Steven Spielberg

[jenkins]

This topic is for discussing the complete career of Steven Spielberg. There are topics about certain subjects and movies, but there doesn't appear to be a topic about what I said in my first sentence. The nearest I found was a discussion about what his worst movie may be. He does indeed have a worst movie, because he's made many movies. Refresher:

Duel (TV Movie) -- 1971
The Sugarland Express -- 1974
Jaws -- 1975
Close Encounters of the Third Kind -- 1977
1941 -- 1979
Raiders of the Lost Ark -- 1981
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial -- 1982
Twilight Zone: The Movie (segment "2") -- 1983
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom -- 1984
The Color Purple -- 1985
Empire of the Sun -- 1987
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade -- 1989
Always -- 1989
Hook -- 1991
Jurassic Park -- 1993
Schindler's List -- 1993
The Lost World: Jurassic Park -- 1997
Amistad -- 1997
Saving Private Ryan -- 1998
A.I. Artificial Intelligence -- 2001
Minority Report -- 2002
Catch Me If You Can -- 2002
The Terminal -- 2004
War of the Worlds -- 2005
Munich -- 2005
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull -- 2008
The Adventures of Tintin -- 2011
War Horse -- 2011
Lincoln -- 2012

And somehow there are two tv movies between Duel and The Sugarland Express, which tv movies I've never heard about. Why not? I'll have to Google. The above list names 28 full movies and a Twilight Zone segment. Well I'll be. That's a lot of movies.

I haven't seen 7 of them. I'll let you guess which ones. I've seen 21 full Spielberg movies and a Twilight Zone segment. Well I'll be. That's a lot of movies. From the ones I've seen, I'd have to rewatch all of them to make a list of my favorite Spielberg movies. That's impressive.

Recently Spielberg has been impressing me, because recently I rewatched Jurassic Park. I'm not a kid so I didn't like Jurassic Park as a kid. Nope. I'm an adult and I very much liked it as an adult. Semi-recently in a theater I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I was wondering why I decided to watch those movies during and after Raiders of the Lost Ark. I thought I'd made a bad decision. I thought about leaving. Then I thought I'd regret not giving Temple of Doom a chance, so I stayed. I'm an adult and I very much liked Temple of Doom as an adult. This has reminded me that Spielberg does a great job of thinking in cinema. Like, sometimes he does a terrific fucking job, and sometimes he's terrific five times in two minutes (something like that).

I made a little paragraph there^ about 3 out of 28 of Spielberg's movies. I might be going through an unexpected (by me) phase of Rocky movies and Spielberg movies. I'm enjoying this phase because I'm enjoying the movies.

There are many Spielberg movies to discuss, and discussion about them will lead me to watch more of them, and maybe you'll watch some, and/or remember some, and/or [mysterious other option]. Discouraging "he's terrible and I hate him" comments. Encouraging you to do whatever you want, including ignoring my discouragement, but there's a topic about his worst movie and everyone knows the lyrics to that song. There's a different song to hear.

[Lottery]

I dig him. But I much prefer him as an actioneer and adventurer than a serious dude. Not to say that he can't pull off meaningful and serious content but I find him considerably better at the exciting stuff. Even his lesser action work is still entertaining. Anyway, his work had a huge effect on me as a kid and I don't despise his current work which is always a plus.

[Reel]

Last film I watched of his was Schindler's List, very food. I was impressed by his ability to not be dragged too far into the dour aspect of it and tell a really interesting story. Some of the most beautiful B&W cinematography ever filmed. It's my current favorite, since it's the freshest in my mind, but if I were to really consider which film of his I like the most I think it'd be E.T.

I need to see Munich, The Color Purple, Amistad again, all seriousies. Whatd you guys think of 1941, is it funny?

[pete]

http://vimeo.com/tonyzhou/spielberg

speilberg's one scene one shots

[Alexandro]

that vimeo video is aces.

spielberg has always been one of my favorites. even more so because every "serious" cinephile and cheap auteur will always use him as a punchbag, but he's so immensely talented any accusation of him being a hack easily evaporates. he's my personal "mise en scene" director. I love the way he tells things visually, it's a playful approach that tells you how much he ENJOYS the solving of scenes in visual terms.

although A.I. has been slowly getting the recognition it deserved when it opened (jonathan rosenbaum's review is one of my favorites), Munich is one I always remember for being so unique in it's style: a 70's espionage thriller that gets darker every minute with what's probably the only pure sad/downer ending in all his career.

[jenkins]

i should've seen Bridge of Spies, but the good thing is now it'll exceed my expectations, since home viewing expectations are always lower than theatrical ones. that's science.

i made that up, and it's not even a necessary intro. i just need to know if it's a good idea to buy this:



is it so bad i'll watch it once and regret the purchase, or will i every now and then get in the mood to watch it again? please advise.

[BB]

I'm a pretty ardent Spielberg supporter, but 1941 is really pretty bad. Would I watch it again? Yeah, probably.