Buckaroo Banzai : Flipping the Cold War Narrative

Рет қаралды 5,347

Күн бұрын

Some films from the ‘80s seem strange today, but this one was strange at the time. It’s not for everyone, but I recommend giving it a look on its own merits as well as a Cold War artifact.
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00:00 Intro
01:50 Cold War Askew
06:02 Yoyodyne and Lizardo
08:55 Buckaroo

Пікірлер: 48

@chrisgenson2278 6 ай бұрын

The best description of Buckaoo Banzai that I've ever found is that it's the second movie of a trilogy without the first and third movie. Smiling yet? You're supposed to.

@darkmyro 3 ай бұрын

Honestly it feels worse than that. It's like the 4th of 5th movie in a franchise and there is no franchise.

@briangilmore6804 6 ай бұрын

100% first date move. But by then she'd already shown me her near-complete Farscape Starbust edition collection

@TheHighSpaceWizard 4 ай бұрын

You're a lucky man.

@cypherian2 6 ай бұрын

Thanks for including this goofy, campy, and weird, little Cold War Era gem in one of your videos! Definitely one of my all time favorites!

@yojimbo6879 6 ай бұрын

I remember being 16 and going to the Soo Theater Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to rewatch this film just to catch everything I missed laughing through it. A classic of 1984.

@CaptApril123 6 ай бұрын

me too.. my friends and I could quote it word for word

@turkeytrac1 27 күн бұрын

Two movies from that orwellian year that I love to this day, and say alot through comedy, "Backaroo Bonzai" and "This is Spinal tap". Great post.

@bpora01 6 ай бұрын

I first ran across BB not in the movie but in the board game battletech. For some reason they wanted to reference both banzai and the Hong Kong cavaliers in the game universe. I finally saw the movie on VHS in 88 or 89.

@doctoronishispsychosislab1474 16 күн бұрын

"remember where ever you go, There you are!"

@robertlehnert4148 6 ай бұрын

BB became a cult classic of us initiated few, because, even aside from the Producers deliberately scuttling the promotion and any chance of sequels (a bizarre story, even for Hollywood insiders) it's quirkiness, multi-layered insider jokes and Easter eggs, by its very nature only appealed to a very few, mostly within hardcore Science Fiction fandom, and yes especially those of us who read the Conde Nast _Doc Savage_ reprints in 1970s high school instead of doing our homework.

@MarkAndrewEdwards 6 ай бұрын

I appreciate this. BB was one of my favorites since I discovered it in college back in the 80's. Nice to see someone digging into it and shining more light on it. For me 'no matter where you go, there you are' stuck with me. But the movie is so quotable you can fill a jean jacket vest with buttons filled with BB quotes.

@feralhistorian 6 ай бұрын

I've found more occasions to use "It's not my damn planet, monkey boy!" than I ever would have thought.

@mojrimibnharb4584 9 күн бұрын

Absolutely first date, along with Company of Wolves. It's a screening device.

@gadzilla6664 6 ай бұрын

Eagerly awaiting the Feral Historian's Cowboy Bebop video now. Not as much as his take on 40k, but I understand that will take time, as he's already explained......

@Reinhard753BC 6 ай бұрын

Thanks for reviewing my mom's favorite movie. Hope you had a great Christmas an New Years! 😊

@Michael-Willis 6 ай бұрын

Another gem (both the movie and your analysis). Keep up the great work!

@MissKellyBean 6 күн бұрын

Ohhhhh.... At 50, I'm really starting to reexamine how much of my early "boyfriend template" was shaped by brilliant but artsy, doomed 80's sci-fi protagonists.... 🤔 😂

@JoakimHammarstedt Ай бұрын

Real soon!

@niyanlan8928 6 ай бұрын

Always look forward to your videos, the production value and narrative is excellent. They always seem to end too quickly though, like you’re just starting to explain some point. Would love to see you expand this channel with more in-depth videos that use films to make some real world philosophical points - Subscribers are ridiculously low for this excellent channel. Great stuff!

@feralhistorian 6 ай бұрын

There's been an inverse relationship between total length of a video and how soon in real time the majority drop off. It seems like if I exceed 30 mins, 90% drop off in the first 5 so there's a KZbin-induced incentive to stay around the 15-minute range. That said, there are a few in the writing stage that are shaping up to be rather long and involved. I was half-joking a few weeks ago about doing a lengthy askew take on Dune when/if the subscriber count gets to 10191.

@niyanlan8928 6 ай бұрын

Thanks for the reply man, appreciate it@@feralhistorian . It must be difficult for you as you have an excellent product but it bizarrely low number of subscribers thus far. I always look at your channel like the film version of someone like Jacob Gellers game-based presentations. Really looking forward to seeing what you present over the next year - Dune would be absolutely brilliant and a great idea as I think it’s widely acknowledged that Frank Herbert was more of a social philosopher than a writer. He also wrote stuff like - The Dosadi Experiment - which probably has more resonance today and would be really interesting for someone’s take on it but probably wouldn’t make a great film! Anyhow, all the best for the coming year.

@tw1sted1nc 4 ай бұрын

I had never considered the stylistic links between BB and Cowboy Bebop.

@sheets75 Ай бұрын

My dad took me to see this when I was a kid. He asked what I thought of it as we walked out and I happily said I liked it. He thought it was "pretty dumb". That's how it goes with this movie. I can't recall too many people in the "eh, it's alright" area.

@boobah5643 6 ай бұрын

This is a movie I've been hearing about online for three decades now, and the first time it hasn't sounded like an insane fever dream. They've all been approving mentions, however. Whether that means it's actually good or that those who dislike it don't think it's worth the effort to trash it (because obscure? Inoffensive?) I don't know. Assuming it's still included with Prime Video, it's just a matter of finding the time...

@or_gluzman561Peace_IL_PS 6 ай бұрын

0:45 so like late 50's batman?

@feralhistorian 6 ай бұрын

I almost made a Batman comparison there.

@timothyvincent3436 6 ай бұрын

I like your Draka material (what I could find on YT). Ever read Warworld with the Saurons on Haven?

@feralhistorian 6 ай бұрын

I did read the first Warworld way back. I don't remember much about it beyond the CoDo and Haven being less than ideal. There's another Draka video in the lineup, waiting on new artwork. There's a surprising amount of material to cover in there.

@timothyvincent3436 6 ай бұрын

The Warworld was the Draka on steroids (gene modification and subjugation of standard humans for labor and breeding). Humans get tough as nails in a hurry by culling process. Technology is about Ak 47 and steam power for most of the moon after Saurons take out manufacturing from orbit and control crash on the surface. Later books are not as good in my opinion.@@feralhistorian

@orjustcheese Ай бұрын

If I ever make videos I'm definitely casting you as a mad genuis military leader of some sort

@gishman5539 6 ай бұрын

Does the art determine the costume or does the costume determine the art?

@Sedgewise47 6 ай бұрын

The answer is “Yes.”

@HoosierDaddy2a 6 ай бұрын

You just added this movie to my list. I found your channel through the BoS video. Now I have a bigger question: where did you get your Micah Bell coat?

@feralhistorian 6 ай бұрын

That coat is a Soviet Navy peacoat acquired during the great Communism Liquidation Sale of the early '90s.

@HoosierDaddy2a 6 ай бұрын

@@feralhistorian did you get a tank in that sale? XD

@5n8ke 6 ай бұрын

You're going to carry that weight...

@Hugebull 6 ай бұрын

I have absolutely no connection to this movie. I don't even think my parents were in High School when this movie came out. I had never even heard about it. But there is something about stories and movies where a modern and powerful country is suddenly transformed and reduced down into a weaker state and a vulnerable position. Seeing the United States in the position of a pawn between Superpowers is interesting. I find it to be a very good tool for providing context. Especially to the United States, who is 150 years removed from large scale bloodshed on your own land. There is just something about the current stable, prosperous, powerful, and secure position being entirely subverted. 9 years ago, SaveTheChildren came out with a video called "Most Shocking Second a Day Video". We are shown a situation like that of the Syrian Civil War, but now shown to happen in England. An incredibly powerful video that is just over a minute long. Or the movie "How I Live Now". It is not a good movie. Yet, there are so many fantastic scenes throughout the film that I still like watching it. To see rebel blockades and martial law in the England after some un-named group detonates a nuclear bomb in a city. Seeing English civilians herded to safe zones and into forced labor by British soldiers. Seeing mass graves filled with English people. Very powerful. There are the "Red Dawn" movies. Neither very good. Yet, there is something about them. But the scene in the original, where Colonel Andy Tanner (played by Powers Boothe) is explaining the situation of what is going on when they are all gathered around the campfire. Easily one of the best movie scenes of all time. Teaching Americans about the Second World War must be nearly impossible. Compared to where I live, where I can drive 45 minutes and I can see a massive bunker complex built by the Germans as part of the Atlantic Wall (Sirevåg kystfort). And then there are smaller bunkers scattered all along the coast. But, reduce America from the mega-superpower that it is, down to that of a Poland or a Yugoslavia at the hands of the invading Germans. Now that is a powerful tool for context. "Tomorrow, When the War Began" This is basically an Australian version of Red Dawn. "Colony" with Josh Holloway and Sarah Wayne Callies. The first season is absolutely fantastic, and the second season was pretty good. We don't talk about the third. But the two first seasons are absolutely much-watch. Seeing America (and the world) beaten down and defeated absolutely and without question. Military gone, government gone, now everything being entirely at the hands of the occupying power. Simple men being put into positions of puppet governors by the occupying power. The main character, a good and highly capable veteran and FBI agent, being forced to become a collaborator. It's fantastic. Or we can go all the way back to the book "The War of the Worlds" from 1895-97 by H.G. Wells. Where the then mega-superpower of the world Britain itself, finds itself on the flip side of colonial invasion. And of course, as an honorable mention, "Stargate SG-1". Even though it dragged on for far too long, there is a great deal of gems that came out of it for those first few seasons.

@feralhistorian 6 ай бұрын

Colony is vastly underrated. All of these mentions are coming up in a future video currently in the works. Maybe two, depending on what pieces break off.

@Hugebull 6 ай бұрын

@@feralhistorian Nice