In case you’re new to Medium Cool, BGinCHI is here once a week to offer a thread on culture, mainly film & books, with some TV thrown in. We’re here at 7 pm on Sunday nights.
In this week’s Medium Cool, let’s talk about Steven Spielberg.
With the Ukraine invasion (rightly) dominating the news, film twitter took a break to erupt into an argument about whether Spielberg could shoot an action sequence (based on the rumor he’s signed to direct a remake of Bullitt). This led to lots of posts highlighting his fabulous action sequences, especially his long takes usually called “oners” (as in “one continuous shot, no cuts”). Spielberg’s tend to be shorter, but they’re brilliant, as demonstrated in this excellent video.
So, let’s talk about Spielberg’s considerable body of work. Favorite film? Shot? Sequence?
WaterGirl
Quick programming note. I am putting up a Ukraine/Open thread right after this one so there will be a thread no matter what folks want to talk about.
mrmoshpotato
Sorry, I prefer his non-union Mexican equivalent Esteban Spielbergo.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I’ve been trying to talk the wee one into watching Star Wars for several months. She finally proposed watching it Friday night. It made my weekend. Although she couldn’t get over Darth Vader’s weird breathing. The opening scroll and score will never grow old with me.
BGinCHI
I’ve always had a hard time watching “Jaws,” which is, I think, a masterpiece, because I’m a fraidy cat and my active imagination makes it hard to swim in deep water afterwards. It’s a testament to the power of that film that for 40+ years it’s had the same effect on me.
And it’s not even the shark, which is the materially least scary thing about the film. It’s the suspense, the sound, the anticipation, the editing, and so on.
So what happens is that I watch for the parts that aren’t about people actually getting eaten/pulled under. I fast forward to the parts about the ensemble, and the mayor, and Scheider’s amazing performance.
It’s easy to forget Spielberg in all that……
BGinCHI
@mrmoshpotato: I also love that Simpson’s gag and deploy it pretty often to not-amused looks from my family.
mrmoshpotato
@BGinCHI: Hahaha! Excellent!
mrmoshpotato
@BGinCHI:
No sharks in these waters, I assure you. (Gestures to Lake Michigan)
I actually watched Jaws for the umpteenth time a few days ago. Good on them tweaking the finding-the-boat sequence.
SiubhanDuinne
One of the best things about so many of Spielberg’s films is that he secured John Williams as his composer.
BGinCHI
@mrmoshpotato: Convince the reptile part of my brain that (or whatever part is in charge of irrational fear).
I don’t like to be scared on purpose.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
John Williams is amazing.
OzarkHillbilly
Say what??? Who hasn’t seen Private Ryan?
Baud
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
How did she like it?
dexwood
Can’t hang around, nonagenarian parents to get settled and fed. Hands down for me is Empire of the Sun. The story, the cast, an excellent young Christen Bale as Jim, the beautiful cinematography. We watch it once or twice a year. A J. G. Ballard book on the big screen, which is where we first saw it.
JR
Maybe the mine shaft pursuit in the otherwise regrettable Temple of Doom.
BGinCHI
@OzarkHillbilly: You’d think…….
Old Dan and Little Ann
@Baud: She loved it. She was most concerned with whether C3PO ans R2D2 would still be friends when the split ways at the beginning. Also loved Obi Wan Kenobi’s name and a character that had a face that looked like a butt in The Cantina. Lol…..
BGinCHI
@dexwood: Malkovich great in that, too.
Miss Bianca
@BGinCHI: I just watched Jaws again last year after having not seen it since it was in the theater and I was 12 years old.
Yep. It held up.
(One Spielberg movie I haven’t revisited since it scared the shit out of me as a ten-year-old catching it on TV is Duel. Man, take about terrifying action/suspense – the whole *movie* is one long action sequence, as I recall.)
ETA: And I still remember it and find it terrifying nearly 50 years later!
Baud
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
?
OzarkHillbilly
@BGinCHI: War films have never been the same.
BGinCHI
@Miss Bianca: Agree on “Duel.”
Kind of like “Uncut Gems,” which I describe to friend as, “Great, if you like having a stroke for 2 straight hours.”
Scout211
To refresh my memory, I had to look up a listing of all 33 of his films.
