Universal hired Steven to shoot the pilot episode of Night Gallery. Steven would go on to direct more television programs, including shows like Marcus Welby, M.D. and Columbo. But Steven’s big break would happen when he was asked by Universal to direct a movie-of-the-week. A movie about a motorist being stalked by a “killer” truck.

Mann Vs. Machine
1971’s Duel stars Dennis Weaver as David Mann, a businessman who finds himself and his little red car out in the middle of nowhere being terrorized by a tanker-truck. Although this is one of Spielberg’s earliest works, there’s stuff here that would become the hallmark of many of Steven’s films - most notably the fact that we never see the driver of the demon truck...which led to Spielberg’s habit of never showing us all or too much of the "monster" during the early parts of most of his movie, which helps build suspense and anticipation with the audience.

Duel’s success led to Steven getting his first shot at a theatrical release - 1974’s The Sugarland Express, starring Goldie Hawn as an escaped prisoner leading her family on a wild chase from the police through Texas. The film was a moderate success, but Steven’s breakthrough movie was waiting for him next...just off the shores of Martha’s Vineyard.

“The Shark Is Not Working!”
One of the main reasons Spielberg took on Jaws was because of its similarities to his earlier movie, Duel. But although both pictures feature a menacing force preying on an “everyman,” shooting Jaws proved to be just as hazardous to Steven’s career and sanity than the threat of the fictional shark in the picture.

Delays caused by both the problems of shooting a film based mostly on the water and the fact that the mechanical shark created for the film almost never worked, Jaws proved to be a nightmare for the young Spielberg, the movie’s cast and its crew. Spielberg himself has stated that he never left Martha’s Vineyard during filming, because he was afraid that if he did, he’d never have the courage to return and finish the shoot.

Fortunately, for him and movie fans everywhere, Jaws was completed and released during the summer of 1975. The result? It became the biggest box office moneymaker at that time, and turned every summer that followed into a period where Hollywood releases all of its “blockbuster” films. And all because of a shark that, after all he did for Spielberg’s career, still looks really fake.

Universal recently released a new special 30th Anniversary Edition of Jaws, which retains most of the cool features of the 25th Anniversary Edition, but includes the complete two-hour documentary on the making of the movie (the 25th Anniversary disc contained only a one-hour edited version of the documentary).

Watch The Skies!
Teaming with Richard Dreyfuss for a second time, Steven went from the sense of terror he brought in Jaws to a sense of wonderment in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The movie is actually somewhat of a re-make of a low-budget film Spielberg made earlier in his career entitled Firelight (just in case you’re wondering, no known copies are known to still exist), a movie where the citizens of a small town are attacked by UFOs.

But in Close Encounters, the aliens are benevolent and kind - a real change from most science fiction pictures, where the aliens usually came to destroy us. The DVD version of the movie is, incidentally, neither the original 1977 release of the film nor the 1980 “Special Edition” version which included new footage of Dreyfuss’ character entering the spaceship at the conclusion of the movie. Instead, the DVD is a new third version of the film, which keeps most (but not all) of Spielberg’s “Special Edition” intact, but excises the entering of the spaceship at the conclusion of the movie...a scene Steven only agreed to do in 1980 because that was the only way Columbia Pictures would let him re-edit the film.

Throw Me The Idol, I’ll Throw You The Whip!
After Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Spielberg tried his hand at comedy with 1941, a big budgeted, big-time flop for the still young director. But Steven bounced right back in 1981, teaming up with good friend and fellow director George Lucas for Raiders of the Lost Ark, a blockbuster hit that harkened back to the cliffhanger serials of the 1940’s.

Starring Harrison Ford as swashbuckling archeologist Indiana Jones, Raiders was successful enough to warrant two sequels, 1984’s darker Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and 1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. All three movies are available on DVD in a special four-disc box set, The Adventures of Indiana Jones, which includes several hours of bonus material and footage on the making of all three movies.

Phone Home
Even with all the great movies he has directed, when all is said and done there’s probably one film more than any other that Steven Spielberg will be remembered for, and it’s 1982’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.

While the movie takes place in the world of science fiction, E.T. has been said to be the most personal of all of Steven’s films - since he modeled Elliott’s family on his own experience of his parents getting a divorce when he was young. E.T. is one of those rare masterpieces of cinema that reaches across all age groups and demographics...plus you don’t need to be a sci-fi fan to enjoy its magic.

In 2002, Spielberg released a Special Edition of E.T., adding some new scenes and making a few changes to the film. The re-release wasn’t nearly as successful as the initial release, but Steven has provided both versions of the movie for fans in the 3-disc E.T. Limited Collector’s Edition.

Steven Gets Serious
After directing one of the segments in 1983’s Twilight Zone: The Movie and teaming with George Lucas and Harrison Ford once again for 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Steven entered a phase of his directing career when he concentrated on more “artistic” film endeavors.

1985’s The Color Purple was an indication both to Hollywood and audiences everywhere that Steven was much more than just the maker of summer blockbuster films. Based on Alice Walker’s novel about a young black woman’s trials and tribulations, the movie garnered 11 Academy Award nominations, yet Spielberg was snubbed in the Best Director category. Alas, the film did not take home one award at the Oscar ceremony.

