Steven Spielberg - classic or dud

i guess what i'm asking is why a film that misreads a commercial audience would = a bad film, unless you're saying certain hackish tendencies of both filmmakers (in angling for box office) ruin the film

I never suggested a causal relationship, and sorry if I didn't make myself clear.

xxp Sure sure and a lot of them are really dated, but sucks still seems harsh. There are some early gems there too.

i forgive you. this time!

sucks still seems harsh

Unless you're talking about Spielberg, natch.

even tho i love Marnie, i still think it kind of sucks

Nothing is too harsh when applied to Spielberg.

Marnie and Torn Curtain goofy, but entertaining enough to avoid being completely useless. Topaz and Family Plot suck. I've not seen all (or even most of) the pre-39 Steps flicks, but I recall Blackmail and Sabotage being worthwhile.

Add Jamaica Inn, The Paradine Case, Rope, I Confess, The Wrong Man to the suck list.

I'm sure most of the silent films are pretty lame, but they are silent films so I have little expectation of greatness. It seems lame to count that against him.

I haven't seen Jamaica Inn, but the other four are all very watchable.

they are silent films so I have little expectation of greatness.

Um, subtract The Wrong Man and I Confess from the suck list.

Also, Spielberg.

Anyway I'm sure I've said this on other threads, but the main reason I dislike Spielberg so much is that he takes film subjects I'm ostensibly interested in and then proceeds to make movies I find immensely disappointing. If he just stuck to making crap I didn't care about at all, I might not be so harsh.

I understand your pain, being that there is a filmmaker in my life called Ang Lee.

Yeah he's another one who irritates me to no end.

Eastwood too.

ugh Ang Lee, I feel you on that one

Eastwood at least made some pretty great stuff pre-90s (none of which he directed, of course)

high plains drifter

Yeah I'm talking about as a director.

"minority report is good but has a kind of dum ending"

wha? this movie is not a movie; it is bad AT&T informercial about the future. In the future, your cereal will talk to you and The Gap will figure out what you want to wear before you do.

In its defense, the book ending is courageously bad, in that it would take amazing hero balls to film as written.

I never saw that Gary Sinise Imposter movie. Is it as crappy as it looked?

This thread went to shit in the last seven posts.

Eric, I Confess?!? Hitch takes his cue from Monty Clift's somnolent performance.

minority report is good but has a kind of dum ending

― rip dom passantino 3/5/09 never forget (max), Tuesday, May 19, 2009 9:20 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

pretty much every Spielberg film of the last decade has a kind of dum ending.

many xposts - eyes rolled at Munich discussions on palestine/israel, but the assassinations were great and full of tension. plus after recently seeing the Baader Mienhof Complex, Munich is looking pretty good. Thought the ending was too much, but Zoller Seitz's Benjamin Button/Eric Roth video essay makes me want to see it again.

the short version of recent Spielberg: they all look amazing save Crystal Skull, which is pretty poorly directed imo, some are a lot of fun, most way overreach thematically.

i guess what i'm asking is why a film that misreads a commercial audience would = a bad film

you know it's ILX, right?

they are silent films so I have little expectation of greatness.

wau, confession of philistinism is new territory.

"wau, confession of philistinism is new territory."

There are plenty of great silent films, but there are even more that are frankly completely dated and nearly impossible to watch. If that makes me a philistine then so be it.

minority report has an entirely indefensible last third or so. just atrocious. and the much-vaunted "futurism" in it is just ridiculous. like in the future we'll move around a megabyte or so of data on giant panes of glass.

The Roth Creative Screenwriting Podcast interview about Benjamin Button spends a few minutes talking about Munich. Alludes but never really gets into the tention between Roth (hawkish, proud Jew, "I get the humanitarian thing") and Spielberg, who apparently felt this duty as the most famous Jew in the world or something to do it right.

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?i=50365436&id=77837603

There are plenty of great silent films, but there are even more that are frankly completely dated and nearly impossible to watch.

i just cant figure out eric roth. love the insider, big munich fan, but "forrest gump" and "benjamin button" are such terrible, terrible scripts.

Sometimes it's good for your career to make a ton of money and get Oscar noms, and FG accomplished that goal.

Also made me hate his guts forever which is good for him too as a hawkish, proud jew who gets the "humanitarian" thing. What a fuckhead.

Sometimes it's good for your career to make a ton of money and get Oscar noms, and FG accomplished that goal.

― Your heartbeat soun like sasquatch feet (polyphonic), Wednesday, May 20, 2009 5:24 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

...

What?

Although apparently he lost all that money via Bernie Madoff so expect more FG level stuff in the future.

OK Alex, but your first "silent films" post didn't jibe w/ that last one.

I'm assuming most of the Munich script wound up being Kushner's, at least the dialogue.

Up after Tintin -- a remake of Harvey.

Recently caught minority report and thought the ending wasn't as bad as I remember it, and actually kind of interesting/challening considering what has gone on before. Kind of becomes a parody/critique of noir fatalism.

he has "departed" the Harvey remake:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0988045/news#ni1264203

Now Steven Spielberg has abandoned plans for his next career-defining film to involve the exploits of a six-foot-tall imaginary rabbit.

'Career defining'? Really?

I enjoy or love most of the Spielberg films I've seen. The only ones I can think of that left me kinda 'meh' are Jurassic Park and War Of The Worlds. But at least they were both pretty to look at, and WOTW had a pretty awesome first 30-45 minutes.

Now I'm feeling inspired to go dive into my unwatched copies of 1941 and Amistad...and probably find a couple more Spielberg movies to feel 'meh' about in the process.

I think Empire of the Sun may be his best 'grown up' film.

Now I'm feeling inspired to go dive into my unwatched copies of 1941

I wouldn't do that to yrself.

I'm super fascinated to see how badly he could've possibly stumbled in the midst of such an classic streak (Sugarland, Jaws, and Close Encounters on one side and Raiders and E.T. on the other). In the midst of watching Doumanian-era SNL (which isn't nearly as bad as I'd been led to believe), I'm reminded that accepted wisdom of epic failure isn't always the whole story.

Don't think he's much cop as a comedy director but from what I remember the script leaves quite a lot to be desired.

I don't let that fact affect my enjoyment of Close Encounters (which I realized, finally, that you pretty much have to accept as a fairy tale or fable, as it completely falls apart when any logic is applied to the story).

thank god he saw the light on the harvey thing

I don't let that fact affect my enjoyment of Close Encounters (which I realized, finally, that you pretty much have to accept as a fairy tale or fable, as it completely falls apart when any logic is applied to the story).

― Pooping And Crying (Deric W. Haircare), Saturday, December 5, 2009 1:11 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

a lot of good movies are like this tbh

I'm super fascinated to see how badly he could've possibly stumbled in the midst of such an classic streak

Great directors stumble and deteriorate all the time!

Not trying to dissuade you, just thinking out loud really. I don't think he's directed an actual comedy movie since 1941 and I wonder if that's because of the way that film turned out or if he just doesn't like the genre or what.