How Steven Spielberg Made Aliens His Ultimate Muse

[00:00] Alien films are a dime a dozen, but

[00:02] there's something uniquely interesting

[00:04] about Steven Spielberg returning to the

[00:06] world of UFOs with Disclosure Day, his

[00:09] 36th feature film. The Beard is a born

[00:12] entertainer, and he's left his mark on

[00:14] Hollywood in more ways than we can

[00:15] count. But several of his landmark

[00:17] movies and even some of his less beloved

[00:19] ones have circled back to the idea that

[00:22] when it comes to the universe, we may

[00:23] not be alone. The man has directed

[00:26] everything from monster movies to

[00:27] historical dramas. But why do

[00:30] Spielberg's alien films in particular

[00:32] make him such a fascinating filmmaker?

[00:35] Maybe it's that his UFO pictures all

[00:37] feel completely different. Or maybe it's

[00:39] that they share similar themes despite

[00:42] those big differences. Either way, we

[00:44] have to ask, what does it mean for an

[00:46] artist to return to the same well

[00:48] repeatedly for over 60 years, even as

[00:51] the world around him changes, and so

[00:53] does he?

[01:04] Spielberg's trrist with

[01:05] extraterrestrials dates back to his very

[01:07] first theatrical feature. No, Sugarland

[01:09] Express doesn't secretly have aliens

[01:12] watching the drama from offscreen. We're

[01:14] talking about a movie you might not have

[01:16] even heard of because very few people

[01:18] have actually seen it or will ever see

[01:20] it for that matter because it's

[01:22] practically lost. In fact, Spielberg

[01:24] himself calls it one of the worst films

[01:26] ever made, but he can sort of be

[01:28] forgiven. After all, he made it when he

[01:30] was only 17. Firelight screened at a

[01:33] single Phoenix movie theater and

[01:35] allegedly made $1 in profit off its $500

[01:38] budget, which not bad for a first try.

[01:41] We can't really dissect it as a whole

[01:43] because only three minutes of footage

[01:45] still exist. But what we do know can

[01:47] tell us a lot about Spielberg's

[01:49] cinematic foundations as a kid who was

[01:51] born around the time of the Roswell

[01:53] incident and grew up during the

[01:55] subsequent wellspring of conspiracies in

[01:57] popular media. As far as we can tell,

[01:59] Firelight feels inspired by both the

[02:02] Twilight Zone and UFO B pictures from

[02:04] the 1950s. It's steeped in their

[02:07] specific flavor of cold war paranoia and

[02:10] nuclear age skepticism against the US

[02:12] government with a character trying

[02:14] desperately to convince the CIA that

[02:16] aliens represented by fire lights in the

[02:18] sky are actually real. But what is

[02:21] probably more revealing is that even at

[02:23] 17, Spielberg was already making movies

[02:26] centering on couples with marital

[02:28] problems. In this case, in the form of a

[02:30] cheating husband. If you've seen his

[02:32] 2022 semi-autobiography, The Fableman's,

[02:35] or pretty much anything he's ever made,

[02:37] you'll know that unhappy marriages are a

[02:39] huge part of Spielberg's movies. Because

[02:42] by the time he made Firelight as a

[02:43] teenager, his parents had already been

[02:45] divorced for a couple of years. Even

[02:47] before he had the budget to make a

[02:49] splash, his stories tried to combine

[02:51] epic spectacle with the intimate

[02:52] domestic scenarios he knew best. Of

[02:55] course, just throwing what you know at

[02:57] what you imagine doesn't make a good

[02:59] movie. But by the time Spielberg

[03:01] returned to these ideas over a decade

[03:03] later, he had figured out a strange,

[03:05] melancholy, and surprising empathetic

[03:08] way to refashion a tale of divorce into

[03:10] one of fascination with the unknown.

[03:18] Inspired by his father showing him a

[03:20] meteor shower when he was a kid, Close

[03:22] Encounters of the Third Kind saw

[03:24] Spielberg returning to the story of

[03:26] Firelight and even recreating certain

[03:28] scenes shot for shot. According to the

[03:30] biography by Joseph McBride, there's

[03:32] also a bit of Stanley Kubri to be found

[03:34] in the visual department. Since at the

[03:36] time Spielberg was making Close

[03:37] Encounters, the influence of 2001, A

[03:39] Space Odyssey would have been hard to

[03:41] ignore. While it began as a short story

[03:43] called Experiences, about young couples

[03:45] at a lover's lane seeing mysterious

[03:47] lights in the sky, it would eventually

[03:49] be combined with Spielberg's idea to

[03:51] make a documentary or a low-budget

[03:53] feature about people who strongly

[03:55] believed in UFOs. Its original title was

[03:58] Watch the Skies. borrowed from a line in

[04:00] the 1951 sci-fi horror, The Thing from

[04:02] Another World.

