Jump to content

Top 5: Director Series


Koray Savas

Recommended Posts

Here are the nominees:

The Departed (2006)

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005)

The Aviator (2004)

Gangs of New York (2002)

Bringing Out the Dead (1999)

Mio viaggio in Italia, Il (1999)

Kundun (1997)

Casino (1995)

The Age of Innocence (1993)

Cape Fear (1991)

Goodfellas (1990)

Made in Milan (1990)

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

The Color of Money (1986)

After Hours (1985)

The King of Comedy (1983)

Raging Bull (1980)

The Last Waltz (1978)

American Boy: A Profile of: Steven Prince (1978)

New York, New York (1977)

Taxi Driver (1976)

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)

Italianamerican (1974)

Mean Streets (1973)

Boxcar Bertha (1972)

Street Scenes (1970)

I Call First (1967)

The Big Shave (1967)

It's Not Just You, Murray! (1964)

What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1963)

Vesuvius VI (1959)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1) Raging Bull

2) Taxi Driver

3) GoodFellas

4) Casino

5) The King of Comedy/Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore/Mean Streets/The Color of Money

6) The Last Temptation of Christ/The Age of Innocence/Gangs of New York/The Departed/Cape Fear

I've seen After Hours in 1985 but I don't remember anything of it.

Alex

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Age of Innocence, Taxi Driver, Gangs of New York, The Aviator and Goodfellas are probably my top five, in no particular order.

But I like just about all of his films. Only one I actively disliked was New York, New York. A Journey through American films with Martin Scorsese is one of my favorite film essays, I know that.

Raging Bull is a tough one for me. I love the screenplay, admire the film....but I feel that DeNiro's performance is too impressive for it's own good. I am constantly aware that this is Robert DeNiro making a Herculean effort, never see Jake LaMotta.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What I love about Scorsese is his ability to get the best out of actors. I don't know of any other director who can do it like he can.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I amend my vote.

1 - Taxi driver

2 - New York Stories , not a Scorcese film as such, but his part the best of what is a great collection.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You didn't do a composer series for Bernard Herrmann, and you're already on Directors?! SIN!

Holy crap, calm down. Just because I make one for Directors doesn't mean I'm stopping composers. It's just to make you think about other things than just scores.

I'm far from finishing the Top 5 series. So something productive you 3 and vote! VOTE OR DIE!!

Oh yeah, 3 DAY WARNING everybody, get your votes in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I bought No Direction Home and never finished watching it. Why does Marty always have to make 3 hour films? I got through the first disc and was like, ugh, I need a break, and then never got around to that second disc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah! How can you say that? It's the greatest rockumentary I've ever seen. The footage of the 1966 Manchester concert is priceless. Plus all that rare archival footage of Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez and the others. It helps if you're a Dylan fan, but I think this film works equally well as a historical portrait of the times. Give disk 2 a try, go on!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm surprised Last Temptation of Christ, and Casino made the final 5. I'd have pegged Kundun, Mean Streets and No Direction Home over those.

I found Kundun to be an all too reverential film with great production values.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The thing about Kundun is that I saw it shortly after Seven Years In Tibet, and I found it to be infinitely better! Seven Years In Tibet was a bit too silly, right down to the girl picking David Thewlis over Brad Pitt. I mean, come on! LOL

Having said that the music scores to both films were superb!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 16 years later...

I stumbled across this thread after rewatching Bringing Out the Dead the other day, and was prompted to repeat for Scorsese the filmography ranking that I and others did for Spielberg last week. 

