This week Chris Deacy is joined by Cameron Tucker to discuss the films; The Lion King, Good Will Hunting, It's A Wonderful Life, and Molly's Game.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:12 Hello and welcome to Kent Film Club.
00:14 I'm Chris Deasy and each week I'll be joined by a guest from Kent to dive deep into the
00:19 impact certain films have had on their life.
00:23 Each guest will reflect on the films which have meant the most to them over the years.
00:28 And every week there will be a Kent Film Trivia where we quiz you at home about a film that
00:33 has a connection to the county.
00:36 And now let me introduce you to my guest for this week.
00:39 He is a familiar face here on KMTV.
00:42 Over the years he has been a reporter and producer but currently he is KMTV's Head
00:47 of News and Content.
00:50 It is none other than Cameron Tucker.
00:53 Welcome Cam, good to have you on this first show.
00:55 Thank you very much, I'm really looking forward to it.
00:57 I can't wait to hear about your chosen films.
00:59 And your first one is an animated film that came out in 1997.
01:03 Do you want to say a little bit about Hercules?
01:05 Yeah, that's right.
01:06 So all the films up to this day, not necessarily my favourite films, they're just ones that
01:10 have meant a lot to me at various points in my life.
01:13 And Hercules is one of the films that I can remember, one of my first film experiences,
01:18 four years old at the time.
01:21 And it meant a huge amount to me because it was stories that I'd read or I'd seen in books
01:28 and just seeing it visually there presented.
01:32 And it's such a dynamic film, it's such a fun film, there's so much comedy throughout
01:39 it.
01:40 I remember laughing the whole way through and it's just got a real great pace to it.
01:45 It's got gospel music which obviously gets you really up and jumping at any age really
01:52 and good for the whole family.
01:54 Can you remember where you saw it?
01:56 Was it a film that you saw at the cinema or was it a film that you saw on the small screen
02:02 but in those days would have been probably VHS?
02:03 It was indeed VHS, it was my first experience and one of those that basically ran the tape
02:10 down with it.
02:11 We had to go and buy a second copy just because I was watching it so much, watching it religiously.
02:16 And yeah that was my first experience of it and still to this day it works great on the
02:22 small and the big screen.
02:23 Because that often happens, particularly with first films, that you have to almost re-watch
02:27 it almost annually or certainly it's a film that you go back to.
02:30 And so when you watch it, obviously the film itself has made an impact on you, but do you
02:35 tend to associate it with particular periods in your life?
02:38 Is that film kind of like a marker for you?
02:41 I would say it's more the actual, the medium of animation.
02:45 It's something that I've really respected and admired ever since.
02:52 This was my first foray into watching it.
02:55 It's something that I still watch religiously.
02:58 I still think you've got so many films that can tackle really major societal and personal
03:07 issues but through really accessible form.
03:10 Another example that I can think of is Upside Down, which came out a few years ago, a Pixar
03:13 film that looks at puberty and mental health but is done through animation.
03:20 Hercules has not quite got those lofty messages but it is an animated version of the true
03:29 one hero's story and how the hero's journey has embedded in other forms.
03:38 We've seen it presented in other ways but Hercules was the first version of that and
03:43 to do it through song, animation and some amazing voice acting has really stuck with
03:49 me.
03:50 And I find that also with animated films because my own children really love watching animated
03:54 films and I remember in those days in the late 90s I'd often go to the cinema and perhaps
03:58 I didn't have children of my own but often those animated films really captured something
04:02 of a moment and often religious films as well from that period like The Prince of Egypt
04:07 which were also very successful at the box office.
04:10 So do you think there's something about animated film that is just a little bit special?
04:14 It's more creative than live action?
04:17 Yeah and it comes back to escapism.
04:19 It's one of the main reasons we go and watch films or watch something on television.
04:24 It's that escapism.
04:26 You can be transported to ancient Greece, The Prince of Egypt, to ancient Egypt.
04:33 You can be transported in time, space, wherever and that's what has really stuck with me with
04:40 animation in that form is you can go really anywhere as far as the imagination goes.
