Spielberg Scandals

Huh, I never knew about any of this. But knowing what it's like to be one of the 'elite' in anything (Hollywood included), Spielberg has to have his share of dirty secrets.


Terrence Malick (admittedly one of my favourite filmmakers) is known for cutting out a *beep* of actors in his films during the editing process. Specifically in The Thin Red Line, where it had gotten to the point where Sean Penn was promoting the film, giving interviews, ect and Malick had not yet told him the final cut only had 5 minutes of Penn.

On the same movie, he had a clause inserted into his contract to bar the producers from the set of the movie. I have no idea why he would do that though, considering that was an absolute betrayal of the very people that managed to raise his career from the grave after 20 years. Not to mention he got a whopping $52 Million to work with, exponentially larger than the $0.5 and $3.8 he had for his first films. Insane.

I think Tarantino has done some stuff? Not entirely sure. He gets a LOT of rabid hate though.

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Spielberg, when asked where he got the inspiration for Indiana Jones, has never given any credit to the Heston movie SECRET OF THE INCAS in any interview, he only mentions 1940's serials and the Bogart classic TREASURE OF THE SIERRRA MADRE.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhSPcAyCgwE

Oooooooh, conspiracy theories! Let me grab my tin-foil hat!



Proof? Spielberg is one of the most openly collaborative filmmakers you can find in Hollywood. He once wore a T-Shirt on the set of Saving Private Ryan that said "I am not an auteur" because he didn't like the fact that his colleagues weren't being given enough credit. Nearly every interview I've seen or read of Spielberg shows him full of praise and appreciation for his collaborators, and his loyalty to his trusted editor, composer and cinematographer demonstrates how important his partnerships are to him.

Don't think Spielberg gave credit to Verna Fields or John Williams on Jaws? Why not look at his own words on the subject...

"Verna was always in favor of less to be more. And I was trying to squeeze in that one more – because it took me DAYS to get that one shot! So I’m going back to, I’m on a barge for two days trying to get the shark to look real, and the sad fact was that the shark would only look real in 36 frames and not 38 frames. And that 2 frame difference was the difference between something really scary, and something that looked like a great white floating turd.” - Steven Spielberg.

"John Williams has made our movie more adventurous and gripping than I ever thought possible." – Steven Spielberg on Jaws.


Think Jaws needed saving? Why not ask the co-screenwriter, Carl Gottlieb...

"Speaking from first-hand knowledge and without denigrating Verna Fields's enormous contribution to "Jaws," that film didn't need saving. As the screen writer who was present on location and during post-production (I share screen credit with the novelist Peter Benchley), I remind you that the movie was made by a young, accomplished, confident Steven Spielberg, whose body of work speaks for itself and whose film-making skills were apparent in work (with other editors) that pre-dates "Jaws."

I remind Ms. Rochlin that every frame of film an editor cuts is conceived and shot elsewhere, by others. "Jaws" was the production of a fruitful and happy collaboration, and Steven Spielberg is the true auteur of that experience. As I wrote in "The 'Jaws' Log," the film is Steven's vision, and, to the best of my recollection, those of us who worked on it were pleased to help in its realization." - Carl Gottlieb




So you're using JJ Abrams' misremembered anecdote to attack Spielberg? SCANDAL! Let's ask Carl Gottlieb for the real story again...

"[Richard] Zanuck and [David] Brown were very stingy producers, so everyone kept telling them, 'You're gonna need a bigger boat.' It became a catchphrase for anytime anything went wrong — if lunch was late or the swells were rocking the camera, someone would say, 'You're gonna need a bigger boat.'"

Roy Scheider, who played Brody in the movie, ad-libbed the line at different points in his performance throughout filming. But the one reading that made it in to the final cut of the movie was after the suspenseful first look at the great white shark. Says Gottlieb, "It was so appropriate and so real and it came at the right moment, thanks to Verna Field's editing."



So? Lots of similar ideas occur at the same time without any contact between the originators. Spielberg's fascination with aliens goes back to when he was 17 years old and made his amateur extraterrestrial epic "Firelight". A decade after that came Close Encounters of the Third Kind. So the story, characters and themes of ET fit very neatly into Spielberg's already well-visited interests without the need to shout "copycat! copycat!" because of similarities to a script by Satyajit Ray.

But even if we accept that Spielberg used Ray's story as a basis for ET, the actual characters, events, themes, dynamics, rhythms, and emotions all come from Spielberg's direction and Melissa Mathison's script. They're the real reason for the success of ET, not the story. I'm pretty sure I could rewrite my own version of Great Expectations, that doesn't mean it would be any good!




To me the character of Indiana Jones wears his influences on his sleeve; everything from Zorro to Casablanca to Lawrence of Arabia to Gunga Din to, yes, Secret of the Incas. There has never been any secret to this; Lucas' express purpose was to reinvent the old action-adventure serials of his youth so it's not a scandal to see similarities to his obvious inspirations. And, again, I draw you to my previous point about ET, that being that it's the clear filmmaking talent, writing, fun and excitement which led to the success of Raiders of the Lost Ark, not the story by itself.

He is the worst

You forgot Amistad, where the real novelist got paid off for not talking about how it was plagiarized.

Thank you for posting this! I thought I was the only one that knew/realized this. He’s a racist scum bag. I can’t for the life of me understand why he’s so revered?

This is mostly speculative bullshit, especially the stuff about Sean Young.

She was making a joke, seeing how powerful and popular Spielberg was, and still is. That doesn't mean he actually propositioned her.

Lots I'm sure. People are scum. Every industry has it's underground bullshit the public doesn't see.

Pretty weak sauce, there.

It's pretty well known that Indiana Jones was heavily inspired by those old movie serials and B movies like Secret of the Incas. Lucas and Spielberg have always been pretty up front about this.

The only thing I'd take seriously is the Sean Young situation.Staying in the good graces of moguls like Spielberg is obviously very important to a career, and turning down one of them for a date or whatever is not going to do you much good. A situation like that is probably much more common than a literal casting couch where its spelled out that an actor is having sex for a part.