Blank Check with Griffin & David: Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri

Published 2025-03-16; 2:49:56 by the feed.

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

The extraction calls the show “Blank Check with Griffin & David” and the episode “Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri”.

Hosts: Griffin Newman, David Sims. Guests: Bilge Ebiri.

Subject films: Empire of the Sun (1987).

On the transcript: Transcript has no speaker labels, dropped words, and some garbled names; ads (Audible Dracula, Video Game Town, MUBI) at about 0:35:36-0:38:30 and 1:04:38-1:06:50 were skipped. After credits at 2:52 there is an outtake chat that starts the show.

Films that came up

Claims (70)

people (casting): John Malkovich → In the Line of Fire. Malkovich is the sun-dried tomato on the sandwich; in Empire it is his best use as an American Fagin.
“In the line of fire, is someone making you a ham and cheese sandwich and then like putting one sun-dried tomato on it”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:02:14 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career timing): In the Line of Fire → Unforgiven. Released the year after Unforgiven, with Eastwood in the same vibe of asking whether to hang it up.
“In the line of fire is the same vibe of like Clint being like, should I hang it up?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:03:07 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (late-period Eastwood): True Crime → Absolute Power. Bilge and Griffin riff on Clint Eastwood's late-period films and reviews harping on his age.
“specifically should be a plot point in 2 movies a year.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:05:00 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (industry): John Williams → Schindler's List. Williams has not won an Oscar since 1993 (Schindler's List) because the Academy keeps treating his work as another good job.
“And it's like, he hasn't won an Oscar since 1993.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:14:24 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (comedy attempts): Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade → 1941. Last Crusade is his one fully successful comedy; his clean comedies like 1941 and The Terminal are among his worst.
“basically, all of his worst movies are his cleanest attempts at comedies, like, 1941, the terminal, arguably all these.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:21:28 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career theory): Empire of the Sun → Steven Spielberg. Bilge argues Spielberg's 70s and 80s films are seen through a child's eyes and his later ones through a parent's eyes.
“I have this theory that early period of his career, you know, 70s, 80s, that his films really can be best be understood as being from the point of view of a child.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:22:49 · Bilge Ebiri (0.90 sure it was them)
verdict (pivot / better version): Hook → Jurassic Park. Hook is where Spielberg turns parent, and Jurassic Park is the better telling of the same father story.
“Jurassic Park is the much better version of what the story that Huck is trying to do.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:24:09 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (motif echo): Jaws → Lincoln. The slaps in Jaws and Lincoln show the shift from identifying with the slapped child to the anxious parent.
“So it's very much like almost like the humiliation of a little boy who's been slapped.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:25:32 · Bilge Ebiri (0.90 sure it was them)
people (ensemble casting): Lincoln → Oppenheimer. Lincoln has the Oppenheimer vibe of every small part being someone important.
“it definitely has that Oppenheimer vibe of like, what if every single person is someone deeply important as an actor?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:26:46 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (score): John Williams → Empire of the Sun. Williams' score is his most classical, with a big motif that is a hymn he did not write.
“One, the biggest motif in it is one that he did not write.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:30:04 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80 sure it was them)
career (career): John Williams → Steven Spielberg. Williams is part of Spielberg's people, who apply what they know about assembling a movie and tip it darker for Empire of the Sun.
“it really is Spielberg and his people, including John Williams, trying to take like what they know about how to put together a movie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:30:20 · Bilge Ebiri (0.70 sure it was them)
unmapped (dry run): Empire of the Sun → Schindler's List. Schindler's List is the more successful grown-up film that erased Empire of the Sun from memory; it was seen as the dry run.
“Look back as this was the dry run before he totally cracked it on Shell.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:30:35 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (method contrast): Schindler's List → Empire of the Sun. On Schindler Spielberg refused to storyboard, almost as a reaction to criticism of the puppet-show control in Empire.
“Schindler, the infamous thing, is that he was like, I won't storyboard this.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:31:40 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (aesthetic shift): Empire of the Sun → The Color Purple. Both are death-of-childhood movies; Empire is where Spielberg starts bending his shiny style so it does not make everything feel magical.
“This feels like the 1st movie where he successfully, to your point of what you're getting at, figures out how to shift his aesthetic a little bit”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:32:29 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
contrast (technique contrast): Empire of the Sun → 1941. After 1941's show-off scale, Empire is the first time Spielberg orchestrates huge long takes without them feeling like playing with toys.
“it is the 1st time in his career, he can orchestrate something like that and not make it feel like he's playing with toys”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:33:08 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
what-if (Oscar what-if): John Williams → Home Alone. Williams should have won for Home Alone over Dances with Wolves.
