I've never met any lover of film who didn't love at least one (more likely three or more) of his films dearly. The images weaved upon screen have practically shaped big cinema and become ingrained in some of our childhood memories. And i love artistic directors like Robert Altman, and quirky geniuses like David Lynch just the same but Spielberg is damn near the landlord. The man has made some of the most benchmarking and significant movies of every accessible genre, from historical (Schindler's List, Amistad, Saving Private Ryan), through sci-fi (E.T., Close Encounters, A.I.), and period (Empire of The Sun, The Color Purple, Catch Me If You Can), to fantasy and adventure (Jaws, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park), and that's just SOME of his directorial work. I mean, in the last three alone you have some of the most iconic images and characters ever to grace the big screen.

Through his guidance he's partly (perhaps even largely) responsible for some other grade-A work and franchises such as the Back to the Future series, the original Poltergeist (this is a Spielberg flick, Hooper even admitted so), Gremlins, the Goonies, the list goes on. I mean don't get me wrong, he's not perfect so-to-speak but then no director is. And maybe he's not the best auteur (Kubrick?), the most classy (Hitchcock?), most unique (Lynch?), most gangsta (Scorsese), or even the most original (who is, really?) but when u get down to it, no one brings all the elements together like Spielberg.

Hell, personally I think Kubrick is a notch above. But he ain't more GOAT than Spielberg for two reasons which it pains me to admit.

1) His films don't entertain like Spielberg's. Snobs will wince but it's true. And entertaining matters. Bare in mind Kubrick is my #1 but I can clearly see why no one else in my circle of friends has stolen my Kubrick DVD collection yet.

2) Output. While Kubrick's legendary perfectionism is well-appreciated, we could have done with more than one film a decade. I think he could have afforded to do that and still control every aspect just how he wanted. Look at Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni. Granted those guys didn't obtain Kubrick's level of universal celebrity but that's another thread, and has more to do with critical biasness and language, and cultural barriers, not to mention the Western superiority complex, within film making more than anything else.

Anyways back to Spielberg, I honestly want to know if he can be challenged for the crown. Can anyone convincingly claim that another director has surpassed Mr. Spielberg all-time? We're talking acclaim, cinematic accomplishments (artistic AND technical... think about the groundbreaking pyrotechnical work on Jaws, the CGI in E.T. and Jurassic Park, or even the researched authenticity of the Indiana Jones films), and yes box-office (three time Highest-Grossing-Movie-Ever title holder: Jaws, E.T., that dinosaur flick).... For real though let's discuss.