This week Chris Deacy is joined by Gabriel Morris to discuss the films: 1917, Chicken Run, Back To The Future, and Hotel Mumbai.
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00:00 [Music]
00:12 Hello and welcome to Kent Film Club.
00:14 I'm Chris Deesey 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.
00:22 Each guest will reflect on the films which have meant the most to them over the years.
00:27 And every week there will be a Kent Film Trivia where we quiz you at home about a film that
00:31 has a connection to the county.
00:34 And now let me introduce you to my guest for this week.
00:38 Joining the team after his studies in Wales, he is now an on-screen reporter and programme
00:42 producer.
00:43 He is of course, Gabriel Morris.
00:45 Thank you so much Chris.
00:46 Welcome Gabriel, so the boots on the other foot today.
00:49 And I don't know your chosen films in advance but your first selection is 1917.
00:55 It is indeed.
00:57 I watch this, I don't often go to the cinema.
00:59 I actually will say this, first of all, I used to work in a cinema but you get a bit
01:03 of cinema down when you work there five days a week.
01:06 You get three movies so it's good.
01:07 But anyway, 1917 was one of the first movies I watched after leaving and I don't know,
01:12 there was something about it all filmed supposedly in one take.
01:15 I know I've watched the behind the scenes, I know it wasn't all in one take but it was
01:18 that journey in real time, something you don't often see in movies which really connected
01:23 to me.
01:24 Because it's a Sam Mendes film, this was a very personal film for him wasn't it?
01:27 Because it was his grandfather who fought in the First World War and I think he dedicated
01:32 the film to him.
01:33 I think so, to be honest with you I'm not 100% sure on that side of things.
01:38 But you can definitely tell that personal connection with the characters, the whole
01:42 journey is trying to find that family member isn't it?
01:45 Going on that journey, going through the trenches, going through no man's land, crossing the
01:49 lines.
01:50 Because war films may not be my obvious or favourite genre but this film I think was
01:55 very special because it took you on a journey and along the way of course, obviously we
02:00 know historically what happened in the First World War but we don't know what happens to
02:04 the main character here and of course he loses various friends along the way.
02:08 So what was the particular hook for you?
02:11 I think it was, usually when you watch war movies, I do quite like a war movie, a lot
02:16 of the time it's focused on an army, on a battle.
02:20 This was very much about really about one main character.
02:24 You were following his journey, going through his emotions.
02:27 I mean I think you were seeing the idea of, lots of people say during war it's all puppets,
02:34 puppets from above.
02:35 You saw his journey, crossing the lines, being with the other side.
02:37 I mean I think there was even a scene where he came face to face with one of the German
02:41 soldiers.
02:42 So there was that personal connection for me which really struck me and that stood out.
02:46 I've watched that a number of times.
02:47 There's been a number of times when I've watched a war film and that's been my way into the
02:53 historical record as in I may not know lots of details about the battles but the war film
02:58 and the personal angle is often the hook into this.
03:01 So did you go into this thinking, oh it's a war film, this is good?
03:04 Was there another reason?
03:05 Was it the personal angle that maybe intrigued you?
03:08 To be honest actually it was the war side of things because they're very similar.
03:10 It's interesting to see, particularly with movies filmed in the past 20, 30 years, they
03:15 are very realistic not just in their visual effects but how the accuracy, the historic
03:20 accuracy is one of my hobbies.
03:22 So go onto YouTube and watch expert historians rating war movies, how accurate they are.
03:29 And actually you can see over the years the more recent ones, they tend to be, particularly
03:33 ones where the whole movie is about the war, they tend to be fairly accurate now in their
03:39 deception of what actually happened.
03:41 And I think it's not, there's a brilliant story within this but it's actually a useful
03:48 tool for people.
03:49 I don't think there is actually anyone alive now from that war now.
03:53 It reminds us what happened in that period in a very useful way.
03:58 When you watched this, did it surprise you in any way?
04:01 Was there anything about the actual details of the war?
04:03 Was there anything about this that sort of stayed with you after the film?
04:08 Did it change you in any way?
04:09 I think it was the waiting around because often when you, being a journalist, being
04:15 news, you film the action, you put the action out and that's all you ever see.
04:18 But this, you saw them sitting around up against trees, sitting around trenches.
04:24 That's how the movie started and it's how it finished.
04:27 It's how much waiting around they were doing in between battles or waiting for their command
04:32 to go.
04:33 But then also it was that race to get, for that main character to get to the other trenches
04:39 before that next battle started.
04:42 So I knew there was a lot of waiting around during World War One but I didn't realise
04:45 how much there was and that movie showed that to me.
04:49 And you mentioned that you worked in the cinema.
04:50 Was this something that you watched on your, I don't necessarily mean that you were the
04:53 only one in the cinema, but is this something that you were keen to watch with an audience?
04:57 Is it something that you've spoken about or watched with other people afterwards?
05:02 I actually watched this just after I actually left working at the cinema and I can actually
05:07 say I did, because you know we were allowed to watch movies whenever you liked, I have
05:13 seen movies in a screen by myself and quite often what I do, they're good to their employees
05:20 and you can watch movies after because I can just press play again and they can watch it
05:24 again.
05:25 But there is something about watching a film with an audience.
05:27 You can hear the gasps, you can see people laughing.
05:30 I think that's something special about going to the cinema and when you're watching it
05:33 on your own it's great, you've got it to yourself, you don't have the smell of someone's food
05:37 in your mouth, you don't have the popcorn munchers going over it, but then that's the
05:41 magic of cinema and I do love, well I can now, to get back to the cinema and watch it.
05:46 I think with an audience, not a huge audience but a nice number, 20, 30 people in there,
05:51 I think it makes it magical.
05:52 You get the laughter and you get that interaction with the actual film and what's going on.
05:56 And how do you think this rates compared to other war films?
05:59 I mean before you saw this one would you have had a particular go-to war movie?
06:05 Probably Saving Private Ryan would have been up there.
06:08 I think 1917 and that movie are both standouts, particularly with the accuracy.
06:16 I think this is probably one of the best movies of the past 20 years but I am a massive fan
06:21 of The Great Escape as well.
06:22 I think that's mostly accurate but I think there's a bit of creative license in that
06:27 one as well.
06:28 Well fantastic.
06:29 Thank you very much Gabriel.
06:30 Well it's time now to move on to your second chosen film and I suppose you could say from
06:35 the sublime to the ridiculous because we've gone for Chicken Run.
06:39 Well I just said I liked The Great Escape.
06:40 I didn't want to do two movies.
06:42 That was a perfect seg.
06:43 There we go.
06:44 Chicken Run is essentially The Great Escape but about chickens and it's a little bit more
06:49 fun.
06:50 It's four children.
06:51 The story's not the best story out there but I think there's something fun about it.
06:57 It's really watchable and the production company, I can never pronounce them right, it's Aderman
07:03 or something like that who make them down in Bristol.
07:07 They make Wallace and Gromit short on the sheet.
07:09 It's just something magical about the sets and the clay figures they make.
07:14 There's something nostalgic about it.
07:17 Absolutely and I saw this at the cinema in, it would have been 2000.
07:21 And Mel Gibson isn't it?
07:24 Is it the rooster?
07:25 Yeah.
07:26 Is there a particular standout in this film?
07:28 Because you mentioned The Great Escape.
07:29 Had you seen this before The Great Escape?
07:31 That's testing me.
07:33 Probably I'd seen this before The Great Escape because I would have been two when this came
07:37 out.
07:38 I first remember watching this at school.
07:43 One of the old VHS players at Christmas time probably.
07:45 It was probably almost to the day that I watched this.
07:50 So I probably watched Chicken Run before The Great Escape most likely.
