Nulis deskripsi tentang kenapa gw nulis entry ini sounded very boring and pretentious, so without further ado, this is my 10 favorite movie director of all time. Oh, and I’m not a fan of Kurosawa and Kubrick, so enjoy the list but first, Honorable Mention goes to Nolan,  Koreeda, Bier, De Palma, Apatow, Leone, Zemeckis and Hillcoat…

 

10. Nicholas Winding Refn

Greatest Hits : DRIVE and VALHALLA RISING

Why : Stylish, Unpredictable, and very very contrast. No, for all of you fuckers yang uda mulai mempertanyakan dari awal, Nope, gw belom nonton semua filmnya Winding Refn, but I Will, in time. Film pertama Winding Refn yang gw tonton itu Drive, dan bisa gw bilang mata gw langsung terbelalak lebar. Holy Fuck, ada ya selain Michael Mann yang bisa bikin ngegabung Noir dan Modern di dalam satu paket? Terus Valhalla Rising mampir ilegally to my HDD dan my god, what a movie. Bener2 clear cut, minimalis dan violently powerful. Jelas, gw bakal ngikutin karir ni orang. Gak tau sih, Hollywood bakalan ngasih big budget project buat dia, but bayangin deh, apa yang bakal terjadi kalo Batman digarap ama Winding Refn.

 

9. John McTiernan

Greatest Hits : Predator, Die Hard, and Die Hard with A Vengeance

Why : No bullshit, style with substance, emphasis in FUN. Yep, you read it right. John McTiernan is one of my favorite director of all time. Tentu aja, like all director, Tiernan had his hit and miss, walo dalem kasus dia missnya jauh lebih banyak ampe masuk penjara beneran. Ok, tiga film terakhirnya bisa gw kategoriin as a garbage bin DVD worthy flick, but sisanya? Blockbuster! Setidaknya beberapa di mata gw. Dari Die Hard yang influential banget, Predator yang macho and bajingan banget, Die Hard with A Vengeance yang FUN and ga masuk akal in a good way, sampe THE 13th WARRIOR yang incredibly UNDERRATED, John McTiernan itu sutradara film ACTION terbaik yang pernah ada. Film2nya digarap dengan teknik yang straight without pretentious bullshit. Gak ada tuh dialog2 sok pinter ato pinter di dalem McTiernan. Semuanya serba simpel dan FUN! Please please, give him another chance to shine Hollywood!

 

8. Steven Spielberg

Greatest Hits : Saving Private Ryan and Jaws

Why : Blockbuster, Catchy, and Jaw Breaking.  The Granddaddy of them all. Sutradara yang total penghasilan film2nya gak ada tandingan di planet ini. The Sugarland Express, the Master of Harrison Ford, the Nazi and anti-semitic worst nightmare, The man with The biggest dick(and nose), Steven “Goddamn” Spielberg. To tell you the truth, Spielberg bertanggung jawab banyak banget  to lot of aspect in my awesome life. Memulai ketertarikan sejarah gw lewat Saving Private Ryan, bikin gw kagum ama Sharks lewat Jaws, dan tentu aja, bikin gw benci ama Tom Cruise gara2 War of the World and Minority Report. Yang paling awesome dari Spielberg itu ialah ability dia buat bikin film yang incredibly hard di translate to screen in script, jadi hiburan sejuta umat yang gak murahan dan menyentuh. Emang sih, kadang2 dia bisa ngorbanin logik, originalitas dan realitas cuma buat Happy ending(ex AI), but still, he’s a baddass human being dengan kontribusi gak ada duanya buat dunia perfilman. Without Spielberg, bioskop bakalan diisi ama kaum snobs, hipster and goddamn pretentious asshole semua. Just ask Goddard..

7. Frank Darabont

Greatest Hits : The Shawshank Redemption and The Mist

Why : Sederhana, Efektif, dan sephia. Kerennya Frank Darabont, gak ada satupun film2nya yang masuk dalam kategori jelek. Gw rasa itu gara2 Darabont sendiri yang nulis(or adapting) skriptnya(except for The Majestic), dan biasanya Darabont bener2 deep involved with each of his movie, gak perduli sekecil apapun produksinya. Liat aja hasilnya, Shawshank begitu bebas dan bikin feeling lu ngerasa lepas banget, Green Mile yang semestinya bleak dan abu2 jadi begitu berwarna walopun gelap, The Majestic yang classic and classy, sampe THE MIST yang gw nobatin punya ending paling nonsensical dan sia2 in a good way sepanjang sejarah silver screen(even Stephen King, penulis novel aslinya The MIST, ngerasa ending versi DARABONT bener2 brilliant and CRAZY). Proyek barunya itu GODZILLA. Just take my money already Darabont…

 

6. David Fincher

Greatest Hits : The Game, Seven and Fight Club

Why : FAST, FURIOUS and Mind blowing.  Walo di 3 film terakhirnya, Fincher bisa gw kategoriin menjual diri dengan mengambil proyek2 SAFE, FIncher still is one of the greatest director of all time. Why? Soalnya dia bisa bikin script2 yang corny dan gak original jadi something yang rapih, stylish and very very watchable. Tapi no doubt it, trio tiga film diatas itu, is FINCHER magnum opus, terutama THE GAME. THE GAME make me realize kalo ada film yang sebegitu artsy pantsy classic noir, tapi rasanya bener2 menjual banget. Terus datang lagi Seven, yang sampe sekarang gw jadiin semacem tolak ukur buat film2 thriller modern(yang anehnya, sampe sekarang gak ada film Thriller HOLLYWOOD yang selevel ama Seven), dan terakhir FIGHT CLUB. Its amazing banget bagaimana sebuah film tentang penjual sabun, kritisi pop culture and Brad Pitt basically playing himself, jadi one of the greatest cinema mindfuck yang pernah gw tonton.

 

5. Ridley Scott

Greatest Hits : Alien and Blade Runner

Why : VISIONARY, that’s all. Ini yang ada diingetan gw aja ya, tapi Ridley Scott responsible to a lot of COOLEST shit yang ever graced in our silver screen world. Dia ngenalin kita ke Alien(and HR Giger too seh), which is one of the greatest SCIFI ever, not to mention one of the greatest HORROR movie of all time. Terus Scott bring us BLADE RUNNER, dan ngenalin kita ke sebuah concept dimana NOIR, CYBERPUNK, Rutger Hauer is the greatest combination of all time. Terus Scott juga introduced us to the awesome capitalist way how to empty our pocket by releasing a lot of director’s cut, final cut, or whatever it is, but in a WORTHY kinda way, and  last but not least, GLADIATOR memperkenalkan kembali konsep epik dan collosal ke dunia modern. Belom lagi film2nya laennya semacem Black Hawk Down yang explosive and badass abis, Kingdom of Heaven yang versi directors cutnya itu GILA banget, sampe Black Rain yang neo tokyo banget. Ridley definitely pantes banget kalo dapet julukan as the most visionary(literally and figuratively) director of all time buat gw…

 

4. Richard Linklater

Greatest Hits : Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight

Why : BELIEVEABLE.  A Scanner darkly is good, Bernie is Hilarious, School of Rock is a rare gems where rock actually meant, well ROCK, Slacker rasanya sehari2 yang damai, but to tell you the truth, i dont give a shit about all those movie. The only reason why LINKLATER sitting comfortably in his ass at 4th position is because of “Before Trilogy(Sunrise, Sunset, Midnight), which is quite frankly THE GREATEST TRILOGY AND DRAMA MOVIE OF ALL TIME. Gak maen2, tiga film itu secara gak langsung menentukan my love life, indirectly. I was like watching my life unfolding with truth dibalik batu gara2 tiga film itu. Sunrise made me a romantic, Sunset made me a Risktaker, and Midnight made me a REAL REALISTIC PERSON. But aside from all the personal reference, Before Trilogy is a masterpiece in silver screen too. If you think all of this reason is too biased, get the fuck out of my blog..

 

3. Quentin Tarantino

Greatest Hits : Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown and Pulp Fiction

Why : Details, details and details. Gw gak nyangka Tarantino nongkrong di posisi setinggi ini. I always like Tarantino, I always think him as one of the better director in the world today, but yang gw gak nyangka is betapa banyak film2nya yang begitu gw suka, love and influential to my mind and the way I’m thinking. Why? DETAILS. Film2 tarantino itu kaya easter eggs berjalan yang penuh sama reference and alternative universe everywhere.  And all the dialogs, holy shit. Gw keabisan kata2. Kalo filmmaker2(or penulis) laen kebanyakan masukin dialognya sesuai dengan judul dan theme, dan gak melenceng jauh2 dari film2nya, Tarantino is putting a lot of gibberish and bullshit yang KEREN di dialog2 film dia. Belom lagi karakterisasi yang begitu POP in an unusual and weird way, dalem, dan exceptionally COOL. Tarantino mungkin satu2nya penulis skript yang begitu aktif masukin so much little details into all of his fictional character. From Django to Vincent Vega. From Bill to Jackie Brown. Semuanya tuh bikin kita perduli ama mereka. And that’s is such a very hard and rare achievement to reach! The bastard bahkan belom pernah bikin satupun film jelek, for god sake..

 

2. Masaki Kobayashi

Greatest Hits : Harakiri, The Human Condition Trilogy, Samurai Rebellion, and Kwaidan

Why : Berjiwa, Berwarna, Bermakna. Pertama kali gw nonton Harakiri, jiwa gw merinding, dan otak gw berputer2 with all the ambiguous morality. Pertama kali gw nonton the goddamn 9 hours Human Condition Trilogy, mulut gw mangap gak percaya with those BLEAK story, logically SAD ending dan betapa terlalu cepetnya Kobayashi dibandingin kebanyakan orang modern realize about how fuck up human is. Pertama kali gw nonton Samurai Rebellion, gw langsung nempatin film itu di my number 2 Samurai movie of all time behind Harakiri, dan pertama kali gw nonton Kwaidan, gw gak percaya bisa ada film seindah dan secreepy itu padahal syutingnya cuma di Stage with painting all over the place.  Kobayashi is a genius. The way dia nempatin semua skrip, classic camera work, and human essay di dalam film2nya tuh patut di setarain ama kehebatan Dante with his DIVINE COMEDY. This guy is a living treasure of humankind. Seriously, coba aja cari satu film di atas, dan nonton. Lu bakal dibikin mikir dengan betapa manusiawinya semua film2 diatas. Yep, that’s include kwaidan, film tentang CLASSIC JAPANESE GHOST STORY..

 

1. Michael Mann

Greatest Hits : Heat, Collateral, Miami Vice and The Insider

Why : Masterful, Clear Cut, Awesome, and Rhythmic.  Someday, I will write a full essay on him. Someday..