721: A Secret DVD Commentary for Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive (with Chad Coup)!
episode
The Drunken Odyssey with John King: A Podcast About the Writing Life
1h 46m
5 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the secret DVD commentary concept for Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive?
Way!
They can't! They made him!
Welcome to The Drunken Odyssey with John King, a podcast about the writing life.
Tell us. Oh you About a man whose mind and career has careened far and wide and upside down. Computers are seared. Lines against Grammar. Whose typographical aggressions are legion, whose words flow into the very mouth of time, and more than a few bottles. A man. owns a typewriter. Perhaps even a soul.
And now your host, John King.
Welcome to episode seven hundred and twenty-one of the world's greatest writing podcast. On today's show, I share a DVD commentary I made with my friend, horror expert Chad Koo. For the nineteen eighty six Stephen King film Maximum Overdrive. If you're unfamiliar with this movie, then you may be thinking, don't you mean a film that's just adapted from Stephen King's work? Well, dear listener, who I can somehow hear from the ether. Maximum overdrive is adapted from Stephen King's excellent short story Trucks. But the writer and director of Maximum Overdrive was in fact. Stephen King himself. King was frustrated by how poor so many adaptations of his work had been So he rolled up his sleeves and tried to show everyone how to do it.
Much cocaine was involved, I think. All the way back on episode six of this podcast, Yaroslav Kalfar and I discuss Stephen King's excellent craft book, simply called On Writing. You probably heard of it. And when Stephen King in that book assigned us creative writing homework, we both made fun of Maximum Overdrive with our creative efforts. We didn't coordinate our plans to mock the movie, each of us and our separate responses to King's homework. Did that organically. Here's a confession. I hadn't even seen the movie. I was so young back then, in the year 2012, dear listener, with my chillingly cold takes on 1986 filmmaking. Maximum overdrive is sometimes a good movie and when it isn't, the movie is a good kind of bad movie.
So here, listen to Chad and I talk about the entire movie. If you can find where to stream the movie, or you know, if you have it on DVD yourself, you can have the old-fashioned DVD commentary experience. Otherwise, there are some gaps in the convos while Chad and I watch. But the conversation is a juicy one. This originally appeared behind the paywall of the Drunken Odyssey's now defunct Patreon page. The pop poetry conversations we did will stay in the vault where hopefully they cannot hurt anyone. DJ, if you're listening, I hope that this commentary on maximum overdrive doesn't hurt. I have a production announcement. I'll be taking August off from releasing new podcast episodes. When the drunken odyssey went dark in May, I was giving myself time for surgery and recovery for the stent that was jammed in my itty bitty black heart.
This break, happening not long after the other one, is needed to catch up on the business of the drunken Odyssey and ensure that the visionary fun I want to share with you stays visionary and fun. At least, you know, by my standards. This is not a profit driven show and if I end up cursing a lot trying to make this show happen I suspect I will do no one any good. In any month other than October, my goal is to have one episode devoted to fiction. Wanda poetry. One to film or memoir or music. and one to canonical literature in the form of either the CareWork Project of Orlando Book Club Or to Sylvia Plathing with Rachel Tillman? On YouTube, videos will come out in August, including new installments of Mickey Mousing Around and hopefully a video installment of the CareWork Project Book Club of Orlando, devoted to a road trip.
The poet Alex Curtis and I took to Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida. to visit Gregory Corso's large manuscript of the bomb. In the interim, please write in to let me know how you use the show and what you find to be the most stimulating or useful. This writing show is eclectic, and if you don't like that, then you probably don't like the show. But I do like getting some insight into how and why you listen. All right, in the words of the immortal ACDC.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the secret DVD commentary concept for Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive?
0:00–14:26
2
How did Stephen King become involved in directing and adapting the short story “Trucks” into Maximum Overdrive?
14:26–27:36
3
What are the major differences between the original short story “Trucks” and the film adaptation?
27:36–40:29
4
Why do the characters react the way they do to the sentient trucks and how does the film portray that fear?
40:29–52:30
5
How does the movie use music—especially AC/DC’s tracks—to heighten the horror and comedy?
52:30–1:07:30
6
What production challenges and stunt work made Maximum Overdrive stand out?
1:07:30–1:19:34
7
How does Maximum Overdrive fit into the disaster‑horror genre and what is its lasting legacy?
1:19:34–1:32:47
8
What insights did the hosts share about the film’s cult status and possibilities for future adaptations?
1:32:47–1:46:36
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from The Drunken Odyssey with John King: A Podcast About the Writing Life
720: A Discussion of Sylvia Plath's Ariel with Rachael Tillman
719: A Conversation about Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce (1985) with Shawn McKee!
718: Gilbert King, Plus Laura Lee Baher and Erik Deckers Event!
716: The Kerouac Project of Orlando Book Club Discussion of William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch (with Matt Peters)!
715: Henry Hughes!
714: Lara Egger!