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Steven Spielberg’s 20 favourite movies (Far Out Magazine Nov 2021)


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“I don’t dream at night, I dream at day, I dream all day; I’m dreaming for a living.” – Steven Spielberg

 

Steven Spielberg’s 20 favourite movies, in the order of release (Far Out Magazine Nov 2021):

 

Captains Courageous – Victor Fleming (1937)

Fantasia - Walt Disney (1940)
Citizen Kane – Orson Welles (1941)

Dumbo – Walt Disney (1941)

A Guy Named Joe – Victor Fleming (1943)

The Best Years of Our Lives – William Wyler (1946)
It’s a Wonderful Life – Frank Capra (1946)

War of the Worlds – Byron Haskin (1953)

Seven Samurai – Akira Kurosawa (1954)

The Searchers – John Ford (1956)

The 400 Blows – François Truffaut (1959)
Psycho – Alfred Hitchcock (1960)
Lawrence of Arabia – David Lean (1962)

2001: A Space Odyssey – Stanley Kubrick (1968)

Tootsie – Sydney Pollack (1982)

The Godfather – Francis Ford Coppola (1972)

Day for Night – François Truffaut (1973)

The Dark Knight – Christopher Nolan (2008)
Intouchables – Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano (2011)
Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn (2014)

 

 

A good list full of classics! ... Which ones have you watched? ... Which ones are your favorites? (By favorite I mean films that connect with you or the ones you would take with you on a secluded island.)

Edited by zen
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7 minutes ago, zen said:

 

Film lovers would care. 

I am a Spielberg fan too. Just bought 4K HDR Blu-ray Disc of Schindler’s List. However, his stealing of Ray’s manuscript and profiting from it by making a classic (a wonderful movie) will be a indelible stain on his legacy.

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46 minutes ago, DeepSpace said:

Does anyone care? He stole Ray’s manuscript for ET.

 

24 minutes ago, DeepSpace said:

I am a Spielberg fan too. Just bought 4K HDR Blu-ray Disc of Schindler’s List. However, his stealing of Ray’s manuscript and profiting from it by making a classic (a wonderful movie) will be a indelible stain on his legacy.

 

 

Is there any evidence to substantiate this other than "the stories are the same", so he must have stolen it?  

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Yes there is. More than a decade before ET was made, Ray approached Billy Wilder with the manuscript of a ET like story (he has written a story about the manuscript content, so there is the proof of the story. I have read it, the name escapes me at the moment). His manuscript was passed around Hollywood studios, but he could not secure money for production. Ray mentioned about rejection from Billy Wilder on his death bed when he accepted the Oscar in 1992 (you can find the video on YT).

 

Then in 1982, ET comes out and Ray spoke about it in a interview. However, because he a classy gentleman, he did not raise a fuss about. Even if he did, the concept of copyright was not there in India even in the 80s. So it’s not like he could have sued Spielberg for plagiarism. When Spielberg was asked about he denied lifting from the story, but acknowledged that the manuscript had been floating around In Hollywood. So he had knowledge of it.

 

Is there a chance that Spielberg could have come up with the concept at at later time completely independently? Possible. It has happened in scientific inventions. However,  given that Ray had circulated the manuscript years back unsuccessfully makes it a bit more than coincidence. Spielberg certainly did not copy verbatim as the location was America, not a village in Bengal. Also not every thing in the Ray story was copied on ET. I think he lifted the concept and then added his touch to it. And thought he could get away with it because of no copyright protection and who had heard Indian movies and Ray in America back then? The noble thing at least would have been to see Ray’s permission.
 

BTW, everything I have said here, you will find presence of it online either on YT or transcripts of the Ray’s interview and one or two articles. I think in India only Bengalis were offended. Non-Bengalis and Bombay film industry then were not fans of him that much. Nargis once commented that Ray profits from Indian poverty which is a moronic observation because he has made movies on all sorts of social issues. He made a conscious choice to make most of his movies in Bengali.

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9 hours ago, DeepSpace said:

However, his stealing of Ray’s manuscript and profiting from it by making a classic (a wonderful movie) will be a indelible stain on his legacy.

 

For a discussion to begin on "stain" people have to show a) Spielberg used any copyrighted material (and when many Indian filmmakers blatantly rip films off including inserting clips from Hollywood films), and b) Ray could have made a better film (his film was shelved).   

 

Note that Kurosawa's films such as Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo, and Ikuru (based on novella -  The Death of Ivan Ilyich) inspired/influenced many films including Magnificent Seven, A Fistful of Dollars, Django, Star Wars, Sholay, Anand (Ikuru, which is based on the novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich), China Gate, ... 

 

 

 

Let's stick to the topic! 

 

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, zen said:

 

For a discussion to begin on "stain" people have to show a) Spielberg used any copyrighted material (and when many Indian filmmakers blatantly rip films off including inserting clips from Hollywood films), and b) Ray could have made a better film (his film was shelved).   

 

Note that Kurosawa's films such as Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo, and Ikuru (based on novella -  The Death of Ivan Ilyich) inspired/influenced many films including Magnificent Seven, A Fistful of Dollars, Django, Star Wars, Sholay, Anand (Ikuru, which is based on the novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich), China Gate, ... 

 

 

 

Let's stick to the topic! 

 

 

 

 

Well lack of copyright was the issue. Also Ray knew he could not do his movie without a major Hollywood studio backing him financially. Most of his movies were done on a shoestring budget funded by NDFC or WB govt. 

 

And I am well aware of Bollywood and other woods blatantly copying movies and tunes. Ray did not belong to any wood. Also one bad act does not justify another.

 

OK I am done. Stick to the topic! I have watched a few. You find Kurosawa to be boring. 

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17 minutes ago, DeepSpace said:

Well lack of copyright was the issue. Also Ray knew he could not do his movie without a major Hollywood studio backing him financially. Most of his movies were done on a shoestring budget funded by NDFC or WB govt. 

 

And I am well aware of Bollywood and other woods blatantly copying movies and tunes. Ray did not belong to any wood. Also one bad act does not justify another.

 

 

There is no issue here apart from one being "created" for no reason ... If Ray had a similar concept and if he had made such a film, I am not even sure if many would have watched it relatively speaking. Many folks would not be too interested in watching say a poor hungry boy in ragged clothes running around with a superior alien in a dilapidated village. 

 

Quote

OK I am done. Stick to the topic! I have watched a few. You find Kurosawa to be boring. 

 

Kurosawa has made some of my favorite films! 

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5 minutes ago, zen said:

 

There is no issue here apart from one being "created" for no reason ... If Ray had a similar concept and if he had made such a film, I am not even sure if many would have watched it relatively speaking. Many folks would not be too interested in watching say a poor hungry boy in ragged clothes running around with a superior alien in a dilapidated village. 

 

 

Kurosawa has made some of my favorite films! 

The kind of opinion you barfed about Ray, I have the same about Kurosawa. Now let’s talk about the plagiarist Spielberg! :rotfl:

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24 minutes ago, DeepSpace said:

The kind of opinion you barfed about Ray, I have the same about Kurosawa. Now let’s talk about the plagiarist Spielberg! :rotfl:

 

Appears as if there is nothing much to talk about Ray other than some inconsequential concept that his rare fanboys  have to go to random threads to attack famous/popular directors who have made tons of films on variety of topics/genres :lol: 

 

 

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10 hours ago, zen said:

 

Appears as if there is nothing much to talk about Ray other than some inconsequential concept that his rare fanboys  have to go to random threads to attack famous/popular directors who have made tons of films on variety of topics/genres :lol: 

 

 

Sorry I won't hijack your thread any more. Promise. I have nothing else to contribute on this thread. I just wanted to bring this up. Despite this issue, I still admire Spielberg and love his movies.

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My top 3 favorite Spielberg films, in the order of release:

  • Jaws (1975) - A nice seafaring adventure film 
  • Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - A perfect action-adventure film ... My favorite Spielberg film
  • Schindler's List (1993) - In terms of both quality and touching subject matter, his best work 

 

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On 12/5/2021 at 9:20 AM, zen said:

 

“I don’t dream at night, I dream at day, I dream all day; I’m dreaming for a living.” – Steven Spielberg

 

Steven Spielberg’s 20 favourite movies, in the order of release (Far Out Magazine Nov 2021):

 

Captains Courageous – Victor Fleming (1937)

Fantasia - Walt Disney (1940)
Citizen Kane – Orson Welles (1941)

Dumbo – Walt Disney (1941)

A Guy Named Joe – Victor Fleming (1943)

The Best Years of Our Lives – William Wyler (1946)
It’s a Wonderful Life – Frank Capra (1946)

War of the Worlds – Byron Haskin (1953)

Seven Samurai – Akira Kurosawa (1954)

The Searchers – John Ford (1956)

The 400 Blows – François Truffaut (1959)
Psycho – Alfred Hitchcock (1960)
Lawrence of Arabia – David Lean (1962)

2001: A Space Odyssey – Stanley Kubrick (1968)

Tootsie – Sydney Pollack (1982)

The Godfather – Francis Ford Coppola (1972)

Day for Night – François Truffaut (1973)

The Dark Knight – Christopher Nolan (2008)
Intouchables – Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano (2011)
Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn (2014)

 

 

A good list full of classics! ... Which ones have you watched? ... Which ones are your favorites? (By favorite I mean films that connect with you or the ones you would take with you on a secluded island.)

Seen all of them except for A Guy Named Joe. So, 19 out of 20. Here's my assessment - anything below "ATG", I would not place in my top 100 favs of all time (and not every ATG is guaranteed to make top 100 either).

 

GOAT contenders [I have very high criteria for this category]:

Citizen Kane – Orson Welles (1941)

The Searchers – John Ford (1956)

2001: A Space Odyssey – Stanley Kubrick (1968)

 

ATG films:

Dumbo – Walt Disney (1941)

It’s a Wonderful Life – Frank Capra (1946)

Seven Samurai – Akira Kurosawa (1954)

The 400 Blows – François Truffaut (1959)

Psycho – Alfred Hitchcock (1960)

Lawrence of Arabia – David Lean (1962)

The Godfather – Francis Ford Coppola (1972)

 

Great films:

Fantasia - Walt Disney (1940)

The Best Years of Our Lives – William Wyler (1946)

Day for Night – François Truffaut (1973)

The Dark Knight – Christopher Nolan (2008)

 

Excellent, but not great, films:

Captains Courageous – Victor Fleming (1937)

Tootsie – Sydney Pollack (1982)

Intouchables – Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano (2011)

 

Good, but not excellent, films:

War of the Worlds – Byron Haskin (1953)

Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn (2014)

 

 

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9 hours ago, Vijy said:

Seen all of them except for A Guy Named Joe. So, 19 out of 20. Here's my assessment - anything below "ATG", I would not place in my top 100 favs of all time (and not every ATG is guaranteed to make top 100 either).

 

Spielberg really likes LoA. You can see the enthusiasm when he talks about it:

 

 

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