Director Watch Ep. 49 – ‘Days of Thunder’ (Tony Scott, 1990)

Welcome to Director Watch! On this AwardsWatch podcast, co-hosts Ryan McQuade and Jay Ledbetter attempt to breakdown, analyze, and ultimately, get inside the mind of some of cinema’s greatest auteurs. In doing so, they will look at their filmographies, explore what drives them artistically and what makes their decision-making process so fascinating. Add in a few silly tangents and a fun game at the end of the episode and you’ve got yourself a podcast we truly hope you love. On episode 49 of the Director Watch Podcast, the boys are joined by AwardsWatch contributor Karen Peterson to discuss the latest film in their Tony Scott series, Days of Thunder (1990).

Four years after making the monster hit that was Top Gun, Tony Scott reteamed with Tom Cruise and producers Dom Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer to take their collaboration from the skies to the racetrack with Days of Thunder. After making Beverly Hills Cop II and Revenge (which are discussed briefly on the show), Scott was tapped to recreate the magic of his 1986 hit, this time with his leading man a bigger star and co-writer on the project, inspired by Cruise falling in love with racing, as well as the producers loving this new idea. While Scott clashed with Simpson and Bruckheimer throughout the production, the end result is an entertaining sports action drama with tremendous performances by Cruise and Robert Duvall, as well as the breakout role for Nicole Kidman. Ryan, Jay and Karen (the biggest Tom Cruise fan we know) discuss the film, their relationships to the sport of racing and their overall love of sports, Karen’s favorite Tom Cruise movie, the overt boyish behavior the characters have throughout the film, if the ending/John C. Reilly side plot works, the racing scenes, the infamous wheelchair race scene between Cruise and Michael Rooker, and if this movie is better than Top Gun.

You can listen to the Director Watch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h05m. The guys will be back next week to continue their series on the films of Tony Scott with a review of his next film, The Last Boy Scout. You can rent it via iTunes and Amazon Prime rental in preparation for the next episode of Director Watch. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: MUSICALIFE, from Pond5 (intro) and “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro)