Midweek Mention... The Untouchables

The Untouchables

Dan: Wow. There we go again. Another day, another dollar. Um,

Sidey: And what is this, the start of a particularly themed week?

Cris: Well, I don't know. Is it... I, I said that the theme is vigilantes.

Reegs: Mm

Cris: Mm. Because of the main feature of this week, rather than the midweek, I'm gonna say. Uh- Vigilante?

Sidey: Well,

Cris: it's vigilantism, I would say. Is that a correct term in English?

Dan: As in h- this

Cris: Because the, uh, in the main feature,

Sidey: uh,

Cris: our hero, Elliot, is... takes action and he shoots before, uh, someone else shoots. So, if you're joining the police force- Yeah ... you're not gonna shoot first. Mm. Right? Even in the 1930s. Uh, whereas the, the, the one that we're gonna speak about now-

Sidey: Which is? The Bleeder. Oh, right. Okay.

Reegs: Oh, I thought that was... That's the main... I've got that down as the main for my-

Sidey: Let me change my notes round.

Cris: All right. Sorry. That's- No,

Sidey: it's fine. I'm pretty sure that's what

Reegs: but hang on though, 'cause my intro- I, I

Dan: did it the

Reegs: right way ... is-

Dan: is-

Sidey: There we go. We'll go... Okay.

Dan: that's- I'm

Cris: sure that's what I did, but, uh, look, it doesn't matter. I don't care.

Sidey: Yeah, okay. Let's, let's flip it round because the old

Reegs: I can't though, 'cause I'm not, I'm not rewriting the intro. No,

Sidey: we'll do Untouchables now.

Reegs: All right. Okay, cool.

Dan: can do a great intro to the midweek.

Sidey: midway- No, no, we'll do Untouchables and set

Dan: it up.

Sidey: That's what it says.

Cris: no, we'll do Untouchables, and then... Yeah. Sorry. I

Reegs: just- Yeah. No, I... Did I read that wrong then? Oh, I must have read that wrong. I've changed my phone this week, so I've like, um- Oh. Is

Cris: it that- That's always fun ... is it that promotion you got and they gave you?

Dan: there it

Sidey: it's got a BlackBerry.

Reegs: I

Cris: Is it? All right. Okay. I just needed a new phone, but,

Reegs: I just needed a new phone. But, um, enough... The stuff hasn't transferred properly from my old phone, so I missed the- What, uh,

Cris: of telephone is it?

Reegs: it's just an iPhone, but,

Dan: yeah, I was due for an

Cris: So what is it?

Dan: then? Is it a 10?

Cris: 10 ... t- 22. iPhone

Reegs: It's the new... It's the 17, but- Wow.

Dan: Wow. What's it

Sidey: All

Reegs: I don't really know. The same shit that the- All the same features? The same shit that the old iPhone did. It's just- Wow ... mine, this one now has a front-facing camera that works, so I can actually do face ID, which is-

Sidey: Nice

Reegs: Nice. Yeah.

Sidey: Okay. And that segues very nicely- ... into The Untouchables, which we're gonna do. Yep.

Cris: Are you gonna do the intro?

Sidey: because that's the, for the main.

Cris: Oh, right. Okay.

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: Has everyone seen this before?

Dan: I dunno. Just, uh, if people are listening for the first time, they're thinking, "What a smooth operation- Yeah ... this podcast is." The Untouchables, seen it before. Yeah. Yeah, I've seen it a couple of times.

Sidey: Yeah,

Cris: I've seen it before.

Sidey: Me too.

Reegs: Me too.

Cris: You can't not have seen this, right? That's-

Sidey: Unless you haven't.

Dan: Yeah.

Cris: Yeah, but-

Sidey: So De Palma.

Reegs: Yeah. Yeah. Brian,

Sidey: fr-

Reegs: for- De Niro Wardrobe by

Sidey: Giorgio Armani. Armani. Yeah. Score? Enrico Moricone. Enrico Moricone. Moro-

Reegs: Enrico Moricone.

Sidey: uh, written by? David Mamet

Reegs: Yeah, Mamet. Yeah. It's like

Sidey: so many names Yes.

Reegs: Yeah. And then the cast- Which makes

Sidey: gonna work. But De Niro, Costner-

Reegs: Connery Andy Garcia

Cris: Andy Garcia

Reegs: good in this- Yeah ... as I remember.

Sidey: That nerd guy.

Reegs: Yeah.

Cris: Yeah, that nerd guy is actually quite good, to be fair. He's quite

Dan: think he... Yeah, I think he's, he's excellent in it actually,

Sidey: actually. Yeah Charles Martin Smith, he was Oscar Wallace, the accountant. Um, so it starts with a little overhead shot of, um, Al Cap One- Yeah ... getting a shave. He's

Reegs: isn't he? Yeah. Yeah. And the guy-

Cris: a great shot from the top,

Sidey: guy cuts him. And he's got a bit of tech spiel about this is the era of, this is the, the time of

Reegs: Capone. Prohibition.

