Spielberg: Good at everything, master at nothing?

He's fine. Well, obviously he's better than fine. He's Stephen Spielberg. If I had to pinpoint his area of expertise, it's whimsy. Whimsy, fluffy happy endings (if not outright happy, then at least validating), riding off into the sunset, crowd pleasing...he rounds up, his films are usually positive. People leave feeling terrific.

I dunno. I thought about it for a minute yesterday, thinking about The Life of Oharu and why I like it so much. It's because it takes a swing at subject matter for which there is no happy ending. It and films like it in the Japanese pantheon of socially conscious slit-your-wrist movies make me think there's a greater ambition in dread, a sense that these might not be happy fun stories, but they're important and necessary. The top shelf choices from Mizoguchi and Kobayashi showcase some sort of societal injustice and by the time the story wraps up, the character's part of the story ends but the injustice lives on in the world after the movie.

Like Harakiri. The story of the man ends with his life, but the subsequent coverup keeps it going beyond the movie's finish. That's the statement at work. The film is over but the problems press on.

Lets be real, there is no underselling Stephen Spielberg's films or contributions. Good at everything, master of nothing is as close as it gets and I'm not even sure that's true. My personality type is better suited to the journey that ambitious and dreadfully sobering films take me. I'm not always a happy person and there's a lot about whimsy and happy endings I find false, whereas the internal nastiness and injustice on display in films like The Life of Oharu always seem like they're swinging at a greater truth, which to me makes them more real.

Maybe it's a mood thing. I loved Duel, and I have a soft spot for Raiders of the Lost Ark. A million kudos to the man regardless.