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1:39

Hello, everyone. This is the

1:41

Victor Davis Hansen Show. Victor

1:44

is the Martin and Neely Anderson senior

1:46

fellow military history and classics at

1:48

the Hoover Institution. And Wayne

1:50

and Marsha Busk, a distinguished fellow

1:52

in history at Hillsdale College.

1:55

He is an author of a

1:57

approximately twenty seven or maybe twenty

1:59

eight books depending upon how you

2:01

count that. And he is

2:03

a political commentator, a

2:06

scholar and and sis.

2:09

And this episode, we're

2:11

going to look into culture. So we do

2:13

politics exam culture, but we're going to talk

2:16

about a lot of cultural

2:18

issues at the end of the year. And

2:21

some of his favorite movies

2:23

and actors

2:26

and novels and we'll get and

2:28

more and we'll get to that. Right

2:30

after these messages. Welcome

2:39

back Victor. So

2:41

we're this should be, for me, a

2:43

lot more interesting because I wanna hear

2:45

about your favorites on

2:47

all sorts of issues

2:49

and and not issues, but

2:52

on all sorts of cultural

2:54

phenomenon. And I I was hoping we could

2:56

start with actors because you

2:58

have talked before about actors

3:00

that you admire, but I was hoping

3:03

we could keep it to three and we might

3:05

go through several cultural topics

3:07

and and look at those either

3:11

works or actors that you

3:13

feel are actors. Sorry.

3:15

Either works or or people

3:17

that you feel are excel. In

3:20

those areas. And so what

3:23

who are your top three

3:25

favorite actors?

3:26

Well, you I think my favorite actor has beenzel

3:29

Washington. Codes. I mean, I know

3:31

that he's been in some bad movies, but

3:33

he was great in glory if

3:35

you remember him. He was that private trip

3:38

where he was sort of the troublemaker

3:41

or the person who was trying to voice how

3:43

hypocritical white America was at

3:46

the but he was he

3:48

comes around and he starts to

3:50

understand the purpose of the regiment

3:52

and everything. But he the way he that

3:55

he did it. And he was in a lot of he was in that

3:57

Pelican grief, so I know that and

3:59

he was good, but the two that I really thought

4:02

and I know that I've mentioned it before, but

4:04

man and fire is I

4:07

think it's a classic I really do and

4:10

that's seen that he got the most criticism when

4:12

he's do you remember when

4:14

the corrupt policeman says,

4:16

you know who I am? So, yeah,

4:18

you're a

4:19

the herment the brother

4:22

Herment daughter. Yeah. Herment daughter mispronounced it

4:24

like I just did, and the guy is being tortured

4:26

today. And wants to correct this pronunciation.

4:31

And then when he does the cat the whole

4:33

guy at the whole brotherhood's

4:35

leader when he

4:37

says, Mimes, you

4:40

you I have all the time in the world. You you

4:43

You have sixty seconds or whatever it was.

4:45

Yeah. You have forty eight seconds to think

4:47

of it. The way he played

4:49

that It was it was

4:51

so authentic. And I know

4:53

a lot of people didn't think the book of Eli

4:55

was but the way he did that

4:57

as well, there's something he gets in his certain

5:00

type of role, even at what it

5:02

wasn't well reviewed or received, the

5:04

the first equalizer, but there's just something

5:07

about him when he gets in a particular role

5:10

about, you know, when

5:12

he tries to re a person will say something

5:14

and he repeats it, and person

5:16

says, And I'm, oh, you remember the

5:19

the brotherhood? Oh,

5:20

yes. You and he just he he just

5:22

jumps in as a natural

5:24

person. And

5:26

Yeah. He's very natural in

5:28

in all three of those movies. He was in a

5:30

movie. I'm kind of it was called fake

5:33

Safe House. Do you remember that where he's that CIA

5:35

people they think has gone

5:36

rogue. Yeah. And he's he ends

5:39

up dying. But -- Yeah.

5:41

-- there's something about him about his

5:43

natural presence on the screen.

5:46

Another one is I

5:49

have to be careful about Gary Oldman because

5:51

we're all you know, he was just so brilliant as

5:54

Churchill, but I was

5:56

first exposed to remember that Tarantino

5:58

wrote the the screenplay for

6:01

true romance? Yes.

6:03

I I don't know what the was it was

6:05

he's supposed to be black, or was he supposed to

6:07

be a white guy that was acting

6:09

like he's a bracket, Doug?

6:11

Remember? I think it was the latter. I think he

6:13

was supposed to be a white guy that was had

6:16

some weird idea that he was a black guy

6:19

and he was trying to act like

6:20

that. But that's that was my interpretation

6:22

of the character. That that movie

6:24

was brilliant because of the people

6:27

that, you know, and when they had that Dennis Hopper,

6:29

they would never allow that when he installed

6:32

successfully in it. Ancestry

6:34

of Christopher Walker. And my

6:37

god, Gary

6:39

Oldman was one of the most frightening people and

6:41

imagine when he's in

6:43

that scene. And then he kind

6:45

of replayed that role in

6:48

that movie. Remember the professional where

6:50

he's that crooked DIA agent and

6:52

he's listening to the beethoven

6:55

when he's killing people. And he's on

6:57

drugs. Just

7:00

That's

7:00

one of my favorite movies. I love that movie.

7:02

Yes. Yeah. He's it's just eerie

7:04

how he he comes into he

7:07

comes into a role, and he was the same

7:09

thing. And speaking of book of

7:11

Eli, you remember he's also that

7:14

sinister but he has

7:17

a a way about him that makes a sinister

7:19

character in-depth,

7:22

even more sinister because he's he's

7:24

got some elements of his character

7:26

that's interested in literature or he's interested

7:28

in music. And even

7:30

he even made Dracula into

7:33

a complex character that we hadn't

7:35

seen

7:35

before. Brown Stoker

7:37

is Dracula. So I think he's probably

7:40

right now I

7:41

don't know. That's a hard thing to say,

7:44

the most accomplished English actor.

7:46

I really do believe

7:47

that. Well, he does you know what, though,

7:49

he seems to morph into his characters

7:52

because that Churchill's a completely

7:54

different character from those ones you just

7:56

mentioned. Yeah. I I would never even know that

7:58

would scare you all. I mean, physically

8:00

morphin to them as well

8:02

as, you know, any character that No.

8:04

He's just he's just amazing

8:07

and I think he'd said something.

8:09

And remember, he said something about was it

8:11

woke or something that they they went after. I mean,

8:13

it was it I don't know what it was. I can't

8:15

even remember. Maybe it was something out race,

8:18

but they they turned on

8:20

him and he so he's now

8:22

a popular actor in in the fashion he

8:24

was. I'm surprised they gave him the Academy Award

8:26

for Churchill, but the performance was so stunning.

8:29

Yep. And that getting back to that

8:31

true rollouts, you know, I would

8:33

just it's I have all this

8:36

there are some great character actors

8:38

that are working today, and one of them is

8:42

Christopher Walker. He was brilliant

8:44

in that. Man, Dennis

8:46

Hopper was a very good character actor,

8:48

almost a major actor. So

8:51

it was Alan Reichman that who passed away

8:53

not too long ago, a very left wing guy, but

8:55

there were certain roles Mimes him and quickly

8:57

down

8:58

under. He was as

9:00

the evil -- Yes.

