RadixJournal - I Can't Even Die

00:00:00.800 Topic 3. I can't even die right now.

00:00:05.860 The latest James Bond theme song has been released, and I've had to put myself on suicide watch.

00:00:12.540 Is it too much to ask from a Bond film to offer us some sex, snobbery, and sadism,

00:00:18.140 as the world's favorite secret agent romps across Europe,

00:00:21.460 vetting dangerous women, wearing great suits, and killing enemies with cold-hearted satisfaction?

00:00:27.040 Apparently, it is, as we won't be getting any of that in the latest installment of the franchise, No Time to Die. 0.89

00:00:35.680 In the current year, 007 is outmoded and unnecessary and has been replaced by a smart-talking black lady. 1.00

00:00:42.320 And who could blame MI6, as Bond has become a sad, demoralized shell of a man,

00:00:47.460 dumped and betrayed by his GF and barely keeping it together.

00:00:50.600 All of this is encapsulated in the boring and depressing title song performed by Gen Z avatar, Billie Eilish.

00:00:58.300 So, this week, on Valentine's Day, we were given a gift from E.ON, Everything or Nothing,

00:01:08.260 the family-run enterprise that produces the James Bond films.

00:01:12.500 It was the latest, James Bond music.

00:01:17.500 And whatever you think about the song, No Time to Die.

00:01:23.180 I don't think the song is actually that bad.

00:01:26.540 There's some things about it that I like.

00:01:28.200 It's kind of catchy, some places, maybe.

00:01:31.260 It does really tell us where this franchise is.

00:01:40.320 And in that sense, as a wildly popular franchise, it kind of tells us where we are right now

00:01:47.160 as a global community of people who would watch this kind of film.

00:01:54.100 James Bond is, of course, at least historically, a man who is modern, certainly sexually liberated.

00:02:06.860 He's sensual.

00:02:08.160 He likes the finer things in life.

00:02:10.880 He's the kind of man that would wear a Rolex Submariner in a tuxedo in the 1960s,

00:02:18.260 which is almost kind of the opposite of what it means now.

00:02:20.880 That was a tool watch for a deep-sea diver worn with a tuxedo.

00:02:26.020 It's the badass in a tux, the cultured thug, you could say.

00:02:33.400 And he is that.

00:02:35.800 He is an expression of perhaps England's fantastical vision of itself after the war,

00:02:42.460 of being a secret agent, kind of saving the world.

00:02:45.740 The empire still exists, but it exists in a clandestine manner.

00:02:49.500 He was all of those things.

00:02:52.260 He was certainly an archetype of manhood, although he was always a kind of broken man,

00:02:58.660 someone who, you know, in the novels would occasionally be a little depressed,

00:03:04.380 you know, alcoholic, never could settle down, but was still a man's man,

00:03:11.720 in the words of numerous people, including Steven Spielberg.

00:03:15.220 He's the man that every woman wants to sleep with, and he's the man that every man wants to be.

00:03:21.560 Maybe in a boyish way, but nevertheless, he is who we want to be.

00:03:27.740 And I think it's telling that the Bond music itself is basically something that kind of hates itself

00:03:37.820 or has to apologize about itself, something that is deeply broken and mopey and sad.

00:03:46.580 You know, just because I have read these books, James Bond can sometimes get a little sad in the novels,

00:03:52.120 but that's not his M.O.

00:03:55.460 That is not who he is. 1.00

00:03:57.620 He pulls himself out of his depression and goes and kicks ass. 0.99

00:04:02.640 But this seems to be this weird way of this James Bond is now a figure with this soft music 0.99

00:04:10.800 sung by either female singers or gay men singing in falsetto, as with the last theme song,

00:04:17.560 about how brokenhearted he is, how he's betrayed by his lost love, and so on.

00:04:23.120 I'm not sure.

00:04:23.680 I think this song might actually be kind of better than the last one.

00:04:28.180 If there is something worse than having a black James Bond, 1.00

00:04:31.680 it is having a song like Writings on the Wall,

00:04:35.020 in which it's sung by a man from the perspective of James Bond, beautifully,

00:04:40.080 but it's sung in falsetto, talking about, 0.99

00:04:42.860 I want to feel love into my heart, like this kind of crap. 0.97

00:04:48.000 I mean, it is, that's, that's some kind of man sings like that, but James Bond does not. 0.97

00:04:54.960 And so I, anyway, I think this whole thing is telling,

00:04:58.000 and it kind of gives us an excuse to talk about the whole world of James Bond,

00:05:01.820 which I always find fun.

00:05:03.140 So, Keith, what were some of your impressions of the Billie Eilish big number?

00:05:08.560 It wasn't exactly Goldfinger.

00:05:10.080 Uh, well, I thought you were going to ask me what my favorite Bond movie is,

00:05:15.080 which is a question I want to put back on you, actually.

00:05:17.760 Okay, well, I'll ask you first.

00:05:19.240 What's your favorite Bond movie?

00:05:22.120 Uh, it has to be Goldfinger, I think.

00:05:25.960 Okay.

00:05:27.200 Because it has so many iconic elements.

00:05:30.160 It is, it is the iconic Bond movie, I think.

00:05:33.600 It's when they got the formula.

00:05:34.880 I was very fond of the Casino Royale, you know, the first, the first Craig instantiation.

00:05:40.080 Mm-hmm.

00:05:40.540 What about yourself?

00:05:42.260 Goldfinger's not my favorite one, even though I like watching it, and it has those iconic elements. 0.98

00:05:48.660 And I like, I, in the book, Pussy Galore is a lesbian. 1.00

00:05:54.040 And that's hinted, explicitly, that's hinted at in the movie, that she hangs out with women in this high-flying acrobatics act and so on. 1.00

00:06:03.660 And then Bond takes her for a role in the hay, quite literally, and, you know, kind of, you know, I think right in the 21st century, it's viewed as a little bit rapey.

00:06:14.760 But, you know, he asserts his will over her and kind of wins her over and makes her good.

00:06:22.700 In the book, at the end of it, she is a lesbian, and in the final lines, it's kind of like, you know, how can I be a lesbian when I'm in bed with James Bond?

00:06:32.720 So, you know, Fleming, much like Ed Dutton, had a weird fascination with homosexuality.

00:06:38.780 He was kind of, it was in his head a lot.

00:06:41.720 But he's always writing about lesbians and, you know, weird deviancy and things like that.

00:06:47.300 But, yeah, I think the movie kind of has a little few too many kind of plot holes and it's a little bit clanky.

00:06:55.280 So my favorite Bond movie is, I have a few that I really like.

00:07:00.060 I certainly like Casino Royale.

00:07:01.720 I thought that was a great kind of modern Bond movie.

00:07:04.360 I don't really care for the Pierce Brosnan's ones, the Pierce Brosnan films.

00:07:07.820 But my favorite Bond movie is On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the one starring George Lazenby.

00:07:16.640 It's the one where he gets married.

00:07:18.680 Yes, and then she promptly dies. 1.00

00:07:21.740 So it's kind of a, whether you think of that as a tragedy or as the ultimate fantasy where, you know, Bond never really wanted to be bourgeois.

00:07:30.920 He always wanted to work for Her Majesty's Secret Service.

00:07:33.700 And so maybe it wasn't all that bad.

00:07:36.840 But before the modern Daniel Craig ones, that was kind of the first time they sort of humanized Bond, wasn't it?

00:07:45.820 Yes, and Lazenby did it well.

00:07:49.420 Lazenby was a male model and in this kind of swashbuckling Australian guy.

00:07:56.180 And these stories you hear about him, he was just totally out of control.

00:08:00.040 You know, drinking, sex, you know, all that kind of stuff.

00:08:06.000 But he was actually a pretty good actor.

00:08:08.940 And he did humanize Bond and you do feel for him.

00:08:11.840 And that is the kind of tragic brokenness of the Bond character is that he can't ultimately be middle class.

00:08:19.040 He, you know, the Bond films and books are like a fantasy of the middle class where it's like I have this boring job.

00:08:25.380 But, you know, I wish I were out driving fast cars and wearing cool clothes and killing bad guys and bedding all these hot, exotic, dangerous women. 0.98

00:08:34.680 But then Bond's fantasy is to be middle class.

00:08:37.980 So his fantasy is, you know, oh, I think I'm actually just going to give it up and leave the Secret Service and settle down and have some kids and some, you know, you know, and kind of be boring in a way.

00:08:49.460 And so but that was taken away from him.

00:08:51.660 But the movie has everything.

00:08:53.540 It's got Blofeld.

00:08:54.580 It's got a great plot.

00:08:55.520 It has Christmas.

00:08:56.460 It has skiing.

00:08:57.340 It's a very 60s film in terms of what they're wearing and so on.

00:09:03.020 And I guess I kind of like to be a little contrarian and like the one that's forgotten by others.

00:09:08.860 But do you think do you think Lazenby is the best Bond then?

00:09:12.220 I mean, I ultimately don't.

00:09:16.200 It's hard to be Connery.

00:09:18.360 It has to be Connery.

00:09:19.380 But yeah, I mean, Connery is so iconic that literally everyone.

00:09:23.300 I mean, I don't think there's a single person who says, oh, I don't think he was that good in the role.

00:09:28.100 Obviously, he was perfect.

00:09:29.820 He's he's he's rough.

00:09:31.340 But then in a suit, I do have a the only one that I don't like is actually Piers Brosnan.

00:09:37.420 I think he's a bad actor and I don't really believe him.

00:09:42.160 I really have a very strong soft spot for Roger Moore.

00:09:45.960 Maybe that was because when I was a kid watching these over and over on VHS tapes, I was watching a lot of Roger Moore films.

00:09:52.900 And I and I liked them.

00:09:54.680 But I like more because he just owned the camp.

00:10:00.560 You know, he didn't try to be Connery.

00:10:03.180 And when he did try to be Connery, it didn't quite work.

00:10:05.900 So he just was Roger Moore. 0.95

00:10:07.640 And he basically told the audience, this is going to be a little bit silly.

00:10:12.100 And yeah, look, I'm James Bond.

00:10:14.460 No one can believe this.

00:10:15.360 But but I you know, I'm I'm I'm a fun guy.

00:10:18.100 And and they just kind of owned it.

00:10:21.200 And I do like those.

00:10:23.700 I do like those films.

00:10:24.760 And I have a soft spot for him.

00:10:26.380 I do like Roger Moore.