04:45 And is it a film that if there was something about it that really stands out, a particular
04:50 scene, a particular character, what would that be?
04:54 I'd say that there's a montage about halfway through when Hercules finally becomes the
05:00 hero that he's been looking to become and there's a montage to the song Zero to Hero
05:08 and it's really fast paced.
05:11 The lyrics involved are incredibly intelligent as is the visual imagery to match.
05:17 Your second film also is from the same era and it's Good Will Hunting.
05:23 Probably not watched at the same time though.
05:24 It's more of a recent watch.
05:26 I watched this in my teen years and it was really the central performance.
05:31 Well I say central but he won the Oscar for supporting actor in it.
05:35 Robin Williams in it was that performance that has really truly stuck with me and he's
05:41 very much been an idol in the media for me and everything that I've seen him in is incredible
05:48 and just the talent of that man is mesmerising.
05:52 And I saw it at the cinema, I looked it up before, I remember it was from March 1998
05:56 because in those days films would always tend to come out in Oscar season, the Oscars would
06:00 be at the end of March.
06:01 Suddenly you'd have all these amazing films and L.A. Confidential was also from that period
06:05 and Titanic as well.
06:07 But tell me a bit about Good Will Hunting because there is something which is sort of
06:11 the opposite actually of the next film that we'll be looking at a bit later but there's
06:14 something about that notion about one's dreams and one's talents and how we utilise them.
06:19 It's set in South Boston, very working class blue collar background but there's something
06:23 that really resonates about that film isn't there?
06:25 Yeah and it's very much what you do with the talents that you've got but also treading
06:33 the path that you want to go yourself.
06:37 Not being, obviously being informed by the people around you, being given the tools to
06:42 excel as far as you can but really having that agency over what you make of your life
06:47 and that's one of the central plot points.
06:51 And also to not assume, like you said Matt Damon's character Will Hunting is from South,
06:57 a very blue collar like you said in Boston and he is almost written off when he's younger
07:05 from that very rough underprivileged background.
07:10 Gets in lots of fights, has lots of run ins with the law and is almost written off but
07:13 he is this savant, he has a savant like persona and he's got an incredible mind and so it's
07:20 that sort of you should never assume, you should always give people a chance, give the
07:23 benefit of the doubt and having mental figures and supporting figures around you like Robin
07:27 Williams' character in the film helps.
07:29 Yeah and that's what stood out for me maybe on a second or a third viewing because it
07:34 really is so much about Robin Williams because he came from the same background as the Matt
07:39 Damon character and he still bears the scars but you have this teacher pupil relationship
07:45 but actually they flip don't they because you end up finding that the student is helping
07:50 the teacher and there's a really famous line when Robin Williams says 'well hang on, you
07:56 could have been a janitor anywhere in the country but you chose MIT, you chose to work
08:01 in this school so it's not just random, so what are you going to do with your talent?'
08:05 And the film is so fascinating in terms of that whole, almost like the American dream.
08:10 Yeah and there's so many points, you know you're talking about that scene, there's
08:14 the famous bench in the park scene, there's the it's not your fault scene, all of these
08:19 that still when I watch them brings tears to my eyes or still I find them incredibly
08:26 funny as well, some of the other points when he's describing the moment he met his now
08:29 deceased wife in the film.
08:31 It comes back to this having someone who just talks to you as you are and they come across
08:41 as equals, there's no power dynamic in it and you treat people as you would want to
08:48 be treated yourself and I think that's a really powerful message.
08:50 And also in terms of relationships because he's from this blue collar background, he's
08:53 obviously very talented but he's also very uncertain and he's working in a world of these
08:59 very bright and very wealthy students and Minnie Driver's character, she also got an
09:02 Oscar nomination for this film and that's really powerful I think in terms of this film
09:07 because he spurns her doesn't he because he thinks that she sees him as a charity case
09:12 and then there's that question about is this relationship authentic, is this relationship
09:16 real, I mean that really resonates doesn't it?
09:18 But it really, what is great about that is it unpacks it and it does it in a very nuanced
09:24 and very, very subtle way and a lot of Gus Van Sant's films do that, there's a lot
09:28 of nuance.
