Top 10 Favorite Directors.

[Balian]

My favorite's are Akira Kurosawa, Clint Eastwood, Alfred Hitchcock and Bryan Singer.
I also like the guy who directed Brick, Rian Johnson.

 

[hippie_hunter]

He has no neck. Its just all chin.

Beware his turkey neck of DOOM

 

[Edward Brock]

I'm terrible at lists so I'm just gonna throw a few names:

Alejandro Amenabar
James Cameron
Francis Ford Coppola
David Fincher
Terry Gilliam
Alfred Hitchcock
Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Takeshi Kitano
Akira Kurosawa
Stanley Kubrick
Fritz Lang
David Lynch
Sergio Leone
Ridley Scott
Steven Spielberg

They're ordered aplhabetically, just because I could't number them
But I can say that when I see any of these directors names before a movie, I know I'm in for a treat, and a great movie is garanteed (OK, Scott is a little irregular and Gilliam's latest wasn't soo good, but still...).

 

[Hunter Rider]

Steven Spielberg
James Cameron
Ridley Scott
Cameron Crowe
David Fincher
Tony Scott
Alfred Hitchock
Michael Mann
John Woo
Clint Eastwood

 

[Edward Brock]

There is a disturbing lack of John Huston in this thread.

His later career was kinda dissaponting.

 

[Alpha and Omega]

10. George Lucas: I know he's bad at director/actor communicative guidance, but I'm a SW addict. Personally, I think that he topped w/ his first SW film as a whole, but ESB was a nice follow-up, and the best no.2 in a trilogy from my pov.
9. Peter Jackson - I think we could see some even better projects from him in the future; I'm not sure about his ability to originate them, but we've already seen how good he is at adapting them.
8. Alfonso Cuaron - I kind of view him as the future and I like his style. I'm looking forward to 'Children of Men'.
7. Akira Kurosawa - Three words: THE MAGNIFICIENT SEVEN!!!
I could've also gone w/ Brynner, Eastwood, and McQueen. (It's one of my favorite films.)
6. Francis Ford Coppola - I know that a lot of people are starting to murmur against the Godfather, but I don't think they fully appreciate how great it was. Coppola brought style, family, culture, and a sense of nobility to the life of a crime family. The people in it had values even though they were responsible for some sadistic things. They had a purpose and the film had substance.
5. James Cameron - I love his ability to merge visual storytelling w/ handpicked dialogue. Titanic is the obvious mention, but Terminator 2 and True Lies are still two of the best action films to date imo.
4. Steven Spielberg - He's probably the best sequence director of all time. So many film projects / perpetual ingenuity
3. Martin Scorcese - The most underrated director of all time probably.
2. Alfred Hitchcock - You might want to try purchasing his box set; his suspense techniques are ahead of their time and M. Night is a 4th rate version of the late director.
1. Stanley Kubrick - He's my favorite for making great films consistently, for having a unique and constantly changing view of what he wanted to show his audience, and creating the right emotions at the right times in film. Imho, no one was really better at this.
Highlights: Full Metal Jacket, The Shining(my avvy if you can't tell), Spartacus. I could've mentioned a few others, but I only really highlighted films that I personally enjoyed. [Clockwork Orange is pretty twisted for its day.]

Just my ops.

 

[The Shape]

I notice that Peter Jackson is topping a lot of people lists here, or at least he's making them. But I don't see what so great about him.

He's made these four films (not including his smaller projects before LOTR) that were all adaptations of great source material, in which every scene requires some huge CGI monster or landscape. His movies are basically very expensive Space Jams. Cartoons with some real people mixed in.

So far, he hasn't shown me anything original. I want to see how he a handles a smaller, low-budget story that's never been done before.

Does anyone know what his upcoming projects are?

 

[The Chairman]

3. Martin Scorcese - The most underrated director of all time probably.

I wouldn't call Scorcese underrated. He's consistantly been getting the respect he's deserved since Taxi Driver. If you're referring to him being underrated because he hasn't won an Oscar, well, neither did Hitchcock. I don't Kubrick won one either, though I could be wrong.

Oh, and your avvy is fantastic.

 

[Alpha and Omega]

I wouldn't call Scorcese underrated. He's consistantly been getting the respect he's deserved since Taxi Driver. If you're referring to him being underrated because he hasn't won an Oscar, well, neither did Hitchcock. I don't Kubrick won one either, though I could be wrong.

Oh, and your avvy is fantastic.

I didn't call Scorcese underrated because of the Academy's lack of a clue respecting his ability. I just think he deserves more credit than he receives a lot of the time. He's one of the best storytellers around.

As for Hitchcock, I think he was given an honorary Oscar, but I'm not sure he ever received one for directing. Kubrick won for Spartacus I believe.

Thanks for the avvy compliment.

. But I don't see what so great about him.

As a director, your job isn't to tell the story(that's the job of the screenplay/script); you're supposed to show it to an audience as it unfolds. Jackson is pretty good at imo.

Again, I had him at no.9 just because I think that he has a good repoor w/ his actors and he's good at showcasing things. Can he really originate a story, tell it, and show it? I'm not sure. We haven't really seen that from him yet.

 

[The Shape]

I didn't call Scorcese underrated because of the Academy's lack of a clue respecting his ability. I just think he deserves more credit than he receives a lot of the time. He's one of the best storytellers around.

As for Hitchcock, I think he was given an honorary Oscar, but I'm not sure he ever received one for directing. Kubrick won for Spartacus I believe.

Thanks for the avvy compliment.

--
As a director, your job isn't to tell the story(that's the job of the screenplay/script); you're supposed to show it to an audience as it unfolds. Jackson is pretty good at imo.

Again, I had him at no.9 just because I think that he has a good repoor w/ his actors and he's good at showcasing things. Can he really originate a story, tell it, and show it? I'm not sure. We haven't really seen that from him yet.

You just said the director's job is not to tell the story. But above, you said the reason you like Scorcese so much is because he's one of the best storytellers around.

So yeah. The writers write the stories. The directors bring them to life, so they are ultimately the story tellers. It's their job to tell the story in an interesting way that makes it work.

I don't think Jackson has done anything so special in telling his stories, which were stories that had all been around for years.

 

[BloodyWolverine]

Jackson to me has that Lucas and Spielberg vibe to me. A director that has great imagination and vision. I think Jackson has the potential t make many more great films. I however think monster and fantasy movies are his thing.
I would like to see him do Clash Of The Titans remake. Or A Wolfman or Dracula movie. Jackson says his influences were Hitcock, Harryhausen , Kirasawa. So he will likely stick to what he knows best. Halo is a surprising producing turn for P.J.

 

[The Chairman]

As for Hitchcock, I think he was given an honorary Oscar, but I'm not sure he ever received one for directing. Kubrick won for Spartacus I believe.

Thanks for the avvy compliment.

Correct, Hitchcock did receive an honorary award.

And you're welcome on the avvy. The Shining is my favorite horror movie and has the best camera work of any movie I've ever seen.

 

[ToddIsDead]

In no particular order:
John Carpenter
James Cameron
Ridley Scott
Kevin Smith
Steven Spielberg
Sam Raimi
George Romero
Quentin Tarantino
Martin Scorcese
Alfred Hitchcock

Honorable mentions:
David Cronenburg
Alexandre Aja
Rob Zombie
Michael Man
Guillermo Del Toro
Mel Gibson
Bryan Singer
Kubrick

 

[reggiebar]

MY FAVORITES (these cats made movies I love)

1. Stanley Kubrick
2. David Lynch
3. John Cassavetes (I could list him for "Killing of a Chinese Bookie" alone)
4. Quentin Tarantino
5. Billy Wilder
6. Terrance Malick
7. Wong Kar-wai
8. Martin Scorsese
9. Akira Kurosawa
10. Federico Fellini

 

[Alpha and Omega]

You just said the director's job is not to tell the story. But above, you said the reason you like Scorcese so much is because he's one of the best storytellers around.

So yeah. The writers write the stories. The directors bring them to life, so they are ultimately the story tellers. It's their job to tell the story in an interesting way that makes it work.

I don't think Jackson has done anything so special in telling his stories, which were stories that had all been around for years.

Scorcese's usually heavily involved in the development of Story treatments; those are used to create the scripts/screenplays. That's why I give him a lot of credit for more than just guiding what's there. He's instrumental in creating it.

Sorry for the mix-up.

 

[FOG3]

Lew Lehman
Paul Morrissey
John Carpenter
David Lynch
David Cronenberg
Dario Argento
Elia Kazan
Yuen Woo Ping
Terry Gilliam
Emir Kusturika

 

[Edward Brock]

3. Martin Scorcese - The most underrated director of all time probably.

You obviously haven't watched New York, New York.