Hello everybody. This is my first post. I needed to jump in on this topic. In the film we have a protagonist who has an obsession, leaves his wife because she doesen't understand him, hooks up with another woman who is just like him, is hunted at some point by the military because of that obsession and finally realizes that he is but one of many separate people from all over the world who have the same obsession, and joins them in a sort of a commune of like-minded people. I am not describing CEOTK here but a famous masterpiece by that "French guy", Francois Truffaut, "Fahrenheit 451". Truffaut is actually the clue for finding the meanig of CEOTK. Both films are about finding freedom. F451 is obviously about freedom of expression (in the near future all books are banned, and so on). Spielberg's film is also about freedom, but of more general, artistic expression. CEOTK is a metaphore for the beauty and freedom of cinematic expression, a sort of a revolt against classical narrative structures, boundaries, seriousness, rules and similar things. Accordingly, films should be the stuff of childhood dreams, like Pinocchio, which the film referrences so often. Remember, Spielberg was part of the New Hollywood movement (together with Lucas, Coppola and others) and this film seems to be a sort of a manifesto, a Hollywood version of the French New Wave perhaps. It is also one of the rare art blockbusters.
