Your Five Favorite Film Directors

[elpfeife]

I will just add a couple that haven't been mentioned.
Jean-Pierre Melville- Le Samourai (no not what you may think), and Army of Shadows.
Carol Reed- Odd Man Out, as well as The Third Man (mentioned by jguss).

 

[kane]

Jean-Pierre Melville- Le Samourai (no not what you may think).....

That's a good one.

Have you seen "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai"?

It's a quasi remake of that film. Jim Jarmusch, Forest Whitaker.

 

[huntertrw]

Honorable mention should go to Jamie Uys who directed "The Gods Must Be Crazy."

 

[okiescout]

In no given order:
Roland Emmerich - The Patriot

Ridley Scott - Blade Runner

Simon Wincer - Phar Lap, Lonesome Dove, Crossfire Trail

John Ford - The Searchers

Francis Ford Coppola - The Godfather I, II

 

[ssjones]

I just heard an interview of Kevin Pollak and he talked a lot Levinson's "Avalon" (1990). I'd forgotten how good that movie was, perhaps Levison's best.

 

[elpfeife]

More a plug for a film than the director - Stanley Kramer's "Judgment at Nuremberg". A really outstanding cast and screenplay (by Commie sympathizer Abby Mann) resulted in a fine film credited to Kramer.

 

[lordofthepiperings]

Best
Christopher Nolan- Dark Knight

Peter Jackson- Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

Quentin Tarantino- Reservoir Dogs

Rob Reiner- Stand By Me

Steven Spielberg- Catch Me If You Can
Worst
Jack Perez- Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus

Peter Howitt- Sliding Doors

Willard Huyck- Howard The Duck
I'm mentioning Johnathan Demme for Silence of the Lambs, because a director is supposed to tell the actor when they sound like an idiot and they need to work with the vocal coach to get the accent better. Jodie Foster's pathetic attempt at a southern accent was so bad I turned the movie off 15mins into it.

 

[elbert]

I'm not sure I'm worthy enough to post in this thread, but I'll give it a crack anyway. :wink:
In no particular order:
The Coen Brothers--The Big Lebowski, True Grit

Gus Van Sant--Finding Forrester, Good Will Hunting

Peter Jackson--The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit

Steven Spielberg--Indian Jones, Saving Private Ryan, Lincoln

Sam Mendes--American Beauty, Skyfall, can't wait for Spectre
Honorable Mentions:
Edward Zwick--The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond, Glory

Stanley Kramer--Inherit the Wind

Zhang Yimou--Hero, The House of Flying Daggers

Benny Chan--Shaolin

Mel Gibson--Braveheart, Apocalypto.

 

[wyfbane]

True. Gibson did a Helluva job on Brave heart and Apocalypto.

 

[elbert]

Yep. I was going to say something that would distance me from some of the controversies that Gibson's been at the center of, but at the end of the day his films speak for themselves.

 

[dulgunz]

In no particular order:
George Lucas - Star Wars/Indiana Jones

Stuart Rosenberg - Cool Hand Luke

Stanley Kubrick - Clockwork Orange/The Shining/Full Metal Jacket

Ridley Scott - Blade Runner/Alien

Steven Spielberg - All of them
Best Writer/Producer - Stephen King!

 

[ssjones]

I'm on vacation this week, babysitting the little one year old granddaughter. I had saved a copy of "Odd Man Out" and finally got around to watching it while she napped. It definitely had the feel of The Third Man, showing the post WWII devastation from the UK perspective.

 

[prndl]

Curtiz...Casablanca

Ford...The Searchers

Lean...Lawrence of Arabia

Hitchcock...Rear Window

Kubrick...Paths of Glory
I think fivesies are harder than onesies.

 

[sablebrush52]

Not every director is equally good with all genres, which is why I asked for a list of five.

 

[warren]

Ford - of course, pick from any number of movies.
Andrew Mclaglen: The Wild Geese Shenandoah
Sergio Leone: Duck You Sucker Gotta love a dubbed Rod Steiger
Blake Edwards: The Pink Panther
Peter Bogdanovich: The Last Picture Show Ben Johnson wins an Oscar and you gotta love Jacy Farrow.

 

[workman]

In random order: Francis Ford Coppola: The Godfather, Clint Eastwood: Unforgiven, Martin Scorsese: The Aviator, Robert Zemeckis: Forrest Gump, Steven Spielberg: Schindler's List.

Every two years or so I watch a TV miniseries from the 80's called Lonesome Dove. Love it. The director is called Simon Wincer, so he gets an honorary mention.

 

[sablebrush52]

In random order: Francis Ford Coppola: The Godfather, Clint Eastwood: Unforgiven, Martin Scorsese: The Aviator, Robert Zemeckis: Forrest Gump, Steven Spielberg: Schindler's List.

Every two years or so I watch a TV miniseries from the 80's called Lonesome Dove. Love it. The director is called Simon Wincer, so he gets an honorary mention.

Great choices! I worked on Lonesome Dove. My best memory of Simon is how close I came to punching his lights out. Great crew working on that film. They made him look a lot better than he was.

 

[workman]

Sable: How very interesting. The force of The Lonesome Dove to me is the combination of good writing and perfect cast. The characters are very sharp. Are you a moviemaker?

 

[saltedplug]

David Lean "Lawrence of Arabia"

Francis Ford Coppola "Dracula," "Apocalypse Now"

Ryûhei Kitamura "Versus"

Coen Brothers "The Big Lebowski," Miller's Crossing,"No Country for Old Men," "O Brother Where Art Thou," "True Grit"

John Huston "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" "Prizzi's Honor," "African Queen"

 

[deathmetal]

1. Francis Ford Coppola

2. Alex Cox

3. Morten Lindberg

4. Akira Kurosawa

5. Tomas Alfredson