The Fabelmans 4K UHD (2022)

[y2jman]

Anybody knows Walmart had at store yet still trying to get ahold of my local Walmart busy
Apparently 2 is no longer number press disl number
electronics it's now 5 meh

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by moviemaker

Spielberg himself states it’s not an autobiography but a movie inspired by his life.

It's 99% true, from everything I've read. I haven't seen anything to suggest any element isn't true, and he's specifically stated that loads of scenes happened in his life exactly as they're shown in the film.

He said in interviews that he even had all his old homes recreated precisely for each set.

It's pretty close to an autobiography, despite the names being changed.

To me, a film inspired by someone's life is like Empire of Light, where Sam Mendes said he was inspired by his own mother's mental illness, but the actual story is very different. In The Fabelmans, Spielberg is exactly reproducing specific scenes from his childhood.

Originally Posted by moviemaker

Being close to the material, meaning he is unable to objectively portray anyone as truly flawed.

I would argue the exact opposite.

For most of his life, he presented families seemingly based on his own, where there was a flawless, loving mother and an absent or distant father. The perfect example is ET, where the mother, who he has said is inspired by his own mother, is basically one of the kids, and is pretty much perfect.

It's fascinating and deeply moving, to me, that he has now shown a more nuanced view of his parents. His mother is still shown as loving and supportive, but also deeply troubled, seemingly by undiagnosed mental illness. Meanwhile, he shows enormous compassion for his father in the film, which he's never really articulated in the past.

The standout moment in the film on this level, to me, is when his mother grabs the kids and runs out to the car to chase a tornado, while his bewildered father screams at her to stop and is left holding the baby. His mother seems to be having a manic episode in this scene, and his father seems lost, overwhelmed and yet full of boundless love for her. The camera even stays on him after she departs, to emphasize this.

I found the dynamics of their relationship there to be a million miles from the simplified ways he's mirrored his own family onscreen before. He has spoken about how losing both of them caused him to look at them in a different way, and the film shows that.

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

It's 99% true, from everything I've read. I haven't seen anything to suggest any element isn't true, and he's specifically stated that loads of scenes happened in his life exactly as they're shown in the film.

He said in interviews that he even had all his old homes recreated precisely for each set.

It's pretty close to an autobiography, despite the names being changed.

To me, a film inspired by someone's life is like Empire of Light, where Sam Mendes said he was inspired by his own mother's mental illness, but the actual story is very different. In The Fabelmans, Spielberg is exactly reproducing specific scenes from his childhood.

If you've seen the HBO doc on Spielberg, you know this isn't a straight-up bio...Spielberg didn't learn some key details regarding his parents' relationship until he was much older. I'm still grappling with the Fableman's presentation of these events, wondering if the film would've been stronger if it had stuck closer to the truth.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

If you've seen the HBO doc on Spielberg, you know this isn't a straight-up bio...Spielberg didn't learn some key details regarding his parents' relationship until he was much older. I'm still grappling with the Fableman's presentation of these events, wondering if the film would've been stronger if it had stuck closer to the truth.

Actually, he's talked about that, and the version in the film is true. The two successive versions he presented to the world while his parents were still alive were at best sort of half true through omission.

The narrative around Spielberg's parents and their divorce has changed a few times, and the THE FABELMANS involves a MAJOR reset of it. I know I was confused by it after seeing the film, until I read some of the recent interviews Spielberg has given.

1) Originally, the narrative was simply that Spielberg's parents divorced when he was 19. He spoke in interviews of how he blamed his father for the divorce. Clearly, he was much closer to his mother, and more distant from his father, for many years. This was reflected in many of his films, especially E.T.. He spoke about getting closer to his father again, at the urging of his wife, in interviews around the time he made SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, in 1998.

2) In 2012, in an interview promoting LINCOLN, the story got its first major revision, when Spielberg's parents, who had become friends again, did a joint interview. In that interview, they admitted for the first time publicly that the divorce had not simply been caused by Spielberg's father deciding to divorce his mother, but by his mother falling in love with his father's best friend. In the 2012 interview, posted below, Spielberg's father speaks of his son not knowing about this at age 19, and not being told until many years after.

This was still Spielberg's official version of the story in 2017, when the doc was made.

3) Only now, in THE FABELMANS, and in interviews surrounding it, has Spielberg revealed another major element of the story that totally changes it.

[Show spoiler]At the age of 16, as dramatized in THE FABELMANS, Spielberg discovered his mother's affair with his father's best friend in family footage he had filmed. He revealed this to her, but told her he would keep it secret from his father. The way he speaks about it in the interview below, it sounds like he never told his father, who died in 2020, while he and Tony Kushner were writing the script. He also talks about this in the recent NYTimes article.

This 2022 interview with Spielberg plays the 2012 interview with his parents at 6:25 and then has him commenting on the newer revelations after they speak.

WARNING, THIS VIDEO CONTAINS THE SPOILER THAT I HID ABOVE

Steven Spielberg on The Fabelmans A Happy Beginning CBS Sunday Morning 60 Minutes (2022) - YouTube

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Actually, he's talked about that, and the version in the film is true. The version he presented to the world while his parents were still alive was sort of half true through omission.

The narrative around Spielberg's parents and their divorce has changed a few times, and the THE FABELMANS involves a MAJOR reset of it. I know I was confused by it after seeing the film, until I read some of the recent interviews Spielberg has given.

1) Originally, the narrative was simply that Spielberg's parents divorced when he was 19. He spoke in interviews of how he blamed his father for the divorce. Clearly, he was much closer to his mother, and more distant from his father, for many years. This was reflected in many of his films, especially E.T.. He spoke about getting closer to his father again, at the urging of his wife, in interviews around the time he made SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, in 1998.

2) In 2012, in an interview promoting LINCOLN, the story got its first major revision, when Spielberg's parents, who had become friends again, did a joint interview. In that interview, they admitted for the first time publicly that the divorce had not simply been caused by Spielberg's father deciding to divorce his mother, but by his mother falling in love with his father's best friend. In the 2012 interview, posted below, Spielberg's father speaks of his son not knowing about this at age 19, and not being told until many years after.

This was still his official version of the story in 2017, when the doc was made.

3) Only now, in THE FABELMANS, and in interviews surrounding it, has Spielberg revealed another major element of the story that totally changes it.

[Show spoiler]At the age of 16, as dramatized in THE FABELMANS, Spielberg discovered his mother's affair with his father's best friend in family footage he had filmed. He revealed this to her, but told her he would keep it secret from his father. The way he speaks about it in the interview below, it sounds like he never told his father, who died in 2020, while he and Tony Kushner were writing the script. He also talks about this in the recent NYTimes article.

This 2022 interview with Spielberg plays the 2012 interview with his parents at 6:25 and then has him commenting on the newer revelations after they speak.

WARNING, THIS VIDEO CONTAINS THE SPOILER THAT I HID ABOVE

Steven Spielberg on The Fabelmans A Happy Beginning CBS Sunday Morning 60 Minutes (2022) - YouTube

Thanks, James! What a terrific post, and very helpful. That's been bugging me ever since I saw the Fablemans, it's not "the story" as I (and apparently everyone else who saw the HBO doc) understood it.

[moviemaker]

One may find this insightful as well.

Interview between RRR director S. S. Rajamouli and Steven Spielberg discussing “The Fabelmans”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceEZhOOsxdI

Again it’s not a bad film by any means. It has its moments but things have been altered to fit the narrative. And again I’m not sure whose story it is. It feels like his mothers as much as Sammy’s. The father and mother breakup feels a bit redundant. The ditch day video and subsequent confrontation felt slightly hamfisted to me. The scene with David Lynch is the best hands down but it almost comes too late.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

Thanks, James! What a terrific post, and very helpful. That's been bugging me ever since I saw the Fablemans, it's not "the story" as I (and apparently everyone else who saw the HBO doc) understood it.

Glad to help! I was totally bewildered after I saw The Fabelmans, because it didn't match the 2012 story. I didn't realize that "revelation" was actually still a fiction that Spielberg and his mother were maintaining, for his father's benefit.

[Spencer_Kain92]

Walmart had the standard Blu of this on shelves, but no 4K.

[y2jman]

Originally Posted by Spencer_Kain92

Walmart had the standard Blu of this on shelves, but no 4K.

I just watched some YouTube video saw someone Walmart had 4k
I was put on hold Walmart someone was going to check in the back but after i saw that I hang up
Bad news guy who put up movies tues on vacation guess I will have to go over find out my Walmart has it tonight look for sticker new releases show them if not asked still in a box in the back
Otherwise i just order from website
It's too bad Amazon messed up meh

[cgpublic]

There were only two copies of the UHD at the local Best Buy, and none of the Blu-ray. There was a single copy, with a slip, when I walked out.

[recS-12]

Gonna give this a blind buy. Says I can do in-store pick up in a hour. For $30.xx I hope my roll of the dice pays off and I end up liking enough.

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Glad to help! I was totally bewildered after I saw The Fabelmans, because it didn't match the 2012 story. I didn't realize that "revelation" was actually still a fiction that Spielberg and his mother were maintaining, for his father's benefit.

Been a heck of a week for me learning new things about my favorite film director.

[Monterey Jack]

Originally Posted by Gacivory

Sidney Lumet was 52 when he directed Network, one of the greatest movies of all time

He was eighty-two when he made his last film, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, and that movie slaps HARD.

[khollister]

Just got an email from Amazon saying my delivery date is now Fri (2/17) - was March 3

[ahegele]

The digital code lets me access it for Moves Anywhere but it doesn't show up in Apple TV's recently purchased library. Weird. Usually Universal movies do.

[crackedknee]

Originally Posted by ahegele

The digital code lets me access it for Moves Anywhere but it doesn't show up in Apple TV's recently purchased library. Weird. Usually Universal movies do.

AppleTV's system is slow to update, that's all. You can speed it up by toggling back and forth between Store and Library (if it hasn't already updated on its own by the time you read this).

[y2jman]

Boo at Walmart they only get dvd and bluray in back
Well guess order online for Thursday then mehh

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

Been a heck of a week for me learning new things about my favorite film director.

What else did you learn about Spielberg? Now I'm curious.

[suspiciouscoffee]

Kurosawa (77 at the time) once wrote—in a birthday letter to Bergman—that directors do their best work around 80.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

Been a heck of a week for me learning new things about my favorite film director.

Oh, and BTW, Tony Kushner said in interviews that Spielberg told him the story of

[Show spoiler]realizing his mom was having an affair by seeing it in the home movies he shot

many years ago, when they were working on either Munich or Lincoln, I can't remember.

Kushner has said he told Spielberg way back then that he needed to make a movie about that.