Hacksaw Ridge & GI Joe

Hacksaw Ridge

Sidey: Welcome to Bad Dad's Film Review, esteemed audience to the front lines of cinematic explorations with us, the Bad Dads, where the battles are fought over popcorn, and the only casualties are the movies that don't make the cut. I'm your host This week's Sidey, flanked by a trio of dads each more daring and dashing in their movie critiques.

than the last, first up is Dan, our venerable veteran. Whose movie knowledge is so ancient he considers anything post silent era as newfangled Dan's here to provide strategic insights into our cinematic conquests Got any wisdoms from the archives for us Dan?

Dan: No

Sidey: And then there's chris our sharpshooter when it comes to identifying movies that dare to overstay their welcome His keen eye for runtime excess is matched by his devastating good looks Making him both a heartbreaker and a timekeeper.

Lastly, we've got Riggs on Covert Ops who dives deep behind enemy lines to unearth the most obscure film facts known to man. Riggs, any secret intel you can share with

the team today?

Reegs: It's mostly cheese based.

Sidey: Okay. Today's mission, should you choose to accept it, involves navigating the treacherous terrain of the top five movie soldiers.

Honoring those who've heroically battled across our screens. Our primary objective is Hacksaw Ridge, testament to courage under fire and human spirit of resilience, directed by Mel Gibson, friend of Rick's

people. Then,

in a strategic pivot to the lighter side of combat, we'll engage with G. I. Joe, a real American hero, reminiscing about the days when our greatest battle was getting home from school in time to catch the latest episode.

As we embark on this daring raid into movies and TV heroics, remember our podcast is packed with more surprises. than a plot twist in a Christopher Nolan film, so lock and load your listening devices and let's dive into the

action.

Reegs: Nice. Could work.

Cris: done.

Dan: all in one breath. Yeah. Just off the hip like that. You know, it's, it is.

Sidey: Yeah, we did not scripted. it. was not scripted. It's not scripted now, so we'll go to shit. We

did a top five

Cris: libraries.

Dan: Libraries.

There was. There

Sidey: I do believe There was a couple of

Dan: Did anyone check us out? That's a library

joke

Sidey: We

have

the library from the league of extraordinary gentlemen

Yeah

that's from beaver. I really like that film even though it's

like

Dan: That was that I every time that's brought up I always think of Yana's brother who when I first met him took me to the film set because it got filmed in prague and his mate and we walked down the big kind of street and saw all the It's like a, you know, just boards that they paint to make it look like it's a different scene and everything.

But yeah, it was, it was quite cool. Although the film wasn't.

Sidey: Yeah,

the

the graphic novels are really good. But the yeah and Breachy,

Says

one of my all time favorite films that nobody else has ever seen, Columbus. The main theme, of my character works in a university library. Really recommend it for that Lost in Translation slash Past Lives misconnection Alone in the World vibe.

Reegs: Columbus,

Sidey: a

strong recommend.

Reegs: that one?

Dan: one. No, unless it's about the, the guy,

Sidey: Who was that?

Cris: Christopher Columbus.

Sidey: the director?

Dan: Yeah.

The

explorer guy. I did watch a film on

Reegs: The Detective.

Cris: Columbo, I used to love that.

Sidey: Did you watch any Colombo this week, or or anything else

for that?

Cris: I have watched something that is not Colombo, but I think I told you this last week, I started watching the Continental

Sidey: Oh

yes. Yeah.

Cris: is the, it's a three series, three part kind of series, I think. But yeah, John Dick it's good.

I've, I've got, the last episode was three episodes with her one and a half hour long, so I kind of seen in chunks in of, of an hour or 45 minutes.

Reegs: is

there a lot of action in it?

Cris: There is quite a lot of crime in it, and I quite enjoyed it, and it's not as good as the first John Wick, but it's definitely better than the last John Wick.

Dan: Okay,

Cris: And the fight scenes are really good there's a young Charon, there's Mel Gibson.

He is the guy that is before Winston. This is basically the making of Winston. As, as the Yes, yeah, the making of Winston. Young Charon and, and the person that's before Morpheus, what's his name?

Sidey: Larry Fishburne

Cris: Fishburne, yeah the woman is a woman before him, the leader of the underground and all that.

So it's, it's quite an interesting story and it's quite cool. And I've also watched American Underdog, which I told you earlier, Saidi.

Sidey: Kurt Warner

Cris: Yes. Kurt Warner American Superhero. He made it from the

Dan: Oh, that kind of B movie where he played in shit American

Cris: Yes. Yeah, and then he made it to the NFL and he's MVP league, MVP Super Bowl, MVP. And he is the MVP.

Dan: It's like a B sports movie. Yeah, kind of

Cris: Yeah, I've watched that. So,

I dunno beat that if you can

Dan: just one more thing. the Columbo. I, I had did a bit more show gun. So right up to date with that as it drips feeds it through every Tuesday. And it's good. It's, it's look, it's all building up, you know, I got into another series called old man with Lebowski in it.

What's his name? Jeff.

Cris: Bridges. Jeff Bridges.

Dan: Which is quite good. He plays a old CIA operative it's a Disney thing. And yeah, so, a friend came around and he recommended it. So I'm, I'm like two or three episodes in now and it's okay. It started

Cris: old

Dan: Old man.

Reegs: Man. I can see why you were attracted

Sidey: it.

Dan: Yeah, we done look that old to me. I was thinking youngster. And I watched something else as well, but I can't quite remember, but it was good.

Sidey: Riggs?

Reegs: No,

Not so much tele watching this

Sidey: found a series yet.

Reegs: Well I suppose I have, the one I was watching was three body problem and that continues to be Okay.

Deals with some interesting sciencey stuff if you if you like that things. It's a great moment. Spoiler alert. Where you know, like, an egg. In an egg slicer with the wires. They do that with like, a battleship full of people. And carbon fire. Carbon fiber wires. And it like, slices through the, like, If you could imagine what that would be like.

Dan: Well,

Sidey: They do it with At the start of Cube, don't

Reegs: It's

kinda like that, but slower and children And

Dan: did it on a, was it Ghost Ship or something like that? They did it with a

Reegs: this is, this is like that, but on steroids.

Sidey: Right.

okay.

Dan: Wow, that was just like You just cut through everybody, and then Yeah, they all started, they just fell apart, didn't they?

Sidey: We started watching there's a new series on

Apple TV called Sugar.

So I saw the trailer for it, I

think it was the day

before it dropped it's Colin Farrell. I think you'd really like it Dan, it's a, it's a private dick, like gumshoe, And it's almost a little bit like Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid because it cuts in bits of old films, for some reason.

haven't we worked out why and he's on the lookout for a missing girl. It's an irritating because they drop one episode a week. and off. with that but I So the day it came out I saw all the reviews and, at best polarizing, mostly panning it. And

apparently it's got an

absolutely appalling twist off with it, but I am really enjoying it, so I'll stick with

it.

And we started watching Ripley as well

on Netflix.

I of good chat about that. No, no. Yeah, I was I

was sort of getting but you know when the person you're watching with, you can tell they're not enjoying it and it kind of like it meant you can't enjoy it as much as you might. so

I'll probably get back to it, because it stylistically was pretty cool.

Dan: Which reminds me of what I watched because I don't think I would have enjoyed both these movies had I watched them alone, but I watched the new Roadhouse and the old Roadhouse doubleheader straight after

Cris: in which way

Dan: Did the. The new one first and then did the old one second. And I'm watching him with somebody.

It does change the dynamic, you know, you just enjoy or laugh. And I was talking about the horror movies. They're a little less scary and more enjoyable if you are watching them with people and you can kind of jump in behind each other. But yeah, that was the, the roadhouse as well.

Sidey: Alright. It was Pretty good.

Should into this week's?

Dan: Doing it anyway, aren't we?

Cris: Yeah.

Dan: Okay. Well We're gonna kick it off then. We're talking about soldiers, are we?

Sidey: Yes.

Dan: And there's, there's one soldier that's captured the attention of everybody who's ever watched a film really, and that's that's Walter Sobchak.

Out of The Big Lebowski, and it's John Goodman.

He's the dude's best friend. He's a Vietnam vet. And everything comes back to, to Vietnam, just about every fuck up in his life. Every good thing, every bad thing, every meal, every bowling ball. It all reminds him of Nam and and he, he just keeps on bringing back that. And of course he's, he was born a Polish Catholic.

He converted to Judaism and he's got

Sidey: He doesn't roll on the Sabbath.

