Steven Spielberg [Hardcover]

Joseph McBride (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 1997

In this full-scale, in-depth biography of Steven Spielberg, Joseph McBride reveals hidden dimensions of the filmmaker's personality and shows how deeply personal even his most commercial work has been. With the same breadth of research and clarity of insight that characterized his acclaimed biography of Frank Capra, McBride has gone in search of the true Steven Spielberg, interviewing more than 325 of the director's friends and associates, many of whom had never spoken about him before. Drawing a vivid and highly detailed portrait of Spielberg's extraordinary childhood and his early amateur filmmaking, McBride uncovers the cultural and personal influences that came together to form Spielberg's artistic personality. McBride traces Spielberg's evolution from an introverted social outcast into the precocious talent who won a contract with Universal at age twenty-one. "Steven Spielberg: A Biography" explains how Spielberg's ambivalent attitude toward his Jewish heritage and painful experiences with anti-Semitism during adolescence turned him toward popular filmmaking by impelling him to seek approval from the widest possible audience. Perceptively analyzing Spielberg's work, McBride shows how the filmmaker transformed his own fears and obsessions into films that have entertained millions of people throughout the world. Eventually, Spielberg's artistic ambitions became unmistakable in such powerful but uneven films as "The Color Purple" and "Empire of the Sun," until finally, with "Schindler's List," Spielberg's emotional candor and courage yielded what is widely acknowledged as a cinematic masterpiece.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Writing a biography is tough enough when the subject is dead and the biographer must rely on a paper trail and recollections of contemporaries to relate the essence of the man or woman's life. When the subject still lives--and especially when he is as powerful as Steven Spielberg--a whole new set of problems emerge. For one thing, it's difficult to find anyone willing to criticize a man who pulls as many strings in the film industry as Spielberg; for another, how does one evaluate a career that is still in progress? If the definitive Spielberg biography cannot yet be written, Joseph McBride's Steven Spielberg: A Biography will suffice in the interim. Though certainly affected by the aforementioned constraints, McBride still creates an impressive portrait of the man behind Schindler's List, E.T., Jurassic Park, and many, many more.

McBride is especially effective at limning the contours of Spielberg's childhood. Born in 1946 to Arnold and Leah Spielberg, the young Steven endured both frequent moves and his parents' unhappy domestic life. These factors, combined with the anti-Semitism he encountered as a teenager, drove the introverted Spielberg to seek approval through filmmaking. In addition to exploring Spielberg's private life, McBride offers some perceptive criticism of his work. Anyone interested in the film industry and Spielberg's place in it will find Joseph McBride's Steven Spielberg a valuable resource.

From Library Journal

This is the first in-depth biography of the film director whose works?E.T., Jaws, Jurassic Park, and Schindler's List among them?need no introduction to anyone with the slightest awareness of popular culture. Veteran Hollywood observer McBride (Frank Capra, LJ 5/1/91) has interviewed hundreds of the subject's colleagues, relatives, and friends, though Spielberg and most of his inner circle declined to cooperate. McBride attempts to correct what he sees as a strong bias among many film critics against Spielberg as a "child-man...incapable of dealing with the darker side of life." This leads to more analysis and defense of Spielberg's work than seems necessary, but, overall, this is a solid book that should be in every collection.?Thomas J. Wiener, "Satellite DIRECT"
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 2, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684811677
• ISBN-13: 978-0684811673
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #736,096 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( S ) > Spielberg, Steven

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So far, the definitive account of Spielberg's life., October 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Steven Spielberg (Hardcover)

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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spielberg Well-Served by a Master Biographer, February 6, 2011

By 

Judy Schavrien "professor, psychotherapist" (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Steven Spielberg: A Biography, Second Edition (Paperback)

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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE book to understand The Master, January 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Steven Spielberg (Hardcover)

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.