Director Dive - Steven Spielberg: Part 1

Welcome to Watch More Movies and today we are discussing arguably the most legendary American filmmaker to ever put a movie on screen, Steven Spielberg. If you have a favorite blockbuster pre 2000, good chance is that he directed it. Given his massive filmography, today will be Part 1 and followed up with Parts 2 and 3…leading up the June release of his newest film Disclosure Day.

With this series, I hope to visit or revisit all of a filmmakers work and discuss either themes, stories throughout their filmography; or just discuss their work as a whole

Whether you’re here for recommendations, nostalgia, or to argue about what should have made the list, you’re in the right place.

📩 Drop your personal favorite Spielberg films below! We all have several!

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Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome back to Watch More Movies. I am your host, Ricky, and today we will be doing our next director dive. I think if you ask many Cinephiles and many people in that are considered general audience, today's director dive is about a filmmaker who is arguably the most prolific, successful, and most well-rounded American filmmaker in maybe cinema history. He has created arguably several of the most influential films of all time in cinema and in blockbuster cinema specifically. He's been nominated nine times for best director, one twice, and he is a record holder for being nominated for best director in six different decades. That is none other than the one and only Steven Spielberg. If you name a film you've heard from 1975 to 2000, or one that you love, especially if you are from that generation, chances are you might name a few of his. From the Indiana Jones franchise, Jaws, E.T., Close Encounters of a Third Kind, Schindler's List, Saving Private Orion, Hook, Jurassic Park, to even lesser widespread fair like Duel, Empire of the Sun, Amistad, The Terminal, and many others. I named several, and there are still so many of his that you can certainly have heard of. Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can, War of the Worlds. It truly is mind-boggling how many staples in cinema that he has under his belt. Spielberg has this touch about his filmmaking that very few directors have been able to give you scale and intimacy. While there are many films about killer fish or reptiles that are good or scary today, nothing will make you feel as large scale terror as he did with the jaws. The shark felt like a myth, and while aliens have been done dozens of times over the years, nothing makes you feel as wondrous or larger than life and make you feel as small as a human as when you first saw the ship come down in Close Encounters of a Third Kind. Today we will be talking about his films to a certain point. Given the extensive nature and length of this man's career, even some of his best work would come out too in the same year sometimes. The newest release, Disclosure Day, will mark, if I did my math correctly, his 35th feature. Today's episode will be part one of his career, from starting with duel in 1971 all the way to Hook in 1991. Marking the solo feature debut of Spielberg, 1971's duel follows David Mann, a salesman traveling across the country to get back home from a work trip. As he is driving, he encounters an old oil tanker driver increasingly becoming aggressive toward David and thus begins a chase across highways and deserts for survival. Duel is a tense and nail-biting thriller. The car chase sequences, no pun intended, rev up with the tension escalating throughout the runtime. Dennis Weaver is a terrific and sympathetic force that you don't quite like to root for, but in his shoes, you might feel the same way toward others with this heightened sense of paranoia. What I love what Spielberg does here is keep the story simple and straightforward. There are no motivations or deep backstories for why this truck driver is fixated on David. He's just someone with road rage and coming to get him. And that sometimes can be even scarier. He's never shown, which is also genius, thus making the parano that paranoia much more terrifying. Even as David tries to put this together at the few moments of non-driving that he has. There are a lot of signature Spielberg camera flourishes that would go to beyond his staples in his career, putting the car chase right in your face, but never letting the camera movement do the chaotic work. He lets the scene play on and play out, but puts you close to it front and center. I really think if you like car chase films, Duel is great, and I'm really glad I get got to check this one out. Second is 1974's The Sugarland Express. It is about a woman named Lou Jean breaking her husband, Clovis, out of jail and going to Texas to take back their baby that was taken from them by the state. Now, from what I understand, it is a true story, and it is a very sad one of that. We follow this couple who, despite all their flaws as people, are drawn to each other in