Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith / Ardbeg Uigeadail

[Brad]
In 2005, director George Lucas and star Hayden Christensen gave the world a dramatic climax to the origin story of cinema's greatest villain.

[Bob]
In 2022, we have a dramatic climax to a four-week run of Ardbeg Whiskey. The film is Star Wars Episode III, Revenge of the Sith. The whiskey is Ardbeg Oogedahl.

And we'll review them both. This is the Film and Whiskey Podcast. Welcome to the Film and Whiskey Podcast, where each week we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey.

I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad Gee. And this week we are looking at George Lucas's 2005 film, Star Wars Episode III, Revenge of the Sith.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]
You were the chosen one. It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them. Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness.

[Bob]
Brad, I gotta say, man, right off the bat, there are some movies that got themselves into Season 5 because they are very under-seen. And they're under-discussed because people haven't seen them enough. And then there are other movies that are on this list because they're under-discussed for a different reason.

And I think the George Lucas prequels to the Star Wars, the original Star Wars trilogy, is still kind of a hot topic, you know? It's like 17 years on now. And we didn't do the first two prequels.

So, like, it makes perfect sense that we would slot Episode III into this type of a season. But I can't think of another movie we're doing this year, maybe the Harry Potter movies, which are not technically part of our picks for this season, that has the cultural impact and immediate recognizability as this movie.

[Brad]
Yeah, honestly, Bob, the reason I chose it for my list was because I was, like, 90% sure that you would never put any of the prequels when you were in control of the movies we watch. And so I was like, you know, I'm at least gonna get my favorite of the prequels into this show somehow.

[Bob]
So here we are, about to review Episode III. Here we are, man. We have come a long way from reviewing the first three Star Wars films.

I guess, you know, 4, 5, and 6, if you're counting by George Lucas' numbering.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]
Mm-hmm.

[Bob]
Brad, I'm gonna drop a bomb on you right now, man. I started watching this movie last night, and it was really late. It was after midnight.

We had an electrician coming to the house this morning, and he worked for most of the day today. Got here super early, so I hit, like, the halfway mark of the movie, and I was like, I can't finish it tonight. And I went to bed thinking, like, oh, no.

Like, I'm really gonna crap on another Star Wars movie. I hate that this is the case, but, like, so much of this is bad. And I remember this being, by far, my favorite of the prequels.

And for a long time, it was the only Star Wars movie that I actually owned. So, like, I remember really liking this movie. And I woke up this morning, and I was like, all right, I gotta finish this thing, man.

And from the moment I hit play, I was like, oh, my gosh, I am riveted. This is incredible. This is amazing filmmaking.

And I spent the last hour of this film just giddy with excitement. And you may have been expecting that I would come in here and be the same old Bob about Star Wars films. But, Brad, I have been converted.

[Brad]
Bob, I don't know if it needs to be said, but, you know, a little bit of a spoiler alert. There's stuff that happens in this movie that's, if you've not seen it yet, you should go watch it. But I will say this, now that the spoiler alert is out of the way.

There's a lot of great movies that can make me cry. It's a Wonderful Life, pretty much always cry. Maybe not every time, but, you know, it always gets me.

About Time. We reviewed it earlier this year. That's a movie that often will make me cry.

Do you want to know what makes me cry literally every single time I watch it? And I'm not talking like a few tears. I'm talking like weeping.

Oh, it's...

[Bob]
Order 66. Oh, really? Yeah.

Oh, I was going to say that it was Ewan McGregor doing like, You were like my brother, I loved you.

[Brad]
Dude, that also is a moment I cry in. Not every time, but I often will cry at that moment. I don't know what kind of like voodoo magic George Lucas does during Order 66.

It's a combination of the music and like the war happening around them and just the merciless nature of the killings. I weep like a small child.

[Bob]
Every time Order 66 happens. It's not George Lucas in that moment. It's a cool montage, but it's 100% John Williams.

Yeah. And he has this like... There's just this incredible...

I don't know if music theory to know what kind of chords he's using, but it's got that like ache to it. That theme that he plays throughout. He plays it there.

He plays it throughout the confrontation with Padme towards the end of the movie. And it's just got this like... And it's like, oh, it's so good.

If there's any emotion to this movie, it is amplified tenfold by what John Williams is doing here.

[Brad]
Yeah. We're not even getting into the actual review yet. And I think we're already pointing out one of the most important things is that Star Wars would not be Star Wars if Lucas had not paired up with John Williams.

No. He makes the Star Wars universe come to life with his music. And I will say that I think a lot of Revenge of the Sith is carried by John Williams.

[Bob]
Oh, 100%. To the extent that like... There are some moments in this movie that are kind of notorious for being silly.

And I think that if you take a five-second clip of any part of this movie, it is like... It looks silly and stupid. The way that the Emperor acts, it's over the top even for the Emperor at moments.

And when Hayden Christensen is pacing back and forth and screaming, Liar! You will not turn her against me! There's just little moments.

And I'll tell you what, in the context of the movie, they totally work. They do not pull me out of it at all. Even at the end when Darth Vader...

No! It still works. I don't care what anybody says.

It works for me. I don't care.

[Brad]
Dude, I think that the shot when Vader's helmet is like sealed... It's so shiny. And all of...

Dude, and all of the smoke is like calm and not moving. And then you see it suck in and then blow out as you hear the iconic Darth Vader. I truly think...

I'm gonna put myself out there. I think that is one of the greatest single shots in cinematic history. It's so good, man.

It's just absolute perfection. The pure blackness of the screen behind Darth Vader, the shininess of his helmet, the way the smoke comes in and out, the sound editing in that moment where it's just pure and utter silence until he breathes. I just can't think of a better way for Lucas to end his prequel trilogy.

It's just pure perfection. And layered on top of that is so much bad dialogue.

[Bob]
All right, I'm gonna jump in here because I have a feeling that because we both like this movie, and I will also say, by far, I've watched this more than any other Star Wars movie. I've probably watched this all the way through at least 10 times. And so there are tiny moments that I can call out and we could just turn this into like a really nerdy podcast episode where we're just talking about moments that we remember that has no connection to our listeners.

So I think we got to pull back a little bit and try to frame this episode in a way that makes sense. And that means we need to jump into Brad Explains. After Brad Explains, we can get back to nerding out.

But this is the part of the podcast where Brad breaks down the plot of the film that he has just seen, often for the first time. And this is not Brad's first time seeing episode three, nor is it mine. It's a good day for us, Brad.

[Brad]
I will say, before we get into Brad Explains, this might be the only movie my parents actually like called in sick for me to school and let me skip school to go see this movie. That's awesome. Yeah, like I just, I remember because back then they didn't have like the Thursday night showings.

And so it was like a Friday afternoon or something. And my best friend, Mike, and I were like so amped to see this in 2005. So we took the entire day off school.

We like hung out all day, played Star Wars video games. And then in the afternoon, we went to see Revenge of the Sith. And so it's like one of my favorite movie memories ever.

[Bob]
Back in the day, movie theaters would just give out free passes all the time for random things. And like having a movie pass was really cool because then you didn't have to pay to get into the movie. And I remember like my dad was an exterminator.

And he, one of his clients was the movie theater in town. And they gave him passes like every month when he came to do whatever the job was. And so we always had a couple movie passes on hand.

And I remember the Star Wars prequels being like mandated by George Lucas that they, no theater was allowed to accept passes for that movie. And like I remember with some big movies that came out, it was like they put a two week moratorium on it where you couldn't take passes for like two weeks and then you could. This was a movie that they did not accept passes to like at all.

And so we had, like even though we were like planning on using our monthly allotment of tickets to go see this, we had to pay out of pocket on top of that. So like this was a big deal, man. I really wanted to see the last Star Wars movie.

[Brad]
First off, I've known you for 12, 13 years now. I don't think I ever knew that your dad was an exterminator.

[Bob]
He sure is. Yeah, my dad was an exterminator. My mom worked for a long time on the maternity ward in a hospital.

So we had the complete opposite poles of life and death, bringing things into the world and taking them out, represented in my household.

[Brad]
Every time I hear about your father, I'm just curious how it plays into your fascination with father-son trauma movies. So we're just peeling back the layers, man.

[Bob]
He caused trauma on hordes and hordes of insects. All right, man, let us get into Brad Explains. Brad, we've put 60 seconds on the clock.

Can you break down the truly labyrinthine plot of this movie in one minute or less?

[Brad]
I don't know, man. It starts with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker rescuing Emperor Palpatine. Not Emperor yet, Chancellor Palpatine from General Grievous, the leader of the Separatist Army.

They obviously rescue him. Palpatine wants to help Anakin turn into a Jedi Master. He forcibly puts him on the Jedi Council.

The Jedi Council is not trusting of Palpatine, so they ask Anakin to spy on him. Palpatine wants Anakin to spy on the council for him. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan Kenobi tracks General Grievous down, assassinates him, essentially, to end the Separatist War.

Anakin and Padme are having a baby. He falls to the dark side. He kills Mace Windu.

He goes to Mustafar and kills all the Separatist leaders. Then him and Obi-Wan duke it out. It's just epic and awesome and cool.

I'm like, ah, dude. Oh, and by the way, Natalie Portman runs out of life and names her two twins. That's it.

That's it.

[Bob]
Alright, man. If you don't mind, I think I know where I'd like to start here. I want to start by comparing this movie and the function that this movie serves in its trilogy to another trilogy-capping Star Wars movie, and that would be the stinking turd that is The Rise of Skywalker.

And I think my appreciation for this movie deepened even more, Brad, because, notoriously, the first two films of the prequel trilogy are not well-loved, and I feel like people either like one or the other pretty, you know, like people are either like, ah, you guys poop on The Phantom Menace too much. It's a good movie. Or same with Attack of the Clones.

And I know that you kind of fall in Phantom Menace territory, and I fall in Attack of the Clones territory.

[Brad]
I'll say this, Bob. I like both of them a lot. I like Revenge of the Sith the most.

If I had to rate them, I'd probably go one, or three, one, two. But I still like Attack of the Clones.

[Bob]
It's fun. One of the reasons that people don't like those first two movies is that they are so bogged down in the intricacies of trade federations and politics within the Republic. And Lucas is trying to craft this really huge political history of how the Empire came to be.

So that by the time you get to, you know, the original trilogy, it makes sense, right? Like how the entire galaxy would fall into the state that it's in. And going back to The Rise of Skywalker, that trilogy was focus grouped and nitpicked to death by Disney to the point where, like, you know, what was the first one called?

The Force Awakens was like everyone just kind of said, oh, all they did was remake Star Wars. Let's do something new. And they did something new in The Last Jedi and everyone was like, not that new.

Don't do that. And then Rise of Skywalker was like, well, we have to tie up all these loose ends and they did, like, just the worst, most fanservice-y job of it. And I feel like with this movie, though, I had the complete opposite impression.

I feel like I agree with everything everybody says about the first two films in the prequel trilogy, that they're too bogged down, that it's, you know, the dialogue's wooden and it may not really be worth it for the payoff you get in the third one. But when you honestly sit down and see the reveals happen in the third movie and the way that things are revealed and you start to understand the extent of Emperor Palpatine's deception and the long play that he was doing across many, many movies, I actually think it's kind of genius. I think it's really brilliant how Lucas fits all of this together.

And you really have to have a deep understanding of, like, clones versus droids versus separatists versus Grievous versus Dooku and who all these people are and what they represent. But once it kind of clicks into place, you're like, oh, man, this is a really complex tapestry that Lucas has put together here. And functionally, I think that you do have to ask, like, was it all worth it for those first two films to kind of be duds in some ways?

But at the end of the day, I will take the gigantic, ambitious swing that Lucas tried here over the, like, well, s***, we just have to wrap things up that they did in Rise of Skywalker.

