In 2005, Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks produced a 6 episode miniseries that spanned the period of expansion of the United States into the American West, from 1825 to 1890. Through fictional and historical characters, the series used two primary symbols--the wagon wheel and the Lakota medicine wheel -- to join the story of two families: one Native American, one White settlers, as they witnessed many of the 19th century's pivotal historical milestones. The award-winning
Into The West can now be
seen in its entirety on YouTube.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Sep 20, 2012 -
12 comments
"Is cinema a language about to get lost, an art about to die?" [Vimeo] During the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, Wim Wenders set up a static camera in room 666 of the Hotel Martinez and provided selected film directors (inc. Spielberg, Godard, Fassbinder & Herzog) a list of questions to answer concerning the future of cinema. Each director was given one 16 mm reel (approximately 11 minutes) to answer.
posted by urbanwhaleshark
on Mar 25, 2012 -
20 comments
The "Raiders" Story Conference In 1978 George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Lawrence Kasdan spent five consecutive nine-hour days hashing out the characters and plot for
Raiders of the Lost Ark. The 125-page transcript of their meetings, unreleased before now, details their
insane talent and techniques for populist storytelling. (It also makes one wonder what happened to George Lucas, a man who once had a
math formula for exciting cinema.)
via Ain't It Cool News, unfortunately
posted by incomple
on Mar 10, 2009 -
135 comments
The making of a D-Day tradition... I immediately get
goosebumps when I hear the score of
Band of Brothers...I'm not sure why, maybe it was my local connections (
Dick Winters,
Bill Guanere,
Albert Blithe,
Babe Heffron,
Thomas Meehan,
Ralph Spina,
Harry Welsh, and
Robert Strayer are all from Philadelphia), the surrounding suburbs, or Pennsylvania), or maybe it was because the original airings took place in the shadow of 9/11 (the premiere was September 9th, 2001, with the D-Day drop occuring in the second episode, Day of Days, on 9/16/2001), but this series will ALWAYS have a special place in my heart. Everything is done so beautifully, from
the special effects, to the sound,
the music, to the dutiful translation from
Stephen Ambrose book to the screen. It's certainly worthy of the
9.5 out of 10 that IMDB readers had given it. Every year now since, either HBO (On Demand - you have to subscribe to HBO plus have digital cable) or
the History Channel has played
Tom Hanks' and
Steven Spielberg's masterful WW2 epic. You can think of it as Saving Private Ryan, but 3 times as long. Even if war movies are not your thing, I can almost guarantee that they will see the human side of the soldier and becomely deeply invested in the characters. Follow the men of Easy Company from training and the running of Currahee, to the parachute jump on D-Day, through the liberation of Europe, the horror of a German concentration camp, and eventually to the end of the war, to Hitler's mountaintop retreat. I'm not the only one - check out the numerous fan sites to BoB (forum shorthand for Band of Brothers)
here,
here, and
here, as well as entries on
TVTome,
Wikipedia, and
Television without Pity. If you want to try before you commit to watching the whole thing, I'd recommend the episodes
Day of Days,
Crossroads, and
the Breaking Point.
posted by rzklkng
on Jun 4, 2005 -
24 comments
Indiana Jones and the Geriatric Star Spielberg and Ford confirm it to Fox News -- Indy will don his fedora again after Spielberg's next project. The film has a title and a script (they're mum on both). Can Harrison Ford be a believable hero at his age? He looked winded in Air Force One a few years ago...
posted by krewson
on Jan 22, 2002 -
42 comments
A.I.'s chatbot from the movie's website is pretty nifty, even if it doesn't know David or recognize any other obvious questions about the movie.
posted by Zebulun
on Jul 11, 2001 -
41 comments
Not-So-Deep-Blue! Why wait for Spielberg's
AI. Play 20 Questions with a computer
now.
(Click on Play 20Q, then Anonymous Login if you prefer not to register).
posted by geronimo_rex
on Jun 8, 2001 -
4 comments
As noted earlier this
month, there are slew of websites connected to Spielberg’s AI. As it turns out, they are all part of an
intricate game that stands to last long after the movie comes out. That game is called “movie marketing,” albiet terribly engrossing marketing.
posted by capt.crackpipe
on Apr 30, 2001 -
7 comments
A.I. is already into advertising. BELLADERMA-SRL-IT.COM, INOURIMAGE.ORG, METROPOLITANLIVINGHOMES.COM, DONU-TECH.COM, ROGUERETRIEVAL.COM, SPCB.ORG, ELECTRIC-TOYLAND.COM, KATENEI.COM, FAMILYCHAN.ORG, MARTINSWINTONDESIGNS.COM, RATIONAL-HATTER.COM, UNITE-AND-RESIST.ORG, JEANINESALLA.COM, MARTINSWINTON.COM, CORONERSWEB.ORG, TREACLE-WELL.NET, ONE-LUMP-OR-TWO.NET, OFFWITHHISHEAD.NET, ALEPH-NAUGHT.ORG, ELIZAS-TEAROOM.NET, RAVEN-LIKE-WRITING-DESK.NET, www.bangaloreworldu-in.co.nz are all part of the a.i. website.
more inside...
posted by tiaka
on Apr 11, 2001 -
13 comments
