It's safe to say that I'm a Steven Spielberg nut.
When Dawson's Creek first hit the screens, the thing I was most excited about was not the proliferation of Tencel jeans or Joshua Jackson's cute face, but the fact that in Dawson "Spielberg Mad" Leery, I finally had validation for my years of outsider status, among my school peers at least, as a card-carrying Spielbergite.
I had (still have) a signed photo of him in my office, and by the age of 15 I'd read more books of Spielberg film theory/criticism than most undergrads do in an entire film studies course.
The "golden era" of Spielberg more or less fills my 'top films of all time' list - which is why I was a little surprised myself that for this Movie Trios piece I decided to pay homage to his later work, and specifically, that done in collaboration with editor Michael Kahn and cinematographer Janusz Kamiński.
Now, the venerable Kahn has worked with Spielberg on every film post-Close Encounters except E.T., but Kamiński joined the party for Schindler's List in 1993. If there was a turning point for Spielberg's oeuvre (and certainly his standing in the eyes of critics who had previously dismissed him as a sentimentalist), it was certainly Schindler's List. All three won Oscars for their work on the film, and - regardless of how time has treated Schindler's List's politics/Spielberg's motivation for making it - it's not hard to see why:
Schindler's List - red coat sequence
Though you would be hard-pressed to call Spielberg's earlier work "naturalistic", Schindler's List was more decidedly stylised visually; it lacked the gritty, feverish quality of Close Encounters or the glossy Hollywood patina of Hook or Raiders. Of course such stylistic choice seem, out of context, anachronistic when talking about Holocaust films, but then we all seem to have forgotten Life Is Beautiful.
And while you can't credit that change of pace/style entirely to Kamiński, he certainly had a lot to do with it.
Having worked on their collaborative style through The Lost World: Jurassic Park (which I try to forget) and Amistad, by the time Saving Private Ryan came around the trio had fallen into a rhythm that was anything but relaxed.
In fact, I'm inclined to think that Kamiński brought new breadth to Spielberg's vision (the director had previously worked faithfully with childhood friend Allen Daviau up until Empire Of The Sun in 1987). Even though Spielberg had previously created some of cinema's most striking/stirring set pieces (the Mothership in Close Encounters, most of Raiders, the flying BMX bikes in E.T.), it's hard to imagine that "old school Steve" would have come up with this:
Saving Private Ryan - Omaha beach (warning: war violence)
Through their close collaboration, Kamiński has expanded Spielberg's universe, bringing the second part of the director's career as many iconic images as the ones that have followed him for the rest of it. He understands the importance of hallmarks and themes like the (in)famous Spielbergian light (see Douglas Brode's The Films Of Steven Spielberg and/or Nigel Morris' The Cinema Of Steven Spielberg: Empire Of Light for more eloquent expansion on that), and yet he still finds ways to play with them that are fresh and thought provoking.
They're also not above taking his old trademarks and turning them on their head, either, which has given his work a depth that, while not actually new, was perhaps not as noticeable before. For example, the "flesh fair" "moon" rising behind Jigolo Joe in the forest:
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence - "I see the moon"
Remind you of anything?
It takes the E.T. moon (which also formed the basis of the Amblin logo) and turns it into something far more sinister.
(Fun fact, a pre-teen Spielberg used to climb up to his younger sister's window in the middle of the night and terrify her by hollering "I am the MOOOON!!")
In fact, while films like Close Encounters were hardly a merry romp, there's a hard edge to Spielberg's later work with Kahn and Kamiński that is striking. With their powers combined, in 2005 they managed to create one of the most thrilling and - if you'll allow the phrase - true to life sequences in any alien invasion movie. After all, if aliens attacked, would you be all cool and gung-ho, or would you all just shout at each other?
Check this continuous, 360-degree camera work in War Of The Worlds:
Kamiński injects a left-field artistry to Spielberg's films, while the reliable Kahn (who still edits all of Spielberg's films, par Tintin, on film), perhaps energised by the visual shift, has done some of his most exciting work in this 'new' era.
Spielberg assembled this dream team again for his most recent work, War Horse, and if there was ever a more perfect, wordless illustration of the magic that can happen when this director, cinematographer and editor work in harmony than the initial charge upon the German camp, I'd like to see it.
In that scene, the British cavalry charge upon the apparently unprepared German soldiers; unbeknown to the Brits, the Germans are actually very well prepared, and with cannons hidden in nearby forest, nearly wipe out the entire cavalry. However, in direct contrast to Saving Private Ryan's gore (though that comes later in War Horse, if slightly less bloodily but no less powerfully), Spielberg and his collaborators make a play for subtlety - and it's devastating.
Kahn cuts deftly between two different shots: British soldiers, on their horses, charging through the wheat-field, and British horses, their soldiers gone, leaping through into the forest.
I never thought, as someone who grew up on the Spielberg/Daviau/Kahn era, that I'd say it, but I hope this movie trio sticks together for many years to come.
And to finish on a slightly less earnest note, I'd just like to remind you all that Kamiński is a hilarious dude (and the only cinematographer to present an Oscar, BOSS MOVE):
Oh, Janusz, I give you my blessing to work with my heroes.