MovieChat Forums > Hail, Caesar! (2016) Discussion > Bubbles and briefcase

Bubbles and briefcase

posted 8 years ago by markoverholt-1
4 replies | jump to latest

I very much enjoyed this movie. I was fortunate enough to read for three of the roles too. The portions of the script I got were a class in writing.
While I understand the overall idea of this film, there are a few small minor details that I don't understand – the bubble sound effect when Mannix is meeting the man from Lockheed in the restaurant. Any idea what the significance of that is? Best I can come up with is that Mannix feels as if he's drowning...
Also, does anyone have an opinion about the scene when Channing Tatum joined the Russians? His friends ask him to give the briefcase full of cash to the Russians, he's all set to do just that when his dog leaps into his arms he drops the cash into the ocean to save the dog. Channing doesn't seem to be upset by this loss or affected in anyway. Instead, he climbs into the submarine and off he goes. Anyone have thoughts on that?

[–] springz_nineeleven 8 years ago

This was a great joked I figured a lot of people would miss. The communist writers who kidnap Clooney talk about how they are sneaking in pro-communist scenes into the movie. So the navy scene is one of those pro-communist scenes. Maybe his dropping the money and saving the dog is a commentary on communism's view that money is evil.

[–] markoverholt-1 8 years ago

I had a thought that it was a goof on the screenwriting book, save the cat – instead, they saved the dog... still trying to figure out those bubbles in the Lockheed scene AND why Francis McD almost died in the editing bay because of her scarf

[–] sussman8454473 8 years ago

As far as I remember, the bubble sound punctuates the Lockheed guy's line "you have to think about the future". The communist kidnappers call themselves "The Future".
edit:
In fact it's "you need to think about the future". The bubble sound follows that line, it accompanies the line "Lockheed is booming".
(1) The bubble sound mocks(?) or at least counteracts the line about Lockheed's "boom" sound-wise. The next scene starts with the vacuum cleaner (a Hoover, like J.Edgar) "booming" against the wall in the Communists' house. Also, the crashing surf of Malibu at the Communists' house might be considered in juxtaposition to the bubble sound.
(2) In the Communists' study group the question "who benefits?" arises (leading up to Baird's Danny Kaye anecdote). In 1913, prior to World War I, Lenin asked who benefits from the "mad armaments hurdle-race" (in his famous "cui bono"/"cui prodest" article), and came to the conclusion that the corporations producing the weapons would. Lockheed "was there" when "we blew the Aitch-erino" (Hydrogen bomb) on the Bikini Atoll. In connection with (1) you may conclude: a loud fuss is made about one thing, while the other one proceeds almost silently ("bubbling") in the background (considering the Lockheed man's secretive behavior).

[–] Naldoman 8 years ago

Noisy bubbles in restaurant - dunno why that was emphasized

Briefcase of cash lost at sea - I figured it was a commentary that communist efforts just waste money and amount to nothing. The poor are still poor. The self-labeled intellectuals should have seen it coming, but they didn't - showing their ideals are flawed.

Death by Scarf - This is based on movie actress Isadora Duncan, who was famous for wearing very long scarves. In 1927, her long neck scarf caught in the wheel of an open automobile in which she was a passenger. She was pulled from the car and dragged to her death before the driver could stop.

"Hail, Caesar-Story of the Savior" - The movie production at Captital Motion Pictures is a mimickry of the film The Robe (1953) a lavish production with the same storyline.