Greatest Movie Of All-Time

Dana and Tom discuss a nostalgic movie for Dana as well as the 1952 Best Picture winner, The Greatest Show on Earth (1952): directed by Cecil B. DeMille, written by Fredric M. Frank, Theodore St. John, and Barré Lyndon, starring Betty Hutton, Charlton Heston, and James Stewart. Plot Summary: "The Greatest Show on Earth" is a dazzling spectacle of life behind the scenes with Ringling Bros.-Barnum a...

Dana and Tom discuss the movie that started George Lucas' career and helped him finance a franchise, American Graffiti (1973): written and directed by George Lucas, co-written by Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck, starring Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, and Harrison Ford. Plot Summary: On the last day of summer vacation in 1962, friends Curt (Richard Dreyfuss), Steve (Ronny Howard), Terry (Charles Mart...

Tom and Dana discuss the first Stanley Kubrick film on the show, his Vietnam war epic, Full Metal Jacket (1987): written and directed by Stanley Kubrick, co-written by Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford, starring Matthew Modine, Vincent D'Onofrio, and R. Lee Ermey. Plot Summary: Stanley Kubrick's take on the Vietnam War follows smart-aleck Private Davis (Matthew Modine), quickly christened "Joker" by...

Dana and Tom discuss one of the most classic Westerns of all-time, High Noon (1952): directed by Fred Zinnemann, written by Carl Foreman, starring Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell, and Lloyd Bridges. Plot Summary: Former marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper) is preparing to leave the small town of Hadleyville, New Mexico, with his new bride, Amy (Grace Kelly), when he learns that local criminal...

Dana and Tom discuss a personal favorite Western that was such a favorite for Dana that Tom grew up watching the film many times, Rio Bravo (1959): directed by Howard Hawks, written by Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett, starring John Wayne, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, Dean Martin, and Ricky Nelson. Plot Summary: When gunslinger Joe Burdette (Claude Akins) kills a man in a saloon, Sheriff John...

Dana and Tom discuss one of Dana's favorites, a Best Picture winner, and a great con movie all in one, The Sting (1973): directed by George Roy Hill, written by David S. Ward, starring Robert Redford, Paul Newman, and Robert Shaw. Plot Summary: Following the murder of a mutual friend, aspiring con man Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) teams up with old pro Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman) to take revenge...

Dana and Tom discuss a personal favorite of Dana's that holds some personal value for him, Young Frankenstein (1974): written and directed by Mel Brooks, co-written and starring Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Teri Garr, and Madeline Kahn. Plot Summary : Respected medical lecturer Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) learns that he has inherited his infamous grandfather's estate in Transylvania. Arr...

Dana and Tom discuss the sci-fi and coming of age classic, E.T.: the Extra Terrestrial (1982): directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Mathison, starring Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, C. Thomas Howell, and Peter Coyote. Plot Summary: After a gentle alien becomes stranded on Earth, the being is discovered and befriended by a young boy named Elliott (Henry Thomas). Bringing the extraterrest...

Trailer for the upcoming The Silence of the Lambs episode on the Greatest Movie of All-Time Podcast.

Hellooooo, Clarice......Dana and Tom delve into the psychological thriller, The Silence of the Lambs (1991): directed by Jonathan Demme, written by Ted Tally, starring Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Ted Levine, and Scott Glenn. Plot Summary: Jodie Foster stars as Clarice Starling, a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecte...

Dana and Tom with guest, Sarah Duncan, discuss the fictionalized true crime thriller, Zodiac (2007): directed by David Fincher, written by James Vanderbilt, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr. Plot Summary: In the late 1960s and 1970s, fear grips the city of San Francisco as a serial killer called Zodiac stalks its residents. Investigators (Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards)...

Dana and Tom do their best to tip-toe around a difficult race-relations film steeped in controversy with The Help (2011): written and directed by Tate Taylor, starring Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Jessica Chastain. Plot Summary: In 1960s Mississippi, Southern society girl Skeeter (Emma Stone) returns from college with dreams of being a writer. She turns her sm...

