The Big Picture: Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57)

Published 2018-03-30; 1:05:00 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “The Big Picture (The Ringer)” and the episode “Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 5…)”.

Hosts: Sean Fennessey. Guests: Chris Ryan, Bill Simmons.

Subject films: Jaws, Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Empire of the Sun.

On the transcript: No speaker labels; ads at the start and end; two segments: Sean with Chris Ryan (0:02:20-0:43:05), then a bonus with Bill Simmons (0:43:25-1:03:24). The transcriber's 'Sean Fantasy Editor in Chief of the Ringer' is likely 'Sean Fennessey, editor-at-large of The Ringer'.

Added from the extractor's memory, not said

Films that came up

compared (17)

Ready Player One · The Post · Star Wars · Transformers (movies) · E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial · 2001: A Space Odyssey · There Will Be Blood · Munich · War of the Worlds · Spielberg (HBO documentary) · Minority Report · A.I. Artificial Intelligence · Hook · Christopher Robin · Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade · Lincoln · Catch Me If You Can

passing (21)

The Matrix · Lawrence of Arabia · War Horse · The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara (unmade) · Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom · Amistad · The Irishman · Silence · Indiana Jones 5 (in production) · Stranger Things · West Side Story (Spielberg remake in production) · Shutter Island · Django Unchained · Duel · Raiders 2 (the second Indiana Jones film, unnamed in the episode) · Miami Vice · Apocalypse Now · Cape Fear · Get Out · This Boy's Life · Titanic

subject (7)

Jurassic Park · Raiders of the Lost Ark · Saving Private Ryan · Schindler's List · Empire of the Sun · Close Encounters of the Third Kind · Jaws

recommended (3)

Soderbergh's silent Raiders remix · Visions of Light · The Verdict

dismissed (6)

The Adventures of Tintin · The BFG · Hugo · The Terminal · Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull · American Made

anecdote (1)

Gary Shandling documentary

Claims (82)

  1. theme (theme): Ready Player One → The Matrix. Chris sees it as another orphan-messiah-saves-the-world story like the Matrix and Star Wars.
    “like the Matrix and, you know, like Lords of Arabia and Star Wars are all about like these orphans who've saved the world.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:05:17 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)
  2. contrast (contrast): Jurassic Park → Transformers (movies). Jurassic Park is lean where modern spectacles are bloated.
    “It is very much a lean middleweight fighter.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:06:23 · Chris Ryan (0.80 sure it was them)
  3. career (career): Jurassic Park → Steven Spielberg. Jurassic Park is the midpoint of Spielberg's career, blending spectacle with childhood and humanity.
    “it is kind of the perfect middle ground, the median point of Spielberg's career.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:07:39 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  4. lineage (lineage): Jurassic Park → Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The sequels are a spinoff of Spielberg's imagination though he only executive produces them.
    “even though he's just an executive producer on those movies, it is this interesting spinoff of his imagination.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:08:07 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  5. lineage (lineage): Ready Player One → E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. E.T. is in the book but was cut from the film by Spielberg.
    “I think ET in particular does not appear in the movie and is in the book.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:08:33 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  6. craft (craft): Ready Player One → ILM. ILM artists slipped a gremlin into Ready Player One and Spielberg was annoyed, part of his trimming of self-referential Easter eggs.
    “ILM people threw in like a gremlin in some place and like he was just like, god damn it.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:08:36 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  7. lineage (lineage): Ready Player One → Stanley Kubrick. The film contains a deeper homage to Kubrick, maybe its best part.
    “There is a much deeper and fascinating homage to Stanley Cooper.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:08:46 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  8. lineage (lineage): Raiders of the Lost Ark → George Lucas. Raiders fuses Spielberg's and Lucas's love of 30s-50s serialized hero comic strips.
    “it is a neat fusion of his point of view and George Lucas's point of view and their fascination with the serialized hero comic strip stories of the 30s and 40s and 50s”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:09:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  9. people (people): Raiders of the Lost Ark → Harrison Ford. Ford's nerd-professor-turned-hero is called the best action hero star performance ever.
    “And it is the best action hero star performance.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:09:22 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  10. lineage (lineage): Raiders of the Lost Ark → Chris Pratt. The wrong lessons from Indiana Jones were taken by later action heroes like Pratt.
    “the lessons that we took from that character that like Chris Pratt took maybe from that character are not the ones that I think we should have been taking”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:09:40 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  11. craft (craft): Raiders of the Lost Ark → Jurassic Park. Both are told perfectly and are tighter than people remember.
    “I think also just it's very similar to Jurassic Park in so far as it's told perfectly.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:09:51 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  12. lineage (lineage): Raiders of the Lost Ark → Soderbergh's silent Raiders remix. Soderbergh re-cut Raiders silent, black and white, over The Social Network score.
    “It's basically his silent film remix of Raiders, black and white film with the social network score playing over it”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:10:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  13. craft (craft): Saving Private Ryan → 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Normandy sequence is compared to the longest virtuoso stretches in film, like the openings of 2001 and There Will Be Blood.
    “The opening of 2001, the opening of there will be blood.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:11:16 · Chris Ryan (0.80 sure it was them)
  14. verdict (verdict): Saving Private Ryan → Saving Private Ryan. The film is two films: a landing that changed war movies and a baggy, ending-too-often second half.
    “it ends 3 or 4 times.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:12:22 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  15. contrast (contrast): Saving Private Ryan → Schindler's List. Schindler's List is the other side of the coin and does what Ryan's back half wanted to do: reckon with the other side of the conflict.
    “My number 4 Schindler's list, which is kind of the other side of the coin on Saving Private Ryan.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:12:53 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  16. what-if (what-if): Schindler's List → Billy Wilder. Wilder reportedly asked Spielberg to let him make Schindler's List as his last film, and Spielberg said no.
