All Versions Of... Francis Ford Coppolas The Cotton Club (with Gil Palmer & Filmmaker Mark Oguschewitz)

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[00:00:39] That too. He's showing off again. Showing off is that you get to be a star. I want to do Broadway. You want to do white show business? I want to make it. I mean really make it. The white man ain't left me nothing out here but the underworld and that is where I dance. We got twice as many cops in Harlem as we had three days ago.

[00:01:06] Stormy West. Since my man and I came together. They asked me to do a song. It'd be a brother. How could you go behind my path? If you make it then maybe somebody else has a shot to make it. Maybe even you can make it. Who the hell are you? You do not push people around without some people pushing back.

[00:01:29] Stormy West. I'll never have figures you around. It's funny I know all about you. You gotta be careful who you play piano for. What were you doing backstage with him? I was kissing him.

[00:02:33] Sometimes we get so deep into conversation that we have separate segments worthy of their own place in the sun. Here is a reshuffled mini-up. Keep seeing who else I can get on. Everyone wants to talk only comedies or horror. I'm like guys we need more sci-fi and action. Chads. There's a gazillion horror ones.

[00:03:02] Have you discussed I mean you've done so many podcasts. Have you discussed Flash Gordon already? I thought we were gonna do one on like the serials or something. Yeah we could do another double feature. I think as close as we got was talking about box office bombs. Yeah I mean we could have some females come in and talk about their love of campy sci-fi.

[00:03:26] You just have anybody come in and talk about Flash Gordon because that's such a corny fun movie. And if you ever want to meet Flash what's his name Jones? Sam J. Jones. Yeah he's always at the comic book convention signing. I bet. Are you talking San Diego or that kind of thing? He was at San Diego and I think I've seen him at another one down closer to where I live. At one in like Long Beach or something like that.

[00:03:56] I seem to always see him at these signings. I haven't actually met him yet. I should probably. I got a big Flash Gordon behind the scenes book that would be nice to probably get him to sign. Maybe get a movie recommendation from him. Sure. That sounds like a plan. I'm not gonna cut it off the table. Yeah I mean there's plenty of time to do all kinds of other movies. They don't have to be just franchises.

[00:04:26] We've been doing some cult movies too because it's always fun seeing which ones had like numerous comic book spinoffs or video games dedicated to them and it was just that one movie. Yeah I liked when we talked about Killdozer. Oh absolutely. You know I just saw that movie for the first time three months ago. I don't know how I found it but I found a YouTube video. It sold itself. It sold itself. It's all talking to Conan. Conan yeah. Colin yeah whatever his name is.

[00:04:58] And I'm like I gotta see this movie and I have a video rental house not that far from me that has everything and so video DVD Blu-ray rental house and they had it and I watched it a big special edition DVD. Oh lucky you. That was a fun movie. It wasn't what I expected. I was expecting like exploitation. Right. But it was it was kind of fun. It was a made for TV movie in 74 so. Right.

[00:05:25] I every other rental place seems to close down and I when I still see red boxes but I don't know who owns them since the parent company just found chapter 11. I'm like it's gonna get very weird. We got a couple of them around here that in there they're like specialty kind of DVD place. I mean they got the regular movies but when you go in they're not they have the action section but then they have the action director section.

[00:05:49] They have the foreign they have the foreign movies split up by country and then directors and they had everything. Everything. Everything. And then if you don't see anything I just learned and you ask about it there's a good chance he's gonna get it because what was it was a Sylvester Stallone movie of all movies. Paradise Alley. I had seen Siskel and Ebert reviewing it and because I sometimes watch the their YouTube there's a YouTube channel that has all their stuff and they they reviewed it and I don't watch that.

[00:06:18] I go into the video store. He's like no I don't have that one. I go in the next time and he had it. I find like streaming anymore Amazon Prime is the one that has the weirder weirder movies to find. 2B Shudder yeah and 2B is kind of the best but you gotta sit through commercials that interrupts it with commercials. Let's see they're free seconds. That's why I mentioned Amazon Prime.

