Ranking the Best Directors
Today we reach the big two. Over the past two days, I’ve ranked all the Best Supporting Actress winners, the Best Supporting Actor winners, the Best Actress winners, and the Best Actor winners. Now — Best Director, and later, Best Picture.
Again, let me remind you, as always:
- The rankings are irrelevant. They’re just personal preference. The goal here is to help you discover more movies.
- Don’t get hung up on the numbers, focus on the fact that it’s about getting people to see more movies. (And if you want to criticize, I require that you’ve seen at least 50 of the efforts, otherwise you’ll be completely ignored.)
There are 84 here because the first Best Director category was split into Comedy/Dramatic categories.
Here’s how I rank all the Best Director winners:
TIER 1: The Best of the Best:
1. Victor Fleming, Gone With the Wind
2. David Lean, Lawrence of Arabia
3. Lewis Milestone, All Quiet on the Western Front
4. Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather Part II
5. Steven Spielberg, Saving Private Ryan
6. William Wyler, Ben-Hur
7. Steven Spielberg, Schindler’s List
8. John Huston, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
9. John Ford, The Grapes of Wrath
10. Michael Curtiz, Casablanca
TIER 2: Really Solid Efforts:
11. George Stevens, Giant
12. Elia Kazan, On the Waterfront
13. Frank Borzage, Seventh Heaven
14. George Roy Hill, The Sting
15. Billy Wilder, The Apartment
16. William Friedkin, The French Connection
17. David Lean, The Bridge on the River Kwai
18. Michael Cimino, The Deer Hunter
19. John G. Avildsen, Rocky
20. Jonathan Demme, The Silence of the Lambs
21. Oliver Stone, Platoon
22. Robert Wise, West Side Story
23. Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
24. Bernardo Bertolucci, The Last Emperor
25. Milos Forman, Amadeus
26. James Cameron, Titanic
27. Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven
28. Mike Nichols, The Graduate
29. Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
30. John Ford, The Quiet Man
TIER 3: Awesome Efforts/Sentimental Favorites:
31. Billy Wilder, The Lost Weekend
32. Joel & Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
33. Martin Scorsese, The Departed
33. Frank Capra, It Happened One Night
35. Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
36. Robert Zemeckis, Forrest Gump
37. Fred Zinnemann, From Here to Eternity
38. Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
39. Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
40. Ang Lee, Life of Pi
41. Franklin J. Schaffner, Patton
42. Norman Taurog, Skippy
43. George Cukor, My Fair Lady
44. John Ford, The Informer
45. Bob Fosse, Cabaret
TIER 4: Solid Efforts All Around (But Not My Favorites):
46. Woody Allen, Annie Hall
47. Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
48. Robert Wise, The Sound of Music
49. Vincente Minnelli, Gigi
50. John Schlesinger, Midnight Cowboy
51. Carol Reed, Oliver!
52. William Wyler, The Best Years of Our Lives
53. Warren Beatty, Reds
54. Richard Attenborough, Gandhi
55. Steven Soderbergh, Traffic
56. Oliver Stone, Born on the Fourth of July
57. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, All About Eve
58. Mel Gibson, Braveheart
59. Delbert Mann, Marty
60. Frank Borzage, Bad Girl
61. Elia Kazan, Gentleman’s Agreement
62. Leo McCarey, The Awful Truth
TIER 5: Efforts That are Good, But….Mehh:
63. Sam Mendes, American Beauty
64. George Stevens, A Place in the Sun
65. John Ford, How Green Was My Valley
66. William Wyler, Mrs. Miniver
67. Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
68. Roman Polanski, The Pianist
69. Milos Forman, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
70. Barry Levinson, Rain Man
71. Kevin Costner, Dances with Wolves
72. Leo McCarey, Going My Way
73. Fred Zinnemann, A Man for All Seasons
74. Frank Capra, You Can’t Take It With You
75. Robert Benton, Kramer vs. Kramer
76. Frank Capra, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
77. Anthony Minghella, The English Patient
TIER 6: The Worst of the Worst:
78. Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby
79. Fred Richardson, Tom Jones
80. James L. Brooks, Terms of Endearment
81. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, A Letter to Three Wives
82. Sydney Pollack, Out of Africa
83. Ron Howard, A Beautiful Mind
84. Lewis Milestone, Two Arabian Knights
85. Frank Lloyd, Cavalcade
86. Robert Redford, Ordinary People
87. Frank Lloyd, The Divine Lady
Also check out:
Ranking the Best Supporting Actors
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Mel Gibson, Coppla for 1st Godfather, Peter Jackson, and Scorcese should be top 15. Hooper and Ron Howard in worst of worst is absolutetly insane!
February 13, 2013 at 1:02 pm