Apex Mountain on The Rewatchables
30:30 – 33:17… I would make a personal plea for Ribisi. But I guess maybe that's not a big enough. Definitely. That's your lifelong quest to get Ribisi an Oscar. Definitely Apex Mountain for Ribisi. 11 Oscar nominations, 1-5. Director, cinematography, sound, sound effects, editing, film editing. One of three movies to win Best Movie at the PGA, DGA, and Golden Globe, plus a Best Director Oscar, while not winning Best Picture. Can you name the other two? One of three movies to get the PGA, DGA, and WGA, you said? And Golden Globe. And Golden Globe. Plus a Best Director Oscar, but not win Best Picture. Brokeback Mountain? …
The whole segment, as transcribed
And he has so many, like, meaty scenes in this movie. Or at least, like, meaty acting performance scenes. I would make a personal plea for Ribisi. But I guess maybe that's not a big enough. Definitely. That's your lifelong quest to get Ribisi an Oscar. Definitely Apex Mountain for Ribisi. 11 Oscar nominations, 1-5. Director, cinematography, sound, sound effects, editing, film editing. One of three movies to win Best Movie at the PGA, DGA, and Golden Globe, plus a Best Director Oscar, while not winning Best Picture. Can you name the other two? One of three movies to get the PGA, DGA, and WGA, you said? And Golden Globe. And Golden Globe. Plus a Best Director Oscar, but not win Best Picture. Brokeback Mountain? That's one. Another Oscar travesty. That one's a really bad Oscar travesty. La La Land. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Oh, wow. Because remember, that was the case that La La Land was going to win because it had hit all these checkpoints that when you hit the checkpoints, you're a guaranteed winner. And then it didn't win. That's so fascinating. I mean, it's similar narratives there on both ends, too, where the late surge from aggressive campaigns for films that were theoretically underdogs. Moonlight and Crash being underdogs relative to the literary adaptation of Brokeback Mountain and the incredible talent that was assembled around that movie and the way that it was proclaimed in Moonlight, obviously, being a really small film. The smallest film ever to win Best Picture. But I want to see the ballots from this Oscars. I want to know what the count was. Do they really might have been like three votes. It's crazy that it didn't win. Do they archive that and then release it after a certain amount of time? I don't know. You'd have to ask PricewaterhouseCoopers. I really don't know. That would be cool, though. Wouldn't it be cool historically to be able to study that stuff? We've been saying for years that they should release the numbers. That's what I want to do. I want them to reveal in real time through the show. This had the fifth most votes. This had the fourth most votes. This had the third most votes. And then the show concludes with, and your winner is, and you reveal first and second place. That would be the most exciting way to have the Oscars. But they don't want anybody to feel bad because they only got 112 votes. You would argue this probably checked the most boxes for what you would think would win Best Picture Oscar. Back then, yes. In the late 90s? If it got nominated, if it was today, I don't think so. Oh, we'll talk about that later. Yeah. Written by Robert Rodat. Is that how you say it? Rodat? I don't know. Or Rodat. Not like a widely hailed screenwriter. No, but really smart and is a big part of this movie because he reads this anecdote in this book and comes up with this movie. And he wrote it and produced by Mark Gordon. They did it. $70 million budget. Made $485 million.
98:05 – 107:09… Yeah. Can you imagine somebody in Boston being told one minute after the movie started they can't get in? You think you're better than me? Open the door now! Apex Mountain. My cousin runs this place! I'm going to bring Vinny back. Apex Mountain. Wait, I have one more piece of half-assed internet research. What is it? The Lincoln Bixby letter was kind of fake news. Yeah, it was. It was believed that she had lost these five kids during the Civil War, and it would later be found out that only two of her sons died in the battle, and one of the three deserted. One was discharged, and another died as a prisoner of …
The whole segment, as transcribed
It's a cool idea though. Yeah. Can you imagine somebody in Boston being told one minute after the movie started they can't get in? You think you're better than me? Open the door now! Apex Mountain. My cousin runs this place! I'm going to bring Vinny back. Apex Mountain. Wait, I have one more piece of half-assed internet research. What is it? The Lincoln Bixby letter was kind of fake news. Yeah, it was. It was believed that she had lost these five kids during the Civil War, and it would later be found out that only two of her sons died in the battle, and one of the three deserted. One was discharged, and another died as a prisoner of war. Jeez. Tough beat for America. And America, yeah. America, once again, built on a foundation of lies. Earn this! Yeah, earn that, Lincoln. Apex Mountain. Spielberg, no. Hanks, no. I did think about it though, but I think we already... Gave it to Castaway or something? No, it was like mid-90s for Hanks. Okay. Wasn't it like after Forrest Gump? How was he ever bigger than after Forrest Gump? I agree. That's when he's like, I want to direct this movie, that thing you do, and you're just going to give me money for it. And the studio's like, cool, here's money. Damon, no. Ed Burns? I feel like it's She's the One. I felt like Ed Burns was like the... He gets Tom Petty on the soundtrack? I feel like he was Gen X Woody Allen after She's the One. Lance Aniston? The hottest cast of females ever put in the same movie? Fucking broke records? It's kind of hard to say the little scene, She's the One, is his Apex Mountain over being the third lead? I know, but here's the thing. In the greatest war film ever made. He did an act for three more years after this. He said that this is the greatest professional experience of his life. All right. I just, it didn't lead to anything, which is kind of the point of Apex Mountain. He didn't have... Do you remember when She's the One was coming out and we were like, it's here. Annie Hall 2.0. We got it. And then it came out and people were like, oh, he's fine. It really didn't do what it was supposed to do. I know it did for you. Is there one I do with She's the One rewatchable? I still feel like it's Annie Hall 2.0. She's the One? Is there dialogue in the movie? I didn't even notice. Oh, God. Just put that thing on mute. That thing's throwing 110. That thing. So you can get a better look at Maxine Bonds? Oh, my God. Aniston, all-time Apex for her. Cam Diaz, throwing 700 miles an hour. Leslie Mann's in there? Young Leslie Mann? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Maxine Baines? And there's one other one, too. Is it Maxine Baines, her name? Bonds. Maxine Bonds? Mike McGlone. His hot bod. No, there's one. Who plays his dad in that movie, too? Mahoney, right? Oh, yeah. It's John Mahoney. That's great. The flaw of that movie is that the guy doesn't want to have sex with Jennifer Anderson as his wife. That's where it falls apart. Let's not get too far afield from World War II and what these men gave for our freedom. That was my next Apex fountain, World War II movies. Definitely the first time in any conversation in my life that I've talked about both my grandfather being a prisoner of war and Maxine Bonds. And Ed Byrne says, Woody Allen 2.0. Thank you for your service, Maxine. Was this the Apex? Was this the Apex Mountain of World War II movies? Is this the most famous World War II movie ever? I was wondering about this. Because I was like, is The Great Escape still Apex Mountain for World War II? It did start this whole Greatest Generation reboot where there are movies, TV shows, Band of Brothers. When did the Bro Call book come out? Was it before this movie? I think it's more close to Band of Brothers. Yeah. It did jumpstart a whole moment. Because there was a moment where it just felt like those guys were on TV every night. Oh, yeah. It's a really interesting question that I thought about a lot. I feel like the best World War II movies are often these very super focused stories on an individual group of people. This one is, of course. But also it represents a huge theater of the war. But like Stalick 17, Chris mentioned earlier, From Here to Eternity. Some of these legendary