09:29 I think that's what's so good about it, it's not overt, it's not trying to have an agenda
09:34 about it, it is saying talk to people, find out their story, see why the nature and nurture
09:42 of who they are and why they're the way they are and I think there's a lot to take away
09:47 from that.
09:48 Yeah and is there something about that film, maybe the first time you watched it, I don't
09:53 know whether that was a big screen or a small screen experience, can you remember the first
09:56 time you saw Good Will Hunting?
09:57 Yeah it was, again it was a small screen experience but what my, actually my first memory of it
10:03 is my mum had the soundtrack to it and it's a great soundtrack, it's got Gerry Rafferty's
10:11 Baker Street on there, there's Dandy Warhol's, there's Elliot Smith, it's an incredible soundtrack
10:17 and that, I remember that being played every morning while we were getting ready to go
10:22 to school, mum taught the school near mine and that was always one of the CDs that was
10:31 playing while we were getting ready for work so that was my first sort of segue into it
10:36 and then it was many years later when I watched it and it all kind of came together and that's
10:42 why it's quite a personal experience to me.
10:45 And is there a particular character or a particular scene that really stands out for you?
10:49 I always, I always ball at the 'it's not your fault' scene but the character of Robin Williams
10:57 and the role that he played in that is I think one of the seminal and best performances in
11:09 cinematic history.
11:10 Yeah and of course also an Oscar winner for screenplay.
11:12 Very much, yeah.
11:13 And it was like that sort of key moment because I think it was Chet Lemon and Walter Mattow
11:16 who presented the awards of like the old Hollywood and the new Hollywood because Matt Damon,
11:20 Ben Affleck and so it felt like a really seminal moment.
11:23 Yeah, whatever happened to them, eh?
11:26 Yeah.
11:27 Okay well that's about all the time we have for this first half of the show.
11:30 However before we go to the break we have a Kent film trivia question for you at home.
11:36 Now which film was shot across Kent in Chatham, Gravesend, Dover and Tunbridge?
11:43 A 1967 Oscar winner and originally commissioned by but banned from the BBC.
11:49 Was it A) Daisies, B)
11:52 The Battle of Algiers or C)
11:55 The War Game?
11:56 We'll reveal the answer right after this break.
11:59 Don't go away.
12:09 Hello and welcome back to Kent Film Club.
12:12 Now just before that ad break we asked you at home a Kent film trivia question.
12:18 Which film was shot across Kent in Chatham, Gravesend, Dover and Tunbridge?
12:23 A 1967 Oscar winner and originally commissioned by but banned from the BBC.
12:29 And I asked was it A) Daisies, B)
12:31 The Battle of Algiers or C)
12:34 The War Game?
12:35 And now I can reveal to you that the answer was in fact C)
12:39 The War Game.
12:40 Now The War Game was made by a trailblazing film director named Peter Watkins.
12:46 It is a powerful docudrama foretelling a fictional Soviet nuclear attack on Kent.
12:52 However its presentation of firestorms, radiation sickness and the lawlessness of police firing
12:58 squads ultimately proved too much for its commissioners, the BBC, which shelved the
13:04 flick.
13:05 Did you get the answer right?
13:07 Well now it's time to return to today's guest.
13:10 He is KMTV's Head of News and Content Cameron Tucker.
13:15 And Cam we're going to talk now about your third film and what it means to you.
13:19 It's a Wonderful Life.
13:20 Yeah absolutely.
13:21 So third film, this one has really meant a lot to me as an adult.
13:28 It's a Christmas classic.
13:29 It's turned into our family's Christmas ritual.
13:32 Always watch it with my fiancé every year.
13:36 And it's just the perfect Christmas flick.
13:39 I know you've got background in Christmas films so you can talk at length about the
13:45 meaning and all the messaging.
13:49 It's just such a well constructed story and it always tugs at the heart strings every
13:56 year.
13:57 Now I'm going to play devil's advocate because there is something about that film which I've
14:00 never quite liked.
14:01 And it's a great Christmas film in so many ways although of course it's only really Christmas
14:04 at the end, the last half hour.
14:06 But this is what interests me because we just talked about Good Will Hunting which is this
14:10 real sort of rags to riches kind of story.
14:13 But in It's a Wonderful Life there's something in that about stay where you are, stay put,
14:19 appreciate your lot in life.
14:21 When I was watching there's something that almost says the parochial, the local is okay.
14:25 It's okay not to have done amazing things in your life.
14:28 I just wonder whether it is really very, very different from Good Will Hunting or they're
14:32 just different sides of the same coin.
14:34 Yeah I would devil's advocate, you're devil's advocate with that.
14:37 I would say that it's saying that the material is not what matters.
14:46 It doesn't matter if you've travelled all around the world which is what James Stewart's
14:52 character wants to do at the start.
14:55 It doesn't matter about how much money you've got in the bank account.
15:00 It's about the community that you build around you and it's those connections and it is that
15:06 cliched story of money means nothing kind of thing.
15:12 It is the love that you surround yourself with and the people that you surround yourself
15:16 with that matters.
15:20 I think that's what it does.
15:21 It's not so much about you stay in your lane, you make your bed, you lie in it.
15:31 It's about really appreciating what is around you and living in that moment.
15:36 There is something really poignant about that film because you have that sort of sense that
15:41 he's really valued.
15:42 Admittedly it takes him to the brink of despair before he realises just how valued.
15:48 But there is something in that about the whole build up and the sense of exploring the community
15:51 and of course I love that whole Bedford Falls, Pottersville thing.
15:55 Back to the Future played with that as well.
15:57 The idea of how differently, the butterfly effect almost.
16:02 If he hadn't been there then Potter would have taken over and this would have been a
16:06 completely film noir type world.
16:09 So there's something about the film that works on lots of levels.
16:12 Yeah and it really stems from, we were talking about Hercules earlier and how that is the
16:18 original hero's journey.
16:20 It's a Wonderful Life is a direct descendant of the original Christmas story, A Christmas
16:24 Carol and that's got really strong messaging, it's got a lot of principles that, it extols
16:31 a lot of principles to live your life by and shows the importance of family.
16:37 Fantastic.
16:38 Well we're going to move now Cam to your fourth selection and it's Molly's Game.
16:43 Yeah absolutely.
16:44 So this is, I've chosen a film that I watched recently that really, really stuck with me
16:48 long after watching it and watched it on a very small screen on my phone as the filmmakers
16:58 intended I'm sure.
17:01 And it just, one of the characteristics of a good film that I appreciate as do all actors
17:09 and directors is the script and Aaron Sorkin's script as for all the other films that he's
17:16 done you know you've got Trial of the Chicago Seven, the one with Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson.
17:27 Oh it's got, The Few Good Men, A Few Good Men.
17:31 That's it, thank you very much.
17:32 That is amazing.
17:33 A Few Good Men as well as obviously all of his TV works just have the most electrifying
17:41 dialogue, incredible script and that's one of the reasons I really like Molly's Game
17:48 as well as such an amazing story and he does this time and time again Aaron Sorkin, this
17:55 was his directorial debut as well.
17:57 He finds stories in the ordinary and how ordinary people fight injustice and through just sheer
18:09 wit, intelligence and doing so with an incredible command of the English language.
18:17 And Jessica Chastain as well because this is before she won an Oscar.
18:19 There's also a film, in my mind I've conflated this one with Miss Sloane that came out a
18:24 few months earlier and one of them, it might be this one, is it about the poker?
18:28 This is yes, so it covers many, many different strands actually.
18:33 So she started off as an Olympic skier who through an injury, she doesn't manage to go
18:44 down that avenue so she looks to raise money to go and do a degree, ends up falling in
18:52 with a different crowd and starts running poker games and then it just escalates from
19:00 there and it's this really incredible story of almost kind of there's a bit of wrong place,
19:05 wrong time element to it but again always coming back to family and she's earning millions
19:14 of dollars doing these poker games but it's about her family coming together and supporting
19:21 her at a really difficult time and people seeing something in her that the average member
19:27 of the public might not and that's really inspiring as well.
