her once she died, I realized I was kind of guilty of that same superficial, she's kind of frothy, bubbly, funny. But there's real depth in the performances in all three of those films. In Annie Hall, she literally created a kind of archetype, not only of fashion, but I think of...
Gareth (25:49.356)
certain kind of psychological emphases. In The Godfather, you know, she's a Shakespearean victim. And in Reds, she portrays like genuine romance, the feelings of romance, the pioneering of like women's liberation and being yourself.
And then it turns into this kind of crazy revolutionary conflict film. And I'm not really even sure how I would do She sort of becomes, she becomes a nurse to people who are suffering, including the man. She loves, and the whole thing's credible from start to finish. Anyway, the main point I'm trying to make is she's involved in three great films. Her performances are totally distinctive in all of them.
Jett Loe (26:41.021)
Yes.
Gareth (26:47.615)
It's a mistake or a red herring to just see her as a frothy comedian. I think she was great.
Jett Loe (26:55.568)
She absolutely was. And I'll play an example of how great she was, Gareth. It can be tough to sell a deodorant commercial. Here's Diane Keaton, right, before she gets Before Godfather, and she's got a cell. She is, in this clip, dear listeners, and Gareth, she's a busy mom, she's got kids running around, you know, she's sweating a lot, because she's got kids. And she still wants to be attractive and have some fun time with her husband.
Gareth (27:04.013)
You
Gareth (27:09.421)
Mm-hmm.
Gareth (27:20.076)
Mm-hmm.
Jett Loe (27:25.222)
when he gets old. Let's listen to how she plays it.
Jett Loe (27:31.859)
So you could hear in her voice to her listeners, Gareth, she has a sort of effervescent effectiveness. She's crisp, she's clean, she's smart, she's selling the heck out of that deodorant, let me tell you. Works all day long, five miles a day with all those kids running around all the chores, maintaining that busy household. Husband's probably an ad executive maybe, something along those. Maybe he's an oil. But you find her absolutely believable.
And she creates in those few seconds an archetypal character, as Gareth said. I mean, how many, has there been another actress, Gareth, where the whole film is named after her? Because Keaton's real last name was Hall, right? So we have Annie Hall. Now, Annie Hall, as you probably know, Gareth, some of the listeners, I'm sure, might know, was not originally intended as a vehicle for her. was a much longer film, at least two and a half hours. It's not longer called, Anhedonia, about a man who can't experience pleasure.
Gareth (28:09.217)
Thank you for listening.
Gareth (28:21.956)
Anadonia.
Jett Loe (28:25.178)
And as they're cutting together, they realize, boy, look at this. And they cut out a bunch of stuff so that the film could be reshaped around Diane Keaton's character. that's how good she is. Just by being in the film, she takes over the movie. The film becomes transformed, basically named after her, and it wins Best Picture, defeating. There are some other films that year. I think Star Wars was a small film made by the guy that did American Graffiti.
the student film THX 1138 4EB, which I actually love, all joking aside. So she's really something. see her, mean, one of my favorite performances, early Woody Allen comedies like Sleepers, the film won't work unless you believe that the main character played by Woody Allen would fall almost instantly in love with this person. And so she's able to communicate that very, very clearly. Clearly Woody Allen is besotted with Diane Keaton and really comes across a wonderful, wonderful actress.
If you don't believe me, watch Annie Hall, folks, and watch the clip that's been going around where she sings the song, seems like old times. It's something. She will be missed.
Gareth (29:26.765)
Hmm.
Gareth (29:30.871)
She will indeed watch all three of the Godfather films as well and read while you're at it. If you have a lot of time on your hands.
Jett Loe (29:35.101)
But you know, as good as she is in the deodorant commercial, it's really tough to sell the line, now you've become my horror in the third Godfather. I dread you. Well, that's good. I would cut out that horror line and also I would change the line that Connie says, now they'll fear you. I wish she had said they still fear you. But anyway, that aside, Godfather 3, good picture.
Gareth (29:45.937)
What does he say? I don't fear you, I dread you? Yeah.
Jett Loe (30:03.494)
Folks, thank you so much for listening. It's been an interesting show. Again, we're gonna make it, it was gonna be a 10 minute show and it's clearly longer than that. Don't forget if you wanna get our bonus episodes. We're gonna release, by the way, we did talk about Tron Legacy 15 years ago in the old show. So we're gonna.
Gareth (30:17.037)
Yes. The rare, our rare Tron legacy episode.
Jett Loe (30:22.394)
Yes, and also the best films of 2010. So we're going to dig that out of the archives. I don't remember what those best films are. I don't think Tron-Colon Legacy is one of them. We'll put that on the bonus episodes. can get our bonus episodes by going to patreon.com slash The Film Talk, or if you subscribe through Apple Podcasts, you can get the bonus episodes that way. We're on Facebook, of course, facebook.com slash The Film Talk. And you can always email us info at thefilmtalk.org. Thank you so much for talking with me, Garrett. You know, it's always a treat. We're both so busy in our lives.
Gareth (30:25.229)
You
Jett Loe (30:51.784)
that it's just a wonderful little refuge for me to be able to talk about the movies, even if they're not the best. And I mean that. No higher oath. swear, oh, well, there's one higher, my wife and my children. But other than that, I swear, Gareth, on the film talk. I love you dearly. Thanks for talking with me.
Gareth (31:09.825)
I love you dearly too. am remembering as we move rapidly toward the end of this show that the previous iteration of the film talk, you may remember, Jett, in the opening credits music, I said in every single episode, I could never love anyone who didn't love Field of Dreams. It turns out, it turns out that statement is not true.
Jett Loe (31:21.511)
Yes.
Jett Loe (31:27.208)
Jett Loe (31:32.838)
I haven't watched it yet. Maybe I'll watch it tonight with Annie Hall. Folks, thanks for listening. I've been Jet Low.
Gareth (31:38.605)
I've been Gareth Higgins, we'll keep talking.
Jett Loe (31:41.724)
next time.