Much has been made of legendary director Steven Spielberg's so-called return-to-form with Disclosure Day. Most of us associate him with his biggest films, tentpole genre films like Jaws, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, and of coarse E.T., films which remain some of the best genre films of all time. But his filmography is honestly far more diverse with the last 20 years seeing him tackle Lincoln, The BFG, a remake of West Side Story, The Fabelmans, and The Post. While these films are very well regarded, they don't really hold the popular imagination in the way his genre films do. You have to go back to Savings Private Ryan or Schindler's List to find one of his drama films that captured the zeitgeist in the way his fantastic films have. But it really hasn't been that long since he made Ready Player One. He's always experimented with different forms. He is a story teller after all... and a very good one.
But there is something about Disclosure Day that feels more "Spielbergian" (if I can call it that) than a lot of his more recent work. There is a hopeful energy and a sense of wonder thrown in amongst a timeless sense of adventure. There are characters we latch on to, seeing ourselves in them. And there is a magic that few others are able to convey in the way he does. Disclosure Day does all that but perhaps in a different way than in his other famous "flying saucer" movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. His look here feels far more like someone looking through eyes of deep experience than with a new sense of awe.
Like that film, Disclosure Day is actually far more about humanity than it is about aliens. It asks us to reflect on who we are and what we are hopeful for. It asks us about our obligations to each other. The aliens are just a catalyst for us to look at who we are as human beings. Spielberg doesn't give us answers as much as he lets us sit with questions. Similarly he doesn't hold our hands as he tells us his story. He drops us into the events and lets those events unfold gradually giving us more of an awakening to what is happening. He lets us sit with the mystery a bit. He has always thread religion and spirituality through his films and never does so in a preachy way. Instead it is that question of mystery which is so fascinating to him. Here it is more than just subtext. It is full on text. He is letting us wrestle with robust and complicated questions and lets his story play out without giving us a play by play.
The film, while more thoughtful that most "alien contact" movies, still manages to be packed with adventure set pieces, many of which are top notch. They fit organically into the larger narrative he is trying to tell while also giving us a reason for our pulses to race. But for me, honestly, more than the train scene or car chases, it is the film's rather cerebral and emotional climax which really gives the thrills. I was surprised at how moving I found it and much of this had to do with Spielberg's narrative choices.
John Williams is back from retirement with another score for Spielberg, perhaps not as iconic as some of his work, which rank amongst the greatest film scores of all time, but a truely beautiful and accomplished work. If this is his final big screen full score effort it would be a fitting cap on a legendary career.
Disclosure Day is a strong film in so many ways and a real encapsulation of what makes Spielberg regarded as the film maker he is. Only time will tell how this fits into his filmography but for me it is a reminder of his power as a storyteller who knows how to capture our imagination.
Disclosure Day
Starring: Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo, Wyatt Russell
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writer: David Koepp
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