Episode 276 - The Dictator of Easton at 21
Max and Aaron discuss and provide commentary for their 2002 high school film, The Dictator of Easton.
Transcript
Max: You're listening to the Local Maximum episode 276.
Narration: Time to expand your perspective. Welcome to the Local Maximum. Now here's your host, Max Sklar.
Max: Welcome, everyone, welcome, you have reached another Local Maximum. This and for those of you looking at the video, you can tell this is going to be a little different. For those who are looking at the audio, you might not really understand this one. But, but we're gonna give it the Go ahead. So for those of you who don't know how to even describe this one, Aaron and I went to high school together. And in our in 12th grade, we made this, we made a movie, essentially,
Aaron: Did this start out? Like was there a class project? Something that prompted us? It was completely our own?
Max: We did do a class project on the Trickster ninth grade where we did a movie so that's where we had experience doing a film together. But we did not. I wasn't even in the film class in school. So I didn't I didn't really know what I was doing.
Aaron: When you say film. This was not literally on, you know, on old school film. However, what was it all digital at that point?
Max: Yes but it was mini DV, I still have the camera, it's over there. And in fact, the tripod that we were using is the very same tripod that we still use in the Local Maximum. Just because I don't see a reason to only have two tripods here, but I don't see a reason to update the tripod. I have a 2001 tripod over there and a 2021 tripod over there. They're there. 20 years apart. 2021 one is a little better, but I don't know. I don't think there’s any difference anyway.
Aaron: But the point I was trying to make is that we are old enough that I remember in probably still middle school, going around with my family's camcorder, which recorded onto VHS tapes, which was in fact magnetic reel to reel tape.
Max: This is one of the first ones I did on digital, but it was mini DV tape. So still tape. Okay, so what do we remember about the show before we start and we're going to do commentary? This is a 20 year review. And my apologies for any high school friends. Maybe, you know, if you want us to like you know, blur you out, I looked into it, it's kind of too late.
Aaron: Yeah, we're just finding out now, it’s too late.
Max: So I feel like there's going to be stuff that I remember and stuff that I don't remember. One of the things I remember about it very well is that I kept the storyline very simple. The town next door, I'm a bad dude. The dictator of Easton was a bad dude. It's called the dictator recently, we lived in Weston, he was coming in, he was me, he was coming into attack, you know. And we, we basically, then he left because he was like, bored or something. That's how we ended it.
Aaron: Endings are tough. Several novelists and film writers will tell you.
Max: But we kept the characters very one dimensional. It wasn't supposed to be like a huge character study. But it was kind of like, a lot of maybe some political satire, which I don't think I could have been that good at back then. But I feel like some of it's gonna hit hard, even in 2021.
Aaron: What and in the context of political, political satire, this was, what 2001?
Max: 2002 is, when is when we came out. So we started right, I started writing it before 9-11. But most of it was written and all of it was recorded after 9-11.
Aaron: So the peak of the Bush years.
Max: Well, the beginning. Yes, yeah. So it wasn't really, you know, it wasn't at the point where we were in Iraq, and those wars were like grating us down, but it was at the point it was really, it's really a post 9-11 film, almost. But we'll, we'll see what that actually means in practice.
Also, of course, that doesn't mean like, you know, we were not filmmakers. It's not going to be very high production quality. It's going to be probably bad for high school even you know, today's high schooler probably access to way more you know, to way more tech.
Aaron: Yeah, the post-YouTube generation has a lot more skill and knowledge and, and tools available to them compared to what we did.
Max: Yeah, it was edited at the school and it was really difficult to edit. And I know some of the sounds got a little bit off kilter. For some of it. So all right, I don't know if there's anything else you are you looking forward something, are you nervous? How much are we gonna cringe today?
Aaron: Yeah, yes.
Max: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I feel like there's stuff that I remember and stuff that I don't remember. And I don't know what's going to be, how long have we been talking here?
Aaron: We're almost five minutes.
Max: Okay. Well, why don't we get started, and we can stop as we go.
Aaron: So yeah, this is a final warning to those of you listening to the audio stream that you might want to check out the video on this one, to see what we're what we're talking about.
Max: But we'll try to explain what's going on as we go. We're not going to actually watch the thing through. We'll stop at a few times if you want more commentary, but I think like we don't have to hear anything, we can talk over certain things.
Aaron: Okay, let's do this.
Max: All right. Now notice before we even start, it's, we're not using the whole TV there. And that's because it's standard definition. So it's gonna, it's gonna fill the top and the bottom. But we're using kind of a clipart, not clipart. But it's like a opening film reel. That is a wide def wide definition. It's not HD, but it's like, it's, it's wide. What's it called?
Aaron: Widescreen?
Max: Widescreen.
Aaron: You did the editing on this, not me.
Max: Well, I don't remember. But it's obviously widescreen that is embedded in standard definition non widescreen. That's on my widescreen TVs. That's why there's an entire band of black around that. Alright, so let's get started.
Aaron: It’s got a framing effect.
Max: Can we hear it? Hope we can. Maybe there's no sound?
Aaron: It's the artistic preroll here.
Max: Yeah. Hopefully we can. Oh, no, no, there's a sound okay. We don't need to do it. Okay, by the way, being offended was good back then. That was something nowadays people would be crapping themselves, which they would you know what, they were a little bit back then. But not nearly as much. Okay. There we go.
Aaron: Now, what is that font?
Max: I think it's some kind of spooky Halloween font. Dictator of Easton. Oh. Oh, by the way, my nephew Liam currently has that glowing globe? Yeah, yeah. I told him I got it for my 17th birthday. He was he didn't believe he thought it was new.
Aaron: Those are books from my bookshelf. Yeah. Not that book. I know where that book is.
Max: Waldo. Yeah.
Film: Oh, hello.
Max: Very young Aaron Bell.
Aaron: Yeah I haven’t had that facial hair.
Film: There have been elements in the population of the human species, which must be exiled for the greater good of the community.
Max: I feel like we should turn it up a little bit
Film: We can see here, this rare artifact.
Aaron: So I assume we were going for ridiculous with the outfit here with the corduroy jacket, the shorts and the winter boots.
Max: Yeah, we could just pull something out
Film: From the primitive paradise of Weston to the harsh and unforgiving land of Easton.
Max: Now, one of the things I notice here, sorry to pause it is like, you know, okay, your, your character is kind of set setting us up as okay, we’re the good guys and Easton as the bad guys, but you're kind of a bit of a propagandist here, I think?
Aaron: For sure. Yeah.
Max: And also, I should have pointed out like, we spent a lot of time on the well, we have spent that much time on the chalk, but we definitely chalked this.
Aaron: And the hieroglyphics.
Max: And also I wanted to mention: we played this in front of like the not the whole school and their parents, but it was like a night of student-led film and, and, and, and plays in Western High School. So it was a lot of students and their parents and I remember some of the reactions. So that was, yeah, so we'll see what happens next. Okay, my Indian set when I was a child,
Film: The European settlers arrive
Max: So is that woke or based? I'm not sure.
Aaron: Yeah, I guess it depends on your interpretation. But I think it was definitely explicitly wiping someone off the map there.
Film: …to maintain the tradition of preserving the better lands of Western for those who truly deserved it. Cruel dictatorship with despot after disbarred coming into power, as Weston knights became happier and happier and happier
Max: Very amazing score.
Film: …to these people. In 1911, mass hysteria occurred when people viewed a nearby rock falling from the sky. And believed it was an alien attack.
Aaron: The use of props here it's excellent.
Film: …Schlecter took tight control over Easton;
Aaron: Okay, who is that actually?
Max: I don't know.
Aaron: The mustache is excellent.
Max: I should also point out that rock was based on there was an 1807 rock that landed in Weston and so that that's actually a little bit of town history
Aaron: It’s one of the earliest documented, now I'm gonna embarrass myself because I know there's a distinct difference between media or media right and I'm not gonna be.
Max: The first thing that I think is the first thing that proven to be from another from off the planet. Yeah, landed in Western Connecticut but not 1911, 1807.
Aaron: I believe a piece of it resides at Yale University.
Max: Yeah, yeah, that's true. So I don't know. This is some German dude from World War One is my guess.
Aaron: Could be Russian but yes. Very, very first world war vibes.
Max: Okay. Okay.
Film: Grandson of Vorthar, Fart Schlechter.
Max: Named myself Fart. I don't know that. That's too easy of a.
Aaron: We were amused by simple things back then.
Max: Oh, I’m still amused.
Aaron: So the bathrobe was definitely a distinctive choice.
Max: Yeah. A little bit Tony Soprano. Okay, I don't think I was watching The Sopranos then, but maybe it was in the zeitgeist so I kind of picked it up. April 12 2002. I guess, that was my birthday. So that's why I picked that up. Now. This was the the Weston fields used to look like this has been remodeled since then years later.
Aaron: I have not visited.
Max: Yeah. I mean, they kind of look the same. They just move things around a little bit. Alright, so this is my dictator uniform. Some friends of ours. Can you name everyone who's passing? I probably can. Let's not call them out.
Aaron: So attempting slapstick.
Max: Yeah, some of it is good. Weston’s got a lot of like woods. So yeah, yeah, there we go. Some of these establishing shots further outside the dictatorial mansion.
Film: Our benevolent dictator of Easton, Fart Schlechter.
Max: Well, there's definitely Lewis Morgan in the back. Oh, this was kind of outside my house growing up. And these rocks were always such a pain in the neck when I was trying to walk outside barefoot. So I decided to put it in the movie .
Aaron: I remember growing up with a gravel driveway and being envious of all those who had paved driveways.
Max: Yeah. I mean, I don't know. Maybe it gave me strong feet. Although I don't know it doesn't feel like that. I could probably make a commentary about this.
Film: …pave this road 10 years ago.
Max: Check the time.
Film: Funding private movie theater. I wanted a basement door. Good idea.
Max: I think I put the music on a little too loud from now on in the editing.
Aaron: You were ahead of your time, because now nobody can hear dialogue properly.
Max: Yeah. We have no closed captioning.
Film: Suddenly, I have a vision.
Max: I'll tell you if it's important.
Film: Not this time. It was of my son.
Max: Right. So he has a flag that's very Nazi-esque. You definitely wouldn't want to put that on today. I mean, we definitely everyone got the joke, you know.
Aaron: It was not the most subtle thing. No, no. This is not a movie of subtle.
Max: Yeah. And also, as you pointed out before, he was also Enron was happening at the time, so it seemed like Easton, evil it all kind of came together.
Aaron: I do like how the spy in the background is in the background of every shot, no matter what angle is being taken.
Max: I love that. I feel like that is a really that should be, that's like a good comedic film technique. You know? It's almost like I feel like there's a lot of films in the 80s, 90s that would have had that sort of joke.
Aaron: I don’t know how weird it is that he is a spy. But I remember it.
Max: So the dictator has a kind of a priestly class here.
Film: Give us an inspiring speech. You can't do this.
Max: But the religious class is not supporting the dictatorship so they gotta be taken out, I guess
Film: Let this be a lesson to anyone who thinks that- Oh, wait, there's no one here anyway, that's not gonna work. Nevermind, slave. Okay, it's nap time now. I can’t believe I got up.
Max: I love how the spy is just yeah
Aaron: Literally referring to his assistant as slave is maybe a little too on the nose today yeah. Our fight choreography was also top notch.
Max: That's a little bit-
Aaron: We made use of ketchup?
Max: That's a pretty gruesome scene man. Like, I don't know if I could show that today. Yeah, playing my trumpet. Man, my score is awesome.
Aaron: This is indeed the town hall of our town.
Max: Okay. Well, hold on. Before we start. I want to play this again because like Chris Longo, who plays the mayor. He did such a great job here being like this buffoonish mayor of Weston. So these are supposedly the guys who are supposed to defend the good guys. So I just want to I just wanted-
Aaron: “Good guys,” in air quotes.
Film: Election coming up. Election. Oh, no. Okay, I promise you, it's serious from now. Now, Mr. Mayor, be sure to pay attention to Weston. It’s 10 minutes after 10. That makes you 10 minutes late. Fair.
Max: Meeting with the intelligence
Film: I need to asleep. Or when I'm asleep? Intelligence information. Now. I'm a spy working for you. And besides breakfast.
Aaron: Product placement?
Max: Yeah. Well, not only that, Snickers was voted in our yearbook as the most as our favorite candy. And I feel like this movie had something to do with it. And they seem.
Film: Intern!
Aaron: Yes. Was this before after the hangry campaign for Snickers?
Max: I don’t know.
Film: This guy here has got something to tell me. Don't call me a guy. Call me a spy. And it's important. On a scale of one to 10 how important? 10. No, no. Nothing is so urgent that it can disrupt my breakfast.
Max: Man. You're not getting to the point here. But that's kind of the point. I think I've forgotten how inept everybody is. Oh, that was a good transition. Now the sound I think is a little off there.
Film: Who’s there? Must be those damn squirrels?
Max: I didn't know where he was getting his Western accent from
Aaron: Weston, Western, maybe?
Max: Yeah, maybe.
Film: Property. I claim this land for the Dictator of Easton!
Max: Making it more like New Hampshire, or more like Connecticut.
Film: Defending here land for a year! Well, you could keep your land so long as you let us use it for a military base. I don't like no military bases. Well, we'll throw in a free blender
Max: Some of this is ad libbed.
Film: Well I don't know. Ah, hell I suppose so.
Max: I fall into gimmicks like that.
Aaron: I guess it was too early for the opposition to military bases to be in the water so to speak.
Max: I love this
Aaron: Another Snickers
Film: Snickers? I love Snickers thank you for making this wonderful, this excellent junk food on a platter. More M&Ms? No. Thank you. You should really try the- sir! They’re planning an attack. One reason I never heard him. we don't have to worry now. Mr. Mayor, we must be careful. Exactly. Careful. Nuke the bastards. Now why would we bother to do that? We can’t use that nuke. It has sentimental value. Now Mr. Mayor, we shouldn't start a fight.
Max: This is pretty good.
Film: At least position defenses on the border. Yeah mousetraps and robots. There'll be none of that
Max: It was a joke because he can't really hear what he's saying. Roadblocks or robots?
Aaron: Oh, I definitely heard robots
Film: No extra defenses, no roadblocks.
Max: I think it said roadblocks in the script but they kind of
Film: Chomp down your Dorito. None of us three will tell anybody about our little conversation. Agreed?
Max: Still had to look at the script.
Film: No, Mr. Mayor. Okay, Agreed. Agreed.
Max: So all these leaking scandals. We had leaking scandals, that’s not new.
Film: Who ate all the junk food? Okay that I hereby claim they still have the dictator of Easton. Hi . Have a nice hike while you can!
Max: Oh my god, that hits home for myself, because they closed Devil’s Den for COVID and like literally they had a closed for two years you couldn't hike.
Film: Your dang nabbit military is sleeping on my couch. Now. Just a second here. Just relax. He'll be out soon. Look a squirrel! Squirrel! I hereby claim this land for me! Oh goodbye! Back so soon? Sure, I was just swinging around the lake. Okay, well, I hereby stake this claim- you know you really ought to replace that hammer. Go take a hike. Sorry, just saying. Get out of here. This land is mine!
Max: Actually that was pretty funny. Oh, that was the phone?
Aaron: A flip phone?
Max: Yeah, you remember those sounds?
Aaron: Remember paying for ringtones?
Max: Yeah, well, this is free.
Film: Oh, hello. General. When will you be here. Okay, good. Is the army still loyal? Good. Okay, I gotta find something. Sure. at Devil's Den now. Yeah, I'll take a lunch break, then I'll start with the South. Okay, see you then.
Max: I can almost imagine like people. This is definitely how like you would see an army working. If you just watch the news. Weston center. Peter’s Market. Lunchbox has been expanded since then.
Aaron: I know they were under new management.
Max: Yeah, Peter’s Market, also kind of Western Forum has since gone out of business. Used to have its own newspaper that town that got ended in 2010s. Does Nesquik still exist? I love these old product placements
Aaron: So we're playing both the heroic and villainous lead here through Peter Sellers term.
Max: Yes. I believe that you shared that with you at the time.
Film: So of course, our meeting the highest job, you believe it?
Max: No, I don't understand why what my job is here that I'm the highest ranking citizen like am I still in the government? Or am I some kind of independent?
Film: Looks like we have ourselves a military strategist. What eight?
Max: Yeah, there's Craig. Hold on. We gotta pause that. So first of all, that last scene, that was actually I can't believe I remember that. That was the first scene that we taped. So that was in Lunchbox because we had to get permission.
Aaron: I was gonna ask, what was involved in negotiation to be able to film in an active business?
Max: No, we well, we just asked them to do it. I think we went there early in the morning or something. And yeah, oh, and by the way, at the beginning, I kind of when I was reading the paper, I believe I say like, you know, something like, um, crazy woman wants her pizza. I think that was a couple years earlier. I'd been in a in a movie theater, and there was some kind of blow up, some kind of fight because someone didn't get their pizza properly.
And so it disrupted the movie, or maybe it was outside online. So anyway, I decided to bring it into the film. And let's, let's watch how Craig let's watch him volunteer again. He's a military strategist. Craig looking very young. Young Craig. We were all looking very young.
Film: Well we have ourselves a military strategist. I will now proceed to enter this house without permission. Hey, what's going on? This is my house. You don't have permission. Of course I do. So many vehicles around here. Perfect. a swivel chair. The mayor will stop you. I bet he's in his office right now planning to expel you and destroy your worthless tyranny. Snickers!
Aaron: See the cutaway feels very Family Guy.
Max: Yeah, I think Family Guy was-
Film: I didn't know there was a mayor, I'll have to have a little chat with him.
Aaron: I do like how he approaches the house and then states his intentions, I will now enter this dwelling without permission.
Max: That's very like James Bond, like explaining your intention. I'll get there. But he's traveling on a swivel chair. And that was Rebecca Phillips, who is also in company with us. A lot of these people were from the plays really, that I used to do in high school.
Film: I now present to you our beloved mayor of Weston. I am the great mayor of this city. I mean, I am the mayor of this great city. Are there any questions?
Max: I think now you just unironically say I'm the great mayor of the city.
Film: What have you been doing? Well, I will answer that. For the last 15 years, it has been exactly the same. And I call that progress in this circumstance.
Aaron: This was before the level or lack of frequency of presidential press conferences was a topic of discussion,
Film: Good dictator, and he talks in dollars in navy. I mean, he talked some sense in it.
Max: I'm gonna blame me for that.
Aaron: Yeah. I take responsibility for this.
Film: So I decided that it would be a good time for me to retire to my mansion:
Max: We just kept we just kept the announcement in there.
Film: I'm confident that you all can handle this slight problem on your own. Because I won't. You’re all screwed, you little bastards! I'm tired of you telling me what I’m doing wrong. Now, Mr. Mayor- Silence, you fool!
Max: These guys are so great.
Film: I hope you hit a lot of traffic on the way.
Max: There’s such a feeling of what it's like to grow up in Weston in this film, I think.
Film: Oops. Almost forgot my things.
Max: This got a big laugh in the audience. I remember. And people kept like, you know, you forgot your Snickers!
Film: Thank you, General, for helping me carry out this campaign.
Max: Well, very good sound.
Aaron: Who’s the general?
Max: That would be Jay.
Film: Now. We shall push onward. Can you push this chair any faster? I don't know if I use their last names. Probably not.
Film: So the general escorted the Dictator to Trinity.
Aaron: I love this diegetic twist where the narrator ends up in the story.
Film: I thought I applied the safest road. You never said you were going to do this! We believe in freedom of speech. Not anymore. People.
Max: People committing treason and taking away their freedom of speech. That'll never happen.
Film: Good. We are now in a position to wipe out the capital! We need catapults, bombs, rocks. Chewing gum. The army will take care of that
Max: Okay now we have a town meeting I love the position that Craig is in in this.
Film: This meeting was called so we can fight off this Easton menace. To be honest with you, I haven’t been to these meetings in a while, so can anyone tell me what went on last week?
Max: A little too much of, what's this Star Wars music?
Aaron: Oh, yeah. I don't know. Which is this the Imperial March?
Max: Yeah, I think so.
Aaron: I can't see this scene without thinking of Occupy Wall Street and when they tried to do everything by consensus this was certainly long before.
Max: You know, all this stuff is
Film: 1911? Yeah, my granddad it was at that one. There was a big hoopla about a rock falls from the sky.
Max: For some reason this movie reminds me of like Mars Attacks. I feel like I wasn't that into it. Oh that’s right, we didn’t have- That’s Eric who was also in Western High School company. Maximus from Gladiator. I read recently that that was considered one of the best movies of the era. At the time, it was considered good.
Film: Everyone listened to our strategist. Now it's really a weapon or something like a stick or something coming up on the road over there, so we'll just pop out of the bushes.
Max: Craig is actually really really good in this.
Aaron: I like that Ryan having been running around waving a gun at everything, gets all excited about picking up a stick.
Film: Don't dig down to the concrete bunker and get us our food supply.
Max: Concrete bunker. I didn't say something else.
Film: Now, I need someone to be an investor to find other towns that will help us. Yeah, sure. I'll do it.
Max: Okay, so we're at the library here. Oh, but this was actually filmed in the school library.
Aaron: You made a false establishing shot? H ow dare you.
Max: That's actually my sister. She was in ninth grade at the time.
Film: Can I help you? Yes, I demand the following books. You must turn them over immediately. You will need to check them out. Your Weston library cards please. Will my Easton card do? Yes, of course. That means I'll have to run you through a background check. Wait stop a background check because he's from Easton. That's racial profiling. You can get into a lot of trouble for that. You’re right! Go ahead and take them.
Max: a big reaction from the crowd and it made me uncomfortable.
Film: So why are we burning all these books again? In order to crush the-
Aaron: Totally forgot we had a book burning scene in this.
Max: Yeah. Well, the racial profiling thing. Let me add more color to that.
Aaron: I did not see that one coming.
Max: Yeah. No, I think it was not I think people took it as way more of a political statement than I meant it. I was just trying to be silly but I guess I was very naive that it was such a hot button issue. And today Imagine if we made this today.
Aaron: Orders of magnitude more-
Max: Also watching this is like oh, you have no idea how serious this is about to get.. So yeah, book burning which I think you always had like I believe you know book burning is wrong and we know that we've both been against censorship and pro free speech for many years.
Aaron: I feel a “but” coming on.
Max: Yeah, you have this kind of you seem to like the idea a little bit. Something about it appeals to you.
Aaron: A young me was definitely a little bit of a firebug.
Max: Okay, okay.
Film: We must destroy the stronghold of knowledge and enlightenment.
Max: Is that like a Martha Stewart magazine.
Film: Weston magazine?
Max: Probably doesn't exist anymore.
Film: Moby Dick? Oh complete blasphemy!
Aaron: Yeah, Moby Dick is a sore spot for me because of a plagiarism accusation in high school English.
Max: We're gonna have to hear more about this at some point. But you were falsely accused of plagiarism on a book by Moby Dick. Also, they made us read freaking Moby Dick. What was the point of that? And secondly, we turned the, we didn't actually burn Moby Dick.
Aaron: Moby Dick is not actually that large. These are old old yellow pages, which, children ask your parents. You used to have to look up numbers in a book.
Max: Yeah. But they apparently weren't that valuable because I just burned my parent’s old yellow pages.
Aaron: They give you a new one every year.
Max: Yeah, and I definitely did not get in trouble for that. So in fact, that could have been an old one. They were probably lying around, so.
Aaron: I do seem to recall that it was surprisingly difficult to get the book to actually burn good. This is like, 30 minutes later
Max: It was really important to you to get that shot wasn't it?
Film: We have much to discuss! Weston is under attack and-
Aaron: So that’s in one of our other neighboring communities.
Film: Get some refreshments! Shut up. The Dictator of Easton has always taken our town, your town maybe next. Anybody who wants to help us in our fight for freedom? Nobody? Well, that's what I thought. Goodbye.
Aaron: It started off so strong with a passionate speech,
Film: We're just not the fighting type here. There we will discuss the much more important issue about what to do about the people who chase the poor little mice out of their house. Now should we arrest those scoundrels with dogs that bark too loud? Yes or no?
Aaron: Town meeting issues
Max: And you know, we really infused into this into this work of art a very good sense of the type of, I don't know, the types of issues maybe we were dealing with in rural Connecticut or I don't know.
Aaron: This was a time when you didn't so much think globally and act locally. It's that you both thought and acted locally.
Max: Oh, and look, and you were allowed to have a trampoline without being penalized. So let's see. I don't know I for some reason, I was like, let's do a scene on the trampoline. I don't know why but it was just like because we get to use the trampoline.
Aaron: I don't know where we're going next with this.
Max: Another town meeting. It's a political thriller.
Aaron: Mr. Smith Goes to Connecticut.
Film: We tried everything but I'm afraid that nothing has worked. The dictator is in our homes or schools. Its forces have destroyed a commercial centers. Our governments. And they sparked terror.
Max: Pretty good speech. I mean, it's a capitulation speech. But it's probably our most articulate.
Aaron: Oh, it is.
Film: We must all leave immediately. Oh, how am I gonna tell them this? Well, I guess that wasn't so bad.
Max: The slow clap. Every 80s movie has a slow clap, doesn’t it.
Film: I'm afraid you won't be leaving this town, Maximus. I hereby claim you a slave to the dictator! I will fight for the resistance. I forgot about you. Did you reach out to join? No, actually, I did. But you wouldn't believe it. Through all those hours I was thinking, they closed, right when I got here. I'm afraid you've been on the ground before. You see, the resistance is over. We lost. Oh, my dictator! I must warn my master!
Aaron: Oh, the cheap laughs.
Max: Hey, at least we got the laughs.
Film: I do not have time to watch TV. As my newest capture, you shall watch for me. No phone because you pass me the cleaner. Don’t push it tonight, you dirty scumbag. My liege! I’m sorry to report that the rebels are still among us. Oh, we can take care of them. Don't get the army out there. Well, about that army. I can't see the screen. I have a confession to make. You see. There is no army. We couldn't afford it.
Aaron: What is this, Russia?
Max: It’s a lot of places.
Film: What do we do? Do they outnumber us? Three hundred to two. They’ll kill both of us! I can't hear the substance. We'll get him next time. Not for long Maximus. Retreat!
Max: There's something about there's something great about that last scene where he's just watching The Simpsons while-
Aaron: I guess we're outing all of the Oh yeah.
Max: But most people watch audio. Anyway, right.
Aaron: Nobody sits around for the credits. What is there a post credit scene because this was definitely pre-Marvel.
Max: Yes. There's a post credit scene. That, I distinctly remember.
Aaron: I guess we didn't have an overture so it's not an old school film.
Max: Yeah. Oh, yeah. There you are in the post. You're in the post credits and you don't even remember there's a post credits.
Film: And so the prisoners of Weston were freed from bondage and narration capabilities were restored to their rightful owner.
Max: Oh god. Special thanks to my parents. Oh, special condemnation to some guy in a school that was always preventing us from using the. Chews on the Snickers bar Audrey Headland, I gotta stop there because she's actually in the sequel, but she was also in the plays a lot. And actually, her sister was on the credits for that show that we watched recently.
Aaron: Russian Doll?
Max: Russian Doll, yeah, so that's pretty interesting. Production was edited in Weston High School later at 1775 Of Silliman College at Yale University. So that's when I kind of went through and updated it a little bit. Although it still needs quite a bit of update. I'd still have the raw footage still, interestingly, so we could.
Aaron: I assume this all rights reserved all wrongs reserved as you're doing.
Max: Oh yeah. Well, I mean, all of this is my doing. I wrote this whole thing. I think there's actually more.
Film: The Westonites have won, but I plan to subjugate them for good.
Max: That was really creepy.
Aaron: That is indeed unsettling.
Film: Yeah. Come on, we have to come up with an ending to this movie. Does anyone know how to end the movie? No one.
Max: That was real.
Aaron: So that all right, that feels very Monty Python. Yeah. And like we said before, endings are hard.
Max: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Now, I have a trailer for this one, but I also have a trailer for the sequel. We're not gonna watch a sequel today. But this was kind of funny. You want to watch this trailer for the sequel? Before we talk about it and head out?
Aaron: We can give it another 30 seconds.
Max: How long have we been recording?
Aaron: We’re at 41 minutes. Okay.
Max: Okay, good. Good. Good. So we have time to watch this a little bit. A lot more weapons on this one. More Doritos. More guns. More books. More laziness.
Film: Ready for this?
Aaron: So I remember none of the plot from sequel. Yeah, I kind of in that doesn't particularly enlighten me other than now. Yeah, there he did ZX-32.6
Max: I made that up. It's unrated. Not related, it's general audience. But you know. So yeah, I think I remember a little bit of the plot. But there were populist riots in that one. And we definitely had a bunch of depictions of civil unrest. I don't remember how it fit into the story. But I can watch it later. And I can, I can, I can go over the story.
Aaron: So alright, so let's, what are the takeaways here? Other than we were a weird bunch of kids in high school?
Max: No, no, I feel like there's more takeaways, I feel like a lot of this stuff is still relevant. A lot of the political observations we were making and again, we weren't that. I mean, okay, we're smart, high school kids, but we weren't. We weren't there to make a devastating critique of the socio-economic system or anything like that. But I feel like a lot of the references made, I mean, some of the pop culture references like Gladiator or were not, but like, some of the, some of the references made, and I talked about it throughout the show, are still very much true. They're kind of universal, whether it's okay. You know, losing you're losing your civil rights, having powerful people thinking they're way more powerful than they are. Whether it's concerns about, you know, I don't want to get into the whole racial profiling thing, or maybe, you know, some of the there's some ideas on propaganda here. There's a lot of ideas in here that I feel like I have carried, that I feel have carried me to get to where I am today.
Aaron: I certainly my first reaction to the racial profiling thing was that I, I would not have thought that that long ago, that was as — triggering is probably not the right word — but that, that you could get somebody to flip flop on what they were doing by throwing that out there.
Max: I think I think you coud.
Aaron: I think it's one of the, like many things that we think it's new, but it's been there all along.
Max: I think you were just allowed to make a joke about it. That was just a joke. That wasn't, where people weren't gonna assume what your position was or what your feelings were like they like do today.
Aaron: And I think the portrayal that everybody is either evil. Yep. Corrupt, right. Or incompetent. Yep. Well, not 100% accurate. Will get you through most situations. If you put everyone in one of those three camps. You may not always be right. But you're not going to be so far from the truth.
Max: Yeah. I think the character that really comes out on top and the end of this is Craig. I don't know what that saying.
