Steven Spielberg’s sparkling tribute to movies and family has plenty of scenes set in the desert and American West.
But his latest film begins much closer to home, because the renowned director truly got his start in New Jersey.
Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” currently in select theaters and opening wide Nov. 23, is a fictionalized account of his childhood, his making as a director and a student of film. The movie seems an absolute lock for a best picture nod at the Oscars. Michelle Williams in particular is a clear standout for her performance as the budding filmmaker’s impassioned, conflicted mother, the story’s Mitzi Fabelman.
The magic of “The Fabelmans” can be found in warm, vivid depictions of the life-changing moments that set Spielberg on the path to become the highest-grossing director in Hollywood history.
It all began with seeing his first movie in a theater.
In 1952, Spielberg’s parents took then 6-year-old Steven to see Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Greatest Show on Earth” at the Westmont Theatre near their home in Haddonfield. (The film went on to win best picture at the Oscars.)
“The Fabelmans,” directed by Spielberg and co-written by Spielberg and frequent collaborator Tony Kushner (”West Side Story,” “Munich”), recreates this scene with actor Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord as young Sammy Fabelman; Gabriel LaBelle plays a teen Sam for most of the movie.
The future director is slightly terrified of the big screen. Just picturing the size of people projected up there has him pretty rattled on the drive over.
His father, Burt Fabelman (Paul Dano), a computer engineer who repairs TVs on the side, eagerly explains the science of how motion pictures work to his son.
But his mother, a romantic concert pianist who largely gave up a career in music for her family, tries to allay his fears another way.
“Movies are dreams, doll, that you never forget,” Mitzi says.
Spielberg, 75, was born in Cincinnati in 1946, but the director and his family — including his father Arnold Spielberg, his mother Leah Adler (then Spielberg) and his younger sisters — spent the 1950s in New Jersey.
The Spielbergs moved from Cincinnati in 1949 after Arnold got a job at RCA in Camden.
So while much of “The Fabelmans” takes place in other states — namely Arizona and California — the beginning of the story, roughly the first half-hour, is firmly rooted in the Garden State.
The Spielbergs’ first stop was Camden, which is also the city where Steven’s sister, producer Nancy Spielberg (aka Natalie Fabelman), 66, was born in 1956.
Oscar-nominated screenwriter and producer Anne Spielberg (“Big”), 72, Spielberg’s oldest sister (aka Reggie Fabelman), was born in Philadelphia in 1949. The youngest of the family, Spielberg’s sister Sue Spielberg, a marketing executive, is portrayed as Lisa Fabelman in the film.
In 1952, Steven Spielberg and his family moved to New Jersey, which is where “The Fabelmans” starts.
Spielberg, who had a bustling career as an amateur filmmaker, lived in Haddonfield and attended Thomas Edison Elementary School in Haddon Township. His family were congregants at Temple Beth Sholom in Haddon Heights (now located in Cherry Hill), the Conservative synagogue where he went to Hebrew school.
In 1957, the Spielbergs moved again — to Phoenix — for Arnold’s new job working on computers at General Electric. Steven spent most of his teen and high school years there.
The director saw another change of scenery in the 1960s after moving to Northern California, where he had to endure violent antisemitism from students at Saratoga High School. (This is also shown in the film.)
Though “The Fabelmans” does not specify the location of the movie theater where Spielberg saw his first film beyond “New Jersey,” we know it’s Haddon Township — the Westmont section — because that experience has been key to Spielberg’s origin story, providing the cinematic inspiration that moved him to make his own films.
A train crash scene in “The Greatest Show on Earth” shakes Sammy Fabelman to his core. He can’t let it go.
Sammy stages the scene from DeMille’s circus film at home with the model train set he receives as a Hanukkah gift, placing a car on the tracks, just like in the movie.
“I need to see them crash,” he tells his parents.
Mitzi wonders aloud to Burt why their son feels the need to make the train crash like it did in the film.
She comes to the conclusion that the boy, stunned by the movie spectacle, feels he must reenact the wreck himself in order to assert a measure of control over it — essentially working through the trauma of witnessing the disturbance.
In order to limit damage to the trainset from constant crashing, Sammy’s father suggests that his son film the wreck in 8 mm so he can watch it on repeat.
Making movies quickly becomes Sammy’s/Steven’s therapy and his art.
Sammy’s parents encourage the hobby and cheer his talent, but it’s his mother who really supports him in seriously pursuing filmmaking as a profession. Burt is wary of his son putting too much time and effort into something that doesn’t have the best chance of panning out.
“The Fabelmans,” while showing how a young Spielberg dazzled his family, friends and fellow Boy Scouts with his early 8 mm films, also tells another story.
As a teen, Spielberg discovered a family secret (no spoilers) that would upend their seemingly picture-perfect life. The director airs out that secret in a big way after keeping his knowledge of it from his father all their lives.
Both narratives in “The Fabelmans” hail movies as a way of using stories to make sense of the senseless — a tool for gleaning truth.
Spielberg’s parents divorced when he was 19, and his mother remarried.
Leah Adler, who became a Los Angeles restaurateur alongside her second husband, Bernie Adler, was 97 when she died in 2017. Arnold Spielberg was 103 when he died in 2020.
Steven Spielberg’s films have grossed more than $10.6 billion.
“The Fabelmans,” rated PG-13 for some strong language, thematic elements, brief violence and drug use, runs 2 hours and 31 minutes and opens in theaters nationwide Nov. 23.
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Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup on Twitter.
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