My highly subjective list of the twenty most overrated filmmakers of all time (in the order that they come into my mind)*:
01. Steven Spielberg
02. Alfred Hitchcock
03. Orson Welles
04. John Ford
05. Robert Altman
06. Walt Disney
07. Sam Peckinpah
08. Erich Von Stroheim
09. Francis Ford Coppola
10. Bernardo Bertolucci
11. David Lean
12. George Lucas
13. Cecil B. DeMille
14. Elia Kazan
15. Oliver Stone
16. Robert Aldrich
17. James Ivory
18. Stanley Kubrick
19. Ingmar Bergman
20. Spike Lee
*This list does not include directors so awful that they don't require mentioning (Sydney Pollack, Ron Howard, James Cameron, Brian DePalma, Cameron Crowe, Rob Reiner etc.) but only those that are extolled beyond what I think they deserve. Some have made films I enjoy (like Bergman's Wild Strawberries, Lee's Do The Right Thing, and Welles' Touch of Evil) -- I just don't think they belong on the "Greatest Directors of All Time" lists. Too many greater filmmakers are ignored. Keep in mind, tomorrow I could come up with an entirely new list (certain key figures will always remain).
01. Steven Spielberg
02. Alfred Hitchcock
03. Orson Welles
04. John Ford
05. Robert Altman
06. Walt Disney
07. Sam Peckinpah
08. Erich Von Stroheim
09. Francis Ford Coppola
10. Bernardo Bertolucci
11. David Lean
12. George Lucas
13. Cecil B. DeMille
14. Elia Kazan
15. Oliver Stone
16. Robert Aldrich
17. James Ivory
18. Stanley Kubrick
19. Ingmar Bergman
20. Spike Lee
*This list does not include directors so awful that they don't require mentioning (Sydney Pollack, Ron Howard, James Cameron, Brian DePalma, Cameron Crowe, Rob Reiner etc.) but only those that are extolled beyond what I think they deserve. Some have made films I enjoy (like Bergman's Wild Strawberries, Lee's Do The Right Thing, and Welles' Touch of Evil) -- I just don't think they belong on the "Greatest Directors of All Time" lists. Too many greater filmmakers are ignored. Keep in mind, tomorrow I could come up with an entirely new list (certain key figures will always remain).
9 comments:
sorry, but bergman is a fucking genius.
he is, no doubt, on the top ten list for greatest of all time.
How about giving us your "best" directors list next time.
I guess my question is what makes a "great director"?
Camera movement? Framing? Actor Performance? Flow?
And, really, how much of any finished film is directly the responsibility of the director anyway? In no other artform that I can think of, is the finished work of art so completely NOT the sole property of the filmmaker.
Final notes: Oliver Stone does not belong on the list, IMO, since he's on the level of a Ron Howard or James Cameron. Surely, you've must have made one great film to be on the most overrated "great directors" list.
Oh, yeah, I got five more words for you: Douglas Sirk and Martin Scorcese.
I guess one of my points here is that we can all make our own lists (not that most people would think to). There is no check list of criteria for greatness. A director can have moments of greatness, even brilliance, and still ultimately be overrated. Heck, this is just my little list.
And you are right about Oliver Stone. What was I thinking? I thought of Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen. Douglas Sirk ... I hadn't thought of him. Put him on the list! Though I do enjoy the camp factor (Written on the Wind).
Certain of Bergman's films were great. No doubt. But there is just too damn much symbolism. Not enough humanity. The worst of his films are utterly sterile.
Your knock on Bergman is crap.
Watch "Virgin Spring" or "Through a Glass Darkly" and tell me that's not humanity.
Too much symbolism?
Please!
Bergman won Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film two years in a row (1960, 1961) for "The Virgin Spring" and "Through a Glass Darkly". Now I could be cynical and say something about the Academy presenting awards based on popularity rather than merit. Most of the greatest films ever made have never been nominated. But perhaps here they were well earned. I haven't seen "Through a Glass Darkly" and maybe my comments on Bergman were curt. His films are stark and allegorical. In "Wild Strawberries" and "Persona" it works for me. Perhaps I'll give the "Gloomy Swede" another try. Okay?
Why so many haters hating on James Cameron? Titanic notwithstanding, any man who concurrently wrote Terminator 2, The Abyss, and Aliens is solid gold in my book. My book of Awesomeness, that is.
I saw 2001 recently and have no idea what all the fuss is about. Boring. I really do love Hitchcock though. Especially Rear Window.
Well written article.
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