In 1987, Steven brought us Empire of the Sun, starring future-Batman Christian Bale as a young British boy who gets separated from his parents and has to survive on his own during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai during World War II. After directing Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade in 1989, Spielberg teamed with Richard Dreyfuss once again for Always, a remake of Spencer Tracy’s 1943 film, A Guy Named Joe. The movie was far from a smash hit at the box office, but it remains a very-watchable effort, and includes the last-ever screen appearance of legend Audrey Hepburn.

1991 saw Steven take on the legend of Peter Pan in Hook, a big budget telling of what a grown-up Peter Pan would be like, with Robin Williams as Pan and Dustin Hoffman as the title character and Peter’s arch nemesis. The movie did respectable numbers at the box office (pulling in about $120 million domestically), but it got mixed reviews from most critics and is not widely considered to be one of Spielberg’s best efforts.

“What Have They Got In There? King Kong?!”
Aptly referred to by critics as “Jaws On Land,” 1993’s Jurassic Park not only proved that Spielberg could still produce a huge blockbuster, but proved that he could still deliver the kind of wonderment and magic that he did with movies early in his career.

Based on Michael Crichton’s best-selling novel about an island where genetically-engineered dinosaurs live and breath, Spielberg’s film also marked a technological breakthrough in the world of CGI filmmaking. Steven would return to Jurassic Park in 1997’s sequel, The Lost World, which is ironically one of his worst movies - visually stunning, but lacking all the magic, charm and intensity of the 1993 original.

“The List Is Life”
Undoubtedly one of Steven’s greatest works as a filmmaker is 1993’s Schindler’s List, which tells the story of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who used Jews during World War II as a means of cheap labor...but soon realized he could use his position as a way of saving many of their lives.

Spielberg shot the entire movie (except for a scene at the beginning, a coda at the end and a memorable scene with a small girl in the middle) entirely in black and white because he felt that gave the film a more “realistic” feel - since most of our memories of World War II are from the black and white newsreel footage of that period. Steven also refused to be paid for the film, and diverted any monies that came his way to The Shoah Foundation, which he set up to record the testimonies of Holocaust survivors and preserve their memories.

Schindler’s List was nominated for twelve Academy Awards and won seven, including Best Picture and Steven’s first Academy Award for Best Director.

“Earn This”
After taking a look at the issue of slavery in 1997’s powerful (but sadly ignored by audiences) courtroom drama, Amistad, Steven directed another movie about World War II - this time from the perspective of American soldiers in Saving Private Ryan.

The movie is semi-fictional, and partially based on real-life soldier Fritz Niland, one of four brothers in the military - two of which were killed on D-Day and one who went missing in action, although he was discovered later to still be alive.

But the real power of Saving Private Ryan comes during the film’s opening moments and Spielberg’s brutal but realistic and moving depiction of the storming of Omaha Beach on D-Day (June 6, 1944). For his work on Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg was awarded his second Best Director Oscar, although the movie lost its Best Picture bid (some would say undeservingly) that year to Shakespeare In Love.

Everybody Runs
The turn of the century saw a different kind of Spielberg behind the camera. Gone were the more hopeful, magical movies of his youth...replaced by darker, more experimental fare.

A.I.: Artificial Intelligence was a project that Steven and fellow director Stanley Kubrick had worked on and talked about for years, but never saw to fruition. But when Kubrick died in 1999, Spielberg decided to make A.I. his next project and the results are quite fascinating - the movie doesn’t look like a Spielberg film as much as it does a Kubrick one...perhaps Steven’s homage to a man he considered both a colleague and a friend.

Spielberg’s “dark period” would continue with 2002’s Minority Report, a sci-fi thriller set in the near future where crimes are discovered before they are committed. The movie also marked the first time Steven teamed up with star Tom Cruise.

While both A.I. and Minority Report were moderate successes, neither of them were box office hits, nor did either garner Spielberg much critical acclaim.

To Tell The Truth
Steven went back to good, old fashioned storytelling with his next two films - both of which were more lighthearted in nature, and in both of which he cast good friend Tom Hanks in one of the lead roles.

2002’s Catch Me If You Can is the true story of Frank Abagnale, Jr. (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), a young con-artist who went from city to city, fake job to fake job, cashing millions in fraudulent checks before the F.B.I. was finally able to track him down (Hanks plays the agent assigned to Abagnale). 2004’s The Terminal casts Hanks in the role of Viktor Navorski, an immigrant who finds himself stranded in an airport when his home country is overtaken during a war and ceases to exist, thus voiding Viktor’s passport and leaving him a man without a country to return to or one to legally enter.

While neither film racked up the kind of numbers some of Spielberg’s earlier films had, both Catch Me If You Can and The Terminal are highly-watchable, highly enjoyable movies with great performances by various actors in both films.

Conclusion
This summer, Spielberg proved that he could still make us scream with delight with the release of War Of The Worlds, a movie that ranks right up with Jaws and Jurassic Park as a seat-of-your-pants cinematic thrill ride. Steven’s next movie (due Christmas 2005) will be Munich, the true story of the aftermath of the killings of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games, and the Mossad agent (played by Eric Bana) who tracks down the terrorists responsible.

Following the release of Munich, the world’s greatest living director has no plans of slowing down - future directorial projects include a yet-unnamed movie about the life of Abraham Lincoln, and the highly-anticipated return of everyone’s favorite archeologist in Indiana Jones IV.