We celebrate the advent of episode 3 by delving into one of American cinema’s most persistent (and, arguably, pernicious) genres: the Western. We’ll certainly revisit the auteur-oater during future episodes, but for now, Gareth and Dave content themselves with sketching out their respective positions vis-a-vis the genre in the broadest possible terms.

The resultant discussion is equal parts biographical and historiographical, with a dash of aesthetic appraisal in the bargain. We round up a whole bunch of cine-dogies here, but some of the more prominent items include John Ford’s Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo, Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon, Ray Enright’s Kansas Raiders (starring now-neglected figure Audie Murphy), Gene Autry’s “Cowboy Code” of conduct and the Star Trek episode “Spectre of the Gun”.

Gareth also delivers a great deal of information about Tucson (Arizona) and environs, while Dave expounds, rather pointlessly, upon his abiding hatred of this man:

That’s it for now!

Remember, you can follow us on Twitter, you can roll with us on Tumblr, you can listen via our iTunes here, and you can email us directly at thegazeagenda[at]gmail.com.

Intro Song: “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (Gene Pitney)

Outro Song: “Sioux City Sue” (Gene Autry)

Thanks for listening!

Hello again, dear listeners!

On today’s show, Gareth Hedges and David Fiore provide their respective reactions to this year’s Academy Awards extravaganza – and the movies that were roped into the spotlight this year. We don’t want to give too much away in the text, but we can tell you that we didn’t let Scott Baio’s absence from the list of nominees prevent us from discussing that stalwart’s contributions to world cinema… We also keep finding ways to talk about George Wallace. What the hell is that about? It’s a pretty lengthy ramble, but it’s not nearly as long as the Oscar show itself, and you may rely upon us, always, to treat breasts with the reverence they so richly deserve. That’s something, isn’t it?

As always, thanks for listening!

Intro Song: “It’s Not Easy” (from Pete’s Dragon) — Helen Reddy

Outro Song: “Ashokan Farewell” (from Ken Burns’ Civil War) — Jay Ungar

Here, for your listening pleasure (just click on the link above), is the inaugural episode of a hopefully-mildly diverting series of forays into film and its oddly comforting discontents.

Co-hosts Gareth Hedges and David Fiore sketch out their credentials as cinephiles and look ahead to this podcast’s nigh-limitless future.

Along the way, we work in references to/or at least find the time to sneer at Crazy People, current Oscar stalking horse Argo, the evil that is Star Wars, American Reunion, That’s My Boy, Sante Fe Trail, Amistad, Mission To Moscow, Lincoln, Gone With the Wind and probably quite a few others…

We also mentioned Jeffrey Sconce‘s fine essay “A Century of Failure” in Sleaze Artists: Cinema at the Margins of Taste, Style, and Politics.

Oh — and Walker Percy’s immortal novel: The Moviegoer. You pretty much have to read that.

We hope you enjoyed our ramblings. We’ll be more focused from now on – armed to the teeth with discussion notes and tethered by our brains to a cavalcade of the most cogent film-related topics of our time.

In the meantime, here’s a picture of two people we know would have irritated you more than we did:

That’s Not Funny

Got questions? Criticisms? Good-natured notes of encouragement? Want to appear on an episode?

Talk to us directly at: thegazeagenda@gmail.com.

And you can follow us on Twitter here.

And thanks for listening!

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Intro Song: Eddie Cochran, “Sittin’ in the Balcony”

Outro Song: Artie Shaw, “Frenesi”