How might we establish the GOAT director? What qualities and accomplishments should we consider?

[Thad Castle v2]

Martin Scorsese. PTA and QT as runner ups

 

[Katsumi Yamada]

Easy....


Take the top 250 films from IMDb

The director of the #1 movie gets 350 points

The director of the #2 movie gets 349 points

And so on, and so forth....

The director of the #250 movie gets 101 points

Whoever gets the highest total of points wins.

Edit: sources of the list of top movies could be discussed, not necessarily IMDB. Exact scores for each position is also up for discussion....but this systematic approach values quality and quantity. The artistic aspects are covered by the ranking of the movies themselves.

 

[Thad Castle v2]

Easy....


Take the top 250 films from IMDb

The director of the #1 movie gets 350 points

The director of the #2 movie gets 349 points

And so on, and so forth....

The director of the #250 movie gets 101 points

Whoever gets the highest total of points wins.

Edit: sources of the list of top movies could be discussed, not necessarily IMDB. Exact scores for each position is also up for discussion....but this systematic approach values quality and quantity. The artistic aspects are covered by the ranking of the movies themselves.

Fuck IMDB. Its all opinion

 

[Katsumi Yamada]

Fuck IMDB. Its all opinion

It's many thousands of opinions.

I think popularity of movies is more important than box office in this discussion. Box office is really complicated, $1 is not worth the same across time, 1 movie ticket isn't worth the same across nations.
Most profitable could easily be picked apart as an argument too.

And what other arguments are there that are anything other than opinion?

To get the list of greatest directors you have to first look at the consensus greatest works. Agree?

 

[Thad Castle v2]

How about we just tally the votes in this thread?

 

[Plissken]

They should be able to excel in multiple genres and styles of filming. Excelling at just one style is a great feat, but I think for an all time great all of their films shouldn't feel similar. I mean even Kubrick, who shot sci-fi, horror, and multiple different period pieces still had a similar familiar style amongst them. Fincher movies all look similar, Malick films all end up having strong similarities. I'm not saying some stylistic familiarities are bad, they are often comforting as well (like how Howard Hawks did conversations or the Panavision look of John Carpenter films), things just shouldn't feel recycled to a degree. Branching off the familiar path isn't just jumping to a different genre, but also shooting a different type of film. Say what you want about Spielberg, but he at least changed up his style somewhere in the 90's and tries different things now. Even David Lynch made The Straight Story after all.

 

[Bob Gray]

I would agree that making classics helps. Though I feel like Spielberg's range is exactly one reason why he's an awesome as he is.

Jaws
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Indiana Jones
E.T.
Jurassic Park
Schindler's List
Munich
Catch Me If You Can
Lincoln

Those are all very different films that span a pretty wide range in terms of genre.

Saving Private Ryan is also a masterpiece.

 

[Bob Gray]

Easy....


Take the top 250 films from IMDb

The director of the #1 movie gets 350 points

The director of the #2 movie gets 349 points

And so on, and so forth....

The director of the #250 movie gets 101 points

Whoever gets the highest total of points wins.

Edit: sources of the list of top movies could be discussed, not necessarily IMDB. Exact scores for each position is also up for discussion....but this systematic approach values quality and quantity. The artistic aspects are covered by the ranking of the movies themselves.

I would actually like to see the results of that.

 

[moreorless87]

The answer is you don't.

 

[Agent Mulder's Hair]

1. Are they James Cameron or not?
2. If they are not James Cameron they are not the goat

 

[Guestx]

1. Are they James Cameron or not?
2. If they are not James Cameron they are not the goat

So that's a vote for Paul WS Anderson?

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Great, whatever, damn good, annoyingly lame.

Edgar Wright kicks his ass too.

Shaun of the Dead
Hot Fuzz
Scot Pilgrim
The World's End
Baby Driver (haven't seen it yet but have heard great things)

@shadow_priest_x

Was really disappointed with Baby Driver.

 

[FyrFytr998]

Spielberg or Scorsese for me. I love both equally.



Odd Ball favorite - Wes Anderson

 

[Guestx]

@shadow_priest_x

Was really disappointed with Baby Driver.

Really?

Why would you say that is? It's my second favorite film of his, next to Scott Pilgrim.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Really?

Why would you say that is? It's my second favorite film of his, next to Scott Pilgrim.

Not sure I can dissect it, but in broad strokes the characters didn't resonate. Seemed like everyone was trying to hard. Either over-acting or the script. Both maybe. Reminds me of when people were trying to capture that Pulp Fiction magic and making quirky films just to be quirky. The ending seemed to extend itself that no real impact was achieved. I got drunker and more bored as it went, fwiw.

Bottom line is the script didn't seem all that smart and and the acting didn't overcome it. Nor did the style.

For something Edgar Wright related, this kicks the shit out of Baby Driver.

 

[BullyKiller]

Spielberg. He’s the Michael Jordan of directing.

 

[KONG-D'SNT-TAP]

Spielberg has basically covered every genre. Not only that but he also makes movies that trancend pop culture and are considered timeless classics.

Marty & Kubrick are right there as well