Hey folks, I've received quite a bit of response from folks from AICN that attended the Spielberg tribute at the Smithsonian last night, and while he didn't talk about his upcoming films, I felt that these two... GLAZE and DIMITRI... really covered all the ground... at least from the other reports I got in. However, there is one bit that all the various reports referenced. When a celeb is at an event that you are attending, just be cool. If you see people crowding the celeb... Back off. Give the person some space. If they are there to... circulate the room, hang loose, put your faith in the God of Cool that wields the power to place you in the midst of utter coolness. The only thing that mobbing a celeb will do will be to cause him/her to leave. Touching them is not going to give you the ability to direct STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND to 12 Oscar nominations. It ain't gonna happen like that. The main thing is to be cool. Not in the collar up sort of way, but in the sense of not looking like a bunch of Pavlovian dogs leaping at the sound of the ringing bell. After all... Spielberg is, at the most basic reality of things, a geek. He collects animation art, he bought ROSEBUD at auction, he has videogames in his office and he also directs cool movies. Well, these two seemed to be cool guys, so here they are...

Just got back from the Steven Spielberg tribute and reception. First I must say that it really sucks to be on call while you are attending an event of this nature. There I am sitting dead center about halfway back (which is very close in this small theater) and my pager goes off. Of course I had set it on buzz rather than beep just in case something like this happened. I decide that I'm going to ignore it and continue to enjoy the tribute. About a half an hour later it goes off again and I once again ignore it. It goes off a third time just before the end of the tribute. I got business taken care of between the tribute and the reception but I must say that being on call sucks.

Enough about my problems. Everybody wants to hear about the tribute and the reception. Rather than go through every detail, I'll give you the highlights and my impressions.

The tribute was really broken into three parts. First, a too brief showing of clips from some of his movies, then the presentation of the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal, and finally a question answer session between Spielberg and the host.

It was the third part that was the truly enjoyable and informative part of the evening. Spielberg discussed his career and how he got into the movie business. It turns out that his first movie was when he was 12 and he only made it to obtain a Boy Scout Merit Badge. The title of the movie was Gunsmog. For those of you who have heard all the legends about how he got his firt job by sneaking onto the set of Universal Studios, well, it turns out that is true. He escaped from a tour and started exploring sound stages. He was trying to find a phone when he met the studio librarian who took an interest in his homemade movies. He gave Spielberg a three day pass to come back and show his movies. When the three days was up, Spielberg just walked up to the gate that he had been entering in his best suit and waved to the guard that had let him in the previous days. The guard just waved back and let him by. Since he was always hanging around, the people at the studio started giving him jobs to do. The rest as they say was history.

Probably the story that sticks out the most in my mind for the evening was his discussion about the problems surrounding the making of Jaws. What was scheduled as a 50 day shoot turned into a 155 day shoot and almost ended his career to hear him tell it. From weather problems to technical difficulties nothing went as planned. Apparently, there was supposed to be a great deal more of the shark in his original plans but it kept malfunctioning. This turned out to be the best fortune this movie could have had. As Spielberg put it: "It was as if the ghost of Hitchcock was hanging over the set making sure it was done right. Hitchcock's first rule of suspense is that you never show the killer. He can be in the same room as the victim but you never show the killer." The malfunctions of the shark are what led to those terrifying scenes where you would see the fin momentarily and then it would submerge and then you would see the jolts as the boat was struck from below.

There were plenty of anecdotes from his career and he talked quite a bit about his recent movies but there was nothing in those discussions that I haven't heard before. I think the most interesting parts of the evening were learning about those little known pieces of his career. Spieberg was very open and friendly even though he was on a stage in front of hundreds of people. I was actually surprised at how well spoken he was. I have heard interviews in the past where he seemed to stutter through half the questions. That was not the case tonight yet there was never the feeling that he had prepared answers to the questions ahead of time. All in all, there was a very informal feel to the entire evening and I think this helped the fans to appreciate him all the more.

