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Steven Spielberg: The Iconic Filmmaker and His Work
This comprehensive and in-depth study delves into the life and works of the most famous director who has ever lived, Steven Spielberg. Spielberg is the medium’s defining artist – the embodiment of the Hollywood the commercial potential of film married to its creative possibilities. He’s widely popular, but he’s also a stylist, and far darker than he is given credit for. Often, it is this very darkness that speaks to us. But it’s also his incredible knack for telling stories with lightness that speaks to millions by mixing the extraordinary with the ordinary. His leading characters, even Indiana Jones, are marked by their vulnerability, their mistakes, their yearning. It's the human touch. There are so many parts to Spielberg's story: the suburban background that supplied the films with a biographical streak; the collaborations (with George Lucas and the Movie Brats in general, with composer John Williams, producer Kathleen Kennedy, editor Michael Khan, stars Richard Dreyfus, Harrison Ford and Tom Hanks, and mogul and mentor Sid Sheinberg). The myths that bloomed from the making of these films.The nightmare shoot and stubborn shark behind Jaws. The strange ambitions of Close Encounters. Dive bombing with 1941. Inventing Indiana Jones. Re-inventing the blockbuster with Jurassic Park. Venturing into history’s darkest shadows with Schindler’s List. Transforming a genre with Saving Private Ryan. The muscular, unpredictable, confrontational Spielberg of Minority Report, Munich, and Lincoln. And then there is his family. How his films, even late in his career – lionized, untouchable – went in search of approval from his parents. Just as he has craved the approval of his peers. That fateful Oscar took so long in coming... Defining, appreciating, contextualising and understanding the films of Spielberg is a tall order. Their simplicity is deceptive. You have to cut through the glow, the adoration, the simple joy that comes with their embrace, and get to the thrust of the filmmaking. Sourcing the inspirations, locating the critical nuance, the nurtured performance, and the recurrent theme – so many of his films have become timeless – this book celebrates all this and more.
176 pages, Hardcover
Published October 1, 2024
3 people are currently reading
57 people want to read
About the author
Ian Nathan
27 books108 followersIan Nathan is the popular, London-based author of Anything You Can Imagine: Peter Jackson and the Making of Middle-earth, The Coen Brothers: The Filmmakers and their Films, Alien Vault, Terminator Vault, and many other books, many of which have really long titles.
He is the former editor of Empire Magazine.
If you live in the UK, you may also know from from the Discovering Film series on Sky Arts television extolling the virtues of classic film stars and directors, and he can also be heard on Talk Radio every Friday afternoon, mostly berating the state of current movies. He is just about younger than this makes him sound.
He is the former editor of Empire Magazine.
If you live in the UK, you may also know from from the Discovering Film series on Sky Arts television extolling the virtues of classic film stars and directors, and he can also be heard on Talk Radio every Friday afternoon, mostly berating the state of current movies. He is just about younger than this makes him sound.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 1, 2024
Beautiful high quality photos gives a entertaining look at this famous figure. This is relatively short and the txt is quite limited. This is a good captivating overview of the work of a legend Could have done wirh being longer and more photos . Highly recommended for ang film lovers who just want to feast on the basics.
Thank you netgallery and publisher and author.
Thank you netgallery and publisher and author.
October 10, 2024
This book, an upcoming one I read in galley form on NetGalley, is an utter joy for anyone who loves Spielberg, or even just the eras of Hollywood he helped define more broadly. There are many people I admire and respect - Stephen King, William Peter Blatty, Barack Obama, Julia Gillard - so much so that it would be pointless to list them all off, so suffice the four just mentioned. But there are only a relatively small number of people I would cite as actually being full-blown personal heroes of mine.
One of those, of course, is Steven Spielberg.
And funnily enough, two other definite heroes of mine are very closely associated with him. That is: Tom Hanks - one of the greatest modern actors, but also just one of the most humble and likeable gentlemen to have ever walked the earth. And, naturally as a Spielberg fan, the inimitable composer, John Williams.
So I loved this book and gorged on its up-to-date content as much as I hoped I would. I have read some other Spielberg biographies before, and they have both been similarly fun experiences. But this one is probably my favourite so far, if we’re talking written content and not so much the pictures (which are hard to judge too much as they are difficult to make out in their present, pre-published form, and are also somewhat arbitrary. On the pictorial count, the equally enjoyable Steven Spielberg: A Retrospective by Richard Schickel is the one to go with).
On top of that, Ian Nathan (whose books I have never read before, though I think I came across his Peter Jackson one at some point) is also a great writer, whose short, choppy sentences and wryly insightful commentaries are perfectly fitted for the format. Also, perhaps most importantly, his genuine passion for Spielberg's historic body of work shines off every page, even on the rare instances when he hasn’t that much good to say about the occasional Spielbergian disappointment.
Granted, it would have been nice to see an equal level of attention given to all the later movies, as was given to the vintage classics such as Jaws, E.T. and Close Encounters. But I get it. The story of making Jaws and its gargantuan challenges which very nearly derailed the young, hungry director’s career at the beginning, is an incredible one of passion, determination, and the rise of an underdog against the odds (shit, that sounded like ChatGPT just then).
I could also say, on a purely personal level, that I did not love some of his takes on certain films. Now, I don’t mean I simply disagreed with them. That would not be an issue in the slightest. In fact, while it’s only a painful sort of fun to read negative opinions about your favourite movies, I do often like to hear good arguments made for those I don’t like - unless I really, really don’t like them, like The Matrix or something. For instance, I have never been able to bring myself to enjoy Close Encounters very much. Or - and I’d quake to admitting it in front of a rabble of Spielberg hardcores - the beloved 80’s classic, E.T..
Maybe I only say this because he struck a nerve in both somewhat shrugging off Jurassic Park as mere popcorn entertainment, albeit of the most proficient and sophisticated kind; and how he described himself (and the audience collectively) as secretly rooting for the dinosaurs. This attitude always annoys me because, despite two of the characters (Nedry in particular) warranting little sympathy from the audience, the greatest distinction between the original movie and the later ones - most glaringly, the Jurassic World trilogy - is that in the first movie, the dinosaur attacks were actually suspenseful. They were, in fact, downright terrifying. Muldoon’s being outsmarted in the jungle by the raptors and nothing but a severed arm remaining of Arnold’s mutilated corpse are unadulterated horror moments. But even the darkly comical toilet scene and Nedry’s slapstick encounter with the dilophosaurus are still meant to shock or unsettle the audience to the edge of their seats when it finally goes down.
I will stand by this interpretation till the day I day. Even Gennaro’s jarringly funny image sitting on an exposed toilet in the pelting rain as a T-Rex tilts its head birdlike at him suddenly becomes scary and startling when the Rex actually gobbles him up, and his futile screams before the final crunch. I feel you’re meant to be like: Well, I didn’t like the guy, and I’m not gonna miss him. But damn, it actually fucking ate him. Shit! Don’t even get me started on this subject. I even tried to write a book about it. That the death knell for the franchise as it should have been was sounded when The Lost World consciously became a farce in which, unlike Jaws where rare incidents of shark attack are real enough to not translate into particularly funny on the big screen, dinosaurs chomping villainous, stupid or cowardly assholes has spawned its whole own genre of comedy in the 21st Century. What the hell happened to watching people we care about narrowly avoiding vicious dinosaurs that want to eat them, irrespective of how greedy, capitalistic or well-intentioned they are?
But let’s cut the rant. I absolutely had a blast reading this book, and it has put me in the mood to go out and watch my favourite Spielberg films again, along with at least some of those I haven’t yet watched. And on that note, to wrap up, I figured I would just quickly go through his filmography, categorising each between the masterpieces, the solid efforts, the mediocre, and awful, and the have-not-seen-yet. My subjective opinion, of course …
The Masterpieces
Jaws, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan.
The Solid Efforts (pf = personal favourites, along with the four above)
Duel, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., The Temple of Doom (pf), The Last Crusade (pf), The Lost World, Minority Report (pf), The Terminal, Catch Me if You Can, War of the Worlds, Munich, War Horse (pf).
The Mediocre
The Sugarland Express, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Hook, Bridge of Spies, The Post, Ready Player One.
The Awful
1941, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
The Have-Not-Seen
The Colour Purple, Empire of the Sun, Always, Amistad, A.I., The Adventures of Tintin, Lincoln, The BFG, West Side Story, the Fablemans.
One of those, of course, is Steven Spielberg.
And funnily enough, two other definite heroes of mine are very closely associated with him. That is: Tom Hanks - one of the greatest modern actors, but also just one of the most humble and likeable gentlemen to have ever walked the earth. And, naturally as a Spielberg fan, the inimitable composer, John Williams.
So I loved this book and gorged on its up-to-date content as much as I hoped I would. I have read some other Spielberg biographies before, and they have both been similarly fun experiences. But this one is probably my favourite so far, if we’re talking written content and not so much the pictures (which are hard to judge too much as they are difficult to make out in their present, pre-published form, and are also somewhat arbitrary. On the pictorial count, the equally enjoyable Steven Spielberg: A Retrospective by Richard Schickel is the one to go with).
On top of that, Ian Nathan (whose books I have never read before, though I think I came across his Peter Jackson one at some point) is also a great writer, whose short, choppy sentences and wryly insightful commentaries are perfectly fitted for the format. Also, perhaps most importantly, his genuine passion for Spielberg's historic body of work shines off every page, even on the rare instances when he hasn’t that much good to say about the occasional Spielbergian disappointment.
Granted, it would have been nice to see an equal level of attention given to all the later movies, as was given to the vintage classics such as Jaws, E.T. and Close Encounters. But I get it. The story of making Jaws and its gargantuan challenges which very nearly derailed the young, hungry director’s career at the beginning, is an incredible one of passion, determination, and the rise of an underdog against the odds (shit, that sounded like ChatGPT just then).
I could also say, on a purely personal level, that I did not love some of his takes on certain films. Now, I don’t mean I simply disagreed with them. That would not be an issue in the slightest. In fact, while it’s only a painful sort of fun to read negative opinions about your favourite movies, I do often like to hear good arguments made for those I don’t like - unless I really, really don’t like them, like The Matrix or something. For instance, I have never been able to bring myself to enjoy Close Encounters very much. Or - and I’d quake to admitting it in front of a rabble of Spielberg hardcores - the beloved 80’s classic, E.T..
Maybe I only say this because he struck a nerve in both somewhat shrugging off Jurassic Park as mere popcorn entertainment, albeit of the most proficient and sophisticated kind; and how he described himself (and the audience collectively) as secretly rooting for the dinosaurs. This attitude always annoys me because, despite two of the characters (Nedry in particular) warranting little sympathy from the audience, the greatest distinction between the original movie and the later ones - most glaringly, the Jurassic World trilogy - is that in the first movie, the dinosaur attacks were actually suspenseful. They were, in fact, downright terrifying. Muldoon’s being outsmarted in the jungle by the raptors and nothing but a severed arm remaining of Arnold’s mutilated corpse are unadulterated horror moments. But even the darkly comical toilet scene and Nedry’s slapstick encounter with the dilophosaurus are still meant to shock or unsettle the audience to the edge of their seats when it finally goes down.
I will stand by this interpretation till the day I day. Even Gennaro’s jarringly funny image sitting on an exposed toilet in the pelting rain as a T-Rex tilts its head birdlike at him suddenly becomes scary and startling when the Rex actually gobbles him up, and his futile screams before the final crunch. I feel you’re meant to be like: Well, I didn’t like the guy, and I’m not gonna miss him. But damn, it actually fucking ate him. Shit! Don’t even get me started on this subject. I even tried to write a book about it. That the death knell for the franchise as it should have been was sounded when The Lost World consciously became a farce in which, unlike Jaws where rare incidents of shark attack are real enough to not translate into particularly funny on the big screen, dinosaurs chomping villainous, stupid or cowardly assholes has spawned its whole own genre of comedy in the 21st Century. What the hell happened to watching people we care about narrowly avoiding vicious dinosaurs that want to eat them, irrespective of how greedy, capitalistic or well-intentioned they are?
But let’s cut the rant. I absolutely had a blast reading this book, and it has put me in the mood to go out and watch my favourite Spielberg films again, along with at least some of those I haven’t yet watched. And on that note, to wrap up, I figured I would just quickly go through his filmography, categorising each between the masterpieces, the solid efforts, the mediocre, and awful, and the have-not-seen-yet. My subjective opinion, of course …
The Masterpieces
Jaws, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan.
The Solid Efforts (pf = personal favourites, along with the four above)
Duel, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., The Temple of Doom (pf), The Last Crusade (pf), The Lost World, Minority Report (pf), The Terminal, Catch Me if You Can, War of the Worlds, Munich, War Horse (pf).
The Mediocre
The Sugarland Express, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Hook, Bridge of Spies, The Post, Ready Player One.
The Awful
1941, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
The Have-Not-Seen
The Colour Purple, Empire of the Sun, Always, Amistad, A.I., The Adventures of Tintin, Lincoln, The BFG, West Side Story, the Fablemans.
November 16, 2024
A fairly pacey look through the cinema output of Steven Allan Spielberg, the thinking popcorn eater's cinema director of choice. We get a page or two about his influences and his productions, which is able to list over 20 that might be in his top 10, he's that prolific, but this generally sticks to the stories of the movies, and how they fit in with what this author takes as his recurring themes.
It's a daft book that says all of his films have been successes, and that all are good – 1941, Amistad and Hook are forgotten about and never rewatched for a reason. Even when they show actorly proficiency and directing smarts, like Bridge of Spies, they're never raking in a mahoosive profit. There's a quote here about how lavishly Mark Kermode likes AI – but he famously hated it before a Damascene, if not Spielbergian, conversion. But of course the man has provided for images – involving bicycles, red coats or beach invasions – that would make cinema a much poorer experience were they to be taken away.
This is not quite deep enough to really get to the core of the man, as you'd expect from an unofficial, unlicensed survey. It is a retread of things that have gone before, from an author who likes to include a grammatically incomplete sentence about every five pages. Just to trip the reader up. It is also highly pictorial – I don't recall a page without some imagery on it somewhere. And the message seems to be both that Spielberg can turn his hand to anything, which we ought to watch at least once indiscriminately, and that Spielberg has A Type (or in the language of the auteurs, Un Type) – when I would say that's demonstrably not true. His type, as in his productions and decisions, is to look at the financial figures, where super-hits have allowed him many years of fallower times. And bravo him for that.
This, then, is part film studies, part biography, pretty much hagiography. I don't recall a bad word said against the subject – even the political and religious divides shown in and caused by Munich are given the thumbs up. So could this have been more serious, discerning and critical? Yes, but that would deny the kind of book it is. It's a message about how scrumdiddlyumptious the Spielberg experience can be, and on the whole it's not completely wrong about that. Let's face it, there is more written about Star Wars each year than will ever be written about THX-1138, and populist should not be thought a bad thing. This is a perfectly fine recap of one of the world's great populists.
It's a daft book that says all of his films have been successes, and that all are good – 1941, Amistad and Hook are forgotten about and never rewatched for a reason. Even when they show actorly proficiency and directing smarts, like Bridge of Spies, they're never raking in a mahoosive profit. There's a quote here about how lavishly Mark Kermode likes AI – but he famously hated it before a Damascene, if not Spielbergian, conversion. But of course the man has provided for images – involving bicycles, red coats or beach invasions – that would make cinema a much poorer experience were they to be taken away.
This is not quite deep enough to really get to the core of the man, as you'd expect from an unofficial, unlicensed survey. It is a retread of things that have gone before, from an author who likes to include a grammatically incomplete sentence about every five pages. Just to trip the reader up. It is also highly pictorial – I don't recall a page without some imagery on it somewhere. And the message seems to be both that Spielberg can turn his hand to anything, which we ought to watch at least once indiscriminately, and that Spielberg has A Type (or in the language of the auteurs, Un Type) – when I would say that's demonstrably not true. His type, as in his productions and decisions, is to look at the financial figures, where super-hits have allowed him many years of fallower times. And bravo him for that.
This, then, is part film studies, part biography, pretty much hagiography. I don't recall a bad word said against the subject – even the political and religious divides shown in and caused by Munich are given the thumbs up. So could this have been more serious, discerning and critical? Yes, but that would deny the kind of book it is. It's a message about how scrumdiddlyumptious the Spielberg experience can be, and on the whole it's not completely wrong about that. Let's face it, there is more written about Star Wars each year than will ever be written about THX-1138, and populist should not be thought a bad thing. This is a perfectly fine recap of one of the world's great populists.
September 19, 2024
Ian Nathan, the former editor of Empire magazine, has written a series of well received books about some of Hollywood’s greatest directors, so it seems a little strange that it has taken him this long to get to one of the best known, Steven Spielberg. He explains this delay well though – Spielberg’s films are deceptively simple and often mistaken as purely feel good despite covering a wide range of often difficult subjects, so there is actually an awful lot to unpack in terms of the personality of the director, the subject matters covered and the technical brilliance of many of his films. Nathan admits that the sheer impact Spielberg has had on him personally and on film as a whole makes this a very difficult subject to cover but he does it brilliantly.
Each film is covered in depth on its own merits and as part of his development as a director and it’s fascinating to go back and realise just how many of our iconic films have been his, and to understand just what makes them work so well. The author goes into what is done technically to make this so but the human part of Spielberg’s work is also brought forward, and the reflection of the man himself in so many of these works. There are an enormous amount of photos from the films and plenty behind the scenes information of the making, with each film having essentially a chapter.
I will confess to being a huge fan of Steven Spielberg and knowing a fair amount already but there is so much detail in this book, I learned a lot more and it’s lovely to have a book that is so up to date, running all the way to The Fabelmans in 2022. This is a must buy for fans of Spielberg (and film generally) and a beautiful book to have on the shelf and return to over and over. I will certainly be adding it to my shelf!
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in return for an honest review.
Each film is covered in depth on its own merits and as part of his development as a director and it’s fascinating to go back and realise just how many of our iconic films have been his, and to understand just what makes them work so well. The author goes into what is done technically to make this so but the human part of Spielberg’s work is also brought forward, and the reflection of the man himself in so many of these works. There are an enormous amount of photos from the films and plenty behind the scenes information of the making, with each film having essentially a chapter.
I will confess to being a huge fan of Steven Spielberg and knowing a fair amount already but there is so much detail in this book, I learned a lot more and it’s lovely to have a book that is so up to date, running all the way to The Fabelmans in 2022. This is a must buy for fans of Spielberg (and film generally) and a beautiful book to have on the shelf and return to over and over. I will certainly be adding it to my shelf!
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in return for an honest review.
November 8, 2024
An epitome of sheer pleasure for Steven Spielberg movie lovers. Ian Nathan one of the UK's best film writers has produced a beautiful, compact book, with high quality pictures and pithy words, titled “Steven Spielberg, The Iconic Filmmaker and His Work”. It will make a wonderful Christmas (or otherwise) gift for someone who is interested in learning more of Spielberg's life and magical movies.
Movie lovers, especially the older ones are highly likely aware of the numerous good and great movies Spielberg has produced, ranging from ET to Schindler's List. Unlikely they will know of every movie he has produced.
I really enjoyed page 161 THAT SPIELBURG TOUCH on spotting a Spielberg touch without the credit. Of course because it is that touch will not necessarily mean it is the iconic master maker himself, as it could be any other filmmaker that copies and flatters out of imitation, the Spielberg stylistic devices.
Throughout the book Ian Nathan points out instances of happenings in Spielberg's life, as inspiration for happenings in the movies he made. You may buy into all of them or just the majority of them like myself. Most importantly buy this book at a very reasonable price, for what it does give.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC (Advanced Reading Copy).
Movie lovers, especially the older ones are highly likely aware of the numerous good and great movies Spielberg has produced, ranging from ET to Schindler's List. Unlikely they will know of every movie he has produced.
I really enjoyed page 161 THAT SPIELBURG TOUCH on spotting a Spielberg touch without the credit. Of course because it is that touch will not necessarily mean it is the iconic master maker himself, as it could be any other filmmaker that copies and flatters out of imitation, the Spielberg stylistic devices.
Throughout the book Ian Nathan points out instances of happenings in Spielberg's life, as inspiration for happenings in the movies he made. You may buy into all of them or just the majority of them like myself. Most importantly buy this book at a very reasonable price, for what it does give.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC (Advanced Reading Copy).
October 8, 2024
A compelling compendium of the work of a maestro in which Nathan has clearly poured not only a lot of research but a lot of love into the project.
As someone who grew up with the films of Spielberg, it was refreshing to learn some new facts and to see some unfamiliar behind the scene photos from his various productions. This book is pitched perfectly for the long term geeks and the recent converts who are lucky enough to discover this movie genius for the first time.
I received an early copy from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for a review.
As someone who grew up with the films of Spielberg, it was refreshing to learn some new facts and to see some unfamiliar behind the scene photos from his various productions. This book is pitched perfectly for the long term geeks and the recent converts who are lucky enough to discover this movie genius for the first time.
I received an early copy from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for a review.
October 1, 2024
A terrific biography about one of my favorite directors, Steven Spielberg, whose films I've loved. Reading this biography was a trip into memory lane, and I remember when each movie from Jaws to E.T. released and how I couldn't wait to see them in theaters. I was always amazed how much work went into a films especially special effect, back then it was all manual labor that created the effects and that to me look better then effects now. I also liked learning about how involved Spielberg was in other great movies that I've like, BFG, War Horse, The Terminal etc. Plus, being involved in other movies as producer. which made this book more important as a source of film history.
This is an excellent story about Steven Spielberg as director and producer, with the right amount of story, the right amount of pictures that will leave you satisfied after you read this book and it's not a big thick book like sometime you read but a perfect size for an enjoyable read.
I want to thank Quarto Publishing Group – White Lion | White Lion Publishing and NetGalley for an advance copy about an amazing talent.
This is an excellent story about Steven Spielberg as director and producer, with the right amount of story, the right amount of pictures that will leave you satisfied after you read this book and it's not a big thick book like sometime you read but a perfect size for an enjoyable read.
I want to thank Quarto Publishing Group – White Lion | White Lion Publishing and NetGalley for an advance copy about an amazing talent.
February 26, 2025
Enjoyable appreciation of one of the world's greatest filmmakers. Doesn't go too deep, but as a casual fan I learned some things, and seeing all of Spielberg's work together is a good reminder of how broad and varied his gifts and interests are.
November 6, 2024
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. This was an interesting read about Spielberg’ film history and a bit of history. If one is a film buff, this is a must read.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews