← The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
It's a Numbers Game: Reel Values: The Morality and Meaning Behind Great Films
00:46:55
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- [00:00]
Ryan Garduski
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:05]
Jacob Goldstein
This is Jacob Goldstein from what's yous Problem? When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing. Odoo solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. Odoo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. You can save money without missing out on the features you need. Check out Odoo at o D O O.com that's O-O-O.com in the heat of.
- [00:38]
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- [02:50]
Ryan Garduski
Welcome back to A Numbers Game with Ryan Garduski. Thank you guys for being here again. Today's Thursday, October 16, 2025. The next election for your local office is coming up in 18 days. Make a plan and go vote. Vote by mail, vote early, vote on election day. Just make sure your voice is heard in your local elections. Now, I usually start rambling up polls that have come out in this party election, but it's crazy. We are in a drought of polling. Even though the election is so close, we are in a complete drought for quality polls. The only statistic I could share with you about an election is that in New Jersey, they broke One of my very smart autistic friends broke down precinct data based on RA race and ethnicity and he found that in districts that are a majority white, they are voting about 10% higher on average than districts that are precincts that are majority black, Hispanic or Asian. Now that is interesting. So why is it interesting is because it this is all mail in ballots. By the way, if you are less likely to show up early for your mail in ballot because if you're sending, if you have an outstanding ballot, you get a ballot mail to you and you're so enthusiastic about you want to go vote for Trump or Obama, whoever it is, you're gonna go vote the first day you get the ballot, right? You're so excited to vote. If you put the ballot on the table and it collects dust for week one, week two, week three, you're not that enthusiastic to go vote. So will these people who get mail in ballots vote? Most of them absolutely will. But if they're not excited to go vote by mail when it's delivered to their house, how excited will they be to show up on election day? That is a big question. That is the question that has plagued Mikey Sherrill's campaign this entire time. She's not popular with a lot of minority voters and is starting to show in the mail in ballots even though she has a very, very strong ground game. So I told you all that this episode, non political episode, I said I wanted to do something easy and light. There's a lot of dark news in the last few weeks to month, you know, since I think Charlie Kirk's assassination. So I said, let's do something not intense. Let's do something free of a lot of polling conversation and let's just talk about something interesting. And I said, let's do a movie episode. I picked 10 movies for conservatives to watch. Movies are very tough for me to give advice on, because I am not a movie snob, but the movies I tend to like are only liked by movie snobs. So I like a lot of art house films, some foreign films. I like a lot of love old movies. You know, it hurts my heart. And when I say old movies, it hurts my heart when people sit there and say. Young people sit there and say movies made before 2000 are old because, no, they're not. My grandparents, my mom's parents, played a very big influence on me. I grew up watching a lot of movies from the 40s and 50s and 60s, and to any Zoomer listening, this is going to shock you, but back then, if you watched a movie on television and you didn't write the name down, there is a likely chance you would never see that movie again. I mean, unless it came on, you know, like, TBS would play it multiple times. I watched a satire about World War II about the French Resistance in Africa. Don't know the name of it. Love the movie. Never be able to see it again. I saw a movie about a British kid. It was a kid's show about a British kid who, like, went to an alternate reality to talk about time and wasting time. And it was. I loved that movie when I saw it when I was a kid. Can never see it again. Don't know the name of it. We'll never be able to find it. That was your relationship to television growing up in the 90s and to movies in the 90s. Unless you knew about it and you knew the name of it, you were never seeing those things ever again. I. And anyway, so that's where I come from, in my opinion, what an old movie is. And it's very difficult, as I said, for me to recommend movies. I like a lot of things that people don't like. For this list, I tried my hardest to pick movies that you may not have heard of, but you would find compelling. Right. I didn't want to pick, like, the Dark Knight Rises because everyone's seen that movie, right? Even though it's a great movie and it has a very conservative message to it, everyone's seen it. So I'm not going to sit there and say a movie that everybody's seen. I picked movies that were a little bit more obscure but also great and a little bit more mainstream that I think that people could watch them. So, yeah, I did. I did my homework. I did my best. I brought my friend John McEnteer one time, who was the head, who was Trump's PPO director for the first term. He. I brought him to see a movie called the Last Black man in San Francisco, and he still brings it up as like, that was the worst movie I've ever seen before in my life. And of course you brought me to it. So I tried really hard to pick something out. I tried really hard to find some things I could not recommend. And I think most people would sit there and like that, have a great story that have a lesson in them that I think conservatives can take home with them and maybe things that you haven't heard of. So my conversation about 10 movies every conservative should watch is coming up next.
- [07:48]
Jacob Goldstein
This is Jacob Goldstein from what's yous Problem? Business software is expensive, and when you buy software from lots of different companies, it's not only expensive, it gets confusing. Slow to use, hard to integrate. Odoo solves that because all Odoo software is connected on a single affordable platform. Save money without missing out on the features you need. Odoo has no hidden costs and no limit on features or data. Odoo has over 60 apps available for any needs your business might have, all at no additional charge. Everything from websites to sales to inventory to accounting. All linked and talking to each other. Check out Odoo at o d o o.com that's o d o o.com in.
- [08:33]
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- [09:08]
Ryan Garduski
The.
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- [09:35]
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Ryan Garduski
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- [10:06]
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- [10:43]
Ryan Garduski
With me on today's episode is my buddy, Giancarlo Sopo. He is a writer of culture for National Review and an all around great guy. Guy also a media strategist for Hispanic outreach. Giancarlo, thank you for being here.
- [10:56]
Giancarlo Sopo
It's great to be with you.
- [10:57]
Ryan Garduski
Okay, so Giancarlo, you are a movie buff. You write about culture. What, when someone says, what's like, give me a good movie, what would you consider? Like, what is the makings of a good movie?
- [11:08]
Giancarlo Sopo
You know, a lot of it is really just instinctual. Like, I, I, I have to experience it. I don't think there's a perfect formula, but I do think that good movies tend to have a couple of things in common. They tend to have some kind of recognizable moral order, something that we could, that we could recognize, that we could say, okay, I understand the rationale of these characters. I understand there's some depth to them. I understand why they're doing what they're doing and what's driving the story. I also think that there, there needs to be an attention to craft. Not to go classical on you, but I do believe that the definition that Aquinas put forward for something being beautiful really holds. Right? It has to have integrity, harmony, and radiance. You know it when you see it. And then finally, I think the very best movies speak to enduring themes, themes that really resonate across the ages. That's why we're still talking about the Godfather today. That's why we could look at a film like Lawrence of Arabia, which is over 60 years old, and really recognize something in it, because they do tend to speak to enduring themes that humans care about. It could be civilizational, psychological, whatever. But I do think that those are three of the key components. And then, honestly, look, it just has to click. There's, there's a lot of subjectivity in art. It's going to click differently for Some people, but those are the three things that I look for.
- [12:55]
Ryan Garduski
So what we're going to do is we're going to Give our top 10 list of movies that conservatives should watch. These are not ranked. So number 10 is not the least best and number one is not the best. It's just 10 movies. I'm just going to rank them because it's easy, understand 9, you know, 8, 7, 8, 9, 10. Why did you first of all pick the movies you picked?
- [13:15]
Giancarlo Sopo
So I'm. I've been working on a project now for most of this year, pretty much the entire year that'll be coming out in a few weeks, which is A list of 150 films that speak to the conservative imagination. I don't want to show my cards a little bit too early in terms of the movies that I selected for that project. I, I could have easily made that a list of 250 films. So I've tried to focus on films that were not on that list, but also films that I think speak to a certain conservative sensibility. Whether they're right, politically right wing or not doesn't really matter to me if they're a movie that. If it's a movie that it's essential for conservatives to see because it speaks to something that. That interests the conservative imagination. Those are the types of films that. That I selected.
- [14:02]
Ryan Garduski
Yeah. And I picked movies that were not like too. I like a lot of art snob films like I do. People hate movies I go see. But I. There will never be a mass shooting at a screening for a movie I'm gonna go see because I'll be the only person in the theater. So the, the. So the movies I see are a little bit more obscure, but more recent movies than not. I tried to make I. Because I could watch old movies all day, but like I try to make it a movie that people will kind of interest in. So my first film that I suggested to movies that people go see was Hacksaw Ridge from 2016, made by Mel Gibson. It was. It's more. It's not super well known. It's not Saving Private Ryan, but I think it's a very compelling anti war, not anti war, but gives a cautionary tale about war, especially World War II, which is so often times glamorized in Hollywood and the real cost of conflict and war. And there's a real Christian element in it. And I love this movie for that reason. I'm sure you've seen it.
- [15:07]
Giancarlo Sopo
It's a fantastic film. I think it's some of Gibson's best work. It was nominated for best picture. Right. I'd say in 2016 if I'm best actor.
- [15:16]
Ryan Garduski
I knew that, but I don't know. It was nominated for A Few Wars. It wasn't at the box office. It didn't make hundreds of millions of dollars. It did fine, but. So people may have seen it, but it's not for. As far as World War II movies goes, not the most well known. What's a movie you gave?
- [15:31]
Giancarlo Sopo
So the very first one on my list is they Live by.
- [15:36]
Ryan Garduski
Yeah, by.
- [15:36]
Giancarlo Sopo
By John Carpenter. It's. It's a movie from the 80s. This is by no means a conservative movie. In fact, the most common reading of the film is that it's a Marxist film. It's about an alien invasion that's. That's happened on Earth. We're not aware of it. It's. And by. By just by way of background, the film is. Is a critique of the Reagan administration. So it's essential. It's about mind control. Humanity is dominated by these aliens. We don't know who they are, we can't see them. But there's an underground sect led by. Or not led by. But he's been joined by Roddy Piper, the, the old wrestler. And, and they have like these really cool glasses where they could. When they wear the glasses they look like, like almost like Ray Bans. They could see who's an alien and who's not. And then they, they realize that the aliens control all the media, they control all the banks and there are subliminal messages across society telling people, consume conform. So it's an amazing film in terms of. If you're into political filmmaking, that is about as good as it gets. It's fantastic. I love, I love John Carpenter. Obviously I don't share his politics, but he's a brilliant.
