Has any director ever had more of an influence on pop culture than Steven Spielberg? I think those of us who grew up in the eighties and nineties probably regard him the same way Spielberg’s own generation regarded someone like Alfred Hitchcock. While never appearing on camera, he was the star of every movie he put out—his stamp was enough to make us flock to see them in theaters.
This week sees the release of his latest film, Disclosure Day (read our reviews HERE and HERE), and to mark the occasion, we’re putting out a list of his ten best films. Now, bear in mind this is a personal list—in this case, mine—so if you disagree, I encourage you to chime in in the comments below. At any rate, here we go:
10. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Spielberg (as well as George Lucas) did a few amazing things with this third Indiana Jones adventure. For one thing, they humanized Indy (while still keeping the incredible action) by building on his personal mythology and revealing some very relatable issues with his father, Henry Jones Sr.
Then, they pulled off the casting coup of all casting coups by landing Sean Connery—007 himself—to play his dad. So, basically, in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, you have two of the most iconic actors of the second half of the twentieth century playing father and son.
But—and this is the genius part—rather than have Connery (who was still virile and would return to action seven years later in The Rock) play Indy’s dad as a badass, they made him a doddering old academic, with him clumsy and very much not the man of action his son is. It would be like if they made another Mission: Impossible or Top Gun movie and cast Harrison Ford as Tom Cruise’s father and then made him a klutz (wait—that needs to happen).
9. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Yet, as good as Last Crusade is, I still prefer Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Now, this is one of the more controversial films in Spielberg’s filmography, with even Spielberg himself having major issues with it. Yet, it’s one of the most dynamic action-adventure movies ever made, with some of the most jaw-dropping gore moments of the eighties mixed in, plus the only really good child sidekick in cinema history: Ke Huy Quan’s Short Round, who’s often imitated but never equaled.
8. Munich
This one might be a controversial choice, but to me, Munich, which tells the story of the Munich Olympics massacre and its aftermath, ranks as one of Spielberg’s most powerful movies. For one thing, it’s a Spielberg movie that doesn’t feel like a Spielberg movie, with him adopting the lean, mean style of someone like John Frankenheimer or his contemporary William Friedkin. It also tells a very morally complex story in a nuanced way, which is noteworthy, especially in light of recent events.
Many assumed Spielberg’s take on Mossad avenging the murder of Israeli athletes would be turned into a rah-rah action flick, but Spielberg tells a devastating story about the toll revenge takes, both on those who become collateral damage and the so-called avengers themselves. Eric Bana is outstanding in this one, too.
7. Schindler’s List
While not the first film about the Holocaust, this is the definitive one. To this day, it’s a movie I’ve only been able to sit through once—it’s that devastating. Yet, it’s a movie I think everyone should be forced to watch, with it, along with the documentary Shoah, standing the test of time as one of the most heart-wrenching depictions of man’s inhumanity to man that you’re ever likely to see.
Also—how crazy is it that Spielberg was able to make this and Jurassic Park at pretty much the same time?
6. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
I probably made a mistake rewatching this right before I saw Disclosure Day, as it tainted my review. To me, this is often overlooked when people talk about Spielberg’s stone-cold classics, with Spielberg himself saying he found elements of it somewhat immature, such as the decision of Richard Dreyfuss’s Roy Neary to abandon his family to board the mothership at the end.
Still, it’s an incredible, heart-wrenching film, although let me add the caveat that if you watch this, either watch the original theatrical cut or the most recent cut—not the Special Edition from 1980 that takes you inside the mothership. Totally unnecessary. Also, this has John Williams’s most underrated score.
5. Saving Private Ryan
Shakespeare in Love beat Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture at the Oscars. The Academy has to live with that—but as a seventeen-year-old, that was the exact moment I realized the Oscars were full of shit. Along with Come and See, this is probably the single greatest war film ever made. It’s certainly the most visceral, with Spielberg making you feel like you’re on the beach at D-Day with Tom Hanks and company.
One of the things that always unsettled me about the experience of watching this is the bloodlust I felt watching the G.I.s execute prisoners of war rather than revulsion. To me, that’s the most insane thing about the movie, in that more than any film I’ve ever watched, it makes you feel exactly how war dehumanizes people, even if the cause you are serving is a just one.
4. Jurassic Park
This movie brought dinosaurs to life. People now may shrug their shoulders at that, but to those of us watching it in 1993, it was unlike anything we’d ever seen or even dreamed of seeing. It took dinosaurs out of science textbooks and put them right up on screen as living, breathing creatures. This movie taught a generation of us about DNA and riveted us nineties kids as very few other movies had.
3. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Not only one of the best science fiction stories ever, but also one of the best movies about friendship and what it’s like to be a child. Without E.T., there’s no Stranger Things. This is the first movie I remember seeing in theaters (on a re-release, mind you), and it’s seminal. I remember screaming in terror the first time I laid eyes on E.T., but then also crying my eyes out when he leaves in the spaceship at the end. Hell, it still makes me cry, and I’m a cynical forty-four-year-old.
The fact that this masterpiece isn’t even Spielberg’s best movie is unfathomable, but that’s just how good he is.
2. Jaws
You will never know how I agonized over the top two picks for this list. As Quentin Tarantino has often said, Jaws is the perfect movie. It’s everything—a thriller, a horror movie, an adventure movie—plus it has real laughs and even tears.
While the shark is cool, what makes the movie is how little Spielberg shows it (out of necessity), as well as John Williams’s score and the commanding trio of lead performances, each of whom fits a different male archetype: Roy Scheider as the everyman, Richard Dreyfuss as the (cool) nerd, and Robert Shaw as the he-man. Damn, I love this movie. I watch it every summer.
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
Yet, I still have to give the edge to Raiders of the Lost Ark. To me, no other action movie has ever had the same sense of scale and pace as this does. There’s not a wasted moment in it, with Harrison Ford giving my favorite action hero performance of all time as the tough-as-nails but vulnerable Indiana Jones. There has never been a better action sequence than the truck chase, and no other actor has ever thrown a better on-screen punch than Ford as Indiana Jones.
Those are my picks—but what are yours? Let us know in the comments.
The comment section exists to allow readers to discuss the article constructively and respectfully, focused on the topic at hand.
What’s Not Allowed