With the advancement of technology and the popularization of the internet, western culture has spread its influence to various parts of the globe. Consequently, Hollywood movies have increased their viewership exponentially in recent years. Talking about India, more specifically about urban India, with the degradation in the quality of Bollywood movies (which is the popular opinion), people have shifted their interests to Hollywood movies. Especially the youth prefer watching Hollywood movies as they feel they are constructed upon better ideas, are directed better and are just more fun to watch overall.
For a long time Hollywood has produced some magnificent movies which are both critically acclaimed and popular among the people. Don’t get me wrong, film industries like ours have also released some gems of a movie. Now, everyone- right from the lead actor to the crewman- works hard for a movie to come out as well as it does. But, the man in charge of overseeing the entire project is the director. Directors make the movie what it is and without them, the film industry would fall apart in a day. Here are some of the top directors of Hollywood:
# Christopher NolanNolan was born in 1970 in London, England. In just 15 years of his film making career, Nolan has graduated from making small-time, low budget films to some of the biggest blockbusters Hollywood has seen. His first feature was a relatively less known film The Following. He then made Memento in the year 2000 which brought him many honors and award nominations including an Oscar nomination. From there, Nolan went on to make movies like Insomnia, The Prestige, Inception, and of course The Batman series: Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. His movies have one of the best screenplays in the history Hollywood and his ideas are unmatched by any other film maker.
# Francis Ford CoppolaBorn in 1939 in Detroit, USA, Francis Ford Coppola is the director of the IMDb Top 250 number 2 and 3 films: The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II. Coppola’s film The Godfather became among the highest grossing films in 1971. He also won an Oscar for the movie. He won another Oscar for The Godfather: Part II. The Godfather series, as some call it, are the best adaptations of a book (written by Mario Puzo) into a movie. Other films directed by him include Dracula, The Rainmaker and Apocalypse Now.
# Sergio LeoneSergio Leone was born in 1929 in Rome, Italy to one of Italy’s cinema pioneers, Roberto Roberti (a.k.a. Vincent Leone. Leone was the director of the movie The Good, The Bad, The Ugly which features at number 6 on IMDb’s Top 250 movies of all time. His other masterpieces include splendid titles like Once Upon a Time in The West and For a Few Dollars More. This fact is not very well known, but Leone actually declined the offer to direct The Godfather in favor of his dream project, One Upon a Time in America. Leone died at the age of 60 in 1989.
# Charles ChaplinCharlie Chaplin is considered to be one of the most genius and pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood. He is undoubtedly the most recognized stars of the silent film era of Hollywood. Born in 1889, he is remembered by most as the little man with the toothbrush moustache, bowler hat, bamboo cane and a funny walk. His works include Modern Times, The Idle Class, City Lights, The Circus and A Burlesque of Carmen among countless more, a huge percentage of which were silent films. Chaplin died in 1977 at the age of 88.
# Quentin TarantinoThe 51 year old director was born Knoxville, Tennessee. Tarantino’s first film as a writer-director, Reservoir Dogs, was released at the Sundance Film Festival in the January of 1992. The film received high critical acclaim and popularity, instantly making Tarantino a legend in the movie industry. After that Tarantino made movies like Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Inglorious Basterds, Death Proof, Sin City, Django Unchained and Pulp Fiction, all of which were very well received by audiences across the globe. He has won Oscars, Golden Globes, Emmys and other honorary awards for most of his movies.