Though "Schindler's List" was far from Spielberg's first "serious" film, it nonetheless felt like a maturation, the point at which his emotional intelligence and his technical expertise were in perfect sync -- and on his most challenging subject matter to date. You can quibble with the heavy-handed coda -- so the man just doesn't stick landings -- but pretty much everything else in this profoundly moving story of one man saving legions of lives in the Holocaust remains staggering in its impact, a universal epic that surprises with its shivery starkness even on repeat viewings. Even the Academy could no longer deny the man's gift: seven Oscars followed.

- Guy Lodge