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Jaws -- and Steven Spielberg as Aspie

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davidjess
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03 Jun 2011, 11:28 pm

I may be going way out on a limb, here. But I feel like maybe it could be true that I saw a video interview with Steven Spielberg in which he says, himself, that he has autistic traits or maybe even something more specific. What is sure is that he mentioned lots of behaviors that do seem autistic to me. The story about jumping off the Universal Studios tour train and faking like he worked there, getting caught, getting invited back with a pass, not using his pass to get in the next day, just waving to the guard, coming back as often as possible until somebody actually assigned him a job. This sounds like Temple Grandin trying to get into cattle yards. It sounds like my life, actually, only not quite so successful in this case. He also says that much in his movies come from his fears of everything in normal life. That is also an autistic trait (general anxiety). One of the criteria is abnormally focused interests. He was in business and making films by 14 years old. Combine that with sneaking into Universal, and his intensity in editing, reviewing the same 4 films before making each film, and collecting film memorabilia (granted, he can do anything he wants now autistic or not), you have really got something in the focused interest department.

Being social in the media world does not rule out autism. (We have to stop doing that). When people with autism are really focused on something and become successful at it, it is quite common to find them looking like neurotypicals, especially within their area of interest. What we can say for sure, I think, is that Spielberg exhibits BAPs, broader autistic phenotypes. That is kind of like having brown hair or hazel eyes--it is something you can see (although harder to define than hair or eye color).



League_Girl
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03 Jun 2011, 11:48 pm

I have heard of him being aspie and read somewhere he was diagnosed as an adult. I read that in his childhood his special interests was with film making and gosh no wonder he pursued in it and succeeded. He sure gets to spend time with his obsessions all the time because it's part of his job. That is a way to get around that trait and have it be acceptable and not have it interfere, get a job that involves it. It's a way to blend in as normal.



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04 Jun 2011, 12:14 am

schleppenheimer wrote:
This is a "just for fun" thread --

It's fourth of July, and my son and hubbie are at Scout Camp, and my daughter is out to lunch with friends, and I'm home alone watching "Jaws", which is something I do about once every two years. Didn't realize that they purposely air "Jaws" on the fourth, but that's the time period that the movie occurs.

I've read conflicting accounts about whether or not Steven Spielberg is Aspie, but boy, if he is, there's somebody to point to and talk about success. And I'm not necessarily talking about monetary success, either.

I am constantly amazed at how good the first "Jaws" movie is. Yeah, it's a macho film, and has all the action and suspense, but also, and this is where the intelligence of Spielberg comes in, it's just wicked SMART. There's all sorts of science in this film about sharks, and animal behavior -- then there's the history about the U.S.S. Indianapolis, which works in perfectly for the story. I guess the part I like the best is the character development part. You take an ornery working-class fisherman who has absolutely no fear, and you mix him with a wealthy marine biologist who's kind of a know-it-all, then you combine with a police chief originally from NYC who's living on an island now but is afraid to go into the water. The scene where the fisherman and the biologist show off their scars as they drink to their health is classic. Somebody really knew what they were doing with this film, and I'm guessing it's a wonderful combination of Peter Benchley (writer of the original book) and Steven Spielberg.

There's just something about this film that isn't often found in most films. So much of the time, when you watch movies from thirty or more years ago, reviewing them leaves a lot to be desired. This particular film still works, even after all of this time.


I watched it when it first came out on the big screen. I spent entire Summers at the beach; it was the first movie that really scared me. The beach was not quite the same after that.

Perhaps the Biologist in the movie captured some of the broad phenotype of Autism. And of course our friend ET, whose cousin sits atop World Planet. And then there was the young boy in Jurraisic Park, who became the hero and the fantasy of my most memorable special interest as a child coming to life on the big screen. And, finally the reserved spectacled archaeologist turned action hero in Indiana Jones. I'm not so sure it matters if Spielberg had Aspergers but his movies made many of my special interests come alive on the Big Screen, and the heroes were often those that used wit rather than brawn to overcome adversity.