lets see.....let me think of a few of the "horribly untalented" yank directors......Kubrick, Scorcese, Coppola, Jonathan Demme, Fincher, Aronofsky, Spielberg, Frankenheimer, Tarantino, John Sturges, Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson,
Sam Peckinpah, Bryan Singer, Rob Reiner, Robert Zemeckis, Oliver Stone,John Ford, Mel Brooks, Paul Thomas Anderson, Jim Jarmusch, Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam(american born, whether you like it or not), Cameron Crowe, Michael Mann, Sidney Lumet, Joel Coen of the Coen bros, Michael Polish of the Polish bros, Sam Raimi(the Gift,Simple Plan,not just "superhero action"), Curtis Hanson, David Lynch, Spike Jonze, Steven Soderbergh, Sean Penn William Friedkin, etc, etc, etc.....................
also, Croupier may be good, but the director's resume isn't exactly immaculate.
the guy did Flash Gordon, a stupid, campy, superhero action movie. also, his reteaming with Owen, "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" could bore the nuts off a bull.
sometimes, things just come together, and a great picture is made.
if you wanna be an ignorant bigot, go ahead, but there are talented directors all over the world, and america's directors have contributed some of the most legendary films in history.
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maxxx-3
20 years ago
I 2nd the "easy on the BOO Americans" stuff. I wouldn't dream of ragging on Brits for ANYTHING... it just serves no purpose to point out the stereotypes. Enjoy the cinema and forget about national competition! Sounds like the proverbial chip on the shoulder boobird, but I'm not here to argue... much rather praise the British films I've enjoyed.
Although I think my US of A has plenty of worthy films to watch from any era... I enjoy the British films I'm lucky enough to see on HBO or other pay channels. Shallow Grave probably was the 1st that opened my eyes, Croupier was great, Love Actually is a great blend of stories, really enjoyed Snatch (how couldn't you? Go Jason!), I loved Mean Machine (timely topic with yet ANOTHER remake of The Longest Yard coming out)... its overlooked way too much. Lots more examples of films I really enjoyed, but you catch my drift.
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jim-459
20 years ago
Im Australian and not biased to either Yanks or Brits, but I've got to say that in general the British make far better movies then the Americans. The British make real films, the Americans make shallow popcorn movies that are good for two hours of mindless entertainment or they make countless remakes of movies made when American cinema was good. I think the lower budget of British movies mean that they have to rely on writing and talent to sell a film, American films just need to show lots of pretty explosions and special effects with a trendy cast (regardless of acting ability).
Not that I dont think American cinema has been great, many of my favorite movies are 1970's US movies. But if I went to a cinema today and had a choice between a Brit film and an American film, I know what I'd choose.
Did you have a good world when you died? Good enough to base a movie on?
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amara145
20 years ago
For every British film there is an American film of equal quality. Yes, we do make a lot of popcorn films because we have a large ppopulation of people under the age of 24 that go to movies (the bread and butter of the industry) this group will see a movie 3-5 times. The American film industry makes films for a very diversified group of people. Film distributors from other counties prefer the big blockbusters with major stars because they want to make a profit.
Why try to sell "We Don't Live Here Anymore" when a movie like "The Day After Tomorrow" will benefit from the buzz of being a box office hit? Foreign markets get our worst sometimes because it's all they know about.
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joelcairo1941
19 years ago
to the person above who wrote the names of all those directors...i find it interesting that you're so broad-minded, yet your fairly extensive list of american filmmakers does not include even one african american director. or doesn't spike lee, bill duke, forest whittaker count for anything?and where are your women directors, or don't they count for anything either? sheesh!!
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lescamer
18 years ago
Puh-lease! I'm French so I guess I can talk without anybdy telling me i have sympathy for such and such. Although Coppola, Burton, Tarantino, Mann, Kubrick, Gilliam, etc (all except for Spielberg and Eastwood and some of them i don't know) are amongst my favorite directors, they could not make The Croupier. Not that they don' make films as good as that, they just could never make THIS film. It's not their style. It's exclusively English-European
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