the searchers

It's officially 2024...Happy New Year? We're not getting our hopes up! While everyone nursed their hangovers and tried desperately to get back to "normal" everyday life, we decided to take a look back at all the things we watched in the past year and talk about some stuff that falls outside the usual scope of the show. Join us as we each count down our individual top five new-to-us watches of the past year, take time to reflect on your own highs and lows, and add some new recommendations to your watchlist.

Lots of links to share from this episode:

Check out The Carlee Canon (Carlee's Top 20 Films of the 1990s)

Check out The Aaron Canon (Aaron's Top 20 Films of the 1990s)

Read Carlee's piece, 'The Puritanical Eye: Hyper-Mediation, Sex on Film, and the Disavowal of Desire' at Lo Specchio Scuro

Read benzostraydogs' Letterboxd Review of Sam Esmail's 'Leave the World Behind'

Listen to Our Junk Filter Episode on Jim McBride's 1983 Remake of 'Breathless'

Check Out Aaron's List of His Top 75 Non-2023 Watches of Last Year.

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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish. 

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.

Creator of the "eventually, forever" newsletter and film twitter heavy Adam Sullivan joins us to discuss the brilliant Hayao Miyazaki and his 1992 film 'Porco Rosso'. Initially conceived as a short film exclusively for in-flight guests of Japan Airlines, the film eventually grew in ambition and scope and now stands as one of Miyazaki's most underrated, visually transcendent masterpieces. 

We discuss the film's many classic Hollywood touchpoints, including the films of Howard Hawks, Victor Fleming, and John Ford and how these influences create a sense of fantasy more grounded that other Miyazaki works. Then, we discuss the film's setting amidst the rising tide of fascism in the Adriatic and its connection to the moving character portrait at its core. Finally, we discuss how 'Porco Rosso' (perhaps more than any other film) suggests some of the director's late period affinities in works like 'The Wind Rises'.

Plus: We talk Miyazaki's latest work 'The Boy & The Heron', which we have all had the chance to see ahead of its wide release in the US Friday, 12/8/23. 

Follow Adam Sullivan on Twitter.

Read and subscribe to Adam's newsletter "eventually, forever".

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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish 

In Episode 48, Michael and Julian talk about

1.     The Assassination of JFK.  Julian is typically pragmatic, while Michael thinks it unlikely that Oswald could have hit the moving target twice from that distance. We talk conspiracy theories.

2.     Monument Valley. This is one of Julian's favorite places in the USA.


Other Show Notes
Learn more about how America's culture developed in Julian Bishop's High, Wide, and Handsome.

Available here to buy as a paperback, ebook, or audiobook

We are beyond thrilled to be joined this week by Dr. Angelica Lawson (Northern Arapaho), an Assistant Professor of Film Studies and Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. In this episode, Dr. Lawson talks to us about Native American representation in films throughout Hollywood’s timeline.  From her, we gain an understanding on how Indigenous identities are portrayed in silent pictures and early Westerns.  We also learn the definition of revisionist Westerns and their groundbreaking impact in sharing more developed Native American characters. And finally, we revisit movies from the 1990s through today, with tips on where to access filmography created by Native American artists. This was such a special episode for us and we hope you’ll share with a friend!

Below are the films, television programs, and literary pieces referenced in the episode.

Films and Television Programs Mentioned:

The Vanishing American (1925)

Hopi Snake Dance (1893)

Sioux Ghost Dance (1894)

Stagecoach (1939)

The Searchers (1956)

Broken Arrow (1950)

Cheyenne Autumn (1964)

Little Big Man (1970)

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

The Native Americans Series (1974) – NBC

Lonesome Dove Series (1989) – CBS; Unforgiven (1992); Tombstone (1993); Legends of the Fall (1995); Wyatt Earp (1994); The Quick and the Dead (1995); Back to the Future Part III (1990)

Dances with Wolves (1990)

Wind Talkers (2002)

Flags of Our Fathers (2006)

Yellowstone (2018-Present) – Paramount Network, Peacock

Pocahontas (1995)

Smoke Signals (1998)

Naturally Native (1998)

Skins (2002)

The Doe Boy (2001)

Four Sheets to the Wind (2007)

Barking Water (2009)

Rustic Oracle (2019)

Blood Quantum (2019)

Reservation Dogs (2021 – Present) – FX on Hulu

Books and Articles Mentioned:

The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 (1826) by James Fenimore Cooper

Dime Novels / Dime Westerns

The Vanishing American (1925) by Zane Grey

Picturing Indians: Native Americans in Film, 1941–1960 (2020) by Liza Black

Little Big Man (1964) by Thomas Berger

Killing the Indian Maiden (2006) by M. Elise Marubbio

“Coyote’s Way: Missy Whiteman’s Indigenous New Media” in

Studies in American Indian Literatures (Spring 2017) by Dr. Angelica Lawson

Native Americans on Film: Conversations, Teaching, and Theory (2013)

Reservation Reelism: Redfacing, Visual Sovereignty, and Representations of Native Americans in Film (2013) by Michelle H. Raheja

Native Recognition: Indigenous Cinema and the Western (2013) by Joanna Hearne

Please Comment, Rate, and Share our episodes and tell us what you like and what you want to hear more of!

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In the thirty-ninth episode of Season 3 (Manifest Destiny) Kyle is joined by podcaster Ben Thelen (of the Dead Reckoner podcast) and novelist Samuel Cullado to discuss John Ford's true cinematic masterpiece about the discomforting genocidal attitudes and racial antagonism that keeps us from mending our historical wounds in The Searchers.