(10 of 10)
Perhaps The Color Purple will bring Spielberg the one triumph that has thus ( far eluded him: an Oscar for Best Director (though Clint Eastwood wonders if the industry may not think Spielberg is "a little too young and too successful. He has done so well, it may be a long time before anyone bestows on him any brassworks for the fireplace"). But even with that statuette, one suspects that Spielberg would still be restless. He would still crave those moments when he can spin amazing stories for himself, his kid sisters and a world of children in the dark. To demand that he revoke his inexhaustible thirst for wonder would be like asking Dickens to be Dreiser, or Peter Pan to settle down and become complacent old Mr. Darling.
But Spielberg has surprised us before: as an auteur prodigy, as the thrillmaster of Duel and Jaws, as the savvy director who could reinvent the movies' innocence. The man is only 37 now, and his toughest audience is himself. You needn't be a child to believe that this movie magician still has astonishments in store.