Batman Begins (w/ Drew Felts)

Eli Price (00:40.458)
Hello everyone and welcome to the Establishing Shot Podcast, a podcast where we do deep dives into directors and their filmographies. We are on episode 20, made it to the big 2-0 today, and we are kind of in the middle of Christopher Nolan series and it's exciting.

Eli Price (01:10.346)
Christopher Nolan's name in the households of America and that's Batman begins so yeah I'm excited to jump into this I've got a new guest on today Drew Feltz coming to us from Statesport, Borough Georgia. Drew how's it going?

Drew (01:33.172)
Hey, I'm doing great. Thanks for having me, Eli. Glad to be here. Always happy to talk about Christopher Nolan. Always happy to talk about Batman. Love both of those things deeply.

Eli Price (01:35.731)
Yeah, absolutely.

Yes. Batman. Yes. Yeah, I got the Batman shirt on today. It's kind of hard to see you because it's one of those dark shirts. But yeah. Yeah, Drew, tell us a little bit about yourself. You know who you are, what you do. And then if you want to tell us kind of how you got into movies, what you like about movies, that sort of thing.

Drew (02:06.09)
Yeah, yeah, so my name's Drew, and I think I have loved movies and television and visual medium of any kind, honestly, from a very young age. You know, just growing up and watching TV, going to the movies with my family and everything, and whether it was sitting in front of the TV with my brothers watching like Star Wars on a-

like old VHS back in the day or going and seeing movies with my parents and friends when I got older. I've just always been a big fan. Even me and my wife when we first started dating, like that was the thing we did. We went and saw movies. I look back now and I think how in the world did we afford to do that? Because we would go see like, you know, one or two movies a week and just loved it there for a season. And, but yeah, man.

Eli Price (02:52.214)
Yeah.

Drew (03:00.766)
I'm a pastor, primarily working with college students in Statesboro, Georgia. We have a big college town here with Georgia Southern University, Go Eagles. And yeah, man, just really love a good story in any form of a big reader as well. And love comic books as well. So, yeah, it's just been natural. And particularly Batman has always been one of my favorite superheroes. I'm a DC guy in general. I have nothing against Marvel per se, but

Eli Price (03:28.232)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (03:30.11)
I tend to think DC has better stories. And I think, yeah, you and me, we've had that conversation before, I have no doubt. And going back to Nolan, particularly, Batman Begins, what we're talking about today was the first film I saw of him. I had heard of him in Memento and some stuff like that. But I just heard there was a new Batman movie coming out and I wanted to go see it. And so...

Eli Price (03:32.764)
Yeah.

Eli Price (03:37.126)
Yeah.

Drew (03:59.006)
That began a beautiful relationship to the point that I would probably say now that Nolan's probably my favorite director Like I've never seen Oppenheimer yet But he's directed it and like if you would have told me that movie just on paper I would have been like, yeah, whatever but since he's directing it I'll go see it and like I've like I mean pretty much I ever move he's made. He has such a clear vision for all of his films It's such a focused kind of idea

Eli Price (04:08.128)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (04:16.086)
Sure. Right.

Drew (04:26.55)
That it just translates to no matter what genre or what story he's telling. It's just excellent. So Batman Begins where that really began, which is funny, begins began. But yeah, that's where it at. So that was my first Nolan film. I love it. Love the guy to death.

Eli Price (04:34.79)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Eli Price (04:39.962)
Yeah, yeah, it's funny. I'm fairly certain. My memory is a little fuzzy. I kind of shared about it on the first episode in the series. But yeah, I'm pretty sure Batman Begins was my first Nolan, too. Just kind of the nature of like the age I was. So I wouldn't have been really like aware of maybe his. I wasn't like super into film at the time. I would think I was in middle school when Batman Begins came out.

Drew (04:56.915)
Yeah.

Drew (05:06.826)
Yeah. I have a very distinct memory of seeing The Dark Knight in theaters when I was in college. And so that's like one of my probably like if you're talking about best cinematic experiences ever was opening weekend. I was working a summer camp traveling when I was in college called Centricid and we all went the whole staff went and watched packed out theater.

Eli Price (05:08.384)
maybe late middle school, early high school, somewhere in there.

Eli Price (05:16.39)
Yeah.

Eli Price (05:26.152)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (05:34.792)
Yeah.

Drew (05:35.178)
seeing the Dark Knight. And so like that's like instilled, but I do remember seeing Batman McGinn's in theater too. And I guess I just looked it up as oh five, it came out. And I guess I was a junior in high school. And so I'm pretty vivid remembers like memories going the Friday night to our little theater in our little town in South Georgia and seeing it and just walking away being like, that was awesome.

Eli Price (05:39.986)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (05:44.38)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (06:00.346)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I um, I don't think I watched it in theaters. I think I um, Caught it on dvd later But yeah, I think I was um, oh five If it came out in the summer would have been like before my freshman year of high school, I think So yeah that makes sense. And I mean like I like the ripe age to watch a pg-13 batman movie, you know Uh, so

Drew (06:25.615)
Yeah.

Eli Price (06:29.766)
Yeah, it really like we'll get into it. But yeah, it's it really is incredible that like Nolan is like firing on all cylinders with this movie so early in his career. But yeah, you know, his last film was his first like studio film, which was insomnia. So he which was I feel like is a pretty underrated movie or at least like.

Drew (06:51.161)
Yes.

Eli Price (06:58.018)
Underknown like not a lot of people have seen it. I feel like But uh really good, you know al pacino and robin williams. Um, and uh, I'm forgetting somebody but uh, yeah really fantastic cast. Um His first like big studio movie. Um, and then uh, that was with warner brothers and so he finished that and he had started writing he was actually writing a um,

Howard Hughes like biopic film And like so he's like I think he I think you know something I read he was like almost finished with that script and then the The Scorsese movie the aviator and got announced and it was like in production and he was like well crap again You know, I guess I'm not doing that

Drew (07:45.678)
Yeah.

Drew (07:52.534)
It's good to know that happens to famous people as well as the rest of us who plan and work and is like well crap

Eli Price (07:56.164)
Yeah.

Yeah, well there goes all that work, you know Um, I even i've heard uh interviews of him like more recently where people will bring that back up like hey You still got that howard hughes? Script and he's like yeah still got it. You know, maybe one day i'll um, i'll revisit it sort of thing Uh, but yeah, it's that's just funny but um, but like Yeah, go ahead

Drew (08:21.922)
When I saw... I was gonna say I saw that, because I was unaware of that until I saw all your notes on that, so I looked that up, and it definitely seems like me, I wonder, you know, you don't know for sure, but it definitely makes a lot of sense why the direction that man begins and some of the characters in that ended up going. You wonder how much that played into who Bruce Wayne was, and you know, some of these other characters. It's just, you know, there's definitely...

Eli Price (08:42.122)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (08:46.012)
Right, yeah.

Drew (08:51.01)
Definitely something about that that's like, oh, that makes a lot of sense.

Eli Price (08:55.322)
Yeah, yeah, it's um, yeah, I was even just about to say like it when you watch batman begins like knowing that you kind of see like oh like You know He seems like maybe a lot of that work he had put into that howard hughes like kind of young eccentric guy That loses his parents. Um Has all this like this Comp these companies and all this money and like trying to figure out like what he's going to do with his life. Um

Drew (09:21.647)
Yeah Well, and I think that I you know Batman begins is one of these films that some films Get better the older they get and some get worse I think but I find that originally if you would have asked me, you know when the trilogy wrapped up out of the three What was my favorite? I probably told you the Dark Knight and I think that the Dark Knight

Eli Price (09:24.774)
Yeah, you get a lot of that in Bruce Wayne in this movie.

Eli Price (09:38.068)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (09:46.978)
which I'm sure you're going to talk about at length at some point in the future. It's probably overall the better film, but I will say that I think Batman Begins has become better with age. Even just reading up and thinking through and kind of watching it to get prepped for this. I'm amazed how much this movie is about Bruce Wayne before Batman and how much that makes the movie and.

Eli Price (09:49.621)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (09:56.66)
Yeah.

Eli Price (10:04.381)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (10:10.297)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (10:14.13)
all the other movies that are to come in this trilogy, better because of the foundational groundwork and character development he works in. It's just so good and so grounded.

Eli Price (10:22.29)
Yeah. And I think, too, like in retrospect, like watching through the trilogy, like in retrospect, the other two make Batman Begins better kind of in a in a reverse way, too, just because of that foundational nature of it. And just like it was a like it's kind of like the scale gets bigger each film. And this one was like very personal and like very

Drew (10:34.986)
Yeah, I agree.

Eli Price (10:52.266)
honed in on Bruce becoming Batman sort of thing. Yeah, I agree. I think it does get better. My wife watched a lot of it with me. She actually watched a good chunk of it with me while I was watching it and taking notes. And then she had to go do something else. And the next day she was like, hey, do you mind if I finish watching Batman Begins? I was like, yeah.

Drew (11:17.899)
Yeah, yeah. Well, there's, yeah, there's something about, and Nolan is, I think it's the, the film is so.

Eli Price (11:20.542)
But she was like, yeah, that's my, I think Batman, she was basically saying the same thing. Like I think Batman Begins is my favorite, even though like the Dark Knight is so good. She was like, I think that one's my favorite, which I totally, I get it, you know?

Drew (11:41.334)
focused that you really won't like you really understand Bruce Wayne by the time that he actually puts on a cape and a cowl and becomes a guy running around the city as a vigilante because like you know the premise and like if I go up to anybody on the streets and explain this without the context of Batman they're like that sounds weird why would anyone do that kind of thing but like

Eli Price (11:42.552)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (12:07.81)
Nolan masterfully takes this and builds up so much where by the time that he's there, you're like, oh my goodness, I understand this, this person makes sense. And I'm rooting for him. It's like, this is jumping ahead a little bit, but that scene where like the first scene when you see him as a Batman, where he's doing the whole typical thing you see in comic books and a million other versions of the Batman myth of him taking out like 20 guys by himself. I think by the time he does that and he says, who are you?

Eli Price (12:32.159)
Oh yeah.

Drew (12:36.678)
It's like by the time that I mean like you're like cheering right? He's like it's just been building up to that point so much and Man, yeah, he's just so good

Eli Price (12:44.05)
Yeah. Yeah, and that's like almost halfway through the movie, I think. Like you're I think it's been at least like an hour at that point.

Drew (12:49.13)
Yeah, yeah. Well, and going back to... Yeah, I looked that up because that's what... I didn't realize that. You know, my memory thinks that it's like a typical movie. And I think that's what stands this movie, particularly against all the other Batman movies there have been, because there have been a lot of different versions of this myth, you could say. But like, man, it's like, I think an hour before you see Bruce Wayne as Batman.

Eli Price (13:06.422)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (13:17.214)
Yeah.

Drew (13:17.362)
And by that and like that is wild. Like if you pitch that to somebody, you explain that to me, I'd say you're going to get an hour to explain a character. I would tell you that's stupid. Why are you doing that? Like you're wasting time. But when Nolan does it, I'm enthralled and just there. And I'm just like, oh, my goodness, by the time he is Batman, I'm like, yes, yes.

Eli Price (13:27.681)
Yeah.

Eli Price (13:37.886)
You're all in. Yeah, it's funny because I rewatched the 89 Batman, Tim Burton's with Michael Keaton the other day. Because it had been so long since I'd seen it. And I was like, I'm about to do three Batman movies. I got to rewatch the 89 Batman. And so I rewatched it. And it's pretty much right off the bat, like Keaton swooping in as Batman.

Drew (13:47.648)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Drew (13:58.027)
Yeah.

Eli Price (14:08.414)
It had been so long since I'd seen that and I had just, you know, watched Batman Begins and so like just like entranced by what Nolan did with that first like hour building the character. I was kind of surprised like, oh wait, Batman's already here. But yeah, it's it really is crazy. And Nolan really like had that vision early on. Like he really gave Warner Brothers.

Drew (14:24.034)
Yeah.

Eli Price (14:38.138)
a very simple pitch which was basically like, I want to like, re- like basically begin Batman again, like start from the beginning and ground him in reality. And that was kind of like his pitch to WB. It was like a, I think there's, I don't know how much truth there is to it, but I think like it was basically like a 10 minute pitch.

Drew (15:01.758)
Yeah, I read the same thing. There was like a 15 minute pitch. And it, but, but he walked away and they gave it to him, which is insane because he's a young guy at this point and he's only got a few films. They've all made money, obviously. But his budget for this film, I think was like 150 million or something. And that was like five times, if I remember right, what his budget, what had been for any of the other films beforehand. So I mean like Warner Brothers. Yeah.

Eli Price (15:12.531)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (15:20.246)
150, yeah.

Eli Price (15:28.722)
Yeah, it's like triple kind of, I think Insomni was like 40. I think he had, I think, yeah, he had 40. He went from basically no budget to like four and a half million to 40 million and then to 150 million. So like, kind of like a step up, but 150 is a lot.

Drew (15:33.235)
Okay, I was thinking it was somewhere in 30.

Drew (15:44.81)
Yeah. Yeah, well, and particularly when it's, you know, the, you know, you're still kind of new and it's the combination of all these things, right? Like one of them by themselves is not that odd. But the fact of you're telling me if it is true, he gave a 10, 15 minute pitch of a very, a very clear version of Batman that's very focused, but extremely different from anything we've seen from Michael Keaton's Batman to all the, you know, Batman.

Eli Price (16:06.398)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (16:13.262)
Batman Forever and Batman and Robin and all of that, which you go back and read. I was reading about some of that stuff about how much they were trying to do the Star Wars thing with like basically marketing toys and really aiming at kids, which again, there's nothing wrong with that. But like it was such a money grab in some ways. And so, you know, it turned Batman from this grounded detective vigilante who could exist in our world to a fantastical cartoon character.

Eli Price (16:15.838)
Yeah.

Eli Price (16:23.871)
Yeah.

Drew (16:42.058)
And if you'd read the comics and stuff, you know, there's a depth there that can be achieved. And obviously Nolan picked up on that to some degree that there was something here. And I don't know what he did, but I can't have a 15 minute conversation and get somebody to come into me to give me that much money. But Christopher Nolan can. I mean, I have no it's like going back. You tell me somebody does an hour intro. I'm going to be like, oh, my gosh, why? But Nolan does it. It's brilliant. Same thing here. Like 15 minutes with Nolan, I imagine is better than me talking for five hours.

Eli Price (16:42.259)
Yeah.

Eli Price (16:58.826)
Yes.

Eli Price (17:08.149)
for sure.

Eli Price (17:11.834)
Yeah, yeah, and it's funny because especially because they actually had been trying to get Batman back off the ground for a while Um because you know you're coming off of movies like the blade trilogy x-men had kicked off spider-man Um had kicked off to great success. And so wbeast like just sitting on batman Um, they had they had pitches for like a batman beyond uh movie, uh

Drew (17:29.182)
Yeah. I would have loved to see that just complete side note. I love Batman Beyond anime. I think it's one of the best like so good.

Eli Price (17:42.314)
from yeah, Batman Beyond is awesome. Yeah, the animated series, I think there's an animated feature length movie too that I have not seen, but yeah, yeah. And then one of the crazy pitches that I read about was from Darren Aronofsky, like had pitched a very like Batman year one, which is a story arc. Yeah.

Drew (17:54.574)
I feel like I've seen it, but it was a long time ago.

Eli Price (18:11.974)
Which that would have been great. I don't know. I've heard some strange things about what he was going to do with that movie. And Aronofsky makes strange movies. So, um, so yeah, I don't know.

Drew (18:20.661)
He does. And year one, yeah, year one story arc's really fascinating, like the comics and that kind of, it's great. But I...

Eli Price (18:27.51)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, it there's definitely like the middle section of this movie very much feels like that year one kind of story arc. So.

Drew (18:38.193)
Yes, it's definitely got some flavor of that in there.

Eli Price (18:40.518)
Yeah, yeah, it yeah, it's crazy. There was also like a Batman and Superman pitch, which sounded I can't remember what comic story arc it was, but it sounded like one of one of them, which is like, you know, Joker kidnaps Lois Lane and kills her or something. And you got Superman and Batman kind of like at odds in some way.

I can't remember what story arc that sounds like, but I definitely like read something like that before.

Drew (19:11.357)
Well, and there's been, yeah, there's been so many of those written in the comics and then so many different versions done in different ways. Like even what you're saying about like, that sounds like injustice, which was the fighting video game. And that was like literally, whatever storyline that is, that's what they ran with that.

Eli Price (19:19.263)
Right.

Eli Price (19:23.826)
Yeah, yeah, that's, yeah.

Eli Price (19:30.771)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (19:31.714)
toppled over. But um, yeah, there's, and Batman is so interesting because you even go back to like way back in the TV Batman, you know, with like the, you know, the shark repellent and all that silly stuff. It's like, I have a, I know you have some young kids, I have a young kid too. And we, one of the things we've started doing is we've started playing these Lego games together. And there's, there's a Lego Batman game we have, and it's great. But the funny thing about it is, is there's like

Eli Price (19:33.994)
Yeah.

Eli Price (19:43.339)
Yeah.

Eli Price (19:51.882)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (19:58.102)
dozens of versions of Batman and Robin from all these things from the goofy where like when you hit it's like going pow and bang to like, you know, I'm Batman kind of thing and everything in between. So it's wild. Like I was even thinking about this before we before we got on here. Eli was like, I don't know many other characters that have had such a wide variety of interpretations of the character. And especially have such a wide variety that some of them actually worked even though they're vastly different.

Eli Price (20:04.916)
Yeah.

Eli Price (20:08.314)
Yeah. Oh yeah.

Eli Price (20:21.974)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (20:28.326)
Yeah. Well, that's the beauty of comic books. Like, um, that's one thing that like, I don't know, like one thing I don't understand about like how angry comic book internet people can be like, Oh, you're ruining this character with your movie and the way you're doing it in your movie. And I just like want to shake them and be like, this is what comic books are about reinventing characters and doing different things with them. Like that's what

Drew (20:28.665)
Um...

Eli Price (20:57.81)
has been happening throughout the history of comic books. You take a character, you take the general aspects of them and reinvent them with new stories. Like, that's how they're used. So that's just always been a pet peeve of people being like, oh, that's not how it happened like in the comics. And I'm like, which comics? Like, they're so, like, what are you talking about?

Drew (21:17.268)
Yeah, yeah, you can't you can't say that's not how it happened in the comics like Batman alone has traveled through time and

Eli Price (21:24.414)
Yeah.

Drew (21:24.854)
done crazy stuff all over the place. So like, you can't just say this story arc. No, I agree with that, man. I've, and if you think about it, that's what stories are in general too. This is getting a little deeper than just this movie, but movies in general, like what we, we were storytellers, like stories resonate with us and we've been retelling stories. And if you study story for any length of time, you'll find out very quickly that there's nothing new. It's just reworking things. And I think, I think that

Eli Price (21:27.482)
Oh yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna go to bed.

Eli Price (21:35.285)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (21:50.622)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Drew (21:53.322)
focus back into Batman Begins, I think what Nolan was able to do with this, and one of the reasons Nolan's my favorite director, and I'll watch anything he has, is because he is able to put his own very creative brilliant mind into a extremely focused place that when he goes in as a director he knows what the outcome he wants it to be in any of his films, and it's always a unique perspective even if it's a story that's been told.

Eli Price (22:15.477)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (22:19.562)
you're going to get a interpretation of it that's going to be unlike anything else you've seen. It may have hints of things. This is still a Batman movie, right? You know, and the trilogy is still Batman, still the characters we know, but the way they're interpreted, the way they're, you know, laid out is completely different. And there was something about how realistic it is going back to that pitch that made this so refreshing. And I think some of it may have been a built up off of the Spider-Man movies that had come out, who kind of leaned into that.

