Distinctly Montana Magazine

82 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 5 - 2 0 2 6 I T IS IMPOSSIBLE TO DENY THE INDELI- BLE INFLUENCE THE FILMS OF STEVEN SPIELBERG HOLD ON AMERICAN MOVIES AND CULTURE. Their matchless level of ar- chetypal absorption has, correspondingly, led to a kind of devaluation of Spielberg as an artist; it's the old "crafter of popular entertainments cannot be truly skilled or deep" line of thinking. Naysayers complain particularly about the director's tendency toward broad gestures and sentimentali- ty, which certainly isn't deniable. But the aforementioned elements, I would argue, don't automatically count as flaws in and of themselves, especially if the storyteller has the willingness to carry them through sin- cerely. Maybe it's just because I've become more embracing of sentiment as I've aged. I certainly went through a phase in adoles- cence where I thought I needed to discard Spielberg movies like so many childish things in order to appreciate Real Cinema. It turns out Real Cinema needn't deny pleasure, or earnest depth of feeling. Spielberg's romantic fantasy Always (1989) was largely dismissed as disposable and hokey at the time of its release, and underper- formed commercially. Sandwiched as it was between Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and Hook (1991), it isn't surprising that it would subsequently be plopped into the tier of secondary Spielberg features. Nev- ertheless, the movie has acquired fans over time, and in the avalanche of sheer ugliness that is our current reality, the experience of watching it feels like a soothing tonic. And the Montana landscape where it was filmed, as well as implicitly set, grants it a particular resonance for Treasure State viewers, espe- cially during the summer fire season. The story centers around Pete Sandich (Richard Dreyfuss, in his third collaboration with Spielberg after Jaws [1975] and Close Encounters of the Third Kind [1977]), a hotshot aerial firefighter who serves as an inspiration to his fellow pilots, and a source of anxiety to his beloved girlfriend Dorinda (Holly Hunter), who MONTANA MEDIA by KARI BOWLES Unsung Spielberg on a Montana Canvas

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