Gallipoli with Jennifer Kent
3/29/20262 hr 6 min
This week, we are honored to welcome Australian filmmaker Jennifer Kent to the podcast as we discuss Peter Weir's devastating classic Gallipoli. In addition to bringing much needed context on the history of Australian cinema, this episode also delves into the significance of the Gallipoli Campaign in the Aussie national consciousness, the undersung career of actor Mark Lee, and the genius of Peter Weir's approach to telling this story. Plus, we get to ask Jennifer about her role in Babe: Pig in the City AND we ask her to tell her buddy Justin Kurzel how much Ben loves his Assassin's Creed movie. Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook! Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
[upbeat music] Blank Check with Griffin and David. Blank Check with Griffin and David. Don't know what to say or to expect. All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check.
Griffin Newman· Host0:18
From a place you've never heard of, a podcast you'll never forget.
David Sims· Host0:26
Okay, for our guest, uh, just, just for the context of what just happened.
Griffin Newman· Host0:30
Just to clarify what just happened.
David Sims· Host0:31
That's, that's the tagline of the film, and he's put the word podcast in there.
Griffin Newman· Host0:34
It's the American tagline. Now, I think it's an interesting marketing strategy. It's kind of a tagline saying, "Oh, Jesus, this is a hard one to market."
David Sims· Host0:41
[laughs] From a place you've never heard of.
Griffin Newman· Host0:43
You're leading with- A story you'll never forget ... a place you've never heard of.
David Sims· Host0:44
[laughs] That was the tagline.
Griffin Newman· Host0:46
"Hey, guys, I, I know this title's gonna make no sense to you." [laughs] But, but if you watch the movie, you'll be happy about it after the fact.
David Sims· Host0:53
Right. Right, right.
Griffin Newman· Host0:53
You won't forget it. Yeah.
David Sims· Host0:55
It's also, it's a poster that's the final image of the film.
Griffin Newman· Host0:58
That's what's fascinating.
David Sims· Host0:59
That was, that was the poster.
Jennifer Kent· Guest0:59
Yes. That- The final image.
David Sims· Host1:01
Yeah ...
Jennifer Kent· Guest1:01
that is, that is really bold, I thought.
David Sims· Host1:04
It is, yeah.
Jennifer Kent· Guest1:05
But it's out of context, so you- Yeah ... I guess you don't know.
David Sims· Host1:08
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Griffin Newman· Host1:08
That's what's so- Yeah ... interesting about it is it's not, uh, obfuscating the ending at all- No ... but it is out of context in a way where you don't read into it. And then when the movie hits that image, it's almost quite, uh, qui- twice as devastating to now understand what that image was you were looking at.
Jennifer Kent· Guest1:26
Yeah.
David Sims· Host1:26
But Platoon did the same thing, and this is a movie that reminded- Oh, yeah ... like Platoon