07:53 I can't imagine someone as young as two or three or four maybe when I watched it watching
07:58 The Great Escape first.
08:01 But yeah, no, standout moment.
08:04 I think it has to be, I don't know, that scene where they all take off.
08:07 They build the airplane out of all the chicken huts or coops or whatever you want to call
08:10 them and they take off and fly.
08:12 It's obviously not possible but that's the magic of stop motion isn't it?
08:16 You can do stuff which isn't possible.
08:17 Yeah and I was just thinking as well because obviously if anybody has seen The Great Escape
08:23 then this film is a very good, very funny parody of it.
08:26 But to watch this one first and then to see the inspiration for it, I guess that can also
08:32 be a very sublime experience.
08:34 And in your case it sounds as though The Great Escape has obviously had a big impression
08:37 in relation to your previous film choice.
08:42 And so was there a sense in which you saw that film through a different lens having
08:47 watched Chicken Run?
08:48 I mean definitely.
08:49 When you watch The Great Escape you have to take it seriously.
08:51 This, as we just said, obviously I think there's a bit of creative license on that but this
08:56 is really what happened.
08:58 Many people did lose their lives during that escape.
09:04 But I think the story, the elements, the basic elements are still there.
09:12 Chickens are captive, the soldiers in The Great Escape are captive and it's that wanting
09:18 us to be free and to escape their captives.
09:22 So those similarities are definitely there.
09:25 And do you think that animation works in a way that live action doesn't?
09:28 Not just in relation to Chicken Run but maybe more generally.
09:31 Is this sort of type of film particularly important to you?
09:34 I don't know.
09:35 I've always had a soft spot for anything a little bit puppetry, Thunderbirds or something
09:40 like that.
09:41 You never see them walking.
09:42 You never see characters in Wallace and Gromit walking because they can't really do it properly.
09:48 So there's something about it.
09:52 The little villages, the towns they make, it's of an era.
09:56 They've kept it there.
09:58 Even though they're still making – there's a new Chicken Run which is coming out.
10:01 I think it's even out at the cinemas now.
10:03 I need to go and watch it.
10:05 But it always stays the same.
10:06 I know they're starting to bring CGI into it but that's really only somewhat like just
10:12 to add some special effects like smoke or clouds moving just to make it a little bit
10:16 more realistic.
10:17 It's all still practical for the most part.
10:21 I think it's those practical effects, not just in stop motion or other things actually.
10:25 In proper movies when they do that, those practical effects, it makes it a lot more
10:30 realistic.
10:31 I've never been a huge fan of CGI and other computer stuff.
10:36 This one does stand the test of time in a way.
10:40 We were talking about your previous film, Choice, and whether you saw that with an audience.
10:44 Is this a film that you've watched with a large or small audience?
10:49 I've never seen this at the cinema so I'm going to have to go and watch the new one
10:52 I guess at the cinema.
10:53 Maybe that's what I can do this evening after the show.
10:57 But as I was saying, the first time I watched this was with children from my age.
11:01 When I say children, I was a child when I watched this.
11:04 I have to say I was very young.
11:05 I can't remember it other than – you know what?
11:09 I think I first watched this during a school nativity.
11:12 I think I wasn't a main character.
11:15 You only had one scene.
11:16 I think we were all put up in a pen in one of the classrooms to watch this.
11:23 So that's my memory of it.
11:25 But otherwise I think I've only ever watched this on my own.
11:28 So maybe I need to experience a stop motion film with an audience.
11:32 Brilliant.
11:33 Well, we'll see if there are any more chick flicks in your selection later.
11:36 Well, thank you Gabriel.
11:37 That's about all the time we have for this first half of the show.
11:40 However, before we go to the break, we have a Kent Film Trivia question for you at home.
11:46 Which 1969 film featured an actor who spent their final days in Ramsgate?
11:53 Was it A) The Italian Job, B)
11:56 If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium, or C)
11:59 Midnight Cowboy?
12:01 We'll reveal the answer right after this break.
12:04 Don't go away.
12:05 Hello and welcome back to Kent Film Club.
12:19 Just before the ad break, we asked you at home a Kent Film Trivia question.
12:24 Which 1969 film featured an actor who spent their final days in Ramsgate?
12:29 I asked was it A) The Italian Job, B)
12:32 If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium, or C)
12:35 Midnight Cowboy?
12:36 And now I can reveal to you that the answer was in fact A)
12:40 The Italian Job.
12:41 John le Missourier, who played the Governor in the film, was a British actor who sadly
12:45 passed in 1983 in Ramsgate.
12:49 Did you get the answer right?
12:51 Well it's time now Gabriel to move on to your next chosen film.
12:55 And you've gone for one of my favourites, Back to the Future.
13:00 I had to.
13:01 I wanted to do the series but I wasn't allowed to.
13:03 So I'm going to say the first one but we can touch on them I'm sure.
13:07 I first watched this, I was going to say coincidentally but it wasn't coincidentally, on Back to
13:13 the Future day.
13:14 On the actual day in 2015, on the day in the second episode, yeah the second episode of
13:19 Where Do They Go To and I'm going to test myself here, you might know the answer.
13:22 Do you know the answer?
13:23 I can't remember the day.
13:24 I remember it came up in the House of Commons at the time between David Cameron and Jeremy
13:29 Corbyn.
13:30 But you're right, there is a day and it's the second film when they go into the future.
13:33 I think it's October the 15th or 25th, it's sometime around there.
13:36 And I remember everyone was talking about it, it was that topic of the day.
13:40 I've never watched Back to the Future, I've heard of it, let's give it a watch.
13:43 It was great, it was a great movie.
13:46 I've always had something for time travel, whether or not it be Doctor Who or something
13:51 like that.
13:52 I've always loved the idea of that.
13:54 It's in the realms of possibility but it's still that sci-fi element and to explore different
14:02 eras and to see how, when Marty goes back in time, to see how only in 30 years how much
14:08 has changed.
14:09 But also when he goes into the future, 30 years into the future, how things were almost,
14:15 they predicted some things right but how it was very different, very 1980s, 2015.
14:19 Like with newspapers, having hard copy newspapers.
14:23 We travelled through the sky in cars.
14:26 But although we've chosen the first film, the second film as part of the trilogy is
14:30 insightful because it's the prediction of the future but also as you say, the first
14:35 film is the 1950s but as tilted the lens of the 1980s.
14:40 But isn't that the hook because it's the intergenerational nostalgia really and the past as it was and
14:46 the past as maybe we would have liked it to be.
14:48 I think it really is.
14:49 I think it's when they open going into the 1950s, it's Mr Sandman isn't it which is playing
14:55 and that's a very nostalgic song.
14:58 I think any generation will really be aware of that song.
15:01 I think that really hooks you into it.
15:05 So yeah, definitely.
15:07 And this whole notion of time travel and sort of ensuring that the past maybe needs to be
15:14 redone in a way that gives us an outcome that maybe we didn't get first time round.
15:21 Is that something that I suppose in your life, you sort of watch it and think yeah, we all
15:26 have those moments.
15:27 It's often like sliding doors does the same kind of thing.
15:30 But just that sort of sense of if we had our time again, what would we do differently?
15:36 What future course would we alter?
15:37 I think there's always little moments in life that you'd want to go back.
15:40 So it's turn left or turn right isn't it, those moments.
15:43 I think yeah, definitely.
15:44 But watching Back to the Future, would I want to go back and tinker with the past?
15:49 Who knows?
15:50 It might have an unexpected consequence, who knows?
15:55 Watching this I think I've ever had the possibility to go back in time or into the future but
15:59 maybe not so much going into the future because maybe we don't need to worry too much about
16:03 my past life in the future.
16:05 I don't think I'd touch anything if I went back in time to the 1990s or 1980s.
16:09 I think I'd keep it as it was.
16:11 Yeah, because that's the thing about this film.
16:14 If you tinker with it, the suggestion is that you might actually disappear.
16:16 You might write yourself out of history.
16:19 So it's a clever film because as you say it's got Mr Sandman, it sort of takes you to the
16:22 1950s and the parents of…
16:25 Well I watched this or I was in the 1980s, I would have been probably sort of teenage-ish
16:31 when this came out.
16:33 But there is something about the way that we watch that and think, gosh, is this what
16:36 our parents did?
16:38 Is this what they were like?
16:39 Is this what they did when they were courting?
16:41 And because we're watching that and thinking, gosh, it makes you sort of see your parents
16:44 through a different sort of lens.
16:46 So do you think there's something in this film that is kind of timeless?
16:48 Oh definitely.
16:49 Because if you go back to when Marty goes back to the 1950s, I mean, obviously there's
16:55 a whole love interest, well the mum's love interest with her own son which is very bizarre
17:00 but it's part of the movie's charm isn't it?
17:03 But it's how those relationships, I think they still worked in the 1950s and the 1980s
17:10 and then when it went to 2015, I think it's that element that we're all the same but
17:16 the world around us has changed ever so slightly but the fundamentals are all there.
17:21 I mean even go back to the 1800s, late 1800s in the last movie, yeah don't they?
17:27 And that's a completely different world back then.
17:32 Yeah and actually funny enough, that was the first one and actually first time around anyway
17:37 the only one that I saw at the cinema.
17:38 So I saw part three before I saw part one and two and so there were lots that I didn't
17:44 get but in a funny way because it went all the way back to the 19th century, there was
17:47 a lot of cinema history, lots of jokes about westerns and Clint Eastwood in that.
17:51 So actually that was a good hook into the rest of the series which I saw subsequently.
17:57 So I saw them all jumbled up and out of order but it kind of worked.
17:59 No, it definitely does doesn't it?
18:01 I think you can watch most of the movies as stand-alone.
18:06 There are some in-jokes aren't there that you might not get.
18:10 I mean Marty's Girlfriend changes actress doesn't it?
18:13 Yeah and what about Elizabeth Shue who went on to get an Oscar nomination?
18:18 Because I had to re-film that last scene in the first movie to start the second episode.
18:23 But no, it's definitely something you can watch any episode.
18:27 Personally, if I was going to rank them in order I'd go second, first, third.
18:31 But there is something about the third one because that is completely different to the
18:36 first and second one.
18:37 The first and second, I mean, I don't think there's a whole skateboard gag.
18:42 It's in the first movie where they're going around the square and the second movie it's
18:47 on the hoverboards.
18:48 I can't remember, did they do it in the third movie?
18:50 I haven't watched the third one for a long, long time.
18:53 I can't remember if they do that whole gag.
18:54 To catch the train maybe.
18:55 Yeah, maybe they do.
18:56 But no, that's really insightful actually.
18:57 I'm going to have to go and watch that now and look it up for me.
19:01 Me too and the second one is definitely underrated.
19:02 OK, well it's time now Gabriel to move on to your final chosen film and you've gone
19:07 for Hotel Mumbai.
19:11 Very different movie.
19:12 Have you ever watched this one?
19:13 I haven't watched this one.
19:14 OK, definitely watch it.
19:15 I watched it actually during lockdown for the first time.
19:19 I think I had a lot of time.
19:21 Maybe this was a bit out of my comfort zone, something I wouldn't usually watch and it
19:25 was probably on one of the streaming sites and that's why I chose to watch it.
19:29 And I remember quite a lot of times during a movie I'll get a little bit distracted,
19:33 particularly if I'm watching at home and I'll go on my phone or just switch off a little
19:39 bit.
19:40 I'll still watch it, I'll enjoy it but I won't be focused on this.
19:42 But this, it's very, very intense.
