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I have spent much of my adult life waiting in dissappointment for Spielberg to make another "Speilberg movie". This is why I am so excited about the new Indy film. I have hope that perhaps it will be a much needed return to the old Spielbergian mastery of my childhood (and before).
My top 5:
1. Jaws
The first and best blockbuster.
2. Schindler's List
A heart wrenching masterpiece made by a Jew about a not-so-compassionate gentile who reaches out to help Jews to his own peril.
3.Empire of the Sun
Christian Bale's gorgeous boyhood singing voice has haunted me most all my life. It isn't a pefect film, but it did teach me lessons as a child on my own level.
4. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
I was too young to see Raiders until many years later, thus the SPFX were lost on me. The 3rd one was the one I saw again and again.
5. E.T.
My life wouldn't not be what it is without that film. As an adult it impressed much less than it did when I was 3.
Amistad is close to the top of the list, too. It is not a fabulous film, but it is a touching, important, and even ironic story told from the point of view of a protagonist who never speaks english. Speilberg is, in some ways, a star-maker, and this movie highlighted the talents of its unknown protagonist - and that was the highlight of the film.
The first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan were amazing. So much so that Ridley Scott paid homage to it soon after in Gladiator.
AI was.. I think LSPE put is best- the skeleton of one film, fleshed with another.
I never saw 1941.
I thought the Terminal was "cute", but not up to standards of my hero.
It's weird, seeing his body of work. Speilberg is my hero. His editor, Michael Kahn is my hero. He has employed some of my favorite talents in filmmaking, and he has created some of the most talented stars. Yet, so many of his films are not what I remembered them to be. So many of his more recent works are not up to par with his older work. Still, he is a master for the quick quip, tenderly human moment, and grand vision.
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