Sidey: Yeah. Um, it's a bil- even in the '30s, isn't it, it's actually 1930, isn't it? Yeah. And even though it's a billion-dollar industry, this bootlegging, um, and there's gangs fighting for control of, of that obviously, and then he's talking... He's sort of overtly saying about,

Reegs: he

Sidey: is responsible for all this bootlegging. He says, "I'm just a man taking advantage of an opportunity, and, uh, I'm, I'm feeding the demand." So it's not like-

Reegs: If it wasn't him, it would be someone else

Sidey: but it's not like people don't know that he's a crook. Do you know what I mean?

Dan: He's trying to pin everything on him, and we also understand from the police, from just your average Joe on the street, prohibition isn't loved. You know? It's deeply unpopular. I- it's deeply unpopular, and everybody wants a drink. They just

Sidey: Elliot Ness, when he comes in, he has to tell his squad- Yeah ... "No fucking drinking." You know, "If we're gonna uphold the law, we're gonna

Dan: That's right. Well, it- he's one of the first people to, to come in and be appointed as this special task force to g- As the Treasury yeah, to make sure that it's taken seriously, and there's corruption all the way through the police system, but he has to, you're right, go into this of group, this squad of policemen all sat down and saying, "First thing we gotta do is not have a drink." So that makes him really- Really unpopular unpopular.

Sidey: unpopular. And they, they... Well, they go, he's got some intel about a shipment of, um, s- Canadian whiskey coming in. They know it's gonna be in such and such a warehouse, and it's gonna be marked with the Canadian maple leaf on the box. Right, really early on, isn't it? They go straight in, and he's all like-

Reegs: Gung ho ... as

Sidey: he say? "Let's do some good." Yeah. Okay. Is

Reegs: the bit, I didn't see it for this time round, but is this the bit where he gets, like, some massive fucking snowplow?

Sidey: Yes. Yeah ... they take the piss out of in Police, um, Academy.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: also got-

Sidey: Uh, uh, Naked Gun, I mean.

Reegs: Gun. He,

Dan: also got a photographer that he saw at the scene, and he's getting him to take his picture and saying, "Look," you know, "this will be great kind of publicity. Come in and get your picture." And he's ends up holding an umbrella and,

Cris: Yeah

Sidey: There's

Dan: Yeah

Reegs: like an embarrassing

Dan: there. There's

Sidey: the photo, and then as he walks back into the precinct the next day, everyone's like, "And he said, 'Let's do some good.'" And they're all, like, laughing about him. He's like, "Fucking hell." And someone's cut out the newspaper headline and stuck it on his office door, so he's

Reegs: like- And it's like 19- '80 this movie? '87. '87. '87, yeah. Costner still looks really young though, doesn't he? He's 32. He's like real fresh face.

Dan: He's 32. He's 32. I thought he was older than that, but, um,

Sidey: So he, he go- he's had this bad day at the office, and he goes out, and he's sort of kicking his heels around in the evening, and he's fucking like, "Mm, twats." And, um, his wife had written him a note to put in his, um, pa- lunch about, "I'm so proud of you," and he scrunches it up and throws it into the river. And just as he does that, Connery's, um-

Dan: He's walking the beat

Sidey: Malone is walking past all done up in his, like, uh, police uniform. And he says- Yeah ... "And what do you think you're doing?" And it's like Connery in

Dan: you think you're

Sidey: Connery accent. Yeah.

Dan: No effort whatsoever

Sidey: And that's- And he, he doesn't identify himself as a member of the treasury on this thing, does he? No. He just sort of gives him some shit, and the guy's like, "All right."

Dan: the

Sidey: says, "Well, you..." No, he does. He, he says, "I'm, I'm a member

Dan: treasury." Eventually he

Sidey: "Okay. Right. Fine. Well, fuck off." And so, um, Ness

Dan: 'Cause he's got a gun ... and Malone says,

Sidey: "What do you, what, do you just walk off and, and just accept that? What kind of... What are the, what's the policing like in this town?" So they have this sort of ding-dong, but they build up a rapport really

Dan: It's funny 'cause he's, he's got a gun- Yeah ... in there, and he goes, "You're just gonna let me walk off and, you know, say that I'm in the treasury and, and that's good enough?" And he goes, "Nobody would lie

Cris: about-" About being in the treasury,

Sidey: And he goes,

Reegs: the

Dan: department. And he goes, "Oh, yeah, well..." And he's the old wise policeman. Yeah. And he goes, "Endeth the lesson in the end." You know, if you can go home- Yeah

Sidey: He says, "Oh, fucking hell. Shit day. Um- "... go home alive" ... and now I'm gonna go home." And he says, "Well, there you go. You've passed the first lesson of policing. The end of your shift, go home alive."

Dan: And yeah, you... It's not the first and the, the, not the last we're gonna see of Connery in this

Sidey: film. Or his, or his apartment. Because he go- he, Ness tracks him down the next day. He, he's thought about it, and he's like, "He seems like someone who's straight up, you know, he's proper police. Could do with someone like him on my task

Dan: Yeah.

Sidey: So he tracks him down. It's Racine, the corner of Racine and something else. We're gonna see that shot later on. Um, and he goes up and he knocks on the door, and Connery goes over to his gramophone and pulls out a sawn-off shotgun, which obviously, pretty fucking sketchy neighborhood, and sort of opens the door, and it's Ness. And then they have this chat then about, "Come on, I need you to get on board with this thing I'm trying to do." And he's like, "Fucking no way, man. I'm old." You know, "I'm out. I'm... You know, I shouldn't even be doing the beat. You know, I'm, I'm fucking washed up." So they, they, they kind of, they get on well, but he, he sort of says no, and then eventually he's gonna come back later on and go, "All right. You wanna do it, we're gonna fucking do it the hard way." Yeah. And he, he takes him into, I don't know whether it was a big station or a church or something, and he says, "Yeah, we're gonna do the Chicago

Cris: No, it's a, it's a church, yeah. They, they go

Sidey: church. 'Cause he's got his, his, um, rosary thing, hasn't

Cris: Yeah, but before that, we see, uh, Oscar coming into, uh, Eliot Ness's office because he's been sent by- Yeah, yeah the FBI or someone. He's not

Sidey: sat at his desk, isn't he?

Cris: Yeah, he just sat at his desk, and he's like, "Who are you?" "I'm Oscar whatever." And he's like, "So what do you do?" "I'm here to help you." And he's like, "We're gonna get him for tax, for tax fraud

Sidey: hasn't filed a tax return for, for like four years or something. And, and

Cris: you can see Elias just

Sidey: like, "Tax." Mm.

Reegs: Mm. "

Cris: This is a murder and we're gonna get him for tax. Okay, mate." And he go- just goes outside and just-

Dan: They, they, he only starts- Tax is what they're doing ... Yeah, they, it is. And it's only they start to realize actually, um, America's one of those countries, probably like most of the world, that takes tax evasion more seriously than

Reegs: Yeah. Um, so you're gonna go- Profits, Dan

Dan: you're gonna go away for longer. Um, so it's not like just

Sidey: going back to, he keeps going back to all his corporations or the shell, you know. It's impossible to track the money back to him.

Reegs: it

Dan: I've gotta eat. Was it? I've been caught. Sorry.

Reegs: Wait. What, what stage were we at in there? Have you got where we can carry on from? We're

Dan: I-

Cris: Yeah, where Oscar and-

Reegs: Yeah, turn these off

Cris: The

Sidey: So now we've got Malone, we've got Eliot Ness, we've got the bookkeep- Oscar ... we've got Oscar the bookkeeper. We need one more to complete the puzzle. And Malone has said to him, you know, if if Capone's ... one of Capone's men pulls a knife, you pull a gun. If he puts one of yours in hospital, you put one of theirs in the morgue. So we need someone with a bit of fucking rough and tumble, a bit of attitude.

Cris: And also he tells him, "Who can you trust in this town?" Yeah. Nobody. So

Sidey: So we need a new guy.

Cris: Yeah.

Dan: They need a new guy, and they- One fingered ... they do like a little montage of trying out the new guys and interviewing really.

Sidey: Eliot Ness says, "I want someone who's unmarried," because he doesn't want anyone to put their family at

Dan: Yeah.

Sidey: Yeah. So there's only ... I think the only the new cadets, there's only two that are unmarried. One is some stuttering ginger guy. Yeah. He's fucking useless. And straight away they're like, "Yeah, off you go." And then Andy Garcia's looking so fucking- He looks fit ... so hot. And you see him just reel off a load of shots. He shoots the, the fucking ... He's on the ... on the shooting range, and he shoots the- The target like, twice in the chest, and then the two eyes and the mouth like he's a fucking sharpshooter. And they call him over, and his name's George Stone. And

Cris: He's

Sidey: like, "Oh, is that right?" He's like, "Yeah." He's like, "And, and when did you change it?" Finally he's

Dan: got the balls to sort of with his Scottish accent to call him out. He twig straight away that

Reegs: He

Sidey: straight away that he's Italian, and his name's Giuseppe something or other. Yeah. And he's like, "Just what I thought, a fucking wop." And he says, "Oh, you stinking Irish pig," blah, blah, blah. So you know, they have a ... And he's like, "I like him. Let's get him in." Yeah. So he, he's the fourth one that completes the, the jigsaw. And they go straight away. He's like, "Right, come on then. Let's go and fucking, ... Let's go and bust some booze." And Eliot Ness is like, "What do you mean?" He goes, "Everyone fucking knows where the booze is. Like, everyone knows what's going on. It's just-

Dan: Everyone's too scared to go and get

Sidey: to do it because you ... there's gonna be some, some comeuppance." But So they go ...It's actually in the back of the post office where they go and raid.

Cris: And it's across the street from the police station. Yeah. They just walk across the

Sidey: literally a door that says, "Do not enter." Yeah. And they enter, and there's just a shitload of crates and barrels. And some guy says, "Hey, you can't be in here." And they're like, "Fuck off." And Malone, like, sticks the butt of the rifle into him and puts him on the ground. And then we cut to a big sort of banquet dinner where Al Capone's there. It's all black tie. He's got all his lieutenants around the table, and he's giving this big speech. And he's ... "Where's he gonna go?" This thing. He's like, "Baseball." And he- Just holding a baseball bat and you're thinking, "Oh, no." And he's talking about baseball and how important it is, and how it's all about the team. And then he says, "Someone in the team..." And you're like, "Here it comes." And he just gets around the table till this guy who was in the post office someone fucks up, then they lets the whole team down, and he just

Reegs: just

Sidey: you see clobbers him ... the talent he had. He's, like, it, it, the camera's sort of behind the guy's head, so he's looking away, and he just, head on the table, and he's just like, whack, whack. And everyone's

Cris: keeps going as

Sidey: trying to look away. And you see, like, blood, like, spraying across the table. Then the ca- again, that shot from up high, just looking directly down on it, and blood just, like, pooling out onto the table. And like, yeah, don't fuck up with Capone or have you. Yeah.

Dan: Yeah. That's the pressure now is he's feeling it, and he won't, you know, take any shit from anyone. Fucking Al Capone. Mm. You know? Everybody's just heard the name. He's... it's almost like a, a fictionary kind of character, isn't it?

Reegs: Yeah. Al

Dan: Yeah. But the dude actually was around, and he was badass, obviously. And with billions at stake back in those days, you can understand how mean he's gotta be to keep an operation like that going. And it is a weird one. As we said, it's one of those where people wanna drink. Even the cops wanna drink. Mm. Even the cops on Eliot Ness's task force want a drink, and

Reegs: that's why it didn't work, isn't it? I mean, in the end, that's why prohibition was

Dan: Yeah. Because- But it was the law of the land, whether you like it or not. You know? That's-

Sidey: Yeah. They've still got a weird hang up about, like, the 21, being age 21, and you

Reegs: but then their measures are fucking ridiculous, aren't they? Like, if you go and ask for, like, a whiskey or whatever, it's not like you get a- It's just poured an

Sidey: pour. Not like

Reegs: like here. No, they measure it once, measure it into the pour. Yeah. They just pour and look at you. And so when they go, they go.

Sidey: But they, there's a bit of espionage. So obviously Ne- Al Capone, he's got people in the police. We've seen the police captain looking a bit

Cris: Yes, always, yeah ... at one point.

Sidey: But they've got people. They get a bit of intel about where the next shipment is coming in, but this time not like the, the other one. The previous time. It's coming in from the Canada side over this bridge. So they go over. They've got the Canadian Mounties there.

Cris: Yeah.

Dan: Who always get their man.

Sidey: Yeah. And there's a little house on the prairie where they're gonna sort of wait and wait for it all to go down. There, there no one can, like, approach until the fucking deal is done. And,

Dan: until they've crossed the Canadian side into the American side, then the Mounties are gonna come up to the rear. They're all gonna wait on the signal, but of course, they don't. They all go gang- gung ho,

Sidey: Fuck it up in the

Reegs: They charge in, yeah.

Sidey: the one car appears, and a guy waves a flag, doesn't he? Yeah. And then the the, the van comes up, and then the, the lorries come up the other side with the barrels, and then there's this gunshot like they've gone early. And Malone's like, "Come on." You know? "We're gonna- We need to go now ... we're gonna ... You gotta die or something." So they just fucking charge in, and you get this great big fucking gunfight. It's really cool, actually.

Dan: So there was no prohibition in Canada

Cris: No.

Dan: It was

Sidey: just... America, Yeah. So there's a, there's a gunfight, and there's quite a lot of the higher-ups, I think, from Capone's crew are here. And they've got the fucking ledger.

Cris: Yeah.

Dan: That's

Sidey: So when they, they shoot everyone, and there's a really good bit, actually, where one guy runs off. One guy Ne- Ness tracks back to the little house, and he tells him, "Don't fucking move," and the guy goes for his gun, and he has to kill him. And he's laid out on the porch.

Dan: he's really

Sidey: And there's another guy who runs off, and eventually, like, Malone just like, "Look, I'm gonna fucking shoot you." Just like you know, he, he, he ... Guy's like, "Okay, fine." So they drag him back, and but he's like, "Fuck you pigs. I'm not fucking telling you anything." And so Malone goes out, gets the guy who's dead, but this guy

Dan: He doesn't know

Sidey: doesn't know. that. He pins him up against the m- the window and just screams at him like, "If you don't You've got three seconds to tell me." What,

Dan: can't talk with a gun in your mouth? and then and

Sidey: blows his head off. And the guy's like, "I'll tell you. I'll tell you what you wanna know. I'll tell you what you want."

Cris: funny with the Mountie as well because the Mountie doesn't know either. Yeah. So he's like, "I don't ap- I don't approve with your methods." "Oh, shut up, Mountie, you dick."