00:10:27.640 Roger Moore is very English somehow.

00:10:29.660 Yes.

00:10:30.740 I'd predict that he'd be Dutton's favorite Bond, I think.

00:10:34.920 Well, Dutton would describe he's like he was a man's man.

00:10:38.140 He was like, no.

00:10:40.740 He'd be talking about how great the 80s was with Thatcher and Roger Moore.

00:10:46.520 Yeah.

00:10:47.700 But I do like him.

00:10:49.840 I think I think he's he's just more fun.

00:10:53.440 And but but but Connery looking back, like a lot of those movies would go down really badly.

00:10:58.940 Now, if you look at it, he's like like by the time he finished, I think he was in like his late 50s or his early 60s when he was in there.

00:11:04.640 He's still bad in women in like the early 20s. 0.98

00:11:07.320 Oh, yeah.

00:11:08.160 And he's never get mad today.

00:11:10.740 You know, he's like a 60 year old man who invents snowboarding.

00:11:15.260 I think he might.

00:11:16.060 I mean, I don't even know if snowboarding was around.

00:11:18.260 It was that was in View to a Kill, 1985.

00:11:20.260 And he like he went snowboarding right after he got out of bed with a younger woman as well.

00:11:26.200 Yeah.

00:11:26.520 And then he well, he's like a log cabin.

00:11:28.480 Yeah.

00:11:29.020 Well, oh, you're you're you're you're conflating that.

00:11:31.980 That was so in Spy Who Loved Me, he's in the log cabin with like a Russian or something. 0.99

00:11:36.760 And then she calls.

00:11:37.560 OK, that's like the opening scene.

00:11:38.900 Yeah.

00:11:39.120 And then in View to a Kill, in 1985, he's searching for like a lost locket with a microchip or some, you know, some MacGuffin of some kind.

00:11:48.040 And then he he invents the sport of snowboarding.

00:11:51.400 I mean, I think that's actually true.

00:11:53.420 And then he ends up in like a little submarine and there's some Swedish gal that he, you know, beds, you know, who's probably yeah, she's working for the Secret Service.

00:12:03.280 But she's like 23.

00:12:04.300 And, you know, he's 60.

00:12:05.980 You know, whatever.

00:12:07.280 That's how it's, you know, that's how it goes.

00:12:10.700 But yeah, I mean, I love those films.

00:12:14.300 I think Craig is good in the sense that he actually is pretty accurate towards Fleming's concept of Bond.

00:12:25.320 Fleming's concept of Bond was, as a blunt instrument, someone who was modern, even kind of American in a way.

00:12:32.240 Some, you know, he didn't really imagine Roger Moore.

00:12:37.780 It probably would have been someone a little bit more like Craig, someone who has a little bit more of a darkness, more brutal.

00:12:44.620 Famously, he kind of he hated Connery for the role at first, didn't he?

00:12:48.660 He hated him.

00:12:49.540 And then he actually kind of liked him.

00:12:51.040 So he was against it.

00:12:53.580 I'm forgetting the person who is the person who played Grand Moth Tarkin in Star Wars is an English actor.

00:13:03.660 You know what I'm talking about.

00:13:04.880 I think he died recently, but he he was actually I think he was Fleming's choice.

00:13:09.180 If I were to go back on it and and then and then he with Connery, he did ultimately embrace Connery.

00:13:18.020 And there's this notion that what is his name?

00:13:23.460 Cullen, Ian Cullen.

00:13:25.260 I can't remember his name.

00:13:26.300 He's, you know, a good actor, English actor.

00:13:28.660 There's this notion that Fleming made Bond Scottish or half Scottish due to the fact that Connery was in the role.

00:13:37.240 But that isn't necessarily true.

00:13:39.860 I mean, if James Bond was Fleming's fantasy of himself and Fleming has a Scottish background.

00:13:45.540 So anyway, it all it all worked.

00:13:51.460 But I like those and I like a silly Roger Moore movie like Moonraker.

00:13:55.480 I think Moonraker is a great film.

00:13:58.620 It is campy, but every scene works.

00:14:03.840 And and and I think this the villain is is obviously totally outlandish, a mass murdering eugenicist and and so on.

00:14:13.260 And I think it's a hilarious film.

00:14:14.620 So I kind of like them all in their own way, with the exception of the Brosnan era, which I just don't really, really care for.

00:14:23.060 But but Craig is kind of like he he he got the brokenness of Bond, which is very real.

00:14:31.520 But then it's almost been taken too far in the sense.

00:14:35.820 Yeah.

00:14:36.200 Skyfall Skyfall got almost like cheesy in places to the point where it didn't I don't know, it didn't seem to fit Bond or trying to make it too like impactful.

00:14:45.700 Yes, to it was it was pretentious due to the fact that Sam Mendes directed it and it it became this sad Bond who's weeping over his mother, M, Judi Dench and so on.

00:15:02.020 And so at the end of it, it's almost like Bond is holding a Bond, you know, every as we know in the formula at the end of a Bond movie, he's with some chick and a boat or, you know, underneath the parachute or underwater or whatever, whatever the hell he's he's up to.

00:15:17.160 In this one, he's holding Judi Dench in a church who's dead.

00:15:22.880 It was just a weird Bond girl scene.

00:15:26.640 That was, you know, that was, you know, the closing scene of the film.

00:15:29.800 Effectually, there's a little bit of an epilogue there.

00:15:32.440 But, you know, I think to get back at it, I think that I think that Daniel Craig has never made a Bond movie in the sense that he's always been rebooting the Bond franchise.

00:15:45.960 And then once Sam Mendes got involved, he directed Skyfall and Spectre.

00:15:51.500 There's been all this anxiety about being Bond.

00:15:54.920 And so, you know, when you go back to Casino Royale, you know, comparing that theme song to this theme song that we just got.

00:16:04.240 I mean, it's just night and day.

00:16:05.600 I mean, the theme song was sung by Chris Cornell and Casino Royale, who's this, you know, 90s sound garden front man, like 90s alt rock, you know, you know, kind of saying like the coldest blood runs through my veins.

00:16:22.320 You know, my name.

00:16:23.520 So it was it was cool and badass and brutal.

00:16:30.660 And then you get this like weepy, like, I can't believe I've been betrayed again.

00:16:36.160 I'm so sad.

00:16:37.360 How can I go on?

00:16:38.400 There's just no time to die.

00:16:40.720 And it's just a total reversal.

00:16:44.120 So I guess what I was getting at with Craig is that they brought in this blunt instrument.

00:16:49.020 So he's this guy who's who's brutal and effective, but kind of out of control and uncouth.

00:16:54.840 And then you make him James Bond.

00:16:57.460 And I think that's an interesting character arc.

00:16:59.780 And so at the end of Casino Royale, he shoots a guy in the kneecap who's this, you know, big wig and a Spectre like organization.

00:17:08.660 He says, I'm Bond, James Bond.

00:17:10.600 And there you are.

00:17:11.680 It's been rebooted.

00:17:13.460 But then you go to the next one, Quantum of Solace, and it's like full on Jason Bourne.

00:17:20.140 Bond is this just broken guy who can, you know, can't really bed women.

00:17:25.520 I think he beds one. 0.99

00:17:26.820 He doesn't have sex with the main lead protagonist. 0.97

00:17:30.240 They're all just this these broken characters. 0.64

00:17:33.440 And then you get to Skyfall and he's already a has-been.

00:17:36.720 So he hasn't ever made a Bond movie yet.

00:17:40.060 And yet he's been treated as a has-been.

00:17:42.300 And all the new diversity hires in MI6 are kind of saying like, oh, can we teach this old dog new tricks, you know, and so on. 0.97

00:17:50.020 And then in Spectre, they just amp that up.

00:17:52.400 And it's like, we need to get rid of the whole double O section. 1.00

00:17:55.660 We can't have James Bond, any form of James Bond, because we now have, you know, humane surveillance done by, you know, a Soros-like group or something like that.

00:18:05.860 So there's this weird aspect with Craig where he, and with Eon, that they can't make a Bond film.

00:18:13.980 And now we've reached a point where they still can't make one.

00:18:17.500 So many people have been asking, you know, whenever I'll like, you know, occasionally listen to a Bond podcast or something.

00:18:25.400 They'll ask for like, we just want a formulaic Bond film.

00:18:28.520 We want him to go into M's office.

00:18:30.760 He gets sent on a mission.

00:18:32.400 There's a bad guy.

00:18:33.480 He beds two to three women, and it's colorful and fun and exciting.

00:18:40.320 And they can't do that.

00:18:42.040 And in this, in No Time to Die, again, it's about personal betrayals.

00:18:46.540 He's retired.

00:18:47.720 He's rogue.

00:18:49.180 He can't simply do his job.

00:18:53.000 And I think it's expressive of this on two levels.

00:18:56.220 First off, this deep anxiety about Bond existing in this world is this kind of 20th century avatar.

00:19:02.040 But then also, I think the subversion engaged in by Sam Mendes as a subtly subversive director.

00:19:11.780 There's kind of an irony there as well.

00:19:15.260 Like, at the same time where there's so few original ideas coming out of Hollywood and everything is a reboot or a remake of something from 70s or 80s,

00:19:25.140 the Bond franchise, which was the one franchise that, like, all the audience wants really is a carbon copy of the Bond formula.

00:19:31.740 It's the one franchise where they won't give that, and they're trying to come up with this sort of character arc.

00:19:37.160 They'll bring it in a different direction.

00:19:38.620 But then, ultimately, the only thing that they can actually do is they bring him on the character arc he has to go on,

00:19:44.620 and then they just reverse it because there's no other direction to go.

00:19:47.520 It's like, why else do you do it, Bond?

00:19:49.200 And at the same time, yeah, they're, you know, they're filling the diversity around the character of James Bond.

00:19:53.760 I don't know if they ever go to, you know, a black or female James Bond.

00:19:57.700 I think that might be a step too fair, at least for the next one, anyway.

00:20:02.160 But Billie Eilish is kind of a good representation as well. 0.99

00:20:07.180 Like, Billie Eilish is kind of a, she's like a pure simulacra. 0.98

00:20:11.760 Like, Billie Eilish is like, you know, she talks about coming from nothing and growing up poor,

00:20:16.800 even though, like, she was homeschooled, and her parents are musicians,

00:20:19.960 and all her siblings were homeschooled, and they're musicians.

