The greatest film directors of all time

When Kurosawa was asked how he composed a shot for his films, he replied, "I just watch a John Ford movie and wonder how he would have shot it." The only man who ever won four Oscars for Best Director.

"Make it real, make me believe that you believe." Wyler gave very little direction to his actors. Many-take Willie, they called him. Yet, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has seen to honor his films more times than they have any director in the history of film. When you look at the body of his work, it's easy to see why.

Lean started out making small films, versions of Dicken's classics and the like. They are gems to be sure. But when he turned his talent to making epics, he stands alone with three giant films nearly impossible to duplicate in any age - Bridge on the River Kwai, Dr. Zhivago, and Lawrence of Arabia.

When it came to innovation, Alfred Hitchcock was a pioneer. His use of suspense changed the way we look and feel about cinema. One only has to go back to his early work, like "Sabotage" where Hitch puts a little boy with a bomb on a bus. Filmgoers in 1936 London were said to shout at the screen, "Watch out! He's got a bomb!" Now that's involvement.

Wilder started out as a screenwriter and quickly learned that if he was going to bring his vision to the screen, he'd have to learn directing. Thank god he did. His list of great films is longer over a greater period of time than most contemporary directors are old.

Ida was one of these incredible cases where opportunity arrived at the perfect time. She became the very first woman to direct a Hollywood movie and knocked down that barrier so that every woman who followed would not have to tackle that giant hurdle. While her list of credits is not so great, her accomplishment more than makes up for her inability to obtain jobs in such a male dominated industry.

With the advent of 1960's equal rights movement, African Americans stepped up to the director's plate and offered their bill of fare to an audience that had no heros of its own. Parks offered a new vision of American cinema that had a black man as a hero. The first African American director made his mark in B movies, but was first class all the way.

Kubrick had a singular mind when it came to directing - how to get it done. He wasn't concerned with excuses. He only knew he had a visual interpretation of the world. Starting as a photographer, Kubrick saw the world through a lens and brought us startling images that will forever live in cinema history - a teen girl in sunglasses, a pilot riding a bomb, a slave crucified for freedom, a violent punk having his way, a soldier wasted in war, a spacecraft waltzing to Strauss.

Curtiz, while a tryant on the set, could also be kind and understanding, giving and forgiving, stern yet vulnerable. He's been described this way by technicians and by actors. His list of great films cannot be denied. He made a powerful impact on the history of film and deserves all the attention I can give him.

No director in the later half of the 20th Century made as great a contribution to the art of cinema as did Spielberg. And no film has ever moved me with such emotional power as "Schindler's List." When I saw it in Chicago, there were survivors of the holocaust present and others were relatives of survivors. Even after the credits finished, no one would leave their seats. I have never experienced a film of greater emotion, not since I saw "Citizen Kane" for the first time in college decades earlier.

When you hit a grand slam home run your first time up to bat, it's difficult to follow that level of performance. Welles tried many times but could never duplicate the level of commitment he gave to "Kane." The story is so complex on so many levels that it is impossible to cover in any synopsis. The end is so profound that it is profane to openly mention it to the naive.

In addition to Spielberg, Zemekis left his mark on the later half of the Twentieth Century by giving us several entertaining films but one very profound one in "Forrest Gump." Unlike his contemporaries, Zemeckis created one of the most complex movies of his time and crafted it in such a way that it is both simple and profound in the same breath.

Like Orson Welles, this genius Francis Coppola crafted one of the greatest films of his generation and perhaps two of the greatest movies of all time. The care and the art of cinema is best expressed in "Godfather I & II" more than any films made in any era. This is not a list by numbers (best director) but by achievement and Coppola gave us one of the most monumental achievements in cinema history.

No director influenced other directors more than Luis did. Hitch would not be Hitch along with Wyler and Wilder and many others if Bunuel had not innovated many camera techniques long before they did. His long list of credits gave credibility to "foreign" films in Hollywood before any other director including Fellini and Bergman.

A man who could do it all, write, produce, direct and edit. Preston Sturges made some of the best movies of his time and unfortunately met an untimely end that robbed us of many other movies he might have created.

George Cukor was a director who could put on many hats - writer, producer and editor! He had an incredible gift of communicating with actors and brought some of the 20th Century's greatest moments of film to the silver screen.

Stevens began life as an artist and continued to hone that craft as a director. His ability to use emotion and frame his actors is practically second to none.

The art of Japanese filmmaking was brought to our attention by the innovative style of Kurosawa in his first big international hit, "Rashomon." He went on to direct and made an honorable name that established the Japanese film industry at a time when most Americans wanted to forget Japan.

The first time I saw "La Strada" in the theater, I lowered my head and wept. Fellini had incredible vision as a filmmaker and innovator of cinema. His style had a strong influence on cinema students, especially George Lucas and Francis Coppola. Married to Giulietta Masina for life, the couple produced dozens of great movies and died within a few months of each other.

No comtemporary filmmaker since David Lean has dared to take on such a gargantuan task as Jackson did in making "Lord of the Rings." Perhaps the greatest spectacle ever filmed, this giant epic of cinema certain made its place in the history of film and its director at the heart of that sphere.

Surrounded by a group of gifted actors, this Swedish film director had tremendous impact on the art of cinema and those studying film arts on college campuses. He directed the only foreign language film every nominated for Best Picture, "Cries and Whispers."

Nominated a record fifteen times for Best Screenplay, Allen decided early in his career that he had to retain creative control and learned to direct by doing it. His insights into life brought through his onscreen characters (including his own portrayals) are unmatched in cinema history by any other director, including his idol, Bergman.

One of the key figures to laying a foundation for Indian cinema, Ray brought a new style of filmmaking to his native country and tried to show a new light on India and its people.

One of the greatest forces in French cinema and a pioneer in many camera techniques, this film director gave us one of the most fascinating examinations of the human condition in "Grand Illusion."

Eisenstein pioneered the modern method of editing long before French filmmakers picked up the technique and labeled it montage. One of the most icon moments in cinema history occurrs during the great "steps" sequence from film, "Battleship Potemkin."

One cannot mention Michael Powell without mentioning Emeric Pressburger as it was their collaboration that led to so many "art" films after WWII. "Black Narcissus" and "The Red Shoes" are more like moving paintings that anything before or since.

This innovative director has worked on more film projects than you can shake a film can at - everything from "The Bicycle Thieves" to "Ben Hur" as assistant film director. However, when he sat in the command seat, he produced a style of western that forever changed the genre that included, "The Good, the bad and the Ugly" along with "Once Upon a Time in the West" considered by many to be the greatest western ever made.