Battle of Directors
Before anything I’d like to thank Andrew from Can’t Stop The Movies for consistently providing poignant and observant comment on each and every matchup. It’s much appreciated my man.
Something else: Apparently I have to take these tests that mean something called the SAT/ACT … how ridiculous, I know. Articles shouldn’t slow down too much. Though, if it does, you now know why.
And one last thing … the purpose of these matchup’s is not pit art vs. art, but more to spur conversation about the filmmakers and their influence. You discuss which director you prefer. It’s all selective and hopefully, all interesting.
Now lets start the discussion.
Each director today made their name in the 90s, continued producing quality in the early 2000s, and slowly have settled down in the past 5 years. While both individuals tackle different genres, there’s no denying that each of them have their highs and lows.
7 Examples from M. Night Shyamalan:
Unbreakable
Signs
The Happening
Praying With Anger
The Sixth Sense
Wide Awake
The Village
vs.
7 Example films from Ang Lee
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The Ice Storm
Hulk
Brokeback Mountain
Sense and Sensibility
Taking Woodstock
Eat Drink Man Woman
Like this is a contest? Shyamalan has maybe 2 1/2 good movies–The Sixth Sense is rewatchable once, Unbreakable is underrated, and Signs is fine up until the end. Following these, he spiraled into ridiculousness.
Ang Lee, on the other hand, has one dud (Hulk) and a series of excellent films that spur actual conversation about their topics. Shyamalan’s films tend to inspire conversation like “WTF happened to M. Night Shyamalan?”
Ang Lee every day and twice on Sunday in this matchup. Shyamalan has never done anything to match Crouching Tiger and Lee has never created an abomination as bad as The Last Airbender.
Shyamalan is a hack, two great first films then nothing. Lee, all the way.
Yeah Lee for sure. I liked The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs – but he is responsible for some junk since then (The Happening!). Ang Lee has directed Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, two unforgettable films. I was recommended The Ice Storm again last night. I really need to check it out. I think the man’s range is evident in the fact that he also directed Sense and Sensibility and Lust/Caution. The latter I didn’t much care for, but still better than most of Shyamalan.
It’s going to be Lee pretty resoundingly. Especially when you think about the plot holes in The Sixth Sense, Shyamalan’s universally regarded best film.
I need to see more Lee, I’ve seen only a few but I like at least half of Shyamalan’s output. Yea, his later stuff is pretty terrible, but for a while he was making fantastic stuff.
It’s no contest. Ang Lee. Yes, he’s made a dud like Taking Woodstock while The Hulk wasn’t as bad as people said it was. Yet, I’ll watch those 2 films than the recent films Shyamalan has made like The Village, Lady in the Water, The Happening, and The Last Airbender. Oh, The Sixth Sense doesn’t really hold much ground after repeated viewings. Unbreakable is still his best film.
Lee, no doubt. Crouching Tiger, The Ice Storm and Taking Woodstock are all great in my book. Shymalan has never interested me.
C’mon, man. This isn’t even a fair contest. We know who the better director is, and that is Ang Lee, who’s also my choice.
I realize that it isn’t the most fair competition I’ve put out. But I figured I’d have a lot of true fans of Shyamalan.
However, since his recent endeavors have been so poor – people forget the greatness of something like UNBREAKABLE or THE SIXTH SENSE.
Which is unfortunate.
I actually liked several of Shyamalan’s films, not only Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, but also Signs and The Village, and while I haven’t seen The Happening it sounds like it could be interesting.
But my vote has to go to Lee, specifically for Crouching Tiger and Broke Back. He also has one of my most anticipated films coming up this year in Life of Pi.
P.S. Good luck on your tests!
No contest. And you didn’t even mention “Lust/Caution,” a very good Lee movie.
M. Knight’s last few movies have been plain awful.
I watch “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” every year. It’s just so damn entertaining. I do prefer Lee.
However, I don’t consider Shyamalan as a hack. I think “The Sixth Sense” is a tiny masterpiece, “Signs” being very close. (Some days I prefer “Signs” over “The Sixth Sense.”) “Unbreakable” was quite an interesting superhero origins story. I am convinced that not only does the guy know how to tell a story, he knows how to direct. If he didn’t, the aforementioned films wouldn’t have been any good. All three depended on the director playing with the audiences’ expectations. “The Village,” I hated the first two or three viewings, but having given it a third chance lately, it was passable.