- [16:58]
Ryan Garduski
I like how he's dead now, right? No, he's.
- [17:00]
Giancarlo Sopo
No, no, no, he's still alive. But you know. Yeah. To follow up.
- [17:05]
Ryan Garduski
Yeah.
- [17:06]
Giancarlo Sopo
To follow up, Halloween, the fog. They Live. You know, I'm sorry, those two with they Live is. Is a hell of an addition to his canon and that is just like grade A 80s propaganda. That's just fantastic. All right.
- [17:24]
Ryan Garduski
I love that. My second pick is the film Ex Machia from 2014 by Alex Garland. This is also not a super well known movie. It is about artificial intelligence. And at the center of the qu. The central theme of the movie is what makes somebody a human a lot. It's a very slow paced movie. This is not a very action filled movie. But it's about a billionaire who's making a lifelike source, a lifelike, you know, robot, and someone who works for him who falls in love with them. And there's a lot of moral questions. It's a lot like Frankenstein. It's a lot like a lot of movies in those themes of what, you know, life is, what who God is, You know, can you become a God when you create this artificial life? A lot of those deep questions, not for everybody, but I really like it. I think people should go see it, especially as AI is advancing specifically quickly. And this is from 10 years ago. So that's my second pick. What is yours? Well, that.
- [18:29]
Giancarlo Sopo
And I just want to say that's a fantastic pick. And he. It is. Is it. Would. Would it be unfair to say that it is like an Elon Musk type character?
- [18:40]
Ryan Garduski
Well, Elon wasn't as well known back then. First, I want to say to the audience, one more for one second. Giancarlo and I did not, like, go through our list, so I don't know we have repeat movies on them. I don't think we do, because I think our taste a little different.
- [18:54]
Giancarlo Sopo
It's.
- [18:54]
Ryan Garduski
It's an Elon Musk type. Well, Elon also is not big on AI, So, I mean, he was. I mean, now he is. But two years ago, he called for a halting of AI research. So I don't think it's him. I just think. I think it's a Dr. Frankenstein character. It is that kind of personality that does exist. And there are a lot of people in Silicon Valley who, you know, they may. They may have watched the Frankenstein movie or read the book and rooted for the Doctor and said, just do it again till you get it right. So, yeah, that's what I think anyway. So what was your second one?
- [19:28]
Giancarlo Sopo
So my second pick is A Man for All Seasons.
- [19:32]
Ryan Garduski
Okay. I've seen this.
- [19:33]
Giancarlo Sopo
Yeah. Which is. That is the 1966 classic Best Picture winner. The Story of. I think if you're a Catholic, it's a must. It's an absolute must. Watch if you're a conservative and it's almost like sacramental if you're a Catholic. It's a story. Story of Sir Thomas More and his falling out with Henry viii. I think it's. It's not just only a beautiful film in the cinematography and the story and everything, but in terms of philosophical and moral complexity, it is. It stands on its own. There's. There's nothing like it. It's really a film for the ages. And you Know he obviously. Well, St. Thomas More is, is a patron saint of the Catholic Church and a martyr. And you see very clearly why in this film just his level of integrity. And the other thing too, what I like about the film is that it's not, it's not oversimplified his moral choices. He does, he does try to get out of what he's facing. He tried every possible avenue and he. But at the end of the day he felt that his soul was worth a lot more to him than expedients. He just didn't want to bless, essentially didn't want to bless the, the marriage. And it's, it's. It's a monumental film. One of the greatest ever made.
- [21:00]
Ryan Garduski
All right, that's. Yeah, I like it. I've seen it a long time ago now, but it is a really good movie. My third pick is. Is an old one of not the same decade, but close to it. It is Zulu from 1964 by side Enfield. This is a classic. This is the. I'm now I'm Michael. Sir Michael Caine's early work is ended. He's a. He's the actor and one of the actors in it. It is a story of the British takeover of South Africa and the fight with the wool over the Zulus. And you know, it's a good movie because when you stream on HBO Max, there's a warning disclaimer at the very beginning that says this is not culturally reflective of like the times like this is made in a certain time when you have to make a. A warning like that, it's offensive because it's of a certain time. You know, it's a good movie. It really glorifies British colonialism and I like it. The acting's good, it's interesting, it moves, even though it's a little long. But it is a great, great film. And I think that it's probably more accurate to what happened than a movie that was made. Probably. Now what is your third? If you haven't seen that, but you make a comment on it. But if you haven't seen it, then.
- [22:10]
Giancarlo Sopo
It'S a great film. I watched it for the first time last year actually and I thought it was absolutely fantastic.
- [22:16]
Ryan Garduski
Right, so great.
- [22:17]
Giancarlo Sopo
Yeah, that battle scene at the very end is one of the all time great battle scenes in the history of cinema. It also just looks beautiful. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that Martin Scorsese made a list of the most beautiful looking films ever made and he ranked that very high on it.
- [22:36]
Ryan Garduski
So, okay, that's Cool.
