Five times Steven Spielberg went too far
The films of Steven Spielberg are often characterised by their bedazzling cinematic presence, elevating the industry in the late 20th century by heralding the blockbuster era thanks to 1975’s Jaws. Creating characters who seized public adoration and storylines which seemed to resonate with every citizen of the world, Spielberg is regularly credited as being one of the best filmmakers of all time for good reason.
One thing the director is regularly credited for, however, is the sincerity of his dramas, with his films often toying with the surface-level romance of love stories or the sheer pulpy electricity of a good old action movie. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, with 1993’s phenomenal Schindler’s List being the first to come to mind, but by and large, Spielberg stays within his cushy comfort zone.
Yet, there are times when the director either steps outside his comfort zone or pushes his own style a little too far, forcing the viewer to dispel their suspension of disbelief. These moments are, admittedly, few and far between in his filmography, but not even Spielberg is an untouchable saint of cinema, having committed a fair few directorial sins throughout his time.
Explore below five times Spielberg went too far, with fans and critics alike wishing he had just toned it down a little bit instead of tarnishing his filmography forever.
Five times Steven Spielberg went too far:
5. Combining three stories into one – The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
A movie adaptation of the celebrated Tintin comics by the Belgian artist Hergé should’ve been an easy home run for Spielberg, especially as he was perfectly suited to the whacky comedy-crime-caper material. Yet, the 2011 film instead felt like the product of too many cooks, with Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish tying together the two-part story The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure, as well as the totally separate tale, The Crab with the Golden Claws, into one unified 107-minute film.
The result is a film that lacks in several areas and never makes the most of any of the three tales it’s trying to adapt. Spielberg was the one who first proposed that The Crab with the Golden Claws and The Secret of the Unicorn be merged, and he ultimately can be held responsible for the film’s lack of genuine critical and commercial success.
There’s an excellent Tintin movie yet to be made, but next time, maybe leave it to Wes Anderson.
4. His sheer American patriotism – Bridge of Spies (2015)
It should come as no surprise to movie lovers that Spielberg is a self-confessed patriot. Such is reflected in his filmography, making works that often reflect the sheer magnificence of American history, as in 1998’s Saving Private Ryan and even 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. Yet, one of his most needless patriotic moments came during the very end of 2015’s Bridge of Spies, in which, after an American lawyer helps in the fair exchange of prisoners during the Cold War, he reflects on the greatness of his own country while on a train.
He witnesses a group of kids liberally hopping over fences in their backyard, a call-back to a point earlier in the film when he sees some people get gunned down while trying to scale the Berlin wall. It’s one of Spielberg’s worst and most schmaltzy moments.
Admitting how smitten he is for his home country, Spielberg told The Telegraph in regard to the release of Lincoln, his biopic about the 16th US President, “The fact that I am a patriot and that I have a love for this country. I have expressed that in other movies, but I really tried to express it in this one – a respect for the fact that democracy works”.
3. Aliens – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Before 2008, the Indiana Jones series was considered to be sacred among film lovers, with Spielberg creating one of cinema’s best-ever action trilogies. Yet, when Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull rolled around in 2008, fans were shocked at just how badly it missed the mark, with the alien plot point being one of the main reasons for so many people’s dismay.
The alien subplot was actually the idea of Star Wars creator George Lucas, who co-wrote Crystal Skull with David Koepp and Jeff Nathanson, yet Spielberg was still convinced to take on the idea. Utterly ruining the movie and arguably the entire mystique of the series, too, the appearance of the aliens was a step too far, ruining what the series had created before with its loyal and often terrifying dedication to real-world artefacts.
After 2023’s Dial of Destiny proved to be even worse than Crystal Skull, the Indiana Jones series may now have more failures than successes.
2. Showing the UFO’s Innards – Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
From one extra-terrestrial slip-up to another, in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, one of the director’s first major hits, Spielberg got a little too excited with the UFO content. The moment comes towards the end of the film when Roy Neary, played by Richard Dreyfuss, boards the UFO that upended his life many months ago when he came across the object during a chance encounter.
But, by showing what was actually inside the UFO, Spielberg destroyed the mystery of the moment. This is something the director admits to doing, too, stating that the inclusion of the scene was a mistake. It actually came in a re-cut version of the movie, with Spielberg going to Columbia a year after the film’s success to ask for more money, with the studio responding: “‘We’ll give you the money… if you show the inside of the mothership. Give us something we can hang a campaign on’”.
Speaking about the incident, Spielberg explained: “I compromised and had Richard Dreyfuss walking inside the mothership…I never should have done [that], because that should have always been kept a mystery, the inside of that ship”.
1. “Kali Ma” – Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Spielberg is usually quite good when it comes to scenes of violence or gory gratuity, but there is one moment in his filmography which certainly goes too far. 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a truly curious sequel, taking the title archaeologist to much darker depths than the original film, with audiences joining him on a quest to save enslaved children from a sinister cult.
In this subterranean version of hell, children are forced to mine while Mola Ram, a Thuggee high priest, sacrifices unfortunate souls into a fiery pit while chained to a barbaric metal cage. But, before he condemns them to such a death, he first pulls out their hearts, a moment you would assume would only be a spiritual tugging of the ticker but instead is far more visceral.
Speaking himself about how much he regretted the scene, Spielberg explained: “I wasn’t happy with Temple of Doom at all. It was too dark, too subterranean, and much too horrific. I thought it out-poltered Poltergeist. There’s not an ounce of my own personal feeling in Temple of Doom. The danger in making a sequel is that you can never satisfy everyone”.