For me, the film that had the most impact was Duel (1971). In 1971, it was such a departure from most TV movies and was one of the most intense and edge-of-your-seat thrill rides I had ever experienced on TV.
ETA: ditto what Miss Bianca said.
OzarkHillbilly
@Miss Bianca: I always thought of “Duel” as an hour and a half plus exercise of holding one’s breath.
BGinCHI
Thought we’d have a lot of “West Side Story” fans here.
SpaceUnit
I’ve always considered the drinking scene in Jaws as one of the most brilliant in cinema history.
Everything about it is genius.
BGinCHI
This piece on Spielberg and “Columbo” is excellent too. There are a bunch of great anecdotes about Spielberg’s TV work. Mostly involving him being wayyyy ahead of everyone else.
Old Dan and Little Ann
Jaws is amazing. It seems to be on tv a lot. I often get sucked into watching long stretches.
RandomMonster
Let’s not forget his worst films, too. Most of them sequels to other (great) films.
debbie
@BGinCHI:
For me, Robert Shaw made it watchable.
Yarrow
Funny you used that still. I had mashed potatoes on my plate last night that looked like a tower and I said, “Close Encounters!” and started humming that familiar five note sequence. Such a memorable scene.
BGinCHI
@debbie: HUGE Robert Shaw fan here. He stole every film he was in.
He wrote novels, too!
NotMax
Leave us not speak of 1941. Or Hook.
;)
delk
Jaws was eighth grade for me. In the last couple of years I’ve seen it three times on tv. It captures a time for me that feels so real. It’s like my uncle had that sport coat, or the kid next door had that t-shirt. Visceral memories.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@SpaceUnit:
credit to that scene goes to John Milius and Robert Shaw. Milius wrote a 10 minute speech and Shaw cut it down to a tight 3 1/2 minute sequence.
Mathguy
The opening sequence of Raiders is a mini masterpiece.
SpaceUnit
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
Cool, I didn’t know that. It’s absolute perfection.
Martin
There’s a number of good choices. I’ll watch Jaws and Close Encounters every day. I grew up with those films. I think they’re great, but they’re also nostalgic. Raiders is just pure fun. Not all that tight – there’s some eye roll moments in there, and my favorite observation is that the film would have had the same outcome if the protagonist had never been there – he literally accomplishes nothing. Saw in the theater a couple of years ago and it really holds up well.
I think we’re supposed to say Schindlers List because of the subject matter, but for me it’s Saving Private Ryan. I’m a gamer, and the easiest mechanic in games is ‘shoot the thing’, so the vast majority of games are some variation of ‘shoot the thing’. If films too often glorify war and violence, video games layer personal satisfaction and achievement to that glorification. SPR is rough. There’s nothing glorious in there. For someone who is very good at shooting the thing, a film that reminds you just how horrible shooting the thing really is fills an important space.
Yesterday I mentioned how much I liked Wolf Like Me. It’s a well acted series (6 ep) but is objectively not very good. But subjective it was very good, because the characters resonated with me. I have a daughter like Em. I’ve struggled like Gary – wanting so hard to make something work, and just feeling like I’ve completely failed. It’s not a great story, but it was a story that I needed to see.
Sometimes what makes something great isn’t widely shared. Sometimes its great because it’s great just for you.
debbie
@BGinCHI:
Which of his books would you recommend?
oatler
I liked Spielberg’s job on the “Night Gallery” pilot, which starred Joan Crawford.
Brachiator
I think that the first Indiana Jones movie is crazy action fun. Jurassic Park very intelligently knows how to integrate the creatures and the actors.
But while Lincoln is often very interesting for being deliberate and meditative, the last Indiana Jones film is flabby.
I cannot recall the specific scene, but there was a brief sequence in The Post that was so lame that shocked me that it could happen in a Spielberg movie.
I think that Catch Me If You Can and Minority Report were made within a short time of each other. Both films are nimble and delightful. War of the Worlds is unnecessarily fussy but competent.
I have not seen the Spielberg West Side Story, but want to do so. I think if he can do a musical right, he might be able to nail an action film. I am not a huge musical fan, but I recognize that action choreography and action choreography are very similar, and it takes as much talent to depict a narrative of dance and music as it does to depict a compelling action narrative.
A great short on why the way that Spielberg frames shots in the first Jurassic Park movie is superior to that in the sequels. A wonderful example of why Spielberg is a master of visual storytelling.
J
On the whole, I’m not much of a Spielberg fan, and I agree with the commentators above who reminded us not to forget his bad films–the bad ones are really terrible. But credit where credit is due. I don’t disagree with those defending his action sequences, but the slow building of tension in Jaws is what most impresses me about the film (along with Robert Shaw, of course). I’d say something similar about Close Encounters, which is masterly in the way it slowly builds interest in the main character’s obsession. I’m not sure where it fits in, but my favorite is Empire of the Sun, which hardly contains anything resembling an action sequence.
Amir Khalid
I pretty much expected there was going to be no love for 1941. Although it does have this memorably strange moment: General “Vinegar Joe” Stillwell in a movie theatre, crying at the Baby Mine number in Dumbo.
persistentillusion
@delk: It was college or slightly before. A dorm-mate was from the Vineyard where lots off the water shots were done. Met Bruce the prosthetic Shark. She was actually an extra in the early shots where the shark is suspected but not understood. Said she’d never been that cold, standing in knee deep water in May on Martha’s Vineyard.
Mike in NC
@Amir Khalid: My favorite Robert Stack role, along with his work in “Airplane!”.
Brachiator
British film critic Mark Kermode recently had a piece on the 50 year anniversary of The Godfather.
I can hardly believe that The Godfather is 50 years old. I remember staying out late with my school buddies and talking about how great it was. It is also amazing that younger audiences still love it. If you go back 50 years from the Godfather premiere, two of the top films of 1922 were Robin Hood with Douglas Fairbanks and Blood and Sand, starring Rudolph Valentino. These films are respected by film historians, but little seen by the public. I am not sure that good prints of either film still exist.
So, 50 years from the premiere of Star Wars is 1927. The top grossing film was The Jazz Singer.
Another notable film from that year was 7th Heaven, a 1927 American silent romantic drama directed by Frank Borzage, and starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell.
Crazy that films I watched as a teen and college kid are now “classics” and early cinema is ancient and antique.
lowtechcyclist
Spielberg – Wikipedia
Spielberg – IMDb
Figured having the links handy wouldn’t hurt.
HumboldtBlue
@delk:
Same with me and I’ve never seen it, and I was a kid who spent a lot of time at the shore.
Schindler’s List is always at the top for me followed by Indiana Jones. Private Ryan for the cinematography and the sea change he introduced for shooting combat scenes — the only director I can think of who at the level before Spielberg was Kubrick, who filmed both the Ouistreham sequence in the Longest Day, and the battle scenes in Strangelove which were excellent as well — and I could not care less about Star Wars.
It came out in my adolescent wheelhouse, but I was wholly unimpressed, much to the chagrin of one playmate who was a space freak and who owned what I believe was every toy associated with both Star Wars and Star Trek.
columbusqueen
The first action sequence in Ready Player One (the big race) is insanely good, particularly given it’s CGI.
A great shot is the introduction of Oskar Schindler. We see him only from the back as he prepares for his night out & enters the club. When he sits down, Spielberg sweeps the camera around to a profile shot of Neeson looking elegantly arrogant. Superb filmmaking right there.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@BGinCHI: I love stories about happy accidents in movies, and “Jaws” is one of them. They had a lot of trouble getting the shark to work properly, and as a result there are only a few scenes featuring the shark. Which greatly enhanced the suspense, and the shock when he does appear.
Also, I would agree that while now, the shark scenes aren’t that scary to present audiences, back in the day watching it for the first time in theaters, when nobody knew that scene was coming where he leaps out of the water onto the boat, people literally came out of their seats.
My favorite scene? Probably the one where Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw are trading shark stories below decks.
Benw
I know he didn’t direct, but The Goonies was basically the perfect movie for 10 yo me. Then my friends and I watched Raiders and ET so many times in VHS. I have no memory if it, but I’m told I went to see Temple of Doom with a friend’s family and had to be taken out of the theater screaming during the heart scene. Spielberg could really scare the shit out of you, even though he’s not known for straight horror.
ThresherK
@BGinCHI: Wait, Spielberg directed for Night Gallery and Columbo?
