Sunday, May 18, 2008

History: The Filmmaker

Steven Spielberg is considered to be the greatest filmmaker alive today. He has directed such classic hits as Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Hook, and Jurassic Park to name just a few.

What has impacted me the most though are his films based on historical events like Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List. Those films show an understanding of history that many filmmakers simply do not possess (see Jerry Bruckheimer's Pearl Harbor--yuck). In the making of Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg says he didn't want to make a "gung-ho Hollywood extravaganza" (again, see Pearl Harbor) but wanted to document what the soldiers in the D-Day Invasion really experienced. And that he does. Both Private Ryan and Schindler's List take us back to those points in history. No need to embellish it; the real deal is entertaining and fascinating and gory enough.
(Above: Spielberg, in baseball cap, addressing soldiers on a landing craft while making Saving Private Ryan.)
Spielberg is of course also known for crowd-pleasing movies like the Indiana Jones films and earlier today premiered the newest one at the Cannes Film Festival in France. Thought you might be interested in the pictures, given that we've talked quite a bit about the guy this semester.
(Above: Spielberg, right, with producer of the Indiana Jones movies George Lucas, and Harrison Ford.)

Sorry girls, no pics of Shia LeBeouf.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Fing, you know how Ralph Fiennes stared in Schindler's List well he also plays Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter.

FongHistory said...

yes, that's right. that's probably his biggest role though he was the star of a movie called The English Patient (mid-1990s) and Maid in Manhattan with jennifer lopez.