Harrison Ford Performances Movie Draft (w/ Jacob Allen)

Eli (00:01.203)
Hello and welcome to the establishing shot podcast where we do deep dives into directors and their filmographies I am your host Eli price and we are here on episode 93 of the podcast we covered our indie last Spielberg indie film last week with Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull and this week we're taking a

Short break from that Spielberg series before picking it up again with Adventures of Tintin next week But I have again joining me Jacob Allen from last week's episode It's great to have you back Jacob Yeah So as I mentioned last week, we are going to be doing a Harrison Ford performances movie draft done a couple of these performances drafts, which are fun

Jacob Allen (00:42.702)
Glad to be here.

Eli (00:57.247)
a good little twist on the movie draft because really you're supposed to, I guess, these choose the performance over the movie. So it could be like a bad movie with a really good performance. But I don't know if that gets you like better votes because most people are just going to see the movie when they vote. that's the idea at least. But yeah.

Jacob Allen (01:15.83)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Eli (01:25.759)
I guess like we should talk a little bit about Harrison Ford before we jump in. What is, let me ask you this, Jacob. This is an important question. When you close your eyes and picture Harrison Ford, which character do you picture?

Jacob Allen (01:42.38)
Yeah, Han Solo for sure. Yeah.

Eli (01:45.193)
Same. same. That's what I grew up with. I grew up Star Wars. I didn't grow up with Indy as much. I saw them, but yeah.

Jacob Allen (01:55.948)
Yeah, I definitely came to I did come to Indy Young. So I would say that, you know, Indy was baked into my upbringing, but not as early as Star Wars. I have very, very early memories of watching Star Wars.

Eli (02:08.574)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (02:13.522)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I wrote down a few things and you can tell me if you have any other ideas of like, what is so appealing about Harrison Ford? it's he's like, he's the definition of cool. He's got like incredible amounts of charisma. He's, I think we talked a little bit about this in last week's episode, but he can make, he's like the every man that makes you feel like

Jacob Allen (02:24.522)
I, yeah, yeah.

Eli (02:41.224)
things like anything is impossible sort of thing like He's like a bit blundering but still like makes stuff happen Yeah

Jacob Allen (02:45.048)
Totally.

Jacob Allen (02:50.478)
Yeah, I think what makes him such an appealing persona is what he really has going for him is he's charming and good looking. outside of those outside of those qualities.

Eli (03:03.678)
Yeah, sure.

Jacob Allen (03:08.436)
I can think of other personas that have, you know, that are, that are smarter, that are more, you know, charismatic, that are more athletic, whatever. So it's just like, man, if Harrison Ford can do that, like maybe I can do that too. You know, just cause you see it in the Indiana Jones character, just exactly what you said. Like he just kind of figures it out as he goes. It's like, okay, there's, there's hope for us normal people too. but he, know, I.

We'll get into this, I'm sure, we go through this draft, but some of those traits that figure it out as I go, like they're woven throughout so many of his characters. Yeah.

Eli (03:48.191)
That's true. Yeah Yeah, and I think too like he has this way of like just delivering He he can deliver like any dialogue and make it sound good and make it believable that that character would be saying that thing no matter how like Ridiculous the dialogue might be And I think that is an impressive like acting Trait to have

Jacob Allen (04:06.04)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Jacob Allen (04:16.492)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Eli (04:17.65)
Yeah.

Jacob Allen (04:19.83)
I think so too, yeah, to be able to deliver a line that may or may not be that believable coming from somebody else speaks to his just kind of raw talent. That maybe has not had as many opportunities to come through because he is known for these, I mean, incredibly iconic quintessential characters.

Eli (04:29.533)
Yeah. Yeah.

Eli (04:42.46)
Yeah, he's sort of a franchise actor. He gets locked into franchises. Even you think of the Jack Ryan, he did a couple of those.

Jacob Allen (04:47.564)
Yeah. Yeah. But he's like the franchise actor to like the highest of the highest caliber though. you know, and yeah, I mean, it's been fun to go, yeah, catch up on some blind spots and to rewatch some movies that needed to rewatch in preparation for this.

Eli (04:58.088)
Sure. Sure.

Jacob Allen (05:13.858)
He's so talented. mean, he is just so talented and he may not, you know, he may not have had many opportunities to shine just for his just raw acting chops. But I mean, those chops come through in a lot of what he does and in subtle ways.

Eli (05:15.038)
Hmm.

