The Sugarland Express: Spielberg's Success

Spielberg's first major directorial effort was The Sugarland Express, with Goldie Hawn, a film that marked him as a rising star. It was his next effort, however, that made him an international superstar among directors: Jaws. This classic shark attack tale started the tradition of the summer blockbuster or, at least, he was credited with starting the tradition. His next film was the classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a unique and original UFO story that remains a classic. In 1978, Spielberg produced his first film, the forgettable I Wanna Hold Your Hand, and followed that effort with Used Cars, a critically acclaimed, but mostly forgotten, Kurt Russell\Jack Warden comedy about devious used-car dealers. Spielberg hit gold yet one more

In 1984, Spielberg followed up "Raiders" with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which was a commercial success but did not receive the critical acclaim of its predecessor. As a producer, Spielberg took on many projects in the 1980s, such as The Goonies, and was the brains behind the little monsters in Gremlins (1984). He also produced the cartoon An American Tail, a quaint little animated classic. His biggest effort as producer in 1985, however, was the blockbuster Back to the Future , which made Michael J. Fox an instant superstar. As director, Spielberg took on the book The Color Purple, with Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey, with great success. In the latter half of the 1980s, he also directed Empire of the Sun, a mixed success for the occasionally erratic Spielberg. Success would not escape him for long,

He also produced two sequels to Jurassic Park, which were financially but not particularly critical successes. In 2001, he produced a mini-series about World War Two that definitely was a financial and critical success: Band of Brothers, a tale of an infantry company from its parachuting into France during the invasion to the Battle of the Bulge. Also in that year, Spielberg was back in the director's chair for A.I. Artificial Intelligence, a movie with a message and a huge budget. It did reasonably at the box office and garnered varied reviews from