# Largely lacklustre directors who've nonetheless made one or two gems **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 24, 2010, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608 "2010-05-24T19:34:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608/21 "2010-05-24T22:23:58Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > John Landis—Animal House, Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf In London—Three of my top 20 movies of all time, but besides these excellent movies, his career has been less than stellar, at least in my opinion… Hello? Kentucky Fried Movie? Trading Places? The ‘Thriller’ video for Michael Jackson? Into The Night? Amazon Women On The Moon? ---
**Author:** ![Rrose\_Selavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rrose\_Selavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rrose_Selavy)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608/22 "2010-05-24T22:30:04Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Donald Cammell isn’t very well known at all, but lots of sci-fi/horror aficionados remember 1977’s _Demon Seed_. While that was a pretty good flick (for it’s day), I remember Mr. Cammell as the man who gave the world [White Of The Eye](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094320/), a truly stunning thriller. I’ve had a dubbed copy of this on VHS for close to 20 years now, and I can tell you that the story, the acting, the pacing, the cinematography (man does this film look good!) are all outstanding. This isn’t a movie you forget easily, if at all. > > And yet, it had almost no success at the box office, less on video, and today Mr. Cammell and his best movie are largely forgotten. He also co-directed with Nic Roeg what I would consider his best film - Performance ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608/23 "2010-05-24T22:32:36Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Hello? > > Kentucky Fried Movie? > Trading Places? > The ‘Thriller’ video for Michael Jackson? > Into The Night? > Amazon Women On The Moon? Yes, Kentucky Fried Movie had a few funny bits, and you are also right in that Trading Places was also quite good (though to me not nearly as good as Animal House, Blues Brothers or A.A.W.I.London) but the others on his resume don’t do anything for me at all… ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608/24 "2010-05-24T22:44:28Z")
> [@Rrose\_Selavy](#): > > He also co-directed with Nic Roeg what I would consider his best film - Performance Holy fuck! You’re the closest I’ve come to actually meeting someone who’s seen _Performance_ without me having to show it to them! ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608/25 "2010-05-24T23:22:21Z")
> [@Telperion](#): > > I think the king of “diamond in the rough” filmmaking is John Boorman who directed both the highly acclaimed cult-movie _Deliverance_ and _Excalibur_, which is possibly the best re-telling of Arthurian legend yet, but also the utterly incomprehensible _Zardoz_ and _The Emerald Forest_ (which is a bit like Avatar without any special effects or interesting characters), as well as a bunch of other movies I have never even heard of. You left out his best film: _Point Blank_, starring Lee Marvin! ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608/26 "2010-05-24T23:26:35Z")
By the way, _Deliverance_ was a “cult” movie that was the #2 top grossing film of its year, second only to _The Poseidon Adventure_. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608/27 "2010-05-25T00:31:04Z")
> [@Rrose\_Selavy](#): > > He also co-directed with Nic Roeg what I would consider his best film - Performance Beat me to it. [on preview: **Bo** , \*\*\*Performance \*\*\*isn’t as obscure as you think. It rented with respectable frequency at the vidstore I used to work at, and is pretty well known above a relatively moderate level of movie-buffdom.] And Boorman’s masterpiece, _ **Point Blank** _–one of the oh let’s say 50 greatest American films ever made–leaves \*\*\*Deliverance \*\*\*and \*\*\*Excalibur \*\*\*in its dust. [on preview: drat, beat to the punch again.] And as abysmal as most of Bob Clark’s movies are, he also directed the seminal _ **Black Christmas.** _ Charles Vidor’s \*\*\*Gilda \*\*\*has no near second anywhere in his body of work. Richard Rush’s _ **The Stunt Man** _ is a really great film, IMO. The rest of his output was mediocre to blindingly awful. Uh, no one else comes to mind at at the moment. –lissener, also a fan of _ **The Rocketeer** _, which I would rate above _ **October Sky** _ (which is lackluster as anything Ron Howard, the reigning prince of lackluster, directed) any day, and who would rather be force fed a roadkill porcupine–tail first–than ever watch \*\*\*Jumanji \*\*\*again. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608/28 "2010-05-25T00:57:10Z")
> [@Rrose\_Selavy](#): > > Mel Brooks What good movie has he made? ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608/29 "2010-05-25T01:08:52Z")
**Andrew Davis** did the suspenseful hit _The Fugitive_ and had a minor hit with _Under Siege_ AKA Die Hard on a Battleship AKA The only good Steven Segal movie AKA Why the hell don’t Erika Eleniak’s boobs jiggle in the slightest. The rest of his output is pretty meh. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608/30 "2010-05-25T01:13:41Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Beat me to it. [on preview: **Bo** , \*\*\*Performance \*\*\*isn’t as obscure as you think. It rented with respectable frequency at the vidstore I used to work at, and is pretty well known above a relatively moderate level of movie-buffdom.] Maybe at your vidstore it rented well, but I’m telling you that in my experience, if I haven’t shown them that movie, they haven’t heard of it. > [@lissener](#): > > And Boorman’s masterpiece, _ **Point Blank** _–one of the oh let’s say 50 greatest American films ever made–leaves \*\*\*Deliverance \*\*\*and \*\*\*Excalibur \*\*\*in its dust. [on preview: drat, beat to the punch again.] Yeah, I forgot that was his. Excellent film. > [@lissener](#): > > And as abysmal as most of Bob Clark’s movies are, he also directed the seminal _ **Black Christmas.** _ And, of course, _A Christmas Story_. And _Porky’s_. Of course, he also gave us _Rhinestone_ and _Superbabies: Baby Geniuses2_… > [@lissener](#): > > Richard Rush’s _ **The Stunt Man** _ is a really great film, IMO. The rest of his output was mediocre to blindingly awful. One of my all-time favorites. And I also love _Psych-Out_ and _Freebie and the Bean_, but they’re just fun movies; _The Stunt Man_ is wickedly clever, scathing commentary on Hollywood that stands far above his other work, and it’s got a great thriller/mystery plot at it’s heart as well. It’s also the movie that I think was best represented by [it’s movie poster](http://chasness.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/stunt_man.jpg), ever. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608/31 "2010-05-25T01:29:44Z")
[hijack] **lissener** , have you seen [The Sinister Saga of Making ‘The Stunt Man’](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0238606/)? There’s only 4 reviews at [IMDB.com](http://IMDB.com), and one is fairly negative. I’m wondering if this is on a par with _The Kid Stays In The Picture_, for instance? [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608/32 "2010-05-25T01:54:43Z")
