The Hollywood Blockbuster: How Spielberg and Lucas Pioneered a Genre

Hollywood is an industry that has always depended on blockbusters, beginning with The Birth of a Nation and continuing with epics like Gone with the Wind, The Ten Commandments, and The Sound of Music. But beginning in 1974, two young filmmakers, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, would together change the way the movie industry made movies. Spielberg’s Jaws and Lucas’ Star Wars (neither of which was predicted to be a hit) helped launch the careers of the most influential directors of our time. Whether they were making films together (like Indiana Jones) or separately (E.T., Jurassic Park, The Empire Strikes Back), they introduced the age of the “modern blockbuster,” which featured elaborate special effects and thrilling spectacle. This presentation will look at their four decades of filmmaking and discuss how they changed the movies.