Customer Reviews (4)

An excellent read for Spielberg fans and others
Steven Spielberg: Interviews is a great book on many levels. It's probably one of the only books about Spielberg that shows his more personal side and manner of speaking. The interviews give us a different different perspective of the man and show that he is not what everyone (or me at least) envisioned him to be.

Interesting, information, and with its own of sense of humor, this is definitely a must-read for Spielberg fans, filmmakers, and people period.

A BRILLIANT FILMMAKER; A BRILLIANT BOOK!
Steven Spielberg is undoubtedly the greatest movie director of our times.ALL his movies have been box-office hits.He is brilliant and dedicated to his craft!And people adore him!He's way cool ...

That's why it's so exciting to read a book by him, describing the last 25 years of his life.Awesome material!

Can't wait to see more of his movies! Many reviewers are saying that my TOONIES book would make a great movie ... a la Spielberg.I should be so lucky, but was lucky enough to meet and pose with Clint Eastwood many moons ago, so perhaps I'll get lucky again.Hint!Hint!

With all his fame and fortune and he still remains a very "nice, dear, down-to-earth" man.More of the actors should emulate his example.

Go, Steven!

Good stuff
There's a lot of really good stuff in here.

First, the interviews span some 25 years, so you get a sense how he's matured and yet how he's stayed the same.

Second, Spielberg is very candid, so interviews with him tend to reveal more than many others.

Third, there's just a lot of good stuff in here, some of which you may have heard and some not. For instance, I had never heard the story of how, as an awkward 12 year old, he and a mentally retarded boy were dead last in a school race and their peers cheered the retarded boy to beat young Spielberg. Spielberg describes how he knew he had to let the boy with without him realizing it and did just that. And then he describes how after the race, after the others carried the retarded boy on their shoulders, Spielberg was both devastatingly happy and sad.

Or there's the anecdote about his encounter with Stanley Kubrick -- how the master was not as stand-offish as one might think, and yet how he sized up Spielberg with "his probing, questioning eyes, always looking at you to see if you're true or falso. To see what you're made of, to see what you have upstairs. His chess player's eyes. Real surgeon's eyes."

There's lots of other examples I can bring but if you have any interest in Spielberg or movies just go out and get the book. It's a great read about a fascinating man whose own character arc and maturity as a movie-maker is the stuff great stories are made of.

An insightful, entertaining read.
I've been waiting a long time for a book like this.Populist filmmakers like Steven Spielberg are too often ignored by publishers who would rather print in-depth literature on the likes of Coppola or Scorsese, so it's nice to see a meaty tome such as this on the bookshelves.Spielberg lets rip on all the stuff you often wondered about whilst watching his films, and proves himself to be rather adept at delivering hilarious anecdotes.Unlike the George Lucas Interviews book, Spielberg isn't shy when it comes to discussing his private life.All in all, an enlightening read.Jolly good. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Writing a biography is tough enough when the subject is dead and the biographer must rely on a paper trail and recollections of contemporaries to relate the essence of the man or woman's life. When the subject still lives--and especially when he is as powerful as Steven Spielberg--a whole new set of problems emerge. For one thing, it's difficult to find anyone willing to criticize a man who pulls as many strings in the film industry as Spielberg; for another, how does one evaluate a career that is still in progress? If the definitive Spielberg biography cannot yet be written, Joseph McBride's Steven Spielberg: A Biography will suffice in the interim. Though certainly affected by the aforementioned constraints, McBride still creates an impressive portrait of the man behind Schindler's List, E.T., Jurassic Park, and many, many more.

McBride is especially effective at limning the contours of Spielberg's childhood. Born in 1946 to Arnold and Leah Spielberg, the young Steven endured both frequent moves and his parents' unhappy domestic life.These factors, combined with the anti-Semitism he encountered as a teenager, drove the introverted Spielberg to seek approval through filmmaking. In addition to exploring Spielberg's private life, McBride offers some perceptive criticism of his work. Anyone interested in the film industry and Spielberg's place in it will find Joseph McBride's Steven Spielberg a valuable resource.Commentary Magazine, Daniel J. Silver
Spielberg's is in many ways a classic tale of the "revenge of the nerd." From an early age he felt awkward, ugly, and emotionally estranged. His mother, something of a suburban bohemian, divorced his father when Spielberg was in his teens.

