Directors In Decline

[redhawk23]

Someone suggested it in the Director of the Decade Thread, this is a place to discuss directors who have made great films in previous decades, but had uneven to terrible work in this one.
I will be the first to suggest a resounding

GEORGE LUCAS

The obvious arguement to this is that he was never that good of a director to begin with, but really I love Star Wars:IV, American Graffiti, and hell even THX, but seriously as much as I liked Revenge of the sith, his direction of the prequel trilogy overalll was abysmal.

 

[Bunker]

Francis Ford Coppola.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

George Lucas was never great. A visionary ? Yes. But never a great director.

 

[Raiden]

Francis Ford Coppola.

Seconded. I'd also nominate Oliver Stone because I don't think he has done great films lately.

 

[CFE]

Robert Zemeckis...certainly if he continues with all these 3D films.

 

[Episode29]

Brian DePalma. Big time.

 

[Deaths Head II]

George Lucas was always a better story teller then director or even writer.

I agree with Francis Ford Coppola, but I'll add a new one too: M. Night Shyamalan. He is way in decline. He basically became a parody of his former self. I loved the Sixth Sense and Unbreakable almost as much as I absolutely despised Lady in the Water. I didn't even bother to go see The Happening.

Maybe The Last Airbender will step him back up but for he still fell very far.

 

[DarKJediKnight]

GL should have let others write and direct the prequels.

 

[redhawk23]

I will agree with you on M Knight. although I really loved signs when it came out.

 

[Project862006]

call me crazy but i think ridley scott is slipping a bit lately

 

[RichardMoore]

Bryan Singer

 

[Dark Victory]

Guy Ritchie.

I enjoyed Lock Stock and Snatch to some degree. Though, Revolver and Rock 'n' Rolla were ****. Hopefully Sherlock Holmes is good, but I'm not expecting much.

 

[redhawk23]

call me crazy but i think ridley scott is slipping a bit lately

i was thinking the same thing

 

[El Payaso]

I consider George Lucas and M. Night Shyamalan a one-shot directors.

 

[craigdbfan]

With M.Night? Not really...

The Sixth Sense
Signs
Unbreakable
The Village

So thats definitely not a "one hit wonder" scenario. The rest of his films not mentioned are complete garbage.

 

[El Payaso]

With M.Night? Not really...

The Sixth Sense
Signs
Unbreakable
The Village

So thats definitely not a "one hit wonder" scenario. The rest of his films not mentioned are complete garbage.

Sixth Sense was great. The rest, just a a bad-to-terrible movie list there, imo. Some of those end twist were hilarious but they can't count as good comedy.

 

[Dark Victory]

Brian DePalma. Big time.

I haven't seen Redacted or Femme Fatale yet, but Mission to Mars and Black Dahlia were nearly unbearable for me.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

As much as it pains me:

Richard Donner (from Superman/The Omen to Timeline)
John McTiernan (from Die Hard/Predator to Rollerball)
John Carpenter (from The Thing/Starman to Ghost of Mars)

 

[Deaths Head II]

As much as it pains me:

Richard Donner (from Superman/The Omen to Timeline)
John McTiernan (from Die Hard/Predator to Rollerball)
John Carpenter (from The Thing/Starman to Ghost of Mars)

I agree with Carpenter and McTiernan. I haven't seen most of Donner's recent movies so I can't really judge.

 

[xwolverine2]

call me crazy but i think ridley scott is slipping a bit lately

for sure...

 

[cerealkiller182]

yea I definitely dont think Lucas is a DIRECTOR in decline. Writing was always his stronger suit.

 

[craigdbfan]

Empire Strikes Back says it all.

Lucas should have sticked to writing (kind of) and allowed rewrites by other writers to strengthen the dialogue.

I'm sure if he would have gotten talented directors for the prequels along with other writers to brush up his screenplays we'd have fantastic prequel films that wouldn't be so polarizing.

 

[bullets]

I remember Harrison Ford being interviewed would say Lucas's only direction was to "Go Faster"

 

[Jochimus]

Lucas was never a great director. He just had the good fortune back in the early to mid-1970s to fall in with actors who could do far more with each other than just be 'Faster' and 'More Intense', particularly the young actors of that time.

IMO pretty much all the big-name directors who hit it big in the '70s and '80s have either already lost whatever it was they had (like Carpenter) or are well on their way (like Spielberg).

 

[El Payaso]

I remember Harrison Ford being interviewed would say Lucas's only direction was to "Go Faster"

I heard something similar. I think it was Mark Hamill who said Lucas had two instuctions only; 'go faster' and 'more intense.' After a short while Lucas chose to use the index finger of both of his hands; each of them refered to each instracution so he didn't have to even say it.