Empire of the Sun with Bilge Ebiri

Blank Check with Griffin & David

Our Spielbergian journey takes us to new dramatic heights with 1987’s Empire of the Sun, the film that brought us Christian Bale (discovered by Amy Irving!), unexpected Joey Pants and Ben Stiller appearances, and a perfect use of John Malkovich. Bilge Ebiri joins us (and the Five Timers Club) to chat about how underrated this film is within the Spielberg canon, and how this movie evolves Spielberg’s perception as a serious dramatic artist.

Read Bilge's writing at Vulture

pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on.

Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes.

Buy some real nerdy merch

Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord

For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com

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More description

Read Bilge's writing at Vulture

pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on.

Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes.

Buy some real nerdy merch

Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord

For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2025-03-16 173 min Transcript

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