Steven Spielberg’s Reaction to Avatar

Probably still the most revered man in Hollywood, Steven Spielberg’s opinions on films typically become big talking points. Already this year we’ve heard about his reaction to Paranormal Activity and Transformers 2, both of which he got rather excited about, and now he’s given his opinion on Avatar.

But before we get to that… let’s consider why we should even care.

One argument would be that Spielberg is a tremendously knowledgeable filmmaker who can make some incredibly informed and sophisticated assessments of movies based upon their craftsmanship, representations and context. Another one - and the one I’m going to put forward - is that Spielberg is somehow an incredible barometer of widespread public taste.

There’s a famous story about Star Wars that you may not have heard. George Lucasscreened an early cut of the film for some of his fellow movie Brats, including Brian DePalma and Spielberg. When it was done, Lucas’ own wife apparently burst into tears and damned the film with “It’s the At Long Last Love of science-fiction. It’s awful”, though why she hadn’t realised this when editing the film I do not know. DePalma also leapt in and criticised the film heavily though was apparently more constructive and is reputed to have helped Lucas fix some elements up, including the now classic scroll of opening text. But only Spielberg claimed that Star Wars had the stuff. Indeed, he saw a smash hit. “That movie is going to make $100 million” he said.

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