Dan: Yeah, he doesn't roll on it on a Sabbath, but he'd always talk about his fallen comrades and

Sidey: Dying face

Dan: Yeah

And

it's just so funny. I know we've we've mentioned it time and time again, but He he's a classic soldier, you know, he's he's not been able to turn off from the horrors yet

Sidey: It's

funny because

There's

so many different depictions of how the Vietnam War affected people.

and this is the one that just sticks out

Dan: that sticks out the best. And yeah,

Reegs: Well, above platoon and all the others, and apocalypse

Sidey: hunter

Dan: Well, this, this is a soldier. He's come back. He's he's he's. He's, he's trying to get back into, to life. And you wonder how much it has actually fucked him up all the way through his life. Because he is a bit of a, a fucked up character when he's got the bag and he's going, no, dude, I've got the ring on.

What was going on? Why are you, he just made putting putting himself in, in all the bad spots of every situation.

Cris: I've got the last samurai 2003.

I'm not going to mention Tom Cruise because most of the soldiers that I have are American. What?

Dan: Well, you did mention

Cris: Yeah. All right. I'm not going to mention the American guy in this movie, but I'm going to mention Ken Watanabe, which is Katsumoto and Hiroki Sanada, who is Ujo. So. And they are the Samurais, and they're the leaders of the Japanese army in this case.

Which is kind of a, this is a, in a way, an adaptation, a more American adaptation of Shogun. As in, a guy that comes into the Japanese society

Sidey: Did he have to do the ritual suicide bit at the end? Ken

Watanabe?

Cris: yes, yeah, he does, yeah, yeah, he does. The seppuku.

Sidey: Yeah.

Cris: So I thought that would be

Reegs: We saw that in this week's movie, I

Sidey: Sure did

Cris: yes, yeah So that was kind of the on theme with with the the action or half of the action of of this week's movie

I don't know if you've all seen that I would imagine

Sidey: would imagine.

Cris: oh, did you nice?

So yeah, those two guys are Japanese and they are definitely not American

Reegs: I've

got Soldier.

Have you seen that one? Kurt Russell, 1998. infamously a bit of a turkey, but I, surprisingly, think it's only, it's pretty good.

He is Sergeant Todd three, four, six, five. He's like raised from birth to be an elite commando, which is all well and good, until Jason Isaacs turns up with his army of super soldiers, and they're beaten, you know, replaced in the, as military weapons are replaced, so are people like that.

And after they lose the fight, left for dead on some planet, and I think it's Connie Nielsen nurses him back to life and he has to fight against But if you're a big fan of Kurt Russell staring moodily

Dan: moodily into space. I am actually.

Reegs: of course you

Dan: when you said Soldier, I thought this was a Jean Claude Van Damme

Reegs: well, that's a Universal Soldier, Dan. That's also on my list.

Cris: got that, yeah.

Reegs: Dolph Lundgren.

Dan: Yeah.

Reegs: And that is, I think, an amazing movie. Both of them die before their names feature on the opening credits. In fact, They come up when they're. Zipped into

body bags.

at the beginning of

Dan: Oh, nicely edited.

Reegs: Great little start.

Sidey: But

Reegs: but

yeah, soldier was also set in the same universe as Blade Runner and has numerous references.

One of them's got a tattoo of the Tannhauser

Sidey: and there's

Reegs: crashed spinner

in,

Cris: Wow. Yeah.

Sidey: it. quite partial to a bit of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And after she had fucked Angel and he had left, she, there needed to be a new love interest. And there, wouldn't you know it, a new guy turned up who was a university lecturer.

But, on the side, he was the soldier. He was part of

Cris: What, part time soldier?

Sidey: he was part of a thing called the Initiative. The guy's name was Riley Finn, and he was basically the replacement for Angel David Boreanaz character. And so

he's part of this government sponsored special ops unit which goes after demons and whatever So

kind of like

Reegs: time special ops.

Sidey: So he teaches you in the day and then when the demons are out at night, he does like the like the slayer, like the slayer and so she they you know, write it in and Buffy gets with this guy Riley Finn, and he was universally fucking despised by the audience

And didn't have that. He had zero charisma. As opposed to what

Cris: they, do they have sexy time?

Sidey: Yes but people like it was one of those moments

where the fan base becomes really entitled and just protest and fucking moans and boycotts and in the end they had to write him out of the show.

I mean he wasn't a great character

anyway, but it was a bit of a shame that, you know, well maybe it's not, maybe it's

empowered flexing their muscles, but he was, he was a combatant.

Yeah.

Cris: he was

Dan: You remember Colonel Dax?

Reegs: Yes, but where. from?

Dan: Paths of glory. Ah. So, going back a

Reegs: 57 or

Dan: Yeah, going back a little bit. This is yeah, it is um it's It's actually a really fucking amazing film. Basically how these guys are going to die. Whether they go they're after they're being sent over the top, as it were.

First World War stuff. And they're going, I ain't fucking going, like, you know? And they go, whoa, you've got to go. And it's just they're just The futility of war and the fucking you know, because there he goes, okay We're gonna kill you if you don't go and they're like we're literally gonna die if we do go And they're just caught right in the middle of of all that bullshit.

And these three men. They they try to do is what they believe to be correct But they just use escape goats and have to go the way through this system. I mean, it's Yeah Escape

Sidey: stare at Escape Coast.

Dan: they try to escape but they they can't yeah, but it's a you've seen this movie

Sidey: I haven't seen this one actually. Have you not No, I haven't. okay,

Dan: then it's it's definitely going to be

Sidey: a couple of Kubrick missing off my

list.

This

Dan: This is a really really good one

Cris: Okay. I've got Commandant and Strika from Beasts of No Nation which they're all soldiers. And I don't know if you've ever seen Beasts of No Nation is a movie with Idris Elba as the main character.

Dan: No, i've not seen this

Cris: in a country in Africa, they don't actually name the country. And it kind of shows you the,

Sidey: wakanda

Cris: no, it's a lot worse than that. Actually. Yeah, it's, it's, I think most of the cast at the time, they were under 18, except for Idris

Reegs: Alright, it's about child soldiers. Yeah,

i've got a few of those on my list.

Cris: rehab. Okay. Yeah, this is, I don't, I'm, if you, if you haven't seen it, I'm definitely gonna put it as a norm for for the pod because it's really good.

Okay. And it's also quite not, I wouldn't say sad, but it's quite brutal and quite how it, how an African country can be when a 13-year-old has an AK 47 And,

he commands a platoon and it's, it's really, really interesting and also very, very dangerous and brutal. So definitely that.

Reegs: yeah, I also find child soldiers hilarious. So i've got a list of those as well black hawk down do you remember we did that for the pod. Do you remember? and the kid pulls a gun on Someone

Cris: of them, because there are too many. Yeah.

Reegs: Blood Diamond has one. of the main characters. has got Is it J'mon Hunzu's son? Yeah. is part of the african militia. David Ayer's fury

Has

a scene where a bunch of kids are playing like Hitler. youth, are playing around with a rocket launcher.

Sidey: Is that a Brad Pitt one?

Reegs: Yeah. Yes, And they, the kid, they don't know whether to fire on them because they're children and then suddenly the tank is blown up in quite big detail.

And then of course most harrowing of all, Pacific Rim. Yeah. Guillermo del Toro they, they inscripted one of their Jaeger pilots at the age of 12.

Sidey: What a

crushing low that film was.

Reegs: It's polarizing that, isn't it? It's got like a small army of people who just absolutely love

Dan: seen it,

Sidey: I was so amped for it because I

love Kaiju and stuff like that. And then you watched, well I watched it, and thought. oh, what a crushing disappointment.

Reegs: I did not see either in

the cinema, so

Sidey: I did see it in

Reegs: the issue.

Okay, maybe that wasn't the issue then.

Sidey: Well, for me, anyway. Poor,

Toy Story has the toy green soldiers things. And they're, they're good and at one point, didn't someone trample on them?

And they go all full Blackhawk down.

They won't they won't leave him behind They have to get him and rescue him before anyone spots them.

Reegs: In the first one, they're sent down to do reconnaissance but when

Sidey: Yeah. They take orders from Woody, I think. Yeah, I would

Reegs: so. Asajj! Well, there's Asajj, isn't there? Asajj leads them.

Dan: That's Toy soldiers. So, toy Story, you've also got toy soldiers. Remember that

Sidey: I know the film, but I never saw it.

Dan: Right. It was a Austin,

Sidey: Powers?

Dan: No, not powers. The guy Sam G

Sidey: Sean Astin?

Dan: yeah, him, Sean Austin. He was in it. I'm good. I'm good. That's why people tune in. Can you remember soldier Richard?

Sidey: Nope. Dick.

Dan: Dead man's

Reegs: Oh yeah, that's a

Sidey: Oh yes.

Dan: So,

Sidey: list. Sorry, I have that

Dan: so he's we watch this for the pod and I'd not seen this film before it was a Shane Black film, wasn't it?

Sidey: it? Shane Meadows?

Dan: Yeah,

Shane

Meadows we knew it was a Shane and he's basically going in to fuck up the, the guys that have been bullying his brother.