    “Billy Wilder learned that Steven Spielberg acquired the rights to Schindler's list, and he came to Steven before he made the movie.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:13:16 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  17. lineage (lineage): Schindler's List → Schindler's List. It set the standard for the prestige historical drama, so it can feel cliche now.
    “set a kind of prestige, historical drama standard”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:13:59 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  18. people (people): Empire of the Sun → Tom Stoppard. Stoppard's screenplay is praised as literate and morally ambiguous.
    “I find the screenplay by Tom Stopper to be the most, one of the more literate and intriguing and ambiguous, morally ambiguous screenplays that Spielberg's directed.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:15:20 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)
  19. people (people): Empire of the Sun → Lincoln. Compares Empire's dialogue with Kushner and Zaillian's Spielberg work.
    “Kushner, obviously, is another, he's worked with great people, Kushner or Steve Zalen, but I love the dialogue in Empire of the Sun.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:15:32 · Chris Ryan (0.80 sure it was them)
  20. theme (theme): Empire of the Sun → Steven Spielberg. Unlike his other childhood films, Empire shows adulthood through a child's eyes.
    “But this is a film where you are seeing adulthood through the eyes of a child.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:16:01 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)
  21. people (people): Empire of the Sun → Christian Bale. Bale and Malkovich deliver some of the best performances in any Spielberg movie.
    “And I think has some of the best performances in any Spielberg movie, Bail.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:16:50 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)
  22. contrast (contrast): Close Encounters of the Third Kind → Schindler's List. Both are important, but Close Encounters in a different way.
    “Close encounters, I think, is also important in a different way.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:19:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  23. theme (theme): Close Encounters of the Third Kind → E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Close Encounters sets a template for science fiction and for stories about families and divorce.
    “It sets a different kind of template for science fiction storytelling, for stories about families, for stories about obsession, for stories about divorce”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:19:05 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  24. verdict (verdict): Close Encounters of the Third Kind → War of the Worlds. Sean loves War of the Worlds but nothing in it beats Close Encounters, which did the work first.
    “But the truth is, is there's nothing in War of the Worlds that is better than close encounters.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:19:28 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  25. people (people): Close Encounters of the Third Kind → Francois Truffaut. A filmmaker, Truffaut, is cast as an actor and gives a great performance.
    “Francois Truffau, who gives a great performance in this movie.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:20:22 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  26. industry (industry): Close Encounters of the Third Kind → Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Close Encounters was overshadowed by Star Wars, released four months earlier.
    “But I feel like close encounters sort of got overshadowed by Star Wars a little bit.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:20:48 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  27. contrast (contrast): Close Encounters of the Third Kind → There Will Be Blood. Spielberg heroes are usually morally upright, unlike Daniel Plainview.
    “There's not a lot of Daniel Plainviews in there.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:21:14 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  28. career (career): Close Encounters of the Third Kind → Steven Spielberg. Close Encounters carries Spielberg's parents' divorce; Dreyfuss's character is part Spielberg, part his father.
    “And that Richard Dreyfus character being one part Spielberg, and like the idea of wonder and wanting to vanish, and one part his dad kind of abandoning his kids”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:22:39 · Chris Ryan (0.60 sure it was them)
  29. industry (industry): Close Encounters of the Third Kind → Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Lucas and Spielberg bet back-end points on each other's film, so each owns a piece of the other.
    “And so they both bet back end points on whoever was more successful.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:23:16 · Chris Ryan (0.70 sure it was them)
  30. craft (craft): Raiders of the Lost Ark → Raiders of the Lost Ark. The opening is languorous; Karen Allen doesn't show up for 35 minutes.
    “he does not get to Karen Allen for about 35 minutes, right?”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:24:12 · Chris Ryan (0.70 sure it was them)
  31. people (people): Raiders of the Lost Ark → Denholm Elliott. Elliott is a great character actor in Raiders.