- [22:37]
Giancarlo Sopo
If you like. If you like seeing beautiful art that is you. You really hit it out of the park with that choice. So my. My pick isn't. Is a very obvious selection, yet I can't tell you, like, maybe it's just because we're getting older and so many years have passed. You and I are geriatric millennials. How I encounter people all the time now who have not seen this film. I once almost fired a client who told me they had not seen this movie. And I'm just like, what? How can you understand American culture without having seen this film? And that's Francis Ford Coppola as the Godfather.
- [23:15]
Ryan Garduski
Okay. I mean, people of a certain age may not have said, I was a little older when I saw the film for the first time. Sure. Yeah.
- [23:23]
Giancarlo Sopo
And so obviously, it's not just a gangster film. And I think Coppola himself intended it almost as a critique of American capitalism. In reality, I think it's a moral parable. It's almost Shakespearean. It tells, obviously, the story of a crime family and the moral compromises that they're making in the process toward what they believe are good ends.
- [23:46]
Ryan Garduski
Right.
- [23:46]
Giancarlo Sopo
Like, hey, we eventually want to get out of this mob business. We want to go legitimate. We want to protect each other. We literally want to protect our children who are. Who are being murdered. And it tells a story of how some of those compromises, it seems small, even if you think that they're toward good ends, how they could ultimately doom someone, and then you just can't escape that evil. And then obviously, in the sequel, we see how it could just destroy a man from within and absolutely kill his soul. To me, it's a must watch for anyone left, right, or center, but especially, I think, if you're a conservative and you want to understand culture, it's an absolute must watch. It's maybe it's commonly listed on all of these lists of the 10 greatest movies ever made and for a good reason.
- [24:40]
Ryan Garduski
Yeah, I. It's one of those movies that if it's on, if I pass by the television, it's on, I will stop and watch more than I should, even though I'm busy doing something. Whenever I hear Diane Keaton scream, it was an abortion, Michael. It's so. I mean, just peak greatness. And did you see there was an interesting story since she died? That was an old interview that they didn't want to hire Al Pacino for that movie. And Diane Keaton was like, I'm not doing it at Al Pacino. And she got him cast now, which is crazy to think anyone besides Al Pacino.
- [25:09]
Giancarlo Sopo
Yeah, they were looking at Nicholson originally.
- [25:12]
Ryan Garduski
Which would have been horrible. Okay, my next movie, I think this is number four. Four on the list is it's a recent movie, but it's a foreign language film. And I know people are like, oh, foreign language, I don't want to read. I promise you this movie is brilliant. It's called Godzilla minus one. It's in 2023 by Takashami Yamazaki. I think I pronounced that name. I know I didn't pronounce that name right, but whatever. Godzilla minus one. I know you're like, oh, a Godzilla movie. This is a beautiful post World War II. It's a look at post World War II Japan. It is a look at a man who was supposed to be a Kamakazi pilot and decided not to fly his plane into a warship, an American warship. And, and the guilt that comes from losing a war and the responsibility towards community, the blame, the shame that goes with it, how to rebuild after that. It is like if Godzilla was not in this movie, it would still be a great movie. Godzilla just happens to be in the movie and it's. I cannot, cannot recommend this movie enough. It is so, so, so good. It was the best movie I saw in 2023 by far. So. Okay. Have you seen it?
- [26:24]
Giancarlo Sopo
Yeah, it's absolutely fantastic. And what's. What I love about this film is that you watch it and you think it's like a 200 million dollar movie. I think they made it with like 15 million bucks or something like that, which in, in, in, in Hollywood numbers is pretty small in terms of a budget and it, it looks phenomenal. And like you said, the story, there are scenes in it that are almost like Godzilla as, as Jaws. Yes, yes, absolutely. When I watched it, I'll tell you a funny story. When my mother in law moved to America from Cuba, it was the very, that weekend the movie came out and the very, one of the very first things she did is that we took her to, to watch that in the movie theaters and she was just blown away. She had never been, she'd never been in, in a normal movie theater. The movie theaters down there are very different than ours. And she was absolutely blown away. It has that kind of an impact. That is so impressive.
- [27:22]
Ryan Garduski
Okay, so what was your movie? Number four.
- [27:24]
Giancarlo Sopo
So my next one is I think one of the great hidden gems of the 2010s, and it's by Ridley Scott and it's called the Counselor.
- [27:33]
Ryan Garduski
Okay, I've not seen this One by Ridley Scott.
- [27:37]
Giancarlo Sopo
So this came out in 2013 and I don't know if it was because of the politics of the era or whatever, but it's a story about the border, right? And it's about a lawyer who has a cartel client. And he essentially tells himself, okay, I am going to dabble in my client's business just this one time. This one time and that's it. And I'm not going to touch this again. And unfortunately, like scripture teaches and like life teaches itself, sometimes some, some sins are so bad that you just can't wash your hands of them. And he sees how dabbling in the cartel business along with Javier Bardem, how it, it could really undo his entire existence and his entire life. It's a very bleak film. I'm not going to tell you. You're going to feel great. But it's, it's, it's a fantastic script, which is funny because it's like what people hated about the film. And I, I like the script.
