Steven Spielberg is considered one of the greatest US filmmakers of our time. He has created works across a wide range of genres, ranging from adventure highlights like Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park to sci-fi works like Minority Report. But the master director regrets some of his past creations. We rank the films he criticized by their Moviepilot rating.
6. Steven Spielberg regrets the end of War of the Worlds
Paramount
Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds
An alien invasion breaks in war of the Worlds
invades the earth and a father (Tom Cruise) struggles to survive with his daughter (Dakota Fanning). But Steven Spielberg was ultimately dissatisfied with his 2005 sci-fi actioner based on HG Wells, which was mainly due to the unsatisfactory ending: “The film doesn’t have a happy ending. I never found a way to end the damn thing.”
Moviepilot rating: 6.0
5. Steven Spielberg is unhappy with his Peter Pan film
Columbia Tri Star
Steven Spielberg’s hook
Hook told the 1991 story of a grown-up Peter Pan (Robin Williams) who must once again face his nemesis Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman). In 2018, Steven Spielberg expressed unhappiness with Hook because he only really believed in the beginning and the end of his film had and his insecurity about the rest with “to be covered with production values” tried.
4. Steven Spielberg is shocked by the aftermath of Jaws
Universal
Steven Spielberg’s Jaws aka Jaws
The White shark unleashed a mighty monster with taste for bathing friends on American beaches in 1975. Steven Spielberg doesn’t regret the work itself so much about his famous shark adventure, but rather the unintended consequences that the film brought with it: The bloodthirsty animal became the enemy of the seas and the shark was subsequently feared and hunted by many: “To this day I regret it decimation of the shark population, the […] the movie caused”.
3. Steven Spielberg resents compromises in Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Columbia TriStar
Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The UFO sighting followed by an alien search in Close Encounters of the Third Kind won an Oscar for best cinematography in 1978 and received many other nominations. But there was one scene in the acclaimed sci-fi work that Spielberg struggled with for a long time because he was annoyed at the compromise he had to make:
[Das Studio] said to me: ‘We’ll give you the money if you the interior of the mothership show Give us something to hang the campaign on.’ So I went along with it and let Richard Dreyfuss walk in. I should never have done that. Because that should have remained a mystery.
A new version of the science fiction film followed in 1980, which integrated deleted and new scenes, but it was only in the Director’s Cut in 1998 that the director was allowed to completely remove the hated UFO interior view.
2. Steven Spielberg’s ET censorship still rankles him to this day
Universal
Steven Spielberg’s ET – The Extra-Terrestrial
ET – The Extra-Terrestrial delighted children and adults alike with his earth visit in 1982. However, Steven Spielberg regrets that he subsequently intervened in ET: For the 20th anniversary, the government officials’ weapons were replaced with radios. That might make the sci-fi children’s film more family-friendly, but the Gun Censorship “was a mistake. I should never have done that. ET is a product of its time”the director later mused.
1. Steven Spielberg hates one of his Indiana Jones movies
Paramount
Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones 2
The film Steven Spielberg dislikes the least out of his entire opus is Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The second Indiana Jones film, a prequel to Part 1, sent Harrison Ford in the jungle in 1984 on the trail of a secret cult. Spielberg openly admitted he was with it “Not satisfied at all. It was too dark, too underground and way too awful. I think he even rumbled out poltergeist. In The Temple of Doom there isn’t even a shred of my personal feelings.”
After Steven Spielberg recently relaunched West Side Story and filmed his own family story with The Fabelmans, the director will probably next devote himself to his Frank Bullitt Project. Time will tell whether he will be happier with his new films than with some of the older ones.Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones series: Which film is the best?
In the new edition of the FILMSTARTS podcast on the screen, Sebastian talks to his guests Pascal and Yves from Moviepilot about the entire Indiana Jones series. The trio not only sets up a personal ranking, it is also about the personal influence of the series – and of course the expectations of part 5.
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The screen love is the weekly cinema and film podcast of our colleagues from FILMSTARTS.
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