Breakfast All Day Podcast 8/21/20
We missed you guys so much while we were gone last week, but we wish we had better movies for you on the latest Breakfast All Day. Matt, Alonso and I review “The One and Only Ivan” on Disney+, Russell Crowe’s B-movie thriller “Unhinged,” the inventive biopic “Tesla” (the one movie we did enjoy this week) and “Peninsula,” a sorta-sequel to the 2016 Korean zombie movie “Train to Busan.” We have lots of news to catch up on, including the re-opening of movie theaters after the coronavirus shut them down more than five months ago. And over at our Patreon, we recap the first episode of the excellent new HBO series “Lovecraft Country” and Alonso and Matt review “Wedding Every Weekend,” a groundbreaking Hallmark Channel movie (which we realize sounds like an oxymoron). These are indeed the dog days, but at least we have each other. Thanks for sticking with us, and hope you’re doing well.
Re: The Current Wars and So On
Christy,
Thanks as always for your team’s latest reviews on the movies that are arriving. I’m looking forward to the ‘Tesla’ one. What was impressive about ‘The Current Wars’, is that it is a film that is about a complex engineering project. If one wants another example of one of these stories. ‘Meat Eater’ podcast (a Netflix series that is about fishing and hunting, and more broadly about management of public land resources and wild life on those places). Has a recent episode that featured Tom Brokhaw. Who was talking about his early upbringing in South Dakota. Both during the Second World War and after it. When a lot of these projects were constructed, using large rivers as sources of electricity to create the expanding national electrical grid. In the mid portion of the twentieth century. Now that I think about it, George Clooney’s movie about the Great Depression and about run-away prisoners in the rural landscape of the South. Ties into this theme also (i.e. the one whereby the supply of large volumes of electrical power was used later in the creation of weapons, that were used in the Second World War by Harry Truman’s Presidency). A movie in which Paul Newman acted in. One about ‘Fat Man and Little Boy’.
These are all parts of the broader story about electricity and it’s history in north America. Even though we see glimpses and parts of the story in the later 20th century. These are really only later chapters in the story. Of which the earlier chapters are about Edison, Tesla or Westinghouse. I just wanted to make this point, about how this story has been told in it’s whole entirety. Across a broad array of different movies. And one cannot ignore I suppose. The movies made too about West Virginia coal mining towns. One of those in which Chris Copper’s character in ‘October Sky’ for example. Tries to explain to a person of a younger generation. Who happened to be his son in ‘October Sky’, acted by a young Jake Gyllenhaal. That the mining of coal was important. Not in itself at that time. But because it underpinned the ability of the country to create steel material.
Even if one looks back to the early history of the European Union. It was basically a steel and coal industry trade agreement union of nations. After the Second World War. It only later became something more fancy, in political union terms. Than what started as a trade agreement on the production of basic industrial raw materials. This whole thing, and the importance of development of a healthy steel production industry. In re-built countries such as Japan or Germany, in the post World War Two era was huge. It overshadowed a lot of thinking about industrial (and social), policy in those decades. Which is kind of why I found the interview that Meat Eater did with Tom Brokhaw about his childhood in these towns in South Dakota so interesting. The places that Brokhaw describes from his memory. Are like something straight out of a Steven King novel.
Re: Tesla and so on
The thing about the period under review in the movie ‘Tesla’. The thing to remember about it, is the following. An awful lot of things that happened. Which happened, and were central to the whole American story in the 20th century. The Cold War era, the industrial ‘rise and fall’ (something which ‘politics’ in the national elections of 2020 is still struggling to contend with), the huge global wars and it’s aftermath. Much of the position that America played in all of that. Goes back in large measure. To the period in history. Which a movie such as ‘Tesla’ is concerned about. Make no mistake about it. The sheer scale and breath of industrial production by north America. During the Second World War. Is something that historians struggle to wrap their heads around. Even now. The sheer scale and magnitude of that industrial production (America not only supplied it’s own requirements for military hardware, but also some of the requirements of Russia and Great Britain). The capability of America to organize itself on the level that it did, for the war effort. Was largely due to the industrial developments. That are explained about in movies such as ‘The Current Wars’.
These people, these characters in these stories. Were people with gigantic visions, of what could be made possible. By the application of science and business working together. We are far enough removed in time from it now. That we are starting to figure that out. The broader historical context though, is one that is even larger than that.
