Directors with only ONE great film

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I think we've done great directors with no great movies, but what about great movies made by average or poor directors?

I think someone like Charles Laughton doesn't count, since he only made one film in the first place.

I'm looking for movies that are miracles of chance, where the script, director, actors, etc all just came to together somehow to make a great movie that is definetly more than the sum of its contributors.

― ryan (ryan), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 18:46 (twenty-two years ago)

greil marcus writes this way about "the manchurian candidate".

i guess it depends how you feel about "seven days in may" or "ronin"... or "the island of dr. moreau", a classic in its own right.

― a spectator bird (a spectator bird), Tuesday, 20 April 2004 19:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Manchurian Candidate is Frankenheimer's best film, for sure, but his filmography has other highlights. "Seconds" with Rock Hudsoon is a blast and The French Connection 2 is very underrated. The aforementioned Ronin has an undeniable awesomeness as well.

― theodore fogelsanger, Tuesday, 20 April 2004 21:31 (twenty-two years ago)

In the old studio days there were far fewer one hit wonders than today. The main reason is once you were a director in old Hollywood you were guaranteed more work.
The list depends on what success means. In this case critical success is a bit more important than financial.

'The Stunt Man' Richard Rush (Really his only good film)
'Dances with Wolves' Kevin Kostner (It was successful)
'Personal Best' Robert Towne (Flawed perhaps but his only good film)
'Bugsy' James Toback
'Easy Rider' Dennis Hopper
'The Hired Hand' Peter Fonda (Great film)
'The Graduate' Mike Nichols (Yeah he made other films but this is his best and everybody knows it.)
'To Kill a Mockingbird' Robert Mulligan

Okay I have to include 'One Eyed Jacks' by Marlon Brando (His only film).

― Rashomon, Wednesday, 21 April 2004 00:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Jim McBride - David Holzman's Diary
Of course, to be fair, I have not seen The Big Easy.

― Anthony (Anthony F), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 01:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Refuting two on Rashomon's list...

'The Graduate' Mike Nichols (Yeah he made other films but this is his best and everybody knows it.)
'To Kill a Mockingbird' Robert Mulligan

The Man in the Moon has tons of fans, and I like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (but then again don't much like The Graduate, so that doesn't really refute anything).

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 07:23 (twenty-two years ago)

James Cameron and "Aliens" to thread.

― CRW (CRW), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 13:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Rashomon, Barry Levinson directed "Bugsy". James Toback wrote it.
But Toback directed "Fingers' which is a fine little film with a great Harvey Keitel ending...

And "Carnal Knowledge" is as good a film as the "Graduate"...

― David Nolan (David N.), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 21:15 (twenty-two years ago)

"Jim McBride - David Holzman's Diary"

Anthony, I second that.

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 22:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I saw a Jim McBride film called "Glen and Randa," that was an interesting post apocalyptic adam and eve thing; very hippie dream-ish. I'm curious about his Breathless remake with Richard Gere though. I think the last thing he did was a VH1 bio-pic about the singer Meat Loaf.

I prefer both Carnal Knowledge and Catch-22 to the Graduate. I'm surprised Catch-22 doessn't get much love. It's funnier than Strangelove and holds up much better than Mash.

― theodore fogelsanger, Thursday, 22 April 2004 17:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Surely who ever directed pump up the volume falls into this category?!?!?!

― mark, Thursday, 22 April 2004 18:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Catch-22 is an incredible film & it's a miracle it was ever released, between the anti-war sentiments and its avant-garde narrative sensibility. In fact, I think the disjointedness of the narrative would have been a harder selling point than the anti-war aspects.

"The Graduate" never did anything for me, really. The acting was great, there were some funny moments, but all in all it just seemed like a watered-down modernization of "Catcher in the Rye" with a bit of scandal thrown in.

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Thursday, 22 April 2004 21:13 (twenty-two years ago)

also hopper's "out of the blue" is far better than "easy rider."

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 23 April 2004 17:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Mention of "Out of the Blue" and Hopper reminds me of "The Rivers Edge" and its journeyman director, Jonathan Kaplan.

And another : "Will Penny" - Tom Gries.

― David Nolan (David N.), Friday, 23 April 2004 23:42 (twenty-two years ago)

vincent gallo?

― David-Graham Steans, Saturday, 24 April 2004 11:00 (twenty-two years ago)

i dont think gallo has done enough to really be judged at this point

― todd swiss (eliti), Saturday, 24 April 2004 16:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Has anyone actually seen The Brown Bunny? I'm guessing it's probably very good.

― theodore fogelsanger, Saturday, 24 April 2004 18:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Mackendrick never produced anything with the greatness of Sweet Smell of Success

― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Sunday, 25 April 2004 22:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I have realised that Tim Hunter actually directed The Rivers Edge. Jonathan Kaplan directed On The Edge, which Hunter wrote. Doh!

― David Nolan (David N.), Sunday, 25 April 2004 23:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to think Peter Bogdonavich and his The Last Picture Show... then I saw TARGETS.

― PVC (peeveecee), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 19:33 (twenty-two years ago)

still haven't seen "The Brown Bunny". It's been panned left and right, even by the types who usually love panned movies. So i'm hoping maybe I'm one of the people who loves movies panned by people who love panned movies.

or something like that....

