re: Yahoo! ranks all 29 of Steven Spielberg's films

quote:

---

My only issue with WotW is that Spielberg tries to keep it almost "too modern," if that makes sense. It had touches of classic 1950s science fiction, but it needed more. It needed to be steeped in that inspiration.

---

I think it was. 1950s sci-fi gets remembered for its goofy bits, but there was real underlying terror underneath the whole thing. Spielberg really taps into the paranoia at the heart of sci fi, and does a wonderful job driving that home. The scene with the train is perhaps my favorite in any Spielberg film, and one I didn't think he was capable of. For a guy who is derided in some circles as too mainstream and family-oriented, the guy knows how to create an image that will be a long-standing feature of your nightmares.

WOTW is a legit great movie. It just isn't a crowd-pleaser.

And I'm saddened to see all the people knocking Lincoln. It's a movie about ideas, and the action is people talking (it also has the wonderful theme that even high-minded goals are sometimes achieved through less than savory means). Lincoln is a spectacular film because it dares paint Lincoln as a person: funny, vain, giving, petty, and everything in between. This isn't Saint Lincoln, this is politician Lincoln, and he's willing to get his hands dirty, even if he has a noble mind. It's also one of the few movies that really gets into the importance of specific language: I liked a lot of Lincoln breaking down the law, especially in regards to how he argues the south did not secede and thus is not a separate country, so he cannot negotiate with them.

Also, Thaddeus Stevens is one of my favorite people in history, and I liked Tommy Lee Jones enjoying that role to its fullest. No, I do not believe there is anything I would not say or do. Great moment.