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The Directors' 50: My five favorite films from my ten favorite directors

As part one in a potential series celebrating filmmakers, here are my five favorite films from my ten favorite directors. The films are ranked (in their respective rows); the directors are not.

Honorable mention: Bird, The Coen Brothers, Costner, Gilliam, Soderbergh, and Wyler.

19 Comments

  • Nice list. Love the inclusion of Edward Zwick. He's got some solid fucking movies under his belt. You should have included the Coens though!

  • Thanks, Aaron. Zwick is very underappreciated, yet he has such a standout body of work; and the Coens will be on this when I expand it. I'd like to include all of the honorable mentions.

  • Wonderful list, I'm going to have a go at this myself.

  • Thank you, Dirk!

  • I almost included Soderbergh myself, but I'll need to check out a few of his earlier films first before he can make it. I love Out of Sight and the Limey.

  • I like the idea of Soderbergh more than I like his specific films, if that makes any sense. I love "Out of Sight," and "Erin Brockovich;" after those it's all stuff I appreciate, but don't get too excited over.

  • Makes total sense. I like him quite a bit but I get where you're coming from.

  • I can go a little deeper than you with Soderberg, but I have about the same reaction to Nolan: Batman was the beginning of the end for me.

  • Nolan is my favorite director working today. Love the Batman stuff, but I can't wait for projects outside of Gotham if you know what I mean.

  • Great list Travis. Mel Brooks is awesome, just wouldn't make my personal top directors list...Interesting that you don't have Fight Club in your Fincher top 5, are you not a fan? Seven is a VERY close second for me...in fact, probably will be my #1 after some rewatches.

    I'm not a huge Nolan fan, although I love his Batman stuff. Loved The Prestige the first time I saw it, but didn't enjoy it as much down the road. Inception was the same way for me.

    Goodfellas is my all time favorite movie, I LOVED Hugo, just couldn't work it into my top 5 for Scorsese.

    No love for Blade Runner???? My third favorite movie of all time.

    It's so hard to pick 5 for Spielberg...not to mention most of the directors on your list...great stuff! It's interesting to see we have similarities in our favorite directors but disagree on their top movies.

  • Thanks, Josh!

    I have no love for "Fight Club." I couldn't connect with it when I saw it during its release. It's probably worth rewatching and reassessing.

    For me, "The Prestige" is immensely rewatchable, but I understand how it might not work for some people.

    "Blade Runner" is an icon; I just like the other five better...but that's a really tough one to leave out...second guessing myself now...

  • Nice picks Travis! Have you seen Taxi Driver?? I'm surprised you didn't include it on your list

  • Thanks! I'm afraid to admit that I've never seen TD all the way through.

  • @Travis
    I noticed you said Nolan is your favorite and you can't wait for new work outside of Batma, did you hear he is prepping Interstellar about a space ship venturing into space in search of a black hole?

  • I hadn't heard that. That sounds very interesting!

  • Nice list. Are the films ranked favourite on the left or the right?

  • Thank you, Con Doyle. They move from left to right in order of highest favorite.

  • 4 Batman films and no Dark Knight?!? Otherwise, nice list.

  • Yeah...well...

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