Product Description

Steven Spielberg has become a brand name and a force that extends far beyond the movie screen. Phrases like "phone home" and the music score from Jaws are now part of our cultural script, appearing in commercials, comedy routines, and common conversation.

Yet few scholars have devoted time to studying Spielberg's vast output of popular films despite the director's financial and aesthetic achievements. Spanning twenty-five years of Spielberg's career, Steven Spielberg: Interviews explores the issues, the themes, and the financial considerations surrounding his work. The blockbuster creator of E.T., Jaws, and Schindler's List talks about dreams and the almighty dollar.

"I'm not really interested in making money," he says. "That's always come as the result of success, but it's not been my goal, and I've had a tough time proving that to people."

Ranging from Spielberg's twenties to his mid-fifties, the interviews chart his evolution from a brash young filmmaker trying to make his way in Hollywood, to his spectacular blockbuster triumphs, to his maturation as a director seeking to inspire the imagination with meaningful subjects.

The Steven Spielberg who emerges in these talks is a complex mix of businessman and artist, of arrogance and insecurity, of shallowness and substance. Often interviewers will uncover the director's human side, noting how changes in Spielberg's personal life -- marriage, divorce, fatherhood, remarriage -- affect his movies. But always the interviewers find keys to the story-telling and filmmaking talent that have made Spielberg's characters and themes shape our times and inhabit our dreams.

"Every time I go to a movie, it's magic, no matter what the movie's about," he says. "Whether you watch eight hours of Shoah or whether it's Ghostbusters, when the lights go down in the theater and the movie fades in, it's magic."

Lester D. Friedman teaches medical humanities and bioethics at Upstate Medical University and cinema studies in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. Brent Notbohm of Spring Green, Wisconsin, is a freelance instructor of film production and media studies. He has written and directed several films and videos independently and as a graduate student at Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

good book
This is a good interview book w/ the man! It's not the same type of lessons presented, but still worth a read!

An excellent read for Spielberg fans and others
Steven Spielberg: Interviews is a great book on many levels. It's probably one of the only books about Spielberg that shows his more personal side and manner of speaking. The interviews give us a different different perspective of the man and show that he is not what everyone (or me at least) envisioned him to be.

Interesting, information, and with its own of sense of humor, this is definitely a must-read for Spielberg fans, filmmakers, and people period.

A BRILLIANT FILMMAKER; A BRILLIANT BOOK!
Steven Spielberg is undoubtedly the greatest movie director of our times.ALL his movies have been box-office hits.He is brilliant and dedicated to his craft!And people adore him!He's way cool ...

That's why it's so exciting to read a book by him, describing the last 25 years of his life.Awesome material!

Can't wait to see more of his movies! Many reviewers are saying that my TOONIES book would make a great movie ... a la Spielberg.I should be so lucky, but was lucky enough to meet and pose with Clint Eastwood many moons ago, so perhaps I'll get lucky again.Hint!Hint!

With all his fame and fortune and he still remains a very "nice, dear, down-to-earth" man.More of the actors should emulate his example.

Go, Steven!

Good stuff
There's a lot of really good stuff in here.

First, the interviews span some 25 years, so you get a sense how he's matured and yet how he's stayed the same.

Second, Spielberg is very candid, so interviews with him tend to reveal more than many others.

Third, there's just a lot of good stuff in here, some of which you may have heard and some not. For instance, I had never heard the story of how, as an awkward 12 year old, he and a mentally retarded boy were dead last in a school race and their peers cheered the retarded boy to beat young Spielberg. Spielberg describes how he knew he had to let the boy with without him realizing it and did just that. And then he describes how after the race, after the others carried the retarded boy on their shoulders, Spielberg was both devastatingly happy and sad.

Or there's the anecdote about his encounter with Stanley Kubrick -- how the master was not as stand-offish as one might think, and yet how he sized up Spielberg with "his probing, questioning eyes, always looking at you to see if you're true or falso. To see what you're made of, to see what you have upstairs. His chess player's eyes. Real surgeon's eyes."

There's lots of other examples I can bring but if you have any interest in Spielberg or movies just go out and get the book. It's a great read about a fascinating man whose own character arc and maturity as a movie-maker is the stuff great stories are made of.

An insightful, entertaining read.
I've been waiting a long time for a book like this.Populist filmmakers like Steven Spielberg are too often ignored by publishers who would rather print in-depth literature on the likes of Coppola or Scorsese, so it's nice to see a meaty tome such as this on the bookshelves.Spielberg lets rip on all the stuff you often wondered about whilst watching his films, and proves himself to be rather adept at delivering hilarious anecdotes.Unlike the George Lucas Interviews book, Spielberg isn't shy when it comes to discussing his private life.All in all, an enlightening read.Jolly good. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

The stories behind Rockwell's canvases
Note: The George Lucas/Steven Spielberg connection to this book may be smart marketing,but is its least interesting aspect. Aside from contributing many of the photos and drawings for the book, they are hardly mentioned. What is worthy of discussion is the way that Rockwell painted, often by posing his friends and neighbors in period costumes, then having them photographed in various poses. It was marvelous to see a painting develop from an idea, to a series of photos, to a drawing and then to a full work in oil. "The Runaway," Rockwell's well-known painting of an arrant lad being counseled by a burly state cop, is accompanied by three of the black-and-white photos of the pair in various poses at a soda counter. I was fascinated to see what Rockwell retained (the cop's wide shoulders and kind intentions; the kid's upturned, innocent face) and what he discarded (the model who posed as the soda jerk). This gave me an insight into Rockwell's judgment as an artist.

For the most part, I found Virginia Mecklenburg's text enjoyable and informative. While she could occasionally lapse into art world otherworldliness, her text was normally straightforward and brought out element of the paintings that were easily missed at first glance. For instance, the different-sized skyscrapers in the background of "Window Washer" did not just set the stage, but were a wickedly pointed commentary about the virility of the painting's two male protagonists. Mecklenburg also brought out the many levels that Rockwell worked on in his paintings. Paintings like "Back to Civvies," showing a recent veteran of World War II trying on his old high school jacket, were more than just sentimental, showing the return of the boy-become-man. The painting also, in the "boyish" model airplanes on the hero's bureau top, paid homage to the evolution of aircraft during the war.

Skip the tendentious sections at the end of the book, but pay close attention to wonderful expositions of an under-appreciated artist whose work still attracts and inspires.

Seeing stories
If you are really lucky you will be able to go to the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC to see the Norman Rockwell Telling Stories exhibit, and walk around smiling like the crowds of people do that see it. This book is the next best thing; it is a 12"x9" heavy coffee table book, done mostly with colour illustrations and black and white photos and pencil drawings. It accurately reproduces the paintings and illustrations of not only the exhibit but others of Rockwell's.
Lucas reflects the Rockwellviewpoint in his and Spielberg's film ideology. "When we were in film school, we would say, we're not making movies about the way things are; we're making films about the way things should be." Rockwell's pictures tell an idealized view of America and there is a running commentary on each of the pictures and how they came into being. There are some personal thoughts of Spielberg's and Lucas on some of the pictures in the narrative. Each picture has titles and includes the date, who owns it, size and what the medium is.

There are several pages in the beginning of the book labeled"The Mythmakers" that would have been better served by using the first person narrative that is shown in a film at the Smithsonian exhibit, which includes Lucas and Spielberg's thoughts on Rockwell and their collections. The film also tells how they do not clash with each other in purchasing Rockwell's works - interesting in that, one painting ' Happy Birthday', Lucas owns the pencil drawing and Spielberg owns the oil.

There are more illustrations and information than what is given in the exhibit, so even if you are fortunate enough to see it, you would be well served by this book; as would anyone interested in Americana, the ideals of the 20th century and of course Rockwell. ... Read more

Product Description

Steven Spielberg is hailed as one of the most influential and commercially successful film directors in motion picture history. Through his role in developing, directing, and driving the special effects of many of the biggest blockbusters in movie history, includingJaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., Saving Private Ryan, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, and Minority Report, Spielberg changed the way movies are made and left an indelible mark on popular culture. This biography traces his rise from shooting films as a shy young boy with the family's 8 mm camera to his first unpaid job at Universal Studios, to the rise of DreamWorks, the studio Spielberg founded and quickly turned into a filmmaking powerhouse. While Spielberg's best work may lie ahead, this compelling biography puts his legendary career and work to date into perspective by offering analysis and commentary from fans and critics alike.

Whether about an alien lost in suburbia or the battles of World War II, Spielberg has directed and produced many of the most talked about movies of the past 30 years. Students interested in the history of film and the filmmaking industry will find this biography endlessly fascinating.

Product Description
In this pictorial study, Douglas Brode puts Steven Spielberg's career in focus: from his first feature, The Sugarland Express, through the blockbusters Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of The Lost Ark, ET, and Jurassic Park, as well as the "quieter, " heartfelt films that also make up his work. This revised edition includes the director's activities in the three years since Schindler's List. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

films of steven spielberg
Awesome book.Hope there will be another filography on his movies.This one only goes to the year 200, so Juassic Park 3 was probably being filmed at that time, for it was one of my all-time fave films.

A Must for any Spielberg fan!
I felt that the book was appropriate about Spielberg's enormous contribution to the film industry over his career. The book has wonderful pictures and stories about each film from the first film, The Sugerland Express, to Saving Private Ryan with E.T. The Extra Terrestial, the Indiana Jones trilogy, and Schindler's List among the films listed here. This book chronologizes Spielberg's film-making techniques as well the special and visual effects. I am not one of his biggest fans. I admire his work and contributions to the film industry but I prefer more than the special and visual effects. There are other film-makers and directors out there that do less with more.

An excellent guide to the master of cinema
If you want a good read about cinema's most amazing director, then this is the book for you. It contains lots of really great insight not just on shooting the movie, but how it even started. Though author Douglas Brode tends to get a little too political, it is a really good book that I keep coming back to. Read at all costs.

excellent text, well researched, and fun to read
This book is a great read for the major films of Spielberg. It is done with a great deal of research by the author, who puts together a very good story line of the producer/director and how he and his films progressed over time.The author also provides excellent background information on the films, from both a technical point of view and also the creative story line.The text layout, photos, and great front and back cover photos are there to flesh out the films. It is also a fun book to read.All put together, this is a very good book to understand Spielberg, his movies, his life, and his impact on very successful creative and commercial 20th century movies.

The films of Steven Spielberg
Douglas Brode's biography of the films of Steven Spielberg is an informative and interesting book that covers the life and films of Hollywood's most commercially successful film director. From his early T.V films to Saving Private Ryan, this book covers all the facets of Spielberg's work including unknown facts about the production of his films and supplementary information. With rare color production photos and stills, this book is a must- have for any Spielberg or film enthusiast. ... Read more

Product Description

Until the first edition of Steven Spielberg: A Biography was published in 1997, much about SpielbergÂ's personality and the forces that shaped it had remained enigmatic, in large part because of his tendency to obscure and mythologize his own past. But in this first full-scale, in-depth biography of Spielberg, Joseph McBride reveals hidden dimensions of the filmmakerÂ's personality and shows how deeply personal even his most commercial work has been.

This new edition adds four chapters to SpielbergÂ's life story, chronicling his extraordinarily active and creative period from 1997 to the present, a period in which he has balanced his executive duties as one of the partners in the film studio DreamWorks SKG with a remarkable string of films as a director. SpielbergÂ's ambitious recent workÂ--including Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, A. I. Artifucial Intelligence, Minority Report, The Terminal and MunichÂ--has continually expanded his range both stylistically and in terms of adventurous, often controversial, subject matter.

Steven Spielberg: A Biography brought about a reevaluation of the great filmmakerÂ's life and work by those who viewed him as merely a facile entertainer. This new edition guides readers through the mature artistry of SpielbergÂ's later period in which he manages, against considerable odds, to run a successful studio while maintaining and enlarging his high artistic standards as one of AmericaÂ's most thoughtful, sophisticated, and popular filmmakers.

McBride is especially effective at limning thecontours of Spielberg's childhood. Born in 1946 to Arnold and LeahSpielberg, the young Steven endured both frequent moves and hisparents' unhappy domestic life.These factors, combined with theanti-Semitism he encountered as a teenager, drove the introvertedSpielberg to seek approval through filmmaking. In addition toexploring Spielberg's private life, McBride offers some perceptivecriticism of his work. Anyone interested in the film industry andSpielberg's place in it will find Joseph McBride's StevenSpielberg a valuable resource. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Well Researched, Poor Perseption
I agree with Craig MACKINNON's review.

This book is meticulously researched, however, the analysis made after said research do I not only feel to be wrong, but many times unneeded. I would rather have the biographer present the facts of Spielberg's life then provide his own, terrible, film opinions.

Also this book makes far too much of Spielberg's jewish roots and heritage as if his whole career was just building to make Schindler's List. Everything else was just a stepping stone. A common mistake from critics that I figured a man willing to research and write a whole book about Spielberg's life would not make.

This book is also relatively lop sided in the amount of time it spends on individual incidents in Spielberg's life, pre success, compared to post. Plus it does not discuss the process behind the creation of each of his films with the same amount of time.

However, I would suggest reading it, because it is so well researched and when you look past the author's bias you can find wonderful insights into the man the book is written about and his works.

A solid Spielberg book
Steven Spielberg would approve of this highly interesting and informative book, which not only chronicles the movies, but also digs deeper to answer some very compelling questions, and unlike some Spielberg bios, McBride's tome answers all of them. Charting his illustrious career from his early work in TV, to films Like Duel, Jaws, Raiders, E.T, Jurassic Park and The Lost World, this is an eminently satisfying addition to my impressive Spielberg collection. If it has a flaw, there is too much focused on his output in the early 90s and not quite enough concerning his famously fantastic films in the 70s and 80s. Regardless, a cool book and a great weekend read. Highly recommended.

Steven Spielberg is a Horrible Racist
Just watch that racist Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom to see that this man is deathly afraid of India and Indians in general. Too bad - he seems to love the Communist Chinese a lot though.

So far, the definitive account of Spielberg's life.
I've now read about five or six biographies of Steven Spielberg and all vary in depth and quality. However Joseph McBride book can only be described as THE most in-depth account of Spielberg's fascinating life. You simply won't read a more well-researched account of Spielberg's life unless the great man writes his autobiography. Don't be put off by the fact that Spielberg didn't co-operate with this book, virtually everyone else did including, most surprisingly, his father. A terrific read from start to finish.

Doesn't do justice to its impressive research
I want to give this book 4 stars, but I just can't bring myself to do it.This book is certainly an impressive scholarly work - well researched,reasonably well referenced, and when there is analysis offered, it isthorough and insightful.

Unfortunately, the analysis is also my majorcomplaint with the book.McBride seems to haphazardly pick pictures toanalyse, while ignoring others.What possessed him to give devote morepages to 1941 than all the Indiana Jones movies combined?Further, he hasa tendency to focus too much on the story of the movie - I submit that mostpeople reading this book have seen these movies and can draw their ownconclusions about the significance of the story.We'd rather hear abouthow they were made, etc.That is, more facts and less analysis would wouldmake this a better book.

The first half of the book is very good, becausethe author takes his time explaining family connections, his amateur films,etc.It is a little repetitive (how often does McBride feel he has to tellus that Spielberg felt like an outsider growing up?), but the detail andnarrative flow are very good, telling us a lot about the man behind themovies.Especially interesting is the information on S's TV work.

Thesecond half of the book rapidly degenerates into a shallow overview ofthings we already know about Spielberg, and is very disappointing.It'salmost like McBride had a page limit, and after spending so much time onS's childhood, he had to rush through the remaining material, save forsections on Schindler's List and Colour Purple (both deserving movies, ofcourse).Even Jurassic Park is little more than a sideshow, whereinMcBride denegrates Crichton's novel (a fate that Peter Benchley's Jawsseems to avoid, even though in my opinion JP is a work far superior toJaws) and comments on how Spielberg worked on the effects in Poland whileshooting Schindler's List.Even his fine analytical powers seem to breakdown.What else could possess him to comment that Raider of the Lost arkis racist and "a soulless and impersonal film", while praisingLast Crusade as "a graceful piece of popular filmaking...gratifyinglyfree of racist overtones that blighted the two previous films."Huh? Has McBride actually watched these three movies together?Or does hereally think it's okay to portray stereotyped Arabs, but not stereotypedIndians or Nepalese?

At any rate, this is an important work, recommendedfor anyone that wants to learn more about the early life and works ofSpielberg.But I would suggest putting it down without reading the last 5chapters. ... Read more

Product Description
Steven Spielberg is known as the most powerful man in New Hollywood and a pioneer of the contemporary blockbuster, America’s most successful export. His career began a new chapter in mass culture. At the same time, American post war liberalism was breaking down. This fascinating new book explains the complex relationship between film and politics through the prism of an iconic filmmaker.

Spielberg’s early films were a triumphant emergence of the Sunbelt aesthetic that valued visceral kicks and basic emotions over the ambiguities of history. Such blockbusters have inspired much debate about their negative effect on politics and have been charged as being an expression of the corporatization of life. Here Frederick Wasser argues that the older Spielberg has not fully gone this way, suggesting that the filmmaker recycles the populist vision of older Hollywood because he sincerely believes in both big time moviemaking and liberal democracy. Nonetheless, his stories are burdened by his generation’s hostility to public life, and the book shows how he uses filmmaking tricks to keep his audience with him and to smooth over the ideological contradictions. His audiences have become more global, as his films engage history.

This fresh and provocative take on Spielberg in the context of globalization, rampant market capitalism and the hardening socio-political landscape of the United States will be fascinating reading for students of film and for anyone interested in contemporary America and its culture.

Product Description
Empire of Dreams is the first definitive look at all of the science fiction, fantasy, and horror films directed by Steven Spielberg, one of the most popular and influential contemporary filmmakers. Spielberg helped spark the renaissance of these genres in the 1970s and 1980s and remains productive and prominent in them today. Following most of Spielberg's oeuvre as well as his audiences' reactions, this book shows that his appeal as a storyteller is primarily visceral and emotional_for he has found ways to tap into his own feelings and to evoke profound emotion in audiences. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Spielberg Explained, with Brilliance and Cinema Scholarship
Steven Spielberg is, without doubt, one of the most gifted and imaginative filmmakers of his generation. To my mind, he has few, if any equals in making films that can profoundly move an audience, excite and enlighten anybody watching truth flicker by at the requisite 24 frames per second. You walk out of "Jaws," as many of us did, knowing you've been frightened half to death, yet also knowing that you've seen great filmmaking at work, the best of the medium, a pure "movie movie," as it was once called when I was kicking around Hollywood in my early days as a writer and journalist.
It was all there, of course, early on, if you want to go back in film history and check out his first feature "Duel." And it's been an amazing ride ever since, from "Jaws" and "ET" to "Indiana Jones" and "Schindler's List" and beyond to "Minority Report" and "War of the Worlds." Spielberg never ceases to amaze and dazzle the audience with his command of the medium.
Now Andrew Gordon has explained, in great detail, why and how. In his masterful, brilliant study of Spielberg's career, Gordon provides an in-depth look at each of the several dozen or more films that comprise the master's work. The various of pieces of Spielberg's career and the critical responses to his movies are woven together in a rich tapestry of film scholarship. Gordon has done his homework in spades. His insights into the Spielberg canon are both illuminating and astute. This is no easy task, given the range of emotions that each Spielberg movie appears to evoke. Gordon steps both forward and back in assessing how he reacted to each picture, and how others reacted. In particular, I liked Gordon's chapter on Spielberg's "A.I.," the movie he finished for Stanley Kubrick. Although not a great commercial success, and one that certainly divided the critics, I still remember parts of the film with greater recall and emotional resonance than other Spielberg creations. Gordon, again, explains why, digging with psychological clarity into the various themes of the lost child expressed in the story.
The beauty of Gordon's book is that he is able to connect the various and complex themes that run through Spielberg's work from film to film; we see continuity, interrelationships, the struggle of the artist at work, the hits and misses, and ultimately, the ways in which we always, seemingly, happen to return to the world of Spielberg's boyhood home in suburbia, to all the hopes and promises of the American dream itself. If you're a film scholar, this book is must reading; if your interest in Spielberg is casual and curious, you'll find the text to be highly informative, with penetrating insight into the artist and his remarkable style of filmmaking.

First Rate for Scholars andGeneralAudiences alike!
Shakespeare states, 'We are such stuff as dreams are made on...'. Professor Gordon has authored a tome remarkable both for its breadth AND depth. Having written and optioned several screenplays myself,I truly believe that this book is in the vanguard of Spielberg scholarship, and a fine chronicle of our creative status as remade dreams. ... Read more

Product Description
Reveals how the project originated and how it was brought to fruition through the efforts of two great movie directors.Film is the medium of the modern age, and in this spectacular, large-format publication, one of the pinnacles of contemporary moviemaking is celebrated. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) was a collaboration between two cinematic giants: Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg. Here, the directors’ combined visions and sensibilities are presented along with the work of their remarkably talented colleagues—above all, Chris Baker, the film’s conceptual artist.

At the heart of the book are Baker’s drawings, many never before seen. Commissioned by Kubrick and used in Spielberg’s eventual production designs, the drawings display Baker’s imagination and rare technical skill. Accompanying the drawings are extracts from Kubrick’s notebooks, stills from the finished film, and photographs of behind-the-scenes action, highlighting the use of pioneering special effects, animatronic work, and the “virtual studio.” 300 color, 100 b&w illustrations ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A.I. Artificial Intelligence: From Stanley Kubrick.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence: From Stanley Kubrick.
Wonderful colored pictures and great information on the feature film.
One draw back not enough behind the scenes on the miniatures from ILM.

Very nice book overall!

Great and amzing book............but
Why not include the DVD of the movie or some special features as a Tie in to aid the cause

Finally...
A great and beautifully produced book about an enigmatic and mysterious film. The large format reproductions of Chris Baker's artwork are gorgeous. Stanley Kubrick's notes, annotations from Brian Aldiss, Ian Watson and Spielberg are gold. The editorials by Jan Harlan and Jane Struthers are fascinating and insightful, and at times quite moving -- especially Mr. Harlan's comment in the introduction, remarking on Stanley Kubrick's philosophy of filmmaking: 'First love it, and then worry about how to do it.'

For full disclosure, "A.I." was somewhat of a personal obsession, which haunted me from first reports that began appearing in the early days of the Internet rumor mill. Around the time of the film's release, I had the privilege to interview many of the filmmakers for an article about the film for Cinefex magazine, which I'm honored to see included in the 'recommended reading' notes of this book. One thing that my article lacked was Stanley Kubrick's voice. This book gives you that, in the annotations accompanying Chris's artwork and the observations of his colleagues. Bravo to Chris and to Thames & Hudson for pulling this material together; and to Messrs. Harlan and Spielberg, thank you for allowing this book to happen. It's long overdue, and it is a treasure.

Highly recommended.

Joe Fordham
Cinefex, associate editor

Very well researched and in depth
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3DZKVVD4Q7UAQ I was a bit surprised when I saw this book, published eight years after A.I. Artificial Intelligence was released. Time seems to stretch out with everything with this movie.

This book looks in depth at the production and also analyses the whole film thoroughly. If you don't already know, the film is inspired by a short story called "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long" written by Brian Aldiss in 1969. In 1976, Stanley Kubrick approached Brian Aldiss, and later with Steven Spielberg in 1984. With authorization from Kubrick before he passed away in 1999, Spielberg manages to finish the film in 2001. What happens during within all those time is all in the book. It's incredibly well researched and put together.

Besides production, there's also an extensive analysis of the film, act by act, with interviews from staff. It explores the philosophy, science and social-biology issues with robotics in the future. There's even an essay written by the director from the Personal Robots Group from MIT Media Lab.

This is one huge book measuring almost 20 inches diagonal, if go you by tv/monitor sizes. The pages are so big that the short story from Brian Aldiss are scanned and reproduced with handwritten notes.

Also included are storyboards and concept sketches from Chris Baker, as well as many photos from the set. It's interesting to see how the concept art evolved into actual sets and the discarded ideas. I didn't know that Rouge City, the one with lots of bright lights, is actually a miniature set. And Teddy, the bear, has more articulation joints than T-Rex from Jurassic Park. There are also extracts from Kubrick's notebooks but his handwriting is difficult to read.

This is a nice super-sized book looking at the art and making of the film. Recommended for fans of the movie.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.) ... Read more

Product Description
Although the blockbuster is the most popular and commercially successful type of filmmaking, it has yet to be studied seriously from a formalist standpoint. This is in opposition to classical Hollywood cinema and International Art cinema, whose form has been analyzed and deconstructed in great detail. Directed By Steven Spielberg fills this gap by examining the distinctive form of the blockbuster. The book focuses on Spielberg’s blockbusters, because he is the most consistent and successful director of this type of film – he defines the standard by which other Hollywood blockbusters are judged and compared. But how did Spielberg attain this position? Film critics and scholars generally agree that Spielberg’s blockbusters have a unique look and use visual storytelling techniques to their utmost effectiveness. In this book, Warren Buckland examines Spielberg’s distinct manipulation of film form, and his singular use of stylistic and narrative techniques. The book demonstrates the aesthetic options available to Spielberg, and particularly the choices he makes in structuring his blockbusters. Buckland emphasizes the director’s activity in making a film (particularly such a powerful director as Spielberg), including: visualizing the scene on paper via storyboards; staging and blocking the scene; selecting camera placement and movement; determining the progression or flow of the film from shot to shot; and deciding how to narrate the story to the spectator.

Directed By Steven Spielberg combines film studies scholarship with the approach taken by many filmmaking manuals. The unique value of the book lies in its grounding of formal film analysis in filmmaking. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

recommended, but with reservations
Warren Buckland's "Directed by Steven Spielberg" is a welcome addition to the growing shelf of books that take a serious look at the films of Spielberg.His approach is to do a deep analysis of Spielberg's visual style, and he comes up with some fascinating results.It's no news to me that Spielberg's movies are way smarter than a lot of people tend to assume, but Buckland makes a good case for "Jurassic Park," which I'd previously considered to be one of the lesser movies in his career.Buckland is similarly insightful on the subjects of the rest of the movies he covers.

However, I have reservations about certain aspects of the book.For one thing, it's a dry, dry, dry read.This is acdemic writing, and frankly, academics don't know how to write nine times out of ten.Buckland is great at analysis; he's less good at presenting his analysis.Therefore, unless you're a pretty serious Spielberg fan (or a serious film-school student), you're likely to have a hard time making it through some sections of this book.

Secondly, Buckland's concentration on Spielberg's visuals lapses in certain places.Whenever he begins discussing elements of Spielberg's films that he doesn't like, Buckland almost immediately shifts away from visual analysis and toward more traditional criticisms of plot and character, etc.These are quite possibly valid critical arguments, but they are a betrayal of Buckland's intent in writing the book.And quite frankly, a visual analysis of some of these sections might have been useful, even revelatory.

Another issue is with Buckland's analysis of "Poltergeist."He takes a statistical analysis -- a fascinating one, in fact -- of the movie in order to determine who "really" directed the movie.(If you weren't aware, it has long been a Hollywood controversy over whether credited director Tobe Hooper was in fact just a patsy for Spielberg, who has been rumored to have actually done most of the directing himself.)Buckland's findings, surprising even to himself, is that while Spielberg obviously wielded some influence, Hooper was also extremely active in the movie's visuals.This is great stuff, but it seems to settle the controversy in favor of Hooper, and fails utterly to take into account the fact that Spielberg wrote the film (he's credited with "story by," but did an uncredited full rewrite of the final draft of the screenplay).Whether or not he physically directed it, it's a Spielberg movie.To be fair, this is a problem with film criticism at large; the writer of the film is often ignored, and ought not be.

Finally, at the end, there are short analyses of several Spielberg movies not covered in full.One of these is "A.I.," and Buckland opts not to approach the movie's visuals at all.Instead, he offers up the analysis that the majority of the movie is a dream sequence from the point of view of the sick child, sleeping within the cryogenic chamber.This analysis is so poor, so entirely off-base, that it's hard to believe I'm supposed to take it seriously.It's so wrong-headed, in fact, that it calls Buckland's overall credibility somewhat into question.This is a problem coming at the end of an otherwise solid book.

Don't let these problems put you off from buying it if you're a serious Spielberg fan, though.There is a lot to like and appreciate here. ... Read more

Product Description
Intimate family photos and interviews reveal Spielberg behind the scenes

From Jaws to E.T. to Schindler's List to Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg has created many of the most popular and respected movies ever made. Now, through extensive interviews with Spielberg's family, with the stars of his films, and with the people he has worked with most closely, Susan Goldman Rubin presents the definitive portrait of a man whose childhood paved the path he would take as an artist.

A wealth of behind-the-scenes information allows readers to look at the creative process up close. Full of never-before-seen, one-of-a-kind family photographs, this fast-paced biography will inspire young people everywhere.

A chapter is devoted to the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, the nonprofit organization Spielberg established to videotape and preserve the testimonies of Holocaust survivors, and a portion of the profits from this book will go to support the foundation's work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

An exciting read with beautiful photos!
This is a beautiful little book. I enjoyed reading Ms. Rubin's text just as much as the photos. It reads more like a novel than a bio. including little known facts and personal interviews of his family and friends. She makes a point to illustrate the early influences of Steven's family and school life that later became themes for his movies. It is a very intimate look into Speilburg's personal and professional journey. Ms. Rubin has included many formerly unpublished photos. It all adds up to a wonderful read and certainly a lovely addition to your library, especially if you are a fan of Spielberg's work.

Great Photographs and Information
This is a pretty good decent sized book about both Spielberg's life growing up and his most successful movies such as Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET, Jurrasic Park and Saving Private Ryan to name a few.There are some great colour photographs from the movies along with a lot of information.If you like the films he has done or are interested in his life then this would have to be one of the best books out there on that subject.

A Beautiful Quality Book.
Great book for the 9-14 age group or anyone older looking for a light read. Lots and lots of interesting pictures of Spieberg's childhood, early career and blockbuster movies and behind-the-scene production. Well written and a high quality book. ... Read more

Product Description

Has any film director had a greater impact on popular culture than Steven Spielberg? Whether filming Holocaust heroes and villains, soldiers, dinosaurs, extraterrestrials, or explorers in search of the Holy Grail, Spielberg has given filmgoers some of the most memorable characters and wrenching moments in the history of cinema. Whatever his subject -- war, cloning, slavery, terrorism, or adventure -- all of Spielberg's films have one aspect in common: a unique view of the moral fabric of humanity. Dean A. Kowalski's Steven Spielberg and Philosophy is like a remarkable conversation after a night at the movie theater, offering new insights and unexpected observations about the director's most admired films. Some of the nation's most respected philosophers investigate Spielberg's art, asking fundamental questions about the nature of humanity, cinema, and Spielberg's expression of his chosen themes. Applying various philosophical principles to the movies, the book explores such topics as the moral demands of parenthood in War of the Worlds; the ultimate unknowability of the "other" in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Schindler's List; the relationship between nature and morality in Jurassic Park; the notion of consciousness in A.I.: Artificial Intelligence; issues of war theory and ethics in Munich; and the foundation of human rights in Amistad. Impressive in scope, this volume illustrates the philosophical tenets of a wide variety of thinkers from Plato to Aquinas, Locke, and Levinas. Contributors introduce readers to philosophy while simultaneously providing deeper insight into Spielberg's approach to filmmaking. The essays consider Spielberg's movies using key philosophical cornerstones: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, axiology, aesthetics, and political philosophy, among others. At the same time, Steven Spielberg and Philosophy is accessible to those new to philosophy, using the philosophical platform to ponder larger issues embedded in film and asking fundamental questions about the nature of cinema and how meanings are negotiated. The authors contend that movies do not present philosophy -- rather philosophy is something viewers do while watching and thinking about films. Using Spielberg's films as a platform for discussing these concepts, the authors contemplate questions that genuinely surprise the reader, offering penetrating insights that will be welcomed by film critics, philosophers, and fans alike.

Customer Reviews (1)

Deep insight
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R322VWR9AVWC1P Very deep insights into Spielberg's work and its affect on society. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

For son's report
I bought for my son (10) to read for a school report...book arrived in great condition.

Steven Spielberg, movie director, determination
Reviewed by Ben Weldon (age 10) for Reader Views (11/07)

"Steven Spielberg (Just the Facts Biographies)" by Tom Powers is the true story of Steven Spielberg and how he made his way from a weird, skinny kid to a rich movie director.Even as a child, he liked to scare other people.He once trapped his sisters in a closet with a fake glowing skeleton that he had made. He was known to be quite diabolical; however, when he had to dissect a frog in biology class, he vomited.He loved movies and television, and he sometimes rented 8mm movie reels and charged the neighborhood kids 35 cents to watch.Young Steven was actually quite timid and poor at sports.He was sometimes teased because he was Jewish and had a sort of unhappy childhood.Stevens's father encouraged him to begin creating movies as a way to increase his self-confidence.

Spielberg got his start in movies at a very young age and was determined to make a career in film directing.When he was 13, he created his first movie, "Battle Squad," about fighting the Nazis during World War II.At 15, he made his first full-length science fiction movie, "Firelight".After he graduated from high school, he intended to enroll in a top college film program, but he was not accepted anywhere.He finally enrolled in California State University majoring in English; there was a movie studio right near the college building called Universal Studios.In the summer he put on a suit and tie, walked right into the studio as if he belonged, and put up his name on an empty room.Eventually a security guard caught him and threw him out.Despite getting kicked out, he kept going back until he was offered a job directing TV shows including "The Twilight Zone" and "Night Gallery."Eventually Spielberg got bored directing television and wanted to move on to more creative pursuits in movies.

Spielberg has made some of the greatest movies that Americans and the world have experienced."Jaws," a scary killer-shark movie directed by Spielberg, was the first Hollywood movie to take in more than $100 million at the box office.It was, however, just the beginning of Spielberg's blockbusters which included "E.T.," the "Indiana Jones" series, "Shrek," and "Jurassic Park" (his biggest money-maker) among many others.Spielberg's movies were thrilling, full of action, and often scary.He also made some more serious and dramatic movies such as "The Color Purple," "Schindler's List," and "Saving Private Ryan."

Steven Spielberg now has his own private studio called Dream Works, which produces movies, video games and computer games.He has won many awards for his movies and is remarkably rich.His early determination seems to have paid off beyond his wildest dreams.

I thought that "Steven Spielberg" was an excellent book and I hope all readers will enjoy it as much as I did.This is a very well-written book with many sidebar facts that I did not know about.I thought that learning about Spielberg's past was interesting and very enjoyable along with learning about what movies he made.It also makes me want to see some of his movies some day.

... Read more

Product Description
The devastation of Hungarian Jewry was among the worst atrocities of World War II, encompassing the murder of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children in the final months of the war.

Facing defeat, Hitler and his allies brought the Holocaust to Hungary with unprecedented speed and barbarity. The Hungarian Jewish population was rounded up and deported to concentration camps in just 54 days. 437,402 Jews. 148 trains. Destination: Auschwitz.

The German plan for annihilation of the Jews-called the 'Final Solution'-set the goal that not a single survivor would be left to bear witness to the events. Fifty years later, Steven Spielberg established Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation to record the testimony of as many survivors as possible. From the ashes of the Holocaust these voices now emerge to share their stories and to represent the nearly six million Jews who did not survive.

Survivors and liberators share what they experienced in gripping, firsthand testimony. Archival photographs document history, and powerful color images chronicle the survivors' emotional return to the places of their pasts:from homes unseen for fifty years to the ghettos and concentration camps of their imprisonment. Top scholars have been brought together to share their insights into one of humanity's darkest chapters. These elements are poignantly synthesized in The Last Days as a warning for all mankind.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

gripping
This is the story of the final days of the Holocaust when the Final Solution was inflicted upon the Jews of Hungary with devestating fury by the nazis and their local collaborators The Arrow Cross.

This is not a happy book but an insightful one that covers this portion of the bloody social engineering of Hitler's Final Solution, his attrocity against Jews.

Witnessing the murder of Hungarian Jewry
Six eye-witness accounts of the destruction of Hungarian Jewry by the Nazis are at the heart of this work. This and the witnesses return fifty years later to the place of the destruction and their reflection upon this.
Their testimony is part of the sacred act of remembrance of the destruction, and of those destroyed. It is of course a very partial act and can never compensate for the destruction.
With the murder of over four- hundred and fifty thousand Jews were murdered thousands of families, whole worlds.
The mind and heart cannot encompass or understand this.

exellent historical document a must for all
exellent visual and historical document please advise publishers of the following p201 liberation photo, it is J Krammer with british gaurds at belsen not Fritz Klein revisionist would love that let us never forget. ... Read more

Product Description
Steven Spielberg is the director or producer of over one third of the thirty highest grossing films of all time, yet most film scholars dismiss him as little more than a modern P. T. Barnum - a technically gifted and intellectually shallow showman who substitutes spectacle for substance. To date, no book has attempted to analyze the components of his worldview, the issues which animate his most significant works, the roots of his immense acceptance, and the influence his vast spectrum of imaginative products exerts on the public consciousness. In "Citizen Spielberg", Lester D. Friedman fills that void with a systematic analysis of the various genres in which the director has worked, including science fiction ("E.T."), adventure ("Raiders" trilogy), race films ("The Color Purple", "Amistad"), and war films ("Saving Private Ryan", "Schindler's List"). Friedman concludes that Spielberg's films present a sustained artistic vision combined with a technical flair matched by few other filmmakers, and makes a compelling case for Spielberg to be considered as a major film artist. ... Read more

Product Description
To coincide with the 20th anniversary re-release of the classic film, digitally remastered with new scenes and never-before-seen footage—here is the never-before-published screenplay and story behind the movie in the filmmakers' own words, lavishly illustrated with more than 200 photos. Directed by Steven Spielberg from the Oscar®-nominated screenplay by Melissa Mathison and produced by Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, this landmark film won four Oscars® and grossed $700 million worldwide. The touching story of a lost little visitor from another planet who is befriended and protected by a young boy who, together, find a way to return the young alien home, the film co-stars Dee Wallace-Stone, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton, and Drew Barrymore. Published to celebrate the film's 20th anniversary, the Newmarket Pictorial Moviebook includes stories from the makers and stars of the film, how the project was conceived and written, how the alien was drawn and made, how the movie was cast, how anxious the filmmakers were about its reception, the stunning unveiling at Cannes, Spielberg's thoughts as a filmmaker about making films for kids and adults, and much more. 200 color and b/w illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Not Free SF Reader
This is one novelisation I did enjoy quite a bit and read more than once.Kotzwinkle did a reasonable job of somehow taking the amazingly ugly but cute at the same time alien and translating that to print, along with the kids.

The D&D scene he threw into the book was fun, as well.

Book from the movie, but better than the movie
This book was written from the movie, but I read it in Junior-High well before I saw the movie. What is awesome in this book is that it gives E.T.'s POINT OF VIEW on the whole story. We learn who he really is, why he is here, what he thinks, what he feels, why he does what he does... and to me that was just extremely interesting, to be inside the head of an extra-terrestrial!
Afterwards, seeing the movie was a big disappointment, because it contains none of these deep character developments... I think reading this book truly adds another dimension to the E.T. story, so I recommend it. (But beware: some of the concepts strayed from the movie, so be open to new ideas! For example, in the book, E.T. is not an ignorant baby, but is million-years-old wise).

ET Phone Home
This book is a scary book. I want people to read it because it is kind of sad. The best part of this story is the fact that the scary thing gets killed. People should read it to find out how this happened. Reading scary books is something I like to do. Buy this book to read and get some imformation.

ET Phone Home
This book is a scary book. I want people to read it because it is kind of sad. The best part of this story is the fact that the scary thing gets killed. People should read it to find out how this happened. Reading scary books is something I like to do. Buy this book to read and get some information.

ET
This book was outstanding in my own mind. There was just not anything thatturned me off and made put the book down. Yes, this is science fiction andactually loved it, because the characters were described so well. A personmay feel as if they really knew or felt that they may be somewhat alike. Ipersonally do not like science fiction but as much as I enjoyed this, I mayjust change and widen my reading variety. Considering some fairly difficultwords I always stuck with and just tried to understand it. Kotzwinkle hasput forth an extraudinary piece of literature and should be recommended forinterested readers. To be honest with you this book is not easy and is alittle long but in the end I promise that you will be feeling something.This has love, tragedy, and is quite suspensful. It is a wonderful book,and I personally recommend to everyone. joe gainer ... Read more

Product Description
Explores the life and career of the successful filmmaker beginning with his childhood and including discussion of his projects as a director, writer, and producer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Mr. Hollywood
Bryce Willson
10/27/05
Per.3
Steven Spielberg

In Steven Spielberg: Hollywood Filmmaker, author Virginia Meachum explores the life and career of this successful and talented filmmaker. From his childhood in New Jersey and Arizona, to his continued success in the entertainment industry, Spielberg has always been determined to follow his dreams. The work of Steven Spielberg will continue to entertain moviegoers for years to come.

Mr. Steven
Great book---it really describes Steven's life well, including lots of little details, which makes it fun to read! Not like a textbook at all...at times I found myself just sitting and reading the book instead of using it as planned to help me write a report on Steven Spielberg. Again, a great book this is, defintely get it! Go Steven Spielberg! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

It's Spielberg!
How could this book be anything less than great, it has the greatest subject matter, STEVEN SPIELBERG! ... Read more

Product Description
Steven Spielberg (USA, born 1946) was the boy wonder of the new Hollywood of the 1970s. Taking Orson Welles as his model, he made Duel aged only 25, following it up with a string of successes that brought him the adulation of the studios. As a fan of special effects, and entirely attuned to the shift towards younger film audiences, he took entertainment to new heights with films such as "Jaws" (1975), "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977), "ET" (1982) and "Jurassic Park" (1993). His more recent incursions into science fiction ("AI", 2001; "Minority Report", 2002; and, "War of the Worlds", 2005) and historical films ("Schindler's List", 1993; "Saving Private Ryan", 1998; and "Munich", 2005) have brought him international critical recognition. He is also involved in production through his studio Dreamworks and is undoubtedly one of the most influential figures in contemporary film. ... Read more