Director Indirect

I had some interesting responses to yesterday's post, notably Wendy and averagejoe both citing directors as reasons to see a movie. I never paid attention to directors as a kid—Spielberg and Lucas were the only names I knew. In college I discovered the weird magic that is Burton and the derivative hipness of Tarantino. Schumacher became a four-letter word after he ruined Batman, so I was somewhat pleasantly surprised when Phone Booth rocked on all sorts of levels, making use of one set as successfully as Rear Window while maintaining an interesting story and interesting characters. I was surprised to learn that The Lost Boys was one of his when I finally saw it last year, and I'm a little shocked to see Falling Down on his list of films. I loved that when I saw it in the theaters, and saw it twice because the projector broke. The theater gave me a free ticket to come back and a week later the same thing happened. It would be years before I finally saw the last 10 minutes of that movie. I can't believe that was Schumacher.

So as evidenced by what I just now learned, I really never paid attention to directors. A friend recently asked me what Kubrick movies I'd seen, and while I was familiar with the name it wasn't until he started ticking off titles—A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket—that I started nodding. Looks like there are several major films by him to add to my list.

What does a director do? How much does he or she contribute to the final product? Is it just advising the film editors, and telling actors “try it again this way”? Do some directors simply lend name value to a film? I think some do more than others, given the consistency of the films by the more well-known directors. Sometimes it just takes the right film to reach the audience. Before I saw X-men, I had no idea who Bryan Singer was, and yet back in college The Usual Suspects was one of my favorite movies.

There are many reasons to see movies, Meepers' list of criteria was closest to my own. In my twenties I started paying attention to directors. Some films I'll see for the genre, if it's science fiction or based on a comic book, while others I'll see for the actors and actresses. In those instances it doesn't matter to me who's directing. There are definitely directors whose movies I'm guaranteed to want to see though, among them Spielberg, Lucas, Tarantino, Smith, and Burton, to name a few.

So....anyone want to talk producers and their role?