“I think he should have won for Home Alone over Dances with Wolves.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:38:53 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): John Barry → Dances with Wolves. Barry's Dances with Wolves score is called possibly the greatest power boost a score ever gave a movie.
“you and I say that might be the single greatest, like, power boost of a score to a movie ever.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:39:13 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (score should have won): Hans Zimmer → The Thin Red Line. The Thin Red Line score should have won the Oscar even though it is unusually deployed in the film.
“Hans Stimmer should have won for the thin red line, although I think that score is sort of oddly deployed in the movie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:39:34 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Terrence Malick → Hans Zimmer. Malick scored The Thin Red Line, then recut it and placed pieces of Zimmer's score where they were not written.
“it's the classic Malic thing where it was like scored and then he recut it and put pieces where they weren't written.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:39:43 · Bilge Ebiri (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (music borrowed): The Thin Red Line → Pearl Harbor. Disney used the Thin Red Line score in the Pearl Harbor trailer without permission, and Malick later cashed that in.
“Disney uses the score for the thin red line, um, when they, uh, when they do the Pearl Harbor trailer.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:40:07 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Randy Newman → The Thin Red Line. Randy Newman's Pleasantville score is rated better than the Thin Red Line score and the likelier winner that year.
“is better, I think, than Red Line is probably your actual winner there.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:41:09 · Bilge Ebiri (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (industry): John Williams → The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Williams, nominated for A.I. and Harry Potter in 2001, was never going to win because Lord of the Rings won best score.
“He probably was never going to win in 2001 because Lord of the Rings wins.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:41:16 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): John Williams → A.I. Artificial Intelligence. The A.I. score is beautiful on its own but is not always well used in the film and overwhelms the ending.
“And also, I would argue that the score isn't always that well used in the movie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:41:41 · Bilge Ebiri (0.50 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): John Williams → Elliot Goldenthal. Williams should have won for Catch Me If You Can but lost to Goldenthal's Frida score.
“he lost to Elliot Goldenfall, the great LA Goldenfall. For Frida”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:42:21 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Elliot Goldenthal → Batman & Robin. The speaker prefers Goldenthal's Batman & Robin score to his Oscar-winning Frida work.
“I prefer the Batman Robin score.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:42:34 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Elliot Goldenthal → Heat. The speaker doubts how much of the Heat score Goldenthal wrote himself.
“Although who knows how much of it he wrote?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:42:40 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Elmer Bernstein → Far from Heaven. Elmer Bernstein's score for Far from Heaven is called amazing.
“But far from heaven, the Elmer Bernstein score for that is amazing.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:42:43 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Philip Glass → The Hours. The Hours is divisive but the speaker loves Philip Glass's score for it.
“The hours very divisive, but the Philip Glasgore for the hours is like, I love it.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:42:46 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Thomas Newman → Road to Perdition. Thomas Newman often hits the same notes but delivers a really good score on Road to Perdition.
“Yes, Thomas Newman often kind of hits the same notes, but a really good score.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:42:56 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (prestige genre): Skyfall → Sam Mendes. Skyfall helped Bond convince itself it was a prestige genre, which led to bloat.
“become a prestige genre like genre.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:43:50 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (same-year rival): Empire of the Sun → The Last Emperor. Two epics shot in China in 1987, both sold as firsts for China, about the same era; Bilge alternated seeing them in theaters.
“it is very strange that the last emperor and Empire of the Sun, these 2 movies that are like both kind of being sold with the like, no one's ever filmed in China before”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:49:03 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (same-year rival): Empire of the Sun → Hope and Glory. Hope and Glory, another child's-view war story that year, ate Empire's lunch with critics.
“is Hope and Glory not also this same year when it kind of eats this movie's lunch on this sort of or from the perspective of a child thing, at least at the time?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:49:21 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (grandiosity): A Passage to India → David Lean. Bilge's father disliked Passage to India because of its grand shot of the doctor on the train, which he found too much.
“I dislike it because there's a shot like this.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:54:49 · Bilge Ebiri (0.90 sure it was them)
unmapped (father-son taste split): 1900 → The Last Emperor. Bilge's communist father preferred 1900 and found Last Emperor too sympathetic to the emperor.
“he was very much a 1900 man, and I was much more of a last emperor, man”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:55:21 · Bilge Ebiri (0.95 sure it was them)
unmapped (critic contradiction): That's My Boy → Vacation (2015 remake). Bilge defended these two comedies even though critics laughed at screenings then trashed them.
“Same thing with vacation.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:57:39 · Bilge Ebiri (0.90 sure it was them)
lineage (origin of project): David Lean → Empire of the Sun. Lean asked Spielberg to check on the rights, then lost interest and handed the novel to him.
“He asks Spielberg to check in on the rights for him.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:57:53 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (mentorship / elder filmmaker): David Lean → Steven Spielberg. Spielberg befriended old masters (Lean, Kubrick, Wilder) who handed him their projects.
“The sort of string of great older filmmakers who somehow, uh, collaborated with Spielberg, only for Spielberg to wind up directing their movies.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:58:01 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (source): Empire of the Sun → J.G. Ballard. The novel is darker than the film, which sanitized it and condensed characters.
“There is definitely a lot of sanitizing happening and a lot of kind of condensing of characters and turning them into more of a more of a Hollywoody plot element.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:01:53 · Bilge Ebiri (0.75 sure it was them)
unmapped (screenwriting): Tom Stoppard → Empire of the Sun. Stoppard became the sole credited writer and said it taught him where dialogue is unnecessary.
“I learned a lot working on that in terms of like where you don't need dialogue.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:08:11 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (authorship): Tom Stoppard → Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. Stoppard directed the film version of his own play, which won at Venice.
“And he directed he directed the film version of it too.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:10:08 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career parallel): Christian Bale → Henry Thomas. Both were kid actors Spielberg discovered who had to escape that shadow before being safe as adult actors.
“Christian Bale had a bit of a parallel Henry Thomas arc where for a while it was like he can't come out from the shadow of him being a kid that Spielberg discovered”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:12:23 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
people (actor comparison): Christian Bale → Adam Driver. Bale takes weird projects, even bad movies, a bit like Driver, but is more flexible.
“He's almost like there's there's a bit of the Adam Driver thing going on with them.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:13:47 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career parallel): Christian Bale → Jeff Bridges. Like Bridges, Bale came to acting as a child by family expectation and had to find his own reason to take it seriously.
“it sounds almost a bit like what Jeff Bridges went through.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:17:06 · Bilge Ebiri (0.85 sure it was them)
people (performance): Christian Bale → Ford v Ferrari. Kathleen Kennedy said his Ford v Ferrari performance is closest to the real Christian, tying to Indiana Jones casting.
“she was like, that is the closest to his personality.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:19:32 · Bilge Ebiri (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (scene reference): Empire of the Sun → Gone with the Wind. Jim stands before the Gone with the Wind poster, echoing Spielberg's remark to Alice Walker that it is one of his favorites.
“I mean, you have that moment where he's standing in front of the giant gone with the wind poster, right?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:31:05 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
people (performance): The Sheltering Sky → John Malkovich. Malkovich is tender in the Bertolucci film, which Bilge saw on the BBC.
“his character there is, I mean, tender isn't the word I would use, but, but, you know, you really feel for him, or at least I do.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:35:21 · Bilge Ebiri (0.85 sure it was them)
craft (shot design): Empire of the Sun → Jaws. Spielberg reveals Malkovich in pieces like Jaws and Indiana Jones, withholding the hero shot.
“he introduces him both like he's Jaws and like he's Indiana Jones”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:38:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (shot design): Empire of the Sun → Raiders of the Lost Ark. Same slow reveal as Indiana Jones in pieces before the hero shot.
“which similarly has the like Spielberg taking 5 minutes to show you Indiana Jones in pieces before you really get the hero shot”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:38:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (theme: learning unjust rules): War Horse → Empire of the Sun. Spielberg returns to the idea of navigating the rules of a world you do not understand, as Jim does in the camp.
“the idea of sort of trying to learn to live by the rules of a world you don't quite understand.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:44:48 · Bilge Ebiri (0.75 sure it was them)
theme (theme: people as property): Amistad → Lincoln. Bilge says Spielberg's serious films, from Empire to Schindler, Amistad, Lincoln and Ryan, all turn on people as items on a ledger.
“they all they all become about sort of people as items on a ledger, even saving Private Ryan.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:45:35 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80 sure it was them)
craft (visual allusion): War Horse → The Searchers. A red John Ford sunset is a harbinger of doom, as in The Searchers, so War Horse's ending is a what-comes-next finale.
“I mean, you see that sunset in the searchers right before everyone's massacred.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:47:33 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80 sure it was them)
lineage (inspiration): Empire of the Sun → Tropic Thunder. Ben Stiller, on the Empire set as a young actor, was inspired by actors playing at suffering to make Tropic Thunder two decades later.
“Which, of course, this is one of this movie's greatest, like, lasting legacies is that this, this is what inspires Tropic Thunder.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:49:05 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
unmapped (psychology key): Empire of the Sun → The Fabelmans. Griffin reads Empire through The Fabelmans: Spielberg's core trauma was being pulled into the adult world, like Jim in the camp.
