Additional articles on Jurassic Park include (1992): Christian Moerk, “Jurassic Looks Like an F/X Classic,” Variety, September 7; Andy Marx, “Hawaiian Hurricane Shuts Down Prod’n on Jurassic,” DV, September 14; Donna Parker, “Storm Blows Jurassic Park to Costa Rica,” HR, September 14; and Army Archerd column, DV, September 15; (1993): Matt Rothman, “Computer Effects Leap Ahead,” DV, January 12; Don Lessem, ed., Jurassic Park Special Edition, The Dino Times, Spring; Richard Corliss, “Behind the Magic of Jurassic Park,” Time, April 26; Bob Fisher, “Jurassic Park: When Dinosaurs Rule the Box Office,” American Cinematographer, June; Malcolm W. Browne, “Visiting Jurassic Park for Real,” NYT, June 6; Sharon Begley, “Here Come the DNAsaurs,” and David A. Kaplan, “Believe in Magic,” Newsweek, June 14; Jody Duncan, “The Beauty in the Beasts,” Cinefex, August; Ron Magid, “After Jurassic Park, Traditional Techniques May Become Fossils,” American Cinematographer, December; and Rex Weiner, “SSFX (Special Spielberg Effects),” DV, December 7; also, Rod Bennett, “Jurassic Park and the Death of Stop-Motion Animation,” Wonder, Winter 1994–95. Information on Spielberg’s satellite hookup in Poland (1993) is from Matt Rothman, “ILM Beams F/X to Spielberg in Poland,” DV, March 29; Paula Parisi, “Dinosaurs Make Long-Distance Call,” HR, March 30; and David Gritten, “Cue the Dinosaurs: Editing Via Satellite,” LAT, May 9. George Lucas’s supervision of the film’s postproduction was reported in Archerd columns, DV, December 1, 1992, and January 13, 1993. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s comment on the “test of a first-rate intelligence” is from his 1936 essay “The Crack-Up,” in The Crack-Up, ed. by Edmund Wilson, New Directions, 1945.
Sources on the shooting schedule include Shay and Duncan, The Making of “Jurassic Park”; the August 24, 1992, production callsheet, Behind the Scenes of “Jurassic Park”; Archerd column, DV, December 1, 1992; and Universal advertisement, HR, December 2, 1992. The official production cost was reported in Thomas R. King, “Jurassic Park Offers a High-Stakes Test of Hollywood Synergy,” Wall Street Journal, February 20, 1993. Other estimates of the cost (1992) appeared in Doris Toumarkine, “Spielberg Sked: Jurassic, List,” HR, August 24 ($80 million); Joseph McBride, “Spielberg’s Jurassic Rolls Today in Kauai,” DV, August 24 ($90–100 million); and Moerk ($100 million); Fortune’s $95-million estimate is from Lane, “‘I Want Gross,’” which also estimated Spielberg’s earnings from the film. Data on the Jurassic Park vs. E.T. box-office competition are from Variety: Leonard Klady, “Spielberg’s Lizards Eat E.T.,” October 18, 1993; “Top 100 All-Time Domestic Grossers,” October 17, 1994; and “Foreign Leverage” chart, August 28, 1995. Oscar Wilde’s definition of a cynic is from his play Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892).
Stephen Jay Gould discussed Jurassic Park in “Dinomania,” The New York Review of Books, August 12, 1993, and “Jurassic Park,” in Mark C. Carnes, ed., Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies, Henry Holt, 1995. Other reviews and commentary (1993) include Julie Salamon, “Watch Out! There’s Trouble in Dinosaurland,” Wall street Journal, June 10; David Ansen, “Monsters to Haunt Your Dreams,” Newsweek, June 14; Georgia Brown, “Prospero Cooks,” The Village Voice, June 22; Henry Sheehan, “The Fears of Children,” and Peter Wollen, “Theme Park and Variations,” Sight and Sound, July; Stuart Klawans, The Nation, July 19; and Sheehan, “A Father Runs From It,” DV, December 7.
