The Execution of Private Slovik (1974)

Between Columbo's Seasons 4 and 5, we're shifting our detective lens to explore another powerful creation by Richard Levinson and William Link: The Execution of Private Slovik (1974). Directed by Lamont Johnson and featuring an unforgettable performance by Martin Sheen, this adaptation of William Bradford Huie's work tells the harrowing true story of Eddie Slovik—a small-time Michigan criminal who made history as the only U.S. soldier executed for desertion during World War II.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Welcome to the Shabby Detective, yet another Colombo podcast. I'm
your host Mike White. Joining me, of course, is mister
Chris Tashu.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Might you say Detroit's own Mike White for this specifically
special bonus episode.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, a lot of Michigan in this episode, that's for sure.
We are talking about not Colombo, but the execution of
Private Slovak. We were talking about the nineteen seventy four
TV movie that was directed by Lamont Johnson, written by
Richard Levinson and William Link, and based upon the by

(01:00):
William Bradford Hewle, all about Private Slovak Eddie Slovak, who
comes from the main streets of Detroit, born in nineteen
twenty and executed by the United States Army January thirty first,
nineteen forty five. There were over twenty one thousand American
soldiers who were given various sentences for desertion during World

(01:23):
War Two, including forty nine death sentences, and Slovak was
the only one who actually was killed by the United States. Chris,
what did you think of the execution of Private Slovak?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
My god, the US government hates Polish people. Huh did
they sure do? That was the joke that I kept
making throughout the entirety of the movie because I watched
the movie with a friend of mine, her and I
watched it with my folks, and we were enthralled through
almost the movie because obviously the framing device with which
the story is told, I think is what the ultimate

(02:01):
success of the movie is. It made me feel like
Goodfellas a little bit or maybe a little Rachaman in
the way the story was being told. It's a real
bummer of a story. You know where it's going based
on the title and the way that it's told. It
is en media res. But then we kind of get
the jump back to the and this is how he
got here. I haven't seen Martin Sheen and a whole

(02:23):
lot of stuff if you could see right now, but
you can't. My background is Martin Sheen from yet another
movie that he's rather well known for that also has
to do with the military. Apocalypse Now. I haven't seen
Apocalypse Now in a very long time. I will just
come out and say it, I haven't seen it, probably
properly as an adult, or at least a person doing

(02:44):
this now as opposed to just someone who watched movies
all the time. And just enjoyed them and could turn
his brain off at one point. I haven't seen Martin
Sheen and a lot of stuff, so he's really good here.
I think that this is actually a really interesting movie
that opened up a lot of avenues for discussion that
maybe don't have much to say about the movie itself.

(03:05):
The movie itself is rather well made. It's a TV
movie ostensibly, but it doesn't really feel like one. It
really has a lot of high production value. It has
a fair amount of well known actors Martin Sheen, Gary Busey,
Charlie Sheen for a moment for no reason other than
because he's Martin Sheen's son. I enjoyed it. Again. It

(03:29):
leaves you some things to chew on. But I don't think.
I don't know. I think if you know this story,
this might not necessarily be the most entertaining thing on
the planet. But I think the way that the story
is told may make up for your and I'm not
saying you specifically, but you the listener, your exposure to
this story, which as someone who grew up in the nineties,

(03:51):
I was not imminently aware of this story. Okay, you're
shaking your head. No, I didn't know if this was
like a thing that people knew about. My folks had
seen this movie before, both of them had. My folks
are a little bit older than you are, Mike, but
my folks had both seen this movie. Because when I
put it on, my dad was like, why do you
have to watch this?

Speaker 3 (04:08):
Right?

Speaker 2 (04:09):
I was like, what's elevenson link thing for Columbu And
he's I've seen this before. And then about halfway into it,
my mom was also like, I've also seen this before.
So there was a time and a place where this
was the thing that people knew. Now not so much,
but all of the long answer to the short question,
I enjoyed it immensely, And I feel really bad for
Eddie Sloviac because it feels like the US government, just

(04:31):
as they like to do, tend to make a mess
of things and what's the term fuck around and find out, oh,
we didn't actually think he would get killed if we
passed the sentence. What the flying fuck? Okay? All right? Sure, great,
that's bureaucracy at work, folks, to test us, tempt us
to do it, you did it, okay, And it seems

(04:53):
to be the fucking response, what about you? Mike? I know,
I know, you're maybe not as high on this movie
as I am.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
I like the movie. I didn't love the movie, but
I liked the movie. And I will say right out
I had never seen it before. I had never heard
of it before, hadn't heard of Private Slovak before. I'm
more familiar with even like other people that were killed
during World War two or right before World War Two,
with the Rosenbergs, right.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Oh, yeah, yeah, the two that were like essentially were
they or won't they spies for the Germans?

Speaker 4 (05:24):
Right?

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yes, I was more familiar with the Rosenbergs than I
was with Slovak. I was more familiar with the kidnapping
of the Lindbergh baby than I was with Private Slovak.
I guess it's probably because it's such a shameful part
of American history, or at least people should be ashamed
of it. But it could be, yes, exactly. This felt
like an episode of Mash at times to me, because

(05:46):
of the idea of the incompetence of the army, somebody
getting railroaded. It feels like this could have been the
start of a story for a Mash episode. But yeah,
to your point, I really liked this structure as well.
I really like that. We start in the present. We've
got ned Baty as this priest, and people are talking

(06:09):
about how is this going to go? They've got the
dummy and they're pointing at where the heart is. Most
people think it's here, but it's actually down there. And
should we put a piece of paper on here and
draw a target on it because we need to practice
shooting one of our own soldiers? Really morbid? And then yeah,
we step back in time and start to follow who

(06:32):
is Eddie Slovic? Who was this person? How did he
get here? And then we get all of these voiceovers
from the people that knew him, even very briefly, Like
we get that oh gosh, I'm trying to think, like
the Charles Chades scene. I was like, oh cool, Charles, Hey,
this is great. I love him. I've talked about him
when we talked about Bartie Miller he was in that

