Candyman (1992)

Hal & Craig watched John Sayles 1987 film Matewan. The film, starring Chris Cooper and James Earl Jones, tells the true story of the fight between West Virginia coal miners and union busters whose tactics grow increasingly more violent. Discussions also include:

• Aaron Bushnell and his remarkable protest against Palestinian genocide;
• Hal's new obsession THE FLOOR, the Rob Lowe hosted game show;
• Our recent watches: Fitzcarraldo, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Barry Lyndon, and The Lighthouse;
• Anti-union violence and America's history of union busting.

Follow us online!

• Follow us on Twitter at @RedRoseFilmPod
• Follow our Facebook Group
• Follow Hal on Twitter at @shestructured
• Follow Craig on Twitter at @KegFreighter
• Follow Hal's Letterboxd
• Follow Craig's Letterboxd

Sources & Links

• https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2024-02-26/spirit-awards-2024-protester-previous-winner-merawi-gerima
• https://x.com/kylebuchanan/status/1761886578073559498?s=20
• https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/28/movies/film-john-sayles-s-matewan.html
• https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/17/fron-m17.html
• https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/introduction-to-the-west-virginia-mine-wars.htm

Hal and Craig discuss high-risk activism and the 2022 thriller How to Blow Up a Pipeline (dir. Daniel Goldhaber). We also discuss:

• The end of the Vince McMahon era of professional wrestling;
• The Insane Clown Posse (WHOOP! WHOOP!) and their fight against the FBI;
• The misogyny of the police, as seen in Netflix's AMERICAN NIGHTMARE;
• Jonathan Glazer's new film THE ZONE OF INTEREST; and
• The effects of successful high-risk activism.

Follow us Online!

• Follow us on Twitter at @RedRoseFilmPod
• Follow our Facebook Group
• Follow Hal on Twitter at @shestructured
• Follow Craig on Twitter at @KegFreighter
• Follow Hal's Letterboxd
• Follow Craig's Letterboxd

SOURCES & LINKS

• “Alabama Rising” https://inquest.org/alabama-rising/ 
  
• Anarchist Black Cross Federation (https://www.abcf.net/prisoner-info/)
  
• Arkansas 2020 Uprising Repression links: 
  • https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-angels-commissary-prison-costs
  • https://staging.bsky.app/profile/queersatanic.bsky.social/post/3khqqoh7boq2u
  • https://www.thenation.com/article/society/movement-racial-justice-police-arkansas/
  • https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2023/12/12/little-rock-police-vehicle-arson-cases-end-with-federal-sentencing-of-four-defendants
    
• How to Provide Support to Political Prisoners: https://www.prisonersolidarity.com/how-to
  
• Gundelach, Peter and Jonas Toubøl; HIGH- AND LOW-RISK ACTIVISM: DIFFERENTIAL PARTICIPATION IN A REFUGEE SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT. Mobilization: An International Quarterly 1 June 2019; 24 (2): 199–220. doi: https://doi.org/10.17813/1086-671X-24-2-199
  
• McAdam, Doug. "Recruitment to high-risk activism: The case of freedom summer." American journal of sociology 92.1 (1986): 64-90.
  
• McAdam, Doug, and Ronnelle Paulsen. “Specifying the Relationship Between Social Ties and Activism.” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 99, no. 3, 1993, pp. 640–67. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2781286. 
  
• Nepstad, Sharon, Christian Smith; Rethinking Recruitment to High-Risk/Cost Activism: The Case of Nicaragua Exchange. Mobilization: An International Quarterly 1 April 1999; 4 (1): 25–40. doi: https://doi.org/10.17813/maiq.4.1.8152670287r21558
  
• “Struggle for Power: The Ongoing Persecution of Black Movement by the U.S. Government” https://m4bl.org/struggle-for-power/
  
• Zwerman, Gilda, and Patricia G. Steinhoff. 2005. “When Activists Ask for Trouble: State-Dissident Interactions and the New Left Cycle of Resistance in the United States and Japan.” Pp. 85-107in Repression and Mobilization: Social Movements, Protest, and Contention, edited by Christian Davenport, Hank Johnston, and Carol Mueller. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 
  
• Gilda Zwerman, Patricia Steinhoff; The Remains of the Movement: The Role of Legal Support Networks in Leaving Violence While Sustaining Movement Identity. Mobilization: An International Quarterly 1 February 2012; 17 (1): 67–84. doi: https://doi.org/10.17813/maiq.17.1.b56l107q2n175778
  
• Zwerman, Gilda, Patricia G. Steinhoff, and Donatella della Porta. 2000. “Disappearing Social Movements: Clandestinity in the Cycle of New Left Protest in the United States, Japan, Germany, and Italy.” Mobilization 5(1): 83-100. 
  
• Examples of repression:
  • https://theintercept.com/2020/06/02/history-united-states-government-infiltration-protests/
  • https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/19/chicago-nato-protesters-terrorism-charges 
  • https://truthout.org/articles/revealed-the-story-behind-the-nato-3-domestic-terrorism-arrests/ 

In this episode, Hal and Craig discuss Steven Soderbergh's Traffic and its perspective on the War on Drugs, as well as our favorite Soderbergh films. Discussion also includes:

• The new king of hip-hop: Ben Shapiro;
• Craig accidentally watched a Christian horror movie;
• Steven Soderbergh at the forefront of new cinematic techniques;
• Movies with large ensemble casts and multiple plot lines;
• Our recent film watches, including THE LAST DUEL, KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, SOCIETY OF THE SNOW, and THE DAMNED.

Follow the Red Rose Film Club:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RedRoseFilmPod

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1629755410757632

Follow Craig on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/GentlemanBaby/ 

Follow Hal on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/shestructured/ 

Website: www.redrosefilm.com 

SOURCES & LINKS:

• 1999 UNESCO report “Drug Trafficking in Mexico: A First General Assessment” by sociologist Luis Astorga: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000117644 

• Gorrin, Morales-Arilla, and Ricca (2023). “Export side effects of wars on organized crime: The Case of Mexico” Volume 144 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022199623000612 

• https://www.businessinsider.com/40-years-ago-the-us-sent-mexico-into-a-financial-crisis-and-it-transformed-the-narcotics-industry-2015-9 

We wrap up our series on the films of S. Craig Zahler with perhaps is least palatable film DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE. In the 2018 crime thriller, Zahler focuses his increasingly fascistic lense on the issue of........police brutality (oof!). Starring Mel Gibson (double-oof!) and Vince Vaughn, Zahler's brand of gritty celluloid violence goes full-mask off and asks the big questions like: Why can't cops beat up whoever they want? Conversation also includes:

• Craig complaining about baseball;
• Hutton Gibson, Mel's nazi-sympathizing, conspiracy-enthusiast father.
• Joe Biden's renewal of the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act; an
• We discuss our recent watches including BODY DOUBLE, THANKSGIVING, SALTBURN, and ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD

Links & Sources

https://policecrime.bgsu.edu/

https://policeepi.uic.edu/data-civilian-injuries-law-enforcement/research-injuries-caused-law-enforcement/

https://policebrutalitycenter.org/police-brutality/statistics/ 

Police Integrity Lost: A Study of Law Enforcement Officers ...

Office of Justice Programs (.gov)

https://www.ojp.gov › pdffiles1 › nij › grants

On this week's episode, we're switching up the format and doing a 2023 Review Show! Hal and Craig list their favorite films and performances of 2023. As well as discussions about their favorite first time watches (of non-2023 films) and favorite non-film media of 2023. And we discuss the not-so-good of 2023 and break down some of our least favorite movies of the year.

In this episode, Hal and Craig discuss colonialism by way of Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS, an innovative film that delves into Algeria's National Liberation Front and their bloody battles against French colonizers in the 1950s. Discussions also include:

• New movie roundup: MAY DECEMBER, SATAN WANTS YOU, and EILEEN;
• How French colonization depicted in Battle of Algiers is an eerie parallel to America's colonial interests in Iraq and Afghanistan;
• Alabama's exploitation of the labor of incarcerated people;
• Elon Musk's doomed efforts to stand down Swedish labor unions; and
• A really weird garage sale where Craig bought all of Gore Vidal's "Narratives of Empire" books.

Sources and Links:

• https://aflcio.org/2023/12/15/service-solidarity-spotlight-labor-civil-rights-organizations-file-explosive-lawsuit
• https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/feb/4
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/12/12/alabama-prison-labor-lawsuit/ 
• Free Alabama Movement blog:https://freealabamamovement.wordpress.com/ 
• Prison Labor practices in Arizona: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-investigations/2022/07/18/republic-kjzz-investigation-how-prison-labor-works-arizona/10051268002/

We continue our series examining the films of S. Craig Zahler and their increasingly bizarre depiction of a violent, conservative "uptopia/dystopia". This week we watched BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99, Zahler's attempt at a prison exploitation flick starring Vince Vaughn, Don Johnson, and Udo Kier. Also:

• We celebrate the death of Henry Kissinger, one of history's greatest villains.
• Upcoming movies we're geeked for: THE IRON CLAW, THE SWEET EAST, POOR THINGS, and FERRARI.
• The Daily Wire has released an anti-trans comedy called LADY BALLERS (or based JUWANNA MAN)
• What makes an exploitation film?

Links and Sources:

• https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199791286/obo-9780199791286-0096.xml

• https://www.propublica.org/article/tanf-welfare-biden-proposal-state-spending-low-income-families#:~:text=The%20Biden%20administration%20this%20fall,been%20engaging%20in%20for%20years. 

We're talking labor unions! Hal and Craig watched Barbara Kopple's HARLAN COUNTY, USA, the ground-breaking 1976 documentary chronicling the struggles of coal mine workers in Harlan County, Kentucky as they fight against coal barons, police, and scabs in an effort to join the United Mine Workers of America. Discussions also include:

• Abortion rights winning at the ballot;
• Weaponizing the Civil Rights Act against student protestors;
• A round-up of our recently watched films: The Killer (2023), The Flash (2023), Serial Mom (1994), and The Conformist (1970); and
• The state of labor unions in Kentucky today;

Sources & Links:

• National Labor Review Board
• "The Search for Order 1817-1920" by Robert H. Wiebe (1967)
• "Democracy for the Few" by Michael Parenti (2002)
• "Subterranean Fire: A History of Working Class Radicalism in the US" by Sharon Smith (2006)
• Nyden, Paul. 1978. Rank-and-file organizations and the United Mine Workers of America. The Insurgent Sociologist. 8(2): 25.
• Harlan County USA: Songs of the Coal Miner's Struggle
• "They'll Never Keep Us Down" by Hazel Dickens
• "Which Side Are You On?" by Florence Reese
• "The Yablonski Murder" by Hazel Dickens

We celebrate our 1 year pod-iversary by beginning a new series of conservative films, specifically the violent fantasies of S. Craig Zahler. We begin with Zahler's directorial debut Bone Tomahawk, a western-horror starring Kurt Russell, Richard Jenkins, Matthew Fox, and Patrick Wilson. Zahler has a stylish eye and works well in genre conventions, but what lies beneath this horror western is a lot of tired tropes painting native tribes as inhuman. And we start tracking the different types of Manly Men in the Zahler-verse. Discussion also includes:

• Scorsese's KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON;
• Under-appreciated mensch David Arquette;
• Traditional vs. Revisionist westerns;
• And some of our favorite moments from our first year of podcasting!

Hal & Craig discuss Bill Gunn's 1973 film Ganja & Hess and how its the perfect allegory for the nightmarish world wrought by post-colonialism. In addition, we discuss how the film was nearly lost to the sands of time and Sam Waymon's (who also stars in the film) incredible, haunting score. Also:

• Craig watched some bad Frankenstein adaptations;
• Hal's undying love for Suspiria (2018);
• Ben Shapiro and the Daily Wire are making a Snow White movie; and
• The Scholastic Book Fair capitulates to anti-LGBT morons.

Sources & Links:

• Brian Eggert's essay on Ganja & Hess: https://deepfocusreview.com/definitives/ganja-hess/