I made two of the greatest movies ever and all I got was this lousy degree.
The Big Picture
- Steven Spielberg used
Jurassic Park
to pass paleontology and Schindler’s List for advanced filmmaking credits in college – talk about creativity! - Despite his immense success, Spielberg returned to college under a pseudonym in 2001 and finally earned a degree in Film and Electronic Arts.
- Spielberg’s diverse filmography and ability to reinvent himself over the years prove that he’s a true master of his craft – earning a degree was just another notch on his belt.
Most people study for years on end and take tests to earn their college degree, but Steven Spielberg took a different path – he used his movies! Okay, in all honesty, Spielberg did take a number of classes and study a ton to get his degree, but it’s pretty amazing that he was also able to use Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List (both released in 1993) to earn credits in two separate college classes. Not that Spielberg ever needed the degree, he’s one of the most highly acclaimed and popular filmmakers to ever play the game. That said, what a cool way for one of the world’s favorite artists to play the educational system and pass some classes. As if Spielberg needed any more ways to prove to us all that he’s one of the coolest artists to ever walk the planet, he’s also got this move under his belt.
Steven Spielberg is undeniably one of the signature filmmakers of the last fifty years. He landed on the map with his 1971 made-for-TV thriller, Duel, but officially kicked off his career with the movies that followed soon after. Jaws shattered the box office and created the blockbuster. Spielberg showed his sentimental (and alien-obsessed) side with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, brought back serials with Raiders of the Lost Ark, then brought his most personal film yet with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. There were a few omissions in there, yeah, but the big idea is that these successes were all within seven years of each other. Yeah, that’s right, but he didn’t stop there. Spielberg dominated the ’80s, got a bit more serious in the ’90s, and has coasted by making ridiculously solid movies since the turn of the century. 2022’s The Fabelmans is without a doubt one of the best movies in his filmography, this guy’s still got it – big time. So if he’s been great this whole time, why did he go back to college?
Jurassic Park
In Steven Spielberg’s massive blockbuster, paleontologists Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and mathematician Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) are among a select group chosen to tour an island theme park populated by dinosaurs created from prehistoric DNA. While the park’s mastermind, billionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), assures everyone that the facility is safe, they find out otherwise when various ferocious predators break free and go on the hunt.
- Release Date
- June 11, 1993
- Director
- Steven Spielberg
- Cast
- Sam Neill , Laura Dern , Jeff Goldblum , Richard Attenborough , Bob Peck , Martin Ferrero
- Runtime
- 127
- Main Genre
- Adventure
- Writers
- Michael Crichton , David Koepp
- Studio
- Universal Pictures
- Tagline
- An Adventure 65 Million Years In The Making
Why Didn’t Steven Spielberg Finish College His First Time Around?
Once Steven Spielberg finally finished his degree, he was actually on his second college stint. Spielberg grew up a massive fan of movies and began making his own at a very young age. This passion was faithfully recreated in his semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans. Spielberg is a filmmaker that seems to have always been destined to make movies. He eventually graduated from high school and attended California State University at Long Beach for three years. He left without finishing his studies, though, and went headfirst into pursuing a career in filmmaking.
Why Did Steven Spielberg Go Back to School?
Several decades later, in 2001, Steven Spielberg would find himself re-enrolling back at California State University at Long Beach but didn’t spend his time there as a normal student. Spielberg enrolled and took his classes under the guise of a pseudonym, doing whatever he could to avoid any unwanted attention. He was taught and studied mostly remotely, working on projects by himself, writing essays, and going to professors whenever he needed to move on to another part of his solitary college experience. Eventually, Spielberg earned a degree in Film and Electronic Arts. He even walked across the graduation stage with his college’s band playing the Indiana Jones theme to celebrate the occasion, talk about killing the game! Spielberg would then refer to his educational process as the “longest post-production schedule” of his life.
How Did ‘Jurassic Park’ Help Steven Spielberg Pass Paleontology?
In order to achieve his degree, Steven Spielberg obviously had to earn a number of credits over the course of several classes. One class that Spielberg had to pass in order to finish school was paleontology, a field that, by 2001, he was no stranger to. Eight years before he graduated, he had just finished up one of his biggest blockbusters yet – Jurassic Park. If you’re a stranger to the biggest movies ever made but want to know more, you could do much… MUCH worse than this. The film follows a group of people who go to a remote island where Jurassic Park, a new wildlife park full of genetically reconstructed dinosaurs, is gearing up to open. I’ll leave it to you to guess whether or not this venture goes well. Regardless of how the island’s visitors turned out, the degree to which the study of dinosaurs is discussed and portrayed in Jurassic is what led Spielberg to earn credits in paleontology. This has to be the most entertaining way anyone has ever passed a college course.
Steven Spielberg Passed Advanced Filmmaking Thanks to ‘Schindler’s List’
The same year that Jurassic Park came out, Spielberg also released his devastating historical dramaSchindler’s List. This film also helped the acclaimed director earn credits in a course, this time for an advanced filmmaking class. Does Schindler’s List qualify as “advanced filmmaking”? Uh… you’d be hard-pressed to find any movie as well-made as this. It’s a heartbreaking masterpiece that follows Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), a man who saved over a thousand Polish-Jewish prisoners from the Holocaust. This movie was so massive when it came out that it won seven of the twelve Academy Awards it was nominated for, including Best Picture and Best Director (both firsts in Spielberg’s career). It continues to be seen by many as his best film and remains held up as one of the greatest films of all time.
After earning his degree in Film and Electronic Arts, Spielberg continued to make one fantastic movie after the next. The 21st century has seen the release of many of his most underrated titles, including Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can, War of the Worlds, and, once again, The Fabelmans. Spielberg’s got nothing to prove when it comes to being a fantastic filmmaker. Instead, recent years have just seen him trying new things. A modern remake of a ’50s sci-fi movie here, a World War I epic there, and a Roald Dahl adaptation as well! These days, Spielberg’s just doing his thing, and we should take it a bit easy on him for doing so. He has given us more than enough to have earned these years of total creative spontaneity.
Steven Spielberg Broke Up a Feud Between Clint Eastwood and Spike Lee
The two got into a feud that grew so bitter, a certain director had to intervene to cool tensions.
Steven Spielberg has earned countless accolades, a ridiculous degree of acclaim, and mountains of cash at the box office. Why he felt the need to go back to college several decades into his career will always be a mystery, but there had to have been some feeling of leaving things incomplete by never graduating back in the ’60s. Either way, because of Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List, two of his most highly regarded movies, Spielberg also now has college graduation behind him. Good on him, maybe Close Encounters will soon earn him some cred with alien visitors and help get him a ride on their spaceships!
Jurassic Park is currently available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.