The best directed movies of all time, according to Scott Derrickson
Scott Derrickson has made a name for himself in the twin worlds of science fiction and horror. Having directed The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Sinister and Deliver Us from Evil, Derrickson’s catalogue is something to behold. Derrickson also recently named the five films that he considered the “best directed” of all time.
Heading the list of Derrickson’s choices is Martin Scorsese’s 1976 feature film Taxi Driver. The legendary picture starred Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, a Vietnam War veteran who suffers from PTSD and takes a job as a taxi driver in New York City.
Up next for Derrickson is Rashomon, a 1950 film directed by one of the best-loved Japanese film directors of all time, Akira Kurosawa. Rashomon told the story of the conflicting account of an 11th Century murder of a samurai and the rape of his wife.
In a recent article, we explored the ‘Rashomon Effect’ that resulted from the film’s treatment of epistemological reasoning. We said, “Akira Kurosawa transcended the screen, and its themes bled into the human realms of real life. In this sense, Kurosawa himself became a philosopher, further stating his case as one of the best filmmakers of all time.”
Derrickson’s third choice is the epic Vietnam War film Apocalypse Now, directed by Francis Ford Coppola in 1979. The film starred Martin Sheen as a military captain who is sent on a special mission through the Vietnamese jungle to try and find an officer – Marlon Brando – who is suspected of having defected and gone crazy. Interestingly, the Vietnam War has made for so many wonderful films to be made, and we explored this notion in more detail in a recent feature.
The final two selections comprising the films that Scott Derrickson considers the best directed are two sci-fi classics. The first is Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, the cinematic adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s glorious novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The film featured great improvisation in Rutger Hauer’s delivery of the climactic scene’s monologue.
Rounding off Derrickson’s selections is Stanley Kubrick’s widely-heralded 2001: A Space Odyssey, the screenplay for which was written in collaboration with Arthur C. Clarke, who also wrote a novelisation of the film. Terry Gilliam said of Kubrick that his movies leave us with many questions after watching them, and 2001 certainly captured that spirit.
The best directed films as per Scott Derrickson:
- Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
- Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
- Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
- Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