Although he wrote and directed several accomplished amateur films while still in his teens, his academic grades were so poor that he failed to gain admission to any of the prestigious film schools--UCLA or USC or NYU--where other heavyweights like Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Brian De Palma, and Martin Scorsese were to learnthe trade. Instead, he hung around the Universal studios, eventually getting funding to produce a short film, Amblin'. The one TV movie Spielberg made, Duel (1971), won him a chance to direct a feature film, Sugarland Express (1974).

Then Spielberg managed a coup: he got the assignment to direct Jaws (1975), based on PeterBenchley's immensely popular novel. As we learn from McBride, it turned out to be a horrendously difficult movie to shoot, yet Spielberg pulled the trick off, and Jaws became the highest-grossing film in history up till then. With this triumph under his belt, Spielberg went on to direct a whole string that broke box-office records. These hits have enabled Spielberg to negotiate extraordinarily lucrative compensation deals involving huge percentages of gross profits that have left him the wealthiest filmmaker of all time.

What exactly is the secret to his appeal? To some, like Joseph McBride and Vincent Canby of the New York Times, Spielberg is a kind of "poet of suburbia," a latter-day Frank Capra who evinces a peculiar intimacy with the psyche of middle-class America. Other critics, like Richard Corliss of Timeand J. Hoberman of the VillageVoice, see him far more darkly: as a consummate manipulator who produces his movies with cynical calculation, ripping off genre conventions and souping them up with other people's craftsmanship.

One need not subscribe to either school of thought to concede that Spielberg's films have never had much of anything to say (beyond their patently sincere and completely banal conviction that man is capable of inhumanity to man). His films do, of course, have a distinctive "look," but this should not be confused with vision. And while his technical panache is hardly to be disdained, much less his desire to appeal to popular taste per se, the pleasure his films bring is, in the final analysis, narrowly circumscribed. Spielberg is a supremely effective visual storyteller who does not terribly care which tales he tells so long as they exercise mass appeal. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Well Researched, Poor Perseption
I agree with Craig MACKINNON's review.

This book is meticulously researched, however, the analysis made after said research do I not only feel to be wrong, but many times unneeded. I would rather have the biographer present the facts of Spielberg's life then provide his own, terrible, film opinions.

Also this book makes far too much of Spielberg's jewish roots and heritage as if his whole career was just building to make Schindler's List. Everything else was just a stepping stone. A common mistake from critics that I figured a man willing to research and write a whole book about Spielberg's life would not make.

This book is also relatively lop sided in the amount of time it spends on individual incidents in Spielberg's life, pre success, compared to post. Plus it does not discuss the process behind the creation of each of his films with the same amount of time.

However, I would suggest reading it, because it is so well researched and when you look past the author's bias you can find wonderful insights into the man the book is written about and his works.

A solid Spielberg book
Steven Spielberg would approve of this highly interesting and informative book, which not only chronicles the movies, but also digs deeper to answer some very compelling questions, and unlike some Spielberg bios, McBride's tome answers all of them. Charting his illustrious career from his early work in TV, to films Like Duel, Jaws, Raiders, E.T, Jurassic Park and The Lost World, this is an eminently satisfying addition to my impressive Spielberg collection. If it has a flaw, there is too much focused on his output in the early 90s and not quite enough concerning his famously fantastic films in the 70s and 80s. Regardless, a cool book and a great weekend read. Highly recommended.

Steven Spielberg is a Horrible Racist
Just watch that racist Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom to see that this man is deathly afraid of India and Indians in general. Too bad - he seems to love the Communist Chinese a lot though.