9:01

-- cattle lord and

9:03

-- Yeah. -- I guess everybody can't

9:06

if you say who's your favorite

9:08

actor? There's something about Anthony

9:10

Hopkins that I think I mean,

9:12

everybody just deified

9:15

Mimes, but going way back in

9:17

his career, remember, he was in I

9:20

first I first

9:23

got I first came to

9:25

know of him. I remember it was not necessarily

9:28

Richard Attenborough did a bridge too far

9:31

Yeah. Which was a kind of a didn't

9:33

it was a very leveraged production. It had

9:36

some brilliant or

9:39

trails by Edward

9:40

Fox, I think. It had

9:42

a hope and showed -- No. -- doctors

9:44

in there. Every one of them Even Robert

9:46

Red that's not a good actor. Robert

9:48

Redford's not a good actor, but he'd he he

9:52

played that role perfectly. And even

9:56

Gina Hackman with that kind of phony accent

10:00

was wonderful. And I know that everybody got

10:02

to know Hopkins

10:05

through silence of the lambs, you

10:07

know, series. But

10:09

I I didn't think that was just I mean, it was

10:12

It was brilliant,

10:14

but I don't think that was the best. And

10:18

he went way, way back. I remember him in the

10:20

elephant man and Young

10:22

Winston and Wasn't

10:25

he in that AM Forrester novel

10:29

turn movie the

10:33

end of years or something, and I can't remember

10:35

the name of it. It was the end of

10:38

It was basically about the end of the

10:40

old culture in

10:42

Britain. And he and the

10:44

other servant Butler Oh.

10:47

Why they couldn't

10:47

-- Yes. -- and yes.

10:50

And the remainder

10:52

of the day and

10:53

remainder of the day. That's what I was saying.

10:56

He was in that. He was in a bad I mean, it wasn't

10:58

a great movie, but he did a good job in Legends

11:00

of Apollo with Brad Pitt. Yeah.

11:02

Well, he was the But I'd liked him

11:04

and you know what? It

11:06

was a huge production. It had good

11:08

soundtrack and it didn't really

11:11

catch on, but I really like that kind of

11:14

meat gel black that was a rerun of Heaven

11:16

can wait kind of those series of

11:18

movies. Yeah. And that was a

11:20

really good movie.

11:21

Yeah. He was excellent. Yeah. He was

11:25

he was he was brilliant

11:27

on that, and Everything he

11:29

does has got a level of professionalism.

11:32

And he's that tradition

11:34

of I think he's well well, like, Richard

11:37

Burton. They're all best best

11:39

I know that as a pro American, I mentioned

11:41

two out of three were

11:42

British. I

11:45

Anyway, those are accurate. Let's move on because I

11:47

don't Yeah. Let's go on to the novels

11:49

that you think are the best

11:52

all time novels.

11:54

Yeah. Let me think. So

11:57

I mentioned about I wrote a call not too long

11:59

ago about a novel that

12:02

is attributed to some person

12:04

called Petronious Arbitur. We

12:06

don't quite know who he is except catais

12:08

has description of a

12:10

patronus. I think it's the same patronus

12:13

who was a confidant, an arbiter,

12:16

elegantlyi, a taster of elegance.

12:19

Judge of elegance for the emperor,

12:22

who had him executed, apparently. But

12:25

he wrote novel and we have it was

12:27

twenty four books in the Epic tradition.

12:30

But we have the middle part, mostly,

12:32

I think fourteen, fifteen, and sixty. Maybe

12:34

the book was, you know, they closed it

12:36

and the outer it was kind of a dirty

12:38

book in the middle ages, so that that

12:41

was stored away in the the top and the bottom

12:43

rotted. Who knows? Why those three books? But

12:46

it is the most brilliant

12:49

analysis and description of

12:51

a affluent leisure western

12:53

society and toll decay

12:57

in the Neuronian period. And

12:59

it follows this odyssey of

13:01

this little bisexual

13:04

guy called Gaitan, and then this

13:06

supposedly impotent, Incopious, and

13:08

then this kind of criminal minded,

13:11

as Klitaz, and they're completely worthless

13:14

people. And there's this humatuses,

13:16

this old poet

13:18

who's a complete lecturer. But

13:20

the point is they go around the bay of Naples,

13:24

Pompeii, Herculean, probably

13:26

crotonne, down to the south,

13:29

and they describe what women's society,

13:31

food, dress, sex, and Petronias

13:35

is is it's beautifully

13:37

written Latin. And I

13:40

used to teach it in Latin, but it it's very

13:42

explicit obscene. But the point is

13:44

that he's trying to show you when

13:47

you have so much money as

13:49

the the wealth of the empire and slaves

13:51

poured into Rome in the first

13:54

centuries BC and AD, it's

13:56

inevitable that old traditional

13:58

agrarian values are completely

14:00

mocked destroyed, made

14:03

fun of. And yet he's

14:05

not he's not just a cardboard moralist.

14:08

He's trying to show you the complexities

14:10

of it, that the sheer

14:12

bringing together of all these people,

14:14

from gall, from numidia, from Greece,

14:17

and this turbulent one million person

14:20

city with all there are things

14:22

that happen in it that are quite extraordinary.

14:25

The level of intelligence. But it's it's

14:27

really an attack on the Newell rich, but the

14:29

people who are attacking them

14:32

from this sort of Italian

14:34

or aristocratic point of view are just

14:36

as bankrupt is what he's trying to tell you.

14:38

And it's it's one of the most sophisticated

14:41

analysis of a of a society

14:43

in full freefall I've ever read.

14:46

Just, you know, just the opposite is

14:49

that I have a that I have to be very careful

14:51

because he's a very controversial office. Newton,

14:53

he won the Nobel Prize right

14:56

before the war, and he was

14:58

in Norwegian. And

15:02

he wrote a you know, he looked he

15:04

was famous for his first book, Hunger

15:06

and Pan, and didn't quite like that. They're kind

15:08

of Kaufka like. Stream of

15:10

consciousness, you know, alternate realities,

15:13

but it all came together in this novel

15:16

growth of the soil. And it's about

15:18

this guy Isaac and

15:20

he reminded me of my Swedish grandpa

15:22

I mean, all he did was

15:25

work and he goes up to the wilderness.

15:28

And he carves out of farm, and a woman,

15:30

how the gate puts an ad, a woman of the hair

15:32

lip comes and becomes his

15:35

wife. And and it chronicles

15:37

his life, and then a neighbor comes

15:39

named Axel. And he's the second

15:41

part of the novel. And they're

15:43

very different, but out

15:46

of their work. And he has he has a guardian

15:48

angel. I thought this was really interesting

15:51

that he has somebody that has some

15:53

degree of power Guysler,

15:56

I think his name was. And he

15:58

he at each critical moment, Anali,

16:01

he helps out. He has no reason to help out,

16:03

Isaac, but he does. But it's

16:05

this idea that no matter what

16:07

happens, there's always a solution and

16:09

it's greater work. And as

16:11

this novel builds a carve out an entire

16:15

wilderness area of northern Norway

16:17

and they create a settlement and then becomes a town.

