A Spielberg Intermission (70s-80s Recap & 90s-00s Preview)

Eli (00:03.596)
Hello and welcome to the establishing shot a podcast where we do deep dives into directors and their filmography's I am your host Eli Price and this week we are continuing our series on Steven Spielberg We have kind of finished the early Spielberg part of the series Covering his movies of the 70s and 80s We are not quite starting

The next section of his mid -career Covering his movies of the 90s and 2000s. We are doing a bit of an intermission here So this is a new thing for the for the show. So you may be saying what do you mean an intermission? Well Actually was gonna I couldn't think of what to call it and my wife actually suggested that I call it an intermission to kind of like go with I guess the the movie a theme I was like

Good idea. I'll call it an intermission. My past directors I've covered in Wes Anderson and Christopher Nolan so far didn't really call for an intermission like this. They each had a very manageable number of movies that they've directed. Steven Spielberg, on the other hand, has directed a lot of movies. Not the most movies. There's some directors out there that are kind of

I would love to cover, I'm also like, that is just way too many movies. But Spielberg's directed a lot of movies. And so I thought what I would do is kind of do a couple of intermission episodes as we work our way all the way through Spielberg's filmography. So we've covered his 70s and 80s movies. We're going to move into his mid career.

which would be the nineties and two thousands. And then there'll be another intermission after that. And then we'll cover his movies of the 2010s and the 2020s so far. So yeah, we'll still be in Spielberg for a while, but in these intermission episodes, what I'm going to do is kind of do a recap of the past. So

Eli (02:25.112)
We're going to kind of do a recap of the seventies and eighties. we're going to kind of look forward to the nineties and two thousands. and as we kind of make that transition, kind of just talk about this transition in his career. this is really a perfect, time for an intermission for Steven Spielberg's career to kind of think about what he's done, what he's going to do, what that means for him. in this little transition.

part of his life. We've talked a little bit about that on past episodes. yeah, so that's kind of what we're going to be doing today. I will also kind of end the episode by talking about some of my favorite things that we've seen so far from Spielberg and talk about a couple of things that I'm excited about for moving forward in the series. Excited about for his 90s and 2000s movies. So.

Yeah, so that's kind of what this episode is going to look like. So let's just kind of jump right in. I am, if you're watching, you may be like, man, he is looking down a lot. And that's because I wrote out a lot of my notes and stuff. just, you know, I, I'm not going to be looking at the camera a lot this episode. If you're listening, you don't even care. So just ignore that.

but, yeah, so from Steven Spielberg, we have seen him move from this young spunky aspiring kid full of potential to a full on movie mogul household name. what an incredible jump that is. but, yeah, he, so, you know, if you remember Spielberg started off as this kid, jumping right into Hollywood at universal television.

He had a reputation of being too artsy or kind of hard to work with. but he catches the eye of the right people, befriends the right people. and building on the mild successes of dual and the sugarland express, he bursts onto the scene with jaws. only his second theatrical feature, dual was a TV movie.

Eli (04:52.868)
And man, did he jump onto the scene. still considered, you know, a best movie of all time. Jaws, by many, it is a great movie. He still says it's one of the hardest movies he's ever made. we talked about that in the episode, but yeah, so he, continues his success with Close Encounters. it really,

Jaws and Close Encounters back to back really showed him to be a force in just innovative, like innovative filmmaking, I guess you would say. Really like pushing things forward, doing interesting things. 1941 was the follow up to those two, a financial success, but a real dud as far as reception goes. And that was really short -lived though, cause he came right back.

with Raiders of the Lost Ark teamed up with what would become three movies with George Lucas. And then follows up Raiders with ET, which when it released was the most profitable movie of all time. He still claims it's his most personal film. It's an international phenomenon. Just incredible. mean, just think about the run. Ignore 1941, but

Jaws, Close Encounters, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and E .T. the Extra -Terrestrial. What an incredible run. Now, his mid -80s, it was a bit of a struggle. He has three films in a row that are full of controversy, starting with The Twilight Zone, the movie, which was an anthology film that he directed a portion of. His portion didn't have tragedy, but...

he was a big producer on it and there was tragedy on the set of one of the segments that really put a shadow on the movie. they finished it because they had to, and really didn't want anything to do with it after that. So, that, that happened. And then you also have, the darkness of temple of doom. kind of spawns the PG 13 rating.