Schindler’s List is based on the novel by Thomas Keneally, Simon & Schuster, 1982 (published in England as Schindler’s Ark). The third-draft screenplay by Steven Zaillian is dated March 24, 1992. Universal Pictures, in 1993, published a Schindler’s List photo album, with an introduction by Spielberg; and “Production Information” in the film’s pressbook. Oskar Schindler’s life also was the subject of Jon Blair’s documentary film Schindler (1983). The making of Schindler’s List was documented in the “Spielberg’s Oskar” segment of Eye to Eye with Connie Chung (1993) and in “The Film Makers,” Nightline (ABC-TV), March 21, 1994. Spielberg discussed the film in 1994 on The Barbara Walters Special and in his July 18 appearance at the National Governors’ Association meeting in Boston (cablecast on C-SPAN). A Viewer’s Guide to “Schindler’s List” was published in 1994 by the Martyrs Memorial and Museum of the Holocaust, Los Angeles.
Articles on the film were collected in Fensch, ed., Oskar Schindler and His List: The Man, the Book, the Film, the Holocaust and Its Survivors. See also Abraham Zuckerman, A Voice in the Chorus: Memories of a Teenager Saved by Schindler, Longmeadow Press, 1991; and Elinor J. Brecher, foreword by Keneally, Schindler’s Legacy: True Stories of the List Survivors, Penguin, 1994. Other books on the Holocaust consulted for this study include Elie Wiesel, trans, by Stella Rodway, Night, Hill & Wang, I960; Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, Viking, 1963; Primo Levi, trans, by Stuart Woolf, Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault on Humanity, Collier, 1969; Annette Insdorf, Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust, Vintage, 1983; David S. Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941–1945, Pantheon, 1984; Claude Lanzmann, Shoah: An Oral History of the Holocaust: The Complete Text of the Film, Pantheon, 1985; Art Spiegelman, Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History, Pantheon, 1986, and Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale: And Here My Troubles Began, Pantheon, 1991; Michael Berenbaum, The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Little, Brown, 1993; Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, The Free Press, 1993; James E. Young, The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning, Yale University Press, 1993; Eva Fogelman, Conscience & Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust, Doubleday, 1994; Lawrence L. Langer, Admitting the Holocaust: Collected Essays, Oxford University Press, 1995; and Edward T. Linenthal, Preserving Memory: The Struggle to Create America’s Holocaust Museum, Viking, 1995.
Keneally commented on his book Schindler’s List and the film version in his article “It’s the Story of a Hero in Hell,” LAT, December 12, 1993; and “Creating Schindler’s List,” a lecture at Saddleback College, Mission Viejo, Ca., September 20, 1994. See also Deirdre Donahue, “How Thomas Keneally Drew Up Schindler’s List,” USA Today, December 23, 1993; Valerie Takahama, “Schindler’s Author Gives Film a Standing Ovation,” Orange County Register, January 2, 1994; Pedro E. Ponce, “Making Novels of Life’s Ethical Dilemmas,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 2, 1994; Fritz Lanham, “Keneally’s Luck,” Houston Chronicle, April 24,1994; and Tom Tugend, “The Neverending Story,” Jerusalem Post, January 13, 1995.
Other articles and interviews about the film, Oskar Schindler, and the Schindler Jews include: Archerd columns, DV, December 1, 1992, and June 17, 1993; and (1993): David Gritten, “Grim. Black and White … Spielberg?” LAT, May 9; Zoe Heller, “The Real Thing,” The Independent on Sunday (London), May 23; Perlez, “Spielberg Grapples with the Horror of the Holocaust”; Grunwald, “Steven Spielberg Gets Real”; Tugend, “Spielberg’s Remembrance of Things Past”; Elaine Dutka, “They Made the ‘List’ and Lived,” LAT, December 12; Weinraub, “Steven Spielberg Faces the Holocaust”; Guthmann, “Spielberg’s List”; Shah, “Steven Spielberg, Seriously”; Ansen, “Spielberg’s Obsession,” Jonathan Alter, “After the Survivors,” and Mark Miller, “The Real Schindler,” Newsweek, December 20; Harry Sumrall, “Schindler’s Legacy,” San Jose Mercury News, December 23; “Interview: Ray Stella, SOC,” The Operating Cameraman Magazine, Winter; and Royal, “An Interview with Steven Spielberg”;
And (1994): Richardson, “Steven’s Choice”; Karen Erbach, “Schindler’s List Finds Heroism Amidst Holocaust,” American Cinematographer, January; Rabbi Eli Hecht, “When Will Jews Let It Rest?” LAT, January 2; Michael Wilmington, “Redefining Spielberg,” The Arizona Republic, January 9; Kirk Honeycutt, “Despite Quake, Show Must Go On at L.A. Critics Fete,” HR, January 20; Anne Thompson, “How Steven Spielberg Brought Schindler’s List to Life,” Entertainment Weekly, January 21; Peter Rainer, “Why the Schindler’s List Backlash?” LAT, January 30; Br
ian Case, “The Reich Stuff,” Time Out (London), February 9–16; Blair, “Spielberg Comes of Age”; Andrew Nagorski, “Schindler’s List Hits Home,” Newsweek, March 14; Richard Wolin, “Schindler’s List and the Politics of Remembrance,” In These Times, March 21–April 3; Diana Jean Schemo, “Good Germans: Honoring the Heroes. And Hiding the Holocaust,” NYT, June 12 (including Claude Lanzmann’s criticism); “Florida Will Teach Holocaust,” B’nai B’rith Messenger, August 26; “Spielberg Donates Schindler’s Profits to Foundation,” and Sue Fishkoff, “More Schools Turn to Schindler’s List as Educational Tool,” Jewish Bulletin, September 16; (1995): Rabbi Marvin Hier, “Heroes Aren’t the Story, Villainy Is,” LAT, January 19; Sherry Amatenstein, “‘A Rescue Mission with a Time Clock,’” USA Weekend, May 5–7; Catherine Jordan and Lisa de Moraes, “Humor of Schindler Spoof Lost on Spielberg,” HR, September 18, 1995; and (1996): Leopold Page, “Remembering Schindler’s Humanity,” LAT, May 6.
Information on Roman Polanski’s experiences in the Kraków ghetto liquidation is from his autobiography Roman by Polanski, Morrow, 1984, and Lawrence Weschler, “Artist in Exile,” The New Yorker, December 5, 1994 (which also reported on Spielberg offering him Schindler’s List). Billy Wilder’s interest in making the film was reported in Shah and in Archerd’s column, DV, December 21, 1993. Scorsese’s involvement was reported by Richardson. Bruck, Master of the Game, reported on Spielberg’s film for Steve Ross.
Schindler’s List reviews and commentaries include (1993): David Denby, “Unlikely Hero,” New York, December 13; Janet Maslin, “Imagining the Holocaust to Remember It,” NYT, December 15; Scott Rosenberg, “The Paradox of a Candle,” San Francisco Examiner, December 15; Henry Sheehan, “The Family Values of Steven Spielberg,” Orange County Register, December 19; Terrence Rafferty, “A Man of Transactions,” The New Yorker, December 20; Newman, “Spielberg’s Bar Mitzvah”; and (1994): Philip Gourevitch, “A Dissent on Schindler’s List,” Commentary, February; Bob Strauss, “Surprise! Oscar Goes Conventional,” LADN, February 10; Simon Louvish, “Witness,” Sight and Sound, March; David Thomson, “Presenting Enamelware,” and White, “Toward a Theory of Spielberg History,” Film Comment, March–April; J. Hoberman et al., “Schindler’s List: Myth, Movie, and Memory,” The Village Voice, March 29 (including Art Spiegelman’s comments); and Norbert Friedman, Rabbi Uri D. Herscher, and Ruth King, letters to the editor, Commentary, June. President Bill Clinton’s comment on the film is from “Spielberg’s Oskar.” Articles about the voting of critics’ groups (1993) include Todd McCarthy, “L.A. Crix Tap List, Piano,” DV, December 13, and “Crix Crux Is a Crock,” Variety, December 27; Martin A. Grove, “L.A. Spielberg Snub Tops List of Party Buzz,” HR, December 15; Kirk Honeycutt, “Schindler Takes N.Y., but Critics Hear Piano,” HR, December 16; Jack Mathews, “N.Y. Writers Pick List but Bypass Spielberg,” LAT, December 16; and Donna Parker, “L.A. Critics: No Snub of Director Spielberg,” HR, December 17–19. Box-office figures on Schindler’s List are from Variety’s August 28, 1995, “Foreign Leverage” chart.