[Brad]
Well, if anything, I think the comparison point is that when Lucas was making the prequel trilogy, he had final say on everything. And, you know, give the man credit where credit's due, he kept everything focused on the end point. And what is the end point of the prequel trilogy?

Anakin turning into Darth Vader. Like, that is the whole point of this prequel trilogy. And, yes, he answers some questions here and there.

You know, there's a tiny insert shot of Obi-Wan picking up Anakin's lightsaber. And, you know, if you're big into the universe, you're like, oh, that's how Obi-Wan gets it to give it to Luke later. So you have little things like that that are answered.

And you also have other things that kind of feel like plot holes. You know, like Leia talks about remembering her mother in Return of the Jedi, but she was only there for 30 seconds of her life. And so, like, there's things like that that people will nitpick over and complain about and argue over.

I'm not interested in that kind of stuff. What I am interested in is how Lucas was able to mastermind this epic amount of information that he wanted to distill into these three movies and create a compelling narrative. And for me, I think that Episodes I, II, and III all weave together a creative, interesting, just massive, bombastic narrative that is interesting and fun and feels like Star Wars.

Right. And it really, I'm just gonna take a dump on Disney for a little bit here. It just feels like Disney sucked the living soul out of Star Wars.

Right. And I don't think it's any of the actors' fault. I, you know, I really like a lot of the new actors.

I just feel like the very essence of Star Wars was destroyed by the conglomerate that is Disney.

[Bob]
I really appreciated the... how this was almost like a textbook on, like, the history of war and politics in this galaxy. I'm serious, though.

Like, Lucas took his original trilogy and decided, like, not only am I gonna flesh out the origin story and the background to all this, I want to give... I want to deepen the mythology. I want to really get into the intricacies of the politics that are going on in the background.

And for some people that's not interesting, I, again, I respect the balls that it took. I respect the giant swing that it was. You know, for me, it's almost like if instead of adapting The Hobbit as a follow-up to Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson was like, we're going full Silmarillion.

Like, we're gonna get into the weeds here. And I really, really like that. And it reminds me, Brad, of, you know, a lot of what we talked about with Titanic and how James Cameron was doubted by everyone in Hollywood and went way over budget and they were gonna fire him at multiple points and he had to get rid of his directing fee just to cover the cost of the movie.

Word around town was that this was gonna be the most colossal failure ever. It was gonna bankrupt the studio and then it becomes the biggest movie in the history of movies. And James Cameron is known for being kind of a d***, but then he wins best director, he gets up on stage, he grabs his Oscar, and he tells all the people in the audience, I'm the king of the world.

And it is like the most d***ish f*** you to a group of people I've ever seen. But I honestly feel like this movie kind of is Lucas validating, like, I had this vision, watch me execute it, because I am gonna be able to land this plane. Like, we may be missing all of our engines and both wings, but I'm still gonna land the d*** thing.

[Brad]
It's gonna be the ship that Anakin barely flies in at the start of the film to rescue the Chancellor. It's gonna be missing its back half completely on fire. But it's gonna work, and it's gonna make you feel like something epic just happened.

[Bob]
I do think that that's a good segue into talking about the first part of this movie. And I would say around the 40 to 45 minute mark, when Obi-Wan goes to what's the name of that planet? Utapau.

I keep thinking Ugadal, because that's the name of the whiskey we're drinking. Hard bag Utapau. He goes to Utapau to fight Grievous.

And I feel like from there, there's a really well choreographed fight scene there. I have a great sense of the geography, even if the CGI still looks awful. Like, I feel like the movie really starts clicking from there on out.

But there was something about the first 40 to 45 minutes of this movie, Brad, that I guess you could take that first, let's call it the first third, and even break that down into two segments, right? The first segment is this, like, 25 minute assault on this ship that Palpatine is being held on and his rescue. And then it's like 25 minutes of Anakin and Padme longing for each other and just awful dialogue.

And I feel like they both have like fundamental flaws with them. Do you know what I mean? Like, there was no reason for that rescue sequence to take as long as it did.

It was cool to see some of that aerial battle. It was cool to see some of them on the ship. It was cool to see some of what happened in the kind of chambers that Palpatine was being held in.

I didn't need anything after that where they have to, like, fly that thing, like you were just talking about, like that crash landing. It goes on for so long. And then you realize at, like, the 25 minute mark, oh, yeah, we actually haven't started the movie yet.

This was all just a precursor to the actual plot.

[Brad]
Yeah, I mean, that, if you want to talk about George Lucas flexing, that is, like, his dream is to use CGI to create cool shit. Like, that, if you know anything about George Lucas, that's what he wants to do. He wants to create the most epic, amazing-looking shots with just ridiculous things going on.

And I think that, you know, seeing it in theaters as a 15-year-old, the opening dogfight, you know, with the droids and Anakin's shooting the buzz droids off, like, it's so freaking cool. And even now, as a 31-year-old, that opening shot, right? Because every single Star Wars movie opens with a planet and then a ship, you know, flying past that planet.

I love that touch that they do every time. It's like having Wilhelm scream in all the movies. Oh, wait, Disney got rid of that because Disney sucks.

There's something beautiful about that opening shot that sets you up for, like, this is going to be different because it's not just a ship passing in front of the planet. The ship goes by, and all of a sudden, there's 50 ships. They're fighting.

They're just duking it out. And the music just drops in. Dun-da-dun-dun-da-dun-da-dun-da-dun.

It's epic. And, like, you immediately are like, holy cow, this is going to be amazing. And then, like you said, 25 minutes later, you're like, wow, that was really cool.

Yeah. What are we doing?

[Bob]
Where are we at? Well, it's kind of like when you used to be able to listen to albums all the way through, like you have a CD. I know we're aging ourselves here, but, like, an album starts off with just, like, you know, it's the first single that was released, and it's an absolute banger, and then track two is like, we're going to slow it down.

