Hollywood is an industry that has always depended on blockbusters, from 1915’s The Birth of a Nation to epics like Gone with the Wind (1939), The Ten Commandments (1956), and The Sound of Music (1965). 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 two of the most influential directors of our time. Whether they were making films together (like the Indiana Jones series) or separately (E.T., Jurassic Park, The Empire Strikes Back), they introduced the age of the modern blockbuster, which features elaborate special effects and thrilling spectacle, in contrast to previous Hollywood blockbusters whose focus was on prestigious adaptations and mega star power.
Media historian Brian Rose looks at their four decades of filmmaking and discusses how they changed the movies.
General Information
