I do not remember in which presentation or in which event they commented an anecdote about the Steven Spielberg's childhood. Basically they commented that his mother allowed him to fill his house with sand to simulate a desert and that that served Steven Spielberg as a stage in which to shoot his images and unleash his creativity with an 8 mm Kodak camera. Such an exercise in freedom to develop an idea It is not available to many parents so that anecdote has served as a guide to try to learn more about childhood and youth of one of the greatest geniuses of Hollywood-based world cinema. And it is that Spielberg lived a time in which the world, especially the United States, was changing due to the arrival of technology and microelectronics while enjoying the recent past of Adventure cinema, familiar and full of great values.
The first thing I have found is that there are no authorized biographies of Spielberg so all the material with information from the director is scattered throughout magazines, articles, texts and comments to which I think it is difficult to grant total credibility. So what we have left is what he really did when he was little, because of that there is evidence. Spielberg started with a super 8 camera at age 12 and won an award at 13 for the movie Escape to nowhere (A 40-minute recording of World War II soldiers escaping from the Nazi army in the desert of Libya and using creative resources and a lot of imagination). He also recorded stories influenced by the postwar period in the United States and enjoyed American cinema from directors like Frank Capra and John Ford full of family values, codes of honor, adventures and heroes. Enter his inspirations Centauros del Desierto (The Searchers) and How beautiful it is to live! (It's a wonderful life!) Although there were other directors and other films, for example, Lawrence of Arabiaby David Lean The biggest show in the world, by Cecil B. De Mille about the circus and that apparently was the first movie he saw in 1952 with five or six years of age and director Jack Arnold and his films of which The incredible dwindling man We still remember the terror that a cat and a spider can produce.
The movies he apparently didn't like so much were those of Disney: Snow White, Fantasy and Bambi, which he also saw as a child.
Spielberg was never a good student, although his parents didn't seem to care much about it either, he was shy and delicate, he was not a great reader, he consumed comics and of course the television that was beginning to invade the United States. It was also part of a generation that was beginning to be multitasking although the Internet had not yet arrived, they simultaneously used radio, television, the record player, the barking dog, ringing the doorbell and of course talking on the phone. We have seen these scenes in his films, especially those of the 80s, dozens of times. He also signed up for the Boy Scouts and studied clarinet to parade with the music band. Other activities that Spielberg did, in a very American tradition, was to carry out jobs in which to get money and thus carry out their projects. For example, he rented a movie theater with money from his father to screen a 140-minute film made by him and obtained benefits from the sale of tickets (and probably soft drinks and popcorn) of $ 100. Or he hired actors among the Boy Scouts to make a movie paying them eight dollars he earned by painting tree trunks from the neighbors. That movie, Gun Smoke or The Last Gun, he loved the scouts and gave him his Photo Proficiency badge.
As we have said, the family atmosphere was conducive to stimulate the imagination and creativity of Steven Spielberg. When he considered that the 8 mm Kodak camera was insufficient to obtain better films, he got his father to give him a camera with three lenses that served to make long, medium and close-up shots. That way its film generation capacity multiplied.
It seems that Spielberg's goal it was to make everyone happy so he developed his imagination and ingenuity and wanted to get acceptance and recognition for what he did. I am convinced that his film production maintains that spirit of entertainment although using the American language based on a direct, simple message, with limited meaning and scope.
Steven Spielberg's cinema that fascinated me was the one that accompanied me in my childhood and youth: the extraterrestrial world of E.T., the fear of Shark, the extraordinary adventures of Indiana Jones full of an inspired romanticism, it seems, in the encounters between Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy that she enjoyed in her childhood. Then I lost track of him because neither the Jurassic Park, nor the Schindler List, nor Hook, nor Minority Report told me much and also entertained me very little, maybe it was the moment when Spielberg decided to try to convey a more important message and with me He did not succeed, probably because of my ability. Of the most recent I stay with Save Soldier Ryan because it is full of codes of honor like the films of Ford and Capra.
His talent as a director is enormous although I also love his work as a producer and collaborator in other films that make the entertainment industry in the United States bigger. For example, the recent collaboration with Peter Jackson to do Tintin and the Secret of the Unicorn I thought it was beautiful. I love his war series Blood Brothers or The pacific and from childhood and his work as a producer is in Los Goonies, The prodigious chip, Back to the future although I loved the path that opened with The secret of the pyramid that I think the whole series of Harry Potter.
To finish this article where it started, we may have to ask ourselves when the kids at home seem to bother, tangle or be absent, that we have to investigate, ask and provide resources so that their creativity has exit somewhere. I have no doubt that among the current Spanish children's generation they will exist protagonists of future entertainment, perhaps as creators of video games, movies and sounds / music. Although the necessary technical capacity and the hours dedicated to creation have to be many and that is why parents have to lend and provide the tools so that they can achieve success.
In this model of facilitation and permissiveness society also has to start modifying its schemes by encouraging, encouraging, enabling and opening legislative paths to boost creativity and children's talent. It is an investment of the future.
Spielberg's first big movie, Shark, 1975, raised 260 million dollars in the United States and 458 million dollars in the rest of the world. Spielberg had a percentage on profits so he became a millionaire before the age of 30. It seems to me, simplifying it a lot, that his parents made a great investment for a Kodak 8 mm machine.
Steven Spielberg still has a lot of rope and career and his influence shows in other directors, for example, a couple of years ago it was released Super 8, by J.J. Abrams, with a protagonist who reminded us of Spielberg armed with his camera and living stories of aliens persecuted by the US army in the 50s.
In Peques and More | Super 8 In Cinema Blog | Steven Spielberg Special Image | Michael Heilemann
