Spielberg

"Spielberg" is an HBO-produced documentary by documentarian Susan Lacy. You'll never guess who the subject is?!

Steven Spielberg is a product of one of the most surprising revolutions in Hollywood in the late 70's: one of a set of wunderkind directors alongside such luminaries as George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, John Milius, Brian De Palma and Martin Scorcese. These men (only men, it should be noted!) were ready to cock a snook at Hollywood's traditional studio system to break rules (case in point, Star Wars' lack of opening credits) and move cinema into the format that would last to this day.

As this excellent documentary makes clear, Spielberg was one of the least rebellious of the movie-brats. Even though (astoundingly) he blagged himself a production office at Universal (after hiding during the Tram Tour toilet stop!), his path to the top was through hard graft on multiple Universal TV shows, after recognition of his talents by Universal exec Sidney Sheinberg who speaks in the film.

Before we get to that stage of his life, we cover his childhood back-story as a reluctant Jew living in a non-Jewish neighbourhood, driven to fill his time with tormenting his sisters and movie-making with a Super 8 camera. Scenes of home videos, photos and his early attempts at special effects are all fascinating. The impact of his Bohemian mother Leah and workaholic father Arnold, and particularly the very surprising relationship breakdown that happened between them, go a long way to explain the constant return to 'father issues' in many of his films such as "E.T.", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "Hook" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade".

The majority of the film though settles down into a roughly chronological review of the highlights of his movie career, with particular emphasis justly being placed on some of the key watershed moments in that career. Most of his films get at least a mention, but "Jaws", "E.T.", "Schindler's List", "The Color Purple", "Jurassic Park", "Munich" and "Empire of the Sun" get more focus. It is such a wonderful trip down my cinematic memory lane. I also forget just what cinematic majesty and craftsmanship is present in these films: I just hope that at some point this will get a Blu-Ray or DVD release so it can be properly appreciated (rather than viewing it on a tiny airplane screen which is how I watched this): the combination of film clips in here is breathtaking.

As might be expected for a documentary about the great director, there is plenty of 'behind the camera' footage on show, some of which is fascinating. Spielberg could always get the very best performances out of the youngsters on set, from Cary Guffey ("Toys!!") in "Close Encounters" to a heartbreaking scene where he reduces the young Drew Barrymore to howls of emotion in "E.T.". A master at work.

All of the movie scenes are accompanied by new interview footage from Spielberg himself, as well as warm platitudes from many of the luminaries he has worked with in the past. Directors involved include many of the the directors referenced above, as well as those modern directors influenced by him such as J.J. Abrams; his go-to cinematographers Vilmos Zsigmond and Janusz Kaminski; his 'go-to' composer John Williams; and stars including his go-to 'everyman' Richard Dreyfuss, Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford, Bob Balaban, Tom Hanks, Opray Winfrey, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale, Dustin Hoffman and James Brolin. Some of these comments are useful and insightful; some are just fairly meaningless sound bites that add nothing to the film. What all the comments are though is almost all uniformly positive.

And that's my only criticism of the film. Like me, Susan Lacy is clearly a big fan. It is probably quite hard to find anyone who isn't.... but perhaps Ms Lacy should have tried a bit harder! There is only limited focus on his big comedy flop of 1979, "1941", and no mention at all of his lowest WW grossing film "Always". And there are only a few contributors - notably film critic Janet Maslin - who are willing to stick their head above the parapet and prod into Spielberg's weaknesses; ostensibly his tendency to veer to the sentimental and away from harder issues: the omitted "Color Purple" 'mirror scene' being a case in point.

This is a recommended watch for Spielberg fans. On the eve of the launch of his latest - "Ready Player One", a film that I am personally dubious about from the trailer - it's a great insight into the life and works of the great man. It could though have cut a slightly harder and more critical edge.

"Spielberg" (2017 release; 147 min.) is a documentary about the life and times of legendary film maker Steven Spielberg. As the movie opens, Spielberg describes in glorious detail the profound impression left on him when he saw "Lawrence of Arabia" in the theater in 1962, and again and again (much later in the documentary, Spielberg confesses he still watches that movie at least once a year). We then go to the "Bridge of Spies" movie set, where Spielberg is seen giving detailed instructions as a particular scene is being prepped. Next comes a lengthy passage about "Jaws", whose unexpected commercial success (in particular in view of the almost disastrous production) "changed my life", Spielberg comments. "It Was a free pass into my future". At this point we are less than 15 min. into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this documentary is directed by Susan Lacy, best known for being the Executive Producer of the American masters TV series. Here she presents a portrait of Steven Spielberg. While of course spending lots of time on Spielberg's key movies (none gets more screen time than "Schindler's List"), we also get a peek into Spielberg's personal life (reason that I refer to "the life and times"). "I am a child of divorce" could well easily have been the sub-title of the documentary, as Spielberg points out time and again how profoundly this has affected his film-making, and why there are so many "dissolution of family" themes in his films. We also get some fascinating 8mm footage from the Spielberg family when Steven was growing up (no mention, though, that Steven was born in Cincinnati--where I live). Lacy interviews a ton of people, including Steven's parents and three sisters, but of course also many contemporaries (in particular George Lucas, Brian de Palma, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola). But in the end, the most fun remains watching the many highlights of Spielberg's most important movies, commentated by Spielberg himself. Counting his early 70s TV work, Spielberg has been making movies for almost half a century! It simply blows the mind. You may or may not like Spielberg's style of movies, but he undeniably has been one of the top directors in Hollywood for decades, and still is to this day. Can't wait for his upcoming movie "Ready Player One", to be released in early 2018.

"Spielberg" premiered at this year's New York Film Festival to good acclaim, and recently opened up on HBO, where I saw it a few days ago. While the documentary isn't "revolutionary" (and clearly was made with the blessing of the Spielberg family), I nevertheless quite enjoyed it and was amazed how quickly these 2 1/2 hrs. flew by. If you are a film buff, or a fan of Steven Spielberg, you cannot go wrong with this.

In the year 2017, it must be kind of difficult to produce a compelling documentary about a figure such as Steven Spielberg. I mean, in all honesty, what more can be said about the man that hasn't been already?! Where "Spielberg" really manages to shine, then, is in its coverage of Steven's personal life and background.

As per the usual, "Spielberg" covers all the "usual subjects" (Jaws, Indy, Schindler, Saving Private Ryan, etc.) and all the old stories get told yet again. Fortunately, the production values of this doc are good enough (that's what happens with the backing of HBO) that it never really feels old or stale.

Like I said, though, the real highlights are the personal interviews with Spielberg himself (or family members and those who know him closely). I learned many new things about his personal life, and I loved the home videos with wife Kate Capshaw and his seven children. We all know him as a fantastic filmmaker (which he surely is), but this doc does a really good job of portraying him as a person as well.

So, while perhaps not the most ground-breaking documentary of all-time, "Spielberg" is still entertaining (due to the production value) and information (personal information) and never failed to hold my interest during the almost 2.5 hour runtime.

What's confusing about this documentary is not what they decided to show, but what they decided to leave out. Maybe its too early for a full retrospective as the subject is still alive and working and creating, but then what exactly is the point of this documentary, other than it comes out on the 40th anniversary year of "Close Encounters"? After Spielberg shuffles off this mortal coil the interviews gained in the process of making this film will serve admirably in the making of what will probably have to be a series of documentary films that follow Steven Spielberg's life and career, but as it stands this seems like a Blu-Ray special feature. There are many years and films that are completely skipped or glossed over, there is barely a mention of all the success he's had as a producer, and there's no real build up or glory to his triumphs or his failures. It's surface-level and polite. it doesn't pose tough questions or try to answer anything either. I get that this is a puff piece, that in no way would anyone sign off on a documentary that paints them in a bad light, but this doesn't even make Spielberg *complicated*, even his relationship with his father is immediately forgiven and then brushed aside. What would be more interesting, and perhaps more revealing, would be Behind the Scenes documentaries that we already have that feature Spielberg, strung together with new interviews, and footage that presents context, and present his life this way. As it stands what this Doc offers is a quick overview and celebrity cameos that isn't all together uninteresting if only hindered by it's inability to commit to deep dives of the subject's career.

While I understand why the filmmaker might feel the need to address criticism leveled at Spielberg and his work (too populist, overly sentimental, etc), she takes a far too direct approach by voicing through interviews precisely why the viewer should dismiss those and see Spielberg through the same lens she does. The recent documentary DePalma, made about one of Spielberg's fellow "movie brats," did a brilliant job of asking that filmmaker, Brian DePalma, to open up about the work, major themes and controversies, and left the viewer to draw conclusions for themselves. Watching this last night, I found myself wishing the documentary itself hadn't decided itself to become so sentimental, only explaining the merits of Spielberg's oeuvre.

Don't get me wrong, Spielberg certainly is one of the most (if not THE most) influential players in the film industry and the film does a great job of showing how he became so successful, but the most interesting segments involve discussion of the craft behind iconic films. For Jaws, the discussion of how a low budget helped to build suspense is as rewarding as the anecdotes about Spielberg's process with actors on the set of Schindler's List. With a running time of 2.5 hours, not every film gets equal treatment, but revealing details of his process abound for the cinema buff.

All in all, worth a look, but don't be afraid to make up your own mind.