Brennan  0:00  

You’re listening to Dodge Movie Podcast. Your hosts are Christi and Mike Dodge the founders of Dodge Media Productions. We produce films and podcasts. So this is a podcast about films. Join them as they share their passion for filmmaking.

Christi Dodge  0:18  

Welcome back, everybody to the Dodge Movie Podcast. This is episode 135. We are going to be talking about the 1980 film nine to five we watch this on max. If you have a subscription to max you too can enjoy this film for no additional cost.

Mike Dodge  0:38  

Other than two and a half hours your life maybe

Christi Dodge  0:41  

It wasn’t that long. Alright, the director is Colin Higgins, who also brought us 19 seven eighths foul play, and 1982 Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. 

Mike Dodge  0:53  

Oh, he liked Dolly.

Christi Dodge  0:55  

And he also wrote this, as well as the very famous 1971 Harold and Maude. In addition to the previous films I mentioned, Foul Play and the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas it stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Dabney Coleman. The DP was Ronaldo VillaLobos to also did 1980s Urban Cowboy 1983 is a Risky Business and it 80s Punch line,

Mike Dodge  1:29  

Isn’t it street wolf in Spanish, which is a damn cool name. Your street wolf

Christi Dodge  1:35  

Lobos. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, in Spanish class in middle school, everybody got assigned their names except for Clint Cates. His brother was Lobo because he was cool. He got to pick his name and Senor Schultz let him and then when his little brother who was in my class came through, he was Lobo 2.

Mike Dodge  1:59  

Okay. And speaking of Spanish, I don’t believe I’ve had a chance to share this one on the podcast before, but this is for our Spanish speaking listeners. When I was in school, we had to split up in Spanish class for a game. And my team’s captain was the captain of the boat team, the quarterback. And when asked what the name of our team was, he proudly said, meaning to say the ducks. He said los puntos en for Spanish speakers. That is not the word for doc for non Spanish. Yeah, yeah. Los Patos was what he should have said everybody looked it up. And the Spanish teacher and I both laughed uproariously because the Spanish teacher spoke Spanish natively. And I grew up in a Spanish speaking neighborhood. So that was one of the seven words I learned immediately.

Christi Dodge  2:47  

Counter to what the opening would make you think that this was filmed in New York City, right. It was filmed I believe that opening scene was filmed in San Francisco but then the rest of it was filmed in Glendale, Montrose NL en la surrounding areas. 

Mike Dodge  3:03  

Yeah, the later scenes were the driving around. I could understand were in LA but those opening shots. I’d be stunned if they were in San Francisco even they look to be exactly New York.

Christi Dodge  3:14  

No, I agree with you. But when I look up locations, New York wasn’t mentioned. So it’s possible that it was in whoever’s handling IMDb just didn’t include 

Mike Dodge  3:23  

Yeah, they do have some errors. I also wonder stock footage right. But I thought we said dolly in there. So it’s hard to say. But it very much looked like classic New York Downtown footage.

Christi Dodge  3:36  

So the synopsis for this film is three female employees have a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot, find a way to turn the tables on him. I’ve got a few taglines for Yeah, let me ask them. Okay. Getting even as a full time job. Okay, yeah, that describes the movie. Yeah, they’re showing the boss who’s the boss. Oh, I like that. Okay, this isn’t making sense. The 25th Anniversary Special Edition DVD. The tagline was sexist. egotistical, lying, hypocritical. bigot addition.

Mike Dodge  4:16  

Well, that’s what they called the Dabney Coleman character.

Christi Dodge  4:21  

Which would you rather punch the clock or your boss?

Mike Dodge  4:25  

Ooo. That’s good, but I still like the first one the full time job because they spend so much effort, kidnapping and basically.

Christi Dodge  4:32  

The power behind the throne. No, no, that one’s bad.

Mike Dodge  4:37  

All right. That’s like a documentary for George Stephanopoulos.

Christi Dodge  4:39  

So the one trivia I’ll say right now is it is number 74. On the AFI is American Film Institute’s 100 funniest movies.

