By John H. Foote
No long-winded commentary, just the director and their single greatest work to argue about, debate or ponder thoughtfully. All according to yours truly. Took over three months of research to come up with this list, enjoy. Please, no point arguing with me, I agonized over every single entry, NONE OF YOU will ever change my mind.
Enjoy!
- STEVEN SPIELBERG – Schindler’s List (1993)
- MARTIN SCORSESE – GoodFellas (1990)
- STANLEY KUBRICK – A Clockwork Orange (1971)
- FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA – The Godfather Part II (1974)
- WOODY ALLEN – Manhattan (1979)
- BILLY WILDER – Sunset Boulevard (1950)
- GEORGE STEVENS – Giant (1956)
- FRED ZINNEMANN – High Noon (1952)
- JOHN HUSTON – The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
- JOHN FORD – The Searchers (1956)
- DAVID LEAN – Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
- ELIZA KAZAN – On the Waterfront (1954)
- WILLIAM WYLER – Ben-Hur (1956)
- SIDNEY LUMET – Network (1976)
- CLINT EASTWOOD – Unforgiven (1992)
- CHARLES CHAPLIN – City Lights (1931)
- PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON – There Will Be Blood (2007)
- HOWARD HAWKS – Rio Bravo (1959)
- THE COEN BROTHERS – True Grit (2010)
- PETER JACKSON – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
- ANG LEE – Brokeback Mountain (2005)
- CHRISTOPHER NOLAN – The Dark Knight (2008)
- ALEXANDER PAYNE – Sideways (2004)
- KATHRYN BIGELOW – Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
- SYDNEY POLLACK – Tootsie (1982)
- QUENTIN TARANTINO – Pulp Fiction (1994)
- DARREN ARONOFSKY- Requiem for a Dream (2000)
- ROBERT ZEMECKIS – Forrest Gump (1994)
- SEAN PENN – Into the Wild (2007)
- OLIVER STONE – JFK (1991)
- ORSON WELLES – Citizen Kane (1941)
- MILOS FORMAN – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
- DAVID LYNCH – Blue Velvet (1986)
- MEL GIBSON – The Passion of the Christ (2004)
- RON HOWARD – Apollo 13 (1995)
- VINCENT MINNELLI – Lust for Life (1956)
- SOFIA COPPOLA – Lost in Translation (2003)
- JONATHAN DEMME – The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
- SPIKE LEE – Malcolm X (1992)
- WARREN BEATTY – Reds (1981)
- STEVEN SODERBERGH — Traffic (2000)
- PENNY MARSHALL – A League of Their Own (1992)
- CECIL B. DEMILLE – The Ten Commandments (1956)
- MIKE NICHOLS – The Graduate (1967)
- JAMES CAMERON – Titanic (1997)
- BRIAN DE PALMA – Blow Out (1981)
- JAMES L. BROOKS – Terms of Endearment (1983)
- GEORGE CUKOR – My Fair Lady (1964)
- GEORGE CLOONEY – Good Night and Good Luck (2005)
- HAL ASHBY – Coming Home (1978)
- WES ANDERSON – The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
- DAMIEN CHAZELLE – First Man (2018)
- ROBERT MULLIGAN – To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
- ATOM EGOYAN – The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
- SARAH POLLEY – Away from Her (2007)
- GEORGE LUCAS – American Graffiti (1973)
- BRABRA STREISAND – The Prince of Tides (1991)
- ALAN J. PAKULA – All the Presidents Men (1976)
- BOB FOSSE – Cabaret (1972)
- BARRY LEVINSON – Bugsy (1991)
- TODD HAYNES – Far from Heaven (2002)
- ALFRED HITCHCOCK – Psycho (1960)
- ROBERT ALTMAN – The Player (1992)
- VICTOR FLEMING – The Wizard of Oz (1939)
- NORMAN JEWISON – Moonstruck (1987)
- DENZEL WASHINGTON – Fences (2016)
- MICHAEL MANN – Collateral (2004)
- FRANKLIN J. SHAFFNER – Patton (1970)
- WILLIAM FRIEDKIN – The French Connection (1971)
- JOHN FRANKENHEIMER – Black Sunday (1977)
- RICHARD BROOKS – Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)
- PHILLIP KAUFMANN – The Right Stuff (1983)
- RIDLEY SCOTT – Thelma and Louise (1991)
- TIM BURTON – Ed Wood (1994)
- DARREN ARONOFSKY – Requiem for a Dream (2000)
- ALAN PARKER – Shoot the Moon (1982)
- KEVIN SMITH – Dogma (1999)
- PAUL GREENGRASS – United 93 (2006)
- TOM HOOPER – The King’s Speech (2010)
- SAM MENDES — 1917 (2019)
- TONY SCOTT – True Romance (1993)
- MEL BROOKS – Young Frankenstein (1974)
- FRANK DARABONT – The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
- EDWARD ZWICK – The Last Samurai (2003)
- BILL CONDON – Dreamgirls (2006)
- ROBERT WISE – West Side Story (1961)
- BLAKE EDWARDS – Victor/Victoria (1982)
- ZACK SNYDER – Dawn of the Dead (2004)
- JAMES MANGOLD – Ford vs. Ferrari (2019)
- DANNY BOYLE – Trainspotting (1996)
- FRED ZINNEMANN – Shane (1953)
- DAVID CRONENBERG – Eastern Promises (2007)
- STEPHEN FREARS – The Grifters (1990)
- BEN AFFLECK – Argo (2012)
- MARTIN RITT – Hud (1963)
- STUART ROSENBERG – Cool Hand Luke (1967)
- GEORGE ROY HILL – Slap Shot (1977)
- THE WACHOWSKIS – Cloud Atlas (2012)
- ARTHUR PENN – Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
- TERRENCE MALICK – Badlands (1974)
John H. Foote is a well-recognized Canadian film critic/historian who has been an active critic for 30 years. His deep love for the movies began at a very young age. He began his career as co-host of the popular TV show Reel to Real where he remained for nine years. While on TV he began dabbling in education, eventually ascending to Director of the Toronto Film School, where he also taught film history. After leaving the college to care for his wife, he returned to teaching at Humber College where he taught both Film History and Method Acting Theory. John has written two books: “Clint Eastwood – Evolution of a Filmmaker” and the upcoming “Spielberg – American Film Visionary”. He is currently working on two books, one about the films of the seventies and another on the films of Martin Scorsese. Through his career he has worked in TV, radio, print and the web. John has interviewed everyone in the industry (more than 300 interviews) except Jack Nicholson, he says sadly. Highlights include Martin Scorsese, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep Robert Duvall, Jane Fonda, Francis Ford Coppola and Kathryn Bigelow.
