What is fascinating about this film is that it feels like his warm up for Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. Empire of the Sun is the story about Jim (Christian Bale), a young English boy who is separated from his parents in Shanghai just as the Japanese begin to take over. He goes from living on his own to surviving the POW camps and beyond. You can begin to see some of the visual style Spielberg would employ later in his life. He able to create incredibly dense environments of people while maintaining a strong focus on the main character's emotional story. Unlike The Color Purple, Spielberg is able to find something visually interesting or even beautiful in the ugliest of moments. Unfortunately like The Color Purple, the story is cynical and the characters unlikeable. Jim is pretentious and spoiled at the beginning and while he changes he never seems to grow. Notice the difference in a character like that as opposed to Oskar Schindler who is also callous and arrogant but is filled with charm and just enough humanity to make us attach to him. You attach to none of the characters in Empire of the Sun because they lack any real heart. Again, contrast that with the soldiers in Saving Private Ryan who are jaded by the inhumanity of war, but are still incredibly compelling because of the humanity Spielberg shows us in them despite that. Empire of the Sun is stunning its breath, but never gets to any real depth.
#31 - Amblin' (1968)
I'm including this because I think that it is incredibly insightful into Spielberg himself. It plays out like a short silent movie. A young man is hitchhiking through the desert, carrying nothing but a bag, a sleeping bag, and a guitar case. Along the way he meets an attractive female hitchhiker and they begin to travel together and become romantically involved. He looks like a doe-eyed innocent and she has the bearing of a tough and cool seasoned traveler. They finally reach the ocean. The young man enthusiastically runs into the waves. The woman decides to peer into the guitar case. She is overcome by disappointment when she sees that there is no guitar and he is not a musician. The guitar case is simply a makeshift luggage, carrying his clothes, mouthwash, toilet paper, etc. She decides to leave him on the beach, happily oblivious to her departure.Perhaps I am reading too much into this, but I can see Spielberg's own insecurities playing out in this film. He dreams of making his mark as an artist in the film industry. But he is terrified of being discovered as a suburban fraud. He is not an edgy troubadour, but a child-hearted sentimentalist. He's not hiding some deep, unspeakable trauma. At his heart is basic, American decency.
I have seen this play out in Spielberg's life. Many people in Hollywood do not like him or his movies because of their broad appeal and sentimental traditionalism. The film industry is populated by those who are always looking for edginess over artistry. Think about the last few Academy Awards. Will people really be watching The Shape of Water 30 years from now? The character in Amblin' makes it out West, but he appears to be Mid-western at heart. The same is true for Spielberg.
The movie also shows the beginnings of Spielberg's style, with his use of space and closeups. It is all there, but still in its rough infancy.
#30 - Hook (1991)
This should have been a home run, but it was a strike out for Spielberg. He has a strong parallel to Peter Pan with his child-like sentiment. And the movie tackles the idea of selling out and forgetting who you are, without reducing the solution to a return to childishness. And the first 15 minutes or so are a fantastic set up.
But then it all falls apart. Nothing in this movie works. Robin Williams never quite finds the right tone, Dustin Hoffman is never quite what he needs to be, the movie is oddly violent while at the same time being too juvenile. The only part that really works well are the Lost Boys, but even they are being graded on a curve. The production design is meant to look like a fairy tale, but instead it looks simply artificial.
This is a real shame because all of the thematic elements are fantastic. In addition, you can feel all of the raw materials are present in order for Spielberg to craft a truly magical film. But something just didn't click and as a result we have a half-baked, over-stuffed mess of a film.
#29 - The Terminal (2004)
If I didn't know this was directed by Steven Spielberg, I never could have called it. I wrote before that 1941 was completely antithetical to Spielberg's style and type. The Terminal isn't an inversion of his normal style. The Terminal is simply devoid of any of Spielberg's style. It feels completely empty.
Once again, here is a movie with a fascinating concept but a terrible script. Tom Hanks plays Viktor, a man who arrives at JFK Airport, whose country was becomes no longer recognized by the US mid-flight. As a result, with a no-longer-valid passport, he cannot return home and he cannot pass customs. So he is forced to live inside of the airport terminal. The movie starts with some fascinating sequences of Viktor figuring out how to make money and buy food. But as the film goes on it becomes more ridiculous, and not in a good way.
Apart from the beginning, it felt like Spielberg didn't know how to film this movie. Even Hank's performance feels like a generic good-guy, rather than someone with full depth. This is another case where I think an awful script ruined the movie, but as the director, Spielberg knew what he was getting in to. If he didn't have a strong handle on how to make the movie interesting, he should have passed.
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