The downfall of great directors

Which of the many downfalls of once very acclaimed directors is the most shocking one, in your opinion?

I was always shocked by what happened to Francis Ford Coppola. He pretty much became the most acclaimed director in the world in the '70s as he made some of the most acclaimed films ever made like The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II, The Conversation and Apocalypse Now, but somehow he was unable to retain that quality in his later work (he's still active, so he could theoretically still make a come-back, but I don't really see that happening anymore).



I know he also made a few good films after the '70s. I personally really like The Cotton Club for instance, his Dracula also has a solid fanbase and The Godfather: Part III also still received a lot of respect (although not as much as the first two installments)....
You can't deny, however, that he never was able to make a film that came even remotely close to the quality of his '70s masterpieces.

How did this happen? Which other great directors had a similar fate? What is the most shocking "downfall" of a film director in the history of cinema?

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Cobpyth's Movie Log ~ 2019

John Carpenter

Back when I was a teenager the absolute coolest director was John Carpenter. His style of storytelling joined with theme music of his own creation made him the most exciting talent. He was the Tarantino & Snyder of the 1980s.

The Thing, Halloween, Escape From New York which the cinematographer was James Cameron, Assault on Precinct 13, Starman, The Fog, Prince Of Darkness, and a movie very much ahead of its time to be truly appreciated - Big Trouble In Little China.

Then all of a sudden his stuff just sucked. I dont know why. Maybe many people he used to employ went on to further their own careers and the void couldnt be filled, I dont know.

Nice to see some love for John Carpenter...loved his work and never really understood why he just disappeared the way he did. I never get tired of watching Escape from New York.

M. Night Shyamalan... Made The Sixth Sense, a fantastic supernatural horror, Unbreakable, a fantastic superhero/villain origin story, Signs, a fantastic alien invasion thriller....

Despite the odd hater of any of those three mentioned above, or the odd lover of his work after those three (like myself who enjoyed The Village very much and even appreciated his flawed Lady In The Water), the general consensus seems to be those three at top are his strongest work... My own feelings toward Village and Lady aside, there's been a definite steep decline in quality (I would mark his descent beginning at Lady and dropping sharply thereafter although I'm aware others would mark it at The Village, and some would argue his only worthwhile film was The Sixth Sense)...

Anyways, have fun correcting me with A. He always sucked or B. He only didn't suck once, but I consider Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs to be tremendous contributions to the horror, superhero and sci-fi genres respectively, and thus with the likes of Airbender, After Earth and The Happening, I'm left to wonder... what happened?

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Im not an expert on M Night, but imo feel he just got creatively stunted. He can set a mood, but cant deliver. Lady In The Water was hilarious it was so bad, and I honestly think he wrote that by his apartment complex swimming pool suffering writers block. He needs someone editing him or to edit himself.

Rob Reiner

In the 80s he was was on roll making This Is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, Misery, When Harry Met Sally and The Princess Bride. Then in the 90s he made mega turkey North and since then he had directed nothing of note.

James Cameron.


He became too wrapped up in his own importance.


Terminator, T2, Aliens, True Lies, The Abyss...


... then Avatar came along and made his ego explode... he disbanded his production companies and made everyone redundant and is now only working on Avatar sequels and masturbating over 3D technology.


What a fool. He'll be bankrupt by 2020.

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Don Bluth. The man who dared to challenge Disney. A former Disney animator himself, in the 80's he actually was out doing Disney with The Land Before Time, The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, and All Dogs go to Heaven.

Then the Disney Renaissance hit and he made Rock a Doodle and he started to really suck with other movies like A Troll in Central Park, Thumbelina, Anastasia, and Titan AE.

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In the 10 Ring: Gunslinger45's reviews

John Milius

One of the great writers who penned or co penned Apocalypse Now and Dirty Harry, also was an excellent director. He directed The Wind and the Lion, Conan the Barbarian, and his movie Blue Wednesday is a cult hit. But then he made Red Dawn, and that plus his larger then life personality and politics led to his eventual black list in Hollywood. Never being given full control of a film ever again.

