The Rewatchables - ‘Blood Diamond’ With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan

Episode Date: June 14, 2023

It’s not bling-bling, it's bling-bang when The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan revisit the 2006 political action thriller 'Blood Diamond,’ starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, and Jennifer Connelly. Producer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Matt Bellany, founding partner of Puck News, and I'm covering the inside conversation about money and power in Hollywood. With my new show, The Town, I'm going to take you inside Hollywood with exclusive insight on what people in show business are actually talking about. Multiple times a week, I'll talk to some of the smartest people I know, journalists, insiders, all of whom can break down the hottest topics in entertainment to tell you what's really going on. Listen now. This episode is brought to you by Adobe Firefly. The all-in-one creative studio with AI-powered image and video generation. Build for today's creative process, Firefly helps you generate, edit, and experiment fast.

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Still cranking it out, even after succession ended. Pushing that boulder up the hill for you, man, every day. What are you thinking? What are the shows this month that are coming? We got a little black mirror? Oh, we're righteous gemstones and the bear. Those are the ones I'm really excited for. The bear.

Okay, there you go. My name is Bill Simmons. We're going to do Blood Diamond. I'm going to talk about the year of Leo. That's next. In Africa, it's all about diamonds. You owe me money. I'll take a stonist payment.

The only reason you're still alive is because you haven't told anyone where it is. The right stone can buy anything. Safety, even freedom. What's it going to be brought? Kill them all. Leonardo DiCaprio. Blood Diamond. Look for it on DVD.

Blood Diamond, 2006, a movie that did really well, but then became immortalized when Cousin Sal, after Tony Romo botched the extra point snap, went to go see the movie with his wife and started crying in the theater. And she thought it was because he was a sensitive guy. But it was really because he was upset about the cowboys loss. Is that a true story? That's a true story. Yeah.

So ever since that, we've always joked about Cousin Sal and the theater at the end of a blood diamond. Does you even remember who the cowboys were playing? Because I hope it was Brian Dawkins. They were played Seattle, I think. Oh, okay. Yeah. This is the year of Leo.

This is a great movie. and it's a shockingly rewatchable movie for how kind of grim the plot is and just some of the stuff it's about. But the last 25 minutes of this movie are almost unassailably great and of age really, really well. The ending's great.

The big thing for me with this movie, Chris Ryan, Leo has the departed and then Blood Diamond in the same year. And it's almost like in sports when an athlete puts it just all together and just has that just rips through everything. wins the title. It's a little like what's happening, it seems like, with Yokage right now. Leo had all this promise, Titanic. He becomes the most famous actor in the world who wasn't the

best. And then it kind of just gradually builds to this 06 year where for the Oscars, he throws his lot behind Blood Diamond and loses. And we talked about this on the Departed pod. We actually thought he might have been better in the Departed. But this was the year he became a mega superstar A plus Lister, right? Yeah, and I know this is weird, but is this the year he became a man, too? Because I was looking at... An adult male actor. Yeah, because I was wondering whether anyone has ever managed the transition from being a teen heartthrob to like a serious adult actor to then basically like a grizzled Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Robert Redford type leading man better than Leo. It's uncanny to watch. Look at his IMDB or his filmography. He's,

and just see that transition. He plots out his career. I'm sure he has some luck. It's great that he gets to work with Scorsese so many times. But the choices that he makes, and you can see his taste evolve as well, like, you watch him in this movie. You're not like, oh, it's the guy from basketball diaries

and growing pains. It's like, no, that's a man. Yeah, it's so funny. I thought the same thing. So he's 32 in 2006, early 30s when he makes both of those movies. There are two movies. I wasn't sure he had in him in the early 2000s, mid-2000s, right?

Like, we did catch me if you can on this podcast. And, you know, he's kind of young. He's skinny. He's, it's a really good Leo performance, but he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who three years later is going to be, you know, in Africa trying to find a diamond and fighting people and pulling guns and running and just shooting everybody. Like, it just, I didn't know if he had that in him.

Yeah. From this year on, it's, he has it. him. If you watch Catch Me if you can, you don't think, I'm no fucking cop. It's coming. It's just a couple of years later. And when we talked about him versus the greats, the grades can kind of morph into these different types of genres and roles, right? That's what Newman could do. That's what Nicholson could do. I just didn't think Leo had it in him. But after this, it seemed like the ceiling was off. It's one of the best. I just think from a re-watchable standpoint,

it's one of the best years as anybody's had. We did Jim Carrey last week about, he did Dumb and Dumber Mask and Ace Ventura on the same year, which is unbelievable. I'm sure we did one, we'll probably end up doing the other two relatively soon. But for this, like for re-fucking watchable movies,

the weird thing about Blood Diamond is just a plot and it's, you know, what it's about. It's that there's not exactly, it's not exactly a fun roller coaster ride the whole time. there's some really grim shit in here. And yet he's so good in it. And then Jiam and Hansu, who's unbelievable in this movie. And then our queen.

J.C. When we have the queen rankings, I know we've had it. We've anointed a couple queens, but she might be the queen. She might be my single favorite. In my JC rankings, she's top two and she's not two. This is a great run for her too. Let's go through that really quickly, actually. She, you know, kid actor.

Then has this really weird stretch here where she was almost cast in Heathers. They wrote the movie Heathers for her in 1988 and she doesn't want to do it. And it becomes the part that puts Winona Ryder on the map. Almost gets say anything in 1989. Cameron Crow goes with Ione Sky instead. So she has this. She's in the hot spot, which was like this weird erotic thriller with Virginia Madsen.

Yeah. She's in career opportunities, which they basically took advantage of how hot, what teenager she was. That was like the whole marketing with Frank Whaley. Then she's in The Rocketeer in 1991, but it never really happens. But everyone my age was absolutely in love with her. She goes to Yale, transfers to Stanford, and then kind of bounces around in the 90s, and she's in a bunch of movies, and it doesn't really happen.

And then all of a sudden, in 2000, she's in Requiem for a dream. She's amazing in it. Not a comedy. And she rips off this run. She's in Pollock. She wins the supporting actress Oscar and Beautiful Mind. She's really good in that movie. She's in Hulk, which didn't work.

She's in Darkwater and Little Children and Blood Diamond. And then she's in Revolutionary Road. And she just has a seven-year stretch where she's one of the best dramatic actresses we had. uncanny turnaround for her, right? She was just like, oh, this really cute teenager from the late 80s. It was like basically her and Amanda Peterson and a couple others. And then all of a sudden she blew up. She is the other side of the coin to what happens with Leo in this movie,

where she was like this teen icon and especially even though she wasn't as like prevalent as some of her generational cohort. She definitely had these iconic teen roles vanishes. And then comes back and is in Requiem on is like just like super serious dramatic actress and a woman, like an adult woman. Right. And it is, it's kind of fascinating to see the two of them probably as much by circumstance than by choice, manage their careers this way.

And I got to say, I mean, like, she could probably be more famous, but it's hard to have a better career than she's had. I mean, she's going up through Top Gun Maverick, like, she's just had like a really, really, really awesome run of movies and work that she's done over the years. Some of it is probably down to the fact that she chose to live in Brooklyn, too. I respect the fact that she has, like, her own life that she rocks and isn't an L.A. person. Yeah, she had a kid in 1997 with somebody. Then she got married in the early 2000s and had, she married Paul Bettney, had two more kids.

So she's kind of, after she was red hot, after Beautiful Mind, she took two years off. never seemed like she was totally psychotic about I'm going to be one of the biggest actresses in the world. She was just having her career doing her thing. But it's one of those careers that's better than I realized as I was looking through it.

