The Next Picture Show

#138: (Pt. 1) Sorry To Bother You / Putney Swope (1969)

Rapper-director Boots Riley has said he hadn’t seen Robert Downey Sr.’s 1969 satirical comedy PUTNEY SWOPE when he made the buzzy new SORRY TO BOTHER YOU, but the films share so much on both a surface level (white men providing the literal voices of black characters) and deeper thematic ones (concerns about capitalism, race, and what it might take to burn down an unjust system) that we had to put them in conversation with each other. In this half, we try to make sense of the fascinating mess that is PUTNEY SWOPE, considering how it works as both satire and comedy, and whether Downey’s choice to overdub his black title character’s voice with his own is an asset or a liability.  Plus, feedback on our recent INCREDIBLES 2/GOLDFINGER episodes and some general thoughts on auteur theory and film categorization.
Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about PUTNEY SWOPE, SORRY TO BOTHER YOU, or both by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.  
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Looking at cinema's present via its past. The Next Picture Show is a biweekly roundtable by the former editorial team of The Dissolve examining how classic films inspire and inform modern movies. Episodes take a deep dive into a classic film and its legacy in the first half, then compare and contrast that film with a modern successor in the second. Hosted and produced by Genevieve Koski, Keith Phipps, Tasha Robinson and Scott Tobias.