- [28:40]
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- [28:41]
Giancarlo Sopo
It'S a very powerful story. And it also just shows about. Very few films I think, treat the border with the seriousness that it deserves. And this is one of those films that really got it right about some of the dangers on our southern border. And it's absolutely fantastic. It's got Brad Pitt's in it too, Cameron Diaz. So if you haven't seen it, make sure to check out the counselor.
- [29:06]
Ryan Garduski
Okay, so my next movie is from number I think six now or five or whatever. My next movie is also from the 2010s. It is Hotel Mumbai from 2018 by the director was Anthony Maris. It was about the Mumbai terrorist attacks in 2008. I did not even know there were terrorist attacks at the Hotel Mumbai in Mumbai 2008 because it happened like two days after Obama was elected. So the American media really didn't cover it. But it's about Islamic terrorism in India. It is fast paced, it is foreign, but there is a lot of English speaking in it. It is fast paced, it is quick, it is action packed. It has a real moral lesson in it. Absolutely. A movie I've seen probably three or four times and worth watching especially for people who are like, you know, whatever, foreign films. But this, I promise you, it doesn't miss a beat. It's brilliant. Okay, your next movie.
- [29:59]
Giancarlo Sopo
My next movie is also a foreign film. It is 1967's Le Samurai by John Pierre Melville. Okay, now this is the coolest movie ever made. There is no debate in terms of just the aesthetics. It is the coolest movie ever made. It's been copied a million times. Tarantino has copied it in Reservoir Dogs and in Pulp Fiction. It tells a story of a, you know, a, A professional killer who is a hired gun. And he's played by Aligned alone. So for those who don't know who's Aligned alone, he's, you know, just a terrific actor who would have, you know, it's funny because it's almost counterintuitive. He would have gotten a lot farther in his career if you weren't so damn handsome, you know, you would have been taking a lot more same.
- [30:57]
Ryan Garduski
I have that same problem. Yeah.
- [30:59]
Giancarlo Sopo
So, you know, so it's about a killer, a contract killer who has a moral code. And it's got a great story. But the, the real reason I think for watching this film is for the aesthetics. It's. The director is maybe the greatest director that you haven't, that most people haven't heard of. His name is John Pierre Melville. He made some of the best movies of the 60s. He was an American file like he, he, he loved America. That's not, it's not even his real name. He, he adopted that name. He was famous for driving around Paris in a big Cadillac and wearing a Stetson and, and, and, and Ray Ban. So this, this is a guy who loved American gangster films and really wanted to bring that vibe to France. It is a cool, it is just one of the coolest looking films I've ever seen. So if you have not seen Le Samurai or the Samurai, definitely check it out. It's been copied, I said, by Tarantino. One of one of its most direct descendants, though is the, the Ryan Gosling film Drive.
- [32:00]
Ryan Garduski
Yeah, I saw it. Yeah.
- [32:02]
Giancarlo Sopo
So it's, it's absolutely fantastic. It's one of my favorite movies.
- [32:05]
Ryan Garduski
Okay, my. Is a, my next one. Number six. I actually, I counted because I was very off, but number six of the 10 that I suggest is an oldie but a classic and a classic that people kind of forgot in the last 30 years. It's from 1991 by Steven Spielberg and it's Hook. And it is the story of Peter Pan growing up. Robin Williams plays Peter Pan. Julia Roberts plays Tinkerbell. Dustin Hoffman plays Captain Hook. And why it is great is if you deconstruct. I watched the movie recently and deconstructed. It is really a celebration about fatherhood. And that's really the essence of the entire movie is not about not growing up. It is about fatherhood and why fathers are important. And movies like that don't get Made very often. So 1991 hook is my favorite thing, especially if you have younger kids. And it's not going to be a Disney movie you just turn on. It's a movie you kind of don't remember to look for. Just check it out. It is very, very good. What was your next.
- [33:01]
Giancarlo Sopo
Don't those stories hit harder now as a dad?
- [33:05]
Ryan Garduski
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So was your next one.
- [33:09]
Giancarlo Sopo
My next movie is 1993's falling down.
- [33:14]
Ryan Garduski
Okay. I've never seen this.
- [33:16]
Giancarlo Sopo
So this is the Michael Douglas goes apeshit movie. So I think it's a, it's a look. It's a movie about alienation. It's a movie about social instability. Conservatives who understand conservatism will pick up on a lot here. You know, you're not going to like this guy because he's a vigilante and because he goes around shooting up a fast food place because of false advertising. But you will appreciate how if things move too fast, be it through societal change due to changes in laws, due to economic changes due to a lot of new people moving into your community, you will recognize how that could really destabilize a society and push people who are already vulnerable or on the margins or on, or on the fringes toward really dark places. So it's not a perfect film. I think it could have been a perfect film. I think they, they made some decisions in the third act where you kind of he, you end up thinking that he, what happens to him is what deserved to happen to him. I think a bolder version of that movie would have had him a little bit more restrained in the third act. Like he shoots a cop in the third act. He should not have done that in the script.
- [34:39]
Ryan Garduski
Spoiler alert for anyone going to see it.
