There’s no one quite like Steven Spielberg, a director who can switch from a huge blockbuster to serious Oscar contender and then back to another blockbuster without breaking sweat. Susan Lacy’s documentary Spielberg — which aired in the UK for the first time last night on Sky Atlantic — is a star-studded look at the great man’s career, with some fascinating insights into his career and talent. Here are some of its best stories.
David Lean almost made him quit directing
Spielberg’s love of Lawrence Of Arabia is well documented, but when he first saw it as a 16-year-old he made a decision: he didn’t want to be a director any more. “The bar was too high,” he said. But he saw it again the next week. And then again the next week. And then again the week after that. Eventually he changed his mind — he resolved to become a director, “or die trying”.
The scary tree in Poltergeist actually existed
“Everything scared me when I was a kid,” says Spielberg. And that included the tree he could see through his bedroom window. “It was terrifying. I was filled with so much fear.” In Poltergeist the tree outside the Freelings’ house becomes possessed by The Beast, there’s no evidence anything similar happened to the tree in the Spielbergs’ back garden.
The Spielbergs had a pet monkey
Leah Adler, Steven’s mother who died in February, is lovingly described as being more of a sibling than a primary care giver. One day she found a depressed monkey in a pet shop, so decided to take it home with her. It terrified her kids, and Steven told her: “You know, in a normal household kids say, ‘Can we have a monkey?’ and the mother says, ‘Are you crazy?’.” What became of that monkey (and how long they had it) is not revealed.
George Lucas initially thought Spielberg was “too Hollywood”
Lucas had seen Spielberg’s short film Amblin, and thought it was “nice”, but too professional for his tastes. But he snuck away from a party at Francis Ford Coppola’s house the night Duel premiered on TV and was blown away. Coming back down after it finished he told Coppola, “This guy’s amazing. You’ve really got to look at this film.”
Martin Scorsese rewatches Spielberg’s films without sound
Good friend Martin Scorsese (who Spielberg spent Jaws’ opening night with — touring New York to look at the lines outside the cinemas) says Spielberg’s strength is being able to tell a story in pictures. He thinks he’s so good at it, he reveals he, “sometimes watches his pictures on TV without the sound, just to see the pictures.”
The original idea for E.T. didn’t include an extra-terrestrial
The film was going to be about how parents divorcing affects childhood and how it traumatises children — all drawn from Spielberg’s own experiences. Those themes remain in the finished film, but obviously there’s now an alien, too. Spielberg hit on the idea when trying to imagine what event would be extraordinary enough to “fill the heart of a lonely child.”
None of the studios would touch Raiders Of The Lost Ark with Spielberg as director
After going over budget and over schedule on Jaws, Close Encounters and 1941, Spielberg had a poor reputation in Hollywood. George Lucas was even told by some studios that they wanted to make the film, but would only do it, “if you can get a different director.” Spielberg promised Lucas he would make it for $20m, and eventually Lucas secured a deal.
Schindler’s List changed how Spielberg made films
For his long-gestating drama about the Holocaust, Spielberg threw out all his go-to filmmaking techniques. “I tried to do it with no fancy tricks, no fancy lenses, no big Hollywood sweeping cranes. I tried to take all the tools with which I’d made so many of my films and just chuck them out of the window… I wanted to hand hold as much of Schindler’s List as I possibly could. I just wanted to create the feeling that we were there.”
Saving Private Ryan was made for his father
Many of Spielberg’s films, from E.T. to The Last Crusade to War Of The Worlds, deal with absent fathers, with Spielberg himself was estranged from his father for 15 years. But he grew up hearing his father’s and his father’s friends’ World War II stories, and so Saving Private Ryan was his tribute to those men.
He still watches Lawrence Of Arabia once a year for inspiration
For all Spielberg’s innate talent and huge knowledge of filmmaking — referenced by Kathleen Kennedy, Tom Hanks and others during the documentary — he still looks to the old masters for inspiration. And his love of Lawrence Of Arabia means he watches it once a year. “The shots, the sheer vistas, and the portrait of such a complex character,” he says about it with admiration. “It’s pure moviemaking.”