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Episode 56: Human Highway featuring Preston Spurlock
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Preston Spurlock is back with another rare gem, the passion project/musical Human Highway (1982). This Neil Young and Dean Stockwell directed film also stars Dennis Hopper and Devo and is largely set in a diner. It’s hard to pin down: part music video, part comedy, part apocalypse film. It took decades for it to be released to a wider audience after puzzling viewers in the 80s and has certainly left an impression on the panel. Also, Anna peels back the veil on one of Neil Young’s most infamous albums, so tune in!
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Transcript
Introduction and Hosts
00:00:40
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to your favorite bad movie podcast. We're the only podcast that's brave enough to ask the question, if this movie's so bad, why do you like it so much?
00:00:54
Speaker
We're your hosts. My name is chris Anderson. And with me, as always, i have the Fred to my Lionel, Mr. Greg Bossing. Hello, everybody. How are we doing tonight?
00:01:08
Speaker
Oh, I'm doing all right. How are you doing tonight? I am doing good. Looking forward to talking about this one. I'm looking forward to listening to you talk. Okay. We also have with us, of course, the Duke Earl to my Charlotte, my lovely wife, Anna Anderson.
00:01:27
Speaker
How are you doing, my dove? I'm hanging in there. Yes. Sometimes all it takes is our fingertips. yeahp And of course, we have the original Otto Senior of the show, Mr. Preston Spurlock.
00:01:44
Speaker
Preston, how are you? I'm doing superb. Really nice to be here with you all. My first time with the full round table. Nice. Yes, what a treat. And yes, you are the second person to join our three-timers club. Congratulations.
00:02:03
Speaker
Hooray. Hooray.
Movie Selection: 'Human Highway'
00:02:06
Speaker
And you chose this week's movie and you chose Human Highway. Now, listeners, if you haven't seen Human Highway, here's just a brief summary to hold of the feature length film Human Highway in your mind.
00:02:29
Speaker
Neil Young plays Lionel, simple-minded mechanic with big dreams of being rock star. And one day escaping the small service station slash roadside diner where he spends his final hours before nuclear war destroys the planet Earth.
00:02:46
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Accurate. Yeah, i think i I think I lost track of grammar somewhere in the middle, but I'm not going to beat myself up.
00:02:57
Speaker
You shouldn't. That's fine. This is not of a movie that worries about finer details like that. No. yeah bron shirt yes for sure Now, Preston, you chose Human Highway.
00:03:12
Speaker
How did you come across Human Highway? Why did you choose
Preston's Interest in Cult Films
00:03:15
Speaker
Human Highway? Give me gi me the whole nine yards. Okay, um... It's been on my radar for a long time. I want to say the first time I i knew about it was from not not anything too exciting. just I had one of those big, thick video hound guides. This was the cult flicks and trash picks edition hound guide. looking at copy right now.
00:03:37
Speaker
ah You know it. i believe that it's I used to go through highlighting the ones I'd seen. Human Hound was just one an entry in it that had long... pickled my fancy so i I made an effort to hunt it down when it was some still just an out of print VHS um fell love that it had so many elements that I appreciate I'm not a Neil Young ah head per se but i do I do like his music I've never owned one of his albums but um I do enjoy his music and I appreciate that he has like a little bit of an ornery weird streak to him in terms of the music he does put out what about Bevo?
00:04:13
Speaker
i love i mean a devo are like is instrumental to me their their first album remains one of my favorites of all time in any genre okay yeah you know man we are devo is just a perfect album in my opinion 100 yeah really just fun and weird and and it's it's novel without being novelty and um nice i don't know it's it's they're just they they put the funny and smart punk and um I don't know. I'm sorry.
00:04:39
Speaker
yeah i'm sorry Go ahead. Oh, yeah. And I was just going to say that you can you can draw a pretty straight line from Devo to your music for sure. Well, I appreciate that. Yeah. Since in the and the evolution and all that good shit.
00:04:53
Speaker
Yeah. I think any any Preston Spurlock fans, if they found out, like, did you know Preston doesn't like Devo? be like, what the fuck are you talking about? It'd be jarring, yeah. And of course, their music videos are top shelf as well.
00:05:04
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Iconic. Uh, now, uh, what about you, Greg? Had you seen this one before? No. So I was trying to, I didn't think that I, I don't think I've seen this one or knew anything about it, but the opening Devo number, which was worried. And I think looked familiar to me on some level. So I don't know if maybe I've seen a clip of it or have heard of the movie at some point. I also had a, um,
00:05:30
Speaker
and a roommate in college who was really into Devo. That would have been like 2001, 2002. I don't know if it would have been possible to show a clip of it or something at that point. It made its way onto some bootleg Devo compilations, like video compilations. And also some legitimate Devo compilations. I love it.
00:05:47
Speaker
It's conceivable because like the tubes going into the nose and the glowing red, there's something about it. was like, i I feel like maybe I've seen this. Yeah. Everything else to me was just as like that was that was just something I noticed as I was watching. I had no I knew nothing about it really going ahead except for anything I just like read online before watching.
Context and Influence of 'Human Highway'
00:06:06
Speaker
So weird.
00:06:08
Speaker
What about you, Anna? Had you seen this one before? um I had not seen nor heard of it. i would say that in the... ah Neil Young-Devo dichotomy. Not that it's as much of a dichotomy as one might think.
00:06:23
Speaker
ah But I think I'm more of a Neil Young guy My dad had... My dad was kind of a Neil Young guy. More of a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. But like... yeah that The album Deja Vu and what is it? um Harvest? Is that a Neil Young album? The one with Hurt of Gold on it.
00:06:44
Speaker
yeah you Like that era. That's the Neil Young that I'd That's great. Aaron Neil Young. Yeah. Yeah. He's, I mean, he's, he's, he's great. He's great. Yeah. So North American treasure.
00:06:57
Speaker
Yeah. yeah I also had not seen this one, but I had seen the worried man footage on a VHS tape of Devo videos that I think was put out by either like Rhino or shout factory. Oh, certainly Rhino. I know.
00:07:12
Speaker
And yeah, and it was, I think it was called We Are All Devo. And it had music videos from like, from Are We Not Men up to um want to say like the early 90s on it. That's fun.
00:07:26
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It was like a great VHS tape with 12 Devo music videos. I think I gave it to Noah at one point. So that might have been how you saw that footage before, Greg. We might have all watched that. That's possible. It might have just been on somewhere.
00:07:39
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Like I said, it's like it didn't seem crazy familiar to me, but it just looked familiar. Also, as a quick addition, have really not a lot of experience with Devo or Neil Young. So this was a real... Like, I thought I had an understanding of Devo, but I think at some point, and I'll probably bring it up, I got a better understanding of Devo through this particular picture.
00:08:00
Speaker
Yeah. I'm not certain I got a better picture of Neil Young entirely, but I think I did. no Yeah. What's funny is for a guy who's all over this movie, you do kind of have to look for the Neil Young that people know and love. There's, yeah there's the other side of Neil Young that comes out of this. I feel like, and like, I, I also really liked Devo. I always appreciated their sort of very nerdy of like proudly and not in like,
00:08:28
Speaker
like a guy that goes and sees all Marvel movies nerdy, but like the way nerds used to be the back. We'll do nerds. Art school nerds. Yeah. When nerd was still a pejorative, you know, they were proud nerds.
00:08:43
Speaker
And Neil Young, i was a guy that I always like respected and like people who I liked really like den Neil Young, but beyond like his big hits, you know, beyond heart of gold and harvest moon, I sort of didn't never investigated it much further.
00:09:03
Speaker
Uh, former guest of the show, Pete Spear gave me a copy of the album that Neil Young released after this trans. The, the Cindy one, the vote cordy one, right? Yeah. Yeah.
00:09:15
Speaker
i I listened to it before watching this movie like a couple of years ago when I was like, oh, I should check this out finally because I don't i don't listen to it as much vinyl as I should. but ah And I was like, oh, this is – it wasn't for me.
00:09:29
Speaker
But watching it after this movie and knowing how much Devo influenced it really changed how I read it and appreciated the album a lot more. That's cool. Interesting. So, yeah, I think there's a lot of interesting things going on about this movie.
00:09:42
Speaker
i Do you guys want to hear about my context research? I really do.
00:09:59
Speaker
I wish I had some context About the background of the film Script director, actors on set What's going on on screen I wanna hear some details Gossips can do all that shit Can't imagine, I'll get tired of it Y'all
00:10:27
Speaker
all are too much and So a Human Highway came out August 22nd, 1982. The directors Neil Young and Dean Stockwell, but accredited to Bernard Shakey.
