re: Directors with the best filmography

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Sidney Lumet is slept on. He is a volume shooter but his hits are classics

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I would add The Anderson Tapes and The Pawnbroker to your list.

Martin Scorsese

Mean streets
Taxi driver
Raging bull
King of comedy
The color of money
The last temptation of Christ
Goodfellas
Cape fear
Casino
Bringing out the dead
Gangs of New York
The aviator
The departed
Shutter island
The wolf of Wall Street
The Irishman
Killers of the flower moon

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am not going to pretend i have watched his filmography, just went with what i have seen.

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I haven't seen all of it either. As you said, he worked at volume, and not everything is worth it.

I'd say Clint Eastwood has had a pretty good run as director...

1971 Play Misty for Me
1973 High Plains Drifter
1975 The Eiger Sanction
1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales
1977 The Gauntlet
1980 Bronco Billy
1982 Firefox
Honkytonk Man
1983 Sudden Impact
1985 Pale Rider
1986 Heartbreak Ridge
1988 Bird
1990 White Hunter Black Heart
The Rookie
1992 Unforgiven
1993 A Perfect World
1995 The Bridges of Madison County
1997 Absolute Power
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
1999 True Crime
2000 Space Cowboys
2002 Blood Work
2003 Mystic River
2004 Million Dollar Baby
2006 Flags of Our Fathers
Letters from Iwo Jima
2008 Changeling
Gran Torino
2009 Invictus
2010 Hereafter
2011 J. Edgar
2014 Jersey Boys
American Sniper
2016 Sully
2018 The 15:17 to Paris
The Mule
2019 Richard Jewell
2021 Cry Macho
TBA Juror No. 2

Personal ranking of top-5

1. Kubrick
2. Scorcese
3. Spielberg
4. Nolan
5. Coen Brothers

I think Sydney Pollack gets overlooked:

The Slender Thread
This Property Is Condemned
The Scalphunters
Castle Keep
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Jeremiah Johnson
The Way We Were
The Yakuza
Three Days of the Condor
Bobby Deerfield
The Electric Horseman
Absence of Malice
Tootsie
Out of Africa
Havana
The Firm
Sabrina
Random Hearts
The Interpreter
Sketches of Frank Gehry
Amazing Grace

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Kubrick

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Very difficult to attack Kubrick on influence, quality and quality-per-picture basis.

Folks sleep on John Ford all the time. I know that is from the Classic and Golden eras of Hollywood. Ford made a shite ton of westerns because those were the movies that Hollywood was funding and folks were going to see. He made some of the best westerns of all time. Dozens of them.

The competition was no slouch, either. He was going up against the Orson Welleses, Howard Hawks, Billy Wilders, William Wylers of the world. Giants all.

And in all of that, he quietly won FOUR (4) of the first 25 (and 3 of the first 14) best directing Oscars - during a time where they meant something and wasn't some bullshite popularity and/or political statement.

And this genre film director? This one-eyed old man who directed westerns? Won the (still) record four directing Oscars for 4 non-western films.

His films are all over the AFI and other "GOAT" lists. He started his work in earnest as a young man in Hollywood during the first world war, he directed at least 140 features, including many silent films (which were no doubt great in most cases) lost to time. 15 films in just 1919 alone.

He directed Up the River in 1930, which was the film debut for both Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart. He worked with OG Harry Carey when Carey was in his 20s. He directed George O'Brien, Tom Mix, Tyrone Powers, Jimmy Cagney, Clark Gable, Grace Kelly, Jeffrey Hunter, Jimmy Stewart and dozens of other household names, who were all at the peak of their careers in most cases.

Even if John Ford had NEVER worked with John Wayne, it would be not only arguable, but he would likely still be the greatest film director of all time. :letthatsinkin:

Cohen Brothers
John Hughes

just tossing those out there since others have been mentioned.

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John Ford
•The Informer
•Fort Apache or The Quiet Man

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Arrowsmith
Drums Along the Mohawk
The Grapes of Wrath
How Green Was My Valley
Stagecoach
They Were Expendable
My Darling Clementine
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon
Wagon Master
Rio Grande
Mogambo
Mister Roberts*(Replaced by LeRoy during filming)
The Searchers
The Horse Soldiers
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
(Part of) How the West Was Won
7 Women



He directed 2 war documentaries that won Oscars for best documentary (December 7th and The Battle of Midway).

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Sugarland Express
Jaws
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Indiana Jones Movies
ET
The Color Purple
Jurassic Park Movies
Schindler's List
Saving Private Ryan
Amistad
Minority Report
Catch Me if You Can
Munich
War Horse
Lincoln
The BFG
The Post
Ready Player One

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And lets be honest. He did everything on Poltergeist except have his name attached to it.