The moment Steven Spielberg stormed out of his own preview: “I was upset”
When you’ve directed 36 movies, many of which rank alongside the greatest ever made, and you’ve grossed more in box office than any other director in history, then you’re probably allowed the occasional stinker occasionally. Steven Spielberg hasn’t had many, but he has definitely had a couple.
Top of the list is probably the absolutely unnecessary car crash that is 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, which somehow managed to gross three-quarters of a billion dollars on release despite being so abysmal that the majority of Indy fans simply refuse to acknowledge its existence.
It’s likely down to Spielberg’s reputation and the power of the franchise that it didn’t flop monumentally, because any movie that contains a scene in which the protagonist survives a nuclear blast by simply sitting in a fridge and closing the door deserves to suffer a painful existence.
Then there’s another sequel, this time The Lost World: Jurassic Park, which I would challenge anyone to recall the plotline of, or any scenes whatsoever, without accidentally getting it mixed up with the original and best movie. The 1997 follow-up reunited a lot of the cast from the first film, including sexy nerd Jeff Goldblum and ageing maker of consistently bad decisions Richard Attenborough, but couldn’t capture the magic of what made that first instalment so groundbreaking and memorable.
Having done some research (despite seeing it on release I have no memory of it) it appears the storyline involves basically people making exactly the same mistake twice, despite the utter carnage of what happened the first time someone floated the idea of bringing dinosaurs back to life. It didn’t stop Spielberg’s trick of it being a huge box office hit, though, and there was, of course, also a Jurassic Park 3 in 2001, but Spielberg had nothing to do with that, so we can thankfully leave it alone.
And then we come to Hook. The Robin Williams-fronted Peter Pan update from 1991 was, all told, a complete mess. Much as some families like it, much as it has Dustin Hoffman playing Captain Hook in a flamboyant wig and a beauty spot, it is simply all over the place, and Robin Williams is profoundly annoying in it, which is a shame because he was so brilliant in so many other things. It seems Spielberg got an early sense of how the film was shaping up when he actually walked out of a sneak preview of Hook soon after completing it.
He said at the time: “I was upset by my sense that the film was not working on that audience in Texas. I gave it 40 minutes, then I got up and I went out to the car and I fell asleep in the back seat of the limousine.”
Having sat through the film as a 13-year-old myself, I know exactly how he felt. But apparently, the audience at that same screening somehow gave it a 96% approval rating, and the movie was still a big hit once it landed in cinemas, because, of course, it was; it’s a Steven Spielberg film.
But let’s not forget that Spielberg is a magician, probably the best director to ever live. He has made more incredible films than anyone else; able to straddle enormous family blockbusters and harrowing war movies at the same time, responsible for creations that have been loved for 40 years and counting.
E.T., Saving Private Ryan, Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schindler’s List, Lincoln, Munich… the list is frightening, honestly. We can forgive him a couple of stinkers.
