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Steven Spielberg is one of the most popular and successful directors of both the 20th and the 21st centuries. Multiple of his movies became classics and continue to captivate the audience to this day. There are also those who won prestigious rewards. But just like with any movie director, not every Spielberg movie got the same amount of recognition.
Some of them didn't do so well at the box office, not that many people saw them, or they got lower ratings than they would have deserved. Those who want to discover underappreciated Steven Spielberg movies have several options to choose from.
5 Duel (1971)
Every director has to start somewhere, and for Steven Spielberg, it was with TV movies. One of his most remarkable TV movies that remain underappreciated by the wider audience focuses on Mann who encounters an aggressive driver in a cistern who tries to push him out of the road. The movie only starts there, and the story becomes more and more mysterious and filled with tension as Mann tries to survive and figure out what's going on, and who's after him.
Based on a short story by Richard Matheson, the movie keeps the audience guessing and invested until the very end. The movie was originally supposed to screen in cinemas but when Spielberg took the directing position, he decided to film it for TV and finished filming the movie in just 13 days.
4 The Color Of Purple (1985)
In a more intimate and civil movie than many viewers might be associating with the director, Spielberg explores the difficult life of one woman. Celie (Whoopi Goldberg) comes from a humble background, never got a proper education, and she's married to a man who doesn't treat her well. Celie's only comfort is praying to God, but things start changing for the better when she meets two women who befriend her and give her courage.
The movie stands on the unforgettable performance of Whoopi Goldberg but has a strong cast overall. It's easy to sympathize with Celie and be interested in how will her life evolve. With just 85 thousand ratings on IMDb, The Color of Purple is one of Spielberg's least-known movies, but no fan of strong drama stories should miss out on watching this. The movie was overlooked at the Oscars as well as it earned 11 Oscar nominations but didn't win a single one.
3 Empire Of The Sun (1987)
With so many box office hits under his belt, the 1987 war movie pales in comparison, having earned 66 million at the box office. It also doesn't have nearly as many ratings on IMDb as other Spielberg's movies, only 123 thousand at the moment. Despite being primarily known for his fantasy or science fiction work, Steven Spielberg has based his movies on real events multiple times, and he has a penchant for war movies, as he's proven with the more famous Saving Private Ryan (1998).
In Empire of the Sun, Spielberg returns to the events of World War Two, more specifically Pearl Harbor and the Americans' retaliation. Despite the movie's topic, it portrays the horrors of war from an unexpected point of view - that of a young boy Jim Graham. Based on the writer J.G. Ballard's real experiences, the movie is both intense and unpredictable. An interesting fact about it is that it marks Christian Bale's feature film debut, and set him on the path to stardom. The movie was nominated for six Oscars but didn't win any of them.
2 Amistad (1997)
With this movie, Steven Spielberg once again returns to the past, this time to the 19th century. Set in 1839, the story focuses on a group of presumed slaves who have to defend themselves and prove that they're free people, or they'll be punished. The movie has a strong cast with names such as Morgan Freeman or Anthony Hopkins and offers a captivating look at one of the darker chapters of American history.
Despite its topic and the cast, the movie currently has only 76 thousand ratings on IMDb which is much less than Spielberg's most successful movies with over a million ratings. Amistad was nominated for four Oscars but didn't win any. Despite being two and a half hours long, Spielberg once again proved his efficiency as a director when he managed to finish filming the movie in just 31 days.
1 West Side Story (2021)
The remake of the 1961 classic musical proved to be successful at the Oscars, having scored seven nominations and one win. However, the original version still ranks as one of the movies that won the most Oscars, and it also has more ratings on IMDb than Spielberg's remake. Considering this movie's relatively recent release, it's more likely than with Spielberg's older underappreciated movies that it will yet get more ratings on IMDb.
But those who haven't had the time to watch it yet and like Spielberg's work should give the movie a chance since it has a strong story, enjoyable music, and a solid cast. Unfortunately for the movie, its success at the Oscars didn't translate into its box office gross, since West Side Story cost 100 million to make and earned only 75 million.