Steven Spielberg Dismissed His Own Film — But It's One That Means So Much to Me -

I was around ten years old when I first saw Hook. It was a Friday night, meaning that my parents would rent a movie from the video store (this was back in the days before streamers were a thing). Though I had previously watched Disney’s Peter Pan, Hook spoke to me on a different level. It was also my first exposure to the work of Steven Spielberg, and as the years went on, I’d continue to watch more of Spielberg’s work, whether it was Jurassic Park on a weekend or Schindler’s List for a high school history class. But if you were to ask me, Hook is my favorite Spielberg film…so I was surprised to learn that Spielberg isn’t the biggest fan of it.

Spielberg would expand upon this in Empire Magazine‘s 2018 cover story, as he felt like he was too far out of his depth:

“I felt like a fish out of water making Hook. I didn’t have confidence in the script. I had confidence in the first act, and I had confidence in the epilogue. I didn’t have confidence in the body of it. I didn’t quite know what I was doing, and I tried to paint over my insecurity with production value, the more insecure I felt about it, the bigger and more colourful the sets became.”

Despite Spielberg’s feelings, I still feel that Hook works — or at the very least, it aged like a fine wine.

‘Hook’ Turned Out To Be One of Steven Spielberg’s Most Personal Films

What makes Hook stand out from other Peter Pan films, and the rest of Spielberg’s filmography, is that it specifically draws from his own personal experiences. In his biography, he noted that Peter Pan was the character he most related to: “I have always felt like Peter Pan. I still feel like Peter Pan. It has been very hard for me to grow up, I’m a victim of the Peter Pan syndrome.” That is reflected in the journey Peter Banning (Robin Williams) takes throughout the film; he’s a lawyer who seems permanently glued to his phone, and eventually winds up shouting at his kids Jack (Charlie Korsmo) and Maggie (Amber Scott) for interrupting a major phone call. Enter Peter’s old nemesis, Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman), who doesn’t just kidnap Peter’s kids but attempts to be a father figure to Jack. To that end, Hook literally has his entire crew of pirates construct a dugout on the deck of his ship, and engages in a game of baseball all to give Jack the satisfaction of having a father watch him hit a home run.

It’s moments like these that make Hook my favorite Spielberg film, as it leans into the father/son dynamics that are at the heart of his other films. It’s hard not to feel for Jack; another scene where Hook lets him smash an entire room of clocks feels like he’s venting out plenty of prepubescent rage. But it’s also taking a toll on Peter, as when he sees how happy Jack is at the game, he dejectedly walks away. But it also strengthens his resolve to save his children, especially when Peter regains his ability to fly after he remembers that Jack being born was the happiest day of his life. Spielberg would take a similar approach to future films, especially Jurassic Park which sees Alan Grant (Sam Neill) bonding with two children while attempting to survive a horde of ravenous dinosaurs.

Steven Spielberg Inspired Another Major Blockbuster

30 years after its debut, Hook still remains one of the best Peter Pan adaptations. Its casting is impeccable: Williams gives one of his performances as he depicts Peter struggling to reconnect with his past life — and more importantly, his children, while Hoffman delivers a performance that’s equal parts magnetic and menacing. Add in some great supporting turns from Bob Hoskins as Smee, Dante Basco as the Lost Boy Rufio, and Julia Roberts as Peter Pan (not to mention some surprising cameos) and you have a cast worth watching, along with some impressive scenery. But it’s John Williams‘s music that is the standout, due to its whimsical, haunting tone. It turns out that I wasn’t the only one who loved the music, as Jon M. Chu cited Hook‘s score as a direct inspiration for Wicked. “I was like, ‘I want to do it the way I dreamed about it as a kid when I watched Hook,'” Chu told ComingSoon.net when talking about the practical approach he took to filming. Chu’s inspiration paid off, since Wicked fully immerses viewers in its world thanks to production designer Nathan Crowley, but it also shows that even if Spielberg isn’t a fan of Hook that it still holds a place in people’s hearts. And I’ll forever be one of those people.