Eli (05:29.096)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (05:38.131)
Yeah. And I mean, he, so he only has the one Oscar nomination, which was for lead actor in the movie witness, which he did not win for. And actually his, his counterpart and Tommy Lee Jones is one supporting actor for that movie. or not that for a free for fugitive, which he did not, I was, yeah, my mind is all confused. He did not get nominated for fugitive. Tommy Lee Jones did in one.

Jacob Allen (05:54.242)
Hmm. Tommy Lee Jones? He won in the 2-2. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Jacob Allen (06:05.378)
Right.

Eli (06:07.87)
His only nomination was for witness, which he did not win. So a few years apart. I think witness was, uh, yeah, like eight years. Yeah. Eight 85 to 93 94 somewhere in there.

Jacob Allen (06:16.462)
Witnesses, 80, 85, yeah.

Jacob Allen (06:23.394)
which that speaks to the, you know, he's managed to stay relevant for so long. And I think the sure, lot of that has to do with the lasting power of his two most iconic characters. You know, they've, they've come out, they've been sprinkled in across the decades. So he gets fresh life every 10 years.

Eli (06:45.694)
Sure.

Jacob Allen (06:46.254)
you know, but he's, he's, think even outside of the, you know, Han Solo and Indiana Jones, he's had roles that have, you know, been significant enough to even now on TV, you know, with shrinking, you know, he's, he's, you know, has, has that performance of that character has been pretty well regarded. So he's just, he's had a long, a long career and has managed to, to act well. Yeah.

Eli (07:10.204)
Yeah. It's.

Eli (07:15.484)
Yeah, it's funny because, you know, even like he, he has for a long time and now he like kind of leans into it more winking Lee. He had this like grumpy persona that like he played into. I'm, I'm sure it's like 50 % real 50 % like put on, you know? and like, even like here recently, he's just like totally leaned into that kind of.

Jacob Allen (07:27.726)
Yeah

Jacob Allen (07:34.872)
For sure.

Eli (07:43.663)
grumpy man persona much more winking Lee now and these like press runs for like Captain America brave new world like it's just fun to watch him interacting with interviewers Yeah, yeah, let's let's jump into the draft we're gonna do five picks each We we did set parameters before we started recording that we each

Jacob Allen (07:50.862)
for the Hulk movie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Cool. Let's do it.

Eli (08:13.256)
have an Indie and a Han, but we can't take more than one each. So if you don't understand what that means, then that's okay, because me and Jacob understand. So, but Jacob, you're a first time guest. It's your first movie draft, so you get the first pick. So where are going?

Jacob Allen (08:36.184)
So I was banking on your courtesy, you being a gracious host and giving me the first pick. In my strategizing, was like, OK, I think that he's probably going to give me the first pick. I am going with Harrison Ford's performance in Empire Strikes Back. It's just hard for me to imagine not having a Han Solo on this list.

Eli (08:46.92)
Hahaha.

Eli (08:55.804)
Okay. Yeah.

Jacob Allen (09:05.248)
I just think he gets so much to do in Empire Strikes Back and just the the moment that he's, know, Leia is watching him descending into the you know, the carbon freezing chamber and she says, I love you. And he says, I know it's just the it's the perfect delivery of that line. And it is everything that we love about Harrison Ford. And it's just. Yeah, it's the.

Eli (09:21.223)
It's great.

Jacob Allen (09:35.04)
It's the confidence, it's the swagger. It's just even the derpiness to say, I know, you know, it's so great.

Eli (09:37.118)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it's the it's the best Han it's the best Han performance Adam

Jacob Allen (09:46.136)
For sure. It's the most that he gets to do. He has an entire storyline that is his own. It's great.

Eli (09:58.227)
Yeah, yeah, I mean great pig. I can't fault it This is the debate though cuz I'm gonna go ahead and take not my favorite indie movie Surprisingly my favorite is last crusade But I'm gonna take Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones It's just like the icon just the iconic original role

Jacob Allen (10:15.598)
Okay.

Eli (10:28.446)
The way the characters introduced the way he plays it. It's he's just it's phenomenal and it's funny because like the debate is like is Harrison Ford Han Solo or is he Indiana Jones like and I honestly think like of the two like you have to It's hard. So my My favorite is Han because I just like the Star Wars movies more obviously

Jacob Allen (10:43.212)
Yeah.

Jacob Allen (10:57.262)
sure.

Eli (10:58.192)
I love like love Star Wars. I've been actually me and my wife have been watching them with our six-year-old son for the first time and So we just watched Empire Stripes Back the other night like just a few nights ago at the time of this recording so just awesome to watch those with him and And like hot like Han Solo will always have a special place in my heart but

Jacob Allen (11:05.741)
nice, is he liking them?

