From: v075q5fr@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Scott J Gorcey)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: Spielberg's Rut (was Re: Jurassix Park) (no spoilers)
Date: 16 Dec 92 00:33:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <BzBL94.95F@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>, vaughanj@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Jake Vaughan) writes...
>In article <BzBEtx.2zy@acsu.buffalo.edu> v075q5fr@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Scott J Gorcey) writes:
>>In article <1992Dec14.234518.42050@datamark.co.nz>, thomas@datamark.co.nz (Thomas Beagle) writes...

>>       Also, apart from 1989's final INDIANA JONES picture,
>>     when is the last time Spielberg made a worthwhile movie?  
>>     EMPIRE OF THE SUN?  That's quite a while ago.  Before that?
>>     It seems his reputation was forged between JAWS and THE COLOR
>>     PURPLE and he has done nothing in the time since to prove
>>     that he's worth such repute.  I still have high hopes for
>>     JURASSIC PARK, as I loved the novel and thought it felt
>>     like a good Spielberg movie; but not a good Spielberg movie
>>     as in HOOK; a good Spielberg movie as in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS.
>>
> 
>>     Yeah, but the question remains...
>>
>>     ...what have you done for me lately?
> 
>This is a good point.  Lately, he has gotten a little "cutesy".  It is just
>that most of his movies, foresaking HOOK, BATTERIES..., and a few others, have
>have had an impact on me.  I thought EMPIRE OF THE SUN was tremendously
>underated!  It certainly wasn't "cutesy" (although some will debate that it
>was).

     No, but it was about children.  I agree it's a wonderful movie,
     and I also agree it's underrated;  EMPIRE OF THE SUN feels like
     a turning point in Spielberg's career: he'd made the decision to
     make movies exclusively about children already, but not yet
     made the decision to make them exclusively FOR children.

>>
>>     Who else decided long ago that Spielberg must either a) write
>>     the script beginning to end all by himself or b) divorce himself
>>     from the writing process altogether and concentrate on bringing
>>     someone else's script to life, instead of refashioning that
>>     script to his own ends...?

>I didn't here of this re-writing that he is doing on JP until you mentioned
>it.  I didn't know that he did this with HOOK either. 

     I don't know much, on purpose, about what went on with JURASSIC PARK.
     I got a hold of Jim V Hart's first draft HOOK: THE RETURN OF THE
     CAPTAIN a year or so before the movie was released and fell in love
     with it.  It's not just the best script I've ever read, but a damn
     fine piece of entertainment in and of itself (it has to be, doesn't
     it?).  I laughed, I cried, Tinkerbell wasn't a wimp, she had
     the pampered charm of Miss Scarlett and the piercing attitude of
     Bette Davis.  And don't think she didn't know it.  Tigerlilly
     was a major player (to have been played by Laura San Giacomo) and
     the Lost Boys were not the stars of the picture: PETER was... imagine.

     Spielberg took the project over from Frank Castle, who was to
     have directed a $30 million dollar version produced by Amblin
     and distributed by TriStar... until Spielberg himself got wind
     of, and interest in, the project and took it away from Castle.
     He commissioned rewrites based on his own, Dustin Hoffmann's and
     Robin William's specs.  He hired Julia Roberts over Hart's
     objections as Tink, and eliminated Lady Ti altogether.  He moved
     the beginning of the film back a half an hour to San Francisco
     instead of on the plane and ruined Granny Wendy.  The one major
     player remaining basically unaltered was Smee, and I do think
     Bob Hoskins stole a few scenes in the role.  (The MOST unaltered
     scene from Hart's original script is the one in which Hook
     decides it's all over and Smee had better not try to stop him
     this time: "Don't try to stop me Smee...  Don't try to STOP ME, Smee...
     GET OFF YOUR ARSE AND STOP ME, SMEE!!!"  Etc.

>Maybe he is trying too hard.  

     I dunno... maybe.  I'm not sure what to think.  All I know is
     if Laura Dern isn't in tight cutoffs throughout, I'm getting
     my money back.  (Did I just say that...?)

>Jake Vaughan

     Scott Gorcey
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies