It is a hard task to pin down Steven Spielberg as a director.  For a man with such long career, there is very little retracing of steps in his content.

Duel, Spielberg’s first movie, dealt with an ordinary man trying to save his life from a homicidal truck driver; a far cry from the handsome Dr. Jones that goes above and beyond to keep ancient artifacts from dastardly villains in the Indiana Jones series.  

This idea of growth is even furthered with the middle-aged James Donovan, in Bridge of Spies, who is more versed in using his language as a weapon rather than a red Plymouth Valiant and defensive driving (though, both characters do use a briefcase).

So what is it that acts as the glue to the Spielberg’s movie universe?

Spielberg, in a recent interview with colleges throughout the U.S., said, “I can just let my imagination run away with me, and I’ll just follow my imagination to the end of the project.”

In the worlds he has created, the audience gets a glimpse inside the imagination of Spielberg that helps to portray these now iconic (or soon to be iconic) characters in a cinematic lense.

This lense, is the only constant in his films.  A lense that drives audiences to latch onto characters and construct heroes out of them.  From fictional to biographical, Spielberg does not tell the audiences to root for Captain John Miller (played by Tom Hanks) in Saving Private Ryan; the audience can only make the decision on their own.   

It is this that keeps Spielberg one of the most beloved directors of all times.  He merely displays the content in his lense, allowing for the audience to stay active in each movie.  It is the audience that makes the final decision on each movie, allowing for a communication between the two.