The Spielberg Century

If it seems odd to call Steven Spielberg a 21^st-century filmmaker, that’s surely because Steven Spielberg has had an odd 21^st century. On the surface there’s been little consistency to his choice of projects. Yet look closer, and some themes emerge. There are the weird one-offs (The Adventures of Tintin), hokey throwbacks (War Horse, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), a remake (West Side Story), and weird vanity projects (The BFG, Ready Player One). The rest seem to fall into a large, omnivorous category that he has pursued from an apparently genuine interest in confronting this moment, thinking through the ways America ought to see itself — in a classically Spielbergian, fantasist way, of course. It’s this broad field of films that have made Spielberg (though it does seem strange to say) one of the most important American directors of this century, even if his major landmarks and legacy still belong to the last one.