Introducing The Completist Project

What is The Completist Project?

A core tenet of the We Like Movies blog is the very simple acknowledgement that movies are awesome. And while discussing favourites of a given year or the current slate of movies we're obsessing over is a lot of fun, creating this blog was meant to be a part of completing my cinematic education. Thus was born the Completist Project, a way to work through the full catalogue of beloved film artists, as well as discover new ones.

Each season on the Completist, we pick a filmography and work our way through it. We pair or triple up the films as appropriate, looking for themes, links, or ways they noticeably don't go together. This is an opportunity not only to watch more movies, but to learn about the histories of these artists, situate the films within their respective careers, and discuss them in conversation with others within their filmography. From such lofty ambitions will hopefully come fresh insights, fun discussions, and engaging tensions.

Season 1- Steven Spielberg

For our first pick, I chose one of my favourite filmmakers of all time, a little unknown American named Steven Spielberg. The accidental inventor of the summer blockbuster turns 80 this December, and the upcoming release of his 35th feature, Disclosure Day, (I count Duel but not Firelight) made it a perfect time to celebrate and re-examine the master director. I referenced some of why in my introductory post but another part of it is that over my cinephile years, I have continued to grow in knowledge & respect for Spielberg. `

While obviously one of the most successful and well-known filmmakers in the world, making him one of the most written about as well, there's still much to discuss about Steven Spielberg. What fascinates him? What inspires certain stories? With the benefit of his long career, what would he do differently or not at all if he made the movies of his youth today? His style continues to inspire discussion and debate. Is he a conservative filmmaker who colours inside the lines to make people like him? Or does he reflect many of us back to ourselves, drawing us to him and to desire more stories like his? Are his fears and insecurities (aliens, absent fathers, government intervention, corporate greed) meant to move us to action or to seek the comfort of warmer, safer places? I want to explore all of this and more as I seek out films I've seen repeatedly, those I've seen just once, and those I've never touched.

As a ten-year-old in 1993, I sat down for the first of what would be at least a dozen viewings of Jurassic Park. While occasionally too scared to look, the film fascinated me. It was MUCH better than that awful movie about a grown-up Peter Pan I'd seen a couple of years earlier (1991's Hook, of course). What did he do to make the dinosaurs move? How did he infuse the film with visual humour while scaring us, like the t-rex chase including the shot of the side mirror with the omnipresent warning that (terrifying) objects are closer than they appear, or cutting from "unless they've learned how to open doors" to a velociraptor claw pushing down on one to enter the kitchen?

As a 15-year-old in 1998, my mother refused to let me see Saving Private Ryan due to reports of the D-Day battle being too realistic for my young eyes. I didn't see it until almost 20 years later. The scenes are shocking, viscerally created, and a graphic entry point into the much more humane search-and-rescue mission of the bulk of the film. Which I don't love, but that's beside the point.

The second time I saw Schindler's List, I was somewhere in the early days of my cinephilia. I emphasized the negatives and made less room for the positives to satisfy the presumed of a serious film lover: that Spielberg was good, but didn't know how to make real, adult movies. This was enhanced by 2001's A.I., a film whose ending has been debated much, and I initially felt was a sign of his fear of going "too dark." Oh why couldn't Kubrick have lived long enough to get to the film? I was pretty snotty about film from 17-22 and well, it led me to some places and to some o p i n i o n s. I am grateful to have learned different lessons and to have allowed how I see film to shift.

First Pairing- Alien-nation

It is easy to dismiss someone when he's as successful at the box office as Steven Spielberg. I don't think myself superior to his detractors, I just wanted to explore how his skill at telling stories has built, and consider the meaning of his films. For our first pairing, Alien-nation, I will be discussing Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and E.T. (1982). Both films explore benign contact with extra-terrestrial beings, parental distance, and a sense of wonder at the world(s) beyond ours. Full list of 16 pairings coming soon, but there's a taste for now. Watch along and join us to discuss in a couple of days.