Spielberg's Best Film Per Decade?

Jaws
ET
Schindler's List
Minority Report
Bridge of Spies

Sure why not. I remember writing a more lengthy defense on him at the popular accuse that he infantalised Hollywood, though I can't seem to find it. Anyway, I'll link you some thoughts I found down below:

Jaws: There are 2 things about Jaws I find absolutely incredible. First of course the sheer and impeccable technical craftmanship. This could so easily have been so, so cheesy but Spielberg makes it tense. But this is widely aknowledged. What I perhaps find more fascinating is his portrayal of smalltown life. This is of course never in the center and the strokes may be a little broad but he brilliantly paints the picture of the small seaside town that is overrun by tourists in the summer (and the atmosphere is dense as hell). Spielberg even weaves a small political drama on how the town is dependent on the tourism and he also lays out the protected family lives... it's as if something dark and sinister lures beneath... and it's not just the shark. You feel that the town and the marriage are not as perfect as they are made out to be. But it's only in the sideline. This has always fascinated me about Spielberg, how he deals with disrupted families, small sheltered worlds, that are violently attacked from the outside, or perhaps actually from within. It's in almost all his films and he has a certain childlike naivety about it, or perhaps rather honesty because you can actually feel that he believes in the worlds, the families, the fantasy.

Raider of the Lost Ark: This (or in fact the entire trilogy) is a childhood favorite and actually my favorite Spielberg film. What I love about it is honestly just how incredibly, incredibly well told it is. Spielberg nails each setting (I mean look at them, they are gorgeous and vast), each character (even the comicesque undertones suit them perfectly) and above all the dynamics (both between the characters and in the action scenes) just perfectly and the film still goes so well together.It's a film that truly deserves the title "adventure"-film, it's a film that never slips you lose, from beginning to end and it tells of a world where there are still mysteries to explore.

Jurassic Park: I've long felt that Jurrasic Park asks strange questions about reality. The Park is the delimited Area were our wishes come true (is Jurassic Park Stalker?). Dinosaurs, of course we all want to see Dinosaurs, so Spielberg opens Pandora's box and this becomes a strange parable. In the film of course the direct question is wheter we want the Dinosaurs, wheter they actually fit into our world, wheter we should play god, if it isn't perhaps rather dangerous as the island might not be so delimited. But this parallels itself in the CGI. CGI is a being that can instill enormous wonder in us but it's also quite treacherous because now we can't trust images anymore and of course it spreads rapidly. But Spielberg uses it in a very respectful manner in what is afterall a very physical film about the fight for survival, the ghosts of our past and of our future both in the same film and Goldblumm telling us this might instill a storm somewhere far away. Hello from 2017, the land of the superhero blockbusters where Scorsese mourns about an oversaturation of images! I find the film fascinating because there is always this strange vulgarly philosophical air around it (on the destructivity of fantasy) but what truly seals the deal is of course how enormously engaging (and fascinating) it is to watch (fascinating not because of weird philosophical pondering but because Dinosaurs of course). The worldbuilding in this one is immense (and god how I love worldbuilding).

A.I.: This is just one of the best Science Fiction films ever because it got it all, a serious and complex question, a vast and engrossing (though very dark) world, a fitting dramatic angle to approach it from and a good story. The ending is haunting, the film is very sad and touching as it plays with how one should regard our lead character. Emotional manipulation is sort of vowen into this film because that's the idea of the machines (also of the fantastic Teddy), to appear human and to copy behavior to instill a certain reaction. Spielberg uses it to drive the plot and to higher the stakes, should we feel for him or not (and is he he or it)? Spielberg truly takes it to its farthest (especially with the end). The Pinnochio allegories and all of the strange stuff Teddy and David encounter are great.

The Adventures of Tintin: This was honestly a pick that has less to do with passion and more with me having to pick one of the 2 I had seen. And for my money Lincoln drags (even though the political drama is well reiterrated, for me it was too much and too stale, still not a bad film overall), this is a fun adventure flick, though I think I like the 2 french 2D films better.

Those were some of my general thoughts I found on him: