'Films Of steven Spielberg' book by Douglas Brode.

[jasonblueeyes 0]

Hey All, Hope you had a great christmas.

Just got this great new book for christmas. A very, complex, in-depth analysis of Speilberg and his films and the themes that re-occur in all of them.

The theme of Parent and child bond as presented in Sugarland Express, CE3K, Poltergeist, Temple Of Doom, Color Purple, EOTS, Last Crusade, Hook, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List,

The theme of Ordinary Joe turning into Hero - Duel, Jaws, CE3K. E.T.

The theme of Broken Homes - Duel, CE3K, E.T., Color Purple, EOTS.

Influences on Speilberg which appear in his films - Hitchcock, Lean, Truffaut, Godard, Kubrick, Fellini.

Also Interesting are the striking similarities between Schindler's List and - Surprise! Temple Of Doom! Both Characters start out greedy, In businees for themselves, whose experiences transport them into the role of surragate father figure who risks their lives to save and free the lives of others. (Schindler - The many Jewish Workers and citizens; Indy - The stolen village children.)

Definitly fascinating stuff.

No mention of Lost World, Amistad, A.I., Minority Report as this book was written in 1995.

Sadly, Williams's name only appears a few times, practically during the Close Encounters and E.T. Chapters.

Here are the Mentions:

On CE - ' John Williams was involved in coordinating the images

with the score.' JW:- "Steven's Perception was always five notes, though I believed it would be seven. I Tried To Persuade Steven to change, but he kept saying no: He felt it should be five. 'More of a signal than a melody.' " Williams Played around with the possibillities until he came up with the now legendary arrangement. He and Speilberg were fascinated by an idea they borrowed from the nineteenth century russian composer Scriabin, who argued that 'Every note has a color'.

On E.T. - Williams wisely chose to create a distinctive theme for Elliott And E.T. rather then a single overriding theme for the picture.

On Always - One Of the many reasons this film doesn't work is the musical score by John Williams. Williams's music for Spelberg's films had indeed long since become a negative factor. Whereas his classically simple theme for Jaws had been instrumental in making suspense sequences click and the mock-heroic orchastration for Raiders suggested and supported the film's delicate balance between revival and parody, Williams had since fallen into the trap of creating music that merely pumps up the visuals, already a bit too hightened to begin with. The result is absolute overkill.

WELL! How About that? Don't hate me, I'm only the messenger. Still a great book worth checking out.

[Lurker 5]

Does he spell "Spielberg" correctly in the book at all?

Neil - whose Schindler's List CD also spells it "Speilberg"

[Guest]

On Always - One Of the many reasons this film doesn't work is the musical score by John Williams. Williams's music for Spelberg's films had indeed long since become a negative factor. Whereas his classically simple theme for Jaws had been instrumental in making suspense sequences click and the mock-heroic orchastration for Raiders suggested and supported the film's delicate balance between revival and parody, Williams had since fallen into the trap of creating music that merely pumps up the visuals, already a bit too hightened to begin with. The result is absolute overkill.

What a friggin stumblebum.

[Steven Awalt 0]

The most that can be said of Brode's book is that the photos are nice (which of course is no credit to him). Read some of the captions under the books--they're filled with embarassing errors left and right. The text, aside from Brode's opinions, is filled with errors as well. Worst of all is his habit of placing himself within his subject by frequently mentioning himself and his Jewish heritage to equate himself with Spielberg. Holy cow, Douglas Brode, you're Jewish--Spielberg's Jewish--you must be separated at birth!

The book did get a second printing back in 1998 or 1999 that brought things up to Saving Private Ryan, for what its worth.

If you want to read a great Spielberg book with impecable research, check out Joseph McBride's "Steven Spielberg".

[Uni 306]

I thought it was an enjoyable book. My only real gripe was his absolute conviction that Indiana Jones was a pedophile, simply because he took advantage of Marion's crush on him when she was younger (we're never told how young she was), and because some doe-eyed smurf wrote "I Love You" on her eyelids (which, I suppose, automatically earns him a free pass to Neverland).

Aside from that, it was a typical film-class approach--that is, it was more about what the author thought about the films than the films themselves. Nothing wrong with that; subjective analysis makes for good reading, too.

- Uni....in the first of his six appearances in 2004....

[Jeshopk 8]

Regarding the author's bashing of post-Always scores as being more overkill than the older ones, WHAT THE F@!%$?

Is it possible for someone to compare "Always" to older scores and find that there is any overall difference in concept and effect?: painting emotions scene for scene, shot for shot. The volume is never louder, the harmony is never more complex, the orchestration never thicker, the melody never simpler nor more advanced than that of anything he had done in the "golden years."

I heard one person say that Angelas Ashes was the most bombastic Williams score they ever heard, while usual Williams hater Evan Evans said it was the only score he ever wrote that was not bombastic.

[Elmo Lewis 6]

The most that can be said of Brode's book is that the photos are nice (which of course is no credit to him). Read some of the captions under the books--they're filled with embarassing errors left and right. The text, aside from Brode's opinions, is filled with errors as well. Worst of all is his habit of placing himself within his subject by frequently mentioning himself and his Jewish heritage to equate himself with Spielberg. Holy cow, Douglas Brode, you're Jewish--Spielberg's Jewish--you must be separated at birth!

The book did get a second printing back in 1998 or 1999 that brought things up to Saving Private Ryan, for what its worth.

If you want to read a great Spielberg book with impecable research, check out Joseph McBride's "Steven Spielberg".

It's no wonder Steven runs the site he runs. He's quite nailed it with the books.

I have read many upon many books on Steven Spielberg. And I have hated only two authors - one is a Spanish one who just slowly explained why he didn't like any Spielberg film except for Jaws. His name is Marcial Cantero Fernandez, in case anybody stumbles about it. The other is Douglas Brode. After reading it, I thought he came off as a pedantic, ignorant curmudgeon-wannabe, who offered all the right answers just because they were based on his opinions. The photos are nice, too. But if it's photos you want, go get Susan Goldman Rubin's book. A lot of great, unreleased pictures in there. Not too much text, and certainly not to in-depht, but at least it doesn't attempt to be the ultimate Spielberg resource.

Steven [Awalt], I have a question for you - is John Baxter's book accurate? I read it a long time ago, and it featured tons of information, lot of testimonies from people like Wayne Knight - but Baxter never sounds professional enough. He just sounds like a cheap magazine reporter writing a very long article.

By the way, I'm also very fond of Philip Kaufman's book, although it came out in the early 80's and is now really outdated - the last film featured is E.T.! Kaufman doesn't dwelve into the themes and personal fidgets in Spielberg's head, but rather his style, and how the films were made.

One last comment (I apparently can't stop talking about this subject). Although I have read every Spielberg book that's fallen onto my hands, and every website too for that matter, I have found the best, most insightful and interesting one to be one written by a Spanish Film Student to just published his thesis. The name of the book is merely "Steven Spielberg", although the thesis was rather about "Childhood in the Films of Steven Spielberg". Is it fascinating. The author's name is Antonio Sanchez Escalonilla and I consider him, this far, to be the author closest to Spielberg's creative mind. Or, rather, closer to my perception of Spielberg's mind.

Pity the book isn't translated into English, it really should be. It turns out one of my teachers knows the author, so I'll try to contact him and I'll translate it myself if I have to. That book taught me to see movies.

-Ross, who maybe should have just pm'd Steven Awalt.

[Elmo Lewis 6]

P.S. Joseph McBride is also great, as Steven pointed out. It's just in an all different fashion.

[Steven Awalt 0]

Ross,

Baxter's book is a joke--absolutely full or errors, perhaps worse than Brode's. Watch out for the worthless book by Sanello as well (you've probably already read this tripe since you've read everything you could find you said). These authors do a great disservice to their subject spreading false information like they do. I've read a library's worth of film books in my time and never have I found more errors than in books on Steven Spielberg. Seriously. The real shame of it is facts that these authors get so blatantly wrong are such easily verifible facts its pitiful.

Rubin's book is a children's book, so you can't really glean much from it (I agree, though, the pictures are nice) and I think she makes a major misstep as an author writing for children when she goes into detail about Steven Spielberg quitting the Boy Scouts of America's board because of their stance on homosexuality, given her audience (I would think parents would prefer to discuss this sensitive topic with their children rather than have a book on Spielberg, no matter how noble and right-minded his stance, potentially introduce them to any talk of sexuality of any sort). I digress, however...

I've heard of the Fernandez book, and I thought I heard some good word on it, but I can't see how given your take on it. I wish I read Spanish so I could read it just to get riled up at the moron's insane opinion.

Are you sure you mean Kaufman? He's the man who got co-story credit with Lucas on Raiders of the Lost Ark. What's the book's title, publisher, etc.?

Man, I'd love to read the Escalonilla book, especially since you make my website and I feel like nothing in comparrison . If you ever translate the book, I'd be thrilled to read it!

[Elmo Lewis 6]

Are you sure you mean Kaufman? He's the man who got co-story credit with Lucas on Raiders of the Lost Ark. What's the book's title, publisher, etc.?

Yes, I mean Kaufman. But obviously I've been seeing too many Indy DVDs. This is David Kaufman who wrote the book, a New Yorker who works in movie libraries. The book's biggest credit is being the earliest I've seen. It also features an interview with Spielberg at the end.

My edition is a worn-out Spanish one I acquired in a second-hand bookstore, so I can't help you with the publisher. The book's title is a feast in originality: "Steven Spielberg".

Man, I'd love to read the Escalonilla book, especially since you make my website and I feel like nothing in comparrison . If you ever translate the book, I'd be thrilled to read it!

I'll be thrilled to know your opinion. But bear in mind the book is a personal favorite, and maybe you've found some deeper analyses of the movies. Escalonilla analyses the movies' script solely (there are brief undocumented comments on John Williams and Allen Daviau here and there, but they are scarce), especially the characters and their arcs. I haven't gone back to it in years, so maybe now it turns out to be pretty basic. But at 13, it was a whole new word opening.