Film Friday: My 10 favorite Steven Spielberg movies
With the Oscar nominations out this week, there's no need for me to give the same takes as so many other movie fans on who got snubbed or who is the likely favorite now. After reviewing Best Picture nominee The Fabelmans last week, I thought I'd go over my 10 favorite Steven Spielberg movies in honor of his life's work. These are the movies he made that have stuck with me the most and I enjoy re-watching time and time again.
10. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
After Close Encounters of the Third Kind, it looked like Spielberg would be the go-to director when it came to storytelling with aliens and humans. He proved that to be true with one of the most touching science-fiction movies ever. Spielberg brings his own family life into the Taylor home dealing with divorced parents and a mother struggling to keep the relationship with her children afloat. The most memorable shot of the bikes flying into the sky with the full moon showing will always be incredible as the John Williams music blares. A young Drew Barrymore is wonderful in showing the true emotion a child has toward something they love. One of the first movies parents should show to their children once they've reached a similar age.
9. Hook (1991)
What happens if Peter Pan grows up? That's the story Spielberg brings to this live-action take on the classic character. With Pan being one of my earliest Halloween costumes, I've always had a fascination with the character. Dustin Hoffman's portrayal as the one-handed captain is amazing as he looks unrecognizable. It's so much fun watching the Lost Boys and Tinker Bell fight Hook and his crew in real life compared to drawn animation. My favorite scene is Pan's son playing baseball in Neverland with all the pirates. Adventure and baseball are two things so closely connected with childhood that seeing them together is always enjoyable. As I grow older, the movie only gets more nostalgic seeing things through Peter's eyes and not his kids or the Lost Boys. I'm sure for parents who were shown the Disney classic as a kid before having their own children would have even stronger feelings about this take on the boy who never grew up.
8. Jurassic Park (1993)
It would be Steven Spielberg who would finally bring real-life dinosaurs to the bring screen. With the help of new computer-generated images from Industrial Light and Magic, he was able to kick things up a notch when it came to running away from a T-Rex. "Life finds a way," as Jeff Goldblum said, letting viewers know this won't be the safest of trips to a new island amusement park. As in Hook and E.T., Spielberg is a fantastic director working with kids, creating the perfect amount of imagination in their minds that actual dinosaurs are coming after them. Another iconic Williams score (I think he did most of these movies) welcomes the majestic brontosaurus pack out in the open. Knowing that dinosaurs are extinct but there could someday be a way to bring them back makes this a timeless classic for kids.
7. Schindler's List (1993)
For several years, Spielberg was given the title of, "Yeah, he makes good movies, but nothing serious or dramatic." With The Color Purple a few years prior, he changed some minds. In Schindler's List, he shows the brutality and inhumanity of the Holocaust that so many movies have tried to capture but few hit that same tone. Ray Fiennes' portrayal of Amon Goth is one of the most sinister and evil I've ever watched with his true lack of respect for the people in the concentration camp as he treats them lower than farm animals. Schindler can save so many people but toward the end he is filled with more regret than ever. "I could have gotten more out," he repeats to himself understanding the importance of what he's done but upset he did not go to the brink of what was possible.
6. Jaws (1975)
The was his first summer blockbuster. Mostly doing television before this movie, Spielberg took himself to the brink physically and mentally. The shark was not working, all the money had been spent and the schedules extended all added up to a truly great theater experience. This was the first time we were able to hear a John Williams score in what would become the greatest movie composing career of all time. The iconic close-up zoom on Sheriff Brody's face on the Fourth of July when the shark comes to the beach will always be shown in cinematography classes. This movie about a shark works so well because you rarely see the giant monster. The entire time we're waiting for it to appear, but we don't know when it'll come back to feed.
5. Lincoln (2012)
Another great performance by arguably the best film actor ever Daniel Day-Lewis, this movie is a great history lesson about the passing of the 13th Amendment and the end of the Civil War. Having done several book reports on Lincoln in elementary school, I was thrilled to finally see him portrayed on scene. Going to the theater with my dad was one of the first times I had gone to a movie for something this serious of a subject. It's a telling portrayal of a president who has aged so much in just four years, dealing with the death of a son and long nights at the war department all while trying to hold the states he still had together. The acting by Day-Lewis solidifying a third Best Actor Oscar and cemented his legacy as one of the most important actors we've ever seen on screen.
4. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
An underrated movie. Temple of Doom is a little too strange for many viewers, but George Lucas and Spielberg go back to what makes this character so fun: battling the Nazis for the world's most precious artifacts. Sean Connery as Henry Jones Sr. is a great addition with scenes across Europe as their backdrop. The movie features one of my favorite opening scenes in movie history with River Phoenix playing a young Indiana in a sad reminder of how special a talent he was. The movie goes from Venice to Switzerland then North Africa and gives you different landscapes to view, each of which Jones can navigate perfectly. The chemistry between Ford and Connery is fantastic and truly shows the complicated father-son relationship the Jones boys have.
3. Catch Me If You Can (2002)
While not a huge critical success with only one Oscar nomination for a great performance by Christopher Walken, this movie fascinated me as a young kid. Seeing Leo DiCaprio, in his only collaboration with Spielberg, con his way through hospitals, airplanes and courtrooms was so fun. This cast led by Tom Hanks and DiCaprio has aged incredibly over time with newcomers Elizabeth Banks, Ellen Pompeo and Amy Adams now household names. The period of the 1960s with technology so new to so many people makes it possible for Frank Abagnale to stay on the run without being caught for so long. A young boy may think he can do this for a living when he grows up, but you understand upon viewings how alone Abagnale really is. He's still a young boy who's running away from problems he needs to face in his life. He's a real-life Peter Pan never wanting to grow up and be an adult.
2. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The most realistic, intense and gritty war movie ever made. One of the most grueling 10 minutes ever on screen with the U.S. on D-Day landing on Omaha Beach. From there it goes to the homefront with Ms. Ryan being told three of her four sons were killed in action. We see the intensity of war and the toll it takes on not only the soldiers but people back in America as well. The handheld camera work brings viewers into the battles and skirmishes with the small crew trying to find Ryan. The strongest parts of this movie are not the all-out war scenes but the moments the squad can talk to each other. They struggle with their own humanity during the war, and it comes to a head after the death of another squad member. Do they kill the German prisoner or let him go? Hanks is masterful in defusing the situation only in the cruelest fate of irony it being the wrong decision. In the end, it's Matt Damon's Ryan who must live his life honoring the group that sacrificed everything to bring him home to his mother.
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
In my view, the movie features the greatest opening scene in movie history. Jones in South America cracking out the whip, the fantastic boulder chase and the snake in his plane along with the iconic Indiana Jones theme from John Williams make this a epic that's still an enjoyable watch 40-plus years later. The collaboration of great friends Spielberg and Lucas created one of the most iconic movie heroes of all time. What makes Jones so likable is he doesn't have superpowers or use anything out of the ordinary. He relies on studying, a whip and a revolver to escape several life-or-death situations. Even with the opening in South America, there are so many memorable shots, including Jones discovering the location of the ark, him and Sallah taking the ark out of its tomb and more.
NSN Daily producer Jared Brosnan grew up experiencing and working in the film industry around Los Angeles. He graduated from Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, ranked as the fourth-best film school by the Hollywood Reporter in 2022. You can email him at jabrosnan@sbgtv.com and follow him on Twitter @jared_brosnan.