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Feb 25, 2023 · The Adventures of Tintin is Spielberg's only foray into the world of animated films. The movie is based on the comic book series of the same name created by writer Herge in 1929.
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Steven Spielberg (born December 18, 1946, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.) American motion-picture director and producer whose diverse films—which ranged from science-fiction fare, including such classics as Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), to historical dramas, notably Schindler’s List (1993) and Saving Priv...
Spielberg developed an interest in filmmaking as a child, and during his teens his Escape to Nowhere (1962), a 40-minute war movie, won first prize at a film festival. He next directed Firelight (1964), a feature-length science-fiction yarn, which was followed by an accomplished short about hitchhikers called Amblin’ (1968). An executive at Univers...
Spielberg’s next movie, Jaws (1975), established him as a leading director, and it was one of the highest-grossing films ever. It featured Roy Scheider as the police chief of a resort town who battles a man-eating white shark. Joining him are Richard Dreyfuss as a marine biologist and Robert Shaw as a shark hunter. The highly praised thriller received an Academy Award nomination for best picture, and its ominous soundtrack by John Williams won an Oscar. The film all but created the genre of summer blockbuster—big action-packed movie released to an audience grateful to be in an air-conditioned theatre—and it established many of the touchstones of Spielberg’s work: an ordinary but sympathetic main character is enlightened through a confrontation with some extraordinary being or force that gradually reveals itself as the narrative unfolds.
Spielberg then directed the mystical science-fiction tale Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), which he also wrote. Dreyfuss was cast as the lead, and he submitted one of the best performances of his career, as a telephone lineman who encounters an unidentified flying object and subsequently becomes obsessed with UFOs. For the film, Spielberg received his first Academy Award nomination for best director. Vilmos Zsigmond’s cinematography earned the film’s only Oscar, though the special effects were also praised. Spielberg became just the second director in history to score back-to-back $100 million grosses.
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After the disappointing 1941 (1979)—which was received as an unfunny comedy, despite the presence of John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd—Spielberg directed Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), a loving, expert (if slightly redundant) tribute to old adventure serials. The film and its sequels, which starred Harrison Ford as handsome archaeologist Indiana Jones, used rich colour cinematography, brisk editing, memorable musical soundtracks, and inventive special effects to create a cinematic experience that was typically light yet highly suspenseful. Spielberg received his second Academy Award nomination for best director; the film was also a best picture nominee.
Spielberg’s next film was even more successful. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) was a moving exploration of an alien encounter that cleverly eschewed the epic scale of Close Encounters for the microcosm of its effect on a single California family. Henry Thomas gave a strong performance as the boy who discovers and befriends the stranded alien, and Dee Wallace portrayed his sympathetic mom. The film also featured Drew Barrymore in one of her first roles. As with most Spielberg films to that point, the special effects were a large part of the movie’s appeal—in this case, the wonderfully articulated E.T.—but it was Spielberg’s mastery of human (and alien) emotion that made the movie a blockbuster. Both Spielberg and the film were nominated for Academy Awards, as were Melissa Mathison’s screenplay, Allen Daviau’s cinematography, and Williams’s score; only the latter won.
- Michael Barson
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29. One of Spielberg’s Amateur Films Was Shown in a Local Theatre. Firelight was a 140-minute science fiction film that Steven shot as a teenager with his dad’s camera. His dad paid the $500 that the film cost, which was recouped when a local theater showed it to the townspeople.
Dec 19, 2023 · Steven Spielberg poses with his two Oscars during the 66th annual Academy Awards. AFP via Getty Images. Undeniably, Steven Spielberg's creative genius has left an indelible mark on the landscape ...
Munich (2005) 1. Sugarland Express (1974) Sugarland Express marked the big-screen directorial debut of Steven Spielberg. Starring Goldie Hawn, Ben Johnson, and William Atherton, this movie, based on a true story, revolves around a young woman who helps her husband escape from prison so they can kidnap their child who's been placed in foster care.
Several of Spielberg's works are considered among the greatest films in history, and some are among the highest-grossing films ever. In 2013, Time listed him as one of the 100 most influential people, [8] and in 2023, Spielberg was the recipient of the first ever Time 100 Impact Award in the U.S. [9] Reviewing Close Encounters , Pauline Kael ...
Oct 22, 2021 · Part 1: An Overview Of The Nine Themes of Steven Spielberg’s Library Of Film. When I consider the meaningful memories of seeing films in the movie theater the past five decades, Steven Spielberg ...
