THE BOYS IN THE BOAT PODCAST
Embark with us on a captivating true story journey as we unveil the stirring narrative of "The Boys in the Boat," tracing the University of Washington's rowing team from the depths of the Great Depression to their awe-inspiring Olympic victory. You'll discover the potent depiction of unwavering teamwork and perseverance, with a nod to the outstanding direction by George Clooney and riveting performances by Joel Edgerton and Callum Turner. We'll also share insights into the passionate book recommendation that started it all.
Step onto the film set and grasp the essence of turning actors into authentic 1920s oarsmen, thanks to the tireless dedication of a stellar cast and crew. The episode peels back the curtain, revealing the rigorous training that underpins the actors' physical transformations and the meticulous creative vision of a director like Clooney. Furthermore, we honor the depth of Joel Edgerton's role as the coach, previewing a film scene that epitomizes the high-stakes world of competitive rowing.
As we wind down, the conversation turns personal, drawing parallels between the characters' struggles and our own battles with adversity, highlighting the film's message that success is a collective journey. We'll also row through the technical finesse of the sport, exploring the 'swing' of the crew and the kinship they form. Special guest James Wolk, as Coach Tom Bowles, shares his insights, contributing to a poignant episode that celebrates the human spirit and the enchantment of storytelling. Join us for this heartfelt episode that is sure to resonate with the dreamer and achiever in all of us.
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT PODCAST
Embark with us on a captivating true story journey as we unveil the stirring narrative of "The Boys in the Boat," tracing the University of Washington's rowing team from the depths of the Great Depression to their awe-inspiring Olympic victory. You'll discover the potent depiction of unwavering teamwork and perseverance, with a nod to the outstanding direction by George Clooney and riveting performances by Joel Edgerton and Callum Turner. We'll also share insights into the passionate book recommendation that started it all.
Step onto the film set and grasp the essence of turning actors into authentic 1920s oarsmen, thanks to the tireless dedication of a stellar cast and crew. The episode peels back the curtain, revealing the rigorous training that underpins the actors' physical transformations and the meticulous creative vision of a director like Clooney. Furthermore, we honor the depth of Joel Edgerton's role as the coach, previewing a film scene that epitomizes the high-stakes world of competitive rowing.
As we wind down, the conversation turns personal, drawing parallels between the characters' struggles and our own battles with adversity, highlighting the film's message that success is a collective journey. We'll also row through the technical finesse of the sport, exploring the 'swing' of the crew and the kinship they form. Special guest James Wolk, as Coach Tom Bowles, shares his insights, contributing to a poignant episode that celebrates the human spirit and the enchantment of storytelling. Join us for this heartfelt episode that is sure to resonate with the dreamer and achiever in all of us.
Because we now have the Cinema Judge.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello, hello and welcome to the Cinema, judge, I hope my voice finds you well. To all my regulars out there, welcome back. If you're new to the show, welcome aboard. Now approach the bench. Today we have the movie the Boys in the Boat and this is the tagline A story set in the 1930s, centered on the University of Washington's rowing team, from their Depression era beginnings to winning the gold in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. If you've never read the book, strongly recommend that. That's what this is based on. It's one of those incredible stories where you're like, wow, look at what these men did. It is incredible. So here's the trailer for the Boys in the Boat.
Speaker 3:There are some moments in life they never forget. The Depression hit everyone hard no jobs, no food. We were broke. Looks like you still owe a balance on this semester.
Speaker 4:So what's?
Speaker 3:that about making some money. You get the wrong team, you get a part-time job included.
Speaker 5:You place the live A-man crew is the most difficult team sport in the world. The average human body is just not meant for such things. Most of you will have to choose it.
Speaker 6:Beautiful speech coach.
Speaker 1:You're announcing the team today. Are you going to make it?
Speaker 3:We rode out of need. Come on, boys, I need to stay in school, I need to eat, I need to sleep. I've got to keep these all right as long as we stay on the team.
Speaker 1:Washington Huskies' coach is bringing an inexperienced boat to the competition.
Speaker 3:They said we couldn't compete with the richest school in the nation.
Speaker 1:The Washington boat is taking the lead. Washington has the best.
Speaker 5:I got nine seconds under the course record Olympic year, this year Olympic year I didn't realize.
Speaker 3:That bunch of kids slung like no one else since it ever comes from me.
Speaker 5:Everybody else tires and it just gets stronger. We have the boat that I believe could qualify for an Olympic spot If you know what you're doing.
Speaker 3:they said we couldn't beat the Germans, we had to beat those other schools first, but coach says we had a son.
Speaker 6:Baby, we can roll as a team.
Speaker 1:If you guys don't get yourselves figured out, you're not racing at all.
Speaker 4:The boys?
Speaker 3:they're both so I got, but they didn't understand who we were. The show was in the spot.
Speaker 1:I don't believe what I'm seeing.
Speaker 6:Best boats. They're connected, Sweat and pain what is worth.
Speaker 5:I'm proud of you boys Inspiring. You missed the part where I told them not to tip over and I won.
Speaker 6:Roll for your country, roll for each other For all the people who never believed in you.
Speaker 1:I won. I won.
Speaker 2:First things first. For you music lovers out there, at the very end of that trailer you heard Tom Petty I won't back down. Come on, what more do you need this movie? That song enough said. I just love these kind of movies, even those last few lines of the trailer, when they keep repeating as one as one. You can just imagine yourself in that boat, just getting revved up, working with your teammates.
Speaker 2:It's just one of those feel-good movies where you sometimes look around and you go man, I could do so much better sometimes. You know I don't know about you guys, but I know I'm a, I whine a lot and I'm like well, you know, these guys really kick butt from the depths of depression, trying to do whatever they can to make this team not an easy task. A couple days ago I read a commentary about this movie. In movies like this, these individuals are ripping it, saying we shouldn't have these kind of movies. We need more movies where people lose. I'm like what we do that every day of our lives. These are the kind of movies we go to to escape, to get away from, and that's what George Clooney has done here. He just touches. You can just feel his touch on this and it's so beautifully shot. You just feel the energy and everything involved, the color palettes, everything. He just does one heck of a job In this movie stars Joel Edgerton and Callum Turner.
Speaker 2:And Callum Turner plays the main character, joel Rance. And I tell you what, when you read the book, that guy has an amazing story. It's just. You read it you go wow, it's just incredible what people overcome.
Speaker 2:So, coming up first, we're going to play a couple of featurettes for you and in these featurettes you're going to hear interviews, you're going to hear clips from scenes, you're going to hear on the set footage Later on in this show. I'm going to give you a website in case you want to watch this show and you can watch these featurettes, watch the interviews, watch the scenes, because sometimes you can get a lot more out of it that way. It's not at the website right now due to the holiday season right now, but in a few days it will be. So if you do like to watch interviews and clips and all that stuff, it will be up there shortly. It's just not going to be up there the next day or so.
Speaker 2:For those of you who jump on right away and listen to the show and for that I truly thank you. But these are the featurettes going to be. First one, just a basic look inside the movie. You're going to hear interviews talking about the movie, the cast, what the story's about, things of that nature. And then the other featurettes is gonna be talking about George Clooney, the director, and then after that the feature ad is talking about getting all these actors together to roll, because they shot this in order, and that's what really makes it kind of really amazing, because when you first start off, of course they're lousy, but at the end of the film they are rowing at the same pace as the real life people that were in that boat, and that says a lot about these guys's commitment in working hard.
Speaker 1:So as we come up next those feature ads, I'm gonna let them roll it's a boat full of underdogs representing an underdog nation in three, two, one row, rowing particularly in the 1920s was one of the most attended sports in the united states.
Speaker 7:The boys in the boat is about strong, tough kids, but they were poor and hungry. They're rowing because it's the only way they could stay in college. Well, what's that about making some money?
Speaker 3:yeah, the rowing team, irani, you get a part-time job, including each he placed to live I ain't gonna do is make the team.
Speaker 5:The stakes were much higher for them a man crew is the most difficult team sport in the world. Most of you will not be chosen and it gave him an edge the washington boat is taking the lead.
Speaker 7:Washington has done it these guys at the university of washington take on the seniors I got nine seconds under the course record and then taking on the fraternity kids and then taking on the nazis every film we've ever seen that as an underdog and that you're always rooting for that, you can pull yourself up from nothing and succeed there's lots of times when the human spirit prevails over circumstances that it doesn't seem that they ought to be able to prevail over.
Speaker 3:George understood what the heart of the story was.
Speaker 7:It reminds us of what we're capable of when we pull together the actual story of what they went through was really spectacular for all the people who didn't believe in you as one, as one stay with him until he finishes the first line, and when joel starts to talk, then you can make the move.
Speaker 8:One of the stepping stones for me to want to get involved in the film was talking to george about this story to be directed by george. I'm learning from a master you could just sense that he was excited by the challenge of doing it the washington boat is taking the lead. Washington has done it he and grant have done incredible amount of research about this story.
Speaker 10:It's so easy to write exciting scenes, but to put it together so that it really works and your heart is racing. That's a director's got to george, still he requires planning every shot.
Speaker 8:George really understands where to put a camera for all the people who didn't believe in you.
Speaker 4:George adds to the ferociousness, the power, and brings us closer, as an audience, to the boys in the boat as they cross that finish line we see what we're made of and see that we're actually on each other's sides.
Speaker 7:This film reminds us that we are all in this together the starting gun is up or is to front stops, really it was really important for us to get rowing right just drop the blade in thomas.
Speaker 6:Okay, well, done that ryan is the ultimate team sport.
Speaker 9:Everybody has to do exactly the same thing at the exactly the same time no, for the first six weeks we were training.
Speaker 11:Training started in a controlled environment in this tank, where everybody just figured out the rhythm and then that transitioned on to the river we get picked up at 630 it was wake up, row, eat, sleep, repeat wait and call that's part of the day right here a massive amount of rowing on the river temps and it's also a lot of conditioning work in the gym. It's like having eight people try to learn how to drive at 100 miles an hour, sharing one steering wheel. So george and I went to go snooing the first time they're rowing. I mean, they were horrible it was just like paddles going everywhere about four weeks later they were rowing as a team.
Speaker 4:We would train whenever we had days off throughout filming and we push ourselves and push each other to go as fast as we can we shot in order, so by the time we got to the race in germany, our kids could stay in the game give me 46 yesterday we got to 46, which is the amount of strokes per minute you have in the boat, which is what the boys did in the olympics.
Speaker 2:So when the race, I couldn't be proud of all of us now when I listen those kind of feature ads, it really makes me appreciate the process of making a film, because they just don't get the script. Go there and start reading. These guys had to commit, they had to work out, they had to train, just dedicate so much of their life to getting this right. Because we all know sometimes we make movies, people cut corners. They don't do this, they don't do that. They had professional boat builders come in. These guys did the techniques, you name it. It just amazes me and if you're like me, because if you listen to the show you probably are, I love taking these deep dives when the studio, when they give me this kind of stuff to share, it's just like I could eat this stuff up, because it's not just a movie they slap together this was a commitment, a passion project and it just inspires you to say wow, that's just. It just inspires you sometimes to see what these filmmakers make.
Speaker 2:So coming up next we're gonna hear from the daughter of joel rance, judy rance wilman, and she just talks a little bit about her father and his life and just getting the story story out there. It's just so cool to hear from a relative of somebody who a movie's based on, because they lived with them. They heard the stories, they heard everything about it and now the story's finally being told and I love hearing about that. And then we're gonna hear from the screenwriter, mark l smith, and after that george cluny, and they both talk about the same concept of what they had to take out from the book, because the book is huge, it covers a lot of all his life.
Speaker 2:But obviously this is just a couple hour movie. You can't do that without just ruining the whole thing. So they focus strictly on the college years, but specifically they condensed all their years into one year because if you start adding in all the kids coming and going after every year, that would just get sloppy. And I understand that and that's what sometimes you have to do in the movie have to make creative licenses and changes. But that's just life. But you still get to feel this movie and what these people went through. So that's what you can hear from.
Speaker 12:Check it out well, joe rance was one of the guys who was on the eight or crew team university washington team that went to the 1936 berlin olympics and took a gold medal in front of hitler and, and the story I mean this was during the depression.
Speaker 12:The story is a story of of hardship and determination and and fellowship and I mean it was a an amazing story. A lot of things that went wrong that they shouldn't have been able to overcome throughout, like that entire time, pretty much that that they were on crew. And so my feeling, especially with my dad, who had had a a seriously hard childhood that affected how he could relate to other people, even because he had no trust left and, of course, crew is a sport which requires absolute, ultimate trust of the team members in in one another. So I was, I was feeling like it was, especially now when we seem to have so much trouble trusting each other or working together, anything like that I was feeling like it was important to get this story out so that people could read it the book itself and the story of these boys.
Speaker 10:It's so sprawling and it takes place over several years of while they're in school, and so the the biggest change I made was I condensed everything into one year so that we would we would keep the same the boys, because in the book, you know, we meet a lot of boys on the on that are on the first team or the jv team, the, the squads, and then by the next year they're gone and so we have to meet new boys and everything, and so which would work great in a like a limited series, where we really had time to kind of go with all of them, but in a, in a motion picture, in a film, it needs to be a little bit more condensed and just. You know that that's straight through line and I'm a very structural writer and so whenever I kind of know I have, I kind of have a sense of the rhythm, of where these things kind of need to be, and whenever we have too many, it's just it just threw things out of whack and even though when the script was 150 pages, it was, it just stayed with these boys, it stayed with the same thing. I never tried to kind of go outside and and kind of explore the other years, because it just felt like this was the one we needed to focus on. They gave me the book.
Speaker 10:Uh, george and grant gave me the book and they, uh, they told me that there were other screenplays that had been written, but they asked me not to look at them and they said, just kind of come up with your own version and what you want to do. So I, I went through and just started kind of building it out and I told them, I I gave them like a 20 page treatment of what I wanted to do and kind of pitch them the idea of of staying in this one year rather than going through, you know, all the different ones and meeting the different characters, and how we could focus and we could really kind of wrap our arms around. We'd have a better opportunity to wrap our arms around the boys, you know, if we, if we just stayed with them, and so that worked. And so george and grant signed off and I, I wrote the, I wrote the script and then george, george worked his magic.
Speaker 7:We didn't have to change the truth, you just had to pick what parts of the story you were going to tell, right? So there's a whole beginning of the book where you get to see him as a young boy and see all of that, and then you know you. And then there's the, the, the actual story of what they went through. And then they're sort of later in life and what was really interesting to us was the period of time that they were at university of washington and uh taking on uh sort of three different groups, taking on the seniors first and then taking on the rich, you know, kind of fraternity, kind of kids, and then taking on the nazi. So we felt like that was a really exciting time to do. So we had to focus.
Speaker 7:Uh got to understand what the ins and outs of the actual rowing entail, got to understand what speed is like by uh getting in closer, uh, as opposed to being far back. When you're far back, nothing looks fast. So you could use that as a as your palette in a way to you know. That showed us some of the ways you have to care about the people who are rowing. But you know, rowing in the at the turn of the last century, particularly in the 1920s, was the number one watched sport, meaning attended sport, in the united states. So it was, there were a hundred thousand people at these things. Um, so it was a very big. So it has been, uh, a very big sport and it still is a big sport, but you know, it's kind of it's not, it hasn't been, it's not as big as football and baseball and basketball and all that now.
Speaker 2:So it's just about trying to show the excitement and remind people what something was and how exciting that was for me, I feel, sometimes at least, for you know what I see from around the world or not world, but from just general outlook. I think sometimes we take george cluney's abilities for granite, because look at his films. The man has made some incredible movies the ides of march, michael clayton, up in the air, good night and good luck and that's not even mentioning all the movies he's acted in and everything else he's involved in. He has such an incredible eye and I think he deserves a bit more credit. And that's just. You know, that's just speaking from my own personal opinion. He might get a lot of praise out there that I'm unaware of, but we all know he's a great actor. But we can't forget he has an incredible talent as a director. If you really look at it, that guy, he could have sat back, just ride out his career doing the pretty boy stuff or whatever he wanted to do. He could play George Clooney type roles till the end of time, but he didn't do that. He knew he had stories he wanted to tell and I admire that as a Artist, filmmaker, entertainer, whatever you want to call people out there who do stuff, but he doesn't. He could have retired years ago. I remember hearing your interview. He says you know, I could have stopped making stuff years ago and couldn't spend all my money, but he's not about that. He's about the project, about creating and giving us quality stories, and I slew them for that I could like. And he's humble. That's the deal. I mean I would love to sit. Who wouldn't love to sit down and talk to this guy? I mean I'd freak out, of course, that probably, you know, make make an accident on myself, but he would just sit there and big a man, that's cool and just laugh about it. Anyway, I digress people, I'm on and on. I just had to make that point.
Speaker 2:But coming up next, we're gonna hear from Joel Edgerton, who plays the coach and, if you don't recall, he was in the 2015 movie the gift Boy erased the king, the great Gatsby I'm a Virgo master Gardner 13 lives Obi-Wan Kenobi, and that's just to name a few. The guy's wicked, talented and he talks about how he felt when he got to script and just he just talks about that a little bit. It's just so cool here, a actor of this quality talking about a script like that. It's just really fascinating to me.
Speaker 2:And then we're gonna hear from the director, george Clooney, talking about the character that Joel Edgerton plays, the coach, that this guy was really fighting for his job. Everybody back in that time was fighting for the job. If you don't win, you're done. And then we go back to Joel and he's in talk with his character a little bit more in-depth. And then we have a clip for you and in this clip the coach, joel, is talking to all these wannabe roars. He just gives us really cool speech about. You might be here now, but so many of you aren't gonna make it. I just love the delivery. That's the whole feel of this scene.
Speaker 8:You'll see what I'm saying when I first read the Screenplay for boys in the boat, it just seemed to me to be Completely perfectly laid out, winning and feel good. You know story, sports story and, and you know, every now and then a story comes along that you feel like it's sort of in terms of, you know, like a story or a movie is a little bit almost too good to be true and for the most part, apart from leaving some things out and condensing certain aspects of this story, it's pretty much laid out the way it was. You know stuff's compressed and, as I said, stuff's. There's more stuff to put in there and you could make a much longer film, but the real events landed themselves to such a kind of great.
Speaker 7:Sports film. Well, he's a man with his back up against the wall. You know he hasn't won at this point. He's one as a actual roars, individual roar, but he hasn't won as a coach. And he is up against the you know Very rich schools and they're not a rich school and so they're they're working with supplies that are subbar. They don't have the kind of recruiting, they don't have any of those kind of things and use jobs online.
Speaker 7:It's a depression, you know, and all those coach bowls, all those coaches, we do a scene about it. They go I need this job. I mean, you know there's, this was a time up. That was, you know, we were at 30% unemployment. This was a time where eating was a oh Worry. So they needed this job and if they don't win, they're gonna lose the job. So he, his backings against the wall. For many reasons there's pride involved, obviously. He. He ended up being a coach there for a long, long time and a great successes. So he is a legendary coach and that's why having Such a wonderful actor and Joel there made a big difference. You know, joel comes to the party with a lot of gravitas already and a lot of class and and so he didn't have to do much to to make us, as an audience, trust him and want to fight for him.
Speaker 8:You know well Al or Brickson is.
Speaker 8:You know he's the coach of the varsity and the junior varsity team and and in the context of our story, you know, what is important is that Al was a champion rower himself, although that's not really brought too much into focus, but he understands the sport from the inside and in terms of this sense of the story being about an array of underdogs, even all bricks and as a coach, you know, and his Suits and these sort of large office and his university posting, it is still we get a sense that if things don't work out for for him and the team, that is always a couple of decisions away from losing funding and potentially losing his job, and that he has to answer to a bunch of sort of money, people and and that the university itself, in terms of the sport of rowing, is an underdog.
Speaker 8:So you know, al is this I. You know what I saw all bricks and, as I've always been fascinated and this is what my early conversations with George and Grant were I'm always fascinated by the coach that's on the sideline of the football field or on the side of the swimming pool, who just doesn't look like they're enjoying themselves. They look like they're enjoying a single moment of the sport that they've dedicated their life to. And while, on one hand, you could judge that person as angry or bitter or frustrated, right, it's all born out of a desire to succeed.
Speaker 5:I'm coach Orvrickson. Well, that's coach balls. Coach Brown, now you're all here because we're looking for the eight most qualified young men to fill out JV boat. That means that most of you will not be chosen. In fact, the majority of you will most likely walk away on your own within the next few weeks because your bodies will hurt, your minds will tire and you'll decide. This dream of yours to compete against the greatest crews in the world is just not worth it, and there's no shame in that. Hey, man crew is the most difficult team sport in the world. The average human body is just not meant for such things. It's just not capable of such things. But average is not going to get a seat on my boat. So good luck.
Speaker 2:Now, as that scene was playing, I was sitting here listening to it, because I just don't throw this down and just keep going, I actually listen. As it was playing, I thought to myself you know, what would be great if movie studios did they, had a raffle. Not a bidding thing, because then all the you know, all of us normal people would never win. Have a raffle, and I don't care if it's one, two, three, four, five, ten people, who knows, I don't even care. Have a raffle, the studio picks people out of the hat and you get to go to the set of a movie and watch them film it. It doesn't have to be a vital scene, that's not what we care about but being there watching the magic happen, you people who know people, who know people who know people, talk to your people. Now, that would be a great idea. Talk about getting people engaged in movies, because I remember back in the day they used to have Contests for, hey, be a guest star on this tv show or not a guest star, but a a walk on appearance and things of that nature. That got people really enticed and excited about a tv show. Maybe we should do that now for movies. That would be so cool and no, don't have the people pay for it. You guys can flip the bill. Not every movie can I get it. Not every movie has a big budget, but those who do Invite the little guy Over to your set and watch the magic happen. Huh, just don't it out there.
Speaker 2:But coming up next we're going to hear from Callum Turner, who plays Joel Rance, and he talks about the script. And then we're going to hear from George Clooney. He's going to talk a little bit more about Callum. And then we're going to go back to Joel Edgerton and he talks about what Callum brings to this role. And then we're going to go back to Callum. He's going to talk a little bit more about his character. And then we have a clip for you, and in this clip we have Callum talking to the coach. He's just trying to say I really want back on this team. It's not a long or incredible scene, it's just that, one of those intimate scenes of what can I do to get back.
Speaker 4:My first reaction was that it was a wonderful Rags the Ridge story and I was almost fairy tale-esque. I read the book and there were moments that were really heartbreaking and from those low points in Joel's life to reach the euphoria that he did was really compelling and I was blown away by the story.
Speaker 7:You know Callum's athletic and he's a really wonderful actor and he's kind of always been, for the last few years, kind of around the edges of stardom in a way, around the edges of having something really pop for him, and it felt like this is one. This felt right for him. We were really excited for him to do it and from the minute he came in we felt like we had the right guy.
Speaker 8:You know there's a certain swagger and a masculinity to certain actors and then if they are willing to and confident enough to show a dimension of, you know, vulnerability and fragility or fear, it makes for a full person. It makes for a more interesting character and I think that's something that Callum is very interesting because of that. He's a big guy and he's obviously very confident in some aspects and you know, the impression, the silhouette of him, is that he's a capable man and a tough guy in some aspects, but there's also a softer side to him. So to be able to see the boy and the man at the same time, I think he's really, he's really good and you know, some of my favourite actors have that quality or have that duality.
Speaker 4:Well, we meet Joe Ranz at 19 years old and he's about to start university, which is a miracle to begin with, because he's homeless. He lives in a car. He's been abandoned by his dad when he was 14. His mother died when he was three. He's been fighting his whole life and he's at this point where he's doing something really incredible and he finds rowing because he needs to make some money to stay in university, he needs to pay for his tuition and he just initially rows as a job, as a way to stay in school, but finds this thing that's bigger than him. For the first time in his life, he's found something that's more important than himself.
Speaker 4:He's wounded, he's a wounded individual and he's used to being wounded. He's used to being abandoned. He's used to being alone. He's used to dealing with things in a very quiet way, and that's part of the struggle for him in being part of a team and being responsible for eight other guys and being responsible for the boat rather than just himself. He has to learn to become a team player and that's, you know, on a soul level. That's the thing that is so beautiful for Joe that he understands that, he learns what that means and he grows.
Speaker 5:What can I do for a job? I'm gonna see that why.
Speaker 4:All that time I spent in it, the work we all did together, that boat Saga, the boys Saga. I can't lose that.
Speaker 2:Now, before I even say what I'm gonna say, I wanna make it abundantly clear my world has no way compared to the insane, crazy stuff that these guys had to deal with. So I just wanna make that abundantly clear. I'm not trying to say, oh, I totally get it, because blah blah, blah blah, but a sliver, just a sliver, of understanding of what people like him and the whole crew went through. You're gonna hear from some of the people coming up here in the next few interviews when they talk about the character of these people with having to struggle a little bit. And so here's my example when I was growing up, it was my mom, me, my brother, my folks divorced when I was very young and my mom was on welfare, public assistance, whatever you wanna call it. I just remember one thing one time, a couple quick stories Every one time going to the food shelf and these people are really sweet, they weren't being rude or anything like that and this elderly woman looked at us you know, family of three and she grabbed this container of powdered milk oh, you people like this.
Speaker 2:And she didn't mean it'll buy it, but I sat there and go. What, who likes powdered milk? I mean, I didn't say anything. But I was like, wow, okay, well, thanks.
Speaker 2:And then another time, my mom really liked a certain kind of bread. She liked this bread more than anything. So she went to this little bit higher end a grocery store that was a little bit on the higher end, like I said before. So we went there, we got some other groceries, we're doing our thing. The cash register was that lady was so nice, so lovey-dovey, like the song goes. And then when it came time to pay, my mom took out the food stamps and you should have seen this woman's whole demeanor change. Her face contorted. She was like disgusted to even look at my mom, look at us. She reached out I kid you not with two fingers to grab the money that she was given to her.
Speaker 2:And I sat there as a little kid going are you, are you for real? Are you sickened by this? We're just getting some bread and a couple other things. What's your deal? And again, I am a thousand percent on you.
Speaker 2:I'm not comparing that existence to what these guys went through in the depression. I just slightly have a sliver appreciation for it, because after a while you start having to work for yourself and you don't sometimes want to work with a team. All you are is driven, driven, driven. As I got older, I just needed to work, work, work, work, work, work. I don't care what job it was cleaning toilets, doing this, doing that, whatever it was I knew I couldn't be like that.
Speaker 2:So, in that vein, we have some interviews coming up for you and they talk about this. You can hear from the producer, grant Heslove, and he talks about the main character, joel Rantz, and what everything that he went through, and the same thing we were hearing from George Clooney. We talked about the whole team Also. Everybody came from struggling, fighting for themselves, and they're not used to working like a team, but they had to learn. And then we have a clip for you and in this clip it's kind of a montage where you hear the voice over the coach talking to everybody about what it takes to work as a team and during this you have clips of the team rowing, making the boat, just doing all that stuff to work together. It's just one of those montages that you're like, yeah, go, team go. You'll see what I'm saying.
Speaker 11:Well, I mean, you sort of hit it on the head. He comes to rowing only out of need. He just wants a place to work and a place to sleep so he can go to school, go to college and make something of himself, and so rowing was just a means to an end for him. So once he started to row and once he got involved with this coach and these boys and Pocock and the building of the boats, he was infected by it and that kind of informs how he is in the rest of the film. He becomes one of the great rowers of all time.
Speaker 7:I think also, what happens is that these guys, because they grew up in the Depression and because he was left his father left when he was 14 years old, I think they all and all of them they were poor they learned to fend for themselves at a very young age. Suddenly they're part of a team. That, for any of yourself, doesn't work. You actually have to rely on the guy in front and the guy behind you, and that makes a big difference for them. And so one of the stories, one of the main stories of this film, is about being able to be part of a team. Not that this only works if we all do it together. It doesn't work on your own, and I think that that was the lesson he had to learn. I think a lot of those guys had to learn, because I think that was a. They were young and poor and hungry, and the coach, o'brixon, had to teach them how to channel that into working together, not by themselves, and that's what O'Brixon did beautifully.
Speaker 6:Technique is more important than power. You have to be able to pull a perfect door, stroke after stroke. It's called swing. When all eight are rowing in such perfect unison that no single option is out of sync with the rest of the boat, then you aren't fighting each other. You're moving less effort. Each one of your strokes is worth one and a half of the other boats. Most crews never find it, but when they do, rowing is more poetry than sport.
Speaker 2:Now, I don't know if you guys ever think about stuff like this, but here these guys were, back there really doing this. They were living it. I wonder if somebody could time travel back and tell them you guys, you know what's gonna happen. There's gonna be a major motion picture telling your story and they might be at that time going what are you talking about? I wonder how they would react or what were they thinking at the time. Would anybody remember them? Because what they did was so monstrous, so incredible. These wonder did they truly appreciate what they were doing or was just for them? Nose to the grindstone, keep plugging forward, just keep going forward.
Speaker 9:I don't know.
Speaker 2:It's just fascinating to ponder and, like every story that's told that's based on real life characters, within that movie there's sub characters that were real people too and they led their lives and did their thing. They might not be the main focus, but they did stuff. So in that vein, we're gonna hear from James Wolk, who plays coach Tom Bowles, and he talks about the script and a little bit about his character. But this is another thing I always ponder. You know, this guy's playing this guy who lived his whole life. He did stuff. He actually did his day-to-day stuff. He coached here, he coached there. But in this kind of movie he's just not, I hate to say, side character, but he's not the main focus. He was yet still a guy who did stuff.
Speaker 2:And then we have a clip for you. In this clip the team is running one of their first races and they're booking down the raceway. There. Is it called a raceway, Whatever it's called? They're booking down and the coaches are sitting with their stopwatches. They're like going, oh my goodness, these guys are just kicking butt and they get to the end and they make a great time and they're both like, wow, look what they did. It was just really kind of cool to see that kind of situation, how they reacted and what went down. Here it is.
Speaker 9:I was really excited. I had actually read the book years earlier and I read it on my own accord. I just picked it up, heard it was a great book and I remember saying to my then girlfriend, now wife, at the time this would be the most amazing movie. So that when I heard it was being made into a movie and I heard that Grant and George are doing it, I was so thrilled. And then when I read the script, the script was such a great adaptation of a book and I don't think it's that easy to adapt a book with that much kind of pathos and character. I mean that's a really full book and I think that they did an amazing job of adapting it into a screenplay.
Speaker 9:Yeah, so Tom is, he's the JV coach, Al Brix, and Al is the varsity coach. He's the head coach of the entire rowing contingency. But Tom is kind of the junior coach to Al and when you meet Tom in the film he's basically Al's right hand guy. He's just as passionate about the boys. He is a rowing coach through and through.