00:10:41
Speaker
This was a Neil Young pseudonym.
00:10:45
Speaker
The tagline, when love and fate collide. Hmm. Which feels like be the tagline for a lot of movies, but also only this. It's accurate, but it's not very yeah indicative.
00:10:58
Speaker
It is what happens, but it doesn't really capture the spirit of the thing. Yeah. Like, I feel like that could also be the tagline to Kate and Leopold.
00:11:09
Speaker
You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I should also mention there are at least two different cuts of this movie that I found out. Oh, it was originally released.
00:11:20
Speaker
It was originally released at 88 minutes long. And I was cut down to 80 for the Blu-ray release. I believe a lot of that came out of the musical sequence and the towards the end.
00:11:35
Speaker
Oh, that bummer. Wait, they took eight minutes out of that part? I think so. That's not okay. No, that's a boneheaded move. I love that part. That's my favorite part. No, that's the best part. I would agree.
00:11:50
Speaker
ah There was also a Laserdisc edition, I think, that I might have found on archive.org that clocked in at 84 minutes. That might split the diff. um And it also might just be that that dream sequence was cut in a different order.
00:12:06
Speaker
yeah But anyway, anyway. Yeah, the order could be cut. But anyway, we'll get to it. Yeah. So ah Neil Young is widely considered to be one of the most respected and in influential rock musicians of all time.
00:12:20
Speaker
i think I don't think that's an exaggeration. No. His 1979 album, Rust Never Sleeps, was recorded and released during the production of Human Highway and went certified platinum and is considered the point of origin for the distorted guitar style that defined grunge rock and therefore rock and roll in general throughout the ninety Interesting. Yeah.
00:12:45
Speaker
In 1979, Rolling Stone named him Artist of the Year, and the Village Voice in their Paz and Jopp poll named him the Artist of the Decade. I think it's fair to say that for a lot of rock and roll fans, if Neil Young was not your favorite musician, he's probably your favorite musician's favorite musician. He's that kind of guy.
00:13:06
Speaker
Now, ah Neil Young believed that an artist shouldn't do just one thing. And one of the other things he wanted to do was make films. Indeed, Human Highway was not his first time in the director's chair.
00:13:19
Speaker
Really? No, his first film was Journey Through the Past, a non-narrative examination of the American South, religion as the opiate of the masses, and the music of Buffalo Springfield.
00:13:31
Speaker
That's a lot of title. Yeah. yeah Well, the title was just Journey Through the Past. Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay.
Plot and Character Analysis
00:13:39
Speaker
It was one of those things. It's like, it could be that whole thing, in all honesty. I don't know.
00:13:44
Speaker
No, no. That was me editorializing. But yeah, I would certainly be curious. If nothing else, you're going to have some Buffalo Springfield tunes in there, so can't all be bad. ah By 1978, Neil Young was ready to give film another shot.
00:13:57
Speaker
ah By that point, he'd become friends with his neighbor, Dean Stockwell. Hmm. Dean Stockwell had been acting in films. I think they all lived in Topanga, I want to say.
00:14:09
Speaker
and And it might be that he made friends with him through, ah Neil Young made friends with him through his wife. His wife is also an actress and they might have run in the same circles. Interesting. I read about something called the Topanga Players, but I couldn't find more information about that.
00:14:25
Speaker
Dean Stockwell had been acting in films since the mid-40s. So it makes sense that Neil Young would want to bring him on board to collaborate on this.
00:14:36
Speaker
Now, ah Dean Stockwell was friends with ah both Dennis Hopper and Russ Tamblyn. Tamblyn and Stockwell were both largely considered past their prime child actors at this point in their careers.
00:14:49
Speaker
While Hopper was deeply in the grips of drug addiction. ah So they're all pretty much available and looking for work. Yeah. And I'm going to say, looking at Dennis Hopper's performance in this movie, you can tell that he was deeply in the throes of drug addiction.
00:15:08
Speaker
I feel like there's a couple of people who are using on this set. I don't know. Maybe I'm crazy. I don't think they were using as much as Dennis was. Probably not. Yeah, he was certainly doing what he does.
00:15:21
Speaker
He's bringing that intensity and yeah which is probably not right for the role of a goofy fry cook. But, you know, it I couldn't take my eyes off him while he was on screen. I'll give him that.
00:15:34
Speaker
um I did read a story about he was at one point. It said, quote, doing knife tricks. Yeah. Yeah.
00:15:45
Speaker
yeah ah One of the actresses that played one of the waitresses ah tried to take the knife from him so that he would stop doing that. And he cut open her tendons.
00:15:58
Speaker
She ended up suing Hopper and the movie for $2 million. dollars And i think lost. um I guess. don't know. I've never heard that story before. Yeah. That just one of those little things.
00:16:10
Speaker
Yeah. That's wild. ah So with this cast of ringers, Young planned on improvising most of the film and editing in some musical performances that he had recorded earlier.
00:16:22
Speaker
ah Young also brought on Devo, the formative post-punk slash new wave band. Now, ah that might seem like an odd pairing of sensibilities, but three important factors that I think ties these two musical groups together are one, they had the same management.
00:16:42
Speaker
na many ah Many odd bedfellows have started from the same manager. yeah Luckily, Devo is no ah Sylvester Stallone in Rhinestone in this one. I think Devo added a lot. yeah Thank God.
00:16:57
Speaker
yeah Now, Young would soon release his album Trans, which embraced the a much more synthetic sound. So this is something that he was interested in at least exploring and learning about and and finding out what was going on in the scene. And Devo would definitely be guys that you'd go to for that.
00:17:14
Speaker
And three, Devo, Neil Young had a lot in common sort of ideologically. Neil Young was famously ah ah no nukes guy. And that's a big theme in this film for sure. yeah Yeah. Both in terms of weapons and energy.
00:17:29
Speaker
And Devo were always sort of satirizing the future promised by America's techno industrial complex. So they're both sort of Luddites in a sense, or at least techno skeptics.
00:17:41
Speaker
Sure. ah And so the Venn diagram between Neil Young and Devo has more overlap than one might think if you just listen to their albums back to back. Oh. Now, ah Neil Young and Devo's collaboration might be the most important part of Human Highway's legacy.
00:18:00
Speaker
While recording a version of Young's song Hey Hey My My with Mark Mothersbaugh in character as Boogie Boy on vocals. Boogey Boy. but It's not Mothersbaugh.
00:18:10
Speaker
Mothersbaugh is in Boogey Boy. It's Gerald Castle, I believe. Oh, well, it month law it is. Maybe they traded off. Maybe it's an Andy Kaufman situation. Yeah, that's the guy the baby mask.
00:18:23
Speaker
But I read it was Mother's Ball, but it also. Where'd you read it from? I think Wikipedia. Just yeah going straight to the page for Boogie Boy.
00:18:34
Speaker
Okay. But also... sorry Sorry to get you off. No problem. They could also very easily do, like I said, an Andy Kaufman thing. That's the great thing about a character like that. I have boogie. never that. Yeah.
00:18:46
Speaker
Yeah. And also it's spelled B-O-O-J-I, but it's pronounced boogie. I found that out from watching that Devo VHS tape. Nice.
00:18:55
Speaker
But Mother's Braw improvised the line, roughst never sleeps in the course of that song, which Neil Young would use as a title for later works. ah They also played the song in a harder, more aggressive style.
00:19:08
Speaker
Young and I've really liked their take on this song. I really like the sort of caveman drums that they were using. So good. You know, it really just makes you want to like march down the street and like get a beer.
00:19:26
Speaker
Then smash the bottle. ah But yeah. ah He showed the performance to Crazy Horse and they adapted their style. They like tried to bring that in. They're like, oh this sounds cool. We should play it like this.
00:19:39
Speaker
And this was a ah key moment in the development of the proto grunge sound. And I think it might be fair to say that if there was no human highway, there would be no grunge music.
00:19:51
Speaker
That's why I've heard this connection before, but I'll i'll buy it for a nickel. if At the very least, this is a fun theory that you could throw down at a cocktail party. Yeah, let's do it.
00:20:01
Speaker
Let's propagate it. Yeah. Come up with another theory. This is as good as any. Now, Human Highway was not just influential in the world of music. Human Highway also casts a long shadow over the film world.
00:20:16
Speaker
ah Now, another member of the cast was Charlotte Stewart, who played the female lead in David Lynch's Eraserhead. um big Big Lynch overlap in this movie. Yes. Because... Stockwell and Hopper.
