Spielberg

Spielberg

2017 "Direct from the heart"
Spielberg
Spielberg

Spielberg

7.7 | 2h20m | en | Documentary

A documentary on the life and career of one of the most influential film directors of all time, Steven Spielberg.

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7.7 | 2h20m | en | Documentary | More Info
Released: October. 05,2017 | Released Producted By: HBO Documentary Films , Pentimento Productions Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:
Synopsis

A documentary on the life and career of one of the most influential film directors of all time, Steven Spielberg.

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Cast

Steven Spielberg , Martin Scorsese , Richard Dreyfuss

Director

Sam Painter

Producted By

HBO Documentary Films , Pentimento Productions

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Reviews

Michael_Elliott Spielberg (2017) *** 1/2 (out of 4)This documentary clocks in at just under two and a half hours and has Steven Spielberg talking about his time in Hollywood as well as some personal stories about his family and how this shaped the movies that he would make. Not only do we get interviews with Spielberg himself but we also hear from his parents, his sisters as well as co-workers and friends including Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Richard Dreyfuss, John Williams, Janet Maslin, Sid Sheinberg and various others.For the most part I thought this was a very good documentary that was put together very well. The film does a very good job at going over Spielberg's career as well as the personal stories that helped shape them. This includes stories about his parents divorce, the fifteen-years he and his father struggled to have a relationship as well as him becoming a father. All of these stories are told in such a good way that it helps when we then get to the movies because it brings some good insight.The film discussion is certainly the highlight of the series as the director gets to reflect on his career, the films he's proud of and a few moments where he wasn't as happy. Of course, a lot of the lesser films are pretty much overlooked 1941 gets a quick twenty-second comment whereas HOOK, THE LOST WORLD and ALWAYS aren't even mentioned. We do get some terrific stories about JAWS, DUEL and what it was like for a twenty-year-old to try and direct someone like Joan Crawford.Fans of the director are certainly going to enjoy this documentary and especially since he shares some good stories about their production as well as things that were going on behind-the-scenes.
fees707 If you dig Spielbergo you'll dig Spielberg (2017). It plays out pretty much like a Spielberg film. It's so Spielbergian! That light, disneyfied air floats over the screen while every now and then something serious will intrude like a knife and stab you but the disneyfiedness of the atmosphere heals all wounds with a rapidity unseen in history's tome of medical breakthroughs. Of course, sub theme of an elusive daddy permeates proceedings, but it's the mother of all daddy issues here, the great big cord that links all of Spielberg's work and which proves the man an auteur of cinema.In short: there are lots of cool insights into the man, the work, the time and the people involved in the Spielbergian journey, so if that's your type of thing, this film is your type of thing. Spielberg!
jadepietro (RATING: ☆☆☆☆ out of 5) GRADE: B THIS FILM IS RECOMMENDED.IN BRIEF: An well crafted but bias love-fest about this great director.SYNOPSIS: A document that celebrates the films of Mr. Spielberg. David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia inspired him to become a director. As a teenager, filmmaking kept "those scary whispers" from starting up, providing him a security that life itself could not deliver. His use of close-ups, stationary angles, fluid camera movement, personal storytelling, and quick cuts established his unique style. His sanitized view of suburbia and the Americana, his sentimental view of nostalgia, and his love of childhood and family can be found in most of his films. This is Steven Spielberg. And Susan Lacy's well made documentary examines this legendary filmmaker with much skill (and just too much adoration).The documentary gives us all the facts about this great director using archival footage, interviews with friends and associates, and snippets of his many movies. Turned down from USC film school, he snuck off the tour bus on Universal Studios and observed directors like Hitchcock at work. He later worked at that studio as a first time director gaining knowledge and experience by creating television episodes and movies before his big blockbuster summer hit, Jaws, changed the film industry forever.Using his own personal experiences and his avid love of cinema encouraged him to explore many genres: sci-fi (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., A.I. Minority Report), war movies (Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, Empire of the Sun, War Horse) horror (Jurassic Park, Jaws), adventure (Duel, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Adventures of Tintin), historical biographies (Lincoln, the underrated Bridge of Spies), even comedies (1941, Always, The Terminal).Spielberg delves into his beginnings very effectively. Upset with some critics' assertion that he was primarily a successful commercial and mainstream filmmaker, Mr. Spielberg took up the challenge and created films on more serious subjects such as racism (Amistad, The Color Purple), terrorism and 9/11 (Munich, War of the Worlds), and genocide (the aforementioned Schindler's List). This documentary spend a great deal of time on one of his greatest achievements about the Holocaust ever made, with numerous segments from that Academy Award winning film. Ms. Lacy's film, though well researched, purposely skips over some of his lesser works and allows Mr. Spielberg himself to sidestep his early personal life with the former Mrs. S. (Amy Irving). Yet it still manages to flaunt his happy marriage with his current spouse (Kate Capshaw) and his now happy family life.Directors Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Francis Coppola, J.J. Abrams, and Brian DePalma were his friends and creative rivals and their comments in interviews add great insight to the technical aspects of this man. In fact, the point is made numerous times that his films dealing with technology advancements were living examples of state-of-the-art filmmaking themselves. (CGI use in Jurassic Park, Minority Report, A I., War of the Worlds, Close Encounters, etc. elevated the bar in cinematic terms) The documentary is always entertaining with special moments to savor: Spielberg's own reminiscences of filming of his two masterworks, Saving Private Ryan, and Schindler's List, cinematographer Janusz Kaminski discussing his camera work with fascinating details in conjunction with the director's vision on the latter epic, scenes of him directing a young Drew Barrymore and Henry Thomas on the E.T. set that are very insightful and gives us a glimpse of his extraordinary technique as a director. The director himself gives due credit to his artisan family who are his crew for many movies, including composer John Williams. However, his personal life and hardships are glossed over such as his first marriage and divorce and his film duds are rarely acknowledged (Hook, The BFG, his comedies).The film becomes a love-fest rather than a serious chronicle of an artist. It continuously lauds him. Janet Maslin, Todd McCarthy, J. Hoberman, and A. O. Scott analyze his films with much admiration. Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day Lewis, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Oprah Winfrey, and Ben Kingsley speak eloquently of working with him. Yet, except for his estrangement with his father, there are no warts at all in this depiction of Mr. Spielberg and that becomes a bit of the problem for such a flattering documentary. One wishes would have could have shown a more balanced vision of this immensely talented man with at least a margin of human error, but that does not exist in The World of Spielberg. Just as some of his films rely too heavily on uplifting and positive viewpoints, so does this documentary and that prevents this film from becoming a great work of art about a great director. Perhaps the subject himself could not give up complete control to Ms. Lacy to make an completely honest portrait of an artist.Still, while the documentary shows this visionary director in the best of light, with little shading, it also shows us some of the best films of the last 40 years that emerged from a master craftsman who celebrates "pure movie-making". Spielberg is a fine testament about one man whose love for the movies made the world a better place.
calvinnme This documentary does a good job of analyzing Steven Spielberg's film career. It is in rough chronological order, but not exact chronological order. For example the film starts out with "Jaws" (1975) and comes back to Steven's film directorial debut with "Duel" (1971) later.It goes into details about his home life only when it is relevant to his work as filmmaker, and it is apparently relevant a great deal. The audience knows this because it is Steven Spielberg himself who contributes the most to the commentary. Apparently Steven has a great gift - he has retained a vivid memory of what it was like to be a child all of these years later. That explains why he made some of the films he did, and how he worked with children and could show the viewpoint of children so well. Spielberg talks about how he has had the same team of professionals working with him on films for years, some since the 70s, and he pays tribute particularly to composer John Williams.It does go into some of his failures, though only briefly. Apparently he considers "1941" (1979) a failure, and I guess I can see how coming off one hit after another in the mid to late 70s he might feel that way.Many of the actors and actresses that have starred in his film are almost giddy with praise, and I guess we should expect that, but that is countered with Spielberg's criticism of his own work, which is very insightful.The best stories: the pandemonium and the overruns in time and money on the set of "Jaws", and how Steven Spielberg, the perennial C student, could not get into USC film school no matter what he tried, so in 1968 he simply trespassed on the Universal lot, found a vacant office and took up residency, and began to go on different sets learning how professional directors practiced their craft. He was even thrown off the set of a Hitchcock film once! However, it was six months before anyone even challenged his presence at Universal, and even then he ended up with a seven year contract directing for Universal TV. Things and security have certainly changed in 50 years! I'd highly recommend this work to anybody who wants the story of Spielberg's career from the mouth of the subject himself. 147 minutes seems like a long documentary, but for me the time just flew by.