Mike Dodge  4:52  

I do not believe that is even remotely true.

Christi Dodge  4:55  

I did remember it, having a little bit more comedy.

Mike Dodge  5:01  

So it reminded me of Tootsie in the sense that the film wasn’t as funny as I remembered it, meaning that I remember it as being a comedy, but it’s really a drama with with comedic moments. But Tootsie was funny. This film was, like, not funny at all. I don’t think there’s a single laugh in this film.

Christi Dodge  5:23  

Well, I think it’s interesting, because I mean, not to go down like a political rabbit hole. And I was thinking about this earlier, but it feels like it bears mentioning. This was this film came out. And when I say 1980, right, yeah, I meant to look up when the the ERA movement, I believe that was like 7879, maybe where they were women were marching for equal rights. And so I think it’s almost like we have to go back in time to watch this. But it’s interesting, because then we have the me to movement more recently. So I do think it is interesting. I mean, I think we’ve come a long way. Dabney, Coleman’s character, it wasn’t like subtle harassment. It was just out and out. Harassment, like he wasn’t shy.

Mike Dodge  6:12  

Right, and I think, though, again, try not to get too terribly political. But this actually does speak to this. Their solution to him being a jerk is to kill him. And I think there is a misandry that is fundamental to this film that I don’t think it’s funny. But I think a lot of women in the United States right now think killing men is fun.

Christi Dodge  6:36  

Okay, I was highly distracted when we were watching this. But when Lilly poisons him, that’s an accident. I thought they just wanted to take advantage of his wife being out of town. So they kind of like, kidnapped him to his own home. I didn’t feel that the intent was to kill him. It was to improve the situation, the environment at work, and have him be somewhere else while it’s happening.

Mike Dodge  7:07  

So we very early on establish Dolly says, I have a gun in my purse, right? And then they each have very long dream sequences about killing him.

Christi Dodge  7:16  

And Jane said that what these women said, were far worse than what went in the film. And so I do think that at that time, once again, that’s why I have to say, we have to keep going back to like 1978 1979. I think women probably were very frustrated and didn’t want to kill all men just wanted to kill their male bosses who were doing these horrible things to them. 

Mike Dodge  8:16  

I think for the last 50 years, women have felt that it was acceptable to promote the use of violence to redress their perceived injustice is and I think if you flipped, I’m not saying there were no injustice is at all but I’m saying even the slightest provocation, it’s acceptable to hit a man. But if you flip that around, right, and if Dabney Coleman in the film had done any of the things to them that they do to him, it wouldn’t lend the same. That’s all I’m saying is there’s an asymmetry there. I don’t know why. So I’m not saying you can’t make the film. I’m not saying that women don’t feel that way. Maybe even have a reason to feel that way. I just don’t find it funny.

Christi Dodge  8:59  

Right. So but he he wasn’t just I don’t want to start a fight here on the podcast. 

Mike Dodge  9:06  

The listeners love this.

Christi Dodge  9:09  

This will be our highly rated show. Yeah, Mike and Christi, right. But he was even like, in the opening, he was just rude to Lily. Lily’s character violet. He was a fantastic jerk. He was just, you know, like, demanding the coffee and taking like when he took credit for her idea.

Mike Dodge  9:32  

And she and he gave her promotion to an idiot who didn’t deserve it. Right? I had a boss who was a woman do that to me. Do I get to dream of killing her for that? Well, you do get to dream of it. Is it funny if I talk about here’s how I’m gonna kill her? I don’t think so. I just don’t think it’s even remotely funny. You could say it’s wish fulfillment that they have this rage inside them totally by it. I’m not arguing that the Those feelings didn’t make sense narratively. I’m just saying I don’t think it’s funny.

Christi Dodge  10:04  

Didn’t find it funny. So each of their fantasies had animation, which I think for 1980 was kind of…

Mike Dodge  10:12  

I made a note how much did the Lily Tomlin animation sequence cost? Because that was a lot of cells drawn. That was hand drawn animation.

Christi Dodge  10:21  

And then there were some other special effects. What they, Dolly’s This isn’t this I don’t think it was difficult or expensive, but they would like hyper, like, what’s it called when they make it go faster? Yeah, we’re recording this and have a long notion. I don’t know. They sped up the footage. And so it had different elements in for each of their fantasies. And I didn’t remember them being as long as they were like, I found myself like, okay, okay, we got that.

Mike Dodge  10:51  

Yeah, act two really drags. And I made a specific note that those dream sequences were way and I use many A’s. Waaaaaaaaaaay too long.

Christi Dodge  11:01  

Yeah, I would agree with you there. I thought one thing that was kind of funny, because it’s not so timely. Like last week, we were talking about what would early 20s kids kind of associate and the wife when she brings the cruise ship the trip that she wants her husband to go on that she goes on alone? She says, Look, doesn’t it just look like The Love Boat?

Mike Dodge  11:22  

Oh, that’s great.

Christi Dodge  11:24  

Oh, that that reference would get? 

Mike Dodge  11:27  

I’m going to support the evidence because it was probably more than 10 years, maybe 15 years ago. We had an intern and I made a comment that I was acting as Julian McCoy cruise director. And she had no clue what I was talking about. No, like, how do you not know who Julie McCoy is? She’s on the Love Boat again. Blink? Blink? Yeah.

Christi Dodge  11:47  

Okay. You mean, Rebecca Romaine.

Mike Dodge  11:51  

Yeah, that show you for was on at the time. It was a complete fail.

Christi Dodge  11:55  

Copy machine failure. Come on. little cliche.

Mike Dodge  12:00  

It was cliche. I did make a note. Who in the art department managed to get it to misbehave like that. And we’re Xerox upset because they didn’t want their product to look like it couldn’t be operated. 

Christi Dodge  12:12  

Speaking of Xerox, I’m gonna bounce it forward a little bit. Two sets. Did you notice that it was called the Xerox room? And I think if you had that job, you were called the Xerox girl. Yes. So it’s very much Xerox is the Kleenex of wrapping machines.

Mike Dodge  12:29  

And often in marketing, they use both of those as examples of people who didn’t defend their brand, which, to me deserves a throat punch. Anybody who talks about defending the brand? I actually think it’s fantastic that we call it Xerox, even if it’s a canon, right, right. But again, I don’t think the 20 year olds call it a Xerox anymore.

Christi Dodge  12:51  

Do they even just email it to me? 

Mike Dodge  12:55  

I don’t know. Fax and copy girl right now.

Christi Dodge  12:58  

You mentioned Doralee threatening now she wasn’t gonna kill him. She just said, if you make one more pass at me, I will take that gun and change you from a rooster to a hen.

Mike Dodge  13:09  

Which is a I guess, okay, that might be a funny line. That may be the comedy line in the film. Yes. I think given what we’ve seen, I certainly support her, you know, having very extreme feelings about fixing that because he is there’s a scene which I feel like she probably would have seen coming given their established relationship where he arranges his desk so he can push the box of pencils over and she bends down to get it. We actually do have I made a note of this in cinematography, there is a down bow shot. 

And so for the listeners who are not familiar, Dolly Parton is a larger busted lady. She was kind of famous for that. And in the film, the costuming, emphasizes that to a great degree. For that particular scene that they did have was fairly gratuitous it down blouse shot, hopefully was consensual on her part. But that guy was a scumbag. Now, getting back to earlier, right? That is not a perceived slight. I knew women at that time who encountered that behavior from their boss.

Christi Dodge  14:24  

Well, not only that you had a teacher in high school who would like when they knock pencils off or something for girls to pick up.

Mike Dodge  14:33  

He put the pretty girls in the front row. And then at the beginning of class, he would tell her and read in your books for five minutes and then he go stand outside and watch the girls do jumping jacks in PE class. So very creepy. Yeah. But so I want to say not saying that. That didn’t happen. I know for a fact that behavior was not exaggerated. There were people who did feel that was If acceptable in some weird way, and yeah, what is she going to do? And I think that the film establishes again, not very comedic to me but realistic that they needed their jobs, right. That was fundamentally and there’s even a line where after the Lily Tomlin character thinks she’s killed them with rat poison. 

Her concern is I killed the boss you think they’re not going to fire me for things like that? That was the first thing that she worried about not like, I killed a man I might go to prison for this. Right. So I thought that was realistic to show that they were kinda like wage slaves. And in particular, the women in the office with this this scumbag character. Now interestingly, the trivia I read somewhere said that, unfortunately, Dabney Coleman got typecast because of his role. And so for many, many years, he only played the kind of creepy Oh, wow, boss character.

Christi Dodge  15:55  

In one of my interviews, I found dolly said he was lovely. He was a wonderful actor to work alongside.

Mike Dodge  16:01  

I believe everybody liked him. He just got kind of typecast like that. But it’s interesting because I going the other way. I think if you know, Leslie Nielsen, early in his career was a leading man. And then he made a comedic film. And then that was he was like the buffoon? Yeah. So he did it very well. Yeah. And hopefully both of them were enjoyed their work, but they were kind of typecast because of this role, at least for Dabney Coleman, who, by the way, has a fun name. I don’t think I’ve ever met another Dabney. No, you’re right. It’s a very unique name.

Christi Dodge  16:34  

Dolly’s fantasy, where she kind of is the one oh, well, she kind of completely flips the script, and she sexually harasses him. Right. So it reminds me of a film that is out right now, that of this, of this flipping and inverting the treatment of someone. And it’s interesting because it I feel like a nine to five, it acts in a How would you like to be treated this way kind of as an informative thing, rather than that’s really like, I don’t believe that doilies character wants to sexually be with them. Nicoma, right, or even like, treat him poorly in a sexual way. 

There’s a better way to say that, but sorry, guys. And so I think it’s just kind of like what if it was this way? We wouldn’t you guys wouldn’t like that, either. Is what these women are saying? And and they’re reliving kind of like, what if we were in the power position?

Mike Dodge  17:36  

Right. And I don’t think it shows in a particularly good light. 

Christi Dodge  17:40  

But I feel like it’s a common reaction. Like, I mean, I think anybody.

Mike Dodge  17:46  

Well, you could argue that Franklin Hart, the Dabney Coleman character is also a common reaction doesn’t mean it is good, right?

Christi Dodge  17:54  

Oh, you mean him being in a power position? Kind of?

Mike Dodge  17:57  

Yeah. I think when you give anyone power male or female, they could they can misbehave,

Christi Dodge  18:03  

Right, because not all men in the 1970s were cretins.

Mike Dodge  18:07  

In fact, the vast majority weren’t right.

Christi Dodge  18:09  

I think no, it wasn’t,

Mike Dodge  18:11  

Well, I think statistically, we know. Because otherwise there would have been a lot more Lorena Bobbitt. But anyway, what I was getting at was that if you’re not mature, right, and you’re putting power, imagine if you give a five year old wallet, let’s say right? What happens. And I think that’s what this this character is, and there aren’t many other male characters in the film, but that the ladies interact with, but if you see them, they’re not treating them lecherously.

Christi Dodge  18:45  

In fact, I thought it was an I forgot this scene. I forgot. You’re right. Like you said, there weren’t many other men. But we meet Dolly’s husband in the film, right? And he’s a very sweet man. He’s like writing a love song for her. When she’s seeing how, which I thought this was interesting that Dora Lee’s character or DOORLY is being almost mistreated by both men and women because Dabney is his Mr. Hart’s character, Mr. Hart is treating her poorly by making these advances. Then, because of the treatment she’s getting, the other ladies in the office feel like they’re having an affair. So they shun her because they feel like she’s the floozy and how dare she, he’s a married man, and she’s married and he’s the boss, so you shouldn’t be sleeping with him. 

So anyway, so DOORLY is talking to her husband and she’s saying I think they think I’m just a dumb floozy and he’s, and he’s so sweet and supportive. He doesn’t. At first he says, Honey, you’re not or he’s he affirms like her feelings and then says, well, then they’re not your friends or he’s very supportive.

Mike Dodge  19:54  

And I just thought of this while you’re talking but it is a neat twist the Police officer doesn’t question that Lily Tomlin is a doctor. Right. So right, but I do think that, you know, Dabney Coleman’s character, Franklin Hart is supposed to be a stinker. And then we see at the end of the film, the big boss man sends him to Brazil against his wishes. So, to me, I interpreted that as the boss’s like, Oh, this guy’s you know, it.

Christi Dodge  20:24  

Isn’t that interesting that he feels very Catholic Church, like, we’re not going to fire him. Oh, yeah. Let’s just send him somewhere. be horrible.

Mike Dodge  20:33  

Well just shuffle them around. Yeah, yeah, no.

Christi Dodge  20:36  

Okay. So moving on. I have a note that I wrote this when Jane Fonda was having her. Oh, no, it wasn’t her fantasy, but she did use a firearm and her fantasy, poor firearm usage. Yeah, when she is when she grabs torlys handgun, snub nose revolver or some sort. Judy grabs doilies handgun and closes her eyes while she shoots out the door of his office…

Mike Dodge  21:06  

Into where her friends are and basically the open office area. Now they did say that it was late in the day, but still very important. Your ego would not approve now.

Christi Dodge  21:17  

Not good fire music. You should never close your eyes when shooting

Mike Dodge  21:22  

writer I would also say if you feel like you need to pack a revolver in your purse to maybe take a second to think about why that is. I was I thought it was odd that Dora Lee was packing heat and this was and then she has a story about how she like accidentally shot something and it’s like, really poor gun safety.

Christi Dodge  21:46  

Yes, yes. Now d’Orleans characters from Texas, so I think she grew up with a firearm that her daddy gave her. So okay.

Mike Dodge  21:56  

superfan Ernie and other Texas residents please send in. How common are snubnose revolvers in ladies person sign Texan? 

Christi Dodge  22:06  

Yeah, in the workplace? Oh, I liked how early in the film, when we’re meeting the characters. And we see that Violet is a single mom of like four or five kids. She’s fixing the garage door opener. So that shows us that she’s very adept with mechanics, right and different things. And then that in and I joked with you, I said if there’s a garage door in the first act, then it will appear in the second act as a way to hoist Mr. Hart right up to the ceiling.

Mike Dodge  22:35  

And so I made note of that as checkups garage door opener, which is pretty good. Also, at that point, notice her son, they use that as an opportunity to introduce that her son was a stoner. And so the joint comes in later in the film. So what’s your writing? 

Christi Dodge  22:54  

I feel like pot was not. I mean, I know everybody was there. Not everybody, but a fair amount of the I mean, we it was widely available. It was available, but it wasn’t as I felt like as a mom, who knew her teenage son was smoking pot. She was very kind of laissez faire for 1980. I’ll just say that.

Mike Dodge  23:13  

What? That’s good question. Certainly the families we grew up in would not have taken that as lightly as she did. So I don’t know. But maybe if you know, hippie parents, maybe they’re like, I don’t know. It’s good.

Christi Dodge  23:28  

Quiet. It’s just a square in high school.

Mike Dodge  23:30  

Yeah, yeah.

Christi Dodge  23:31  

Just went with my friends. I didn’t even put it in my mouth like little right not inhale.

Mike Dodge  23:41  

I really don’t understand the defensive. I didn’t inhale. What else were you doing with the bong? Right?

Christi Dodge  23:48  

Is this a type of soaking for?

Mike Dodge  23:51  

Oh, that’s awesome. Soaking for weed? Yeah, I just put the drawing at my lips, but I did not inhale. 

Christi Dodge  24:00  

We all knew it was worse. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Before we go on, how about was there anything in the cinematography and the writing and the editing that you made note of?

Mike Dodge  24:13  

Well, from the cinematography, we have the community to work montage, which we talked about lots and lots of feet there. I don’t know if there’s a foot fetish involved there. So I thought it was great that there’s a shot of an opening sequence of a storefront with, I think, three metronomes. And they’re going back and forth, and it matches the tempo of Dolly Parton song that’s playing.

Christi Dodge  24:36  

So a couple of things that I found. I’ll just add them here. One of them is Dolly. She mentioned I thought this was cute. So first of all, this was her first movie, she’d never been on a film set before she memorized the entire script. She did this is awesome. Just memorize her lines. She memorized everyone’s lines because she didn’t know she wasn’t supposed to. And then she said, you know There’s just a lot of nothing to do on this season. There’s so much downtime, like, how would she she’s a worker. So when she’s not on a movie, you dolly apparently is just working. She says from the moment she gets up until her head hits the pillow. So for her being on a movie set was you could tell frustrating. She goes, I read more books. 

I wrote so many songs, and she wrote the theme song. And so she just was on set. She told Jane Jane asked her if she would be in this film. And she said, Yes, if I can write the theme song. And so Jane, of course, said yes. So she would be on set. She would just be watching and paying attention to everything and taking in the characters. She had her long nails. So she just kind of rubbed them up against one another. And to her it sounded like the clicking clacking of the typewriter. Right. And so that’s where she kind of got the end. So that metronome kind of just enhanced I think the beat of that song, which is a great song!

Mike Dodge  26:05  

It is a really good song. i But you mentioned the nails. And so as part of my notes, and I actually do a tiny bit of research after normally, by the way, for this peek behind the curtain, Christy does tons of research before, during and after the film, I generally don’t. I sit there I crack wise, I make my notes. And at the end, I’m pretty much done. But in this case, I did a little bit of research. And I wanted to make a call back in an old timey way because I’m an old dude now. And I had a moment where I had to look it up what we would say in the when this movie was made in 1980, we would have called those nails probably at least as boys, foo men to nails. 

Because there’s a character called Doctor Who mentioned or something he is a villain. I just had an instinct. And so I looked it up and it turns out that character is written by white guy. The actual Chinese folk don’t really care for that characterization too much. So we probably shouldn’t call them that. But I did make note of those super long nails. And my note though was how could you possibly type with those? But was that and I have another note from the costume department was that them show don’t tell showing that she wasn’t really expected to do her job. She’s just there to sit still and look pretty.

Christi Dodge  27:31  

That may have been why she was hired. But I feel like Dora Lee, anybody who has those nails figured out how to get around them. Okay, fair. I remember people with nail long nails and like opening a soda with like a butter knife or a quarter or a spoon. Like, you know, you just you figure out and so I think she would have typed with the tips of them. I think she would have gotten her job done. She just figured out how to do them or you don’t have them because if you can’t, if you can’t cook if you can’t eat can’t go out before you get rid of them.

Mike Dodge  28:08  

Although now as I think about how did she get that the index in the guard for her revolver, but um figured it out the other costuming that I have, which I really really like so I wish I could find the head costume person from this film and give him or her a good hearty handshake. Franklin Hart, played by Dabney Coleman is obsessed with appearance and they have this little thing that Roz the office weenie says like I you know, a clean workspace is an efficient or she has some singsong thing about appearance. And then the first shot where we see Franklin heart. One of his colors is popped out. Oh, interesting. And when I in the first shot, I saw it. I was like, oh, perhaps that was an accident.

Right? But it was throughout the entire scene. And I thought oh, so brilliant that they show his hypocrisy with his clothing. Yeah. Ah, total hearty handshake to whoever is behind that. Good choice.

Christi Dodge  29:07  

Awesome. All right. Anything else before we move on? Was there any head trauma in this film?

Mike Dodge  29:13  

There are two two moments I noted. One is when DOORLY hug ties Franklin during a dream sequence. I’m gonna go ahead and say when she kind of pulls him down like a calf he maybe hit his head on the way down. And then he definitely hits his head when he falls backward in his chair. That’s the inciting incident for literally Tom this character thinking she killed him, but he hits his head and he knocks himself out.

Christi Dodge  29:37  

Yeah. How about a smooch? I don’t believe there was a …

Mike Dodge  29:41  

Smoochy smoochy smoochy Doralee’s husband, and Orly smooch early in the film.