Jacob Allen (11:13.398)
Bye.

Jacob Allen (11:20.781)
Yeah.

Eli (11:28.292)
objectively I would say that Indiana Jones is more like important for Harrison Ford and more like I don't think anyone could do Han Solo like Harrison Ford but like the weight of the movies is like fully reliant on Harrison Ford for the Indiana Jones movies so I don't know I feel pretty good even though I don't get

Jacob Allen (11:51.598)
For sure. Yeah.

Eli (11:57.545)
Han and Empire Strikes Back, I feel pretty good about having Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark, just because it's like, yeah, both are strong picks, but yeah.

Jacob Allen (12:05.674)
It's so strong.

Jacob Allen (12:11.414)
Yeah, I think in a lot of ways that performance specifically sets the tone for the rest of his career. Yeah. He established, he establishes his persona in that movie. You know,

Eli (12:18.738)
Yeah, mm-hmm, I think so, yeah.

Jacob Allen (12:27.72)
more so than his persona would have been established if he'd never had Indian it was just Han. So I mean when I was just like okay in an ideal world my one two one and two picks it was Han and Empire and Indian Raiders so you got a pretty great first pick.

Eli (12:41.842)
Yep. Yep. Those were the picks. So we did it. We did. We can be done now. We're done.

Jacob Allen (12:47.224)
That's right. Yes. All right. Well, we got to keep we got to keep moving because I'm kind of I'm just super curious. There were were there were three big blind spots there. I had more than three blind spots, but three that I knew I needed to fill. And one of them was the fugitive. I'd never seen the fugitive.

Eli (12:49.776)
No, we gotta keep going. Yeah.

Eli (12:55.326)
Where do we go now?

Jacob Allen (13:11.474)
And I knew about Tommy Lee Jones Oscar winning role. I knew that Harrison Ford didn't get it, get an Oscar nomination or any sort of nomination for that one. So I didn't really know what to expect going in other than just to buckle up for a good Tommy Jones performance. And it's been a couple of weeks since I've watched it and Harrison Ford's performance has just lingered as just subtle.

Have you seen it? Yeah, dude, his persistence, like the persistence of his character mirrors the persistence of Tommy Lee Jones character, which is what I think makes that that duo so impactful. And so, yeah, I'm going I'm going with Richard Kimball. Dude, I loved it. It's, know, whenever it's it's interesting, you know, whenever you watch a movie. You have your initial reaction.

Eli (13:41.97)
Yes, I love it. It's great.

Eli (13:52.54)
Yes, incredible chemistry.

Jacob Allen (14:10.506)
and then you have the reaction that grows on you over the course of the next week or two. And I've just been affected. I I've just found I found that have increasingly found that performance very effective. So, yeah.

Eli (14:23.89)
Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's like the culmination of a lot of like what's great about Indiana, like about Harrison Ford as an actor for sure. It's kind of like very reminiscent of his Indiana Jones just without as much of like the action set pieces. In a lot of ways, it's an action movie without really any action.

Jacob Allen (14:35.813)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jacob Allen (14:44.654)
Hopefully. Yeah.

Jacob Allen (14:51.95)
Yeah, yeah. And there's not there's it's yeah, it's a lot of the same beats and a lot of the same mannerisms and just kind of same persona, but there's not it's lacking almost all the levity of an Indiana Jones movie. So that just brings more gravity to his character. And yeah, it's not the first time that he proved that he can pull off gravity, but I love to see it in him. It was great.

Eli (14:53.78)
but

Eli (15:20.808)
Yeah, that's a great pick. That might've been my next pick.

but now I don't have to decide because you took it. So you've basically made my decision for me. I am going to go with another sort of iconic role and I'm going to, yeah, I'll do this one. I'm going to go with his portrayal of Deckard and Blade Runner. So.

Jacob Allen (15:30.914)
There you go.

Jacob Allen (15:47.438)
jeez, that was going to be my next.

Eli (15:51.545)
It's I think so here's the thing about this movie like and The person that plays decker deckard, has to have this like strange emotional detachment, because like obviously it's like is he a Android is he not you know? Sort of thing. and you have to have this like really weird emotional detachment

Jacob Allen (16:15.572)
Yep. Yep.

Eli (16:22.0)
Which honestly like is not something that I think is just like natural for Ford if you if you think about like his portrayal of Han and his portrayal of Indiana Jones and like even like the fugitive it's very like It's very much the feeling of like a man in denial of his emotions, but like those emotions Definitely all they're simmering under the surface

Jacob Allen (16:29.847)
Mm-hmm.

