SPIELBERG THEME - HOME: One of the more affecting elements of Temple of Doom is its focus on family and the home. It’s a theme that was keenly felt by Spielberg at the time - just a year after the film’s release, he married Amy Irving and welcomed son Max into the world. That personal connection shines through in many of the film’s best moments, such as the shot above, which illustrates the devastating effect the loss of the Sankara Stones has taken on the Indian village of Mayapore.

SPIELBERG THEME - LIGHT AND EYES: Two of Spielberg’s most important visual motifs combine in this iconic shot from Jurassic Park.

The first motif is light, represented by the torch Lex is holding. The second motif is seeing, represented by the T-Rex’s eye, which dilates when the flashlight is shined into it. Both are symbols of truth and knowledge in Spielberg films and, in a neat twist, together they combine to comment on falseness.

The scene this shot comes from is the film’s first and biggest action set piece and the beginning of what becomes a survival mission for Grant and the kids. By having Lex shine the torch into the T-rex’s dilating eye, Spielberg is representing this visually. The fantasy is over and reality is about to intrude. Jurassic Park is no theme park ride; the dinosaurs can’t be controlled and exploited for entertainment. They are wild and dangerous.

To paraphrase Ian Malcolm: the pirates are about to start eating the tourists.

SPIELBERG THEME - DRESS-UP: Spielberg repeatedly uses the idea of dressing up to represent escape in his films. Look, for example, at Elliot’s moonlit bike ride in E.T., which comes when he’s dressed in his Halloween costume, or the various disguises Frank Abagnale wears in Catch Me If You Can.

Hook is no different. Before he enters Neverland, Peter Banning wears the sharp suit and tie of a businessman at a job Granny Wendy suggests has turned him into a pirate. Once in Neverland, he has to dress up again, this time wearing pirate clothes to avoid detection. Finally, of course, he has to dress up as Peter Pan to save his children and return home.

Banning’s arch-nemesis is the same. In fact, Hook’s connection with dress-up is even stronger. He wears his lavish Captain’s costume with pride and has his hook ceremonially placed upon his wrist. His men even go so far as to literally make a song and dance of it as they chant “hook, hook, give us the hook” while the object is taken to Hook’s quarters.

Spielberg suggests throughout the film that Hook is Banning’s ‘shadow self’, but he finally distances his lead from the pirate at the end of the film when Banning leaves Neverland and returns to the real world.

Unlike Hook (who finishes the final battle by asking to put his wig back on so he can restore his dignity), he has given up playing dress-up, which only offered him an escapism that alienated him from his family. Now neither the businessman adult or the immature child, Banning is a responsible, rounded human being who is finally fit to be a good father to his children.

You can read more of my thoughts about Hook on my site Quiet of the Matinee.