Become a backer of Daniel or Jack to get exclusive access to a new bonus episode about Bob Roberts (1992), written, directed by, and starring Tim Robbins; also starring Alan Rickman, Ray Wise, Giancarlo Esposito, Harry Lennix, Lynne Thigpen, Susan Sarandon, James Spader, Fred Ward, Bob Balaban, John Cusack, Gore Vidal, and Jack Black. Plus access to all other bonus episodes. Daniel's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/danielharper/posts Jack's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4196618&fan_landing=true
IDSG bonus episodes are a regular extra just for Patreon backers of myself or Daniel.
Here's a preview of the new one.
There are a ton of amazing people in this movie, among which is the woman who plays Leslie Knope's mom on Parks and Recreation, is one of the news anchors, and I like to think that this is part of a shared universe in which
She left her position as a news anchor and moved to Pawnee, Indiana became a powerful local local elected politician and then Parks and Recreation exists in the universe in which Bob Roberts is the senator in Pennsylvania That's that's that's how I like to think about this film.
Anyway, um, but but Jack Black's character and the the trio like I don't remember if it was I I don't remember if it was they're like the mayor's, like she's the mayor's wife or whatever.
I think that's it.
I would trust that you remember it better than I do.
But it is like, well, this is a person that you need to meet.
This is a person of some kind of power and prestige.
And they're literally reviewing footage, which is essentially like what campaign ads are going to run.
And like hints of the Willie Horton ad in certain in certain bits of that, right?
and even the documentarian is kind of coerced into Being a part of this process, which is kind of a family.
I love that man.
Yeah, where you know, they ask the documentarian Do you agree with this and then the camera like tilts up and down which is yeah, it's fascinating.
It's fascinating That's great, because one of the repeated refrains you get from Bob Roberts whenever anybody in the media challenges him is, you're betraying your responsibilities as a journalist.
You're supposed to be objective.
Right.
He says that repeatedly.
He says that in the very early scene with the wonderful Lynn Thypen as an interviewer.
Yeah.
She pops up and then disappears again.
She's amazing.
She's amazing.
She's brilliant.
That might be my favorite scene in the movie, honestly.
Anyway, continue.
I think my favourite scene might be the bit where the production assistant on the SNL rip-off pulls the electrical cables and stops the show.
I think, I love that bit.
I just want to, you know, I just cheer for that woman.
Oh yeah, yeah, no, no.
No, yeah, that is a great little moment because, I mean, very much like Punishment Park actually.
Punishment Park was interested in the ways in which the documentarian is made complicit.
And this is doing something similar because, again, Bob Roberts repeatedly has this refrain to journalists, you're supposed to be objective, by which he means don't challenge me, be completely neutral, don't point out stuff that I don't like, which is what these people always mean.
Again, very acutely observed.
And then he's got these people following him around, and they're actually working, I mean, firstly to hide stuff from them that they don't want them to see, and secondly to bring them in and try to make them complicit, try to treat them like they're members of the team.
And they, as you say, the bit where the camera nods, I think that's really clever.
Right, right.
And even if that's like, well, I'm telling you, I'm nodding the camera as a way of indicating to you That I'm on board so that you'll continue to talk or what, like, there's so much subtext, right?
And there are different ways of interpreting it, right?
And you can think of that as the documentarian, the cameraman, ultimately, because, you know, the British man who's running, who's actually doing the documentary is not the person operating the camera.
And so there's someone offering a camera who's just kind of going.
Yes.
Yes.
I agree move on like fuck off or yeah, someone agrees and I think we're allowed a certain degree of Ambiguity in that moment, right, you know, and it'd be fascinating if the film did anything with that But ultimately again, the film is kind of overstuffed and it it just kind of does the thing and then moves on but then Bob Roberts meets this the mayor's wife and
And, like, her son and his two buddies, who are, like, just open fuckin' fascists, right?
Oh yeah.
Like, when they're first introduced, they're doing the, like, the Sieg Heil, the Roman salute, but in this kinda lackadaisical way, which is very, very 2016 to me.
Yeah.
Like, it's so, like, no, no, we're doing the Sieg Heil, but we're waving, look, we're waving, like, it's a thing, you know?
No, no, no, Daniel.
It's it's a Roman salute the fact that the Nazis appropriated it That's just yeah, and that makes it very unfair of you to compare And even the fact that they're all dressed in like a shirt and tie like a white shirt and a tie They have the like the close cropped haircuts They didn't quite anticipate the like the fast haircut with the long on top thing But in the trench coats like that's the thing if only the Nazis at the United right rally had thought to buy trench coats
That's the thing they were missing, that we would live in a fascist America if only they had thought to buy trench coats, right?
And, like, Jack Black is, like, I mean, he's chewing the fucking scenery in this, right?
He is pitched too high, but in that way of, that's kind of...
Really adorable, and I love it.
It's bloody funny.
The last time you see him, he's just staring.
He's basically doing the Kubrick stare.
He's copying Vincent D'Onofrio from Full Metal Jacket, and he's just talking in a monotonous voice like a robot, and he's got a Manson style in common with the film.
He's literally got an iron cross on his forehead!
Like, what do you want?
The film constantly takes the piss out of Well, it's not taking the piss out of the 60s, it's taking the piss out of the way these people are obsessed with reacting against the 60s.
And in the process, it brings in loads of 60s references.
Right, yeah.
And then, he just looks like Manson at the end, and he's doing it in this robot voice, and the stuff he's saying is just the most, it's just, you know, fascist pap.
It's just that he doesn't make you feel guilty about being rich like all these liberals, but he's talking like a robot.
I mean, I've got to admit, I lolled.
Oh yeah, sure, no.
There is the implication, I think, that these are the people that murdered the journalist, the indie journalist at the end.
Yeah, because you get the scene where they rampage through the streets and just attack somebody at random.
Right, right.
Or people in their orbit.
And this is the kind of thing where I feel like the movie, the limitations of budget, and the limitations of production, and the limitations of You kind of had one pass at a script and did the thing kind of kind of let you down because it would be Interesting like like we get like close-up shots like we are introduced to the Jack Black character Very early and he's like talking directly to the camera and this is not to the documentarian camera.
This is to the like a newscast camera right like a live Shot at some scene and he says, you know, I love Bob Roberts.
He is the greatest politician in America and we love him or whatever like it's it's this very kind of blank stare kind of thing and yet we don't see anything that justifies like that level of
Devotion right like we don't see the sort of the backstory and yet we know at this time in the early 90s I mean, this is You know Ruby Ridge is a year away You know like this is this is the point at which we know that like Republican politicians, you know Ron Paul is doing his racist newsletters around this time you know far-right politicians are absolutely
a wink and a nudge away from legitimate neo-Nazis, right?
We've been fairly critical, I think, but I would say I'm very critical of it within the context of thinking it's generally pretty great.
I'm less impressed with it now maybe than way back when, but yeah, it's pretty good.
Pretty damn good.
On the specific point with those three young fellows.
I think the background to that is meant to be basically that they come from a family of Christian fascists, because... Oh yeah, yeah.
Which was the total thing in 92.
Oh yeah.
In 92, the sort of the Jerry Falwell era of Republican politics was, that was the height of it, ultimately.
So yeah, no, absolutely.
Sorry, not trying to interrupt, just agreeing with you, yes.
Please continue.
That's fine, because you get that line from the mayor's wife, their mother, or the mother of one of them at least, I'm not entirely sure.
I thought they were all brothers, but maybe not.
They all play guitar, and they're in a band together, and that's all you really need to know, right?
Yeah, but you know, she's okay with them listening to his music, even though the guitar is the instrument of the devil, or something like that.
And she even listens to Bob Roberts' music when she's alone.
And, uh... Don't tell my husband.
Don't tell my husband.
Wow.
These kids, they come from- What a moment in cinema history that is!
Jesus Christ!
They come from a background where if they were ever caught listening to Nirvana, there'd be an exorcism or something.
Right, right, right.
It's not that they would.
I am not disinclined to believe that any person should be punished for masturbating at all.
That is perfectly fine with me.
The idea of that woman sitting and masturbating to Bob Roberts' records fills me with a slight distaste, shall we say.
Oh, I see.
I didn't get that.
Innocent that I am, I genuinely didn't get that.
Yeah, no.
Sometimes I'll listen to them when I'm alone, when my husband isn't around.
You know, Jerry Lewis tugging on his collar moment.
