warning: fangirl rambling about Spielberg
Jun. 2nd, 2010 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orangerfulI was talking with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
andy_wolverton about this today at work and felt like I should blog about it too...
I was watching Close Encounters last night and there was one little moment that struck me. Couldn't have been on the screen for more than a second or two. It's near the end, when Roy and Jillian are hiding on Devil's Tower. Roy has started his descent into the landing zone, and Jillian is there all alone. The little spaceships are flying around, and suddenly we see the mothership emerge from the clouds. The camera goes to Jillian for a moment and we see her registering this and for the briefest of moments, she folds her hands in front of her face and leans on them for a little bit. A silent prayer to someone to bring back her little boy.
Spielberg is always doing things like this in his movies. My mom liked to point them out to me, and now I'm starting to find them myself as I rewatch these favorites.
Another one that sticks in my mind is the finale of Poltergeist when the mother reaches into the room to try and save her two children. She's been battling the angry ghost in her room, down the hall, and now she's finally made it into the room and all hope seems to be lost as her son's fingers slip out of her reach. Then she puts on her game face and screams "God, help me!" and manages one final reach and grabs the kids.
I don't know why these two moments stick in my mind. I'm not a particularly religious person. Maybe that's why I like them as moments go. Spielberg just slips them in there, more of that universal need for a higher spiritual power than a religious statement.
This conversation quickly turned to E.T., one of my all time favorite movies. I had to laugh because in Close Encounters, we see the aliens have gone through the fridge and made a mess, and then Spielberg references HIMSELF in E.T. by having E.T. raid the fridge when he's home alone!
One of the scenes that always breaks me heart in E.T. is near the end, when the Scientist is talking to Elliot after E.T. has "died". Elliot tells him "he came to me". Along those same lines, in Close Encounters, the French scientist, Lacombe, tells Roy that he his jealous of him because he was chosen. He also tells the military that they should not remove Roy and the other civilians attempting to reach Devil's Tower because "they were invited" by the aliens. Being chosen. I think it's something we all wish for, to be singled out as special.
You can watch E.T. on so many levels. When you're little, you watch with Girdie and look up to everyone else in the film. As you get older, you see the story through Elliot's eyes and want to meet E.T. As a teen, you understand the big brother's personal struggle with being the oldest man in the house, protecting his family, but still having to keep this secret from him mother. And as an adult, you start to see the film through the mom's eyes, and through the Scientist's eyes...adult eyes are always a little sadder to see through in Spielberg films featuring a child, because he somehow reminds us of how much we miss now that we are adults. Things that we can't quite get back. A certain amount of innocence and excitment that is lost just from aging.
I got my copy of War of the Worlds on blu-ray today and I'm sure when I rewatch that, I'll be able to find all these little things. Spielberg is at his best when dealing with daddy issues and that movie is full of them. I still remember starting to cry when the brother insists on wanting to join the battle to fight the aliens. All I could think of was my brother doing that, because I could totally see him charging in there.
I wonder if there are any good film studies books on just Spielberg's works. That man knows how to tell a story. He works those universal themes, which is why I think movies that he made 30+ years ago still hold up today. They are not about the special effects or the gadgetry - they are about people.
Oh and on an almost completely unrelated note, I found out today that the guy who played Farraday on LOST was in Saving Private Ryan, and he was the super-nice guy in SPR...which is probably why I liked him immediately on Lost.
This concludes my random Speilberg fangirl moment. You can not return to your regularly scheduled Friends List reading, already in progress...
andy_wolverton about this today at work and felt like I should blog about it too...I was watching Close Encounters last night and there was one little moment that struck me. Couldn't have been on the screen for more than a second or two. It's near the end, when Roy and Jillian are hiding on Devil's Tower. Roy has started his descent into the landing zone, and Jillian is there all alone. The little spaceships are flying around, and suddenly we see the mothership emerge from the clouds. The camera goes to Jillian for a moment and we see her registering this and for the briefest of moments, she folds her hands in front of her face and leans on them for a little bit. A silent prayer to someone to bring back her little boy.
Spielberg is always doing things like this in his movies. My mom liked to point them out to me, and now I'm starting to find them myself as I rewatch these favorites.
Another one that sticks in my mind is the finale of Poltergeist when the mother reaches into the room to try and save her two children. She's been battling the angry ghost in her room, down the hall, and now she's finally made it into the room and all hope seems to be lost as her son's fingers slip out of her reach. Then she puts on her game face and screams "God, help me!" and manages one final reach and grabs the kids.
I don't know why these two moments stick in my mind. I'm not a particularly religious person. Maybe that's why I like them as moments go. Spielberg just slips them in there, more of that universal need for a higher spiritual power than a religious statement.
This conversation quickly turned to E.T., one of my all time favorite movies. I had to laugh because in Close Encounters, we see the aliens have gone through the fridge and made a mess, and then Spielberg references HIMSELF in E.T. by having E.T. raid the fridge when he's home alone!
One of the scenes that always breaks me heart in E.T. is near the end, when the Scientist is talking to Elliot after E.T. has "died". Elliot tells him "he came to me". Along those same lines, in Close Encounters, the French scientist, Lacombe, tells Roy that he his jealous of him because he was chosen. He also tells the military that they should not remove Roy and the other civilians attempting to reach Devil's Tower because "they were invited" by the aliens. Being chosen. I think it's something we all wish for, to be singled out as special.
You can watch E.T. on so many levels. When you're little, you watch with Girdie and look up to everyone else in the film. As you get older, you see the story through Elliot's eyes and want to meet E.T. As a teen, you understand the big brother's personal struggle with being the oldest man in the house, protecting his family, but still having to keep this secret from him mother. And as an adult, you start to see the film through the mom's eyes, and through the Scientist's eyes...adult eyes are always a little sadder to see through in Spielberg films featuring a child, because he somehow reminds us of how much we miss now that we are adults. Things that we can't quite get back. A certain amount of innocence and excitment that is lost just from aging.
I got my copy of War of the Worlds on blu-ray today and I'm sure when I rewatch that, I'll be able to find all these little things. Spielberg is at his best when dealing with daddy issues and that movie is full of them. I still remember starting to cry when the brother insists on wanting to join the battle to fight the aliens. All I could think of was my brother doing that, because I could totally see him charging in there.
I wonder if there are any good film studies books on just Spielberg's works. That man knows how to tell a story. He works those universal themes, which is why I think movies that he made 30+ years ago still hold up today. They are not about the special effects or the gadgetry - they are about people.
Oh and on an almost completely unrelated note, I found out today that the guy who played Farraday on LOST was in Saving Private Ryan, and he was the super-nice guy in SPR...which is probably why I liked him immediately on Lost.
This concludes my random Speilberg fangirl moment. You can not return to your regularly scheduled Friends List reading, already in progress...