Jacob Allen (16:46.613)
Mm-hmm.

Jacob Allen (16:51.711)
Yeah.

Eli (16:52.294)
and him trying to hold them back. And so like, to me, like this performance is really good because he's doing something different than like he typically is doing in his more iconic roles where he has to just play like dead, like no emotion. And I think that's, yeah, it's.

Jacob Allen (17:04.398)
for sure.

Jacob Allen (17:13.556)
He's showing so much restraint by not he's being like very un Harrison Ford. And he just pulled. Yeah, he pulls it off. It's great.

Eli (17:15.709)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (17:21.852)
Yeah, it's good. All right, where are you going next?

Jacob Allen (17:24.654)
Geez, OK, that's the beauty of these is like you have to make audibles in real time. Let's see here. knew so in an ideal world, I would have taken Deckard as my third choice, but he took it. So I think I'm to bump things around a little bit. And this is where I say I have to have an Indiana Jones.

So I'm going to take Indy in the crystal skull. I know I'm going to have to sell listeners on this a little bit because of the crystal skull's reputation. But.

Eli (17:53.234)
Okay.

Jacob Allen (18:05.26)
You know, we talked last week, Indy's in his early sixties at this point, Harrison Ford is in his early sixties at this point. So he's starting to, they're starting to play with the idea of him aging. And, you know, the, the line there was like, had so many one liners. I know one of the complaints of, you know, the here by the crystal skull was, and particularly about Harrison's, pro-terial of Indiana Jones in that, in that installment is just like.

Eli (18:10.398)
Mm-hmm.

Jacob Allen (18:33.656)
The one-liners were a little cheesy, a little forced. And every single one of them landed. one of them was when, you know, early on in the movie when Indy and Jim Broadbent's character are in Indy's office and they're just kind of talking about...

just the state of the country and Indy says it's been a hard couple of years. It's like, okay, that's pretty much the, that's kind of the hardest that he touches on the aging thing. It's like you realize he's starting to lose people and it wasn't overdone, but he's starting to introduce that idea. So I found that really effective. And then I thought his comedic timing in the movie was great. There's a scene where, you know, he's just pulled off some stunt and disarming, you know, a villain.

And Shia LaBeouf's character is like, are you a professor? And he says part time. And I just like, I thought it was so funny. And then, you know, all of this performance, think leads to the kind of climactic moment where they're in the throne room with all of the...

the extraterrestrials or whatever you want to call them. And all the while throughout this entire franchise, Indiana Jones has been wrestling between like intellectualism and, you know, just kind of my faith is in reality versus like faith in some sort of divine or transcendent power. And someone says, yeah, I think it's Cate Blanchett's character is like.

why are you why aren't you up here do you not believe in you though i believe that's why i'm down here and and i thought the line was delivered perfectly like it it could come off to some is just again just like sort of a grouchy old man you know one-liner but i it landed on me as like a genuine profession of some form of faith and belief in the divine and i i just

Jacob Allen (20:32.374)
I thought it was much more nuanced than maybe it's given credit for and, and you know, I think the reason I take it as opposed to the last crusade is because it's a further culmination of, of Indiana's character. so maybe a more full picture, a robust picture of that character than we get in, in the last crusade. So yeah, I'm going with Indiana Jones in the crystal skull in the crystal skull.

Eli (20:44.926)
Hmm.

Eli (21:00.126)
Yeah, no, I think it's a good pick.

Yeah, I can't fault you at all for that. I would have went with my favorite indie movie if it wasn't Raiders, because I love the chemistry between him and Sean Connery in Last Crusade, but it's hard to fault you. Yeah. Good points made all around. Okay, this will be my third pick.

Jacob Allen (21:15.244)
Yeah.

Totally. Yeah.

Sure.

Eli (21:34.367)
I'm gonna go with a movie that I caught up with that was a blind spot It's a very like different role for him And he just plays it really well, I think and I'm gonna go with the Peter Weir's 1986 movie the Mosquito Coast His character is Allie Fox in that movie Have you seen this one?

Jacob Allen (22:02.502)
No, but I've heard incredibly good things and good things about his performance. So that was one that I just couldn't quite get to for this activity, but I'm sure you're dead on.