Sidey: and even Ness then, he's gone, like, all in. He's like, "Yeah, this is the Chicago way." Yeah. Yeah. And so they've got this guy, and they bring him back. And the guy, the ... Like, district attorney issues a subpoena for Capone, and they finally got him. They think they've got enough to get him, you know, in front of a judge. They've got enough of a case. And then there's a, that news report is there again, and the guy's saying, "Oh, Eliot Ness and his crew of untouchables." And it's a great... It's, like, a steady cam shot, I think, through all the hallways through. And they've got Oscar, the bookkeeper, who's had a really, like, good bit here, 'cause he's been a nerd- Yeah and he's actually gunned a load of people down. He's last shooting down the- And he's, and he's... There's a barrel that's been shot, and he has a little, little cheeky drink as well. And he's gonna take this guy, the witness, out to be taken away to a safe house through the service elevator. And we see the guy operating the elevator, and it's the guy we've seen do really fucking horrible shit throughout the

Reegs: Yeah, he's

Dan: like the hitman. He,

Sidey: Nitti. He blows up the little girl at the very start of the film.

Reegs: Yeah. Is he the one that you get from his p- point of view? There's a shot, isn't there, in the movie that comes from somebody's point of view as they're, like, breaking through a window

Dan: or- He is a, a guy that tries

Sidey: He gets thrown off the roof at the end

Dan: late- later on. Frank

Cris: Nitti.

Sidey: Yeah. So he, he's the one in the elevator and, Dressed as a policeman ... yeah. And the doors close, and the woman in the Who's been in their nose. She looks around and says, "There's a few people on the take here." And as soon as the elevator starts going down, he looks around, just pulls the gun out on the witness, blows him away, and then goes to the-- goes to Oscar, who just does this big gasp, and he's executed. And obviously everyone in the police station hears this. Malone and Elliot Ness, they run down. They can't get in. They have to run down, go to the bottom, and then the police captain just walks off, and he looks out the window, and he sees that some guy's been killed.

Dan: Couple of, couple of uniformed cops have

Sidey: And he does the little cross sign. He obviously knew it was going down. And then they go down to the open-- They force the door open, just see them there, and, and the bookie has been hung up. Big Hand's been hung up on the thing, and it's just scrawled "touchable" in blood on the wall. It's fucking

Dan: they've been called untouchable because they can't be corrupted.

Sidey: because they

Dan: Yeah ... but, They got to them, and then the lawyer decides that he hasn't got enough evidence now- Yes ... without the witness, just the book isn't enough. He's

Reegs: not gonna-

Cris: they, they haven't translated the book. Yeah. So, so, so the guy was gonna tell them w- who is who

Reegs: to read the ledger ... in the book because the names names, it doesn't say Al

Cris: or it doesn't say whatever

Sidey: Yeah, they're clever enough about it. Yeah. And so Ness is just like, "Well, that's it. We've taken it as far as we can go." And all the way through, like Malone's been saying, "What are you prepared to do? What, you know, what are you prepared to do? You

Reegs: far are you prepared to go? If

Sidey: just play it by the book, forget it. It's

Cris: This is not gonna work. Yeah.

Sidey: you know. And so he says, "Look, if I can stall the DA, I still think I can get you. I can get... We need the bookkeeper, and I think I can get him." So he goes off, and he goes to see the police captain. He goes into the the police officer's fucking bar, wherever the fuck they drink, and, and drags him out, and they end up having a fucking ding-dong because he knows he's a dirty cop. Yeah. Malone, he knows. And he's like, "Listen, I'm gonna... You get fucking killed, you know, if I say the word." The captain's saying, "You're a fucking dead man." He's like, "I don't give a fuck." And then- All

Dan: are on the table now. He, he, he doesn't give a fuck and he

Sidey: quite a good little ding-dong actually.

Dan: Really Yeah, he knows that the captain can give him the information on where the bookmaker's gonna be, and it's their last chance. So, He manages to get that information and he says, "Look," to Ness, "Meet me at my place." And at that time, that hitman comes back to his place. He's obviously got word

Cris: Yeah. 603

Sidey: Yeah. Yeah. Th-

Dan: That, that it's not gonna happen. You've gotta kill Malone, and Malone is, is a step ahead of him when he gets into the place because

Sidey: is the bit with the, the point of view shot with it. It's from them looking through the window, but

Reegs: not- Yeah, that's right

Sidey: not Nitty, it's the other guy.

Reegs: Oh, right.

Sidey: He's a bit of a dipshit. He looks through the window, and you can tell, like, Malone's not stupid. He, he fucking knows. And because he goes, he goes back to his gramophone and we're like, "Well, we've seen this before." Yeah. And he winds it, and then he just turns round and the guy's climbed through the window. Yeah. And he's got his sawn-off, and he does... And he says, "Just like a wop to bring a knife to a gunfight." But doesn't get the laugh, laugh, because when he walks out, Nitty's there with the machine gun just fucking

Dan: Tommy gun going like that Just mows

Sidey: He must get about 20 fucking rounds in. It's...

Dan: least. And he- He

Cris: he falls over, Yeah.

Dan: Ah. Then he drags himself, like big bloody trail, to the gramophone room again. It's still got time for Costner to come along and get the last words out of him. Which are, "What are you prepared to do?"

Sidey: He's pointing... He thinks he's pointing at his religious thing. His- Yeah ... the key and his, But it's not, it's the train timetable.

Dan: the train. And he goes, "What? The bookmaker's on this, on this train?" "Yes." That's it. Gone. Yeah. And then you've got the scene where Costner is waiting at the station- Mm.

Reegs: Mm

Sidey: Him and Garcia go down.

Cris: Yeah. And they- And this one ... they're waiting for the train to Miami.

Reegs: Yeah. It's

Dan: Yeah.

Sidey: And he's... The... He keeps seeing the clock, and they really draw this out,

Reegs: because- This is the famous scene ... this

Sidey: the so famous one with the lady at the bottom, which they've taken from Battleship Potemkin. She's got this really old-fashioned, Pram pram and two suitcases,

Dan: crying baby ... and there's obviously no

Sidey: and there's obviously no lift. So she's trying to get this up, the kid's screaming, and no fucker helps her. So Capone, who's a family man, he's looking over. He's like- "Oh." Ali of

Reegs: not- Eliot Ness, yeah

Sidey: Sorry, yeah, Ali of Nes. He's he's like, "I need to help her, but pretty important thing going, about to go down." And eventually he, you know, he does

Dan: the end it helps him because he goes down and ins- as they all flood in like a minute before the train's about to leave, they don't instantly recognize him because he's helping with-

Reegs: the pram ... the pram.

Dan: And she said, "Oh, thank you very much. This, that's good enough now." Like, but he realizes, "Wait a minute, they're all coming

Sidey: in. He clocks the bookkeeper come

Dan: yeah. And it begins shooty, shooty time. Yeah.

Sidey: But the pram is, is let go, and it's in slow motion just going down a step at a time. And,

Reegs: as shots are fired ... he's told

Sidey: Stone to go do the south entrance, and he's called back, and he sh- he shoots someone, because this, he's a proper sharpshooter. He shoots someone from between a little crack and he, through his fucking, through the head, and then he has to slide in And stops the pram

Dan: Yeah, With his leg

Sidey: just waiting there, like, with his hand out with a gun aiming and, 'cause the other guy's then got the

Dan: Yeah. It, it comes down to one, one guy left with the bookkeeper, and he's got that bookkeeper-

Reegs: It's such a good scene, as I remember- ... right in his sights ... but I honestly can only think of Naked Gun. Yeah. It just now, like- ... just r- like sort of ruins it a bit, but

Dan: Yeah.

Sidey: But he says, "I, I, you know, I've got the shot." Yeah. Bang. And

Dan: he lets him have

Sidey: then you just see the blood come out of the guy's mouth.

Dan: mouth. And the bookkeeper is just saying, "I'll tell you anything you need to know. I'll tell you anything you need to

Sidey: He's not cut out for this life. No.

Dan: No. And next time we see him, he's on the stand.

Sidey: Yeah. And they're, they're a bit perplexed, 'cause it, we do go to then the courtroom and,

Dan: courtroom scene.

Sidey: and they're like, "He doesn't look that fucking stressed, does he? Capone-" No ... he's like fairly relaxed. He's just chatting to his lawyer, and

Cris: he's like, "Oh, this will be over soon." He kind of just mumbles around. He's like, "Yeah, whatever." But they see Capone passing a note to the Nitty.

Sidey: Yeah.

Cris: And, and that guy doing?" And then he sees the gun- He's

Sidey: got a gun, yeah ... inside

Cris: Nitti's jacket. He's like, he go- calls the bailiff. Yeah. He's like, "Bailiff, that guy's have- ho- holding a gun in court."

Reegs: Mm.

Cris: They take him out, and then it's just the bailiff, Ness

Sidey: Nitty. Yeah.

Cris: And all right, you got a gun. I got a permit for that. You got a gun, Everything out on the table, and he gets a note.

Sidey: It's a list of the jurors.

Cris: Yeah. And there's, there's a list of jurors- And a match ...

Sidey: the match. Yeah. Racine 1634- Yeah ... Racine. Yeah. And he knows he's, he's the one who killed Malone. Malone, So kind of that.

Dan: So well that-- He starts running,

Sidey: running. But he kills the, he kills the bailiff, doesn't he?

Dan: bailiff He, he shoots the, he shoots the bailiff, and then he runs upstairs. There's a couple of bodies on the way that as Ness is chasing him that he finds, and they end up being on top of the building. And Ness is... They're shooting each other, and Ness has got him at one

Sidey: Eventually he tries to climb down

Dan: climbed... Yeah, he's tried to climb down a rope and get in through a window that won't break, so he ends up climbing back, and he's almost taunting him going, "Okay, lawman, help me then, because you just gotta put me away, and I'm gonna beat this rap like, you know, it's not a fucking problem." And Ness is like-

Sidey: He goads him about,

Dan: Yeah. He just gets up, and he, he, he does it, and it's kind of the vigilante side

Sidey: he goads him about Malone. He says he- Yeah ... he squeals like stuck Irish pig. Yeah. And he's like, "What the fuck?" And he's just absolutely raging. Just throws him straight off the roof.

