The movie that made Steven Spielberg want to quit
Steven Spielberg is one of the most influential filmmakers in cinema history. His films have taken us to space, brought outer space to Earth, travelled back in time to World War Two and the American Civil War, portrayed some of history’s most influential figures and brought the prehistoric era stomping its way back into the 21st Century. Responsible for some of the most beloved cinematic fairytales of all time, he is one of the highest-grossing directors in history.
His most recent offering was The Fabelmans, an intimate family drama and semi-autobiographical story about Spielberg’s own childhood and upbringing, starring Paul Dano as his father and Michelle Williams as his mother. Garnering widespread acclaim, the movie was nominated for a handful of Academy Awards and Golden Globes. Aside from depicting the legendary director’s early years growing up in Arizona, it also acts as an ode to the magic of filmmaking.
This 1970s iconic deep-sea monster picture Jaws was a cultural phenomenon which invented the term ‘blockbuster’, coined by the new trend of queues of people travelling from movie theatres and stretching all the way down the block. Aside from its huge global appeal, it really did make people terrified to go swimming in the ocean forever after.
His sci-fi fantasy film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which tells the tales of an alien that is left stranded on earth and taken in and cared for by a young boy, was equally as successful. What was so exciting about these projects was that they would have a three-week theatre release like movies get today but would live in theatres for a whole year with audiences coming back on multiple occasions to relive the magic.
With such a prestigious and applauded stint in the director’s chair over the last century, it’s hard to imagine Spielberg not being totally at ease with his ability as a filmmaker. However, that wasn’t quite the case, and in fact, there was one movie he saw early in his career that “shattered” him and seriously knocked his confidence as a filmmaker, The Godfather.
In 1972, Francis Ford Coppola released his masterpiece, The Godfather. The crime drama, based on the book of the same name by Mario Puzo, starred Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, James Caan, and Robert Duvall and told the story of a Sicilian mafia family that ran an organised crime empire in New York during the ’70s. When Spielberg first saw Coppola’s seminal classic, he was completely blown away.
Spielberg spoke on the director’s commentary that accompanied the DVD release of The Godfather and spoke of the effect it had on him as a director, saying, “I was pulverised by the story and the effect the film had on me…I also felt that I should quit, that there was no reason I should continue directing because I would never achieve that level of confidence and ability to tell a story…In a way, it shattered my confidence.”
It’s surprising to hear such a well-established director as Spielberg have such a wobble in confidence, proving that even the best of us doubt our ability from time to time.