(06:53):
pilot episode, talked about him when we did Night Breed
on the Projection Booth and Altered States Hill Street Blues.
And he's in here for what five minutes if that?
There's more Gary Busey in this, yeah, which isn't even
that much. Gary Busey, But yeah, it doesn't feel like

(07:13):
a TV film. It didn't really catch a lot of
fade outs. It didn't feel and here's the time for
the commercials, which is that's the dead ringer for a
TV movie. But it felt very professional. Lama Johnson I
thought directed it very well, And yeah, Levinson and Link
just did a hell of a job when it came
to the adaptation and the structure of the story. And

(07:36):
then it's you mentioned apocalypse Now, and I kept thinking
of Apocalypse Now through the whole thing, because Eddie Slovak
also has a voice in this movie, and that's through
his letters home to his wife and.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
At the end as well, right there at the end,
there's the moment where we can hear him while he's
on the execution stage. We can hear him and we
shouldn't be able to. So that's like the only other moment,
a singular moment in the movie where we hear him,
which is very specifically done. I feel like, yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
And every time he would start to speak in the
movie via voiceover, I just kept thinking, Saigon, shit, I
can't believe I'm still inside the entire movie. I just
kept thinking about that every day he sits in the
hotel room and Charlie's out in the bush. Charlie gets stronger,

(08:29):
and yeah, it's amazing to think Martin Sheen looks like
a little kid in this movie. And granted he still
looks very young in Apocalypse Now, but five years makes
one hell of a difference. And I know it wasn't
even five years because it took so long to put
together Apocalypse Now. He probably started on this three years,

(08:49):
maybe four years after Slovak. So yeah, amazing that he
was able to give these two very different performances. If anything,
he reminds me a little bit more of the character
that he played in bad Lands in this movie, though
not nearly as well. I think that character liked to
think that he was very slick, but just that kind

(09:10):
of like slightly under educated, like Sloviac was in prison
several times and in reform school. He just led quite
a life of not doing very well. And it felt
like he was turning things around for himself with his
wife and everything and his child, and then boom it,

(09:30):
the army pulls him in. Shouldn't have even done that,
should not have brought him over and put him in
the army at all and then yeah, here they are
and they put him in this war and he doesn't
want to be there. And I didn't realize how many
people had defected or what's the word I'm looking for, deserted, deserted.

(09:51):
I didn't realize it would be a lot harder, all right, yes,
but yeah, no, he I didn't realize just how many
people their work sounds like fifty people that were sentenced
to death. He's the one example, and that they do
it like I don't remember when V Day was because
it's basically the war was winding up in the European theater.

(10:13):
They didn't need to do this.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah. That was the thing my esteemed father and I
were talking about after the movie was why did they
do this so late? They should have executed somebody like
day one for desertion, or like day two, like because
we all know that there were plenty of people. The
number is forty nine people that were given the death
penalty after deserting, but you already said the original number.

(10:38):
It was one point seven million court martials during World
War two. One point seven that's a lot to be
the one in the one point seven million, the one guy.
It feels a little bit much. I was curious of
this because this was something else I picked up on
while I was watching it. Is he meant to be
a little slow. It sure feels like thank you, because

(11:00):
I was like, because I did a fair amount of
research into this, and it didn't seem like that was
the case with the real person. Again, he seemed like
a ding dong maybe stealing stuff, but okay, it didn't.
It makes his story even more kind of tragic that
this guy may have been suffering from mental health problems,

(11:24):
because then it's oh good, the US government put a
mentally ill person to death too, because here's the thing.
You're allowed to be a conscientious objector.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
Oh yeah, I saw Hacksaw Ridge. Actually I didn't, but yeah,
you are.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
As a mel Gibson movie. It's a reason you didn't
see it.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
You're right, I like Andrew Garfield, but I wasn't about
to give mel Gibson.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
I mean my money, and I'm a bitch and heat
I at least look like a bitch and heat. I
won't see it.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
That's right, sugar tits.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
He looks like a bitch and heat.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
Forgive mel Gibson. We know he's a vera lent racist,
anti semit. But it's time to forgive him.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
It's true, it would be much cooler if he was
a yo Semite as opposed to an anti Semite.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
You know what, maybe he'll be the ambassador to Australia.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
Now, yeah, at this point, who fucking cares? Yeah, let's
throw it all into the fire walk this world, hey man.
And that's the thing that's the hard thing with this
movie for me is given. And again, like wherever you
fall on the political divide, I don't frankly fucking care

(12:34):
because I've never liked the US government either. I don't.
I've never liked the US government because the US government
has a lot of problems and the US government has
not owned up to a lot of stuff. Operation paper
Clip never really owned up to that, the internment of
Japanese and German people during World War Two, still never
really owned up to that equipping.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
So whoa, that's all just critical race theory. And when
we talk about critical race there do we talk about
people being critical of the United States?

Speaker 2 (13:03):
Come on, how dare I? And then you have something
like this where twenty one thousand American soldiers were given
sentences for desertion, but only one guy gets killed. I
get the idea of the one example that needs to
be made, but I'm not going to say somebody else,

(13:24):
but like, why this guy I don't so arbitrary? Well, again,
if you believe the story the way it's presented and
the story the way it's written, he could have gone
and just committed a crime and been thrown back in jail.
And I think to myself, like, why the fuck didn't
you do that? I just don't get it. It made
no sense to me if I'm him, if I'm in

(13:45):
his position, and I know that I can't bring myself
to do this for whatever reason, why not just go
commit a crime and get thrown in prison. Your wife
is not going to get the money if you desert anyways.
So I just I that's what I didn't understand. That
was where the disconnect was. And I'm not looking for
an answer from a film from seventy four. But I

(14:08):
think for me, I'm a little disappointed maybe that they
couldn't really explain to me why he didn't just commit
a crime. And they do hang a lantern Nott. They're like, well,
you could have gone, and dunn In's give me a
reason why he wouldn't like unless it is just the
scene at the beginning of the movie. And again, this
is just the movie I'm talking about, not real life
where it's meant to call back to the scene where

