With the re-release of 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' in theaters, movie fans got a
reminder of what a Spielberg movie used to feel like.
He showed us a world where aliens visit the earth initially terrifying, but ultimately wondrous and very entertaining.
Now in the new millennium some of the most talky and nuanced American political dramas come from an unlikely source:
A director who built his empire in contrast to that very type of film.
But everything that made Spielberg movies magical seems to have vanished from the director's toolbox.
He instead shifts focus from his vivid imagination towards the complexity of being a responsible citizen.
But how different is 21st century Spielberg really?
Many years ago his last name became an adjective, which does not happen to a lot of filmmakers.
The Spielbergian Stamp is even evident on the dozens of films that he's produced
films that bear his overall tone and feeling. It's a term that has come to mean many things
such as childlike wonder, amazing stories and having actors look at an otherworldly light source.
That sense of wonder is something that seems to have distilled into a rather dry history lesson.
Spielberg's camera still adores in subjects, but the subjects have changed.
He puts his social conscience up front.
For many years he's created both popcorn flicks and critical favorites, but watching the critical favorites now requires something new:
patience.
Many more dialogue based scenes replace exciting set pieces.
His new demographic has gray hair and a firm grasp of the American political system.
While anyone can fall in love with 'ET,' it takes a certain love for democracy to appreciate 'The Post' or 'Lincoln.'
People used to watch Spielberg's best movies to get away from real life for a couple of hours,
while 'The Post' covers an important chapter in American history
Spielbergian magic is mostly absent.
'Lincoln' and 'Bridge of Spies' spend more time mired in American government that all of Spielberg's previous films combined.
As we can all see they're simply not as much fun as an 'Indiana Jones' film.
The directors recent fascination with real-life heroes can be traced back to 'Schindler's List.'
His Oscars for that film and 'Saving Private Ryan'
ushered in an era of historical filmmaking that saw him tackle political, yet fantastical stories.
But while these films feature graphic violence and adult themes, there is still a Spielbergian sense of wonder and excitement
to the filmmaking.
'Munich' hits just the right tone for 21st century Spielberg.
It starts out as an exciting thriller, one where it's easy to know who to root for
but Spielberg catches us in our thirst for violence and turns the plot around to show how bloodshed begets more of the same and
no one emerges unscathed.
Morally complex, but still exhilarating the directors cinematic brilliance is in full force.
Spielberg now seems to want to speak more to the adult in us rather than the child.
The new danger that occupies his mind is the miscarriage of justice.
Not anything immediately compelling as a killer shark or a stranded alien.
One thing 'The Post' has in common with his classic films is a sense of idealism.
The characters are underdogs battling a system larger than themselves.
Kay Graham does what she feels she must do even though it puts herself and her family at risk.
'The Post' is in a way Spielberg's 21st century successor to 'Close Encounters.'
SPIELBERG: "How to tell a story about UFOs and Watergate
and kind of putting that together. Certainly before Watergate my whole concept was the
UFO phenomenon in contemporary America, then after Watergate, it was of course
it's going to be a government conspiracy and the UFO phenomenon wrapped into one."
What this quote points to is that Spielberg did take an indirect political stance through his escapist fare?
Now in his 70s
he applies his perspective on life to stories where the heroes want to simply do the right thing for their country, their world,
but especially for their family.
Spielberg has said that 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' is now a dated film for him, because now that he has a family
he realizes he would never create an alter ego who abandons his own family.
Starting with the enormous box-office success of 'Jaws'
Spielberg was often pegged with the blame for popcorn flicks edging out intelligent genre films.
SPIELBERG: "I mean, maybe it'll be a revolution and will be the films will be smaller but much more provocative."
INTERVIEWER: "Can you do that kond of movie?"
SPIELBERG: "Yes, I can if I find the right script and the story, absolutely!"
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