Steven Spielberg in the 20th Century: 17 Scripts Written and/or Developed by the Master to Download and Study
Let's take a look at the films written or developed by the legendary filmmaker in the first thirty years of his career
On irregular Monday mornings (PST), 5AM StoryTalk will share “educational resources” to help you in your creative journey. From curated screenplay collections, to curated film compilations you can watch for free, to advice and other wisdom I’ve collected over my years pursuing the arts — and much more. This is one of them.
December 18th is Steven Spielberg’s birthday. Or, as my father would’ve put it, it’s the day “my other dad” was born. What he meant by this is that Spielberg raised me as much as he did. The same can be said about so many artists around the world who were equally shaped and inspired by the legendary director’s films. It’s certainly more than fair to say I am who I am today because of him and his imagination.
To celebrate Spielberg’s seventy-eighth birthday, let’s take a look at the screenplays for the films he directed in the 20th century, but also for the films he personally developed and produced but which were directed by someone else. Several of these were actually written by Spielberg, too, or came from stories written by him. This is a great opportunity to study how one of history’s greatest storytellers does it.
Unfortunately, three of the scripts that I wanted to include in this list are not available online: The Sugarland Express (1974), 1941 (1979), and Always (1989). But the seventeen other scripts here are remarkable; several have even been nominated for or won Oscars. We’re talking Jaws (1975), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), ET: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), The Goonies (1985), Jurassic Park (1994), Saving Private Ryan (1997), and many more.
All of these screenplays tend to vanish, as all things do on the Internet. Download ASAP for your personal study. And if you want more resources like this one, be sure to check out my other articles:
“Read the 10 Feature Screenplays the WGA Thinks Are the Best of 2023”
“10 Screenplays by the Great Walter Hill to Download and Study”
“15 Iconic '90s Pilot Scripts to Download and Study”
“15 Disaster Film/TV Scripts to Download and Study”
“20 Christmas Movie Screenplays to Download and Study for Free”
“25 Time-Bending Scripts to Download and Study”
“30 Brilliant BBC Drama Scripts to Download and Study for Free”
“35 Coming-of-Age Scripts to Download and Study”
“40 20th Century Science-Fiction Scripts to Download and Study”
“40 Great Action Screenplays to Download and Study for Free”
“50 Essential 21st-Century One-Hour Pilot Scripts to Download and Study for Free”
“50 Great Screenplays by Women to Download and Study for Free”
“50 Great Screenplays by People of Color to Download and Study for Free”
“60 Great Comedy Screenplays to Download and Study for Free”
“60 Screenplays About Love and Heartbreak to Download and Study for Free”
“100 Horror Screenplays to Download and Study for Free”
Enjoy the reads!
DUEL (1971)
by Richard Matheson
JAWS (1975)
by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977)
by Steven Spielberg
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)
by Lawrence Kasdan; story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman
Director Steven Soderberg presented an alternative take on Raiders that I believe offers a wonderful lesson for screenwriters and other storytellers. You can read about it here.