Words and Movies Sean Gallagher & Claude Call

In Part 2 of our episode, we look at There Will Be Blood (2007), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Daniel Day-Lewis, along with Paul Dano and Kevin J. O'Connor.

Day-Lewis is one of the early oil tycoons whose greed takes him down a strange and destructive path.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

In our next episode, we look at Westerns being used as an anti-Capitalist allegory. What? Yes, indeed, just come along for the ride. We start with McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and finish up with The Claim. Join us, won't you?


---

Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wordsandmovies/support

Never mind what Gordon Gekko told you, for lack of a better term. Greed almost invariably leads to a downfall of some kind, and in some cases people learn their lesson and in others, they don't.

In this episode we see both sides of that coin, and we start with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt and Walter Huston. They're three Americans who are after a remote gold mine in the Sierra Madre Mountains. They encounter hardship getting there and back, and in between there's all kinds of adventures.

In Part 2 we jump to 2007 and There Will Be Blood, part of which is contemporary to Sierra Madre.


---

Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wordsandmovies/support

In Part 2 of our episode, we look at A Most Wanted Man, a 2014 film directed by Anton Corbijn and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright, and a host of others. Again, a powerful cast of actors.

Hoffman stars as the head of a covert German team that's trying to root out Islamic terrorist cells. While it's not a Cold War story specifically, there is some Russian involvement and Hoffman is at odds with German and American security officials regarding the ultimate goal.

In addition to being a tremendous film, it's also notable for being the last film that Philip Seymour Hoffman starred in before his untimely death. (He'd completed work for the last two Hunger Games films but we're not counting those as starring vehicles for him.)

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

In our next episode, we explore the wages of greed, starting with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and finishing with There Will Be Blood. They're a pair of films that feature a couple of famous lines that have been endlessly parodied, and we'd bet few people know the original source. Join us, won't you?




---

Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wordsandmovies/support

We conclude our series of spy films with another pair of movies based on the novels of John LeCarre.

In Episode 72 we had a strictly Cold War vibe going on; this time it's more of a mixed bag. So we'll start with a Cold War story with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the 2011 film directed by Tomas Alfredson and featuring an amazing ensemble cast including Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch and many more. It's a tense story that deals with a potential mole in MI-6 who may have been operating for many years.

In Part 2, we'll look at the Islamic terrorist threat to the UK in A Most Wanted Man.


---

Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wordsandmovies/support

In Part 2 of our episode, we look at 1990s The Russia House, starring Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer. This film, directed by Fred Schepisi, features Connery as a British Intelligence agent (wait...what?) who's looking for the author of a sensitive Soviet manuscript whose contents, if true, could mean a great deal to the Intelligence Community.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

Next time, we stick with LeCarre novels rendered on film, with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and A Most Wanted Man (2014), Join us, won't you?



---

Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wordsandmovies/support

Our look at Spy films takes a more serious turn with this look at a pair of movies based on John LeCarre novels.

We start with The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1965), directed by Martin Ritt and starring Richard Burton and Claire Bloom. It's a tale of a spy who chooses one more mission instead of coming in after a Cold War mission goes wrong.

In Part 2, we'll move on to The Russia House, from 1990.


---

Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wordsandmovies/support