Your favorite Directors.

[Smokey]

This topic might be a tough one. Although here are many great directors, but many of them have directed stinkers also (Spielberg in Jurassic Park II). So this might get little tricky :)

Some of my favorites are:

Peter Segal (Tommy Boy, Nutty Professor II). Very tight editing.

John Ford ( Mister Roberts, Stagecoach). Close o up of facial expression is his trademark.

Tim Burton (Ed Wood, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure).

Stanley Kubrick (The Shining, A Clockwork Orange).

Steven Spielberg. No explanations needed :D

Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Goodfellas ).

[N. Abstentia]

Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy)

Robert Rodriguez (From Dusk Till Dawn, Sin City, Desperado)

Peter Jackson (LOTR of course, but even better...The Frighteners!)

John Hughes (Uncle Buck, Weird Science, Breakfast Club, 16 Candles, Ferris Bueller, Planes Trains and Automobiles)

Frank Darabont (Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption)

M. Night Shyamalan (Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, The Village)

[anamorphic96]

Michael Mann - Miami Vice, Heat, Last Of The Mohicans, Ali, The Insider

Doug Liman - Go, Swingers, Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Sam Mendes - American Beauty, Road To Perdition, Jarhead

M. Night Shyamalan

Frank Darabont

Steven Spielberg

George Clooney

Robert Rodriquez

Quentin Tarantino

Tony Scott

Spike Lee

Ang Lee

The list could go on. But these are the big ones for me.

[Smokey]

Thanks guys for list of great directors.

Since both of you have M. Night Shyamalan in your list, I was wondering if you seen his first [commercial] movie he wrote/directed called Praying With Anger?

This movie was based on his own experience in returning to India to rediscover his roots.

http://www.postersnthings.com/posters/praying_with_anger.jpg

[anamorphic96]

Thanks guys for list of great directors.

Since both of you have M. Night Shyamalan in your list, I was wondering if you seen his first [commercial] movie he wrote/directed called Praying With Anger?

This movie was based on his own experience in returning to India to rediscover his roots.

http://www.postersnthings.com/posters/praying_with_anger.jpg

I have not. But will check it out. Seems like it could be interesting.

Thanks for the tip.

[RGA]

Favorite directors and best directors are two different things. I know some critics out there seem inconsistant about best directors and a great many of said critics leave Steven Spielberg off the list. That puzzles me. Sure Spielberg makes more stinkers than a number of other standout directors but IMV few other directors have shown the breadth of handling so many different genres. Scorcese is one that comes to mind but even here i think he's more suited and better at directing what i would call street mob gangster like pictures than he is with films like Age of Innocence or Kundun.

I looked over my list of my top 100 films of all time and Spielberg has more films than any other director. Yet he seems to be viewed as the Hollywood and crowd pandering director who is a sentimentalist. (Like that was a crime :confused5:

I don't pay too much to many directors unless they consistantly make superior films that reach my top 100. Kubrick, Kurosawa, Welles, Kiezlowski. Mel Brooks on the strength of two films and James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino, are there but they're to me more one genre directors.

But all of these guys have made their stink bombs.

[kexodusc]

Favorite directors and best directors are two different things. I know some critics out there seem inconsistant about best directors and a great many of said critics leave Steven Spielberg off the list. That puzzles me. Sure Spielberg makes more stinkers than a number of other standout directors but IMV few other directors have shown the breadth of handling so many different genres. Scorcese is one that comes to mind but even here i think he's more suited and better at directing what i would call street mob gangster like pictures than he is with films like Age of Innocence or Kundun.

I looked over my list of my top 100 films of all time and Spielberg has more films than any other director. Yet he seems to be viewed as the Hollywood and crowd pandering director who is a sentimentalist. (Like that was a crime :confused5:

I don't pay too much to many directors unless they consistantly make superior films that reach my top 100. Kubrick, Kurosawa, Welles, Kiezlowski. Mel Brooks on the strength of two films and James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino, are there but they're to me more one genre directors.

But all of these guys have made their stink bombs.

For whatever reason, success in today's society is also the kiss of death. If a movie (or any product) sells well, becomes popular, and is enjoyed by the masses, a backlash inevitably emerges discrediting the film (and/or product). We're just too cynical these days unfortunately. It's cool to hate popular items.

