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Steven Spielberg's Movies, Ranked Worst to Best
Rolling Stone ^ | October 13, 2015 | Bilge Ebiri

Posted on 07/09/2016 1:43:26 PM PDT by EveningStar

There's a reason why Steven Spielberg is still the undisputed King of Hollywood. Over the course of a nearly five-decade-long career, he has perfected and/or inaugurated any number of cinematic movements and innovations. Coming of age as one of the "movie brats" – the generation of filmmakers who transformed American cinema in the Sixties and Seventies – Spielberg also helped kick off Hollywood's blockbuster culture with Jaws in 1975 (and then sent that culture into overdrive with the one-two punch of Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T. the Extra Terrestrial in 1981 and 1982).

The success of such movies and their imitators has been identified by many as one of the reasons why American film culture took a nosedive in the 1980s, but his career has always alternated between blockbusters and more serious fare. He has tackled tough subjects – the Holocaust in Schindler's List, WWII in Saving Private Ryan, terrorism in Munich, the Civil War and slavery in Lincoln – while somehow always managing to make films that also work as popular entertainments along the way.

(Excerpt) Read more at rollingstone.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: cinema; film; movies; spielberg; stevenspielberg
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To: Demiurge2

True, especially the detached, but still lit, ferris wheel.


21 posted on 07/09/2016 3:48:05 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: plain talk
They rate ET high when it is a crap forgotten movie.

Um, isn't it remembered for guns-to-walkie-talkies ridiculously stupid re-edit/re-release?

Not that it should rank high, either way...

22 posted on 07/09/2016 3:49:07 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: Henchster

And here are my rankings of the ones I’ve seen:

Duel
Jaws
Hook
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Saving Private Ryan
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Jurassic Park
The Lost World
Twilight Zone
1941
Always
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
ET


23 posted on 07/09/2016 3:50:06 PM PDT by Henchster (Free Republic - the BEST site on the web!)
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To: Donglalinger

Agreed. As I read the list I kept asking myself: “Who’s the day that put this list together?”


24 posted on 07/09/2016 3:51:04 PM PDT by Roger Kaputnik (Just because I'm paranoid doesn't prove that they aren't out to get me.)
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To: EveningStar

“Used Cars” (executive producer, Steven Spielberg) not included....and easily one of the funniest movies I have ever seen.

“That’s just too F’n high!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqHZWdFVyyQ


25 posted on 07/09/2016 3:56:56 PM PDT by newfreep
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To: Henchster
"The Terminal"?

What happened to the "Rules of FR"?

Where is Laz?


26 posted on 07/09/2016 4:02:32 PM PDT by BwanaNdege
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To: Henchster

My two cents, half-price:

Raiders of the Lost Ark: GREAT

Jaws: boring except for the final boat sequence, which was GREAT

Schindler’s List: GOOD

Catch Me If You Can: NEVER SAW IT BECAUSE IT LOOKED GAY

ET: GREAT WHEN I WAS 10, CRAP WHEN I WAS 20

Minority Report: GOOD

Empire of the Sun: PRETTY DARN GOOD

Lincoln: NEVER SAW IT

Duel: MEH

Amistad: GOOD

AI Artificial Intelligence: OK

Close Encounters of the Third Kind: GOOD

Sugarland Express: NEVER SAW IT

Adventures of Tintin: SURPRISINGLY GOOD

War Horse: GOOD

Jurassic Park: GOOD

Color Purple: NEVER SAW IT

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: GREAT (less so than Raiders though)

War of the Worlds: MEDIOCRE, FULL OF RIDICULOUSNESS

Saving Private Ryan: GREAT

Munich: SAW IT, NOT MEMORABLE BECAUSE I CAN’T REMEMBER IT

The Lost World: NEVER SAW IT

Hook: SAPPY BS

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: GREAT (less so than Raiders)

Always: VERY GOOD

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: SOULLESS CRAP - HE AND LUCAS RAPED INDY (/Southpark)

The Terminal: NEVER SAW IT

Twilight Zone: CRAP - HE OBVIOUSLY NEVER “GOT” THE ORIGINAL SHOW

1941: GOOFY


27 posted on 07/09/2016 4:16:44 PM PDT by fr_freak
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To: fr_freak

Is 1941 where John Belushi and the Germans bomb Pearl Harbor?


