Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgments
Film and Television Programs: Steven Spielberg (chronological)
1 Introduction
References
Part One: Industry and Agency
2 Spielberg as Director, Producer, and Movie Mogul
The Move to Producing and Early Amblin
Jurassic Park
and
Schindler’s List
The DreamWorks Decade
A Lion in Winter
References
3 Producing the Spielberg “Brand”
Spielberg’s “Brand”
Spielberg as Producer
From
Schindler’s List
to the Shoah Foundation
The Last Days
and
Broken Silence
Conclusion
References
Part Two: Narration and Style
4 Magisterial Juvenilia
Introduction
Amblin’
Night Gallery
: Pilot, Segment 2: “Eyes” (Nov. 8, 1969)
Marcus Welby, M.D.
Season 1, Episode 24: “The Daredevil Gesture” (Mar. 17, 1970)
Night Gallery
: Season 1, Episode 4 segment: “Make Me Laugh” (Jan. 6, 1971)
The Name of the Game
: “L.A. 2017” (Jan. 15, 1971)
Columbo
: “Murder by the Book” (Sep. 15, 1971)
Something Evil
(Jan. 21 1972)
Conclusion
References
5 Finding His Voice
Duel
and
The Sugarland Express
: Innovative Road Movies
1941
: Spielberg’s Great Folly
Conclusion
References
6 Creating a Cliffhanger
Introduction
Filmic Narration
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
References
7 Steven Spielberg and the Rhetoric of an Ending
Sunsets
Beaches
Superego Figures
The Family Reunion
End Sequences
The Voice‐over
Lost Children and Homecoming
Acknowledgment
References
8 The Spielberg Gesture
References
Part Three: Collaborations and Intertexts
9 Spielberg–Williams
The Hitchcock–Herrmann Legacy
A Relaxed Working Method
Spielberg’s Alter Ego
Modernism versus Romanticism
A Meticulous Maestro
A Bluesy Debut
“That
is Jaws
”
Williams’s Favorite Score
Leading with Music
On the Edge of Camp
Back to the Fundamentals
Completing the Circle
Uniting Spielberg and Kubrick
“Beauty without Bathos”
Effulgence versus Attenuation
Symphonic Cinema
References
10 Spielberg and Kubrick
Career Parallels
Converging on
A.I.
Developing
A.I.
Conclusion
Author’s note
References
11 Spielberg and Adaptation
Adaptation and Contemporary Hollywood
Adaptation and Intertextuality
The Politics of Adaptation
Conclusion
References
12 “A very cruel death of innocence”
Introduction
The Novel
From Novel to Film
The Slap
The Opening
Childhood and Identity
Childhood, War, and Nationality
Spielberg and War Movies
Visual Images and Motifs
The Ending
Conclusion
References
Part Four: Themes and Variations
13 “Who am I, David?”
Losing It:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Maternal Impotence in
E.T.: The Extra‐Terrestrial
The Absent Family of the Road Movie:
The Sugarland Express
Lost Boys and Found Mothers in
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
References
14 Close Encounters of the Paternal Kind
A Hole in the Culture
Portraits
Keeping up with the Joneses
Dark
Incoherent Paternities
Dreams
References
15 Spielberg and Rockwell
Spielberg and Rockwell
Rockwell and
Saturday Evening Post
Illustrative Realism
Marginal Genres
Spielberg’s Suburbs
Middle Period
The Historical Cycle
Catch Me If You Can versus
Forrest Gump
Conclusion
References
16 Too Brave for Foolish Pride
References
Part Five: Spielberg, History, and Identity
17 Morality Tales? Visions of the Past in Spielberg’s History Plays
Dark Turns of the 1990s
The Invisible Hero of Contemporary Political History: Avner Kaufman in
Munich
The Hero of American History:
Lincoln
The Rise of the Everyman
References
18 “Britain’s Secret Schindler”
Introduction
Nicholas Winton’s Life and Activities
Initial Recognition of Winton’s Work
Anniversary Coverage and the Myth of Schindler
Comparisons post‐2009
Schindler’s List and British Self‐Perception
Schindler and Myth
References
19 The (M)orality of Murder
Introduction
Avner the Butcher
Brisket and Family
Absent Fathers and Present Mothers
Milk and Blood
Secrets and Wine
Bread and Sacrifice
Cathartic Consumption
“Home Sweet Home”
A Strange Absence
Conclusion
References
20 You Must Remember This
Historical Echoes: No More Munichs!
Communal Memories: Docudramas as History
From Page to Screen
Behind the Screen: Conflicts and Controversies
The Movie
State‐Sanctioned Violence: Doctrines and Drones
A Note on Technical Issues
Conclusion: A Different Spielberg Movie
References
21 Violence and Memory in Spielberg’s
Lincoln
Overture
Ruptured Bodies, Ruptured Nation
Haunted Images
Lincoln’s Dream
The Shadow of Slavery in
Lincoln
Apotheosis
References
Part Six: Spielberg in the Digital Age
22 The Spielberg Effects
Spielberg’s Effects
The Shark Is Working
The Spectacular Venue: Inscribing an Audience
Indiana Jones
and the Painting of Matte
Industrial Light and Magic: A Special Relationship
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
: “Don’t be fooled …”
War of the Worlds
: “I have to see this”
Conclusion
References
23 Spielberg and Video Games (1982 to 2010)
Introduction
An Overview of the Games and Their Development
Spielberg and Video Games
The Characteristics of Video Games
Fiction and Story in Video Games
Conclusion
References
Part Seven: Reception
24 Sharks, Aliens, and Nazis
Spielberg and the Art of the Blockbuster
Spielberg and the Ideology of Entertainment
Spielberg and Films with Big Ideas
References
25 Spielberg, Fandom, and the Popular Appeal of His Blockbuster Movies
Spielberg’s Hollywood/Brand Spielberg
History, Allusion, and Spielberg as Film Fan
The San Diego Comic‐Con and Spielberg Fandom
Conclusion
References
26 Steven Spielberg and the Rise of the Celebrity Film Director
1960s and the Rise of a Directors’ Cinema
Spielberg the Movie Brat
The Film Director as Superstar
Commerce and the Auteur
The King of Hollywood?
Spielberg as Celebrity
References
Index of Film and Television Programs
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 06
Table 6.1 The 174 shots of the cliffhanging sequence from
The Lost World
divided into nine segments.
List of Illustrations
Chapter 04
Figure 4.1 Two New Waves: experimentation and abstraction:
The 400 Blows
and
Amblin’.
Figure 4.2 Lost in (cinematic) space:
THX 1138
and “Eyes.”
Figure 4.3 Frustrated dreams of escape in the deep‐focus worlds of
Citizen Kane
and “The Daredevil Gesture”: oppressive parental figures obstruct access to the door.
Figure 4.4 Wellesian blocking with a 69‐second deep‐focus shot, and
noir
lighting and composition in “Murder by the Book”: the little guy’s unobtrusive entrance after “the longest stage wait in television history.”
Figure 4.5 Characteristic intertextuality from Spielberg’s early professional career: room‐wrecking scenes in
Citizen Kane
and “Murder by the Book.”
Figure 4.6 Possession: metonyms for lost children in
M
and
Something Evil
.
Chapter 05
Figure 5.1 Stills from a single fast‐moving shot in
Duel
.
Figure 5.2 Visual interest in a film set primarily inside automobiles:
The Sugarland Express.
Chapter 06
Figure 6.1 Stylized editing: scene transition in
The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
Figure 6.2 “Mummy’s very angry”: external focalization in
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
.
Figure 6.3 Omniscient narration and inscription of off‐screen space in
The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
Figure 6.4 Partial disorientation through partial external focalization: shifting relationships between camera positions and characters’ perspectives in
The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
Figure 6.5 Heightened tension through analytic editing in
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
: fragmentation increases dramatic intensity.
Chapter 07
Figure 7.1
Minority Report
: Spielberg’s name linked to the sun on the horizon in the middle of the final shot.
Figure 7.2 Penultimate shot of
The Sugarland Express
: the men silhouetted against sunlight shimmering on the river as Slide’s handcuffs are removed. Ironic final titles.
Figure 7.3
Jaws
: Brody and Hooper wade ashore at the end of the last shot.
Figure 7.4 The ending as a crucial boundary in
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
(top), in which the wider horizon opened up is the infinity of the universe; compare
Munich
(bottom), which finishes by focusing on the World Trade Center – a suggestion there will be no end to the cycle of violence.
Figure 7.5 A “formation of the romantic couple,” rare in Spielberg, showing his ironic stance: at the end of the last shot of
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
, milling children distract Indy and Willie from their concluding kiss while, in the background, Shortie applauds.
Figure 7.6 Sisters Celie and Nettie haloed by the sun at the end of the closing shot of
The Color Purple
.
Figure 7.7 Oedipal bliss in
A.I.
: beginning of the last shot in which David sleeps and “dies” with his mother, Monica.
Figure 7.8 Theatrical space at the resolution of (top)
War of the Worlds
, in which Robbie, foreground, emerges from the house to greet his father Ray in the background, while in the middle ground mother Mary‐Ann and daughter Rachel reunite; and (bottom) in a stylized family reunion, by the farm gate against the sunset, in the penultimate shot of
War Horse
.
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1 Ben Gardner’s head in
Jaws
: one of several bravura cinematic effects fortuitously resulting from the failure of “Bruce.”
Figure 11.2
Schindler’s List
: a scene characteristic of Spielberg, emphasizing mediation of the past through cinematic representation and the complex ethical ambiguities of witnessing such horror.
Chapter 14
Figure 14.1 Keys in
E.T
., unable to relinquish the dreams and hopes of his childhood.
Figure 14.2
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
: a male‐bonding saga centering on the archaeologist‐adventurer and his absent‐minded academic father.
Figure 14.3 The profoundly troubled Roy Neary: a fractured personality and incoherent father in
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
.
Figure 14.4
Empire of the Sun
: the father, dignified and aloof – watching, perhaps understanding, but not really connecting.
Figure 14.5 Banning in
Hook
: a narcissist in need of a lesson.
Chapter 15
Figure 15.1 While Zemeckis’s
Forrest Gump
(bottom) wants the audience to accept as real the falsehood that Forrest Gump addresses an actual anti‐war rally, Spielberg’s
Catch Me if You Can
(top) adheres to fictional conventions of realism to portray the 1960s as a time of diminishing freedoms.
Chapter 17
Figure 17.1
Munich
invites the spectator to share the emotional perspective of Avner, the increasingly tormented Israeli protagonist.
Chapter 18
Figure 18.1 Sir Nicholas Winton in
Revealed
episode. Channel 5 (UK), 2011. Producer: Steve Humphries; director: Nick Maddocks.
Chapter 20
Figure 20.1 The controversial stairwell debate between Avner and Ali in
Munich
.
Figure 20.2 The shadow of death in
Munich
: sexual passion contaminated by violent memories.
Chapter 21
Figure 21.1 The Battle of Jenkins’ Ferry, from the opening sequence of
Lincoln
.
Figure 21.2 Robert Lincoln’s shell‐shocked face after witnessing severed limbs dispelled from a wheelbarrow in
Lincoln
.
Figure 21.3 Lincoln tipping his hat to the fallen as he surveys the Petersburg battlefield after the Confederate retreat in
Lincoln
.
Figure 21.4 Lincoln examines a photograph of a slave child, on loan from Alexander Gardener’s studio, in
Lincoln
.
Figure 21.5 “Very keenly aware of my aloneness.” The dream sequence from
Lincoln.
Figure 21.6 “The better angels of our nature”: transitioning from Lincoln’s death to the film’s final scene, his second inaugural address, in
Lincoln
.
Chapter 22
Figure 22.1
A.I.
: David, caught in a feedback loop of deepest desire, mirrors the spectator’s subjection before the image.
Figure 22.2 One of Spielberg’s “stadium” sequences:
Raiders of the Lost Ark
.
Figure 22.3 A glass matte painting in
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
tests the hero’s faith in the reality before his eyes – as well as that of the spectator.
Figure 22.4 A matte painting represents a dead stop to the action in
Raiders of the Lost Ark
, with a sudden cut to an extreme long‐shot of a previously unseen ravine.
Figure 22.5 Ambiguous interplay between spectator and image in
The Man With the Movie Camera
(Dziga Vertov, 1929) (top) and
War of the Worlds
(bottom): a gaze utopian in scope and range, but connotatively terrifying for its authoritarian ubiquity and the judgment it passes.
Chapter 25
Figure 25.1 A view from the top of the Convention Center looking back at the crowds approaching from downtown San Diego in 2011, when Spielberg was in attendance and movies like
The Amazing Spider‐Man
were being advertised for the following year.
Guide
Cover
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