Universal Studios was important to Steven Spielberg. He launched his career by sneaking onto the Universal backlot and setting up an office. Universal would be home to many of his pivotal films, so it is significant that the eight film Steven Spielberg Director’s Collection includes all but one of them. I don’t get why they didn’t include Schindler’s List. Were they afraid it’s too heavy for a “fun” collection that includes Jaws, E.T. and Jurassic Park? I think we’re all sophisticated enough to have Schindler’s List in a Spielberg collection.
The real revelation for me was Always, a film I did not like as a kid and haven’t revisited in 25 years. I can understand why a young Indiana Jones fan wasn’t into this mature story of grieving and moving on, but 25 years of life will do something to you and make that entirely relevant. It’s a remake of A Guy Named Joe and very cleverly switched out WWII pilots for firefighter pilots, since there was no aerial war going on in 1989.
Pete Sandich (Richard Dreyfuss) is a daredevil pilot who’s just about to settle down with his gal Dorinda (Holly Hunter) when his plane explodes rescuing his wingman Al (John Goodman). In the afterlife, Hap (Audrey Hepburn) sends Pete back to say goodbye and help his friends move on. He can influence their thoughts but they can’t see him or hear him directly.
This is a lovely story about dealing with loss. It’s a delicate balance between honoring Pete’s memory and being locked in mourning, and Pete can be a little selfish at first. I bet the scenes I thought were boring as a kid were when Al and Dorinda are stagnant, reflecting on their loss, and those are the most powerful scenes to me now. John Goodman is a national treasure, bringing his power to Al’s repressed grief and explosion.
Man, Dreyfuss really was a leading man. He carries this whole movie, from Pete’s living bravado to the humor and conflict of the abstract concept of a spirit watching his friends move on. There is quite a bit of humor in Pete’s messing with the living, which I also wouldn’t have appreciated as a kid, but also the relevance of Pete feeling bad about it when he sees the consequences. Hunter is saddled with a bit of a reactive part (and an unfortunate mullet), a tomboy mechanic in an emotional fetal position for most of the movie, but she’s still Academy Award Winner Holly Hunter for a reason. You never doubt she’s going through the greatest loss of her life.
Always is a beautiful looking film, and no wonder. It was shot by Mikael Salomon, the director of Hard Rain. It’s not Spielberg’s usual Vilmos Zsigmond or Janusz Kaminski, and I wonder why it’s the only time Spielberg worked with Salomon, but the aerial action is brilliant, and the shots of the afterlife are epic in their haunting stillness. Those scenes look great on Blu-ray obviously.
There are some problems with the Always Blu-ray though. The grain you see doesn’t look like film, but rather pixels. It’s invisible in the aerial sequences but in the quiet character moments, which are vital to this film, you see a distracting dance of digital pixels. A few scenes haze up with white digital noise too. Granted, it’s not a priority film for the studio, but it’s still Spielberg.
Duel and Sugarland have been remastered from original film elements, but they have the pixel effect too. Still look great. Both are road movies and show off the landscapes beautifully. With Duel there are a lot of intense closeups of the truck and gas pedals, and now you can see all the detail in them. 1941 looks solid too, wartime spectacle as comedy. The shot of the ferris wheel rolling down the pier looks as epic as the boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The Steven Spielberg Director’s Collection is worth it for the four new-to-Blu-ray movies. Any cinephile, let alone Spielberg fan, should see Duel, Sugarland Express and even 1941, if only as a cautionary tale. Always was a personal rediscovery for me. Bonus features from previous editions have been included in the case of Duel, 1941, Jaws and the Jurassic Parks, but no new ones. If you already own Jaws, E.T. and the Jurassic Parks, maybe you can trade them in to make up some of the difference. And again, I hope you own Schindler’s List separately because it’s not in this collection.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
