4K Ultra HD Review – Steven Spielberg: The Spotlight Collection

The decision whether or not to pick up the eight-film Steven Spielberg: The Spotlight Collection probably depends on whether you have all or most of these movies on 4K Ultra HD already and, if so, how important a collectible like this is to you. It’s a nice presentation, with SteelBooks for all the movies — Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, and War of the Worlds — housed in a sturdy black-and-gold case. It’s also limited to 5,700 units.

Steven Spielberg is among my favorite directors. Sure, the fact that he made many of the key movies of my childhood is a big part of that, but he’s also proven to be a dependable filmmaker who may not always hit the ball out of the park but still has the chops to at least serve up some decent entertainment when he misses.

And with his latest movie, Disclosure Day, about to hit theaters as I write this review, Paramount and Sony have teamed up for this collection that seems to be geared toward highlighting his best films. I say “seems” because, unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of arguing online over whether War of the Worlds deserves to be included.

Like many people, I would have given Minority Report the edge over the adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic, but I also think you couldn’t go wrong with Empire of the Sun or Munich. However, there were probably considerations we’re not privy to that went into choosing the movies found here, so I’ll just say that I’m fine with what’s been included. It’s not like that eighth slot went to Hook or 1941.

The rest of the movies found here — Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Jurrasic Park, Schindler’s List, and Saving Private Ryan — were no-brainer picks for this collection, as far as I’m concerned. I’m sure some people will quibble with them, but I’m good with that line-up.

You’ll find 20 discs spread across eight SteelBooks, and they’re all platters that have been previously released, with remastered versions of the movies that all look great. You won’t find any new bonus features here, but, with the exception of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the extras will keep film fans occupied for quite a while.

You also get obligatory codes for digital copies of all of the films, along with a card that indicates which number your set is out of the 5,700 produced. The whole package is a bit unwieldy, but it’s a nice presentation for these movies, if you care about that sort of thing. Here’s what you’ll find inside:

Jaws, 1975.

Directed by Steven Spielberg.
Starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, and Murray Hamilton.

The movie that made Spielberg a household name. Not only that, but it also kicked off the idea of summer blockbusters, a concept that clearly became viable to executives across Hollywood two years later with Star Wars.

This is the same three-disc set issued last year for the movie’s 50th anniversary, which I reviewed at the time. It includes all of the previously available bonus features, including Laurent Bouzereau’s excellent making-of documentary, along with the new 90-minute Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story, which Bozereau created too.

Flickering Myth Rating– Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977.

Directed by Steven Spielberg.
Starring Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon, and Fançois Truffaut.

If Star Wars hadn’t preceded Close Encounters of the Third Kind in theaters just months earlier in 1977, Spielberg’s next feature could have been an even bigger hit. Still, it was a very successful movie, and I kinda think the special effects created by Douglas Trumbull’s team were even better than what the nascent ILM assembled for George Lucas’s movie, since those effects had to be believable in real world environments.

I didn’t get a chance to review this one on 4K Ultra HD when it was released for the 40th anniversary, but I do have the Blu-ray version. A pair of new extras were commissioned for that one: the 22-minute Three Kinds of Close Encountersfeaturette, in which Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, and Denis Villeneuve look back on the film, and five minutes of Super 8 footage shot by the director during the making of the film.

And, of course, you get all of the legacy extras, including another great in-depth documentary by Bozereau, various featurettes, and deleted scenes, among others. The three versions of the movie that have been hanging around on home video for the past 25+ years are found here too. I really like Spielberg’s Director’s Cut version of the film, but you can’t go wrong with the theatrical cut either.

Flickering Myth Rating– Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981.

Directed by Steven Spielberg.
Starring Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, and Denholm Elliott.

The greatest action/adventure film of all time? I think so, and I admit I’m biased because Raiders of the Lost Ark came out when I was 11 years old, so it smacked me in the head the same way classic serials probably smacked my dad in the head when he was a kid in the 50s.

The 4K Ultra HD found here is the same one in the Indiana Jones: 4-Movie Collection released in 2021, which I reviewed at the time. Unfortunately, since all of the extras across those four films were contained on one Blu-ray in that set (and still lacked everything that’s been released), the SteelBook found in the Spotlight Collection just has a Blu-ray with the movie and three trailers, same as the 4K platter.

As a result, this is the only film in this set with no bonus features beyond the trailers.

Flickering Myth Rating– Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, 1982.

Directed by Steven Spielberg.
Starring Dee Wallace, Peter Coyote, Henry Thomas, Robert MacNaughton, and Drew Barrymore.

I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for E.T. I know, it’s kinda cheesy, but Elliott is really the first protagonist I could identify with in the movies of my childhood. Like him, I was a D&D-playing nerd who wished he could experience some amazing adventures. Now I guess I’m more like Roy Neary in Close Encounters.

This is the same two-disc set released in 2022 for the film’s 40th anniversary — I reviewed it here. It serves up two new bonus features: a 20-minute retrospective called40 Years of E.T., in which critic Leonard Maltin figures prominently, and a 27-minute interview with Spielberg that was shot after a 40th anniversary screening of the film.

On top of that, you get a bunch of legacy extras, although Laurent Bouzereau’s excellent 1.5-hour documentary from the old laserdisc edition remains missing in action. I finally saw it on YouTube not long ago, but it would be nice to have it preserved on disc. Maybe someday.

Flickering Myth Rating– Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★

Jurassic Park, 1993.

Directed by Steven Spielberg.
Starring Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Martin Ferrero, BD Wong, Samuel L. Jackson, Wayne Knight, Joseph Mazzello, and Ariana Richards.

Now we jump ahead more than a decade for Jurassic Park, a movie that arguably made a slam-dunk case for the viability of computer-generated special effects. It wasn’t the first movie to use the technology, of course, but ILM’s ability to make flesh-and-blood creatures look convincing — especially against natural environments shot on location — made CGI viable for all kinds of uses.

And those effects still hold up, all these years later, as does this film, although I admit I don’t have much interest in the franchise it has spawned. Like Jaws, I don’t think this is a premise that needs a bunch of sequels.

You’ll find two discs in this SteelBook: a 4K Ultra HD platter with just the movie and a Blu-ray with the movie and a big pile of bonus features, most of them in standard definition from the DVD era.

Flickering Myth Rating– Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★

Schindler’s List, 1993.

Directed by Steven Spielberg.
Starring Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Jonathan Sagall, and Embeth Davidtz.

Just months after Jurassic Park’s box office success, Spielberg released another film that’s 180 degrees its opposite. The black-and-white Schindler’s List remains a powerful testament to the ability of one man to put a dent in evil. And when one man is faced with such a task, what more can he do?

This is the same trio of discs released in 2018 for the film’s 25th anniversary. You’ll find the film on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray platters, along with another Blu-ray that houses the bonus features. The 2018 release had a pair of new extras that are also found here, and the centerpiece remains the 77-minute Voices From the List, which is a compilation of interviews with Holocaust survivors.

Flickering Myth Rating– Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Saving Private Ryan, 1998.

Directed by Steven Spielberg.
Starring Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Matt Damon, and Tom Sizemore.

Spielberg revisited World War II with the harrowing story of Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) and his platoon assigned to find Private Ryan (Matt Damon) and bring him home after his brothers were killed in action. The Normandy Invasion sequence in the beginning remains one of the most harrowing depictions of war ever captured on film.

You’ll find the film on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray discs, with a second Blu-ray housing the copious bonus features. Of particular interest is the 88-minute documentary Shooting War, narrated by Hanks — it examines the extensive amount of footage shot during that war, some of it by such acclaimed directors as John Ford.

Flickering Myth Rating– Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

War of the Worlds, 2005.

Directed by Steven Spielberg.
Starring Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin, Miranda Otto, and Tim Robbins.

Yes, this collection ends on an awkward note. Based on the book by H.G. Wells, this adaptation of War of the Worlds just doesn’t quite come together the way Spielberg’s greatest movies do. There are some editing and continuity problems, along with scenes that stretch credibility (in particular, the extended basement scene).

But, as I said in the beginning of this review, Spielberg can still make an entertaining movie even when he misses the mark, and there are things to like in this one. In particular, it has some nice character moments for Tom Cruise’s Ray Ferrier character, as he’s forced to stop half-assing his fatherhood and take care of his kids.

The 4K Ultra HD disc found here contains only the movie, and the accompanying Blu-ray has the film plus the bonus features. These are the same discs released in 2020 for the film’s 15th anniversary.

Flickering Myth Rating– Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Brad Cook