WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.419 Okay, so if you had to name, say, the most important 00:00:02.419 --> 00:00:04.780 filmmaker of the last 50 years, you'd probably 00:00:04.780 --> 00:00:07.480 come up with a whole list of incredible directors, 00:00:07.679 --> 00:00:09.980 right? The great auteurs with these, you know, 00:00:09.980 --> 00:00:13.339 singular artistic visions. For sure. But if you 00:00:13.339 --> 00:00:15.480 change the question a little bit, who is the 00:00:15.480 --> 00:00:18.179 wealthiest celebrity, who also happens to be 00:00:18.179 --> 00:00:20.460 a director, and the highest grossing film director 00:00:20.460 --> 00:00:24.260 of all time, well, that list gets very short. 00:00:24.640 --> 00:00:26.859 It becomes a list of one, really. It really does. 00:00:27.160 --> 00:00:30.010 Steven Allen Spielberg. I mean, his legacy is 00:00:30.010 --> 00:00:32.869 just, it's unprecedented. You have this commercial 00:00:32.869 --> 00:00:34.929 dominance on one hand and this real artistic 00:00:34.929 --> 00:00:37.670 reverence on the other. As of December 2024, 00:00:38.149 --> 00:00:41.450 his net worth is estimated at, get this, $5 .3 00:00:41.450 --> 00:00:44.450 billion. That's just a staggering number. We're 00:00:44.450 --> 00:00:46.070 not just talking about a successful director. 00:00:46.189 --> 00:00:48.390 We're talking about the person who literally 00:00:48.390 --> 00:00:50.929 built the modern blockbuster from the ground 00:00:50.929 --> 00:00:53.140 up. He's the architect. He fundamentally changed 00:00:53.140 --> 00:00:56.320 how movies work, both commercially with marketing 00:00:56.320 --> 00:00:59.380 and distribution and artistically. He proved 00:00:59.380 --> 00:01:01.920 that massive entertainment could also be really, 00:01:01.960 --> 00:01:04.519 really profound. And that's our challenge for 00:01:04.519 --> 00:01:07.159 today, isn't it? We have this mountain of source 00:01:07.159 --> 00:01:09.599 material covering his entire life, his entire 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:12.620 career. So our mission is a real deep dive. We're 00:01:12.620 --> 00:01:14.659 going to cut through that huge volume of work 00:01:14.659 --> 00:01:17.060 to find the critical moments, the turning points, 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:19.799 his signature techniques, and, you know, the 00:01:19.799 --> 00:01:22.140 surprisingly personal history that explains why 00:01:22.140 --> 00:01:24.700 he became, well, arguably the greatest filmmaker 00:01:24.700 --> 00:01:27.680 in history. Yeah. And the sources give us this 00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:30.420 amazing chronological and thematic summary. It 00:01:30.420 --> 00:01:32.719 covers everything from his childhood film. These 00:01:32.719 --> 00:01:35.040 little eight millimeter movies all the way to 00:01:35.040 --> 00:01:37.060 his new stuff and streaming and theater. It's 00:01:37.060 --> 00:01:40.060 a huge journey. But the connections between his 00:01:40.060 --> 00:01:43.280 early life and his later masterpieces are just 00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:45.659 startlingly clear when you lay it all out. And 00:01:45.659 --> 00:01:47.780 the recognition he's gotten from, you know, outside 00:01:47.780 --> 00:01:49.780 the Hollywood bubble is something else entirely. 00:01:50.060 --> 00:01:52.500 I mean, we're talking about the AFI Life Achievement 00:01:52.500 --> 00:01:55.500 Award way back in 1995, the Presidential Medal 00:01:55.500 --> 00:01:58.099 of Freedom in 2015. And this was fascinating. 00:01:58.260 --> 00:02:02.510 An honorary knighthood from the UK in 2001. Now, 00:02:02.510 --> 00:02:03.989 he's not a British citizen, so he can't be called 00:02:03.989 --> 00:02:06.469 Sir Stephen, but he is a KDE, a Knight Commander 00:02:06.469 --> 00:02:08.669 of the Order of the British Empire. Which just 00:02:08.669 --> 00:02:11.250 shows that his influence goes way beyond movies, 00:02:11.370 --> 00:02:13.810 right? It's cultural, it's historical, it even 00:02:13.810 --> 00:02:16.289 touches on public policy. Absolutely. And then 00:02:16.289 --> 00:02:20.449 just last year, in 2023, he got the first ever 00:02:20.449 --> 00:02:24.250 Time 100 Impact Award in the U .S. This isn't 00:02:24.250 --> 00:02:26.090 just celebrating a director, it's recognizing 00:02:26.090 --> 00:02:29.909 a cultural force. So where did all of this... 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:33.800 This drive, this massive career actually began, 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:35.180 I think we have to go right back to the start, 00:02:35.259 --> 00:02:37.780 to the formative roots of this filmmaking obsession. 00:02:38.120 --> 00:02:40.719 So Steven Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:43.939 That was December 1946. But he mostly grew up 00:02:43.939 --> 00:02:46.439 in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona. And to really 00:02:46.439 --> 00:02:48.259 understand the two sides of his firm making, 00:02:48.379 --> 00:02:50.639 the huge spectacle and the deep sentiment, you 00:02:50.639 --> 00:02:52.099 just have to look at his parents. That mix of 00:02:52.099 --> 00:02:53.719 art and science, right? Tell us a bit about that. 00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:56.800 Exactly. His mother, Leah Adler, she was a classically 00:02:56.800 --> 00:02:58.939 trained concert pianist. Later on, she ran a 00:02:58.939 --> 00:03:01.400 kosher Gary restaurant. She was the artist, the 00:03:01.400 --> 00:03:03.639 free spirit. Then his father, Arnold Spielberg, 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:06.020 he was an electrical engineer. A real pioneer, 00:03:06.199 --> 00:03:08.219 actually, who was deeply involved in early computer 00:03:08.219 --> 00:03:10.800 development. The sources make it really clear 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:13.639 that his dad's interest in science and, you know, 00:03:13.659 --> 00:03:16.539 futuristic tech, that's what fed Spielberg's 00:03:16.539 --> 00:03:18.919 lifelong fascination with sci -fi and aliens. 00:03:19.300 --> 00:03:21.900 But his mother's artistic side gave his work 00:03:21.900 --> 00:03:24.840 its heart. Its emotional, childlike core. Yes. 00:03:24.919 --> 00:03:27.900 It's the perfect storm for a filmmaker who can 00:03:27.900 --> 00:03:30.080 give you the insane technological complexity 00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:33.340 of a film like Minority Report, but also the... 00:03:34.219 --> 00:03:36.919 The profound emotional warmth of E .T. It makes 00:03:36.919 --> 00:03:38.860 perfect sense. And his first real connection 00:03:38.860 --> 00:03:41.740 to film, that pivotal moment, came really early 00:03:41.740 --> 00:03:43.879 and it was rooted in, well, terror, actually. 00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:46.340 He was six years old and his parents took him 00:03:46.340 --> 00:03:48.699 to see Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on 00:03:48.699 --> 00:03:50.259 Earth. Right. He thought he was going to see 00:03:50.259 --> 00:03:52.300 an actual circus, but that train crash scene 00:03:52.300 --> 00:03:55.539 just terrified him. It did. But what's so telling 00:03:55.539 --> 00:03:57.659 is how he dealt with it. I mean, most kids would 00:03:57.659 --> 00:04:01.300 just hide, right? Spielberg, at age 12, decides 00:04:01.300 --> 00:04:03.439 to conquer that fear by recreating the crash. 00:04:03.979 --> 00:04:06.180 He used his Lionel trains and filmed the whole 00:04:06.180 --> 00:04:08.460 thing with his eight millimeter camera. And in 00:04:08.460 --> 00:04:10.900 that moment, he realized it wasn't just about 00:04:10.900 --> 00:04:13.219 the spectacle. It was about the power of editing. 00:04:13.919 --> 00:04:15.539 Precisely. He remembered that, you know, the 00:04:15.539 --> 00:04:17.199 trains just going around the track was boring. 00:04:17.240 --> 00:04:20.199 But once he staged the wreck, he realized, and 00:04:20.199 --> 00:04:23.319 I'm quoting here, I could cut the film lots of 00:04:23.319 --> 00:04:25.399 different ways and look at it over and over again. 00:04:25.500 --> 00:04:29.170 Wow. The sources really emphasize this. His very 00:04:29.170 --> 00:04:32.410 first home movie showed this deep, instinctual 00:04:32.410 --> 00:04:35.110 grasp of film language. He understood he could 00:04:35.110 --> 00:04:38.129 control emotional experiences, fear, excitement, 00:04:38.329 --> 00:04:40.949 through the technical craft of editing. He was 00:04:40.949 --> 00:04:42.550 learning this stuff before he was even a teenager. 