Speaker 9:He goes on in his life to coach, become a head coach at other universities and rowing is his life as well, and so you kind of see him as a sort of ally to Al Albreksen, but what he also is in the movie which I love is he's also sometimes can point to the counter point of what Al is thinking. I know, when Al makes this big decision to send the JV team instead of the varsity, that's a huge point of contingency between the guys and Tom tries to point out to Al hey, I don't know if that's the best idea, we have huge stakes riding here and ultimately Al's decision overrides Tom's and it ultimately becomes the right decision. But I think there's a nice give and take between Al and Tom throughout the film.
Speaker 1:FCB collective. Come on, come on, ten more. Fifty meters, fifty meters, washington is starting to do it. Oh, east, east, east. Twenty-five meters and there's the flag. Washington has done it. Junior FOTUS won their first competition. What a promising start for these young men, jesus.
Speaker 8:I got nine seconds under the course record.
Speaker 5:Same. The final third is faster than the first. Where in the hell did that come from? I guess that little runt knew what he was doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh you boys, oh my God.
Speaker 2:Now this kind of movie for me. This is what it says to me Anybody can be part of a team. Anybody can do that, but there's a team and then there's family. When you work together for one goal, you know sometimes anything can happen. And I know this one guy. When I talked about this earlier in the show, he was crying and complaining that oh how dare he put up this false hope that people could win. Well, they can win. It's been proven. People can win if they work together. I know this crybaby doesn't like stories about people coming from the bottom to rising to the top. I get it. You want people to lose, but every once in a while, if we work together, we can win. So take that buddy Now coming up.
Speaker 2:Next we're going to hear from the daughter of the main character, joel Rance, and she talks about just how impressed she was working with seeing the work of George Clooney. And if you really think about this, this is a story about somebody that she has in her life. She's seen the product and she says, wow, he did a great job. I think that that alone says a lot. And, like I was talking about earlier, after that we're going to hear from George Clooney and he talks about that, about working together.
Speaker 2:Yes, there are times out there where people focus on all the negative and it's all blah, blah, blah, clickbait, anger stuff and all whatever word you want to look at it. But it doesn't have to be like that. If we just work together and learn from each other, it doesn't have to be that negative. I know, I know it sounds simplistic and whatever it may be, but I get what he's saying. And then we have a clip for you and in this clip, washington State is roaring against these high end colleges. They have a lot of budget compared to them and they're going from way behind. You hear the narrative going as they're going. They keep passing this person, they keep passing this person, and it's just one of those moments where you're like, yeah, just use your grit. It's just one of those fun scenes.
Speaker 12:I think it's a wonderful story and I think that George does George Clooney, who directed and produced it. I think he does an amazing job of pulling what is a very large, broadly ranging story into focus enough that you can get it into a two hour movie. You can understand what the heart of the story is and I think that I especially like the fact that there's a fair amount of footage of mom in there too, and for giving her her due. I really enjoyed seeing that. But I think that people are going to feel like when they come out of that they come out of it, I hope, changed, like they have a better feeling. For what can you do? If you approach life with a positive attitude, if you work with other people as a team? It's got the potential to maybe help us in these days.
Speaker 7:You know, there is this element that we tend to forget, because everything we see is in such a microcosm, right Like we'll see anger and hate on television every day, all day. Part of that is because we have 24-hour news cycles and the internet and what we don't see is that 99% of us get along every day and really wish the best for one another and try to work it out. We focus on the small sort of edges that really excite us and it can drive a narrative that isn't particularly good, and we forget that we're all in this stew together and our differences really aren't that much and there aren't that many. We see what we're made of and see that we're actually on each other's sides, and I think that this film reminds us that we're all in this together.
Speaker 1:Washington is following back, the last place Four lengths behind the leaders. Now Bobby Say, say go World War II.
Speaker 6:It has to be now.
Speaker 1:Come on, boys, wait for it. All right, go on, give me 36. Go Right, right, they come Looking for fresh water. Bobby Mock is steering right into Syracuse's lane. Let's go Right, joe. Get off Back to the house. Syracuse, what the hell Get down. Washington is passing Syracuse and with a mile and a half behind them, teams are falling away, but no one is gaining on. California and Navy, go Go, holding a four length lead. Cal and Navy are in a two-volt race. All right, he's done. Big ones for all of us. Washington has picked up the pace, bobby Mock finally getting his crew in this race. The Huskies sweeping by Cornell headed for Penn and Columbia, navy and Cal still ahead by four lengths.
Speaker 2:So what do you guys think? Is this a movie you want to see? Did I give you enough evidence to make you want to see it or not want to see it, or why not? I love to find out because, as you know, I love taking deep dives into movies. But what I really like to do here is not just do blockbuster films. I want to do films that maybe not everybody might hear of, and maybe they could come here and hear about something and go well, maybe I will see this movie, because that's our goal here at the Cinema.
Speaker 2:Judge, I'm not here to yell at you, complain, cry about Hollywood. Leave that to the professionals. I just want to share a movie with you. This is a movie oasis, a place we could come and just hear about one movie. I'm not going to tell you not to see a movie. Who am I to tell you? We all walk a different path. That's ridiculous to me, because any movie is somebody's favorite movie and I would love your feedback. Please let me know what you think. How can I improve this show? What can I do better? I just want you to come back, because this is a place you and I could sit here and talk about a movie, because it's a crazy noisy world out there. I just want to come here and maybe if you're driving to work, sitting at home on break, you could escape, put a little bubble around your world and just hear about a movie. That's what I want to do here. Feel free to let me know what I could do to make this show better. You can visit me anytime you want.
Speaker 2:Cinema Judge at Hotmailcom. And, like I said earlier, if you want to watch the TV version of this, go to bitlycom or go to Instagram Threads. You go to YouTube. But here's a side note on YouTube, every once in a while they have certain restrictions and I can't play clips there or what have you. So if you want the completely unabridged version, come here, because here anything goes. But on other platforms sometimes I can't play the clips or this or that or whatever it may be, and that's unfortunate. But I'm a nobody out there in the big world, so they a lot of times ding me.
Speaker 2:I'm also on TikTok. From time to time, when I have time, I try to throw down some video from the TV show on there and show you stuff like that. So if you're ever on TikTok, give me a shout give me a view, whatever you want to do, and occasionally I'm out on the metaverse. If you're ever on an Oculus, go to Horizon Worlds. I'm at the Ace of Clubs a lot, I'm doing a lot of laser tag. A bunch of us movie lovers and just people just having fun. Just hang out there at Horizon Worlds, at the Ace of Clubs. Stop by anytime. We'll talk movies. I love it Because remember one thing I can't fix what I don't know is broken, so feel free to let me know.
Speaker 2:Now, this next part of the show is one of my favorite parts. This is where I give a shout out to you who listened to the last episode. I can't give everybody, but I'd like to take a few of you guys and this does not pertain to old shows, because some of you I have a lot, a lot of viewers or listeners, I should say, who listen to past episodes and don't think for one second. I don't appreciate that, but there's no way to find out where you're listening to from there, because there's sometimes so much of you guys who listen to past episodes, which I love, but don't think for one second that I don't appreciate that. This is only naming some of the people from the last episode, all my listeners from the United States, germany, you guys, every week step up and just listen to this show. Thanks so much, germany, hong Kong, poland, colombia, st Paul, minnesota, minneapolis, minnesota, kirk and Kirk and North Rhine, westphalia, and if I say that wrong, I'm so very, very sorry Maryville, tennessee, stillwater, minnesota, superior, wisconsin, frankfurt, am, maine, hesse you guys there every episode, thank you so much. And now this one guys, man, I don't, I don't have a clue. M-a-k-s-y-m-i-l-i-l-l-i-a-n-o-w-o, and space K-U-J-A-W-S-K-O and little space, p-o-m-o-r-s-k-i-e, and that's just the name of a few, and I'm sorry, guys, I didn't pronounce that one at all. I didn't have a shot. But don't think for one second. I don't appreciate it. So, thank you, thank you, thank you and thank you, but now it's time for the bourbon shout out this week.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to name the guy, but I had this great conversation with this young man who just turned 18. I went to get groceries and I asked him hey, man, what are you going to do for this weekend? And him and his bunch of his friends are going to go to a gentlemen's club. Is that the best way to say it? And I was like man, you go, man. Because I remember all the memories I had with my friends going, having fun like that. It's just being young. He just turned 18. I hope the guy has fun, hopefully he's safe. But I said to give him a tip of the cap and, like man, the next generation rides on. So to you, my friend cheers.
Speaker 2:Now, as you most know, when I'm making the TV version of this, which becomes this a podcast, I'm cranking tunes. Well, this week it was a grand time because a friend of mine at work we talked movies and music all the time and just recently he said do you remember the band Smokey? And that's S M O K I E? And after we thought about it, they did the song needles and pins, but I had no idea of Smokey did that? But then he told me you got to take a deeper dive and let me tell you guys, you have to do this.
Speaker 2:The first album I listened to them was their remastered 2022 version of Smokey, the Greatest Hits, and that's them recording their old songs today, because there's one song that the current one, the newest one, is called Living Next to Alice. Well, the original wasn't called that. There's a part in there. Every time they say Alice, they say something wildly different. But I like the newer version much better because I don't know, it just sounds better. It doesn't sound like they're trying to be, you know, shocking or whatever. I mean the old version is great, it's funny, but the adult version I hate to say that word but the newest version I really, really, really loved On that. 2022 remastered or not, I shouldn't say remastered, but the re-recorded version.
Speaker 2:I like to pretty much the whole album, but some of the ones that really stood out for me were Wild Angels and, for whatever reason, I can't even explain this. How did that work? Listen in and I was just. I started to tear up and I don't even know why. It has no connection to my world, my life, no secret meaning, but when I was playing Wild Angels I got pretty darn emotional. It was embarrassing. I had to get a tissue paper out Kleenex, whatever you want to say. It was almost embarrassing and some of the songs on there are, if you Think, you Know how To Love Me, baby, it's you. O'carroll, just A Name, a Few, but that whole thing. I was like blown away.
Speaker 2:So ever since that I went down a massive rabbit hole and just plowed through a lot of their old stuff. They were huge in Europe, but they didn't really get it huge here in the States, and I love finding those little gems of music, discovering new stuff. Well, that is it. My glass awaits. I'm very, very thirsty. So cheers to you and to the movies. So until next time, be well, be good, and I'm gone. I'm Jeff. Thanks for listening to the Cinema Judge. The Cinema Judge.