FS #258: Terminator Salvation / Midnight Cowboy / Top 5 Screen Leaders

May 22: If you can hear this, you are part of the Resistance (or probably related to Adam and Matty). It is imperative that you listen to Filmspotting this week. Though the reputation and legacy of the legendary and ground-breaking Terminator franchise (originally launched by director James Cameron in 1984) seems impenetrable, we have detected a weakness. The latest installment in the series, "Terminator Salvation," is out-fitted with legions of intimidating and cool-looking killer machines, but its director, McG ("Charlie's Angels") seemed to forget two critical elements: pathos and plot. If Filmspotting can maneuver its way up the abandoned chasm where a coherent storyline should otherwise exist, Adam and Matty might be able to knock out the central processing unit that controls Sam Worthington and Christian Bale's wooden acting.

Once accomplished, we will debrief with a discussion of the sixth film in the Filmspotting New Hollywood Marathon, "Midnight Cowboy," 1969's Academy Award-winning film starring Jon Voigt and Dustin Hoffman as the legendary duo, Joe Buck and Ratso Rizzo, hooking and crooking their way through the streets of New York. Once you have fully appreciated the accomplishment of director John Schlesinger's unorthodox and radical "buddy" film, you can move on to your final challenge. With Adam and Matty as color guard, you will climb Mt. Filmspotting to enshrine the Top 5 Screen Leaders.

Plus, Massacre Theatre -- presented by In Review Online -- Listener Feedback and music by Jenniferever.


Filmspotting #258
:13-14:02 - Review: "Terminator Salvation"
Music: Jenniferever, "Green Meadow Island"
15:04-18:45 - Poll Questions
18:46-30:23 - Feedback/Voicemails (Cinematic Obsessions)
Music: Jenniferever, "Sparrow Hills"
31:04-35:55 - Mass. Theatre (Winner: L. Holbrook)
35:56-46:54 - New Hollywood #6: "Midnight Cowboy"
Music: Jenniferever, "Lives Apart"
47:22-55:31 - New DVDs/Donations
55:32-1:09:40 - Top 5: Screen Leaders
1:09:41-1:12:05 - Close/Next Show/Outtakes

NOTES
- Check out Jeff Goldsmith's Creative Screenwriting Podcast. It can be accessed through iTunes here.

- It is actually the trailer for "Zabriskie Point" that will blow your mind, not Red Desert.

- Yes, Henry V was a real person. Sorry for any confusion there. Matty would follow SHAKESPEARE'S Henry V into battle... very intentional use of the word "fictional." We love the House of Plantagenet.

Follow more notes and corrections at http://twitter.com/filmspotting.