Steven Spielberg (144 page)

In
Schindler’s List
, the irresponsible father figure familiar from so many Spielberg films gradually comes to accept his responsibility. (
Universal Pictures
)

Spielberg considers his work as founder of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation “the most important job I’ve ever done.” In the foundation’s 1996 documentary
Survivors of the Holocaust
, Sol Liber concludes his testimony by saying, “I cheated Hitler and his henchmen, and this is what I got right here—a lovely family, my wife and my kids. And this is the happiest moment of my life, because I loaded everything on tape. Maybe I’m not gonna be so crazy anymore.” (
Turner Home Entertainment
)

“I feel I have a responsibility,” Spielberg said while directing
Jurassic Park
. “And I want to go back and forth from entertainment to socially conscious movies.” The film project he chose to follow
Schindler’s List
was
The Lost World
, his 1997 sequel to
Jurassic Park
. (
Universal Pictures/Amblin Entertainment
)

Although it might have seemed unlikely, Spielberg has managed to balance his increased executive responsibilities as a studio mogul with his customary high artistic standards as a director. He is shown here in 1997, around the time of the release of
Amistad
, the first film he directed for DreamWorks SKG, his partnership with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. (
DreamWorks
)

Spielberg directing Anthony Hopkins, playing former President John Quincy Adams, and Morgan Freeman, as the abolitionist and former slave Theodore Joadson, in
Amistad
(1997). Based on an historical incident,
Amistad
is a deeply moving story of unlikely allies joining to free African captives in 1841 America. Rather than grappling with the film’s themes, the media preferred to focus on a legal battle over alleged source material for the screenplay. (
DreamWorks
).

With portraits of his parents, Abigail and John Adams, looming in the background in this scene from
Amistad
, John Quincy Adams (Hopkins) listens to the African captive Cinque (Djimon Hounsou) explain through a translator (Chiwetel Ejiofor) how he draws strength and wisdom from his ancestors. (
DreamWorks
)

Spielberg directing Tom Hanks, as U.S. Army Captain John Miller, on a beach in Ireland during the summer of 1997 for
Saving Private Ryan
(1998). The overwhelmingly powerful twenty-four-minute D-Day sequence set on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944, is one of Spielberg’s greatest cinematic achievements. (
DreamWorks
)

The shocking opening of the D-Day sequence in
Saving Private Ryan
, with American troops being mowed down by German machine-gun fire in their Higgins boat before they can reach Omaha Beach. Spielberg and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski were influenced by Robert Capa’s dramatically blurred photographs of the D-Day landings. (
DreamWorks
)

These films show the often-schizophrenic approach of DreamWorks, alternating serious drama with unabashed popcorn fare for lowest-common-denominator audiences. A middle-aged man (Kevin Spacey) pursues a mad infatuation with a teenaged temptress (Mena Suvari) in writer Alan Ball and director Sam Mendes’s film about suburban angst,
American Beauty
(1999), DreamWorks’ first winner of the Best-Picture Oscar. Giant robots battle in the streets in the mindless CGI mayhem of director Michael Bay’s box-office smash
Transformers
(2007), based on a popular line of action toys. (
DreamWorks
)

Joan Allen plays a U.S. senator whose appointment as vice president is almost derailed by a sex scandal and the sexism of the American political system in Rod Lurie’s
The Contender
(2000), an independent film acquired by Spielberg’s company in the wake of President Bill Clinton’s impeachment crisis. (
DreamWorks
)