Steven Spielberg

[beamish14]

Not sure why you wouldn't just link to the video itself which tellingly doesn't even have a million views. Spielberg really held out for decades and then gave us something YouTubers like La Blogotheque et al have been doing for 15+ years, only worse? It is also a terrible song, good lord

Well, I wanted to spare people the misery of listening to a Mumford and Sons-related song!

[domino harvey]

Good point, you are absolved!

[bad future]

The video credits in the YouTube description list "Producer, Art Director and Dolly Grip - Kate Capshaw" and "Costumer and Sound - Carey Mulligan"(!) so I wonder if one couple had the other over for dinner and this spontaneously arose several drinks in. No DP listed so I'm picturing Spielberg shooting on his iphone! This is also how I learned Mulligan is married to a Mumford/son.

[flyonthewall2983]

I believe he turned down The Beatles to direct a video when Anthology came out and they were looking for someone to direct “Free as a Bird”

[FrauBlucher]

Typical Spielberg. Manipulating everyone again, this time to take a seat

[therewillbeblus]

Looks like Spielberg is finally going to make Kubrick's script for Napoleon into a seven-part limited series for HBO

[beamish14]

Looks like Spielberg is finally going to make Kubrick's script for Napoleon into a seven-part limited series for HBO

With David Leland (director of the brilliant Wish You Were Here (1987) and co-showrunner with his Mona Lisa collaborator Neil Jordan on The Borgias) being the only writer publicly attached to adapting it for television.

I’m really curious about the unearthed script Jim Thompson wrote for Kubrick, Lunatic at Large

[yoloswegmaster]

I’m really curious about the unearthed script Jim Thompson wrote for Kubrick, Lunatic at Large

It was supposed to begin production in Fall 2021 but there has been no news of it since then, so my guess is that it didn't actually start.

[therewillbeblus]

I like how just when Trump leaves office, America decides it needs to get its grandiose-leader fix with multiple Napoleon projects

[aox]

I'd like to talk about 1941. I think I saw this maybe 40 years ago as a child, but for the sake of argument, let's just pretend I have not: is this movie really as bad as its reputation? Is there not a good or even interesting movie buried in here? Can this be re-edited to mine a decent film out of its parts? After watching the two original trailers, I can't imagine this is a complete dumpster-fire that I hear about. I've heard it compared to It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World, which is not a movie I am too fond of, but many do love it and there is a decent movie in there.

When I do decide to watch this, do I watch the theatrical cut or the director's cut?

[domino harvey]

It’s hopelessly unfunny no matter what you could do to it. You can find our discussion of it earlier in this thread

[hearthesilence]

I'd like to talk about 1941. I think I saw this maybe 40 years ago as a child, but for the sake of argument, let's just pretend I have not: is this movie really as bad as its reputation? Is there not a good or even interesting movie buried in here? Can this be re-edited to mine a decent film out of its parts? After watching the two original trailers, I can't imagine this is a complete dumpster-fire that I hear about. I've heard it compared to It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World, which is not a movie I am too fond of, but many do love it and there is a decent movie in there.

When I do decide to watch this, do I watch the theatrical cut or the director's cut?

If you like Robert Zemeckis's earlier work (really everything he did with Bob Gale), I'd recommend it. I've always had mixed feelings about Spielberg's films, but the ones I like the best involve major contributions by other filmmakers like Zemeckis, Stanley Kubrick or Joe Dante. Usually this means something Spielberg produced, but it extends to films he directed to. In this case, you can really feel Zemeckis and Gale's influence, but I don't get a sense of Spielberg just interpreting someone else's ideas - if anything, it's more like they share many of the same traits, and collaborating with them brings out this wicked, anarchic side of Spielberg without diluting it in piousness, schmaltz or sentimentality. Pretty amazing to see this coming from a guy who'd later make Private Ryan and produce Band of Brothers, especially in light of what John Wayne said to him when he tried to cast him in 1941. It's messy, uneven and unwieldy, but those qualities also feel apiece with the spirit of the movie. It's no masterpiece, but I'm glad it exists.

EDIT 1: Two critics who liked it even more than me: Richard Brody and Jonathan Rosenbaum.

EDIT 2: Another thing - Dan Aykroyd has a line he more or less repeats with different wording: "I can't stand seeing Americans fighting Americans." It's not meant to be moving - and it isn't - but given how many times that amoral opportunist Nikki Haley has rewritten that sentiment with blind partisanship - "I can't stand seeing Republicans fighting Republicans" (i.e. toe the party line under you-know-who) - Aykroyd's character does cast the movie in this genuine moral innocence that no longer exists in this country.

[The Curious Sofa]

It's not very funny, but then I've never found the kind of elephantine slapstick comedy of the 60s that it's modeled on remotely funny. There are action sequences in 1941 that are amazing, and I love how the film looks, it's old school special effects set pieces are still stunning. The seeds of the Indiana Jones films are planted here. Unlike some of Spielberg's other clunkers (Always, Hook, The BFG), I'd file this under "interesting failure" rather than among his worst.

[Roger Ryan]

... There are action sequences in 1941 that are amazing, and I love how the film looks, it's old school special effects set pieces are still stunning. The seeds of the Indiana Jones films are planted here. Unlike some of Spielberg's other clunkers (Always, Hook, The BFG), I'd file this under "interesting failure" rather than among his worst.

This is how I feel about the film as well; it's not great, but it's not close to his worst (I'd add The Terminal to that list of movies I'd put 1941 above). It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is the closest comparison, but there are attempts to mimic a Dr. Strangelove vibe with Warren Oats giving a fun unhinged performance and, especially, Slim Pickins who's used as a direct callback to Kubrick's film, that are my favorite parts.

[The Curious Sofa]

It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World certainly comes closest, but there were other unfunny, self-indulgent, large ensemble cast (often including Peter Sellers) 60s comedies like Casino Royale, What's New Pussycat? and Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (which I loved as a kid, but was bored to tears on a recent rewatch), all merged into one for me. And yes, there is some Dr. Strangelove in there, and as much as I admire that film for Kubrick's direction and Ken Adam's sets, it also never made me laugh all that much.

[aox]

I had no idea until I began reading about 1941 the other day how reviled The Terminal is in his oeuvre in the online sphere. When I saw it years ago, it seemed like an inoffensive, forgettable movie perhaps at the bottom of his mid-tier. I do not remember it being bottom-tier dreck like Always or Hook. The latter I can still find a few interesting things within its fabric.

[beamish14]

Hook really has become beloved among millennials. It’s overblown, campy, and suffused with some of the worst and most nonsensical choices of any film that he made, but damn I enjoy it.

I truly love the visuals of it. It and The Rocketeer were the first two features to employ CGI matte backgrounds, and it still looks pretty great. The shot of Peter twirling in the air as the Neverland islands come into view below him is gorgeous

[Big Ben]

I'll echo the love for Hook as a millennial. I managed to see it at a screening with the man who produced it, Gerald Molen, who explained all the many issues he and Spielberg had getting it made. It's interesting that it has had some real love these days because it's is a bit of a sore spot for Spielberg. He no longer watches it because he had myriad problems making it (Julia Roberts) and because he was quite close to Robin Williams and was devastated by his death. It's a fun, weird movie regardless and I've never really gotten the hate some people seem to have for it.

[beamish14]

I'll echo the love for Hook as a millennial. I managed to see at a screening with the man who produced it, Gerald Molen, who explained all the many issues he and Spielberg had getting it made. It's interesting that it has had some real love these days because it's is a bit of a sore spot for Spielberg. He no longer watches it because he had myriad problems making it (Julia Roberts) and because he was quite close to Robin Williams and was devastated by his death. It's a fun, weird movie regardless and I've never really gotten the hate some people seem to have for it.

I think Spielberg did have some positive things to say regarding it when Mark Kermode spoke with him. He did mention that its fans are definitely a very specific demographic.

The production of it fascinates me. Nick Castle was paid a fortune to walk away. Credited co-writer Malia Scotch Marmo subsequently wrote one of the earliest Jurassic Park drafts, which is impossible to find in the wild

[swo17]

I like how Hook inspired this parody (starring a pre-SNL Beck Bennett and Kyle Mooney) that even Spielberg himself praised

[hearthesilence]

I'm not entirely sure if I've seen The Terminal all the way through - if I did, it was on an airplane, which means I could've been half-awake, watching only chunks of it out of order, etc. I'm sorry to hear it's terrible because I have a soft spot for the way they incorporated the famous A Great Day in Harlem photograph into the plot, culminating with an appearance by the real-life Benny Golson (who passed away last year). Coincidentally I was listening to Groovin' with Golson earlier today.

[erok910]

The Terminal has a saccharine quality that could make your teeth rot, but I thought it was a sincere enough film that (when I recently ran through Spielberg's 00-05 stint) I was happily surprised by how cute the ending was. (As you mentioned, I also really dug the use of the photograph in relation to the story)

Incidentally: felt Catch Me if You Can was much darker than I had remembered- and Minority Report was much lighter. Watching through them felt like another confirmation that if his best film were not Munich, it may be A.I. I love a lot of his films, but Munich and A.I. are on another level. Really would love to talk to Eric Roth more about his distaste toward some of the final film. But back on topic: am a millenial and had a difficult time finishing Hook. Maybe I need to watch it again.

[HinkyDinkyTruesmith]

As a late-Spielberg defender, The Terminal is at worst bogged down by its romantic comedy elements (Spielberg’s too invested in Hanks and not enough in Zeta-Jones for it to be successful) but what makes that film so exciting is its place within early/mid 2000s Spielberg films, one of many that investigates the creation of a new security state. A man with a destabilized homeland in the east stuck in a hypercommercialized airport where his every move is tracked by a security apparatus — it’s perfectly at home alongside films where you can never outrun the police, where your crimes can be predicted before they happen, and, well, Munich.

[colinr0380]

I was also in the camp that really did not like The Terminal, at least until I came to see it as representing Purgatory or Limbo! It went up in my estimations a fair amount on seeing it that way!

[mfunk9786]

Have only seen it once in the theater, but man - coming off the heels of Catch Me if You Can, which remains one of Spielberg's very very best films coupled with a really appealing concept - The Terminal was a massive disappointment.

Wondering when a lot of that 90s and 00s output is going to get upgraded on home media, it's about time.