BEFORE: And here's that documentary I was talking about, and so here's the explanation. Try as I might, I couldn't get all of the horror franchises I wanted to line up right - sure, the "Scooby-Doo" films could link to either of the "I Know What You Did Last Summer" films and also one or two of the "Scream" films, but not both. And then there were a few little mini-chains that would be left stranded, no matter what order I chose. Even with the best order I could come up with, there was still a gap between "The Rage: Carrie 2" and the start of the "Scream" films, so I went looking for a horror movie that might have one star from each film in it, and there were none. BUT, there was this documentary, only it didn't seem right to just drop this in the middle of Shock-Tober.
But then I got to thinking about it, and who directed "Jaws", one of the scariest movies ever made? Who produced "Poltergeist", the scariest movie I ever saw at the tender age of 14, that kept me from sleeping soundly for over a week, back in 1982? That would be Spielberg. I didn't even think about the dinosaur movie, but parts of that one were really frightening too. Yeah, so he's made over 50 films across all genres, but just for those three movies alone, I thought I could justify putting this one here. So Amy Irving, aka the first Mrs. Spielberg, carries over from "The Rage: Carrie 2".
THE PLOT: A documentary on Steven Spielberg, filmmaker. Includes interviews with relatives, film critics, peers and people who have worked with him.
AFTER: Ah, see, my instincts haven't let me down. The FIRST two films referenced in this documentary turned out to be "Jaws" and "Poltergeist". It makes sense, Spielberg had directed a bunch of TV work, like episodes of "Night Gallery" and "Marcus Welby, M.D.", and then of course there was "Duel" and "Sugarland Express", but nothing - NOTHING hit like "Jaws" did in the summer of 1975. Literally the first "blockbuster" big summer movie, no film had ever made that much money before, no film ever scared THAT many people over the course of a summer before. It's really sneaky if you think about it, make people afraid of sharks so they won't go to the beach, and then, where are they going to go instead? Probably the movie theater. I know that I struck a deal with sharks then and there, I'd stay out of their ocean if they'd stay out of my bedroom, and that may be a fragile alliance but it's still in place, all these years later.
Who knows, maybe we wouldn't have "Star Wars" be such a big hit in 1977 if not for "Jaws" in 1975, and then much of my life would have been very different. But then right on the heels of "Star Wars" (episode 1 which was really 4) came Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", a very different sci-fi movie. I recall going to a classmate's birthday party where they parents just took all the kids out to see this movie, which I didn't really understand at the time - I mean, come on, I was expecting another "Star Wars" and it just wasn't that. Same plan as "Jaws", though, less was more when it came to sharks and aliens, save the big effects and the reveals for the end. That's how you build up suspense, make the audience wait for the pay-off.
It turns out, though, that all that suspense in "Jaws" was somewhat accidental, they had such problems getting the mechanical shark to work that by necessity, they had to film most of the movie without the audience seeing the shark. Retroactively, that's what you call a "happy accident" because the reviewers praised the film for the suspense and tension that came from mostly NOT seeing the shark. And also the jump-scares that came from when you DID see the shark.
Speaking of birthdays, though, it's my birthday today - so I think it's well-warranted to look back through my memories today, and this film is perfect for that. Once I got to films like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "E.T." in 1982 and 1983 (umm, you know, along with the "Star Wars" movies), there was probably no stopping me when it came to movies. I was hooked, just like some big...damn, what's a big fish that you can catch on a hook? Never mind, it'll come to me. I needed to learn everything about "Star Wars" and "Raiders" and that led me to read George Lucas's autobiography, "Skywalking", and then somehow I started to think that maybe I could get into filmmaking. The damage was done, and there was no turning back, and a few years later I found myself at NYU film school - so, basically Lucas and Spielberg ruined my life, took away any chance of me being in some profitable career like insurance or finance or medicine. Eh, those all seemed too hard anyway, who wants to work hard when they can just join the circus?
Here's the problem, though, and I learned this by staying in touch with Spielberg, and Lucas, and my new friends Woody Allen, Terry Gilliam, et al. - I wasn't very good at making movies. Maybe I could have been if I had more confidence, because now it seems that every director just adopted a "fake it till you make it" attitude, and I guess I just couldn't fake it. So halfway through film school I took a bit of a turn and started taking classes in animation, documentary production and comedy writing. Also producing class, because I figured if I couldn't connect with my own film ideas I could devote my life to helping other people get THEIR ideas on film, and that's what happened. A year out of film school I was working as a P.A. on music videos in NYC, and then a few pieces for Sesame Street, and I worked my way up - in a couple years I was an office manager and associate producer, and I sort of didn't look back. Umm, until 2020.
I don't mean to compare myself to Spielberg, I wouldn't dare, there's just no reason to - he's a titan in the industry with a couple Oscars and over 50 successful films on his resume, and me, well, I've produced a few minor successes, 3 animated features and some shorts, one of which got an Oscar nomination. This round to you, Steven - hell, all the rounds to you, I'm just a squirrel trying to get a nut. But even Spielberg made a few stinkers, like "1941" an unfunny World War II comedy that I'm surprised they even mentioned in this documentary, that's how bad it was. It's surprising that they let him direct another movie after that, it turns out World War 2 and comedy were NOT like chocolate and peanut butter, you really shouldn't mix them.
I wish that this documentary could have just stepped chronologically through his career, but it doesn't. They sort of grouped the films in weird ways, like once they got past the "alien" films, "Close Encounters" and "E.T". there was a grouping of the films with children in peril as lead characters, like "A.I.", "Empire of the Sun", and "The BFG". Then there were the "World War 2/Holocaust films that weren't comedies", which means "Saving Private Ryan", "Schindler's List" and "Munich" form some kind of trilogy. (But, do they?). And then that leaves the "political message" films, like "Amistad", "Lincoln" and "Bridge of Spies". The two Tom Cruise sci-fi films, "Minority Report" and "War of the Worlds" form some kind of duology, I guess. That sort of leaves "War Horse" and "Hook" out in the cold, and there's no mention at all of the 1989 film "Always" - jeez, was it THAT bad?
Look, there were probably a dozen other ways to group these films, like why not put the four films starring Tom Hanks together - "Catch Me if You Can", "The Terminal", "Bridge of Spies" and "Saving Private Ryan", or is that too obvious? Plus, what about "Hook"? The Indiana Jones films get their own montage, but that's really the only franchise that he stuck with - now I've also noticed that Spielberg directed only the first film in the "Jaws" series and only two films in the "Jurassic Park" franchise, what happened after that, did he lose interest?
The other challenge here was probably in keeping the length down to just two and a half hours - it was probably tempting to just throw in more and more great clips from great movies, this was what we called the "shoveling" technique in high-school. This is when you had to write an essay, and you'd start with a theory, and just keep listing more and more evidence that supported your theory, and then the teacher would have to agree with you. The theory here is that Steven Spielberg is a great, talented filmmaker, and there's more evidence than is necessary to prove that point. Still, there's a tiny bit of backlash, like should he have directed "The Color Purple"? Did he have the proper background to direct a film on the black, lesbian experience? At that time, it was probably just a gig, but in today's world, audiences would probably demand a director with closer ties to the subject matter.
Still, you can't argue with success, and his films have raked in billions, and he's got the top spot as the most commercially successful director, even when you factor in "1941". I wish there had been time to include "Ready Player One", which came out a year after this documentary, but I understand you've got to make a cut-off somewhere, or the doc will never be finished. And I think I've seen all of his films, except for "Duel" and some obscure 1990 film called "The Visionary". Forgive me for being a populist, but after finally watching "The Color Purple" earlier this year, I think I'm all caught up on Spielberg's filmography, and that in itself is an accomplishment. Film #1 on this blog was "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", and now here I am, almost 13 years later, realizing that I can't do what I do without him doing what he does. Or at least, I could, but it wouldn't mean as much. I need fuel for my engine, and like it or not, he's provided it - the same way Spielberg himself was inspired by "Lawrence of Arabia" when he was a teen.
Even if you'll never be Steven Spielberg, that's OK, I've learned to live with it. Whatever you do, keep doing what you do, persevere, and also, don't be afraid to fail. It sounds corny, but it's true, and I should know. I mean, change course if you have to, but try to keep working. That's my advice, for whatever it's worth, after 53 trips around the sun.
Also starring Steven Spielberg (last seen in "Everything Is Copy"), Tom Hanks (ditto), Bob Balaban (ditto), J.J. Abrams (last seen in "Men in Black: International"), Leah Adler, Christian Bale (last seen in "Ford v Ferrari"), Eric Bana (last seen in "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword"), Drew Barrymore (last seen in "Isn't It Romantic"), Cate Blanchett (last seen in "The Bill Murray Stories"), Stephen Bochco, James Brolin (last seen in "Burlesque"), Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Coyote (last seen in "Sphere"), Dustin Hoffman (ditto), Daniel Craig (last seen in "Knives Out"), Tom Cruise (last seen in "The Last Blockbuster"), Daniel Day-Lewis (last seen in "Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump"), Brian De Palma, Laura Dern (last seen in "Little Women" (2019)), Leonardo DiCaprio (last seen in "Class Action Park"), Richard Dreyfuss (last seen in "The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart"), David Edelstein, Sally Field (last seen in "Hello, My Name Is Doris"), Ralph Fiennes (last seen in "Nanny McPhee Returns"), Harrison Ford (last heard in "The Secret Life of Pets 2"), David Geffen (last seen in "Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice"), Jeff Goldblum (last seen in "Mortdecai"), Doris Kearns Goodwin, Holly Hunter (last seen in "Miss Firecracker"), Michael Kahn, Janusz Kaminski, Lawrence Kasdan, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Ben Kingsley (last seen in "A Very Murray Christmas"), Tony Kushner, George Lucas, Frank Marshall (last seen in "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead"), Janet Maslin, Melissa Mathison, Todd McCarthy, Dennis Muren, Liam Neeson (last seen in "Third Person"), Walter F. Parkes, Michael Phillips, Sid Sheinberg, Martin Scorsese, A.O. Scott, Anne Spielberg, Arnold Spielberg, Nancy Spielberg, Sue Spielberg, Tom Stoppard, John Williams, Oprah Winfrey (last seen in "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks"), Robert Zemeckis, Vilmos Zsigmond,
with archive footage of Alan Alda (last seen in "Marriage Story"), Karen Allen (last seen in "Malcolm X"), William Atherton (last seen in "Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie"), Richard Attenborough (last seen in "A Bridge Too Far"), Margaret Avery (last seen in "The Color Purple"), Dan Aykroyd (last seen in "The Go-Go's"), Ruby Barnhill (last seen in "The BFG"), Ned Beatty (last seen in "The Killer Inside Me"), John Belushi (last seen in "Robert Klein Still Can't Stop His Leg"), Adam Goldberg (ditto), Gene Shalit (ditto), Ed Bradley, Marlon Brando (last seen in "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan"), Tom Brokaw (last seen in "Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project"), Edward Burns (last seen in "27 Dresses"), John Candy, Kate Capshaw (also last seen in "Everything Is Copy"), Dana Carvey (last seen in "Trapped in Paradise"), Bill Clinton (last seen in "Too Big to Fail"), Barack Obama (ditto), Sean Connery (last seen in "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead"), Alec Guinness (ditto), David Costabile (last seen in "The Bounty Hunter"), Joan Crawford, Melinda Dillon (last seen in "Reign Over Me"), Hugh Downs (last seen in "Mermaids"), Denholm Elliott (last seen in "The Boys from Brazil"), Peter Falk (last seen in "Employee of the Month"), Morgan Freeman (last heard in "Coming 2 America"), Paul Freeman, Teri Garr (last heard in "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker"), Danny Glover (last seen in "Death at a Funeral" (2010)), Whoopi Goldberg (last seen in "Tina"), Dinah Shore (ditto), Cary Guffey, Mark Hamill (last seen in "Brigsby Bear"), Goldie Hawn (last seen in "Like Father"), Alfred Hitchcock, Hal Holbrook (last seen in "Promised Land"), Djimon Hounsou (last seen in "Serenity" (2019)), Anthony Hopkins (last seen in "The Dresser (2015)), Tommy Lee Jones (last seen in "Shock and Awe"), Ben Johnson (last seen in "Hustle"), Wayne Knight (last seen in "Cheaper By the Dozen"), Charlie Korsmo (last seen in "Can't Hardly Wait"), Shia LaBeouf (last seen in "The Greatest Game Ever Played"), Ronald Lacey, Marcia Lucas, Robert MacNaughton, Lee Majors, Joseph Mazzello (last seen in "Bohemian Rhapsody"), Mike Myers (ditto), Samantha Morton (last seen in "In America"), Sam Neill (last seen in "Hunt for the Wilderpeople"), Frances O'Connor (last seen in "The Importance of Being Earnest"), Kevin J. O'Connor (last seen in "Seraphim Falls"), Peter O'Toole (last heard in "The Sandpiper"), Al Pacino (last seen in "The Last Blockbuster"), Barry Pepper (last seen in "Kill the Messenger"), Dan Rather (last seen in "MLK/FBI"), Ariana Richards, John Rhys-Davies (last seen in "Time Lapse"), Giovanni Ribisi (last heard in "The Virgin Suicides"), Miranda Richardson (last seen in "Paris, Je t'Aime"), Pat Roach, Oliver Robins, Geoffrey Rush (last seen in "The Banger Sisters"), Amy Ryan (last seen in "Clear History"), Mark Rylance (last seen in "The Trial of the Chicago 7"), Roy Scheider (last seen in "Blue Thunder"), Omar Sharif (last seen in "Doctor Zhivago"), Robert Shaw (last seen in "Force 10 from Navarone"), Martin Short (last heard in "The Addams Family" (2019)), Tom Sizemore (last seen in "Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House"), Tom Snyder (also last seen in "The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart"), Robert Stack (last seen in "Walt: The Man Behind the Myth"), David Strathairn (last seen in "Howl"), Henry Thomas (last seen in "Doctor Sleep"), Francois Truffaut, Christopher Walken (last seen in "The Jesus Rolls"), Dee Wallace (last seen in "Love & Mercy"), Dennis Weaver, Robin Williams (last seen in "Fathers' Day"), Robert Young and the voice of Maurice LaMarche (last seen in "Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond").
RATING: 6 out of 10 episodes of "Amazing Stories" (also conspicuously absent...hmmm)
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