00:20:30
Speaker
And Fred, too, is in Twin Peaks, I think. Yeah, Russ Gumblin, yeah. Sure is. Dr. Jacoby. Yes, thank you. You're welcome. I think I might be Dr. Jacoby for Halloween this year. That's a great... i think again Those glasses are just killer. That's a great choice. I'll throw you off real hard. I support you. You'd have to get a perm, but that's fine. I also support that.
00:20:52
Speaker
Yeah. Mix it up. um So, yeah, I think it's fair to assume that while not a lot of people saw Human Highway in its original run, obviously David Lynch having such a close relationship with Charlotte Stewart and being a film guy and probably over at AFI at the time when it would have been screening in California, it lines up that he would have seen it and he would have been like, oh, hey, maybe you can introduce me to these other actors. I really like what Dennis Hopper is doing here. I really like what Russ Hamlin is doing here.
00:21:21
Speaker
yeah Yeah, absolutely. Now, when I say not a lot of people saw Human Highway in its initial run, i mean it. It only got a very limited theatrical run and largely left critics scratching their heads.
00:21:35
Speaker
It didn't get a VHS release until 1996, 14 years later. didn't know that Yeah, didn't get a disc release until 2016. It is unlikely that any of these generated enough income to make up the $3 million dollars that Neil Young put up out of his own pocket for Human Highway.
00:21:55
Speaker
I think a lot of that budget went towards building
Final Thoughts and Film Rating
00:21:58
Speaker
this very large enclosed set that where the film takes place by and large. a great set. And they also seem to be some kind of projection screens or something they're using too. So I'm sure. Yeah.
00:22:12
Speaker
Yeah. Doing a lot of rear projection and they're just, I think it'd be a weirder movie if they shot it actually in the desert on like a remote. ah it would It would, it would not work. i don't think it'd work at all. strange to think about that being shot in a real location. Like it doesn't, it just doesn't, it doesn't make any sense.
00:22:30
Speaker
No, the artificiality of the sense works in its favor, I think. yeah well one Yeah, you don't want to go into this thinking, I'm seeing something that's meant to be realistic.
00:22:41
Speaker
You need to know that that's not happening. Now, other comedies of 1982, just to put a thing in this place, what else could you go and see at the multiplex?
00:22:52
Speaker
Honey, tonight do you want to see Human Highway or do you want to see Fast Times at Ridgemont High? That's a great question. Nothing wrong with that. Fast Times is a stone cold classic. Of course. yeah Also, you got Zapped.
00:23:07
Speaker
yeah ah less sorry Less than stone cold classic. All right. How about 48 Hours? Sure. 48 Hours, the original? Yeah. our ah The Toy.
00:23:20
Speaker
I'd probably wait for it to come out on cable because it played on cable a lot.
00:23:26
Speaker
Possibly technically a comedy, The King of Comedy, 1982. Okay. It technically a comedy. yeah Yeah. Great, great movie. ah Eating Raul.
00:23:37
Speaker
Love it Another great one. ah Airplane 2, the sequel. Sure.
00:23:45
Speaker
And other musical comedies of the year. You got Annie. They're pretty much the same thing. Basically. Grease 2. Classic.
00:23:57
Speaker
And I'm getting even closer. The closest is the last one. Ladies and gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains. Hell yeah. That's a great movie. Never heard of it. It was, uh, uh, it never, to my knowledge, it was a TV movie.
00:24:11
Speaker
Did it ever make its way to theater? I'm not sure. I, I've only heard of it. I've never seen it. it's It's awesome. me One of the formative Riot Grrrl movies about all yeah vo a couple of young women in, i want to say so I want to say, Vancouver, but I might be wrong about that. It could be like as some rusted out ah former industrial town. They start a band.
00:24:34
Speaker
They blunder into an opening spot for like a wash-up rock star. and They end up eclipsing the rock star with their charming and aggressive ineptitude. It's a really good movie. It's really fun.
00:24:46
Speaker
There's a very young Laura Dern also bringing the Lynch connection. Oh, cool. Nice. Yeah. All Yeah. Fabulous state. Ladies and gentlemen, the fabulous state is the full title. Can't can't recommend it enough.
00:24:57
Speaker
Nice. All right. Also written by a ah Nancy Dowd, who also wrote Slapshot. Oh, which is one of my favorite. Yeah, me too. Similar milieu. And another another. Slapshot's Vancouver.
00:25:09
Speaker
It's fabulous. It's not Vancouver. I forget which city it takes place. But it's similar rusted out kind of like depression town. Yeah. vibes. Anyway. but yeah i even know yeah Do you guys want to try and talk about the plot of Human Highway? Let's give it a run.
00:25:24
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:25:43
Speaker
Plot bumper, listen to me. I'm gonna give you the plot summary. Come on, baby. Here's the synopsis.
00:25:55
Speaker
Plot bumper, plot bumper.
00:26:09
Speaker
So we open on a shot of that beautiful blue marble to earth. so We slowly zoom in on Southern California and we hear radio DJs on K-Glow tell us that the radiation levels are good and there's going to be a talent show tonight at the nuclear plant.
00:26:28
Speaker
Hooray. yeah but They're in Linear Valley, I think it's called, which is a wonderful name. Wonderful name. Love it. ah The nearby city of Megapolitan City is still under a heavy miasma of smog, but that doesn't stop quintet of waste disposal workers in literally glowing red jumpsuits played by Devo from reporting to work.
00:26:54
Speaker
I love the glowing red motif throughout the movie. Yeah, what do you call it? It's not rotoscoping, but it's done like similarly to rotoscoping. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. it looks like they're animating over the... yeah Except when there's radioactive flies later in the diner, they're clearly just doing it with like a laser pointer, which I love. Yeah.
00:27:11
Speaker
yeah Well, except for when ah ah Otto Jr. swats one with a fly swatter and explodes into sparks. That must have been animated in post. That animated, yeah. Now, ah let's see. Outside of Megapolitan City in Linear Valley, we see two men riding bicycles.
00:27:30
Speaker
I see men because they're both played by adult men in their 30s, Neil Young and Russ Tamblyn, but they have the affect and personality of 12-year-old boys. So it's difficult to clock how old they are.
00:27:43
Speaker
But ultimately it doesn't matter. They're just Lionel and Fred. Lionel is a big dork and he's played by, uh, Neil Young and Fred is, uh, his sincere golly gosh friend, uh, played by Russ Tamblyn.
00:27:59
Speaker
What'd you guys think of these two? Love them. tap that They're great bros. Yeah. They're fucking goofballs. I mean, like it's, it's hard to pick out which who's, who's playing it. Uh, do fear.
00:28:13
Speaker
So this is, I think I'm going to have to reveal my feelings about this movie, perhaps before the final thing. that's Please, so this lay it out. So this is what I'm feeling about these two. And I wrote this.
00:28:26
Speaker
This is what I wrote nearly immediately about the movie. Just as I was watching like the first few minutes, I wrote, I enjoy the humor, but not necessarily the jokes.
00:28:40
Speaker
Okay. That makes sense. It's like, I like what you're doing. i just don't like the way in which you're actually doing it. Interesting. I liked these two as characters, but anytime they were talking, it was like, you're just improvising and you're kind yeah rambling.
00:28:58
Speaker
And I would love it if you guys could stop being so goofy and could just actually do something. And I think this is in part because I have done a lot of improv classes.
00:29:10
Speaker
did an improv you know I was an intern at an improv theater for like eight months. I've seen a lot of bad improv. And they're doing a lot of bad improv. And so this was my main thing with the movie is like, there are certain chunks of it where I'm just like, I'm not even taking notes. I'm into it. And then there are other parts where I'm like,
00:29:30
Speaker
I just need this to stop. I need something to occur other than just- You need somebody to walk across the front of the stage. Yeah, exactly. It's like, let's wrap it up. Let's wrap it up. We've been doing the same joke for two minutes now. Let's just- That's as big as the laugh as you're going to get from here on out. Yep. So my opinion about them is just real bizarre. Like I like them, but I don't like anything that they're doing, if that makes any sense.
00:29:58
Speaker
yeah I think if this movie has a weak point is that it could be funnier. Yes. I think my feeling is, is I like a lot of the people and I like a lot of their choices, but when they're improvising, they're not making the choices that they would if they weren't improvising because there are people who work on things and they make things work and they cut out things and they redo it.
00:30:22
Speaker
But when they just got one take doing acting, it's, it's just kind of falls out. And it has you know really much added around. Yeah.
00:30:32
Speaker
And there's, and it's like difficult because it's, it's like difficult to edit that kind of a thing because some, nothing really happens. And so what part of it do you cut out? How short do you make it? Cause it's run on sentence. Those are harder to edit because they just kind of keep happening.
00:30:49
Speaker
and And so it's like, I got to go at a natural point, but I don't know where, And so that was my reaction to a lot of them. I don't mind their characters. I hadn't thought about them kind of being childlike. So some of their behaviors were annoying to me, like all of the gas getting everywhere.
00:31:05
Speaker
was like, I love the gas. I love the gas. I don't necessarily mind it, but I was kind of like, okay, another long section where we have to like figure out what are we going to do with the gas? Another one of these. Great. How are they going to spill gas everywhere? It's going to take a while. It's like the same other three times it happened. Okay.
00:31:28
Speaker
So that was kind of my feeling about it. Fair enough. Fair enough. I thought it was really cool of Neil Young as like the biggest rock musician in the world at the time, possibly to be like, I'm going to cast myself as a fucking nerd.
00:31:46
Speaker
I'm going to be the biggest dork you've ever seen in your life. Yeah. i Doofy faces. That's a goofy voice. Like glasses. I always thought it was really funny when he would, the way that he would screw his face up, like all asymmetrical, but it's also not like he's got the fresh, like everybody has an impersonation of a dork in their back pocket. We've all been making fun of dorks since we were five. So it's like, it's tough to show me something new.
00:32:12
Speaker
That's really going to like zing me with that. Right. But I thought he was committed and doing a good job. with yeah And I, I appreciated that of it. Yeah, sure. Okay. Okay. Okay. Now, Lionel and Fred, they're good buddies. I did like that they were good buddies.
00:32:26
Speaker
They're such good buddies that Lionel got Fred a job at the service station where he works. Though we'll soon learn that this job was promised by Lionel's late boss, Mr. Otto Sr. Otto Jr., played by Dean Stockwell, is starting today, and he might have something to say about all this Otto Jr. We learn is more profit motivated than his old man.
00:32:51
Speaker
And he also takes his coffee with a healthy teaspoon of salt. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's how you can tell, like, oh we're not supposed to like this guy. This guy's got expectations that make him weird.
00:33:03
Speaker
Also, his response she's like you put salt in your coffee. He's like, yeah. Just a slight, like, yeah. yeah real That's how we all do it. You don't put salt in your coffee?
00:33:14
Speaker
ah Let's see. He has the same genius business idea that all of today's business leaders have. Improve your profit margins by making things worse for your employees and your customers.
00:33:26
Speaker
All right.
00:33:29
Speaker
Now, Devo then performs, it takes a worried man to sing a worried song while loading barrels of nuclear waste into the back of a truck with their friend, Boogie Boy.
00:33:41
Speaker
So good. Yeah. Yeah. Really fun song. Boogie Boy, I thought, was definitely the breakout character of the movie. Yeah, I would agree. I would agree. Yeah. Yes. You start with him and he pretty much ends with him.
00:33:54
Speaker
Yeah. Not exactly, but. And i think ah Mark Mothersbaugh is probably the best improviser somehow, or at the very least, I thought he was doing the most linguistically interesting stuff.
00:34:04
Speaker
Like he had the best lines. It can't be Mothersbaugh, though. Mothersbaugh is singing Worried Man from the front seat of the truck. And Bingo is in the back going like this.
00:34:15
Speaker
Preston, I think that might be a little bit... Of what we call movie magic. nobody much No! Might ah be cast in a tricky dual role.
00:34:28
Speaker
now um Now, ah Lyle and Fred roll up to the service station just as Otto Jr. finishes explaining his new rules to his head waitress, Irene.
00:34:40
Speaker
Irene explains to the other waitresses, Charlotte and Catherine, as well as to the cook Cracker, played by Dennis Hopper, ah that they'll all be giving less food to their customers, getting fewer breaks, and will no longer be extending lines of credit.
00:34:56
Speaker
Lionel shows Fred the ropes around the service station. Otto Jr. is not impressed by Fred, but when Fred offers to work for free, he likes him a lot more. Yeah.
00:35:08
Speaker
He works the whole week for free. Yeah. It's a good little bit. Yeah. I feel like their best bits are like trying to approach like cat skills humor. Yeah. But they don't have that same like tightness.
00:35:21
Speaker
um Now, ah Junior is still a bit on a tear, though. He's you can tell that he is stressed out that this business is losing money. He fires one of his waitresses and he tears down Lionel's poster of famous rock musician Frankie Fontaine stating, I hate music.
00:35:41
Speaker
That's how you know Otto Jr. is a bad guy. It's like a kick the dog scene. Yeah. Now, Fred and Lionel, they help a customer named Mrs. Robinson, who comes over every morning for breakfast.
00:35:54
Speaker
Lionel parks her car and runs over Fred in the process. But Fred's fine. Fred then heads into the diner to ask Irene out on a date.
00:36:04
Speaker
ah But she gives him the cold shoulder. Lionel tries to make the moves on Charlotte, supporting her singing at the big talent show tonight. This seems moderately more effective, but not entirely.
00:36:17
Speaker
I was really confused because I thought it was like super effective. Well, but then she sees ah the milkman. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that was the part that kind of confused me because i was like, oh, I get it, these two. And then later I was like, maybe maybe I don't get it, actually.
00:36:33
Speaker
I think also it's entirely possible that Charlotte's character was not particularly well thought out. that male That may also be true. that If you're looking for tight as a drum filmmaking. Yeah, and so admittedly, that was a part of my part of my reaction,
00:36:52
Speaker
Neil Young, you're no Christopher Nolan. Let's see. ah back i would love to see Neil Young's take on Batman. I'd love to see Neil Young's Inception.
00:37:06
Speaker
yeah Do you think Neil Young would cast himself as Batman or as one of the rogues gallery? Rogues gallery? Yeah, I'm picturing him as maybe Mad Hatter, I want to say. Yeah, I could that.
00:37:21
Speaker
Now, back in his office, Otto Jr. calls his mom on the phone and tells her that the business is in shambles and he's just going to torch the place for the insurance.
00:37:33
Speaker
Irene eavesdrops and then tells Junior that she wants in on this plan and also that she wants to make out with him. Not all bad for Junior. Good for them. Yeah.
00:37:45
Speaker
Finding love in a desperate place. Now, ah Junior soon rolls into the diner covered in lipstick and starts alienating his customers by repossessing breakfast sausages. They were given an error.
00:38:00
Speaker
Meanwhile, Dennis Hopper feeds a raccoon that's come to his window and then an earthquake hits. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. ah As you can see, this is not a movie that you really think of as plot as so much as you think of it experiences. It's very vibes. It's very, very vibes. This is a classic vibes watch.
00:38:20
Speaker
Yeah. Yes. ah Now, Lionel, he gets a real kick out of this earthquake. He keeps on calling it a roller. Maybe this was California slang at the time. I don't know.
00:38:31
Speaker
It conf confused me at first. I thought it was like apocalypse jargon. And i was like, oh, I guess it's just an earthquake. yeah Yeah, it might even be yeah future slang. Maybe we don't say roller now. Maybe we never did.
00:38:44
Speaker
But he goes to grab himself a glass of milk at the diner, only need to see Charlotte flirting with the milkman, Earl Duke.
00:38:52
Speaker
Earl Duke offers Charlotte a milk bath before a sheik stops him on his way out and offers him a fortune in exchange for his whiteness. I don't know what's going on with that.
00:39:04
Speaker
That was weird. I don't want to think about it too hard. Yeah. yeah Yeah. Yeah. If there's a character that could ah go off the chopping block, it's the sheet character. I would agree. I would agree. Should have added it around to that. But what what what can you do And there, there was at least twice when people used, ah racial slurs for, uh, Middle Eastern people. So trigger warning on that one. Yeah.
00:39:27
Speaker
I was, I was, I take this moment to also say that I'm glad that what happens with the, shall we say the statues happens with the statues. Yes. It's very good. It's a huge relief to me when that finally happened. I was like, thank God, but we're not going to spoil that.
00:39:43
Speaker
Yeah. Now, uh, Lionel gets back to work in the body shop, but he has to hide when Fred spots a dissatisfied customer rolling up.
00:39:55
Speaker
Luckily, before she can cause a stink, Otto Jr. sends her off with another customer, who is played by Dennis Hopper, in another dual role, ah since they're both going to Megapolitan City. And somehow in this role as the motorist, Dennis Hopper looks even crazier than he does when he is line.
00:40:14
Speaker
He's got a fake mustache and a ponytail. He looks intense. He had one of my favorite lines in the movie at this point. Cause he's like, cause the person's like, she's going to the city with you. Wasn't she show you how to get there? How do you feel about that? And he just very quietly goes, I'm an executive. I don't feel.
