Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg loves monsters. He's directed movies about sharks (Jaws, 1975) and Nazis (Schindler's List, 1993) and done two movies starring Tom Cruise. It makes perfect sense, then, that he would be obsessed with dinosaurs and excited to bring Jurassic Park to life on the silver screen. The King Kong Encounter ride at Universal Studios inspired Spielberg's desire to make life-sized dinosaurs, so another monster—the legendary King Kong—gets credit for fueling Spielberg's monstrous appetite, too.

Often named one of the greatest movie directors, Spielberg specializes in splashy spectacles, from the action-packed Indiana Jones movies to the brutal violence of Saving Private Ryan (1998) to the animated adventures of Tintin (2011). Over the years, Spielberg has developed an iconic style, which has been boiled down into five consistent themes, techniques, and collaborations: Daddy issues, streams of light, awestruck faces, a shot through a window, and the music of John Williams. Sure enough, Jurassic Park hits all five, making this film one of the Spielbergiest of them all.