Considered by many to be the greatest film director of all time, Steven Spielberg has overseen the creation of 39 movies, including his latest, Disclosure Day. So, let’s answer the question people debate endlessly: which one is the best? Our experts compiled their personal rankings to produce the following list. Here are the best Steven Spielberg movies, ranked.
Honorable Mention: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Sam Connon: Raiders of the Lost Ark will always get the credit for launching the Indiana Jones franchise, but The Last Crusade is such an incredible endpoint for the iconic fedora-wearing archeologist. While Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Dial of Destiny certainly exist, those two entries suffer from too much time off, resulting in excessive story baggage that robs the characters and audience of important developments. The Last Crusade came at the perfect time in Spielberg’s career, giving him a chance to wrap up a trilogy comprised of films that are both self-contained and tell a cohesive overarching story. It has the same raw adventurous spirit as both Raiders and Temple of Doom, on top of raised stakes and scale alike. Adding Sean Connery as Indy’s father brought a much-needed new dynamic to a series that couldn’t go back to the well for yet another standard love interest. The humor is on point, while the escape and chase scenes are as tangible and delightful as ever. That all leads up to the final sequence in pursuit of the Holy Grail, which delivers on some of the greatest character and thematic work of Spielberg’s career.
Honorable Mention: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Bryan Armetta: After decades of smash hits, Close Encounters of the Third Kind isn’t quite as famous compared to some other Spielberg classics. That’s a shame; this deserves mention with Jaws and Jurassic Park among the director’s best crowd-pleasers. The headliner here is Richard Dreyfuss, a man obsessed with something out there, even while family and friends question his sanity. Years later, it’s easy to see some of Roy Neary’s stubbornness and curiosity as a reflection of Spielberg’s own decision to become a filmmaker. Much like Jaws, this one is great because it leaves viewers wanting more. We don’t get a great look at the extraterrestrials until the film’s climax. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. The beauty in this one is the feeling that something bigger than one’s self out there in the stars. Nobody does a cosmic journey, or aliens in general, better than Spielberg. Rather than fear of the unknown, he wanted to create a picture that invoked wonder and fascination. This seminal 1977 masterpiece succeeds on all accounts.
Top 5 Steven Spielberg Movies, Ranked
Find full analysis for these rankings below!
| Ranking | Steven Spielberg Movie |
| #5 | Schindler’s List |
| #4 | Raiders of the Lost Ark |
| #3 | Jaws |
| #2 | Jurassic Park |
| #1 | Saving Private Ryan |
#5: Schindler’s List
Blake Krass: The early part of Steven Spielberg’s career was defined by summer blockbusters, sci-fi thrillers and adventure films like Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T. the Extra Terrestrial. In 1993, he delivered one of the best summer blockbusters ever, Jurassic Park. However, just six months after delivering the fun, family adventure film, Spielberg showed there was another level to his greatness with Schindler’s List. This was a deeply personal film for Spielberg, whose grandmother taught English to Holocaust survivors during his childhood. Spielberg’s deeply emotional storytelling and ability to get the best out of brilliant actors like Ralph Fiennes, Liam Neeson and Ben Kingsley took his legendary career to new heights. The bold choice to shoot almost the entire film in black-and-white was one of the many choices that so few filmmakers would have been brave enough to make. However, the lasting scene of the movie was not even really part of the movie. It is the final scene, where the real-life “Schindler Jews” and their families lay rocks on Oskar Schindler’s grave in present day. It is one of the most emotional scenes ever put to film, and again, a choice that only Spielberg would be bold enough to make. This film was Spielberg’s first and only film to win Best Picture at the Oscars, and it was his first of two career wins for Best Director.
#4: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Andy Silva: The poster for Raiders of the Lost Ark heralds the 1981 film as “The Return of Great Adventure.” That’s true, but I think it actually undersells how this film became an instant classic. Amid the success of Star Wars, George Lucas pitched Spielberg on his homage to early 20th century adventure serials of his youth — one that he promised would be better than a James Bond film. To me, Raiders is the perfect summer blockbuster — it’s got action, adventure, humor, romance and just a pinch of the supernatural. Harrison Ford effortlessly balances all the facets of Dr. Jones, exuding swagger, wit, vulnerability and even the slightly darker, opportunistic tones one doesn’t normally associate with a leading man. Whether it’s fights across Cairo or the legendary truck chase across the desert, Raiders puts the pedal to the metal and never lets up. Few heroes have ever made globe-trotting adventure look this much fun.
