Who is the best director?

[Just Bob]

Who do you think is the greatest movie director of all time? A few of my nominations:

Tim Burton (http://imdb.com/name/nm0000318/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxzZz0xfGxtPTIwMHx0dD1vbnxwbj0wfHE9VGltIEJ1cnRvbn xodG1sPTF8bm09b24_;fc=1;ft=20;fm=1), maker of Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Big Fish

The Coen brothers (http://imdb.com/name/nm0001054/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxzZz0xfGxtPTIwMHx0dD1vbnxwbj0wfHE9Sm9lcmwgQ29lbn xodG1sPTF8bm09b24_;fc=1;ft=16;fm=1), who brought us Fargo, The Big Lebowski and O Brother Where Art Thou

Hayao Miyazaki (http://imdb.com/name/nm0594503/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxzZz0xfGxtPTIwMHx0dD1vbnxwbj0wfHE9SGF5YW8gTWl5YX pha2l8aHRtbD0xfG5tPW9u;fc=1;ft=1), legendary Japanese animation director, maker of Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away

Terry Gilliam (http://imdb.com/name/nm0000416/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxzZz0xfGxtPTIwMHx0dD1vbnxwbj0wfHE9VGVycnkgR2lsbG lhbXxodG1sPTF8bm09b24_;fc=1;ft=20;fm=1) who brought us Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Brazil and Twelve Monkeys.

Would you care to add any?

[Bertrand]

Steven Spielberg :bow: hands down for me :ok:

[maiken]

Hayao Miyazaki!!!

<-----huge anime fan....

<-----can't you tell..look at my avatar....*giggles*



mai :shhh:

[Michael]

How 'bout:

Robert Zemeckis - Forrest Gump

Frank Darabont - The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, etc...

Steven Spielberg - Has to be one of the best ever.

Mel Gibson - Braveheart was good.

[granath]

Peter Jackson is definitely in the top five, although the LotR movies are the only ones of his that I've seen.

Steven Spielberg.

I need to think about this some more.

[maiken]

I need to add...the guy who made the Final Fantasy movie.....can't think of his name...


mai :)

[Just Bob]

I reckon you can't really call a director great on the basis of one movie. I can think of several really great movies by directors whose other work is nothing special.
Peter Jackson deserves to be considered, but as much because of small-scale films like Heavenly Creatures as the epic masterpiece that is Lord of the Rings.
As for Hironobu Sakaguchi, I will agree that he is a genius, but as a maker of games rather than films. I need to see more films from him before I credit his directorial ability.

[Priscilla]

Alfred Hitchcock or perhaps Orson Welles, both great!

[JayEgo]

Darn... There's me going hunting down the name of my favourite Producer only to come back and read 'Director' :roll:

I suppose my favourite Director would be the one who made my favourite film...? Not sure what that is or who that'd be :crazy:

Useful ain't I?

:evil:

Ja¥son xx

[Milo]

Useful ain't I?

:evil:

Ja¥son xx
nope ;) ;)

[Orianna]

There are so many......

Stephen Speilberg - for pure entertainment and some deep ones like 'Shindler's List'

George Lucas - pure entertainment 'Star Wars'

Ron Howard - can elicite some deep emotions 'Apollo 13' , you know how the movie is going to end, but were on the edge of your seat anyway.

Track record really tells the truth. M. Night Shyamalan has just started, but I think his thrillers are good.

I like a good tale to be told :bouncy:

[I.L.Y.]

I know you don't want director's who've only got one good movie under their belt on here, but I've *got* to put Zach Braff on here, at least as one to watch, but for me, he's one of the best. He's actually only got one directorship under his belt *period*. Garden State If you haven't seen it yet, I really highly recommend it. I rate it as one of the very best, if not *the* best movie I've ever seen. Funny, but real. He also wrote and starred in that movie too, so I think that adds to it.

I think I'd have to agree with you on Tim Burton. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a movie I enjoy seeing every time I see it.

M. Night Shyamalan is also one that I've liked a lot, even though he's got very few movies. Signs and The Sixth Sense were great, I have yet to see The Village and Wide Awake. I didn't like Unbreakable all that much, but that's because I don't think Bruce Willis makes all that great a superhero and the story was kind of bleh.

[AnnMarie]

Alfred Hitchcock
Steven Speilberg
George Lucas
Ron Howard
Tom Hanks

(Not necessarily in that order)

[Bob12]

Many good ones - several already named but my vote's for Steven Spielberg.

[jamnar]

Well, it sure ain't Oliver Stone.

I just saw Alexander............ :eek:

Peter Jackson - a little too obvious.

I vote for M. Night Shyamalan, for The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and The Village.

[selket]

you missed alfred hitchcock it takes a thief, rear window north by northwest, the birds etc..
or how about victor fleming the wizard of oz and gone with the eind in the same year
or elia kazan on the waterfront
francis for coppola the godfather :ok:

[SpaceCowboy]

Francis Ford Coppola-The Godfather movies alone put him on any list like this, but he has directed other movies

Clint Eastwood- While known better as an actor he has a directing career that is just as extensive, and has won an academy award as both best director and for best picture.

[Just Bob]

And we have yet to mention Kubrick, Kurosawa, Eisenstein, Capra, Disney, Ingmar Bergman, Scorsese, Ridley Scott, James Cameron, Tarantino...
I'm sorry to say that I've never really appreciated Steven Spielberg. He makes some very entertaining movies, with good acting almost without exception, but they're mostly a little too 'feel-good' for me. Except for Schindler's List, most of his movies are all about Goodies and Baddies, and usually have a saccharine and upbeat, oversimplified message about how great humanity is.
I prefer films that reflect the complexity of the world, including characters who have both bad sides and good sides. I like it when the plot and script of a film offers us the facts and lets us make up our own minds, rather than telling us what to think.

[granath]

How about moving this thread to the multimedia forum?

[Bronze-Dragonrider]

SAM RAIMI!!! :D

After him there's Steven Speilberg, Robert Zemeckis, and Peter Jackson, purely because of LOTR. Brad Bird gets squeezed into my list too, because of the Iron Giant and the Incredibles.

[Anareth]

Akira Kurosawa. Without him, not only is there no "Star Wars", there is no "The Magnificent Seven", "spaghetti westerns", etc.

I have to say, Just Bob, I would include Spielberg long before I'd put James Cameron on the list. For "Titanic" alone, the man should be beaten. What an overlong, self-indulgent, pretentious bore of a movie. He managed to take something with inherent drama and make it, well, stupid. (It's just a good thing that the families of the dead can't sue over character defamation.)

[Weyrwoman Kalina]

Stephen Spielberg, most definitely

Also Martin Scorsesee (i think I spelled that right)

[Berd]

Roman Polanski (sp?) His personal life is a bit iffy, but some of his movies are amazing. The Pianist for one. :bow: Most of the other directors like Raimi, Speilberg, Eastwood, Gibson, etc. have been said.

Snip:
The Coen brothers (http://imdb.com/name/nm0001054/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxzZz0xfGxtPTIwMHx0dD1vbnxwbj0wfHE9Sm9lcmwgQ29lbn xodG1sPTF8bm09b24_;fc=1;ft=16;fm=1), who brought us Fargo,
:faint: :crazy:

If any of you have seen Fargo, don't take it seriously. If you haven't seen it yet, Don't watch it! :evil: We don't always ( ;) ) talk like that, but the scenery is perfect; Flat, Snow, and Freezing Cold (today's temp. -40*F :erm: ). I can say this because I'm in Fargo right now at college and I've lived about an hour away all my life. :razz: That movie is the biggest thing that has ever happened to this poor state. :roll:

[SpaceCowboy]

I missed one that I really enjoy the movies of:

John Ford- Purhaps the best director of westerns of all time.

[PsychDyke]

Personally, I think Tim Burton and Alfred Hitchcock should be taken out and shot. They both ruined perfectly wonderful books.

My favorite director is John Singleton (Boyz n the Hood, Higher Learning). He's made some not so good movies, but he's made some exceptional movies as well.

My wife's favorite director is Ang Lee (Eat,Drink,Man,Woman;The Wedding Banquet; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) Just ignore 'The Hulk', we do.

I'd also have to say good things about Sam Raimi.

Also, I'd have to add in Penny Marshall(A League of Their Own,Awakenings, Jumping Jack Flash, Big, Riding in Cars With Boys). Her movies may not be of lasting importance, but they're good.

Actually, I liked 'Titanic'. I didn't expect to, but just as long as you're aware of the total historical unlikelyhood of the main romance, it's a good movie.


Peace, Meredith Psy:fiend:

[Priscilla]

Be a bit difficult to take Alfred Hitchcock out and shoot him. :redfruit: It's interesting that most people either "go" for the newer directors who rely more on special effects, or the old ones who had less to work with but were able to get a lot out of their actors. I find some good things in both old and new. The suspense created in older films was done by camera angles, lighting, sound, and the talent of actors - newer films use more special effects.

[PsychDyke]

Be a bit difficult to take Alfred Hitchcock out and shoot him. :redfruit: It's interesting that most people either "go" for the newer directors who rely more on special effects, or the old ones who had less to work with but were able to get a lot out of their actors. I find some good things in both old and new. The suspense created in older films was done by camera angles, lighting, sound, and the talent of actors - newer films use more special effects.

Well, I'd be willing to dig him up and shoot him for Rebecca alone. He took a fantastic book and made it absolutely incomprehensible. :banghead:

As for older directors, I like George Cukor. (The Philadelphia Story, Adam's Rib, A Star Is Born, My Fair Lady).

Peace, Meredith Psy:fiend:

[PsychDyke]

<snip>
or how about victor fleming the wizard of oz and gone with the eind in the same year
or elia kazan on the waterfront
francis for coppola the godfather :ok:

Actually, Victor Fleming took over from George Cukor w/Gone With the Wind. George was fired b/c Clark Gable didn't want to 'work with a fruit'. So, he gets credit for some of George's work.


Peace, Meredith Psy:fiend:

[Just Bob]

SAM RAIMI!!! :D

After him there's Steven Speilberg, Robert Zemeckis, and Peter Jackson, purely because of LOTR. Brad Bird gets squeezed into my list too, because of the Iron Giant and the Incredibles.
That's interesting. I would have thought that a Sam Raimi fan would appreciate Jackson's Brain Dead and Bad Taste.
I was just about to question the dislike for Hitchcock on the basis of a book adaptation, but then I realised that I hate Brad Bird basically for the mess he made of The Iron Giant. If I were feeling charitable, I would suggest that he made an okay film, and it was some idiot PR person who noticed that there was a great childrens' book (Ted Hughes' The Iron Man) and decided to tack it on for publicity. The two have only very peripheral similarities.
Ang Lee is one of my recent favourites, even after taking Hulk into consideration. He has a deft touch that can bring subtlety out of quiet moments as well as fraught drama.

The ultimate special FX director is Joel Schumacher, who has a reputation for ruining potentially very good projects.

[Bronze-Dragonrider]

Well I haven't seen anything else from Peter Jackson, and I know he butchered the LOTR books, but considering the enormity of the task I think he did pretty good. On its own, I think the LOTR movies are great.

And I've never read the original Iron Giant book, so I have nothing to compare the movie with, but I'd love to read the book, is it readily available in bookstores?

I don't know why so many people dislike Hulk. It *is* quite talkative with science speech, but that just made it at least a little more beleivable than the previous story of gamma ray exposure = angry giant green man. Hulk had some great style in it, but a few unrealistic special FX.

[Just Bob]

And I've never read the original Iron Giant book, so I have nothing to compare the movie with, but I'd love to read the book, is it readily available in bookstores?
If it's not, stop buying from that store. The Iron Man by Ted Hughes is an absolute classic, dark and atmospheric, with a story far more subtle and ambitious than the ham-fisted BS anti-nuke story that the movie managed.