The Great Film Artists 1/17/2012

1/17/2012
SO, when I think of the great directors of my generation, there are 3 names that automatically come to my mind. This is solely based on quantity of films I consider to be masterpieces. All 3 of these film makers have very distinctively different visual styles. One goes for epic cinematic realism, the other goes for epic cinema, but loves to take the viewer away from reality, while keeping a work mildly reality based. The third artist is a master of the surreal. He is Poe, Van Gogh, Fritz Lang, Edvard Munch, Salvador Dahli all rolled up into one gothic, beautifully abstract and original artiste! These guys should come as no surprise, so call me cliche!!! They are Spielberg, Scorsese, and Tim Burton.

I consider these artists to be sooo dependable that I have no worries that I'm not going to have a blast with whatever they do next. The fact that I can list their "okay" films on one hand IS saying something.

    Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is my least favorite work of his because I felt dissappointed. Maybe there was just too much hype that he would bring to life the beautiful trippy colors and characters of the Disney Classic. I was so hoping for a mix of his black and white style with a splash of bright neon colors, much like his usual palette in the films Edward Scissorhands and The Corpse Bride. Instead what I had to settle for was his first completely modern, CGI(computer generated imagery) visual feast led by a brilliantly spooky Johnny Depp performance, but Johnny can do no wrong. His movies aren't always gold but his performances are. Okay, so Tim Burton sold out in my opinion with Alice. Where were my giant scale sets of mushrooms??? It was all done on a freakin' computer.
     I adored his take on Charlie and the Chocolate factory. I loved Sweeney Todd and thought it was a wonderful musical homage/tribute to the musicals of the 50's and 60's. I think Corpse Bride is one of his best, Sleepy Hollow is almost a masterpiece, Planet of the Apes had some good makeup work but I'd like to forget about that one please. Edward Scissorhands is one of my favorite movies of all time, Beetlejuiice =brilliant, Ed Wood is his masterpiece, and Batman captured the magic of a comic book before any other film could. I could go on and on!!! Tim Burton has an original style that is at times disturbing and at times ahead of it's time, bold, new, beyond inventive, pure genius. And you just get the feeling he wants to preserve something that is wonderful. Until Alice, I respected most that he defied any conventional sacrifices to the computer technological advancement and opted to stick with practical effects as much as he could. Puppet wizardry, animatronics, stop motion, claymation. He would build mini-sets and use camera trickery to make the viewer actually think they are watching the camera float over a real suburban neighborhood. He is a genius. And this is where Steven Spielberg comes in.....
     Spielberg is my favorite director of a century. This guy's two truly mediocre movies are 1941, a war satire that is even that bad, and Hook, another movie that really isn't all that bad. Artificial Intelligence is not the best film ever but it is underrated for sheer visual wonderment. This guy made us scared to go in the water. He made us cry for a little alien to get home safely. He made me duck down when U.F.O.'s flew over Richard Dreyfuss's head. He brought to life such icons as Indiana Jones and the T Rex. He made quiet masterpieces with equally strong emotional impacts( Shindler's List, Munich, Catch Me If You Can) . He also made me cautious to be driving on an open road alone with a semi truck on my tail. And then there's Minority Report and Saving Private Ryan. I personally feel that The Terminal, guided by Tom Hanks's absolutely mesmerizing and absorbing performance as a man who is not allowed a home for some time, is right up there with his best work. And War of the Worlds is brilliant as well. This man is proving to be dependable at this very moment as I anticipate his latest, War Horse. I had a blast with Tin Tin, by the way. The guy can do almost no wrong. I love that he loves fantasy but likes to ground it in reality. I love that he, like Burton, loves epic cinema and opts to use hands on effects over computer effects. These guys are masters of their craft. And Martin Scorsese is no different.
     Martin Scorsese has not made one single bad film in his whole career. Bringing Out the Dead is probably his least respected work. And yet, even it is an engrossing film. Hugo just reminded me why I love movies so much. They bring magic to life!!! His gangster movies are so wonderful and throw an emotional punch at you that feels very relatable and hit's harder than Robert De Niro in Raging Bull! Spielberg gave me chills when he first showed the scope of his shark in the pond. You could see the length span from the shark's fin to it's tail. Then, the shark swims under. There is an intelligence that works against any land dwelling victim. You see the startled boys watch as the man swims to their boat(which is not even half the size of this shark.) Then, as the man reaches their boat the camera changes to an ariel view and from just above, you see the full body of a giant shark sneaking up, mouth wide open, going in for the kill.... Ahhhhhh! I can see that image in my head to this day. Scorsesw was able to create a similar tension with a paranoid drug induced Ray Liotta in Goodfellas, set to his brilliant soundtrack. Add to that a helicopter and the panic of the wife.....Terrifying!!!
     These guys are living, breathing geniuses. They are masterminds in the heroic sense. I love them and will forever consider them to be some of the greatest directors in the history of cinema. Until next time, Gumby Out!----- I dunno why some of the text got highlighted!-----