High n' Dry Podcast
Hosted by Ryan Baron North, James Crosslin, and Luke, High n' Dry tackles film and philosophy with their patented 3-part method. What makes them so special and fun? One of them is drunk, and the other two are really, really high. Welcome to a drunken chat at 3 in the morning with your best buds. Come talk movies and philosophy, and get wasted along the way. New episodes every other week! Music by AlexGrohl @ Pixabay
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High n' Dry Podcast
Uprising...
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Okay, so who knew a medieval poll tax could hit you right in the liver? Uprising did, and honestly, we were not ready. We kicked things off thinking we’d just do a regular old movie review, but then—bam—we’re knee-deep in the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt, talking wages, labor, and what happens when regular folks finally say, 'nah, fuck this.' Andrew Garfield plays the everyman, stuck between keeping his head down and flipping the table, and the rest of the cast? They bring the fear, the rage, the 'oh hell no' energy that makes the violence feel real.
We're giving this thing a respectable 4/5; we get into a heated, possibly tipsy argument about the shaky cam and those wild zoom-ins. But then, because we can’t help ourselves, we spiral into history class: plague taxes, wage caps, and the absolute nonsense rules about what peasants could wear. Oh, and let’s not forget how movies love to turn messy, bloody history into neat little story arcs. We get into what the film gets right, what it totally makes up, and why the ugly aftermath actually matters if you want the real tea.
The golden path? Oh, we’re not sugarcoating it. We’re talking agitprop, why 'a riot is the language of the unheard' still slaps, and how revolutions can kick out the baddies but leave you with a big ol’ mess. Ever caught yourself thinking, 'if only the boss knew'? Yeah, we roast that too, and why it keeps people stuck in crappy systems. So stick around, pour yourself another drink, hit subscribe, share the episode, and drop us a review. And seriously—what headline did this movie make you think of?
Tech Glitches And Cold Open
SPEAKER_00We walked across the field of England a petition podcasting Lord for our freedom. Please.
SPEAKER_04I mean, maybe it's just Google blow. I mean, I I could definitely see that being the case.
SPEAKER_01I think something happened with your Chrome browser. Alright, we're gonna go.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Okay.
Why Hackers Movies Feel Fake
SPEAKER_04Well, okay, hey everybody. Welcome to High and Try Podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Barron North. With me as always, James Crosslin. Uh we only podcast. Keeping alive the fandom of the 1995 film Hackers.
SPEAKER_01Hackers is a beloved cult classic because it's so stupid. You know, it's really funny being a software engineer and engineer now. Like I didn't know anything about computers back then, but now when I watch something like The Net or Hackers or even The Matrix, uh, or Jurassic Park. There's a there's a hacking scene in Jurassic Park. But every time I watched them, I'm like, I'm like, damn, they really didn't know shit about computers at all. They didn't ask and they didn't ask anyone. Very funny.
SPEAKER_04No, and I I I cannot believe how little Hollywood uses people who've done it. Like if you're making a military movie, you should probably have a military guy on the set. You know? Like I remember when they did well, I remember when they did uh Independence Day 2 and uh fucking uh a senior airman captain rolls up and uh uh I'm like guys this is this is a big movie. Like this is and you you couldn't ask anyone? Like it's just wild to me. And yeah, with the I guess they didn't know hackers at the time. No one knew a hacker.
SPEAKER_01Just a computer programmer. They were the the the the distance from the computer programmers to the people making movies was not very far. They're pretty close together geographically. You could even have like called one on the phone.
SPEAKER_04They're in the same office, really.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they're very close to each other. They're driving a car ride from each other.
SPEAKER_04Well, I was I was thinking so I was worried at first that hackers
Drinks And New Listener Shoutouts
SPEAKER_04had too much of a following still. But I I did I did hackers because uh the the main character of Hackers is now the uh the mercenary guy, the mayor of London. In this movie, yeah. Yeah. Here's the mayor of London, yep. But if hackers is too uh relevant, then we're also the only podcast keeping alive the fandom of the Sega Genesis hit Comics Zone.
SPEAKER_01Oh, Comic Zone was I used to rent that all the time. Like back when you had to rent video games, I would go to I would go to my low, it wasn't a blockbuster, it was some off-brand thing, video rama or something like that. Family video or yeah, one of those, like of a small one, and where they just had or they had keys. They had little key tags on every one of the in front of the the movies, and you'd take a key tag up to the front, and they'd be like, Okay, we'll get you your movie because we don't trust you motherfuckers.
SPEAKER_04We'll get you your movie from the back. Keys, that's wild. Like Blockbuster just they had you bring up the empty case.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, that's that would have been smart, but I figure people kept stealing the cases too because they thought there was a game. They're like, damn, the game in here is light. I'm gonna get out of here.
SPEAKER_04Well, yeah, I loved comic zone though. And it had the uh the genre of 90s men, um blonde ponytailed dudes with circle sunglasses. Oh yeah, yeah. That guy that guy vanished. That dude van he was in uh with there was one in the the the treasure planet. We had one there. Sure. Um, but just like the blonde guys with circle sunglasses. Yeah, but we're not gonna be talking about blonde men in circle sunglasses all day. Uh we're actually this week, we're gonna be discussing the film Uprising with uh Spider-Man 2 returning. And uh we're gonna be doing it in a three-part method. Uh first we're going to rate this thing out of five. Then we're gonna jump onto the golden path and break down the deeper meanings of the film. And finally, we're going to insert ourselves drugs or alcohol into the picture. But what makes it so special and fun is that we're gonna be doing it with uh some with some drinks in us. So uh James, your uh your coffee concoction still with us? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, coffee, ube, ice. It's cooled down out here on the West Coast, thankfully. It was a little wild there for a while, but we're in a we're in the we're back to the San Diego that I love that's just covered in clouds and generally pretty cool.
