Your Stage : My Favorite Directors...So Far by Nick Eff (Mandlamadi)

The link works, Nick Eff (Mandlamadi). I've heard of a lot of these directors. Some of my favorites from the list are Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, and Jordan Peele.

Maurice Vaughan You should also check out some of the foreign directors.

I watch films by foreign directors, Nick Eff (Mandlamadi). Bong Joon Ho, John Woo, Guillermo del Toro, etc. I plan on watching more though.

It's an interesting list, but a bit too artsy for my taste with the exception of Steven Spielberg. Spielberg had the best grasp of how to mix excitement with art. Scorsese gets more credit than he deserves and Kubrick wasted way too much time and resources for the results he got. I found most of Kubrick's films to be slow and plodding.

Philip David Lee I felt the same way about all the people you mentioned when I was younger, but now I tend to prefer directors OUTSIDE of the USA. I've become more "artsy" with my taste.

I also feel that guys like Speilberg, Kubrick, Scorsese, and ESPECIALLY Tarantino, benefit from Whit privilege.

Nick Eff (Mandlamadi) I can't speak on white privilege, because in this industry, it's based on what have you done for me lately and this is a business. If and when directors put their own money into a project then they can do whatever the hell they want, but ultimately, you want people to enjoy your film because it is an entertainment business. If you don't care about your audience and just want to prove to the world how "artsy" you can be then I don't care for that line of thinking. Painters can be like that, but not directors.

Directors I admire were and are such talents as Walter Hill, Sam Peckinpah, Antoine Fuqua, Peter Hyams, William Friedkin, James Cameron and Michael Cimino. Cimino didn't strike gold every time but I loved some of his work more than others. To each their own, I guess.

Philip David Lee I respect your opinion, but I disagree about the "artsy" notion. I love "artsy". Also, I'm anti-USA when it comes to most things, especialy cinema. My experience in this country has been VERY unpleasant. Yes, it's a bias, I know, but it makes me feel better. Cinema OUTSIDE the USA is just more interesting and compelling to me now.

America has a disgusting racist history, and lately, It's gotten worse, in every aspect. So, it's difficult for me to continue to celebrate a country and it's cinema that has CLEARLY made me feel like I don't exist.

Nick Eff (Mandlamadi) America's racist history is no more brutal or horrible than any other country's racist history. The Germans have to live with the holocaust, Egypt has their history with with Jewish people and still exhibits race hatred today. Whit farmer are being executed by the thousands in South Africa depending on who you believe. The entire Islamic state pretty much hates everyone that doesn't follow Allah where it is entirely legal for 50 year old men to marry 9 year old women and everyone claiming America is run by "White Supremacy" never addresses black on black crime. The only thing America has are politicians that use racism as a political tool to get votes and purposely pit people against each other.

What it comes down to is people will believe anything that takes the blame for their lot in life off of themselves. You want to give everyone a participation trophy then no one pushes themselves to achieve a higher level of understanding. You want to blame America for your fore fathers being brought to America through the slave trade, but never want to talk about the blacks that sold them to America in the first place nor does anyone want to give credit to the thousands of Union soldiers that sacrificed their lives to fight for slaves' freedom. It's an awfully convenient blame game that requires no research.

The film industry hasn't treated me well either. I find their methods dated, their strategies unfounded and their focus on what is entertaining to be misguided. None of that has anything to do with racism. You started your post with directors you admire to which I gave my feelings about some directors' methods that I didn't agree with. You brought race into the discussion saying basically that making a successful film has nothing to do with talent.

I don't know what kind of awful experiences you have had in the film industry, but the bottom line is, investors are risking a lot of money when they put it towards a film especially if you want to do a union project. They want to try and reduce as much risk as possible so they can have a positive ROI which is hard because distribution can be a black hole for profits to disappear into.. Joker 2 was a failure because the director decided he wanted to be "artsy" instead of entertaining his audience. He basically admitted it. This recent Snow White is a disaster because the lead actress thinks her views of the world supersede the opinions of others. Hollywood is losing it's star power because actors think they know more as parrots than people that have actually finished college. The jester never assumes he knows more than the king.

So be angry and hateful. Let your wounds cause you to bleed out. People usually don't heal that way and when your finite life reaches the end of its experience on this plane of perception and you're back among the cosmic energy matrix of a forever consciousness where time is meaningless, try and remember the time you wasted down here being bitter instead of learning how to navigate through this limited creek. Lesser minds than yours have done it. Don't let the most ignorant win because once you're dead, believe me, none of this will really matter.