00:20:23.680 And it seems like kind of an upper-middle-class background.

00:20:26.100 And she has this, like, sort of East Coast accent.

00:20:29.860 She dresses like a... 1.00

00:20:31.680 I noted this.

00:20:33.440 I'm sure other people have as well.

00:20:35.060 But when she accepted her Grammy, she was speaking like an African-American woman from Brooklyn.

00:20:42.680 But I'm like, you're a white girl from California.

00:20:45.560 Like, you shouldn't talk like that.

00:20:46.500 Yeah, and she wears baggy clothes, like baggy, like, tracksuits. 0.96

00:20:49.940 She wears, like, big hoop earrings, big acrylic nails. 0.89

00:20:53.640 So she's this weird, like, sort of copy of, like, parts of black and Latino culture. 0.98

00:21:00.500 And then, at the same time, she represents this, like, sort of Zoomer hopelessness 0.99

00:21:06.420 that seems to be popular now among that age group,

00:21:09.440 even though there's no authenticity there.

00:21:12.560 You know, there's no...

00:21:14.240 You know, her background story is kind of fake.

00:21:16.280 So it's like, you know, where is this hopelessness coming from?

00:21:19.060 It's...

00:21:19.780 You know, it's just...

00:21:21.280 The Bond movie...

00:21:22.780 Hollywood itself is becoming kind of a...

00:21:25.080 It's like third-stage simulacra.

00:21:27.040 It's like, you know, there's not even a resemblance now to the, you know,

00:21:31.420 the archetypes that these came from originally.

00:21:33.260 I mean, like, you know, they're going to keep rebooting the Star Wars movies.

00:21:36.820 And the last Star Wars movie, I mean, it's one of those things...

00:21:41.760 No, I don't think anyone would be good.

00:21:43.140 There's been so many sci-fi flops the last few years.

00:21:46.040 Even the last Blade Runner flopped.

00:21:47.580 I don't think anyone would be going to a franchise like Star Wars

00:21:50.720 if it wasn't for the feeling of the continuation from the original story.

00:21:56.040 But the reason the original franchise was popular was, you know,

00:21:59.760 because it had good characters, because it had a good story arc,

00:22:02.580 because it was, you know, the hero of a thousand faces retold or whatever.

00:22:07.160 But no one in Hollywood is capable of redoing that.

00:22:10.880 And I think we're kind of seeing film as pure technique now.

00:22:15.000 You know, this move to sort of, you know, algorithms

00:22:17.380 and doing things according to, you know, what a Lull would call technique,

00:22:21.340 you know, the one best way, you know,

00:22:22.820 everything is economic rationality.

00:22:26.500 But the paradox is that it doesn't actually lead to a maximum

00:22:30.820 in an artistic endeavour like film.

00:22:34.740 You know, there's this phenomenon people talk about

00:22:36.520 where you watch a super CGI movie,

00:22:40.540 something like The New Godzillas or something,

00:22:42.720 and the CGI that looks the most real

00:22:46.100 is somehow less satisfying to people,

00:22:48.380 because there's some, like, intuition that it's not real.

00:22:51.060 There's some, like, when it's something like, you know,

00:22:53.220 an 80s Jurassic World, and maybe it's not CGI,

00:22:56.100 or the original Star Wars, something like the Yoda that was a puppet,

00:22:59.060 even though it doesn't look as real as the CGI,

00:23:02.000 it's somehow more satisfying.

00:23:03.540 But this move to film as pure technique,

00:23:06.080 you're just getting kind of simulacra of simulacra.

00:23:09.440 You have cast picked by, you know, quotas, diversity.

00:23:12.480 Everything in Star Wars, like, if you were to watch that Star Wars,

00:23:15.740 the last Star Wars,

00:23:17.380 I think even a child watching that would feel

00:23:20.280 that there's something lacking.

00:23:22.180 There's just something,

00:23:23.120 there's something about the art of storytelling,

00:23:24.880 and when it's created in this way,

00:23:27.080 and when it's coming out of, you know,

00:23:28.320 Hollywood boardrooms and algorithms,

00:23:30.520 you can just feel that that something is lacking.

00:23:33.540 There's not the bear there, you know?

00:23:35.380 Yeah, I totally agree.

00:23:36.820 And there's so much being thrown up against the wall.

00:23:39.800 In the last Star Wars, I can't even tell you the plot,

00:23:43.160 because it's just,

00:23:44.440 there's just all these little twists and turns,

00:23:47.040 and just everything is pitched up against the wall,

00:23:49.860 and none of it, at least in my mind, sticks, really.

00:23:54.500 But yeah, it's interesting.

00:23:56.140 I mean, one thing that I was thinking about

00:23:58.500 is the kind of deconstructive quality to Marvel films.

00:24:03.300 And Marvel is the new Star Wars.

00:24:06.140 I mean, this is having the most effect on the minds of teenagers

00:24:10.020 in the United States and in Europe and around the world,

00:24:13.240 really, China in ways that we probably don't even understand.

00:24:17.280 But those films are really deconstructive.

00:24:20.440 And what I mean by that is that you,

00:24:22.960 it's kind of a self-aware, like self-parody that's going on.

00:24:28.320 And so you'll have the occasional one

00:24:30.380 that's a little more serious.