“I mean, here's here's my big post-fableman's take on this movie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:50:40 · Griffin Newman (0.80 sure it was them)
unmapped (dark twin): Empire of the Sun → E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Griffin pairs E.T. and Empire as two stabs at the same childhood material at the front and back of the 80s.
“I do think they're like him sort of like at the front and end of the 80s taking 2 stabs at a similar thing.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:55:03 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
unmapped (development history): Interstellar → Steven Spielberg. Interstellar was developed by Spielberg and Jonathan Nolan and is closer to Spielberg in its first script.
“Jonathan Nolan's script for Interstellar is interesting, but it's more Spielberg.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:00:35 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
career (poster / breakout): The Crying Game → Miranda Richardson. The Crying Game was Richardson's breakout, and she is odd as the poster face.
“It is fascinating that she is the poster for the crying game.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:05:16 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
people (performance): Miranda Richardson → Kansas City. Griffin saw the Altman film at a repertory screening where the audience was blown away by Richardson.
“holy shit, the Miranda Richardson performance in this.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:06:28 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
craft (plot structure): Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl → Raiders of the Lost Ark. The film fails to tie its Indiana-Jones-style MacGuffin to the Wallace-Gromit relationship.
“They fail to make the, um, the plot, the sort of like Indiana Jones-S McGuffin of what they're up against directly relate to Wallace and Gromit's relationship.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:11:21 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (quality comparison): Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl → Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. Vengeance Most Fowl is better than Dawn of the Nugget.
“it is much better than Dawn of the Nugget, which I think is basically wall-to-wall bullshit.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:12:14 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (stylistic shift): Saving Private Ryan → Minority Report. Saving Private Ryan was the biggest shift in Spielberg's signature style, letting him change languages for films like Minority Report and Munich.
“Saving Private Ryan is, in my opinion, the single biggest shift in his signature style up until that point”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:18:41 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
theme (audience reaction parallel): Saving Private Ryan → Empire of the Sun. Bilge finds Saving Private Ryan like Empire: incredible first 30-40 minutes, then merely liked.
“is actually not dissimilar to some people's response to Empire of the Sun”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:19:11 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80 sure it was them)
unmapped (historical context): Come See the Paradise → Empire of the Sun. A reminder that America had its own internment camps, as in Alan Parker's film.
“America did that to you, Japanese citizen.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:24:31 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (thematic context): Empire of the Sun → Haruki Murakami. Bilge learned about Japan's wartime atrocities in China from Murakami's novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
“it's really a book about Japan's ignorance of it, the atrocities it carried out in China”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:25:00 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Come See the Paradise → Randy Edelman. The Randy Edelman score for Come See the Paradise is one of the most used scores in other trailers.
“One of the most used scores in other trailers.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:25:45 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (gateway): Raising Arizona → The Conformist. A Film Comment essay compared the Coens' self-conscious style to Bertolucci's in The Conformist, which Bilge then watched on a VHS at home, starting his cinephilia.
“the self-conscious style of the Cohens is not unlike the self-conscious style of Bernardo Bernalucci in the conformist.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:28:51 · Bilge Ebiri (0.95 sure it was them)
people (director): Three Men and a Baby → Leonard Nimoy. Highest-grossing American film of 1987, directed by Leonard Nimoy, based on a French film.
“Directed by Leonard Nemoy, Gutz, Danson, Selleck.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:32:35 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career arc): Wall Street → Platoon. Wall Street, a year after Platoon, indicated Oliver Stone's later movies would become Wall Street.
“It's a it's a little bit of an indication of where things are going to go prematurely in his career.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:34:32 · Bilge Ebiri (0.50 sure it was them)
what-if (Oscar what-if): Planes, Trains and Automobiles → Wall Street. Planes, Trains and Automobiles should have won best actor for Candy that year, over Michael Douglas in Wall Street.
“Yeah, the movie that should have won best actor this year.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:35:40 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (reappraisal): Fatal Attraction → Adrian Lyne. Lyne has been retroactively inserted into the pantheon; Sliver was not valued in 1993.
“It is funny how Adrian Lyne has become kind of a like sort of retroactively inserted into the pantheon.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:37:06 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (sequel): Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 2 → Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1. Part 2 is darker, focuses on the women, and makes Bilge rethink part one.
“actually part 2 made me think about part one a little differently”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:44:04 · Bilge Ebiri (0.95 sure it was them)

Fun items (26)

fun, about Empire of the Sun / The Last Emperor: Bilge, age 14 in DC, spent early 1987-88 alternating after school between Empire of the Sun and The Last Emperor at two single-screen houses.
“alternating every week between going to see Empire of the Sun in the movie theater and the movie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:07:52 · Bilge Ebiri (0.95 sure it was them)
fun, about Steven Spielberg: Bilge's unified field theory: Spielberg's early films are from a child's point of view, the later ones from a parent's, with Hook as the pivot where he realizes he is a parent.
“Halfway through hook. Spielberg realizes I'm a parent.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:23:25 · Bilge Ebiri (0.90 sure it was them)
fun, about Spielberg slaps: Bilge noticed the many slaps in Spielberg movies (Lincoln slapping his son, Jaws hospital slap) and says you could cut a montage; the point of view shifts from child to parent.
“there are actually a surprising number of slaps in Spielberg movies, and you could really do a fun montage.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:25:00 · Bilge Ebiri (0.90 sure it was them)
fun, about Empire of the Sun making-of: In the Blu-ray making-of, Spielberg directs Bale's camp scene by calling it a real cool action figure shot, though it is a dark moment.
“he tells them, you're in a real cool action figure shot.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:29:24 · Bilge Ebiri (0.90 sure it was them)
fun, about Spielberg face: Griffin: Empire subverts the Spielberg face, shooting Bale from below looking up at the plane so we are on the ground, not sharing the wonder.
“You are on the ground looking at a kid, look up at something unseen ominously, and it's like, fuck, he's figuring it out.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:34:50 · Griffin Newman (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Malick / Pearl Harbor: Disney used the Thin Red Line score in its Pearl Harbor trailer unpermitted; years later Malick had an assistant text Disney the two words Pearl Harbor and got what he wanted.
“send them a message with 2 words, Pearl Harbor.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:40:43 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Kusturica / Cannes: Bilge on Palme d'Or double winners; he loves Time of the Gypsies and the I, Daniel Blake Cannes year was a war crime.
“those can awards were a war crime.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:46:03 · Bilge Ebiri (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Cannes press conference: Laszlo Nemes asked at a Cannes press conference whether he gave Dolan the Grand Prix because Dolan had been on his jury; Griffin riffs it as a denial.
“I did not fuck that cat.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 0:47:50 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about David Lean / Nostromo: Lean had Spielberg ask about Ballard rights, lost interest; Spielberg offered to produce Nostromo and sent notes on the screenplay and was told off.
“And Lean was like, fuck you, you don't give me notes.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:00:16 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Bilge Ebiri: Griffin resolution for 2025 is to become a produced playwright; riff on Ben's past big resolutions (Guggenheim, horse, fashion brand).
“I'm trying to pivot to being a playwright.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:09:34 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Christian Bale: Spielberg auditioned 4000 kids; Bale, recommended by Amy Irving, was the one exception to Griffin's theory that Spielberg fails at breaking male stars.
“oh, right, he fucking found Christian Bale.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:11:49 · Griffin Newman (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Production of Empire of the Sun: Shot in China in 21 days, they could not process film there and shot without dailies.
“So they shot everything without access to dailies, which is insane to consider.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:20:08 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Joe Pantoliano: Pantoliano is the first person in the movie to tell the kid to shut up, which is cathartic for the audience.
“Pantoleano is the 1st person in the movie to be like, kid, shut the fuck up.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:36:33 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Tropic Thunder: Ben Stiller, in a small role, watched actors on the Empire set seeking suffering while having trailers and craft services; it became Tropic Thunder 20 years later.
“We have trailers.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:49:33 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Spielberg's childhood: Griffin recounts a 60 Minutes interview where Spielberg said he had no happy childhood memories, and ties it to Fabelmans and his collecting of arcade machines and Casper rights.
