I’ve angered many people with that take. I love the movie, and I just didn’t accept the ending. He’s been through hell, basically failing at every step towards his inevitable capture. Then, he’s in complete control, and not only wins, but the “bad guy” kills himself, so the hero doesn’t even have to Murder him. I joked with friends after seeing it that he never got out of the Halo Chamber. The thing I get the most argument over is the Precogs, as if no one can believe that a government or business would enslave and torture a few people, to have complete control over murder. None of the police seem to care about the precogs, and the science guy was under the delusion that it was the best place for them, although he was perving on Samantha Morton. Spielberg leaves it ambiguous enough, but if one really listens to everything, it becomes more clear that the ending is all a Halo dream. I mean his wife just comes back to him and gets pregnant again? Really? Dude was manic, and a drug addict, and even if proven right, his crimes wouldn’t just be washed away. You know, like how in some states, a person can be charged with assault or manslaughter, if they shoot an unarmed person, even if that person has broken into a home at 3:00am. Yes, I’m getting too literal with laws, because it’s a movie, but the tonal shift wasn’t an accident. Spielberg rarely makes that big of a mistake. I mean just look at how the colors and saturation seems to change, after the scene with Cruise and Von Sydow.
Great piece. In Schindler's List, I'd also add the moment when Schindler breaks down talking about how his watch and other possessions could have saved more lives. It makes for a nice, neat arc for the character when the rest of the movie and history suggest more complicated and pragmatic person.
Hmmm. I always thought the the little girl in the red coat served several symbolic ideas within the context the film. For the audience it punctuates the horror of the liquidation with the shred of hope that an innocent might have a chance at being spared, that the girl might be discovered under that bed by a sympathetic soul and saved somehow. Spielberg doesn't cop out because when the Nazis are exhuming the mass grave to burn the bodies to cover up their crimes the red coat reappears. There is no innocence left to be saved in the wake of such evil. Also, because we are watching her from Schindler's POV, it serves as an observable breaking point to Schindler's belief that he can both profit from and protect his workers at the same time. He now knows he must choose between the two and realizes that his ambivalence toward their fate can no longer be sustained.
War of the Worlds is spot on, so many punches pulled, we still joke about going to Boston for its untouched safety! I like WoW, but it's only half a a really great movie.
There's so much I love (and even the much maligned "They were allergic to germs" ending is consistent with every version of the story to date) - but god damn does it repeatedly get in its own way
@@inframeout Yes, absolutely! For instance, he stuck with the original destruction of the Martians via germs, but decided to have the ships already here? (I'd also recently read how League of Extraordinary Gentlemen handled the story, so this take was all a bit disappointing).
I don’t know how well this applies to the video. But it did make me think about whether Spielberg, even know’s that his films can be overly sentimental or if he’s just reached a point where those questions don’t even cross his mind. Almost like an inverse of what happens when you’er just starting out. Where you question every choice you make. Only know, you rarely if ever ask yourself that, you just know what you’re doing, even if maybe you don’t. It’s a trap that I think anyone that does something for long enough runs the risk of falling into. And why I think that no matter long we’ve doing something, we should never stop trying to challenge are self’s. Just a thought.
wellllll, I'd give that more to the source material, J.G. Ballard's brilliant autobiographical account of being interned by the Japanese. Hard to be sentimental about that, but yes, it's not only a great film, but I think it's his last great film.
I have a similarly dark and revisionist take on his War of the Worlds. I think the ending is an Owl Creek Bridge death dream, and that Tom Cruise (whatever his name was) was killed while trying to suicide-bomb the Walker. Because that is what he did. He picked up a belt full of grenades with the explicit intention of hand-delivering them. He couldn't have possibly expected to survive. And he didn't. And in turn, this adds an extra layer of meaning to the movie as a rare example of an American radicalization narrative. War Of The Worlds is the story of how All-American Tom Cruise becomes a suicide bomber. And losing his son was a big part of that. He'd failed as a father, allowing him to go. And then his daughter is taken away to certain death or worse. Then that was it. He had absolutely nothing left to lose. He knew the terror of being invaded by a force with such overwhelming technology that no resistance was possible except the faint hope of explosive self-sacrifice. Basically, I think WotW is subversive as fuck and Spielberg slipped it right under everyone's radar with a bit of misdirection. (Also, the original WotW novel was, itself, openly anti-colonial and based around "What if aliens did to England what England has been doing to the world?" This would also be an very clever way of updating the themes for modern warfare while keeping the core message.)
I made the joke that Minority Report’s ending was just the dream Cruise was having in the Halo Chamber, when me and friends were leaving the theater. Halo Chsmber? What’s it called? 😆 Anyways, my friends called me a pessimist, and I then pointed out how pre-crime had completely ended murder. Ended it. And, pointed out the same things you did in the video. It’s my favorite post 80’s Spielberg movie. Schindler’s List is moving, and a beautifully crafted film, but I’m not rewatching it like Minority Report. *Of course the tech cold be manipulated, and it’s a horrible existence for the Pre-Cogs, though in reality, those things wouldn’t stop a government from using it with all the control over a populous it would have. He never left the Halo Chamber.
Very nuanced and thought provoking take. I’ve realized that as much as I love him as a creator for one of my favorite works (Indiana Jones), I really haven’t felt compelled to watch almost anything he’s put of some catch me if you can, with ready player one Ann and Indy 4 being outliers. Not sue if my internal reasoning Is akin to what you’ve pointed out here, but it’s making me reflect on why his movies haven’t been as much of a draw
Close Encounters has been one of my favorites since I was a kid. My dad really wasn't around when I was young, now I have 4 kids of my own. I should hate and should have always hated the dad in this, but I can't. The scene where his boy screams at him in the bathroom while he's having a breakdown is incredible. The scene where his wife leaves with the kids while he's tearing up the neighbor's garden and throwing stuff in their kitchen window, so good. Lots of emotional strings getting tugged. Great performance by Dreyfus. But I have no problem hating the guy from The Hurt Locker, another obsessive neglectful father who basically abandons his kid at the end. It's a good performance, but substitutes depression and a deathwish for sentimentality and wonder. Would I watch it again after seeing it the year it came out? Probably not. I want to feel the way Close Encounters makes me feel. My favorite thing about Minority Report is that it was filmed at the turn of the century when physical media was still everywhere and nobody imagined a future where you didn't have to plug a different little chip into a slot for every video you wanted to play. It makes me kind of sad that we went from discs to the cloud so fast with few years to linger with the inbetween tech.
Hello In Frame Out. Long time veiwer and recent comenter here. Since you mentioned in your phantoms video, could you do a video on A Cure For Wellness. I agree it's unsettling and terrifying but also overly long. I'd really love to see a in depth and in detail look at it, since I'm a huge Gore Vabrinski fan.
I wonder if the WoTW reveal of Robbie surviving would have been better if they had gone with one suggestion I've seen shared around here and there? They could still have Robbie survive but have him be a militia member part of the group of soldiers near the end that manage to bring down a Tripod when they realize the shields are off. He and his father could reunite with a more tearful embrace, and Robbie, despite having gotten to do what he always wanted, is almost regretful of it, longing for an innocence that he lost in exchange for 'getting back at them'. We have no idea what he went through, how he survived, and what he had to do in order to survive, and that might add more weight to it.
Great video! Well I think there is a "it's all in his/her head" layer to more than one Spielberg movie. E.T. can be Elliott's imaginary friend, Close Encounters might not be taken literally.... A lot of his movies are indeed too neatly wrapped up in the end. Of course he and others involved thought about it in depth and perhaps decided to have at least two possible ways of interpretation.
I don't think much about it, but I think beyond Saving Private Ryan, I rarely think back to a Spielberg film. And his sentimentality might be the reason; I'm left with little to actually question or take away from his output. But The Terminal is lovely.
I think "Saving Private Ryan" earns it's fleeting sentimental bookends to an extent as there are multiple sequences that hint at or explicitly show the darkness behind the valor (the moment in the opening when they murder the surrendering Czech conscripts for example). Unfortunately - details like that are often omited in his other work in favor of neat and far less interesting features
I'd have left a better comment but I didn't have one in me before my eyes stumbled over the userface elements extolling how woefully underappreciated your videos are.
In most of his films he is, and? In the same mindset Kubrick or Nolan are too cold. and guess what? I love all these guys equally because of how different they are and the different things their work bring to the table.
My pick goes to Munich. And I'd argue that his sentiment and humanism land hardest in his bleakest films (Munich included). Sad that ham-fisted films like A.I. knock the legs out of that generosity and make me feel whatever the opposite of sentimental is. Cynical, I guess. Oh and BFG rocks.
Given that he's made some of the greatest films ever (Jaws, Raiders, ET, Close Encounters, Crusade, List, JP and Saving Private Ryan - cloying wrap around aside) he hasn't half made some bland stuff eh? I love the man but I wish he'd taken a few more risks in the last 20 years.
Oh absolutely - since the mid 90s - for every one good/great film he's put out, you can bet there'll be two Oscar baiting, bland, uninspired slogs to follow
@@inframeout I liked the harshness of Munich (though it lacked snap) and kinda wish he'd followed that direction. He should make more 15/18 rated films. Ready Player 1 was so trite and even Tintin suffered from ADHD where it couldn't stop to breathe in case he lost that kids. Crystal Skull was the same he couldn't slow down. It's like he'd forgotten what to do in Jurassic Park and Raiders. He's a genius obviously but I wish he'd eaked in a few more classics.
The biggest Spielberg's drawback is his cinematographer - Kaminski and I don't understand Spielberg stucked with him. The cinematography and especially lightning starting from 1998 (Private Ryan) is appalling, flashy toilet-reflective lights...and it is not just my opinion. Something happened then with both of them, because until 21st century Spielberg movies were vivid, sometimes raw and looked real, but somehow they turned into cartoonish. Pity...because all other elements of Spileberg's genius and moviemaking were still there, and are still here in 2024...but ''white toilet lightning'' just keeps ruining everything.
I like "A.I." a great deal and always have - but I do agree with the criticism that it's very much a Kubrick shaped peg being rammed through a Spielberg shaped hole and it gets a little splintered and bent out of shape at points because of that
@@inframeout Personally, I think AI is actually a dark film. The ending is quite miserable, and there's very little signs of that optimistic Spielberg tone in the film
Always makes me mad that ET: The Extra Terrestrial basically singlehandedly destroyed John Carpenter's career in the big leagues; because The Thing came out the same year and was seen as 'too nihilistic' for people's taste. Not Spielberg's fault, but still makes me sad. Also, while Schindler's List and Saving Privat Ryan certainly have their moments, Elem Klimov's Come And See takes the cake for World War Two films; in the fact that it is bleak, completely unsentimental, romanticizes nothing, and gives the viewer no unrealistic view of heroism; war is violence, ugly, chaotic, people are killed in droves with no help coming to save them, naked dead bodies are piled high haphazardly behind buildings, people are burned alive, all the while the perpetrators are drinking and laughing at the nightmare they've created.
Couldn't agree more. "E.T." is still probably the greatest family film of all time. But there's something insidious & dishonest in his faulty depictions of the way the world works. How the stories play out rarely feel true to life. The 3rd acts/endings are just so saccharine, contrived, & pain-free. Cake & Eat It Too often applies. Also his films kinda went downhill after he had kids. Don't get me started on "Ready Player One" 🤮
I respect that you and the commenters think he's too sentimental, but this is like asking if Tarantino is too violent, or if Wes Anderson is too whimsical. Totally fair to have the opinion that you would like his movies more if they were less sentimental, but if you're saying that his movies would objectively be "better" if he reeled in his sentiment, well, I would strongly disagree. So put me down for a vote on the other side of this question... No, Spielberg is not too sentimental.
To be fair, I spend more than half the video saying I don't necessarily think he's too sentimental and his more clichéd storytelling only hinders a few of his works
The problem with War of the worlds is that except for Cruise every other character is underdeveloped and they only function to give Cruise a motivation. The son is especially bad since he comes across as annoying granted some of that is a typical bratty teen but there's no indication we should care about him any more than the millions dying. There's also another issue with Spielberg he sometimes gets predictable. In 3 Indiana Jones movies the resolution is a blatant deus ex machina. The villain wins only for supernatural forces to decide they're not worthy the end. It works in the first movie because its unexpected but in the 3rd it just comes across as Spielberg running out of ideas. It also unintentionally means that Indy was useless the entire movie. He could have let the bad guys do as they wanted they would still lose.
I took a class on the Holocaust in Film in my first year of undergrad, and my professor HATED Schindler's List. HATED it. He hated it so much, he had us watch Schindler's List and then followed it up with The Piano just to make a point about how Schindler's List is mawkishly sentimental and panders to the non-Jewish audience while The Piano refuses to pull its punches.
Academically and amongst the Jewish community it's an incredibly decisive work - I also didn't get into the issues I have with the extremely strange deflecting moments of dark humour throughout - but it's one I value in spite of its enormous oversights and outright failures. "Son Of Saul" and "Come & See" are the definitive narrative works on the subject as far as I'm concerned
schindler's list is propaganda, it is presenting a very real and despicable event in history but the objective isn't to tell a story, but to get a very specific response out of you, pity, and that makes that movie a pretty disingenuous experience.
I just have absolutely no idea how Spielberg could read the first hand accounts of the ghetto liquidations and Shoah testimonials and then say "Yeah...but I need to contrive some artificial drama and slide it in between those moments with all the grace of a sledgehammer sandwich"
![What Is Reality? [Official Film]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/w0ztlIAYTCU/mqdefault.jpg)
These Simpsons interjections are more on point than ever
Dental Plan. Lisa Needs Braces.
@@inframeout
I think Marge had a pacifier problem with Lisa too.
HOW DID I NEVER REALIZE THE ENDING OF MINORITY REPORT WAS PART OF THE PRISON DREAM?!?!
Did I just implode your brain?
I’ve angered many people with that take. I love the movie, and I just didn’t accept the ending.
He’s been through hell, basically failing at every step towards his inevitable capture. Then, he’s in complete control, and not only wins, but the “bad guy” kills himself, so the hero doesn’t even have to Murder him.
I joked with friends after seeing it that he never got out of the Halo Chamber. The thing I get the most argument over is the Precogs, as if no one can believe that a government or business would enslave and torture a few people, to have complete control over murder.
None of the police seem to care about the precogs, and the science guy was under the delusion that it was the best place for them, although he was perving on Samantha Morton.
Spielberg leaves it ambiguous enough, but if one really listens to everything, it becomes more clear that the ending is all a Halo dream.
I mean his wife just comes back to him and gets pregnant again? Really? Dude was manic, and a drug addict, and even if proven right, his crimes wouldn’t just be washed away.
You know, like how in some states, a person can be charged with assault or manslaughter, if they shoot an unarmed person, even if that person has broken into a home at 3:00am.
Yes, I’m getting too literal with laws, because it’s a movie, but the tonal shift wasn’t an accident. Spielberg rarely makes that big of a mistake.
I mean just look at how the colors and saturation seems to change, after the scene with Cruise and Von Sydow.
Great piece. In Schindler's List, I'd also add the moment when Schindler breaks down talking about how his watch and other possessions could have saved more lives. It makes for a nice, neat arc for the character when the rest of the movie and history suggest more complicated and pragmatic person.
Only when the cameras are recording him...
Hmmm. I always thought the the little girl in the red coat served several symbolic ideas within the context the film. For the audience it punctuates the horror of the liquidation with the shred of hope that an innocent might have a chance at being spared, that the girl might be discovered under that bed by a sympathetic soul and saved somehow. Spielberg doesn't cop out because when the Nazis are exhuming the mass grave to burn the bodies to cover up their crimes the red coat reappears. There is no innocence left to be saved in the wake of such evil. Also, because we are watching her from Schindler's POV, it serves as an observable breaking point to Schindler's belief that he can both profit from and protect his workers at the same time. He now knows he must choose between the two and realizes that his ambivalence toward their fate can no longer be sustained.
that's exactly how I feel about James Wan and his Conjuring movies...
Every realistic shooter video game for a decade copied the opening of Saving Private Ryan.
War of the Worlds is spot on, so many punches pulled, we still joke about going to Boston for its untouched safety! I like WoW, but it's only half a a really great movie.
There's so much I love (and even the much maligned "They were allergic to germs" ending is consistent with every version of the story to date) - but god damn does it repeatedly get in its own way
@@inframeout Yes, absolutely! For instance, he stuck with the original destruction of the Martians via germs, but decided to have the ships already here? (I'd also recently read how League of Extraordinary Gentlemen handled the story, so this take was all a bit disappointing).
Glad you mentioned Munich. I think it's underrated and easily my favorite Spielberg movie in the 2000's.
Might be the only film he has done that has a morally ambiguous ending
I've asked this exact question of myself many times while writing a script, as recently as yesterday. So perfect timing.
I don’t know how well this applies to the video. But it did make me think about whether Spielberg, even know’s that his films can be overly sentimental or if he’s just reached a point where those questions don’t even cross his mind. Almost like an inverse of what happens when you’er just starting out. Where you question every choice you make. Only know, you rarely if ever ask yourself that, you just know what you’re doing, even if maybe you don’t. It’s a trap that I think anyone that does something for long enough runs the risk of falling into. And why I think that no matter long we’ve doing something, we should never stop trying to challenge are self’s. Just a thought.
Incredibly well put - and I totally agree that there's a level of comfortable complacency he's found himself in
@@inframeout thanks 🙂
This channel deserves more subscribers! Keep up the great content. I’m home sick and binging all your content
Sometimes -- but I'd urge everyone to see Empire of the Sun. Not a scrap of sentimentality in that one, and IMO his best film.
It's absolutely outstanding and certainly in the running for his most underrated (alongside "Munich")
wellllll, I'd give that more to the source material, J.G. Ballard's brilliant autobiographical account of being interned by the Japanese. Hard to be sentimental about that, but yes, it's not only a great film, but I think it's his last great film.
I never realised that Minority Report had pulled a Total Recall. Awesome.
Goshdarnit. Why must you remind me that Tintin never got more sequels. 😭
A genuinely delightful family film that was supposed to spawn a whole series with Peter Jackson before he got side tracked by the goddamn Hobbit
@@inframeout I totally forgot that detail! I should have known The Hobbit was worse than I remembered!
I have a similarly dark and revisionist take on his War of the Worlds. I think the ending is an Owl Creek Bridge death dream, and that Tom Cruise (whatever his name was) was killed while trying to suicide-bomb the Walker. Because that is what he did. He picked up a belt full of grenades with the explicit intention of hand-delivering them. He couldn't have possibly expected to survive. And he didn't.
And in turn, this adds an extra layer of meaning to the movie as a rare example of an American radicalization narrative. War Of The Worlds is the story of how All-American Tom Cruise becomes a suicide bomber. And losing his son was a big part of that. He'd failed as a father, allowing him to go. And then his daughter is taken away to certain death or worse. Then that was it. He had absolutely nothing left to lose. He knew the terror of being invaded by a force with such overwhelming technology that no resistance was possible except the faint hope of explosive self-sacrifice.
Basically, I think WotW is subversive as fuck and Spielberg slipped it right under everyone's radar with a bit of misdirection.
(Also, the original WotW novel was, itself, openly anti-colonial and based around "What if aliens did to England what England has been doing to the world?" This would also be an very clever way of updating the themes for modern warfare while keeping the core message.)
I absolutely adore this reading - and from this point forward I'm going to adopt whenever I rewatch the movie
I made the joke that Minority Report’s ending was just the dream Cruise was having in the Halo Chamber, when me and friends were leaving the theater. Halo Chsmber?
What’s it called? 😆
Anyways, my friends called me a pessimist, and I then pointed out how pre-crime had completely ended murder. Ended it. And, pointed out the same things you did in the video. It’s my favorite post 80’s Spielberg movie. Schindler’s List is moving, and a beautifully crafted film, but I’m not rewatching it like Minority Report.
*Of course the tech cold be manipulated, and it’s a horrible existence for the Pre-Cogs, though in reality, those things wouldn’t stop a government from using it with all the control over a populous it would have.
He never left the Halo Chamber.
Excellent video and now i have just realised i want to watch E.T and Jaws for some nostalgia and of course the Indiana Jones.
To Spielberg's credit, I did get test screen reshoot vibes from the end of War of the Worlds, so it might not be his fault.
Very nuanced and thought provoking take. I’ve realized that as much as I love him as a creator for one of my favorite works (Indiana Jones), I really haven’t felt compelled to watch almost anything he’s put of some catch me if you can, with ready player one Ann and Indy 4 being outliers. Not sue if my internal reasoning Is akin to what you’ve pointed out here, but it’s making me reflect on why his movies haven’t been as much of a draw
Close Encounters has been one of my favorites since I was a kid. My dad really wasn't around when I was young, now I have 4 kids of my own. I should hate and should have always hated the dad in this, but I can't. The scene where his boy screams at him in the bathroom while he's having a breakdown is incredible. The scene where his wife leaves with the kids while he's tearing up the neighbor's garden and throwing stuff in their kitchen window, so good. Lots of emotional strings getting tugged. Great performance by Dreyfus. But I have no problem hating the guy from The Hurt Locker, another obsessive neglectful father who basically abandons his kid at the end. It's a good performance, but substitutes depression and a deathwish for sentimentality and wonder. Would I watch it again after seeing it the year it came out? Probably not. I want to feel the way Close Encounters makes me feel.
My favorite thing about Minority Report is that it was filmed at the turn of the century when physical media was still everywhere and nobody imagined a future where you didn't have to plug a different little chip into a slot for every video you wanted to play. It makes me kind of sad that we went from discs to the cloud so fast with few years to linger with the inbetween tech.
Hello In Frame Out. Long time veiwer and recent comenter here. Since you mentioned in your phantoms video, could you do a video on A Cure For Wellness. I agree it's unsettling and terrifying but also overly long. I'd really love to see a in depth and in detail look at it, since I'm a huge Gore Vabrinski fan.
I may well have to tackle it at some point
Yes,he is been very sentimental but one of the best Filmmaker in this hole world !!!🎥🎞🎬👍😎😂😂✌️🚀🚀🥁🥁🥁
2:15 Whoa! I'd totally forgotten how sexy Dee Wallace was!
I wonder if the WoTW reveal of Robbie surviving would have been better if they had gone with one suggestion I've seen shared around here and there? They could still have Robbie survive but have him be a militia member part of the group of soldiers near the end that manage to bring down a Tripod when they realize the shields are off. He and his father could reunite with a more tearful embrace, and Robbie, despite having gotten to do what he always wanted, is almost regretful of it, longing for an innocence that he lost in exchange for 'getting back at them'. We have no idea what he went through, how he survived, and what he had to do in order to survive, and that might add more weight to it.
I need to rewatch Minority Report TODAY
Just a phenomenal film
Great video! Well I think there is a "it's all in his/her head" layer to more than one Spielberg movie. E.T. can be Elliott's imaginary friend, Close Encounters might not be taken literally.... A lot of his movies are indeed too neatly wrapped up in the end. Of course he and others involved thought about it in depth and perhaps decided to have at least two possible ways of interpretation.
The most overt example of his sentimentality is his obsession with Pinocchio, which he blatantly references in Close Encounters and A.I.
Yaaay
This is your George Lucas Critique, of a current on-going filmmaker.
I don't think much about it, but I think beyond Saving Private Ryan, I rarely think back to a Spielberg film. And his sentimentality might be the reason; I'm left with little to actually question or take away from his output.
But The Terminal is lovely.
I think "Saving Private Ryan" earns it's fleeting sentimental bookends to an extent as there are multiple sequences that hint at or explicitly show the darkness behind the valor (the moment in the opening when they murder the surrendering Czech conscripts for example). Unfortunately - details like that are often omited in his other work in favor of neat and far less interesting features
Ah yes, someone has seen Ready Player One recently
I'd have left a better comment but I didn't have one in me before my eyes stumbled over the userface elements extolling how woefully underappreciated your videos are.
In most of his films he is, and? In the same mindset Kubrick or Nolan are too cold. and guess what? I love all these guys equally because of how different they are and the different things their work bring to the table.
If you watch the video you'll know I absolutely adore Spielberg
I liked Bridge of Spies.
I think that's the only Steve film I've seen in 20 years.
“Thread bare cheese” you mean cheese strings?
My pick goes to Munich. And I'd argue that his sentiment and humanism land hardest in his bleakest films (Munich included). Sad that ham-fisted films like A.I. knock the legs out of that generosity and make me feel whatever the opposite of sentimental is. Cynical, I guess. Oh and BFG rocks.
Given that he's made some of the greatest films ever (Jaws, Raiders, ET, Close Encounters, Crusade, List, JP and Saving Private Ryan - cloying wrap around aside) he hasn't half made some bland stuff eh? I love the man but I wish he'd taken a few more risks in the last 20 years.
Oh absolutely - since the mid 90s - for every one good/great film he's put out, you can bet there'll be two Oscar baiting, bland, uninspired slogs to follow
@@inframeout I liked the harshness of Munich (though it lacked snap) and kinda wish he'd followed that direction. He should make more 15/18 rated films. Ready Player 1 was so trite and even Tintin suffered from ADHD where it couldn't stop to breathe in case he lost that kids. Crystal Skull was the same he couldn't slow down. It's like he'd forgotten what to do in Jurassic Park and Raiders. He's a genius obviously but I wish he'd eaked in a few more classics.
The biggest Spielberg's drawback is his cinematographer - Kaminski and I don't understand Spielberg stucked with him. The cinematography and especially lightning starting from 1998 (Private Ryan) is appalling, flashy toilet-reflective lights...and it is not just my opinion. Something happened then with both of them, because until 21st century Spielberg movies were vivid, sometimes raw and looked real, but somehow they turned into cartoonish. Pity...because all other elements of Spileberg's genius and moviemaking were still there, and are still here in 2024...but ''white toilet lightning'' just keeps ruining everything.
Not if films like AI have anything to say about it
I like "A.I." a great deal and always have - but I do agree with the criticism that it's very much a Kubrick shaped peg being rammed through a Spielberg shaped hole and it gets a little splintered and bent out of shape at points because of that
@@inframeout Personally, I think AI is actually a dark film. The ending is quite miserable, and there's very little signs of that optimistic Spielberg tone in the film
Always makes me mad that ET: The Extra Terrestrial basically singlehandedly destroyed John Carpenter's career in the big leagues; because The Thing came out the same year and was seen as 'too nihilistic' for people's taste. Not Spielberg's fault, but still makes me sad. Also, while Schindler's List and Saving Privat Ryan certainly have their moments, Elem Klimov's Come And See takes the cake for World War Two films; in the fact that it is bleak, completely unsentimental, romanticizes nothing, and gives the viewer no unrealistic view of heroism; war is violence, ugly, chaotic, people are killed in droves with no help coming to save them, naked dead bodies are piled high haphazardly behind buildings, people are burned alive, all the while the perpetrators are drinking and laughing at the nightmare they've created.
I'd also recommend "The Painted Bird" and "Son Of Saul" if you're looking for devastating, hard-to-watch but immaculately made WWII films
@@inframeout The Ascent is also a great one.
Couldn't agree more. "E.T." is still probably the greatest family film of all time. But there's something insidious & dishonest in his faulty depictions of the way the world works. How the stories play out rarely feel true to life. The 3rd acts/endings are just so saccharine, contrived, & pain-free. Cake & Eat It Too often applies. Also his films kinda went downhill after he had kids. Don't get me started on "Ready Player One" 🤮
"Ready Player One" is a film I find borderline repulsive on every level
@@inframeout Omg yes. Please do a "Ready Player One" video, I'm dying to hear your thoughts on that vomitous abomination !
I respect that you and the commenters think he's too sentimental, but this is like asking if Tarantino is too violent, or if Wes Anderson is too whimsical. Totally fair to have the opinion that you would like his movies more if they were less sentimental, but if you're saying that his movies would objectively be "better" if he reeled in his sentiment, well, I would strongly disagree. So put me down for a vote on the other side of this question... No, Spielberg is not too sentimental.
To be fair, I spend more than half the video saying I don't necessarily think he's too sentimental and his more clichéd storytelling only hinders a few of his works
@@inframeout fair! 👍
The problem with War of the worlds is that except for Cruise every other character is underdeveloped and they only function to give Cruise a motivation. The son is especially bad since he comes across as annoying granted some of that is a typical bratty teen but there's no indication we should care about him any more than the millions dying. There's also another issue with Spielberg he sometimes gets predictable. In 3 Indiana Jones movies the resolution is a blatant deus ex machina. The villain wins only for supernatural forces to decide they're not worthy the end. It works in the first movie because its unexpected but in the 3rd it just comes across as Spielberg running out of ideas. It also unintentionally means that Indy was useless the entire movie. He could have let the bad guys do as they wanted they would still lose.
I took a class on the Holocaust in Film in my first year of undergrad, and my professor HATED Schindler's List. HATED it. He hated it so much, he had us watch Schindler's List and then followed it up with The Piano just to make a point about how Schindler's List is mawkishly sentimental and panders to the non-Jewish audience while The Piano refuses to pull its punches.
Academically and amongst the Jewish community it's an incredibly decisive work - I also didn't get into the issues I have with the extremely strange deflecting moments of dark humour throughout - but it's one I value in spite of its enormous oversights and outright failures.
"Son Of Saul" and "Come & See" are the definitive narrative works on the subject as far as I'm concerned
schindler's list is propaganda, it is presenting a very real and despicable event in history but the objective isn't to tell a story, but to get a very specific response out of you, pity, and that makes that movie a pretty disingenuous experience.
I just have absolutely no idea how Spielberg could read the first hand accounts of the ghetto liquidations and Shoah testimonials and then say "Yeah...but I need to contrive some artificial drama and slide it in between those moments with all the grace of a sledgehammer sandwich"