The Perfect Director

[JRock]

Where's Oliver Stone? Spike Lee? Joel and Ethan Coen? Wong Kar-wai? If Michael Bay gets on the list, these three should be there as well.

[EXO]

Where's Oliver Stone? Spike Lee? Joel and Ethan Coen? Wong Kar-wai? If Michael Bay gets on the list, these three should be there as well.

*sigh... I wish people would read the thread and not just the list...

I'm about to remove it...

Edited June 4, 2004 by >EXO<

[1st Border Red Devil]

Was it Guy Ritchie who directed Snatch and Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels? I enjoyed those two, even though they were almost the same movie. Very clever.

Heh...

two of the funniest "underworld" movies ever made...right up there with Payback. Nothing like seeing scum get whats coming to them.

[Jolly Rogers]

Ridley Scott is one of those "high-low swingers" I mentioned.  I love some of his movies but others just didn't do it for me.  He did a great job with Hannibal, only to follow up with the rather boring and emotionally blank Gladiator.

Actually, he made Gladiator before Hannibal. He was offered the chance to direct Hannibal based on the success of Gladiator.

I stand corrected on the order of release (they were only about a year apart). Doesn't change how I feel about each film though.

[NERV]

there was a time when i would have said the speilberg was the best but he could never clean up the mess that was AI, and minority report wasnt much better, it was entertaining but the entire plot was a hole.

it would be too hard to pick a best director, most have had hits and misses, just need to calculate the hit to miss ratio along with how popular a movie was and such, as for the worst director... who directed van helsing? i just saw it the other, defitely one of the worst movies i ever saw, gayest dracula ever, and all the monsters somehow linking together like that didnt make any sense, and the cg was too obvious

[EXO]

there was a time when i would have said the speilberg was the best but he could never clean up the mess that was AI, and minority report wasnt much better, it was entertaining but the entire plot was a hole.

it would be too hard to pick a best director, most have had hits and misses, just need to calculate the hit to miss ratio along with how popular a movie was and such, as for the worst director... who directed van helsing? i just saw it the other, defitely one of the worst movies i ever saw, gayest dracula ever, and all the monsters somehow linking together like that didnt make any sense, and the cg was too obvious

That's why I never said that Spielberg was the best, but that he had the greatest career as a director. If you look at his films the bad film were very minimal compared to the good movies he's had. But when they stunk, they stunk to high heaven. (JP2 and Hook?)

Useless trivia: Did you know that the owners of Universal Tours sold the park last year and there's a clause that they had to carry over that Spielberg gets a 2% cut of the park's profits.

[Jolly Rogers]

There is no perfect director.

Just like real life, it's all about specialization. Some are good at comedy, some are good at horror, some are good at action, and some are good at sucking. When they try to explore different territories, we get stinking bombs most of the time. That's why people don't hire cooks to do their roofs or have janitors fix their cars.

[EXO]

There is no perfect director.

Just like real life, it's all about specialization. Some are good at comedy, some are good at horror, some are good at action, and some are good at sucking. When they try to explore different territories, we get stinking bombs most of the time. That's why people don't hire cooks to do their roofs or have janitors fix their cars.

Wow, you guys take things literally...

if the list and the title throw you off that much then just let the thread die...

[Agent ONE]

There is no perfect director.

Just like real life, it's all about specialization. Some are good at comedy, some are good at horror, some are good at action, and some are good at sucking. When they try to explore different territories, we get stinking bombs most of the time. That's why people don't hire cooks to do their roofs or have janitors fix their cars.

You need to re-read what I posted... Milius IS the best director ever.

[EXO]

There is no perfect director.

Just like real life, it's all about specialization.  Some are good at comedy, some are good at horror, some are good at action, and some are good at sucking.    When they try to explore different territories, we get stinking bombs most of the time.  That's why people don't hire cooks to do their roofs or have janitors fix their cars.

You need to re-read what I posted... Milius IS the best director ever.

What else has Milius done aside from Conan. I remember Flight Of The Intruder but I don't remember as being a good movie, in fact I think it was the name of the sex toy in Top Secret. Val Kilmer's Agent had One.

[Agent ONE]

There is no perfect director.