Eli Price (22:25.782)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (22:49.254)
a little bit, but this was a whole nother step further. Where, you know, the example I think of the most is the Batmobile, right? Like the Batmobile has been all those crazy things, but in this one, it's a tank that can jump rivers, right? And like at first I was really put back about that. Like I remember thinking that, I was like, this isn't what the Batmobile is. I was one of those angry comic book guys you were talking about a second ago. At least in my mind, I have this emotional attachment to the animated series, Batman, Batmobile. And like that's not a Batmobile, but when you see it in the context of the film, you're like...

Eli Price (22:52.796)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (23:09.022)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (23:13.95)
Right.

Drew (23:17.778)
It couldn't have been anything else because that's the vision he has. And because of that, it works so well.

Eli Price (23:21.937)
Mm-hmm.

Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah, and he's like, one of the things he really like focuses on is like his script writing. And I think that plays a lot into it. He's very like, when he's, from what I've, the research I've done so far, like at this point in his career, like when he gets going on a script, like he really like works through all the details.

And I remember talking in the Memento episode about how, in an interview, he said that the humanity of the character really came out when Guy Pearce stepped in and brought that aspect to it, but he wasn't writing it in that way. He writes very much in what's the puzzle. It's very logically laid out. Everything fits together.

And you can see that here. But I do think, like, he was wise. He brought in David Goyer to co-write this with him. Goyer is probably most well-known for the Blade trilogy, which I haven't seen any of those. Have you seen the Blade movies?

Drew (24:39.056)
Oh, yeah. I've not either, but that makes a lot of sense because I feel like the Blade trilogy, and I've never seen any of them. But everything I've seen about them...

Eli Price (24:43.657)
Yeah.

Drew (24:49.962)
like clips and kind of read and understand about it, tonally, there's definitely something that, it was ahead of the curve in some ways of superhero movies of having that kind of dark, realistic, there's something more here, even though it's very fantastical at the same time.

Eli Price (24:57.686)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (25:03.72)
Yeah.

Eli Price (25:06.93)
Right. Yeah, I mean, it's vampires, but still. Yeah, I mean, Goyer, yeah, he brought him on probably, probably partly because of that and also just because Goyer knows comic books. And Nolan very like admittedly did not like was not like well versed, like knew the Batman character, was a fan of the Batman character. But and, you know, obviously like was attracted to the story.

Drew (25:10.592)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (25:36.242)
He's actually the one that brought it up to WB. They were like Talking to him about some other stuff and he was like, well, what about Batman? and But yeah, so obviously interested in it, but needed some help and brought Goyer on I thought one of the special features was an interview with Goyer and he was talking about how he had gone to the comic book store that he frequents and Like started buying all these Batman graphic novels

And the guy that works at the counter was kind of like, what's going on here? Something's going on. And he was like, no, nothing's going on. Just find some graphic novels. The guy's like, no, something's going on here. And after a couple of trips, he was like, you're writing a new Batman movie, aren't you? And he was like, no, no way. And so that guy probably felt very vindicated later when he found out that.

Drew (26:25.448)
That's great, I love that I read something similar to what you said to about WB mentioned something about Nolan doing this film and somebody who knew Christopher at first was like I don't think he would He knows nothing about that. Like will he be interested? But I do think what you

Eli Price (26:34.666)
This movie was coming out.

Eli Price (26:47.044)
Yeah.

Drew (26:50.186)
And this is something about Batman particularly that I think is something when it comes to superhero movies that resonates like that character And his story arc man There's something to that everyone can see is unique and there's such an interesting story character to be There that even people who don't know it everything about it like some geeks do are still intrigued by it

Eli Price (27:10.506)
Mm-hmm Yeah for sure and he so part of it part of the reason I think why it's so It it all fits together so well. It's such a complete vision is because of the way he wrote it so he wrote Him and Goyer actually like wrote in their garage and well in Nolan's garage And you know got the washing machine going and they're like coming up with Batman ideas and they brought in

his production designer Nathan Crowley too. So they were kind of working all in tandem, the two writers and the production designer. And it was really smart because one of the things that, one of the reasons Nolan brought in Crowley to like work on production design stuff as they were writing is so that he could bring Warner Brothers like a complete vision, which is smart already, but also like even smarter because

He had the foresight to know this is a very popular franchise. They're going to have things they want me to do. And if I already bring them complete ideas, then it'll be harder for them to tell me, you have to make the Bat Suit this way. You have to make the Batmobile this way. Because he's coming to them with a complete idea, both story-wise and the design of everything.

So I thought that was like super like smart and insightful of him to like Have the werewithal to think that through and like know like well if I want to do it the way I want to do it I need to bring them Everything like yeah

Drew (28:52.39)
Yeah. Well, and even I see you have notes here too, talking about them like just sitting in a garage like, you know, mothballing this and figuring it all out. And like, it's, I read about this as well that the W execs actually came to his garage to like read the script with them and like, have this kind of vision casting thing. And I think, like that again is one of those things that amazes me. But I think

Eli Price (28:58.677)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (29:09.33)
Right. Yeah.

Drew (29:17.766)
Obviously Nolan has a way of being able to tell stories and get people on board with his vision. The vision that he was producing and casting for them obviously was very attractive and was very focused down to everything like small details that we may not even be overlooking, but he did not. And those details really add up to make something special.

Eli Price (29:20.758)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (29:40.794)
Yeah, yeah, they did come to his garage. I was reading part of it is because they had a bit the part of the reason they were willing to come to him to read the script and everything is because they had a big like a leak, like leaking scripts problem at WB apparently. And so they were like, well, if we go to this guy and no one's no one's like well known for being very like secretive with his scripts.

There I shared a story in the first episode. I'll share it again here because it's so good So no one when they have the script done. They call it the intimidation game Not for any other reason other than like they're trying to be secretive with what they're writing So like if people are seeing like seeing it they're like the intimidation game I wonder what that is if they write like Batman begins and people are like, oh, it's Batman movie

So it's already secretive in the script name. So the story goes that they're getting into casting. He has his budget. And he shows up at Michael Caine's door, wants Michael Caine to play Alfred, and knocks on the door. Michael Caine doesn't realize it's Christopher Nolan at first. He thinks it's just a guy dropping off the script. So he's like, I have this script.

You know, I want you to read it and let me know what you think and Michael Caine's like, oh, yeah, you know, he's pretty accomplished at this point. He's like, oh, yeah I'll read it and get back to you and he's like no. No, I have to leave with this He's like I need you to read it right now and It clicks with Cain that this is this is the director. This is Christopher Nolan. And so the story goes that Michael Caine like goes

Drew (31:11.3)
Sure.

Eli Price (31:32.722)
Go like invites him in and reads the script while Christopher Nolan like sits there and reads tea in his living room and then Yeah, yeah, and then like leaves like takes the script with him And yeah, I mean the rest is history after that because Michael Caine is the Christopher Nolan guy He's in every movie since in some capacity or another

Drew (31:41.422)
It's gonna be a little intimidating at the same time right even for him.

Drew (32:01.198)
I, uh, he, he's such a good, I mean, like, I, he's, yeah, that's all another conversation. How good Nolan is at casting people for characters and, and understanding them. But yeah, I know that's a great story though, man. But also to show how, yeah, it is. Yeah. We always think we, you, you would know people no matter what, when you meet them and come up to them and then situations happen and you're like, Oh my gosh.

Eli Price (32:04.996)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (32:16.434)
Yeah, really funny.

Eli Price (32:30.97)
Yeah, I just love that story. Um, but yeah, no one, uh, no one talks about how really like at the end of the day, he was just kind of excited to make the kind of movie he would have loved as a kid, um, and really put a lot of like his childhood, like loves from like film into this, um, so he's like, he's pretty like, well known for loving the movie Blade Runner. Um,

Drew (32:43.768)
Yeah.

Eli Price (32:57.362)
Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. And so he put a lot of that into this film, he said, just kind of like those city streets kind of like bustling with grime and that sort of thing. That's definitely in there. He talks about the Count of Monte Cristo being an influence for the beginning, which in the Count of Monte Cristo.

Drew (33:16.19)
Yeah, 100%.

Eli Price (33:27.738)
Um, you know, he's, he's kind of like, uh, it's kind of like that situation where he's in prison, um, to kind of like get an ends like it kind of like a rich guy getting in the, in the grime, um, sort of thing, uh, right. Same. Yeah.

Drew (33:43.419)
Yeah, it's been a long time since I've watched that but I yeah, yeah that they definitely yeah I see that I see that now that you're saying that

Eli Price (33:52.23)
Yeah, and then like one of the things I like is Nolan like love is known for loving the Bond movies, too and He he does put some of that in here So he talks about like wanting he talks about how like in the past Gotham has always been like so self-contained and He really wanted it to feel like it was set in the real world And so like he starts off with this very like global footprint kind of thing. Like you have

Drew (34:15.287)
Yeah. And that's another point too, because I feel like we don't see... And I mean, there probably are some shots of Gotham that are a bit more...

Eli Price (34:20.522)
You have Bruce in Africa, you have him somewhere in Asia, all before you ever see him set foot in Gotham.

Yeah.

Drew (34:39.978)
you know, like your typical Batman movie shots of Gotham. But we don't really see Gotham besides these very dark, gritty kind of glimpses of how good people get chewed up and spit out and everyone's just kind of struggling and are either corrupt and manipulating until. And then you go out to the world, you see there's still some of that there too, the comeback, but it's obvious Gotham is this dark place kind of thing. That is grimy and kind of where you tell my Blade Runner just.

Eli Price (34:53.578)
Yeah.

Eli Price (35:04.667)
Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Drew (35:09.43)
RUN DOWN.

Eli Price (35:11.226)
Yeah, you have the Blade Runner influence, but also, have you ever seen any Fritz Lang, like the old M or Metropolis, really old 20s and 30s films? So I haven't seen M. That was kind of influence on the look, but Metropolis I've seen, it's a very kind of futurescape kind of city kind of look.

Drew (35:20.558)
Looks like I have.

Drew (35:34.523)
Yeah, I see this I'm looking up some of the screenshots I definitely see this influence in it

Eli Price (35:39.558)
Yeah. And then the other one that I thought was really cool is this guy, Giovanni Battista Peronesi. He's a Venetian engraver and like etcher from the, I want to say the 18th century. And he had this series of etchings called, I mean it was in Italian, but in English it's Imaginary Prisons. And I'm going to hold this up to the screen so you can see it.

but it's these really intense etchings of these prisons with poolies and stairs and ladders going everywhere. Kind of like, it even kind of has the feel of those Escher drawings of the stairs that lead to nowhere kind of thing. There's just like, and it feels like it's endless. You look at the picture, and even though it's self-contained, it feels kind of like it's this endless like.

Drew (36:28.561)
Yeah.

Eli Price (36:37.358)
maze of prison and uh

Drew (36:37.755)
Yeah, it's almost it's almost got that a mythic level of like almost like a labyrinth it will like Fantastical like this is a I'm looking at these. I just googled the man. These are wowed There's this there's this one that looks like what you were just saying like the stairs that are going nowhere almost it's like Verging right there like it's very you look at it. If you glance at this it looks like it's very realistic, but then when you look a little closer you're like

Eli Price (36:42.822)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (36:49.771)
Yeah, they're crazy looking.

Eli Price (36:54.996)
Yeah.

Eli Price (37:03.542)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (37:04.094)
Is this abstract? Like, is there something here that's a little odd? That's fascinating.

Eli Price (37:09.894)
Yeah, and that's kind of like the feel that Nolan and the production design and stuff was going for was that kind of like look a little bit closer and everything feels off kind of feel to Gotham, which I feel like you really get.

Drew (37:27.809)
I Agree, yeah, it is you know, I rewatch this movie and going through like everything looks like a big city, right? Like everything in Gotham. It's almost like And it's like this in the comic books I feel like this is a good example like they were they were able to grab something and kind of have a very clear vision To make it in real world that captures what the comic books do because the comic books have like Gotham is like the dark

Eli Price (37:36.053)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Drew (37:51.81)
gritty side of New York or Chicago. And Metropolis is like the bright happy. So if you've ever been to a big city, so many of the things they show, you'll see, like you'll see that stuff that will happen. But it's like it's only that stuff in Gotham and amplified. It's like corruption's everywhere, but it's not as rampant as it is in Gotham. You know, sketchy people getting mugged. That happens in any city, but not as much as it does in Gotham. Like and like there's almost like a.

Eli Price (37:53.718)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Eli Price (38:06.901)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (38:20.546)
There's a very realistic quality, but at the same time, it's almost like a mythic archetype that's going on with Gotham. If you look a little closer, it's like, this isn't normal.

Eli Price (38:26.632)
Yeah.

Eli Price (38:31.258)
Yeah, yeah for sure and uh, so like thinking about like the tim burton batman's like those Felt like set pieces Um, like you watch them and they're very like expressionistic. They feel kind of cartoony Um when you look at like those city blocks and that 89 um batman, um, and this one is very much like it's it

Drew (38:41.694)
Yeah, that's what I said.

Eli Price (38:58.254)
It still has like what you're talking about in it. But like you said, like very grounded in the real world. So thinking about like you have the Narrows set piece, which is very much like out of a comic book. Like definitely like not, I don't know, it's this weird in between. Like it feels grounded in the real world, but very much like a comic book set piece, which is a...

Drew (39:09.643)
Yeah 100%

Drew (39:27.074)
Yeah. Well, and I'll tell you an example that comes to mind when I think about that. It's like, the Narrows are a great example. It is this rundown part of town, which every town has an area like that. Every city has an area like that.

Eli Price (39:27.63)
It gives you a strange feeling when you're in that set because, I don't know, it doesn't feel like, it feels like, oh, this feels like it's in the real world, but something's off about it, sort of.

Eli Price (39:49.91)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (39:54.09)
And so that's what feels real. But then the fact that they've put it all on an island and they have like six bridges going to it, that feels strange because again, there are cities who have islands, who have bridges going into islands and stuff like that. That's in our real world, we see it. But no place has the bad part of town, the worst part of town has all been put in one little place. And so it's like the island.

Eli Price (39:58.94)
Yeah.

Eli Price (40:15.604)
Yeah.

Drew (40:18.898)
itself if you're walking around inside of it feels very grounded normal. But then if you zoom out, it's like, why is it right here in this perfect circle? And why are there six bridges? Why would they do that? That makes no sense. And why are all those bridges also able to do this? It's like, once you kind of dig into it, it starts falling apart. But it also is very comic book-y, like you said. That feels like a comic book.

Eli Price (40:26.473)
Yeah.

Eli Price (40:31.487)
Yes.

Eli Price (40:41.21)
Right, yeah, exactly. Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah, and yeah, so that set piece in particular, I'm pretty sure was built in this like old 200 foot tall airship hanger in outside of somewhere around London, Bedfordshire, I think I wrote down. Yeah, that whole Gotham city block that was the, I think it was the Narrows that was in that airplane hangar.

Which is really cool. They, they kind of built these sets kind of all around London. Most of it was shot in London. Um, and then they spent like, um, I want to say three weeks in Chicago, which, you know, Christopher Nolan spent half of his childhood in Chicago. Um, he's, you know, half American, half British and, uh, his mom was from Chicago area, so that, that was something that he wanted from the get-go is to.

Drew (41:16.534)
Yeah. It's funny to.

Eli Price (41:37.066)
for him to be able to put that Chicago influence in there, which is pretty cool.

Drew (41:42.974)
Yeah, it is cool because it's funny because I don't know if it's because of his films or not, but like I when I think of Gotham, there's something about and it probably is now that I'm saying at the Nolan films that there's definitely something that makes my brain drift to Chicago before any other big cities, even though Gotham is in some ways no big city and all big cities at the same time. But there's something about Chicago that like draws me to him. I don't know what it is. I feel like Dark Knight particularly solidified that.

Eli Price (41:54.599)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (42:05.3)
Right.

Eli Price (42:10.854)
Yeah Well dark night which will we'll get into it on that episode But dark night is very much influenced by the movie heat by Michael Mann, which is a very Chicago movie Yeah, so that's definitely there and then the you I mean you have the monorail in this movie which is Which is a very Chicago thing the hot like the High Line in Chicago And you have that going through this Gotham Yeah, and I think the Wayne Enterprises is like a

Drew (42:19.69)
Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.

Eli Price (42:40.606)
particular a particular building in Chicago that's like iconic I wrote it down somewhere but I didn't recognize the name of it Board of Trade building if you know Chicago and you're listening to this and you recognize that building then good for you know yeah we don't know it yeah it was shot mostly in England and then those three weeks in Chicago which is

Drew (42:54.166)
Yeah. Yeah, good job. Us Southerners will know it.

Eli Price (43:09.534)
Really incredible. The thing that I really like about this one is the, I think, so the design, we talked a little bit about the design, but the design of this is very grounded. So you have, a lot of people have kind of point out that it's a very much like post-911 emphasis on military hardware sort of thing, which is like 100% you can see.

You have all this like, uh, disregarded, like military, um, stuff, you know, there's the line that Lucius Fox gives of like, you know, why, you know, did nobody wanted to, why don't we use this? And he's like, well, the government didn't think that a soldier's life was worth $300,000 a piece, you know, which is like, oh yeah. Okay. Um, Oh yeah. Yeah.

Drew (43:58.973)
Yeah, yeah, it's very grounded in some real-world stuff

Eli Price (44:06.822)
Which like it's funny because when these came out, I think they got flack for being very, very like, uh, I don't know. I think people that weren't watching very closely were like, oh, these are pro war. These are pro like war on Afghanistan. They're very right wing. And, but like, if you pay attention, like lines like that are very much like the opposite of, of that line of thinking. Um, very much like, no, the government doesn't care about our soldiers. Like,

Drew (44:29.971)
Yeah, yeah. It's the bottom line.

Eli Price (44:39.544)
Yeah, and then the Tumblr, which is the Batmobile, they called it the Tumblr. I think they call it that in the movie too. Yeah, it's incredible. They built that thing from scratch for the movie, which is just so cool.

Drew (44:44.334)
I love the Tumblr. I think they do as well.

Drew (44:54.282)
And what's wild about it is it looks like, again, it goes back to what you were saying about the narrows. You glance at it, you're like, oh yeah, that looks like something that a military complex would roll out. It looks like a fast moving Humvee or something like that. But then you look a little closer, you're like, wait, what? Why does this have a jet engine on it kind of thing? And you look a little closer, you're like, oh, there's the fantastical element to it. Yeah, no.

Eli Price (45:11.081)
Yeah.

Eli Price (45:15.103)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, the best description I read of it was that it's like a mix of a Hummer and a Lambo Which I was like, yeah, I get that

Drew (45:25.11)
That's 100, yes, yeah, especially with the door. I haven't thought about that. A Hummer with a Lambo, yeah.

Eli Price (45:31.442)
Yeah, yeah, I was like, oh yeah, that's what it is for sure And then on top of that they I mean see like so Nolan is very popular for like being very pro celluloid film and pro like Special effects no CGI and like in this Yeah, yeah, exactly and CGI was resisted like the plague in this one. I think

Drew (45:49.409)
Very practical effects kind of thing.

Eli Price (45:57.17)
I think I read the only places they use CGI is when like literally the laws of physics caused them to or like there was like something some safety on the line sort of thing or like there's probably some sequences where like it's something that you would only see in a comic book that they so like something that comes to mind is like the Batman hover like the Batman where scarecrows looking at Batman after like inhaling the.

Drew (46:07.71)
Sure. Yeah, like with the, like the, this, yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (46:26.75)
the ooze and stuff. I'm sure that was like probably CGI. Cause it's very like a comic book looking like little sequence there. So, but yeah.

Drew (46:36.878)
Well, and I think I think this is something too that we sometimes Don't realize how much better CGI has gotten Now that it had even then and I mean I think about like the Lord of the Rings movies I feel like that's like the like one of the dividing lines where CGI was actually to the point where like it can hold Up a few decades later But still like it we've gotten to a point now that it's much more like I like you can Obviously, if you know you're looking for back then you could tell

Eli Price (46:44.487)
Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Eli Price (46:54.39)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (47:05.898)
when something was CGI and when it wasn't. And Nolan being the purest he is, and so detail oriented, makes sense that he was like, no, we're not gonna roll with that.

Eli Price (47:15.11)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And then the other thing production-wise that I thought was really cool was he had visited Hong Kong for some film festival or something and saw all these shipping containers. There's just this huge place where there's all these shipping containers being moved by cranes and stuff. And so he's like, oh, I've got to get that in my movie. And I mean, really like,

That's where we're introduced to Batman for the first time, is in that shipping container scene, which is an incredible scene. Yeah.

Drew (47:45.944)
Yeah. It's one of my favorite probably scenes of Batman period.

Eli Price (47:55.306)
Oh yeah.

Drew (47:55.338)
Like in that in that archetype who every movie that Batman every comic book Batman has to have like him taking out a dozen guys by himself. I think that that's my favorite version of it. It's close because I feel like the um What Ben Affleck's version he did and whatever that movie was? Is that Justice League he does it or he like just goes through the window and takes out like ten guys or whatever else that one's really good, too. Yeah, I Yes, one of those like

Eli Price (48:04.21)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (48:11.583)
Yeah.

Eli Price (48:19.086)
Yeah, that's Justice League. It was either Justice League or Zack Snyder's Justice League.

Drew (48:24.394)
That one, I think, is great because it's just so freaking brutal. But this one has the fear aspect to it, which this film across the board, like that, if it man, this film explores, dives into and really makes you think about what fear is, how it affects us, how we handle it, what we do with it, how you can use it in either negative or positive ways. It's a whole much deeper idea. But man, I love that scene.

Eli Price (48:28.2)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (48:32.598)
For sure.

Eli Price (48:43.986)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (48:53.522)
Yeah, well Batman is actually like he's actually scary in this movie one of the Yeah, yeah one of the things that Nolan mentioned in an interview was just how he was thinking about like why? Why are these criminals scared of Batman? And so the thing that he reached back to was Ridley Scott's which he loves really Scott But he reached back to Ridley Scott's alien Which

Drew (48:58.858)
Yeah, there's like some horror elements in here.

Drew (49:19.667)
Yeah. Which makes it scarier.

Eli Price (49:21.786)
And if you've ever seen that movie, which is an incredible movie, by the way, you really like don't see a lot of the alien in that whole movie, which makes it scarier. It's elusive. You see glimpses of it. You see it like as it's finishing attacking someone very quickly, like, and that's kind of like how he uses Batman in these action sequences and these fight scenes. Like he's very much like that.

like the alien in Alien, like kind of like coming around corners, like people were backing into him sort of thing, like the scene where like the guy's like, where are you? And he's backing up and he goes here, which I love. It's, it made me think like when I read like that, Alien was something he was thinking about. I was like, that's very much like Alien, like someone backing up and all of a sudden it's right there behind their head. Yeah.

Drew (50:03.106)
Yeah, oh my gosh, it's so good.

Drew (50:18.378)
100% Well, and even just I think about the movie like I don't know how much of The movie like it is abundantly clear that Batman is Batman because when those first like when they first intro Batman in like the scene we're talking about with the containers as well as like even some of the shots of him like I remember That one shot. I really love it's like he looks like a gargle on top of the building and it's like panning around and it's almost Like okay, that is something but

Eli Price (50:33.523)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (50:45.002)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (50:45.654)
What is it? Like you can't really tell. And it's this kind of just unknown. What is this thing? It's something. But what is it? Even when you do see a little bit of it, ooh, is good. It definitely intensifies things.

Eli Price (50:58.281)
Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I mean, you think about which that is one of my favorite shots of the whole movie is where it's like panning the skyline and you see you see him like standing up on that building like with the sunset kind of like silhouetting him is it's a beautiful. That's a beautiful shot. That felt that felt more than anything else like I love Chicago shot, you know, because it was like a Chicago like kind of skyline.

Drew (51:10.094)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (51:20.84)
It is.

Eli Price (51:30.882)
I'm assuming that it actually probably was Chicago Skyline. But yeah.

Drew (51:34.768)
Probably was. Let's say it was. Even, I don't know, we'll probably find out and be wrong, but it looks like an I Love Chicago shot 100%.

Eli Price (51:40.68)
Yeah, I mean just-

Yeah, I mean, just assuming like how much Nolan likes filming real things on location. Yeah, I would almost like put money on, you know, that being a Chicago skyline shot. But yeah, I really. I was just going to say, like, I really appreciate, like, how he thought through. How do I make Batman scary? How do I make like criminals, hardened criminals scared of this guy?

Drew (51:50.711)
Yeah.

Drew (51:59.576)
I think, I think, good.

Drew (52:14.326)
Yeah. Which do not scare easily by default, because they're usually the ones scaring people. I was going to add too, I think one thing that adds so much to the fact of what you're talking about with him being scary and just the sense of place that this movie has, has a lot to do with what Hans Zimmer and some of the other guys who did the audio and music for this were able to do. I mean, just, Hans Zimmer is like brilliant. Like, I love that guy, almost everything he does. But like, some of the...

Eli Price (52:15.067)
Yeah, very much.

Right.

Eli Price (52:34.784)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (52:40.52)
Oh yeah.

Drew (52:42.554)
audio they have been able to do and sound design in this film. It's one of those things and you know this, we're talking about a podcast right now, like audio, you can like you can mess it up really easily. Like, but when you get it right, it can really make even the most simple things hit so hard. And so, yeah, I don't know. That's another thing about this. The score, the film audio design, all of it is just so well done.

Eli Price (52:54.234)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (53:01.086)
Yeah.

Eli Price (53:09.414)
Yeah. When you were saying that in my mind, I was hearing like the way that the tumbler's tires like squeak when he's making card turns. Even that simple sound, I can hear it in my mind because it was so detailed and well thought out like that. I obviously can't do it like, but yeah.

Drew (53:19.35)
Yeah.

Drew (53:28.866)
Yeah, yeah. And who knows, who knows what that was? Because like, vehicles that size, kinda, but probably don't make that sound. So like, somebody had to come up with something intentionally to make that feel, but they nailed it. Like, they're more creative and great than I am.

Eli Price (53:39.945)
Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. But yeah, you mentioned the Zimmer. It's Zimmer. And Zimmer actually brought on. So Zimmer was brought on to do it. And he actually wanted to bring on James Newton Howard to do this film with him, which it turns out being really insightful of Zimmer, I think, because

This movie is very much about the duality going on between Bruce Wayne and Batman. And you actually kind of have that duality even in the score because you have, obviously, the kind of very staccato, like, do-do-do-do-do-do, like that Hans Zimmer is kind of popular for. And then a lot of the parts where there's those, like, the swells that you hear.

Drew (54:13.358)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Drew (54:38.043)
Yeah.

Eli Price (54:39.794)
come from Howard. Howard's like part of the score. And so like I just thought that was really cool how even that like theme of duality is like you can hear it in the score with these two different like composers like kind of like fighting at each other with the music.

Drew (55:03.143)
Yeah, that's very I didn't realize I didn't realize anything about I've learned something you like congrats

Eli Price (55:09.446)
Yeah. James Newton Howard. I think he's pretty, I think one of the things he's known for is, uh, collaborations with, uh, M. Knight Shyamalan. Like he's done. He did like six cents, unbreakable signs, the village, um, scrolling through his, his filmography. But, um, yeah, he, uh, he's a good composer. Zimmer's like much more well known for sure. Um,

Drew (55:27.722)
Yeah.

Eli Price (55:38.386)
But but yeah Zimmer actually is the one that like wanted to bring him on to do it with them which I thought was super insightful and But yeah, this is this is the first Zimmer Nolan collaboration. They'll do Yeah

Drew (55:45.152)
That is cool.

Drew (55:51.682)
Really? See, because I always associate the two of them together. That's one of the reasons I actually figured out who Hans Zimmer was more and more, was because I found out who Nolan was and all of it. Like, and then I watched some videos of him talking about why he made certain decisions and stuff and was just blown away by the intentionality, focus, and genius that guy has. Plus his little home studio place makes me jealous. Like, I'm like, that is a... Oh, you should look it up sometimes. It's like a... It looks like an old, like, wood...

Eli Price (55:57.438)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (56:04.649)
Yeah.

Eli Price (56:09.993)
Yeah, it's...

Eli Price (56:13.477)
I haven't seen that.

Drew (56:20.066)
Bookshelf library, but like all the shelves are just rack mount like Audio processors and stuff and he has like a huge mixing console, but they has like a leather chairs to sit down It's so freaking cool. I was like, ah, it's awesome

Eli Price (56:27.136)
Yeah.

Eli Price (56:32.65)
That's awesome. Yeah. I'll have to look up some pictures of that later. Yeah, Hans Zimmer. I want to say he does everything through Dunkirk. He didn't do Oppenheimer. I know that. But yeah, I think I think he does like everything through Dunkirk with Nolan. Maybe he doesn't do the prestige, but yeah, it's that that's a great collaboration for sure. And

Zimmer has even talked about like how the more he worked with Nolan, like he actually like grew in his composing because of things that Nolan wanted him to do with the score. Like Nolan, Nolan very much thinks about music while he's making his movies. He doesn't, he doesn't like to use tent music. Um, uh, which a lot of directors do, they'll throw in tent music and be like, here, composer, I want it to sound like this. Um, Nolan really likes to, um,

to have that work kind of come from their own ideas of working together, collaborating. And so Zimmer talked about how he loves that about Nolan and how like things that you'll hear in the score will like come from Nolan's idea directly. Like thinking about like the, I think actually in Dunkirk, the ticking you hear in the score is actually recorded from Nolan's own stopwatch.

Drew (57:56.263)
Yeah See that's what I kept thinking about when you're talking about the contentional and like audio and stuff was like Dunkirk like that Like who like but that definitely seems like something that Nolan thought of as he was writing the script and then was like let's figure out this

Eli Price (58:05.274)
Mm-hmm. Yeah Yeah, oh yeah

Eli Price (58:13.115)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (58:16.528)
Man, so good.

Eli Price (58:17.862)
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, this so I want to I do want to get it. We talked a little bit about the cast already, but I do want to get into that. I did want to mention, you know, we talked about this movie made. It was one hundred and fifty dollars, one hundred and fifty million dollars, not one hundred and fifty dollars. Yeah, it spent that was the budget and it made three hundred and seventy five million worldwide, which like

Drew (58:35.606)
150 dollar movie.

Eli Price (58:46.866)
When you think about it is like incredible, like, yeah, great, great return. You doubled you over doubled your return. But really, I pulled that this Nolan quote that I have in the notes. He said people like the film a lot, but it wasn't as successful as we expected to be, which I kind of get like it's this big Batman movie, you know, and really like in hindsight, watching this movie again now, you're like, this should have made more money. This should be like.

Drew (58:50.734)
Yeah.

Drew (59:02.337)
Sure. I do too.

Eli Price (59:17.639)
I mean the Dark Knight made a lot of money, but this This really should have been up there with it. Yeah

Drew (59:20.591)
It made a lot of money, but yeah, it is a brilliant movie. Yeah, it is. Yeah, I agree. And it's wow, but I do think, I wonder that if it's a big Batman movie, but people went to see it and then didn't see Batman for an hour. If maybe that like, you know, again, I think it's brilliant. But I think it's even more I think what you said earlier, rings extremely true. I think it's even more brilliant in hindsight with The Dark Knight. And what is the last one called?

Eli Price (59:34.248)
Yeah.

Eli Price (59:39.414)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (59:45.289)
Yeah.

The dark night rises. Yep.

Drew (59:48.262)
um, Darn It Rises. Yes, I think, I think those two make this movie even better because you understand just kind of more like across the board and also just time has made this movie You can realize the casting for instance Every single character in this I particularly Liam Neeson as uh, Ra's al Ghul. Oh my gosh I never in a million years like I'm not a casting guy. I would not have said that I cannot imagine a single other actor

Eli Price (01:00:07.675)
Oh, he's so good.

Drew (01:00:15.038)
Right now that could do like when I think of raza ghul, that's who I think of now like and one of the best batman villains of all time um What it was completely. I know what an ambitious thing to do. Like if you've read comics raza ghul is like Up there with as far as like when it comes to villains that batman Struggles with I know the joker's like the guy but like when it's like there's a deep like this is Me if I would have made a slightly different decision

Eli Price (01:00:30.34)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (01:00:35.785)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:00:43.414)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (01:00:44.242)
And to like have that be the main bad guy in your first Batman movie is just ballsy and crazy. And it works so well. Scarecrow 2, yeah. Yeah. Man, and I.

Eli Price (01:00:51.07)
Yeah, and Scarecrow.

Eli Price (01:00:57.022)
Which which I wonder how much of that was like well we did all these movies with like Joker and whatnot And they I wonder how much of it was like WB kind of like hey, here's the villain pool You have to choose from like choose from these we really don't want to do Joker again yet With you know, the iconic Nicholson It's kind of like you really they really probably wanted him to like show that he could do it Before they give him a villain like the Joker

Drew (01:01:22.556)
Sure. Nah, that makes complete sense.

Eli Price (01:01:26.834)
But I don't know that I read that anywhere. I'm just kind of like intuiting how it probably went down. Yeah.

Drew (01:01:31.306)
just thinking logically.

Drew (01:01:35.97)
Well, I'm pretty good. Like the casting so good in this. I mean, Morgan Freeman's Lucian, another just amazing Batman character. I think even though I'm reading here, I was reading your notes that said that some of the folks who read for Batman, I think Christian Bell is excellent. I think he grounds this character so much. But like I'm reading here, Jake Gyllenhaal, I'm just that I cannot I cannot picture that in my head. I can't even picture Henry Cavill, and I love Henry Cavill. I think he's a

Eli Price (01:01:49.983)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (01:01:56.242)
Yeah, Jake Gyllenhaal. Gyllen, yeah.

Eli Price (01:02:05.236)
Yeah.

Drew (01:02:05.41)
phenomenal actor, but I cannot picture him being Batman to save my life.

Eli Price (01:02:10.502)
Yeah, I feel the same about Billy Crudup. Billy Crudup was one of them. And I'm like, I don't know. I'm not seeing it, which it looks like he was in the Sax Snyder Justice League. I don't know what he played. It wasn't Batman, obviously. But yeah, I'm just like, I don't know if I see Billy Crudup as Batman.

Drew (01:02:13.803)
Yeah, at the end.

Drew (01:02:33.008)
He just Billy maybe like this is bad but I think he'd probably be a good villain of Batman but yeah I am.

Eli Price (01:02:40.137)
Yeah, yeah.

Henry Cavill was probably the other one that was like, I don't remember if I read this or was hearing it on another podcast, but they were talking about how during this time, at this point in time, everyone was like, it was kind of like this internet thing of like, who's gonna be the next Batman? And there was like these favorites. And so I guess some of these people were in that category. I know Christian Bale was one of those that people were like,

Gunning for and then Henry Cavill was probably the other like really big one, which you know He I could see him potentially Doing that it would if I think it would be a little bit different But

Drew (01:03:27.124)
I see I agree and this goes back to what I said earlier about Batman having so many different versions and so many different things I would love to see Henry Cavill's version of Batman but it would be very different from what Nolan's doing like Nolan's version of Batman in my brain does not fit with who Henry Cavill is but I think like I could see him being more of like how Ben Affleck didn't like that Batman version like Henry Cavill could slot into that a lot easier in my mind

Eli Price (01:03:35.198)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:03:47.798)
Sure, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, um, Killian Murphy did read for Batman, which is interesting. And actually, uh, with, uh, with Oppenheimer releasing, uh, people were kind of talking about that more recently. And, um, I actually saw like a clip of his, one of his line readings, um, as Batman in the bat suit, which is pretty, you can look it up, uh, Killian Murphy. Yeah. You can kind of see him in the bat suit, kind of giving a line reading. Um, but, uh, it wasn't bad. Um, and Nolan.

Drew (01:04:10.884)
Really?

Eli Price (01:04:20.23)
So no one liked it enough, liked his Batman reading enough that he wanted him in the movie and ended up slotting him in as Scarecrow.

Drew (01:04:28.057)
Yeah, which I think is excellent. Me and Angel, my wife's name is Angel for you guys listening. We were talking the other day about Oppenheimer and some other stuff and we're like, and Killian Murphy in general, as like an actor, would be like, that's the first time I saw him in anything. And he was so freaking good then. He's just gotten better and better and better and better and better.

Eli Price (01:04:31.36)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:04:43.302)
Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah.

Eli Price (01:04:49.038)
Yeah, yeah, he is so very good. My my wife was watching it with like I was talking about earlier. She was watching it with me and she was like, man, there's. There's this, you know, Killian Murphy, he just kind of has this oddness to him that like she was like, he's pretty. She was like, I don't know if that's weird to say, but he's pretty. And I was like, no, he's deaf. He's like, he has a very pretty face. And I was like, but I.

Drew (01:05:07.262)
Yes.

Eli Price (01:05:17.798)
And she was like, but it's like weird. And I was like, I've actually heard someone else talking about this. I want to say like on a podcast, um, like it might've been the blank check podcast, uh, who does a similar format as ours with a filmographies. They were talking about how, uh, Killian Murphy has this, like. This he's like, got this like very pretty face, but it's almost like so pretty that like.

he would feel weird as the lead character. He almost has to be like this haunting kind of prettiness, which I was like, yeah, he does kind of give off that, like that vibe. It's like, he's a little bit too pretty and it's like, it's kind of creepy, you know?

Drew (01:05:50.597)
Yeah.

Drew (01:06:02.546)
No, it's true too because like I have not seen pee-pee blinders, but he's in that and I have to we had some friends staying with us over the holidays one time and one of my friends watched a lot of it so I saw like bits and pieces of it as I was like just going about work and life and But it is this kind of it's kind of going back to what you were saying about Nolan's kind of vision for this film it's like he

Eli Price (01:06:08.986)
He is, yeah. I've heard good things about him in that.

Eli Price (01:06:21.097)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (01:06:30.914)
First looking at him looks very normal, nice guy, but you look at him a little more and it's like there's something just a little bit too perfect. It's almost like that horror element of something that looks too good. You know like when 4K stuff came? Yeah, yeah, uncanny valley. That's exactly it. Like I remember when 4K came out and like all of a sudden you could really see the makeup on actors and like you could see like all the details was like too, it was like too clear.

Eli Price (01:06:36.626)
Yeah. Sure. Like Uncanny Valley, kind of.

Eli Price (01:06:52.103)
Yeah, yeah.

Drew (01:06:57.398)
It's like there's something about that, but I think that fits so well and kind of leans into that horror aspect with the scarecrow in this kind of creepy, yeah, I'm getting creeped out of even thinking about, he does. Something about his eyes.

Eli Price (01:06:57.599)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:07:04.31)
for sure.

He pulls off the creepiness very well. Oh yeah. Yeah, he's got those eyes that look through you, look into your soul kind of thing. I think it's too the way he holds his face. He has this, it's not even like, it's not a smile, but it's not even a smirk, but there's this kind of creepy like.

He almost looks like he's smiling at you, but he's not sort of thing Yeah, he's great Yeah, you said Liam Neeson already But I you know the way that Liam Neeson delivers those lines Which by the way like the lines Liam Neeson delivers feel like they're straight out of a comic book. They're like They're kind of corny and campy in a way, but the way he delivers them makes you like oh, yeah, that's awesome

Drew (01:07:37.521)
Yeah.

Drew (01:07:55.232)
They do. And I don't think. Yes. Listen, I heard somebody say this the other day. It's actually one of my favorite authors. His name is Brandon Sanderson. He was talking about Tolkien and talking about how Tolkien can write like, like

Eli Price (01:08:09.61)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (01:08:13.326)
Poetic philosopher and he says if any of us other authors write like that We're gonna get laughed out of the editing room But he can get away with it and I feel like that's Liam Neeson like I feel I leave me some could say something That is so corny and comic kabuki and just so campy but he can say it and it's Profound and deep and I'm like, yes. Yes. I mean, yeah, like he could pull it off like He was such yes so many of the lines he makes in this movie that like if I say I would get laughed at

Eli Price (01:08:18.896)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:08:34.235)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Drew (01:08:43.534)
Uh, but he says them and I get chills.

Eli Price (01:08:45.313)
Oh yeah. It's like you must confront your guilt to find the truth behind it. And you're like, oh yeah. Yes.

Drew (01:08:49.526)
Yeah, that looks like a comic book bubble, like literally. Like you're gonna see it coming out, yeah, yeah. I think, tell me again, I think Christian Bell just nailed Bruce Wayne and Batman and this kind of dualistic nature. Because again, like I was even thinking about this, he's definitely kind of got that method acting kind of going on and like what he looks like at the very beginning of the film when he's like getting ready to.

Eli Price (01:08:54.766)
Oh yeah. Oh yeah, he's great.

Eli Price (01:09:02.826)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:09:09.258)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (01:09:16.234)
you know, shoot the guy who killed his parents versus after he goes to this whole transformation and comes back. It is, I mean, physically he's looks different and it's like, he's able to tap into this dual, this tension that exists in between Batman and Bruce Wayne. And, and, and this movie is all about that tension, honestly, kind of bouncing back and trying to figure that out. Um, but eventually he's able to like hold that tension so well.

Eli Price (01:09:18.741)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:09:26.356)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:09:40.724)
Yeah.

Drew (01:09:44.914)
But even just doing that, like that dual and tension that's there, he does so well.

Eli Price (01:09:49.306)
He's he's so intense like he's and yeah, he does have that physical transformation aspect That's so like that's so good Both like with his appearance and then like with his voice like while he's Batman Which like has been means to death but is actually like when you watch it is less like Like the memes then you think yeah. Yeah

Drew (01:09:52.16)
Yes.

Drew (01:10:14.673)
I know it's all like, yeah, it's not that bad.

Eli Price (01:10:19.294)
But yeah, did you know, so the movie he was on before this was The Machinist or Machinist or something like that, which I haven't seen, but he was, without looking it up, do you know how much he weighed for that movie?

Drew (01:10:28.202)
penis?

Drew (01:10:31.903)
I've not seen it.

Drew (01:10:39.422)
I've seen photos, like I know he dropped, like it was like 90?

Eli Price (01:10:46.138)
Yeah, it was a little more than that. He weighed 110 pounds in that movie, which is bizarre. Like I'm a six-foot dude and I'm pretty skinny. I'm a pretty skinny guy. You know, I'm the kind of guy that people are like, oh, like you have it so easy being so skinny. And I'm like, yeah, whatever. You know, I didn't ask for this. I'm just kind of born this way. But yeah, I'm a pretty skinny guy.

Drew (01:11:12.177)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:11:15.226)
I couldn't sniff 110. Like, and so, and so he did this. And when he was working with, when he started talking to Nolan, Nolan was like, well, like, I think it would be good. Like if you can, you can bulk up, like get as big as you can before like, you know, this comes about so that WB isn't like, you know, oh, I don't know about this guy. He's too little. Yeah.

Drew (01:11:18.136)
Yeah. I don't know about this, like, it's a little skinny. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:11:41.458)
And so like he actually like went too far extreme. He got up like I don't remember how much he said he weighed it was over 200 and so like he showed up and There he said like his friends were actually like joking him like are you sure you're not doing sure you're doing Batman and not fat man like And so like he uh Yeah, he actually like scaled it back some from he took the get as big as you can a little too literally

Drew (01:12:02.798)
That's how they...

Drew (01:12:10.038)
A little too, too. Well, you said a second ago about his intensity. I, yeah, it's definitely there as well. I think it comes from that. And kind of going off what you were saying about Liam Neeson a second ago too, I feel like one of the things that makes this movie work is that you have some of these characters that are so intense. And then you have them kind of complimenting against like Michael Caine and particularly Gary Oldman who are just warm.

Eli Price (01:12:10.314)
from Nolan. Yeah. But that's in that intensity for sure.

Eli Price (01:12:30.025)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (01:12:37.506)
compassionate, like I love Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon in this, like so good, like I feel like everything that's intense and dark and thing, he is just this guy who's a dad taking care of his family just trying the best, like even like I love the scene, like his parents get shot, you know, he's like this kid there and everyone else is just concerned about getting the guy, you know, getting revenge and you know, Commissioner Gordon Gary Oldman is in there and he's just

Eli Price (01:12:38.758)
Yeah. Oh, he's so good.

Eli Price (01:12:50.015)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:12:58.312)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Drew (01:13:06.062)
putting his coat around, and he's like, okay. And he's more concerned about this kid than anything else. And then even later on, you've got this warmth and just down to earth, blue collar, like just good guy. And then Michael Caine's Alfred, just this more refined but just genuinely caring person that just compliments and helps make it feel more real and make those characters feel more real.

Eli Price (01:13:23.842)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:13:30.746)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Like, yeah, I mean, it's an incredible cast. And I think like this movie, it's hard to say if it would work as well without this, like the casting here. But like, yeah, I mean, Gary Oldman, he's one of those like transformational actors, like transforms his appearance for his role sort of thing. And it really.

Drew (01:13:49.348)
Yeah

Eli Price (01:13:56.766)
He does, so like sometimes it's like very in your face. So like I think about like Darkest Hour, if you've seen that movie where he becomes, my mind is totally blank.

Drew (01:14:12.046)
Churchill? It happens, man, it happens.

Eli Price (01:14:12.902)
Yeah, Churchill. I don't know. That was like in the deep recesses of my mind and I couldn't find it. Yeah. But it's like very much in your face. Like, oh, yeah, it's Gary Oldman in makeup as Churchill. But this feels less like that. And but he still feels like he's embodying Commissioner Gordon, like he feels like he is Commissioner Gordon, which I love.

Drew (01:14:36.235)
Yeah, well it is so good because again, Commissioner Gordon's one of those like all these characters Batman They've been done to a million different versions But like I think this is I think he's my favorite and I think it has a lot to do with the actor more than it Does how it was written or anything else like he is able to capture something about Commissioner Gordon that I think has been there For so long and it's so good

Eli Price (01:14:40.598)
Mm-hmm. For sure. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:14:48.758)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:14:56.531)
Yeah.

Drew (01:14:57.49)
I also wanted to note that another one person I think just worked was Tom Wilkinson as Faloni? Oh, Kony. Sorry, again, my brain's breaking. He's like karma. And again, going back to this kind of theme of this realistic, as real as you can make a movie, obviously, about a guy who's a bad vigilante, he just felt like a gangster.

Eli Price (01:15:07.366)
Falcone. Yeah. Carmine Falcone.

Eli Price (01:15:18.708)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (01:15:24.798)
And like that conversation they have that scene in the diner. Oh, my goodness is so good. And he's just so and what I mean, something I love about that scene is that like that like Bruce Wayne is wrong and Carmen Falcone is right in that scene. Like he's 100 percent right about what he's saying and everything else. And it's he's still a bad dude and a gangster straight up. But it's the most gangster like, oh, it's so good.

Eli Price (01:15:25.236)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (01:15:29.798)
Yeah, I love it. I love it.

Eli Price (01:15:43.964)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:15:49.129)
Yeah.

Drew (01:15:54.002)
And I don't know again, I don't know if somebody else could have pulled that off as well as he did.

Eli Price (01:15:54.268)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:15:58.066)
Yeah, it's funny because it's very much like, if you look at the other things Tom Wilkinson is in, it's like you would never cast him in this role. But it's very, so I think like, so I would say it's less like that he's realistic gangster and more like that he's so believable as a comic book gangster.

Drew (01:16:27.053)
Yeah. Yeah, that may be a better way of putting it.

Eli Price (01:16:28.95)
Yeah, so because like the lot like everything he's saying is so it feels scripted it's like what dude what just normal guy would like speak in this way sort of thing but like but like but also at the same time like Though the persona he's like putting on and they're like that the accent like

Drew (01:16:44.275)
Yeah, that's true.

Eli Price (01:16:55.862)
like I've got guys all over this place. Like, it's just like, I don't know, it's just fun. I think that's the best, for me it's just, it's fun. And I could see like how some people would be like, it's kind of like too corny, like Italian mobster kind of like acting. But for me, I was like, that was fun. I enjoyed that.

Drew (01:17:16.138)
I liked it. Maybe that's all it was. Because I think if it was...

guy, like the main bad guy, it probably wouldn't have worked. But I think just for him being what he was and how it played out, it was fun. It was really good.

Eli Price (01:17:28.182)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. The other one we haven't really hit on, which quick aside, like Ken Watanabe plays the kind of like the Razz Al Ghul. That's like not really Razz Al Ghul in the beginning. But and he's fine. But but yeah, Katie Holmes, we haven't touched on her. She gets a lot of flack, but I really don't get it. Like she's fine. Like she.

Drew (01:17:42.998)
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I don't think there's anything wrong. I yeah, I don't know. I think she's fine going back to that diner scene like. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:17:57.715)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:18:01.158)
Yeah, she's not like fantastic or anything, but. But yes, she works fine.

Drew (01:18:06.318)
Well, and it's hard too because you look at this cast and everyone here is like, oh my gosh She's like when you have Morgan Freeman is like a little side character It's like what Liam saying like so like I think maybe that maybe some of it is like I think she's good in this but I think that her character as a whole I think some of it has to do with the fact that her character and Batman when it comes to love interest and stuff There's all sorts of stuff in the comic books and I don't know if and I could be wrong like I don't know But I'm not 100 sure

Eli Price (01:18:15.081)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:18:31.007)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (01:18:35.566)
I was unaware of her character as... Yeah, that's what I thought. Which is fine. Yeah, which is fine. And I think it works in the movie scenes, but I think maybe that's some of it as well, is that there's not this groundedness in the greater mythos. But I don't think she's ever like... I never feel like she overstays her welcome. I never feel like she is... I feel like their relationship is grounded and makes sense some of the motivations.

Eli Price (01:18:38.183)
She's original. She's a yeah. Yeah, so she's not in any comics. Yeah

Drew (01:19:03.666)
and explains who Bruce Wayne is more, which again, is so much of the important part of this film. So I don't know, I think she does a great job.

Eli Price (01:19:04.01)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Eli Price (01:19:10.119)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:19:13.426)
Yeah, and I think it, you know, the, her, so her character and Alfred are kind of like, they feel like they keep Bruce Wayne slash Batman grounded, I guess, like they're kind of like the moral, like, I guess like, anchor, I guess you could say for him. They keep him from like getting too far gone.

Drew (01:19:27.813)
Yeah, I'd agree.

Eli Price (01:19:42.546)
which I think like he shows he's capable of.

Drew (01:19:45.412)
Oh, 100%. Yeah, no, I agree. Like I think even before that diner scene when she's talking like he finds out she finds out he has the gun and everything else is like, like 100% like we all have friends like that who help us not become the worst version of ourselves that we could have been and I think there's a good argument to be made that

Eli Price (01:19:55.262)
Yeah, yeah.

Drew (01:20:06.75)
without people like Commissioner Gordon and Alfred and Katie's character. What is Katie's character, Rachel? No, Rachel. Yeah. Without them, Bruce Wayne would have been. Roswell would have been just a monster. It would just been bad. No man.

Eli Price (01:20:12.242)
Rachel, yeah.

Eli Price (01:20:19.898)
Yeah. And we can probably get into a little bit like the reason for that. Like so you have this. I mean, you have this character that's a billionaire. And so like I read like Christopher Nolan, like the question he asked himself is like, why should anyone like care about or root for a billionaire as a protagonist, which is a good question?

Drew (01:20:36.782)
Yeah That's fair, that's a very fair question

Eli Price (01:20:49.606)
You know, like, why does he need us to root for him and like be like on his side sort of thing? He's a billionaire, like. And I think a lot of that comes into, you know, what we sort of been talking about with that, that it's that first hour, you know, of the movie where he's becoming Batman, like he isn't Batman yet. He's he's still in the process of getting there. But I do think. Like.

You see, so like that, that scene with Rachel is pretty key because you see like he's, he's back in town. Um, he's got the gun he wants. He's basically going to shoot the guy that killed his parents. Um, you know, he's getting out on, um, he's like squealing on someone on Falcone or something, got information and they're going to, um, put them on parole, release them. Um, and he's like, he's right there. And it's.

Drew (01:21:32.315)
100% yeah.

Eli Price (01:21:48.798)
about to like pull a gun out and shoot, shoot the guy. And, you know, one of Falcone's men shoot him before he can. Yeah, but it's that you really believe like he was gonna do it.

Drew (01:21:58.861)
Where he gets a chance, yeah.

Drew (01:22:05.891)
Yeah, you can almost see it like I think Christian Belt is a great job of this like you can definitely see that his character Understands the consequences if he goes through what he's going to do with Yet, he's 100% going to do it like it's not like he's wrestling with it. He's made his mind up He knows what the cost is gonna be and it's like his pain From losing his parents and all the fallout from that has just welled up that he's like he doesn't care

Eli Price (01:22:10.528)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:22:19.945)
Yeah.

Drew (01:22:32.03)
anymore. Like this is what he's going to do this, he's going to make this decision and then it's stolen from him and he's even more angry that vengeance wasn't his.

Eli Price (01:22:37.768)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And it's, it's this mix of, uh, of fear and guilt. So like from the, you know, you get all those flashbacks sequences in the first half. So he's, you know, he's training with Rosal Gull up in the mountains and all that, but you also get all these flashbacks to him as a kid. You have him falling into the well and getting scared by the bats, which, um, you know, Rachel was, was a part of that. So you have that connection going back to childhood, um, which is a very unique.

Batman, you know Sort of thing You don't have that anywhere else but then like you have the flashbacks of Of him going to the play. It's the opera I think with his parents and you know, you got that origin short story of his parents getting shot and all of that, you know, you talked about the sequence with Gordon in the police station after his parents have been shot like

Drew (01:23:26.321)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:23:37.606)
You see like the fear on the kid's face. But also like you see guilt. So like they left the opera because he was scared because there were the bats in the opera, the people dressed like bats. And so he kind of is holding onto this, I almost feel like it's like this, the fear inside of him is both like,

Drew (01:23:47.688)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:24:06.678)
fear that's like left over from that event, but also like fear that's driven by his guilt. Like he feels guilty and responsible for his parents dying because he asked them to leave, but also like he feels guilty for what he wants to do because of that too. And it's like this cycle of fear and guilt that are like building up.

Drew (01:24:28.057)
Yeah. Well, I think you're right on point. The whole movie is really about how do we handle the fear.

And what do we do with it? Because you have to do something with it. And I think you're exactly right. Like, I think he's almost he's almost got a deep fear of being afraid. Like, he is terrified of the fact that he his fear was what cost him everything else and that would be able to do that again. And the fact that there's some weakness in this fear and not understanding that, you know, fear is natural and normal for all of us and how wrestling with through some of that and also understanding the power that fear has over us to dictate.

Eli Price (01:24:40.093)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:24:55.094)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:25:08.182)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (01:25:09.246)
our decisions. Because I think, you know, if he wouldn't have been willing to pull that trigger there, he wouldn't have understood that there's a power that fear has to motivate us and move us in ways that can be leveraged for good, maybe, which is basically what he ends up doing, versus then it just being used to manipulate people. And I think it also, masterfully, without having to use a single word, when he's after that conversation with Rachel afterwards, and, you know, she slaps him about

Eli Price (01:25:21.398)
Sure.

Eli Price (01:25:37.023)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (01:25:39.294)
He chunks it in the water. I think Nolan masterfully uses no words to explain why Batman has the one rule He has that he does not use guns and shoot people like in a way that is so good and so great at cinema The being able to communicate something without even having used words But just the scene of what's being showed we understand a hundred percent and buy into that this is why Batman is the way He is because he's afraid of these things, but also at the same time. He's afraid of

Eli Price (01:25:48.009)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Eli Price (01:25:57.686)
Mm-hmm. Visually, yeah.

Eli Price (01:26:04.671)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (01:26:09.826)
how fear could push him to even embrace something that once took everything from him.

Eli Price (01:26:14.63)
Yeah. And, and Ra's al Ghul, when they're in this like fighting, you know, training sequences, I think says something to that effect at some point to him. Like, you know, you're afraid of what's inside you. You're afraid of where it might take you. Like what, what it might like cause you to do. Um, eventually if you let it, you know, keep building, which it's really like ironic that Ra's al Ghul was like, he really is like spitting out all these. Like

Psychological truths about Batman and like helping him grow And like he's the end like he's the antagonist like the whole time They're so close they're so close it's just that one difference of Like the compassion for Bruce. It's there and for Ross. It's not Yeah

Drew (01:26:52.854)
Yeah, but he also like, yeah.

Drew (01:27:05.683)
100% Well, and I think I think that's one of the things that makes Rosal Gull such a great character is that he is Him and Batman are the same person like they are the same person and all that is different is that

Eli Price (01:27:13.991)
Yeah.

Drew (01:27:21.282)
Bruce sees himself as a protector and has been shown compassion versus Rosalou who thinks he should be the one in charge, be a tyrant ultimate, like everyone else is lesser than him and needs to be dealt with. And it is really that compassion element of like, because they're the same in so many ways. And what makes them so interesting and so dynamic is because of that.

Eli Price (01:27:27.818)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:27:43.882)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:27:50.098)
Yeah, it's so like, it makes you think like how, and this is for sure, like, I'm sure something Christopher Nolan was thinking about with these characters is how like, because it, you know, he's talked about how he's interested in those moral dilemmas, like those, he's interested in asking the questions, like, of why we do what we do as human beings. Um, like what are our motivations? And so like,

You know, he for sure was thinking about the this difference in these two characters of like them being so close together. It's just like one little like piece of who they are that totally changes the trajectory of like their methods and the way they go about, you know, doing what they do. And it really is like that. You know, I almost wonder if like Ross.

Um, you might be more well versed in the character. I almost wonder if he like has never had like an Alfred, you know, he was left to his own to like, to like steep in his grief without someone like Alfred to like pull him back to reality sort of thing. Um,

Drew (01:28:55.611)
Oh yeah. Yeah. And I would argue that that's probably the biggest thing, is that Ra's Al Ghul has been shown that there is no mercy.

And what you just said made me think about the line he says there is that like going back to what those questions Nolan has, I think one of Liam Neeson's lines, the Razal Gull's lines in this is, Make people desperate enough they'll all become criminals. Talking about how they have been doing subtle manipulations of Gotham to try to get it to collapse for a very long time. And so he sees that as a fact that this is a place that needs to be eliminated because it is too dark to save. Whereas Batman sees that as

Eli Price (01:29:29.76)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:29:34.632)
Yeah.

Drew (01:29:43.966)
you've been trying to destroy this place and it's not been destroyed yet because there are people here who are Good and trying even though you've been putting that's really that view of humanity in some ways um, and yeah, I think I think you're right like because there's a there's a later comic art where um razzle ghoul, uh So batman has a relationship with razzle ghoul's daughter. It has a son He doesn't know that his son grows up and gets raised by you know, um

Eli Price (01:29:47.678)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:29:55.486)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:30:06.311)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (01:30:11.69)
Ra's al Ghul and in that ninja academy then ends up becoming Robin for Batman later on. And it's so interesting because he is ruthless and constantly Batman's having to show him like we do not just kill people. Like that is not the solution to this. I think you're exactly right. Like I think it's that there's never been shown another way. And so Ra's al Ghul is just this is who he is.

Eli Price (01:30:16.09)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:30:23.664)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:30:31.956)
Yeah.

Yeah, which it goes, it just goes to show you like how important the people around you are for your life. Like it can totally change the trajectory of your life. Like who you allow to like speak into your life, which, you know, is, um, you know, there's, there's tons of things you can pull out of, out of themes and movies like this, but that's definitely one that's apparent in that difference between.

Bruce and Rosal Gull with but yeah go ahead.

Drew (01:31:06.487)
Yeah.

