Peacock's-Eye
New member
As many people who grew up on Spielberg's films noticed, for better or for worse, LC & KCS are far less visceral and explicitly violent than RotLA or TOD. I think this section of a recent interview with SS from Vanity Fair goes along way in explaining why. He doesn't think a child under the age of 13 can understand Close Encounters - I was five when the movie came out & I understood it fine. He things Jaws is a PG-13, and I grew up on that movie, no problems.
Now, I loved KCS, and the mellowing of the manic violence from the first two films doesn't bother me much. But I think as SS gets older, he is definitely softening.
* * * *
How old are your kids?
Twelve and nine.
And they saw Close Encounters?
Yeah, I thought they were ready for it.
What did they think?
They loved it.
Did they understand the man’s personal obsession?
Yeah, they loved it, and the reversal with the mashed potatoes, they really loved that. I was wondering what you’ve done with your own kids. Do you show them Jaws at some point?
I don’t really have a schedule of when I want to show my children my movies. They usually ask me to see Indiana Jones, which I think is fine for my younger kids, but then they’ve asked me to see Jaws and even Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List, and when they ask me these questions, I pretty much have to evaluate their relative maturation, because kids, even in the same family, mature at different rates. For instance—I don’t want to name names, because kids in the same family like to protest the unfairness of one child gaining a privilege over another—I have a couple of kids who saw Schindler’s List when they were younger than the average audience that would be permitted by average parents to see that story.
Like under 10?
Not under 10. Not at all. No one’s seen Schindler’s List in my family under 15. No one has.
That sounds about right.
The important thing is, you’ve got to know your kids, and you’ve got to know them as individuals. I love my kids as individuals, not as a herd, and I do have a herd of children: I have seven kids.
What are the ages?
From 10 to 30.
What age do you set for Jaws?
I haven’t shown Jaws to my 10- or 11-year-old, and I won’t. I showed Jaws to Sawyer when he was, I think, 13. Because then they use the argument, “Dad, I was bar mitzvahed last week. Everybody said today I’m a man, and you still won’t let me see Jaws?” Sometimes the kids outsmart me. It is PG, but that was before the PG-13 rating. Today Jaws would obviously be PG-13.
Just because of the menace, the feeling of it, even more than the blood.
Yes, yes, yes.
The entire interview:
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/02/spielberg_qanda200802
The point of this post is not to suggest that SS has "lost" something. I think Munich shows that he is quite capable of making a compelling adult drama at this stage of his career. But I do think he's wrong about molly-coddling kids. I bet tons of little kids were taken to see A.I., probably understanding it better and enjoying it more than their parents. SS needs to remember that young people don't need to be spoonfed.
Now, I loved KCS, and the mellowing of the manic violence from the first two films doesn't bother me much. But I think as SS gets older, he is definitely softening.
* * * *
I grew up on your movies and have been showing them to my kids, and we just watched Close Encounters and E.T.How old are your kids?
Twelve and nine.
And they saw Close Encounters?
Yeah, I thought they were ready for it.
What did they think?
They loved it.
Did they understand the man’s personal obsession?
Yeah, they loved it, and the reversal with the mashed potatoes, they really loved that. I was wondering what you’ve done with your own kids. Do you show them Jaws at some point?
I don’t really have a schedule of when I want to show my children my movies. They usually ask me to see Indiana Jones, which I think is fine for my younger kids, but then they’ve asked me to see Jaws and even Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List, and when they ask me these questions, I pretty much have to evaluate their relative maturation, because kids, even in the same family, mature at different rates. For instance—I don’t want to name names, because kids in the same family like to protest the unfairness of one child gaining a privilege over another—I have a couple of kids who saw Schindler’s List when they were younger than the average audience that would be permitted by average parents to see that story.
Like under 10?
Not under 10. Not at all. No one’s seen Schindler’s List in my family under 15. No one has.
That sounds about right.
The important thing is, you’ve got to know your kids, and you’ve got to know them as individuals. I love my kids as individuals, not as a herd, and I do have a herd of children: I have seven kids.
What are the ages?
From 10 to 30.
What age do you set for Jaws?
I haven’t shown Jaws to my 10- or 11-year-old, and I won’t. I showed Jaws to Sawyer when he was, I think, 13. Because then they use the argument, “Dad, I was bar mitzvahed last week. Everybody said today I’m a man, and you still won’t let me see Jaws?” Sometimes the kids outsmart me. It is PG, but that was before the PG-13 rating. Today Jaws would obviously be PG-13.
Just because of the menace, the feeling of it, even more than the blood.
Yes, yes, yes.
The entire interview:
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/02/spielberg_qanda200802
The point of this post is not to suggest that SS has "lost" something. I think Munich shows that he is quite capable of making a compelling adult drama at this stage of his career. But I do think he's wrong about molly-coddling kids. I bet tons of little kids were taken to see A.I., probably understanding it better and enjoying it more than their parents. SS needs to remember that young people don't need to be spoonfed.