I can't think of any other director who has made as many quality films that have appealed to so many people like Spielberg has. It's not even close. Even his stinkers aren't horrible. He's not my personal favorite, but give the man credit. What director has done more for Hollywood?

Spielberg is rejected by the "arts" community as being a great director the same way literary buffs deny Stephen King is a good writer. I haven't read much by Stephen King, but, I know enough to know zillions of people would rather read his stuff than anybody else's. Pop culture ain't cool, I guess. Forget the fact he's outsold Shakespeare.

You guys have already nailed a bunch of my favorite directors. I just hope Michael Bay doesn't screw up "Transformers: The Movie" next year....

[Worf101]

Well you guys know I'm "old school" so this list has few surprises.

1. John Ford - "The Quiet Man", "Fort Apache", "They Were Expendable", "The Informer" Four Acadmey Awards for best director. Nuff Said.

2. Howard Hawks - "Red River", "Air Force" "Sergeant York", "His Girl Friday" "The Thing fFrom Another World" . Some good stuff right there man.

3. Akira Kurosawa - "The Seven Samurai", "Yojimbo", "Fist Full of Dollars", "Ran", "Kagemusha" - Wow, what a master a true master of his arr. Amazing.

4. Quentin Tarrantin - "Pulp Fiction", "From Dusk Till Dawn", "Sin City" - Not a large volume of work but what's there is choice.

5. Ang Lee - "The Ice Storm" , "Ride With the Devil", "Sense and Sensibility". "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" - Same as above, can't wait to see what this guy tackles next.

Da Worfster

[Kam]

a lot of the best already mentioned, but some more of my personal favs based on many subjective criteria including their impact on the biz, their impact on me, their ability to just weave a good yarn, regardless of genre or how one-note they might be, because frankly, hitting any notes is incredibly hard, let alone being able to hit one incredibly well (same as in acting, writing, as well as directing)
So in addition to many of the ones listed above...

David Lean - (bridge, lawrence, dr, india)

Hitchcock - (no need to list)

Spielberg - (i tend to disagree on spielberg being rejected by the "arts" community, mainly because i think we may have different definitions of who that community consists of. If you mean the critics and connossuers of films who have ridiculously esoteric tastes simply for the benefit of being able to name off directors no one has heard of and quote truffaut and bergman movies and hate all-things popular from sliced bread to spielberg and can't differentiate a bay-blockbuster from spielberg, then their opinion really doesn't hold a lot of water to me. If anyone wants to admire truffaut, and criticize spielberg, they only need to look at to who Truffaut admired... and that was spielberg. when he wanted to learn how it was to work with a director... he acted for spielberg in Close Encounters (only his third major movie), how's that for an endorsement? the bottom line in nearly every spielberg movie, is that the memorable scenes (at least to me) have nothing to do with the 'spectacle' of the visuals, but is simply a solid dramatic scene (contrasted with nearly EVERY other 'blockbuster' director whose movies have memorable scenes ONLY because of the special effects) If, taking another definition of the "arts" community as the artists themselves, then spielberg is incredibly well respected. Sure you can talk to film students who are simply "the critics and connossuers of films who have ridiculously esoteric tastes simply for the benefit of being able to name off directors no one has heard of and quote truffaut and bergman movies" and just add on that they are enrolled in a film school... well... their opinion doesnt hold much weight for me either. talk to m. night and his influences... spielberg, who did kubrick want to take over for him on AI... spielberg, who did the united states navy and the german government award their highest civilian award too... spielberg, who has directed 9 actors in oscar nominated performances... spielberg, who do coppola, scorcese and countless other new and older filmmakers alike site as an influence or as an admirer of... spielber, and he has had his hand in bringing up and developing talent like zemeckis, and sonnenfeld, he gave american beauty to mendes to direct, and helped kurasawa get his final film made. so yeah... i'd think spielberg is well respected by the film watchers AND the film makers out there. those that want to criticize him, better come up with more than the current crop of arguments his detractors bring up. ok, kam-rant over. :) )

Welles - (fav mainly because of his impact on filmmaking, although Touch of Evil is a sublime movie).

of the new crop... (new being kinda relative i guess)
Wes Anderson
Christopher Nolan
David Singer
Cohen Brothers (not that "new" really)
Almodovar
chan-wook park

peace
k2

[kexodusc]

Spielberg - (i tend to disagree on spielberg being rejected by the "arts" community, mainly because i think we may have different definitions of who that community consists of. If you mean the critics and connossuers of films who have ridiculously esoteric tastes simply for the benefit of being able to name off directors no one has heard of and quote truffaut and bergman movies and hate all-things popular from sliced bread to spielberg and can't differentiate a bay-blockbuster from spielberg, then their opinion really doesn't hold a lot of water to me....

Sure you can talk to film students who are simply "the critics and connossuers of films who have ridiculously esoteric tastes simply for the benefit of being able to name off directors no one has heard of and quote truffaut and bergman movies" and just add on that they are enrolled in a film school... well... their opinion doesnt hold much weight for me either. talk to m. night and his influences... spielberg, who did kubrick want to take over for him on AI... spielberg, who did the united states navy and the german government award their highest civilian award too... spielberg, who has directed 9 actors in oscar nominated performances... spielberg, who do coppola, scorcese and countless other new and older filmmakers alike site as an influence or as an admirer of... spielber, and he has had his hand in bringing up and developing talent like zemeckis, and sonnenfeld, he gave american beauty to mendes to direct, and helped kurasawa get his final film made. so yeah... i'd think spielberg is well respected by the film watchers AND the film makers out there. those that want to criticize him, better come up with more than the current crop of arguments his detractors bring up. ok, kam-rant over. :) )

peace
k2

Yep, thems the ones!!! I see you've met them too :D

No offense intended, I just apply that term to all those holier-than-thou anti-establishment snobs.

[dph1965]

Not in any order -
Sergio Leonne
Robert Rodriguez
Scorsese
Copolla
Kubrick
Shyamalan
Wes Anderson

Seems like I watch at least 1 movie from 1 of these every week

[Smokey]

And Just couple of added notes....

You bring up a good point. Alot of great directors are also one genere type of directors where they excel. Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas come to mind. Outside Godfather and Star wars trilogy, one would be hard to find stand out movies that these guys directed.

There are other directors in this category such as Quentin Tarrantin, Martin Scorsese or Tim Burton, but they haven’t influence the popular culture as much as above directors have.

[dean_martin]

Many of my favs have already been listed. A few you'll recognize, but haven't been mentioned yet:

David Lynch
Elia Kazan
Robert Altman

A couple who are not quite favs, but I'd like to explore a little more:

William Friedkin - not only did he direct The French Connection and The Exorcist, but he also directed Cruising and The Boys in the Band. I find this just a little awkward, but I've never taken the time to learn more. Cruising probably had the noir characteristics of The French Connection as well as some of the shock of The Exorcist, but still...And The Boys in the Band? You just have to see it.

Jack Hill - he worked with Coppola and Roger Corman on Dementia 13, he squeezed out an excellent performance from Lon Chaney, Jr. when no one else could in Spider Baby, he wrote and directed vehicles for Pam Grier (Coffy & Foxy Brown).

Larry Cohen - It's Alive, Q: The Winged Serpent, Hell up in Harlem, Black Caesar and more recently Phone Booth and Cellular as a writer. These schlock guys with their roots in the 70s knew how to get more movies out of a single theme than anybody.

And then there are the foreigners:

Federico Fellini
Dario Argento
Mario Bava
Jess Franco
Radley Metzger
Jean Rollin

(Fellow Alabamian dph1965 already mentioned Sergio Leone!)

[Woochifer]

Tough call because a lot of great movies are also driven by the script, the actors, and production team. But, just off the top of my head, here are a few that come to mind ...

Martin Scorsese
Steven Spielberg
Francis Ford Coppola
John Woo
Tsui Hark (a whole generation of Hong Kong filmmakers got their start through him)
Jackie Chan (he directed, wrote, and choreographed most of his best films)
Christopher Nolan
Clint Eastwood (surprised that nobody mentioned him yet)
Quentin Tarantino (helps that he writes his own material as well)
Alfred Hitchcock
Sidney Lumet (though his output really declined after The Verdict)
Russ Meyer ('nuff said!)
Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker (collectively and individually, they reinvigorated the comedy genre during the 80s)
Tex Avery (the animated master of comedic timing and visual humor)

[Woochifer]

You bring up a good point. Alot of great directors are also one genere type of directors where they excel. Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas come to mind. Outside Godfather and Star wars trilogy, one would be hard to find stand out movies that these guys directed.

Outside of the Godfather trilogy, Coppola also directed The Conversation and Apocalypse Now, both of which were nominated for Best Picture and frequently regarded among the greatest films of the 70s. IMO, Coppola's latter work is very often underrated because it lacks the ambition and largesse of his prior work (the ordeal and near-physical and mental breakdown that he endured while filming Apocalypse Now pretty much ensured that his filmmaking would never push the limit and go for broke again). Movies like The Cotton Club, The Outsiders, and One From The Heart are good in their own right, but suffer by comparison because Coppola's benchmark films are so iconic.

I don't really regard Lucas as a great filmmaker, but he is a visionary storyteller and mythmaker who has had a huge influence on the film industry on the technical side. For a long time, Lucas seemed content to work behind the scenes as a producer/writer, and advance the technical aspects of filmmaking thru Lucasfilm. Before his most recent Star Wars prequel trilogy (where the directing was not a strongsuit), the last movie he actually directed was the original 1977 Star Wars.

[zapr]

Who directed The Good The Bad and The Ugly? Best directed movie of all time.......Zapr

[dean_martin]

Who directed The Good The Bad and The Ugly? Best directed movie of all time.......Zapr

Sergio Leone who also directed Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, Once upon a Time in the West, Fistful of Dynamite, Once upon a Time in America and more.

[s dog]

Alfonso Cuaron - Harry Potter and the prisoner of azkaban. I dont know nothing about him but i loved the movie.

[eisforelectronic]

Luc Besson
Michael Mann

[RGA]

Kam and Kex.

Great points. The film snob appeal of the "artiste" films seemingly are the only things some I've discussed with will accept. Which is not to say I don't but I have always believed that to be a truly good film critic one has to love film but also accept the film within the genre confines.

Take Halloween or the Exorcist. Two of, arguably, the scariest films of their time and both, moreso the latter, have held up very well. Halloween was a low budget horror tightly told but not particularly great storytelling or acting. It's job was to scare the heck out of people and it did it as well as anything before it and mostly since.

Trying to get through to people that you know not every film needs to be a character study of some guy battling his internal demons to work his way through a mental or creative block. Some films are about on archeologist who takes on pretty much the entire German army to get the Ark away from Hitler in a slam bang adventure that creates roars of laughter, intensity, and are just damn fun with a big old wink to the audience.

It is also rather humourous to me that when Spielberg does do an ART film "Schindler's List" and avoids any known actors films in less than a month in black and white and on a subject matter that many would avoid at all costs his film stays in theaters for 10 months and earns around $384million world wide box office.

If you fastforward 20 years my hunch is that JAWS is still going to be something that I will like watching -- Why? The film was not great because tof the shark - but the characters and the storytelling and the relative believability of their situation. Jurassic Park IMO relied on the wonder of the special effects and surrounded it by an incredibly banal story with sequences so idiotic that without the big Dino to look at the film would be a complete disaster. To me this is a Steven Spielberg miss and yet I still recommend the film with a marginal thumbs up so Spielberg's misses to me are still better than a lot of other directors' better efforts.

And then there is the Color Purple which Spielberg regretted handling the direction. Yeah Spielberg calls it an OOPSY and it got something like 11 Academy Award Nominations. I think it's not his best but it is certainly a quality movie.