SPEAKER_04Hell yeah. Well, cheers to that. So uh well, our first one to the balmy San Diego weather, and our newest listeners returning this week. We do have Council Bluffs, Iowa. They do seem to love us lately, but then Grenoble, Grenoble of Azir. The Isles.
SPEAKER_01I have no idea what I don't know how it's spelled. I'm just gonna whatever. Google Grenoble.
SPEAKER_04They uh they have joined us. Let's see, Grenoble of Azir. It's a city in France.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes, so Richard's Richard's campaign is going on in France right now in the Hundred Years War.
SPEAKER_04Yes, and then also, of course, Cincinnati, Ohio.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, same. I mean, honestly, very comparable places. I think so.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Oh, in Carmel, Indiana. Ooh. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Who the fuck is listening to us in Carmel, Indiana? Get out of there! You gotta get out of there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, get yeah, get out of there, man. So here's to all our new listeners. Thank you guys for tuning in. Wonderful VPNs. Oh, that's right. I'm coming at you with uh it's got a weird flavor to it. Uh my wild turkey. I'm going with wild turkey 101 today.
SPEAKER_01Nice classic.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I uh actually haven't had a drink in uh some time and excited to get back to it. I'm sorry, man. I know. Hope you get to do it more. I do too. Doing life sober, especially right now in the with the situation.
SPEAKER_02You know, you heard uh you know the world.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, I I I got a lot of people. Richard II is putting out another poll tax we can't afford.
SPEAKER_04Can't afford it. Well, um Ed Shireen reached out to me to help open his uh he uh he needs openers, so he reached out. I I'm gonna have to come up with songs in a band, but you know, he's really uh he's really getting hit right now.
SPEAKER_02You're not gonna you're not gonna decline? I uh I'll I'll I'll do my best.
SPEAKER_04I'll get him.
SPEAKER_01You know what? Actually, I don't care that much about Palestine.
SPEAKER_04Well, I I get to meet Pink and Kid Rock.
SPEAKER_02You know, he probably doesn't know. Those are the only people, the only people he can gather on, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. Oh, I was so I was so disappointed in Pink. So disappointed.
SPEAKER_01You know, it it's something that I have come to terms with is that people are so heavily propagandized too. Oh yeah. And it doesn't matter about which social class you're in, you know, the kind of like media is so good at propagandizing the people. It's it reaches so it's its audience is so wide. Frustrating.
SPEAKER_04No, at the end of the day, they all just suck, except for Malcolmore, apparently. So which he either really means it or he just pulled the biggest uh fucking publicity stunt of any artist's career.
SPEAKER_01He's he's donating all of his tour, his tour salary to Palestine, to Palestinian uh charities and efforts. It was a one million dollar paycheck that he's given up. Well, it's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, spend his money where his mouth is. He seems to be, yeah. Well, good for him.
SPEAKER_00I just wish he was a better musician.
SPEAKER_04Right. He's good. It'd be so cool if he was good at his job.
SPEAKER_02I mean, when the first album dropped, I liked a couple everyone did, you know, like those three songs.
SPEAKER_01He won it, he won an Emmy and then and then has never been nominated again.
SPEAKER_04Or a grand story. I imagine he rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. If this is the way he acts now, the second he gets a stage again.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I imagine he pissed off a lot of billionaires and things.
SPEAKER_01So that's true, that's true.
SPEAKER_04Well, I guess oh, here's to him, I suppose. And giving away.
SPEAKER_02Cheers to Macklemore.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Welcome back. Welcome backlore.
SPEAKER_04I saw I saw some guy say this. Um, hey uh Macklemore, I just wanted to apologize. In 2014, I tweeted that you should mackle less, but now I realize that you could mackle as much as you want.
SPEAKER_00It's pretty good.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, so here's to Macklemore, McLamoran. And then finally, final toast, final, final shot from this one to our film this week. Cheers to the uprising.
SPEAKER_01Cheers to the uprising. My name is John Ploughman.
SPEAKER_04John Ploughman. So the uprising.
What Uprising Is Actually About
SPEAKER_04Well, for I guess for those of you who haven't seen it yet, which seems to be a lot. I feel like this was the the marketing on this one was purposely fucked with.
SPEAKER_01It's it's a historical drama with with some fighting, but it's mostly a historical drama.
SPEAKER_04Well, it was the it was there was a lot of weird marketing that tried to make it sound like it was another Robin Hood. And Robin Hood is like not anything anyone wants to watch right now. Fucked up the marketing, which like the given the uh the topic in question here, I I I almost feel like that was malicious. Yeah, purposely. Maybe.
SPEAKER_01I I don't think I mean people want their movies to make money, usually. Well, I mean, look at we just did Coyote vs. Acme and But they didn't even release that one, you know. They didn't pay for it to have to have it in theaters and stuff. Do you want to give a rundown or should I?
SPEAKER_04Um well, yeah, no, I'll I'll rock a rundown on this one. So um for those of you who haven't seen it yet, we're talking about um Ange Garfield is uh, you know, just a sort of a they kind of paint him as this nameless farmer who was in the middle, in like almost a weird leadership role, but not of the original peasant uprising um back in 1381, if I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_01That's correct. 1381 is the uprising that this is based on.
SPEAKER_04You know, it was originally you got the peasant uprising. This was led by Tyler and that crazy monk. And John Ball.
SPEAKER_01It sounds more like they're saying bald because they're accents in the past, but John Ball is how we would read it.
SPEAKER_04Oh, this this movie needs some subtitles for sure.
SPEAKER_02For real.
SPEAKER_04This had me like when I first watched The Witch in theaters. And I got to the end of that movie. I'm like, what the fuck?
