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S4E21.5 Hail, Caesar! (Patreon)

Published:
2025-08-29 10:42:15
Imported:
2026-06

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This week November brings us a little Podcast Dessert. Hail, Caesar! is a Coen Brothers movie about a day in the life of a fixer for a booming film studio in the 1950s that all three of us enjoyed watching, but understood on vastly different levels. TSHIRT ALERT: ADVERSE CONDITIONS MOVIE CLUB PREORDERS NOW OPENThats right, the long-awaited Adverse Conditions Movie Club shirt is finally available for preorder on our website. Featuring art from the incredibly talented Mika Kurzmann-Abrams! Preorders close end of August.

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We've been nominated for Podcast of the Year at the ITV bCreator Awards! It’s public vote, so vote for us here under “creator shortlist”.should take about a minute, you don’t have to live in Britain to vote! www.bcreator.co.uk/awards/-----

Friend of the show Bella, a refugee evacuated from Afghanistan in 2021, is raising money for her gender confirmation surgery! Anything you can give would be hugely appreciated! https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/team-bella

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Check out friend of the show Mattie's new book Simplicity here, or wherever fine graphic novels are sold!

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FREE PALESTINE

Hey, Devon here. In our home, we talk a lot about how insane everything feels, and agonise constantly over what can be done to best help the Palestinians trapped in Gaza facing the full brunt of genocidal violence. My partner Rebecca has put together a list of four fundraisers you can contribute to- all of them are at work on the ground doing what they can.

-Palestinian Communist Youth Union, which is doing a food and water effort, and is part of the official communist party of Palestinehttps://www.gofundme.com/f/to-preserve-whats-left-of-humanity-global-solidarity

-Water is Life, a water distribution project in North Gaza affiliated with an Indigenous American organization and the Freedom Flotillahttps://www.waterislifegaza.org/

-Vegetable Distribution Fund, which secured and delivers fresh veg, affiliated with Freedom Flotilla alsohttps://www.instagram.com/linking/fundraiser?fundraiser_id=1102739514947848

-Thamra, which distributes herb and veg seedlings, repairs and maintains water infrastructure, and distributes food made with replanted veg patcheshttps://www.gofundme.com/f/support-thamra-cultivating-resilience-in-gaza

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WEB DESIGN ALERT

Tom Allen is a friend of the show (and the designer behind our website). If you need web design help, reach out to him here:  https://www.tomallen.media/

Kill James Bond is hosted by November Kelly, Abigail Thorn, and Devon. You can find us at https://killjamesbond.com , as well as on our Bluesky and X.com the every app account

Files

Comments

Andrew Dunn

Hell yeah fuck yeah. haven't even started listening to this yet and I had to comment already. this movie was the first time I'd ever heard the term dialectics and it unironically got me interested in Marxism, and then I learned about Marxism from Philosophytube. Coen Brothers to Kill James Bond pipeline Also Hobie from this movie is my "literally me" character. I am/ want to be a little singing cowboy Eddie Mannix's wife is Kim Pine from Scott Pilgrim Pedantic point: the Coen brothers made an adaptation of the original novel "True Grit" by Charles Portis. I wouldn't necessarily call it a remake of the John Wayne True Grit. the novel and Coen Brothers movie True Grit are both fairly religious, with a devoutly Christian protagonist and Christian themes. Charles Portis also wrote a novel called "the dog of the South" which is a hilarious combination of Cormac McCarthy and PG Wodehouse, about an asshole whose girlfriend runs away with his coworker, and he goes on a road trip to track them down to get his car and his property back.

kinoverite

underrated cohen bros movie

Ben, A Human Hair

I'm a huge Coen brothers fan and this has become one of my favourites over the years since it came out. Very rewatchable and extremely funny (whether you know anything about communism or not)

Tall Jeff

So hype one of my faves. One of those movies where I felt they made it for me specifically

BarFly

I look forward to the All Latin, All the Time stylings of Sword and Sandal Season, when you cover, like, Barabbas.

Andrew Dunn

Also I just remembered that the movie 'Dead Presidents' exists, and you could do it for heist season. Black Vietnam veterans decide they have to do a heist because it's the only way they can survive in American racist capitalism. Keith David, Chris Tucker in a rare serious role.

cole d

7:36 talking about the buttermaid I 100% heard Abby say "bottom aid" and was very confused for a moment

Frédérique Merizen

For the record, I'm not a fan of the midroll ad on a patreon episode.

