Now, let me explain to you about bulls, okay? A bull is the most evil, disgusting and crafty sucker in the world. Wow, till you say crafty, I thought you were talking about Republicans. He'll fart on you, snot on you. Do anything he can to mash out your brains. Now I know you're talking about Republicans. The worst kind of bull is the one who won't do nothing. Just stand there. Look at you. That means he's studying you, soaking up your weak spots and remembering them for the time you can prance on your head. He doesn't have to go to all that trouble. I'm a man. My weak spots are chronic masturbation and thinking the Umbrella Academy was a good TV show. A rodeo clown is the most dangerous job in the world. I thought the most dangerous job in the world was standing between Eric Adams and a TV camera. He's the one who gets closest to the bull. If you want to get closest to the bull, shouldn't you run for Congress? Later on, I will show you the proper way to lay on a stretcher when they pick you up. When I need to pick me up, I'll have a gin and tonic. I'll see you later. Where you going? To the set of Cool Hand Luke, at least in that movie, I don't have to mess with a bull. Cool Hand Luke? It's 1980. That movie was made in 1967. So hit your right on a tard, sleep me alone. Well I'm going to tell us this still work. The podcast looks at all we should ask. Does this still work? I'm Joe Dixon and I'm George Romaka and today we'll be discussing Stir Crazy from 1980 and some historical context. First podcast-y stuff. You can reach us at dtswpot@gmail.com on Facebook, Letterbox, and on our YouTube channel. Joe is on Blue Sky at Joe Dixon dot BSKY dot social. Please tell your friends about us. Even the ones who used half of 1965 ganja from the motherland, thinking it was oregano, and Lee 5 Star ratings everywhere. You can pick what we watch and get extra per episode content by funding us on Patreon for as little as a dollar a month at patreon.com/dtswpot. Now Joe, take us back to 1980. And that's the way it was. 1980 when I was 13 and George did not exist. He was a minus one in 1980. He wasn't even a sperm seller in 1980. How depressing is that for me? Very depressing actually. But not nearly suppressing that's being in prison. Where the majority of this picture takes place. I don't think it's ever stated, but our film's heroes are incarcerated in an Arizona state prison. So let's go back to good old 1980 via events happening in the Grand Canyon state. According to this article from the Arizona Daily Star, 1980 saw a rash of bank robberies. George, headline please. Banks losing ground in fight against crime. Apparently they need to just, you know, not have people dressed as woodpeckers. Indeed. Before I get into the stats, here is an amusing anecdote from the column. Quoting, "Last summer I met a rash of robberies at New York banks, one posted this sign. Attention would be robbers. This is a Spanish-speaking bank. If you intend to rob us, please be patient, for we might meet an interpreter. Thank you, the management." End quote. That's adorable. I have never in my life walked to a bank where they had any helpful messages for would-be robbers. Have you drew him? Nope. That's a, uh, that would have been a first for me. Amazing. Okay, back to the newspaper. A record number of people, 25 including eight bank employees, were killed during bank robberies in the first six months of this year. Again, that'd be 1980. I'm quoting here. According to the FBI, some officials attributed the increased violence to more frequent use of firearms and hold-up attempts and a growing number of skittish amateur robbers. The total number of crimes against financial institutions, which include commercial banks, savings banks, saves and loan associations, and credit unions, also reached record levels during the first half of the year. The FBI said, cash securities at other property worth 22.1 million were taken in those robberies. That is down slightly from 22.7 million taken during the same period last year, but still high by historical standard. End quote. That, that just seems like a weird thing to... 'Cause if you're robbing banks, it's a crap shoot what you're gonna get out of that bank. So like, comparing how much was lost between years, that number just seems like a weird number to base anything on. I guess, but I mean, with people rob banks, I think they assume there's a ton of money there, so... Oh, I mean, that's where they keep the money, right? That's where they keep the money. So, sometimes they're walking out of there with much less than they thought they were gonna get. Yeah, so maybe that's part, I don't know. I don't know how they came up with these numbers. Other than it slightly down from when it was the year before, that would be 1979. Anyway, that covers bank robbery in 1980. How about prisons? New Mexico had a riot in one of its penitentiaries that year, but how was Arizona doing? Turns out, as in this movie, a guy broke out of jail. Sadly for him, he was caught. George, read this headline also from the Arizona Daily Star. Arizona escapee caught in a boarded Alabama burglary. I will read. Please say an escapee from an Arizona prison was arrested with two other men yesterday morning after officers thwarted an auto burglary. Please receive a call about an auto burglary. I don't know why. I just find that funny auto burglary. Not an automobile burglary, a car burglary, auto burglary. Yep, that's a burglary that happened automatically. Yes, that's what I'm