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Travis Bickle On The Riviera

Hi there! I'm Tucker Stone, one of the three guys who hosts a podcast called Travis Bickle on the Rivieria. I've written for places like Flavorwire, The Comics Journal, Comixology and The Factual Opinion, and am currently punching the clock at Nobrow, a publisher of comics, graphic novels and children's books. Back in 2012, my friend Sean Witzke, a movie critic whose most recent work can be read at Grantland, started this podcast as a way to continue the conversations (and arguments) we had been having about movies amongst our mutual blogs.

Although neither one of us had listened to a lot of podcasts, we felt that our cantankerous, expletive laden diatribes might be of interest to others, and in the years since, we have been extremely lucky to be proven right: people, for whatever reason, like to listen to a couple of miserable depressives wax nostalgic over action movies from the 80's. (It probably didn't hurt that the hugely talented Michel Fiffe drew our logo image!)

When I became a father in 2013, longtime friend of the show and frequent guest host Morgan Jeske came on board to keep Sean from going stir crazy with backed-up opinions. Jeske--the talented cartoonist behind books for Image Comics like Change and Zero--rapidly made himself indispensable, and after my return to the show, it only made sense to welcome him on as an official host, turning this gruesome twosome into the trio it had always been destined to be. As the episodes have piled up (you can check out our episode guide, with every movie, director and special episode listed here), the show was continually graced with a murderers row of guests from the world of comics and film--you can see all of those amazing people at that link as well.

All of that brings us right up to right now, a cold day in October: the day where we ask for help. Simply put, the increased interest in the show has meant that we've had to put a bit more into the nuts and bolts of paying for it than we used to, and we thought 133 episodes (at most recent count) was enough to try passing the hat to help meet the costs. The show isn't in danger of going anyway anytime soon--Sean, Morgan and I like hurting each others feelings just a little too much for that to be a real concern--but we would appreciate the breathing room that financial support will allow.  Below you'll see the various levels of pledge options and the rewards they provide--we're pretty excited about them, especially the one where we send you surprises you can't return--but even if you come away thinking that we don't deserve one thin dime, it still means a lot that you stopped by in the first place. Thank you for reading, but most of all thank you for listening!

  1. All Episodes
  2. Evil Mind, Evil Sword

Evil Mind, Evil Sword

Dec 3, 2014

  • After the break, you'll find the latest episode of the world's only movie podcast, Travis Bickle on the Riviera. With your host Sean Witzke and we welcome guest host and teen sensation Chris Mautner.
  • 0:00:00 - 0:25:58 - To start us off this week, we talk about a movie that doesn't fit the episode format. Chris watched Hunger Games 3: Mockingjay (2014), directed by Francis Lawrence, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Natalie Dormer, and Jena Malone. 

    Also discussed in this section: The Giver, Phillip Noyce, The Prisoner, Divergent, Jack Kirby, Scanners, Harry Potter, Twilight, Die Hard With A Vengeance, Big Hero 6, the Star Wars 7 trailer, Live Free or Die Hard, Spider-Man, Shane Black, Michael Bay, Tony Scott, JJ Abrams, Interstellar, Zero Dark Thirty. The People Vs. George Lucas, Willow, Radioland Murders, and Michael Mann.

    0:25:59 - 0:41:55 - Chris watched the Samurai Trilogy (1954, 1955, 1956), directed by Hiroshi Iganaki, starring Toshiro Mifune. 

    Also discussed in this section: Gone With The Wind, Ran, Throne of Blood, Sergio Leone, Hideo Gosha, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Lone Wolf and Cub, Samurai Champloo, John Ford, Vagabond, Fistful of Dollar, Magnificent Seven, The Bad Sleep Well, The Thing, The Wizard of Oz, and High and Low. 

    0:41:55 - 0:48:46 - Sean and Chris watched Sword of Doom (1966), directed by Kihachi Okamoto, starring Tatsuya Nakadai, Toshiro Mifune

    Also discussed in this section: Rebel Without A Cause, The Wild One, A Clockwork Orange, Akira Kurosawa, Scarface, Heat, and Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer. 

    0:48:47 - 1:01:58 - Sean and Chris watched Legend of the Eight Samurai (1983), directed by Kinji Fukasaku, starring Hiroko Yakushimaru, Hiroyuki Sanada, Sonny Chiba, and Minori Terada. 

    Also discussed in this section: Message From Space, Yakuza Paper/Battles Without Honor Or Humanity, Battle Royale, Graveyard of Honor, Doberman Cop, Quentin Tarantino, William Friedkin, The Street Fighter, Seijun Suzuki, Seven Samurai, Vampire Hunter D, Tsui Hark, Seven Swords, Detective Dee, John Woo, Green Snake, Zu Warriors, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Star Search. 

    1:01:59 - 1:19:25 - To close out, Sean watched Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011), directed by Takashi Miike, starring Ichikawai Ebizo XI, Eita, and Hikari Mitsushima.  

    Also discussed in this section: 13 Assassins, Shield of Straw, Kobayashi's original, Qui-Gon, Ingmar Bergman, Paul Verhoeven, and Michael Haneke. 

  • Next Week: Fury or maybe some Spielberg. Or maybe something else, these "next week on" things are always about as useful as the ones from Scandal. 
  • Our outro music this week: "I Don't Want This Night To End" by John O'Banion from Legend of the Eight Samurai. Yeah, that's really in the movie. And our intro, as always, is from Escape From New York. 
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