"Hook" Spielberg's psychological state, torn between being an adult and a child

It overlaps with the change in Spielberg's life stage

In fact, Spielberg first began thinking about making a film version of "Peter Pan" in the early 1980s. At one point, he even explored the possibility of making a film starring Michael Jackson. However, it never came to fruition.

In the meantime, he married Amy Irving, who was still single, and the couple had a child. The eternal boy who had always devoted his passion to movies finally became a father. However, the marriage did not last long, and in 1989 they decided to divorce.

He then remarried Kate Capshaw in 1991 to try and restart his family life, and Hook, which was made under these circumstances, seems to capture, on a meta-level, Spielberg's attitude towards building a family, as well as his psychological state as he questions what it means to be a father and what kind of person he should be.

"Hook" (c)Photofest / Getty Images

My thoughts about my child and my biological father

Furthermore, as Spielberg's autobiographical film " The Fabelmans " (22) makes clear, he himself was a child who grew up struggling with the issue of his parents' divorce. In addition, it is now well known that " ET " (1982) is a work that sensitively depicts the impact that factors such as "divorce" and "the absence of a father" had on a young boy's mind.

According to the HBO documentary "Spielberg!" (2017), when his parents divorced, Spielberg and his sisters long rejected their father, who left the family without telling them anything. (In reality, as depicted in " The Fabelmans ," his mother's relationship with his father's best friend was also a contributing factor to the divorce.)

Perhaps the relationship between Peter and his son in "Hook" is a dual projection of not only Spielberg's relationship with his son, but also his relationship with his biological father, who once left the family. Interestingly, the themes of "restoring fatherhood" and "reconciliation with one's father" are also clearly depicted in " Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ," released in 1989.

Embrace both the creativity of childhood and the joy of adulthood