19:30 And I'm just thinking through, not so much Hercules which I may not have seen but the
19:35 other three, there's a very obvious sort of link between all of them.
19:39 It's about people who perhaps have fallen on hard times but catapult their way to the
19:44 top and do so with integrity.
19:46 Yeah, I think that's a really key thing to get.
19:51 I'm not highfalutin enough to say that's something that I've tried to live my life by at all
19:56 but I just think it's really inspiring to see when you, I think Danny Boyle famously
20:05 said "Grace is courage under pressure" I think that's a phrase that he's using and I think
20:11 that if you can see that displayed by real life examples or fictional examples it goes
20:18 a long way.
20:19 And isn't that one of the amazing things about film, I think of it like the Shawshank Redemption,
20:24 you don't have to have been in prison for 20 years or any amount of years in order to
20:29 understand something about what you're watching on the screen and to see the hopes and dreams
20:32 that are presented.
20:34 And it seems the same with Molly's Game and other films, that you may not have lived this
20:38 life but there's something about the journey which feels very universal, something that's
20:43 easily relatable to and you really latch on to that character's drives and you want to
20:48 get beneath the surface.
20:49 Yeah and very human at the end of the day is, we all love a comic book film or an adventure
20:59 film or something that is escapism but at the end of the day we always want it or we
21:05 always look to have it anchored in something that we can associate with as a viewer.
21:10 And I've got to ask you something as well about the medium in which you watch this film
21:14 because you saw it on your small phone.
21:17 I saw this at the cinema and I remember, the thing that I remember is that somebody was
21:21 sitting in my seat and it completely ruined the film because I chose a perfectly central
21:25 row and all the rest of it.
21:26 But to what extent does the technology matter?
21:29 So when you were watching this on your phone, were you on a journey, were you at home?
21:33 So this I was watching on the train actually and it didn't make any difference to my experience
21:40 of it in that I still cackled aloud.
21:42 It was one of those I cackled aloud and I was like, "Oh is anybody watching me do that?"
21:47 And if you've got a strong enough story, I feel any medium you're able to be engrossed
21:55 by it.
21:56 Saying that, I have got tickets to Oppenheimer at the IMAX because that is obviously how
22:02 Christopher Nolan shot it and wants to see it.
22:03 So I think there is a place very much in the medium that you watch, that you watch a film
22:09 in but it always has got a hinge on the script and the story and the character.
22:13 So do you think it varies depending on the type of film in terms of the actual way in
22:19 which you would write it because there are so many more opportunities now than when I
22:22 was growing up in terms of how you watch a film.
22:24 Yeah, there are so many platforms out there to watch it on and I think it depends on the
22:31 person, it depends on what you want to get from the experience.
22:34 When I'm watching a film it's very different to when I'm watching a reality television
22:41 show, for example.
22:42 With that it's very much what's going on in the background, nice kind of background noise.
22:46 When it's a film I'm laser focused on the content and so I think it very much depends
22:53 on the content and if you've got, like I said, you've got a strong script, you've got amazing
22:57 characters and you've got a well acted story, you can watch it on any medium.
23:03 And is this a film you think that either on this same medium or another that you'd watch
23:07 again?
23:08 Absolutely.
23:09 All four that I've said would go back to, actually with Molly's Game, I watched it on
23:11 the train and then I got home and said to my fiancé, you've got to watch this film
23:16 and we watched it straight away when I got home.
23:19 So again, the power of cinema.
23:21 Absolutely, indeed I've seen the Indiana Jones film, the most recent Indiana Jones film,
23:25 many times over, including with my son who I think is going to take after me.
23:30 Well I'm afraid that that is all the time we have for today.
23:33 So many thanks to Cameron Tucker for being such a brilliant guest and for joining us
23:37 today and many thanks to you all for tuning in.
23:41 Be sure to come back and join us again at the same time next week.
23:45 Until then, that's all from us.
23:47 Goodbye.
23:47 [Music]
23:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]