Steven Spielberg's 25 greatest movies to date - 1974 to 2012
With 'Lincoln' hitting Oscar highs HitFix's editorial team ranks the director's best
Steven Spielberg may have lost the DGA Award honor to Ben Affleck a few weeks ago, but the legendary filmmaker is still tops in the mind of the HitFix editorial team. Spielberg's critically acclaimed drama "Lincoln" landed 12 Academy Awards nominations last month and director added two more for an astounding tally of 15 lifetime nods and three wins (not counting the Irving G. Thalberg honor). And at a spry 66-years-old, Spielberg shows no signs of slowing down.
To honor Spielberg's career at this laudatory moment, the HitFix team including Alan Sepinwall, Drew McWeeny, Dan Fienberg, Kris Tapley, Guy Lodge, Dave Lewis, Chris Eggertsen and myself ranked the director's all-time top 25 films. And yes, if you guessed that means "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull" and "Hook" did not make the cut you truly know us too well ("Duel" didn't qualify as it was only released theatrically outside the U.S.). Where did the rest of Spielberg's impressive body of work land? Click on the gallery story to find out. Afterward, select your own personal top 10 picks of Spielberg's directing career in the poll below.
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupGeorge Kaplan
February 13, 2013 at 9:01AM EST Reply to CommentI'd say the special effects in JURASSIC PARK still look way better than most of the junk that is released today. And AI: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE is a masterpiece, plain and simple.
http://www.cinema-ramblings.com/2013/01/forgotten-gems-ai-artificial.html
Paul Agreed om Jurassic Park, even 20 years later I would hold that entire T-Rex sequence up against anything coming out today. That one scene changed the entire industry.
February 13, 2013 at 7:05PM ESTtomee
February 13, 2013 at 9:33AM EST Reply to CommentToo bad Duel didn't make it on the list based on a technicality. It's arguably the best work of Spielberg.
Primogen I agree that it's one of his best.
February 13, 2013 at 12:15PM ESTloyal_mehnert
February 13, 2013 at 10:29AM EST Reply to CommentWhat Spielberg accomplished with AI, Minority Report, and War of the Worlds in the span of just 4 years really puts him in the upper echelon of all-time greats, not to mention within those 4 years he also directed Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, and Munich!
Guest 5 years.
February 13, 2013 at 10:08PM EST
February 14, 2013 at 6:07AM ESTMunich was released 5 months and 24 days after War of the Worlds.
:)
Derek 8-Track
February 13, 2013 at 10:40AM EST Reply to CommentHook, Hook is not only my favorite Spielberg movie, but also my favorite movie ever.
George Kaplan Hook is garbage.
February 13, 2013 at 12:41PM ESTDerek 8-Track That's what I hear. It must have come out at just the right time in my life, because I can find no flaws through my rose-colored glasses.
February 13, 2013 at 12:51PM ESTJustin Buell I've always enjoyed Hook.
February 14, 2013 at 3:37PM ESTBut it isn't a great film by any means.
Ryanr Yeah, Hook is most definitely garbage. A.I. is very underrated, that movie is great. Period.
April 2, 2013 at 9:40PM ESTSJG
February 13, 2013 at 11:00AM EST Reply to CommentWell obviously ET is his best movie by far, but whatever HitFix!
At least Kris knows what's up.
Monty Jack
February 13, 2013 at 11:22AM EST Reply to CommentAlways? Really? That's like a mediocre Amazing Stories episode stretched to two hours. Hell, Spielberg's actual Amazing Stories episode "The Mission" is far better than Always.
ceggertsen Seeing as Spielberg has only directed 27 feature films, ranking "Always" at No. 23 isn't saying much for it.
