Steven Spielberg (118 page)

Keneally commented on his book
Schindler’s
List
and the film version in his article “It’s the Story of a Hero in Hell,”
LAT,
December 12, 1993; and “Creating
Schindler’s
List,
”
a lecture at Saddleback College, Mission Viejo, Ca., September 20, 1994. See also Deirdre Donahue, “How Thomas Keneally Drew Up
Schindler’s
List,
”
USA
Today,
December 23, 1993; Valerie Takahama,
“Schindler’s
Author Gives Film a Standing Ovation,”
Orange
County
Register,
January 2, 1994; Pedro E. Ponce, “Making Novels of Life’s Ethical Dilemmas,”
The
Chronicle
of
Higher
Education,
February 2, 1994; Fritz Lanham, “Keneally’s Luck,”
Houston
Chronicle,
April 24,1994; and Tom Tugend, “The Neverending Story,”
Jerusalem
Post,
January 13, 1995.

Other articles and interviews about the film, Oskar Schindler, and the Schindler Jews include: Archerd columns,
DV,
December 1, 1992, and June 17, 1993; and (1993): David Gritten, “Grim. Black and White … Spielberg?”
LAT,
May 9; Zoe Heller, “The Real Thing,”
The
Independent
on
Sunday
(London), May 23; Perlez, “Spielberg Grapples with the Horror of the Holocaust”; Grunwald, “Steven Spielberg Gets Real”; Tugend, “Spielberg’s Remembrance of Things Past”; Elaine Dutka, “They Made the ‘List’ and Lived,”
LAT,
December 12; Weinraub, “Steven Spielberg Faces the Holocaust”; Guthmann, “Spielberg’s List”; Shah, “Steven Spielberg, Seriously”; Ansen, “Spielberg’s Obsession,” Jonathan Alter, “After the Survivors,” and Mark Miller, “The Real Schindler,”
Newsweek,
December 20; Harry Sumrall, “Schindler’s Legacy,”
San
Jose
Mercury
News,
December 23; “Interview: Ray Stella, SOC,”
The
Operating
Cameraman
Magazine,
Winter; and Royal, “An Interview with Steven Spielberg”;

And (1994): Richardson, “Steven’s Choice”; Karen Erbach,
“Schindler’s
List
Finds Heroism Amidst Holocaust,”
American
Cinematographer,
January; Rabbi Eli Hecht, “When Will Jews Let It Rest?”
LAT,
January 2; Michael Wilmington, “Redefining Spielberg,”
The
Arizona
Republic,
January 9; Kirk Honeycutt, “Despite Quake, Show Must Go On at L.A. Critics Fete,”
HR,
January 20; Anne Thompson, “How Steven Spielberg Brought
Schindler’s
List
to Life,”
Entertainment
Weekly,
January 21; Peter Rainer, “Why the
Schindler’s
List
Backlash?”
LAT,
January 30; Brian Case, “The Reich Stuff,”
Time
Out
(London), February 9–16; Blair, “Spielberg Comes of Age”; Andrew Nagorski,
“Schin
dler’s
List
Hits Home,”
Newsweek,
March 14; Richard Wolin,
“Schindler’s
List
and the Politics of Remembrance,”
In
These
Times,
March 21–April 3; Diana Jean Schemo, “Good Germans: Honoring the Heroes. And Hiding the Holocaust,”
NYT,
June 12 (including Claude Lanzmann’s criticism); “Florida Will Teach Holocaust,”
B’nai
B’rith
Mes
senger,
August 26; “Spielberg Donates
Schindler
’s
Profits to Foundation,” and Sue Fishkoff, “More Schools Turn to
Schindler’s
List
as Educational Tool,”
Jewish
Bulletin,
September 16; (1995): Rabbi Marvin Hier, “Heroes Aren’t the Story, Villainy Is,”
LAT,
January 19; Sherry Amatenstein, “‘A Rescue Mission with a Time Clock,’”
USA
Weekend,
May 5–7; Catherine Jordan and Lisa de Moraes, “Humor of
Schindler
Spoof Lost on Spielberg,”
HR,
September 18, 1995; and (1996): Leopold Page, “Remembering Schindler’s Humanity,”
LAT,
May 6.