“I do not have a single happy memory of my childhood.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:52:20 · Griffin Newman (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Empire of the Sun's ending: The climax is the small, uncomfortable shooting of a Japanese soldier, and the Nagasaki flash is seen as God taking a photograph.
“Like God taking a photograph, which, you know, bring it back to the dark power of cinema, you know?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 1:59:03 · Bilge Ebiri (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about Paul Schrader: Schrader saw Twisters in 4DX and posted about it on Facebook; he walked out of another film and emailed Bilge after being told to see All We Imagine as Light.
“He loved twisters.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:03:44 · Bilge Ebiri (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Miranda Richardson: Richardson's best performance, per David or Bilge, is Mrs. Tweedy in Chicken Run; she also plays Queen Mary in The Lost Prince.
“Obviously, Miranda Richardson's best performance is Mrs. Tweedy and Trick and Run.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:09:16 · Bilge Ebiri (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Wallace & Gromit: Feathers McGraw gets a performance from only head tilts, with no brow or mouth.
“Yes, and it's truly just tilting the head that gives him characterization.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:10:30 · Bilge Ebiri (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Pauline Kael / critics: Contemporary reviews: Sarris loved it, Hoberman hated it and called it The Sorrow and the Pity remade as Oliver; Kael-style line was majestically made but unclear what it is about.
“Hoberman called it the sorrow and the pity remade is Oliver, which is pretty funny.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:13:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Raising Arizona: Bilge's cinephilia origin: after seeing Raising Arizona, he read a Film Comment essay, watched the family VHS of The Conformist six or seven times in a week, then went to Italian cinema and Bertolucci.
“And I become obsessed with the conformist, which then leads to Italian cinema, Berlucci.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:29:21 · Bilge Ebiri (0.95 sure it was them)
fun, about Planes, Trains and Automobiles: The 4K has a fabled hour of deleted scenes; there was never a 3-hour cut, Hughes just assembled too much Candy and Martin footage.
“He just had so much good footage of Candy and Martin that his 1st assembly.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:36:27 · Bilge Ebiri (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Sleeping Beauty: At a 70mm screening at the Museum of the Moving Image, a viewer shushed a small child who asked a question and the crowd turned on him.
“Everyone chill the fuck out.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:40:19 · Bilge Ebiri (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Horizon: An American Saga: Bilge saw chapter 2: Costner told him he only shot enough of chapter 3 to have that month; Part 2 is darker and ends with a montage of the next installment.
“yeah, I only shot enough. so that I could have that month.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:45:14 · Bilge Ebiri (0.90 sure it was them)
fun, about Costner / Horizon poster: Griffin asks Bilge to sign the Horizon poster at the office: I have seen chapter 2.
“would you mind signing the Horizon poster and just writing, I have seen chapter 2.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:49:20 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about John Huston: Out-take at the end: a montage in which a critic introduces John Huston as a director who also wrote his own film, treated like a savant.
“It's being treated like he's some savant.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri · 2:53:40 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Bilge Ebiri (guest): Loves grand, earned cinematic spectacle and big epics (The Last Emperor, Passage to India's shots), Bertolucci, John Williams, Malkovich, Christian Bale and Raising Arizona. Defends movies that made him laugh despite critical consensus (That's My Boy, Vacation remake). Cannot stand critics who enjoy a film in the room and then trash it for reasons of consensus; wary of Hollywood's sanitized history.
Griffin Newman (host): Passionate about Spielberg's autobiographical psychology and Oscar-race history; loves Lincoln, Catch Me If You Can, ensemble casts, and Malkovich as a flavor. Cannot stand Always and Spielberg's pure comedies; a sucker for deep-dive trivia and dossier research.
David Sims (host): Enjoys Spielberg's crowd-pleasers and Indiana Jones; considers Last Crusade his favorite and his most successful comedy; likes Oscar speculation, Wall Street, Planes Trains and Automobiles, and Adrian Lyne. Dislikes Always.

The show's recurring bits

The box office game: Guessing the film's opening weekend and what it was up against.
The sung theme: "Blank Check with Griffin and David", sung; the transcriber garbles it.

Names the transcriber got wrong

Bilge / Billga / Bill Good / Bill Gobier / Bilgas / Bill Gaberi: Bilge Ebiri
Open line ('We're in a diamond, blackjack, we're gripping, and tell me', 'the name is the shine with Black Jack') is garbled: probably Empire of the Sun's opening lines about not remembering what his parents look like
Jarmakovich / Makovich / Malcolm: John Malkovich
Sugarland / always in Sugarland: The Sugarland Express
Pantaliano / Pantoleano: Joe Pantoliano
Costa Rica: Emir Kusturica
Ruben Osland: Ruben Ostlund
Lazo Nimish: Laszlo Nemes
Hanukkah / Hanekah: Michael Haneke
Tony Erdman: Toni Erdmann
Berdalucci / Berlucci / Bernalucci: Bernardo Bertolucci
Rosen, Krenzen, Gilder: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Honora: Anora
Redding Man: The Running Man (remake)
Mike Noel: Mike Newell
Hurricane Murkami: Haruki Murakami
Stopper / Stopford: Tom Stoppard
Sarras: Andrew Sarris; KO / Kale: Pauline Kael
Putnam / Don Steele: David Puttnam / Dawn Steel
Hans Stimmer: Hans Zimmer
Oban Society: Obon Society
Evil Dead 2 / Sprint of Darkness: Prince of Darkness
Lorenzo Zoe: Lorenzo's Oil (guess)
Faliudo: unclear (maybe a film Schrader walked out of)
Paul Michael Glazer: Paul Michael Glaser
Dennis Quade: Dennis Quaid
Ben Hossley: Ben Hosley

Blank Check with Griffin & David: Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri

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

Films that came up

passing (104)

anecdote (24)

compared (30)

subject (1)

dismissed (7)

recommended (11)

Claims (70)

Fun items (26)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong