At a Directors Guild of America (DGA) event in 2011, Spielberg explained that he studied The French Connection in preparation for Munich (2005), his morally ambiguous take on the aftermath of the 1972 Olympic Games massacre. In particular,...

The Terminal (2004) is one of Spielberg’s least-loved efforts, a strangely inert and throwaway comedy about an eastern European man (Tom Hanks) fated to live in New York’s JFK Airport following the collapse of his fictional home country....

But it’s The Birds that has had perhaps the most significant impact on Spielberg’s filmography. As the tale of an idyllic seaside town terrorised in broad daylight by a natural menace, its role as precursor to Jaws hardly needs to be...

It’s no secret that, when developing Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Spielberg and George Lucas pilfered liberally from the adventure films and serials they both loved as children. Even so, it’s quite remarkable how much the Indiana Jones...

An alien and a robot land on Earth after World War II and tell mankind to be peaceful or face destruction.

In an interview with the AFI, Spielberg explained: “I try to rent a John Ford film… before I start every movie, simply because he inspires me…. He’s like a classic painter, he celebrates the frame, not just what’s inside it.” War Horse...

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) is perhaps the most bitterly divisive film in Spielberg’s canon. Critics scoffed in particular at its unapologetically sentimental final act, which some saw as a betrayal of the legacy of Stanley...