It’s a
well-known fact that most filmmakers lose their talent over time. There are few exceptions (Wes Anderson is a
rare example of a director who seems to have improved since he started making
movies), but most of the directors who made the classics of my childhood era
have lost their touch.
A lot of this
may be because people tend to be more creative when they’re young. They aren’t as much a part of the
establishment. As they grow older they
also become more family oriented and tend to intentionally make things more
kid-friendly, thus losing their edge.
Another common trend is that these filmmakers tend to gravitate more
toward CGI, since it saves them the trouble the went through in the old days,
even though it’s harder to have a personal style when dozens of people are
making the effects for your movie on computers with minimal involvement from
you. CGI is a good technology, but it
tends to make movies look more uniform in appearance. Unfortunately, many directors who were known
for their visual style have succumbed to the temptation to use this effect.
Here is my
list of directors I loved from their heyday who don’t quite cut it
anymore. I’m not sure about Christopher
Nolan yet, even though I didn’t particularly care for Dark Knight Rises or Interstellar. At least his visual style is just as good as
ever, which is more than I can say for most of the following.
Miami Vice (2006), despite boasting his
all his stylistic strengths, was a remarkably boring movie. Mann always tended to make movies with slow
pacing, which isn’t a problem when you have good material. I couldn’t even make it through Public Enemies (2009). He also produced the mediocre Hancock (2008). Blackhat
(2015)was a decent movie that at least deserved to make its money back, but it
displayed none of his visual style.
Probably an ambiguous entry on this list, which is why he’s so low here.
He continued
to make good movies throughout the 90’s and early 00’s with Ed Wood (1994), Mars Attacks! (1996), the visually brilliant Sleepy Hollow (1999), Big
Fish (2003) and Corpse Bride
(2005). Unfortunately he also made Planet of the Apes (2001), which was a
Burton film in name only. While Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
was good, it wasn’t as good as the 1971 classic and it started the trend of
Burton’s making unnecessary remakes for large studios.
Like many
visually distinctive directors, he fell to the temptation of using generic CGI
as a crutch, which was particularly evident in the terrible Alice in Wonderland (2010) and the
middling Frankenweenie remake (2012). A former arteur, he has been reduced to
making remakes for Disney like the upcoming one of Dumbo and blandly competent biopics like Big Eyes (2014). He’s low on
this list due to the gradual nature of his decline and the small number of
truly awful recent movies, but it’s clear that he is not nearly as creative as
he used to be.
Possibly my all-time favorite animator. His effective mix of cartoonish style and dark atmosphere gave my generation truly suspenseful animated films and influenced my own tastes and art style. The late 70’s and 80’s were his heyday with classics like Banjo the Woodpile Cat (1979), Secret of NIMH (1982), and The Land Before Time (1988). An American Tail (1985) and All Dogs go to Heaven (1989) were also good examples of his style, but contained way too many annoying scenes for my tastes. As a rule, I think Bluth should avoid making musicals.
Then the 90’s
ruined everything for him and his fans.
He made the unbelievably terrible Rock-a-Doodle
(1991), which somehow combined the flaws of a cluelessly stubborn artist with
those of executive meddling. There was
nowhere to go from that movie but up, which wasn’t saying much. In 1994 he made the awful Thumbelina and the insufferable Troll in Central Park, which is widely
regarded as his worst movie by those who have not seen Rock-a-Doodle. He then made
the mediocre Pebble and the Penguin
in 1996. Possibly even worse than all
those, he sold out by making the unoriginal and trendy Anastasia (1997), which at least had some good music. The animator who left Disney because he felt
they were making the same movie over and over just made the same movie Disney
was making over and over at the time.
Naturally, the movie did pretty well with critics. This was followed by the unimpressive Bartok the Magnificent (1999), which was
the only sequel to one of his movies he was involved with.
Few directors
had made such a constant slew of such bad movies, but in an interesting twist
his final film, Titan AE (2000), was
actually pretty good. I’m in the
minority, though. It seems to be
despised by Bluth fans for reasons I don’t understand. My money says it’s because it didn’t come out
when they were five. The movie flopped,
which is too bad because Bluth could have gone on to do good things. Way to show support, “fans.”
A surprise hit with The Sixth Sense (1999), he quickly became known as a one-trick pony despite also making the excellent Unbreakable (2000). Signs (2002) had many of his strengths and was an entertaining movie, but its contrived and nonsensical plot was a harbinger of doom. The Village (2004) was an okay movie that doesn’t deserve all the hate it gets, but Night’s true fall came with the incredibly conceited Lady in the Water (2006), a good premise ruined by out-of-control egomania. He continued to make impressively pathetic movies that were dependent on cheap gimmicks and twists like The Happening (2008).
At this point,
I still believed he could direct a good movie as long as someone else gave him
good material to work with, but that hope was dashed by The Last Airbender (2010). I’ve
heard nothing good about After Earth
(2013). He makes one wonder how he’s
still allowed to make movies.
An interesting entry on this list, since Spielberg is one
of the few directors from my childhood years who still seems to be able to make
good films. Using his influence as a
filmmaker for good, he produced creative and solid movies like Gremlins (1984), the Back to the Future trilogy (1985,1989,1990),
Innerspace (1987), The Land Before Time (1988), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Balto (1995) and Men in Black (1997). He also
produced many of the nostalgic cartoons from my childhood such as Tiny Toons (1990-5), Animaniacs (1993-8), Freakazoid! (1995-7) and Pinky and the Brain (1995-8). After the success of Saving Private Ryan, he produced the excellent TV Series Band of Brothers (2001).
The next year
he produced the unnecessary and terrible Men
in Black II. And worse still, he
produced the atrocious “Transformers”
(2007). Once a great eye for talent,
something possessed him into thinking that Michael Bay was a worthwhile
director, and talked him into adapting a franchise he had no interest in. He continued to be an accomplice with the
movie’s subsequent sequels. Spielberg’s
career as a producer had once celebrated imagination, but he went to producing
apathetic blockbusters with no respect for imagination or heart.
One of my favorite visual directors, Scott’s style was
apparent in this debut film The Duellists
(1977). In the following years he made
his best movies: Alien (1979) and Blade Runner (1982). Legend (1985) was a dull movie, but it
was one of his best looking ones. Black Rain (1989) was also very much a
style over substance movie. Still, his
visual style was amazing and revolutionary.
So much so that most movies seem to rip it off nowadays, although in a
bland CGI/color filter kind of way that looks more generic than striking. I don’t think I’ve seen any movie he made
during the 90’s but he hit a brief peak afterward with Gladiator (2000) and Black
Hawk Down (2001), his last truly great movie.
After this his
skills became more ambiguous. He started
making movies that ranged from middling to decent. Hannibal
(2001) was okay and doesn’t deserve the scorn it seems to get. Kingdom
of Heaven (2005) was a confused follow-up to Gladiator, and American
Gangster (2007) was decent. Body of Lies (2008) was middle of the
road. This period seemed to demonstrate
that, outside Blade Runner, Scott was
not too skilled at ambiguous and complex movies.
The fall was
confirmed with the awful Robin Hood
(2010). A dull, poorly cast film that
completely missed the point of this time-honored legend. After that came the fatuous Prometheus (2012), which besmirched the
memory of one of his true classics.
Also, Scott’s visual style has suffered.
Succumbing to the temptation of CGI, his movies now look like everything
else (although for all its flaws, Prometheus
was a very good-looking film).
During the 70’s, Coppola made some true classics, the
most prominent of them being The
Godfather (1972). In 1974 he had a
particularly good year with Godfather Pt.
II and The Conversation. Not every director gets nominated for two
movies in the same year with one winning (I may be in the minority of those who
prefer the criminally overlooked Conversation). Apocalypse
Now (1979) is also a classic.
I don’t have
anything to say about what he was doing in the 80’s, but he seemed to have lost
his touch by the 90’s. The Godfather Pt. III (1990) was a
disappointment, Bram Stoker’s Dracula
(1992) would have been better had it been more faithful to the source material,
and I don’t know what he was thinking with Jack
(1996). From Godfather to a cloying family film.
With The Evil Dead
(1981), Raimi made a creative horror movie that revitalized the genre. With Evil
Dead II (1987) he established himself as a master of horror camp and one of
the few directors who can pull off cartoon slapstick in live-action. He followed that up with Darkman (1990), a clever and dark twist on the superhero
genre. His best movie was Evil Dead III: The Army of Darkness
(1992), a perfect example of everything great about his style and sense of
humor. The Quick and the Dead (1995) was flawed but took advantage of his
camp style in an appropriate genre.
Discouraged
by the failure of that movie, he moved on to more mainstream movies with some
success. A Simple Plan (1998) was a good Oscar-bait movie that seemed like a
way to prove that he could make a serious movie. He went full Summer Blockbuster with Spider-Man (2002), a good movie which
benefited from his style but suffered from terrible CGI. Spider-Man
2 (2004) was a better film but it was his last decent movie. Perhaps during this year Quentin Tarantino
used a voodoo curse to steal his powers, which is why Tarantino has been
displaying properties of Raimi’s style since Kill Bill and Raimi hasn’t made a decent movie afterwards.
Raimi fell
from grace with the awful Spider-Man 3
(2007). He tried to get back to his
roots and the result was the absolutely hideous Drag Me to Hell (2009), which managed to reflect poorly on him as a
person as well as a filmmaker. He then
made the generic and bland Oz the Great
and Powerful (2013). His closest
thing to a success was his producing a competent but humorless and uncalled-for
Evil Dead remake (2013).
Once one of the greatest sci-fi action directors, Cameron
is now one of the most boring and
unoriginal filmmakers out there. He
showed true innovation with movies like Terminator
(1984), Aliens (1986) and Terminator 2 (1991), but Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009) were the ones that got him Oscar nominations. That’s why I hate the Academy Awards. During
a short transition period, he made True
Lies (1994), an unimpressive action comedy that at least boasted a good
chase scene and some impressive CGI for the early 90’s. He co-wrote Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days (1995), which indicated an
early loss of his grasp of pacing: I got through forty minutes of it without
even getting to the plot’s inciting action.
Part of this
is, like with many of these directors, Cameron became increasingly enamored
with the CGI technology he helped pioneer.
His earlier movies had a visceral quality thanks to the in-camera
effects and R-Rated violence. Like many
who were filmmakers during the dawn of CGI, he saw it as a shortcut, without
realizing or caring that it is best used in moderation. Since then his films have become more
restrained in their violence and artificial in their appearance. He allowed a technology he created control
him.
His movies
also used to feature unforgettable characters like Ripley and the Terminator as
well as well-paced plots. Now his movies
are slowly-paced without satisfying payoffs, and his characters and situations
are ripped off from Disney movies, except without the things that make Disney
movies enjoyable.
I know this is a bit of a dead horse, but I had to put
this at number one. Few movies have
influenced me to the extent that the Star
Wars has. Perhaps that’s why
critiquing him never gets old: his movies meant so much to so many of us. Lucas was once a great filmmaker when he made
THX 1138 (1971), American Graffiti (1973), and The Star Wars Trilogy (1977, 1980, 1983). He also wrote Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). If not for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), one could fairly
identify his downfall as 1986 when he produced Howard the Duck.
While most
fallen filmmakers have simply stopped making good films, Lucas has been
determined to destroy the material he made that was good. In 1997 he drew first blood in a war against
his fans and everything that once made him a great filmmaker with the Star Wars Special Edition. While the changes were unnecessary and
annoying, they did not ruin the otherwise great trilogy, so people were
optimistic about Star Wars: Episode I –
The Phantom Menace (1999) until they saw it. The characterization and canon of the Star
Wars universe was further defiled in Attack
of the Clones (2002). The lack of
writing skill was still apparent in the more entertaining Revenge of the Sith (2005).
Finally, Indiana Jones and the
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) not only robbed Indy of his dignity,
but also dropped the ball on showing him killing some filthy commies, which was
something I always wanted to see.
Many have
compared Lucas’ fall from grace to the birth of Darth Vader, and the parallels
are pretty compelling. It’s even more
tragic when you watch his warnings against succumbing to rampant consumerism in
THX 1138. When fighting against film coloration he said
in 1988, “People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage
for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians.” Lucas’ corruption is even sadder when it
seems that he was well aware of the ability to be corrupted early on.
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