Director Spotlight: Steven Spielberg
We write about the master's best movies and rank his top 10
It’s frankly a little stupid that we’ve been doing this newsletter for almost three years and we haven’t done a Steven Spielberg edition. A living legend responsible for countless classics over the last several decades, Spielberg was born to make movies. From the improbable and outsized success of Jaws in 1975 to his 2021 adaptation of West Side Story (out in theaters this weekend!), no living director has achieved the commercial and artistic respect that Spielberg has won.
There’s a ton of great Spielberg films streaming right now, but we have highlighted some of the best for you here, as well as ranked our top 10 favorites. Go see West Side Story and then watch one of these Spielberg classics. You can’t go wrong with Steven.
Drew recommends…
Lincoln (streaming on HBO)
When I think of Abraham Lincoln, not as a historical figure in dusty textbooks or the icon imprinted on our $5 bill, but as a living, breathing human being, I think of Daniel Day-Lewis embodying the 16th president in Steven Spielberg’s 2012 film Lincoln. There’s an incredible power and responsibility that comes with telling this part of American history at this kind of scale, especially when depictions of ol’ Honest Abe have been so rare in movie history, but Spielberg treated the challenge with the patience and care that it demanded, which is what makes it one of the best and most accomplished movies of his storied career.
Before biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin even started writing her 2005 Lincoln bio Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, Spielberg had bought the film rights. While he has always been an ambitious director, he had never taken on a real-life subject quite this larger than life. Schindler’s List, Amistad, Munich and more had all been based on historical events, but this was Abraham Lincoln, perhaps the most beloved and important president in our nation’s history. Spielberg brought in screenwriter Tony Kushner to craft the screenplay and set his sights on the great Daniel Day-Lewis to play Lincoln. The legendary English actor was apprehensive about playing an American hero at first, but Spielberg (with a little help from Leo DiCaprio) succeeded in convincing him in the end.
It’s not exactly a surprise to say that Day-Lewis is nothing short of astonishing in the role. While he naturally looks a little like Lincoln, Day-Lewis precisely inhabits the man (or at least what we know of him from photographs and accounts) with his voice, physicality, costume, makeup, and more. He creates a Lincoln that’s both gentle and resolute, quiet and then suddenly (and briefly) loud. It’s such a memorable and brilliant performance that it’s hard to see how anyone would even dare to play Lincoln on screen for the next few decades. For good reason, Day-Lewis won Best Actor at the Oscars, becoming the first and only actor to win that award three times. Spielberg was patient in developing this movie, which also allowed him to book an absurdly good supporting cast, from Oscar winners (Tommy Lee Jones, Sally Field) to excellent character actors (David Strathairn, James Spader, Jared Harris) to fresh up-and-comers (Adam Driver, Jeremy Strong).
The smartest decision Spielberg made with Lincoln was to shrink down the story to just a few months at the end of the Civil War, instead of attempting to tell his whole life story, biopic-style, in a single movie. The film picks up in January 1865 as the war is coming to an end and newly reelected President Lincoln is striving to pass the Thirteenth Amendment, which will abolish slavery. We see Lincoln at a crossroads and also, tragically, nearing the end of his life. It’s a complex portrait of the President as he struggles to gather the votes necessary to end the scourge of involuntary servitude while a fractured nation continues its bloodshed. Lincoln recognizes him as a great and virtuous man that also took on a deep personal toll.
It’s clear that Lincoln was crafted with serious care and nuance. It’s a film full of ideas, one of the very best we’ve ever seen about American politics. Perhaps no one is more familiar with cinema’s power to shape our view of history and its notable figures than Spielberg. It’s a special skill to be able to bring it to life with such dignity and vitality.
Minority Report (streaming on Netflix)
This is a re-post from a July 2019 newsletter
Action sci-fi movies don’t get much better than Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise teaming up to tell a story from the masterful sci-fi author Philip K. Dick. Minority Report truly hits that sweet spot between blockbuster fun and heady science-fiction. Cruise plays John Anderton, a detective in the year 2054 that works in the Precrime unit, which catches murderers before they actually commit their crime. Precrime follows the visions of three psychics that prophesy the killings before they happen. When Detective Anderton discovers they have pointed to him as the next would-be murderer, the movie really kicks into overdrive.
This is the kind of role that Cruise is perfect for, the hero on the run. He’s played it in the Mission: Impossible movies countless times. Similarly, Colin Farrell is right at home as the suave Department of Justice agent that is tasked with catching Anderton. You’re never sure if you should trust him.
It’s not everyday that an action movie that makes $132 million at the box office possesses interesting ideas about fate and free will, but that is what happens when Spielberg is steering the ship. It’s not hyperbole to say that no one in the history of film has been able to marry emotional, mainstream moviemaking with smart and thoughtful ideas quite like him. Not only does Minority Report provide thrilling chase sequences, but it also leaves you pondering bigger ideas about choice and destiny.
Billy recommends…
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (streaming on Hulu)
The story about the creation of A.I Artificial Intelligence used to be the driving force behind the interest of this movie. Legendary director Stanley Kubrick had the concept of this movie in his head since right after 2001: A Space Odyssey. The popular box office breakout had escaped Kubrick’s otherwise unmatched career. And Kubrick really wanted that hit. As he saw the technology for creating movies get more advanced, his out-there vision that was a “what if?” turned into a potential reality. After E.T. was released, Kubrick struck up an unlikely friendship with Steven Spielberg because he found someone who could potentially unlock the missing formula to make this movie a reality. These conversations continued for the next 18 years until Kubrick’s unexpected death in 1999. Right before his death Kubrick voiced to Spielberg that he may be a better fit to direct this movie. Production never started while Kubrick was alive, but Spielberg felt he needed to fully realize his good friend’s vision by making a “Kubrick movie.” Not another “Spielberg movie.”
The first time I saw A.I. was after binging all of Kubrick’s movies in order, ending with A.I. to see what could have been his final movie. Seeing it at the end of a Kubrick binge may have been a mistake because the entire time I was trying to see what was the best Kubrick imitation. The long introduction to our lead character, David (Haley Joel Osment), an experimental A.I. child that is at the forefront of innovation. This is the emotional soul of the movie, a perfect merging of Spielberg’s expertise with the most “Kubrick like” cinematography. The goal with this “child” is to bring emotion into A.I. for the first time. Give it the capacity to love and any void can be filled. Unfortunately, the family that adopted David is not fully able to embrace this convincing A.I. and he is abandoned in the wilderness.
On this journey we meet the standout of this movie, Jude Law’s character, Gigolo Joe, an A.I. prostitute who is on the run after being framed for murder. Joe has a Fred Astaire like aesthetic and demeanor. Prancing around everywhere with a smooth touch. He accidentally becomes the guide for young David during his search to become “a real boy.” If he can become a real boy then his mom will truly love him. So he thinks. When you see a little boy or creature in a Spielberg movie you think of a fun adventure. This is not that. We have sex robots mixed with A.I. genocide and David going thorugh an existential crisis.
It is wonderful to see this love letter from Spielberg and his best attempt at what he thought a Kubrick A.I. adaptation might be. At its best you can see the style of Kubrick infused with the sentimentality that Spielberg is known for. I imagine a lot of the journey from beginning to end would have played out a lot differently, but the introduction and finale of this movie feel like the parts that Kubrick had fully realized. Somehow beautifully quiet and epic all at the same time. A.I. is not my favorite Spielberg, but the finished product completely lives up to the unfair expectation. A movie that came out of a friendship between two of the most influential, but very different, American directors should probably have failed. Thankfully it doesn’t so use your time to watch what is often an unseen Spielberg film.
Top 10 Spielberg Movies
Drew:
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Jaws
Jurassic Park
Saving Private Ryan
Schindler’s List
Lincoln
Minority Report
Catch Me If You Can
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Billy:
Jaws
Jurassic Park
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Raiders of the Lost Ark
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Saving Private Ryan
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Schindler’s List
Catch Me If You Can
Recent Release Mini-Reviews
House of Gucci (in theaters)
Drew: What’s fun and ridiculous in the first half of House of Gucci eventually bogs down into a purposeless dive into greed and excess. However, the performers make this overlong movie worth it. Lady Gaga delivers fun scenery-chewing in tandem with strong character moments. And Jared Leto goes full ham sandwich in an unforgettably hilarious performance. Even Adam Driver is dialing it up to an extent.
While the actors are all on the same campy page, the writing and direction don’t match the same tone consistently. House of Gucci just kind of rolls to a stop instead of building to a big crescendo. - 3 / 5 Apples
Links
Two fascinating celebrity profiles were released in the last couple weeks. The first was Vanity Fair’s piece on writer-director Adam McKay, which includes some depressing bits about his relationship with former creative partner (and friend) Will Ferrell. And the second was a New Yorker feature on the very intense Jeremy Strong, star of HBO’s Succession which airs its finale on Sunday.
What are the best New York City movies? Vulture ranked 101 of them here.
The Writer’s Guild of America has named the 101 greatest screenplays of the 21st century and Get Out topped the list at #1. See what else made it here.