10 Best Spielberg Blockbuster Movies - Ranked

In Spielberg's first official team-up with Lucas, the two crafted an action serial, the likes of which they were such fans of in their childhood.

The result is Raider of the Lost Ark, an action/adventure 'movie' that holds up to this day as one of the finest blockbusters ever made. Spielberg's direction is near-flawless, constantly putting the emphasis on the very real stunt performers pulling off the insane action sequences he and Lucas had mapped out for them.

Sequences like the truck fight are the kind of impeccable and unbelievable mix of great direction, great writing, and great stuntwork that modern action sequences can't even hold a candle to.

But perhaps the film's greatest accomplishment is its characters. In making Indiana Jones just a man, Spielberg was able to subvert decades of built-up-expectation for action hero archetypes and create something revolutionary. Rather than being a bullet-proof messiah, Ford's performance is gruff yet lovable, playing Jones as an everyman who is certainly no superhero. He loses, frequently, and ultimately even fails in his quest to prevent the Nazis from opening the Ark of the Covenant.

Raiders was Spielberg's first real run at a full-on action film and boy oh boy did he deliver the goods.