A standard college melodrama makes a hard-right turn into an anti-abortion screed in a move that’s almost as bizarre as Kirk Cameron’s horrible Southern accent.

We welcome back Alana Phelan to the show with a movie she really loved as a kid, but viewing it as an adult, a few things suddenly stand out.

Starring Kirk Cameron, Jamie Gertz, Roy Scheider, and Tim Quill. Written and directed by Douglass Day Stewart.

Content warning: this episode discusses rape, abortion, and general sexual topics.

Welcome to the Mary Versus the Movies newsletter! We’ve got a guest!

This week: 2/13/2025

EPISODE 173 – THE BEAST/THE BEAST OF WAR (1988)

A Russian tank unit is lost during the Soviet-Afghan war, leading to a breakdown in order, attempted mutiny, and desertion to the Mujahideen. Part Moby Dick, part Lawrence of Arabia, and a little bit Rambo, it’s a meditation on war, revenge, and mercy.

This film was suggested to us by a listener; a bomb when it was initially released, it had some life on cable, enough that Dennis somewhat remembers it. It’s a bit slow, which is unsurprising coming from the director of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Waterworld. It’s also a little awkward to watch, knowing that the heroic Mujahideen are literally the Taliban, and there’s an entire history with the CIA that goes unremarked on in the film. But casting Americans as the Russians is an interesting twist for viewers in a world that was still in the Cold War. 

Starring George Dzundza, Jason Patric, Steven Bauer, Stephen Baldwin, Erick Avari, and Don Harvey. Written by William Mastrosimone. Directed by Kevin Reynolds.

EPISODE 174 – LISTEN TO ME (1989)

 Content warning: this episode discusses rape, abortion, and general sexual topics.

We welcome back Alana Phelan to the show with a movie she really loved as a kid, but viewing it as an adult, a few things suddenly stand out. Like its inherent fascism. (Oh, really, more fascism again? Yes.)

A standard college melodrama makes a hard-right turn into an anti-abortion screed in a move that’s almost as bizarre as Kirk Cameron’s horrible Southern accent. There’s our hero, Tucker, a chicken farmer’s son not long out of juvie, coming to college on a full scholarship. There’s the hard-driven Monica, a working-class girl from Chicago who refuses to get into a relationship with anyone. And then there’s Gar, a senator’s son who envies both of them their freedom from being a sad rich boy who just wants to be a writer. They all come together into the greatest college debate team in the country, eventually going up against Harvard, where they get to argue that not only is abortion immoral, but the whole of society. Real fun movie.

Starring Kirk Cameron, Jamie Gertz, Roy Scheider, and Tim Quill. Written and directed by Douglass Day Stewart.

Alana’s work can be found here: The Polyamorous Librarian website (modified content as the crowdfund is no longer running)

HOLLYWOOD AVALON – THE ADVENTURES OF SIR LANCELOT (1956)

We took a look at a British tv series from the 1950s, dramatising the Arthurian story in a high-romance fashion. Believe it or not, it’s pretty good! Starring William Russell–who later played “Ian” on Doctor Who–it’s a fairly faithful rendering of the story, with Lancelot as an outsider who comes to Arthur’s court, Gawain as his rival, a belligerent Kay, and a Merlin who is part magician, part con-man. Lancelot isn’t just the best of knights here, he’s also a champion of underdogs, defying the more hierarchical standards of Camelot–it’s no surprise to find out that several of the writers for the show were Americans who were blacklisted during the Red Scare. Once again, the Arthurian world is used as a playground for utopian politics, not unlike Twain’s Connecticut Yankee and T.H. White’s Once and Future King.

Starring William Russell, Cyril Smith, Ronald Leigh-Hunt, Robert Scroggins, and Jane Hylton. With various writers and directors depending on the episode.

This is a preview of the latest episode of our series Hollywood Avalon. To hear the entire episode, join the Mary Versus the Movies patreon for $3/month to hear this and the entire series Hollywood Avalon: https://www.patreon.com/maryvsmovies.

What else are we up to this week?

Mary: Recently, I was recommended the documentary Flipside by Jon Solomon, who called it his “favorite movie about failure since The Last Jedi”. And that’s not a bad description: cobbled together from several unfinished projects, Chris Wilcha’s documentary is part Gen X midlife crisis, part apology, and part closet-cleaning (literally, in some scenes).

There’s the unfinished documentary about Flipside, a record store in northern New Jersey where Wilcha worked as a teenager; the owner of the store, Dan, is less a salesman than a museum curator, with boxes and boxes of vinyl that might never be played again, all of which is precious to him. There’s an unfinished documentary about Jazz photographer Herman Leonard, who was dying of cancer at the time. An unfinished documentary about Ira Glass’s strange dance tour. An interview with the comedian Uncle Floyd, a staple of New Jersey television. All stories left unfinished, or about frustrated ambitions. At the heart of it is Wilcha’s own story of giving up creatively-fulfilling documentaries to become a commercial director because, frankly, we all have to make a living, and most of us don’t get to do exactly what we want. Meanwhile, he sifts through the the stuff of life–records, t-shirts, ticket stubs, posters, all the knick-knacks and mementos we cling to in order to define who we are, to be curators of our own life, to remember, because we’re afraid no one else will remember us. How much stuff can we really hang on to? What’s it all for?

So here I am, midway through this life’s journey and finding myself in a darkened wood, with several unfinished novels and plays and other creative projects, and mountains of stuff from my own life crammed in the house I grew up in, wondering where it all goes–I don’t even have kids to pass things down to. All I have is the sense of time passing, the urgency of now, and a hope that maybe I will some day soon actually finish something I started.

Will I end my life saying “I should’ve done more”?

Flipside is available on Criterion, Kanope, and Prime.

Dennis: