November 14, 2025 • 54 mins
Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Although his career started with a bang as he basically fathered the modern summer blockbuster with Jaws, it hasn’t been without its ups and downs. One thing that you can never take away from him, however, is both his genius behind the camera and his passion for his projects. In this bittersweet episode, we finish our Spielberg series by taking a look back over his entire career after having visited every single one of his films. I share takeaways, some favorite performances, shots, and moments. And I share my final Spielberg rankings.
https://www.establishingshotpod.com/
Feedback:
Email us at establishingshotpod@gmail.com
Leave a voicemail from the button on the right side of the screen on our website https://www.establishingshotpod.com/
Support the Show:
Join The Establishing Shot Family for early, ad-free episodes, bonus content, and access to our Discord server where we talk movies all the time: https://www.establishingshotpod.com/support
Follow Eli and the Show:
Eli on Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/theeliprice
Eli on Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/eliprice
Show on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EShotPod
Show on Instagram: https://instagram.com/establishingshotpod
Show on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@establishingshotpod
Show on Facebook: https://facebook.com/establishingshotpod
Show on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/establishingshot.bsky.social
Show on TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@establishingshotpod
Show on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@EstablishingShotPod
Other Links:
My Letterboxd Ranking of Spielberg Films: https://letterboxd.com/eliprice/list/elis-ranking-of-steven-spielbergs-directorial/
Research Resources:
- Steven Spielberg All the Films: The Story Behind Every Movie, Episode, and Short by Arnaud Devillard, Olivier Bousquet, Nicolas Schaller
- Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films by Molly Haskell
- A Companion to Steven Spielberg by Various Authors, edited by Nigel Morris
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
It wasn't closely. What's the secret thing?
Just got to find something you love to do and then do it for
the rest of your life. I don't want to be a product of
my environment. I want my environment to be a
product of me. Hello and welcome to the
(00:41):
Establishing Shot, a podcast where we do deep dives and two
directors and their filmographies.
I am your host, Eli Price, and we are here on episode 118 of
the podcast. And it is time to wrap up the
Spielberg series, finally. Today is our Steven Spielberg
epilogue episode. And so, yeah, I'm excited.
(01:05):
It's kind of sad, actually, but excited, happy, excited.
It feels good to be wrapping up a long, long series.
I did not look at how long I've been in this series, but it's
been a long time. And it's yeah, this has been a
long time coming. Now, I did change up the format
(01:27):
of the podcast starting with this series.
I used to do, I used to do like for my Wes Anderson and
Christopher Nolan series, I would do in one episode would be
me covering the movie. And then also we would do like a
movie news segment and we would do a movie draft all in the one
(01:47):
same episode. And so I did switch the format
up, starting with this series where we do we cover the films
of the directors and then every other episode and then the
episodes in between are like themovie drafts or the interviews
or the top fives or, you know, whatever else.
We end up doing bonus reviews. And so, yeah, so with that
(02:11):
switch, it's made this series last even longer than it would
have been the old format. But yeah, I started this series
looking back on February 16th, 2024.
And so we've been in this for, Iguess a few months shy of two
years. But yeah, that was the overview
episode, you know? And yeah, it's been, it's been a
(02:36):
long time coming. We've we've done it, we've
wrapped up Spielberg. We've watched all of his movies.
We've recorded podcasts of all of his on all of his movies,
some short, some very long, as I'm sure you know, if you've
been following along. But yeah, it, this is exciting.
I, I am ready to do this now since this, since there's so
(03:00):
many Spielberg films and this has been a long series, I did
some intermission episodes. So I kind of broke it up where
instead of just doing an overview and an epilogue, I did
some intermissions. And those were episodes where I
would recap a couple of decades of films from Spielberg and look
(03:21):
forward to the next one and kindof set up the next deck couple
of decades. And so I did a couple of those
where I recapped the 70s and 80sone, and then again one where I
recapped the 90s and 2000s. And so in this epilogue, I'm
going to do a little bit of both.
(03:43):
I'm going to kind of recap the 20 tens and the 20s of
Spielberg's career like I have done with those past
intermission episodes. And then I'm going to, so those
will be that'll they'll be a little bit more detail to that.
And then I'm going to kind of just do an overall recap of
Spielberg's career and and wherewe are.
And so, yeah, so let's dive in the 20 tens and the twenty 20s
(04:08):
of Spielberg's career. You know, this is these are I
guess these past 15 years now 2010 to now to 2025.
You know, it's it's kind of the point of Spielberg's career
where he's not really worrying about making money anymore per
(04:29):
SE. I mean, he is, but but he
doesn't have to make money with his films.
So he kind of is free to kind ofmake what he wants and pursue
what projects he wants at this point.
And you see that come to great advantage.
And some some not so much over this time, this time period,
this decade and a half. And so ironically, I think like
(04:51):
his only really big financial hit was Ready Player 1, which is
a movie that I think was like, it seems like critically and
just like in my opinion was probably the worst of the last
15 years, but it made the most money, which maybe that's a,
maybe that's a bad sign for where we are with the movie
industry. But yeah, we're we won't we
(05:13):
won't dwell on that too much. He he kind of carried over as
well his kind of balance of doing serious films and doing
more fun films. So a lot more serious ones over
this of these last 15 years of his career with some still fun
ones thrown in in between some some of those kind of classic
(05:34):
Spielberg blockbuster. I really like the end up being
very like some more child focused ones again, which he
hasn't done in a while. And so I would say even on the
start, the, the just to start the 20 tens with the adventures
of 10/10, which is an explicitlya children's film, a film
(05:57):
directed for children. And then the same kind of with
the BFG too. And I, I think that's something
maybe new that he did in, in these last 15 years.
You know, ET, I guess you could say is like that, but not not
completely and totally. And really other than ET,
(06:19):
there's, there's not really, I mean, Jurassic Park is, is still
like, not like kids film, you know, even though dinosaurs are
appealing to kids. And so really it, I haven't
really thought about that until this moment.
But yeah, Adventures of 10/10 and the BFG have been making,
(06:39):
like, explicit, explicit children's movies.
Even with stuff like Cook, that's the Peter Pan story.
It's still a very, like, adult movie, you know, in a lot of
ways, even though kids still love and enjoy a movie like
Cook. Yeah.
So this, I think really like the20 Tens might be considered his
weakest decade. And I think I reflected in that
(07:00):
last intermission episode on whythat might be.
I think part of it, I think one of the big reasons is maybe like
his movies just didn't make a lot of money that there wasn't
any like big splashes like therewas in the last decades.
But I don't know. I think it was a very strong
decade. Like it was very, very steady
(07:23):
and consistent. And so, yeah, I'm kind of, I'm
kind of looking through and I'm like, man, I, I really like,
there's a couple of films that Idon't care for a whole lot, but
most of them are just really solid, a really solid run.
And so a few duds maybe in the middle.
But I, I think all of us that we, we can kind of talk about
(07:44):
that when we overview the whole career, but every decade of
Spielberg kind of has one of those one or two of them.
So yeah. And then like in as he he, he
kind of like it, it seems like to the decade, maybe starting
with Munich, which was the end of the 2000s.
(08:08):
I think that was 2008 that that came out starting with Munich.
So coming into the, he really like is leaning into as well.
The, the more like I have something to say politically.
I have something to say like morally and ethically and
politically. And here's the movie for it.
Now it's Spielberg. So those movies are not like in
(08:31):
your face about that. They're not distasteful, they're
not preachy in that way. So when I say that like, you
know, I'm not saying like in a bad way, but he you can tell
like he has. And I think it's something to do
with where he is in his stage oflife.
He has older kids now that he wants to influence and and kind
(08:56):
of like teach of how to view theworld, how to engage with the
world, how to make a difference in the world, you know, And so I
do think that in this decade, hereally is like leaning into
those political statement movies, maybe for that reason,
because of where he is in his life.
(09:16):
And, you know, he's getting older, You know, he's, he's
running out of time to say what he wants to say, meant to make
the points that he wants to makewith his art.
And so, yeah, I, I, I appreciatethat.
I think that because he has the financial stability and he's
not, you know, relying on he doesn't have to worry about like
(09:37):
this studio's going to drop me and then I won't be have anyone
to make a movie. No, he's Steven Spielberg.
He can do, he can make whatever he wants, whenever he wants.
And so so he can make those projects and and get them out
there And even and then coming off of that in the twenty 20s
with West Side Story and the Fableman's, I think now he's
just kind of like he's he's gotten all of his like political
(09:58):
statements out of his system in a in a way.
West Side Story has some of that.
But and it's just passion projects.
It's it's films that like are are like something deep for him.
West Side Story, the musical he's always wanted to make, the
Fableman's, which is basically just his personal story.
And so, yeah, I really think that the these past 15 years are
(10:22):
kind of underrated for Spielberg.
And that's that's kind of disappointing because there's
some really great stuff in here.So yeah, I'm going to do now.
I'm going to. OK, yeah, yeah.
Now, now I'm going to go throughsome of my favorites of these
past 15 years of his career. So let's talk about favorite
(10:45):
performances. I'm just going to kind of run
through these. I'm not going to spend a lot of
time on these performances because I talked about them in
the episode, but it's fun to kind of list out things and
reflect. So that's what we're going to
do. In The Adventures of Tintin.
I didn't really have like, I mean, so Andy Serkis plays
Captain Haddock and I think he'sreally good, but there wasn't
(11:06):
anything that was like, oh, I love that performance, even
though I did think Circus was good just because he always is.
So yeah, Adventure the Tintin isfine.
I think it's a fine movie. War Horse I was, I actually
liked more than I thought I was going to.
Like, I didn't think it was phenomenal, but I really enjoyed
it. I thought it was a good movie.
My standout performance in that was Neil's Airstrip as the
(11:29):
grandfather really packs an emotional punch in the the short
time he has on screen. And so I really enjoyed that.
I mean, I'm the horse. The horse is great, right?
And then Lincoln is kind of obvious.
Daniel Day Lewis as Abraham Lincoln is incredible.
One of the greatest living actors working with one of the
(11:51):
greatest living film makers. And yeah, I mean, it's hard to
mess that up. But also Tommy Lee Jones as
Thaddeus Stevens in that movie is really, really great.
