Director Spotlight: Steven Spielberg • Page 2

Empire of the Sun is underrated

 

Those are correct takes

 

Came here to say the same thing

 

Jaws and Saving Private Ryan are my favorites.

 

Catch me of you can
Schindler list
Jurassic Park

 

war of the worlds was pretty weak imo

 

War of the worlds is fun.

 

I like it's messaging. I enjoy how dark it is for Spielberg.

 

I literally never turn off Jaws. If that movie is on and I flip to it, I have to watch at least some of it. Just a perfect movie.

 

I've watched all of his films from Jaws up through Catch Me If You Can. I've never seen The Terminal, Lincoln, Bridge of Spies, The Post or Ready Player One. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is his worst film that I have seen, and by a pretty good margin. It doesn't even feel like it was directed by him to be honest.

I think Jaws is about as close to a perfect film as there is. It is perfectly directed, without question. Jurassic Park is right there with it too. It might be my personal favorite, or at least the one I find most enjoyable, because I was an absolute dinosaur fanatic as a little kid, and that's the last movie I remember my grandfather taking me to the theater to see.

I have to echo what others have said in that Empire of the Sun is severely underrated. I also remember feeling like Always took too much shit at the time, but in fairness I was six when it came out and probably seven when I watched it, and I had no idea what the hell was going on other than there were planes and some dude died. I saw Saving Private Ryan four times in the theater, and I recently rewatched it and still think it is pretty damn good, even though the story is a little weird and far fetched.

A.I. is a tough one for me. Stanley Kubrick is another director whose work I love for the most part, but I remember thinking at the time that their sensibilities were just too far apart for the whole thing to hold together or work. At the time, it felt to me like Spielberg took Kubrick's story and really softened it up far too much. I'm still not sure how I feel about the movie overall, but I recently rewatched it and it is a little darker and more fucked up than I think I gave it credit for.

I think Spielberg is one of the most talented directors to have ever lived. I do wish he would mix it up in regards to who he works with as a cinematographer these days though. Janusz Kaminski is undoubtedly a very talented DOP, but I don't think his sensibilities are right for every single film Spielberg makes, and I'd love to see him change it up in the future.

 

A.I. ends with all of humanity extinct and the day he spends with his mother is a minor respite until they both die again. It is sweet on the surface if you don't engage with what the characters are talking about. A lot of people choose to read it in a certain way because it was Spielberg, but if it had been Kubrick they would read it differently.

 

A.I. also came out in a period where it was much more fashionable to dismiss Spielberg as just a mainstream director. He was on such a roll of hits and accolades at that time that backlash is inevitable, but now that people have had time to reflect it is much more understood.

It is a shame that he has been largely anonymous recently. Hopefully he has one more major film in him, something that puts to shame all of the generic superhero movies and CGI nonsense. I doubt it is West Side Story, though.

 

Yeah, I really whiffed on my understanding of A.I. back in the day - I completely missed that those things at the end were ultra evolved robots or mechs. I thought the movie ended with aliens randomly showing up. The Royal Tenenbaums also came out around that time, and I remember watching it and thinking it was dumb and unfunny. It is now one of my favorite movies ever.

 

bridge of spies is pretty damn good

 

Mark Rylance’s performance alone makes it worth a watch.

 

Raiders or Last Crusade is favorite, depends on my mood. Nothing else comes even close for me.

 

made a thread for his next film in development. sounds like it has potential to be his greatest film in a long time

The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) • forum.chorus.fm