Dan: Yeah,

Reegs: He goes- He takes the law into his own

Sidey: Yeah. He goes,

Dan: Yeah, he pushes him off the,

Sidey: probably throws him. He's like, "Go on," and he lands on a old, like, Model T Ford. Straight through the

Dan: There's four of them lined up in the outside the courtroom, and he

Sidey: they go back down to the, the, the judge in the judge's chamber says you know, "We basically need to speak to you." And we don't see the, what, what happens, and then we go back to the courtroom, and the judge is, like, looking really nervous

Dan: It made me think though that scene where he went through the, the car, that's where Jana would park

Reegs: had bad luck

Sidey: Yeah, the judge is looking really nervous. He's... And he eventually, he, he calls this bailiff, the new bailiff over and says, "We need to switch the jury that's just starting in the next courtroom over for this one." And then you see Capone panic. He's like, "What the fuck? What's going on? We can't do this."

Reegs: Because he's bought off the jury

Sidey: over to Charlie Ness say, "What did you say to him in there?" And he said I s- his- I s- told him that his name was in the, the book as well. It was in the ledger." "It wasn't." He goes, "Never mind." I

Dan: told him it

Sidey: it doesn't matter.

Cris: It doesn't matter.

Sidey: but

Dan: might not have been, but they're all on the take this lot, so-

Sidey: and they don't even get, they don't even get to even start the court case. The, the lawyer for Capone just says, "We wanna change our plea to guilty."

Reegs: something."

Dan: he says. "Do something. Do something." He goes- And

Sidey: And he loses it. It's really good. And then y-

Dan: then- They've kept all-- They've kept a record of the jurors and exactly how m- They've written everything down, like, you know, a

Sidey: For all the clever stuff they've done, this is really amateur, this bit.

Reegs: they've got like

Sidey: 9,005 then.

Dan: Some jurors held out for more than others, it looked like.

Sidey: And then what Ness, 'cause Ness comes over to sh- to shout something at him, and it's such a lame-

Dan: Yeah ...

Sidey: way. He goes, he's like, "Never give up. Never...

Dan: give up. Yeah, yeah.

Sidey: "I would've said, I got you, you fucking prick." Like...

Reegs: because what,

Cris: because that's what... Obviously, that's what Capone said, that the- Yeah the fight is never done until-

Reegs: the

Dan: last man's standing

Cris: whatever. So.

Sidey: You got nothing. Yeah. And he get... I think he gets 28 years or something like

Dan: He's clearly got something, yeah. I think actually he does, is it 11? But,

Sidey: He went to Alcatraz, didn't

Dan: he? He went to Alcatraz for sort of

Reegs: He only... He did 11 years in the end, did he?

Dan: It may have been extended. I, I don't know, but that's how that film, the ends, it lets

Cris: Yeah, but also Sean Connery escaped from Alcatraz in that film

Reegs: Yeah. From

Sidey: helped, could've helped Capone, yeah. Yeah. Nice. You

Cris: he came back from the dead to help- The, ... Alphonse

Sidey: He Ness is outside the courtroom there on the street, and the, the same reporter who's kept cropping up. He's fucking tiny, by the way, that guy. He says, "Oh, Mr. Ness, what are you gonna do now?" 'Cause it's basically, that's the end of his- Yeah secondment to the Treasury. He says, "What are you gonna do now?" He's like, "Gonna go have a drink." 'Cause they, I think the news then breaks as well

Cris: That is

Dan: the- They're talking about-

Sidey: they've repealed pro- prohibition. Yeah. He's like, "I'm gonna go get on the sesh."

Reegs: on the sesh." Yeah.

Dan: And they're like, "Hey, well done. Pointless.

Reegs: Yeah. Well, it, it makes it seem so very pointless, doesn't it? With-

Dan: those people dead-

Reegs: so- Yeah

Dan: somebody couldn't have a drink, and they've realized that actually just, you know, bring it

Cris: Let them drink

Dan: because- ... and tax it all ... people

Reegs: it and tax it, and it'll- 'Cause

Dan: Capone's just keeping all the, the money here and buying all the cops. So that was a great idea for them to ban booze back in those days. But yeah, this is... With all those names we mentioned at the start, the, the Palmers, the Enrico Marciano, as well. yeah. The, the costumes by Giorgio the writing.

Reegs: the tailoring was sharp, wasn't

Sidey: It's so good. Yeah.

Reegs: And the hat wearing, right? There's some good hat wearing in

Sidey: hats back. Hats with

Cris: hats. And also Frank Nitty white suit.

Sidey: That guy- You know ... can you imagine him i- in a, like, a romantic lead? No. No. He's just pure villain, that guy. Yeah. Cannot be anything

Dan: eyes that are just death, aren't they? Yeah. They're really cold. And that's why he's chosen. He plays that kind of part brilliantly. you know, you look at De Niro in this, and we've seen him in other kinda gangster films and other characters similar, and you can see that thread that goes through him when he just turns and twists as he did in, as Capone. He's scary. just got that

Sidey: He's good when he's angry. When he... Like, 'cause there's a bit after, we didn't mention it, but after they've killed Oscar, Nes goes straight to his... The, 'cause they've taken over a whole hotel, haven't they? The hotel, yeah. The Lexington. And he confronts him, and as soon as he calls him a son of a bitch, then Capone fucking loses it,

Dan: front of my family, you..." Yeah. Oh,

Sidey: fuck. You got fucking..." You know, and he's good. He, when he do- goes angry, he's really good at that- Yeah ... De Niro, I think. I love this. This, like, this is genuinely in my top five films of all

Reegs: yeah.

Dan: You've said before how much you lo- love this, and

Sidey: It's not a hit with everyone. Like, the crit- it was, like, critically, you know what, it wasn't, like, a

Dan: got his Oscar- Yeah of course, for Best Supporting Actor. Didn't really feel that... I mean, I don't know what else he was, who else he was up against that year.

Reegs: Probably somebody who could do an accent

Dan: he's good. Yeah, probably.

Sidey: He's like another Michael Caine, who just, like, does the same thing. It works 'cause they're charismatic and they're good- I

Dan: I thought Oscar actually stole the scenes that he was in though. I thought he was- Andy Garcia

Reegs: I remember Andy Garcia being really good, yeah. Like-

Cris: He was good. So, so good. Yeah. And, and just, like, slick and just- Yeah ... everything delivered properly,

Dan: still a strong recommend for me. It wasn't as I'd seen it before. I hadn't seen it for a little while, thankfully, because it's not a film that I watch every year, but certainly probably every four or five years I've seen this film over the first time since I've seen

Sidey: There's bits of it where you can tell it's... You can really see that it's on a lot, you

Reegs: It's- Mm. But--

Sidey: And other times it lo- just looks like a million bucks. It looks great. I, I, I would watch this, like, at least once a year. Fucking think it's amazing. I really like it Yeah.

Cris: I, like it. And, and to be fair, that's why I nom'd it because I, I do like it, and I like the lighting, I like the costumes. I like the way that, that some scenes are shot. It's great architecture and, and the, the way it's being shot. The, the, the, the top bit where they shoot from the top, the, the

Reegs: film. All the ar- art deco stuff and all the

Cris: And there's the floors, and then you- Yeah, yeah ... it's basically a different perspective, which you don't really get. And, and in, let's say in more modern films, you get the shades or the shadow of a thing or whatever, whereas- Well,

Reegs: deco was all angles and shit, wasn't it? And all these, like, lines and stuff, so you can make it-- stuff look visually

Cris: Yeah. It was... And, and the, the fact that it's, it's still based on real people and real- Yeah things that happened. Obviously, you know, it's not the way everything went down, but-

Dan: No, a little bit Hollywood

Cris: But at the same time, this is a 1987 film that, obviously I don't think anyone can call anyone a wop these days, but generally it's- In

Dan: you can. I mean, you've gotta, you gotta go with

Sidey: it-

Dan: the time, haven't you? You know-

Cris: yeah. But, and you... No, but you know what I mean though. It, it's, it's... We, and I keep saying this to few films that we w- from the '80s or '90s that we watch that or that we review, that some of them don't really hold up in today's, today's society and world with the way they speak or they treat other people or treat women or whatever. There's not that many women in this one, but- is generally, if you look at it, is not really anything that would be out of place because it's a real story about real people

Dan: And set in the time,

Sidey: This still looks great. Yeah. For, like, 1987. It looks brilliant

Dan: I bet film students still look at this film

Sidey: a tendency to look cheap to me now

Dan: It would be-

Reegs: That's 'cause of lighting Yeah.

Cris: But was

Reegs: this,

Cris: I don't have the stats here, but was this big budget?

Sidey: Because- 25 million US, I think it was.

Cris: that's

Reegs: budget That's probably pretty big for 1987, I would think 20,

Sidey: 20, 20 to 23 estimated. Made worldwide 187. Big, big time.

Cris: yeah Interesting.

Dan: yeah, it... I imagine film students still are asked to study this film from the angles, from the lighting- It's

Cris: how it starts. Like we said, right? Like you said from the beginning. It starts and you get all this starring, the director, the this, this. Everyone is just... Every- Even I've heard of all of these people.

Dan: So who's who?

Sidey: I. Sean Con- Connery won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, his only Academy Award, despite his Scottish accent being entirely understised, undisguised throughout the film. Yeah. A 2003 Empire Magazine poll subsequently voted the worst accent in film history.

Cris: wrong.

Sidey: that's wrong. What do they know? Yeah. This to me, strong, strong recommend.

Reegs: Yeah Mm-hmm.

Dan: Go and check it out. Would you say it's untouchable?

Sidey: Yes.

Cris: Yeah. We

Dan: wanna- r-