Re: The broader nineteenth century context
Recently here in Ireland, we said good bye to someone who was well known in the country. And it’s history and recollection of great sporting achievements. It was someone named Jack Charlton (brother of famous Bobby Charlton, who was a star of the English team who won the World Cup in Wembley in 1966). Jack Charlton grew up in Yorkshire in one of the coal mining towns. The kinds of places that Tom Brokhaw would have recognized. They were both fishermen, hunters and nature enthusiasts. And both people did a lot in terms of study and teaching about the same. Jack Charlton often explained that he had finished his training in order to work in the coal mines in Yorkshire. That is what he had intended to do after school. When he had witnessed the reality of being in the mines though. He decided instead to turn his efforts to being a football player. The point is, there are still people around. Who remember this history now. And how the generation of ‘energy’ by various means. Building gigantic dam projects across large rivers, and mining material from underneath the ground. How this all featured in the lives of people, who were born and lived through that time.
What I wanted to explain though. Was the relationship between Great Britain and north America. One which goes back along ways. However, in relation to the story in question. The story of ‘The Current Wars’. The story about newly arrived engineers in the United States of America such as Tesla. About their story. One has to go back to the American Civil War for example. In which Great Britain in the period leading up to the 1860’s. Had sourced a lot of it’s raw material for it’s textile industries in the midlands in Britain. From the former southern colonies of the United States. There had been consideration given to whether Britain should form an alliance with the new Conferate ‘nation’ of former colonies. From a point of view of prosperity and growth. In gathering the raw material it required. In order to manufacture clothing wares in England. In order to support that industry. Or whether, Great Britain ought to go in another direction. The Confederacy at the time, were convinced that Britain would support it.
Re: Capitalism
At various times in the review of the movie ‘Tesla’ what the team referred to. Was the ‘capitalism’ and financial industry that had existed in America at that time. What is less obvious perhaps, is the extent and ways in which north America. Even in the era of Westinghouse, Morgan, Edison and so on. Even in that era. The continent of north America was only managing to set itself up, on it’s own banking and financial industry footings. For the first time ever. Prior to which, all of the banking and financing necessary. To support very much of anything. Either from a new industrial expansion point of view, or even supporting of agricultural practice on a large scale. With the lending and banking services that it needed. That supply of money, had come mainly from London.
This was the conflict that Great Britain had looked at, at the time of the 1860’s during the American Civil War. Where it was unsure of where to place it’s cooperation. Either with the former colonies of the South, which promised immediate financial advantage to it. Or the growing and expanding industries of the northern States. Which promised opportunity for the expansion of banking and financial influence. In the more industrialized areas of the ‘union’ of so many different States. And of course, history records. That Great Britain looked at the latter, as it’s opportunity. To become the ‘banker’ effectively for much of the industrial re-development of north America. In those crucial decades of building and expansion that happened in the later 19th century. Remember, at the time of the American Civil War. The major occupation of people on both sides of that war had been in agriculture. The major amount of the wealth in the United States in the 1860’s timeframe. Was agricultural based wealth, and not industrial.
Re: Thomas Edison at a ‘hinge point’ in American history
In terms of the story of north America (and in particular in terms of it’s growth in population too). Because at the time of the American Civil War, the country had only started to break through the ceiling of ‘ten million’ citizens in population in the north. And the same in the southern States. One has a combined population of twenty to thirty million people. Proceeding into the later half of the nineteenth century, and the period of ‘break neck’ economic and capitalist expansion. In north America. I would very much see the story about ‘The Current Wars’ as standing there. At a hinge point. One looks back in one direction, and one sees the ‘agricultural’ origins of the United States. The pioneers, and what was left of ‘the frontier’ still at that time. And one looks in the other direction. What one sees is the story that Tom Brokhaw told a piece of. In his interview with Meat Eater.
The ‘realization’ of the vision, that went back to the industrial pioneers such as Thomas Edison. Of the later nineteenth century. This is why, this story about the engineers behind the electrical supply system of north America is interesting. Because it is sitting there, at that gigantic hinge point in history. Between two very different realities. One is the history of an agrarian people (the ‘mule and forty acres’ times). The other history, is one of massive industrial production. And the waging of global wars. And right there, at the time between both of those. Characters such as Edison and Tesla exist.
