Kevin Wozniak
What more is there to say about Steven Spielberg? He is the most successful filmmaker in the history of movies. His films have grossed nearly $11 billion at the box office. His films have been nominated for 145 awards with 33 wins, including two Best Director wins for himself. His films are critically beloved, and his stamp on pop culture is firmly cemented.
His films are technical marvels. Spielberg is a genius when it comes to film language and understanding where to place the camera and how to block a scene. He gets great performances from all his actors, and his set pieces are one of a kind. He’s dabbled in nearly every genre and been successful in most of them. He understands epic scale, wonder, and awe better than any modern filmmaker. If I had to fault Spielberg for something, it would be that he isn’t great with comedies or sequels, and sometimes he struggles to end his films. These are small qualms in a filmography that is top-heavy with great films and includes only a few duds.
Spielberg’s filmography can be classified into three categories. He has the chase movies, the movies that find his characters on the run from something, being chased, or chasing something. He has personal journeys, which find Spielberg tackling his personal demons and angst about his parents’ divorce when he was a teen. These films usually find characters living in broken homes, maybe with a parent missing, or the longing to reunite with a parent. And then he has his historical epics. Most of these are stories of America and what it means to be an American, but other times he will travel the world to tell his story. He also loves aliens and swashbuckling adventures. Sometimes these categories mix; other times they work separately.
Below is my ranking of Steven Spielberg’s 35 feature films, starting with Duel in 1971. This list was exhausting to make, but it was a delightful filmography to dissect. Watching Spielberg go from wunderkind to one of the all-time greats was a real treat, and you can see his maturity in his filmmaking technique grow and his overall understanding of his core themes. It’s also fascinating to watch him use film as a way to cope with his trauma, whether it be his life growing up, or being a Jewish man making a movie about the Holocaust.
Here is my ranking of the films of Steven Spielberg.
35. 1941 (1979)
With Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Spielberg kicked off his career with a bang, making two films that crushed at the box office, earned critical acclaim, and were nominated for several awards. He was as hot as any director at the time and had the cache to do whatever he wanted. So how did he follow up those two massive successes? By making a big-budget war comedy with a star-studded cast, led by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd.
As I said in the beginning, Spielberg is not great with comedy, and 1941 is proof of that. Nothing about this movie is funny, and the script, co-written by Robert Zemeckis, is all over the place. There are too many characters with zero depth, and a lot of the scenes go on for far too long. 1941 is a bloated, unfunny mess, though Spielberg would rebound nicely with his next film.
34. Always (1989)
Always finds Spielberg working with frequent collaborator Richard Dreyfuss in a film co-starring Holly Hunter and John Goodman about the ghost of a pilot (Dreyfuss) trying to mentor a newer pilot and accept the fact that he is dead. Not sure how Spielberg screwed this one up, but Always is an absolute slog. Despite the efforts of Hunter and Goodman, and some cool aerial scenes, the inconsistent tone, lackluster performances by Dreyfuss and Brad Johnson (who plays the new pilot and has the personality of a cinder block), and rough pacing make Always an absolute slog.
33. The Terminal (2004)
The Terminal is a film that doesn’t know what it wants to be. Does it want to be a broad, fish-out-of-water comedy about a man trapped in an airport? Or does it want to be a drama about a post-9/11 America and a man being victim to his war-torn country? It’s a mishmash of both ideas, yet it fails to mesh cohesively, leaving the film mostly unfunny with little dramatic stakes.
The biggest surprise about The Terminal is how miscast Tom Hanks is, something you’d rarely say about the award-winning actor throughout his career. He can’t land the comedic elements, and the lack of drama doesn’t give Hanks much to do. Hanks is surrounded by a talented group of actors, such as Stanley Tucci, Diego Luna, and Catherine Zeta-Jones, but none have any depth.
The idea that they made an entire airport terminal for this movie is cool, though.
32. The BFG (2016)
Adapted from the Roald Dahl book of the same name, The BFG finds an orphan little girl (Ruby Barnhill) who befriends a kind giant (Mark Rylance) who takes her to Giant Country, where they attempt to stop man-eating giants from coming to Earth.
While Spielberg has a personal connection to the film (he used to read it to his kids when they were growing up), The BFG doesn’t feel like a true Spielberg movie. It has some visual flourishes but is missing the whimsy and excitement we’ve seen when Spielberg plays in high-fantasy worlds. Rylance seems to be having a good time, and Barnhill gives a strong performance, but this movie really feels like Spielberg was testing out some technology before making his next film, Ready Player One.