Like I knew it was a good career. But like I'd forgotten she won Best Supporting Actress. She never had that one iconic part. Like even somebody like Sandra Bullock where she had the blindside and she won the Oscar. And it's like, oh yeah,

like you would point to that. That's in the first. sentence. She never had like the first sentence part, really until Top Gun, which became one of the biggest boobies of all time. And even though she's not in it that much, she's really important. And she actually brings out chemistry of Cruz, which was like fucking impossible at this point. But that's been her, I would say one of her best legacies is she has an ability to just get chemistry going with all these different types of famous actors, where they just fit, you just totally believe that she's locked in with those guys, you know?

Yeah, you know, she was, I was wondering in the early 2000s whether she was going to be kind of like in the more of the, I guess like Nicole Kidman vein where she was basically going to do awards parts. And so the fact that she's now like this completely radiant movie star again is pretty awesome. She's also a Brooklyn Nets day one, which I do respect. You know, so her and Bettney are big courtside Nets people back. I think almost to the Delo Spencer.

Dinwiddy days, but they stuck it out through the McHale Bridges, Cam Johnson postseason this year, and I salute them. She also never really did the Big Little Lies Season 2. Not yet. Not yet. Yeah, not yet. Probably coming, but never did the, yeah, I'll take the prestige TV check. She was in Snowpiercer, which was kind of like a very doomed project that was like always

being advertised on TNT and then being delayed. But I could see her doing. I think she's got another show as she's going to do. But yeah, she never did the big Merivistown thing. She's awesome in this movie. And she's older than Leo in real life, but you don't think about it in the movie. Because you think like she, when her career was taken off in the late 80s, early 90s, Leo was like the little kid on growing pains, right?

Yeah. And so just generally relationally in my head, she was just a different generation than he was. But in the movie, you don't feel it at all. Yeah. You mentioned how dark this movie is. The reason why it's rewatchable is because it's also Casablanca in the, in the middle of it, with these two people finding each other in like a war-torn nation. You know what I mean?

Totally. Every scene with them is really good. Yes. Like I wouldn't be like, oh, man, I would have cut that scene. Like, every time they're on the screen together, I'm like, I'm in. This is like this weird rom-com in the middle of this pretty savage movie. Yeah. And then Jiam and Hansu is another one who's had like a,

way better career than I think you realize. You know, like he's obviously in Amistad and takes up, but he's been, he's had a lot of good parts over the years. He was even in the pilot at 902.1. I don't know if you know that, Chris. I didn't. I didn't. Until I was researching this.

Yeah, I know, I mean, I think I know him best from Gladiator. Gladiator is my favorite. He's awesome in this. I mean, he dials it up a couple times. We'll talk about that later. But that thing with him and Leo has to work where their relationship is so complicated. And a couple of points, it's like, is Leo going to fuck this guy over? Is Leo like, is he laying out for Leo too much?

But he always feels like he has his dignity and kind of sees Leo for who he is, even until the bitter end. He's like, I thought you're going to take the diamond. He kind of knows the score, but he also, like, he wants to get his son. He knows the diamonds the chance. I always believe the arc in this movie for him. I think he does a good job. Yeah, he's got like a presence and like a seriousness that he brings to this movie where he doesn't feel, it feels like very real with him.

Whereas like with the other two, it's like, well, these are fucking movie stars. But John Honsu's like, he's got an authenticity that I think this movie really needs especially and he's got to be the third part of this movie. And when it turns, because there is kind of like this interesting point in the movie where essentially like for two thirds of it, it's this on again, off again, kind of romance between the Conley character and the DiCaprio character. And then he leaves her at this military base and it becomes a road movie with the John Hansu character. And it actually is like another whole story within it.

I mean, you want to talk a little bit about Ed Zwick and these kinds of movies that basically don't get made anymore? I'm so ready to talk about Ed Zwick. I have this written down. The best producer-director you never think about or have conversations about. His career is unbelievable. Here's a brief list for the listeners. He directs about last night in 1986, which is really like one of the first great rom-coms.

Like for Demi Moore, Rob Loe. It really tries to do a lot. It's a little dated now. They try to remake it. But it's an important 80s movie. It is. He does glory, which does really well and puts Denzel on the map as a movie actor to some degree.

He was the same elsewhere guy. And then Denzel's kind of his De Niro. He works with Denzel. three, four more times. He creates 30-something, which was a prestige show before we had prestige TV and became this very important

adult drama. He directs Legends of the Fall. He's one of the EPs for my so-called life, which becomes an iconic teen drama for one year and gets canceled. He does Courage Under Fire, which a movie that I think both of us really like. Oh, I love that movie.

Incredible Damon. He is one of the reasons Shakespeare in Love ends up getting made. and he's one of the producers on that, that wins the Oscar. He's one of the EPs of traffic because his company's doing that at that point. That becomes another Oscar movie.

The Siege, he directs, the Last Samurai he directs, Blood Diamond he directs, he creates once and again, and then he's an EP on Nashville, the Connie Britton show. It's a fucking 35 years of bangers. Impressive.

And so he basically makes these really prestigious issue-driven genre movies. So big thriller action films that are... With big stars. About some sociopolitical issue that he finds fascinating or historical issue in the case of Last Samurai. And I guess the knock against him

would be that in glory and in Blood Diamond, the drama is basically shot through the perspective or the lens of these white characters. But that being said, Like, this movie made what, like $170 million? Like, this movie did really well. These movies were successful, partially because they had these major movie stars in them.

Like, Denzel in Courage Under Fire or Denzel and the Siege. Like, the Siege is an awesome movie, you know? Like, you can go back and forth about what it's about. But he just had this connection with some movie stars where, like, they would probably be interested in making something that felt more thoughtful but was still entertaining. and for this whole swath of time, I mean, pretty much ending at Blood Diamond because right after Blood Diamond is when

the superhero movies come in and everything, but there was just a huge market for people who were like, yeah, let's go see this movie about African Civil War or about domestic terrorism or about all these issues. And that is pretty much gone as a box office play now. It's also gone the air of a white guy making a movie like Glory or this movie.

I just don't think that would happen anymore. I don't blame him for that because nobody else is making it. You know, it's like if he's not doing it, I don't know if Blood Diamond gets made. And now I think we would be approaching this differently and maybe different people would be behind the evolution of actually making the movie. Yes. But in 1989, I don't think there were a lot of people lining up to make glory, you know? So I don't know.

I find that hard to hold against him. I remember like one of the most fascinating making of, you know, and sort of development stories when I was younger and first starting to read about movies was Malcolm X was the Spike Lee film because that was supposed to be like a Norman Jewison movie I think for a long time and like there was this idea that like I think that that was when it was finally sorting started to seep in to popular mainstream culture and white culture that like he may be like maybe like maybe Spike Lee should direct this man like you know like maybe Norman Jewison's already had a couple of bites at the apple here and yeah I think that that is changing although now

the problem is, is that these kinds of movies don't get made anymore, really. Yeah, and we talked, we did the pod two weeks ago, Casino Real, and we were talking about what an unbelievable movie year 2006 was, which I don't think I realized at the time. Yeah. You know, because all through the 2000s, every year, we were like, movies suck, why aren't movies as good as they used to be? But actually, 06 was just in an awesome year.

We'd ever do how good we had it. Oh, my God. So many action movies, so many different types of, types of great directors and all these great stars and this whole generation of actors like Damon and Leo and all these dudes that are just coming into their own as A plus listers. Like new stars like Daniel Craig,

we just kind of didn't know how good we had it. We had to talk about the accent in this movie. I need to say something up top. There may be an expectation that I'm going to do a Rhodesian accent, and I just can't do it. Like not out of it. I mean, like self-conscious. It's fucking hard.

Yeah, I was before we came on the Zoom, I was trying to do it. Yeah. Like, like, because I think part of what Leo was doing, he was talking fast. And he put, yeah, yeah, yeah, at the end. In the first 20 minutes, it's really good, his accent. I'm like, wow, Leo. And then we kind of move into a different movie. You know what happens?

The first time he, when he sees Conley at the bar, he drops it for a second. And I'm like, respect, man. I'd probably forget where I was too. I don't think I could do a Rhodesian accent in front of Jennifer Connolly. It comes and goes. My guess is that before he made the movie, he's probably working with like a vocal coach, speech coach, whatever. He's just fucking coming off the Angus of New York.

You know, he's Daniel DeLewis out. He's like, I got to nail this. You know, like, you got to nail it. So he's doing classes every day. And then you start making the movie and you're in the middle of it. Maybe you're not working this hard. But this, I'm going to do this category now, the Butch's girlfriend Award for Weeklink of the film is the Leo accent

because it became a talking point there in it, because he's so good in the movie. But it's like, wait a second, what's up with the accent? And, I mean, so there's a couple different ways it could go. You could say he's an American who grew up in Rhodesia. That's not what they're saying. Yeah, that's not what they're saying. But I'm saying, like, they had a couple outs for the accent

that I think they didn't want to take. But we see this with like Boston movies too. We always talk about this. Like sometimes can't nail the accent, just make it so the person's not from Boston. For me, and I've watched this movie a lot, especially the last 35, 40 minutes,

it doesn't take me out of it. And I don't think it's like Costa and Robin. I think it's fine. There's just a couple scenes where it just kind of leaves. There's the only thing that actually distracts me from this movie isn't really his accent as much as like,

he is far and away the most beautiful person in this movie. And it's almost like distracting where it's like all the other guys who he's soldiers with, like the soldiers of fortune and the colonel's man. You're like these guys seem like they are like Rhodesian soldiers. And Leo has got like a blonde dye job and he's fucking awesome. He's just, he's an absolute rock star a movie star in this movie, but it does take you out of it a little bit. I noticed that he really only drops the accent when he's yelling. So like if he's getting into an emotional argument with

Jennifer Conley, that's when you start to hear his accent. But he does like, I mean, when you think about it, it's like he's shooting 70% from the field and you take it, but you notice the 30%. Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it. It's, it doesn't bother me that much. I give it a B plus. I think that's like one of the hardest accents anyone's going to try. You're, you're beautiful point. There's some scenes when him and Connolly are together where I don't even know how the extras in the movie were like, we're just not, we don't belong in this planet with these two. These two good looking. In the bar, the two bars scenes, like when he first meets her and when they dance, you're just like, man, maybe they should have made like four movies with these people,

these two. Like, yeah, they have something really going on. Five Oscar nominations for this movie. Leo got nominated for Best Actor and Hansu got nominated for Best Supporting Actor. This movie did not get nominated for Best Picture. We had The Departed, Babel, Letters from Iwojima, which is a disgrace. Little Miss Sunshine and the Queen. I think you could have put five other movies

from this year in that Iwojima spot, including this one. Best actor, Forrest Whitaker won for Last King of Scotland. Leo is in here. Will Smith pursued a happiness, Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson, Peter O'Toole, and Venus. So if Leo was in here for The Departed, I don't think he wins either.

But I think we both think the Departed's a better Leo performance. Yeah, for me, that's a... Slightly, though. It's not like a 10-8 round, but I think it's like, on the scorecard, the Departed wins like 115 to 113. Yeah, and you and I are also

judges that are probably disposed to be departed guys. You know what I mean? They made a Boston crime epic with Martin Scorsesey directing it. It's the two of them screaming in each other. I think he's awesome in that movie. Honsu, though, he loses to Alan Arkin and Little Miss Sunshine, which I'm actually okay with because Alan Arkin's incredible in that movie. But that was a really good category of that year.

You're in him, you're Jackie Earl Haley and Little Children, who's fucking amazing. Eddie Murphy and Dreamgirls and Mark Wahlberg and The Departed. Wow. Best supporting actress, Connolly didn't make it, and I thought she should have. I think she's fantastic in this movie. I actually think this is her best movie. She would have done supporting instead of lead? Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. In general, like Merrill Streep didn't win best actress for Devil Where's Prada this year, which I don't understand. Kate Winslet, Little Children, she didn't win either, but Helen Marin won for the Crown. for the queen. And then Hudson won for Dreamgirls. But I thought Connolly should have been nominated. Do you want to talk quickly about these movies,

these historical kind of teach you about stuff movies? Sure. So in this case, like, I had no idea, no history, know anything about conflict diamonds. And just this whole world, I didn't know about the conference that Hansu goes to at the end. And I knew nothing.

Yeah, the Kimberly Conference, right. I knew a little about the African Civil War stuff and, you know, child soldiers being radicalized and that. But for the most part, you're kind of learning on the file of this movie. I thought they did a pretty good job laying everything out. This is pretty complicated. And you actually understand it as you're watching it, you know? Yeah, and I think the choice to make DiCaprio who he is this,

essentially like mercenary who has gone from being. drafted into various conflicts, like in Angola, et cetera, like as from his background, into being a smuggler was great. Like, it would have been, if he had been like a Doctors Without Borders physician and he was, he was sort of this angel, but like pretty much up until he dies, you're like, this is this, this is a pretty bad guy? You know what I mean? Like, this is a pretty like selfish, self-interested mercenary who has killed people. And, it's like a really, really good anti-hero, and it winds up being a really good, like, window into this conflict. They don't dumb it down either. Like, most of what you learn about

his character happens when him and Maddie are drinking palm wine, like that, that drinking scene. And she knows a little bit about him. She knows he's in the 32nd, 33-2 Battalion, and, like, is talking all about, like, him going to Angola and, like, then how they're splitting up the countries based on, like, the mineral rights and everything. So, it's like a pocket history lesson. It's pretty interesting. I thought it was really interesting. The last conference, it was a meeting that happened in Kimberly, South Africa,

and it led to this development called the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme, which sought to certify basically where rough diamonds came from and giving people the ability to choose whether, you know, I do not want a conflict diamond. since the movie, though, it seems like they've kind of abandoned it and decided it was relatively ineffective. One of the things that I thought was really, really, really interesting was basically the premise of they have too many diamonds and these big companies actually hide some of the diamonds. Yeah. It creates scarcity, but they actually don't have scarcity.

And this is a little bit of a Ponzi scheme, which I think is true. I don't think the diamond companies were especially happy. But even at the end, they put that diamond in the safe deposit box. It was like, are they even going to do anything with this? Yeah, the Michael Sheen character, his whole, like, it's basically, like, he's creating, like, this, he's choking off supply. And some of the factions in Sierra Leone want to essentially flood the market so that they can fund their armies and, and there, but the diamond companies want to still make it so

that I think there's that whole sequence where it's like, they've convinced you that you need to spend three months of your salary on your diamond. And they can't do that if you can get diamonds in any department store. Roger Ebert did not review this movie. Oh. The reviews were really good for this movie. But Roger Ebert, for whatever reason, we could not find his take. Maybe he was sick.

Day off. I know he got sick somewhere in the mid-2000s. And maybe he was sick during the stretch. I don't know what happened. $100 million budget made $171 million. and between this and the departed, Leo comes out of 06, I think, is the biggest star in the world, right? Yes. Yes.

He's already been in the biggest movie in the world, and now he's, like, leading Oscar contending box office hits. And he's figured out his career at this point. I'm doing big movies with great directors or great projects, and that's going to be my career now. And that's it. You will not see me, and he's just not that into you. in the rom-com ensemble. And you will not see me just in a random episode of Big Love. Yeah.

