Jaws

I truly think this film has the best cold open of all time. Not necessarily for the scene itself but how it affects the setting later on. After a subtle yet suspenseful introduction to the film's dangerous setting, every following scene at the primary location, with the knowledge of what happened in the opening, holds the suspense and anticipation of another violent event occurring. Now, I don't find this film necessarily scary, but every scene on the beach (prior to when they set sail) still has the lurking tension with the context of previous scenes. The way this film is shot is not only beautiful but also perfectly encapsulates the emotion each scene is trying to get across. All three of the men in the leading roles give great performances and brilliantly flesh out their characters are the story progresses. Something I notice about the better half of Spielberg's work is that he knows how to perfectly pace a film (though his third acts can get a bit messy) and this is no exception. See, I hadn't watched it in a few years and I forgot about a lot of what happens (excluding little bits from the Dead Meat Kill Count), but after rewatch, I truly think it's a beautiful masterpiece and indefinitely the best of Steven Spielberg's work, including both of his catalogs as a director and a producer (of films such as The Goonies, Back to the Future, and pretty much any other Amblin or Robert Zemeckis film).