 

  1. Taxi Driver
  2. Raging Bull
  3. Mean Streets
  4. The King of Comedy
  5. Goodfellas
  6. Killers of the Flower Moon
  7. Gangs of New York
  8. The Departed
  9. The Irishman
  10. Cape Fear
  11. The Wolf of Wall Street
  12. The Age of Innocence
  13. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
  14. Shutter Island
  15. After Hours
  16. The Aviator
  17. Bringing Out the Dead
  18. The Last Temptation of Christ
  19. Silence
  20. The Color of Money
  21. Casino
  22. Boxcar Bertha
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. The Age of Innocence

2. Taxi Driver

3. Casino

4. The Color of Money

5. Raging Bull

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was never a big Scorsese fan, so don't feel inspired to rank. But GOODFELLAS wins.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A thing which struck me from making these lists is what an abnormally* large number of these two directors' films I've seen. Besides Woody Allen, I haven't yet been able to think of another director from whom I've seen as many as 15 films.

 

*I mean abnormal, for me, by comparison with other directors. Obviously loads of people have seen as many Scorsese and Spielberg films.

 

EDIT: Ridley Scott is perhaps another, though there are a few of his early films which I haven't seen for so long that I would hesitate to include them.

 

EDIT 2: Okay, there's Hitchcock as well. My prior point is disintegrating before my eyes...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I'm a big fan of a director, I want to see everything he or she has ever done. I've more or less reached that goal with Spielberg (missing a few obscure TV things), Scott (well, obviously not ALL the commercials), Burton, Lynch, Antonioni and others.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I think there are quite a few directors for whom I've seen all or most of their (feature) films, but their filmographies generally don't reach those lengths (beyond twenty titles). Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen are among my favourite film-makers and have been releasing films regularly for more than half a century; I guess that accounts for my having racked up so many films from them over the years. My Spielberg list still kind of surprises me, though, since I'm not really a fan.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

These are the ones I definitely really love and feel like I could write about why I love them, whether I've seen them multiple times or only once. Chronological order because individual rankings are annoying. 

 

Mean Streets

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Taxi Driver 

After Hours

Goodfellas

The Departed

The Wolf of Wall Street

Silence

 

These are the ones I think are great or I'm pretty sure are great but I'm less confident in my opinion because I haven't seen them a lot, or in awhile, or there's just something else holding me back from being one of THE guys in their corner. I would readily admit to taking Raging Bull for granted, that and The Age of Innocence I have especially been wanting to refresh my memory having seen only once, easily over a decade ago. I have a real soft spot for The Aviator. 

 

Raging Bull

The Age of Innocence

Casino

Bringing Out the Dead

The Aviator

The Irishman 

Killers of the Flower Moon

 

These I really like but just not as much. "Marty! Kundun! I liked it!" enthusiasm basically applies to the other three too for me lol. I wanna rewatch Gangs for sure. 

 

The Color of Money

Kundun

Gangs of New York 

Hugo

 

These are the ones I struggled with and even though I admire a lot of things about them, I would definitely be a faker to hop on the unsung masterpiece bandwagon. King of Comedy is the one I'm most interested in revisiting. I would call them remarkable movies, maybe a little backhanded.

 

The King of Comedy

The Last Temptation of Christ 

Cape Fear

Shutter Island

 

These I did see and I think I was like "Okay." I do not recall them too well and they're just not priority rewatches. I remember really wanting NY NY to be right in my wheelhouse and it def bounced off me and sort of just left my brain. I liked that shot down the long table with all the guys clapping.

 

Who's That Knocking at My Door?

Boxcar Bertha

New York, New York 

 

I love the docs I've seen, the Dylans and George Harrison are beautiful, Last Waltz of course. I even liked Shine A Light in IMAX. A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies made a HUGE impact on me. I think that movie is so fucking magical. I still gotta check out Italianamerican and all the other stuff like New York Stories. 

 

In general I think he is of course a brilliant director but I rate him even higher in my mind as film educator. He is just an absolute treasure, I probably run quotes from his interviews through my head more frequently than his movies, the way he talks about the elements of cinema and loving motion, light, color, sound, performance, music, how two shots impact each other, how one frame greater or fewer changes the whole thing, and how beautiful these are for their own sake! I even think in run-on sentences like he does when I think about him. And so much of my love of cinema of all kinds stems from him. He is like my charging station. When I'm feeling a little burned out on movies, I watch Scorsese interviews and I'm rejuvenated. Like I don't think my appetite for cinema is more curious and more varied than during a Scorsese press tour, it happened again last autumn with KotFM. I wish I could give him a great big hug.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My Top 5 Stanley Kubrick films:

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey

2. The Shining

3. Eyes Wide Shut

4. Full Metal Jacket

5. Paths of Glory 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

 

3/ SPARTACUS

 

 

That's weird, Richard, most real Kubrick fans call Spartacus not a Kubrick but a Kirk Douglas movie. It usually ends at the bottom of the list.

 

That means your not a Kubrick fan, Richard, it's the only logical conclusion. ;)

 

 

9 hours ago, JTN said:

 

3. Eyes Wide Shut

 

 

:thumbup:

 

Ah, I see you're a connoisseur! Eyes Wide Shut is so underrated!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, A24 said:

That means your not a Kubrick fan, Richard, it's the only logical conclusion. ;)

 

Screw your "logical conclusion"! :lol:

It's in my 10, because of the scale, the lush cinematography, and North's outstanding score. I know that Kubrick was a replacement director, but he did a good job.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

47 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

7/ LOLITA 

Do you prefer Kubrick’s version or Lyne’s? 
 

 

21 minutes ago, A24 said:

Ah, I see you're a connoisseur! Eyes Wide Shut is so underrated!

I first saw it in 1999 at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre right after Kubrick passed away and immediately thought it was a disturbing masterpiece. It’s one of Cruise’s and Kidman’s best performances, and let’s not forget the lovely naked ladies. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think I've only seen four Kubrick movies, and one of them was 25 years ago, so removing Spartacus, I guess my ranking is

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey

2. The Shining

3. Full Metal Jacket

 

2001 is the only one of those I genuinely love, though, and I think it's probably more for my love of Clarke than Kubrick.

 

As for Scorsese, I liked the Irishman until I saw Godfather Part III. Taxi Driver was alright. I didn't like Goodfellas. I haven't found what I've watched from him overly compelling, and I don't care for DiCaprio (The actor. The person seems boring as sin), which doesn't help.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. THE SHINING

2. 2001

3. Barry Lyndon

4. Full Metal Jacket

5. A Clockwork Orange

6. Eyes Wide Shut

7. Paths of Glory

8. Lolita

9. Dr. Strangelove

10. Spartacus

11. Fear and Desire

12. The Killing

13. Killer's Kiss

 

I haven't seen the documentary shorts yet, alas. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Thor said:

1. THE SHINING

How do you like Stephen King's novel? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, JTN said:

How do you like Stephen King's novel? 

 

It's the most important book in my entire life!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

It's the most important book in my entire life!

Really? That's great to hear! I love that book, too.

This is my copy of the first Hungarian hardcover edition published in 1986. I only read it five or six years ago, long after I had seen the film, but that didn't take away anything from the brilliance of it. That book scared the shit out of me on many different levels. But it's so much more than just a "horror story". It's a deep psychological drama about family, love, alcoholism and many other things.

IMG_0260.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Thor said:

It's the most important book in my entire life!

Care to elaborate?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Would be boring to people, I think, but it has to do with when I read it, the manner in which I read it, King's language and the way it influenced my own writing etc. etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Thor said:

Would be boring to people, I think, but it has to do with when I read it, the manner in which I read it, King's language and the way it influenced my own writing etc. etc.

Yeah, King's Duma Key had a very similar impact on me. It's one of my favorite books.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, Thor said:

Would be boring to people

Not at all, my friend. It’s a great novel. Not even the King himself was able to reach its excellence, let alone surpass it decades later with Doctor Sleep.

 

 

20 minutes ago, Schilkeman said:

Yeah, King's Duma Key had a very similar impact on me. It's one of my favorite books.

To me it was IT and THE LONG WALK. 
 

IT is in my top 5 favorite books of all time. The 1990 2-part TV movie adaptation is very good, I didn’t like the new film, especially part 2. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.