Drew (01:31:10.594)
Oh, I think too like you're exactly right like we all have influences on our life But we also all have good and bad things that happen to us and the question is how are you going to respond and? See those things right like Depending on how you do that You know I know people in real life who've gone through significantly tragic and horrible things who have much more positive outlooks than I do And then I know people who are much better off than even I am who are billionaires and

Eli Price (01:31:18.317)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:31:21.556)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:31:35.786)
Yeah.

Drew (01:31:36.59)
You know, I don't know billionaires guys just heads up. They're like, got everything you can imagine they need and they're seeing it as like, you know, the worst thing in the world. So much of it is understanding, you know, what is the purpose behind this stuff and everything else? What's your motivating driving force? And those fundamental beliefs that you have always dictate, always eventually come out into your actions. And we see that so well in this that there's a belief in Gotham.

Eli Price (01:31:54.262)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (01:32:05.61)
and I believe that Gotham needs to be destroyed. And that's what's driving both of these actions, which ultimately brings them into conflict with each other.

Eli Price (01:32:08.349)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:32:13.338)
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah, it really is like there's I like this. What I like about this movie and I think why it works so well with Christopher Nolan is because he is he can be a little bit expositional in his dialogue, kind of like telling you exactly what he wants you to like the ideas he wants you to reckon with. But with a comic book movie like Batman,

Drew (01:32:32.009)
Yeah, I agree.

Eli Price (01:32:42.818)
which is very much like dialogue, tell you exactly what you need to hear, like driven. If you're taking directly like from comic book, like it works really well. It just like, I guess like there's a certain degree to where you have to like put yourself in that mind space where like you're, which most people are able to do when they go and see like a Batman movie.

They kind of are in that mind space of like, yeah, people are going to like talk in a different way because it's a comic book movie. And so I think it ends up like being to Christopher Nolan strength that like he's admittedly he has admitted that like he's not the best with dialogue. That's like the last thing that he that is on his mind when he's writing movies. And so.

Drew (01:33:16.711)
Sure.

Eli Price (01:33:36.534)
He he actually is says like he writes a lot of stuff and then like that's one thing that he cuts down on a lot and Cuts down to like what he thinks is the best of everything he wrote Um, but yeah, I just think that works really well with this movie it he has these ideas of fear and of guilt and of um you know moral quandaries and moral grounding like

what are we going to do with the life that's given to us sort of ideas that I think he just explores very openly and kind of like explicitly that I appreciate because it is accessible to a wide audience.

Drew (01:34:08.527)
Yeah.

Drew (01:34:22.977)
Yeah, I agree and one thing I find Fascinating by is the question of what do you like the kind of like the overarching question of this movie is like what? What are you gonna do? What do you do with your fear? Right? Like that's kind of the driving point It's like Bruce Wayne struggling with it

Eli Price (01:34:33.735)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Drew (01:34:38.442)
And you see all these different characters, you do it different ways. You got like Falcone who's using it to manipulate and to gain power and to, you push people down to lift himself up. You've got like the cops who are using fear and you know, their kind of power to like push people down and to again, do the same thing. Kind of Falcone does on a different way, different scale. You've got, you know, Scarecrow who's doing almost the psychological, almost like fetishizing to some degree, like.

Like what's going on with fear and kind of, you know, having this real kind of thing. And then you got like Batman, who ultimately ends up using fear and using it as a tool to defend people with. Using it for that. And then you have like Ra's Al Ghul and his company that is using fear and power to destroy.

Eli Price (01:35:23.44)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Drew (01:35:33.618)
And it's really just this really intriguing question of like, okay, we all, all of us, all humans have fears. And the question is, what are we doing with them? Like, are, like, where do we end up doing stuff with them? Where do we end up walking away with that? And I think that's why movies like this could stick around and like resonate more with us, because ultimately, there's something that all of us deal with in here, that we can relate to. When we look at Bruce Wayne and we're...

Eli Price (01:35:40.058)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Eli Price (01:35:53.662)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (01:35:58.878)
like to all these other guys. And I think even in Ra's al Ghul, like the thing about Ra's al Ghul in this movie is that he makes sense. Like his argument makes sense. You know, Falcone's argument makes sense to him. And like, I think if we're honest with ourselves, our own hearts sometimes won't do the use of fear, let our fear make us take actions that do certain things in certain ways because we've not harnessed it and we've used it in other ways or we've used it intentionally to manipulate situations. And man.

Eli Price (01:36:08.371)
Yeah, yeah, it does.

Drew (01:36:28.418)
Those are relatable things of being a human being.

Eli Price (01:36:31.99)
For sure. Yeah. Oh man. Yeah, there's a lot of great stuff in this that we could go on for. Let me ask you this. What is your favorite sequence in the movie? I think that's a fun question to think about. I have mine. Or at least my favorite action sequence for sure.

Drew (01:36:41.102)
Good. Yes. So I think, oh, it's hard. I really, really like the containers, like when Batman first shows up. That's high. But right next to it is, I think, the Tumblr chase.

Eli Price (01:37:03.774)
No, yeah. Okay, yeah.

Eli Price (01:37:10.81)
Yes, that's the right answer. That's my answer, yeah.

Drew (01:37:11.962)
I and it goes is that what you were thinking too? Well, I was thinking about it's kind of they're similar It's interesting because they're similar in some ways because one of my favorite things about the tumblr chase is like when he goes like black Out like where's he at and he turns on it like runs over place. It's like so good. I just It's so ridiculous and awesome. Like that's probably my favorite hands are numb

Eli Price (01:37:32.41)
Yeah. Yeah, I think, yeah, I love, I mean, the shipping containers is a great action piece, like, and then you get to end with, like, the first bat signal, which is really fun. You know, he has Falcone kind of hanging up there making the bat signal on the spotlight. Really cool. But yeah, that Tumblr sequence. So one of the reasons that I think I say it's my favorite is because it's kind of like the action sequence that like

Drew (01:37:45.238)
Yeah, that's really awesome.

Eli Price (01:38:02.598)
just like especially for this series like points forward to how Adept and like good nolan Becomes at these big action set pieces um like some of the some of the closer up combat stuff is a little choppy like not refined, um, not as refined as like You know other action directors Um, but that but the big action set pieces which the tumblr chasing

Drew (01:38:14.515)
Yeah, because in some ways...

Drew (01:38:26.606)
Sure. Yeah, Nolan figures this out.

Eli Price (01:38:32.786)
Like he becomes so good at those. And this is like the beginning of that, I think.

Drew (01:38:39.294)
What makes me think about, and again I know this calls forward to the other movies you're going to detail, but it makes me think about the semi-trump flip scene. Like, that's what it, like, that's the Dark Knight one that makes me think of. And it's, they're in the same vein. But you see it's almost like an escalate, like it's been taken to the next level, like the new iteration, but it's the same kind of DNA. Yeah, it's good. And I know we were talking like how dark and heavy this was with fear and stuff, but this movie also has some pretty hilarious points, I might add.

Eli Price (01:38:47.922)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:39:05.636)
Oh yeah.

Drew (01:39:06.27)
It's funnier than I remember. Like, I never think back. Like, the Batman, yeah. Well, it made me think about it a little more too, because I was like, I don't think about this film as being funny, but there's some pretty funny lines in here. And particularly one of my favorite funny lines is when the house is burning down, and Alfred comes in and he's under like a log, and his line is like, Master Wayne, what use are all these pushups if you can't move like a log? And I was just like, dude.

Eli Price (01:39:09.278)
Yeah, I wrote that down. It's funnier.

Eli Price (01:39:25.353)
Uh huh.

Yeah.

Eli Price (01:39:33.852)
Yeah.

Drew (01:39:35.99)
You just got roasted. Like literally you're on fire right now. But just it's so funny. Like little things like it's so cool. Like the humor in this one is so clever and so good.

Eli Price (01:39:38.919)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:39:43.398)
Yeah. And then you've got like the stuff that like pays off later, like you got the flipping of the like, didn't you get the memo sort of thing, which are just kind of like, ha, they're not like laugh out loud funny, but they're like, ha, got them kind of funny, which is fun for this movie, I think. Yeah, even Bruce delivers some funny lines like when he comes in from the Tumblr action sequence and

Drew (01:39:56.333)
Yes. So good.

Drew (01:40:01.802)
Got him, man.

Eli Price (01:40:13.534)
You know, Alfred's getting on him. He's like, what, you know, I thought you weren't going to do this. And he's like, you know, well, what is that? And Bruce looks down and he's like, really good television, which is great.

Drew (01:40:27.641)
Yeah, yeah, there's a there's a humor to it like that. Again, I think helps balance out all the because life is not always serious.

It's also not always like ridiculous either. So like, you know, I don't know about you, but like some of the more intense days I've had and stressful things have been happening, there are still funny moments and quippy things there as well as like deep, hard, difficult stuff at the same time. Yeah, so good. I love the. I was trying to just think of little things that this film, I love. I love like one of the things I really appreciate is like when they're going back to the beginning, when they zoom the training, so I was on Google, like that whole ice.

Eli Price (01:40:37.757)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:40:46.57)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (01:40:51.446)
for sure.

Drew (01:41:04.918)
like the fight on the ice. I love that scene. One of the things I really love is how like, I keep forgetting what the organization's called. My brother's like shunning me. League of Shadows, thank you so much. So like I really love how the League of Shadows has like those pauldrons that have like the, and they like fly out. Like that is, that was just one of those things again, it makes it feel very grounded and connecting back.

Eli Price (01:41:06.428)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:41:14.006)
The League of Shadows? Yeah.

Eli Price (01:41:21.814)
Oh yeah. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:41:30.058)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (01:41:31.586)
I just love little things like that I did throughout the whole thing and like when he's like trying to figure out Yeah, exactly

Eli Price (01:41:33.462)
Mm-hmm, and it points forward to like what he does with his suit too, you know, which is a cool Like little thing that you can notice

Drew (01:41:42.022)
Yeah, exactly. And so like I love all those little things, which I know Nolan thought through some of that stuff and everything else There's just so clever

Eli Price (01:41:47.414)
Mm-hmm He used bats It's like when does Batman ever use you don't ever get to see Batman use bats and he uses bats in this one Which is so fun with the when he jumps down the stairwell thing. Oh man Yeah And then like the other like we mentioned way earlier the iconic like Chicago skyline shot

Drew (01:42:01.45)
Yeah, the little siren, that's a great scene too, man.

Eli Price (01:42:14.086)
but the really like iconic shot is like when he finds the bat cave and You have like the bats like flying around him and he's just like standing there like arms out It's like the culmination of him like confronting his fear Sort of thing. It's so fun

Drew (01:42:19.018)
Yeah, yeah, that was awesome.

Drew (01:42:29.987)
Well, and if I remember that shot Yeah, it is. It's it's a great shot to you because I feel like again it goes by to kind of like that gun Like throwing the gun the river like it tells a story without ever using words because if I remember that shot, right it begins with Begins with him like I'm much like that's coming out and he gets afraid for a second and then it's like he just kind Of eases up into it. Yeah, it's so good

Eli Price (01:42:37.59)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:42:49.158)
Yeah, he's in this house and there's a bat in there. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I guess like just final thoughts, you know, kind of wrapping this Batman Begins talk up. One of the things so like, you know, if you're if you're a first time listener, I usually like to kind of have my own like take away.

Drew (01:43:07.112)
And then.

Eli Price (01:43:17.394)
like thematic takeaway as a final thought. And one of the things I was thinking about is how like, Bruce's father, like he's portrayed as a very like good man in this movie. And like, I mean, his dying words are, don't be afraid, which is, you know, it's very endearing, but at the same time, like you get the sense as Bruce is like reckoning with who he is and his legacy following his father.

Drew (01:43:30.11)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:43:45.574)
You get the sense that he saw the flaw and how his father operated too. And it's even visually shown with the monorail, the lifted monorail that he's on. He's like, I built this train. But as they're dressed up in nice fancy clothes riding this monorail right above the narrows, yeah, it's like, you get the sense that Bruce really saw.

Drew (01:43:50.998)
Yeah. Homeless people underneath, yeah.

Eli Price (01:44:14.966)
And it's part of the reason why you can sympathize with them easier is because, you know, he intentionally like puts himself like in, you know, that those first sequences like in the slums and like in situations where like he really has to learn what it's like to live like that. Yeah. And so, I don't know, I was just thinking about like that and the fact that like.

Drew (01:44:34.131)
To be desperate, yeah.

Eli Price (01:44:43.55)
You know, just like generational legacy, I think is a cool idea that's explored in Batman some, especially when you start getting into his relationship with his father's company and what his father did and different story arcs. But yeah, I was just thinking about that and thinking about how important it is to look at the flaws in previous generations, like learn from their...

Drew (01:45:01.295)
Yeah, I grew that.

Eli Price (01:45:13.226)
their flaws and like try to grow from them. And then too, just like, you know, we both have young children and thinking about like, what are the flaws in myself and like in our generation that we can like actively, like his father was not, not telling him this is my flaw, but like me as a father, like what are the flaws that I see in myself and my generation as a whole that I can help like.

Drew (01:45:20.886)
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So, I'm going to go ahead and start with the first question. So, I'm going to start with the first question. So, I'm going to start with the first question

Eli Price (01:45:43.626)
that I can encourage my children to fix and do better with. I don't really have an answer for that, but it just got me thinking about that idea of generational growth and stuff.

Drew (01:45:49.418)
Yeah.

Drew (01:45:52.874)
Well, yeah. And I think sometimes just being aware of those questions helps you, because I think the same thing. Like, you know, my wife's pregnant right now. We're about to have a son. I know you have a son too. And so I think about this a lot. It's like, my dad, I love him death. And there's so many things about my dad I love. There's so many things about my dad that were not perfect. He didn't broadcast that to me, because in some ways we don't see those. They're blind spots to us. But, and I think you're exactly right. Like Bruce Wayne's dad in here is portrayed in a way

Eli Price (01:45:58.011)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:46:05.179)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:46:16.148)
Yeah, yeah.

Drew (01:46:22.842)
he's a good man, but he didn't have it all together. And Bruce is trying to take it and take the good parts and also take so. And what's interesting is like none of us are perfect. So like, I think we even find this by the end of the trilogy, that like his methods and stuff are not the answer to what's going on either. Right. Like it's not the same thing as dad didn't get it right. He didn't write because there's something deeper going on.

Eli Price (01:46:23.806)
Like he's a good man, but yeah.

Eli Price (01:46:32.182)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:46:41.719)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:46:48.92)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (01:46:49.026)
But I do think it shows us like there is an intentional point. I think part of the reason that Bruce ended up taking this fear and going the direction he did with it was because of his dad, right? And like if his dad would not have showed him who he was, good, bad and ugly and been open and he wouldn't have done that. He could have just been a copy of that and all the bad and never changed. And yeah, there's something there's something there. I don't have an answer either.

Eli Price (01:47:11.846)
Yeah, it's basically like, yeah, it's like he's, Bruce sees like the compassion that his father definitely has. Like his father definitely has compassion. It's just like what he does with the compassion isn't a step far enough. And so Bruce is like, I wanna take the compassion my father had, keep that going with Wayne Enterprises and what Wayne Enterprises does, but take it a step further personally.

Drew (01:47:41.337)
Yeah It is good because it reminds me of like I mean, you know, we're around lots of Christian people and sometimes like some bad things happen and they're like thoughts and prayers and stuff is like well, sometimes you need to do something more

Eli Price (01:47:42.327)
than my dad did. And so, you know, that's, you know, that's just something I was thinking about, but yeah.

Eli Price (01:47:55.527)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:48:01.059)
Yeah.

Drew (01:48:01.434)
But then other times, like people think they're helping and they're just like they genuinely like Francis Bruce's dad. Good guy Let's take care of people. You know, it's gonna fix Gotham's poverty rate and all this other stuff a train Like you say like it he's convinced. Yeah, he's convinced and like again This is like we could do so and the Bruce same way is like, you know It's gonna solve problem me dressing up as a bat and running around at night Well, no, like there's something more going on here, but it's like maybe certain situations and stuff

Eli Price (01:48:12.666)
Yeah, right. Public transportation.

Eli Price (01:48:27.665)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (01:48:30.322)
It definitely points to the fact that there's something there. It's like, just keep, yeah, don't get stuck.

Eli Price (01:48:36.614)
Yeah, we'll get there, we'll get there.

Drew (01:48:39.178)
Yeah, and I'm just hoping my child never ends up being a vigilante. That's my goal. You know, I hope as a father. Yeah, a good goal. So.

Eli Price (01:48:42.554)
Yeah. That's a good goal. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah, this is I mean, I'm excited to get to get into the others of this trilogy. I really think so, like this one, obviously, like. I think the scale grows, we kind of talked about that, like. So this one is like Bruce reckoning with fear on a personal level. And the next one is kind of like a like communal reckoning with fear.

Drew (01:49:03.365)
It does.

Eli Price (01:49:12.53)
And then the last one feels like a whole society reckoning with fear. And so it's like, yeah, just the scale grows and grows. So I'm excited to kind of follow that, that journey. And then.

Drew (01:49:12.759)
Yeah. 100. Yeah. No, I think that's.

Drew (01:49:25.25)
But I think I'd argue that this is the best one in the trilogy, even though I think, like, technically, I think The Dark Knight is a better film, like, if it's just mathematical. But I think this one's better because of the character development. Because ultimately, at the end of the day, I think character development is what makes stories so good. And like, this one has the most out of all of them. And I realize an hour of just Bruce Wayne. But by the end of an hour of understanding Bruce Wayne, you understand Bruce Wayne. And again,

Eli Price (01:49:29.908)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:49:43.638)
Sure. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:49:53.713)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (01:49:54.018)
Going back to that question you said that, you know, Bell asked himself, Christian Bell asked himself, who's gonna root for a millionaire? Well, everyone who's in a theater after watching an hour of understanding this, they're rooting for a billionaire because they understand, right? And I think that's what makes this movie so good.

Eli Price (01:50:08.302)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:50:12.294)
Yeah, yeah, I don't know if I can say it's better than a Dark Knight. Right now, I would still put it behind it. But I'm going to watch the Dark Knight again soon for the series. So so TBD, I guess, on that. Yeah, yeah, I do love one of the things I do love about this movie, which I can't remember if it does it in the others as well. But the title of the movie is at the very end, which is

Drew (01:50:27.799)
Well, I can't wait to hear what you think Yeah I feel like I feel like they all do that because I feel like

Eli Price (01:50:42.086)
Appropriate because that is like, okay, this is the beginning of Batman like you get the Batman Begins title right there at the very end Which I thought was cool um, so yeah They might yeah

Drew (01:50:55.074)
The Dark Knight Rises, I feel like does it at the very end too, because it's almost like a

Eli Price (01:50:57.006)
Yeah, because that's when he becomes the Dark Knight, quote unquote. And yeah, I think you're right. So that's a cool that's a cool like through line. Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's fun. Yeah. You what would you rate? What do you have this one rated?

Drew (01:51:01.568)
Yes.

Drew (01:51:05.974)
And knowing Nolan, that was very intentional and like, fall out. So yeah. Yeah. Awesome. It was fun.

Drew (01:51:17.282)
Alright, so what's your writing skill? Tell me that first.

Eli Price (01:51:18.822)
So like I usually go with like five stars like with half stars available. Yeah.

Drew (01:51:24.51)
stars available um I would say like out of all movies all time like or just I'd say I'd say four I'm gonna say four I'm gonna say four my I would say my favorite movie is a Christopher Nolan movie my favorite movies inception like I love inception like it is my favorite movie that'd be a five for me and like and I love the Dark Knight I think I mean sorry I love all these movies

Eli Price (01:51:31.654)
Yeah, just... I don't know, people... It's very subjective. People write things in different ways. That's how I have it for...

Eli Price (01:51:42.31)
Okay. Yeah. So that would be a five for you. Cool.

Eli Price (01:51:53.152)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (01:51:53.242)
I do think that I think that I think I'd rank this one and Dark Knight both for like, but I think if I had to go into niche, I think I like Batman Begins more in hindsight in retrospective. Originally, I would have told you the other way other way around, but I think in retrospect, maybe I've spent too much time Eli preparing for this podcast thinking about it. So I've kind of fallen in love with this more. But um, but yeah, I think it's a solid four. I'd say like my favorite movie.

Eli Price (01:52:03.999)
That's fair. Yeah.

Yeah.

Eli Price (01:52:12.969)
That's what happens.

Drew (01:52:21.206)
My favorite movies that are fives, I would say, were probably Inception and probably all the Lord of the Rings movies, but I have a very soft spot for Hobbits in my heart, so.

Eli Price (01:52:29.798)
Yeah. Yeah, that's fair. I mean, they're very lovable creatures. Yeah.

Drew (01:52:35.446)
They are lovable creatures. So anyways, but yeah, I know, solid four. It's great. I also think it's, I think what you, this is one of those movies I would show anyone, whether they like comic book heroes or not. Like I'm gonna say like, we have a close friend of mine who is not, like I'm a very big geek. Like you can't see this, but I have a map of Skyrim right here and a master sword from Zelda and a map of Middle Earth above me. And you know, tons of geeky things all over the place. Love geek.

Eli Price (01:52:46.539)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, right.

Drew (01:53:04.754)
stuff and but I have a some close friends who are not like they've never seen Star Wars I should show them the first Star Wars movie like I have a lightsaber sitting over here on my shelf so like I'm uber geek but like this is one of those movies that even if you are not a geeky nerdy person because of how Nolan envisioned it I feel so comfortable it's just a good movie period like even if Batman's not Batman if he's just some other hero or some other character it works because the film's foundationally so good

Eli Price (01:53:11.742)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:53:24.053)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:53:32.538)
Yeah, and you don't have to watch 25 other films.

Drew (01:53:36.346)
Yes, or read the entire backstory to. Yeah, the Marvel whole MCU was wonderful. But after in-game, I I've not I don't think I've seen a single movie like it. They should have just stopped. It's like, I just don't care. Yeah, I just I don't care. I heard the news mentioned that I heard the news and see you movie coming out. The Marvels, whatever is only going to be like 95 minutes. So like an hour and a half long.

Eli Price (01:53:39.862)
Uh, MCU. It's tiring.

Eli Price (01:53:48.082)
Yeah, it's exhausting.

Eli Price (01:53:53.766)
Oh man.

Eli Price (01:54:01.802)
Well that's good.

Drew (01:54:03.198)
Yeah, but it's crazy that they're making that short of a movie. That's just crazy to me. Runtime. Maybe in nine minutes, maybe a hundred. Maybe, I don't know.

Eli Price (01:54:06.74)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:54:09.99)
Yeah, maybe that's promising. Maybe it won't feel, maybe it won't feel so long. I don't know. I've, at this point, I just watch them when they come on Disney Plus, like, while I'm doing dishes or something. Uh, but yeah. Yep, we have next, uh, I was just gonna say, we have, uh, The Prestige as the next movie, which is near and dear to my heart. Love The Prestige. Um.

Drew (01:54:16.334)
Wow.

Drew (01:54:24.685)
Yeah. Hey, um, talk a- tell me-

Drew (01:54:35.674)
It's an excellent movie. It's very high on my list too.

Eli Price (01:54:38.386)
Yeah, so be looking for that next week. We are gonna take a quick break here and come back with a little bit of movie news, not much, and do our movie draft, which I'm excited. This week we're doing a DC movies draft that you don't wanna miss. So quick break and we will see you again in just a second.

Okay, cool. It's gonna keep recording. I'm going to go help Robin get Elsie in the bed. And I'll be right back. So if you wanna, you know, if you need to do. I'll just be a few minutes. I'll probably be like two minutes at the most.

Drew (01:55:18.854)
Okay. All right. What's your ETA? You got an idea.

Drew (01:55:24.278)
Okay. I'm gonna go check with Angela because I heard Addison cry at one point. Make sure she's good. I'll be right back.

Eli Price (01:55:30.354)
Yeah, no worries.

Drew (01:57:19.982)
I like your little recording closet, by the way.

Drew (01:57:29.07)
I like your little recording closet by the way. I don't know if it's a natural closet or what it is.

Eli Price (01:57:32.581)
It is. It's my closet.

Drew (01:57:35.19)
Really?

Eli Price (01:57:36.21)
Yeah, we both have like little walk-in closets off of our bathroom and up to this point this has been the best spot. We have like a little office room. Yeah, it works really well audio wise. I'm probably going to be moving to our office. I tested the audio a little bit earlier today in there.

Drew (01:57:52.062)
Audio-wise, I imagine it's probably easier. I mean.

Eli Price (01:58:05.874)
It'll be a little noisier, but yeah.

Drew (01:58:08.726)
Does that have a condenser mic or a dynamic mic?

Eli Price (01:58:14.315)
Now that you ask me I can't remember

Drew (01:58:16.366)
It's you said it had a pattern you said it had a pattern all the way around. I'd imagine it's a condenser if it has that

Eli Price (01:58:20.582)
It does. I'm pretty sure it's condenser.

Drew (01:58:25.098)
You may want to look into getting a dynamic if you're going into a bigger room. It'll these are great. These are sure SM sevens. They're basically no, sorry. Envy sevens. They're based off the shirt SM seven B, the ones that are like four hundred dollar like the broadcast mics you see like Joe Rogan, all those guys use. But these we bought several for the church and.

Eli Price (01:58:28.852)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:58:34.982)
Okay. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:58:45.874)
Yeah. Right.

Drew (01:58:52.922)
They make an XLR version if you have an interface or this one is like you can see on the back here. These are USB and XLR. One of the reasons I bought these was because you can record in parallel with them. So if you're ever like, if you're ever like recording like this in person with somebody or something, you can record digitally as well as like analog and have a backup like as you record, which is I've lost stuff before and it's so nice.

Eli Price (01:59:01.404)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:59:11.498)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:59:18.454)
Gotcha.

Mm-hmm.

Drew (01:59:22.87)
But these are great, so.

Eli Price (01:59:24.646)
Yeah. The cool, um, the cool. So yeah, this is what I, yeah. If more people, uh, want to like donate to the podcast, I could get a better, like, um, but yeah, um, I do. One of the things that works really well is this, um, river. Have you ever used Riverside before? Um, the studio.

Drew (01:59:33.257)
Yeah, yeah, we should get you a better mic.

Drew (01:59:45.887)
No, we use something very similar to this when we were doing the Valkyrie podcast, Valkyrie Cast for a while. Me and Tommy and Matt, we used, it was a web-based recording thing like this. But I can't remember what it was called. It was great. But this one's much better, having video and everything.

Eli Price (01:59:49.887)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:00:03.55)
Yeah. This works really well. And the cool thing is it's lossless because you're uploading from your side and I'm uploading from my side.

Drew (02:00:15.937)
Good I was gonna ask cuz I have I did not tell you this but have a local recording of me too Just in case something happened because I've had that but it

Eli Price (02:00:22.502)
Okay, yeah. Yeah, I should have told, I should have told you that so you didn't have to worry about it, but yeah, like you, you could, if you have like the side thing, I don't know what your view looks like.

Drew (02:00:28.878)
It's a big deal. Well, I see it. I saw it where it says 99% uploaded. So I kind of figured it was doing that.

Eli Price (02:00:35.366)
Right. Yeah, so usually like when I end the recording, it'll take a second and it'll be like fully uploaded. And so I've only had one issue with someone that had like not very good Wi-Fi where they had to like leave their computer open for a while to let it finish uploading. But yeah, other than that, it works really well.

Drew (02:00:47.074)
What um?

Drew (02:00:56.029)
I get that. What um, I was going to ask you, who do you use hosting for?

Eli Price (02:01:04.428)
uh, like for the website.

Drew (02:01:06.59)
or for the podcast.

Eli Price (02:01:08.282)
Oh, for the podcast I use, well, now it's Spotify for podcasters. It was Anchor. The reason being that otherwise you have to like take extra steps to get it uploaded to Spotify and so I'm like, yeah, I just, let me look, okay.

Drew (02:01:27.684)
This is what I... Buzzsprout is who I've been hosting podcasts through, man. I love it. I'm trying to remember how pricing is. I think you can get... They have... Their pricing is based on how much you upload, which is really nice. But they have so much...

really good stuff and like one of my favorite things about it is like you can record your podcast episodes and then they have where you can insert pre and post real stuff separately and change that out on the fly which has been really useful for us so we can naturally upload like different welcomes and outros that are more accurate which is great but check them out man like I've been they make everything so easy and it just works so well I've been super impressed.

Eli Price (02:02:18.038)
Cool. Yeah, I'll check it out. Yeah. Yeah, I've just been using Spotify for podcasters. And then, like, I obviously had to go in and, like, throw the feed to all the other, like, the RSS feeds into all the, like, Google and Apple and all that. When you throw it in Apple, it does it for you for a lot of them. But, uh.

Drew (02:02:39.714)
It does. Well, that's one of the things I really like about Buzzsprout is it has it like basically you upload there They they have it where they'll host it on like a little like a web player you can integrate and stuff in and then give you a unique URL they'll host but they'll also Get they'll send it to everything and if there's any weird steps you do it all in that app you don't have to go to all their places and if you do they walk you through it and

Eli Price (02:02:52.263)
Right.

Eli Price (02:03:02.162)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (02:03:07.102)
I don't, I've not, I didn't even, I've not even heard about Spotify for podcasts, but when we started our podcast, Spotify had not started doing podcasts yet. Like they were just starting out. Now we do. Like we shoot it over there. Was it anchor?

Eli Price (02:03:07.55)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:03:13.722)
Yeah. It was anchor. So Spotify bought anchor and they only recently, like I really think they changed it to Spotify for podcasters. Like the transition was happening when I started this podcast back like in May. Yeah. So it was anchor before, which was a pretty popular one already, which is probably why Spotify bought it.

Drew (02:03:20.59)
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Drew (02:03:31.103)
It's just pretty recent

Drew (02:03:38.482)
Yeah, I remember Anchor.

Yes, but it's been wild because we, when I started the One Way North podcast probably three years ago, we...

Eli Price (02:03:48.031)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (02:03:52.394)
We had it like, Spotify had not even, they had just started letting certain really big name podcasts come in, and now that's like the primary place people are listening and we send things to. Because they just make it so easy, and everybody has Spotify it seems like. I mean Apple and Spotify, those two are like the main thing. So anyways, I'm rambling so.

Eli Price (02:04:02.73)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:04:06.354)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:04:11.154)
Yeah. Do y'all have, um, so I also have a website. I use a pod page for my website, which is, um, it's kind of, so D are you, are you aware of like Squarespace or Wix? So it's sort of, it's sort of like that for podcasts. Like it does a lot of stuff for you. So like, uh, you connect your RSS feed to it and it like pulls episodes in automatically. Um,

Drew (02:04:19.667)
I heard of that.

Drew (02:04:27.571)
Yeah, is it similar to that?

Eli Price (02:04:40.626)
as soon as the episode is published. And so it auto loads all your episodes into your thing. I have to go in after it pulls it and add in categories, which it takes one minute to do. It has guest pages, so when you wanna guest, when you're having a guest on, you can send them a guest intake link and have them put in their information and then you can like...

Drew (02:04:43.783)
That's cool. This is what...

Eli Price (02:05:09.886)
go in and add the guests to the episode. So it'll feature like them and their links and stuff. It has a lot of really cool features that are, it's like a website built specifically for podcasts. It's pretty cool. Yeah.

Drew (02:05:22.275)
I like that. That's very cool. We run, I'll send you a link. We use, are you aware of JotForm by chance?

Eli Price (02:05:28.959)
Sounds familiar.

Drew (02:05:30.37)
So job forms like Google forms, but more secure. But they have a, what I use it for, and this is more of like our college ministry in general, but this may be some work for you guys for ministries. They have, they have where you can make web apps that work on your phone. And so we, I have the podcast linked into there with like all of our reading plans and like equipping resources and like announcements and stuff like that. So like it's just.

Eli Price (02:05:41.205)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:05:53.087)
Yeah.

Drew (02:05:58.354)
in there with everything else because it was the one thing we were doing digitally and we've just started leaning more and more into it. But it probably wouldn't be great for your podcast, but man, Joform makes ministry work life so much easier. Like we, I love it.

Eli Price (02:06:04.909)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, very cool.

Eli Price (02:06:13.11)
cool. Yeah. Yeah, that's cool.

Drew (02:06:17.002)
Yeah man, alright, you ready to do the wrap up of this? What we doing?

Eli Price (02:06:20.306)
Yeah, well, I'll so I'll bring up. I'll bring up the creator. I honestly don't have much to say about it, but so well, yeah, exactly. And we'll just like riff on that for probably just a couple of minutes. And then we'll jump into the movie draft. So basically, when we start that, I'll give like a quick, very brief like description of what we're doing and like the category, which is DC movies.

Drew (02:06:29.886)
It looks cool, I'll say.

Eli Price (02:06:49.446)
And then, yeah, we'll just kind of go through our picks. So you'll have pick number one, and you'll get to pick your movie. And then, you know, obviously, once one of us has picked it, then it can't be picked again. Let's say, do you have like a do you have a list? Sort of. Are you just going off the dome or?

Drew (02:07:01.82)
It's out. How many are we picking? I have...

Probably just gonna go off the fly. Like I pulled up the DCEU and other like DC like actual big movies and like a bunch of the animated movies. Um, so...

Eli Price (02:07:21.183)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, let's do, let's do.

Drew (02:07:28.91)
And I have my computer right here, so I can roll with it pretty easily.

Eli Price (02:07:31.058)
Yeah, let's plan on.

doing.

Eli Price (02:07:42.262)
I usually do a minimum of five. I think seven is usually a really solid number. Okay, yeah, seven. Let's go with seven. All right. All right, cool. What we'll do is I will, let's pause talking for a second because that's the easiest way for me to find it in the recording so I can clip it. And then I'll jump in, I'll jump back in.

Drew (02:07:48.)
I can do seven. I mean I was thinking seven eight. That's that's what I was thinking. I'm good with seven. Seven sounds great

Eli Price (02:08:12.594)
Sound good? All right.

Drew (02:08:13.262)
Sounds good.

Eli Price (02:08:20.69)
Hey everyone, welcome back to The Establishing Shot. I'm Eli Price here with Drew Feltz. We had a fun conversation on Batman Begins. Really, yeah, it was fun. I enjoyed that. Oh yeah, for sure. But yeah, we have a little bit of movie news. There's this one big movie coming out this weekend, the weekend of the release of this podcast.

Drew (02:08:35.205)
Oh yeah, gotta love talking about Batman.

Eli Price (02:08:50.098)
obviously most people know I record these way ahead of way ahead of time, but um Yeah, so the creator is coming out this weekend Gareth Edwards the director of this movie. It is a AI movie. I think I recently heard him talking about how like a lot of the recent AI Talk is kind of built into this movie

And the idea is explored, so yeah.

Drew (02:09:20.204)
Which is interesting because movies don't just happen like that, right? Like they take time. So like, I'm curious, and we don't have time to talk about this, but I'm curious like when he started doing this and how much of it's related to recent AI news. Because there's so much of that happening, like I don't know when this comes out of the

Eli Price (02:09:24.989)
Right.

Eli Price (02:09:33.674)
Yeah.

Drew (02:09:37.782)
The strike will be still going on with actors and stuff about all the AI stuff and everything, but there's so much stuff with AI nowadays. It's all over the place.

Eli Price (02:09:44.178)
Oh yeah. Yeah, it is. I almost wonder like these kinds of guys that are like interested in these ideas, they're probably like tapped into the stuff before it reaches like mainstream public. So a lot of the ideas he was like hearing in the AI space, maybe he was like, oh, I want to write an AI movie. So I'm sure he's like, I got to dig into the AI space. Like a lot of these ideas and chat GBT and stuff like that was probably like.

Drew (02:09:55.383)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:10:12.966)
already being talked about before it hit mainstream public talk. So it's probably just that bleed over. If it is true that it's covering a lot of AI ideas that we're all talking about now. But yeah.

Drew (02:10:22.219)
Yeah.

Drew (02:10:29.559)
I will say that the little I've seen about it feels like that typical Terminator matrix like machines taking over just yeah but it seems like it's kind of asking some more interesting moral dilemmas and I'll be honest like Gareth Edwards Rogue One I think is so good it's not perfect

Eli Price (02:10:43.719)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:10:50.31)
Yeah, I'm not as high on Rogue One as a lot of people are. I think it's a fine movie. I think it has some like character building flaws, but it is a fun movie for sure. So yeah, I'm interested to see what he does with this after Rogue One. He has a couple of others too, I think, that I haven't seen. Oh, I take that back. He did Godzilla. He did the, yeah.

Drew (02:11:02.514)
Oh yeah, yeah I'd agree with that.

Drew (02:11:13.47)
Did he do a Godzilla movie? Is that the newest Godzilla that came out?

Eli Price (02:11:18.374)
He did the 2014 reboot of Godzilla that I actually thought was pretty good. Yeah.

Drew (02:11:23.086)
I don't think I've seen that one. I just loved, I loved Rogue One, and I will say I see this in the trailer I've seen and stuff about Creator already too. The aesthetics, like his visuals are so good. That's what he nailed in Rogue One. Like beyond almost even some of the prequels, Star Wars movies, like it felt like, it looked like a Star Wars movie. And yeah, I'm intrigued.

Eli Price (02:11:36.64)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (02:11:40.658)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:11:46.803)
Yeah.

Drew (02:11:51.566)
I originally was on TREAT, but now I'm in TREAT, I looked into it a little more.

Eli Price (02:11:54.206)
Yeah, yeah, we got John David Washington too, as the lead in this, which I'm interested, I feel like his career hasn't quite taken off yet. You know, he was in Tenet, he's in Black Klansmen, which was actually really good, he was good in that. He's been a few other things, Amsterdam, he was in-

Drew (02:12:06.346)
What has he been in? Was it Tenet?

Drew (02:12:13.95)
Okay. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:12:22.722)
He's credited for being in Malcolm X, but I'm sure he was a kid at that point. You know, obviously his father played Malcolm X. So yeah. Yeah, I'm interested to see his like John David Washington's career, too. So that's another reason I'm interested in this movie. But yeah, I don't I also just saw that Sturgill Simpson is in this movie, which is really random. Do you know Sturgill Simpson?

Drew (02:12:52.54)
I don't think I do.

Eli Price (02:12:53.622)
He's like he's like a country artist really you would actually probably really like him. He's his music is really good Yeah, that's totally random. I didn't know that Yeah, there you go But yeah, I don't have anything profound to say about this movie. Obviously hasn't come out yet at this point But um, yeah, I'm it's the first movie like

Drew (02:13:06.284)
there you go.

Eli Price (02:13:20.69)
Right now it's early September as we're recording and like it's the only movie in like all of September that I'm like I might try to make it to the theater for that one. So if that tells you anything Yeah, the rest of the Yeah Yeah, but um, yeah, that's so that's really I think that's it for movie news I think we should just go ahead and jump into our movie draft, which is

Drew (02:13:33.35)
I get that. Yeah, I was just trying to make movies coming out period either right now.

Eli Price (02:13:50.706)
What the people want, what the people need, they need the movie draft. Yeah. Let's give it to them. We're doing DC movies. So, um, yeah, I mean, it, DC, so like DC movies have a bad rap recently. Um, but there's actually like a lot of DC movies, um, uh, throughout. Yeah. There's, there's a lot to choose from. Um, and a lot of really good ones and fun ones. Um,

Drew (02:13:54.21)
It is what the people need.

Drew (02:14:11.723)
There are.

Eli Price (02:14:19.866)
I usually, so usually when we do these, I didn't mention this to you off air. Usually we take the director of, that's like part of the series, we take their movies out of the draft. But I think we should keep them in for this one. Cause I think if people are like looking at our, not listening to the episode and then looking at our draft and like, why didn't they take the Dark Knight? Why didn't they take Batman Begins? You know, so.

