Speaker 1: I'm Jason Colvin, I'm d Graves.
Speaker 2: Give us five minutes and we will give you the fire.
Speaker 3: Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Surely you Can't
Be Serious Podcast Special Edition five Minutes of Fire. We
are here talking about the lyrics of We Didn't Start
the Fire by Billy Joel. We're covering only five minutes
at a time, which is about to link with the song,
so it works out kind of nicely.
Speaker 1: So please join us.
Speaker 3: As we dive into some new lyrics today.
Speaker 2: All right, guys, so here are the topics that we're
going to be covering today. The Bridge on the River
Kuhi Lebanon, Charles de Gaull.
Speaker 1: Okay, Jason, what can you tell me about? Bridge on
the River Qui?
Speaker 2: Okay? This is a nineteen fifty seven epic war movie
starring William Holden, Jack Hawkins and Aliganis help me Obi
wan Kenoby, You're my only hope. It's about British POWs
who are actually helping their Japanese captors build a bridge
over the river Kwai. It was the highest grossing film
in nineteen fifty seven. It won seven Academy Awards, including
Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. Is widely regarded
as one of the greatest films of all time. I've
seen it. I thought it was great. I thought it
was fantastic. The novel was written by Pierre Boulet, who
also wrote.
Speaker 1: The plan of the Apes.
Speaker 2: Oh cool, know that bull screenwriter, Thank you Boll. Screenwriters
Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson were on the blacklist for
being secret Communists, so they had.
Speaker 1: To work in private. Oh my gosh, I thought this
was funny.
Speaker 2: Alec Guinness and director David Lean did not get along
very well, and when he was done with his scenes,
director Lean said, now you can all f off and
go home, all you English actors. Thank god, I'm working
with American actors tomorrow. Fantastic movie. I absolutely love it.
Speaker 1: And it comes back up in the breakfast Club.
Speaker 2: Okay, tell me about Lebanon.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you.
Speaker 3: Will remember from our previous episode the Suez can Crisis,
and you will also remember from our previous episode Naser
being the second president of Egypt and the guy who
did a United Arab Republic. Well, whenever the Suez Canal
crisis happened and France and the UK were joining in
with Israel to pull a fast one on Egypt and
the Suez Canal. Lebanon refused to cut ties with France
and the US, and Naser said, what the heck? And
he then put out this bulletin to all of the
Arabs to like protest, and that's what they did. As
a matter of fact, they protested hard. There was rioting
in the streets, and the Lebanese president, President chow Mun,
called up Eisenhower and said, you've got to help us.
And President Eisenhower in nineteen fifty eight ordered the US
Marines into Lebanon to stop the riots that were occurring
all over the country.
Speaker 2: Good thing Lebanon quieted down in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1: You know, barely heard a peep from them.
Speaker 2: Okay, tell me about Charles de Gaul, all right. Charles
did Gaul was a French army officer and statesman. He
actually ranks up with Napoleon when you talk about French
leaders of all time. Known for his height I think
he was six y five for sixty six, his regal
bearing and his cool demeanor, he led the Free French
forces against Nazi Germany in World War Two. Nineteen forty three,
he moved his headquarters to French Algiers, he chaired the
provisional government of the French Republic, so he headed that
up in nineteen forty four in order to restore democracy
in France. He actually marched into Paris to reclaim France.
Speaker 1: This is a really cool thing.
Speaker 2: Nineteen fifty eight, he came out of retirement and was
appointed Prime Minister. After the French crisis in nineteen fifty eight,
there's a political uprising that sees power in Algiers. When
he walked into Algiers, they are all crying Degaul to power,
Degaull to power. In nineteen fifty eight, he was elected
French President under the constitution of the Fifth Republic, and
he retired to write his memoirs and died watching television
November ninth, nineteen seventy. His funeral was the largest in
French history.
Speaker 3: Okay, guys, that does it for today's episode. Join us
next time for five minutes of fire.