Episode 1125 - Wild Wild West

[RSS]

Ian, Dave, and Mike are back for another round of Pulpdiction! This time the guys look at the Will Smith box office flop Wild Wild West, featuring the one, the only, the legendary Jon Peters' mechanical spider! [ 2:51:10 || 84.8 MB ]

 

[You Know Who]

Great review gents! I was looking forward to this one and have already listened to it twice.

Spoiler

As for the Cossack vs Davy Crockett debate, Ian and Dave were both wrong (though Dave is geographically closer): Gordon is dressed as a coureur des bois.

 

[Donomark]

I'll never watch this movie cuz spiderz, but the conversation on the tonality of the film given the racial politics of post Civil War vs. the late 90s was very interesting. I doubt Will Smith spoke in ANY kind of period accent, but would've been neat if he did.

[S-T]

@Donomark and the hosts are correct about the racial overtones of the film. I thought when I saw it in 1999 that it was strange that a Black man was not discriminated against much more, given the historical setting.

The battle hymn of the republic is appropriate here with the villain being a Confederate general, because it was a Northern war song. An earlier version of the song referenced John Brown, who murdered a number of people in a campaign against slavery and was hanged for it.  Brown's attack was one of the catalysts to the Civil War. (Though it would have happened without him.)

[S-T]

Early lyrics, to the tune of Battle Hymn of the Republic:

He captured Harper's Ferry with his nineteen men so true
He frightened old Virginia till she trembled through and through
They hung him for a traitor, they themselves the traitor crew
But his soul goes marching on