On 'Disclosure Day'

Spectacle has always been Steven Spielberg’s primary idiom, the language in which he expresses himself most naturally. As a precocious teenager dreaming up ambitious 8mm projects, the director idolized maestros of grand-scale cinema like David Lean and Cecil B. DeMille, and his earliest works showed a penchant for dazzling audiences with the flashiest tools of his trade. Even as he matured as a filmmaker and his concerns began to move toward matters of grim global consequence—from the historic atrocities depicted in Schindler’s List (1993) and Amistad (1997) to the dystopian fears of technology and surveillance in A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) and Minority Report (2002)—Spielberg remained steadfast in his conviction that his ostentatious style need not result in mere escapism. It could activate people’s capacity for innocence and awe—and bring them closer to one another.