Steven Spielberg Considered This Oscar-Nominated Feature 1 of His Biggest Failures

Steven Spielberg has many cinematic hits under his belt. But even his filmography has experienced a few setbacks according to the filmmaker. Spielberg explained how one of his most critically acclaimed projects might have been a personal disappointment for him.

The three films that Steven Spielberg regarded as his biggest stinkers

On his documentary Spielberg (via Time), Spielberg reflected on three movies that he might have redone if given the opportunity. The Color Purple was on Spielberg’s list of stinkers. Although the movie earned several Oscar nominations and was a moderate box office success, Spielberg felt that he didn’t do the film’s source material justice.

“I was timid. I was just a little embarrassed,” he said.

Spielberg faced criticism from some who believed a black director should’ve handled the material. Some also thought Spielberg’s take on the movie was safer than the book’s. Spielberg agreed with the latter, but he still maintained that he kept the spirit of Alice Walker’s novel intact.

“I have always copped to that. I made the movie I wanted to make from Alice Walker’s book. Alice was on the set a lot of the time and could have always stepped forward to say, ‘You know, this is too Disney. This is not the way I envisioned the scene going down,’” he said in a 2011 interview with Entertainment Weekly. “She was very supportive during filmmaking, and so I felt that we were doing a good job adapting her novel.”

At the time, he also felt he wouldn’t make any changes to the book despite feeling it was one of his biggest mishaps.

Steven Spielberg considered these other 2 films his biggest failures

Along with The Color Purple, Spielberg considered his film 1941 up there with his least favorite films. The movie was a 1979 comedy about Pearl Harbor, and received mostly unfavorable reviews after its release.

“It was like I had committed a war crime,” Spielberg said about the film.

According to Variety, Spielberg confided that he at least had a good time making the film. 1941 experienced very little interference from the movie’s studio, which the director figured might have worked against his favor. Spielberg thought this was one instance where the studio should’ve reined him in a little on set.

Spielberg confided that the studio just started writing checks for the film.

“And they gave me an unlimited celling to make 1941. And it took me 178 days to shoot the picture, because I directed all the miniature work… That was the worst mistake you could have made,” he said.

Still, Spielberg enjoyed making the comedy. The director remarked that he considered 1941 “the first comedy ever made without laughs.”

Spielberg mentioned Empire of the Sun as his third biggest failure. Although the Christian Bale feature is looked at fondly now, it’s Spielberg’s second lowest grossing film.

Steven Spielberg thought ‘Jaws’ would be 1 of his biggest failures

Spielberg might have included Jaws on his list if it wasn’t for the movie’s success. Speaking with W Magazine (via Yahoo), Spielberg reflected on how surprised he was by the amount of people who saw his creature feature.

“I never would have guessed that so many people would have gone to see Jaws. In my mind, the shark looked dumb,” Spielberg said.

This changed when he first saw audience’s response to what would be one of his most successful features.

“When I went to the first preview, in Dallas, and people were screaming and popcorn was flying at the screen, my first feeling was, ‘Oh my god! I didn’t think any of this was going to work,’” he said.