but they were there - and you didn't have to realize it to love the movie, to feel good man. that's why he's so popular with both The Public and critics alike
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What Is Spielberg's Place Among Directors?
- Thread starter Andrew Korenchkin
- Start date
but they were there - and you didn't have to realize it to love the movie, to feel good man. that's why he's so popular with both The Public and critics alike
Spikematic
Member
One of the bests if not the best. Jurassic Park changed my life and I still consider it one of the best movies ever made. (Too bad The Lost World was pretty wretched...)
People who think he's a hack have
1. no taste in movies
2. no knowledge about directing
3. forfeited their freedom of speech (j/k)
Spielberg has made some crap and some of his movies are overly sentimental. But he has made a lot of masterpieces too. His simply a brilliant director, using his skills mainly for popular movies.
1. no taste in movies
2. no knowledge about directing
3. forfeited their freedom of speech (j/k)
Spielberg has made some crap and some of his movies are overly sentimental. But he has made a lot of masterpieces too. His simply a brilliant director, using his skills mainly for popular movies.
BotoxAgent
Member
The man is just a genius. Every movie he has done has been consistently good and with great skill.
I dunno if I can agree with that.
Heck, I don't even know if there is a Beatles equivalent in cinema.
It would have to be someone innovative and incredibly popular with consistently great work. Kubrick, maybe?
Damn dude, 10 English language directors? You gotta watch some foreign film, stat.
He's clearly an extremely talented story teller, but occasionally his choice of subject matter doesn't seem up to par with his talents. Still, I don't know how anyone can come away from Schindler's List, Amistad, Jaws, Saving Private Ryan, E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, or Raiders of the Lost Ark and say he's a hack. I'd be loathe to rank him, but he's probably high on the list, but still below his idol, Kubrick.
KarneeKarnay
Member
Spielberg was one of the greatest directors of all time. Now...not so much. I've not seen a good film from him in quite some time, but even his worst films are responded with just adequate at or meh.
I think the real problem is that Spielberg's earlier work were received with critical and commercial acclaim. He hit it too high early on. That said for a while anything he touched was gold and it's only been in the last decade that he's not been performing as well. He suffers from the Shamalan effect. You have a great director, surrounded by the right people and success will come. Over time these people disappear and are replaced by yes men and women.
I think he will rank in the top 20 as directors, maybe top 10, but I can't see him going higher. To get higher you need to showing this sort genius level of directorial skill more consistently.
I think the real problem is that Spielberg's earlier work were received with critical and commercial acclaim. He hit it too high early on. That said for a while anything he touched was gold and it's only been in the last decade that he's not been performing as well. He suffers from the Shamalan effect. You have a great director, surrounded by the right people and success will come. Over time these people disappear and are replaced by yes men and women.
I think he will rank in the top 20 as directors, maybe top 10, but I can't see him going higher. To get higher you need to showing this sort genius level of directorial skill more consistently.
RustyNails
Member
Visionary, one of the best. If not, the best.
Has given us so many iconic hollywood classics. His direction style is incredibly ranged, can direct a disney kids alien movie to a gritty, action-packed war drama with all its brutality. Can direct a monster movie thriller to a 1930's gangster drama. A movie about dinosaurs to a futiristic sci-fi pre-crime thriller. And not only just decent ones, but the ones that are critically acclaimed.
Has given us so many iconic hollywood classics. His direction style is incredibly ranged, can direct a disney kids alien movie to a gritty, action-packed war drama with all its brutality. Can direct a monster movie thriller to a 1930's gangster drama. A movie about dinosaurs to a futiristic sci-fi pre-crime thriller. And not only just decent ones, but the ones that are critically acclaimed.
RipperGrim
Member
A hack? I mean he's not exactly on fire recently but it's completely undeniable that he shaped modern cinema as we know it and also was behind some of the most loved movies of all time in multiple genres. So yea he probably should have quit while he was ahead but thinking he's a hack is just wrong.
Fancyarcher
Member
One of the best and THE most successful filmmakers ever, people who say he's a hack are wrong IMO. From his blockbuster beginners to his eventual more serious prestige projects, he's had quite a long career, and successes in every decade. He's still one of the few "older" filmmakers, I look forward to, when it comes to current releases, I'd say he's easily among the best directors who ever lived.
Spielberg's work in the past decade has been very well-received critically for the most part. In fact he's done more "smaller / less blockbusters", and that's fine. I don't think he suffers from The Shymalan effect, because he has entirely different ambitions then that. He's been making films like Bridge of Spies, Lincoln, and the forthcoming The Papers for example. Not exactly films that would set the world on fire box office wise, in Hollywood current heavy blockbuster mold, of which Spielberg was a leading factor in originally, but are greatly done "dramas".
Spielberg's work in the past decade has been very well-received critically for the most part. In fact he's done more "smaller / less blockbusters", and that's fine. I don't think he suffers from The Shymalan effect, because he has entirely different ambitions then that. He's been making films like Bridge of Spies, Lincoln, and the forthcoming The Papers for example. Not exactly films that would set the world on fire box office wise, in Hollywood current heavy blockbuster mold, of which Spielberg was a leading factor in originally, but are greatly done "dramas".
mocolostrocolos
Member
If he isn't the best of all time, he's close enough and I couldn't tell who is.
He's one of the best directors that the medium has ever seen and is ever going to see. He's a legitimate pioneer for filmmaking techniques still used to this day, he has an incredible knack for staging intimacy on some of the largest backdrops film has ever seen, and he does it all with a genuine love of the craft. Yes, he also is nakedly sentimental at times, but if that's the worst thing someone can lob at him as a criticism, it bounces right back because he owns up to it and isn't ashamed of it at all.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go back to programming for my horror marathon next month, and I have to put my beret back on since it's mostly foreign films this time around.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go back to programming for my horror marathon next month, and I have to put my beret back on since it's mostly foreign films this time around.
There are times when it works with Spielberg and there are other times when it turns maudlin and/or doesn't come across as genuine emotion.
The sentimentality in Schindler's List works for the most part and heightens the work. Meanwhile, Saving Private Ryan is completely ruined by it.
IMO, of course.
I feel like he's has lost his edge a bit since the 2000s. But he still has made some of the best films ever and is an all time great director. AI might have the worst ending in the history of film if Knowing didn't exist.
SPR and Schindler List are starting up important films everyone should be required to watch as teens.
SPR and Schindler List are starting up important films everyone should be required to watch as teens.
Vanillalite
Ask me about the GAF Notebook
I like this.
Andrew Korenchkin
Member
ShadowKingpin
Member
Easily one of the best. Not my favorite, but will always treasure his work. That opening scene for Saving Private Ryan has yet to be touched to this day.
MisterHero
Super Member
He's the Miyamoto of movies, of course!
Andrew Korenchkin
Member
lemmykoopa
Junior Member
The greatest of all time. Is there any director who has made great movies in nearly every film genre there is like him?
PantherLotus
Professional Schmuck
Andrew Korenchkin
Member
Howard's filmohraphy is pathetic compared to Spielberg.
Some of his choices in what movies to make over the last decade or so haven't been so great, but anyone saying he's a hack is just wrong. If you can't appreciate Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, or Catch Me If You Can then you might not be qualified to talk about movies, because you don't seem to like them.
He's already one of the greats, will go down as one of the greats. The story is closed, he's a master.
The way some talk about him, I would call him "underrated" in a way. He's a big director, but I think his technical skill is incredibly overlooked and outright taken for granted.
The way some talk about him, I would call him "underrated" in a way. He's a big director, but I think his technical skill is incredibly overlooked and outright taken for granted.
Warm Machine
Member
How many perfect or excellent movies do you have to make to be known as one of the great living directors of our age? Most artists in other mediums just have to write a great novel or make a couple decent albums.
fuck yeah he did
Theodoricos
Member
Imagine how jaded or cynical you have to be to think that anything in Spielberg's movies is "absolutely terrible". You can tell when a person is a cinephile or a snob based on what they think of Spielberg.
The man is a master of his craft. Not necessarily the best, but he's certainly created more than a few masterpieces, and he's managed to touch a lot of hearts.
The man is a master of his craft. Not necessarily the best, but he's certainly created more than a few masterpieces, and he's managed to touch a lot of hearts.
CountAntonius
Member
All time great, Legend, icon, brilliant etc..all accurate.
CrichtonKicks
Member
The final battle in SPR is masterful in how it lays out the geography of the fight so that the viewer is never confused about what is happening and where. I've seen very few directors able to do that while using a handheld style. I wouldn't have any heartburn with shakey-cam if other directors could use it with a modicum of the expertise that Spielberg employed.
PhoncipleBone
Banned
And that is one of the reasons Spielberg is so good. He is one of the few directors that can coherently lay out a large action sequence like that and you always know where everything is happening. Even if it is utter chaos going on on screen, you know where you are geographically.
Robdraggoo
Member
I know I like to get the kids together at least once a year and watch schindlers list with the fam. Great wholesome family entertainment.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
This is I think the key thing in most handheld action sequences. It's not really so much the camera jostling as it is the directors haven't taken the time to set up the geography of the setpiece first, so the effect of immediacy that they're going for very quickly becomes one of confusion.
Spielberg will also take time to re-orient you in the middle of a set piece as a quick reminder of where you are and where you just were as well, and this is not a thing I remember Greengrass, for example, ever being good at. Sometimes he would set up the playground (for lack of a better term) before letting the camera operators and actors go running around in it. Sometimes he didn't.
The confusion and disorienting nature almost always comes from the (lack of) planning/editing of a handheld action sequence, and not the camera motion itself.
Secret Fawful
Member
He made Tintin, so he's one of the greats. That's not counting his truly iconic films.
vinnygambini
Why are strippers at the U.N. bad when they're great at strip clubs???
I think he lost a bit of his magic touch throughout the years, but he's still one of the greatest.
Last film I enjoyed from Spielberg was War of the Worlds.
Last film I enjoyed from Spielberg was War of the Worlds.
PantherLotus
Professional Schmuck
no no, totally agreed. I had a half-written post I couldn't get pubbed because of work but I was intending to make a point about how they span the same basic generation but you could fit all of Howard's filmography in one wing of Spielberg's.
Not a fully formed thought.
PhoncipleBone
Banned
Precisely. It is giving you the lay of the land, but also reorienting you to where you are that great action directors do that sets them apart. Spielberg, Cameron, and Miller are very good at that. Peter Jackson was also very good about doing that in LOTR.
Pulling stuff like that off is almost invisible unless you are looking for it, but once you notice it you appreciate what the director has done so much more.
In addition to the playground stuff you mentioned, you also have a lot of directors that "cross the line" in their action sequences. Two examples of that that come to mind immediately are the Hulkbuster fight in Age of Ultron and the SWAT truck chase in Dark Knight. Crossing the line just adds to confusion as to how you are oriented in the scene.
CrichtonKicks
Member
Yeah, Spielberg has the reputation for editing the sequence in his head as he is filming. That's part of why he can minimize the time the film spends in post and it keeps him on or under budget and schedule.
So many films feel like they just shoot lots and lots of coverage and hope to figure it out in the editing bay.