    “I feel like Denholm Elliott, your dad would dig dig his work.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:24:40 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  32. industry (industry): Jurassic Park → Jurassic Park. Its popularity on release is likened to a Michael Jackson-level approval rating.
    “But the approval rating of Jurassic Park is hard to overstate.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:25:11 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  33. craft (craft): Jurassic Park → Stan Winston. Jurassic Park fuses a new standard of CGI with incredible practical effects.
    “it set a new standard for what computer generated graphics could be in a film, and it also has incredible practical special effects.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:25:30 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  34. what-if (what-if): A.I. Artificial Intelligence → Stanley Kubrick. A.I. would have been darker if it were a Kubrick film.
    “if it were a Kubrick movie, it would have been even more dark.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:26:34 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  35. contrast (contrast): Minority Report → Ready Player One. Ready Player One treats earnestly what Minority Report satirizes (personalized ads).
    “Some people have noted that the things that that movie satirizes are actually treated in a very straightforward manner in Ready Player one.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:26:46 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  36. contrast (contrast): Minority Report → Schindler's List. Minority Report's dystopia is among the ugliest worlds Spielberg set a movie in, unlike his historical films.
    “one of the uglier worlds that he has set a movie in.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:27:18 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)
  37. people (people): Minority Report → Colin Farrell. The Farrell-Cruise factory fight is a low-key best set piece, and a great early Farrell performance.
    “It's got one of the low-key best set pieces is the Colin Farrell Tom Cruise fight in the factory.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:28:13 · unknown (0.50 sure it was them)
  38. career (career): Janusz Kaminski → Steven Spielberg. Minority Report is maybe the fourth or fifth film Kaminski shot for Spielberg, after A.I., Saving Private Ryan and Amistad, which were real-world where this one is dreamlike.
    “maybe the 4th or the 5th movie that, um, Yanush Kaminsky made with it.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:28:27 · Chris Ryan (0.60 sure it was them)
  39. craft (craft): Minority Report → Janusz Kaminski. Minority Report looks like what Spielberg's films look like now: cloudy natural light into a dingy area.
    “And it feels more like what all Steven Spielberg movies look like now, this sort of like cloudy, natural light flooding through into a dingy area.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:28:34 · unknown (0.50 sure it was them)
  40. theme (theme): The Adventures of Tintin → The BFG. Spielberg's explicitly for-kids efforts leave the speaker cold, even though his kid characters are great.
    “I think when Spielberg tries to make movies explicitly for kids.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:29:23 · Chris Ryan (0.60 sure it was them)
  41. contrast (contrast): Hugo → The BFG. Same complaint as Spielberg's kid movies: make one for adults.
    “I felt this way about Hugo too, on the Scorsese too, just to go back to that”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:29:28 · Chris Ryan (0.60 sure it was them)
  42. programming (programming): Hook → Hook. Hook was a hugely anticipated Premiere-magazine movie when it came out.
    “Hook was a very big premiere magazine, news and notes movie.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:29:57 · Chris Ryan (0.60 sure it was them)
  43. people (people): Hook → Robin Williams. Williams's antic performance comes out of the peak of his movie stardom.
    “this was really in the heyday of Robin Williams's movie stardom.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:31:14 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  44. lineage (lineage): Hook → Christopher Robin. Hook foreshadowed reboot culture; Christopher Robin is basically Hook again.
    “Like, we're actually literally getting a version of Hook this year with Christopher Robin, the new Winnie the Pooh movie”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:31:49 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  45. verdict (verdict): Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade → Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Last Crusade was the right ending; another sequel after Crystal Skull is disappointing.
    “Was there a better way to end one of the great franchises than Last Crusade?”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:32:44 · Chris Ryan (0.60 sure it was them)
  46. verdict (verdict): E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial → Lincoln. Given a choice, the speaker would watch Lincoln or Last Crusade over E.T.
    “I think if I had a choice of what to watch, I'd rather watch Lincoln.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:33:35 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  47. lineage (lineage): E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial → Stranger Things. E.T. has been so imitated, in films and TV like Stranger Things, that the original feels less rewarding.
    “so many people have like basically based entire film franchises or television shows Stranger Things off of that”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:33:46 · unknown (0.50 sure it was them)
  48. verdict (verdict): Munich → Munich. The opening 35 minutes of Munich is the case for Spielberg as the best.
    “the opening 35 minutes of Munich or like everybody just needs to put their cameras down”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:34:24 · Chris Ryan (0.75 sure it was them)
  49. verdict (verdict): Jaws → Jaws. Jaws is the perfect movie: a script that could be silent, drama, humor, scares, great music.
    “What is a movie that has a delightful script but could be a silent film”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:34:47 · Chris Ryan (0.60 sure it was them)
  50. people (people): Jaws → Robert Shaw. Shaw's performance and the comparing-scars scene.
    “every time I see those guys comparing scars in the galley of Robert Shaw's boat.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:35:15 · Chris Ryan (0.70 sure it was them)
  51. craft (craft): Jaws → Jaws. Production chaos, notably the broken shark, turned into storytelling strengths.
    “Somehow all of the bad things that happened turned into good things in the storytelling”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:36:24 · Chris Ryan (0.70 sure it was them)
  52. craft (craft): Jaws → Visions of Light. Visions of Light recounts that Spielberg wanted Jaws locked down on tripods and the crew pushed back.
    “Steven Spielberg initially wanted everything in Jaws to be nailed down on tripods, and they were like, Steven, if we do that, people are going to be throwing up in the aisles.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:36:52 · Chris Ryan (0.80 sure it was them)
  53. people (people): Jaws → Bill Butler. Bill Butler shot Jaws, with a great camera crew.
    “I think Bill Butler, who shot Jaws”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:36:52 · Chris Ryan (0.80 sure it was them)
  54. verdict (verdict): Jaws → Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Jaws has the same iconic, burned-in familiarity as Star Wars.
    “I mean, what other movies have that kind of power? I mean, Star Wars is a movie like that?”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:37:59 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  55. people (people): Jaws → Raiders of the Lost Ark. Roy Scheider's late-70s run is called as important as Harrison Ford's iconic status.
    “I think that run of Roy Schider movies in the late 70s is pretty important.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:38:21 · Chris Ryan (0.70 sure it was them)
  56. career (career): Ready Player One → The Post. The Post was a three-month shotgun wedding; Ready Player One took four years.
    “you can see that he made the post in 3 months.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:40:10 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)
  57. career (career): Jurassic Park → Schindler's List. Spielberg released both in the same year.
    “he released Jurassic Park and Schindler's list in the same year.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:40:36 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  58. people (people): War of the Worlds → Tom Cruise. Chris picks Cruise in War of the Worlds as a cool underrated Spielberg performance.
    “I'm very partial to Tom Cruise in more of the world's, that's like a cool underrated one.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:40:49 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)
  59. people (people): Catch Me If You Can → Django Unchained. DiCaprio fully turning on his natural charisma happens in only this and Django.
    “the only other time he's done that really outside of Catch Me if you can, is Django.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:41:33 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)
  60. theme (theme): Catch Me If You Can → Lincoln. Both movies are built around one hugely charismatic person wriggling in and out of trouble.
    “The movie is built around this one deeply charismatic person and their ability to wriggle in and out of trouble.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:42:12 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  61. people (people): Lincoln → Daniel Day-Lewis. Day-Lewis is commanding alongside Kushner's dialogue and Spielberg's framing.
    “there is something so commanding and perfect about Kushner's dialogue, Spielberg's framing and DDL, just crushing the light.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:42:28 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  62. craft (craft): Raiders of the Lost Ark → Raiders of the Lost Ark. Raiders invented a whole kind of movie.
    “It's just like it invented a whole kind of movie.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:44:00 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  63. career (career): Steven Spielberg → Steven Spielberg. Spielberg is the best popcorn movie director ever.
    “So yeah, he's probably the best popcorn movie director ever.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:44:03 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  64. verdict (verdict): E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial → E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. E.T. is among the five greatest movies of all time given how kids still love it 36 years on.
    “ET is one of the 5 greatest movies of all time”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:44:52 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  65. craft (craft): Jaws → John Williams. Jaws on a big HD set is helped by the booming sound of John Williams's score.
