ELISSA NADWORNY, HOST:
Welcome to Cineplexity, where talking about the movies allows us to talk about everything else. When we think about famous cities on the big screen, we probably go through New York, praised by Tom Hanks in "You've Got Mail"...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "YOU'VE GOT MAIL")
TOM HANKS: (As Joe Fox) Don't you love New York in the fall? Makes me want to buy school supplies.
NADWORNY: ...Or Los Angeles, which Ryan Gosling has less kind words for in "La La Land."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LA LA LAND")
RYAN GOSLING: (As Sebastian) That's LA. They just - they worship everything, and they value nothing.
NADWORNY: Washington, D.C., might not come to mind, but our nation's capital actually has a rich history on the big screen, from "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" to "The Exorcist."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE EXORCIST")
JASON MILLER: (As Father Karras) I'm Damien Karras.
MERCEDES MCCAMBRIDGE: (As Demon) And I'm the devil. Now kindly undo these straps.
NADWORNY: To get into how D.C. has shined and sometimes slipped by us on the big screen, I am joined by Marc Rivers, who produces our Cineplexity segments, and Miles Parks, a correspondent on NPR's politics and policy team, who has lived in the nation's capital for more than a decade. Hi, guys.
MARC RIVERS, BYLINE: Good to be with you both.
MILES PARKS, BYLINE: Hi.
NADWORNY: OK, so as I think about movies set in D.C., mainly I think of films somehow connected to politics.
RIVERS: I think that's right.
NADWORNY: OK.
RIVERS: (Laughter) I think you got it.
NADWORNY: Explain, Marc.
RIVERS: I feel like if it's going to be about politics, it's probably going to be set in D.C. I mean, you mentioned "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington," Jimmy Stewart giving that impassioned speech on the Senate floor.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON")
JAMES STEWART: (As Jefferson Smith) Great principles don't get lost once they come to light. They're right here. You just have to see them again.
RIVERS: Or you got something like Spielberg's "Lincoln," you know, which shows a city and a nation kind of still in the act of becoming.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LINCOLN")
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS: (As Abraham Lincoln) Say, we've shown that a people can endure awful sacrifice and yet cohere. Mightn't that save at least the idea of democracy to aspire to?
RIVERS: Then you have other, you know, president movies - "Nixon," "W." You got the fake presidents, you know, Head Of State.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HEAD OF STATE")
CHRIS ROCK: (As Mays Gilliam) You worked for 35 years. You thought you was going to leave your kids a will. Now you going to leave them a won't. You show up to get your pension; they give you a pen.
RIVERS: We have the political thrillers like the Kevin Costner film "No Way Out" or Clint Eastwood film "In The Line Of Fire."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "IN THE LINE OF FIRE")
CLINT EASTWOOD: (As Frank Horrigan) What do you see when you're in the dark and the demons come?
JOHN MALKOVICH: (As Mitch Leary) I see you, Frank.
RIVERS: You know, you have the D.C.-under-attack movies, you know, "White House Down" and "Olympus Has Fallen"...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN")
RICK YUNE: (As Kang Yeonsak) If you attempt to retake this building, then I will execute your commander in chief.
RIVERS: ...Different names, essentially the same movie.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WHITE HOUSE DOWN")
CHANNING TATUM: (As Cale) I'm in the White House. They've taken the building, and they're holding hostages.
RIVERS: When it comes to D.C. films, the future of democracy's at stake, or it's "Wedding Crashers."
PARKS: Underrated D.C. movie - it's not...
RIVERS: Underrated.
PARKS: ...What you think of when you think of that movie, but then you start replaying in your head, and you're like, oh, yeah.
RIVERS: After that montage, they're, like, kind of drinking in their spoils, looking at the Reflecting Pool.
PARKS: Yeah (ph).
RIVERS: You know, it's a D.C. movie.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WEDDING CRASHERS")
OWEN WILSON: (As John Beckwith) Now if we can just get Congress not to be so shortsighted.
CHRISTOPHER WALKEN: (As Secretary Cleary) Yes.
PARKS: There are two other subgenres, as I was thinking this...
RIVERS: Yeah?
PARKS: ...That also fit into the sort of D.C. movies. One is what I call the adult dorm movie, which is not D.C.-specific, but D.C. movies fit into that, which is just that there's this whole genre of movies that take a job - usually, it's jobs - and you kind of - it just focuses in on them to the point where you kind of build this ecosystem within them.
RIVERS: Sure.
PARKS: I think of "Broadcast News"...
RIVERS: Definitely.
PARKS: ...Which is, like, set in D.C.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BROADCAST NEWS")
WILLIAM HURT: (As Tom Grunick) The attack, presumably by a lone Libyan pilot, has resulted in a massive movement of U.S. military might.
ALBERT BROOKS: (As Aaron Altman) A lot of alliteration from anxious anchors placed in powerful posts.
PARKS: And that's kind of one for journalism nerds, basically. And then...
RIVERS: Like us you mean (laughter).
PARKS: I was about to say - yeah (ph).
RIVERS: You mean us (ph) in the studios.
PARKS: But then also campaigns and government jobs - there's a movie that came out about 15 years ago called "In The Loop"...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "IN THE LOOP")
PETER CAPALDI: (As Malcolm Tucker) He did not say unforeseeable. You may have heard him say that, but he did not say that, and that is a fact.
PARKS: ...Which is this 2009 movie made by a guy named Armando Iannucci, whose name might be familiar to people because he also made the HBO show "Veep" - so good.
RIVERS: One of our great D.C. satires.
PARKS: Absolutely.
RIVERS: Best satires, period.
NADWORNY: (Laughter).
PARKS: And one of the strange things - people should go watch "In The Loop" if they love "Veep" because you can tell Iannucci is starting to understand his style. Some of the jokes or some of the - even the character relationships are really similar, but it's basically a movie about world conflict, military conflict, but showing all the people get us into those conflicts being bumbling idiots.
NADWORNY: (Laughter).
PARKS: It's set half in the U.K. and half in the United States, and everyone in this movie is moron.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "IN THE LOOP")
TOM HOLLANDER: (As Simon Foster) To walk the road of peace, sometimes we need to be ready to climb the mountain of conflict.
CAPALDI: (As Malcolm Tucker) Climb the mountain of conflict? You sound like Nazi Julie Andrews.
RIVERS: That doesn't sound realistic at all.
PARKS: I can't imagine that (ph).
NADWORNY: (Laughter).
PARKS: No, no, no.
RIVERS: In D.C., idiots?
PARKS: No, no. And the other thing is just movies that use all of the weird stuff we have in D.C. for fun purposes. I think we kind of forget that there's a "Night At The Museum" movie...
RIVERS: That's true.
PARKS: ...Set in the Smithsonians, right?
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM")
BEN STILLER: (As Larry Daley) This is the Smithsonians. This is the big leagues.
PARKS: And then the other one, and I cannot believe we've done a movie segment - how far are we into this? - without mentioning "National Treasure." I think that should be mentioned...
NADWORNY: Oh, my favorite.
PARKS: ...In every movie segment, and the sort of scene where Nic Cage says...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "NATIONAL TREASURE")
NICOLAS CAGE: (As Benjamin Franklin Gates) I'm going to steal the Declaration of Independence.
PARKS: And then he does it.
RIVERS: A major moment in our nation's history.
PARKS: It's a major moment in cinematic history...
RIVERS: Yeah (laughter).
PARKS: ...For sure, Marc Rivers.
NADWORNY: (Laughter) OK, so what do these films actually tell us about D.C., though?
RIVERS: I think it tells us a lot about how Hollywood thinks of D.C...
NADWORNY: Right (ph).
RIVERS: ...Which is that this is just - this is the seat of government. This is the place of political machinations and maneuverings and not so much a place for real people...
NADWORNY: Yeah.
RIVERS: ...Or where regular people live, you know? I mean, I think one thing that makes D.C. interesting is - or it makes D.C. a potentially interesting spot for films is that kind of proximity to power or the symbols of American power, right? I think - if you think about one of our best D.C. movies, "All The President's Men," you know, from 1976 about the famous Watergate investigation by the Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN")
ROBERT REDFORD: (As Bob Woodward) Hi. I'm Bob Woodward.
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: (As Carl Bernstein) And I'm Carl Bernstein.
REDFORD: (As Bob Woodward) We're from The Washington Post. We'd like to know if we can speak to you for a few minutes. We understand your daughter worked for the committee to reelect.
HOFFMAN: (As Carl Bernstein) It wouldn't be anything embarrassing.
RIVERS: And, you know, they're being dwarfed by these - you know, by the brutalist architecture, and they're in the Library of Congress, the - you know, the looming Library of Congress building while they're doing their research. And, you know, just being in the shadow of big American politics, I think, makes it fascinating. But, you know, for...
NADWORNY: Which is a real thing.
RIVERS: It's a real thing.
NADWORNY: Like, living here, I do feel that sometimes when I bike by, like, the Washington Monument.
RIVERS: I mean, the national - you see - the National Guard is everywhere...
NADWORNY: That's true.
RIVERS: ...You know, in our moment, right? Like, it's having that power just in our backyard.
PARKS: Yeah.
RIVERS: So I think D.C. has actually been underused in cinema because there's been such a narrow focus on the politics and less so on the people.
PARKS: Yeah. And it is, like, kind of a - it's such a cliche living in D.C. 'cause it is one of those things that everyone here says - we are so much more than just Capitol Hill or the D.C. government.
RIVERS: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
PARKS: And yet, at the same time, it is a city that is dependent on that image.
NADWORNY: OK, so what films are yet to be made?
RIVERS: Numerous.
NADWORNY: (Laughter).
RIVERS: I mean, if we're going to talk about politics, let's talk politics. Where's the January 6 movie? That, I think...
PARKS: This is something Marc and I have talked about a lot is just...
RIVERS: Yeah.
PARKS: I mean, January 6, you can even broaden that out to just how poorly the entertainment industry has been able to grapple with the Trump era.
RIVERS: Right.
PARKS: I do think the last two years living in D.C. has been the most interesting two years that I've ever lived anywhere, frankly, when you talk about the National Guard, you talk about the DOGE cuts and how everyone in this entire city basically was...
NADWORNY: Yeah.
RIVERS: Yeah, that was our workforce.
PARKS: Exactly.
RIVERS: You know, it wasn't some national news story. Like, that's...
NADWORNY: Our neighbors.
RIVERS: That's our neighbors.
PARKS: Exactly. I'm at the playground with parents who are like - and everyone is just asking each other, hey, are you OK? And it's like, oh, I might be, I have a couple more weeks or whatever. There was a sense of unease in an entire city. And so I do think...
RIVERS: Yeah.
PARKS: ...As I think about movies that are going to be made over the next 10 years, I hope somebody is able to capture that, though I'm very scared it's just going to end up being an Elon Musk biopic, which I...
RIVERS: I don't need. I don't need.
NADWORNY: We don't need (laughter).
PARKS: I don't need that.
RIVERS: Or, like, Aaron Sorkin's January 6 - I don't know if I need that version. But yeah, I mean, there's such an interesting tension going on right now with the presence of the National Guard here. You know, it - like, it gives the vibe of an occupied city at times, you know? And that is drama to mind. But beyond the politics, there's such a rich cultural history in D.C., a rich jazz history. I mean, this is the place of Duke Ellington. This is the birthplace of Marvin Gaye. This is the birthplace of go-go music.
PARKS: Go-go music, I know. Yeah.
RIVERS: Where's our go-go music movie?
NADWORNY: (Laughter).
RIVERS: You know, where's our Chuck Brown biopic? I don't really love biopics, but I'll see one about Chuck Brown. So yeah, I think - and it's not like there aren't already stories to mine (ph). I mean, I think about someone like George Pelecanos, a crime novelist. Most of his stories are set in and around D.C. Maybe D.C.'s greatest writer, Edward P. Jones, you know, he writes stories about Black people in the 20th - the latter half of the 20th century, just living their lives far away from government halls and far away from the White House. So there are stories already available that one can tell about D.C. that would expand people's sense of this city and expand people's sense of the history here, I think.
NADWORNY: Thank you so much, you guys. This was Miles Parks. He's a correspondent at NPR, covers politics, and Marc Rivers, the man behind this segment, Cineplexity. Thank you, guys.
PARKS: Thank you.
RIVERS: My pleasure.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSE SONG, "SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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