Top 30 Directors 1. David Lynch -- David wins every time for me. I think a lot of it has to do with when I was first really paying attention to film and what spoke to me. The phenomenon of Twin Peaks and the movies that he made leading up to it awakened my cinematic senses. Since then, each of his films have opened new worlds full of mystery and wonder. First film to see: Blue Velvet. 2. Stanley Kubrick -- Like Lynch, Kubrick’s films enabled me to see the world in a different light. Plus, his movies are just plain awesome to look at. First film to see: 2001: A Space Odyssey. 3. Sam Peckinpah -- My love for Bloody Sam is documented in another article here, but let’s just say that he was one manly son of a bitch. First film to see: The Wild Bunch. 4. P.T. Anderson -- It makes me hurt sometimes to think about how much this man cares. Is it possible to care too much? First film to see: There Will Be Blood. 5. Walt Disney -- More a filmmaker than a director, but Walt made some of most magical films of the last century. In addition, he built a lasting empire of some America’s most beloved characters. First film to see: Fantasia. 6. George Lucas -- There was a time I would have put George Lucas in the same league as Walt Disney. I thought he might have been America’s greatest imagineer and storyteller. Plus, he seemed keen on pushing the boundaries of what technology could do to tell those stories. I still think he’s pretty great and enjoy all of his films on some level. First film to see: Star Wars (the original 1977 version). 7. Quentin Tarantino -- Every once in a while, a director will come along and turn heads and change the face of movie making. Not that Tarantino did anything really new or different, he just took all the elements of violent, dialogue-driven filmmaking and combined them to remind us that movies can be ridiculous and great. He is a total geek and that’s all right with me. His movies are still pretty fun. First film to see: Reservoir Dogs. 8. Woody Allen -- I’m still wading through his movies through Netflix. The man is prolific, if anything. However, the greatest of his films that I’ve seen, I can count as some of my very favorite films. The sheer volume of his work can be overwhelming, but it’s a rich reward when you see his best movies. First film to see: Manhattan. 9. Wes Anderson -- He’s an easy target for the hipsters, but I still fall for his whimsical style. His movies look like a nice version of the 1960s sometimes. First film to see: Rushmore. 10. Errol Morris -- I suppose that making documentaries may not be considered real filmmaking to some, but those people have likely never seen one of Morris’s films. They all take a serious look at their subjects and give the viewer all angles of the situation. They are all also interesting to the eyes. First film to see: The Thin Blue Line. The Rest:
11. Lars Von Trier 12. Michael Mann 13. Cameron Crowe 14. Samuel Fuller 15. Steven Spielberg 16. Alfred Hitchcock 17. Orson Welles 18. Martin Scorsese 19. Joel and Ethan Coen 20. Ingmar Bergman 21. Francis Ford Coppola 22. Federico Fellini 23. Robert Altman 24. Max and Dave Fleischer 25. Alan Parker 26. Billy Wilder 27. John Patrick Shanley 28. Jim Jarmusch 29. Werner Herzog 30. D.A. Pennebaker |
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