I am just doing movies, and you won't think of me otherwise, and you'll see pictures of me in a boat with supermodels, and that's how you'll know me. I'm not going to do a lot of interviews. I'm not doing the talk show circuit. You're not really going to have a feel for me. I'm just going to kind of float out of your life in these movies playing different characters.

And he's succeeded. He's done. I think whatever his ambition was by the time this movie rolls around. He pulled it up. Let's take a break and then we'll do the categories. Snoring, gasping during sleep, feeling fatigue, ask your doctor about Zepbound, terseptite. The first and only FDA-approved prescription medicine for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, and adults with obesity. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea,

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Most rewatchable scene. I wouldn't call this a rewatchable scene because it's so grim, but it's a really good scene. I just wanted to, that when the terrorists take over the village and Solomon, yeah, and the rebels come through. He's telling his family to run. That, that two minutes is just great. Yeah. It's also, if you were going into this film at the time, and all the images that you've seen about it are essentially Leo, to have this opening like 15, what is it, it was like 15 minutes. Yeah. With Jiamen-Hansu's character and to just be immersed in this, like, in this awful, awful conflict is, is pretty, it's pretty gripping, you know?

Well, basically, this is Solomon's movie, but because Leo is so, you know, powerful in this movie, and he's such a big actor, it feels like it's Leo's movie, but it's actually not. This is really Solomon's movie from beginning and end. That's why it's so important to do this. It's the Solomon Vandy story as facilitated by this Danny Archer character, but in, because Hollywood is Hollywood in the world of the world, it's a Leonardo Caprio movie that Jiam and Hansu is in, you know? Yeah, you're not getting Leo to be the. lead part unless he's in you got some Leo scenes gotta be at the Barrow Jennifer Connolly you got to Hollywood it up but it works rewatchable scene Solomon finding the diamond and

hiding it in his feet yeah give it to me give it to me Chris Ryan we've known each other a long time I love nothing more than when a prisoner

or a captive or somebody who's working in the field, find something, and then has to figure out how to hide it from the guys with machine guns, I'm in for the next like three minutes. I don't think there's anything more gripping or exciting in an action movie than that, right? Yeah, usually it's a stone that he is going to slowly fashion into a shiv, but yes, like this. Right. Any sort of like a weapon, like it's just, oh, like the quick glance around, where do I hide it? I'm always in. Um, next scene, Danny meets Maddie Bowen. So, which one are you?

Smuggler? Am I? So now you don't strike me as the UNICEF type. How about soldier of fortune? Or is that too much of a cliche? Diamonds? If I told you I was a missionary? For Vandekap?

I got to watch that type of talk, Miss Bowen. You know, in America it's bling, bling. but out here it's bling bang, huh? I wouldn't want you getting in any trouble. In America, it's bling, bling, but here it's bling bang. Say, I just tried to do it. Good job. Well, off the record, I'd like to get kissed before I get fucked, yeah?

That's it. I'm not going to try anywhere. But that whole scene's really good. All of the scenes with Danny and Maddie could just go badly they didn't go in the wrong direction and just be like, oh, man, why do they try to shove a rom-com into this?

But it's totally believable. They have a good chemistry. I mean, it's more like, it's more Bogart and Bergman, man. It's more, it's like these two people at the end of the earth.

It's really, really, it's effective. The Solomon Dany chase scene. My favorite thing can I just say about the first bar scene is that those two people are such smoke shows that they don't even bother

pretending like they aren't hitting on each other. Like as soon as he sees her, he's like, I'm coming over there. Right? And she's like, yeah, come on over. It's like, Yokensbury Pick and Roe. It's like, just do this. We're not, we're not playing hard to get with each other. Just come on over.

The chase scene. There's a couple good chase scenes in this movie. There's the Salomon Danny Chase scene, which is rewatchable. I like that scene when Leo's whole theory that the diamond market is a Ponzi scheme, which we mentioned earlier. I think the way that's all. all laid out is just really smart. It makes you think. When I get to London, I meet with Simmons.

Supply and demand. Control the supply and you keep the demand high. Agreed. Good. Now, there's an underground vault where they put all the stones they buy up to keep off the market so they can keep the price high. Rebels want to flood the market with a billion dollars worth of rough a company like Vondykop, who says that they're rare. They can't afford to let that happen, especially when they're

Telling some poor sod he's supposed to shell out three months salary for an engagement ring. Technically speaking, they're not financing the war, but they're creating a situation where it pays to keep it going. You understand? Yes. And where's my proof? Maddie finally kind of makes a semi move on Danny. She goes, when they have the moment, when he says, will God ever forgive us for what we've done to each other? And then I look around and I realize God's left this place a while ago.

Great line. You Americans love to talk about your feelings, huh? So what does that mean? What does that mean? You've got a thing for messed up vets now. You lost both your parents. That's a polite way of putting it down. Mom was raped and shot and dad was decapitated and hung from a hook in the bomb.

I was nine. Sometimes I wonder, when God ever forgive us for what we've done to each other? Look around and I realize God left this place. place a long time ago. But they have a moment. Do we think they hooked up? I was going to do this later for unanswerable, but... I don't think so, but we can get to it for unanswerable. Yeah.

Plus like, you know, seven, eight days out in the wilderness, no showers. Probably not feeling that sexy, right? Doesn't seem to bother. They'd look pretty good. If I looked back, if I didn't go, if I went seven days without a shower out in the bush, I don't think I'd be looking like we are in. Her body probably doesn't produce odors. Maybe they're fine. It's probably right. Maddie and Danny saying goodbye is really good.

Yeah. Goodbye scenes in general. Always get me, but that one's good. I like Danny and Solomon when they have a fight when they're on that, when this suddenly turns into midnight run for 20 minutes, but they have the fight. But then it turns into the whole bonding montage with them where I was like, all right, this is good. Now these guys, we have them aligned.

Really from this point on in the movie, this is just incredible. read the last like I would say 30 minutes or it's just this movie gets better as it goes and the last 30 are great which makes me wonder it's a testament to the fact that like this is not a subject matter that people are really familiar with so you get like these moments where you really don't know what's going to happen like when Solomon gets and the colonel and all his troops and they're looking obviously people have been digging around the area where the diamond's supposed to be like I'm like I don't know what's happen next? Like, is this guy going to find it? Every time I watch it, there's actually a little bit of suspense, even though I know how it ends. And is he going to find his son? How's this son

going to react? Yeah, there's a whole bunch of, are they going to find the diamond? Are they going get killed? He's going to be able to reunite with his son? Is he going to be able to turn his son back to the good side? Are they going to be able to get out? All kinds of good stuff. So, I mean, these last four scenes, Danny and saw him and take over the village, reunion with the sun, the air strike, the psychotic shovel murder of the bad guy. Yeah. Colonel. We have that one.

We have Danny's seemingly doing the double cross, but it's not a double cross because he's actually, we're still working on Solomon's side, but then realizing he got shot and Solomon bringing Dia back out of his little like crazy fog. And then my choice is Danny giving the diamond back saying goodbye to those guys and calling Maddie. But you know, hold the gun off. on that on that air the pilot don't trust him at all like that that whole sequence is great this is maddie's card huh you're calling when you get to conigree all right

don't trust that body for a second you point this at his head if he fucks around all right i can carry you and then solomon getting his family back at the end i i have the danny scene and i have this is going to be my stepheny's Smith, hot take. I think it's the best thing of Leo's career. Which one? On the mountain when... As he's dying?

He realizes he's not going to make it when he gives him the diamond, tells him not to trust the pilot, calls Jennifer Connolly, picky-knit, spoiler. I have no idea how he gets the cell phone reception on the mountain. It's just crystal clear. I don't get cell phone reception like that in Los Angeles, but he's fine. Whatever.