I feel undereducated. And I read a history of Levinson and Link, some of which I’ve obviously forgotten.
citizen dave
I’ve been trying to watch some blockbuster/popular movies I never wanted to see back in the day, like Top Gun (boring, fast-forwarded), Roadhouse (similar), and some Spielbergs. I then got the idea of setting goal to watch ALL the Spielberg movies, but recently me and my wife watched the HBO documentary Spielberg, and I feel like I got a great overiew of all the films. Just checked the wiki, and I’ve only watched 9-10 of his films (have never seen Schindlers, Jurassic, or E.T.).
Anyhoo, I always say Duel is my favorite of his.
The classic Jaws story is how Robert Shaw got really drunk to do his big monologue scene (USS Indianapolis), and screwed it up big time. Came back a day (or two) later, sober, and nailed it.
Have to admit after watching the doc that Spielberg is a film master of the highest caliber. Easily top 10 of all time, guessing top five
Yes, in the doc I believe the story was that his first official time directing was the Night Gallery and he’s directing Joan Crawford–can you imagine? I have watched his Columbo during the pandemic, it’s great. I was on a bit of a Columbo binge early on in the pandemic, old-style. They were playing them on Saturday nights on one of the over the air syndicated-type stations.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I love a lot of his films, especially the sci-fi ones, but since nobody has mentioned The Color Purple, I’ll nominate that one for my favorite. I didn’t see it in theaters when it came out, probably only saw it 10-15 years ago. As by that time Whoopi Goldberg was a huge star and so often a bigger-than-life character, it was really amazing to see her play Celie who doesn’t even like to show a smile. And Danny Glover, such a likable guy in many roles, playing such a mean bastard.
I also have a soft spot in my heart for Duel, which was a TV movie and which I saw before anybody knew the name Spielberg. The way the truck (you never see the driver) became a character was kind of a harbinger of his talent for directing non-human characters.
lowtechcyclist
I’ve seen nine of his movies, the first one being Jaws, and the last one being Private Ryan. Jaws and Raiders are the two I’d watch anytime at the drop of a hat. Jaws is my favorite. Like several others have already said, the drinking scene is a classic. And I love the ending scene, where Scheider and Dreyfuss are swimming back to shore. I couldn’t even tell you why, I just do.
steppy
The shot in Jaws where Scheider jumps into the empty shot after the shark makes its appearance is one of my favorite shots ever. Especially after it follows the line, “let him shovel some of this shit.!”
Scout211
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
The Color Purple was good. For me, it was one of those rare experiences when the movie was better than the book.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
And I’ve still never seen a Godfather movie. Or Pulp Fiction. Or Reservoir Dogs. Which means my guy credentials are seriously lacking.
Even worse: I don’t get the love for The Big Lebowski. It was OK, but meh.
Old Dan and Little Ann
@Brachiator: I tend to figure out the math on things like that as well. It is mind blowing.
Raiders of the Lost Ark was the 1st ever movie we needed to buy tix in advance. I had never seen lines like that at the theater.
citizen dave
Jaws is great, I was 15 and a half and a new movie theater had started business near our suburban neighborhood, and I remember watching it the first weekend it was out.
But I LOVE DUEL, have seen it, maybe 8 or 10 times, I bet. I was googling once about the truck. Someone gathered possible trucks, and the one Spielberg used was the smallest one of the bunch. Years later, by some turn of events, a guy who lived in St Louis bought the truck and kept it there, bringing it out every now and then. Can you imagine that thing rumbling around on your city streets?
Matt McIrvin
Spielberg can be a cheesy guy but when he’s on, he’s on.
lowtechcyclist
Thank goodness, I thought I was the only one.
Old Dan and Little Ann
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I watched The Color Purple on HBO when I was 10 or 11. I don’t think any of my friends at the time would’ve lasted a minute. I thought it was amazing.
citizen dave
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I’m a Lebowski. Won’t try to persuade (I like the characters, dialogue and philosophy) you, but one interesting thing I read about it once (subject to check/memory), is that only two times does the protagonist (the Dude) decide himself to do something in the movie. The rest of his actions are all directed by some outside influence.
raven
@dexwood: Yep.