quoting. Manual burglaries. Manual burglary, I'm quoting people. And three men fled and another car when officers arrived. They were caught after a short chase. End quote. One of the guys caught was a 22-year-old who had been serving a five-year sense for manslaughter at a minimum security prison camp in Graham County. How did he escape? What brilliant plan did he devise to spring himself from the who scow? He walked. That's what the Daily Star says. He walked away. When they say minimum security prison camp, they mean minimum security. Holy hell. Mm-hmm. Can you really? I mean, honestly, if I was in jail and they had the opportunity to walk out, I'd do it too. Yeah. [LAUGHTER] I don't know. I don't know what they're thinking. Like, oh, you know what? I can serve another five years or I can just get the fuck out of here. Hmm. Let me weigh these things. I mean, I got to be careful not to get arrested. I was trained to always try and escape, but that's, you know, military training. OK, so I'm arrested. Well, chances are I'm going to see it as an act of class warfare, which means it's still military and I'm being, you know, attacked. So I'm still going to try and escape. You know, curiously, and people could correct me on this if I am mistaken, but I believe in much of Europe, if not all of Europe, you're expected to escape. I mean, this is to try to escape. If you harm anyone when you escape, then they'll pick more, you know, you'll get a longer sentence and everything, but you're just trying to get out of prison. Makes sense. So yeah, like that's just human behavior. Oh, you don't like being in a cage. We're going to expect you to try and get out of that. So if you do that nicely, when we catch you, we'll just bring you back. Yes. Yeah, which I, that's fine. That's a more civil way to do it than we do it here. I agree. I don't know why we don't do it here the same. Oh, I know why we don't do it here because we have a heart on for fascism. Can't disagree with that. Oh, hey, George, tell us about stir crazy. Okay. This was directed by the dearly departed Sidney Poitier. For the podcast, we've seen his work in In the Heat of the Night and to serve love. As a director, we also saw his work in Buck and the Preacher. As an actor and director, I saw his work in A Piece of the Action. Let's do it again. Uptown Saturday night. And as an actor, I've seen his work in They Call Me Mr. Tibs. Guess who's coming to dinner? Lilies of the field, a raisin of the sun, that the fight ones Ann Blackboard Jungle. And I've seen him in The Jackal. This was written by Bruce J. Friedman. For the podcast, we've seen his work in Splash. And I've seen him as an actor in Husbands and Wives. And this is also written by Charles Blackwell, who had no other credits, really. Blurp. Black. Wuzzy. He was well black. He was well, he was well gone. That's how black. Okay, there's a well done blast at that. I can do those jokes, people. You can, I can't. For blurbs, IMDB says, "Set up and wrongfully accused, two best friends are sent to prison for a crime they didn't commit." However, no prison cell can keep them locked in a cage. I hate this blurb for that last fucking sentence. No prison cell can keep them locked in a cage. Come the fuck on. That is lazy writing. That is terribly, that's like third grade description writing. No prison cell can hold them. Would have been fucking great. Yeah, I don't know what in the cage is before, but yeah. Amazon says, Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor star in this buddy comedy about Powell's sentence to jail, who find a possible escape through prison rodeo. All right, it's got enough plot elements in it. Sure. So, after some shots of random winter goings on in Manhattan, we meet our first protagonist, Harry Monroe. He's part of a catering crew providing dinner to an eclectic group of well-off people. They seem to be getting along very, very well. Harry Monroe is played by Richard Pryor, who's singing for the podcast in Blue Collar. And I've seen in Lost Highway. I've also seen his work in JoJo Dance in Life is Calling, which he also directed. I've seen him in Pryor's Place, a children's TV show that nobody remembers. I also saw him in The Muppet Movie, California Sweet, The Wiz, Which Way is Up, Silver Street, which he also started with Gene Wilder and that. Car Wash, Uptown Saturday Night, and Lady Sings the Blues. I believe this was the first movie where a black actor made a million dollars. Yes, I say that in the... Oh, dude. In our show notes, yes. Oh, I just know that. It's okay, you can say it here. It doesn't matter, but I don't mention it. So, they're getting along very, very well, because one of the chefs accidentally used Harry's weed in all of the things, thinking it was oregano. Despite apparently convincing the guests that their giddy horniness is from the wine, Harry gets fired. Yeah, that didn't quite make any sense to me, because they don't know what's going on. They only know who knows what's going on. It's people in the kitchen. At what looks to be Macy's, Harry's best friend, unsuccessful playwright, and part-time store detective Skip Dottahue, is annoying an actress that he claims attempted to steal a dress that she then threw in the trash. He also claims that she's not wearing anything under her coat. We never find out if that's true. He also gets fired. Yeah, that was also very strange. It's weird that we don't actually see them getting fired. Skip Dottahue is played by Gene Wilder. And for the