Great, great, great cell phone. call. I think it's really, really an emotional, awesome scene. I think he's fucking great in that scene. I really think that's the best scene in his career. I'm looking at an incredible view right now. I wish you were here, Maddie.

Okay, then I'm coming to be with you. You just tell me where you are. I don't think so. Are you still in Conno? Because I can get someone there to help you. Maddie, you find someplace safe for the boy, right? He's bringing something with him.

He's going to need your help. Why aren't you bringing it yourself? God, this is a great question. I'm wondering, like, I personally have, like, a bunch of departed scenes or maybe even, like, right after the Shutter Island. And there's a bunch of, like, Leo scenes that, like, jump to mine. But this is a really good shout, though. I'd either go with this or the scene in growing pains when he realizes his dad's not going

to come to see him. What about when he's, like, rocking out to comfortably numb with Vera Farmiga, though? it's not that. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. I'm really happy I met you. And she just wants to come see him. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.

This also gets the great shot Gordo, the wide shot. And I would also give this the Denna Thieves Benihado word for scene stealing location. That wide shot. I think it's like four categories. Okay. I have actually, my rewatchable scene is actually also my great shot Gordo. And that is when leave. Leo and so when Danny and Solomon escaped from Freetown,

when Solomon's working as the valet outside of the hotel, and Leo goes to see him. And basically they go through the back of the hotel, through the luggage storage area, out the back. And the whole time Leo's yelling at him. And then like, he's like, I know white people. Like you can, I'm going to get your family back.

And then like basically like they're right. Like the tension is building between the two. And then there's an explosion in the background of the shot and the whole fucking escape from Freetown sequence is unbelievable. You're right. That explosion's great. It seems like it really happened. It did. I mean, that's the thing about this movie, man. You can see every dollar they spent. It's like they shot it in Africa. It's like it is, it's really, really, really authentic. What's age the best? As you know, I love openings with capital letter graphics where it's like Sierra Leone, 1999.

Somber music playing. Civil War Rages for Control of the Diamond Fields. And they just do, they lay it out with like four graphics. I'm like, I'm in. This, this, I get it. Thank you for explaining this to me. Let's go. Do you think that we should start going back to some of our favorites and doing that?

Like put title cards over like diehard Christmas. 19. I think this is, I think this is how ESPN should treat the NBA finals. Yeah. Miami Game 4 He culture was dying Um

Morwood's stage the best The villain in this movie is fantastic I have no idea who it is He eventually becomes Eye Patch guy He's uh I mean I think he's my D on Waiters

But he's David Harwood Who plays the CIA director In Homeland You know this guy Oh wow Really? Yeah He's a famous British actor

That guy then Yeah So he wins three awards too. We're just banging out the podcast. We're almost done. Almost in pick a nits. That guy's awesome. You just like within 20 minutes, you're like, I hate this guy and I can't wait until we get to the part of the movie.

Yeah, but when he goes and basically seduces Solomon's son and like breaks him down and rebuilds him, you're like, this is like a pretty multidimensional character. So I had that in what stage is the best, too. not obviously not this isn't an uplifting what stage the best but it really shows you how these groups can radicalize the little kids and turn them in the child soldiers they do such a good job and it's not they don't bang you over the head with it but it's like three four different small scenes where you're like i get it i get how dia now has you know that he can look at his dad and not even want to like acknowledge him yeah when you fire this up and you'll see it it's like two hours and 40 minutes and you're like, what the fuck?

Like, this is, this need to be this long? But the care that Zwick takes to show like all these different aspects of the story rather than just Archer and Maddie, which would have been the easy sort of 90 minute. Like, these two people are in love, but he has to leave her because he needs to go do this.

It's like, they really get pretty in deep. Like, you know, the visits of the refugee camp is the same way. We're just like, holy shit. Like, this is a really like detailed, depiction of something that I think most people would rather just ignore in their day-to-day life. Yeah, and I'm sure the studio, if it wasn't Swick, who had a lot of wins at this point. If it wasn't DiCaprio, who's like, I'm an issue, like, guy. Like, DeCaprio, obviously is a

huge environmentalist and, like, I think probably is like, nope, if I'm doing this, we're going to make sure that there's, like, a refugee camp scene, that there's a child soldier scene, that we explain, like, the culpability of the West in conflict diamonds, like, all that stuff. Yeah. In the wrong hands, this is like a one hour and 50-minute movie. We have really know Solomon backstory at all and he's just a vessel for whoever the lead actor is to have their big scenes. Morwood's stage the best.

The hiding and pulling a diamond out of your tooth cap would you put this or castaway for using a knife to pull your own tooth out for some sort of advantage? Probably castaways. It's also awesome how like it's like an ATM machine. He like pulls it out, immediately sells it, immediately gives money to his pilot to give to

Solomon, like, you can see the economy that HAP comes out of those diamonds. Yeah. I like those old, light blue VW bugs that they drive in one of those. So it's like still gives me a little buzz to see those. Leo in 2006 has aged the best for me where we don't go on a journey this often with the child actor. It's very, honestly, similar to LeBron, watching like, oh, man, the potential of this person. It would be so cool if he could hit all the checkpoints and then they actually do.

Yeah. And I think the 06, you know, like we talked about at the top, that's age the best. Just like, oh, man, he fucking did it. He got there. He's reached the top of the mountain. And we were along for the entire ride. We're watching it kind of happened with Michael B. Jordan now. Right. Like, so we kind of knew him as a kid actor in the wire and then in front of night lights. And now he's basically playing Tom Clancy parts and is in Creed and shit. and it's sort of happening too with Zendaya and Timothy Shalameh and I guess Tom Holland

a little bit but like it's hard when you're doing superhero movies because they, that's primarily what people know you from but the idea of doing a bunch of different roles and then like transitioning from being like a cool kid actor into an adult

like I think that's like basically what Shalamay is trying to do right now. It's basically the hardest thing to do if you're a movie star is to convince people that you're somebody else. I don't know if he has the physicality that. Leo somehow summoned. I mean, he put on some weight and muscle for this movie and filled out a little more.

I don't know if Shalema is going to be able to do that. You know who did a really good job doing this? Is our girl, Sidney? I don't know if you watch that movie reality, but she's awesome in it. And it's like she's kind of like trying to do that too. It's pretty impressive. I'd like to apologize to Sydney for talking about Jennifer Connolly too much earlier. I don't want her to think she's not our queen. No, she was great. in that movie. I think her next 15 years are going to be fascinating, the kind of parts she picks and kind of where she goes and what happens. But she also might do the Jennifer Connolly thing where she just moves to Brooklyn and pops in some movies and disappears for all. Who knows?

What else do you have for What Stage is Best? Just some of the asides, like I'm not going to do the accent, but like that's for breaking my TV, brew. Like, just like that, the sort of patois and language of the movie is really fascinating. And I love the fact that essentially once they get hooked up back with Maddie after the escape from Freetown, all the way through the end of the movie, it's just a road movie.

And it really does feel like a road movie. You really feel like they're making this journey all the way up through when they drop Maddie at the military encampment and then when they get back to the mines. It's actually, you get to see like all this landscape. And, you know,

the thing about road movies is it really does establish relationships between characters, just the way it does in real life when you're on the road with somebody. Yeah, there's a little DNA with the killing fields. Yeah. With Waterston's character and Dithprone and Malkovich's character. For people listening, if you haven't seen that movie, that's one of, I think, one of the best 80s movies. But same kind of thing where you're thrown into this crazy location, but you kind of have no choice but to bond with a couple of people.