[04:03] >> Tell the world. Tell this to everybody

[04:06] wherever they are. Watch the skies.

[04:09] >> But by the early 70s, under taxi driver

[04:12] screenwriter Paul Schrader, it nearly

[04:13] became a story about blowing the

[04:15] supposed lid off Project Blue Book, a US

[04:18] Air Force study in the 50s and 60s about

[04:20] the protocol for observing UFOs, which

[04:23] seems more in line with Disclosure Day.

[04:26] And while Close Encounters eventually

[04:28] used some of these ideas, like the heavy

[04:30] government presence, the final movie

[04:32] ended up pretty different from where it

[04:33] began by focusing on the abduction of a

[04:36] young boy and more importantly a father

[04:38] who becomes so obsessed with the idea of

[04:40] UFOs that he leaves his wife and kids to

[04:43] hang out with legendary filmmaker Franu

[04:45] Trufo. Oh, and to kiss another woman. As

[04:48] a child, it was Spielberg's

[04:49] understanding that his own father simply

[04:51] walked out on his family. However, the

[04:53] real truth of his mother's affair

[04:54] wouldn't come out until he was a teen.

[04:56] But even [music] in his late 20s, he was

[04:58] using cinema as a way to channel

[05:00] complicated feelings about his family

[05:02] history. In Close Encounters, Roy Neri,

[05:04] played by Richard Drifus, begins

[05:06] experiencing psychic visions of a

[05:08] mysterious mountain after his encounter

[05:10] with the lights, which makes him

[05:12] essentially leave his family behind to

[05:14] help the abducted toddler's mother.

[05:15] Coming from a director who resented his

[05:17] father for leaving, it feels like a

[05:19] fairy tale that projects a complicated

[05:21] sympathy onto Neri, giving him a good

[05:23] enough reason to leave, exploring the

[05:25] mysteries of the universe. There's also

[05:27] a bit of Spielberg himself in some of

[05:29] Ner's obsessions, like the introduction

[05:31] of a train set, which Neri later uses to

[05:33] depict the images he couldn't get out of

[05:35] his head. Much like Spielberg's

[05:37] childhood experience of recreating the

[05:38] train crash from Cesy Deill's The

[05:40] Greatest Show on Earth, it feels in some

[05:42] ways like Spielberg trying to understand

[05:44] his own father based on his teenage

[05:46] understanding of his parents' marriage

[05:48] and in some ways even why his own mother

[05:50] may have been compelled to leave in

[05:52] search of happiness elsewhere. For

[05:54] Spielberg, joy seems to lie in creating

[05:56] fantastical images of the universe. So

[05:59] having his characters chase those dreams

[06:01] somewhere out there in space makes

[06:03] perfect sense even though it also ends

[06:05] up being the story of a man leaving his

[06:07] family. It's bittersweet. Now how much

[06:10] of [music] his parental projection is

[06:12] intentional is anybody's guess. In fact,

[06:15] when interviewed on Inside the Actor's

[06:16] Studio, it was the first time that some

[06:18] of these ideas even occurred to

[06:20] Spielberg. like how communicating with

[06:22] the aliens through computerized music is

[06:24] a rich combination of his mother's work

[06:26] as a pianist and his father's as a

[06:28] computer engineer which eventually end

[06:30] up played on a massive cinemaized

[06:31] screen.

[06:32] >> Your father was a computer scientist.

[06:34] Your mother was a musician. When the

[06:37] spaceship lands, how do they

[06:39] communicate?

[06:41] >> That's a very good question. I like

[06:43] that. [laughter]

[06:44] >> You've answered the question.

[06:46] They make music on their computers and

[06:48] they are able to speak to each other.

[06:51] >> You see, I'd love to say, you know, I

[06:53] intended that and I realized that was my

[06:55] mother and father, but not until this

[06:56] moment.

[06:57] >> Regardless of intent, Close Encounters

[06:59] is a deeply personal, deeply spiritual

[07:02] film to the point of drawing on

[07:04] religious imagery. but replacing heaven

[07:06] and the afterlife with dazzling

[07:08] spaceships as people walk toward the

[07:10] light. Spielberg also seems to replace

[07:13] God and angels with aliens as a way to

[07:15] understand humanity's place in the grand

[07:18] scheme of things. Some scenes directly

[07:20] reference Spielberg's [music] influences

[07:21] like Deill's the Ten Commandments which

[07:24] seem to inspire the way he uses matte

[07:26] paintings [music] of landscapes and

[07:27] clouds converging overhead. Close

[07:30] Encounters might even be the closest

[07:31] thing Spielberg has made to a religious

[07:33] epic. The first time we actually see the

[07:35] aliens, the idea that they represent

[07:37] some divine forgiveness or salvation is

[07:40] extremely overt, as though Spielberg was

[07:43] using the genre to find answers to the

[07:45] mysteries in his own life by answering

[07:47] the question of why someone would be so

[07:49] spiritually compelled to abandon their

[07:52] family. Surely, they must have a good

[07:54] enough reason. But if using UFOs to

[07:57] channel childhood anxieties wasn't clear

[07:59] enough, Spielberg's next Alien story

[08:01] made things pretty direct.

[08:06] With his 1982 hit ET, the

[08:08] extraterrestrial [music]

[08:10] Spielberg practically created a new way

[08:12] of depicting kids in American cinema as

[08:15] little adventurers exploring the

[08:17] vastness of suburbia. But of course, the

[08:19] all ages tearjerker was about much more

[08:21] than just kids on bicycles against

[08:23] faceless government suits shot like the

[08:25] adults in Tom and Jerry. [music] While

[08:27] some believe ET was inspired by the

[08:29] alien, an unproduced script by Indian

[08:31] filmmaking legend Suchajit Ry, Spielberg

[08:34] maintains he had never read the draft

[08:35] that had circulated in Hollywood for

[08:37] several years. Even though Ryy's

[08:39] description of the alien as a cross

[08:40] between a gnome and a malnourished

[08:42] refugee matches what Spielberg would

[08:45] eventually do with ET. Still, what ends

[08:47] up on the screen is distinctly

[08:49] Spielbergian no matter what. So, for

[08:51] now, we'll take him at his word.

[08:53] According to McBride's biography, a

[08:55] young Spielberg dealt with his parents'

[08:57] separation by turning to an imaginary

[08:59] alien friend, which essentially makes

[09:01] ET, a childhood dream, come to life.

[09:04] >> I've been wishing for this since I was

[09:06] 10 years old.

[09:07] >> Like Close Encounters, ET is a story of

[09:10] suburban mundanity interrupted by the

[09:12] arrival of UFOs. Only this time,

[09:14] Spielberg tells it from the perspective

[09:15] of a child whose father has already left

[09:18] the family for another woman. It is, in

[09:20] some ways, a thematic successor. This

[09:22] tale of divorce from a kid's perspective

[09:24] unfolds quietly in the background, but

[09:26] it underscores the emotions that young

[09:28] Elliot feels when he first meets the

[09:30] titular alien, making ET a story about

[09:33] yearning for a friend or protective

[09:35] figure. In fact, Elliot even first meets

[09:38] ET by throwing a baseball his way into

[09:40] the empty space where his dad should be.

[09:42] While ET himself may not be imposing or

[09:45] traditionally masculine or paternal,

[09:47] [music]

