Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino. Two modern directors. Two vastly different approaches to film. Yet both are legends in the make-em-or-break-em world of movies.
Modern directors are those that know how to play the game - making films that generate big profits while maintaining some sense of personal integrity.
Steven Spielberg shot his first film when he was 12 years old. Ten years later, he was working at Universal Studio doing a little bit of everything and enjoying an opportunity to learn his craft and hone his skills. Six years later he was directing his first film -- The Sugarland Express (1974). Box office and critical response was fair to mild, but it was enough to get this young upstart's foot in the door and get his hands on the film project that would redefine his entire life -- "Jaws" (1975).
Steven Spielberg hasn't slowed down since. Among his most known works are Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark and its sequels, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan and more. Everything the man has touched seemingly turns to gold. For the last five years this legendary director has directed a body of work that has become the template for modern directors. ET, Catch me if you can and War of the Worlds. Steven Spielberg doesn't have time to rest on his laurels. He continues to push the boundaries of film, and audiences the world over are the ones who benefit the most.
Similar to that of Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino also began his film career at an early age. He has put in time in front of and behind the camera, and both disciplines have enabled him to write and direct scripts that touch a nerve with his audience. Tarantino's first script became the film "My Best Friend's Birthday" (1986), and while lensing that, he already had a script ready to his next project.
He burst wide open with his film "Pulp Fiction", which not only resonated with audiences, but is also credited with resurrected the flailing career of John Travolta. Along with a cast that included Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, "Pulp Fiction" went on to gross more than 200 million dollars plus win the Oscar for best script, and the Palm d'or at the Cannes Film Festival.
In Quentin Tarantino's some films he represents himself as the producer, for others he writes scripts, but in the majority of the pictures Tarantino is not only the script writer and the director, but also the actor. This well-known director worked not only on feature films. It has produced or associate produced popular television dramas like "The First Aid", All - American Girl and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Among modern directors of Hollywood Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino are two of the most widely known and popular. And, quite deservedly. Cult films of the most well-known modern directors - Spielberg and Tarantino - have become the original textbook for the subsequent generations of directors, script writers and simply for fans of a good and qualitative cinema.