Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films

by Molly Haskell

Overview

A film-centric portrait of the extraordinarily gifted movie director whose decades-long influence on American popular culture is unprecedented

“Everything about me is in my films,” Steven Spielberg has said. Taking this as a key to understanding the hugely successful moviemaker, Molly Haskell explores the full range of Spielberg’s works for the light they shine upon the man himself. Through such powerhouse hits as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Jurassic Park, and Indiana Jones, to lesser-known masterworks like A.I. and Empire of the Sun, to the haunting Schindler’s List, Haskell shows how Spielberg’s uniquely evocative filmmaking and story-telling reveal the many ways in which his life, work, and times are entwined.
 
Organizing chapters around specific films, the distinguished critic discusses how Spielberg’s childhood in non-Jewish suburbs, his parents’ traumatic divorce, his return to Judaism upon his son’s birth, and other events echo in his work. She offers a brilliant portrait of the extraordinary director—a fearful boy living through his imagination who grew into a man whose openness, generosity of spirit, and creativity have enchanted audiences for more than 40 years.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300189827
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	01/03/2017
Series:	Jewish Lives Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Molly Haskell is a film critic and the author of five previous books, including FromReverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies, and Love and Other Infectious Diseases. She writes and lectures widely on film. She lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

1 Beginnings and the Lost Ark 1

2 Steve Bites His Nails and Hears Voices 14

3 Arcadia: The Best and Worst of Times 24

4 The Kid with the Briefcase 36

5 Jaws "Open Wide" 57

6 Close Encounters of the Third Kind 68

7 1941 and Raiders of the Lost Ark 80

8 E.T., Poltergeist, and Twilight Zone 91

9 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Color Purple 103

10 Empire of the Sun 117

11 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Always, and Hook 125

12 Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, and the Shoah Foundation 138

13 Amistad and The Lost World: Jurassic Park 157

14 Saving Private Ryan and A.I. 163

15 Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can 176

16 The Terminal, War of the Worlds, and Munich 186

17 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Adventures of Tintin, and War Horse 194

18 Lincoln and Bridge of Spies 198

Notes 207

Index 215

Editorial Reviews

As writer-for-hire on Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films, the pioneering feminist movie critic Molly Haskell is such a counterintuitive choice of contract employee that she acknowledges the weirdness of the situation upfront, confessing her qualms about taking on the project. The pairing is the work of imps, apparently, who preside over the Jewish Lives series…now rolling out steadily from Yale University Press. A publisher's note alongside the robust catalog explains that the editorial matchmaking is done based on the ability "to elicit lively, deeply informed books that explore the range and depth of Jewish experience from antiquity through the present." And by those standards, done and done: The exploration here is lively, the critic is deeply informed, and she approaches her mandate with a calmness of inquiry that is a gift often bestowed on the outsider anthropologist impervious to tribal influences. Indeed, Haskell is as elegant and cultured a Southern-bred shiksa as one could hope to read for an analysis of evolving Jewish identity in the director of Jaws and Schindler's List.

The New York Times Book Review - Lisa Schwarzbaum

11/14/2016
Noting that Steven Spielberg has said “Everything about me is in my films,” legendary movie critic Haskell (Love and Other Infectious Diseases) weaves Spielberg’s entire body of work through her captivating narrative, providing a poignant study of him as a person and a filmmaker. She shows how the undercurrents of his youthful life are projected on the screen, such as his untraditional parents and their eventual divorce, his interest in storytelling over sports, and his simultaneous fascination with, and feelings of alienation from, his Jewish background. As Haskell observes, Spielberg’s filmmaking allowed him “to play vicariously and imaginatively all the roles denied him and other Jews not just in life but on the Hollywood screen.” At the beginning of his career, his movies (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) are filled with wonder and magic, but eventually they evolve into more socially conscious stories (The Color Purple, Schindler’s List) that often coincide with his personal experiences or with world events. In Haskell’s telling, he “grew up” alongside his films, letting his feelings and anxieties play out on the screen while achieving global fame and respect as “the world’s most successful movie entertainer ever.” Haskell’s biography, issued as part of Yale University Press’s Jewish Lives series, reveals how a moviemaking genius’s personal life shaped his craft and, in the process, reshaped popular culture. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

A swift and elegant introduction to Spielberg’s life and work.”—David Denby, New Yorker

"'Everything about me is in my films,' Spielberg once said. Yet in this compact study of a sprawling career, Haskell comes close to presenting a unified theory of a director who entertains multitudes, and contains them too."—Victoria Segal, Sunday Times

"A superbly readable portrait of the man through his movies . . . this meeting of the minds of the critic and the director turns out to be exceptionally fruitful."—Kate Muir, Times (London)