what feels like they are really true soulmates. Yet they are not good people by all accounts and really do make the wrong choice at every single turn. But you know they don't want to, but are desperate both for their love for each other and their child. The performances here could really be over the top as Spielberg manages to make them grounded in their characters and motivations and even setting. They never get off track with their minds wandering or minds changing like you'd expect in stories like these. These are two people who want to see their child again and are headstrong or stubborn in attaining this. It isn't as flashy like many of his other films, but the emotion and humanity of the story is the real magic that he can really give. Now, 1975's Jaws, one of the most iconic blockbusters in cinema history. Maybe not the last time I would say that. I think 99% of us have seen Jaws, but if you're like me and have not seen it recently enough to have a grasp on anything that happened in it, I think I saw it last maybe when I was a teenager. I honestly don't know. Then it's time to seek it out. Because once I did, I was just blown away, and that is nothing new that has been said about Spielberg's shark film. This has horror elements and is a film that defined the thin line between horror and blockbuster. Many horror directors today will credit films like Jaws or The Exorcist with their inspiration or where their love for horror and film started. On the film level, it is perfect, genuinely. I had really have no negative notes. Luckily, upon a revisit, I was able to watch the 4K Blu-ray on my 80-inch TV, but I really wish I found a way to go watch this in the theater. This feels like this it would have only been a fraction of something special that so many people felt experienced it so much younger. The choice to hide the shark and keep it mythical is so genius, and the shark feels almost like a kaiju, even though it's just a bigger shark. Spielberg is one of the masters at holding back image information until needed or it's necessary. One of the best sequences is when Hooper, Brody, and Quint are on the ship in the lake overnight, waiting for the shark to come. And it's just them bonding and talking. This is what really drives the story and emotion home. If there wasn't this, there would be less of a reason to care when the shark does attack. This is something that I will bring up and full disclosure repeat myself throughout talking about Spielberg because he has this magic touch of making the biggest blockbusters feel the smallest and most intimate. And as I stated before, Jaws does not work if you don't care about his characters. Now, these characters are not the most well-rounded, and the mayor is kind of just a placeholder allegory for capitalism and government, but not every character that speaks needs to have this deep, human, soulful monologues. They are all effective, and when you get to the heart of the story, Hooper, Brody, and Quint, you care enough about them as things hit the fan. Even 50 over 50 years later, Jaws holds up without a single hitch. From the practical shark effects to the humor and just everything in between, it is one of, if not Spielberg's best. Close Encounters of a Third Kind from 1977 was one I had seen in theaters on its 40th anniversary re-release in a 4K restored at a premium format theater back when I worked for movie theaters. It was a film that I'd always heard of as I was getting more into cinema in my early days of really trying to go back and watch older films. That experience will always stick with me, as is re-watching it. It is truly remarkable and a feat that once again very few could pull off. Space and deep space, other life and other worlds is something I'm immediately always in on, especially when it comes to keeping things off screen or to minimum. After there are several UFO sightings around the world, and in the US specifically, a few citizens are psychologically impacted by the effects of being exposed to this. To begin the film, you see the UFOs in quick and small increments, nothing bombastic, but it is the impact and constant wonder that these main characters have for seeing this that drives the film and gives it scope. You get an idea of what they are shown and feel as curious as they do. There is this wondrous curiosity that is at every scene in the film. And in part due to this portion of Spielberg's career that is less cynical and more naive in a very complimentary way to these sort of things. It appears at Disclosure Day, it goes in on a wildly different direction because in this one, the government definitely has a say as to how this information gets out or contained, but never to the point that you might see in movies like this. The ending to this day is one of my all-time favorite endings in film. Like I said, I'm biased toward extraterrestrial stories and the wondrous nature of the unknown. Every time I see that final 30 minutes, I am in awe at the fact of how he was able to pull this off nearly 50 years ago and make it feel fresh today. It is a true testament to Spielberg's wondrous eye and star-gazing feeling that this gives you. Now, 1941 is Spielberg's first and few, very few, attempts at a straightforward comedy. He, of course, sets it inside of this spectacle setting, but it is a straight comedy. And to be honest, very unsuccessful to me at that, taking place right after Pearl Harbor attacks. The people of California are terrified that they may be the next target of the war from the Japanese military. From the opening scene, it really is unsuccessful at slapstick humor. I think something that Spielberg does really well in all of his movies is be able to blend lighthearted or funny moments of levity in between chaos and action or drama. But here it's nonstop humor attempt after another, and the entire film played out like a long string of Saturday Live sketches that may be due to the fact that you had three stars of SNL be a part of the center of the story, all with very talented and a very few funny lines, but none of that nothing like that would come together into a realized or even cohesive movie. There is even a dance sequence that takes place midway through that really was very well done, but by that point I was sort of losing my interest rapidly as it was. The third act set piece with the two planes flying and attacking each other was very well done and very cool as an action set piece, but felt it was too good genuinely for the rest of the film. As it stands, 1941 is definitely one of my least favorites of his movies and disappointing because he seemed like the ideal filmmaker to take a crack at something that's supposed to be funny, you know, intense action, and even patriotic. It just never all comes together like you would hope and really misses the mark. And here we are at the first and one of his more iconic stories in all of movie franchise history. It is Raiders of the Lost Ark, starring Harrison Ford as none other than Indiana Jones. Raiders is to this day my favorite of all the Indiana Jones films, which is not some hot take, but best encapsulates the character and the adventure that we have fun with with these movies. Harrison Ford is so charismatic and likable in this role. Every time he makes a quip or uses his knowledge to best someone, he never feels untouchable or indestructible, but just someone who is intelligent about what he does, naturally funny, and is ultimately just a human being like the rest of us. His humor never feels out of place for the sake to stop a story and make the audience laugh at cheap humor. I won't say which property or franchise it reminds me of, but it definitely does it better than a lot of those films do nowadays, with its in terms of its humor. What Raiders does well is balance the line between fiction and reality when it comes to terms with Indiana's missions and the lore behind these. What he's looking for is sometimes magical or mystical, but the world around never feels heightened or science fiction. He isn't jumping 20 feet from building to building and has you know, or has any superhuman abilities. He's just a regular guy getting through or out of these situations is and isn't a chosen one kind of trope. He's a professor and researcher who just wants these artifacts to go back to where they belong or to be in a museum so everyone can learn properly about its history. Those aspects of the character and action scenes are the heart of the story and character and what make them so endearing and engaging. Something Spielberg does so well throughout his phonography, and Indiana Jones really does feel like one of his more personal ones. 1982's E.T., of course, we all know and love, it's the story of an alien who is stranded on Earth by its species after visiting Earth as he is lost and befriends Elliot, a middle child of three, and a boy who just wants a friend. He feels too old to be his younger sister's friend and too young for his older brother's friend group. E.T. is one of the more straightforward and softest films out of Spielberg's filmography, but he has the master touch at making these stories compelling and never sappy, even if it is soft. Even if it is without a ton of conflict, there's still the emotional connection between these characters that brings out the emotions full stop. The special effects work here is absolutely terrific. From the practicality of ET himself being as animatronic that does not feel like it, or how they're able to make the kids fly in bikes at all feeling like a without feeling like a green screen. Those sequences, and I will fully stand by this, look better than 80% of VFX today, and this came out 44 years ago. If you want to dig into his stories and this one, you can enjoy on face value, but I do think what it really wants you to feel is for other people who are not like us to accept and not be afraid of always the unknown. The wonder he brings to an alien story is always astonishing, whether it is this or more serious close encounters. He always wants you to feel like the unknown is wondrous, scary, but ultimately bigger than ourselves, and that's something that not a lot of otherworldly stories can do, especially from the same director who can keep amazing and spro amazing and surprising all of us with the same types of stories. 