Greatest Directors
Top ten in objective terms or in terms of personal preference? In objective terms, the top ten directors would be those that were most influential over other directors, the industry and over popular culture. These would be (in rough chronological order):
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Carl Dreyer
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Jean Renoir
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Orson Welles
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Alfred Hitchcock
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Yasujiro Ozu
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Akira Kurosawa
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Stanley Kubrick
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Steven Spielberg
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Hayao Miyazaki
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George Lucas
Honorable mention: John Ford, Martin Scorsese, Robert Bresson and Ingmar Bergman.
Comments:
I think that in objective terms, George Lucas is a greater director than the likes of Martin Scorcese, John Ford or Ingmar Bergman, for the following 5 reasons: 1: Star Wars, 2: Star Wars, 3: Star Wars, 4: Star Wars and finally, 5: Star Wars.
Indeed, this single movie has had similar influence over modern Hollywood (post 1980's movies) as Citizen Kane had over Classic Hollywood and a vastly greater cultural influence than Citizen Kane. Star Wars is greatly underrated among film critics, it's landmark status is supreme: no other movie in history had comparable commercial success, drawing a total of 18% of all US box office receipts in 1977 and similar massive receipts in other countries. No other movie had comparable influence over the film industry and popular culture and no other movie has touched the hearts of more persons than Star Wars.
Star Wars transcends film and became part of the modern mythology of the western world. Nothing else can compare to it, specially in the US and the rest of the English speaking world.
In every popular poll made today in the US and UK, Star Wars always win the title of greatest movie ever made. It's impact over the industry and over the artists working in it is enormous. James Cameron, for instance, was a truck driver who decided to make movies after he watched Star Wars.
Star Wars is seriously underrated among film critics, its landmark status, its capacity to touch the hearts of over a billion people and influence over most movies made after it, is enormous. In some ways, Star Wars can be regarded as the single greatest work of art of the 20th century: no other work of art touched so many people, in absolute terms, as did Star Wars.
Spielberg and Miyazaki's works are also underrated among film critics, given their cultural influence. While none of Spielberg's films had similar cultural impact to Star Wars, his combined output matches well the cultural influence of Star Wars. Miyazaki's popularity in Japan is equal or greater than Spielberg's in the US and his influence is gigantic as well, both inside and outside of the borders of Japan (the whole global animation industry today is profoundly influenced by Miyazaki, plus much of the live action film industry).
Thinking about it, Miyazaki's influence is greater than Disney's (specially over the industry today), considering that there existed many full length animated features before Snow White (which is mistakenly believed as the first animated feature) and the main influences over Miyazaki's own work has been the work of Russian, French and Japanese animators, and that the "Disney movies" were made by several writers and directors besides Disney himself (Fantasia had like a dozen different directors).
Akira Kurosawa's work has been the single most influential body of work of the second half of the 20th century. Hidden Fortress is the prototype of Star Wars, Yojimbo is the prototype of the "cool movie", which inspired Sergio Leone, who inspired Tarantino. Seven Samurai is the ultimate action movie while Ikiru is the definitive tearjerker and Rashomon pioneered storytelling techniques that were used in a million subsequent movies.
Ozu is another director whose historical influence measures up to his critical praise. His dramas set the standard not only in his native country but over the whole world.
My analysis of the greatest directors is not from the perspective of a film buff or film critic but from the perspective of a historian, trying to measure greatness by it's cultural influence, both in terms of film and outside of film.
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