Spielberg

The Great (in my top 100):

Schindler's List A++
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial A+
Jaws A+
Raiders of the Lost Ark A+
Saving private Ryan A
Munich A

The Good:

Duel B
The Sugarland Express B+
The Color Purple B+
Catch Me if You Can B
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (and many would likely put this into the Great camp)
Minority Report A-
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade B+

The Average:

Jurassic Park B-
The Terminal B-
Always B-
Empire of the Sun B-
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom B-

The Below Average:

A.I. C
Amistad C
Lost World: Jurassic Park C-
Hook C-
1941 D

The Unmitigated Garbage:

War of the Worlds F

[kexodusc]

Spielberg

The Great (in my top 100):

Schindler's List A++
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial A+
Jaws A+
Raiders of the Lost Ark A+
Saving private Ryan A
Munich A

The Good:

Duel B
The Sugarland Express B+
The Color Purple B+
Catch Me if You Can B
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (and many would likely put this into the Great camp)
Minority Report A-
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade B+

The Average:

Jurassic Park B-
The Terminal B-
Always B-
Empire of the Sun B-
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom B-

The Below Average:

A.I. C
Amistad C
Lost World: Jurassic Park C-
Hook C-
1941 D

The Unmitigated Garbage:

War of the Worlds F

Damn, that short list makes me wonder if Spielberg isn't my favorite director. None of my top 10 favorite movies are there, but I doubt I could name any other director with as many movies I enjoyed so much.

War of the Worlds was pretty disappointing, but not horrible. I liked it about as much as Minority Report.
FWIW, A.I. and Amistad rank much higher in my world. Especially Amistad. I hated the 3 hour long ending to AI. But Amistad, what a great movie. Can't belive you ranked Minority Report and The Color Purple higher than Jurassic Park...What's wrong with you?
There's no freakin' purple color rides at Universal's Islands of Adventure :D

I think I'm the only person on the Continent who has yet to see Jaws or Schindler's List.

I've seen the Jaws sequels...zzzzzzzz...just never got around to seeing Jaws. Maybe I'll buy that today. Schindler's List, well, I have a weak stomach for non-fictional acts of cruelty, and for whatever reason everything about the Holocaust just scares the heck out of me. Maybe someday I'll gather the nerve to watch it, I've only ever heard it was exceptional.

[GMichael]

I think I'm the only person on the Continent who has yet to see Jaws

.

What? You're kidding right?

[Kam]

rga,
that's pretty much my point about jaws. contrast that to any movie that relies on the spectacle of the visuals to give its "wow" factor, and that "wow" factor will last only as long as the next computer chip. BUT, if your 'wow' factor is based on human emotion, well that, imo, never grows dull.
take jaws versus episode III.
i can watch that Indianapolis monologue scene from Jaws a hundred times, and be captivated every single time. that, to me, is a perfect example of how a scene unfolds. the rollercoaster ride of that scene is incredible... their jokes, the scar comparison, the first real bond between hooper and quint.. brody being on the outside once again, and then quint bringing them all together with the indianapolis story so much so that they all sing as one at the end. i have that scene memorized, and i can never stop watching it anytime its on.
i can watch that opening dogfight/space battle sequence in episode III a couple times (if that) before wanting to skip to the next chapter. visually? absolutely stunning. there is so much going on in every single frame, each shot is a beautiful painting... but a painting without any purpose. the only connection i had to those characters was nostalgia. once the spfx teams at ilm become better at what they do, that scene is obsolete. Take a look at what lucas did to the original trilogy, he went back and made technical corrections all over the place because the visual spectacle wasnt what he wanted (not EVEN getting into the greedo-shot-first atrocity). he didnt need to change a single frame of that movie, because frankly, the visual spectacle didnt REALLY drive that into being a great movie. Yes, the visuals were groundbreaking and incredibly fascinating, but it was the hero-myth archtype storyline that truly drove that original trilogy. when you add ON TOP of that story, some of the most groundbreaking visuals... then you have a great movie that stands up over time, just as in the matrix. sure the sequels are vastly superior visually, but they dont even compare to the story of the original.
If you were to go back and change anything in jaws, not a single frame of any scene that actually made it a great movie would be changed. there's nothing he could ever improve upon on that indianapolis scene, it is great as is. lucas can ALWAYS improve the opening dog fight/space battle scene because as computer chips get better, then so will the visuals.
that's why, imo, "great" plays and "great" movies stand the test of time. because the chords they strike within us have to do with our own humanity and our own needs. i dont know if you've actually read the scripts to movies, but it is incredibly fascinating. (i read scripts all the freakin' time).
compare the script to jaws to the script of episode III. i read jaws straight through, the script is incredibly suspensfull and engaging and a real page turner, each character is given a LOT in a very small amount of time. i read episode III straight through, mainly because i flipped over pages and pages of descriptions and then fairly non-descript dialogue that didnt carry the story that far and really, without the visuals to carry it, was a fairly dull read.
i could spend hours talking about jaws and the topics would always cover base human emotions. i could spend hours also talking about episode III, (but to make it a positive conversation) it'd be a fairly technical one because it is an incredibly complex piece of filmmaking that he has accomplished. and not to take anything away from the technical achievements, which are frankly, astounding. and for one, has made the pure digital acquisition come as close to film as anything else. (my caveat here is yes, his movies lend themselves to a pure digital format so look as good as film, but i'm not sold on it until you can make a movie like Schindler's list with a purely digital acquistion format, but thats a whole 'nother discussion)

