Spielberg: The Machine

Ok, is it just me, or does it seem like Steven Speilberg must sleep on average about only forty five minutes a night?

Not even an entire season after his summer blockbuster War of the Worlds, the trailer for Spielberg’s next feature, Munich, is up and running on the Apple Trailers site.

Munich, which has a release date of December 22nd, comes out almost exactly six months after War of the Worlds did. I mean, to quote Doc Bones, My God man, how is that even possible? The man is prolific to say the least.

Munich is set around the true events of the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, where several Israeli atheletes were slain by Palestinian militants. The film follows the story of the assasins, assembled by Israeli forces, who set out to kill those suspected in the murders of the athletes.

In the spirit of Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, and Amistad, Speilberg once again sets aside his sci-fi hat and uses a straight dramatic form to explore the moral compromises and ambiguities embedded in warfare and social conflict. While I have the utmost respect for Spielberg as a filmmaker, truth be told, I generally prefer his genre work. I think Schindler’s List is inarguably a tremendous film, but I am not as big a fan of Saving Private Ryan, Amistad, (or even the Terminal and Catch me if You Can) as I am of his classics, like Jaws, Close Encounters, E.T., Jurassic Park, etc.

I saw this trailer on the big screen for the first time on Sunday, in front of Jarhead, and I was completely taken in by the language of the script, and the near poetic images of violence intercut with the desperate faces of the men involved in their grim project.

I think we’re looking at a big Oscar contender here, and if nothing else, another impressive film from Spielberg. I predict it may be his best drama since Schindler’s List.