Rewatchables Reference

• Mallory: Book and Rachel dancing in the barn to Sam Cooke's cover – 'the single easiest category pick for me in any pod we've ever done. Maybe my favorite scene in a movie ever.' She has filmed her TV during this scene multiple times. 'This movie is about yearning... that taught me what sex was, even though it's not a sex scene.'
• Bill: The bad guys showing up / final shootout sequence – the corn silo murder, Samuel ringing the bell, the Amish community walking toward Schaeffer as witnesses.
• Also nominated: Samuel witnessing the murder in the train station bathroom; the sponge bath scene; the barn raising; Book punching the tourist.

• Bill: The electronic Maurice Jarre score (great but completely dated to 1985). Also: Book hides the address on a piece of paper and Schaeffer can't find it – wouldn't happen with computers.
• Mallory: The 'Honey, That's Great' Folgers coffee joke; Elaine the sister (mullet, bathrobe, guy over).

• Mallory: The script's restraint – no dialogue in the final scene. Harrison Ford's 80s run. The visual filmmaking (Vermeer-inspired lighting). Dirty cop themes.
• Bill: Lukas Haas eventually joining Leo's 'pussy posse.' The milking scene ('not one this big'). Harrison Ford holding a cat.

• Mallory: Amish beards (no mustache rule). The electronic score (great but completely dated).
• Bill: The 1985 Best Picture race – Out of Africa won over this. The Academy Award results from 1985 have aged the worst. Also: racially profiling the suspect.

The Sam Cooke cover in the barn dance scene – the only scene with real music in the film. Ford picked the song. They couldn't get rights to Sam Cooke's actual recording, so it's a cover. Mallory: 'This is a fantastic, fantastic needle drop.'

• Bill and Mallory: The sponge bath scene – cameras, mirrors, lighting all working together. 'Vermeer-level filmmaking.'
• Also: Samuel's eyes through the crack in the bathroom stall door (cinematographer Seale said it was slightly out of focus but Weir picked it for the performance).

• Bill: Rachel moves on from her dead husband Jacob suspiciously fast.
• Mallory: Book isn't concerned enough about partner Carter and sister Elaine's safety. Also: Daniel literally hits on Rachel at her husband's funeral.

• Mallory: Harrison Ford's only Oscar nomination ever – 'one of the great injustices in Hollywood history.'
• Bill: The movie doesn't care about the cop stuff – 'if it was interested in the cops, we would have spent more time in the police station.'

• Redford wanted to be in the movie, approached the producers – they pushed it off because 'he had the reputation for coming in and starting to change stuff.'
• Kelly McGillis discovered while waitressing at a coffee shop. Weir said all American actresses were 'too hip' so he started looking in Italy before finding her.
• Kubrick wanted Lukas Haas for Danny Torrance in 'The Shining' (unavailable).

Bill: Book's partner – 'most famously in Another 48 Hours, a terrible movie I've watched 12 times.'

• Weir and Seale visited a Vermeer exhibit at the 'Philadelphia' Museum of Art and used Dutch Master lighting throughout.
• The screenplay was originally an unproduced Gunsmoke script.
• Viggo Mortensen's first film ever – he has about 2 lines.
• Alexander Godunov was a ballet dancer who dated Jacqueline Bisset; died of alcoholism.
• Ford chose the Sam Cooke song; had auditioned for a Folgers commercial early in career.

• Harrison Ford: His only Oscar nomination – 'this is the performance that should have won him the Oscar. One of the great injustices.'
• Peter Weir: Possibly – but 'Dead Poets Society' and Truman Show also compete.
• Amish movies: Yes.
• Corn in movies: Yes (corn silo murder scene).

Not formally discussed in the transcript – both would be interesting but it's Peter Weir's movie.

One of the Amish men – possibly Daniel (the Godunov role).

• The Folgers coffee joke – a very specific 1985 reference that doesn't land now.
• Daniel hitting on Rachel at her husband's funeral.
• Nobody eats or goes to the bathroom for the entire time Book is hiding.

Ford for Best Actor (which he was nominated for and should have won over William Hurt for Kiss of the Spider Woman).

The corn from the corn silo murder scene. Also: Book's gun (the one Rachel returns to him).

Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is be a witness.

A Harrison Ford thriller double – 'The Fugitive' or Patriot Games.

Harrison Ford – his only Oscar nomination, his best performance according to Ebert, and the movie that proved he could act beyond action/adventure.