Matt McIrvin
@Amir Khalid: 1941 does have one of John Williams’ best pieces ever, the great March. It’s become a wind-band mainstay.
raven
@Matt McIrvin: Quint’s dialogue was written by John Milius, if you haven’t seen the documentary about him it’s worth seeing. Besides being a nut job right winger he’s an incredible writer who also did the script for Jeremiah Johnson.
raven
@citizen dave: Great fucking movie. “I hate the fucking Eagles man”:
raven
I liked Private Ryan for some of the funny stuff but I also hated it that it totally overshadowed “The Thin Red Line” a great movie based the book on one of my favorite authors, James Jones.
Brachiator
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
No big deal. I have seen a lot of movies, including these, and I think they are good movies, not just “guy credentials” movies.
Name 5 random movies you love.
For me 5 films would be Trouble in Paradise, The 39 Steps, Cotton Comes to Harlem, Sense and Sensibility, High and Low and Citizen Kane.
That’s 6. I can’t count.
HumboldtBlue
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Geez, how can you forget that? It’s a masterpiece and I have rarely been moved by a movie like I was with Color Purple.
Brachiator
@raven:
I really like Jeremiah Johnson. I often recommend this film and Gravity as an offbeat double feature.
Mild Spoilers. Both films are about learning to survive in a completely different, often hostile environment. Gravity is almost completely set in space. Once Jeremiah Johnson heads up into the mountains you never see him back in the lower, civilized regions.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Oooh, I kinda hate questions like this, because there are a lot I love but I can’t remember off the top of my head, and so then later I regret not putting them on my list.
Still, you didn’t say “your top 5”, so with the caveat that these might be random choices from my top 100 (also I’m going to deliberately aim for variety and real randomness) let’s see…
The Thin Man, Mister Roberts, Morning Glory, The Shootist, Under Siege
Explanations: 1. Thin Man: I love noir stuff and I like watching William Powell, and I liked the original story, 2. Mister Roberts: William Powell at the end of his career, Jack Lemmon at the beginning, Henry Fonda, James Cagney, all just wonderful to watch, 3. Morning Glory: It has the feeling of a rom-com but it’s about the PROFESSIONAL relationship between old grumpy Harrison Ford and ridiculously young but incredibly competent Rachel McAdams. I love that they didn’t try to turn it into an actual rom-com but kept it professional. 4. The Shootist: I grew up loving John Wayne, sue me. Plus I love westerns. I think this was his last film and it’s kind of an interesting commentary on the genre. Also Ron Howard as a young wannabe gunfighter. 5. Under Siege: I used to like Steven Seagal, and I loved seeing aikido in martial arts films. This is my favorite of his, the genre of one guy picking off the enemy army one by one, which is a popular trope in action movies that I admit to loving.
raven
@Brachiator: Have you ever watched Jeremiah with commentary track? The DVD’s of the film never really were up to snuff until they released the Blu Ray and listening to Sydney Pollack, co-screenwriter John Milus, and Robert Redford is really enlightening.
Craig
I’m sure people have already said it, but The USS Indianapolis scene is my favorite. How Brody gets drawn into the stories with Quint and Hooper, while he’s practicing tying knots( subtle Senor Spielbergo). Beautiful scene. I’m a big fan of Catch Me If You Can as well. Indy stealing the golden idol is a fantastic adventure filmmaking.
trollhattan
Dunno if I have a favorite Spielberg. Of those I saw first run in the theater, “Raiders” was the most fun. Really tasty film-making and while a thriller, the light touch it presents is also needed.
The “Private Ryan” opener was one of the most gripping 15(?) minutes of action ever filmed. Was surprised the back of my seat kept me from bursting through it. Holy hell. Shades of “Duel” there, decades later.
“Schindler” had its effect on me, naturally, but the one that unexpectedly drilled into my brain was his take on “War of the Worlds,” which was so brutally cynical I forgot Tom Cruz was even in it. Hey, here are invaders that do not value you one iota, they just want what you have and will kill the fuck out of you until you are all gone, gone, gone and then, they get your entire fucking planet and you have no say in nor a single act to perform that changes it. Not to worry, you make great fertilizer for their future paradise and to that end we will spray a slurry of you across the countryside. Efficiency.
