Kevin Freeman: Pirate Money Radio takes a different turn this weekend
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, economic headlines. It's summertime, it's hot, it's August. And we're actually going to be taking a different turn with Pirate Money Radio this Saturday. some of my favorite memories from summer, both as a kid growing up and later with my kids escaping the heat and getting into a air conditioned theater on a Saturday afternoon. Yes, going to the movies. and the studios always seem to put out their big blockbusters in the summer and the summer, this summer is no different. We've got big name movies out. Superman, F1, Mission Impossible, Fantastic Four, Naked Gun, Lilo and Stitch, how to Train youn, Dragon, Smurfs, Jurassic World, Rebirth. We're going to talk about some of those recent releases and, just the whole notion of going to the movies with your family as a general idea and then what it says about us as a culture and society. And joining me to do that is the co host of Pirate Money Radio, my dear friend, the voice, Mr. Mike Carter.
Mike Carter: Well, it's good to be. I saw the notes, Kevan, and I was a little bit like, how's Kevan going to work movies in with Pirate Money? but, you've done it masterfully. So excited to talk about the themes, you are, when you're not a host of economic war room or Pirate Money Radio, you are meant to be at least on the screen somewhere because I think you memorized every script, every movie I've seen, every analogy we have in business, like, well, that's kind of like this part in this movie here. This is like seinfeld Episode number 3335 or whatever that is. So anyhow, this was made for you and I know we're gonna have a lot of fun with it.
Kevin Freeman: We are gonna have fun. I mean, I have so many memories of movies growing up and a couple stand out. One of them, the first one, the first movie I ever remember attending, was called the Great Race and it starred Tony Curtis, Jack Lemon, Natalie Wood, and Peter Falk. And I remember going to that with my family as a comedy. It was a slapstick comedy directed by Blake Edwards. So you know Blake Edwards did the Pink Panther. Lots of slapstick in it. I was probably four years old when it came out and somehow I remember that. Ah, but maybe because it's a huge Freeman family argument that lasted until my parents died, both of them, they would say, we saw the movie at the Village Theater in Tulsa and my Brother and I were insistent that we saw it at the Bowman Twin Theater in Tulsa. Now think about that for a second. I mean you, you were in Tulsa for quite a while. Bowman Twin meant it had two screens and the Village only had the one screen. You know, that was the big theater, a two screen theater back then.
Mike Carter: Well, you just think about them. There wasn't theaters on every five, mile radius like we have now back then. I mean, in the town I grew up, there was the Coronado that was built in the 20s with all its extravagant artwork and that's what they used for movies. And there's one other kind of dumpy theater and then you started to see a little regional with multi screens, maybe five screens. but, it was a different, different era.
Kevin Freeman: Different era. Well, and they didn't have as many movies coming out as they do now. And then of course, they didn't have streaming platforms and DVDs and VHS tapes and everything. So it was a big deal to go see one of the movies that came out. This was a big deal. I mean, Tony Kerr is a big star and so forth. I also saw the original Peter Sellers, Pink Panther movies. And as a kid, a little kid, I wanted to see James Baughan and Clint Eastwood. But I, was too young, my parents didn't let me go see those.
Mike Carter: I got to see one James Baughan with my parents, when I was a kid. And I remember one scene that was a little bit racy and, and mom kind of said, you don't need to pay attention to this.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, close your eyes, turn away.
Mike Carter: It did catch my, it caught my attention, I'll have to admit.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, James Baughan, it did get a little racy. When I was 14 years old, my dad took my brother and me to see the movie Midway. It was an amazing film, starred Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda. It was about World War II in the Pacific. And it was a big deal as my dad thought I was old enough, so I just turning 14. And on the movie poster, I remember and I found an old movie poster. It says recommended, adult entertainment. Now the term.
Mike Carter: Say that again. I see the poster on the screen there.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, it does.
Mike Carter: It literally does. It's at the top corner. Recommended Adult Entertainment above Midway.
Kevin Freeman: That does not mean the same thing. I don't think. I'm certain. I've seen that movie many times since I bought the movie. I have it on, on my Apple tv so I can watch it whenever I want. And there's a new movie they made, Midway Same story, but it's an amazing movie.
Mike Carter: Let's go back to. It's kind of sad though, because they've rebranded adult entertainment. That's what adult entertainment should have been. Now it's used to say, oh, xxx. That's just adult entertainment.
Kevin Freeman: That's childish entertainment that only adults are allowed to watch. It's foolishness and nonsense and sin. It's bad for us. But anyway, all right, sorry to get.
You were 16 when Star wars came out
Mike Carter: You off track because now I see Star wars up there, the movie of our youth.
Kevin Freeman: So I was 16 years old when Star wars came out. So you're like a year behind me. It was a big, big deal to see it because it was an action, it was an adventure. It was literally a cowboy epic set in space. That's the way I saw it. Right.
Mike Carter: It was huge throughout. themes everywhere. I think it was our homecoming theme in my freshman year. and I remember I was in the band, just playing the trumpet as we were playing the Star wars theme. So. And all that stuff. So.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, no, it's cool. What are your childhood. What movies do you remember seeing this.
Mike Carter: Obviously Star wars, some Herbie movies. Some of those, kind of like that caught my attention. Jaws was one you mentioned already. I remember in junior high making a little leather keychain fob where I had to, I stamped the shark head on there or something like that at one point. So those themes picked up interesting throughout school. I mean, so yeah, it was, you know, a craft or something, or something you'd build in shop class or something you do in band or whatever you do. But it did influence culture in a very light way back then. It's changed a lot today.
In 1975, Jaws came out as the first hundred million dollar blockbuster
Kevin Freeman: Speaking of school, Jaws came out in 1975. I was not initially allowed to see it. I eventually talked my parents into it. but our class, our economics class, there were two rival economics classes. And my dad, the stockbroker went and spoke to him and they said, hey, let's buy a share of stock and we'll all split it as a class. And so we had a competition. the other class picked Coca Cola for the summer. And they were going to hold it over the summer and then see how much money they made and divide the proceeds. And our class we picked Universal, studios was owned by mca, so we bought mca. And Jaws, the movie came out as the first hundred million dollar blockbuster, which is huge because I think tickets were $2 or something then.
Mike Carter: so it'd be what, like a billion dollar movie today?
Kevin Freeman: Oh, it'd be Inflation adjusted. Inflation adjusted much May more than that. It was huge. And that was a big deal. the average price, actually 1975, I got it right here, was, $2.03. So. Wow.
Mike Carter: You know, I remember going back in the 90s, though. Remember they used to have the dollar theaters there? used to be a little town, and when I lived in Minnesota, there's always a dollar theater. We could see a good movie and get popcorn. that's gone, like with the dollar stores.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah. Marty and I, in early, early dates, when we were first married and first moved to Texas, there was a dollar theater in Grapevine. We'd stop at the Quick Trip on the way that was brand new, and we had refill cups that were free, because when they opened a new Quick Trip, they gave us a free refill cup that was good for a year. And we picked up a dollar hot dog. And so the entire. We were so proud of ourselves. We get dollar popcorn. So we. We literally spent $3 a piece for the day. It was $6. And that's not that you bought your.
Mike Carter: Drinks at QuikTrip before you got to the movie theater.
Kevin Freeman: We did.
Mike Carter: No wonder.
Kevin Freeman: The.
Mike Carter: No more dollar theaters. You took all their profit out.
Kevin Freeman: We did buy their popcorn. They let us in with the. With the. Or maybe we. Maybe we drank it on the way over there and then left it in the car. I don't remember what. But, looking at movie ticket prices throughout the years, in 1948, the average ticket price was 36 cents for a movie. By the 1990s, the average ticket price was less than $5. In 2004, it was $6.21. In 2019, it was $9.16. By 2022, just what now? Three years ago, it was $10.53. And I just pulled up cabletv.com, of course, cable TVs pointing out expensive it is to go to movies. so you'll stay home and watch your cable. They pointed out in Texas, $16.68 is the average movie price. And it varies quite a bit. It's almost $20 in California. It's about $14 in Oklahoma. but an average across all the states is a little over $16.
Mike Carter: Well, I'm sure that's because of the great creative writing and intellectual stimulation they're including in movies today.
Kevin Freeman: Oh, yeah, that's right. Because they, you know, it's so creative. I gave you that list, and we'll talk about this soon. but I gave you that list. They're all remakes. Jurassic World. Jurassic Park, Fantastic Four, which has been made before. Lilo and Stitch, they made that before how to Train youn Dragon. I mean, watch that with my kids. So it's all remakes. So anyway, we'll be talking about the monetary aspect of movies. We'll be talking about, you know, the cultural aspect of movies. the impact on society and all that. You know. We've got a lot to talk about. We're Pirate Money Radio at the Movies. And we'll be right back right after this break.
Kevin Freeman: Mike Carter talks about taking families to movies these days
Mike Carter: Welcome back to Pirate Money Radio with your host, Kevan Freeman.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, I'm here with the great Mike Carter, and we're talking about taking families to movies and how much it costs these days. The average ticket price is about 16, which means a family of four right there. Just for the movie tickets, you're talking $64. I mean, that's. That's a little crazy. I remember those dollar theater days, and I remember five dol. Tickets.
Mike Carter: Yeah, well, we went and saw the movie this weekend. Of course, I'm always looking for the value. So I look up there at the popcorn and the soda for $18. I'm like, I'm not gonna spend that. We go sit down. I was like, oh, I bet I can go back and I'll find a hack. So I'm like, I'm gonna find a kid's meal and I'll get that. We'll go back out there. And I was like, okay, kids, popcorn was $9. The drink was $6. I'm like, there's not even a way around the system. So I did nothing because I already spent for myself. my wife and my daughter was with us at the time. you know, 50 bucks just for the movie, and, like, another 50 bucks just to eat the popcorn and drink. That's a commitment.
Kevin Freeman: And, you know, movies have really graduated. Now. You can go to movie theaters where they will serve you full meals in your seat, and they'll bring them to you. Push a little button. So we've started doing. Just to say. Because the drink is like $9. To save a little money, we carry those water drops. I'll carry them in my pocket, the flavors, and we'll just get water. And water is still free unless you get the bottle. But if you get a cup of water and ice, it's still free. And so we at least save a little bit of money that way. But it can easily run a hundred dollars to take a family of four to dinner and a movie. Or more. Or more. I mean, it could be $150, depending on the movie and depending on what you order. I mean if you get the hot dog, I guess it could be a little less. But if you get the full meals, they're good. The food's pretty good.
Mike Carter: Yeah, yeah, I've not done much of the meals. I usually again, the value side of me is like, oh, let's eat it out somewhere nice before that and then we'll go to the movie. but, taking that whole experience where they're adding all those little revenue centers, something to do. And if you had the great movie, I mean, what a great thing. If you had great stories, great movies to see again, you want to get out of the house, you want to do something kind of different. but typically the movies have been somewhat of a letdown. There's been a few winners this year. but a lot of them, they're just like, oh, I'm just waiting till it streams.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, no, I hear you. And you know, the issue is, money. It really does come down to Hollywood's trying to get their billion dollars. And then there's Hollywood accounting and everything. But speaking of money, there are only three things you can do with your money. You can give it, you can spend it, or you can invest it. Here at Pirate Money Radio, we work to explain solutions that support all three areas that promote liberty, security and values. Patriot Mobile, a mobile phone company, supports the Pirate Money radio program. Patriot Mobile uses US carriers including AT&T, Verizon and T Mobile and operates on both Apple and Android phones. More information about the economic war room and Patriot Mobile is [email protected] AFR that's PirateMoneyRadio.com AFR and we're talking about movies and going to the movies.
Dreamscape is a 3D movie where you're literally in the movie
Have you seen the Dreamscape at North Park Mall in Dallas? Do you know what I'm talking about there?
Mike Carter: I'm not, I've, I've heard something about that. And there's also some extra special effects or something like that.
Kevin Freeman: It is an Indiana Jones style. They have three movies. Alien Zoo the Blue and the Curse of the Lost Pearl which is Indiana Jones style movie. You buy a ticket and you're literally in the movie. I mean it's surrounded. You see all the stuff. It's 3D experience and you're a part of. It's not a long, long movie but it's very interesting because now you feel like you have to solve the problem, figure out the clues. And it goes different ways depending on how you respond, it's pretty cool.
Mike Carter: So you're in, your own, like just your family or the whole. There's a whole audience involved in this?
Kevin Freeman: Well, no, there's probably eight people maybe, and you suit up and like if they did a Ghostbusters take off, you would put the thing on and you'd have a little laser gun or whatever.
Mike Carter: Creative.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, no, it's very creative.
What movies can tell us about culture at any point in history
All right, so we're talking about movies, and we're talking about them for three reasons. Three things I want to cover today. What movies tell us about our world and our culture right now. Number two, how movies have been weaponized to shift culture. And number three, how can we plant a seed and use movies to expand a biblical worldview? Now, let's start with what movies can tell us about culture at any point in history. I mean, I used to do this in the stock market. You remember when I had that newsletter, Personal Capitalist. we used to gauge the popularity of movies. Movies to determine the mood of America. And this is built on a friend of mine. He's passed away, but his name Bill Doty. And Bill Doty would write about how movies told you what the culture was feeling and that told you how the stock market was going to perform. And in the 1970s, the top movies, they looked up some of the top movies from the 1970s. Here's a list. Earthquake, the Towering Inferno, Clockwork Orange, Godfather, Apocalypse Now, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Taxi Driver, Alien, the Exorcist, the French Connection. These are not your most uplifting, family friendly choices.
Mike Carter: I know why I missed a lot of movies. In the days of my youth, there just weren't that many movies.
Kevin Freeman: Well, there were a few like the Herbie, Love Bug and all that. But the big top, I was from Chicago.
Mike Carter: Blues Brothers, remember that one? I saw that again. Like, oh, man, the production value was so low.
Kevin Freeman: It was. But that came out in the 80s. We'll get to the 80s, but that the. In the 70s. This is earthquake is disaster film. Towering Inferno, A building on Fire, Clockwork Orange, Godfather. These are all war and crime and insanity. you know, all. And aliens that eat you out from the inside. And, you know, it's just terrible. the only one standout really in the seventies was Star wars. And it was rightly dubbed A New Hope. It was number four in the series. We didn't know it then. It was a standalone movie at that point. and it was supposedly a signal that times were going to get better. So Bill Doty looked at Star wars and said we're going to see a turnaround that came out in 1977. And in 1980, Reagan became the new hope. He was exactly that. And guess what? He was a Hollywood actor.
Mike Carter: Yeah.
Kevin Freeman: So movies were, were accurate in the 70s. What about the 1980s?
Mike Carter: Yeah, I don't, I don't have my timelines. They all seem like days of my youth right now. So Blues, Brothers was 80s. Okay. What else did we have in the.
Kevin Freeman: Back to the Future?
Mike Carter: Oh, that was a good one.
Kevin Freeman: ET yeah. Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, Top Gun. Three minutes.
Mike Carter: Love that one.
Kevin Freeman: Crocodile, Dundee, the original Michael Keaton, Batman, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Karate Kid, Little Mermaid. Those were big winner movies in the 1980s. Now they seem more hopeful.
Kevin Freeman: Right. Upbeat. Top Gun was a standout. Resulted in huge military enlistment during the Reagan era.
Exorcist in 1973 was about demonic activity, bad, depressing
So I want to compare and contrast, Exorcist in 1973, which was about demonic activity, bad, depressing, so forth. What was the 80s version of it? Ghostbusters. We're gonna get in and take out them ghosts.
Mike Carter: That was the right approach. Compared to the Exorcist was just flat out evil. I mean that was like. I never watched that, Would not watch it. It just was.
Kevin Freeman: I was gonna pull up the movie poster and put it in the show notes and it was so disgusting and demonic looking. I decided I'm not even putting it. I was gonna put that comparison, Exorcist to Ghostbusters. Right. So one of them is we triumph over evil and the other one was, you know, evil is just that powerful and that prevalent. Second one comparison, do you remember the, the original alien was Sigourney Weaver, right? Which was down and dark and depressing. So what's an alien look like in the 1980s? It looks like E.T.
Mike Carter: Yes.
Kevin Freeman: Phone home.
Mike Carter: Quite a difference. Yes. Yeah.
Kevin Freeman: No, do you see? So you can see the contrast. all right, I admit it. I've seen a lot of these movies. I watched them very closely. I wrote about the stock market as a kid. I was writing about the stock market and studying this and comparing the things. But the 1970s were terrible for stocks and the 1980s were much better for stocks. And so the movies reflected the sentiment that we had. So here's something to think about. The movies now, I think they're more hopeful than 1970s. But do you notice anything about our list? I mentioned Superman, F1, Mission Impossible.
Mike Carter: Not a whole lot of creativity. It's like how do we repurpose what we've created before that was successful.
Kevin Freeman: It is. Exactly. I mean, Superman's complete remake, F1 is pretty much. It's the one that's unique there. But we were talking about this earlier. It reminds me so much of Ford versus Ferrari, except it's not a true story story and it's Formula one racing. but essentially you just pull out Matt Damon, who's the main character. He's older and he loves racing, and he's going back to it, even though his doctor told him he shouldn't. And you substitute Brad Pitt, and they turn out to be friends and kind of substitute for one another in the movies anyway. Right. so there's that. but Mission Impossible, that's been going on for decades.
Mike Carter: Yeah, the last one was probably the best ever. But to your point, you had to see the sequel before that for it to make sense.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, you need to see the one that they put out. And there was such a long gap between. I don't know if it was because of COVID or whatever, but we waited years between the first part and the second part. and if you watch them both together, fantastic.
Mike Carter: A great movie. But last I heard on that one, that one's not even making money, potentially due to Hollywood accounting on mission possible.
Are you saying that Trump needs to start a movie business to fix economy
So, you know, your idea here, I kind of see what you movies relate to economics. Are you saying that Trump needs to just, start a whole new movie business out there to fix the economy?
Kevin Freeman: Somebody needs to start a movie business to help fix the economy. And we need to get more creativity. People like going to theaters, but they just haven't. They've gotten out of the habit because of streaming and things like that. And also Lilo and Stitch at the theater. I took my kids to see that 20 years ago. Whatever. You know, Lilo and Stitch and how to Train youn Dragon. You know, how many years is that? 15 years since that. I don't know how many.
Mike Carter: I never saw that.
Kevin Freeman: So Smurfs, Jurassic World, Rebirth. I mean, how many Jurassic World, Transformers 17, you know, they are all remakes and no genuine creativity. But the good news is all those that are. That are out now have a pop, upbeat, hopeful message.
Mike Carter: so maybe economically we are. We've got some good things ahead still. Then if we go back to the hypothesis of the 1980s.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, well, my favorite movie that's out now, and I know you saw it. I want to get your take on it was Fantastic Four. It's a comic book movie. It's got a retro look. It's Family friendly. you just saw it?
Mike Carter: Yeah, I thought it was fantastic. And, and I.
Kevin Freeman: Fantastic. Okay.
Mike Carter: My, I asked my wife and my daughter, hey, well, let's go see a movie this weekend. I hear this is a good movie. I did not seen like the last, Captain America. Actually saw that on the plane. I was bored watching it. I'm like, this isn't even worth my time. Which is disappointing for what was one of my favorite movies out there. But I was like, okay, we need to go see this movie. It sounds like it's really good. And, my wife's like, well, you better reserve tickets ahead of time. I looked on there, it's like 6 o', clock, 7 o', clock, 8:15, 9 o', clock, 9:30. All of them wide open. Nobody was there. And so I'm like, what's going on? I said, is it the wrong time? It's a Friday night. How can this be happening? I saw the movie, though. Blown away. I mean, the values. What I remembered, great special effects, great story, great messaging, in there in terms of pro life in this baby, saving the baby. and hopefully. But, it was empty. and maybe we could talk about what happened afterwards.
Kevin Freeman: Teamwork. It was family. It was supporting one another. And I even looked on movieguide. Uh.org to get a review. You know, language, it says light, it says violence, it says moderate, but no sex, no nudity. very clean movie, very family friendly. so movieguide.org gives it a real high, positive entertainment quality. Quality. Four stars. That's a rare thing. You get four stars and it's something you can take your family to see. I really liked it. Hopeful worldview. All right, we're going to cover more of this at the movies when we come right back after this break.
Mike Carter: Pirate money Radio. Helping you give, spend and invest in ways that align with liberty, security and values.
After Endgame, Marvel movies either got dark or ridiculous or woke
Welcome back with your host, Kevan Freeman.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, I'm joined by Mike Carter. And we're just discussing the Fantastic Four first steps. which is a. Is a really family friendly movie. It's the best Marvel movie I've seen, except maybe I like some of the stuff. Spider Man. But after Endgame, Marvel movies either got dark or ridiculous or woke. I'm not. And I'm a big Marvel.
Mike Carter: Which I think is what's the only explanation I can think of for why this theater was empty is the expectations have been so low. It's like, well, maybe it's a good movie, but I don't have to see it. I'M just gonna wait and see it at home or I'm gonna stream it later on because, I don't want to be disappointed again. I'm gonna spend 100 bucks and see something that I'd be wish I really didn't spend the 100 bucks on.
Kevin Freeman: Well, if they, if they would keep making good movies. Like, I remember when Captain the First Avenger came out. And I mean, the worldview on that was incredible. It was about self sacrifice. It was about patriotic and, and supporting.
Mike Carter: The first Wonder Woman that came out. My daughters loved that. but then they slowly went downhill in the next sequels.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, no, they, they've taken the first Wonder Woman was really good. Patriotic also, just like me. You're exactly right.
