ACFmovie podcast

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ACF Founders #1 Hamilton Jun 29, 2018

Show notes

Titus & Richard Brookhiser, famed biographer of the Founders, discuss Alexander Hamilton, the most romantically or adventurously heroic of the Founders, recently the object of a very successful Broadway musical. We discuss the greatness of Hamilton & the view it gives of the American Founding--for this is the highest subject of storytelling & the greatness has to be understood first in order to be dramatized.

ACF Masters #4 My Darling Clementine Jun 23, 2018

Show notes

Titus & John Marini talk about My Darling Clementine, Ford's first post-war Western--his most Romantic & least ugly picture, an attempt to revisit the foundation of the rule of law after the political & economic catastrophes of the first half of the 20th c.

ACF Masters #3 Stagecoach Jun 14, 2018

Show notes

Titus & John Marini discuss Stagecoach, the movie that made John Wayne a star & the Western an art-form, John Ford's way to establish America's national form of poetry.

ACF Critic #12 Teachout, Vertigo Jun 07, 2018

Show notes

Titus & Terry Teachout celebrate the ACF podcast's first anniversary! The celebrated critic, playwright, musician, joins Titus to discuss Vertigo, Hitchcock's most daring artistic endeavor. We talk about actors, studios, performances, music, the character of the tragedy & the darkness in Hitchcock himself.

ACF Masters #2 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance May 31, 2018

Show notes

Titus & John Marini continue their series on John Ford's Westerns with a discussion of Liberty Valance, the story of the emergence of the rule of law from the desert. We talk about love & violence, about civilization & progress, about the desert & the train, the free range & the city, gunfights & newspapers.

ACF Masters #1 The Searchers May 24, 2018

Show notes

Titus & John Marini talk about John Ford's The Searchers--the best Western for the discussion of the sacred law of the family & the fundamental questions that emerge when law is as yet to be installed. We also talk about the Western & its place in American life, how Ford turned it into an art, & what Jorge Luis Borges called "our epic duties".

ACF Critic #11 Never let me go May 18, 2018

Show notes

Titus & Flagg Taylor discuss Never let me go, the 2010 movie made from Nobel Prize Winner Kazuo Ishiguro's 2005 novel about a dystopia where clones are exploited for organs & have to discover their humanity. Flagg is a poli.sci professor & has taught the novel in a course on dystopias, along with Orwell, Huxley, C.S. Lewis, & Koestler. We talk about the troubling realism of the story & the way a scientific take over of human lives reflects our society.

ACF Middlebrow #21 Last Jedi May 08, 2018

Show notes

Titus & Pete Spiliakos discuss the impressive (Ben Solo) & the disappointing (everything else) parts of The Last Jedi. We talk about structural problems, mistakes concerning character relationships, & how to dramatize moral conflicts. We also talk about what was great about Luke Skywalker in Empire Strikes Back, what gems were scattered in Anakin Skywalker's story in the prequel trilogy, & how the same problems & opportunities will show up in Episode IX.

ACF Middlebrow #20 Justice League May 04, 2018

Show notes

Titus & Pete Spiliakos discuss in detail the promise & the catastrophe that is Justice League. We go over the touches of cinematic greatness, the possibilities of the characters & the ideas of the creators--but also the unique example of studio executives destroying the most talented & successful partnerships of writers & directors in studio history.

ACF Critic #10 Westworld Apr 27, 2018

Show notes

Titus & George Dunn & Jason Eberl return in trio formation to discuss more Nolan movie-making--this time Jonathan Nolan & Lisa Joy's Westworld. They bring their academic expertise with them & we go through lots of philosophical ideas that are important to Westworld, to the story of American self-creation & its tech-empowered & tech-endangered future.

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