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31 postsSpielberg directs this historical film based on a J.G. Ballard novel. It details the experience of a young boy trying to survive on his own in Shanghai after the 1941 Japanese invasion. Christian Bale, John Malkovich, and Miranda Richardson star.
From the moment I read J. G. Ballard’s novel I secretly wanted to direct myself.
Spielberg directs this film based on the novel by Alice Walker. The story details the trials and tribulations of an African American woman from Georgia trying to make it in the difficult world of the early 1900s. It stars Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, and Oprah Winfrey.
There were certain things in the [lesbian] relationship between Shug Avery and Celie that were very finely detailed in Alice’s book, that I didn’t feel we could get a [PG-13] rating… And I was shy about it.
Spielberg directs this sequel to the 1981 hit Raiders of the Lost Ark. This time the hero is searching for a magical stone and finds a evil plotting cult. He must stop them. Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Jonathan Ke Quan co-star.
I wanted to paint a dark picture of an inner sanctum. I didn’t rely on magazine pictures as I used to, looking at National Geographic pages or in a photography magazine to show the cameraman what I liked. I relied more on what it would look like if an entire set had only low wattage light bulbs recessed in nooks and crannies.
Spielberg directs this film about a little boy who finds an Alien in his garden shed. He befriends the creature and tries to help it find its way back home. The film stars Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, and Peter Coyote.
It’s a contemporary science-fiction fantasy. It’s about human values. It’s about the understanding people have towards one another. It’s about compassion and love. They share so much of what they know about their own environments with each other and they come to have a great understanding for each other’s problems. Elliott understands that E.T. is lonely and has to get home to survive, and that he must save E.T.’s life.
Spielberg directs high energy film that brings to mind the classic adventure serials of the 1920s. An archeologist is tasked with finding the mysterious Ark of the Covenant. Unfortunately, the Nazis are also looking for it, hoping to use its mystical powers as a weapon. The film was co-written by George Lucas and stars Harrison Ford. On Collaborator George Lucas:
I would trust George with any movie I ever direct to edit in any way he sees fit. He knows the secret of what an editor can do to a movie, how he can enhance the film.
Spielberg directs this comedy about the hysteria that breaks out in California shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack as residents fear an imminent Japanese invasion of the US mainland. Saturday Night Live vets Jhon Belushi and Dan Aykroyd star.
[The Film] wanted to be bigger than the war, bigger than history.
Spielberg directs this big budget science fiction film. After an encounter with a UFO, an engineer becomes psychically connected to a race of extraterrestrials who are about to visit earth. The film, which is notable for having a positive view of the potential of people encountering an alien race, rather than playing on the fearful aspects, stars Richard Dreyfuss and Teri Garr.
I really found my faith when I heard that the Government was opposed to the film. If NASA took the time to write me a 20-page letter, then I knew there must be something happening. I had wanted cooperation from them, but when they read the script they got very angry and felt that it was a film that would be dangerous. I felt they mainly wrote the letter because JAWS convinced so many people around the world that there were sharks in toilets and bathtubs, not just in the oceans and rivers. They were afraid the same kind of epidemic would happen with UFOs.
Spielberg directs this horror film about a massive shark killing residents of a small New England beach community. Eventually three men leave in a boat, attempting to find the fish and destroy it before the local tourist economy is ruined. Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss star.
I had no choice but to figure out how to tell the story without the shark. So I just went back to Alfred Hitchcock: ‘What would Hitchcock do in a situation like this?’ … It’s what we don’t see which is truly frightening.
Spielberg directs this film about a woman who breaks her husband out of prison. The two of them then retrieve their child and run for it. When things eventually go sour, they are forced to take a police officer hostage. The film, which is Spielberg’s first theatrical production, stars Goldie Hawn, Ben Johnson, Michael Sacks
To me, the real villain’s Hawn; she’s the heavy for me—I mean, I intended it to be that way. But everybody has a different interpretation of who their villains are and who their heroes are.
Spielberg directs this edge-of-your-seat TV movie about a man terrorized by a crazed truck driver while driving to work. The film is based on a script written by novelist Richard Matheson, and stars Dennis Weaver.
I was intimately familiar with the work of Richard Matheson because I was a complete, obsessive-compulsive Twilight Zone follower, and so I knew of his work on the Twilight Zone and some of his really great episodes of that.
