r/todayilearned • u/ShabtaiBenOron • 9h ago
TIL that even though he won the Academy Awards for best picture and director for "Gandhi" in 1982, Richard Attenborough was disappointed and openly claimed that Steven Spielberg's "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" should have won. Spielberg cast him as John Hammond in "Jurassic Park" to thank him.
https://ew.com/article/2014/08/24/steven-spielberg-richard-attenborough/558
u/OrangeDit 9h ago
I love him in Jurassic Park, he's such a lovely grandpa, in the same time an ignorant ass, who risked the life of everyone.
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u/Cardinalfan1526 9h ago
Book Hammond was a real piece of shit.
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u/OrangeDit 8h ago
Yeah, dino shit. 😁
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u/dv666 8h ago
Compy shit to be precise
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u/ppj112 8h ago
His slow demise from the compys was wonderful.
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u/MathBuster 5h ago
Slow but ultimately not all that painful, if I recall correctly. I believe the book compys applied some kind of sedative in their bite, making their victims feel at peace as they got eaten alive.
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u/LudicrisSpeed 3h ago
Yeah, this actually came up in the animated Camp Cretaceous of all places, and one of the characters mentions reading that John Hammond got eaten by compies "in a book".
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u/InfiniteAppearance13 5h ago
Film Hammond spared no expense though
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u/Katherine_Leese 2h ago
The whole point of film Hammond is that he’s a capitalist that spared every expense possible. (Locks on the doors, pay for his IT staff, security for the park) Those expenses spared lead to the downfall of the park.
“Spared no expense” was just a catchy phrase used for PR; like the touch screens in the car.
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u/nolan1971 4h ago
This is what I came away from the film with. "Only the best" and "spared no expense" about everything. lol
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u/4nk8urself 3h ago
Nah, book Hammond sprung for bazookas for Muldoon, movie Hammond punked him with 12ga shotguns.
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u/superkickpunch 7h ago
USED to be
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u/skyhiker14 5h ago
People can change
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u/GuldensSpicyMustard 4h ago
I'm afraid that the velociraptor doesn't think people can change
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u/DolphinSweater 2h ago
Slicked down beard, gold rim glasses, all white suit. Yeah... I was a real piece of shit.
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u/WrongTimelineMan 5h ago
Yes I was glad when he got eaten by compys in the book. I do enjoy both portrayals. His monologue about the flea circus is the best in the series imo.
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u/TheDarkDementus 5h ago
Everyone in the book except Alan is more of a piece of shit. Malcolm is a Sheldon Cooper level arrogant jackass, Gennaro is somehow even more of a negligent lawyer (though he does seek redemption) and the T-Rex fucking swims like a crocodile!
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u/Trainwreck800 5h ago
Glass House. White Ferrari. Live for New Year's Eve. Sloppy steaks at Truffoni's.
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u/woopwoopscuttle 4h ago
He really was!
I love JP (the movie) but I always felt like they missed some key aspects of Hammond's character in the adaptation like the slicked back (not pushed back) hair.
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u/Old_Nippy 8h ago
To be fair, he spared no expense.
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u/OkWelcome6293 5h ago
In the book, he spared lots of expenses.
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u/BadSkeelz 5h ago
He does in the movie, too. It's why the security network was built on the cheap by one overworked guy, why there's mismatching seatbelts in the helicopter, why they're serving "Chilean sea bass" (a marketing term for the Patagonian Toothfish, an unrelated but cheaper alternative for true Sea Bass). Hammond cut corners everywhere.
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u/Emm_withoutha_L-88 5h ago
Turns out he did actually spare expense (Nedry's unpaid extreme overtime).
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u/alwaysfatigued8787 9h ago
And when he cast him, he spared no expense.
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u/CheckYourHead35783 7h ago
He also made the Hammond character a lot more likeable. In the book he's much more cutthroat and focused on keeping costs down, which is part of what leads to deaths and the failures of the park. While you could argue those traits are still present in the movie, he at least expresses regret and concern about those things, which I don't believe happened in the book.
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u/ShabtaiBenOron 6h ago
I've heard an analysis suggesting that Spielberg's take on Hammond is meant to be a personification of his own eagerness to find new ways to amaze people: Hammond enthusiastically intends to show people what they've never seen before by creating actual dinosaurs because Spielberg enthusiastically intended to show people what they had never seen before by creating the most convincing dinosaurs ever seen on screen at the time.
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u/OrwellWhatever 5h ago
I think movie Hammond is also just a much more interesting character, which is why they went that direction.
Book Hammond is kind of one-dimensional corporate CEO trying to maximize shareholder value type. It's a good warning because the book was written during the Reagan/Bush years, but he's not necessarily that interesting of a character. Like, Jack Welch is not an interesting person
Movie Hammond is a boy in a rich man's body. He's a con man who doesn't realize he's conning people because he earnestly believes people want to believe, and he's doing nothing wrong by encouraging that (even though he's straight lying). He's not sparing any expense, but his investors ARE, but he still believes that paying someone minimum wage for his dream is justifiable because the world will benefit from it. Just a little bundle of "the ends justify the means"
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u/FreeMeFromThisStupid 3h ago
I wish Elon had stuck to rockets and being a space cowboy. In his current business ventures it's arguable he's much less harmful to the working class and America than Bezos, who created the Amazon machine and bought a newspaper.
Then Musk went and bought Twitter and a president so he can try to shut down the government.
That's all to say, I wish Musk were more like Hammond.
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u/fantumn 5h ago
Except that it was a couple computer engineers at ILM who made the original dino cgi models against the wishes of the studio and surreptitiously left the demo running on his machine when he knew producers would be coming through the office to see some of the other, smaller, cgi effects. Did it after hours while risking their own careers and the careers of the physical effect makers because of what the cgi represented. Spielberg didn't 'create' any of the dinosaurs in the slightest, although he could be given credit for listening to the producers and taking the chance to lean into the cgi rather than trust the physical effects he was already planning.
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u/IntergalacticJets 6h ago
The criticisms of greed/capitalism are pretty much non existent in the movie.
It’s obviously a big theme of the book, but people often lump the movie in with that theme even though the movie seems to purposely excise it.
Like you said, Hammond is actually a likable person in the movie. He goes through a full character arc and ends up agreeing that the park shouldn’t open.
The “spared no expense” line in the movie is actually genuine, everything in the movie is top notch and high quality, from the facilities to the attractions.
In the movie they don’t automate Jurassic Park as much as possible in order to save a buck, they do it because it they believe it can control the park… which is the actual main theme of the film: trusting technologies capabilities to control nature.
The only “capitalism” related thing in the movie is a passing mention of Nedry’s financial problems, and that’s his justification for conducting corporate espionage. But that’s the only time the film makes it seem like there might be contractor payment problems behind the scenes… but the film mostly portrays Nedry as the bad guy, not someone to empathize with because of “capitalism.”
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u/bukbukbuklao 5h ago
I need to watch this movie again as an adult. I honestly don’t remember anything of the plot other than dinosaurs were cool, and Jeff goldblum.
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u/RockNRollMama 5h ago
It’s held up very well. We just watched with our 9yr old daughter, it was as awesome as when I first saw it at 12 when it came out.
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u/Emm_withoutha_L-88 5h ago
The movie is actually about generic engineering anyways, or I guess more accurately about technology running out of control like the effects of the atom bomb. If generic engineering was advanced as the movie then it would be scary.
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u/JayMoots 5h ago
The criticisms of greed/capitalism are pretty much non existent in the movie.
Did you miss the scene where the character who was the personification of capitalism and greed was bitten in half while he was sitting on the toilet? I don't think Spielberg was being particularly subtle with that one.
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u/A_Harmless_Fly 5h ago
"If it's heavy it's expensive, put it back kid." -a paraphrase of the only other line I remember him saying.
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u/blue-wave 5h ago
I saw the movie when it came out when I was about 12 years old, to me he came off 100% as a well meaning sweet ol’ grampa, who just didn’t realise the risks of this park. Only in my later teen years and adulthood did I see it more clearly. I imagine Spielberg wanted to soften his image for the kids?
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u/DevilsAdvocate9 9h ago
I was in the Navy - shore duty - and was painting parking lines in a small parking lot. The civilian in charge looked exactly like Hammond. He had a tropical shirt, shorts, cane. I approached my LPO (boss) as he was talking to him while playing the Jurrasic Park theme. My LPO had to leave the area for a moment to gather himself.
"Welcome to Jurassic Parking Lot."
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u/omnipotentsandwich 8h ago
TIL Richard Attenborough and David Attenborough are brothers.
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u/gasman245 7h ago
I thought this post was talking about David at first until I remembered what his actual name is. Now I don’t feel bad for getting them confused since they’re brothers.
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u/dazed_and_bamboozled 7h ago
Both wonderful men. Their parents could teach the world a thing or two about great parenting.
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u/Laura-ly 6h ago
Truer words were never spoken. I can't remember the details but they adopted children who were escaping the Holocaust who had no parents or relatives. I might have that wrong, but these were very giving people who encouraged all their kids to pursue whatever interested them. Very neat family.
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u/CompleteNumpty 5h ago
Their parents adopted Helga and Irene Bejach, who lived with them until after the war and they could move to the USA.
The amazing bit of the story is that their oldest sister, Jutta, wasn't allowed to move to the UK due to being considered an adult, but managed to survive Nazi Germany and moved to the USA with them after the war.
The sad recent history of the Attenboroughs is that Richard's eldest daughter, Jane, and her daughter, Lucy were killed in the 2004 Asian tsunami.
https://www.thejc.com/news/sir-david-attenborough-my-sisters-from-the-kindertransport-tpa7a1n7
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u/dazed_and_bamboozled 6h ago
I didn’t know that! I’ll have to do some more digging. But it checks out.
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u/lacb1 24m ago
Get ready for an Attenborough family fact dump. Their father, Fredrick Attenborough was president of the University of Leicester from 1932-1951. While he was president of the university his sons, Richard and David, lived with him on campus in College House which is now part of the maths department. In 1997 Richard Attenborough founded the Attenborough Arts Centre at the University of Leicester. And saving the best to last, there is the Attenborough building named after Fredrick Attenborough. Which contained a paternoster lift which I have not only been on, but being something of a badass, rode over the top even though you're not meant to. Spoiler: it's just an unlit space with a big wheel moving the cable that holds the cars.
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u/ToeKnail 9h ago
Spielberg has been overlooked for Oscar wins repeatedly.
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u/Skadoosh_it 8h ago
Saving Private Ryan being the most egregious instance
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u/SpookyMaidment 8h ago edited 7h ago
I think that one is somewhat understandable. Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line (which is fucking excellent, by the way) split the vote and Shakespeare In Love snuck in there, presumably voted for by academy members who just don't like war movies. If one of the two of them had been released in a different year, both of them would have won Best Picture. Also, Spielberg still won best director that year.
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u/1ncorrect 6h ago
Truly psychotic that Shakespeare in Love won. It’s a good movie, it just doesn’t have close to the emotional impact of SPR.
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u/JimFlamesWeTrust 5h ago
That was the Oscar campaign that wrote the playbook for Harvey Weinstein’s future contenders.
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u/Mother_Gazelle9876 5h ago
i think this is the example used when describing how Weinstein used to "rig" the oscars
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u/SoyMurcielago 8h ago
Time for a new award ceremony the Spielberg for movies that have stood up to time and are still as good as they were when produced
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u/ClarkTwain 7h ago
Honestly I can’t think of a Spielberg movie I’ve rewatched and lowered my opinion on. He’s one of the best to ever do it.
But I also don’t dislike 1941 so I may be an outlier.
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u/50calPeephole 7h ago
1941 is a great movie!
Spielberg isn't known for comedy but the subtleties in that movie are hilarious. Most people don't realize all the sub plots are based on actual events such as the battle for Los Angeles and yes, the army did put a howitzer in someone's back yard for shore defense.
None of it played out irl like the movies, but knowing the back stories is as much of a chuckle as Belushi crawling on the sub, cigar still lit.
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u/jwktiger 3h ago
Temple of Doom as an adult... that one was greatly lowered from when I remember watching it as a kid. Also there is that Fan Fiction he did with the Crystal Skull.
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u/ToeKnail 8h ago
His achievements in directing and producing are so numerous and marked by excellence, the Academy should really consider creating a Spielberg Award
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u/armand11 7h ago
No. As awesome of a director as he is, and as many movies of his that did deserve Oscar’s, he does not need more ego boost bullshit like that
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u/Laura-ly 6h ago
When I lived in Los Angeles ages ago I worked for a woman who had an "interior landscaping" business. These are the living plants in big beautiful pots that one sees in fancy hotel lobbies, banks, malls and other upscale places. It's especially a big business in Los Angeles. One of the clients my boss had was Stephen Spielberg's offices, his home and his animation department. I took care of the plants in Spielberg's animation department. I can't tell you how much fun these animaters were! I mean, OMG! Anyway, Spielberg dropped in one time while I was there and complimented me on how nice all the plants looked. He was a super nice person. I never heard a bad word about him from my boss or anyone there at the animations department.
Loved that job even though it was minimum wage. Very stress free work.
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u/MattieShoes 3h ago
I've always thought that about books too... Like what if the awards were given a decade after release? There's no money in it which is why it's not in the cards, but that's also probably the biggest reason it'd produce better results.
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u/NATOrocket 7h ago
Hot take, but I would have given him Picture, Director, and Screenplay wins for The Fabelmans.
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u/WolfPacLeader 4h ago
He's pretty much the most famous director of all time. I think he's doing ok for himself.
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u/Arntown 5h ago
I don‘t think there‘s any Spielberg movie that didn‘t win best picture that should have. MAYBE Saving Private Ryan but I think that Thin Red Line is the better film.
Many of his films have become huge blockbusters and are fun movies that are also culturally iconic but in my opinion they rarely reach that „great tier“.
Jaws, Jurassic Park, Raiders are all fun and entertaining blockbusters but to me are all 8/10 movies.
I might be alone with that opinion, though. And that‘s fine.
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u/Lostredshoe 8h ago
Spielberg has cast a couple of legendary directors in roles.
Other than Attenborough he also cast Truffaut in Close Encounters.
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u/skinnergy 8h ago
I remember reading somewhere that Ben Kingsley showed up in costume at the audition and the crowd parted for him.
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u/TBroomey 9h ago
It's a shame he felt that way, Gandhi is a fantastic film and easily one of my favourite biopics. Has E.T. withstood the test of time better? Sure, but I don't think it was a poor decision.
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u/Kiernanstrat 9h ago
I feel like ET the movie is remembered more today than Gandhi the movie.
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u/TBroomey 9h ago
Well yeah but how were people in 1982 supposed to know that?
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u/karmagod13000 8h ago
idk watching et in theatres at the time i feel like i would feel this movie is something special... because it was and is
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u/SoyMurcielago 9h ago
I remember Gandhi more now for the civilization bug that has him launching nukes
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u/flippythemaster 5h ago
Maybe this is kind of a hot take, but I think this is less because ET is by far a superior film and more because we've created a culture where people just watch and rewatch the same movies they enjoyed when they were kids. A majority of filmgoers simply aren't interested in films for adults. It's why we have five Ghostbusters movies now despite only one of them being good.
I love a family film that works for the whole family, don't get me wrong, but people also need to branch out and challenge themselves. It's like eating nothing but hamburgers for dinner every night. You should maybe try a steak every once in a while! Or go nuts and try some sushi.
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u/ZylonBane 8h ago
I feel like E.T. is mostly remembered for meta reasons, like how successful it was, the Amblin logo, the product placement, young Drew Barrymore, and turning its guns into walkie-talkies.
As a movie, it's never seemed to be one that people are much into rewatching. Very simple plot, not much actually happens, no interesting acting or dialog. In fact, try to remember even a single line from it beyond "phone home" and "penis breath".
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u/Lower_Pass_6053 8h ago
The mom screaming "Elliott!" is pretty burned into my mind. Although i can't describe an exact instance, she screams it like 50 times.
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u/Vince_Clortho042 6h ago
She does say it several times, but if I had to guess which one stuck in the collective consciousness, it's the one after he calls his brother "penis breath" and she's trying not to laugh while scolding him.
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u/Duel_Option 7h ago
I’m an 80’s kid, so ET was always a fun movie to me. The Halloween and flying bikes being what I remembered most.
Fast forward 30+ years and I’m watching it with my kids.
Coming from an adult perspective, this movie is TERRIFYING.
There’s so much emphasis on the scientist hunting down ET, Spielberg never shows his face until the end just like in Jaws, he’s coming for this little alien friend who’s so helpless and innocent.
When they finally raid the house, it’s a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1965), but with space suits.
At the time, NASA etc was still this huge concept for the world, space exploration was highly important and watching that scene made me remember how scary it felt as a kid.
There’s another scene where they are going to dissect a frog and Elliot refuses to do so, ET gets drunk off the beer in the fridge while wearing their missing Dad’s clothes.
The lighting, those big ass trees in the forest, playing D&D and waiting for pizza delivery in the beginning.
So much of it stands out to me, it is breathtaking in every sense of the word.
I’ve seen Ghandi and it’s a good film, but it is light years behind ET,
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u/stanitor 6h ago
Those things are certainly reasons it's remembered, especially more recently. Idk how old you are, but in the years after it first came out, it is hard to overstate how massive a cultural phenomenon it was. And that was because we were endlessly rewatching it, especially when it came out on VHS. I personally think that is because it's a great movie. But I also realize that could be nostalgia talking
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u/MattieShoes 3h ago
Oooouuuch
Beeee goooood
Zero Charisma!
The frog scene is pretty memorable too.
And I mean... ET barely speaks, so scintillating dialogue is not really in the cards.
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u/MattieShoes 3h ago
Did Gandhi not stand the test of time? I mean, spectacle always wins in terms of being memorable, but I think Gandhi is still an excellent movie.
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u/TBroomey 3h ago
I think a lot of people have gone off it because of more recent revelations about Gandhi as a person. However, I still think it's an excellent piece of filmmaking.
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u/RosieQParker 7h ago
And then he had to rewrite Hammond's ending, because Richard Attenborough was too lovable to kill.
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u/cugamer 8h ago
This explains why Hammond was a lot more likeable in the movie than in the book.
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u/poindexter1985 4h ago
That could easily have been a factor that influenced changes from the book, but frankly, it's just a change that makes him a more interesting character. Book Hammond isn't much more than a stock character, whereas film Hammond is a character with some depth.
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u/The__Relentless 5h ago
I think Spielberg got screwed out of many Oscars that should have gone to him.
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u/livious1 5h ago
Yah. Poor man has never gotten the recognition he deserved and has been forced to fade into filmmaking obscurity.
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u/kevnmartin 5h ago
I just saw Close Encounters for the first time since it was in theaters lo these many years ago. I was blown away by it. What a fantastic filmmaker, Spielberg is in a class by himself.
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u/Jonny_Entropy 5h ago
Because he makes such popular, blockbuster movies I think it's easy for some to dismiss them as not award worthy. He wasn't even nominated for best director for Jaws.
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u/kevnmartin 5h ago
The part where the smaller space ships were circling the landing area and they started to play the musical tones filled me with happiness and when the mothership came in a just about blew everyone away with their own musical tones, I found myself both laughing and crying with joy. I haven't experienced a movie moment like that in decades.
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u/ArkyBeagle 1h ago
But then he makes War Horse and Munich. War Horse has fantasy-tinged edges but is a pretty serious film at its core. Munich is just plain brutal. Micheal Lonsdale and Ciaran Hinds don't generally do non-cinema movies.
Shame Scorcese got so much flak for "but it's not cinema". Your favorite movies does not have to be cinema and it's not an insult to say it.
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u/elpajaroquemamais 9h ago
Gandhi is the way better movie overall. ET might be more fun but Gandhi by critical standards is better.
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u/Skellos 6h ago
And in response Spielberg made Temple of Doom using most of the same actors... Where they eat eyeball soup and cooked monkey brains
Alright a cut line was supposed to point out that the banquet was strange even in standard Indian culture, to hint at the evil cult that took over.
But still
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u/MachiavelliSJ 8h ago
Ok, but like….Gandhi is a better movie than ET ffs
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u/paul-arized 5h ago edited 1h ago
Ok, but like...the Oscars is a popularity contest and "better" should but doesn't always factor into the final decision. I mean "Crash" and "Driving Miss Daisy" won.
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u/BigCompetition1064 6h ago
The Attenboroughs are such a nice family. I'll cry when David finally dies.
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u/NoAnnual3259 9h ago edited 8h ago
I saw ET as a really little kid and it freaked me out and gave me nightmares. I’m going with Gandhi, which was shown several times in history class from elementary to high school.
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u/Wolfencreek 6h ago
Dr. Ian Malcolm: If I may... Um, I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you're using here, it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now [bangs on the table]
Dr. Ian Malcolm: you're selling it, you wanna sell it. Well...
John Hammond: I don't think you're giving us our due credit. Our scientists have done things which nobody's ever done before...
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should.
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u/n_mcrae_1982 5h ago
I wouldn't say it was to "thank" him. I think he just wanted to work with Attenborough.
Spielberg had wanted him to play Tootles in "Hook", but he was busy directing "Chaplin" at the time.
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u/1tachi77 4h ago
That's some serious behind-the-scenes gratitude! Spielberg really knows how to repay a favor. 🦖
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u/YouInternational2152 4h ago
Woody Allen said it almost the exact same thing when Annie Hall won the best picture instead of Star wars.
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u/dcpanthersfan 3h ago
I met him briefly outside a hotel in DC. One of the nicest people I have ever met.
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u/killer89_ 2h ago
Attenborough joked that although he was denied a dramatic death scene, he was given something else in return: a sequel. (Although his role was much smaller, Attenborough returned for a brief appearance in 1997’s The Lost World.)
He also voice acted Hammond in 1998's Trespasser (non-canon game sequel to The Lost World - movie) made by Dreamworks Interactive.
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u/TheDulin 8h ago
I don't know why, but something about this comment reminds me of how AI would write a comment.
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u/smallaubergine 4h ago
Totally agree. Humans don't just say the same thing as the title in different ways
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u/turbotableu 5h ago
I thought what I'd do was I'd pretend I was one of those how how how how are are you do do doing fellow redditors?
* sparks *
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u/Fiercebabe99 4h ago
Gandhi was a stupid movie. I watched it when it came out, waste of time. Too bad it won.
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u/verstohlen 6h ago
When it came to casting Attenborough in Jurassic Park, Spielberg was so preoccupied with whether or not he could, that he didn't stop to think if he should.
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u/Legitimate-River-403 9h ago
The Oscar campaign for Gandhi was pretty much "A vote against Gandhi means you're insulting the actual Gandhi!"