Spielberg

Did you know that Speiberg is the greatest, most natural and intuitive genius of all filmmaking? This movie can't stop telling you that! Even when he parrots backs things Hitchcock said and claims them as his own, it acts like he's the only one who thought/did these techniques. While it's a nice overview of his career, it's also completely lacking any critical faculties and is filled with endless bending over for him. And I like him for the most part! But this was a bit much.

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.

"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.

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.

This HBO documentary, directed by Susan Lacy, at nearly two and a half hours long , is really an ode to one of the master filmmakers of all time Steven Spielberg.

For movie buffs, like myself, the film can be mind boggling as the incredible list of Spielberg movies over the decades is documented. He will give his personal view of what went into each movie, and there are many behind-the-scenes details offered by his fellow artists and collaborators.

As other reviewers have noted, the praise heaped upon him in the doc can get to be overdone as the film progresses. Also, I would have liked to have heard what Spielberg thought of the many actors who, over the years, helped make his films so special, but there's virtually none of that here.

Overall though, to get to relive some of these great movies and to get lots of insight into what makes this genius of the cinema tick, was certainly worth the price of admission for me.