They WERE Amazing . . .

In 1985, one of Steven Spielberg's many projects was the launch of a new anthology television series called Amazing Stories. I hadn't seen it since I was a kid so I watched the first episode again last night. Spielberg himself directed the first episode called "Ghost Train" about a family moving into a big house in the middle of nowhere and the grandfather's regrets about a derailed train he remembers in the area from his childhood. It turns out to be a big allegory about death and letting go of a loved one. It hasn't aged well.

It might have benefited from the "event" aspect of television in 1985 when, if you didn't catch something when it aired, it could be years before you got the chance to see it again. So for many, the legend became bigger than the show itself. Watching it now it feels a bit more like seeing someone imitating Spielberg than Spielberg himself. There's the sweeping crane shots, the ecstatic closeups, the well timed editing beats. The cast feels very much like a TV cast, though, especially the parents. The mother's reaction to seeing the ghost train reminded me of a commercial in which a woman's dealing with a plumbing problem.

The opening theme segment is pretty quaint. I actually remember thinking this cgi looked genuinely cool.

I still find something intriguingly ominous about the weird cave people and the family at the end, presumably meant to be normal folks. I get this vague impression of them being trapped in the stories somehow, like there's this unintended message of how the storytelling began in ancient times and trapped both the teller and the audience and now YOU'RE TRAPPED TOO.