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 20:49 (twenty-two years ago)

This village voice artical intrigues me about "Brown Bunny."
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0323/peranson.php

Kind of gauges the possible reasons for all of the panning, scandal and such.

I was fascinated by Tom Green's one directorial effort "Freddy Got Fingered." I'm not quite sure it's a good movie, many contrarian outsiders will say it is. However, I think that it's probaly just bracing to see an American studio comedy that has an obvious auteurist voice, and not a vacuous committee product. Green's film is worth seeing at least for Rip Torn's entertaining peorformance as the tortured father. His prescence is much needed in more films.

― theodore fogelsanger, Wednesday, 28 April 2004 21:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I haven't seen all of Takashi Miike's films, but even though most of those I have seen have been enjoyable, I think "Audition" is the only one which is "great".

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 2 May 2004 12:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know if either are "great," per se, but I prefer both Dead or Alive: Birds and Happiness of the Katakuris to Audition.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Sunday, 2 May 2004 14:40 (twenty-two years ago)

'Chinatown' is the only Polanski film i've ever had time for

― fcussen (Burger), Monday, 3 May 2004 15:43 (twenty-two years ago)

"Chinatown" is Polanski's best film, but he has made a few other arguably great films - "Knife In The Water", "Rosemarys Baby", "the Tenant", "Cul-de-sac".....

― David Nolan (David N.), Monday, 3 May 2004 23:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Also, "Repulsion"

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Monday, 3 May 2004 23:51 (twenty-two years ago)

i would say that repulsion is arguably better than chinatown....

― todd swiss (eliti), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 00:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Honky please. Every Polanski film I've seen is better than Chinatown excepting possibly Tess.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 03:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I mean, can we at least try here? I think Coppola's only made one film that approaches greatness, but plenty of others think he's got at least four masterpieces in his body of work, so I don't mention him here.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 03:08 (twenty-two years ago)

im with you on coppola (may differ on the film tho!)

i think the task of this thread is a really hard thing to do because we tend to center so much of our understanding about a film around who directed it--do we have any room in the canon for films made by non-great/famous directors?

― ryan (ryan), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 03:46 (twenty-two years ago)

i would say that there is always room for works from obscure or non-famous directors. take "the spirit of the beehive" from victor erice. he has made 4 films maybe and this one is absolutely brilliant. how many people outside of film geekdom have heard of erice? probably some people in spain, but other than that, i dont see anyone even mentioning him. and i would contend that there are some directors who have made one independent and great film only to be lured into hollywood by money and then only make really bad, but marketable movies.

― todd swiss (eliti), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 05:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Okay, how about Harold Ramis with "Groundhog Day"? The greatness of that flick has more to do with the script than with the directing, though.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 14:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Wait a minute, "Pirates" is better than "Chinatown"? "Frantic" is? "The Ninth Gate"? Errrrr - No.
But I take your point on not mentioning canonical directors.
So:
The guys who made "The Wicker Man".....

― David Nolan (David N.), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 23:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I said every Polanski film

I've seen is better than Chinatown, but since you mention those three... I've heard great defenses for all of them.

(Not that I haven't for Chinatown, but the basic point I was trying to make is that it's ridiculous to mention Polanski here and it I for one can not figure out why everyone sees this disastrous drop in quality in his "non-AFI/Oscars/Ebert" canon when stuff like Bitter Moon and The Tenant are among the most significant ostensibly "minor" films by a major filmmaker I can think of.)

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Saturday, 8 May 2004 03:26 (twenty-two years ago)

(That coding didn't work out like I planned it, but I sort of like what occured better.)

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Saturday, 8 May 2004 03:27 (twenty-two years ago)

it kind of seems angrier than italics

― ryan (ryan), Saturday, 8 May 2004 03:57 (twenty-two years ago)

......well

Most of

Or at least many of

The directors mentioned in this thread are ridiculous nominations. Mike Nichols? Takashi Miike? ....but then again I do so enjoy the ensuing exchanges. Like this one.

― David Nolan (David N.), Saturday, 8 May 2004 22:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I shouldn't respond at all, since everyone knows auteurists either love all or none of any director's films.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Saturday, 8 May 2004 23:57 (twenty-two years ago)

< / irreverent tone >

< / shitty HTML fake codes that actually somehow work >

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Sunday, 9 May 2004 00:06 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...

I'll agree with Ramis fro Groundhog Day
I thought the classic example was Michael Curtiz with Casablanca
he had a number of competently watchable movies but nothing else like that... again, it's the script at work.

― davelus (davelus), Monday, 22 May 2006 21:21 (twenty years ago)

curtiz's "adventures of robin hood" is an amazing film, right up there with "casablanca" i think.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 07:05 (twenty years ago)

Leni Riefenstahl, perhaps.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 23:27 (twenty years ago)

doesn't she have the two, at least?

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 01:41 (twenty years ago)

Is her underwater adventure movie all that great?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 05:17 (twenty years ago)

another Michael Curtiz classic: King Creole

I'm serious.

― Chairman Doinel (Charles McCain), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 17:12 (twenty years ago)

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