Ep. 596 - Mank

For me it's The Wire, that was the first HBO series I watched in college by "borrowing it." My fiancee and I have had this conversation before, and for her, it's Sex and the City.

Does anyone think this whole at home movie thing can kill 1.85:1, would love to get back the 1/3 of my tv taken by black bars.

Travis Thompson

Jeff mentioned that a tiny bit of him still expects to hear the Sopranos theme music start up after the HBO bumper. I had that at one time too, but for a good while mine was the Curb music. Would be interesting to do some kind of study to see what people associate with that. Devindra asks, “Who doesn’t want to see MATRIX IV at home?” Do you really think that is going to be any good? Why would it be? MANK was a well-made movie, but I cannot support any film that so blatantly goes against historical facts. And so selectively: The fact that some parts of it are quite accurate almost makes it worse, because then you know it’s not just being sloppy or something. People can argue over the credit for the screenplay of CITIZEN KANE: I think the evidence is strong for Wells deserving his cowriter credit. But even more egregious is all the stuff about the election. Mank did contribute to the Republican campaign (there were others who refused), he was known to be a conservative, and there is zero evidence that he in any way sympathized with the Upton Sinclair campaign. So that kind of kills the heart of the story right there. Nor, by the way, did the director of those fake newsreels kill himself or ever show any sign of remorse. If you want to make a story that is similar to a real life story but plays out differently, do what Welles did (and as I say, the evidence indicates that he was much more involved than portrayed in this film). Change the names and write the story however you’d like. But if you keep the names the same, I just can’t accept playing so fast and loose with the facts, which is a kind of libel and is likely to be taken by many people as factual.