Steven Spielberg names the greatest filmmaker of his generation
Steven Spielberg has watched cinema completely transform, and his movies have been key proponents in inciting this change, most prominently his 1975 film Jaws. It was a summer hit, becoming the first proper blockbuster, terrifying both adults and children who snuck into theatres to see if the killer shark on everyone’s lips was as scary as people made it out to be.
Spielberg’s success with Jaws led him to make another incredibly popular movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which emerged during the same year as Star Wars. Sci-fi cinema was booming, and Spielberg’s 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial continued to ride this wave. With many other hits like several Indiana Jones films, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, and Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg has reigned as the most commercially successful filmmaker for quite some years.
The filmmaker got his start in the New Hollywood era – a time when mainstream cinema was rapidly changing. Instead of this new crop of filmmakers focusing on happy endings or working within the confines of studios under the strict demands of studios, there was more emphasis on creative freedom, nihilism, taboo topics, and more naturalistic filmmaking. The late ‘60s saw the beginning of this change, with titles like Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde, Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude, and Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider ushering in this new wave.
New Hollywood also introduced the world to filmmakers like Brian De Palma, Francis Ford Coppola, and Martin Scorsese. It’s the latter whom Spielberg believes is “the best filmmaker of our generation.” Spielberg and Scorsese were part of the unofficial ‘movie brat’ group alongside Coppola, De Palma, Lucas, Paul Schrader and John Milius. The movie brats transformed Hollywood with their innovative approach to filmmaking, but they wouldn’t have been able to have done so without the help of each other.
Spielberg assisted Scorsese during the post-production of Taxi Driver, which remains one of the 1970s’ most striking films. The Jaws filmmaker has always greatly admired Scorsese, telling Rolling Stone: “Francis and Marty and some of the European filmmakers – bring a lot of their urban development into their movies and take their films very seriously. They internalise who they are and express that on film. I think if you put everybody together and rated them, Marty would have to be the best filmmaker of our generation.”
To Spielberg, Scorsese takes a much more serious approach to making his films, imbuing them with deeply philosophical ideas. For example, Taxi Driver, which was penned by Schrader, takes significant inspiration from existentialist literature. In contrast, Spielberg added, “George Lucas is the best movie maker. You see, George and I have fun with our films. We don’t take them as seriously. And I think that our movies are about things that we think will appeal to other people, not just to ourselves. We think of ourselves first, but in the next breath we’re talking about the audience and what works and what doesn’t.”
Clearly, Spielberg sees his movies as much more commercially appealing, which has certainly been the case – he has grossed more than any other filmmaker. Yet, despite Scorsese’s more individualistic approach (according to Spielberg), he has also generated lots of box office success, too.