movies. I'm going to ask my dad as you're talking. A lot of those. I mean, even the adventure movies like Where Eagles Dare and Guns of Navarone. And all these movies are about missions and guys going on missions. And in some ways, they're pretty fun. Yeah. Oh, Great Escape is like, this would be cool. You know? Yeah. Hang out with these guys. Ron Ryan's Express or Castle Keep. Like all those cool movies in the 60s and 70s. And this one is different. This one's trying to be representative of the war. So in that respect, I think it accomplishes that better than any movie. I think it's Apex Mountain for filmed combat. It's hard to imagine. Agree with that. Kaminsky, yes. Sizemore, no. The concept of morphing, I do feel like it's either this or Terminator 2. Morphing? Yeah. When the character in a movie, their face morphs into a different character. Well, sure. One's a dissolve, like an edit. And the other is like a T-1000 turning into its liquid metal skeleton. This is a how did... Both of them are the how do they do that. Okay. Where the guy looks so much like Damon. It's Damon's face and then it's... Becomes this other actor in a way that is unusual. I'm gonna go with Mystique from X-Men Days of Future Past and all of the morphing that she does in that film. Played by Jennifer Lawrence. Pepper? Yeah. I'm gonna say yes. Apex Mountain for Pepper? Yeah. 25th hour for me personally. Fair. How about picking up your own arm, Chris? In a movie. Trying to think, did this movie invent that? No, but somebody on Twitter is gonna be like, actually you guys missed these three other iconic picking up your arm moments. I feel like I have seen that in a movie before. Gosh, I don't know. Fubar? We thought Tank on Cash? Shay and I? Yeah, that's right. We thought I invented Fubar and then it turns out it's been in all of these other movies. What a run for Fubar. I have it in Apex Mountain. My dad has weighed in on best World War II movie. He says, Saving Private Ryan probably or the Band of Brothers series. My dad loved the Band of Brothers series. Very good. It's very good. There you go. Apex Mountain for taking gum out of another guy's mouth. That's disgusting. That scene is disgusting. It's more disgusting than the arm. What would be the situation where you would do that? I would never chew your Nicorette gum ever. If you have the Nicorette gum, I would sooner die than put it in my mouth. But what if it was like some Big League Chew? I do love Big League Chew. Great Big League Chew. Half-chewed Great Big League Chew from Chris. Would you put it in your mouth? No, but I've taken gum from my wife's mouth. Is it something about me or is it just you wouldn't do it? Life is different. Yeah. I've also taken gum from my kid's mouth. But you wouldn't do it with me. That's also different. Be either related or married to you to take gum. Yeah. Okay. That's it. That's where I draw the line. I would... I don't ever want to trade bodily fluids with you under any circumstances. Let's say you were golfing and you broke your leg. And you were like, I'm dying here. Like, I need some gum. I'd give you my gum. You... Why would he break his leg when he's golfing? I'm just trying to imagine like a golf cart accident. I would say fetch me a nine millimeter. Okay. I need to end it. Okay. You would say, did I have a good leg, Chris? And I'd be like, well... That was fine. Your slice really came back at the end, you know? You know what I would say? What? Earn this. Right. Earn this ninth hole. Was this Spielberg's Hall of Fame plaque movie? No. No. It's Jaws, right? Jaws and Schindler's List. And not Hank's either. Okay. Best racehorse name. I have Private Ryan, Ugly Tree, or Omaha Beach. Yeah. I got Alice in the Barn. Alice in the Barn's a good one. Yeah. I like that. Earn this. Earn this. Here comes Earn this. That's good. Picky Knits. Goldman was all over this. This movie has an unreliable narrator. Where, with Private Ryan in the beginning, old Private Ryan, it goes into his eyes, and now we're on Omaha Beach. And you think we're Miller. And he wasn't there. Right. So, it's narrative cheating. It just is. So, does this movie... This doesn't bother me. This doesn't bother me at all. William Goldman spends a thousand words losing his mind about this. I love how upset he is about it. He's very mad. Yeah. I also... I think the more distracting thing that happens in this movie, probably for me, is that midway through... Well, not even midway through. About an hour and Jeremy Davies shows up. And then about midway through his time with the squad, the movie subtly kind of shifts to his perspective. It does. Yeah. And he becomes basically like the cinematic narrator of the movie. The POV character. Yeah. And that doesn't throw you off, but I think it maybe changes the way the movie feels subtly.
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