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...
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:18 (ten years ago) link
and the countryside scenes of Michael Lonsdale and his family in Munich are unlike anything in Spielberg's, er, oeuvre.
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:19 (ten years ago) link
One can do family drama in a killer shark movie, ya know. It's not a binary.
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:20 (ten years ago) link
if you try to do family drama and nothing but, you get The Color Purple.
― Miss Arlington twirls for the Coal Heavers (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:32 (ten years ago) link
in 2013 that's doing a Disney drama and an Oprah film.
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:34 (ten years ago) link
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, August 21, 2013 5:20 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark
^^^
― socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:41 (ten years ago) link
so wait, did we finally find the one guy in the world who prefers 1941 and the color purple over spielberg's other movies
― socki (s1ocki), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:42 (ten years ago) link
Bret Easton Ellis has one of those covered:
1: 1941 (1979) It’s Christmastime in L.A. and no one is really freaking out about the recent attack on Pearl Harbor (people just want to dance and get laid and watch movies) except for a few assorted loony hawks who end up turning Hollywood into a war-torn amusement park. Spielberg has publicly apologized for this epically expensive slapstick comedy made between Close Encounters and Raiders of the Lost Ark, but not for Hook or Always. It was universally reviled and it is a folly, but Spielberg’s visual genius is on full display. The movie was built on such a massive scale that its massiveness becomes part of the joke. It has an anarchic anything-for-a-laugh spirit and a rousing John Williams score, and it’s spectacularly, childishly beautiful, painted with Lite-Brite colors. No CGI, just old-school miniature sets with toy planes chasing each other above Hollywood Boulevard—thrilling. The USO jitterbug dance sequence is justifiably famous and the unmoored Ferris wheel lit up and rolling and wobbling down the pier at the climax is awesome. A young man’s movie ridiculing the jingoism of the military mind-set, 1941 would make an instructive and very troubling double feature with Saving Private Ryan.
It’s Christmastime in L.A. and no one is really freaking out about the recent attack on Pearl Harbor (people just want to dance and get laid and watch movies) except for a few assorted loony hawks who end up turning Hollywood into a war-torn amusement park. Spielberg has publicly apologized for this epically expensive slapstick comedy made between Close Encounters and Raiders of the Lost Ark, but not for Hook or Always. It was universally reviled and it is a folly, but Spielberg’s visual genius is on full display. The movie was built on such a massive scale that its massiveness becomes part of the joke. It has an anarchic anything-for-a-laugh spirit and a rousing John Williams score, and it’s spectacularly, childishly beautiful, painted with Lite-Brite colors. No CGI, just old-school miniature sets with toy planes chasing each other above Hollywood Boulevard—thrilling. The USO jitterbug dance sequence is justifiably famous and the unmoored Ferris wheel lit up and rolling and wobbling down the pier at the climax is awesome. A young man’s movie ridiculing the jingoism of the military mind-set, 1941 would make an instructive and very troubling double feature with Saving Private Ryan.
― cookin' with bad (Eazy), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:48 (ten years ago) link
an instructive and very troubling Bret Easton Ellis.
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:49 (ten years ago) link
1941 does what it sets out to do: leaves its audience feeling unsettled, troubled, and roused to action
― christmas candy bar (al leong), Wednesday, 21 August 2013 21:50 (ten years ago) link
and think that it would just be an INTERESTING movie on his part, to try and make 'scenes from a marriage', no trollin'
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, August 21, 2013 5:06 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark
to be fair you walked out on scenes from a marriage: mary & abe edition
― i wanna be a gabbneb baby (Hungry4Ass), Thursday, 22 August 2013 00:40 (ten years ago) link
and SFAM isn't a very good movie! Not even Spielberg is as schematic as those first three episodes.
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 22 August 2013 00:45 (ten years ago) link
JoBeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson in Poltergeist's relationship far more interesting.
"Before, after, before, after, before, after."
― midnight outdoor nude frolic up north goes south (Eric H.), Thursday, 22 August 2013 01:48 (ten years ago) link
The untitled Steven Spielberg-Tom Hanks Cold War thriller at DreamWorks just took an intriguing turn.
Joel and Ethan Coen have come onboard to pen a draft of the screenplay that tells the true story of James Donovan, an attorney who was thrust into the center of the Cold War when he negotiated with the KGB for the release of downed U-2 spy plane pilot Gary Powers.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/coen-brothers-write-steven-spielbergs-706024
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Friday, 23 May 2014 14:08 (ten years ago) link
Interesting!
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 23 May 2014 15:35 (ten years ago) link
Wow, possibly the least intuitive Hollywood collaboration since Spielberg/Kubrick.
― the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Friday, 23 May 2014 15:47 (ten years ago) link
Since you put it that way ... NOW I'm excited!
― Cronk's Not Cronk (Eric H.), Friday, 23 May 2014 20:11 (ten years ago) link
thx chap for saying what someone was going to say however ridiculous it is.
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 25 May 2014 04:29 (ten years ago) link
http://www.theonion.com/video/the-onion-looks-back-at-saving-private-ryan,36211
― display name changed. (amateurist), Saturday, 7 June 2014 00:51 (ten years ago) link
Omg
― socki (s1ocki), Saturday, 7 June 2014 15:02 (ten years ago) link
dying
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 7 June 2014 17:41 (ten years ago) link
Shades of http://www.hulu.com/watch/466901 at 18:40
"This is the famous dock-walking scene. You know this whole take was done in one shot; it's a planned sequence like the opening of Touch of Evil and the Copacabana scene in GoodFellas. This is virtuoso filmmaking, you gotta see it to believe it. You know Brian De Palma used this in Bonfire of the Vanities."
― Cronk's Not Cronk (Eric H.), Saturday, 7 June 2014 18:13 (ten years ago) link
I love this:
http://www.avclub.com/article/facebook-users-denounce-steven-spielbergs-senseles-206800
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 11 July 2014 18:39 (nine years ago) link
haha
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 11 July 2014 23:46 (nine years ago) link
rehabilitating 1941... an interview with co-writer Bob Gale
http://www.rogerebert.com/balder-and-dash/1941-an-appreciation-and-interview-with-bob-gale
― this horrible, rotten slog to rigor mortis (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 18 October 2014 12:51 (nine years ago) link
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