Talking of Aliens films... Ridley Scott.


Alien, Blade Runner, Legend, Black Rain, GI Jane, Gladiator...


Then came along recent crap like Robin Hood, Kingdom Of Heaven, Matchstick Men, A Good Year... and, initially I said Prometheus was decent but it's falling out of favour with me after a rewatch.
One of his most recent, The Councillor, was panned by critics and movie-goers too.

Joel Schumacher...


The Lost Boys, Flatliners, Falling Down, The Incredible Shrinking Woman, St Elmo's Fire, The Client... all good films, St Elmo, Falling Down and Lost Boys were brilliant.




Then he spewed out Batman Forever, then Batman And Robin... and his career plummeted with crap like 8mm, Flawless, Phone Booth, The Number 23, Blood Creek and Tresspass... plus others...
All of which have either been given a (much) lower than average rating, or have been completely panned by everyone who came within a thousand miles of them.

John Hughes...


Golden boy of the 80s with The Breakfast Club, Uncle Buck, Weird Science, National Lampoon's Vacation films, Planes Trains And Automobiles, Ferris Bueller, Sixteen Candles... and then Home Alone in 1990 which became the highest grossing comedy of all time.




Then Home Alone 2 and Curly Sue showed up, Curly Sue being his last Directorial... and he was pushed into the corner as either the Writer or Exec Producer only, of crap like Baby's Day Out, Home Alone 3, Dennis The Menace and Flubber plus a handful of others which weren't well received...


Sadly though he won't ever get the chance to redeem himself after a heart attack killed him in 2009.

Tim Burton


Made his Directorial debut with Peewee's Big Adventure in 85... then came Beetlejuice, Batman, Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Producer on A Nightmare Before Christmas and then back to directing with his film Ed Wood...


Then when Mars Attacks was released, it showed the future of a once great Director and he followed up with Planet Of The Apes, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd, Alice In Wonderland, Dark Shadows and Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter...


The only real decent thing he's made since Batman Returns in 1992 was Sleepy Hollow in 1999.

I actually enjoyed "Robin Hood", "Kingdom of Heaven" and "Prometheus". I think Scott is a great director.

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I like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Big Fish, and Sweeney Todd. He also just made Frankenweenie, which I really liked. So I don't think Tim Burton counts.

Thanks for mentioning that film! I'm going to watch it for the '70s list. It looks like my kind of picture.

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I agree on Carpenter, Shyamalan, Hughes and Reiner.

Need to see more from Bluth, Milius and Schumacher to form an opinion.

I'm not sure what to think of Ridley Scott. He still has his ups, but yeah, he has never reached the level of Alien or Blade Runner again.

Don't agree on Cameron and Burton.

Avatar is on par with Cameron's earlier work (As most of you know, I'm not the biggest fan of the Terminator series).

Burton's best work was probably in the late '80s and early '90s (Ed Wood being the absolute peak), but most of his recent films are still very enjoyable.

I agree with Carpenter, Shyamalan, Burton, Cameron, and Scott to a degree (Although Prometheus remains one of the biggest disappointments ever to me).

Reiner, Hughes I have no opinion of, and Schumacher has made a few good flicks but has been dead to with along with George Clooney after Batman and Robin.

Timur Bekmambetov directed Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter.

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John Carpenter. what a guy. certainly his movies dropped off at a certain point, but sooner or later everyone's creative mojo drops off a cliff, so who cares

even tho his movies sorta started to fall off, there's still not a director to come along since whose movies i've enjoyed more than John Carpenter's

I reckon filmmakers get lazy and lose their hunger once they become rich. Can't really blame them as I probably wouldn't have much motivation if I had $100m. George Lucas perfect example, skinny young genius makes most legendary film series of all time then becomes a rich fat slob who films the next lot all on Green screen so he doesn't actually have to get off his fat arse.

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