So far, the definitive account of Spielberg's life.
I've now read about five or six biographies of Steven Spielberg and all vary in depth and quality. However Joseph McBride book can only be described as THE most in-depth account of Spielberg's fascinating life. You simply won't read a more well-researched account of Spielberg's life unless the great man writes his autobiography. Don't be put off by the fact that Spielberg didn't co-operate with this book, virtually everyone else did including, most surprisingly, his father. A terrific read from start to finish.

Doesn't do justice to its impressive research
I want to give this book 4 stars, but I just can't bring myself to do it.This book is certainly an impressive scholarly work - well researched,reasonably well referenced, and when there is analysis offered, it isthorough and insightful.

Unfortunately, the analysis is also my majorcomplaint with the book.McBride seems to haphazardly pick pictures toanalyse, while ignoring others.What possessed him to give devote morepages to 1941 than all the Indiana Jones movies combined?Further, he hasa tendency to focus too much on the story of the movie - I submit that mostpeople reading this book have seen these movies and can draw their ownconclusions about the significance of the story.We'd rather hear abouthow they were made, etc.That is, more facts and less analysis would wouldmake this a better book.

The first half of the book is very good, becausethe author takes his time explaining family connections, his amateur films,etc.It is a little repetitive (how often does McBride feel he has to tellus that Spielberg felt like an outsider growing up?), but the detail andnarrative flow are very good, telling us a lot about the man behind themovies.Especially interesting is the information on S's TV work.

Thesecond half of the book rapidly degenerates into a shallow overview ofthings we already know about Spielberg, and is very disappointing.It'salmost like McBride had a page limit, and after spending so much time onS's childhood, he had to rush through the remaining material, save forsections on Schindler's List and Colour Purple (both deserving movies, ofcourse).Even Jurassic Park is little more than a sideshow, whereinMcBride denegrates Crichton's novel (a fate that Peter Benchley's Jawsseems to avoid, even though in my opinion JP is a work far superior toJaws) and comments on how Spielberg worked on the effects in Poland whileshooting Schindler's List.Even his fine analytical powers seem to breakdown.What else could possess him to comment that Raider of the Lost arkis racist and "a soulless and impersonal film", while praisingLast Crusade as "a graceful piece of popular filmaking...gratifyinglyfree of racist overtones that blighted the two previous films."Huh? Has McBride actually watched these three movies together?Or does hereally think it's okay to portray stereotyped Arabs, but not stereotypedIndians or Nepalese?

At any rate, this is an important work, recommendedfor anyone that wants to learn more about the early life and works ofSpielberg.But I would suggest putting it down without reading the last 5chapters. ... Read more

Book Description
Steven Spielberg is hailed as one of the most influential and commercially successful film directors in motion picture history. Through his role in developing, directing, and driving the special effects of many of the biggest blockbusters in movie history, includingJaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., Saving Private Ryan, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, and Minority Report, Spielberg changed the way movies are made and left an indelible mark on popular culture. This biography traces his rise from shooting films as a shy young boy with the family's 8 mm camera to his first unpaid job at Universal Studios, to the rise of DreamWorks, the studio Spielberg founded and quickly turned into a filmmaking powerhouse. While Spielberg's best work may lie ahead, this biography puts his legendary career and work to date into perspective by offering analysis and commentary from fans and critics alike. Whether about an alien lost in suburbia or the battles of World War II, Spielberg has directed and produced many of the most talked about movies of the past 30 years. Students interested in the history of film and the filmmaking industry will find this biography endlessly fascinating. A timeline of significant events, a bibliography of print and electronic resources, and photographs round out this biography. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (3)

gripping
This is the story of the final days of the Holocaust when the Final Solution was inflicted upon the Jews of Hungary with devestating fury by the nazis and their local collaborators The Arrow Cross.

This is not a happy book but an insightful one that covers this portion of the bloody social engineering of Hitler's Final Solution, his attrocity against Jews.

Witnessing the murder of Hungarian Jewry
Six eye-witness accounts of the destruction of Hungarian Jewry by the Nazis are at the heart of this work. This and the witnesses return fifty years later to the place of the destruction and their reflection upon this.
Their testimony is part of the sacred act of remembrance of the destruction, and of those destroyed. It is of course a very partial act and can never compensate for the destruction.
With the murder of over four- hundred and fifty thousand Jews were murdered thousands of families, whole worlds.
The mind and heart cannot encompass or understand this.

exellent historical document a must for all
exellent visual and historical document please advise publishers of the following p201 liberation photo, it is J Krammer with british gaurds at belsen not Fritz Klein revisionist would love that let us never forget. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Steven Spielberg, movie director, determination
Reviewed by Ben Weldon (age 10) for Reader Views (11/07)

"Steven Spielberg (Just the Facts Biographies)" by Tom Powers is the true story of Steven Spielberg and how he made his way from a weird, skinny kid to a rich movie director.Even as a child, he liked to scare other people.He once trapped his sisters in a closet with a fake glowing skeleton that he had made. He was known to be quite diabolical; however, when he had to dissect a frog in biology class, he vomited.He loved movies and television, and he sometimes rented 8mm movie reels and charged the neighborhood kids 35 cents to watch.Young Steven was actually quite timid and poor at sports.He was sometimes teased because he was Jewish and had a sort of unhappy childhood.Stevens's father encouraged him to begin creating movies as a way to increase his self-confidence.

Spielberg got his start in movies at a very young age and was determined to make a career in film directing.When he was 13, he created his first movie, "Battle Squad," about fighting the Nazis during World War II.At 15, he made his first full-length science fiction movie, "Firelight".After he graduated from high school, he intended to enroll in a top college film program, but he was not accepted anywhere.He finally enrolled in California State University majoring in English; there was a movie studio right near the college building called Universal Studios.In the summer he put on a suit and tie, walked right into the studio as if he belonged, and put up his name on an empty room.Eventually a security guard caught him and threw him out.Despite getting kicked out, he kept going back until he was offered a job directing TV shows including "The Twilight Zone" and "Night Gallery."Eventually Spielberg got bored directing television and wanted to move on to more creative pursuits in movies.

Spielberg has made some of the greatest movies that Americans and the world have experienced."Jaws," a scary killer-shark movie directed by Spielberg, was the first Hollywood movie to take in more than $100 million at the box office.It was, however, just the beginning of Spielberg's blockbusters which included "E.T.," the "Indiana Jones" series, "Shrek," and "Jurassic Park" (his biggest money-maker) among many others.Spielberg's movies were thrilling, full of action, and often scary.He also made some more serious and dramatic movies such as "The Color Purple," "Schindler's List," and "Saving Private Ryan."

Steven Spielberg now has his own private studio called Dream Works, which produces movies, video games and computer games.He has won many awards for his movies and is remarkably rich.His early determination seems to have paid off beyond his wildest dreams.

I thought that "Steven Spielberg" was an excellent book and I hope all readers will enjoy it as much as I did.This is a very well-written book with many sidebar facts that I did not know about.I thought that learning about Spielberg's past was interesting and very enjoyable along with learning about what movies he made.It also makes me want to see some of his movies some day.

... Read more

Book Description
Although the blockbuster is the most popular and commercially successful type of filmmaking, it has yet to be studied seriously from a formalist standpoint. This is in opposition to classical Hollywood cinema and International Art cinema, whose form has been analyzed and deconstructed in great detail. Directed By Steven Spielberg fills this gap by examining the distinctive form of the blockbuster. The book focuses on Spielberg's blockbusters, because he is the most consistent and successful director of this type of film - he defines the standard by which other Hollywood blockbusters are judged and compared. But how did Spielberg attain this position? Film critics and scholars generally agree that Spielberg's blockbusters have a unique look and use visual storytelling techniques to their utmost effectiveness. In this book, Warren Buckland examines Spielberg's distinct manipulation of film form, and his singular use of stylistic and narrative techniques. The book demonstrates the aesthetic options available to Spielberg, and particularly the choices he makes in structuring his blockbusters. Buckland emphasizes the director's activity in making a film (particularly such a powerful director as Spielberg), including: visualizing the scene on paper via storyboards; staging and blocking the scene; selecting camera placement and movement; determining the progression or flow of the film from shot to shot; and deciding how to narrate the story to the spectator.

Directed By Steven Spielberg combines film studies scholarship with the approach taken by many filmmaking manuals. The unique value of the book lies in its grounding of formal film analysis in filmmaking. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

An excellent guide to the master of cinema
If you want a good read about cinema's most amazing director, then this is the book for you. It contains lots of really great insight not just on shooting the movie, but how it even started. Though author Douglas Brode tends to get a little too political, it is a really good book that I keep coming back to. Read at all costs.

excellent text, well researched, and fun to read
This book is a great read for the major films of Spielberg. It is done with a great deal of research by the author, who puts together a very good story line of the producer/director and how he and his films progressed over time.The author also provides excellent background information on the films, from both a technical point of view and also the creative story line.The text layout, photos, and great front and back cover photos are there to flesh out the films. It is also a fun book to read.All put together, this is a very good book to understand Spielberg, his movies, his life, and his impact on very successful creative and commercial 20th century movies.

The films of Steven Spielberg
Douglas Brode's biography of the films of Steven Spielberg is an informative and interesting book that covers the life and films of Hollywood's most commercially successful film director. From his early T.V films to Saving Private Ryan, this book covers all the facets of Spielberg's work including unknown facts about the production of his films and supplementary information. With rare color production photos and stills, this book is a must- have for any Spielberg or film enthusiast. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Spielberg Explained, with Brilliance and Cinema Scholarship
Steven Spielberg is, without doubt, one of the most gifted and imaginative filmmakers of his generation. To my mind, he has few, if any equals in making films that can profoundly move an audience, excite and enlighten anybody watching truth flicker by at the requisite 24 frames per second. You walk out of "Jaws," as many of us did, knowing you've been frightened half to death, yet also knowing that you've seen great filmmaking at work, the best of the medium, a pure "movie movie," as it was once called when I was kicking around Hollywood in my early days as a writer and journalist.
It was all there, of course, early on, if you want to go back in film history and check out his first feature "Duel." And it's been an amazing ride ever since, from "Jaws" and "ET" to "Indiana Jones" and "Schindler's List" and beyond to "Minority Report" and "War of the Worlds." Spielberg never ceases to amaze and dazzle the audience with his command of the medium.
Now Andrew Gordon has explained, in great detail, why and how. In his masterful, brilliant study of Spielberg's career, Gordon provides an in-depth look at each of the several dozen or more films that comprise the master's work. The various of pieces of Spielberg's career and the critical responses to his movies are woven together in a rich tapestry of film scholarship. Gordon has done his homework in spades. His insights into the Spielberg canon are both illuminating and astute. This is no easy task, given the range of emotions that each Spielberg movie appears to evoke. Gordon steps both forward and back in assessing how he reacted to each picture, and how others reacted. In particular, I liked Gordon's chapter on Spielberg's "A.I.," the movie he finished for Stanley Kubrick. Although not a great commercial success, and one that certainly divided the critics, I still remember parts of the film with greater recall and emotional resonance than other Spielberg creations. Gordon, again, explains why, digging with psychological clarity into the various themes of the lost child expressed in the story.
The beauty of Gordon's book is that he is able to connect the various and complex themes that run through Spielberg's work from film to film; we see continuity, interrelationships, the struggle of the artist at work, the hits and misses, and ultimately, the ways in which we always, seemingly, happen to return to the world of Spielberg's boyhood home in suburbia, to all the hopes and promises of the American dream itself. If you're a film scholar, this book is must reading; if your interest in Spielberg is casual and curious, you'll find the text to be highly informative, with penetrating insight into the artist and his remarkable style of filmmaking.

First Rate for Scholars andGeneralAudiences alike!
Shakespeare states, 'We are such stuff as dreams are made on...'. Professor Gordon has authored a tome remarkable both for its breadth AND depth. Having written and optioned several screenplays myself,I truly believe that this book is in the vanguard of Spielberg scholarship, and a fine chronicle of our creative status as remade dreams. ... Read more

Book Description
Intimate family photos and interviews reveal Spielberg behind the scenes

From Jaws to E.T. to Schindler's List to Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg has created many of the most popular and respected movies ever made. Now, through extensive interviews with Spielberg's family, with the stars of his films, and with the people he has worked with most closely, Susan Goldman Rubin presents the definitive portrait of a man whose childhood paved the path he would take as an artist.

A wealth of behind-the-scenes information allows readers to look at the creative process up close. Full of never-before-seen, one-of-a-kind family photographs, this fast-paced biography will inspire young people everywhere.

A chapter is devoted to the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, the nonprofit organization Spielberg established to videotape and preserve the testimonies of Holocaust survivors, and a portion of the profits from this book will go to support the foundation's work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

An exciting read with beautiful photos!
This is a beautiful little book. I enjoyed reading Ms. Rubin's text just as much as the photos. It reads more like a novel than a bio. including little known facts and personal interviews of his family and friends. She makes a point to illustrate the early influences of Steven's family and school life that later became themes for his movies. It is a very intimate look into Speilburg's personal and professional journey. Ms. Rubin has included many formerly unpublished photos. It all adds up to a wonderful read and certainly a lovely addition to your library, especially if you are a fan of Spielberg's work.

Great Photographs and Information
This is a pretty good decent sized book about both Spielberg's life growing up and his most successful movies such as Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET, Jurrasic Park and Saving Private Ryan to name a few.There are some great colour photographs from the movies along with a lot of information.If you like the films he has done or are interested in his life then this would have to be one of the best books out there on that subject.

A Beautiful Quality Book.
Great book for the 9-14 age group or anyone older looking for a light read. Lots and lots of interesting pictures of Spieberg's childhood, early career and blockbuster movies and behind-the-scene production. Well written and a high quality book. ... Read more

Book Description
"Morton has written the definitive book on this innovative movie by Steven Spielberg...Meticulous research of this caliber is not found in other books on Close Encounters. Fans will find Morton's take informative and fascinating." - Library Journal. Steven Spielberg's 1977 masterpiece used all of the power and magic of cinema to tell a story of man's first meeting with extraterrestrial beings. Renouncing the fear and pessimism of the day, writer/director Spielberg boldly envisioned this as a peaceful, spiritual event full of hope and possibility. This awe-inspiring message made a powerful impact on audiences desperate for something to believe in. The film was a massive box-office hit and revolutionized the movie industry; along with Star Wars, it helped to create the modern blockbuster and ushered in a new era of hi-tech effects. Based on in-depth research and the recollections of many of the film's principal creators, Close Encounters is the first book to chronicle the making of this classic film from its inception through its tumultuous production to its many releases in "special" editions. The book features new interviews with star Teri Garr, producer Michael Phillips, photographic effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull, production designer Joe Alves, and several cinematographers, screenwriters, and special-effects legends. John Hill, Jerry Belson, Hal Barwood, and Matthew Robbins; and special effects legends Richard Yuricich, Robert Swarthe, Dennis Muren, Scott Squires, Greg Jein, and Rocco Gioffre. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A film geek's dream; a casual reader's nightmare
Morton is a far better researcher than he is a writer, and this book is an exhaustive, often turgid, dump of his research on the making of the film.

If you are interested in the nuts-and-bolts of '70s big-budget filmmaking, there is a wealth of information here on the twists and turns the production took and the intricacies of the special-effects methods (now obsoleted by digital effects).The photo section, for example, includes not one but *three* pictures of a mold used to create the bodies of some of the flying saucers.If that sounds like a good thing, this book is for you!

The general-interest reader, however, is likely to be frustrated with the level of detail offered as well as the stilted, cliched writing style (the author is so fond of adjectives such as "incredible" that one wishes Inigo Montoya might pay him a visit).Although he provides filmographies and short biographies for all the principals, Morton fails to provide any historical, social, or technological context and misses most opportunities to wring dramatic interest out of the interpersonal conflicts and artistic crises inherent in moviemaking.

Writing skills aside, the level of scholarship and completeness here is impressive, and there is undeniable value in the effort to capture and preserve the detailed history of this important film.

AWELL-DETAILED LOOK INTO A SCI-FI CLASSIC
I literally grew up on Spielberg's early films and was lucky enough to enjoy in my youth such classics as JAWS (an all-time fave), E.T. and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS.I can't put into words how amazing it was to see these films in a theatre with a fresh audience.Most prominent in my mind is CLOSE ENCOUNTERS for the simple fact that I got to see it at one of the best movie houses in L.A. -- The Cinerama Dome in Hollywood which featured a massive, arched screen (this was decades before IMAX) and incredible sound system.

Ray Morton has been able to bring back such fond moviegoing memories with his well detailed book on CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND that explores virtually every aspect of this movie's genesis.I felt like a kid again as I found myself reliving an incredible movie that has stood the test of time.And now there is a book to stand proudly at its side.

I should also mention that Mister Morton has another book called KING KONG: THE HISTORY OF AN ICON that I also found very entertaining and taught me pretty much every thing there is to know about the furry icon.

great research!
This is an exhaustive supplement to existing books that cover this movie. It surprisingly goes into step by step detail over the effects. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

It's Spielberg!
How could this book be anything less than great, it has the greatest subject matter, STEVEN SPIELBERG! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

FOR MOVIE LOVERS
If you ever wanted to find out how Steven Spielberg got started REED THIS BOOK. Ted Gottfried knows what he is doing. This book tells about his childhood,collage,and TV years. The movies it gets into (in order)are duel, jaws, close encounters, Indiana Jones, E.T., the color purple, empire of the sun,hook, jurassic park, schindler's list, jurassic park 2, and saving private Ryan. I am doing a book report on this book. I love it! ... Read more

Book Description

Cinema's most successful director is a commercial and cultural force demanding serious consideration. Not just triumphant marketing, this international popularity is partly a function of the movies themselves. Polarised critical attitudes largely overlook this, and evidence either unquestioning adulation or vilification& mdash;often vitriolic& mdash;for epitomising contemporary Hollywood. Detailed textual analyses reveal that alongside conventional commercial appeal, Spielberg's movies function consistently as a self-reflexive commentary on cinema. Rather than straightforwardly consumed realism or fantasy, they invite divergent readings and self-conscious spectatorship which contradict assumptions about their ideological tendencies. Exercising powerful emotional appeal, their ambiguities are profitably advantageous in maximising audiences and generating media attention.

Book Description
``As polished and perceptive a biography as you would hope froma writer who has done justice to Fellini and Bunuel.'' New Statesman &Society Steven Spielberg is one of the cinema's greatest enchanters,with a spellbinding capacity--and a box office record--matched by veryfew. His power now exceeds that of the greatest moguls of Hollywood'sgolden era, and films like the Indiana Jones trilogy, ``ET,'' ``CloseEncounters of the Third Kind,'' ``Jurassic Park,'' and theOscar-winning ``Schindler's List''--seen by billions around theworld--have forever changed the way movies are made. How was it thatthis ``movie brat'' became one of the most formidable players on theglobal entertainment scene? John Baxter has applied considerablescholarship in his quest to discover what makes Spielberg tick, and itis a success story that he tells with relish. Now in paperback, with afilmography and 55 photographs. John Baxter is a film critic, novelistand biographer; among his many books are Bunuel, Fellini, The HollywoodExiles, and The Cinema of John Ford. 460 pp 5 x 8 55 b/w photos ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Entertaining but troubling
As someone relatively young, born and raised when Spielberg was already popular for Jaws, I've always found him an iconic figure but have never exactly been a fan-boy. Enjoyed the movies, but never really succumbed to worship. That said...

Mr. Baxter's attempt seems admirable on sight alone -- it's a large book -- but while reading I couldn't help but take issue with his tone and perspective. Rather than acknowledging the obvious talent it takes to craft the stories the way Spielberg does, the author focuses on an idea that Spielberg is more manipulative businessman than creative force.A simple viewing of even some of his earliest work, like Jaws, diminishes Mr. Baxter's point considerably.

Let's talk about the creative process and how he's able to visualize and achieve what he has; his business acumen at a young age just seems too obvious a point to harp on.

This book has plenty of interesting anecodotes and armchair-psychology ideas. But I'm struggling to get to page 200, don't feel compelled to finish and don't feel I've gleaned much as to HOW Spielberg gets things done as a director. I understand that biographers probably often feel the need to develop a strong point-of-view; maybe Mr. Baxter's attempt just missed the mark (for me).

Good, but not great.
While John Baxter's informative and interesting biography of Steven Spielberg is a solid examine, it fails to dig deep into its own questions and ethos. The early years at Universal Studios are well told and compelling, the author seems to lose interest halfway through concerning Temple of Doom and The Color Purple. Some chapters are prearranged too much breathing space, while other essential proceedings are frustratingly twee. To his credit, Baxter does a good job at showcasing some of the most excellent films (JAWS, RAIDERS and SCHINDLER'S LIST) but ultimately it lacks the depth that made Ian Freer's Spielberg book the best. This is one for the completists though, but for someone more perceptive, there are plenty of superior books.

I want more !
The book only scrathes the surface of this splendid director. Several chapters on the directors movies are simply to "thin". There's no information that we haven't heard of before. Instead read the book onGEORGE LUCAS by same auther. It's much better.

A very informative book about a great filmmaker
This is a very interesting book about a filmmaker. What i like is that it spends most about his career. It was very well written biography.

Don't be fooled
Despite its respectable cover this is only slightly more serious than the celebrity tell-alls of recent months. Incidentally it also has at least a couple of factual flaws even mild Internet research could have corrected ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great Biography
Two model trains headed running straight at each other, which soon makes them debris!, with a set up of plastic people, Steven Spielberg, one of the most famous directors in the world captured it all on film, why, because hewas making a movie, not a famous movie, but his first. Six years old, youmight think he is you but that's how old Steven Spielberg was when hestarted making a train crash film. I think this biography is veryinformative and interesting I suggest this book for everyone that everwanted to learn more about movie making. This biography tells about himdirecting, writing and producing films and budgeting his movies.

If Igave this book a rating from zero to ten, it would be a definite score often. ... Read more

Book Description
One of a new series of biographies of contempoarary directors focusing on the making of their movies and written by a world class author who has had exclusive access to his subject. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Amazingly average book
With enough books chronicling the life and works of Steven Spielberg, this brief and sketchy tome hardly qualifies as one of the best. But I'm a hardcore Spielberg fan and have almost all the books written about him. Regardless, this is simply to fill a niggling itch, not necessarily for a good read. If you're looking for quality and sincere Spielberg books, Neil Sinyard and Ian Freer's excellent bios are great reading.

superficial, innacurate, boring... bad.
If you've read a Profile on Mr. Spielberg in any magazine or seen one of the very bleak "behind the scenes" documentaries in one of his DVDs... you're more than qualified to write a better book than this one.

The back cover refers to the "book" as a "fascinating behind-the-scenes account of how Steven Spielberg really makes movies"... an utter LIE!! The chapter on "Jaws" for example, is only 4 pages long. I mean, the movie took forever to shoot, was plaged with trouble and was the first ever blockbuster... you could easily write a whole book with the creative process involved, not 4 pages.

I see that there's an used book priced at $ 0.93 it is expensive, don't buy it.

Superficial at best
If you know nothing at all about Steven Spielberg, this book might be a good summary of his career. But if you are looking for personal insights, new depth or detailed film analysis, invest your book-buying moneyelsewhere. I was also put off by the fairly frequent denigrating remarksabout various actors, screen writers and directors many of whom havecareers that would seem worthy of some degree of respect. ... Read more