Big Cahuna Burger Award for Best Use of Food and Drink was, it has to be the palm wine, which is used in like three different ways. Yeah, okay, so the palm line is both a disinfectant and a drink. Yeah, it's an aphrodisiac and a disinfectant. It's great. The Vincent Chase Award for the Are We sure this character was actually good at their job? What kind of reporter was Maddie?

What's going on? magazine. What is vital affairs magazine? Can I buy that in a newsstand? Where do I get it? Do they have a website? By 2006, I had been writing

freelance record reviews for a few years. And I got to say, I don't know that, like, based on how magazines were paying back then, it would be like, you had like $400 for like four months. So I don't know what, like, her wedge which she was making, but it is tough to, like, put together. I love the idea of like foreign correspondent war journalists that are like running around from Afghanistan to Bosnia to Africa. Like that's a very, you know, seductive story. But like it is kind of like.

Yeah. Why not go New York Times or Washington Post? Yeah. She's her own photographer too. She's like, you know. I mean, it's possible she was like a rich kid. Sure. She mentions at one point she is the three sisters and they all got married, but she's the one. So it's like, all right, is there some like, you know, Connecticut backstory. She's from like Dary Ann. What's age the worst? Stephen Collins is in this movie who's tough Wikipedia,

if you haven't seen what happened with him since this movie. The chopping the hands off is really tough. Yeah. Yeah. As a rewatchable, I mean, like, yes, of course it is. I almost like, not even from a rewatchable standpoint. Like, I must wonder if that needed to be in there.

I think it has to be to make... I guess, but man. To make it kind of like you have to see what it was going on there. And then they even explain it later when the guy that they meet up with is like the Belgians are the ones who started this. I get it. It's really rough. The cell phone reception on the mountain fucking... That's a what's age the worst and a nitpick.

It's just like, there's no like, wait, you're cutting out. The best one of me if they had made it today, it would have been five. minutes of wait hold on i got my air pods in okay no wait my AirPods are burning out of batteries one second wait i'm gonna could i put you on speaker for a second hold i'm gonna use my wire pods yeah any uh what's age the worst for you other other than this other than the fact that i guess the ending of this story that the diamond industry was changed it doesn't seem like that actually happened so that that could basically be an age the worst no i think what's age of the worst probably is is the white gaze You know, it's like, it's telling these stories where you're like, well, we got to have Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connolly at the center of this story about African Civil War and conflict divines and mutilation and child soldiers. You know, like that is a decision. That's a good point. So if they make this movie now, it's probably Daniel Kaluah in the Danny part, right? Yeah. We're like, I mean, it's just about Solomon. It's about a guy who has to go. And maybe there is the Danny Archer character, but he's he's got this. He's got this.

screen time and the sort of kind of attention to detail that the Solomon character has in Blood Diamond. And so instead of it, it's just like a guy who's like, I'll help you, but only if you get me the diamond. And that's the, we don't get the plum wine scene, the bar scene, any of the sort of kernel scenes. Like, it's all shot through the perspective of the Solomon character. Not positive I would like that movie more. Because I really like the

Danny character too. I think what I like about this movie is how it juggles both of their stories. Yeah. But yeah, you're probably, I don't think it's a white guy playing the Danny part if we're doing this again. Right. Ron Berger D. Flute Award, best time for a pee break. I mean, you know. Child soldier indoctrination.

Yeah. Yeah, you can probably go. There's some tough ones in there. The Mallory Rubin Award did this movie need a better sex scene. That goes to the whole, did they hook up or not after day eight. I don't know. Maybe they could have climbed into a tent or something. I'm going to say no, but who knows?

All bets are off with these mid-2000 movies. Was there a better title for this movie? I'm going to say no. What do you think? No. Blood Diamond actually introduced this to the most of the massive, like the world, the idea of Blood Diamond, so I think they nailed it. Best quote, we already mentioned a couple.

I like when he says you Americans love to talk about your feelings. I thought was really strong. Yeah. It was kind of a dig, but I was like, you know, he's not wrong. Danny's speaking some truth right now. Let's take a break and then we'll do casting what ifs and the rest. This podcast is brought to you by Carvana. Selling your car should feel like one less thing on your list.

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Visit the website for full terms and conditions. All right, so casting what-ifs. I couldn't find a lot for this one. Me neither. There wasn't, nobody's written like the oral history of Blood Diamond or there's no anniversary piece about it. Nobody's done that like big sweep of all the things you need to do about Blood Diamond. So unfortunately, the only casting, what if I found was that Russell Crow was the other possibility for Danny Archer. Really?

They had a chance to get Leo and went with Leo. And that was kind of the tail end of the Russell Crow run. Yep. And he had done beautiful mind with Conley, right? Right. I will say, I'm glad we have proof of life Russell Crow over here, and we have Leo's Danny Archer over there. I feel like they would have liked each other. Maybe even teamed up. The Ruffalo-Han and Rubeneck Partridge overacting award. They knew and they let it happen. Don't you call me, lady. I come in here. I give these things to you. Give it out of God. Give it all your God. I truly do like you. Like God. I treated you like that.

a son you fucking stand me in the heart fuck you our guy Hansu dials it up a couple times I mean for the circumstances with reason yeah it's it's him and Captain Poison like the the David Harrowood character both jack it up a bunch eye patch guy jacks it up

there's some jacking up that's that guy I guess we already handed that one out but I wanted to point out Colonel Cotsie Cozzi yeah Arnold Voslou Arnold Vosslu that guy from the mummy He was also in Hard Target.

Yeah. Deanne Waiters, the evil eye patch guy and Sheen. I love a little bit so oily and scummy in this. I wish we had like a little bit more Michael Sheen in the movie. Yeah, there could have been like an espresso scene or something where he's just being super oily and greasy. Recasting couch. We basically already did this, but in 23. I think Daniel Kaluah is Danny Archer.

I think you could lock that one down unless you would go with the Michael B. Jordan trying an accent move. No, I mean, it depends on whether you're updating the story to today or not. But yeah, I think it would be made through that perspective. And let's throw a bone to

our other Queen Sidney, maybe she's Maddie. Oh, she's Maddie? She's working for like, for Vice or something like that. No, it's still vital. It's still Vital Affairs Magazine. It's still Vital Affairs. magazine. Still doing well, they're thinking about merging with BuzzFeed.

It's funny too, because when she goes up to people and she's like, I work for Vital Affairs Magazine, they're like, ho! Whoa, VA? Half S internet research. I don't have a ton here, but when Danny arrives in South Africa, two women are standing in the airport and he walks by them and they are Leo's mother and grandmother. I thought that was interesting. The name Dia means expensive in the adapted language of Sierra Leone. Jennifer Conley suffered a pretty bad neck injury

while filming a car chase scene during this movie. You know, it's interesting because she, that scene when they do the car chase that she and it's her character, Solomon and Danny are running away

from, I think that's when the child soldiers shoot the guy. She's like, there's no shots of her as they're getting away. And I was like, oh, she must like, obviously have not been in the car. I wonder if that's because she got injured doing that.

I think that's why. Maybe they didn't have the stunt woman for her because they didn't realize they needed it. And then Leo gained several pounds of muscle and trained with former Rhodesian soldiers for his role. I thought he was really convincing with a gun in this movie. That was one of the things that surprised me.

Yeah, he got, I mean, like, you could tell that this kind of character, it's basically this departed and then in body of lies, which is actually like a pretty cool movie. the movie he made with Russell's I still can't get there with it. I like it. I keep testing it.

Just can't totally get there yet. You like it more than I do. I think I do. I like the first half of it when it's like the two of them on like speakerphone with each other or Bluetooth with each other. But this is this sort of like lone wolf guy is obviously a dude that Leo has been chasing.

Apex Mountain. I mean, it's got to still be Titanic for Leo. By the way, my last, My only piece of internet research that we didn't hit is just the De Beers, the actual diamond company, not psyched about this movie. Right, right. We should have mentioned that. Apex Mountain, Leo, it's Titanic, but this is kind of a second Apex Mountain friend.

Yes. This is like, whoa, okay, you're Paul Newman. Got it. And then the Revenin would, I think, would be his third Apex Mountain. He's at a three Apex career. Also, Apex Mountain for Blonde, Leo. Good call. Yeah.

What would you say? for Connolly. I think, I mean, it's really hard for me to pick anything but her standing in front of a fucking Porsche and Top Gun Maverick. It's hard to not think it was Top Gun Maverick because I feel like she could get any role she wants right now after Top Gun Maverick. Like she's over Reese Witherspoon, anybody in her kind of her rookie class, she's getting the first call, I feel like, out of all those people.

Jamon Honsu I'm going to say no Okay I would say Amistad I don't know Because gladiator he's great too I would say it's this Just because like this is like a real part

Like I mean this is like he's got the arc Yeah you're probably right You're right And Connolly we don't even know It's it's probably Top Gunn We're probably good with that How about Diamond movies Give me, what are we talking about here?

Diamonds are forever. Marathon man? Hot Rock. No, it's Marathon Man. It's definitely Marathon Man. It's a marathon man. I agree. Best racehorse name.

What about Diamond Mine? Yeah. Yeah. Or just Diamond. I like, something with Diamond in it would sound. Danny Archer is a good horse name too, I think. I was going to say TIA.

Oh, that's good. I like that. picking nits, can't wait to throw this one at you. As you know, this is a big nitpick for me in action movies where days pass

when people are on the road. Leo's facial hair just staying perfect, shaved between the mouth and the chin. I know. Just perfectly tailored. The three-quarter goatee. Yeah, it should just be so much more

disheveled by day eight. Any of us are just going to look like a fucking mess, and he's just got the perfectly it's like he's manscaping, you know, in a tent. There's a geographical nitpick where Danny gets arrested by Liberian border guards while crossing the border from Sierra Leone to Liberia, which means he would end up in a prison in Liberia,

and not in Sierra Leone where he met Solomon. Solomon, right. So it was just a geographical nitpick. Diamonds inside the skin of the goat, though. Learned a little something. We should have put that on what stage the best. I thought that was really smart. Yeah, I love smuggling tips.

Yeah, smuggling is always what's age the best. Solomon sees his kid through the fence in the refugee camp. I think Solomon seems like a smart guy. He's pretty savvy. He just completely flips out and it just seems like he's going to get shot. And I know he was upset, but it never totally adds up to me that he reacts like that because it's like,

you're just going to get shot. What are you doing? Right. I think he's probably despondent at that point, but yeah. Yeah, it's like he breaks, but I don't love that scene.

The other one that's a little dicey is when they get, they're on the road trip and they get stopped by the soldiers. And then Maddie saves the day by she starts taking pictures of everybody. Oh, can I take your picture? Yeah.

Yeah, it's like, all right, this feels a little TV movie-ish. why does Benjamin the nice guy get shot? Why do we do that? Were they just like, hey, we haven't had a shooting sequence in 15 minutes? But they saved them, though. That guy just could have dropped them off. Yeah.

There's just kind of no reason for that whole scene. It just could have been like, hey, this guy's going to drive us. Oh, now we're here. If we're looking to cut five minutes, I might have cut that one. And then the cell phone reception on the last scene. Any other picket for you? So I wonder if this is historically accurate, but this is just a personal preference in Sierra. Leone in a beach bar, I'm not drinking bottled Guinness, which is, I wanted to know whether that

was like a product placement thing, but like they're just like crushing Guinnesses and it's like probably 100 degrees. Yeah, you're going way lighter. Yeah. Yeah. There's got to be like a coronas. Or you're doing like tequila and soda with a splash of lime. He's doing shot Guinness. Give me a Guinness. Guinness at four o'clock. Guinness at 2 a.m. I'm just like, are, is there something about Guinness that maybe it's to like a food replacement thing, but I was just like, why? Would you Guinness get? And if you're Guinness, were you like, we got to get in blood diamond. I've never understood the Guinness order.

To me, it's like having a milkshake. It's just, I, it's not exactly a light, breezy beer. Yeah. It's like a fucking choice. Like, you're in Ireland. What was that movie with Colin Farrell and the other guy? Fred Declays in Bruch? Or Banshees of Inassure?

Yeah. You're in Banshee's just like, man, my life sucks. I'm just going to drink Guinness. I'm just pounding the shit. I don't get Guinness at all. Sequel, Prequel, Prestige TV, All Blackcast are untouchable. I think that this movie has prestige TV bones. I had that written as well.

This would be a really interesting prestige TV because then we could really go into all the diamond stuff. You could go into the child soldiers. Zwick obviously knows how to make television. I think that this would have been a pretty cool prestige TV show. We could go into the offices of Vital Affairs Magazine, see what's going on there, what other pieces they're working on.

Yeah. What's their revenue plan for next year? Yeah. Yeah, so we sent Maddie to, yeah, she sent another expense report. It's $28,000. Just pay that one off. Is this movie better with Wayne Jenkins, Danny Treo, Catherine Hahn, Steve Bouchemy,

Steve Bouchemy, J.T. Walsh, Phil Baker Hall. What do you think, Chris? I was trying to think of where Wayne fits into this movie. I think it would be funny if at the end of the movie when she gets the phone call from Danny, when Maddie, like, is sitting at a cafe somewhere in Europe. And then when she, like, comes back to the table of Wayne Jenkins was just like, God damn, Maddie! You know, we're all here drinking espresso?

Here with the most popular girl in the world, where are you getting calls from Africa? That's pretty rude. I like it. I was thinking he could be the pilot, too. Yeah. Oh, that's right. The Australian pilot.

Yeah. Like at the tail end when Solomon makes it, yeah, Solomon, goddamn. You ain't got to put a gun on me, man. I'm just so fucking impressed. Just one Oscar, who gets it? Who do you got? Man, I got, I got, I got, I got Leo.

I got Leo, but I still, I'm still like a kind of, I still think he got Rob for the departed in this year. What do you think? Zwick, what about Zwick? It's tough. So, you know, we talk about this with basketball sometimes, where we're always like fucking up the all-MBA teams. And nobody's, like, totally happy with,

how that goes with like center and like front court. And if Yokic and Embedder, two of the best players in the league, why would they not be both on first team? And then there's a thought of should it just be a list of here are the best seven players in the league this year. And you're just, and it's a different list. And maybe you do it at the end of the playoffs as a way to commemorate, whatever. Or maybe it's the best 10.

Maybe that would reflect better on the Jamal Murray season versus regular season. Like nobody knows the answer, but we're clearly. not doing it 100% correctly. And I feel like with the Oscars, if somebody has an awesome year that kind of is more than one movie, whether they're in two movies or three or they're two different types of movies

or they get nominated for two different movies. There should be like a special dispensation for like the best year. Yeah, because Hanks has done that before, I think, right? Like Hanks has had like two movies. Spielberg has done that where he's had two movies in contention.

Because the thing is, like, I read that book Oscar Awards, which I thought was really good. And you'd think like the Oscars started in the 1920s and they've kind of kept it basically the same way since, how they did the awards and everything. But the whole point of the Oscars or the whole point of the all-MBA, MVP stuff, whatever you're going to pick, sports or pop culture, it's supposed to be a snapshot of the year and who matters and what stood out and who had a special year and what sort of order things were and whatever. and you know, you go back at 06 and there's no way to commemorate basically anything about this crazy Leo year. Yeah.