Thus, humankind stares at ourselves in the mirror and ponders how we have treated this very planet, its inhabitants and as necessary, each other in that relentless quest to, you know, get you some. Mind you, this is in no way limited to the European conquerer dudebros. Paleolithic man had his plains game traps and cliff-edge herd drives that enabled them/us to slaughter critters in vastly greater numbers than could have ever used. Winning! Clovis man may have extincted the woolly mammoth but the industrial age enabled us to do that bigger, faster, better.
Like I said, cynical, and he’s not wrong. The bacterial deus ex machina was Wells’ bailout, which Spielberg honored, but he amped up the snuff movie vibe to 11.
Elliott and ET were good friends, also too. Stephen knows himself some California suburbs, and that movie to me shouted Walnut Creek.
raven
@Craig: Again, John Millius wrote that scene.
raven
@trollhattan: My old man had interesting insight into the opening of “Private Ryan”. He was a signalman on landing boats on multiple assaults in the Pacific. He asked “do you know why they were so seasick at Normandy (“goddammit I was in 25 d-days in the Pacific”!) ? “In the Pacific the islands were steep so the ships could get much closer but at Normandy they were way off shore and had much longer ride to the beach”.
Ken
A bit off-topic, but I’m watching 2001 for the first time in forty years or so. I didn’t remember it as being so slow. Did Kubrick not read some contract thoroughly, and find that he was obligated to include the whole of the Blue Danube Waltz?
raven
@Ken: Did you do acid this time?
BGinCHI
@debbie: I’m sorry to say I haven’t read one!
Some day…..
Ken
@raven: Damn, I knew there was something I was missing. And I think I’m supposed to have Pink Floyd playing — or is that The Wizard of Oz?
Brachiator
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Yep. That’s not as much fun and often too forced.
I remember when a Seagal film seemed to always be a three word title. Above the Law, Hard to Kill, Marked For Death.
Yeah, Under Siege is good stuff.
Good list. I particularly like the first two Thin Man films and most of the pairings of William Powell and Myrna Loy. Probably love the 1936 Libeled Lady the most.
Agree that Morning Glory was fun and seem to deliberately bypass most rom com expectations.
trollhattan
@raven: Never thought about that before, not even a little. Do know the tales of guys who hopped off when they could get no closer, only to sink and drown due to the heavy gear they were toting. Can’t wrap my head around that.
raven
@trollhattan: At Okinawa there was a gunner on my dad’s ship that was firing the twin 40’s at Kamikazes and, when he couldn’t hack it anymore, he stood up and said “that’s it” and jumped overboard. They didn’t find him.
Brachiator
@raven:
I don’t think so, although I think I have watched a couple of “the making of…” featurettes with comments from Pollack and Redford. These were pretty good.
Miss Bianca
@Ken: I find that these days, a lot of movies from the 50s-60s – even 70s – move a lot slower than I remembered when I watched them as a youngster. Hell, I almost fell asleep the other night watching Hitchcock’s The Trouble with Harry (1954), which I remembered as a fairly rollicking – if macabre – lark when I watched it as a college student. This time, I was like, “get on with it…get on with it…”
citizen dave
@Ken: I never watched 2001 until 3-4 years ago (fairly large fan Clockwork Orange, 1st half of Full Metal Jacket, Dr Strangelove and the Shining), and also was kind of amazed at the extremely slow pace of it
ETA: As Miss Bianca notes, the pace of movies has largely changed over the decades. Although sometimes the slow paced movies are brilliant, old or newly-made.
Craig
@raven: oh yeah I know. I keep meaning to watch the Milius documentary.
CROAKER
Ah hell no…
1 – Steve McQueen. 2. 1968 Dodge Charger
rekoob
@BGinCHI: Count me among the “West Side Story” fans. The Original Cast Album, the 1961 film version are deeply imbedded in my psyche. I’ve listened/viewed those countless times. I’ve marveled at the adaptations (from Dave Brubeck to Kiri Te Kanawa). I’ve seen Spielberg’s version once. I thought it inspired and thoughtful, but I’ll admit that I need to spend more time with it to bring it into my own understanding. I look forward to that process. Beyond that, “ET” and “Schindler’s List” are among the highlights of his works.
tam1MI
Long time Spielberg fan here! I of course concur that SCHINDLER’S LIST and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN are his two best movies (I give SAVING PRIVATE RYAN the edge here). And JAWS is one of my all time favorites. Oddly enough, I have a strong affection for CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, there is something to be said about making a movie that is light, breezy, and fun – it’s harder than it looks.
One thing about Spielberg to me is that even in his “bad” movies there are magnificent sequences. 1941 has the 3 way fight scene set to “Sing, Sing, Sing”. INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM had the amazing mine chase and the opening musical number. I found THE WAR OF THE WORLDS to be a strictly so-so movie, but man, that sequence where the tripod attacks the boat was TERRIFYING.
Finally, I have seen STAR WARS get a lot of mention here, so I feel compelled to clarify that Steven Spielberg did not direct STAR WARS. The person who directed STAR WARS was Spielberg’s good friend, George Lucas.
Caphilldcne
I was talking with friends and they cannot believe I’ve never seen The Godfather, a bunch of 80s classics like back to the future or any number of box office hits. And so now I’m supposed to go watch those films but I can’t bring myself to care. I’ve seen ET and Close Encounters and 2 of the raiders movies all the way through. I kind of despise Spielberg for some reason that I can’t spell out for you. Maybe if I could figure that out it would help explain my disinterest in film. I think maybe all the hype around these films makes me want to run from them.
Brachiator
@Caphilldcne:
These films are old and not necessarily classics just because they were box office hits.
And there is this weird thing where some people expect everyone to love the films from their childhood or young adulthood.
None of this matters. There is a huge universe of movies to be discovered.
Craig
@BGinCHI: when I first moved to SF all the bike messengers loved West Side Story. I got a great appreciation of West Side Story from singing it with the my mates. We were in no way any good at it, but fun.
prostratedragon
Late to the thread. On thinking about it I have to admit that I’m a Spielberg fan, but since no one else has, I’ll say AI: Artificial Intelligence. I haven’t seen War of the Worlds yet, but from the comments on it above I wonder whether it might not be seen as a prequel to AI. Only instead of cynical, AI is profoundly sad.
no comment
Some of you may be interested in watching Voir on Netflix. Kind of a film discussion series. There is one episode on Jaws.
zeecube
@BGinCHI: I think I have seen every Spielberg film. But not WSS. Not for wanting. When it was in theaters, that was during an Omicron wave in my neck of the woods; so am waiting for it to stream. Tough to pick a favorite. I’d say “Jaws”. My MIL was an extra in the ferry scene.
marcopolo
@Miss Bianca: No film expert here but I have read a number of pieces by critics who point to 1977 & Star Wars as the inflection point for faster pacing/shorter cut scenes in films. And Jaws is supposed to have been the gateway film as the first of the true summer blockbuster movies.
I looked at the IMBD list for Spielberg–apparently I’ve seen 23 of his 50ish released (he has one in post-prod as of right now) feature films (the IMBD list shows 57 but some of those aren’t real feature releases). I guess my favorites are Close Encounters, Jaws, and the first Raiders. Maybe age has something to do with that–I haven’t really fallen in love with a movie since I turned 30 or so a long time ago. I did see West Side Story in a movie theater just before the omicron wave and really really liked it–and I am saying this as someone who was in the musical in high school (Jets members represent) and love the original film for the music & dancing. I thought the choices that were made to the original were all well done/well (as well as the things the left pretty much the same like all the amazing choreography) thought out but the guy cast as Tony was a bit of a dud compared to everyone else (who were pretty damned stellar). So not perfect.
And since this is about films, the film I am going to be watching this week is Casablanca, my all time favorite. I think its just the zeitgeist I’m feeling right now with what’s going on in Ukraine that is calling out to me though I suppose For Whom the Bell Tolls would also work okay thematically.
Westlake
I had never seen that video about the oner. It was excellent! I just remembered this one from a while ago, a video essay about “the Spielberg face”
vimeo.com/199572277
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us
@Mathguy: Yeah I can’t believe there’s even a debate about whether the guy who directed Raiders of the Lost Ark can shoot an action sequence. That may be my favorite Spielberg – the pacing of that movie is great. Jaws is fantastic too. He’s a great director, obviously. So many good to great movies. A few clunkers but not many considering his output.
Bill Dunlap
@raven: “You mean like an Irish monk?”