Learn English Steven Spielberg Speech Be The Hero Of Your Own Movie Big Subtitles

it’s an honor and a thrill to address

this group of distinguished alumni and

and supportive friends and traveling

parents we’ve all gathered to share in

the joy of this day so please join me in

congratulating Harvard’s class of 2016

[Applause]

I can remember my own college graduation

which is easy since it was only 14 years

ago how many of you took 37 years to

graduate because like most of you I

began college in my teens but sophomore

year I was offered my dream job at

Universal Studios so I dropped out I

told my parents that my movie career

didn’t go well adriaen role it went all

right but eventually I returned for one

big reason most people go to college

from education and some go to go for

their parents but I went for my for my

kids I’m the father of seven and I kept

insisting on the importance of going to

college but I hadn’t walked the walk so

in my 50s I rien rolled at Cal State

Long Beach and I earned my degree

[Applause]

I just have to add and help that they

gave me course credit in paleontology

for the work I did on Jurassic Park that

three units for Jurassic Park thank you

well I love college because I knew

exactly what I wanted to do and some of

you know too but some of you don’t or

maybe you thought you knew but are now

questioning that choice maybe you’re

sitting there trying to figure out how

to tell your parents that you want to be

a doctor and not a comedy writer well

what you choose to do next is what we

call in the movies the character

defining moment now these are moments

you very familiar with like in the last

Star Wars the first force awakens when

ray realizes the force is with her or

Indiana Jones choosing mission over fear

by jumping into a pile of snakes now on

a two-hour movie you get a handful of

character defining moments but in real

life you face them everyday life is one

straw a strong long string of character

defining moments and I was lucky that at

18 I knew what I exactly wanted to do

but I didn’t know who I was I

how could I and how could any of us

because for the first 25 years of our

lives we are trained to listen to voices

that are not our own parents and

professors fill our heads with wisdom

and information and then employers and

mentors take their place and explain how

this world really works and usually

these voices of authority makes sense

but sometimes doubt starts to creep into

our heads and into our hearts and even

when we think that’s not quite how I see

the world it’s kind of easier just to

nod in agreement and go along and for a

while I let that going along to find my

character because I was repressing my

own point of view because like in that

Nilsson song everybody was talking at me

so I couldn’t hear the echoes of my

mine and at first the internal voice I

needed to listen to was hardly audible

and it was hardly noticeable kind of

like me in high school but then I

started paying more attention and my

intuition kicked in and I want to be

clear that your intuition is different

from your conscience they work in tandem

but here’s the distinction your

conscience shouts here’s what you should

do while your intuition whispers here’s

what you could do listen to that voice

that tells you what you could do nothing

will define your character more than

that because once I turned to my

intuition and I tuned into it I certain

projects began to pull me into them and

others I turned away from and up until

the 1980s my movies were mostly I guess

what you could call escapist and I don’t

dismiss any of these movies not even

1941 not even that one and and and many

of these early films reflected the

values that I care deeply about and I

still do but I was in a celluloid bubble

because I’d cut my education short my

worldview was limited to what I could

dream up in my head not what the world

could teach me but then I directed the

color purple and this one film opened my

eyes to experiences that I never could

have imagined and yet we’re all too real

this story was filled with deep pain and

deeper truths like when Suge Avery says

everything wants to be loved my gut

which was my intuition told me that more

people needed to meet these characters

and experience these truths and while

making that film I realized that a movie

could also be a mission I hope all of

you find that sense of mission don’t

turn away from what’s painful examine it

challenge it my job is to create a world

that lasts two hours

your job is to create a world that lasts

forever you are the future innovators

motivators leaders and caretakers and

the way you create a better future is by

studying the past Jurassic Park writer

Michael Crichton who graduated from both

this College in this medical school like

to quote a favorite professor of his who

said that if you didn’t know history you

didn’t know anything you were a leaf

that didn’t know it was part of a tree

so history majors good choice you’re in

great shape not in the job market

but culturally the rest of us have to

make a little effort social media that

were inundated and swarmed with is about

the here and now but I’ve been fighting

and fighting inside my own family to get

all my kids to look behind them to look

at what already has happened because to

understand who they are is to understand

who we were and who their grandparents

were and then what this country was like

when they emigrated here we are a nation

of immigrants at least for now

[Applause]

so to me this means we all have to tell

our own stories we have so many stories

to tell talk to your parents and your

grandparents if you can and ask them

about their stories and I promise you

like I promised my kids you will not be

bored and and that’s why I so often make

movies based on real-life events I look

to history not to be didactic because

that’s just a bonus but I look because

the past is filled with the greatest

stories that have ever been told heroes

and villains are not literary constructs

but there is the heart of all history

and again this is why it’s so important

to listen to your internal whisper it’s

the same one that compelled Abraham

Lincoln and Oskar Schindler to make the

correct moral choices in your defining

moments do not let your morals be swayed

by convenience or expediency sticking to

your character requires a lot of courage

and to be courageous you’re gonna need a

lot of support and if you’re lucky you

have parents like mine I consider my mom

my lucky charm and when I was 12 years

old my father handed me a movie camera

the tool that allowed me to make sense

of this world and I am so grateful to

him for that and I am grateful that he’s

here at Harvard sitting right down there

[Applause]