31. War Horse (2011)
A Steven Spielberg movie set during a war is usually a recipe for success. But that isn’t the case with War Horse, Spielberg’s 2011 World War I melodrama about a horse that sees its way through the trenches of battle, encountering various soldiers and giving them hope during the war. It’s kind of like WW1 Forrest Gump, except with a nice horse rather than a nice person.
Spielberg crafts some beautiful sequences, and John Williams’ score and Janusz Kaminski’s cinematography are superb. But the overall vibe of War Horse leans very heavily on the sappy Oscar-bait side, which I guess ultimately worked, as the film was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture.
30. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Before making Temple of Doom, Spielberg was in a similar spot to the one he was in before 1941. He was coming off Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Like Jaws and Close Encounters, the two films were great successes critically, commercially, and on the awards front. Fulfilling a contractual obligation, Spielberg and story partner, executive producer, and friend George Lucas got to work on the next Indy adventure.
While not the complete disaster 1941 is, Temple of Doom is a great departure from Raiders and the subsequent Indiana Jones films. Besides setting the film a year before the events of Raiders, Temple of Doom is an incredibly dark and disturbing film featuring voodoo, child labor, and shocking violence (both Spielberg and Lucas attribute the dark tone to them going through divorces at the time). Temple of Doom also features the character of Willie Scott, played by Spielberg’s current wife, Kate Capshaw. The character of Scott is horrendous and Capshaw’s performance is abominable, one of the worst in any Spielberg film, if not the worst. While Harrison Ford is always a delight to see as Indy, Temple of Doom is ultimately an unpleasant watch.
29. The Sugarland Express (1974)
Coming off the success of Duel, Spielberg’s first theatrical film is an impressively made true story about a mother (a terrific Goldie Hawn) who attempts to reunite her family by breaking her husband out of jail and trying to break their son out of a foster home. Things don’t go as planned, and the two end up on the run from the law.
Like Duel, this is more than just a run-and-gun exploitation movie. Spielberg brought skill and heart to this story of a broken family’s attempt to be reunited, crafting exhilarating car chases that feel like a child controlling them with a remote control. When the chase slows down, so does the movie, which is ultimately where it falls short of something great. Spielberg showed promise working on a bigger scale and gave us glimpses of what was to come for the rest of his career.
28. The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park has some of the same issues that Temple of Doom has. First, it’s following an undeniable masterpiece and game-changer. Second, it’s meaner and more violent, losing the wonder and the fun of the original. While The Lost World isn’t nearly as dark and problematic as Temple of Doom, its release in 1997—despite a lot of excitement and an expensive marketing plan—was met with mixed reviews. Despite this, it was very successful at the box office, including holding the crown as the Spielberg movie with the highest opening weekend at the box office at the time of its release, with only Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull surpassing it in 2008.
The movie, much like the reviews, is a mixed bag. Despite a cast featuring Vince Vaughn, Julianne Moore, Peter Stormare, and Richard Schiff, they aren’t nearly as good as the original and aren’t given a lot to do. The T-Rex in San Diego finale didn’t work for me, and there is just simply too much gymnastics in the film.
That said, the visual effects are astonishing, the set pieces are thrilling, and Jeff Goldblum is locked in, so it isn’t all bad.
27. Amistad (1997)
Amistad tells the true story of a Spanish slave ship that is captured off the coast of Long Island and the American court case about whether the slaves on the ship are free to go back to their home country.
While the idea of Spielberg making a courtroom drama sounds interesting, Amistad was the vehicle for it, and the film ultimately lacks passion in its importance as a Black story. The cast is stacked with great actors, like Morgan Freeman, Stellan Skarsgård, Djimon Hounsou, Nigel Hawthorne, Pete Postlethwaite, and a very young Chiwetel Ejiofor, all of whom give stellar performances. Matthew McConaughey also stars as the lead attorney for the slaves and is completely miscast and out of his league.
We do, however, get a brilliant performance from Anthony Hopkins as John Quincy Adams. Hopkins gives one of the best performances of his career here and completely owns the third act. Overall, Amistad is a mixed effort from Spielberg.
