Happy Hour Flix | HHF
HAPPY HOUR FLIX is a podcast all about the movies you love and love to talk about and hosted by Matt Mundy and Steven Pierce featuring a special guest in each episode. A nostalgic look at what you grew up watching and how they still impact us today.
As always, we invite you to grab a beverage and enjoy the stories, and reminisce with us.
Happy Hour Flix | HHF
A League of Their Own | with guests Ellen Adair & Eric Gilde (Take Me In To The Ballgame)
HAPPY HOUR FLIX is a podcast all about the movies you love and love to talk about. A nostalgic look at what we grew up watching and how they still impact us today.
In today's episode, hosts Steven Pierce and Matt Mundy sit down with the special guests, baseball movie experts, not to mention baseball-analytics duo-gurus, Ellen Adair and Eric Gilde.
Get ready to step back in time to the glorious movies of 1992, bringing it home to for a unique spotlight on the timeless FALL Classic - 'A League of Their Own'.
Of course, we must toast to this cinematic journey with our specially curated drink with our friends over at Misguided Spirits from Milady’s down in Soho on 160 Prince St, voted top 50 best bars in North America this year, 2023, and recently nominated for “best new US cocktail bar’ at Tales of the Cocktail” - and made specially by their head bartender, Izzy find her on instagram @izzy_sees
Who’s Lou
or "By the way I loved you in the Wizard of Oz"
1 oz well MISGUIDED dressed gin
.75 oz China China, a french bitters
.25 oz Gifford Caribbean, pineapple liqueur
.25 oz Tempus Fugit crème de banana
Stirred/pour over big cube/ garnish expressed orange twist
And if we all do it right...get ready for a delicious taste of big league chew
Ever wondered how Penny Marshall's films and baseball intertwine? Or how the evolution of baseball analytics has influenced the storytelling of films like 'A League of Their Own'? You're about to find out. We'll also be looking at the stellar performances of Bill Pullman and Rosie O'Donnell, and how their characters bring a unique charm to the film. Humbly, too, we say to expect fascinating behind the scenes stories, as well as an in-depth analysis of the character dynamics that drive the gripping narrative.
No discussion of 'A League of Their Own' would be complete without appreciating the unforgettable performances of Tom Hanks and Madonna. We'll be sharing interesting on-set anecdotes and exploring the depth of their contributions to the film. You'll also get a better understanding of the gender dynamics, character arcs, and narrative decisions that have helped cement this film as a timeless classic. Packed with humor, insightful commentary, and captivating trivia, this episode is all set to be a home-run for both film enthusiasts and baseball fans. Let's play ball!
Hey all, a quick reminder, no matter where you are listening to us, if you could rate us and drop us a review on Apple Podcasts, we’d be so grateful - it really helps us spread the good vibes. Thank you!
HAPPY HOUR FLIX is produced by James Allerdyce and Lori Kay, and hosted by Steven Pierce and Matt Mundy.
Main Title is by Johnny Mineo.
Happy Hour Flix | Movies You Love
We're rolling over your tape. Cool Three, two one.
Speaker 2:The only thing longer than an actual baseball game is the piss Tom Hanks takes in the locker room. We watched a league of their own. Here it is 1992. Also coming out this year is Francis Ford Coppola's, bram Stoker's Dracula, a few good men, basic instinct, my cousin Vinnie, last of the Mohicans, batman Returns, the Bodyguard, aladdin and Encino man. A lot of fun movies here this year. As he recovers from his Mike disaster here, matt Mundy, how are you doing? I'm doing quite well, steve. You're going to move that mic a little closer to you now. So you were saying before we came on is this the longest pee ever recorded in the history of film?
Speaker 4:I believe so. And Austin Powers, come at me, I believe even with the editing, and you'll notice that they give up timing. I timed it. I mean, yes, I watched, I paused, I timed it, went back, I went back and, yeah, it's the longest on screen. How long is it? 52 seconds. That is way longer than I thought it was going to be. Yeah, 52 seconds. Oh man, I should have taken a bet, but you know who would probably know?
Speaker 2:Who, what? Oh, somebody that's really good at statistics and analytics.
Speaker 5:Exactly oh.
Speaker 2:I see.
Speaker 4:That's where we're going now. Yes, so in studio today we have a mighty duo who are indeed angels who need no outfield.
Speaker 2:Oh good God, what? Because they're major league. Oh good God, good God, oh my gosh.
Speaker 4:Our friends and supremely talented host of immense patience as I pund myself off the mound of their podcast. Take me into the ballgame.
Speaker 2:Bre, you're nice and a dare and Eric Gildy. Ellen and Eric, it is wonderful to have you guys.
Speaker 3:Perfect, that was amazing.
Speaker 5:No notes oh, absolutely no notes. No, it's great to be here. It's funny. I was thinking about the length of the piss and I was thinking that that would absolutely not fly in 2023 with the piss timer.
Speaker 2:With the piss timer. You know what I mean. What is the piss timer? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa 25,.
Speaker 5:Yeah, the piss clock.
Speaker 2:What is this? The piss clock.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it keeps the game, the piss clock.
Speaker 2:Oh, I see Keeping the game going. I got it.
Speaker 3:You've got to maintain eye contact the whole time. Right Eye contact is very important. Yeah, you've got to get set. You know it makes it closer to what we grew up with Exactly. It's just good.
Speaker 5:Back to the old days of peeing in a sink. It's absolutely.
Speaker 2:And in that, yes, again in a sink. That is also what makes this and Rosie O'Donnell vary into it the whole time. She's like keep going. No, that counts, Time, it, but then they never give us the time. Why it never keeps its secret.
Speaker 4:That is why I went back and rewound it, because I was like I'm with you, rosie, like you know, I'm with you, so, anyway, I think I've beaten it, though I think my personal record is higher than 52 seconds, I think, so that is too long.
Speaker 2:That is too long, I'm not saying it's healthy Something you've been working towards.
Speaker 4:Exactly.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you can work yourself up to it, you know, I think it is different if it's 52 seconds like a personal record, versus if there are other people there to.
Speaker 2:Oh, this is a good point, oh yeah, I'm way too bladder shy to pull this off.
Speaker 5:Like I would.
Speaker 2:I would never attempt this. I would probably die of you know, euromycetitis or whatever before.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, like one of the things that we learned when we were researching this movie, like a few years ago at this point, is that the first like working cut of it was like four hours long, so who's to know how much P ended up on the cutting room floor. That's also true and also fair to say you're podcast.
Speaker 2:you guys have had a podcast going for a long time about baseball and baseball movies specifically Indeed.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And this was one of the early films that you did, so we're really bringing you back full circle here, where you guys are sharing your expertise with us.
Speaker 3:It's true, except for our expertise, potentially. But this was, I think, our third episode that we did for our podcast, to the point that we didn't even have microphones. We had my that's not me right, oh, maybe this, sorry, we were just shouting into Eric's computer. We were sitting side by side with my laptop just using its internal microphone, just like talking into it from our couch. I love this. Oh my God.
Speaker 2:All right, Well as in, we got to get back. We want to get back to the movie, but since we're all here, we're all settled in.
Speaker 4:We just went off on a tangent.
Speaker 2:As long as that piss, exactly, exactly which is again what makes me concerned about Eric's physical health, because it would still be going apparently.
Speaker 2:All right. So our drink today for a league of their own. This was made down at Melladies down in Soho on 160 Prince Street. It was voted top 50 best bars in North America this year that's 2023 and recently nominated for best new US cocktail bar at Tales of the Cocktail. This was made specifically by their head bartender, izzy. She's very cool, matt. You get to hang out with her for a second. She's a Jersey native. Oh boy, native is currently residing in Red Hook with her dog and cat, kona and big wave. That's right, she's a golden ale, delish, wow. All right, izzy, give it up for Izzy. You can get her on Instagram at Izzy, izzy. Y underscore C's S, e, s. So this is the. Give us the name of the cocktail here, matt. Oh, who's Lou? For the first time ever, a subtitle.