00:04:42.870 --> 00:04:45.529 He was incredibly prolific, too. He got his Boy 00:04:45.529 --> 00:04:47.970 Scout Photography merit badge by making a nine 00:04:47.970 --> 00:04:50.529 -minute western, an eight -millimeter film called 00:04:50.529 --> 00:04:53.170 The Last Gunfight. And then at 13, he upped the 00:04:53.170 --> 00:04:55.459 ante. He made a 40 -minute war film with his 00:04:55.459 --> 00:04:57.480 classmates called Escape to Nowhere. It actually 00:04:57.480 --> 00:05:00.079 won first prize in a statewide competition. He 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:01.959 made something like 15 to 20 of these little 00:05:01.959 --> 00:05:04.079 8 -millimeter adventure films as a teenager. 00:05:04.259 --> 00:05:07.019 This was his film school. And he was also absorbing 00:05:07.019 --> 00:05:09.459 everything he watched in Phoenix. He talked about 00:05:09.459 --> 00:05:12.920 seeing Kurosawa's films, Rashomon and The Seven 00:05:12.920 --> 00:05:14.720 Samurai, which you can totally see influencing 00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:17.339 the scale and action in his later work. For sure. 00:05:17.660 --> 00:05:21.220 But all the sources agree on the one film that 00:05:21.220 --> 00:05:24.670 was his true North Star. David Lean's Lawrence 00:05:24.670 --> 00:05:28.370 of Arabia. The 1962 classic. Yeah. Spielberg 00:05:28.370 --> 00:05:31.370 himself calls it the film that set me on my journey. 00:05:31.769 --> 00:05:33.649 He says he's seen it more times than any other 00:05:33.649 --> 00:05:36.069 movie. That totally tracks. Lawrence of Arabia 00:05:36.069 --> 00:05:39.230 is the blueprint for combining this huge, overwhelming 00:05:39.230 --> 00:05:42.670 scale with a really complex personal drama. It's 00:05:42.670 --> 00:05:44.769 exactly what he's aiming for in something like 00:05:44.769 --> 00:05:47.509 War Horse or the Indiana Jones movies. And moving 00:05:47.509 --> 00:05:49.870 from his external influences to his internal 00:05:49.870 --> 00:05:52.069 ones, we have to talk about the huge significance 00:05:52.069 --> 00:05:55.490 of his Jewish heritage and the family upheaval 00:05:55.490 --> 00:05:57.990 he went through. His paternal grandparents were 00:05:57.990 --> 00:06:00.310 Ukrainian Jews, so that history was always very 00:06:00.310 --> 00:06:02.420 present. tells that story about his grandmother 00:06:02.420 --> 00:06:04.819 teaching English to Holocaust survivors in Cincinnati 00:06:04.819 --> 00:06:07.759 and how one man taught him how to do math. Yes, 00:06:07.800 --> 00:06:11.699 that story is. It's haunting. The man used the 00:06:11.699 --> 00:06:13.879 tattooed number on his forearm to teach him. 00:06:13.959 --> 00:06:16.759 He'd flex his arm, showing a nine, then turn 00:06:16.759 --> 00:06:19.160 his arm over to show a six, and he'd say, it's 00:06:19.160 --> 00:06:21.939 magic, it becomes a six. And now it's a nine, 00:06:22.139 --> 00:06:24.769 and now it's a six. It's just such a moment of 00:06:24.769 --> 00:06:29.230 profound, painful irony, using a symbol of industrialized 00:06:29.230 --> 00:06:32.029 murder as a teaching tool for a child. And Spielberg 00:06:32.029 --> 00:06:34.730 says, the irony of all that and the gift of that 00:06:34.730 --> 00:06:37.069 lesson never really dawned on me until I was 00:06:37.069 --> 00:06:40.370 much older. His father had lost between 16 and 00:06:40.370 --> 00:06:42.569 20 relatives in the Holocaust. It was this constant 00:06:42.569 --> 00:06:46.579 presence. But as a kid, he felt conflicted. He 00:06:46.579 --> 00:06:49.100 admitted he was embarrassed by the outward perception 00:06:49.100 --> 00:06:51.660 of my parents' Jewish practices. And he was bullied 00:06:51.660 --> 00:06:53.860 for it. He talks about getting two bloody noses 00:06:53.860 --> 00:06:55.519 in high school for being Jewish. Which later 00:06:55.519 --> 00:06:58.519 informs that deep, deep need, that 10 -year waiting 00:06:58.519 --> 00:07:00.939 period, before he finally felt he was mature 00:07:00.939 --> 00:07:02.720 enough to make Schindler's List. So you have 00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:04.439 this huge historical weight on one side, and 00:07:04.439 --> 00:07:06.379 then on the other, this immediate family pain 00:07:06.379 --> 00:07:08.839 that really fueled his imagination. His parents 00:07:08.839 --> 00:07:11.379 divorced when he was 15 or 16. The sources all 00:07:11.379 --> 00:07:14.230 point to this as Maybe the single biggest catalyst 00:07:14.230 --> 00:07:17.170 for his signature themes. That pain was, as he 00:07:17.170 --> 00:07:19.910 put it, purged through imagination. He felt abandoned 00:07:19.910 --> 00:07:22.370 specifically by the father figure. Exactly. He 00:07:22.370 --> 00:07:24.829 felt he needed a special friend, you know, an 00:07:24.829 --> 00:07:28.870 emotional anchor to replace what he'd lost. And 00:07:28.870 --> 00:07:31.810 he said very explicitly that an extraterrestrial 00:07:31.810 --> 00:07:35.189 character would be the perfect springboard to 00:07:35.189 --> 00:07:37.790 purge the pain of your parents splitting up. 00:07:38.040 --> 00:07:40.500 So that's it. That's the core psychological origin 00:07:40.500 --> 00:07:43.699 of E .T. It is. The deepest personal pain he 00:07:43.699 --> 00:07:46.339 had translated directly into one of the most 00:07:46.339 --> 00:07:48.639 beloved movies ever made. And you can't forget 00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:51.259 his mother's influence in all this, Leah. He 00:07:51.259 --> 00:07:54.019 described her as having a huge adventurous personality. 00:07:54.040 --> 00:07:56.759 He said she saw herself as Peter Pan. The kid 00:07:56.759 --> 00:07:59.259 who never wanted to grow up. And that spirit, 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:01.379 that sense of youth and flight and adventure 00:08:01.379 --> 00:08:04.259 and wonder, it is literally woven into the DNA 00:08:04.259 --> 00:08:07.279 of so many of his films, from hook to close encounters. 00:08:07.579 --> 00:08:10.139 His parents were the blueprint, the engineer 00:08:10.139 --> 00:08:12.199 father building the spectacle, and the Peter 00:08:12.199 --> 00:08:14.240 Pan mother providing the emotional engine to 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:17.279 make it fly. So when we get to his actual career 00:08:17.279 --> 00:08:20.379 launch, it's such a classic Hollywood story of 00:08:20.379 --> 00:08:23.569 pure hustle. And maybe the biggest surprise is 00:08:23.569 --> 00:08:26.149 that the most successful director ever was rejected 00:08:26.149 --> 00:08:28.490 by the best film schools. Right. He applied to 00:08:28.490 --> 00:08:30.389 USC's film school, which was the place to be. 00:08:30.709 --> 00:08:33.950 But they rejected him twice because his grades 00:08:33.950 --> 00:08:36.450 were just mediocre. So he ended up at Cal State 00:08:36.450 --> 00:08:40.029 Long Beach instead. But his real education, well, 00:08:40.190 --> 00:08:42.090 it didn't come from a classroom. No, it came 00:08:42.090 --> 00:08:44.169 from him just being incredibly bold at Universal 00:08:44.169 --> 00:08:46.889 Studios. It's a great story. He takes a tour 00:08:46.889 --> 00:08:49.179 bus. has a random conversation that gets him 00:08:49.179 --> 00:08:51.179 a three -day pass, and then he just has the nerve 00:08:51.179 --> 00:08:53.559 to walk back in on the fourth day. The guard 00:08:53.559 --> 00:08:55.679 recognized him and just waved him through. He 00:08:55.679 --> 00:08:58.220 just established residency. He became an unofficial 00:08:58.220 --> 00:09:01.320 apprentice for the next two months. It just says 00:09:01.320 --> 00:09:03.940 so much about his drive. He found a fake office, 00:09:04.120 --> 00:09:06.960 learned by watching, and just refused to leave. 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:10.000 And that hustle is what paid off. Universal execs 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:13.409 saw his 26 -minute short film, Amblin. It's a 00:09:13.409 --> 00:09:16.230 35 millimeter film about two hitchhikers with 00:09:16.230 --> 00:09:19.090 no dialogue. And they were so impressed that 00:09:19.090 --> 00:09:21.509 the vice president, Sidney Sheinberg, offered 00:09:21.509 --> 00:09:24.210 him a seven year directing contract. Which meant 00:09:24.210 --> 00:09:26.830 he had to drop out of Long Beach, making him 00:09:26.830 --> 00:09:29.309 the youngest director ever signed to a long term 00:09:29.309 --> 00:09:31.870 deal with a major Hollywood studio. He basically 00:09:31.870 --> 00:09:34.309 traded his college degree for a master level 00:09:34.309 --> 00:09:36.529 apprenticeship where he was guaranteed to work. 00:09:36.889 --> 00:09:39.419 But speaking of that degree. He did eventually 00:09:39.419 --> 00:09:43.039 go back to Long Beach in 2002 to finish his Bachelor 00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:46.399 of Arts. And to complete his requirements, he 00:09:46.399 --> 00:09:48.940 submitted Schindler's List as his thesis project. 00:09:49.299 --> 00:09:51.740 That's the ultimate mic drop, isn't it? But before 00:09:51.740 --> 00:09:54.519 all that, there's one more really important early 00:09:54.519 --> 00:09:57.259 lesson that shaped his whole visual style. The 00:09:57.259 --> 00:10:00.179 famous meeting with director John Ford. Oh, yeah, 00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:03.019 the sources detail this perfectly. Ford is in 00:10:03.019 --> 00:10:05.080 his office, surrounded by these framed landscape 00:10:05.080 --> 00:10:07.940 paintings. And he points to them and asks the... 00:10:07.980 --> 00:10:10.740 young Spielberg, where's the horizon? And then 00:10:10.740 --> 00:10:12.740 Ford explains the difference. Yes. He taught 00:10:12.740 --> 00:10:15.019 him this fundamental rule of cinematic composition. 00:10:15.419 --> 00:10:17.799 He said, when you're able to distinguish the 00:10:17.799 --> 00:10:20.759 art of the horizon at the bottom of a frame or 00:10:20.759 --> 00:10:23.039 at the top of the frame, but not going right 00:10:23.039 --> 00:10:25.240 through the center, when you can appreciate why 00:10:25.240 --> 00:10:27.840 it's at the top and why it's at the bottom, you 00:10:27.840 --> 00:10:29.980 might make a pretty good picture maker. That's 00:10:29.980 --> 00:10:33.159 an entire masterclass in one sentence. It's all 00:10:33.159 --> 00:10:35.320 about perspective, about separating the human 00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:37.919 from the vastness of the world. And you see that 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:40.100 single lesson in his framing throughout his entire 00:10:40.100 --> 00:10:43.379 career, from the deserts and raiders to the ocean 00:10:43.379 --> 00:10:45.899 and jaws. So with that seven year contract from 00:10:45.899 --> 00:10:49.440 Universal, Spielberg dives into television. And 00:10:49.440 --> 00:10:51.399 this really was his, you know, his boot camp, 00:10:51.559 --> 00:10:56.240 a grueling, fast paced. but incredibly practical 00:10:56.240 --> 00:10:58.840 apprenticeship. And his professional debut was 00:10:58.840 --> 00:11:01.039 directing a segment for Rod Serling's Night Gallery 00:11:01.039 --> 00:11:03.740 in 69. It was called Eyes, and it starred the 00:11:03.740 --> 00:11:06.179 legendary Joan Crawford. He was, what, in his 00:11:06.179 --> 00:11:09.539 early 20s? He was. And he immediately ran into 00:11:09.539 --> 00:11:11.700 skepticism from the studio execs because he was 00:11:11.700 --> 00:11:13.799 so young. They made him simplify some of his 00:11:13.799 --> 00:11:16.539 more ambitious camera ideas. But Joan Crawford, 00:11:16.679 --> 00:11:18.799 she saw something in him. She wrote these notes 00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:21.460 to Serling about his unique, intuitive inspiration, 00:11:21.580 --> 00:11:23.580 and that really helped him get his footing. So 00:11:23.580 --> 00:11:25.399 for the next few years, he was just grinding 00:11:25.399 --> 00:11:27.600 it out, directing episodes of shows like Marcus 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:30.399 Welby, M .D., The Name of the Game, and this 00:11:30.399 --> 00:11:33.000 is a big one, the first ever non -pilot episode 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:36.250 of Columbo. Murder by the Book. And even though 00:11:36.250 --> 00:11:38.169 he later said he wasn't satisfied with the material 00:11:38.169 --> 00:11:41.350 itself, that period was absolutely vital. He 00:11:41.350 --> 00:11:43.330 was basically directing a small movie every couple 00:11:43.330 --> 00:11:45.509 of weeks. It's where he tested out camera moves, 00:11:45.730 --> 00:11:48.230 learned pacing, and figured out how to manage 00:11:48.230 --> 00:11:50.269 big personalities. It was the perfect training 00:11:50.269 --> 00:11:52.309 ground. And all that technical practice really 00:11:52.309 --> 00:11:56.169 came to a head with the TV movie Duel in 1971. 00:11:56.950 --> 00:11:59.970 Duel was based on a Richard Matheson story about 00:11:59.970 --> 00:12:03.850 this regular guy, a failsman. who gets stalked 00:12:03.850 --> 00:12:06.509 on the highway by this massive anonymous tanker 00:12:06.509 --> 00:12:09.350 truck. It's a very simple premise, but Skilberg's 00:12:09.350 --> 00:12:12.210 direction just milks every drop of tension out 00:12:12.210 --> 00:12:14.070 of it. He turns that truck into this kind of 00:12:14.070 --> 00:12:17.110 supernatural metal monster. And the executives 00:12:17.110 --> 00:12:19.610 saw its potential immediately. After it aired 00:12:19.610 --> 00:12:21.909 on TV, Universal actually gave it a theatrical 00:12:21.909 --> 00:12:24.049 release internationally, so that was his real 00:12:24.049 --> 00:12:26.190 debut as a film director. And it still holds 00:12:26.190 --> 00:12:28.480 up. The critic David Thompson praised it for 00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:31.279 being this compelling spiral of suspense. It's 00:12:31.279 --> 00:12:33.759 pure cinematic dread, and it really shows the 00:12:33.759 --> 00:12:35.799 early signs of his ability to create suspense 00:12:35.799 --> 00:12:38.419 by suggesting something rather than just showing 00:12:38.419 --> 00:12:40.960 it, a technique he was about to perfect. His 00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:43.200 official theatrical debut in the U .S. came in 00:12:43.200 --> 00:12:46.779 1974 with The Sugarland Express, a much bigger 00:12:46.779 --> 00:12:48.620 film about a couple trying to get their baby 00:12:48.620 --> 00:12:51.639 back, which leads to this huge police chase across 00:12:51.639 --> 00:12:54.379 Texas. It did really well critically. It won 00:12:54.379 --> 00:12:57.720 Best Screenplay at Cannes. And the critic Pauline 00:12:57.720 --> 00:13:00.720 Kael wrote that Spielberg could be that rarity 00:13:00.720 --> 00:13:04.379 among directors, a born entertainer. But most 00:13:04.379 --> 00:13:06.740 importantly, it was the start of his decades 00:13:06.740 --> 00:13:09.019 -long collaboration with the composer John Williams. 00:13:09.220 --> 00:13:11.639 The beginning of a legendary partnership. Williams 00:13:11.639 --> 00:13:14.120 has scored all but, what, five of his movies 00:13:14.120 --> 00:13:16.019 since then? That's right. And that early commitment 00:13:16.019 --> 00:13:19.320 to a signature musical voice is just fundamental 00:13:19.320 --> 00:13:22.029 to who he is as a filmmaker. And then came 1975, 00:13:22.470 --> 00:13:25.269 the year that literally changed the entire film 00:13:25.269 --> 00:13:28.269 industry forever, the year of Jaws. The making 00:13:28.269 --> 00:13:30.990 of Jaws was just high -stakes chaos. It was based 00:13:30.990 --> 00:13:32.990 on a massive bestseller, so everyone knew the 00:13:32.990 --> 00:13:35.529 potential was huge. But shooting on the open 00:13:35.529 --> 00:13:38.330 ocean, it was a logistical nightmare. They were 00:13:38.330 --> 00:13:40.669 fighting the weather, the tides, saltwater corroding 00:13:40.669 --> 00:13:42.649 the equipment. The shoot went over schedule by 00:13:42.649 --> 00:13:45.230 100 days. Universal was threatening to shut it 00:13:45.230 --> 00:13:47.820 down constantly. And the mechanical shark, which 00:13:47.820 --> 00:13:50.039 they nicknamed Bruce, was a disaster. It was 00:13:50.039 --> 00:13:52.340 always breaking down, sinking. Yeah. But that 00:13:52.340 --> 00:13:55.620 mechanical failure, that ended up being the secret 00:13:55.620 --> 00:13:58.659 to the therm's success. Right. His big aha moment. 00:13:58.879 --> 00:14:00.980 Yeah. Because he couldn't show the shark, he 00:14:00.980 --> 00:14:03.419 had to imply its presence. Exactly. He had to 00:14:03.419 --> 00:14:06.059 fall back on classic suspense techniques. The 00:14:06.059 --> 00:14:08.340 reactions of the victims, the underwater point 00:14:08.340 --> 00:14:10.879 of view shots, those iconic yellow barrels, and 00:14:10.879 --> 00:14:13.419 of course, John Williams' terrifyingly simple 00:14:13.419 --> 00:14:16.500 score. He said later that The Broken Shark actually 00:14:16.500 --> 00:14:19.899 resulted in a much better, scarier movie. It's 00:14:19.899 --> 00:14:21.960 just a perfect example of creative problem solving 00:14:21.960 --> 00:14:24.500 under extreme pressure. And the result was a 00:14:24.500 --> 00:14:27.360 cultural earthquake. Jaws set the domestic box 00:14:27.360 --> 00:14:29.639 office record, it made Spielberg a household 00:14:29.639 --> 00:14:32.899 name, and crucially, it created the summer blockbuster. 00:14:33.120 --> 00:14:35.340 Studios realized they could open a film wide, 00:14:35.519 --> 00:14:37.759 everywhere at once, and concentrate all their 00:14:37.759 --> 00:14:40.080 marketing. It changed the entire business model. 00:14:40.220 --> 00:14:43.059 It also won three Oscars for editing, score, 00:14:43.259 --> 00:14:45.919 and sound. And the ultimate praise came from 00:14:45.919 --> 00:14:48.340 the master of suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock. 00:14:48.620 --> 00:14:51.039 He praised young Spielberg for thinking outside 00:14:51.039 --> 00:14:53.980 the visual dynamics of the theater, saying he 00:14:53.980 --> 00:14:56.799 was the first one of us who doesn't see the proscenium 00:14:56.799 --> 00:14:59.820 arch. That's a massive endorsement, a passing 00:14:59.820 --> 00:15:02.639 of the torch. It really was. So after that, he 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:05.019 turned down the sequel to Jaws and instead poured 00:15:05.019 --> 00:15:08.100 himself into a real passion project, Close Encounters 00:15:08.100 --> 00:15:11.120 of the Third Kind. The ultimate expression of 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:13.519 his lifelong fascination with aliens, which came 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:15.639 from his dad and his own feelings of being an 00:15:15.639 --> 00:15:17.799 outsider as a kid. It was one of the very few 00:15:17.799 --> 00:15:20.779 films he both wrote and directed. And to get 00:15:20.779 --> 00:15:23.860 that sense of visual wonder, he shot it on 65mm 00:15:23.860 --> 00:15:26.740 film, which gives you this incredible image quality. 00:15:27.419 --> 00:15:29.759 He even cast one of his own filmmaking heroes, 00:15:30.019 --> 00:15:33.460 Francois Truffaut. as the scientist Claude Lacombe. 00:15:33.500 --> 00:15:35.799 Close Encounters was another huge hit. It really 00:15:35.799 --> 00:15:38.379 cemented his reputation as the master of spectacle 00:15:38.379 --> 00:15:40.659 with a heart. But the pressure was building, 00:15:40.779 --> 00:15:44.019 and his next film, 1941 from 1979, which is this 00:15:44.019 --> 00:15:46.620 big action comedy, was his first real critical 00:15:46.620 --> 00:15:49.649 stumble. So was it just a genre problem or was 00:15:49.649 --> 00:15:51.830 he maybe getting a little too big for his britches 00:15:51.830 --> 00:15:54.210 with the budget and creative freedom after two 00:15:54.210 --> 00:15:57.090 massive hits? A bit of both, I think. He admitted 00:15:57.090 --> 00:15:58.850 he wasn't comfortable directing comedy, which 00:15:58.850 --> 00:16:00.710 needs a kind of precision he hadn't really developed 00:16:00.710 --> 00:16:03.629 yet. Critics just called it a chaotic, conspicuous 00:16:03.629 --> 00:16:06.909 waste. It was just too big, too loud. But here's 00:16:06.909 --> 00:16:09.889 the thing about Spielberg's scale. Even his failures 00:16:09.889 --> 00:16:13.789 make money. Despite the criticism, 1941 still 00:16:13.789 --> 00:16:16.990 grossed over $92 million worldwide. So even a 00:16:16.990 --> 00:16:20.070 Spielberg flop was a global success, which really 00:16:20.070 --> 00:16:22.690 puts the 1980s into perspective. He was about 00:16:22.690 --> 00:16:24.710 to double down on everything that worked and 00:16:24.710 --> 00:16:26.649 just solidify himself as the world's biggest 00:16:26.649 --> 00:16:29.409 entertainer. The 80s kick off with another just 00:16:29.409 --> 00:16:31.990 monumental collaboration, Raiders of the Lost 00:16:31.990 --> 00:16:35.110 Ark in 1981. This came from a story by George 00:16:35.110 --> 00:16:37.710 Lucas and Philip Kaufman, and it was a very deliberate 00:16:37.710 --> 00:16:40.230 homage to those old adventure serials from the 00:16:40.230 --> 00:16:43.509 30s and 40s. And Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones 00:16:43.509 --> 00:16:46.629 became an instant icon. The movie was a masterclass 00:16:46.629 --> 00:16:50.149 in pacing and action. Huge box office, five Academy 00:16:50.149 --> 00:16:53.110 Awards. Roger Ebert's review really captured 00:16:53.110 --> 00:16:56.370 it, calling it an out -of -body experience. Then 00:16:56.370 --> 00:16:59.080 the sequel. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 00:16:59.080 --> 00:17:03.700 in 84, it took a much, much darker turn. It was 00:17:03.700 --> 00:17:08.200 way more violent. And the criticism of its graphic 00:17:08.200 --> 00:17:10.279 content, the human sacrifice, the heart -ripping 00:17:10.279 --> 00:17:13.359 scene, it was so widespread that it actually 00:17:13.359 --> 00:17:15.660 led to a fundamental change in the movie rating 00:17:15.660 --> 00:17:18.660 system. Which is a huge legacy in itself. It 00:17:18.660 --> 00:17:21.240 directly led to the creation of the PG -13 rating, 00:17:21.319 --> 00:17:24.410 that middle ground between PG and R. Yeah. And 00:17:24.410 --> 00:17:26.430 Spielberg later admitted that the darkness of 00:17:26.430 --> 00:17:28.730 the film really reflected his own state of mind 00:17:28.730 --> 00:17:30.869 at the time. He said he was unhappy with the 00:17:30.869 --> 00:17:32.829 movie because it lacked his personal touches 00:17:32.829 --> 00:17:35.190 and love. But he came right out of that artistic 00:17:35.190 --> 00:17:37.390 darkness and delivered his biggest phenomenon 00:17:37.390 --> 00:17:41.329 yet, E .T. the Extraterrestrial, in 1982, which 00:17:41.329 --> 00:17:43.650 was just the purest expression of all that childhood 00:17:43.650 --> 00:17:45.809 pain we talked about. It was a huge personal 00:17:45.809 --> 00:17:48.789 triumph, but also a production landmark. Because 00:17:48.789 --> 00:17:50.849 the story depended so much on the authentic emotions 00:17:50.849 --> 00:17:53.289 of children, Spielberg made a really interesting 00:17:53.289 --> 00:17:56.569 choice. He decided not to use his usual storyboards 00:17:56.569 --> 00:17:59.069 and to shoot the film roughly in sequence. So 00:17:59.069 --> 00:18:01.309 why was shooting in order so important for this 00:18:01.309 --> 00:18:04.130 one? He wanted the kids, and by extension the 00:18:04.130 --> 00:18:07.029 audience, to build a genuine relationship with 00:18:07.029 --> 00:18:10.230 the ET puppet over time. So their reactions, 00:18:10.349 --> 00:18:13.109 especially in that final emotional goodbye, would 00:18:13.109 --> 00:18:16.220 be completely real. He basically sacrificed some 00:18:16.220 --> 00:18:19.240 of his visual control for total emotional authenticity. 00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:24.029 And it worked. The cultural impact of E .T. was 00:18:24.029 --> 00:18:26.730 just off the charts. It passed Star Wars to become 00:18:26.730 --> 00:18:28.950 the highest -grossing film of all time, making 00:18:28.950 --> 00:18:32.809 $700 million worldwide, four Oscars, including 00:18:32.809 --> 00:18:35.670 that iconic score from John Williams. But it 00:18:35.670 --> 00:18:38.349 went beyond just being a movie. It was screened 00:18:38.349 --> 00:18:40.710 for President Reagan at the White House. And 00:18:40.710 --> 00:18:43.349 get this, the character of E .T. was a finalist 00:18:43.349 --> 00:18:46.009 for Time magazine's Man of the Year. Wow, that 00:18:46.009 --> 00:18:48.069 shows you the level of saturation. This little 00:18:48.069 --> 00:18:50.109 alien had captured the public imagination like 00:18:50.109 --> 00:18:53.180 nothing else. And this era is also when Spielberg 00:18:53.180 --> 00:18:55.859 fully becomes more than just a director. He's 00:18:55.859 --> 00:18:58.519 now a central power in Hollywood. David Thompson 00:18:58.519 --> 00:19:00.480 observed that the Spielberg of the 80s seemed 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:04.119 more an impresario or a studio even than a director. 00:19:04.279 --> 00:19:06.839 Right. He founded Amblin Entertainment, named 00:19:06.839 --> 00:19:09.559 after his early short film, and just became this 00:19:09.559 --> 00:19:12.440 prolific producer. Amblin basically became the 00:19:12.440 --> 00:19:15.700 brand for all of the best 1980s kids' adventure 00:19:15.700 --> 00:19:17.940 movies. I mean, just look at the list from 84 00:19:17.940 --> 00:19:20.819 to 90. You've got Gremlins, The Goonies, the 00:19:20.819 --> 00:19:23.000 massive hit Back to the Future who framed Roger 00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:25.759 Rabbit. The credit Steven Spielberg presents 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:30.099 became this seal of quality. He basically defined 00:19:30.099 --> 00:19:32.200 the style and the storytelling for an entire 00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:35.039 decade of popular movies. But not everything 00:19:35.039 --> 00:19:38.460 was a hit. His TV show, Amazing Stories, it struggled. 00:19:38.720 --> 00:19:41.380 It did, even though NBC gave him a million dollars 00:19:41.380 --> 00:19:44.109 an episode and... total creative control which 00:19:44.109 --> 00:19:46.289 was unheard of it just proved that sometimes 00:19:46.289 --> 00:19:48.490 even with a huge budget the constraints of television 00:19:48.490 --> 00:19:50.509 were just too tight for his vision this period 00:19:50.509 --> 00:19:52.710 is also when he made his first really deliberate 00:19:52.710 --> 00:19:55.910 move into serious adult drama he started challenging 00:19:55.910 --> 00:19:59.960 his own brand yes With The Color Purple in 1985, 00:20:00.319 --> 00:20:02.500 based on Alice Walker's novel, he was actually 00:20:02.500 --> 00:20:04.720 nervous about tackling cure character studies. 00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:07.819 But the film was a big success, critically and 00:20:07.819 --> 00:20:10.819 commercially. Roger Ebert named it the best film 00:20:10.819 --> 00:20:13.880 of the year. It got 11 Oscar nominations, including 00:20:13.880 --> 00:20:16.980 Best Picture. But controversially, he did not 00:20:16.980 --> 00:20:19.200 get a Best Director nomination. It was like the 00:20:19.200 --> 00:20:21.420 industry still wasn't ready to call the blockbuster 00:20:21.420 --> 00:20:24.660 king a serious artist. And that lack of recognition 00:20:24.660 --> 00:20:27.619 seemed to just make him more ambitious. Two years 00:20:27.619 --> 00:20:30.279 later, he directed Empire of the Sun, based on 00:20:30.279 --> 00:20:32.660 Gigi Ballard's novel about a young English boy 00:20:32.660 --> 00:20:35.119 in a Japanese internment camp during World War 00:20:35.119 --> 00:20:37.119 II. And that was a logistical breakthrough, right? 00:20:37.180 --> 00:20:39.299 The first American film shot in Shanghai since 00:20:39.299 --> 00:20:42.299 the 1930s. It was. And the initial reception 00:20:42.299 --> 00:20:45.170 was a little mixed. Critics felt his signature 00:20:45.170 --> 00:20:47.410 style, that sense of wonder, maybe downplayed 00:20:47.410 --> 00:20:49.970 the horror a bit. But looking back, it signaled 00:20:49.970 --> 00:20:52.710 a huge shift. Andrew Serres called it the best 00:20:52.710 --> 00:20:55.269 film of the year. And David Thompson later called 00:20:55.269 --> 00:20:58.049 it the first clear sign that Spielberg the showman 00:20:58.049 --> 00:21:00.789 was an artist too. Then in 89, he went back to 00:21:00.789 --> 00:21:02.710 what he knew worked with Indiana Jones and the 00:21:02.710 --> 00:21:05.690 Last Crusade. This was a very conscious return 00:21:05.690 --> 00:21:08.150 to family -friendly adventure after the darkness 00:21:08.150 --> 00:21:11.089 of Temple of Doom. And the genius move was casting 00:21:11.089 --> 00:21:14.980 Sean Connery as Indy's dad. That created this 00:21:14.980 --> 00:21:17.700 perfect buddy dynamic that really humanized the 00:21:17.700 --> 00:21:20.119 character. It was a massive hit, his biggest 00:21:20.119 --> 00:21:22.920 in CT. He also directed a personal project, Always, 00:21:23.119 --> 00:21:25.500 a remake of an old film he loved as a kid, but 00:21:25.500 --> 00:21:28.019 it didn't really connect with audiences or critics. 00:21:28.359 --> 00:21:30.930 And then to round out the era. There was Hook 00:21:30.930 --> 00:21:34.349 in 1991 with Robin Williams as a grown -up Peter 00:21:34.349 --> 00:21:37.549 Pan. It made over $300 million, but the critics 00:21:37.549 --> 00:21:39.690 were really divided. They called it maudlin and 00:21:39.690 --> 00:21:42.589 too industrially organized. And the production 00:21:42.589 --> 00:21:45.009 was famously difficult. So this brings us to 00:21:45.009 --> 00:21:47.230 a point where he's basically mastered every genre. 00:21:47.329 --> 00:21:49.829 He's navigated flops and massive hits, and he 00:21:49.829 --> 00:21:51.869 has enough power and money to make the biggest 00:21:51.869 --> 00:21:54.309 artistic gamble of his entire career. He was 00:21:54.309 --> 00:21:56.549 ready for the definitive pivot. If you're looking 00:21:56.549 --> 00:21:59.029 for the single most important year in Steven 00:21:59.029 --> 00:22:01.509 Spielberg's entire career, you have to spend 00:22:01.509 --> 00:22:05.670 some real time on 1993. This is the year he hits 00:22:05.670 --> 00:22:07.710 his commercial and his artistic peaks at the 00:22:07.710 --> 00:22:10.490 exact same time. It just completely transformed 00:22:10.490 --> 00:22:13.130 his legacy. Okay, so on one side you have the 00:22:13.130 --> 00:22:16.470 commercial apex, Jurassic Park. The perfect storm 00:22:16.470 --> 00:22:19.410 of a great story, incredible technology, and 00:22:19.410 --> 00:22:22.319 pure spectacle. It was based on Michael Crichton's 00:22:22.319 --> 00:22:25.579 novel, and Spielberg relied heavily on ILM's 00:22:25.579 --> 00:22:28.500 brand new CGI, especially for those full -body 00:22:28.500 --> 00:22:31.200 dinosaur shots. He planned everything meticulously. 00:22:31.380 --> 00:22:33.779 And the technology was so seamless, it just instantly 00:22:33.779 --> 00:22:36.140 set a new bar for what visual effects could do. 00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:38.700 And the result was just... It was mind boggling. 00:22:38.799 --> 00:22:41.079 Jurassic Park became the highest grossing film 00:22:41.079 --> 00:22:43.279 of all time when it was released. Then on the 00:22:43.279 --> 00:22:45.240 other side, you have the artistic apex Schindler's 00:22:45.240 --> 00:22:47.019 List. This is the film he was always destined 00:22:47.019 --> 00:22:49.279 to make. But he put it off for a decade because 00:22:49.279 --> 00:22:51.779 he kept saying he didn't feel mature enough to 00:22:51.779 --> 00:22:53.940 handle a subject as serious as the Holocaust. 00:22:54.279 --> 00:22:56.559 So what changed? What finally made him do it 00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:00.220 in 1993? It was the birth of his son, Max. He 00:23:00.220 --> 00:23:02.240 said that's what ignited a Jewish spirit in him. 00:23:02.569 --> 00:23:04.569 It made him finally embrace his heritage and 00:23:04.569 --> 00:23:07.410 realize he had a moral duty to tell this story. 00:23:07.589 --> 00:23:10.549 And the logistics of that year are insane. He's 00:23:10.549 --> 00:23:13.470 in Poland filming this raw black and white handheld 00:23:13.470 --> 00:23:16.730 drama while at night he's editing the CGI heavy 00:23:16.730 --> 00:23:19.529 commercial blockbuster Jurassic Park over satellite 00:23:19.529 --> 00:23:22.529 links. Can you imagine the psychological whiplash 00:23:22.529 --> 00:23:25.589 going from CGI dinosaurs during the day to the 00:23:25.589 --> 00:23:27.609 stark black and white horrors of the Holocaust 00:23:27.609 --> 00:23:30.539 at night? He said the only way it was bearable 00:23:30.539 --> 00:23:32.380 was because he had his family with him in Poland. 00:23:32.799 --> 00:23:35.180 The emotional toll must have been immense. And 00:23:35.180 --> 00:23:37.440 the impact was profound. The film was nominated 00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:40.799 for 12 Oscars. It won seven, including Best Picture, 00:23:40.940 --> 00:23:43.779 and at long last, Spielberg's first award for 00:23:43.779 --> 00:23:46.039 Best Director. But the legacy of Schindler's 00:23:46.039 --> 00:23:49.359 List goes way beyond the Oscars. Spielberg famously 00:23:49.359 --> 00:23:51.920 refused to take a salary. He used all of his 00:23:51.920 --> 00:23:53.980 profits in the film to start the Shoah Foundation, 00:23:54.339 --> 00:23:57.180 a nonprofit that archives video testimonies of 00:23:57.180 --> 00:24:00.039 Holocaust survivors and witnesses to other genocides. 00:24:00.440 --> 00:24:03.559 It was this incredible act of philanthropy, using 00:24:03.559 --> 00:24:05.859 his commercial power for historical preservation 00:24:05.859 --> 00:24:09.180 instead of personal gain. Roger Ebert's review 00:24:09.180 --> 00:24:12.380 really praised the film for its restraint. Yeah, 00:24:12.440 --> 00:24:15.160 Ebert made this powerful defense against people 00:24:15.160 --> 00:24:17.240 who criticized Spielberg for being too sentimental. 