Ridley Scott was on a run when he handed down Kingdom of Heaven, a Crusader Epic that seemed ambitious and ballsy so soon after 9/11. A bomb that was initially torn to shreds by critics and panned by the audience, Kingdom of Heaven’s Director’s Cut was released almost immediately with more mixed results. While some can see the steady hand of a master filmmaker, others wondered why Scott had changed so much history with the effect of making a more racist and more sexist film. Dave Anderson returns to the Hacienda to go with me scene by scene through this problematic but engaging story of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Listen to us argue about history, plot, and what the Leper King can tell us about the Second Gulf War.

The Super 70 Podcast is available on iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, and my website at www.thatdylandavis.com. All music on The Super 70 Podcast is provided by Rozalind MacPhail whom you can find on SoundCloud.com.

Works Cited:

Tyerman, Christopher. God’s War: A New History of the Crusades. Belknap Press, Cambridge.

Pages, Meriem. From Crusading Queen to Damsel in Distress: Re-Imagining Sibylla of Jerusalem in Kingdom of Heaven. Gender and History Vol. 30 No. 3. October 2018. Pp. 696-703

Hayes, Dawn Marie. Harnassing the Potential in Historiography and Popular Culture When Teaching the Crusades. The History Teacher, Vol 40. No 3 (May 2007) pp. 349-361

Biddick, Kathleen. Unbinding the Flesh That Remains: Crusader Martyrdom Then and Now. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, Volume 13, Number 2-3, 2007, pp 197-225. Duke University Press.

Pages, Meriem. Saracens Abroad: Imagining medieval Muslim Warriors on the Silver Screen. Essays in Medieval Studies, Vol 32, 2016, pp5-21. West Virginia University Press.

Schlimm, Matthew Richard. The Necessity of Permanent Criticism: A Postcolonial Critique of Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven. Journal of Media and Religion, 9; 129-149, 2010 Routledge.

Mike White of The Projection Booth Podcast takes the reigns of The Super 70 Podcast as he guides you through one of the most successful independent films ever made, Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s coveted Palm D’Or in 1994, Pulp Fiction scored seven Academy Award nominations and started or restarted several acting careers. It’s development, marketing, and distribution by Miramax Studios revolutionized independent cinema and its’ unconventional narrative structure, extensive use of homage and pastiche have led some to call it the prime example of postmodern film. Since its release it has been one of the rare films made after 1990 that has been grouped into the top 100 greatest films ever made and in 2013 was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry of the United States. But while we may recognize talent, we also may be missing a few things on the surface and ask ourselves when does pastiche stop and plagiarism begin? Join Mike as he takes you scene by scene through a film as well known now as Casablanca, by a director as well known now as Hitchcock.

The Super 70 Podcast is available on iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, and my website at www.thatdylandavis.com. All music on The Super 70 Podcast is provided by Rozalind MacPhail whom you can all find on SoundCloud.

Last month I asked a friend of mine, Dave Anderson, to come onto the show and watch The Terminator with me. We had so much fun that Dave recommended I turn the mikes on while we shot the shit for a couple of hours. This special report is the result of that fine night, about six beers, and the enjoyment of two friends who had not seen each other for a number of years.

The Super 70 Podcast is available on iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, and my website at www.thatdylandavis.com. All music on The Super 70 Podcast is provided by Rozalind MacPhail whom you can find on SoundCloud.com.

Works Cited:

Stevenson, Jay. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Philosophy. Alpha, 2005.

Thompson, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72. HarperCollins, 197

Fellow Film Aficionado Dave Anderson joins me as we watch James Cameron’s seminal 1984 B-Movie Masterpiece, The Terminator. On the surface there seems to be something bold and original going on. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a role you can understand, Linda Hamilton is our female hero in a time of hypermasculine film, and a high quality in film production hides the bottom dollar spent to shoot this cyborg killer tale. Underneath lies a weave of movie homages from Metropolis, Blade Runner, and Alien to explore socio-economic themes on our minds in the 1980’s, big government, big business, and our deep seated fear that technology is double sided blade that’s just a little bit sharper on one side.

The Super 70 Podcast is available on iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, and my website at www.thatdylandavis.com. All music on The Super 70 Podcast is provided by Rozalind MacPhail whom you can find on SoundCloud.

Works Cited

Sean French. The Terminator BFI Modern Classics. 1996.

Gordon Parks, Jr. was a photographer from Minneapolis who had trained as a cinematographer under his father when he convinced a group of African American investors from Harlem to pool their money into a Blaxploitation movie. Using a cast and crew that was by and large African American and Puerto Rican, Parks and Blaxploitation star Ron O’Neal shot to fame with 1972’s Super Fly, a sordid tale about Harlem cocaine dealer Youngblood Priest who cooks up a plan to go straight. But Priest’s plans go awry when his black business partners and his white suppliers decide that his retirement isn’t in their best interests. Join me in my Cadillac El Dorado as we discuss race, revolution, and #BlackLivesMatter.

Everyone loves The Graduate, except me. Screenwriter Buck Henry and Director Mike Nichols hit the ball out of the park with this biting commentary on American society at the height of the 1960s. But underneath the nods and smiles to the counterculture and Robert Surtees’ superior cinematography, there are disturbing signs of sickness in the left. Join me as we marvel at how such a perfect film can be so flawed.