(14:29):
the guy at the prison is like, don't come back now,
like really internalized it that much that you'd be willing
to go to the military, like fuck that you don't
want to be part of the oil in the machine
because shit, nobody cares about the oil is you know, expendable.
Clearly it's added constantly. That's the problem.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yeah, exactly. That is the question throughout so much of
this Why now, Why are you standing up for what
you believe in? Right now? Why are you taking this
hard way out when and you could have taken so
many easier ways. You could have literally deserted. When he
comes back to his unit, it's okay, I'm back, but

(15:09):
I don't want to fight. It could have been a
conscientious objector stance. He could have said, I don't want
to fight because my religion prevents it, or I just
can have fire against another human being or something like that.
But instead it's just no, if you're gonna make me
fight him, desert again. And they're like, well, all right,

(15:30):
now you're arrested. It's like here, I'm arrested. Yeah, you're arrested.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah, I don't get it. And what I don't get
to your point is, obviously, again the odds were in
his favor until they weren't. If you use the numbers
that we were just discussing, twenty one thousand for desertion,
motherfucker is the wan. Those are real bad odds. Those
you are pulling the best, worst card out of a

(15:55):
deck of cards. I don't know how else to explain it.
It's just it's such terrible luck to be the one
guy they want to make an example of. But it
does seem so fucking arbitrary. They have a character in
the movie bring it up, and again I can't help
but wonder how much of this is the case. He's
a convicted criminal, right, and as Chris Nolan's The Dark
Knight would show us, all criminals are people too. That's

(16:17):
why they didn't blow them up on the boat at
the end of the movie. Remember I do remember that
just this movie and that movie were the same, very similar.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
I think Tiny Lister was on that boat, so I
didn't want to see that boat get blown.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
Up, tiny lister. Get it, he's not small, he's a
big guy.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
He's very big guy, was a very big guy. Rip
tiny lister, zeus us Do you love that guy?

Speaker 2 (16:45):
Man? He should have been Eddie Slope.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
Oh wow, that would have been brought in. That would
have been.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
Racism, but just racism as it is.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
But more to your point, the way that the portray
this character, the way that you hear because I kept
talking about the letters, the way through the way he
reads the letters. Yeah, and then you can even see
some of the letters being quoted out on Wikipedia, and
you just see I understand not knowing how to spell
certain the French city that you were in. Okay, And

(17:21):
there's certain other spellings that he does where I'm just like, yeah, okay,
that's a common one or whatever. But there are others
where I'm just like, yeah, he doesn't seem like he's Wait,
and then you had to hear him read those letters
in that very halting, stilted, almost forced Gump esque way
of speaking. I'm like, oh, okay, yeah, he does seem

(17:45):
like he's not quite one hundred percent. It feels like
he he was in the school of hard knocks for
his entire life feels like he starts to get his
life together even though he is special, and then this
happens and he doesn't know how to handle it.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
Is it weird that he calls his wife mommy?

Speaker 1 (18:05):
That is weird?

Speaker 2 (18:06):
Is that where that also does it for me?

Speaker 5 (18:09):
Mama?

Speaker 1 (18:10):
Now I know?

Speaker 2 (18:11):
And maybe a codependency thing. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, it would make sense once she gets pregnant that
he would call her mommy to be like getting her
used to it, or he isn't this cool that you're
pregnant thing? But yeah, I think he does that before that, and.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
Again to the point of he's maybe again not all
there right would track with the character, And again I
didn't see anywhere that was the case with the real person,
And maybe it was. Again I've got to wonder about
the mental stability of someone who's willing to do what
he did. But again, he was playing the odds in
a ninety nine point ninety nine repeating percent chance of

(18:51):
not being the guy they made the example of, literally
like the odds were against him in the worst possible time.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
I don't know if you've ever seeing Paths of Glory,
the Kubrick film, this reminded me a lot of that
as well, because with that one, it's three soldiers that
they make an example out of for not doing what
they're supposed to do. They're basically in a complete no
win situation. And I want to say, it's been a
long time since I've seen it, but I want to

(19:19):
say they were almost drawn by lots as far as
oh yeah, these three guys are the ones that need
to take the fall for retreating when they shouldn't have.
And I want to say George McCready as the general
who had ordered them out there, he's always great and
he's got that in real life. He had an amazing
scar in his face, so he just looks perfect in that.

(19:39):
And then it's Kirk Douglas. That's the first time Douglas
and Kubrick worked together, and him trying to defend these
guys and to see them in that death row situation
and start to just break down. It's just amazing performances
from like Joe Turkell and from Timothy Carey, and I
can't remember the other gentlemen because it's the three soldiers

(20:02):
and you see those emotions and then you see Slovak
here and it's just like, oh, they're going to kill
you signing, it's just like, oh uh huh. And he's
just so doesn't seem to realize the gravity of a situation,
even when he's standing there in front of the fucking
firing squad.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
They said that he was competent and able to stand trial.
I have a hard time believing that. Same Again, they
show it in the movie where he's just I'm not
tempting them to do it, biz, because again the assumption
is you're just gonna get the equivalent of a slap
on the wrist. Really, he'd already been in prison before

(20:40):
he knows what it's like. That's a cake walk for
him out there in Michigan.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yeah, the Michigan prison's pretty tough.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
Yeah, I'm surprised you never heard of this growing up
in Detroit.

Speaker 1 (20:51):
I am too.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
That one reason I'm surprised you haven't heard of this
is the Detroit connection.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah, and it makes sense when they're talking about like
the Polish people and everything. There's such a major Polish
population and it's not just ham Trammack. People should see
how that is spelled, and you'd be like, what, how
do you get ham Trammick out of that it's it's
a major.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
Polish ham traffic was also like Middle Eastern folk.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
Now it is, Yes, okay, that's what I saw it. Yes,
And that's there's a real controversy right now because the
I think it's the mayor or the city council voted
to ban pride flags. Really bad look for them. Deerborn
seems to be even more tolerant of gay people than
ham Trammick is. But you also had a lot of

(21:36):
Polish people living down river, which is where I'm from.
All the people that my dad worked for when I
was younger, my stepdad, I should say, like they were
the these three Polish guys that ran this scrapyard and
stuff and so many just like Polish culture was everywhere,
Like we had these huge events at the yost Ice

(21:57):
Arena and yeah they had different festivals, Italian Festival, all
these different things, but the Polish one was like the event.
And you would not believe how many bowling alleys there
are downriver.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
I would yes, Polish people love bowling.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
They do. I would say it's a stereotype, but it
seems to be true.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
I have the Italian thing. The Polish thing seems to
be from your neck of the woods, but like where
I grew up, there was none, none of that. But
in Chicago and stuff like that, or like you've set
up in Michigan, like big Midwestern towns with big ethnic
populations of you know, essensibly white people, like ethnic white people,

(22:38):
the kinds of people that people were racist against in
this country originally before they became also part of the
racist groups. I don't know yet. It's weird that this
isn't talked about more. But at the same time, like
you alluded to earlier, the US government ain't exactly hot
to trot about showing all the ways it's fucked up.

(22:58):
And the thing that really bums me out is his
wife tried to get him pardoned seven times. Oh yeah,
oh Jimmy Carter. Really come on now, like Jimmy Carter
of all people, Like, that's surprising to me, it is.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
And there's that moment I want to say, it's about
halfway through the film where he leaves and she goes
and that was the last time I ever saw him,
I should say, And.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
Then the last time I heard anything about him for
eight years. Yeah, yeah, just wild fucked. This story is
really fucked, because sometimes life is not fair, and sometimes
life is insanely unfair, overwhelmingly unfair. This is that this

(23:46):
is one of those moments where, dude, if there are
some people who luck breaks in their favor constantly, there
have to be people where luck breaks away. And this
guy is just like the worst. The reclassification is bad
enough as it is, but then the fact that he
goes to war and he gets fucking shot by the
US government, My god, And Martin Sheen is so sympathetic

(24:10):
in the film, like as I don't know. Martin Sheen
is an actor who, like I alluded to at the beginning,
I haven't seen him in enough things other than Now
this in Apocalypse Now and I guess that depoded.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
I haven't seen Wall Street, ma'am.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
I guess that. Yeah, I guess that's the other one.
But I haven't seen Wall Street in a really long time.
Like that is a movie I really want to rewatch
because I remember enjoying it a fair amount. I remember
thinking it's one of those movies that if you were
to ask me fifteen years ago, I would say it's
one of my favorite movies because it's like the snappy
dialogue the Kirk Douglas of it all. Now we're essentially

(24:46):
just living in the movie as if we weren't to
begin with. Yeah, No, I guess when I think of
Wall Street, I don't think of Martin Sheen, Let's put
it that way. I think of Charlie and Michael Douglas.
But Martin she he's great here. He's so sympathetic and
it's again, it does verge on kind of simpleton man,
but I think he pulls it off spectacularly. Frankly.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
Yeah, that appearance in Wall Street is what leads to
one of the best moments of Hot Shots, Part Due
when you've got Charlie Sheen writing a letter and you
hear his voice over and then he starts to get
overshadowed by his dad's voiceover, and it's Willard on the
boat coming one way as topper Hurley goes the other way,

(25:32):
and they both stand up and look at you at
each other and go, I love doing Wall Street.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, that's that is one of my favorite jokes in
that film. Good.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah, it was weird because we talked about Martin Sheen.
He was so briefly in that one episode of Colombo
where he got murdered Gang five. You're a mile.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
That's right, that's the connection here. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
And then he was the king of TV movies for
a while, like in the early seventies. He's in Letters
from Three Lovers, one called Toma. Well he's in a
bad Lands which is a great movie. Police Surgeon, Oh sorry,
that's a TV series. Next movie is Message to My Daughter.

(26:18):
When the line goes no, that's not a TV movie,
execution Private Slovak. The story Pretty Boy Floyd, the California
kid was it?

Speaker 2 (26:28):
He wasn't in Marco, was he?

Speaker 1 (26:30):
I don't think he was. No, he wasn't on a kite.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Yeah, wouldn't that have been better?

Speaker 1 (26:35):
The Missiles of ak Otober, which is his first time
playing at Kennedy, The Last Survivors and Sweet Hostage. Those
were all TV movies that he made between nineteen seventy
three and nineteen seventy eight. Then he's making regular movies.
He's also on TV appearances. He was in The Cassandra Crossing,
which I recommend. He was in The Little Girl who

(26:55):
Lives Down the Lane, which if anybody listening to this
hasn't seen The Little who Lives Down the Lane, it
is amazing and is basically it feels like a play
and it's just him and Jody Foster and like a
couple side characters, but it is just so much him
and Jody Foster, and he plays the creapiest creep, like

(27:18):
he would make Matt Gates go, WHOA, you get better?
Back off, dudeh alleged allegedly, this is it alleged.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
Later onnor you know, thinking about Martin Sheen and then
Charlie Sheen, who's also in this movie briefly, like not blanket.
You'll miss it because the camera follows him, So please
get your child off screen. God, damn, I you know,
I can't think of other than maybe the Douglas family,
the these like mole tie generational families. They're the big ones,

(27:51):
right in terms of male families at least.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
Yeah, I guess the Baldwins, and then yeah, the Douglases,
and then these guys, the kings and queens of it.
For me will always be the Barry Morris, just because
they were actors before movies even began, and we still
are dealing with the Barry Morris, damn dealing with I

(28:16):
love some of the Barry Moores, and I actually really
drew quite a bad I wish she was in more
movies rather than doing that insipid TV show.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
They say, you can't make money choice, and you can't
make a shitload of money making movies anymore, but you
can make a shitload of money with TV deals and
treaty sales of products and advertising. And hey, that show
looks like it's always at least crowded with people cheering
and yelling. And Drew Barrymore is you know she's amiable enough?

(28:49):
I feel like I don't know. Yeah, I wish she
was in more things. I guess I don't know. Charlie
Sheen and Emilio Estevez and Martin Sheen. Martin Sheen played
a pretty convincing president there for a while. Oh yeah,
Charlie Sheen, I think pretty great actor. His kind of
meltdown personally aside, I think Charlie Sheen's a pretty great actor.

(29:12):
He actually has a pretty wide range as an actor too. Genuinely,
this is not me blowing smoke. I know you feel
the same way. Yes, even if he is winning with
Tiger Blood so hard that winning Damn that shit was
wild though, I will tell you that much. And then
Emilia Westavez, I never resonated with Mighty Ducks, and that
was my frame of reference for him early on. But

(29:34):
then Repoman obviously is a real that's a real classic.
At least for me, that's one that I really resonate
with as an adult. I think there are three solid
across the board actors, and it comes from looking at
something like this with Martin Sheen, who harrries this entire
movie on his back. Really, even when he's not on screen,
he makes a huge impact because he's the focus of

(29:55):
the whole thing.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
I can't believe you haven't talked about Joe Esteves, his brother.
It was one of those guys who would show up
in the I'm the brother of the famous person type things,
like a Frank Saloon type of back.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
Yeah, the trash can. How are you saying? I love
that song Frank's.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
He's amazing one that he did for Staying Alive. That's
a great song.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
But yeah, yeah, Frank stallone, Yeahrank Stone, my brother's famous.
We know. So yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
Like for a while they were in the eighties and nineties,
especially because that's the era I remember the most, Like
they would have things where it's like Sheen and Sweezy
and then it's Martin Sheen's brother, and Patrick Sweezey's brother,
Oh boy, and Billy Baldwin. Yes, the worst of the Baldwin.
I don't know, Stephen might be worse.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
Is Stephen Baldwin. Stephen Baldwin.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
I think he's mega.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
I think they're gonna say Biodome.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
No, No you did. Biodome is a classic. Don't cap
on Biodome?

Speaker 2 (31:00):
What about it? No, he wasn't in Encino Man. That's
Pauli Shore who.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
Was in Yeah, that was Pauli Shore. That was Sean
Aston and Brendan Fraser of course as the titular Encino
man from Encino. Yes, and that was where you got
to see not Sean Asten is not a piece of shit,
but his character was a complete piece of shit.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
He can't what a weird movie again?

Speaker 3 (31:23):
Lord?

Speaker 2 (31:24):
Yeah, that's why I went back to the thing with
Charlie Sheen and like the range because you mentioned the
hot Shots stuff, which Martin Sheen is in, and that's
that's a funny scene that works because the two of them.
I don't really consider Martin Sheen a comedic actor. He's
a serious actor. Right. Charlie Sheen has more range than
his dad, I feel like, but I think Martin Sheen

(31:45):
is a better actor oh overall. But I think Charlie
Sheen has more rage because Charlie Sheen his meltdown aside,
he literally was carrying a sitcom for years, a sitcom
that continued not as long after he was off of
it as it did before, and him being a personality

(32:05):
is the reason he got into the whole winning Tiger's
Blood thing. But Charlie Sheen is a really good actor
and a really funny actor. But I think his dad
is just a really good actor, and something like this
kind of shows proves that out.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
I feel like I seem to remember him being very
funny when he was on SNL way back in the
fucking seventies. I remember him spitting into I think it
was Jane Curtain's hair. She's like, how do I get
my hair so nice? I use Martin Sheen and he
just keeps spitting.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
Jesus, that's fucking disgusted, But it was pretty funny, that is. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
When I think of Martin Sheen, I definitely think of
his more serious roles, even when he's unhinged and things
like a firestarter or I really liked him in the
Final Countdown. But I love him and the Dead Zone,
and that's at the end of that movie when he's
holding that little kid as a fucking human shield.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
I'm like, oh man, But those.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
Moments where he's being super creepy and he's the missiles
are on the way hallelu Yeah, I'm like, oh man.
He plays a great presidential figure, even when he's completely
on the hinge, like Greg Stilson. Right after he does
The Dead Zone, he's in Kennedy the mini series where
he's playing John F. Kennedy like him. His relationship with

(33:28):
the on screen Kennedy's and then even president that he
played in The West Wing, I think is very Kennedy esque.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
Yeah, I would agree. Did you remember he was in
the fucking Amazing Spider Man movie? He was Ben Parker.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
Oh wow, yeah, I forgot about that.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
So wild. He's had a really strange, like late in
life career. I feel like, I don't know again. The
one thing that I saw him in a lot in
my teen years was The Departed because I enjoyed that movie.
I'd say, spawn, oh, spawn, for all the wrong reasons. Now,

(34:07):
it was The Departed because I really liked the departed
back in the day, not so much Tobe.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
Yeah, yeah, it's not what I go back to. I
would probably go back to Infernal Affairs before I went
back to the Departed.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
That's the problem with the Departed is I've seen Infernal
Affairs like now and yeah, I'm with you. Yeah, that's
the thing with Martin Sheen. For the most part, outside
of the Departed recent stuff, I really haven't seen anything
more recent than that. Yeah, but he's great here. And
then you have Gary Busey being really understated, which buttered

(34:41):
sausages guys rarely understated.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
The supporting cast for this. I already mentioned that Beattie,
you mentioned Gary Busey, I mentioned Charles Hayde. But even
Matt Clark, who always turns into great performance. He's one
of these who's that guy? I've seen him so many
times before, like even me the king of the that
guy kind of thing. I'm like, good's that Matt Clark?

(35:04):
I think that, and he always turns into super solid performance.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:09):
I thought that all of the folks that were in
this were just really good. And I especially think that
what's his wist's name, Marie clear Costello. I guess I
need to get my glasses checked here. She was really solid.
I thought that she was great, and she has probably
one of the worst roles that you can have, which
is the almost to be grieving wife type of thing,

(35:32):
and the I don't understand what's going on and the
world is stombing all over me. Because she knows what's
going on. She's not slow like Eddie is. She can
see what's happening, and it's awful.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
I was gonna say, I think my favorite performance in
the movie outside of the ones you mentioned is John
Cedar as the guy who's at the table keeps counting
the votes over it, over again, and it's like the
fucking scene from Doctor Strangers. Let's run this around the
table again. Are we all so? And let's run this
around the table again. Wait a second, but you're unanimous
in the vote, my friend. That's the thing that they

(36:08):
leave just unmentioned. And I don't know. They don't hang
a lantern on it. They just have you go down
and you see him handing him the piece of paper
that he's also written on. But I like that where
he's maybe try this again, maybe we'll have a different outcome.
It's there's not going to be a different outcome. They're
so stubborn and there's so stuck in their way. Yeah,

(36:30):
this is that Patrick McGowin character all over again. It's
just like the US government is unwavering in its treatment
of people, regardless of your situation, and it's wait a second,
that's not how this should work. This poor guy. If
they actually looked at his situation as anything other than

(36:50):
a former criminal in the getting, you know, conscripted into
the military and drafted because loll, we need more people
to churn into the machine, they would have actually done
something about. But that scene where his wife is at
the office is just so fucking heartbreaking. But she's what
am I gonna do? And you're gonna have to go
live in a one row apartment or go live with

(37:11):
your family. Times are sorry. It's like, good God, how
uncaring and horrible, But ultimately probably the way it happened,
there is something to be said for people that are bureaucratic,
because there are people in this world that are willing
to be unwilling.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
Now I find it funny. So the book comes out
in nineteen fifty five, which is ten years after Private
Slovak was killed by the US government. Murdered by the
US government, and James Dean was interested in being in it.
This is what I'm reading anyway, James Dean was interested
in it. And then interestingly for me, talking about another

(37:49):
JFK connection, is that Frank Sinatra wanted to play the
role and was actually talked out of it by JFK.
Apparently there is like that whole weird Sinatra Kennedy connection
which was just so bizarre to me.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
I was a devil's triangle.

Speaker 5 (38:07):
One might say, yeah, or the Eiffel Tower perhaps yeah,
But it was just because Sinatra was in that movie
Suddenly where it's the guy comes into town and he's
going to murder the president.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
They never say which president it is. He doesn't even
have any political aspirations. He's just there to be like,
oh no, I'm going to get paid however, many millions
of dollars to do this job. It's just me murdering someone.
And then he also gets the Manchurian candidate pulled, which
is all about the assassination of a president as well,
and here he is possibly playing Slovak. I really think

(38:44):
that it wouldn't have worked in the fifties for James
Dean it wouldn't have worked in the sixties for Frank Sinatra.
I really think that this coming out in nineteen seventy four,
hot on the heels of Watergate, there is so much
reevaluation of what was going on in the political environment

(39:06):
that this was the perfect time for this movie to
come out. I'm just surprised it didn't come out theatriclate,
But the movies were really pushing the envelope way more
than people thinked. Our good friend Amanda Rey is her
whole thing of studying these TV movies and writing about them.
It's invaluable because we get to see with fresh eyes,

(39:27):
like what was happening in our culture. This is coming
directly into our living rooms. To have that little disclaimer
at the beginning, where it's let me read it exactly
what they say, We suggest you consider whether the program
should be viewed by young people or others in your
family who might be disturbed by it.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
I was disturbed.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
Yeah, it's a disturbing story. And at the end, when
he's leading for his life, it's awful. Yeah, everything about
this movie is really awful, And I honestly think that
this is a movie that should still be shown in
fucking world history classes, or at least US history classes,
because this, Look, here's the thing you already mentioned, is

(40:14):
this comes out in seventy four. It's coming out, but Vietnam,
Vietnam is still in everybody's minds. I'm thinking of this
in terms of the Vietnam War. And again we talk
about the idea of conscientious objectors, but we also talk
about the idea of people who are just getting pulled
into a conflict they have no business being a part of.

(40:35):
And what conflict is that if not Vietnam. Yeah, for real, right,
world War two at least is a justifiable conflict. It
was that there was a possibility of the end of
the civilized free world as we knew it because of
Hitler and his rocketeers moving across the world at a
frightening pace. But I don't see this movie as a

(40:55):
World War two thing as much as I see again
and yet another piece of anti Vietnam media that would
be coming out at this time anyways, because that was
all the rage in the seventies was sideways, adjacent stuff
about Vietnam.

Speaker 1 (41:11):
Oh yeah, I mentioned mash, but we already had mashed
the movie by this point, and you know this aired
March thirteenth, nineteen seventy four. The helicopters didn't leave Vietnam
Operation Frequent Wind, which sounds like there's a pill for that.
Then it took place April activated chart seventy five. Yes, yeah,

(41:32):
that definitely helps. Helps if you got a little pad
in the gussett. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
Yeah. I can't help but feel like, again, we've lost
sight of so many things, unfortunately with our history in
this country. But man being critical of the US government
in a genuine way is one of those things. This
is a point of discussion that I think should be raised,

(41:59):
because again, what is the US government's point in doing
something like this at the point that they did it
with the person that they did it to, if not
to just say we did it. I don't remember exactly
what it was. I believe it was something I covered
with Father Malone, or we covered with Father Malone, where
there was an extra segment from one of these anthologies
that we watched where it was about the unknown soldier.

(42:20):
They were essentially like picking a soldier to be the
soldier in the tomb of the unknown Soldier from Vietnam
World War two, and the whole shtick is You've got
the guy from the Air Force, the guy from the Navy,
the guy from the Army, and then some five star
generals in this room, and they invite the guy in
and they're making this plea for him to be the
unknown soldier. And maybe it was one of those anthology

(42:44):
movies I watched for Father Malone's Month in twenty twenty three,
but it was like, what is the fucking point. We're
just right, we're antagonizing US citizens and then putting them
to death. And again it's a guy that can't even
barely figure his life out, like a guy who's having
a hard time enough as it is.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
Who finally seemed to be getting his life in order
now and then and when you find out that she
loses the baby, Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
I know it's this is just everything I'm dealing with
a lot in my personal life right now. But even
I'm not dealing with this much like Jesus age Christ.
Yeah yeah, fuck around and find out, unfortunately, has lots
of outcomes, and one of them is fuck around with
the US government and find out that the US government
is as caring as they pretend to be. That is

(43:33):
a reality that they are uncaring about the plight of
the common citizen or the common soldier in the military's case.
So I enjoyed it. But this is a tough watch.
But I think this really should be required viewing. If
we're going to read books like the Things they carried
in high school, right, which was the Vietnam book, we
should be watching stuff like this in our history classes.