Drew (02:14:31.477)
Oh, that's fair. Where's the dark night? They're all good.

Eli Price (02:14:48.326)
I think just for the sake of that, I think let's leave them in for this one. I think it would be, I just think it wouldn't be as fun if they weren't in there.

Drew (02:14:56.482)
So quick question, are we talking about like, and our animated movies in this? And does the Lego Batman movie count? Okay, that's all I need to know. It is, yeah. Have you seen that? It's...

Eli Price (02:15:01.928)
Yes.

Eli Price (02:15:05.614)
Yeah, it's a feature length DC. Like in the opening credits, that DC logo comes across the screen. It's a DC movie, yeah. And there's actually other like live action movies that are based off of lesser known graphic novels that I don't, Constantine, but also like stuff like Stardust.

Drew (02:15:15.272)
DC logo comes out, cool cool.

Drew (02:15:27.19)
I think about Constantine, I like, that's a 2000.

Drew (02:15:34.306)
Yeah, that's true. I have not seen that either, but I know what you're talking about.

Eli Price (02:15:34.686)
was a Neil deGaiman, which I haven't seen, so I'm not going to draft it. You're welcome to if you like it and seen it. But, um, yeah, but yeah, stuff like that, that's kind of like lesser known. But, but yeah. Um, yeah, let's, if, if you've never listened to the movie draft before, basically it's like picking the best kickball team. Except it's categorized. So we're picking from DC movies and basically like me and Drew are going head to head picking.

movies for our team so that we have the best team of DC movies. So yeah, I think we should kick it off. Where are you going to go with pick number one? I have a... Before we go, I'll have this fun sound. Here we go.

Drew (02:16:22.713)
I was good.

Eli Price (02:16:22.846)
All right. Yeah. All right. Where are you gonna go with their the first pick?

Drew (02:16:29.774)
I think I gotta go with one of Nolan's trilogy and since I said that I think Batman Begins is better than The Dark Knight I'm gonna say Batman Begins since we talked so much about it like I just got to put it in here if we're if we're counting those that's where I start

Eli Price (02:16:43.101)
That's fair. Yeah, that's, I mean, you can't go wrong with any of the Nolan trilogy, I don't think.

Drew (02:16:50.666)
No, I think they're all excellent. But I'm gonna go back and begin because of Ra's al Ghul primarily.

Eli Price (02:16:52.903)
Um, but yeah.

Yeah, I agree. I think it's kind of underrated at this point. But yeah, Batman Begins, let's just knock it off. Let's just be done with Nolan right from the get-go. I'll go ahead and take the Dark Knight and we'll just be done with Nolan and we can move on to all the other ones.

Drew (02:17:13.8)
That sounds fair. Because I will say out of the three, I think The Dark Knight Rises fumbles a bit more in certain spots. I think it's almost like Star Wars, right? Like the first movie is good. Empire kind of spikes it and then kind of comes out a little bit. That's how I feel about that. I'm fine with that, no more Nolan. So I will stay in the Batman theme because I adored...

Eli Price (02:17:22.325)
Sure.

Eli Price (02:17:29.191)
Yeah, for sure.

Drew (02:17:38.598)
uh, 2022's The Batman with, uh, Robert, uh, Patinson? Is that right? I'm not a Twilight fan. That's all I know him from. And I relentlessly picked on my wife when I found out that he was gonna be Batman. But I will admit, I loved that movie and I thought he was an excellent Batman and I thought it was so good. The Nirvana.

Eli Price (02:17:44.597)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:17:57.238)
he is. So when I saw this, when I walked out of the theater, I was like, I think this is just as good as the Dark Knight. And I, I've rewatched it since, and I still kind of feel that way.

Drew (02:18:06.69)
Yeah. It's definitely a different take. Like, kind of how Nolan had a very concise vision, but I don't even know who directed that. That sounds bad. Is it Matt Reeves? I think Matt Reeves has a very focused, singular vision for what he wants Batman to be, and I think it really captures that well.

Eli Price (02:18:12.902)
It is.

Eli Price (02:18:19.53)
Matt Reeves.

Eli Price (02:18:33.35)
Yeah, yeah, I'm excited for the second one whenever it comes out. He's shown that he can do a franchise. He did the Planet of the Apes trilogy. Yeah, and so he's kind of shown that he can kind of take a franchise and run with it. So I'm excited to see. I think the second one slated for like, I don't know, 25 probably. Yeah, that's what I'm seeing is 25. So.

Drew (02:18:36.167)
Me too. When is that?

Drew (02:18:43.934)
Yeah, that's right. Those are so good.

Drew (02:18:58.834)
okay yeah I agree it was so good man yeah I was I was blown away

Eli Price (02:19:03.19)
We've got a while, but yeah, it's worth the wait. I'm sure Yeah, so I mean I agree I Loved that movie it was it was so good. But yeah, Robert Pattinson is actually a really great actor It's it's like watching Matthew McConaughey do rom-coms and then like do such good movies after that He's been so he was in tenant, which I don't know if you

Drew (02:19:28.47)
Yes I've actually not got to see tenant yet. It's it's on the list but life

Eli Price (02:19:32.018)
You've seen Tenet yet. Yeah. Yeah, he was great in that. The lighthouse, which is a trip. It's hard for me to say I recommend watching the lighthouse. It's a very strange, strange movie. But but he is very good in it. So do you do you remember he was in Harry Potter Goblet of Fire? He plays Cedric Diggory in that.

Drew (02:19:59.5)
Yeah, yes, I do remember that because my wife is always sad when he dies because she had a crush on him back in the day and I'm like, eh.

Eli Price (02:20:02.71)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Eli Price (02:20:09.142)
Oh, that's great. All right. I think it's time. Let's move on from the Pattinson talk. I'm going to go with another recent, another recent movie, a movie that I was surprised by how much I liked it. And I'm going to take the James Gunn's The Suicide Squad. Not Suicide Squad, The Suicide Squad.

Drew (02:20:14.059)
What you got?

Drew (02:20:32.742)
Yeah. It was, it was, um, which I think James Gunn has that misfit group thing figured out. Um, he's proved that with Guardians. But yeah, it was super fun. I feel like, I feel like he took everything from the first attempt at the Suicide Squad that was good.

Eli Price (02:20:42.555)
Yeah.

Drew (02:20:53.694)
Brought that over and then just added more of his stuff in it and went and it had Nathan Fillion in it for a little While it was a very short amount of time. I love Nathan Fillion like everything he does. So it was great It was funny Wasn't there is there a peacemaker series that like spun out of that? I haven't either

Eli Price (02:21:00.031)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And it was very funny. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:21:10.698)
There was, I haven't watched it. I don't watch a lot of TV series. I mostly stick to movies. So I might watch it eventually. We'll see. But yeah, I don't know if it's good or not. I can't recommend it or I can't, whatever the opposite of recommend is. I can't dis-recommend it either.

Drew (02:21:30.218)
I get that. All right, so is it my turn now? Is that where we're at? Third pick. All right, so my third pick is going to be Watchmen because I love Watchmen. I Obviously tonally different

Eli Price (02:21:35.174)
Yep, yep, this is your third pick.

Eli Price (02:21:43.156)
Love it.

Drew (02:21:49.67)
But I think it does some similar things that Batman has always done and DC comics do well, which is ask these very big questions and kind of Don't answer them necessarily just kind of roll around with them, but I just thought was great I thought I thought put together really well. I just I it's very Distinct but I liked it and I don't I just always think it's cool. I love watching so

Eli Price (02:21:53.976)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:22:10.997)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (02:22:15.702)
The whole line in that one where it's like, you don't understand, I'm not locked up in here with y'all. Y'all are all locked up in here with me with Rorschach. I love that so much. So yeah, man, love me some Watchmen. Yeah, it is great.

Eli Price (02:22:24.282)
Yes. Yeah. Rorschach is awesome. Yeah. Have you read you've read the graphic novel? Yeah, it's great. How the by the way, which version have you seen other versions of Watchmen other than the theatrical? You know, they have like the really long director's cut and then the like extended cut. Um, I can't remember which one I watched

Drew (02:22:45.742)
I feel like I've seen I've seen I've seen one that's beyond the Like the I think I've seen maybe the not the super long one I think I've seen the extended one and I feel like it's one of those Really, I feel like much is

Eli Price (02:22:54.214)
Yeah. I think I watched the super long one. Yeah, it has those cartoon, uh, the, so the, the comic that's like the comic within the comic, uh, yeah, it's like animated. And I think that's the super long version that has the animated version of that, which I, I remember watching. So I think I watched the really long version of the movie.

Drew (02:23:05.582)
comic within the comics, got some of that in there. That's kind of like, I feel like anything like that when you're translating from a, and unlike comic books, Watchmen's just so big and long, comparatively, and it's like, you gotta pick and choose because you just can't fit everything in there.

Eli Price (02:23:26.205)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:23:31.674)
Yeah. There's a lot.

Drew (02:23:33.342)
And that's okay, but like that becomes a challenge of what you choose and what you don't choose. So yeah, watch me, man. I love it. Who watches The Watchman?

Eli Price (02:23:39.334)
Yeah, great movie. It's a fun movie. I think it gets a bad rap, but it's fun. It's fun. I like it. OK, so there's a lot of good movies. There's some movies that there are some very bad movies. I think it's safe to say Batman and Robin is probably not going to be picked in this draft.

Drew (02:23:56.126)
There are also some very bad movies, let's just be honest. There's some pretty terrible movies in here as well.

Drew (02:24:05.546)
You don't want bat nipples, man? Was that the one with bat nipples on the suits?

Eli Price (02:24:08.486)
That yeah, the I think Batman and Robin and Batman forever both have the bat nips

Drew (02:24:14.262)
See, Batman Forever was not as bad, but Batman and Robin just doubled down on everything that was wrong.

Eli Price (02:24:18.02)
No, it wasn't.

Oh, yeah, for sure. I'm not. I'm not going to choose Green Lantern, unfortunately. And Ryan Reynolds. Yeah, Ryan Reynolds ruined him. It wasn't his fault, I don't guess, but yeah, so I have other movies that I think I like more than this, technically.

Drew (02:24:24.502)
You're not gonna choose Green Lantern?

Drew (02:24:31.938)
I should choose that just to tick off my brother who loves Green Lantern so much. Particularly Guy Gardner.

Eli Price (02:24:51.242)
But I feel like we can't let too much more time go by without taking a Superman movie. And I'm just gonna go with the iconic 1978 Superman with Christopher Reeves, which I actually, I actually caught up with this recently because I knew we were gonna be doing this and I was like, I have some movies, blind spots that like I really need to watch.

Drew (02:24:58.723)
Yeah, I was wondering when that was gonna happen.

Drew (02:25:08.467)
Yeah, it is iconic. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:25:20.046)
And I was actually surprised, like, this was very similar to Batman Begins in that, like, you don't see him as Superman until like halfway through the movie. Um, there's a lot of like backstory and like, you know, kind of character building that happens in this, um, that I actually really enjoyed. I thought it was fun and interesting. Um, you know, a lot of people don't like the, like the hokey opening stuff on Krypton, but I really enjoyed it. I thought it was fun.

Marlon Brando as Jor-El, his father. Gotta love it. But yeah, I mean, Christopher Reeves is Superman. And so like it's hard to pick any other Superman above that one. And yeah, I really enjoyed the movie. It's got some hokeyness to it. It's got some like corniness to it.

Drew (02:25:54.653)
Yeah.

Drew (02:26:05.691)
It is hard.

Eli Price (02:26:19.794)
But I mean, for one, it was made in 1978. And for two, it's a comic book movie. It's a Superman movie. And yeah, I liked the duality of Christopher Reeves, too. His dorky, clumsy Clark Kent versus those put-together Superman. Really fun.

Drew (02:26:23.587)
Yeah.

Drew (02:26:40.482)
Yeah. All right. Four. I absolutely love Shazam. Not the sequel, the first one, 2019. I remember having a conversation when I was... I was in the middle of a conversation with a friend. I was like, I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to

Eli Price (02:26:43.294)
All right, what you got?

Eli Price (02:26:51.164)
Okay, yeah.

Drew (02:27:00.25)
Working in Atlanta with a guy who is like a film guy and we both were talking about how much we would love to see Like a really good Captain Marvel, let's say Captain Marvel. I mean DC version which is also known as Shazam And I just think it's so good. I think Zachary Levi kills it. I think it's got that fun like Because of the dynamic of like being a kid that turns into a superhero. It's just got that fun element particularly for DC sometimes that

Eli Price (02:27:11.382)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:27:18.473)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:27:24.145)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (02:27:28.95)
gets lost in the dark, gritty, real sometimes. I just loved it. It's great. I just think it's a great movie. And I just really enjoyed it. And I think when it came out, it really helped because it helped just feel fresh. And even though it's almost like an older take on it, but it was done well.

Eli Price (02:27:35.378)
Yeah, I agree. I agree, I thought.

Eli Price (02:27:44.255)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I thought it was really well done. I don't I don't have a whole lot of complaints about it. I mean, it's not the best movie in the world, but it was super fun and enjoyable. I think, yeah, I agree. Zachary Lubey really good in it. He kind of like carries the kid, like the kid quality into the superhero. Yeah. And I even thought the kid that played Billy Batson

Drew (02:27:58.228)
Oh. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:28:16.99)
like the kid, as the kid is, he does a pretty good job, I thought.

Drew (02:28:17.415)
Yeah Yeah, I think I've not seen the newest one But my gut tells me that they tried to do too much With too many people and like not everyone can pull off that dynamic Well, so that's what my gut says made it call fall apart, but I don't know that really love Shazam man. I didn't because again like it's the same thing like black atom

Eli Price (02:28:25.051)
I haven't either.

Eli Price (02:28:29.215)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:28:36.493)
Did you see Black Adam?

Eli Price (02:28:42.02)
Yeah.

Drew (02:28:44.33)
does not intrigue me because it's the typical dark gritty DC. They have like literally, I think Captain Marvel and Shazam as a character in the DC universe is awesome because it's a kid that's sitting at the table with the Justice League, with Batman and Wonder Woman and Green Lantern and Marsha Manhunter. And he's a kid. And I don't know. I mean, I know Batman knows he's a kid, but I don't know who else does. And he's kind of just like, yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (02:28:54.056)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:29:00.282)
Literally a kid.

Drew (02:29:09.014)
Uh-huh. I just love that. I think it's great. And I feel like Black Adam is the complete opposite of that. It's just this tragic, angry guy who wants to kill a bunch of people. I imagine. I feel like that movie just got made because the rock wanted it to be made.

Eli Price (02:29:11.914)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:29:17.118)
not very good.

Eli Price (02:29:22.318)
Yeah, yeah, that's fair. But yeah, Shazam, he is a fun, it's a funny character. Originally was Captain Marvel, and then they kind of split off between the two, Marvel and DC, and he became Shazam. But yeah, really fun character. Yeah, he's great, and is it Justice League Unlimited that he's in, the series? He's in that a decent amount, I think so.

Drew (02:29:44.113)
I Believe that's right. That's that's the newer animated Justice League one, right? Yeah, yep, he's the one mm-hmm. Yeah He's also one of my favorite comics which is called Kingdom come which is really good and he fights Superman it is like it's

Eli Price (02:29:47.962)
Yeah, there's like the just the like iconic Justice League series and then right after that was Justice League unlimited which like expanded Yeah um Yeah, really fun. Um

Eli Price (02:30:04.598)
Kingdom Come is fantastic. And it has a unique art style too. Yeah.

Drew (02:30:09.386)
It does. I love the art in it. It's amazing. But like when he shows up to fight Superman, I love it so much. Yeah. So anyways, that's where I started falling in love with him. And it's just never last. I love Shazam.

Eli Price (02:30:14.447)
Oh yeah, it's great.

Eli Price (02:30:23.782)
Okay, I'm going to break the animated world and I'm going to take another recent watch as I was thinking about, the animated movies are easy to throw on and watch because they're not very long, which I love. But.

Drew (02:30:47.679)
But I would say they're almost consistently decent like that's one thing yeah

Eli Price (02:30:52.002)
They're usually solid, because they usually don't stray too far from what the comic does. And so you're basically just watching the comic book animated. And you know, the ones that stand out are the ones that like are animated really well and have like really good voice acting. Which this one that I'm going to pick has. I'm going to go with Batman Under the Red Hood.

Drew (02:31:10.342)
Yes. I'm wondering if you're gonna pick the one I think you're gonna pick. Oh, that's a very good one. That's not what I thought you were gonna say, but it's excellent.

Eli Price (02:31:22.166)
It's... it's so good. If there, if you're thinking of the other one, I hope you don't take it. But, um, you know, if you do, at least one of us gets it. Um, I might get it later, but this one I just thought was, oh man, it's so, it's such a compelling story, it's emotional. I don't want to really give, I don't want to talk about it too much because it's best if you like, don't know the story. I kind of knew it.

going in because I've read the comic story arc in the past, but man.

Drew (02:31:57.822)
It's very good. And I feel like it was one of, I think it came out in 2010, 20, like somewhere after there.

Eli Price (02:32:03.547)
Yeah, 2010.

Drew (02:32:04.93)
But ever since then, 2010 until the last decade or so, roughly, DC animated stuff that they've been taking well-loved comic books and doing them have just gotten so... The animation's great, the voice acting's great. You can tell whoever's been doing that stuff, it's been like... They really put a lot of love in it. It's just so good.

Eli Price (02:32:14.266)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:32:22.958)
Oh yeah. Yeah, that's, I think, become one of my favorite animated DC features. Yeah, that was my, let's see, fourth pick. Where are you going to go with five? We're going to draft seven, because there's a lot to choose from, a lot of good ones.

Drew (02:32:38.538)
Yeah Yeah, there's lots of good. Yeah. Yeah, particularly for big geeks like me Eli and we know tons of DC movies I'm going to do I have a deep abiding like my favorite like as much as I love Nolan's Batman and as much as I love the new Batman and just Batman generally

Eli Price (02:32:44.348)
Yep

Eli Price (02:32:55.35)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (02:32:56.806)
My love when I think of Batman, I think of the animated series. Like that is what I think about. So I'm going to go with Batman Mask of the Phantasm, which I think is one of the best Batman movies period. Like it's so good. If you've not watched it, it is it is the animated series cast. I mean, it's that art style. And it's just a full length movie. It's so good. Mark Hamill's in it as the Joker.

Eli Price (02:33:05.51)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:33:10.313)
It is.

Eli Price (02:33:17.277)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:33:22.726)
Yeah. Oh yeah.

Drew (02:33:24.906)
which is amazing. He's amazing. Kevin Conrad's the best. That's who I think about when I think of Batman's voice. I think about Kenneth and Conroy. And so I just think it's a great story. The art's great. It's like formative in my childhood. It's just, it's so good.

Eli Price (02:33:32.138)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:33:39.622)
Yeah. Yeah, it's it is very good. It's got a it's got a good like little love story, too, which is fun to have. Good twist in the plot. Yeah, that's a really good one.

Drew (02:33:48.252)
Yeah.

Drew (02:33:57.001)
Was that the one you were thinking you were hoping I wasn't going to take? Because that's what I was thinking when you said animated.

Eli Price (02:33:59.762)
No. No, it wasn't. But I'm going to go ahead and take it right now. This is possibly my favorite DC guy. I haven't read much Marvel or anything else. I've mostly read DC comics. And this is probably my favorite comic story, if not in my top, you know,

Drew (02:34:03.991)
That's good.

Well then take, take what you're gonna take.

Eli Price (02:34:28.782)
few of my favorite stories. And I'm going to go with Justice League, the Flash point paradox. Yeah, yeah, Flash is my favorite. He's my favorite character. I caught up with the Flash DCEU movie recently. It was fine. It's, it's fine. It was a fun watch. It is.

Drew (02:34:37.238)
I was wondering if you could say that. You're a big Flash guy.

Drew (02:34:51.298)
Is it any good?

