The moment Steven Spielberg almost quit directing: “I was sad and isolated”
As the single highest-grossing director in the history of cinema – not to mention the only one to have seen their filmography accrue a cumulative box office total north of $10 billion – Steven Spielberg has deftly straddled the line between acclaimed prestige dramas and populist smash hits for decades, but it was one of the former that saw him considering early retirement.
Spielberg’s status as one of the greatest to ever step behind the camera and call “action” is perfectly encapsulated by his 1993, when he had Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List released in cinemas within six months of each other. One redefined blockbuster filmmaking forever and became the top-earning movie of all time following its initial run, while the other was lauded as one of the most powerful dramas ever made.
The stark and stunning Schindler’s List earned $322 million at the box office and won seven Academy Awards from 12 nominations, including ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’, and ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’. And yet, despite such overwhelming success on both the critical and commercial front, Spielberg found himself disinterested in returning to the director’s chair following a production that he’d given everything to on both a personal and professional level.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, it was noted that Spielberg “found he lacked a desire to go back to work,” although he stopped short of saying the film had left him feeling depressed: “I was sad and isolated, and as well-received and successful as that movie was, I think it was the trauma of telling the story and forming the Shoah Foundation. I started to wonder, was Schindler’s List going to be the last film I would direct?”
It would be another three years before a new Spielberg feature was released, with a return to the world of effects-heavy fantasy in The Lost World: Jurassic Park getting his creative energies recharged. Admitting that the urge to dive back into work “seized me one day like a thunderbolt,” but not without confirming that “I just needed time”.
The prospect of Spielberg bowing out at the peak of his powers 30 years ago is nigh-on unthinkable considering that in the period since he’s put out Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can, War of the Worlds, Munich, Lincoln, West Side Story, and The Fabelmans, which barely scratches the surface of his prolific output since the stunning one-two punch of Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List.
Had he decided to end his career then and there, though, Spielberg would have still conspired to bow out with one of the best years any director has ever enjoyed in terms of both monetary success and awards season adulation, but it’s been to the industry’s immense benefit that he stayed the course.