Just like real life, it's all about specialization.  Some are good at comedy, some are good at horror, some are good at action, and some are good at sucking.    When they try to explore different territories, we get stinking bombs most of the time.  That's why people don't hire cooks to do their roofs or have janitors fix their cars.

You need to re-read what I posted... Milius IS the best director ever.

What else has Milius done aside from Conan. ...

There is no need for doing anything else. After that, he is the greatest.

[Angel's Fury]

Was it Guy Ritchie who directed Snatch and Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels?  I enjoyed those two, even though they were almost the same movie.  Very clever.

Unfortunately I think he is a one trick pony.

You can say that again!!!

[Majestic]

Shoji Kawamori - Anime God

Ridley Scott - One of the Greats

Steven Spielberg - Arguably the Best, although not my personal favorite

James Cameron - One of the Greats

Michael Bay - Horrible Hack

Tony Scott - One of the Greats

Simon West - Hack

John DeBont - Meh

Ang Lee - Meh

John Woo - Hack

Sergio Leone - One of the Greats

John Houston - Meh

Goerge Lucas - Worst Hack of them All

Richard Donner - Hack

Paul Verhoeven - Hack

Mel Gibson - 2nd Worst Hack of them All

Opi (Ron Howard) - Meh

M. Night Shymalan - One of the Greats

Quentin Tarantino - One of the Greats

Wolfgang Peterson - One of the Greats

Peter Jackson - Meh

Phillip Noyce - Meh

Kevin Smith - Hack

Antoine Fuqua - Meh

Akira Kurosawa - One of the Greats

Tim Burton - Hack, but some good stuff

Stanley Kubrick - I suppose better than Cameron on my list

Robert Wise - Meh

David Fincher - Meh, but some good stuff

David Cronenberg - Meh

Clint Eastwood - Meh

Brian De Palma - Meh

Michael Mann - Meh

Martin Scorsese - One of the Greats, with some serious mis-steps

Stanley Kubrick - Is there an echo in here?

Francis Ford Coppolla - One of the Greats

John Carpenter - One of the Greats, became a Hack

Walter Hill - Meh

Robert Zemeckis - Meh

[Angel's Fury]

Majestic, I agree with you about John Carpenter. When he did Haloween 1, 2 and The Fog, he was brilliant, but when he did Escape from New York, he just tanked it.

[BLESS]

Wong Kar-Wai

Even Quentin Tarantino cried when he watched 'Chungking Express'

[Blaine23]

John Milius did direct Conan... but he also made Red Dawn... which is funny... but I don't really think it was supposed to be.

AVENGE ME, BOYS! AVENNNGE MEEEE!

I also truly believe that the NRA had to have paid the studios for that movie.

Hey, Majestic - reprinting a list and going "meh" doesn't add much. Why don't you pick some of the ones you think are great and which ones are terrible and explain why... otherwise, you're basically just wasting space with nothing to discuss.

Edited June 5, 2004 by Blaine23

[bsu legato]

John Milius did direct Conan... but he also made Red Dawn... which if funny... but I don't really think it was supposed to be.

Pinko.

[Mr March]

Great topic! I've yet to see several really good directors mentioned in the five pages of this thread (if they have been, please forgive me), so I'll add a few and add my voice to some who've already been mentioned.

Steven Soderbergh - The director of Traffic, The Limey, and Sex, Lies, And Videotape, he's definitely one of the few american directors who can properly capture true passion, mood, and realism in a film. Often forgotten as one of the directors who really helped to popularize independant film, his work really seems to stand apart from the masses of modern cinema.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet - One of the greatest visual directors of whose work I've seen, Jeunet really blew me away with his capture of color and theme. His film Amelie was an amazing meld of feeling, sight, and sound. While his other works have not gained much noteriety in my corner of the world, I think he's definitely got more up his sleeve.

Christopher Nolan - The director of Following and Memento is probably the most promising director of his generation, along side Bryan Singer. From the start, Nolan has nearly mastered the art of making profound out of the simple. His modern, noir-like thriller Memento is an instant classic and one of my favorite films of all time.

Gus Van Sant - Having directed films like Good Will Hunting and Finding Forrester have kinda placed Gus in a niche many think he rarely leaves. But Elephant was a really creepy film and still held his signature style. I like the very human stories he creates.

Cameron Crowe - While some people, especially artists, often criticize filmmakers who produce work based solely on popular culture, I must say I am impressed with Crowe's ability to tap into the rocknroll soul of American history. His films like Almost Famous and Jerry Maguire manage to be more than entertaining fluff that most would initially label.

David Lean - What can I say, I loved Lawrence of Arabia. Lean is pretty sharp on a lot of his work and I admire his skill for the epic. He created a very grand style before most knew what grand on film truely was and stands as a landmark for the North American finance of foreign film.

George Lucas - While the director of Star Wars has fallen victim to a lot of harsh criticism since his return to film in the late 90's, he will forever remain one of the most brilliant technical directors who ever lived. His innovation of special effects later bred excess, but also pioneered almost every visual effect in modern filmmaking. Along with other technically skilled directors like Robert Rodriguez, Lucas remains to this day one of the biggest driving forces for new technology in film.

Edited June 5, 2004 by Mr March

[EXO]

Nice post, Mr. March...

Steven Soderbergh, I used tp confuse him with John Sayles earlier on in their careers. I guess because they were both out there (along with Richard Linklater) making movies that had real interesting complex stories even though the subject matter were simple. I think Lone Star was a way under rated movie.

Back to Soderbergh though, we mentioned how Ridley Scott had a good range when it came to taking command of different subjects. Soderbergh is also like this. Though he hasn't proved just how far he can go, nost of his movies prove to be interesting. One of my favorites from him is Kafka. That was just too freaky, especially at the end when Jeremy Irons was on top of that weird Microscope thing with the giant picture of the eye.

I also liked the rest of your list and I'll touch upon those later, but I just wanted to say somehting about those 2 directors...

BTW, who's George Lucas?

[Bloodcat]

What about David Fincher (unless I missed him in there)?

I mean, Se7en? Fight Club?

And a couple genre directors who are pretty great:

Shusuke Kaneko (Gamera Trilogy, GMK)

John Carpenter (Halloween, They Live, Escape From New York, The Thing)

George Romero (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Martin, Creepshow)

[Otaku-Smeghead]

http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/page/0...1082823,00.html

[Jolly Rogers]

What about David Fincher (unless I missed him in there)?

I mean, Se7en? Fight Club?

Yeah I mentioned him earlier. How come he's taking so long with a new movie? It's been a while since Panic Room came out. Hope he's not busy because of the Fight Club videogame.

[BuzzLightYear]

As much as I enjoy the work of the directors listed so far, I feel there are a few more directors worth mentioning.

1) Jean-Luc Godard

2) Andreo Tarkovsky

3) Tsai Ming-Liang

4) Krzysztof Kieslowski

5) Federico Fellini

6) Ingmar Bergman

7) Werner Herzog

:-)

[Blaine23]

Good post, Buzz -

I had enough of Herzog, Godard, Bergman, and Fellini in film school to know that while they were innovators, they don't exactly inspire me to sit down and watch their movies repeatedly, personally.

This one -

4) Krzysztof Kieslowski

He's a definite fave that alot of people haven't checked out. I dare anybody to watch his "color trilogy" of Blue, White and Red and not be stunned and amazed.

Mr. March also mentioned a few that I like, but I have reservations about praising too thoroughly..

Soderbergh is definitely a great. Having made The Limey, Erin Brokovitch, SL&V, and Traffic alone is enough to declare him fantastic. He takes alot of chances - some don't pay off to well, but his energy and obvious joy in filmmaking is inspiring as hell.

Jeunet is another favorite of mine. I loved City of Lost Children waaaaay before Amelie redeemed him after the unfortunate Aliens 4. I felt he really hit his stride with Amelie and I can't wait to see what he releases next.

Christopher Nolan made a great film. I'm not a big fan of Insomnia or Following, though. I want to see more before I know if Memento was a fluke.

And I already gushed over Cameron Crowe... but I never mentioned that Say Anything is one of the best movies ever made.

Last... I have to disagree on the George Lucas front. I think he's a brilliant creator. A brilliant innovator. A brilliant marketer. But Star Wars was the only good movie he ever made to me. Great innovations in technology can never replace the need to guide actors and tell a good story.