16:20

And nobody really recognizes. And

16:23

he carries things on his back. If he hears

16:25

there's a an iron stove that's

16:27

been abandoned. He goes out there and it on

16:29

his back and walks all the way back. It's

16:33

and, Samson, the reason I it's controversial

16:36

was because, obviously,

16:39

if you look at that novel and look at the values,

16:41

what he hated was urbanized,

16:44

powerful America.

16:47

In the nineteen, the roaring twenties, so

16:49

to speak. And he that

16:51

hatred of America and that

16:54

romantic idealization

16:56

of an earlier agrarian world.

16:59

And I think one of the guys is Swedish,

17:01

actually. So I've gotta

17:04

about a little

17:06

You got a bias. Yeah. But

17:09

anyway, my point is that he became

17:12

a megaphone for not seism to the degree

17:14

that he wasn't just kind of unmissed

17:16

throat, but he was not a very nice guy is what

17:18

I'm trying to say. And after the war, they put him

17:20

on trial. I think

17:22

he was finally acquitted or given a light

17:24

sentence, but he died in the early fifties.

17:27

But of all those novels

17:29

that he wrote, they were kind of the the

17:31

modern novel about what's inside

17:33

a man's

17:33

brain, psychological novel.

17:36

Yeah. It

17:36

was purely I'm sorry. What was he put on

17:38

trial for? After the war was

17:40

Well, and Nazi is that way he's concert

17:43

country.

17:43

Yeah. He he

17:45

went to Berlin when Hitler wanted

17:47

to meet him because Hitler that that novel and

17:50

thought that it had German

17:52

work values, you know, industriousness, and

17:54

he wanted to they tried to appropriate

17:57

him as a spokesman for Nazism and

17:59

then during the Queensland government in Norway.

18:02

And that was very difficult

18:04

Mimes. Remember the British had to evacuate and

18:07

all that far. During that whole period

18:09

and of the occupation, he was he was

18:12

very sympathetic to

18:14

and was a beneficiary of

18:16

special treatment by the public government

18:19

in Norway. And so when that government fell

18:21

during the liberation, he

18:23

was on the wrong side and

18:26

I don't know. There's a lot of a lot

18:28

of literature why he did that and

18:30

what what was it about Mimes, but he had

18:32

a path logical hatred of the English

18:34

speaking world for some reason. And

18:38

I in that book does

18:40

sign of decadence is when a Norwegian

18:42

or Scandinavian migrates to America.

18:45

I don't know what it's something about the

18:48

existential struggle in that cold

18:50

hard, stoney climate landscape

18:53

and what it does to people. It

18:55

makes them man

18:57

against nature. But it's a brilliant novel. It's

18:59

one of the best novels I think was ever written.

19:01

And then can't go

19:03

on too much, but everybody likes to I

19:06

guess there's six great novels besides

19:08

all the short stories like, you know, of

19:12

Conrad, but that one

19:15

book victory

19:17

is is just

19:19

it's a kind of an auto they're all

19:21

autobiographical, but this person who

19:23

is ostracized and

19:26

travels all over the world. And he

19:28

finally becomes content

19:31

with his separation from the world

19:33

when he sees there's this

19:35

young innocent woman and he's

19:38

not that he's a capable of affection, but he

19:40

has this relationship sort of

19:42

whether or then these people come there's

19:45

always evil people as you remember

19:47

a more gym that come up the river or

19:49

an instalment when they try

19:51

to and he finally makes it

19:54

choice to reenter the world for somebody

19:56

else's safety. And

19:59

it's sort of a description

20:02

of what the nineteenth century

20:05

European world was becoming and

20:07

why a person couldn't fit in that

20:10

and what are the wages when you don't fit

20:12

in that and that and it's almost a suggestion

20:14

you have to get back into the game. It's kind of

20:17

a homeric idea that you can't

20:19

be Achilles and nurture wounds

20:21

against the unfairness of the system, even

20:24

though it's warping. And

20:26

you like Achilles after the death of accomplish,

20:28

you've got to go back in there because you're going to have

20:30

to save the Aikians because they're going to lose to

20:32

Hector. And so it's

20:35

even though you're corrupted in the process, it's

20:38

a great novel. It really is

20:39

Yeah. I'll stop there since we started doing

20:42

threes. Okay. Let's

20:45

go ahead and take a break and come right

20:47

back and talk about musicians. We're

20:56

back. And I would like to remind

20:58

everybody that Victor can be found at vikker hansen

21:01

dot com. And you can

21:04

join us with a subscription,

21:07

either a free one to just get a newsletter

21:09

and the new things that are on the website.

21:12

Or you can subscribe so

21:14

you can read the VTH Ultra

21:17

material that is written exclusively for

21:19

the website and some great articles

21:22

that come out with really rich analysis

21:25

of our political culture

21:27

and our culture in general sometimes

21:29

farm life as well. So please

21:32

come join us. Victor, we are

21:34

on two threes here,

21:36

and I would like to talk with you about

21:38

your top or the best pop

21:41

music stars

21:43

that you appreciate their work.

21:46

We

21:46

know I I kind of grew up listening

21:49

to Van Morrison, and he

21:51

was kind of a Mimes of

21:54

the English a sort

21:56

of an English Irish dash

21:58

ballot ballot here, and then

22:00

he was very heavily influenced by

22:02

sold music in Black America, and

22:06

the blues, and he got some

22:08

of those songs. Tupelo Honey

22:10

was just amazing. And

22:13

that that appearance he did, I think it was in

22:15

the last Waltz.

22:18

The way he performed brown eyed girl

22:20

and all of those songs, he

22:22

was he's has a beautiful voice. He's

22:25

a wonderful entertainer. He

22:27

brings all these different music

22:29

traditions into one to one

22:32

Symphony, so to speak, and

22:34

he's still at it. He I I can remember

22:36

listening to him on AM radio in the

22:38

sixties, and he's still at

22:40

it. And so I

22:42

I have nothing, but I I think he's one of

22:44

the best pop singers that ever

22:46

existed. Another one is

22:49

And I think everybody knows Ray orberson.

22:52

He had kind of a tragic life because he died

22:54

before. I mean, he had he we

22:57

all grew up in high school and grammar school with

22:59

pretty woman and it was he was, you know,

23:01

on the charts and everything and he was

23:05

he was right up there with the big

23:07

sixties popular bands,

23:09

but think what people forget is

23:11

that my god.

