The Making of the Most Successful Film Director in the World, Steven Spielberg

As humans, we have a natural inclination towards the unknown. We wonder what happens after death, if the supernatural exists, what could exist beyond the borders of our own world, out in the vast universe we barely understand. Movies have given us the ability to set those speculations into something tangible, something able to be seen and felt. Steven Spielberg has built an entire, unparalleled empire on creating such movies with a personal style that has transcended past films, and revolutionized modern cinematography.

Steven Spielberg was born on December 18th, 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio to his parents Leah Adler and Arnold Spielberg. His mother was a restaurateur and a concert pianist, his father, an electrical engineer. The Spielberg family was Jewish, Steven grew up as an orthodox Jew and attended Hebrew School. Throughout much of his childhood he experienced prejudice and bullying from his peers for his family’s religious beliefs and practices, (Levy, 2018, 111) which his parents strove to shield their children from at every possible turn. (Jackson, K. 2007, 1-3).

Steven loved filmmaking from a very early age. By the age of 13 he had directed a 40 minute long film called “Escape to Nowhere” based on a battle in South Africa which won him first place at the Arizona Amateur Film Festival. He studied at California State College, Long Beach, where he was noticed by Universal Studios after his original film “Firelight.”

After receiving an offer from Universal he signed to direct four films at the age of 23, dropping out of college to pursue his career in entertainment, even though much later he would receive an honorary degree from the university. Spielberg went on to emerge as an up and coming director in Hollywood, his film “Duel” he directed under Universal established his reputation internationally, receiving awards and critical acclaim from both France and Italy. The film itself grossed $8 million, a “sleeper success.” (Levy, 2017, 62).

“Duel” was the first of many successes in Spielberg’s film career. When people hear the name “Steven Spielberg” typically images of intense emotional thrillers paired with astounding special effects come to mind, and for good reason. His movie “Jaws” was a huge turning point in his career. The film utilized special effects that may seem silly to people in the modern age, but was genuinely the most terrifying thing people had ever encountered in their time. The movie itself created the genre of a blockbuster film, grossing nearly $470 million placing it at the top of the box office at its time of release. His inventiveness with music, suspense, and special effects to create an original experience for his audience continued with “ET”, “The Raiders of the Lost Ark”, and the “Jurassic Park” films. Not only is Spielberg the most successful director of all time, his net worth reaching $4.445 billion, he revolutionized a new age of cinematography. His unique vision and understanding of good story telling combines music, camera perspective shots, and ever improving special effects that have had his audience flooding into theatres for decades. In his biography, Joseph McBride stated that “Spielberg’s most important contribution to modern movies his insight that there was an enormous audience to be created if old style B movie stories were made with A level craftsmanship and enhanced with the latest developments in special effects.” (Levy, 2017, 314) In his early career he received a large amount of critical backlash for his new age, unique, and out of the box style, despite his popularity with the masses. Now, with several academy awards and nominations well under his belt, he is very highly regarded by all those who know him.

As previously mentioned, though his success may seem as if it came overnight, the actual events leading up to his successful career started very early in his childhood. His first taste of directing came during his childhood as he created several short amateur films leading up to his success in the film festival. He continued exploring his field during college until signing with Universal. He continued to work with Universal for years, co-founding Universal’s DreamWorks studio and eventually his own Amblin Entertainment where he directed movies such as “ET”, “AI Artificial Intelligence”, “Arachnophobia”, and more. The acclaimed director did make a recent return to partner with Universal, his long-time production home where he spent an important bulk of his career. (Jackson, K., 2007, 96)

I chose Steven Spielberg for this research project for several reasons. I have always loved stories and the way actors, actresses, directors, producers, and everyone in between have the ability to bring them to life in movies. Acting has always been attractive to me, not because of the fame and fortune so many people who enter the field desire, but because of the chance to really connect and affect your audience who is sitting on the edge of their seats, receptive to the story you are about to share. Every good story has elements that every single person can relate to, can find themselves in. Having the ability to give that to them, to inspire self reflection or even to surprise someone who came to a film for light entertainment with a bold message is fascinating to me. Steven Spielberg holds much the same perspective. He may be the most financially successful director in Hollywood, but even he stated that he’s “not really interested in making money. That's always come as the result of success, but it's not been my goal, and I've had a tough time proving that to people.”

His entire goal has always been to tell stories, to bring them to life, and to help people, something he’s never lost. He continually gives back generously. He has brought awareness to issues surrounding the Holocaust and the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers through his films, giving a voice to the survivors to share their true stories with the world in an impactful way. He even founded the non-profit USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, an organization that videotaped and recorded interviews with those survivors of the Holocaust, permanently validating their experiences to create widespread understanding and respect following the event. Beyond that, his filming style is attractive to me. His application of special effects has completely changed adventure movies for the better. I have always gravitated towards these types of films, and would absolutely love the chance to be an actress in the genre.

Learning about Steven Spielberg, his life, his career, and the dreams that separated him from the rest of his peers has greatly impacted my perspective. Steven was just a young Jewish boy in Cincinnati, Ohio, my very own city. He suffered through being bullied for his faith, enduring his parents divorce, and plenty of other “normal people” issues driven by nothing but a dream. Yet, he didn’t let his experiences define him. He strove on, making his dream a reality because he wanted to reach people through his love of film and storytelling. Even that didn’t denote the end of his struggles. In his early career he was regarded with disdain from his own Hollywood colleagues, despite his popularity. Through all adversity he persevered. He did what he loved, took risks, and adapted with changing times, proving his worth.

I have learned the value of believing in your passion and not letting people around you tell you that you can’t do something just because it’s never been done before. Now, more than ever, I hope my aspirations for my career lead me to this world. It is not without its hardships, but Steven Spielberg has shown exactly what it takes, and how good it can be when you succeed.