Steven Spielberg is one of the most successful directors in Hollywood, having made critically-acclaimed films with box-office appeal. Many of his films such as "Jaws", "Indiana Jones", "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial", and "Jurassic Park" have become part of the American pop culture.

His serious and political films like "The Color Purple", "Empire of the Sun", "Schindler's List", "Amistad", and "Munich" have gained much praise from many critics. And many of his commercial films such as "Catch Me if You Can" and "War of the Worlds" were box-office hits.

The Classic Spielberg

A number of Spielberg's classic films have been deeply ingrained in the American popular culture. The tensely-paced "Jaws", for one, scared the hell out of hysterical ocean swimmers and summer beachgoers in 1975.

This visceral, realistic, and masterful science-fiction horror-disaster/suspense film taps into the most primal human fears. Who could forget the tag line, ""Don't go in the water" and the gigantic shark's razor-sharp teeth? And of course, that frightening musical score that is sure to keep beach swimmers away from the water.

"Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" are two of the most-loved film by Spielberg. These films are landmark science-fiction films, not only for their special effects, but also for their portrayal of aliens as benign, even kind creatures - the opposite of the evil monster as characterized in most earlier films.

These films popularized many UFO and alien motifs. Spielberg's "Indiana Jones" series ("Raiders of the Lost Ark", "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", and most recently, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull") defined what an adventure movie should be.

The Serious Spielberg

Spielberg has also directed serious films aimed at exposing the brutalities and injustices in the society in different periods of time. "The Color Purple", set in rural Georgia in the 1930s, focuses on the life of an African American woman, addressing such issue as the exceedingly low position of black women in American social culture. "Empire of the Sun" is about a young English boy who is separated from his parents in Shanghai following the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor.

"Schindler's List" is without a doubt, one of Spielberg's masterpieces. It tells the true story of the German businessman Oskar Schindler, who employed about a thousand Polish Jews during the height of the Nazi rule. This was to protect them against the Holocaust inhumanity.

In "Saving Private Ryan", Spielberg exposes the negative impacts of the war on the soldiers - how war transforms humans to become a savage beast. In the semi-fictionalized film, "Munich", Spielberg shows how a team of assassins kills a list of Black September members believed to be the Israeli Olympians' murderers.

The Blockbuster Spielberg

Spielberg is well-know for directing and producing blockbuster movies. Hits include: "Hook", "Jurassic Park", "The Lost World: Jurassic Park", "Artificial Intelligence: A.I.", "Catch Me if You Can", "Minority Report", "The Terminal", and "War of the Worlds".

He also produced the following successful movies: "Star Wars" (with George Lucas), "Poltergeist", "Gremlins", "Back to the Future", "An American Tail", "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", "Twister", "Men in Black", "Jurassic Park 3", "Memoirs of a Geisha", "Flags of Our Fathers", and many more.