00:24:32.000 Like, one that I saw that, which I actually kind of liked,

00:24:35.720 was Captain America Winter Soldier,

00:24:38.040 where it's kind of about spies,

00:24:39.800 and it was darker.

00:24:41.640 And obviously, there's a lot of sadness in these,

00:24:44.360 you know, in-game, everyone's depressed,

00:24:46.360 because, you know, half the population's gone,

00:24:48.540 and stuff like that.

00:24:49.720 But ultimately, it's about kind of zany, self-aware humor.

00:24:53.880 So it's like Thor saying,

00:24:55.780 can you believe that I'm a Nordic god

00:24:58.460 holding a hammer fighting space aliens?

00:25:00.460 This is hilarious.

00:25:01.360 And you've got a bow and arrow?

00:25:02.560 What's going on here?

00:25:03.800 And, you know, the Iron Man,

00:25:06.660 he's all about quipping and kind of playing with things.

00:25:09.340 It's this kind of self-aware joke

00:25:11.660 where you're allowed to kind of joke with it,

00:25:14.840 and that allows the audience to appreciate it and like it,

00:25:18.740 because it's precisely because

00:25:20.200 they're not taking it that seriously.

00:25:23.400 And so it's kind of deconstructing comic book movies

00:25:26.460 in this self-aware way.

00:25:28.020 And I think that the films that have gone against that

00:25:34.240 have not done as well.

00:25:35.580 There's been the Nolan Batman film

00:25:37.280 where everything was real and grounded.

00:25:39.720 But the James Bond franchise is, you know,

00:25:42.940 it's the most successful franchise of all time,

00:25:46.140 but it's not really as current,

00:25:49.360 and it's clearly not as confident,

00:25:51.420 and everyone's going to love this.

00:25:53.580 It's a little, it's getting kind of more anachronistic

00:25:56.500 and kind of niche and for older people,

00:25:59.700 and it's dark and dour and sad and so on.

00:26:03.880 Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman

00:26:06.000 was this attempt to like take these characters

00:26:08.460 really seriously.

00:26:10.520 What would it be like if Superman were in the world today? 0.99

00:26:13.920 Well, actually, Batman might have to kill him.

00:26:15.640 And, you know, I mean, these kind of actually disturbing things. 0.97

00:26:20.920 And that one was a flop and everyone hated it and so on.

00:26:25.040 Like the way to, the way to kind of get it right

00:26:29.060 is self-aware, deconstructive,

00:26:31.820 and even a bit like nihilistic.

00:26:34.000 I mean, the film Kingsman,

00:26:35.720 which did that for the James Bond franchise,

00:26:37.720 it was a parody of the James Bond franchise.

00:26:40.560 It was successful on a much lower budget

00:26:43.100 and it's kind of been popular and so on

00:26:46.560 precisely because it just kind of let its hair out

00:26:50.680 and was like a Marvel movie.

00:26:52.020 People are, you know, flying through the air,

00:26:55.040 you know, doing karate in midair.

00:26:57.500 I mean, it was totally unbelievable.

00:27:00.580 John Wick was a big breakout franchise the last year.

00:27:04.540 That was like, that was such a break with the mold as well.

00:27:07.320 There's just, there's no irony whatsoever.

00:27:09.560 It's just a simple story.

00:27:10.700 The bad guys kill this guy's dog 1.00

00:27:12.700 and he goes on a fucking rampage, you know? 0.99

00:27:15.700 There's no self-referential like, 1.00

00:27:18.740 oh, this is the bit where I killed the bad guys.

00:27:20.660 You know, it's just old school.

00:27:22.400 But yeah, that's definitely becoming a problem for...

00:27:24.980 But even the John Wick franchise is totally incredible.

00:27:29.260 You know, I mean, he's just,

00:27:30.300 he's like doing headshots to 20 guys in a room 0.61

00:27:34.520 and getting shot himself and surviving 0.77

00:27:37.120 and flying through the air and all this kind of stuff.

00:27:39.580 It, they kind of have to,

00:27:41.840 they have to make it unbelievable.

00:27:43.640 It still has to be kind of hyper-real.

00:27:45.340 Yeah.

00:27:46.220 It still has to be kind of a hyper-real version

00:27:48.140 of an 80s action movie.

00:27:50.180 Yeah.

00:27:50.440 Where it just takes an element of it

00:27:51.900 to the absolute extreme.

00:27:53.640 And you kind of, you know,

00:27:54.820 you enjoy that, 0.93

00:27:55.540 that orgy of violence, 0.80

00:27:57.480 of one particular aspect of the older form.

00:28:00.580 But yeah, I remember,

00:28:02.860 I remember reading a book by Zizek

00:28:05.540 where he talked about that,

00:28:06.540 that irony now is,

00:28:08.040 it's completely lost its original function

00:28:11.520 in that he actually used the example

00:28:13.220 of the original Shrek movie.

00:28:14.840 Because, you know,

00:28:15.840 we're kind of used to it now

00:28:16.840 in children's movies

00:28:18.680 that there's all this sort of adult humour

00:28:20.860 and little subtle ironic quips.

00:28:23.680 But Shrek was kind of the first movie to do that.

00:28:25.360 But he talks about how,

00:28:27.100 you know,

00:28:27.300 at the end of the day,

00:28:28.060 when you look through Shrek,

00:28:28.980 it's basically a telling of the same old story.

00:28:31.200 You know,

00:28:31.300 the hero rescues the princess

00:28:32.680 from the dragon,

00:28:33.580 blah, blah, blah.

00:28:34.120 And that basically,

00:28:35.000 these, you know,

00:28:37.040 these constant self-referential quips

00:28:39.120 that it's basically giving the audience

00:28:40.580 permission to enjoy it.

00:28:42.340 You know,

00:28:42.920 that we're so,

00:28:44.160 we're made so cynical by irony now

00:28:45.580 that we can't go in and watch,

00:28:47.000 you know,

00:28:47.500 another telling of whatever,

00:28:49.200 a Western or James Bond movie.

00:28:51.020 We can't just enjoy it for what it is.

00:28:52.480 We have to be given the permission.

00:28:54.060 It's like,

00:28:54.640 laughing at that makes,

00:28:55.960 it's like a kind of a signal

00:28:57.660 that, you know,

00:28:58.320 we're aware,

00:28:58.840 we're in on the joke with the director,

00:29:00.580 you know.

00:29:00.760 Yeah.

00:29:01.100 We're not,

00:29:01.540 we're not passively sitting here

00:29:02.880 while getting it,

00:29:04.120 we're not getting into this story,

00:29:05.680 you know.

00:29:05.900 We're not sincerely getting involved

00:29:08.060 with these fake characters,

00:29:09.180 you know.

00:29:09.340 We know it's all fake.

00:29:10.500 But then at the same time,

00:29:11.640 I remember being at the,

00:29:13.080 being at a show on the Last Avengers

00:29:14.540 and there was all these bug people around me

00:29:16.900 crying at one of the scenes.

00:29:18.800 I'm like,

00:29:19.680 you're crying.

00:29:20.400 What is this?

00:29:21.580 I know.

00:29:21.980 It's like five minutes earlier,

00:29:23.320 they're laughing at like,

00:29:24.520 you know,

00:29:24.680 the actors like pointing out

00:29:26.120 that this is all fake or whatever.

00:29:27.680 And then like,

00:29:28.040 they're so super invested in it

00:29:29.560 at the same time.

00:29:30.200 It's like.

00:29:31.280 It is bizarre.

00:29:31.900 But no one can quite pull it off like Marvel.

00:29:34.060 I mean,

00:29:34.300 they tried that in,

00:29:35.200 in the Star Wars movie,

00:29:37.460 not in the last Star Wars movie

00:29:38.940 because they realized it hadn't worked.

00:29:40.820 But in The Force Awakens,

00:29:42.260 they tried inserting that humor

00:29:43.640 and the one after

00:29:44.320 and it just,

00:29:44.880 it didn't really land.

00:29:45.780 I think Marvelous kind of poisoned the world.

00:29:48.860 And Deadpool really took that to an extreme.

00:29:51.960 Yes.

00:29:52.460 Like the whole point of Deadpool

00:29:53.700 was just like,

00:29:54.820 just completely attacked

00:29:56.000 the entire medium of superhero movies.

00:29:58.480 Just everything just went under the attack

00:30:00.980 of just completely constructive irony

00:30:03.540 upon irony,

00:30:04.280 you know?

00:30:04.660 Yeah.

00:30:05.880 And,

00:30:06.380 and that,

00:30:07.040 that's all,

00:30:07.640 that's almost where this ends up.

00:30:09.960 Yeah.

00:30:10.320 It's like a Deadpool Star Wars.

00:30:11.660 What do you do after Deadpool?

00:30:15.480 Right.

00:30:16.100 And I,

00:30:16.480 I think Eon,

00:30:17.460 because they want to protect their brand.

00:30:20.260 And so they,

00:30:21.880 they realize that they,

00:30:24.400 you know,

00:30:24.760 this is just a,

00:30:26.300 a printing press,

00:30:27.860 the James Bond franchise

00:30:28.900 that a family owns.

00:30:30.320 It's,

00:30:30.580 it's,

00:30:30.820 it's actually really unique

00:30:32.360 and they can not only sell movies,

00:30:34.880 they can sell,

00:30:35.640 you know,

00:30:36.740 cologne with 007 on it

00:30:39.020 and,

00:30:39.260 and,

00:30:39.800 and whatever.

00:30:40.340 And so they want to protect the brand.

00:30:42.520 So they're not going to go in

00:30:43.860 for the just outright zaniness.

00:30:46.820 And so the kind of only way they can go

00:30:49.700 is towards sadness

00:30:50.980 because that's kind of adults and mature.

00:30:55.480 It's kind of my take on it,

00:30:57.120 but,

00:30:57.420 but yeah,

00:30:58.180 I think in a different way,

00:30:59.380 in a,

00:30:59.560 in a way that Marvel has poisoned the well

00:31:02.440 and kind of destroyed the possibility

00:31:04.420 of doing a comic book movie

00:31:07.440 that's actually serious

00:31:08.620 and maybe,

00:31:09.600 maybe our viewers find that very prospect 0.99

00:31:12.180 stupid or something, 0.99

00:31:13.840 which is, 1.00

00:31:14.400 you know,

00:31:14.580 fair enough,

00:31:15.120 but,

00:31:15.820 um,

00:31:16.320 you can't do that now.

