Directors whose best film is also their most popular

[dave from knoxville]

I love you people. Could this level of discussion be conducted on any other board? Not any I am aware of.

[mostlymeat]

The Godfather is low on my Coppola list too. I'm with you on The Conversation being the best. It's been years but I really like The Outsiders and Rumble Fish as well.

After Swayze died I went through his canon and The Outsiders was the only one I couldn't get through. I had fond memories of this movie but wowzers it was really stinko lousy.

-AG

[Smelodies]

Apocalypse Now is better than Part III- that's it.

[David]

Nobody here's going to defend "Jack"?

[Paul DeLouisiana]

Nobody here's going to defend "Jack"?

Jack v. One From The Heart. What say you?

[Yannick]

Ivan Reitman and Ghostbusters.

[roubaix]

It's been a while since I watched Citizen Kane, but my favorite Orson Welles is either Lady from Shanghai or Touch of Evil.  I still haven't seen The Trial, The Immortal Story, Falstaff or the other Shakespeare films.  Magnificent Ambersons does not withstand the cuts and reshoots.

Once Upon a Time in the West is Leone's best.


My votes are for

Jaromil Jireš - Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
David Lean - Lawrence of Arabia
Fritz Lang - Metropolis
Fellini - 8½
Harold Ramis - Groundhog Day
Fernando Meirelles - City of God
Charles Laughton - Night of the Hunter

[fonpr]

It's been a while since I watched Citizen Kane, but my favorite Orson Welles is either Lady from Shanghai or Touch of Evil.  I still haven't seen The Trial, The Immortal Story, Falstaff or the other Shakespeare films.  Magnificent Ambersons does not withstand the cuts and reshoots.

Once Upon a Time in the West is Leone's best.


My votes are for

Jaromil Jireš - Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
David Lean - Lawrence of Arabia
Fritz Lang - Metropolis
Fellini - 8½
Harold Ramis - Groundhog Day
Fernando Meirelles - City of God
Charles Laughton - Night of the Hunter

The Trial is a good one.  Different ending than the book.

[cavorting with nudists]

Admittedly this gets easier when the director has a smaller body of work, but naming Night of the Hunter, Laughton's only film, takes some stones.

[Kormod]

Judging by pure numbers, Avatar" is the most successful movie of all time

This might be a case where a director's worst film is also his most popular.

Didn't he do Piranha 2? And how does James Cameron's "Aquaman" fit into that.

And I made the Coppola comment based on my opinion that Godfather I and II are his best in my opinion. If that's not true for everyone, then let the debates rage!

I've never seen Piranha Part Two: The Spawning (though I've seen all of Cameron's other films). Judging by the flying piranha clip on YouTube, I'd say it's better than Avatar.

Is Kurosawa's most popular film Rashomon or Seven Samurai? I'd say Seven Samurai is his best (but I'm sure someone's going to disagree and say Ikiru, Ran, Throne of Blood, or Rashomon is better).

Also, Robert Zemeckis - Back to the Future. Maybe not:

As of June 2011, Forrest Gump is ranked as the 23rd highest grossing domestic film and 45th worldwide.[43][44]

The film took 66 days to surpass $250 million and was the fastest grossing Paramount film to pass $100 million, $200 million, and $300 million in box office receipts (at the time of its release).[45][46][47] The film had gross receipts of $329,694,499 in the U.S. and Canada and $347,693,217 in international markets for a total of $677,387,716 worldwide.[1]

[Sarah]

Everyone knows Dementia 13 is Francis Ford Coppola's best movie.

Also, my "really?" earlier was meant to be a response to H. Boulevard's assertion that North by Northwest is both Hitchcock's best and his most popular movie.

[Kormod]

Speaking of Aquaman: Billy Walsh - Queens Boulevard.

[buffcoat]

Is Kurosawa's most popular film Rashomon or Seven Samurai? I'd say Seven Samurai is his best (but I'm sure someone's going to disagree and say Ikiru, Ran, Throne of Blood, or Rashomon is better).

You tried to be so careful - mucho props!  But you missed "Yojimbo," which has to be on your list, and his actual best film, which is "High and Low."

[HaroldBlvd]

Terrance Young / Thunderball (1965)

[CSW]

I love both Godfather movies, but I think it's a pretty commonly-held critical opinion The Conversation and Apocalypse Now are better films.

I find this doubtful. There's probably no better index of serious critical opinion than the once-per-decade BFI Sight & Sound poll of Greatest Films of All Time. In 1992, when they started polling directors and critics separately, both Godfathers wound up in the directors' top ten, though not the critics'.  In 2002, the critics put G&GII, considered as a unit, fourth (after Citizen Kane, Vertigo, and The Rules of the Game.) The directors put them second, after Kane. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sight_%26_Sound

My sense is that the overwhelming critical consensus on Apocalypse Now is that it's a magnificent effort, fatally flawed, and that to call it better than G&GII is indeed pretty contrarian.

Also G&GII won the Oscars for Bext Picture/Writing. And GII also got Best Director. All his other films were nominated without winning.

I agree that

Apocalypse Now is that it's a magnificent effort, fatally flawed,