Directors That Captured America?

Sidney Lumet, Martin Scorsese, and Woody Allen for New York City

Robert Altman for what being a true American is like

James Ivory for an American living abroad

The answer is David Lynch.

John Waters. Only he had the vision to see America as it has now become: trashy, filthy, vulgar, stupid, exhibitionistic.

John Ford is the correct answer.

He's not American, but Paul Verhoeven really captured America with Robocop, Starship Troopers, and Showgirls.

I totally agree with r1!

It sure the hell ain't no Busby Berkely...

Scorsese and Cassavetes

Frank Capra really should be on the list, and I don’t even like him very much.

A lot of these directors I’d trust to portray only certain parts of American society (Scorsese, Allen, Spielberg), but know that they couldn’t go beyond those limits. Scorsese could never get suburbia, for example. Altman feels like the one who was the most attuned to the vast richness of the American experience.

Talk to a documentary film maker, OP.

Scorese's Gangs of New York is one of the most brilliant films I've ever seen so I choose him.

[quote] John Houston

Oh, [italic]dear.[/italic]

Scorsese all day long but how about King Vidor.

r2 is correct — that pan from the white picket fence to the insects squirming underneath that opens Blue Velvet said all that ever needed to be said about this place

I recently rewatched Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. Slightly predictable storyline, but there's a realism to the Americana it depicts, outside the usual Scorsese territory, that I wish he revisited in more of his movies. Also I'd forgotten the young butch Jody Foster.

R15. For FUCK'S sake! It's JODIE!

Oh, I'm sorry, Dear. Please calm yourself. It's what they call a typo.

Alexander Payne. I always used to recommend his movies to European friends whose image of America came from Friends and Marlboro ads.

I'm from Oregon and some Gus Van Sant captured it.

[quote] It's what they call a typo.

It's a misspelling, not a typo. A typo is when you accidentally hit the wrong keys, or accidentally omit to hit the right ones.

Nora Ephron

Ken Clark made a good stab at it

HAL ASHBY! Definite America during the 70s.

It's John Huston, lamebrain.

R19 Oh, I'm sorry, Dear. Please calm yourself. It's what they call a misspelling.

I think Robert Redford and Clint Eastwood should be mentioned.

I think Robert Altman’s films have definitely depicted so many facets of American culture, far more than Scorsese, Allen, Spielberg and others from New Hollywood. He has dabbled in more genres, too.

Peter Bogdanovich in The Last Picture Show (1971).

Its the film I recommend to people who want to non-Americans to understand the US.

Among the "younger" crop, I would put forth Paul Thomas Anderson.

What a great topic.

I had to vote for Robert Altman......NASHVILLE......from beginning to end.......

Where is Hawkes, Where is Ford, Where is Hitchcock, where is Welles, where is Wyler,and where is Cassavetes? Your list is only tells me how much you know about American films. I could have included more: Douglas Sirk, Minnelli, John Sayers, George Stevens. Learn more about films before you ask a very limited question. Directors existed before 1970. Oh Pollack was a piss poor director. None of his films are watchable today- in my opinion.

Sydney Pollack??? Um, no.

Kind of striking that Mike Nichols has not been mentioned. Collectively, his movies examine America with the widest range.

Soderbergh