00:40:32
Speaker
And I was like, i I had to like back it up. was like, yes, bravo, bravo. Let's watch that again. It was just delivered really slightly to for everything else he's doing. And I think that adds to the craziness in a way where you can see him holding the intensity back.
00:40:50
Speaker
Yeah, I think when everybody else is consistently going bigger, bigger, bigger. Yeah. Dennis Hopper is one of the rare actors the movie that tries to go a different direction at one point, at least.
00:41:02
Speaker
um Let's see. Now, things are really starting to pop over the diner because now Devo and ah Boogie Boy show up. Devo grabs breakfast while Fred and Boogie Boy fill up the gas tank and they have some... Oh boy, it's goofy. They are not great at filling up this gas tank. It no do we how do Do I get it? Where's the tank? Is it over here? don't know. actually really like that. Looks like it's over here.
00:41:30
Speaker
Yeah. so I don't know. i I can't get enough of that part. I i know it's undercooked, but I just I love how I love the slapstick with the gas. I every moment it happens. I think it's hilarious. I think. And what? Yeah. No, please finish. I'm sorry. That was all I was going to say. Like i the the moments with Fred and Boogie Boy to me click.
00:41:53
Speaker
I don't know why, but I love their aimless banter. I'm glad they got to least bounce off each other. Yeah. I like when Fred goes, this is a big truck. And Blakey Boyd goes, I don't know why. That's my favorite.
00:42:05
Speaker
I think this movie, if you're like, I don't really know Devo well and I don't really know you Neil Young well. So I think if you are familiar familiar with them, this is like kind of a little treat to be like, this is interesting. They're doing something really different where I'm just like, this just doesn't, I don't really know what this is actually. Fair enough. Yeah.
00:42:23
Speaker
It's a hard movie to classify. Yeah. It's like listening to a couple of friends talk and be like, i'm I'm just not friends with them yet. So I don't know what any of this is about. Mm-hmm.
00:42:34
Speaker
Yeah, or just watching the bonus features on a DVD. Yeah, yeah, exactly. yeah ah Now, a big white limo rolls up, and this limo belongs to no one other than Frankie Fontaine.
00:42:50
Speaker
Now, it just so happens that Frankie wants to buy the diner and service station, and he sends his manager, Woodrow, to negotiate the deal with Otto Jr., and they have some fun negotiating scenes.
00:43:01
Speaker
Mm-hmm. ah And you feel like negotiation. That's a classic setup for an improv. A dummy can figure out the draw. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Now, ah Lionel, meanwhile, finds out that his musical hero is in the back of this limo and excitedly offers to fix the wine Mr. Fontaine has coming out of his back end.
00:43:24
Speaker
So Fred jacks up the limo and Lionel slides underneath. Unfortunately, while loosening a bolt, Lionel drops a wrench on his head, knocking himself unconscious.
00:43:39
Speaker
This launches a prolonged dream sequence. And it's fantastic. This is definitely, I'm going to say, the best part. This was ah in the middle of this. I was like, I realized, was like, oh, shit, we're going to go back to the diner eventually.
00:43:51
Speaker
No, no, stay in the dream. Stay in the dream.
00:43:57
Speaker
ah Lionel gets to see what it would be like if he got to be a big famous rock star like Neil Young or like Frankie Fontaine, who is but also played by Neil Young. also Oh, I was wondering who played him.
00:44:10
Speaker
So in this dream sequence, he gets to rock out with Devo and you get to see Devo ah play a comeback Johnny for a crowd. And you really get to see them like kick ass and like rock a small club yeah be like, God, go into that Devo show.
00:44:25
Speaker
And like that point of their career must've been so fucking fun. You know? This was the part that made me realize that I didn't fully understand what Devo. Like, I was like, oh, they're much more punk than I realized they were.
00:44:38
Speaker
Which is not something, because I don't know them very well. I feel like I know them more than people who know just Whippet, but I don't really know them. And so this was really eye-opening to me.
00:44:49
Speaker
yeah Yeah. No, they had a legitimate edge to them at at ah at in the early days. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And they, I think, built the bridge from punk to new wave. As much as you could say, new wave is not just punk with synthesizers. you know Right. Yeah. ah So beautiful women like Irene from the diner throw themselves at him in this dream sequence.
00:45:13
Speaker
Newspaper headlines scream his accolades. He makes friends with a stranded motorist named Yoko. He goes on adventures like whitewater rafting with tons of friends.
00:45:24
Speaker
And he joyously joins in the fight for racial justice by hanging out with a bunch of Native Americans as they burn wooden Indians. And he plays rock and roll music. Thank God.
00:45:35
Speaker
Yeah, love to see all these wooden, because there was a wooden Indian that was appearing earlier in the film. In the garage, yeah. Yeah, and so I was very concerned about the movie because of the, like, the chic and the two references to him and the statue. I was just like, this feels weird. Like, this is giving me an image of these people I was not anticipating. Yeah. Some of it may be due to the time, but I don't know. So it's very, very happy to see those things get burned.
00:46:01
Speaker
Yeah. And to see him just like broing down yeah with all these native people and like getting to see them in like traditional dress and then highlighting that culture. And like, and I think a cool way that like, i started thinking about this and my ideas are only half form, but like using other, uh,
00:46:28
Speaker
people's ah cultural celebrations as a way to like invite like white people are always like, Oh, I feel so excluded in black history month or whatever. But mean instead, why don't you like take part in celebrating and like their, their fun way to join in celebrating other cultures.
00:46:47
Speaker
And i think this is a great example of that. You know what I mean? i think this is this is cool to me. you know yeah and obviously And I suspect that these are, i so I read something about the movie being partially filmed in Taos, New Mexico. yeah So I suspect that this is probably Taos Pueblo, which is either one of the oldest or the oldest continually occupied ah settlement in the U.S.,
00:47:21
Speaker
the u s You also get the impression that a lot of this footage from the sequence is just on the fly stuff. Like this was shooting as it actually happened at at these events. and They ran them through some great optical processes to doll them up a bit, but that they were on the fly. foot It was on the fly footage.
00:47:40
Speaker
Yeah. And stuff that they shot like while he was on tour or whatever. Exactly. precisely ah
00:47:46
Speaker
ah So yeah, all in all, It looks like being Neil Young would be pretty cool, at least according didnt to Lionel's dreams. But Lionel's dream soon ends, and he wakes up covered in automotive fluids.
00:48:03
Speaker
He tells Fred what he saw, and when Fred tells him that becoming a rock star is impossible, Lionel responds, I may not be Einstein, but it doesn't take a politician to figure out anything is possible.
00:48:18
Speaker
That's true.
00:48:21
Speaker
he tries to finish the job on the limo, but his friends stop him. Boogie boy then tells everyone that they need to dig their own hole and dance like a mole. ah And we get a full cast reprise of it takes a worried man.
00:48:36
Speaker
And it's great. Yeah. and so And you get a like a Busby Berkeley dance number. And they're like, uh, air guitars on these shovels with nuclear radiation symbols on. It was really, it's great. Yeah.
00:48:47
Speaker
Yeah, it's really fun. It's such a fun part. And you get the get old Otto in the clouds. Oh, yeah yeah. The missiles coming in. and they just reprised ah I like it when it's like not a common move, but I like in movies when the entire cast dances at the end.
00:49:05
Speaker
Yeah. you know yeah be but I like that. I do too. It gets you excited for the end of the movie and you get to see everything. Oh, remember him? Oh, you know, just feeling good. Yes. I've never, I've never seen a downbeat, sad, full cast dance number.
00:49:20
Speaker
I'm sure. that um And I, speaking of Otto senior, when they show him at the end, I really liked that his halo was also radioactive. I love that too. Yes. Yes. He's got a red laser halo.
00:49:33
Speaker
Love that. And he's wearing bell bottoms too, which is neat. Then a nuclear war breaks out and the entire earth is destroyed. Oh, well, yeah. He's come easy to go Yeah. I guess, I guess Fred was right. It was impossible.
00:49:46
Speaker
ah Boogie boy is our only survivor. And he talks, sings a parody of blowing in the wind called the breaking in the wind. And all the other characters mount a golden stairway into heaven.
00:49:59
Speaker
the Wait half a second. Did that happen in the order of the cut that you saw in that order? Yeah. yeah so okay so our morning Breaking in the Wind happens very, very first thing.
00:50:10
Speaker
it opens on the It opens on the disruption and Boogie Boy singing Breaking in the Wind and then goes back in time ah the desert. And then and to in the finale, the world blows up.
00:50:24
Speaker
The musical number world blows up. We cut straight to the golden stairs. Okay. The version you torrented, it seems to be in a different order than the version I have on tape, which is strange. okay.
