Customer Reviews

Steven Spielberg: A Biography

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I've now read about five or six biographies of Steven Spielberg and all vary in depth and quality. However Joseph McBride book can only be described as THE most in-depth account of Spielberg's fascinating life. You simply won't read a more well-researched account of Spielberg's life unless the great man writes his autobiography. Don't be put off by the fact that Spielberg didn't co-operate with this book, virtually everyone else did including, most surprisingly, his father. A terrific read from start to finish.

It is no surprise that McBride by now is the consultant critic on a host of DVDs and repeatedly recognized, especially in Europe, as a top-notch biographer. It is no surprise either that he is my favorite; I wouldn't pretend to have a final insight into a director without having read his "last word" on that person. Somehow he sees his directors in the round, covering everything from their visuals to their politics, and he sees them in psychological depth. His portrait of Spielberg is no exception. He shows movingly how Spielberg used filmmaking to compensate for his feelings of exclusion and the abuse he suffered as a Jewish kid who spent much of his youth in largely gentile neighborhoods. Spielberg needed friendship and popularity, and making films was his way of getting them. It is no insult to say that Spielberg became a great popular artist--who, however, also went beyond this: McBride captures the gist, especially in this second edition, by comparing him with Charles Dickens. Chesterton wrote that Dickens felt as one with the common people and in his work poured out his feelings for them without condescension.

Today there is no doubt about Dickens but some still cast doubt upon Spielberg's artistic status. McBride charts Spielberg's progress from that of a director characterized by critics as little more than a polished entertainer to a filmmaker of stature: Spielberg's work has grappled with subjects from the Holocaust to slavery, civil liberties, and terrorism, and handled the themes with seriousness and maturity. Like Dickens, Spielberg is an artist with a burning passion for social justice. And McBride, interestingly enough, makes a case that Spielberg was always a serious artist, from such early professional works as "Amblin'," "Duel," and "The Sugarland Express" onward, and that he remains one of our most sophisticated, versatile, and gifted directors.

The new material McBride adds to his original 1997 biography includes four chapters dealing with Spielberg's unusual dual career track in recent years as both a director and a mogul. Whatever one thinks of Spielberg's career as a producer and DreamWorks executive, McBride surprisingly argues, with some persuasiveness, that Spielberg's own work as a filmmaker has not as a result suffered, but rather the opposite. After all, Spielberg--who, by his own report, thrives on multitasking--has made some of his most challenging and artistically significant films since 1997, including "Amistad," "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," "Minority Report," and "Munich."

Again, I cannot recommend too highly McBride as a biographer and critic who is at the same time minutely diligent and panoramically imaginative, catching and able to catch all sides, including the ambiguous ones, of his beloved subject. This is the kind of biography you will want to read and it updates the Spielberg material to the present moment. McBride will give you good reason to consider that a director who is a highly successful popularizer may well at the same time be a cultural treasure.

Impressive, insightful, clever (and sometimes critical) description of the first 51 years in the life of a cinematic genius. Every page is a delight. You feel like an insider in Spielbergland. It's an amazing amount of work (more than 300 interviews). Do not hesitate.

I want to give this book 4 stars, but I just can't bring myself to do it. This book is certainly an impressive scholarly work - well researched, reasonably well referenced, and when there is analysis offered, it is thorough and insightful.

Unfortunately, the analysis is also my major complaint with the book. McBride seems to haphazardly pick pictures to analyse, while ignoring others. What possessed him to give devote more pages to 1941 than all the Indiana Jones movies combined? Further, he has a tendency to focus too much on the story of the movie - I submit that most people reading this book have seen these movies and can draw their own conclusions about the significance of the story. We'd rather hear about how they were made, etc. That is, more facts and less analysis would would make this a better book.

The first half of the book is very good, because the author takes his time explaining family connections, his amateur films, etc. It is a little repetitive (how often does McBride feel he has to tell us that Spielberg felt like an outsider growing up?), but the detail and narrative flow are very good, telling us a lot about the man behind the movies. Especially interesting is the information on S's TV work.

The second half of the book rapidly degenerates into a shallow overview of things we already know about Spielberg, and is very disappointing. It's almost like McBride had a page limit, and after spending so much time on S's childhood, he had to rush through the remaining material, save for sections on Schindler's List and Colour Purple (both deserving movies, of course). Even Jurassic Park is little more than a sideshow, wherein McBride denegrates Crichton's novel (a fate that Peter Benchley's Jaws seems to avoid, even though in my opinion JP is a work far superior to Jaws) and comments on how Spielberg worked on the effects in Poland while shooting Schindler's List. Even his fine analytical powers seem to break down. What else could possess him to comment that Raider of the Lost ark is racist and "a soulless and impersonal film", while praising Last Crusade as "a graceful piece of popular filmaking...gratifyingly free of racist overtones that blighted the two previous films." Huh? Has McBride actually watched these three movies together? Or does he really think it's okay to portray stereotyped Arabs, but not stereotyped Indians or Nepalese?

At any rate, this is an important work, recommended for anyone that wants to learn more about the early life and works of Spielberg. But I would suggest putting it down without reading the last 5 chapters.

Steven Spielberg: The most famous film director ever. Anybody knows the name, even small children. He's directed Hook for the younger ones, and Saving Private Ryan for those of us that are older. There is so many films that I could list, I won't even try. But this book isn't just about his movies. They're mentioned quite often, but the truly great thing about this book is the detail.

You learn so much about his family that you could almost be part of it. After reading this book, you could very well know more about his great grandparents than you do about your own. You learn of his childhood and how he made movies when he was young, to how he matured into making great films that we all know and love.

It's a long book, and now you know why. It gives you plenty of reading, and it'll keep you interested. It's also got pictures of him working on movies like E.T. and even him directing other thirteen year olds when he was a child. If you're considering purchasing this book, don't wait any longer. Once you sit down and begin reading, you won't know why you waited in the first place.

This is a tremendous depiction of the great Spielberg. If you love his movies than you will marvel at the astounding writing style and incredible research that Mr. McBride has done. I am buying it for my sister for Christmas!

This book taps into the mind of the master himself, Steven Spielberg. The genious that brought us great movies like E.T. and Jaws was actually a quite interesting kid. He was a "nerd" so he called himself. But in reality, Steven Spielberg was always a genious. A control freak. He is a role model for any future film maker.

Steven Spielberg would approve of this highly interesting and informative book, which not only chronicles the movies, but also digs deeper to answer some very compelling questions, and unlike some Spielberg bios, McBride's tome answers all of them. Charting his illustrious career from his early work in TV, to films Like Duel, Jaws, Raiders, E.T, Jurassic Park and The Lost World, this is an eminently satisfying addition to my impressive Spielberg collection. If it has a flaw, there is too much focused on his output in the early 90s and not quite enough concerning his famously fantastic films in the 70s and 80s. Regardless, a cool book and a great weekend read. Highly recommended.

The book gives you most of the detailed information about Steven Spielberg. You will be in awe to learn that the great director is same as us - performing not very well in academic results. However, he final goes to the top. It is extremely easy to read and offers a close up of the director. It is a book that you must buy. Never lend it to anybody or attempt to borrow it from others.

Joseph McBride manages to create a rich, full biography of a reclusive character. Its details are many; its writing is rich; its insights are full. It's a wonderful book that told me much about Steven Spielberg.