The decades' best directors

Thought about this the other day ..
The best directors from the 1970s, 80s, 90s, and 2000.
My picks
The 1970s: Francis F. Coppola ... Three films, though really two for me ... I am not a fan of Apocalypse Now.
The 1980s ... Initially I thought Scorsese, maybe John Hughes but after some study, to me it's a no-brainer... Steve Spielberg.
Scorsese is also hurt by the decade cut.. Raging Bull was made in 1980, Goodfellas was 1990, a different decade IMO.
The 1990s: This one is tough ... Spike Lee, Eastwood, and Scorsese... I'm taking Quentin Tarantino. Dude did not make a film in the 1990s I would not and did not see. He could do no wrong.
2000: Tarantino makes a strong case for a repeat, but I think he's tailed off .. I'm taking Eastwood His last three, four films have been amazing. The man has a great eye ... and I didn't even like Mystic River.


The recap:
70s: Coppola
80s: Spielberg
90s: Tarantino
00: Eastwood

Who you got and why ...

 

It's Clint.

Just like him... the answer is simple.

Mystic River
Million Dollar Baby
Flags of our Fathers
Letters from Iwo Jima
Changeling
Gran Torino

Each one of these movies made an impact on the patron. And as a collection, they're so diverse in terms of mass appeal and Clint trying to improve and educate the stupid American public.

Mystic was a great mystery that would have just been OK if done by anybody else.
Million Dollar Baby took emotional drama to a new level which left guys balling like girls.
Flags and Letters are historical movies that had never been attempted before.
Changeling and Torino examined the strengths and weaknesses of human emotion unlike anything ever in Hollywood history.

Switching gears...
'90s Tarantino — shock and awe with an artistic twist
'80s Spielberg — what technology can we use and how many stars can I get? I can make a case for John Huges!
'70s Coppola — he's a relative of Nic Cage! OK... one great series and one other great movie.


My case for Hughes:
Mr. Mom
Lampoon's Vacation
Sixteen Candles
Breakfast Club
European Vacation
Weird Science
Pretty in Pink
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Which one of these do you NOT stop and watch when flipping the channel?

 

Coppola made four films in the 1970s.

I'm weird about this, because I don't think decades work on the number, and so this doesn't quite reflect how I see things but my try:

1910s: Chaplin
1920s: Keaton/Murnau
1930s: Lang
1940s: Welles
1950s: Ozu/Ford
1960s: Wilder/Bergman
1970s: Coppola
1980s: Lumet/Spielberg
1990s: Spielberg/P.T. Anderson
2000s: Von Trier/Eastwood

 

Christopher Nolan is in the mix, along with Clint.

The Dark Knight (2008)
The Prestige (2006)
Batman Begins (2005)
Insomnia (2002)
Memento (2000)

And you have to throw Scorsese is in the conversation, for sure, even if he only had three films.

The Departed (2006)
The Aviator (2004)
Gangs of New York (2002)

 

No argument with any of your picks, but . . .

Spielberg's actual prime was from about 1975-1986. The late 1980s weren't as kind to him as the murderer's row he produced in that period: Jaws/Close Encounters of the Third Kind/Raiders of the Lost Ark/E.T. The Extra Terrestrial/Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom/The Color Purple.

Yeah, points off for 1941. Last Crusade was better than Temple of Doom. And a couple of these - E.T. and Raiders in particular - have plot holes you could drive a mack truck through. But throw in a key cameo in The Blues Brothers, and it's an enviable period.

I would put Tarantino's output this decade, as a director if not a screenwriter, up against his 1990s work. There's not as big a gap between the Reservoir Dogs/Pulp Fiction/Jackie Brown trifecta and its Kill Bill (it's ONE movie)/Death Proof/Inglorious Basterds counterpart.

 

I agree it's Clint, but what does this mean? "Trying to avoid the wet spot in the bed while thinking of cuddling afterwards" or "playing a more fundamental game which includes a ton of shots from eight feet in, and absolutely no dunking"?
I believe you were going for "bawling."

Anyway, it's Clint. Tarantino doesn't win any decade.

 

Cameron has had a game-changer in each of the past three decades.

 

Also, Spielberg had Jurassic Park and Schindler's... in the same YEAR, and Saving Private Ryan in 1998

He can make claim on the 1980s and 1990s.

Clint? Maybe this past decade, not the 1990s.

 

It's very hard, as Alma's list shows, to put any one director in any one decade. Wilder and Bergman's best-known (not necessarily best) works were in the '50s, not '60s, but of course, any list of great directors by any rating system you come up with has to have their names in it. And where DO you put Cameron? Guy only MAKES one film a decade, but they tend to do well.
Summing up, this intellectual exercise, while fun, is doomed to be inadequate.

PS: The films of Tarantino have the same effect on me as do lima beans. I didn't even like the CSI episode he did a few years back.

 

No George Lucas for the 1970's? "American Graffiti" and "Star Wars"?

I can't wait to see where Christopher Nolan goes from here. He made "Memento" when he was 30! How depressing.

James Cameron deserves a nod in both the 1980's and '90's.

 

This. Well done, Mike.

 

I'll take Sergio Leone in the 60s, thankyouverymuch. Followed closed by Jean Pierre-Melville.