majorjoe23

I would just pick a year: 1993, when he did Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List.

inri222

Jaws

I would not consider any of the Indiana Jones films. IMO Spielberg was a director for hire for those, the same way Irvin Kershner & Richard Marquand were for ESB & ROTJ.

William Fuld

OldBoy

JAWS. nothing else compares. it is a classic among cinema. it was one of his firsts and it was incredible. plain and simple (especially now that many of us who watch the making of's know what went into this and that it got made at all). nothing has or will come close to this in his catalog (of which there are many amazing entries, many), but JAWS defines him and his career. without JAWS there simply isn't a "Steven Spielberg career".

milo bloom

Eh, no. These have Spielberg's touch all over them. Unfortunately also Lucas's but you can't deny these are Spielberg films. Maybe not the ones that define him, but they could not be taken out of his filmography.

ddrknghtrtns

Why unfortunate?

William Fuld

People are just posting nonsense now.

GoldenJCJ

Jaws is my favorite movie ever so I’m certainly not arguing against you but Schindler’s List is considered by many to be one of the Top 10 greatest films of all time.

Judging simply by the AFI Top 100, there are two Spielberg movies that rank higher than Jaws.

I guess the question is how we’d define “defines” in the thread title. Are we talking about the movie we think MADE Spielberg’s career or are we talking about the quintessential Spielberg movie, the one that you automatically think of when you hear the name “Spielberg”? I think depending how we interpret the question in the OP, determines what movie we pick.

ddrknghtrtns

What Single movie defined Hitchcock's career? Most would probably answered Psycho, but North By Northwest or Rear Window was imo his greatest film achievement.

OldBoy

I’m not saying he doesn’t have other classics. SL certainly (I mean he won the Oscar), SPR as well. I wouldn’t put SL in top 10 of all time, but I don’t knock it. E.T. could be there. Jurassic Park was technologically groundbreaking. But again, it’s Jaws, always has been, always will be.

clckworang

And I took it more as a single movie that sort of acts as a representation of his entire career. That's not necessarily his best or the one you automatically think of when you hear his name. So there are many ways you can look at it.

From the OP, it's the movie that represents who the man is and the kind of movies he creates.

inri222

Those are all great, but for me it would be Vertigo.

tanman

I think that's what makes this a fun discussion is how the thread was somewhat vague and open to interpretation. Because if we were judging by Spielberg's "best" movie Schindler's List would objectively be considered his best.

devilshalo

I don't equate box office to a defining movie. They're not mutually exclusive. As I stated in my pick, JAWS, while only his second theatrical film, had influenced the way he shot movies that followed, especially his attention to detail in the preproduction planning, he's big into storyboards, so as not to go over budget and sticks to his schedule and hits his delivery dates. Spielberg himself has also said, the success of Jaws was his free pass. It gave him final cut and his ability to do whatever films he wanted.

GoldenJCJ

Which is funny because North by Northwest is my favorite Hitchcock movie and the one I’d choose for his career.

But I get what your saying.

jfoobar

Even if we assume you are correct about Jaws being the reason Spielberg achieved what he achieved (and I am not dismissing this opinion), I still would not say this is the film that "defines" his career, only the film that facilitated it.

Personally, I hold the very unpopular opinion that Jaws is the greatest American film of all time. That said, if I were to pick one film that defines his career, it would not be Jaws. I guess it boils down to whether a film defines a career from the perspective of the filmmaker him/herself or from the perspective of audiences. I was thinking of the latter when I answered this question.

Michael Corvin

Cast Away

Zemeckis had an amazing carrier leading up to 2000 much like Chuck Nolan at FedEx. Then he got stranded on a deserted island for a decade making mo-cap animated fare. Fortunately he made if off that island though and returned to us with Flight and Welcome to Marwan. Were we ready for his return, or did we all move on like Helen Hunt did?

Rival11

May even start a separate thread for this film (didn't see one).

