Episode 99: 1974 with Kevin M. Kruse
A podcast about the great movie years.
Author, historian, and professor Kevin M. Kruse joins us to walk through the very eventful year — historically and cinematically — of 1974, including the take-no-prisoners energy of Foxy Brown, the grimy perfection of The Taking of Pelham 123, and a double-barreled shotgun blast of Mel Brooks.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Blazing Saddles is available for digital rental or purchase, and has a new 4K UHD edition out this month. (Here’s a piece Jason wrote for Flavorwire for its 40th.) Young Frankenstein is not currently streaming anywhere? What the fuck? One more reason to buy it on Blu-ray. (And here’s a piece Jason wrote for Flavorwire for its 40th.)
Foxy Brown is streaming on Hoopla, Tubi, and PlutoTV, and is available for digital rental or purchase, and here’s a piece Jason wrote about Pam Grier (in this movie and a couple of others) for Flavorwire. Death Wish is streaming on PlutoTV and is available for digital rental or purchase; and you can listen to our Fun City Cinema episodes about the movie and its influence (in movies and real life) here and here.
Last but certainly not least, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is streaming on Amazon Prime, Hoopla, Tubi, and Pluto TV, is available for digital rental or purchase, and has a wonderful, recent 4K UHD from KL Studio Classics. We also went long on it on the “Subway Stories” episode of Fun City Cinema, and Jason made the case for it as the best subway movie ever in the most recent issue of the NYC policy journal Vital City.
Kevin’s website is here; you can buy his books here; and you can follow him on Blusky. You can follow Jason on Blusky, Instagram, and Letterboxd - where you'll find his lists of all the movies on every episode of the show (including this one). You can follow Mike on Instagram, Blusky and Twitter/X/whatever.
If you’d like to check out the YouTube page for Black Diplomats that Mike mentioned, it’s here. And if you’d like to pre-order Jason’s new book Gandolfini: Jim, Tony, and the Life of a Legend, you can pre-order it from Bookshop and Barnes & Noble.
If you’d like to hear our last pass at 1974, with guest Isabel Sandoval, you can check that out here. Last but not least, if you’d like to make a little donation to support us and the show, you can do that at Ko-fi!