1984 is Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is the follow-up to Raiders of the Lost Ark, but takes place just before Raiders, which I thought was odd and interesting. We follow Indy as he's on a quest to recover a stone that was taken from an Indian village and the cult that has taken it as it has sinister plans afoot. The biggest highlight here, aside from Harrison Ford and the action set pieces, of course, is Kiwi Kwan as short round, Jones' sidekick, he has helping him in his latest adventure. The charm on him has not left since he was a kid, and he brings a challenging aspect to his friendship that he didn't get to have as himself in the first film. However, this is my least favorite of the four Indiana Jones films that Spielberg directed. So I don't want to take too much time talking about it. I just don't think at the heart felt as strongly here, and while it certainly wasn't intentional, at least I'm sure it wasn't, it feels like they wanted to try to start making the Jones character into a bond archetype, which is okay, but then the part I don't buy is when he can't constantly falling in love or seducing women, that didn't feel like who he was established as in Raiders. He was charming, handsome, and ladies loved him, of course, but he was in love with Marion, someone he had a past with and wasn't concerned with the next woman like Bond typically is. It felt like the characterizations were off and not as heartful as Raiders, but in a vacuum, I do still like Temple of Doom at least 50-50 on it, and it's not bad per se, but for me it's personally the weakest of the four. 1985's the color purple. Spanning across 40 years of the life of one Sealy, this is the story of a black woman growing up and living in a trying and turbulent life at a time when women and especially black women were subjected to only be housewives or even looked down upon by others for being more. Led by an incredible performance from Whoopi Goldberg, she plays the adult Sealy as she has been married off for several years by this point. Also starring Danny Glover, Oprah Winfrey, Margaret Avery, Lawrence Fishburne, among many others, the entire ensemble is absolutely knockout. Oprah Winfrey in particular gives this incredibly larger than life performance as a sister-in-law of Seely. Her highest of highs and lowest of lows is tragic and changed with the time of a light switch going on and off. Her performance was a standout in my opinion, and Glover too. He had a simple job for about 90% of the film and was straightforward, but with drops of insight throughout that he works into the character as he does at the end. There was such tragedy in history that something like how he was raised up could make him like that. Of course, it's shot gorgeously with such amazing, natural, beautiful light pouring into their home and the fields. This particularly is emphasized at the ending with the sun against these characters in how it's resolved. I'm not going to spoil that part. But if you have not seen it, I strongly suggest you watch The Color Purple from 85. There was a remake back in 2023. I didn't see it. I might still see it now. I heard it was good. This is the only version I have seen, but 1985's The Color Purple is one I really, really do recommend. 1987's Empire of the Sun is about a young English boy living in Shanghai as the Japanese army is invading China in the midst of World War II. As the evacuation begins, he is separated from his parents and thrown into prisoner camps, starring Christian Bale, John Malkovich, and several other recognizable faces. However, Bale is a lead and the one that absolutely blows you away. He gives one of the greatest child performances I have ever seen. He perfectly encapsulates this childlike innocence within this privileged life he lives, but also has to grow up in this horrific situation and not lose any humanity as he starts to see around him and as he's growing up. While at the time the film plays by the numbers and some of the scenes are reminders why Spielberg can fill you with this scale and intimacy in one scene or shot. He never makes you feel like you're watching something with only spectacle, but provides it when it is needed. Or how he can fill you with hope in the midst of this war and horrible situation. It's not Spielberg's best war film to me personally by a mile, but an emotional film that shows the brutal sides of war and that isn't action-packed and shows that there is hope to not lose humanity in the middle of all this horrific situations. Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, we find Indiana in pursuit of rescuing his father after he was in search for the myth of the Holy Grail. His father, of course, played by Sean Connery. We even see the late River Phoenix as young Indiana Jones at the beginning of the film as his mini origin story. The Last Crusade was a big step back up for the characters and franchise. Here we feel the relationship between him and his father as we do the stakes to which this mission raises, but never goes off the rails from being true to who this character is and what Indiana Jones as a franchise is. Sean Connery as Henry Jones Jr. is perfectly cast here, using his charm to add to the relationship between him and his son, while not trying to overshadow, because by this point he'd already been the name for Bond in his career. And for Indy, his true spirit of wanting to do the right thing for people and humanity as a whole shines here. Do not let the idea of mystical power let into the hands of greedy or malicious agendas. He really cares for people as a whole. No surprise, but the entire sequence when they finally make it to the cave, right as they find the holy grail, is absolutely one of my favorites in the franchise. A moment of humanity in Indy wanting to preserve and keep the grail and convince himself of that or to let it go. It was really touching. We'll get to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but if this had been in the final Indie film, it was a great way to end it. 1989's Always stars Richard Dreyfus, Holly Hunter, and John Goodman. Pete, played by Dreyfus, and Al, played by Goodman, our best friends who are two aerial firefighters, and Dorinda, played by Hunter, is also a firefighter but doubles as the air traffic controller for their base, as she is also the girlfriend of Pete. After telling Dorinda that he's going to settle down from the Danger and move for to Colorado to take a safer job in the field. He is called out one last time to fight an abrupt fire. Then, as they are finishing the fight, Pete risks his life to save Al and ultimately dies as his plane explodes. Another Spielberg that ultimately was a weaker point of his for me. I still think it's good and I enjoy it, but didn't reach its full potential. There's a lot he wants to say about his own mortality, the relationships he wants to make the most of throughout one's life, and ultimately being able to let go of those that we loved and lost. I think what really fails itself is the small attempts and sprinkled throughout of humor, levity, the feeling it gives of looking like a lifetime movie, and at times being a little too sentimental to feel grounded or rooted in emotion. Yes, some of those moments did work for me. You know, you can't help but have it work for you. And like I said, I do ultimately enjoy it, but the concept was there to make something that I just didn't feel it personally reached. Now we come to the last film at this section in his career, 1991's Hook. It follows Peter Pan, now Peter Banning, in the real world all grown up, working as a lawyer with all his focus on his work and minimally on his family. He forgets his time in Neverland, and one day Captain Hook comes and kidnaps his children to seek revenge on him. I think I might have seen this as a child, but honestly do not remember it clearly or at all. If I did, 99% of it just escaped me. For the most part, I think this was really pretty enjoyable and a continuation of the story. Disney did later do something similar to this with Mark Forrester's Christopher Robin, which I think was more successful. I think a lot of the humor was more tailored to a child of that age, which is okay, but as a movie to watch, a lot of the humor really missed the mark for me. I love the story of Peter Pan and the original Disney film, despite its racist scenes of my own people. But the story is as old as time, it feels like, so doing something different with it feels worthy of praise. There is lots of magical wonder in this. Neverland feels mythical. It doesn't feel like a CGI slap fest. The sets all being built and contained so as not to get carried away with the focus. It all feels very lived in. Robin Williams is really great here. Dustin Hoffman as Hook. Not sure how I feel about that one. It's very bizarre, but credit to him for trying. Ultimately, it was fun and probably even more fun as a kid. I like to think this was Spielberg's own send-off to a certain kind of filmmaking he was doing and stories he was telling with E.T., Indiana Jones to an extent, Close Encounters always, and now Hook. He's he always keeps his sentiment sentimentality going forward. But here it felt like a step where he is letting go his messaging grow up a bit and get to a new stage in life. An era that feels a bit more not grounded, but something where you need to face realities, so to speak. The first film in his next era definitely supports this idea. Thank you for tuning in to part one of my director dive of Steven Spielberg. Look out for part two coming very soon. Disclosure day does come out soon, so it will be up way before then for sure. You can follow the show on Instagram, Blue Sky Threads. Like and subscribe, it helps us show out a lot. We're on Apple, Spotify, YouTube. And until next time, watch more movies.