Without your director you’ve got no one to steer the ship. Obviously a film encompasses a variety of people from the writers, actors, editors and so on but it’s the directors job to orchestrate everything into place to fit his/her vision. The director is the one giving their perspective on the matter and it’s their responsibility to make sure that everything is in sync with one another. Some directors can do multiple jobs while making a movie. They can be both in front of the camera and behind, which does add a bit more trust into your cinematographer and second unit director nonetheless. The director is maybe the most important team player when making any movie and that’s what this will list off. Granted, there’s going to be directors I’m going to, unfortunately, leave off but that shouldn’t take anything away from the love and appreciation I have towards them. Without a further or do, let’s begin!
p.s. my honorable mentions: Quentin Tarantino, Ron Howard, The Coen Brothers, James Cameron, David Fincher, Mel Gibson, Stanley Kubrick, Guillermo del Toro, Robert Zemeckis, Spike Lee, Alfred Hitchcock, Paul Thomas Anderson, Danny Boyle, J.J. Abrams, Darren Aronofsky, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Woody Allen, Alfonso Cuarón, M. Night Shyamalan, Taika Waititi, Wes Anderson, Denis Villeneuve, David O Russell, Rob Reiner, Ben Affleck, Ang Lee, Michael Bay, Zack Snyder, James Mangold, Sam Mendes
#10 Guy Ritchie
Guy Ritchie is rather a fascinating director the more we sit back and process it all. Has made some of the greatest movies of all time? Maybe not but the soul reason Guy Ritchie makes it on this list is that over the past 5 years or so, he’s been maybe the most consistent filmmaker that’s working today. The disappointing aspect with the last number of his films is that the general audience don’t rush out to see his movies, but on the other hand he knows how to deliver popcorn entertainment with his Sherlock Holmes films with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. Again, not flat out masterpieces but fun movies overall. From 2020 to 2023, Guy Ritchie has made four consistently entertaining action films that echo how talented he his. One could describe him as the British Quentin Tarantino. His dialogue is very distinct and his editing is a bit ludicrous but it works in his favor. Guy Ritchie keeps getting more work and despite his movies not being the biggest box-office hits they should be it’s pretty much his world and we’re just living in it.
#9 Scott Cooper
Scott Cooper is not a director that pops up on a lot of lists of the best directors or peoples favorite directors, which is depressingly unfortunate. His first movie Crazy Heart won Jeff Bridges an Oscar for his beautiful leading performance but after that his name wasn’t in the discussion despite him making some small gems. His weakest film is the recent Netflix period piece mystery thriller The Pale Blue Eye, but I still contend there’s strong merit in that movie from the performances and the cinematography. Besides that, Cooper has a natural act at telling simple stories but finding a way to accomplish simple stories with an impressive outcome. He’s one of those filmmakers at really striving towards the elements in his wheelhouse. He knows how to work with big ensembles with films such as Out of the Furnace or Black Mass but he always knows exactly what the primary focus should be and that’s a main reason why he deserves to be in the discussion as one of the best directors in the game.
#8 Antoine Fuqua
Just like Scott Cooper, Antoine Fuqua has been in a very similar position in some way. His first relatively big movie in Training Day gets Denzel Washington an Oscar win and after that he never got any more Oscar attention. At the same time, Antoine Fuqua food his footing in both the genres of action and dramas. Not all of the movies he’s made are classics by any stretch of the imagination. Some probably won’t defend his King Arthur movie from 2004 (unless you’re talking about the director’s cut) but Fuqua has proven to be a solid filmmaker from an emotional level and action standpoint. Clearly, Denzel Washington must love working with him considering they’ve worked on four films together and they have their fifth collaborative effort with The Equalizer 3 hitting theaters this fall. His action movies can either be throwbacks like Olympus Has Fallen feeling in the vein of Die Hard or he can be deliver solid modern westerns like The Magnificent Seven. Suffice to say, Antoine Fuqua is a talented storyteller and he needs to be discussed more.
#7 Tim Burton
Tim Burton has made some very questionable and polarizing choices as a director. Planet of the Apes, Alice in Wonderland or Dark Shadows are not necessarily his strongest selections. Be that as it may, Tim Burton is a name that sticks with many people and for good reason. There’s something that’s almost so surreal about Tim Burton’s style because a movie could be set in modern time but Burton always adds some fantastical element that makes it feel more supernatural. Burton’s biggest gift as a storyteller is combining the genres of fantasy and horror into one. His darkest film to date is maybe Sleepy Hollow because of how gruesome and violent it is but also how the production design captures a gothic and haunting sensibility. But just like Scott Cooper and Antoine Fuqua, Tim Burton can also channeling in Oscar caliber performances. His biggest collaborators is Johnny Depp and their work on Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was really impressive that did give Depp an Oscar nomination. Tim Burton isn’t just this weird cooky guy who can make haunted house movies and quirky supernatural movies. He can do all of that but also give us something deep.
#6 Clint Eastwood
Maybe the best actor/director of all time, Clint Eastwood absolutely deserves to be in the discussion one of the time greats of anything. Every director has had a bad day at the office and we’re not necessarily suggesting that his newer films rank among his best work. But this is a man that has put two Best Picture winners with Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby. He’s a multiple nominated actor and director and top it all off he’s still directing movies at the age of 93. He’s also an extremely underrated film composer. In other words, Clint Eastwood can pretty much do it all with great effect. He can still do resonating and powerful dramas with American Sniper. He can tell rich and compelling war stories with Flags of Our Fathers and he’s arguably responsible for maybe the greatest western of all time in Unforgiven. Clint Eastwood is also a legendary figure in the western genre with films such as High Plains Drifter, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Joe Kidd and many more. Whether some his latter films might not stand the test of time, Clint Eastwood deserves a spot on this list.
#5 Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson is responsible for so many things in Hollywood it’s almost unprecedented. He’s mainly responsible for bringing new life and a completely new face for the fantasy genre with perhaps the greatest film trilogy of all time in The Lord of the Rings and is always a proponent for new waves of technology in the filmmaking industry. Even if The Hobbit movies were near the level of quality with The Lord of the Rings movies, there was still thought and care put into them even if the original plan wasn’t meant to make three movies. Jackson his also been an innovator for brining in new talent, in particularly with Neil Blomkamp. Jackson originally was set to produce a movie based on the popular game franchise Halo, but due to certain circumstances we ended up getting District 9 instead which Jackson shepherding Blomkamp in the director’s chair. We all can praise Blomkamp for an amazing job on that film but a lot of that has to be credited to Peter Jackson his creative and studio inputs. Jackson is also responsible for maybe one of the best remakes of all time with his King Kong by giving it a bigger scope and heavier dose of emotion. He may not be working much but he truly is one of the greatest.
#4 Christopher Nolan
It would be silly for any studio to not want to get involved in the Christopher Nolan business. This is one of those very few directors that puts out any movie and people will desperately go see it. It ultimately becomes an event and many directors just don’t have that level of excitement anymore. After the release of The Dark Knight, it was abundantly clear that Nolan is an exceptional director, despite having great films before it. But for the last 15 years, Christoper Nolan has continued to evolve as a filmmaker. It took the Academy all the way up until Dunkirk for him to finally receive his first Best Director nomination. There’s even some early Oscar buzz with his upcoming movie Oppenheimer, which is the first shift in what we normally expect from Nolan but it still carries his style and scope like a cape. He’s the one director that I’d invest $250 million because there’s a greater chance of his movies being successful than almost any other working director alive and that is a huge testament to how beloved he is as a director.
#3 Ridley Scott
Say what you will about some of Ridley Scott’s recent movies, but this is a legendary and remarkable directors that’s given us some of the best movies of all time. Like Clint Eastwood, Scott is pushing 85 and yet can still make movies and in some cases more than one in the same year. Ridley Scott has a variety of different films that fit in completely different genres from one another. Gladiator is much different from The Martian, Alien or the science-fiction cult classic Blade Runner. He’s even made some movies that I contend are underrated like Robin Hood, Body of Lies and even Exodus: Gods and Kings. They’re not some of his best work but they’re much better than people give them credit for. There’s also been some terrific buzz circling around his upcoming film Napoleon so we could potentially see another Oscar campaign around another Ridley Scott movie. Ridley Scott’s name will always and should always belong in this conversation because of the legendary filmography that he has given us.
#2 Martin Scorcese
There’s really nothing wrong about the work of Martin Scorsese. His work speaks for himself and what a career that this man has had. The moment he puts out a movie he almost instantly enters the awards conversation. From Raging Bull, Goodfellas and to his Best Picture win in The Departed, Scorsese is the king of telling stories that feel personal, deep, layered and socially relevant. It’s unfortunate no one went to see his historical drama Silence because it’s arguably one of his all time best and it’s a project he fought to get made for decades. Nevertheless, the work that Martin Scorsese has put out is unprecedented but the one counter argument against him is that he typically plays within the same genre every now and then. Not to say that there’s anything wrong with that because he wants to tell stories that he wants to tell and why would anyone stop him from doing so?
#1 Steven Spielberg
There is not anything that Steven Spielberg hasn’t done before. Not all of it has worked. He tried doing a romantic comedy with The Terminal and it’s certainly not a train wreck but it’s not one of his best in my assessment. Heck even the first sequel to Jurassic Park isn’t the greatest movie in the world. However, Spielberg has done every genre that you could possibly imagine. He struck gold with the remake of the musical West Side Story. He’s made perhaps the greatest war movie of all time in Saving Private Ryan. Jaws is considered to the sole reason why we have summer blockbusters and Spielberg has been primarily known as the man known for summer blockbusters. Indiana Jones is maybe the most iconic film character that’s ever been written on screen before. He makes prestigious pictures, popcorn entertainment and movies that will stand the test of time forever.
Zane's take at the Cinema's 