Christi Dodge  29:47  

And it is tender. Yes, it is sweet. And then how about a driving review? 

Mike Dodge  29:51  

All right. So there’s couple couple things here early on. This is great filmmaking, because when Violet play by the Tomlin gets home to find her ex husband. They’re delivering the divorce papers. They do a two shot she’s kind of at the base of the stairs and he’s at the top and when they cut to his view, pointing down at her behind her is a red 79 Fiat Spyder 2000 convertible is the only car visible on the street in her background. But it says midlife crisis in 1980 There’s probably no more midlife crisis he car. Right then some little Italian convertible. And I’ll be honest, I couldn’t see the Husky that it was a secretary that he ran away with in the car, but dialogue and play. She’s there. Yep. 

Then Violet is driving a light blue 69 Buick, Skyler custom, which I actually think is spot on for that character. It’s an 11 year old car. It’s huge. So she can pack all of her kids in it, she can put a garage door opener in it when she has to buy it at the hardware store. That is actually a pretty, I think, a pretty accurate car for her. And you can see that there’s enough room in the trunk for dead body, which is always important in the vehicle, make sure you can carry around your dead bodies. But you see in several shots, incredibly soft suspension, which again makes sense for a family car. Right? They weren’t really trying to drive at the mall. They were just carrying dead bodies around LA. 

There was a little bit of a continuity problem I had, there’s a scene where I believe this is with the aforementioned dead body in the trunk. She’s driving and the exterior shots are of that skylark making some pretty extreme turns. And the interiors Lily Tomlin puts in maybe, maybe 90 degrees of steering angle, and there’s no way a 1969 Buick scale hackers gonna turn that hard with that little steering input.

Christi Dodge  31:52  

Well, it’s funny you say that because there is a video that I will add to our show notes. writing my own note right now, at one point there, the three of them in our car, and I’m pretty sure they’re, you know, on a soundstage. And at what and you see the light, kind of like move, and she breaks character. And she says, Well, you gotta tell me so that I can react. Right. And I think that that was that turn. And I think that they had trouble lining up, though. Yeah, so that’s funny.

Mike Dodge  32:26  

So I don’t know the specifics of that vehicle. But I think at that era, especially consumer cars were about three, three and a half turned lock to lock. So she would have had to really, she would have had to crossover a little bit to get that much turn. Right. And my last note in automotive was Doralee drives this gold 76 Chevy love pickup, which is really just a rebadged Isuzu. She’s from Texas, in 1980. I don’t think she drives a pickup that small. If she drives a pickup, she’s driving like a Ford. Yep. or dodge power wagon would be a really good choice. Yeah. So that was that that was a little odd choice measure why they did that? Yeah, that was the only truck they could get. So we go into the numbers. Let’s go the numbers.

Christi Dodge  33:11  

This film had a budget of $10 million dollars. It made 103 point 3 million. Whoa. 10x. Yeah, it was a huge hit and 1980 I think I’m sorry, I understand what you’re saying. But I think it was like an anthem for a lot of people kind of like, oh, shoot my, my analogy would be funnier if I can remember what was the salary field one for unions? Norma Rae, Norma Rae was like that for the union workers kind of

Mike Dodge  33:44  

accept the union workers didn’t try to kill people. Sorry, just a little dark. As a person who falls on the male end of their their firing line. It’s a little rough.

Christi Dodge  33:55  

It’s rough. Okay. So adjusted for today. That would be like a movie making $341.5.

Mike Dodge  34:00  

Yeah, that’s that’s huge, huge box office. 

Christi Dodge  34:03  

So this was huge. And I will say that there has been talks of a sequel even as of like, five years ago, I think with the success of Grayson Frankie on Netflix with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, they, you know, people want to see all three of them together again. And so there is a script Rashida Jones has been brought in to work on the script. I don’t know what the status is, of it is today, but I think it would be interesting, at least to see, and would with these women be in it, I guess it would have to be in it as themselves, or would it be kind of like an Ocean’s 11? 

Where we just, I guess you would have to reference them and people want them to be, but I feel like it would be like their daughter’s experiencing it or something, don’t you think? Like…

Mike Dodge  34:52  

I think given how many people including film professors watched ad for Brady, that movie make serious bank.

Christi Dodge  35:01  

Right and book club. And so but you can’t have. I mean, Jane, she looks fantastic, but she’s in her 80s She wouldn’t be in the workforce. So I feel like she would be mentoring maybe a younger set who are facing.

Mike Dodge  35:16  

But some child problem is it’s a different world, they they may face some challenges that are similar, but I don’t think most of the issues that they were dealing with those characters we’re dealing with a 1980 are translate to the experience today. Right. So would be interesting to see that it can you get a script that makes sense of that. But again, I think from the business of show, it kinda doesn’t matter. Right. ad for Brady was not up for a screenplay, Oscar. It’s just a film that they put people in that people like to watch, right? I waxed philosophic about minute work. And that is also not not considered. Yeah. And so is there a way to make a sequel? I don’t think so. I don’t see it. But I’d love to see them. If they can pull it off. Go for it.

Christi Dodge  36:14  

Yeah, I definitely would love to see those three together again.

Mike Dodge  36:18  

I don’t know if I’d watch it. But I’m curious to see how they could have like, how would you do that narrative, right.

Christi Dodge  36:23  

IMDB gives it a 6.9 out of 10 Rotten Tomato critics give it a 69% while audiences liked it a little bit more at 74%. It did take an hour and 49 minutes for us to watch it. It’s really PG it’s labeled as a comedy. It is a 20th Century Fox.

Mike Dodge  36:42  

Sorry. For the listeners at home. I was vigorously shaking my head no to it being listed as a comedy. I don’t think it’s a comedy.

Christi Dodge  36:51  

Noted. It’s a 20th Century Fox film. Dolly Parton was nominated for the song nine to five for Oscar in 81 and a Golden Globe and she won a Grammy for Best Song and best for performance that year. And she also won a People’s Choice Award for Favorite song it was I mean to this day you put it on and people write sing a lot. I’m sure there’s I mean, everybody can look it up, but I’ll put a link to the video on YouTube.

Mike Dodge  37:22  

So I wanted to say Dolly Parton I think is a fantastic songwriter. I had no problem with her acting in this or in Steel Magnolias. I thought she did fantastically. This is her first film. Yeah, I really did too. But I think more than anything, just I don’t use this ironically. And national treasure just what a fantastic musician, and singer. So that to me is the highlight of this film, not just even the song but just Dolly Parton is to me.

Christi Dodge  37:50  

I know that on Macs also there’s a Jane Fonda documentary. I will look up. There’s a dolly documentary that I watched. I think it’s also Oh, it’s on Netflix. I think it’s fantastic. It talks about all of her work with literacy in her state as well as others. She is a true hero. I think I mean, legend like you said, so I’ll have to look and see if there’s a lily doc just to get the trifecta. 

Mike Dodge  38:16  

I think there is. After she came out there was a doc. When dolly goes to the big Dollywood in the sky, it will be a sad day. Very sad right? I’ll be honest, little misty eyed just thinking about it. I really, really appreciate her work. So highlight of this film for me.

Christi Dodge  38:39  

Yes. And she’s a triple threat. She has written books I believe she’s written a movie clearly a legend in music, the music industry and and then the film’s like you said, and she’s gone on to, I think starred in some of I thought she didn’t she starred in a hallmark film.

Mike Dodge  39:00  

Or she had a series of either movies or like, hour long specials, I thought. Yeah,

Christi Dodge  39:06  

So that wraps us up for this third film for September. Please send in your guests. Email me with your guests at Christi dodge media productions.com. But never ever, ever forget,

Mike Dodge  39:20  

Dodges never stop and neither to the movies.

Brennan  39:23  

Thanks for listening to Dodge Movie Podcast with Christi and Mike Dodge of Dodge Media Productions. To find out more about this podcast and what we do. Go to www.Dodgemediaproductions.com. Subscribe, share, leave a comment and tell us what we should watch next. dodges never stop and neither do the movies.