[00:06:43] They're all gonna do ads all I ask is that the ads be quick and funny you know like don't repeat constantly. I just wish they would start putting more on somebody's like some of the movies I want to do for my website I can't find streaming like Runaway Train. I would be doing that in a shot if it was streaming somewhere. Sometimes it'll raise her out of brand and the DVDs are like $200 to where you're like seriously I just want to watch it. Well I want to recommend it to people but I can't recommend something.

[00:07:11] I want to own it instead of be like oh I guess I can't ever watch it again and unfortunately I mean we've been talking about director's cuts. It's you want to have a director's cut of a movie so you can just have options. Sometimes the reason people get tired of movies is they know the story in and out so it's better to watch the movie with the scenes that not everyone remembers that change the tone.

[00:07:35] You know we were talking about which versions of Blade Runner we like to watch and it's like hey at least there's five versions for you to pick. That's that's fun. It's never gonna get boring because then when you rewatch it with whatever you know the commentary or special features you know it's gonna be a different version each time. So now if they could only release those original versions of the first three Star Wars movies. Yeah I got them on I got them on DVD before they got changed.

[00:08:04] Yeah I'm on DVD too but I mean the reality is is DVDs only last so long. Right. Yeah. Absolutely. And the fact that they changed the Blu-ray well and then they changed the other DVDs and then they changed the Disney Plus version where it's more ambiguous. And you're like no one's gonna know what version is legit now. It's like a bad joke that people keep telling at Thanksgiving and you're like why was this a thing again?

[00:08:34] Yeah you gotta be well researched. I was listening to a friend's podcast and they were ragging on Leon the professional. And I could so tell and these are supposed to this guy is supposed to be like somebody who knows movies. And I could so tell that they were talking about the edited version. And he wasn't just ragging on it he was ragging on people who liked it. Like I don't understand why people like this. Yeah it'd be really horrible taste to like this movie. And I'm like well because you haven't seen the director.

[00:09:01] The not necessarily the director's cut the European cut. Because everywhere else in the world with the exception of America watch the other version. The good version. Right. And I don't even know if you can get that the uncut version streaming in the states. That's a good question. I mean and again it does make a difference. You know I think the reason many people hate certain movies is they watch a crappy TBS dub version of it.

[00:09:31] And sometimes there's movies where it's like I legit want you guys were making fun of Jeff Speakman and some of the other stuff earlier. There's a extended TV version of The Perfect Weapon that has more character development. And it's just like yeah some movies they have those extended scenes. I mean Cobra has an extended TV scene that actually fixes the plot holes in that goofy movie. I was listening to a podcast about a month ago and the guy was talking about how he had watched Eyes Wide Shut and he didn't like it. And by all means if you don't like the movie that's fine.

[00:10:01] I don't care about that. Eyes Wide Shut is an okay movie to me. It's when he let it slip that he was watching it on the airplane on his cell phone. Oh my word. It's like you're watching a Kubrick movie on the airplane with those bad headphones on your cell phone. There are some movies you have to go the extra mile. So like if it's a spectacle I try to watch it in the theater. I mean I saw Apocalypse Now in a film studies class.

[00:10:30] That was the way to watch it in a theater because you watch it on Spike TV or AMC modified. That's not cutting the mustard. There's just some I don't even know why they play movies like Tarantino you know edited on TV. I'm like it's just not going to make a lick of sense. You're going to miss something. You're going to miss the purpose of a scene. You're going to see something. They're going to say something that's not actually what they say in the uncut version. You know that just kill.

[00:10:58] Just watch the network broadcast version of Starface. Yeah good fellas even though that was modified by Scorsese. You're just like yeah. I would like to see a release of the. Of the first two Godfathers edited together and they've done it on VHS. But I would like to see the reworked like Blu-ray of it or something. They did it on Laserdisc. It was I think it was called the Legacy. Right. And they put it in chronological order. Oh. So.

[00:11:28] That's a lot. I haven't seen. Has anybody seen the recut of Godfather 3? I've seen some of the new scenes they added and it seems like they were decent but kind of minuscule. I really am curious because Coppola when he did the Cotton Club it went from an okay movie to a phenomenal movie. Yeah. That is definitely a better director's cut. Like.

[00:11:53] And so I'd like to see but of course I got to sit through two three hour movies before I watch part three. Yeah. Watch one and two. Unless you can get it dirt cheap at like one of those movie reselling places I wouldn't really bother much with it. But I have a copy of it. Oh. Well. At home because you know Coppola he's not one of my favorite directors but when he makes a good movie he makes a good movie. All right. Well I mean. I'm really curious.

[00:12:23] You might like it or you might not see much difference but I mean. I'll let you know when I finally watch it. But I'm glad you mentioned Cotton Club because I tried doing that to other people and I tried doing this with Johnny Mnemonic. I'm like because if you get Jonathan you might actually like this movie but I mean. And again I grew up hating that movie. I was just like hey it's got cool ideas and visuals but the story doesn't make any sense. And it's. There's so many brief edits. I find out oh they took it away you know the studio took it away from the director and everything.

[00:12:52] And I see it the uncut version. I actually you know there's more of the villains. I see why they're trying to kill them. It's got a different opening narration movie score and edit. It's like see that's the movie that should have come out. It wouldn't have been junky or look derivative. But there's a ton of there's a ton of those. Peckinpah's Pat Caridin. George Lucas. We are superior. Well and George Lucas we we talk smack about him sometimes but at least he had a point in that studios are not filmmakers. You know filmmakers are filmmakers.

[00:13:22] Yeah. Yeah but then there's the logic of it's called the movie business. You know and I get it but. But you know I mean that I mentioned Joel Silver earlier I would like to see more of those producers who they love movies. They want to make a certain kind of movie and.

[00:13:43] Even though they can be have some animosity on set they still want someone who they think is perfect for the job and they want it to be as much their movie as it is theirs. You know it's just like there's you don't get as much camaraderie you know it seems like you either get someone. We were joking about this with Dennis Vanob and some of the others is like you either let them do whatever the hell they want because they're.

[00:14:09] Even when they're they underperform they often are successful or you get the ones who it just seems like you have to force them at gunpoint to do a movie that they otherwise don't want to do. And it's like well no one really grows if just both sides aren't happy. It's just I get that you've got to learn you got I mean Jason Reitman kind of learned what kind of comedy and dramas he was good at when he was first getting into directing. You know he was good with satire not as always as good with drama.

[00:14:38] I'm okay with experimenting and you know the filmmakers you know are always going to have movies that they're not proud of but their fan base really much loves you know Michael Mann and William Friedkin have their share of movies that they have disowned but the fans wanted to see a director's cut. I mean like and unfortunately too many of these ships have sold you know they can't get the rights there's too many music copywriting or they just they have zero interest in making a better version of the movie just because it.

[00:15:08] It's really just the set and that's what I have to I'm sure you've had to do this to Mark and Gil just explain to people hey the movie was found in the editing room. You know no one had fun filming it. Yeah well the fugitive I believe was found in the editing room. The fugitive many other Joel Silver movies last Boy Scout. Yeah I want to say true grit was found in the editing room but I'm not sure that's the there was a John Wayne movie that was completely re-edited in the editing room.

[00:15:35] Maybe McLintock one of his cop movies I don't know but I mean Star Wars the first one you know. He and Maria Lucas didn't get along but they divorced but she really helped out a bunch and. There's plenty of other ones where it's just like hey. I'm sure most movies to some extent because when you're in the editing room because I've edited quite a bit. It was my paid job for a long time. Some days you like some scenes other times you're like oh I lose something.

[00:16:05] You'll move scenes around you'll sit there and say oh that's not working for performance. Once if this scene came for you'll cut scenes out. You'll find the tone of the movie a lot of times in in the editing room. There was trust me Gil that this podcast was not found right away. There were times where I was letting some stuff go on way too long and I was like this needs to be cut down. If I was anyone else I would find this a boring side chat you know. So and.

[00:16:35] A lot of people just don't have any discretion they they want to treat every scene like their babies and it's like well just. Well you have to be careful with that too. Now we're getting into filmmaking talk off the expendables. I am I shot and I directed a movie. It's a four and a half minute short film. First shot was about 35 seconds and the DP did this amazing job because he moved moving the camera from place to place to place. He hit every beat and I loved it.

[00:17:02] I kept it in once again it's a four and a half minute short 30 seconds ago. That's great. And so 30 seconds goes by and then the title comes up and I had a producer who's just like Mark you can't have a 30 33 second shot opening your movie. You got to cut it down. You got to cut it down. And I finally got sick of hearing him do it so I cut it down put some dissolves in played festivals did really well with it. About six seven years later.

[00:17:28] I have a friend sitting there saying hey we're going to be showing old movies that we directed you want to show your movie and so I bring it in and I'm sitting there watching and I'm like to myself. I am so glad he made me cut that down. When I was in the process of making the movie I fought it and fought it and fought it but when I was able to separate myself away from it I realized. Oh man my producer saved that opening of my movie because now it's only seven seconds as opposed to 30 seconds. So you find it. It's tough. It's always tough. Yeah.

[00:17:57] We'll return after these messages. Hey it's Brent Pope the host of Brentfist with Brent Pope. You've seen me on some of your favorite TV shows saying things like give it up Jimmy you got to sink this put to win. On Brentfist with Brent Pope I sit down with guests for the entertainment world and we do it all over breakfast. Or should I say Brentfist. Every week on Brentfist you get inside Hollywood info and tips. Great breakfast wrecks and booty debates. Most of all you get the most delightful 30 minutes of your week. So dig in. It's Brentfist time.

[00:18:27] Listen at Brentfist.com, Apple Podcasts or wherever fine podcasts are found. Welcome to the Better Call Daddy show. The number one podcast where we admit no matter what happens daddy has the advice we need to fix our problems. Introducing my dad, Mr. Wayne Friedman. That was good. It would be nice if you could also sing a song. What would the song be? You love Paris in the springtime. I just made up some words to it. I love Rena in the springtime. I love Rena in the fall.

[00:18:58] That's right. That's good enough. What I do is interview people of interest, share it with my dad and get my dad's advice. My dad is my hero. Nobody's got my daddy. Oh boy. Let's go to grandpa. You like to be a little rebel. I tried to rein you in. I have a daughter named Rena that acts just like I did. She's got a son that is not only just like me, but it's just like her. I'm your host, Rena Friedman Watts. Invite your friends, subscribe. And I'm excited to take this journey with you.

[00:19:28] Let's dive in. She was teasing this guy with the sword and she accidentally cut his dick. Oh my God, I'm dying. And then he started to enjoy it. I started going down the phone sex rabbit hole. You've got the wankers and they jerk off in five seconds and then they're done because A, they don't want to spend money and B, they're quick. My stepfather had mania. If I'm yelling at one of my kids, that fear, that rigid fear. Mom even said to me, I hope you have a kid just like you.

[00:19:54] There are lots of people that are being bought and sold right now for profit. If you think you're going to kill yourself, shut up and kill yourself. If you're not going to kill yourself, then shut up, smarten up and it's all on you. The bullshit has to end. Wow. When I was 11 years old, I was raped and molested over the course of a year. What Jeffrey Epstein had was a sickness inside of him. I am Evan Castrilli Carmichael. I could do anything that I believe that I can. I'm so excited too. Let's go.

[00:20:21] Next on Better Call Daddy with my mom and my grandpa. Stay tuned. The Jacked Up Review Show Podcast is honored to be part of the Blind Knowledge Podcast Network. Join anytime, talk the talk, and enjoy yourselves. There's something enlightening for everyone with this crowd of cool cats. Check them out.

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