SPEAKER_00What was this movie about?
SPEAKER_04Who said what? Um so uh it is it it is rough, but eventually I kind of started to catch on, or they fired the original Boom Mike guy, but didn't want to lose the material. But anyway, um, so um this movie has it's really completely irrelevant today. Uh it has nothing to do with what we're dealing with now. I mean, we see a bunch of people at the end of a plague, you have uh the lords, they uh froze wages so that landlords could keep their profits, and uh you know, finally the peasants have had enough. So, like no one today has any idea what they're going through. So you kind of have to put yourself in those shoes. And um, we watch as John Everyman or John Ploughman rubs shoulders with these famous people, kind of has a thing going on with this short-haired nun lady, and sort of works through the events of the peasant uprising, starting with you know them fighting against uh a really filthy kind of fucking uh tax taker um and his crew leading on a march into London. It really was leading on a march into London and um eventually you know to the king, and there's some betraying that goes on, and just these people essentially, you know, saying to the king that uh they that he's been corrupted that he has a corrupt political body around him. Also, again, you know, really hard for modern audiences to understand. And um they only the king knew. And they they're just trying to you know be recognized as free people to work the land in the name of the king with you know certain rights that they feel should be inalienable. And it was one of the original leftist movements in European history. And we just essentially get to watch it through a shaky camera lens. And uh it was it was shaky.
SPEAKER_01We'll get we'll get to that in the more review stuff.
SPEAKER_04Yes. So um, yeah, I feel there you go. So they don't really talk about the peasant uprising in a lot of schools, you know. That's not really something they want you to know too much about. Um but uh that's what it's about. And uh Andrew Garfield was there. Um he does a little bit, a little bit of Spider-Manning, not a whole lot, but uh it's there. He does it with a sickle, this though instead of website, yeah, which is also like they would they would they it was weird. I felt like there should have been an end credit scene where they're trying to set up a rebellion universe where we have the sickle.
SPEAKER_01But yeah.
SPEAKER_04So what did
Ratings: Acting And Camera Choices
SPEAKER_04you think, James? What did you think of this movie?
SPEAKER_01What I think of this movie, okay. So uh we should we should should we describe our our our processes? So oh no, we just go we just get right into it. Okay, so uh so starting off with the acting, uh I think that the acting in this was pretty good. Yeah, uh, I felt that I felt that there was genuine horror in the actors' faces, you know, when they were being brutalized. Uh like uh in the in the opening scene when one of the guards for the tax for the poll taxer uh is uh does something that it is reported that they have that they did. It's not like any official documents from the English nobil English uh kingship or whatever, the English royalty. But there are first hand reports that they were lifting the skirts of young women to see if they were old enough to pay tax. And uh and essentially you we open on like a one of them like lifting a skirt and like shoving his fingers up there to see, I assume, if she has her hymen or not. Because it's really fucked up. Some it's really fucked up shit. And like uh Andrew Garfield is like outraged, and that's what kicks everything off, and and you you could see the rage on their faces a lot. And I think it's I think the acting is really good. Yeah. I like the acting. I think it's one of the highlights of this movie is the acting, and so I'm gonna give it a uh four. Actually, I may I may even give it a four point five for acting. I like the I like Richard II did a good job as well being like almost like haunted. Like he was like haunted for the movie. It's like he was dealing with a good like one one side was this peasant rebellion, and this other side was a man being haunted in a castle.
SPEAKER_04Well, it was really interesting. A lot of historians um they there there's sort of a hypothesis that he had some sort of personality disorder.
SPEAKER_01That's possibility.
SPEAKER_04Which obviously a lot of inbreeding in there. Oh, yeah, there's so much inbreeding, and it's very undiagnosable at that time, but just a lot of his um personal records versus actions and things like that seem to indicate someone who maybe was having uh you know not the easiest time up there.
SPEAKER_01Right, right. And yeah, that really comes through. Uh yeah, and uh so I think yeah, 4.5 for acting for cinematography. You had mentioned the shaky camera. And uh I took that note that uh I I felt you know that was a stylistic choice for the cinematography to have like uh to have someone walking with a camera. And I felt like it it we talk a lot about talking, speaking with the camera, and like giving your audience like cues on what to think and feel with the camera instead of just with dialogue. And my interpretation is that it was meant to for us to feel like we were marching with the peasants, yeah. We were in the march, yeah. Yeah, us in the shoes of of like these peasants who are fed up, you know. And I felt like it did a really good job of that.