28 posted on 07/09/2016 4:20:53 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: newfreep

agree 100%


29 posted on 07/09/2016 5:09:34 PM PDT by chasio649
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To: Demiurge2

“HORRYWOOD!!!!!!!”


30 posted on 07/09/2016 5:33:47 PM PDT by MGG
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To: EveningStar

Speilberg is a leftist dick who makes Thomas Kincaid movies and along with other Hollywood lefties who see America as a long pageant of social injustice unless we’re fighting Nazis and who ever election and GOP president work sharply with propaganda against us

Fuzzy freepers can have him

I can stand his WWII movies but even there he editorializes

Maybe if I were stupid like the average American moviegoer today


31 posted on 07/09/2016 5:45:45 PM PDT by wardaddy (for Muslim wives "no" means anal)
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To: MGG

Thank You!

I really enjoyed 1941.


32 posted on 07/09/2016 5:57:12 PM PDT by Conan the Librarian (The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
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To: EveningStar

I can rank all Spielberg movies without even seeing teh titles. Just show me the year they were made and I will rank them. After, the movies just got worse year after year until present. Discounting Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, it was an almost endless slide of decay into mediocrity and then trash.

Here is my ranking because their’s is pure s#!^. I mean what lobotomized idiot would but Close Encounters #15 or Saving Private Ryan at #20, while putting dogs like Catch Me If You Can and Minority Report in the top 5.

Idiots. 22 year old idiots.

1981
‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ - Spielberg’s ultimate masterpiece

1982
‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial’ - Contender for his masterpiece

1998
‘Saving Private Ryan’ - The best war film ever made

1977
‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ - Changed other sci fi movies going forward

1975
‘Jaws’ - Beyond brilliant

1993
Schindler’s List’ - Gut wrenching, like watching a documentary

1989
‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’ - Astoundingly good movie that redeemed the trilogy after Temple of Doom

1993
‘Jurassic Park’ - Raised the bar for family horror with its special effects, pacing and comedy. Like JAWS for dinosaurs.

1982
Poltergeist - see above for Jurassic Park

1989
‘Always’ - heartfelt and touching

1984
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’ - a rare miss and misjudgment

1985
‘The Color Purple’ - Simply “works”

1971
‘Duel’ - Brilliant, surprisingly effective for the budget

1974
‘The Sugarland Express’ - Again, just way ahead of its budget

1987
‘Empire of the Sun’ - Draggy but watchable

1979
‘1941’ - mediocre but better than the trash that follows after he fell off a cliff.

‘A.I. Artificial Intelligence’ (2001)

2002
‘Minority Report’ - Draggy, stupid, insulting and junk.

2002
Catch Me If You Can’ - A thoroughly vapid movie where the criminal is made to be a James Bondish hero. The real man was brilliant but I would have prefered a real movie on his life, not a damn cartoon.

2005
‘Munich’ - Watchable and realistic looking. I say “looking” BECAUSE NOTHING IN THE FILM ACTUALLY HAPPENED IN THE REAL EVENT OR AFTERMATH. Spielberg made the entire thing up, except for the fact Jewish hostages were taken by Palestinians. Complete tripe.

1997
‘The Lost World: Jurassic Park’ - It is obvious he just did it for the money.

2005
‘War of the Worlds’ - complete and unadulterated gargage whenever the alien spaceships were not in the scene. The scenes with the aliens were mostly wonderful and terrifying, ferry boats notwithstanding. Everything between those scenes was filler. Low-grade, mind-numbing, intelligence-insulting filler.

2004
‘The Terminal’ - a boring, laborious, unwatchable piece of trash that was torture to sit through. Any movie that can ruin a performance by Catherine Zeta Jones is despicable indeed.

2008
‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ - George Lucas is an idiot.

