Steven Spielberg - classic or dud

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a8/It_Seemed_Like_a_Good_Idea_at_the_Time.jpg

weird. I hadn't made the connection that the victim was the one who had written the book.

Clint will do it, so I hope you're happy that a guy who hasn't made a good film in a decade or so has taken over.

http://twitchfilm.com/2013/08/breaking-eastwood-to-replace-spielberg-on-american-sniper.html

I'm ecstatic.

wtf, quit thrashing around for ilx villains to hate

what a disaster for snipers

changeling is underrated imho - weird cross between mildred pierce and texas chainsaw massacre - quite unlike anything else in clint's filmog, quite unlike most american movies made these days

wow this is gonna be awful

i mean, when was the last time spielberg actually made a film that was surprising or off-the-wall in any way - eastwood takes more chances, still, for gd or bad (fwiw gran torino was an abomination, but in a weird way it was much more engaged w/ the 21st century than anything spielberg has given us since...)

xxpost

Agreed. Changeling is an oddly enjoyable hysterical-woman melodrama.

i mean, when was the last time spielberg actually made a film that was surprising or off-the-wall in any way - eastwood takes more chances, still, for gd or bad (fwiw gran torino was an abomination, but in a weird way it was much more engaged w/ the 21st century than anything spielberg has given us since...)

― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, August 21, 2013 3:01 PM (41 seconds ago) Bookmark

munich
war of the worlds

when was the last time clint eastwood made a film that wasn't total shit

1976?

will reluctantly concede wotw (as a kind of wonky post 9/11 panic attack w/ only minorly troubling survivalist/dianetical undercurrents), but munich seemed to me to be as much a part of his self-consciously 'majestic-mythic' representation of the past - second world war/holocaust/slavery etc - as anything more forward-looking. but you know what it's like when you're not a fan, you're not looking for the gd in their work...

but gran torino IS a forward-looking movie? a story about the good ol' days of racism and classic cars??

munich seemed to me to be as much a part of his self-consciously 'majestic-mythic' representation of the past

Did you SEE the movie?

gran torino does try - in the worst most hamfisted way possible - to grapple w/issues of race and white rage and old age etc etc - when was the last time spielberg made a film recognisably set in 'the present'?

i did indeed see munich, thanks.

And you still think it was a "'majestic-mythic' representation of the past?" I'm not about to tell anyone how to interpret movies, but if I had to produce a list of 100 things that Munich was, that'd be #101.

when was the last time spielberg made a film recognisably set in 'the present'

WOTW

^^^

i meant w/out the flying saucers or aliens or whatever! you know american families (his best 'area of interest') really looked at in the here-and-now of today w/out the crutch of fantasy, or a recourse to the past (which i really do think tends towards the mythic, precisely because his mise-en-scene is so accomplished) - what's he got to lose??

i always seem to get battered the most when i venture criticisms of spielberg on ilx!!

I don't think a genre-film setting is a crutch.

socki otm

much more engaged w/ the 21st century

9/11 trilogy of Munich, WOTW, The Terminal

spielberg without his "crutches" is often when he gets the most bathetic/unbearable, i think. his crutches sorta allow for some genuine weirdness and imagination that i dont think he'd allow himself otherwise.

xpost

think genre is a bit of crutch for spielberg - it's where he runs for cover every time

dunno if Lincoln counts as majestic-mythic recreation of the corrupt House and devious Abe.

i have to confess i haven't seen the terminal - it looked easily as ill-judged as gran torino

did it now?

w/out the crutch of fantasy

Hahahaha omg

Does "a giant shark" count as fantasy? Exactly what non-genre Spielberg works are you referring to when you talk about " american families (his best 'area of interest') really looked at in the here-and-now of today?"

The implication that genre is a "crutch" and not a useful way of looking at contemporary issues is going to come as something of a surprise to, say, all writers and filmmakers ever.

I would hardly rate The Terminal as among Spielberg's best, but the outcomes for both the Stanley Tucci and Catherine Zeta-Jones characters defied all expectations that one would typically have for a movie of its type.

i want him to make a film like jaws or et w/out the shark or the alien - just give it a try, see how it goes

ya which non-genre family movies are you talking about here??

all his best films about "family" (ET, close encounters, poltergeist) are firmly planted in genre

he should be more like woody allen!

:|

http://swaleff.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/trollolo.jpg

he should be more like woody allen!

― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, August 21, 2013 3:57 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

:|

― socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, August 21, 2013 3:58 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol

I hate Spielbergo but yeah can't really imagine how he would do a non-genre film

i wanna see his "interiors"

not sure this idea of genre as being (covertly) expressive of deep contemporary truths is esp helpful now that it is the mainstream - if we're going to hop back to the 70s in hommage to spielberg, let's revisit some old school seventies brit film theory (eg steve neale) and treat genre as nothing more than a facilitating cog in the smooth ordering of late capitalist product

i always seem to get battered the most when i venture criticisms of spielberg on ilx!!

Take the hint.

i wanna see his "interiors"

― socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, August 21, 2013 8:09 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i do, i really do! more than another film as totally fucking vacuous as minority report, anyway

yep, you're right eric, i will leave you to it

not sure this idea of genre as being (covertly) expressive of deep contemporary truths is esp helpful now that it is the mainstream - if we're going to hop back to the 70s in hommage to spielberg, let's revisit some old school seventies brit film theory (eg steve neale) and treat genre as nothing more than a facilitating cog in the smooth ordering of late capitalist product

― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, August 21, 2013 4:11 PM (56 seconds ago) Bookmark

i dont think anyone is actually propounding that idea here

spielberg mostly reminds me of someone like kubrick in how good he is at genre-hopping, and also kubes mostly made genre pictures too. even lolita and EWS aren't exactly kitchen-sink dramas.

this thread will always gets worse.

these posts feel like lagoon-style trolls - never thought of Ward as the guy who would go 'give me the tasteful family drama' over killer sharks, killer trucks, killer houses, etc. - maybe i just had him pegged wrong

i want him to make a film like jaws or et w/out the shark or the alien - just give it a try, see how it goes

― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, August 21, 2013 3:55 PM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he should be more like woody allen!

― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, August 21, 2013 3:57 PM (47 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol you know you are a true ilxor when you promise not to post any more and then you post some more

hungry4ass i am trly sorry that i have let you down! i like killer sharks and killer trucks and killer houses, but i honestly haven't been gripped by a spielberg 'genre' movie since the first jurassic park, and think that it would just be an INTERESTING movie on his part, to try and make 'scenes from a marriage', no trollin'

guys, Interiors is a comedy.

1941 is def one of spielberg's best

"maybe i just had him pegged wrong" is the most devastating ade insult

to try and make 'scenes from a marriage', no trollin'

well, E.T. boasts one of the most realistic depictions of growing up with a divorced mom so...