10. Sword Vs. Pistol – “Raiders Of The Lost Ark” (1981)
It’s long since passed into legend that this gag in “Raiders” came about because Spielberg, Harrison Ford and much of the crew were suffering from dysentry, and wanted to cut down the shooting schedule as much as possible. But the practical benefits don’t change the brilliance, and the level of comic timing, of having Indy, when confronted by an intimidating swordsman, simply shooting him and moving on without a second thought. 35-years-on, it still gets a giant laugh, but more than that, it’s a great way to reveal character too.
9. Comparing Scars – “Jaws” (1975)
What elevates “Jaws” above virtually every other monster movie ever made? Well, aside from the sheer craft at work, it’s the texture that Spielberg and his writers build into the story and characters. In particular, in the second half, it’s the camaraderie between three very different men in Roy Scheider’s Brody, Robert Shaw’s Quint, and Richard Dreyfuss’s Matt Hooper, as the latter two drunkenly brag about scars. And then the scene takes a turn, as Quint reveals the horrifying story behind his time on the U.S.S. Indianapolis. Plenty of people have taken credit for writing it, but whoever was behind, it’s the scene that makes gives the film its humanity.
8. The Spider-Scanners – “Minority Report” (2002)
More so than most of his (relatively) recent movies, “Minority Report” pulls of the mix of blockbuster spectacle and distinctive weirdness that adds up to the best of the director’s films. It’s built in throughout the film, at least until its mildly disappointing ending, but peaks around the midpoint in a spectacular set piece. Tom Cruise’s lawman-on-the-run visits a former adversary (a gloriously weird cameo from Peter Stormare), who helps him with an eye transplant that’ll help him break back into his old workplace. But after an odd interlude with spoilt milk, the apartment he’s hiding out in is raided by his former colleagues, and Cruise has to hide out in a bath of ice. Few but Spielberg would bring this kind of suspense out.
7. The Red Coat – “Schindler’s List” (1993)
To some, it’s pure manipulation, a Spielbergian touch in a film that doesn’t need it, that’s otherwise so restrained. But we have to say, to us, the conceit of, in a film of black and white, seeing one girl’s coat in mtued red, feels beyond effective — illustrating how Schindler (Liam Neeson) had closed to his eyes to the suffering, until the one face in the crowd turns his head. It’s a move informed entirely by the theme — again, he who saves one life saves the world entire — and the payoff later, as the red coat is glimpsed being taken away on a wagon, dead — is a wrenching one.
6. The Boulder – “Raiders Of The Lost Ark” (1981)
We didn’t have a hope of not falling in love with Indiana Jones, really. Spielberg’s opening sequence to the film takes him (and a young Alfred Molina as his guide) past multiple deadly traps and a skeleton (already showcasing his resourcefulness), before he cleverly swaps out a bag of sand for the golden idol he seeks. But it doesn’t work, and soon he’s triggered the traps and is fleeing for his life past a rock the size of a truck. It’s thrilling stuff, which launched a million rip-offs and video games, but it’s Harrison Ford’s vulnerability and humanity that makes the scene as memorable as it is.
5. T-Rex Attack – “Jurassic Park” (1993)
If you’ve learned anything by this point, it’s that the devil is in the details with Spielberg: it’s not the scope or the scale of an set piece that makes it pass into eternity, but the beats and jokes built into it. That’s rarely clearer than in the unforgettable T-Rex sequence in “Jurassic Park,” which builds from something as simple and unforgettable as the ripples in a glass of water. Elements keep being added in — the goat, the night vision goggles, the mud and rain — until chaos is unleashed completely, in the form of an enormous, unstoppable monster, and the sheer terror as Grant tries to get into the car with the children is a rare thing.
4. The Abduction – “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind” (1977)
There’s a primal fear connected to the separation of a parent and a child, and while in some respects “Close Encounters” ignores that (no other film in Spielberg’s filmography so gleefully celebrates a father abandoning his kids), its greatest moment comes as a mother battles in vain to keep her child close. Melinda Dillon’s adorable son wakes in the middle of the night, with strange disturbances outside from seemingly every angle. Again, it’s low-tech stuff, done mostly through lighting, smoke and sound, but it becomes something strange and terrifying, and proves endlessly influential (if nothing else, it’s basiclaly the entire basis for the Spielberg-produced “Poltergeist.”
3. A Bigger Boat – “Jaws” (1975)
A great Spielbergian technique is to make a reveal into a sly joke, and to help build it up, by throwing it away. Just as Roy Neary isn’t even looking the first time we see evidence of alien life in “Close Encounters,” Brody (Roy Scheider) is addressing his colleagues when the titular shark first rears its head up, only catching a terrifying glimpse as he turns back and it disappears under the water again. His fear is palpable, but his understated reaction — “We’re going to need a bigger boat” — will make us love him forever.
2. Omaha Beach – “Saving Private Ryan” (1998)
It barely qualifies as a moment — it weighs in as basically all of the first reel of Spielberg’s war epic — but few would quibble with the high placement of the D-Day opening of “Saving Private Ryan” in this list. It’s a sequence that brought the reality of that day home for the first time to many, its chaos and confusion and bloodshed. And in the process, it completely revolutionized the way that combat was presented on film: from the saturated colors and heightened shutter speed to the diegetic sound design, documentary-like camera framing and unsanitized violence. Turning warfare into something close to Hieronymous Bosch, it simply changed everything.
1. The Flying Bike – “E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982)
Given that it’s the sequence from which Spielberg pulled the logo for his production company Amblin, there could really only be one choice for the number one slot here. Midway through the film, Elliot and his new alien friend go for a bike ride, a bike ride that it turns out E.T. is able somehow to take skywards, launching the bike into the heavens and above the treetops. It’s a sequence that almost serves as the dictionary definition of the word ‘soaring,’ and culminates with the utterly gorgeous scene of the bike’s silhouette as it crosses a low moon. But Spielberg’s genius isn’t just with the poetry, it’s with undercutting it, and the choice to end it with a joke — Elliot pleading “please don’t crash” before doing exactly that, is how it retains its humanity.
Obviously there’s plenty more we could have talked about. The train crossing in “Duel,” the opening of “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind,” the Ferris Wheel in “1941,” the snakes reveal or the airplane fight in “Raiders Of The Lost Ark,” freeing the frog, dresssing E.T. up or the ‘ouch’ scene in “E.T,”” and the mine cart chase, the beating heart or the bridge sequence in “Temple Of Doom.”
Then there’s Miss Celie’s Blues in “The Color Purple,” The P-51 scene in “Empire Of The Sun,” the plane take-off on the water in “Always,” the young Indy opening or the tank chase in “Last Crusade,” the shower sequence or the liquidation of the ghetto in “Schindler’s List,” “clever girl” in “Jurassic Park,” the Blue Fairy in “A.I,” Lois Smith’s greenhouse cameo or the jetpack sequence in “Minority Report,” the credit sequence or the stewardess con in “Catch Me If You Can,” the ferry disaster in “War Of The Worlds,” Snowy’s chase or the pirate flashback in “Tintin,” the Euclid scene in “Lincoln,” or the use of Shostakovich in “Bridge Of Spies.” Anything else you’d include? Let us know in the comments.