00:31:18.400 Zach Sider's tried

00:31:19.640 and he's been kicked out.

00:31:21.500 Um,

00:31:22.240 you know,

00:31:22.800 I,

00:31:22.900 I think with Sam Mendes

00:31:24.720 post James Bond,

00:31:25.860 I,

00:31:26.220 I don't know if James Bond 0.99

00:31:27.640 will ever get his balls back. 0.98

00:31:29.520 I, 0.99

00:31:30.000 I just,

00:31:30.400 I,

00:31:30.660 you know,

00:31:31.080 it,

00:31:31.260 it would be actually really dramatic

00:31:33.260 if you had him

00:31:35.240 as a non-broken,

00:31:36.720 self-confident,

00:31:38.420 you know,

00:31:39.480 swashbuckler.

00:31:40.540 That,

00:31:40.960 that would be something totally new

00:31:42.660 and I'm not sure they can even go there,

00:31:44.820 you know,

00:31:45.060 for the next 20 years or so.

00:31:47.160 Um,

00:31:47.700 but it is interesting.

00:31:48.800 You,

00:31:48.960 you do see that,

00:31:49.940 I guess Fast and the Furious

00:31:51.200 is an interesting franchise

00:31:52.240 because that is the minority franchise.

00:31:54.980 Like,

00:31:55.440 you know, 0.95

00:31:55.640 whites are like token whites. 0.96

00:31:57.540 You know, 0.94

00:31:57.860 I actually kind of like those movies.

00:32:00.260 Um,

00:32:00.720 I'll see them like when I'm on a plane

00:32:02.360 or,

00:32:02.680 or,

00:32:03.040 or,

00:32:03.620 or I,

00:32:04.120 you know,

00:32:04.240 just when I,

00:32:04.700 I want to,

00:32:05.700 you know,

00:32:06.000 just check out or something,

00:32:07.280 but they,

00:32:08.160 they kind of just are what they are.

00:32:09.600 They're,

00:32:09.780 they're just total surface,

00:32:11.460 like no pretense towards seriousness

00:32:15.540 and just like bizarre,

00:32:17.620 you know,

00:32:17.860 driving a car from one building

00:32:20.460 to another building.

00:32:21.640 I mean, 0.96

00:32:21.920 just totally ridiculous, 0.89

00:32:23.460 but I, 0.72

00:32:24.040 but I almost kind of like it,

00:32:25.000 but I,

00:32:25.600 I think in a way the,

00:32:27.300 the,

00:32:27.620 the,

00:32:28.060 the,

00:32:28.260 the non-whites are, 0.98

00:32:30.100 are able to be self-confident

00:32:31.880 in a way that a white James Bond can't 0.64

00:32:34.260 in this kind of ironic way.

00:32:35.820 If Idris Elba ever were given

00:32:37.540 the James Bond role,

00:32:38.680 I bet he would actually be more

00:32:40.780 of a Connery or Roger Moore figure.

00:32:42.840 There wouldn't be that anxiety

00:32:44.680 about being outmoded and displaced

00:32:46.860 or,

00:32:48.020 you know,

00:32:48.140 how can you even do this

00:32:49.700 in this day and age,

00:32:51.400 blah,

00:32:51.540 blah,

00:32:51.700 blah.

00:32:51.940 He would just do it

00:32:52.920 and people would kind of buy it.

00:32:54.680 It would,

00:32:54.880 it would have that,

00:32:55.700 like,

00:32:56.440 it would,

00:32:56.840 it would have that bad conscience 0.80

00:32:58.560 removed from the franchise.

00:33:00.380 Although I,

00:33:01.180 I would,

00:33:02.160 I like Idris Elba actually,

00:33:04.940 but,

00:33:06.020 you know,

00:33:06.720 yeah,

00:33:07.160 I guess I'm too much of a conservative

00:33:08.560 reactionary to accept the,

00:33:11.020 uh,

00:33:11.200 black bond,

00:33:11.900 but whatever.

00:33:14.380 Yeah.

00:33:14.880 It is that question.

00:33:15.840 I mean,

00:33:16.020 where,

00:33:16.180 where are they going to go from this one

00:33:17.600 if it's Craig's last?

00:33:18.700 Because yeah,

00:33:19.520 I mean,

00:33:19.800 they had the,

00:33:20.320 they had the Eric of him becoming Bond

00:33:22.240 and then they just kind of

00:33:23.340 took it apart

00:33:24.480 and it doesn't seem like

00:33:25.900 they'll ever be able to go back

00:33:27.140 to that sort of formulaic

00:33:28.680 every Bond movie

00:33:29.700 following the same parents.

00:33:30.780 So is it just going to be like

00:33:31.960 constant like

00:33:32.720 character development

00:33:33.980 and sort of inquiry

00:33:35.200 into who is James Bond?

00:33:36.680 But like,

00:33:37.280 yes,

00:33:37.620 that was never the appeal of Bond.

00:33:38.900 His wife is going to die

00:33:40.100 over and over again 0.98

00:33:41.100 and betray him.

00:33:42.100 He's going to get dumped

00:33:43.240 once.

00:33:43.700 I mean,

00:33:43.900 it's just like,

00:33:44.660 yeah.

RadixJournal - February 19, 2020

I Can't Even Die

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript