Steven Spielberg’s 10 Best Films! | Breaking Geek
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So, this was one of the hardest things to do…
Narrow down Steven Spielberg’s — my favorite director — entire catalogue into his ten best films. Because I do celebrate the guy’s (nearly) entire collection!
The first nine are pretty set in stone, though I wavered on #10. It almost became a game of “which of these ten other entirely deserving films can’t be left out?” In the end, I went with a flawed personal favorite instead of balancing it out with a film to please the masses.
Because, like my Marvel Cinematic Universe complete ranking, these are my opinions — though I would like to hear from you in the comments at the end. As you’ll see, I tend to gravitate towards the more action-adventure style of the ‘Berg. Yes, films like Lincoln, Bridge of Spies, and The Post are excellent, but that’s not why I love Spielberg. I’ve also left out many classics one could argue are great, and believe me, I agree with you. But in celebration of Ready Player One hitting theaters, these are MY Top 10.
Extreme and consistent tension, powerful emotion, unmistakable action, and strong characters are why I think Spielberg is the most iconic director to ever live.
10. The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Like I said, a flawed movie. There are many movies I considered for this spot… E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Catch Me If You Can, and even War of the Worlds. But JP2: The One Where They Go to Site B the First Time snagged the spot due to some imagery even more iconic than Jurassic Park, hindered only by a scene or two that should have been dropped.
A screaming mother watching her daughter be mauled by “Compys” (Compsognathus) smash cutting into Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm yawning! Two T-Rex pushing a trailer off a cliff! The raptors in the grass! The ghost ship! T-Rex in San Diego! Jeff Goldblum is the main lead!
All of that, stunning.
The weakness… why can Ian Maclolm’s daughter defeat Velociraptors with gymnastics? If anyone can explain that decision to me — “de-fanging” the scariest monster from Jurassic Park — I’d appreciate it. Some people don’t like the T-Rex in San Diego (I LOVE it!), but I can’t stand that gymnastics is all it takes to knock those scary fuckers out. Might as well show us Darth Vader as a teenager! As if!
It doesn’t hurt that a character named Nick saves everyone by calling the mainland (though it does hurt that he is played by Vince Vaughn…).
Like I said, #10 was tricky. But onto…
9. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Saving Private Ryan is one of those movies that has a flawless, absolutely perfect opening action scene, that is so impressive the film is unable to deliver the same thrill at any other point in the movie.
So, even if the rest of the film is not the most original war movie in the world, that opening sequence alone earns Saving Private Ryan a spot on this list and my Blu-Ray collection. That’s right, I wouldn’t recommend a single Steven Spielberg movie to you that I don’t own.
If the rest of the film sucked? Yeah, it could destroy the credibility of the D-Day scene. But the rest the film is solid, tracking Tom Hanks leading a team to save the last living Ryan brother serving in Europe during WWII, as they question their orders and encounter Nazi threats. The cast is great, and though the finale cannot live up to the opening D-Day sequence, it is explosive and emotional nonetheless.
Speaking of emotional, those bookends have been known to make me cry… then again, many of these films have made me cry… so, I’ll be sure to point out when as a fun drinking game!
8. Duel (1971)
Okay, I never cried watching this one, but as the least seen movie on this list… you should really see it! You can borrow my DVD, if you like.
Duel was Steven Spielberg’s first feature film, even if it started as a TV movie (something the man is quick to criticize these days when speaking of Netflix…). It was later released theatrically with extra “scenes” to make it closer to feature length, so I guess Spielberg has me there.
Duel is the simple story of a city-slicker played by Dennis Weaver stalked on the remote roads of California by an unseen driver in a very large, ugly, and dangerous tanker truck.
I wrote an entire paper once about Duel, Jaws, and Jurassic Park to get my high school International Baccalaureate diploma (not trying to brag, I’m just saying my instructor made me think really, really, hard about Spielberg and his techniques… and this level of obsession likely influenced my geekiness). Duel, his very first film, is the beginning of a common theme for Spielberg: “Man Vs. Leviathan.”
That is, a normal man, up against a very large, powerful, and often monstrous villain. In Duel, it may just be a truck driven by a trucker we never see, but it extends later in into Spielberg’s career into a shark, dinosaurs, and even aliens from Mars; monsters that a very flawed human must face to survive a Spielberg movie.
Fun fact, the finale is so explosive, the sound of the truck “dying” was reused when the shark explodes in Jaws. Further connecting this theme Spielberg likes to explore.
7. Munich (2005)
Like Saving Private Ryan, Munich is enough of a marriage of action film and historical drama that it meets my Spielberg needs.
If it weren’t for the next pick on my list, I would say Munich is one of Spielberg’s most harrowing films. I absolutely cry watching this movie (drink!). At multiple points throughout the film (drink again!).
Eric Bana leads a spectacular cast of four men, Daniel Craig, Ciaran Hinds, Mathieu Kassovitz, and Hanns Zischler. These five men are chosen to eliminate the ones responsible for the tragedy at the Munich Olympics, and boy does their mission make for one of Spielberg’s darkest films.
The one scene I like to point to that is exceedingly exemplary is the when Bana’s crew have rigged a phone to explode when picked up by the right man. The plan is perfect, everyone at their stations, but extreme Spielberg tension intervenes when the target’s daughter returns home immediately after leaving, and the five men are nearly not able to communicate well enough visually to save an innocent’s life. Thankfully, they do, but this bittersweet moment is underscored by them blowing up her father immediately after. War is hell, and Spielberg knows that by this point in his career.
The film has no happy ending. Well, “victory” is achieved, but like saving the innocent girl, all is not well as the film pans to show the twin towers as a lead into the credits.
Also, Munich is totally one of John Williams’ most underrated scores! If you have a moment, track down the score and play “A Prayer for Peace.” It may be available on Youtube… who knows?
6. Schindler’s List (1993)
Oh man, this is as heavy as heavy gets. Though it lacks the action element that many of these picks carry, the pure power of emotion and artistry of craft make Schindler’s List one of Spielberg’s best!
Honestly, I think I’ve only seen it twice, because it is such an ordeal to watch! But, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a spectacular film.
Spielberg employs his most powerful tools to show the horrors of the holocaust with unflinching honesty. His combination of black and white with splashes of red is just as powerful as the subject matter. I don’t think much more needs to be said about Schindler’s List. It’s in a league of it’s own.
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5. Minority Report (2002)
I. F**king Love. Minority Report.
Minority Report is like the ultimate Twilight Zone or Black Mirror episode, with a giant budget, a top notch cast, and the magic of Spielberg… or course. Minority Report is probably the last near-perfect action-adventure Spielberg directed, filled with futuristic technology that is actually slowly becoming a reality and Spielberg’s innate sense for no nonsense action.
And yes, this one does make me cry.
The story is unbelievably twisted, with Cruise’s Chief John Anderton, head of the Pre-Crime division, discovering that he himself is accused of a future murder of a man he has never met. In an effort to prove his innocence, Anderton does everything from replace his eye-balls to stealing a “pre-cog,” only to eventually learn maybe he will kill this John Doe. Or is there is bigger, political conspiracy afoot?
It’s all one great mystery movie with many moving parts and some killer reveals. And it has some of the best Spielberg tension on the market, running evenly through the entire film.
For my money, Minority Report is the most emotional Spielberg movie that isn’t a harrowing historical tale. Dealing with the loss of a missing child, Anderton is driven to greater extremes than even his more famous character Ethan Hunt; not impossible extremes, but at time, ones that corrupt Anderton’s morality as he has to question his entire life’s purpose.
Have we seen Tom Cruise run from the law in nearly every Mission: Impossible film? Yes, but you’ve never seen Tom Cruise run from the law under the watchful eye of Steven Spielberg. It’s the director’s Blade Runner.
4. Jaws (1975)
The film that birthed the modern summer blockbuster two years before the release of Star Wars.
I probably first saw Jaws at slightly too young an age. Though I knew it was an impossibility, at swim team practice the next day, I couldn’t help but check the diving area of the pool for a giant shark every time I did a flip-turn. I still have trouble going into the ocean, if I get really paranoid.
That’s not what Jaws is all about, but that dread is certainly at the heart of it. Dread every time someone enters the ocean. Dread when our three heroes finally set out on their mission to kill the monstrous shark on a rickety boat. Again, we have a Man Vs. Leviathan situation going on with Spielberg’s first true hit.
Another technique Spielberg begins to play with in Duel, and continues into this film and Jurassic Park, is the very Hitchcockian idea that what the mind cooks up is often scarier than the monster you can present on screen. Sure, the decision to show as little of the shark as possible in Jaws was out of necessity, as their mechanical shark barely worked and didn’t look so great, but Spielberg made the best out of this production altering complication, and made a better movie because of it. A fin is far creepier than a full shark. And the yellow barrels are just pure brilliance.
I could talk about any of these films forever, about the great of Chief Brody watching the ocean from his towel on the beach, how Spielberg managed to pull off a masterpiece as the script was still being rewritten, etc.
But, I’ll end on heart. The best Spielberg films are never lacking heart. No scene better illustrates this than Chief Brody’s son imitating him at the dinner table. Just a small, ad-libbed moment, but so damn powerful. No, Jaws never made me cry, but if it did it would be that scene.
3. Jurassic Park (1993)
Ah, Jurassic Park. Again, Man Vs. Leviathan. Monsters you don’t see fully until a good hour into the movie. And then… some of the most terrifying creatures put to film. But overall, perhaps Spielberg’s most magical film, coming out in 1993, featuring the first CGI characters in any film (can you believe they almost went with stop-motion dinosaurs?).
And dammit, the film ages like few other ’90s movies have, both in visual effects and general tone of the film. It doesn’t feel like a ’90s movie, it feels timeless.
Again, how can I talk about Jurassic Park without going on for pages and pages… It’s got the greatest ensemble cast Spielberg has ever delivered, Jeff Goldblum and Samuel L. Jackson’s best lines of their careers, that cut to a Velociraptor opening a door, “clever girl,” yada, yada, yada.
I think what is most important to Jurassic Park, besides the wonders of seeing actors along side CGI beasts, is the extreme level of tension and the heart (here we go again!).
Spielberg delivers tension in every possible moment, before even the dinosaurs escape their pens, and when dinosaurs aren’t near. Think of the rocky helicopter landing, the lightning storm that cracks over Ian Malcolm’s head, escaping a falling car instead of a dinosaur, and the electric fence. All moments just as tense as coming up against a T-Rex or Velociraptor.
I never cried watching Jurassic Park as a child, but rewatching it as an adult a few years ago, Hammond’s monologue about the flea circus had me in tears. As a child I never saw to the heart of his character, an old man watching his greatest and final achievement not only fall apart around him, but endangers the ones he loves, creating a conflict between what is left of his human side and his business side.
2. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Even though it is a tale of father and son — a favorite of Spielberg’s — Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is the best “buddy comedy” ever made. Skewing a little more to the comedic side than Raiders of the Lost Ark, Last Crusade doesn’t lose any of the drama or action from its predecessors, just gains a deeper sense of humor.
Everyone is brilliant in this film, not only the ultimate pairing of Harrison Ford and Sean Connery, but also Jones’ amazing allies, Denholm Elliot as Marcus Brody and John Rhys-Davies as Sallah, a character that best pop up in Indiana Jones 5!
After Temple of Doom, the original dark sheep of the franchise, Last Crusade is a more direct sequel to Raiders (Doom is technically a prequel…), bringing back Nazis, the ultimate movie villain, and an artifact straight out of the Bible.
The film is brilliant, perfect in every way. If this were my list of Top 10 films from any director, Last Crusade would still land at #2.
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
The greatest film of all time… Raiders of the Lost Ark. The model for any action movie worth watching.
Shot as a “B-movie” from the 1930s, with a faster shooting schedule and less refined than a typical Spielberg production, Raiders of the Lost Ark perfectly replicates the experience of watching a serial like Flash Gordon or Zorro week-to-week at the local theater. The film is a key example of the eight-sequence approach, with every 15-20 minutes serving as its own chapter of sorts, a mini-adventure within the longer narrative making for one hell of an action film!
Of course, none of this works without the charm of Harrison Ford, who embodies early 20th century America in a way Bond represented the UK in the ’60s. Bond is refined, well dressed, and charming. Jones fights dirty when he has to, makes mistakes, and is half charming/half scoundrel with a heart of gold. And his clothes are always so dusty!
Jaws is iconic. Jurassic Park is iconic. But is there anything better than seeing that hat and whip, all the while bouncing along with the perky “Raiders March” by John Williams?
Raiders of the Lost Ark has defined my own movie love. Seeing it in fourth grade, it was the first film where I realized there were actually actors, directors, and writers making these things, beginning to see a pattern of actors I liked like Harrison Ford, and the director I love the most, Steven Spielberg.
Now, I want to hear from YOU! Agree with my opinions? Think I’m wrong about everything? Let me know! Let’s get some fun discussions and arguments going in the comment section below.
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