TFH Presents
The Movies That Made Me
with your hosts Josh Olson & Joe Dante
Keith Gordon
Writer/Director Keith Gordon (The Chocolate War, A Midnight Clear, Homeland) discusses his 10 favorite politically themed movies with Josh and Joe.
Show Notes:
Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Chocolate War (1988)
The Singing Detective (2003)
Mother Night (1996)
A Midnight Clear (1992)
Waking The Dead (2000)
A History of Violence (2005)
Election (1999)
All The President’s Men (1976)
Frost/Nixon (2008)
Nixon (1995)
Secret Honor (1984)
The Post (2017)
The Day of the Jackal (1973)
The Thin Blue Line (1988)
Hearts and Minds (1974)
I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang (1932)
Take the Money and Run (1969)
Missing (1982)
Z (1969)
Kundun (1997)
Network (1976)
The Hospital (1971)
A Face In The Crowd (1957)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Fail Safe (1964)
Paths of Glory (1957)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Bulworth (1998)
Rules Don’t Apply (2016)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
Zelig (1983)
Annie Hall (1977)
Match Point (2005)
Moonlight (2016)
Midnight in Paris (2011)
Charley Varrick (1973)
Blue Collar (1978)
Other Notable Items
Dana Gould’s podcast episode
The Dollop’s podcast episode
Octogenarian Hugh Hefner’s sex life
Brian De Palma
John Carpenter
Rodney Dangerfield
The Chocolate War novel by Robert Cormier (1974)
Dennis Potter
Nick Nolte
Kurt Vonnegut
TFH Guru Bob Weide
Robert Downey Jr.
The Leftovers TV show (2014-2017)
Oliver Stone
Richard M. Nixon
Robert Altman
The Watergate scandal
All The President’s Men book by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (1974)
Errol Morris
The Innocence Project
Siskel and Ebert championing The Thin Blue Line
The Beatles
The Film Lab at Sundance
The New Beverly Cinema
The Egyptian Theatre
Cinefamily
Paul Muni
Melania Trump
Mark Gordon
Dalton Trumbo
Communist blacklisting in Hollywood
Costa-Gavras
Jack Lemmon
Sissy Spacek
The Chinese government’s banning of the letter “N”
Martin Scorsese’s struggles with the Chinese government making Kundun
Ned Beatty
Peter Finch
Paddy Chayefsky
Budd Schulberg
St. Elsewhere TV show (1982-1988)
Gideon’s Crossing TV show (2000-2001)
Andre Braugher
Barnard Hughes
Stanley Kubrick
The original New York Times review of Dr. Strangelove
Peter Sellers
Henry Fonda
Fred Astaire
Sebastian Gorka
World Wars I & II
A Midnight Clear by William Wharton (1982)
Wartime book by Paul Fussell
Kirk Douglas
Warren Beatty
Howard Hughes
The Singing Detective TV miniseries (1986)
Woody Allen
Ingmar Bergman
Martin Landau
Powerhouse Indicator’s Blu-ray release of Blue Collar
Richard Pryor
Paul Schrader
Yaphet Kotto
Harvey Keitel
Powerhouse Indicator’s Bud Boetticker box set
This list is also available on Letterboxd.
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About the Podcast
Filmmakers and entertainers discuss the movies that inspired them. Hosted by Oscar nominated screenwriter and TFH Guru Josh Olson and TFH Fearless Leader Joe Dante.
The Movies That Made Me is recorded live in Hollywood and engineered by film composer Don Barrett.
About The Hosts
Josh Olson was the only student in his second grade class to see The House That Dripped Blood. Many years later, he wrote and directed the no-budget horror film, INFESTED, a brutal assault on The Big Chill, with zombies. He went on to write the screenplay for A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE and was nominated for the WGA, BAFTA and Academy Awards for Best Screenplay. He kept losing to Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, but that’s okay.
He has written features and TV shows with Harlan Ellison, Walter Hill, Slash, Willie Nelson, and Mick Jagger. His Village Voice essay “I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script” became an internet phenomenon, getting upwards of five million hits.
The ten-part audio drama BRONZEVILLE which he wrote, starring Laurence Fishburne, Larenz Tate, Tracee Ellis Ross, Omari Harwicke and Tika Sumpter was a popular and critical hit, and is currently being developed for TV. He and John Brancato (THE GAME) recently wrote and sold the feature spec TRIGGER WARNING, which is being produced by Thunder Road.
Joe Dante is a director known for his satirical blend of horror and comedy viewed through the lens of grounded, relatable American life. his career in film began as a movie critic at age 12. A few years later, he conspired with Jon Davison to produce The Movie Orgy, an experimental exploration of ‘50s pop culture that metamorphosed into a hit phenomenon bringing Dante to college campus showings nationwide.
Soon after, he followed Jon to Hollywood where he edited trailers for producer Roger Corman before co-directing his first feature, Hollywood Boulevard. His first solo film, Piranha, successfully kickstarted his legendary career with titles like The Howling, Gremlins, The ‘Burbs, Innerspace, and more.
Joe’s dedication to preserving the history of cinema and his near encyclopedic knowledge of movies led to the creation of Trailers From Hell, a web series offering viewers a brief history lesson of movies discussed through their respective trailers.