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Originally Posted by White Winger
The same formula with EVERY Spielboig "film"; rinse, repeat, ad nauseum. And he's always had all the freedom in the world to allow him to make them that way - his fellow travelling evil tribesmen that have always been in power.
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They're tropes not a formula. He includes them when he can.
Hooper is the first instance of the Spielberg Magical Hebrew trope. The Jewish sage who explains what's going on to the dim but good hearted gentiles he's leading to salvation. This is the key to Spielberg's commercial success. He shows at least some gentiles as decent people who just need guidance from the right liberal or Jew. Condescending not bitter. To Kill a Mockingbird not Catcher in the Rye.
Other Magical Hebrews are Dreyfuss again in Close Encounters, along with François Truffaut as the UFO expert, the rabbi who explains how to find the ark of the covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) of chaos theory fame in Jurassic Park, and Schindler's Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern (The list is life!) in Schindler's List.
Gentiles who play the Quint role and give everything to save Jews include the Australian hunter in Jurassic Park and good old Oskar Schindler.
E.T., Spielberg's most successful film, is missing most of these tropes. I don't remember a single noticably Jewish character, though the government UFO expert who turns out to be a good guy is played by Jew Peter Coyote (born Robert Peter Cohon). E.T. was written by Melissa Mathison who is probably a gentile.