23:14

He he endured and he endured

23:16

and he endured and

23:20

he had kind of a renewal in the

23:22

nineties And then, you

23:24

know, when he had that that one

23:26

book song, you got it, anything you want,

23:28

you got it, and love

23:30

hurts. Crying, falling,

23:33

all those blue bae you. They all had

23:35

the same thing for someone who's kind of a

23:37

shy person he had he wore

23:39

those sunglasses. He was pale white, kind

23:41

of pasty, but they all have

23:44

unrequited love. You know what I mean? That's

23:47

sort of like a sonnet

23:49

or something or out of that

23:51

period of English quote because he's

23:54

always you know,

23:57

silently suffering because this woman

23:59

has he's done everything where he wants to do

24:01

everything for a woman. And you don't

24:03

usually hear that from a male singer, but

24:05

he he the and he

24:08

he died right when his during

24:10

his renaissance, it was kind of tragic, so

24:12

I've always liked him. I should say

24:14

that I mentioned

24:18

black singers. I think the greatest black

24:20

singer of all time was

24:23

Otis Reading, my gosh. He

24:26

died so young and and

24:28

a car and a plane crash, but,

24:30

you know, I can't turn you loose, and I've been

24:32

loving you so long, try a little

24:35

tenderness, sitting on the dock of the

24:37

bay, my all

24:39

of those songs were wonderful, had

24:41

a beautiful voice, and

24:44

he should still be singing if he hadn't

24:46

been killed. Finally,

24:48

III don't I never

24:51

liked And

24:53

I like him even less now as Bruce brings

24:55

it to him because I think

24:57

he really overdid that

25:00

working class New Jersey thing he's

25:02

now a billionaire and he got involved in all

25:04

these political things. But when

25:06

you look listen to those that

25:08

album, they're rising after

25:10

nine eleven. Those songs he wrote

25:12

almost spontaneously, their wonderful songs

25:15

and then that Nebraska album. And

25:18

those are the two albums I thought were

25:20

just sheer genius. And that's

25:22

hard for me to say. And that's another issue

25:25

that all of our listeners deal with

25:27

actors and singers that

25:29

we, on the conservative or traditional side,

25:31

for the most part, and entertainment

25:34

being on the liberal side, we have to be very careful

25:36

because ours got a art it's, you know, it's

25:38

art for the sake of art, and

25:40

you have to suppress your personal

25:43

feelings or political or ideological leanings

25:45

when you see an artist. That

25:48

has antithetical views to your

25:50

own, but they have real

25:51

genius. And that's hard for

25:53

me, but I knew what I liked

25:56

that he did he he

25:58

did that album

26:01

with this the

26:03

Seger Sessions fan where they

26:05

did all those old

26:06

folktails, and they had,

26:09

like, John Henry. And although No.

26:11

He did. He did. John. He did.

26:13

He had American folk songs

26:15

from the nineteenth and early twentieth

26:17

century. He did them wonderfully.

26:19

Yeah. They were one he's got that raspy

26:21

boy. He he has a a raspy

26:24

boy. Because I can't I mean, I

26:26

may be cheating by going on three, but

26:29

I've always liked Bob Dylan. I've always

26:31

liked him. And, you

26:33

know, I did not like his politics.

26:35

I do I don't think he has

26:38

liberal politics anymore. I don't know what

26:40

they are, but he's a pretty he's

26:42

been come in his old age very

26:44

sensible. But if you look at all

26:46

of those songs,

26:49

you know, from blowing and the wind

26:51

to knocking on there no one wrote

26:54

more songs that were more successful and

26:56

and more pleasant to listen to than Bob Deal.

26:58

I'm not talking about his voice, but and that

27:01

just to end this conversation that gets sent

27:03

to Joan Baez. Everybody hated

27:05

Joan Baez. I know that. But I

27:10

think of all the great female singers

27:12

that came out of the sixties, Jordi Mitchell,

27:14

or Judy Collins, or

27:16

the rest of them, there was no one I

27:19

can't think of anybody who had

27:21

a better voice, you know, that one song

27:23

and they wore that one album when

27:25

she'd redid all of I think

27:27

she made Bob Dylan. We talked about that before,

27:30

made her famous, but that one song,

27:32

one too many mornings. And when you listen to

27:34

her do it versus Bob Dylan, or

27:38

restless for a well when, you know,

27:41

I pity that I I wrote a call when I had

27:43

a little quote from my pity the poor

27:45

immigrant.

27:46

Yeah. That song would be completely

27:49

outlawed today. And she

27:51

even did things like you're you ain't going nowhere

27:53

and that I don't know.

27:56

Place her Des that medieval song,

27:58

pleasure of of love, you know.

28:00

Yeah. That's beautiful song that she did.

28:03

And so she's just got a wonderful voice,

28:05

and she and

28:07

so you have to appreciate that. And I

28:11

I really do. So those were people

28:13

I grew up with, and I'm I'm not

28:15

acquainted with the latest songs, although

28:18

I've been trying to listen to some

28:21

strange you know, this

28:24

guy Nick Cave and he what was

28:26

the name that he did the soundtrack

28:29

that was a very funny song for that

28:31

one with about Australia.

28:34

Do you remember that?

28:35

Yeah. And that guy is fighting with his

28:37

brothers or something and And

28:39

I I remember the

28:40

movie. Like, I don't

28:42

know what the name of it was, but I just remember

28:45

it. Yeah. He he's

28:47

that was a that

28:49

was a really great song. And

28:52

remind me of that is kind of a one he's

28:54

very famous. He's got a whole repertoire of

28:57

good music, but that writer's song.

28:59

I guess that's what it

29:00

was. You know?

29:01

Yeah. That's what it was

29:02

about. The the whole nature is

29:04

answering back as wind and then Earth.

29:06

Yeah. But there was that one song,

29:10

I don't know if you and I talked about that one

29:12

song phenomena. I think we did long time

29:14

ago. The four non blondes

29:16

with that revolution song was kinda funny,

29:18

but it has a good tune, but also was that

29:21

soundtrack to the

29:25

hold on. You

29:27

know, the Turkish movie about GLPLEA

29:29

and he goes

29:31

Oh, the water diviner. The other water diviner.

29:33

That was Christopher Focal Mark Love was

29:35

My alibi.

29:36

Yeah. That's a great That was a good one.

29:39

Swedish Swedish guy, I think he is.

29:41

And didn't even I mean, that wasn't his

29:43

original

29:44

language. So anyway, those

29:46

are some some of the things

29:48

that you like. Yeah. So

29:50

let's turn then to

29:52

websites that you would recommend.

29:55

Websites. Yes. Prejudice

29:57

here because I know a lot of people that have

29:59

websites. Oh, yeah. So

30:02

I've mentioned this before. John

30:04

Henneker and Steve Hayward and

30:07

Scott Johnson. If you look

30:09

at PowerLine, they have you

30:12

know, they aggregate

30:15

alms of the day, but then they discuss in-depth

30:18

some of them are some things in their own experience.

30:21

And they just give a

30:24

level of sophisticated but accessible

30:26

analysis. They've drawn their own

30:29

specialties. Steve

30:31

Hayward is an expert on the history of the

30:33

conservative movement and great quotes. Stone

30:36

Henriker is one's the foundation. He's

30:38

got the most common sense of I

30:40

I you can imagine in a

30:42

person. So if you want somebody to give a

30:44

common sense, take on it,

30:46

and then Scott

30:49

Johnson is wonderful. He's their

30:51

lawyers, he and John and

30:54

and he he's got also

30:56

a really great repertoire of music, blues

30:59

music folk music that he brings into

31:01

that website. But when

31:03

I guess what I'm saying is if I want

31:06

to, you know, get some idea of

31:08

the absurdity of the left

31:10

in a very this

31:13

passionate fashion, and

31:16

then you go to power line. And I recommend

31:18

everybody does it. I'm very

31:20

fond of real clear politics. I

31:24

know John McEntire, one of the

31:26

co owners of it, but It's

31:30

kind of an interesting website. I mean, I

31:32

know now there's real clear education,

31:35

real clear defense. Real clear world,

31:37

everything. They're huge topics, but

31:39

I guess the flagship is

31:42

real clear politics. And as

31:44

everybody knows, they're Formula

31:46

is one article from the left, one from

31:48

the right, and then I guess they must

31:50

have some type of computer cabulation

31:53

and then the most frequent the

31:56

last week, the most frequent

31:58

that day. They highlight those, they

32:00

have polls. It's just all service

32:03

stop. And it's not I

32:05

think probably they're more

32:07

conservative they're on the conservative side,

32:10

but you wouldn't detect that when you go there.

32:13

So it's it's

32:15

those are the two that I try to go to first.

32:18

I try to but I, you know, I go to left

32:20

wing sites too. And the

32:24

other 1III had posted

32:26

an American greatness and my

32:30

colleague, Roger Kimball, writes I don't know

32:32

how he does it. He writes five or six a week

32:34

or they're very, very good.

32:36

He draws on the whole lifetime of

32:38

literary artistic criticism.

32:41

So he's got all of these

32:43

it's not He's not name

32:45

dropping. When you see him quote authors

32:47

and pieces of work, he's just bringing it out

32:49

of his head because those are his

32:52

frame of references as he gets

32:54

into his, you know, mid sixties, late sixties.

32:56

He's got this whole wealth of experience. And

32:59

that's fascinating. So I always try to read

33:01

there. And, you know,

33:03

I Conrad Black is not writing

33:06

for American greatness or national review, but

33:11

he he has what I would call the asiatic

33:13

style and remember and classical

33:15

rhetoric you would there was attic

33:17

simplicity exemplified, but

33:19

I say the order of Lisayette. And

33:23

then there was isocrates, gorgeous

33:28

gorgous the asiatic. That was

33:30

the elaborate ornate style.

33:33

And what would that mean? And far as grammar,

33:35

that would mean. Complex sentences,

33:38

independent and dependent clauses, pair

33:41

us a vocabulary deliberately

33:43

not to show off, but to

33:46

be more precise and it would be more

33:48

to Latin made than Anglo Saxon

33:50

English. And some, I

33:52

guess, when you would read fifteen hundred

33:54

words, there'd be one or two words that rarely

33:56

appear in the printed spoken

33:58

English language anymore. So

34:00

it's just a kind of a

34:02

delightful experience to read him

34:05

even. And so

34:07

I I try to read American greatness real

34:09

clear politics, power

34:11

line, And,

34:14

you know, it's it's just

34:17

off topic a little bit when was thinking of

34:19

these, it's very strange about how

34:24

I think Jack and I talked about this once, I

34:26

don't want to be repetitive, but some of the

34:29

old go to places

34:31

for conservative affirmation are

34:33

gone now. They've disappeared. And

34:37

one of them was a drudge report. Nobody

34:39

quite knows why he went from being

34:41

conservative, news aggregator to

34:43

far left. I don't know what happened,

34:45

but that thing is propagandistic

34:48

now. It's so hard left. And of

34:52

course, a weekly standard had good riders,

34:54

and it disappeared. I think one

34:56

of most talented riders in America's Christopher

34:59

called, well, he used to he writes for the Clairemont.

35:01

Review, but he was absolutely brilliant.

35:04

One of the most insightful writers on Europe

35:06

there there ever was. And -- Yeah.

35:08

And he you was the bowl I think

35:10

he was really the anchor of the weakening

35:13

standard in some ways that's

35:15

disappeared or it's gone to

35:17

the, like, bulwark or whatever that's

35:19

called. And then

35:22

If you want culture, if I just

35:25

Russia is gone. Russia is gone. We forget that

35:27

that three hours every day, and

35:30

and and Rush was an entertainer, a

35:33

news commentator, but he

35:36

had a brilliant insight

35:38

into the leftist mind. And he'd I used

35:40

I used to be driving to work, and I'd

35:42

always listen. And he'd say, now, stay with

35:44

me. Gotta remember what these guys are

35:47

doing now. Don't let if they

35:49

even analyze, you know, to the nth

35:51

level what the left was

35:52

doing. It was pretty funny. No.

35:55

He was a very good guy. There's

35:57

also if people are

36:00

I'm pretty sure you must read this because you

36:02

know the editors so well,

36:04

Roger Kimble. But every

36:06

time I want to read about some

36:08

cultural issue, his

36:11

new criterion is very

36:13

Frank about books

36:15

and the the evaluations,

36:18

you know, the analysis

36:21

of new books out there and what's in

36:23

them and Well, I didn't mention that there. Because

36:25

I had vested interest. That's why I

36:27

didn't wanna blow my own horn, but I was

36:29

a writer and rep residents last

36:32

year, and so that meant the

36:34

rioting residents was to produce

36:36

thirty thousand words. So I wrote I think

36:39

six, five thousand, four thousand

36:41

word essays, one on three

36:43

great classicists, one on

36:45

the destruction of plastics. One

36:48

on Roman society, and

36:50

I did mention the superior code there, one

36:52

on Black Lives Matter. And

36:56

then one on the striking

37:01

similarities between the left and the old

37:03

Confederate mentality, whether it was

37:05

sanctuary cities or federal nullification

37:08

or fixations on one drop racial

37:10

pedigrees. And

37:12

I just have one in this issue, and that's the

37:14

last of that tenure. It's

37:17

on It

37:20

just came out. It's on why study

37:22

military history, which is, you know,

37:24

it's an old topic. It's been done, but

37:26

I tried to have some new contours to it.

37:28

In the age of woke. And then I

37:30

signed out. Roger asked me to do it this year,

37:32

so I'm working right now as we speak

37:34

on the first of the second

37:37

year writers and residents requirement,

37:39

and the first essay is going to be on

37:41

when we've talked about this. It came

37:43

out of these podcasts. And

37:45

that is this this weird triangle

37:47

in Silicon Valley that

37:50

I think has destroyed California. And

37:53

it's about ready to consume America.

37:56

And on one of it is

37:58

an academic academia.

38:01

That gives the prestige or the veneer

38:04

or the sense that these people are

38:06

above politics. Are they scientific?

38:09

Are they analytical when they're not?

38:11

And it's embodied in a geographical

38:14

sense. This triangle is in the Bay Area, so

38:16

that's Stanford University. And

38:18

whether it's some kind of voter

38:21

true, the vote project, the Stanford

38:23

voting project, or It's

38:26

drawing on Stanford affiliated

38:29

faculty or fellows for Elizabeth

38:32

Holmes, the Stanford dropout.