- [34:41]
Giancarlo Sopo
Well, that's not a major spoiler. Yeah, that's not a major spoiler. But you, it, it's a kind of movie that I think if the studios had had more balls in, in the early 90s, this is like a feel good era and we were like in that 90s glow where they would have made a film where the ending would have been a little bit more ambiguous, where you wouldn't have walked out of there thinking, okay, well yeah, this guy's a case study and not in what not to do. You would have walked out of there thinking a little bit more like, okay, maybe he had a point. And yeah, and it would have forced you to grapple with some of the tensions that he was dealing with a little bit better.
- [35:24]
Ryan Garduski
Okay, my next one is, I think number seven or six or whatever. My next one is Sabrina from 1954 by Billy Wilder. It is a black and white film. It's an older film with Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart and it's an easy movie to watch. It's basically a Cinderella story. Why I think conservatives could watch it is because Humphrey Bogart gives one of the best defenses of capitalism you will watch in a movie when he discusses why he is so in love with his job and what great. How great industry is. Very, very easy movie to watch. Has a good lesson in it, but overall quick and easy. But I do love that movie from Billy. Billy Wilder's probably top three greatest American directors that ever lived. So it's great.
- [36:05]
Giancarlo Sopo
Absolutely. I'm glad you didn't mention the Harrison Ford remake.
- [36:09]
Ryan Garduski
No, I would not do that to anybody.
- [36:14]
Giancarlo Sopo
My next film, it's a movie from 1970 directed by Bertolucci. It's an Italian film. It's called the Conformist which is. It's a great lesson for anyone who works in politics. It's a story about an operative for Mussolini who essentially gets hired or ordered to knock off somebody close to him. And what you eventually start realizing about this guy is that he's just a careerist. He was never really a Mussolini guy or a fascist or whatever. He was just a guy who was in this personal advancement. So I, you know, I. I think that if you work in this business, it's always good to have a. A North star and to be very clear about why you're in this. And I think this movie has a lot to offer that. And by the end of the film you see that he didn't believe in anything at all. I'm not, I'm not giving away any spoilers, but it's also just one of the best looking films you'll ever see. If you like cinematography, the Conformist is one of the best. And honestly, it's also just one of the most influential movies ever made.
- [37:23]
Ryan Garduski
One of, you know, something very typical people in politics. They end up not believing in anything at all. Okay, my third to last mine is Belfast from 2021 by Kenneth Branagh. This is the story of Belfast, Ireland during the Troubles. I had family in Ireland during the who moved from New York to Ireland during the Troubles. I should have a whole episode on that one day. But he. But it is a story of life in Northern Ireland and it is black and white for most of the movie. It is sad and it is happy about being sad. It is the most Irish movie I've ever Seen, but I love it. It's a story of childhood, youth, and both longing for a better life of being, being confined to certain things. Everyone's on a different path, everyone's in a certain different thing. And there's a real love for community, even when community is terrible. Great, great, great movie. Love it. Really, really recommend this. I showed to my grandparents and it was like their favorite movie ever. So. Belfast by Kenneth Branagh. What's yours?
- [38:27]
Giancarlo Sopo
My next one is a movie called Joe from 1970. This is a grindhouse movie. It's a. Okay. This is like cinema veritas, American style, like in, in the 70s. It's directed by John Adelson, the same guy who did Rocky and Lean on Me and the Karate Kid. And the reason why I say that is because a lot of people say that this is like an anti right wing movie. And I don't think a guy who made those films and was set to direct Reagan but died of cancer before he was able to do it could be really that anti right wing. So it's, I think it's better understood as a critique of the right from within the right. So it tells a story of an upper middle class executive whose daughter goes down the wrong, starts hanging around the wrong people in the counterculture and she gets involved with a hippie. The guy kills the hippie and so he's a song. The executive guy's already on the wrong track, but then he goes to a bar and there's this loudmouth at, at a bar who's saying like these obscene, crazy racist rants. And the whole point is, is like this guy is a caricature. Everybody in this movie is kind of a caricature of the worst versions of themselves. But the point though is that this guy should have been at a stage where he's like facing justice and some kind of contrition. But because he befriends this guy, he creates like almost like a permission structure for what he just did to his daughter's boyfriend. It has a very tragic ending. It's also just a fun movie. You're going to laugh your ass off by hearing the things that this guy says that are. I can understand we would all get canceled, but you can imagine people laughing in movie theaters in the 70s watching some of this. It's called Joe. It's not easy to find. I think you probably, probably find it on YouTube. It may even be on Amazon Prime.
- [40:34]
Ryan Garduski
This is really quick story. I was, I would see Death Wish in the theaters in New York, but it was like a Very hipster theater Death wish from the 70s and when watching it to like hipster transplants. Clearly transplant said New York and impossible been that bad. And I was like, I hate these people, but I love movies in the 70s. So you mention it. Okay. Second to last for me. This is from 2018 by Armando in new scene. He's a, He's a director. It's called Death of Stalin. It is a dark comedy and I mean dark, but it is very, very funny if you pay attention to the conversations happening. And I think why a conservative should watch this movie is it's actually accurate. It is more accurate than not accurate detail of what happens in a non democracy when there is a transfer of power and how violent it is and how the suction of power happens and how often times what follows is what follows A. A dictator is usually chaos and destruction and not this clean transition towards, you know, Jeffersonian democracy. So Death of Stalin from 2018 is my second to last pick. What's yours?
