Steven Spielberg

November 14, 2016
Noting that Steven Spielberg has said “Everything about me is in my films,” legendary movie critic Haskell (Love and Other Infectious Diseases) weaves Spielberg’s entire body of work through her captivating narrative, providing a poignant study of him as a person and a filmmaker. She shows how the undercurrents of his youthful life are projected on the screen, such as his untraditional parents and their eventual divorce, his interest in storytelling over sports, and his simultaneous fascination with, and feelings of alienation from, his Jewish background. As Haskell observes, Spielberg’s filmmaking allowed him “to play vicariously and imaginatively all the roles denied him and other Jews not just in life but on the Hollywood screen.” At the beginning of his career, his movies (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) are filled with wonder and magic, but eventually they evolve into more socially conscious stories (The Color Purple, Schindler’s List) that often coincide with his personal experiences or with world events. In Haskell’s telling, he “grew up” alongside his films, letting his feelings and anxieties play out on the screen while achieving global fame and respect as “the world’s most successful movie entertainer ever.” Haskell’s biography, issued as part of Yale University Press’s Jewish Lives series, reveals how a moviemaking genius’s personal life shaped his craft and, in the process, reshaped popular culture.

November 15, 2016
The acclaimed director's work examined through the prism of his Jewish faith.When noted film critic Haskell (My Brother, My Sister: Story of a Transformation, 2013, etc.) was asked to write a book about Steven Spielberg (b. 1946) for the publisher's Jewish Lives series, she was hesitant. She wasn't Jewish, and she had never been an "ardent fan." She had been hard on his early works, preferring European and art films, but many of his films she did love. To write this book would mean "confronting my own resistance," but she wanted to do "justice" to his life and art and his Jewishness--"denied, then embraced." Haskell begins this delightful book with a short biographical sketch of Spielberg's youthful anxieties, nail-biting nervousness, experiences with anti-Semitic bullying, and a parental breakup that deeply affected him. Haskell admires how Spielberg, a poor student, fulfilled his passion for film with small jobs, finally securing a position at Universal, where his short film Amblin' opened the door to success. He directed TV shows and made a TV movie, Duel, which the author calls a "mesmerizing little classic." It demonstrated Spielberg's "extraordinary technical mastery" and his knack for telling a great story and investing his audience in it. The Sugarland Express, his first theatrical work, an "epic on wheels," first paired him with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond and composer John Williams. Haskell then briefly analyzes 28 films--from Jaws to Bridge of Spies--with ease and aplomb, lightly touching on matters of Jewishness as they come up. With sharp observations and wise judgments, the author discusses her subject's work with sprightly, accessible prose. 1941 was a "fiasco." In Raiders of the Lost Arc, Spielberg's "comic touch is unique, deft, reliable." Catch Me If You Can is his "most personal" film, and The Terminal is a "visual tour de force." Compact, incisive, and witty--a great starting point for those interested in Spielberg's life and art.

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January 1, 2017

Film critic Haskell (Frankly, My Dear: "Gone with the Wind" Revisited) examines the life and career of Steven Spielberg through the lens of his films in this biography for Yale's "Jewish Lives" series. The initial chapters, exploring Spielberg's struggle for acceptance while growing up in largely non-Jewish suburbs in New Jersey and Arizona, provide insightful clues about the inspirations for his early films, with Haskell speculating on how Spielberg exorcised his own childhood fears by passing them on to audiences in movies such as Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This book's narrow focus, however, as well as Haskell's understandable tendency to focus on the critical reception to the director's work, renders it more successful as film criticism than biography. Despite a frequent recourse to Freudian analysis to draw debatable conclusions about the meanings of some films, and a focus on masculinity that overlooks the appeal of much of Spielberg's work for female filmgoers, Haskell's discussion of the childlike wonder inherent to many of the director's films and her eloquent defense of some of his riskier, less successful movies is particularly valuable. VERDICT Recommended for readers of film criticism or commentary.--Sara Shreve, Newton, KS

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2016
Film critic Haskell (My Brother My Sister, 2013) takes a measured look at the life of an iconic director via his work in her contribution to Yale's Jewish Lives series. Born in 1946, Spielberg grew up feeling like an outsider as one of few Jews in the suburbs of New Jersey and Phoenix. Shortly after he dropped out of college, his short film Amblin' led to a major deal at Universal, where he started out directing television before moving on to the troubled production of the film Jaws, which would usher in the era of blockbuster movies. Other hits, such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T., cemented his status as a hit director as well as establishing the boyish sense of wonder for which his work would become known. As his career matured, so did his material: he tackled serious subjects such as abuse (The Color Purple), slavery (Amistad), and the Holocaust (Schindler's List). Haskell marvels that at the age of 70, the director is still going strong. A solid starting point for anyone curious about Spielberg.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)