Culture

Observation Deck: Spielberg and the Subtext of Sci-Fi

With Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln coming out in November, I’m thinking about the director’s great science fiction movies … and his not-so-great science fiction movies. It’s typical, but I suspect that what separates the two comes down to how serious Spielberg takes the metaphors in his sci-fi flicks. So, on this week’s Observation Deck, I’m thinking about why the best science fiction sometimes might not be science fiction at all.
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It’s typical, I know, but I suspect that what separates the two comes down to how serious Spielberg takes the metaphors in his sci-fi flicks — from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (really seriously) to War of the Worlds (less seriously).

So, on this week’s Observation Deck, I’m thinking about why the best science fiction sometimes might not be science fiction at all.