Steven Spielberg movies ranked from worst to best is a well-worn internet ritual, but the Boston Globe’s Odie Henderson just published a version built to pick fights. His worst-to-best list of all 34 theatrical features crowns 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark and dumps 2018’s Ready Player One in dead last, calling it the one time the director used his filmmaking powers “for truly evil purposes.”
What makes the list worth arguing with is not the top spot. It is the middle, where Henderson sends crowd favorites like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Saving Private Ryan tumbling well out of the top 10, and the lower reaches, where he plants a flag for films nobody else defends.
Raiders Tops the List, Ready Player One Sits at the Bottom
Henderson, the Globe’s film critic, frames his choices as personal history rather than received wisdom. He told actress Karen Allen that Raiders was “the best time I have ever had in a movie theater,” and 45 years on, he writes, his opinion has not changed. That sentiment, not a box-office tally or an awards count, drives the order.
The top five reads like a deliberate balance of the iconic and the intensely personal:
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
- Jaws (1975)
- The Color Purple (1985)
- Schindler’s List (1993)
- The Fabelmans (2022)
Putting 1985’s The Color Purple at No. 3, above the Best Picture winner Schindler’s List, is the first sign this is not a standard-issue list. Henderson admits he nearly placed it second and that “of all Spielberg’s movies, this one has my heart.” You can read the complete worst-to-best Spielberg ranking for his reasoning on each title.
The bottom of the chart is just as pointed. Below Ready Player One sits 1979’s 1941, the John Belushi war comedy Henderson calls “beyond godawful,” followed by his own segment of 1983’s Twilight Zone: The Movie and 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. One note: 1971’s Duel does not appear at all, because it was made for television rather than theaters.
Where Henderson Splits From the Critics’ Consensus
The fun of any ranking is the friction with the wider verdict, and Henderson generates plenty. The clearest stress test is the Tomatometer, the percentage of positive reviews tallied by the aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. On that scoreboard, E.T. sits at 99 percent and ranks as the consensus best Spielberg film. Henderson files it at No. 16.
The inversion runs the other way too. The Terminal, a critics’ bottom-five title at 61 percent, lands inside Henderson’s top 11. Lay the two systems side by side and the gap becomes a chasm.
| Film | Henderson’s rank | Critics’ Tomatometer |
|---|---|---|
| E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) | No. 16 | 99% (critics’ No. 1) |
| Schindler’s List (1993) | No. 4 | 98% (critics’ No. 2) |
| Catch Me If You Can (2002) | No. 12 | 96% (critics’ No. 4) |
| Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) | No. 1 | 94% (critics’ No. 5) |
| The Terminal (2004) | No. 11 | 61% (a critics’ bottom-five) |
Henderson is upfront that the data and his gut disagree. He notes that in an online survey he ran, E.T. drew the most votes for best Spielberg movie, and he placed it low anyway because he hated it as a kid in 1982 and only “came to begrudgingly respect it as an adult.” This is the difference between a star-style aggregate, like a Rotten Tomatoes-driven actor ranking, and a single critic willing to own his blind spots.
The Demotions That Will Start Arguments
If the list has a thesis, it is that Spielberg’s reputation rests partly on films Henderson finds overrated. He does not soften it. Three demotions in particular are built to provoke a reaction from anyone who grew up on these movies.
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at No. 16. The film readers voted his best Spielberg picture, parked squarely in the middle of the pack.
- Saving Private Ryan at No. 20. Henderson praises the opening Omaha Beach sequence as “the best thing Spielberg ever directed” and the final 30 minutes too, then dismisses the middle as “a standard-issue, ho-hum World War II drama.”
- West Side Story at No. 26. He calls the 2021 remake unnecessary and ties its box-office failure to “outdated, racially insensitive material.”
