How Bridge of Spies Shows The Ending Stages of Steven Spielberg's Career

When all is said and done, Steven Spielberg might be known as America's greatest director of all time. Classics such as Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, and E.T.: The Extraterrestrial are some of the greatest films ever and near and dear to many people's hearts. Spielberg has shown a great knack for story structure and story telling, and he's had the opportunity to be great over several genres. Yet as he comes off his 32rd directorial motion picture and as he enters his fifth decade of movie making, I am not so sure Spielberg should be making movies anymore, and each new movie he makes tarnishes his legacy that much more. It doesn't diminish his past accomplishments, but it does diminish the way people like me think of him and respect him. That's why I watch a good film like Bridge of Spies and not ever want to see another Steven Spielberg movie again.

As a millennial, Spielberg isn't making movies for me anymore. He's making movies for my 60 year old parents and Oscar voters. I'm sure some of that has to do with Spielberg's age (he turned 69 last December), yet 70 year old George Miller just made Mad Max: Fury Road so that can't be all of it. I just think Spielberg lost whatever edge he had to begin with, and isn't in the same creative mind space that he has occupied for the last 40 years. His last five films have been: Bridge of Spies, Lincoln, War Horse, The Adventures of Tintin, and Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. His last good movie was 2005's Munich- which is now over a decade old. Bridge of Spies, Lincoln, and War Horse are films meant for an elderly generation, and Tintin and Crystal Skull are films that 30-years-ago Spielberg would have made classics, yet fell flat (really flat with Crystal Skull). Whatever sense of adventure he had that made films like Raiders and Jurassic Park great is completely gone, and whatever eye he had for drama seems to appeal to a generation that's dying out. I don't mean to be ageist when it comes to film making- people like my parents and grandparents need to be able to enjoy films- but if you can't appeal to younger moviegoers as well then those films will be lost by the wayside.