HYPE
- Blowing out of proportion the impact that the movie will have on the audience. Close Encounters of the Third Kind was going to convince all of us that "We are not alone!" The movie wasn't about that at all. It was a dumb movie with a lot of special effects.
SPECIAL EFFECTS
- Spielberg uses special effects in all of his movies. Special Effects unnecessary to the presentation are added just to wow the audience. In Young Sherlock Holmes we were treated to a stained glass knight and animated pastry in an otherwise serious movie.
TOYS
- Spielberg seems to make movies to sell toys. His deal with Mattel must be better than his production deal! McDonald's, Burger King, and Taco Bell are the reasons he makes movies. The happy meal would be empty without a Spielberg movie. Hey! Where's the Amy Irving Doll?
CHILDREN
- This goes hand in hand with toys, some cute child has to say or do outrageous things, so that our children will remember and repeat the behavior, E.G. "Penis breath" in E.T.
Well that's it for now, when I think of more I'll add it!
Well I've thought of more. It seems I get a lot of E-Mail on this subject. Those of you who wish a dialog with me, I accept that you may have a different view than mine and you do provide a return E-Mail address that can end up in a meaningful dialog.
But, there are those who send E-Mail with bad return addresses who support Spielberg. If Spielberg is to be judged by these cowardly low-life supporters then let it be that Spielberg's supporters do not have the guts to state their name or E-Mail addresses. Therefore you have pre-judged your own opinion as being worthless.
Here is a wonderful story submitted by someone who wants to remain anonymous, and so they shall
Okay, here goes. One of the most famous stories of guts and glory in filmmaking is the one about how Spielberg as a young man snuck onto the studio at Universal Studios and set up an office in an abandoned building and just sort of started his career by making everyone think he was a filmmaker. Do you know the story? It gets told often enough. How he got his first job by just pretending to be busy and finally he got himself noticed. I even heard this story from one of the tour guides at Universal Studios. And it gets passed around all the time. Well, the truth is that Spielberg had his P.R. department make the story up so as to boast his legend in the public eye. It was during the filming of Close Encounters, Spielberg wanted a story put out about how he came to be a filmmaker and how it was just in the cards for him and how he was so gutsy that it was just a matter of time before it would happen. Anyway, they sat around a table and bantered back and forth about how to make him appear like a legend and they just made the whole thing up. His assistants and P.R. people would throw out an idea and Spielberg would just keep upping the stakes to make it more and more outrageous until they invented the story that gets told today. I heard it from the horse's mouth, straight from the source of one of the assistants who made it all up. The silly thing is that no one ever checked the story out and today it just gets passed along as though it were true. I work in Hollywood and don't want to the be the one whose name gets associated with blowing the myth open, but I have told you the truth. Whether you believe Spielberg to be talented or not (and history will ultimately be the judge on that one) the story of his rise to fame and his bravado as a young filmmaker is just a crock of crap. - anon
And there you have it......a legend in his own mind!