Aaron: He seems to get exactly what he wants
Max: No matter what happens. And the junk food references.
Aaron: Something to be said for survivors.
Max: Yeah, yeah. I think I mean, well, you know,
Aaron: That scathing commentary on the, you know, the mega corporations that are, you know, the fast food organizations. I think that was, was this before Supersize Me and all that came along?
Max: I think it was before actually. Yeah. Because I think that was 2003. I think that if you're talking about that, more can be said probably about Chris Longo’s portrayal of the mayor. Sorry, I said his last name, but it's funny, because I could see him struggling with his lines a little bit like he was kind of peering at the script some time. But it was just hilarious the way he did it. I don't know where he got that from? I think we did a play. I think we did Inherit the Wind one year where he was portraying Williams Jennings Bryan, another politician, much smarter than the mayor of Weston in this particular way. By the way, Weston has no mayor.
Aaron: So I was gonna say, yeah, it's not digging at any particular person. It's a Select Board form of government. But so I think that was intentional to, to obfuscate a little bit, right, to serve as a focal point.
Max: I had no idea who was running.
Aaron: I do I do. I have to revise my previous theory, because one of the few characters who seemed to know what they were doing and be capable was was the spy.
Max: Was the spy and the intern. Yeah. And then nobody, I have, very few characters had names. And the spy plays a big role in the sequels.
Aaron: They were effective in what they were trying to do. But did it change the outcome in the way that they wanted? Maybe not so much. Not incompetent, but maybe not effective.
Max: It’s funny how, and I wouldn't have thought of it in these terms at that time. But I almost saw like, you know, I almost saw the people at the bottom of the organization as being the ones responsible for the success or failure, not the people leading those organizations. Probably that still rings true,
Aaron: Because it's exactly the opposite vibe of you know, the person at the top feeling I'm surrounded by idiots. It's that there's an idiot surrounded by people who might be capable. Insert either one of the, the, the, the current or preceding presidential administration, as a example of that to your liking.
Max: I wonder? Yeah. I'm very curious to know what our audience is going to take away from this. Or if they're just like, What are you guys doing? Let’s go back to regularly scheduled programming.
Aaron: This is a little self indulgent, but hopefully, someone out there will be equally as amused at this as we are.
Max: Yeah, and I don't I'm gonna watch the sequel. I don't think we need to do another one for the sequel, but I'll definitely report back on what there was. There was a fantastic scene in the sequel, where the spy, Lewis, was, was I took the camera into Devil's Den, and I had him run around Devil's Den with his sword. But then also, I would intersperse it with scenes from the NES version of Zelda. And like, I'd have like, I'd have the scene in Zelda where we're where it's his name is not Zelda its Link right? Where link picks up the map. And then I cut right to right to the spy opening up the map and trying to figure out what's going on. There's literally a map of Devil's Den, which is I don't think people know what that is. That's the Nature Conservancy. Just basically a bunch of walking paths around there.
Aaron: Yeah, it's a 100 acres of conserved land out in the woods,
Max: Open to the public, but closed twice, once by the Dictator of Easton. And secondly, under the COVID regime, where apparently the trees were going to get you so they had to close it for two years. But yeah, I think I'm going to think a lot more on this. Maybe we'll, I don't know if we'll talk about this later. Maybe we'll talk about the Locals, maximum.locals.com. And before I start rambling, maybe we should head off. Do you have anything else that you want to say?
Aaron: No, just this brought back a lot of memories. I'm pleasantly surprised by some of the things I'd forgotten that were in there.
Max: Pleasantly surprised. So it wasn't it wasn't as cringy as I thought it might be. Although because we were able to do commentary. It was a little cringe. But you know.
Aaron: It helps that at least as I perceive it right now, we're just watching this alone. Right. If our audience was in the room with us today, I would be a lot more, a lot more anxious about what just happened.
Max: Yeah, yeah. All right. Maybe this will be a usual thing. film review on the Local Maximum. I don't know. All right. I think that's it for today. And yeah, I'm glad we got to see what growing up in Weston in the, at the turn of the millennium was like a little bit I think from that film. Alright, have a great week everyone.
That's the show to support the Local Maximum sign up for exclusive content and their online community at maximum.locals.com. A Local Maximum is available wherever podcasts are found. If you want to keep up, remember to subscribe on your podcast app. Also, check out the website with show notes and additional materials at localmaxradio.com. If you want to contact me, the host, send an email to local max radio@gmail.com Have a great week.
