Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
ACF #9: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman
Hello, folks, this week’s podcast completes last week’s discussion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a discussion of the DC superhero movies. My friend and PoMoCon coconspirator Pete Spiliakos joins me–he is a columnist at First Things and writes for NRO, too. You can take my word for it, he’s the kind of conservative we need to hear more of!
Pete will give you his theory of Nolan’s attempt to ground the rule of law in the Batman movies. We’re going to talk about them in terms of Greek tragedy and in terms of political philosophy. I believe it’s worth taking Nolan this seriously and we bring a lot of evidence to that claim. And then we’ll surprise you with even more remarkable observations on the failures and the successes of the very rocky post-Batman DC-Warner Bros. superhero movies. We want to give you a sense of the grand ambition that drove Nolan and the great possibilities of a genre where modern presuppositions can be investigated in a way audiences find plausible and even fascinating.
Here’s Pete at First Things and here’s his page at NRO.
Published in Podcasts
PoMoCon: Gotta Them Catch All!
I’ve got most of’em! There’s at least a half-dozen of us. We’ll soon take over conservatism!
I would join but I just can’t get the hairstyle going.
I just watched De Palma’s Body Double. I recommend a wig! It worked for Melanie Griffith.
I just saw it recently. I think the murder setup, and the way the twists unfold are great. The Gregg Henry character is a friggin genius.
Yeah, it’s much cleverer than you think about halfway, when it gets De Palma weird. A lot of it is a redoing & rethinking of Hitchcock’s Rear Window & Vertigo. Not an accident that he picked the most voyeuristic of the thrillers. A lot of it also reflects the Fifties to Eighties changes in society.
Finally listening to this btw. I’m backed up on podcasts.
You’re in for a treat. Pete’s got a great Massachusetts accent that goes comically well with his political philosophy education.
Have you seen Blowout? (Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow) It has another good murder plot, albeit one that I’ve seen used elsewhere (a two-hour episode of Harry-O, an old TV show with David Janssen; and The Jagged Edge, with Beau Bridges, Glenn Close and Peter Coyote).
Yeah. It’s also good. But it’s not the best De Palma has done. Maybe Dressed to kill is better.
I just got to the part where you said, “There ought to be a law”, in a convincing American accent. If you can speak with an American accent, why don’t you do it all the time?
Not a citizen. Don’t feel morally or psychologically obligated, so to speak. Plus, Americans deserve fair warning, which I think my unusual manner of speech offers-