And you're like, ah. Like, you just ground all your momentum to a halt. Yep.

Let's talk about the halt in this movie because it is probably 25 minutes long, and it's not just Padme and Anakin. It's everybody. Dude, Samuel L.

Jackson So bad in that stretch. has no emotion whatsoever. Here's something I noticed, though, about that stretch of the movie.

It's edited so weirdly because every single shot, there's like a second and a half of silence before the person starts speaking. Yes. And, like, it'll be in the middle of a dialogue scene.

You know, Hey, how you doing today? Cut. I'm good.

How are you? Cut. I'm good.

Like, every single shot is like that. Could you guys not trim this up a little bit? And I honestly, like, yes, the dialogue is terrible.

Yes, there's no chemistry between Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman. Yes, their characters are written poorly in general. But I honestly feel like if you just kind of tightened up those scenes a little bit, they would at least work marginally better.

[Brad]
Yeah, I think that the two things that would make this movie genuinely go over the top into one of the best movies of all time would be if he had somebody to co-write the movie with him and, like, just clean up the dialogue and ask Lucas good questions about, like, you know, what were these people talking about right before the camera came onto them? Because there's so many times where, you know, the screen does its, you know, famous Star Wars wipe and then it cuts to Anakin and Padme and Anakin just awkwardly is like, and the Separatist Army is being pushed back now. And you're like, wait, were you really just talking about this?

Because it feels like somebody just said action and you were supposed to start talking. So I think that that would be the first thing, get him a co-writer, help him clean up the dialogue. The second thing, I'm with you, man, get a better, whether it's cinematographer or editor or whoever puts the movie together.

That's the editor, yeah. So yeah, get a better editor. That was like the one thing for me where I'm like, I'm with you, dude.

There's just a lot of awkward silence and weird spaces in the film that didn't feel necessary.

[Bob]
I don't even know if I'd go so far as to say, like, get a new editor because the final 45 minutes of this movie are such brilliant filmmaking. And it's like he's juggling these huge narrative arcs that he's trying to land. It's this operatic tragedy and he's kind of cutting to that.

You know, he's, the action choreography and the editing around that final fight on Mustafar is just brilliant. It just seems to me like they expended all of their resources making sure that the last hour or so of the movie was so tightly constructed. And then, like, someone looked up at the calendar and they were like, oh, this movie comes out in three days.

We never, we never edited that 20 minutes in the middle at the beginning there. And George Lucas was like, well, let's do it right now. Go, go, go.

[Brad]
Dude, I am so with you. Honestly, it kind of reminds me of when we reviewed Return of the Jedi. Like, the first half of Return of the Jedi just has a lot of flaws.

And then, like, the final half of that movie is utterly spotless. Like, it is clean and smooth and delivers some of the best action I've ever seen. And this movie just reminds me of that so much.

The first half of the movie has stuff going on that's fun and unique and feels like Star Wars and is interesting. But it just doesn't feel clean. It doesn't feel smooth.

It feels clunky. And once you, you're right, once you hit that point where Anakin, or where Obi-Wan drops from the rafters, gives his famous, hello there, and, you know, starts the fight with Grievous, like, from there on out, everything just clicks.

[Bob]
All right, man. I think maybe it's time for us to take a break here. Let's drink this whiskey.

When we come back, I wanna talk about performances. I wanna talk about, like, some of our tiny nitpicks with the movie because it's a fun movie to nitpick. But I think this is a good stopping point.

We seem to be in good spirits and in agreement with each other. So let's dump some whiskey on top of this.

[Brad]
Well, before we get there, Bob, I do want to say that if you love what we're doing on the Film Whiskey Podcast, you can join our Patreon. We have three different levels of sponsorships starting at $3, and you get all sorts of really cool bonus content, the most important of which is you get extra content on the end of all of our episodes. So today, we're gonna be taking on, after, you know, the credits roll, we're gonna be talking about the prequel trilogy as a whole, what we think of it, what it was like to watch it when we were teenagers.

So if you don't wanna miss out on content like that, jump onto our Patreon, which is patreon.com slash filmwhiskey. All right, Brad, let's get to the whiskey. What do you say?

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[Bob]
Alright, so today we are checking out Ardbeg Oogadal. Brad, that's how it's pronounced. Oogadal.

I'm gonna spell it for our listeners so they see how different the spelling is. You should have spelled it and then pronounced it. U-I-G-E-A-D-A-I-L Oogadal.

[Brad]
I think I would have pronounced it Weegadal.

[Bob]
Well, you're pretty close, man.

[Brad]
Yeah. Oogadal. Weegadal.

Oogadal.

[Bob]
Oogadal. So the Ardbeg Oogadal, it gets its name from I'm gonna read the copy right off the box here, Brad. You ready?

[Brad]
Yeah, do it.

[Bob]
Ardbeg Oogadal takes its name from the brooding mysterious loch which provides the peat-laden water for Ardbeg. So they named it after the lake outside. That's what we're saying here.

It's a boggy marsh called Oogadal and they named one of their expressions after it. Brad, this is, you know, relatively speaking, this is not like some fancy pants weirdly finished type of whiskey. It's a blend of a bunch of different Ardbegs in ex-sherry casks.

So pretty standard. The thing that takes this to the next level, Brad, is that this is by far the highest proof Ardbeg that we've ever had. Coming in at 108.4 proof. Yeah, Bob.

[Brad]
That is incredibly high for a Scotch. I don't know what it is about Scotch in general. You know, this is something an expert could tell me more on.

It just feels like Scotch sits at 90 proof or under. Like even hitting 92 or 3 proof feels a little bit more on the outskirts when it comes to Scotch. So I think it's actually pretty fun to jump in with a triple digit proof point for a Scotch.

[Bob]
That, like, gets me excited. Well, Brad, and to that point, the funny thing that I think the increased alcohol is doing here is, I don't know how, but it almost seems like it's mellowing out the nose on this a little bit. There's much more of a floral character to this.