And his insistence on directing the prequels to me has ruined them. Give me Kirshner & Kasdan working off of Lucas' story and you'll end up with another masterpiece like Empire. Otherwise, I can't count him as a great director. Far from a hack, though.

[bsu legato]

Give me Kirshner & Kasdan working off of Lucas' story and you'll end up with another masterpiece like Empire.

Erm.....you mean the same Kershener that gave the world Robocop 2 and Never Say Never Again? And the same Kasdan that oh-so recently left the turd that was Dreamcatcher floating in the cinematic toilet bowl?

No, I think Empire was the pinnacle of the careers of nearly everyone involved. Like Raiders a year later, it was lightning in a bottle. It was something that happens only once in a lifetime.

[Blaine23]

Give me Kirshner & Kasdan working off of Lucas' story and you'll end up with another masterpiece like Empire.

Erm.....you mean the same Kershener that gave the world Robocop 2 and Never Say Never Again? And the same Kasdan that oh-so recently left the turd that was Dreamcatcher floating in the cinematic toilet bowl?

No, I think Empire was the pinnacle of the careers of nearly everyone involved. Like Raiders a year later, it was lightning in a bottle. It was something that happens only once in a lifetime.

Like I said... Kirshner & Kasdan working off of Lucas' story...

I'm just of the opinion that Lucas works best when working with other people who are good at the things he's not good at. Such as scripts and actors, IMHO.

Besides - Kasdan didn't write the wretched Dreamcatcher, that can be blamed on William Goldman and Stephen King himself. Larry Kasdan did do some killer work on Silverado, Big Chill, and the underrated Mumford.

You're definitely right about it being the pinnacle of all involved, though. A near perfect movie resulted from their collaboration. I got all excited when I heard the rumor that Lucas was going to work with various directors for the prequels, mostly young and innovative... unfortunately that wasn't the case.

[bsu legato]

Besides - Kasdan didn't write the wretched Dreamcatcher, that can be blamed on William Goldman and Stephen King himself.

SO CERTAIN, ARE YOU?

I did enjoy Kasdan's earlier work, however. Nobody in their right mind can fault his work on Raiders or Empire. Even his work on Jedi was pretty good. Silverado still has a place in my heart, even if some of it does verge on spaghetti western cheesiness. But in light of his more recent works, I think we have no choice but to place him in the same category as those other directors who have sadly peaked, and are in decline.

[EXO]

Though I hate Jeunet for bringing back Ripley (which I don't think was his choice) I absolutley agree with Blaine and Mr. March. The visuals in Alien4 was actually pretty good, except for the last Alien/human hybrid (which is still another extension of Sygourney Weaver). Over all the story was mediocre.

Amelie was a great movie, especially if you can get Tony Hawk to act and speak French.... I feel bad for Audrey Tatou because she's so great in that role and I don't think she'll ever make a movie that concentrates on her type of beauty like that film did.

I'm waiting for Batman so I can make up my mind about Nolan. As I said before, Memento is an interesting concept. But I'm afraid Seinfeld did a much better job in the half hour it needed to showcase it properly.

[EXO]

Besides - Kasdan didn't write the wretched Dreamcatcher, that can be blamed on William Goldman and Stephen King himself.

SO CERTAIN, ARE YOU?

I did enjoy Kasdan's earlier work, however. Nobody in their right mind can fault his work on Raiders or Empire. Even his work on Jedi was pretty good. Silverado still has a place in my heart, even if some of it does verge on spaghetti western cheesiness. But in light of his more recent works, I think we have no choice but to place him in the same category as those other directors who have sadly peaked, and are in decline.

I'd blame Kasdan more on that mistake. I love William Goldman screenplays and Rob Reiner always knows what to do with them.

But I never really liked him as a director. I know he wrote the legendary Raiders script, but who can we really give the credit to?

[Blaine23]

Heck, color me corrected. I remembered reading an article where Goldman was blathering on and on about his great collaborations with King...

Then crappy movies came out of both Hearts In Atlantis and Dreamcatcher.

