cracking Grantland piece about Spielberg's early 80s peak
http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/a-look-back-at-steven-spielberg-at-the-height-of-his-powers/
― piscesx, Friday, 20 February 2015 19:59 (nine years ago) link
rong peak
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 February 2015 20:04 (nine years ago) link
aw come on now
― piscesx, Friday, 20 February 2015 20:07 (nine years ago) link
ET only one of his greats in that period
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 February 2015 20:12 (nine years ago) link
ET: greatPoltergeist: greatRaiders: close enough
― Eric H., Friday, 20 February 2015 20:22 (nine years ago) link
credited films only plz
(i found Poltergeist close enough when i saw it last Halloween rlly. Raiders still just an A- pastiche. Like SS better when he grew up.)
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 February 2015 20:24 (nine years ago) link
As much as I ride for late period Spiel over his commonly-accepted peak period, the latter has nothing so clearly dud as The Terminal or roughly 85 percent of Crystal Skull.
― Eric H., Friday, 20 February 2015 20:27 (nine years ago) link
Maybe Tintin too, I dunno, I couldn't finish it.
― Eric H., Friday, 20 February 2015 20:28 (nine years ago) link
like The Terminal and Tintin
his Twilight Zone slice is pretty hideous
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 February 2015 20:30 (nine years ago) link
That piece is OK, but
. It was Spielberg’s last foray into action for action’s sake
BTW, that piece doesn't touch on something from that era that's always struck me, how "Temple of Doom," "Gremlins" and "Poltergeist" (the latter two of which he shepherded and protected) represent him at his most sadistic and horrific. Hearts ripped out, faces ripped off, nearly all the perversity of "Gremlins" - what was going on in Spielville that he would go so dark? His impending divorce?
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 20 February 2015 20:31 (nine years ago) link
like about 60% of Skull too
xp
Doom was made around both SS & GL bustups, yes
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 February 2015 20:32 (nine years ago) link
Heart being ripped out in TOD kinda obvious as a divorce metaphor
― Οὖτις, Friday, 20 February 2015 20:38 (nine years ago) link
Or guy tearing off his own face.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 20 February 2015 20:44 (nine years ago) link
Or the old lady getting launched out of a second-story window.
― Eric H., Friday, 20 February 2015 20:45 (nine years ago) link
or Molo Ram and his secret trap door under Kali.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 February 2015 20:48 (nine years ago) link
Slim Pickens trying to defecate in 1941
Spielberg cut his teeth in one kind of genre thriller or another, his upping the ante a bit in the era of the slasher film shouldn't require all that psychohistory.
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 February 2015 20:51 (nine years ago) link
i agree w/ that.
i think of the '80s as his peak but as much for the films he produced as those he directed (with poltergeist in an ambiguous category)--if not for spielberg, certainly no E.T./Indiana Jones films but also no Back to the Future, Gremlins, Used Cars, Innerspace....
but I think there are highlights t/o Spielberg's filmography, so i wouldn't want to press the argument too hard. IMO Jurassic Park, Catch Me if You Can, War of the Worlds... these are all peaks of one kind or another. Jurassic Park may be the most emblematic Spielberg achievement.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 20 February 2015 21:15 (nine years ago) link
and thanks for that bob gale interview, always nice to hear from the other half of the team that made Back to the Future/Used Cars/etc.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 20 February 2015 21:16 (nine years ago) link
duh, I forgot to mention Jaws. i guess i was thinking 80s and later.
difficult listening hour is a marvelous proselytizer for the glories of JP.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 February 2015 21:16 (nine years ago) link
I had to ask Lucas about the heart. The metaphor seemed too perfect. Is that your heart being ripped out? I asked. “Yeah,” Lucas said, but he insisted the glee with which it was ripped out was Spielberg’s.
from some Grantland piece
― Οὖτις, Friday, 20 February 2015 21:17 (nine years ago) link
i always think that Zemeckis took a lot of the premises of Spielberg's cinema and kind of surpassed the master in terms of narrative and stylistic engineering. Spielberg may have caught up on the latter, but never the former; I don't think Spielberg has ever worked with a script as sublimely well-tuned as BttF's, though Jurassic Park might come closest.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 20 February 2015 21:19 (nine years ago) link
Everything Jaws was trying to do, War of the Worlds did way better ... aside from showing restraint, of course.
― Eric H., Friday, 20 February 2015 21:19 (nine years ago) link
to be fair I don't know of a better-written popular genre movie script from that period than BttF... Die Hard is beautifully proportioned, though without BttF's filigree.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 20 February 2015 21:20 (nine years ago) link
xpost
I'd say WotW is largely at least as good as Jaws... except for the ending, which even Spielberg can't sell (you could charitably read it as one of those false happy endings, a la Bigger Than Life)
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 20 February 2015 21:21 (nine years ago) link
BttF is a sneaky incest-spiced kids' movie that profanes Chuck Berry
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 February 2015 21:27 (nine years ago) link
Die Hard script >>>> BttF.
Actually, I just watched the latter again this past week with the kids, and for the first time it almost lost me. Just the shitty lighting, and the dumb jokes, and all the dated in a bad way stuff. In the end I and it still rallied, and the kids liked it, but no way would I ever put Zemeckis>>>Spielberg. Zemeckis is much more of a cold stylist. I never get the feeling he has much passion or reverence for the medium. Or for people.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 20 February 2015 21:34 (nine years ago) link
shitty lighting?????
philistines, all of you.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 20 February 2015 21:37 (nine years ago) link
Backlot sitcom lighting. Everything brighter than everything else.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 20 February 2015 21:39 (nine years ago) link
BttF is bad. He made good movies when he thought he was a kid. Then he didn't.
― describing a scene in which the Hulk gets a boner (contenderizer), Friday, 20 February 2015 21:39 (nine years ago) link
^ strike that and pretend i was high. was talking about spielberg and meant WotW. exit, stage embarrassed...
― describing a scene in which the Hulk gets a boner (contenderizer), Friday, 20 February 2015 21:41 (nine years ago) link
can't think of any Spielberg movie I like more than Roger Rabbit. Jaws maybe.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 20 February 2015 21:41 (nine years ago) link
clearly BttF would've been better if shot in black and white with a lot of poetic wide-angle shots of empty lots
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 20 February 2015 21:42 (nine years ago) link
BttF is a sneaky incest-spiced kids' movie that profanes Chuck Berry― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Friday, February 20, 2015 3:27 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Friday, February 20, 2015 3:27 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
you say that like it's a bad thing!
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 20 February 2015 21:55 (nine years ago) link
ppl sticking w/ stuff they loved when they were 12
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 February 2015 21:58 (nine years ago) link
helluva first line for a positive review
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 February 2015 22:02 (nine years ago) link
Chuck Berry has profaned himself enough.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 February 2015 22:03 (nine years ago) link
WOTW is, aside from the Raiders series, Spielberg's absolute best action/thriller/"horror", and I'm including Jaws, which I love. None of his other movies have anywhere near the sustained tension/terror of that one. (Schindler possibly excluded.)
I will stan for pretty much any Spielberg as much as anyone, but movies like Munich are playing an entirely different game, and doing it a lot better.
― Οὖτις Δαυ & τηε Κνιγητσ (Phil D.), Friday, 20 February 2015 22:05 (nine years ago) link
it's amazing how those two movies he released in one year
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 February 2015 22:06 (nine years ago) link
Jeez, I forgot he pulled a JP/Schindler with those two.
― Οὖτις Δαυ & τηε Κνιγητσ (Phil D.), Friday, 20 February 2015 22:10 (nine years ago) link
Says the wheeler and wuzzle fan.
― Eric H., Friday, 20 February 2015 22:24 (nine years ago) link
Zemeckis may well be a cold stylist. His best movie is the ice cold Death Becomes Her.
― Eric H., Friday, 20 February 2015 22:26 (nine years ago) link
The quotes upthread: you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 20 February 2015 22:29 (nine years ago) link
weird to say "cold stylist" when "used cars" and "back to the future" are so funny (and the style of the former is pretty loose). i think bob gale is an important factor.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 20 February 2015 22:34 (nine years ago) link
Recently saw Roger Rabbit for the first time in ages and it was a drag.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 20 February 2015 23:55 (nine years ago) link
yr a drag
― Οὖτις, Friday, 20 February 2015 23:58 (nine years ago) link
People Thanked Most Often In Oscar Speeches:
Steven Spielberg (thanked 42 times)Harvey Weinstein (thanked 34 times)James Cameron (thanked 28 times)George Lucas (thanked 23 times)Peter Jackson (thanked 22 times)God (thanked 19 times)
― painfully alive in a drugged and dying culture (DavidM), Saturday, 21 February 2015 00:28 (nine years ago) link
god's done some terrible things but he's no peter jackson
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Saturday, 21 February 2015 00:39 (nine years ago) link
God is neither as fat nor as wrathful as Harvey Weinstein
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 21 February 2015 01:26 (nine years ago) link
xpost Seriously, I was so excited to see it again. But it was so clearly constructed around its insane practical effects that everything that wasn't animate was practically, well, inanimate.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 21 February 2015 02:05 (nine years ago) link