Aaron Sorkin

Made films the shows talk about.

Wikidata Q299194: matched by corpus:resolve, told apart by the only person by that name on Wikidata.

Counted as director. The films the hosts said they directed, which the two lists below run through too: The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020); Being the Ricardos (2021). Count them as writer (16 films) instead.

Draws on

What the speakers say they, or a film of theirs, drew on. Each is a speaker's account: “the maker said so” when they report the maker's own words, “the host's read” when the read is theirs.

Steven Spielberg: 1 line

  1. people (people) · through The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), which they directed: Steven Spielberg ⇒ The Trial of the Chicago 7 (the host's read). Spielberg long wanted to make it and encouraged Sorkin to write the script.
    “Steven Spielberg had always wanted to make this movie.”
    The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:31:53 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)

Drawn on by

What the speakers say drew on them or a film of theirs, marked the same way.

Punishment Park: 1 line

  1. lineage (lineage) · through The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), which they directed: The Trial of the Chicago 7 ⇒ Punishment Park (the host's read). Punishment Park is recommended as a very loose take on this trial.
    “There's this great movie called Punishment Park that I would recommend to anybody that is very loosely based on this trial.”
    The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:31:32 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)

What the speakers said they did

Writing (37) everyone in writing

Directing (4) everyone in directing

Other (1) everyone in other

What was said about them, by kind

career (3)

  1. career (career): Aaron Sorkin → Rob Reiner. Reiner directed Sorkin's debut A Few Good Men.
    “Rob Reiner's great.”
    The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:19:45 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. career (career): The Trial of the Chicago 7 → Aaron Sorkin. Chicago 7 is called the peak Sorkin movie, a marriage of his interests, setting and style.
    “this is the peak Aaron's working movie, and it is like a real marriage of interests and setting and style and career.”
    The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:38:00 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60 sure it was them)
  3. career (career): The Trial of the Chicago 7 → Aaron Sorkin. Sorkin's Chicago 7 should be in this wheelhouse.
    “Trial of Chicago 7, which theoretically will be in this exact wheelhouse”
    The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:29:50 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)

contrast (2)

  1. contrast (contrast): Aaron Sorkin → Oliver Stone. Stone's dark skepticism contrasts with Sorkin's idealism, both committed to their missions.
    “He's an interesting counterweight, I think, to Oliver Stone”
    The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 0:30:43 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  2. contrast (contrast): David Fincher → Aaron Sorkin. Fincher's technical precision is set against Sorkin's play-it-fast-and-loose habits.
    “Fincher's technical precision, very difficult, uh, very different from Sorkin's hole, play fast and loose.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Social Network (Ad-Free) · 0:46:37 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)

craft (5)

  1. craft (craft): Aaron Sorkin → Charlie Wilson's War. Self-quotation: the 'I'm never sick at sea' line recurs across Malice and Charlie Wilson's War.
    “I'm never, ever sick at sea, shows up in malice, and then it shows up in Charlie Wilson's war”
    The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 0:16:12 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. craft (craft): Aaron Sorkin → Molly's Game. The father and daughter motif in Molly's Game with Kevin Costner is the best part though unneeded.
    “But it's kind of the best part of the movie.”
    The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 0:17:56 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60 sure it was them)
  3. craft (craft): Aaron Sorkin → David Fincher. Sorkin excels when meeting a dark-hearted collaborator such as Fincher.
    “I think that when he meets very darkhearted figures, either in the characters he's creating or in his counterparts creatively, like David Fincher, that's when he excels.”
    The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 0:22:22 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  4. craft (craft): Aaron Sorkin → The Social Network. Since the West Wing he mostly adapts real events like Moneyball, Social Network and Steve Jobs.
    “Almost everything that he's done is based on real events.”
    The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 0:25:39 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  5. craft (craft): Moneyball → Aaron Sorkin. Pitt and Hill do Sorkin dialogue at a slow pace, not rat-a-tat.
    “they are not doing the Ratatat dialogue.”
    The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 0:49:40 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60 sure it was them)

people (3)

