David Lowery

1 sketch, 10 claims, and 9 fun items attributed to them. What was said about them.

Personality, episode by episode

Blank Check — Patreon: The 13th Warrior with David Lowery (Ad-Free) (guest)

Loves myth-making, peeling back legend, scenes about language and communication, and quiet deaths between peers. Prefers the analog 90s look and despises ADR. A sucker for Vikings, Beowulf and a mortal passing into legend.

Stances

  • The language-learning scene is the one great scene
  • A capped-budget Green Knight style version is the one he would want
  • Signature style can be a crutch; problem-solving is better

Humor: Understated, self-deprecating, and quick to tie a bit back to his own films.

In their words

  • “every movie I've made has sort of been to date has been sort of about peeling back some level of legend to try to like expose the fallacies within.” (0:27:39)
  • “I like movies about communication” (1:18:18)
  • “I despise it.” (1:44:46)
  • “the version of this I would want to see is the like Green Knight style version of it.” (0:26:59)

Their shows' recurring bits

Running bits, not opinions; a critic read aloud is cited, not present.

Their claims

Showing 1–10 of 10 claims.

  1. lineage (lineage): The 13th Warrior → Michael Crichton. Lowery read the Crichton novel and found the film is the book almost scene for scene.
    “reading the book, I was like, this is pretty much just scene for scene exactly what's on screen.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The 13th Warrior with David Lowery (Ad-Free) · 0:19:51 · David Lowery (0.85 sure it was them)
  2. what-if (what-if): The Green Knight → The 13th Warrior. Lowery would want a Green Knight-style capped-budget version of this story, though now it would scare him.
    “the version of this I would want to see is the like Green Knight style version of it.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The 13th Warrior with David Lowery (Ad-Free) · 0:26:59 · David Lowery (0.90 sure it was them)
  3. theme (theme): David Lowery → The Green Knight. Lowery says all his movies puncture legend, and sees this film as one of the first seeds of that interest.
    “every movie I've made has sort of been to date has been sort of about peeling back some level of legend to try to like expose the fallacies within.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The 13th Warrior with David Lowery (Ad-Free) · 0:27:39 · David Lowery (0.95 sure it was them)
  4. theme (theme): The 13th Warrior → Heat. The scene of a mortal sitting to die while another watches reminded Lowery of De Niro watching Pacino in Heat.
    “It reminded me of Robert De Niro dying in heat.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The 13th Warrior with David Lowery (Ad-Free) · 0:28:42 · David Lowery (0.85 sure it was them)
  5. lineage (lineage): The 13th Warrior → The Northman. The Northman is the modern take on Viking storytelling; Lowery rewatched its funeral scene because it echoes this film's incantation.
    “the same, the same incantation, like the low, I see my father, low, I see my mother”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The 13th Warrior with David Lowery (Ad-Free) · 0:31:02 · David Lowery (0.80 sure it was them)
  6. people (people): The 13th Warrior → Peter Pan and Wendy. John DeSantis (a Viking here) is also in Master and Commander and Lowery's Peter Pan and Wendy.
    “And Peter Pan, who's who's taller than Michael Crichton”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The 13th Warrior with David Lowery (Ad-Free) · 0:55:06 · David Lowery (0.70 sure it was them)
  7. craft (craft): The 13th Warrior → Throne of Blood. A threat that sounds mythic (fireworm, moving trees) and then resolves as people carrying things is a letdown, like Throne of Blood's trees.
    “I mean, I remember in Throne of Blood, the Kurosama movie, all the trees coming forward is terrifying, cool.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The 13th Warrior with David Lowery (Ad-Free) · 1:24:12 · David Lowery (0.70 sure it was them)
  8. contrast (contrast): The 13th Warrior → The Lord of the Rings. Lord of the Rings a few years later has the same content (monsters attacking a wooden fort, a cave of skulls) but with new digital tools.
    “even Lord of the Rings a few years later, which has a lot of the same scenes”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The 13th Warrior with David Lowery (Ad-Free) · 1:32:25 · David Lowery (0.65 sure it was them)
  9. craft (craft): The 13th Warrior → Lawrence of Arabia. The photochemical look and fine-art sense of image link it to David Lean-era filmmaking via Omar Sharif.
    “like, let's go to Lawrence Arabia, which was also completely photograph, like photochemical movie.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The 13th Warrior with David Lowery (Ad-Free) · 1:34:51 · David Lowery (0.60 sure it was them)
  10. craft (craft): David Lowery → Ain't Them Bodies Saints. Lowery doesn't stage the movie-hero death; he deliberately puncture the character's mythology.
    “So, like, Nathan Body Saints was all about Casey Affleck's character of thinking.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The 13th Warrior with David Lowery (Ad-Free) · 2:06:52 · David Lowery (0.90 sure it was them)

Their fun items

Showing 1–9 of 9 fun items.

  1. fun, about The 13th Warrior: Lowery read the whole novel while waiting for the start of the New York City Marathon.
    “the book was short enough that I read the entire thing while waiting to start the marathon?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The 13th Warrior with David Lowery (Ad-Free) · 0:19:20 · David Lowery (0.75 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about The 13th Warrior: The Beowulf surrogate's death scene, a man sitting down to die while another watches, stuck with Lowery as a mortal passing into legend.
    “And that moment stuck with me, where he just sits there and dying is like, an inherently pathetic act.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The 13th Warrior with David Lowery (Ad-Free) · 0:28:21 · David Lowery (0.90 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about The 13th Warrior: As a young projectionist Lowery threaded the original Eaters of the Dead trailer, and studios sent letters to pull trailers when release dates slipped.
    “The 1st trailer had Eaters of the Dead as the title on it.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The 13th Warrior with David Lowery (Ad-Free) · 0:32:27 · David Lowery (0.85 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about The 13th Warrior: The language-learning scene is the film's best: English, a Scandinavian language and Latin blend until Banderas says 'I listened.' See it on YouTube.
    “a really good line delivery from Band Aris where he's like, I listened.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The 13th Warrior with David Lowery (Ad-Free) · 1:18:04 · David Lowery (0.85 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about The 13th Warrior: Lowery on film stock: O Brother was the first full digital intermediate, after which everyone had the new toolbox.
    “Oh, I guess O brother is the 1st full DI.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The 13th Warrior with David Lowery (Ad-Free) · 1:35:43 · David Lowery (0.60 sure it was them)
  6. fun, about The 13th Warrior: ADR rant: Lowery despises dialogue added with actors' backs to camera and says filmmakers' eyes twitch the second they see it.
    “I've been guilty of it, sometimes under duress, and I despise it.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The 13th Warrior with David Lowery (Ad-Free) · 1:44:46 · David Lowery (0.85 sure it was them)
  7. fun, about 65: Lowery saw 65 dubbed in Germany; the filmmakers told him he had the better experience since it was written for an alien language with no subtitles.
    “you 100% had the better viewing experience and you saw it the way we intended because you didn't understand what anyone was saying.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The 13th Warrior with David Lowery (Ad-Free) · 2:11:45 · David Lowery (0.60 sure it was them)
  8. fun, about Peter Pan and Wendy: Lowery got the Peter Pan green-light call at intermission of Moulin Rouge on Broadway after his last visit.
    “We have to have a green light meeting because Disney wants to make Peter Pan.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The 13th Warrior with David Lowery (Ad-Free) · 2:12:51 · David Lowery (0.90 sure it was them)
  9. fun, about Toy Story 4 (Forky): Lowery sneaked Forky into The Green Knight puppet show during pickups, and into Peter Pan & Wendy.
    “I made sure Forky was in those.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The 13th Warrior with David Lowery (Ad-Free) · 2:13:37 · David Lowery (0.90 sure it was them)