What the corpus says about Empire of the Sun (1987)

What was said about it (25)

1. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 1:49:05 · Griffin Newman (0.60)] Empire of the Sun ⇒ Tropic Thunder (the host's read) · lineage · 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."
2. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 1:44:48 · Bilge Ebiri (0.75)] War Horse ↔ Empire of the Sun · theme · 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."
3. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 2:19:11 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80)] Saving Private Ryan ↔ Empire of the Sun · theme · 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"
4. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 0:32:29 · Griffin Newman (0.70)] Empire of the Sun ↔ The Color Purple · craft · 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"
5. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 1:38:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Jaws ⇒ Empire of the Sun (the host's read) · craft · 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"
6. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 1:38:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Raiders of the Lost Ark ⇒ Empire of the Sun (the host's read) · craft · 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"
7. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 0:31:40 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Empire of the Sun ⇒ Schindler's List (the host's read) · contrast · 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."
8. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 0:33:08 · Griffin Newman (0.70)] Empire of the Sun ↔ 1941 · contrast · 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"
9. [The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies · 0:15:32 · Chris Ryan (0.80)] Empire of the Sun ↔ Lincoln · people · 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."
10. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 0:49:03 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Empire of the Sun ↔ The Last Emperor · industry · 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"
11. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 0:49:21 · David Sims (0.40)] Empire of the Sun ↔ Hope and Glory · industry · 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?"
12. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 0:30:35 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Empire of the Sun ⇒ Schindler's List (the host's read) · dry run · 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."
13. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 1:31:05 · Griffin Newman (0.60)] Gone with the Wind ⇒ Empire of the Sun (the host's read) · scene reference · 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?"
14. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 1:50:40 · Griffin Newman (0.80)] Empire of the Sun ↔ The Fabelmans · psychology key · 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."
15. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 1:55:03 · Griffin Newman (0.60)] Empire of the Sun ↔ E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial · dark twin · 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."
16. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 2:24:31 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Come See the Paradise ↔ Empire of the Sun · historical context · A reminder that America had its own internment camps, as in Alan Parker's film. · "America did that to you, Japanese citizen."
17. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 0:57:53 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] David Lean ⇒ Empire of the Sun (the host's read) · lineage · 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."
18. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 1:01:53 · Bilge Ebiri (0.75)] J.G. Ballard ⇒ Empire of the Sun (the host's read) · lineage · 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."
19. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 2:25:00 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80)] Empire of the Sun ↔ Haruki Murakami · theme · 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"
20. [The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies · 0:16:01 · Chris Ryan (0.85)] Empire of the Sun ↔ Steven Spielberg · theme · 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."
21. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 0:30:04 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80)] John Williams ↔ Empire of the Sun · craft · 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."
22. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 0:22:49 · Bilge Ebiri (0.90)] Empire of the Sun ↔ Steven Spielberg · career · 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."
23. [The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies · 0:15:20 · Chris Ryan (0.85)] Empire of the Sun ↔ Tom Stoppard · people · 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."
24. [The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies · 0:16:50 · Chris Ryan (0.85)] Empire of the Sun ↔ Christian Bale · people · 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."
25. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 1:08:11 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Tom Stoppard ↔ Empire of the Sun · screenwriting · 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."

Films put beside it more than once (1)

1. [pairs] Empire of the Sun ↔ Schindler's List · said 2 times in 1 episode

Fun items about it (1)

1. [The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies · 0:16:41 · Chris Ryan (0.85)] Empire of the Sun · fun · 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."

One hop out: what recommends the films most often joined to it (9)

1. [The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies · 0:13:59 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] Schindler's List ↔ Schindler's List · lineage · It set the standard for the prestige historical drama, so it can feel cliche now. · "set a kind of prestige, historical drama standard"
2. [Blank Check · Raiders of the Lost Ark · 1:36:24 · Brian Michael Bendis (0.60)] Chuck Jones ⇒ 1941 (the host's read) · craft · 1941 is Chuck Jones trying to come to life; Raiders uses the same storytelling with narrative discipline. · "that is a Chuck Jones cartoon trying to come to life."
3. [Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 2:25:45 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (0.40)] Come See the Paradise ↔ Randy Edelman · craft · 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."
4. [Blank Check · Raiders of the Lost Ark · 3:27:19 · unknown (0.40)] E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ↔ Raiders of the Lost Ark · programming · Next week's episode is E.T.; next the Patreon bonus covers Something Evil and Savage. · "I believe it's a movie called ET the Extra Terrestrial."
5. [Blank Check · Raiders of the Lost Ark · 2:38:44 · unknown (0.40)] John Williams ↔ 1941 · craft · 1941's score is argued to be among Williams' very best. · "you can argue 1941 is among his very, very best"
6. [The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies · 0:08:33 · Sean Fennessey (0.85)] Ready Player One ↔ E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial · lineage · 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."
7. [The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies · 0:33:46 · unknown (0.50)] E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ⇒ Stranger Things (the host's read) · lineage · 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"
8. [The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies · 0:19:05 · Sean Fennessey (0.85)] Close Encounters of the Third Kind ⇒ E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (the host's read) · theme · 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"
9. [Blank Check — Patreon · Thor · 1:07:56 · David Sims (0.40)] Thor ↔ E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial · theme · For Selvig, Thor is proof of aliens, his own E.T., and the reason he will not let go of him. · "Thor is like his ET."

Who said it, by their latest sketch (4)

1. [speaker] Griffin Newman · latest sketch, Blank Check · The Last Temptation of Christ · Calls Last Temptation his college-era favorite Scorsese; loves Scorsese's smaller 80s and the film's closing transcendence and Gabriel score. Cannot stand fundamentalist outrage at it. A sucker for casting trivia and Tom Cruise-silliness. · stances: Hot take: Last Temptation structurally mirrors New York, New York as a better version; Outrage over the film is stupid; it is respectful to Jesus; Scorsese's smaller 80s work beats his later baroque phases
2. [speaker] Bilge Ebiri · latest sketch, Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 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. · stances: Empire of the Sun is excellent and underrated; Spielberg's early films are the child's view, later ones the parent's; Hook is the pivot; Spielberg is secretly a horror filmmaker at heart; Horizon chapter 2 is great
3. [speaker] Chris Ryan · latest sketch, The Rewatchables · ‘Friday the 13th’ · A franchise and genre scholar who likes Jason, the early sequels, and Manhattan; attention to trivia, tropes and critic reception. Treats slashers as a canon with tiers. · stances: Parts 1, 2, 4 and Manhattan are the good ones; The series finds its legs at 4
4. [speaker] David Sims · latest sketch, Blank Check · The Last Temptation of Christ · Prepares history: novel, casting, budgets, box office. Reveres the film and thinks it reads as a normal ground-level story. A sucker for Hollywood deal backstory and box office game. · stances: Praises Keitel and Dafoe casting; Respects Scorsese's persistence and Corman discipline; The film is now well regarded though not 'canonical Marty'

The shows' running bits (2)

1. [bits] The Big Picture: Drafts (Hosts and guests draft films in rounds; every pick is a recommendation with an argument); Hall of Fame (A star's or director's best, ranked and argued); Countdowns (Ranked lists, top five or top ten)
2. [bits] Blank Check: 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)

The whole prompt

You are a clerk at Video Culture, a video store. A customer just finished Empire of the Sun (1987) and wants to know what to watch next.

Below is what people who love movies said on three podcasts (Blank Check, The Rewatchables, The Big Picture) about Empire of the Sun (1987) and the films around it, one line each. Every line starts with where it came from, in brackets: [show · episode · time · speaker (how sure we are it was them)]. A [pairs] line says how often two films were put side by side. A [speaker] line says what that person likes. A [bits] line lists a show's running bits: a format, not an opinion.

[Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 1:49:05 · Griffin Newman (0.60)] Empire of the Sun ⇒ Tropic Thunder (the host's read) · lineage · 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 · Empire of the Sun · 1:44:48 · Bilge Ebiri (0.75)] War Horse ↔ Empire of the Sun · theme · 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 · Empire of the Sun · 2:19:11 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80)] Saving Private Ryan ↔ Empire of the Sun · theme · 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 · Empire of the Sun · 0:32:29 · Griffin Newman (0.70)] Empire of the Sun ↔ The Color Purple · craft · 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 · Empire of the Sun · 1:38:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Jaws ⇒ Empire of the Sun (the host's read) · craft · 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 · Empire of the Sun · 1:38:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Raiders of the Lost Ark ⇒ Empire of the Sun (the host's read) · craft · 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 · Empire of the Sun · 0:31:40 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Empire of the Sun ⇒ Schindler's List (the host's read) · contrast · 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 · Empire of the Sun · 0:33:08 · Griffin Newman (0.70)] Empire of the Sun ↔ 1941 · contrast · 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"
[The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies · 0:15:32 · Chris Ryan (0.80)] Empire of the Sun ↔ Lincoln · people · 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."
[Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 0:49:03 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Empire of the Sun ↔ The Last Emperor · industry · 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 · Empire of the Sun · 0:49:21 · David Sims (0.40)] Empire of the Sun ↔ Hope and Glory · industry · 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 · Empire of the Sun · 0:30:35 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Empire of the Sun ⇒ Schindler's List (the host's read) · dry run · 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 · Empire of the Sun · 1:31:05 · Griffin Newman (0.60)] Gone with the Wind ⇒ Empire of the Sun (the host's read) · scene reference · 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 · Empire of the Sun · 1:50:40 · Griffin Newman (0.80)] Empire of the Sun ↔ The Fabelmans · psychology key · 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 · Empire of the Sun · 1:55:03 · Griffin Newman (0.60)] Empire of the Sun ↔ E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial · dark twin · 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 · Empire of the Sun · 2:24:31 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Come See the Paradise ↔ Empire of the Sun · historical context · A reminder that America had its own internment camps, as in Alan Parker's film. · "America did that to you, Japanese citizen."
[Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 0:57:53 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] David Lean ⇒ Empire of the Sun (the host's read) · lineage · 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 · Empire of the Sun · 1:01:53 · Bilge Ebiri (0.75)] J.G. Ballard ⇒ Empire of the Sun (the host's read) · lineage · 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 · Empire of the Sun · 2:25:00 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80)] Empire of the Sun ↔ Haruki Murakami · theme · 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"
[The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies · 0:16:01 · Chris Ryan (0.85)] Empire of the Sun ↔ Steven Spielberg · theme · 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."
[Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 0:30:04 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80)] John Williams ↔ Empire of the Sun · craft · 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 · Empire of the Sun · 0:22:49 · Bilge Ebiri (0.90)] Empire of the Sun ↔ Steven Spielberg · career · 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."
[The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies · 0:15:20 · Chris Ryan (0.85)] Empire of the Sun ↔ Tom Stoppard · people · 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 · 0:16:50 · Chris Ryan (0.85)] Empire of the Sun ↔ Christian Bale · people · 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."
[Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 1:08:11 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Tom Stoppard ↔ Empire of the Sun · screenwriting · 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."
[pairs] Empire of the Sun ↔ Schindler's List · said 2 times in 1 episode
[The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies · 0:16:41 · Chris Ryan (0.85)] Empire of the Sun · fun · 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 · 0:13:59 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] Schindler's List ↔ Schindler's List · lineage · It set the standard for the prestige historical drama, so it can feel cliche now. · "set a kind of prestige, historical drama standard"
[Blank Check · Raiders of the Lost Ark · 1:36:24 · Brian Michael Bendis (0.60)] Chuck Jones ⇒ 1941 (the host's read) · craft · 1941 is Chuck Jones trying to come to life; Raiders uses the same storytelling with narrative discipline. · "that is a Chuck Jones cartoon trying to come to life."
[Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 2:25:45 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (0.40)] Come See the Paradise ↔ Randy Edelman · craft · 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 · Raiders of the Lost Ark · 3:27:19 · unknown (0.40)] E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ↔ Raiders of the Lost Ark · programming · Next week's episode is E.T.; next the Patreon bonus covers Something Evil and Savage. · "I believe it's a movie called ET the Extra Terrestrial."
[Blank Check · Raiders of the Lost Ark · 2:38:44 · unknown (0.40)] John Williams ↔ 1941 · craft · 1941's score is argued to be among Williams' very best. · "you can argue 1941 is among his very, very best"
[The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies · 0:08:33 · Sean Fennessey (0.85)] Ready Player One ↔ E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial · lineage · 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 · 0:33:46 · unknown (0.50)] E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ⇒ Stranger Things (the host's read) · lineage · 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 · 0:19:05 · Sean Fennessey (0.85)] Close Encounters of the Third Kind ⇒ E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (the host's read) · theme · 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"
[Blank Check — Patreon · Thor · 1:07:56 · David Sims (0.40)] Thor ↔ E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial · theme · For Selvig, Thor is proof of aliens, his own E.T., and the reason he will not let go of him. · "Thor is like his ET."
[speaker] Griffin Newman · latest sketch, Blank Check · The Last Temptation of Christ · Calls Last Temptation his college-era favorite Scorsese; loves Scorsese's smaller 80s and the film's closing transcendence and Gabriel score. Cannot stand fundamentalist outrage at it. A sucker for casting trivia and Tom Cruise-silliness. · stances: Hot take: Last Temptation structurally mirrors New York, New York as a better version; Outrage over the film is stupid; it is respectful to Jesus; Scorsese's smaller 80s work beats his later baroque phases
[speaker] Bilge Ebiri · latest sketch, Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 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. · stances: Empire of the Sun is excellent and underrated; Spielberg's early films are the child's view, later ones the parent's; Hook is the pivot; Spielberg is secretly a horror filmmaker at heart; Horizon chapter 2 is great
[speaker] Chris Ryan · latest sketch, The Rewatchables · ‘Friday the 13th’ · A franchise and genre scholar who likes Jason, the early sequels, and Manhattan; attention to trivia, tropes and critic reception. Treats slashers as a canon with tiers. · stances: Parts 1, 2, 4 and Manhattan are the good ones; The series finds its legs at 4
[speaker] David Sims · latest sketch, Blank Check · The Last Temptation of Christ · Prepares history: novel, casting, budgets, box office. Reveres the film and thinks it reads as a normal ground-level story. A sucker for Hollywood deal backstory and box office game. · stances: Praises Keitel and Dafoe casting; Respects Scorsese's persistence and Corman discipline; The film is now well regarded though not 'canonical Marty'
[bits] The Big Picture: Drafts (Hosts and guests draft films in rounds; every pick is a recommendation with an argument); Hall of Fame (A star's or director's best, ranked and argued); Countdowns (Ranked lists, top five or top ten)
[bits] Blank Check: 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)

Recommend three to six films, and only films that appear in these lines. A series, a TV film, or a franchise counts too when a line recommends it or pairs it with Empire of the Sun (1987); name it the way the line names it. Don't recommend Empire of the Sun (1987) itself. For each one, give one short reason in your own words and say whose reason it is: the show, named exactly as the brackets name it, and the speaker when the line names one (an "unknown" speaker is just the show). If the lines are thin, say so plainly rather than stretching them.

Keep a contrast a contrast. When a line sets two films apart, the reason is how they differ; never turn it into a way they're alike. A line with ⇒ puts the source first and what drew on it second, and one marked "the maker said so" is still the host reporting it: say who said it, and never state an influence as fact.

You know only what's on these lines. Add no fact they don't state: not who directed a film, not what kind of film it is, not when it came out, unless a line says so. Say nothing about the store or how anything rents here.

Talk the way a clerk talks to a customer at the counter: plain text, titles written plainly with no asterisks or other markup, no headings, no lists of more than six, no JSON.