And he uses all kinds of Almost CIA kind of approach because he gets them all fucked up on drugs and just get it's dark He just scares the shit out of him that thug that comes up to him.

Remember he stops his car

Sidey: that famous, famous scene where He, they're in

two CV. Yeah

So they're not that intimidating, but the guy is obviously

The

The the. The main man in the local gang, And his mates were waiting for him to re intimidate, you know, and beat him up or whatever.

and

Dan: There's just

absolutely no fear whatsoever.

Sidey: holds his hand out and says, you're Right. fucking there.

you

Dan: guy just turns away. He realized

he's

Sidey: to know the full story until right at the end where

his brother's killed himself and it's a

revenge mission.

Dan: And you, you, yeah, you realize just how like

patient and you know, just in control he is. And these hoodlums, they were just like, yeah. Big in their own village, but he's been out there, he is done it.

He's seen shit that they would never even think about and he just wipes the

Cris: Done it, he's seen shit that they would never even think about and he just wiped the floor and that's it.

Sidey: Yeah,

first blood,

Cris: he is in four or five parts. Maybe

Reegs: Oh, it's more than that now, I

think

Sidey: five? it

might have been five?

or

Reegs: Yeah, I think we might be into six

Cris: the Mexican one is six now?

Reegs: the underground tunnels and stuff, I've

seen that one I don't know if there might even be another one after

that.

Cris: god, can't wait.

Sidey: another Vietnam

vet. Vet,

Cris: Yes. Yeah. In John Rambo, he also plays in extend, extend the balls. He's an extendable and he's a soldier in that he is a soldier in something else,

Sidey: he a soldier in Demolition Man or is he a police

Reegs: cop?

Cris: is a cop. Yeah,

Reegs: the same thing, in

Cris: kind of. Yeah, kind of the same thing. I'm pretty sure he was in another movie that he was a soldier, but I have failed to write it down.

So I won't remember that I've got. I've had Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren in Universal Soldier.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, another guy you might have heard of. He was a soldier in Predator, which we did quite a few weeks ago.

Sidey: And Commando.

Cris: And I have another one that is called George Clooney. I can't remember his name in the movie, but the movie is a great masterpiece.

And it's The Men Who Stare at Goats.

Reegs: We

did it for the pod.

Sidey: Escape Goats. yeah.

Cris: And he is a soldier, although he has a rank. He's not just like a

Reegs: Yeah, he's a colonel in the

Yeah,

Cris: Is he a colonel? Okay, that. And the last one I have is Chris Kyle Bradley Cooper in American Sniper.

Reegs: Yeah.

Cris: And

that's it from me.

Sidey: Did we do that on the

Reegs: We have not, and I do think about doing that one as well.

but

Sidey: isn't

Dan: Shot's fired, I've seen it

Reegs: I don't know.

Cris: It's based on a actual guy.

It's

Sidey: yeah, yeah.

Cris: and

Reegs: another also.

yeah.

Is it me?

Dan: Well it can be if you want it to be.

Reegs: Joe Dante's 1998 Small Soldiers. Did anyone see that one? It's like Gremlins esque mayhem.

Sidey: the one I was thinking of when you said

Dan: I said that? Right, okay.

No, Troy Soldiers is

Sidey: This

Reegs: is the one where a bunch of toys accidentally get installed with microchips intended for ballistic missiles and start a war in a small

Dan: town. I've

Reegs: always happens. And this one's got Tommy Lee Jones as Major Chip Hazard. And it's got all the usual family friendly

themes, growing up, conflict resolution, and

the social degradation which results from the hegemony of an unchecked military industrial complex.

Sidey: you go for it, Yeah, go for it. You'll probably forget it. Yeah, go for it. I'll

Dan: From Jaws, he served on the USS

Reegs: Oh yeah.

Dan: And he got which was the boat, the boat that, that

Cris: What, does the Navy count as soldiers? I don't know.

Dan: Yeah, they're soldiers. And well he, he served a, a on that boat that delivered the atomic bomb to be dropped on Hiroshima. And it was sacrificed that shit by the japane to the Japanese.

So it'd be kept a secret. And the sharks were. Bite in that night and he was talking about it. You know, we survived that and then people were just getting picked off. And it was that night they're in the boat. And they start sort of drinking and you know, it's cold. And I want to go home. Boom, boom.

It's tired. And I want to go to bed. dun dun

Reegs: naa.

Dan: the, you know, jaws is coming as they're just having a good time at night, having a few drinks.

Reegs: it's a scene that,

Dan: boom. Yeah, it's a brilliant scene and he's absolutely amazing in it, isn't he? Robert Shaw.

Sidey: Okay. Magnum Pi,

Reegs: was he a soldier? Was he

Sidey: He was a former Navy Seal and Naval

Intelligent Officer.

Neither did I.

Reegs: Was,

Higgin's ex-military as well then.

Was that his, that was his butler, wasn't it? I,

Sidey: God, I can't remember.

it in that detail.

Lieutenant John Dunbar?

With wolves.

Reegs: Oh, yeah.

Sidey: Yeah.

a different take on the kind of military vibe there. Full Metal Jacket.

Reegs: Had a few Soldiers in, didn't

Sidey: succeeds

where I'm going to be like Chris here and spoil a lot of the failings of this week's movie. In that we get to meet quite a lot of people and, get to know them a little bit.

But of course we've got Private Joker, who continues throughout the movie, but I think famously

you've got private pile

Reegs: the drill instructor. I

Dan: drill instructor was actually a drill instructor, wasn't

Reegs: Ali

Dan: the

Sidey: he was there as A consultant, I

Reegs: dialogue coach, I

Sidey: they saw and saw him and thought, yeah.

let's have some of that.

Dan: The guy whose

Sidey: and yes, they they have a bit of A bit of a double act going on him. Which ends well for both of them. Not so,

So film jacket, yes. And platoon. Yeah. It's got some stuff. I was thinking of Elias

Dan: Of course, in that movie you've got Charlie

Reegs: Of course, in that movie you've got Charlie Sheen playing Taylor or whatever his name was and then his father also in a in a. Absolutely,

Sidey: Apocalypse.

Reegs: Iconic war movie in apocalypse Now, Imagine that. who did the best war movie, Vietnam war movie in

Sidey: Well, Emilio Mesterfez is out straight away. You've got

Reegs: yeah, I loved you in Wall Street.

Dan: I, I, I mentioned just then, Brian Mills. Yeah, he's got a particular set of skills He was

Reegs: He was CIA wasn't he? he

Dan: was

Reegs: not a soldier.

Dan: he served in the US Army

Sidey: that, track and find

Dan: 23 You don't know Brian Mills then he went.

Okay, so he's gone black ops. He's gone undercover You probably he knows what you want him to know.

Otherwise, he will find you And he will take you down.

Sidey: Well, I've

Reegs: Well, I got one for the final

Dan: Coming back round to me.

Straight off. Okay. I'm thinking fast. I'm going, I'm going Sam, I quint from Jaws

Sidey: Go on

Cris: I've got one that I haven't mentioned is Vasily Zaitsev. Is Jude Law in Enemy at the Gates?

Reegs: Oh

yeah. Good one.

It's snipery that movie,

There's a good

Cris: Snipery. Yeah. Yeah. Very snipery. It's

Sidey: I

Reegs: I

am gonna go with the son of Steve Carell in Last Flag Flying that we did. in, for the pod. Richard Linklater's one. And we, And although maybe it wasn't the greatest movie that we'd all seen, it was still thought provoking. And we enjoyed it. And yeah.

Sidey: it.

Well,

I think in that case I'll put in Richard from Dead Man's Shoes.

Cris: shoes.

Dan: Good

Sidey: Yeah. And Noms, please.

Dan: Oh! This is, that's Hacksaw Jim Duggan yeah, he was one of my favorites He had his 2x4 he was a bit of a bushwhacker he, he was he was absolutely nothing to do with the film

Sidey: The least they could have done was given him a cameo in this.

Dan: Yeah, yeah, you would've thought so

Reegs: he?

Sidey: Well.

is he? AI? you could AI

him in there somehow.

Dan: somewhere? Anyway,

Sidey: Anyway, this was Hacksaw Ridge.

Have you?

Cris: never seen

Sidey: it before.

I've seen it before.

Today.

Dan: I I didn't know that it was a true story.

Sidey: I

didn't know that it was a true story and I thought in my head that it was a Clint Eastwood film. It's neither of those things.

Reegs: there's Hacksaw

Cris: saw Bridge?

is

Reegs: What Is it called?

There is one, there is a

That is called something

Sidey: It says not bridges,

Oh, okay, maybe it's that one yeah. Okay. But this, yeah, this is a Mel Gibson

friend of Riggs. People,

Dan: hacksaws. And the ridges that

Sidey: not, it's not about that at all. It's, about, well, it starts off with some younglings.

Reegs: It Tells you straight up front it's a true

Sidey: true story. Yeah,

Dan: True story about hacksaws.

Reegs: And actually, we get some dead soldiers, and some

Sidey: Oh, it starts off with a fire, flash forward, isn't it? Yeah.

Reegs: Slow score and some slow motion

Sidey: people on fire

Reegs: getting thrown around and voiceover of Andrew Garfield. He might be reciting a prayer. He's definitely talking about his faith and he's being evac'd and then the Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia, 16 years earlier.

Dan: Yeah, looking absolutely fine, the place, and life is, is pretty good he

Sidey: seems

Reegs: He's racing his brother to the top of a, of a really badly CGI'd view and the parents have followed. Oh, no, it's,

Sidey: no, his dad's

Dan: He, he climbed up to the top of a ridge with his brother. He's made it first.

They're pretending to kind of push each other off and

Sidey: there's a couple that walk up and say, get back, And they, they

Dan: DRA kids

Sidey: joke about jumping off or falling. And they don't and they said,

oh,

they're just crazy. Like,

And then we see the old man,

Military grave yard.

Clearly, clearly

drunk.

He's drinking a bottle

of scotch

there and he smashes it

on one of the graves.

and cuts his hand pretty badly by looks of

it and just bandages

that up and sort of stumbles back to

the house and so you can see

that

Cris: back to the house, and

Sidey: It is

Reegs: is? No,

Cris: see there. It is?

Did he

Sidey: Yeah. it's a computer program he can do

every he does. And

Reegs: when he, He's supposed to be in charge of the kids and when he gets back they're roughhousing in the garden or more than that, really, having a full

Dan: on fist fight and mum sticks her head out the window and goes what are you doing?

He's going. Oh, you know character building

Sidey: I'll just be,

Reegs: telling him to block more.

Sidey: He just says, I'll, I'll just whip the one that wins and then I only gotta do half the work. That's right, But the fight, it's one of those, you know, when you, you were sort of doing that as a kid and it escalates you, but you, you can't.

You know, it becomes a real thing. It didn't start off as that.

Dan: Well, young Desmond picks up a rock a stone. It's like a fucking breeze block and he smashes against his brother's head. And then dad finally goes, Oh, come on, you've gone too far. And brings in the boy who looks like he's about to. You know, it looks like he could be dead.

He's, he's absolutely out for the

Reegs: in the room next door, he's, he's you know, he's being attended to and his father's threatening to give him a

Dan: He can't hear anything Riggs.

Reegs: just staring at a prayer, The Lord's Prayer on the side and the commandment. Thou shalt not kill So

Sidey: The old man's got the belt ready

Dan: It is kind of a, an epiphany moment for him, isn't it? He, he

Reegs: one of several that pushes him on his journey, I guess. And at night he hears his father being abusive to his mother.

Sidey: His brother says, I hate him and he goes to see his mom, make sure she's okay. And she says, why does dad hate us so much? And she said, he doesn't hate us. He hates himself. He's got survivor's guilt.

Reegs: PTSD from the First World War. And survivor's

Cris: Yeah, she does say you should have seen him before the war.

Yeah, yeah. He was

Sidey: He's damaged. He's damaged.

Reegs: And we cut to 15 years later and it's Desmond is now the dorkish Andrew Garfield.

Sidey: Of hair on his head, doesn't he? Yeah, he

Reegs: Yeah.

he has

Sidey: He's got big hair,

yeah. He's

Dan: great hair.

And he, he, he's, he's, yeah, he's cleaning the church windows but his brother is signed up. And dad is really pissed off at him because he's like, oh, oh, that's it. You just go and get yourself killed. You think it's all a great story. It's all great fun. But I'm telling you the realities of war are a lot different to

Sidey: I mean, Effectively, he's lost. All his friends. I don't know,

was there a brother as well?

Reegs: know, was it a brother or a friend.

But Andrew Desmond Doss is, is cleaning the church windows, being a bit flirty or whatever. He's obviously looking for a woman in his life, and he'll find her in a minute because there's a car accident outside. I think a guy was. a Jack fell when the guy's changing a tire,

Sidey: ejaculated. Yeah, all over him

Reegs: And you see a pretty horrible leg break which he instinctively knows to tourniquet and follows

Dan: some advice. Using his belt because and he, that's pretty much his party trick, isn't it? He does a lot of these. But he, in the hospital while waiting for his belt, Gets chatting to the, the lady who will become his wife a nurse in

Reegs: Well First the doctor says to him, you've saved this guy's life. And you see it's a powerful moment.

Dan: It is, it's another kind of

Reegs: point that sets him on his path. But Yeah, then he meets Dorothy.

Sidey: is Dorothy. She's

Reegs: Yeah, I do, who is the actress? She is. but

Cris: yeah, well she's very pretty.

Sidey: She has

Dan: pretty.

Sidey: I did look up her name, let's just not leave it as I don't know.

Dan: She looked as

Sidey: It was Teresa Palmer.

Dan: Yeah, I was going to say something, palm of your hand. She was lovely. And he thought so too

Sidey: He gives blood. She's there to take blood. And

Dan: He's offering any kind of

Sidey: anything to hang around. Yeah.

Dan: She wants he's prepared to give her

Sidey: Anything to hang around, so he donates some blood, bugger's off, and then the next day he's all suited and booted. And they're like, Oh, where are you going? I'm off to tell this girl that I'm going to marry her.

And

Dan: she know and they go not yet

Sidey: Yeah. So he goes back and he says to her, I want my blood back.

is where it doesn't really work like that at all, And they sort of, then

we have this kind of almost montage

relationship bit Don't we Climbing up

the Blue Ridge mountains and they kiss, and she slaps him, doesn't she? The first time they kiss, she gives him a

Reegs: Well, that's that's outside the cinema, isn't it? He saw She nearly gets hit by a car, and he rescues her, and then he impulsively kisses her, and she doesn't like it.

And then he nearly gets run over again. I mean, I was like, get out the fucking road.

Dan: I was like, get out the f ing road. Well, she does that well, she's, she wants things to be proper. She's obviously been brought up the right way. She

Reegs: Yeah, well, it's,

Sidey: Well, it's,

it's It's

you know, Thomas Passe, It's a long time ago. and that was just, courting was done that way, wasn't it?

Dan: Yeah,

It's even

Sidey: Well you could tell us, Dan, you'd know

Dan: Yeah, well,

Reegs: he has, you know, we've seen his, that he is a devout Seventh day Adventist.

Sidey: I hadn't heard of this sect, But

yes.

Dan: he's got his own particular religious views and he's also got his high morals. So when all his friends are are signing up, he feels that he has to too.

And

Reegs: Well, it's the it's, it's, the he, they see a report of the attack at Pearl harbour and that inspired many people to enlist including him

Sidey: He goes with Michael Jordan, doesn't he, from the last

times, he took that, I took that shit personally. he

Dan: Yeah. And he, he, he's had a conversation with we don't see this, but he's, he's had a conversation where he doesn't.

Have to pick up a gun where he he's already said, look, I'm, you know, obviously I'm Was a ceo a conscientious objector,

Sidey: not gonna kill anyone, but I'm willing to risk my

life to go help others. The medic,

Dan: Yeah, he wants to be a medic and and he's he's promised that he will never touch a gun in his life Because he's already had a scary

Reegs: That sort of comes out really later. at the point when he's given a, no, when he's given a rifle as part of basic training.

So I mean it doesn't doesn't He tells her that he's going to enlist as a combat medic, and that's all we're told at that point before he does

Dan: I'm going to save lives while everybody else is taking

Reegs: Yeah, that's what he says but we don't quite She gives him a bible before he leaves off for basic training, then they're off to Fort Jackson, and this is where it becomes a bit full metal jacket for a little while, with Vince

Sidey: little while

The whole time that Vince Forma's on the screen I was especially doing his drill

sergeant y bit. I was just thinking of

old school because he does that in old school, doesn't

he He lectures

them all and screams in

their face? In the fraternity thing that they set up.

Reegs: they set up. So Exactly, And he literally does

Sidey: and

he literally does try and not, he doesn't try and copy it, but the way that they behave.

It's military, it's

procedural.

Reegs: tries to dehumanize

Sidey: them and he tries to give them all nicknames. like, And you can't help

but think of Fullmetal Alchemist, you just cannot, and it's nowhere near it.

It's nowhere fucking near it. which is a shame for the film. because

Dan: the film. Well, yeah, it is and it isn't. I quite like the moment

Sidey: think he comes into it better later on. Just this bit

was,

Reegs: think they use it to sort of

Dan: to sort of You're comparing it.

Reegs: subtly start

to challenge your ideas of masculinity, right? So the guys that he's stationed with are all these like massive lantern jawed like

Sidey: Well, the first one, the first guys that we meet is naked.

Reegs: He's completely naked.

Sidey: Hollywood. Yeah. Hollywood.

Reegs: one of them. Another guy, Smitty, who's also going to have a bit of a journey He's playing like throwing knives with another recruit.

Yeah.

Private idiot, I think

Dan: all, at the beginning, at least, they all

Oh, how you doing,

Sidey: He gets the, he gets the intro. He's all the lads.

Dan: exactly. It's

only a little bit

later as they go into The basic training and he has to pick up a gun.

Reegs: Gun. well, first of all, they show him that he they do an obstacle course And despite smitty being a bit of a backstabber in it, kicking him down or whatever he wins it. So he's physically, despite, and also they've pointed out, oh he looked like a stiff breeze or knock you over, but physically he's probably one of the better specimens there.

And then yeah, they do give everybody a rifle and everybody goes to take one and there's a rifle

Sidey: one left.

yeah.

Dan: And he's, yeah, he explains there in front of everyone. Oh, no must be some kind of mistake. I'm not firing a gun and that goes down like a lead balloon

Reegs: he starts to tell everybody about his principle.

I'm a conscientious objector, I will not handle a weapon. I will go into battle and be re And

Nobody can sort of quite understand it. or believe it at first.

Sidey: No, I imagine that would sound completely alien to everyone on a fucking

Cris: alien to me Until

yesterday, until I've seen this movie, I've never heard of these people before.

Sidey: of these

Cris: So I thought, what? What do you mean? Just pick it up and then pretend, pretend you're gonna fire it and whatever, play with it. And then just go to war and throw it on the floor.

Sidey: I guess I didn't understand why he couldn't just shoot it if you pay for targets,

Reegs: but He has his

Sidey: but He does have his

Dan: his principles. He has his

Reegs: I think far weirder, He's a vegetarian. Which we'll find out.

Dan: it, it, it doesn't directly link into his religious his religion though. It is just kind of his principles. Yeah. That he's promised God himself that he will

Sidey: won't harm a, paper

Dan: he won't, he won't touch a gun.

Sidey: So that's gets,

that gets escalated up

to the captain Sam Worthington he's like, no, you're

gonna fucking follow orders.

Yeah. 'cause that's kind of what we do around here. Yeah. I need to know that.

you know when you're in No, he is like, no, no, no, no, no. Like, other

Dan: that. You're going to be a danger to other people. He's not mad.

Reegs: they can't give him a section eight discharge, which is how they want to get rid of the problem

That's right And he doesn't want to go. And despite the fact that he's become a pariah effect, essentially

Dan: starting to beat the shit out of

Reegs: It's publicly endorsed.

I mean, I think vince vaughn's character basically calls for it to

Dan: Well, he this is one way of getting him out is that he's gonna quit so they're just gonna treat him

Sidey: like shit

in.

their view, When we go into the battlefield, we cannot have a passenger, we cannot have someone,

we need to fucking

keep one eye out because he won't shoot. That's the

way they see it.

And

Reegs: Yeah, And it goes up from the captain,

Sidey: Yeah, and it goes, it goes up from the

captain, who's the next guy to be the

colonel, not the colonel.

The bald headed guy, he's the one who

really fucking

goes ape about it.

And they're saying, if you don't fucking quit, then you're just going to get court martialed and get a dishonorable discharge. So, what are you going to do? And

Cris: Well, no, it doesn't get, he would go to court martial and then prison in Leavenworth

Sidey: He

Cris: he refuses the order

Sidey: He gets pummeled. He won't give up. the guys who did it. And he won't quit. He's gonna see it through to whatever,

To the point that he misses his fucking wedding day.

Yeah.

Cris: Well, they don't let him go.

Sidey: Yeah. So

on his, the

R& and R, whatever it is

furlough is.

actually,

how that, that term, little while,

Dan: this is

actually after he's started to gain a little more respect from his, his fellows around him because he'd been beating this shit out of him.

He didn't.

Sidey: he didn't

grasp,

Dan: He didn't grass him up. In fact, he said, no, I can't quit. I've got latrine duty or

Sidey: and double watch. Yeah

Dan: double watch. So, begrudgingly they, they kind of, you know, He's, he's earning their respect and when they're all lining up for their day off, he's next in line and that guy comes in and

Sidey: It says You can have it, you can have it, once you've done

Dan: Basic training, you've got to finish it. Which includes shooting a gun over there at that.

Sidey: And so it

cuts to the church and someone's saying to his missus well, how long do you want to wait? And she says, well, I think we've waited long enough. And that's,

Dan: we've waited long enough. She knows, she knows something must have

Sidey: So she still knows, she knows something must've happened to him.

And then, sure enough, they bring her

along to try and

get her to talk some sense into him. And he's just like, no,

I

Dan: and it's just kind of like I wouldn't be the man that you wanted to marry or something like that. So he's court martialed And

Reegs: to a to a

Dan: absolutely.

Yeah, no, absolutely. He's he's I mean, easy to look at now and but you can imagine at the time like we're going to war. This guy doesn't even want to pick up a gun like you know, it's just wasting our time. This guy but he goes for the court martial and it's all stacked up against him that even the his his kind of lawyer is saying, well, this shouldn't take too long.

You

Sidey: This is like Blackadder's trial.

in Corporal Punishment episode.

But it's Dad who comes through, does a

solid.

Reegs: solid

Dan: Well, dad's dressed up in his World War One uniform. He barges into the courtroom past people. He's got a letter from his old commander, who is like a break, a brigadier field marshal or whatever. He's top man. And this is going to give his son permission to speak to you.

Reegs: on.

Oh,

It says his pacifism is protected by the constitution.

Yeah. And the

Sidey: they try and give, They try and get him to fuck off, don't they? And he

says, oh, that's it, is it? You know, That's what we do, we

serve, we lose everyone, we give you everything, and then you just we cast aside.

You won't even hear us out and he says, okay, let me read the

Dan: Yeah because they do say it's a military only court and he goes you're not recognized here and he's like fucking Oh, I was I did my time like, you know I was in the battle of fucking this and I was in the war of that and the battle of this Which are big battles if you know your war

Reegs: it's quite a moment as well for his father to come through for him like that

Sidey: through for him. Yeah, Yeah,

Dan: and yeah, they've had a really tough kind of relationship and yeah, his, his father, it must be difficult for him because he loves his sons. That's why he gets so pissed off with the fact that they're signing up to, to war. And him helping them to do that, knowing that they might not come back.

Sidey: Well, he doesn't hang around to say

he as soon

as they come out of the courtroom, he's already gone, he's already legged it.

And

Reegs: think it, it is a bit spoily, but

Dan: spoilery, but it

Reegs: to say that, you know, his, there is an incident with his father that created the single moment where he decided he would never touch a a firearm again.

So, you know, that fa father is obviously a powerful

Mm-Hmm.

Sidey: Hmm

Reegs: Presence. in his life. Anyway, we now move to 1945 and the Battle of Okinawa, and the second half of this movie is very different to

Dan: the first

Reegs: this sort of, fairly sentimental stuff that we've seen. And lots of,

Sidey: we've had a little teaser of what it's gonna be like from the very.

very beginning. Yeah. Yeah, it

Reegs: starts ominously, right? As they're going up to the camp, there all the fresh face recruits, and you start to see the guys

Sidey: The horrors

Reegs: And they just, look, they've got the thousand like, there bodies coming back, and they've the thousand odd yard stare, and certain

Dan: and soot and blood and, and kind of guts all over the faces of these returning soldiers.

And they're just ghosts, really, and they're in a little barn before

Sidey: the 96th unit

or something.

Yeah. And as one of 'em says, oh, what's left of them? And I think they have two medics left.

And they end

up joining their gang. don't they? That's right, Yeah.

Reegs: yeah. And we learn really what Hacksaw Ridge is, which is this steep cliff, basically.

Dan: Yeah, there's a cargo net about

Sidey: it looks so bizarre to me

Dan: three,

Cris: Yeah, I didn't get that. That's what annoyed me. It annoyed me the

whole way.

That, that net. I, I couldn't get my head

Dan: You would, you would definitely,

Reegs: It was real though, that is what it was. Like,

Dan: you were like the Japanese though, you would definitely cut the net.

Cris: Cut the net. What? What? Well,

Reegs: Well, I I suspect they had people at the top to maintain the net. But anyway, they're cons. it's shown that they, you know, the Americans are about to assault this.

Sidey: they, had enough, artillery

cover from the sea that, I don't think they would be able

to get close enough to go But just the fact

Reegs: Very badly rendered.

Sidey: had to go up this one little sec And just think you're just gonna get the First head that pops

up bang like you're just gonna get,

Cris: yeah.

Sidey: But that's

the

reality of what it was, you

Dan: it's like the jungle gyms, isn't it? You have to do that kind of cargo, or

Sidey: doggy dog, it's doggy dog down at fort regent,

Dan: And, yeah so it's a hell of a way up, I mean, this cliff.

And

Sidey: I would be exhausted By the time

you got, to the

Dan: well, once they get there, they've got a few rocks' cover. And as you say, the artillery can protect them for about, you know, a hundred meters or so from where they

Reegs: no, The artillery just smashes it, which creates the cover for them to go in because the Japanese retreat underground and then the Americans ascend the ridge.

And they go in. Quietly at first, until then it just, I mean, then it just fucking kicks off, it's absolutely ridiculous like, you know, bullets go, we've seen it all.

Dan: it? You know, when they're going

Sidey: Well, it's it's saving Pirate Ryan, but Also, Mel Gibson, in the past, he's very good at this battlefield sort of stuff, he does it in Braveheart, in Apocalypto, y stuff as well Yeah.

so he's got pedigree for this.

Reegs: And this is really visceral, like, legs snapping, and like, you really see some horrors, like one memorable moment a guy picks up a torso and uses it as a riot shield to advance the front forward, I mean it's disgusting. But as you're seeing all this horrific acts of war happening, suddenly you're seeing DOS running across the battlefield, I mean at first it's just ridiculous, he's like trying to patch up people who aren't even there anymore, but then he is starting to, Save lives on the battlefield, move across the battlefield to tourniquet people up, take people back that never would have been

saved before.

And then his pacifism actually advances the battlefield because when the the initial furore of the encounter dies down, he's the one who moves into the territory where no one knows what's going on. And then Smithy follows him and advances the Americans into, into the places He brings back more bodies

Dan: Like, Saving Private Ryan, you've, you know, real famous opening 30 minutes or whatever it is of that film where it is just the realities and realism of war.

You, you've got that scene where a guy just takes it, you know, Gets hit in the hat in the helmet and he takes it off to have a look and the next bullet takes him out And it's and it is like this, isn't it? I mean, it's so lifelike it all those scenes and as you say there, it's just chaos and craziness, but dos is Kind of lively and spring like healed on his on his feet.

He's jumping from one place to another and he actually as the The battle has is kind of just the artillery is just thrown up so much they've they've had to retreat they've come back at him

He he still goes back in and starts, you know with with all this

Sidey: they sustain like really heavy

losses and have to retreat.

Dan: huge. Yeah.

Yeah.

Well

Reegs: they take, they do in advance, right? They take the bunker. It's grueling, it's horrible. It goes on for ages. It's you know, you lose a few in that, and then they're pushed right back by

just an overwhelming number of

Sidey: Yeah.

Reegs: who push them right back to the ridge.

And

off the

Dan: And off the ridge and they have to go down and he, he manages to, to save about four or five and then right at the end, he's, he's been rumbled because the artillery, basically the guy's got to go back down into another, find another telephone somewhere and call off the artillery strike

Sidey: I think they literally do a headcount when they get down there.

They're Like, fuck is that all we've got left?

But there may be more

Reegs: They know

Dan: well,

Sidey: Not necessarily in a

Dan: start coming, they just start coming down, don't they? They just got

Reegs: well, dos goes out into the battlefield to find

Sidey: Well, he has a, he has, yeah, he has a, he has a moment where he's, he's questioning everything and he's like, well,

what am I

Dan: send me a sign.

Sidey: And then

he's like

he hears something

and he goes off. and He

Reegs: medic, medic, just as

Dan: from the battlefield and goes to retrieve He

is

Reegs: he's

Dan: Forrest Gump y. Except Freddy Mercury as well, I thought.

Reegs: Gump was. Really, almost unimaginable acts of heroism as he goes to the battlefield and over, over, you know, over a 12 hour period he rescues 75 men from the battlefield.

it

Dan: 75 and a half.

Reegs: Lowering them down one at a time, over the edge

Sidey: Couple of the Japanese as well.

Reegs: And a couple of Japanese guys as well. Yeah,

Dan: story. All we've not said is that he's devout in this religious

Sidey: not said is that he's he's devout in this religious belief and you're saying that it's not just that, it's his own personal thing but he also says, like what a subject,

I don't fucking roll on the Sabbath.

that when so when he does eventually come down, I

mean

His hands must have been in some

fucking terrible state from doing that rope thing.

He comes down and the captain says when, when he's like, well, where are these men coming from?

Reegs: Yeah. They can't believe it because

Sidey: And one of them says, it's

Dan: da

Sidey: Josh. And he's like, you know, the coward.

And he's like, oh fuck.

And he comes to speak to him. He said that, you know, this is the most incredible thing. You're the bravest man. we've ever, been.

Dan: I've never been

Sidey: that one day you can You can forgive me.

However, tomorrow is a Sabbath, I know

you

said you weren't gonna.

Dan: gonna Well, they start to respect his

Sidey: But

the men believe in what you believe.

Or have so

much belief in what you believe

that they won't go up if you

don't come up. and it's like, okay,

Dan: And then they're all waiting there's sort of like three four 100 men ready to climb the the cargo net go back up and try and retake that bunker and retake more Because they know if they take okinawa, they'll take the whole of japan

Sidey: It somehow seems a lot easier this time.

Dan: And well, they, they've got more belief side and they, they may have more men and they've got, they've

Reegs: the implication is they understand more of the geography

and

how the tunnel system And

Dan: potentially they've kind of, cause they're coming from underground.

A lot of the Japanese in this tunnel system, but they're all waiting. And The, the, yeah, the commander, he gets a phone call and he's saying what the fuck, you know, it's 12 o'clock. Why are you guys aren't over there? And he goes, we're just waiting for Das to finish his prayer. And he's there praying for permission, I guess, to go on the Sabbath and and for the lives of the, the guys going up.

And when he gives the, right, we're going Then he's got this whole kind of battalion waiting for, for his go, the coward. And they head back up.

Reegs: Yep.

Dan: And

Sidey: you like me just waiting for the guy with the flamethrower to get, to get hit?

Reegs: There's a few flame,

Cris: one where he, he got shot

Sidey: got the three

Cris: tank and he exploded. That's a

Sidey: waiting for that to go up,

yeah. That is

Cris: That's a

Reegs: It's, a few, times you see friendly fire incidents in this it's really,

Dan: and, and just the, the moments of heroic. Sort of, you know, splendor and, and bravery from Doss. At one point he's, he has to pretend he's dead. He's covered over another guy who was dying. Just so this Japanese patrol walk past them.

They have a little stab at the guy on top of him, but walk away.

Sidey: Also, the Japanese didn't

always fight

fair? No.

and they waved the white flag at one point and come up from one of the tunnels and then

start

chucking grenades

Dan: Well he, that's, that's kind of where he kicks one, he throws one back, he kicks another, he gets blasted back and he's,

Reegs: they really explored the technical limits of his pacifism in

this, don't they? Like what

does it mean to because there's a point where he

Dan: the

Reegs: he, he bats the grenade back at the guy. does kill the guy. They show

Dan: They show

Reegs: is self defense. It's not

Dan: Well, yeah, another time he's, he's kind of supporting a guy, killing a guy

Reegs: He holds a helmet

up

Dan: helmet up so he can get a good idea of where this guy was, the sniper.

And yeah, so, there's obviously self defense moments, but at no

Reegs: incident was based, although it wasn't in,

an incident where, a Japanese man was fake surrendering. That was a true story that he did. I don't know if he fucking 9 mile bicycle kicked it like he does in the movie, but he did kick a grenade back at a that was thrown at him.

Dan: It's

a reaction, isn't

Reegs: Yeah,

Dan: know,

Sidey: it was,

Obviously

against the Geneva convention to target.

medics. but the Japanese didn't recognize

Geneva.

They would specifically target the medics as well. Yeah,

Dan: one of the first things he heard, wasn't it? Take that red cross off

because they'll, they'll be, you know, targeting you

Sidey: why they're so ashamed

of their military past, aren't they?

But

they

Cris: then he gets blown up.

Reegs: He does. Yeah.

Cris: then you

Sidey: From that from that grenade, isn't it?

Cris: and then you can see the whole scene from the beginning where he gets carried back and

Sidey: They're making sure he gets, gets

Reegs: a sort of reverence to him in fact, I mean, as he's, this is like, he's, as

Cris: go for my Bible.

Reegs: he's all in a sort of Christ-like poses. he's winched off the Hacksaw Ridge with the oh,

like, yeah.

Dan: Well, he, he's on numerous occasions, he's, He's kind of, you know, risked his life for all these men, and they just wanna sort him out and make sure he gets back in one piece as good as they got, you know, treated themselves. He's, he's He's made a few decisions on the way and I think he's constantly learning.

At one point there's plasma he should have given to the other medic who said no, give it to this guy who is, it got, it got like,

You

know emptied and wasted

Reegs: he got shot

Dan: straight away. So and He was you know, the harsh realities of war it kind of settled in a few times where?

