The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - Christmas Podcast

00:00:00.000 hello and welcome to a podcast of the christmas lotus eaters here we are feeding the algorithm

00:00:17.800 while we're away making merry drinking sherry or whatever it is we're doing at the whatever

00:00:22.580 it is we're doing at the moment we're not making podcasts so you've got this uh this uh

00:00:26.880 bow and dan's x-mas recommendations with this fancy graphic that i managed to knock up myself

00:00:32.360 you never can tell and um smooth slick it's slick and we're going to be talking about films in this

00:00:39.160 one so so my first recommendation and nobody's ever seen this but it's such a great film is he

00:00:43.940 never died i've not seen it with henry it is it is well worth checking out because what it's about

00:00:49.200 is it's uh you're funny we just talk about the bible um he's in it so so basically you you get

00:00:56.280 this guy and um he long story short he's cain from the bible okay and if if you read the bible

00:01:03.960 um he kind of gets cursed that he can't die and this film just takes a logical conclusion of that

00:01:10.480 as well he must still be rattling around then somewhere yeah and he's just kind of living

00:01:14.360 this sort of bum life and is immortal and is immortal yes can't be killed and um and and what

00:01:20.480 it captures so well is i mean he's been alive for so long absolutely nothing he just he just doesn't

00:01:29.820 react to stuff in even extreme violence in the way that anyone currently reacts and and the sort of

00:01:36.840 plot of the story is he kind of gets um set on an oppositional course to a bunch of gangsters

00:01:43.220 and and they keep going after him and it doesn't go the way that they think it's going to go

00:01:48.840 but he just he just simply doesn't so for example the opening scene is he is is he hears this loud

00:01:54.020 knocking on the door um and he goes and answers it and there's this gangster who puts a gun in his

00:01:59.040 face and tries to muscle his way in and he basically just like breaks his arm and throws him out into the

00:02:03.500 corridor and he goes back to bed um and and they kick open the door anyway hilarity ensues

00:02:08.880 um but i mean the whole thing it's it's just a guy who who's just seen everything so many times

00:02:15.500 um and is so jaded by absolutely everything and and i think i think rawlins um nails the performance

00:02:22.220 sounds like a great concept for a film i should i'll find it i'll find it and i'll give it a watch i do

00:02:26.820 like i like henry rawlins so sounds good it is is worth watching um you've gone for an old classic

00:02:32.960 a man who would be king yeah the man would be king based on a roger kipling short story or novella

00:02:38.140 uh 70s classic with michael kane and sean connery uh set in the 19th century late 19th century

00:02:44.520 to uh ex-british army guys realize that they know how to drill men turn men into soldiers

00:02:52.640 and so if you go to the back of beyond into the middle of asia central asia yeah you know like

00:02:58.440 the stands you know modern day uzbekistan well they call it kafiristan uh north of afghanistan

00:03:04.280 that whole part of central asia which completely backward really certainly in the 19th century

00:03:09.100 go there drill a few dozen men a few hundred men turn yourself into a king yeah that's basically

00:03:15.900 the the story i believe that this is i mean it's it's fictional this but that what you've just

00:03:22.860 described did actually happen several times in history so um you know you can you can think of

00:03:27.020 like the white raj on and he was sort of he did that in indonesia and there's a whole bunch of

00:03:31.500 other characters who pretty much did this so it's not actually that unbelievable you really could do

00:03:36.940 this in those days you could go and carve yourself out a kingdom yeah yeah i mean throughout history

00:03:41.260 throughout the centuries many things like this have happened and yeah although this is a frictional

00:03:45.220 story and the characters that um that kipling makes up uh are fictional they are based loosely on

00:03:52.440 real guys from the 19th century loosely and yeah and certainly in centuries past absolutely that this

00:03:58.960 sort of thing has gone down and happened i just think it's quite long it's like two hours plus but

00:04:02.440 i think it's an oh it's a classic it's an absolutely rip roaring roller coaster of a story

00:04:07.780 i love it i absolutely it's one of my favorite films of all time easily and it was made before

00:04:12.420 films got woke right there's there is that as well yeah um my second pick i've gone for a similar

00:04:17.460 theme to my first one actually this is this is a man from earth um and it and it's more of a play

00:04:22.900 than a film but again easily be a play or a radio play couldn't it easily easy um nobody's ever seen

00:04:28.980 this have you seen i have seen it yeah oh you've seen this yeah yeah yeah a couple of times i mean

00:04:32.240 it's a great play it's basically the the opening premise is this um this professor at university he's

00:04:37.540 been there for about 15 years and he's moving on and they're all saying to all look why are you

00:04:42.840 moving on you you've got it made here you know you're a great professor everyone loves you um

00:04:46.780 and he just decides sod it i'm going to tell you and and he says well i have to move on because

00:04:52.620 if i don't you'll very soon start to realize i'm not getting any older

00:04:56.180 and and it's similar to my last one in that this guy's been around since he was he was a caveman