26. Hook (1991)
Like a lot of kids who grew up in the 90s, Hook was one of the movies I saw the most, and it introduced me to Spielberg. This revisionist story about Peter Pan and what would happen if he grew up is a swashbuckling epic filled with grand sets, lavish costumes, and a stacked cast led by Robin Williams as the older Peter Pan, Dustin Hoffman as the menacing Captain Hook, and Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell.
As a child, I found the movie mind-blowing. As an adult, not so much. The scale is vast and epic. Hoffman’s performance is uproarious, and Rufio (played by Dante Basco) is forever iconic. It’s a big story with big sets, but the film at times feels bloated, especially at a two-and-a-half-hour runtime. It’s interesting to look at Hook as a fulcrum moment in Spielberg’s career and him being unsure of who he truly was as a filmmaker: was he the child who never grew up and only made fun fantasy films or was he a serious filmmaker? This question would soon be answered by his next two films.
25. The Color Purple (1985)
The Color Purple was Spielberg’s attempt to show that he was a “serious director.” After films focusing on sharks, aliens, and a teacher searching for treasure, all of which made millions of dollars at the box office and were Oscar-nominated, Spielberg wanted to show that he could handle character-driven dramas just as well as blockbusters.
Spielberg was pitched the idea to direct a film adaptation of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple by Quincy Jones. While I understand Jones trying to get the best director possible to bring the novel to life, I’m not sure 38-year-old Spielberg was the choice. Not because of his race, but because he was still growing as a director. You can watch his later character-driven dramas and see how much better he got over the years. He did a solid job with The Color Purple, but you can feel his lack of experience with intense subject matters like this.
One thing The Color Purple did solidify was Spielberg’s skill at directing actors, as the film features an outstanding ensemble led by Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, and Oprah Winfrey, all of whom give excellent performances. The Color Purple isn’t one of Spielberg’s best, but it is one of his most important in elevating his skill as a director.
24. Ready Player One (2018)
Ready Player One finds Spielberg at his most playful while also coming to terms with the pop culture world he helped create. Adapted from Ernest Cline’s best-selling novel, Ready Player One takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where people escape into a virtual world called the Oasis. When the creator of the Oasis (Mark Rylance) dies, he sets out a challenge to all Oasis players to find his hidden Easter Egg, which will give them control of the entire Oasis.
Ready Player One is a visual feast when in the Oasis. It is a stunning trip through pop culture history that is colorful, layered, and unpredictable. Seeing everything from King Kong to Freddy Krueger to setting an entire sequence in the Overlook Hotel is a lot of fun, and you can feel Spielberg’s glee as he crafts these sequences.
However, Ready Player One comes to a screeching halt whenever we leave the Oasis and enter the real world. None of the characters are interesting enough as their normal selves to carry any emotional weight, and it’s visually bland. Luckily, most of the movie is in the Oasis, but these sections in the real world are a real damper.
23. Duel (1971)
Normally, when ranking a director’s filmography, I avoid TV movies and shorts. But Duel is in a class of its own. The film, which finds a seemingly ordinary salesman (Dennis Weaver) being stalked by a mysterious truck, is regarded as one of the best TV movies ever, if not the best.
Duel introduced the world to Spielberg in a big way. There is nothing about the film that feels like a TV movie or like it was made by a first-time filmmaker. It’s cinematic in every way, with great cinematography, quick editing, a Psycho-like score, and intense chase sequences. You can see the crumbs of Duel throughout Spielberg’s filmography, from the stalking menace of Jaws to the train sequence in Disclosure Day. Some of the acting is a little rough, but Duel is as impressive as debut films get.
22. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Is it a hot take that I like this movie significantly more than Temple of Doom? Most people on the internet might think so, but for me, it isn’t particularly close. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is another rousing and entertaining adventure that finds Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford, not missing a beat after nearly a twenty-year break from the character) entangled in a Soviet plot to untangle the secrets behind mysterious artifacts known as the Crystal Skulls.
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull does have its opportunities, namely in the character of Indy’s son, Mutt, played by Shia LaBeouf. LeBeouf’s performance is good, but the character is weirdly written. But when this movie works, its peaks are just as good as The Last Crusade. Cate Blanchett is a blast as the black-bob villain, and the alien plot totally works, especially when you think about Spielberg’s career and the fact that Indy drank the blood of Christ in the prior movie. The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the most under-appreciated movie in Spielberg’s filmography.
21. Empire of the Sun (1987)
Empire of the Sun was the second film in a row that Spielberg tried to prove that he was a “mature” filmmaker. The film, which follows a privileged British boy who gets separated from his parents in China in World War II, saw Spielberg once again work with a more serious subject, but saw the scale of the film increase significantly, crafting a sprawling epic inspired by his favorite director growing up, David Lean.
A young Christian Bale stars as the film’s main character, and he is remarkable. Spielberg proved that he was a master at directing child actors and shooting from the child’s perspective. The film slows down in the second act quite a bit and is ultimately one of the forgotten gems in Spielberg’s filmography, getting lost among the great films he made throughout the 1980s.
20. The Post (2017)
Smack-dab in the middle of two CGI-heavy fantasy films, The BFG and Ready Player One, Spielberg made The Post, a political drama about Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham (a sublime Meryl Streep) who races to expose the truth about government secrets that have been hidden for thirty years. Tom Hanks stars alongside Streep as Washington Post editor Ben Bradley, who helps uncover the secrets, and they are accompanied by a stacked ensemble, including Bob Odenkirk, Carrie Coon, Jessie Plemons, Sarah Paulson, and Matthew Rhys.
The Post is a superbly made political drama. Playing like a younger cousin of All the President’s Men, it’s a snappy, gripping tale of freedom of the press and the power of the truth. Streep and Hanks have great chemistry, and you can feel Spielberg’s passion for the topic and the messaging, which still feels timely today. The ending is a little clunky, but The Post is a very good film.
19. Munich (2005)
Munich is a dramatization of a group of Israeli operatives, led by Avner Kauffman (Eric Bana), who look to exact revenge on the Palestinians who ultimately killed nine Israeli Olympians at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. It is Spielberg at his most brutal and calculated.
Spielberg has always been proud of his Jewish heritage, and while Munich is a story about Israeli revenge on Palestine, Spielberg never chooses a side. Instead, he focuses on the mental, personal, and emotional effects that revenge and cold-blooded violence can have on a person and the cyclical nature of violence and how, even when you think it’s over, it’s never actually over. Its themes are chilling, especially when it came out shortly after 9/11.
While Spielberg’s filmmaking isn’t flashy, every camera move is smart, and every shot is artistic. This movie might have been ranked higher on the list had Bana’s performance matched the greatness of the filmmaking, and if the ending had been tied up a little cleaner.
18. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
In the scope of Spielberg’s filmography, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade feels like a return to form for Spielberg. After a three-movie run of Temple of Doom and two dramatic, awards-friendly films—The Color Purple and Empire of the Sun—Spielberg went back to the Indiana Jones well and delivered a rousing and ridiculously entertaining film, much closer to what he gave audiences with Raiders.
From the outstanding opening sequence with River Phoenix playing a young Indiana Jones, Last Crusade is an exciting journey, as Indy (Harrison Ford, perfect as always) once again fights Nazis in his pursuit of finding his father (Sean Connery) and the Holy Grail. It’s a bit familiar, very light in its tone, and doesn’t have a particularly great villain, but the set pieces are expertly constructed, and Ford and Connery are a perfect match as the estranged father-son duo.
17. Disclosure Day (2026)
After kicking off the 2020s with two very different films from what we’ve come to expect from Spielberg in a remake of West Side Story and the deeply personal The Fabelmans (more on those soon), Spielberg went back to what made him the icon that he is today with a big, summer blockbuster about an epic chase and aliens.
Working from a script by David Koepp and a story by Spielberg, Disclosure Day finds Josh O’Connor and Emily Blunt (in one of the best performances of her career) as a pair of strangers who are intergalactically connected and must come together and expose a government secret before a covert organization finds them. Spielberg crafted a film that feels timely for today’s world, yet has the retro Spielberg feel and optimism we saw from him back in the ’70s. It’s a non-stop chase movie, filled with mystery, exciting set pieces, and expert filmmaking by Spielberg. Its messaging is timely and earnest, preaching the importance of empathy and unity. And it features a jaw-dropping third act that is audacious and emotionally moving. Disclosure Day is a return to form for Spielberg, and it shows that Spielberg still understands the idea of wonder and awe.
16. War of the Worlds (2005)
War of the Worlds, as a film, is one of the least discussed in Spielberg’s filmography, thanks in large part to the disastrous press tour of the film’s star, Tom Cruise. While it got good reviews and performed well at the box office, most people only remember Cruise jumping on Oprah’s couch while doing the press tour, and none of the film, which is a real shame because War of the Worlds is genuinely great.
Spielberg’s adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic novel is a terrifying hellscape of aliens attacking Earth for an unknown reason, as hundreds of people turn into dust around a father (Cruise) and his two children (Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin). The film is loaded with horrifying images and scenes of alien attacks that are reminiscent of 9/11, but also show the true side of humanity during a crisis. It’s a visual spectacle and the scariest film Spielberg has ever made.
15. The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
Many might not know this, but The Adventures of Tintin was a passion project for Spielberg. Having grown up a fan of Herge’s comics, Spielberg purchased the rights to Tintin in 1983 from Herge’s widow following his death. Spielberg initially wanted to make the film live-action, but felt traditional filmmaking couldn’t capture the larger-than-life essence of the comics, which is why he waited for animated technology to catch up to make the film, eventually teaming up with Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson and using stop-motion animation to bring the film to life.
Spielberg using animation is like Ken Griffey Jr. using an aluminum bat: it simply isn’t fair. Spielberg has always had an unmatched imagination and vision when it comes to his shot construction and his set pieces. Spielberg took the freedom of animation and made a swashbuckling adventure about a reporter’s (Jamie Bell) search for a sunken ship with the help of Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis). It’s got all the fun and adventure of Indiana Jones, but Spielberg knew he could push the limits of his imagination, crafting some of the best set pieces in his filmography, highlighted by a two-and-a-half-minute tracking shot through the chaotic streets of the fictional Bagghar. It’s a shame that we haven’t gotten a Tintin sequel yet. It is as fun as any Spielberg movie and the most underrated of his career.
14. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence notably started as a Stanley Kubrick project. Kubrick purchased the rights to the short story “Supertoys Last All Summer Long” in the ’70s, and had the idea of combining it with a Pinocchio story and artificial intelligence. From the beginning, Kubrick wanted Spielberg to make the film, saying Spielberg’s emotional sensibilities would be perfect for the film. Spielberg initially declined, but when Kubrick passed away, he made the film to honor his late friend.
There are elements of A.I. that feel very Kubrickian, but A.I. is a Spielberg movie through and through, and it is one of the darkest and bleakest in his filmography. As Kubrick intended, A.I. is a sci-fi iteration of Pinocchio, following an artificially-made boy named David (a sensational Haley Joel Osment) who longs to be a real boy and be reunited with his human mother (Frances O’Connor). David goes on a journey of desperation to find his mother, going to the dark places, like a demolition show where they kill artificial beings, and meets unsavory beings, like Gigolo Joe (Jude Law, in one of the best performances of his career), an artificial person who is falsely accused of murdering a human.
A.I. is visually unlike any movie Spielberg has ever made. Like a futuristic noir lit with neon lights and heavy shadows, there’s a layer of grime on the sheen of a world of robotic children. It’s a harrowing story about the limits of love, and it concludes with a divisive third act that may not have worked for some, but absolutely floors me every time I see it.
13. Bridge of Spies (2005)
Bridge of Spies centers around James Donovan (Tom Hanks), an American lawyer tasked with defending a Soviet spy (Mark Rylance) at the height of the Cold War, while also helping the U.S. government with exchanging the spy for a U.S. soldier trapped in Soviet territory.
In the grand scope of Spielberg’s filmography, Bridge of Spies often gets overlooked, and I don’t know why. This is an involving portrait about human worth, constitutional law, and dignity that features an award-winning performance by Rylance and one of the best Tom Hanks performances of the 2000s. It’s a chilly period piece that fully immerses us in the Cold War time period while stressing universal messages. It’s not the loudest Spielberg film, but it’s him firing on all cylinders.
12. West Side Story (2021)
At the age of 74, with over 30 films under his belt, countless awards, tons of box office success, and a permanent footprint in popular culture, Steven Spielberg decided to make a movie he had never made before: a musical. And not just any musical, one of the most renowned and iconic musicals ever made, West Side Story. Spielberg loved the original play as well as Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise’s 1961 Oscar-winning play and wanted to re-examine the classic’s themes of territorial and racial division for modern audiences while also bringing Latino representation to the big screen.
Spielberg’s West Side Story is one of the great musicals of the 21st century. A lively, colorful interpretation of the iconic story that keeps the spirit of the original play and movie, but is elevated because of Spielberg’s expert filmmaking and ability to construct exhilarating dance numbers. The film introduced the world to Rachel Zegler as Maria and Mike Faist as Riff and won Ariana DeBose an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Anita. Spielberg’s direction on West Side Story is as impressive as any film in his filmography.
11. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind was a real put up or shut up movie for Spielberg. Two years earlier, Spielberg broke box office records and changed cinema forever. I would argue that Close Encounters was the most important film of Spielberg’s young career, as it showed that Jaws was no fluke.
Close Encounters is one of the few calling card films Spielberg made early on. It was the calling card for his obsession with aliens and was the first film of his to really dive into his parents’ divorce, which, as previously said, is a huge theme throughout his filmography. The film looks at an Indiana electrician (Richard Dreyfuss, his best with Spielberg) who encounters a UFO and becomes obsessed with finding answers. It showed a more mature side of Spielberg, as it dealt with family turmoil and obsession, and showed Spielberg could handle movies on a larger scale beyond a New England beach. The visual effects hold up today, and Spielberg’s shot composition was already in top form. Spielberg is known for delivering awe and wonder, and this was the first taste of it.
10. Lincoln (2012)
Lincoln kicked off a trio of films—Bridge of Spies and The Post being the others—that focused on American history and human rights. The film looks at Abraham Lincoln and his pursuit of the Thirteenth Amendment to emancipate the slaves during the height of the Civil War. Tony Kushner’s expertly crafted screenplay focuses only on this small portion of Lincoln’s life and presidency, rather than telling a cradle-to-grave biopic we’ve seen time and time again, and humanizes him rather than making him a flawless hero. It’s an outstanding script, and Spielberg’s direction helps navigate it at a swift pace, always keeping it compelling. Most of the movie is a lot of men sitting at tables talking about the law, and it is some of the most riveting cinema you can watch.
Daniel Day-Lewis gives what I consider to be the best performance in any Spielberg movie. He rightfully won the Oscar for Best Actor for his honest and committed performance as the 16th President of the United States. The remarkable makeup and hairstyling, and Day-Lewis’ extensive research allowed him to disappear into the performance. Day-Lewis is accompanied by an absolutely loaded supporting cast of award-winning actors like Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, and James Spader, some of the best modern character actors in John Hawkes, David Straithairn, Bruce McGill, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Tim Blake Nelson, and features brief appearances by a young Colman Domingo and Adam Driver. Lincoln is a great historical epic with one of Spielberg’s best ensembles.
9. Catch Me If You Can (2002)
On its surface, Catch Me If You Can is a slick crime dramedy about Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio), a high school student who winds up impersonating pilots, doctors, and lawyers across the country, forging checks, and making millions of dollars. Frank is being chased by F.B.I. agent Carl Hannraty (Tom Hanks). From the jazzy John Williams score to the colorful costumes and lavish sets, and playful crime sequences, Catch Me If You Can is a delightfully entertaining story that you have to see to believe.
But look a little deeper, and you’ll see Catch Me If You Can is a deeply moving portrait of the relationship between a father and son and the effects of divorce on a young man, as the relationship between Frank and his father (a heartbreaking Christopher Walken) is the heart of the film. This is one of the most personal movies for Spielberg. The divorce of his parents had a lasting effect on him and his films, and in the mid-1990s, he reconciled with his father, whom he had blamed for his parents’ divorce for years. From Catch Me If You Can forward, you can see a shift in how Spielberg portrays fathers in his films versus how he portrayed them before. Catch Me If You Can is as entertaining as any Spielberg film, but is also a deeply personal note to his father and their growing bond.
8. Schindler’s List (1993)
In a strange “Sliding Doors” moment of cinema history, the original plan for Schindler’s List was for Martin Scorsese to direct it, while Spielberg would direct Cape Fear. Spielberg wasn’t in the mood to direct a movie about a family being terrorized by a murderer, and Scorsese felt he wouldn’t do Thomas Keneally’s novel justice and passed the rights to Spielberg. It’s interesting to think about what would have happened if each director had stayed the original course, but this is ultimately one of the greatest movie swaps in cinematic history.
