Chris Gore, Founder/Owner of FilmThreat/Author/Filmmaker: It has
everything Hollywood movies wish they had.
Film Courage: Today we have another quote here. We've done this with you in the past.
We're wondering if you can read this quote? Not sure you know who it is?
Chris: Let's see if I can figure it out. Okay…I feel like I'm on a game show. [Chris reads quote]
I am a filmmaker. My job is to make films. When something excites you, a story or characterization
you immediately forget about everything else. You only think how to make a movie out of it. The
economics come only later. You shouldn't let money dictate the kind of films you should make. Well I
really love that statement. I'm not exactly sure who wrote it but I love that. I think there's a
couple of things. It's unfortunate that filmmaking is the most expensive art form. Even if you make a
film on your iPhone at some point you're going to have to do a professional sound mix you're
going to have to use color correction you're going to have to spend some money to market the film
right so even movies at a low budget level money is sort of the unspoken producer of every movie
that's why when you see the movies with the highest budgets many times they appeal to everyone
and no one and don't exactly leave leave you with any sort of lasting impression but I think money
is always the unspoken producer and in addition money is for many beginning filmmakers an excuse
to not make a movie so I feel like you need to kind of set all those excuses aside find out what
your Baseline level budget is to tell a story and if there's a way to do it leap right in but
now you have to tell me who said this I don't know speaking of leap thinking of the dancing
scene that would be S. S. Rajamouli wow yeah S. S. Rajamouli said that wow that's fantastic he I'm
become a quick fan of S. S. Rajamouli he directed a film called RRR which is a Tollywood film
it's it's really interesting in India they really have competing film Industries they
have Bollywood which many people are familiar with Bollywood and Associate most of Indian
Cinema with Bollywood but there's also Tollywood and there I think that the
rivalry between the two industries is actually made for better films and I will say I discovered
RRR when it was number three at the box office the weekend that the Batman opened
and I found that really strange how is it that the weekend that this biggest superhero movie
Robert Pattinson is the Batman that this movie RRR suddenly is Unleashed in the United States
and I went to see it on a whim based on a recommendation from a friend and noticing
like how did this film and the film just blew my mind three hour epic very Loosely
based on two historical figures and it has everything Hollywood movies wish they had today
just compelling instantly likable characters it very much felt like an old style Hollywood
movie a mix of yes there are dance numbers there's also romance and humor action there's heroism acts
of self-sacrifice I don't know that Hollywood can make a film like RR and it's it's really
disappointing to me oddly enough RRR is the I believe the highest budget movie ever to come from
India at 75 million dollars and it's it's really quite an achievement when you see the film I would
have thought it would be it would have been in the hundreds of millions of dollars to make this movie
but the fact that it's 75 million dollars and so epic in scale
there's a scene in at the near the beginning of the film in the First Act
character named Ram who is an officer at an outpost it's being protested and it's
an action sequence where Ram is sort of set on a mission to to grab a perpetrator who threw a rock
he goes to try to track down this perpetrator it's an epic action scene you can't believe I mean it's
just something on a scale we've never seen I was shocked to learn that they took almost 30
days to shoot that scene with 20 000 extras not digital effects twenty thousand extras
so the achievement of this film is so remarkable and it makes me sad that like
hey Hollywood can't compete with this and I do see when you go to your local Cinema
wherever your local movie theater is you're seeing more and more not necessarily your Hollywood movie
but anime you're seeing Spanish language films Indian films I mean at the AMC theaters that I
go to in Southern California there is at least a new Indian movie every month sometimes two a month
I personally love that because I've always enjoyed world cinema has I I've always enjoyed it but this
film is something special one interesting thing that I would point out about RRR
is Americans reaction to this movie everyone I know that has seen it has really loved it but
what I find interesting is we live at a time where politics is infused into nearly every
art form comic books writing movies television it's I could use a break frankly
from being lectured to no one likes to be lectured to and this film does not do that
but there are thematically some interesting things that are opposing in it and I'm really
surprised that that I've never seen anyone point this out about RRR on the one hand
the villains of the film are the colonizers the British
the Sun never sets on the British Empires what they say and there's a character governor Scott
in in RRR that is I mean he is a villain right out of a Star Wars movie with the British accent
and whatnot so the white Colonial Invaders of India are the bad people now that is a political
messaging it's also a real historical thing that happened okay so it's not like it's a message but
that's something that would appeal to one side of the political aisle
would be hey the colonizers are the baddies in this movie in addition in the same movie
there is also a thread about guns and owning a gun and the correct use of a gun responsible use
of a weapon will lead to Freedom the character Ram who I mentioned earlier you get a flashback in the
second half of the film with young Ram and his father and he's teaching him about the value of
a bullet the value of a bullet being worth more than the life of an Indian and how that kind of
plays through he tells them the value of bullet what it can do responsible gun use you see sort
of training an army to to basically fight their way to freedom from the British colonizers
so on the one hand you have a movie that's very anti-colonizer that is also very pro-second
Amendment you could look at it that way I don't think I've seen a movie I can't even think of a
film that contains if you've seen the movie RRR as many times as I have you'll notice it two opposing
sides of the political aisle in terms of messaging one being anti-colonizer another one being pro-gun
I don't know that S. S. Rajamouli intended it to be that way I don't believe he's lecturing
in any portion of the film at all I think it's all organic to the story I just find it
fascinating that not one person has pointed this out that's interesting I hadn't even thought of
it I'm referring back to the scene that you're talking about and there's also just to keep it
lighter there's friendship there's romance there's amazing dance sequences and then
there's these animals right animals all digitally the animals are all digitally created right but
also Ram's Mission which his sort of his his family is decimated and murdered by the the
colonizers right by the British the British soldiers wipe out his family and his tribe
nearly everyone in his tribe and then he grows up and he's on a mission to get the guns because
guns will lead to freedom and if I mean India was not United as a country at the time this
for a historical frame of reference the story the story of our art takes place in the 1920s
it's also based on two real historical figures and imagines if they had met right they never
actually didn't meet but but the film kind of is is definitely I would call it historical fantasy
but you the India was not United as a country it was groups of tribes the British colonizers
coming in kind of helped unite the people the the Ram's mission is his whole mission
is to get weapons and then deliver them to his tribes so they can fight for their freedom and
at least fight on an even playing field with the British having guns and them having guns so
these are sensitive things to think about and talk about because we live at a time where even if you
reveal even a hint at what your politics might be it could be a death sentence for a career which
is sad to me it's sad that we can't have open and honest conversations about a whole number
of issues I would love to be able to do that but it's funny that this wildly successful very
mainstream and entertaining almost a tip of the hat to old Hollywood film RRR has woven into it
some messages you could read read in that are that are that are right in the middle of the
Divide of where people are right now in the United States and are they on two different
religious spectrums as well in the film no they don't not so much I mean the film does deal with
that but what I love about S. S. Rajamouli as a filmmaker he was asked in an interview
or the interviewer asked him said hey have you thought about doing a Marvel movie you should
based on the action in RRR you should be making a Marvel movie
and S. S. Rajamouli said I have no interest in doing a Marvel movie I don't want to do that and
he wants to keep his focus on telling stories from Indian history and Indian mysticism fables and I
think that that is why I so admire SS Rajmouil is a filmmaker because he wants to stick to his roots
and I think that that's incredibly admirable did you expect to love the movie going in
I didn't know I didn't know what to expect about RR when I went in to see it I just
thought well okay it's three hours I know I'm going to have to take a break
at some point there's going to be an intermission whether there is one or not
but I just fell in love with it because because it reminded me of a type of movie that Hollywood used
to make which wasn't any genre you could easily just say well RRR is an action movie it's not
just that it's also a historical fantasy it's also a love story in fact there are two love stories
maybe three if you encount if you count the friendship between beam and Ram
so it really is in my top probably top five if not top three movies of the year
and it should give Hollywood pause to see how successful this film is internationally how it's
beloved by anyone that sees it if there's a way to see RRR in a movie theater I strongly recommend it
I've seen it in the theater four times I'm actually going to see it for a fifth time in the
theater and when you see this movie it's like a celebration I haven't seen an audience react this
way to a film in a theater since the very end of Avengers end game that sort of swell of you don't
want to just clap you want to stand up and applaud you want to scream for joy I mean I can think of
times in the past where I've screamed at a movie theater applauded for Joy but I haven't done that
I haven't done that with a Hollywood film probably since that scene and end game the portals scene
which is the the very end of the film I thought that was like that was the combination of 10 years
of Marvel movies telling effectively what turned out to be one story leading to that epic battle
Nothing Compares except for the film RRR seeing it in the theater is for me if it's playing I'm
going to go I'm just so taken with this film and I think there's so much there's so much to
learn from it and I really hope that Hollywood learns the lesson of please stop the lecturing
tell audiences a story that they can be engaged with characters that you fall in love with
and I think really that formula is fairly simple I don't I don't know where we got to this place
where we felt it necessary to infuse all of our entertainment with with with some sort
of lecturing it's just you just don't need it and it's Tollywood you said Tollywood yes
there yeah I am still learning about all this my understanding is they're two dominant languages in
India there's Telugu and Hindi and sometimes you will see they'll come out in different
languages I'm obviously I'm seeing it with the subtitles I can't speak either language
the only words I know are Nattu Nattu which is the dance number the dance number in in the
middle of our RRR were Ram and beam do the not to not to dance right then it turns into a dance-off
some people some friends of mine have recommended RRR they they kind of cringe for a minute like oh
is it's one of those Bollywood movies with dance numbers and I correct them because I
was corrected it's Hollywood the dance number is a big part of the story it's a huge part of
the story so it's not just put in there just to be in there right there's a purpose there's a
purpose for not to not to to be in the middle of that and God I wish I had the skills that
those actors did in that scene it's really remarkable so God just if I could say one
thing just go see RRR in the theater if you have the opportunity you can thank me later.