Since the release of his first feature-length film,Duel, in 1971,Steven Spielberghas directed dozens of commercially-successful blockbuster hits; movies that have stood the test of time and have been burned into the DNA of modern Hollywood cinema. Spielberg has crafted cinematic tales for four decades, ranging from stories about killer sharks and dinosaurs running riot to abandoned aliens and broken fatherhoods.
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To celebrate the launch of his latest highly-anticipated film,The Fabelmans, take a look back at some of the characters that have shaped Steven Spielberg’s movie career. Whether it is troubled dads or wide-eyed kids, these movie characters have defined an iconic and legendary director’s filmography.
Chief Brody (‘Jaws’)
In 1975’s blockbuster hitJaws, movie fans were introduced to Steven Spielberg for arguably the first time. And with the character of Chief Brody, played brilliantly byRoy Schiederwho bought comedic charm and charisma to the role, they would see a reflection of who Spielberg was at the time. In the film, Brody has recently moved from New York to Amity with his family and, as he’s the Chief of Police, he must deal with a number of calls from concerned residents about shark attacks that have been happening ahead of the Fourth of July weekend.
Like Brody, Spielberg is the new kid on the block; he is the up-and-coming director in Hollywood during this time. He has the responsibility and authority on set, just like Brody has with the residents of Amity and the town itself. Again, Brody’s fear and hatred of the open water and his unwillingness to go near it for most of the movie is another link between the character and the director, with Spielberg having endured many unsuccessful days shooting on the water during the troubled production ofJaws.
Roy Neary (‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’)
InClose Encounters of the Third Kind, Spielberg’s sci-fi passion project from 1977, Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) is an electrical engineer whose life is changed forever when he has a strange encounter with a spaceship. Addicted by this experience, Roy’s life unravels as he seeks extra-terrestrial answers.
Distant, neglectful, absent, and abandoned fathers had been a recurring theme in most of Steven Spielberg’s movies before the 21st Century. This was perhaps most prominent with Roy Neary fromClose Encounters, whose wife and kids abandon him as he spirals into obsession over his mysterious confrontation with a UFO. Dreyfuss' career-best performance as the disturbed and tormented electrical engineer is brilliant, harrowing, and heartbreaking, which is perfectly and painfully captured during the memorable mashed potato sequence as his family and life crumble around him.
Elliott (‘E.T.')
When he finds an alien in his backyard, Elliott (Henry Thomas) befriends the creature and they both develop a lovely friendship. However, along with his family and friends, Elliott must find the alien his way back home.
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Spielberg’s skill and talent to wonderfully illustrate child characters with awe and wonder kick-started in his crowd-pleaser blockbuster hitE.T., which is seen through the eyes of Elliott. Brilliantly played with authentic innocence by Henry Thomas, Elliott’s friendship and psychic bond with the extra-terrestrial (otherwise known as E.T.) is delightful, charming, heartwarming, and, at times, heartbreaking. In many ways, Elliott helped pave the way for many other young characters who carried that Spielbergian magic in subsequent movies from the director across his filmography.
Indiana Jones (The ‘Indiana Jones’ Movies)
Throughout the 1980s, there was one character who defined Spielberg’s filmography more than anyone: Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford). Whether he was fighting Nazis inRaiders of the Lost Ark, being possessed by an underground cult inThe Temple of Doom, or chasing after the Holy Grail with his father, Henry Jones (Sean Connery), inThe Last Crusade, Indiana Jones was an iconic character in the ’80s.
Whilst he also appeared in 2008’s box-office disappointmentIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Indiana Jones made Spielberg one of the most commercially-successful film directors of all time. Harrison Ford’s rugged looks complete with his dry wit and effortless charisma defined a timeless and classical movie protagonist. Also featuring the recognizable fedora and whip, Indiana Jones is arguablythedefinitive movie character in Spielberg’s filmography.
Short Round (‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’)
With 1984’sIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, movie audiences and fans were introduced to a memorable character in the franchise: Short Round, who was played byKe Huy Quan. Throughout the film, Short Round acts as Indy’s sidekick. However, after a series of events, he finds himself captured doing minework with other children inside an underground cave.
The abundance of enthusiasm and energy fromKe Huy Quan makes Short Round another fan-favoritechild character who manages to capture the pure charm of Spielberg’s films, whilst also sharing great chemistry with Ford’s Indiana Jones. Lovable and unforgettable, Short Round shaped the director’s movie career during the 1980s.
Itzhak Stern (‘Schindler’s List’)
Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) is a Jewish accountant who is hired by Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) to arrange his finances.
Through Itzhak Stern and being of Jewish heritage, Spielberg returned back to his family roots withSchindler’s List(which was Spielberg’s critically-acclaimed war drama film from 1993). In the movie, Stern’s role was to help as many Polish-Jewish refugees as possible during the Second World War. Advising and driving Schindler’s effort, Itzhak Stern plays just as big a role as Schindler does in rescuing their lives from the Holocaust.
John Hammond (‘Jurassic Park’)
When he builds a park home to dinosaurs, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) invites a lawyer and some trusted experts in the field to join him on a tour of the facility for the weekend. However, Hammond’s dreams and success are threatened when the dinosaurs break free and roam the grounds.
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Hammond spared no expense inJurassic Park, which was a science-fiction blockbuster smash back in 1993. An entrepreneur and a man full of ground-breaking ideas, John Hammond is incredibly ambitious. In many ways, those same qualities are shared with Spielberg who has made many movies that have left fans speechless. And withJurassic Park, he would blow audiences away with cutting-edge technology in a cinematic world where computer-generated imagery would bring dinosaurs onto the big screen.
David (‘A.I. Artificial Intelligence’)
David (Haley Joel Osment) is an artificially intelligent robot boy, designed to love unconditionally. Yet, when his foster mother abandons him in the woods, David sets out on a journey to become real so that he can regain his mother’s love and trust.
With the character of David fromA.I. Artificial Intelligence, a 2001 science-fiction film originally meant to be directed byStanley Kubrickbefore he sadly passed away, Steven Spielberg presents audiences with another child character who is wide-eyed and starstruck. Haley Joel Osment’s portrayal of David is phenomenal and is one of thegreat child acting performances in modern film history, graduating from a creepy and scary robot to a boy-like AI with human emotions. As a result, David joins a long line of characters that manage to capture the wondrous nature of Spielberg’s movies.
Ray Ferrier (‘War of the Worlds’)
As his kids stay over for the weekend, Ray Ferrier’s (Tom Cruise) life is disrupted when aliens from another world invade. As a result, the dock worker must keep his children safe and reunite them with their mother.
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Since the turn of the millennium, admired fathers and ever-present Dads began to populate Spielberg’s movies. With the character of Ray inWar of the Worlds, he would be a Dad who is protective of his kids and greatly cares about what happens to them. It also shows that Spielberg is re-evaluating his own father’s role in his life, bringing attentive and caring fathers to cinema screens in the 21st Century and Ray Ferrier is arguably the character that most defines that change in Steven Spielberg’s later movies.
Wade Watts (‘Ready Player One’)
Set in a futuristic world, Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) is an avid player in the OASIS (a virtual world created by James Halliday, who is played byMark Rylance). Through his avatar, Parzival, Wade goes on a quest to find the golden Easter egg in a bid to win ownership of the OASIS.
Wade Watts from 2018’sReady Player One, which isan incredibly underrated Spielberg movie, is a character that helped re-capture past Spielberg personalities who managed to convey that feeling of awe; which was so synonymous with the director in the late ’70s as well as throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Whilst Sheridan’s passionate portrayal of Wade is infectious, it helped further define Spielberg’s talent to represent characters who were filled with wonder. And in the process, those characters, Wade Watts included, fuelled the magic of Steven Spielberg’s movies.
