"Spielberg" (2017 release; 147 min.) is a documentary about the life and times of legendary film maker Steven Spielberg. As the movie opens, Spielberg describes in glorious detail the profound impression left on him when he saw "Lawrence of Arabia" in the theater in 1962, and again and again (much later in the documentary, Spielberg confesses he still watches that movie at least once a year). We then go to the "Bridge of Spies" movie set, where Spielberg is seen giving detailed instructions as a particular scene is being prepped. Next comes a lengthy passage about "Jaws", whose unexpected commercial success (in particular in view of the almost disastrous production) "changed my life", Spielberg comments. "It Was a free pass into my future". At this point we are less than 15 min. into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this documentary is directed by Susan Lacy, best known for being the Executive Producer of the American masters TV series. Here she presents a portrait of Steven Spielberg. While of course spending lots of time on Spielberg's key movies (none gets more screen time than "Schindler's List"), we also get a peek into Spielberg's personal life (reason that I refer to "the life and times"). "I am a child of divorce" could well easily have been the sub-title of the documentary, as Spielberg points out time and again how profoundly this has affected his film-making, and why there are so many "dissolution of family" themes in his films. We also get some fascinating 8mm footage from the Spielberg family when Steven was growing up (no mention, though, that Steven was born in Cincinnati--where I live). Lacy interviews a ton of people, including Steven's parents and three sisters, but of course also many contemporaries (in particular George Lucas, Brian de Palma, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola). But in the end, the most fun remains watching the many highlights of Spielberg's most important movies, commentated by Spielberg himself. Counting his early 70s TV work, Spielberg has been making movies for almost half a century! It simply blows the mind. You may or may not like Spielberg's style of movies, but he undeniably has been one of the top directors in Hollywood for decades, and still is to this day. Can't wait for his upcoming movie "Ready Player One", to be released in early 2018.

"Spielberg" premiered at this year's New York Film Festival to good acclaim, and recently opened up on HBO, where I saw it a few days ago. While the documentary isn't "revolutionary" (and clearly was made with the blessing of the Spielberg family), I nevertheless quite enjoyed it and was amazed how quickly these 2 1/2 hrs. flew by. If you are a film buff, or a fan of Steven Spielberg, you cannot go wrong with this.

This HBO documentary, directed by Susan Lacy, at nearly two and a half hours long , is really an ode to one of the master filmmakers of all time Steven Spielberg.

For movie buffs, like myself, the film can be mind boggling as the incredible list of Spielberg movies over the decades is documented. He will give his personal view of what went into each movie, and there are many behind-the-scenes details offered by his fellow artists and collaborators.

As other reviewers have noted, the praise heaped upon him in the doc can get to be overdone as the film progresses. Also, I would have liked to have heard what Spielberg thought of the many actors who, over the years, helped make his films so special, but there's virtually none of that here.

Overall though, to get to relive some of these great movies and to get lots of insight into what makes this genius of the cinema tick, was certainly worth the price of admission for me.

Did you know that Speiberg is the greatest, most natural and intuitive genius of all filmmaking? This movie can't stop telling you that! Even when he parrots backs things Hitchcock said and claims them as his own, it acts like he's the only one who thought/did these techniques. While it's a nice overview of his career, it's also completely lacking any critical faculties and is filled with endless bending over for him. And I like him for the most part! But this was a bit much.