[09:48] the kids dress him up in their father's

[09:49] old clothes, and he becomes a conduit

[09:51] for Elliot and for Spielberg himself to

[09:54] channel the lingering sensations of

[09:56] yearning for someone only to lose them

[09:58] and feel abandoned by them. This film's

[10:01] wish fulfillment is so powerful that it

[10:03] not only takes the form of magical

[10:05] flight but religious euphoria with a

[10:08] resurrected ET designed in the vein of

[10:10] the resurrected Christ robes and all

[10:12] combining questions of science fiction

[10:14] with questions of faith once again. The

[10:16] aliens in Spielberg's films may be flesh

[10:18] and blood and in ET's case about 26%

[10:21] beer, but they exist to fill spiritual

[10:24] holes in their characters' lives. While

[10:26] Spielberg would eventually go on to wear

[10:28] his faith on his sleeve, he spent his

[10:30] early years turning away from religion

[10:32] in his personal life, which makes his

[10:34] overt use of religious imagery and

[10:36] biblical epics on screen all the more

[10:39] interesting. As if he were using

[10:40] cinematic depictions of things he

[10:42] doesn't fully believe to better

[10:44] understand their utility or their place

[10:46] in people's lives. The more he mapped

[10:48] them on to significant personal

[10:50] experiences similar to his own, the more

[10:52] real they became. like accepting that

[10:54] sometimes you have to say goodbye. As it

[10:57] happens, making ET turned out to be a

[10:59] significant personal experience, too,

[11:00] since Spielberg cites it as the film

[11:02] that finally made him want to have

[11:04] children, a story he recreates in

[11:06] Jurassic Park. Intentional or not,

[11:09] Spielberg's alien stories are closely

[11:11] tied to the journey of parenthood. After

[11:13] all, how can you not think about your

[11:16] future and what you leave behind when

[11:17] you're forced to confront [music] your

[11:19] place in the universe? It would be

[11:21] nearly two decades until Spielberg

[11:22] returned to anything resembling aliens

[11:24] on the big screen, by which point he'd

[11:26] had seven kids in the 80s and 90s. So,

[11:29] it's safe to say that by the time the

[11:31] new millennium arrived, The King of All

[11:33] Ages cinema might have had a slightly

[11:35] different or slightly more evolved view

[11:37] on family ties. Which brings us to his

[11:40] next big alien adventure steeped in

[11:42] religious ideas.

[11:43] >> But in the beginning, didn't God create

[11:45] Adam to love him?

[11:51] Despite the similarity of its title

[11:53] structure to ET, the extraterrestrial AI

[11:57] artificial intelligence doesn't actually

[11:59] have any aliens in it. [music] At least

[12:01] not the kind from outer space. Even

[12:03] though some of you might remember the

[12:04] final act featuring slender alien-like

[12:06] creatures. Those were actually advanced

[12:09] robots from 2,000 years in the future,

[12:11] which had evolved from the ones we

[12:13] created in the movie's present. However,

[12:16] their similarity to aliens might not

[12:18] have been an accident and may have been

[12:20] suggested by Spielberg's visual language

[12:22] much earlier when he first introduces

[12:24] David, the artificial boy created for

[12:26] parents whose son was in a coma. The

[12:28] first time we see David, he's out of

[12:30] focus and appears as a lanky silhouette,

[12:32] not unlike the way Spielberg depicted

[12:34] the aliens in Close Encounters. And

[12:36] while Spielberg mapped a tale of

[12:38] childhood yearning onto an alien in ET,

[12:41] this is arguably when he flipped the

[12:43] script through his tale of parents who

[12:45] fear they may not be able to love their

[12:47] child the way he deserves because of his

[12:49] unfamiliar alien nature. David is

[12:52] programmed with a single goal, to be

[12:54] loved by his mother, Monica. But this

[12:57] love is not something she's capable of

[12:58] returning the same way. A parental

[13:01] anxiety Spielberg channels through yet

[13:03] another sci-fi story. only this time,

[13:05] it's hard not to read the film as a

[13:06] product of both a young parent and an

[13:09] adult who, after his own parents'

[13:11] divorce, learned that he was abandoned

[13:13] by his mother. The story of AI long

[13:15] predates Spielberg's involvement. In

[13:17] fact, it's something that Stanley Kubri

[13:19] had been trying to adapt since the 1970s

[13:21] and probably would have if he hadn't

[13:23] died in 1999. But what makes AI so

[13:26] powerful as a specifically Spielbergian

[13:28] film is the sincerity at its heart,

[13:31] which comes from a personal and painful

[13:33] place. For instance, listen closely to

[13:35] the score when David returns to a

[13:37] version of his home after 2,000 years.

[13:40] It's the first time John Williams' music

[13:42] is stripped down to its fundamentals

[13:44] with the use of a single instrument.