Eli (22:12.604)
Yeah, it's... So he plays this character who's like fed up with America and basically like up and takes his wife and four or five kids to the jungle in South America and buys a town and like creates this like gigantic ice machine in this town and is like ranting about the end of civilization in America and like

Jacob Allen (22:36.265)
Thanks

Eli (22:43.442)
basically like drives his family into like almost disaster and like it's It's an it's a really incredible like captivating performance. You're like It's almost it's not exactly the same but it's almost like watching Adam Sandler and uncut gems is what I was reminded of it's like it's they're very different movies So like don't think that when you go into this movie

Jacob Allen (23:04.413)
sure.

Jacob Allen (23:09.102)
sure.

Eli (23:12.722)
but just like watching a character like descend and like just asking all along like dude Stop making these dislike stop dude stop and it's same thing with Adam Sandler and uncut gems and it was kind of a similar thing here And man, I he just he's just really good in it. It's a great performance. So Yeah

Jacob Allen (23:24.087)
Yeah.

Jacob Allen (23:34.05)
Cool. Nice. Well, that leads into my next one. I saw a letterbox review. think it was maybe Sam Van Hollengren from FilmSpotting talking about my next pick. But he commented on, you know, of all the directors, of all these legendary directors that Harrison Ford has worked with, it is perhaps Peter Weir that has pulled the most like

Grivitas out of Harrison Ford. You know, it sounds like he successfully did that in Mosquito Coast, your pick. And he did that with my pick, which is Witness from 1985.

Eli (24:19.518)
I already typed it into the doc before you even said it. When you said Peter Weir.

Jacob Allen (24:21.394)
You knew it, dude. You knew it. my gosh. You know, he plays John Book, who follows kind of the soul witness. plays, he's a, I think he's maybe, I think it's Baltimore. He's a cop in Baltimore.

Eli (24:31.323)
Uh-huh.

Jacob Allen (24:43.402)
And he follows the lone witness who happens to be a little Amish boy of a murder back to this Amish boys community to protect him and winds up falling in love with this boy's mother. And it is just, you know, Harrison Ford's charm is on display. His

Eli (25:11.506)
Mm-hmm.

Jacob Allen (25:12.718)
His boldness, his brashness is on display. He's a cop, like in a big city. So you get all of that kind of persona. But what you also get that was just so unexpected is... There's a... There's a maturity and a levelheadedness to him that comes through only as...

He and the boy's mother, played by Kelly McGillis, believe, if I'm not mistaken, yeah, by Kelly McGillis. Once their feelings for each other become like somewhat well-known, obvious and apparent to both of them, they both have to start showing some restraint for various reasons. And it's just that feeling, that sense of like all of Harrison Ford's charm.

Eli (25:58.11)
Right.

Jacob Allen (26:12.138)
and charisma, it's not going to get an outlet. Like they're not going to let themselves act on these feelings that they have for each other. So similar to your your. Blade Runner pick in a way, it's like you see on display everything that we know about Harrison Ford, but then within the same performance, he's then going to have to restrain it. And it's just great. It's great. was his lone Oscar before his lone Oscar nominee.

He didn't win for it.

Eli (26:41.554)
Yeah, it was a good one. Yeah, I caught up with that one. That was one of my blind spots too. yeah, so it might've been my next pick. It's hard. It's, So I would say, yeah.

Jacob Allen (26:44.204)
but... nice, nice, yeah.

Jacob Allen (26:55.85)
I know it's just like, don't, I'm not, I have too many blind spots left to fill to confidently say this, but it's like one of the handful of times where Indiana Jones or Indiana Jones, there you go. It's hard to separate the character from the actor where Harrison Ford has given the opportunity to just show his acting chops. Like give me everything, give me everything you got. And that's not necessarily to like,

Eli (27:11.816)
Yeah.

Eli (27:19.622)
Yeah. No, I agree.

Jacob Allen (27:25.868)
you know, to the detriment of his career because he's just effective enough in these iconic roles that his talent is apparent, you know, but like, this isn't a franchise character. It's an original character just, you know, give it everything you got. And he just knocks it out of the park. It's amazing.

Eli (27:41.191)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, it's it's really good and even like There's these like really sweet moments he has with the kid that's like Yeah, he doesn't have a lot of that in his career and so You know, he works really well across from that kid who's given kind of a typical like Not phenomenal kid acting, you know performance but like yeah

Jacob Allen (27:50.314)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, totally. Just say nothing of those. Yeah, for sure.

Jacob Allen (28:07.776)
Yeah.

Yeah, Lucas Haas. He's got on there. Yeah. Cool.

Eli (28:11.378)
Yeah. Yeah.

okay. My next pick.

I don't really know what to do with my last couple of picks. I mean, I think I know the direction I'm going to go if you don't take my other pick with your last one.

