Green Screen

After last episode’s icy prison break, Sean and Cody go down under for Pride Month as they load up the bus for a queer road trip into the outback. In The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Australian drag queen Tick (Hugo Weaving) gets a gig to do a show in the remote outback down of Alice Springs, so he teams up with the flamboyant Felicia (Guy Pearce) and transgender widow Bernadette (Terence Stamp) to get a bus to transport them, their costumes and a giant high-heeled shoe halfway across the continent. But there’s more on the road than dust and kangaroos, as the trio encounter homophobia, unexpected allies, and various bonding experiences in the places they stop along the way. Environmental issues discussed include resource extraction in Australia, boom towns such as Broken Hill and Coober Pedy, aborigines and their sense of their land and history, and lots of queer history.

How did resource extraction, especially gold and other precious metals, shape the history and environment of modern Australia? How did queer history unfold in Australia and how was it different from the course of queer history in the U.S.? Which tiny Australian town produces 70% of the world’s opal? What was the only battle of World War I fought on Australian soil, and how did it come to involve an ice cream salesman? Which environmental hero’s name was claimed by 111 women arrested for an anti-nuclear protest near a site shown in the film? Was Australia slower to warm to LGBT equality than other countries, and if so, why? How did they get the iconic shot in this film? Who is lip-syncing to Vanessa Williams in the end credits? As progressive as this film was for its time, how is it still incredibly cringe-inducing today? All these questions are ready to do drag in the desert in this, the penultimate regular episode of Green Screen.

Where you can find The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-adventures-of-priscilla-queen-of-the-desert

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109045/ The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/the-adventures-of-priscilla-queen-of-the-desert/

Next Movie Up: Dances With Wolves (1990)

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Sean and Cody, back from an unplanned hiatus, are joined by The Industry podcast host Dan Delgado for a look at the rarest of birds: an actually good film from schlocky 1980s grindhouse studio Cannon Films! In Runaway Train, prison lifer Manny (Jon Voight) is joined by a whiny shoeless sidekick Buck (Eric Roberts) for a poop-scented breakout from Alaska’s most notorious hoosegow. But their brilliant escape goes terribly wrong when the engineer of the freight train they stow away on croaks from a heart attack, and no one in the entire Alaska Railroad system seems to know how to slow down the train. Environmental issues discussed include the impact of the railroad, a harebrained early 1900s scheme to turn Alaska into Scandinavia, and how perennial Green Screen podcast villain Tricky Nick Nixon swindled Native Americans out of their land for, you guessed it, oil.

How, when, and why were railroads built across Alaska, and how was that process different from how train infrastructure developed in the rest of America? What was “recapitulation,” whose idiotic idea was it, and how did it manage to be both environmentally disastrous and crudely racist? What did President Warren G. Harding really die of? Why did so many of the Cannon films star Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson? How did famed Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa get involved in this movie? Why is “600” the magic number for Eric Roberts’s career? Should Golan and Globus have just shelved the idea for this film and concentrated by putting more money into Superman IV: The Quest For Peace? How did Danny Trejo parlay a life of crime into a successful film, philanthropy and restaurant career? All these questions and more are waiting to jump the track in this, the third-to-last regular episode of Green Screen.

Big thanks to Dan Delgado of The Industry podcast for joining us on the show.

Where you can find Runaway Train: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/runaway-train

Runaway Train (1985) on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089941/ Runaway Train (1985) on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/runaway-train/

Next Movie Up: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)

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We have a statement that we'd like to make to our listeners.

Green Screen will soon be ending its run of regular episodes. There will be three more after this one: Runaway Train, The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and the podcast finale, Dances With Wolves.

The reasons why we've made this decision are complicated and we'd like you to hear them in depth. This is why we've recorded this special bonus episode. We'll also talk about what we learned, what we got out of this experience, what we'll miss, and what we see as the contributions our show has made.

This won't be the last time you hear from us; there are three more episodes coming and certain possibilities of more after that, depending on what we decide in the future. The show will remain up so you can continue to listen to past episodes. We wish to thank everyone who has listened to the show, supported us, reached out and made us happy to have embarked on this project.

We mention in the bonus episode that we'll be posting "the list," the comprehensive list of all films that we did, and wanted to do, on Green Screen. That will be coming soon on our website!

Next Movie Up: Runaway Train (1985)

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Though still weary from that long train trip to the Urals last episode, Sean and Cody board a British Navy sailing ship headed around Cape Horn as they delve into this swashbuckling 2003 adventure/war film, directed by Peter Weir. In Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World, indefatigable Captain Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) can’t think about anything except the French man-o’-war he’s chasing all over the oceans. But his best friend Maturin (Paul Bettany) is so keen on collecting bugs in the Galapagos Islands that he can barely keep his mind on his job of sawing limbs off teenage crew members injured in battle. A whole lot of cannons go boom when the HMS Surprise finally meets her enemy on, well, the far side of the world. Environmental issues discussed include the effect of the Napoleonic Wars on forests in Europe and Asia, the weird beasts of the Galapagos Islands and how they got that way, “naturalists” in the early 19th century, and more dope on Darwin’s famous voyage.

How did British short-sightedness in managing their forests come back to bite them during the Napoleonic Wars? How far did they have to go to get timber for their ships? Are Americans still mad at the British for burning down their capital in 1814? What’s the history of the Galapagos Islands? Which previous episode was it where we revealed the strange fate of the Beagle, the ship that took Darwin there? Do all historians read Patrick O’Brian novels? How do you pronounce “Maturin”? Who was Alexander von Humboldt and why is there an ocean current named after him? What member of Darwin’s 1835 expedition to the Galapagos was still alive at the time this film was made, and how is that even possible? Which actor in this film’s cast did one of the podcast hosts have a Twitter exchange with? All these questions and more are lying in wait disguised as a whaler in this adventurous episode of Green Screen.

Where You Can Find Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World:

https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/master-and-commander-the-far-side-of-the-world

Next Movie Up: Runaway Train (1985)

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Finally having returned from a double-header on Mars, Sean and Cody find themselves on the snowy steppes of Russia in the tumultuous era of the Bolshevik Revolution as they sink into this 1965 epic classic, one of the biggest blockbuster films of all time. In Doctor Zhivago, wistful sawbones and sometime poet Yuri (Omar Sharif) is living his best life with happy wifey (Geraldine Chaplin) and baby, until he suddenly gets the hots for the alluring Lara (Julie Christie) who’s married to someone else. But when the Revolution comes they’re all forced to put on red stars and salute Lenin, or at least the terrifying Comrade Strelnikov (Tom Courtenay), who, by the way, is Lara’s husband. If it sounds complicated, it is! Environmental issues discussed include the internal colonization of Russia into Siberia and across the Urals, how the tsars and the Soviet commissars used and exploited this area, the true nature of “pastoral” Russia as depicted in this film, and what Russia must have been like in the transition between capitalist monarchy and Soviet Communism.

How, environmentally and historically, was Russia’s colonization of Siberia like American colonization of the Western frontier? What did the Soviets plan to do with the vast lands across the Urals, and did they succeed? What happened to all those beautiful country estates, like the one seen in the film that Zhivago and Lara use as their love nest? What are the subtle environmental clues that this film was not made in Russia, but much farther south? What was the special purpose that the dreaded “House of Special Purpose” was used for? What’s the story behind the iconic theme song for this film, and why is it repeated over and over again? Why is the book on which this film is based virtually unreadable? Have you ever heard of a 1981 film called Comin’ At Ya, and why is it famous in film history? What is the John Huston Corollary to the Michael Gough Rule which governs the Five Crowns Award? All these questions are ready to charge the monarchists’ machine guns in this very revolutionary episode of Green Screen.

Where you can find Doctor Zhivago: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/doctor-zhivago-1965

Doctor Zhivago (1965) on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059113/ Doctor Zhivago (1965) on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/doctor-zhivago/

Next Movie Up: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)

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What, they’re still not back from Mars? Sean and Cody are on number two of a double-header (with last episode) as they take on Ridley Scott’s popular 2015 science fiction drama. In The Martian, plucky and somewhat jerky botanist astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) gets the Home Alone treatment as his shipmates accidentally leave him behind on Mars. It’ll be four years until anyone from Earth can rescue him and he’s only got 68 packets of potatoes and some freeze-dried poop. Wait, wasn’t that the plot of the last film on the show? That’s not a coincidence. Environmental issues discussed include the scientific and environmental accuracy of this film, radiation exposure for astronauts, Mars’s toxic soil, and various schemes and scams involving real-life proposed trips to the fourth rock from the sun.

Why do we keep changing our minds on whether liquid water exists on Mars or not? Are dust storms on Mars as epic as the way they’re portrayed in this film? Why is growing anything in Martian soil a challenge at best, and a suicide mission at worst? Given the amount of radiation and cosmic ray exposure that astronauts in space and on Mars would receive over the course of a mission, would a realistic sequel to this film necessarily be The Martian 2: Watney Dies of Leukemia? What was Mars One and why was it a scam? Why is the idea of putting Libertarians in space alarmingly dangerous? What do all those different kinds of producers listed in a film’s credits actually do? Why do so many movies involve rescuing Matt Damon as their plot premise? All these questions and more are sprouting from the rusty soil ready to be picked in this adventurous episode of Green Screen.

Where you can find The Martian: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-martian

The Martian (2015) on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/ The Martian (2015) on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/the-martian/

Next Movie Up: Dr. Zhivago (1965)

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After turning themselves into cartoons last episode, Sean and Cody make a side trip to a mostly fictional version of the red planet on their way back to the real world. In the 1964 space adventure Robinson Crusoe on Mars, white bread astronaut Kit Draper (Paul Mantee) and the monkey he loves crash-land on the titular planet to find the basic tourist amenities such as oxygen, water and food haven’t been restocked in several million years. With only a mid-60s tape deck, an Air Force surplus flight suit and a couple of tubes of turkey paste, can Draper find a way to survive long enough for Lyndon Johnson’s NASA to come rescue him? The environmental issues covered in this episode center around humans’ changing conceptions of conditions on Mars, with surprise cameos by our old friends settler colonialism and the white savior, who we can’t seem to get rid of even 200 million miles from Earth.

What did scientists know or think they knew about what Mars was really like at the time they made this film? Can liquid water exist there or can’t it? What are Mars’s polar ice caps made of? Why did some astronomers, including especially Percival Lowell, believe that the “canals” of Mars were works of engineering created by an alien species? How was the mission of the Mariner space probe in 1965 a huge bummer for filmmakers and conceptual artists who got paid for producing “Mars porn” for science magazines? What poor sap in the costume department on this film had to sew a fur loincloth for a monkey? Is Adam West the only true Batman? Who was that mid-1950s Disney narrator who sounded suspiciously like Orson Welles? Is there no escape from racist stereotyping anywhere in the universe? All these questions are sucking air out of the rocks in this, the first part of a double header on Green Screen centered around Mars, together with the next episode on The Martian.

Where you can find Robinson Crusoe on Mars: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/robinson-crusoe-on-mars

Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058530/ Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/robinson-crusoe-on-mars/

Next Movie Up: The Martian (2015)

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Sean and Cody exchange the gross creatures of the last episode for the dubious charms of an animated, drug-induced alternate universe as they dive into this visionary 2013 dystopian science fiction drama. In The Congress, aging Hollywood star Robin Wright, playing herself, lets a movie studio zap her into a digital clone that they can use to put her into any film for the next 20 years. When her contract is up and it’s time to renegotiate, though, she finds herself hyped on hallucinogenic drugs to join the raddest party in town, which is a freaky alternate reality that turns everyone into cartoon characters and makes them forget the real world and its problems. Environmental issues discussed include Facebook and the “metaverse,” plans by Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to either leave Earth behind or make it even worse for its inhabitants, and the ethics of abandoning the real world and allowing environmental problems, like climate change, to go unchecked because reality is just too much of a bummer to deal with.

What is Zuckerberg’s “Metaverse” and why, among its many terrifying implications, is it a total disaster for the environment? Did Zucky announce the whole “Meta” thing to divert attention away from Facebook scandals? What does the “Metaverse” have in common with the environmental history of Las Vegas? Do amoral libertarian billionaires really plan to evacuate Earth and just leave us stuck with all the problems? How did said billionaires totally misread the science fiction novels they obviously grew up on? How are cryptocurrencies, blockchain, NFTs and related scams making climate change worse in a big hurry? Can you really “scan” an actor and put them in any movie you want, as depicted in this film? Remember when they actually tried to do that and put Cary Grant in a Diet Coke commercial? Which movie was it where they turned Paul Giamatti blue? All these questions are assuming new cartoon avatars and heading for the party in this positively hallucinogenic episode of Green Screen.

Where you can find The Congress: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-congress 

The Congress (2013) on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1821641/ The Congress (2013) on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/the-congress-2013/

Next Movie Up: Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964)

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With the pleasant holiday frost fair of the last episode behind them, Sean and Cody lock themselves in Clamp Tower with the titular monsters of this extremely bizarre 1990 film, a sequel to an iconic ‘80s fantasy. In Gremlins 2: The New Batch, the furry pet of cartoonist Billy (Zach Galligan) is kidnapped and taken to a genetic engineering lab, where it spawns a legion of mischievous lizardy creatures. The monsters proceed to take over an urban skyscraper and possibly threaten to destroy the world...unless Billy and his billionaire industrialist boss can stop them. Environmental issues discussed include the 1980s-1990s real estate development career of Donald Trump, pre-politics, and especially his strange unrealized project “Trump City,” which has eerie similarities both to the setting of this film and the 20th century career of New York urban designer Robert Moses.

What effect did Trump—one of the models for Gremlins 2’s billionaire character Daniel Clamp—have on the environment of New York City? What was “Trump City” supposed to be, and why wasn’t it built? What about Ted Turner, the other model for the Clamp character? Who was Robert Moses and how did he make New York a more racist place? Can we blame the Baby Boom generation for climate change? Does CNN really have a “doomsday video” in their vault that they plan to show on the day the world ends? Does this film actually have a plot? How come everybody loves Gizmo despite the fact that he’s one of the most dangerous creatures on Earth who must be destroyed for the survival of humanity? Do the Gremlins films take place in the same literary universe as Stranger Things? What the hell were we thinking when we added this film to the Green Screen list? All those questions and more are multiplying in water in this very unusual episode of the podcast.

Where you can find Gremlins 2: The New Batch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/gremlins-2

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099700/ Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/gremlins-2-the-new-batch/

Next Movie Up: The Congress (2013)

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Now having healed from their bird scratches and psychological trauma last episode, Sean and Cody settle into some chill digs—literally—as they take apart this visually stunning 1992 queer costume drama. In Orlando, the title character (Tilda Swinton), a twinky nobleman in 1600 England, receives a rich estate from Queen Elizabeth in exchange for a promise never to grow old. But after enduring hijinx at a frost fair on the Thames, a cruel diss from the alluring Princess Sasha, and the boredom of centuries, Orlando’s true identity as a trans woman tests the boundaries of Queen Liz’s bargain. Environmental issues discussed include winters in Elizabethan England, frost fairs in London and the history of hydrodynamics of the River Thames.

What exactly is a “frost fair,” how did they get started, and were they really like the way they’re portrayed in the film? Is climate change the reason they don’t happen anymore, or is it simpler than that? Why were traffic jams in London every bit as bad in the 17th century as they are today? What’s “Lapland mutton”? Why did books have such ridiculously long titles 200 years ago? How was Virginia Woolf yet another victim of bi erasure? Who is singularly responsible for why the heavy metal subculture adopted the whole gay biker look, and what does it have to do with this movie? Can you recite a brief history of queer cinema in the 1990s? Are these “heritage” pictures mostly satires in disguise? All these questions and more are having a heyday on the frozen river between London Bridge and Blackfriars in this deeply frozen episode of Green Screen.

Where you can find Orlando: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/orlando

Orlando (1992) on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107756/ Orlando (1992) on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/orlando/

Next Movie Up: Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

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