Costner and Garcia are rejected; The Sting is preferred for Prohibition, despite its less central use of the subject. — Bill Simmons
Marriage is floated jokingly, with Kramer vs. Kramer as an incongruous comparison, without a settled affirmative answer. — Bill Simmons
This is preferred for Capone over the secret-vault television event and Stephen Graham’s Boardwalk Empire portrayal. — Chris Ryan
De Palma is rejected: Mission: Impossible is the large-budget alternative, while the period around Dressed to Kill and Blow Out better represents maximum career leverage. De Niro is also rejected. — Bill Simmons
Older Connery prompts The Rock and Finding Forrester comparisons, with The Hunt for Red October preferred. — Bill Simmons
The Chicago-movie comparison lists Running Scared, About Last Night, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Above the Law, Adventures in Babysitting, Midnight Run, The Big Town and The Untouchables; Ferris Bueller is preferred for use of the city. — Bill Simmons
De Niro reportedly requested an additional scene and time to finish Cuba and His Teddy Bear, wanted to gain weight, and earned $1.5 million for eighteen days according to Premiere. — Bill Simmons
Costner reportedly consulted former agent Al “Wallpaper” Wolff about Ness; the nickname draws amusement. — Bill Simmons
The Canadian action, courthouse and railway shootouts, and Ness killing Nitti are identified as fictional; the discussion says Nitti died by suicide and Ness’s unit had little role in the tax conviction. — Bill Simmons
The railway sequence’s Naked Gun 3 parody is recalled. — Bill Simmons
Assigning the accountant to guard the key witness instead of the skilled shooter effectively sentences him to death. — Chris Ryan
Catching Capone came at the cost of two colleagues. — Bill Simmons
The Untouchables plus No Way Out make 1987 a favored Costner calendar year; Bull Durham and Field of Dreams are a rival twelve-month run across separate years. — Bill Simmons
Prohibition is an amusingly productive setting for stories; hidden liquor compartments in old Los Angeles homes illustrate the era. — Bill Simmons
Capone is a great villain, and De Niro’s opulent public performance is compared with Trump. — Chris Ryan
Connery’s conspicuously non-Irish accent has become enjoyable comedy, despite also being an aged-worst choice. — Bill Simmons
The Armani wardrobe credit, period clothes and hats, and young Costner’s hair are admired. — Bill Simmons
Billy Drago has an ideal villain’s face, prompting curiosity about his later character-actor career. — Bill Simmons
The dead-man-talking line and limited meetings between Ness and Capone are compared with Heat, inspiring a hypothetical diner conversation. — Bill Simmons
Building a trusted crew outside the usual system prompts a joke about founding The Ringer. — Bill Simmons
Real Chicago locations, accessible Mamet dialogue, and both the opening and romantic Morricone themes are admired. — Chris Ryan
Damon Wayans, met by chance, reportedly denied the research claim that he and Bruce Willis feuded on The Last Boy Scout, illustrating the unreliability of casting research. — Bill Simmons
Nicholson was reportedly the studio’s top Joker choice since 1980, and Willem Dafoe reportedly stated in 2009 he had been in talks. — Bill Simmons
Robin Williams was reportedly offered the Joker to pressure Nicholson, released once Nicholson agreed, and then refused Warner roles such as the Riddler without an apology; the apology detail is doubted. — Bill Simmons
Dead Poets Society was 1989’s third-biggest film; swapping Nicholson and Williams would make both films worse, and “he stole my balloons” is called a favorite line.
Nicholson’s reported conditions included top billing, a share of earnings including merchandise, capped work hours, and no work on Lakers home playoff games; his fee dropped from $11 million to $6 million, but he may have made $90 million. — Bill Simmons
Martin Landau reportedly turned down Carl Grissom for Crimes and Misdemeanors, and Jack Palance in that role is imagined as bad.
Sean Young was cast as Vicki Vale and replaced after a horse-riding injury; the Knox actor later claimed she sabotaged a read-through, which is doubted. Her Catwoman costume audition for Batman Returns is recalled.
The Knox actor also claimed Keaton blocked Peters’ choice of Michelle Pfeiffer because they had dated, which is doubted since she is in the sequel. — Bill Simmons
Adam West was publicly disappointed not to be asked to reprise Batman. — Bill Simmons
Costner: no; his peak is still Dances With Wolves, which won all the Oscars and made him the new Warren Beatty, with no argument. — Bill Simmons
Oliver Stone: it might be this, since he got a studio to fund an assassination movie with his made-up theory and made The Doors and JFK in the same year; called a really good case. — Bill Simmons
JFK assassination conspiracies peaked in the early 90s: agreed. — Bill Simmons
Michael Rooker: Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is his high point, with Henry and JFK in about a two-year span when it was all happening for him. — Bill Simmons
Henry is recommended as a realistic, disturbing film; one participant recalls seeing it before a game at a theater near BU with seven other men; tangent: Henry and One False Move as a never-sleep-again home double feature.
Rooker being the most normal-seeming character shows how crazy the movie is; his LBJ argument scene is called absurd and possibly cut down.
Rooker is praised in Cliffhanger and now in the MCU; one participant has met with him.
Wayne Knight, no question: Newman at the same time and Jurassic around then.
The Zepruder (as transcribed) film as Apex Mountain: yes, with a reference to the Time-Life building.
Also joked about: the Cowboys doing well in '91, and a Zupruder (as transcribed) NFT pushed by Gary Vee. — Brian Koppelman
Richardson: a filmography spanning Stone's films from Salvador through Nixon, John Sales (as transcribed), Scorsese and Tarantino; at the top of his game here; a jab that he's no Gordon Willis, but flexible with a distinctive blown-out overhead light.
Since the movie makes things up anyway, Denzel Washington as David Ferry is suggested; Denzel as Mr. X is called insanely great, with doubt about him as Ferry.
Recast Sissy Spacek because she is too good an actress for a crummy part, freeing her for a better role.
J.O. Sanders plays one of Costner's two cohorts who quits and shows up in the courtroom at the end; he has been in a million things and resembles a True Detective character. — Bill Simmons
Peter Maloney, the medical examiner, is also in The Thing and is recognizable once seen. — Chris Ryan
Oswald's wife, played by the actress who was a Russian doctor on Melrose Place (Dr. Katia Petrovna), is named as Bita Posniak (as transcribed); she is said to have read all 26 volumes of the Warren Report.
George C. Scott is floated as a great, angrier X, but Sutherland's bemused X is called perfect.
Gibson is argued as a great, wild-eyed Garrison who would better represent Stone's mind, and who later made Conspiracy Theory; another questions casting an Australian. — Sean Fennessey
Harrison Ford doesn't make sense but is a big what-if, with a wish he had more movies like this.
Don Johnson tried hard for Garrison and has post-Miami Vice appeal, but doesn't read smart enough to be the district attorney. — Brian Koppelman
Jeff Bridges would have been amazing; 'Hank' (as transcribed) might work but may be two years too young and too aw-shucks. — Brian Koppelman
Frank Whaley was going to be Oswald, and after the part went to Oldman he was made the imposter.
Willem DeFoe (as transcribed) and John Malkovich turned down the Ferry role; Malkovich in the red wig would have been mind-boggling.
Stone considered Marlon Brando for Mr. X, joked to need SNL monologue-style cue cards.
Origin: Stone met Warner Brothers about a Howard Hughes film, but Warren Beatty had the rights, so JFK was the backup pitch; jokes follow about carrying three pitches and a Doug Collins 1972 Olympics pitch.
The movie is called too long at three hours and eight minutes; another disagrees, nearly naming three-hour movies as what aged best. — Brian Koppelman
Cut the Sissy Spacek scenes: nobody cares about Garrison's family, compared to the domestic scenes in Donnie Brasco where the wife drags the hero away. — Brian Koppelman
Liz Garrison's big contribution is telling the housekeeper to get hold of herself; Spacek has no good scene, and she yells at Jim over his JFK nightmares.
Counterpoint: the family scenes carry 'daddy never keeps his promises' and the trauma of the American male lied to by the American father; the reply is that the fatherhood style has aged the worst. — Brian Koppelman
It should have been an assassination movie; a parenting tangent follows, then the argument that a movie about an obsessive must show the cost of obsession, with agreement that the scenes are badly written and could be cut. — Brian Koppelman
Stone is said to have cared about making Garrison a well-rounded role Costner would want; the Kathleen Quinlan role in Apollo 13 works because her husband is in a spaceship.
Worst line: Garrison saying 'I should have loved you more' as he and his wife are about to have sex.
Tangent: Kay's return scene in The Godfather is called the worst scene of the best movie ever by one participant and defended as perfect by others.
Costner's accent goes in and out, better than his Prince of Thieves accent and like Bull Durham in the courtroom; Pesci's is worse; a courtroom line echoes The Untouchables.
The hosts say the magic bullet theory has been pretty much debunked over how Connolly was sitting, while Stone's documentary still argues the trajectory; one participant still believes in four bullets.
Last: Pesci, liked far less by two participants; conflating homosexuality with the mafia and anti-communist soldiers is called whacked, and one cannot suspend disbelief with Pesci's baggage in the role.
Gary Oldman as Oswald; Seinfeld spoof; Pesci-Tommy Lee Jones wig battle; Kevin Bacon's career revival; Oliver Stone's Dave cameo; Tommy Lee Jones in gold paint; Dealey Plaza recreation; John Williams score; New Orleans setting; specter of JFK; character actors in tiny roles
Offered as number one: Oldman as Oswald is creepy, great, and looks like Oswald.
Oldman must have shot much of his material separately with Stone; a 'Gary Oldman cut' as a standalone Oswald movie is wished for. — Chris Ryan
Deleted-scene story: Oldman asked Stone to point the camera at him late at night for an elegiac Oswald monologue; Stone shot him in a casket and planned to end the film with it before making a different call; it can be found on YouTube. — Brian Koppelman
The 1992 Seinfeld spoof 'The Boyfriend' features Wayne Knight and Keith Hernandez; Hernandez is praised and then jabbed as possibly a QAnon guy.
'The Boyfriend' is remembered as the episode that showed Seinfeld would be the biggest show, with the spitter bit called lights out. — Bill Simmons
Bacon is said to call the film a turning point that reignited his career, leading to A Few Good Men. — Bill Simmons
Stone's self-deprecating cameo in Dave two years later has aged best for one participant. — Bill Simmons
Tommy Lee in gold paint getting slapped by Pesci in a Dangerous Liaisons outfit is praised as the good version of a wild idea, unlike a cut Nicholson idea in The Departed; Tommy Lee doing it is what makes it great. — Bill Simmons
Objection: the same scene bumps against what's aged worst, the film's attitude about homosexuality, called retrograde and unacceptable; the counterpoint is that it was part of Garrison's case against Shaw and that era's judgment. — Brian Koppelman
Stone recreated the assassination in Dealey Plaza, spending $4 million to restore it to 1963 conditions and reroute traffic; Sutherland and Costner memorized their monologues. — Bill Simmons
Debate on whether acting is mostly memory: one participant says no, the camera reveals compelling people like Sutherland and memorizing matters more in theater; it is jokingly settled at 70% memory. — Brian Koppelman
John Williams's score and New Orleans as a setting are named.
The specter of JFK himself: the speech that opens Stone's documentary, the Caesar-like shot in the X speech and the still photograph of Kennedy.
