As a child, Cecil B. DeMille's production of The Greatest Show on Earth was the first movie Steven Spielberg ever saw, marking the beginning of his love affair with the world of film. Spielberg began making home movies at an early age, and, at 14, he won an award for a 40-minute war movie he called Escape to Nowhere. Spielberg attended Long Beach University, but dropped out to pursue his dream of a career in film. Television assignments followed, but it wasn't until 1971 with his direction of a Richard Matheson television adaptation called Duel that Spielberg's burgeoning reputation as a superb filmmaker was cemented.

1. Sugarland Express (1974)

Jaws was one of the first blockbusters directed by Steven Spielberg.

Sugarland Express marked the big-screen directorial debut of Steven Spielberg. Starring Goldie Hawn, Ben Johnson, and William Atherton, this movie, based on a true story, revolves around a young woman who helps her husband escape from prison so they can kidnap their child who's been placed in foster care. Along the way, they take a policeman hostage, and the movie becomes a madcap escape caper. The film grossed more than $12 million and won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival. Incidentally, Sugarland Express was the first movie to feature a 360-degree pan with dialogue from within a car by utilizing a tracking shot from the front seat to the back.

2. Jaws (1975)

Based on the Peter Benchley novel, this horror film was released just in time for beach season. The villain was a carnivorous and very homicidal great white shark that attacked people in a quiet coastal town. But the film, which Spielberg calls the most difficult he's made, often played on the power of suggestion, proving that what the mind conjures in the imagination can sometimes be more powerful than an actual image. Jaws made the most of that, earning more than $260 million in the United States and setting a record at the time for box office gross. The film also won Oscars for editing, sound, and original score.

Steven Spielberg was only just cutting his teeth on Jaws. The next page reveals the classic hits Spielberg had waiting up his sleeve.

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