00:50:35
Speaker
How fascinating. Huh. I think, weird you know, ah vibes wise, your ending works better because yeah i do like ending on that full cast number.
00:50:46
Speaker
But I like the opening on the apocalypse. I think it's a good hook. You're like, what the fuck happened? And who is this man baby? And, ah you know, it's I think it's, i yes, that's the cut I'm used to. So I'm partial to it. But that's i what a weird thing.
00:50:59
Speaker
I guess testament to the fact that it has been through multiple edits. Yeah. Yeah. and And really shows the effect that that can have in ways that you might not expect. Yeah.
00:51:10
Speaker
Weird. ah And then in the closing credits, we do say ah it says something to the effect of watch out for the return of Human Highway Part 3, think.
00:51:23
Speaker
Yeah. Which was a funny gag. yeah Yeah, that's like a good joke. ah And that's, that's the end. So final thoughts, five star ratings on our unique two axes, watchability and weird scale.
00:51:37
Speaker
Anna, why don't you kick us off? Okay. I, yeah, i was thinking about this last night and I think I might give it a two and a half for watchability. Yeah.
00:51:51
Speaker
um I think we because it is kind of vibes-based and not very plotful. And also, I will say that the first, like, 15 minutes or so are real frenetic.
00:52:07
Speaker
It took me a while before i feel like... And and i don't I don't know. I think it was the first musical number when there was, like... like a real good reason for being so frenetic.
00:52:21
Speaker
um Then I, was then I was able to, to kind of relax into the pace for the rest of it. um But I did start out being a little like, well, this is certainly, it's really going.
00:52:34
Speaker
It's really going. Yeah. It's weird. um i think it's definitely a four and a half. This is a very weird movie in, in wonderful ways. Yeah.
00:52:48
Speaker
Fair enough. What about you, Greg? Where did you land? ah So for watchability, I'm going to go probably a two. Just for what I said, i and I agree there with Hannah, like the pacing is little strange. I do think that for certain groups, this is going to be like a four or a five, definitely.
00:53:04
Speaker
I think this is one of those movies where it's like... you will get out of it what you would like to get out of it. You know what I mean? Like if you're Devo fan, if you're Neil Young fan,
00:53:15
Speaker
yeah If you're someone who's like David Lynch, who just kind of wants to see something and feel it out, at least that's how, what I assume he was like, you know, uh, you know, that just like normal movies. I just like, i love Neil Young's work.
00:53:31
Speaker
All of his acting. Um, um But yeah, I think the average person might have a little trouble watching it just because of its construction in every way.
00:53:43
Speaker
And I think that as far as weirdness goes, this one is definitely weird. But I think as I was watching it, I realized a portion of the weirdness is caused by the fact that it's an amateur film, quote unquote, made by people in the backyard who are largely improvising, some of which were clearly on some substances.
00:54:03
Speaker
So some of the decision and some of the weirdness, you can start to see why, because you can see the seams, so to speak, not to understand why those choices were made. And they feel less weird to me.
00:54:16
Speaker
You know, like seeing two men biking by a rear projection screen at first is like kind of weird. And then you realize like well, then they don't have to move. it gives a certain image and feeling, but it's also not the weirdest decision. Like if they were in a car, it wouldn't look that crazy.
00:54:30
Speaker
yeah And they're just on bikes. That's a little weirder. But you could also see that being kind of funny if you're just like having a day. yeah some heart said the The projection screen isn't even moving behind them. The bikes are stationary looking, which is odd.
00:54:43
Speaker
Yeah. I could also probably tell that like that was they were fine with it. That wasn't necessarily exactly. Yeah, they were not nitpicking. Yeah. The, the weirdness comes from the way it was constructed less about choices. So that's why I gave it a four instead like a four and a half, but yeah. words How about you, Preston?
00:55:04
Speaker
Okay. Watchability. I find this movie extremely watchable. It's like a variety show. i love, I love, uh, ill-conceived celebrity vanity projects. Uh, this is one of the, this is one of the best in my mind because it's also like,
00:55:20
Speaker
a lot of times that those can seem like nobody was having fun and it kind of seems like everyone was having fun on this, which makes it a lot more watchable to me. So I guess I would probably for watchability, give it a solid four.
00:55:34
Speaker
It is lumpily paced and, um, you can't argue that, but, uh, but I like it. I will stick with it whenever I watch it. I, there, are it'll, it I will stick with it. And like, uh,
00:55:46
Speaker
For that, I give it a four. and in terms of weirdness, I guess I would say it's tough because what you know weird is like such a fluid thing. Yeah. Yeah. But is it...
00:56:02
Speaker
Imagine you're the most normal person, you know, how weird would your, I would be thrown by it. I'd be thrown by it. I'd be thrown by the huge, I listed gear shift right in the middle of it. That's the biggest weird move to me is the fact that it goes from a dopey comedy to an art movie unapologetically and kind of suddenly.
00:56:18
Speaker
Um, so for that alone, I think I'd give it a solid four. Yes. Four for weirdness. Four and four. but Trying to be even keel. Yeah. Yeah. I landed pretty similarly. I gave it a three and a half in watchability. I thought there was a lot of ah cool actors to see, lots of fun ideas, ah lots of lots of good music. Anytime there was music, I was psyched.
00:56:42
Speaker
No, the music was spectacular. Yeah, it's a fun movie for that reason alone. Yeah. But I did have to knock it down a little bit because at times it could be sort of brutally unfunny.
00:56:54
Speaker
ah Not ah like and there were parts that were funny, but there were parts that were not. And there is such something uniquely difficult about watching bad comedy for weirdness.
00:57:07
Speaker
I gave it a four stars just because I felt like it was pretty stylized and artificial in a way that a lot of contemporary filmmaking is not attempting Uh, in a way it, to me, it sort of felt like a very long Saturday live sketch where Neil Young plays. a that Yeah. yeah. Like Neil Young is your special guest, but your cast members are Russ Tamblyn and Dean Stockwell. with miss devo And Devo's also appearing in the sketch, yeah you know?
00:57:38
Speaker
Uh, so that's, that's pretty weird to me. Uh, Well, with that, I think we're ready for act three of the show, and I think we're going to kick it off with Anna talking about all that great music. Are you ready, my dove?
00:57:51
Speaker
I sure am. Then let's do it.
00:58:12
Speaker
Let's talk about the score, score, score. This movie's got a great score, score, score.
00:58:24
Speaker
Time to talk about the score, score, score. This movie's got a great score, score, score.
00:58:34
Speaker
Score, score, score.
00:58:40
Speaker
So this movie has songs from, let's call them four sources. Okay. and They're all Neil Young and Devo, but from various albums.
00:58:52
Speaker
um Starting with It Takes a Worried Man, which is actually folk song. no Yeah, known as Worried Man Blues.
00:59:03
Speaker
yeah Its original lyrics are about working on a chain gang. um The song probably originated with black singers, ah but it was collected orally by ah the Carter family, and they were the first to record it in 1930. I asked Chris to play just the first 30 seconds of that, just through the first chorus, so you can the hear how the original goes. Oh, right.
00:59:44
Speaker
it takes a worried man to sing a worried song i'm worried now but i won't be worried long went across the river
01:00:03
Speaker
so So I've had that version and the Devo version running through my head like alternately for several days. It's a catchy tune. The case in trio also did it prominently, but theirs is so corny.
01:00:16
Speaker
ah I don't recommend that one. Oh, yeah, yeah. that that I have Kingston Trio did one. It's also recorded by Woody Guthrie, Burl Ives, Van Morrison. ah Pete Seeger included it on his 1955 Folk Singers Guitar Guy Instruction record. There's also a great video um of him performing it with Johnny Cash on the last episode of Seeger's TV show in 1966. Yeah.
01:00:45
Speaker
um And very recently, Beyonce's Cowboy Carter album has a song on it called 16 Carriages, ah the title of which is is probably a reference to ah the original lyrics. There's the train I ride is 16 coaches long, etc., etc.
01:01:08
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. and Next, we have Hey Hey My My Into the Black, which is performed by Neil Young and Devo in that ah fantastic, fantastic concert sequence.
01:01:23
Speaker
So, mm-hmm. The song's often described as proto-grunge, and its ah lyrics were mentioned in both Stephen King's It, he used Out of the Blue, Into the Black,
01:01:38
Speaker
And of course, Kurt Cobain's suicide note, it's better to burn out than to fade away. There's also another prominent Dennis Hopper connection to the song because it's the main theme of Hopper's a movie. Are you getting to that? I'm sorry.
01:01:51
Speaker
Yeah, no, no, I i didn't. But you're right. Hopper directed a movie called Out of the Blue and it's stopp the blue that the the central song of lead movie great, great movie.
01:02:05
Speaker
I also, I just want to point out another thing that I really liked about that musical number was while Neil Young was wearing a Sex Pistols t-shirt, Devo were all wearing Devo t-shirts because they know.
01:02:17
Speaker
ah loot to evil Yeah. Yeah. The dream sequence after that um goes into a Neil Young song called Going Back from his 1978 album Comes a Time.
01:02:30
Speaker
which is more more kind of the quote-unquote standard Neil Young, um but it's also a ah beautiful song. yeah The other Neil Young songs in the movie, there are five tracks that were later released on Trans. Those songs are We Are In Control, Transformer Man, Sample and Hold,
01:02:54
Speaker
Computer Cowboy, a.k.a. CIS Crusher, and Mr. Soul, which is a Buffalo Springfield cover. Apparently, the buff apparently the Mr. Soul cover he did because there was some talk of like Buffalo Springfield um reforming and going on tour, and he had a joke that he was going to send them an audition tape.
01:03:18
Speaker
And his audition tape, you know, when you know he did this this synthesizer vocoder version. um So this this album absolutely baffled his fans and critics when it came out.
01:03:31
Speaker
In fact, ah this was his first album for Geffen, and they tried to sue him on the grounds that he had produced, quote, uncommercial and unrepresentative work.
01:03:42
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. Yeah, but like you said, Chris, it it makes a lot of sense to realize that he you know was hanging out with Devo at the time. um The album is also on a more personal level.
01:03:58
Speaker
It's about his attempts to communicate with his um second son, Ben, who was born in 1978 with ah cerebral And ah is nonverbal.
01:04:12
Speaker
um in More in the... Not in the nonverbal because of language difficulties, but I think in a mechanical sense. I think you he can't... he He doesn't have the muscle control to form form words.
01:04:25
Speaker
yeah um But so Young... you know, he... he saw the He saw the potential in computers for communication, that computers in a way could speak for people who couldn't speak.
01:04:41
Speaker
And um it's cool to, you know, I read like a couple of interviews with, you know, Ben in his adult life. And, you know, that's that's what he does now, of course. You know, he deunic communicates using a computer.
01:04:56
Speaker
I have a good quote to end with. From a 1982 French interview. Electronic music is a lot like folk music to me. It's a new kind of rock and roll.
01:05:08
Speaker
It's so synthetic and anti-feeling that it has a lot of feeling. Like a person who won't cry. You know that they're crying inside and you look at them and they have a stone face. They're looking at you. They would never cry.
01:05:21
Speaker
You feel more emotion from that person than he you do from the person who was talking all the time. So I think that this new music is emotional. It's very emotional because it's so cold.
01:05:32
Speaker
I have my synthesizers and my computers and I'm not lonely. Wow. i thought that was beautiful. Yeah. no Wow. I've got chills. Yeah.
01:05:44
Speaker
Well, take a second to let that roll around in your brain listeners panel because we're about to play a game and that game is called When's Going On?
01:06:10
Speaker
And I said, hey, hey, hey,
01:06:54
Speaker
All right, we're going to play a little When's Going On with the filmography of Dean Stockwell. We're going to play When's Going On a little differently at this time. We haven't played it in a while, so mixing it up. and Okay. What I'm going to do is I'm going to give you guys a title, a plot description, and the character in the film that was played by Dean Stockwell. And I want you to guess a year.
01:07:16
Speaker
Oh, boy. I will tell you that Dean Stockwell started working in the mid 40s and he continued working up into the aughts. Okay.
01:07:26
Speaker
And possibly even the 20 teens. And if you get it within five years in either direction, you will get one point. If you get it within one year, you'll get two points. And if you get it on the dot, you get three points.
01:07:42
Speaker
Okay. And you'll all give me a year. This is not a buzz in game. Okay. Okay. Okay. Everybody ready? Yeah. All right. Question number one. Home sweet homicide.
01:07:55
Speaker
A mystery writer's three children confuse a police detective working on a murder. And Dean Stockwell played Archie Carstairs.
01:08:08
Speaker
Home sweet homicide. When do you guys think that one came out? I'm going to say 1955. Okay. Okay. ok
01:08:25
Speaker
Well, Greg was the closest. It was 1946. You get one point, Greg. Okay. Wow. That was very early in his career. he Archie Carstairs was one of the children.
01:08:37
Speaker
hu Question number two. The Werewolf of Washington. A reporter having an affair with the president's daughter gets sent to Hungary where he gets bitten by a wolf.
01:08:50
Speaker
Wow. When he returns to Washington, D.C., the bodies start to pile up. Dean Stockwell played Jack Whittier. I think I have one of those like 50 public domain ah horror titles box sets that has this movie in it.
01:09:06
Speaker
It's up on the Plex. Okay. Okay. ah he
01:09:14
Speaker
1971. I was going say 72. I was going to say 78. All right. right Okay. Well, you all get a point, but Preston gets two points because the year was 1973. Nice. Killer.
01:09:28
Speaker
Nice. killer nice
01:09:32
Speaker
Question number three. Born to be sold. A social worker tries to break up a ring of crooks that buy and sell newborn babies.
01:09:43
Speaker
Oh, wow. Those crooks. Those damn crumb bums. ah Dean Stockwell played Marty Hellick.
01:09:53
Speaker
When do you think that one came out? 68. 68? 1989.
01:09:57
Speaker
sixty eight yeah ain't nineteen eighty nine We'll say 85. 89. 85. All right. all right Preston gets the point. It was 1981. Okay. Our reporter was played by Linda Carter.
01:10:11
Speaker
Oh, nice. Wonder Question number four. The joke and the valley. Hmm. A young drifter wanders into a frontier town and becomes involved in a murder when he finds a body.
01:10:27
Speaker
The people of the valley take the death of an unpopular man as a joke. Dean Stockwell played Davis Tucker. When did did The Joke and the Valley come out? 57. 57? 64.
01:10:38
Speaker
fifty 64? 60. right. seven seven sixty four sixty four
01:10:48
Speaker
sixty all right Everybody gets a point, but Preston once again gets two. That came out in 1961. Nice. I can't believe I'm getting anything on this game. I hate this. I hate it. You're doing great. You're doing Yeah, you're slam dunking it.
01:11:06
Speaker
Question number five. Wanton Ton, the dog who saved Hollywood. Nice. Wow. In 1924, Elsie comes to Hollywood to become an actress, but the dog that followed her becomes a star.
01:11:22
Speaker
Dean Stockwell played Paul Level. When did this one come out? I can't tell if this is super old or super late. i super this Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah I'm going to go super late. going to say this is 87. I'll go super early and say it's 54. Okay. I'll 95. No one gets point. That was 1976. Wow. Right in the okay i'll say ninety five
01:11:45
Speaker
no one gets a point that was nineteen seventy six right them in Yeah. Weird time to make a 20s period piece. Yeah. yeah About a popular dog.
01:12:00
Speaker
Question number six. Bonsai runner. A highway patrolman goes after a ring of hit and run drivers known bonsai runners who have fast, expensive cars and stage illegal street races.
01:12:15
Speaker
And Dean Stockwell played Billy Baxter. That sounds like he's young. it That's a very young man's name. A young man's name. I'll say 57. I don't know. I feel I'm going to say I'm kind of curious about that one. that one's something intriguing.
01:12:38
Speaker
sixty five
01:12:41
Speaker
you guys i threw for a loop of that one it was nineteen eighty seven alan i'm kind of curious about that yeah that one's something intriing Question number seven.
01:12:53
Speaker
Gun for a coward. ah that's a Nice. Yeah. After the death of a rancher, his three sons run the ranch, but one of them is seen as a coward because of his aversion to gunfighting.
01:13:07
Speaker
Dean Stockwell played Keogh. 68. 68? 51. I'll say 78. All
01:13:13
Speaker
right. sixty eight fifty one ah they seventy right Anna gets the point. It was 56 just on the outside there.
01:13:26
Speaker
Nice. All right. Just two more to go. Question number eight. Naked souls. Ooh. An artist tries to rescue her scientist boyfriend who has switched bodies with an evil elderly genius.
01:13:45
Speaker
Okay. Dean Stockwell played Duncan. Hmm.
01:13:51
Speaker
This one feels tricky for some reason. Yeah. Yeah. I'm saying 90s. 90, Why 93. not 93? All right. Could you give me the description one more time?
