An old movie-making maxim goes "Show them something they haven't seen before."  In 1993, Spielberg, already the most successful director in history, made two radically different films which demonstrated his mastery of the medium. The first was Jurassic Park. Never mind the slack plotting and risible characterisation. The film was a revelation in its depiction of lifelike dinosaurs that moved with breathtaking fluency. The film went on to become  on the biggest grosser of all time, and perhaps as influential as the first talkie, The Jazz Singer.

That same year came Schindler's List. A wrenching look at the Holocaust shot in rich black and white with an authorative central performance from Liam Neeson as the German businessman who saves Jews from Auschwitz, the film was a labour of love for Spielberg, who took no payment for the film. But, for all the bleakness of the subject matter, Spielberg's eye for the emotional – some would say sentimental &ndas...

An old movie-making maxim goes "Show them something they haven't seen before."  In 1993, Spielberg, already the most successful director in history, made two radically different films which demonstrated his mastery of the medium. The first was Jurassic Park. Never mind the slack plotting and risible characterisation. The film was a revelation in its depiction of lifelike dinosaurs that moved with breathtaking fluency. The film went on to become  on the biggest grosser of all time, and perhaps as influential as the first talkie, The Jazz Singer.

That same year came Schindler's List. A wrenching look at the Holocaust shot in rich black and white with an authorative central performance from Liam Neeson as the German businessman who saves Jews from Auschwitz, the film was a labour of love for Spielberg, who took no payment for the film. But, for all the bleakness of the subject matter, Spielberg's eye for the emotional – some would say sentimental – detail still shines through: witness the reddening of one little girl's coat.

He was already a great director, able to fluently conduct many moving parts in smooth harmony. Duel, his first feature-length work, is a terrifyingly simple story of an Everyman, played by Dennis Weaver, confronting an implacable and monstrous truck.  Speilberg took this narrative skill to another level with Jaws. The film has some incredible shocks but is also personal and engaging, the sinister beauty of the shark and the ocean in counterpoint to the film's flawed human protagonists.

His next film, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, has a sense of inquisitive awe at the universe, and is testament of the richness of the human imagination. Star Wars is lumpen by comparison.

The eighties saw highs and lows, including the outright failures of The Color Purple, Hook and Always, but also the phenomenom that was E.T. and the revelatory Poltergeist (which he authored, produced and helped reshoot), plus the fantastic Indiana Jones trilogy, and Empire Of The Sun, a film that in some ways prefigures Schindler's List.

After the miracle year of 1993, Spielberg took a breather, and then came back with the magnificent Saving Private Ryan, which changed war movies forever with its shocking depiction of the D-Day landing. Most recently we've had War Of The Worlds, an efficient sci-fi horror film and Munich, another look at the recent Jewish past. Spielberg shows no signs of losing his touch; he is the Master.