00:05:01.820 for some reason he just never died yeah he doesn't know why yeah yeah he doesn't know yeah and and and so

00:05:07.140 they and you've got all these professors around the table history professors and anthropologists and

00:05:11.460 biologists and other people and and they decide to engage with it as if it's just a a mental exercise

00:05:17.080 humor him yeah yeah but you know they've got nothing else to do he says he's lived many many

00:05:21.460 lives over the millennia and it gets him in trouble soon soon enough people realize he's not getting

00:05:26.140 older and that spooks them and he gets into all sorts of trouble and they think he's it's witchcraft

00:05:31.800 or whatever so even today he has to after a few years 15 20 years he has to move on and start

00:05:37.720 afresh somewhere and so but yeah they engage it they're like all right we'll we'll uh we'll grill

00:05:42.440 you then and the more he talks the more they're like oh shit maybe yeah maybe he actually because

00:05:48.020 because he's coming out with stuff that they can't quite explain otherwise um and and it's and it's

00:05:53.160 like it's just a sort of very fairly simple play but it does make you think and it does it is just

00:05:58.460 it's so well written yeah and entertaining yeah it's definitely well written it's worth a watch 100

00:06:04.340 yes i think it's a very very good film and most people haven't probably heard of it

00:06:08.620 no but but but worth checking out if you want to watch a film no one's ever seen before

00:06:12.540 uh the jewelist right this is again one of my all-time favorite films if someone said

00:06:18.180 you've got to give me five films and we're going to laminate that we're going to lock that in

00:06:22.080 i'm going to take that to the banks a little card laminated card you keep in your pocket all times

00:06:25.720 you're locking in your favorite films the jewelists has to be in that top five for me

00:06:31.300 um it's uh keith carradine and harvey cartel uh as younger men it's again from the 70s i barely

00:06:38.300 recognize harvey cartel yeah he's young in it yeah and it's ridley scott's first feature-length film

00:06:44.620 oh is it yeah right it's based on a joseph conrad short story and it's too even though they play it

00:06:51.500 with american accents they're supposed to be french cavalry officers during the napoleonic wars

00:06:56.380 i don't think i could sit through two hours of french accents oh right well luckily they do just

00:07:01.520 use their american accents and what it is it starts off they're relatively junior officers

00:07:05.480 and harvey cartel is a baddie the piece of piece of shit and and keith carradine's the goodie

00:07:10.480 and uh harvey cartel picks a fight with keith carradine over nothing and insists on duelling him

00:07:17.660 to the death and uh it's they just about managed to not kill one another and then the rest of the

00:07:24.180 film um is over the years over 20 plus years of napoleonic history they their paths cross at various

00:07:31.080 times and they keep having jewels or harvey cartel keeps insisting that he has to jewel keith carradine

00:07:36.780 as a matter of honor even though the original thing was over nothing it was fabricated by harvey cartel

00:07:42.220 and so anyway over the years they have a number of jewels four five six jewels with all different

00:07:47.740 types of swords one on horseback one with one with pistols and every time they just one time one guy

00:07:54.120 wins one time the other guy wins but whatever happens they wound each other but neither of them

00:07:57.920 actually die and that's i won't tell you the very very end but that's the conceit of the plot

00:08:04.260 and um but one other thing saying it is that it's uh at the bottom there that line it says

00:08:10.120 staggeringly beautiful film that's true it's ridley scott is absolute absolute best in terms of

00:08:16.860 cinematography in terms of a visual delight it's brilliant some of it some of it's like an oil

00:08:23.380 painting it's a great great film it's quite relatively slow if you're looking for a a an action

00:08:30.560 packed michael bay blockbuster it's not that but there's it's very well written very extremely

00:08:37.640 well written very very well acted and beautiful but this was the film that launched that director

00:08:42.380 people saw this and they thought well actually maybe this guy doesn't know what he's doing then

00:08:45.520 this you're in the hands of a master director yeah with his first at the top of his best work

00:08:51.940 uh next i've got another weird one the king of kong again most people have never seen this

00:08:57.100 it's such a weird story it is such a complete and utter niche um it's a world most people would

00:09:05.920 be completely aware of but it's the world of uh pac-man donkey kong oh donkey kong donkey kong

00:09:11.280 yes you're right donkey kong i have seen this is just quickly say it's more like a documentary than

00:09:15.540 uh yeah it's not a dramatized scripted there is drama oh yeah in the documentary yeah yeah but it's

00:09:22.160 more of a documentary than just um it is so the setup is basically the guy on the left there

00:09:27.240 um he he set the world record for donkey kong uh when he was like 14 or something in like the 80s yes

00:09:34.600 yeah and that was obviously the highlight of his life and he won't let it go on the arcade version

00:09:40.380 yeah on the arcade version of donkey kong and he's still living off that like 25 30 years later he's

00:09:47.120 still yeah i'm the i'm i'm the donkey kong man right and then this random artist pops up

00:09:53.720 who's like i wonder if i can get the high score on donkey kong and he's a really nice family guy

00:09:58.440 really good dude and he does right and it sets off this sort of epic battle between the two and

00:10:05.420 then the third guy there and it is such a niche little world this third guy he because the government

00:10:11.960 is not interested in regulating donkey kong so this guy pops up and says well i'm going to be

00:10:16.420 the regulator of donkey kong so he sets up this this arcade and he wears his little stripy vest to

00:10:20.760 indicate that he's the authority yeah and in order to get the high score donkey kong you have to you

00:10:26.460 have to do it on his machine in his little arcade yeah yeah to verify it and and and the first guy i mean

00:10:32.820 he lives down the road from it so he's always in there swaggering around because because he's the

00:10:37.680 top score donkey kong and and this other guy turns up and uh yeah anyway i won't spoil it but it's

00:10:44.340 it's unbelievably petty the stakes are so small and people take it so epically serious but somehow

00:10:54.100 i don't know how it's a wonderful story the filmmakers have done a brilliant job yes haven't

00:11:00.080 they yes because i've watched it a couple of times there's a reason it's a bit of a cult classic

00:11:04.140 for a reason because it's very good um again who really cares i mean i love games you like games

00:11:09.960 we're gamers most people are gamers don't actually really care who's got the world record on on arcade

00:11:17.240 donkey kong yeah nonetheless there is there is there is a sort of like a niche sort of um subculture

00:11:24.580 of people where it doesn't it does really matter um and and anyway the storytellers the filmmakers of

00:11:31.900 this did a brilliant job of a brilliant job really of drawing you in to the narrative the story the

00:11:38.660 characters and um they did it well no it's great it's a good use of an hour an hour and a half or

00:11:43.900 however long of it is it's worth sitting down and watching over the christmas break yeah and you

00:11:47.560 recommend this actually some people might have seen this one but it's a bloody good one okay so this

00:11:52.220 again i think i would have to put it on my laminated card of top five all time um casino uh a lot of

00:11:59.680 people argue and i have had this conversation many many times what's the best scorsese film

00:12:04.480 and it usually boils down to it's either goodfellas or casino and a lot of people say goodfellas

00:12:09.800 my favorite gangster movie favorite scorsese movie is casino i think it just pips goodfellas i love

00:12:18.780 goodfellas but because they're both decent they're both brilliant they're both 10 out of 10 films for me

00:12:22.420 but casino is one of my all-time favorites i think it's again i won't go into too much of the detail

00:12:28.520 about it because we haven't got time that's not what this segment is about a breakdown in any detail

00:12:32.340 about the film casino but just to say brilliantly acted really brilliantly acted by practically

00:12:39.140 everyone in it brilliantly written brilliantly directed it's just a 10 out of 10 for me

00:12:46.420 and i love i can't really fault it on anything it's just i've watched it a dozen times and i'd watch it

00:12:52.440 again today yes i'd go home this evening and watch it again that's how good i think it is i love the

00:12:57.540 character arc because the um i forget the name of robert de niro's character

00:13:01.400 sam rothstein yeah sam rothstein there we go and and and his character arc is is he's basically put

00:13:08.300 up by the mob and he kind of ran a casino because because the mob was running everything back then

00:13:14.740 and he kind of forgets it and he starts to believe in his own hype and he he's got this guy

00:13:21.520 who from his point of view is i mean he's an old-time friend joe joe pesci's character and and

00:13:27.420 he thinks oh this guy's just irritating and he's causing trouble and he forgets he's the reason he's

00:13:32.880 there at all and this is great scene where where joe pesci takes him out into the desert and he's like

00:13:39.040 screaming in his face you jew bastard you've forgotten that you wouldn't be here if it wasn't

00:13:43.660 for whatever slur for the italians i can't remember what it was if it wasn't for me you'd be dead in a

00:13:49.220 in a week and he's just chewing him out and and and and and and robert de neil's like oh yeah shit

00:13:55.300 actually yeah you're right i'm i'm here at your suffrage and the whole system was was built on chaos that

00:14:02.800 it just can't perpetuate well one other thing says that the it's based

00:14:08.520 on a true on true events oh is it yeah so it's uh loosely or well yeah so that's the thing how

00:14:17.080 loosely is it based on true events so uh it's i've looked into all the true story i'm fascinated by

00:14:22.960 yes mobsters and everything um and um some bits of it are completely fictional

00:14:29.060 big chunks of it are pretty close to reality okay some of it is very close to reality for example the

00:14:34.960 joe pesci character right there's a real guy that is based on okay pretty close then other bits

00:14:40.600 scorsese's played around with what actually exactly happened but broadly speaking broadly broadly it's

00:14:47.640 true it does give you the flavor of what las vegas was like back in those days right yeah yeah i think

00:14:53.780 it's worth watching you probably almost certainly won't be bored or disappointed and feel like you've

00:14:58.600 wasted your time no again you're in the hands of a master filmmaker storyteller

00:15:03.200 you

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - December 26, 2025

Christmas Podcast ｜ Our Film Recommendations

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