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Flyover 51 – Gary McVey and The Cromwell Moment
Gary McVey joins us for our 51st episode to talk about movies, Hollywood, and conservative politics. If you haven’t read Gary’s fantastic “Silent Radio” series, follow the links – or, if you’re not a Ricochet member, Join Today!! Politics, entertainment, conversation, and even radio noir. The pre-show conversation with Gary was so much fun, we decided to forget all about the intro. Video of our conversation is at the bottom of this post.
If you’re itching for some real entertainment, or if you feel that we made just a few too many references to Ricochet posts you hadn’t read, please follow the links to Ricochet’s best-kept secret:
Tales from the Pit, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5;
Ricochet Silent Radio: The Wire Men, Wire Men 2, Wire Men 3 (Drop Dead Gorgeous), Wire Men 4 (Arahant’s Game), Wire Men 5 (Crown of Creation), Wire Men 6 (The Thin Client – Conclusion);
Ricochet Silent Radio: Commonwealth 1 (Two Women), Commonwealth 2 (Prairie Fire), Commonwealth 3 (Rule the Waves), Commonwealth 4 (An Eagle-Lion Production), Commonwealth 5 (Conclusion – The Living End);
Ricochet Silent Radio: Judge Mental, The Series, Judge Mental Part 2 (The Darkest Hour Before Dawn), Judge Mental Part 3 (The Cromwell Moment).
Opening theme includes music from Ronald Jenkees. Closing music is from one of the best movies all-time, and if you don’t already know it, shame on you.
Published in General
Wow, what a great time I had talking with you guys! I can now attest that anyone getting a chance at a guest slot on “Flyover Country” should grab it without reservations–provided you’re willing to take a chance without too many reservations. The listenership of this podcast exceeds most other products of the Ricochet media empire but it’s still independent and unofficial.
Ryan and Terry won’t ask you about fluff, so my advice is brew up a strong pot of coffee and just let go. The PC police can always flay you later. It’s always been a freewheeling program, and it was an honor to be on the first one after Rob and Peter’s 50th episode.
And a great honor to have you! Very tempting to go 2 hours or more.
I might also add that this may very well be the first post that fully collects the entire Ricochet Silent Radio series into one convenient paragraph of links. If anyone is fed up with the politics of Saturday’s primary (or the whole primary in general!), dive into those links and I guarantee you will relish the escape.
“Heroic-looking young guys that women will fall in love with.”
Pretty much exactly how I would describe Ryan and Terry.
Metanoia Films is one group I’ve heard of trying to make more positive movies without being hit-you-over-the-head Christian or conservative.
Their films are obviously more Catholic than fiscally-conservative or anything like that, but I remember hearing an interview with one of the founders, Leo Severino, and he was making the same claim as Gary that more Christians and conservatives need to get involved in film-making and start making films for a wide audience rather than pull away altogether and be on an island when it comes to that sort of thing.
Ricochet all but bursts with star potential. We’ve got dark, moody Byronic heroes for the ladies. We’ve got thoughtful, strong caring family men for the ladies. Sometimes we have both in the same person. Ricochet also has a Temple of Diana, staffed with resident goddesses like VC, Midge, kelsurprise, Six-foot-two, Right Angles, Merina, and many others.
Nice thing about writing action scenes for the Ricochet guys: You don’t need a studio armorer to bring them prop guns; they’re all BYOD men.
Flizzo, I set some scenes in Montana in Commonwealth 2 and 3. In them, Ryan basically creates the modern conservative movement in his backyard, Woodstock-style, over the fourth of July weekend in 1952.
Ryan told me about this series the other day. I’ve mainly been a podcast-listening / chat-during-debate Ricochetti, so somehow I missed it.
I’m thankful to have all of it compiled in the same place the next time I have a stretch of downtime at work.
Boy, I really enjoyed this one. So much so that I’m withholding my standard crack about Terry, however deserving he might be. Kudos to all three of you for the show.
Gary, did you ever write a post about conservative-ish themes for movies? Like the one you mentioned about the female journalist who went to Viet Nam and was pro-troop? That would be interesting.
Also, just remembering snippets from the podcast: I agree with your point about where to start the discussion about abortion (don’t start with ‘Rape victims must, by law, carry their babies to term.’) Everyone who I talked to about abortion has agreed that it would be ok for government to make it illegal to have abortions after 6 months. Most people know someone who was born pre-maturely, and they agree that it is immoral to wait that long to decide you want to have an abortion. I honestly believe that if we started there, at 6 months, and made that a law, people would eventually be ok with moving that timeline even earlier, and over time there would be far fewer abortions overall.
Thanks, Solon. Maybe there is a post in it. Here’s the book by Liz Trotta I referred to. Like I said (more or less) on the podcast, my goal isn’t to get people to say “Wowie, boy oh boy was that right wing, or what?” I’m hoping they’ll say “Wow, what a story! How come I never heard it before?”
And, as we discussed, those movies wouldn’t suffer for the loss of superfluous hamfisted liberal dialogue and scenes.
I don’t think anyone walks away from a Tron where the dude asks his kid about the future and is showed a cellphone (!) and thinks “yeah, I see why he told his dad about cellphones, but why didn’t he mention that the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer?”
Agreed. And I doubt too many people would have walked away from “American Beauty” saying, “You know, that horny uptight repressed guy who wanted to get it on with that cute naked girl on the film poster? Wouldn’t we have liked it a lot better if they’d only made explicit, ham-handed claims that he represents the dark id, the blank and violent soul of a deeply corrupt and hypocritical country?”
“Yeah, you know, you’re right! It was missing something all right, and you’ve nailed it!
If you removed the ham-fisting, I don’t think that movie could even exist. What a crap-fest.
Thanks guys for one of the most personable, smart and goodhearted podcasts I’ve enjoyed this year. Interested to hear Rob’s take on Ryan’s theory of conservative foothold in Hollywood and Gary’s affirmative action plan for right wing wannabe auteurs.
It’s on my “drive home” playlist. Looking forward to the listen.
Let us know what you think! We are always sure to internalize complements while fully ignoring criticism… ;)
How osmotic of you! I’ll keep my powder dry!
RyanM: If you removed the ham-fisting, I don’t think that movie could even exist. What a crap-fest.
Now we are in trouble. I sense a Titus take on American Beauty is forthcoming :-)
The plastic bag tossed in endless eddies of invisible torrents, the gay couple anchor of normalcy in psychotic suburban Chicago and Wes Bentley’s head cocked like a German Shepherd as he achieves that momentary insight into the expanding perimeter of Lester’s brain blood on the white formica.
A Mendes movie for people who think Aaron Sorkin’s farts smell pretty good.
Elliott Smith’s cover of Because was surprisingly good though, moreso as it followed that emotionally and philosophically vapid ending.
1999 was a terrible year for Hollywood movies. A lot of these turkeys came out, full of prestige. American beauty‘s a movie about how baby boomers are going to save the Gen X–& now millennials–from evil yuppies & Reaganite fascism (with a touch of Eisenhower-era ‘family is a comfortable concentration camp’ feminism).
The Klavan movie was ‘Don’t Say a Word’.
I had to laugh. I was 13 in 1960 in Catholic schools , the nuns and brothers were all gaga over JFK but I thought Nixon was obviously way more qualified. I wonder what they thought after they found out about JFK’s lechery and infidelity. Funny how if the left talks about that at all it’s with admiration.
He was in like Flynn!
Captain, O Captain!
Great podcast! Fascinating discussion. You really hit a lot of areas of interest. You guys are rapidly becoming one of my favorite listens.
Thank you!