Table Of ContentPRAISE FOR STEVEN SPIELBERG: A BIOGRAPHY, SECOND EDITION
"Joseph McBride's biography of Steven Spielberg is the touchstone all film fans,
students, and scholars of Spielberg's work should find indispensable. This sore-
ly needed and very welcome updated edition offers views and well-reasoned
and -argued defenses on wrongly neglected and dismissed modern works like
Amistad and A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Filled with perceptive, insightful, and
critical analysis of Spielberg's canon, McBride's book should engender further
understanding, discussion, and plenty of material for spirited conversation and
even debate on Steven Spielberg's filmography and personal history."
—Steven Await, Editor, SpielbergFilms.com
PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION
"Joseph McBride has written a brilliant book about Steven Spielberg, truly a la-
bor of love." —Fred Zinnemann
"An extraordinarily perceptive analysis of an extraordinarily gifted director."
—Roger Gorman
"Compulsively readable. . . . This will get us as close to Spielberg as we can with-
out being Kate Capshaw." —New Times (Los Angeles)
"McBride writes with impressive detail and sensitivity. He admires his subject's
work, but he isn't afraid to enumerate the flaws. . . . [An] exemplary portrait, as
close to an authoritative book on Spielberg's work as is possible at this point."
—Shawn Levy, New York Times Book Review
"Shrewd and unsentimental. . . . [A] splendid introduction to the life and work of
this fascinating director." —Publishers Weekly
"A penetrating, incisive biography of the young but already legendary filmmaker.
. . . Film history at its best: rich in information, often dazzling in perception. . . .
McBride patiently debunks many of the myths generated by Spielberg himself
and examines the ways in which his troubled early years manifest themselves in
the work. . . . [He] details the making of each of Spielberg's films and critiques
them with vivid insight. His impassioned defense of such problematic works as
The Color Purple and Empire of the Sun makes the reader want to see them again."
—Kirkus Reviews
"[A] compelling, authoritative, and smartly chatty new biography. . . . Of all the
amazing stories Steven Spielberg has brought us, none may be more amazing
than his own." —Boston Globe
"It is McBride's book you invariably trust on a factual level. Steven Spielberg is
based on a prodigious amount of research. McBride dug up documents as far
back as a grandfather's will and even got an invitation to the director's thirtieth
high school reunion." —Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Thorough, insightful and probing. . . . [The author] tells the story with richness
of detail and pungent observation. Until Spielberg pens his promised memoirs,
McBride's portrait will serve very well indeed." —Philadelphia Inquirer
"[The author] delivers the goods in this intelligent biography. Spielberg's evolv-
ing artistry is traced in its full arc." —American Cinematographer
"McBride's knowledge of the film industry is impressive, and the extent to which
he has followed Spielberg, obvious. . . . [A] fascinating and in-depth account."
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
"[A] comprehensive story-so-far that serves as an entertaining, informative his-
tory as well as a thoughtful guide to Spielberg's works. ... It is unauthorized
but not salacious, admiring but critical." —Chicago Tribune
"There is so much new in this extensively researched, extraordinarily well-writ-
ten biography that it will please the most knowledgeable movie buff and will
certainly be appreciated by casual Spielberg fans." —Kansas City Star
"Easily the finest and fairest of the unauthorized biographies of the director."
—Time
"[This book] vividly details the subject's boyhood years, family life, fierce ambi-
tion, mighty talent, and movies with alacrity and fairness. . . . [An] immediate
benchmark in film literature." —Cinemania Online
"Indispensable. . . . All future biographers will have to stop here first; likewise,
all movie lovers who want to understand Spielberg and his place in film history .
. . [McBride] gives us the muscle and marrow of a misunderstood, paradoxically
reclusive, world-renowned public figure—and the story he tells energizes his
thorough, tough-minded critiques of Spielberg's films."
—L.A. Weekly Literary Supplement
"[A] definitive work, and likely to remain so. Spielberg is our companion for an
eye-opening tour beyond the locked doors that barricade Hollywood's corridors
of power. . . . This is a fascinating story, superbly told." —Sun-Sentinel (Florida)
S T E V EN
S P I E L B E RG
A Biography
S E C O N D E D I T I O N
Joseph McBride
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI
JACKSON
www.upress.state.ms.us
The University Press of Mississippi is a member of the Association of
American University Presses.
Portions of the work were published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis
Group in the journal New Review of Film and Television Studies
Copyright © 2010 by Joseph McBride
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing 2010
00
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McBride, Joseph, 1947-
Steven Spielberg : a biography / Joseph McBride. — 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Originally published: New York : Simon and Schuster, c!997.
Includes filmography and videography.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60473-836-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-60473-
837-7 1. Spielberg, Steven, 1946- 2. Motion picture producers and
directors—United States—Biography. I. Title.
PN1998.3.S65M32 2010
791.430233092—dc22
{B} 2010020935
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
To Jean Oppenheimer
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C O N T E N TS
PROLOGUE: "CECIL B. DE$PIELBERG" 11
1 "HOW WONDROUS ARE 1~HY WORKS" 16
2 "MAZIK" 35
3 "MESHUGGENEH" 50
4 "A WIMP IN A WORLD OF JOCKS" 66
5 "BiG SPIEL" 94
6 "HELL ON EARTH" 112
7 "A HELL OF A BIG BREAK" 135
8 "THIS TREMENDOUS MEATGRINDER" 167
9 'THE STEVEN SPIELBERG BUSINESS" 199
10 "A PRIMAL SCREA 2 2 6
11 WATCH THE SKIES 261
12 "REHAB" 293
13 "ECSTACY AND GRIEF " 323
14 "ADULT TRUTHS" 359
15 "AN AWFULLY BIG ADVENTURE" 379
16 MENSCH 414
17 MOGUL AND DIRECTOR 449
18 MAINSTREAM INDEPENDENT 469
19 LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS 487
20 "400-POUND GORILLA" 505
8 C O N T E N TS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 533
NOTES ON SOURCES 539
CHAPTER NOTES 547
FlLMOGRAPHY AND VlDE 597
INDEX 608
He is arguably the most influential popular artist of the
twentieth century. And arguably the least understood.
— MICHAEL CRICHTON, 1995 19995
Description:Until the first edition of Steven Spielberg: A Biography was published in 1997, much about Spielberg's personality and the forces that shaped it had remained enigmatic, in large part because of his tendency to obscure and mythologize his own past. But in this first full-scale, in-depth biography of