February 13, 2013 at 7:48PM ESTmeep
February 13, 2013 at 11:43AM EST Reply to CommentIf Empire of the Sun doesn't make the top ten I'd guess it's because viewer numbers are low, which is such a shame.
the flower tao
February 13, 2013 at 11:58AM EST Reply to CommentNever had any problem whatsoever with the ending or even the second half of WAR OF THE WORLDS. Found it to be a thrilling and profound movie from start to finish. I totally see where the criticism is coming and as far as the dog thing goes, I agree. But I really didn't need to see everyone die just to hammer home a darkness that already was firmly in place with all the mayhem and Holocaust allusions before the finale.
My favourite Spielberg by far remains RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Loved the write up of the chamber of souls sequence. Best scene of a movie filled to the brim with great scenes. Second would be the dialogue about the Ark at the University. Even thinking about it, this feeling of '...wait a moment, what if all of this was true' sends shivers down my spine right now. Never read an analysis of the spirituality at display in RAIDERS - anyone got a link? Otherwise I'd like to do that myself someday.
/3rt
February 13, 2013 at 12:02PM EST Reply to CommentThe most shocking thing about this list is how mediocre his filmography is. You never think about how many of his directorial efforts you'd actually skip if even the choice to watch something he had an involvement with for causal viewing. I love a bundle of his executive produced titles and maybe this should have been an overreaching for what he's done that had his name attached — director or producer.
February 13, 2013 at 12:26PM ESTSuch as?
/3rt If you weren't a phantom I'd answer.
February 13, 2013 at 12:58PM ESTIntellectual Ninja
February 13, 2013 at 12:35PM EST Reply to CommentBefore I begin with praise for what is right, I have to note what is horribly wrong:
AI. AI doesn't belong anywhere near the top-10. Or the top-20. Or on this list. It is not a good film. Oh sure, technically, it is proficient. Jude Law is fairly decent.
But Osment and in particular, Frances O'Conner, give the absolute worst acting performances in any Spielberg film ever... and yes, I'm including Kate Capshaw and Justin Chatwin ahead of them.
The film completely sinks and misses its mark because Osment and O'Conner don't work, at all. No chemistry, no reason at all why that fake little boy would love that woman as "acted" by O'Conner Remember when Hollywood tried to make Frances O'Conner a thing? Her horrible performance ruins the film.
How are we to believe anything in this film, or FEEL anything, when the most important character to the protagonist's quest, the mother, is so wholly unbelievable and poorly acted as she is?
AI is just a film that shouldn't have been made as is. It should've been scrapped the moment Kubrick died, and passed on to Spielberg, or anyone else, tabula rasa.
Hook should be on this list at 25, with AI off the list completely. AI at 11 is a joke.
As for the rest, I'm surprised and happy to find Minority Report in the top-10. It may be Spielberg's most underrated film. Ever. Crackling performances by Cruise and Von Sydow, tightly scripted, and possibly the best Dick adaptation for the screen.
I think Munich probably deserves to be in the top-10, too. But by the time we get to a Spielberg top-10, we're really quibbling over about 15 movies that have equal claim to top-10 status.
I don't agree with Temple of Doom so high. It's not that I don't like it, but it's just a bit of a mess, isn't it? And yes, Capshaw kind of ruins it.
The top-3, I would switch 2 and 3. Raiders is a perfect film, as Drew says. Schindler's List, as good as it is, is not better than Raiders. Is the subject matter more important, greater? Yes. But Raiders is a better film, and it should be 2.
I am most happy to see Jaws number 1. Jaws is perfection, really, truly perfection.
Jaws is The Godfather Part II. Jaws is Vertigo. Jaws is Rashomon. It is Ben Hur and The Lion King and The Maltese Falcon and The Searchers.
It is the very best. Jaws is the pinnacle. There simply could not be a Spielberg List if Jaws isn't number 1.
Even though y'all criminally overrate AI (and Temple of Doom... hmm, the thread there being Tapley), putting Jaws number 1 validates the list.
Steve Hook is an embarrassment. AI is a masterpiece
February 13, 2013 at 1:56PM ESTIntellectual Ninja AI is a mish-mash mess of a film, horrendously cast and acted by one of the most central characters.
February 13, 2013 at 2:10PM ESTWe are supposed to care for David and his journey, yet the impetus for his Odyssey, his mother, leaves you completely cold and angry from O'Conner's horrible performance.
At least Hook is what it is. It's not great, but along with one of Williams' best scores, Hoffman, Hoskins, Smith, and even Williams brings it, and not even the daughter's mostly poor acting reaches the depths of O'Conner's "performance."
You know, I've found that most people claiming AI to be a "masterpiece" do so to try and front their idea of themselves as "real" film connoisseurs, in that snobby way. It's the modern version of Citizen Kane in that way.
AI may be technically proficient, but it lacks any semblance of soul or momentum. Robards and Osment are cyphers, I assume for Kubrick, and are otherwise empty. When he died, the production should have been scrubbed, blank slate as I said, and turned over with none of his fingerprints left on it. Jude Law, in his brief time on screen gives the film the only bits of life it has. And, I cannot state this enough and I already have ad naseum... Frances O'Conner is horrible. The singularly worst acting performance in any Spielberg film, ever. Worse than Roberts in Hook. Worse than Capshaw, than Justin Chatwin, than anyone he's directed.
And the fact that she is so bad completely invalidates the whole purpose of this film, and makes wholly unbelievable David's motivations and our reason for sitting through 2.5 hours of this film.
Of course, this is not the only film O'Conner helped ruin during these brief few years when Hollywood was trying to make her a thing, but it is the most glaring.
AI is a terrible film in all the ways that matter.
Intellectual Ninja Let's play word association, a fun little SAT game:
February 13, 2013 at 2:13PM ESTFrances O'Conner : AI :: Sophia Coppola : ???
Yup. She's that bad.
Kristopher Tapley I'm sorry to see Intellectual Ninja completely missed the boat on A.I.
February 13, 2013 at 3:34PM ESTRyan Thomas I agree, you missed the boat completely. You are definitely not a intellectual ninja. A.I. is a underrated masterpiece, that many people just didn't get, including you.
April 2, 2013 at 9:51PM ESTIntellectual Ninja Sorry Ryan... AI is a film faux intellectuals embrace as something important when it is actually completely soulless, empty, and derivative.
April 2, 2013 at 9:54PM ESTAnd poorly acted by a very key cast member. :-)
Joyeful
February 13, 2013 at 12:57PM EST Reply to CommentThe most surprising thing about this poll is seeing that there are actually people voting for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull...
Intellectual Ninja
February 13, 2013 at 12:58PM EST Reply to CommentFWIW, here's my top-27 (all his films)
1) Jaws
2) Raiders of the Lost Ark
3) E.T.
4) Schindler's List
5) Saving Private Ryan
6) Catch Me if You Can
7) Close Encounters of the Third Kind
8) Jurassic Park
9) Minority Report
10) Munich
11) Empire of the Sun *
12) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
13) Lincoln
14) The Sugarland Express
15) The Color Purple
16) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
17) The Terminal
18) Amistad
19) War of the Worlds
20) The Adventures of Tintin
21) Always
22) War Horse
23) 1941
24) The Lost World: Jurassic Park
25) Hook
26) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
27) A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
Yep... AI is the worst. Bar none.
Frances O'Conner is so bad she makes Shia LaBeouf swinging on vines with the monkeys look like an Oscar-worthy performance by comparison.
*Duel would be number 11 on this list if eligible.
Marquan I think Intellectual Ninja doth protest too much. We get it man, you hate A.I. But your constant ragging on Frances O'Conner (who I agree was the weakest part of the movie) is starting to make me think you have some kind of personal problem.
February 13, 2013 at 3:19PM ESTIntellectual Ninja Haha... I get that. And no, no personal problem, other than she's generally a bad actress.
February 13, 2013 at 3:33PM ESTSometimes we have very visceral reactions to art. I will fight until I bleed arguing why Don Giovanni might be the greatest achievement in any art form since art became a form. There is something about that opera that speaks to me in a very good way.
I would also argue that The Perks of Being a Wallflower might be the best book published of the last 15 years.
I would probably go overboard in my arguments for each. And it is that way for art that brings an opposite, if not more visceral reaction than adulation: revulsion.
In AI I see not only a horrible central performance that derails the entire motivation of the film on the surface, but a kind of phoniness that tries to pass itself off as soulful intellectualism but is nothing more than an empty chasm of nothingness below that surface. Empty and soulless.
I see it as simultaneously the worst thing that Kubrick and Spielberg have ever done, and that is probably because it is wholly not either one of their's complete work.
Marquan I think the whole point of A.I. is that it's a little soulless. It is a movie about robots and the end of humanity. If you didn't like Osment's performance, than obviously the movie is not going to work for you. I appreciate your passion about this, though, all jokes notwithstanding.
February 13, 2013 at 3:41PM ESTJunior
February 13, 2013 at 1:39PM EST Reply to CommentGlad to see Catch Me If You Can so high on the list. The big Oscar snub that year in Best Actor was Gere for Chicago but the one I can't believe didn't get nominated was Leo for Catch Me If You Can.
American Jedi
February 13, 2013 at 2:50PM EST Reply to CommentWhat a great list, with great entries by so many of the Hitfix staff. Spielberg is my favorite filmmaker and a real hero of mine, so this was a fun read.
My two cents. I would have had Raiders at number 1, Schinlder's list at 2, ET at 3 and Jaws at 4. I also would have swapped the order of Last Crusade and Temple of Doom--I love both of those movies and it's a razor-thin difference, but I think Last Crusade is just a little bit more fun. I also would have had Minority Report a few slots higher; I think that's one of his very best. Finally, glad to see Catch Me if You Can so high on the list. I've always liked that one more than everyone else I know.
Intellectual Ninja Catch Me if You Can really is great, isn't it? There's such a playful whimsy cross-polanated with the crushing loneliness Abignale feels. Williams' score is fantastic.
February 13, 2013 at 3:08PM ESTAnd I'm with you on Minority Report. Look, I know Cruise is a whipping boy, but the film works and there's not one ounce of fat on it.
American Jedi Yeah, Catch Me if You Can is just so damn watchable. Whenever I happen to run across that one on HBO or something, I'm suddenly in the mood for it. I love Raiders and ET and Schindler's List but I'm not always in the mood for them. Something subliminal about the look and feel of Catch Me if You Can just CHANGES my mood and before you know it I've watched it all the way through again.
February 14, 2013 at 3:00PM ESTI have a very high opinion for Minority Report because it was so damn effective in making a real political point AND being a thrilling adventure movie. It has scenes like that big set piece chase and fight through the futuristic car factory that have the rhthym of something out of Indiana Jones, but then it also has something serious and sophisticated to say about due process. Such a well put together movie. And regarding cruise, despite everything that's gone down with him outside of his movies, he's still a very engaging lead onscreen.
mmhmm
February 13, 2013 at 3:14PM EST Reply to CommentSo, Close Encounters. I do have negative feelings toward this movie, but I also feel like, objectively, it doesn't really work. It's very slow and about a hugely unsympathetic character. I'm guessing if I watched it again (which I will never do, let's be honest) it would make sense structurally, because most of his movies really do, but it just seemed really stretched out and not to be about much of anything other than a guy being bored of his family. What am I missing?
Kristopher Tapley It's a strange, unusual mixture, no doubt about it. But it works perfectly for me. I see the film as a state of mind more than a narrative.
February 13, 2013 at 3:35PM ESTJustin Buell For me it's the most overrated of his films. So you're not alone.
February 14, 2013 at 3:33PM ESTfilmnoirguy For me, it's his best picture, and on my all-time Top 10 List. As always, the best way to see any movie for the first time is in a theater, and I saw Close Encounters (ironically) 3 times on the big screen. And now, once a year on my own big screen.
