Steven Spielberg

1h 30m

A TV movie about a man and a truck, and the reason he got Jaws.

1h 50m

His theatrical debut. A road movie with the Spielberg camera already fully formed.

2h 4m

Invented the summer blockbuster, largely because the shark kept breaking.

2h 15m

Awe rather than threat. The other way he does science fiction.

1h 58m

His only outright flop, and a comedy almost nobody defends.

1h 55m

Very nearly a perfect adventure film.

1h 55m

The one that made him the most bankable director alive.

1h 58m

The dark one, and the reason PG-13 exists.

2h 34m

His first serious bid for dramatic credibility, and eleven nominations without a win.

2h 33m

A boy in a Japanese internment camp, and a thirteen-year-old Christian Bale. Badly underrated.

2h 2m

A romantic fantasy about a dead pilot. The one even completists forget.

2h 7m

Connery as Indy's father, and the best of the sequels.

2h 22m

Reviewed badly, loved anyway by everyone who was nine at the time.

2h 7m

The effects still hold up because he barely shows you them.

3h 15m

The same year as Jurassic Park. Won him Best Director.

2h 35m

A courtroom drama about a slave-ship revolt, overshadowed by everything around it.

2h 9m

Darker, meaner, and a T. rex loose in San Diego.

2h 49m

The Omaha Beach opening rewrote how war is filmed.

2h 26m

Inherited from Kubrick after his death, and still argued over. The strangest thing he has made.

2h 21m

Light on its feet, and quietly one of his most rewatched.

2h 25m

His best science fiction, and unnervingly accurate about interfaces.

2h 8m

Tom Hanks stuck in an airport. Minor, and pleasant enough.

2h 44m

His most morally uncomfortable film, and the better for it.

1h 56m

A post-9/11 alien invasion, and far bleaker than its reputation.

2h 2m

Nineteen years later, with the Nazis swapped for Soviets.

1h 47m

Motion capture, and a dazzling single-take chase.

2h 26m

Unashamedly old-fashioned, and the most sentimental thing on this list.

2h 30m

Day-Lewis, and a film almost entirely about procedure.

2h 22m

A Cold War negotiation, written partly by the Coens. Quietly excellent.

1h 57m

Roald Dahl, and his last collaboration with screenwriter Melissa Mathison.

1h 56m

The Pentagon Papers, shot fast and released faster.

2h 20m

A film about nostalgia by the man most of the nostalgia is for.

2h 36m

His first musical at seventy-four, and better than the remake had any right to be.

2h 31m

His own childhood, and the film to watch last once you know the rest.

Runtime unknown

A global first-contact story from a Spielberg idea, scripted by David Koepp.