Film-maker, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. An amateur film-maker as a child, he became one of the youngest television directors at Universal Studios. A highly praised television film, Duel (1972), brought him the opportunity to direct for the cinema, and a string of hits have made him the most commercially successful director of all time. His films have explored primeval fears, as in Jaws (1975, three Oscars), or expressed childlike wonder at the marvels of this world and beyond, as in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977, two Oscars) and ET (1982, four Oscars). Later films include literary adaptations, such as The Color Purple (1985) and Empire of the Sun (1987), as well as the continuing adventures of his dare-devil hero, Indiana Jones, in such films as Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, five Oscars) and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984, Oscar). Imaginative fantasy is dominant in his version of Peter Pan, Hook (1991), Jurassic Park (1993, three Oscars), and its sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997). Schindler's List (1993, seven Oscars) also received the 1994 BAFTA award for Best Director and Best Film, and Saving Private Ryan (1998) won him an Oscar for Best Director. His company (Amblin Entertainment, founded in 1982) has produced several other successful films, notably Back to the Future (1985) and its two sequels, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). In 1994 Spielberg formed a new studio, Dreamworks SKG (subsequently bought by Paramount Pictures in 2005), followed in 1995 by Dreamworks Interactive, to produce interactive games, videos, and teaching material. In 2001 he completed the science fiction film AI: Artificial Intelligence, a project begun by Stanley Kubrick. Later films include the Oscar nominated Munich (2005). He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2005, and his many awards in recognition of his work include the Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award (2004), the French Legion of Honour, and the Kennedy Center Honors award (2006). He received an honorary British knighthood in 2001.
Steven Spielberg|
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| Born: |
18 December 1946 Cincinnati, Ohio, USA |
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| Occupation: | Film director and producer |
| Salary: | USD$332,000,000 (Forbes) |
| Spouse: | Kate Capshaw |
Steven Allan Spielberg, KBE (born December 18, 1946) is a three-time Academy Award-winning American film director and producer. During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, three of his films became the highest grossing films for their time: Jaws, E.T. and Jurassic Park.
Spielberg ranks among the most successful filmmakers in history, in terms of both critical acclaim and popular success even though his films are sometimes portrayed as the archetype of modern Hollywood blockbuster film-making (commercialism over artistic purposes) by critics.
Early Life
Steven Allan Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio to his parents Arnold and Leah. Spielberg lived in Camden, New Jersey, Haddon Township, New Jersey, Phoenix, Arizona and Saratoga, California. His last name comes from the name of the Austrian city where his Hungarian Jewish ancestors lived in 17th century: Spielberg. Spielberg recounts his first film as Cecil B.
Spielberg grew up making movies from an early age. In an interview with the American Film Institute Spielberg recalls his earliest movie making memory - his enjoyment of crashing his toy trains into each other. One year later at the age of 13, Spielberg won a prize for a 40-minute war movie he titled Escape to Nowhere.
Whilst attending Arcadia High School in Phoenix, Arizona in 1963, at the young age of 16, Spielberg wrote and directed his first large scale independent movie. Firelight was Spielberg's first real commercial success and the local Phoenix press wrote that he could expect great things to come. Spielberg was given the nickname "Spielbug" During this time Spielberg became an Eagle Scout and recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), as he developed the requirements for the Boy Scout Cinematography merit badge.
After moving to California he applied to attend film school at UCLA and University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts three separate times but was unsuccessful (though USC awarded Spielberg an honorary degree in 1994 and in 1996 he became a trustee of the University). Spielberg once joked that his movie career began the day that he decided to jump off a tour bus at Universal Studios in Hollywood and wandered around the disused film lots.
While attending college at Long Beach State in the 1960s, Spielberg also became member of Theta Chi Fraternity. In 2002, thirty-five years after starting college, Spielberg finished his degree via independent projects at CSULB, and was awarded a B.A. Fraternity brothers often tell stories of Spielberg running around with a movie camera making short films.
Once as an intern and guest of Universal Studios, Spielberg made his first short film for theatrical release, creating Amblin', in 1968, at the age of twenty-one. In later life Spielberg's own production company, Amblin Entertainment, was named after his short film. After this, and an episode of Marcus Welby M.D., Spielberg got his first feature-length assignment: an episode of Name of the Game called "L.A.
Based on the strength of his work, Universal signed Spielberg to do three TV movies. (Note that all video/DVD releases of the film have the extended cut which was released theatrically in America in 1983, not the original, shorter cut.) Realizing what they had, Universal would not release Spielberg to CBS, and insisted he fulfill the contract. Spielberg is said to be quite disappointed with the film, which he never regarded as more than a knock-off. Though the series was not picked up, the movie was shown on TV in 1973, and is occasionally re-run, usually highlighting Spielberg's participation.
Spielberg's debut theatrical feature film was The Sugarland Express, based on the true story of a married couple who lead the Texas police on a highway chase as they embark on a journey to regain custody of their baby. Welcomed with warm reviews, the film nevertheless failed to catch on at the box office, but his producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown were prepared to offer Spielberg a more ambitious directing assignment.
Spielberg's next film was Jaws, a horror film based on the Peter Benchley novel starring Roy Scheider about a killer shark that attacks people off the coast of a New England isle community. It was also nominated for Best Picture and featured Spielberg's first of three collaborations with actor Richard Dreyfuss. To this day, Spielberg maintains that Jaws was the hardest film he ever had to make.
Blockbuster King (1975-1993)
Rejecting offers to direct Jaws 2 and Superman, Spielberg and actor Richard Dreyfuss re-convened to work on a pet project Spielberg had had in mind since his youth: a film about UFOs, which became Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). This is one of the rare movies that Spielberg both wrote and directed. A hit at the box office, the film also gained Spielberg his first Best Director nomination from the Academy and was nominated for six other Academy Awards, taking home Oscar in two (Cinematography -- Vilmos Zsigmond, and a Special Achievement Award for Sound Effects Editing -- Frank E.
The success Spielberg was beginning to enjoy, as well as his eventual tendency to make films with wide mainstream and commercial appeal, also subjected him to disdain in critical circles by film reviewers. For example, Spielberg's next film was 1941, a big-budgeted World War II comedy farce set in L.A. The film flopped with both audiences and critics alike, and Spielberg looks back at the film disdainfully, describing that he "needed to go to a Betty Ford clinic for self-indulgent directors". Desperately in need of quick redemption, Spielberg would next team with Star Wars creator George Lucas on a new action adventure film.
What some would consider Spielberg's greatest film work was still to come, beginning in the 1980s. In 1981, Spielberg teamed up for the first time with his long-time friend George Lucas to make Raiders of the Lost Ark, his homage to the cliffhanger serials of the Golden Age of Hollywood, with Harrison Ford (whom Lucas had previously cast in his Star Wars films) as the dashing hero Indiana Jones. The biggest film at the box office in 1981, and recipient of numerous Oscar nominations including Best Director (Spielberg's second nomination) and Best Picture (the second Spielberg film to be nominated for Best Picture), Raiders is still hailed as a landmark in action cinema.
One year later, Spielberg returned to his alien visitors motif with E.T. It is considered by Spielberg to be his own personal favorite film from his works. Night Skies also gave birth to Poltergeist, a film that Spielberg co-wrote , co-produced (and some people who worked on the film claim directed) and was released only a week before E.T..
His friend George Lucas immediately pulled Spielberg back in as part of their friendly agreement to make more Indiana Jones movies with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Plagued with uncertainty for the material, the saving grace for Spielberg during the making of this film would be the meeting of his future wife Kate Capshaw, who was cast as Indiana's new love interest. The extreme violence and gore would also inspire the Motion Picture Association of America to create the PG-13 rating the following year - in fact it was Spielberg that suggested this rating.
In 1983 and 1984, Spielberg produced two high grossing movies. Spielberg himself directed the segment "Kick the Can," about an old man (played by Benjamin "Scatman" Crothers) who has the ability to grant youth to the residents of an old folk's home. Controversy struck Spielberg when a helicopter accident on Landis's set resulted in the deaths of two child actors and veteran actor Vic Morrow. Despite the tragic results of the Twilight Zone movie, Spielberg would again pay homage to the show two years later by launching Amazing Stories, a similar TV series which Spielberg would produce and occasionally direct. The second was when Spielberg came up with the story and co-wrote the screenplay for the Goonies. The film was directed by Richard Donner and Spielberg's role was as executive producer, along with close colleagues Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy.
In December 1985, Spielberg released The Color Purple, an adaptation of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Many critics were unsure of whether or not Spielberg could handle such serious material, as his output to that point had been viewed as "lighter" entertainment. Indeed, this proved to be Spielberg's trial by fire in presenting the story of a generation of oppressed African-American women (Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey) during depression-era America. The film was another box office smash and hailed by critics as Spielberg's successful foray into the dramatic genre. However in one of the most controversial instances in the History of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Spielberg himself went without a Best Director nomination despite the multitude of nominations the picture received.
1987 was a time when the Chinese economy was beginning to boom, and as the Chinese gates began to open to the world, Spielberg took advantage by shooting the first American movie in Shanghai since the 1930s. Spielberg wanted to convey a heartfelt message of innocence being shattered as a result of war, as audiences saw the transformation of Jim from sheltered Shanghai to a struggling and resourceful war refugee. The film garnered numerous praise from critics, was nominated for several Oscars, but did not attract the kind of box office power that Spielberg's films usually get. Andrew Sarris praised the film calling it the best film of the year and later included it among the best films of the entire decade.
After two forays into dramatic films, Spielberg returned to familiar territory by re-uniting "one last time" for another Indiana Jones film titled Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. With the inclusion of star Sean Connery, Spielberg vicariously fulfilled a lifelong dream to make a James Bond movie. The father-son issues in the picture are congruent with much of Spielberg's work, making this Indy film the most personal of the three. Recipient of glowing reviews and big box office receipts, Spielberg, Lucas and Ford left the franchise on a high mark.
1989 would mark the first year in which Spielberg would direct two movies. A box office flop and victim of mixed reviews, Always stands out (or more precisely doesn't) as arguably Spielberg's most overlooked and forgotten film. The film was otherwise notable as being the last film which starred Audrey Hepburn.
After the failure of Always, Spielberg headed back to safer waters. In many ways, a Peter Pan story directed by Steven Spielberg seemed like a forgone conclusion. However, by the time the film began shooting, innumerable rewrites and creative changes made by the numerous major Hollywood players attached to the project resulted in a film regarded by most critics as hit-or-miss at best. Though Peter Pan had grown up, some were wondering if Spielberg himself ever would.
In 1993, Spielberg decided to once again tackle the adventure genre, as he directed the movie version of Michael Crichton's novel Jurassic Park, about killer dinosaurs rampaging through a tropical island resort. With the aid of revolutionary special effects provided by friend George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic, the film would eventually become one of the top ten highest grossing films of all time (domestically), alongside his earlier E.T. Spielberg has stated in interviews that the Howard Hawks adventure movie Hatari!
It was in that same year that Jurassic Park was released that Spielberg finally received the critical acclaim he had long sought for making Schindler's List (based on the true story of Oskar Schindler, a man who risked his own life to save 1,100 people from the Holocaust). The screenplay, adapted from Thomas Keneally's novel, was originally in the hands of fellow director Martin Scorsese, but Spielberg negotiated with Scorsese to trade scripts (at the time, Spielberg held the script for a remake of Cape Fear). Schindler's List earned Spielberg his first Academy Award for Best Director (it also won Best Picture). While the film was a huge success at the box office, Spielberg claimed not to have partaken in the profits, and instead used the money to set up the Shoah Foundation. Some critics maintain that Schindler's List is the most accurate portrayal of the Holocaust, and in 1999 the American Film Institute listed it among the 10 Greatest Films ever Made (#9). Though Spielberg admits it is definitely his most important film, he still holds it second to E.T. as his masterwork. Some critics, on the other hand, don't all share Spielberg's sentiment and it is regarded by many as his finest and most mature film.
Darker years (1993 onwards)
1993 was Spielberg's biggest year with the success of Jurassic Park and Schindler's List. Taking a four-year hiatus from directing to spend more time with his family and build his new studio DreamWorks, Spielberg found himself back in the director's chair in 1997. In hindsight Spielberg expressed his view that this sequel was a movie he wanted to see, but didn't necessarily want to make himself.
Spielberg followed his 1993 formula of releasing a dinosaur movie followed by a historical drama by doing it again in 1997. Spielberg released Amistad under the banner of his new studio DreamWorks (formed with former Disney animation exec Jeffrey Katzenberg and media mogul David Geffen). It would mark Spielberg's second essay on the treatment of Blacks in American History (the first being The Color Purple in 1985).
