Steven Spielberg

This comprehensive and in-depth study delves into the life and works of the most famous director who has ever lived, Steven Spielberg. Spielberg is the medium's defining artist – the embodiment of the Hollywood ideal: the commercial potential of film married to its creative possibilities.

He's widely popular, but he's also a stylist, and far darker than he is given credit for. Often, it is this very darkness that speaks to us. But it's also his incredible knack for telling stories with lightness that speaks to millions by mixing the extraordinary with the ordinary.

His leading characters, even Indiana Jones, are marked by their vulnerability, their mistakes, their yearning. It's the human touch. There are so many parts to Spielberg's story: the suburban background that supplied the films with a biographical streak; the collaborations (with George Lucas and the Movie Brats in general, with composer John Williams, producer Kathleen Kennedy, editor Michael Khan, stars Richard Dreyfus, Harrison Ford and Tom Hanks, and mogul and mentor Sid Sheinberg).

The myths that bloomed from the making of these films. The nightmare shoot and stubborn shark behind Jaws. The strange ambitions of Close Encounters. Dive bombing with 1941. Inventing Indiana Jones. Re-inventing the blockbuster with Jurassic Park. Venturing into history's darkest shadows with Schindler's List. Transforming a genre with Saving Private Ryan. The muscular, unpredictable, confrontational Spielberg of Minority Report, Munich, and Lincoln.

And then there is his family. How his films, even late in his career – lionised, untouchable – went in search of approval from his parents. Just as he has craved the approval of his peers. That fateful Oscar took so long in coming...

Defining, appreciating, contextualising and understanding the films of Spielberg is a tall order. Their simplicity is deceptive. You have to cut through the glow, the adoration, the simple joy that comes with their embrace, and get to the thrust of the filmmaking.

Sourcing the inspirations, locating the critical nuance, the nurtured performance, and the recurrent theme – so many of his films have become timeless – this book celebrates all this and more.