Oct 20, 2015

Some of you may have missed this brilliant essay on Steven Spielberg. I highly recommend it: http://www.vulture.com/2015/10/steven-spielberg-politics-culture.html?mid=twitter_vulture#

It got me thinking about Spielberg's evolution as a filmmaker, and how I'd rank his filmography. Lets see where you stand @MovieSXN

2015 Bridge of Spies
2012 Lincoln
2011 War Horse
2011 The Adventures of Tintin
2008 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
2005 Munich
2005 War of the Worlds
2004 The Terminal
2002 Catch Me if You Can
2002 Minority Report
2001 A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
1998 Saving Private Ryan
1997 Amistad
1997 Lost World
1994 Schindler's List
1993 Jurassic Park
1992 Hook
1989 Always
1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
1987 Empire of the Sun
1986 The Color Purple
1984 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
1982 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
1982 Poltergeist (1982)
1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
1979 1941
1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1975 Jaws
Sugarland Express
Duel

 

Oct 20, 2015

i probably haven't seen enough for my ranking to mean anything. spielberg occupies a weird place in pop culture: revered as a producer/brand, but not given near enough credit by some self-described movie fans as a director.

 

Oct 20, 2015

i agree to an extent -- he won his first oscar for his work as a creative producer, in other words for helping usher in the Back to the Futures of the world, which is quixotic given how timeless and iconic many of his directorial efforts have been. he's won two directorial oscars now, but arguably deserved more and suffers from his own ubiquity and stature. the fact is as a filmmaker he's less gritty and explicit than, say, scorsese and much more sentimental.... so the snobs turn up their nose. id rank this way:

1. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. Jaws
4. Jurassic Park
5. Schindler's List
6. Saving Private Ryan
7. Catch Me if You Can
8. Lincoln
9. Munich
10. Minority Report
11. Duel
12. Bridge of Spies
13. Amistad
14. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
15. The Color Purple
16. Hook
17. War of the Worlds
18. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
19. Lost World
20. The Terminal

 

Oct 20, 2015

You think Last Crusade is the worst Indiana Jones film? It's Behind Hook? Behind The Terminal? Jesus.

 

Oct 20, 2015

Lincoln

 

Oct 20, 2015

The people you're talking about think The Shawshank Redemption is the best movie ever made and don't even know what a producer is. It's not that weird.

 

Oct 20, 2015

Technically Schindler's List is probably his best film, but it's also the film most divorced from his typical directorial sensibilities which makes it really hard to place it ahead of E.T. or Raiders. So off the top of my head:

1. E.T.
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. Schindler's List
4. Jaws
5. Catch Me If You Can
6. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
7. Saving Private Ryan
8. Jurassic Park
9. Lincoln
10. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
11. A.I.
12. The Adventures of Tin Tin
13. War of the Worlds
14. Munich
15. War Horse
16. Minority Report
17. The Terminal
18. The Color Purple
19. Hook
20. The Lost World
21. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Have yet to see either Close Encounters or Duel in full unfortunately.

 

Oct 20, 2015

I do think Spielberg has earned his legend status. He is an unabashed "Hollywood" director, but many of the greats from Ford to Hitchcock have also made classics working well within the studio system. His sentimentality can get the best of him at times, but when he's on, he's definitely one of the best. I'm always reminded of how good he is when I watch inferior attempts at capturing his sensibility (Super 8, Jurassic World, etc.)

There's still quite a few I haven't seen (The Terminal, Hook, Amistad, The Color Purple among others), but I hope to see Bridge of Spies shortly. Mine is something like this...

1. Jaws
2. Jurassic Park
3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
4. Schindler's List
5. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
6. Munich
7. Minority Report
8. Lincoln
9. A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
10. Empire of the Sun
11. War of the Worlds
12. Catch Me if You Can
13. Saving Private Ryan
14. The Adventures of Tintin
15. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
16. Raiders of the Lost Ark
17. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
18. Lost World
19. War Horse
20. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

 

Oct 20, 2015

@Twan care to elaborate on why you think Tintin is better than all of the Indiana Jones films?

 

Oct 20, 2015

I can't say the Indiana Jones films do much at all for me, while I found Tintin to be a relatively fun theater experience (for better and for worse, it's very much a movie as a ride).

 

Oct 20, 2015

@Joshua Smoses tbh ive only watched ~60% of last crusafe on cable so left it off here

 

Oct 20, 2015

d--- @Twan surprised how low you rate raiders even?

 

Oct 20, 2015

Sorry guys...If I'm being really real, I just can't say I've particularly enjoyed Raiders of the Lost Ark any of the times I've seen it.

 

Oct 20, 2015

Ok, this is based on my personal preference Top 10

1. Saving Private Ryan
2. Lincoln
3. Jurassic Park
4. Hook
5. E.T.
6. The Last Crusade
7. The Temple of Doom
8. Jaws
9. Raiders of The Lost Ark
10. Close Encounters

 

Oct 21, 2015

Fair enough, I just kind of assumed Indiana Jones universally appeals to the ten year old boy inside all of us. Not to mention the film is structured and edited superbly.

 

Oct 21, 2015

Ranking the ones I've seen:

1. Saving Private Ryan
2. A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
3. Jurassic Park
   
4. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
5. Raiders of the Lost Ark
6. Jaws
7. Schindler's List
8. Lincoln
9. The Terminal
10. Munich
11. Hook
12. Lost World
13. Amistad
14. War of the Worlds
15. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
    
16. War Horse

 

Oct 21, 2015

1. A.I. Artificial Intelligence
2. Saving Private Ryan
3. Jaws
4. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
5. Catch Me If You Can
6. Jurassic Park
7. Minority Report
8. Duel
9. War of the Worlds
10. The Terminal

Those are just the ones I've seen. I saw E.T. a long time ago and I don't remember a thing from it so I don't feel right putting it on the list. I haven't watched a single Indiana Jones movie because I never much liked Harrison Ford(the exception being Blade Runner).

 

Oct 21, 2015

I never realized how much Spielberg I haven't seen...
ok so from what I have seen..
1.jurassic park or war of the worlds (this is a toss up)
2.schindlers list
3.catch me if you can
4.saving private Ryan
5.hook
6.et
7.lost world (was eh)

I thought jaws was boring as well as minority report, oops. why did you um, cross out poltergeist? I've seen parts of that one..

 

Oct 22, 2015

yeah, agree. raiders i think is a rly well done piece of popcorn

 

Oct 22, 2015

Raiders one of the best blockbusters of all time.