Spielberg Talks Munich Film

Posted on December 12, 2005

Richard Shickel of Time magazine interviewsSteven Spielberg about his new film, Munich, which explores the massacre at the Munich Olympics. Spielberg has said that he made the film to help promote peace in the Middle East. It's a very serious film, and some of his fans just wish he'd go back to making films like Jaws.

Steven Spielberg: I cannot tell you how many people come over to me on the street and repeat almost verbatim the line the Martians say to Woody Allen in Stardust Memories: "You know, we like your earlier, funnier films."..... They'll say, "Why can't you get back to making E.T. or Raiders?" This is not from young people but from older people, who I guess grew up with the movies I made when I was a kid and they were kids too. So I'm bewitched by Woody Allen in the sense that I keep hearing this scene from Stardust Memories played out in my real life. It's very bedeviling.

..... I keep looking around for things, but then when I get the opportunity, say, to direct Harry Potter, I say no. When I get the opportunity to do something like Spider-Man, I say no. The films that are offered me that have childlike souls, I tend to say, "I've done that." I don't know if that just means I've grown up for good or whether something's going to come along that's going to make me say, "O.K., whatever I said to you is full of hot air, and the child lives in all of us until we die."

Well, that has to be frustrating. You've just won the Oscar for Schindler's List, and all anyone wants to know is "Why can't you make another E.T.?" Still, if that's your biggest problem as a screenwriter, you don't really have any problems.

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