Directors Best Works

[Guest Rygar Frost]

Starting next week at my camp, I am going to be having a Director Studies class. In this class, we are going to watch 7 movies from 7 different directors and analyze the way they directed the movie. Then, it hit me. I need to choose each of these directors best work. So, I thought about it and made my decisions but I wasn't sure if all of them were the best ones. So I thought it be a good thing to post on the board.

Steven Spielberg - Close Encounters of the Third Kind (I know that Schindler's List is probably his best but I dont want to deal with the backlash of explaining the holocaust to teenagers before they learn about it fully in school.)

Alfred Hitchcock - North by Northwest

Martin Scorsese - Goodfellas

Olvier Stone - Platoon

Woody Allen - Annie Hall

Quentin Tarantino - Pulp Fiction

Francis Ford Coppola - The Godfather

Do you think that these are these directors best works. Feel free to add different directors and the works you think are their best if you feel the urge to do so.

[Guest Ringmaster]

I would probably put Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET or Jaws instead of Encounters for Spielberg, although that's because you dont wanna do Schindler's list.

Hitchcock, I would do Vertigo, its the better of his films IMO.

A lot of people would argue that Taxi Driver is Scorcese's best work, but I'm not a fan of it. So I'd say Goodfellas.

The rest seems spot on, although The Godfather Part II is probably better than the first, although you would need to see the latter before watching it.

By the way, if the kids are ready to watch stuff like Pulp Fiction or Goodfellas, I'm pretty sure they'd be ready for something like Schindler's list.

[GoGo Yubari]

Akira Kurosawa - Seven Samurai. Rashoman comes REALLY close, though.

[Guest Rygar Frost]

By the way, if the kids are ready to watch stuff like Pulp Fiction or Goodfellas, I'm pretty sure they'd be ready for something like Schindler's list.

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[zero]

You don't want to deal with the backlash of kids learning about the holocaust, but you have no reservations about Platoon? Both of those are ugly, but true events that happened in our history; they can be researched in any library in the country. Ringmaster pretty much said my point; I would think parents would be more up in arms about showing kids Pulp Fiction.

[Mysterio2000X]

I'd personally choose Apocalypse Now over Godfather as FFC's best work, but maybe that's just me.

[Pepsi]

Stanley Kubrick - 2001: A Space Odyssey or Paths to Glory

Orson Welles - Citizen Kane or Touch of Evil (Touch of Evil is my personal choice as I think it is so far ahead of it's time it's scary.)

I prefer Casino over Goodfellas, to this day I think it's the pinnacle of cinematography in American cinema. As for Steven Spielberg, if your not gonna show Schindler's List then show Saving Private Ryan as it's his other best work.

Edited June 16, 2005 by Pepsi

[Mick]

Sergio Leone - A Fistfull of Dollars

Luc Besson - Leon

Quentin Tarantino - Reservoir Dogs

Steven Speilberg - Saving Private Ryan

Stanley Kubrick - A Clockwork Orange

I find almost all of Kubrick's work simply amazing. Just the style he uses...the 'glare'. Probably my favorite scene that he did was in Clockwork, when the droogs enter the alley at the begining. Something about that scene that just...mystified me.

[Pepsi]

Quentin Tarantino - Reservoir Dogs

[Enter Blue Guy]

I'm a huge fan of Kubrick's work, especially A Clockwork Orange, however the film that sticks out from him to me is Full Metal Jacket... So many scenes that send chills down my spine, two scenes inparticular. The first being when Pyle shoots Sgt. Hartman in the washroom then shoots himself. The 2nd and my personal favorite, the second last scene were they're all standing around the dying female Vietnanese sniper as she prays and begs for Joker to shoot her and he finally does... That's intense.

And for Martin Scorsese, I loooove Goodfellas, but personally I think Raging Bull is his best piece of work.

Edited June 17, 2005 by Enter Blue Guy

[Guest *Doink*]

Purely to showcase Speilberg as a director I would probably choose Saving Private Ryan over Close Encounters

The rest are pretty much what I'd choose too.

