In preparation for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, I watched for the first time the fourth Indiana Jones movie: The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (starring Harrison Ford and Shia LeBeouf). I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. That's a low rating since I consider myself a generous grader when it comes to movies. I thought that out of all of Stephen Spieberg's movies, The Kingdom of the Crystral Skull is his worst output as a movie director.
To back up ths claim, I checked his credits. He has directed over 35 feature films, and by my recollection I've seen 17 of them. Here is how I would rank the Spielberg movies I have seen:
- Saving Private Ryan (1998)
- Minority Report (2002)
- Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
- Jurassic Park (1993)
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
- Munich (2005)
- War of the Worlds (2005)
- Schindler's List (1993)
- Catch Me If You Can (2002)
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
- Poltergeist (1982)
- The Post (2017)
- Jaws (1975)
- The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Saving Private Ryan is a masterwork, and possibly also my favorite war movie of all time (close runner-ups: Inglourious Basterds and Full Metal Jacket). It is powerful and visually stunning. The cast is incredible, the music is rousing, and the action is unbeatable. The emotional punch from this movie is intense. It was easy to select this as my number one favorite Spielberg movie.
From this list, you can probably skip the last four movies, but the rest I would recommend, and the first 5 are must-see. Some might dispute Poltergeist (1982) since the credited director is Tobe Hooper, but I've always considered Poltergeist a Spielberg directed movie (and he was the writer).
Of the Spielberg movies I haven't watched, these are on my watch list: The Terminal (2004), Lincoln (2012), and Ready Player One (2018). How would you rank your Spielberg movie list?
