”He speaks cinema as if it's his native language.”
I think Steven Spielberg is one if not the best, filmmakers in the world, and probably ever. That weirdly gives me motivation, because I see a lot of myself in his childhood and how he grew up. I watched movies and immediately wanted to do what they did on screen, for a bunch of reasons, but mostly because I was completely infatuated with them. The only real difference I can think of between me, Steven, and me is that my first time in a movie theater was when I was a toddler, like under three years old.
”Steven was a nerd. A loveable nerd, but he was a nerd. He was not into sports or drugs or rock and roll, but he was passionate, and he was so enthusiastic. He used to love to talk about film, and it was infectious, his enthusiasm.”
This documentary really puts Steven in a light where he just feels like a normal guy. A weird, nerdy guy. They even straight up say, "he's a nerd. A lovable nerd, but still a weird nerd."
One thing I realised watching this is how incredibly personal every movie he has made is... and I think that is why Spielberg's movies work so well... because they're so deeply personal to him. Like, for example, E.T. was originally only about how divorce traumatizes children, without the alien. Then he makes a theme out of that, and adds an alien and turns it into E.T., which is one of the best movies ever made... And honestly, you could say that about all of his films… Spielberg himself does most of the talking in the documentary, and it's clear he remembers what it felt like to be a kid in a very vivid way. That explains so much, especially how well he works with children and tells stories from their perspective.
One of my favorite movies ever is The Fabelmans, and it's wild how much of that movie shows up in this documentary, too. You literally get to see shots from The Fabelmans that were originally filmed on 8mm during his childhood. I already thought that movie felt real, but this takes it to a whole other level, knowing he basically recreated moments he had already filmed as a kid. That's kind of unbelievable.
I also love how openly he talks about being an asshole or making mistakes when he was younger. He not only does that in this documentary but also in The Fabelmans, with different things, and shows how he brought some of that into his movies, and how personal his movies are. Like him calling his dad a crybaby multiple times and then having a kid in one of his movies do the same to the parents in the movie.
Most of the actors who've worked with him are almost embarrassingly enthusiastic in their praise, which is expected. But that's balanced out by Spielberg being genuinely naming his own mistakes, which ended up being some of the most interesting parts. For example, even though we never touched on HOOK, we did get to hear a few words on 1941, which was a huge fail when it came out. Which is funny because while sure it isn't his best work, it isn't bad, it is still pretty good.
”I remember the time I almost gave up my dream of being a movie director.” - Steven Spielberg
Spielberg starts the documentary saying that he was close to not becoming a director because he felt intimidated by other directors and how good they were, and honestly, I might relate to that. Though I don't know if I ever REALLY dreamt of being a director, I feel like I lost that dream pretty quickly, too, because I'm just not on the level these guys are on. For example, I'm really bad at seeing the big, clean themes that stretch across an entire movie, the kind where the first scene talks to the last scene, like he talked about "Lawrence of Arabia" and i would have never thought about how he starts of the movie looking at the shine in the knife in the really nice white clothes and then at the end how the clothing is different and that symbolic is meant to show how he has changed. Like, when I watch movies, I'm fully in the moment. I connect way more to ideas that get introduced and explored over 15 to 30 minutes, then kind of live in the background while new ones come in. But those long, perfectly planted themes that pay off at the very end... they usually go straight over my head, like I notice his change, but not the reference or symbolism. I'm almost certainly never gonna reach the level of intellectuality for film that these guys have, I am just gonna have to keep enjoying them like I am right now.
There was George and Francis. And then there was Marty and me. And then there was Steven.
He was the young gun that everyone respected in that group of what are now some of the greatest directors ever. If you asked someone, "Who's the best director?", they'd probably name one of those guys from that friend group, which is honestly insane. They clearly helped each other, pushed each other, and grew together. That might be the biggest takeaway here: You need people around you who do the same thing you do. Not just work friends, but real friends. The kind you'd actually grab a drink with.
The documentary does a solid job of breaking down his career. It's mostly chronological, but not in a strict way. It opens with Jaws and then later circles back to Duel. His home life only comes up when it directly connects to his work, and as I mentioned, it connects a lot. He also talks about how loyal he is to his collaborators, some of whom he's worked with since the 70s, and he gives a lot of love to John Williams, which felt very deserved. It's not overly glossed over, and when they dig into his personal life, they don't shy away from the hard stuff or the mistakes. This is just the story they had to tell.
A lot of people online are calling this a celebratory, backslapping promo piece, and I get why. But I also don't think anything in it is dishonest. He really is that good. I'd rather this exist than not exist at all. Even his so-called flop, 1941, really isn't that bad.
My only real issue is that HOOK barely gets any screen time. Or maybe I missed it. Either way, that movie deserved a moment. I wouldn't have complained if this documentary were three hours long just to make room for it. Like, don’t act like it doesn’t exist because it does, and holy god, how I loved that movie as a kid, and still really wish those deserts were real and edible.
