STEVEN SPIELBERG

The most successful director in movie history, Steven Spielberg has been responsible for such box-office blockbusters as JURASSIC PARK, JAWS, E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, and the INDIANA JONES trilogy. And yet throughout much of his career, Spielberg's work has been undervalued by critics who have questioned his emotional maturity and intellectual seriousness. It was not until he made SCHINDLER'S LIST in 1993 that he was widely recognized as a serious filmmaker. Until now, much about Steven Spielberg's personality and the forces that shaped it has remained enigmatic, in large part because of his tendency to obscure and mythologize his own past. Michael Crichton, author of the books upon which Spielberg based JURASSIC PARK and THE LOST WORLD, wrote of him in 1995: "He is arguably the most influential popular artist of the twentieth century. And arguably the least understood." In this full-scale, in-depth biography of Steven Spielberg, Joseph McBride reveals hidden dimensions of the filmmaker's personality and shows how deeply personal even his most commercial work has been. With the same breadth of research and clarity of insight that characterized his acclaimed biography of Frank Capra, McBride has gone in search of the true Steven Spielberg, interviewing more than 325 of the director's friends and associates, many of whom had never spoken about him before.

Writing a biography is tough enough when the subject is dead and the biographer must rely on a paper trail and recollections of contemporaries to relate the essence of the man or woman's life. When the subject still lives--and especially when he is as powerful as Steven Spielberg--a whole new set of problems emerge. For one thing, it's difficult to find anyone willing to criticize a man who pulls as many strings in the film industry as Spielberg; for another, how does one evaluate a career that is still in progress? If the definitive Spielberg biography cannot yet be written, Joseph McBride's Steven Spielberg: A Biography will suffice in the interim. Though certainly affected by the aforementioned constraints, McBride still creates an impressive portrait of the man behind Schindler's List, E.T., Jurassic Park, and many, many more.

McBride is especially effective at limning the contours of Spielberg's childhood. Born in 1946 to Arnold and Leah Spielberg, the young Steven endured both frequent moves and his parents' unhappy domestic life. These factors, combined with the anti-Semitism he encountered as a teenager, drove the introverted Spielberg to seek approval through filmmaking. In addition to exploring Spielberg's private life, McBride offers some perceptive criticism of his work. Anyone interested in the film industry and Spielberg's place in it will find Joseph McBride's Steven Spielberg a valuable resource.