Directed by Steven Spielberg – Part Two

December 3, 2021

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As I was finishing part one of my look at the career of Steven Spielberg last week, it hit me that I hadn’t written one word about one of his most important collaborators.  Luckily I was planning a part two, so I could cover the topic here, as I had no desire to extend that piece any longer.  Don’t get me wrong – I am not familiar with the phrase “too many words” – a concept that will be tested when I write about The Beatles: Get Back, one of the most impressive pieces of filmmaking I’ve ever seen.  No, I just didn’t want to rework part one to shoehorn in a few words about the person who has probably meant more to Spielberg than anyone else he works with.

As I was preparing for this examination of Spielberg’s films over the last few months, I rewatched a wonderful HBO 2017 documentary (called simply, Spielberg) that includes a career retrospective, movie clips, and interviews with those who have worked with him over the years.  Given his popularity and success, you won’t be surprised to learn that all of the big names that have worked with him appear in the documentary.  You can certainly tell that Spielberg had a heavy hand in the making of the film, so you aren’t going to hear anything critical about his work (except by the man himself), but that’s ok.  I wasn’t looking for dirt on a great American filmmaker.  I was simply looking for insights, behind the scenes stories, and most of all, movie clips. 

What I wasn’t expecting in watching the documentary was learning that Spielberg has primarily worked with the same people on his films for the last twenty-plus years, and in some cases, even longer.  It’s a comfort for him to work with people who know his style and what he looks for, allowing him to focus on getting each scene right, and not having to worry if the costume designer or cinematographer knows what they are doing.  As part of that segment, he mentioned that the person he has worked with the longest is composer John Williams, noting that he is probably the person he relies on the most.  Williams is probably the most prolific composer of film scores we have ever seen, having worked with Spielberg on almost every one of his movies, in addition to scoring the Star Wars franchise, the Harry Potter series, and countless other pictures.  He has been nominated for 52 Oscars.  No, that wasn’t a typo.  His 52 nominations have resulted in five Oscar wins, including two of my top five Spielberg films.  In fact, every one of these pictures features iconic Williams scores that instantly transport you back to images from the film as soon as you hear them.  If you are looking for a wonderful collection of his best work in movies, I recommend his Greatest Hits 1969 – 1999 compilation, released in 1999. 

OK, now that I’ve paid tribute to the all-time great in composing, let’s get back to my top five films from Steven Spielberg.  Each one of these pictures is special to me, either in the way that I have memories seeing it when I was a kid, or just the pure joy of rewatching it so many years later.  If you ever have one of those Friday nights where you seem to scroll through your cable channels or streaming services and can’t seem to find anything to watch, you can’t go wrong with any of these picks.  Let’s jump into my top 5.

5. Jurassic Park (1993)

With the meteoric rise in popularity of superhero and animation movies over the last twenty years, it’s easy to take for granted what a filmmaking team can do with computers.  That’s not to say that you can create something on film with just a click of the button – it takes scores of people to make a movie with a large number of special effects.  Don’t believe me?  I recently saw Eternals, the new Marvel film and stayed through the credits to watch the post-credit scenes.  And let me tell you, the number of people who worked on the movie’s special effects was astonishing.  So, while creating effects with a computer is not a slam dunk, it has to be a heck of a lot easier than the days of George Lucas building miniature models to create the final attack on the Death Star. 

In the early 1990s, Steven Spielberg was attached to adapt Jurassic Park, the best-selling Michael Crichton novel about the return of dinosaurs using some fancy DNA extraction techniques by a team of scientists led by a not-so-wise wealthy megalomaniac.  Now, Spielberg had experience with special effects in previous movies, but knew that if this film would work, the dinosaurs had to appear real.  Well, since none of us had ever seen a dinosaur, how would you know?  My guess is that Spielberg took the “You’ll know it when you see it” approach.  There’s a great scene in the Spielberg documentary where his producing partner talks about their meeting with someone from Industrial Light and Magic, the special effects company founded by George Lucas.  Spielberg had insisted that the dinosaurs had to move in the film, and move in a realistic way.  When one of the ILM technicians took a shot at what Spielberg wanted, the filmmakers were astonished and overjoyed, knowing they could actually create Spielberg’s vision on the big screen. 

After watching movies for so many years of my life, I can only remember a handful of theater-going experiences that really stand out.  Seeing The Commitments (and hearing that fantastic soundtrack) at the Academy of Music Theater in Northampton, Massachusetts.  Being blown away by Pulp Fiction and wanting to see it again immediately.  My jaw dropping at the ending of The Usual Suspects and needing to see it again to figure out how I missed the clues to the twist ending.  I think seeing Dune this year in IMAX may be added to that lifetime memory list.  One of the big movies on that list was seeing Jurassic Park for the first time in the theater.  Seeing those dinosaurs appear on screen and hearing their roar pierce your eardrums as the sound ripped through the theater was so incredible. 

After Spielberg wows us with the special effects early in the film, he takes us on a rollercoaster ride of a good old-fashioned monster movie.  He weaves together a story of the ethics of bringing back an extinct species with the adventure of saving people from becoming dino-snacks.  His sense of storytelling was on perfect display, especially as he delivered some iconic action sequences – the T-Rex attack with the approaching sound represented by ripples in a cup of water, the raptor attacking the kids in the kitchen, and of course, the ending sequence when the T-Rex saves our characters from instant death by snatching the raptor for an appetizer.  Unlike my top pick on this list, the special effects for his “monster” in this movie actually worked, so he was like a kid having all sorts of fun with his toys while creating the action sequences.  Jurassic Park is still going strong as a franchise, with a sixth edition due next Summer, but nothing will replace the wonder of this fantastic film, which is still a great watch even after all of these years.

4. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Two years after putting his name on the map with a little movie about a fish and a small beach town, Spielberg reunited with Richard Dreyfuss to star in this science-fiction picture about aliens arriving on Earth, making contact with a select group of people.  Of all of the films on my top ten list, this is probably the one that I have changed my opinion on the most since the time I first watched it, which was probably in my teens.  I remember not really getting the storyline, probably more interested in the special effects, but not being that impressed.  Years later I revisited the movie and found it so much more fascinating, especially the way Spielberg brought in the themes of family to a story about aliens.

Dreyfuss plays Roy, your average Midwest family man, working a steady job, who has an “encounter” with an alien ship one night when out on a work call.  What transpires are changes in his appearance, his behavior, and (more impactful), his relationship with his wife (Terri Garr) and his children.  What I like so much about Close Encounters, unlike other alien movies, is that it’s more than just one person trying to convince others of what he went through.  Roy quickly meets other people who had the same experience and begins to bond with them about their visions of something bigger than their average everyday life.  For some reason, they can’t stop thinking about a shape.  A structure.  A place.  Something that is drawing them somewhere that they just can’t figure out.  When they eventually make their pilgrimage to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, they realize that there is a reason they were brought there.  Along the way, we see a series of government agents (just like in our next film) chasing the same alien visitors.  The ending sequence plays out in a fascinating way, with Spielberg once again delivering magic on the screen through performance, special effects, and a beautiful music / light communication between the aliens and the humans.  Considered one of the greatest science-fiction movies of all time, Close Encounters demonstrated that Spielberg was a star director on the rise.

3. E.T. the Extra Terrestrial (1982)

Five years after pushing the boundaries of alien contact with Close Encounters, Spielberg took the concept one step further, moving beyond “contact” into “friendship” with E.T. the Extra Terrestrial.  When an alien is left behind by his spaceship, he encounters a young boy, developing a close friendship that connects them in a mysterious, almost spiritual, way.  The boy and his siblings have to figure out a way to get him home (let’s not focus on the realistic ability of a Speak n Spell being able to get a collect phone call made to outer space) before the bad guys from the government come to capture him.

Now, Spielberg is best known as a director of Hollywood popcorn movies, given the ones that have been most successful.  What is often lost is that so many of his films feature themes of parents and children.  There are countless examples with these themes, either in the main storyline, or in the background shaping characters motivations:  Empire of the Sun, Hook, Close Encounters, Catch Me If You Can, Minority Report, and even War of the Worlds.  He has said that E.T. is just as much of a movie about kids struggling after their parents’ divorce as it is about an alien coming to Earth.  He actually just started working on his next project, a story based on his own childhood growing up in a divorced family. 

One thing that comes to mind in watching E.T. is Spielberg’s ability to not only pick excellent child actors, but get phenomenal performances out of them.  Henry Thomas and Drew Barrymore, in particular, are so good in this movie, delivering realistic depictions of kids their age going through a challenging experience, along with the sweet interactions with E.T.  Some of these moments are pure magic on screen.  This wasn’t the first time Spielberg found a future star as a child actor – he cast 12 year-old Christian Bale, who would go on to win an Oscar and star as Batman, in Empire of the Sun, a wonderful World War II epic. 

One last thing about E.T.  It’s been almost forty years since this movie was released, so I think it’s safe to say that talking about the ending wouldn’t be considered a “spoiler.”  Let’s just say that if you can watch all 114 minutes of this movie and not be moved by the ending when E.T. has to say goodbye to Elliot, well, you might need to see a cardiologist to see if you still have a working heart.  I was only ten years old when this picture came out, and while I didn’t understand all of the nuance of some of the adult themes throughout the movie, I knew one thing – E.T. was the best friend of this kid who desperately needed someone in his life – and that ending ripped me to shreds in the theater – I was a puddle.  Now, did I have a similar reaction when I recently watched it again in preparation for this series on Spielberg?  I’m sorry, those files are sealed.

2. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

What happens when you combine the talents of two filmmakers responsible for groundbreaking blockbusters that helped reshape the way Hollywood looks at moviemaking?  Well, you get one of the best films of all-time.  One that launched a new franchise that is still going today, with a fifth entry in the series due to arrive in 2023.  But my second favorite Spielberg movie is the one that started it all.  Raiders of the Lost Ark was an idea conceived by George Lucas, in the early 1970s, but put on the back burner when he decided to focus on Star Wars, released in 1977.  When he shared the idea with Spielberg, coming off of the critical and commercial flop 1941 (going to show that just because you put Aykroyd and Belushi in a movie together doesn’t mean it’s always going to work), he quickly signed on.  They recruited writer and director Lawrence Kasdan (Body Heat, The Big Chill) to write the screenplay, with Spielberg tapped to direct.

There are so many aspects of Raiders that work – obviously, the casting of Harrison Ford is at the top of the list.  He brought a perfect combination of movie-star charisma, with the rugged adventure-seeking skills of a James Bond-type hero.  In one of the great “what if” casting decisions of all-time, the original choice for playing Indiana Jones was Tom Selleck, who couldn’t make the schedule work with his commitment to his television series, Magnum P.I.  With Selleck out, the producing team turned to Ford, who was coming off his successful run in the first two Star Wars movies and was already a household name.  Playing alongside Ford was Karen Allen as Indy’s former love interest and partner in the search of the Ark of the Covenant.  Rounding out the cast was a collection of characters who run the spectrum of confidants (Denholm Elliot as Marcus and John Rhys-Davies as Sallah) all the way to the guys I affectionally refer to as the “bad Nazi dudes”, including the creepy guy with the glasses who mistakenly burns an imprint of the medallion into his hand.  Well, we all know what happens to them at the end – needless to say, karma (in the biblical sense) is a bitch.