SPEAKER_04I don't know if I just I just felt in moments because it was a mixture of which I appreciated. Like I feel like you know, you're marching with them, like you're being victimized today, like obviously, like the the the circumstances that caused the peasant uprising are almost identical to the lives we live today. Right. But what kind of threw it off for me were the occasional Zack Snyder-esque man of steel zoom ins on shit. That kind of that kind of threw me off. Some of those were really weird, so yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh, I definitely give it points for the for the making the one the parts that made us feel connected. Uh, and so I'm gonna give it a four for the cinematography. I thought it was generally good. I thought the uh, you know, in cinematography I include like props and stuff. I thought those were actually really, really good. Like um, like the the props department and stuff, like they had everyone dress almost the same, which was part of those laws you were talking about about like suppressing wages. Part of those laws were also forcing peasants to dress a particular way because after the bubonic plague hit, there was like a shortage in labor. And so if you wanted labor, like laborers were able to demand more like a higher wage because they were so rare, because so many had died. Uh and so, and so they were they were able to start getting money, and they um they started to buy like fancier clothes and stuff, and and part of those laws of wage suppression may force them to dress like peasants. They had restrictions where they could not dress like higher class people. Uh so I thought they actually did a really good job with all of that. Uh and uh yeah, and so I'm gonna give it a four there. The score uh the score I thought was okay. I don't remember it really. Uh 3.5
Plot Versus Real History
SPEAKER_01or actually I should just go three, that's right in the middle of the road. I don't remember anything about it at all. Plot. Uh so the plot is history. So that's I don't know, I don't know how to feel about history. They did change some of the history though. Yeah. And I think like it's probably a good idea to go over the parts that I recognize that they changed. So uh like the like we said before, plowman is not a real character. Plowman is like a composite character of like several different people, or or almost like a self-insert character. And Alice, who was the woman who was a nun who was raped by a monk and had her child taken away, was more like a composite character of several different women who had who had tasks and and things during this peasant uprising. Uh the mass slaughter at Smithfield didn't really happen that way. Uh Watt Tyler died at Smithfield, which is where they had all the you know charters and burned them. That there wasn't really a massacre there. Richard II like led everyone away and Watt Tyler was killed there. Uh, but Richard II like took took the reins and like had the peasants disperse. And then like the the massacres happened like all around the country, like in the weeks and months following uh those massacres and this crackdown happened on people who had participated. Like they like uh Richard sent all of his men to like Essex and Cornwall and all those to to to to kill people in their villages. John Baldon died at Smithfield. He was later captured and hung drawn and quartered. So it was way more brutal than him just getting he was like, It's my place to die here. That's not what happened. He was like, okay, I guess we'll go home. I don't know. And then they found him later. He was like, You're gonna, you're, we're gonna fuck you up. We're gonna we're gonna desecrate your body, essentially. And then small details about like who were at negotiations and when they happened and when the king showed up are all a lot of those are are like are fabricated for the historical they made it digestible. Yeah, they made it more more streamlined and and had and a clear climax and stuff. I don't think and and when people are gonna discuss this, they're gonna say like, why did you change it? You know, it's it's messing with history, you know. It it's a movie. Yeah. It's a movie, and uh that's why it's because it's not a history lesson, really, it's a movie. And I don't think that the changes dilute the message.
SPEAKER_04No. I do think because no one is gonna sit there like especially today, no one's gonna sit there watching the master class on the peasant uprising, but you will watch Andrew Garfield uh be the everyman in a situation that did actually go down.
SPEAKER_01I watched a master class on the peasant on the peasant uprising rising because of this movie. And I was like, I gotta learn more about this.
SPEAKER_04I had watched one before obviously I'm big on um these sorts of events. Um but I had watched one before, but then uh the one I had most recently watched, I'd watched a masterclass on the um the Bobonic Plague, where the peasant uprising is more of a footnote, and because they're focusing on the plague itself, so it's also fun to like zoom in on a moment for a second there, because like each of these moments we hear about in a history class were like lives of a person, and so that's what I appreciate about something like this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. And it is kind of a biopic, or it's kind of like a day that we're following a character, and sure it's a big historical event too, but we're also like closely following a character and like the internal struggles of that character with what's happening. And the things that they got right, historical accuracy, that you know, the the increasing poll taxes, that really was what caused the uprising. Um the beheading and placing the heads on pikes of uh of the bishop of the high bishop and uh and the king's cousin, those that definitely happened, and they put them on London Bridge for everyone to walk past. Uh, the people in London who uh killed the Flemish traders, uh they uh the merchants. Uh this was because the monarchy capped the wages. Like that we were we specifically talked about capped wages. They capped the wages for peasants, but they didn't cap like income or anything or put caps on what Flemish traders were doing. So these Flemish traders were like getting rich off of like trading the same kinds of stuff that the peasants were, but the peasants weren't seeing the the the you know boons of that work. And so they were like they were legitimately mad at them. You know, it wasn't it wasn't I I kind of almost felt like it was like MAGA coded to like attack the immigrants, but like the they didn't really talk about why they were so mad at the Flemish merchants, yeah. Uh because the Flemish merchants were like taking ad they were they weren't doing anything illegal, but they were definitely taking advantage of a situation that was bad for the peasants. Yeah. Filthy Flemish. God damn Belgian people. Uh yeah, so so a lot of really good historical accuracy stuff. And uh the plot, I feel, like I said, was digestible, is linear. It took it took some interest. I don't know how I feel about all the personal conflicts. It's hard to put myself in the mind of someone from 1381. I feel like they tr they tried to do it well, especially because I I they really captured the idea that everybody thought that you know the king was uh the king was just ill-advised. Yeah, he was God's chosen and just ill-advised. And if the king knew and they got a petition in front of him, they'd get a miracle and he would do the right thing. And it really, it really it really uh parallels, like, I don't know if you know from the from the Nazi period, from the World War II period, if only the Fuhrer knew. Like that's kind of something that gets tossed around online now because it's kind of how Trump people talk, where they're where they're like, if only Trump knew about what was going on, like he's he just doesn't know he'd make it right, you
Why The Story Mirrors Today
SPEAKER_01know? And and I've never understood that kind of mindset uh but they definitely captured it. It definitely it definitely made me think like these really are like the working class, like the commoner. Like they their their understanding of the world is limited, and uh the they they the social order is like what they've put all of their uh loyalty and like understanding of society into, and they like desperately want to uh maintain it and keep it right, make it right, you know.
SPEAKER_04They believe in the system is true.
SPEAKER_01They do, yeah. Even though it treats them terribly.
SPEAKER_04Again, the movie has nothing to do with today, like this is just a fantasy.
SPEAKER_01And so uh and so even though even though I find it difficult to like understand the the position, I felt like they did a really good job of representing it. And so all that to say, I think I'm gonna give the plot on this a four, which is pretty high. Like I've and rewa rewatchability, I don't think I'm ever gonna rewatch this movie. I'm not that interested. Like it's it's a historical uh deal. And uh, you know, what another one of the things that like the Robin Hood thing, like Robin Hood stories about Robin Hood like existed in general before that. Like no one wrote a like the first Robin Hood was like within five years, like before this, the first like written Robin Hood. But Robin Hood was like a general term for like bandits at some at some points, or or Rob Hobb or something like Rob Hobb.
SPEAKER_04Well, if you follow, you can look uh in European uh culture and humanities, you Robin Hood has actually been a pretty until recently when all of our media has been taken over by the wealthy. Uh Robin Hood was always a way to sort of peer behind what was going on and determine how commoners felt.
SPEAKER_02Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_04Until now, when we get old Hugh Jackman and Robin Hood's a bad guy.
SPEAKER_01Where was Robin Hood a bad guy? I missed that one. Old Hugh Jackman was a bad bad guy. Robinhood.
SPEAKER_04Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01Wow. That's wild.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah. Right now, Robin Hood is in the hands of our oppressors, so you can't really use him anymore.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. But anyway, if if we kind of overlook that. Used to be a fox. But like if we if we overlook that or whatever, you know, he treat he he becomes a bandit, which pretty common for people who are being like oppressed by the state and aren't allowed to live in regular society anymore. Being a bandit at the time was one of your only outs if you wanted to live.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Modern Robin Hood bootlegs DVDs.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, modern day Robinhood.
SPEAKER_04Uh he cuts down flock cameras and he bootlegs the new season of Stranger Things.
SPEAKER_01God bless him.
SPEAKER_04But he watched it so we didn't have to.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. It's not, it's not a good rip. Uh but uh I'm only gonna give it a two for rewatchability. I don't think I'm gonna watch this again. I think it's uh I don't I don't really watch historical dramas or or films like that again. I got the gist of it. I gave it a this was a close a close watch. It takes a very specific movie for that I do a close watch of to watch it again. Uh so I'm gonna go with a two for rewatchability. Okay. Solemn. Solid no solid score, solid score. Comes out to a 3.5 for mine on the dot. Yeah. So we'll see where it goes from here.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, for me, I I do agree with you. The the acting in this thing was was really good.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And sadly, it's marketing and Anne Hathaway are going to just like stop that from ever really being seen. You know, because right now she's trying to steal this year's uh, you know, mentions of acting. I can tell. I can tell the amount of shit she's throwing herself into and the amount of effort she put into an end-of-the-street dinosaur movie. She's trying to shut down the conversation. I see. So Anne Hathaway is gonna bury this thing, which is sad because the acting. Well, obviously. She's she's an American.
SPEAKER_00She've read her diaries.
SPEAKER_04Um yeah, uh, the acting in this thing uh was really good. Even the the little guy, the uh the king. Yeah, he he did really well. Like, and like he did so well. I hope he never works again. I never want to see his fucking face. Yeah. I I just want to punch it. So uh he's a real Joffrey, huh? And Joffrey had the sense to step away before he was hung in Town Square. So, yeah, the acting here, really good. Um, Andrew Garfield solid, did really well. Everyone really brought it. Yeah, the acting on this one I'm gonna give a 4.5. Um cinematography.
SPEAKER_01My first thought when Andrew Garfield pounded the screen, I was like, at first thing I thought was, I hate Mondays.
SPEAKER_02I hate Mondays.
SPEAKER_04Well, it's funny because I had a similar bit on the way there when uh uh my girlfriend and her sister were in the car, and they they had said that um I haven't seen anything with Garfield in a while. And I said, Well, yeah, the last thing for me was Tale of Two Kitties.
SPEAKER_01Should have brought a full lasagna into the player.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, I'm excited to see how he does in this one. But uh yeah, cinematography on this one. I I do appreciate that you're supposed to feel like you're marching with them, that you're part of this, all that kind of stuff. There were just some weird sort of Zack Snyder-esque zoom-ins where like everything's kind of moving with the action and then it zooms in on someone's like face, and so that kind of tossed me a little bit. So, like, really solid effort, fucked up by just a few little things. So I I give the cinematography a 3.5.
SPEAKER_013.5, got it.
SPEAKER_04Score, I will say, did its job, and like I wasn't there was no Jurassic World Keitar. So I forgot it was there. I will say I do distinctly remember, however, it did work well when Andrew Garfield was like running to warn people. Like, because in that moment, I'm like, oh shit. I was like, oh god, Ron dude, faster, faster, faster. And I do distinctly remember the score in those moments, so I think it did its job really well. Um, so I will bump it from the three to a 3.5. Good, good plot. Like you said it already. It took a very complex historical situation that no one today could relate to and made it suggestible. Um and uh you know, for that I I I liked it. And every time I thought, like, all right, well, this is it, and then there's more scenes, I'm like, how long is this thing? I'm like, oh, okay, that makes sense. That that needs to be there. Good, good.
SPEAKER_01That's a great point. That's a great point that I you uh it didn't really feel like it could or should be cut.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. And but each time I thought, like, is this going too long? And then I'm watching this scene like no, no, we needed this, we needed this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And there were a few, there were a few lulls where it was just them talking, just them talking about life, and it was like uh at that point, like my my mind kind of wondered, but that's really important in movies to have like time to digest what just happened with with the with the characters, kind of digest what's happened to them before you get back to right more rising tension. And they did a good job with it.
SPEAKER_04Yes, good pacing. And for that, and on top of the fact that I just feel that this is uh an important plot, I'm gonna give it a 4.5. Ooh. Wow. And then uh rewatchability. Like it's not fun, it's not a fun movie. One of its biggest criticisms were they thought it was Robin Hood and it was really sad. I'm like, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, man, history is pretty sad. I don't know if you ever opened a history book, but it's rough. It's rough in there.
