#138: (Pt. 1) Sorry To Bother You / Putney Swope (1969)

The Next Picture Show

Filmspotting

Tv & Film, Film History, Film Reviews

4.6 • 858 Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2018

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rapper-director Boots Riley has said he hadn’t seen Robert Downey Sr.’s 1969 satirical comedy PUTNEY SWOPE when he made the buzzy new SORRY TO BOTHER YOU, but the films share so much on both a surface level (white men providing the literal voices of black characters) and deeper thematic ones (concerns about capitalism, race, and what it might take to burn down an unjust system) that we had to put them in conversation with each other. In this half, we try to make sense of the fascinating mess that is PUTNEY SWOPE, considering how it works as both satire and comedy, and whether Downey’s choice to overdub his black title character’s voice with his own is an asset or a liability. Plus, feedback on our recent INCREDIBLES 2/GOLDFINGER episodes and some general thoughts on auteur theory and film categorization. Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about PUTNEY SWOPE, SORRY TO BOTHER YOU, or both by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Do we really need another computer?
0:02.0	One that's faster.
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0:04.1	Not everyone does.
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0:15.5	A powerful AI computer is not for everyone.
0:18.2	But if you're trying to change the world,
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0:22.3	Microsoft Copilot Plus PCs powered by Snapchat, the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs
0:27.5	ever.
0:28.2	Natural life varies with you switching settings.
0:31.5	It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present.
0:35.3	You believe that someone out of the past can enter and take possession of a living being?
0:42.0	We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us.
0:48.4	Welcome to the Next Picture Show, a movie of the week podcast of a bit to a classic film and how it shaped our thoughts on a recent release.
0:54.3	I'm Keith Phipps here with Genevieve Koski. Tosh Robinson. Scott Tobias.
0:58.2	Here on the next picture show, we believe that no film exists in a vacuum and that all
1:01.5	culture is more interesting in context. So every week, we get together to talk over a classic film
1:06.2	and consider how it relates to a current movie. This week, we're looking at two films about capitalism,
	...

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