The thing is with Shymalan, I think he needs to go back to basics and just make the movies he wants to make instead of what the studios or what people want him to make. With the success of “The Sixth Sense,” he has the money to possibly make a comeback.
The train wreck is “Lady in the Water.” I’d rather drown than to watch that movie again any time soon…
Thank you very much for the kind words, I’ll keep trying to keep up the pace with everyone here.
That said, this is an interesting comparison because both are “foreign” filmmakers who have very American styles and have had a prolonged rise and steady decline in the public eye. They both have a classical sensibility that reminds me of John Ford (in Lee’s best films) and John Huston (in Shymalan’s best films). Lee’s has just been a lot more subtle than Shymalan’s, and the quality follows suit.
The tipper here is that Shymalan has done two films that are outright great and Ang Lee Just has the one. The Sixth Sense is a classic whodunit wrapped up as a supernatural mystery with unconventional detectives and Unbreakable is a very interesting response to the demasculenization of male’s in cinema (recast Willis as Stallone and Jackson as Lebouf and it would become way too clear, that’s why the casting is one of many perfect touches).
Plus, Signs gets far too much ill-will. So many people complain about the lack of logic in the aliens attack or perfect plotting but that’s a lot of the point. Thrillers must have the hand of God in them, good or bad, for their events to be pushed to their conclusion. Yeah, God is really cruel in Signs, but that’s part of the point of what a great thriller director is supposed to do. After that, yeah, Symalan went into a hard flatspin but his films have at least been interesting (if bad) until The Last Airbender (which at least is hilariously bad).
Ang Lee is about as subtle but hides it in more “respectable” films, that’s why he’s spiraled off a lot more quietly than Shymalan. His first American film, The Wedding Banquet, hints at what he’s going to accomplish with Brokeback Mountain (his great film). As someone who loves analyzing psychosexual impulses onscreen, Ang Lee started off strong and just spiraled into subtle awesome (as dull as Lust, Caution is it gets sadomasochism down pat) and also went through his period of massive misunderstanding with Hulk (which, aside from Spider-Man 2, is the best of the Marvel superhero movies).
My answer lies in my DVD collection. I’ve got three Shymalan films and only one Lee film (The Ice Storm, which is really good but not great and I’d like to trade it for Brokeback). Shymalan hit a much higher note but made the mistake of angering the “nerd” crowd since he hid so many symbols in his films (which reminds me a lot of the LOST backlash). He’s still a lot more commercially succesful than Lee (even if Airbender was so bad it may have finally broken him) .
I didn’t mention Crouching Tiger. To this I have to shrug. I like the highfalootin’ antics of Iron Monkey, Riki-oh, and The Legend of Samurai Seven a lot more.
Within your comment one can sense the inner struggle you had with making this decision.
Though, when in doubt, always turn to your DVD collection.
Your points on Unbreakable are spot on – especially the remark on “demasculenization”.
I haven’t seen Brokeback – and it’s a film I’m not sure I’m just going to sit down and watch. As for Ice Storm I’m intrigued (mostly due to its criterion release).
Hmmm, this is a tough one as I adore Sense and Sensibility, but Unbreakable is one of my all time favorite films. In fact I love it so much (and also respect Sixth Sense) that I don’t think M Night is a hack and I do hope he’ll return to form sometime in the future. Lee doesn’t have a perfect record either w/ Hulk being a mess despite my love for Bana, so heh, I guess I don’t know who I’d pick.
Unbreakable truly is amazing. Glad you echo my thoughts on at leas that film.
Good match up Sam. Disregarding the outcome of Shamhammer’s later films both he and Lee are fairly matched when it comes to giving us interesting worlds and concepts. On paper Night wins, but on film and execution Lee takes the win. Here’s hoping Night delivers with After Earth.
BTW, my love for Unbreakable knows no bounds but I still think Signs is my favorite.
[...] previous matchup I published – Ang Lee vs. M. Night Shyamalan – was, to be kind, a flop. For whatever reason I figured Shyamalan fans would be aplenty. He’s [...]