Jacob Allen (28:24.098)
You

Jacob Allen (28:27.47)
Eli (28:36.54)
I don't know, it's hard to know. At this point, I'm just picking ones I think are interesting performances, because I don't know what people like. I don't know what's going to get me more votes. yeah, so the first one I'm going to go with is his character Norman Spencer in What Lies Beneath.

Jacob Allen (28:47.394)
Yeah.

Sure. You gotta go with your heart.

Jacob Allen (29:02.286)
I don't know. I'm not familiar with that one.

Eli (29:05.938)
Yeah, so this is a Robert Zemeckis film where he's playing across from Michelle Pfeiffer. They're a married couple. It's kind of like a horror thriller a bit. There's a little bit of a ghost story going on. And it's hard to talk about the movie without spoiling some stuff.

So I'm kind of hesitant to say too much, but I will say...

Jacob Allen (29:38.766)
Sure.

Eli (29:43.431)
And might even be one of those things where like it becomes obvious at some point to keen watch viewers that Harrison Ford is a bit of a villain in this movie and he doesn't really do that. I don't think in anything else I've seen him play. So I really liked that. It plays with the charm of Harrison Ford in an interesting different way. The movie's fine.

Jacob Allen (29:56.174)
Mm.

Eli (30:13.79)
a whole like solid to me is solid like six out of ten three star movie enjoyable it's it's he's not like the main character it's centered around Michelle Pfeiffer but he's you know he's still the he's the he's the husband of her character and so really good really good performance you get to see him use his like

Jacob Allen (30:33.004)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Eli (30:40.99)
Harrison Ford charm in a different way with a different sort of character. So yeah, I thought that was a fun one that I caught up with for this draft.

Jacob Allen (30:45.111)
Yeah.

Jacob Allen (30:50.892)
Nice. Cool. Yeah. All right. My last pick. I am going with this was one that I was eager to see. I kind of knew its reputation. Jack Traynor in Working Girl. no, dude. man. This was so funny because.

Eli (30:53.182)
All right, it's your last pick.

Eli (31:05.97)
Man, you ruined my draft. I should have picked that first.

Jacob Allen (31:17.28)
He gets to play the romantic, which is fun to see. mean, it's got to what you'd expect from him as the romantic. just turns on all the charm. It's great. But his comedic timing is is kind of spot on in this one. I think of, you know, when they're kind of like playing hard. She's.

Eli (31:20.861)
Yeah.

Eli (31:33.331)
Yeah.

Jacob Allen (31:40.398)
Melanie Griffith's character is playing hard to get with him a little bit and as he's going on to an elevator and leave, you know, they're separating and just there's just the elevator doors are closing so he has just a few seconds really to pull off this this retort and Yeah, exactly. He just pulls it off. It's it's perfect. It's so so funny Yeah, it's just

Eli (32:05.424)
It's great. Yeah, I laughed at that. That was a great moment.

Jacob Allen (32:09.876)
It's just hilarious. There's the scene where he's changing in his office and everyone's just like gawking at his chiseled body and he just kind of like, yeah, yeah, just kind and he's talking on the phone the whole time. He's like, I know. It's just so funny. But one thing that stood out to me about this one is there's this weird running theme throughout some of his movies where he...

Eli (32:18.866)
they start cheering.

Jacob Allen (32:38.126)
Like within the movie he puts on a bit and like plays a character. So in The Last Crusade, he plays like the art critic that's trying to break into the the the German the castle where the Germans have a footing. So, you know, he puts on kind of the the French style hat and pretends to be like a French art critic. So he's playing a bit and in The Fugitive even it's much more serious. Again, all the levity is gone, but he dyes his hair.

black and you know, pretends to be another person. and then in this, there's a scene at the wedding where they, he and Melody Griffiths, they're attending a wedding that they were not invited to, to get a face-to-face conversation with the bride's husband that they're, they're trying to lock in for, for like a deal, that they're, they're making in sort of a corporate setting and, they're

changing clothes, getting into costume, whatever, getting into character in the women's bathroom. And the bride comes into the bathroom while they're there changing Harrison Ford's characters in the stall. And, you know, we know, we know as the viewers that, you know, his cover is about to be blown. We don't know how aware he is that his cover is about to be blown. So he barges out of the stall.

Eli (33:54.034)
Mm-hmm.

Jacob Allen (34:08.91)
And is in some other character that he just put on in the stall. It's like he heard the bride come in. Again, the bride, they're they're posing as the bride's guest, but the bride doesn't know them. And he hears her come in, so he's clearly aware of the situation. And he just spur the moment. Puts on a character, you know, that just in an effort to completely disarm her and weasel his way out of this. This scenario, so it's just this this kind of running.

Eli (34:33.459)
Mm-hmm.

Jacob Allen (34:37.484)
joke of his that I've seen now in a few of his movies where he his character puts on a character and it's just it's really funny it's really amusing it's entertaining I thought it was I thought it was great it was a side of him that I had not necessarily seen before

Eli (34:43.506)
Yeah, that's funny. Yeah.

Eli (34:51.902)
Yeah, yeah, I thought I think that's a fun insight. I hadn't really thought about that. But yeah, that's that's a fun. That's a fun insight What I loved about him in working girl was He's got the Harrison Ford charm, but it's got this like very innocent like or around it like this like well-intentioned innocent or like our like

Jacob Allen (35:13.654)
Hmm.

Jacob Allen (35:19.81)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (35:20.38)
I don't know, and it's so different than how his charm typically feels, very, it's like, it's almost like the same charm as Indiana Jones, but used in the completely opposite way of like unassuming, like more, more humility in it and like more care in it. And yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jacob Allen (35:24.782)
for sure.

Jacob Allen (35:32.462)
Totally.

Jacob Allen (35:38.307)
Hmm.

Yeah, he's sort of at the mercy of Melanie Griffith's affections versus, you know, in some of these other roles, he is moving his weight around and he's imposing his will. And there's just not really a lot of that here.

Eli (35:53.235)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I really like that. I'm regretting. I should have picked it first and then what lies beneath. So I'm really like beating myself up right now.

Jacob Allen (36:04.238)
sure.

Jacob Allen (36:07.648)
Yeah, I'm liking my list right now, I won't lie.

Eli (36:10.962)
Yeah, it's a good list. Yeah, I like your list a lot too. I like mine too.

Jacob Allen (36:15.31)
I will say, don't have, yeah, I was gonna say, don't have Raiders Indie and I don't have Blade Runner. So you can't really sleep on those.

Eli (36:22.258)
Yeah.

There's a couple of directions I can go with this next pick, but I was gonna leave a Star Wars off the table, but since you took Working Girl, I'm gonna take him as Han Solo in The Force Awakens.

Jacob Allen (36:45.622)
nice dude, yes.

Eli (36:47.406)
I think it's an underrated performance. there's the, there's the whole part where like there it's, it's like Ray and then they're like questioning, you know, the force and, know, all this stuff. And, I should have written down like what he says exactly, but it's something to the effect of like, it's all real. and it even like,

Jacob Allen (36:50.741)
I agree, man.

Jacob Allen (37:05.314)
Hmm.

Jacob Allen (37:14.392)
Yeah.

Eli (37:16.542)
kind of like cross-plays into his Indiana Jones character. And it's like this culmination of so much about his career and who he is, but like also makes perfect sense for this character who's seen so much and experienced so much magic and wonder and, you know, good triumphing over evil and like

Jacob Allen (37:22.114)
Totally. Yeah, some nice interplay.

Jacob Allen (37:29.175)
Yeah.

Jacob Allen (37:33.175)
Yeah.

Jacob Allen (37:44.899)
Yeah.

Eli (37:45.885)
bringing all of that in his old age to this role, yeah, it just it's really good. And a lot of the weight of the movie kind of hinges on that in a lot of ways what he's bringing to it. So yeah, I would say he's more important to The Force Awakens in a lot of ways than even he is in in Star Wars or Return of the Jedi.

Jacob Allen (38:00.93)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jacob Allen (38:14.51)
Yeah, Yeah, that was a great performance for sure. You know, it's interesting to see him in these, to see him revisit some of these iconic roles in his later career. You know, he revisits his role as Deckard in Blade Runner 2049. He obviously has revisited...

Eli (38:34.355)
Mm-hmm.

Jacob Allen (38:37.038)
Indiana Jones a couple times now and Han Solo and the Force Awakens and and none of them play like. Obligate none of it feels obligatory like his presence does not feel obligatory, but feels significant in each of these. You know, revisiting that he's had here lately in last several years. I don't know. I don't know what you think about that. Do you feel like do you feel like all of these?

you know outings where he's revisited these iconic roles do they play well for you?

Eli (39:09.958)
Yeah, I mean, I think so.

Jacob Allen (39:11.885)
Yeah.

Eli (39:15.838)
Hold on.

Eli (39:29.214)
Sorry, I just got kind of nauseous all the sudden.

Jacob Allen (39:30.334)
there you go. no.

Eli (39:35.23)
Give me just a sec.

