Good Guy Dies

Dave talks childhood pets, bedazzled dog cones, medical bills and aging actors.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Now Pineheart Media presents the Dave RiggardsPodcast The Das Podcast. Hey, so,
how is your dog doing these days? Joe? My dog Joe.
No dog has had a harder monththan my dog Joe, let me tell
you. But he is almost fullyrecovered. He's in that final stage of

(00:25):
dogs recovering where he's wearing the giantlampshade comb because he can't stay off his
own wounds and stuff like that.So he's got that that very charismatic look
going on for the next few days. But he has survived a real trial
for him for the past few days, I'll tell you. But he's okay,

(00:46):
thank you for asking. Yeah,I wonder why nobody's ever done anything
with those cones to bling him outand make them look cooler, because people
have sweaters for their pets and allkinds. There's a million different kinds of
him. He just needs a reallygiant one because he finds a way to
around him. He can't leave himselfalone. He's got a little wound it
on his wrist that he's licking allthe time, and he's going after the

(01:07):
back door a little bit, whichis no fun for anybody. So do
you get in that cone and go, I don't want to hear it.
I had a bladder lock up.No, I get in that cone and
I tell him, I love you. You're my good boy, You're my
very good boy. Growing up,the only pets we were allowed to have
were goldfish and fish. And youhear stories like this, you realize it's

(01:30):
a lot cheaper. You know,something happens, you flush him down the
toilet. Yeah, well, Iwas also. I was talking with some
friends the other day. You know, when Joe went into the emergency hospital,
he had more tests done on himthan my parents when they were on
their deathbeds. And I was talkingwith friends, is like, did you

(01:52):
do this when you're a kid,And It's like, no, nothing like
that. Nothing just I mean,my dog has had thousands of tests done
on him in the past month,blood tests and all these laboratory tests.
And guess what they found out?What? Nothing? They can figure out

(02:12):
what happened to him, No clue, no clue at all. If I
hadn't told them that he'd gotten stungby a bee, and they're going,
well, you know, this couldbe an anaphylactic reaction and a delayed you
know, upsetting the gi drag him. If I didn't tell me I got
stung by be they'd really have noidea what to say. They have no
clue what happened. Yeah, andyou know, when I worked for the

(02:35):
Reader, at one point they said, hey, can you one of the
things you do, Go do aman on the street question and it'll be
at the back page of the Reader. He asked five random people a question,
And one of the questions I askedis how much would you spend to
keep your pet alive? And oneguy said he spend twenty five thousand bucks
to keep his dogs alive. Oneperson said he wouldn't spend over one hundred
and he's always had dogs and he'snever had a dog die young. They

(02:57):
all lived long. But he said, if you tell the vet, I'm
not spending more than a hundred bucks. So if you tell me it's more
than the hundred bucks, I'm gonnasay, put the dog down. The
reason guys dogs all lived so longis because they all know. They all
have subscriptions to the Reader, andthey all know how to read, and
they know a hundred bucks say muchman? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Christy nom is that how you sayher name? The governor out in Dakota's
who the dog shooter? Dog?Yeah, shot her dog because she thought

(03:21):
the dog was a jerk. Andyou know, I guess maybe that's ranch
living. Maybe that's Dakota living.I don't know. But when you're doing
that, I'll be shooting it.Do you do it like what's the lenny?
And of mice and men? Doyou say who's a good boy?
Who's a good boy? And they'renot expecting it? I don't know.
I feel like a million bucks today. Okay, ten million bucks. I

(03:44):
feel like ten million bucks today.And the reason is I woke up this
morning and the first thing I sawwas Tom Cruise shirtless on the beach.
Have you seen this picture? No, I'm not. Plastic surgeons reveal the
cause of Tom Cruise's sagging skin.Guess what it is, uh age age
Bengo. It is really Yeah.It comes home to roost for everybody,

