The best Steven Spielberg movies

How Spielberg changed film

Before "Jaws," summer was Hollywood’s off-season. Steven Spielberg’s 1975 thriller changed all that, launching the era of the summer blockbuster. From "E.T." to "Jurassic Park," Spielberg’s films redefined how stories were told, how audiences reacted, and how studios marketed.

Steven Spielberg’s movies have a unique style

Despite their distinct genres, Spielberg films often have much in common with one another. For example, supernatural phenomena, middle-class values, and camera techniques—including long, uninterrupted shots and a dolly-zoom method called the "Spielberg Face.”

Spielberg was inspired by Hitchcock, Kubrick, and other visionary directors

The influence of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” and Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” can be seen in the cinematography and tone of Spielberg classics like “Jaws” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

Many of Spielberg's films were inspired by childhood experiences

Steven Spielberg was inspired to make “Saving Private Ryan” after seeing the toll war took on his father’s generation. Similarly, he felt called to direct “Schindler’s List” by the Holocaust survivors he met when he was only three years old.

A young Spielberg was changed by DeMille’s ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’

The first movie Steven Spielberg saw was Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Greatest Show on Earth.” The movie’s on-screen train wreck frightened yet fascinated the young Spielberg—illustrating the visceral impact movies have on their audiences.

An in-depth interview with Steven Spielberg

In this conversation with the Ringer's Sean Fennessy, the esteemed director reflects on his early life and how it inspired a career in moviemaking. In particular, Spielberg notes the impact of seeing Disney's "Fantasia" at a young age and how it terrified him in a way he found fascinating.

Spielberg worked on ‘Schindler’s List’ and ‘Jurassic Park’ at the same time

Seemingly polar opposites, two of Steven Spielberg’s most popular movies were created in the same time period. Spielberg would shoot “Schindler’s List” during the day, then work on special-effects editing for “Jurassic Park” at night. The movies won a combined 10 Oscars at the 1994 Academy Awards.

Even at the height of his popularity, Spielberg felt like an outsider

By 1992, Spielberg was already one of the most successful names in Hollywood, but he had trouble kicking the alienation he’d felt as a kid. In this interview from 1992, on the cusp of the biggest year of his career, he talks about that feeling and how it motivated him.

John Williams has scored 29 of Spielberg’s films

A significant part of Spielberg’s style is how music is used. The overwhelming majority of that music is composed by John Williams. The duo first collaborated on 1974’s “The Sugarland Express.”

The 31 best science fiction films ever

This list refreshingly starts off with the best first—1968's "2001: A Space Odyssey," Stanley Kubrick's cerebral, futuristic icon. Coming in at 31st is Disney's "Wall-E."

'You shouldn't dream your film, you should make it!'

- Filmmaker Steven Spielberg (1946-present)

Critics rank the best movie franchises of all time

Franchises and sequels make up a growing percentage of annual films at the box office and aren't typically associated with critical acclaim. However, many franchises over the decades have achieved high praise from critics. This list compiled from...

Plenty of groundbreaking films never won an Oscar

The Academy Awards may look to celebrate the best films in a given year, but they sometimes miss the mark. This list breaks down 15 important movies that didn't win a single Oscar, including early classics like "Frankenstein" and "Double Indemnity," New Hollywood landmarks like "Easy Rider" and "Taxi Driver," and pop culture phenoms like "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Reservoir Dogs."

The 25 most important stunt scenes of the 21st Century

The Academy Awards will finally recognize stunt design at its 2028 ceremony, leading one writer to gather the best stunt sequences from the century, highlighting jaw-dropping scenes from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "The Matrix," and more.

The 100 greatest cinemas in the world

Sure, it's convenient to stream a movie at home, but we believe there's no better way to see a great film than at a great theater. This extensive list explores the best of the best, featuring profiles of a Pennsylvania drive-in, an Icelandic arthouse, and many other amazing venues.

Some of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters were designed by Drew Struzan

The artist is responsible for iconic posters advertising "Indiana Jones," "Hook," "The Goonies," and more. His distinctive style—sometimes painted by hand, sometimes drawn with an airbrush—defined the era of the family-friendly family blockbuster.

Ten of the most horrifying moments in film

Many films in the genre lean into gratuitous horror, putting off the average viewer. This list of ten moments highlights particularly terrifying scenes from films that otherwise met with mainstream acclaim, from "Mulholland Drive" to "The Lord of the Rings."

In 1980, Steven Spielberg added a scene depicting the interior of an alien spaceship to a rerelease of 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' at the studio's request, but later regretted the decision, believing it depleted the movie's enchanting mystery.

The greatest satirical films of all time

This list of satires from the silver screen runs the gamut: There’s a send-up of the music industry (“This is Spinal Tap”), a zombie-filled treatise on consumerism (“Dawn of the Dead”), and an oft-misunderstood analysis of masculinity (“Fight Club”), among several other classic critiques.

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

The best Bruce Springsteen songs, ranked

The best Bruce Springsteen songs, rankedRock critic and Springsteen biographer Steven Hyden ranked 100 of the Boss's best songs, from the top 10 hits to the obscure deep cuts, pulling from every era of the songwriter's illustrious career.

The best episodes of 'The Simpsons,' ranked

In its almost four decades on the air, "The Simpsons" has played a role in shaping the arc of American comedy. This list from The Ringer ranks the show's episodes that played the biggest role in that process, featuring exemplary scripts from Conan O'Brien, Greg Daniels, and more.

A statistical breakdown of the global film industry

Dive into this collection of stats and infographics explaining the current state of both Hollywood and the global film industry. The page covers a variety of topics, including independent film production, box office revenue, global film markets, movie-going demographics and more. It also addresses the relatively new phenomenon of home video streaming.

A catalog of every film with a post-credits scene

A crowd-maintained database spanning film, TV, and games, the site flags whether any given title has a "stinger"—hidden sequel teasers, outtakes, or jokes. "Stinger" is the fan shorthand; you'll also hear "credit cookie" or "post-credits scene."

The best podcasts about Old Hollywood

If you’re intrigued by the gossip and scandals of Hollywood’s early years, you’ll want to check out this Vanity Fair list of some of the best podcasts on the topic. Some, like Karina Longworth’s "You Must Remember This," cover a different event from Hollywood history with every episode. Others follow a single topic over the course of an entire season, like "No Place Like Home", which explores the 2005 theft of the original "Wizard of Oz" ruby slippers.

The best jazz albums of all time

Diving into the history of jazz can be intimidating, but this list is a helpful guide, highlighting the best of the best, with titanic recordings from Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Alice Coltrane, Oscar Peterson, and more.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

See these 16 pieces of art evoking phobias of snakes, flying, spiders, and more. 

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

See a ranking of the best (and worst) Federal Reserve Chairs since 1914 out of the 16 men and women who have held the office since.

Against his wishes, Albert Einstein's brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states, ranging from a complete ban on non-professional fireworks in Massachusetts to states with more lax rules like Indiana.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by more than 1.5 million Muslims each year.