Steven Spielberg

This entry in "The Modern Filmmakers Series" offers a film-by-film encounter with a director who for many is the face of modern cinema, a man who invented the summer blockbuster then put his extraordinary command of film to work in stories of ever-richer complexity and humanity. All the highlights of Spielberg's career are here: the television work, including the nail-biting "Duel"; the runaway success of "Jaws" and "Close Encounters"; "The Indiana Jones Series"; the Oscar-nominated "ET" and "The Color Purple"; the stunning achievement of "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan", and the rest of his wide-ranging canon of genre films, entertainments, and serious dramas. Throughout, Spielberg scholar John Foote makes a compelling case that a director once pigeonholed as merely an entertainer is arguably the most accomplished filmmaker working today.