Steven Spielberg - classic or dud

that scene... just the worst

On the other hand: wealthy Dems like Affleck just being themselves.

munich owns so hard. i dont think that movie gets its due

seitz brings up spielberg the showman vs spielberg the artist, and i think that push-and-pull tension is most vivid in Schindler's List - which is why i like it so much. carson's point about the shower scene becoming "grotesque at the moment the women greet real water coming out of the showerheads with ululations of relief" is well taken, and i say that as someone who was never too persuaded by hoberman's criticism of that scene, but i still love the chutzpah of staging an auschwitz gas chamber scene like something out of Jaws. by the time he made Lincoln, which i liked a lot, he was too self-conscious to pull a move like that... closest he gets is the theater fakeout at the end

arkin said 'argo fuck yourself' so many times i thought the sad coda was going to be that he'd developed dementia

munich is basically the standard by which '70s geopolitical thrillers should be measured. i think the only better film in recent years in the same genre is probs 'carlos'

arkin said 'argo fuck yourself' so many times i thought the sad coda was going to be that he'd developed dementia

― christmas candy bar (al leong), Wednesday, March 20, 2013 2:26 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol

A helluva montage: audio of Arkin saying "argo fuck yourself" as Lincoln walks into Ford's Theater, Seward holds the Emancipation Proclamation in awe, and Donald Sutherland as X on the park bench saying, "In that document. Lay the Vietnam War."

Cut to title COMING SOON

really, read what Kael had to say about Abby Mann (the writer of the teleplay and film of Judgment at Nuremberg) sometime. He accepted his Oscar "on behalf of intellectuals everywhere."

http://www.indiewire.com/survey/the-spielberg-survey/

Film: JAWS
Direction: JAWS
Lead Performance: Daniel Day-Lewis, LINCOLN
Supporting Performance: Ralph Fiennes, SCHINDLER'S LIST
Scene: JAWS (various)
Shot: JAWS (various)
Hero: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
Villain: SCHINDLER'S LIST
Screenplay: LINCOLN
Score/Soundtrack: JAWS
Worst Film: HOOK

"we have top men working on this survey"

Hook as the worst? It's definitely a bad one, but The Lost World and Always are way worse. wanna say The Terminal is on that level too but I kinda don't trust the viewing I had of it.

re-screened SPR - not as sappy as I remembered but the last half kinda drags. a lot.

"we have top men working on this survey"

This line reads so kinky to me now.

top. men.

We (heh, heh) are not sehr-stee.

Spielberg was being interviewed by Kermode a few months ago and he admitted that he hopes to one day find something he likes about Hook.

is it really that bad? i saw it again a couple years ago and actually kinda dug it. but it was new year's eve and i was pretty hungover so my standards were fairly low.

I think the most effective lead performances in his oeuvre may be by Henry Thomas and Christian Bale.

hook is pretty horrible, the whole thing plays like the dwarf dinner in 'the hobbit' but with worse songs and even hammier acting, if possible.

bale is really good in empire of the sun! ben stiller also surprisingly malevolent.

Bale's best perf, period, is in EOTS.

I'm glad The Sugarland Express got some support down in that all-important #12-15 range in a number of categories.

what women got top billing in Spielberg films? Goldie Hawn, Dee Wallace, Holly Hunter?

Hmm, top billing? Sally Field? Kate Capshaw? Laura Dern?

It's a good question, though I would contend that Karen Allen in "Raiders" is one of the formative Hollywood strong woman roles.

I mean first. Although Hawn is arguably the only one who is the star of the film.

formative? in a retro film? after Hollywood had kinda fucking died?

surely Ebert musta wrote about Bette Davis once in a while?

what women got top billing in Spielberg films? Goldie Hawn, Dee Wallace, Holly Hunter?

Whoopi Goldberg

right

I meant formative in that for a huge segment of the post-Spielberg generation of movies lovers, for whom "Raiders" is especially iconic, she stands tall as the perfect foil for one of the greatest action heroes. Though she (and the film) are of the retro template, the movie itself was, of course, contemporary, and strong female leads in action films are (and always have been) few and far between, making Allen's role particularly effective in its impact.

ah, "action films" again

I've read that line, and to a degree you're right, but her strength gets exactly one scene to show itself: the bar scene. The rest of the movie Spielberg punishes her for it.

xpost

I do like the ending, though, where they are both tied together and clearly both scared shitless.

Steven Spielberg has found his next directing project: an adaptation of American Sniper, the autobiography of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, which is set up at Warner Bros.

Bradley Cooper is attached to star and has been developing the project as a producer.

gross

normally i'd say ugh yuck get it away, but i actually kind of trust spielberg at this point in his career to do something interesting with that.

with Bradley Cooper? that guy is such a worthless sack of shit

it's hard for me to imagine how it could be good, but i guess i should trust spielby

^^ xp

ZDT pt. 2 - get ready, internet.

i look fwd to glenn greenwald's 2,300 word 'i haven't seen it, but' review.

is Spielberg hate ilx'S MOST BORING MANIA? even w/ ethan gone?

im closer to a spielberg apologist than hater. but chris kyle... ugh

ilx seems fairly pro-spielberg these days

basically everyone just said that they dont like the idea but they trust spielberg dude

is consistently misreading other posters ilx'S MOST BORING MANIA?

gimme a hug

Yeah I love Spielberg but given the material I'm not sure he's going to pull off what I'd like.

Spielberg should make a movie out of "Where Men Win Glory," the Pat Tillman book, instead.

the Chris Kyle book has lots of opportunities for both first-20 minutes of SPR action and maudlin homefront stuff
there's no real narrative hook to it, though - he doesn't overcome anything, we don't even win the war; he was a very good shot who killed a lot of people and was apparently good at being a SEAL for his entire career.

Well he was shot and killed at a gun range. I