(43:54):
It should be required viewing at least about World War Two,
or at least about the Vietnam conflict, to use this
as a bridge between the two. But yeah, instead we're
just not being critical of the US government in a
helpful way. But man ned Baty right there at the end,
he just fucking calls him out. You having a good time, Oh.

Speaker 1 (44:15):
Baby, it's well, everybody's great in this, but he is
in rare form.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
Yeah, he's so good.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
And yeah, the end of this is so harrowing.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
I know, it's heartbreatiot Martin Sheen. When they put the
hood on him and then they kill him, it's it's awful. Again,
this is a movie from seventy four, but it moved
me deeply because it's so fucking upsetting. And again, it's
just the way it's told the story of like when
you think about somebody being executed, you don't think about
all the things that go into it, the guys that

(44:47):
have to do it, because again there's a US military
on the other side of this being forced effectively to
do this. None of them are enjoying it. Nobody here
is having a good time at all. And the fact
that this story he focuses on those parts at times,
I think is also a real testament to And this
is the thing I think we haven't really even talked

(45:07):
about a whole lot Elevenson and Link of it all,
Like the story is so well done and it is
Columbo esque, is it not. We know how this is
going to end, Yeah, we have to see how we
get there, And fucking Levinson and Link right there up
front doing the same thing that they always do. It's
telegraphed right there in the title. We see him effectively

(45:29):
two minutes before he's shot at with the crawl at
the beginning, So we know how this is going to
play out. But man, we were joking about it. We
paused it to finish dinner the other night. We were
watching it and I was like, we all know how
this is going to end. Yeah, but still it's like
immensely entertaining and so well done that even though the
outcome is inevitable and known ahead of time, I am

(45:52):
still beyond impressed that Levinson and link Land this so hard,
but again not surprising given the Columbo of it all.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
It's amazing when you look at that ending and that
he gets shot like around one hour fifty minutes and
then he doesn't die for another three or four minutes,
and just those looks of the soldiers from one to another,
and they're just like, this guy is still alive, and

(46:21):
you can hear those moans and the doctor running out
there to check his heartbeat. And you were talking about
just like the preparation and that scene where the guy
who can barely speak French is ordering the hood from
the French seamstress. Oh my god, that was like, which

(46:42):
is blah blah blah? The eye holes is Nope, no
eye holes and just the look on her face and
then the look on his face.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
Jesus, I know you mentioned it. The fact that this
didn't get a theatrical release means Martin Sheen couldn't be
nominated for an Oscar, which seems like a shame because
he has never won an Oscar, and I would contend
that this is the thing that should have gotten him
at least a nomination, because oh, yeah, he's so fucking

(47:10):
good in this. I mean, I'm really impressed by how
empathetic you are as an audience member for his character,
because he's being played so sympathetically and it's really not
trafficking too hard in the forest gump of it all,
even though maybe it could have. I didn't really get
that from the movie, but it verged on it at times.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
Yeah, it's surprising when you say that she hasn't won
an Oscar because I was just like, really, even for
Apocalypse Now, just because he was so fucking good in
that and just even the way he is so dead
pant quite a lot, but just because he shouldn't be there,
America shouldn't be there, nobody should be there.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
Again, that's the Eddy Slovaka at all. He just shouldn't
be there. It's wild Vietnam story because it goes back
to he just wasn't supposed to be here today, Like
this guy was just should have been anywhere else but
in the war, because that's he did everything he could
to not be in the position that he was in
and the inevitability of it all feels so fucking awful,

(48:16):
doesn't it. And then again, that's the way Levinson and
Link tell the story, is the inevitability of it all is,
here's the train coming down the track. You're tied to
the tracks, and you know the train's going to run
you over, and there's nothing you can do about it. Ye,
try struggle whatever you'd like, ain't gonna change anything. And
that's this entire story. It's the inevitability of this story.

(48:37):
And just the way that he is treated and we
as the audience, are treated by proxy, that's just so
horrible because you see everyone that he interacts with feels
for this person, even the people that vote. You don't
get to see their interior monologue. Other than the one
guy who let's go another vote, I'm assuming all the
other people in that room, he says it had no

(48:58):
interest in being part of what they were part of,
but they did it nonetheless duty above all else.

Speaker 1 (49:07):
Just as a little footnote here, So I just looked
up who was nominated for oscars for the fifty second
Academy Awards. Dustin Hoffman won in Kremer versus Kramer, Jack
Lemon nominated for The China Syndrome, al Pacino for and
Justice for All, Roy Scheiter for All That Jazz, and

(49:27):
Peter Sellers for being There. That's a really crowded field, man.
But I will say Melvin Douglas did win for being there.
But Duval was nominated for his role as Kilbore, and
Frederick Forrest was nominated, but not for Apocalypse Style. He
was nominated for the Rose. And then you had Justin

(49:49):
Henry for Kramer Versus Kramer, and Mickey Rooney for The
Black Stallion. These are some of these performances are just amazing,
and almost all of these movies that I've made are fantastic.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
Yeah, but so is this movie.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
Yes it is.

Speaker 2 (50:05):
It's a kind of a shame. It's a shame that
it was not theatrically released because I think if it
had been, this would be remembered as one of those
seventies Vietnam War movies, and I think it honestly deserves
to be reappraised that way. I think that this is
I don't know, I really resonated with this movie. There's
an inevitability to this story that I appreciated, because sometimes

(50:28):
you do everything right in life. And life still fucks you.
Or you could do everything wrong in life and life
still fucks you. Shit, you might do everything wrong in
life and life doesn't fuck you at all. But you
can do everything right in life and life still just
fucks you repeatedly. And this is that story. This guy
had the worst luck possible. Really, it's again. If he

(50:49):
hadn't been alive during a live conflict, he would have
been fine. We never would have heard of him. He
would have just been another human being existing on this
planet for seventy average on seventy sixty five to seventy years.
Would have died probably so it's twenty four when he
died in forty forty five, would have died in the
nineties pre nine to eleven, would have gotten to see,

(51:12):
you know, no other major conflict like in his lifetime,
like nothing other than Vietnam. But he would have been
too old to be in Vietnam.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
Right, Vietnam, the Wait, Iran.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
To No major conflicts except for all those, except for
all those, but those are just proxy wars. Yeah, those
are major conflicts, police actions exactly. We were just trying
to stem the tide of communism. It wasn't a real war.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
Come on, yes, if we call that the domino theory.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
Yeah, but in my mind, this guy just had the
worst timing because again, it does feel like the deck
is stacked against you. It's almost like one of those
things where it's not just the deck is stacked against you,
it's like you went and pulled a magician's deck and
there's only one card in there. Yeah. Bro, that's just
how can you be this unfucking lucky? I guess somebody
has to be really.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
This was nominated for quite a few awards, at least
seven Emmys and a few the American Cinema Editors and
then a Director's Guild of America. Lamont Johnson was nominated,
but this only seemed to win an editing It was
Frank Morris with two s's two rs. He won for

(52:27):
the ACE and then he also won for two Emmys,
one for Best Film Editing for Entertainment Programming and the
other one for Film Editor of the Year, so it
was recognized in some way. And Martin Sheen was nominated
for an Emmy but didn't win, So it's yeah, it

(52:47):
got some do but it's not one that I've heard
of before, so I'm not blaming the world and blaming
me for not having looked this up before. But yeah,
I would have liked to have had some sort of
inkling that this existed.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
It's a story worth hearing, it's a story worth being told.
It's a story that I think still resonates today, and
the Levinson and Link of it all I think really
helps because it is so well written. And that's because
the guys behind some of the great TV shows of
all times.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
I was hesitant when we not because of any specific reason,
but I was like, maybe is this a little too
far afield for us? But with the way the story
is told, I really think Levinson and Link were uniquely
qualified to tell this story. And kudos to them for
making a story that has an inevitable ending so goddamn
entertaining but at the same time so unbelievably just heart wrenching.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
Yeah, and I think that the storytelling technique that they
use for the Gun is also an interesting one. It's
been a long time since I've seen it, But we'll
be back next month talking about that one as we
continue our little break between seasons here of Color. So
if you don't want to hear that, come back in
two months. Otherwise we'll be around next month. And until then, Chris,

(54:05):
what are you working on these days?

Speaker 2 (54:07):
Just making podcasts and audio diversions over at Weirdywaymedia dot com,
where you can find this show and all the other
things that I work on, including a culturecast, Bollywood Cinema Club,
a whole bunch of things, everything but ranking on bond,
which can be found at your Patreon, my Patreon and
that's it Patreon dot com, slash Projection Booth or slash

(54:28):
culture Cast, and go support everybody who's on Weirdyway Media,
including Father Malone at slash Fatherblone and Susan and Sharon
over it to ADYCV ladies on Patreon. Yeah, that's where
you can find me and all the people that I
support and shout out for. What about you, Mike, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
Pretty much exactly the same thing. Other than you know,
I won't mention Father Malone or Sharon and Susan forget
all those people. Just me, just me, Just pay attention
to me, please. Yeah, we'll be back next month. I
want to thank John Walker, who you can also pay
attention two for our opening theme song, and Colin Gallagher,
who wishes to remain anonymous, for our end theme song.

(55:06):
Thank you so much for listening, everybody, and we'll be
back next month with another shabby detective.

Speaker 4 (55:15):
Well, the wars they come, and the wars they go en.
Deserters come, and deserters and the army paper works. The
figure in pain, it can figure its way to pull
a trigger and rhin. Some legends are sweet, Some legends

(55:39):
are bad. But the legend of any sings the sweet songs.
They never shot a man awol since the Lincoln War
till the hitler Hell, hey a hey, there pulled his cousin.

(56:04):
They shot you down upon the ground.

Speaker 3 (56:08):
The musketry was.

Speaker 4 (56:10):
Buzzing, Hey, private Eddie. The paperwork was ready, general like
he drove the spike.

Speaker 3 (56:25):
That lays in his semitary.

Speaker 4 (56:31):
When Eddie was just a grown young lad, he done
things good, and he'd done things, but.

Speaker 3 (56:42):
He stole some.

Speaker 4 (56:43):
Money from an old drug store. Later took him to
prison and shut that door. Then Eddie came out like
a young lad. Should he married a girl? Thought he
never cool. Then a letter came postmarked at Eddie's door.

Speaker 3 (57:06):
Next thing you know, he went off to walk.

Speaker 4 (57:13):
Hey yslovak hey their Polish cousin. They shut you down
upon the ground. The musketry was buzzing, Hey, Private Eddie.

(57:34):
The paperwork was ready, general, like he drove the spike.

Speaker 3 (57:42):
That lays in a semitary.

Speaker 6 (57:48):
Eddy couldn't keel and me man to it to his
body on a foreign line. They told Eddy Slovak again
and again to go back to his infantry fighting men.

(58:08):
When Eddie refused, it got their goat, plus the battle
of the bulge eating at their throw.

Speaker 4 (58:19):
Hey, hey Slovak, Hey, their Polish cousin. They shot you
down upon the ground. The musketry was buzzing, Hey, Private Eddie.

(58:39):
The paperwork was ready.

Speaker 3 (58:43):
General, like he drove the spy that lays in a semitary.

Speaker 4 (58:52):
There were forty nine thousand that ran our way.

Speaker 3 (58:56):
How come they shot just Eddie? That a how come
his woman was never told by the.

Speaker 4 (59:07):
Way his body was buried bold, But now she lives
in a Detroit town as he sleeps in a frenchman's ground.
Oh era, oh area, or a simple thing, as long

(59:28):
as I don't feel your mortals thing. Hey, ay Slovac,
Hey their Polish cousin. They shot you down upon the ground.
The musketry was buzzing' hey, Private Eddy. The paperwork was

(59:57):
ready General, he drove the spine that lays in a
semetery