#3: Jaws
Bryan Armetta: Jaws is Spielberg’s first, and still possibly his finest, blockbuster. It’s a simple premise: three men on a boat attempt to take down a killer shark. However, the brilliance here is in its simplicity. It’s now become the stuff of film legend, but a faulty mechanical shark meant that there wasn’t as much screen time on the ‘monster’ as Spielberg originally intended. The result was an even better film: eerie calm in the open seas, other than John Williams’ iconic score, heighten the tension at every turn. Terrific performances from Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw, three polar opposites, make you feel like you’re setting sail on the Orca. Amity feels like a real, lived-in New England tourism spot. Plus, it’s a 50-year old flick that still has the capacity to scare you. How rare is that? This is the blueprint for all summer mega-hits to follow. However, unlike modern CGI spectacles, Jaws never loses sight of what truly matters: character development. You care about our three protagonists, even as they bicker and drink with one another. These are real men, stuck trying to take down a man-eater. Spielberg, 28 at the time of the film’s release, captured something that most veteran filmmakers are still attempting to replicate.
#2: Jurassic Park
Sam Connon: Jurassic Park was, as the film’s tagline claims, an adventure 65 million years in the making. While CGI had been present in Hollywood films for nearly a decade by the time 1993 rolled around, Spielberg and Industrial Light & Magic revolutionized the game in order to deliver the most realistic-looking dinosaurs ever seen. The masterful blend of practical effects with computer generated ones made the visual tricks work so well, which is part of the reason why the successive films in the series have never lived up to the original. But looking at the film in a vacuum, rather than a keystone event in the modernization of storytelling, Jurassic Park is just as unforgettable. The plot balances simplicity with immaculate pacing, for starters. The characters have well-defined arcs, all feel distinct from one and other and deliver some of the most oft-quoted lines in cinema history. Gripping setpieces like the T-Rex in the rain and the raptors in the kitchen, plus moments of innate awe such as the Brachiosaurus reveal, make this a quintessential Spielberg flick. Add in an all-time original score from John Williams, and you’ve got a perfect blend of timeless blockbuster filmmaking.
#1: Saving Private Ryan
Dan Johnson: Saving Private Ryan is Spielberg’s finest achievement because it gathers the full force of his genius and points it at the most fragile thing imaginable: a human being trying to deserve another human being’s sacrifice. Jaws has his precision. Jurassic Park has his wonder. Raiders of the Lost Ark has his pure movie-mad propulsion. Schindler’s List has his moral terror. Saving Private Ryan is the masterpiece blend of all four.
The opening at Omaha Beach remains one of the most overwhelming passages in American cinema, yet the film’s power does not whatsoever exist only in that chaos. Spielberg is at his best, here, with the small, unbearable details: a medic screaming for his mother, a captain hiding the tremor in his hand, a squad inventing jokes because silence would kill them surer than bullets. Tom Hanks gives Spielberg his perfect instrument here, a decent man with no appetite for myth, leading scared boys through hell because somebody has to keep moving.
It’s Matt Damon’s debut as Hollywood’s favorite stranded man. A whole country’s grief narrowed to one farm kid who never asked to become anyone’s purpose. Spielberg renders that weight sacred, heroic, and impossibly intimate via one of the most emotionally-punishing rescue missions ever written.
And, oh—the ending! The elder Ryan at Captain Miller’s grave. Did he, indeed, earn it? Spielberg, here, reaches the deepest place his movies know. He looks at one rescued man—his family gathered in the grass just there, an old face breaking under memory and unimaginable grief—and turns them into the heartbeat of his entire pantheon. This is the secret engine behind all the wonder, terror, adventure, grief, and grace: one life, fully lived, is always, always enough.
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