The best description of Buckaoo Banzai that I've ever found is that it's the second movie of a trilogy without the first and third movie. Smiling yet? You're supposed to.
I remember being 16 and going to the Soo Theater Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to rewatch this film just to catch everything I missed laughing through it. A classic of 1984.
I first ran across BB not in the movie but in the board game battletech. For some reason they wanted to reference both banzai and the Hong Kong cavaliers in the game universe. I finally saw the movie on VHS in 88 or 89.
Excellent analysis of one of my all-time favorite films. When I did a software startup back in 1990, our first set of offices (in a business park) had two entrances. The main one, where the office manager was, had a placard with the company’s name on it. The other one, for the developers, had a placard saying “Banzai Research Institute.” I teach a senior-level CS class on real-world software engineering. My students can earn 1% extra credit for watching Buckaroo Banzai. 😂
Eagerly awaiting the Feral Historian's Cowboy Bebop video now. Not as much as his take on 40k, but I understand that will take time, as he's already explained......
I appreciate this. BB was one of my favorites since I discovered it in college back in the 80's. Nice to see someone digging into it and shining more light on it. For me 'no matter where you go, there you are' stuck with me. But the movie is so quotable you can fill a jean jacket vest with buttons filled with BB quotes.
BB became a cult classic of us initiated few, because, even aside from the Producers deliberately scuttling the promotion and any chance of sequels (a bizarre story, even for Hollywood insiders) it's quirkiness, multi-layered insider jokes and Easter eggs, by its very nature only appealed to a very few, mostly within hardcore Science Fiction fandom, and yes especially those of us who read the Conde Nast _Doc Savage_ reprints in 1970s high school instead of doing our homework.
Funny you say it, I suggested watching Das Boot for a second date. This was on the first date. Now we're a happy family. Real foot forward saves a lot of time, compared to best foot forward!
Always look forward to your videos, the production value and narrative is excellent. They always seem to end too quickly though, like you’re just starting to explain some point. Would love to see you expand this channel with more in-depth videos that use films to make some real world philosophical points - Subscribers are ridiculously low for this excellent channel. Great stuff!
There's been an inverse relationship between total length of a video and how soon in real time the majority drop off. It seems like if I exceed 30 mins, 90% drop off in the first 5 so there's a RUclips-induced incentive to stay around the 15-minute range. That said, there are a few in the writing stage that are shaping up to be rather long and involved. I was half-joking a few weeks ago about doing a lengthy askew take on Dune when/if the subscriber count gets to 10191.
Thanks for the reply man, appreciate it@@feralhistorian . It must be difficult for you as you have an excellent product but it bizarrely low number of subscribers thus far. I always look at your channel like the film version of someone like Jacob Gellers game-based presentations. Really looking forward to seeing what you present over the next year - Dune would be absolutely brilliant and a great idea as I think it’s widely acknowledged that Frank Herbert was more of a social philosopher than a writer. He also wrote stuff like - The Dosadi Experiment - which probably has more resonance today and would be really interesting for someone’s take on it but probably wouldn’t make a great film! Anyhow, all the best for the coming year.
I wasn't introduced to BB and World Watch One by the movie, but by the novel that expanded and filled in the backstory of Banzai, his world wide agents, and all the small details of his world, including Hanoi Xan and the World Crime League. When I finally got to see the movie, I got the references and saw the details others missed, including why there's a watermelon there. What can I say? I've been a Blue Blaze Irregular ever since.
Ohhhhh.... At 50, I'm really starting to reexamine how much of my early "boyfriend template" was shaped by brilliant but artsy, doomed 80's sci-fi protagonists.... 🤔 😂
My dad took me to see this when I was a kid. He asked what I thought of it as we walked out and I happily said I liked it. He thought it was "pretty dumb". That's how it goes with this movie. I can't recall too many people in the "eh, it's alright" area.
I did read the first Warworld way back. I don't remember much about it beyond the CoDo and Haven being less than ideal. There's another Draka video in the lineup, waiting on new artwork. There's a surprising amount of material to cover in there.
The Warworld was the Draka on steroids (gene modification and subjugation of standard humans for labor and breeding). Humans get tough as nails in a hurry by culling process. Technology is about Ak 47 and steam power for most of the moon after Saurons take out manufacturing from orbit and control crash on the surface. Later books are not as good in my opinion.@@feralhistorian
0:45 Superhero characters like Batman or Captain America have been around waay after Doc Savage or The Shadow left the Spotlight and the sensible stories were exhausted decades before I was even born. I don't see why pulp heroes couldn't last beyond the early 20th century when I've read FAR WORSE from their surviving contemporaries. Anybody remembers when Nightcrawler was a pawn in a plot to de-legitimize the catholic church ? Or batman's Knightfall arc in the 90s ? Or Spiderman's clone saga ? Or Jubilee becoming a Vampire ?
You just added this movie to my list. I found your channel through the BoS video. Now I have a bigger question: where did you get your Micah Bell coat?
I have absolutely no connection to this movie. I don't even think my parents were in High School when this movie came out. I had never even heard about it. But there is something about stories and movies where a modern and powerful country is suddenly transformed and reduced down into a weaker state and a vulnerable position. Seeing the United States in the position of a pawn between Superpowers is interesting. I find it to be a very good tool for providing context. Especially to the United States, who is 150 years removed from large scale bloodshed on your own land. There is just something about the current stable, prosperous, powerful, and secure position being entirely subverted. 9 years ago, SaveTheChildren came out with a video called "Most Shocking Second a Day Video". We are shown a situation like that of the Syrian Civil War, but now shown to happen in England. An incredibly powerful video that is just over a minute long. Or the movie "How I Live Now". It is not a good movie. Yet, there are so many fantastic scenes throughout the film that I still like watching it. To see rebel blockades and martial law in the England after some un-named group detonates a nuclear bomb in a city. Seeing English civilians herded to safe zones and into forced labor by British soldiers. Seeing mass graves filled with English people. Very powerful. There are the "Red Dawn" movies. Neither very good. Yet, there is something about them. But the scene in the original, where Colonel Andy Tanner (played by Powers Boothe) is explaining the situation of what is going on when they are all gathered around the campfire. Easily one of the best movie scenes of all time. Teaching Americans about the Second World War must be nearly impossible. Compared to where I live, where I can drive 45 minutes and I can see a massive bunker complex built by the Germans as part of the Atlantic Wall (Sirevåg kystfort). And then there are smaller bunkers scattered all along the coast. But, reduce America from the mega-superpower that it is, down to that of a Poland or a Yugoslavia at the hands of the invading Germans. Now that is a powerful tool for context. "Tomorrow, When the War Began" This is basically an Australian version of Red Dawn. "Colony" with Josh Holloway and Sarah Wayne Callies. The first season is absolutely fantastic, and the second season was pretty good. We don't talk about the third. But the two first seasons are absolutely much-watch. Seeing America (and the world) beaten down and defeated absolutely and without question. Military gone, government gone, now everything being entirely at the hands of the occupying power. Simple men being put into positions of puppet governors by the occupying power. The main character, a good and highly capable veteran and FBI agent, being forced to become a collaborator. It's fantastic. Or we can go all the way back to the book "The War of the Worlds" from 1895-97 by H.G. Wells. Where the then mega-superpower of the world Britain itself, finds itself on the flip side of colonial invasion. And of course, as an honorable mention, "Stargate SG-1". Even though it dragged on for far too long, there is a great deal of gems that came out of it for those first few seasons.
Colony is vastly underrated. All of these mentions are coming up in a future video currently in the works. Maybe two, depending on what pieces break off.
The best description of Buckaoo Banzai that I've ever found is that it's the second movie of a trilogy without the first and third movie. Smiling yet? You're supposed to.
Honestly it feels worse than that. It's like the 4th of 5th movie in a franchise and there is no franchise.
100% first date move. But by then she'd already shown me her near-complete Farscape Starbust edition collection
You're a lucky man.
😂
alisha while you can, monkey boy!!!!
I remember being 16 and going to the Soo Theater Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to rewatch this film just to catch everything I missed laughing through it. A classic of 1984.
me too.. my friends and I could quote it word for word
I first ran across BB not in the movie but in the board game battletech. For some reason they wanted to reference both banzai and the Hong Kong cavaliers in the game universe.
I finally saw the movie on VHS in 88 or 89.
Thanks for including this goofy, campy, and weird, little Cold War Era gem in one of your videos! Definitely one of my all time favorites!
Two movies from that orwellian year that I love to this day, and say alot through comedy, "Backaroo Bonzai" and "This is Spinal tap". Great post.
If a first date _wouldn't_ survive a Buckaroo Banzai talk/watch, then it isn't someone you want to be with long-term anyway.
"remember where ever you go, There you are!"
Excellent analysis of one of my all-time favorite films. When I did a software startup back in 1990, our first set of offices (in a business park) had two entrances. The main one, where the office manager was, had a placard with the company’s name on it. The other one, for the developers, had a placard saying “Banzai Research Institute.”
I teach a senior-level CS class on real-world software engineering. My students can earn 1% extra credit for watching Buckaroo Banzai. 😂
Have you ever gone for a hike and the whistling music during the end credits starts playing in your head?
Yeah. Me neither.
Eagerly awaiting the Feral Historian's Cowboy Bebop video now. Not as much as his take on 40k, but I understand that will take time, as he's already explained......
I appreciate this. BB was one of my favorites since I discovered it in college back in the 80's. Nice to see someone digging into it and shining more light on it.
For me 'no matter where you go, there you are' stuck with me. But the movie is so quotable you can fill a jean jacket vest with buttons filled with BB quotes.
I've found more occasions to use "It's not my damn planet, monkey boy!" than I ever would have thought.
Gotta admit, you really do channel your inner Worfin there at the end 🤪
BB became a cult classic of us initiated few, because, even aside from the Producers deliberately scuttling the promotion and any chance of sequels (a bizarre story, even for Hollywood insiders) it's quirkiness, multi-layered insider jokes and Easter eggs, by its very nature only appealed to a very few, mostly within hardcore Science Fiction fandom, and yes especially those of us who read the Conde Nast _Doc Savage_ reprints in 1970s high school instead of doing our homework.
Funny you say it, I suggested watching Das Boot for a second date. This was on the first date. Now we're a happy family. Real foot forward saves a lot of time, compared to best foot forward!
Thanks for reviewing my mom's favorite movie. Hope you had a great Christmas an New Years! 😊
GREAT MOVIE! Saw in 1984, as a teenager, changed my life perspective.
Always look forward to your videos, the production value and narrative is excellent. They always seem to end too quickly though, like you’re just starting to explain some point. Would love to see you expand this channel with more in-depth videos that use films to make some real world philosophical points - Subscribers are ridiculously low for this excellent channel. Great stuff!
There's been an inverse relationship between total length of a video and how soon in real time the majority drop off. It seems like if I exceed 30 mins, 90% drop off in the first 5 so there's a RUclips-induced incentive to stay around the 15-minute range. That said, there are a few in the writing stage that are shaping up to be rather long and involved.
I was half-joking a few weeks ago about doing a lengthy askew take on Dune when/if the subscriber count gets to 10191.
Thanks for the reply man, appreciate it@@feralhistorian . It must be difficult for you as you have an excellent product but it bizarrely low number of subscribers thus far. I always look at your channel like the film version of someone like Jacob Gellers game-based presentations. Really looking forward to seeing what you present over the next year - Dune would be absolutely brilliant and a great idea as I think it’s widely acknowledged that Frank Herbert was more of a social philosopher than a writer. He also wrote stuff like - The Dosadi Experiment - which probably has more resonance today and would be really interesting for someone’s take on it but probably wouldn’t make a great film! Anyhow, all the best for the coming year.
Absolutely first date, along with Company of Wolves. It's a screening device.
I wasn't introduced to BB and World Watch One by the movie, but by the novel that expanded and filled in the backstory of Banzai, his world wide agents, and all the small details of his world, including Hanoi Xan and the World Crime League. When I finally got to see the movie, I got the references and saw the details others missed, including why there's a watermelon there. What can I say? I've been a Blue Blaze Irregular ever since.
Another gem (both the movie and your analysis). Keep up the great work!
Ohhhhh.... At 50, I'm really starting to reexamine how much of my early "boyfriend template" was shaped by brilliant but artsy, doomed 80's sci-fi protagonists.... 🤔 😂
I had never considered the stylistic links between BB and Cowboy Bebop.
My dad took me to see this when I was a kid. He asked what I thought of it as we walked out and I happily said I liked it. He thought it was "pretty dumb". That's how it goes with this movie. I can't recall too many people in the "eh, it's alright" area.
I like your Draka material (what I could find on YT). Ever read Warworld with the Saurons on Haven?
I did read the first Warworld way back. I don't remember much about it beyond the CoDo and Haven being less than ideal.
There's another Draka video in the lineup, waiting on new artwork. There's a surprising amount of material to cover in there.
The Warworld was the Draka on steroids (gene modification and subjugation of standard humans for labor and breeding). Humans get tough as nails in a hurry by culling process. Technology is about Ak 47 and steam power for most of the moon after Saurons take out manufacturing from orbit and control crash on the surface. Later books are not as good in my opinion.@@feralhistorian
0:45 so like late 50's batman?
I almost made a Batman comparison there.
0:45 Superhero characters like Batman or Captain America have been around waay after Doc Savage or The Shadow left the Spotlight and the sensible stories were exhausted decades before I was even born. I don't see why pulp heroes couldn't last beyond the early 20th century when I've read FAR WORSE from their surviving contemporaries. Anybody remembers when Nightcrawler was a pawn in a plot to de-legitimize the catholic church ? Or batman's Knightfall arc in the 90s ? Or Spiderman's clone saga ? Or Jubilee becoming a Vampire ?
One of my favorite films!😅!
You're going to carry that weight...
Real soon!
Yes please, take a look at Cowboy Beebop.
So when I was listening to the intro it seemed like it’s basically 80s live-action Rick and Morty except less cringe.
Uh . . . yeah, kinda.
You just added this movie to my list. I found your channel through the BoS video. Now I have a bigger question: where did you get your Micah Bell coat?
That coat is a Soviet Navy peacoat acquired during the great Communism Liquidation Sale of the early '90s.
@@feralhistorian did you get a tank in that sale? XD
If I ever make videos I'm definitely casting you as a mad genuis military leader of some sort
I have absolutely no connection to this movie. I don't even think my parents were in High School when this movie came out. I had never even heard about it. But there is something about stories and movies where a modern and powerful country is suddenly transformed and reduced down into a weaker state and a vulnerable position. Seeing the United States in the position of a pawn between Superpowers is interesting.
I find it to be a very good tool for providing context. Especially to the United States, who is 150 years removed from large scale bloodshed on your own land.
There is just something about the current stable, prosperous, powerful, and secure position being entirely subverted.
9 years ago, SaveTheChildren came out with a video called "Most Shocking Second a Day Video".
We are shown a situation like that of the Syrian Civil War, but now shown to happen in England. An incredibly powerful video that is just over a minute long.
Or the movie "How I Live Now".
It is not a good movie. Yet, there are so many fantastic scenes throughout the film that I still like watching it. To see rebel blockades and martial law in the England after some un-named group detonates a nuclear bomb in a city. Seeing English civilians herded to safe zones and into forced labor by British soldiers.
Seeing mass graves filled with English people. Very powerful.
There are the "Red Dawn" movies. Neither very good. Yet, there is something about them.
But the scene in the original, where Colonel Andy Tanner (played by Powers Boothe) is explaining the situation of what is going on when they are all gathered around the campfire. Easily one of the best movie scenes of all time.
Teaching Americans about the Second World War must be nearly impossible. Compared to where I live, where I can drive 45 minutes and I can see a massive bunker complex built by the Germans as part of the Atlantic Wall (Sirevåg kystfort). And then there are smaller bunkers scattered all along the coast.
But, reduce America from the mega-superpower that it is, down to that of a Poland or a Yugoslavia at the hands of the invading Germans. Now that is a powerful tool for context.
"Tomorrow, When the War Began"
This is basically an Australian version of Red Dawn.
"Colony" with Josh Holloway and Sarah Wayne Callies.
The first season is absolutely fantastic, and the second season was pretty good. We don't talk about the third. But the two first seasons are absolutely much-watch.
Seeing America (and the world) beaten down and defeated absolutely and without question. Military gone, government gone, now everything being entirely at the hands of the occupying power. Simple men being put into positions of puppet governors by the occupying power. The main character, a good and highly capable veteran and FBI agent, being forced to become a collaborator. It's fantastic.
Or we can go all the way back to the book "The War of the Worlds" from 1895-97 by H.G. Wells.
Where the then mega-superpower of the world Britain itself, finds itself on the flip side of colonial invasion.
And of course, as an honorable mention, "Stargate SG-1".
Even though it dragged on for far too long, there is a great deal of gems that came out of it for those first few seasons.
Colony is vastly underrated. All of these mentions are coming up in a future video currently in the works. Maybe two, depending on what pieces break off.
@@feralhistorian Nice
Does the art determine the costume or does the costume determine the art?
The answer is “Yes.”
God I love this movie..saw it the day it came out.
9:30 I think you missed a little thing inbetween "booted out the British empire" and "Snuffed out by the American war machine " 🤷♂️
Nice
That coat of yours is awesome! Who makes it?
It's a Soviet Army coat I picked up during the USSR Liquidation Sale in the early '90s. They still turn up on the surplus market from time to time.