[RGA]

Damn, that short list makes me wonder if Spielberg isn't my favorite director. None of my top 10 favorite movies are there, but I doubt I could name any other director with as many movies I enjoyed so much.

War of the Worlds was pretty disappointing, but not horrible. I liked it about as much as Minority Report.
FWIW, A.I. and Amistad rank much higher in my world. Especially Amistad. I hated the 3 hour long ending to AI. But Amistad, what a great movie. Can't belive you ranked Minority Report and The Color Purple higher than Jurassic Park...What's wrong with you?
There's no freakin' purple color rides at Universal's Islands of Adventure :D

I think I'm the only person on the Continent who has yet to see Jaws or Schindler's List.

I've seen the Jaws sequels...zzzzzzzz...just never got around to seeing Jaws. Maybe I'll buy that today. Schindler's List, well, I have a weak stomach for non-fictional acts of cruelty, and for whatever reason everything about the Holocaust just scares the heck out of me. Maybe someday I'll gather the nerve to watch it, I've only ever heard it was exceptional.

The Jaws sequels were lousy especially 3 and 4. So do try and see the original Jaws.

Jurassic park has some of the dumbest dialog in film that I have seen in many years and nobody was developed. The human characters in a monster movie NEED to be as intersting as the monsters. In JP that is not the case -- and as kam noted with the effects -- once the effects look dated the film will be a footnote in history.

I screwed up the above because it should be Close Encounters A- and Minority Report B+. Minority Report was a pretyt smart futuristic sci-fi film. AI to me was incredibly preachy and had an overlong ending with what seemed to me to be a tacked on final alien sequence. Amistad for me was stilted and stagey.

I saw Schindler's List in theaters 7 times - it is a difficult subject matter but the storyline is about the power that lone individuals can and do possess. SO it's not just a depressing film about slaughter. There was hope and Spielberg chose a great story to bring the subject to the screen.

I think it's his best film with Ralph Fiennes's best performance and IMO the best supporting performance of the decade. It won 7 academy Awards and IMO it should have won 12 including best supporting actress for Embeth Davidz (she didn't get a nomination:confused5: )

It was the film that made me choose History as my minor.

[topspeed]

What a cool thread!

Most of my faves have been mentioned;
Eastwood
Spielberg
Jackson
Burton
Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X2)

I'm really surprised no one has mentioned Ron Howard. I recall an interview where he mentioned he only likes to work on particular projects. I can't remember what his criteria were, but all of his movies seem to have a positive message, which I like. Cinderella Man, A Beautiful Mind, Splash, the list goes on.

BTW, the very real elitism that you guys are talking about in film reviewing is alive and well in audio as well.

[kexodusc]

The Jaws sequels were lousy especially 3 and 4. So do try and see the original Jaws.

Jurassic park has some of the dumbest dialog in film that I have seen in many years and nobody was developed. The human characters in a monster movie NEED to be as intersting as the monsters. In JP that is not the case -- and as kam noted with the effects -- once the effects look dated the film will be a footnote in history.
.

I dunno...That fat scientist - the guy who plays Newman...he was awesome in JP. And I really felt that I was growing WITH those little raptors as they matured and evolved into poison spittin', kid eatin' carnisaurs.

Fun movie, if not the most sound. I disagree that the humans weren't interesting, but I'll admit they weren't developed nearly as well as in the novel. But that's always the case. Anyway, the characters weren't the movie, the themes of "what if", "man playing god" and "dinosaurs" were the movie, so character development wasn't a priority for me.

Maybe if I didn't read it first I'd think less of it, but I thought it was pretty good, not his best work, but a good movie to see in theater. I watched it again last month for the first time since I saw it in theater..13 years later, it doesn't seem too dated at all. Can't say the same for a lot of other special effects films of that era. With all the crazy cloning stuff going on today, it seems a lot more realistic.

[paul_pci]

Well you guys know I'm "old school" so this list has few surprises.

1. John Ford - "The Quiet Man", "Fort Apache", "They Were Expendable", "The Informer" Four Acadmey Awards for best director. Nuff Said.

2. Howard Hawks - "Red River", "Air Force" "Sergeant York", "His Girl Friday" "The Thing fFrom Another World" . Some good stuff right there man.

3. Akira Kurosawa - "The Seven Samurai", "Yojimbo", "Fist Full of Dollars", "Ran", "Kagemusha" - Wow, what a master a true master of his arr. Amazing.

4. Quentin Tarrantin - "Pulp Fiction", "From Dusk Till Dawn", "Sin City" - Not a large volume of work but what's there is choice.

5. Ang Lee - "The Ice Storm" , "Ride With the Devil", "Sense and Sensibility". "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" - Same as above, can't wait to see what this guy tackles next.

Da Worfster

Warner Bros. announced a John Ford box set to be released on 6/6.

Copied from Digital Bits:


MY TWO CENTS - 3/14/06 - by Digital Bits editor Bill Hunt

Warner Bros. has set Face the Music for release on 6/13. Also, remember all those John Ford and John Wayne films Warner announced a few days ago? Well, the studio has finally revealed that they'll all be available in a pair of new box set collections on 6/6. The 8-film John Wayne/John Ford Film Collection (SRP $79.92) will include The Searchers: Ultimate Collector's Edition, Stagecoach: Special Edition, Fort Apache, The Long Voyage Home, Wings of Eagles, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, They Were Expendable and 3 Godfathers. Meanwhile, the 5-film John Ford Film Collection will include (SRP $59.92) Cheyenne Autumn, The Informer, The Lost Patrol, Mary of Scotland and Sergeant Rutledge.

[Smokey]

Spielberg

The Great (in my top 100):

Schindler's List A++
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial A+
Jaws A+
Raiders of the Lost Ark A+
Saving private Ryan A
Munich A

The Good:

Duel B
The Sugarland Express B+
The Color Purple B+
Catch Me if You Can B
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (and many would likely put this into the Great camp)
Minority Report A-
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade B+

The Average:

Jurassic Park B-
The Terminal B-
Always B-
Empire of the Sun B-
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom B-

The Below Average:

A.I. C
Amistad C
Lost World: Jurassic Park C-
Hook C-
1941 D

The Unmitigated Garbage:

War of the Worlds F

Wait a minute RGA, may be a little bit of shuffling in your list warranted.

I saw Schindler's List in the theater, and although it was a good movie, I wouldn’t call it one of Spileberg best. It had its moments and have historical significance, but I see it as good documentary and leave it at that. To me it was just too depressing to watch.

Also saw Jurassic Park few week ago, and as you said technically it might be outdated, but like Jaws, the story hold up very well on the strength of actors such as Richard Attenborough and Jeff Goldblum.

So to reshuffle your list :D, I would move up the movie Duel and Jurassic Park to list A, and down grade Schindler's List to list B. And move down Lost World: Jurassic Park to “The Unmitigated Garbage” list. That movie was that bad

And that would be my list :)

[eisforelectronic]

I think I'm the only person on the Continent who has yet to see Jaws or Schindler's List.

I've seen the Jaws sequels...zzzzzzzz...just never got around to seeing Jaws. Maybe I'll buy that today. Schindler's List, well, I have a weak stomach for non-fictional acts of cruelty, and for whatever reason everything about the Holocaust just scares the heck out of me. Maybe someday I'll gather the nerve to watch it, I've only ever heard it was exceptional.

You should take a trip to D.C. and visit the Holocaust Museum. It's like walking through every signifcant scene of Schindler's List and more, much more.