[13:46] Many people attribute AI's saccharine

[13:48] final act to the melodrama maestro, but

[13:51] David getting to experience one last day

[13:53] with his mother was always a part of

[13:55] Kubrick's script. This climax even bears

[13:57] similarities to the invisible aliens in

[13:59] Kubri's 2001, creating a room to observe

[14:01] an astronaut named Dave. As it turns

[14:04] out, it was some of the seedier elements

[14:05] of AI, like the red light district city,

[14:07] home to Jigalo Joe, that were

[14:09] Spielberg's additions, as a world too

[14:11] big and too complicated for the eyes of

[14:13] a child. But the way Spielberg captures

[14:15] David's innocent yearning to be a real

[14:17] boy so he can be loved by his mother

[14:19] fills the frame with beautiful

[14:21] curiosity. As for the not aliens near

[14:23] the end of the film, they're

[14:25] foreshadowed early on as things we've

[14:27] left behind. This explanation can't help

[14:30] but read like the anxieties of a baby

[14:32] boomer. Once the radical hippie

[14:34] generation whose rapid expansion felt

[14:36] like it would usher in a utopia, but who

[14:38] ended up responsible for climate change

[14:40] and other catastrophes. What are the

[14:42] ethics of bringing a child, real or

[14:44] otherwise, into a world you've already

[14:46] killed? This is a key part of what makes

[14:49] AI tick as a story steeped in fears

[14:52] associated with having children,

[14:54] especially losing them. The idea of

[14:56] creations meant to outlive us is a

[14:58] devastating expression of parenthood

[15:00] itself. The notion that what we create

[15:02] ends up saddled with our fears, our

[15:04] flaws, and our projections of

[15:06] encroaching morality in a dying world,

[15:08] whether they like it or not. But once

[15:11] you pull on that thread a little

[15:12] further, it also becomes an expression

[15:14] of artistry itself. The idea that what

[15:17] we create will last long beyond us. And

[15:20] in Spielberg's case, it's these sci-fi

[15:22] toys and cinematic aliens that will

[15:24] [music] carry on his legacy. Despite

[15:26] setting the film in a world destroyed by

[15:28] human hubris, there's a kind of utopian

[15:30] beauty to the evolved robots in the

[15:32] final act who communicate and share

[15:34] images as a hive mind, practically

[15:36] showing each other movies of David's

[15:38] memories. backing up the idea that for

[15:40] Spielberg, these robots and alien beings

[15:43] are manifestations of his own creativity

[15:46] and perhaps even his need to create

[15:48] something that alienates him from other

[15:50] people. There's a kind of purity to AI

[15:53] that makes it one of Spielberg's most

[15:54] touching modern works. But it also came

[15:57] out at the last possible time when he

[15:59] could have or would have made a movie of

[16:02] its kind. By the time he directed his

[16:04] next Alien feature just four years

[16:06] later, the world would have irreversibly

[16:08] changed.

[16:10] [music]

[16:14] War of the Worlds represents a full

[16:16] circle moment for Spielberg. The story

[16:18] written by HG Wells dates back to the

[16:20] 19th century, while the famous radio

[16:22] play by Orson Wells was broadcast in

[16:24] 1938. But Spielberg's version pays

[16:27] frequent homage to the 1953 film

[16:29] adaptation by Byron Haskin, another 50s

[16:32] sci-fi landmark steeped in Cold War

[16:34] paranoia and the kind of movie that

[16:36] inspired Spielberg's earlier works. It's

[16:38] worth noting that when Spielberg and

[16:39] George Lucas were writing the fourth

[16:41] Indiana Jones in the mid90s, the success

[16:43] of Roland Emmerick's Independence Day

[16:45] made Spielberg turn away from the idea

[16:47] of using aliens on screen. But this

[16:50] didn't necessarily apply to his

[16:51] adaptation of War of the Worlds. See,

[16:54] Independence Day was probably the last

[16:56] moment in time that widespread

[16:57] destruction of an American metropolis

[17:00] could be digested as turn your brain off

[17:02] entertainment because after the events

[17:04] of September 11th, 2001, this was

[17:06] something that became all too real. Some

[17:08] movies alluded to 9/11 in its aftermath.

[17:10] But Spielberg's War of the Worlds was

[17:12] the first Hollywood production to

[17:14] approach imagery reminiscent of the

[17:15] attacks in head-on fashion. It's a film

[17:18] whose story opens with the New York

[17:20] skyline about working people gathered on

[17:22] the streets covered in dust and ash. And

[17:24] it's about a country gone mad with fear

[17:26] and desperation after being attacked.

[17:28] Not to mention a film in which jet

[17:30] engines and similar technology are the

[17:32] source of unimaginable destruction. The

[17:35] Spielberg face has come to refer to

[17:37] people looking up in awe, but in War of

[17:40] the Worlds, they look up in horror

[17:41] instead. They capture horrifying images

[17:44] on cell phones and video cameras, not

[17:46] unlike the way the world experienced

[17:47] 9/11. And they search for their loved

[17:50] ones amidst rubble. And just in case you

[17:52] miss why the movie looks the way it

[17:54] does, Spielberg pretty much comes right

[17:56] out and tells you,

[17:57] >> "GET OUT. GET OUT. GET OUT. GET DOWN.

[18:00] >> IS THAT A TERRORIST?"

[18:01] >> HEY, you can't accuse the guy of being

[18:03] too subtle. Gone were the days of

[18:05] Spielberg's aliens being friendly,

[18:07] ethereal beings. Gone was the

[18:09] fascination and wonder. And gone were

[18:11] the religious and spiritual overtones

[18:13] brought on by questions of who else

[18:15] might be out there and what they might

[18:17] have to say about us in return. War of

[18:19] the Worlds is Spielberg at his most

[18:21] cynical about humanity. At a time when

[18:23] it seemed like the only things possible

[18:25] were war and anger.

[18:26] >> We get back at them.

[18:28] >> But in true Steven Spielberg fashion,

[18:30] War of the Worlds is also about children

[18:32] of divorce. Only this time, this is a

[18:35] default backdrop instead of the central

[18:37] tension. And maybe the film is a little

[18:38] worse for it. At times, it can be too

[18:40] simple and straightforward with events

[18:42] happening around Tom Cruz's Ray Frier in

[18:45] ways he can't influence or affect. But

[18:47] this also adds to the sense of

[18:49] helplessness running throughout the

[18:50] film, making it a story about a father

[18:52] who, no matter how hard he tries, can't

[18:55] protect his kids from the horrors of the

[18:56] world.

[19:00] So close your eyes,

[19:08] wave goodbye.

[19:12] >> In an intriguing change from previous

[19:14] versions, these horrors have already

[19:16] existed deep beneath the earth's

[19:18] surface. As if this attack were an

[19:20] inevitability, intentionally or not, it

[19:23] hints at a geopolitical complexity that

[19:25] many people weren't willing to accept in

[19:26] the mid200s. the idea that the attacks

[19:29] of September 11th were deeply rooted in

[19:31] America's own foreign policy and its

[19:33] actions abroad. This in turn gives parts

[19:35] of the opening prologue a whole new

[19:37] meaning. Even though the words are taken

[19:39] directly from the book,

[19:40] >> with infinite complacency, men went to

[19:43] and fro about the globe.

[19:47] confident of our empire over this world.

[19:51] >> The aliens this time are far less human,

[19:53] which doesn't bode well for the movie as

[19:55] a political metaphor, but it does allow

[19:58] Spielberg to make the country's fears a

[19:59] little more abstract and therefore a

[20:02] little more approachable at a time when

[20:03] patriotism was used to fuel invasions

[20:05] abroad. It allowed him to translate the

[20:07] sense of cold war paranoia seen

[20:09] throughout his beloved 50s sci-fi into a

[20:12] more modern Gulf War paranoia in which

[20:14] anger and grief are channeled in

[20:16] important ways. It may not be one of

[20:17] Spielberg's most polished works, but

[20:19] it's one of the most honest about the

[20:21] state of the world. And given its

[20:23] similarities to some of his biggest

[20:25] childhood influences, it may also have

[20:27] opened the door to the next time he

[20:28] depicted aliens on screen.

[20:35] The fourth Indiana Jones is one of the

[20:38] less admired ones in the series, but

[20:41] it's also a film that, like many of

[20:42] Spielberg's classics, hearkens back to

[20:44] his childhood influences while drawing

[20:46] from a specific place of adult

[20:48] experience. Like War of the Worlds and

[20:50] AI, it's about a parent looking back at

[20:53] his legacy and the world he leaves

[20:54] behind, which also makes it kind of a

[20:56] legacy sequel before these things were

[20:59] in vogue. Crystal Skull is set in the

[21:01] 1950s at a time when alien be movies

[21:04] were on the rise and were steeped in

[21:05] cold war themes like nuclear fears,

[21:08] government mistrust, and red scare

[21:10] anti-communist sentiment. All of which

[21:12] Spielberg gets to incorporate here and

[21:14] in some cases deconstruct.