19:44 If you don't know what it's about, it's actually about a terrorist attack at a hotel
19:49 in Mumbai, one of the most famous hotels in the country.
19:54 It's only the rich really stay there.
19:58 So true story as well.
20:00 And into that they integrate some, I believe it's real television reports which they put
20:07 into it in certain bits to tell the story.
20:11 And it's just a very, very intense movie and Dev Patel is in it as well.
20:18 He's a great actor.
20:19 And also similar perhaps to what we were saying about 1917, based on true events and
20:25 based on a tragedy.
20:26 But did you sort of find anything in this that was uplifting?
20:29 I mean it's a very difficult film about a war or a tragedy because obviously it's
20:35 a horrible thing to happen.
20:37 But often a lot of these films sort of give us this sense of okay, we must make sure it
20:40 doesn't happen again.
20:41 And these films are very clever sometimes at trying to sort of work through and try
20:45 to present a basic common humanity.
20:47 No, definitely.
20:48 There's a scene where the waiting staff in the hotel are given, they're all in the
20:54 kitchens which are in the basement which the attackers haven't figured out how to
20:58 get there without spoiling it.
21:00 They don't particularly figure out how to get there until the end of the movie but that's
21:02 not a massive plot.
21:03 So they were all given, they could essentially all run away and get out unharmed and the
21:09 head chef or the manager at a hotel gives them an option.
21:11 Do you want to stay here, help the guests or do you want to go?
21:14 Two of them run away but the rest of the staff, they stay.
21:18 They say this is my life, this is what it's all about.
21:20 And I think that is very much part of the culture in India.
21:25 I can imagine, and that's obviously what happened, but I can imagine that happened in countless
21:28 other situations.
21:29 I mean I've been to India myself so I've seen it kind of first hand, some of that style
21:35 of stuff and they are very much where they work.
21:38 That is their life, that is who they're looking after.
21:41 They will die for that as you see in the movie.
21:44 And also you watched this during lockdown.
21:46 So do you think that had an impact on the way you saw this film because we were all
21:49 feeling a bit disconnected at that time and this film was dealing with a tragedy.
21:54 So did you kind of feel that watching it without an audience in that sense, maybe that was
21:59 a better way and a more timely way in which to engage with a film like this?
22:04 I mean I suppose there are some similarities in a way that you are trapped in a certain
22:08 location, that feeling of being trapped, being left there.
22:14 I think other than that not particularly to be honest.
22:17 I think it's very much looking at how different people respond to this, how the different
22:25 characters changed.
22:26 There's a Russian character who you start off thinking he's going to be an awful person,
22:32 he's all thinking about himself but actually towards the end of the movie he has his redemption
22:36 and he helps someone else.
22:37 I'm not going to spoil it for you because I just want you to go and watch this and enjoy
22:40 it.
22:41 There's also one of the attackers, there's the Stockholm Syndrome as well which is interesting
22:46 to see.
22:47 Not as much as you see in other films and other real life situations but there is a
22:51 little bit of that in there.
22:52 So it's a clever movie, it's a true story but they've told it in a way which is sensitive
22:58 and I think you can learn a lot of lessons from this.
23:02 I would need to check the accuracy of this but it took a while for any emergency services
23:08 to get in there.
23:09 I know in the movie there was a local team who went in there with little pistols but
23:13 they couldn't really do much because there wasn't a tactical team in Mumbai.
23:16 I think they said the closest is Delhi which is maybe eight hours away.
23:20 So it took them a long time to get in and I believe that has changed.
23:24 That's sort of one of the storylines in the movie.
23:28 Brilliant.
23:29 Well thank you Gabriel and I think that's all the time we have for today.
23:34 Many thanks to Gabriel Morris for joining us and being such a brilliant guest.
23:39 And many thanks to you all for tuning in.
23:40 Be sure to come back and join us again at the same time next week.
23:44 Until then, that's all from us.
23:46 Goodbye.
23:47 Thank you.
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