Drew (02:34:56.323)
Because it's basically that story arc right am I wrong about that or a version of it

Eli Price (02:35:00.566)
It's um, they take the foundation of it and do something fairly different with it. Um, it's like flashpoint But like not flashpoint. It's just kind of the concept. Um and uh, but yeah, the flashpoint point story is like Is so freaking good um I remember Yeah, I remember watching. Um, i'm not watching. I remember reading The story in the graphic novel

Drew (02:35:05.995)
Okay.

Drew (02:35:16.968)
It's excellent. It really is great. Thomas Wayne and...

Eli Price (02:35:29.846)
And like, I'm pretty sure I remember like tearing up just reading the comic because it gets like that emotionally resonant. And and yeah, the animated version of it, it's a tiny bit different than the comic, but it doesn't stray from the story very much at all. And it's really well done. And it's just my favorite. Yeah.

Drew (02:35:55.304)
The voice acting is great and the animation is great too. Like it's, it is really done well.

Eli Price (02:36:00.422)
Yeah, it's just my favorite. I think it's my favorite comic story with my favorite comic book character at the center of it. So, yep, yep.

Drew (02:36:08.474)
It's just that sweet spot man. Alright, I'll tell you what my number six is gonna be. I'm gonna go back to live action. I really like Wonder Woman from 2017. I did not care for 1984 or whatever it was. I think... I'll just be honest. I just really was surprised when I saw it in theaters. I also have a little girl now and at the time and so like...

Eli Price (02:36:19.999)
Wonder Woman's good.

Eli Price (02:36:26.058)
Yeah.

Drew (02:36:37.662)
Again, I've never been like a huge Wonder Woman fan, but now I'm like, Wonder Woman and like we have a little DC comic book and she loves Wonder Woman. But I just thought it was great. I think it was an excellent movie. Really well done. I didn't think it tried to do too much, too little. Yeah, that's a great way of putting it. Yeah. And so like I it's kind of like Shazam in the same way. Like Shazam, the first movie, great. Second one just kind of stumbled a little bit. I don't know. But like I just really hope the Wonder Woman movie. I thought it was great. So I thought everything about it was good.

Eli Price (02:36:39.798)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:36:46.57)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:36:49.842)
It had a good heart at the center. Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:36:56.745)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:37:04.526)
Yeah. Yeah, I agree. It's it's one of my favorites. It was yeah, it was if you didn't take it, I probably was going to take it in the next couple of picks. But yeah, I agree. Wonder Woman 84. Wonder Woman 84, my Pedro Pascal was kind of fun as the villain. He was kind of wild and crazy, which was fun, but yeah, just not great. Yeah, I'm going to go. You went watchmen as your Alan Moore.

Drew (02:37:16.61)
Well then, then what are you doing for yours then? Yeah, 84 was a little let down.

Drew (02:37:27.118)
Yep.

Eli Price (02:37:34.222)
Based comic story, so I'll go with another Alan Moore based story and go with V for vendetta Yeah, this at one point in my life probably like early college was probably like my favorite movie

Drew (02:37:43.528)
Oh my goodness. Remember remember. 5th of November. Oh my goodness. Remember remember.

Drew (02:37:53.388)
We still, well, before we had kids, me and my wife, every single November 5th watched it. And we still will, like if we remember. And if life has actually got time that day, we will stop and watch it. Because it is excellent.

Eli Price (02:38:01.538)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It is. It's good. I always think about the V monologue that Hugo Weaving pulls off like masterfully. If nothing else, if you don't go watch... Yeah, it is. If nothing else, like if you don't go watch this, like you know, just go watch, find that clip on YouTube and watch it. It's so good.

Drew (02:38:13.182)
Yes.

Drew (02:38:17.552)
Again, one of those things that would be so cheesy.

Drew (02:38:29.822)
100% that's excellent. Nope, I don't know what I said Eli, I'll be honest. She's in it, it's good. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:38:32.826)
Yeah, Natalie. Did you say Natalie Poitman? Is that what you just said? I didn't hear what you said. OK. Yeah, Natalie Portman's in it. Yeah, she's good. She's good in it. Steven Fry. I like Steven Fry in it. He's good. I just like this movie. I feel like it's I feel like a lot of people have kind of gone more sour on it more recently. I don't really know why.

Drew (02:39:01.738)
Yeah, people just don't like to have fun, dude. I mean, it's not like this. It's fun and it's clever. And it's about a dude wearing a mask, throw knives around. Who's like super human. Just just stop taking yourself so seriously.

Eli Price (02:39:05.542)
It's a fun movie. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:39:17.234)
Now, it is different than the comic story in ways. It's generally it's the same. It's the same story. But yeah, it takes some theatrical liberties, but still very good. So yeah, that was my sixth pick. This is your last pick.

Drew (02:39:22.654)
Yes. Yeah, well, and I'm going to go an animated one for this. One of my, probably my favorite Batman comic is Batman Hush. And they did an animated, an excellent animated version a few years back of it that I thought was great. And.

Eli Price (02:39:44.142)
Okay.

Eli Price (02:39:48.256)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (02:39:52.574)
It's great. So if you've never watched Batman hush or read Batman hush, it's really excellent. It is. Yes. That's very, very well said. Yeah, there is some, it is funny because I feel like most of the really good Batman arcs have a similar vein in them of what we're talking about. Like there's like a turn, a twist of like something you realize.

Eli Price (02:39:57.702)
It's similar to Under the Red Hood in that you don't want to talk about it because you'll give away what's so great about it.

Drew (02:40:19.882)
And you can't talk about the story too much or you'll like give away the brilliance of it. But just trust me, Batman Hush is excellent. It is so good to read if you get a chance to read it. But I think the animated thing is excellent. Also, like how we've been talking about some of these animated movies of the comic books are just so good. So Batman Hush, check it out. It's excellent. Our style is great. Nightwing's in it. My brother would love that because he loves Nightwing and Superman shows up at one point is excellent. It's really good.

Eli Price (02:40:23.453)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:40:50.098)
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I actually haven't seen the Hush movie, but I have read the graphic novel and I love the story. It's a great story.

Drew (02:40:56.97)
Early.

Drew (02:41:02.754)
It's like under the red hood, like it's really great animation, really good, definitely worth watching.

Eli Price (02:41:05.003)
Mm-hmm. Cool.

Yeah, I'll check. I'll have to check it out. So there's a lot of stuff still that I would love to take still out there. I really feel like this might just be like the chalk pick at this point in the draft just because it's still there. But I really feel like we would be doing this draft injustice if the 89 Batman wasn't taken.

Drew (02:41:36.83)
I thought about that. I almost did that. It's excellent. I just like how it should be.

Eli Price (02:41:37.954)
Uh...

Yeah, it's. Yeah, no, that's totally fair. I rewatched this recently with my wife and it was just it's a lot of fun. I don't know that it's as good as I remember it being in like my nostalgia watching it this time, especially like right around watching Batman Begins. But but it's a really fun movie. And, you know, the Jack Nicholson Joker

Drew (02:42:03.582)
Yeah, yeah, I get that.

Eli Price (02:42:10.75)
Is pretty iconic like that the way he plays a character um, so I don't know this Yeah, it's just like we have to take this movie if we're gonna do a dc movies draft So I i've got to get it on there

Drew (02:42:12.805)
100%

Drew (02:42:24.081)
I agree. You gotta take it. Yeah, man. I get it.

Eli Price (02:42:27.678)
But yeah, that's it. That's the draft. Let me read off what, okay, but before I do that, before I read off our final draft teams, were there any honorable mentions you had? I know you mentioned Lego Batman before we started. Will Arnett.

Drew (02:42:31.414)
There we go.

Drew (02:42:44.226)
I love Lego Batman. Like I would... Yeah, it's just so good. I love Lego Batman. I'm trying to think if there's any other ones. Let me look really quick. Get my brain wrapped around.

Eli Price (02:42:56.626)
Yeah, I'm kind of scrolling through. I think Man of Steel is underrated. I really like Man of Steel.

Drew (02:43:03.054)
I would agree with that. I think Man of Steel is definitely... I liked Man of Steel a lot.

Eli Price (02:43:07.162)
It has terrible ratings and I just don't really understand. I thought it was good. Um, now Superman.

Drew (02:43:19.18)
Yeah, yeah. Oh, did we hit a limit?

Drew (02:43:33.078)
You can come in we just Know well it just stopped recording. We were literally about to wrap up. You say hey, you like Angela says hello Yeah

That's not recording right now. Okay good. Peace is alone. Hope y'all are doing well.

Drew (02:44:06.594)
Did we get the draft all the way through? Did

Eli Price (02:44:51.906)
Okay, now it's saying that you need to refresh your page. So now you refresh yours.

Drew (02:45:40.101)
I'm back. Can you hear me?

Eli Price (02:45:45.23)
I can hear you. All right. Let's, I'll pause again. We're like, it started recording again like a minute ago. So I might just jump back in since I know where the timestamp is and wrap it up.

Drew (02:45:45.692)
All right.

Eli Price (02:46:08.374)
Yeah, Superman Returns, not very good. Sort of like in the similar vein of Green Lantern. I already mentioned the Flash. Did you ever see Birds of Prey?

Drew (02:46:11.494)
Yeah.

Drew (02:46:20.721)
I've seen clips and I've laughed, but I've not seen it. No.

Eli Price (02:46:24.534)
Yeah, I so I don't think it's a fantastic movie um But I actually had a lot of fun with it. I actually would recommend like watching it. I think it was really fun. Um, you have um, uh, erin mcgregor plays black uh black mask in it and Yeah, and he does so he plays it like Like an expert live-action comic book actor. It's it's so fun

Drew (02:46:32.541)
Okay.

Okay.

Drew (02:46:42.637)
I love you, McGregor.

Drew (02:46:53.177)
I just need to make sure I understand this right, because I just googled DC movies and National Treasure popped up. I feel like that's not a DC movie. Okay, just making sure. I was going to mention I've not seen The Joker, but I've heard excellent things about it, or Joker. Very different. But have you seen it?

Eli Price (02:46:54.317)
Um.

Eli Price (02:46:59.89)
That's not right. No.

Eli Price (02:47:09.698)
Yeah, I-

I have, so I have a tainted view of the Joker because I saw it in theaters and it was really, it made me very uncomfortable, which the movie is supposed to make you uncomfortable and that I think that works. But my issue was there were scenes in the movie where like the audience, it was a packed theater where like the audience was like laughing.

Drew (02:47:28.157)
Sure.

Eli Price (02:47:42.534)
like a lot of the audience was laughing and it made me uncomfortable because I'm watching and I'm like, this is not funny. Like this is not supposed to be being played for jokes. Like this is supposed to be like super like squirming your seat uncomfortable because the dude is psychotic. And like the audience, like a lot of the audience is like laughing. And so like it kind of.

Drew (02:47:49.103)
Yeah.

Drew (02:48:03.327)
Yeah, that would freak me out a little bit.

Eli Price (02:48:06.146)
Yeah, it kind of tainted my view because I was like, what's going on in this movie that's not connecting with people? There's something like it was working for me. Like I was watching these scenes of like him doing these like brutal, like psychotic things and like being really uncomfortable. So it was working for me personally, but it wasn't working for like the audience as a whole. And so I was like, something's off about this. But I was positive on it. I thought it was a good movie.

Drew (02:48:26.733)
Yeah, I get that.

Drew (02:48:34.101)
I am, I get that. I was gonna say, honorable mention, I saw Snyder's version of Justice League. I think it's good. I mean, it's definitely, you know, I feel like, sure, and again, it is very long, but it is very good. I think it's great. I feel like looking at Justice League, I really wish, because correct me if I'm wrong, but he like, his kid passed away or something? There was like something tragic that happened. He had to step away, right? So like,

Eli Price (02:48:41.854)
Yes. It's very long, but it's very good.

Eli Price (02:49:01.634)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Drew (02:49:02.569)
Obviously that film didn't go according to plan of what he was hoping. And so I'm glad we got to see at least some of what it looked like. And but I, you know, I know people like to slam on it. I don't think obviously I still think it has some issues, but I thought it was. Yeah, that was pretty good.

Eli Price (02:49:07.077)
Right.

Eli Price (02:49:11.964)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:49:21.602)
Yeah, I think the long version of Zack Snyder's Justice League is good. And another one that I think that I like more than the general public was Batman versus Superman, Dawn of Justice. I enjoyed it. I didn't think it was like fantastic or anything, but I was like, I'm glad I watched that. I had fun with that movie sort of thing. But I mean, obviously, like doomsday at the end is a huge like

Drew (02:49:34.981)
Yeah, I like that too.

Eli Price (02:49:49.87)
Why would you, why did you do that sort of thing? But yeah. Have you seen the long Halloween part one and part two animated? Yeah, it's really good. That's another one of my favorite stories, but yeah.

Drew (02:49:52.841)
Yeah.

Drew (02:49:58.393)
It's really good. Yeah. Long Halloween. Hush and the Long Halloween are right up there for like two of my favorite like comic stories. This is the last I guess throw in there. It's not a movie, it's an animated series, but I really like Young Justice. I wonder if you've seen Young Justice. So it's all about like.

Eli Price (02:50:11.546)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:50:23.698)
I think I've seen a little bit of it. Yeah.

Drew (02:50:28.249)
the sidekicks basically, but it's really good. It's like, it's basically like Teen Titans without being ridiculous. It's really good. So yeah.

Eli Price (02:50:30.742)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:50:38.958)
Yeah, Young Justice, yeah, I've seen some of it. Very good, obviously Teen Titans, more like comedic version of that. The Batman, you have the Batman animated series that's iconic that you kind of mentioned. There's a lot of good series. Batman Beyond, we mentioned that. Batman Beyond is so good. I'm trying to think.

Drew (02:50:56.242)
Yeah, they're a lot. Oh my goodness, that may be on so good.

Eli Price (02:51:06.73)
Oh, I actually did this for my recommendation of the week a couple episodes ago. Have you watched any of my adventures with Superman? It's a new series. It's a new like little... Uh huh.

Drew (02:51:18.93)
Oh, is that the one that's like animated like almost has like an anime shogun vibe going on with it

Eli Price (02:51:25.33)
Um, a little bit. Um, it kind of. It's, it sort of feels like a mix of like the anime animation and like typical American animation. It doesn't feel like fully all in on anime to me.

Drew (02:51:36.205)
Yeah, but it definitely feels like it's got a little bit of that in there.

Eli Price (02:51:40.394)
Yeah, it's actually really good. I've watched like six or seven of the 10. I think all 10 are out now. The of the of season one. But yeah, it's actually really good. I'm enjoying it. Yeah.

Drew (02:51:52.385)
check that out. I'm not, but sounds great. Yes, yeah, that's what I was thinking about it. Yeah, well, there you go. That's all I got.

Eli Price (02:52:01.794)
Yeah. So I'll read I'll read out our drafts as a whole. And then, yeah, Drew took Batman Begins, the Batman Watchmen, Shazam, Batman, Mask of the Phantasm, Wonder Woman and Batman Hush. Great list. My list is the Dark Knight.

Drew (02:52:23.377)
Damn.

Eli Price (02:52:30.802)
The Suicide Squad, Superman from 1978, Batman Under the Red Hood, Justice League, The Flashpoint Paradox, V for Vendetta, and the 1989 Batman with Michael Keaton. So yeah, that's a really good list of movies. If we get one person to watch one of these...

Drew (02:52:49.361)
Good lists. Let's be honest, we both win if you watch any of these movies.

Eli Price (02:52:58.874)
that they haven't watched before, then we win. So that's kind of the goal with movie drafts, is to get people to watch movies they haven't watched before. So yeah, check some of these movies out. Cool. Drew, do you have a recommendation of the week? I have not thought of anything. I'm about to think of something right now off the fly. So feel free to do the same.

Drew (02:53:00.989)
That's very true.

Drew (02:53:11.677)
Check them out. Yes.

Drew (02:53:23.345)
good. Well, I will say that I, recommendation of the week, because I have a young child and a pregnant wife and so we don't have a ton of time to watch TV, but we have been spending a little time, we have been watching the new Ahsoka series and we love Star Wars and we watched, me and my wife watched all the Clone Wars together and then somehow I talked her into that and then she was like willing to watch Rebels with me and we really loved Rebels and we really loved Chopper and Hera and Ezra and...

Eli Price (02:53:35.279)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:53:40.131)
Okay.

Drew (02:53:53.129)
Um, my, yeah, all, all these things. We just love all that stuff. And so Ahsoka, the live action has just felt like a, uh, it doesn't, it just feels like rebels live action with Sabine and Ahsoka. We've only seen the first episode. It's really good. I mean, like Star Wars. So, I mean, if you like Star Wars, great. If you don't, but I think it's good. It's worth watching. I think.

Eli Price (02:54:06.907)
Okay.

Eli Price (02:54:15.858)
Cool. Yeah, I haven't checked it out yet. I probably will eventually. I haven't watched all of the new Star Wars series. But yeah, that's definitely one that I want to check out.

Drew (02:54:25.177)
I will say the Mandalorian by season two and then season three feels like it's Dave Filoni's continuation of what he's been going on in Clone Wars and Rebels. And this is just continuing on. So I'm excited to see where he's going with it. It's going to be interesting.

Eli Price (02:54:31.719)
I have them.

Gotcha.

Eli Price (02:54:39.426)
Okay, yeah, I haven't watched the third season of Mandalorian yet either. But yeah, maybe I'll get to it eventually, I'm sure.

Drew (02:54:46.701)
It's alright, it's not as good as the first two, I'll agree with that. But it's still worth watching, there's some pretty cool stuff in there.

Eli Price (02:54:55.042)
Yeah. So this is just fresh on my mind. I'm winging it. I haven't, I didn't plan a recommendation of the week. So I'm gonna recommend making some homemade burrito bowls cause it's, that's what we had for dinner tonight. And it was delicious. I cut up a sirloin into little bitty tiny cubes.

Drew (02:55:10.281)
Excellent, excellent choice.

Eli Price (02:55:22.65)
and threw some Mexican fiesta seasoning on them and put them in a pan. And then, yeah, then after that, all you got to do is cook some rice, pull some beans out of a can, throw some guac and salsa in there. Maybe maybe cook, cook some, you know, bell peppers. We we actually put sweet potatoes in ours. So, yeah, put sweet potatoes in there. Cook you up a good homemade burrito bowl. Beats Chipotle every time.

Drew (02:55:43.657)
I'd go with that.

Eli Price (02:55:52.718)
Um, yeah, that's, that's my off the cuff, winging it recommendation of the week. And that's, that's all we have. Drew, tell us where people can follow you. I know you have, um, a podcast that you do. Um, if you want to tell people about that and then tell people where they can follow you personally too, if you want.

Drew (02:55:54.181)
every time.

Drew (02:56:02.471)
Yes.

Drew (02:56:08.089)
Yes.

Drew (02:56:13.765)
Yeah, so I'm on Facebook as Drew Feltz and on Instagram as TheDrewFeltz. Check me out there. I'm a college pastor and so we do a podcast called 108 North, like my shirt I'm wearing. 108 North podcast is all about talking about, you know, what it means to follow Jesus and diving into that. We do a lot of books and read through those and talk about those as well as talking about what it means to follow Jesus in everyday life. So check all that out. And if you happen to be in Statesboro for some random reason, come hang out with us.

Eli Price (02:56:25.88)
Mm-hmm.

Drew (02:56:43.529)
If we have a great time downtown, we'll feed you some good food and tell you about Jesus. And we can talk about geeky stuff if you want to. Some of my leaders say that I'm never teaching unless I make a Star Wars Lord of the Rings or comic book reference during teaching at some point, which always happens. So come hang out. We'd love to have you.

Eli Price (02:57:00.866)
Yeah. Cool. Yep. And I'll put all that in the show notes so you can just click those links. But yeah, it's been fun. That was fun. Fun Batman Begins conversation. Fun movie draft. Just all around a good time. But yeah, that's all we have for this week. So for Drew Feltz, I'm Eli Price and you have been listening to the Establishing Shot podcast. We will see you.

Drew (02:57:10.301)
That has been fun.