HAMMY’S TOP 10…STEVEN SPIELBERG FILMS

Steven Spielberg is back, baby! Yes, I suppose he did come back with The Post, but he’s going back to his blockbuster roots with Ready Player One this week. Does anyone do a special-effects heavy blockbuster with a heart better than Spielberg? Probably not. Is there a director better than Spielberg? That’s a question I can’t answer here. But Spielberg’s hit more homeruns that he’s struck out, and his homeruns are some of the best films of all time. In that spirit of thinking, here are my Top 10 Steven Spielberg Films!

Will Ready Player One be another Spielberg classic? Or another clunker?

10. Minority Report

I reckon Minority Report is Spielberg’s best science fiction film of the 21^st century. I don’t need to re-watch War of the Worlds, but I do need to re-watch A.I, but I’m pretty confident in my assertion. Like most Philip K. Dick film adaptations, the film takes the basic plot of the book and ramps up the action/drives the story forward. Read the story, and you’ll understand why they couldn’t just simply follow Dick’s plot. The high concept is matched by awe-inspiring action scenes in yet another great balancing act by Spielberg.

9. Duel

Want to see Spielberg, rough and ready, stripped down to his bare necessities? I’m not talking about him in the nude, of course, but I’m talking about his directorial abilities. Here, in his first feature film, there’s no room for excess. There’s only room for the chase. How exciting can a truck chasing a car be? Spielberg gives us the answer in big capitals: VERY! Even though things are stretched out a little for the theatrical release, it’s still streamlined to perfection. One of the all-time great road thriller films.

8. Jurassic Park

No one used to do the BIG BLOCKBUSTER movie like Spielberg. He practically invented it with Jaws. Yes, nostalgia may tint my viewing of Jurassic Park (I watched it at the cinema as a child…the best way to watch it!), but it ticks all the boxes of a BIG BLOCKBUSTER and a few extra ones as well. Crichton’s book is stripped down to the bare essentials: chase scene after chase scene, set piece after set piece. And everything is both stunning and gripping. Hell, the CGI of Jurassic World wasn’t much better than Jurassic Park! Yes, Jurassic Park (along with Terminator 2) revolutionised CGI in film (for better or worse? YOU DECIDE!), but both films are classic examples of CGI used optimally. Jurassic Park is a wild, thrilling ride of a film that combines special effects with cracking character development.

7. Munich

Much like another Spielberg film on this list, I fear this is underrated or forgotten when talking about Spielberg’s great films. I’m not a fan on post-2000 Spielberg on the whole, but he’s still pumped out a few classics. Munich is definitely one of them. It may have been nominated for five Academy Awards, but who talks about it now? People talk about Minority Report, or even War of the Worlds, more than they talk about Munich. And that’s a damn shame. Because Munich tackles the sensitive historical event of the aftermath of the 1974 Munich massacre with aplomb. It manages to be a cracking thriller whilst questioning the ethics constantly. To ask ethical questions and keep the thrills high is a difficult task, but Spielberg easily pulls it off. One of my Spielbergian cinematic highlights.

6. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Science fiction, drama, action, historical epic…is there anything Spielberg can’t do? This was Spielberg’s first stab at science fiction, and it’s slices and dices most of its competition. Of course, it was released the same year as Star Wars, but the two couldn’t be more different. One is an old-fashioned action adventure, the other is a drama about first contact with extraterrestrials. Like the later E.T., there’s a sense of childlike wonder that flows through the film. But Spielberg also retains an atmosphere of terror, a tense feeling of uneasiness that keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat. One of the all-time great science fiction films.

5. Schindler’s List

How on earth did Spielberg balance Schindler’s List and Jurassic Park at the same time? I can understand juggling two similar films at the same time, but this two polar opposites? Has Spielberg a twin, like The Prestige? It would explain a lot…wouldn’t it? But this is the ultimate film about the Holocaust (if there can be such a thing). It’s emotional filmmaking of the highest level, making a three hour plus film zip by in the blink of an eye. If your heartstrings aren’t pulled half to death, then you’re not really watching it. One of the most powerful films of all time. Harrowing but vital viewing.

4. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

Has there been a purer, more fun action adventure film than the first Indiana Jones film? I don’t think so. It’s almost as if it’s been ripped out of the pages of a 40s/50s adventure comic book. There’s plenty of action, thrown at the screen with increasing levels of innovation. But there are also great characters and dialogue that make the action meaningful. If I had to choose between Harrison Ford’s roles of Han Solo and Indiana Jones, I think I’d pick Indiana Jones. It’s the role he was born to play! On the surface it’s simple, but beneath incredibly complex.

3. Empire of the Sun

This is my favourite war film. Period. I’m not a big fan of the genre, but this always stands out in my mind. It’s a superb symbiosis of director and source material; Spielberg was meant to direct the adaptation of Ballard’s Empire of the Sun, just as Cronenberg was meant to direct Ballard’s Crash. It gives us a different take on World War II, in the guise of a young English boy imprisoned in a Japanese interment camp. It manages to capture the horrors of war within the confines of the PG rating. And it contains a great performance from the young Christian Bale. A beautiful, poignant, and underrated Spielberg epic.

2. Jaws

When you think of Spielberg blockbusters, do you think of Jaws first or Jurassic Park first? Of course, it depends on when you were born, but even I think of Jaws and I never saw it at the cinema. Spielberg singlehandedly created the summer blockbuster with Jaws, and Hollywood never looked back. So, in a sense, we can blame Spielberg for all the CGI heavy monstrosities that plague our summer in the cinemas. But we can’t blame him too much, because he gave us Jaws, a quintessential horror blockbuster that’s as thrilling and horrifying now as it was in the 70s. Of course, the characters are as memorable as the villain, which is something that modern blockbusters forget. All filmmakers should watch Jaws before trying their hand at an effects-heavy blockbuster.

1. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial

If I could only pick one Spielberg film to watch for the rest of my days, it would be E.T. It’s Spielberg at the height of his powers. Is it the ultimate family film? I reckon so. Everyone can watch it, and everyone should watch it. There’s never been a film that’s so heavily imbued with a childlike sense of wonder, even at the most common of things (getting drunk, watching TV). The puppetry is outstanding, the soundtrack is outstanding, the acting is outstanding, the directing is outstanding…this is Spielberg at his very best (it’s not at #5 in my Top 10 Films of All Time List for no reason!).

Agree or disagree? Any you’d take away or add? What is your Top 10?