That giant of acting, James Earl Jones, passed away yesterday at the age of 93. In this brief remembrance Jett and Gareth reflect on his beautiful range as an actor, talking Matewan, Dr. Strangelove, the Star Wars films, Field of Dreams and the little known television program Eastside/Westside. He will be missed greatly.
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Don't you miss being involved?
I was the East Coast distributor of involved. I ate it, drank it, breathed it. Then I killed Martin, I killed Bobby.
They elected Tricky Dick twice. Now people like you think I'm... I must be miserable because I'm not involved anymore.
I got news for you. I spent all my misery years ago. I have no more pain left for any of you.
I gave it the office. So what do you want? I want them to stop looking to me for answers.
Begging me to speak again, write again, be a leader. I want them to start thinking for themselves and want my privacy.
No, I meant, what do you want?
Dog and a beer.
Oh my goodness, folks, we're back once again. I'm excited to talk to you today, Gareth. It's going to be a very, very brief show.
It's going to be a cameo appearance for myself and possibly for yourself. I'm Jett Loe.
I'm Gareth Higgins. The conversation never ends, and today is a special, time-sensitive, perhaps even urgent conversation. We're responding to a significant event in the world of cinema.
You know, Gareth, last night I was watching one of my favorite films.
I tried to watch it a few times a year. It's not Eyes Wide Shut by Stanley Kubrick. That I watched once a month.
But I was watching another film by him early in his career, the early 60s, maybe around 64, Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying, Love the Bomb. Is that what it is?
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb? How I Loved. Anyway, it's Dr.
Strangelove. And you know what?
That's a fine film.
It's a wonderful, wonderful satirical masterpiece. And during all the scenes on the plane that's going to bomb Russia, there's a young bombardier. This is a very important part, very important part.
He's the guy that's actually going to flip the switches that will drop the devastating nuclear bombs in Russia, thereby destroying the world. And lo and behold, it's a young James Earl Jones. And his performance is so fine.
Professor Dr. Gareth Higgins, I asked myself, James Earl Jones, is he still with us?
He will always be with us. And sadly, he passed away in bodily form just yesterday at the ripe old age of 93, or as my elderly neighbor would say, three and 90. I have a 99-year-old neighbor who, when we talk show, he says, I'm nine and 90.
Do you live in Stephen King's Castle Rock?
Are you in Maine?
Where are you? I live in a positive, hopeful, life-giving very-ish, and not Stephen King's Castle Rock.
Our nine and 90-year-old neighbor is a wonder to be around. Just as I imagine, it would have been a wonder to spend time with James Earl Jones, who of course, dear listener, feels like he's been with us all of our lives.
The first time I imagine I ever heard his voice was in Star Wars. Nice to see Mark Hamill tweeting RIP Dad. If that's a spoiler for The Empire Strikes Back, I apologize.
We decided to do just a little episode to pay tribute in our own way to the great James Earl Jones. Jett, what do you think about when you think about James Earl Jones?
Well, you brought up Star Wars and of course, that film and how it changed culture, US culture, and then of course, the economy, the economics, I should say, of cinema is undisputed.
Well, actually, the economics of the world.
Of the world, it's unparalleled. It's unparalleled, but here's the thing.
Relatively popular.
Yes. Here's the thing. So I'm old enough that I was a very little kid, I saw Star Wars in the theater, and this was a different time, right?
So before streaming and before theater, when I went to the Old Juice, we just talked about this on our last show. It's playing every 10 minutes, so there's nobody in the theaters because they're trying to maximize revenue from being in 10 theaters.
Star Wars would have been in one theater in my neighborhood and then played for, let's say, eight months. I know Jaws played for a year, obviously. That was a little bit before my time.
But here's the thing, in Star Wars, when Darth Vader came on the screen the first time we saw him, the audience always packed for months, always packed.
The audience, not just like what we call fanboys now that maybe would watch the superhero films, the audience hissed.
It was a visceral reaction and they hissed because it was a communal experience because I would argue of James Earl Jones' incredible presence. He did a day's work. Hey, Mr.
Jones, come in for a day. We're going to give you $7,000. You're not getting any dividend.
You're not getting any rights issues. $7,000, no credit. One day's work, right?
And here's the thing. I was a little bit older, a few years older. Return of the Jedi came out.
Film is a young kid. We all enjoy it now. People don't like it as much, but we enjoyed it.
We finally get to see Darth Vader's mask come off. And at this point, we know who James Earl Jones is. We know he does The Voice.
James Earl Jones is a famous guy at this point, even to kids. And they take the mask off. And the audience is loving this movie.
It's got the little Ewok fellas, it's got the little Mouse Rats, whatever they're called. Things are happening. People are loving this movie.
Sure, Harrison Ford is bored, and there's all sorts of issues, but people are loving it. You wait three years, no streaming, right?
Yeah, flying speeder bikes.
They're great. He takes the mask off, and you could feel the air just leave the theater, and people are like, what? Who's this guy?
It should have been the late, great James Earl Jones, a man of such incredible presence. I never saw him on stage, renowned theater actor. His work in Shakespeare, obviously, August Wilson's plays.
A lot of people watching those clips of Fences on online yesterday and today. Should have been James Earl Jones. What an incredible presence in cinema.
Well, presence is the word and authority is the word.
And also a sense of the guy who took the craft seriously and took himself just seriously enough. Not too much, not too much, not too little. Obviously, the Star Wars films are the ones that most people know his voice from.
But I want to recommend two other movies that came out only a couple of years apart. And his performance in these two films couldn't be more different.
That's John Sayles, Matewan and Phil Alden Robinson's Field of Dreams, which is a film I think has always suffered from having the wrong title. It's adapted from a book called Shoeless Joe.
Shoeless Joe is a much less sentimental title than Field of Dreams. I'm not sure Shoeless Joe is the right title for that film, but Field of Dreams is definitely not the right title for that film.
And there are many people, I think, who haven't watched the movie because they think it's going to be cheesy, sentimental. I think it's a much richer film.
Are you talking about me? Because I've never been able to watch it.
No, we're talking about people, generic people. People generically. Everyone's worthy of equal dignity, even if they did make a cursory attempt at watching Field of Dreams, one shot, one set my behest and gave up after two minutes.
I will try again.
I promise.
Possibly, I was expecting no way out, colon two, and that was my bad.
Field of Dreams, Shoeless Joe, whatever the movie should be called.
James Earl Jones is a moral anchor in that film. He plays a character who's not only based on JD Salinger, but in the novel, the character is actually called JD Salinger. I think that Mr.
Salinger threatened to sue the film company, so they had to change the name. He plays a very interesting, original character who's had a massive impact on culture, and then has withdrawn and withdrawn and withdrawn further.
The magic opportunity he's given is, does he want to come back, but in a sense, on his own terms.
The scene he played at the start of the episode is not only a lovely little joke, but as you were saying to me off air, while I was observing, dear listener, I was observing Jett with his head full of zone, hearing this dialogue for the first time in
his life, and the childlike delight that crossed his face. He didn't hiss or do the opposite of his, but you seem to find that little scene amusing. Then you said to me, there's your evidence, James Earl Jones could make anything sound authoritative.
In Matewan, he plays a character who is targeted. He plays a character who is deeply vulnerable, and he plays a character who is doing, frankly, more than he can actually do with what he has.
One of the great social movement films, Matewan, by John Sells. Maybe the last thing I'd want to say about James Earl Jones is, this is a cliché, but in his case, it's really true.
There's honestly nothing that he didn't make better, a couple of double negatives in that sentence. But if I see that he's in something, automatically a reason to watch it and echo something. You just said you never saw him on stage.
I never saw him on stage too, but I did have the chance to see him a few years ago, and I didn't. Perhaps it's time for me to affirm, I'm not going to do that again.
When I see a veteran who's treading the boards, I have the opportunity to go and see them in live theater. I'm going to do that and I know you're going to watch Field of Dreams and everything will be better as a result.
I am. We're doing a Reagan show, so maybe I could do it as a double bill. I think of Costner being big in the Reagan era.
I'll watch Reagan tonight and Field of Dreams. You talk about his reign, you're wanting to see he has 190 credits on the IMDb, 190 credits. I'm not sure all of them you'll want to see, but I want to.
I also want to see-
You want to see him and his part of all of them.
Did you know one of his credits is, and this is the actual name of the thing. It's not, here's the thing with James Earl Jones. It's literally, James Earl Jones reads the Bible, colon, King James Version.
King James Earl Jones Version.
I want to say one thing.
I just want to, for me, my final thought is just about range because people think about his incredible voice. He was the voice of CNN, his authoritative voice of God, as people would say, and Darth Vader and Tulsa Doom and Conan, so fantastic.
But I want to play a Clipper from Dr. Strangelove because he's a young man. He's playing the Bombardier.
I don't want to spoil the film for you, but it's a plane loaded with nuclear weapons and they've got to drop these weapons, they think, on their target in the Soviet Union and the Bombay doors won't open.
They've got enough destructive power a few feet away from them to blow up a city and the doors aren't opening. What's going to happen?
James Earl Jones plays a young airman and listen to his voice as he realizes he can't open the doors, but he's also being a professional because this is his job as the bombardier, arguably the second most important job in the entire plane.
This whole everything is oriented around him. Let's listen in.
Uh, bomb door circuits, negative function, lights red. Switch in backup circuits. Roger.
Backup circuits switched in, still negative function. Engage emergency power. Roger.
Uh, emergency power on, still negative function.
Operate manual override.
Uh, still negative function. The Teleplex drive cable must be sheared away. Fire the explosive bolt!
Roger.
A little problem there with the negative function. The halt in his voice is fantastic because it shows such range.
Even as a young man, he can do authoritativeness, as Gareth says, and then he can just play somebody that's literally on the edge of panic. What a fantastic actor. My recommendation, I know Gareth's recommending Field of Dreams, I'd recommend Dr.
Strangelove, and it's also on YouTube. There was a TV show. I never knew this existed, Gareth, until I heard of his passing called Eastside, Westside.
Oh, yes. American drama starring George C. Scott, of all people.
Oh, yes. Every week, now imagine this today. Today we're full of NCIS and Criminal Minds, colon, More Criminal Minds, right?
Every week, it took place.
When somebody needs to do a show about meditation for restorative justice called Criminal Mindfulness.
Well, there's time.
Yeah, you've got a new task there. Put it on your reminders. He works for a private community welfare service, and every week he does social work.
That was the plot of this weekly show. He's only in one scene.
Can you imagine, you know, Apple Plus and Netflix, Apple Plus, we're doing a new show of like, we're focusing on a community health clinic, and every week we solve some public health problem.
No, they absolutely should.
They absolutely should.
Let that be James Earl Jones' legacy.
But young James Earl Jones is in this, and I watched the whole episode last night that he's in, and it reminded me of when I watched Minority Report, and there's a young Colin Farrell, and he's got scenes with this huge star, Tom Cruise, and Farrell
burns up the screen, or Viola Davis had already been a working actress for ages, where she's, you know, in scenes with Meryl Streep and Doubt. And you go, oh my god, who is then Meryl Streep?
Of course, it's being very gracious, giving it space, right? But she burns up the screen. James Earl Jones, he will be missed.
He was a giant.
He is still with us.
Thanks for listening, folks. We'll keep talking.
Next time.