The Films of Steven Spielberg

by Charles L. P. Silet

Overview

Steven Spielberg has fashioned an enviable career as a writer, producer, and director of American motion pictures, winning Academy Awards for Best Direction (Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List), and for Best Film (Schindler's List). With David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg he founded Dreamworks SKG, already one of the most productive and respected studios in Hollywood. Despite Spielberg's notable successes, however, his films have not avoided controversy.

The Films of Steven Spielberg provides for the first time a collection of critical writings by professional film critics about the director and his films, bringing together many articles and reviews scattered in often inaccessible specialist publications and professional journals. The opinions vary from complimentary to critical, but they definitely provide a well-rounded view of the films and the director.

Twelve of Spielberg's major box office hits, including Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial, The Color Purple, Empire of the Sun, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, are discussed in essays that vary in complexity ranging from the heavily theoretical to the more general.

This collection of essays, compiled for both film students and professionals in the film industry, attests to the influence of Spielberg and the films that have earned him a significant place in the history of cinema as one of America's most innovative and culturally important filmmakers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810841826
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	10/16/2002
Series:	The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series , #94
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Charles L. P. Silet is Professor of English at Iowa State University. In 1998 he received the Excellence in Honors Teaching Award from the University Honors Program. He has published fourteen books including Oliver Stone: Interviews [2001, University Press of Mississippi].

Table of Contents

	Introduction	xiii
	Acknowledgments	xxi
	Chronology	xxv
Chapter 1	Jaws	1
	Archetypal Landscapes and Jaws	3
	Integrating Ideology and Archetype in Rhetorical Criticism, Part II: A Case Study of Jaws	15
Chapter 2	Close Encounters of the Third Kind	45
	Language and the Music of the Spheres: Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind	47
Chapter 3	Raiders of the Lost Ark	57
	Raiders of the Lost Archetype: The Quest and the Shadow	59
Chapter 4	E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial	69
	The Look Back in E.T.	71
Chapter 5	The Color Purple	91
	The Color Purple as Everybody's Protest Art	93
Chapter 6	Empire of the Sun	107
	Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun: A Boy's Dream of War	109
	Ballard's Nightmares/Spielberg's Dreams: Empire of the Sun	127
Chapter 7	Always	139
	Raiders of the Lost Text	141
Chapter 8	Hook	157
	Robert Bly Does Peter Pan: The Inner Child as Father to the Man in Steven Spielberg's Hook	159
Chapter 9	Jurassic Park	169
	Dinomania	171
Chapter 10	Schindler's List	189
	The Economies of Schindler's List	191
	Narration and the Embodiment of Power in Schindler's List	215
Chapter 11	Amistad	237
	"Amistad" and the Abuse of History	239
Chapter 12	Saving Private Ryan	249
	Jerry Don't Surf	251
	The Director's Filmography	257
	Index	269
	About the Editor	281
	About the Contributors	283