POP ART: Episode 65, The Empire Strikes Back/The Battle of Algiers

THEY’RE REVOLTING: “It’s a trap.” Join filmmaker and fellow podcaster Derek Diamond (The Derek Diamond Experience) as we talk The Empire Strikes Back and The Battle of Algiers, two films about a revolutionary forced trying to throw off the yoke of their empire owners.

Also, I was a guest on The Derek Diamond Experience and you can find it here among other streaming platforms: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-derek-diamond-experience/id954082680

Isn’t always the same. You take over a country or planet. Teach them your ways. Make them civilized. But are they grateful? Do they welcome your world domination and tyranny? No. The thankless peons dare to ask, no demand, their freedom. Unappreciative miscreants…Sounds like it’s time for Episode 65 of Pop Art, the podcast where my guest chooses a movie from popular culture, and I’ll select a film from the more art/classic/indie side of cinema with a connection to it. This time, I am happy to welcome as my guest, filmmaker and fellow podcaster, Derek Diamond, who has chosen as his film the sequel to the blockbuster Star Wars, the not-so-blockbuster, but perhaps superior, The Empire Strikes Back, while I have chosen the French neo-realist classic The Battle for Algiers, both films about people fighting an empire for their freedom.

And in this episode we answer such questions: Does Star Wars have a diversity issue? What is scientifically wrong with the asteroid belt scene? Who is Sartre? Is the director’s cut better? What did Harrison Ford say about the screenplay to Lucas? What is unusual about the Oscars and Battle? What warning was attached to screenings of Battle in some countries and why? Why is Alec Guinness in Empire for such a little time? What is Manicheism? Why was Battle banned in France? Who wrote Empire? What line was David Prowse given to say because he tended to leak information? Where do the Black Panthers and the Baader-Meinhof complex come in? Where does the Wilhelm scream come?

And don’t forget to check out the Derek Diamond Experience https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-derek-diamond-experience/id954082680

And his short film on YouTube, The Parker Syndrome https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKarHgnYs9A

Check out my blog at https://howardcasner.wordpress.com/

My books, More Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, The Starving Artists and Other Stories and The Five Corporations and One True Religion can be found at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=howard+casner&ref=nb_sb_noss

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