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In 1985, after striking earlier success with thrillers (Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) and family-oriented adventures (Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial), Spielberg made his first foray into the field of drama. The result -- an adaptation of Alice Walker's novel about poor African-American women in the South -- garnered eleven Academy Award nominations, including nods for lead Whoopi Goldberg, first-time actress Oprah Winfrey, and Margaret Avery. Notoriously, however, the pic came away with no wins; snubbed, perhaps, along with its not-nominated director?

Spielberg's trademark sense of wonder came thrillingly to life in the box office blockbuster Jurassic Park. He called the best in the business to work on the project: writer Michael Crichton to adapt his own novel, John Williams to provide a signature sweeping score, and Phil Tippett and Stan Winston to create some of the most memorable visuals of modern cinema. Jurassic Park became the highest-grossing film of its time, earning more than $914 million worldwide and spawning two sequels. More importantly, it taught us that playing God can be dangerous -- because Velociraptors can open doors.

Spielberg's first theatrically released feature rode the popular genre of on-the-lam pics of the 1970s, but it bears the marks of his later cinematic signatures just the same. Cleverly-plotted visuals and a particularly humanizing turn by Goldie Hawn help distance this "based on a true story" crime drama from less successful road flicks. The film, in which a young couple holds a cop hostage while leading a low-speed caravan of police cars to retrieve their child (the titular "Sugarland Express"), was also scored by future Spielberg collaborator John Williams.