Directing is considered "the end-all-be-all." We worship directors and despise directors and basically consider movies to the be property, the output, the vision of directors.
In general, people want one person we can praise or blame for everything (e.g., the president) and the director, is the person we picked to be God. There are too many people to keep track of off-screen, so we picked the director to be "it." Apart from that we marvel at off-screen performances. Give me good actors, a good writer, and a good editor and I can give you a competent film, even with a sub-par director. On the other hand, if we have an above-par director with sub-par writers and actors and editing, and you will probably have a beautifully shot dud. We just don't seem to be able ever really wrap our heads around the fact that filmmaking is a collaborative process and that there is a lot of contingency in terms of how all moving parts of a production intersect.
In general, people want one person we can praise or blame for everything (e.g., the president) and the director, is the person we picked to be God. There are too many people to keep track of off-screen, so we picked the director to be "it." Apart from that we marvel at off-screen performances. Give me good actors, a good writer, and a good editor and I can give you a competent film, even with a sub-par director. On the other hand, if we have an above-par director with sub-par writers and actors and editing, and you will probably have a beautifully shot dud. We just don't seem to be able ever really wrap our heads around the fact that filmmaking is a collaborative process and that there is a lot of contingency in terms of how all moving parts of a production intersect.
I think the actors and the screenplay are fairly secondary to the greatness of a film (certainly not irrelevant, and can even aid in pushing it into 'great' territory', but definitely not essential). Editing though is the life blood of the film. A good director without a great editor 9 times out of 10 is sunk.
And there obviously needs to be more awareness of the collaborative element of a film. This is where the magic often happens, with this interplay of people working together towards one common goal. But, even though I agree we need to elevate the value of cinematographers and editiors and sound designers and costumers and special fx guys, I also tend to view a director as ultimately being in charge of the final result. Just like a painter uses paints to create their masterpieces, a director uses the talents of others as his basic medium. Ideally, he tells them what he wants, and then forms what they do into his vision.