Steven Spielberg's
mid-'80s foray into television,
Steven Spielberg Presents Amazing
Stories, was based loosely on a
pulpy sci-fi magazine from the '40s
and '50s--much as his rollicking hit
Raiders of the Lost Ark had
been based on movie action serials
of the same era. Yet despite the
retro concept, Amazing Stories
brought high gloss and
state-of-the-art production values
to their yarns of horror, sci-fi,
and fantasy. The boxed set of the
first season (which debuted in
1985), contains all 24 episodes, as
well as more than 20 minutes of
deleted footage. Spielberg himself
was very hands-on in the series, and
directed many episodes and wrote
most, and some themes from his later
films show up here. In The
Mission, a special hourlong
episode (most are half an hour),
stars Kevin Costner and Kiefer
Sutherland play World War II bombers
whose plane is hit during a routine
mission, and who face a dire choice,
with one young colleague's life
hanging in the balance. Spielberg's
visceral direction of the wartime
violence, camaraderie, and anxiety
is pitch-perfect, and presages some
of the most moving moments in
Saving Private Ryan. Part of the
fun of this collection is seeing the
stars and guest directors Spielberg
cajoled into service, including
Martin Scorsese, Sam Waterston (with
a head of bushy '80s hair), Tim
Robbins, Clint Eastwood, Harvey
Keitel, and John Lithgow. The
storytelling is crackerjack, and the
trip down TV memory lane priceless.
--A.T. Hurley
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