Sources on Spielberg’s Shoah project include Allan Holzman’s 1996 documentary films Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation (Turner Home Entertainment) and Survivors of the Holocaust (Turner Original Productions). Spielberg TV interviews about the project include 20/20 (ABC, July 14, 1995), Larry King Live (CNN, August 2, 1995), and Oprah (syndicated, May 22, 1996). Articles include (1994): Connie Benesch, “Spielberg’s List: The Survivors,” HR, September 1; “List Director Seeks to Preserve Holocaust History,” LADN, September 1; Rosanne Keynan, “Spielberg Leads Huge Holocaust On-Line Project,” LAT, October 1; Bernard Weinraub, “Spielberg Is Recording Holocaust Survivors’ Stories,” NYT, November 10; and Laura Shapiro, “‘A Race Against Time,’” Newsweek, November 21; (1995): Michael Haile, “Reminting Schindler’s Gold,” Boxoffice, April; Trip Gabriel, “Spielberg Braves Society for a Cause,” NYT, August 18; Karen W. Arenson, “From Schindler’s List, a Jewish Mission,” NYT, September 24; and Robin Abcarian, “The Worst of Times—on the Record,” LAT, October 18; and (1996): Adam Schatz and Alissa Quart, “Spielberg’s List,” The Village Voice, January 9; and David Usborne, “Spielberg Builds Huge Holocaust Database,” The Independent on Sunday (London), January 7; Anick Jesdanum, “Spielberg’s Holocaust Project Gets Boost from U.S. Senate,” LADN, July 24; and “War and Remembrance,” USA Today, July 24.
Articles on the establishment of DreamWorks SKG include (1994): Anita M. Busch, “Three Men & Their Baby,” DV, October 12; Alan Citron and Claudia Eller, “‘Dream Team’ Trio Outline Plans for Studio,” and James Bates and Elaine Dutka, “Bravos and Shudders Greet Moguls’ Plan for New Studio,” LAT, October 13; John Brodie and Anita M. Busch, “Troika Sets Town Atwitter,” DV, October 13; Kirk Honeycutt, “Hollywood’s ‘Dream Team,’” HR, October 13; Bernard Weinraub, “3 Holywood Giants Team Up to Create Major Movie Studio,” NYT, October 13; Weinraub and Fabrikant, “A Hollywood Recipe: Vision, Wealth, Ego”; Robert W. Welkos, “Big News, but Where Are the Big Plans?” LAT, October 21; Jim Impoco, “Hollywood’s Dream Team,” U.S. News & World Report, October 24; Richard Corliss, “A Studio Is Born,” Time, October 24; Michael Meyer and Charles Fleming, “Hollywood Poker,” Newsweek, October 24; Citron and Eller, “‘Dream Team’s’ 1st Project: Mastering Spin Control,” LAT, October 25; (1995): Corliss, “Hey, Let’s Put On a Show!” (cover story), Time, March 27; Kim Masters, “What’s Ovitz Got to Do with It?” Vanity Fair, April; Henry Chu, “DreamWorks Studio Stirs Rivalry of Civic Suitors,” LAT, April 1; Martin Peers, “DreamWorks Gets Coin in Line,” DV, April 25; Honeycutt, “The Rights of DreamWorks,” HR, May 1; Bates and Eller, “DreamWorks, MCA Ally on Distribution,” LAT, June 14; and Thomas R. King, “MCA, DreamWorks Reach Wide-Ranging Distribution Accord,” Wall Street Journal, June 14; (1996): Wade Major, “Dream in the Works: A Complete Update on the SKG Co-Venture,” Boxoffice, April; Lee Condon, “DreamWorks, Glendale Deal Nearing Completion,” LADN, May 18; James Bates and Jesus Sanchez, “Playa Vista: A Project in Frustration,” LAT, November 1; and J. William Gibson, “All Wet at Ballona Creek,” L.A. Weekly, December 6–12; and (1997): Jeff Stockwell, “Getting Swamped,” Premiere, January.
Information on Steven Spielberg’s Director’s Chair is from David Kronke, “ROMantics,” Premiere, August 1996; a review by Ann Kwinn, Boxoffice, October 1996; and Bob Strauss, “Electric Chair,” Entertainment Weekly, October 11, 1996. Spielberg discussed his Howard Hughes film project in Ebert and Siskel, The Future of the Movies. Lesley Blanch’s comment on George Cukor is quoted in Gavin Lambert, On Cukor, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1972.
