Out of all of Steven Spielberg's film from 1968 to 2012, which do you consider his magnum opus from a pure filmmaking perspective regardless of personal sentimentality. Here's the list of films he's made up to this point in his life.


Amblin' 1968
Duel 1971
The Sugarland Express 1974
Jaws 1975
Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977
1941 1979
Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981
E.T. The Extraterrestrial 1982
Twilight Zone: The Movie 1983
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 1984
The Color Purple 1985
Empire of the Sun 1987
Always 1989
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 1989
Hook 1991
Jurassic Park 1993
Schindler's List 1993
The Lost World: Jurassic Park 1997
Amistad 1997
Saving Private Ryan 1998
A.I. Artificial Intelligence 2001
Minority Report 2002
Catch Me If You Can 2002
The Terminal 2004
War of the Worlds 2005
Munich 2005
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
The Adventures of Tintin
War Horse
Lincoln

I would be split between E.T. and Schindler's List, leaning more toward E.T. as being a game changer in American sci-fi since it was one of the first sci-fi films to have heart and Spielberg has allows regarded this as his most personal film. It also has some of the best John Williams music written outside of the Star Wars saga. In filmmaking and narrative terms, this is a huge accomplishment by Spielberg. Schindler's List is also one of the better films he's ever made. If you disregard the affect E.T. had on a whole industry, Schindler's List is the clear magnum opus.

Mmm... Certainly a tricky choice.

Indiana Jones represents his adventure filmmaking talents at their peak, just as Schindler's List represents his dramatic talents.

Those.


-Vader

Stevo trilogy's for me:

Jaws
Close encounters
E.T.

didich wrote:Mmm... Certainly a tricky choice.

I'll throw you the whip, you give me the idol.

But Jaws could be IT: both (the) blockbuster and dramatic.

Macguffin wrote:

Yeah Saving Private Ryan was great as well.

Raiders and Private Ryan are up there as well. The top 3 for me would be Raiders, Schindler's, and Private Ryan on sentimental and filmmaking terms, but on only filmmaking terms, it'd have to be Schindler's, E.T., and Raiders. Private Ryan is a great film, but nothing absolutely game changing and far from perfect. I can watch it on repeat for my entire life though and it is in my top 5 films of all time along with Schindler's and Raiders.