Jacob Allen (39:36.268)
No, yeah, you're good.

Jacob Allen (41:34.008)
You good man? Dude, I'm sorry. That's not fun.

Eli (41:35.128)
Yeah. it's all good.

Yeah, I feel better now Yeah, let's I'm gonna jump in where you left off and then wrap up So I can be done Sorry about that. I don't know. I just got nauseous and

Jacob Allen (41:46.734)
Good. Good. I'm glad.

Jacob Allen (42:04.95)
No, you're good, dude. Start it... Weird. Yeah, I hate that. I'm sorry, man.

Eli (42:10.044)
Yeah, I might. I don't know. Maybe I have some sort of bug or something that's coming on.

I feel bad.

Jacob Allen (42:22.314)
No, you're good dude. That is really unfortunate. I hate that for you. Nothing you can do about that.

Eli (42:28.446)
No. Okay, I'm gonna jump back in. I feel okay right now. So I'm gonna jump back in and we can wrap up.

Jacob Allen (42:36.078)
Okay, good.

Cool, sounds good man.

Eli (42:42.652)
Yeah, I feel like he, you know, he's able to jump back into those characters and tap into what, you know, what made them iconic and, you know, powerful to begin with. And I think Dial of Destiny is a great example of that, but yeah, I just, he's had a great career, undoubtable, undeniable, incredible career. So.

Jacob Allen (43:08.599)
Yeah.

Jacob Allen (43:12.514)
Yeah, and a lot still for both of us to catch up on it sounds like.

Eli (43:13.646)
Yeah, still still a lot more to catch up with for sure. Yeah, things we didn't mention. Obviously American Graffiti is where he started without American Graffiti. There's no Han Solo. So.

Jacob Allen (43:29.279)
Yeah, totally.

Yeah, that's one that I would have, have you seen that one? No, I haven't either. That was one that I wanted to get to, but just couldn't quite manage to get to for this, for this exercise.

Eli (43:36.753)
I haven't.

Eli (43:44.605)
Yeah, same. And then you have like the small roles in Apocalypse Now and the conversation with Coppola. He's good in those. They're just small roles. And I also caught up with Frantic, which is a Roman Polanski movie. It was good and he's really good in it. But yeah, I didn't feel like it was necessarily something I had to grab.

Jacob Allen (43:51.874)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, for sure, for sure.

Jacob Allen (44:02.036)
Okay. Yeah.

Jacob Allen (44:13.486)
Okay, yeah, that was that that's maybe been the one, you know, that I didn't get to that I really wanted to get to. But it sounds like I might bump bump it down below American Graffiti when I think of ones I need to catch up with first. So.

Eli (44:14.278)
Eli (44:32.422)
Yeah, I mean great career really good draft Let me pull it back up so I can read it back before we wrap up Yeah, so Jacob ended up with the Empire Strikes Back the fugitive Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Witness and Working Girl great list I ended up with Raiders of the Lost Ark Blade Runner

Jacob Allen (44:39.66)
Yeah, I know.

Eli (45:01.638)
Mosquito Coast what lies believe beneath and Star Wars the Force Awakens So I'm happy with with that yeah, yeah, so we'll see what the people think

Jacob Allen (45:10.638)
Pretty strong as well. Yep. Yep.

Yeah, I can't wait. mean, it's just it's it's such a it's a little bit of a mind game that you play in the middle of these things. I just kept thinking, well, do I do I need Deckard on my list? Like, do I need to go 2049? I don't feel like his performance in 2049 is like substantial enough to demand that I take it over something like a Jack trainer. But those are the things you think about as as you go through these lists.

Eli (45:24.646)
Yeah.

Eli (45:35.26)
Yeah, yeah, sure.

Eli (45:41.106)
Yeah. Yeah. Jack trainer is going to, is the one that's going to haunt me that I didn't take that first.

Jacob Allen (45:46.178)
That was great. That one was a revelation for me. Yeah.

Eli (45:50.014)
We are I'll I'll definitely make sure to post a link to your Creative efforts in the episode description with lean forward on sub stack and the conversation podcast If you want to hear a little bit more about the ideas behind those go check out the beginning of the last episode Jacob talks a little bit more about those there, but but yeah, that's that's all we've got

Jacob Allen (46:00.194)
Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks, man.

Eli (46:20.198)
This week, Harrison Ford, great actor, right? well, thanks for listening everybody. I've been Eli Price for Jacob Allen. You've been listening to the establishing shot. We'll see you next time.

Jacob Allen (46:21.08)
That was Yep, that was awesome. That was great.