Steven Spielberg - classic or dud

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what's your point here exactly? that people in film school like him because he's successful?

Not quite. Film schoolies love him because he is the archetypal film school product. Speilberg sat through all the same classes, learned all the same rigamarole as them and then he went out and became the Nu Robot Overlord of films. It sprinkles fairy dust (read: imagined money & power) over the whole film school experience.

― Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:16 (eighteen years ago) link

as to the best of my knowledge, nobody on this thread is a "film schoolie," so i'm still not sure what your point is

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:20 (eighteen years ago) link

also i doubt ET made $435 million purely on the virture of spielberg setting a good example for "film schoolies"

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:21 (eighteen years ago) link

Spielberg hasn't ended a movie well in 20 years. In fact, he's the godfather of SHITTY, UNFUCKINGWATCHABLE endings.

― don weiner (don weiner), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:30 (eighteen years ago) link

"Spielberg more provocative than Lee"

Never said that. But Lee can't really fake provocation regularly anymore. Cine-hipsters turn to City of God, Y Tu Mama Tambien etc for that pose now.

Yeah, Walken's much more memorable sleepwalking through gangster and vampire roles, or SNL. Hey, he recites lines off the expected beats!

I was quite moved by the ending of The Terminal and chilled by A.I.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:35 (eighteen years ago) link

i doubt ET made $435 million purely...

By the same token Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't make $250 million as an actor by being chopped liver, either. Although it is rather hard to pin down exactly what his talent was. Your point being?

― Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:36 (eighteen years ago) link

jurassic park is probly my fav spielberg after last crusade, i dunno how much is direction and how much is great great great great great performances from everybody in it- neill, goldblum (as usual), dern (or 'tyrannysaurus sex' according to waynes world), old dude, bulimic girl from angus, newmann from seinfeld, even that weird cartoon of sam jackson ('hold onto your butts!'), i never ever get tired of it. jurassic park 2 was really surprisingly good the 1st time i saw it but does not stand up too much after that, it wastes vince vaughn and julianne moore and really goldblum too, but its still got that weird t rex hunter dudes and the cliff hanger with the trailer HANGING OVER A CLIFF which i still think is one of the great pieces of modern action movies on par w/ anything from die hard or whatever

― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:39 (eighteen years ago) link

and yeah producing gremlins 2 is enough to give him a pass for 700 million shitty spielberg movies

― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:45 (eighteen years ago) link

I remember when it was pretty funny that Vince Vaughn went from second banana in indie Doug Liman film to BLAMMO! Jurassic Park sequel.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:46 (eighteen years ago) link

ohh hook is really good too! theres some funny shit in that movie!!

― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:46 (eighteen years ago) link

xpost yeah i know they waste him completely tho, hes got a couple one liners but you dont even get a backstory or any of that, hes just like this weird extra

― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:46 (eighteen years ago) link

I dare Dr Morbius to say something without sarcastically deriding the intelligence and/or sincerity of everyone who disagrees with him in a manner suggestive of a shut-in 20-y.o.

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:47 (eighteen years ago) link

another thing about jurassic park 2 is that it stars not just maude lebowski but also KARL HUNGUS!!! and he gets eaten by lil dinosaurs!! 'vee dont care! vee still wants zee money lebowski or vee fucks you up!!!!' spielberg likes him obv cuz he was in minority report too

― 4, Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:51 (eighteen years ago) link

i dare you to ignore him!

― 4, Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:51 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www2.filmweb.no/multimedia/archive/00014/Tom_Cruise_og_Samant_14370a.jpg
minority report was pretty bad but he gets love for weird bald samantha morton

― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:58 (eighteen years ago) link

"Three years before production began, Steven Spielberg assembled a team of sixteen future experts in Santa Monica to brainstorm out the year 2054 for him. This team included Neil Gershenfeld, professor at the Media Lab at MIT; Shaun Jones, director of biomedical research at DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency); William Mitchell, dean of the school of architecture at MIT; Peter Calthorpe, the New Urbanism evangelist; Jaron Lanier, one of the inventors of virtual reality technology; Douglas Coupland, author and commentator; Stewart Brand, author, scientist and co-creator of The Well online community; Kevin Kelly, founder of Wired Magazine; 'Harald Belker', car designer; and 'John Underkoffler', the science and technology advisor for the movie."

and it STILL looked fake

― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:00 (eighteen years ago) link

I'd suggest the criticisms of the anti-Spielberg crowd sound a lot like the complaints of haters of Paul McCartney. So regardless of how you respond to their aesthetics, accept that they're pop giants and NEXT!...

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:01 (eighteen years ago) link

Douglas Coupland!! haha. that guy's a terrible writer. doubt he knows all that much about the "the future" either.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:04 (eighteen years ago) link

i wonder if he predicted the current state of him not selling any books

― 6, Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:08 (eighteen years ago) link

I agree with whoever said upthread that one should treat an uneven Spielberg movie as one would treat a rubbish album: criticize the bad parts, then ignore them, and concentrate on the good ones.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:11 (eighteen years ago) link

i read that all the "futurists" were pissed off because spielberg ignored them and just did what he wanted to anyway!!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:16 (eighteen years ago) link

(like storing data in big plates of glass)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:17 (eighteen years ago) link

I liked that though, even though it's completely fake.

― Leon C. (Ex Leon), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:18 (eighteen years ago) link

it makes no sense

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:18 (eighteen years ago) link

'Futurists' have usually been wrong, yes? Concept of 'fake' in sci-fi, dicey.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:20 (eighteen years ago) link

i love all the future movies where its still close enough to now so shit is not all bladerunnered out and it just looks like a rich white ppl suburb w/ cooler appliances (the 6th day, back to the future 2, etc)

― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:22 (eighteen years ago) link

minority report definitely TRIED to do that, i kinda liked that he didn't just replace all the buildings with future-buildings. there's some scene in a residential neighbourhood that looks like a neighbourhood circa now...

the worst is futurizing stuff that doesn't make any sense, like in AI... in the future cars will only need THREE wheels!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:24 (eighteen years ago) link

haha what about demolition man where the cars have PLASTIC PANELS OVER THE WHEELS SO YOU CAN ONLY SEE THE BOTTOM!!!!! 'our plastic car panel technology has advanced light years beyond yours!'

― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:26 (eighteen years ago) link

I can't abide any harsh criticisms of Bladerunner, particularly its set/scenery design! wtf

have you seen the LA refinery lately? that IS Bladerunner.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:27 (eighteen years ago) link

my uncle's friend's son wrote demolition man!! apparently he made out well, as i've heard at many many family gatherings

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:27 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.inzine.sk/assets/clanok/00009900/9930/8.jpg
'hey slocki, long time no see! you tried the potato salad?'

― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:31 (eighteen years ago) link

didn't demolition man take place in a future dominated by taco bells?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:32 (eighteen years ago) link

can we do fake spielberg?

1. dude who did joe vs the volcano
2. dude who did disney's the kid

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:34 (eighteen years ago) link

3. shyamalan

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:34 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah like i said, realistic!! look heres dude w/ slick rick-
http://www.jollydwarf.com/Web_Images/gallery/Celebs/celeb13.jpg

― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:35 (eighteen years ago) link

man i love joe vs the volcano!

― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:35 (eighteen years ago) link

I was keeping off the sucka punches on the "Spielberg more provocative than Lee" comment but if you wanna kick yourself in a metaphorical discussion-genitals go ahead!

I dunno. Seems like most Spielberg movies lately generate a lot more heated discussion (even if a massive chunk of the chatter comes from the usual suspects, the "spielberg/lucas killed the '70s renaissance, et al" folk) than anything Lee's put out, which are either given surprising auld lang syne (25th Hour) or ignored outright (nearly everything else in the last decade).

Big Lebowski might be the Coens' best movie, but I don't see it being their most complex or, more to it, having even a fraction of the complexity/contradiction of A.I.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:36 (eighteen years ago) link

the worst is futurizing stuff that doesn't make any sense, like in AI... in the future cars will only need THREE wheels!

Fritz Lang did a lot of stupid stuff too. Doesn't change the fact that he's among the three or five best directors ever.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:37 (eighteen years ago) link

when will people realize that big lebowski really isn't all that

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:38 (eighteen years ago) link

bamboozled was ignored?

― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:38 (eighteen years ago) link

anyway complexity & contradiction are not inherently good traits! the mechanics of the holocaust were complex and contradctory!!

― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:39 (eighteen years ago) link

lebowski is still really, really funny

― 6, Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:39 (eighteen years ago) link

so is fargo!

― 6, Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:39 (eighteen years ago) link

I bet this thread could go on for 2000 posts before ppl would discuss "Amistad" since it doesn't fit their idea of 'typical Spielberg' re milieu or themes.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:40 (eighteen years ago) link

or maybe because nobody saw it

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:42 (eighteen years ago) link

it was aight

― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:42 (eighteen years ago) link

I didn't see it. White man makes movie about slavery = me not being interested.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:45 (eighteen years ago) link

you are an idiot

― 5, Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:46 (eighteen years ago) link

(altho thankfully he didn't - to my knowledge - cast any white guys in lead roles as redeemers, saviors, etc. See "Mississippi Burning" and pretty much every other Hollywood film about black people and/or civil rights movement, slavery, etc.)

x-post

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:47 (eighteen years ago) link

Well, I didn't say that Lebowski was all that, just that it was probably the Coens' best film.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:47 (eighteen years ago) link

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