38.9 Assassination Cinema

38.9 Assassination Cinema

Author: Dylan Davis October 4, 2025 Duration: 1:51:09
Hey, folks, things got a bit serious in the States lately. We’ve had a spate of assassinations and assassination attempts the past few years. Trump’s been shot at twice. He's been hit once. Josh Shapiro’s governor’s mansion was burnt down. Melissa and Mark Hortman were murdered in their home. And of course Charlie Kirk was murdered just a few weeks ago. Political assassinations are not new in this country. Medgar Evers was killed in 1963, kicking off a spate of assassinations in the 1960’s that included among others: a President, a Senator, a governor, and two Civil Rights advocates. This violent atmosphere is trouble, absolute trouble for our country. But it sure does inspire outstanding art. Since the 60’s we’ve seen an astounding number of films addressing political murder in an effort to understand and convey the hopes and fears of our national polity. I asked Luke to come in the Hacienda and discuss assassination cinema and why we’re so fascinated by it. You can find the Super 70 Podcast wherever you find podcasts. You can find me, my book, and my blog at www.thatdylandavis.com and @thatdylandavis on threads, Letterboxd, and blusky. You can find RozilandMacPhail on Soundcloud and Facebook.

Dylan Davis hosts The Super 70 Podcast, a unique audio experience built for film lovers. Each episode is designed as a scene-by-scene commentary track meant to be played in sync with a specific movie, offering deep-dive analysis, behind-the-scenes trivia, and thoughtful observations you might miss on a solo viewing. Of course, you can also just enjoy the conversation on its own during a commute or while doing chores-the insights stand alone. Dylan brings the perspective of a creator himself, having written works like "FLYNN!", "Dating Virginia," "Buffalo Seine," and "Threshold." This background as a writer and a dedicated consumer of culture informs the discussions, which are less about simple review and more about engaging with film as a vital, layered art form. Tune in to this podcast for a guided tour through the details of cinema, where the focus is on understanding the craft and the choices that shape the stories on screen. It’s like having a well-informed friend in the room, pointing out the clever edits, the symbolic set design, or the narrative turns that define a film’s impact. The goal is to enrich your viewing experience and foster a deeper appreciation for the movies, one scene at a time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

The Super 70 Podcast
Podcast Episodes
34.6 2023 Year In Review [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:58:24
Dave and I go over the biggest releases in 2023 and hit our letterbxd to see what worked, what didn’t, and why we keep going back to the theatre. We also discuss the most important topics of the day, such as watching Fin…
34.5 Godzilla And Trauma [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:10
Takeshi Yamazaki shook the American movie market last month when Godzilla Minus One became the highest earning Japanese film in history. The lizard has always been popular but placed against the backdrop of the tragedy o…
34.4 The Holdovers Holiday Special Part Deux [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:17
My good friend Dave Anderson went to go see the Holdovers on my recommendation and he listened to my last podcast episode with great envy. Jealous that he could not participate, he texted me, begged me, pleaded with me,…
34.3 The Holdovers Holiday Special [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:20
Alexander Payne had not made a single film that I like until I went to see The Holdovers for Tightwad Tuesday. Masked by the period piece setting, the story is more about how broken people find peace than it’s outward im…
34.2 Ridley And Napoleon [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:58:57
My son Luke and I saw Napoleon the day after Thanksgiving and we came back immediately and turned the mikes on to talk about Ridley Scott’s latest epic. We run through the scenes, the history behind the great man (Napole…
34.1 Freakin' Friedkin! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:49:49
After wrapping up the Sorcerer commentary, Dave and I sat around, consumed mass quantities, and as much as we tried to focus on Hurricane Billy Friedkin and his work, we quickly descended into how we consume cinema, soun…
34 Sorcerer (1977) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:06:02
Hot off the success of the ninth highest grossing movie of all time, William Friedkin abandoned a film about the Bermuda Triangle to focus on a re-interpretation of the George Arnaud novel “The Wages of Fear.” Every poss…
33.2 The Specialist, Hannah Arendt And The Banality Of Evil [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:39:58
I sent my friend Dave Kinnaman Hanna Arendt’s famous book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Study in the Banality of Evil. Dave became so engrossed in Arendt’s history of the Holocaust and her philosophy of murder that I then sen…
33.1 ANZAC Cinema [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:39:22
A few months ago I asked a friend of mine, Paul Emig to pick a movie, any movie, for the Super 70 Podcast. He chose Peter Jackson’s Braindead and needless to say this was not my cup of tea. But we don’t care about bad ta…
33 Braindead (1987) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:43:08
Peter Jackson had already spent most of his own money developing his third film Braindead when his producer closed a deal to bring in a quarter million dollars to finish the project. Avalon Studios of Wellington, New Zea…