# Great Films Written By Directors? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 5, 2019, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-written-by-directors/832092 "2019-04-05T14:25:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-written-by-directors/832092/1 "2019-04-05T14:25:17Z")
Richard Brooks is a great example of a writer turned director. John Huston, too… John Cassavetes wrote a handful of his movies, “A Woman Under The Influence” ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-written-by-directors/832092/2 "2019-04-05T14:33:00Z")
Not sure if this quite fits: James L Brooks is primarily a writer, but has directed some memorable films (some of my favorites): Broadcast News As Good As It Gets Terms of Endearment ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-written-by-directors/832092/3 "2019-04-05T14:34:27Z")
John Sayles, of course. Stanley Kubrick co-wrote many of his films. John Huston has almost as many writer credits as director credits, including The Maltese Falcon and Key Largo. Of course, the fact that there are lots of talented writer-directors doesn’t mean that it’s a rule. A lot of directors have written incredibly bad scripts, but are great at directing. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-written-by-directors/832092/4 "2019-04-05T14:37:20Z")
James Cameron wrote the screenplays for two films he DIDN’T direct – _Piranha II_ and _Rambo: First Blood Part II_, but I don’t think most people would list them as “Great” films (YMMV). Still, it’s pretty good if you’re primarily a director, but still write screenplays that someone else directs. ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-written-by-directors/832092/5 "2019-04-05T14:39:54Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > John Sayles, of course. Stanley Kubrick co-wrote many of his films. John Huston has almost as many writer credits as director credits, including The Maltese Falcon and Key Largo. > Of course, the fact that there are lots of talented writer-directors doesn’t mean that it’s a rule. A lot of directors have written incredibly bad scripts, but are great at directing. Weren’t most of Kubrick’s co-credits adaptations? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-written-by-directors/832092/6 "2019-04-05T14:41:25Z")
I think you’ll find some big ones from early careers and a bunch of independents. Chasing Amy - Kevin Smith Star Wars - George Lucas Ex Machina - Alex Garland The Sixth Sense - M. Night Shyamalan There’s a lot more if you allow the director a co-writing credit and not a solo credit. Seven Samurai - Akira Kurosawa Pulp Fiction - Quentin Tarantino ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-written-by-directors/832092/7 "2019-04-05T14:44:25Z")
Charlie Chaplin (_City Lights_ et al.) Orson Welles (_Citizen Kane_ et al.) Preston Sturges (_Miracle of Morgan’s Creek_ et al.) Woody Allen (_Annie Hall_ et al.) Mel Brooks (_Blazing Saddles_ et al.) Ingmar Bergman (_Persona, Smiles of a Summer Night_ et al.) Luis Bunuel (_El_ et al.) Billy Wilder (_Some Like it Hot_ et al., though he usually collaborated) ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-written-by-directors/832092/8 "2019-04-05T15:11:51Z")
Would the Coen Brothers count? I was thinking one usually got the writing credit and the other got the director credit, but that both were collaborative efforts. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-written-by-directors/832092/9 "2019-04-05T15:27:54Z")
Alfred Hitchcock can’t be overlooked. True, though he wrote 16 movies and plays, none of them are the ones he is famous for like, “Psycho”. However, there is one that I think qualifies as “great”, and that is, “Notorious”. [**In 2006, Notorious was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notorious_(1946_film)) > [@](#): > > Two scenes in the film have been widely cited as among Hitchcock’s best: in one, Hitchcock starts wide and high on a second floor balcony overlooking the great hall of a grand mansion. Slowly he tracks down and in on Ingrid Bergman, finally ending with a tight close-up of a key tucked in her hand.[5] Hitchcock also devised a scene that circumvented the Production Code’s ban on kisses longer than three seconds by having his actors disengage every three seconds, murmur and nuzzle each other, then start again. The two-and-a-half-minute kiss was described by biographer Paul Duncan as “perhaps his most intimate and erotic kiss”.[6][7] ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-written-by-directors/832092/10 "2019-04-05T15:38:20Z")
