James, please bring back the daily What's On TV listing as many of us use that to filter for shows we may want to watch or record, and reviews like this, though very helpful, can take too much time on a busy morning when you just want to add a few show to your DVR and move on.
The new emphasis on Watching and its well meaning staff may speak to a younger generation, but as someone who has more or less relied on NY Times picks for decades, I find it a complete waste of my time. Of course that is likely generational and I understand the change in emphasis, but please throw us Boomers a bone and bring that well edited daily back.
2
Spielberg is a much better director that Ron Howard.
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Can't wait to see the doco. Fussy period dramas and blockbuster action/effects popcorn films. Steven Spielberg does it all, beautifully.
Steven rarely makes a stinker, other than the forgettable Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Chrytal Skull.
2
I think a flaw in some of Mr. Spielberg's films is a tendency to be sentimental. JD Salinger said that a work was sentimental when the author seemed to like the characters more than readers did. In his case, Spielberg seems to like some of the " gravitas" of his themes, more than the audience does.
Although the first half of "Saving Private Ryan" hits you in the gut and emblazes itself on your consciousness, using the famous Lincoln letter to the mother of five sons killed in War as part of the screenplay along with the loud and unrelenting John Williams music during the reading of it, leaves a heavy hand on a sense of nuance and italicizes the "message." Same with the ending of "Amistad"-- it's a battle between the words of JQ Adams and the emotion "one should feel" blasted by the Williams score.
In Jaws, Schindler's List, Terminal and Catch Me if you Can - for examples, he lets the story speak for itself without putting BOLD letters around the heart of the film.
4
Mr. Spielberg the director has succeeded most distinctively while accessing the child in its subject? No way. Saving Private Ryan and Lincoln were both superb pictures that deserved Oscars (instead of the fantasy-fluff that actually won: Shakespeare in Love, and Argo).
1
All of the pictures you mention are fantasy in the sense that they are re-imaginings of actual events. Madden (Stoppard, Norman) may have taken more liberties with history, but so much less is known about the history they were re-imagining than is known about D-Day and WWII. You can't fault them for deliberately and cleverly playing with the possibilities this presented.
The Oscars are fun, but silly. It's nice to appreciate and recognize artist's excellent work, but creating works of art is not a competition. In a sense, the outcome of this particular contest was foreordained. The voters were all movie people. Of course the story about theater won. It too was beautifully made. The visuals are gorgeous, the screenplay is brilliant, the performances are terrific, the music is magnificent--not that those things aren't great in Private Ryan.
Two great movies, one about surviving war and one about writing a work of Shakespeare. Nothing wrong with either subject, nothing inferior about either production. Just unfortunate that they were up 'against' each other.
Fortunately, we don't have to choose which movie is 'better' or believe that receiving an Academy Award means that one is better than the other.
Many of his "smaller" films bear repeated viewings....like Bridge of Spies. I think he is a great director. I think he gets great performances out of his actors.
4
The word "genius" has come to mean, simply, so popular/unusual/innovative we can't think of a more universal descriptor than the g-word. It's like our need to name athletes "greatest of all time" (GOAT). It's a failure of imagination, a need to proclaim we're so lucky to be living in a time like this, and you get more clicks with such keywords.
3
Spielberg, the documentary is an HBO/American Masters puff piece. Lacy is a well-known hack, unctuous and earnest. Spielberg a wonderful director, if superficial. The likes of Wyler and Hitchcock had the benefit of more sophisticated educations. Kubrick, for example, was a genius. Tarantino, Anderson (Wes and Paul) and Scorsese, yes, there is something more there artistically. There is a lot to be said about Spielberg as a businessman and mogul, which the puff piece doesn't go into; two and a half hours? Spielberg is very, very entertaining, and knows film. That's good enough for a great resume.
7
Most of Spielberg's films don not hold up well over time. His so called classic ET if particularly poor excuse for a film. His film's are like cotton candy. You think it'll be good but you're kind of sick after the viewing. He's a legend in his own mind.
1
A family member who left southern Brooklyn in the early 1950's, for Los Angeles, and became an Editor for the Real McCoys, and a Director of some note, told me several years back, that Spielberg is a GENIUS! And Mickey, his Brooklyn name, and another one of those New Utrecht H.S. alumni, who made Hollywood tick, doesn't mince his words!!!
1
He has directed so many great movies, ones that are incredibly memorable and can be watched over and over. I'm thinking of Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, ET, Raiders of the Lost Ark and of course, Jaws. It's incredible that he made a scary movie about a killer shark - B-movie material - one of the greatest movies of all time, a movie mixed with terror, comedy (some of the scenes with the locals are priceless - "what kind of shark is it?" "Tiger shark." "A whhaaattt?") and the fantastic dramatic scene of Robert Shaw describing his experience on the USS Indianapolis. Not to mention the many other entertaining movies he's directed. No director comes close in my opinion.
7
If I want to watch a hagiography, I'll rerun the Geffen PBS episode. Either that or listen to these two talk about themselves.