(04:04):
including Tom Cruise. So there heis Tom Cruise with a dadbot. He's
sure as hell didn't look like thatin Maverick when he was reprising the beach
volleyball football seeing in Maverick. That'sa body I'm used to seeing every time
I look in the mirror. Nowhe looks like the guy who'd be cooking
the hot dogs on the beach whilethey played volleyball. But I remember when

(04:25):
there was a picture of Schwarzenegger fifteenyears ago on the beach, and he
looked so flabby, and that wasworse because he was a bodybuilder, he
was Mystery Universe and all that,so that looked worse. But I remember
seeing pulp fiction in the movie theatersand when they when Josh Revoltz's shirt came
off, these two girls behind mego, look how fat he got?
Yeah, And everybody laughed, andI was thinking, that's exactly how I
look without my shirt. I knowit's not good, is it. You

(04:47):
know one news story that caught myeye? Did you? I don't know
if you saw this. It happensabout once a year somewhere somebody's doing renovations
on their house and they find abunch of money from like the sixteen hundreds
or something, and it's very deep. Do you ever see any of these
stories when they pop up? They'realways fascinating to me all the time,
all the time, and I'm alwaysrooting that they find, like, you

(05:09):
know, a trillion dollars or abillion dollars worth of buried treasure, and
half the time it's nothing. Butwhat was it this time? This time
it was seventy five thousand dollars incoins from the sixteen hundreds. But what
I don't understand is why you tellanybody this, because the only thing that
can happen is you get the homeownerthat owned it previously suing you, or
real estate agent that says, hey, I think I get three percent of

(05:30):
this, because they always get threepercent of everything involving houses. It seems
I don't know, it just seemslike it's better to just say, hey,
my grandmother left this suitcase. Wenever opened it. One day we
opened it and look what we found. Because you say you found in your
house. I mean, there's peoplethat find these shipwrecks. And then then
all of a sudden, Spain says, yes, that was one of our
ships in the fifteen hundreds. Wewill be taken at And it's like,

(05:50):
didn't the divers discuss this with thecountry of origin before they spent all this
time. I'm just always fascinated byfound money like that. Even if you're
able to fight off Spain, yourmother in law, the previous owners and
da da da da dah. Youknow who always gets their bite, their
big wet bite. Yes, sothere's another reason, not that Josh and

(06:12):
I don't report all our income,but there's another reason to keep these,
you know, exciting finds to yourselfnext time you find it's safe in the
house or a dungeon or a trapdoor. Yeah, deep be Coliet Well
listen. Today on this episode ofthe Dave Rickords Podcast, we're circling back
to the movies. We had agreat time talking about songs that tell stories,
and we're back to the movies thistime and today we've both chosen three

(06:38):
examples of where the good guy diesin the movie. And it's not fun,
is it. It's not fun whenthe good guy dies. What's not
fun, Dave, is that I'mgoing to present you with some rules to
this. Oh yeah, after Ido all my show prep my work.
Oh that's true, you might havealready broken the rules. Well I'm sure
I did. We'll put an aptstressed by yours if you broke one of

(07:00):
these rules. All right, ifwe're doing good guys in the film that
die, Yeah, it shouldn't bean old person because you know, if
you're old in a movie like TheNotebook or or Burgess, Meredith and Rocky.
Come on, you're eighty five,Y're training Rocky. That's it shouldn't
be that. It should be somethinga little more. I don't know,
okay, all right. Shouldn't bea person that's sick like Debra Winger in

(07:21):
terms of endearment, because that's whatthe movie is based on, her getting
cancer and dying. So you've alreadygot a disease. So far, so
good. I'm okay, I'm okay. I don't think we should do cartoons.
I don't care if the Lion King'sdad died. It's we're not twelve
years old. We don't need wedon't need Marley and Me or Turner and
Hoots your kids movies. We're adultshere, Dave. I'm safe. I

(07:42):
made it. I have a rulenow. I have a rule, right,
and this is the one that willbe difficult to follow. On our
top three picks of the good guyswho die, I'd like to limit it
to three. You know how challengingthat is for you. Okay, okay,
I think this is a good reasonwhy you chose movie critic extraordinaire because

(08:03):
he's on podcast, he's on radio, he's on TV, he's in all
kinds of print, he's everywhere,the pre eminent movie critic of southern California.
It's a good choice for him.Bad choice would be umpire. Okay,
that was strike three, but let'sgive him four more. Let's let's
give him seven strikes. It's verygood place pitch. He was almost near

(08:24):
to the strike zone. Is itclose? You know? I'd give that.
I'd give that strike two and ahalf stars. That's funny, all
right, very good. Who's goingfirst on this one? And the good
guy dies in the movies? Uh, you go first? Tell me if
you're smoking a cigar today or youjust chill? I absolutely am, because
this is this is what Josh andI do. We like to get together,
watch movies, talk about movies,and have a cigar. And you

(08:48):
inspired me, Josh, to pickthis one, because I remember that you
had some mocking from friends. Patronis a tequila and padrone is a cigar.
It's not showing up very well onmy camera, but I got a
padron going on right here. Allright, cool? There it is there,
It isn't, but that's what I'mhaving here today. I am smoking

(09:09):
in Ashton. I like Ashton's.But you know what's weird about this?
When I go to cigar lounges,I'll sometimes they have what's called seconds.
This is an Ashton second, andthey're a lot cheaper, and I can't
really tell the difference. And I'vehad cigar people try to explain to me
what a second is, and itdoesn't really make a lot of sense to
me. It's almost like when yousee at Nordstrom rack they have stuff that

(09:30):
isn't it Nordstrom because maybe it ismissing or whatever. I don't know.
It's something weird where something maybe isn'tdone correctly or whatever. But they're a
lot cheaper and they still smoke.Well, all right. Three good guys
dying in the movies. I reallylike my picks, and I want to
tell you something. My picks ofgood guys dying in the movies runs deep

(09:52):
into my heart. When I seethe actors who killed the good guys in
my movies, I don't like themanymore. I don't like these actors.
Once I see them kill the goodguy, I don't like them anymore.
And I've interviewed some of these people, and I've politely put that to them
that you did a role that mademe so upset. I didn't like you.

(10:13):
And I know there's sort of acompliment in there, but it's a
chancy thing for an actor to takea role where he kills his character,
kills a beloved good guy usually playedby a good actor, because they can
get they can get a little bitpigeonholed, they can get a little bit
tight cast. They can even loseout on roles if the audience remembers them

(10:37):
in a negative way. So it'sa risky move for their career, right.
I think James Woods, early inhis career did the Onion Field and
he said that very thing in aninterview. He said people hated him when
he go places and it was interesting. Yeah, and you know, James
Woods is not exactly a cuddly,lovable kind of guy in the first place.
I love the guy. Yeah,yeah, right. He hasn't upset

(10:58):
me by killing anybody. But butI'll tell you who did. In nineteen
seventy two. Is Bruce Dern myfirst pick because Bruce Dern killed John Wayne
and the Cowboys. Do you knowthis movie nineteen seventy two. I thought,
that's not the shootest that was inthe early seventies with John Wayne.
Very close, very similar kind ofthing, But no, this was a

(11:20):
cattle round up. John Wayne hasgot a move, gotta move the cattle
to I don't know where they're going, and he doesn't have any men,
and by happenstance, the only peoplewho can join him on this cattle run
are literal children, pre teen andyoung teenage boys. And as you might

(11:41):
expect, there's a lot of growingup that happens along the way. John
Wayne takes these young men under hisarm, and you know, there's a
lot of kicking them in the pantsand grow up and rub some dirt on
it and blah blah blah. Andby the end of the movie, you're
the finest men I've ever ridden with. You know that kind of thing,
right right. Bruce Dern and JohnWayne tangle a lot in this movie,

(12:03):
and at the end they decide,let's fight. Let's drop our guns,
let's fight it out. Let's fightthis out like men. And it's a
tough it's a tough fight because youknow, John Wayne's an old man in
this movie. Nineteen seventy two,Bruce Dern is not and John Wayne kicks
the shit out of Bruce Dern.And John Wayne gets up and walks away,

(12:26):
and Bruce Dern shoots him five timesin the back in front of all
the kids. Oh hold hated BruceDern ever since. Hey, Dave,
I have a great Bruce Dern storyfor you. All right, let's hear
it. When I was thirteen,my neighbor she was a nurse at one
of the hospitals here. Scripts aresharp. And she came home and she
said, you know you're always talkingabout movies, and how about you love

(12:48):
movies. Do you know who BruceDern is. I said, yeah,
of course, And she said,well, he was in the hospital because
he apparently ran from La to SanDiego. He ran, he's a big
runner, and he injured himself.It took him three days to do the
run or something. And so shetook his address and gave it to me,
and I said, well, whatcan I do with this? She
goes write him a letter, askfor his autograph. So I write him
a letter. I told him inthe letter how scary he was, and

(13:11):
what's the John Voight movie? Cominghome? He was scary and coming home,
and I loved him, and Inamed a few other movies and I
asked for his autograph. My momsays, he's not going to write you
back. I'll give you twenty bucksif he writes you back. Two weeks
later, I get a letter fromBruce Dern and he said, this is
one of the nicest letters I've everread. Thank you so much, and
I hope you keep pursuing your loveof movies or some such thing. And
I'm dying to meet him again,so I could tell him, Hey,

(13:33):
I'm reviewing movies and I'm reviewing yourmovies now, or at least for her,
I probably would have forged the letterjust to get the twenty bucks from
my movie. Well, that's funny. I don't think I was old enough
to think of how to how toscam a bet win. I just would
take my losses now I do thatthough, all right. Next up on
my top three good guys dying inthe movies, I'll move you from nineteen
seventy two up to twenty fifteen.Adam Driver is the next guy I don't

(13:58):
like anymore. Oh, I justdon't like him because it's face. His
face bugs me. Why is hisface buggy, we're looking face. Adam
driver in the Force awakens Hans Solo, desperately trying to save his confused and
upset sun Kylo Wren from going tothe dark side. Han Solo is desperately

(14:20):
trying to get his son to realize, look, I love you, your
mother loves you, we miss you. We just want you to come home.
And Kylo Ren just goes with thered lightsaber right straight up his gut.
Yeah. I mean it was Toma Kazi with their blood red lightsaber

(14:43):
right there, and he just staresin Hans Solo's face holding it, going
thank you, thank you for releasingme from the pain. What a bit
holy cow. I mean, HansSolo, the cowboy of the entire Star
Wars franchise, killed by his ownson, o rough. You know.

(15:09):
Roger Ebert in one of his moviebooks, had this great line. He
said, if you're ever watching acar chase scene in a movie and there's
a fruit stand on the side ofthe road, oh get hit right.
And I think if ever there's afight on any kind of bridge, somebody's
going over the bridge, they're notjust dying on the bridge going over the
bridge, that should be our parodymovie that we make. Okay, you

(15:30):
and I getting a fight on thebridge and neither one falls over, and
then there's a fruit stand at theend that we both drive up to and
park very safely and get out andeat an apple. That's fine. Did
you ever see the movie Game Night, an amazing comedy from like five years
ago, Jason Bateman and all thesepeople that it's hysterical and it's a game
Night, But then a real crimetakes place, and these people keep getting

(15:50):
in fights and thrown into coffee tables, but the coffee tables never break.
They're all glass coffee tables. Andat the third time this happens at a
different person's house, this black actorgoes, damn, coffee tables are acting
weird tonight. All right? Myfinal choice now of the good guy dying.
This story has been remade so manytimes. I don't more times than

(16:15):
A Star Is Born, which Ithink is I think there's been four versions
of A Star is Born? Well, I thought three, but okay,
yeah, there's there's the James Masonal Jolson, Chris al Jolson. Yeah,
I think he did one. Ohwait a second, maybe I'm thinking
of Noah the jazz singer. Yeah. Yeah, but anyway, this story

(16:37):
has been told so many times,and I believe this is my strongest pick
because I have a pick that's Ihave a pick that'll be stronger than this.
It cannot be, it cannot be. Okay, then I know what
you're gonna say. What am Igonna say? You're gonna pick Jesus,
Jesus Christ, the ultimate good guy. See, I thought I was gonna
throw that joke at you and andbut you got it. Dang it.

(16:59):
If I had to choose one,I would take ben Her only because I
really like the extraordinarily brief but intenserelationship ben Her and Jesus had with each
other. It comes around full circle. They both give each other a drink
of water when they're suffering. Ireally like that. But yeah, there's
Jesus with probably the most agonizing,glorious, painful execution in public in front

(17:26):
of a cheering crowd of them all. Take your pick, which Jesus movie
you want? That's gonna be myone. I like it, And I
was going to pick that just asa joke, Like I was gonna say,
I'm gonna start with the best pickof them all. No, I
think I got it. I thinkI got the ultimate good guy, the
big Man, the J C.Maan. But let me hear your three

(17:47):
now, all right, this iswhat Josh Bortz says, are three good
guys dying in the movies. Let'shear It's hard to follow, Jesus,
No, I know, I'll tryit. So coming Home the Bruce Dern
movie, we were just talking aboutstar John Voight. I think his death
as the boxer in the Champ justbrutal. I mean, it's one of

(18:08):
the saddest things ever to see littleRicky Schroeder telling his dad wake up and
everybody in the room knows, Yeah, your dad's dead. And and the
fact that he's doing this because hehas to win his son back, because
Faye Dunaway comes back into the picture. That whole thing, it's just,
oh, it's just the worst.That's that kills you. Heart wrenching scenes
in the locker room when the boxerdies on the table there. So my

(18:30):
next one is Tim Robbins in MysticRiver. Did you ever see Mystic Reverends?
Oh? Oh, this is ahard, hard, hard movie.
That movie is just yeah, sohard to It's so good, but so
hard to watch. I mean,the pain that these men go through.
Oh. The only thing that botheredme about his death scene. For those

(18:55):
that haven't seen it, Sean Pennthinks Tim Robbins has molested his teenage and
has now killed her. And TimRobbins can't explain where he was that night,
and once Sean Penn has his goonsbeating him up on the on the
river front, he finally just says, if you admit it, will stop
beating you up for whatever he says. And so he says, yes,
I killed your daughter. Well,then of course they kill him, and

(19:18):
then of course he didn't kill hisdaughter they find out. So I don't
think you ever admit to something likethat if you didn't do it. And
I know he's got mental issues andthings like that, but I just don't
see his character admitting it. Hischaracter at that point would say, here's
why I don't have an alibi forthat night, and he would say what
he was really doing and that wouldclear things up, or he'd at least
check it. You can break people, I mean, you can break people.

(19:40):
You can torture people into saying youknow pretty much whatever you want.
And this is what happens with TimRobbins character in the movie, and oh,
Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins and SeanPenn in that movie. That's that
is a heartbreaking movie. Great choice, great absolutely great choice. Now,
Jesus, But well, second,I should have gone first and screwed you

(20:02):
over at your cheap pick. Allright. I was tempted to pick the
old guy in shawsh Ank Redemption.But you know why I didn't pick him.
You know, when he hangs himselfbecause he can't handle being on the
outside anymore. It's so heartbreaking.Wait a second, he's a prisoner,
so is he technically a good guy? Even though he's nice in the course
of the film, he's still aprisoner. We don't know why he's in
Shawshank, So I'm not gonna pickhim. I'm just throwing it out too.

(20:26):
We just did pick him. Comeon, I don't act like I
don't. I'm not blind, I'mnot deaf. He just made your third
Now we're gonna go to your fourthpick in the top three. Come on,
Brooks, Brooks. I couldn't thinkof his name. Yes, Brooks,
Yes, he carved his name.I should have remembered it. Now
I'm picking Robin Williams in the world. According to Garth, for thirty years,

(20:47):
anytime anybody asked me, I saythat's my favorite movie. I stopped
telling people my favorite movie because mywife said I sounded like an idiot party.
She said, people either don't knowthe movie or they just think it's
too weird and quirky. The factthat he's a writer, and he says,
well received writer, but his booksdon't sell, so he has to
get a job coaching wrestling, whichhe loves doing, and he gets shot
up while he's coaching the team atthe end. Wow, that just comes

(21:08):
out of left field. And Isaw that movie when I was thirteen when
it came out. It's not amovie for thirteen year olds. I mean
there's a car accident where his kiddies and the other kid loses an eye.
All kinds of crazy stuff happens,and then he gets killed at the
end, and you're just like going, Wow, this is a shocker.
That movie is chock full of misfitsand really broken people like you talked about

(21:33):
there. And you remember who shootshim at the end of the movie.
It's the crazy girl from his childhood, right, and she was crazy all
through the movie. Yeah, whatwas her name, Boo or something like
that, because he looks up andhe sees her, he goes their name,
Yeah, I forget it if it'snot Boo, but he looks it's
something like that. Yeah, yeah, and he goes Boo and yeah,
shoot him right there. And Ithink she's one of the ones who cut
off her tongue because these women shecreated a society where this girl got raped

(21:57):
and the rapist cut off her tongueso he couldn't describe her prescribe him to
the police, and so she doesit in solidarity. I mean, so
it was just it was a darkmovie. The Ellen Jamesians. Yes,
Wow, you remember the movie prettywell. I remember it well that it's
a great movie. They all walkaround with chalkboards hanging from their their neck
and they write out their messages andthey're all living. All these misfits are

(22:19):
are living at T. S.Garp's mother's house. And I love how
she was played by She played hismost yeah, by Glenn Close. Her
first movie. She gets an Oscarnomination for it. That's her first movie,
her first movie. She had beendoing Broadway for years. I had
no idea she was only three yearsolder than Robin Williams. Is that right?

(22:40):
What happens in Hollywood? You looklike an old lady. You're his
mom? No, I had noidea. All right, those are good
choices, really really good choices.I had three. Josh limited himself to
four. That was a superhuman effort. I'm proud of you. You did
good. You still had to sayfour, though, I just I did
three. Uh, you don't outBrooks. You talked about Brooks and Shawshank

(23:02):
redemption at length. Do you knowwhy Jesus never ate M and ms?
They fall through the holes in hishands? Not that one. Come on,
what do you think you think?I don't ow any punchlines? Come
on, baby, you got toget up a lot earlier than that.
All right, those are our choicesfor the best good guys who died in

(23:25):
the movies. Now, when wecome back next time, for our next
visit, we're going to talk aboutthe ultimate death scene slightly different. Well,
Dave, I want to throw onemore thing in. Oh, okay,
go ahead. You once said somethingon the air about eighteen years ago
that I thought was hysterical. Iwas driving on the freeway and almost crashed.
You were talking about how the deathscene in Braveheart another good guy that
dies, Bell Gibson in Braveheart,it bothered you so much because of when

(23:48):
he screams freedom, He says,how would you scream when your insides are
being taken out? I remember thinkingthat was so funny that that bugged you,
because I get plugged by little things. But I didn't even think about
that. But it was a greatpoint you made. Now they were disemboweling
William Wallace, so pretty sure hisdyar speak from the Dalla Ram William,
Well, I can't because it's onthat table over there now. So whatever.

(24:11):
We'll see you next time when wetalk about the three ultimate death well,
I'll have three. I might havethirty. The base ten system,
it's different for everybody. We'll seeyou next time. You've been listening to
the Dave Riggards podcast, stay tunedfor more episodes. To come. To
reach Dave for comments or suggestions forfuture podcast topics, email him at Dave

(24:34):
Rickards at iHeartMedia dot com. That'sd A V E R I c K
A R d s at iHeartMedia dotcom. Podcast