SPEAKER_04I don't know if you checked the news this morning, but uh you know, we're we're currently in the weeks where decades are made, and yeah, it fucking sucks. So sometimes a good plot is sad. Shouldn't have wished to live in interesting times. Nope. Rewatchability. Do I want to rewatch this one? No, not really. Like I said, it's not a fun time. Like I remember when we watched The Long Walk. Like I'm never gonna oh yeah, I will never watch Long Walk again. But damn.
SPEAKER_01I want to watch it again. I want to watch it again. Like, really bad. I can't wait. Yeah, I want to watch it again.
SPEAKER_00I want to be like, yeah, that dude's gonna get shot in the fuck. His ankle's about to break.
SPEAKER_04So am I excited to watch this thing again? No, no, not really. Because honestly, it pissed me off. Um, these kind of movies.
SPEAKER_00I was gonna I was gonna ask if you were really pissed off when you left the pissed off.
SPEAKER_04Like like we live in a time just as bad, but we have to fill out a resume to be a part of it successfully. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01We can't just have a plow and walk up to a person and be like, listen, you need someone to plow your veils.
SPEAKER_04Mm-hmm. No, and uh yeah, sexual assault by powerful people hasn't stopped. So here we are. It's gotten more, it's gotten more interesting. Yeah. Now we got papers about it, and we get to watch it on TikTok. So um, I I would say rewatchability on this one for me. Yeah, I'm gonna give it I'm gonna give it a three. I'm gonna give it a three. I I will watch it again just uh see how I feel. And if someone wants to watch it, I'm gonna be like, yeah, you should probably watch. Let's let's let's put it on. So three.
SPEAKER_01You have uh you've convinced me to move uh to move my rewatchability up to a three as well. I I think it I think you're right that it's an important film, and it really it mirrors our current political situation so so directly. We're so we're we're in the tech oligarch phase where they might need to be beheaded at some point. Don't trust them. Don't trust them, is what we I learned from this movie. Don't trust them. Yeah. But
The Golden Path And Agitprop
SPEAKER_01so beep beep beep beep beep uh the average is 3.75, which we round up to a four.
SPEAKER_04Shit. Was not expecting. Was not expecting.
SPEAKER_01I didn't yeah, when I when I went into this movie, I wasn't sure what to think.
SPEAKER_04You know, no. I thought I was walking into a Robin Hood movie.
SPEAKER_01I didn't think that. I knew it was a peasant uprising.
SPEAKER_04Oh, I thought it was Robin Hood Eat the Rich. And I'm like, yeah, I'll give it a shot. And but then even right before we did this, um someone asked me, so what are you gonna rate it? And I'm like, I have no idea. I'm just gonna let the I'm gonna let our rating system do its thing. It is infallible. So it is uh there you go, four out of five. Good on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I was, you know, and and speaking on how pissed off, like I was getting pissed off too. I was so pissed off that there was someone in front of me who was um like uh they kept opening their phone to uh to check the time time or something, and it glared me in the face a couple times, and it was like right at the point where they were like uh killing Watt Tyler and he did it again, and I reached out with like we were we were in the like the reclining chairs and I stretched my foot out and kicked the back of his fucking chair.
SPEAKER_00He didn't he didn't do it for the rest of the movie, it was like another 25 minutes. Yeah, yeah. Fucking dick.
SPEAKER_01Show some respect, dude. I'm not the kind of person who like starts shit in a movie theater, and so that's how that's how pissed off I was.
SPEAKER_00The movie movie got to me.
SPEAKER_04Well, I I was uh I was pissed. Like at my uh my girlfriend, she kept uh like, are you alright? She kept giving me that, and like I can't explain to her in the middle of the movie that like I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at everything right now. Okay, I'm just mad. All right, every day I have to fight against my impulses to just start ripping the society apart. And right now I'm watching every reason why I should and have to fight them. And tomorrow I have to work on my resume. So like don't talk to me right now.
SPEAKER_01You know the funny thing about well, I guess we uh we could we could take care of this in the next next portion.
SPEAKER_04Well, I probably's time then we have our final toast. This one is to an unexpectedly and very respectable four out of five. Congratulations, uprising. Congratulations, Andrew Garfield. I forgive you for Spider-Man. Like uh, good on you. Good on you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Cheers, cheers.
SPEAKER_01I just remember when Andrew Garfield was here every day, unpopular loser, cool kid, skateboard through the halls and give high fives to everyone.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but such a fucking loser.
SPEAKER_01So dumb. And also, good job to Hackers guy for his role as Mayor London. Yes. I and you know, it's fun, it's funny because I was like sitting there looking at it, I was like, Is that the guy from Hackers when I was in the theater?
SPEAKER_04No, and I I well technically he's the guy from Dracula 2000, but um I was really uh I was really excited to watch him die. So didn't happen. He did really well too. He did really well too. After um that scene where Hegzeth and Steven Miller had their heads cut off and he took over, that was pretty wild. And then he turned out just to be a big dirtbag as they were. So yeah, yeah, it was pretty cool. So uh with that being said, let's talk about the golden path. Let's dive into it.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_04Deeper meanings behind this film. I can't think of anything. This was just cold cut. Um, you get you see what you see is what you get.
SPEAKER_01One thing I want to point out is that you know, you're talking about all the reasons you should do it. One of the things this movie kind of goes over, but doesn't fully go over, is like the fall from this. They like didn't I don't think it's the mob. Oh, wait, wait, what do you mean by the mob?
SPEAKER_04Well, I I think back to young Frankenstein when he says a riot is an ugly thing. And once you have one, it's very hard to stop one. You know, uh shit's gonna go bad. Shit's gonna go bad. But like because they they they spent a lot of effort showing the because like things were going the peasant's way. Those the the inner circle was being dragged out, um, but then it didn't stop there, it lasted through the night, and you know, violence swept through London, and it was a very dark sort of scene.
