Steven Spielberg
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Notable Festivals: Cannes (Out Of Competition) Roald Dahl’s iconic novel “The BFG” holds a special place in almost every child’s heart as a hallmark in his or her early literary development, much as director Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film E.T: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL does for a child’s burgeoning appreciation for cinema. It was perhaps inevitable, then, that…
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Academy Award Wins: Best Supporting Actor More so than any other historical era, World War II has sculpted the filmography of director Steven Spielberg. Whether he’s examining the conflict directly in films like SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998) or SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993), or the ensuing cultural fallout in MUNICH (2005) and even CATCH ME IF YOU…
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Director Steven Spielberg has done two features in one year on several occasions, but they were never released within days of each other. That’s what happened with his 2011 feature WAR HORSE, which debuted on Christmas Day—a week after the bow of THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN. He was able to fit WAR HORSE into a…
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When RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was released all the way back in 1981, some reviews compared the swashbuckling, grave-robbing exploits of Indiana Jones to a relatively obscure European cartoon named THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN. Curiously enough, the cartoon’s author, Herge, had pegged director Steven Spielberg as the only filmmaker he felt could do his…
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The year 2008 was an important year in American history. It saw the lows of the Great Recession, as well as the highs of electing Barack Obama, our first black President, into office. To quote Dickens, it was the best of times and the worst of times. Like Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton before him,…
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Notable Festivals: Cannes (Out of Competition) When Indiana Jones rode off into the sunset at the end of 1989’s INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE, creator/producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg considered the series over and done with (despite a studio contract that originally required five films). The two friends parted ways professionally for…
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It wasn’t until I got to college that I really began to “read” films. Sure, I’d watch them, and usually enjoy them- but I didn’t know how to admire the subtle artistry, the nuanced layering of thematic subtext. I couldn’t effectively articulate why I liked the movies I liked. Naturally, my paradigm was radically shifted…
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After the runaway success of their first project together (2002’s MINORITY REPORT), director Steven Spielberg and actor Tom Cruise were eager to collaborate again soon. Cruise pitched several ideas, one of which was a modern update to H.G. Wells’ seminal novel, “War Of The Worlds”. Spielberg immediately responded to the idea, as he was a…
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Every director has that film that holds no interest to you, even the directors you admire. For director Steven Spielberg, there are a few—but only by virtue of the sheer size of his catalog. One of those, for me at least, is THE TERMINAL (2004)—Spielberg’s follow-up to 2002’s dual hits MINORITY REPORT and CATCH ME…
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Director Steven Spielberg had been good friends with superstar Tom Cruise ever since they met on the set of 1983’s RISKY BUSINESS. Throughout the next two decades, they were constantly on the lookout for a project to collaborate on, but could never quite settle on an idea that they both loved. Enter MINORITY REPORT—an adaptation…
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As a member of the Film Brat generation—that first generation of filmmakers to reap the benefits of academic film schools—director Steven Spielberg was one of the earliest to explicitly reference his influences within his own work. His early output was littered with riffs on such French New Wave luminaries as Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut,…
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Having won his second Directing Oscar for the deeply American story of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998), director Steven Spielberg had positioned himself as something of America’s Filmmaker In Residence—the cinematic ambassador to the world tasked with chronicling America’s legacy and character. Around this time, the twentieth century—known colloquially as the American Century—was coming to a…