The first movie Steven Spielberg felt he “could really let my hair down”
Having burst onto the scene in the mid-1970s and completely changed the face of cinema forever when Jaws became the highest-grossing movie ever made and ushered in the age of the blockbuster, it’s reasonable to assume that Steven Spielberg has felt free as a filmmaker ever since.
After all, it’s not like the hits stopped coming once he’d scared an entire generation out of the water. The director went on to helm critical and commercial smash hits like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET the Extra-Terrestrial, The Color Purple, Schindler’s List, and Jurassic Park, to name just a few.
His name alone is as close to a virtual guarantee of success as any film can hope to have, but it wasn’t until after the turn of the millennium that Spielberg felt like he was in a position where he could finally let his figurative hair down, cut loose, and make a light-hearted caper that existed as little more than an excuse for the filmmaker to indulge himself.
Of course, it helped exponentially that the film in question was Catch Me If You Can, the fleet-footed crime story that pitted A-listers Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks against each other as an infamous fraudster and the dogged federal agent determined to track him down and bring him to justice.
The enthusiasm of all parties was infectious and seeped through the screen, and as Spielberg admitted to Black Film, a huge part of the film’s success was down to how uninhibited he felt while making it. “I felt I could really let my hair down with this one after I sort of kept it up for so many years,” he explained. “I felt like a relief pitcher, you know? Even if it is the World Series of film.”
It’s a charming, funny, and touching adaptation of Abagbale’s autobiography, producing one of DiCaprio’s most relatable performances and one of Spielberg’s most comedic productions. The movie was hugely successful, as you’d expect, but it also looked spectacular, flowed like liquid gold, had a title sequence that deserved an Oscar, and remains a masterclass in rooting for the underdog, whether they’re a criminal or a G-man, and Spielberg’s love for the subject matter gets clearer with every viewing.
It sounds strange for the most successful director in history to suggest they were nearly 30 years into their career before they finally felt comfortable enough to make one strictly for themselves. Still, Spielberg’s affection for the material is evident in every frame of Catch Me If You Can.
It was arguably his most overtly escapist picture at the time, and his mastery of true-life dramedy added one more string to a bow that already had plenty before a frame was shot.
