~*~Steven Spielberg: a God~*~
Here you will find all sorts of stuff on the directing GOD!!!!!
"I've discovered I've got this preoccupation with ordinary people pursued
by large forces."
--Steven Spielberg
~*~*~*~
As a kid in Phoenix, Steven Spielberg charged admission to his home movies while his sister sold popcorn. He turned out his first production, with script and actors, at age twelve, and a year
later he won a prize for a forty-minute war movie titled Escape to
Nowhere. At the age of sixteen, his 140-minute production, Firelight,
was shown in a local movie theatre. In college, his short film Amblin'
was shown at the Atlanta Film Festival and led to the genius's
Universal directing contract at the age of twenty!!!!!!!
Spielberg cut his teeth doing television work, which included an episode
of the Rod Serling series Night Gallery and the classic cult movie Duel.
His first feature, The Sugarland Express, was released in 1974, and he
was soon offered the chance to direct a thriller about a great white
shark that terrorizes a small New England beach town. Jaws cost $8.5
million and grossed $260 million. Spielberg followed it up two years
later with Close Encounters of the Third Kind (he got a Best Director nomination).
But he followed Close Encounters with the disastrous 1941, which was his
first attempt at comedy and his first failure. He didn't take
long to regain his form, though! Teaming up
with his pal George Lucas, Spielberg invented an
action-adventure picture based on the old serials they both loved as
kids. It was called Raiders of the Lost Ark and it detailed the adventures of an
archaeologist named Indiana Jones. The film earned him another Best
Director nomination and made another mint at the box office.
A year later, Spielberg surpassed not only himself but Lucas's Star Wars
doing E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. It was one of the biggest domestic
moneymakers of all time. Further profiting as a producer of other
directors' hits (including Poltergeist and Back to the Future),
Spielberg became one of the richest men in Hollywood. In 1984, he
created his own independent company, Amblin Entertainment, and the
following year, he attempted The Color Purple. Criticized for sentimentalizing
the material, he was publicly embarrassed when the film pulled down
eleven Oscar nominations, but not one for his direction. In a goodwill
gesture, though, the Academy came through for Spielberg with the Irving
G. Thalberg Award, in 1987.
Over the next few years, with the so-so performance of Always, Empire of
the Sun and Hook, Spielberg's golden touch seemed to be failing him. Professionally, he came back with a double-whammy, in
1993, as Jurassic Park and Schindler's List fully sated the needs of
commerce and art. And Spielberg's portrayal of
good-hearted Nazi Party member Oskar Schindler finally earned him
long-awaited Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture. He then joined forces in 1994 with record mogul David
Geffen and movie mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg to form DreamWorks, a
multimedia entertainment studio. He then did The Lost World, and followed that up with Amistad.
~*~*~*~
~*~His Films~*~
Columbo:Murder By the Book (1971)
Duel (1971)
The Sugerland Express (1974)
Jaws (1975)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
1941 (1979)
Raiders of the Lost Arc (1981)
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
The Color Purple (1985)
Amazing Stories (1985)
Empire of the Sun (1987)
Always (1989)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Hook (1991)
Schindler's List (1993)
Jurassic Park (1993)
The Lost World (1997)
Amistad (1998)
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