I have always been fascinated by how successful people become successful. They have the same 24 hours in a day and breathe the same air we do, yet they achieve feats we can only dream of. However, while learning about them, I have found that all successful people have had to battle failures. What is most fascinating to me is learning how they overcame their failures to achieve success! I hope to write many interesting stories of successful personalities and their failures. I start with:
Steven Spielberg is arguably the most successful movie director and producer of the late 20th century. In terms of money, no other director in history has earned as much as him. His films have earned 147 Academy Award nominations and won 35. I am sure you love Jaws, Raiders of The Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Minority Report, Ready Player One or one of the 36 films he directed.
Spielberg shot to fame with Jaws (1975). Instead of shooting the movie in a studio, he shot it in the open sea where he could not control the sea, the waves nor the weather. On top of that, the monster mechanic shark did not work. So, much of the movie was shot without the terrifying shark. As luck would have it, that added to the terror in the audience. The audience was left to imagine the terrifying shark devouring its victims. I remember the opening scene: a naked girl running into the sea and then thrashed to and fro by some frightening creature. The movie left a generation of people afraid of swimming in the sea and a wave of shark hunting. On the other hand, it became the highest-grossing film of all time until Star Wars came along!
After the success of Jaws, came Close Encounters of The Third Kind, Raiders of The Lost Ark and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Who can forget the heartbreaking scene when E.T. pointed to the sky and uttered the words, “E.T. phone home”? Many people hated watching E.T. in the cinema because they never got to hear the ending; audiences would spontaneously cheer loudly during the flying bicycles scene. E.T. broke Stars War’s box-office record and my generation rode BMX bicycles.
Spielberg also tried his hand at dramas like The Color Purple, Lincoln and The Post; all of which were well received. Schindler’s List was such a major hit that even our Muslim-dominated country entertained the idea of allowing it to be shown. Even his musical movie Westside Story received high ratings. It looks like every movie this man touched is a success.
But I am not here to talk about Spielberg’s successes which are well known. Have you heard of his film 1941? It was so bad I did not finish watching it. It has a 5.8 rating on IMDB*. The movie starred John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and John Candy – three of the funniest people in the entertainment industry, yet the movie did not make me laugh.
Here are other Spielberg movies that audiences hated: Savage, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Always, War of The Worlds, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and The B.F.G.
Have you heard of the film Hook? It starred Academy Award winners Robin William, Dustin Hoffman and Julia Roberts. It was about Peter Pan all grown up and meeting his old friends and foes. On Rotten Tomatoes (a movie rating website), 71% gave it a bad review. It did not make you want to be a kid again like Disney’s Peter Pan did.
The BFG is another bad movie. It is based on a beloved children’s storybook but only 57% of audiences liked it. Some blamed the dark theme of the movie when it should be a fun movie for the family to watch. The book is much better.
Just when you think there wouldn’t be another Indiana Jones movie after Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, comes Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. When Crystal Skull was announced, Indiana Jones fans were elated but were skeptical about 66-year-old Harrison Ford reprising his role as Indy, and they were disappointed right from the start when absurdly Indy survived a nuclear bomb by hiding in a fridge. So, when Dial of Destiny was announced, fans wondered if Spielberg had gone senile casting 81-year-old Ford again. It earned a nomination at the 44th Golden Raspberry Awards.
I enjoyed Empire of the Sun but it was a box-office disappointment for the great director. It barely made enough to cover the budget. Other films that bombed at the box-office are Westside Story, earning a paltry 25% of its budget, and Munich which holds the title of ‘Spielberg’s lowest-grossing film’.
So, as great a director and producer as Steven Spielberg is, he has had his share of failures, movie bombs and cringes. The next time, you fail, remember him. And remember that failure is just part of the game of life. It is not how bad you fail nor how many times but it is about you getting up again to take another shot at success.
Fun fact: Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, the second Indiana Jones movie is actually a prequel to Raiders of The Lost Ark.
* N.B. I regard films with an IMDB rating less than 6.0 to be lousy, and a film rated between 6.0 and 6.5 to be borderline lousy. Average movies are rated between 6.5 and 7.0. Movies rated above 7.0 are usually good.
Pepper's World. Notes to myself. 