Top 7 Steven Spielberg films.....

I only like...

Schindler's List
Saving Private Ryan
Raiders of the Lost Ark

The others... meh!

 

I'll expand my list and go top 11. Why top eleven? Because it's a f**king cliché 'round here.

E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
Saving Private Ryan
Schindler's List
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Lincoln
Jaws
Jurassic Park
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Sugarland Express
Ready Player One
Minority Report

Honorable mentions:
The Adventures of Tintin
1941 (ABC edit)

 

Jaws
Raiders Of The Lost Ark
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
Poltergeist
E.T.
Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade
Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom
Minority Report

That is eight but seven if you leave out Poltergeist. Those are actually the only films that I like of his. I haven't seen Schindler's List but the rest I don't like or haven't seen due to them being nothing but Oscar bait schlock.

 

Raiders of the Lost Ark -- tied with -- Duel 73 minute original.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Jaws
The Color Purple
Lincoln
Bridge of Spies
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

I would rate Lincoln and Bridge of Spies higher if they had been
captured on 35mm film. Somehow hi-def capture takes the magic
out of cinema for me.

All his films are outstanding, but I'm not a fan of 1941, Always, Hook
and Ready Player One. I think his version of War of the Worlds is
fatally flawed, and cast with a star for whom I have a healthy disgust.
Likewise Minority Report would be better with a different actor in the
lead. But in terms of filmmaking all his films are peerless.

 

Raiders of the Lost Ark
Schindler's List
Jaws
Close Encounters of the Third Kind

er...um...

 

Catch Me If You Can
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Jaws
Munich
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Schindler’s List
—These films not only demand repeated viewing (some by the dozens), they contain many of cinema’s all-time iconic characters, performances, scenes, stills, special effects, stories, scores, and behind-the-scenes legends. That other Spielberg works could easily fit into this list indicates this director’s skills, efforts, passions, imagination, and abilities to convey his personal feelings and experiences into the universal. There are few like him, and movie fans should be appreciative that such a groundbreaking and influential talent is out there.

 

Duel
CE3K
Indiana Jones trilogy
E.T.
Jurassic Park
Schindler's List
A.I.

The feat of releasing two films like Jurassic Park and Schindler's List within the same year is unparalleled in cinema history.
While I can totally accept people not being taken by his sentiments (though often I think they don't look closely enough), from a purely technical perspective, he is in a class of his own.

 

Why isn't there more love for "Catch Me If You Can" on this thread!!! It's a near-perfect movie.

I'm happy it's cool to love Speilberg again. There was a time when movie snobs looked down their nose at you when you'd admit to loving Speilberg's filmmaking. Sort of like being mocked by admitting a love for ABBA or whatever "uncool" artists who happen to be popular and genius.

dan c

 

Duel
Saving Private Ryan
The Color Purple
Empire of the Sun
War of the Worlds
Schindler's List
Jurassic Park

 

The only one I like is Duel.

It's a steep drop down from there.

 

It is. But choosing just seven is very difficult.

Fought that fight too many times with too many idiots. Self proclaimed people 'in-the-know' deserve every loss they suffer for being ignorant. Maybe someday they'll see.

 

Agreed. But it didn't light a fire in me the way some of his other
films have. It's hard to choose the best one where there is so much
brilliance in each of them.

Spielberg is the finest filmmaker who ever lived.
I think it was Stanley Kubrick who said so and I never argue with Stanley Kubrick.
I love Spielberg's films, even the ones I didn't pick and never watch.

Adventures of TinTin was too good to be true, but it's very much an American
sensibility at work, not a French sensibility. The French would have filmed their
comic differently. Spielberg's version is perfect on many levels. But it has enough
plot and action for two movies; it's overkill. I wish he had split it up into two films
and then slowed it down a bit so that we soak in aesthetics and the 3-D.

The Post surprised me.
Bridge of Spies surprised me.

Ready Player One depresses me. The future it depicts is plausible,
and that depresses me even more.

 

SOMEONE FIXED THE THREAD TITLE! THANK THE MAKER!!!

 

I'm shocked to see so many lists without Amistad, which aside from SPR and possibly SL is the best thing he ever did.

1. Saving Private Ryan
2. Amistad
3. Schindler's List
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark
5. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
6. Jurassic World
7. Jaws

 

I disliked "Amistad" when I saw it theatrically in 1997 and never changed that view. It's everything wrong with Spielberg: heavy-handed with false emotions that constantly tell you what to think and feel.

Here's a longer look if you're interested:

Amistad [Blu-Ray] (1997)

 

You could (and should) make the same criticism of all his movies. It's no explanation why anyone would think 7 of his films are better than Amistad. At least with that there was a serious pretext to be heavy handed and emotionally manipulative.

 

Jaws
Minority Report
A.I.
The Sugarland Express
Empire of the Sun
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Close Encounters

and a bonus film
Duel

Why 7 and not 10?

 

"Finest"? No but a very talented filmmaker.

 

Okay, then who?
Perhaps "finest" is a poor choice of word, but I'm at a loss
to think of anyone with Spielberg's cinematic aptitude and
storytelling skills. His status in the industry is unique and
unprecedented.

My security declines your link.
"blocked because of a trojan" it says.

 

I don’t think it’s unprecedented. He’s certainly got a unique cinematic voice and no one could really make the films he makes as well as he does. His mastery at such a young age was impressive.

 

really dug Ready Player One!

 

nice legacy the man has!

 

I think you are 100% right. Sometimes, I think Spielberg has been guilty of overreaching and just trying to win awards, rather than trying to tell a good story.

 

Subject matter makes a difference. If I go to see a melodrama, I have different expectations for emotional manipulation than I do for a serious history-based story.

The issue with "Amistad" was that Spielberg went for forced emotions that he didn't need. The story's power spoke for itself and didn't require the manipulation.

He has it in him to produce films without that level of chain-yanking - like "Empire of the Sun" - but he chose to go the melodrama path for "Amistad" and that hurt it badly, IMO...

 

Ugh. There are no viruses on my site, but it's gotten reamed by spoofers.

I still need to figure out how to fix that - you're not the first to have that warning appear!