00:24:17.519 --> 00:24:19.680 He said that in Schindler's List, Spielberg acted 00:24:19.680 --> 00:24:22.480 like God in the universe, present everywhere, 00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:25.480 invisible nowhere. He just depicted the evil 00:24:25.480 --> 00:24:27.559 without any melodrama. He just let the history 00:24:27.559 --> 00:24:30.180 speak for itself. So after this incredibly intense 00:24:30.180 --> 00:24:33.740 year, he takes a break in 1994. And then he comes 00:24:33.740 --> 00:24:36.480 back and co -founds DreamWorks with Jeffrey Katzenberg 00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:38.779 and David Geffen. Yeah, founding DreamWorks was 00:24:38.779 --> 00:24:41.640 a major power move. He wanted more creative control 00:24:41.640 --> 00:24:44.200 over production and distribution. They attracted 00:24:44.200 --> 00:24:46.720 huge investors, including Paul Allen and Bill 00:24:46.720 --> 00:24:49.039 Gates from Microsoft. And DreamWorks became a 00:24:49.039 --> 00:24:51.500 huge player, especially with its animation studio, 00:24:51.779 --> 00:24:54.539 which made Shrek the first movie to win the Oscar 00:24:54.539 --> 00:24:57.700 for Best Animated Feature. So he returns to directing 00:24:57.700 --> 00:25:00.319 with a couple of challenging historical dramas. 00:25:01.180 --> 00:25:05.220 First. amistad in 97 about a slave ship mutiny 00:25:05.220 --> 00:25:07.680 he was hesitant about it he was worried it would 00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:10.539 be compared to schindler's list and it did underperform 00:25:10.539 --> 00:25:12.920 at the box office spielberg himself said it became 00:25:12.920 --> 00:25:15.640 too much of a history lesson and then came the 00:25:15.640 --> 00:25:18.200 big one the world war ii epic saving private 00:25:18.200 --> 00:25:21.940 ryan in 1998. this movie didn't just win awards 00:25:21.940 --> 00:25:25.140 it completely redefined the war genre the realism 00:25:25.140 --> 00:25:28.339 was the key Tom Hanks and the other actors went 00:25:28.339 --> 00:25:30.160 through this intense boot camp with a Marine, 00:25:30.440 --> 00:25:33.299 Dale Dye, to make sure their reactions were authentic. 00:25:33.559 --> 00:25:36.460 And that opening D -Day sequence with its unflinching 00:25:36.460 --> 00:25:38.900 brutality, it just changed war films forever. 00:25:39.079 --> 00:25:42.019 It was a massive hit, made $481 million, and 00:25:42.019 --> 00:25:44.519 it got Spielberg his second best director Oscar. 00:25:44.740 --> 00:25:46.940 And the recognition was serious. He and Tom Hanks 00:25:46.940 --> 00:25:48.819 both got the Distinguished Public Service Medal 00:25:48.819 --> 00:25:51.140 from the Secretary of Defense, and they continued 00:25:51.140 --> 00:25:53.380 that partnership, producing the HBO miniseries 00:25:53.380 --> 00:25:56.019 Band of Brothers and later The Pacific. So as 00:25:56.019 --> 00:25:58.380 he moves into the 2000s, he keeps exploring these 00:25:58.380 --> 00:26:01.279 really complex themes. It starts with AI artificial 00:26:01.279 --> 00:26:04.900 intelligence in 2001. That was originally a Stanley 00:26:04.900 --> 00:26:07.539 Kubrick project, but Kubrick thought the story 00:26:07.539 --> 00:26:10.359 was closer to Spielberg's sensibilities. And 00:26:10.359 --> 00:26:12.480 that led to a really divided response, didn't 00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:14.500 it? Critics couldn't decide if it was a perfect 00:26:14.500 --> 00:26:16.980 hybrid of their styles or just a mismatch between 00:26:16.980 --> 00:26:19.880 Kubrick's coldness and Spielberg's sentimentality. 00:26:19.960 --> 00:26:23.279 Exactly. It confused some audiences, but critics 00:26:23.279 --> 00:26:25.900 like A .O. Scott called it the best fairy tale. 00:26:26.200 --> 00:26:28.759 The most disturbing, complex, and intellectually 00:26:28.759 --> 00:26:31.460 challenging film he had ever made. It really 00:26:31.460 --> 00:26:34.160 showed him pushing his own boundaries to honor 00:26:34.160 --> 00:26:36.539 another master's legacy. He followed that up 00:26:36.539 --> 00:26:38.720 with the sci -fi Neonore Minority Report with 00:26:38.720 --> 00:26:41.539 Tom Cruise. That one was a huge critical and 00:26:41.539 --> 00:26:43.579 commercial success. Yeah, Ebert named it the 00:26:43.579 --> 00:26:47.279 best film of 2002. He praised Spielberg's craftsmanship 00:26:47.279 --> 00:26:49.960 and his focus on story and character above all 00:26:49.960 --> 00:26:52.339 the futuristic tech. It proved he could handle 00:26:52.339 --> 00:26:54.900 these big philosophical questions like free will 00:26:54.900 --> 00:26:57.799 versus determinism and still deliver a thrilling 00:26:57.799 --> 00:27:00.720 movie. Then came Catch Me If You Can, also in 00:27:00.720 --> 00:27:03.980 2002, another huge hit. Spielberg loved stories 00:27:03.980 --> 00:27:07.220 about sensational rogues, and this one fit right 00:27:07.220 --> 00:27:09.460 into his recurring theme of broken families, 00:27:09.579 --> 00:27:12.619 with the young con artist looking for a new father 00:27:12.619 --> 00:27:15.759 figure in the FBI agent who's chasing him. It's 00:27:15.759 --> 00:27:17.440 another brilliant example of him weaving his 00:27:17.440 --> 00:27:20.059 personal themes into big entertainment. And his 00:27:20.059 --> 00:27:24.059 2005 film Munich, based on the 1972 massacre, 00:27:24.359 --> 00:27:26.559 was one of his most controversial films ever. 00:27:27.079 --> 00:27:29.519 It explored the moral cost of revenge. And he 00:27:29.519 --> 00:27:31.740 knew he was walking an ethical tightrope. He 00:27:31.740 --> 00:27:34.140 was so cautious, he even sought advice from former 00:27:34.140 --> 00:27:36.970 President Bill Clinton before he made it. And 00:27:36.970 --> 00:27:39.150 despite the controversy, some critics felt the 00:27:39.150 --> 00:27:41.950 firm's moral ambiguity was borderline anti -Semitic. 00:27:42.089 --> 00:27:44.869 It still got five Oscar nominations, including 00:27:44.869 --> 00:27:46.990 another one for Best Director. It just shows 00:27:46.990 --> 00:27:49.029 that even at the peak of his career, he was still 00:27:49.029 --> 00:27:51.130 drawn to these really challenging projects that 00:27:51.130 --> 00:27:53.910 forced the audience to think. He was. And he 00:27:53.910 --> 00:27:55.970 wrapped up that decade with another Indiana Jones 00:27:55.970 --> 00:27:57.910 film, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which made 00:27:57.910 --> 00:28:00.190 a fortune, and then the motion capture adaptation 00:28:00.190 --> 00:28:02.779 of The Adventures of Tintin. He was just moving 00:28:02.779 --> 00:28:05.259 so fluidly across all these different genres, 00:28:05.279 --> 00:28:08.440 using new technology, but always, always focusing 00:28:08.440 --> 00:28:10.900 on character and truth when he was tackling serious 00:28:10.900 --> 00:28:13.440 subjects, which really sets the stage for the 00:28:13.440 --> 00:28:15.900 next phase with all the historical dramas like 00:28:15.900 --> 00:28:18.759 War Horse and Lincoln. Exactly. Lincoln, especially, 00:28:19.019 --> 00:28:22.740 which got 12 Oscar nominations. It showed his 00:28:22.740 --> 00:28:25.559 incredible skill at taking dense political history, 00:28:25.720 --> 00:28:28.680 which could be so dry, and making the backroom 00:28:28.680 --> 00:28:32.720 deals and moral struggles feel immediate. Okay, 00:28:33.380 --> 00:28:35.539 so we've tracked the timeline of this just massive 00:28:35.539 --> 00:28:37.759 career. Now I think we need to zoom out a bit 00:28:37.759 --> 00:28:40.579 and look at the engine behind it all. His self 00:28:40.579 --> 00:28:42.680 -taught philosophy, his signature techniques, 00:28:42.960 --> 00:28:45.880 and the incredible loyalty he has with his dream 00:28:45.880 --> 00:28:48.799 team of collaborators. Spielberg famously said, 00:28:48.880 --> 00:28:50.480 I didn't go to film school. I was self -taught, 00:28:50.579 --> 00:28:53.420 but I had great teachers. And his list of teachers 00:28:53.420 --> 00:28:56.740 is basically a who's who of classic cinema. Lubitsch, 00:28:56.740 --> 00:29:00.059 Hitchcock, Kurosawa, Ford, Kubrick. The list 00:29:00.059 --> 00:29:02.359 goes on. It's an incredible syllabus. And he 00:29:02.359 --> 00:29:04.460 has that ritual, right? He tries to watch a John 00:29:04.460 --> 00:29:06.640 Ford film before he starts any new movie because, 00:29:06.680 --> 00:29:09.859 as he says, he inspires me. And we can't forget 00:29:09.859 --> 00:29:12.680 his obsession with Citizen Kane. He literally 00:29:12.680 --> 00:29:14.779 owns a piece of it. He bought one of the prop 00:29:14.779 --> 00:29:17.099 sleds from the movie. He called it a symbolic 00:29:17.099 --> 00:29:19.859 emblem of quality in the film business. It's 00:29:19.859 --> 00:29:22.619 like this physical reminder of the standard he's 00:29:22.619 --> 00:29:24.650 always trying to live up to. So how does he actually 00:29:24.650 --> 00:29:27.369 choose his projects? He's described his process 00:29:27.369 --> 00:29:30.269 as a litmus test. Yeah, a story has to speak 00:29:30.269 --> 00:29:32.349 to me. And that goes right back to what we were 00:29:32.349 --> 00:29:35.269 saying about purging his childhood pain. A story 00:29:35.269 --> 00:29:37.710 has to resonate with him on a deep level, often 00:29:37.710 --> 00:29:40.190 connecting to his family or his identity. But 00:29:40.190 --> 00:29:42.250 he also likes it when his collaborators challenge 00:29:42.250 --> 00:29:44.509 him to make sure he's willing to take a stand 00:29:44.509 --> 00:29:46.769 on something difficult. and when we talk about 00:29:46.769 --> 00:29:50.549 his signature methods classic pre -1993 spielberg 00:29:50.549 --> 00:29:54.450 has a very specific look those extreme high and 00:29:54.450 --> 00:29:57.609 low camera angles the long takes and his love 00:29:57.609 --> 00:30:00.869 of wide angle lenses to create depth That wide 00:30:00.869 --> 00:30:03.490 angle lens is so important. It lets him keep 00:30:03.490 --> 00:30:05.970 both the foreground and the background in focus 00:30:05.970 --> 00:30:08.589 at the same time. So you can see the threat coming 00:30:08.589 --> 00:30:10.849 from a distance while the character in the foreground 00:30:10.849 --> 00:30:13.430 is reacting. It adds all these layers to the 00:30:13.430 --> 00:30:15.750 visual story. And he usually storyboards everything 00:30:15.750 --> 00:30:18.309 meticulously, especially for the big scale movies. 00:30:18.630 --> 00:30:21.710 But the exceptions to that rule are really telling. 00:30:21.950 --> 00:30:24.390 They are. He didn't use storyboards for E .T. 00:30:24.410 --> 00:30:27.430 or The Color Purple. Because for those films, 00:30:27.509 --> 00:30:30.309 he cared more about getting spontaneous, authentic, 00:30:30.369 --> 00:30:33.069 emotional performances than he did about rigid 00:30:33.069 --> 00:30:35.349 visual planning. And he learned a big lesson 00:30:35.349 --> 00:30:37.470 after the production nightmare on Jaws, which 00:30:37.470 --> 00:30:40.309 became a permanent rule for him. Oh, yeah. Always 00:30:40.309 --> 00:30:42.349 save the special effects scenes for last to keep 00:30:42.349 --> 00:30:44.549 control of the budget and never let the media 00:30:44.549 --> 00:30:47.230 onto his sets. That way he can manage expectations 00:30:47.230 --> 00:30:49.769 and prevent leaks. His camera style saw this 00:30:49.769 --> 00:30:53.069 huge shift, though, with the arrival of the cinematographer 00:30:53.069 --> 00:30:57.029 Jonas Komisky in 1993. That partnership changed 00:30:57.029 --> 00:31:00.210 everything. Before Comiskey, his style was more 00:31:00.210 --> 00:31:02.809 classical smooth dollies and cranes like in Raiders 00:31:02.809 --> 00:31:05.190 or E .T. But starting with Schindler's List, 00:31:05.329 --> 00:31:08.289 they adopted this more handheld, high contrast, 00:31:08.589 --> 00:31:11.970 realistic style for his dramas. Comiskey won 00:31:11.970 --> 00:31:14.589 Oscars for both Schindler's List and Saving Private 00:31:14.589 --> 00:31:18.240 Ryan. It was a very conscious shift in his aesthetic 00:31:18.240 --> 00:31:21.019 toward a more immediate, almost journalistic 00:31:21.019 --> 00:31:23.279 feel. So let's try to boil it down. What are 00:31:23.279 --> 00:31:25.359 the big recurring themes that you see again and 00:31:25.359 --> 00:31:28.140 again across his entire body of work? OK, so 00:31:28.140 --> 00:31:30.440 first, it's the ordinary person in extraordinary 00:31:30.440 --> 00:31:33.019 circumstances. His heroes are usually regular 00:31:33.019 --> 00:31:35.779 people, cops, electricians, kids who are flawed 00:31:35.779 --> 00:31:37.900 but find a way to become heroes. And that's so 00:31:37.900 --> 00:31:39.740 satisfying for an audience because you can see 00:31:39.740 --> 00:31:42.349 yourself in them. Second, the parent -child relationship, 00:31:42.769 --> 00:31:45.049 almost always with a flawed or absent father 00:31:45.049 --> 00:31:47.630 figure, which is so personal it goes right back 00:31:47.630 --> 00:31:49.250 to his parents' divorce. You see it everywhere, 00:31:49.390 --> 00:31:51.609 from Close Encounters to E .T. to Indiana Jones. 00:31:51.890 --> 00:31:54.690 And third, especially in his family films, is 00:31:54.690 --> 00:31:58.170 this theme of wonder and faith, this childlike 00:31:58.170 --> 00:32:01.089 optimism, the belief that the goodness in humanity 00:32:01.089 --> 00:32:03.750 will prevail. And his fascination with aliens 00:32:03.750 --> 00:32:05.990 fits right in there, since he said he always 00:32:05.990 --> 00:32:08.170 felt like an alien as a kid. And to maintain 00:32:08.170 --> 00:32:10.829 that style and that emotional core, he relies 00:32:10.829 --> 00:32:14.670 on his dream team of collaborators. He is incredibly 00:32:14.670 --> 00:32:17.369 loyal. Michael Kahn has edited all of his films 00:32:17.369 --> 00:32:20.029 since 1977, with a single exception of E .T. 00:32:20.390 --> 00:32:23.089 That kind of trust in the editing room is essential 00:32:23.089 --> 00:32:25.670 to his style. He also works frequently with the 00:32:25.670 --> 00:32:27.690 writer David Koepp and the production designer 00:32:27.690 --> 00:32:30.190 Rick Carter. And then there are the actors. Tom 00:32:30.190 --> 00:32:33.190 Hanks, five films plus their TV work. Harrison 00:32:33.190 --> 00:32:35.829 Ford is Indiana Jones. Mark Rylance has been 00:32:35.829 --> 00:32:38.089 in three films and won an Oscar for Bridge of 00:32:38.089 --> 00:32:40.390 Spies. And the partnership with Yanis Kaminsky 00:32:40.390 --> 00:32:42.869 is what gave us that huge visual shift toward 00:32:42.869 --> 00:32:45.490 realism. They're one of the most important directors 00:32:45.490 --> 00:32:47.990 in entire for duos of the last 30 years. But 00:32:47.990 --> 00:32:50.230 the longest and maybe the most essential collaboration 00:32:50.230 --> 00:32:53.109 is with the composer John Williams. Their partnership 00:32:53.109 --> 00:32:55.430 started on the Sugar Land Express and has been 00:32:55.430 --> 00:32:58.250 going strong for 50 years. I mean, Williams won 00:32:58.250 --> 00:33:01.029 three of his five Oscars for Spielberg films, 00:33:01.150 --> 00:33:04.359 Jaws, E .T. Schindler's List. The music is just 00:33:04.359 --> 00:33:07.559 completely inseparable from the emotional experience 00:33:07.559 --> 00:33:09.680 of a Spielberg movie. And that story about their 00:33:09.680 --> 00:33:11.759 collaboration on Schindler's List just says it 00:33:11.759 --> 00:33:13.880 all. William sees a rough cut of the film and 00:33:13.880 --> 00:33:15.960 he tells Spielberg, you need a better composer 00:33:15.960 --> 00:33:18.200 than I am for this film. And Spielberg's response 00:33:18.200 --> 00:33:21.200 is just perfect. He says, I know, but they're 00:33:21.200 --> 00:33:24.539 all dead. It's this high praise disguised as 00:33:24.539 --> 00:33:27.359 a joke, but it shows the complete trust between 00:33:27.359 --> 00:33:30.509 them. Spielberg knew Williams was the only one 00:33:30.509 --> 00:33:32.410 who could give that film the emotional weight 00:33:32.410 --> 00:33:35.289 it needed. So as we get into the 2010s and beyond, 00:33:35.569 --> 00:33:37.789 Spielberg just keeps showing how fluid he is. 00:33:37.910 --> 00:33:40.029 He's concentrating more and more on historical 00:33:40.029 --> 00:33:43.230 dramas and literary adaptations, really leveraging 00:33:43.230 --> 00:33:46.150 his skill with huge casts and complex stories. 00:33:46.390 --> 00:33:48.329 He kept that historical focus going with films 00:33:48.329 --> 00:33:51.509 like War Horse in 2011 and Bridge of Spies in 00:33:51.509 --> 00:33:54.210 2015, which got Mark Rylance that well -deserved 00:33:54.210 --> 00:33:57.029 Oscar. He also tackled these massive adaptations, 00:33:57.369 --> 00:34:00.450 like Roald Dahl's The BFG in 2016, which was 00:34:00.450 --> 00:34:02.390 his first Disney -branded film as a director, 00:34:02.589 --> 00:34:05.710 and then the super nostalgic sci -fi film Ready 00:34:05.710 --> 00:34:08.429 Player One in 2018. A really interesting pivot 00:34:08.429 --> 00:34:11.949 came with The Post in 2017, a very political 00:34:11.949 --> 00:34:13.750 film about The Washington Post and the Pentagon 00:34:13.750 --> 00:34:17.130 Papers. And Spielberg felt this incredible urgency 00:34:17.130 --> 00:34:19.730 to make it immediately. He said, history is certainly 00:34:19.730 --> 00:34:22.050 repeating itself, which was a pretty clear commentary 00:34:22.050 --> 00:34:24.360 on the political climate at the time. And more 00:34:24.360 --> 00:34:26.480 recently, he seems to have entered this really 00:34:26.480 --> 00:34:29.519 personal, reflective phase. First, with the musical 00:34:29.519 --> 00:34:32.440 West Side Story in 2021, it got seven Oscar nominations 00:34:32.440 --> 00:34:35.800 and Ariana DeBose won one. But he later said 00:34:35.800 --> 00:34:38.679 it would be his last musical. And then The Fablemans 00:34:38.679 --> 00:34:41.579 in 2022, which is just the most revealing film 00:34:41.579 --> 00:34:43.760 of his whole career. It's a thinly veiled version 00:34:43.760 --> 00:34:46.239 of his own adolescence. And while it was critically 00:34:46.239 --> 00:34:48.619 acclaimed all over the world, it was a surprise 00:34:48.619 --> 00:34:51.460 box office flop. It proved that his personal 00:34:51.460 --> 00:34:53.519 story didn't have the same commercial pull as 00:34:53.519 --> 00:34:55.800 his genre work. But the critical response was 00:34:55.800 --> 00:34:58.219 definitive. In France, they called it the most 00:34:58.219 --> 00:35:01.559 important and singular film of his career. Critics 00:35:01.559 --> 00:35:04.400 said that Spielberg at 76 had come to represent 00:35:04.400 --> 00:35:07.539 the idea of cinema as wonder. Which suggests 00:35:07.539 --> 00:35:09.400 that even when he's looking inward, his ability 00:35:09.400 --> 00:35:11.780 to create that cinematic wonder is still just 00:35:11.780 --> 00:35:14.739 unparalleled. And looking ahead, he's still incredibly 00:35:14.739 --> 00:35:17.219 busy. He stepped back from directing the last 00:35:17.219 --> 00:35:20.019 Indiana Jones film. Dial Destiny, but he was 00:35:20.019 --> 00:35:22.699 still a hands -on producer on it. And he's producing 00:35:22.699 --> 00:35:25.739 Stanley Kubrick's unrealized epic, Napoleon, 00:35:26.000 --> 00:35:28.380 as an HBO miniseries, and he's developing a new 00:35:28.380 --> 00:35:30.760 film about the character Frank Bullitt with Bradley 00:35:30.760 --> 00:35:32.880 Cooper. His next confirmed directing project 00:35:32.880 --> 00:35:35.840 is called Disclosure Day. It's set for 2026, 00:35:36.079 --> 00:35:38.820 and it's reportedly about UFOs, starring Emily 00:35:38.820 --> 00:35:41.130 Blunt and Coleman Domingo. And we have to talk 00:35:41.130 --> 00:35:43.369 about his move into the streaming world. Amblin 00:35:43.369 --> 00:35:46.309 signed a huge deal with Netflix in 2021 to make 00:35:46.309 --> 00:35:48.710 multiple films a year for them. He's making sure 00:35:48.710 --> 00:35:50.389 his production company stays right at the center 00:35:50.389 --> 00:35:53.269 of the conversation. And his influence goes beyond 00:35:53.269 --> 00:35:56.630 film. He's been a huge gamer since 1974. He's 00:35:56.630 --> 00:35:58.250 the creator of the Medal of Honor video game 00:35:58.250 --> 00:36:01.449 series. And he famously hates cut scenes in games. 00:36:01.570 --> 00:36:03.889 He prefers interactive storytelling that keeps 00:36:03.889 --> 00:36:06.550 the player engaged. He's even moved into theater 00:36:06.550 --> 00:36:08.789 recently. He made his Broadway producing debut 00:36:08.789 --> 00:36:11.969 in 2022, and he's co -producing a few more shows. 00:36:12.030 --> 00:36:14.429 He's just constantly expanding into new ways 00:36:14.429 --> 00:36:16.949 to tell stories. And finally, you can't separate 00:36:16.949 --> 00:36:19.829 his legacy from his personal life and his political 00:36:19.829 --> 00:36:22.269 and social action. After his divorce from Amy 00:36:22.269 --> 00:36:25.690 Irving, he married Kate Capshaw in 1991. And 00:36:25.690 --> 00:36:27.610 Capshaw's conversion to Judaism is something 00:36:27.610 --> 00:36:29.670 Spielberg credits with bringing him back to his 00:36:29.670 --> 00:36:32.110 own heritage. He said, she has made me a better 00:36:32.110 --> 00:36:34.389 Jew than my own parents, which connects right 00:36:34.389 --> 00:36:36.329 back to that childhood embarrassment and the 00:36:36.329 --> 00:36:38.570 moral urgency he felt with Schindler's List. 00:36:38.750 --> 00:36:41.250 And in terms of social action, he has always 00:36:41.250 --> 00:36:43.849 used his power for his principles. He resigned 00:36:43.849 --> 00:36:46.070 from the Boy Scouts National Advisory Board back 00:36:46.070 --> 00:36:48.690 in 2001 because of their anti -homosexuality 00:36:48.690 --> 00:36:51.289 stance. And he resigned as an advisor to the 00:36:51.289 --> 00:36:54.969 2008 Beijing Olympics to protest China's inaction 00:36:54.969 --> 00:36:58.449 in Darfur. He said his conscience will not allow 00:36:58.449 --> 00:37:01.710 me to continue business as usual. These are real, 00:37:01.809 --> 00:37:04.050 material actions from a billionaire standing 00:37:04.050 --> 00:37:07.010 up for his beliefs. And that philanthropic work 00:37:07.010 --> 00:37:10.429 continues. After the October 7th attacks in Israel 00:37:10.429 --> 00:37:14.550 in 2023, the Shoah Foundation immediately mobilized 00:37:14.550 --> 00:37:16.949 and gathered over 100 video testimonies from 00:37:16.949 --> 00:37:19.670 people who experienced the attacks, continuing 00:37:19.670 --> 00:37:21.869 its mission to preserve history in real time. 00:37:22.070 --> 00:37:24.570 So this brings us full circle back to his overall 00:37:24.570 --> 00:37:27.550 legacy. He is without question the most influential 00:37:27.550 --> 00:37:30.050 and commercially successful director of all time. 00:37:30.579 --> 00:37:33.079 Commercially, it's not even contest. Three of 00:37:33.079 --> 00:37:35.699 his films, Jaws, E .T., and Jurassic Park, all 00:37:35.699 --> 00:37:37.940 became the highest -grossing film ever when they 00:37:37.940 --> 00:37:40.199 were released. And seven of his films are in 00:37:40.199 --> 00:37:42.079 the National Film Registry, which cements their 00:37:42.079 --> 00:37:44.360 cultural importance. And while some critics, 00:37:44.400 --> 00:37:46.880 like Peter Biskin, have accused him of infantilizing 00:37:46.880 --> 00:37:49.280 the audience with sentimentality, Roger Ebert's 00:37:49.280 --> 00:37:51.340 defense pointing to the Shoah Foundation makes 00:37:51.340 --> 00:37:53.539 a powerful case for the moral depth of his work. 00:37:53.849 --> 00:37:56.010 He didn't just make movies. He taught a whole 00:37:56.010 --> 00:37:57.989 generation of filmmakers how to make movies. 00:37:58.190 --> 00:38:01.030 He influenced everyone from Peter Jackson to 00:38:01.030 --> 00:38:03.289 Jordan Peele. So what does it all add up to? 00:38:03.389 --> 00:38:05.849 We've tracked his journey from a kid recreating 00:38:05.849 --> 00:38:09.550 train crashes to a global mogul who redefined 00:38:09.550 --> 00:38:12.050 entertainment and used his power for historical 00:38:12.050 --> 00:38:15.130 preservation. We've seen how his personal history, 00:38:15.289 --> 00:38:17.989 the divorce, his complex relationship with his 00:38:17.989 --> 00:38:20.789 Jewish identity directly fuel his most iconic 00:38:20.789 --> 00:38:24.329 work, like E .T. and Schindler's List. He's the 00:38:24.329 --> 00:38:26.510 ultimate example of how the most personal story 00:38:26.510 --> 00:38:28.690 can become the most universal. And we established 00:38:28.690 --> 00:38:30.969 that one of his most consistent themes is putting 00:38:30.969 --> 00:38:33.489 ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. 00:38:34.010 --> 00:38:36.449 And he's always looking for wonder, faith, and 00:38:36.449 --> 00:38:38.630 the unknown, which is so often represented by 00:38:38.630 --> 00:38:40.989 aliens. Which brings us right back to the future. 00:38:41.090 --> 00:38:43.530 Right. We know his next directing project, Disclosure 00:38:43.530 --> 00:38:46.739 Day, is reportedly about UFOs. This is a direct 00:38:46.739 --> 00:38:49.059 line back to his sci -fi roots and even deeper 00:38:49.059 --> 00:38:51.480 to his earliest emotional wounds. So we'll leave 00:38:51.480 --> 00:38:53.860 you, the listener, with this final thought for 00:38:53.860 --> 00:38:56.489 this deep dive. Spielberg has had this lifelong 00:38:56.489 --> 00:38:59.329 fascination with the alien and the unknown, which 00:38:59.329 --> 00:39:01.489 was born from his own feelings of alienation 00:39:01.489 --> 00:39:03.809 as a kid and his desperate need for a special 00:39:03.809 --> 00:39:06.309 friend. So how much of his continuing obsession 00:39:06.309 --> 00:39:08.829 with the extraterrestrial, culminating in a film 00:39:08.829 --> 00:39:11.429 literally called Disclosure Day, is still driven 00:39:11.429 --> 00:39:14.809 by that original intimate pain? And is this upcoming 00:39:14.809 --> 00:39:18.369 UFO story the ultimate career -long expression 00:39:18.369 --> 00:39:20.550 of the special friend that lonely kid in Phoenix 00:39:20.550 --> 00:39:23.190 needed all those years ago? That's definitely 00:39:23.190 --> 00:39:24.750 something to think about the next time you hear 00:39:24.750 --> 00:39:26.809 those two ominous notes from John Williams' score. 00:39:26.969 --> 00:39:28.550 Thank you for diving deep with us.