Dana and Tom discuss the classic Romantic Comedy, Roman Holiday (1953): directed by William Wyler, written by Dalton Trumbo and Ian McLellan Hunter, starring Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, and Eddie Albert. Plot Summary: Overwhelmed by her suffocating schedule, touring European princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn) takes off for a night while in Rome. When a sedative she took from her doctor kicks in, howe...

Dana and Tom discuss the Best Picture Winner, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946): directed by William Wyler, written by Robert E. Sherwood, starring Dana Andrews, Fredrick March, and Myrna Loy. Plot Summary: Fred, Al and Homer are three World War II veterans facing difficulties as they re-enter civilian life. Fred (Dana Andrews) is a war hero who, unable to compete with more highly skilled workers...

Tom and special German guests Alex Doffek and Eva and Thomas Baches explore the 1980s pop-culture classic, Back to the Future (1986): written and directed by Robert Zemeckis, co-written by Bob Gale, starring Michael J. Fox, Crispin Glover, Lea Thompson, and Christopher Lloyd. Plot Summary: In this 1980s sci-fi classic, small-town California teen Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is thrown back into the...

Dana and Tom discuss The Dirty Dozen (1967): directed by Robert Aldrich, written by   Lukas Heller and Nunnally Johnson, starring Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, and Ernest Borgnine. Plot Summary: As D-Day approaches, Colonel Breed hands the roguish Major Reisman (Lee Marvin) an important assignment: He must train a team of soldiers to parachute across enemy lines...

Dana and Tom discuss the second Martin Scorsese movie to be on the show, Taxi Driver (1976): directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Paul Schrader, starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepard, Harvey Keitel, and Albert Brooks. Plot Summary: Suffering from insomnia, disturbed loner Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) takes a job as a New York City cabbie, haunting the streets nightly, growing...

Dana and Tom discuss 1980s classic, Big (1988): directed by Penny Marshall, written by Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg, starring Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, and Robert Loggia. Plot Summary: After a wish turns 12-year-old Josh Baskin (David Moscow) into a 30-year-old man (Tom Hanks), he heads to New York City and gets a low-level job at MacMillen Toy Company. A chance encounter with the owner (Rober...

Dana and Tom discuss the movie Groundhog Day (1993). Dana and Tom discuss the movie Groundhog Day (1993): written and directed by Harold Ramis, co-written by Danny Rubin, starring Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, and Chris Elliott. Plot Summary: A cynical TV weatherman finds himself reliving the same day over and over again when he goes on location to the small town of Punxsutawney to film a report a...

Tom and Guest Phillip Martinez dissect the Tarantino masterpiece, Pulp Fiction (1994): written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Ving Rhames, Uma Thurman, and Bruce Willis. Plot Summary: Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) are hitmen with a penchant for philosophical discussions. In this ultra-hip, multi-strand crime movi...

Dana and Tom delve into the Bollywood-styled Best Picture winner from 2008, Slumdog Millionaire (2008): directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, starring Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, and Irrfan Khan. Plot Summary: As 18-year-old Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) answers questions on the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," flashbacks show how he got there. Part of a stable of young thiev...

Dana and Tom discuss the Best Picture Oscar nominated film, Silver Linings Playbook (2012): written and directed by David O. Russell, starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Tucker, and Robert DeNiro. Plot Summary: After losing his job and wife, and spending time in a mental institution, Pat Solatano (Bradley Cooper) winds up living with his parents (Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver). He wan...

Dana and Tom discuss the race relation whodunnit and Best Picture winner, In the Heat of the Night (1967): directed by Norman Jewison, written by Stirling Silliphant, starring Rod Steiger and Sidney Poitier. Plot Summary: African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie (Rod Steiger), the racist police chief of tiny S...

Dana and Tom discuss the Vietnam War epic, Apocalypse Now (1979): written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, co-written by John Milius, starring Martin Sheen, Dennis Hopper, Robert Duvall, and Marlon Brando. Plot Summary: In Vietnam in 1970, Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) takes a perilous and increasingly hallucinatory journey upriver to find and terminate Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a once-...

Dana and Tom take a look at whether to continue to include the Recognition Category going forward, and how that effects the scores of the previous shows. Ultimately, there is movement on the list and how they are scored. *Note: the scoring for Raiders of the Lost Ark had some bad math, and will be corrected on the next full episode of the podcast. You can now follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Ti...