> [@MortSahlFan](#): > > Weren’t most of Kubrick’s co-credits adaptations? Heck, most of the films were adaptations, but what’s your point? In all the cases, Kubrick co-wrote with another screenwriter (or, as in _Dr. Strangelove_, more than one). It’s not as if the co-written screenplay was Kubrick writing the screenplay by himself of someone else’s work. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-written-by-directors/832092/11 "2019-04-05T16:18:25Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Would the Coen Brothers count? I was thinking one usually got the writing credit and the other got the director credit, but that both were collaborative efforts. Both Joel and Ethan Coen have dozens of writing and directing credits, mostly on their own movies but also on others. Before 2003 I believe rules required only one person to be listed as director, so Joel took the director credit and Ethan the producer. Since then they seem to share credit for both. (On IMDB, on movies before 2003 Ethan is listed as a director but “uncredited,” while the same goes fo Joel as producer.) On their movies based on an original story, they usually share writing, directing, and producing credits. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-written-by-directors/832092/12 "2019-04-05T16:24:43Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > Alfred Hitchcock can’t be overlooked. True, though he wrote 16 movies and plays, none of them are the ones he is famous for like, “Psycho”. However, there is one that I think qualifies as “great”, and that is, “Notorious”. Well, Hitch rarely took writing credit and usually directed the writer to write what he wanted. Many directors of his era did the same thing – told the writer what they wanted, added some dialog, dropped scenes – and didn’t take credit. Filmmaking is always collaborative, but it’s different from actually writing or co-writing the script. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-written-by-directors/832092/13 "2019-04-05T17:07:37Z")
Orson Welles wrote _The Magnificent Ambersons_ and a _Touch of Evil_ among others, although a lot of his work was either adaptations or collaborations. Preston Sturges might even be a better example. He was knowns as a writer and essentially gave Paramount the screenplay for _The Great McGinty_ in exchange for a chance to direct it. He won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and followed that up with _Hail the Conquering Hero_ and _The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek_, both of which earned him Oscar nominations **in the same year.** ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-written-by-directors/832092/14 "2019-04-05T17:16:15Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Heck, most of the films were adaptations, but what’s your point? In all the cases, Kubrick co-wrote with another screenwriter (or, as in _Dr. Strangelove_, more than one). It’s not as if the co-written screenplay was Kubrick writing the screenplay by himself of someone else’s work. There are directors who make a movie from scratch, writing everything themselves without taking a best-seller and re-wording it for a movie. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-written-by-directors/832092/15 "2019-04-05T17:16:28Z")
> [@MortSahlFan](#): > > Weren’t most of Kubrick’s co-credits adaptations? I just had a thought – were you suggesting that, if it’s an adaptation, that it’s not really as if the director wrote it, because the story and characters are already there, and the author even wrote a bunch of dialogue? Because if so, it’s not much of an argument. One might even argue that it’s _harder_ to adapt a good book into a good film. If you want proof, look at the first movie version of _the Maltese Falcon_, and compare it with Huston’s version. (Don’t even think about the second version – there’s no comparison there.) Adaptation is difficult, and it’s hard work. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-written-by-directors/832092/16 "2019-04-05T17:19:57Z")
Lana and Lilly Wachowski (formerly known as the Wachowski Brothers) co-wrote and co-directed _The Matrix_. They’ve held both roles on a number of other films, as well, but I think that _The Matrix_ is probably the one which could be argued to be a great (or, at least, a really good) film. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-written-by-directors/832092/17 "2019-04-06T03:09:22Z")
Why not Wachovski sisters now? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-films-written-by-directors/832092/18 "2019-04-06T03:13:07Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Why not Wachovski sisters now? Apparently, they now simply go by “[The Wachowskis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wachowskis)” as a collective term for their team.