Steven Spielberg and the Federal American Holidays

Steven Spielberg is undeniably one of the great American film directors, he might just be one of the great Americans. The king of the modern blockbuster, commercially and critically lauded, and an all around pretty swell guy. It would be borderline redundant to list accolades or general overall impact, the guy kind of invented the zeitgeist of the 80s and 90s and then continued to make terrific films in the subsequent decades; he’s a filmmaker that truly understands and harnesses movie magic.

Because of his cultural impact and his prolific output, it can be interesting to approach a ranking of his filmography. An interesting conversation starts to form around the hierarchy of the films, and strong arguments present themselves once you get down to those top spots. Is it improper to include three Indiana Jones movies in your top ten? How are you supposed to compare Schindler’s List to Jaws? Will your friends stop talking to you because War Horse and The Terminal round out your top two? All great questions, and it turns out there’s an easy solution.

Rather than pumping out another Spielberg retrospective where forty films are boiled down to a top ten, Hyperreal would like to offer an alternative assembly: attributing a Steven Spielberg film to each of the major American holidays. It turns out that, for a lot of his movies, either the themes or settings fall in line with the ideals behind the holidays. The goal is to give you some options while you’re home from work or school, those options just have to be within the Amblin canon.

Valentines Day - West Side Story 

It’s not the first holiday on the calendar, and you don’t even get a day off work or school, but dammit, Valentine's Day deserves a shout. Spielberg doesn’t necessarily spring to mind when discussing the most “romantic” filmmakers, but that doesn’t mean he can’t harness it. His remake of West Side Story was a pristine example of an underseen Covid-era flop, but it is such a great ride. The film is one of the quintessential star-crossed lovers plots of all time. Set against the backdrop of 1960s New York, and substituting families like Capulets and Montagues for gangs of Jets and Sharks, Spielberg combines his trademark wonder with a musical artifice, before mixing in a little reverence and MERM (musically enhanced reality moments) to deliver on an honest to god, wonderful adaptation of a classic story. Seeing such a classic love story in Spielberg’s hands really allows the viewer to get swept up in the major emotion of it all. The film is a cool chance for him to focus on huge set pieces and musical numbers, but he never loses the core that allows the story to persevere. It’s also got a couple of major breakout stars with Mike Faist, Rachel Zeggler, and a notable Oscar winner with Arianna DeBose. It was a shame that there was no one to play the protagonist of Tony, but I guess he can’t do miracles all the time.

Easter - Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark 

Moving along the calendar, Easter starts to rear its “hare-y” little head, and, as it turns out, that head is wearing a brown fedora. The pick for the new essential Easter flick is Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, which follows Indiana Jones, an archeology professor and adventurer, as he’s pulled into a race against the Nazis to find the mystical Ark of the Covenant. The suave and (quite frankly) stunning archeologist represents the most fun and memorable aspects of the Easter season, looking for treasure in hidden places. While celebrations of Easter consist of finding little eggs filled with candy or money for rich kids, Raiders offers a more grandiose adventure that expands beyond the backyard. This film is more than essential Spielberg, it’s basically essential viewing. The combination of action set pieces, temple raiding, puzzle solving, and world trotting has never been better than Raiders of the Lost Ark. The filmmaking is so pure and infectious that it imbues the viewer with their own personal sense of discovery upon every watch. Also, Easter is a christian holiday and god pretty much just straight up exists in the Indiana Jones universe, so you can take that with you.

Mother’s Day - The Fabelmans 

This 2023 release is late era Spielberg in his absolute bag. An autobiographical story that chronicles Spielberg’s adolescence, the film is as much of a love letter to his mother as it is a love letter to film. Michelle Williams gets the call up to play the matriarchal Mitzi Fabelman and she delivers in spades. The film presents parallel stories: the interpersonal story of the Fabelmans as they are coming of age in a new and changing world and all of the hardships that come with that task, and the story of Sammy Fabelman falling in love with cinema. These two stories overlap and clash in two significantly distinct moments. In one, Sammy is filming his mother dancing in front of car headlights while wearing a translucent dress. This moment comes just one scene after he discovers her infidelity between her and his father’s best friend. Then, the other distinctive scene, is when there’s an argument in the house and Sammy starts to tune the yelling out as he looks toward a mirror and sees himself filming the scene. These two beats in the story are pivotal to the film, not only because of what they say a lot about Spielberg, but also what they say about how impactful his mom was in his life and career. Both of these moments show Sammy dealing with a newly realized reality through the medium of film, and both of these new realities are the result of his mother’s actions. The moments don’t really present as spiteful, instead they feel quite soft and nostalgic. It’s a tender look back at moments that felt suppressed.

Memorial Day - Saving Private Ryan

Much too obvious, next!

Juneteenth - The Color Purple

A real odd duck when compared to the rest of his work, The Color Purple is a great film with great performances, but it is often criticized as being the wrong material for Spielberg. Like anything, there’s parts of that statement that might ring true, but there’s also more overtly Spielberg moments than non-Spielberg moments. A life spanning epic of an African American woman in the deep south and her hardships and abuses in life as she longs to reunite with her sister, definitely doesn’t scream “oh, we need the guy who directed Duel.” Despite that, the film persists as a classic. Maybe it’s because it was always on daytime cable, or maybe it’s because there’s wonderful performances at the center. 11 total Academy Award nominations, but more importantly three actors nods including: Whoopi Goldberg for Actress in a Leading Role, Margaret Avery for Actress in a Supporting Role, and Oprah Winfrey for Actress in a Supporting Role. These are the performers that make the film, they are the ones that bridge the gap to the audience that’s usually covered by the filmmaking. Sometimes you need films like that, ones where the performances are so clearly the standouts above everything else, especially when the performances are showcasing talent like this. Then you can pair it with the old adage that if you have one or two great performances in a movie, then you have a few good actors, but if you have a film with only great performances, then you have a good director.  For a holiday that not only celebrates the end of slavery in the US, but also Black history overall, there’s no better pairing than The Color Purple.

Honorable Mention: July 3rd - War of the Worlds & Total Recall

July 3rd is both mine and Tom Cruise’s birthday, so if you care about either one of us, you’ll do the Cruise-Spielberg collaboration double feature. 

Independence Day - Jaws

This was bound to happen, a film that not only takes place during the holiday it’s paired with, but is also a commentary on the ideals the holiday represents. Jaws is often cited as the first real blockbuster. Released in 1975, the film is about a killer shark that attacks a small seaside community. 4th of July is the most inherently American holiday, and Jaws as a film and as a phenomenon coincides with those ideals. In the film, the shark starts to attack right as the town is gearing up for the 4th of July weekend, the busiest season, and the mayor’s immediate reaction after learning about the attacks? Keep the beaches open, there’s profit to be had! Monetary gain placed in front of human safety, the most basic cornerstone of American culture, maybe it’s even the first amendment? Aside from that, Jaws is representative of the cinematic landscape in the States for the past fifty years. A thrilling, big budget film that can terrify and excite audiences, it set the blueprint for what was possible for films because it became an event. Jaws was one of the first films to really enter into that cultural conversation. It was approachable for everyone, despite not shying away from adult themes or imagery. Everyone you know had seen it, and if you hadn’t seen it, you were missing out. That became the way people talk about big films, it’s how they still talk about them; Jaws helped to make movies must-see events.

Labor Day - Close Encounters of the Third Kind

The “working man” is the protagonist of so many Spielberg flicks. That instantly knowable person who can be described in their first line of dialogue. Labor Day is all about the achievement of workers; the blue collars and laborers, and Close Encounters is what happens when heavenly bodies clash with those folk. The film isn’t as focused on what the revelation of aliens does for governing bodies or the world at large (that’s coming later) instead, it’s interested in what the discovery of extra-terrestrial lifeforms means for the common man. Richard Dreyfuss is the vessel for that experience. An electricity linesman who has an encounter with aliens to then spend the rest of the film dissolving his family, marriage, and meaningful relationships in the pursuit of knowledge of a higher being. Everything is dropped because the promise of something more is proven to exist. While the next pick on the list focuses on the wonder of now knowing the previously unknown, Close Encounters is the processing and the reckoning of that information against the reality of the workforce. 

Halloween - E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Horror isn’t always something that is emphasized in the Spielberg oeuvre. He’s never made a straight up and down horror film, but that hasn’t stopped him from weaving in horror to so much of what he does. E.T. is not one of those films where he includes horror. The story of a young boy who befriends a creature from outer space and the lengths he goes to protect him, absolutely falls more in the heartwarming category, as opposed to the horror. So, where’s the Halloween of it all? It’s in the Halloween scene, of course. Putting a little sheet on Zhrek (real name) and taking him “trick-or-treating” is a great moment. The eyeholes cut out of the bed sheet strapped to the camera, looking through his perspective, getting a little Star Wars reference in there, it’s all incredibly fun. Maybe there’s an argument in there for E.T. playing dress up for Elliot as both a father figure and a best friend, filling the void creating a much needed meaningful connection. Oh, he also likes Reese's Pieces, so Halloween candy. 

