Jason and the Movienauts

In the latest discussion of Robert Altman's brilliant Nashville, Haven Hamilton finally takes the mic, recording his bicentennial anthem "200 Years," and Jason Sacks and Dan Story ask whether it's the most pandering song in Robert Altman's Nashville.
They read Joan Tewkesbury's screenplay description of Haven, size up Henry Gibson's controlling star and meet Bud and Lady Pearl, the family in his orbit. Plus Altman's assistant directors Tommy Thompson and Alan Rudolph, the background extras with stories of their own, Geraldine Chaplin's Opal wandering in, and some unforgettable 1970s outfits.

00:24 "200 Years"
07:22 Tewkesbury on Haven
14:15 Bud and Lady Pearl
20:03 Altman's assistant directors
25:04 Opal arrives
31:23 Those 1970s outfits

Jason Sacks and Michelle wrap up their Douglas Sirk series with his most personal film, 1958's A Time to Love and A Time to Die. Based on Erich Maria Remarque's novel, it follows a young German soldier on a three-week furlough through a bombed-out Germany in 1944, where he falls fast and hard for Elizabeth.
Is Sirk imagining the life of the son he lost on the Eastern Front? Do American actors like John Gavin, Don DeFore and Keenan Wynn work as Germans? Would Paul Newman have been better in the lead? Plus Oscar, the SS man who's living large; Dorothea Wieck of Mädchen in Uniform as the landlady; the producer's cut Sirk never saw; why the film flopped in Germany; and comparisons to Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair and Judgment at Nuremberg. Spoiler warning: we discuss the devastating ending.

00:40 Sirk's most personal film
04:27 1950s hair in 1944 Germany
06:17 Oscar and the banality of evil
09:00 Dorothea Wieck as the landlady
10:12 Americans playing Germans
14:05 The Don DeFore problem
16:10 The wounded soldiers' kindness
18:03 What if Paul Newman had starred?
21:52 Love on a three-week furlough
28:19 Sirk and his son
29:53 The cut Sirk never saw
30:45 The ending (spoilers)
34:56 Émigré directors look back at Germany
38:02 Why Germany didn't want this film
41:55 Sirk's wounded soldiers

Twelve musicians. Four backup singers. One man in white rhinestones watching every one of them like a hawk.
In episode 3 of It Don't Worry Us, Jason Sacks and Dan Story step into Haven Hamilton's dark, cramped recording studio. That's minutes 2:30 to 4:00 of Robert Altman's Nashville, where one elegant tracking shot tells you everything about the king of country music.
Is "200 Years" a heartfelt bicentennial anthem or Altman's sharpest joke? How did a Laugh-In comedian become one of the film's most commanding presences? Plus: the unsung people who pushed Altman's boulder uphill.

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#ItDontWorryUs #Nashville #RobertAltman #HenryGibson #HavenHamilton #Nashville1975 #FilmPodcast #MoviePodcast #ClassicFilm #70sCinema #CountryMusic #RichardBaskin #Altman
Timestamps
0:00 – Welcome and recap: where we left the Hal Phillip Walker van
1:34 – Altman's first classic tracking shot through Haven's studio
5:16 – "200 Years": sincere patriotism or Altman poking fun?
11:17 – Henry Gibson, from Laugh-In and The Long Goodbye to Haven Hamilton
14:59 – Richard Baskin ("Frog"), Scott Bushnell and the editors behind the film

Jason Sacks and Eric Hoffman dig into Shohei Imamura's first and third films, both from 1958: Stolen Desire and Endless Desire.
Made as Nikkatsu studio assignments with titles that have nothing to do with the movies, they're still unmistakably Imamura: energetic, earthy, darkly funny portraits of Japan's underclass.
We compare Stolen Desire's chaotic traveling theater troupe to Floating Weeds by Imamura's old boss Yasujirō Ozu, debate whether studio interference softened its ending, and celebrate Endless Desire as a pulpy heist-gone-wrong caper in the spirit of The Ladykillers and The Killing.
Plus: how the Japanese New Wave pushed Imamura toward Pigs and Battleships.
#ShoheiImamura #JapaneseCinema #JapaneseNewWave #StolenDesire #EndlessDesire #Nikkatsu #Ozu #ClassicFilm #FilmPodcast #MoviePodcast #CriterionCollection #HeistMovies

In this second episode of It Don't Worry Us, Jason Sacks and Dan Story dig into the opening scene of Robert Altman's Nashville, where Hal Phillip Walker's campaign van pulls out and winds through the city.
They unpack the Replacement Party's populist, folksy rhetoric against the backdrop of Watergate-era distrust and 1970s inflation, comparing Walker to Ross Perot and modern outsider candidates.
The hosts also trace the van's route through Nashville's now-vanished lower Broadway district, marveling at Altman's background details — stray pedestrians, mismatched parked cars, a beeping Volkswagen — that give the film its documentary-like texture and lived-in realism.Timestamps:
00:00:28 – Introducing the scene: the Walker van as a recurring "character" throughout the film
00:03:01 – The Replacement Party and its Watergate/Nixon-era political context
00:12:06 – Walker's folksy, "dumbed-down" rhetorical style and the era's inflation anxieties
00:19:00 – Frame-by-frame analysis of parked cars and Altman's background details
00:25:02 – The van turns onto Broadway, touring Nashville's lost lower Broadway district