The Life and Work of Steven Spielberg
As a kid in Phoenix, Steven Spielberg charged admission to his home movies while his
sister sold popcorn. Although Spielberg excelled at making movies he was not a good
student. He hated school and was one of the most unathletic students there. His movie
making career began at the age of twelve when his father bought a movie camera that
Spielberg used all the time. Instead of doing his school work he was using the camera.
While he was working with his mom and sister on his projects, his father helped him make
miniature sets out of paper mache.He turned out his first production, with script and
actors, when he was thirteen, and a year later he won a prize for a forty minute war
movie titled Escape to Nowhere. At the age of sixteen, his 140-minute production,
Firelight, was shown in a local movie theater. In college, his short film, Amblin was
shown at the Atlanta Film Festival and led to the boy genius's Universal Studios
directing contract at the age of twenty.
Spielberg learned his craft doing television work, which included an episode of the Rod
Serling series Night Gallery and the classic cult movie Duel. His first feature, The
Sugarland Express, was released in 1974, and he was soon offered the chance to direct a
thriller about a great white shark terrorizing a small New England beach town. Jaws cost
$8.5 million and grossed $260 million. Spielberg followed it up two years later with
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, earning a Best Director Oscar nomination and proved
to the world that he was one of the best directors of the time.
However, he followed Close Encounters with the disastrous Movie, 1941, which was his
first attempt at comedy and his first true failure. He didn't take long to regain his
form, both commercially and artistically. Teaming up with his pal George Lucas (whose
Star Wars came out the same year as Close Encounters, and made even more money),
Spielberg created an action-adventure picture based on the old continuing stories, better
known as serials, that they both loved as kids. Called Raiders of the Lost Ark and
detailing the adventures of an archaeologist named Indiana Jones, it earned him another
Best Director nomination and made a ton of money at the box office.
A year later, Spielberg surpassed not only himself but Lucas's Star Wars--his E.T. The
Extra-Terrestrial was one of the biggest domestic moneymakers of all time. Further
profiting as a producer of other directors' hits (including Poltergeist and Back to the
Future), Spielberg became one of the richest men in Hollywood. In 1984, he created his
own independent company, Amblin Entertainment, and the following year, reacting to
criticism that he couldn't make an adult picture, he attempted The Color Purple.
Criticized for sentimentalizing the material, he was publicly embarrassed when the film
pulled down eleven Oscar nominations, but not one for its direction. In a goodwill
gesture, though, the Academy came through for Spielberg with the honorary Irving G.
Thalberg Award in 1987.
Over the next few years, with Always, Empire of the Sun, and Hook, Spielberg's golden
touch seemed to be failing him. His personal life was also in turmoil: he and actress Amy
Irving divorced, and he married his Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom leading lady
Kate Capshaw. Professionally, he came back with two huge movies in 1993, Jurassic Park
and Schindler's List. Jurassic Park grossed $100 million in nine days and went on its way
to breaking E.T. 's box-office record. Spielberg's Schindler's List looked at the
good-hearted Nazi Party member Oskar Schindler and the terrible times Jews went through
during the Holocaust. Even though Spielberg never expected it to be a box office smash he
chose to make this movie because he felt that given his gifts, he could make a movie to
help people understand the holocaust. This finally earned Spielberg his long-awaited
Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture. Lifted even further by this unprecedented
success, he joined forces in 1994 with record mogul David Geffen and movie mogul Jeffrey
Katzenberg to form Dreamworks, a multimedia entertainment studio. Spielberg is currently
in production with the sequel to Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park 2. Clearly we have not
heard the last of Steven Spielberg.
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