Announcing: The Summer of Spielberg

Why, yes. I did make this in Paint.

In terms of sheer influence over the modern Hollywood landscape, no filmmaker comes close to Steven Spielberg. The very notion of a “tent pole movie” or a “summer movie season” may not be existent without his work, but that also may sell the rest of his oeuvre short. Those who see him solely as the inventor of the blockbuster are forgetting the equal influence of his dramatic work. Even through all his years, he has rarely settled on a “safe” project; though it has happened from time to time. Last year, I devoted several posts to the films of Martin Scorsese. This year, my “Summer of” project will focus on Spielberg; a very different but equally—if not more—important director. Plus, both their surnames begin with ‘S,’ so they both sound good with “summer.”

The great flaw with my Scorsese project was that I chose to tackle but one film per post. That meant that large chunks of his filmography were doomed to be forgotten. With Spielberg, I will make no such mistake. I will tackle one aspect of his filmmaking career per post, meaning each will cover a handful of films. I will not move chronologically so much as I will move thematically. Below is my schedule for the entire project, which will begin next Sunday and continue for 8 weeks.

As with my last weekly project (“The 007 Files”) there may be circumstances in which I won’t be able to deliver a post on time. If that happens, you will know.

Week of July 3: The Young Gunslinger

-          The Sugarland Express

-          Jaws

Week of July 10: Blockbustin’

-          The Indiana Jones series

-          The Jurassic Park series

Week of July 17: Spielberg’s “Alien Trilogy”

-          Close Encounters of the Third Kind

-          E.T.

-          War of the Worlds

Week of July 24: World War II

-          Empire of the Sun

-          Schindler’s List

-          Saving Private Ryan

Week of July 31: Oppression and Revenge

-          The Color Purple

-          Amistad

-          Munich

Week of August 7: Deep Cuts and “Failures”

-          1941

-          Always

-          Hook

-          Catch Me If You Can

-          The Terminal

Week of August 14: Late-Career Science Fiction

-          A.I. Artificial Intelligence

-          Minority Report

Week of August 21: Spielberg the Elder Statesman

-          Work as producer.

-          Moving forward.

Am I forgetting something? Be sure to let me know!

...and I can't fight this feeling anymorrre.