01:14:03
Speaker
Absolutely. An artist tries to rescue her scientist boyfriend who has switched bodies with an evil elderly genius. Yeah, that's so strange.
01:14:14
Speaker
seventy five
01:14:23
Speaker
All right. Both Anna and Preston get one point. That was 1996. Okay. okay The artist was played by Pamela Anderson. Also very curious about that one.
01:14:35
Speaker
Very interesting. All Last question. Still, anybody's in it if they get it on the button. The Time Guardian.
01:14:46
Speaker
Ooh. A time-traveling city is under attack by cyborg robots in the year 4039 and travels back in time, sending two troopers in advance to the Australian desert of the present to prepare for its arrival.
01:15:05
Speaker
Dean Stockwell plays Boss. This sounds great. Yeah, I'm very curious about The Time Guardian. Yeah. 84. 84. eighty four will eighty six 86. 83. All right.
01:15:22
Speaker
Everyone gets a point, but Preston gets two. It was 1987.
01:15:27
Speaker
Wow. Congratulations, Preston. You are the big wiener. You did it. Improbable. You did a job there. Sweet. You saw through to the heart of the cards.
01:15:39
Speaker
Well, do you guys want to play some, give out some batty awards? Yeah. Yeah.
01:15:52
Speaker
Now you're messing with the Batty Awards. Now you're messing with the Batty Awards. Now you're messing with the Batty Awards.
01:16:03
Speaker
Now you're messing with the Batty Awards.
01:16:09
Speaker
Congratulations to all the nominees.
01:16:16
Speaker
That's right. Congratulations to all our nominees. Congratulations to you listeners. You've made it to the baddie awards. And this might be one of our rare episodes where it's longer than the movie, depending on which cut you watch.
01:16:29
Speaker
and Now, ah who wants to give out a the first baddie award? I can start. Oh, go ahead, Anna. Well, i will mention i will mention the part that made me laugh the hardest, which is not a part that will make anybody else on earth laugh the hardest, I don't think.
01:16:50
Speaker
But I got to be honest. And that's there's this part where Neil Young is wiping down a windshield very carefully and singing quietly to himself.
01:17:02
Speaker
a place for us from West side story. And i I, but that took me out. I laughed so hard at that.
01:17:13
Speaker
Nice. And it was just really funny to imagine Lionel being into like musicals of the fifties. Yeah. Yeah. Just occurred to me. Do you think, I know that Neil Young's son or maybe Neil Young or maybe the two of them shared a love of ah Model trains. Do you think he changed his character Lionel after the model model train?
01:17:36
Speaker
You know, I, yes, definitely. I'm going to say yes. That's too big a coincidence. Quinky thing. No. All right. Put it up on the board right up there with this movie invented grunge rock.
01:17:48
Speaker
More theory. Do you have a patty horn? I do. And I'm going to. So this is for my favorite joke in the movie. And I'm going to get this right because in this re listening to the tainted blood episode, I misquoted the thing that I said was so clever and made it not as clever.
01:18:01
Speaker
So I'm going to really try to get this one exactly right. So Fred goes into Irene to try. I think it's Fred. He's like trying to ask her out and he like walks up kind of, kind of a little bit of in ah in a heat, you know, and she notices it and she says this, what's on your mind.
01:18:18
Speaker
And i just love that joke. I had to, that was another one. had to like go back and be
Favorite Moments and Humor
01:18:25
Speaker
like, yeah, yeah. I need to hear that. I need to make sure I understood that. That was chef's kiss. Really wonderful.
01:18:31
Speaker
Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah. Well, I'm going to give my baddie award out to ah my favorite my favorite chunk of dialogue, which came from when Otto Jr. was ah talking to his mom on the phone. I always love a good one-sided phone conversation. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:18:48
Speaker
And I like this one because it reminded me of every conversation I had with my late grandmother for the last two years, which is him just saying, hi, ma, how's the toad?
01:19:01
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, that's too bad. the Oh, that's too bad. it's like, yep, he's after that one a lot. I can tell. The toe's always bad. Preston, we got to save the guest for last. What's your bad deal?
01:19:15
Speaker
Greg stole my is going what what you mine. as well But I have, it's on my, list it's on my short list of notes. and i have a note before it and after it, it can go to either one of these too.
01:19:26
Speaker
But, um, I just like the part where young auto says, uh, I smell gasoline and no one calls him on it or it follows up on that at all. Everyone has been so careless with the gasoline and he's the only one in the entire universe of the movie that acknowledges it as a problem in passing. I think that's funny. The other note I have here and I i didn't like an idiot didn't write down who said it but it's it's just the note she's dead it's okay now.
01:19:53
Speaker
It's something to the effect that somebody says at some point in conversation in the movie that thought was funny. Yeah. Sorry. I can only imagine it be about Otto Jr. talking about his mom. that's what yeah i michael hum again Yeah, I think that's i think that's accurate.
01:20:08
Speaker
Well, that was
Preston's Artistic Contributions
01:20:10
Speaker
great. Such a fun movie. Thank you so much for coming on again. Preston, always are great to see You came on on short notice. We really appreciate you slotting in. always have a nice time.
01:20:20
Speaker
And I gotta say, listeners, if you haven't seen it, Preston drew some amazing stickers for us. Oh yeah, the stickers! They're amazing. Oh, thank you. I had fun with them.
01:20:30
Speaker
ah Shoot us an email at favoritebadmoviepod at gmail.com. I will send you a sticker in the mail. Raddest. And if you are out there and you're looking for an artist to commission for your works, I can't recommend Preston enough.
01:20:47
Speaker
the It looks fantastic. ah Support happy fantastic artists like Preston. Aw, thanks, buddy. Now that I've plugged you, do you have anything that you want to plug?
01:20:59
Speaker
I'm not so specifically at the moment. i'm I'm working on a lot of things, but none of them have um such hard deadlines yet. So I don't I can't say when any of them will be out, but we're going to on a spate of music videos or some of my own music. As I was saying to you all before the episode, that's been going really well.
01:21:16
Speaker
Awesome. And if people want to follow you so they can keep track of that, where should they find you? Okay, um well, on Instagram, i'm ah my name is Preston Spurlock. Whatever the naming conventions are, I'm on YouTube, Bandcamp.
01:21:32
Speaker
My Instagram handle is actually underscore Preston underscore Spurlock. It's not that common a name, although i have learned that there are other people with it. But, um you know, if you it's generally, when if you if you put art in the search, it'll come up.
01:21:50
Speaker
Yeah, let's face it. if There are a lot of imitators, but there's only one originator, and it's Mr. Preston Spurlock. Thank you so much for hanging out this week. Nice to be with y'all. Welcome to the Three Timers Club.
01:22:02
Speaker
Yes. Feels good.
Listener Engagement and Closing Remarks
01:22:04
Speaker
that Listeners, you know what I'm going to do right now. I'm going to tell you the same thing I tell you every week if you listen all the way to the end of the show, and that's five stars is free.
01:22:17
Speaker
I'd give you five stars. Why don't you give it to us? And Hey, while you're at it, don't you tell your best friend to come listen to the show? Or why don't you email me at that email I gave you before favorite bad movie pod at gmail.com.
01:22:31
Speaker
And I can get you an invite to our discord where we're having movie screenings every month. Every Tuesday, we've been watching Tyler Perry's the oval. You've got to come watch The Oval. Preston, I see that look on your face.
01:22:47
Speaker
you're not doing anything tomorrow night, you can watch The Oval. That is the craziest fucking TV show you'll ever see in your life. I swear to God. there And it's it defies description. i'll We'll talk about it off mic. But ah I do have a little bit for our outro music.
01:23:08
Speaker
but The Oval. It takes place in The Oval Office. Oh, there you go. I've got a little bit of the cast reprise of, uh, worried man blues.
01:23:20
Speaker
It may get, uh, taken down for copyright strike. As I understand, Neil Young is very protective of the copyright of his music and I can understand why. So Neil, if you need me to take that down, I completely understand, but listeners, maybe you'll hear it.
01:23:36
Speaker
Uh, and if you don't, Hopefully we'll hear from you next week when we'll have special guest, Michael Darling, uh, coming back, join in the two timers club.
01:23:47
Speaker
And we're going to be watching playing with fire, a made for TV movie starring Gary Coleman and you fit Koto. ah nice Check it out.
01:23:58
Speaker
And until next time, be good. Goodbye.
01:24:10
Speaker
It takes the word man to sing the word song. may be worried now, but I won't be worried long. It takes the word man to sing the word song.
01:24:20
Speaker
may be worried now, but won't be worried long. Everyone's going to parties, they're all laughing, having fun. And it takes the word man to sing the word song.