Steven Spielberg - classic or dud

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I think the reason why Steve Spielberg annoys me as much as he does isn't because most of his movies actively suck, most are passable, fine, whatever. It's that most of them have the potential to be great movies, brilliant movies, fantastic movies, best movie ever type movies if anyone, ANYONE AT ALL, else directed them! I mean, like, maybe even Pauly Shore could be more subtle. He's got the biggest hamfists in the industry and I can't get past the over-obvious, Hallmark-movie-of-the-week emotional jizz he wants to bukkake his stories with.

― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:23 (eighteen years ago) link

I remember the aforementioned film school douchebag laughed at me when I said Sergio Leone was a slightly better director than Stanley Kubrick and that Repo Man was better than Raging Bull ("Impossible! That's the Best Film Of The Eighties!").

― gear (gear), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:26 (eighteen years ago) link

I still maintain that Sugarland Express is Stephen Steilverb's (sic) best film.

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:26 (eighteen years ago) link

YOU LIE LIKE A KITE NO ONE SAID THAT THING ABOUT THE EIGHTIES!!!!! :O

― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:27 (eighteen years ago) link

A BOLD PROCLAMATION I REALIZE

― gear (gear), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:28 (eighteen years ago) link

THAT'S NOT EVEN SCORCESE'S BEST FILM FROM THE 80S!!! I WILL HURT THAT PERSON.

― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:28 (eighteen years ago) link

I hate this thread!!!!!!

― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:28 (eighteen years ago) link

I also maintain that Matrin Scorsaysay (sic) is one of the most overrated directors ever. And that Bringing Out The Dead is his best film.

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:41 (eighteen years ago) link

oooh... you go you grate big contrarian you.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:44 (eighteen years ago) link

you are very bold, congratulations

xpost

― derrek j. ballwash, Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:44 (eighteen years ago) link

Trust me, it's not for the sake of being contrary. I would love to see what the rest of the world sees in Raging Bull and Taxi Driver, but they don't really do much for me. Scorsese often seems a little too wrapped up in potential accolades to let himself go and make entertaining/involving films.

To bring the topic back 'round, though, Spielberg & Scorsese together might make an interesting movie.

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:49 (eighteen years ago) link

Black man named Spike Lee makes Malcolm X = high-school filmstrip

Allyzay, you have hit it on idiot-male 'debates' on the internets! However, you're still all wet on equating Spielberg with run-of-the-mill schmaltz. (at least post-Color Purple, that was a mistake)

I'm glad you guys hate S.S. given the snarky twaddle you like tho. "Schindler's List" has more intentional laughs than several Coen films.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:01 (eighteen years ago) link

sure you meant intentional there?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:03 (eighteen years ago) link

...snarky twaddle...

-- Dr Morbius (wjwe...), July 28th, 2005.

IRONY

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:05 (eighteen years ago) link

hey, I went to film school and I hardly know anybody who really likes Spielberg too much!

Excepting Jaws and Close Encounters and maybe Jurassic Park (<1997) I don't really care about him.

My big issue with his films is the race/gender-handling and how awkward-but-well-intentioned-he is w.r.t. this.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:10 (eighteen years ago) link

I dunno why I'm getting lumped in with Morbius here, since we don't agree about many films at all, and especially not Spielberg in particular...? but whatever I AM AN IDIOT yes, oh the critical depth of the internet...

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:12 (eighteen years ago) link

I see from older threads Tombot always has been.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:14 (eighteen years ago) link

(altho I do enjoy Morbius' sparkling wit and winning smile)

x-post

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:14 (eighteen years ago) link

Ally, you're totally right about the hamfistedness. The way he handles scenes sorta remind me of a fat man at a pig roast.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:17 (eighteen years ago) link

he handles scenes hungrily and excitedly?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:18 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.mrfa.org/images/Ayres2.jpg

― Remy (x Jeremy), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:20 (eighteen years ago) link

Name one of these 'hamfisted' scenes in "E.T.," which is impossible to think of in terms of being done better by anyone else.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:20 (eighteen years ago) link

i feel like steven spielberg on a movie shoot (xp)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:20 (eighteen years ago) link

I don't like E.T.! It's sorta like being assraped by an apologetic emo kid who cries at cruelty and listens to Dashboard Confessional.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:22 (eighteen years ago) link

so why don't you like it then?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:23 (eighteen years ago) link

to me the best stuff in ET isn't the sentimentality, it's the scary parts!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:24 (eighteen years ago) link

I really like Close Encounters, though. Even though Dreyfus sorta annoys me, Truffaut makes up the lost points in cuteness at the end.

(And I don't rememeber ET that well, just that I found it profoundly mawkish. I think if I saw it again I might like exactly what you like, M., - the weird and freaky bits.)

― Remy (x Jeremy), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:27 (eighteen years ago) link

especially when the family home is covered in plastic and ET is all white and chalky! brrr.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:29 (eighteen years ago) link

The best stuff about E.T. is sad. The worst stuff about E.T. is bad. The stuff I don't care about in E.T. is Dad.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 28 July 2005 19:12 (eighteen years ago) link

not sure why Schindler's List catches flak, because sure, there are several moments that stand out as being wrongheaded, but the rest is pretty amazing.

― gear (gear), Thursday, 28 July 2005 20:44 (eighteen years ago) link

I have an irrational hatred of sappy Holocaust films. I only saw Schindler's List once - when I was a teenager - and I remember that I really lost interest as soon as all moral ambiguity was removed from Schindler's character, somewhere around halfway through. Without that internal conflict driving the story (why is Schindler doing this, what are his motives, etc.) making things more complicated, I quickly grew bored with it. There were no characters with the adequate depth to hold my attention. Plus the ending with all the old people planting flowers on his grave = puketastic.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 28 July 2005 20:50 (eighteen years ago) link

I'll take Soderbergh over Spielberg any day. Yeah, his attempts at depth are painful (cf. Solaris) but he's much better at making energetic pop fun (which seems to be Spielberg's main defense here), as he has less of a tendency to try for Grand Statements and mawkish sentiment.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Thursday, 28 July 2005 20:51 (eighteen years ago) link

Sugarland Express, Duel, Raiders, most of what I remember of Close Encounters = CLASSIQUE (Empire of the Sun is pretty good too--although it seemed better when I was 13.) Everything else basically = DUD.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 28 July 2005 20:54 (eighteen years ago) link

"especially when the family home is covered in plastic and ET is all white and chalky! brrr."

Unfortunately this part of ET lasts what 5-10 minutes.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 28 July 2005 20:59 (eighteen years ago) link

Empire of the Sun is the only Spielberg movie I've seen recently enough to comment on in any in-depth way - I admit the rest of my opinions here are cobbled together from hazy, possibly youthfully distorted, recollections.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 28 July 2005 21:06 (eighteen years ago) link

You should rent Sugarlang Express! It's really good.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 28 July 2005 21:13 (eighteen years ago) link

the IMDB plot summary for Sugarland is hilarious:

"Lou-Jean, a blonde woman, tells her husband, who is imprisoned, to escape."

when being blonde is outlawed, only outlaws will be blonde....

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 28 July 2005 21:17 (eighteen years ago) link

I think that sentence needs more commas.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 28 July 2005 21:18 (eighteen years ago) link

number of answers on this thread before Alex's post? 187. Just anotha homicide.

― gear (gear), Thursday, 28 July 2005 21:19 (eighteen years ago) link

apropos of nothing

― gear (gear), Thursday, 28 July 2005 21:19 (eighteen years ago) link

as he has less of a tendency to try for Grand Statements and mawkish sentiment.

Yeah, there was nothing at all mawkish and MOR and suburbanite about Traffic.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 28 July 2005 21:30 (eighteen years ago) link

Schizopolis vs. Minority Report

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 28 July 2005 21:36 (eighteen years ago) link

haha, Traffic! oh man. so much crap in that movie.

― gear (gear), Thursday, 28 July 2005 21:36 (eighteen years ago) link

I felt like just about the only one who thought Erin Brockovich was a lot more confident and breezy and enjoyable than Traffic. It must've been his Hawks film.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 28 July 2005 21:39 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah Traffic had its low points ("she's sunk so low, she's fucking a BLACK MAN! OH THE HORROR!" + the heavily telegraphed witness killing, Cheadle's final grandstanding scene, etc.) but there was a LOT about it that was admirable and absorbing. Del Toro - come on, he was great. Pretty deft interweaving of multiple storylines, great use of different filmstocks and color schemes. Its sentiment is sorta Spielbergian in its heavy-handed moralizing, but considering no mainstream US movie had ever really tackled this subject you gotta hand it to Soderbergh for holding it together as well as he did.

(tho my favorite movie of his is THE LIMEY! Terence Stamp! blithely evil Peter Fonda! Yes!)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 28 July 2005 21:41 (eighteen years ago) link

I think there are probably a few mainstream US movies about drug traffiking, but the ones that are popping into my mind aren't all stone-faced about it. Brian De Palma has a couple.

I give you The Limey, though.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 28 July 2005 21:44 (eighteen years ago) link

are you referring to the French Connection? gimme a break. the drug trafficking in that is just a backdrop for Hackman's tough-cop, uh, hackery. its very peripheral. it could just as well have been about diamond smuggling or something.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 28 July 2005 21:49 (eighteen years ago) link

the Limey had the 'best' tasteless misogynist joke ever!

― latebloomer: You may order a puppet similar to this one (latebloomer), Thursday, 28 July 2005 21:55 (eighteen years ago) link

The original version of Traffik was so much better than Soderberg's crap remake it isn't even funny.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 28 July 2005 21:56 (eighteen years ago) link

I don't particularly care about the "perps" - I'm more interested in watching the cops themselves operate. The show is an invaluable window into the psychology of cops and the way they interact with people - always be assertive and/or condescending, don't let TV crews film actual take-down of suspects (somehow the TV cameras always seem to arrive AFTER the dude is already cuffed and on the ground), trust no one who isn't a cop, etc. After seeing this show so much there is definitely an easily identifiable "cop talk" mode of speaking, a way of being both pedantic and seemingly sympathetic at the same time. Its like the voice of a particularly exhausted baby-sitter who's only respite is in being blithely sadistic to the children.

Know the enemy, people.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 28 July 2005 22:07 (eighteen years ago) link

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