It took me almost 30 years to watch Schindler's list. Just watched it last night for the first time. Not only is this Spielberg's best film but it may just be the best film ever made. Spielberg will NEVER be able to top this film either.

I literally wanted to jump through the screen and take out Ralph Fiennes's character myself. I read up on the person he portrayed and unfortunately found out that everything he did in the film happened in real life as well .

I wasn't expecting the violence to be as bad as it was because it was Spielberg, but I do appreciate him starting off light with it, but here's the thing, it's not just the violence that bothers me....I had to pause it when they were taking the Jews from their homes - it doesn't just upset me, it really pisses me off. I know it's a movie but due to the subject matter, It's tough for me to just sit there and be completely passive - it's just how I react to real world events like that - it really f'n bothers me. Even the part where they were cutting off the one person's hair - just enraging.

I didn't know about the ghetto's either, I didn't know they lived there first.

Also, I myself am not Jewish at all but back when I was in high school our history teacher had us watch the short film "Night and Fog" (which you can stream as well) which shows all real footage from Auschwitz (I believe it's Auschwitz - it was shocking.

I have problems when it comes to true crime, the Holocaust, etc.. and the reason is because before anything else, I put myself immediately in the victim's shoes and try to relate to how they felt.....I can't even last a couple of seconds with the thoughts.

It's not just how Spielberg presented the picture that makes it so great either. His choice for filming in black and white was an artistic one but if you notice, he gave the film and very aged look and feel with the black and white as well. He really nailed it.

If anyone knows, can you please explain why was that hinting at something disgraceful about him that wasn't well known or something?

Amazing movie that unfortunately had to be made.

tanman

I agree. As I stated two years ago now. It's his magnum opus hands down. I really don't think there's a debate for what his best film is. I only watched it once, on VHS too, and it's still stuck with me. I agree I think his choice of using B&W was brilliant. The scene with the little girl in red was memorable. I think Schindler's speech at the end was heartbreaking, Liam Nesson was robbed on that oscar. I really appreciated the end with the survivors and descendants placing the rocks on Schindler's grave. It was a great way to tie it back to real life and to remind the audience that this is a documentary.

I feel like it's fallen a bit too much out of the popular consciousness in recent years. I mean I get it's not an easy film to watch so you don't have anyone claiming it's their favorite movie ever and watching it 20 times in a row. Not to get too political but I hope it's not considered too controversial now. I hope people are still watching this, especially teens/young adults, I hope we never forget.

ytrez

Schindler’s List.

My favorite Spielberg film is Jaws but Schindler’s List is his most significant film.

CristonCole

Empire of the Sun (1987).

—

CristonCole

Yep. Most of those people pushing and shoving are going to leave and take their signed items straight to eBay to get fat stacks.

TomOpus

When I was going to meet Richard Dreyfus at a local con a few months ago, I was trying to decide which movie I had on 4k I wanted him to sign 2 out of the 3 candidates were Spielberg movies: Jaws and CEot3K. I asked his assistant which movie was Richard's favorite. He said "Always" another Spielberg movie.

And I'm glad no one said "Hook."

Rival11

Yeah, the end with the survivors really got to me as well.

I know I may get flack for this but I think the scene where Schindler breaks down was maybe the weakest part of the film - first because I don't think it ever happened and second, well.....he wasn't a great guy as a whole so it felt out of place, Now, without question the man has my respect for what he did, I'm not even going there and I'm sure he did have more feelings about saving more people.

Also, the best thing Spielberg did with Schindler's List was keep the focus on the Jewish people - now I know that might sound weird but what I'm saying is, I started to get to know a lot of the people due to how much the camera time they got....Spielberg did an excellent job about keeping it about the personal horrors they went through - he makes you always realize that while you're watching a movie, you need to be connected to these people for it to have the most impact and he did an exceptional job of that.

You're not being political at all either - Nobody should EVER forget what happened - it was beyond horrendous. I also agree that this film should never fade......I don't think it will either.

Nesbit

E.T. and I wouldn’t put it in my top ten personal favorites from him.