Thanksgiving - Hook

Generally considered one of his worst movies (couldn’t be further from the truth), Hook is about a grown-up Peter Pan returning to Neverland after Captain Hook kidnaps his kids. This film was actually the initial spark of the article. Analyzing the themes of Thanksgiving, family, community, reunion, and food, it starts to paint a picture and clearly fall in line with everything that Hook represents. At its base level, we have a man who has to travel back home to reunite with a family that he once knew, with the hope of protecting the family he has now. While on this journey, he regains connections, memories, and relationships, which all help him to (in this case literally) return to his childhood. The artifice of the film and the setpieces help to give it this necessary nostalgia, aiding the audience with the emotional journey of the film and of Peter. In addition to all the sentimental gobbledygook, there is also a memorable feast. The Lost Boys gather around the table with Peter for dinner, however the bowls and plates are all empty and they’re only pretending to eat food. As the scene continues, they start to believe that the food is really there, and sure enough it materializes in front of them. A food fight ensues and then later a kid turns into a cannonball. It’s an awesome flick.

Cyber Monday - A.I. Artificial Intelligence

Heard of cyber deals? Well now there’s cyber boys!

Christmas - Catch Me if You Can

Universally, wait no, colloquially or more internally agreed upon as not only the best Christmas flick of all time, but also DiCaprio’s best performance, Catch Me if You Can is about Frank Abagnale, a real life con-man who convinced people he was a pilot, lawyer, and doctor. The film also focuses on Detective Carl Hanratty, the cop assigned to catch him. It’s a romp and a half. There’s a delightfully airy John Williams score that is akin to a glass of champagne, and while Catch Me if You Can is not presented as a traditional Christmas film, the connections run rampant. One of the grounding scenes, that’s repeated throughout the film, is a phone conversation between Hanratty and Abagnale on Christmas Eve. Three Christmases in a row, Abagnale is on the run and Hanratty is trying to catch him, which results in both of them only having each other to call for the holidays. Abagnale can’t call home to speak to his real father, and Hanratty doesn’t have a home that wants to speak to him. In the most unorthodox way, a father-son relationship forms, and it’s a connection that grows throughout the film. Additionally, a closing note to present this as your absolutely necessary Christmas watch: Throughout the film Abagnale has three central father figures, his real dad, who he continually looks up to despite his moral and financial shortcomings. His supposed-to-be father-in-law that enters his life when he falls for a nurse in Louisiana, and the most lasting relationship of Detective Carl Hanratty. Three men interweave their ways into his life, assisting him with seeing the error of his ways and hopefully set him on their presumed right path; it’s a story that could parallel A Christmas Carol with the Christmas ghosts of Past, Present, and Future.

New Years Eve/Day - Disclosure Day

You’ve made it through a full calendar year, and while in July you were saying that the year is taking forever, you realize that it was actually much quicker than you anticipated. As the new year approaches, you think of revelations and what new discoveries you could be hoping for as you’re ushered into a new world. Spielberg’s latest, Disclosure Day, is the perfect pairing for you to take on those soon to be new discoveries. The film follows a whistleblower and a meteorologist as they attempt to reveal the truth that a private corporation has been hiding information about extra-terrestrial life on earth. The film not only encourages new discovery but it bolsters the idea that with every horizon we cross as a species, empathy and curiosity will always remain our greatest assets. So, as you prepare to make your new years resolutions lists this year, chuck on Disclosure Day and allow it to influence your goals by suggesting that you lead with empathy and curiosity.

Now, there were a lot of movies missed that should have gotten the nod, but there’s only so many holidays. As a remedy, here are some new holidays to celebrate these films:

June 14th - Dinosaur Remembrance Day (rest up homies) - Jurassic Park

March 22nd - Missing Academy Award Day (to honor those performances that should have gotten Oscars but were snubbed) - Schindler’s List 

August 19th - National IP Recognition Day (a day to respect all known and unknown intellectual property) - Ready Player One

July 26th - International Indie Movie Day (for my boy Indiana Jones) - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

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