not mic my dad is 99 years old which

means he’s only one year younger than

Widener Library

but unlike Widener he’s at zero cosmetic

work and dad there’s a lady behind you

also 99 I’ll introduce you after this is

over okay but look if your family is not

always available there’s backup near the

end of it’s a wonderful life you

remember that movie It’s a Wonderful

Life Clarence the angel inscribes a book

with this no man is a failure who has

friends and I hope you hang on to the

friendships you’ve made here at Harvard

and among your friends I hope you find

someone you want to share your life with

I imagine some of you in this yard maybe

a tad cynical but I want to be

unapologetically sentimental I spoke

about the importance of intuition and

how there’s no greater voice to follow

that is until you meet the love of your

life and this is what happened when I

met and married Kate and that became the

greatest character defining moment of my

life love support intuition

all these things are in your heroes

quiver but still a hero needs one more

thing a hero needs a villain to vanquish

and you’re all in luck

this world is full of monsters and

there’s racism homophobia ethnic hatred

class a Trudeau hatred and there’s

religious hatred as a kid I was bullied

for being Jewish

this was upsetting but compared to what

my parents and grandparents had faced it

felt Ain because we truly believed that

anti-semitism was faint fading and we

were wrong over the last two years

nearly 20,000 Jews have left Europe to

find higher ground and earlier this year

I was at the Israeli embassy when

President Obama stated the sad truth he

said we must confront the reality that

around the world anti-semitism is on the

rise we cannot deny it my own desire to

confront that reality compelled me to

start in 1994 the Shoah foundation and

since then we’ve spoken to over 53,000

Holocaust survivors and witnesses in 63

countries and taken all their video

testimonies

[Applause]

and we’re now gathering testimonies from

genocides in Rwanda Cambodia Armenia and

Man King because we must never forget

that the inconceivable doesn’t happen it

happens frequently atrocities are

happening right now and so we wondered

not just when will this hatred end but

but how did it begin now I don’t have to

tell a crowd of Red Sox fans that we are

wired for tribalism

but beyond rooting for the home team

tribalism has a much darker side

instinctively and maybe even genetically

we divide the world into us and them so

the burning question must be how do all

of us together find the we how do we do

that there’s still so much work to be

done and sometimes I feel the work

hasn’t even begun and it’s not just anti

anti-semitism that surging Islamophobia

is on the rise too because there’s no

difference between anyone who is

discriminated against whether it’s the

Muslims or the Jews or minorities on the

border states or the LGBT community it

is all big one hate and

[Applause]

and to me to me and I think to all of

you the only answer to more hate is more

humanity we got a repair we have to

replace fear with curiosity us and then

we’ll find the we by connecting with

each other

and by believing that we’re members of

the same tribe and by feeling empathy

for every soul even yay Lee’s my son

graduated from the elf nu and make sure

this but make sure this empathy isn’t

just something that you feel make it

something you act upon that means vote

peaceably protest speak up for those who

can’t and speak up for those who may be

shouting but aren’t being heard

let your count conscience shout as loud

as at once if you’re using it in the

service of others and as an example of

action and service of others you need to

look no further than this Hollywood

worthy backdrop of a royal church it’s

south wall bears the names of Harvard

alumni like president Faust has already

mentioned students and faculty members

who gave their lives in World War two

all told 697 souls who want to tread the

ground where we stand now were lost and

at a service in this church in late 1945

Harvard President James Conant which

president Foust also mentioned honored

the brave and called upon the community

to reflect the radiance of their deeds

70 years later this message still holds

true because their sacrifice is not a

debt that can be repaid in a single

generation it must be repaid with every

generation just as we must never forget

the atrocities we must never forget

those who fought for freedom so as you

leave this College and head out into the

world continue please to reflect the

radiance to their deeds or as Captain

Miller in Saving Private Ryan would say

earned this and please stay connected

please never lose eye contact this may

not be a lesson you want to hear from a

person who creates media but we are

spending more time looking down at our

devices and then we are looking at each

other’s eyes

[Applause]

so forgive me but let’s start right now

everyone here please find someone’s eyes

to look into students and alumni and

YouTube president fouls all of you turn

to someone you don’t know or don’t know

very well they nippies daddy behind you

or a couple of rows ahead just let your

eyes meet that’s it that emotion you’re

feeling is our shared humanity mixed in

with a little social discomfort but if

you remember nothing else from today I

hope you remember this moment of human

connection and I hope you all had a lot

of that over the past four years because

today you start down the path of

becoming the generation on which the

next generation stands and I’ve imagined

many possible futures in my films but

you will determine the actual future and

I hope that it’s filled with justice and

peace and finally I wish you all a true

Hollywood style happy ending I hope you

outrun the t-rex catch the criminal and

for your parents sake maybe every now

and then just like et go home

[Applause]