The Gilroy 06.18.08: Say Hello to the Moolah King

Posted by Ben Quick on 06.18.2008

Reflecting on film's most successful director -- Steven Spielberg!

Welcome to The Gilroy! This is a brand-spankin' new column here at 411mania. There's really no boundaries or limits with this column other than movie talk. It's just going to be whatever comes out of my extremely (not so)massive brain. One week I could be writing about Brad Pitt, the next Charlie Chaplin. This week however, I'm going to be writing about a very successful director. No director in history has matched this guy's ability to simply make box office hits. Not John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, James Cameron or Peter Jackson, none of them can match Sir Spielberg. With his latest installment of the Indiana Jones series already passed $250 million domestically, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull becomes the fourteenth Steven Spielberg film to gross over $100 million. Being lazy, I didn't really search to see if another director could top that, but if you find one let me know. That's simply amazing. Anyway, I'm not writing this to discuss the man's latest success. I'm here to reflect on just how great of a director Steven Spielberg actually is. Beyond the money and the special effects lies a very remarkable filmmaker. He's one filmmaker that will no doubt go down in history as one of the best to ever be. These next movies are my selections as to what is essential viewing for the Moolah King, Steven Spielberg.



Jaws

Steven Spielberg made some notable films before Jaws, but this was the film that really put him on the map. Today we have the idea of the summer blockbuster in a movie that is fast moving and that can appeal to several demographics. In looking over film history you could make the case that Jaws was the movie that started the idea of the big summertime action flick. The story of a man-eating shark terrorizing a beach community is perfect for when the weather is great and you just want to watch some fluff. There's no great depth or ingenious character development in Jaws. That's the beauty of this film. All we need is a terrible idea of being eaten by a shark and seeing said shark get its ass whopped! In 1975 Steven Spielberg understood the basics of entertaining an audience. Those basic ideas of pure cinematic fun are no less awesome today.



Close Encounters of the Third Kind

The famous tagline from Close Encounters of the Third Kind was "We are not alone". Well, that's a line that may, in a way; sum up a big part of what Steven Spielberg's career has been about. It's the question everyone has had at some point in their lives. Are we the only intelligent life in the universe? Its questions and dreams like that in which Spielberg has made a very big mark in film history. He has a great knack for bringing our dreams and fears to life. Close Encounters of the Third Kind shows that ability as much as maybe any of his films. While this may not be as fondly remembered as Jaws or Jurassic Park, it's still essential viewing for Steven Spielberg fans.



E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial

Okay, I think this is an overrated movie. Maybe you need to be young to truly appreciate the story of a boy getting a pet alien. Still, the scene in which E.T. makes the boy's bicycle fly in the shadow of the moon is so damn iconic. It's the image Spielberg used for his Amblin films project and is shown in montages all the time. When writing a column on Steven Spielberg you can no more leave out E.T. than Schindler's List. While I'll probably not be adding this to my movie shelf anytime soon, there will be no other film this director is more remembered for.



The Color Purple

With a career of films including killer sharks, aliens, the ark of the covenant and John Belushi you'd have to be surprised with Steven Spielberg being the man to direct a movie about the struggles of black people in the early 20th century. I honestly wouldn't know if it was that surprising at the time. I was about -1 years old when The Color Purple was released. Still, looking at the films Spielberg had made previous to this one, this was a sharp detour. To tell a story of a young black girl being married off to an extremely abusive husband while dealing with the prejudices of the time is a far cry from a popcorn flick. The Color Purple showed a depth and talent that Spielberg had never shown before. He would definitely show that depth and talent again. Sadly, Whoopi Goldberg would not...



Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

This movie's sequel is what inspired this column. There have been four Indiana Jones installments so far. Each one has its levels of good and bad(more good than bad). I could've picked any of the four films to place here. Raiders of the Lost Ark came closest of the three I left off. Temple of doom is just too weird in the middle and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull simply cannot be my selection of the four films. Raiders of the Lost Ark was the first and set the standard for the franchise, so it was hard to leave it off. The Last Crusade is just so frickin' fun. It has the best pure action of the series, the hottest girl and Sean Connery. It's my favorite of the series. If I ever plan to watch the Indy series this is definitely one I don't skip. You really have to watch all four, but this one's the best. I didn't want to clog up the column so I just picked one.



Jurassic Park

In a column I had on another site, at a different time, was a format I called The Showdown. I would take two movies that had some sort of connection, compare them, and then pick the best one. In one of those columns I matched Jaws against Jurassic Park. Going into the column I had figured on picking Jurassic Park. I felt that with all the hype Jaws had gotten, I was going for the upset with Jurassic Park. Well, I did something stupid. I watched both movies. Well, I learned Jaws is simply the better movie. Jurassic Park has some really cheesy dialogue. Still though, it's the idea of what dinosaurs were really like that makes this a big time Spielberg movie. I said it before; Spielberg has made most of his career off of playing on our dreams and fears. That's what Jurassic Park is about. It's about our dreams of what those massive creatures of the past were like and our fear of what they could do to us.



Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan is easily one of the top five movies of the last fifteen years. It's a staple in all of its actor's careers. From Tom Hanks to Matt Damon, this is a major movie. What's even more amazing when looking at this film is just what it has done to the war genre. Gone are the days of the John Wayne "war is good" movie. Saving Private Ryan displayed how horrible war really is more so than any movie ever has. No one involved deserves credit more than the film's director. Steven Spielberg delivered an environment that was just about as brutal and terrifying as any in movie history. I just said that what Spielberg will be remembered for is bringing our dreams and fears to life. I fully believe that will be true, but his best work, in your humble narrator's opinion, is quite different.



The Terminal

This column is the first of what I expect to be many "essential viewing" formatted columns. In each one I like to pick that one underrated movie. For Steven Spielberg, The Terminal is that movie. When people see Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks working together I think they expect something more exciting than a movie about a guy trapped in an airport for nine months. Yet, those people are missing what makes The Terminal so worth while. It's a sweet, sensitive movie. Some people may not like that, but this guy does. If you haven't seen this movie, go rent it. If you've seen this movie and didn't like it, go rent it again.



Schindler's List

The Color Purple was a great start for Steven Spielberg in going beyond the superficial. Saving Private Ryan is one of the greatest movies of this generation, but Schindler's List is Steven Spielberg's best work. The horror of the holocaust will never be fully understood, but no movie has ever been as striking in displaying just how awful that time was as Schindler's List. It's a pure masterpiece. It's a film that will live on as long as there is film. There are maybe a handle full of other movies that I would put along side this film. Any director that can deliver a film that is worthy of being in the top ten, maybe top five, movies ever deserves to be praised. That's why I'm here!
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Well, that's it for the first edition of The Gilroy. I'm not sure what I'm going to write about next time, so I can't fill this space with that info. Well, I will say this, I hope you guys like me. I plan to be here for awhile. Until next time!