Spielberg shows us the (much-needed) power of the free press with The Post. Documenting The Washington Post’s involvement in publishing the Pentagon Papers, the film is a captivating newspaper thriller with a top-notch cast. Tom Hanks takes on the role of Ben Bradlee, chief editor of the Post, and Meryl Streep is Kay Graham, the…
Tag: John Williams
The BFG (2016) – Steven Spielberg
This one seemed like a surefire winner, you’ve got Spielberg working from a script by Melissa Matheson who wrote E.T. The story is adapted from Roald Dahl’s story, and Mark Rylance brings The Big Friendly Giant to life. But no matter how good, the computer-generated images were, combining the computer characters with live-action ones, specifically,…
Lincoln (2012) – Steven Spielberg
Daniel Day-Lewis takes the titular role in Spielberg’s masterful film about the iconic president and his struggle to pass the 13th Amendment in support of his Emancipation Proclamation, even as the Civil War continues to tear the country apart. Filled with themes and ideas that are still sad, and frighteningly relevant, this looks at a…
Munich (2005) – Steven Spielberg
Spielberg took on the real-world events in 1972 of the Palestinian Black September group’s horrific killing of Israeli Olympic athletes and the resulting action taken by Israeli forces in retribution. Spielberg takes no sides in retelling the event, instead engaging in the human drama at work in the thriller, the effect of the ongoing conflict,…
The Terminal (2004) – Steven Spielberg
Hearing the name Tom Hanks in connection to a Steven Spielberg film is always a good thing for me, and I remember going to see 2004’s The Terminal in the theatre, and just delighting in the dramatic comedy the pair had come up with. Hanks plays Viktor Navorski, a man who while in transit to…
Amistad (1997) – Steven Spielberg
Spielberg returns to another examination of humanity and history with his 1997 film Amistad. Based on an actual event in 1839, the film explores a revolt of Mende captives aboard the Spanish ship La Amistad. When the captives take over the ship they demand that the surviving crew take them back to Africa, but instead,…
Always (1989) – Steven Spielberg
The second film Spielberg released in 1989 was an update of the classic film A Guy Named Joe starring Holly Hunter, Richard Dreyfuss, John Goodman, Brad Johnson, and Audrey Hepburn. I was in a completely different place for this film than I was for Last Crusade, I was worlds away from where I was with…
TIFF ’22: The Fabelmans
I have been a Spielberg fan for as long as I can remember. The first film he saw was The Greatest Show On Earth, which affected him. Mine was Jaws, and I can say the same thing. Over the decades I have followed him on his storytelling journey, embracing each new film that came along,…
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – Steven Spielberg
I love the Indiana Jones films (yes, even some parts in the fourth) and while Raiders of the Lost Ark will always be my favorite, Last Crusade is etched in my memory for personal reasons. It was the summer of 1989, I had just graduated high school, it was my last summer living in Bermuda,…
Empire of the Sun (1987) – Steven Spielberg
Spielberg’s next project was an adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s memoir of his time as a boy growing up in Japanese occupied China during World War II. Christian Bale, in one of his earliest roles, plays young Jamie Graham, an arrogant young English boy who is fascinated by planes, and whose life is upended in the…
The Mind Reels 