38:34

Theranos Ponzi scheme or

38:37

whether it's a self righteous commentary

38:40

of the bankman,

38:42

freed law professor, mother

38:45

of Sam, Bankman, Fried, and

38:47

he's back on the Stanford campus now

38:49

apparently on his, like, I

38:51

guess, on the conditions of his

38:53

release from custody for

38:55

a while. And they

38:57

were very vocal, of course, she was a bundler

38:59

of Silicon Valley millions

39:02

And of course, I think they're gonna have a

39:04

tax problem when they try to explain how

39:07

much property is

39:09

under their name. And

39:12

what mister Benjamin

39:14

Fried is a tax expert and whether he

39:16

paid sufficient gift tax or

39:18

however that work. I'm sure you found a way

39:20

to evade them. And then in

39:22

that whole matrix, we had the Stanford

39:25

vocabulary list. You'd just see that

39:27

came out. Oh, yeah. This

39:29

and that was IT. As Jack pointed

39:31

out, it was not just the

39:34

humanity center on campus. This was

39:37

informational technology. These are supposedly

39:40

quote unquote scientists in computer

39:42

studies and things like that, but you can't use

39:44

American can't you citizen?

39:47

Just so Great. And they yanked that they

39:49

were so embarrassed, and then there was a Ben Shapiro

39:52

visit where they plastered the campus

39:54

with this picture of a raid

39:56

insect bottle, you know, then

39:59

be gone, and, you know,

40:01

plain on the Nazi gas, the Jew

40:04

get him out. Motif on

40:06

campus and the very liberal administration

40:09

did nothing until there was an outright. And

40:11

then we have the Stanford professor who's

40:13

under assault right now, assault in the

40:15

sense that the left

40:17

is investigating him about

40:20

or publications that may or may not

40:22

have been doctored by

40:24

him. I think they were mostly

40:26

computer generated illustrations

40:29

that reflected the argument of the article, but

40:31

maybe they didn't reflect the actual

40:33

article, but went too far in trying to

40:35

make a point. It's resurface.

40:37

Obviously, he's a white male right now. And

40:39

so in a period of woke up,

40:42

we're trying to make every college

40:44

president and identity politics profile.

40:47

Maybe that's one of the catalyst

40:49

behind it, but you put it all together and

40:52

you've got real problem. I'm not gonna get into

40:54

selling admissions by coaches and

40:57

business schools. It's just a mess.

40:59

Yeah. But it does give it it yeah.

41:01

It's a massive from a to z, and they

41:04

know it, and they've taken a wonderful

41:06

university. I'm the fit person,

41:08

my family, to go there's, I had some ostensible

41:11

loyalty to it, but they've taken

41:13

a once way university, and

41:15

they've ruined it. And the class

41:18

of two thousand twenty six had just been announced

41:20

twenty three percent white, fifty

41:22

two percent fifty one percent fifty

41:25

two percent women, there's only fifteen

41:27

percent white male. And

41:29

I don't understand it because they're apologizing

41:31

for their Jewish exclusionary policies.

41:35

Of the past, well, they're they're trumping that.

41:37

They just don't want they want Asians

41:40

not to be there in any any greater numbers.

41:42

Than their demographic proportions,

41:45

but they don't want any white males there at all.

41:48

They really don't. When you're getting down

41:50

to twelve or eighteen percent. They're thirty

41:52

five percent of the country. So

41:55

and then that's that leg. And then the

41:57

other leg is the corrupt Bay Area

42:00

politics that runs the state. Think

42:02

about it. Nancy Pelosi, Paul Pelosi

42:04

made a fortune on inside trader

42:06

and government projects

42:09

and real estate acquisitions that

42:11

her that his wife was right at

42:13

the beginning. And then we have Diane Feinsheim with

42:15

a Chinese spy and and then

42:18

we've got Gavin Newsom, nothing

42:20

more to be said or Camilla Harris.

42:23

Look at all those politicians that are Barbara

42:25

Boxer that Chinese, a registered

42:27

lobbyist, and then we go to

42:29

Silicon Valley, and what Elon

42:32

Musk, we see it's basically a subsidiary

42:35

for the FBI. That

42:37

it's the investigatory arm of

42:39

the FBI to suppress free speech

42:41

and get around the first amendment. And

42:44

whether it's Google arranging your

42:47

Internet searches on ideological criteria

42:50

or whether it's Facebook, using

42:52

its profits to award the election by

42:54

absorbing the work of state registrars or

42:57

whether it's Twitter suppressing free speech

42:59

at the back end call of the it's a pretty

43:01

corrupt world. And

43:03

it's got seven trillion dollars to

43:05

make that corruption pretty powerful.

43:08

You put all three together and you

43:10

get the big money and

43:12

the communications in the media. You

43:14

get the hardcore left wing

43:16

politics. And you plaster

43:19

it all over with nice

43:21

respectable academic prestige

43:23

and you get a very toxic mix.

43:28

Sounds like it's a tear cone to me.

43:32

That would be unfair to the

43:34

Roman, the lead, I think. Because

43:37

and they are I mean so I'm I'm writing

43:40

that right now. I think it'll be in I hope in

43:42

the March issue, but I'm very I mean,

43:44

I'm very honored to be asked to come back.

43:46

And I'm trying to do that. I just have

43:49

my last book of this contract

43:51

as late. That's the end of everything and about

43:54

how societies disappeared during

43:56

wars. Some work. So I better get that done.

43:58

Yeah.

43:59

Well, I just wanted to put in a plug for

44:01

the new criteria because I do think not just

44:04

for whatever

44:05

reason, but because I really do think that they

44:07

do great analysis. Not a great stuff.

44:10

A culture out there. Yeah. Well,

44:12

I I don't know how Roger Kimbell does it.

44:14

I do not know how he does it. He's the

44:17

editor and chief and publisher of encounter

44:19

books, which is just skyrocket it.

44:22

We at the Bradley foundation

44:24

help help it. But

44:27

help is is not the right word.

44:29

We support it. But my

44:31

gosh, it's selling

44:33

a record number of books. It's become the go

44:36

to place now for conservative authors.

44:39

That have been blackballed or alistracizer unfairly

44:42

treated by the main New York publishers.

44:44

And I don't mean woke ops. I'm talking

44:46

about you know, double day Alfred

44:48

Knapp, Simon and Schuster random house.

44:51

And so and then he's writing

44:53

four, five columns

44:56

a week for different venues, Americans, Spectator,

44:59

American greatness. You

45:01

name it. He's, you know, Epic Mimes.

45:03

He's all over there. And then he's the

45:06

as you say, they had a good chief publisher

45:09

of the new criteria. Yep.

45:12

Okay, Victor. Let's go ahead and take a

45:14

break, and then we'll come right back and we'll

45:16

talk. I'll give you a choice since

45:18

this is our New Year's episode.

45:21

And we have I will go either

45:23

admirable politicians or

45:25

non western movies that you thought

45:27

were really good. But give us little

45:29

bit we'll give it a little bit of time

45:31

to these important

45:33

messages. We're

45:41

back. Victor, which

45:44

one which which is your choice? Do

45:46

you wanna talk about politicians or

45:48

non western movies that you

45:49

like? I'm a glutton

45:53

famous politicians you said?

45:55

Well, the ones that you think are

45:57

this, you know, are are great politicians

46:00

in our current time, I think.

46:03

Well, I'll do it very quickly because we don't have

46:05

much time. Yeah. Tom

46:07

Cotton, I admire I might disagree

46:09

with him a little bit on foreign calls to,

46:11

but boy, he takes

46:14

these issues and he's dead

46:16

to rights. He's fearless. He's

46:18

our expert on the Pentagon. He's

46:21

worried about what's happened to the military. He's

46:23

effective. He's

46:25

he's just a wonderful senator. And

46:28

as I said earlier, I had my differences with

46:31

Ram Paul early on, but my

46:33

gosh, when his

46:35

dissection of Anthony Fauci was brilliant.

46:38

And he's done a lot of good on matters

46:41

fiscal and He's

46:43

a financial conservative, budget

46:45

conservative. And he's a

46:47

free I know he's a libertarian, but he's

46:49

a And I think he's just

46:52

evolved in a way that that is

46:54

is quite stunning. He's he's

46:56

doing a lot of good So I

46:58

I really admire him and, of course,

47:00

I'm prejudice because I'm a

47:02

neighbor and I've known him for years to have a noose

47:05

Nunez. But you take away Devin

47:07

Nunes out of the equation, there would be no

47:11

Russian collusion investigation

47:13

or we wouldn't really know about it. It would still

47:15

be parading. When he

47:18

found out what was going on and he had that

47:20

press conference, the whole weight

47:23

of the media, the political world,

47:25

the cultural landscape. They all went

47:27

after him. They tried it physically, I

47:29

mean, literally destroy him.

47:31

And even his own party when Paul

47:34

Ryan had that ethics Toni Epics investigation.

47:37

And when he had that majority

47:40

report, remember about the

47:42

whole Russian collusion, and then shift

47:44

gave that duplicitous and inexact

47:48

and error ridden minority report and yet

47:50

the New York Times and Washington Post and all of

47:53

the networks craze this

47:55

provokes provocateur shift.

47:58

And when I gloved up, I would drive down the

48:00

freeway, and I think I said that to Jack, you see those

48:03

Most posters, anti noonas,

48:05

with him, with Putin, are I go

48:07

in San Francisco and I'd see in windows

48:10

donate to and

48:13

get rid of Nunez and people were raising

48:15

money ten million dollars plus

48:18

to go after them. So and

48:20

he he kept going. My

48:22

only criticism of him is we need

48:24

him right now. It's not a

48:26

criticism, but my gosh, put

48:28

Devin Nunes at the head of ways and means

48:31

or if he could

48:33

find a consensus if he was if

48:35

Kevin McCarthy said I need another vote

48:37

or something Nunez would

48:39

be be the person to find it. So he would he

48:41

was a very gifted courageous politician.

48:44

As far as foreign movies, I talked

48:46

about it before, my favorite is gaspout. I

48:49

read the novel, you know, it was there was a novel

48:51

written by a guy in nineteen

48:53

seventy

48:53

three, gaspute. Who you

48:56

you remember you saw Dossbooth writes Sami?

48:58

Yeah. Oh, yeah. You you remember

49:00

the blond Nazi guy

49:03

who was supposed to write pup

49:05

pieces about the u boat crew.

49:08

Yeah. And they and he lives and

49:10

survives. Remember, but you kinda detest

49:12

him. He's but then he ends up to be anti

49:14

war after he sees

49:16

how wonderful these guys are and what a

49:18

bad cause they're fighting for. And

49:20

that they're all anti anti hit or supposedly.

49:23

But that that was based on a real person who

49:25

was a Nazi megaphone. Journalist,

49:29

and he did go on a

49:32

u boat. And I was in college

49:34

when he wrote Doss Boot, and it was it

49:37

was a best seller. It's a wonderful

49:39

mewy jurgen

49:40

Proctel. Is that how you pronounce it?

49:42

I

49:42

think it's Jurgen. Jurgen. Yeah. Yeah.

49:44

He's a wonderful actor that he

49:46

was in Dune, the first version of Dune.

49:49

Something about his face is kinda pockmarked

49:51

and the way he has a tragic look

49:54

about it, but that portfolio, the

49:56

captain was brilliant. Whether

50:00

we very quickly to finish, Australian

50:02

directors are just

50:05

wonderful. I mean, Bruce Beresford

50:07

and and others,

50:09

but I think

50:11

he did Brake or Marat

50:14

And that I know that was propaganda. It's

50:16

about the special unit

50:19

during the boar war that that

50:21

they lose a a beloved captain,

50:25

and he's apparently mutilated. They

50:27

don't know quite who does it, but they think that the

50:29

boars do it. He kinda goes on a rampage,

50:32

but he has

50:34

executed two or three in

50:37

a boar, and think maybe three or four people.

50:40

And Kitchener,

50:43

this is the this is well before World

50:45

War one. And

50:48

and after the great Modi expedition,

50:51

but he he decides that

50:53

he has to draw the line and have them execute

50:55

it. So it's kind of fake trial. I

50:57

think Jack Thompson's the lawyer. He was a brilliant

50:59

lawyer. And it

51:02

really an actor and and a role and

51:04

they try to deliver you make sure he gets a bad

51:06

lot lawyer with no experience, but

51:09

he's got intellect

51:11

and brilliance on his side. He just apps

51:13

slightly shreds the British Army's

51:16

prosecution. And

51:19

yet and even at during the

51:21

trial, there's an attack on the boars and these

51:23

guys in jail save everybody and still

51:25

doesn't save them. And breaker

51:27

Marant, you know, is is kind of an older

51:29

person in his mid

51:31

fifties, and he's getting

51:33

old. He's a poet. And

51:36

he's more or less says he he's

51:38

at the point where the things that made him famous

51:40

or legendary as a cavalry

51:43

officer or breaker of wild horses.

51:45

He can't do anymore to the same extent.

51:48

So he's not going to really fight it even

51:50

though he's very principled.

51:53

That's the movie version. And I

51:55

think it's based on a book of the third

51:57

person that was in the movie, the

51:59

young kid that they tried to execute, but they

52:01

they give him a amnesty. You

52:04

wrote a book later and I read that book

52:06

called scapegoats of the empire.

52:09

And it it was about they never

52:11

they never had trial that was lost, all the

52:13

transcript was mysteriously destroyed

52:16

or lost. But this guy

52:18

wrote, but how unfair it was and

52:20

that it became a cause to live because Australia

52:22

very quickly after became independent.

52:25

At least it was a commonwealth that not you

52:27

know, that when the war war took

52:30

place, if I'm not mistaken, if you were

52:32

a British subject whether you live in Australia

52:34

or not, the same. It was almost

52:36

a unity. And so once

52:38

Australia became a commonwealth in Sovereign,

52:41

then they really used this trial.

52:43

They were the only people really in the modern period

52:45

that had been executed for

52:49

reasons other than desertion or something.

52:52

For atrocities. The

52:54

problem with me is that it was

52:56

a brilliant movie. It's one of my favorite

52:58

movies. It's a foreign film, as you said,

53:00

but I don't think it my redscape

53:02

goes to the empire, but the more you read about

53:04

it, I think they were

53:06

guilty is what I'm trying to say.

53:10

I'm not sure that the captain was

53:12

mutilated by the boars. I'm

53:15

not sure that the minister

53:17

they executed or the other think there

53:19

was a German they executed weren't necessarily

53:25

traders or informants. I'm not sure

53:27

they needed to execute prisoners so

53:30

you get the impression. And then Waker morale

53:32

was kind of a Ladies

53:34

man, of course, he's that way in the in the

53:36

movie, but he he claimed he was a

53:39

because I remember he claimed that he was a long

53:41

lost son of a famous admiral Murant.

53:44

And he was he had perfect grammar and

53:46

diction, but he was kind of a fraud, but doesn't

53:48

mean he wasn't a great officer. But,

53:50

anyway, the Australian movie

53:53

is sort of in that sense propaganda from

53:55

the Australian point of view, but it's an absolutely

53:57

brilliant movie in. And

54:01

It's I don't know. It's

54:03

one of the I'm trying to remember the

54:05

actor's name, Woodward, that

54:08

played breaker Miranda. And

54:10

he he had his own he

54:13

had his own he was in the wicker

54:15

man. And it was a he's a brilliant

54:17

actor. He I sadly think

54:19

in his seventies from a heart attack. He was a

54:21

heavy smoker, and he actually

54:23

had a TV series for a year or

54:26

two. Maybe longer. But anyway,

54:28

he was a great actor. He was brilliantly

54:30

directed. Be a brilliantly acclaimed, it

54:33

it's a great movie.

54:35

And what about your American non

54:37

western? Non western? Yeah.

54:40

Why are you saying non western?

54:41

Because we could talk often or he

54:43

talked to us all about I know why you're

54:45

saying it -- Yeah. -- because because the

54:47

the listener right now, oh, no.

54:50

He's gonna see a change. Saying,

54:52

searching. Hey, researchers, high

54:54

noon, wild bunch,

54:57

man and shot liberty powered. Yeah.

54:59

No. Yeah. So Well,

55:02

there is a movie that

55:06

I like. A lot of people like it. It was

55:08

based on an actual answer to it with these bank

55:10

robbers in LA. You remember that they had a body

55:12

armor on it? They made heat, and so Michael

55:14

Mann did heat. And

55:17

that had that's

55:19

a very long movie, and I'm

55:21

not a big fan of Robert Inero, but he

55:24

was great in that movie. Our casino was

55:26

over the top. He, you know, he he went from

55:29

Michael Corleon in a very understated

55:31

and then kind of wild flamboyant at

55:34

Mimes, but he's he's

55:36

he is the interested in that

55:37

role. And then, God,

55:39

they had the woman who

55:42

was her name that

55:44

Ashley Judd. Yeah. Ashley Judd who

55:46

said, you know, I'm a dangerous woman. The

55:48

day Trump got nominated. Remember,

55:51

I mean, inaugurated That's

55:53

right. She she had all of

55:55

that. And it

55:58

it's they had he has a very, you

56:00

know, he did it with Miami, Bice,

56:03

and collateral with Tom

56:05

Cruise about assessing Yeah.

56:07

He has he Michael, he has a very

56:10

and he did that thief, that

56:12

first movie. He was he has an ability

56:15

to blend music and

56:20

and action. They're they're quite it's almost

56:22

realistic. It's really a fact active

56:24

that last scene in that movie when they're shooting,

56:27

and then Robert Nurel did not And

56:29

and he has that kind of strobe lights effect

56:32

from LAX when they have the music. It's

56:34

really well done. I like that movie.

56:36

It's I I watch it.

56:39

All the time. I'm afraid, you know, if

56:42

the other favorite movie is

56:44

and I've talked about that as the

56:47

best years of our lives. I really like Dana

56:49

Andrews. Along with Joel Macrae, I think

56:51

they were two of our best and truly

56:54

American

56:55

actors, you know. Yeah. That's

56:57

great movie. Yeah. Well, he Robert

57:00

Dennaro plays an interesting part, you

57:02

know, after you get tired of his

57:04

cape fear you

57:05

know, kind of act The problem with Mueller

57:07

and De Niro is. He's kinda like

57:09

Jack Nicholson, and that is his

57:12

best performance as you get or

57:14

when he's not acting, he's

57:16

playing himself. And I'm

57:19

I'm

57:20

Cape Frere, I think that's Robert

57:22

De Niro.

57:22

That's Robert De Niro. Yes. And

57:25

that's that's the problem

57:27

where then when he when

57:30

he is very brilliantly when he pro plays

57:32

a part brilliantly and he does and

57:34

he he's absolutely ruthless. This

57:36

is a guy who said he wanted to what beat

57:38

hit down trumping the mouth and

57:40

they asked

57:41

Mimes. He just said, f Trump and --

57:43

Yeah. -- just got carried away. And

57:46

Yeah.

57:46

He has an an interesting politics.

57:48

That's for sure. Yeah. That's

57:51

what's scary about certain actors that

57:53

are that When they play

57:55

a particular role, they're brilliant in

57:57

that particular role, but that's

58:00

because they're not acting. And

58:02

he's one of those people. And

58:06

and that's what's somebody

58:08

like Anthony Hopkins can play any role,

58:10

Gary Ohlman can play any role, Denzel

58:12

Washington can play any role, but

58:15

certain people maybe play that role

58:17

better than anybody else could possibly

58:19

because they're not they're not acting. They're

58:22

just themselves. And that's

58:25

what's frightening about

58:26

it. Well, thank you, Victor. This

58:28

will end our year twenty twenty

58:31

two. It's been a great

58:33

great year for your podcast and,

58:35

you know, everything that

58:38

we talk about you do always

58:40

say something different and something new.

58:42

I'm always astounded by the breadth

58:45

and depth of your conversation

58:48

in these podcasts. So III

58:50

thank you. I thank the audience for

58:52

always coming to us. To hear

58:55

usually the latest news or things on culture.

58:57

I hope you enjoyed this episode.

59:00

Yeah. I did. I I think next time in

59:02

the New Year, we'll talk once on an agriculture,

59:05

farming, and water. How's

59:07

that? But in a a way that's not just dry.

59:10

Yeah. That'll be good. That'll be good. And

59:14

thanks everybody for listening, and I'm

59:16

sure that we're all gonna thank that two

59:18

thousand twenty three will be better

59:20

than two thousand twenty two or something

59:22

about two thousand twenty

59:23

two. The border of the election

59:26

is just glad it's gone.

59:28

Yeah. We'll look forward to twenty twenty

59:30

three. Everybody have a good time tonight.

59:33

And we'll see you in two thousand

59:35

twenty three. Alright. This is Victor

59:37

Davis Hanson in Sami Week, and we're signing

59:39

off.