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whos your favorite director?

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Who ever directed Shawshank Redemption <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Frank Darabont! Come on man you should know that.

Though he really considers himself more of a writer than a director. He only directs when something REALLY strikes him. It's nice to have that luxury.

--alan

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http://www.alandenton.com
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*****Old School Directors*****

Not in any particular order.


William Friedkin - Who directed the quintessential scarefest, The Exorcist the scariest movie ever made, French Connection (Bullit car chase scene is no comparison to French Connection's)

Brian DePalma - Scarface (Need I say more) , Carrie, Blow-out, Dressed To Kill, Untouchables

John Cassavettes - Faces, Shadows, Gloria, A woman under the influence (The man would mortgage his house to self-finance his films)

Hal Ashby - The Last Detail, Coming Home

Bob Rafelson - The King of Marvin Gardens, Five Easy Pieces

Scorcese - Mean Streets, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Cape Fear

Jean Luc Goddard - Breathless (all improvised)

Hitchcock - North By Northwest, Saboteur, Rope

Elia Kazan - On the Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire, East of Eden

Howard Hawks - Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story, (Original) Scarface with Paul Muni among countless others, ok The Big Sleep with Humphrey Bogart

*****Semi Old School*****

Oliver Stone - Salvador, Platoon, Wall Street, JFK

Stone Wrote Scarface and Midnight Express and won a screenwriting award for 'Express.

Robert Redford - Ordinary People, Quiz Show

Redford won an Academy Award for Best Director on Ordinary People not to mention it won Best Picture in 1980

Spike Lee - Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X

Jim Jarmursch - Stranger Than Paradise, Dead Man

Steven Soderbergh - Sex Lies and Videotape, King of the Hill, Traffic, Out of Sight

*****New School*****

Spike Jonze - Being John Malkovich, Adaptation

Paul Thomas Anderson - Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love, Boogie Nights

Richard Linklater - Slackers, Dazed And Confused, Waking Life

David O'Russell - Spanking the Monkey, Three Kings


Roger Avary - (Co-writer to Pulp Fiction) Directed Killing Zoe, Rules of Attraction


Among others but here are the essentials, I know where's Tarantino, his best was Pulp as director, and those of you familiar with film history know that PUlp was a derivation of many films. Moreover, it was loosely based on a script called Pandemonium Reigns by Roger Avary. Especially the Bruce Willis segment. His last effort, prior to Kill Bill a mere curiosity at best, which by the way is a pseudo remake of Game of Death with a female, was Jackie Brown, an adaptation from an Elmore Leonard, back in 1996. No traces of Pulp genius there either. He takes as long as he does to make movies now because he doesn't have Roger Avary to suck dry creatively. Why do you think he was so busy in the early 90's? Avary and Tarantino were still close. Just watch the two films by Avary, Killing Zoe and Rules of Attraction. A good director will tackle different genres. Tarantino let's face it, is a one trick pony. Scorcese among the best. Howard Hawks did them all, screwball comedies, crime, film noir, westerns. You know I forgot John Ford, shame on me, The Grapes of Wrath 'nuf said.

Past great directors were prolific in their film output. Tarantino's made 3 films in ten years. Even Scorcese who ten years ago belonged in the pantheon of the greatest even then has made more films than Tarantino in the past 10 yrs. John Ford made approximately 145 films in his career. And I'll bet that Tarantino has made more money than Ford and Hawks combined in their lifetime, out of milking Resevoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction fame.

All's I'm saying is that Tarantino hasn't lived up to the hype. Does he have talent without a doubt. Is he as great as he's painted to be? No in my opinion.

Nuf said, going home...

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life, which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours"
---- Henry David Thoreau
 
Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill & Jackie Brown are all recognized by the magoirty of critics and people as "good" films.

Just cause Tarantino hasn't made any films in a long time you think he's dry of ideas? No. Just cause he isn't spitting films outta his ass every year doesn't mean he's outta movie ideas. He takes time writing his scripts. Do you not knwo of the HUGE year gaps Kubrick had inbetween films? Most people think Kubrick has never made a bad film....maybe cause he took time inbetween....never jumped into projects right after being through with one.

Roger Avary.....don't get me started....jus tcause u read what he said on his website doesn't mean you have the whole "SKINNY"
icon_wink.gif
, Avary is NOT a good screenwriter....good director? Yes. Screnwriter? No. Killing Zoe was a pure crap fest of dialogue and screenwriting.

Lemme get into this, may take awile.