  1. people (people): Malice → Aaron Sorkin. Malice has a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin.
    “Uh, 1993's malice with a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin.”
    The Big Picture · The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ · 1:00:10 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. people (people): Aaron Sorkin → Being the Ricardos. Being the Ricardos is the movie that broke the curse on the Sorkin thing for the speaker.
    “For the movie that to me that like broke the curse on the Sorkin thing for me, where I was like, oh, it's curtains for this dude.”
    The Big Picture · The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ · 1:45:15 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
  3. people (people): A Few Good Men → Aaron Sorkin. Sorkin's difficult lines; Cruise commands them.
    “total command of the Sorkin lines”
    The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:26:36 · Amanda Dobbins (0.70 sure it was them)

programming (2)

  1. programming (programming): Aaron Sorkin → The Trial of the Chicago 7. Next episode: Aaron Sorkin and The Trial of the Chicago 7.
    “examining one of our stars, one of our beloveds, a great and complicated Aaron Sorkin”
    The Big Picture · 300th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag Spectacular · 2:09:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  2. programming (programming): A Few Good Men → Aaron Sorkin. A Few Good Men and The American President get folded into a Sorkin series, not a Reiner one.
    “Few good men in American president.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · 2025 March Madness Update 1 · 0:06:13 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

theme (2)

  1. theme (theme): Aaron Sorkin → Nancy Meyers. Neurotic, driven characters reflect their writer, as with Nancy Meyers.
    “the same way when we talked about Nancy Myers.”
    The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 0:11:50 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. theme (theme): The American President → Aaron Sorkin. The film is Sorkin's broadest political work, and a training ground for the West Wing.
    “it's his broadest political work, which in some ways to me means that it's the best”
    The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:05:18 · Sean Fennessey (0.55 sure it was them)

unmapped (2)

  1. unmapped (authorial signature): Aaron Sorkin → Moneyball. The nobility-of-work and dad-daughter material is attributed to Sorkin's rewrite.
    “the nobility of the work, which is so common in all of Sorkin's TV shows and movies, the idea of like just doing the thing in an honest and decent way.”
    The Big Picture · The 25 Best Movies of the Century: No. 14 - ‘Moneyball’ · 0:23:26 · Sean Fennessey (0.55 sure it was them)
  2. unmapped (shared subject compared): The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo → Aaron Sorkin. Lisbeth is cast as everything Fincher likes about Zuckerberg minus the things he hates.
    “I feel like Elizabeth is everything that Fincher likes about Zuckerberg minus the things he hates about him.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 2:30:24 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

verdict (2)

  1. verdict (verdict): The Social Network → Aaron Sorkin. The Social Network may be Sorkin's best script, with the opening breakup scene as the model.
    “The social network might be his best script, like period.”
    The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:16:10 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  2. verdict (verdict): The Trial of the Chicago 7 → Aaron Sorkin. Good and entertaining, worth watching, but politically small and the filmmaking not sharp enough.
    “It's a really good movie.”
    The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:44:05 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)

Fun items about them

  1. fun, about Aaron Sorkin: Griffin or David imagines Sorkin writing a movie about three vacations of Lucas and Spielberg at three different ages.
    “I believe Aaron Storken will one day write a movie about 3 vacations of Lucas and Spielberg at 3 different ages.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Raiders of the Lost Ark with Brian Michael Bendis · 0:51:28 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about Aaron Sorkin: Gilbert and Sullivan references recur in every major speech, usually HMS Pinafore.
    “My guy just loves Gilbert and Sullivan and at every single major speech at some point someone will give Gilbert and Sullivan reference.”
    The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 0:13:44 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about Aaron Sorkin: The 'I'm never, ever sick at sea' line turns up in Malice and again in Charlie Wilson's War; the references are like a drinking game.
    “I'm never, ever sick at sea, shows up in malice, and then it shows up in Charlie Wilson's war”
    The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 0:16:12 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about Aaron Sorkin: Lord of the walk and talk; the intercut is his newer trick for real events.
    “He's the lord of the walk and talk.”
    The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 0:38:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.55 sure it was them)