It is my unpopular opinion that Spielberg makes shallow, superficial, cliché, obvious, mile-wide-and-an-inch-deep movies. Oh, I forgot maudlin, treacly and ,at times, unbearably cute!
His characters are flat, cardboard cut outs. The direction is uninspired, and his scripts are nothing much. He relies on cheap tricks to wring emotion from the audience, he doesn't earn our emotional response...he just pushes emotional buttons.
And, no, I haven't seen "Schindler's List". I won't subject myself to Spielberg's interpretation of such an intensely important topic...so I apologize if it was, somehow, a total exception to his usual fare and a actually good film.
Just one man's opinion...
Oh, gosh. You echo what has been locked in the inner chambers of my mind. Amen to this. I agree......pretty much completely with you.
Ah, well. Where to start? By the more usual standards of Mr Spielberg, this is actually an excellent film; indeed, it would rank as a very good film by one of the directors I like.
But, a big, bad, but, I actually didn't like it. It is good, infact possibly very good, but - to my mind - it is not good enough. It is not that this topic cannot be dealt with on the Big Screen. It can, but only in the hands of the right director (and actors, plot and script). Here, I must confess to having read a stupendous amount on that era, one of the drawbacks of which means that I am horribly aware of historical short-cuts or inaccuracies.
In another thread, I referenced a French movie that treats of a closely related topic 'Au Revoir Les Enfants', which is simply superb, and would easily rank as one of the top ten movies I, personally, have ever seen. This is a heart-breaking film, sharp, bitter sweet, funny in parts, savagely true in others, with a compelling, emotionally accurate (and historically completely convincing) narrative which yet remains utterly devoid of sentimentality.
Even when he tries hard - as he does in 'Schindler's List' - Mr Spielberg doesn't convince. At least, he didn't convince me.
