Steven Spielberg has made many films that are universally recognised as classics. But what about the rest? Today you can watch one of his most underrated works on TV.
When most people think of Steven Spielberg, they probably think of films like Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park. He has been in cinema since the 1970s, making one big blockbuster after another. Still, not all of his films have made it into immortal classics.
One of these films is Terminal, which is often ridiculed as a finger exercise. When it comes to the great Spielberg works, however, the tragic rom-com starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones rarely appears. In fact, a very special film is hidden here, especially in the context of Spielberg’s oeuvre.
In Terminal, Tom Hanks gets stranded at an airport and falls in love with Catherine Zeta-Jones
The story of Terminal revolves around a man named Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks), who comes from the fictional Eastern European country of Krakosia and gets stranded at New York’s JFK airport. The reason: his passport is invalid because the USA no longer diplomatically recognises his civil-war-torn homeland.
Here you can watch the trailer for Terminal:
Viktor can neither enter the USA nor book a return flight. He is stuck at the airport – and gradually makes it an alternative home. The whole world in one building: Viktor even falls in love! But flight attendant Amelia Warren (Catherine Zeta-Jones) doesn’t return his feelings at all at first.
Terminal comes along with a light-footed staging, finds many comic elements in Viktor’s tragedy and for long stretches feels like one of the countless RomComs that came to the cinema in the 1990s and 2000s. Last but not least, it stars Hanks, one of the genre’s biggest stars (Sleepless in Seattle, e-m@il for you).
Terminal, together with War of the Worlds and Munich, forms a secret Spielberg trilogy
Hidden beneath the surface, however, is considerably more: Terminal is part of a series of films in which Spielberg reflects on the events of September 11, 2001. Where War of the Worlds and Munich process the terrorist attacks in horror images, Terminal amazes with its supposedly light-hearted feel-good approach.
Admittedly, this is not officially a trilogy so designated by Spielberg. However, when watching Terminal, War of the Worlds and Munich together, many thematic references and parallels can be discovered that add an additional layer to all three films that goes far beyond their genre framing.
Particularly fascinating is how Spielberg in Terminal stages the airport as a place that is not defined by fear and security checks. Although Viktor is denied identity and existence at the beginning, a home emerges in this non-place. For a mainstream film from 2004, this is definitely remarkable.