SPEAKER_01So, I mean one reason it was a dark sort of scene, but you have to remember that the monarchy also Also did incredibly dark things like slaughtering peasants. Which, yes. And when when people when people talk about the mobs and shit as like the a really bad portion, it's like things are already bad. It's it's the difference between it's the difference between everyday people having the power and doing what they will with it versus a select few people who covet power and ha and can do whatever they want to do.
SPEAKER_04We do these things every day for years and years and years, but then we focus and we zoom in on a 12-hour period where the people who have been victimized for decades, for lifetimes, finally have had enough.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, and say that's bad of them. You know, uh Martin Luther King Jr. said a riot is the language of the unheard. Exactly. And uh And Malcolm X says fuck them. Yeah, Malcolm X says, win. Um but uh but I think one of the things that they didn't re that that I that I'm upset they didn't really cover in that one year later portion was the aftermath where like there was a really a real crackdown, they didn't get their charters, people were just slaughtered in their in their homes and villages. And that living as a band like essentially they were exiled, plowmen and and all those other people were exiled from living in society. They had to go live in the fucking woods and be bandits and shit. And and and that's the real that's the reality of when like someone chooses a revolutionary revolt. It's like it it doesn't actually solve the problem. There's like a whole thing after a revolution when you after you remove power or what or whatever, or try to try to like a revolution can only remove power. You you have to like build something in its place, and it takes a lot of effort and um And there's gonna be a vacuum. There's a vacuum. And if there's not a vacuum, then you've just left the same people in charge. Uh the same type of person will be in charge. And um or worse, uh it's not better if you just if you just kill people and leave. It's not better, it won't be better.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But I uh it's I would what I would call this is agit prop, which is like agitation propaganda. Uh which doesn't it's it doesn't really tell the whole story. It's meant to elicit a very specific feeling, uh, and it's good at it. You know, all all all film, all media is propaganda. It's it depends on what it wants you to say. And this is like this is like this is like worker rights propaganda. And it's dope. Yeah, which is a good thing.
SPEAKER_04That's propaganda I could get behind. My my brain is fucked with propaganda every day, and it's very rare that the worker gets his fucking propaganda.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. I saw I saw online a bunch of conversations where people were like, this is this is this only gives one side of the story. Oh yeah, I know, I know, right?
SPEAKER_04Oh fucking hell. I wonder who they voted for. I wonder. That's so disgusting. Well, and that's the thing. Like, there is this like so Garfield had made a comment about how like they asked, like, so what so what do you hope like the rich feel out of this? And he he says, I hope that rich people are scared, like the billionaires are scared watching this. And my thought to that is like Garfield, my friend, eat the rich means all the rich. So the that that that thing that that night's gonna happen, and like you're not in the movie, dude. You are just one of the random acts of violence when they pull you out of your mansion. You're not in the movie. Um, and then the the people who say shit like that, who like it only shows one side. It only shows one side. It just it just shows those poor it just shows those girls getting their this landowner's ring size checked on it underneath their skirt. It doesn't show the economic issues that were like you're in that movie.
SPEAKER_01Some people truly believe that that that's the important part.
SPEAKER_04Like you guys are in that movie too, and you're either shoved up off to the side and not thought about, you're just like a little side thing, or you have an axe coming down on you. That's that's who you are in these situations. And it's like agit prop.
SPEAKER_01Sorry, go ahead. No, good.
SPEAKER_04Well, with the first peasant uprising, um, they call it the first because it was not the last. You know? Um, and historically like you show up a lot in history, actually. Um, in every large thing like this, you show up and you are forgotten and generally uh murdered in a random act of riot.
SPEAKER_01Right. I think I think an important so and that's the thing about agitprop is that it tends to be simplistic. It's like I said, it elicits like one specific emotion and it doesn't really talk about building something after. Because it's supposed to agitate you to get up and do something, and that thing is specifically to fight, usually. And when we talk about when we talk about what a world should look like and who the real enemy of like of the worker is in things like uh you know, socialist ideology or or like I identify a lot with the ideologies of anarcho-communism, which is a mixture of like uh socialism and anarchism. The real enemy isn't Andrew Garfield. Andrew Garfield sure is rich. He has he has a lot of money, but he's he's not a owner of the manufacturing process. He's not an owner, he's not he's not the owner of capital.
SPEAKER_04Which is which is okay to be after the system's fixed. Right. I wouldn't recommend being that the night of right.
SPEAKER_01He should he should he should stay in his wine cellar for for that night. And that's the thing about Ajuprov, is you know, you were talking about the mob and stuff, and it's uncontrollable. But it the deeper, the deeper understanding of like creating a society, like who is our real enemy is really hard to convey uh to a large group of people who are who have been systematically uh made uh to resist being taught or to resist learning and like reshaping the worldview, they've made to they've been made to be rigid by both circumstance and the people who would like to control them.
SPEAKER_04And so well, it's because each time we have a situation like this where the status quo, the commoner, the worker, goes back to like our we made our changes, let's work within this new system. That ruling class then says, All right, how do we buckle down and uh fix some of the mistakes of that last revolution? And like one of those was like, we gotta let the commoner dress like us. We have to make them more indistinguishable, for example. We have to start peeling away, like we can't just keep them from education because obviously all the people from the uprising were uneducated. We have to give them an actual aversion to education and to learning. They have to feel that it's uh that being educated is propaganda itself and the enemy. And so each time we get a win and we don't get them all, they go back to the drawing board and figure out how do we do it better next time.
SPEAKER_01They iterate, yeah.
SPEAKER_04And we don't.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's very difficult. That's the thing about concentration of power, is it's really easy to do bad things when you have concentrated power. Uh, and it's really hard to do good things when you have dispersed power. Exactly.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Well, I think that's a great time
Self Inserts: Scribe Or Pharaoh
SPEAKER_04then to ask. If you were in the peasant uprising, if we inserted James and Ryan into the peasant uprising alongside old Andrew Garfield, how would the film change?
SPEAKER_01Who would I be in the peasant? You know, I know this question's coming every time, and I do an awful job like like trying to figure out what that's what I'm gonna do beforehand. I never do it. So who would I be? I would be, I would be because like mine's not gonna be no no uh no I would uh I don't know, I guess I'd be I'm not like I'd just be in the background. I'd so hard to see myself as the main character in any of these because I don't want to, I don't want to go fight in a revolution. I don't I'm not the main character, I'm not plowman who is out there fighting people with a sickle. If someone, if I saw someone taking a sickle and a bell, I'd be like, bro, that's your thing is made of iron and theirs is made of steel. You have like maybe a steel-coated edge on the inside, you're gonna die like immediately. So the first time you try to block a sword, you're gonna be dead. Don't do it. Swords. Are you fucking kidding me? Who would I be? I don't know. I would um oh, I'd be the scribe. I'd be the scribe that they keep sending back and forth. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's who I'd be. And I'd be like, uh, you know, whenever I whenever I got the king like uh to myself, you know, I tried to put up situations where I was where I'd be like, you know, oh king, you want to write some poetry or something? Like, you is there anything you need written down? And I'd try to get him like one-on-one, and then we would we'd enjoy some of that uh, I don't know, what did they drink? Uh they drink wine. They drink wine at that time. It was ale.
SPEAKER_02It was ale.
SPEAKER_01It was ale? Okay, yeah. So so drink drinking ale at that time. You we'd we'd we'd get knackered on some ale, and I would uh you know, I'd talk to him about like, you know, I'd I'd I'd describe to him, you know, like they're not they're scary, but I understand where they're coming from. You know, like I have to go out and deal, you know, I take your messages out there to those people. It's really tough out there, you know. Uh uh you know, maybe you should come, maybe you should come out with us sometime, see what it's like, ride these streets. People would really love it. Uh you know, and try to try to try to teach the king some empathy, you know, and uh when that when that didn't work, yeah right behind him, stab him in the neck. I'd be the king slayer. Just stab the shit out of him. And then I and then I would die. They'd hang and draw and corner me next to John Ball.
SPEAKER_04Um, yeah, for me, like it would be so like because I'm obvious I'm coming into this with a lot of future knowledge, you know, a lot in terms of just tactics, um fucking um CSI style shit. The the under like I I have so much more education than the people who are doing this. It's like, well, I know what's gonna happen there. You guys are all fucked. Right. And I'm like, well, we're going to kill them all, and there's gonna be a power vacuum, so which means I need to come at this with a replacement.
SPEAKER_02I have to I nominate me, I accept. I nominate me and I accept um humbly.
SPEAKER_04I humbly accept his position. But I gotta come, I gotta if I'm coming, I gotta come correct. And then I'm just going to use this world and this culture's lack of knowledge on you know things like basic intelligence gathering, basic crime scene investigation, basic concept of motive. And I'm gonna use superstition and all those sorts of things. And what's gonna occur over the course of probably like one or two years is the entire power structure is gonna collapse via ghosts. And there's gonna be writings found by God, uh, where there's a very, very well done caricature of me. Um, like if you remember uh Futurama when Bender becomes a Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. It just shoves his head into the stone wall. I think we know who our next pharaoh is.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, the yeah, the tablets say, all right, he's his name will be Ryan. He has wild hair, he's over there, apparently in those reeds. Hey everybody. Um and I'm just going to utilize all that. I'm going to replace myself within the power structure. I'm going to start with uh very, you know, socialist and very uh good intentions with wanting everyone to be free and everything like that. And I, of course, will become corrupted by power. And um, which luckily yeah, of course. And but I will have safeguards in place for that as well. And um I will have stopped your drawing and quartering, and uh you will be instructed that when I am eventually corrupted by power, that uh you are to, with my secret uh past weapon, you are to blow my head off with this sought-off shotgun that I brought back. You can never do it. Well, then we're fine.
SPEAKER_02I try to teach you empathy.
SPEAKER_04And then well, and all of my you know descendants will know. Buy Bitcoin low, invest in Apple.
SPEAKER_00They buy loads and loads of Apple futures. Just a gala or Fiji.
SPEAKER_04When beanie babies appear, buy them for a month and sell them all next month. And hopefully one of those things will work. There'll be a message from uh like 1391 says, I know the giants win the Super Bowl at some point. Bet everything you have every year. And uh yeah, that'll be that'll be my gift to the future.
SPEAKER_01Great.
SPEAKER_04Well, there you have it, folks. Um, yeah, you could watch that version of the movie coming out next year. Um, and of course, you know, you get to see us now touring as the openers for Ed Shireen or however you say his last name. Sheerin. Sheeran. He's a little desperate right now. And uh,
Final Score And Sendoff
SPEAKER_04we'll we'll wind up doing the same fucking thing. I mean, obviously, you just heard this podcast. We'll we'll start calling for the what it would be, I guess it would be fourth peasant uprising on stage at the Ed Sheeran concert. So there you have it, folks. I'm your host, Ryan Bear North. With me as always, James Croslin. Um, yeah, go check it out. Four out of five. Four out of five uprising. It's not about Robin Hood. It's not about Robin Hood. It's just about the kinds of conditions that would create Robin Hood. Yeah. Bye.
SPEAKER_02Bye.