- [41:38]
Giancarlo Sopo
That's a great pick. My second to last is a silent film, 1921's the Kid.
- [41:44]
Ryan Garduski
My favorite. Yeah, it's my favorite of all time.
- [41:48]
Giancarlo Sopo
Yeah, it's one of the greatest movies of all time.
- [41:50]
Ryan Garduski
It's.
- [41:50]
Giancarlo Sopo
It's one of the greatest stories about. Well, it is the greatest story about surrogate fatherhood. What I love about this film and why I think conservatives should watch it is that it really speaks to a sense of duty. This guy was not planning to be a, A dad. He was just like some tramp. He like literally stumbles upon a kid. There's a. And he. The only reason why he takes him home is because he doesn't want the cop who saw him stumble over the kid to think that he was kidnapping the child.
- [42:19]
Ryan Garduski
Right.
- [42:20]
Giancarlo Sopo
So he just, just acted like everything was going. Was hunky dory and he just took the kid home and he ended up growing very attached to the kid and raising him. It's a beautiful film. Like everything that Chaplin did. It's. It shows you some of the rough edges of society at the time, but with very deep like humanistic lessons that you could really take away. And it's. It's one of my favorite films too.
- [42:45]
Ryan Garduski
That is my favorite. Is my number one favorite movie of all. I see it constantly. Okay, my last pick for this number 10 movie conservative should watch is a movie called April 9th. It was made in 2015 by Ronnie Ezra. Have you heard of it?
- [42:59]
Giancarlo Sopo
I have not heard of this one.
- [43:00]
Ryan Garduski
Okay. Wow. I found one movie that even Jim Carlos. It is free on YouTube to watch. It is a Danish movie. It is all in Danish. It is the story of Danish resistance to Nazi Germany from the perspective of a lieutenant. And it is really a question of what. What is your role when you are faced with insurmountable odds? How much do you owe to a cause or to a country when you cannot succeed in what you're trying to do? I think a lot of conservatives, when things are very bleak, would resonate with this message. It's a very, very powerful movie. There's one really powerful scene where the farm woman was like, you could just hide out. And he. She goes, you know, this country was Germany, then it was Denmark. Doesn't matter to me. And he says, it matters a lot to me. Beautiful, beautiful movie in Danish. Free on YouTube. Giancarlo, your last movie.
- [43:47]
Giancarlo Sopo
So my final pick, and on a positive note, is White Christmas. So I wanted to end on a high note. I'm not going to tell you that I think it's the greatest Christmas movie ever made. It's a little kitsch, it's a little saccharine, a little sentimental, but it's very sincere. So it's about a couple of army buddies who they essentially, they go on vacation and they end up at the. At the. At the Vermont Inn of their old military superior. And the place is about to go out of business because it hasn't snowed. And so they essentially. So it's Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, and they summon. They. They're able to go on TV and they summon their entire platoon to join them at the inn. Yeah, it does have one of the most heartwarming and beautiful endings in all of cinema. I. Every time I watch that film, I just look over to my wife and I'm like, yeah, this got to me. It's just a great movie about camaraderie, patriotism and loyalty and friendship. You know, it's kind of masks itself as a romantic film. I don't really think that's. That's the heart of it. And I don't think it's a coincidence that that movie was made at a time when we had a general as president. So I think it's a. It's a gorgeous film and definitely put it on your watch list for this Christmas season.
- [45:23]
Ryan Garduski
Well, Giancarlo, where could we go to read more of your stuff?
- [45:27]
Giancarlo Sopo
So they could read me National Review or they can follow me on Twitter. I've been posting a lot less there. Just busy with being a dad. But you could follow me at National Review and I'll have a lot more to share about movies and this project that I've been working on in the next couple weeks. I'm really excited about it.
- [45:46]
Ryan Garduski
I'm going to retweet it when it comes out, so I'm very excited. Giancarlo, thank you for coming on this podcast.
- [45:51]
Giancarlo Sopo
No, thank you for having me, Ryan.
- [45:52]
Ryan Garduski
Hey, we'll be right back after this.