My wife and I did a whiskey tasting the other night and I pulled out some bourbons for her, and one of the ones that I pulled out was the Early Times Bottled and Bond. And that one had kind of some of the, what I talk about is like the Will It Funk a little bit, but it didn't really have the funk. It was just like real dusty, kind of sawdusty, and had some floral notes to it.

And I think that's going on here. This is a much softer, more kind of, I don't know, fresh smelling whiskey than the others have been.

[Brad]
Yeah. It kind of reminds me a little bit of like an Irish whiskey in that sense. Like you said, there's some floral stuff going on here.

I would almost call it kind of like a sweet, grassy, I'm trying to put words to what I'm getting here. In addition to that, I feel like there's a little bit of honey, a little bit of peach, and then for me on the back end of the nose, I feel like there's a little bit of like a coffee bean going on that I really liked. It was unique, and fun, and interesting.

The peat also didn't blow me out of the water. Even on the first few noses, which, you know, this is Ardbeg. This is Peat City.

But here we are with a really nice, soft smoke to it. I'm going to give it an eight and a half on the nose.

[Bob]
Yeah. I mean, there's a little bit of orange here as well for me. And you're right, the peat is just not too strong.

You do get just a hint of that olive brine that we've gotten on the last two, but it's really nicely rounded out by the sweetness and the floral notes here. I'm actually going to give this a nine out of ten on the nose. I like this a lot.

[Brad]
Yeah. And then we get into the palate. For me, there is a lot of honey, sweetness on the front end.

And then it jumps into some like really beautiful clove and nutmeg notes that it's just all sorts of really nice baking spices. And then once again, there's that burst of peat on the back end as you're getting into the finish. I am really a big fan of this flavor profile here.

I'm going to give it a nine out of ten on the taste.

[Bob]
This is far and away the best art bag we've had. This is like bar none. Easily.

It doesn't have that note I've gotten on all of the first three of that like piney, almost like really fibrous weed from the backyard kind of thing going on. It like there's peat and there's a little bit of alcohol like aggression on the palate, but it's really nicely balanced out by this honey sweetness that is throughout the entire palate. The 108 proof definitely makes itself known, Brad.

Like this packs a punch, but it is nicely rounded out by some of these softer notes. I'm going to give us a nine and a half on the taste. This is darn good.

[Brad]
Like I said, I think that this is one of my favorite experiences because they're willing to let it sit at such a higher proof point. Like there is so much flavor going on here that I feel like you don't quite find in a lot of other scotches. For me, the where this really starts to knock it out of the park is the finish.

The there's like all sorts of coffee and smoke notes that linger around with a little bit of orange and honey, and I almost got a bit of like a red grape kind of finish to it that just was complex and unique and interesting. I'm going to give it a nine and a half on the finish.

[Bob]
I'm going to do the same. I don't even want to like add any notes to that. Like I don't know that I'm getting similar notes except to say that this is a bourbon drinker's peated scotch.

If you if you're a bourbon fan like there is just a hint of sweetness to this that helps the entire experience. I would even say like if you're used to drinking barrel proof rye, you might really like this one because it has just enough of a bite, but it doesn't go to like a really kind of like overly smoky, almost ashy place. Brad, I think that the only other peated scotch we've had that I could even put this in the same ballpark as would be the Laphroaig lore that we had a couple seasons ago, and I would need to put these next to each other, but this might be the best peated scotch I've ever had.

[Brad]
Yeah, in a lot of ways, this one just has lots of interesting, fun, unique flavors that are not overwhelmed by the peat. So if you're like really looking to get into peated scotches, this one's a little more on the expensive side. We'll get there with value in a second, but man, oh man, does it have flavor and complexity.

Balance wise, I'm going to go ahead and give it a nine out of 10. Like the the it marries all of these different flavors together so incredibly well.

[Bob]
I'm also going to give it a nine, and the reason for that is that I don't know if the nose prepared me for how much alcohol this was going to have like be present on my palate and on the finish. There is a definite chest burn on the way down with this one. This one warms you up, and I will say Brad that I don't know if this one is one that I would eat a meal with.

Like I think last week I was talking about how I would eat a steak with that one. This one I would just pour neat and sip, you know, in front of a fire for a while. But I think this one if I eat a steak with this, I feel like I would just have like intense heartburn afterwards.

You know what I mean? Yeah, 100%. So that means that if we're just counting the tasting categories here, the first four, I'm coming out to a 37 out of 40.

Like this is exceptional whiskey, and I think the only thing that might kind of taint our final scores a little bit is how expensive this whiskey is. Brad, last night I looked, I think this is $99 in the state of Ohio. I came up with $90.

Oh, is that what it is? Yeah. $89.99. $89.99. I saw $99.99. That might change things a bit.

[Brad]
Yeah. At $90, this is definitely going to cost you less than $100 after taxes and stuff. Nailed it with my math right there.

We studied ancient Near East texts for a reason, Bob. So if you're, you know, you're planning on spending about $94, $95 after tax here, I personally think that that's a pretty solid value still. This is one of the best peated scotches we've ever had, and peated scotches are known for being wildly expensive.

So in my mind, $90 is a pretty good deal. I'm going to give it an 8 out of 10 on value, Bob.

[Bob]
Yeah, I, at $100, I would be tempted to give this somewhere like a six and a half, two and a half to a seven on value at this range. I'm going to give it like a seven and a half to an eight. I'm going to say seven and a half just because, man, it's always hard for me to recommend a $90 whiskey to somebody.

You know, it's just you can get so much good whiskey for cheaper. This one is absolutely worth the price and it is priced. I think more affordably than they could price it given the quality of it, but I'll give it a seven and a half Brad and that is going to bring me out to a 44.5 out of 50.

[Brad]
I am coming to a 44 out of 50. So we are like neck and neck here. Bob, this is a damn good whiskey.

[Bob]
Yeah, we're coming out to a 44.25 on average or an 88 and a half out of 100. Man, I do kind of wish we would just round up to a 90 because that seems to be like the the heavenly circle that a couple of things have gotten in here. And I honestly think this belongs in there.

Brad is probably one of the five to 10 best whiskeys we've ever had on the show.

[Brad]
You know, I think I'm actually going to disagree with you there. I like I like that this came out just under a 90. I don't think that this whiskey is transcendent in a way that 90 and up whiskeys really are for me.

So I am against you, Robert.

[Bob]
I will say in that kind of upper crust that we've had here. This one is one that I would say could still be like an everyday pull off the shelf pour for your friends daily drinker kind of a thing. Yeah, I mean, even even at a higher price, you know, like some of the B-TACs that we've had are so decadent and rich that it's like you wouldn't want to drink that all the time.

This is one that like the Quinta Ruben, I would say you could make this your kind of go to peated scotch. Yeah. For all of my friends who love to drink peated scotches.

Well, we want to say thank you again to Ardbeg Distillery for sending us these four whiskeys for setting up this interview we had with Cameron George. That was a really fun episode. Brad, any final thoughts on Ardbeg?

[Brad]
Drink it like Ardbeg is really putting out some phenomenal peated scotches. And I guess if you're willing to dip your toes into the world of smoky whiskey, Ardbeg has to be the place you go, Bob. Like like we've had other peated scotches.

I like Lafroig a lot, but for some reason, Ardbeg just feels infinitely more approachable. And I really love what they're putting out. So like I said, if you're trying peated scotches first time, go get yourself some Ardbeg, probably the Ardbeg 10 to start with, Bob.

[Bob]
Yeah, I would say the 10 and then like, you know, if you like that even a little bit, just spring the extra money and get the Ooga doll. This is like this. This is worlds better than the other three.

And we liked all of the other three. But this is like this is in a class of its own.

[Brad]
Yep. I'm with you, man. Well, I'm so excited for how how much we loved Ardbeg, but I'm so pumped to get into talking about Star Wars Episode Three, Revenge of the Sith.

What say you? Let's get to it, Brad.

[Bob]
All right. That was Ardbeg Ooga doll, one of the better whiskeys we've ever had on this show. And we're getting back into talking about the Ooga doll of the prequel trilogy.

Episode three, Revenge of the Sith. Brad, you know what time it is. We've come back from our whiskey segment.

That means it's time for two facts and a falsehood.

[Brad]
All right, Bob, this is the part of the show where I try to stump you with two facts about the movie and one falsehood that you have to guess.

[Bob]
So today, I want real quick. I got to say last week I was mistaken on my overall record, Brad. Oh, yeah.

I went back. I was in the middle of editing another episode and I got my record all mixed up. I went into last week for two and one and I won last week.

OK, I'm I am five, two and one now. OK. I will give you the do that you deserve, Bob.

Your two facts and a falsehood selections have been really good lately, though. You're very close to stumping me every week that that is my goal.

[Brad]
I just want to make you feel as insecure in your own knowledge as I can. Love it. Well, today's three facts.

Fact number one. Do you enjoy Frank Capra? So does George Lucas.

He held a Christmas in July party during principal photography and screened It's a Wonderful Life for the cast and crew. Fact number two. Ever heard of Ben Burtt?

Apart from providing the voice of R2-D2 and the heavy breathing of Darth Vader, which he's done since Star Wars in 1977. He also provided the voices for every battle droid, super battle droid and buzz droid. Fact number three.

Do you like the Bard? So does the cast of Episode three. Ian McDiarmid and Ewan McGregor but have both played Iago from the play Othello and James Earl Jones has played Othello himself.

Hmm.

[Bob]
Good ones, man. You're welcome. I have no idea if number two is true, but it sounds true enough, so I'm going to go ahead and say that's true.

All right. Number one. Christmas in July.

George Lucas, famous cinephile, member of a group of directors that all hung out in the 70s, including Scorsese and De Palma and Spielberg and Coppola. Yeah, so I would not put it past him to screen that. I'm going to say three is the falsehood and the only reason I'm going to say three is the falsehood is that I don't necessarily buy that you and McGregor played the villain in Othello.

That's the only reason I'm going to go on that. You are 100% incorrect.

[Brad]
Wow. You got me. That is the truth.

The falsehood was that Lucas did not screen. It's a wonderful life for the cast and crew. What?

I know he should have.

[Bob]
How dumb is he? Well, you got me this week, man. Fair and square.

Hey, yeah, we don't have a edge of tomorrow debacle on our hands. Five, three and one. There was no no Sebastian blunting this week.

You were so confident. It was like that's not real. All right, man, let's get back into talking about episode three.

And you know what, Brad? Actually, no. Before we get back into talking about episode three, I'm going to resurrect another old segment from this from this podcast.

It's time for it's time for hot tea. Hot tea.

[Brad]
Hot tea. Bob, we have we did like five hot takes and then completely gave it out, dropped it in like season two.

[Bob]
This is a throwback for the OG listeners of the podcast here.

[Brad]
Yeah. If you remember the days when we started the show with a rousing film and whisky podcast, this is this is really a throwback, Bob. What I guess I'm curious now, what kind of review would hit you so hard that you thought I have to bring this up on the on the podcast?

[Bob]
Well, so the the premise of hot takes was that we went on like IMDB or Amazon video and found one star reviews of the movie that we were reviewing. And typically it's because we liked the movie and we wanted to point out like people who didn't like it and how dumb their reasoning was. That's kind of mean, but I read a review of this movie from a professional film critic that I disagree with extensively, but it is one of the funniest bad reviews.

It is just a brilliant use of the English language. So I just wanted to take a second. This review comes from the New Yorker New Yorker magazine, Anthony Lane, who Metacritic says gave this movie the equivalent of a 10 out of 100.

So not looking too good for Anthony Lane and he said the general opinion of Revenge of the Sith seems to be that it marks a distinct improvement on the last two episodes. The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. True, but only in the same way that dying from natural causes is preferable to crucifixion.

