Top 50 Directors of All Time (Total Film magazine

CallaghanFilms said:
He is a decent director, but he is one of the best poo pooing writers of the the last twenty-five, thirty years.
Dialogue, baby...it's all in his crackling dialogue.
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Yes. His dialogue is top-notch. That is apparent from the get go.

He updated and transformed City on Fire in such a way that North American audiences could really enjoy it on a character level. You couldn't swear like that (and still can't) or talk about sexuality in Hong Kong cinema the way he did in Reservoir Dogs.

This all takes me back almost 15 years to when I first walked in to Suspect Video, and was shown the light by the owner and a guy who published a Tarantino fanzine.

Before that, I had no clue about the Hong Kong scene, Chow Yun Fat or John Woo.
 
CallaghanFilms said:
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Jesus Christi

I missed this one :undecided WTF



DeSica said:
Before that, I had no clue about the Hong Kong scene, Chow Yun Fat or John Woo.
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John Woo. The director most influenced by The A-Team ?
 
I am a fan of Tarantino, but I don't think his body of work justifies him coming in the top ten. I have always been under the "school of thought" that the execution is the most important thing, rather than looking for complete originality.

There were signs of his writing chops coming back in Death Proof that I think were missing in the Kill Bill series and were so dominant in his prior films.

While I don't think he should be in the top ten, it is hard to argue against what he has accomplished and done for the film industry. A while back I did a poll on these forums and a large percentage of people said that he influenced them as well as the industry.


J.R. Hudson, nice job posting the dialogue. I love checking it out on youtube at least once every one or two weeks.
 
jpeck said:
I am a fan of Tarantino, but I don't think his body of work justifies him coming in the top ten. I have always been under the "school of thought" that the execution is the most important thing, rather than looking for complete originality.

There were signs of his writing chops coming back in Death Proof that I think were missing in the Kill Bill series and were so dominant in his prior films.

While I don't think he should be in the top ten, it is hard to argue against what he has accomplished and done for the film industry. A while back I did a poll on these forums and a large percentage of people said that he influenced them as well as the industry.


J.R. Hudson, nice job posting the dialogue. I love checking it out on youtube at least once every one or two weeks.
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Thanks

I was just going to say 'Well put' on your part.
 
Uh, um... wow. It's always interesting when someone puts together a list like this, especially a magazine or such. Obviously this is somebody's own opinion. I can respect that. It's just WAY not mine.

I mean, David Fincher and Peter Jackson at numbers 10 and 9? OF ALL ****ING TIME?!

I see a lot of directors on this list, HIGH on this list, that have one, maybe two large/brilliant projects on their resume. But that hardly qualifies them to be considered on such a list as this.

My thoughts on Tarantino, since he seems to be a hot topic:

Reservoir Dogs ushered in a new era of high-octane indie flicks. Pulp Fiction is one of my favorite films. Jackie Brown and Kill Bill were entertaining. His minor works are pretty good. Does this make him the 12th best director of all time? In my opinion: no. Yes, he has influenced a generation of filmmakers, but I don't think it's his "directing" that's the influence. In a nutshell, his films are COOL. And so, people make Tarantino-esque films because they want their films to be COOL, too. I say this: just because a guy dresses in the coolest looking threads doesn't make him a fashion god.

Anyway...

DW Griffith at number 91? WTF?

Wait... ****ing FELLINI at 67? Behind Meathead?

AAAHHH! THE EYES! IT BURNS! AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!
 
Kill bill was an Opus.

I think that film was alot more about distilling culture and taste into a work of cinema than really creating a "kung fu" film. There were subtle choices, and selected sequences that in my mind, really pushed QT into Genius territory. Infact, the sequeces with Bud, at the strip club, and burying Beatrix are rather increadible. He is disappointment to his brother, the well trained eloquent, Bill. Its almost as if the "american" is somehow lost in the debauchery of contemporary life, and winds up quite literally alone and dying in the wasteland of nevada. To me, Bill signifies long standing cultur, traditions, and discipline. The staples of the asian cultures, and films that QT is obessed with. The american charachters, lack finnese and sophisication. IE: vernita green, Buck, Bud and Ellie. While the "asian" ( at least asian in philosophy) charchters, Bill, Hanzo ( who is even more interesting inthis respect because hepretends to be low rent while talking to an american in the sushi bar), Orenishi, Gogo, and Sophie on the other hand, are intellectuals, or at least fight with a form technichcal expertise missing int he , shot gun toting, .38 shooting, trecherous poisionings of the American set.

These films are a raging criticism of the current american culture, and the reason i think they are so brillaint is that he made a work of art thats incredibly fun to watch.
 
J.R. Hudson said:
I am also not familiar with the work of the above mentioned (barely). confess, Tarantino is brilliant in my eyes. I wish it was as easy as 'taking from' other directors (As De Palma is accused of regarding Hitch). Shot's are one thing, telling a full story and compsoing sequences are another.


My Top ?

1. Spielberg
2. Scorsese (Close to taking over Steve in my eyes with his barrage of Gangs, Aviator and Departed)
3. De Palma
4. Tarantino
5. Copolla

My problem with Steve is his body consists of too many family/children/fantasy films. When I was 14, it was great. As a man, I crave more maturity. Films like Munich and Schindler's are much more to my liking than Raiders and E.T. for example.

Although JAWS is singlulary my favortie film ever. (Not really a family film, is it?.
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I agree. I regard very highly Steven Spielberg. He almost single handedly defined the "Summer Blockbuster" genre. And I do like his take on "family" films. His (80 ies) films are somehow Magical, have a warmth and tenderness on them that very few filmmakers achieved. The closest directors to achieve this feel, for me, are Robert Zemeckis (is it written that way?), Roberto Begnini, and, yes (here comes the bashing), M. Night. This "magic" is very, very hard to achieve...

Now I just can't figure out with the new PC versions of E.T with the "cellphones"...

EDIT- As for Tarantino, he's very, very good. And there's nothing wrong with dissecting pop culture.
I just don't agree with the top 10 status.

Now if there was a list of Top 10 Directors of the 90's, he would be on my top 5, no doubt.

And John Woo is overrated. Lived over here (Macau, neighbour to HK) almost all my life, and never liked his films much.
 
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J.R. Hudson said:
John Woo. The director most influenced by The A-Team ?
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If it's the same John Woo who ended up making The Killer, Hard Boiled, A Better Tomorrow, and ended up heavily influencing Tarantino, then that's the guy I'm talking about.

People can read as much depth and symbolism as they like into anybody's films. When someone suggested to P.T. Anderson that Boogie Nights was a well crafted and deft exploration of the family unit and relationships therein (or something like that), his reply was "I thought I was just making a film about people who make porn" (or words to that effect).

Sometimes the water stain on the wall that resembles your favourite deity is just a water stain...nothing more.


'Poison clan rocks the world!'
 
TimurCivan said:
Kill bill was an Opus.

I think that film was alot more about distilling culture and taste into a work of cinema than really creating a "kung fu" film. There were subtle choices, and selected sequences that in my mind, really pushed QT into Genius territory. Infact, the sequeces with Bud, at the strip club, and burying Beatrix are rather increadible. He is disappointment to his brother, the well trained eloquent, Bill. Its almost as if the "american" is somehow lost in the debauchery of contemporary life, and winds up quite literally alone and dying in the wasteland of nevada. To me, Bill signifies long standing cultur, traditions, and discipline. The staples of the asian cultures, and films that QT is obessed with. The american charachters, lack finnese and sophisication. IE: vernita green, Buck, Bud and Ellie. While the "asian" ( at least asian in philosophy) charchters, Bill, Hanzo ( who is even more interesting inthis respect because hepretends to be low rent while talking to an american in the sushi bar), Orenishi, Gogo, and Sophie on the other hand, are intellectuals, or at least fight with a form technichcal expertise missing int he , shot gun toting, .38 shooting, trecherous poisionings of the American set.

These films are a raging criticism of the current american culture, and the reason i think they are so brillaint is that he made a work of art thats incredibly fun to watch.
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So much thought, put into something that took such little. :cry:

You guys DO all realize he didn't even graduate from High School, right?
 
Tarantino essentially created the neo-pop film format-- a useless, turgid, destructive force that generally ruins the educated/artistic values of modern film.
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Tarantino is one of the only directors maintaining a high level of artistic value in modern film.
 
DeSica said:
If it's the same John Woo who ended up making The Killer, Hard Boiled, A Better Tomorrow, and ended up heavily influencing Tarantino, then that's the guy I'm talking about.

People can read as much depth and symbolism as they like into anybody's films. When someone suggested to P.T. Anderson that Boogie Nights was a well crafted and deft exploration of the family unit and relationships therein (or something like that), his reply was "I thought I was just making a film about people who make porn" (or words to that effect).

Sometimes the water stain on the wall that resembles your favourite deity is just a water stain...nothing more.


'Poison clan rocks the world!'
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The cool thing about cinema is our percieved take from it. To some it may be more than that.

StefanHaynes said:
So much thought, put into something that took such little. :cry:
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Stefan, you're coming close to Trolling.

You guys DO all realize he didn't even graduate from High School, right?
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http://www.education-reform.net/dropouts.htm


Weston said:
Tarantino is one of the only directors maintaining a high level of artistic value in modern film.
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Agreed. This is a small list.
 
J.R. Hudson said:
http://www.education-reform.net/dropouts.htm
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I have this list.

It shows empirical evidence that every race who is not white is EVIL. All the facts are true. It numbers into the hundreds, with specific, cited examples of bad people from every other race. Sure, white people have done bad things too, but there's no way it's NEARLY as many as other races.

With that list, I can prove that only people who are white are good.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biased_sample
 
Stefan -
Then how do you claim that dropping out of highschool is a reason to disregard an artist?
Certainly any claim based on statistics wouldn't be valid - as they can be used to prove anything, as you just showed us.

So i still fail to see where a directors formal education really comes in as any sort of factor by which to judge them?
How is it relevant at all?
 
StefanHaynes said:
I have this list.

It shows empirical evidence that every race who is not white is EVIL. All the facts are true. It numbers into the hundreds, with specific, cited examples of bad people from every other race. Sure, white people have done bad things too, but there's no way it's NEARLY as many as other races.

With that list, I can prove that only people who are white are good.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biased_sample
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Uh .................. ?

I didn't realize we were discussing race ?

Luis Caffesse said:
Stefan -
Then how do you claim that dropping out of highschool is a reason to disregard an artist?
Certainly any claim based on statistics wouldn't be valid - as they can be used to prove anything, as you just showed us.

So I still fail to see where a directors formal education really comes in as any sort of factor by which to judge them?
How is it relevant at all?
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It doesn't.

Stefan is just looking for a response I presume. And of course, has been asked to play nice. :cheesy::2vrolijk_08:
 
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