Summary
- Spielberg's best scenes showcase both explosive action and quiet drama, making him a versatile filmmaker in various genres.
- Iconic moments like the rolling boulder scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark show Spielberg's mastery in captivating storytelling.
- Spielberg's personal touch shines through in emotional scenes like the USS Indianapolis speech in Jaws, and he isn't afraid to step back and let his actors shine.
Throughout a career that has spanned five decades, Steven Spielberg has directed a wide variety of now-classic movies, and his best scenes showcase his flair for bold action and quiet drama all the same. The king of the summer blockbuster is behind some of the most iconic scenes of all time, including the rolling boulder scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark and the bicycle scene from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
Spielberg is more than just blockbuster action, though. He can also deliver memorable scenes in many genres without any fireworks. He is, first and foremost, a supremely adaptable filmmaker, who has mastered sci-fi, action, horror and more. Some of Steven Spielberg's best movies don't have particularly iconic, eye-catching scenes, but he can turn on the style like very few filmmakers in Hollywood.
Steven Spielberg Returning To Sci-Fi For New Original UFO Movie
Auteur director Steven Spielberg will return to the science-fiction genre with a mysterious new original movie surrounding a UFO-based plot.
12 Quint's USS Indianpolis Speech
Jaws (1975)
Jaws
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- Release Date
- June 18, 1975
- Cast
- Roy Scheider , Robert Shaw , Richard Dreyfuss , Lorraine Gary , Murray Hamilton , Carl Gottlieb
Jaws was Steven Spielberg's first big hit, and it helped redefine the summer blockbuster, as Spielberg would do so many times in his career. Although the opening scene of Jaws and the final showdown with the shark are both iconic in their own right, the film's most enduring and captivating scene is much quieter and less flashy. It consists of Quint telling the other two men waiting for the shark to reappear about his experience on the USS Indianapolis.
Spielberg didn't want to cast Robert Shaw in Jaws to begin with, but his USS Indianapolis monologue proves that he was perfect for the role. Although the men are drunkenly exchanging playful stories, everything slows down for Quint to tell them about how the ship sank, and the crew had to survive in the water for days as sharks repeatedly came back to pick them off one-by-one. Shaw's performance is incredibly powerful, and he also helped to rewrite the monologue.
11 Communicating With The Aliens
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)
Close Encounters of The Third Kind
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- Release Date
- November 18, 1977
- Cast
- Richard Dreyfuss , Francois Truffaut , Teri Garr , Melinda Dillon , Bob Balaban , J. Patrick McNamara
Steven Spielberg followed Jaws with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and these two movies coming back-to-back helped establish him as one of the most exciting directors to come out of the 1970s. Close Encounters was Spielberg's first exploration of the sci-fi genre, and it displays the palpable sense of wonder that he can infuse into his stories. Many alien movies are about a hostile race trying to conquer or destroy the Earth, but Close Encounters is far gentler.
The scene which best encapsulates Spielberg's wide-eyed style in the sci-fi genre features a group of scientists trying to communicate with an alien ship using colors and melodies. It's a beautiful and fascinating scene, but the sense of mystery is undercut by the constant chatter of scientists. They don't see what Roy and Jillian, or the audience, see. They are just trying to do their jobs.