February 16, 2013 at 12:51PM ESTphil
February 13, 2013 at 4:24PM EST Reply to CommentLincoln should have been in the top 10, maybe top 5. But nice write-ups and a pretty good list.
01. Schindler's List
02. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
03. Jaws
04. Raiders of the Lost Ark
05. Lincoln
06. Minority Report
07. E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
08. Munich
09. Catch Me If You Can
10. Jurassic Park
Justin Buell I agree. Lincoln is one of the best films I've seen in years.
February 14, 2013 at 3:32PM ESTDan
February 13, 2013 at 4:31PM EST Reply to CommentLast Crusade is far superior to Temple of Doom. It isn't even close. Temple of Doom and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull are tier 2 Indys; Last Crusade and Raiders and Tier 1.
Monty Jack Crusade is a weak, slapsticky remake of Raiders that people only love because it has Sean Connery. It RUINS the characters of Sallah and Marcus Brody and has some particularly weak greenscreen effects. Temple Of Doom is EASILLY the best of the Indy sequels, and is horribly underrated.
February 13, 2013 at 10:48PM ESTEdward L. Monty Jack: Agreed.
February 14, 2013 at 8:52PM ESTted
February 13, 2013 at 4:37PM EST Reply to CommentI must say I'm totally baffled by criticism against Osmet in A.I. I thought he was great. He plays a souless robot. His relationship with his mother is just inherently creepy at its core so I'm not sure why people are complaining about lack of chemistry.
Daggor
February 13, 2013 at 5:29PM EST Reply to CommentMinority Report, while not the best, makes the top ten easily by being a great film DESPITE Tom Cruise's presence.
Monty Jack Cruise is excellent in that film.
February 13, 2013 at 10:46PM ESTJustin Buell
February 14, 2013 at 3:27PM EST Reply to CommentIt's hard to rank a top ten, he's such a great director.
But for my money they are 1. Schindler's List 2. Raiders of the Lost Ark 3. Lincoln 4. Jaws 5. Saving Private Ryan 6. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial 7. A.I. Artificial Intelligence 8. Catch Me If You Can 9. Jurassic Park 10. The Color Purple
Jack
February 14, 2013 at 5:51PM EST Reply to CommentPersonally, I think Spielberg is a bit overrated.
1. Schindler's List
2. Munich
3. ET
4. Jaws
5. Duel
6. Jurassic Park
7. Raiders of the Lost Ark
8. Saving Private Ryan
9. Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind
10. Minority Report
ZacharyTF
February 15, 2013 at 5:43PM EST Reply to CommentIn my opinion, Steven Spielberg has directed nine masterpieces, so those nine plus Jurassic Park make my top 10 Spielberg movies.
1. Schindler's List
2. Saving Private Ryan
3. Jaws
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark
5. E.T.
6. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
7. Minority Report
8. Munich
9. Lincoln
10. Jurassic Park
filmnoirguy
February 16, 2013 at 12:44PM EST Reply to CommentHey, this was a fun list! My favorite: Close Encounters. Also my favorite of the entire 1970s decade. Disappointed it didn't get a Best Pic Oscar nod for 1977, but guess the Academy figured one Sci-Fi movie was enough so "Star Wars" got the nomination.
troopermsu
February 18, 2013 at 6:20PM EST Reply to Comment'Lincoln' is way too low. 'Temple of Doom' is way too high (based solely on Capshaw's performance).
Has any director made as many great movies?
troopermsu I don't think any director has made as many great movies that combined artistic greatness with commercial success.
February 18, 2013 at 6:21PM ESTBill
June 6, 2013 at 6:41AM EST Reply to CommentWhat?!?!? Jaws is the greatest Spielberg movie? WHat the heck? It is filled with prosthetics? Me? I'd definitely say Saving Private Ryan and jurassic park.