40. E.T. Gets Drunk – “E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982)
Our alien hero’s response to Earth things provides many of the highlights in “E.T.” (including the famous Reese’s Pieces scene that helped to popularize product placement). Our favorite has to be the scene when, left alone in the house, he gets drunk, which passes on to a schoolbound Elliot (Henry Thomas) thanks to their special connection. It’s a simple scene, but one that does so much to making you love the title character, who feels almost Chaplin-esque here.
39. The Truck Chase – “Raiders Of The Lost Ark” (1981)
Unusually for a film of its sort (or at least, it’d be unusual now), you remember “Raiders Of The Lost Ark” more for its particular beats than for entire action sequences. But the exception would be the stunning extended truck chase that closes out the Egyptian section of the movie. Indy pursues, initially on horseback, a truck containing the now-salvaged arc, and ends up fighting over, through, in front of and even under the vehicle, with the whole scene weighing in at close to eight whole minutes. “Mad Max: Fury Road,” among many others, wouldn’t exist without it.
38. “Now, Now, Now” – “Lincoln” (2012)
Again, “Lincoln” is one that draws its strengths cumulatively, from an extraordinary ensemble deeper than Daniel Day-Lewis’ rightly Oscar-winning performance, from Spielberg’s restrained direction, from Tony Kushner’s pleasingly wonkish script. But its leading star gets his best showcase in what’s informally known as the ‘Now, Now, Now’ scene, the almost unrecognizable actor purring a speech to colleagues like it was Shakespeare, ending with him crying “I am the President Of The United States Of America, clothed in immense power!,” and you can practically hear the awards-show audience applaud.
37. “I Make Jams” – “War Horse” (2011)
For all its epic battle scenes, our favorite moment in “War Horse” is a quiet one that directly features neither wars nor horses (though is concerned fairly directly with the former). It’s between orphan Emilie (Celine Buckens) and her Grandfather (Niels Arestrup), as she provokes some uncomfortable truths about how they died fighting, and he didn’t (“It was your parents who were brave. I make jams”). It’s a lovely bit of writing by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis, and performed in a film-stealing turn by Arestrup.
36. The Opening – “Minority Report” (2002)
In terms of being economical at setting at your world, your characters and your story, while still being thrilling and visually spectacular, it’s pretty hard to beat the beginning of “Minority Report.” Scott Frank’s remarkable screenplay drops us in as Tom Cruise’s John Anderton tries to solve a murder that hasn’t happened yet, even as he explains to Colin Farrell’s snarky prosecutor how the technology works, as well as cutting in and out of the potential crime scene. It’s one of Spielberg’s very best openings, thrilling and intriguing and beautifully shot.
35. The Flesh Fair – “A.I: Artificial Intelligence” (2001)
Maybe the most visually lavish scene in “A.I,” and perhaps the most indelible, is The Flesh Fair. Having been abandoned by his mother, Haley Joel Osment’s David, now accompanied by Jude Law’s fellow mecha Gigolo Joe, is pulled out into a hideous spectacle somewhere between a circus, a rodeo and gladiatorial games, where mechs are destroyed for the pleasure of humanity. It’s a powerful sequence, the image of a female mecha melting from acid one that gives stakes to the film as it goes forward.
34. Watching ‘Dumbo’ – “1941” (1979)
It’s a fairly immutable law of cinema that the more money a comedy costs, the more it will suck — excess seems to suit the genre poorly. Spielberg’s first folly, madcap WW2 comedy “1941” adheres to this rule, but it can be fitfully inventive, and it has a beautiful scene where Robert Stack’s otherwise tough-seeming General Stillwell takes in a screening of “Dumbo,” and cries to the Disney classic’s “Baby Mine” scene. It’s a reflection of another cartoon-watching scene in the earlier “Sugarland Express,” but rather more touching here amid the slapstick, and perhaps Spielberg’s most touching tribute to the power of cinema.
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33. The Abortive Bombing – “Munich” (2005)
Hitchcock talked about the difference between surprise and suspense as showing a bomb going off, versus having a bomb fail to go off while other things are going on. Spielberg manages to do both in what’s in some respects his most Hitchcockian picture, “Munich,” where an attempted assassination via bomb in a hotel in Cyprus is thrown off by poorly functioning technology, leading to some improvisation by one of the Mossad team (Hanns Zischler) with a hand grenade that proves just as fumbling.
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32. The Sniper – ‘Saving Private Ryan” (1998)
Everyone remembers the opening of “Saving Private Ryan,” but Spielberg’s wartime masterpiece has more than one great scene beyond that. One of the most memorable comes when Vin Diesel’s Carpazo is gunned down by an unseen sniper (in a particularly Spielbergian touch, his hands land on a piano as he goes down). A desperate scramble remains as they search for the shooter while Carpazo breathes his last. In a film that’s most a question of shock and awe, it’s a hugely effective suspense sequence, scored only by the never-ending rain.
31. Göth On The Balcony – “Schindler’s List” (1993)
A sniper features to a very different purpose in Spielberg’s previous WW2 movie. There, Ralph Fiennes’ SS officer Amon Göth sits on his balcony and, for no reason whatsoever, starts shooting prisoners who are working below. It takes a moment for a panic to spread in the camp, but throughout it, Göth remains implacable and unmoved. It’s an unforgettable scene, and one of the most chilling portrayals of the banality of evil.