Send us a text

This week’s moving picture was selected by guest host (and Season 15’s Squib Games curator/raison d'être) Jack, canonically a Ted Kaczynski stan, as confirmed by his pick CLEARCUT (1991).

And so the pod returns to Canada (a.k.a. America’s sombrero) and Canadian lore with another émigré director’s first North America feature-length film (see Hard Targét ep from two weeks ago for our prior), this time with a story originally told in the Canadian novelist M. T. Kelly’s A Dream Like Mine about Canadian First Nations people fighting to maintain the sanctity of their land against industry and classified in the movie’s hard media BluRay release as “folk horror” by Sevrin in its 15-disc All the Haunts Be Ours collection. Cold War Polish-famous director Ryszard Bugajski was chosen for his political provocateur Polish pictures (after a stint directing Canadian TV) and modifies the 1987 novel, moving it from mercury poisoning and mining to the timber industry after the recent Oka standoff (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oka_Crisis) and hence finding a title, which at least one host this ep finds oxymoronic. Bugajski also credits himself with cutting a lot of the dialogue from the screenplay to let the film visually provide exposition.

The film stars Graham Greene--which is why host Ryan’s grandfather saw the limited release film that by the 2000’s had only two extant prints (one copy was about to be disposed and why the transfer on the BluRay and streaming has 35mm film’s cue marks, a.k.a. cigarette burns)--as a trickster spirit or actual human person (depending on whether lead actor or director was asked) who challenges the film’s White protagonist and lawyer played by Ron Lea who’s failed to protect the land against mill owner Bud Rickets played by Battlestar Galactica’s (the newer, good one) own Michael Hogan (not to be confused with Jack Nance who concurrently white haired and sporting a moustache by a river was at this time portraying Pete in Twin Peaks, you know, “Wrapped in plastic.” and “There was a fish in the perculator.”). Greene’s Arthur (no last name like Cher or Prince) as either/both/neither water spirit or direct-action First Nations radical coerces the lawyer to kidnap the mill owner, which leads to a few deaths and some skin peeled off Rickets’ leg. The film is lensed by François Protat, who’d shot Weekend and Bernie’s two years prior for First Blood director (and Canadian for sneeze sound effect) Ted Kotcheff. The entire folk horror or eco terror or supernatural revenge or suspense film resolves with an expected but undelivered whip pan to Rod Serling smoking a cigarette whilst giving an enigmatic, summative moral of events witnessed.

This ep goes big on host Tall Ken trivia as he finds his notepad; reveals his chainsaw approach to episode editing; sees in Greene’s jeans and sneakers attire the spirit of Jerry Seinfeld (contemporaneous character, rather than actor or comedian or present-day Netflix movie director); and explains how he identifies people and sizes them up. Additionally, Ryan, Thomas, and Jack have sane things to say.

THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.
Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTU
Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0
Bluesky: @goodpodugly.bsky.social
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-g
Letterboxd (follow us!):

Podcast: goodpodugly
Ken: Ken Koral
Ryan: Ryan Tobias