23: Out For Justice (with Maggie Serota)

Brooklyn-based writer/journalist Maggie Serota (Spin, Esquire, Rolling Stone) joins the pod to discuss the mysteries of Steven Seagal’s movie career at Warner Bros. in the late eighties through the mid nineties with a deep dive into his bizarre 1991 Brooklyn-set crime thriller Out For Justice.

This was clearly Seagal’s attempt at being taken seriously as an actor, a pretentious mafia drama originally titled The Price of Our Blood with several allusions to On the Waterfront, an opening title card quoting playwright Arthur Miller, an overqualified supporting cast and showy Seagal acting monologues. Warner Bros. hacked this ego trip down to a standard-issue 90 minute Seagal actioner, and the studio-imposed results are fascinating.

Along the way Maggie and I talk through the enigma of Seagal - a cipher, a relentless fabulist, a movie star seemingly created in a laboratory who let the power go to his head, and a bit of a creep (allegedly! allegedly!)

Plus: a little chat about how the first Creed film hilariously skips over the details of how Adonis Creed’s father died, and this month’s 30th anniversary of The KLF’s album The White Room.

Follow Maggie Serota on Twitter.

Check out Maggie’s new podcast, Three Things With Maggie & Mike

"Man of Dishonor" - the notorious Spy magazine article on Steven Seagal's personal conduct, by John Connolly, July-August 1993 issue

"Seagal Under Siege", Ned Zeman, Vanity Fair, October 2002 - this article provides background on Seagal's longtime producer Julius Nasso who had a major hand in Out For Justice, and details the attempted (and partly successful) shakedown of Seagal by the mob.

The KLF - 3AM Eternal (music video)