Spielberg calls Schindler’s List the most important work of his life, refusing to collect a single dollar of salary or profits and making the film simply because of its importance, believing any sort of payment would be “blood money.” While Spielberg had mixed results with directing more serious films, his direction on Schindler’s List is an astounding achievement. He did away with any flash and sweeping shots for an intimate and raw presentation of the horrors of the Holocaust and the heroism of industrialist Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson, in the performance of a lifetime). Schindler’s List is a towering achievement from Spielberg.
7. The Fabelmans (2022)
Schindler’s List might be Spielberg’s most important film, but The Fabelmans is his most personal. After years of making movies about divorce, broken families, forgiveness, and complicated relationship with parents, Spielberg gave us a front row seat into why these subjects effected his life and filmmaking so much, by telling the story of Sammy Fabelman (an eccentric Gabriel LaBelle), a high schooler in post-World War II Arizona who aspires to be a filmmaker and uses the power of film to cope with his seemingly perfect family breaking apart before his eyes.
The Fabelmans is heart-shattering, inspiring, and insightful. Watching Sammy’s passion for film and seeing how he uses it will make you want to follow your passions, even when those closest to you doubt you. Seeing Sammy cope with his family breaking apart and how it happened is gut-wrenching. And knowing this story is very close to Spielberg’s life growing up is interesting. The Fabelmans ranks so high on Spielberg’s filmography for me because, after watching it, you look at every Spielberg film through a new lens. This is an origin story for a filmmaker, and explains not only how he got started making films, but also why he loves train action sequences, why his films feature loner children and broken families, and how he was raised. It took for both of Spielberg’s parents to pass (his mother in 2017 and his father in 2020) for Spielberg to fully reflect on his childhood, and the result was exquisite.
6. E.T. the Extraterrestrial (1982)
E.T. the Extraterrestrial was Spielberg’s sixth feature film, and it is the film that shows him fully formed. It’s a perfect combination of the thrills and fun that hooked us with Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark, while expanding on the theme of a broken home and creating films from a child’s perspective. Spielberg dove back into the sci-fi genre and made a beautiful and grounded film about a boy and an alien.
Henry Thomas gives one of the greatest child performances ever captured on camera as Elliot, a young boy who, on a seemingly normal night, finds an alien hiding in his backyard. Elliot and his siblings grow a bond with the alien, all while government agents desperately look for it. Spielberg brilliantly shoots all scenes with the children from a lower height, really allowing us to see the world from their perspective. It’s a heartfelt and sweet story that is balanced by the lingering doom of the government closing in. The score by John Williams is arguably the best in any Spielberg movie and one of the greatest of all-time, helping elevate the tonal shifts of the movie and adding layers to the iconic scenes like Elliot and E.T. flying across the sky. E.T. is as wondrous and magnificent as any Spielberg film.
5. Jaws (1975)
What more is there to say about Jaws? Spielberg’s second theatrical film literally changed movies forever. The movie about a giant shark that terrorizes a New England beach during the Fourth of July broke box office records and changed the way studios release movies. The lines around the block helped coin the phrase “blockbuster,” and Jaws would go on to be critically acclaimed and nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning three of them. Spielberg was notably snubbed in a lineup that included iconic directors Robert Altman, Federico Fellini, Stanley Kubrick, Sidney Lumet, and the eventual winner, Milos Forman.
As for the movie itself, it’s one of the best sophomore feature films ever made. Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw are a dynamic team of shark hunters, and Spielberg masterfully crafts a terrifying film where the villain isn’t just a terrorizing shark, but the incompetence of government and city officials. It has humor, action, thrills, and brains, everything you want from a summer blockbuster.
4. Minority Report (2002)
For me, Minority Report is the Spielberg film that has aged the best. When I initially saw the film, I really liked it, but I was never in love with it. But after countless rewatches (it is probably the Spielberg movie I have watched the most over the last decade), and deeper analysis, Minority Report rose through the ranks, and is now firmly cemented as one of Spielberg’s best.
Adapted from the Phillip K. Dick short story, Minority Report takes place in a world where cops are able to see when a murder is going to happen and arrest the culprits before they commit the crime. Police Chief John Anderton (Tom Cruise) finds himself on the run when he is predicted to commit the next murder.
Minority Report is a futuristic neo-noir and non-stop chase movie. Cruise, in one of his most underrated performances, is perfect as the tortured and desperate on-the-run Anderton. Tormented by the loss of his son and convinced the system he has supported for years is wrong, Anderton runs all over the futuristic Washington D.C. to remain innocent. Spielberg’s take on the near future (the film takes place in 2054, so very near) is a perfect blend of futuristic wonder in a contemporary normality. Minority Report is a heart-racing, action-packed thriller with strong questions about free will versus destiny, systemic corruption, and the desperation people will go through after trauma.
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Following the critical and box office bomb of 1941, Spielberg immediately bounced back with a globe-trotting adventure film. Working off of an idea from friend George Lucas, Spielberg saw Raiders as an opportunity to fulfill his desire to direct a James Bond movie while also being able to make a love-letter to the fast-paced, action-packed B-movies of the ’30s and ’40s he grew up loving.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is a globe-trotting race against the clock, as college professor and archeologist Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is tasked with helping the Army locate the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis do. From the opening scene, one of the most iconic in all of cinema, Spielberg slams his foot on the gas and never lets up, giving us non-stop action until the very end. While inspired by B-movies, there is nothing schlocky about it, with rapid editing, outstanding practical effects, and set pieces that other directors could only dream of constructing.
And at the center is one of the greatest movie star performances and characters in cinema history, in Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones. Spielberg knew he had a one-of-a-kind movie star at the center of the film, and made sure he was portrayed that way. While Ford has been in several iconic roles throughout his career, he will forever be remembered for rocking the fedora and whip.
2. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Steven Spielberg changed war movies forever with Saving Private Ryan. No film before looked or felt like it, and I would argue that no film since has either. Spielberg put us on the front lines of the beaches of Normandy and the German battlefields as a group of U.S. soldiers, led by Captain Miller (Tom Hanks, the embodiment of honor and heroism), search for a singular soldier following the death of his three brothers.
It could be argued that Saving Private Ryan is Spielberg’s finest directorial effort. Taking a no-frills approach similar to how he shot Schindler’s List, Spielberg utilized handheld cameras, saturated coloring, and raw sound to make it feel like we were fighting right next to Captain Miller and his team of soldiers. It’s a relentless journey of hope, tragedy, and understanding the cost of a human life. Every soldier is unique, and as the movie goes on and you get to know the soldiers more, you truly feel like you are part of the infantry. The opening attack on Normandy is one of the most visceral scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie. You feel fear, anxiety, and tragedy in your bones as bodies wash up on shore and beach water turns red. Saving Private Ryan is my favorite war movie of all time and became the blueprint for all modern war movies.
1. Jurassic Park
I would argue that any of the movies I ranked in the top ten or twelve have an argument for being the best Steven Spielberg movie. Whether it’s because of its technical filmmaking, the wonder and joy it brings, the thrilling action, or the ensemble of actors, there are several Spielberg films that anyone could rank at the top, and it would be understandable.
My case for why Jurassic Park is Steven Spielberg’s best film is that it is all those things I listed above rolled into one movie. It is as big and epic as Raiders and Disclosure Day. It is science fiction at its highest form. It has thrilling action and suspense like Minority Report and War of the Worlds. It changed the way movies are made and left a cultural imprint that, today, is as strong as ever. It features loner children and unexpected families, like we often see in Spielberg’s films. It’s full of joy, wonder, drama, and action in perfect unison and a great adaptation of Michael Creighton’s book and its themes of scientific hubris and human control over nature.
Spielberg’s childlike eye and understanding of supernatural beings and how amazing they would be to see in real life, mixed with his technical mastery and understanding of spacing and scale, gave the film a wonder and awe that no other film with or about dinosaurs has been able to replicate (not even the sequels). Working with the best visual effects and special effects artists at the time, Spielberg blended animatronics and CGI together to make the dinosaurs feel realistic and have a personality. When Dr. Grant, Ellie Sattler, and Ian Malcolm (Sam Neil, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, all perfectly cast) see the dinosaurs for the first time, we feel the amazement and shock that they feel. Even after years of research, I’m still not sure how they pulled everything off so perfectly. John Williams’ score is iconic, and every scene is masterfully constructed, either emphasizing the film’s themes, capturing a pulse-pounding action scene, scaring the hell out of us, or making us stare in amazement at the technical brilliance and masterful direction by Spielberg.
Nothing about Jurassic Park has aged a day. In fact, it has only gotten better and more impressive as the years have gone on, solidifying its status as one of the best movies ever made and Steven Spielberg’s best film.