Avary says on his website he had an idea for the "True Romance" story........a couple pages....Tarantino took it and turned it into "The Open Road" (retitled True Romance) Now tell me True Romance is NOT a good film? And what was Avary's contribution to Tarantino? Yes, he wrote BASIC outline's to Pulp Fiction (what you've read on his website, the PAwn shop rape) Now tell me Aary's original version is well written? It's not. It's not at all. The dialogue is weak and there's a car chase. Pulp Fiction with a car chase? That whole scene wouldn't be as imfamous if it'd been a car chase.

Now Avary can't write dialogue. Tarantino is dialogue king. He's the master of dialogue. No one can match him. U must understand Avary basically baked the cake.....Tarantino added the good stuff...the frosting and sprinkles. Without the frosting and sprinkles.....what is it? It's not cake? No one wants to eat a cake without frosting or sprinkles!

Aary has good ideas....Tarantino "used" a lot of his material......but he made it BETTER. Avary has some good ideas, he just can't write and structure the story the way Tarantino can.

-TacoWagonProductions
 
you need to remember Tarantino hasn't been in this business for that long. He's still got YEARS and YEARS to make movies. He's only been around since the early ninties......so all his films within the past 11 years is pretty good...

I mean, how many people win an Oscar for best original screenplay, for their SECOND FEATURE FILM?

-TacoWagonProductions
 
Redford won an Academy Award for Best Director on Ordinary People not to mention it won Best Picture in 1980 - outta left field productions

ugh...although ive never seen ordinary people, theres no way in hell it should have won over scorcese's masterpiece, raging bull.

if youre looking for a witty signature, youre looking in the wrong place.
 
First, True Romance is one of my all time faves, however, it was a great director, Tony Scott, who made it a great film. Not Tarantino. Anyone can watch films and assimilate styles but try to be original. He found something that he's good at and is exploting it to the hilt. More power to him. I would to. You said it in your post, Tarantino "used" Roger Avary's material but the backbone was borne out of Roger Avary's head. No cake, no sprinkles to put it on. The only original piece that came out of Tarantino's "genius" mind was his first feature not Reservoir Dogs but My best friend's birthday. An as of yet completed piece, which Tarantino wants to keep buried. I'm not denying he has talent, but there's nothing original other than taking the best of others and putting it together. That's he's good at. Scorcese is brilliant. And yes he should've won an academy award, but don't knock Ordinary People without having seen it. It's a completely type of film than Raging Bull. If you're a student of film, you'll be open to the experience of other genres and subjects. Ordinary People is rich in subtext and subtle in its approach to the subject of suicide. The opening scene in OP has meaning. The panning shot of the fall foliage to to the shot of the school all mean something. Read into the little details of the film, Redford is underrated. Also, if you like Good Will Hunting, you'll realize that a lot of "Hunting" ideas came from OP. "People" is a more powerful film than "Hunting".

You can't compare Raging Bull and Ordinary people, they are completely different films. Great in their own right. I recommend you watch the latter to see it for its own merits. I do agree it's a travesty that Scorcese has not won. He should've won for Taxi Driver, Rocky though a good flick shouldn't have won. There were other that year that were equally deserving. Rocky is a fairytale.
I'm an independent filmmaker, as independent as they come. I bought my own equipment and fund my own projects. I don't have investors. I'm on my second movie. My financial limitations fuel my creativity.

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life, which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours"
---- Henry David Thoreau
 
By the way, Paddy Chayefsky won his first screenwrinting award in his first try as a writer for a feature, for "Marty" with Ernest Borngnine, and repeated this feat twice more with back to back awards for The Hospital in 1971 and Network in 1976. The "skinny" as you try to imply, was not gotten from Avary's website but from reading other publications and watching the facts unfold for the past ten years with Tarantino's subsequent efforts falling short of his much hyped "genius" Pulp Fiction. Short of you knowing QT and Avary, what makes you or anybody for that atter a reliable source than hearing it from the horse's mouth, that being Avary. And if it wasn't all true why hasn't Tarantino sued the crap out of Avary for his allegations.

Master? Genius? are labels used too freely to describe Tarantino just yet. He may in fact become one in the future, but the jury is still out on this. Favorite, to a lot of people he is but not great among the greats.

***QUality not quantity?

Stanley Kubrick made 9 films in the first ten years of his career as a director. TEN! He established himself before taking long periods of time between films and hadn't peaked yet until after the first ten. "Doctor Strangelove, "2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange in 1971, twenty years after he got started. Because of the quality of Kubrick's films, he had longevity and earned the right to take time off.

This is Tarantino's full time job. Don't tell me he spent 6 years to write "Kill Bill"? And what's interesting and this is from Tarantino himself, Kill Bill was Uma Thurman's original idea. Do we see a pattern here? An idea dating back to when they were filming Pulp Fiction.

