Steven Spielberg's America by Frederick Wasser
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A well written but slight overview of Spielberg's films up to 2008. Wasser places Spielberg's filmography within the context of the shifting sociological and political landscape of 20th Century America. The overarching narrative traces Spielberg's beginnings in television and rapid rise in Hollywood with the release of Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Influenced by New Hollywood style of the 1970s, Wasser argues Spielberg's mainstream tastes paved the way for his domination of pop culture during the 1980s. While his suburban epics and action adventures with Indiana Jones appeared to be in sync with the zeitgeist of Reagan's America, Wasser traces a growing political awareness in Spielberg's work. By engaging with history in The Color Purple, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan , and Munich he's asking audiences to reexamine the past and present. His sci-fi films Minority Report and War of the Worlds dealt with a post 9/11 world. My main criticism with the book is that all these films deserve much deeper analysis beyond historical context (even that seems short on depth). Some of Wasser's conclusions appear superficial, stuck between Spielberg's naysayers and proselytizers. For example, Wasser contends Schindler's List appealed to audiences because it celebrated capitalism? Too much Fredric Jameson for my taste. At the same he champions Minority Report as a modern masterpiece, which I would agree. Overall a good overview of Spielberg's long and fascinating career and a good starting point for identifying some key themes and motifs, but lacking in razor sharp analysis.


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