path of least resistance

Rating: 2/10 (29 June 1999)

Steven Spielberg used to entertain us; now he educates us as if he were entertaining, and his films are leaden with their messages: slavery is bad, the Holocaust was bad, D-day was bloody. He keeps taking the path of least resistance. He used to charm us with his imagination; in "Schindler's List" he abandons imagination for the sake of repellent explicitness. It left me longing for the days of "Forbidden Games." Meanwhile, having succeeded in dumbing down American moviemaking-as-entertainment in the 80s to the level of "The Goonies" and "Batteries Not Included," he proceeds to dumb down the Holocaust with the introduction of fake art-house effects and fairy tale symbolism. In interviews following the film's release he said that the making of the film had so opened his eyes to the horrors of the Holocaust that he regretted having used the Nazis as villains in "Raiders of the Lost Ark"; apparently he literally needs a picture drawn for him -- a moving one -- and assumes that we do, too. It made me wonder if he would go back to "Raiders" if he could and digitize all the fun away.