Another of Spielberg's critically acclaimed films, the World War II drama Saving Private Ryan, was released in 1998. Spielberg considered it one of his finest works, yet in a highly publicized "showdown", it lost the Best Picture Oscar at the 1999 Academy Awards to Shakespeare in Love. However, Spielberg would win his second Academy Award for his direction in the war epic. The film was also the first major hit for Spielberg's studio DreamWorks, which co-produced the film with its eventual sister studio, Paramount Pictures. Later on, Spielberg and Hanks, overwhelmed with the success of the film's subject, decided to team together to produce a TV mini-series based on Stephen Ambrose's historical novel, Band of Brothers.
Spielberg's recent films starting from the end of the millennium are considered markedly different from that of his previous films although many note similar themes being played out in them. Many critics have stated that Spielberg's recent films are an experimental phase. Some critics say that Spielberg has lost his touch and whimsy while others claim he is entering a new stage of his cinematic life. Critical opinions on his recent films have earned more polarizing views than his previous films, something that could be viewed as the director taking risks that many have said he did not take in his earlier years.
In 2001, Spielberg filmed fellow director and friend Stanley Kubrick's final project, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, a project planned by the two directors for many years but which Kubrick was unable to begin during his lifetime. The film polarized both critics and audiences, some stating that the film was overly long and a pretentious impression of Kubrick, others believing it to be a masterpiece.
Following A.I., Spielberg and actor Tom Cruise collaborated for the first time in the futuristic neo-noir Minority Report, based upon the sci-fi short story written by Philip K. While criticized for its ignorance of the themes of humanity in author Dick's original story, the film was praised as a futuristic homage to film noir, with its intelligent premise, thrilling chase scenes, and whodunnit structure. In typical Spielberg fashion the film earned over $300 million dollars worldwide. Roger Ebert, who named it the best film of 2002, praised the film for its breathtaking vision of the future as well as for the way Spielberg blended CGI with live-action.
Shortly after the release of Minority Report, Spielberg and Co. The movie marked a turn of genre for Spielberg, who was at this point seen to be branching out to different kinds of film genres aside from the usual sci-fi fare he was known for.
Spielberg collaborated once again with Tom Hanks along with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Stanley Tucci in The Terminal, a warm-hearted comedy about a man of Eastern European descent who is stranded in an airport after his home country suffers a civil war during his flight, strongly paralleling the situation of Merhan Karimi Nasseri. As with past Spielberg films, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) provided the special effects. In his films E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Spielberg portrayed alien visitors as potentially friendly for human beings willing to connect with them. The film was a major box office success and critical opinions were generally positive, although some critics pointed out logical inconsistencies in the plot of the film and commented on its relative lack of a satisfying conclusion. Spielberg was inspired to do the film after his childhood love of the book "The War of the Worlds" written by H. The movie features Spielberg's trademark of a distant father reconnecting with his children.
On the same day as the release of War of the Worlds, Spielberg began shooting Munich, a film about the events following the 1972 Munich Massacre. Munich stands as Spielberg's second film essaying Jewish relations in the world (the first being Schindler's List).
The film received strong critical praise, but underperformed at the US and world box-office. The film has raised criticism from several Israeli and Palestinian commentators and remains one of Spielbergs most controversial films to date. Munich received five Academy Awards nominations, including Best Picture, Film Editing, Original Music Score (by John Williams), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Director for Spielberg. It was Spielberg's sixth Best Director nomination.
Spielberg also served as the executive producer of Memoirs of a Geisha, an adaptation of the best-selling novel by Arthur Golden, a film he was previously attached to as director. In 2006 Spielberg co-executive produced with famed filmmaker Robert Zemeckis a CGI kids-movie called Monster House, marking their first collaboration together since 1990's Back to the Future Part III.
Upcoming projects
Spielberg's biggest priority currently is the long awaited Indiana Jones IV which is to begin filming in 2007 and is scheduled for release in 2008. In June 2006 it was confirmed Spielberg had already begun working on a space travel movie titled Interstellar.
Spielberg is also serving as co-executive producer for the new Transformers live action film with Brian Goldmer, an employee of Hasbro. Spielberg also has rights to a Tintin film.
Style
Themes
Spielberg's films often deal with several recurring themes. In an AFI interview in August 2000 Spielberg commented on his interest in the possibility of extra terrestrial life and how it has influenced some of his films. To that tradition of fascination with space, Spielberg has placed on several occasions, shooting stars in the background of his films such as in Jaws. Spielberg described himself as feeling like an alien during childhood, and his interest came from his father, a science fiction fan, and his opinion that aliens would not travel lightyears for conquest, but instead curiousity and sharing of knowledge. According to Warren Buckland these themes are portrayed through the use of low height camera tracking shots, which have become one of Spielberg's directing trademarks. If one views each of his films, one will see this shot utilised by the director, notably the water scenes in Jaws are filmed from the low angle perspective of someone swimming. Another child orientated theme in Spielberg's films is that of loss of innocence and coming-of-age. Peter Banning in Hook starts off in the beginning of the film as a reluctant married-to-his-work parent who through the course of his film regains the respect of his children. This theme is arguably the most autobiographical aspect of Spielberg's films, since Spielberg himself was affected by his parents' divorce as a child and by the absence of his father.
One aspect of Spielberg's films and possibly is that most of his films are generally optimistic in nature. Critics often accuse his films for being overtly sentimental, though Spielberg feels it's fine as long as it is disguised, and the influence comes from directors Frank Capra and John Ford. while War of the Worlds was the first time Spielberg attempted to show aliens who were evil rather than friendly to humanity.
Comtemporaries
In terms of casting and production itself, Spielberg has a known trademark for working with actors and production members from his previous films. Spielberg has also cast Harrison Ford for several of his movies from small roles, as the headteacher in a cut scene from E.T. Recently Spielberg has used the actor Tom Hanks on several occasions and has cast him in Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me If You Can and The Terminal. Spielberg also prefers working with production members who he has developed an existing working relationship. Other working relationships include Janusz Kaminski who has shot every Spielberg film since Schindler's List (see List of noted film director and cinematographer collaborations) and the film editor Michael Kahn who has edited every single film directed by Spielberg from Close Encounters to Munich (except E.T.
The most famous example of Spielberg working with the same professionals is of course his long time collaboration with John Williams and the use of his musical scores. One of Spielberg's most prominent trademarks is perhaps his use of music by John Williams to add to the visual impact of his scenes and to try and create a lasting picture and sound of the film, in the memories of the film audience.
Spielberg is a contemporary of filmmakers George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, John Milius, and Brian De Palma, collectively known as the "Movie Brats". the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Twilight Zone: The Movie ( 1983) (second segment) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) The Color Purple (1985) Empire of the Sun (1987) Always (1989) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) Hook (1991) Jurassic Park (1993) Schindler's List (1993) (Academy Award, Best Director, Best Picture) Amistad (1997) The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) Saving Private Ryan (1998) (Academy Award, Best Director) Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001) Minority Report (2002) Catch Me If You Can (2002) The Terminal (2004) War of the Worlds (2005) Munich (2005) Indiana Jones 4 (2008) Lincoln (2008) Interstellar (TBA)
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Preceded by: Clint Eastwood for Unforgiven |
Academy Award for Best Director 1993 for Schindler's List |
Succeeded by: Robert Zemeckis for Forrest Gump |
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Preceded by: James Cameron for Titanic |
Academy Award for Best Director 1998 for Saving Private Ryan |
Succeeded by: Sam Mendes for American Beauty |
Television work
(lengths include commercials)
Night Gallery (1969, 1971) pilot movie segment B "Eyes" [aired Nov 8 69] (30min) ep4 segA "Make 'em Laugh" [aired Jan 6 71] (30min) possibly ep14 segB "Matter of Semantics" (5min) Marcus Welby M.D. (1970) ep 1-27 "Daredevil Gesture" (60 min) [aired Mar 17 70] The Name of the Game (1971) ep 3-16 "L.A. 1-3 "Eulogy for a Wide Receiver" (60 min) [aired Sep 30 71] Duel (1971) TV-movie (90 min) (extended cut was released theatrically and on home video/DVD) [aired Nov 13 71] Something Evil (1972) TV-movie (90 min) [aired Jan 21 72] Savage (1973) TV-movie (90 min) [aired Mar 31 73] Strokes of Genius (1984) Tv series (introductory segments hosted by Dustin Hoffman) [aired May 84] Amazing Stories (1985) ep 1-1 "Ghost Train" (30 min) [aired Oct 6 85] ep 1-7 "The Mission" (60 min) [aired Nov 3 85] (part of Amazing Stories: Book One)Other projects
Aside from his principle role as a director, Spielberg has acted as a producer for a considerable number of films, including early hits for Joe Dante and Robert Zemeckis. He also collaborated with software publishers Knowledge Adventure on the multimedia game Steven Spielberg's Director's Chair, which was released in 1996. Spielberg appears, as himself, in the game to direct the player.
Following the critical and box office success of Schindler's List in 1993, Spielberg founded and continues to finance the Shoah Foundation, a non-profit organization with the goal of providing an archive for the filmed testimony of as many survivors of the Holocaust as possible, so that their stories will not be lost in the future. Also in 1993, Spielberg acted as executive producer for the highly anticipated television series, seaQuest DSV; a science fiction series set "in the near future" starring Roy Scheider (who Spielberg had directed in Jaws) and Jonathan Brandis akin to Star Trek: The Next Generation that aired on Sundays at 8:00PM on NBC. Spielberg's name no longer appeared in the third season and the show was cancelled after thirteen third season episodes.
Spielberg is one of the co-founders of DreamWorks Pictures (DreamWorks SKG, with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen providing the other letters in the company name), which has released all of his movies since Amistad in 1997. Spielberg and Dreamworks SKG are currently working with Survivor creator Mark Burnett on the upcoming television show On The Lot, a Project Greenlight-esque reality show documenting a contest to find the best talented, undiscovered filmmakers in America. Other major television series Spielberg produced were Band of Brothers, Taken and Into the West. As Dreamworks producer, Spielberg is producing far more movies than ever before.
Personal life
From 1985 to 1989 Spielberg was married to actress Amy Irving.
In 1999, Spielberg received an honorary degree from Brown University. Spielberg was also awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service by Secretary of Defense William Cohen at the Pentagon on Aug. 11, 1999. Cohen presented Spielberg the award in recognition of his movie "Saving Private Ryan". The citation accompanying the medal states "Mr. Spielberg helped to reconnect the American public with its military men and women, while rekindling a deep sense of gratitude for the daily sacrifices they make on the front lines of our Nation's defense."
On February 7, 2000, Spielberg's doctor discovered an irregularity on his kidney during a routine physical.
Spielberg generally supports U.S. Democratic Party candidates. However, although Spielberg generally supports democratic leaders such as Clinton, Al Gore and John Kerry he joined Jeffrey Katzenberg and Haim Saban in endorsing the re-election of Hollywood friend Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican Governor of California, on August 7, 2006.
Criticism
Spielberg has several critics, including American artist and actor Crispin Glover. Among Glover’s accusations are that Spielberg purchased the Rosebud sled used in Orson Welles’ 1941 film Citizen Kane for $50,000 but refused to hire Welles to write a screenplay in the later years of his life, that he received money from the United States government to promote his personal religious and cultural beliefs, that his films do not take risks, that he exploited tragedy for personal gain in the films Schindler’s List (although Spielberg was not paid for Schindler's List) and Saving Private Ryan, and that he, as a co-owner of DreamWorks, considered building a studio on the few remaining wetlands in Southern California even though he backed out of it.
In an interview in 2003 on the CBS television show 60 Minutes, actor Robert Duvall criticized Spielberg for meeting with Cuban president Fidel Castro in 2002.
Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls portrays the early Spielberg in a mostly unflattering light as a sycophantic and reverential figure to the old Hollywood studio system, lacking the artistic inclinations or intellectual backgrounds of his contemporaries and unable to relate to the youth culture of the 1960s and 1970s. Biskind also illustrates Steven Spielberg's unusual experience writing Jaws. According to Universal Press associate Robert Ebert Spielberg once stated to him in defense that "Every single word in his book about me is either erroneous, or a lie."
Spielberg's films are often accused of leaning towards sentimentalism at the expense of the theme of the film. Critics such as anti-mainstream film theorist Ray Carney also complain that Spielberg's films lack depth and do not take risks. However in defense, whilst this may be true for some of his films, films like Schindlers List and Saving Private Ryan are both thought provoking, deep in character and of a high risk nature due their controversial historic content.
French New Wave giant Jean-Luc Godard famously and publicly slammed Spielberg at the premier of his film In Praise of Love. Through his film, Godard accused Spielberg of making a profit of tragedy while Schindler's wife lived in poverty in Argentina.
In Spielberg's defense, critic Roger Ebert once stated that "If only people could look past his popularity they would see how talented he really is." Some of Spielberg's most famous fans include film legends Ingmar Bergman, Werner Herzog, Stanley Kubrick, Terry Gilliam (although he has criticized some of his more recent work) and the late French filmmaker François Truffaut who are said to admire his work.
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