Eli (07:14.268)
which is, think a good thing that we got out of that, that Spielberg fought for. and a lot of Indiana Jones fans still really love this movie. and, and, and fight for it. but yeah, it had some, controversy around this, it's darkness, know, parents taking kids to see it. It was very dark, a lot of crazy stuff happening. so you have that, he had that to deal with. and then, also then he releases the color purple.

and that has some racial controversy. have, people questioning whether a white director should have directed it. You have some backlash from the black community about the portrayal of black men. and then on top of all that, you get 13 Oscar nominations and no Oscar wins. And so now the NAACP who was upset about the portrayal black men is now saying, well, that's

We still stand behind that now, like on top of that, none of these black actors get wins. This movie starring an all black cast doesn't get wins. yeah, there's controversy around the color purple too. I think it is an incredible feat, to make a movie with an all black cast based on the novel of a black female writer. during this time was really just unheard of. So, take that for what it's worth.

On top of all those three movies he also in during this time Started his amazing stories TV series, which just ended up being not successful at all So yeah his his mid 80s was really rough Empire of the Sun came out next and it was really lukewarm reception there was a lot of people that just kind of saw it as fine a few people thought it was

Not great. A few people really stand for it, really thought it was phenomenal. The general audience maybe just wasn't quite ready for Sirius Spielberg. I think Empire of the Sun is really good. I think it's very like underrated, underappreciated. But it just coming off of those past three movies and then this and people just weren't ready for it.

Eli (09:42.69)
But he was able to fall back on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, finishing out that original trilogy. I think he did inject some serious drama with the father -son relationship there in that one. yeah, Last Crusade was a big success. Harrison Ford and Sean Connery, What's Not to Love. And then he ends the decade with Always, which we discussed a couple of weeks ago.

Not a great ending to a great two decades of filmmaking. It does show his kind of torn creative mind of wanting to make serious movies and still also wanting to make the fantastical and spectacular as well. So, you know, it's unfortunate that it wasn't very good movie. It looks really good, but it just as a movie, just not overall very good. So.

A disappointing ending to that run of the seventies and eighties. But I do think, you also have to, another thing you have to acknowledge about, especially the eighties as just the incredible amount of producing that this man was doing, just to like spout, spout off a few he's he's he'd produced poltergeist, gremlins, the goonies back to the future one and two.

An American Tell, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Land Before Time. I mean, and that's just kind of some highlights. There's a lot in between there too. He starts Amblin Entertainment Studio, you know, with Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall. So he's starting a studio. He's producing all these movies. He is writing, he does a little bit of writing for some movies and story work.

And even the movies he doesn't have like production credit for that are coming out of Amblin. He's still they're still passing through his desk, you know, he's he maybe doesn't have a credit in the end credits, but he's he you know, it came through his studio. He he gave it the go. So he's still it's still passing through his his hands at some point. And around the time of Empire of the Sun,

Eli (12:06.872)
That he had an interview and I wrote down this quote from it. He said I'm tired of producing I have been in the candy factory for the last three years as a producer making sugar substitutes and I've gagged on it myself He's just like Working super hard And I think he I think he just was kind of stuck at this point in his career this transition period kind of I guess starting especially with like

empire of the sun was, I feel like actually a really good movie that was underappreciated. think he was disappointed with the reception for it. not super successful financially either. always wasn't very well received. Hook was kind of like, you know, it was what it was, in this transition, between the eight, late eighties and early nineties. So he's just in this weird period. And then on top of that, he's.

Introducing all this stuff. He feels stuck. He feels overworked I wrote down this at 1992 was the only year between 1977 and 2013 that had no movie directed or produced by Steven Spielberg That is just crazy that the dude is is a machine during this time and so at this transition point also, he's kind of considered by

critics, fans, peers alike to be kind of artistically marginal. Despite his industry success and all that, he's not really seen as like this guy that's like artistically pushing the form of filmmaking as art forward. He's just making movies that people like. But really like at this point, a lot of movies that people didn't necessarily like too.

He's had his share of those too. So he just he just isn't seen as this artistic force, I guess, in the film world by really everyone, even even his fans. I don't I don't at this time love his movies, but it's kind of like they might not even say like, Steven Spielberg, he is like pushing the art form forward. They just love his movies. That's fine.

Eli (14:32.0)
really Hook would be kind of the culmination of this. off of, you know, it's the culmination of this critique of his artistically marginal, I guess, tech, where he was in his filmmaking career. It's just another film lost in between the serious and the fantastic.

it, know, it's this trajectory from the color purple and empire of the sun and always in hook. there, there are all these movies that like want to be serious, but also want to be like fantastical and all inspiring as well. and it's kind of this strange mix of tone that has kind of been the trajectory of his career over the late eighties and early nineties.

and yeah it's it's he's kind of stuck here but these are also all movies about maturing and letting go of the past to move forward into the future which i think is very apt because that's what Spielberg is kind of having to do in his career he is on this trajectory pointing forward to some of his greatest successes yet and little did he know he would follow

of this rocky section of his career with Jurassic Park and Schindler's List, both in 1993. And what he finally seems to have come to with these two films is

really proof of of His maturity, I guess his maturing in his his thinking of who he was as an artist Because like I said all of these movies that have led up to this with the exception of maybe the last crusade It's kind of its own thing outside of these other four movies that I mentioned it it's almost like he

Eli (16:47.678)
wanted kind of a both and he wanted to make a serious movie but he also wanted to be fantastical and awe -inspiring and where he's kind of come to by the time he gets to Jurassic Park and Sinner's List is okay I know I can make a serious movie I know I can make like fantastical thrilling movies awe -inspiring movies and maybe let's separate the two maybe let's not have one that's both maybe let's have one movie that's

fantastical, awe -inspiring, thrilling, and then one movie that is serious, a serious adult drama. And that's what he brought to us. Both came out the same year. He releases Jurassic Park, his thrilling, big blockbuster, awe -inspiring, fantastical, crazy movie with incredible new effects, pushing things forward in that way, really.

And then on top of that later that year releases a serious adult drama that wins an Oscar. It is a huge transition point in his career. The releasing of these two movies. they're both humongous successes, both critically and financially just, you just incredible with them. and really like when these come out, he is probably at the high point of his career as far as like,

the equilibrium between director, producer, movie mogul. You know, he's he's just like on top of his game. He's made it through the rough part and he's finally matured to know what his strong suits are, how to play them, where to put his cards, you know, how to maybe separate the things that totally don't work well together and just keep them separate in two different movies.

Just just incredible it I mean, I'm really excited to get get into that part of his career In the 90s and 2000s, we're gonna see a run of serious dramas war flicks sci -fi thrillers Before he finally ends that run going back to making another indie film so Indiana Jones film that is

Eli (19:14.786)
So yeah, I'm excited. It is a run of more serious movies. Once, you know, after Schindler's List, of course he does The Lost World Jurassic Park. But after that, it's a lot, it's just a run of more serious movies. Even the ones that are a little bit more funny, maybe like Catch Me If You Can, it's still a serious movie about a more serious subject. So yeah.

And what we're also going to see is him launching the new distribution arm of Amblin, which is DreamWorks Studios. In 1994, he releases that. It has an animation spin -off studio and that starts in 2004. And this studio would see him producing 24 films after its launch in 1994, before the year 2000. Even if you didn't have

Direct credit on him on those films. He's he's 20 produced 24 films in that six -year time span Which is just crazy. So the man Doesn't really slow down as far as that goes It's a heavy workload, but we also see maturing in the way he handles things. They it after Schindler's List It's the first of five three year breaks between his directing movies

that we'll see through the rest of his career. starting after Schindler's List, you got three years before The Lost World. And then there's four other kind of three year breaks that you'll see throughout the rest of his career, which I think is wise on his part. But yeah, maybe pointing to his growing, maturing, and maintaining his workload and balancing his personal life as well. So yeah.

That's what we have looked forward to. excited about it. I wanted to share.

Eli (21:21.378)
Yeah, I guess next what I want to do is just kind of share my favorite things of his films of the 70s and 80s and then maybe end that with kind of sharing my rankings of those movies so far. And then kind of talk about what I'm most anticipating for the 90s and 2000s. And we'll kind of wrap up that way. So 70s and 80s favorite performances.

I'm just going to kind of list these out. I think Robert Shaw as Quint and Jaws is just phenomenal. Loved it. I mean, he is iconic really as a character. Richard Dreyfus is, I think is really good as Roy Neary in Close Encounters. There's that notable like dinner table scene where with the mashed potatoes.

that I think is just like incredibly well delivered. Great moment of acting. Of course you got Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in the three indie movies. I can't not mention that. I think also Sean Connery as Henry Jones in The Last Crusade. He's just great and they have such great chemistry together. Really, really good. I think Henry Thomas as Elia and Drew Barrymore as Gertie and ET are both

really really good. some great child actor performances that Steven Spielberg got out of them. and on that note, also Christian Bale as Jim is even better as a child actor. I mean, he just we talked about it in the episode but he's just like already just showing how much of a of a skill for acting he has and then also I just wanted to shout out

Basically the whole cast of the color purple is really really good. I am not going to name everyone. I will say my favorite performance was actually Oprah one for yes, Sophia. I thought she was just incredible. She steals every scene she's in. Yeah, really good. Those are my favorite performances. I wrote down also some favorite shots or favorite moments in Jaws, the 4th of July beach scene.

Eli (23:45.98)
where it's kind of cutting back and forth between Between him and the ocean looking waiting to see if there's gonna be a shark attack just really good And that scene even stretches all the way to To the the part where his son is in the water And you know his wife is calling calling him, you know Brody and

Yeah, he's going to look forward. So just that whole start to finish sequence is just phenomenal. The tension building, the camera work, the framing, it's all great. And then also like the Indianapolis speech where you have Brody, Quentin, Hooper on the boat at night and Quint starts telling the story about the Indianapolis sinking and man, that's a great, scene.

In Close Encounters, one image that I think is just like stands out in my mind from this part of his career is the kid standing in the doorway with the red light and his silhouette. It's just like a such a memorable image that I have stuck in my head. And then as far as like a moment, like a scene, I really, really like it.

It may seem strange that this is like a standout scene for me in close encounters, but there's the scene where he's like building the model of the mountain that he has in his head in like his living room or something. And the TV's on in the foreground of the shot. And he's in the background on the phone building this thing. And, it's like this moment of tension, because they're on the TV, on the news report, they're like talking about the devil's tower.

And you can see he doesn't know that what he's making is the Devil's Tower yet, but you can see on the news report that it is he's in the background on the phone building his thing, not noticing the TV. And you're like, it's right there. It's right there. It's just this like really fun, cool, well -directed, well -framed, well -composed scene of tension building, that I really liked that stood out to me and ET of course, I mean,

Eli (26:10.922)
It's the obvious ones. It's the bike in front of the moon and it's ET leaving. That leaves you in tears for this cute little alien friend that we've all made. So yeah, you know, that's ET. It is. Those are the moments. It just is. Indiana Jones movies, the opening of Raiders, of course. Gotta love it.

Anything with the thuggy and the Temple of Doom I think is really interesting and well shot and well lit. And then really any scene with Harrison Ford and Sean Connery talking to each other and discussing something is just great in The Last Crusade. I just really love their chemistry. Yeah, the color purple, the scene that stood out to me in that is when Sugar Avery

is singing the Sealy's Blues song that she's written in the juke joint. I just love the way that's framed and shot and the song is good and catchy. It's kind of popping into my head right now as I'm talking and I'm holding back humming out that tune. But I just really like that and I think I mentioned it on that episode. I think it really points to his prowess and his ability to maybe like shoot

something more musical, which he ends up doing with West Side Story. And then really like the last one that I wanted to point out is Empire of the Sun is just full of incredible shots and moments. You have the moment towards the beginning where he's like pretend fighting with his toy plane while he's sitting in the crash rail plane. That I think is great. The moment of he's separated from his parents in the crowd.

is a very like very visceral, very like in the moments, feels so real scene. You have Jim Christian Bell's character saluting the Japanese airman, which is a great shot. Powerful moment. The American air raid toward the end where he's on top of the building and shouting is really great. The stadium full of

Eli (28:32.7)
Stuff is just a standout image from the movie. There's just and there's more there's it's Man, if you haven't seen Empire of the Sun, I really recommend checking it out and listening to that episode going back and listen to that episode if you haven't I just was really impressed with it you know, I I think it probably has its problems, but I I just I feel like I can overlook those just because of how

Well, it's shot. The acting is great. Yeah.

And yeah, so let's do my rankings. the worst Spielberg movie I've ever seen at the bottom of the list is 1941. That's, I don't really want to talk about it always as a little above it. So, you know, I'm going to start with the lowest and move up to my favorite so far. 1941 is at the bottom of the list.

then you have, always coming next, not a whole lot better to be honest. the Twilight, Twilight is on the movie. I ranked it. This is a ranking, not for it overall, cause I do really, I did really enjoy the last two segments that, that, Joe Dante and George Miller directed. I actually kind of enjoyed those, those sections, but if I'm just ranking Spielberg's.

don't know, maybe I should put Always Above It because his portion in Twilight Zone the movie is really not good at all. So I think I'm live on air changing that ranking. So 1941, then Twilight Zone the movie, then Always. And so the next on my list I have is the color purple, which

Eli (30:35.486)
I thought was acted phenomenally. there's a lot of great shots. but the tone is just weird. There's a, there's a lot of pro there's some problems I had with it. It isn't the same problems that cause controversial that caused controversy back then. But, but yeah, I did have some issues with it, especially like tonally. but yeah, the sugar lane express I thought was really enjoyable. That's the next up on my list.

And right above it would be Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom And then I have Next up is dual. I really enjoyed dual. I would watch it again. It was attention -building. It's shot really well. It's interesting. It's different I really enjoyed dual so I would I would watch that again And then these are kind of this is like the top tier now that I'm getting into

You have empire of this. This is, guess, tier one B would be empire of the sun, that I have, and then Raiders of the lost arc and close encounters of the third kind. I think that's his like for me from the seventies and eighties, that's his like tier one B. These are movies that I have rated, four stars out of five or eight out of 10. If you want to go about that scale, love.

all of these movies, they're phenomenal. And then his like 1A tier for me, which are movies I have rated four and a half stars or nine out of 10. In this order from third to first would be Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. I love it. It's great. Then ET, the extraterrestrial, also love it. And Jaws is a five star movie for me. 10 out of 10, just phenomenal.

Yeah, I love Jaws. It's so good. My favorite movie of Spielberg of the 70s and 80s. It'll really be hard to top it and even in the rest of his great career. But that's that's my rankings of the Spielberg movies. So that's the 70s and 80s. are we are at this point. We are moving on from the 70s and 80s, the 90s and 2000s.

Eli (32:59.192)
I'm going to read out the movies we have coming up in this series for the 1990s and the 2000s. So we start off the 90s with Hook. Then we have Jurassic Park, followed up by Schindler's List, which we mentioned both coming out in 1993. Incredible. That is followed up by the Lost World Jurassic Park.

And then you have Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, AI Artificial Intelligence, Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, War of the Worlds, Munich, and wrapping up the decade of the 2000s is, in 2008 is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. So that is the next run of movies we're going to go through.

The kind of mid -career of Steven Spielberg and the 90s and 2000s I am excited most Anticipated I am excited to rediscover because these are movies that I've seen before and I'm excited to see again And it's maybe been a while since I've seen them and don't maybe remember a ton about them And so I'm excited to rediscover hook

I'm excited to rediscover the lost world Jurassic Park Catch me if you can I've seen kind of more recently, but kind of excited to see it again Re -examine it and then war of the worlds. I remember seeing it in theaters. I haven't seen it since So I'm excited about that And my wife is actually reading war of the worlds right now and I plan to to read it too before I rewatch the movie So that'll be fun

Blind spots that I'm really excited to see. do have some blind spots in this movie and this in this section, I guess you would say. I, I did have Schindler's list as a blind spot, but I've actually watched it cause I didn't want to watch it for the first time for the podcast. I watched it recently. but yeah, so it's not a blind spot anymore, but I do have some big ones. Amistad saving private Ryan AI minority report, the terminal and Munich. have not seen any of these movies.

Eli (35:26.04)
So I'm really excited to see all those but I'm most excited to see Saving Private Ryan, AI, and Minority Report. I'm just really excited to see those. And I guess the last thing I'm anticipating is I'm excited to see which movie is gonna really surprise me like Empire of the Sun did. I ended up like really really enjoying Empire of the Sun. I don't know...

I don't know that I had like any real expectations for it. I was just like, well, let's see what this is. And there are several movies that I kind of feel that way about, coming up that are blind spots for me. So I'm excited that maybe one of those will be like empire of the sun for me, one that I ended up really, really enjoying. So yeah, I'm looking forward to that. that is really, that's really all we have for this week.

that has been our Spielberg, Steven Spielberg intermission, between his early and mid career. that is all we have for this week. next week, what I'll probably do is, I'll probably cut a movie draft. that was maybe, I used to do movie drafts as a part of the bigger episode. It was just all in one.

I would cover a movie and do a movie draft all in one episode. So I might kind of cut one of those early movie drafts and kind of release it as a rerun next week to fill in a space. And then the week after that, we're going to pick up with Hook. Move into 1991, which is the year I was born. Yeah, moving to 1991, cover Hook, Robin Williams. Yeah, I'm excited.

So I'm looking forward to that. I have a fun new guest scheduled for that episode and we're gonna do a really fun movie draft that I'm not going to spoil yet. So look forward to that. Yeah, that's all I have for this week. It's been fun covering the 70s and 80s of Spielberg. I'm looking forward to the 90s and 2000s and I hope you are too.

Eli (37:42.082)
But until then, I have been Eli Price and you've been listening to The Establishing Shot. See you next time.