Includes all films he has directed, even including Firelight, made when he was only 16.
Wait for the poll.
I simply cannot choose between Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Those are in my Top Five of all time.
Wrestling with that exact choice myself. Both are on my short list of films that I have to watch if they’re on, even if I was already watching something else.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - my favourite movie anyway.
Agreed. And then you go through the rest of the list and see things like Jurassic Park, Last Crusade and Duel, picking one becomes a lost cause.
Hunh, turns out I’ve seen every one of his works except the two student films, Hook and Amistad.
My top fave: Close Encounters, as perhaps the most archetypal Spielberg film, not to mention the wonderful riffing on nearly every UFO legend of the period. Such a tour de force that it manages to make one of the most suspenseful scenes in film history out of a radio conversation between an air traffic controller and a commercial pilot.
After that, maybe Jaws, then Raiders of the Lost Ark.
His one filmic tic that invariably bugs the hell out of me is his habit of insisting on gloopy, sentimental endings even when the whole rest of the film has been unflinchingly harsh. Saving Private Ryan, War of the Worlds and several others, I’m looking at you.
My pick also and one of my fav. films.
His second best movie is Minority Report, in my opinion.
I voted for Jurassic Park, but there are so many right there, nipping at its heels- Jaws, Raiders, JP2… so many. But Jurassic Park edges them because it has thos wonderful dinosaurs!! And it was the first to bring them to life.
There are a lot of great movies on that list… this is hard.
However, I voted for War of the Worlds as my favorite Speilberg film because of its relentlessly dark nature: it’s the only blockbuster American film I can think of (well, right now) where the protagonist goes through a character arc where, as part of his redemptive quest to provide for his child and be a real father, he must calculatingly murder somebody in cold blood (and gets away with it). And I don’t know if it mattered, because at the end, there’s Tim, with his kids.
People who harp on Robby not having died kind of missed the point. IMHO.
Why isn’t Poltergeist on this list? 
My vote goes to Schindler’s List because I thought Spielberg went well beyond his comfort zone and produced some views of history that offset the depravity of that period.
After I voted I checked IMDb for his work sorted by IMDb rating and found that SL is near the top of his list.
Look again. Schindler’s List is his top-rated movie (and #7 in the IMDB Top 250).
Raiders, but wow what a difficult decision that was. Jaws and Jurassic Park would make up my top three I think but Raiders of the Lost Ark, well my 9 year old self thought it was the greatest motion picture ever and in some ways my adult self feels the same.
Raiders or Munich.
I had a hard time choosing between Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I chose the latter because I just love that movie.
I am kind of surprised that there are several others who agree with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
I think it took the basic template of the Raiders and improved it with even better action set-pieces and some great jokes. I also thought Raiders had a really weak ending: literally a Deus ex Machina.
I liked Connery as Indy’s dad and thought the father-son angle worked better in Last Crusade than some of Spielberg’s other films perhaps because it was part of a fun action film.
I like most of Spielberg’s films but they tend to fall apart in the last 15 minutes.
Can’t choose…my top 4 would be Jaws, ET, Close Encounters and Raiders.
I checked IMDB and was amused to see that Firelight was filmed with regular 8mm.
(eta–on second glance, the 8mm spec on IMDB doesn’t seem to differentiate between regular and super 8)
Have to go with Raiders for personal reasons – it was my first date with my wife.
Though I think my favorite otherwise is The Sugarland Express. Certainly his most charming film.
Although I think Schindler’s List is his best film (except for the epilogue that dragged on too long, going from uplifting to poignant to “ok, we get it, he touched a LOT of lives” to “will you just end the fucking movie already” - 2 minutes of it would have left me in tears - 10 minutes just pissed me off as I could feel Stevie mechanically pushing the “cry now” button over and over), I find **Raiders **to be his most enjoyable and rewatchable film.
Jaws, Jurassic Park, and the opening 25 minutes of Saving Private Ryan are all high ranking runners up.
*Jaws * is the closest thing to a perfect movie ever made. I could watch that film a million times and never get bored.
CE3K with Jaws running a very close second. There’s about four tied for third place.