You know, so that's where... You know, who does it well is in soccer, they have the Ballandor as like the player of the year, but they take into consideration or they do way, both what you do with your club,

but also like in the national team. So like, you know, Luca Baudrich will be like, because Croatia has a great year and Real Madrid has a great year. But that almost feels like it takes into the totality of the year.

You know, like it acknowledges that. So maybe we need that for acting. Yeah. Probably in answerable questions. I only had one because we've hit everything else. What's the best Leo death scene? Because he has two great ones in 06. He dies in both movies,

which is another unusual thing about Leo because usually the A plus Listers don't want to die in a movie. Yeah, well, this is like the departed is so sudden. But you could argue that's what makes it so great, is that you have no idea it's coming. You'd think he finally pulled it off. He's taking the guy down in the elevator and just gets shot in the head. Yeah.

Or this one. But this one's the more romantic. He gets the final phone call. He gets to look at the sunset, you know? Does he die at the end of Revenant? I can't remember. I can't remember either. Oh, the reason I brought this up was because we also have the Titanic death scene.

Oh, yeah. That's the iconic one. Come on. He floats away. Is it better than the Blood Diamond dust scene, though? Yeah, I think so. Blood Diamond's great. Makes a cell phone call.

He shoots some guys. Yeah. He kind of finally realizes that there's some good inside him. And this is where he belongs. Yeah, right. Titanic, it's just like, man, we couldn't have switched for 20 minutes. You couldn't have gotten in the water and then I could have gotten on the boat, maybe not frozen death.

The Andean Red Zawanna Award for what happened the next day. Well, we find out. We don't know what happened. with Maddie's career. I don't know if she... Yeah, did she write a book? Is this just like a couple... Maybe she's running vice after this. Yeah, right. Yeah, she's an author. Maybe she has a podcast about vital affairs.

What piece of memorabilia would you want from this movie? Pretty clearly the diamond. Yeah, I also like some of Leo's like short-sleeved shirts in the beginning of it, like the kind of Hawaiian joints that he's got, but yeah, the diamond. Yeah, a couple of his hat. I think Leo's hat would be good in this. It's a little Indiana Joneses. Coach Finstock Award for Best Life Lesson. I don't know.

What would you go with here? If we could skip this one. I don't know what the life lesson is from this movie, other than maybe think twice as you're buying an expensive diamond. I think even if you can help one person, it's enough. Oh, that's a good one. Okay. Who won the movie?

Because there's that whole moment where Maddie is like, you know, like, I would have to do all that just to help one person. And then she's like, I can't believe I just said that. So I always liked that scene. yeah that's good i like that one and leo wins the movie yeah yeah let's go to our guy producer krek horrobeck conspicuously quiet throughout this one um you guys missed the what's age the best lab grown diamonds oh yeah yeah kind of a big thing these days is it good one yeah i think it's like growing in popularity i i thought about it when i was in pursuit of a diamond ring

not too long ago. I don't know. I feel like I try to bring a younger perspective to these movies when I watch them and I haven't seen them. This is one of the few Leo movies I haven't seen. What did you think? I really liked it. You guys talking about like these mainstream movies

about brutal subjects. Yeah. That's like, you know, kind of an educational film, but it's really well done. It's like an action film about a really tough topic. Definitely doesn't get made anymore. You're so right. Or maybe they do get made.

They're just not with like movie stars in a theater. Like, I'm sure these subjects are still being made. Now, the really tough watch movies that get, like, awards are just, like, sad. They're, like, sad dramas now.

It's like the whale. Yeah. Right. Yeah, that's a good point. See, Chris and I grew up on this era of big, splashy Hollywood movies about really tough subjects.

Yeah, like Sidney Pollock, Edzwick, these directors kind of making these huge, like, sweeping. And these were also very often the Oscar movies. Like, this was always, always the rap on the Oscars isn't the movie needs to be about something like this.

Now it's like a documentary or it's like a sad movie. It's like marriage story is now the type of like prestige, dramatic, sad, tough watch movie that gets a words buzz. Also I wanted to say my first exposure to like this whole, the conflict diamond world is Kanye's song, which came out around the same time. Diamonds from Sierra Leone, which is like how people my age, like, we're like, what is this about? We like look that up and that's how we kind of learned about that. Yeah, that's interesting. I'm trying to think of, so in the documentary era,

which basically starts right after this, late 2000s, I wonder, like, does Edswick just make a documentary about the diamond industry in the early 2000s versus an actual $100 million Hollywood movie? And also, like,

who would greenlight the $100 million Hollywood movie? I think also this is, like, I don't like to always go back to this, but this isn't sort of, it's not that it says anything about the actors who were doing superhero movies, but like this, this would be like a Chris Hemsworth movie now, right? Like this, this would be, if you were Chris Hemsworth and you were Thor and you were a big star and they were like, all right, what do you want to make? You would be like, I have this thing that I've

learned about that's very close to my heart. I mean, Leo's doing this now with Killers of the Flower Moon. He's still doing it where he's like, this book is important, this story needs to be told. And if my stardom can get it made, then all the better. Let's do it. And he gets Scorsese and Apple and a quarter of a billion dollars to make it. You just don't see that kind of move being made by major movie stars anymore. Whether or not there are major movie stars, that's a whole debate that Sean and Amanda have all the time. But I think it's interesting that like, you know, like the major actors today don't really seem to be pursuing these films. Well, the risk-reward factor is just way different now.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's probably pursued these type of super ambitious issue-oriented movies more than anyone in the last 20. years. I mean, even the McKay movie, which I didn't like very much. Obviously, he's a huge environmentalist, and that's obviously something that's really important to him. I am nostalgic for movies like this. That was one of the reasons I want to do it on the rewatchables. I just like these big splashy movies that are about something that have heroes and I just don't feel like they make them enough anymore. And I don't think the studio system

is really incentivized to even try to make movies like this anymore. And especially if you make something. So like, for me personally, I think I'm a bigger fan of the movie The Siege than this, even though the Siege is probably aged worse in some ways. And I wonder whether or not there's a reticence to make current affairs movies, like really contemporary, like, hey, this is like happening or this was just happening movies because our perspectives on these things are so fluid and the way you think about them can change so much. I mean, you just think about like when the siege got made, I think that's pre-9-11. And, but, like, It was late 90s.

Yeah, and it's like, you know, that movie is like kind of lost to history. It's an amazing Denzel performance and a really great Annette Benning performance, but it's like you, that movie is essentially obviated by the next two years of history. I mean, also, like,

don't you think studios are just more globally focused now and they want movies that appeal to the entire world? And I mean, look at the villains in Top Gun Maverick. Like they're... Right, right. Right. We don't ever know who the villains were. I feel like Craig,

deep down, is sitting on a, I don't think Leo's that good of an actor take. I just feel like it's bubbling in his stomach. You're completely off. Leo's my favorite actor. Okay, good. I will say, though, there's another actor, and I've never said this to anyone, and I'm saving it for the hottest take.

You might fire me when I say it. But there's one actor out there who I have that opinion about. I can't wait. We're going to start filming hottest takes very soon, actually. So I hope. Is that actors initials TC? Craig? No.

No, it's not Tom Cruise. Okay. That's still Sean's worst take ever. I mean, unfortunately, that's going to go on Sean's Gravestone to Tom Hanks-Cruz debacle of 2003. All right, that's it for the rewatchables. We're going to go back to a normal schedule starting next week for the listeners. The NBA finals and some travel stuff screwed things up. So started next week, we're going to be back.

With a fun one. Yeah, we'll just say it now. we're doing the third Indiana Jones movie. Last Crusade, yeah. It's happening. Let's fucking do it. Rewatchable is produced by Craig Horlebeck, as always. CR, wonderful to see you, my friend.

And I'll see you next week for Indy 3.