Pirate Money Radio priced movie ticket in Gold in 1985, which blew me away
All right, so we're Pirate Money Radio. I suppose we oug to mention, the pirates movies, Pirates of the Caribbean that Disney made, because we are Pirate Money radio. do you remember what the ticket prices, you know, we shared about earlier. Do you remember that, in 1985, a ticket cost $2.69?
Mike Carter: Yeah. Which blew me away just, just thinking about that. I mean, everything's completely different. Different world now.
Kevin Freeman: And a ticket now is about $16, right? Sixteen. Seventeen dollars. All right, here's something interesting. I priced the movie ticket in Gold in 1985. So you're going out to see Back to the Future, let's say, and you would have paid 1/200th of an ounce of gold. So you take an ounce of gold and divide it in 200 pieces, and 1/200th of an ounce would buy you a movie ticket for $2.69 in 1985. Today, 1,200th an, ounce of gold is worth $17.
Mike Carter: Wow.
Kevin Freeman: That's enough to buy an average movie ticket.
Mike Carter: So transactional gold is kind of taking us back to the future.
Kevin Freeman: Exactly.
Mike Carter: We can hold onto our store of value, you know, unlike some other what kind of duplicitor they needed to get the machine running again. We have gold as a store of value. And no matter where we're at in time, we've at least got a steady store of value.
Kevin Freeman: It is our flux capacitor.
Mike Carter: That's the word I was looking for. You know, I'm getting a little worried. We're not getting to be like, what's with that Cisco and Ebert the Movie Critic review guys?
Kevin Freeman: Yeah.
Mike Carter: Oh, not that. Are we?
Kevin Freeman: No, we're more like the old dudes and the Muppets.
Transactional gold and silver could be used for everyday purchases
All right, so we're talking about, transactional gold and silver. We talk about it in the book, Pirate money. people could hold their money in gold as an option or silver, and spend it with a debit card under state authority. And you can learn more about [email protected], but if you put your money in gold in 1985, it'd still be enough to buy a movie ticket today at the same price as 1985. And there's a company in England that learned about what we're doing and they wanted to sponsor our efforts. the CEO, Jason Cousins, flew over here and met with us, and he's traveled with us. He's a really neat guy. So let me read. I've got a sponsor note here. support for this program comes from Glint, a financial technology service offering a debit card and mobile app that enables users to access their gold holdings for everyday purchases. So you can buy a movie ticket with. Glint users maintain ownership of allocated physical gold, which is stored in the managed vault at the time of transaction. Gold is sold in real time to cover the purchase amount in local currency. Glint offers an alternative way to store and use the value. Combining gold and silver with modern payment infrastructure, Glint clients can monitor their gold balance, view transaction history, and manage their account through the Glint app, available on major mobile platforms. More details about how vaulted physical gold can be used as money are available@glint glintpay.uh, com gold247 that's glintpay.com gold247 glint providing access to gold for modern spending. So we can go today as Glint users and we can buy our movie tickets and they won't cost any more to us in real money.
Mike Carter: And we can do that 24 7. You know, anytime of day, I can spend that gold and silver. so that's amazing. I was talking to someone the other day and they're like, how is this going to work? Because they're going to know what the value of the gold is. At the end of the day, it's going to be different than what they paid for. It's like. No, it's instantaneous. They look at the spot price at the time of that transaction. Sell your gold, convert it to dollars, and pay that retailer now.
Kevin Freeman: Full disclosure and fair warning. when you do make money with your gold in Glint compared to the US Dollar, then you may owe some taxes on capital gains taxes. We're working on that, people. There will be more to come. Just stay tuned to this program week in and week out. We'll give you updates on the progress that we're making.
You might have to pay some taxes on gains if you spend them
All right. So that's point number one.
Mike Carter: So, but you're saying if I'm unfortunate, if I'm fortunate enough to make a gain, I might have to pay some taxes on that at the end of the year if I spend that goal.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah. Well, let's say you spend it for a $17 movie ticket, and you had $15 worth of gains. You're going to have to pay about $4 in taxes. But that's still better than paying the full $17. You'll pay $4 in taxes, plus the original $2 that you put into gold, $2.50 in gold. So it brings your movie ticket price down to about $6.50 in US dollar terms, but you still have that tax. We're going to get rid of that tax. We're going to find a way to get rid of that tax.
Movies have been weaponized to shift our culture, sometimes maybe favorably
All right, so the first point was that movies, tell us something about our world and culture today. the second point is movies have been weaponized to shift our culture, sometimes maybe favorably. You might like this first example, I'm going to use. But there are other, some bad examples. And I, go back to top gun. It's 1986, I guess. and here's Washington Post article. Top Gun brought to you by the US Military. It's unlikely the film could have been gotten made without the Pentagon's considerable support. A single F14 Tomcat cost about 38 million, and the total budget for Top Gun was 15 million. So the US Department of Defense helped fund that. In exchange for DoD backing, the producers agreed to let the department make changes to the script. So they were using this to make America. Now it's under Reagan, and they're using this to make us more patriotic. And what did they want to achieve from that? They wanted people to sign up for.
Mike Carter: The military, and they got that.
Kevin Freeman: They did.
Mike Carter: it became cool again. And you see those fighter jets and what they're doing, and I don't know, I've always liked. I've always had the need for speed, I guess, as they say. And I always thought, wow, what a cool position that would be. I didn't have the 2020 vision to pull that off, or I might have considered that at the time.
Kevin Freeman: You would have been great. You would have been great. You've got the calm demeanor. You could have handled it, and you've got the skill set. I seen you drive, so you would have been good.
Mike Carter: Well, I did get a, a chance to go to, Miramar, the facility. We had an event. We did A VIP event for some folks in my development days. And so we got to go to the bar where that was filmed. We got to go look inside the fighter jets, crawl up the ladder, looked inside and I saw those little tiny seats that they sit in. And I'm like, that's pretty cramped quarters in there.
Kevin Freeman: Did they take you and give you the chance to, lose your lunch, so to speak?
Mike Carter: No, no, we didn't get, we didn't quite get that done. Although while at the time they made it very clear they needed more money in the military, because they didn't have enough fighter jets working out there. And they were still using. This was in the early 2000s, actually, about mid-2009, 2010, they were still using 8 millimeter cameras in the fighter jets to take pictures of things. so we've got to make sure national security is economic security. We've got to make sure those things are taken care of. Movies like this make a difference. I'm glad it's working.
Kevin Freeman: We knew two Top Gun style pilots. One killer cost. Lieutenant General Stephen Quast is a good friend of pirate money, radio and economic war room. And the other one is, is Ed Rush, Marine Top Gun pilot. his call sign was Head. Yeah, so his head Rush. anyway, so, so Top Gun was used by our military to increase. Here, I'll just read. The film conquered the box office as well. The hearts and minds of, of young Americans. Following its release, application to become naval aviators reportedly jumped by 500%. To capitalize on the craze, some enterprising Navy recruiters even set up stands outside the theaters. That's pretty smart. But you know, Top Gun Maverick exposed an entirely different means of co opting and using Hollywood to control people. And that was when they came out with the first ads for Top Maverick. Tom Cruise's character did not have a Taiwan patch on his sleeve, even though he should have had a Taiwan patch on his sleeve. Why? Because China had interfered and told Hollywood, nope, Taiwan doesn't exist. It's a colony of China and it's a big deal to them. You put it in your airline magazine and they'll boycott your airline. So they threatened to boycott, oh.
Mike Carter: We covered that in economic War Room at the time. And the good news is they changed.
Kevin Freeman: They did Top Gun Maverick brings back the Taiwan flag after the controversy. But guess what? They wouldn't even show it in China. They lost all the Chinese box office. you know, here's another example. So we have example of China, Doing that in the Middle east, we have examples where the script has to be changed because it can't be a terrorist from the Middle East. It generally turns out to be a Russian terrorist. Right.
Mike Carter: Those are safe enemies.
Kevin Freeman: You got to hate Russia because Russia colluded with Trump, which is not at all true. And I just interviewed John Solomon. There is absolutely zero truth that they colluded. It was made up by Hillary Clinton and FBI went along with it and all that. So you got to watch our economic war room show. Learn [email protected] if you want to understand.
Mike Carter: That a lot of the regular traditional media channels aren't playing this up like, well, we were wrong. Our Pulitzers. Take them back, please. That's not happening, is it?
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, Trump and Putin, not such great friends right now and never were such great friends. But, nevertheless, the Middle east interfered in Hollywood so that you could, you know, Alibaba films and all that. So you couldn't make any movie that made someone from the Middle east look like a terrorist. Has to be Russian now.
Executives blame Disney massive light year bomb on LGBTQ inclusion
And then, of course, we have this one. The LGBTQ movement that influenced, well, they literally took over Disney. And so here it is, September 18, 2024. Executives blame Disney massive light year bomb on LGBTQ inclusion. Per report, they made a movie that had a, gay couple in it on purpose, put it into the movie Lightyear, despite the fact that it was Toy Story's most beloved hero, despite the fact that Chris Evans, who played Captain America, voiced Buzz Lightyear. They went away from Tim Allen. And despite all of that, and it was a box office bomb so badly that it was banned in 14 Muslim countries.
Mike Carter: Yeah. And how can you be that ignorant in terms of what you're doing to your brand unless you're doing it intentionally? I mean, this. The only other one that I think has been that obvious is, was Bud Light with what they did with that brand.
Kevin Freeman: Well, now Jaguar.
Mike Carter: And Jaguar, too.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, Jaguar. They purposed to make it. Woke. They thought that they controlled things and were going to make this Woke. It was the Biden administration or whoever. The auto pin. Should we just call it the auto pen administration? And during that administration, they thought, we can get away with it and we'll get the support. Disney went crazy. Woke. Good sign. Fantastic Four came out under Marvel, under Disney. So maybe things have turned just a little bit. But I'm telling you, when you're willing to make a movie to influence society, and we saw that every TV show you can imagine had to have a gay character. It, Homosexuality is a part of society. It's a part of history.
Mike Carter: It's a part of influencing society over getting a return or rule of family entertainment.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, but why do they have to stick in my face and, and just literally take away Toy Story, which is what a grandparent wants to take his grandkids to see?
Mike Carter: Yeah, yeah.
Kevin Freeman: All right, we're going to talk about this. We're going to talk about where the movies have been and where they're going. But how can we use movies to expand a biblical worldview? Do they all have to be Christian movies with a baptism or maybe some other alternative? We'll be right back.
Mike Carter: Pirate Money Radio. Helping you give, spend and invest in ways that align with liberty, security and values.
How do we promote liberty, security and values in motion pictures
Welcome back with your host, Kevan Freeman.
