Movies: Greatest director of all-time

[the valiant effort]

Another honourable mention to Bobcat for God Bless America

 

[x Tame Impala]

Watch more movies.


Amistad and The Color Purple are both competently made but by the wrong director - discussion for another time though.

Respect Spielberg but the only point was there is no objective answer to this, and acting like there is just shows ignorance.

Wow well discussion over and banned forever

 

[Felidae]

No director has made more unique, riveting, thought provoking and mind boggling films than..























M. Night Shyamalan! Bet you didn't see that one coming..

 

[Neil Racki]

What about the ginger?

I know hes ginger but dang .. yall take hair color hate to far!

He did f***ing Willow ffs.

 

[Oneiro]

I'd have to go with Scorsese or Bergman.

On some level, the guys winning the poll - Kubrick, Hitchcock and Spielberg - are kids playing with their toys in service of storytelling.

I feel like Scorsese and Bergman had much better scripts with much more gravity and an adult view of things and their mastery of technique is far more subtle and natural.

 

[Bowski]

Hook was a great kid’s movie, what’re you talking about?

I was a kid. The movie was weird, and a disappointment financially. Nobody at school gave a damn.
It combined some of the wort of the 90s, overacting cringy Robin Williams, a cast of diverse kids in neon, Julia Roberts, and other rubbish. Hoffman was pretty good though.

The 90s Peter Pan & the Pirates cartoon was so much cooler. That intro...

 

[Shareefruck]

Never been all that won over by the Spielberg thing, personally. The things that I kind of recognize as Spielberg-isms (tendency to shoehorn a certain brand of sentimentality) tend to hurt the movies for me rather than make them better. Most of his "classics" just don't do it for me. Maybe you can look at technical talent and make me begrudgingly go "Okay fine" (although I don't care as much about that stuff if the films don't grab me), but that's about it.

 

[The Macho King]

Never been all that won over by the Spielberg thing, personally. The things that I kind of recognize as Spielberg-isms (tendency to shoehorn a certain brand of sentimentality) tend to hurt the movies for me rather than make them better. Most of his "classics" just don't do it for me. Maybe you can look at technical talent and make me begrudgingly go "Okay fine" (although I don't care as much about that stuff if the films don't grab me), but that's about it.

Wouldn't be my choice but I think making high-level enjoyable blockbusters while still being an auteur (and then his "serious" movies which I'm a bit lower on but again have mass appeal) is worthy of being in the discussion.

 

[castle]

If you can handle subtitles the works of Kurosawa and Bergman deserve a lot more love.

I've probably seen almost all of Kurosawa's films. Don't get fooled by the Samurai genre, they are great stories.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

If you can handle subtitles the works of Kurosawa and Bergman deserve a lot more love.

I've probably seen almost all of Kurosawa's films. Don't get fooled by the Samurai genre, they are great stories.

Discussing international directors, I wouldn't say Kurosawa and Bergman are anywhere near the shadows. They get plenty of love.

 

[castle]

Discussing international directors, I wouldn't say Kurosawa and Bergman are anywhere near the shadows. They get plenty of love.

Indeed, but apparently not a single vote in the poll, which I find a but surprising. For the post war era from 1945 to 1960, I'd vote for either one of them. Kubrick for the 70s probably. My favourite modern director is probably Tarantino.

 

[The Macho King]

Indeed, but apparently not a single vote in the poll, which I find a but surprising. For the post war era from 1945 to 1960, I'd vote for either one of them. Kubrick for the 70s probably. My favourite modern director is probably Tarantino.

Didn't Kubrick only make one movie in the 70s? Admittedly it's Barry Lyndon but still.

Unless I'm totally misremembering when A Clockwork Orange came out.

 

[castle]

Didn't Kubrick only make one movie in the 70s? Admittedly it's Barry Lyndon but still.

Unless I'm totally misremembering when A Clockwork Orange came out.

Yeah clockwork was a 70s movie, but I'll be honest amd say in my head space odyssey and shining were 70s movies too.

 

[Lshap]

Best Decade: Francis Ford Coppola. Imagine directing The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather II, and Apocalypse Now in a single nine-year span. That's three generational grand-slams and one merely great film in the 1970s. Nothing bombastic or showoffy about Coppola, he just digs deep into each scene to create brilliant textures for his stories.

Best Living Director: Martin Scorsese. This guy is so good that Gangs of New York, Wolf Of Wall Street, and The Departed are demoted to his 2nd-line forwards. Understandable, when you have Goodfellas, Casino, and Raging Bull as your HoF 1st-line. Fans continue to argue over where Taxi Driver, King Of Comedy, The Aviator, The Irishman, and Mean Streets belong in his lineup. Cue the rock soundtrack.

Favourite All-Time: In 1968, my hippie aunt brought me to the theatre to see 2001: A Space Odyssey. I was 6. I was wowed by the visuals but, obviously, didn't understand what was going on. I then found out nobody did. Wait... are films allowed to do that? Thus began my reverence for Stanley Kubrick. Upon repeat viewings, 2001 could use a little editing, but it remains the smartest film ever made. Oh yeah... this dude also directed A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, and Paths of Glory. A fun debate: Was Eyes Wide Shut a great film or a pretentious, colourful mess? Discuss.

His Own Genre: Has any director fused intellect and humour as successfully as Woody Allen? At the two far edges, Allen pumped out a few early films that were rip-roaring hilarious, followed by a few more that were morose, plodding, and full of themselves. But down the middle, he found a sweet spot with a perfect blend of depth and comedy that's uniquely his. Nobody else could've created Annie Hall, Manhattan, The Purple Rose of Cairo, or my favourite - Crimes And Misdemeanors. Deeply smart and really funny. Zelig, Match Point, and Midnight In Paris are right up there. Cue the jazz soundtrack.

The Film-Lover's Film-Maker: One day, a future filmmaker will attempt to launch a film that is louder, bloodier, and queasier than Quentin Tarantino. That film will burn up in the atmosphere in an explosion of primary colours. Nothing can travel at the speed of Tarantino. Tarantino ripped off every other genre to create his own. He bends and reshapes history, timelines, plot irony, good & bad-guys, and, of course, body parts. He boldly goes where no Director had the stomach to go before. Not everyone likes his ouevre, but those who do recognize Pulp Fiction as a modern-day Citizen Kane. He's got another seven or eight films that are wildly entertaining and almost as good. Underrated gem: Jackie Brown. Cue "Stuck in the Middle With You".

 

[The Macho King]

I'm going to show my ass a bit here, but the thing that keeps Scorcese off a top tier for me is - and I know this is a spicy take - i don't find his films as visually interesting. I can't think of a "this is a Scorcese-esque shot." He makes great films, but I attribute him more to storytelling themes around masculinity and corruption than with anything distinctly visual.

Re: Tarantino - I just don't think his hit rate is very high. Three masterpieces in Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, and Inglourious Basterds, most of the rest very good, and a couple I would say are stinkers, but just a smaller filmography. Also I kind of think his strength is more as a screenwriter than a director (but with him ill acknowledge they're linked). Also I cannot forgive him for the decade of f***ing imitators he spawned.

One thing I adore both of these men for though is what they did for International cinema. Gun to my head I'm pretty sure my favorite director is not a Hollywood guy. So I may never have even been exposed to directors I now adore without them championing international cinema and making it available to US audiences.