All 30 Steven Spielberg Movies Ranked From Worst To Best
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
All 30 Steven Spielberg Movies Ranked From Worst To Best
By Mike Gray, Taste of Cinema, April 27, 2017
Scene from Schindler's List
With over $4 billion in theatrical box office returns alone, Steven Spielberg is one of the most successful–and influential–directors of all time. His work has spanned genres from historical drama to action-adventure to fantasy and science fiction, and more often than not he has created imperishable, popular works of art.
The Spielberg style has become so recognizable and ubiquitous that a term has been created to describe it: Spielbergian. Some signature touches of his directorial style include tracking shots, frames-within-frames, dramatic slow-zoom closeup reaction shots, shooting from a low angle, and iconographic framing of characters. In a word, Spielberg’s style is epic in its active engagement of its subject and frames its characters as alternately everyday and heroic.
So far in his career, Spielberg has directed 29 feature films, and while many of them are very good (and some of them are eternal classics), there are some that fall short of the (admittedly difficult-to-match) high standards that he has set for himself.
Although Spielberg is unarguably one of the greatest directors the art form has ever seen, not all of his films are great–and some of them are kind of terrible, truth be told. But please keep in mind that even a middling Spielberg film would be considered a career highlight for most directors–it’s just that he’s such a great director that when he falls short of his astonishing abilities, it can be a little disappointing.
BUZZ NOTE: There are a number of different rankings of his movies, none of them the same. My choices differ from the author's. Note that this article is 2 years old and there are more recent listings: The Post (2017), Ready Play One (2018)
CHALLENGE: How would YOU rank a list of top 5 movies directed by Spielberg? Please provide a reason for your choice. You need not be a member of Everyone Loves Movies - Classic to Current in order to post a comment, but doing so makes you a member automatically.
GO TO THE ARTICLE TO SEE THE AUTHOR'S 30 CHOICES AND OPINIONS - CLICK THE LINK "SEEDED CONTENT" AT THE TOP OF THIS PAGE OR CLICK THIS LINK:
THEN PLEASE COME BACK TO THIS ARTICLE AND POST YOUR LIST OF 5 AND REASONS FOR CHOOSING THEM.
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MY CHOICES, AND WHY.
1. Schindler's List. This is the only movie I ever saw when at the end I could not get up out of my seat until the credits stopped running and the house lights were turned on (and I wasn't alone with that). I was actually STUNNED by that movie, and I will NEVER forget it.
2. Duel. Is there anyone who has driven a car on a highway who was not terrified by this movie? This one and Jaws have left me with a lifelong fear. In this case, although I've not driven a car for more than a decade, after seeing that movie I was always tense when either being approached by or passing an 18-wheeler.
3. Jaws. As I just said, after watching that movie I have been left with a lifelong fear. I have been to ocean beaches a number of times and would never go beyond the depth of my waist, and even then would not remain long before going to shallower water. Movies that have that great an effect on me are ones I'll NEVER forget. The two-tone background music indicating the shark's presence was really scary.
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark. This was the first of that series, and was a whole new direction in a movie plot that had me glued to the screen. There were tense moments (snakes), humourous ones (shooting the swordsman), fantasy (the spirits rising from the ark), retribution (melting faces) and irony (storing the ark at the end).
5. BFG. Surprised? It's a child's movie, partially animated, and I loved it. It's a good feeling movie that had its moments of tension and of pleasantness, and is a happy fantasy.
NOW LET'S SEE YOUR LIST, AND REASONS FOR YOUR CHOICES.
I won't go through many of them, but name a few.
I would have co- number ones. Tie between Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. Schindler's List is a towering achievement essentially preserving for posterity and all time the soul wrenching experience of The Holocaust as a narrative of individual people. Almost every frame of that film held you in a terrified state that you wanted to avert your eyes from but knew you had an obligation to watch.
Saving Private Ryan may be the best war movie ever made that also serves as an anti-war movie. It changed the way a lot of young people looked at WW2 and D-Day.
I thought Minority Report was amazing. One of my favorite sci-fi movies. The imagination of a futuristic society was full of the attention to detail that Spielberg is famous for.
His most under rated movie is Catch Me If You Can , the true story of a forger and impostor who began impersonating pilots and doctors as a teenager and evaded capture by the FBI for years. There is a breeziness to this caper style film that captivates the audience, but then as the walls close in, the film turns to pathos and regret. Really good movie.
Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, and E.T. were all groundbreakers in their genre and justifiably among the most popular movies ever made.
I agree. They're both outstanding productions from beginning to end, but so different from each other that I couldn't compare them.
Excellent choices and explanations. My number 5 choice was a toss-up between BFG and Saving Private Ryan, so it was a close call on my part.
I haven't quite seen them all, but among some of the ones I have seen . . .
1941 (#30) is funny and shouldn't be last.
Crystal Skull (#28) was painful to watch and Lost World (#26) was only slightly better. They're both actually ranked too high, in my opinion. They're that bad.
I liked Bridge of Spies (#27) - a lot. It's not non-stop action and precocious kids or anything, but I found it fascinating. It's much too low here.
War Horse (#21) was great. Should be higher.
A.I. (#13) is way too high and I didn't like Temple of Doom (#12) much, either. There's almost nothing about TOD that isn't overdone.
Everyone likes Jurassic Park (#3) and it is a good movie. At the time, it was also an important technological achievement. However, every other movie in the top 10 (including #11 actually) is a better crafted and presented story.
I've never seen some myself. I don't remember if I ever saw 1941, but if I did then it didn't leave an impression on me. As well I never saw Bridge of Spies or War Horse. I'd like to watch War Horse because I've always liked movies about horses, like Black Stallion, Phar Lap, The Man from Snowy River, and last week I watched and enjoyed Dreamer. War Horse is highly ranked among horse movies.
War Horse is a good movie. There a couple of scenes of the horses in battle that will likely effect you. I don't put it up with some of the others though.
Bridge Of Spies is good too. Somewhat slow but the story is interesting once it takes hold of you.
Spielberg never made another comedy, did he? That tells you what you need to know about 1941. Probably Spielberg's worst movie. It is a comedy devoid of humor.
Jaws changed a summer.
Just one?
I was 9 when my mom took me to see it. I think that might say something about her judgment.
What made it even scarier was the theater we were in had seats that rocked. They added to the feeling that you were out on the water.
What pisses me off is that when I grew up and showed the movie to teenagers, they thought the shark was hilarious.
Well, back in the day they didn't come in tornado form.
I was just eating a sandwich and almost spit it out when I read your line about saying something about your mother's judgment. In fact I still can't stop laughing.
Imagine watching Jaws in a 4D theatre - getting punched in the back by your seat and sprayed with a mist....
Those movies are so awesome. Sharknado = comedy gold.
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Spielberg's production company Amblin Entertainment produced my favorites, An American Tail & Land Before Time (among others) and those 2 movies are my favorites, made at the beginning of my husbands career, two of my kids were born then, and those movies took us to Ireland and England for the best time of our lives.
I can't even choose from the rest, I enjoyed almost all of them, too many to pick from.