Kevin Freeman: Yes. And I'm talking with Mike Carter. We're talking, ah, we're at the movies, talking about movies that are out now and ones that have influenced society. How do we promote liberty, security and values in motion pictures? How do we influence the culture? Can we bring out, biblical worldviews even if we don't only make overtly Christian films? I mean, I love the Passion and Facing the Giants when it came out. I enjoyed that. The Kendrick brothers, it's all great. We're friends with Kevan and Sam Sorrow, think they're also great. But they've made some movies that don't have to end in a baptism and a conversion every time. Sometimes you just tell human stories that don't destroy our values.
Mike Carter: If it's just teaching good principles, good moral values, good life lessons, all those are important. I was flipping through, HBO the other day and, turned on a movie, watched it, and there's a part there where, and I stopped watching it. But there's, there's a part there where the person came in and the guy was swearing back and forth. There's a little kid in the movie and like, well, how many swear words do you know? Well, I know this word and this word. And they start going back and start teaching them new swear words. I'm like, what is this? What's the purpose of this other than to just take down society, to take down that moral compass, the good values that, you know, many of us are trying to do with our families out there. There's a better way to do it. There's some great movies that are doing it. and I'm excited to see where this industry is moving towards.
Kevin Freeman: Well, you know, I like entertainment that enlightens, that educates, that brings out truth and history, but also that uplifts the human soul and overcoming challenges. And one example of that is our friend David Tice had this vision for telling the story of soul surface. You know, Brittany Hamilton, who lost her, limb in a shark attack, but went back to surfing. And that has, you know, Kevan Sorbo is in it and Dennis Quaid, two of my favorite actors. Helen Hunt's in that. It's a great story. It's not a I have to go to church and we all accept Jesus movie, but it expands our horizons.
Mike Carter: good life lessons. It's the kind of thing you want to look at, because, let's face it, life. Life's tough sometimes. It's not always easy out there. But when you can see stories like this that you can relate to and say, listen, I can overcome this. Life's going to be different tomorrow might look bad now. Yeah, I lost my arm. But you know what? That's not the end of my life. I still got a great lot of great things I can do here.
Kevin Freeman: That's encouraging. Nick Vujicic, who's another friend at Firefunny Radio, and he has been in our studio multiple times. Nick, who was born without arms or legs, and he's got films out about him, and he's starting things. It's uplifting. and there's some good films out there that. That are really powerful films. Like the Passion is. Is a really powerful film, and the Chosen were really good. And the David series, Schindler's List and God's Not Dead. Yeah, and. And Mark Wahlberg and Mel Gibson, they're making some good films. Of course, there's a little language in them and, you know, but they're making very, very powerful, good films. That. They're Catholic, a little bit in theology, but, you know, I admire them and they. And enjoy them, and the quality is improving and the storytelling is improving. But in the old days, the big blockbuster movie. And I remember when I met Charlton Heston, he was Moses and then Ten Commandments, and he was Ben Hur and Been Hur and both of them huge Hollywood blockbusters. And, both of them straight down the line.
Mike Carter: Judeo.
Kevin Freeman: Christian.
Mike Carter: Yeah. And I remember seeing that. I remember mom taking me to that one big theater in town at the time. and we watched the movie, and there's actually. There's literally a long enough movie. There's an intermission. So halfway through, they stopped, and you stretched and maybe got some popcorn that didn't cost $18 at the time and came back and watched the rest of the movie.
Kevin Freeman: There was that. There was an intermission in Patton. I just watched that recently, and there was an intermission in that. It's a long movie. The Great Race has an intermission. Yeah, they used to do that because they had to change the film reels. That's why they did it. But you got your stretch.
Scott: Some great films that teach us how to overcome difficulty
But some other great films that teach us how to overcome difficulty, also how to sacrifice for others. How that, you know, things may look bad, but. But if you trust God and you do the right thing, they can turn out all right. Not always. Darkest Hour. One of my favorite movies of all time about Winston Churchill. you know, here they face the whole Dunkirk. And I won't tell the Dunkirk story here, but I love it. Captain America. We mentioned earlier, the First Avenger. You mentioned Schindler's Law List, Braveheart, you know, Freedom, the Patriots, which is another. Mel Gibson, Founding of America. Bonhoeffer. That's one I saw. Not long ago. We had Eric Metaxas on the show, and he told us that movie's coming out. And he said, look, I'm not the driving force behind it, but I love it. I love the story. He's. He kind of brought Bonhoeffer to the public consciousness when he. When he wrote that book. Bonhoeffer is a great story. True story. It's a Christian story, but it's telling truths.
Mike Carter: And it challenges you to say, all right, if I were him, would I have been brave enough to take that lead?
Kevin Freeman: I don't know. I hope so. I pray that I would have been. I hope I don't get tested that way. Hidden Figures. Did you see that one?
Mike Carter: What is that one? I don't remember.
Kevin Freeman: Hidden Figures is NASA. Before they had computers, they were human computers, and they were African American women who were doing all the math, and they couldn't even use the same bathroom rooms. But they literally made the space mission possible. Calculating things. The. The Blind side, which tells a great story, and. And remembering the Titans. Another. There's a couple of sports movies. Here's one of my family favorites, Secondhand Lions, which is family story. It's truth. It's swashbuckling fun. It really. Have you seen that?
Mike Carter: I missed that one now.
Kevin Freeman: Oh, man.
Mike Carter: Check it out.
Kevin Freeman: Get that one and get your family and. And watch Secondhand Lines. The Rookie. Have you seen that? Dennis Quaid.
Mike Carter: I have seen that, yes.
Kevin Freeman: Is about a guy who goes back, pursues his dream. Chronicles of Narnia, of course, based on C.S. lewis. Amazing books. Lord of the Rings by Tolkien. the Alamo. I love that one in Texas. And really, I have a heart's desire to learn to play the violin because there's a violin scene there with Davy Crockett that I want to be able to play that song someday. behind Enemy Lines.
Mike Carter: You know that story, Behind Enemy Lines. Refresh my memory, because I don't memorize movies like you, Scott o'.
Kevin Freeman: Grady.
Mike Carter: Yes, yes, yes.
Kevin Freeman: It is a story of a pilot that. Another pilot that we know, that's a friend of this, that gets behind in Enemy Lines and he makes his way out. You surely know this one. It's a wonderful line.
Mike Carter: Yes. Jimmy Stewart. Yes.
Kevin Freeman: At National Treasure. That's a great story of American history. It's a Disney back when they made great Disney movies. In fact, National Treasure 2 has a scene where the president, is having his birthday party at Mount Vernon, and I'm about to go to be with Dr. Carson for his birthday party. He's done this now. This will be the third time I.
Mike Carter: Get to McDonald multiple times now.
Kevin Freeman: Yes, we've had. We've had President, Trump as one of the keynote speakers, and Governor Sanders is the keynote speaker and Newt Gingrich. Speaker Gingrich is keynote speaker. but they do a big fireworks at the end. And it's just like the National Treasure 2 movie, which is fun.
China is reportedly taking organ transplants from living patients in hospitals
I noticed, though, that President Trump showed up for the one we had at Bedminster, but did not show up for the one that was at Mount Vernon. I wonder if he was worried Nicholas Cage would show up. Because you remember National Treasure 2.
Mike Carter: You want to know where? The Secret Passage.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah. Secret Passage. Yep. Reagan. The Reagan movie we've talked about. On this show we had, actually interview with Jon Voight about the regular. All of these are uplifting, good shows. The Parrot Trap, Seabiscuit, Wonder Woman, you mentioned earlier. And there's one. And kind of sparked this idea. Marnique, said, hey, this week at church, can we go with our friends? They go to life Church. And they're doing at the movies, where Pastor Craig Marshall takes a current movie that's out. Craig Marshall talks about, the uplifting passages and ties it to scripture and sees what we can learn from that movie. And. And this year, he covered, at least this week, the movie One Life. It's based on a true story. It's genuinely inspiring. You can learn more at OneLife Movie, and it starred Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins. Have you seen this movie?
Mike Carter: I saw the trailer. And, it was one of those. Just watching the trailer. I started to get a little bit, a little teary eyed just seeing that this is one where much, like Schindler's List. What if, what if I could have done more? Yeah.
Kevin Freeman: It's based on the book. If not it. If, if it's not impossible. The Life of Sir Nicholas Win by Barbara Win One Life tells the incredible emotional true story of Nicholas Nicky Winton, a young London broker who visits Prague in December 1938. In a race against time, he convinces, Trevor Chadwick and Doreen Warner of the British Committee for Refugees in Czechoslovakia to rescue hundreds of predominantly Jewish children before Nazi occupation closes the borders. Fifty years later, he's haunted by the fate of the children he wasn't able to bring safely to England. It's not until the BB show, BBC show that's Life reintroduces him to some of those he helped rescue that he finally begins to come to terms with the guilt and the grease that he carried his entire life. All while skyrocketing from anonymity to a natural. It's so inspiring, powerful.
Mike Carter: I want to see that. I'm seeing it. But just that message there is powerful.
Kevin Freeman: Go. I think it's on Netflix now. you can go look to see if it is. but it's a movie that inspires, it absolutely encourages, it educates, it tells us history, it entertains. And you realize the Holocaust and the cost to the world of disregarding human life is so incredible. And you know, you think about that in the pro life issue with abortions and the cost, we're seeing economic costs from disregarding life and then failing to take care of the elderly and putting that, you know. And then recently when you disregard life, you have things like this. Did you see this? That they are taking organ transplants from living patients even in America, hospitals. Well, he's not quite dead.
Mike Carter: I not heard that.
Kevin Freeman: No, it's a real china, but I've.
Mike Carter: Heard that's happening here.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, no, it's like, I'm not dead yet. You know, from, from another movie that, you know, I, I will not admit or, or I will not say whether I did or did not see Monty, Python and the Holy Grail. But there's a scene in it where I'm not dead yet, but literally, in the news. I hate to bring it up. Look it up. If you disregard life in culture and in movies, then there will be a disregard for like, well, you know, this organ could, we can make a little money off of it. Somebody needs it. They're not quite dead. But, you know, they're almost dead, so we'll go ahead and take it anyway. In China, they're doing live organ harvesting from dissidents. In America, if, if you were listed, there have been people who've had their organs removed before they passed away. It's, it's flight.
Mike Carter: Well, what I did hear is there's good movies coming out and, and maybe that means there's hope on the horizon economically, and there needs to be a whole lot more good movies there too. Now do I get eat some of this popcorn?
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, you can eat the popcorn. We're done. questions, comments? You can email [email protected] and you should pray. Pray for America. Pray for Hollywood to return to God's principles and in doing so, bring his protection. Pray for us to be faithful. Pirate Money has a role, and you listeners have a part to play. Listen wherever you get podcasts. This is Kevan Freeman, joined by Mike Carter for Pirate Money Radio.
Kevin Freeman: Pirate Money Radio takes a different turn this weekend
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, economic headlines. It's summertime, it's hot, it's August. And we're actually going to be taking a different turn with Pirate Money Radio this Saturday. some of my favorite memories from summer, both as a kid growing up and later with my kids escaping the heat and getting into a air conditioned theater on a Saturday afternoon. Yes, going to the movies. and the studios always seem to put out their big blockbusters in the summer and the summer, this summer is no different. We've got big name movies out. Superman, F1, Mission Impossible, Fantastic Four, Naked Gun, Lilo and Stitch, how to Train youn, Dragon, Smurfs, Jurassic World, Rebirth. We're going to talk about some of those recent releases and, just the whole notion of going to the movies with your family as a general idea and then what it says about us as a culture and society. And joining me to do that is the co host of Pirate Money Radio, my dear friend, the voice, Mr. Mike Carter.
Mike Carter: Well, it's good to be. I saw the notes, Kevan, and I was a little bit like, how's Kevan going to work movies in with Pirate Money? but, you've done it masterfully. So excited to talk about the themes, you are, when you're not a host of economic war room or Pirate Money Radio, you are meant to be at least on the screen somewhere because I think you memorized every script, every movie I've seen, every analogy we have in business, like, well, that's kind of like this part in this movie here. This is like seinfeld Episode number 3335 or whatever that is. So anyhow, this was made for you and I know we're gonna have a lot of fun with it.
Kevin Freeman: We are gonna have fun. I mean, I have so many memories of movies growing up and a couple stand out. One of them, the first one, the first movie I ever remember attending, was called the Great Race and it starred Tony Curtis, Jack Lemon, Natalie Wood, and Peter Falk. And I remember going to that with my family as a comedy. It was a slapstick comedy directed by Blake Edwards. So you know Blake Edwards did the Pink Panther. Lots of slapstick in it. I was probably four years old when it came out and somehow I remember that. Ah, but maybe because it's a huge Freeman family argument that lasted until my parents died, both of them, they would say, we saw the movie at the Village Theater in Tulsa and my Brother and I were insistent that we saw it at the Bowman Twin Theater in Tulsa. Now think about that for a second. I mean you, you were in Tulsa for quite a while. Bowman Twin meant it had two screens and the Village only had the one screen. You know, that was the big theater, a two screen theater back then.
Mike Carter: Well, you just think about them. There wasn't theaters on every five, mile radius like we have now back then. I mean, in the town I grew up, there was the Coronado that was built in the 20s with all its extravagant artwork and that's what they used for movies. And there's one other kind of dumpy theater and then you started to see a little regional with multi screens, maybe five screens. but, it was a different, different era.
Kevin Freeman: Different era. Well, and they didn't have as many movies coming out as they do now. And then of course, they didn't have streaming platforms and DVDs and VHS tapes and everything. So it was a big deal to go see one of the movies that came out. This was a big deal. I mean, Tony Kerr is a big star and so forth. I also saw the original Peter Sellers, Pink Panther movies. And as a kid, a little kid, I wanted to see James Baughan and Clint Eastwood. But I, was too young, my parents didn't let me go see those.
Mike Carter: I got to see one James Baughan with my parents, when I was a kid. And I remember one scene that was a little bit racy and, and mom kind of said, you don't need to pay attention to this.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, close your eyes, turn away.
Mike Carter: It did catch my, it caught my attention, I'll have to admit.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, James Baughan, it did get a little racy. When I was 14 years old, my dad took my brother and me to see the movie Midway. It was an amazing film, starred Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda. It was about World War II in the Pacific. And it was a big deal as my dad thought I was old enough, so I just turning 14. And on the movie poster, I remember and I found an old movie poster. It says recommended, adult entertainment. Now the term.
Mike Carter: Say that again. I see the poster on the screen there.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, it does.
Mike Carter: It literally does. It's at the top corner. Recommended Adult Entertainment above Midway.
Kevin Freeman: That does not mean the same thing. I don't think. I'm certain. I've seen that movie many times since I bought the movie. I have it on, on my Apple tv so I can watch it whenever I want. And there's a new movie they made, Midway Same story, but it's an amazing movie.
Mike Carter: Let's go back to. It's kind of sad though, because they've rebranded adult entertainment. That's what adult entertainment should have been. Now it's used to say, oh, xxx. That's just adult entertainment.
Kevin Freeman: That's childish entertainment that only adults are allowed to watch. It's foolishness and nonsense and sin. It's bad for us. But anyway, all right, sorry to get.
You were 16 when Star wars came out
Mike Carter: You off track because now I see Star wars up there, the movie of our youth.
Kevin Freeman: So I was 16 years old when Star wars came out. So you're like a year behind me. It was a big, big deal to see it because it was an action, it was an adventure. It was literally a cowboy epic set in space. That's the way I saw it. Right.
Mike Carter: It was huge throughout. themes everywhere. I think it was our homecoming theme in my freshman year. and I remember I was in the band, just playing the trumpet as we were playing the Star wars theme. So. And all that stuff. So.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, no, it's cool. What are your childhood. What movies do you remember seeing this.
Mike Carter: Obviously Star wars, some Herbie movies. Some of those, kind of like that caught my attention. Jaws was one you mentioned already. I remember in junior high making a little leather keychain fob where I had to, I stamped the shark head on there or something like that at one point. So those themes picked up interesting throughout school. I mean, so yeah, it was, you know, a craft or something, or something you'd build in shop class or something you do in band or whatever you do. But it did influence culture in a very light way back then. It's changed a lot today.
In 1975, Jaws came out as the first hundred million dollar blockbuster
Kevin Freeman: Speaking of school, Jaws came out in 1975. I was not initially allowed to see it. I eventually talked my parents into it. but our class, our economics class, there were two rival economics classes. And my dad, the stockbroker went and spoke to him and they said, hey, let's buy a share of stock and we'll all split it as a class. And so we had a competition. the other class picked Coca Cola for the summer. And they were going to hold it over the summer and then see how much money they made and divide the proceeds. And our class we picked Universal, studios was owned by mca, so we bought mca. And Jaws, the movie came out as the first hundred million dollar blockbuster, which is huge because I think tickets were $2 or something then.
Mike Carter: so it'd be what, like a billion dollar movie today?
Kevin Freeman: Oh, it'd be Inflation adjusted. Inflation adjusted much May more than that. It was huge. And that was a big deal. the average price, actually 1975, I got it right here, was, $2.03. So. Wow.
Mike Carter: You know, I remember going back in the 90s, though. Remember they used to have the dollar theaters there? used to be a little town, and when I lived in Minnesota, there's always a dollar theater. We could see a good movie and get popcorn. that's gone, like with the dollar stores.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah. Marty and I, in early, early dates, when we were first married and first moved to Texas, there was a dollar theater in Grapevine. We'd stop at the Quick Trip on the way that was brand new, and we had refill cups that were free, because when they opened a new Quick Trip, they gave us a free refill cup that was good for a year. And we picked up a dollar hot dog. And so the entire. We were so proud of ourselves. We get dollar popcorn. So we. We literally spent $3 a piece for the day. It was $6. And that's not that you bought your.
Mike Carter: Drinks at QuikTrip before you got to the movie theater.
Kevin Freeman: We did.
Mike Carter: No wonder.
Kevin Freeman: The.
Mike Carter: No more dollar theaters. You took all their profit out.
Kevin Freeman: We did buy their popcorn. They let us in with the. With the. Or maybe we. Maybe we drank it on the way over there and then left it in the car. I don't remember what. But, looking at movie ticket prices throughout the years, in 1948, the average ticket price was 36 cents for a movie. By the 1990s, the average ticket price was less than $5. In 2004, it was $6.21. In 2019, it was $9.16. By 2022, just what now? Three years ago, it was $10.53. And I just pulled up cabletv.com, of course, cable TVs pointing out expensive it is to go to movies. so you'll stay home and watch your cable. They pointed out in Texas, $16.68 is the average movie price. And it varies quite a bit. It's almost $20 in California. It's about $14 in Oklahoma. but an average across all the states is a little over $16.
Mike Carter: Well, I'm sure that's because of the great creative writing and intellectual stimulation they're including in movies today.
Kevin Freeman: Oh, yeah, that's right. Because they, you know, it's so creative. I gave you that list, and we'll talk about this soon. but I gave you that list. They're all remakes. Jurassic World. Jurassic Park, Fantastic Four, which has been made before. Lilo and Stitch, they made that before how to Train youn Dragon. I mean, watch that with my kids. So it's all remakes. So anyway, we'll be talking about the monetary aspect of movies. We'll be talking about, you know, the cultural aspect of movies. the impact on society and all that. You know. We've got a lot to talk about. We're Pirate Money Radio at the Movies. And we'll be right back right after this break.
Kevin Freeman: Mike Carter talks about taking families to movies these days
Mike Carter: Welcome back to Pirate Money Radio with your host, Kevan Freeman.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, I'm here with the great Mike Carter, and we're talking about taking families to movies and how much it costs these days. The average ticket price is about 16, which means a family of four right there. Just for the movie tickets, you're talking $64. I mean, that's. That's a little crazy. I remember those dollar theater days, and I remember five dol. Tickets.
Mike Carter: Yeah, well, we went and saw the movie this weekend. Of course, I'm always looking for the value. So I look up there at the popcorn and the soda for $18. I'm like, I'm not gonna spend that. We go sit down. I was like, oh, I bet I can go back and I'll find a hack. So I'm like, I'm gonna find a kid's meal and I'll get that. We'll go back out there. And I was like, okay, kids, popcorn was $9. The drink was $6. I'm like, there's not even a way around the system. So I did nothing because I already spent for myself. my wife and my daughter was with us at the time. you know, 50 bucks just for the movie, and, like, another 50 bucks just to eat the popcorn and drink. That's a commitment.
Kevin Freeman: And, you know, movies have really graduated. Now. You can go to movie theaters where they will serve you full meals in your seat, and they'll bring them to you. Push a little button. So we've started doing. Just to say. Because the drink is like $9. To save a little money, we carry those water drops. I'll carry them in my pocket, the flavors, and we'll just get water. And water is still free unless you get the bottle. But if you get a cup of water and ice, it's still free. And so we at least save a little bit of money that way. But it can easily run a hundred dollars to take a family of four to dinner and a movie. Or more. Or more. I mean, it could be $150, depending on the movie and depending on what you order. I mean if you get the hot dog, I guess it could be a little less. But if you get the full meals, they're good. The food's pretty good.
Mike Carter: Yeah, yeah, I've not done much of the meals. I usually again, the value side of me is like, oh, let's eat it out somewhere nice before that and then we'll go to the movie. but, taking that whole experience where they're adding all those little revenue centers, something to do. And if you had the great movie, I mean, what a great thing. If you had great stories, great movies to see again, you want to get out of the house, you want to do something kind of different. but typically the movies have been somewhat of a letdown. There's been a few winners this year. but a lot of them, they're just like, oh, I'm just waiting till it streams.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, no, I hear you. And you know, the issue is, money. It really does come down to Hollywood's trying to get their billion dollars. And then there's Hollywood accounting and everything. But speaking of money, there are only three things you can do with your money. You can give it, you can spend it, or you can invest it. Here at Pirate Money Radio, we work to explain solutions that support all three areas that promote liberty, security and values. Patriot Mobile, a mobile phone company, supports the Pirate Money radio program. Patriot Mobile uses US carriers including AT&T, Verizon and T Mobile and operates on both Apple and Android phones. More information about the economic war room and Patriot Mobile is [email protected] AFR that's PirateMoneyRadio.com AFR and we're talking about movies and going to the movies.
Dreamscape is a 3D movie where you're literally in the movie
Have you seen the Dreamscape at North Park Mall in Dallas? Do you know what I'm talking about there?
Mike Carter: I'm not, I've, I've heard something about that. And there's also some extra special effects or something like that.
Kevin Freeman: It is an Indiana Jones style. They have three movies. Alien Zoo the Blue and the Curse of the Lost Pearl which is Indiana Jones style movie. You buy a ticket and you're literally in the movie. I mean it's surrounded. You see all the stuff. It's 3D experience and you're a part of. It's not a long, long movie but it's very interesting because now you feel like you have to solve the problem, figure out the clues. And it goes different ways depending on how you respond, it's pretty cool.
Mike Carter: So you're in, your own, like just your family or the whole. There's a whole audience involved in this?
Kevin Freeman: Well, no, there's probably eight people maybe, and you suit up and like if they did a Ghostbusters take off, you would put the thing on and you'd have a little laser gun or whatever.
Mike Carter: Creative.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, no, it's very creative.
What movies can tell us about culture at any point in history
All right, so we're talking about movies, and we're talking about them for three reasons. Three things I want to cover today. What movies tell us about our world and our culture right now. Number two, how movies have been weaponized to shift culture. And number three, how can we plant a seed and use movies to expand a biblical worldview? Now, let's start with what movies can tell us about culture at any point in history. I mean, I used to do this in the stock market. You remember when I had that newsletter, Personal Capitalist. we used to gauge the popularity of movies. Movies to determine the mood of America. And this is built on a friend of mine. He's passed away, but his name Bill Doty. And Bill Doty would write about how movies told you what the culture was feeling and that told you how the stock market was going to perform. And in the 1970s, the top movies, they looked up some of the top movies from the 1970s. Here's a list. Earthquake, the Towering Inferno, Clockwork Orange, Godfather, Apocalypse Now, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Taxi Driver, Alien, the Exorcist, the French Connection. These are not your most uplifting, family friendly choices.
Mike Carter: I know why I missed a lot of movies. In the days of my youth, there just weren't that many movies.
Kevin Freeman: Well, there were a few like the Herbie, Love Bug and all that. But the big top, I was from Chicago.
Mike Carter: Blues Brothers, remember that one? I saw that again. Like, oh, man, the production value was so low.
Kevin Freeman: It was. But that came out in the 80s. We'll get to the 80s, but that the. In the 70s. This is earthquake is disaster film. Towering Inferno, A building on Fire, Clockwork Orange, Godfather. These are all war and crime and insanity. you know, all. And aliens that eat you out from the inside. And, you know, it's just terrible. the only one standout really in the seventies was Star wars. And it was rightly dubbed A New Hope. It was number four in the series. We didn't know it then. It was a standalone movie at that point. and it was supposedly a signal that times were going to get better. So Bill Doty looked at Star wars and said we're going to see a turnaround that came out in 1977. And in 1980, Reagan became the new hope. He was exactly that. And guess what? He was a Hollywood actor.
Mike Carter: Yeah.
Kevin Freeman: So movies were, were accurate in the 70s. What about the 1980s?
Mike Carter: Yeah, I don't, I don't have my timelines. They all seem like days of my youth right now. So Blues, Brothers was 80s. Okay. What else did we have in the.
Kevin Freeman: Back to the Future?
Mike Carter: Oh, that was a good one.
Kevin Freeman: ET yeah. Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, Top Gun. Three minutes.
Mike Carter: Love that one.
Kevin Freeman: Crocodile, Dundee, the original Michael Keaton, Batman, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Karate Kid, Little Mermaid. Those were big winner movies in the 1980s. Now they seem more hopeful.
Kevin Freeman: Right. Upbeat. Top Gun was a standout. Resulted in huge military enlistment during the Reagan era.
Exorcist in 1973 was about demonic activity, bad, depressing
So I want to compare and contrast, Exorcist in 1973, which was about demonic activity, bad, depressing, so forth. What was the 80s version of it? Ghostbusters. We're gonna get in and take out them ghosts.
Mike Carter: That was the right approach. Compared to the Exorcist was just flat out evil. I mean that was like. I never watched that, Would not watch it. It just was.
Kevin Freeman: I was gonna pull up the movie poster and put it in the show notes and it was so disgusting and demonic looking. I decided I'm not even putting it. I was gonna put that comparison, Exorcist to Ghostbusters. Right. So one of them is we triumph over evil and the other one was, you know, evil is just that powerful and that prevalent. Second one comparison, do you remember the, the original alien was Sigourney Weaver, right? Which was down and dark and depressing. So what's an alien look like in the 1980s? It looks like E.T.
Mike Carter: Yes.
Kevin Freeman: Phone home.
Mike Carter: Quite a difference. Yes. Yeah.
Kevin Freeman: No, do you see? So you can see the contrast. all right, I admit it. I've seen a lot of these movies. I watched them very closely. I wrote about the stock market as a kid. I was writing about the stock market and studying this and comparing the things. But the 1970s were terrible for stocks and the 1980s were much better for stocks. And so the movies reflected the sentiment that we had. So here's something to think about. The movies now, I think they're more hopeful than 1970s. But do you notice anything about our list? I mentioned Superman, F1, Mission Impossible.
Mike Carter: Not a whole lot of creativity. It's like how do we repurpose what we've created before that was successful.
Kevin Freeman: It is. Exactly. I mean, Superman's complete remake, F1 is pretty much. It's the one that's unique there. But we were talking about this earlier. It reminds me so much of Ford versus Ferrari, except it's not a true story story and it's Formula one racing. but essentially you just pull out Matt Damon, who's the main character. He's older and he loves racing, and he's going back to it, even though his doctor told him he shouldn't. And you substitute Brad Pitt, and they turn out to be friends and kind of substitute for one another in the movies anyway. Right. so there's that. but Mission Impossible, that's been going on for decades.
Mike Carter: Yeah, the last one was probably the best ever. But to your point, you had to see the sequel before that for it to make sense.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, you need to see the one that they put out. And there was such a long gap between. I don't know if it was because of COVID or whatever, but we waited years between the first part and the second part. and if you watch them both together, fantastic.
Mike Carter: A great movie. But last I heard on that one, that one's not even making money, potentially due to Hollywood accounting on mission possible.
Are you saying that Trump needs to start a movie business to fix economy
So, you know, your idea here, I kind of see what you movies relate to economics. Are you saying that Trump needs to just, start a whole new movie business out there to fix the economy?
Kevin Freeman: Somebody needs to start a movie business to help fix the economy. And we need to get more creativity. People like going to theaters, but they just haven't. They've gotten out of the habit because of streaming and things like that. And also Lilo and Stitch at the theater. I took my kids to see that 20 years ago. Whatever. You know, Lilo and Stitch and how to Train youn Dragon. You know, how many years is that? 15 years since that. I don't know how many.
Mike Carter: I never saw that.
Kevin Freeman: So Smurfs, Jurassic World, Rebirth. I mean, how many Jurassic World, Transformers 17, you know, they are all remakes and no genuine creativity. But the good news is all those that are. That are out now have a pop, upbeat, hopeful message.
Mike Carter: so maybe economically we are. We've got some good things ahead still. Then if we go back to the hypothesis of the 1980s.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, well, my favorite movie that's out now, and I know you saw it. I want to get your take on it was Fantastic Four. It's a comic book movie. It's got a retro look. It's Family friendly. you just saw it?
Mike Carter: Yeah, I thought it was fantastic. And, and I.
Kevin Freeman: Fantastic. Okay.
Mike Carter: My, I asked my wife and my daughter, hey, well, let's go see a movie this weekend. I hear this is a good movie. I did not seen like the last, Captain America. Actually saw that on the plane. I was bored watching it. I'm like, this isn't even worth my time. Which is disappointing for what was one of my favorite movies out there. But I was like, okay, we need to go see this movie. It sounds like it's really good. And, my wife's like, well, you better reserve tickets ahead of time. I looked on there, it's like 6 o', clock, 7 o', clock, 8:15, 9 o', clock, 9:30. All of them wide open. Nobody was there. And so I'm like, what's going on? I said, is it the wrong time? It's a Friday night. How can this be happening? I saw the movie, though. Blown away. I mean, the values. What I remembered, great special effects, great story, great messaging, in there in terms of pro life in this baby, saving the baby. and hopefully. But, it was empty. and maybe we could talk about what happened afterwards.
Kevin Freeman: Teamwork. It was family. It was supporting one another. And I even looked on movieguide. Uh.org to get a review. You know, language, it says light, it says violence, it says moderate, but no sex, no nudity. very clean movie, very family friendly. so movieguide.org gives it a real high, positive entertainment quality. Quality. Four stars. That's a rare thing. You get four stars and it's something you can take your family to see. I really liked it. Hopeful worldview. All right, we're going to cover more of this at the movies when we come right back after this break.
Mike Carter: Pirate money Radio. Helping you give, spend and invest in ways that align with liberty, security and values.
After Endgame, Marvel movies either got dark or ridiculous or woke
Welcome back with your host, Kevan Freeman.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, I'm joined by Mike Carter. And we're just discussing the Fantastic Four first steps. which is a. Is a really family friendly movie. It's the best Marvel movie I've seen, except maybe I like some of the stuff. Spider Man. But after Endgame, Marvel movies either got dark or ridiculous or woke. I'm not. And I'm a big Marvel.
Mike Carter: Which I think is what's the only explanation I can think of for why this theater was empty is the expectations have been so low. It's like, well, maybe it's a good movie, but I don't have to see it. I'M just gonna wait and see it at home or I'm gonna stream it later on because, I don't want to be disappointed again. I'm gonna spend 100 bucks and see something that I'd be wish I really didn't spend the 100 bucks on.
Kevin Freeman: Well, if they, if they would keep making good movies. Like, I remember when Captain the First Avenger came out. And I mean, the worldview on that was incredible. It was about self sacrifice. It was about patriotic and, and supporting.
Mike Carter: The first Wonder Woman that came out. My daughters loved that. but then they slowly went downhill in the next sequels.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, no, they, they've taken the first Wonder Woman was really good. Patriotic also, just like me. You're exactly right.
Pirate Money Radio priced movie ticket in Gold in 1985, which blew me away
All right, so we're Pirate Money Radio. I suppose we oug to mention, the pirates movies, Pirates of the Caribbean that Disney made, because we are Pirate Money radio. do you remember what the ticket prices, you know, we shared about earlier. Do you remember that, in 1985, a ticket cost $2.69?
Mike Carter: Yeah. Which blew me away just, just thinking about that. I mean, everything's completely different. Different world now.
Kevin Freeman: And a ticket now is about $16, right? Sixteen. Seventeen dollars. All right, here's something interesting. I priced the movie ticket in Gold in 1985. So you're going out to see Back to the Future, let's say, and you would have paid 1/200th of an ounce of gold. So you take an ounce of gold and divide it in 200 pieces, and 1/200th of an ounce would buy you a movie ticket for $2.69 in 1985. Today, 1,200th an, ounce of gold is worth $17.
Mike Carter: Wow.
Kevin Freeman: That's enough to buy an average movie ticket.
Mike Carter: So transactional gold is kind of taking us back to the future.
Kevin Freeman: Exactly.
Mike Carter: We can hold onto our store of value, you know, unlike some other what kind of duplicitor they needed to get the machine running again. We have gold as a store of value. And no matter where we're at in time, we've at least got a steady store of value.
Kevin Freeman: It is our flux capacitor.
Mike Carter: That's the word I was looking for. You know, I'm getting a little worried. We're not getting to be like, what's with that Cisco and Ebert the Movie Critic review guys?
Kevin Freeman: Yeah.
Mike Carter: Oh, not that. Are we?
Kevin Freeman: No, we're more like the old dudes and the Muppets.
Transactional gold and silver could be used for everyday purchases
All right, so we're talking about, transactional gold and silver. We talk about it in the book, Pirate money. people could hold their money in gold as an option or silver, and spend it with a debit card under state authority. And you can learn more about [email protected], but if you put your money in gold in 1985, it'd still be enough to buy a movie ticket today at the same price as 1985. And there's a company in England that learned about what we're doing and they wanted to sponsor our efforts. the CEO, Jason Cousins, flew over here and met with us, and he's traveled with us. He's a really neat guy. So let me read. I've got a sponsor note here. support for this program comes from Glint, a financial technology service offering a debit card and mobile app that enables users to access their gold holdings for everyday purchases. So you can buy a movie ticket with. Glint users maintain ownership of allocated physical gold, which is stored in the managed vault at the time of transaction. Gold is sold in real time to cover the purchase amount in local currency. Glint offers an alternative way to store and use the value. Combining gold and silver with modern payment infrastructure, Glint clients can monitor their gold balance, view transaction history, and manage their account through the Glint app, available on major mobile platforms. More details about how vaulted physical gold can be used as money are available@glint glintpay.uh, com gold247 that's glintpay.com gold247 glint providing access to gold for modern spending. So we can go today as Glint users and we can buy our movie tickets and they won't cost any more to us in real money.
Mike Carter: And we can do that 24 7. You know, anytime of day, I can spend that gold and silver. so that's amazing. I was talking to someone the other day and they're like, how is this going to work? Because they're going to know what the value of the gold is. At the end of the day, it's going to be different than what they paid for. It's like. No, it's instantaneous. They look at the spot price at the time of that transaction. Sell your gold, convert it to dollars, and pay that retailer now.
Kevin Freeman: Full disclosure and fair warning. when you do make money with your gold in Glint compared to the US Dollar, then you may owe some taxes on capital gains taxes. We're working on that, people. There will be more to come. Just stay tuned to this program week in and week out. We'll give you updates on the progress that we're making.
You might have to pay some taxes on gains if you spend them
All right. So that's point number one.
Mike Carter: So, but you're saying if I'm unfortunate, if I'm fortunate enough to make a gain, I might have to pay some taxes on that at the end of the year if I spend that goal.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah. Well, let's say you spend it for a $17 movie ticket, and you had $15 worth of gains. You're going to have to pay about $4 in taxes. But that's still better than paying the full $17. You'll pay $4 in taxes, plus the original $2 that you put into gold, $2.50 in gold. So it brings your movie ticket price down to about $6.50 in US dollar terms, but you still have that tax. We're going to get rid of that tax. We're going to find a way to get rid of that tax.
Movies have been weaponized to shift our culture, sometimes maybe favorably
All right, so the first point was that movies, tell us something about our world and culture today. the second point is movies have been weaponized to shift our culture, sometimes maybe favorably. You might like this first example, I'm going to use. But there are other, some bad examples. And I, go back to top gun. It's 1986, I guess. and here's Washington Post article. Top Gun brought to you by the US Military. It's unlikely the film could have been gotten made without the Pentagon's considerable support. A single F14 Tomcat cost about 38 million, and the total budget for Top Gun was 15 million. So the US Department of Defense helped fund that. In exchange for DoD backing, the producers agreed to let the department make changes to the script. So they were using this to make America. Now it's under Reagan, and they're using this to make us more patriotic. And what did they want to achieve from that? They wanted people to sign up for.
Mike Carter: The military, and they got that.
Kevin Freeman: They did.
Mike Carter: it became cool again. And you see those fighter jets and what they're doing, and I don't know, I've always liked. I've always had the need for speed, I guess, as they say. And I always thought, wow, what a cool position that would be. I didn't have the 2020 vision to pull that off, or I might have considered that at the time.
Kevin Freeman: You would have been great. You would have been great. You've got the calm demeanor. You could have handled it, and you've got the skill set. I seen you drive, so you would have been good.
Mike Carter: Well, I did get a, a chance to go to, Miramar, the facility. We had an event. We did A VIP event for some folks in my development days. And so we got to go to the bar where that was filmed. We got to go look inside the fighter jets, crawl up the ladder, looked inside and I saw those little tiny seats that they sit in. And I'm like, that's pretty cramped quarters in there.
Kevin Freeman: Did they take you and give you the chance to, lose your lunch, so to speak?
Mike Carter: No, no, we didn't get, we didn't quite get that done. Although while at the time they made it very clear they needed more money in the military, because they didn't have enough fighter jets working out there. And they were still using. This was in the early 2000s, actually, about mid-2009, 2010, they were still using 8 millimeter cameras in the fighter jets to take pictures of things. so we've got to make sure national security is economic security. We've got to make sure those things are taken care of. Movies like this make a difference. I'm glad it's working.
Kevin Freeman: We knew two Top Gun style pilots. One killer cost. Lieutenant General Stephen Quast is a good friend of pirate money, radio and economic war room. And the other one is, is Ed Rush, Marine Top Gun pilot. his call sign was Head. Yeah, so his head Rush. anyway, so, so Top Gun was used by our military to increase. Here, I'll just read. The film conquered the box office as well. The hearts and minds of, of young Americans. Following its release, application to become naval aviators reportedly jumped by 500%. To capitalize on the craze, some enterprising Navy recruiters even set up stands outside the theaters. That's pretty smart. But you know, Top Gun Maverick exposed an entirely different means of co opting and using Hollywood to control people. And that was when they came out with the first ads for Top Maverick. Tom Cruise's character did not have a Taiwan patch on his sleeve, even though he should have had a Taiwan patch on his sleeve. Why? Because China had interfered and told Hollywood, nope, Taiwan doesn't exist. It's a colony of China and it's a big deal to them. You put it in your airline magazine and they'll boycott your airline. So they threatened to boycott, oh.
Mike Carter: We covered that in economic War Room at the time. And the good news is they changed.
Kevin Freeman: They did Top Gun Maverick brings back the Taiwan flag after the controversy. But guess what? They wouldn't even show it in China. They lost all the Chinese box office. you know, here's another example. So we have example of China, Doing that in the Middle east, we have examples where the script has to be changed because it can't be a terrorist from the Middle East. It generally turns out to be a Russian terrorist. Right.
Mike Carter: Those are safe enemies.
Kevin Freeman: You got to hate Russia because Russia colluded with Trump, which is not at all true. And I just interviewed John Solomon. There is absolutely zero truth that they colluded. It was made up by Hillary Clinton and FBI went along with it and all that. So you got to watch our economic war room show. Learn [email protected] if you want to understand.
Mike Carter: That a lot of the regular traditional media channels aren't playing this up like, well, we were wrong. Our Pulitzers. Take them back, please. That's not happening, is it?
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, Trump and Putin, not such great friends right now and never were such great friends. But, nevertheless, the Middle east interfered in Hollywood so that you could, you know, Alibaba films and all that. So you couldn't make any movie that made someone from the Middle east look like a terrorist. Has to be Russian now.
Executives blame Disney massive light year bomb on LGBTQ inclusion
And then, of course, we have this one. The LGBTQ movement that influenced, well, they literally took over Disney. And so here it is, September 18, 2024. Executives blame Disney massive light year bomb on LGBTQ inclusion. Per report, they made a movie that had a, gay couple in it on purpose, put it into the movie Lightyear, despite the fact that it was Toy Story's most beloved hero, despite the fact that Chris Evans, who played Captain America, voiced Buzz Lightyear. They went away from Tim Allen. And despite all of that, and it was a box office bomb so badly that it was banned in 14 Muslim countries.
Mike Carter: Yeah. And how can you be that ignorant in terms of what you're doing to your brand unless you're doing it intentionally? I mean, this. The only other one that I think has been that obvious is, was Bud Light with what they did with that brand.
Kevin Freeman: Well, now Jaguar.
Mike Carter: And Jaguar, too.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, Jaguar. They purposed to make it. Woke. They thought that they controlled things and were going to make this Woke. It was the Biden administration or whoever. The auto pin. Should we just call it the auto pen administration? And during that administration, they thought, we can get away with it and we'll get the support. Disney went crazy. Woke. Good sign. Fantastic Four came out under Marvel, under Disney. So maybe things have turned just a little bit. But I'm telling you, when you're willing to make a movie to influence society, and we saw that every TV show you can imagine had to have a gay character. It, Homosexuality is a part of society. It's a part of history.
Mike Carter: It's a part of influencing society over getting a return or rule of family entertainment.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, but why do they have to stick in my face and, and just literally take away Toy Story, which is what a grandparent wants to take his grandkids to see?
Mike Carter: Yeah, yeah.
Kevin Freeman: All right, we're going to talk about this. We're going to talk about where the movies have been and where they're going. But how can we use movies to expand a biblical worldview? Do they all have to be Christian movies with a baptism or maybe some other alternative? We'll be right back.
Mike Carter: Pirate Money Radio. Helping you give, spend and invest in ways that align with liberty, security and values.
How do we promote liberty, security and values in motion pictures
Welcome back with your host, Kevan Freeman.
Kevin Freeman: Yes. And I'm talking with Mike Carter. We're talking, ah, we're at the movies, talking about movies that are out now and ones that have influenced society. How do we promote liberty, security and values in motion pictures? How do we influence the culture? Can we bring out, biblical worldviews even if we don't only make overtly Christian films? I mean, I love the Passion and Facing the Giants when it came out. I enjoyed that. The Kendrick brothers, it's all great. We're friends with Kevan and Sam Sorrow, think they're also great. But they've made some movies that don't have to end in a baptism and a conversion every time. Sometimes you just tell human stories that don't destroy our values.
