Category: History

June 20, 2025

SPIELBERG’S WAR SINCE 1999 AGAINST HIS CLASSICS

Spielberg & The Oscars…1976, 1986, and 1999.

After Spielberg’s clash with the Academy once again in 1999 (as he had experienced in 1976 and 1986), perhaps Spielberg had realized how much of his success was due to others, like John Williams and so many sound mixers and sound effects editors.

1999…Spielberg was in a bad mood after Saving Private Ryan failed to win Best Picture and the new Star Wars movie wasn’t quite what the earlier movies were.  His friend George Lucas was getting hammered by some folks online.

Saving Private Ryan was Spielberg’s 6^th movie to win an Oscar for sound effects editing.  (This doesn’t include the Emmy that Duel won.)  No other category had won as many Oscars for Spielberg’s films.  Five of his movies had won for sound mixing.

Perhaps Spielberg became aware of what was going on…that his success in his career had so much to do with the help from other people.

Around 1999, movies were starting to come out on DVD.  Spielberg, not in the best of moods, decides to begin the process of preparing to release his classics on DVD.  But with a twist.  He decides to switch out the sound effects and messes with the volume of the score from Jaws.  Jaws was released on DVD in 2000.

He then begins the process of putting E.T. under the knife in much the same way his friend George Lucas had done in 1997 with the original Star Wars movies.  E.T.’s new version was released in movie theaters in 2002.

Having gotten away with tampering with Jaws, he begins doing the same with his movie Duel, completely switching out the sound of the truck and so much more.  Duel’s DVD release was in 2004.

Four years later he creates the dreadful Indiana Jones sequel in 2008, a movie that tries to mock Raiders Of The Lost Ark in at least one scene.  In interviews leading up to the release of 2008’s The Empty Skull, he talks trash about the 1981 classic.

And with the DVD release of Schindler’s List, he creates the DVD chapters with two of the chapters opening with R-rated material…making it almost impossible to miss when anyone tries to navigate through the movie on the DVD.  For a movie that wanted to document evil, Spielberg sure made it hard to miss.

Spielberg is not the same person he was before 1999.  Before 1999, Spielberg was about making movies the best he could.  Since 1999, it’s been about him taking credit.

HELPING SPIELBERG

So earlier I listed my subjective ranking of what I considered to be eight movies with the greatest sound effects ever.  Three of those eight movies were directed by Spielberg.  (Most people think of John Williams and many visual effects specialists when they think of those who have helped Spielberg between 1971 and 1998, but one of the most significant and consistent categories of filmmaking that assisted Spielberg during that 27 year period was the department of sound effects editing.)  I removed that subjective list of movies because I prefer to list irrefutable facts rather than my subjective opinions.