    “And the sound that John Williams scored booming, you know?”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:46:01 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  66. industry (industry): Jaws → Jaws. Jaws basically created summer movies.
    “It basically created summer movies.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:46:17 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  67. contrast (contrast): Close Encounters of the Third Kind → Jaws. Close Encounters moves too slowly for kids; Jaws is propulsive and not slow.
    “the cool thing about Jaws is it's not slow.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:48:18 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  68. what-if (what-if): Munich → Michael Mann. Munich should have been shot like a vintage Michael Mann thriller.
    “It should have been like a Michael Mann movie.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:50:45 · Bill Simmons (0.65 sure it was them)
  69. programming (programming): Munich → Miami Vice. Mann was busy making Miami Vice, 'maybe that was part of the problem'.
    “I'm pretty sure Michael Mann was making your beloved Miami Vice when... Maybe that was part of the problem.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:50:57 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  70. craft (craft): Jaws → Jurassic Park. Spielberg's pre-Jurassic blockbusters: Jurassic does some of the same things as Jaws -- entertaining, not slow.
    “I think it does some of the same stuff that Jaws does, where it's really entertaining.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:52:13 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  71. contrast (contrast): Steven Spielberg → Michael Mann. Mann is fastidious and obsessed; Spielberg is all over the place, childlike wonder one film, Oscar bait the next.
    “And Spielberg's just kind of all over the place and it's like, oh, the wonder, the childish wonder.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:53:19 · Bill Simmons (0.75 sure it was them)
  72. verdict (verdict): Schindler's List → Steven Spielberg. Bill suspected Spielberg did it for an Oscar, which he admits isn't fair.
    “he's doing this because he wants to win an Oscar?”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:53:26 · Bill Simmons (0.75 sure it was them)
  73. contrast (contrast): Steven Spielberg → Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola and Scorsese are viewed romantically for loving their work; Spielberg isn't.
    “Whereas like with Scorsese and with Coppola, Coppola, who really his career completely fell apart in the early 80s”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:55:02 · Bill Simmons (0.75 sure it was them)
  74. verdict (verdict): Catch Me If You Can → Leonardo DiCaprio. Catch Me If You Can is Leo at his best but falls apart in the last half hour.
    “It falls apart with about a half hour to go.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:55:49 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  75. verdict (verdict): Saving Private Ryan → Saving Private Ryan. The first 20 minutes are among the best 20 minute stretches ever.
    “I think the 1st 20 minutes of that movie are absolutely one of the best 20 minute stretches ever.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:58:44 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  76. career (career): Duel → Steven Spielberg. Duel was Spielberg's first real movie and the best TV movie ever.
    “Duel was the best TV movie ever.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:59:49 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  77. verdict (verdict): Raiders of the Lost Ark → Jaws. Raiders is a little slow now and not as perfect as Jaws.
    “It's not as perfect as Jaws.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 1:00:18 · Bill Simmons (0.55 sure it was them)
  78. industry (industry): Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope → Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Star Wars (June 77) and Close Encounters (November 77) are both movies that will live for 100 years.
    “Those are movies that are probably going to live for 100 years.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 1:01:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  79. people (people): Catch Me If You Can → This Boy's Life. Leo in Catch Me If You Can is the most the speaker has liked him, other than maybe This Boy's Life and Titanic.
    “other than maybe this boy's life and Titanic.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 1:01:47 · Bill Simmons (0.55 sure it was them)
  80. people (people): Tom Hanks → Jimmy Stewart. Spielberg makes Hanks his everyman, a Jimmy Stewart.
    “Yeah, he says Jimmy Stewart.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 1:01:58 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  81. what-if (what-if): Tom Cruise → The Verdict. Cruise should do a serious historical drama, something like The Verdict.
    “It should be the verdict or a movie like that.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 1:02:28 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  82. verdict (verdict): Tom Cruise → American Made. Cruise's age in American Made (a 56-year-old playing a younger pilot) was too distracting.
    “He's playing a pilot in the 80s and he's got this weird wig on and he's 20 years older than the guy he was playing”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 1:02:46 · Bill Simmons (0.55 sure it was them)

Fun items (26)

  1. fun, about Jurassic Park: Spielberg Wonderface: the shot where Sam Neill turns Laura Dern's head toward a brontosaurus.
    “He captures wonder in a way that no other filmmaker really ever has”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:07:13 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about Steven Spielberg: The Soderbergh Raiders remix: Hardcore Chris Ryan content.
    “Hardcore Chris Ryan content.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:10:35 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about Saving Private Ryan: The D-Day opening is 40 minutes without a breath, and the film doesn't even tell you what it's about yet.
    “We don't even learn what the movie is about.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:11:36 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about Schindler's List: Rumor: Billy Wilder asked Spielberg for the rights to make it as his last movie.
    “And this may be hearsay, but from what I was told, Steven Spielberg said, nope, I'm gonna do it.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:13:47 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about Schindler's List: The girl in the red dress as an icon of innocence lost.
    “the little girl in the red dress, which is this iconic image of innocence lost in the middle of conflict”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:14:11 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  6. fun, about Empire of the Sun: See the Cadillac of the sky, the saluting of the Japanese pilots and the sparks flying off the planes.
    “The Cadillac of the sky sequences, the saluting the Japanese pilots and the sparks flying off of the planes scene.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:16:41 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)
  7. fun, about Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Chris moved it up the list mid-conversation after realizing how many ideas are in it; the Lucas/Spielberg wager story.
    “Maybe I might have fucked up.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:22:54 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  8. fun, about Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope: Lucas and Spielberg each thought the other's film would do better and bet back-end points; Spielberg owns a piece of Star Wars.
    “now he owns a small piece of the Lucas Empire because he won that wager.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:23:24 · Chris Ryan (0.60 sure it was them)
  9. fun, about Jurassic Park: See Laura Dern with her head down on the breathing triceratops, and the T. rex footprint pressed in the ground.
    “you can see the tyrannosaurus claw foot pressed down and the footprint.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:25:40 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  10. fun, about Minority Report: The only Spielberg movie where eyes are surgically removed or drug addiction is a major theme.
    “it's certainly the only movie that he made in which, like, a man's eyes are surgically removed”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:27:51 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)
  11. fun, about Hook: Premiere-magazine-era gossip about Julia Roberts and Dustin Hoffman's dark Captain Hook.
    “Dustin Hoffman is like a very, he's he's dark in this movie as Captain Hook, you know?”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:30:28 · Chris Ryan (0.60 sure it was them)
  12. fun, about Hook: Rufio's chant echoes forever in the speaker's mind.
    “I also just the chance of Rufio in the back of my mind echoing forever.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:31:20 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  13. fun, about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Sean jokes about caping for it as a longtime Shia fan.
    “you want to cape for that as a longtime Shia fan?”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:32:17 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  14. fun, about E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: The hosts' lukewarm E.T. takes cost them at home; Bill says he reversed after seeing it with his kids.
    “I was just reprimanded for my lukewarm take on ET by Amanda.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:33:04 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  15. fun, about Jaws: Jaws screens at the ArcLight every July 4th; Sean can watch it once a month.
    “I now see Jaws every July 4th at the arc light when they play it.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:35:07 · Chris Ryan (0.60 sure it was them)
  16. fun, about Jaws: Sean's friend Nils spent days communicating only in Robert Shaw dialogue.
    “Nils would spend days at a time communicating to me and my friends”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:35:46 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  17. fun, about Jaws: Bruce the shark, named after Spielberg's lawyer; the production was a train wreck.
    “Bruce, named after Steven's lawyer.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:36:32 · Chris Ryan (0.70 sure it was them)
  18. fun, about Jaws: Bill remembers being terrified walking a sidewalk 50 feet from the beach after seeing the ads.
    “I remember being so scared of the ads for that movie”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:46:23 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  19. fun, about Jaws: Bill biked to where Jaws was filmed on the Cape: hallowed ground.
    “one time we biked to where they filmed some of the Jaw stuff.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:47:26 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  20. fun, about Steven Spielberg: The 'hit by a car in 1986' test: how would he be remembered at his peak?
    “if you just got hit by a car at the peak of your career, how would people remember you?”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:51:08 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  21. fun, about DreamWorks: Why form a company with Geffen and Katzenberg and still do outside projects?
    “you're either in or out.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:54:38 · Bill Simmons (0.75 sure it was them)
  22. fun, about Amy Irving: Spielberg's divorce from Amy Irving, glossed over in the HBO documentary.
    “He married his lead actress from Raiders 2, who he mistakenly said he met in 1985”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:57:07 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  23. fun, about Saving Private Ryan: Bill saw it in a full theater in Boston; people were shaking when the barrage calmed down, like witnessing a car crash.
    “It was like we had witnessed like a car crash.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 0:59:29 · Bill Simmons (0.75 sure it was them)
  24. fun, about Raiders of the Lost Ark: Bill saw it in 1982 and 'you almost didn't know what to do after'.
    “you almost didn't know what to do after.”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 1:00:20 · Bill Simmons (0.65 sure it was them)
  25. fun, about Close Encounters of the Third Kind: In the moment in the theater everyone left shell-shocked; 'are there aliens?'
    “oh, my God, are there aliens?”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 1:01:06 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  26. fun, about Tom Cruise: The hosts ask if they'll ever do a podcast without discussing what Cruise should do next.
    “Will there ever be a podcast where you and I don't talk about what Tom Cruise should do next?”
    The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) · 1:02:21 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong