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Rush

"Pretty soon you be feeling all unnecessary."

In 1991, Richard D. Zanuck and his wife, Lili Fini Zanuck, produced her directorial debut, “Rush,” a story of two undercover cops trying to bring down a big drug dealer in a small Texas town and in the process become addicts themselves. Our memory of the film, unfortunately, was a bit better than the film itself (even if one of us disliked it less than the other).

Join us—Pete Wright and Andy Nelson—this week as we talk about this financial failure for the Zanucks. We talk about the troubles with the script and how it may have been a better film if they stuck to the truth of the story it was based on. We chat about the actors, particularly the leads Jason Patric and Jennifer Jason Leigh, and how she really is the one who grounds the film, providing something to latch onto. There’s also Sam Elliott and Max Perlich providing great moments and Gregg Allman looking very serious. We chat about the camera work, particularly the long shots that Lili uses periodically, and how they work for the story. And we discuss where this falls in the Zanuck line-up and where they go from here.

Despite the movie not being everything we remember from 1991, we have a great time talking about it. Listen in!

Assorted Notes & Links

A show about movies and how they connect.

When the movie ends, our conversation begins. We love movies. We’ve been talking about them, one movie a week, since 2011. It’s a lot of movies, that’s true, but we’re passionate about origins and performance, directors and actors, themes and genres, and so much more. So join the community and let’s hear about your favorite movies, too.
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