Bad Spielberg=1.85? (Unnecessary Rant)

VERSUS
As I looked at my list, I realised I had only one Spielberg film in my Top 20. And as I looked at his filmog, I don't have anything after ET in my list (ie. ET, Raiders, Duel, Jaws, Close Encounters). Sure, he's made entertainments after that (like more Indy or Jurassic Park or WOTW) and hugely important flicks (like Schindler's List, Empire of Sun, Amistad) but nothing even close to the holy body of work he did between 72 and 82. To be fair, most filmmakers do their best work earlier in their career and 5 absolute masterpiece classics is more than most people (save Hitch) would do in a lifetime. But why oh why, hasn't he done a classic in so long? If you look at those early films, they were: a director-for-hire tv movie about a truck, a director-for-hire film based on a successful novel about a shark, a personally written (AI and CE3K are the only films he's written himself) film about aliens, a film bankrolled and devised by his contempary George Lucas about an archaeologist-adventurer and another personal film about a boy and his alien.
So what do these films have that the later ones don't. Well, a sense of fun for a start. Even the scary ones have a sense of adventure and fun missing from the later films. There's a sense of naivety that is missing or diluted in later films like Hook, AI and WOTW, while those that do hit the mark (sort of) like Catch Me If You Can and Jurassic Park are wishy-washy and/or lacking a good script.
This also ties into the fact that he's now become an 'important' filmmaker and not just a ringmaster, with films such as Schindler's List. His earlier films were about people being tested by an external force (whether natural, supernatural or from another planet). He makes less genre films today, mixing it up with dramas and comedies.
Something I found interesting (but defintely unrelated) is that most of Spielberg's films are not widescreen films. All of his work between 1974 and 1981 is, and since then the two Indy sequels, Hook and Minority Report are also. But nothing else. Films which scream WIDESCREEN! such as Empire Of The Sun, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, AI, WOTW and Catch Me If You Can were all shot tv safe (ie. 1.85:1). I don't understand this, as he is possibly the only major filmmaker making these types of films who's not shooting widescreen. Spielberg has said that this is an artistic decision as the human eye can take in only so much information. I do know that he shot the two Jurassic films 'flat' so that the dinosaurs would fill the frame, rather than leaving dead space on the sides. I can only say that from my POV, I much prefer widescreen. I nearly died when Spider-Man 2 started and it was wide (the original wasn't and the Spidey movie I'd always pictured in my head has wide) and people like John Carpenter, Robert Altman and James Cameron make tremendous use of the wider frame.
Or maybe it's just that now that he's the most successful filmmaker of all time he doesn't have to prove himself. Or perhaps he does, but he's moved on to other things, things that challenge him as a filmmaker. Schindler's List (1993) was the last time he went out on a limb, making a b/w drama, with no aliens, no sharks, no special effects. Everything since has been manufactured product designed to make money. Perhaps he needs to take another risk. Or perhaps he needs to make another Indy flick.

The above rambling was made while the author was tired and mostly incoherent. Please excuse these ramblings as nothing more than those of a madman. The above facts, while derived from IMDB should not be taken as 100% accurate and all opinions are those of the author who is in no way affiliated with Steven Spielberg, Dreamworks or any related companies. Any similarities between any persons living or dead is purely coincidental and does not contravene the Geneva Act of July 2, 1999.