The Super 70 Podcast is available on iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, and my website at www.thatdylandavis.com. All music on The Super 70 Podcast is provided by Rozalind MacPhail, Joshua Cunningham and Peter John Ross whom you can all find on SoundCloud.

Works Cited

Jacob R. Brackman. Why Do We Love “The Graduate”? New Yorker Magazine. July 27, 1968 Issue. Barry Miles. HIPPIE Sterling. London 2004.

Walter Wanger was a convicted criminal rebuilding his career when he collaborated with television director Don Siegel and screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring to make a film of Jack Finney’s science fiction serial. What they were going for was a cheap B-movie like The Blob or Godzilla that could run second bill in drive-in double features. What they got was a lasting monument to our nations fears in 1956 America: Communism, Conformity, and the color red. Let’s watch Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter try to survive the Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).

The Super 70 Podcast is available on iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, and my website at www.thatdylandavis.com. All music on The Super 70 Podcast is provided by Rozalind MacPhail, Joshua Cunningham and Peter John Ross whom you can all find on SoundCloud.

Works Cited

Kawin, Bruce F. Children of the Light. The Film Genre Book III ed. Barry Grant. University of Texas Press. Austin 1995. Kracauer, Siegfried. Hollywood’s Terror Films: Do they Reflect on an American State of Mind? Commentary 2 1998. Samuels, Stuart. The Age of Conspiracy and Conformity: Invasion of the Body Snatchers. American History / American Film: Interpreting the Hollywood Image. New Expanded Edition. Edited by John E. O’Connor and Martin A. Jackson. Continuum, New York 1988

Michael Curtiz was already one of the most successful directors in Hollywood when Warner Brothers practically forced him to cast Joan Crawford in one of the most famous melodramas ever made. Crawford, an American household name who was recognized as one of the most professional actors in Hollywood, led a devastating supporting cast in this 1945 mystery that tells us more than we ever wanted to know about sexual politics after the Second World War. Join me as we talk about the feminization of men, the wasteland of masculinity, the attack on femininity, the impact of the Second World War, and that dreaded word no one wants to discuss…incest.

The Super 70 Podcast is available on iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, and my website at www.thatdylandavis.com. All music on The Super 70 Podcast is provided by Rozalind MacPhail, Joshua Cunningham and Peter John Ross whom you can all find on SoundCloud.

Works Cited

Williams, Linda. Feminist Film Theory: Mildred Pierce and the Second World War. Female Spectators: Looking at Film and Television. Ed. E. Deidre Pribram. Verso, London. 1988. Haralovich, Mary Beth. Too Much Guilt Is Never Enough for Working Mothers: Joan Crawford, Mildred Pierce, and Mommie Dearest. Velvet Light Trap. University of Texas Press. 1992. Schrader, Paul. Notes on Film Noir. The Film Genre Book Ed. Barry Keith Grant. University of Texas Press. Austin 1986. Sochen, June. Mildrid Pearce and Women in Film. American Quarterly vol 30, No. 1 Spring 1978. Harvey, Sylvia. Woman’s Place: The Absent Family of Film Noir. Women in Film Noir. Edited by E. Ann Kaplan. BFI Publishing. Corber, Robert J. Joan Crawford’s Padded Shoulders: Female Masculinity in Mildred Pierce. Camera Obscura, Duke University Press.

Melvin LeRoy and Busby Berkeley both direct Golddiggers of 1933. The second incarnation of a popular broadway hit, Golddiggers of 1933 is a tangled tale of love, sex, and money. Well, actually it’s just about sex and money, right? Or is it about social issues and sexism? Perhaps this has something to do with the #MeToo movement. Join me, Ginger Rogers, and Dick Powell as we try to figure out if the progressive elements of this film outweigh its’ outrageous gender bias.

The Super 70 Podcast is available on iTunes, SoundCloud, and my website at www.thatdylandavis.com.

All music on The Super 70 Podcast is provided by Rozalind MacPhail and Joshua Cunningham whom you can also find on SoundCloud.

Works Cited

Patricia Mellencamp “Sexual Economics: Gold Diggers of 1933” Five Ages of Film Feminism. Temple University Press. Philadelphia. * Douglas, Ann & Robertson, Pamela. (1997). Guilty Pleasures: Feminist Camp from Mae West to Madonna. The Journal of American History. 84. 1136. * Jane Feuer “The Self-Reflexive Musical and the Myth of Entertainment.” Film Genre Reader II Barry Keith Grant Ed. University of Texas Press Austin

Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman crossed two unlikely themes when they made The General for United Artists: the Southern Lost Cause in popular culture and Keaton’s vaudeville straight man act. The result is a tale all too well told in Hollywood: an expensive flop that comes to be appreciated over time but still has problematic content. Join me as we ride with Keaton through several misadventures on the Locomotive Texas and cherish one of the silent cinema’s greatest gems.

All music on the Super 70 Podcast is written and recorded by either Roziland MacPhail or Joshua Cunningham. You can find both of them on Soundcloud.com and Roz at Roziland MacPhail.com on on twitter @rozilandmacphail.

Works Cited:

Pittenger, William. Capturing a Locomotive: A History of Secret Service in the Late War. 1885.

Kramer, Peter. The General: BFI Film Classics. Palgrave Press. 2016.