Instead of immersing the audience in an audio-visual deluge of history, science-fiction, or action cinema, the Schindler’s List director has, quite unexpectedly, turned to a less compact, more episodic narrative structure, one that is at times downright contemplative, the veteran of countless box-office milestones trying the soft sell for a change.

In comparison, while its dressing (John Williams score, close-ups fraught with choked emotion, an epic sweep) unmistakably identifies it as a Spielberg film, War Horse might also seem a little remedial, especially since so much of his career up to this point has been spent hitting high-water marks again and again, in terms of size, scale, loudness, drama, verisimilitude, or violence. Spielberg’s approach has proven too much for some moviegoers, but not for others thanks to box-office receipts that are as gargantuan as his films often feel, “that Spielberg feeling” has made him one of the only billionaire directors in history. Abrams’s Super 8 mimicked the unique quality of Spielberg’s best-loved films, that of childlike wonder and visceral emotions, pitched on a grand scale.

Virtually serving as a surrogate career capstone, J.J.

For the better part of 40 years, Steven Spielberg has created some of the most overwhelming sensory experiences moviegoers have ever known.

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