Duel of the Greats

What a long, fun ride it has been! Last week we crowned Steven Spielberg as our champion. In the final episode, Season 1 of Duel of the Greats concludes with a look back at our picks. Did we get it right? Wrong? Hard to say? Producer Brandon joins the fun and tells us how we Read more

It's We Rest Our Case week! The Final Battle has arrived! It's a bit of a different format this week as Steve will take a movie directed by Ridley Scott and plead his case for why it shows why Ridley should be the victor in season one. Going up against him is Jeff picking a Read more

It's time to take a peek behind the curtain! If you've been listening this long, you've probably picked up on our movie tastes, likes, and dislikes. We wanted to give you a more formal introduction to what makes us tick, cinematically at least. Each of us sat down and talked about several of our favorite Read more

It's Freaky Friday! Alright, it's not actually Friday, it's whatever day you're listening to this podcast, but it's a perfect day to listen to the crew discuss which directors, Steven Spielberg or Ridley Scott, got the most out of different actors. There will be seven total actors discussed today and which performances were better under Read more

It's “Far From Home” week on Duel of the Greats! Steven Spielberg's E.T. The Extra Terrestrial matches up against Ridley Scott's White Squall. This week Jeff, Nate, and Steve are away from home and coming of age with alien friends and a semester at sea. Spielberg and Scott both both try ton replicate that feeling Read more

It's “Stranded” week on Duel of the Greats! Steven Spielberg's The Terminal matches up against Ridley Scott's The Martian. This week Jeff, Nate, and Steve are simultaneously left behind and stuck in bureaucratic limbo. Spielberg and Scott both took a gamble by telling fairly lighthearted stories of a man seeing red: red tape and red Read more

It's “Follow the Leader” Week! Steven Spielberg's “Lincoln” goes toe to toe with Ridley Scott's “American Gangster.” This week Jeff, Nate, and Steve tackle the components of leadership as they are depicted on film. What does it mean to be a leader, and should we follow the example of the men portrayed in these movies? Read more

It's “Con Man” Week! Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can goes toe to toe with Ridley Scott's Matchstick Men. This week Jeff, Nate, and Steve are the marks in a long con. Two cons, actually. Spielberg and Scott both used the early aughts to explore fraud and how a life dedicated to purporting it Read more

It's “War Movies” Week! Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan goes up against Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down. This week Jeff, Nate, and Steve discuss two movies about soldiers engaged in military combat, though at very different times in our country's history. To inform our conversation, this episode includes a special interview with Jeff's cousin, Karsten Read more

It's “On the Run” Week! Steven Spielberg's The Sugarland Express goes up against Ridley Scott's Thelma & Louise. This week Jeff, Nate, and Steve discuss two movies about people on the run. From law enforcement, from last mistakes, from their own lives. Doing whatever they can to stay ahead of the forces behind them. Which Read more

It's Spy sv Spy week! Steven Spielbergs Bridge of Spies goes up against Ridley Scotts Body of Lies. This week Jeff, Nate, and Steve discuss two spy thrillers with vastly different approaches. One more of a cold war, slow-burn thriller. The other, a post-9/11 diatribe on the “War on Terror”. Which movie was better? Which Read more

It's Cyberpunk Detective Week (aka Cyberpunk DICKtective Week)! Two movies this week involving detectives in the future! Steven Spielberg's Minority Report, based on the short story “The Minority Report by Phillip K. Dick, goes up against Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, based on Dick's “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” This week Jeff, Nate, and Steve Read more

It's Frankenstein Week! Neither director has helmed a movie version of that famous novel but they have both tackled the premise at the core of Mary Shelley's masterpiece: playing god. This week Jeff, Nate, and Steve take a look at a tandem of films for both directors that are duologies dealing with the idea of Read more

Last week it was hard to believe that only one movie from each director won best picture. This week it's hard to believe that these directors could make a movie so…bad? It's Worst of the Best week! Jeff, Nate, and Steve take a look at the worst rated film from each director and ask, can Read more

It's hard to believe but both Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott have only directed one movie each that has won best picture. Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List in 1994 and Ridley Scott's Gladiator in 2000. Does this make these two movies truly the best of the best for these legends?  As it's hard to compare such Read more

Two of the scariest entities man can encounter are the vastness of space and the depths of the ocean. Your hosts Jeff, Nate, and Steve tackle both in this episode for Monster Week! Steven Spielberg's “Jaws” and Ridley Scott's “Alien” are two of the most iconic films ever made. They are intrinsically connected as they Read more

Welcome to the very first episode! Jeff, Nate, and Steve proudly bring you the Duel of the Greats. A podcast that will take a season-long approach comparing and contrasting two of the greatest directors of all time and how their film histories compare. Each week they will discuss a new theme with a movie that Read more