5
Spielberg is the best director of movies--ever. Nobody comes close to what he's done. One of my faves is 'Duel', a made-for-TV flick Spielberg did when he was about 24/25. Almost no dialog. All action and images. And all the other flicks since then. Stevie is the best. AND, he's still going!
7
Recently out of boredom mostly, I made a list of 20 of my favorite movies all chosen for different reasons. What I discovered is that Spielberg had more movies on my list than any other filmmaker. It surprised me but my reasoning was very strong on different counts.
"Empire of the Sun" never bores me even after watching it for the 4th time. 'A.I.' moved me to tears with its humanity. 'Saving Private Ryan' spoke of war in a different way from other films. 'Lincoln' was a powerful message about doing the right thing and why as well as perspective on a complex President.
On my next 20 favorites list would be 'Schindler's List' which stunned me and 'Jaws' which scared and thrilled me.
Call it the popular or whatever.
Spielberg's films are very personal. They affect you directly or maybe only a little but he has brought issues to millions without hitting them over the head with it.
Entertainment is why we go but what we come away with sometimes is way more valuable.
15
Agree --lots of Spielberg on my list of great movies that I would see again anytime. Especially the less often discussed Empire of the Sun (which I can never get anyone else to try--is it the title or my lack of persuasive powers?), Munich, and Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind (finally getting some attention this year). I have never seen A.I. and will now look for it and just finally watched the powerful Private Ryan. Jaws ruined a whole summer at the Jersey Shore for me but I will always love it anyway...
1
Thank you for reminding me of Munich. It is definitely on my list too. I love the moral complexities of it. A great film, thoughtful.
I was at the Jersey Shore the summer Jaws was released and I can tell you, no one was in the water but we were all watching it!
Such is the power of a good film...
Spielberg was often abused for being "populist" in his movies. One wonders if the term "populist" is so good in Hollywood these days.
I will note, that the depicted movie, of Frank Abagnale's "Catch Me If You Can", was horribly miscast. Leonardo DiCaprio was utterly and beyond any question the wrong individual to be playing Frank. Frank ran away from home at 16, and, before his 21st birthday had impersonated both an airline copilot and BEEN the chief night supervisor at a children's hospital. DiCaprio is, at forty, just NOW not looking like a teenager. So DiCaprio as a choice was solely to fill seats, not to make an even vaguely accurate depiction of Frank and his impressive career as a role impersonator and scam artist. Since this was hardly an early movie in Spielberg's career, it cannot be argued that the studio forced it on him. With his background of money-making films, he is one of the most powerful directors in Hollywood, if not THE most (debatable between him, Cameron, and Joss Whedon at this point).
3
Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest directors of the modern era, but a more objective documentary would have addressed the reigning critical consensus that he hasn't made a truly great film since "Munich" and/or "Minority Report."
Over a decade has passed, and yet the star of this once great director continues to dim. One sincerely hopes one of his upcoming films, "The Post" (2017) or "The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara" (2018), will mark a return to his earlier level of peerless craftsmanship. Deep down, I'm still hoping.
2
Lincoln (2012). Bridge of Spies (2015).
He still makes quiet unassuming truly great movies besides Jaws.
10
Oh goodness!. All these flaws and failings in Mr. Spielberg's life and career!
I forgive 'em all.
Remember Dr. Johnson's noble words on the death of a friend and sometime pupil, David Garrick. Preeminent British actor (both comic and tragic).
"His death has eclipsed the the gaiety of nations and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure."
Bravo! HARMLESS PLEASURE! Mr. Spielberg, you have given us hours upon hours of "harmless pleasure." How much "harmless pleasure" do we get in the course of a life? Not so much that we can afford to turn up a snooty, supercilious nose when some comes wandering our way!
And I can't resist. Think of that opening scene in "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Harrison Ford contemplating the remains of an archaeological competitor.
"Forester (or whatever). . . . . He was good. . . .VERY good. . . . .."
I ask you. That line (spoken in some sinister jungle)--doesn't it give you a frisson of pure pleasure? "O-o-o-o-h!" you think to yourself--"this is gonna be GOOD!. . . . ."
And those masterpieces came along when so much of American film-making was so GRIM. Great movies--oh yes! but GRIM. The seamy, doleful side of American life--the shopworn platitudes, the underlying shabbiness--all so unsparingly filmed and shown onscreen.
And then (along with some others)--"Raiders of the Lost Ark." Suddenly. .
. .movies were FUN again.
Thanks, Mr. Spielberg! You're the greatest!
11
If Spielberg’s body of work was limited to Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan he would rank at the very top of the Hollywood immortals.Fortunately for us his career is so much more.Hopefully many more productive years remain.Thank you Mr S.for your amazing career.
26
His assimilationist yearnings have always hampered him. He is a very talented storyteller and craftsman. He has made some exceptional films. Its VERY difficult to be a mainstream artist, but if anyone can claim that laurel, it would be Spielberg.
7
Spielberg's movies are for the most part - when the subjects lends itself to it - fun to watch. When serious takes over, he's proven himself even more of a master. What more could a movie fan want?
20
Mr. Spielberg made E.T. If it is not genius to tap into the common identity of hundreds of millions of people and give them cathartic joy, I don't know what is.
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