"The exploration here is lively, the critic is deeply informed, and she approaches her mandate with a calmness of inquiry that is a gift often bestowed on the outsider anthropologist impervious to tribal influences."—Lisa Schwarzbaum, New York Times Book Review

"Luckily, Molly Haskell is far too wise a critic to be flummoxed by Mr. Spielberg’s seemingly critic-proof oeuvre. She nails Mr. Spielberg when he needs to be nailed . . . Ms. Haskell’s great on the movies that give her something to write about, like 'Duel,' 'Jaws,' and 'Empire of the Sun.'"—Scott Eyman, Wall Street Journal

"This fascinating critical study and close reading of the movies, written by a prominent feminist film critic, focuses on the evolution of Spielberg’s Jewish identity."—New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice

"As Haskell delves into her subject, however, she discovers the influences and challenges that shaped this outsize figure in American mainstream cinema, including his denied, then embraced Jewish faith, and comes up with a compelling and remarkable figure."—Sarah Jilani, Times Literary Supplement

"In a long nomadic career of film writing, the feminist critic Molly Haskell has never wild about Spielberg, her taste steeped in the great auteurs, her signature a coolly playful rigour. Unexpectedly, this makes her the perfect biographer for a director with a life-long weakness for treacle. Spielberg emerges with his credibility enhanced for having been put through the wringer."—Danny Leigh, Financial Times

"Legendary movie critic Haskell weaves Spielberg’s entire body of work through her captivating narrative, providing a poignant study of him as a person and a filmmaker."—Publishers Weekly

"Haskell’s discussion of the childlike wonder inherent to many of the director’s films and her eloquent defense of some of his riskier, less successful movies is particularly valuable. . . . Recommended for readers of film criticism or commentary."—Library Journal

"With sharp observations and wise judgments, the author discusses her subject's work with sprightly, accessible prose. . . . Compact, incisive, and witty—a great starting point for those interested in Spielberg's life and art."—Kirkus Reviews

"It’s a high compliment to any book that when it ends, you wish it wouldn’t. . . . Very entertaining."—John Anderson, Newsday

"[A] slender, uncommonly absorbing critical biography . . . which chronicles with exquisite care and wonderfully animated prose the path leading from the ancestral milieu of mid-century Cincinnati . . . through the various triumphs (and intermittent misfires) in the Hollywood dream factories. . . . Even if she may not like all of Spielberg’s films equally well . . . Haskell does not hold back her praise or her trenchant, frequently illuminating criticism."—Noah Isenberg, New Republic

"Invaluable. . . . Spielberg's lucky to have Haskell. She's tough on him for his boyishness, for his recurring images of threatened masculinity, but she still gives him a fair, incisive reading, neither fawning nor dismissive. . . . And we're even luckier to have her, as each page of her survey is as packed with pleasures and revelations as the best scenes in his best films."—Alan Scherstuhl, LA Weekly

"[Haskell offers] nuanced and often deeply sympathetic accounts of [Spielberg’s] films . . . [and] discerns the essential matter of a life story that might otherwise be reduced to the most fragmentary evidence."—Geoffrey O’Brien, New York Review of Books​

"Molly Haskell has produced a page-turner, one that takes the familiar material of the filmmaker’s life and work and makes it new through its graceful twin analysis of his biography and filmography. . . . Sophisticated and succinct."—Carrie Rickey, Film Quarterly

"Molly Haskell, one of our most essential authorities on the movies, has written a fascinating, witty, acutely discerning book about a subject that would seem, at first glance, odd. But what a spectacular match it proves to be! Spielberg is given his proper due, and Haskell outdoes herself."—Phillip Lopate, author of American Movie Critics

"Steven Spielberg and Molly Haskell—the great producer-director of modern film and one of the most intelligent and sensitive film writers we have ever had. The result is as rich and intriguing as the meeting of Elliott and E.T. We know the Spielberg films, or we think we do, until they come under the cool yet warming gaze of Ms. Haskell. As a result, we are the more fascinated with Spielberg and the more encouraged by the principle of essential and enlightening film commentary."—David Thomson, author of A Biographical Dictionary of Film

"Molly Haskell’s writing is always thought provoking and rife with insight. She skillfully argues that Hollywood’s most commercially successful film maker has, over a forty-five-year career, produced a series of highly personal films that give voice to the director’s inner conflicts and longings. This persuasive re-think will no doubt intrigue fans and, in fact, anyone who has ever watched a Spielberg movie. A must for anyone interested in a serious look at popular cinema."—Joseph Egan, author of The Purple Diaries

"This is a wonderful book, at once personal and critical, eloquent and vivacious. The book vibrates with a productive tension between the writer and her subject."—Morris Dickstein, author of Dancing in the Dark and Why Not Say What Happened

From the Publisher

“In a long nomadic career of film writing, the feminist critic Molly Haskell has never wild about Spielberg, her taste steeped in the great auteurs, her signature a coolly playful rigour. Unexpectedly, this makes her the perfect biographer for a director with a life-long weakness for treacle. Spielberg emerges with his credibility enhanced for having been put through the wringer.”—Danny Leigh, Financial Times

Financial Times - Danny Leigh

“As Haskell delves into her subject, however, she discovers the influences and challenges that shaped this outsize figure in American mainstream cinema, including his denied, then embraced Jewish faith, and comes up with a compelling and remarkable figure.”
—Sarah Jilani, TLS
 

TLS - Sarah Jilani

“An arresting set of connections, linking the stresses of childhood and adolescence with the defining themes of his expensive output, ultimately taking a view on Spielberg as a more personal filmmaker than many of his contemporaries… a filmmaker this refreshing volume make you keen to reassess, or perhaps indeed visit for the first time with new eyes.”—Trevor Johnson, Sight & Sound

Sight & Sound - Trevor Johnson

"Molly Haskell has produced a page-turner, one that takes the familiar material of the filmmaker’s life and work and makes it new through its graceful twin analysis of his biography and filmography . . . Sophisticated and succinct."—Carrie Rickey, Film Quarterly

Film Quarterly - Carrie Rickey

“This unlikely match of biographer and subject gives [Haskell’s]study the tension and snap of a good romantic comedy… An essential volume on an artist whose aversion to interviews has shortened the shelf of worthwhile studies on him.”—Guy Lodge, The Observer

The Observer - Guy Lodge

 "This fascinating critical study and close reading of the movies, written by a prominent feminist film critic, focuses on the evolution of Spielberg’s Jewish identity."—New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice

New York Times Book Review

"Luckily, Molly Haskell is far too wise a critic to be flummoxed by Mr. Spielberg’s seemingly critic-proof oeuvre. She nails Mr. Spielberg when he needs to be nailed . . . Ms. Haskell’s great on the movies that give her something to write about, like 'Duel', 'Jaws', and 'Empire of the Sun'.”—Scott Eyman, Wall Street Journal

Wall Street Journal - Scott Eyman

“Haskell has turned out a brilliant, almost exemplary book: in 200-odd pages it manages to precis the key facts of Spielberg’s off-camera life and distil the essence and flow of his evolving, shifting cinematic achievements… an excellent critical biography of a great film director, and is warmly recommended.”—Andrew Pulver, Jewish Renaissance

Jewish Renaissance - Andrew Pulver

"Invaluable. . . . Spielberg's lucky to have Haskell. She's tough on him for his boyishness, for his recurring images of threatened masculinity, but she still gives him a fair, incisive reading, neither fawning nor dismissive. . . . And we're even luckier to have her, as each page of her survey is as packed with pleasures and revelations as the best scenes in his best films."—Alan Scherstuhl, LA Weekly

LA Weekly - Alan Scherstuhl

"[A] slender, uncommonly absorbing critical biography . . . which chronicles with exquisite care and wonderfully animated prose the path leading from the ancestral milieu of mid-century Cincinnati . . . through the various triumphs (and intermittent misfires) in the Hollywood dream factories. . . . Even if she may not like all of Spielberg’s films equally well . . . Haskell does not hold back her praise or her trenchant, frequently illuminating criticism."—Noah Isenberg, New Republic

New Republic - Noah Isenberg

"A swift and elegant introduction to Spielberg's life and work."—David Denby, New Yorker

New Yorker - David Denby

"It’s a high compliment to any book that when it ends, you wish it wouldn’t. . . . Very entertaining."—John Anderson, Newsday

Newsday - John Anderson

"The exploration here is lively, the critic is deeply informed, and she approaches her mandate with a calmness of inquiry that is a gift often bestowed on the outsider anthropologist impervious to tribal influences."—Lisa Schwarzbaum, New York Times Book Review

New York Times Book Review - Lisa Schwarzbaum

“[Haskell] takes Spielberg’s statement that ‘everything about me is in my films’ and provides a fascinating portrait of the man and his entire oeuvre, illustrating just how entwined they are. She reveals that this extraordinarily gifted individual would translate ‘not only his childhood but whatever he was feeling and experiencing at any given time’ into his films.”—Anne Joseph, Jewish Chronicle

Jewish Chronicle - Anne Joseph

“A superbly readable portrait of the man through his movies… this meeting of the minds of the critic and the director turns out to be exceptionally fruitful.”—Kate Muir, The Times

The Times - Kate Muir

“Everything about me is in my films”, Spielberg once said. Yet in this compact study of a sprawling career, Haskell comes close to presenting a unified theory of a director who entertains multitudes, and contains them too.”—Victoria Segal, Sunday Times

Sunday Times - Victoria Segal

“Molly Haskell’s writing is always thought provoking and rife with insight. She skillfully argues that Hollywood’s most commercially successful film maker has, over a forty-five-year career, produced a series of highly personal films that give voice to the director’s inner conflicts and longings. This persuasive re-think will no doubt intrigue fans and, in fact, anyone who has ever watched a Spielberg movie. A must for anyone interested in a serious look at popular cinema.”—Joseph Egan, author of The Purple Diaries

Joseph Egan

“Steven Spielberg and Molly Haskell—the great producer-director of modern film and one of the most intelligent and sensitive film writers we have ever had. The result is as rich and intriguing as the meeting of Elliott and E.T. We know the Spielberg films, or we think we do, until they come under the cool yet warming gaze of Ms. Haskell. As a result, we are the more fascinated with Spielberg and the more encouraged by the principle of essential and enlightening film commentary.”—David Thomson, author of A Biographical Dictionary of Film

David Thomson

“Molly Haskell, one of our most essential authorities on the movies, has written a fascinating, witty, acutely discerning book about a subject that would seem, at first glance, odd. But what a spectacular match it proves to be! Spielberg is given his proper due, and Haskell outdoes herself.”—Phillip Lopate, author of American Movie Critics

Phillip Lopate

“This is a wonderful book, at once personal and critical, eloquent and vivacious. The book vibrates with a productive tension between the writer and her subject.”—Morris Dickstein, author of Dancing in the Dark and Why Not Say What Happened

Morris Dickstein

01/01/2017
Film critic Haskell (Frankly, My Dear: "Gone with the Wind" Revisited) examines the life and career of Steven Spielberg through the lens of his films in this biography for Yale's "Jewish Lives" series. The initial chapters, exploring Spielberg's struggle for acceptance while growing up in largely non-Jewish suburbs in New Jersey and Arizona, provide insightful clues about the inspirations for his early films, with Haskell speculating on how Spielberg exorcised his own childhood fears by passing them on to audiences in movies such as Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This book's narrow focus, however, as well as Haskell's understandable tendency to focus on the critical reception to the director's work, renders it more successful as film criticism than biography. Despite a frequent recourse to Freudian analysis to draw debatable conclusions about the meanings of some films, and a focus on masculinity that overlooks the appeal of much of Spielberg's work for female filmgoers, Haskell's discussion of the childlike wonder inherent to many of the director's films and her eloquent defense of some of his riskier, less successful movies is particularly valuable. VERDICT Recommended for readers of film criticism or commentary.—Sara Shreve, Newton, KS

Library Journal

This brief biological sketch of Spielberg, the reserved Hollywood film giant, may be a profound opportunity missed. Jo Anna Perrin narrates the somewhat stilted introductory remarks. Johnny Heller, with his staccato baritone, bravely attempts to bring some interest and insight to a text that is not only largely absent of charm but also haughty and preachy at moments. These weaknesses keep the listener less than fully involved. The perspective here is to explain Spielberg’s life through his principal films, drawing obvious and not-so-obvious parallels. While those efforts may be reasonably successful, the overall appeal and insights about Spielberg are limited, at best. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2017 - AudioFile

2016-11-07
The acclaimed director's work examined through the prism of his Jewish faith.When noted film critic Haskell (My Brother, My Sister: Story of a Transformation, 2013, etc.) was asked to write a book about Steven Spielberg (b. 1946) for the publisher's Jewish Lives series, she was hesitant. She wasn't Jewish, and she had never been an "ardent fan." She had been hard on his early works, preferring European and art films, but many of his films she did love. To write this book would mean "confronting my own resistance," but she wanted to do "justice" to his life and art and his Jewishness—"denied, then embraced." Haskell begins this delightful book with a short biographical sketch of Spielberg's youthful anxieties, nail-biting nervousness, experiences with anti-Semitic bullying, and a parental breakup that deeply affected him. Haskell admires how Spielberg, a poor student, fulfilled his passion for film with small jobs, finally securing a position at Universal, where his short film Amblin' opened the door to success. He directed TV shows and made a TV movie, Duel, which the author calls a "mesmerizing little classic." It demonstrated Spielberg's "extraordinary technical mastery" and his knack for telling a great story and investing his audience in it. The Sugarland Express, his first theatrical work, an "epic on wheels," first paired him with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond and composer John Williams. Haskell then briefly analyzes 28 films—from Jaws to Bridge of Spies—with ease and aplomb, lightly touching on matters of Jewishness as they come up. With sharp observations and wise judgments, the author discusses her subject's work with sprightly, accessible prose. 1941 was a "fiasco." In Raiders of the Lost Arc, Spielberg's "comic touch is unique, deft, reliable." Catch Me If You Can is his "most personal" film, and The Terminal is a "visual tour de force." Compact, incisive, and witty—a great starting point for those interested in Spielberg's life and art.

Kirkus Reviews