Sidey: him a shot morphine, move on

Dan: That was,

Sidey: that's what I normally do. it was,

Dan: was it was tough.

For him and then I mean we we as we move through you do get right at the end. An interview with him and a little clip

Sidey: We

get a few of them 'cause you got the

captains there.

Dan: the

Cris: well, it tells you the story of

Dan: the

Sidey: he

Reegs: He was awarded the Medal of Honour, the first

Dan: conscientious

Objected to be given the Medal of Honor and the, the guy says, he goes, Yeah, we, we gave him a load of stick, you know, we did.

We, we fucking hated him, you know, we were, we were giving it. And then, you know, to my shame, really, I realized he's probably the bravest man I've ever met. You know, he was like way braver than anyone. And

All

his convictions and all his kind of, you know, morals and everything. Now you look at it and you think, Oh, well, you know, that were back the time that would have been so, so difficult to go through all that, all that in the time of,

Reegs: for anyone who took that kind of stand, it would be difficult.

Dan: But even you know more during those times because now you could at least

Reegs: say, have you seen Hacksaw Ridge?

Dan: exactly, you know, you've you've got other conscientious objectives you could point to but back then He was very much. Blazing a trail.

Sidey: Trail. He was probably the only one

Dan: he was probably hacksaw ridge though, wasn't he?

Yeah, incredible story, I don't know, actually, more about the story of Hacksaw Ridge and how that panned out.

Reegs: I think, I mean, the the central facts of it are largely pretty true. He did save that many people in a 12 hour period. Some of his feats of heroics are so ridiculous that if you did put him in the movie they'd sound like insane.

Like he splinted his own arm with the rifle stock of a Broken Japanese weapon 12 hour period, his own broken arm and still carrying, I mean it's just ridiculous.

Yeah, I quite like this even though that first hour is like really mawkish and sentimental. and takes a long time to go I

Dan: I like this.

It

Reegs: story is

Dan: yeah, it really is. I, I, I know that,

you know, little bits like Vince Vaughn being the drill sergeant and

I liked it. I just thought this was, I love a true story anyway. It was really kind of inspirational to, to hear it and then see the true life people right at the end. Because when you do see, see him at the end and hear him speak, he's just so humble.

He's just kind of like, yeah, well, you know, it did what it did

and

Reegs: is for a strange audience though, really this, isn't it? Because it's basically kind of people who are in Like cause it's got very strong christian themes in it, especially in the first half of the movie and then towards the end with the you know, So it's for orthodox christians who love gory horror war movies.

like, is that a big Venn diagram? I don't know,

But

I didn't feel it was preachy At least from him as a character. He doesn't really articulate it.

Dan: No,

Reegs: time. It's a moral

Dan: gets the bible

Reegs: see how it's cemented in his, why why he, you know, believes all that stuff, but,

Dan: Side, was you as impressed as it,

as somebody else?

Sidey: No, I wasn't. Not really. Well, I, I did enjoy the battlefield stuff.

The

fighting, just because it's so impressively

Dan: Just, no respect for this kind of guy?

Sidey: no. fuck him.

Dan: I

Sidey: no, obviously like, massive, but what he did is obviously incredible. It's almost a little bit montage when he does it in the film.

Obviously they can't show you 75 in depth, you know, saves. But the, the first hour is a bit, he's just such a fucking dweeb.

Reegs: The love story goes on for, it's a bit unnecessary, and goes on for

Sidey: So probably, liked some of it.

Dan: Right.

Sidey: But

Reegs: it's hard to dislike what is such a badass subject,

Sidey: Yeah, that's that's rad what he did.

Reegs: them the insanity really of, or the bravery of a man who will run into battle without a weapon to save everybody he can.

Sidey: I wouldn't have done it if I was the only armed man there, .

But no, I don't know. Some of it just left me a little bit cold.

But amazing story. I mean, I didn't I didn't know anything about it at all.

So it was a good educational piece for

Dan: because I quite like this andrew garfield. I think he's he's been in a few decent things that tick tick boom that Did we watch that for the pod?

Sidey: did not. I think you just made it up as well.

Dan: Yeah, maybe I did Chris?

Cris: This definitely wasn't for me.

Dan: wasn't for you. No,

Cris: I,

I, the only thing that I got from this, that is a true story and I'll take what I can from it, that it's a true story and it saved all these people other than that.

No, I

love, I wasted my time with

Dan: to my time with this. Everything. Yeah, I understand

Cris: didn't understand the rope thing. I didn't understand why he wouldn't, why he wouldn't put in the movie that he tells them that these guys are on the ground. I know Vince Vaughn said they're coming from underground. He spent 12 hours. He went into the catacomb, like the bunker, whatever.

They threw a grenade at him. He comes out, he doesn't give up any military information. He just, Oh, let's go up. We're going to pray. I don't know. I just don't understand. You've put all this effort into making an excellent war

Reegs: Well, but I think that is the implication, that's why they did win when they went back up,

Cris: yeah, but the implication is I want to see it. I don't want to imagine that he told them you've told me all this shit about the Bible.

Well, yeah, I know, but you could, you could have at least, well, yeah, you could cut, you could cut three minutes of talking about the Bible to tell me that you've seen where they are hiding and how we're going to throw the artillery at them. I don't know. It was just boring. I did like the war scenes. Oh, it was good.

That was good. But I couldn't take Vince Vaughn seriously either. I just thought.

Sidey: he was better

when he was not being a terrorist, like just being A soldier.

shooting his gun and stuff. Although I did think he had like Robocop's gun that never ever

Cris: never finished.

Sidey: Never ran out of ammo.

Reegs: I did quite like the moment where he does finally actually handle a rifle after saying, refusing. so much, But he uses it as a

Sidey: saying He's her. Yeah,

so

drag

Reegs: Not as a

Dan: guess this was

Reegs: but as part

Sidey: was a kind of a stretch, yeah.

Dan: like a box of chocolates.

You

Sidey: He was a bit Forrest Gumpy,

Dan: very for Gumpy, but he was an absolute hero and a

Sidey: I think we kind of saw him lose his virginity as well, didn't we?

Dan: Possibly before he's married.

Reegs: No, no, no, no, no, no, no,

Sidey: It was, that was the night of, yeah, Super horny.

Cris: Seventh day Adventist,

Dan: I don't know when they got married though.

Sidey: they did show that. I think it was the day that he was court martialed, wasn't it?

Cris: the, yeah, after the court

Dan: they went

Sidey: Shotgun wedding, lol.

Cris: wedding, sexy time, war.

Sidey: In that order, yeah.

Reegs: how they always do isn't it.

Dan: do

Sidey: Is

there any interesting, interesting trivia?

What about,

Cris: need to know facts

Sidey: probably want to know financials, right? So it costs 40 million to make.

Dan: mil

Cris: You must have made money.

Sidey: This has got guns and it's got bible

stuff.

Cris: double, double the money

that

Sidey: that

up.

Dan: gonna go to a hundred for that kind of

Reegs: Well this was a bit of a return to the, to good favour for Mel Gibson, wasn't it?

Dan: do? He, he, he, he.

Cris: more than a hundred.

Sidey: did 181

million.

Cris: 181.

Dan: 81. Wow.

Sidey: Mel Gibson said that the battle scene like this is fucking mental, said that the battle scenes were influenced by nightmares he had during his childhood, when his father Hudson Gibson, a World War two vet, who served in the Guadaloube Canal in the Pacific Theater.

described the horrors he witnessed. as Bedtime

stories.

Cris: used love

Sidey: face. I saw my I

saw my son, my friend, get his face shot off telling his son at the Bedtime . I used

Dan: used to love those stories when I was a kid. I used to get my dad to tell us about,

Reegs: all

the people he killed,

Dan: the well alive, remember all the like, horror stories, you know, the, the plane going down in the Andes.

And we go, oh Dad, tell us about that. And he'd tell us about the . And they you know, used to go over into the. Different enemy lines at night and starting slitting people's throats with their big curry knives and things. And we'd be there, oh, tell go. No, I can't do anymore. You go to, and he used to give us some vivid dreams, but yeah.

Sidey: It's a

Dan: a,

yeah. Well, that's a, a strong recommend then.

Cris: strong recommend.

Dan: gonna hit a button. I. G. I. Oh, G.

Sidey: G.

Dan: I had list of soldiers, actually. Yeah, I

Reegs: Oh, G. I. Jain, I had that in my list of soldiers actually.

Dan: that would have

Sidey: I think ours were all dudes, so that would have been a good, one to put

in There Shame we never thought of that? at the time.

Dan: ladies.

Reegs: was called Action Force,

Sidey: In the uk? But it was G.

1. Joe, a real American hero

in the U. S. I

Reegs: us. Yeah.

But I remember the toys. Even the toys had action force

Sidey: Well, this was a toy, this was a toy first with a car. cartoon to market them, right? Yeah, I didn't watch this as a

Reegs: Which is

always a guarantee of artistic quality.

Dan: I, I'd seen this as a child, but I'd never,

Sidey: for

Dan: I never really watched I was never a big G. I. Joe fan. And no, I did, I did say when you all came around it, Oh, should we watch it?

And you all

Sidey: no. 'cause it's

Dan: Oh, again.

Sidey: an hour long.

Reegs: Twenty two minutes.

Sidey: rounded up? I rounded

Dan: Rounded up. Yeah.

Sidey: Yes. It was a Marvel series.

Dan: I, I do, I remember Is is it like mash?

Sidey: What? Hawkeye mash

Reegs: do you mean mask?

Dan: Yeah. And I

Sidey: it's animated. yeah. It's a little bit before mask and it looks a little bit cruder, I would say but

Reegs: only because of age, I

Sidey: are having to animate, not live, you know, 22 minute long episodes. And there's a lot of them, they, did 80 episodes, I think

Reegs: I actually liked the animation and visual style of this lots of different sets and backgrounds and

Dan: Right. Okay. And what was the story then? What was the

Sidey: well, we jumped into series 2 episode 12.

so there's a lot of water under the bridge by this point.

but essentially there is a terrorist organization in play called cobra and G. I. joe is the

Antithesis, they're the good guys trying to stop

Cobra And in this

episode Cobra do

a telethon.

Some of the

Cobra crew have overspent their budget, and to recoup some of their fun swear god,

they have a

telephone

Reegs: Yeah, it's true. Cobra Commander's not even in it except to answer the phone

Sidey: So they get, they,

they're able to capture

two of the G. I. Joe crew.

Life, lifeline and

Reegs: Sci fi.

Sidey: fi.

And they have them on this spinning thing,

Reegs: Oh, you haven't pointed out the most important part. That lifeline at one point he falls into,

Sidey: he won't, he won't touch the rifle.

Reegs: and they offer him a rifle to get out.

And he says, I don't, I'm a conscientious objector. I don't touch

Sidey: rifles.

Yeah. he's also a wet wipe. so they have this telethon where they are, they've got a a secret. Signal where they're able to broadcast to all these criminals and they get to bid and try and determine how they're gonna execute the two

fucking

Reegs: It's very complicated because they get 5 billion dollars, which they need to something something They're going to send a computer virus to the FBI to blow up all

the

Sidey: Yeah. Something about I think they'd lost 5 billion on something

And so they were trying to recognize very complicated.

Dan: just thinking of like, the telephones, they don't normally get that much, they're not normally in the billions.

Sidey: but this is a different audience. This isn't like, kids giving their pocket money. This is hardened criminals.

Reegs: Yeah.

And they're bidding on the Joes

Sidey: And the women who is hosting

It

was super

horny.

Reegs: the baroness man, she was fit.

Sidey: Yeah, she was, she had a kind of Russian accent. and she had a kind of Elvira. Black gown, great big slit. and cleavage. Super horny. If you're a young lad watching this, this would be where you'd learn to

Reegs: The Sexual awakening. Yeah, for

Sidey: 100%.

Dan: right.

Reegs: Do

we need to talk about anything else?

or,

Dan: that

Reegs: They, they, right, basically, they end up going to Vegas on a boys weekend, don't they? And it ends like every Vegas boys weekend. They get fucked on coke in the beginning. No, They get, it ends in a gunfight. Exactly like every Vegas does.

Because that's where they are. And also some military jets are lost in a, in a battle.

The Joe's see telephone equipment out in a rural village and think, well, we've got a bomb that. And somehow

Dan: With 22 minutes they seem to be cramming loads in.

Sidey: It's, It's

also a cautionary tale about having naughty boxes for your television. because that's, that's how, That's what they're using to decode the secret signal that, for the telethon.

Honestly, I cannot get over the telethon storylines.

Reegs: Yeah,

telethon's brilliant, innit?

Sidey: they going

Dan: Are they going to blow up the naughty boxes or are they going to lead them to the,

Sidey: they lose the signal, and one of the G. I. Joes is like, Oh no, if I can't get we found it by chance, now there's no way we'll be able to get it back unless we had some kind of decoding unit.

And they're

like,

Reegs: what about this?

Sidey: we found five minutes ago? And they're able to do that.

Reegs: I did

think, if Cobra just sold their technology, that is clearly

Sidey: Yeah.

Reegs: They might get five billion dollars

Dan: could be like apple

Sidey: they could just go legit.

Yeah,

Yeah. Yeah,

Reegs: It's not really what they want to

Dan: No,

Sidey: No, it does have quite an incredible collection of character names.

Reegs: Yeah, I've got some of

Dan: me with them

Sidey: Well, the shipwreck, torch, flint, roadblock, ship scarlet Destro beachhead,

Dr. mindbender. Dr.

Reegs: Mindbender. Dr.

Sidey: Dial tone is the one!

Reegs: Honestly, I hadn't keeping track, and

Sidey: Honestly, I hadn't been keeping track and then they said at the end, Dial tone! And I was

like, that's not his name. And my missus was like, And she went, dial

tone!

Dan: just be

like, Because he's like, Yeah. And Sergeant Slaughter

Reegs: be like, Friends

Sidey: Nice.

Dan: out of. Okay. Friend of

Sidey: Yeah. That's actually is.

So yeah, it's, Like it's too long.

It's

Reegs: it was a bit long, but if you were a kid,

Sidey: But when I was the right age

it would have been not long enough.

Dan: Well, you'd have been playing with your GI Joe doll

Sidey: been playing with something else if Baroness was on the screen.

Dan: Well, you know, did you get a baroness doll as well did that they come in tandem but

Cris: think you can

get one now.

Sidey: I'm getting it.

Dan: This, they used to have the dolls and they'd have a little kind of, you know, grip with the hand so you could put a piece of string and slide them down.

That's what I used to

Sidey: I thought you were going a different direction

Reegs: slide them down.

Dan: a, tie a bit of string, you know,

Reegs: signal is confusing as well to be honest,

Dan: The

Sidey: I know what you mean though. Is it the zip line?

Cris: the

Reegs: do it again

Dan: i was talking about playing with my army dolls

Reegs: I think we should move on.

Dan: clean fun

Reegs: One of the episodes of this was rewritten by the same writers into a star trek next generation episode

Sidey: Really

Reegs: future imperfect I don't know if that means anything to you.

Sidey: I would've seen it. Yeah. Yeah.

Dan: Okay. Well, I don't know whether you've tempted me in for this one

Sidey: It's a real oddity of an episode, this one.

Dan: Yeah, I mean, it fits really nicely with the theme, but is it some kind of cartoon that you

Sidey: is it art?

Dan: I mean,

Reegs: Well, and also

Dan: another 10 years? Yes.

Reegs: Did it subconsciously fuel, you know, an era of children that were then okay with things like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib and all that stuff?

Was it G. I. Joe's fault? for glorifying war and the military industrial complex,

I

Sidey: is it good for?

Dan: Absolutely

Cris: Absolutely nothing

apparently. Say

Sidey: Say it

again. So I would say this is a strong recommend. Sounds it. Hmm.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: a strong weapon. Sounds I feel like i've been through the battles today with this one. It's been a big war theme

Sidey: bigger than

Reegs: Conscientious objection dan. Yes or no?

Dan: I would say yes

Sidey: No

Reegs: chris

Cris: anyone

that

has so, such a strong principle, just for the sake of the principle, especially in 2024 when you have the advance, the advantage of technology and information, I can't be behind that.

I understand and I appreciate everyone's beliefs, but

Sidey: I don't. People shouldn't be allowed to have their own beliefs. And also, I don't think we need soldiers really anymore anyway.

Reegs: No, drones, It would just, be

Cris: no, you got, you got the ai, the, you've got all these kind of robots that, you know, play snooker and they do all sorts. So

Reegs: that is the future of

Dan: more of a I'm

Reegs: playing snooker,

Dan: I

Cris: I, I dunno, you, I've seen, I've seen a few of them playing snooker, you know what

Sidey: I think They

could have more sophisticated weaponry than a snooker. cube, surely. I

Dan: working house worker objector. You know, I prefer to just steer away from those kind of

Sidey: you. Yeah, for sure.

Dan: but that gets you in a lot of wars.

Sidey: think it, is one of us.

Dan: I think it is one of

Sidey: a chance.

Dan: Yeah, you've had your chance. You know, we want to bring the

Sidey: back hoping to hear from those

Dan: hoping to hear from those people out there in Radioland. Over the next week. And we will see you after then.

Sidey: All that remains is to say, SideEatSigning out.

Reegs: out.

Reegs has gone to the exit.

Sidey: blah,

Dan's gone.