After the tribute was the reception. This was where we were informed that he was going to be making his way around the room to try to say hello to everyone. They asked that everyone give him some breathing room though so that he could get to everyone. Call it fortuitous placement, but I happened to be standing almost right where he came out into the hall. I managed to shake his hand and say that really enjoyed his work when a short and fairly stout lady practically tackled me to get to him. From that moment on, he was surrounded by people trying to get at him. He was very polite but it was obvious he was dissappointed in the crowds reaction after they had been asked to give him a little space. As it turned out, he maybe got to speak to an eighth of the people in the room and that is an optimistic guess.

The final highlight of the evening was the food and open bar. They had some of the most incredible pasta dishes I've ever tasted and waiters constantly circled the room with one morsel or another. I followed the shrimp guy around for awhile and probably ate two or three courses of shrimp. There was also never any wait to get a drink which is always a good thing.

I think I can honestly say that it was an enjoyable evening for everyone and my only complaint was the length of the movie clip segment. It just didn't come close to doing his career justice.

Glaze

And here's Dimitri's look at the event!

I imagine you'll receive a few reports with probably with some of the same information, but I thought I'd offer my contribution nevertheless. I put more time into this report than I should have, so I'd really appreciate your using at least a partial excerpt. If not - que sera, sera.

I just returned from the tribute and reception for Mr. Spielberg at the Smithsonian. For those others that were there, I was the freak wearing the Indiana Jones fedora. I was torn in my decision to wear said fedora. I know such an act just screams movie geek, but I decided it would be a nice way to honor Mr. Spielberg. Even if it elicited a thought in Mr. Spielberg's head along the lines of: "I have to stay away from that guy." Anyway, I often wear the fedora, and I have been told I wear it well.

The auditorium for the tribute was not very large (I'd estimate not much more than 300 in capacity), and my early arrival earned me a seat in the fourth row (the first nonreserved row) just left of center. The proceedings began about twenty minutes late. Two Smithsonian representatives spoke about the Smithson Bicentennial Award, its history, and its meaning. After showing a brief video presentation of clips from Mr. Spielberg's movies and highlights of some of his humanitarian efforts, Mr. Spielberg was called to the front and presented the award. Mr. Spielberg thanked the Smithsonian for honoring the cinema by choosing him as a recipient. He recalled as a child how he collected everything that he could, but that his mother always threw out his collections after a couple of years. Conversely, he speculated that Mr. Smithson's mother allowed him to maintain his collections in light of the Smithsonian's vast and diverse exhibits. He did say that this medal made him feel as if he was a bit of a relic, but he did not think that he was quite ready for dusting.

Next, Richard Schickel from Time Magazine conducted an interview with Mr. Spielberg. Aside from questions that Mr. Schickel had prepared, he also used questions collected from the audience. I had many questions to ask, but I only wrote down three concerning Mr Spielberg's feelings on the MPAA and the ratings system, the prospect of a fourth Indiana Jones movie, and Mr. Spielberg's feelings about the title change for the new video release of Raiders. My first question was touched upon, but I imagine many people submitted that question. Also, it wasn't taken at quite the angle that I desired.

I imagine some of these stories might be old news to those of you that have seen Spielberg interviews, but I'll go ahead and include what I remember.

Mr. Schickel did not do a great job in interviewing Mr. Spielberg, but Mr. Spielberg's energy, enthusiasm, and anecdotes more than made up for that. Mr. Spielberg spoke about his childhood and his early experience with film. I need to go to sleep, so here were the highlights:

1) I learned that Mr. Spielberg began making movies in order to fulfill a merit badge for Boy Scouts.

2) He told stories about his early days of sneaking on the Universal lot. He sneaked off a tour bus and watched television shows being made. He befriended a Universal librarian who gave him passes to the lot for a few days. After he ran out of passes, the security guard recognized him and waved him through regularly.

3) His first "work" was in the editing room. Some guys asked him to collect the film from cans in three rooms down the hall. The first room was devoid of film, as was the second room. However, he found a barrel of film and a heavyset man in the third room. When he tried to take that film, the man and he got into a minor scuffle. That man was Marlon Brando. He was doing his own editing on a personal documentary of his. The guys had played a joke on him.

4) Mr. Spielberg spoke of the Jaws production as a debacle, a well-known tale. Spielberg mentioned that he should have hired an ocean expert. The schedule was originally 50 days, but it ended up on the order of 150 days. There were days when no successful shots would be made. (He also mentioned that he considered Jaws to be a sea sequel to Duel.) However, he mentioned the setbacks were a blessing of sorts. He made a humorous remark about Hitchcock's spirit dictating that there were not be many successful shots of the shark as were planned, since Hitchcock's mantra was that the less the murder weapon is seen, the more effective the suspense. Of course, Hitchcock was still alive during the making of Jaws, but it was a clever remark nonetheless.

5) Mr. Spielberg said that he thought the ratings system was o.k. as it was, but Schickel's question was more geared toward societal influence on children than it was geared toward the R/NC-17/censorship issue. I was more interested in the R/NC-17 aspect. Mr. Spielberg did mention the need for some sort of middle ground between the content that is produced and the responsibility of parents.

6) When asked to compare and contrast 1941 and Saving Private Ryan, Mr. Spielberg said that one was a comedy and the other was a drama. He said that one thing the two had in common was that the audiences at both movies could have heard a pin drop. That drew a big laugh. Mr. Spielberg mentioned reluctantly screening 1941 recently at Barry Sonnenfeld's house, and he said that it wasn't "half bad." An open ended statement about the other half drew a laugh as well. In all seriousness, Mr. Spielberg did mention that he fulfilled his goals on 1941, and in the end that is all that he needs to satisfy himself as a filmmaker.

7) Mr. Spielberg mentioned reading the book from which Schindler's List was adapted just after finishing E.T. It took him ten years for him to find the confidence to make the film. He was concerned about being overly sentimental, especially since it was such a personal issue for him. I was somewhat affected by his description of learning his numbers as a young boy from one of his relative's concentration camp tattoos.

8) He mentioned some of his other movies that were personally significant. E.T. was about his parents' divorce and feeling alienated. He also related to the alienation of A Color Purple. He mentioned that - as he said at the Oscars - Saving Private Ryan was all along a project for his father. Mr. Spielberg was very pleased with some of the stories he heard about the film's effect on people.

9) Mr. Spielberg decried the switch to digital. He said that he'll stick with film as long as he can. He mentioned that this was a point of departure between him and Mr. Lucas. (Mr. Spielberg used a pun about a disturbance in the Force at one point earlier in the interview, but I don't recall the specifics.)

10) When asked what inspires him, Mr. Spielberg spoke about Kate Capshaw and his children as constant sources of inspiration. He also joked about an old live-in girlfriend inspiring him to make films because he was eager to get out of the house. A final joke was that a different girlfriend inspired to make films in a more positive manner.

That is all I recall from the interview. There was no mention of Minority Report or the state of the Indiana Jones franchise. The crowd adjourned to the Smithsonian Castle for the reception.

I have mixed feelings about the reception. One of the Smithsonian officials told us that Mr. Spielberg would be very informal and wander around the room. However, the instant that he appeared, the people swarmed. Mr. Spielberg was very generous, and I heard that some people were greedily monopolizing him. I had some clever prepared statements that I know would have made him smile, but I never braved the crowd. I had hoped to not be so pushy and perhaps passively be in the path of his making his way across the room, but he was gone before I knew it. I suppose that's another regret for my long list, but I do not even know what the value would have been in just saying that I shook his hand and trying to speak over the crowd. Perhaps someday I'll achieve a level of greatness such that this will all seem silly, but I doubt it.

The reception wasn't a total wash for me. I drank some wine and tried some of the snacks. I did speak to a couple of other film fans. It was nice to meet you, Matt and Todd. (I think those were your names.) That reminds me. We tried asking Mr. Schickel a question about the ratings system, since we believed him to be the writer of that first Eyes Wide Shut review, but he was uninterested in talking to us. He mumbled that there should not be any ratings and walked away.

Forgive the typos, Ain't It Cool readers. It's almost time to wake up for work. Good night.

Sign me,

Dimitri