He's really like getting his grumpy on and doing his Tommy
Lee Jones things with his with his powdered wig.
And yeah, really enjoyed him in that movie as well.
(12:12):
I mean, a lot of these are kind of obvious a bridge of spies.
I mean, it's Tom Hanks as James B Donovan, and it's Mark Rylance
as Rudolph Abel. They're both great in their,
their their own different ways. You know, Tom Hanks is kind of
in his, it's funny. He's kind of in his like, is it
John Fox? What is his first name?
(12:32):
And you've got mail? I can't think of it.
I know his last name is Fox. Yeah, he's he's in his you've
got male mode really. Like he's got that like that Tom
Hanks Ness in the in the best way as James B Donovan kind of
that. I don't know if Fox isn't
necessarily like an everyman, but he he kind of is.
He kind of has that feel still, even though he's the big, big,
(12:55):
big bookstore owner. But enough on that.
Tom Hanks is great in this movie.
Mark Rylance is just he's so he's so good, just the way he
carries himself that the way they kind of like feed off of
each other in the movie and hat and bring like totally different
energies, but don't like give into each other's energy is is so,
(13:16):
so good. And then of course, in the BFG,
it's Mark Rylance as the BFG. Even through the mocap
performance, he he pulls it off the post.
Like I said, these are obvious. It's Meryl Streep as K Graham.
You know, I talked about when wewent, when we went through that
episode of just how how well sheenvelops this character and, and
(13:39):
kind of like in subtle ways undermines the, I guess like the
patriarchal system she's trying to breakthrough in.
And. Yeah, and it kind of kind of
kind of encapsulates like a likefeminine strength that's really
incredible. So love Meryl Streep in the post
(14:03):
Ready Player 1, not a lot going well for me and Ready Player One
unfortunately. Except somehow even though I
don't love what they do with thecharacter, Mark Rylance is still
just captivating as Halladay in that movie.
So you know, it's Mark Rylance. He's gotten mentioned for all of
(14:25):
his Spielberg roles here. And then of course we have his
last two latest 2 West Side Story.
Ariana Dubose as Anita powerhouse incredible.
Mike Feist as Riff is like, I don't know, he's just really,
really great. But even with those two
powerhouse performances, my like, I've seen this movie
(14:46):
before. So I remember thinking she was
good, but like just I was blown away by Rachel Zegler in this
movie. She is young.
It's like her first. It is.
It's her first movie and she just kills it.
She's carrying the emotional weight of the movie on her
shoulders in this movie. Really incredible.
(15:08):
So shout out to Rachel Zegler and the West Side Story.
And then the the Fable men's. You know, it's it's kind of the
two main people. These are so obvious, but it's
kind of what else am I going to do?
It's Michelle Williams as Mitzi Fable men.
Great. I talk a lot a lot about like
what she does in that movie in that episode.
Gabriel Bell as Sammy is really good as well.
(15:31):
Those are my favorite performances.
Hi. Quick reminder that you yes, you
can be a huge help to the production of the show.
If you visit establishingshotpod.com/donate,
you'll find out how to join the Establishing Shot family through
(15:52):
some giving peers starting as low as $5 a month.
You heard that right, only $5.00a month And not only will you be
helping me keep the show going, but you'll also get some perks
yourself like early and AD free episodes, bonus episodes, access
to a discord server where we canchat it up about the show and
(16:13):
movies in general, and more. Might even let you choose a
movie for me to review for the show.
Check out that link in the show notes to learn more.
Back to the show, let's move on to favorite shots in moments.
So I like to kind of reflect back on some of my favorite
shots from these movies, some ofmy favorite moments from these
(16:33):
movies, whatever it may be. In War Horse, it's it's the
meeting of the two soldiers in No man's land to free the horse
from the barbed wire. Incredible sequence.
I talked about how that's it's kind of like a short film in and
of itself that encapsulates likethe theme and the the point of
the movie all in one, like little sequence.
It's beautiful. It's shot with that like classic
(16:56):
Janusz Kaminsky, Steven Spielberg, Blues fog, you know,
reflections in water HUD. It's great.
It's a great sequence. And Lincoln, there's this moment
where like Lincoln is sitting atthe end of the table in a
cabinet meeting and he's he starts in on one of his stories
(17:17):
and everyone like is locked in and the camera pushes slowly in
down the table past everybody into a close up of Lincoln as
he's monologuing. And it's kind of the camera is
leaning into him just like everyone in that room is leaning
into him and you're leaning intohim because he's captivating.
(17:39):
And so that was a a kind of standout shot to me.
Of course you got the now, now, now.
This is how I just impressed myself.
I feel like that was a decent impersonation of they sis
Lincoln. But I love that.
And then anytime Thaddeus Stevens is like insulting
(18:00):
someone on the House floor. Those are the best moments.
He's saying, I can't remember which guy it was, but he's more
lizard than man as my favorite line of that movie.
Yeah, lots of great moments in Lincoln.
A great looking film. Bridge of Spies, Honestly, like
I think my favorite sequence might be the that opening
sequence where you're, you're kind of, it's kind of like this
(18:24):
chase sequence. Everything is being communicated
visually as you as you go through these New York streets
and subways and you got glances between and I guess FBI, I'm
assuming agents. And yeah, really, really great
sequence. The bridge at the end is a great
(18:44):
looking sequence as well. In the post, it's probably the
build up to Kay's big decision. You know, you've got that
swirling camera. I don't know how Spielberg does
it, but he makes a phone conversation really like intense
and captivating and interesting.That's a really great moment.
And then, you know, Meryl Streepas as Kay really like underplays
(19:05):
that moment. You're expecting this big
climactic thing. And the way she, like, delivers
the the, you know, the decision to print the paper is very,
like, subtle and, like, unassuming and like, yeah, I
guess. Yeah.
Let's do it, you know, And it, it's really great.
(19:26):
Ready Player One mostly just, I guess anything with Mark
Rylance. I don't know.
I don't really have a lot to say.
I said enough in that episode about Ready Player One.
West Side Story is, I would say,the standout favorite moments
and shots are everything. There's tons of purely cinematic
(19:47):
shots. You know, you've got Tony and
Maria catching eyes across the dance floor for the first time,
with people dancing in between them and meeting behind the
bleachers. So good.
You've got, you know, Tony reflecting in the water as he's
singing Maria. You've got that low, there's
this low angle shot to like finish off the song America,
(20:09):
where the skyscrapers are like it's shot straight down the
street. Skyscrapers are like fit framing
the performers. So good.
You've got the shadows crossing before the big rumble in the
warehouse. That's just incredible shot.
And yeah. And then just great musical
numbers. I think my favorite musical
(20:31):
number and song is maybe still tonight.
But I was I was really liked some of the what they did was
somewhere in that movie. And then the the kind of just
raw energy and emotion of the a boy like that slash.
I have a love is just really great.
It's kind of what sold this movie for me, what made me
(20:54):
believe that Maria loves Tony ina way that like no other
Shakespearean story has. I mean, like Shakespearean Romeo
and Juliet story has ever made me buy so love that and the and
the fable winds. I mean, one of the things that
doesn't I think get like broughtup a lot.
(21:15):
That was a standout to me, was his first, like moment directing
an actor, you know, with the kidthat that, you know, in the war
that he's like directing to likehave this big emotional reaction
to, you know, all of us, all of his, you know, these people he's
leading into battle, being dead.And yeah, that was very moving
(21:37):
to me, that sequence, the shot of his that I talked about this
shot of when they move into their new Kelly home.
There's this shot where his mom looks directly into the camera
that is being shot by Spielberg,but it's in the movie.
It's being shot by Sammy on his camera.
And she looks what this like longing, sad, depressed look
(22:00):
into the camera killed me. That moment.
Him seeing himself filming his parents as they're they're
announcing their divorce is probably the big one everyone
says. And it's there's a reason for
that. The the ending with the the John
Ford Horizon stuff is gold. Love that.
But yeah, those are there's someof my favorite shots and moments
(22:21):
and what not through throughout the last 15 years of his career.
So having my notes or rankings for the 2000s and 20s, but I'm
actually going to save that because we're going to do a
ranking of the entire Spielberg filmography.
But not yet. I'll save that for last.
(22:42):
OK, let's let's kind of recrap. Wow, did I say recrap?
That's awful. Let's recap Spielberg's entire
career, which has been the exactopposite of crap.
So I think the first thing I want to talk about is just some
Spielberg distinctives. It's something that I kind of
like to talk about and every episode and every film that we
(23:05):
covered Spielberg, What are somethings that you can expect
Spielberg to do with the camera?One of them is he loves to push
in onto a character. There's different the ways he
likes to do close-ups, he likes to do the push in, he likes low
angle close-ups. And by that I mean if you're
watching online, it would be if I had the camera tilted and I'm
(23:27):
in close up with it looking up at me.
He loves to do that for some reason.
And then he he loves to do this thing.
It was especially like in the first half of his career, but
you still see it sometimes laterin his career where the way that
the camera is framed, the the character may or may not already
be in frame, but they somehow end U in a close U they like.
(23:49):
The camera doesn't move, the character moves into the close U
and I've always just like every time I see it, I'm like, yes,
Bilberry. I don't know why I love that.
What are some other Spielberg distinctives?
The dude loves reflections. Sometimes it's very meaningful.
It's a it's a reflection or a shadow and you've got the
iconic, The Color Purple shadow in the rocking chair.
(24:09):
And sometimes they're, they're like full of thematic meaning
and and purpose And sometimes they're just fun shots, to be
honest, which is fine with me because it's Spielberg and he
can make some really great shotsand it's fun to see it a play
out and to work. But yeah, other other Spielberg
(24:29):
distinctives. The dude knows how to build
tension like with the best of them.
I don't know how he does it. One of the one of the moments
from early in his career that like kind of set the table for
how good he is at building tension.
Obviously Jaws, but I'm thinkingof close Encounters where you
see, oh, what's the, the mountain called?
(24:51):
Like Devil's Peak or Devil's, whatever it's called, you see it
on the TV and you have, you haveDreyfus in the background
building the, the model of it inhis basement or living room or
whatever. And you're just like, look at
the TV, look at the TV and he's on the phone and like, it's just
this tension building, tension building.
(25:13):
And finally, he sees it on the TV.
Yeah, that's all through Spielberg's career, that sort of
tension building, not just in like legit intense moments like
you get in like Munich per SE, per SE, but even in like moments
like that that are kind of like mundane.
There's a there's a lot at stake, I guess, in the context
(25:34):
of the movie, but the reality and in, like reality, there's
not a whole lot at stake. And so, yeah, I love that about
Spielberg. The dude loves to imply horror
off screen. He loves blood trickling down
the stream in Jurassic Park. He loves to cut to, you know,
the blood mixing with milk and Munich as someone's gotten shot
(25:57):
and dropped their groceries. Yeah, he he loves to like, have
violence happen off screen, unless it's Saving Private Ryan,
where he just flips the script on us and puts everything on
screen. So he can do both.
He he proved that for sure. But but I love the implied
horror plied implied violence off screen that he does.
(26:20):
The dude. The dude knows how to set up the
geography of an action sequence where you know, where everyone
is, what all is happening, whereit's happening, how it might
possibly, you know, intersect atsome point.
The different things going on. Indiana Jones with Raiders of
(26:43):
the Lost Ark with the, the truckchase sequence, the sense of
geography and that is incredible.
The sense of geography and like the plane fight sequence as
well. I think about Munich, I think is
like I remember in that episode talking about I think that might
be the peak of action set piece,like the geography, knowing
where there's the the phone call, like the foam bomb
(27:06):
sequence. That's just like incredible
movie making, incredible attention building, incredible
actions, geography, set piece sequence with characters in
multiple locations, you know, where everybody is.
It's incredible. Yeah, those are some Spielberg
distinctives, but let's let's dig a little deeper.
What makes a movie a Spielberg movie?
(27:31):
I think there's I think there's a bit of an inexplicable quality
to a Spielberg movie, a Wes Anderson movie.
You can kind of explain what it is that makes a Wes Anderson
movie, a Wes Anderson movie, a Christopher Nolan movie.
I'm saying these because these are the past directors I've
covered, right? A Christopher Nolan Nolan movie.
You can kind of like put your thumb on it.
(27:52):
You kind of know, like, OK, these are, these are what, this
is what Nolan does. He does time he does, you know,
it's, you know, out of sequence.It's you kind of know how to
describe like what makes a Nolanmovie a Nolan movie or a Wes
Anderson movie, a Wes Anderson movie, a Spielberg movie.
(28:15):
It's a little bit harder to naildown because of the kind of wide
range of genres and sensibilities that he has been
able to capture from like, straight up kids movies to
action adventure movies to political dramas and thrillers
(28:36):
to to very like, intense historical dramas with like,
Schindler's List. Yeah, I think the only thing
maybe Spielberg doesn't have on his checklist is straight
comedy, because 1941 was terrible.
But yeah, I mean, he's really done a wide range of genres and
(29:01):
intersecting genres and stuff like that.
So there's not one like genre you can put him in.
And there's not really one kind of feel.
It's it's like the only way I can describe it is that there's
some sort of like magic wizardryin the way that he shoots things
that just captures you. And when you see it, you can
(29:22):
just feel the Spielberg of it. And like other film makers can
tap into that. Even sometimes that that
Spielberg feel like it makes me think of like Jordan pills.
Nope movie is so Spielberg the way it's shot and I I even told
people after I saw it let's its jaws in the sky and it it is
(29:43):
it's like it feels so Spielberg the way he builds tension in
that movie, the way he just frames things and composes
things. Jordan Peele, it's very
Spielberg and now not not JordanPeele's other movies don't have
that feel necessarily, but I think that one he's specifically
was tapping into that. But but yeah, there's just this
(30:03):
kind of magic about the way he is able to put things on screen
that draw you in and capture you.
He is, I think Spielberg is one of the best ever at just
composing A-frame and just knowing that for so much of his
career, even with, even when he was like heavily storyboarding
(30:25):
things for so much of his career.
He, he's very improvisational onas far as like what he does with
the camera. He, he fills out a space and he
just, he has an intuition about where to put the camera, where
to put the people in the, in the, in the space to fill the
frame. And yeah, just a strong
(30:51):
intuition, a genius at composingA-frame.
And I think too, like he can direct the crap out of some
actors. He there's there's so many like
young actors and actresses that kind of you see before they've
really breaking out there, you go back and they're like, they
were in a Spielberg movie, Like he saw something in them and was
(31:14):
able to tap into that early on in their careers.
And I, you know, I love that about Spielberg.
And, you know, and even like just working with even stars
like Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep,he can, he can really like
direct actors very well. I think another thing like
obviously like he pushes technological bounds, maybe not
(31:37):
so much as people like James Cameron, but but like, I, I
think along with that, like one of the things I think that makes
a Spielberg A Spielberg movie isthat even in the most, even in
his most serious movies. So I think Schindler's List, you
can tell that he is still havingfun the way he shoots, the way
(31:58):
he, I don't know, just the feel like there's, there's some
lightness even to Schindler's List.
That's that's kind of refreshing.
You know, you kind of need that.But it's something that
Spielberg brings to even his most serious movies have this
lightness to them because you know that Spielberg is having so
(32:19):
much fun on set and having so much fun, like putting his
vision to to the screen. And, and I think part of that is
that he actually, he's, he is a director.
This is another thing I think specific to Spielberg, that's
not the case for everybody. He is a director that really
(32:41):
genuinely cares about his audience and what his audience
thinks. Like he, he will pivot if
something's not working and the audience is not going to
respond. Like, and I think he really
genuinely has the the audience in mind.
He has the the crowd that like, but it's not, but it doesn't
(33:01):
sacrifice his artistry. I think that's something that
early on in his career, he got abad rap for that.
He was all like action and crowdpleasing, but not really a real
artist. And, and I think that's so
wrong. I think that he was just able to
find that fine line between the two and to ride it where he is
(33:22):
crowd like he is making crowd pleasing movies.
But all all the while he never sacrifices his artistry and his
vision. And that's something that like I
have a great respect for Spielberg for because so many
times I feel like you can directors fall either way.
They're, they're, you know, and,and that's fine.
(33:42):
You know, you can make a crowd pleasing film that's not very
artistic and still be good. And obviously like you can make
very artistic films that aren't like this is a crowd pleasing
film. And obviously there's some
masterpieces out there and, and that way, but but Spielberg, he
he has his vision and he's goingto execute his vision, His his
(34:05):
his piece of art that he is making.
But he also really wants the audience to love it and to be
enthralled with it and to be in wonder of it.
And and yeah, that that comes across.
I mean, I, I think that's something that is very unique to
Spielberg and a reason why he's one of the most successful
(34:26):
directors. I say one of the most he is the
most successful director of all time.
I think. So, Yeah, yeah.
Let's let's go, let's kind of like take a a journey through
his career. You have this young savant who's
directing TV shows like nobody like, and you know, to the
degree to where people are like,man, this kid is good.
(34:48):
And then, you know, he somehow ends up with Jaws and becomes
the father of the modern blockbuster.
Incredible. You know, he kind of in a lot of
ways with with Jaws and then later Star Wars, they really
like jump started the modern blockbuster kind of like
industry for better or worse, you know, But yeah.
(35:14):
And then just kind of learning like out of that process of like
having huge success with things like Jaws and close Encounters
to like figure out like I need to have the right people around
me. I think is this part of his
career? You know, he makes he comes off
of close Encounters in 1941 really like it does OK
(35:36):
financially, but like it was bad.
It was not a good movie. And you know, it has it's like
Defenders. But like, I think in general,
like people just everyone knows that 1941 is not a good movie.
And then to come off of that with Raiders of the Lost Ark and
with the ET partnering with likestrong, like film makers and
(35:58):
strong writers, George Lucas coming alongside of him,
Melissa, Melissa Mathison with ET and really like being able to
execute, take Spielberg's visionand like translate it, whether
it's like with a great script and ET or whether it's with like
(36:18):
bouncing off ideas and kind of like honing down things with
George Lucas on what you want todo.
And like he, he, you know, he has this era of childhood
wonder. That's kind of becomes his
thing. And I think it's a reason why he
he was accused of not being artistic enough of a director
think I think that was wrong, but it was a thing back then.
And I think out of that, he has this period of his career where
(36:42):
with things like The Color Purple and Empire of the Sun,
where he really maybe even always, he's really like
grasping at wanting to be taken seriously.
He wants the recognition of his peers.
He wants the Academy to to see him as a serious director, a
serious contender. And, you know, I think I think
(37:05):
The Color Purple was a miss. I think Empire of the Sun was a
hit, but not with, you know, it wasn't actually it.
It just in my opinion, it was a great movie.
But yeah, it it's, yeah, this desire to really be taken
seriously and then, you know, kind of doing some flop passion
(37:26):
projects with always in the hookin that transition into the 90s.
And yeah, it it's funny. Like he comes out of that and
then he has his pinnacle year. Like his it's it is the year,
the Spielberg year 1993. He it's it's the first time I
(37:47):
think. I think he had had trouble
separating his fun blockbuster side from his serious drama side
with things like The Color Purple and Empire of the Sun and
always and hook even. And he really in this year, I
think the thing that made the difference was, OK, I'm going to
make my fun blockbuster movie and that's what it's going to
(38:08):
be. I'm going to make my serious
drama and that's what it's goingto be.
And yeah, two of his best films in the same year, Jurassic Park,
Schindler's List. Incredible.
Yeah. I don't know that anyone's ever
had a better movie year than having the the highest grossing
film of its at that time in Jurassic Park and a best picture
(38:30):
winner in Schindler's List. And deservedly so.
Phenomenal masterpiece movie. I don't know that I don't think
it's ever happened for and ever will again.
It might not ever happen again for someone to have a year like
Spielberg had in 1993 and and then he the 90s are kind of an
(38:51):
enigma because in my opinion, hehas three big flops and three
masterpieces. I I don't know that I would say
Saving Private Ryan is a masterpiece.
Some people do, but you know, I understand the argument for it.
It's a great, great, great movie.
So he has three phenomenal movies and three kind of flops.
(39:12):
And in my opinion, not everyone thinks Hook is a flop, but he
had The Lost World, Jurassic Park, Never again is he going to
make sequels other than Indiana Jones, of course, but that's a
little different. Amistad is Amistad is the movie
that he shouldn't have directed.I went on a rant about that in
that episode that you can go listen to.
(39:33):
And then yes, Saving Private Ryan really kicks things back
off and and the the 2000s was a great a great decade for him.
AI, artificial intelligence, Minority Report, catch me if you
can, War of the Worlds, Munich, even in my opinion, Indiana
(39:54):
Jones and the Kingdom of the Chrysalis school, all great
movies. I don't the terminal has its
defenders. I and it has a a decent rating
on like letterbox. I don't think the tear the
terminal is very good at all. But but if you do think it's
good, I mean that's a whole decade of like hits in my
(40:15):
opinion. It's not like war of the worlds
isn't great or anything and Kingof the social school isn't like
phenomenal or by Indiana Jones standards, but they're still
good movies, I think. And yeah, really, really strong
decade there. And I think with Munich, like I
was talking about, you know, it's it's a sci-fi decade.
(40:37):
I would say with AI, minority Report, War of the worlds, even
king of the Christmas school hasits sci-fi elements.
And so that's that's fun. But then with Munich, I think,
like I said earlier, really kicks off his political drama
decade. Munich.
I would argue War Horse is in here as kind of like the
children's version of the political drama, but the Horse
(40:58):
and Bridge of Spies, Lincoln, The Post, and if I'm thinking
correctly, you've got that from OK, Munich is 2005 to 2017 with
the Post, so a little over a decade, but and you've got 1010
and BFG thrown in there and Kingof the Crystal Skull as well.
But yeah, a lot political dramas, he's making his
(41:21):
political points in the 2010's where from and starting with
Munich even takes his big swingswith mocap.
Not his best choices. I don't think that, you know,
between 10:10 BFG and Ready Player 1, you know, a lot of
people really enjoy 1010. A lot of people really enjoy
(41:42):
BFGI. Thought both.
I think both of those movies arefine.
I don't think they're bad, I think they're fine in movies.
Ray Player 1 I think is a swing and a miss unfortunately.
But man, to come off of that andin my opinion, to have your old
man passion projects and make 2 masterpieces I think is
(42:05):
incredible. I think West Side Story and the
Fablemans are both masterpieces.They're incredible, they're
great. They're we'll get to might be
two of the best of his career, but I love that.
I love that he and I just I can't wait to see what he does
with this UFO movie. It is currently the working
(42:25):
title I think is the dish, whichis an interesting title.
The four actors that I noted were Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor,
who I love, Colin Firth and Coleman Domingo.
So those. Great names attached to the
movie. It's a UFO movie.
It's supposed to come out next year in 2026.
(42:47):
Comic Sign. Hello again.
Do you know how you can really support the show for free in
just a few minutes or less? That's right.
Just leave a rating and review on Spotify and Apple or wherever
you listen. That might allow for ratings and
reviews. These really help the visibility
(43:08):
of the podcast. In fact, just hit that pause
button right now and drop the review right now and then you
can get back to the show. I'd greatly appreciate it.
OK. I trust that you went and left
that rating and review now? Back to the show, I think over
(43:29):
the court just thinking about before we get I do my rankings,
just thinking about watching through these some three of
these movies that I'm going to label as my biggest surprises
were blind spots. I knocked out all of my
Spielberg blonde spots with the blind spots with this, so that's
fine. One of them I already really,
(43:53):
really liked a whole lot, but just watching it again, I think
it's a masterpiece and is the one of the biggest surprises.
Now I'm not going to say it's the biggest surprise because I
had seen it before and loved it already ready, but I just think
it's a a modern masterpiece is West Side Story.
I I just think it's incredible. I think visually and like the
(44:15):
way he like it's like he was born to make a musical Spielberg
and love West Side Story. A couple other like movies that
are really liked, AI, artificialintelligence.
I wasn't sure what I was going to think going in.
I think that's a great, great movie.
Same thing with Empire of the Sun didn't know what to think
(44:35):
going in but was blown away. Loved it.
And then I would say my biggest surprise of the the whole series
just cause like for one, I didn't really have any
expectations going in. Haven't ever heard much about
this movie, but Munich is such an incredible movie that
(44:56):
captures so much of what Spielberg does, from the the
political thriller with a political statement movie to the
action set pieces, to the tension, to the character
building, to the story, to the visual language that's so
distinctly Spielberg. Munich is such a good movie and
(45:17):
it's still from 2005 to today. It's still very, very relevant
politically. So really love those big
surprises. But now it is the moment you've
all been waiting for. I am going to go through and
give my rankings for Spielberg. I will start at the bottom and
work my way up. I'm not going to include like I
(45:39):
have some of his like shorts andTV movies and stuff included in
here that I'm not going to include.
I'm just going to do the featurefilms and I'm not going to
include, I'll tell you this. Twilight Zone is second to last
if you if I'm going by like his sequence in the Twilight Zone
movie. I did not like his sequence in
(45:59):
the Twilight Zone movie, but I'mnot going to rank it here.
But if I did, you just already know it's it would be second to
last. So in last place, I have 1941.
Just not good, not funny to me at least not just added.
I don't know, not good. So that is OK.
(46:21):
Let me think. Let me remove.
Yeah. All of the like, shorts and
stuff. And I think it's, I think he's
at 34 feature films, if you don't include the Twilight Zone,
Twilight Zone, the movie. So 30 at #34 is 1941 and #33 I
(46:43):
have the terminal. Yeah.
You can go back to that episode #32 I have always not not great,
really weird movie looks great, but really weird at, let's see,
343332 at 31. I have Ready Player 1 and yeah,
(47:12):
talked about it already. At #30 I have Hook.
Wasn't a big fan of Hook, rewatching it with this.
Number 29, The Lost World, Jurassic Park, kind of a misfire
sequel. I think at #28 have Amistad, the
movie he should not have directed but you know, has its
(47:33):
moments. That's #20 BFG, it's fine.
At #26 The adventures of 10/10 it's fine.
And then 25 I have The Color Purple, another movie I think he
would have been better not to direct, but I understand why I
did. Much more so than amistad #24 I
(47:55):
have War of the Worlds and #23 Ihave his debut feature film, The
Sugar Land Express. Well, unless you count Dual,
which we are going to count in this because it did did have
some theater run in Europe. Yeah #23 The Sugar Land Express.
At #22 I have Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and right
(48:20):
above it, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
At #21 So let's get into the top20.
I have War Horse. At #20 I liked War Horse a lot
more than I thought it would. At #19 I have Duel.
Great movie and let me go ahead and preface this from this point
(48:41):
forward, all of these movies, I have four stars and up even, you
know, so, so like 8 out of 10 Saving Private Ryan is I have at
#18 and #17 catch me if you can #16 I have the post.
This is his 20 tense political thrillers part right here. 16
(49:04):
The Post 15 Lincoln and 14 Bridge of Spies.
Love all those at #13 I have Empire of the Sun and #12 don't
hate me. Raiders of the Lost Ark and #12
I know, I know, I know the objectively it's it's top five,
but just for me, it's #12 because I love me some sci-fi
(49:30):
and at #11 I have Minority Report, at #10 I have AI,
artificial intelligence, at #9 Ihave close Encounters of the
Third kind, my little sci-fi runthere.
Love all those movies. At #8 is my favorite Indiana
Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
So I have some good representation up higher for
(49:53):
Indiana Jones, but I'm just not like I love the Indiana Jones
franchise, but I'm just not likethe Super fan that has it has a
great greatest of all time sort of thing.
So that was #8 #7 I have the Fablemens.
Fablemens is phenomenal at number six, I have Munich.
(50:16):
So my biggest surprise I have upat #6 here we are getting into
the top five. These, these are just, these are
my top five Spielberg movies. So here we go at #5 I have
Jurassic Park childhood, It's the love.
Jurassic Park at #4 This is the another huge surprise of how
(50:41):
much I loved it. I have West Side Story at #4 I
think it is phenomenal. And yeah, it's at #4 for me #3 I
have, and honestly, I I could move West Side Story up to #3 or
#2 I thought it was that good #3I have ET the Extraterrestrial,
(51:01):
loved it. It's so good.
And top 2. These are both five star
masterpieces. I think Schindler's List at #2
found it incredibly entertaining, incredibly moving,
an incredibly important movie. So maybe a bit cliche, but I
have it at #2 And that means that my number one film for now
(51:22):
and for always for Spielberg is Jaws.
Great movie, masterpiece. 5 stars, 10 out of 10.
Jaws Big Shark is taking the cake.
I mean, could I have really given it to anybody else?
I mean, because what would that shark do to me if I didn't?
So that is my ranking of Spielberg's filmography.
(51:44):
It's it's been fun. We're done with Spielberg until
he releases the dish next year, if it's still called that by
then. But I'll look forward to that.
And yeah, kind of sad to see Spielberg go, but this is it.
Yeah. I mean, I've so now I've covered
Wes Anderson, Christopher Nolan and now Steven Spielberg.
(52:06):
I would say honestly, I probablylike those directors in that
order. Just like a personal preference,
what you know, the movies that Ilove from the directors, I would
say Wes Anderson favorite Christopher Long, next.
Steven Spielberg next, but obviously, like Spielberg is the
GOAT, you can't really take thataway from him.
(52:26):
So really glad I did this series.
I've greatly enjoyed it. Met some great people that I
brought on as guests through this series that, you know,
hopefully I'll be able to bring on again in the future.
But yeah, really, really enjoyedthe series.
I am hoping to diversify my port, My Portfolio of directors
(52:48):
I've covered with the next one, maybe not a white male director
with the next one. So we'll see.
Maybe not a big name director either.
We'll see. I've been trying to, you know,
cover some directors that maybe we'll, we'll pull in more people
that are interested. But hey, maybe it's time for an
ND director. I don't know, we'll see.
(53:11):
But Speaking of ND directors, next week I had the privilege of
interviewing indie director Daniel Daniel Moschiari, who has
his debut feature coming out next.
And so, yeah, it's called Stationed at Home.
And yeah, it's it's very good. Daniel and I had a great
(53:33):
conversation about it. I I was able to interview him
about the film, start the episode with a quick review of
it. Yeah, yeah.
It was exciting to be able to dothat.
And I hope to be able to do moreinterviews with directors in the
future about their films. And so that is coming out next
week. And so be looking forward to
that. But Spielberg, it was it was
(53:56):
good. It is time for for us though,
like our favorite pal ET to now go home.
And you know, we'll be right there with you always,
Spielberg. So we'll see you when you
release your next film, I guess.And so, yeah, that's it.
We're done with Spielberg. Goodbye.
So long. That's all we have for this
(54:18):
week. I have been Eli Price.
And you've been listening to theestablishing shot.
We'll see you next time. We were happy here for a little
while. But look, I think it was this
way. Better to be king for a night
than smoke for a lifetime.
It wasn't closely. What's the secret thing?
Just got to find something you love to do and then do it for
the rest of your life. I don't want to be a product of
my environment. I want my environment to be a
product of me. Hello and welcome to the
(00:41):
Establishing Shot, a podcast where we do deep dives and two
directors and their filmographies.
I am your host, Eli Price, and we are here on episode 118 of
the podcast. And it is time to wrap up the
Spielberg series, finally. Today is our Steven Spielberg
epilogue episode. And so, yeah, I'm excited.
(01:05):
It's kind of sad, actually, but excited, happy, excited.
It feels good to be wrapping up a long, long series.
I did not look at how long I've been in this series, but it's
been a long time. And it's yeah, this has been a
long time coming. Now, I did change up the format
(01:27):
of the podcast starting with this series.
I used to do, I used to do like for my Wes Anderson and
Christopher Nolan series, I would do in one episode would be
me covering the movie. And then also we would do like a
movie news segment and we would do a movie draft all in the one
(01:47):
same episode. And so I did switch the format
up, starting with this series where we do we cover the films
of the directors and then every other episode and then the
episodes in between are like themovie drafts or the interviews
or the top fives or, you know, whatever else.
We end up doing bonus reviews. And so, yeah, so with that
(02:11):
switch, it's made this series last even longer than it would
have been the old format. But yeah, I started this series
looking back on February 16th, 2024.
And so we've been in this for, Iguess a few months shy of two
years. But yeah, that was the overview
episode, you know? And yeah, it's been, it's been a
(02:36):
long time coming. We've we've done it, we've
wrapped up Spielberg. We've watched all of his movies.
We've recorded podcasts of all of his on all of his movies,
some short, some very long, as I'm sure you know, if you've
been following along. But yeah, it, this is exciting.
I, I am ready to do this now since this, since there's so
(03:00):
many Spielberg films and this has been a long series, I did
some intermission episodes. So I kind of broke it up where
instead of just doing an overview and an epilogue, I did
some intermissions. And those were episodes where I
would recap a couple of decades of films from Spielberg and look
(03:21):
forward to the next one and kindof set up the next deck couple
of decades. And so I did a couple of those
where I recapped the 70s and 80sone, and then again one where I
recapped the 90s and 2000s. And so in this epilogue, I'm
going to do a little bit of both.
(03:43):
I'm going to kind of recap the 20 tens and the 20s of
Spielberg's career like I have done with those past
intermission episodes. And then I'm going to, so those
will be that'll they'll be a little bit more detail to that.
And then I'm going to kind of just do an overall recap of
Spielberg's career and and wherewe are.
And so, yeah, so let's dive in the 20 tens and the twenty 20s
(04:08):
of Spielberg's career. You know, this is these are I
guess these past 15 years now 2010 to now to 2025.
You know, it's it's kind of the point of Spielberg's career
where he's not really worrying about making money anymore per
(04:29):
SE. I mean, he is, but but he
doesn't have to make money with his films.
So he kind of is free to kind ofmake what he wants and pursue
what projects he wants at this point.
And you see that come to great advantage.
And some some not so much over this time, this time period,
this decade and a half. And so ironically, I think like
(04:51):
his only really big financial hit was Ready Player 1, which is
a movie that I think was like, it seems like critically and
just like in my opinion was probably the worst of the last
15 years, but it made the most money, which maybe that's a,
maybe that's a bad sign for where we are with the movie
industry. But yeah, we're we won't we
(05:13):
won't dwell on that too much. He he kind of carried over as
well his kind of balance of doing serious films and doing
more fun films. So a lot more serious ones over
this of these last 15 years of his career with some still fun
ones thrown in in between some some of those kind of classic
(05:34):
Spielberg blockbuster. I really like the end up being
very like some more child focused ones again, which he
hasn't done in a while. And so I would say even on the
start, the, the just to start the 20 tens with the adventures
of 10/10, which is an explicitlya children's film, a film
(05:57):
directed for children. And then the same kind of with
the BFG too. And I, I think that's something
maybe new that he did in, in these last 15 years.
You know, ET, I guess you could say is like that, but not not
completely and totally. And really other than ET,
(06:19):
there's, there's not really, I mean, Jurassic Park is, is still
like, not like kids film, you know, even though dinosaurs are
appealing to kids. And so really it, I haven't
really thought about that until this moment.
But yeah, Adventures of 10/10 and the BFG have been making,
(06:39):
like, explicit, explicit children's movies.
Even with stuff like Cook, that's the Peter Pan story.
It's still a very, like, adult movie, you know, in a lot of
ways, even though kids still love and enjoy a movie like
Cook. Yeah.
So this, I think really like the20 Tens might be considered his
weakest decade. And I think I reflected in that
(07:00):
last intermission episode on whythat might be.
I think part of it, I think one of the big reasons is maybe like
his movies just didn't make a lot of money that there wasn't
any like big splashes like therewas in the last decades.
But I don't know. I think it was a very strong
decade. Like it was very, very steady
(07:23):
and consistent. And so, yeah, I'm kind of, I'm
kind of looking through and I'm like, man, I, I really like,
there's a couple of films that Idon't care for a whole lot, but
most of them are just really solid, a really solid run.
And so a few duds maybe in the middle.
But I, I think all of us that we, we can kind of talk about
(07:44):
that when we overview the whole career, but every decade of
Spielberg kind of has one of those one or two of them.
So yeah. And then like in as he he, he
kind of like it, it seems like to the decade, maybe starting
with Munich, which was the end of the 2000s.
(08:08):
I think that was 2008 that that came out starting with Munich.
So coming into the, he really like is leaning into as well.
The, the more like I have something to say politically.
I have something to say like morally and ethically and
politically. And here's the movie for it.
Now it's Spielberg. So those movies are not like in
(08:31):
your face about that. They're not distasteful, they're
not preachy in that way. So when I say that like, you
know, I'm not saying like in a bad way, but he you can tell
like he has. And I think it's something to do
with where he is in his stage oflife.
He has older kids now that he wants to influence and and kind
(08:56):
of like teach of how to view theworld, how to engage with the
world, how to make a difference in the world, you know, And so I
do think that in this decade, hereally is like leaning into
those political statement movies, maybe for that reason,
because of where he is in his life.
(09:16):
And, you know, he's getting older, You know, he's, he's
running out of time to say what he wants to say, meant to make
the points that he wants to makewith his art.
And so, yeah, I, I, I appreciatethat.
I think that because he has the financial stability and he's
not, you know, relying on he doesn't have to worry about like
(09:37):
this studio's going to drop me and then I won't be have anyone
to make a movie. No, he's Steven Spielberg.
He can do, he can make whatever he wants, whenever he wants.
And so so he can make those projects and and get them out
there And even and then coming off of that in the twenty 20s
with West Side Story and the Fableman's, I think now he's
just kind of like he's he's gotten all of his like political
(09:58):
statements out of his system in a in a way.
West Side Story has some of that.
But and it's just passion projects.
It's it's films that like are are like something deep for him.
West Side Story, the musical he's always wanted to make, the
Fableman's, which is basically just his personal story.
And so, yeah, I really think that the these past 15 years are
(10:22):
kind of underrated for Spielberg.
And that's that's kind of disappointing because there's
some really great stuff in here.So yeah, I'm going to do now.
I'm going to. OK, yeah, yeah.
Now, now I'm going to go throughsome of my favorites of these
past 15 years of his career. So let's talk about favorite
(10:45):
performances. I'm just going to kind of run
through these. I'm not going to spend a lot of
time on these performances because I talked about them in
the episode, but it's fun to kind of list out things and
reflect. So that's what we're going to
do. In The Adventures of Tintin.
I didn't really have like, I mean, so Andy Serkis plays
Captain Haddock and I think he'sreally good, but there wasn't
(11:06):
anything that was like, oh, I love that performance, even
though I did think Circus was good just because he always is.
So yeah, Adventure the Tintin isfine.
I think it's a fine movie. War Horse I was, I actually
liked more than I thought I was going to.
Like, I didn't think it was phenomenal, but I really enjoyed
it. I thought it was a good movie.
My standout performance in that was Neil's Airstrip as the
(11:29):
grandfather really packs an emotional punch in the the short
time he has on screen. And so I really enjoyed that.
I mean, I'm the horse. The horse is great, right?
And then Lincoln is kind of obvious.
Daniel Day Lewis as Abraham Lincoln is incredible.
One of the greatest living actors working with one of the
(11:51):
greatest living film makers. And yeah, I mean, it's hard to
mess that up. But also Tommy Lee Jones as
Thaddeus Stevens in that movie is really, really great.
He's really like getting his grumpy on and doing his Tommy
Lee Jones things with his with his powdered wig.
And yeah, really enjoyed him in that movie as well.
(12:12):
I mean, a lot of these are kind of obvious a bridge of spies.
I mean, it's Tom Hanks as James B Donovan, and it's Mark Rylance
as Rudolph Abel. They're both great in their,
their their own different ways. You know, Tom Hanks is kind of
in his, it's funny. He's kind of in his like, is it
John Fox? What is his first name?
(12:32):
And you've got mail? I can't think of it.
I know his last name is Fox. Yeah, he's he's in his you've
got male mode really. Like he's got that like that Tom
Hanks Ness in the in the best way as James B Donovan kind of
that. I don't know if Fox isn't
necessarily like an everyman, but he he kind of is.
He kind of has that feel still, even though he's the big, big,
(12:55):
big bookstore owner. But enough on that.
Tom Hanks is great in this movie.
Mark Rylance is just he's so he's so good, just the way he
carries himself that the way they kind of like feed off of
each other in the movie and hat and bring like totally different
energies, but don't like give into each other's energy is is so,
(13:16):
so good. And then of course, in the BFG,
it's Mark Rylance as the BFG. Even through the mocap
performance, he he pulls it off the post.
Like I said, these are obvious. It's Meryl Streep as K Graham.
You know, I talked about when wewent, when we went through that
episode of just how how well sheenvelops this character and, and
(13:39):
kind of like in subtle ways undermines the, I guess like the
patriarchal system she's trying to breakthrough in.
And. Yeah, and it kind of kind of
kind of encapsulates like a likefeminine strength that's really
incredible. So love Meryl Streep in the post
(14:03):
Ready Player 1, not a lot going well for me and Ready Player One
unfortunately. Except somehow even though I
don't love what they do with thecharacter, Mark Rylance is still
just captivating as Halladay in that movie.
So you know, it's Mark Rylance. He's gotten mentioned for all of
(14:25):
his Spielberg roles here. And then of course we have his
last two latest 2 West Side Story.
Ariana Dubose as Anita powerhouse incredible.
Mike Feist as Riff is like, I don't know, he's just really,
really great. But even with those two
powerhouse performances, my like, I've seen this movie
(14:46):
before. So I remember thinking she was
good, but like just I was blown away by Rachel Zegler in this
movie. She is young.
It's like her first. It is.
It's her first movie and she just kills it.
She's carrying the emotional weight of the movie on her
shoulders in this movie. Really incredible.
(15:08):
So shout out to Rachel Zegler and the West Side Story.
And then the the Fable men's. You know, it's it's kind of the
two main people. These are so obvious, but it's
kind of what else am I going to do?
It's Michelle Williams as Mitzi Fable men.
Great. I talk a lot a lot about like
what she does in that movie in that episode.
Gabriel Bell as Sammy is really good as well.
(15:31):
Those are my favorite performances.
Hi. Quick reminder that you yes, you
can be a huge help to the production of the show.
If you visit establishingshotpod.com/donate,
you'll find out how to join the Establishing Shot family through
(15:52):
some giving peers starting as low as $5 a month.
You heard that right, only $5.00a month And not only will you be
helping me keep the show going, but you'll also get some perks
yourself like early and AD free episodes, bonus episodes, access
to a discord server where we canchat it up about the show and
(16:13):
movies in general, and more. Might even let you choose a
movie for me to review for the show.
Check out that link in the show notes to learn more.
Back to the show, let's move on to favorite shots in moments.
So I like to kind of reflect back on some of my favorite
shots from these movies, some ofmy favorite moments from these
(16:33):
movies, whatever it may be. In War Horse, it's it's the
meeting of the two soldiers in No man's land to free the horse
from the barbed wire. Incredible sequence.
I talked about how that's it's kind of like a short film in and
of itself that encapsulates likethe theme and the the point of
the movie all in one, like little sequence.
It's beautiful. It's shot with that like classic
(16:56):
Janusz Kaminsky, Steven Spielberg, Blues fog, you know,
reflections in water HUD. It's great.
It's a great sequence. And Lincoln, there's this moment
where like Lincoln is sitting atthe end of the table in a
cabinet meeting and he's he starts in on one of his stories
(17:17):
and everyone like is locked in and the camera pushes slowly in
down the table past everybody into a close up of Lincoln as
he's monologuing. And it's kind of the camera is
leaning into him just like everyone in that room is leaning
into him and you're leaning intohim because he's captivating.
(17:39):
And so that was a a kind of standout shot to me.
Of course you got the now, now, now.
This is how I just impressed myself.
I feel like that was a decent impersonation of they sis
Lincoln. But I love that.
And then anytime Thaddeus Stevens is like insulting
(18:00):
someone on the House floor. Those are the best moments.
He's saying, I can't remember which guy it was, but he's more
lizard than man as my favorite line of that movie.
Yeah, lots of great moments in Lincoln.
A great looking film. Bridge of Spies, Honestly, like
I think my favorite sequence might be the that opening
sequence where you're, you're kind of, it's kind of like this
(18:24):
chase sequence. Everything is being communicated
visually as you as you go through these New York streets
and subways and you got glances between and I guess FBI, I'm
assuming agents. And yeah, really, really great
sequence. The bridge at the end is a great
(18:44):
looking sequence as well. In the post, it's probably the
build up to Kay's big decision. You know, you've got that
swirling camera. I don't know how Spielberg does
it, but he makes a phone conversation really like intense
and captivating and interesting.That's a really great moment.
And then, you know, Meryl Streepas as Kay really like underplays
(19:05):
that moment. You're expecting this big
climactic thing. And the way she, like, delivers
the the, you know, the decision to print the paper is very,
like, subtle and, like, unassuming and like, yeah, I
guess. Yeah.
Let's do it, you know, And it, it's really great.
(19:26):
Ready Player One mostly just, I guess anything with Mark
Rylance. I don't know.
I don't really have a lot to say.
I said enough in that episode about Ready Player One.
West Side Story is, I would say,the standout favorite moments
and shots are everything. There's tons of purely cinematic
(19:47):
shots. You know, you've got Tony and
Maria catching eyes across the dance floor for the first time,
with people dancing in between them and meeting behind the
bleachers. So good.
You've got, you know, Tony reflecting in the water as he's
singing Maria. You've got that low, there's
this low angle shot to like finish off the song America,
(20:09):
where the skyscrapers are like it's shot straight down the
street. Skyscrapers are like fit framing
the performers. So good.
You've got the shadows crossing before the big rumble in the
warehouse. That's just incredible shot.
And yeah. And then just great musical
numbers. I think my favorite musical
(20:31):
number and song is maybe still tonight.
But I was I was really liked some of the what they did was
somewhere in that movie. And then the the kind of just
raw energy and emotion of the a boy like that slash.
I have a love is just really great.
It's kind of what sold this movie for me, what made me
(20:54):
believe that Maria loves Tony ina way that like no other
Shakespearean story has. I mean, like Shakespearean Romeo
and Juliet story has ever made me buy so love that and the and
the fable winds. I mean, one of the things that
doesn't I think get like broughtup a lot.
(21:15):
That was a standout to me, was his first, like moment directing
an actor, you know, with the kidthat that, you know, in the war
that he's like directing to likehave this big emotional reaction
to, you know, all of us, all of his, you know, these people he's
leading into battle, being dead.And yeah, that was very moving
(21:37):
to me, that sequence, the shot of his that I talked about this
shot of when they move into their new Kelly home.
There's this shot where his mom looks directly into the camera
that is being shot by Spielberg,but it's in the movie.
It's being shot by Sammy on his camera.
And she looks what this like longing, sad, depressed look
(22:00):
into the camera killed me. That moment.
Him seeing himself filming his parents as they're they're
announcing their divorce is probably the big one everyone
says. And it's there's a reason for
that. The the ending with the the John
Ford Horizon stuff is gold. Love that.
But yeah, those are there's someof my favorite shots and moments
(22:21):
and what not through throughout the last 15 years of his career.
So having my notes or rankings for the 2000s and 20s, but I'm
actually going to save that because we're going to do a
ranking of the entire Spielberg filmography.
But not yet. I'll save that for last.
(22:42):
OK, let's let's kind of recrap. Wow, did I say recrap?
That's awful. Let's recap Spielberg's entire
career, which has been the exactopposite of crap.
So I think the first thing I want to talk about is just some
Spielberg distinctives. It's something that I kind of
like to talk about and every episode and every film that we
(23:05):
covered Spielberg, What are somethings that you can expect
Spielberg to do with the camera?One of them is he loves to push
in onto a character. There's different the ways he
likes to do close-ups, he likes to do the push in, he likes low
angle close-ups. And by that I mean if you're
watching online, it would be if I had the camera tilted and I'm
(23:27):
in close up with it looking up at me.
He loves to do that for some reason.
And then he he loves to do this thing.
It was especially like in the first half of his career, but
you still see it sometimes laterin his career where the way that
the camera is framed, the the character may or may not already
be in frame, but they somehow end U in a close U they like.
(23:49):
The camera doesn't move, the character moves into the close U
and I've always just like every time I see it, I'm like, yes,
Bilberry. I don't know why I love that.
What are some other Spielberg distinctives?
The dude loves reflections. Sometimes it's very meaningful.
It's a it's a reflection or a shadow and you've got the
iconic, The Color Purple shadow in the rocking chair.
(24:09):
And sometimes they're, they're like full of thematic meaning
and and purpose And sometimes they're just fun shots, to be
honest, which is fine with me because it's Spielberg and he
can make some really great shotsand it's fun to see it a play
out and to work. But yeah, other other Spielberg
(24:29):
distinctives. The dude knows how to build
tension like with the best of them.
I don't know how he does it. One of the one of the moments
from early in his career that like kind of set the table for
how good he is at building tension.
Obviously Jaws, but I'm thinkingof close Encounters where you
see, oh, what's the, the mountain called?
(24:51):
Like Devil's Peak or Devil's, whatever it's called, you see it
on the TV and you have, you haveDreyfus in the background
building the, the model of it inhis basement or living room or
whatever. And you're just like, look at
the TV, look at the TV and he's on the phone and like, it's just
this tension building, tension building.
(25:13):
And finally, he sees it on the TV.
Yeah, that's all through Spielberg's career, that sort of
tension building, not just in like legit intense moments like
you get in like Munich per SE, per SE, but even in like moments
like that that are kind of like mundane.
There's a there's a lot at stake, I guess, in the context
(25:34):
of the movie, but the reality and in, like reality, there's
not a whole lot at stake. And so, yeah, I love that about
Spielberg. The dude loves to imply horror
off screen. He loves blood trickling down
the stream in Jurassic Park. He loves to cut to, you know,
the blood mixing with milk and Munich as someone's gotten shot
(25:57):
and dropped their groceries. Yeah, he he loves to like, have
violence happen off screen, unless it's Saving Private Ryan,
where he just flips the script on us and puts everything on
screen. So he can do both.
He he proved that for sure. But but I love the implied
horror plied implied violence off screen that he does.
(26:20):
The dude. The dude knows how to set up the
geography of an action sequence where you know, where everyone
is, what all is happening, whereit's happening, how it might
possibly, you know, intersect atsome point.
The different things going on. Indiana Jones with Raiders of
(26:43):
the Lost Ark with the, the truckchase sequence, the sense of
geography and that is incredible.
The sense of geography and like the plane fight sequence as
well. I think about Munich, I think is
like I remember in that episode talking about I think that might
be the peak of action set piece,like the geography, knowing
where there's the the phone call, like the foam bomb
(27:06):
sequence. That's just like incredible
movie making, incredible attention building, incredible
actions, geography, set piece sequence with characters in
multiple locations, you know, where everybody is.
It's incredible. Yeah, those are some Spielberg
distinctives, but let's let's dig a little deeper.
What makes a movie a Spielberg movie?
(27:31):
I think there's I think there's a bit of an inexplicable quality
to a Spielberg movie, a Wes Anderson movie.
You can kind of explain what it is that makes a Wes Anderson
movie, a Wes Anderson movie, a Christopher Nolan movie.
I'm saying these because these are the past directors I've
covered, right? A Christopher Nolan Nolan movie.
You can kind of like put your thumb on it.
(27:52):
You kind of know, like, OK, these are, these are what, this
is what Nolan does. He does time he does, you know,
it's, you know, out of sequence.It's you kind of know how to
describe like what makes a Nolanmovie a Nolan movie or a Wes
Anderson movie, a Wes Anderson movie, a Spielberg movie.
(28:15):
It's a little bit harder to naildown because of the kind of wide
range of genres and sensibilities that he has been
able to capture from like, straight up kids movies to
action adventure movies to political dramas and thrillers
(28:36):
to to very like, intense historical dramas with like,
Schindler's List. Yeah, I think the only thing
maybe Spielberg doesn't have on his checklist is straight
comedy, because 1941 was terrible.
But yeah, I mean, he's really done a wide range of genres and
(29:01):
intersecting genres and stuff like that.
So there's not one like genre you can put him in.
And there's not really one kind of feel.
It's it's like the only way I can describe it is that there's
some sort of like magic wizardryin the way that he shoots things
that just captures you. And when you see it, you can
(29:22):
just feel the Spielberg of it. And like other film makers can
tap into that. Even sometimes that that
Spielberg feel like it makes me think of like Jordan pills.
Nope movie is so Spielberg the way it's shot and I I even told
people after I saw it let's its jaws in the sky and it it is
(29:43):
it's like it feels so Spielberg the way he builds tension in
that movie, the way he just frames things and composes
things. Jordan Peele, it's very
Spielberg and now not not JordanPeele's other movies don't have
that feel necessarily, but I think that one he's specifically
was tapping into that. But but yeah, there's just this
(30:03):
kind of magic about the way he is able to put things on screen
that draw you in and capture you.
He is, I think Spielberg is one of the best ever at just
composing A-frame and just knowing that for so much of his
career, even with, even when he was like heavily storyboarding
(30:25):
things for so much of his career.
He, he's very improvisational onas far as like what he does with
the camera. He, he fills out a space and he
just, he has an intuition about where to put the camera, where
to put the people in the, in the, in the space to fill the
frame. And yeah, just a strong
(30:51):
intuition, a genius at composingA-frame.
And I think too, like he can direct the crap out of some
actors. He there's there's so many like
young actors and actresses that kind of you see before they've
really breaking out there, you go back and they're like, they
were in a Spielberg movie, Like he saw something in them and was
(31:14):
able to tap into that early on in their careers.
And I, you know, I love that about Spielberg.
And, you know, and even like just working with even stars
like Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep,he can, he can really like
direct actors very well. I think another thing like
obviously like he pushes technological bounds, maybe not
(31:37):
so much as people like James Cameron, but but like, I, I
think along with that, like one of the things I think that makes
a Spielberg A Spielberg movie isthat even in the most, even in
his most serious movies. So I think Schindler's List, you
can tell that he is still havingfun the way he shoots, the way
(31:58):
he, I don't know, just the feel like there's, there's some
lightness even to Schindler's List.
That's that's kind of refreshing.
You know, you kind of need that.But it's something that
Spielberg brings to even his most serious movies have this
lightness to them because you know that Spielberg is having so
(32:19):
much fun on set and having so much fun, like putting his
vision to to the screen. And, and I think part of that is
that he actually, he's, he is a director.
This is another thing I think specific to Spielberg, that's
not the case for everybody. He is a director that really
(32:41):
genuinely cares about his audience and what his audience
thinks. Like he, he will pivot if
something's not working and the audience is not going to
respond. Like, and I think he really
genuinely has the the audience in mind.
He has the the crowd that like, but it's not, but it doesn't
(33:01):
sacrifice his artistry. I think that's something that
early on in his career, he got abad rap for that.
He was all like action and crowdpleasing, but not really a real
artist. And, and I think that's so
wrong. I think that he was just able to
find that fine line between the two and to ride it where he is
(33:22):
crowd like he is making crowd pleasing movies.
But all all the while he never sacrifices his artistry and his
vision. And that's something that like I
have a great respect for Spielberg for because so many
times I feel like you can directors fall either way.
They're, they're, you know, and,and that's fine.
(33:42):
You know, you can make a crowd pleasing film that's not very
artistic and still be good. And obviously like you can make
very artistic films that aren't like this is a crowd pleasing
film. And obviously there's some
masterpieces out there and, and that way, but but Spielberg, he
he has his vision and he's goingto execute his vision, His his
(34:05):
his piece of art that he is making.
But he also really wants the audience to love it and to be
enthralled with it and to be in wonder of it.
And and yeah, that that comes across.
I mean, I, I think that's something that is very unique to
Spielberg and a reason why he's one of the most successful
(34:26):
directors. I say one of the most he is the
most successful director of all time.
I think. So, Yeah, yeah.
Let's let's go, let's kind of like take a a journey through
his career. You have this young savant who's
directing TV shows like nobody like, and you know, to the
degree to where people are like,man, this kid is good.
(34:48):
And then, you know, he somehow ends up with Jaws and becomes
the father of the modern blockbuster.
Incredible. You know, he kind of in a lot of
ways with with Jaws and then later Star Wars, they really
like jump started the modern blockbuster kind of like
industry for better or worse, you know, But yeah.
(35:14):
And then just kind of learning like out of that process of like
having huge success with things like Jaws and close Encounters
to like figure out like I need to have the right people around
me. I think is this part of his
career? You know, he makes he comes off
of close Encounters in 1941 really like it does OK
(35:36):
financially, but like it was bad.
It was not a good movie. And you know, it has it's like
Defenders. But like, I think in general,
like people just everyone knows that 1941 is not a good movie.
And then to come off of that with Raiders of the Lost Ark and
with the ET partnering with likestrong, like film makers and
(35:58):
strong writers, George Lucas coming alongside of him,
Melissa, Melissa Mathison with ET and really like being able to
execute, take Spielberg's visionand like translate it, whether
it's like with a great script and ET or whether it's with like
(36:18):
bouncing off ideas and kind of like honing down things with
George Lucas on what you want todo.
And like he, he, you know, he has this era of childhood
wonder. That's kind of becomes his
thing. And I think it's a reason why he
he was accused of not being artistic enough of a director
think I think that was wrong, but it was a thing back then.
And I think out of that, he has this period of his career where
(36:42):
with things like The Color Purple and Empire of the Sun,
where he really maybe even always, he's really like
grasping at wanting to be taken seriously.
He wants the recognition of his peers.
He wants the Academy to to see him as a serious director, a
serious contender. And, you know, I think I think
(37:05):
The Color Purple was a miss. I think Empire of the Sun was a
hit, but not with, you know, it wasn't actually it.
It just in my opinion, it was a great movie.
But yeah, it it's, yeah, this desire to really be taken
seriously and then, you know, kind of doing some flop passion
(37:26):
projects with always in the hookin that transition into the 90s.
And yeah, it it's funny. Like he comes out of that and
then he has his pinnacle year. Like his it's it is the year,
the Spielberg year 1993. He it's it's the first time I
(37:47):
think. I think he had had trouble
separating his fun blockbuster side from his serious drama side
with things like The Color Purple and Empire of the Sun and
always and hook even. And he really in this year, I
think the thing that made the difference was, OK, I'm going to
make my fun blockbuster movie and that's what it's going to
(38:08):
be. I'm going to make my serious
drama and that's what it's goingto be.
And yeah, two of his best films in the same year, Jurassic Park,
Schindler's List. Incredible.
Yeah. I don't know that anyone's ever
had a better movie year than having the the highest grossing
film of its at that time in Jurassic Park and a best picture
(38:30):
winner in Schindler's List. And deservedly so.
Phenomenal masterpiece movie. I don't know that I don't think
it's ever happened for and ever will again.
It might not ever happen again for someone to have a year like
Spielberg had in 1993 and and then he the 90s are kind of an
(38:51):
enigma because in my opinion, hehas three big flops and three
masterpieces. I I don't know that I would say
Saving Private Ryan is a masterpiece.
Some people do, but you know, I understand the argument for it.
It's a great, great, great movie.
So he has three phenomenal movies and three kind of flops.
(39:12):
And in my opinion, not everyone thinks Hook is a flop, but he
had The Lost World, Jurassic Park, Never again is he going to
make sequels other than Indiana Jones, of course, but that's a
little different. Amistad is Amistad is the movie
that he shouldn't have directed.I went on a rant about that in
that episode that you can go listen to.
(39:33):
And then yes, Saving Private Ryan really kicks things back
off and and the the 2000s was a great a great decade for him.
AI, artificial intelligence, Minority Report, catch me if you
can, War of the Worlds, Munich, even in my opinion, Indiana
(39:54):
Jones and the Kingdom of the Chrysalis school, all great
movies. I don't the terminal has its
defenders. I and it has a a decent rating
on like letterbox. I don't think the tear the
terminal is very good at all. But but if you do think it's
good, I mean that's a whole decade of like hits in my
(40:15):
opinion. It's not like war of the worlds
isn't great or anything and Kingof the social school isn't like
phenomenal or by Indiana Jones standards, but they're still
good movies, I think. And yeah, really, really strong
decade there. And I think with Munich, like I
was talking about, you know, it's it's a sci-fi decade.
(40:37):
I would say with AI, minority Report, War of the worlds, even
king of the Christmas school hasits sci-fi elements.
And so that's that's fun. But then with Munich, I think,
like I said earlier, really kicks off his political drama
decade. Munich.
I would argue War Horse is in here as kind of like the
children's version of the political drama, but the Horse
(40:58):
and Bridge of Spies, Lincoln, The Post, and if I'm thinking
correctly, you've got that from OK, Munich is 2005 to 2017 with
the Post, so a little over a decade, but and you've got 1010
and BFG thrown in there and Kingof the Crystal Skull as well.
But yeah, a lot political dramas, he's making his
(41:21):
political points in the 2010's where from and starting with
Munich even takes his big swingswith mocap.
Not his best choices. I don't think that, you know,
between 10:10 BFG and Ready Player 1, you know, a lot of
people really enjoy 1010. A lot of people really enjoy
(41:42):
BFGI. Thought both.
I think both of those movies arefine.
I don't think they're bad, I think they're fine in movies.
Ray Player 1 I think is a swing and a miss unfortunately.
But man, to come off of that andin my opinion, to have your old
man passion projects and make 2 masterpieces I think is
(42:05):
incredible. I think West Side Story and the
Fablemans are both masterpieces.They're incredible, they're
great. They're we'll get to might be
two of the best of his career, but I love that.
I love that he and I just I can't wait to see what he does
with this UFO movie. It is currently the working
(42:25):
title I think is the dish, whichis an interesting title.
The four actors that I noted were Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor,
who I love, Colin Firth and Coleman Domingo.
So those. Great names attached to the
movie. It's a UFO movie.
It's supposed to come out next year in 2026.
(42:47):
Comic Sign. Hello again.
Do you know how you can really support the show for free in
just a few minutes or less? That's right.
Just leave a rating and review on Spotify and Apple or wherever
you listen. That might allow for ratings and
reviews. These really help the visibility
(43:08):
of the podcast. In fact, just hit that pause
button right now and drop the review right now and then you
can get back to the show. I'd greatly appreciate it.
OK. I trust that you went and left
that rating and review now? Back to the show, I think over
(43:29):
the court just thinking about before we get I do my rankings,
just thinking about watching through these some three of
these movies that I'm going to label as my biggest surprises
were blind spots. I knocked out all of my
Spielberg blonde spots with the blind spots with this, so that's
fine. One of them I already really,
(43:53):
really liked a whole lot, but just watching it again, I think
it's a masterpiece and is the one of the biggest surprises.
Now I'm not going to say it's the biggest surprise because I
had seen it before and loved it already ready, but I just think
it's a a modern masterpiece is West Side Story.
I I just think it's incredible. I think visually and like the
(44:15):
way he like it's like he was born to make a musical Spielberg
and love West Side Story. A couple other like movies that
are really liked, AI, artificialintelligence.
I wasn't sure what I was going to think going in.
I think that's a great, great movie.
Same thing with Empire of the Sun didn't know what to think
(44:35):
going in but was blown away. Loved it.
And then I would say my biggest surprise of the the whole series
just cause like for one, I didn't really have any
expectations going in. Haven't ever heard much about
this movie, but Munich is such an incredible movie that
(44:56):
captures so much of what Spielberg does, from the the
political thriller with a political statement movie to the
action set pieces, to the tension, to the character
building, to the story, to the visual language that's so
distinctly Spielberg. Munich is such a good movie and
(45:17):
it's still from 2005 to today. It's still very, very relevant
politically. So really love those big
surprises. But now it is the moment you've
all been waiting for. I am going to go through and
give my rankings for Spielberg. I will start at the bottom and
work my way up. I'm not going to include like I
(45:39):
have some of his like shorts andTV movies and stuff included in
here that I'm not going to include.
I'm just going to do the featurefilms and I'm not going to
include, I'll tell you this. Twilight Zone is second to last
if you if I'm going by like his sequence in the Twilight Zone
movie. I did not like his sequence in
(45:59):
the Twilight Zone movie, but I'mnot going to rank it here.
But if I did, you just already know it's it would be second to
last. So in last place, I have 1941.
Just not good, not funny to me at least not just added.
I don't know, not good. So that is OK.
(46:21):
Let me think. Let me remove.
Yeah. All of the like, shorts and
stuff. And I think it's, I think he's
at 34 feature films, if you don't include the Twilight Zone,
Twilight Zone, the movie. So 30 at #34 is 1941 and #33 I
(46:43):
have the terminal. Yeah.
You can go back to that episode #32 I have always not not great,
really weird movie looks great, but really weird at, let's see,
343332 at 31. I have Ready Player 1 and yeah,
(47:12):
talked about it already. At #30 I have Hook.
Wasn't a big fan of Hook, rewatching it with this.
Number 29, The Lost World, Jurassic Park, kind of a misfire
sequel. I think at #28 have Amistad, the
movie he should not have directed but you know, has its
(47:33):
moments. That's #20 BFG, it's fine.
At #26 The adventures of 10/10 it's fine.
And then 25 I have The Color Purple, another movie I think he
would have been better not to direct, but I understand why I
did. Much more so than amistad #24 I
(47:55):
have War of the Worlds and #23 Ihave his debut feature film, The
Sugar Land Express. Well, unless you count Dual,
which we are going to count in this because it did did have
some theater run in Europe. Yeah #23 The Sugar Land Express.
At #22 I have Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and right
(48:20):
above it, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
At #21 So let's get into the top20.
I have War Horse. At #20 I liked War Horse a lot
more than I thought it would. At #19 I have Duel.
Great movie and let me go ahead and preface this from this point
(48:41):
forward, all of these movies, I have four stars and up even, you
know, so, so like 8 out of 10 Saving Private Ryan is I have at
#18 and #17 catch me if you can #16 I have the post.
This is his 20 tense political thrillers part right here. 16
(49:04):
The Post 15 Lincoln and 14 Bridge of Spies.
Love all those at #13 I have Empire of the Sun and #12 don't
hate me. Raiders of the Lost Ark and #12
I know, I know, I know the objectively it's it's top five,
but just for me, it's #12 because I love me some sci-fi
(49:30):
and at #11 I have Minority Report, at #10 I have AI,
artificial intelligence, at #9 Ihave close Encounters of the
Third kind, my little sci-fi runthere.
Love all those movies. At #8 is my favorite Indiana
Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
So I have some good representation up higher for
(49:53):
Indiana Jones, but I'm just not like I love the Indiana Jones
franchise, but I'm just not likethe Super fan that has it has a
great greatest of all time sort of thing.
So that was #8 #7 I have the Fablemens.
Fablemens is phenomenal at number six, I have Munich.
(50:16):
So my biggest surprise I have upat #6 here we are getting into
the top five. These, these are just, these are
my top five Spielberg movies. So here we go at #5 I have
Jurassic Park childhood, It's the love.
Jurassic Park at #4 This is the another huge surprise of how
(50:41):
much I loved it. I have West Side Story at #4 I
think it is phenomenal. And yeah, it's at #4 for me #3 I
have, and honestly, I I could move West Side Story up to #3 or
#2 I thought it was that good #3I have ET the Extraterrestrial,
(51:01):
loved it. It's so good.
And top 2. These are both five star
masterpieces. I think Schindler's List at #2
found it incredibly entertaining, incredibly moving,
an incredibly important movie. So maybe a bit cliche, but I
have it at #2 And that means that my number one film for now
(51:22):
and for always for Spielberg is Jaws.
Great movie, masterpiece. 5 stars, 10 out of 10.
Jaws Big Shark is taking the cake.
I mean, could I have really given it to anybody else?
I mean, because what would that shark do to me if I didn't?
So that is my ranking of Spielberg's filmography.
(51:44):
It's it's been fun. We're done with Spielberg until
he releases the dish next year, if it's still called that by
then. But I'll look forward to that.
And yeah, kind of sad to see Spielberg go, but this is it.
Yeah. I mean, I've so now I've covered
Wes Anderson, Christopher Nolan and now Steven Spielberg.
(52:06):
I would say honestly, I probablylike those directors in that
order. Just like a personal preference,
what you know, the movies that Ilove from the directors, I would
say Wes Anderson favorite Christopher Long, next.
Steven Spielberg next, but obviously, like Spielberg is the
GOAT, you can't really take thataway from him.
(52:26):
So really glad I did this series.
I've greatly enjoyed it. Met some great people that I
brought on as guests through this series that, you know,
hopefully I'll be able to bring on again in the future.
But yeah, really, really enjoyedthe series.
I am hoping to diversify my port, My Portfolio of directors
(52:48):
I've covered with the next one, maybe not a white male director
with the next one. So we'll see.
Maybe not a big name director either.
We'll see. I've been trying to, you know,
cover some directors that maybe we'll, we'll pull in more people
that are interested. But hey, maybe it's time for an
ND director. I don't know, we'll see.
(53:11):
But Speaking of ND directors, next week I had the privilege of
interviewing indie director Daniel Daniel Moschiari, who has
his debut feature coming out next.
And so, yeah, it's called Stationed at Home.
And yeah, it's it's very good. Daniel and I had a great
(53:33):
conversation about it. I I was able to interview him
about the film, start the episode with a quick review of
it. Yeah, yeah.
It was exciting to be able to dothat.
And I hope to be able to do moreinterviews with directors in the
future about their films. And so that is coming out next
week. And so be looking forward to
that. But Spielberg, it was it was
(53:56):
good. It is time for for us though,
like our favorite pal ET to now go home.
And you know, we'll be right there with you always,
Spielberg. So we'll see you when you
release your next film, I guess.And so, yeah, that's it.
We're done with Spielberg. Goodbye.
So long. That's all we have for this
(54:18):
week. I have been Eli Price.
And you've been listening to theestablishing shot.
We'll see you next time. We were happy here for a little
while. But look, I think it was this
way. Better to be king for a night
than smoke for a lifetime.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
The Brothers Ortiz
The Brothers Ortiz is the story of two brothers–both successful, but in very different ways. Gabe Ortiz becomes a third-highest ranking officer in all of Texas while his younger brother Larry climbs the ranks in Puro Tango Blast, a notorious Texas Prison gang. Gabe doesn’t know all the details of his brother’s nefarious dealings, and he’s made a point not to ask, to protect their relationship. But when Larry is murdered during a home invasion in a rented beach house, Gabe has no choice but to look into what happened that night. To solve Larry’s murder, Gabe, and the whole Ortiz family, must ask each other tough questions.