“The worse the world gets… magic will give us hope, and that hope will cause us to be proactive. I think that’s what movies can give people. It can give people hope that there will be a reason to fight on to the next day.” So said director Steven Spielberg during the Cannes press conference following the premiere of his newest film, an adaptation of Roald Dahl‘s “The BFG” (our review) which opens this weekend. It’s a philosophy on life and filmmaking that also points to a duality across all of Spielberg’s nearly five decades of directing. He’s best known as the maker of family-friendly movie “magic” —sometimes to an overly sentimentalized degree, as his detractors suggest— but he has also made a significant number of serious films that do indeed show the world at its worst.
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When the Playlist last attempted to assess Spielberg’s filmography in depth (which was back in 2011, around the release of “War Horse” and “Lincoln“), this schism led us to split his career into “serious” films and “spectacle” films. But this time, we’re looking at his oeuvre as one continuum and running down all 30 feature films that Spielberg has directed in order of our preference. However light and sweet and fun many of its entries, his is one of the most influential and important canons of work in the history of cinema, as Spielberg is as much as anyone responsible for the shape of the U.S. film industry today, and for the early film experiences of at least two whole generation of humans. So here we go: Steven Spielberg’s 30 films —be they magical, melancholy and/or mythic— ranked.
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30. “The Twilight Zone: The Movie” (1983) (segment: “Kick The Can”)
Originally, Spielberg’s segment for “The Twilight Zone: The Movie” was a new piece written by “Twilight Zone” regular and “Duel” collaborator Richard Matheson, involving a neighborhood bully who gets his comeuppance when the ghosts of Halloween spring to life. The creatures were going to be created by “Poltergeist“‘s Craig Reardon, but ultimately the idea was scrapped after the tragic death of Vic Morrow and two young Vietnamese children on set for John Landis‘ segment. Spielberg reportedly was so upset that he didn’t want to make the movie the film at all, but was contractually obliged. His first thought was to remake the classic episode “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” but again, feeling it was too dark for a film marked by very real horror, he opted instead to make “Kick the Can,” based on an episode no one much gives a shit about. The resulting segment reflects this halfhearted approach: A bunch of senior citizens are given a chance to return to their youth, anchored by a nimble performance by Scatman Crothers, but it’s the epitome of all the things Spielberg’s critics make him out to be —saccharine, full of phony uplift and sherbert-y cinematography. And for all that sentiment, you don’t feel a damn thing.
29. “Always” (1989)
In a career liberally peppered with minor to mid-sized missteps, Spielberg’s misguided 1989 romantic drama “Always” is perhaps his biggest feature length blunder. In this remake of 1943’s “A Guy Named Joe” starring Spencer Tracy and Irene Dunne, Spielberg ditches the WWII setting in favor of a backdrop of aerial forest fire-fighters. Richard Dreyfuss plays a cocky pilot who dies in an accident and leaves behind friends and loved ones, only to return as a ghost to watch over everyone —it is as woefully sappy as that synopsis makes it sound. Holly Hunter plays the bereaved gal he leaves behind, and her one-note character reeks of being written by a total male narcissist (she’s there to cry; Dreyfuss’ ghost is there to go “gosh, she really did love me”). John Goodman plays Dreyfuss’ buddy, and in her last onscreen appearance, Audrey Hepburn plays an angel-like figure who guides him towards coming to terms with his death and the loved ones he must learn to let go (cue retching). For such an accomplished filmmaker, Spielberg is tin-eared to the human experience here, and only during one 3-minute action set-piece does the 2-hour film come to life.
28. “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” (2008)
This fourth entry in the ‘Indiana Jones‘ saga had been in development, at least theoretically, since the early ’90s, as an all-out alien invasion movie. But after “Independence Day,” Spielberg tried to talk George Lucas out of this line of thinking. Lucas did modify his original intent, but sadly, it was along the lines of a historical rewriting of History Channel’s “Ancient Aliens.” He also refused to use the version of the script by Frank Darabont, which had a similar story (Indiana Jones reunites with a young man later revealed to be his son, and they journey to South America in search of a mystic treasure), but richer characterization (including a great scene where Indy has to choose between all the knowledge in the cosmos or the love of Marion), better villains and more dynamic set pieces, notably one harrowing aerial dogfight. The “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” that was released was mangled, awkward and clumsy, with gaps in logic you could fly a UFO through and a tragically wasted but game Cate Blanchett. It’s a painful experience both in itself and in how it sullies the reputation of the preceding Indiana Jones films.
27. “1941” (1979)
“I will spend the rest of my life disowning this movie,” Spielberg once said to the New York Times about “1941,” his first major folly. But how bad is it, really? Featuring a stacked cast in Dan Aykroyd, Ned Beatty, John Belushi, and John Candy among others, the answer really depends on your tolerance for comedies that aren’t funny. Kicking off with a parody of the director’s own “Jaws,” the film tracks the fallout after a decision to bomb Hollywood that fractures the narrative into myriad little stories: Wally (Bobby Di Cicco) would rather dance than fight; Captain Birkhead (Tim Matheson) pines for the loins of every woman he sees; Ward Douglas (Beatty) is forced to house an anti-aircraft military weapon; Wild Bill Kelso (Belushi) accidentally blows up a gasoline station… and so on. There are strong moments, but nothing meshes, comic timing is seemingly absent, and the filmmaker’s penchant for theatrical set pieces and explosions only makes things worse. Yet it was really only a flop in comparison to his preceding films, and is a very competently constructed movie —despite, or perhaps because of that, even “cult status” is a little too forgiving.
26. “Hook” (1991)
A case of Spielberg indulging his inner child a bit too much, the garish and unconvincing “Hook” finds an initially relatively restrained Robin Williams as aging lawyer Peter Banning, who has no time for fun or his family. He’s forgotten that he spent his childhood as the Peter Pan of J.M. Barrie’s stories, flying through Neverland with the Lost Boys. But when his children are kidnapped by Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman, who makes a meal out of the elaborate scenery), Peter has to return to Neverland and learn how to be a child again to save his son and daughter. The “keep the child inside alive” themes are skywritten, and if the excess sometimes pays off (like in the Oscar-nominated set design), it mostly doesn’t (the film runs a nap-inducing 144 minutes). Rife with Spielbergian tropes including absent fathers, childlike wonder and an abundance of John Williams-fueled sappiness, it feels a bit like a musical at times, which is likely due to the fact that Williams had written a Peter Pan musical and used the themes here. “Hook” is overstuffed and undercooked, and even the good gags, like calling someone a “nearsighted gynecologist” can’t compensate for slightly creepy dullness overall.