[Guest Ringmaster]

Sergio Leone - A Fistfull of Dollars

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[Pepsi]

Although I do love Full Metal Jacket I think it's probably Kubricks weakest work. The movie kind of loses it's momentum in the second act in Vietnam.

[GRIFT]

IMO Scorese's most celebrated film was probably Raging Bull. It is widely recognized as the best film of its decade.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Grrr you should do Kurosawa, Kubrick and Welles...

The three most important directors without a doubt...

And any excuse to watch Seven Samurai, 2001: Space Odyssey / The Shining and Citizen Kane is always good!

[Guest Pirate Chasin' Booty]

Certain people here seem to be sucking japanese cock all day and all night.

[Emperor Fuckshit]

Steven Speilberg - Schindler's List, but Saving Private Ryan if you won't go with the former.

Alfred Hitchcock - Difficult to choose. I'd probably second North by Northwest though.

Martin Scorsese - Taxi Driver. More interesting as a character study than Goodfellas, both rather similar films though.

Oliver Stone - Wouldn't bother. Platoon is alright, nothing special. His body of work other than that is solid but generally indifferent.

Woody Allen - Annie Hall or Manhattan. Flip for it.

Quentin Tarantino - Maybe Pulp Fiction but probably wouldn't bother with anything. Except PF he hasn't really done much.

FF Coppolla - The Godfather or the Conversation. The former probably pips it, but they're both top five all time films for me.

Akira Kurosawa - One from Ran, Rashomon or Samurai. Flip a three sided coin.

Orson Welles - The Third Man shades Citizen Kane for me.

Sergio Leone- Il Buono! Il Brutto! Il Cattivo! Never seen the un-hacked to bits version of OUaTiA, so I can't say for sure though. Show the Bicycle Thief and Ben-Hur as well as an assistant director master class. They're as good as any of the films he directed.

Luc Besson - Nope...

Stanley Kubrick - Hit and miss body of work. FMJ, Clockwork Orange and The Shining are all bollocks. Show 2001 or Dr Strangelove, preferably the latter, which is the only time Kubrick got his anti-war message really correct, even if he did take the ending from Spike Milligan.

What no...?

Billy Wilder - Chrissakes! Show Double Idemnity or Sunset Blvd., probably the latter.

Roman Polanski - Chinatown.

Mel Brooks - The Producers or Blazing Saddles.

Charlie Chaplin - Modern Times, City Lights, The Great Dictator.

Ingmar Bergman - Wild Strawberries or Fanny and Alexander. Seven Seals might (does) just look a little odd these days. Still good though.

I guess you could do Solaris (Tarkovsky rather than Soderbergh, obviously), but they'd mob you. Probably deservedly.

Edited June 19, 2005 by Emperor Fuckshit

[probablyoliver]

Reservoir Dogs > Pulp Fiction.

If any of the kids haven't seen any Tarantino films, then Dogs is the way to go, it's a lot easier to digest than Pulp Fiction, easier to watch first time round and really shows what Tarantino could do with so little.

[botchedpiledriver]

Reservoir Dogs > Pulp Fiction.

If any of the kids haven't seen any Tarantino films, then Dogs is the way to go, it's a lot easier to digest than Pulp Fiction, easier to watch first time round and really shows what Tarantino could do with so little.

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[Mick]

I like Tarartino, but the thing that really erked me about him, was mainly between True Romance, Reservoir Dogs, and Pulp Fiction, and to a later extent From Dusk Till Dawn, is a lot of his dialogue seemed repeatable. Like you could take any male lead from any four of those films (I realize he didn't direct two of them), and swap them with another, and it's the same kind of character. He really got better with it when he did Kill Bill.

Also, add to directors:

John Carpenter - Big Trouble in Little China

Steps away from his darker stuff, and shows that he can do a quasi-mystical movie where the universe literally hangs in the balance. Very cool stuff. A lot of his other, is simply too dark for my tastes, excluding Escape From New York and Vampires....

Guy Richie - Snatch

Compare this with Lock Stock...Snatch I feel has better characters and better development. I'm really looking forward to "Revolver".