Why all these named actors want to work with him is a crap shoot to jump on the band wagon in the hopes that he'll capture the gold that he did with Pulp Fiction. David Caradine as Bill? Yeah sure try pulling a Travolta comeback. Also, Samuel Jackson deserved the oscar not Travolta. Travolta blended. Hell Christopher Walken has more presence in his Gold Watch monologue with Butch which lasted approximately 5 minutes than Travola in the entire film.

The best of the best directors don't necessarily hit it out of the park every time out. But they make movies and when they do hit it out "ah yes that's why he/she are so great". Moreover, their output is as large as it is because of the love of filmmaking, they don't sit idle like Tarantino trying to live up to all the hype. Carefully choosing his next project. 6 years? So you say he's selective, then I would hope he'd do better than Kill Bill. If you're a film director, you direct.

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life, which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours"
---- Henry David Thoreau
 
john travolta didn't get an Oscar...and I believe Sam Jackson was nominated for best supposting male role. Awards

Uma coming up with the idea for Kill Bill? Not realy.....she kinda came up with the character.....they both came up with a story abotu an assassin who gets shot on her wedding day. How would u say Tarantino stole from her? HE intended in her being the main role? She has a credit for what she deserves...."Based on the character "The Bride" by Quentin and Uma"


Tarantino is a great writer...he doesn't wanna be in the public eye like most prioducers/filmmakers/actors....I like him for that. He doesn't wanna be remembered for who he dated, what under aged girl he slept with, and all that other crap. He wants to be remembered for his films, not for being him.

Avary was credited enough for Pulp Fiction "stories".......he didn't make the backbone, he created some clever scenes and build on that.

-TacoWagonProductions
 
Who said Tarantino stole from Uma? I never used "stole". You must be subconciously thinking it. Besides you're missing the point, no one is denying he can write, but how about trying something which doesn't come from an outside source. About Travolta, that's a small part of the rest of my reply, which by the way you fail to address and which you raised to begin with, yes I know he was only nominated. If I left the word "nomination" out of my comment it's only because I write fast.

Stay with me Kyle, Whether he wants to be in the limelight or not is irrelevant. No one's defaming his character or talking about his personal life. I couldn't care less about that.

I'm questioning his so called enormous talent, Tarantino's best has come and gone in my opinion. But if he has such an arsenal of ideas, you'd think he'd be cranking out movies with more frequency. I'm not saying once a year but come on since 1992, only 3. Ok 4 if you include his first My Best Friend's birthday. Actually the latter was made in 1987, which actually puts his film output at 4 in the last 16 yrs as a feature film director. Yes, you might mention "Four Rooms" but there were 3 other directors in that one, it was not solely his film. It's another sign of playing it safe after the success of Pulp Fiction. If it failed it could not be attributed to his segment alone.

If given the chance to be Tarantino, and you love films so much, as he professes to do, do you just cash in and take a sabatical for six years just when you're establishing yourself. not likely. I wouldn't. You can't get that burnt out that it takes 6 yrs to recuperate. Sure he's been putting out the Rolling Thunder series of asian movies already made. But because he thinks himself an authority of obscure films and that's how the industry perceives him no one's going to question the quality of films he chooses to represent. Again of films already made. ok if you want to take into consideration that he executived produced From Dusk Till Dawn Part 2 and 3. Add those to his resume. But don't tell me he did those because he believed in the quality of those projects. I'm sure he was well compensated for tagging his name on to those turkeys.

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life, which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours"
---- Henry David Thoreau
 
you make some good points outta left field, but im not sure what youre saying about tarintinos six year absence of film making. he did write during those six years, and not just kill bill either. and i do believe in quality over quantity, just take a look at terrence mallick. hes done three films in thirty years, and those three films are not bad if you ask me.

im not sure if what i said was in anyway relevent to your comments...but if it is then there you go.

if youre looking for a witty signature, youre looking in the wrong place.
 
Racer,
A lot of people do. But People tend to follow the popular opinion.

I admire a lot of directors but I don't want to be like them. I want to make films that are inherent of my personal experience and vision. Just like the great directors did. To put a puzzle together when you have all the pieces already, where's the challenge in that?

Jarmusawa, (Excuse me if I misspelled it)

Point taken, but if quality is what people strive for, then like in Tarantino's case, easy money can corrupt people into compromising their vision. If he's that committed to quality why back films like From Dusk till Dawn 2 and 3. Like I said he doesn't lack talent to write. And I like PF, just don't think he's deserving of so many accolades.

All this aside I think Tarantino is a smart business man and self-promoter.

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life, which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours"
---- Henry David Thoreau
 

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