Who is your favorite American Film Director?

I chose John Ford and for my money he was a real pioneer in the arts. But all my life I liked the movies made by Robert Wise. He came in through the back door I guess delivering mail and worked his way up to become an editor in Orson Welles great film. Some of my favorites he directed includes: "The Day The Earth Stood Still", "The Sound Of Music", and "The Andromeda Strain".

Tough but most of my movie going days were in the Spielberg era so he gets my vote because of the excitement one would feel when they were opening. Alfred Hitchcok also made some great films. Buster Keaton is grand for his era and shorts but there are probably some other comedians who made shorts who were also probably as good but are largely forgotten. And what about Frank Capra or even Oliver Stone!

Alfred Hitchcock and Charlie Chaplin, American?

Shouldn't there be an "other" option? And for once, I must agree with Mr. Alvarez's comment.

It's hard to choose one director as a favorite. There were so many brilliant directors through the years. Many more than listed.

My favorite director of all time is Stanley Kubrick. He was American; born in New York City.

The key word here seems to be "favorite." This is just another popularity contest, with no regard to merit or influence. Who created it, I wonder? No name attached to it, not even a pseudonym.

Here's a list of Spielberg's movies that I saw ...
"Hook" at the UA in Totowa (35mm Dolby)
"Lost World: Jurassic Park" at the Loews in Wayne (35mm DTS), twice.
"AI" at the AMC in Clifton Commons (35mm Dolby EX)
"Minority Report" at the Aviation Mall 7 in Queensbury (35mm Dolby)
"Catch me If You Can" at the Loews Stroud 7 (35mm Dolby)
"War of the Worlds" at the Succasunna 10 (35mm Dolby Digital)
"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" at the AMC Rockaway 16 (35mm Dolby Digital)

Had to pick one of the above, so I chose Scorsese. But I'm with LM-HG. Kubrick all the way for me.

Hitchcock. But I love Preston Sturges and Martin Ritt. Steven Spielberg is the most overrated director of our time. Sorry folks.

Both William Wyler and Billy Wilder became American Citizens.The masters of American Cinema are from the old Hollywood studio System. They would be very unhappy to see the current state of the Film Industry which has gone into decline since the 1970's in term of quality film. Great female actors have almost disappeared from American Cinema. Look at the long and varied careers of Bette Davis and Katherine Hepburn who were both movie stars as well as great actress's.The only current American Actress Meryl Streep is lucky that she has very little competition since there are very few leading ladies today compared to when both Bettie Davis and Katherine Hepburn were in there prime and directed by the great directors from there era.brucec

Compared to Welles and Ford, Spielberg is a hack. There is absolutely no comparision

Alfred Hitchcock became an American citizen in 1956, although he also retained his British citizenship.

I would have voted for Robert Altman or Woody Allen, but neither was listed. So I voted for my third choice, Alfred Hitchcock.

Some other greats not mentioned:

Vincente Minnelli
George Cukor
William Wyler

Brucec, I agree with most of what you said. But I can't agree that decline of the film industry began in the 1970s. On the contrary, I think that decade experienced a fresh start of new ideas and very bold techniques. Who can deny films like THE GODFATHER, THE EXORCIST, CHINATOWN, TAXI DRIVER, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND and APOCOLYPSE NOW were not major breakthroughs in cinematic storytelling.

Even the 1980s, with achievements like RAGING BULL, THE ELEPHANT MAN, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, BLADE RUNNER, E.T., BLOOD SIMPLE, BLUE VELVET and DO THE RIGHT THING, cannot go unappreciated.

In my opinion, it was at the start of the '90s, with the film industry concentrating so much on which summer blockbuster sequel they could churn out next and how much money they could rake in on just the opening weekend, where it all started to go downhill. It's been spiraling into a deeper pit ever since.

Perhaps the poll question should have read, "American-born film director". It might have eliminated a few discrepencies.

While I enjoy these polls and the comments, they are, for the most part, way too general. Questions could be limited to a specific era or genre. For instance, “favorite western director, or dramatic director, or best cinema noire or pre-war, post-sixties, etc., etc. Comparing Woody Allen with John Ford is truly comparing bananas to sagebrush. Anyway, it’s all still fun, Happy Halloween everyone.

Jack

Really. I don't buy that citizenship angle. Based on that we could call Mikhail Baryshnikov "a great American ballet dancer".

I also consider some of Hitchcock's early British films among his best.

Love movies, I was talking about the decline in quality Cinema from the late 1970's. "Star Wars" was a huge success as was "Jaws" and the popcorn movie was born and became the A-list films from the studios from that point forward. The 1970's was the best decade in terms of quality from the New Hollywood. The movie industry's Golden Era was from the 1920's thru the early 1950's. Anywhere between 60-90 million people went to the movies each week. The years 1939-1941 are considered the studio system at its peak prior to our entry into WW11.The studios had to separate themselves from there theatre holdings during the 1950's which ended with the last split Loew's-MGM in 1959. During the 1960's the studios were under Capitalized and lived or died by the one or two expensive Roadshows they produced. Hollywood went into a severe depression in 1969-1970 which every studios lost a ton of money on the big budget bombs such as Doctor Doolittle,Star,Tora,Tora,Tora,Paint Your Wagon,Sweet Charity,Goodbye Mr. Chips and many others. The New Hollywood replaced the old Hollywood with low budget films and a lot of creativity. Hollywood didn't start making big budget films in large quantity until the late 1970's due to the success of "Star Wars" and "Jaws". From that point on Hollywood aimed its product to the youth market under the age of 25 and the start of the tent pole movies which are the studios bread and butter. Most of the movies aimed at Adults are produced by the independents or studios classic divisions with a low budget. The studios today are looking for the next Spiderman,Batman,Harry Potter and not the next "Lawrence of Arabia".brucec

Brucec, you've just inspired me to read Peter Biskind's EASY RIDERS RAGING BULLS again. Great book!

My favorite American director? Sam Peckinpah.

There have been a few good movies that have come out in this decade. Lord of the Rings would be one of those. If I am not mistaken it was the first time a movie with 3 parts was shot at the same time rather then to have to do part 2 and 3 at a later time. Peter Jackson
did a bang up job on that one but however his remake of King Kong didn't exactly thrill me. Another American born Director who was not on the list is Clint Eastwood.

Oh well we can't win em all

I chose my favorite, but he's sure not American!

I don't think the anti-trust court decisions against the movie studios, which resulted in the break-up of the studio system, went far enough. By and large, the film industry is still un-competitive and run as an oligarchy. Hollywood has appropriated the independent film movement, and movie theatres in cities throughout the country are compelled only to book the films produced and/or distributed by Hollywood. Local and independent films are relegated to the margins, and local film production is all but non-existent. With that in mind, was the monopoly ever really broken up?

Chicago it is not always the case. "The Crying Game" was orignally an Indie. Is was then picked up by Miramax. I saw it at the Angelika in NYC. It's an art film theatre. Within a few weeks if was nominated for an Oscar and was widely distributed. I recall it cost about $4 million to make and in the U.S. Box Office: $60,719,528. It opened it's first weekend at 6 locations an in it's 15th week got to a high of 1097 screens. Thats what it did in the US. not bad for a low budget Indie. Unfortunately Miramax over the yearts was bought out by Time Warner

The anti-trust controls were deregulated by Ronald Reagan who let Hollywood studios buy theatres again and give their films priority.

BTW, East Coast Rocker, Miramax was bought by Disney, not Time Warner, and forced the Weinsteins to jump ship and form their own company, which is not as successful as Miramax or its competitors. Time Warner's New Line was once an indie studio before being absorbed into the studio while Warner Independent and Picturehouse folded after several years.

I agree that a number of directors from the "golden age" were neglected in this pole. I do not understand the idolization of Stanley Kubrick. While he was a great technician, his movies tended to be filmed with a cold and distant point of view. Most of his films made after "Dr. Strangelove" have the same basic flaw as "important" contemporary films; the director's vision is so personal that the film is either tedious or meaningless to the film going public.

Stanley Kubrick was brilliant because he told stories truthfully. He did not have to dress anything up or glamourize things, because the beauty was already present in what was being filmed. I think of some of the scenes of "Barry Lyndon," for example. Some find his films, as you said jazzland, to be "cold and distant," but I find his approach merely objective as opposed to subjective, which is to say neither good nor bad.

Thanks Justin. I stand corrected. I had the 2 companies mixed up I remember that Miramax was one of the companies looked at when shopping for a studio to produce Lord of the Rings. I still cringe when I think of the TW-AO-Hell merger. What a mistake.

Jazzland... while it is true that many of his films after "Dr. Strangelove" have been the subject of much debate, I think you'll find wide-ranging consensus that "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "A Clockwork Orange" are among the most widely respected films ever made. Some might find them tedious, but I hardly think the word "meaningless" is apt. In any case, to each his own.

Hitchcock made so many all-time classics. "The Birds" and "Psycho" are 2 of my all-time faves.
But shouldn't Howard Hawks have been listed?