Information on Roman Polanski’s experiences in the Kraków ghetto liquidation is from his autobiography
Roman
by
Polanski,
Morrow, 1984, and Lawrence Weschler, “Artist in Exile,”
The
New
Yorker,
December 5, 1994 (which also reported on Spielberg offering him
Schindler’s
List).
Billy Wilder’s interest in making the film was reported in Shah and in Archerd’s column,
DV,
December 21, 1993. Scorsese’s involvement was reported by Richardson. Bruck,
Master
of
the
Game,
reported on Spielberg’s film for Steve Ross.

Schindler’s
List
reviews and commentaries include (1993): David Denby, “Unlikely Hero,”
New
York,
December 13; Janet Maslin, “Imagining the Holocaust to Remember
It,”
NYT,
December 15; Scott Rosenberg, “The Paradox of a Candle,”
San
Francisco
Examiner,
December 15; Henry Sheehan, “The Family Values of Steven Spielberg,”
Orange
County
Register,
December 19; Terrence Rafferty, “A Man of Transactions,”
The
New
Yorker,
December 20; Newman, “Spielberg’s Bar Mitzvah”; and (1994): Philip Gourevitch, “A Dissent on
Schindler’s
List,
”
Commentary,
February; Bob Strauss, “Surprise! Oscar Goes Conventional,”
LADN,
February 10; Simon Louvish, “Witness,”
Sight
and
Sound,
March; David Thomson, “Presenting Enamelware,” and White, “Toward a Theory of Spielberg History,”
Film
Comment,
March–April; J. Hoberman et al.,
“Schin
dler’s
List:
Myth, Movie, and Memory,”
The
Village
Voice,
March 29 (including Art Spiegelman’s comments); and Norbert Friedman, Rabbi Uri D. Herscher, and Ruth King, letters to the editor,
Commentary,
June. President Bill Clinton’s comment on the film is from “Spielberg’s Oskar.” Articles about the voting of critics’ groups (1993) include Todd McCarthy, “L.A. Crix Tap
List,
Piano,
”
DV,
December 13, and “Crix Crux Is a Crock,”
Variety,
December 27; Martin A. Grove, “L.A. Spielberg Snub Tops List of Party Buzz,”
HR,
December 15; Kirk Honeycutt,
“Schindler
Takes N.Y., but Critics Hear
Piano,
”
HR,
December 16; Jack Mathews, “N.Y. Writers Pick
List
but Bypass Spielberg,”
LAT,
December 16; and Donna Parker, “L.A. Critics: No Snub of Director Spielberg,”
HR,
December 17–19. Box-office figures on
Schindler’s
List
are
from
Variety’s
August 28, 1995, “Foreign Leverage” chart.

Sources on Spielberg’s Shoah project include Allan Holzman’s 1996 documentary films
Survivors
of
the
Shoah
Visual
History
Foundation
(Turner Home Entertainment) and
Survivors
of
the
Holocaust
(Turner Original Productions). Spielberg TV interviews about the project include
20/20
(ABC, July 14, 1995),
Larry
King
Live
(CNN, August 2, 1995), and
Oprah
(syndicated, May 22, 1996). Articles include (1994): Connie Benesch, “Spielberg’s List: The Survivors,”
HR,
September 1;
“List
Director Seeks to Preserve Holocaust History,”
LADN,
September 1; Rosanne Keynan, “Spielberg Leads Huge Holocaust On-Line Project,”
LAT,
October 1; Bernard Weinraub, “Spielberg Is Recording Holocaust Survivors’ Stories,”
NYT,
November 10; and Laura Shapiro, “‘A Race Against Time,’”
Newsweek,
November 21; (1995): Michael Haile, “Reminting
Schindler’s
Gold,”
Boxoffice,
April; Trip Gabriel, “Spielberg Braves Society for a Cause,”
NYT,
August 18; Karen W. Arenson, “From
Schindler’s
List,
a Jewish Mission,”
NYT,
September 24; and Robin Abcarian, “The Worst of Times—on the Record,”
LAT,
October 18; and (1996): Adam Schatz and Alissa Quart, “Spielberg’s List,”
The
Village
Voice,
January 9; and David Usborne, “Spielberg Builds Huge Holocaust Database,”
The
Independent
on
Sunday
(London), January 7; Anick Jesdanum, “Spielberg’s Holocaust Project Gets Boost from U.S. Senate,”
LADN,
July 24; and “War and Remembrance,”
USA
Today,
July 24.

