AMC Movie Guide's 50 Greatest Directors of All Time

"A master of suspense and gallows humor, he turned out classic after classic, including Vertigo, Psycho, and The Birds."

"He made science trippy in 2001, Cold War politics slapstick in Dr. Strangelove, and Roman slaves au courant in Spartacus."

"You talkin' to him? No one captures alienated men on the edge the way he's done in Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Departed."

"He reworked the the genre crowd-pleasers of his youth into the modern blockbusters Jaws, E.T., and Raiders of the Lost Ark."

"Larger than life, he debuted with the dazzling Citizen Kane, then he saw studios hack up The Magnificent Ambersons and Touch of Evil."

"Part of the first generation of film-school directors, he went from Dementia 13 to epics (The Godfather) and small gems (Rumble Fish)."

"A brilliant pop-culture collagist, he thrilled movie lovers with Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and the Kill Bill series."

"Joel and Ethan Coen are smart alecks with heart, combining dark humour, violence, and potent themes in movies like Fargo and True Grit."

"The TV actor turned spaghetti-Western star became an A-list director with Unforgiven, Mystic River, and Million Dollar Baby."

"He was a genius of silent comedy and one of its first stars. The Tramp and Modern Times are still comic icons."

"In Sleeper, Annie Hall, and Manhattan, he invited moviegoers to laugh at urban neurotics, then got serious in Interiors."

"A TV-commercial star turned stylish auteur, he made the cool, slick, Alien, Blade Runner, and Thelma & Louise."

"The quintessential Westerner, he made icons of Monument Valley and John Wayne in the classics Stagecoach and The Searchers."

"His wit and unflinching eye for hypocrisy produced Sunset Blvd. and Ace in the Hole along with the gender-bending Some Like It Hot."

"In Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby, this international moviemaker probed dark passions and destructive desires."

"Sentimental but not sappy, his best movies (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It's a Wonderful Life) wrap dark themes in happy endings."

"The U.K. screenwriter-director team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger made popular art movies like Black Narcissus and Peeping Tom."

"From Lawrence of Arabia to Doctor Zhivago, his movies proved that no desert is as deep or wide as the landscape of the human heart."

"This New Zealand-born movie buff started small with the low-budget Bad Taste and worked his way up to the epic Lord of the Rings trilogy."

"Artistic, macho, and intellectual, Huston had a career spanning four decades, from The Maltese Falcon to Prizzi's Honor."

"His nightmarish Eraserhead paved the way for increasingly surreal movies in mainstream-thriller guises, from Blue Velvet to Mulholland Dr."

"Metropolis still defines the future, and thrillers like The Woman in the Window and The Big Heat probed America's past."

"In A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront, this controversial director made gritty psychological dramas in resonance."

"Never sacrificing a laugh to good taste, Brooks made the sublimely rude Blazing Saddles, Producers, and Young Frankenstein."

"Funny, tough, and funny-tough, he went from Scarface to His Girl Friday and from To Have and Have Not to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."

"Inspired by Halloween and Johnny Depp, this visual stylist made Beetle Juice, Batman, and The Nightmare Before Christmas."

"Countercultural attitudes, intersecting stories, and overlapping dialogue distinguish his movies, notably MASH and Nashville."

"His elegant storytelling made dramas (The Best Years of Our Lives), romances (Roman Holiday), and epics (Ben-Hur) sparkle."

"Provocative, bombastic, and politically contrarian, he's courted controversy in Midnight Express, Natural Born Killers, and JFK."

"Malick's brooding, intellectual anti-Hollywood masterpieces include Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The Thin Red Line."

"A seventies film-school prodigy, he made Carrie and Scarface but specialized in Hitchcockian thrillers like Dressed to Kill and Body Double."

"He was the first master of big-budget even movies, with two Ten Commandments films and The Greatest Show on Earth."

"He used new technologies to seamlessly combine reality and fantasy in movies like Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit."

"Not only did he create the Star Wars mythos, but he drove the development of widely used sound and special-effects technology."

"He escaped the low-budget likes of Piranha Part Two to make the sci-fi spectacles Terminator, Aliens, and Avatar."

"He made Casablanca and Elvis Presley's King Creole, along with dozens of movies in every genre, from action to horror to melodrama."

"Trained in improv theater, he specializes in character-driven comedies and dramas -- The Graduate, Silkwood, Closer."

"His witty, sophisticated comedies -- The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, The Palm Beach Story -- are still sharply funny, six decades later."

"Wit and class distinguish his sophisticated pictures, which star Katherine and Audrey Hepburn and Greta Garbo."

"The father of modern moviemaking, he pioneered film language in such milestones as The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance."

"Ninotchka, The Shop Around the Corner, and To Be or not to Be have a unique Continental style that defies remaking."

"After the film noir Laura, he challenged movie censors with drug abuse, in The Man With the Golden Arm, and rape, in Anatomy of a Murder."

"He upped onscreen violence with his controversial Westerns and dramas, including The Wild Bunch and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia."

"An actor turned pioneering moviemaker, he paved the way for cinema verite with Shadows and A Woman Under the Influence."

"From the weepie A Letter to Three Wives to the bitch-fest All About Eve, his movies are articulate and wickedly entertaining."

"After the Freudian Western The Left Handed Gun, he made new Hollywood classics Bonnie and Clyde, Little Big Man, and Night Moves."

"The cult-movie king from Michigan gave us the Evil Dead trilogy (and Bruce Campbell), A Simple Plan, and the blockbuster Spider-Man movies."

"This African-American filmmaker provoked discussions via Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, and Summer of Sam."

"He dissected show business in both musicals (An American in Paris) and melodramas (The Bad and the Beautiful)."

"He brought a European darkness to the American melodramas Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, and Imitation of Life."