Movies Film directing vs writing - Which one is more important?

[revoltub]

Pulp Fiction and Aliens are both revered for their dialogue, and the plots are no slouch either.

Character writing as well.

I'm just creeping through the thread and I keep seeing plot=writing. A simple plot can have great writing. And great writing doesnt need to be complex. I guess its the nature of the game though. To quote futurama, when you do things right, people won't be sure you did anything at all.

 

[revoltub]

I don't know but I guess maybe something like Glengarry Glen Ross. My Dinner with Andre. Twelve Angry Men. None of this was in spite of the directing, but the directing took a back seat and let the words, dialogue and/or story drive the experience.

Predestination?

 

[BisexualMMA]

Predestination?

Yeah that's a pretty good example. I mean Snook gave a great performance and it hinged a lot on one actor being able to hit it out of the park. But it's about as low budget as a science fiction period piece could ever be.

 

[revoltub]

I'm trying to think of weak stories that ended up awesome just due to the direction... And I can't really. I can think of simple economical storylines like...Cocktail or Urban Cowboy or Teen Wolf or Cliffhanger but the story isn't really weak.

This is tough. Couple that come to mind right off the bat

Not great movies but
Avatar
Saw
Skyfall
300
Hardcore henry

To varying degrees of shittines or at least imbalance between the writing and directing.

Maybe some genre stuff like horror/slasher stuff or martial arts stuff might fit into that territory of writing being able to take a far back seat and still make a quality movie.

 

[I Am Legion]

Both go hand in hand but obviously you need a great writer first. But a bad director can ruin a good story, but a good director can only do so much with a bad story. I just watched West Side Story with my daughter. I have seen the original, I know the writing was good. I dont care for musicals but Spielberg was so perfect in his direction that I loved it.....

 

[Fake Doctor]

This is a bit like asking which is more important - tires or an engine in a car. Without an engine, the car can still roll. With flat tires, the engine can probably still chug along. In the absence of either one you ain't getting far though.

I will say, some simple - not necessarily bad, but simple - writing can lead to spectacular movies. Bad directing rarely makes good movies. So I'd say directing is more important.

 

[BisexualMMA]

This is tough. Couple that come to mind right off the bat

Not great movies but
Avatar
Saw
Skyfall
300
Hardcore henry

To varying degrees of shittines or at least imbalance between the writing and directing.

Maybe some genre stuff like horror/slasher stuff or martial arts stuff might fit into that territory of writing being able to take a far back seat and still make a quality movie.

The Hunger wasn't a whole lot of story but it was a whole lot of 80s style.

I would say Avatar is reasonably plot heavy. It gets criticized for being a rehash of other things like Dances with Wolves but it doesn't pare that model down but rather adds other stuff to it.

300...yeah all direction and style. I guess Sin City is similar in that way.

Commando really doesn't have much substance as a story if I'm being honest.

 

[revoltub]

The Hunger wasn't a whole lot of story but it was a whole lot of 80s style.

I would say Avatar is reasonably plot heavy. It gets criticized for being a rehash of other things like Dances with Wolves but it doesn't pare that model down but rather adds other stuff to it.

300...yeah all direction and style. I guess Sin City is similar in that way.

Commando really doesn't have much substance as a story if I'm being honest.

Avatar isnt terrible I was more throwing it out there as imo the Cameron film where the direction and presentation is the most noticeably higher grade than the writing.

Commando yeah but it's good "knowing what this is" kind of writing.

Another one that comes to mind is the lighthouse. Again not a bad movie, thought it was pretty good, and not terrible shit writing but it's mostly direction, mood, and performances.

 

[Aegon Spengler]

A good director can make a bad story look like they meant for it to be a bad story and you're dumb for not getting it

 

[Boxingfan998]

A good director can make a bad story look like they meant for it to be a bad story and you're dumb for not getting it

Sometimes but not most of the time.
I can think of big budget movies with amazing directors that failed hard because the script just sucked. Some famous directors crashed doing that.

 

[Plutoburn]

I think both are essentially pillars which a movie is build upon, if one suck, the whole movie suffers.