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In Reply to: Re: "Minority Report" and Steven Speilberg posted by Joe S on June 19, 2002 at 07:42:21:
Those two started their "run" on the same track, but Lucas must've gotten winded as the race matured. Spielberg isn't without his critics (E.T., Temple of Doom, 1941 & Amistad are arguably flawed efforts in my estimation), but his track record demonstrates consistent growth and a willingness to take risks.AuPh
The others you mention, yes, but E.T.?It was a revolutionary film at it's time. A friendly alien? Think about the culture it spawned. My kids were carrying around E.T. dolls for years!
No one cared about science fiction or space at the time. This movie really was a milestone despite any cinematic shortcomings it maight have had.
... I bought the LD back in '89 or '90 and watched the darn thing again. Some movies hold up well, some don't. E.T. seemed great when I saw it in the theater, but it looked hokey, dated and childish when I watched it ten year's later. Now, I'm not saying that E.T. isn't a charming kid's movie, but you've got to admit that none of the kid actors in E.T. were believable nor, by comparison, could any hold a candle to an actor of Haley Joel Osment's calibre today.> > > "No one cared about science fiction or space at the time." < < <
Ed, you're kidding, right? Are you forgetting such films as Star Wars & Empire Strikes Back, Alien, Star Trek the Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan, Blade Runner, and how about Close Encounters of the Third Kind (i.e., a much better SF film about friendly aliens by Steven Spielberg which preceeded E.T.)? All of these and more came out in the late 70's and early 80's!
As far as E.T. being revolutionary at the time, well perhaps in terms of animatronics, but technology changes so rapidly that many mechanical effects shots from 20 years ago don't hold up well when compared to more modern films. As I've already mentioned, Spielberg had already created friendly aliens in Close Encounters so that wasn't really groundbreaking. One of the things I liked LEAST in E.T. was that it was the start of Spielberg's "cute-but-smart-ass-kids-who-are-smarter-than-the-adults-in-the-picture" period that frequenly cropped up throughout the 80's and into the 90's in a number of his films and studio's productions. Don't get me wrong, I like seeing kids who can ACT in his pictures, but far too often they were carricatures who really didn't act like believable kids.
So, there you have it; I'm sorry to have gone on at length about E.T., especially since you like the movie so much. Perhaps it's just that my taste in films with aliens and/or child actors differs from yours. I'm glad that you and your kids like E.T.; obviously Steven Spielberg and millions of other folks agree with you.
Respectfully,
AuPh
there's nothing that can compare to Dune, like there's nothing that can compare to David Lynch other films, except the very boring Straight Story.
To me, "Dune" is the most turgid, lonnnnnnnnngest, sci-fi movie there ever was. Even longer than the book.I understand that the just recently released 3Disc DVD version with William Hurt, is more faithful to the story. I'm curious, as I've seen it priced in the $19.99 to $22.00 range.
Didn't Lynch distance himself from his involvement of it ?
Are we talking about the same "Dune", the one I've seen is made in 1984 by David Lynch, last 137 min and with a budget of 40 millions dollar (100M today). Easily the best SF for me, since I hate most of them.The other "Dune" I know is a PC game.
It seems the books share some similarity with Lord of the Ring and are consider to be among the greatest ever written.
(nt)
I am not a huge fan of ET. Actually Alien and Blade Runner are more my cup of tea. However, I think ET was more widely seen by the "general" population than anything except Star Wars and Close Encounters, which was a feat for a "science fiction" type film.Again, the effect it had on kids from 3- 12 was quite an accomplishment at the time.
The point I was trying to make it that ET seemed to harken back to a gentler time while using a premise of something as alien as well, an alien. That's why I think it was special.
I do think it was a wonderful work which must stand on it's own merit. Since not many people rushed to see it this time around I will have to yield to your viewpoint that it does not stand up to time.
Now that you made me think however, how many movies lately can stand up to Alien, Blade Runner,Close Encounters, Star Wars (1) or ET?
There is not much "inspiring" out there these days.BTW you are right on about "smart ass kids" and H J Osmond. I was forced to actually think by Sixth Sense. How many times can you say that about a movie?
I do think that there's plenty of good serious SF making it's way to the screen. From Spielberg alone, last year's AI stands as a near-masterpiece, thanks in part to Haley Joel Osment's performance, and early reviews suggest that his new film Minority Report (openning tomorrow; based on a Philip K. Dick story) may be even better! Also, the upcoming film Signs from M. Night Shyamalan (Sixth Sense and Unbreakable) looks like potent speculative SF fare. I've got to admit that my taste in SF is pretty varied (i.e., I love Spielberg's Jurassic Park series based on the popular Michael Crichton novels, ...the sarcastic wit of Paul Verhooven's Robocop & Starship Troopers, ...the imaginative cyber-addiction/machine dominence concepts explored in The Matrix, ...the edge-of-seat emotional rollercoaster of James Cameron's Terminator's I & II, Aliens and The Abyss, ...the desparation of survival in a hostile alien environment in Pitch Black, ...the religious implications hinted at in Roland Emmerich's Stargate and thoroughly explored in Robert Zemekis' film Contact, based on Carl Sagan's novel, ...and even John Carpenter's The Thing, an arguably more valid interpretation of John W. Campbell's short story "Who Goes There?" than the original '51 cold-war inspired movie, and his cult classic Escape from New York, -- I've left out around 2/3 of the Star Trek movies, both original crew & next generation, etc., and that's only from the 80's to present!).One thing I'm very happy about is that there seems to be as much attention to story content as special effects in much of the SF being produced of late and that bodes well for the genre!
Cheers,
AuPh
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