Queeraye

*Anime girl with snapback meme* Bonhoeffer and Rahner mentioned

Queeraye

If it was for like a paid product then it’d be a bit cheeky but I think since it’s purely “please don’t miss these important things you probably want to know about” I see it more as a PSA than an ad

Frédérique Merizen

Fair and I'm not saying that it's outrageous, I'm just letting the hosts know that I did a ‘oh come on 🙄’ at that point. It's okay to annoy some listeners some time. But I think it should also be okay to say when you find something annoying. (Plus, I voted for them weeks ago 😊).

NowhereMan661

Sooooo, the message is that we're all already Communist and all already Spiritual (read Christian), and that everything will just work itself out in the end? I don't buy it, because you're taking seemingly natural human drives and trying to make a deterministic claim that everyone wants to be this thing that was invented long after humanity appeared. Spirituality and Communism aren't inevitable end points of humanity, they're things we invented, and which this philosophy is claiming that we were already always heading towards. And please don't give me a Marxist lecture me on the inevitability of Communism, it's clearly not inevitable, we have to fight tooth and nail to make it happen, or the world is going to die to Capitalism and Climate Change. Things don't just work themselves out in the end, there is no fate but what we make.

Cam Plays Bass

Banger! send directly to the brains dojo collection

Clare

I'm a little behind on the pod episodes, but came here to pre-emptively thank Nova for this treat, much as I enjoy the garbage shredding it is also a delight when a film I genuinely like gets covered

Tall Jeff

Fantastic episode of course, how can we do the plot of the Parent Trap to get the Coens back together anyone got anything?

AU Dark Brandon's Evil Twin [Good person]

My wife was a synchronized swimmer and she said they never used anything like a ring or prop to stabilize. You have to hold positions in the water through a tiring and precise leg motion. But, she said it's not surprising that it would be used for non-competition type events where the performers may not have the training of competitive synchronized swimmers.

Ben Schwabe

My favorite bit in this movie is the rabbi's take on the Trinity: these people are all crazy. As some raised without a religion this seems like most reasonable take on that particular bit od Chistian theology.

DIY Kit Lobotomy

Absolutely jumpscared by the reference to my city.

Hey mind your business, name's not important

I must disagree with Nova. The Coen Brothers True Grit isn't simply a remake of the John Wayne movie. It is a more faithful adaptation of the source material , the Charles Portis novel. The Coen Brothers version has the same dark humor to it that the John Wayne version stripped out. Mattie Ross is much more annoying and way funnier in the Coen version than she is in the Wayne version. I could go on but I don't think any of you want to read my comparative essay on this topic.

Jermy

The Nazi concentration camps were modeled after Roman army camps, I think. The lagers were definitely modeled on Roman barracks. So it’s either a Roman camp or it’s both

The Mad Scientist's toolkit

I might actually. I'm going to have to do a comparative essay on To be or not to be? And it's remake soon.

The Mad Scientist's toolkit

I'm not sure which is harder trying to moderate the communist/anarchist group and stopping them from fighting or bouncing off the walls or starting a new one and trying to George Clooney all the walk in traffic.

Sam Handwich

Me leading my all white horse over rocky terrain: "CAREFUL WHITEY!"

MyCatIsZsaZsa

Everytime I see Channing Tatum, or read his name, immediately what I think of is his face over that dancers ass

P.A.L.

Probably one of my absolute favorite movies, though I will admit I've never sat down and actually analyzed it. Then again I'm very much of the "I get to sit in a big quiet room, in a comfy chair with a large drink" school of movie enjoyment.

Brian Danger Hicks

Autolycus is also the name of Bruce Campbell's character in the Xena and Hercules TV shows produced by Coen buddy Sam Raimi. And Carlotta Valdez (or Valdes) is the name of the ghost woman in Vertigo (and also the name of a Harvey Danger song).

Jack Fennell

I always half-suspected the near-strangulation-by-projector bit was a reference to Isadora Duncan (strangled by her own scarf in a weird traffic accident), but she died in 1927, so I dunno how that would fit.

Danibee

wowowow this is one of my favorite movies and it was such a great to hear y'all discuss it. Disclosure: I'm a Christian and walked into the theater thinking it would be a fun comedy about swords and sandals movies and left, deeply moved by this "tale of the Christ". Then I heard an NPR podcast review it saying "meh I didn't really understand it" to my utter disappointment, so I was JUMPING OUT OF MY SEAT to hear Nova GET IT haha (down to the stars they were parodying, only one I didn't hear was Esther Williams, the "bathing beauty" who ScarJo is) also dropping Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theologian I love to see. Anyhoo one of my favorite films about wrestling with the identity of Jesus, and the commentary on how "we're all compromised" yet spiritual whether we are trying to be or not was so illuminating to me. 💜 10/10, no notes.

Ari

my guy. those were obviously facetious statements. christianity, religion more generally, AND communism are all functioning here as imperfect graspings of humanity towards transcendence. the point here is not the inevitability of transcendence but that the human soul will yearn towards it no matter what despite how difficult it is to actually enact in the real world. if you got "things will just work out" from this movie or this episode you were not paying attention lmao.

An impromptu concert from Bosco Hogan

Another interesting thing about Carlotta Valdez is that in Vertigo Jimmy Stewart remade that lady into the image he wanted. So it could be in Hail Caesar a nested reference to making someone's image into something else.

Hovis

I see Hell Yeah Fuck Yeah used in/as a sentence and I think Shoresy fan. Could it be..?

Andrew Dunn

Yes but I haven't seen the latest season. The first time I watched season 1 of shoresy, I immediately replayed the first episode as soon as the last episode was finished.

NowhereMan661

Yeah, that might be right. I listened to this in the morning while working, I might not have gotten it right. I'll have to listen again.

Timothy Brown

The stylised, heroic leap that Channing Tatum makes from the rowboat to the sub is exactly the same as one of his moves in the extremely gay tap number. Glorious moment.

mira_drgn

maybe start wearing a mask, november?

Athena Von Tharsis

Yep, any enclosed space with a person you aren't comfortable making out with=mask/respirator, depending on how scruffy one assumes the crowd will be. Plus, if u doing live shows one can put one's mic inside the respirator, or splash out for equipment with built in comms gear (Avon Protection do at least one model so equipped).

Mo Haworth

You guys really should talk about Ben-Hur while we're on religion season. I've watched that movie at least a dozen times. Weird good time. Very homoerotic. Fascinating point of view on religious suffering and revenge. I have like a billion things to say about it and I'd love to hear what you guys think.

James Rule

In terms of the Venn diagram of Coen Brothers' movies and "they don't make movies like this anymore" I can recommend the last western movie that should ever be made: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.

IggyVonBubatz

I was a bit sad they didn't mention it, it adds so much to the scene! Another omission I thought would have added something to the discussion was the recurring theme of time/clocks, though I'm still not exactly sure how it intersects with the religious message

Winson Paine

Just another shout out for Yentl to be in the running before I go on about how triggering this movie is to my own pedantic fuck nature and I am like THAT ARMOR IS WRONG THEY SHOULD NOT BE IN CHARIOTS CAESAR WASNT A LIVING GOD YET and so on. So it goes

lousullivan.bf

Isn’t them being wrong part of the point? Like, it’s not meant to be an accurate representation of the Romans, it’s 1951 Imagines The Romans. Also seconding the Yentl recommendation and PLEASE GET A TRANSMASC AND/OR JEWISH GUEST ON TO TALK ABOUT IT (I volunteer)

Dean Sartorel

Speaking of Johnathan Glazer at the end, you should really do Sexy Beast soon

Letpapersleep

why cant they put it before the intro or at the end... why does it have to be midroll?

Frédérique Merizen

Yessss. I would have been 100 % fine with that ‘ad’ before or after the show, but in the middle it was a bit jarring.

Connor Emery

After looking up pics of Alden Ehrenreich as Hobie in this movie, I was genuinely surprised at the lack of thirsty remarks from Devon cause damn lmao

Meekle Togas

Maybe I missed it but I’m shocked that Abi didn’t point out the Rabbi is played by Robert Picardo, aka the holographic Doctor from Star Trek Voyager.

Wrestler X

I saw this movie when it came out on dvd and didn't really get it, it kinda pissed me off because I took the impotency of the screenwriters and Mannix's to Baird speech to mean "communism is fucking stupid, movies are truth". Now I've watched it a second time with my thinking cap on and with Nova's excellent analysis, I think I appreciate it more. I definitely didn't get the parallels between the narration of the Tale of the Christ and the new idea of communism... I also read the screenwriters being abandoned by Channing Tatum, as well as losing the money, as a metaphor for dedicated communists being exploited and then discarded by the Soviet Union. They pin their hopes and funds on a "new soviet man" and the red star, but are ultimately just transport and fall guy, left with nothing. "You only have worth in serving the picture"? But perhaps I am being sentimental.

John Leavitt

Okay I’m going to have a lot to say about the movie cause I uhhh wrote a lot about it and the time it was set* but the other joke about Clooney’s casting is that he popularized the Caesar cut for men in the 90s while on ER - a cut he had because he was coming directly from a production of Antony and Cleopatra * Edie Mannix, real guy, used to be a bouncer at a traveling carnival, arguably the 3rd most powerful guy at MGM and probably killed a bunch of people directly or indirectly which makes using his real name for this a bit uuuuuuuhhhh

John Leavitt

Also when I watched this at home the first time something pinged during the Not!George Cukor “where that it were” scene so I paused it , walked into my wardrobe, and pulled out a blazer with the exact same pattern ‘- that next to my wardrobe on my bedside table was a copy of George Cukor: A Double Life is left as an experiment for the reader

John Leavitt

Okay but Devon is accidentally correct because there is a now current style of decor called Hollywood Regency which reflects the high movie studio style of the 20s-40s via designers like Cedric Gibbons and William Haines (fascinating in their own right, one was in an obvious Lavander marriage to Deloris Del Rio (she was Franco’s mistress for a bit), the other left Hollywood after refusing to be closeted and got his best friend Joan Crawford to scream at the Beverly Hills housing authoring until they let him and his partner buy a home there)

John Leavitt

Oh god the actual bearded academic Marxists scene - yes you don’t have one of them dressed like the 1951 head of CPUSA just like you don’t make a Shazvokite joke in Llewyn Davids just like you don’t make a screwball comedy about fordist capitalism changing our relationship to time unless you’ve done the reading and been in the rooms

John Leavitt

Anyway if you guys ever want to do Sunset Boulevard I have a paper copy of the diary one of the producer’s kept while making it and Mattie can vouch for me being normal

John Leavitt

….I have some art by one of (famously blacklisted) Howard Fast’s wives on my wall

John Leavitt

I’m worried now I’m a Tulpa created by this movie

kinoverite

i gotta recommend for the next religion season bonus, ken russell’s the devils if you can find the uncut version, that’s the one to go with

John Leavitt

Also the actual Hollywood gossip the on wings of eagles thing is riffing on is that Cukor got fired off Gone With The Wind cause Clark Cable recognized him as a client back when he was hustling

AC

i dont usually pause movies in the middle but when the words "direct action" were said on screen i truly got up and walked around until my laughing fit was over. i love it when my movies/tv/theater is written by people who have Been To Meetings. i also super enjoyed the section in no dames when channing tatum and two of his buddies are tapdancing at the bar. i haven't seen the gene kelly sailor movie but the bar tapdancing reminded me of singin'-in-the-rain (another movie about movies!). off to check out the work of this marcuse fella o7

A Tedious Returning

Since watching this when it came out I have thought of it as maybe my favourite Coen brothers film but not really being able to say why. After listening to this I still can't but what a hell of an hour and a half!

Meekle Togas

Ah yes Eldritch Arenreich, he made a pact with the ancient, unknowable god of Cinema, Stii’venn Spihelburg for the power to channel his raw charisma into movie roles.

Dragonback Lancer

Idk if I'm reaching a bit here, but the setup of making a movie/play about Jesus from a Roman perspective and having to justify it to some kind of moral authority felt VERY The Master and Margarita to me

Gil the Gilded Dragon

What one does to someone confessing so much: you send them on a pilgrimage for penance

Gil the Gilded Dragon

This is all very meta(tron) in that the studio head is an [4 letters] the Small. Not unlike Enoch becomes A lute or a lyre? Bc a lute is...very Petrarch As to the changing the image gives some "Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham" vibes & this is during PEAK Hays which was a solitary heir to Heinrich Kramer taking the hammer to film The humor of a rabbi scoffing at *ehye asher ehye*

Gil the Gilded Dragon

It's true to the period. It's hays code. Its 1 catholic weirdo the like of which has not been seen since that Bavarian (it was he Salzburgian?) exorcist priest got so mad at women he frothed up an evil useless book So to make a horny swords & sandals play but they make it paschal to skirt it.

Gil the Gilded Dragon

It is a pataphor on faith & the past 2000 years of people It may amuse that "Christ" is a job

Mayuka Masaki

Well yes but they reinflated him and it was some of the goofiest CGI I'd ever seen at the time. Did it look like a cartoon bit? Sure, but in a weird and uncanny way.