The Universal Story

Purportedly this is the story of Universal Pictures (narrated by Richard Dreyfuss). They do tell you how it started and who who started it but then they whiz through the silent films all the way up to the 70s in the first hour. A lot of very important films they made are totally missing--1 hour is not enough!

The last hour falls apart. They concentrate only on the films of the 80s and early 90s (this came out in 1995). Also they only show the big hits and give us needlessly long clips from all of them. And they go out of the way in giving a tribute to Steven Spielberg. There's nothing wrong with Spielberg but they really overdo. We get looooonnnngggg clips from virtually every movie he made from Universal--the only one missing is his only bomb "1941".

Basically this turns into just a puff piece showing off Universal's big hits. That's too bad--a more balanced view of Universal would be better.

I'm giving it a 6 only for the clips.

As a person who has visited Universal Studios, a keen movie goer and one who enjoys putting together my own short films, this documentary on the beginning and development of Universal Studios, was excellent. If you have any interest in the movie industry, this documentary is for you.