The Cinema of Steven Spielberg: Empire of Light

Directors' Cuts

by Nigel Morris

Cinema's most successful director is a commercial and cultural force demanding serious consideration. Not just triumphant marketing, this international popularity is partly a function of the movies themselves. Polarised critical attitudes largely overlook this, and evidence either unquestioning adulation or vilification—often vitriolic—for epitomising contemporary Hollywood. Detailed textual analyses reveal that alongside conventional commercial appeal, Spielberg's movies function consistently as a self-reflexive commentary on cinema. Rather than straightforwardly consumed realism or fantasy, they invite divergent readings and self-conscious spectatorship which contradict assumptions about their ideological tendencies. Exercising powerful emotional appeal, their ambiguities are profitably advantageous in maximising audiences and generating media attention.

Genres: Film

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2006

Reviews

[Michael Jolls · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was going to give it 2 stars, but the ending just crushed my soul. The book is horribly written. One almost wonders if a professional editor even looked at the manuscript before the Director's Cut/Wallflower published it? There's barely a sentence in this 390-page monster that isn't crammed with giant words (which in of itself requires slower reading), which make the text unnecessarily complicated. Furthermore, the sentence structure remains bizarre.

An example from page 113: "'The Color Purple' was unsuccessfully nominated for 11 categories - excluding, unprecedentedly, Best Director, which normally accompanies Best Film".... WHAT???? Ok, not only is that awkwardly written, it's also arguably misleading.

My other issue with this book (as well as a handful of other Spielberg works) is that so much of the text is devoted to what's wrong with the films. However this book takes the cake for trashing Spielberg's movies without really giving a good retort to accusations. I sincerely wonder if Mr. Morris even likes Steven Spielberg's films as he spends a good chunk of time bashing them, particularly the closing. He pulls from another critic highlighting a flaw in "E.T.", stating that audiences won't get the film because of the references to "Star Wars". Ummmm, no. I saw "E.T." as a young child, long before I knew, let alone saw "Star Wars". Clearly the academic know-it-all validated the argument that being super intellectual about films actually makes for horrible argument.

In all fairness, the chapters on "Schindler's List" and "Catch Me If You Can" were decent, and I pulled a quote for my own Spielberg writings. I have no doubt that Mr. Morris is probably engaging to speak to on the subject matter - but this book is a super let down.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Morris does an excellent job of examining Spielberg's narrative traits and explains how his narrative choices are then developed into some of the most technically astute examples of filmmaking today. Morris also uses the idea of the auteur to connect Spielberg with the large scale changes that occurred in Hollywood as a result of the youth movements of the 1960s and the disintegration of the old studio system. He also shows how all of Spielberg's films are reiterations of classic Hollywood films and themes because Spielberg like so many of the other young American directors has been greatly influenced by the film culture that he has immersed himself within.
Morris's book is one of the first to seriously analyze Spielberg and also illustrates how we may think of Spielberg as a progressive filmmaker who is entangled by his own desires, the ideology of America, and a need to constantly prove his worth in the long line of American directors.

[Eshwar]

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