u/drhavehope

Been thinking about the directors that have impacted cinema the most and have influenced the most filmmakers that have followed them and why. These are the directors that I thought of, so far.

Akira Kurosawa - mainly Seven Samurai, which formed and perfected the template in how you execute an ensemble film

Alfred Hitchcock - Template for the thriller and how to structure it in terms of pacing. You can see the huge influence he had on Chris Nolan.

Stanley Kubrick - Mainly 2001: A Space Odyssey (a film i don't like). The use of cutting edge special effects and the first truly dynamic and well-made science-fiction film, which influenced every director going into that genre

Ridley Scott - Lighting and how to use it to effectively depict a world. Mainly Blade Runner which i think is the film that has the best lighting in any film. Pretty much every film that does a world in the future uses his aesthetic and lighting technique.

Any directors I am missing, feel free to add.

It's hard for any film to be the greatest movie. Not every film has every aspect of cinema, and does so to the highest degree.

But let me make a case for Terminator 2, which i believe is the closest thing to the perfect and greatest piece of cinema.

You have great direction, great story and overall great film to start off with. Now we can deal in genre where T2 covers -

Drama - Linda Hamilton's character and her arc of trying to get the truth of the future out there

Horror - The harrowing projection of what could happen to the world in the future

Action - Speaks for itself with some of the most incredible action sequences seen on film.

Comedy - Thanks to Arnie, who gives iconic comedic lines with great comic timing

Romance - This is a tricky one where although there isn't strictly a romance between man and woman, the friendship and bond between John Connor and the T-800 can be seen where John by the end grows to love this robot and can be seen as a type of romantic connection, although not delving into the realm of sexuality

SFX - Cutting edge special effects that were far ahead of its time and are still impressive today

Commentary - The film is saying something that is relevant to humanity, and as we see in the rise of AI, it's ever so relevant now.

When I think of other great movies like Seven Samurai, Lawrence of Arabia, North by Northwest, Godfather...they don't have as many of these cinematic elements that T2 contains whilst doing them to an extremely high degree.

Add to the iconic score, it's cultural impact...I feel T2 is the closest thing to the greatest and most perfect piece of Cinema.

Is Christopher Nolan a great director, of course he is. Extremely talented both as a director and writer. However, he's not perfect, and there are certain kinds of films that he simply is not suited for.

As amazing as Scorcese is, he's not the right man for Superhero movies or Blockbuster action movies. As talented as James Cameron is, he's not the right man for plot-driven dramatic movies that are more indie.

Nolan's strength is plot, and having story-driven movies that are more self contained. This is why he still has not made films as good as Memento and Prestige because those films plays to his strengths. It's not about visuals or spectacle or even characters you care about. It's about Plot, Plot, Plot.

So now we have The Dark Knight, where despite how it helped to elevate the Superhero movie and gave us one of the great characters in Joker and what Heath Ledger did; the main character was weak and not well written, the fight choreography was incredibly weak and the exposition lead to a very derivative story that TOLD more than it SHOWED.

The Dark Knight does not require any brain power or interpretation as the screenplays tells you exactly how you feel.

The immense success of that film made Nolan think he should be making big event, blockbuster films and movies that rely on dynamic visuals and more elaborate action scenes...two aspects that Nolan is not strong at.

So when we come to the Odyssey, which is a film that a 90s Ridley Scott should be making or a Denis (with a better writer), you see how the visuals are drab, the action scenes are lacking and you don't really connect with Odysseus and feel you go on a journey with him in the way David Lean made us go on a journey with Lawrence or Maximus in Gladiator.

What we have today are people that think anything Nolan is great because he is the De-Facto legend who is the "Modern Day Kubrick and Hitchcock". However, if you are honest about his qualities, then you will see that his films are great in places but seriously lacking in others.

Whenever you’re told a film is bad, you get your expectations low, which is what I did with this film. For years, I heard this was the worst film Spielberg has ever done and it almost tanked his career. So I finally saw it, and I respect the big swing, but I just kept thinking…this is one of the worst screenplays for a film I’ve ever seen.

Terrible narrative structure, terrible dialogue, the scenes don’t connect and the worst sin to commit for a comedy is being unfunny. Outside of Belushi, no jokes landed. So it was shocking to see that the script writers were Bob Zemeckis and Bob Gale…the Back to the Future duo. Terrible script.

What baffles me is how did this screenplay get accepted or not heavily rewritten?

Seen all the top shows….cant think of a better ending to a show than The Shield. Don’t want to spoil anything but those who have seen it will know.