When I was a young boy, I used to think Steven Spielberg was the only director purely because every film I used to watch had his name somewhere in the credits ;D
He has that sort of impact on children, he makes great family films and popcorn flicks. However, he is also capable of making a dark adult film so he does have an impressive range of abilities as director. I like his visual style too, and often he has some nice visual flairs. Anyone that rips on Spielberg doesn’t know what they’re talking about because his filmography alone is enough proof of his mastery of the art form in addition to his place as one of the top 10-15 directors.
It is apparent however, that he is fairly inconsistent and hardly hits the extremes in terms of great filmmaking and bad. A lot of his films are mediocre, but at the end of the day they get the job done. It pretty much sums it up - he can get the job done, though don’t expect anything too spectacular. I guess a major criticism is that he isn’t a writer, and therefore can’t completely be praised for his films.
I do think the likes of Tarantino, Scorsese, Leone, Coen’s and Kubrick are levels above him.
I think Schindler’s List is a masterpiece and Saving Private Ryan, Jaws and Munich follow closely behind.
- Schindler’s List
- Saving Private Ryan
- Munich
- Jaws
- War of the Worlds
- Jurassic Park
- The Lost World: Jurassic Park
- Catch Me If You Can
- E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
- The Terminal
- Hook
- Minority Report
(Although I’ve seen all Indiana Jones films, I can’t remember them enough to rate)
1 = Masterpiece, 2 = Great, 3 = Good, 4 = Ok, 5 = Below Average