show, we've seen his work in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, everything you always wanted to know about sex, and Bonnie and Clyde. And I've seen him and the producers, Silver Streak, and See No Evil Here No Evil, but y'all still rich a private. I didn't say that in the credits. So, well, I'm saying it now. At what looks to be a larval Dave and Buster's, mean a larval David Buster. Okay. Meaning a drinking and dining establishment that's fancier than a bar, but also has pinball machines in a jukebox, Harry drowns his sorrows in beer, eats half of a honeydew, and Ogle's a dancing lady. Skip joins him, and is excited that they both lost their jobs on the same day because it frees them of any obligation to stay in New York. Because that's how that works. Yep, before they can develop the plot any further, two people enter the place. One is tall and wealthy looking. The other looks like a long lost Mario brother. The tall one allegedly stiffed the short one on a job and they get into a fight. Skip believes the best of people, then thinks those two just need someone to talk nicely to them. So, as the proletariat gets the bourgeois's nuts in a literal vice, Skip attempts to de-escalate the situation. The situation is resolved with an exchange of funds for services rendered. When you first saw that scene, what did you, what did you think of that? What do you think that was going? I had no idea where the fuck that was going. It just sort of just dropped in there. Obviously for last, but it really doesn't do anything for the plot. I guess it establishes a character trait of Skip that he likes to engage in discussions with strangers. And I'll mention that a bunch of times. Yeah, I guess that's it. Yeah. Skip returns to the table and proposes that he and Harry head to California to be inundated with women building nest egg and live their dreams as hetero-life mates who may start a movie review podcast one day. This is not a standing brush. Thank you very much. Harry accepts these terms. Why? Who knows? Because there's something else going on in the city. Because Sidney Poitier told him to. Yes, I guess. Well, because the script said so. Yep. Here's the thing. Look, I'm trying to be nicer to Gene Wilder than I ever was to Robin Williams. But this is not a great looking man. No, he is not. He's in this bar and you've left this out. These women are all hating on him as he's there. Everywhere he goes, he has already slept with somebody. It's kind of annoying. It's like, I know this is a comedy, but man, are you straining cragility here? Yeah. I mean, not for nothing, but fucking Richard Pryor does that shit too with the Ganges. Like my girlfriend for a little bit of this, she would not only let me have her body but her two best friends too. Ah, yeah. Yeah, I was wondering if you were going to talk about that. Not the best. But we still don't. It's weird. And we never see those women. We never see those women. This is also true of Silver Streak. It's true in this movie. And I can't remember if it's true in the other films. But for some reason, in these pictures, Jean Wat... Number one, Jean Watters seems to get most of the screen time. Even though most people go to see the movie for Richard Pryor. But also, he also seems to be like, "It's the girls." Yep. I know it's Silver Streak. He definitely doesn't. And this one, he doesn't. And there's a girl put in this movie just for him and we'll get there. Yeah, just for Jean Watters. It's like, "What?" They managed to drive from New York to California in the Dodge A108. That breaks down when they get there. Repairs are expensive, but Skip is sure they can find jobs in... Czechs, notes. Glenboro? Which I couldn't find in California because Google only seems aware of the one in Manitoba. Why did you think this wasn't California at all? Because that's where they were going. Oh, I see. No, no. That's not where they broke down in. Okay. They broke down in Arizona. I know that now. They stop at a strip club during the day, so like, no strippers. And Skip gets that urge to talk to strangers again. He tries to chat... By the way, I'm sorry. I just wanna break in here real quick. If you're broke, the last place you should be going to is a strip club, even during the day. Yep. I don't know. If you are aware, strip clubs, not the cheapest places to go to. Nope. He tries to chat up the two not-so-friendly-looking cowboy types punching away to speed bag that's in a strip club for some reason, to find out if there are any job openings anywhere. One of them with a heart-shaped tattoo on his hand that will be important later, punches the bag clean off its hinges. Harry comes to collect Skip. Don't you know socializing can be hazardous to your health with these people? Those are nice guys. They're not nice guys. They're not nice guys, and... Skip, they really... He comes off like he's something mentally wrong with them. Yeah. He's damaged, definitely. But it's not a dresser today. He's happy damaged. Skip tells him that they do have a job opportunity in banking. That opportunity is to dress as woodpeckers and do a song and dance in a bank to get people to open savings accounts. So they do that. When it's lunchtime, they leave their costumes in a room and get some Dunkin' Donuts. The two punchy cowboys from earlier swipe the costumes, impersonate our protagonists, then rob the bank. They steal the Dodge A108 and make a clean getaway. When Skip and Harry return from lunch, they are arrested for robbing the