Captains Courageous

Spielberg has cited Victor Fleming’s 1937 adventure film ‘Captains Courageous’ as one of the movies that inspired him to become a filmmaker.

The adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s 1887 novel follows the obnoxious son of a wealthy man who joins his father on a transatlantic ship journey, when he falls overboard and live takes a dramatic turn. The blend of suspense and sentimentality, the precocious chid and the sense of large-scale spectacle all make the coming-of-age film very Spielberg-esque.