Moana 2 2024
Set the biggest five-day opening in box-office history. Sean saw it twice. It began as a Disney+ series, which fed a long riff on the streaming library as its own marketing engine.
The Big Picture · Discussion · Review · Top Five
Top Five World War II Movies, and ‘Blitz’
December 3, 2024/ 107 min/ Sean Fennessey · Chris Ryan · Rob Mahoney
Sean Fennessey, Chris Ryan, and Rob Mahoney review Steve McQueen's 'Blitz,' talk through why World War II is such fertile movie ground, then each count down their five favorite WWII films. A long honorable-mentions round and an Oscar-race check-in close it out.
23 films across 5 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
Movies Are Backthe record holiday box office
Wicked 2024
Part of the $420M holiday weekend. Sean's reservation: it's a Part One, and rewarding half a story worries him about where the Oscars go next.
Gladiator II 2024
The third leg of the record weekend, and, per the hosts, the one nobody quite loves. It was there for grown men with no other option.
The Brutalist 2024
Sean and Chris caught an early AMC screening (self-declared 'Brutalist Boys') and both are high on Brady Corbet's film.
The Wizard of Oz 1939
Came up via the Wicked-universe riff. The 1939 film is now public domain, and the hosts joked about a Taylor Sheridan remake.
Return to Oz 1985
Cited in the Oz extended-universe bit.
Oz the Great and Powerful 2013
Also cited in the Oz-universe bit.
‘Blitz’Steve McQueen · Apple TV+
Blitz 2024
A nine-year-old, George (Elliott Heffernan), jumps the evacuation train to get back to his mother (Saoirse Ronan) in Blitz-era London. All three found it bland and structurally scattered (McQueen teasing six movies at once), though the opening firefighter sequence and Ronan's jazz-club number play. Shot by Yorick Le Saux rather than McQueen's usual Sean Bobbitt.
Chris Ryan's Top 5revealed No. 5 up to No. 1
No. 1
The Great Escape 1963
No. 1 - a childhood nightlight that makes being a POW look impossibly cool: McQueen, Garner, Coburn, Bronson, and Attenborough smoking and digging tunnels toward Switzerland. The cast alone carries it.
No. 2
Inglourious Basterds 2009
No. 2 - the pick all three share. Chris calls it near-perfect; every WWII subgenre folded into one, with Christoph Waltz's Hans Landa as the standout.
No. 3
The Bridge at Remagen 1969
No. 3 - a B-movie with George Segal and Robert Vaughn; Americans hold a bridge, Germans want it. Picturesque, violent, and about the futility of fighting for an inch.
No. 4
The Dirty Dozen 1967
No. 4 - Lee Marvin's convicts on a mission; how Chris met Bronson, Cassavetes, Sutherland, and Jim Brown. A training half, then the hotel-full-of-Nazis payoff.
No. 5
Paisan 1946
No. 5 - Rossellini's six-story neorealist film, shot right after the war. Chris's 'important film history' pick and the most underseen on any of the lists.
Rob Mahoney's Top 5revealed No. 5 up to No. 1
No. 1
The Thin Red Line 1998
No. 1 - Rob's favorite. Malick's decentralized island war movie: barely a main character (sorry, Adrien Brody), sun through the trees, Paradise Lost as combat.
No. 3
Grave of the Fireflies 1988
No. 3 - Takahata's Studio Ghibli film about two war-orphaned siblings. Rob calls it a masterpiece he can never watch again, and proof a kids-only WWII movie can land where Blitz didn't.
No. 4
Lust, Caution 2007
No. 4 - Ang Lee's NC-17 spy thriller in occupied Shanghai, Tang Wei against Tony Leung. Racy, smoky, shot by Rodrigo Prieto.
No. 5
Saving Private Ryan 1998
No. 5 - reads as sentimental until you register how bleak it is. 'Earn this,' and you can't.
Sean Fennessey's Top 5revealed No. 5 up to No. 1
No. 1
The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957
No. 1 - David Lean's POW-camp epic in Thailand: Alec Guinness tortured by duty, William Holden the American idol. A mission movie and an escape movie at once.
No. 2
Inglourious Basterds 2009
No. 2 - possibly the 'Big Picture movie,' alongside Moneyball and The Social Network.
No. 3
The Train 1964
No. 3 - Frankenheimer's black-and-white heist about Nazis looting French masterpieces; Burt Lancaster literally fixes a train wheel. Makes Monuments Men unnecessary. Seek the Kino Lorber transfer.
No. 4
Cabaret 1972
No. 4 - Fosse's musical of Weimar Berlin as fascism rises in the background. Sean's 'if you think Wicked is a good musical, watch this' pick.
No. 5
A Matter of Life and Death 1946
No. 5 - Powell and Pressburger's downed-pilot fantasy (U.S. title Stairway to Heaven); a romance about what a movie can spring off real events.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Around ‘Blitz’ Empire of the SunHope and GloryMrs. MiniverOccupied CityThree Minutes: A Lengthening12 Years a SlaveHunger
Why the war is fertile ground To Be or Not to BeCasablancaFrom Here to EternityThe English PatientThe Sound of MusicSouth PacificBedknobs and BroomsticksThe Remains of the DayNight and FogThe Longest DayA Bridge Too FarTora! Tora! Tora!Fires on the PlainThe Burmese HarpBallad of a SoldierIvan's ChildhoodOppenheimerDunkirkSchindler's ListThe Six Triple EightMiracle at St. AnnaThe Guns of NavaroneThe Ministry of Ungentlemanly WarfarePearl HarborAll Quiet on the Western FrontPaths of Glory1941Raiders of the Lost ArkBridge of SpiesWar HorseThe FabelmansRome, Open CityGermany, Year ZeroThe Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Honorable mentions The Third ManAtonementDownfallAnthropoidThe Best Years of Our LivesStalag 17Five Graves to CairoFuryValkyrieOperation CrossbowThe Dam BustersMister RobertsCome and SeeThe Silence of the SeaPhoenixSeven BeautiesPan's LabyrinthFlags of Our FathersLetters from Iwo JimaBlack BookU-571Where Eagles DarePattonCatch-22MidwayThe KeepJojo RabbitGreyhoundOverlordVon Ryan's ExpressThe Monuments MenHeatThe Boy and the Heron
The Oscar race A Complete UnknownYacht Rock: A DockumentaryEmilia PérezConclaveAnoraDune: Part TwoThe OutrunThe Piano LessonThe Power of the DogCODA1917Hacksaw RidgeThe Imitation Game
In passing Revolutionary RoadTitanicBlackhatMoneyballThe Social NetworkThe Big LebowskiReturn of the JediStar Wars: The Rise of SkywalkerRed OneKneecapElvis
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV SiloShogunSmall AxeThe CrownSAS Rogue HeroesBand of BrothersThe PacificMasters of the AirThe AgencyDune: ProphecySpecial Ops: Lioness
Games Call of Duty
Podcasts The McShay ShowGroup ChatThe Prestige TV PodcastThe Watch
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