Articles on the establishment of DreamWorks SKG include (1994): Anita M. Busch, “Three Men & Their Baby,”
DV,
October 12; Alan Citron and Claudia Eller, “‘Dream Team’ Trio Outline Plans for Studio,” and James Bates and Elaine Dutka, “Bravos and Shudders Greet Moguls’ Plan for New Studio,”
LAT,
October 13; John Brodie and Anita M. Busch, “Troika Sets Town Atwitter,”
DV,
October 13; Kirk Honeycutt, “Hollywood’s ‘Dream Team,’”
HR,
October 13; Bernard Weinraub, “3 Holywood Giants Team Up to Create Major Movie Studio,”
NYT,
October 13; Weinraub and Fabrikant, “A Hollywood Recipe: Vision, Wealth, Ego”; Robert W. Welkos, “Big News, but Where Are the Big Plans?”
LAT,
October 21; Jim Impoco, “Hollywood’s Dream Team,”
U.S.
News
&
World
Report,
October 24; Richard Corliss, “A Studio Is Born,”
Time,
October 24; Michael Meyer and Charles Fleming, “Hollywood Poker,”
Newsweek,
October 24; Citron and Eller, “‘Dream Team’s’ 1st Project: Mastering Spin Control,”
LAT,
October 25; (1995): Corliss, “Hey, Let’s Put On a Show!” (cover story),
Time,
March 27; Kim Masters, “What’s Ovitz Got to Do with It?”
Vanity
Fair,
April; Henry Chu, “DreamWorks Studio Stirs Rivalry of Civic Suitors,”
LAT,
April 1; Martin Peers, “DreamWorks Gets Coin in Line,”
DV,
April 25; Honeycutt, “The Rights of DreamWorks,”
HR,
May 1; Bates and Eller,
“DreamWorks, MCA Ally on Distribution,”
LAT,
June 14; and Thomas R. King, “MCA, DreamWorks Reach Wide-Ranging Distribution Accord,”
Wall
Street
Journal,
June 14; (1996): Wade Major, “Dream in the Works: A Complete Update on the SKG Co-Venture,”
Boxoffice,
April; Lee Condon, “DreamWorks, Glendale Deal Nearing Completion,”
LADN,
May 18; James Bates and Jesus Sanchez, “Playa Vista: A Project in Frustration,”
LAT,
November 1; and J. William Gibson, “All Wet at Ballona Creek,”
L.A.
Weekly,
December 6–12; and (1997): Jeff Stockwell, “Getting Swamped,”
Premiere,
January.

Information on
Steven
Spielberg’s
Director’s
Chair
is
from David Kronke, “ROMantics,”
Premiere,
August 1996; a review by Ann Kwinn,
Boxoffice,
October 1996; and Bob Strauss, “Electric Chair,”
Entertainment
Weekly,
October 11, 1996. Spielberg discussed his Howard Hughes film project in Ebert and Siskel,
The
Future
of
the
Movies.
Lesley Blanch’s comment on George Cukor is quoted in Gavin Lambert,
On
Cukor,
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1972.

Spielberg’s description of DreamWorks as “a place driven by ideas” is from the initial press conference for the launch of the studio, reported in Peter Bart, “Lost in a Dream,”
GQ
, August 2000. David Geffen called Spielberg a “workaholic” in Stephen Galloway, “A Life in the Pictures,”
HR
special issue on Spielberg, March 2002. Spielberg’s comments on his multitasking are from Bart’s articles “Spielberg’s Corporate Odyssey,”
DV
, February 10, 2009; and “Stevie Wonder,”
GQ
, September 1998. Spielberg’s concerns about whether DreamWorks should have been built up more slowly are from Richard Corliss, “Hey, Let’s Put on a Show!”
Time
, March 27, 1995. A colleague’s comment on Spielberg’s depression over his business duties is from Corliss and Jeffrey Ressner, “Peter Pan Grows Up—But Can He Still Fly?”
Time
, May 19, 1997. Spielberg gave David Geffen primary credit for running the company in Michael Cieply, “David Geffen Makes a Sudden Exit,”
NYT
, October 27, 2008. Spielberg’s claim, “We don’t run with the herd,” is from the Chicago
Sun-Times
, quoted by
Screen International
, 1997. Laurie MacDonald called DreamWorks “eccentric” in Nick Madigan, “Bigger Dream in the Works,”
Variety
, August 2, 1999.

Spielberg discussed his “experimenting” in the DreamWorks documentary
Final Report
(2002), included on the DVD edition of
Minority Report
. His comparison of his credits with John Ford’s can be heard in
The American Film Institute Salute to Steven Spielberg
, NBC-TV, 1995. Spielberg recalled his meeting with Ford in Randall Lane, “‘I Want Gross,’”
Forbes
, September 26, 1994; an interview conducted by executive producer Richard Schickel for the 1998 American Film Institute/TNT series
100 Years … 100 Movies;
and “Catching Movies with: Steven Spielberg & Martin Scorsese on
Catch Me If You Can,” DGA Magazine
, January 2003. Spielberg talked about emulating the working pace of directors from the Golden Age in David Gritten, “When the Going Gets Tough,”
LAT
, May 10, 1998. A. O. Scott wrote about Spielberg’s standing in the American cinema in “The Studio-Indie, Pop-Prestige, Art-Commerce King: Why Steven Spielberg really is the greatest living American director,”
NYT Magazine
, November 9, 2003.

Spielberg’s accident en route to the
Peacemaker
premiere was reported on September 24, 1997, in “Spielberg Crash,”
DV
, and “Spielberg Suffers Sprained Shoulder in Car Accident,”
LAT;
he reported what happened to
LAT
reporter Bill Higgins (quoted by Nicole LaPorte in her book
The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies, and a Company Called DreamWorks
, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston and New York, 2010), and he joked about the accident in Nick Madigan, “
Amistad
sails into L.A. on starry night,”
DV
, December 11, 1997. The problems with the Playa Vista project are discussed in Dan Kimmel,
The Dream Team: The Rise and Fall of DreamWorks: Lessons from the New Hollywood
, Ivan R. Dee, Chicago, 2006, and coverage in
DV, HR, LAT
, and other publications; the DreamWorks partners’ announcement and discussion of their plans for
the studio was reported in James Sterngold, “Vast New DreamWorks Film Lot,”
NYT
, December 14, 1995, and Spielberg elaborated in Madigan, “Playa Vista Visions,”
DV
, September 28, 1998. The author attended a community panel discussion, “DreamWorks in the Ballona Wetlands: How Will It Impact the Pacific Palisades?” at the Pacific Palisades branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, March 27, 1996, and read material distributed by the Friends of Ballona Wetlands and Save Ballona Wetlands. Spielberg’s comment “I wanted to cry” is from Gabriel Snyder, “Spielberg may downsize pics,”
DV
, June 9, 2006; Spielberg discussed the studio in his article “A Wish Your Heart Makes,”
Boxoffice
, October 1996. Jill Stewart criticized Spielberg in “Jamming Up DreamWorks,”
New Times Los Angeles
, July 30–August 5, 1996.