That's that's the poll quote.

[Brad]
That is absolutely phenomenal, Bob. So there's our hot take for the week. Anthony Lane coming in hot.

Can I can I just add onto the hot take for the week? Oh, please. I was reading Ebert's review of this movie, which it weirdly felt like your review of Prince of Egypt.

Like he ended up giving Revenge of the Sith three and a half stars. But if you just read the text of it, it sounded like he would give it like two to one and a half stars. And like one of the lines that killed me was to say that George Lucas cannot write a love scene is an understatement.

Greeting cards have expressed more passion.

[Bob]
All right, let's go in on that because I think that's kind of where we need to end this episode today. George Lucas' shortcomings as a filmmaker. The man has only made what, uh, six feature films, right?

Uh, seven if you include American Graffiti. Well, THX, and then American Graffiti, and then the first Star Wars, and then these three.

[Brad]
Yeah, I guess, I guess that's true. That's six, right?

[Bob]
Yeah, no, you're right. Okay, well, I knew it was a smaller number than most of his peers.

[Brad]
Yeah, I mean, I guess when you use the word make, like I would consider that he made episode five and six, but as far as like directing and being like, you know, directly at the helm, you know, probably, yeah, six, I'm with you. Okay, that's fine. So, I wasn't trying to like get a gotcha moment there.

Yeah, no, no, no. That's two facts and a falsehood. We finished that segment.

[Bob]
Right, exactly. So, he obviously does have some shortcomings, both as a writer and as a director, and the thing that people always circle are these cringeworthy scenes between Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman. And it's because the dialogue is so bad, it's because the actors have no chemistry, and it's because I don't think Lucas knows how to direct for a love scene either.

And there's this really famous quote from Hitchcock. I'm sure I've shared it on the podcast before, but Hitchcock always said to direct your murders like love scenes and your love scenes like murders. And that was the key to making good love scenes.

And I watched this movie, and I'm like, George Lucas has never heard that quote. Do you know what I mean? Like, there's a couple moments.

I think it's like the first, when he first goes back and talks to Padme in that kind of column building, and then they cut to the next scene, and it's nighttime in their suite, their apartment or whatever. And they go out on the balcony, and they have this back and forth. And I'm so in love with you.

No, no, but I'm so in love with you. And it's the combination of that horrible editing that we talked about. It's the combination of them having no chemistry.

But at the end of the day, it's that Lucas has nothing important for them to say. Like, we know they love each other. They don't have to keep telling us that they love each other.

And he makes their romance be beholden to the plot. Like, the only conversations these two have are about the Senate, are about the Jedi Order, are about, like, the gray areas that they're finding themselves in, are about, I'm pregnant, and we're going to have a baby, and isn't that amazing? And like, they don't really serve anything except we have to know what Padme thinks of the Emperor, and we have to know that Anakin is morally conflicted.

But they don't go any farther than that. And I think that's part of why they fail so much.

[Brad]
I think that they, like, they border on interesting conversation a few times. Like, you know, when Anakin accuses her of, like, sounding like a separatist, like, that conversation comes close to being meaningful character development for both of them, as, like, showing how Anakin is buying into Palpatine's, like, arguments and his, you know, move for power. And it helps illustrate how Anakin is like, no, like, bringing peace to the galaxy is worth any cost, even if it means, like, taking more power into our hands.

And so, like, there's moments like that where I'm like, I see what Lucas is doing here and what he's representing, but because the dialogue is so wooden and stilted, and like you said, there's not really any chemistry between Portman and Christensen, it falls flat a little bit. And I think that it's unfortunate because there are a lot of really great moments of dialogue in this movie. You know, the entire scene between Ian McDiarmid and Hayden Christensen at the opera, when he's talking to him about Darth Pelagius and how to sustain life and use the force, how the dark side can keep people alive, like, A, it's another moment carried by John Williams creating one of the biggest parts of the Star Wars sound canon, and B, it's really interesting dialogue and you see Hayden Christensen struggling with these ideas and how they go against what he wants to be. So I think there's a lot of moments of great dialogue, they just never come between Anakin and Padme, who are, you know, one of the main thrusts of your movie.

[Bob]
For years and years people have given Hayden Christensen crap for his wooden acting throughout these movies, and I watched this time through with that in mind, and I don't think that I agree with that at all, Brad. I don't either. I truly, like, the dialogue is not good in places, and they expect him to, like, go from 0 to 100 in certain places, and I don't think that every line reading is great, you know, like the I hate you line at the end where he's on fire is kind of like, alright, you probably could have taken one more take of that, George, but no, that's not right.

[Brad]
I think you're I think you're completely wrong there. I that final scene when he's on fire that to me is one of the most heart-wrenching scenes, and oh, I agree. I'm just saying

[Bob]
like the the spit coming out of his mouth like he could have used like maybe one alternate take for just that one line for me, but that's fine, but I guess the larger point I'm making is I actually think Hayden Christensen does a really good job of portraying, you know, people keep talking about how the new Robert Pattinson Batman is like the emo platonic ideal like that's Anakin like he's an emo kid and he does such a good job of conveying that he has this incredibly stunted and immature emotion like hold over his emotions. He only thinks with his feelings ever. He's never logical about anything and which really should disqualify him for being a Jedi in the first place, right?

But I think he does such a good job of showing you how completely boyish his thought process is and how volatile he is because of that and how personally he takes everything actually thought it was a really good performance.

[Brad]
Well, and on top of that you have Ewan McGregor and I if there's no chemistry between Portman and Christensen, I think that there is like legitimate chemistry between Anakin and Obi-Wan because for whatever reason you and Anakin and Hayden just I think that they really hit it off as actors together and you know those last few conversations that they have when they're on Mustafar before they start their fight or at the end of the fight when you know, he's talking about how he was a brother to him like there's so many moments like that that just rip at your heartstrings and I I really can't get over how I love those relationships in this movie and how you see them disintegrate.

[Bob]
Well, and again, I don't mean to pile on Lucas here, but I did praise him a whole bunch in the first half. So I do kind of attribute the bad acting in these movies to his direction like he's never been known as a director of actors. I think the best the best movie he ever made in that regard is American Graffiti and the reason that movie works so well is it's so kind of shaggy and loose and he just lets the actors kind of inhabit those characters whereas in Star Wars.

I mean the dialogue is plot plot plot plot plot all the time and and they just they have to be exposition dumps all the time but the fact that so much of this movie was made in front of a blue screen. I think and it was done early on in the days of completely blue screen environments, you know, there's obviously elements of CGI in like a Lord of the Rings and some of the stuff they filmed for that movie obviously was in a huge soundstage where it was all green screened but this is still a pretty early example of that and I was actually watching the beginning of Phantom Menace the other night and it's so funny watching you and McGregor and Liam Neeson try to interact with what is supposed to be Jar Jar Binks because like their eye lines don't even match up like they're not even looking at him they're looking somewhere off in space because they hadn't quite figured out how to do that yet with their their fully CGI characters and I just think throughout the prequel trilogy a lot of the wooden acting is a result of the fact that you gave them dialogue and you put them in an environment where they were acting against a tennis ball you know what I mean yeah and yet you

[Brad]
come to a point with Revenge of the Sith where like you said at the start of this episode Bob it just all comes together so beautifully by the end of it that I just can't blame it at all like for me the way this movie ends it it almost reminds me of like a reverse Return of the King and I everything's bad at the end of this movie like sure you get a little bit of an uplifting like Luke and Leia are born and they're taken to Alderaan and Tatooine but overall you have the funerals of Anakin and Padme and you have the birth of Darth Vader and you know it those scenes are so utterly moving and impressive the honestly I don't know if I've ever seen rain before in the Star Wars universe other than you know when they're on the the place where they make the clones in the second movie other than that the scene when Anakin is being taken into the med bay and it's raining and he's in this like little hovercraft and then it's like put against Padme being taken away to her funeral it's it's pure beauty Bob

[Bob]
so yeah I'm ready to jump into my final score Brad and I'm I'm actually kind of struggling with it because the last 40 minutes of this movie or so are 10 out of 10 filmmaking for me when you're when you're talking about like moviemaking it is like moviemaking magic it is the feeling I get when I watch the last third of Titanic and when Star Wars is clicking there's nothing like it like just the Star Wars universe when I see you know Obi-Wan drop off baby Luke to his aunt and uncle and they're looking at the twin sons or moons or whatever the hell they are and I'm like and you get that last like the love theme of John Williams rising up or the force theme and it sends you out on a bang there I'm like hell yes like this is what I want from Star Wars I got more excited about the mythology and the lore and the world of Star Wars from watching this movie than I have in years the middle third of this movie is pretty well done it's like a seven out of half the first third of this movie is like a truly bad movie Brad like I there's some really good action film making in there but overall it's like a four out of ten and I I do have to take into consideration the fact that that is in the movie as good as the end of the movie is as much as I enjoy it like if you were just asking me on pure enjoyment what would I give this movie I'd probably say a nine out of ten but I think trying to be objective about it I'm gonna give it an eight point five out of ten Bob I am honestly really

[Brad]
appreciative of that I think that's a really fair movie score from you in this I was honestly expecting you to give it like a seven and a half maybe an eight so yeah eight and a half man that's a great score I think that for me the the sins of the first third of this movie are so far overcome by how epic and amazing the rest of the movie is I think that the final duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin which they practiced for months and months and months and months like that they worked with a fencing expert for I believe it was about four months before they shot that scene and you can tell yeah you know a lot of people give that dual crap for that one moment in the middle where they're just like swinging their lightsabers around them and you know when you cut that out of the movie and just show it on a YouTube video complaining about Lucas sure it looks silly but in the middle of the fight it it doesn't take away from anything it feels epic and the the music that is playing there is honestly become my favorite music of the entire store Star Wars canon there there is so much happening here that I absolutely love the moment when Anakin comes walking up and you see his his hood rise from the bottom of the screen as he right as he comes up the steps of the Jedi Temple I think it's one of the most beautiful shots I've ever seen in a movie mm-hmm and it the the fall of Anakin into Darth Vader just hurts every time I think that's the biggest thing for me when I watch this movie is that every time I watch Revenge of the Sith something in me yearns for Anakin to stay good and yet it always crushes me every time when he turns evil so all of that being said I I love this movie despite so many parts of it being really rough and terrible I'm still going to give it a nine and a half out

[Bob]
of ten mom I appreciate that man it if the front part of this movie was tightened up just a little bit I think this would be the best Star Wars film I actually think that I appreciate what happens in this movie I appreciate the ambition I appreciate the depth of the mythology way more than I appreciate anything in Empire like truly I do Empire is just a better constructed movie than this and I think at the end of the day that's probably why it's still the better film but I actually I think I like this better than Empire

[Brad]
yeah I dude it's weird that you would say that I I think I might be with you yeah like that like I gave episode five a ten out of ten because it's a it's a perfect movie but I feel more emotional and more attached to this film

[Bob]
mm-hmm yeah I'm with you man all right we want to know what you think though what did you think of episode three are we off our rockers maybe putting this above Empire in our favorite Star Wars rankings you can find us and let us know on our Facebook Twitter or Instagram accounts at film whiskey or you can

[Brad]
jump onto our discord and we'll every single day talking to you the fans of the film and whiskey podcast so you can find a link to our discord at the end of every one of our show notes all

[Bob]
right Brad next week we are going to take a little bit of a left turn out of Star Wars we're going to be watching Noah bomb backs recent Oscar-nominated classic Marriage Story little Adam driver Star Wars well it's true there's

[Brad]
a connection there's a

[Bob]
there's a bridge there yeah so join us next week for Kylo Ren punching a wall until then I'll see you next time I'm Bob book I'm Brad Gee and we'll see you next time