Speaker 4:It's a subtitle Sweet old fashioned Sweet.
Speaker 2:Oh no, no, no, no, it's like. By the way, I loved you in the Wizard of Oz. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:By the way, I loved you in the Wizard of Oz, Great yeah.
Speaker 2:Ellen and Eric, we've had no rehearsal and prior things. You guys want to mind reading us the ingredients here for everybody making along at home.
Speaker 3:Sure, well, first, what you got to do is you got to get one ounce of well dressed gin, which is that's our misguided spirit.
Speaker 2:So our very friendly friends throwing us in the liquor to make this one.
Speaker 4:Yeah, love their gin yeah.
Speaker 5:Then you are going to add 0.75 ounces of China. China, which is a French version of bitters.
Speaker 2:That is really interesting. I've never heard of China, china so nice, they named it twice.
Speaker 3:Then what you do? You see, you get a quarter ounce of Gifford Caribbean pineapple liqueur, which I've never heard of before, but man it's tasty.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's about say which everybody has in their liquor cabinet.
Speaker 4:Just go ahead and pull out your.
Speaker 2:Caribbean pineapple liqueur.
Speaker 4:Is he? What are you doing to us?
Speaker 5:And then you add 25.25 ounces of Tempest Fujit creme de banana.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fantastic. They even gave us a little pronunciation there. Fugit, fugit, fugit.
Speaker 3:I mean like Patrick Fugit.
Speaker 4:Well, that's my pronunciation and I'm sorry Time flies, oh wow. You speak.
Speaker 5:French, I'm poor.
Speaker 4:But that's Latin. You may say, but that's Latin.
Speaker 5:Tempest Fugit is Latin and it means time flies.
Speaker 2:Fugit is a sure doing. Thank God, nobody will know Latin. Thank you for joining us on this episode.
Speaker 4:I'm going to show you what I'm going to do.
Speaker 5:What you do see with your cocktail stuff is you stir it and then you pour it over a big cube and then you garnish express.
Speaker 2:And it apparently tastes like big leechew, which I'm going to give it a little sample here as we move on. So who knew, who remembered when I got? Oh yeah, here you go.
Speaker 4:Cheers, cheers, cheers everybody.
Speaker 2:When it came off on the title card music by Hans Zimmer, I'd never clocked it, never noticed. It Might be the least Hans Zimmer store of any Hans Zimmer movie.
Speaker 5:It's really interesting because when since this was only the third episode of our podcast that we did we ended up adding a category, a tool, because our podcast is grading baseball movies on the 20 to 80 scouting scale use for baseball prospects for the score tool. But we didn't have it for this one, so we didn't end up talking about it. But I do remember clocking that and listening across the film and being like where's the Hans Zimmer in all of this?
Speaker 3:Where those inception?
Speaker 5:Yeah, exactly, or like the gladiator.
Speaker 2:you know the classic the Enya voice or whatever. That's what this film needs.
Speaker 4:I mean it's crazy, because he did Thelma and Louise and Radio Flyer, which is also, that's also Penny Marshall, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't know that he also did Thelma and Louise.
Speaker 4:So I guess she was like hey, before you go off and do that Christopher Nolan stuff, could you give me one more little? You know sweet romp.
Speaker 2:So this is 92. Where does this come in relation to the Lion King? Lion King was before 92. No, no Latin was 92.
Speaker 4:So that would put Lion King right after Little Mermaid was 89.
Speaker 2:So, theoretically, when he's working on this, the next thing he might have done might have been go and make oh, the Lion King 94. 94. So that's up. So yeah, man, he might have moved directly from this, which you know. I don't even remember the music, because there music in this movie. Yes.
Speaker 5:There is it's nice. It's nice. It's not quite as exceptional or memorable as some of his other work.
Speaker 4:There is a, there is a great moment when it's and of course it's the duo, when they're doing the battling signals and, like Dugan, finally wakes up. And if you listen, their motifs go back and forth, you know to reflect them. That was like one little moment. I was like oh okay, there he is, and there's some really good kind of like big band swing timey stuff that appears like some of the montage and also the like.
Speaker 3:the dance sequence I think that the score, such as it is, is pretty good. One of the only things that I'm like oh, this movie feels a little bit dated are some of the song choices, oh, yeah, there is that there's that song that is right at the beginning, when like older is on the way.
Speaker 2:How dare you? Is timeless, I was about to say. I thoroughly disagree, sir.
Speaker 3:I don't know, like it feels a little bit of its time. I don't even want to say that it's bad, but it's one of those things that you're like oh yeah, this was made in 1992.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you say it's bad and we will be fighting in here. What are you talking about? Carol King is incredible. No, Carol King is amazing.
Speaker 5:I have Eric on this one. I think that the film is bookended by two songs that don't go with the rest of the movie. I'm not even saying that they're bad songs, I'm just saying they don't go with the rest of the movie.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because there's the Madonna song as well the she's a good man yeah which is so like kind of melancholy for where the end of the film ends up. Like it, just it tonally, I feel like just doesn't quite sure what the movie's doing. It's a good song.
Speaker 2:I don't disagree with the. I don't disagree with that. I just am finding the opening with the Carol King. I think it's perfect. It is taking you to rural America. The next thing we get is the opening with the baseball game and the cow fields. And that's true. John Lovitz, pound for pound, the best character in the film, which is hard to say in a film that is filled with amazing one liners. Is there a line that John Lovitz can't make funny?
Speaker 3:Seriously, I laughed at every single one. Every single one is a gem. Yeah, like, and he makes. I mean he's out of the movie. Like 20 minutes into it and you're like he's out, he's gone. I just think this is unbelievable, oh my God, yeah, they're like.
Speaker 4:thanks for the special glimpse into her life. Yeah, he's talking about milking cows.
Speaker 2:It's like the first. I mean, they're just so funny. He's like doesn't that hurt them? It doesn't seem to. That would bruise the hell out of me. And the reaction shot of the cow, I mean this is like Penny Marshall, like you got me an actual. I was watching this on a plane and I have to admit to a couple of things. I was watching this on no plane, on a plane home, and I've seen this movie 10 times. I love this movie and I got to that scene and I laughed out loud, but I'm not sure I was in the most like controlled mental state because I was like flying. I cried twice in this movie in the middle of an airplane.
Speaker 3:This is not a tearjerker.
Speaker 2:I don't, I'm just, I'm not sure I'm mentally equipped.
Speaker 3:It tugs at those hard strings a couple of times though.
Speaker 5:This last time that we watched it, I cried four or five times probably. Wow, I was also a little surprised by how many times I cried, because I don't. I just remember it being really fun yeah.
Speaker 4:Exactly. I think it is a different experience now because I I'm the same way. No, granted, I'm, you know. I would just want to point out and note Steve did mention that he cried and I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not embarrassed now. I was only embarrassed sitting between the two 250 pound men who were going to give me the side eye.
Speaker 5:Especially when they could obviously see that you're watching illegally on their own.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not like I turned on. You know the English paint Exactly.
Speaker 3:You know and I'm also crying you want an airplane.
Speaker 2:Yes, like one of the times I'm like crying is like, whenever they're like, oh, but the league's going to close down. It's not the appropriate moment, you know. It's not when the husband dies or anything.
Speaker 1:Oh bring it in.
Speaker 2:George.
Speaker 3:George Spaghetti.
Speaker 4:Before we get away from it.
Speaker 1:Oh, george Spaghetti, so you think his name was actually George Spaghetti, because she's Betty Spaghetti.
Speaker 2:But I said the whole time I was like, is that her? That's her nickname, so what's her actual name? I don't know.
Speaker 3:Does it get mentioned?
Speaker 5:ever it might in the original montage.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, george Spaghetti. All right, george Spaghetti.
Speaker 5:Coloquially around the house. We call him George Spaghetti.
Speaker 3:At least he never has to learn that his baseball card got ripped up. It's true.
Speaker 4:Oh, that is true.
Speaker 2:That is true.
Speaker 4:Very funny too.
Speaker 2:Like you know, like they do such a. So I think the world is depraved from more, say no more. There we go Full stop from more Penny Marshall movies because she didn't make a whole.
Speaker 3:No no she really didn't.
Speaker 2:This movie is fabulously made, directed, I mean it just is like the whole, every step from like even the, the reaction shot to the cow, to the performances, to the way they introduce not Maud the woman from Colorado.
Speaker 1:Marla.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean everything is just crushing. It is timed perfectly.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and also, I mean I guess it's sort of like worth mentioning. I don't know if it was this or if it was big, but I think that those two films were some of the highest grossing films, and one of them I can't remember which one was the first to gross over a hundred million dollars domestically for a woman director.
Speaker 4:Yeah, a league of their own, I think. That's what I thought. It's also like the highest grossing baseball movie as well.
Speaker 3:Oh, that makes sense. Yeah, because it's worth mentioning in a world of.
Speaker 4:Even outside that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, but in the, in the summer of Barbie, you know.
Speaker 4:Fred and.
Speaker 3:Gerwig runs because Penny Marshall walked.
Speaker 2:That's a fact. I thought I wrote it down but I guess I don't have it. But you're right, I think this is like the two largest grossing movies, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you're right, though. We are depraved, deprived, deprived.
Speaker 3:We are depraved because we have been deprived, repraved and deprived. I'll drink to that.
Speaker 5:Hey, I'm not a West Side Story lyric. Yeah, it is Deprived on account. I'm deprived, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2:So I just want to call out, since you guys are such big baseball fans, that can we talk about the disrespect in the first game and the very opening of the film that they're giving Jean to Davis because that outfield is so close in, like they're playing halfway in to the infield and then she just crushes it over the top of them?
Speaker 5:Well, I just feel like we see that this is what advanced scouting and analytics have done for the game. Right Like they? Just they didn't have iPads back then. They didn't know exactly, you know, what her power alley was. They just didn't know. They didn't have the information.
Speaker 2:They weren't pulling out the cards every two seconds from there. The little business cards are a reminder which team they play for.
Speaker 5:Yeah, exactly, they weren't looking up, you know, dottie Hinson on baseballsavantcom to see how often she barrels the ball. They just didn't know.
Speaker 2:I am learning so much just every time you do like baseballsavantcom. What is this?
Speaker 5:Oh, my goodness oh here we go.
Speaker 4:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:Baseballsavantcom. That's a comfy chair. What is it? You're not going to go.
Speaker 2:James is. James is waving at me from the board, seems you're out of time. No, seriously, seriously, what is it?
Speaker 5:Baseballsavantcom is MLB's public analytics that are available right so so anybody can go up there and see, you know, the spin rates on the Aaron Knowles curveball or you know, just as an example, just as a totally hypothetical example or you know top level stuff.
Speaker 5:Yeah, how often JT Realmeato barrels the ball, just as another total hypothetical, yeah, I mean. But I mean you can see there's all kinds of stuff on there that is beyond even the things that I understand, if I'm totally honest. And you know there's, there's lots of things where you can see exactly what a pitcher's arsenal is and like what they threw in a particular game, and you know how much they're using this pitch versus that pitch.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and now a lot of this information is actually also on the site pitcherlistcom, which is not associated with MLB, but they also have some of their own statistics and so on that they've come up with that I think are even better, so I'm also likely to go there as well for for that kind of thing, and they get their information from MLB as well.
Speaker 2:I love talking to you about baseball, ellen, just because it brings out and I say this is all the love. But at the time I've known you're like already a pretty, you know, interested, in fact sort of person. This brings like to a new level. This like brings out you know, I can see middle school Ellen with like a new book. You know what I mean Like I'm so excited about this. So today the spin rate on NOLA has gone up.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's, oh my gosh, it's so exciting. Yeah, I mean, one of the things that's really exciting on pitcherlist is that they've they've created this new thing called like PLV, pitch level value, and it's it's essentially grading not how good a pitch is by result, which is the crappy old way that people used to do it but just how good it is by, like, the actual stuff of the pitch and the pitch location.
Speaker 2:It's amazing, oh it's going to change the world. That's the perfect timing, because bringing up our newest sponsor on the podcast, plv.
Speaker 4:PLV Yep Next time. You are just waiting for results to tell you how well you did. Let's just go to pitcher pitch level.
Speaker 5:Well, there goes our sponsors.
Speaker 1:It's all blown. It was good. Well, last I'll see you in the valley.
Speaker 4:I think we have to give.
Speaker 2:we have to give two of these mics back now, yeah.
Speaker 4:I'll be back at Lucas.
Speaker 3:State. So one of my favorite things about Ellen is that they're very like very, very, very, very often that this will be um, like Protesting all the time about terrible number and math related knowledge. But as soon as it is applied to baseball it becomes this like Stephen Hawking thing where, like these very complex equations related to this or that, just kind of like pull off the tongue.
Speaker 5:Isn't that complicated guys?
Speaker 4:Yeah, like yeah.
Speaker 1:I think it's a little more than that. Those stats is like.
Speaker 4:Penny Marshall going what I can just toss off another $100 billion blockbuster, exactly.
Speaker 2:So they're back in their little farmhouse and I just want to call out did anybody else get hungry? Looking at the bread loaf Cause like they had like the most luxurious, luscious bread loaf, they pulled out and like start slicing for dinner and I was like man, I want me a sandwich. That's a good I had. I did not. Go back and watch, go back and watch Another thing you might not have noticed. Sorry, I'm just trying to get us back on the movie.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's right.
Speaker 2:Another thing, do you guys? There was. I had to turn on the captions for this because I didn't want to miss any of John Lovitz. So they're in the train, and then here come Gina Davis and a kid I can't remember the actor's name, but then they're running. Lori.
Speaker 2:Petty, lori Petty, our second Lori Petty movie by the way, like they're running towards the train to like get on. And then here's John Lovitz and he like goes over and he walks over to the side of the train and he bumps into him and he has a line and it's definitely like timed to be a joke and I've never heard it in my life. Do you guys know what it was? You remember it? No, like, have you heard the? It just happens pretty quick.
Speaker 2:But, it's definitely a joke. I like it, yeah. So I had to pause and I go back, and because I couldn't understand what she said and I couldn't understand what he did, he like runs into a woman, he's leaning over in the train. She goes sir your knee and he goes like it and then looks out the train.
Speaker 4:Which is right after he gets up and he's just like if I had your job I'd kill myself. Let me go see if I can go dig up a pistol Exactly.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, it's so great. I mean, what a Titan of playing like very vain, low status characters.
Speaker 2:I mean absolutely.
Speaker 3:Like this businessman. It sounds like he's probably got a better job than Ernie Cappadino does. Yeah, but he's just so disgusted by it and I just love the vanity that he can bring so effortlessly to literally whatever role he's playing. Right, it's incredible.
Speaker 2:He's walking them on the field. A normal actor, performer, you'd be given a line like you're walking into the stadium and if you say, like all right girls, here's your big shot, run out there and show them what you got, you know, make me proud. You know what his line is. He says, hey, cowgirls, see that grass, don't eat it.
Speaker 3:Just as like expert, I do also think, because it seems to me that some of these jokes were kind of like added in ADR and I sort of wonder if Lowell Gans and Bubblu Mandel, who did such an amazing job writing this, were like continually acting to like punch it up even after the fact. Because it just it feels so perfect and I just I can't imagine how many jokes they went through to get to this like perfect, perfect, perfect character.
Speaker 4:I gotta go get my wife the pickle. Pickle, you know, like God, he just like some of them were just, you see, the train moves, not the station.
Speaker 3:Station.
Speaker 5:One of the classics. Oh, it's how it works. Eric shared with me when we did our podcast that that moment, when he is yelling at the cow behind him, he's like shut up.
Speaker 3:Will you shut up? Yeah?
Speaker 5:Apparently, the cow was in the process of giving birth to a little baby cow. And that's why the cow wouldn't shut up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the story is that it was ad-libbed in response to this cow that would not be quiet. And then I think I read somewhere else that the farmers who you know were looking after that cow named the baby cow Penny after Penny Marshall.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's amazing.
Speaker 4:That's so cool. That's so cool. See that grass Don't eat it.
Speaker 2:So this is what I was talking about. Like you remember, Shirley Baker. Shirley Baker doesn't really come up again in the film, except in the thing, but they go to the end of the tryouts Right, and the tryouts are great. And then they go up to the list and there's all the people on the list and again, expertly directed scene where two things are happening the guys, like you know, pontificating to all the teams and be like you guys got to be on this. I'll be running the rescene, you know? Whatever, it's a new guy, All right, girl, if you're not on the list, get out of here. And there's like this woman, Shirley Baker, standing at the thing reading the list and trying to go up and down and up and down the list. And she's like well, just read your name and you're I'm sorry for all the cut list. You got to get her. This is one of the scenes that had me tearing up, I knew it, I knew it.
Speaker 3:And then you're like instantly yeah, 100%. I was like oh, she can't read I was like how sad.
Speaker 5:I also cried. I also cried. I don't know that I've cried every single time I've watched this movie, but that was the first time that I was like what are these on my cheek? What?
Speaker 3:is this moisture? It's raining on my face somehow.
Speaker 4:PLV somebody quick, Give me a good PLV.
Speaker 5:Just need some advanced baseball. I don't know if it's gonna feel better.
Speaker 3:There's just like there's so much good like friendship in this movie, like so so much good like teammate stuff, because you also then like later on and this also goes to like how I don't know how they did it that there are so many characters that have these like complete arcs to them and are very like deep and complex, and so they have the time for May, for all the way, may to like have the scene where she's like teaching her how to read later, and that's like a really beautiful moment in and of itself. But then, like, when you put it within the context of like the other things that we see of May and all like it, just it paints such a full picture.
Speaker 4:It's so satisfying and it's very similar with Rosie when she's talking about her and they have a conversation about why she's, with who she's with, and there's a great moment where it's like is that photo blurry?
Speaker 3:And he's like no, it's just like that it's just happy.
Speaker 2:So I think it's Madonna's is one of her. She's done quite a few movies up to this point and had decent amount of success, although they weren't sure they wanted her in the film, apparently. But I think this is Rosie O'Donnell's first major film. Like I don't know that she's done anything before this and it is just such a quintessentially Rosie O'Donnell role.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's just literally. We're like, of course that's Rosie, and yet that's her first film. Yeah, it's kind of crazy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that we had read somewhere that part of the kind of like epic friendship that ended up developing between Rosie O'Donnell and Madonna had to do in part with the fact that Rosie O'Donnell was like one of the most athletic of all of the people, like portraying a peach, and Madonna kind of like leaned under a little bit to sort of like get up to snuff, and Rosie O'Donnell had never really been in a movie before and Madonna was already like had been in movies and was a big pop star, and so they were able to kind of like lift each other through that and it helped this beginning of this like friendship that I think is still ongoing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, reportedly they're still friends. But also I know that like on set, rosie would come in and sing like a Madonna song, like on set to Noir, and Madonna get really like apparently she did it the first time. Then Madonna got really annoyed and said never sing another one of my songs and the next time they showed up she sang all of Vogue. What is it?
Speaker 5:Whoa what is it? Rosie O'Donnell is amazing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, she really is. And it's like the penny even says that when she was that Madonna was so big when she was on set nobody knew what kind of even how to deal with her. But it was Rosie who was like, well, I don't care. And then that really took Madonna by surprise, caught her off guard and it was just more authentic. Yeah, you know their relationship.
Speaker 3:One of the things that I always like to talk about when this movie comes up in any conversation is the fact that I was living in Evansville, indiana, and was like nine, 10 years old around the time that this was filming, and there was a friend of my mom's who had her house rented out for the filming, and it was Madonna who rented her house, and the thing that I just like the little kid version of me, was like, oh my God, this is amazing is that Madonna wanted a pool and this house didn't have a pool, and so she just like put a pool into the house.
Speaker 2:In Evansville.
Speaker 3:Illinois, and yeah, in Evansville, indiana, in Evansville, and I just like it blew my mind as a kid like it's possible for Madonna to just like rent your house and put a pool into it and you've just like got a pool.
Speaker 2:I don't think that's in the standard lease.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think they maybe had to do some sort of a pop star writer for that. But man that sent my imagination flying for like months. That you could just put a pool into somebody else's house, yeah, and if that was your house, when you like, come back to your house and you've got this like a sweet pool.
Speaker 5:That's also the notion of like having enough money to just be, like. I'm gonna be here for a couple of weeks but I want a pool while I'm here Also while you're filming, because you don't have any time while you're filming.
Speaker 2:No Right.
Speaker 4:Definitely not, and it's not gonna take the amount of time you're on set for it to actually be built.
Speaker 2:You know that's what's Right. Yeah, that's the other thing I mean. I don't know. This is Indiana where they can just pull back hose out of left and right Fair.
Speaker 3:They got four or five guys to come pour concrete tomorrow.
Speaker 2:You give me a hole, I'll give you some concrete.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's true, show me a hole, I'll show you a pool. Exactly right.
Speaker 3:I just want to go back to that very first game really quickly and say that one thing that I noticed this last time watching it there is that guy who likes Kit who gets like crapped on so much, so hard by both of them and he seems like a perfectly nice guy who's really really supportive of Kit's play.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like Dottie says like you know, I'll, you'll be with Mitch Swaley. And then she says Mitch Swaley is one step up from dating a pig. That's some real heat they're throwing at Mitch.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and he says an important step, which is funny.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But he seems like a nice guy.
Speaker 4:He's a good guy. What do?
Speaker 2:we make on.
Speaker 4:Mitch for yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah we do I don't like this Mitch yeah.
Speaker 4:I'm glad you went back to it.
Speaker 2:We need justice for Mitch.
Speaker 1:That's what.
Speaker 5:I'm saying that's exactly what needs to happen. Right, but does justice for Mitch need to be being in a relationship with Kit?
Speaker 2:Like that's not fair. No, he just doesn't need to get dragged so hard.
Speaker 5:That's fine, that was fine.
Speaker 4:That was the missing scene, which was the conversation at the end, where he sat down with Doddy and said you can go back, but you have to drop the ball.
Speaker 2:So, speaking of missing scenes, this film has a few missing scenes from it, reportedly. One of them is a scene between obvious chemistry between Gina Davis and Tom Hanks like the whole time.
Speaker 1:I mean they just electric on screen.
Speaker 2:They had a scene where they kissed apparently. I wondered it got cut out because apparently people are because her husband's off at war or whatever and that was offensive or people didn't like that.
Speaker 3:I don't know if it didn't test well, or whatever. Yeah, and then I think, like in the story of it it happened. And then one of the next things that happens is when she's like packing up and like leaving.
Speaker 2:Right Leaving, yeah, that would be where it have to go.
Speaker 3:Right, I mean structurally.
Speaker 2:I mean it doesn't have before game one. You know what I mean.
Speaker 4:And that happens there Time out. Come see me in the dugout. No, I don't know if that's where it would happen.
Speaker 5:I'm so glad that it's not in this movie.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Me too, and the reason isn't any sort of moralizing about oh she's married, but simply because I think it would actually cheapen their relationship and their mutual respect for it to be about sexual attraction, and what I like so much is that it's simply based on his, I mean. I think there is perhaps some attraction there for both of them, but it's based on a respect for the other person as a person. Sure.
Speaker 3:Totally. It feels like this situation where it's like two people who like can just like really see each other Right.
Speaker 2:I mean it would be so? Yeah, it would be so let's go ahead.
Speaker 5:Oh, I was going to say so much of his journey right is about from going from not seeing the women as ball players, from only seeing them as girls.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 5:To seeing them as ball players, right, and he uses that particular word a couple of times, right. So there's that moment in the middle of some montage where he offers Dottie some two, because he's like a lot of ball players use it, right, and it's like this subtle little way of being like I consider you a ball player, exactly. And then at the end, I mean towards the end, in his sort of impassioned speech, he's like I thought you were a ball player, right, and so I think that's so important and so it's sort of like if he's also sexualized her in terms of literally going so far as to kiss her. Yeah, it just it cheapens all of that.
Speaker 5:And I think so much of the film is about how these women are trying to just be humans and, like, do something that is not defined by their gender role at that time, but that the world is continuing to put that on them, right, you know, whether that's like having to wear the little skirts or having to go through charm school, or, you know, dotty realizing, in order to save the league, I'm going to do the splits, right, I'm going to do something that makes, even though we're just trying to be kind of, I mean, I almost want to say, like gender neutral people just doing a job, like playing a game that we enjoy, we've got to make ourselves women in order for it to be marketed, and you know that just still rings true. So, yeah, I feel like if, for in some ways, it's the most important relationship, well, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:Obviously there's one relationship this movie, that's the Keystone relationship, and that's between the sisters.
Speaker 5:Yeah, no, I was going to say that's the most important relationship in the story because it's like that's the, that's the, that's what the story is really built about.
Speaker 3:Like like it's.
Speaker 5:If you were to summarize what is the story of the movie, it's really about like two sisters who are always in competition with each other find a way through through playing baseball together, you know to to live in more harmony with that, I guess.
Speaker 4:Yeah, mule in a nag makeup.
Speaker 5:Mule in a nag makeup.
Speaker 4:And I let that.
Speaker 3:It's not. It's not like a problem that gets solved, it's like a dynamic that they just sort of like learn more about and become more accepting of. But it's not like we get to the end of the movie and suddenly it's like oh, now everything's perfect between us and like like it's.
Speaker 2:No, that's the, it's the more mature version of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like. This is something we always have. This will always be here. We've just learned how to not let that be the dominant factor in the relationship, totally.
Speaker 5:Yeah, anyway, but but I do think that, like that's that the, the relationship between Dottie and Jimmy Dugan is the second most important relationship and it's like the new relationship in the movie, as opposed to the one that that carries us through the whole thing.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think that he's supposed to represent, even as like, rundown and sort of you know out of the main world that he is, I think he is supposed to represent success and permission and acceptance in the metaphor of the movie Like. So that's what makes it strong whenever she chooses not to engage with him, she chooses to choose her own path and not be a part of the league, but you know, she comes back and like and then she leaves, ultimately after one season. I think that that's what makes, because that's what they're all fighting for and in many ways she's the only one that can kind of achieve it and she chooses her own path instead, and I think that's sort of the power of that character.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, although I do, I do go back. You sort of mentioned in the intro like there is something to be said about how Gina Davis like I don't know the like, the, the, the lasting, like the friend stuff of just being there in one season, like there is an interpretation of this movie that like she's pretty cold to her teammate.
Speaker 3:For sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Even at the beginning, when she's like I don't care, I don't want to go, it was only one year. Blah, blah, blah, blah. It's like yeah, but like this was an important thing and history didn't keep in touch with any of these people. You were like my husband's back. Peace, bye, guys.
Speaker 1:Well, if Bill Pullman rolled in looking like Bill Pullman, then I mean I'm not sure I'd hate.
Speaker 2:I think I'd be out too, yeah, and I'm just saying commitment to you guys right here in the room, but young Bill Pullman walks to that door. I think I might be out.
Speaker 3:Hey, right now, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Exactly Good Good point, bill Pullman. Right now, no questions asked.
Speaker 5:We think we're all think, we're all on there, that's perhaps the only person here who's been in a room with Bill Pullman like would agree. Yeah, that's true, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 5:Well, eric and I were talking about this last night. I mean, what's what I think is? It's not just young Bill Pullman looking like young Bill Pullman Sure, it's in that scene. We like rewound it and watch it again. He's so incredibly active in that whole scene.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you look at the, you look at the scene or you you watch the scene and and you sort of like see the lines on paper and like he like it's not like he's saying anything like super special, but it's so full and so alive, like it it feels like a very like this scene needs to happen to tell this part of the story. Like he's like yes, we were caught under sniper fire. They got a bunch of other people before me. You look beautiful, you're amazing. Like it's a lot of like I don't know it's it's not necessarily the most like poetic or beautiful writing, by any means. It's like this kind of tight little scene and it's so alive and it's so full and I think a lot of that's because some bills pretty good at his job.
Speaker 5:Right, bill's obviously very astonishing, but we were also talking last night about, I think, both of us, although Eric can disagree.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, oh, here we go.
Speaker 5:Kind of take issue with the fact that Doddy leaves before the series. It's another week, dude.
Speaker 1:Right yeah.
Speaker 5:Like quit at the end of the season, for sure, but like, especially because her husband seems like he's pretty into it.
Speaker 5:It's not like and I think that this is important like I would not like a version of this in which he is like well, you know, you got to stop doing that, man stuff now, now that I'm back, Right, because I think it's very important that we see Doddy as such a strong person, really with her own agency, that it is always her own choice that she makes, because that's what she wants to do and she doesn't want to do this with her life. But still, yeah, like just stick around for another week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm just saying, if you do that, you don't have the movie, because the whole thing is, she chooses to go because that's what she said she's always going to do and that's what she's doing and nothing's going to sway her. And then, by leaving, she makes the choice to come back and that shows the growth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just saying Structurally.
Speaker 3:I mean, you know, if you really want to know the page of the vaginales Exactly, especially when you think about how the dynamic between the sisters is that classic like one is the head and one is the heart kind of person.
Speaker 4:And like not to say that kid is not smart and that Doddy is not passionate, but that does seem to be like kind of the thing that we're playing One leads, yeah yeah, and it just so happens to be the part of the structure, is it's a, it's a seven game series. So I mean, like that's how you're telling the story. If it's a one playoff, that's a different thing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, and I think that we're supposed to believe that, like I don't know, maybe if Doddy were there the whole time, yeah, they would have liked it, they would have smoked racing it's it is weird, though, that they chose the peaches and then like, apparently historically like they were the worst team in the first year.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 4:Like the Racine Racine, I'm from the south, not the Midwest. What are what they were?
Speaker 5:the Racine bells bells they won.
Speaker 4:They were in the actual World Series, but the peaches didn't even make it. They were the worst. Now I think they ended up like the next season in the World Series or something.
Speaker 2:But I just thought it was just such a good name.
Speaker 4:It is. You know, I mean for a team you just got that's perfect right.
Speaker 2:Gotta go with that.
Speaker 4:I'm not disagreeing.
Speaker 2:Can we talk about the, the dad sending Marla off? And that one scene cried, cryed again. I also cried. Maybe I cried there four times. What we're gonna have to get down to the bottom of this, that's amazing performance.
