The Cinema of Steven Spielberg: Empire of Light

Cinema's most successful director is a commercial and cultural force demanding serious consideration. Not just triumphant marketing, this international popularity is a function of the movies themselves. Polarised critical attitudes largely overlook this, and evidence either unquestioning adulation or vilification for epitomising contemporary Hollywood. Detailed textual analyses reveal that alongside conventional commercial appeal, Spielberg's movies function consistently as self-reflexive commentary on cinema. Rather than straightforwardly consumed realism or fantasy, they invite divergent readings and self-conscious spectatorship which contradict assumptions about their ideological tendencies. Exercising powerful emotional appeal, their ambiguities are profitably advantageous in maximising audiences and generating media attention.

About the Author:
Nigel Morris is Principal Lecturer in Media Theory and Teacher Fellow in the Department of Media Production, University of Lincoln