[Did You Know] Spielberg Does Not Take Elevators

Director Steven Spielberg's Film 'Pavelmans'
Breathing New Life into Genre Formulas, the Heart of Youth
A Recognized Troublemaker but Often Haunted by Fear
Entire Family Isolated Because They Are Jewish
Proposes Lead Role in Film to Class Leader to Escape Violence

The film 'Pavelmans' is an autobiographical story of director Steven Spielberg. It shows the roots of the movies he has actively made. 'Jaws (1975)', 'Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)', 'Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)', 'E.T. (1982)', 'Empire of the Sun (1987)', 'Hook (1991)', 'Jurassic Park (1993)', 'Schindler's List (1993)', 'Saving Private Ryan (1998)', 'A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)', 'Minority Report (2002)', 'Catch Me If You Can (2002)', 'The Terminal (2004)', 'War of the Worlds (2005)', 'Munich (2005)', 'Lincoln (2012)', 'Bridge of Spies (2015)', 'Ready Player One (2017)', 'The Post (2017)', 'West Side Story (2021)'...

Some critics argue that his works do not escape conventional genre categories. He certainly follows well-trodden paths with traditional plots and characters. However, he continuously breathes new life into established genre formulas, achieving new expansions. Lester D. Friedman, a professor of film studies at Syracuse University, wrote in his book 'Words of Spielberg' that "Spielberg adds density and depth to what would have been a boring 'genre' explanation, which in the hands of a less creative person would have offered nothing but the convenience of repetition and nostalgia for familiarity."

'Pavelmans' fully embodies that special quality that has become a cultural zeitgeist. It is the heart of a young man who never stops dreaming and is unafraid to embark on adventures.

'Just so you know,' here is some useful information delivered in a somewhat scattered way. It's a tip for enjoying the film more interestingly.

*Spielberg was born in December 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was not a model child. Rather, he was a notorious troublemaker who caused headaches for those around him. His mother, Leah, and younger sisters could never relax due to his incessant pranks. Once, while watching a TV movie with his siblings, a scene showed a Martian putting a severed human head into a fishbowl. When his siblings closed their eyes in fear, Spielberg forcibly dragged them into a dark wardrobe with the fishbowl and locked the door. Later, Spielberg recalled, "The screams I heard from my siblings that day were the most fun sounds in the world." Leah said about him, "He was never a child you wanted to hug."

*Spielberg once told his siblings he would make them movie stars and made them stare at the blazing sun for a long time, almost blinding them. He also surprised people by wrapping his entire body in toilet paper like a mummy. His siblings were extremely tense every Saturday morning because their parents went out, leaving them entirely in Spielberg's care.

*Although a prankster, Spielberg still refuses to ride elevators. He feels fear just imagining falling inside one. Therefore, he built Amblin Entertainment (Spielberg's film production company) on the second floor and holds meetings only in the building lobby. He said, "I think everyone lives by overcoming their own fears in their own way."

*Spielberg does not go into the sea either. He was often plagued by nightmares of waves swallowing his house. Moreover, he is afraid of sharks. Ironically, Spielberg owns a house near a famous beach and became a star director with a thriller featuring sharks ('Jaws'). His fear helped his filmmaking.

*Because of his father Arnold's job as an electrical engineer, Spielberg had to move frequently. He had little time to make friends and rarely played with peers. The camera he first touched at age eight became his entire life. It was an 8mm Kodak movie camera, a gift from Leah to Arnold, used only for simple home videos. Dissatisfied, Spielberg mustered courage at age twelve and proposed, "Dad! How about I become the family's exclusive cameraman?" His father readily agreed, handing over the camera, and Spielberg began filming home videos in a drama format. Arnold soon regretted giving him the camera because his son became overly obsessed and often failed school. Arnold wanted his son to have a scientific career like himself. However, Spielberg inherited more artistic sensibility and creativity from his mother, a former pianist.

*The Spielberg family went camping on weekends, filming home videos. They took sleeping bags into the wilderness of the White Mountains in Arizona, where Spielberg sometimes slept inside. Arnold filmed the journey and gathered the family a week later to share the footage. Spielberg often fell asleep watching it.

*The model train collision scene in 'Pavelmans' is based on real experience. Spielberg fixed the camera at track level and crashed the train to make the model look life-sized. He used this method in many films even as an adult.

*The first film Spielberg saw was Cecil B. DeMille's 'The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)'. He said, "I think I wanted to become a director and tried to imitate some techniques," but "above all, I relied on intuition to shoot."

*Spielberg's parents did not allow him to watch TV until he was a certain age. In a 1978 interview with 'American Cinematographer', Spielberg said, "Being allowed to watch TV meant my three younger sisters and I had behaved well all week. We could watch for about an hour." "The TV set was a huge forbidden piece of furniture in the living room that I secretly went down to watch when my parents went to parties and only the babysitter was home. I can't say I was inspired to replicate or imitate anything from watching TV. I never expected to start my career through TV."

*Arnold taught his son math every morning after he kept failing in high school. However, Spielberg's grades rarely improved, and he failed for three consecutive years. One cause of his poor performance was dyslexia; it took him hours to read a single script. Though not outwardly visible, psychological conflicts between father and son lasted long. Spielberg had a good relationship with his mother. Leah understood him well and supported whatever he wanted, believing that was her role.

*Spielberg often feigned illness to skip school. Upon waking, he would take a thermometer and warm it by holding it to a light bulb, then groan to his mother, "I think I have a cold," showing the thermometer. Leah knew it was a ruse but was fooled several times. This behavior is depicted in 'E.T.', where the protagonist Elliott acts similarly to avoid school, though his mother does not realize it is feigned.

*Spielberg was bullied at school because he was Jewish and never attended school comfortably. When the family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, they were isolated in the town. It was a predominantly Christian area, and the Spielberg family was the only Jewish household. They were the only ones without a Christmas tree at Christmas. After repeated bullying, Spielberg buttered the windows of the houses of the kids who teased him in the middle of the night.

*Spielberg did not want to look Jewish. He wanted a slightly upturned nose like white Christians, thinking he could naturally fit in with the group. For a while, he looked at himself in the mirror, adjusting his nose. At night, he cut a long strip of rubber tape, attaching one end to his nose and the other to his forehead, sleeping like that. The result was not a sharp nose but a large, hooked one. He became freer from his 'Jewish complex' after making 'The Color Purple (1986)'. This film about the oppressed life of a Black woman reminded him of the Holocaust, leading him to direct 'Schindler's List' later. He founded a foundation to help Holocaust survivors and donated all profits from 'Schindler's List'. This was how he paid the price for overcoming his complex.

*One of the students who bullied Spielberg was the class leader, a large and strong boy. He often beat Spielberg until he was covered in blood. Other kids began physically tormenting Spielberg too, holding his neck and pushing his head underwater, or shoving his face into muddy ground to cause breathing difficulties. The leader even tried to put firecrackers between Spielberg's legs and detonate them. These bullying experiences are depicted in Spielberg's 'Back to the Future (1987)'.

*To escape the shadow of violence, Spielberg invited the class leader to act in a film. He said he was making a World War II movie and offered him the lead role like John Wayne. The leader took the bait, and Spielberg made the film and won his favor. As a director, he gave various instructions and reversed the situation. He recalled, "Fortunately, I was able to take him to a place where I could feel safe. Of course, that place was in front of the camera. I realized then how wonderful a tool and weapon the camera is. And how wonderfully it allows you to observe and express yourself."

*The battle scene in 'Pavelmans' is based on real experience. At the time, Spielberg had only $50. To create a realistic war zone feel, he dug two holes in the desert and sprinkled plenty of flour between them. He laid plywood over it and covered it with branches so that flour would leak out with every step. Actors divided into Nazis and British soldiers ran across the plywood. The flour underneath flew up like dust raised by many soldiers, like smoke from bombs exploding. The flour instantly transformed the set into a battlefield. Spielberg later said the flour set was much more effective than gunpowder used on modern sets. The film made this way was titled 'Escape to Nowhere'. It won the Arizona Canyon Film Festival that year, making Spielberg the youngest winner. The prize was a 16mm camera. Since he couldn't afford 16mm film work, Spielberg traded his 8mm Bolex H8 camera for it. It was very fancy equipment at the time.

*With growing confidence in directing, Spielberg borrowed $400 from his father on the condition he would repay it and made an SF thriller about aliens and disappearances. To film an important hospital scene, he closed off part of the interior and asked spectators to be extras. People were captivated by Spielberg's passion and obediently followed. He even closed an airport runway to complete 'The Lights'. It was screened at a local theater, earning $500. He repaid his father the $400 loan and made a $100 profit. It was Spielberg's first profitable film.

*Spielberg was inspired by 8mm capsule documentaries from Castle Films in the 1940s (documentaries made for the US military during WWII) to make a war film called 'Warrior Unit'. He described the process: "The capsule documentaries were black and white, with great shots taken with a cine gun. There were shots of flares being fired, Messerschmitts (German WWII fighter planes) burning and crashing, tanks and trains exploding. I bought about eight such films, extracted exciting shots, and wrote a script around them. I cast neighborhood kids and school friends as actors. When I needed a shot of a young pilot pulling back the P-51 control stick, I went to Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, got on a P-51, and filmed a close-up of the stick being pulled back. Then I edited in stock footage of a climbing plane, cut to a close-up of a fourteen-year-old friend smiling triumphantly, then a close-up of his thumb pressing a button, and then stock footage of continuous gunfire. I assembled the whole thing like that."

*Spielberg considers 'divorce' the most terrible word in English. His parents growled at each other with the word for six years. Spielberg thought it better to separate quickly and felt relieved when he heard his mother's declaration of divorce, knowing he wouldn't have to hear the word anymore. He never harbored bad feelings toward his parents. He thought no parents could be more generous to a son obsessed with movies. Their divorce later greatly influenced his film career. Examples include the child drawn away from parents and taken by aliens in 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' and the British boy lost in a crowd escaping his parents' hands in 'Empire of the Sun'.

*In 1976, Spielberg sneaked into Universal Studios without permission and watched other directors making television shows for three months. He recalled in a 1978 interview with 'Film Comment': "I just walked in. During lunch and early morning, all kinds of people walked through the central gate on foot. I got up at dawn, dressed in a suit, carrying a briefcase, and went there. For some reason, the guard at the door waved me in every day. I thought people must have guessed I was someone's son or part of the Black Tower management. So I found an empty office and went in. The reality was like a dead-end experience. No one inside really wanted my work, and jobs were still limited to middle-aged men. The only young people on site were actors. The revival of youth was just beginning."

References: Lester D. Friedman, Brent Notbom, Steven Spielberg, translated by Lee Suwon, published by Maumsanchaek 'Words of Spielberg (2022)'; Jung Deokhwan, published by Jongi Chaek 'Spielberg's Film Conquest Project (2011)'; Lee Kyunggi, published by Bookk 'Absolute Film Files 1,001 That Even Steven Spielberg Wonders About (2019)'; Kang Junman, published by Gaemagowon 'Steven Spielberg - Film is the Miracle of the 20th Century (2017)'.