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His Real Career Only Lasted From 1971 through 1982

posted 6 days ago by roger1 (3876)
6 replies | jump to latest

Well...its a theory of mine.

After a number of years getting his foot in the door of Hollywood(at a VERY young age) and setting up shop Universal in their cookie-cutter TV production department(which mainly fed shows to NBC but occasionally made an ABC movie-of the week), Spielberg really hit big(on TV only) in 1971.

Part of it was that Spielberg directed "the very first episode of the Columbo series for broadcast," and it made a splash with its highly stylized, Hitchcock sound-and-image sequence. (Historians note that Columbo on TV first appeared in a TV movie in 1968 and then a pilot in early 1971, but was green-lighted for series in late 1971.)

But Spielberg's BIGGER splash came on a few months after the Columbo episode: an ABC movie-of-the-week TV movie(90 minutes less commercials) that felt like a REAL movie, but o f a specific type.

For the most part, TV movies were too short, too cheap, and too badly written to feel like movies(Even the "great" social drama TV movies about gays and abortion and incest were...social drams) But Duel went in a different direction. It had no "plot" to detail, little dialogue(save the protagonist's ever-more panicked narration) and was essentially "a 90 minute action set piece" that COULD power a movie. The story is about a solo motorist(Dennis Weaver) being chased by a big, creepy, RUSTY ol' big rig all over the California desert and hills. near-feature length.

And it WORKED. I was around at that time, and movie fan teens flocked to Duel -- as a school topic and in its major rerun -- as "the second coming of Hitchocck"(who was old and almost retired, anyway -- though his creepy R-rated comeback hit Frenzy, opened in theaters just a few months after Duel))

Some "filler footage" was pumped into Duel, it became a theatrical feature in Europe, and Universal worked on "what to do" with Spielberg.

His debut film --"the Sugarland Express" (1974), a car-chase DRAMA with Goldie Hawn in a serious (and seriously irritating) lead, was a big downer and a big flop BUT it established Spielberg's skill with action(lots of cars after his one truck) and, crucially, got a score from John Williams -- who would become an equal partern in the Spielberg auteurship.

Lucky for Spielberg, the producers of The Sugarland Express -- Richard Zanuck and David Brown -- tapped him to direct Jaws for 1975 release and -- Spielberg was on his way to superstardom, director-wise. But key was that DUEL, not Jaws, was the first action thriller classic of the bunch.

Spielberg took his "highest grossing movie of all time" clout to make another blockbuster -- "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" -- as indulgent in its overlong making as Jaws had been " a studio pressure project." But it was a hit at the end of 1977, only slightly overshadowed by Star Wars in the summer of 1977.

Weird bad news for Spielberg "at the Oscars": (1) Jaws was nominated for Best Picture, but Spielberg not for Best Director and then later (2) Spielberg was nominated for Best Director for Close Encounters , but the movie was NOT nominated for Best Picture.

With the one-two-three punch of Duel-Jaws-Close Encounters under his belt -- AND with Hollywood out to champion new young superstar directors to replace Hitchcock et al, Spielberg took some Animal House people and some extra SNLers and made a "surprise flop" -- the WWII comedy 1941, The action is great in it, and there is SOME comedy, and it looks better today but back THEN...the long knives came out for "cocky young Spielberg."

The comeback Hitchcock needed at age 72 with Frenzy, Spielberg got in his early 30s with "Raiders of the Lost Ark." His pal George Lucas co-wrote and produced it and the press was: "Lucas is keeping Spielberg on schedule and a tight budget." It was the biggest hit of 1981, and just one summer later, Spielberg got the biggest hit of "all time" (beating Star Wars and Jaws) with the super emotional family tearjerker ET.

To have been around when Raiders and ET dominated only about a year's time of release was to feel like Spielberg had ARRIVED, was IT. Hitchcock died in 1980. Raiders came out in 1981. ET came out in 1982. Spielberg was king(yes it was called the Lucas-Spielberg 80s, but Lucas pretty much stuck to Star Wars sequels, and a coupla so-so releases.

..still I say: Spielberg's REAL career -- his superstar career, his impact-on-audiences career -- ended in 1982 with ET. A run that includes Columbo, Duel, Jaws, Close Encounters, Raiders of the Lost Ark and ET really WAS a great run, but Spielberg never really was that great again.

The trouble hit immediately in the summer after the ET summer of 1982: Spielberg was the producer of The Twilight Zone movie -- four different stories directed by four top directors(Spielberg, John Animal House Landis, George Mad Max Miller, and Joe "Gremlins" Dante.)

CONT

[–] roger1 (3876) 6 days ago

And Landis got actor Vic Morrow and two Vietnamese-American children KILLED on his segment. A helicopter fell on them in a Vietnam battle scene. Books say that Spielberg -- trying to bask in his ET summer of 1982(along with Poltergeist, which he produced)...went BALLISTIC as he got pulled into the Twilight Zone tragedy that summer.

And when The Twilight Zone came out in the summer of 1983, it was a very compromised, often non-entertaining sort of flop -- and Spielberg's sequence was almost its worst (his ET magic seems to have left him immediately.)

Summer of 1984? A big hit again in the Raiders sequel "Temple of Doom." But while it has some fans(like contrarian critic Quentin Tarantino), it was clearly a rather gross mix of the juvenile with the sadistic, and a script that was often nust plain stupid(as when Indy fights a big adult male while Short Round fights a possessed zombie-like kids.)

I was reminded, watching Temple of Doom, that Spielberg spoke of being a pre-teen in Arizona and going to movie theater with his buddies and spewing "fake vomit"(really mushroom soup) out of their mouths from the balcony. near patrons THAT is the auteur of Temple of Doom. (And Hook too.)

Spielberg had begun his lucrative habit of "producing movies with in-house directors" with Poltergeist(1982) and he continued on with Gremlins in 1984(director: Joe Dante) and while these were hits, there was something literally childish about them. Lovers of 70s auteur-cinema complained that Spielberg (witih Lucas) had contributed to "the infantilization of movies." And Temple of Doom and Gremlins sort of bore that out.

So Spielberg decided to "branch out into Oscar bait drama" while still producing genre-stuff(which is where his REAL career was.)

CONT

[–] roger1 (3876) 6 days ago

The Color Purple got lots of Oscar nominations, but Spielberg wasn't among them. "Empire of the Sun" (with Christian Bale as a kid) was OK WWII drama -- but the sound-alike epic "The Last Emperor" was "the real goods" and the Best Picture Oscar.

In 1989, Spielberg made big box office with another Indy -- The Last Crusade (which, Spielberg said, "I directed to apologize for Temple of Doom." Indy closed out the 80s as he had begun it -- with Sean Connery along as his dad(of course James Bond would sire Indiana Jones) but...it was clearly a bit of a Raiders retread...back to the Nazis.

It got worse. "Always" in 1989 flopped -- and was bested by a better version of the same story with Ghost a year later.

"Hook" in 1991 had a gigantic budget, three major stars(Williams, Hoffman, and newly minted Julia Roberts) and a good fourth one(Bob Hoskins) but proved a noisy overstuffed anti-entertainment "fake vomit in Phoenix" production.

But wait...1993 had "the greatest comeback of all time," and Spielberg has coasted on THAT year for years. Except...

...well, it was the dinsoaur epic Jurassic Park in summer(the NEW highest grossing movie of all time) and the dramatic Schindler's List at Oscar-bait Christmas(FINALLY winning Spielberg his Best Director Oscar AND a Best Picture Oscar) and..we are supposed to celebrate that, right?

CONT

[–] roger1 (3876) 6 days ago

Jurrassic Park made the big bucks -- kids "of all ages" love dinosaurs rampaging -- but seemed like the kind of movie that a great director working at half speed makes. The dinosaur set-pieces? Spectacular. The plot, the pacing(it takes FOREVER to get to the dinos), the characters(good actors given little to do.) Not so much. For what its worth, Roger Ebert dissed the film on his TV show,and gave it a three-star review, mainly coming down hard on the weak characters(only Jeff Goldblum was much fun, though Sam Neill had a sympathetic and handsome face.) It was no Jaws(which , had THREE great characters) thriller-wise, and unlike Jaws, kept its children alive and "cute" (thereby diluting the horror aspects of teh book.

Schindler's List? No doubt a great movie but -- a Holocaust movie at the Oscars. They do pretty well and -- Spielberg sort of "sweetened it up at the end"(with a made-up scene of Schindler facing the people he saved and crying about those he could not, and "present day coda.) Still.. it was Spielberg's finest hour at the Oscars.

They did it again to him, five years later, with Saving Private Ryan. Spielberg won Best Director, but the movie didn't win Best Picture(Spielberg's pal gave out that Oscar, you figured because he thought Spielberg had it in the bag.) Harvey Weinstein's Shakespeare in Love won instead. They got HIM.

Jurrassic Park, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan...how can I SAY that Spielberg's career is only from 1971 through 1982. Oh, I dunno, those years were SUSTAINED hits, and a kind of "genre-making" career that Hitchcock was brave enough to maintain but Spielberg could not and would not.

Ever since Jaws, Spielberg has been a producer-director(and mini studio mogul) who can do whatever he wants, no pressure, and he's worked and worked and WILL work , likely into his 80s and maybe his 90s(ala Clint.)

But I stand by that 1971-1982 period. That's when Spielberg BECAME Spielberg.

[–] Tam87 (1381) 5 days ago

Spielberg films are generally cheesy & melodramatic but they at least have a bit of heart and warmth to them as well a lot of action & adventure themes.

Scorsese films are just cold and brutal.

[–] Octoboss (13) 5 days ago

Hello, roger! Speaking of Spielberg, have you ever watch his short film Amblin'? If not, then you can watch it for free on YouTube. You can report back in the thread I made: https://moviechat.org/tt0064010/Amblin/678410d512fe93593b987383/You-can-watch-it-on-YouTube-What-is-your-interpretation-of-this-short-film-written-and-directed-by-Spielberg

[–] johnmiller (3976) a day ago

To me, Spielberg's final great film was "Raiders of the Lost Ark." I think that his becoming a producer then influenced his work as a director, where he was more making films instead of creating them. There are lots of directors whose best work is early in their careers, just like there are lots of bands whose best work is early in their careers.