USA TODAY International Edition
Raiding the vault to rank Spielberg’s best movies
For the movie lovers who grew up in the blockbuster era, there’s no more iconic filmmaker than Steven Spielberg. But while his benevolent aliens, neat-o dinosaurs and one whip-cracking archeologist get much of the love, it’s easy to forget just how deep his filmography goes. That is, until you sit down and rank his feature films, including this week’s geek fest Ready Player One (in theaters Thursday). Here’s our take on the top 20:
1 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981): The first Indiana Jones movie — with lots of Nazi-punching and world-shaking religious implications — is the perfect action adventure. In fact, face-meltingly so. It makes smart heroes cool forever after (in everything from The X-Files to Iron Man to Dan Brown books), offers a love interest who’s just as good in a fight as Indy, is as funny as it is compelling, and — sorry, Star Wars — gives us Harrison Ford’s signature icon. It’s the kind of movie that reminds us all why we love movies.
2 Schindler’s List (1993): Spielberg’s black-and-white dramatic masterwork is a beautiful and brutal look at the Holocaust and an unlikely hero that manages to find hope and kindness in the face of pure evil. The character arc of German businessman Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) is astounding, from hiring Jewish workers because they’re cheap to giving away a fortune to save hundreds from certain doom. Through his eyes we see the hatred, dread and innocence lost of that period in history.
3 Jaws (1975): It takes something really special to affect a populace so much they rethink their beach trips. With that ominous two-note John Williams theme and an infamous killer shark, the movie spawned the summer blockbuster and wracked many a nerve with its waterbound terror. It also taps into a man-vs.-nature dynamic as a modern-day Moby-Dick with Robert Shaw’s Quint as the obsessed hunter inextricably tied to his great white nemesis.
4 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989): It’s rare that a threequel is almost as good as the first, but this two-fisted quest for the Holy Grail doubles as a surprisingly deep narrative about fathers, sons and mortality. All the usual fun Indy stuff is here — Nazis, treasured artifact — though the bantering chemistry between Ford’s hard-luck hero and Sean Connery as his grumpy dad is off-the-hook spectacular. Bogie and Bacall have nothing on these two.
5 The Color Purple (1985): Exceptional performances (especially Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey) drive this wrenching and intimate story of abused but strong women who find their voices and identity in early 20th-century Georgia. Goldberg’s Celie is the wife of a mean, bullying farmhand (Danny Glover), one of the men she’s been oppressed by and who’ve kept her from family and a real life, until she finally roars in a rousing catharsis that feels hugely meaningful in 2018.
6 Jurassic Park (1993): Dinosaurs already were cool, but in the hands of Spielberg, they are a grand spectacle — and a fearsome set of antagonists — in a movie about not messing around with Mother Nature. The filmmaker takes on corporate greed and mankind’s god complex by imagining a theme park full of genetically cloned reptiles from millennia ago, but on a more popcorn-chewing level, Spielberg crafts both a terrifying journey as well as a breathtaking collection of species we can only wish existed.
7 Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977): The more grown-up complement to E.T. put a mysterious and thoughtful spin on first contact with aliens and the idea that we’re all just a small piece of a bigger puzzle. When the visitors come, it’s not spoken language but instead a musical theme that bridges the intergalactic gap between us and them, and Richard Dreyfuss’ blue-collar worker is every dreamer who’s ever looked into the sky and wanted to see the stars. Spielberg’s vision is sentimental yet feels so satisfying.
8 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982): The seminal movie for ’80s kids captures hearts and jerks tears with the story of a cute extra-terrestrial and the youngsters who rally to keep him safe from authorities and take care of him when he’s sick. As key as E.T. is to the whole thing, what’s even more is his friendship with Elliot (Henry Thomas), an alienated boy desperately needing a connection after his parents’ divorce. E.T. wants to go home, but Elliott has to rediscover his own, too.
9 Saving Private Ryan (1998): One of the best war movies ever, period. Spielberg’s excellent take on the invasion of Normandy was groundbreaking in its graphic depictions of the battlefield but especially for its ferocious knockout of an opening. The landing on Omaha Beach shows the carnage and chaos from the perspective of an Army Ranger captain (Tom Hanks), stunned and stumbling in bloody water, and forces an audience to feel unflinching horror.
10 The Post (2017): The Pentagon Papers drama is a spiritual prequel of sorts to All the President’s Men, a love letter to journalism and the convening of an amazing cast: Hanks is his usual charismatic self as hard-charging Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, and Meryl Streep holds court as Katharine Graham, the Post publisher finding the power of her voice in a male-dominated world. In a modern landscape where media struggle to survive, Spielberg rallies to celebrate what makes it great.
11 Lincoln (2012): Daniel DayLewis transforms into the 16th president in one of his most memorable roles, and Spielberg crafts an amazing look at the later months of the Civil War that would either make or break the country.
12 Empire of the Sun (1987): Nearly 20 years before he was Batman, Christian Bale was the posh British lad living in China who becomes separated from his parents and ends up in a World War II Japanese internment camp in the emotional epic.
13 1941 (1979): While Spielberg’s purest comedy didn’t get the best reception, the World War II flick is a hilarious, starstudded wonder about panicked and paranoid L.A. citizens worrying about a Japanese attack after Pearl Harbor.
14 Bridge of Spies (2015): The filmmaker puts you right into the chilly spycraft of the Cold War, though it’s the chemistry between Hanks and Mark Rylance — as an earnest attorney and his Russian secretagent client — that fuels the drama.
15 Minority Report (2002): The futuristic neo-noir sci-fi — about law enforcement capturing ne’er-do-wells before they do anything illegal — has only grown more engrossing and salient as technology’s taken big leaps around us.
16 Catch Me If You Can (2002): There’s a fun and retro vibe to the real-life 1960s cat-and-mouse chase between a teenage con man (Leonardo DiCaprio) and dogged FBI agent (Hanks), made all the more so with a jazzy John Williams score.
17 War Horse (2011): The filmmaker goes for all the fuzzy feels on a grand canvas with this World War I tale of a boy and his horse, their parallel stories and their long road to find each other again.
18 Munich (2005): A poignant thriller spin is put on one of the sports world’s darkest moments, recounting the Israel government’s secret act of vengeance for the massacre of their athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics.
19 Ready Player One (2018): It’s a little odd to see Spielberg directing what’s pretty much an homage to everything he’s ever done. Still, youthful rebellion in a virtual reality looks great and the concept of online escapes resonates in an increasingly intense real world.
20 The Adventures of Tintin (2011): The animated effort with Peter Jackson gives us some serious Indiana Jones vibes with a young French journalist and his loyal canine friend on the hunt for a treasure-filled sunken ship.