Speaker 3:God when he's like nothing's going to happen here, you've got to go out there where things are happening.
Speaker 2:His performance was so impactful that when they cut ahead like 45 minutes and now we're at Marla's wedding, I'm like where's the dad? Where's the dad? I'm looking for the dad in the shots because I was like he's here, right, he didn't die. And he's there. He's in one shot when he put him in the car, oh yes.
Speaker 5:And Megan Kavanaugh is also amazing in that scene, like both of them.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, they are working so hard to make her look bad, like they're like really working like the staging and the costume. So I was like is she, is she not attractive? I hate these roles in films. Like honestly, it always makes me the first, it always takes me out. It's like the kid and little giants when they're like.
Speaker 4:I mean to make it fun of them being like a fat kid.
Speaker 2:I'm like God, a kid had to do this and see this. So, like the actor is what I've become concerned about. I'm like what is your self confidence after you shoot this scene?
Speaker 4:Well, and there's something to the fact that and I think Little Giants does this too they doubled down on it to. I think personally, from a writing standpoint, too often like, just say it and I'm like OK, I get it, that's yours, that's the world you're living in, this is the way they see you. Cool, you know. And then we don't. But they just keep like no.
Speaker 1:But seriously, have you seen her, have you seen him? Like it's just like.
Speaker 4:I get it. You know, somebody give me John Lovett.
Speaker 5:I obviously can't speak for Megan Kavanaugh, but I feel like if you look at what she's doing in all of the charm school montage scenes, she's having a great time she knows what she's doing.
Speaker 2:She's living it up for sure.
Speaker 5:My recommendation to anybody who hasn't seen this movie in a while is, when you're looking at those scenes, just look for her and what she's doing, even if it's like a wide she is doing something so hilarious and so specific and so good, oh my God.
Speaker 4:I mean honestly, it's a great point because she's just living it, she is.
Speaker 5:She is. She is eating it up. It's incredible.
Speaker 3:One of the iconic shots from this film is in the try out at the whatever Harvey Park, the sort of like Wrigley Field stand in, yeah, and when they're doing the try outs there's that like incredible moment where Rosie O'Donnell like throws the ball and Gina Davis like barehand grabs it, right Like the thing about that shot is, directly behind Gina Davis is Marla Hooch like totally ready to grab the ball, and it's so perfect and it's really really funny. But it's, I feel, like a detail that sort of like gets lost in kind of like the tapestry of the moment. But if you watch that, just looking at her, she's doing amazing stuff. It's so funny and just perfect.
Speaker 2:Just drill down on that. I remember that moment and I was thinking just drill down on that moment for a second. What is Rosie O'Donnell's character's mission in that moment, like, what is her goal? She wants to pick up the ball in cons, like in cohort with Madonna and being Gina Davis in the face with it. That's what she's trying to do, right, she's trying to. She's aggressively throwing the ball at her and she grabs it on the middle air and then our friends are like yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, it's not a not a good look, and now we're like best friends and we like them. It just is this one of those moments where it's just like, because of the way it turns out in the movie, the motivation of the character totally just gets wiped away.
Speaker 3:And I love how, in that moment also like it's a really it's a very good point because at at minimum, she's trying to like yeah, come in like a very high yeah.
Speaker 2:Honour, at minimum she's trying to like intimidate her.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, no, I think it's a moment of like trying to dominate and then, as soon as it happens, they, they, they get over her. And then when, when she says, whatever it is something going on the lines of like oh gosh, we better go practice.
Speaker 5:I just feel like any actor who's been to an EPA recognizes this right, Like the person who that's an equity principal audition.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yeah.
Speaker 5:And it's, it's been a while, but but like, I feel like later career actors know that you're not actually really competing with the person next to you, right, like it's just up to are you the guy or not? This time, right, that's the phrase that I say to myself. I'm not kidding, I'm like am I the guy? Anyway, but yeah, when, like young actors, you'll see them like trying to intimidate the other people in the waiting room with them, not not sort of realizing like that's not really the game, right, but yeah, that's how I read, that moment is at the, at the very, at a baseline. Yeah, she's just kind of trying to like take somebody down a peg so that then they're in their head and like they don't do as well and then she's got a better chance of making the team.
Speaker 4:She really miscalculated to, because she, if she'd have done that to Kitt, she would have been fine, it would have been totally fine.
Speaker 2:Because we can all agree that Kitt is like serviceable. She's definitely not like the worst player on the team at all Like, but she's not the best Like. She's definitely here for, like you know, because Gina Davis said, no, I won't go without her.
Speaker 3:It's funny because she is clearly a good pitcher, but there aren't necessarily a lot of moments where you're like, wow, she's something special right with her pitching.
Speaker 4:They're not telling that story of how the talented she is in that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, although I do really like the. I do like how there is this steady thing of like she's a, she's a complete sucker for the like high fast ball, yeah, and then the hit that she gets that ultimately wins the championship. Is her winning it her way, it is her swinging High fastball yeah.
Speaker 2:I do like that those details are in there, because in the opening scene too, don't lay off the high fastballs. Two high fastballs in a row swinging strikes one inside. They call it right down the middle. It was inside. Perfect power home run fastball. Let me check the POV on that. Strike out, no swing.
Speaker 2:I was like that's again, that's, that's a strong choice. Like that's baseball, that makes sense, like it's not. Like sometimes you watch, you know airbud and I'm not throwing shaded airbud too hard, but I'm like you know they where they put the ball yeah, you know what I mean To where he shoots it.
Speaker 3:Steve, there's nothing in the rulebook that says that a dog can't play basketball.
Speaker 2:I understand that. I'm just saying I personally am against. You know like.
Speaker 4:Teen Wolf there's no rule.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right you know well, we watched airbud seven thinning fetch multiple times, for our podcast that's our longest ever podcast.
Speaker 5:It's true, we talked about it forever. We talked about it for a very, very long time because we were trying to get to a logical conclusion.
Speaker 3:We're trying to create a grand, unified theory of what happens when the players in field of dreams go into the cornfield, and we did ultimately decide that they enter the airbud seven thinning fetch universe.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, wow, you really condemned them to a death possibly worse than hell.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's, it's it's why they're so happy to be in the field, right.
Speaker 4:That actually tracks?
Speaker 5:Yeah, they've been trapped on that basketball court Because wherever they were coming from.
Speaker 3:It wasn't heaven and there wasn't baseball there, Right yeah?
Speaker 5:Anyway, yeah, yeah, which sort of concerns us for James Earl Jones at the end of the movie. Anyway, that's a field Back to any martial amazing filmmaking.
Speaker 2:There's one. This also knows what it says, because in so many times the directing just becomes sort of invisible. Right, it becomes totally. But then when she wants to do it, she can absolutely do it and she can, she crushes. I'm thinking about that promo series where they're doing like all the women's baseball is here and doing this and on this and on here's going on the Queen of Diamonds and Marla Hooch. This is enormous wide shot. It's just so funny and it like if I were outside of context. That's what makes it so brave. You take that outside of context of the story. Not funny at all. It's just kind of like OK, like whatever. In context of the story it's a laugh out loud joke.
Speaker 5:It's so good. It's so good. My only real problem in terms of yes, I think that this is an incredibly smart baseball movie for things like pitch sequencing and, you know, hitters, hot and cold zones and so on.
Speaker 3:And just thinking about, like, what's happening in the game.
Speaker 5:I have two main problems.
Speaker 2:Oh boy, I'm ready, Marla.
Speaker 5:Hooch is a second baseman, please.
Speaker 2:Also treat. Yeah, all right, that makes no sense at all.
Speaker 5:Obviously a corner infielder. Yeah, she, obviously she's the first baseman, for sure.
