ACF Episode #100: Tim Burton

 

Friends, we celebrate our 100th episode with a conversation with Paul Cantor on Tim Burton’s early movies: Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, and Ed Wood. We start, however, with the new Dumbo and Burton’s attack on Disney, television culture, celebrity, and all that… For more Cantor on Burton and other pop culture writing, here’s the book: The Invisible Hand in Popular Culture.

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  1. Samuel Block Support
    Samuel Block
    @SamuelBlock

    Haven’t even listened yet and I’ve already liked. Burton was the first guy that made me realize that there was a man behind the camera. And, boy, did he add some color to my childhood!

    • #1
  2. Duane Oyen Member
    Duane Oyen
    @DuaneOyen

    It’s still impossible to listen because it is a $#@###%!## FLAC file, not an MP3.

    • #2
  3. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Duane Oyen (View Comment):

    It’s still impossible to listen because it is a $#@###%!## FLAC file, not an MP3.

    Yeah, we’re still trying to figure out a way to get multiple files up on soundcloud, but it turns out, it’s not set up for that.

    • #3
  4. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Samuel Block (View Comment):

    Haven’t even listened yet and I’ve already liked. Burton was the first guy that made me realize that there was a man behind the camera. And, boy, did he add some color to my childhood!

    Enjoy! We like Burton–we’re trying to add the themes & the comic daring to the look of his films.

    • #4
  5. Douglas Pratt Coolidge
    Douglas Pratt
    @DouglasPratt

    That’s Tim Burton? His hair looks like an explosion in a mattress factory.

    • #5
  6. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Douglas Pratt (View Comment):

    That’s Tim Burton? His hair looks like an explosion in a mattress factory.

    It was the 80s man, & for some it’s never over. He’s Goth. See Robert Smith of The Cure, just inducted into the RnR HoF:

    Watch The Cure’s Robert Smith give a savage response to ...

    • #6
  7. Douglas Pratt Coolidge
    Douglas Pratt
    @DouglasPratt

    Titus Techera (View Comment):

    Douglas Pratt (View Comment):

    That’s Tim Burton? His hair looks like an explosion in a mattress factory.

    It was the 80s man, & for some it’s never over. He’s Goth. See Robert Smith of The Cure, just inducted into the RnR HoF:

    Watch The Cure’s Robert Smith give a savage response to ...

    That is hair that is desperately trying to get away from a face.

    • #7
  8. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Douglas Pratt (View Comment):

    Titus Techera (View Comment):

    Douglas Pratt (View Comment):

    That’s Tim Burton? His hair looks like an explosion in a mattress factory.

    It was the 80s man, & for some it’s never over. He’s Goth. See Robert Smith of The Cure, just inducted into the RnR HoF:

    Watch The Cure’s Robert Smith give a savage response to ...

    That is hair that is desperately trying to get away from a face.

    Can you blame it!

     

    • #8
  9. CB Toder aka Mama Toad Member
    CB Toder aka Mama Toad
    @CBToderakaMamaToad

    Do you guys also include Big Fish, one of my favorite movies?

    I haven’t listened yet but am looking forward to it. 

     

    • #9
  10. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Only the first decade. Not even our long-winded conversations are that long!

    • #10
  11. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Only the first decade. Not even our long-winded conversations are that long!

    I did say a word or two in my obit for Finney!

    • #11
  12. CB Toder aka Mama Toad Member
    CB Toder aka Mama Toad
    @CBToderakaMamaToad

    Sweet! Glad to see you published there, I didn’t know. 

    I’ve seen all those movies of Finney’s but the last two. They had been on my list but they’ve moved up, thank you for the lovely, honest and warm obit. 

    I wish you’d put Daddy Warbucks on the list, but I can understand why you can’t possibly do so.

    His duet with Carol Burnett is simply delightful:

    • #12
  13. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Thanks! Lots of other people wrote about the first half of his career with all the famous stuff, I just wanted to add a few things not noticed as they deserved. Quite an actor…

    Also, his movie with Audrey Hepburn–quite good…

    Finally, CWR–they like me & not many people do, so I’m quite grateful…

    • #13
  14. Samuel Block Support
    Samuel Block
    @SamuelBlock

    Titus Techera (View Comment):

    Samuel Block (View Comment):

    Haven’t even listened yet and I’ve already liked. Burton was the first guy that made me realize that there was a man behind the camera. And, boy, did he add some color to my childhood!

    Enjoy! We like Burton–we’re trying to add the themes & the comic daring to the look of his films.

    I sure did! I agree with you guys that his later work has been, at least of it that I’ve seen, relatively disappointing.

    Great conversation. Where can one find Cantor’s work? I was unfamiliar with him until today…

    • #14
  15. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Book linked here. Amazon will lead you to his other books, too.

    You can find more podcasts we did together on iTunes or soundcloud.

    You can find lots of his Shakespeare lectures & some of his conversations on youtube.

    • #15
  16. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    & if you subscribe to our podcast, you’ll get next month’s conversation when it arrives–he’s publishing a new book in a month, we’ll be talking about it…

    • #16
  17. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Folks, here’s my review of Dumbo, or Burton vs. Walt Disney!

    • #17
  18. CB Toder aka Mama Toad Member
    CB Toder aka Mama Toad
    @CBToderakaMamaToad

    I really enjoyed the conversation, although I don’t agree at all that Max Schreck is supposed to be Trump. He doesn’t look or act like Trump at that time. A bowtie? A shock of white hair? Trump was a brown-haired young man in 1989 who would never, then or now, be caught in a bowtie…

    Also, I’ve not heard that Trump killed off any business partners like Max Schreck did.

    But I do agree that Christopher Walken is great. He plays such a perfect sociopath…

     

    • #18
  19. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    He’s indeed patterned on classier, European looks–he’s vaguely aristocratic, vampiric, like the name suggests.

    But his ruthless business practices, media savvy, & political ambitions don’t really live a lot of options.

    Rodney Dangerfield looked way less like Trump & nevertheless played that role twice!

    The whole point that made Trump a celebrity was that he was the ruthless vulgarian the liberals had always said capitalists / entrepreneurs were. That’s why he got so much attention. That’s why artists paid attention, too, whatever their disagreements with the press practices & judgments…

    • #19
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