Many film buffs subscribe to the “auteur” approach to filmmaking, in which the director is the primary shaper of the final work. With that in mind, here is my ranking of the best work of my favorite directors from the Hollywood era between 1930 and 1980.
Lights, camera, ACTION!
The Seven Samurai
Yojimbo (Bodyguard)
Rashomon
Stray Dog
High and Low
The Hidden Fortress
Red Beard
Ran (Chaos)
Ikiru (To Live)
Throne Of Blood
Citizen Kane
Touch of Evil
Lady from Shanghai
Chimes at Midnight
Othello
The Trial
The Magnificent Ambersons
It’s All True
The Stranger
Sunset Boulevard
Some Like It Hot
The Apartment
Ace in the Hole
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
The Seven Year Itch
One, Two, Three
Double Indemnity
Stalag 17
The Man Who Would Be King
The Treasure of Sierra Madre
The Maltese Falcon
Moulin Rouge
Moby Dick
Fat City
Dr. Strangelove
2001: A Space Odyssey
Barry Lyndon
Paths of Glory
A Clockwork Orange
The Killing
Full Metal Jacket
Lolita
His Girl Friday
To Have and Have Not
Bringing up Baby
Ball of Fire
Red River
Rio Bravo
The Big Sleep
Rear Window
The Birds
Vertigo
Psycho
North by Northwest
Shadow of a Doubt
Suspicion
How Green Was My Valley
Stagecoach
The Grapes of Wrath
The Searchers
The Long Voyage Home
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
The Quiet Man
Angels with Dirty Faces
Casablanca
The Sea Hawk
Yankee Doodle Dandy
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Captain Blood
Mildred Pierce
White Heat
The Roaring Twenties
The Big Trail
Captain Horatio Hornblower
High Sierra
The Naked and the Dead
The Thief of Bagdad
The Public Enemy
Beggars of Life
Wild Boys of the Road
Wings
Beau Geste
Battleground
Nothing Sacred
A Star Is Born
Westward the Women
The Big Red One
Pickup on South Street
Park Row
House of Bamboo
The Naked Kiss
Shock Corridor
China Gate
They Live by Night
On Dangerous Ground
Rebel Without a Cause
55 Days at Peking
In a Lonely Place
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
The Wild Bunch
The Getaway
Cross of Iron
Pat Garret and Billy the Kid
The Killer Elite
The Godfather Part Two
The Godfather
The Conversation
Apocalypse Now
The Cotton Club
Mean Streets
Taxi Driver
Raging Bull
After Hours
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore