A Steven Spielberg Poll (1974-1993)

xpost the only thing I remember about that movie was a nebbish confused man at the movie theatre box office trying to buy a ticket to the 3:15 showing of Always and having to be told repeatedly that the showing was cancelled, Stuwall style.

Assuming that both Hook voters haven't seen it since they were 10.

Hook voters need to be watched VERY closely. there is something wrong there. unless it was some sort of post-modern Andy Kaufman kind of vote.

Hook is every bad maudlin idea/thought/memory SS ever had made into a movie.

RUFI

I voted for CE3K.

Thudbutt is one of cinema's great characters

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)	2
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)	1

It has all been worth it.

watched "Empire of the Sun" last night. it was really good! wonderful on a technical level -- those scenes with massive crowds brought to mind Grand Old Hollywood. great use of light/shadow throughout, with some nice shots of silhouettes against the sunrise or a shower of sparks from nearby plane mechanics.

the class dynamics were very interesting. it starts out with a spoiled British imperialist youth frightened of the teeming masses living at the edge of his privilege. soon enough they are ransacking his abandoned house (the scene where his former servant goes right up and slaps him before moving on was hilarious & devastating). soon enough, he is banging a dish pan in an internment camp, a nice callback to the homeless man camped out near the driveway of his mansion from the start of the film.

there is so much to dig into here. just thinking back on it, so many themes and motifs are bubbling up for me. the little toy plane he starts off with, taken on this journey, seen in all these different contexts, later taken a more grown up form in the larger toy plane that he and his Japanese counterpart take joy in flinging back and forth across the lines. that scene where he is trying to bring back someone to life and they turn into... well not gonna give it away for those who haven't seen it. the moment is a little on the nose but the movie is very good at show not tell so it's an earned moment.

beautiful movie. John Malcovich is even tolerable! the scene with all the discarded pianos, china sets, luxury lounges, crystal chandaliers, etc. all the trappings of wealth in the abandoned stadium littered with the bodies of the dying ruling class was eerie and surreal (perhaps like something he would do later in AI). i feel like this is a film you could watch over and over again and even use to teach a class, it is really well put together on every level.

finally watched Sugarland Express last night. the most "of its time" spielberg that i've seen - we get slight variations on the many-cops-chasing-one-car formula rather than a total overhaul into streamlined blockbuster. zsigmond's photography is the biggest reason to see it imo, i was stoked for a spielberg movie starring goldie hawn but she's rapidly demoted to just one of several people yelling at each other. it's also too long and there are times i genuinely couldn't tell what was happening to who (too many similar-looking cars and hats). but other times you can see exactly where spielberg's injecting some energy and drama through the storyboarding....
idk it's more fun and certainly better looking than Dirty Mary Crazy Larry. still need to see Badlands and Thieves Like Us tho.

The biggest blind spot for me has always been “Hook”. I tried to watch it last night. Didn’t make it past the kid’s baseball game. The treacly John Hughes-ness of the thing made me stop watching. Please convince me to sit through it and that I will be rewarded.

nope

it gets worse rather than better. i guess if you're really into lavishly expensive but pretty ugly 90s set/production design, there'd be things to look at.

I have a real affection for Hook because it was one of a handful of movies we had on VCR when I worked in the electronics dept of a K-Mart in the early 90s and I've seen it dozens of times in bits and pieces (others: 2001, The Fugitive, Mrs. Doubtfire). It's also one of the only Robin Williams movies I like, probably because he is playing against type most of the movie. It's the ultimate of the Spielberg missing father movies and kind of hits you over the head with that. I guess I like the recontextualizing/updating of the Peter Pan story and how you get to gradually uncover those elements. I wouldn't argue for it being good.

Hook is such a 1991/1992 film in an intangible way, just switching it on you can instantly tell that it's not from 1989 or 1994

Down to the score.

Yeah, that's a weird score. Otm. Not gonna revisit. Nope.

The England-set scenes in Hook are actually quite lovely. Shame about the rest of it.