Six String Samurai writer/director Lance Mungia discusses the movies that made an impact on him with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Six-String Samurai (1998)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Big Trouble In Little China (1986)
Seven Samurai (1954)
It Happened One Night (1934)
Frankenstein (1931)
King Kong (1933)
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Little Fugitive (1953)
The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)
A Fistful Of Dollars (1964)
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966)
The Searchers (1956)
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949)
Once Upon A Time In The West (1969)
Wrath Of Man (2021)
Yojimbo (1961)
Last Man Standing (1996)
Ikiru (1952)
Oldboy (2003)
Schindler’s List (1993)
Gremlins (1984)
Jaws (1975)
Psycho (1960)
Dances With Wolves (1990)
The Postman (1997)
Waterworld (1995)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
The Day After (1983)
Fail Safe (1964)
Behind The Green Door (1972)
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
The Irishman (2019)
Other Notable Items
The Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray of Six-String Samurai
Flicker Alley
Elijah Drenner
Kristian Bernier
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
Martin Scorsese
Frank Capra...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Six-String Samurai (1998)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Big Trouble In Little China (1986)
Seven Samurai (1954)
It Happened One Night (1934)
Frankenstein (1931)
King Kong (1933)
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Little Fugitive (1953)
The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)
A Fistful Of Dollars (1964)
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966)
The Searchers (1956)
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949)
Once Upon A Time In The West (1969)
Wrath Of Man (2021)
Yojimbo (1961)
Last Man Standing (1996)
Ikiru (1952)
Oldboy (2003)
Schindler’s List (1993)
Gremlins (1984)
Jaws (1975)
Psycho (1960)
Dances With Wolves (1990)
The Postman (1997)
Waterworld (1995)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
The Day After (1983)
Fail Safe (1964)
Behind The Green Door (1972)
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
The Irishman (2019)
Other Notable Items
The Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray of Six-String Samurai
Flicker Alley
Elijah Drenner
Kristian Bernier
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
Martin Scorsese
Frank Capra...
- 6/1/2021
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
"MacArthur Park" is a clear-eyed, unsentimental look at the crack subculture at its lowest level. The story takes place in Los Angeles' once elegant MacArthur Park, now notorious for being home to addicts, hookers, homeless and violent gangbangers. The movie penetrates this community to put human faces on the excruciating sickness that is drug addiction.
But as a "drug procedural," the film adds little to other movie portraits of addiction ranging from "Panic in Nedle Park" to "Less Than Zero" and "Requiem for a Dream". As uncompromising as it is uncommercial, "MacArthur Park" will have a tough time finding audiences willing to immerse themselves in human misery in hopes of better understanding how drugs imprison te human spirit.
The story behind this movie is, in a sense, more compelling than the one the movie tells. Actor Billy Wirth, who here makes his feature directing debut, was making a documentary on homelessness when he ran into the girlfriend of Tyrone Atins, a crack addict with a 300-page manuscript he wrote while in jail about his life in MacArthur Park.
This became the basis for the movie's script, which Wirth and others rewrote. Then, a week before production began, Atkins reunited with his son for te first time in 12 years.
The film's backbone contains a similar father-son story. Cody Thomas Jefferson Byrd, who manages to suggest quiet authority even in his destitution) is an aging addict whom other junkies look up to. The former musician talks abut quitting the life and even makes plans with P-air (rap musician Bad Azz) to get him into a studio to record his rap songs.
But nothing much comes of such talk until a surprise appearance by the son (Brandon Adams) Cody abandoned along with his mother ive years before. Learning his wife has died is a splash in his face of bitter reality.
But Cody's daily routine doesn't immediately change. Through him, the movie gives glimpses into the hapless lives of his friends -- his girlfriend (Cynda Williams), te park pimp (Sticky Fingaz), the group's mother hen (Ellen Cleghorne), a con artist and dealer (Carlton Wilborn) and a naive young woman (Sydney Tamia Poitier) attracted to the park's seediness -- as well as a coked-up TV star (Balthazar Getty) who comes y in a white limo to score drugs.
Things apparently have to get much worse than they already are for Cody to abandon his "pipe dreams." And so they do, with a police raid, brutal beatings, several senseless killings and mixtures of coke and booze almost ethal in themselves.
Other than the occasional "outsider" such as Cody's son and a young woman who kicked her habit, the movie is essentially filled with delusional characters. No one possesses any rational sense of the urgency of his condition or the dagers of his everyday life.
The actors are extremely good at conveying this odd sort of naivete with honesty and even a kind of wit. Kristian Bernier's nervous camera and music by Stephen Perkins and SKY that flips between hip-hop and jazz nicely underscoe the restless and dire nature of the addicts' lives.
The movie does end on a note of redemption. But even that note feels tentative.
MACARTHUR PARK
Worthwhile Prods. in association with
Northshire Entertainment Group
Producers: Billy Wirth, Maricel Paglayan
Director: Billy Wirth
Writers: Tyrone Atkins, Aaron Courseault, Sheri Sussman, Billy Wirth
Executive producers: Beata Rosenbaum, Stephen Drunsic, Robi Reed-Humes, Alan Harris
Director of photography: Kristian Bernier
Production designer: Cliff Spencr
Music: Stephen Perkins, SKY
Costume designer: Robin Newland
Editor: Terri Breed
Color/stereo
Cast:
Cody: Thomas Jefferson Byrd
Terry: Brandon Adams
P-air: Bad Azz
Alicia: Cynda Williams
E-Max: Sticky Fingaz
Hoover Blue: Ellen Cleghorne
St. Louis: Carltn Wilborn
Steve: Balthazar Getty
Running time -- 85 minutes
No MPAA rating...
But as a "drug procedural," the film adds little to other movie portraits of addiction ranging from "Panic in Nedle Park" to "Less Than Zero" and "Requiem for a Dream". As uncompromising as it is uncommercial, "MacArthur Park" will have a tough time finding audiences willing to immerse themselves in human misery in hopes of better understanding how drugs imprison te human spirit.
The story behind this movie is, in a sense, more compelling than the one the movie tells. Actor Billy Wirth, who here makes his feature directing debut, was making a documentary on homelessness when he ran into the girlfriend of Tyrone Atins, a crack addict with a 300-page manuscript he wrote while in jail about his life in MacArthur Park.
This became the basis for the movie's script, which Wirth and others rewrote. Then, a week before production began, Atkins reunited with his son for te first time in 12 years.
The film's backbone contains a similar father-son story. Cody Thomas Jefferson Byrd, who manages to suggest quiet authority even in his destitution) is an aging addict whom other junkies look up to. The former musician talks abut quitting the life and even makes plans with P-air (rap musician Bad Azz) to get him into a studio to record his rap songs.
But nothing much comes of such talk until a surprise appearance by the son (Brandon Adams) Cody abandoned along with his mother ive years before. Learning his wife has died is a splash in his face of bitter reality.
But Cody's daily routine doesn't immediately change. Through him, the movie gives glimpses into the hapless lives of his friends -- his girlfriend (Cynda Williams), te park pimp (Sticky Fingaz), the group's mother hen (Ellen Cleghorne), a con artist and dealer (Carlton Wilborn) and a naive young woman (Sydney Tamia Poitier) attracted to the park's seediness -- as well as a coked-up TV star (Balthazar Getty) who comes y in a white limo to score drugs.
Things apparently have to get much worse than they already are for Cody to abandon his "pipe dreams." And so they do, with a police raid, brutal beatings, several senseless killings and mixtures of coke and booze almost ethal in themselves.
Other than the occasional "outsider" such as Cody's son and a young woman who kicked her habit, the movie is essentially filled with delusional characters. No one possesses any rational sense of the urgency of his condition or the dagers of his everyday life.
The actors are extremely good at conveying this odd sort of naivete with honesty and even a kind of wit. Kristian Bernier's nervous camera and music by Stephen Perkins and SKY that flips between hip-hop and jazz nicely underscoe the restless and dire nature of the addicts' lives.
The movie does end on a note of redemption. But even that note feels tentative.
MACARTHUR PARK
Worthwhile Prods. in association with
Northshire Entertainment Group
Producers: Billy Wirth, Maricel Paglayan
Director: Billy Wirth
Writers: Tyrone Atkins, Aaron Courseault, Sheri Sussman, Billy Wirth
Executive producers: Beata Rosenbaum, Stephen Drunsic, Robi Reed-Humes, Alan Harris
Director of photography: Kristian Bernier
Production designer: Cliff Spencr
Music: Stephen Perkins, SKY
Costume designer: Robin Newland
Editor: Terri Breed
Color/stereo
Cast:
Cody: Thomas Jefferson Byrd
Terry: Brandon Adams
P-air: Bad Azz
Alicia: Cynda Williams
E-Max: Sticky Fingaz
Hoover Blue: Ellen Cleghorne
St. Louis: Carltn Wilborn
Steve: Balthazar Getty
Running time -- 85 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/25/2001
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
If Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal are looking to put some zip back in their careers, they'd do well to hire Lance Mungia to direct their next movies.
The fresh talent behind "Six-String Samurai" -- a sort of "Mad Max"-meets-"Monty Python" take on the post-apocalyptic, sci-fi martial arts picture -- Mungia, along with collaborator and star Jeffrey Falcon, brings a loopy kinetic energy to the screen that's tough to resist.
While the plotting may be as barren as the film's Death Valley backdrop, there's a great deal of visual creativity on a minimalist budget that bodes well for the filmmaker's future. The present, meanwhile, holds some nice cult potential.
Applying a little revisionist history, "Six-String Samurai" reworks the Cold War, contending that the bomb was indeed dropped and Russia ruled what was left of America. Among the less mutant survivors is a high-kicking Buddy Holly (Falcon), making his way through the desert en route to Lost Vegas to claim the title of King of Rock and Roll, previously held by the recently departed Elvis.
First, however, he must contend with marauding bounty hunters, the Russian Army and a tag-along orphaned kid (Justin McGuire), not to mention a big final showdown with Death (Stephane Gauger). Buddy is armed only with his trusty electric guitar and trustier samurai sword.
The bad guys keep popping up with a repetitive, video game frequency and dialogue is used sparingly, but Mungia, like "El Mariachi"'s Robert Rodriguez, deftly fuses visual elements of humor and violence to original effect.
As the bespectacled Buddy, Falcon, an American who has appeared in more than a dozen Hong Kong martial arts actioners, gets the job done without breaking a sweat or further scuffing his saddle shoes, and young McGuire uses his highly expressive face to supplement his extremely limited dialogue.
Cinematographer Kristian Bernier gets a lot of surreal mileage out of all the sand and Blue Sky, as the film's whimsical juxtapositions are neatly summed up by the music of The Red Elvises, a band that corners the market on Siberian surfer songs.
SIX-STRING SAMURAI
Palm Pictures
Director: Lance Mungia
Producers: Michael Burns & Leanna Creel
Screenwriters: Lance Mungia & Jeffrey Falcon
Cinematographer: Kristian Bernier
Production/costume designer: Jeffrey Falcon
Editor: James Frisa
Music: Brian Tyler
Casting: Ross Lacy
Color/stereo
Cast:
Buddy: Jeffrey Falcon
The Kid: Justin McGuire
Death: Stephane Gauger
Russian General: John Sakisian
Little Man: Gabrille Pimenter
Clint: Zuma Jay
Running time -- 81 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
The fresh talent behind "Six-String Samurai" -- a sort of "Mad Max"-meets-"Monty Python" take on the post-apocalyptic, sci-fi martial arts picture -- Mungia, along with collaborator and star Jeffrey Falcon, brings a loopy kinetic energy to the screen that's tough to resist.
While the plotting may be as barren as the film's Death Valley backdrop, there's a great deal of visual creativity on a minimalist budget that bodes well for the filmmaker's future. The present, meanwhile, holds some nice cult potential.
Applying a little revisionist history, "Six-String Samurai" reworks the Cold War, contending that the bomb was indeed dropped and Russia ruled what was left of America. Among the less mutant survivors is a high-kicking Buddy Holly (Falcon), making his way through the desert en route to Lost Vegas to claim the title of King of Rock and Roll, previously held by the recently departed Elvis.
First, however, he must contend with marauding bounty hunters, the Russian Army and a tag-along orphaned kid (Justin McGuire), not to mention a big final showdown with Death (Stephane Gauger). Buddy is armed only with his trusty electric guitar and trustier samurai sword.
The bad guys keep popping up with a repetitive, video game frequency and dialogue is used sparingly, but Mungia, like "El Mariachi"'s Robert Rodriguez, deftly fuses visual elements of humor and violence to original effect.
As the bespectacled Buddy, Falcon, an American who has appeared in more than a dozen Hong Kong martial arts actioners, gets the job done without breaking a sweat or further scuffing his saddle shoes, and young McGuire uses his highly expressive face to supplement his extremely limited dialogue.
Cinematographer Kristian Bernier gets a lot of surreal mileage out of all the sand and Blue Sky, as the film's whimsical juxtapositions are neatly summed up by the music of The Red Elvises, a band that corners the market on Siberian surfer songs.
SIX-STRING SAMURAI
Palm Pictures
Director: Lance Mungia
Producers: Michael Burns & Leanna Creel
Screenwriters: Lance Mungia & Jeffrey Falcon
Cinematographer: Kristian Bernier
Production/costume designer: Jeffrey Falcon
Editor: James Frisa
Music: Brian Tyler
Casting: Ross Lacy
Color/stereo
Cast:
Buddy: Jeffrey Falcon
The Kid: Justin McGuire
Death: Stephane Gauger
Russian General: John Sakisian
Little Man: Gabrille Pimenter
Clint: Zuma Jay
Running time -- 81 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 9/18/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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