Mike Carter: If it's just teaching good principles, good moral values, good life lessons, all those are important. I was flipping through, HBO the other day and, turned on a movie, watched it, and there's a part there where, and I stopped watching it. But there's, there's a part there where the person came in and the guy was swearing back and forth. There's a little kid in the movie and like, well, how many swear words do you know? Well, I know this word and this word. And they start going back and start teaching them new swear words. I'm like, what is this? What's the purpose of this other than to just take down society, to take down that moral compass, the good values that, you know, many of us are trying to do with our families out there. There's a better way to do it. There's some great movies that are doing it. and I'm excited to see where this industry is moving towards.
Kevin Freeman: Well, you know, I like entertainment that enlightens, that educates, that brings out truth and history, but also that uplifts the human soul and overcoming challenges. And one example of that is our friend David Tice had this vision for telling the story of soul surface. You know, Brittany Hamilton, who lost her, limb in a shark attack, but went back to surfing. And that has, you know, Kevan Sorbo is in it and Dennis Quaid, two of my favorite actors. Helen Hunt's in that. It's a great story. It's not a I have to go to church and we all accept Jesus movie, but it expands our horizons.
Mike Carter: good life lessons. It's the kind of thing you want to look at, because, let's face it, life. Life's tough sometimes. It's not always easy out there. But when you can see stories like this that you can relate to and say, listen, I can overcome this. Life's going to be different tomorrow might look bad now. Yeah, I lost my arm. But you know what? That's not the end of my life. I still got a great lot of great things I can do here.
Kevin Freeman: That's encouraging. Nick Vujicic, who's another friend at Firefunny Radio, and he has been in our studio multiple times. Nick, who was born without arms or legs, and he's got films out about him, and he's starting things. It's uplifting. and there's some good films out there that. That are really powerful films. Like the Passion is. Is a really powerful film, and the Chosen were really good. And the David series, Schindler's List and God's Not Dead. Yeah, and. And Mark Wahlberg and Mel Gibson, they're making some good films. Of course, there's a little language in them and, you know, but they're making very, very powerful, good films. That. They're Catholic, a little bit in theology, but, you know, I admire them and they. And enjoy them, and the quality is improving and the storytelling is improving. But in the old days, the big blockbuster movie. And I remember when I met Charlton Heston, he was Moses and then Ten Commandments, and he was Ben Hur and Been Hur and both of them huge Hollywood blockbusters. And, both of them straight down the line.
Mike Carter: Judeo.
Kevin Freeman: Christian.
Mike Carter: Yeah. And I remember seeing that. I remember mom taking me to that one big theater in town at the time. and we watched the movie, and there's actually. There's literally a long enough movie. There's an intermission. So halfway through, they stopped, and you stretched and maybe got some popcorn that didn't cost $18 at the time and came back and watched the rest of the movie.
Kevin Freeman: There was that. There was an intermission in Patton. I just watched that recently, and there was an intermission in that. It's a long movie. The Great Race has an intermission. Yeah, they used to do that because they had to change the film reels. That's why they did it. But you got your stretch.
Scott: Some great films that teach us how to overcome difficulty
But some other great films that teach us how to overcome difficulty, also how to sacrifice for others. How that, you know, things may look bad, but. But if you trust God and you do the right thing, they can turn out all right. Not always. Darkest Hour. One of my favorite movies of all time about Winston Churchill. you know, here they face the whole Dunkirk. And I won't tell the Dunkirk story here, but I love it. Captain America. We mentioned earlier, the First Avenger. You mentioned Schindler's Law List, Braveheart, you know, Freedom, the Patriots, which is another. Mel Gibson, Founding of America. Bonhoeffer. That's one I saw. Not long ago. We had Eric Metaxas on the show, and he told us that movie's coming out. And he said, look, I'm not the driving force behind it, but I love it. I love the story. He's. He kind of brought Bonhoeffer to the public consciousness when he. When he wrote that book. Bonhoeffer is a great story. True story. It's a Christian story, but it's telling truths.
Mike Carter: And it challenges you to say, all right, if I were him, would I have been brave enough to take that lead?
Kevin Freeman: I don't know. I hope so. I pray that I would have been. I hope I don't get tested that way. Hidden Figures. Did you see that one?
Mike Carter: What is that one? I don't remember.
Kevin Freeman: Hidden Figures is NASA. Before they had computers, they were human computers, and they were African American women who were doing all the math, and they couldn't even use the same bathroom rooms. But they literally made the space mission possible. Calculating things. The. The Blind side, which tells a great story, and. And remembering the Titans. Another. There's a couple of sports movies. Here's one of my family favorites, Secondhand Lions, which is family story. It's truth. It's swashbuckling fun. It really. Have you seen that?
Mike Carter: I missed that one now.
Kevin Freeman: Oh, man.
Mike Carter: Check it out.
Kevin Freeman: Get that one and get your family and. And watch Secondhand Lines. The Rookie. Have you seen that? Dennis Quaid.
Mike Carter: I have seen that, yes.
Kevin Freeman: Is about a guy who goes back, pursues his dream. Chronicles of Narnia, of course, based on C.S. lewis. Amazing books. Lord of the Rings by Tolkien. the Alamo. I love that one in Texas. And really, I have a heart's desire to learn to play the violin because there's a violin scene there with Davy Crockett that I want to be able to play that song someday. behind Enemy Lines.
Mike Carter: You know that story, Behind Enemy Lines. Refresh my memory, because I don't memorize movies like you, Scott o'.
Kevin Freeman: Grady.
Mike Carter: Yes, yes, yes.
Kevin Freeman: It is a story of a pilot that. Another pilot that we know, that's a friend of this, that gets behind in Enemy Lines and he makes his way out. You surely know this one. It's a wonderful line.
Mike Carter: Yes. Jimmy Stewart. Yes.
Kevin Freeman: At National Treasure. That's a great story of American history. It's a Disney back when they made great Disney movies. In fact, National Treasure 2 has a scene where the president, is having his birthday party at Mount Vernon, and I'm about to go to be with Dr. Carson for his birthday party. He's done this now. This will be the third time I.
Mike Carter: Get to McDonald multiple times now.
Kevin Freeman: Yes, we've had. We've had President, Trump as one of the keynote speakers, and Governor Sanders is the keynote speaker and Newt Gingrich. Speaker Gingrich is keynote speaker. but they do a big fireworks at the end. And it's just like the National Treasure 2 movie, which is fun.
China is reportedly taking organ transplants from living patients in hospitals
I noticed, though, that President Trump showed up for the one we had at Bedminster, but did not show up for the one that was at Mount Vernon. I wonder if he was worried Nicholas Cage would show up. Because you remember National Treasure 2.
Mike Carter: You want to know where? The Secret Passage.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah. Secret Passage. Yep. Reagan. The Reagan movie we've talked about. On this show we had, actually interview with Jon Voight about the regular. All of these are uplifting, good shows. The Parrot Trap, Seabiscuit, Wonder Woman, you mentioned earlier. And there's one. And kind of sparked this idea. Marnique, said, hey, this week at church, can we go with our friends? They go to life Church. And they're doing at the movies, where Pastor Craig Marshall takes a current movie that's out. Craig Marshall talks about, the uplifting passages and ties it to scripture and sees what we can learn from that movie. And. And this year, he covered, at least this week, the movie One Life. It's based on a true story. It's genuinely inspiring. You can learn more at OneLife Movie, and it starred Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins. Have you seen this movie?
Mike Carter: I saw the trailer. And, it was one of those. Just watching the trailer. I started to get a little bit, a little teary eyed just seeing that this is one where much, like Schindler's List. What if, what if I could have done more? Yeah.
Kevin Freeman: It's based on the book. If not it. If, if it's not impossible. The Life of Sir Nicholas Win by Barbara Win One Life tells the incredible emotional true story of Nicholas Nicky Winton, a young London broker who visits Prague in December 1938. In a race against time, he convinces, Trevor Chadwick and Doreen Warner of the British Committee for Refugees in Czechoslovakia to rescue hundreds of predominantly Jewish children before Nazi occupation closes the borders. Fifty years later, he's haunted by the fate of the children he wasn't able to bring safely to England. It's not until the BB show, BBC show that's Life reintroduces him to some of those he helped rescue that he finally begins to come to terms with the guilt and the grease that he carried his entire life. All while skyrocketing from anonymity to a natural. It's so inspiring, powerful.
Mike Carter: I want to see that. I'm seeing it. But just that message there is powerful.
Kevin Freeman: Go. I think it's on Netflix now. you can go look to see if it is. but it's a movie that inspires, it absolutely encourages, it educates, it tells us history, it entertains. And you realize the Holocaust and the cost to the world of disregarding human life is so incredible. And you know, you think about that in the pro life issue with abortions and the cost, we're seeing economic costs from disregarding life and then failing to take care of the elderly and putting that, you know. And then recently when you disregard life, you have things like this. Did you see this? That they are taking organ transplants from living patients even in America, hospitals. Well, he's not quite dead.
Mike Carter: I not heard that.
Kevin Freeman: No, it's a real china, but I've.
Mike Carter: Heard that's happening here.
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, no, it's like, I'm not dead yet. You know, from, from another movie that, you know, I, I will not admit or, or I will not say whether I did or did not see Monty, Python and the Holy Grail. But there's a scene in it where I'm not dead yet, but literally, in the news. I hate to bring it up. Look it up. If you disregard life in culture and in movies, then there will be a disregard for like, well, you know, this organ could, we can make a little money off of it. Somebody needs it. They're not quite dead. But, you know, they're almost dead, so we'll go ahead and take it anyway. In China, they're doing live organ harvesting from dissidents. In America, if, if you were listed, there have been people who've had their organs removed before they passed away. It's, it's flight.
Mike Carter: Well, what I did hear is there's good movies coming out and, and maybe that means there's hope on the horizon economically, and there needs to be a whole lot more good movies there too. Now do I get eat some of this popcorn?
Kevin Freeman: Yeah, you can eat the popcorn. We're done. questions, comments? You can email [email protected] and you should pray. Pray for America. Pray for Hollywood to return to God's principles and in doing so, bring his protection. Pray for us to be faithful. Pirate Money has a role, and you listeners have a part to play. Listen wherever you get podcasts. This is Kevan Freeman, joined by Mike Carter for Pirate Money Radio.
You’ll get a nostalgic tour from Star Wars and Jaws to today’s remix-heavy slate, tying movie trends to cultural sentiment and even stock market moods. Kevin Freeman and Mike Carter break down the rising price of a family night at the theater, creative drought vs. hopeful themes, and how films can be weaponized by governments and agendas—or uplift with pro-family, faith-aligned storytelling. Highlights include Top Gun’s Pentagon partnership, China’s soft power pressure, Disney’s Lightyear backlash, and praise for family-friendly wins like Fantastic Four: First Steps. The show closes with how gold-backed spending can preserve purchasing power, plus a call for films that inspire, teach history, and reinforce values.
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