About this episode
All the President's Minutes is a podcast where conversations about movies, journalism, politics and history meet. Each show we use the seminal and increasingly prescient 1976 film All The President's Men as a portal, to engage with the themes and the warnings of the film resonating since its release. For minute 85, I critic/writer for The New York Times and RogerEbert.com and author of the much anticipated Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas, Glenn Kenny. Glenn and I discuss President's dynamism, endless rewatchability and that they don't make motion pictures like this anymore. About Glenn Kenny ( via Roger Ebert dot com ) Glenn Kenny is the editor of A Galaxy Not So Far Away: Writers and Artists On 25 Years of 'Star Wars' (Holt, 2002) and the author of Robert De Niro: Anatomy of An Actor (Phaidon/Cahiers du Cinema, 2014). His writings on the arts have appeared in a wide variety of publications, which include the New York Times , the Los Angeles Times , Rolling Stone , the Village Voice , Entertainment Weekly , Humanities , and others. From the mid-1990s to the magazine's 2007 folding, he was a senior editor and the chief film critic for Premiere . There he commissioned and edited pieces by David Foster Wallace, Tony Kushner, Martin Amis, William Prochnau, and other well-regarded writers. He also wrote early features on such soon-to-be-prominent motion picture figures as Paul Thomas Anderson and Billy Bob Thornton. He currently contributes film reviews and essays to RogerEbert.com and Vanity Fair Online, Decider, the Criterion Collection website, and other outlets. He has made numerous television and radio appearances and appears as an actor in Steven Soderbergh's 2009 film The Girlfriend Experience , and Preston Miller's 2010 God's Land . He was born in Fort Lee, New Jersey and has been a resident of Brooklyn since 1990; he lives in that borough with his wife. Twitter: @Glenn__Kenny Outlets: The New York Times, RogerEbert.com, Glenn's blog "Some Came Running" Blu-Ray Consumer Guide: June 2011 - Glenn Kenny All The President's Men (Warner) Cinematographer Gordon Willis has gone on record calling this hi-def version a botch, and complaining, quite justifiably, at not having been even contacted with a notion to being consulted on it. And it's true—if the cinematographer's alive and still has eyes and so one, he or she ought to be consulted. And then you get Vittorio Storaro and his unusual ideas concerning aspect ratios and you…oh, never mind. In any event, the Blu-ray of this classic and still extremely engaging thriller DOES render colors little toward the hot side, particularly in the scenes set in the Washington Post offices—the red filing cabinets do look as if they've been freshly painted. Redford IS very golden and blonde. And so on. On the plus side, I have to say that this only really registers as a distraction when you're concentrating on these details. In a lot of other respects, the new detail really enhances the absorbing viewing experience. But still. Come on. — B- Glenn's Book, Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas , is available from 15 September 2020. For the thirtieth anniversary of its premiere comes the vivid and immersive history behind Martin Scorsese's signature film Goodfellas , hailed by critics as the greatest mob movie ever made. When Goodfellas first hit the theatres in 1990, a classic was born. Few could anticipate the unparalleled influence it would have on pop culture, one that would inspire future filmmakers and redefine the gangster picture as we know it today. From the rush of grotesque violence in the opening scene to the iconic hilarity of Joe Pesci's endlessly quoted "Funny how?" shtick, it's little wonder the film is widely regarded as a mainstay in contemporary cinema. In the first-ever behind-the-scenes story of Goodfellas , film critic Glenn Kenny chronicles the making and afterlife of the film that introduced America to the real modern gangster—brutal, ruthless, yet darkly appealing, the villain we can't get enough of. Featuring interviews with the film's major players, including Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, Made Men shines a light on the lives and stories wrapped up in the Goodfellas universe, and why its enduring legacy is still essential to charting the trajectory of American culture thirty years later. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/one-heat-minute-productions/exclusive-content Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy