Spielberg Series Intro!

3 min readApr 26, 2023

Steven Spielberg using a movie camera or just pretending to be using it

It’s time for a big movie-watching project. I’m going to do every movie directed by Steven Spielberg.

My thing on this page is simple: I watch a movie, generally one I’ve seen before, and I type up notes as I’m watching. I find myself remembering things I’d forgotten, or noticing things I hadn’t noticed, or just re-enjoying (or re-not-enjoying) various bits. It’s like a live-blog.

I correct typos en masse before posting.

Who, we might all be wondering, is the target audience for these indulgent writings of mine? Well, it might help if you know the movie I’m writing about pretty well, and if it’s a movie you want to keep thinking about. That might make you want to read what I’m typing as I’m watching it. But also if you haven’t seen the movie before, don’t mind having it spoiled, and think you might be amused by my reactions, then you might enjoy perusing my notes.

What inspired this big Spielberg project was the news that Netflix is shutting down its DVD shipping service. I never stopped subscribing to this service, although it has become very normal for me to ignore it for months at a time while my current title gathers dust next to my TV. Anyway, we have a few months of it left, so I’m going to use it to ensure I can access every Steven Spielberg movie that I don’t already own.

I’m including Duel, and I’ll be starting with that. Sometimes Duel is not included in lists of Spielberg feature films because it is a made-for-TV movie. But I’m including it because I feel like it.

I recently watched all of the Jurassic Park/World movies, and I probably won’t feel like doing new reactions to the Spielberg ones, so maybe just go read those reactions here and here.

I have seen every one of these movies; the majority of them I saw during their original theatrical release going back to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. However, I remember very little about some of them, such as The Sugarland Express, Empire of the Sun, Always, and even Hook.

Steven Spielberg is not my favorite director. He’s probably not in my top five. But he’s probably in my top ten. I haven’t worked out those rankings, but I have long considered the Coen brothers to be my favorite directors. Some others that I would definitely rank above Spielberg include David Fincher, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Peter Jackson. Spielberg’s filmography is diverse, but most people think of him as a director of mass-appeal blockbusters. My company in the movie-nerd circles of the world tends to pay more attention to artsy auteurs, and I like artistically challenging movies as well. But I appreciate the ethic of a filmmaker who is earnestly trying to communicate well. Sometimes this comes across as formulaic, but even when it’s formulaic I believe it comes from a place of genuine inspiration on Spielberg’s part. Even if E.T. has never stirred my emotions the way it did for so many, I am convinced that it comes from real emotions and not a greedy desire to crank out a hit Hollywood picture.

In much the same way as I appreciate people who are skilled and conscientious communicators in real life, I respect when a filmmaker takes responsibility for holding my interest and getting information across. I’ll try to speak up about the moments where he’s successful at that, but I’ll also call out when it seems hokey, contrived, or forced.

I’m watching them in the order that they were released. As promised, I’ll start with: Duel

Jump to a movie:

Spielberg Series Intro!

Written by Zawmer Movienotes