Steven Spielberg (115 page)

Sources on the controversy over the film’s violence and its PG rating (and over the PG rating for
Gremlins)
include the author’s interviews with Huyck, Katz, Tomblin, and Dante; Caulfield, “Spielberg Is Upset; So Is the Rating,”
LAT,
May 7, 1982; Pollock, “Spielberg Gets Place to Settle Down”; Chute; Harmetz, “Hollywood Plans New Rating to Protect Children Under 13,”
NYT,
June 20, 1984; “Revising the Rating System,”
News-
week,
July 2, 1984; and Jacqueline R. Smetak, “Steven Spielberg: Gore, Guts, and PG-13,”
Journal
of
Popular
Film
&
Television,
Spring 1986. Other commentary on
Temple
of
Doom
includes Ralph Novak’s review in
People,
June 4, and Henry Sheehan’s essay “The Panning of Steven Spielberg.” Bruno Bettelheim’s comments on fairy tales are from his book
The
Uses
of
Enchantment,
Knopf, 1976.

Sources on Kate Capshaw include: Segrave,
Up
and
Coming
Actresses;
Vance Muse,
We
Bombed
in
Burbank:
A
Joyride
to
Prime
Time,
Addison-Wesley, 1994; Roderick Mann, “Kate Capshaw Gets Plum Role in
Indiana
Jones,”
LAT,
March 29, 1983; 1984 articles by Michael J. Bandler, “Kate Capshaw,”
Moviegoer,
June; Nancy Griffin, “Jungle Chums: Indy and Willie in a Race with Doom,”
Life,
June; Thomas McKelvey Cleaver,
“Meet Kate Capshaw: Companion in High Adventure,”
Starlog,
June; Phoebe Sherman, “Kate Who?”
Marquee,
June–July; Mann, “Capshaw: Her Career Is Not Constricting,”
LAT,
June 10; Pat H. Broeske, “Kate Capshaw:
Indiana
Jones
Heroine Lights the Screen with Four New Films,”
Drama-Logue,
June 14–20; Jeff Jarvis, “Who’s That Woman in the Summer’s Smash Movie With What’s-His-Name? It’s Newcomer Kate Capshaw,”
People,
July 2 (which quotes Gene Siskel on her role in
Indiana
Jones
and
the
Tem
ple
of
Doom);
Lois Draegin, “Beginner’s Guts,”
Self,
August; and Stephen Farber, “Caps Off to Capshaw,”
Cosmopolitan,
October; also, Donald Chase, “Kate Capshaw’s ‘Comeback,’”
Movieline,
February 7–13, 1986; Salamon, “The Long Voyage Home”; Schiff; Melina Gerosa, “Kate Capshaw: Loving Steven,”
Ladies’
Home
Journal,
October 1994; Johanna Schneller, “Kate Capshaw,”
US,
February 1996; and Cindy Pearlman, “My Funny Valentine,”
Premiere,
March 1996. Leo Rosten’s
The
Joys
of
Yiddish
was published in 1968 by McGraw-Hill.

Sources on Amy Irving’s reunion with Spielberg, their son Max, and their marriage include Barbara Walz and Jill Barber,
Starring
Mothers:
30
Portraits
of
Accomplished
Women,
Doubleday, 1987; Hirschberg; “Amy Irving and Steven Spielberg Collaborate on a Little Gremlin,”
People,
November 19, 1984; Black; “Filmmaker Steven Spielberg and Actress Amy Irving Exchange Vows at Private Ceremony in Santa Fe, N.M.” (press release), Warner Bros., November 1985; “Spielberg, Irving Marry,”
Haddonfield
(N.J.)
Courier-Post,
November 1985; Roger Ebert, “Director in Focus: Spielberg,”
Movieline,
December 27, 1985–January 2, 1986; “Amy Irving and Max,”
Redbook,
August 1986; Jahr; and Schiff. The birth of Max Samuel Spielberg was reported in Gregg Kilday, “It’s a Boy!”
LAHE,
June 14, 1985; Spielberg called him “my best production yet” in Eric Sherman, “What’s Hot: Couples,”
Ladies’
Home
Journal,
February 1988. Their Pacific Palisades home was described by
Architectural
Digest
in Harry Hurt III,
“Architectural
Digest
Visits: Steven Spielberg and Amy Irving,” May 1989, and Pilar Viladas, “Steven Spielberg: The Director Expands His Horizons in Pacific Palisades,” April 1994. Information on Spielberg and
Yentl
is from Shaun Considine,
Barbra
Streisand:
The
Woman,
the
Myth,
the
Music,
Delacorte, 1985; Randall Riese,
Her
Name
Is
Barbra,
Birch Lane Press, 1993; and James Spada,
Streisand:
Her
Life,
Crown, 1995.

