Fan Video of the Week: Supernatural Reflections “Stuck in the Middle (With You)”

“The unreal is more powerful than the real, because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it, because it’s only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. Stone crumbles, wood rots. People, well, they die. But things as fragile as a thought, a dream, a legend, they can go on and on.” — Chuck Palahniuk

This was a great episode and I had just the right videos saved for it. Like Sam, Dean and Castiel, the movies it referenced are legendary. So the chosen word is “legend” mixed with brotherly and family feels. I have wanted to add two videos about the second song for a long time because Jensen sang it at a con. Also, I have a brief introduction to Tarantino’s movies that the show referenced.

Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir Dogs was a writing and directing full length movie debut for Quentin Tarantino. The movie premiered in 1992 and its category was American crime thriller film. The movie follows the characters of a diamond robbery gone bad with before and after events. This is the first movie that set the theme/ course for Tarantinos trademarks: violent crime, profanity, pop culture references and nonlinear storytelling. It is regarded as a classic of independent film and a cult film. The main players of the cast were Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi, Chris Penn, Lawrence Tierney, Tim Roth, Tarantino, and Edward Bunker. Kirk Baltz, Randy Brooks and Steven Wright were also in supporting roles.

From Dusk till Dawn

From Dusk till Dawn premiered in 1996. It was directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Quentin Tarantino. FDtD was made to be an action horror film and it was Tarantino’s first paid script that he wrote. The movie starts with bank robbers and brothers Seth and Richie Gecko fleeing the F.B.I. and Texas police. Richie is a little bit of a loony. During their journey they kill a Texas Ranger, Richie kills a bank clerk and they end up in a vampire infested place, the “Titty Twister”, a strip club in the middle of a desolate part of Mexico with the family Fuller. This is a new take on vampires. Long story short, all of the players fight against the monsters. When the movie ends, it is revealed that the “Titty Twister” structure was actually the top of a partially buried ancient Aztec temple. The main cast was George Clooney, Tarantino, Harvey Keitel and Juliette Lewis. The movie was a modest success at the box office but later it came to be a cult film that had sequels made and even a TV show.

Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction premiered in 1994 and it has been widely regarded as Tarantino’s masterpiece because of the screenwriting. The black comedy neo-noir crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino mixes up in a artistic manner the intersecting story lines of Los Angeles mobsters, fringe players, small-time criminals, and a mysterious briefcase. Like Reservoir Dogs, it moved out of chronological order. The main cast was John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Maria de Medeiros, Ving Rhames, Phil LaMarr and Quentin Tarantino.

Kill Bill (Volume 1-2)

Kill Bill was divided into two parts because it ran too long. The first part premiered in 2003 and second part in 2004. It was the fourth film that was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The films plot follows a character called “The Bride,” a former assassin seeking revenge on her ex-colleagues who butchered her wedding party and tried to kill her (she fell into coma and lost her child). The main target is Bill. The main cast was Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, Lucy Liu, Julie Dreyfus and Vivica A. Fox.

Now it is time for the fan videos.

Team Free Will | Live like legends by: PinkGl8er2

Live Like Legends by Ruelle

When it rains, it pours
There will be blood in the water
Cold to the core
Faith falls hard on our shoulders

This is our time
No turning back
We could live, we could live like legends
This is our time
No turning back
We could live, we could live like legends

Live like legends
We could live like legends

This is our time
No turning back

This is our time
No turning back
We could live, we could live like legends
This is our time
No turning back
We could live, we could live like legends

Live like legends
We could live like legends

Faith falls hard on our shoulders
But legends never die

Maggie Eckford born c. 1986, better known by her stage name Ruelle, is an American electronic pop singer-songwriter. Her music is widely used on many television series, and she is the singer of the opening theme songs of Shadowhunters (“This Is the Hunt”) and The Shannara Chronicles (“Until We Go Down”).

Born the middle child of three sisters to a trucker in Mississippi, Ruelle was raised on a dairy farm. She attended music school in Sydney, Australia. Ruelle is now professionally based out of Nashville, Tennessee. Eckford adopted the French word “Ruelle” as her stage name because she liked how it gave off a sense of darkness and mystery and how it had multiple meanings including “chamber” and “wolf”.

Though Nashville is best known for country music and rock-and-roll, Eckford’s first two albums, For What It’s Worth (2010) and Show and Tell (2012), released under her birth name Maggie Eckford, were indie pop. She then adopted the stage name Ruelle to represent a change in genre, moving toward electronic pop with a dark and cinematic style in the EPs Up in Flames (2015) and Madness (2016)

And a few family and brother themed videos here. This song fits the show perfectly.

SUPERNATURAL ► BROTHER (by Jensen Ackles) by: sUmmerRain810

Brother – Supernatural AKF FanVid NJcon 2015 by: strgazr04

Brother by NEEDTOBREATHE

Ramblers in the wilderness we can’t find what we need
We get a little restless from the searching
Get a little worn down in between
Like a bull chasing the matador is the man left to his own schemes
Everybody needs someone beside em’ shining like a lighthouse from the sea

Brother, let me be your shelter
Never leave you all alone
I can be the one you call
When you’re low
Brother, let me be your fortress
When the night winds are driving on
Be the one to light the way
Bring you home

Face down in the desert now there’s a cage locked around my heart
I found a way to drop the keys where my failures were
Now my hands can’t reach that far
I ain’t made for a rivalry I could never take the world alone
I know that in my weakness I am strong, but
It’s your love that brings me home

And when you call and need me near
Sayin’ where’d you go?
Brother, I’m right here
And on those days when the sky begins to fall
You’re the blood of my blood
We can get through it all

Brother, let me be your shelter
Never leave you all alone
I can be the one you call
When you’re feelin’ low
Brother, let me be your fortress
When the night winds are driving on
Be the one to light the way
Bring you home

Quotes

Wally: Hell. Look, I was just passing through and I heard about some cattle mutilations.
Sam: Classic demon sign.
Wally: I started to dig. A lot of virgins go missing around here, too.
Dean: Classic horny demon sign.

Ramiel: Azazel was a fanatic, a true believer in Lucifer’s master plan. But the rest of us? Well, the truth is, we stopped caring a long time ago. Asmodeus has his hobbies. Dagon has her toys. We’re happy where we are. So if you want the crown, it’s yours. Otherwise…

Crowley: I don’t have friends. I make deals with those I can use. Every kingdom needs allies, even Hell.
Ramiel: Allies. Is that what you call three humans with one good liver between them and a busted-up angel?
Crowley: I admit, they don’t sound like much. But every Armageddon, every bloody ‘this is the end of all things,’ a Winchester stopped it. Like it or not, they’re an asset we can’t afford to lose.

Castiel: No, you listen to me. You — Look, thank you. Thank you. Knowing you, it… it’s been the best part of my life. And the things that… the things we’ve shared together, they have changed me. You’re my family. I love you. I love all of you. Just please… please, don’t make my last moments be spent watching you die. Just run. Save yourselves. And I will hold Ramiel off as long as I can.

Music

“Lover Boy” (Instrumental) by Toodlum Barker & Emil Lomax (Extreme Music)
“Walk with a Winner” by Gene McDaniels
“La donna è mobile” by Giuseppe Verdi
“Not for Me” by Bobby Darin
“Crop Won’t Ever Come” by Robin Loxley & Jay Hawke (Extreme Music)
“Colt .45 Opening Theme” by Hal Hopper & by Douglas Heyes

References and Minutiae
(From Supernaturalwiki)

Tarantino movie galore

“Stuck in the Middle (With You)” is a reference to the Dylan-esque pop bubble gum favorite of the same name from 1974 by British folk/rock band Stealers Wheel. The song is most famous for its use in Quentin Tarantino’s first feature film, Reservoir Dogs The episode also pays homage to Tarantino through the use of non-linear storytelling and the use of title cards in scene transitions.

“Big Kahuna” is just visible as one of the specials listed on Mr. Ketch’s placemat in the very first scene, a reference to Big Kahuna Burger, a fictional fast-food chain that appears in many of Tarantino’s movies, including Reservoir Dogs.

The opening scene of the hunters sitting in the diner is a reference to the opening scene to Reservoir Dogs. Watch the scene here.

Castiel spending the majority of the episode bleeding from a gut wound in an abandoned barn is a reference to the character Freddy Newandyke / Mr. Orange from Reservoir Dogs, who spends the majority of the film bleeding to death in an abandoned warehouse after being shot in the gut.

The scene of the hunters walking down the alley in slow motion is a reference to the opening credits to Reservoir Dogs.

Dean: All right, ramblers, let’s get rambling.
A line of dialogue used in the Tarantino films Reservoir Dogs and From Dusk till Dawn.

The glowing light coming from lock box when Mary opens it is a reference to the MacGuffin from Pulp Fiction, itself a reference to the glowing briefcase from the 1955 film Kiss Me Deadly.

Ramiel whistling “La donna è mobile” throughout the episode can be seen as a reference to the character Elle Driver from Kill Bill whistling “Twisted Nerve” in Volume 1. Watch the scene here.

Others

Castiel’s title card for the episode, “The Wounded Angel,” may be a reference to the 1903 painting of the same name by Finnish symbolist painter Hugo Simberg.

Mary’s title card for the episode refers to her as “Mother Mary,” a reference to the lyric in the Beatles song “Let It Be.”

The painting Mary finds the safe behind in Ramiel’s basement is titled Victory of St. Michael, by Raphael, 16th century.

Crowley presents Ramiel with the Colt, referencing the fact that Dean left the Colt behind after Lucifer knocked him away in 5.10 Abandon All Hope….

Ketch: Hello, beautiful.
Mary: My father used to tell me stories about this thing. You know there’s only five things in all creation it can’t kill?
Ketch: Oh, yes. I know all about the Colt.

Dean said “Hello, beautiful” to the Colt in 6.18 Frontierland. Mary telling Mr. Ketch that Samuel used to tell her stories about the Colt calls back to Samuel telling Dean he would tell Mary bedtime stories about it in 4.03 In the Beginning. Lucifer mentioned that there is only five things in all of Creation that the gun cannot kill in 5.10 Abandon All Hope….

References

en.wikipedia.org
supernaturalwiki.com
azlyrics.com
brainyquote.com

Cover art by: FIGHT THE FAIRIES! @Alice_Mars_Mann, Her Instagram

Have you watched any of the movies? Did you like the videos? Share your thoughts below.