A long time ago, someone on a defunct movies message board had defended the notion that Roman Polanski is not a bad director just because of who he is as a person. He (Garry Cowell) believed that the best directors are bad people. He typed something on the lines of Hollywood being the rebellious epitome of the ten commandments:
“Many classic directors are alcoholics, anti-Semites, drug addicts, homophobes, hot-heads, misogynists, narcissists, pedophiles, racists and violent.”
Regardless of whether they have ceased with their vices, the following directors fit each category…
Alcoholics – John Cassavetes, Sam Peckinpah and John Woo.
Anti-Semites – Jean-Luc Godard and Mel Gibson.
Drug addicts – Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese and Oliver Stone.
Egotists – Michael Cimino, Francis Ford Coppola and Wes Anderson.
Homophobes – Sammo Hung and Quentin Tarantino.
Hot-heads – Stanley Kubrick, Michael Mann, Rob Reiner and James Cameron.
Misogynists – John Wayne, Alfred Hitchcock, Jackie Chan and Paul Verhoeven.
Pedophiles – Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, Bryan Singer and Victor Salva.
Racists – Victor Fleming, Blake Edwards, John Hughes and Wong Jing.
Violent – John Ford, John Landis and Werner Horzog.
If a psychiatrist had diagnosed them, they would be described as douchebags. Out of all the directors here, the most pretentious was Stanley. One of the make-up men who worked on Tank Girl had asked Malcolm McDowell about working with Stanley on A Clockwork Orange. Malcolm responded by proclaiming that Kubrick is a genius despite demanding to be referred to as Sir Isaac Newton at all times.
Pop Cult Master 