Four Films: How Spielberg Starts a Movie Steven Spielberg is one of the most celebrated directors of our time. Nobody can match his unique, friendly, magical, and epic style of telling a story through the film medium. He captures our attention through action, suspense, humor, and dialogue for the full length of every feature film through his exceptional understanding of the language of film. But every brilliant filmmaker gets inspiration from somewhere. Spielberg himself tells of how inspiration is a chain; he was influenced by a filmmaker, and that filmmaker was influenced by another (Spiegel, 1989). For Spielberg, his greatest influences are four films that he always watches before directing a film: David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, Akira
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It is "ordinary people in extraordinary situations" (Mott & Saunders, 1988, p. 24). He is a man confined in a small town his whole life with only the adventure he desires in his own imagination to entertain him. His villains as a result are less people and more projections of dark versions of his own desires and thoughts that he himself does not or cannot act out, much like the other directors' heroes and villains, another theme that links the five together (Carney, 1996). John Ford's legendary character Ethan Edwards, played by John Wayne in the quintissential western The Searchers is a reflection, or even alter ego, of the film's villain, the menacing Comanche chief, Scar. He is as savage, ruthless, and vengeful as Scar. Ethan's quest to purge the Indian out of his niece is just as much a quest to purge the Indian, or even Scar, within himself (Place, 1977). T. E. Lawrence struggles between being an Arab and an Englishman in Lawrence of Arabia. His behavior is in constant paradox because of the internal struggle between the two different forces he must work with (Anderegg, 1985). The bandits do not differ in action from the samurai in Seven Samurai. Toshiro Mifune's character tells the others that samurai are no different from the bandits. They both kill, steal, rape, and perform deeds for money. We observe that good and bad may be identical (Richie, 1999). The …show more content…
Like Lean, Spielberg uses extraordinary lighting and cinematography, realistic effects, beautiful and exotic on location sets, emotional musical scores, and epic stories (Mott & Saunders, 1988). Lawrence of Arabia revels in its grandiosity, theatricality, and classic Hollywood style. The extreme long shots of an exotic location is used as the typical cliché of an "Arabian Nights" backdrop in a western act-- the perfect setting for a hero that basks in his own exploits, accompanied by a primitive culture (Anderegg, 1985). Spielberg has a life-long admiration for the desert, growing up in Arizona (Spiegel, 1989). Its beauty and power is shown through his films, such as the dig site in Raiders of the Lost Ark and the spectacular Gobi desert scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Like Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, Ford uses a magnificent desert setting, this time at Monument Valley. It is grand, beautiful, vast, and merciless, perfect for an epic story. The characters rise to heroic proportions to match its power. The concern becomes vital and real, leaving no room for their old, comfortable lives' problems. Ford's use of interframing also distinguishes the characters' relationships with eachother and with their environment. Many shots Spielberg uses, most noteably in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where Roy Neary begins to
It is "ordinary people in extraordinary situations" (Mott & Saunders, 1988, p. 24). He is a man confined in a small town his whole life with only the adventure he desires in his own imagination to entertain him. His villains as a result are less people and more projections of dark versions of his own desires and thoughts that he himself does not or cannot act out, much like the other directors' heroes and villains, another theme that links the five together (Carney, 1996). John Ford's legendary character Ethan Edwards, played by John Wayne in the quintissential western The Searchers is a reflection, or even alter ego, of the film's villain, the menacing Comanche chief, Scar. He is as savage, ruthless, and vengeful as Scar. Ethan's quest to purge the Indian out of his niece is just as much a quest to purge the Indian, or even Scar, within himself (Place, 1977). T. E. Lawrence struggles between being an Arab and an Englishman in Lawrence of Arabia. His behavior is in constant paradox because of the internal struggle between the two different forces he must work with (Anderegg, 1985). The bandits do not differ in action from the samurai in Seven Samurai. Toshiro Mifune's character tells the others that samurai are no different from the bandits. They both kill, steal, rape, and perform deeds for money. We observe that good and bad may be identical (Richie, 1999). The …show more content…
Like Lean, Spielberg uses extraordinary lighting and cinematography, realistic effects, beautiful and exotic on location sets, emotional musical scores, and epic stories (Mott & Saunders, 1988). Lawrence of Arabia revels in its grandiosity, theatricality, and classic Hollywood style. The extreme long shots of an exotic location is used as the typical cliché of an "Arabian Nights" backdrop in a western act-- the perfect setting for a hero that basks in his own exploits, accompanied by a primitive culture (Anderegg, 1985). Spielberg has a life-long admiration for the desert, growing up in Arizona (Spiegel, 1989). Its beauty and power is shown through his films, such as the dig site in Raiders of the Lost Ark and the spectacular Gobi desert scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Like Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, Ford uses a magnificent desert setting, this time at Monument Valley. It is grand, beautiful, vast, and merciless, perfect for an epic story. The characters rise to heroic proportions to match its power. The concern becomes vital and real, leaving no room for their old, comfortable lives' problems. Ford's use of interframing also distinguishes the characters' relationships with eachother and with their environment. Many shots Spielberg uses, most noteably in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where Roy Neary begins to