I don’t know about only to win awards, the guy didn’t have a hard time getting awards before. But I do think he wanted to be something other than Mr Blockbuster, periodically in his career he drops in “important” movies: SL, Color Purple, Empire of the Sun, etc etc. I don’t know about cynical or offensive, I just think he wants something on his tombstone other than being the inventor of the summer blockbuster, he wants some movies that will write something to history.
Can’t really fault anybody for wanting to be “serious” as well as profitable. I just happen to think that most “important” things (movies, books, TV shows) blow. To me actually important things tend to happen on accident. Like the MASH movie just off the top of my head because I watched it recently, nobody thought that was going to be a big deal it, almost everybody involved thought it was either going to be their last hurah or a career misstep. Instead it spawned one of the most popular TV shows ever and is still a great movie (much better than the TV show it spawned) and a high point in almost all their careers. High quality stuff tends to come from a freedom to try things out, when somebody decides this project is “important” one of the first things that evaporates is freedom.
Spielberg did not win an Oscar before ‘Schindler’s List’. ‘Empire of the Sun’ is flawed but has held up as a pretty good film - a neat David Lean tribute (he was originally supposed to do it) with Christan Bale’s best performance to date.