Personally, I'd blame more of the debacle of Dreamcatcher on all of them. It wasn't even a very good novel to begin with, King was basically ripping off himself and repackaging it.

Goldman has written great screenplays - Butch Cassidy, Princess Bride, Misery

And he's written crap. But his books about screenwriting are very enjoyable.

Kasdan has a few good movies left in him... I hope. Dreamcatcher seemed like a pretty crappy fit for him anyway. SciFi Horror? By looking at his IMDB page, I just realized he directed I Love You To Death, another underrated comedy.

That and his son made Zero Effect, another great underrated comedy. Daryl Zero rules.

[EXO]

One more thing -

Anybody who wants to see the work of a trendsetting talent in his big breakthrough film  - should go rent (or buy like me) City of God when it comes out on June 8th on DVD.

Incredible story, amazing pacing... it's so good, it's already being openly aped by Tony Scott in Man On Fire.

Awesome flick... best I saw last year.

City of God

Finally got to catch it this weekend. Awesome movie!!! Almost too raw!

I almost stopped the DVD during one scene that really bothered me but I knew it'll serve the story somehow. It's probably one of the most important scene in the movie. Highly recommended....

Edited June 22, 2004 by >EXO<

[hirohawa]

Favorites in no particular order

Akira Kurosawa

David Lean

Martin Scorcesse

George Lucas up until 1984

Steven Spielberg up until 1984

James Cameron

Ridley Scott

Tony Scott

Quentin Tarantino

Pedro Almodovar

Alfred Hitchcock

Milos Forman

Francis Ford Coppola

Edited June 21, 2004 by hirohawa

[EXO]

Favorites in no particular order...

What about that Steven Ayromlooi guy? He's alright...

Why no Spielberg after 1984?

Edited June 22, 2004 by >EXO<

[bsu legato]

Why no Spielberg after 1984?

No kidding. If you ditch his post-84 work, you lose Empire of the Sun, Last Crusade, Schindler's List, and Private Ryan. Or is it suddenly not cool to like those movies?

[Mr March]

Good post, Buzz -

I had enough of Herzog, Godard, Bergman, and Fellini in film school to know that while they were innovators, they don't exactly inspire me to sit down and watch their movies repeatedly, personally.

This one -

4) Krzysztof Kieslowski

He's a definite fave that alot of people haven't checked out. I dare anybody to watch his "color trilogy" of Blue, White and Red and not be stunned and amazed.

Mr. March also mentioned a few that I like, but I have reservations about praising too thoroughly..

Soderbergh is definitely a great. Having made The Limey, Erin Brokovitch, SL&V, and Traffic alone is enough to declare him fantastic. He takes alot of chances - some don't pay off to well, but his energy and obvious joy in filmmaking is inspiring as hell.

Jeunet is another favorite of mine. I loved City of Lost Children waaaaay before Amelie redeemed him after the unfortunate Aliens 4. I felt he really hit his stride with Amelie and I can't wait to see what he releases next.

Christopher Nolan made a great film. I'm not a big fan of Insomnia or Following, though. I want to see more before I know if Memento was a fluke.

And I already gushed over Cameron Crowe... but I never mentioned that Say Anything is one of the best movies ever made.

Last... I have to disagree on the George Lucas front. I think he's a brilliant creator. A brilliant innovator. A brilliant marketer. But Star Wars was the only good movie he ever made to me. Great innovations in technology can never replace the need to guide actors and tell a good story.

And his insistence on directing the prequels to me has ruined them. Give me Kirshner & Kasdan working off of Lucas' story and you'll end up with another masterpiece like Empire. Otherwise, I can't count him as a great director. Far from a hack, though.

Interesting criticisms, though I was very specific in my praise for Lucas. I said brilliant technical director. Yes, he is weak on story and emotional character, but no more so than a lot of directors (though he certainly suffers more scrutiny because of his noteriety). His strength is the technical innovation and evolution of film, to which he has virtually no equal even, in successive generations (again, with the possible exception of Rodriguez).

As for the rest, every director has made his share of weak films. Even America's golden boy Spielberg has more than a few duds permantly etched onto his resume. The point was to present those directors whose more artistically successful work you admire and feel worthy of praise.

Like Rodriguez says, every director has 30 bad films in him