Director Watch Podcast Ep. 123 - 'Dead Presidents' (The Hughes Brothers, 1995)

Welcome to Director Watch! On this AwardsWatch podcast, co-hosts Ryan McQuade and Jay Ledbetter attempt to breakdown, analyze, and ultimately, get inside the mind of some of cinema's greatest auteurs. In doing so, they will look at their filmographies, explore what drives them artistically and what makes their decision making process so fascinating. Add in a few silly tangents and a fun game at the end of the episode and you've got yourself a podcast we truly hope you love. On episode 123 of the Director Watch Podcast, the boys discuss the next film in their Hughes Brothers series, Dead Presidents (1995). After their astonishing debut feature film, the Hughes Brothers took a big swing with their next project, making a coming of age, period piece that is equal parts war film, heist film, and historical fiction, all set within the late 1960s to early 1970s. The scope of Dead Presidents is expansive, larger than their previous film, showing an elevation of filmmaking from the duo at such a young stage in their career. But the problem within the film lies its aimless pace, and the fact that most of their ideas don't gel as one, leading to a fascinating second feature that doesn't reach the heights of debut, which also leads the duo away from making mostly African American stories after this feature; a move that seems very disheartening upon retrospect. Ryan and Jay break down their thoughts on the film, which section they think is the best one, how the influences of the past shape the narrative of the film as well as how influential this seems to be for future filmmaking, if they were the right age to tell this story, how this is a pivotal point in their filmography, and how Jay's trip to Europe went along with his hot takes on the state of modern pop music. You can listen to the Director Watch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more. This podcast runs 1h55m. The guys will be back next week to continue their series on the films of the Hughes Brothers with a review of their next film, From Hell. You can rent it via iTunes and Amazon Prime rental in preparation for the next episode of Director Watch. Till then, let's get into it. Music: MUSICALIFE, from Pond5 (intro) and "B-3" from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).