Watch With Jen - S5: E22 - Neo-Swashbucklers with Dan Mecca & Conor O'Donnell

Watch With Jen™

This month, I was pleased to welcome back Dan Mecca & Conor O'Donnell, two friends & the hosts of The Film Stage's excellent podcast The B-Side, which covers movie stars in a fascinating way, by focusing not on the films that made or kept them famous but on the ones that actors made in between.

Equally skilled at coming up with highly original show themes for their guest appearances here, Dan & Conor joined me in Season 4 to discuss the role of work in the films of director Ron Howard & in 2022, we focused on the transition that gifted crew members such as Jack Fisk & Douglas Trumbull made to the position of director.

This season, they're back to celebrate the '90s to early aught renaissance of old-fashioned Errol Flynn-style swashbuckler pictures. Charting the resurgence in genre popularity after the surprise success of ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES (& the Bryan Adams theme song), Dan & Conor walk listeners through the changes '90s filmmakers made from not only the '20s & '30s but also the sword spectaculars of their more fantastical '80s counterparts.

Focusing primarily on the films FIRST KNIGHT, THE MASK OF ZORRO, THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, & PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL, we dissect the style, actors, productions, & filmmakers of these films & others in this same genre or old-fashioned adventure epic mold from A KNIGHT'S TALE to THE MUMMY to CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON & beyond. Along the way, we coin a new catchphrase in "buckle some swash," I tell a story about a dude I went out with once who didn't realize that Keith Richards & Mick Jagger were two different people, & we go on several memorable tangents. It's a delightfully spirited feature-length chat that's fun for all... who are all for fun.

Dan & Conor's Bio:

A producer & filmmaker living in Pittsburgh, Dan Mecca started The Film Stage with Jordan Raup in college at Buffalo & Conor O'Donnell is a post-production supervisor based in New York City & also serves as a critic for The Film Stage.

Originally Posted on Patreon (9/18/24) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/112258625

Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

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