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In Reply to: Great directors? posted by jbmcb on August 31, 2005 at 18:59:26:
Your points are well taken. And there are exceptions to every exception.Hitchcock's movies rarely had that "been there, done that" quality that you see so often in Scorcese's work, and Spielberg's, or that matter. Suspense was a vehicle for Hitchcock, not the objective. Foreign Correspondent, Psycho, The Birds, The Rope, Rear Window, and To Catch a Thief, North by Northwest, Strangers on a Train, Rebecca all seem to me to be very different Films. Then again, I ain't seen'em all. And there certainly is a consistent return to the themes of foreign intrigue, expecially in his earlier, pre-Hollywood work.
Chaplin seems to me to have to be taken on his own terms, because he worked so early in the era of the modern film. His body of work is also enormous, also due probably to the era in which he worked. But again, I have to concede your point.
But on balance, I think you have to take a director's range into acount in consideration of his overall talent. Peckinpaw and DePalma are both very talented and very important directors. But I think in there cases, and I would argue in Scorcese's case as well, their lack of range would tend to diminish their reputation in the annals of film history. What say you?
Follow Ups:
I think you are forgetting Scorsese's work on films such as:New York Stories
Cape Fear
Raging Bull
The Last Temptation of Christ
The Color of Money
After Hours
The Last Waltz
Taxi DriverThis represents a pretty wide range of film styles...
Hmmm. I'd have to say that "homage" films like Cape Fear and The Color of Money do not count. Neither was as good as the original either. The fact that Scorcese had an avid interest in the band, as almost every graduate of the 1960's did, does not enhance his reputation as a film maker. There was nothing about this documentary that made it unusual or original, but I do like his selection of subject matter. I believe he is currently at work on a documentary, not so coincidentally, about Bob Dylan.Scorcese was a seminary student before he became a film director. And The Last Temptation was a daring film, though not a very good one, from where I sit.
I didn't see After Hours. In New York Stories, he only had a short segment, as you know.
But I would have to maintain that his main body of work, the films upon which his reputation is made -- Taxi Driver, Means Streets,
Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Casino, even the King of Comedy -- have at their heart a fixation on the brutish side of modern civilized life, individuals who, due to the pressures and complexities of their milieu, have become twisted monsters of a kind, and who have abodoned the mores and restraints that guide the rest of us. It's not a trivial subject, but one which his films treat with a certain redundancy.I'm not saying he's a BAD director. But I would not put him in the pantheon that includes Kubrick, Hitchcock, or Fellini, and a very short list of others.
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