Steven Spielberg Documentary and His Movies

[moira finnie]

TCM will be airing a documentary about the director this month along with airing many of his works. Though I'm not a huge fan of the man's films, if I had to pick one to show, it would be Empire of the Sun (1987). In this one, Spielberg's talent for eliciting wonderful performances from the very young works splendidly, thanks to the work of Christian Bale as the lost child of a chaotic war. This film also ends more ambiguously than most of Spielberg's films and seems to have a more adult perspective throughout the unfolding of the J.G. Ballard memoir, which is considerably more harrowing than the film.

For his lighter fare, it would be hard to beat Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) as well--even if you were unfamiliar with the earlier films that inspired it.

Do you think that Spielberg is a truly "serious" filmmaker? Are his allegedly idealized visions of life primarily what audiences will remember him for in the future?

[SSO Admins]

I agree with you about Empire of the Sun. I had really high hopes for him after that movie, hopes that were not entirely fulfilled. He's done good work, but hasn't managed to make a really great movie. The closest he came was in picking up for Kubrick on Artificial Intelligence, a movie that managed to leave me with more questions than answers (and I mean that in the best way).

Raiders of the Lost Ark and its sequels are great fun. He managed to get everything that was good about the old serials and update it for modern audiences. I even liked Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, considered by most to be the weakest of the three.

[mrsl]

Hi guys:

I have to disagree with both of you on your tempered ideas of Spielberg. I think he's absolutely great in many ways. Empire of the Sun was a beautiful movie. I hadn't seen it until recently and found it to be intriguing. Remember, Jon, rarely does a movie put across the same feelings or emotions that the book does. By reading, you use your own imagination and find more to investigate than watching a directors' opinions on what is relevant.

In Jaws he caught the Hitchcockian insight of fear with his dum, dum, dum, musical intro, and the failure to actually show the perpetrator.

I find Close Encounters to be one of the best sci-fi movies ever made. The unexplained disappearance of people, and the equally unexplained appearance of things found in totally unlikely places. The urge to find something but no knowledge of what it is, and the final coming together of the actual encounter. All these things are the essence of what sci-fi fans are looking for in their genre, I only wish it had gone on longer.

A lot of my admiration for Spielberg is attributed to his TV work as well as his movie work. The job he did on Taken was fantastic. No other person could hold such a primary interest as he did on such a mythological subject. You couldn't help tuning in to see what happened in the next generation. And his hand is obvious on Band of Brothers, although he didn't actually direct anything, you knew he was in there checking things out probably on a daily basis.

Therefore, from historical to science fiction, I don't think you can find a better mind than Stephen Spielbergs' for entertainment.

Anne

[Mr. Arkadin]

I personally could care less for the majority of Speilberg's work. He has shown flashes of brillance here and there, but as Jon said he does not seem to be able to put the entire picture together to create a serious work of depth.

His escapist work is of better quality and of those I would probably agree Raiders was the best.