bank. Number one, how did these two guys know where these two men worked? How did they know to go there and steal the costume? How did they get in to steal the costumes at the first place? There's a lot going on there that just seems to happen for, because the script says so. Also, before we start recording, ladies and gentlemen, we were talking about some of the trivia. So did you see the trivia? I don't know if it was on the Amazon or I saw it on some other source. So if you're watching it on Amazon, it gets its trivia from IMDB. All of the trivia comes from IMDB from everywhere. Okay. But this is what I'm not sure this is on IMDB, regardless. It was pointed out that if you look at the two guys robbing the bank, it's clearly a white guy and a black guy robbing the bank. And yet, the two cow folks are white. Yep. So how did that happen? I'm going to say it. Blackface. All you're thinking is like, oh, I've got to look at the black guy. Let me put some blackface on. I wouldn't put it past them. Okay. That explains that. Okay. So was it an error? It was intentional. All right. Yeah. When they get to jail, they're held in Gen Pop, where one older guy is chasing a hallucinated fly around. For some fucking reason, I guess because the script says so, skipped sides to play too, and ends up almost starting a fight. The takeaway from this scene is that the Arizona justice system really hates bank robbers. Did we ever establish, I can't remember what kissing the baby meant? Nope. Because you remember when they first started jail, so we're going to be kissing the baby. And I didn't, I thought that was going to be explain later. And I don't remember if it ever was. And you're saying no. Okay. I don't think it was it. Yeah. No. So the whole dumb scene was for nothing. Yep. A lot of this was improvised, and I think you can tell because, well, I'll say it right up front. I didn't find a lot of this funny. Me neither. They get to meet their public defender, Len Garber, before they're brought to a judge, and summarily found guilty and sentenced to 125 years in prison. But they're really fast with the jury trials back in the day. Yeah. As they're taken to the van to start their sentence, Harry's beside himself, while Skip tries to convince their lawyer to find the actual robbers. Len says that he has a cousin visiting, a wonderful social worker, who may be able to help. Okay. Cause as a social worker, she's good at detective work, apparently. Yep. Len Garber is played by Joel Brooks, and for the show, we've seen him in indecent proposal. Shackled, they're brought to Goldboro State Prison. Skip is incensed at the rough treatment they receive. They meet a fellow inmate, Jesus Ramirez, also there for bank robbery, back from his latest appeal. He's been there for seven years, and really misses his wife. Jesus Ramirez is played by Miguel Angel Sowares, and I've seen him in bananas, which was also apparently a director, but I didn't see any of his work. And bananas was his first movie. Mm-hmm. Well, what do you have in the movie, actually? At the diagnostics, before he became a pedo. [Laughs] Pre-pre-preo Woody. It really just dawned on me that when they're doing the song and dance in the bank, the song involves them calling the audience little peckers. You know what I mean? Think about that. You're right. Also, why would they return to work? Didn't they just do their work? Are they just gonna sing that song all day? Yeah, that's what they do. That's their thing now. Doesn't seem very constructive to, and why are they doing it in the bank? At least we outdoors. It was shaking happen inside. It was Skip's idea. He sold the bank managers on that idea. Oh, no, I get it, but I still would have... Okay, you can do it outside. Well, hey, but please... Yeah, you do it to drive business in, not make the people in already more customers. Yeah, I'm just standing there and looking at you. They're supposed to be banking. At the diagnostic center, they're taking a written test, and Skip continues to act out, and gets repeatedly thrown back into his seat. Now, you know this is the job. Just wait, just wait. Okay, one more sentence, because I know where you're going with that. On their way to their cell, Skip and Harry fake psychotic episodes. The guards are surprisingly and unrealistically patient during this. Unrealistically patient is under suddenly what we saw at the movie. Jesus Christ, can you imagine pulling that shit? Not even just in the... Forgetting and being in prison and pulling that shit. Throw it in the military or I work in anywhere. In a hospital, you have to get a sock. You have to get a sock even. Yeah! You that in a hospital, the order leaves will be tackling you to the ground and administering you anti-psychotic medication. One hundred percent! And the guards are just like, "Ugh, I don't know what's going on here. You're sure, right in my back, why not?" Yeah, he'd laugh some hug him. You won't get thrown in the hole for that, not at all. At Chow, they meet another friendly inmate. Rory Schultran. He is a fairly aggressively gay black man who's in prison for killing his stepfather. The Newby's notice from across the cafeteria, another inmate. Grossberger is a very large, quiet serial killer. Skip gets that urge to talk to strangers again, but is scared off when Grossberger growls at him. Rory Schultran is played by George Stanford Brown, who I saw in Bullet. Roots, the TV miniseries, and I was a fan of his, and The Rookie's the old TV show. Grossberger is played by Erland Van Litt. I have a blurb about him. I have a blurb about him later. Whoo, about Grozberger? About the actor, yeah. Okay, no, that's what I was going to say. Before we move on, I think we should really address Rory. I mean, they don't say anything home before but to him, and then I still felt this was a homophobic joke. Yes. Did you get that? Yeah, it's, it's... Because Rory doesn't... Because Rory wasn't slurs. But Rory doesn't respect boundaries. He is aggressively, physically, affectionate with Harry the entire time, despite Harry being visibly uncomfortable with it. And they even play that as a defense thing like, "Oh yeah, this other maniac on the other side of the quad stays away from me. I make him uncomfortable for some reason." Yeah, I mean, it's, it's a very... unfortunate. [laughs] But you're like, 'cause, like I said, there's no, there's no slurs in this picture whatsoever. Which is amazing considering Richard Pryor said that. He doesn't even say the N-word. So there's no racial slurs, there's no gay slurs. The character isn't... The gay character isn't treated badly by anybody, at least. You know, it's like he's never beaten up. He's never, he's never like told like, "Oh, you f, get out of here," whatever. So in that sense, he's treated as pretty much like everyone else's. But at the same time, he's clearly meant as a joke. Yeah. So it's weird, it's, it's weird. I didn't know what to make of this, 'cause on the round hand, I felt it was homophobic. And at the same time, not enough, like, I don't know. It was a slightly more evolved gay joke in that they didn't have to say any of the jokes. They had a character that just was a gay joke. I guess, yeah, I guess that's a good, yeah, I guess that's a good description of how I felt about it. Right. They're depicting it without having to go so far as to... When I say evolved, they don't necessarily mean better. No, but it's, it's definitely different from what we would normally get. So we get the prison movie equivalent of the high school movie Clickwalk. Jesus and Rory introduce some other characters. Jack Graham runs the prison black market, and therefore, basically, the prison. Blade runs the, and I'm quoting, third world side of the prison, whatever the fuck that means. And held the axe murdering record until Grossburger came along. Jack Graham was played by Jonathan Banks, who we've seen on the podcast in airplane. And both George and I've seen in Billie Hill's cop and Gremlins. And I've seen him in Breaking Bad TV show, Better Call Saul, the TV show. It was got the TV show. He's done a lot of TV that I watched, apparently. Is Wise Guy related to Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul? Not at all. It's actually precedes both of those shows. It was about, this guy was undercover, and the Jonathan Banks character was, the captain was sending him on missions. Okay. And I've heard him in Incredibles 2. Blade is played by Charles Weldon, and for the podcast, we saw him in Malcolm X. It's going to be cool if he actually wasn't Blade. He played Blade in this, and then he was in the movie Blade. But sadly, no. But I've also seen him in Supercom, and The Women of Brewster Place, the TV movie. After a few months, Skip and Harrier brought to be seen by the Warden Walter Beatty, and Deputy Warden Wilson. They had a lot of fun with Warden Beatty, because Warren Beatty has a name and it sounds like it. Yeah. Skip is made to ride a mechanical bull, and to Warden Beatty's delight, is surprisingly good at it for a New Yorker. The Warden selects him to be the prison's representative in the annual Interprison Rodeo contest. Warden Walter Beatty is played by Barry Corbin, who I've seen in Killers of the Flower Moon, No Country for Old Men, any which way you can, and I watched in the TV show, nor that exposure. And I've seen him in Who's Harry Crumb. Deputy Warden Wilson displayed by Craig T. Nelson, who I've seen in the TV show Coach, and I see them in the movie Wag the Dog, and I've seen in the TV movie The Justin Biggest Story, and I saw in the movie Flesh Gordon, which may have been my first soft-core porn movie. I'm not sure. Okay. Just so everyone knows, he does not have any sex in film. It was a very, very soft porn movie, soft-core porn movie, but yeah, it was weird. There were definitely breasts, and there was simulated stuff going on, and there's one scene where a guy's head is in another guy's lap, and he's clearly given a bull job, but that was it. Well, I don't know why they turned Flash Gordon to Flesh Gordon and made this, but I saw it in college, and that's what you do in college. Yep, apparently. I've seen him in Turner in Hooch and the Devil's Advocate, and heard him in The Incredibles. Skip and Harry learn from Hazus and Rory that the Roto competition is just a scam to line the Warden's pockets. Well, the other prison's Warden, because Glenboro keeps losing. The prize money is supposed to go to the inmates, but it never does. Rory and Hazus have a plan, though. All of them to escape. It requires Skip to play hard to get with the Warden, to buy time and give them access to materials, so Skip refuses to be the prison's writer. The Warden instructs his deputy to make Skip see things his way, so the guards do things to skip, like stretch him with chains and lock him in solitary, all of which Skip endures with a smile and a ton of talkback. The guards even put Grossberger in their cell, expecting murder, but the three end up becoming friends instead. Which was a- - For some reason. - It was a welcome wholesome twist to throw in there. - Yeah, 'cause I was expecting this to get really prison-rapey, and I was pleasantly surprised that it really didn't. - You know, and that's another credit to the film. There was not one prison rape joke in it. - No, like, when they were walking down the corridor and doing it, like, you gotta act tough and make sure everybody knows that you're the boss, otherwise, you know, they're gonna mess with you. I was expecting it then, and it didn't happen. I'm like, I don't know how I feel now. - Isn't it very curious though? 'Cause it does avoid a lot of landmines while still being bad. (laughing) - Which, I'm pretty sure that's Sidney Poitier, because he was a gem of a human being. (laughing) - Maybe so. - Even though he did do a couple of films with Bill Cosby, so. (laughing) - Yeah. Well, I mean, it wasn't until fairly recently that we knew that Cosby was- - Yeah, that most of us knew Cosby. - God, I wonder if Sidney Poitier knew how he did he die before, that all came out, I can't remember. - He died within the last four years, because we didn't remember and stinking the podcast for him. Yeah, all that, then he would've known, okay, never mind. - They have a meeting with their lawyer who has brought his cousin, Meredith, who is happy to help prove their innocence. - And apparently has nothing else to do with her tongue. - Yeah. (laughing) - It's a dedicated herself to this one case. - And in fact, she's discovered that one of the people in the bank noticed the tattoo on the robber's hand, and neither Skip nor Harry have tattooed hands, so she is looking for that guy. Also, she never gets involved with client skip, right? We also see Jesus and his wife, Teresa Ramirez, having a tearful visit. Meredith is played by Joe Beth Williams, and I've seen him stop, or my mom will shoot, and why at Earp? - Well, I've seen him the big chill and Kramer versus Kramer. - And Teresa Ramirez is played by Carmen Ricello. The wardens continue their efforts to harass Skip and Harry into agreeing to be in the rodeo. They have Harry brought to the infirmary for appendicitis, which Harry can't have, because he's already had his appendix out. There, they meet an inmate who was brought in for hernia, who ended up a crostralo, at the hands of their new Korean doctor. When a doctor comes out, Harry runs from the word screaming, and is not, again, sedated and brought back. - Yeah, that would not happen. They wouldn't just be able to leave. - The whole, the whole new foreigner doctor cuts weird parts off of your body. - I don't know exactly what specific racism it was going for there, but it's there somewhere. - Yeah, there was no reason to make it. I mean, I don't, maybe it's referencing something in 1980, but I don't know why they made him a Korean doctor, just to make him a doctor, a new doctor. Like, they could have gone ableist with it and just had him have like coke bottle glasses or something. - Well, that, and having played it by a Korean, I think that would have been worse. - I think you're making, you're up in the race. - No, I meant instead of. - Okay. When Skip is ready, he goes to the Warden to make a deal. He wants his own team for the rodeo and a bigger, better ventilated cell. The Warden agrees to these terms. - So there was just a better ventilated cell just sitting around there? - I don't understand where that cell came from. - Me neither, Joe. After Skip leaves, the Warden tells the deputy to have Graham watching them the entire time and have Blade watching Graham, which I guess was a joke. I don't know, 'cause I don't know why the fuck you would trust this guy and have him watching these other inmates and then, you know, have this other inmate watch this inmate watching the other inmates. - I just took them and he didn't trust anybody. I don't think it, I mean, it certainly doesn't play any way in the plot. I mean, Blade does nothing to try and stop them and Graham is pretty much irrelevant. - I mean, he does kind of social engineer Harry into having a bull chase him around, but he's a rodeo clown. He has to learn how to run away from bulls. - I guess, but he, yeah, he doesn't. And in no way does he upset their plan to do anything. He doesn't stop them in any way. He's fun and Graham, like, so does it relevant to their plot? I mean, he comes over at one point, gets punched in the face and that's at the end of him. - So the first thing that Skip does is get onto a horse and get thrown from it. He says he did that on purpose and there's actually some wisdom in that. I did something similar with my oldest when I taught them how to ride a bike. - You threw them off it? - I had them deliberately fall off of it onto some grass, I'm not a monster, so that they would know what it felt like because it's easier to keep your head in a situation like that when you know that you're going to be okay afterwards. Meanwhile, Harry trains to be a rodeo clown. As the team do their various duties in training, they use the prison metal shop to fashion innocuous looking tools to enable their escape. Between sessions, they relax in their larger, better appointed cell. Grossburger even breaks out into song at one point, breaking years of silence. And according to IMDB trivia, Erland Van Litt played Grossburger, a homicidal maniac who is maliciously assigned to be the duo's cellmate in the hopes that he will massacre them. Van Litt was an MIT computer science grad who accidentally turned to acting while en route to an operatic career. He said he is grateful to director Sidney Poitier for allowing him to read the script during filming. He said when I did Woody Allen's new picture, I never knew the title or what it was about. - That's probably just as well. - Yeah, about Grossburger. He's obviously there as, he's also just, I guess, a one note joke. And yet they do seem to sort of develop him, but I'm not quite sure that well. I mean, we really don't get to know that much about him other than he's apparently not a monster. And he's not, right, that's the entire arc for him is, "Oh, he's not a monster after all." Because when Skip gets thrown from the horse, like, yeah, he goes out and he baby carries Skip. And Skip's like, "No, dude, I'm okay. You could put me down. You know, sometimes you get overprotective, which is a weird thing to have to say to a serial killer." Kind of so something I just realized, do they have Grossburger on their side for, I guess technically he could be for their protection, but they really don't need protection. No one's harming them. Nope. Other than, I guess the guards are when they want him to ride, but beyond that, they seem perfectly safe and prison. Yeah. Outside, Meredith gets a job as a waitress at the strip club from earlier. She really fucking dedicated. Yeah, she really, she's like Andy Diggison and a police woman. I don't know that reference, but I'm just going to agree with you. I'm an old man, the vey olds will get it. Yep. She's hoping to spot the real robbers there. And I actually scripted for myself to say she is very dedicated to proving their innocence for some reason. She spots the man with the tattooed hand and then calls her cousin and the police. Which is proof of absolutely nothing, but okay. What are you calling the police for? I have a tattoo in my hand and I'm sitting in a bar. What exactly have you proven? Well, tattoo of the hand plus eyewitness testimony. A witness said that they saw a tattoo on one of the robber's hands. A very specific tattoo. Right, no, I understand, but still, it's still like, okay, I'm still sitting in a bar. I don't know if it would work that way. The cops just come in and go like, we're arresting you because you have a tattoo on your hand, which millions of others probably also have. Well, we'll get there, but they confess. Like they get arrested and then they confess. So, which, if the police think that you're guilty, which they just automatically think you're guilty, they will beat a confession out of you. Oh, I see, you think that's what happened, all right. Well, it is Arizona. Yeah, Joe Arpaio was just a lowly patrolman at that point. Ah, so he's probably the one who beat the confession out of them and yep, got to come out of the chair. All right, that makes sense. Graham tries and fails twice to kill Skip. When it's time for the rodeo, in spite of this, the team works well and everyone does their parts. Whenever the crowd's attention is on the rodeo, one of them sneaks out through the stables and makes it to safety, either in a bathroom where they don a disguise or out of a window into a popcorn cart pushed by Teresa. Which is good work all around, I guess. It's a good thing they have to know about that little space there, how they know, which never actually explained. The final battle, if you will, is between the other prison champion and Skip. To retrieve a bag with $50,000 from between the horns of a charging bull. Which is fucking insane. I don't, does anyone, I hope no one actually does that. Let's have the money all literally on the bull. Skip offers to help the other guy get the money if he'll screw the wardens and get it to the inmates. When the guy gets the money, he throws it into the stands, which infuriates the wardens. Which actually makes no sense, because those people can't go anywhere. They'll just take the money from them. The guards will just take the money from them. I mean, the thing is, when all of the inmates have a little bit of money now, they're, they're inmates. They're not, they're not leaving. When the guards start taking it away, that's a good way to start a riot. And there aren't, there are never enough guards if the prisoners really want to riot. It's a weird thing about our prisoners. The prison system doesn't actually have to exist. The prisoners everywhere, could if they wanted to end the United States prison system. But it would require a coordinated effort and just Americans aren't good at coordinating, unless your conservatives voting for assholes. Well, the problem with America's course is that we think we're all on our own, and we're all in our own man. And so, and it's probably even worse when people are in jail. So while that happens, Skip makes his way to the escape route. Graham gets suspicious, but Grossberger, who isn't escaping, for some reason, probably because he's too big to fit through the hole. I guess? He doesn't seem like he, I'm sorry, but he doesn't seem like he wants to get out. Yeah, no, he's perfectly happy there. But he knocks Graham out to save his friend. Yep. And that's the end of Graham. We don't see his character again for the rest of the movie. We're a Grossberger for that matter. Or the Wardens. Oh, that's true, yeah. The escapees are herded into a camper and driven to safety. On the way to safety, they're spotted by Meredith, who was on her way to the prison with Len. Oh, by the way, just real quick. There was another thing going back to our, God, what's the name of the gay character here again? Rory, Rory, back to Rory again, when he was about to, when they're doing the whole escape thing. Oh, yeah, here we go. Everyone else just dresses in regular clothing, but Rory's got to put on a dress. And it is clearly meant to get a laugh, because when it comes out of the bathroom, wearing a full-on wig dress and everything, it's completely silent. So it's clear, we're supposed to be laughing at that scene. Like, it's like, it's like a fucking mitten burl. It wasn't, like, it was good. It was good, like, good drag. It was passing. Like, it wasn't... So, like, I didn't even clock it at that. I just clocked it as a disguise. But it was definitely meant as a joke. Yeah. We're better people than the movie. And it's also 2024, not 1980. At an abandoned aircraft hanger, Jesus and family with Rory bid farewells to Skip and Harry, then drive off. Also, here Rory kisses Harry, and Harry is squicked out by it, but doesn't make a super big deal about it. But it's still weird. Technically sexual assault. Technically sexual assault. Or at least certainly assault. And also, why is Rory going with them? These guys are going off... Jesus is going off of his wife, going off to their family. Does Rory... And then going off to Mexico, does Rory speak Spanish? Is he? He will. Why is he leaving with these people? I guess he will, yeah. Skip and Harry start to fuck off themselves, but are intercepted by Meredith, who tells them that the police picked up the real robbers who copped to the crime, meaning that now they're free to finish their pilgrimage to Hollywood. Never mind the fact that prison break is still a crime, so they have to... They should be sent back to jail for that. At the very least, they would have to be back in court. And on a whim, because Skip asks, Meredith joins them on their journey. Meredith is a very sad character, if you think about it. She has nothing to do with cousin Coleser up and like, "Oh, I'm just going to cover." I was a social worker, but now I'm a detective. So I'm just going to do this for this prisoner, who I don't even really know, but apparently I'm in love with for some reason. Yeah, she went from social worker to investigator. She went from social worker to detective to girlfriend. Yeah. Yeah. To mall, basically. Well, was that a not-well-developed character? Anyway, George, does this film still work? So the end. That was the end, yes. This is still work. No, just no. The jokes weren't great. And I'll give it... You know, we gave it some credit for not going to some shitty places that movies of this type tend to go, but it's still a movie of this type. And movies of this type are even great movies. Yeah, I mean, look, I don't forgive anything if you at least make me laugh. I didn't even laugh once in this entire film. And it wasn't even the matter of, like I said, the line they get to, I don't think they ever really cross. It's not too offensive. And as I said, for a movie setting up prison, not one slur knocking to me of any sort of gay, black, you name it, not one. Eh, there's no rape jokes. None of that stuff. The closest you get to real racism is the whole Korean thing, like eh, which doesn't make sense to me and George. I don't know, was that racism? I just don't understand why he was a Korean doctor. No. But he doesn't speak with an accent or anything. So it's not like they're playing it up he's Korean. Oh, look at the dumb foreigner. It's not like 16 candles or something. So I don't know why that was there. And once again, it's something that makes sense in 1980, and we're just missing. So. But no, it's not, it's not funny. I really wish, we were supposed to do this show with someone else, who actually was a fan of this. And I would be curious if that person would still be a fan of that. So we watched it again. But still a lot of people still think this is a very funny movie and they still love it. Yeah, we are now. George and I are not those people. I'm sorry. You love it. You want to defend it. Start your own fucking podcast. [laughter] And I don't even know that it looks easy. It really is. All right, my friend, what's up next? Next week. Our next episode is a patron's choice episode, and we don't know what the movie will be because our patrons vote on them, and that vote hasn't been finalized yet. If you want to vote, but are not a patron, you can fix that by becoming one at patreon.com/DTSWPod. So I guess that's it for this episode. I'm Joe Dixon. Thanks for listening. And I'm George Romaka. Thanks for listening, indeed, because if a podcast drops and there's nobody around to hear it, just another collection of ones and zeroes, that doesn't matter. ♪ Oh, you'll save money, knock on wood ♪ ♪ When you do what a good wood packer should ♪ ♪ Save for a horse or a brand new ranch ♪ ♪ When you flock to the Glenboro savings ranch ♪ ♪ You can feather your nest with frills ♪ ♪ Fill your garage with cooped bills ♪ ♪ Just relax if you have a big bill ♪ Are you really a wood packer? ♪ Don't you have to just demand for time for the bill, wood packer ♪ That's a real wood packer. ♪ What you can do be a smart bird too ♪ ♪ You live old pecker, you die a da da ♪ You've been listening to "Does This Still Work?" Produced by Joe Dixon and George Romaka. The hosts can be reached via social media, email, or the contact page at dtswpod.com. Be good to yourself and others, because that still works. Ah, you didn't think about it, did you? I didn't think about it. You didn't want to escape from prison? Ah, that's too easy.