In all seriousness, what makes Raiders so rewatchable all of these years later is not just perfect casting – it’s a breezy story and screenplay, with just the right combination of action sequences, humor, a little bit of romance, and the ultimate mystery of what would be in the Ark, when it was finally opened.  The film features some all-time one-liners – “Didn’t any of you guys ever go to Sunday school?”  “Snakes.  Why did it have to be snakes?” and great moments, like Indy casually watching the guy demonstrate his sword twirling skills and deciding to just shoot him.  That last one has a funny backstory – apparently Ford was so sick with dysentery (along with a large number of crew members) that they shortened the scene from the original complicated fight scene.  Well, it’s funny to me, anyway – probably not to Ford.  After forty years, I’m glad that this film wasn’t made today as it would have probably been pitched as a 12 episode series on Netflix, instead of the fast-paced fun story that plays out in just under two hours.  Raiders of the Lost Ark – one of the all-time greats, but not quite my favorite from Spielberg.  Let’s move from the sand of an Egyptian desert to the sand of a beach on Amity Island for the last film on my list.

1. Jaws  (1975)

We have a saying in golf – “sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good”.  This is usually uttered after one of my tee shots heads straight for the woods, bounces off a tree and lands in a fairway.  Where am I going with this?  Well, during the tumultuous making of Spielberg’s second feature film, he had incredibly bad luck with the main star of his movie – the mechanical shark built to depict the great white menace terrorizing the beachgoers on Amity Island.  The damn thing just didn’t work.  At all.  It forced Spielberg to rethink how to depict terror to an audience without actually showing it on the screen.  He got creative and his decisions resulted in an outcome that probably ended up working even better than he intended.  His bad luck turned into good luck, but by no means am I suggesting he’s not good – no, in fact, Jaws demonstrated that Spielberg had the ability to tell a compelling story with incredible characters and scare the shit out of an entire country.

With so much attention focused on Spielberg’s achievement in directing Jaws, it’s often forgotten that the movie was based on Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel that was a massive success.  You know how you always hear about those great “beach books”?  Well, Jaws was very popular and the film rights were purchased very quickly, with Benchley recruited to co-write the script.  So, it’s not like this twenty-eight year-old director was given the keys to a low-key project.  There were a lot of eyes on this movie, and when production got rough – and it got very rough at times in terms of delays and budget overruns – there were questions about whether Spielberg had the talent to cut it as a big-time Hollywood director.  He proved everyone wrong by creating a world that depicted life in a beach town, filming the last sequence with the shark hunt on the ocean (as opposed to a large water tank on a studio lot), and getting the most out of his talented three stars – Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss. 

The performances of the cast, along with the improvised methods to demonstrate the terror of the shark when the prop didn’t work, helped catapult Jaws to the list of one of Hollywood’s best movies ever.  The theme song from John Williams became an iconic symbol of terror in the water, whether mimicked for years on screen, or kids just joking around at the beach.  And speaking of jokes, this movie is the one I quoted the most during my Corporate Finance days, anytime shit went sideways on us – “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.” 

We take for granted that there will be blockbuster Summer movies every year (well, maybe not 2020, but you get my point) and we have Spielberg’s masterpiece to thank for that phenomenon.  Jaws still resonates today as a scary fun suspense adventure, and is one of my favorite movies to watch every Summer.

That’s all for this week.  I hope you enjoyed this tour through the work of Steven Spielberg.  His new movie, West Side Story, premieres in theaters on December 10^th and early reviews have been very strong.  Next week, I’ll be back to look at the work of one of my favorite actors working today, Leonardo DiCaprio.  He’s the rare Hollywood superstar who has achieved incredible commercial and critical success without appearing in any “IP movie” franchise.  He always looks for original stories and has a strong track record of picking great ones.  He has a new film, Don’t Look Up, coming to Netflix at the end of the month and I’ll be sharing my favorite movies of his impressive thirty-plus year career.  Thanks for reading and if you’d like to be notified of future posts, you can subscribe here.