The Saving Private Ryan Problem
The Saving Private Ryan placement is the one likely to draw the loudest objection. The 1998 film earned Spielberg his second directing Oscar and is routinely cited among the greatest war movies ever made. Henderson’s split verdict, two stunning set pieces wrapped around a conventional middle, is a minority report, though not a lonely one. The case that the film’s pedestal has wobbled has been made before, including in a roundup of war films that arguably surpass Spielberg’s 1998 epic.
The Remake He Could Not Save
The West Side Story entry is harsher, and it doubles as a commercial post-mortem. The remake was a rare Spielberg flop, and Henderson argues audiences simply did not want the material revisited. Coming from a critic who reveres The Color Purple, the swipe is not a reflex against adaptation; it is a verdict on one specific choice.
Defending the Films Nobody Else Defends
Where the list turns genuinely entertaining is in the contrarian rescues. Henderson hoists The Terminal to No. 11, ahead of the widely admired Minority Report at No. 10, and confesses the reason: Jacques Tati’s Playtime ranks among his all-time favorites, so a “Tati-like Tom Hanks vehicle that nobody likes but me” gets a pass. He also goes to bat for 2011’s War Horse at No. 14, calling it “one of Spielberg’s most delicate directing jobs.”
There is a darker thread running underneath the jokes, and it surfaces at No. 5. Reviewing The Fabelmans, Spielberg’s 2022 self-portrait, Henderson reads the film as a confession.
Basically, he’s admitting what I’ve been saying all along: he likes killing people in movies.
That line ties the whole list together. Henderson repeatedly flags Spielberg’s appetite for staging brutal deaths, in War of the Worlds at No. 25, in the “uber-violent” Lost World sequel at No. 21, and reads The Fabelmans as the director quietly cosigning the charge. It is criticism as running argument rather than a tidy list of scores.
Why a Spielberg Ranking Lands the Week of Disclosure Day
The timing is not an accident. The ranking arrives days before Spielberg’s next film, Disclosure Day, reaches theaters on June 12, 2026, distributed by Universal Pictures. The UFO drama, written by David Koepp from an original Spielberg idea, carries a score by John Williams, the composer’s 30th collaboration with the director.
That history matters to how a list like this reads. Across more than five decades, Spielberg has banked three competitive Oscars from 22 nominations, winning Best Director for Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan. The 1994 ceremony alone handed his films seven awards for Schindler’s List and three more for Jurassic Park, a haul detailed in the Academy’s record of that year’s wins.
A fresh release gives the public a new reason to relitigate the back catalog, and a critic a hook to publish 34 verdicts at once. The ensemble around the new film keeps building too, with recent Oscar nominee Colman Domingo joining Spielberg’s UFO project. Whether Disclosure Day slots near Close Encounters of the Third Kind at No. 15 or climbs higher is the question every reader of this list will carry into the theater.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who ranked all of Steven Spielberg’s movies?
Odie Henderson, the Boston Globe’s film critic, published the worst-to-best ranking on June 2, 2026. It covers all 34 of Spielberg’s theatrical features and reflects Henderson’s personal taste rather than box-office or awards totals.
What is the No. 1 Steven Spielberg movie on the list?
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) tops the ranking. Henderson calls it the best time he has ever had in a movie theater and says 45 years have not changed his mind.
Why is E.T. ranked so low?
Henderson places E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at No. 16 even though his own reader survey named it the best Spielberg film. He has written that he disliked it as a child in 1982 and only grew to “begrudgingly respect it” as an adult.
Did the top films on the list win Oscars?
Not uniformly. Schindler’s List, at No. 4, won Best Picture and Best Director. But The Color Purple, ranked No. 3, famously won none of its 11 nominations, showing the list is not driven by trophies.
Is Duel included in the ranking?
No. The 1971 thriller Duel is left out because it was made for television rather than released in theaters. The list counts only Spielberg’s 34 theatrical features.
What is Steven Spielberg’s next movie?
Disclosure Day, a UFO drama, opens in US theaters on June 12, 2026, through Universal Pictures. John Williams composed the score, his 30th collaboration with Spielberg.
