Your Five Favorite Film Directors

[ssjones]

A lot of my favorites have showed up several times. It was good to see "The Best Years of Our Lives" (although I know little about the director, William Wyler).
My all time favorite directors are Scorcese, Tarantino & The Coen Brothers.
Not yet listed:

Robert Rosen - The Hustler

John Schlesinger - Midnight Cowboy

William Friedkin - The French Connection & The Exorcist

John Boorman - Deliverance

George Lucas - American Graffiti

Milos Forman - One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Micheal Cimino - The Deer Hunter

Ridley Scott - Blade Runner & American Gangster

Oliver Stone - Platoon & Born on the 4th of July

Barry Levinson - Rain Man & Donny Brasco

James Ivory - Remains of the Day

 

[peckinpahhombre]

Al, another one not listed is Michael Curtiz. He almost made my list.
Curtiz directed many, many films, including The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood, Dodge City, The Sea Hawk, The Sea Wolf, Angels with Dirty Faces, Casablanca (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director), Yankee Doodle Dandy, Mildred Pierce, and White Christmas.
EDIT: Wait, I see now that Jesse listed Curtiz. My bad.

 

[huntertrw]

Robert Aldrich: "The Flight of the Phoenix" starring Mr. Jimmy Stewart, in my opinion one of the best aviation-themed pictures ever.

 

[warren]

Hunter: Better than "Wings?" Those dog-fighting scenes were something special.

 

[blueeyedogre]

In no particular order.....

Troy Duffy - Boondock Saints

Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker

Bryan Singer - The Usual Suspects

Clint Eastwood - Unforgiven

Stephen Hopkins - The Ghost And The Darkness

 

[huntertrw]

warren:
"The Flight of the Phoenix" is more of a drama than was "Wings," but, oh, what a drama, and with a crippled aircraft playing a pivotal role. If you have not seen it, then I urge you to do so and let me know what you think.

 

[dermotfahy]

John Ford - The Quiet Man

Howard Hawks - Hatari!

Frank Capra - It Happened One Night

Alfred Hitchcock - Rear Window

Raoul Walsh - The Big Trail

 

[voorhees]

Josh Whedon - Marvel Movies

JJ Abrahms - Star Trek / Star Wars

Steven Speilberg - Various

Irvin Kershner - Star Wars V

Peter Jackson - LOTR

 

[seadogontheland]

Woody Allen? You mean I can't keep my Woody out of my daughter's...uhem...Allen? I call for a disqualification. No offense to those who like him, but he's a vile human being despite his sense of humor and skills behind the camera.

 

[sablebrush52]

Curtiz directed many, many films, including The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood, Dodge City, The Sea Hawk, The Sea Wolf, Angels with Dirty Faces, Casablanca (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director), Yankee Doodle Dandy, Mildred Pierce, and White Christmas.

Curtiz could direct any genre, and deliver a first rate entertainment. Bring on the empty horses!
Another superb director who is largely forgotten today is Henry King. A list of his films include:

Tol'able David, Fury, Stella Dallas, The Winning Of Barbara Worth, Seventh Heaven, Jesse James, Stanley and Livingston, The Song Of Bernadette, A Bell For Adano, Captain From Castile, Twelve O'Clock High, The Snows Of Kilimanjaro, Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing, The Sun Also Rises, Carousel, The Old Man And The Sea, and Tender Is The Night. In a directing career that spanned 47 years - 1915 thru 1962 - King directed 116 films. The actors whose careers he started include Ronald Colman, Gary Cooper, Tyrone Power, and Jean Peters.

 

[newbroom]

One of MY major film influences is not considered a director, but a producer. I don't see any of the movies spawned by his empire listed here, but certainly, there are a few of them that are worth remembering.

What makes a movie good? I think it's how much emotion it reaches within you, how much thought it provokes, and of course there is the visual aspect which can thrill and inspire in its own right.

I was thinking about Disney.

 

[twoonefive]

Terry Giliam - Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Ralph Bakshi - Wizards

The Wachowskis - Speed Racer

Mamoru Oshii - Ghost in the Shell

Akira Kurosawa - Yojimbo

 

[daimyo]

Man this is tough....
Akira Kurosawa - Dreams (not his best film but my personal favorite)

Mihalis Kakogiannis - Zorba the Greek

John Carpenter- The Thing (what can I say, I was a VHS kid)

Stanley Kubrick - Dr. Strangelove

Ridley Scott - Alien (but Blade Runner is damn close)
twoonefive - excellent list, especially Bakshi

 

[wyfbane]

In rough order:
Henry Koster; Harvey

John Ford; The Quiet Man

Howard Hawks; Hatari!

Joss Whedon; (tie) Avengers and Serenity

Alfred Hitchcock; (tie) North by Northwest and To Catch a Thief

 

[jguss]

More greats:
Carol Reed - The Third Man

Woody Van Dyke - The Thin Man

George Cukor - Philadelphia Story

Billy Wilder - Double Indemnity

Ernst Lubitsch - The Shop Around the Corner

 

[jguss]

Also fun would be the worst directors and their masterpieces

 

[sablebrush52]

Also fun would be the worst directors and their masterpieces

The problem for me is that I make an effort to forget bad films and bad directors. Despite which, Ed Wood and Plan 9 From Outer Space come to mind.

 

[markus]

John Ford - Everything he directed with John Wayne in it.

Ridley Scott - The Alien movies, Blade Runner and Gladiator

Clint Eastwood - Million Dollar Baby, Grand Torino

Steven Spielberg - Close Encounters

Peter Jackson - LOTR and Hobbit
There are too many more to list!

 

[ssjones]

Ernst Lubitsch - The Shop Around the Corner

Definitely a favorite of mine.
Carol Reed - The Third Man (a favorite) & Mutiny on the Bounty

 

[jguss]

Ed Wood, for sure; but it's also tough to forgive Michael Pressman for Dr Detroit. And for pure camp Sam Newfield's Terror of Tiny Town is tough to beat; after all, how many all-midget musical westerns have there been? And for personal reasons Jeff Ferrell's The Revenge of the Teenage Vixens from Outer Space is on my list.