I haven’t seen Hook, Amistad, The War Horse, Tintin, or Lincoln, so I can’t speak to these. There is a reason I haven’t seen them. I refuse to watch a Steven Spieberg movie again without recommendations from at least 2 close and trusted friends or relatives.

Spielberg is dead to me. Until the Mighty Eight HBO mini series comes out. I don’t think he will screw that up, but he certainly COULD.


33 posted on 07/09/2016 6:01:05 PM PDT by Freedom_Is_Not_Free (The Confederate Flag is the new "N" word.)
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To: Donglalinger

Oops. Damn spell check!

day = fag


34 posted on 07/09/2016 7:34:29 PM PDT by Roger Kaputnik (Just because I'm paranoid doesn't prove that they aren't out to get me.)
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To: EveningStar

As I said in my bio (since removed) I spent 3 months on the set of AI. Met Spielberg a couple of times. The craziest was election night when he was claiming that Gore was going to wipe up Bush in various states. Finally had to walk outside to calm down.


35 posted on 07/09/2016 8:30:02 PM PDT by Allen In Texas Hill Country
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To: EveningStar

Fandango didn’t make the list.


36 posted on 07/09/2016 8:37:37 PM PDT by walkerk
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To: CrazyIvan

He didn’t direct that.


37 posted on 07/10/2016 4:42:22 AM PDT by Borges
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To: wardaddy

Took the words right out of my mouth.
I’ll go for Clint Eastwood’s work every day of the week!


38 posted on 07/10/2016 8:24:15 AM PDT by AllAmericanGirl44 (If you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never changes.)
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To: Allen In Texas Hill Country

AI made me tear up

The longing by a child to be loved

Earths strongest emotion

Speilberg sadly is every bit the stereotype Abbie Hoffman or Mark Rudd were

Or Lester Maddox or George Wallace

He’s smarmy and social justice is his creed

But he’s not open minded about the religion his wife was born with is he?

Like most leftists traditional America haters who speak tolerance and open mindedness

It ends at the end of their nose

Good thing for Nazis and Imperial Japan

He’d never have a foe to juxtapose us against in a good light

I’ve been to that cemetary in Normandy in SPR

anybody else notice the point of that shot

Simple Stephen pulling heartstrings like he does with propaganda and the masses drink it up

It’s his movie and the studios cash but it’s irritating that they can’t be honest


39 posted on 07/10/2016 11:51:38 AM PDT by wardaddy (for Muslim wives "no" means anal)
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To: Borges; DollyCali; Perdogg; All
The movies are listed in chronological order by release date.

Using the standard 4 star film critic scale, these are my own personal ratings:

'Duel' (1971) ****
'The Sugarland Express' (1974) ***1/2
'Jaws' (1975) ****
'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' (1977) ***1/2
'1941' (1979) *1/2
'Raiders of the Lost Ark' (1981) ***1/2
'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial' (1982) ****
'Twilight Zone: The Movie' (1983) Saw it but don't remember it.
'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' (1984) Haven't seen it.
'The Color Purple' (1985)  Haven't seen it.
'Empire of the Sun' (1987)  Haven't seen it.
'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' (1989) **1/2
'Always' (1989) Haven't seen it.
'Hook' (1991) *
'Jurassic Park' (1993) ***1/2
'Schindler's List' (1993) Haven't seen it.
'The Lost World: Jurassic Park' (1997) Haven't seen it.
'Amistad' (1997) Haven't seen it.
'Saving Private Ryan' (1998) Haven't seen it.
'A.I. Artificial Intelligence' (2001) Haven't seen it.
'Minority Report' (2002) ***1/2
'Catch Me If You Can' (2002) Haven't seen it.
'The Terminal' (2004) Haven't seen it.
'War of the Worlds' (2005) ***
'Munich' (2005) Haven't seen it.
'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' (2008) Haven't seen it.
'The Adventures of Tintin' (2011) Haven't seen it.
'War Horse' (2011) Haven't seen it.
'Lincoln' (2012) Haven't seen it.

40 posted on 07/10/2016 1:23:27 PM PDT by EveningStar
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