Initial Thoughts on Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg is one of the those filmmakers I grew up with. It was summer of 1993, I was 12 years old and going to see "Jurassic Park". That was really my first real movie experience. Before then most movies I saw in the theatre were a bit of a blur, I don't quite remember what it felt like to see those movies. "Jurassic Park" changed that for me, I was jumped out of my seat at the moment the T-Rex first appeared, and I didn't let go of it until the closing credits. Throughout the weeks that would follow, I would go see "Jurassic Park" numerous times.

Time has now passed from that summer of my youth, I can't say I have the same fondness for "Jurassic Park" as I once did, however my admiration for its director has only grown. After falling in love with that film, I wanted to see everything Spielberg did before then. 1993 became my Spielberg retrospective, I watched everything from "Duel" to the present day. When "Schindler's List" was released later that same year, I begged my parents to go see it, but they forbid it saying it was too adult for me, and I probably would get upset by the realistic violence. I like to think they would've been wrong, but they probably weren't.

By the time I finally saw "Schindler's List" I was well educated in the Spielberg canon of films, not to mention his colleague's such as Coppola, Scorsese, and Lucas. As years went by, I was maturing and so was Spielberg; his films weren't merely thought of as popcorn entertainment, but became more thought provoking.

These past few weeks, I have revisited some of Spielberg's greatest films, along with some I would say are grossly underrated. There has been much talk of his earlier successes such as "Jaws" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark", but I was even more intrigued by his recent work like "Minority Report", "War of the Worlds", and "Munich" all of which are based in a certain genre but are strengthened by Spielberg's own point of view. "Munich" is as much a suspenseful thriller as it is a philosophical debate about "eye for an eye" revenge, not to mention a great film pertaining to terrorism as it is seen today.

You could also see a philosophical approach in his most amusing films such as the unfairly maligned "The Terminal", a film I wouldn't be embarrassed to call Spielberg's most heartfelt film after "E.T." The film is a love letter to the cinematic heritage that is as old fashioned as D.W. Griffith, and gets more charming each time you view it. It's a film about the art of patience, but the brilliance of it comes from Spielberg's use of space and the cinematic language, it's effortlessly beautiful.

I often wonder about the critics of Spielberg, those who seem to punish him for his unsubtle sentimentality, and those who only like him when he goes back to his "Jaws" roots, and tries to scare us. Then there are those who think his movies are just fluff and he's a journeyman director who attempts to be serious only to silence his critics.

To me these criticisms put Spielberg in too much of a narrow box, and he is far more interesting than that. To say that the man has no talent is blasphemy considering when you compare his films to the ones by his many imitators. Spielberg works very much in spectacle, but I believe he also learned some stuff from the personal filmmakers. Spielberg puts his auteur stamp on everything he does, not only that, but he has impeccable skills worthy of the greats. I'm not saying the man is perfect, he's made his share of flops, but he remains nothing if not interesting. Spielberg is for the regular movie going public, as well as the cinephiles everywhere who have grown up with his films, and with him as well. I will look forward to what he plans next, chances are it will be interesting.