Steven Spielberg

Steven Allan Spielberg KBE (born on December 18, 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio but raised in the suburbs of Haddonfield, New Jersey and Scottsdale, Arizona) is an Oscar winning Jewish American film director and producer whose films range from science fiction to historical drama to horror. He is noted in recent years for his willingness to tackle emotionally powerful issues, such as the horrors of the Holocaust in Schindler's List, slavery in Amistad, and the hardships of war in Saving Private Ryan. One consistent theme in his work is a childlike, even naïve, sense of wonderment and faith, as attested by works such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Hook and A.I..

Criticism

Perhaps the most prominent critic of Steven Spielberg is American artist and actor Crispin Glover. In a 2005 essay titled What Is It? Glover says that Spielberg has ?wafted his putrid stench upon our culture, a culture he helped homogenize and propagandize.? Among Glover?s accusations are that Spielberg purchased the Rosebud sled used in Orson Welles? 1941 film Citizen Kane for $50,000 but refused to hire Welles to write a screenplay in the later years of his life, that he received money from the United States government to promote his personal religious and cultural beliefs, that his films do not take risks, that he exploited tragedy for personal gain in the films Schindler?s List and Saving Private Ryan, and that he, as a co-owner of DreamWorks, considered building a studio on the last remaining wetland in Southern California. Glover also makes the more outlandish insinuations that Spielberg is a pedophile and that he is indirectly responsible for the Columbine High School massacre. Glover may criticize Spielberg because his image was used in Spielberg's Back to the Future Part II without consent, which led to a successful lawsuit.

Related Topics:
Crispin Glover - Orson Welles? - 1941 - Citizen Kane - Wetland - Pedophile - Columbine High School massacre - Back to the Future Part II

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Another criticism occasionally mentioned by science fiction fans is that Spielberg made the ending to A.I.: Artificial Intelligence too happy, which may not have been in accordance with Stanley Kubrick?s original vision for the film, considering the pessimistic endings of films such as Dr. Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange. However, both Kubrick's long-time assistant Jan Harlan and the film's original story writer Ian Watson have said that the ending is exactly what Kubrick intended.

Related Topics:
Dr. Strangelove - A Clockwork Orange

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Spielberg's unabashed support for Israel has also put him in the hot seat. In 2002, a rumor circulated that Spielberg was planning a film about Palestinian suffering during the Israeli/Palestinian feud. The director's spokesman, Marvin Levy, called the report "an obvious, vicious hoax." Spielberg is, however, currently in production on Munich, a highly controversial project which deals with the Israeli retaliation to the massacre of the Israeli Olympic athletes during the 1972 Munich Games. In order to deflect claims of bias, the filmmaker has consulted various sources in creating the film (see Projects).

Related Topics:
Israel - 2002 - 1972 - Munich Games - Projects

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