17. MOGUL AND DIRECTOR ( PP. 449 – 68)
Spielberg’s description of DreamWorks as “a place driven by ideas” is from the initial press conference for the launch of the studio, reported in Peter Bart, “Lost in a Dream,” GQ, August 2000. David Geffen called Spielberg a “workaholic” in Stephen Galloway, “A Life in the Pictures,” HR special issue on Spielberg, March 2002. Spielberg’s comments on his multitasking are from Bart’s articles “Spielberg’s Corporate Odyssey,” DV, February 10, 2009; and “Stevie Wonder,” GQ, September 1998. Spielberg’s concerns about whether DreamWorks should have been built up more slowly are from Richard Corliss, “Hey, Let’s Put on a Show!” Time, March 27, 1995. A colleague’s comment on Spielberg’s depression over his business duties is from Corliss and Jeffrey Ressner, “Peter Pan Grows Up—But Can He Still Fly?” Time, May 19, 1997. Spielberg gave David Geffen primary credit for running the company in Michael Cieply, “David Geffen Makes a Sudden Exit,” NYT, October 27, 2008. Spielberg’s claim, “We don’t run with the herd,” is from the Chicago Sun-Times, quoted by Screen International, 1997. Laurie MacDonald called DreamWorks “eccentric” in Nick Madigan, “Bigger Dream in the Works,” Variety, August 2, 1999.
Spielberg discussed his “experimenting” in the DreamWorks documentary Final Report (2002), included on the DVD edition of Minority Report. His comparison of his credits with John Ford’
s can be heard in The American Film Institute Salute to Steven Spielberg, NBC-TV, 1995. Spielberg recalled his meeting with Ford in Randall Lane, “‘I Want Gross,’” Forbes, September 26, 1994; an interview conducted by executive producer Richard Schickel for the 1998 American Film Institute/TNT series 100 Years … 100 Movies; and “Catching Movies with: Steven Spielberg & Martin Scorsese on Catch Me If You Can,” DGA Magazine, January 2003. Spielberg talked about emulating the working pace of directors from the Golden Age in David Gritten, “When the Going Gets Tough,” LAT, May 10, 1998. A. O. Scott wrote about Spielberg’s standing in the American cinema in “The Studio-Indie, Pop-Prestige, Art-Commerce King: Why Steven Spielberg really is the greatest living American director,” NYT Magazine, November 9, 2003.
Spielberg’s accident en route to the Peacemaker premiere was reported on September 24, 1997, in “Spielberg Crash,” DV, and “Spielberg Suffers Sprained Shoulder in Car Accident,” LAT; he reported what happened to LAT reporter Bill Higgins (quoted by Nicole LaPorte in her book The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies, and a Company Called DreamWorks, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston and New York, 2010), and he joked about the accident in Nick Madigan, “Amistad sails into L.A. on starry night,” DV, December 11, 1997. The problems with the Playa Vista project are discussed in Dan Kimmel, The Dream Team: The Rise and Fall of DreamWorks: Lessons from the New Hollywood, Ivan R. Dee, Chicago, 2006, and coverage in DV, HR, LAT, and other publications; the DreamWorks partners’ announcement and discussion of their plans for the studio was reported in James Sterngold, “Vast New DreamWorks Film Lot,” NYT, December 14, 1995, and Spielberg elaborated in Madigan, “Playa Vista Visions,” DV, September 28, 1998. The author attended a community panel discussion, “DreamWorks in the Ballona Wetlands: How Will It Impact the Pacific Palisades?” at the Pacific Palisades branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, March 27, 1996, and read material distributed by the Friends of Ballona Wetlands and Save Ballona Wetlands. Spielberg’s comment “I wanted to cry” is from Gabriel Snyder, “Spielberg may downsize pics,” DV, June 9, 2006; Spielberg discussed the studio in his article “A Wish Your Heart Makes,” Boxoffice, October 1996. Jill Stewart criticized Spielberg in “Jamming Up DreamWorks,” New Times Los Angeles, July 30–August 5, 1996.
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