Happy Birthday, Mr. Spielberg – Part 1

Steven Allan Spielberg (born December 18, 1946) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and business magnate. Spielberg is consistently considered as one of the leading pioneers of the New Hollywood era, as well as being viewed as one of the most popular and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. In a career spanning more than four decades, Spielberg’s films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg’s early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as archetypes of modern Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking. In later years, his films began addressing humanistic issues such as the Holocaust, the transatlantic slave trade, war, and terrorism. He is one of the co-founders of DreamWorks Studios.

Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for Schindler’s List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). Three of Spielberg’s films—Jaws (1975), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Jurassic Park (1993)—achieved box office records, each becoming the highest-grossing film made at the time. To date, the unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $8.5 billion worldwide. Forbes puts Spielberg’s wealth at $3 billion.

Steven Spielberg in his cinema debut, The Sugarland Express, 1974.

Spielberg with the mechanical Shark named “Bruce”, Jaws, 1975.

Spielberg with Harrison Ford, Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Spielberg and thank you for all your movies. Read more: Wikipedia. Let’s celebrate and remember some of the greatest Spielberg’s movies!

Happy Birthday, Mr. Spielberg – Part 2

To read the Part 1 of this post, please click here. Read more about Steven Spielberg on Wikipedia.

Spielberg with Henry Thomas, E.T. – The Extra-Terrestrial, 1982.

Spielberg with Dustin Hoffman, Hook, 1991.

Spielberg with Liam Neeson, Schindler’s List, 1993.

Filmography as Director

    Firelight (1964)
    Slipstream (1967)
    Amblin’ (1968)
    “L.A. 2017” (1971)
    Duel (1971)
    Something Evil (1972)
    The Sugarland Express (1974, also wrote)
    Jaws (1975)
    Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977, also wrote)
    1941 (1979)
    Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
    E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
    Twilight Zone: The Movie (“Kick the Can” segment, 1983)
    Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
    The Color Purple (1985)
    Empire of the Sun (1987)
    Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
    Always (1989)
    Hook (1991)
    Jurassic Park (1993)
    Schindler’s List (1993)
    The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
    Amistad (1997)
    Saving Private Ryan (1998)
    A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001, also wrote)
    Minority Report (2002)
    Catch Me If You Can (2002)
    The Terminal (2004)
    War of the Worlds (2005)
    Munich (2005)
    Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
    The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
    War Horse (2011)
    Lincoln (2012)

Stanley Kubrick movies

Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, screenwriter, producer,cinematographer, and editor who did most of his work as an expatriate in the United Kingdom. He is regarded by many as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. His films, typically adaptations of novels or short stories, are noted for their “dazzling” and unique cinematography, attention to detail in the service of realism, and the evocative use of music. Kubrick’s films covered a variety of genres, including war, crime, romantic and black comedies, horror, epic and science fiction. Kubrick was also noted for being a perfectionist, using painstaking care with scene staging and working closely with his actors.

Starting out as a photographer in New York City, he taught himself all aspects of film production and directing after graduating from high school. His earliest films were made on a shoestring budget, followed by one Hollywood blockbuster, Spartacus, after which he spent most of the rest of his career living and filming in the United Kingdom. His home at Childwickbury Manor in Hertfordshire (north of and near to London) became his workplace where he did his writing, research, editing and management of production details. This allowed him to have almost complete artistic control, but with the rare advantage of having financial support from major Hollywood studios.

Many of his films broke new ground in cinematography, including 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), a science-fiction film which director Steven Spielberg called his generation’s “big bang,” with innovative visual effects and scientific realism. For Barry Lyndon (1975), Kubrick obtained lenses developed by Zeiss for NASA in order to film scenes under natural candlelight and The Shining (1980) was among the first feature films to make use of a Steadicam for stabilized and fluid tracking shots. As with his earlier shorts, Kubrick was the cinematographer and editor on the first two of his thirteen feature films. He directed, produced and wrote all or part of the screenplays for nearly all his films. Read more: Wikipedia.