Information on the 1984 formation of Amblin Entertainment and on Spielberg’s complex at Universal is from Dale Pollock, “Spielberg Gets Place to Settle Down,”
LAT,
May 21, 1984; Jack Kroll and David T. Friendly, “The Wizard of Wonderland,”
Newsweek,
June 4, 1984; “Terrestrial Sphere: Steven Spielberg’s Hollywood Headquarters,”
Architectural
Digest,
May 1985; and Nancy Griffin and Ann Bayer, “Spielberg: Husband, Father and Hitmaker,”
Life,
May 1986. For sources on Steve Ross, see notes for chapter 15.

The
Color
Purple
is based on the novel by Alice Walker, Washington Square Press, 1983. Menno Meyjes’s third-draft shooting script was dated May 31, 1985, and titled
Moon
Song.
The author interviewed Allen Daviau and Margaret Avery. Walker commented on the film in her 1996 book
The
Same
River
Twice:
Honoring
the
Difficult,
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1996 (which includes her 1984 journal entry; her unused 1984 screenplay adaptation,
Watch
For
Me
in
the
Sunset,
or
The
Color
Purple;
and her July 21, 1989, letter to Spielberg); and in her
Ms.
articles “Finding Celie’s Voice,” December 1985, and “In the Closet of the Soul,” November 1986. She was interviewed in 1985 by William Goldstein, “Alice Walker on the Set of
The
Color
Purple,
”
Publishers
Weekly,
September 6; and Mona Gable, “Author Alice Walker Discusses
The
Color
Purple,
”
Wall
Street
Journal,
December 19. Walker was quoted on
E.T.
in Karen Jaehne, “The Final Word,”
Cineaste,
15, No. 1, 1986.

Reports on the filming of
The
Color
Purple
include Susan Dworkin, “The Strange and Wonderful Story of the Making of
The
Color
Purple,
”
Ms.,
December 1985; Elena Featherston, “The Making of
The
Color
Purple,
”
San
Francisco
Focus,
December 1985; Collins, “Spielberg Films
The
Color
Purple”;
and February 1986
American
Cinematogra
pber
articles by George Turner, “Spielberg Makes ‘All Too Human’ Story,” and Al Harrell, “The Look of
The
Color
Purple.
”
Also quoted is Jean Oppenheimer’s 1991 interview with Daviau. Meyjes was interviewed by Marie Saxon Silverman, “Dutch Scripter Found Universality of People Key to
Purple
Project,”
Variety,
March 12, 1986. Additional data on the filming are from “Production Information,” Warner Bros., 1985.

Sources on Whoopi Goldberg include Philip Wuntch, “Celebrity Status Makes Whoopi a Little Uneasy,”
Chicago
Tribune,
December 21, 1985; “Whoopi Goldberg,”
People,
December 23, 1985; Cathleen McGuigan, “Whoopee for Whoopi,”
Newsweek,
December 30, 1985; Carinthia West, “Purple Reign,”
US,
January 13, 1986; Steve Erickson, “Whoopi Goldberg,”
Rolling
Stone,
May 8, 1986, and David Rensin,
“Playboy
Interview: Whoopi Goldberg,” June 1987. Sources on Oprah Winfrey include her syndicated TV show
Oprah,
May 22, 1996, on which Spielberg appeared and she read from her 1985 journal; Robert Waldron,
Oprah!,
St. Martin’s Press, 1987; “Yes, Sir, Steven …”
Chicago
Tribune,
September 5, 1985; Jane Galbraith, “Winfrey Tickled Pink by
Purple
Role,”
DV,
January 31, 1986; Bruce Cook, “Oprah Winfrey Enjoying Sweet Success,”
LADN,
March 17, 1986; and Gary Ballard, “Oprah Winfrey,”
Drama-Logue,
March 20–26, 1986. See also (1986): Jack Mathews, “3
Color
Purple
Actresses Talk About Its Impact,”
LAT,
January 31, and Nan Robertson, “Actresses’ Varied Roads to
The
Color
Purple,” NYT,
February 13.

Articles on the controversy over the film include (1985): Jeffrey Ressner, “Media Monitoring Group to Protest
Color
Purple
Pic,”
HR,
November 1; Emily Gibson, “Black Like She,”
L.A.
Weekly,
November 1; “Black Marchers Protest Film,”
LAHE,
November 10; Mathews, “Some Blacks Critical of Spielberg’s
Purple,
”
LAT,
December 20; and Charles Champlin, “Spielberg’s Primary ‘Colors,’”
LAT,
December 28; and in 1986: “Does
Purple
Hate Men?”
Chicago
Tribune,
January 5; E. R. Shipp, “Blacks in Heated Debate over
The
Color
Purple,
”
NYT,
January 27; Lynn Norment,
“The
Color
Purple,
”
Ebony,
February; Jacqueline Trescott, “The Passions over
Purple,
”
Washington
Post,
February 5; Legrand H. Clegg II, “Bad Black Roles in
Purple,
”
letter to
LAT,
February 16; and John Stark, “Seeing Red Over
Purple,”
People,
March 10.

Reviews (1985) include Peter Rainer, “One Wonders Why Spielberg Wanted to Do
Color
Purple,”
LAHE,
December 18; John Powers, “Sister, Where Art Thou?”
L.A.
Weekly,
December 20; Rita Kempley,
“Purple:
Making Whoopi a Star,”
Washington
Post,
December 20; Siskel,
“Color
Purple
—Powerful, Daring, Sweetly Uplifting,”
Chicago
Tribune,
December 20; Richard Corliss, “The Three Faces of Steve,”
Time,
December 23; J. Hoberman, “Color Me Purple,”
The
Village
Voice,
December 24; David Ansen, “We Shall Overcome,”
Newsweek,
December 30; and Pauline Kael, “Sacred Monsters,”
The
New
Yorker,
December 30. The description of the film as
“Close
Encounters
with
the
Third
World”
is from “The Color Spielberg,”
LAHE,
December 12, 1985. Armond White’s comments are from his essay “Toward a Theory of Spielberg History,”
Film
Comment,
March–April 1994. The critical reception of
The
Color
Purple
was analyzed in 1985 articles by Pat H. Broeske and John M. Wilson, “Seeing Red Over
Purple,”
LAT,
December 22; Martin Grove, “Hollywood Report,”
HR,
December 26; and Broeske, “Color
Purple
Different Shades,”
LAT,
December 29; information on top-ten lists is from Pat McGilligan and Mark Rowland, “Critics Went Gunning for Stallone in ’85,”
LAT,
January 19, 1986.

Articles on Spielberg’s omission from the 1986 Academy Award directing nominations, and his subsequent Directors Guild of America award, include Army Archerd column,
DV,
February 6; Mathews, “Spielberg Upstages Oscar Race,”
LAT,
February 7; Kroll, “The Snubbing of Spielberg,”
Newsweek,
February 17; letters to the editor,
DV,
by Andre de Toth, February 18, and Sy Gomberg, February 19; “Seeing Red Over
Purple”;
David T. Friendly, “Spielberg’s Revenge—Hollywood Style,”
LAT,
March 10; Desmond Ryan, “Why Does Oscar Keep Slighting Spielberg?”
Philadelphia
Inquirer,
March 26;
“Spielberg Speaks Out on Acad’s
Color
Snub,”
DV,
April 1; and Perry. Spielberg also commented in 1996 on
Oprah.
Additional articles on the film’s treatment by the Academy include (March 26, 1986): Bruce Cook, “Oscar Snub of
Purple
Called Bias,”
LADN;
“Academy Denies NAACP Charges Re
Color
Purple,
”
DV;
and “NAACP Files Protest re
Purple
Shutout,”
HR;
and March 27: Friendly, “Academy Hits Racism Accusation,”
LAT;
David Colker, “Black Coalition Says It’s Glad
Color
Purple
Didn’t Win Oscar,”
LAHE;
and Yardena Arar, “NAACP Defends
Purple
Position,”
LADN.

Spielberg discussed fatherhood in a June 6, 1985, interview with Gene Shalit on
Today
(NBC-TV), quoted in that day’s
LAHE
item by Gregg Kilday, “He Deserves a Break Today”; Andrews; and
The
Barbara
Walters
Special
(1994). Amy Irving called him “a great father” in “Amy Irving and Max.”

Spielberg was described as a “one-man entertainment conglomerate” by Salamon in “Maker of Hit After Hit, Steven Spielberg Is Also a Conglomerate.” Other information is from Klastorin and Hibbin,
“Back
to
the
Future”:
The
Official
Book
of
the
Complete
Movie
Trilogy;
Skow; Chute; Lee Goldberg, “Bob Zemeckis: It’s a Wonderful Time!”
Starlog,
October 1985; Blum, “Steven Spielberg and the Dread Hollywood Backlash”; Kim Masters, “The Futures Back to Back,”
Premiere,
December 1989; and Andrews. A. D. Murphy’s caveat about Spielberg’s producing was expressed to the author in the early 1980s. Spielberg’s Thalberg Award (1987) was reported in Jack Mathews, “Academy Finally Taps Spielberg,”
LAT,
February 9, and Aljean Harmetz, “Steven Spielberg Wins Movies’ Thalberg Award,”
NYT,
March 31. Pauline Kael’s review of
Young
Sherlock
Holmes,
“Lasso and Peashooter,” appeared in
The
New
Yorker,
January 27, 1986.