Jan de Bont’s first film as director was the excellent Speed, but he followed it with such gems as Speed 2, Twister, and the Lara Croft sequel. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608/33 "2010-05-25T02:00:00Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > [hijack] > > **lissener** , have you seen [The Sinister Saga of Making ‘The Stunt Man’](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0238606/)? There’s only 4 reviews at [IMDB.com](http://IMDB.com), and one is fairly negative. I’m wondering if this is on a par with _The Kid Stays In The Picture_, for instance? > > [/hijack] No, it’s in my queue. I find those kind docs usually dash my fantasies rather than fill my gaps, but I’ll get to it eventually. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608/34 "2010-05-25T02:39:34Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > No, it’s in my queue. I find those kind docs usually dash my fantasies rather than fill my gaps, but I’ll get to it eventually. thanx for the heads up; i just set it in my queue at Netflix ---
**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:** [May 25, 2010, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608/35 "2010-05-25T02:42:46Z")
_Abraham Polonsky_ did the superb **Force of Evil**. The Blacklist kept him from directing much more, and when he returned, it was with the terminally preachy **Tell them Willie Boy Is Here**. But **Force of Evil** is one of the best gangster films made, with great performances from John Garfield and Thomas Gomez. _Daniel Petrie_ did a lot of films, but the only classic was **Resurrection**. _Yves Robert_ had only one film that made a splash on this side of the Atlantic, but **The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe** is one of the funniest spy comedies ever made. _Jean-Jacques Beineix_ made a big splash with **Diva** , but nothing of note since. _Robert Mandel_ did the thriller **F/X** with a great premise – a special effects artist is hired to fake a killing, and discovers it’s real. Exciting film. _Philip De Broca_ scored with the antiwar film **King of Heats,** but nothing else made an impact. _Robert Downey_ had the classic **Putney Swope** , about an all-Black ad agency in the 60s; his other films flopped and his son is far better known and more successful. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608/36 "2010-05-25T05:01:12Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > _Jean-Jacques Beineix_ made a big splash with **Diva** , but nothing of note since. Well **Moon in the Gutter** wasn’t a total flop and **Betty Blue** managed to get nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar. Of course that is pretty much it. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608/37 "2010-05-25T05:20:43Z")
> [@HelloNinja](#): > > How are you defining “gems” because Ron Howard has a pretty impressive resume as a director: > > Frost/Nixon > Cinderella Man (very underrated movie) > Apollo 13 > Backdraft > Parenthood > Splash > > All good to very good films that make him much better than “lacklustre.” And the list is missing _Coccoon_. Now you might not think it’s such a great film, but it made Steve Guttenberg look talented, and that in iteself takes real genius. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608/38 "2010-05-25T05:53:58Z")
> [@Moonchild](#): > > Beg to differ (strongly) on the Ron Howard example. Apollo 13 to me is spectacular filmmaking (editing and effects, especially, and that still falls under the director’s guidance, regardless which department did it) and Parenthood really nails head-on the parenting experience and does so with high entertainment value. Some others I’ll give a generous Meh to (Beautiful Mind, Ransom, etc.), but he’s done more good than bad by a long shot. (And YMMV ;)) Apollo 13 is a masterpiece of movie making. Great story, and direction that called no attention to itself. I still choke up at Jim Lovell’s very elderly mother telling her grandson that “My Jimmy could land a washing machine if they could get it to fly” not to be scarred. That was a movie moment. ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608/39 "2010-05-25T05:58:51Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Kevin Costner, of course. Whether it was to your taste or not, _Dances With Wolves_ was beautifully directed. The rest of his stuff…not so much. (I suspect he had a great cinematographer or director of photography on DWW that he took a lot of advice from…shoulda kept doing that.) **Dances With Wolves** is a great flick, indeed. I remember that when it won that year’s Best Picture Oscar, I was quite happy, as I thought that it very much deserved it. Then I actually watched **GoodFellas**. Which, of course, wuz _robbed_by… **Dances With Wolves**. (Still love it, though. Plus, it features one of my five favorite scores ever, courtesy of the incomparable John Barry.) ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608/40 "2010-05-25T06:31:37Z")
> [@HelloNinja](#): > > How are you defining “gems” because Ron Howard has a pretty impressive resume as a director: > > Frost/Nixon > Cinderella Man (very underrated movie) > Apollo 13 > Backdraft > Parenthood > Splash > > All good to very good films that make him much better than “lacklustre.” I couldn’t possibly disagree more. They are the defiition of middlebrow, self-serious, personality-free filmmaking. _Splash_ is the exception–full of vim and vitality–but the historical dramas in particular are colorless and bland. All you have to do is compare them to _The Right Stuff, Raging Bull_ or _All the President’s Men_ to highlight the difference between provocative and creative storytelling on one hand and overly-reverent, boring hagiography on the other. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largely-lacklustre-directors-whove-nonetheless-made-one-or-two-gems/540608.md?page=3)