1. In 1975 an almost unknown director made a film about a shark that attacks people at a popular tourist resort. It terrified film audiences across America and made more money at the box office than any other film before it. The film was Jaws, and the unknown director was Steven Spielberg.
2. In the years since Jaws was made, Spielberg has made some of the most popular films of all time. They include E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Jurassic Park (1993). He has also made several serious films. Schindler's List (1993), for example, is about a German man who saves a group of Polish Jews from the Nazis during the Second World War. Saving Private Ryan (1998), which is also about the Second World War, includes some of the most realistic war scenes ever shown in a film. Both of these films won Academy Awards for best director.