What probably defines characters such as Edison and Tesla, more than anything. Is their unique understanding or their overview. That it is all happening, and it is all changing. At such rapid pace. And probably, for that reason. They were characters who numbered only in the dozens of people. Who probably had that kind of overview. At that particular time. They were people who had ideas and visions of the future. That were totally ridiculous and silly at the time they were living in. And yet, the scale and size of those visions. Were probably what turned out to happen.
It is hard, it is difficult for any movie to provide a sense of that. And I don’t know if ‘The Current Wars’ movie did succeed. The movie ends with Tesla standing beside a gigantic water fall in north America. And that is the part of that movie. Which probably leads directly into the story told about a young boy. Growing up in small places (population of a couple of thousand). In rural South Dakota. The story that is told now, by somebody like Brokhaw.
Re: America and Great Britain
There is one part of the story though. It is about the way that ‘Breakfast All Day’ tried to analyze the movie ‘Tesla’. There is one part of the story, that resonated with me. It is the part in which the movie critics talk about the character of ‘Tesla’. And the way in which Tesla is treated as a character in different movie scripts. The idea of the visionary or the creative engineer. In conflict with the ‘big money’ brains. Of that era. And it does pose a question perhaps, in which we learn the story in ‘Social Network’ for example written by Aaron Sorkin. Why is it in the 21st century. We do not see the same? Why for example, is the Harvard student character as written by Aaron Sorkin in ‘Social Network’. Able to get the better of the establishment there? Why wasn’t the character that Aaron Sorkin wrote in that movie, exactly the same as the character that ‘Breakfast All Day’ review. Had talked about, in relation to Tesla. Of a hundred years or more ago? Why is that?
Why don’t we see the modern versions of the Tesla character. Why don’t we see those getting gobbled up by capitalism now? Which is a good question. One that had not occured to me.
The thing that resonated with me though. About this review by ‘Breakfast All Day’, of the movie ‘Tesla’. Is the following. I return once again to the story of somebody such as Charlie Chaplain. A native of London in the later Victorian period. Who escaped from that old order, basically I think to work as a stage actor in America. He didn’t set out with a plan. To become a ‘screen’ actor, as opposed to a stage actor. And actors themsevles in the 21st century, haven’t quite managed to separate one from the other. You hear actors even to this day. Debating over whether to do projects on stage, on screen, or on television. Chaplain merely encountered the ‘Edison’ invention of the moving picture (which was still not developed into an ‘industry’ of the moving picture). When Chaplain had first set foot on American soil. It could be argued, that Edison and the inventors of the moving picture. Had very little idea at that time. Of what they could do with the moving picture technology themselves. One could argue that.
In that sense, the character which Aaron Sorkin creates for us in ‘Social Network’. Is very like the one that we see in biopic movies, that were made in order to tell the story of Charlie Chaplain. Where someone stumbles into the story at a time. When the technology is there. However, the technology having arrived already. No one is there yet. Who understands what the real application of this technology should be. In that sense, the ‘Social Network’ character. The Harvard university student who manages to outsmart the establishment. This character is very much more like a Charlie Chaplain one (who looks at Thomas Edison’s invention and has a ‘light bulb’ moment himself). And is very much less. The ‘Social Network’ young entrepreneur is very different. Is very much less like. The character of ‘Tesla’ in any of the movies about electricity. You see?
Re: Finally
Christy,
In conclusion though, this is what came to me. When I listened to the ‘Breakfast All Day’ review of ‘Tesla’. What I thought about, based on the understanding of the history that came before the invention of electricity. What I thought about. Was that in the period of history after Abraham Lincoln. North America was joined very much back to Great Britain. From a financial point of view. What that produced in turn, were the characters such as Thomas Edison. Such as J.P. Morgan. Such as Westinghouse. What it produced was characters like those ones. Individuals who were very much about creating a new industry, and a new capitalist financial industry ‘under pinnings’. To support independent development of industries in railways, oil, automobiles and electricity. New industry, supported not by capitalists based out of London. No.
Supported by American based engineers and visionaries. And supported by American based financial backers.
That is the story here. And what the review of the movies on ‘Breakfast All Day’ made me remember. Is that is very much the story of modern cinema. In it’s origins. The story of the moving picture. This ‘other’ major new invention that Edison came up with. That story of the moving picture ‘industry’ is the same as all the others. It features the same kinds of characters. Such as the one of Charlie Chaplain. The character who wants to go to America. And not be reliant on. The old establishment that he left behind him. In Great Britain. When one thinks about the effort made by America in the context of the 1940’s decade and after it. When one thinks about movies such as ‘The Right Stuff’. Based on a text written by Tom Wolfe.
All of these stories are later chapters of the same thing. They are about the ability of this new continent. To stand on it’s own two feet. And to write it’s own story. That is independent and is different from the one, of the old British empire. That empire and that establishment, which basically founded the thirteen colonies. To begin with. Where Aaron Sorkin includes that line of dialogue, that he places into the mouths of one of his characters in ‘Social Network’. The building on the campus at Harvard university is one hundred years older than the country it is in.
Even in a movie made as recently as last year. In which Matt Damon plays a racing automobile maker. They tell the story of the competition between Ford Motor company, and the old Italian ‘racing stable’ Ferrari one. On the race track at Le Mans. In the 1960’s decade. Is like a very late chapter. In the story that I refer to overhead. All the best.
Re: After Note
Christy,
The other sub-story that I could have mentioned. Because it is interesting. There is a famous story about this assassin from the South. Who was responsible for the death of Abraham Lincoln. And it is an interesting story. It is like the Chaplain story. The father of the man who is guilty of the Lincoln assassination. Was a London based stage actor. In the profession of stage acting, the center of that universe. Had also been in London. At the time of the American Civil War. Not only financial services, but also performing arts. In America, the thing to do had been like in finance. The thing to do, had been to import the best talent. The best talent in stage acting. Had arrived from Britain.
The story of the electrical supply system. Happens very much in that context. Of where America as a country, is trying to separate itself at last. From the influence of the former empire. And I think that is the reason, for how the story of electrical supply system. How it unfolds in the way in which it does. That is, the ‘big money’. The capitalism in America, very quickly and efficiently takes over it’s management. And it’s development. With lots and lots of un-intended, or intended consequences. That unfold across the entire story of the history of the 20th century.
Re: Orson Welles
Christy,
There is one story in the middle of all of this, that I can’t resist a mention of. I don’t think that the story would be complete. Without the inclusion of the man associated with ‘Citizen Kane’ (1941).
It is an individual such as Orson Wells. Who was involved very much at the beginning of the new technology of ‘radio’ broadcasting. Before there was television. There was radio. Orson Welles, being one of these odd 20th century American characters. Who’s career seems to know no bounds. Diversified across things such as radio (in which he utilizes money made there, to operate a small theatre company to create ‘stage’ based productions for a live audience). He is someone who spans across print journalism, film, stage and broadcasting media. He is the ultimate ‘multi-media’ kind of guy. And is a character who could only have existed in early 20th century America in that sense.
It is the point though, that at the time of the great Wall Street Crash in 1929. Where ‘radio’ company stocks happened to be the equivalent of ‘dot com’ companies at that time. What we find in 1929, and in earlier episodes. That had happened before 1929. Is that the character of J.P. Morgan arrives in. This expert in the American financial, stock market and banking systems. He arrives in, to turn the tide. And to stem the panic, that threatens to bring down the markets. There are various occasions in which this happens. People look to this character of Morgan to save the American system. So that this capitalist dream can exist a little while longer.
What we need to remember perhaps. Is that the story of American capitalism of the late 19th century and early 20th century (the one in which all of these mini ‘crashes’ of the financial system happen). It is a story of a country, where everyone holds a ticket. Everyone can hold a piece of the dream, in the form of stock ownership. What characterized the stock market crash story of 1929, is that. The idea of the impact of the crash, on so many modest sized businesses and individuals. Who had taken out leverage in order to be players.
The duration of that story of early American capitalism, is an extremely short one. It plays out of the course of only a few decades. In which the country transforms itself from a rural economy, into an urban based one. And characters such as Morgan are around for most of that. As a result. This is why this story about the ‘electric current’ is insightful. The ‘radio’ form of media of course, being another one of those things. Which depended upon the electric current. And basically, how the ‘performing arts’ and media. Is something too, which expands into that new kind of space. That is created by electricity and new forms of media, based on top of electrical technologies.
It is very much a story of a new country, that is struggling to define itself. In the aftermath of it’s own brutal ‘Civil War’ of the 1860’s decade. And all of the politics that had surrounded that. Things such as it’s new financial system (in which everyone was promised to have a share). It’s new electrical grid system. It’s new communication and media systems. And how the performing arts was all taking up new homes, and new residence. In all of these various forms of media. As in the story of the Orson Welles. It is really a story about a new country, that is trying desperately to write it’s own unique story. That is how I think one can look at the ‘Tesla’ story as well.
Re: Chemical based photography
And the American Civil War itself. Is a war which is captured for all to see, in chemical based photography. Another new media that took it’s foothold in the new continent of north America. In the same way, this other ‘book end’ to American history. The Vietnam war, is a war that is captured for all to see. In television. Chemical based photography, combines with the ‘projector’ and light bulb inventions of Thomas Edison. To produce this moving picture idea. That Charlie Chaplain first encounters. When he ventures out into the vast space of the north American continent. In search of a career as an actor. The moving picture and the film projector were new at that time. What wasn’t new however, was the relationship of the culture in north America. To the photographic medium itself. On top of which the later ‘moving picture’ technology of Edison was built on top of.
What I think is missing actually. Is this book on the history of art. That explores and contemplates. The history of the north American continent. From a perspective of it’s relationship in history. With different and diverse forms of ‘new media’. Right up to, and including that Aaron Sorkin story from a decade ago. The one about Harvard university ‘student culture’, and that new media. Of that time. All the best.
Re: The Beginning
Heck, one can even go back to the time of the American Revolution. It was a time in which transportation over distance was still under developed. John Adams for example, had walked on foot between Boston and Philadelphia. In order to be present at the meeting of the Continental Congress. Before the revolution had started. What historians of the American Revolutionary period had noticed however. Was that thing about the ‘printed book’ material. That at the time of the revolution, the colony dwellers in north America. Were the biggest market, and consumers. Of printed texts about the ‘law’. The revolutionaries knew their law books. Apart from anything else. One can go back to the beginning. At every stage along the way. At every chapter in the story. There has been some aspect to every chapter of the story. That has had some aspect of ‘modern’ media in it.
One could utter something about ’40 characters’ at this point too. And maybe that would be even relevant. I think that one gets the idea. All the best.
Re: Irish Writers
Christy, one could go on and on about this. Almost indefinitely. However, given that ‘Breakfast All Day’ did mention something about the narration by the Irish actress in the movie ‘Tesla’. There was something that did come to mind. As I happened to be ordering a Chinese meal of a cold Saturday evening. In the old country. It was a story that I had heard once. About a famous Irish poet or writer. One of these figures who had existed in the nineteenth century. And who had perhaps lived on too long. For his own liking.
At one point in the beginning of the twentieth century. He had found himself sipping a glass. In a bar somewhere in New York. And behind him, there was ‘juke box’ playing music, that were etched on to analogue music records. It seems as though the inventors of the new century. Had gone a bit overboard. In their enthusiasm for the electric light bulb. Especially, in places that had previously been considered ‘safe’ from such intrusion. One of those places was this certain bar, somewhere in New York city. At the beginning of the twentieth century. I cannot remember which Irish writer that it was. However, he had written to someone. That he had traveled to America expecting wonderful things. What he had discovered instead, to his own perception. Was something of a low point in the history of human culture and art.
He had never witnessed a juke box in a bar playing music before. And the whole idea of that intrusion into the sanctity of the space. In which one had drank alcohol from a glass. Had absolutely afronted him. He was one of the better Irish poets and writers too. And the nearest thing he could think of. Which it reminded him of. Was a metal coal skuttle, that was always making noise as it rattled out the fuel to be consumed in fires. Small fire places that used to exist in almost every room. And were attached to lots and lots of chimney pots. Which discharged the smoke at roof tops. In urban architecture of that time. This he had imagined was like the electrical version of the coal skuttle, with lights all over it. And generally making noise. The writer had traveled all of the ways to New York city. And this is what he had found.
Again, like in the moving picture. The move away from the sound and music of a live instrument such as a violin playing. In the pub. Or even the human vocal chords, which had sent out a song. Listened to by the people drinking. Had been replaced by a metal box full of moving parts. That ran on the new utility supply, of electricity. It is another form of ‘new media’. That probably reached it’s highest point in north America. In that era in which we found all of the new ‘Rock and Roll’ stars. Playing from juke boxes everywhere. And that high point in American popular music and culture, which people look back at now. It started in the most humble of origins. And playing what music, I can only guess. When the Irish writer had found it then.