Speaker 2:And. But they put Amran and Ramsey on first and she is a second baseman. How else are you with that? The way she's built, the way she moves, the way she plays when you see her I'm like she's in second base, so I can play with you I tracked both of those, yeah.
Speaker 5:And then the second one, also Marla Hooch related in the, in the scene where Dottie and Jimmy are arguing about whether or not Marla should bunt, they're both wrong. Marla is a switch hitter and she's batting righty against a righty pitcher what?
Speaker 4:Yes, we've already established that she's an amazing switch hitter. I mean she is the princess bride, if you will, of which hitting?
Speaker 2:Amazingly seen when they entered All right now lefty and all the guys go.
Speaker 1:And there's a great line.
Speaker 2:This is one of your ADR jokes. At the end of this scene on the edit out, the whole group is kind of like I got my heads down and I'm walking away and they're just kind of muttering to each other. But if you listen, the pitcher goes. I gave it everything I had.
Speaker 1:It's just again, it's a perfect edit line.
Speaker 2:Oh God, that's so good, Like just just to cut out on that. And then they cut to that most heartfelt scene in the train station.
Speaker 3:Oh, so sweet, I had read somewhere that in the original, like in the you know super long OG cut of the film, that there was a, there was a sequence where Marla Hooch was married and pregnant but trying to keep it a secret, and then, like there was like a hard slide into second that like hurt her and she got carried off the field. And there was this like oh no, the baby. Like is the baby OK? The baby was OK in this.
Speaker 2:Fictional scenario.
Speaker 2:And so we had speculated that maybe, like that was the logic, like that there was storytelling logic for that reason for her being in the position, but like, in the absence of that, it is a little bit confusing for sure, in the overall writing of the film there's only like one section, like there's one line that really stood out and it's actually at that audition to me that I'm like interesting and I'd like and this is which, so like they're talking about it. It's just a couple of lines and I'm thinking this probably only stood out to me because I have a little girl now and it may be because he says yes, name.
Speaker 2:And they throw out there that like he's like it's my fault, I raised her like a boy, don't penalize her for something that I did. And I was like wait a second, can I raise my little girl to like in the way I raise her is going to make her look like a boy? I was like I don't know that. That totally tracks.
Speaker 4:That totally stuck out to me. I don't even have a kid, as far as I know.
Speaker 2:Like I get the sentence, I get the sentiment, but you know what I mean. I'm like I don't think I probably have a whole lot to do with that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it did sort of like trying to be the like. Look, it's not her fault that she's a tomboy, it's my fault, right, but like also like which they could have just said.
Speaker 2:You could have just said that.
Speaker 3:I feel like they, almost I feel like they were trying to do that in part because, like, as gorgeous as they are, like one could argue that like Gina Davis and Lori Patty, working at a dairy farm are also tomboyish Sure, so like they needed to do something like in addition to or more than that.
Speaker 2:You could maybe write something like you know. You just write it. The alt would be very simple. It'd be something like I mean, she always does, this is what makes her happy, this is what the things, and I always let her do it. I never told her that she couldn't until she only now she's gotten old enough that she find that she can't do a job doing this and look, there's one chance here. So come on, sir, you can't penalize her for something she can't control, or same thing.
Speaker 5:Or even I disagree, because I feel like what he said is very 1940s Right. Like obviously if it's today you can't say that. What he's right, or I mean not that you can't say that, I'm sure somebody out there could, but I think that it's essentially by being able to like a man taking agency for it, sure, the only way that it can kind of be acceptable to another man?
Speaker 2:OK, yes, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 5:I don't know that he necessarily believes that, but I think he sees, because I think he loves her exactly the way that she is. But I think he sees that like this is a way to connect with this guy and to make an excuse for her.
Speaker 2:Sure OK Fair.
Speaker 5:And like, and also, I think, because we go on to see the term school sequence and we go on to see all of these ideas about femininity that I think are very much have to be put on somebody right, or are obviously, like, not something that is necessarily innate. Gender is a construct, anyway so yeah, I think that that is also like another example of he didn't know how to teach her the term school things, and those are the kinds of things that were expected in order to make somebody into a car.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and he's using the tools or his own conditioning in order to express that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that makes sense. One of the things that the movie is. This goes back to like what we were talking about earlier in terms of, like, Jimmy Dugan's relationship with Dottie. But they're the movies full of these moments where there are men who sort of have this like I don't even I don't want to call it like an aha moment because I don't want to give it like too much Sure but these moments where a male character sees a player not as a woman but now is like, oh, this is like an athlete. I mean, maybe the first time it happens is when John Lovett grabs Kit's arm to sort of like give her a pat and then is like, oh dang, she's pretty strong.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And and. As funny as, as iconic as almost every line that John Lovett says in that film, there are also a few moments where you see him kind of like quietly, softly, sort of like reevaluating the thing that he was looking at, right, and I think that one of those moments does happen, in the wake of Marla's father's plea to sort of be like, look, don't take this out on her Right.
Speaker 2:So, as we kind of start wrapping up in our last few couple things here, we have to talk a little about Tom Hanks, because we haven't talked about him at all which is great. I don't know that anybody else pulls this role off the same way.
Speaker 4:No, because it was supposed to be what Belushi.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Gina Davis was supposed to be. Gina Davis supposed to be to meet more.
Speaker 4:Oh, and even before that it was Deborah Winger. Really yes, she left Again, like as Madonna.
Speaker 2:I mean again these work, but Demi, Demi, more to your point. I mean I mean sorry, yeah, well, let's keep on Tom Hanks here for a second, because I don't want to run out of time on this. Well, you said we hadn't talked about him. So yeah, no, Exactly so well and he like I mean there's a line in there like the, for instance, like this like somebody said, married twice Any children yeah, one of them was only Tom Hanks.
Speaker 2:Only Tom Hanks gets away with that line. Think about Gary Busey delivering that line. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 3:You know, what I mean. That is not I'm going to be able to think about now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Exactly like you're never going to get away with that.
Speaker 5:It's because there's something, so yeah, like boyish about him.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 5:And and so charming, but yeah, but charming in a very baseball kind of a way.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yes, and he'd. And I mean it's not like he's the Tom Hanks we already know, he's the Tom Hanks we're beginning to know. I mean, like he had just done Joe versus the volcano, vanityne, the bomb fires, and like, and bosom buddies, like he didn't Howard Turner and Hooch and the Burbs, you know, and big obviously was his was right before. So it's yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But he wasn't, he wasn't quite the like. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 5:I really want to respect, I think, both the vocal work and the physical work that he's doing, like his crushing very specific and also like he's actually kind of tearing up his voice. Yeah, the whole movie and I mean it's it's like a really good choice, but I was like gosh, like you couldn't, you couldn't do that for a play. No, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:The only thing I take issue in the performances in the whole film is actually one Tom Hanks moment, and it's because Tom Hanks is so good that I can just I can call this one moment out in the very end. He's like limping over to the car, something to man. He's really milk in the walk Like he's like. It feels like something they shot early on while he was trying to figure it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like how messed up am I? Because really the only thing is wrong and he's got bad knees, but that is sort of dismissed as like a yeah, you were a drunk and you fell out of a hotel window. Like you have bad knees, but your problem is the entire equipment.
Speaker 2:Like your. Your physical issues aren't your issues really. You know what I mean, like, and I think that. So I think that had to have been early on, while he was figuring out what he was doing, but it definitely stood out, because nowhere else does he really have like a crazy, crazy limp, but it was super deep.
Speaker 4:It is true, like because of that standing out and also with what you were saying about his physical work, holy crap, I think it does go. It's kind of like Penny Marshall is directing, like it's so good it just disappears, you forget. I mean, we'll circle back to where we were, where we started this, which was, you know, the pissing scene and the honestly, the take after take after take that you would have to do on that, and then his physicality of that entire is just hilarious.
Speaker 2:It's hilarious, I mean beautiful.
Speaker 4:It's.
Speaker 2:It ends all the same way it's such a tense scene and he kneels down to pray and the prayer is beautiful, pits the prayer he gives at the end so intense. Lord, I'd like to thank you for that waitress in South Bend. You know who she is. She kept calling your name.
Speaker 4:I mean just again Tom Hanks crushing.
Speaker 5:I also hot take. I feel like the the the scene that is the completion of the famous no crying in baseball scene, is it's much shorter? I actually think it's even better acting from Tom Hanks than the previous one. Because he doesn't. He doesn't actually have, you know, a lot, of a lot of text in that scene. He's just trying to hold in how angry he is and figure out a new way to talk to Evelyn.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's, it's astonishing, it's so good. I mean, I think part of what makes the no crying in baseball scene is actually the juxtaposition of him. I think that the actor who's playing Evelyn whose name I don't remember and I apologize is also doing a great job in that scene. So I think having actually both of them completely killing it is part of what makes that scene so good. Yeah, but yeah it's a great point yeah.
Speaker 3:I think it's it's really, really helpful to have a Tom Hanks in this role, because you know he's like he's like a scoundrel and he does and says some bad things, but like you still want to root for him, you still believe that there is like something to be like saved in in his person and in his life. And I do think that with the knee stuff like it hits really, really hard. It hits harder, harder, the the the more that I watch this and the older that I get. The scene on the bus where they're talking about the military, and I think this might be the scene where Gina Davis shows him the picture of the husband and he says that he didn't serve because he has no cartilage in his knee and that, plus his baseball stuff he said I can't remember exactly what the line is, but he's like how did I become so useless so fast?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, oh, my God, god, I wrote down somewhere in there. I wrote a. I'm way too emotionally vulnerable for this movie.
Speaker 1:And I wrote this on the plane. I blame you, Ellen.
Speaker 2:God damn it why does a baseball movie have to hit me so hard? We should end all baseball. So I just want you to know Thanks, Ellen. This is how I was feeling. Ellen, it's all your fault.
Speaker 5:You're welcome. You're welcome for the feelings.
Speaker 1:Last. Thing.
Speaker 2:I've got and I want to hear any last thoughts you guys got. But the last thing I've got, there is a moment in this movie which I, on this watch, found so extremely over violent. I just couldn't almost handle it. Oh, it's because you never notice it, because it's in a deep, wide shot, but it's named. It's when we're talking about our drink, like where, who's Lou? Oh yeah, and Lou's walking away and the chaperone ladies following him right, and then he picks up a pile of dirt and throws it in her face so hard. I was like that is downright violent, like that's really upset me. It's like, and then she came back and we're like having a bunch of jokes at it and I was like it happened in a wide shot. So I guess I've always accepted it, but man, that was super violent.
Speaker 4:That's a really it's a really good point. And to your I mean how? It's in a wide imagine. That's Penny's like. We got to take this in a while.
Speaker 2:How much I mean that's like what makes the only reason it works. How imagine like being in a scene that's like a tight tour and over and over, so he just picks up a dirt clot and throws it in your face like four feet away.
Speaker 4:Yeah, bye, bye comedy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not funny at all.
Speaker 5:I continue to believe that there is a tragic short film about the day that the Peaches Chaperone has when the bus breaks down to make this movie and then also she's poisoned Right. And there's like the, the yes Climb.
Speaker 3:That's like I've never seen somebody throw up this much in my life, and also Jimmy Dugan like wakes up and kisses her that day.
Speaker 5:Yes, Nonconcentrally, yes, and then is totally grossed out, right, and then makes a wicked witch of the West reference that I did, so we've got to make this short.
Speaker 4:Why have?
Speaker 2:we not? Why has this not been made? They're 100 percent has to be made.
Speaker 3:It's really the most problematic relationship in the film is Jimmy Dugan with the, with the chaperone it's the one that you're like.
Speaker 3:this is this this is not actually super good, yeah, yeah. Well, although he does, you know he does to Jimmy Dugan's credit, he does say that he, you know, he like turns down the triple A to the job because he's already got a job and that's managing the peaches. And I think in that moment he says something to the chaperone that makes me feel like they've worked their things out. But we don't really see that. We just see these kind of like problematic moments. That's true.
Speaker 4:I'd say I'm trying to think if there's anything else that comes close to that kind of violence in that, but honestly it'd be Rosie throwing the baseball. Yeah, maybe you know, but we don't see it because she succeeds Right.
Speaker 5:Still well, does get hit in the face with a baseball glove, but he's such a psychopath yeah, he's so insane, You're willing, which is insane to say about a kid.
Speaker 4:but yeah, I'm ready for it, oh yeah, gustus Gloop the dude, and that raspberry Is real. That is nasty.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, the bruise, it's real. Yeah, yeah, that's real.
Speaker 5:It's like not makeup. I mean because, many times I watch this movie and thought like wow what it looks really good Is real.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, that's really good. She earned it.
Speaker 3:I think I read somewhere that it took like a year for her to fully recover from it because the bruise was so deep. Oh, that was I mean it was.
Speaker 4:I mean it was an open wound.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it had like a section to it.
Speaker 4:Oh man, I mean there was just like a little alien crawling out of it. I mean it was a whole thing.
Speaker 2:So, to wrap it up how we always do, let's go down on a gross note. Well, go ahead, go ahead. I was going to say we asked you is this movie hold up for you?
Speaker 3:guys. Yes, 100 percent it's. It's still like the one to be in terms of maybe, if not the best. It's definitely in there for the best baseball film, but I think it is far and away my most favorite and beloved and I could just kind of watch it over and over again Same it is also my favorite baseball movie.
Speaker 5:It's one of my favorite movies period and I again, I think that sugar. If people are looking for a good baseball movie, a baseball movie is perhaps the best baseball movie, but I don't want to watch it again and again and I do just want to watch this movie again and again.
Speaker 4:For you too, matt. Yeah, I think this is definitely when I watched it the first time as a as a kid. It hit me. I watched it so many times I've I don't know how many times I've watched it so, yeah, it's one of my favorite sports movies, but it is definitely. It absolutely holds up, and for me, part of the reason it holds up is and this goes back to what they cut out, think thankfully is a lot of the relationships and how they honor the central relationships. To me, that's where it holds up, and even because it's underplayed and we just made a joke about it at the top, I think Zimmer's score really does a beautiful job holding all of this tension of like it's a period piece and we're we're also talking about memories and we're but we're being very relevant, and so there's a bunch of lines that are being walked, and so for me, yes, it absolutely stands up. Steve.
Speaker 2:Sam Matt. I think it definitely holds up. I love this movie. I'm probably have to watch it again with my wife this week, so it's a good thing, I like it. I want to watch it again.
Speaker 3:There's so many. There's so many good characters with so much good attention to detail and so much arc to them. It's so we haven't even talked about it's so well shot. There are so many like just beautiful images to look at in the midst of all of this great storytelling Amazing. Yeah, we didn't even get to SUD's bucket, that entire dance sequence you know, or the shot of them throwing the luggage on the train. It's incredible.
Speaker 2:It's awesome, it's great and pace so well because they let it develop for so long.
Speaker 4:Yeah, sir, yeah, yeah, yeah your knee.
Speaker 5:I like it.
Speaker 4:Thank you.
Speaker 2:That's like what are we talking about?
Speaker 1:Happy Hour Flicks is a framework production produced by Laurie Kay and James Alodex, hosted by Stephen Pierce and Matt Mundy and found wherever you listen to podcasts, and that music you're hearing is by Johnny Minio. Remember to subscribe. See you next time.
