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What Is Spielberg's Place Among Directors?

Andrew Korenchkin

Andrew Korenchkin

Member
Some people regard him as a hugely popular hack, but most of the film fans I know consider him one of the best ever. How about Gaf? Is he a terrible director, merely a skilled popular filmmaker, or one of the greatest of all time?

I think he is one of the greatest, a view shared by some of the greatest directors of all time. It's great to see just how amazing he is. His filmography is as impressive as some of the other greats.
 
A

Air

Banned
Probably my personal fave, but objectively somewhere in the top 10 ( his early stuff does a lot of the heavy lifting)
 
I

Illithid Dude

Member
Best director of all time. Schindlers List, ET, Saving Private Ryan, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws, Close Encounters. And those are only his perfect films. We can ignore War Horse tho.
 
S

sarcastor

Member
not the most artistic, but definitely makes great movies.

if he was a musician, he'd be like U2 - widely popular, some amazing work in the past, recent stuff kinda sucks, and is prolific as fuck.
 
Lynd7

Lynd7

Member
He's definitely a great director. Although I was thinking, has he had a big mainstream hit in the last ten years or so? His films do well, but most lately seem to just pass by without much fanfare.
 
A

amaretto

Member
Way too pedestrian for my taste but I won't deny he is hugely popular/influential and DOES have several gems in his oeuvre.
 
P

Pakkidis

Member
One of the all time greats. I'm surprised his later stuff isn't as good, he used to be the go to director for block buster films.
 
L

Loxley

Member
I don't see how the fuck one can direct Jaws, ET, Indiana Jones, Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, and Munich and be called a hack. Dude's one of the greatest there ever was.

The greatest? Probably not, but definitely in the Top 10.
 
S

superdeluxe

Member
Andrew Korenchkin said:
Some people regard him as a hugely popular hack, but most of the film fans I know consider him one of the best ever. How about Gaf? Is he a terrible director, merely a skilled popular filmmaker, or one of the greatest of all time?

I think he is one of the greatest, a view shared by some of the greatest directors of all time. It's great to see just how amazing he is. His filmography is as impressive as some of the other greats.
Click to expand...

Top 3 for me. While he has had a few misses he has been so good for so long with hits for 4 decades
 
A

Air

Banned
Lynd7 said:
He's definitely a great director. Although I was thinking, has he had a big mainstream hit in the last ten years or so? His films do well, but most lately seem to just pass by without much fanfare.
Click to expand...

He doesn't really direct the kind of films that have been mainstream hits. The past decade have been dominated by superhero / comic book films
 
S

Shamrock7r

Member
I'll always enjoy Spielberg for the movies he makes that inspires curiosity, hope, and wonderment, and creates very positive vibes, particularly as cynicism creeps around me in adulthood more and more
 
B

Bobby Roberts

Banned
Reminder:

A hack doesn't mean "someone who sucks"

It just means "Someone who doesn't care about whether they're doing good work so long as they're being paid for it."

That's all a hack is. A mercenary who has no passion for their work, only for its financial rewards.

I don't know how anyone could possibly level that charge at Spielberg if they understood the meaning behind the insult.
 
K

Kabuki Waq

Member
You guys remember the first battle scene in saving private Ryan right?

No one does action like Spielberg. Even Tin Tin had that crazy Chase scene.
 
W

WhiteRabbitEXE

Member
Jigorath said:
What.

Who.
Click to expand...

It's not uncommon amongst entirely ignorable, wannabe critics. And I don't just mean, "critics I don't like", I mean, those loudmouths pseudo-hipsters in film school that no one else really liked that think they're some brilliant, unparalleled genius before flunking/dropping out and falling back to contrarian critiques on low-traffic blogs and enthusiast forums.
 
I

iShouldGoPro

Member
Illithid Dude said:
Best director of all time. Schindlers List, ET, Saving Private Ryan, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws, Close Encounters. And those are only his perfect films. We can ignore War Horse tho.
Click to expand...

hmm...
Jeff disagrees
pile_of_shit.gif
 
D

digitalrelic

Banned
I think because it's been a long time since he's had a truly standout film, people forget his greatness.

The man brought us Jaws, ET, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, and Catch Me if you Can.

He's a legend, and one of the very best to ever do it.
 
R

Rumblebones

Banned
Spielberg is without a doubt in my mind far and away the best to ever do it.

Some missteps along the way, sure, but overall, no director has achieved what he has achieved or boasts a body of work that's even close to competitive.

He's simply the best.
 
J

Jarmel

Banned
Top 3 easy. Responsible for one of the best action films of all time and started the modern blockbuster trend.
 
J

Jigorath

Banned
I rewatched Saving Private Ryan a couple weeks ago. It's still so good. The future scenes are kind of pointless though, like the ones in Titanic they should have been cut out. Everything else in the movie is amazing. Maybe Spielberg's best ever.
 
F

Fancy Clown

Member
One of the best, imo. He combines Hitchcock's technical precision, visual storytelling, and knack for suspense with incredible heart and optimism. Sometimes he gets flack for being overly sentimental, and it's true it does occasionally hurt his films, but it allows him access to an emotional core most other big Hollywood films will never be able to tap into due to an inherent cynicism and aloofness that keeps the viewers at arms bay.

Even if his current output isn't as good as it once was I'd still rather see a weaker Spielberg than most of the movies Disney is pumping out.
 
R

Rumblebones

Banned
Bobby Roberts said:
Reminder:

A hack doesn't mean "someone who sucks"

It just means "Someone who doesn't care about whether they're doing good work so long as they're being paid for it."

That's all a hack is. A mercenary who has no passion for their work, only for its financial rewards.

I don't know how anyone could possibly level that charge at Spielberg if they understood the meaning behind the insult.
Click to expand...

Then where does the pejorative "pretentious hack" come from?

Surely one cannot be considered pretentious if they don't care about what they're doing and are only in the pursuit of monetary gain?
 
C

Chained Prometheus

Member
Spielberg is absolutely a legendary director and deserves the hype and acclaim that he's gotten over the years. He's arguably the American Akira Kurosawa.

Personally I lean more towards directors like Kurosawa himself, Kubrick, Bergman, Lynch, Hitchcock, Murnau and Tarkovsky. But Spielberg is definitely a Top 10 or 20 Director in my book.
 
B

Bobby Roberts

Banned
Rumblebones said:
Then where does the pejorative "pretentious hack" come from?

Surely one cannot be considered pretentious if they don't care about what they're doing and are only in the pursuit of monetary gain?
Click to expand...

Funny enough, most people using the term "pretentious" don't really know what the fuck that word means, either.

Often the people using it are actually being it, because they're using a word they don't really understand in the hopes it'll make their basic-ass criticisms sound a little more important than they actually are.
 
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