[21:16] >> I'm a capitalist

[21:18] and I pay.

[21:19] >> The central mcguffin is a psychic skull

[21:22] belonging to an extraterrestrial being.

[21:24] But deep down, the film is about the

[21:26] quest for knowledge and power, or

[21:29] knowledge as power, which proves to be

[21:31] the villain's undoing yet again. It's

[21:33] repetitive, sure, but there's a kind of

[21:35] beauty to Kate Blanchett's Ireina being

[21:37] defeated by what could be one or maybe

[21:40] even a dozen powerful aliens who, like

[21:42] the future androids in AI, are a kind of

[21:44] hive mind, represented by the extremely

[21:47] blunt symbolism of them combining to

[21:49] form a single dude. like collectivism

[21:52] triumphing over individual ambition and

[21:54] hitting you over the head.

[21:55] >> More powerful together than they can

[21:57] ever be apart.

[21:59] >> But of course, to project a coherent

[22:01] ideology onto the series is a fool's

[22:03] errand, no matter how far left its

[22:05] screenwriter tends to lean, because at

[22:06] the end of the day, its director is a

[22:08] man of personal emotional vision first

[22:10] and foremost. Crystal Skull is buoied by

[22:13] its hero wrestling with the idea of

[22:14] being a father when he finally reunites

[22:16] with Mary and Crane, his love interest

[22:18] from the first film. And when he learns

[22:20] that his sidekick, Mut, is actually his

[22:22] son. Whether or not the film succeeds at

[22:25] centering these ideas emotionally,

[22:26] they're a constant undercurrent, and

[22:28] they occasionally touch on some of

[22:30] Spielberg's more familiar themes. Even

[22:32] some of the movies most lampuned scenes

[22:34] are filled with meaning, like Indie

[22:36] escaping through a facimile of modern

[22:38] American life, filled with mannequins

[22:40] representing the kind of simple domestic

[22:43] life he's never had or allowed himself

[22:45] to have. Something a filmmaker might

[22:46] reckon with when he's away on lengthy

[22:48] shoots for months or years on end. And

[22:50] in a particular funny irony, these

[22:52] images of nuclear families are all

[22:54] destroyed by

[23:03] Well, you get the idea. While War of the

[23:06] Worlds allowed Spielberg to transpose

[23:08] his childhood favorites onto the modern

[23:10] world, Crystal Skull allowed him to play

[23:12] in their specific sandbox, mirroring the

[23:15] circumstances that led to their

[23:16] creation. It was also the perfect venue

[23:18] for Spielberg to go back to basics, for

[23:20] better or worse, with extremely simple,

[23:23] streamlined alien and flying saucer

[23:25] designs, which may as well have been

[23:27] plucked from the early days of UFO

[23:28] paranoia when he was still a kid. It may

[23:31] not be the best Indiana Jones movie, but

[23:33] it's the only one set during Spielberg's

[23:36] lifetime, and it was made at a time when

[23:38] his own kids were entering their adult

[23:40] years, forcing him to question his own

[23:42] choices and his role in their

[23:43] upbringing, much like the aging Indiana

[23:46] Jones. But with Spielberg having handed

[23:48] his back to basics adventure series to a

[23:50] new director, this leaves the door open

[23:52] for more original genre experiments and

[23:54] explorations as he turns his attention

[23:56] to Disclosure Day, a movie which

[23:58] according to actor Josh Oconor follows

[24:00] up the lingering questions introduced in

[24:02] Close Encounters and returns to the

[24:04] sci-fi inspirations that first allowed

[24:06] Spielberg to put stories of aliens and

[24:08] UFOs on the silver screen. The paranoia,

[24:11] the awe and wonder, the religious

[24:13] overtones, and the tales of childhood

[24:15] filtered through grand sci-fi spectacle

[24:17] are all threads he's woven throughout

[24:19] his work. Which makes it incredibly

[24:22] exciting that at nearly 80 years of age,

[24:24] he's chosen to revisit the kind of story

[24:26] he's been telling in new and evolving

[24:28] ways ever since he was 17.