- [45:55]
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Ryan Garduski
Now it's time for the Ask Me Anything segment. If you guys want to be part of the Ask Me Anything segment, email me ryan@NumbersGame podcast.com that's Ryan numbers gamepodcast.com I love getting these questions. I have a few built up so I'm trying to get through more than one per episode. This question comes from Jennifer in Florida. She writes about a month ago she started tracking local registration in her county which has a large university is a blue county in Florida because of the supervisor of elections announced that she would be doing outreach at college campus events weekly Net registration by party has shown but she included the attachment that there are no new Democrats in the last three weeks and 170 new Republicans and 216 new others. Why do you think some people are registering as as others basically not. Not in either party. And why are so few registering as Democrats? And are you over any state laws that require university students to vote in their home precincts if they're still dependents on their parents? Okay, so the first question is the purge three weeks ago about or a few weeks ago, Florida did a regular voter registration purge. All states do it. They sit there and see who's been inactive for years and they assume that they moved or they died. And I looked at this data for this prec and this county and there was enormous drop off for Democrats who either had moved or died or were completely inactive for a long period of time. So they registered not zero, they registered more than zero. But the numbers that they lost in that purge exceeded that. The numbers that they gained. And why are they registering so few voters is because their brand is terrible. I mean the brand of, you know, if you're not registering for an election that's coming up, right? If, like, if you like the president's she's coming up, I gotta register to vote. I gotta register to vote. Unless something like that is happening that's motivating you to vote, you're more than likely just either someone who just moved to an area or someone who just turned 18 and the Democratic Party is not. They just don't have a leadership. They don't have a message. They're very isolating to a lot of different people. Republicans don't have an amazing brand name, but it's better than Democrats. And a lot of people just picking independence because they don't want to belong to a party. One of the two parties they feel are, you know, not service to the country or to voters as a whole. This is the question on voter registration for college kids. I looked up the law in Florida. College kids can register either at their home that their parents live at or at their college campus in their dorm. So they don't need to have registered where they're. Where they're dependent on their parents. They can register to vote in the dorm that they live on. That is the case. Every state's a little different. That is the case in a lot of important swing states like Wisconsin, where there's a lot of college kids at Wisconsin who register at their dorms and they happen to be lefties. But that's. And New Hampshire, I think, is the same exact way. That's a big question from individual states. But Florida, you can register at your dorm. I did look that up. Okay, next question comes from Ryan Shannon. He writes farmers and Democrats say you can't get rid of illegal workers because our crops will go up. You touched on this show on your. On your show. Why don't Republicans, Dems, whoever actually helps show us a chart of how much it will cost the strawberries would be how much if we hired Americans. I will help one side of the aisle. So clearly they don't care. Okay. So he said, welcome to my. Well, thanks for coming to my TED Talk. Thank you, Ryan, for asking that question. I was. By the way, it was National Ryan Day the other day, so I hope you celebrated by liking and subscribing to this podcast. The the question of how much will crops go up if you hire only Americans? One. You. Okay. A, you don't need to hire only Americans. You could hire H2A visa holders because H2A visa holders all have an unlimited supply. They're illegally here. And farmers, farming companies, manufacturing company. Oh, sorry, manufacturing. But agriculture companies have to. Subs have to pay for some of their housing and transportation and other things in case they get injured or where they have to stay that would. Otherwise, who knows where they would go. But they don't want to do that. They want to go to illegal aliens. 2. You can hire Americans. It's perfectly, you know, fine and a lot of places do hire Americans to do some things. And third is that you could just mechanize. You can go to machines and have a one time increase for the cost that your machine's never going to get sick. It's going to work harder. There's cameras like this is, this is so. This is so nonsensical. They're arguing that it's only going to go up if you have to hire an American for $40 an hour. It's just, that's not true. It's such a lie. And the reason they can't give a fair estimate out is because look at what happened during the tariff fight during the first Trump term over things like tuna. They were saying tuna cans were going to cost like $10 a can because of taxes, tariffs on aluminum. That never happened like it was. It was all a lie. A lot of these statistics and numbers they throw out for projections are to make a case for their side. Sometimes it happens, a lot of times it doesn't. And as far as what the answer is, the answer for your industry is to do what other countries that don't depend on slave wage labor to do. Japan does not import a million Mexicans to pick rice every year. They've mechanized the process. We can mechanize the process. We can make it cost efficient that farmers can sit there and hire machines to do the work and to make sure that crops grow. It will make things cheaper. Ultimately, though, one important detail is that the number one driver of food costs besides, you know, regular monetary inflation is energy supply. How much it costs to get your food to your local grocery store is a big reason as to why your food prices are going up. Energy, energy, energy, energy. And then also electricity to store and cool those things. And as prices are rising, is that those numbers are moving and filtering down to your local grocery store. So that's the answer why? It's not that they don't care. They bring up these kinds of statistics all the time, Ryan. It's just that they are using whatever data they need to use to make their case and for political reasons. It's not just the most accurate place I think you would find them, but someone's got to talk about it more. So thank you for bringing this up. Thank you all for listening. If you like this podcast, please like and subscribe to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts. Wherever you get your podcast Monday, we'll be back Politics. Back to the election season, back to campaign. So please like and subscribe. Check us out on Monday. Have a great weekend.
- [55:30]
Giancarlo Sopo
Come on.
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- [57:28]
Ryan Garduski
Take a deep dive into the stories making the news headlines across the world.
- [57:33]
Giancarlo Sopo
The News Agents we're not just here.
- [57:35]
Ryan Garduski
To tell you what's happening, but why? From me, Emily Maitlis and me John Sopel with Global's award winning podcast the News Agents Dropping daily covering everything you need to know about politics and current affairs and The News Agents USA listening to the News Agents on America's number one podcast network iHeart. Open your free Iheart app and search the News agents to start listening.
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- [58:36]
Ryan Garduski
This is an iHeart podcast.