Robert Rodriguez – Shot, cut, and scored by Robert Rodriguez – that was the indoctrination many of us had to indie filmmaking. A man of many talents and influences, Rodriguez movies are replete with two things: dust and bullets. And if you aren’t careful, both of them may end up in your eyes. Grindhouse, his latest incarnation with friend Quentin Tarantino will probably set the bar even higher and move him up on the list even more.

Great Scenes: For the bloodlust fans, not many things beat the bullet-happy bar scene in Desperado.

Masterpiece: Sin City  Hidden Gem: El Mariachi

Michael Mann – Known for being so meticulous that he controls everything from the color of an actor’s socks to the lighting and sound, Mann gained early recognition in entertainment for one of the coolest cop shows around with Miami Vice. Years later when he remade Vice for the screen, he employed his crew to delete the color red from the finished product as much as possible. It’s also rumored that he made Jim Belushi reschedule his wedding day, so he could finish his shoot for Thief. Pretty ballsy if you ask us.

Great Scene: The extended shootout after the bank heist gone awry on the streets of LA in Heat. No scene in the last twenty years is as riveting. For the duration of the scene, your testicles climbed into your body and did not come out until Pacino popped one in Sizemore’s head. Even scarier was the fact that a similar shootout actually took place in LA only a few short months later.

Masterpiece: Heat Hidden Gem: Manhunter

William Friedkin – He changed the way audiences saw movies in the ‘70s. His cinema verite and hand-held camera approach to the crime saga The French Connection revitalized a struggling genre. Shortly thereafter, he scared the hell out of an entire nation when he brought The Exorcist to theaters. A true film fan, but perhaps most importantly is Friedkin’s devotion to art appreciation, which inspired several of his most famous shots.

Great Scene: Never has the male resolve looked truer or more unnerving than it does when Roy Scheider and his criminal buddies try to cross a treacherous bridge over a raging river in Sorcerer. Doesn’t sound too bad? Did I mention the trucks they’re in are carrying nitroglycerin? I’m still not sure how they actually filmed it. Once you see the scene – you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Masterpiece: The French Connection Hidden Gem: Sorcerer

David Fincher – Responsible for perhaps the most famous off-screen killing in the history of movies. Honestly, who can look at a box from UPS and not for the briefest of moments wonder if Gwyneth Paltrow’s head is actually inside? No figure in modern pop film has spent as much time examining the emasculation of the male species and the cost that it has on society. Sensitivity training seminars and Ikea hate him – and for that alone, we’re eternally grateful.

Great Scene: In a long line of stunning visuals, the one that still haunts me is a scene from Se7en. Since the beauty of the movie lies within the fact that most of the violence happens off-camera, the audience begins to be lulled into a certain expectation. That all changes when the SWAT team enters a room with car fresheners hanging from the ceiling. The pine trees clutter the shot with their simplicity. Soon a skeletal body is found in a bed, and all is well until the body starts to move…

Masterpiece: Fight Club Hidden Gem: The Game

Clint Eastwood – At first glance, he seems to be something of a complicated figure both on screen and off. Certainly Dirty Harry has had as much success in front of the camera that he’s had behind it. But as a director there are two simple, uncomplicated rules that Eastwood’s films abide by: tell good stories and be honest. Well guess what? People die – there’s your honesty. How people choose to live – there’s where a good story comes into play. Eastwood has simply mastered the craft.

Great Scene: In Mystic River Sean Penn and Tim Robbins were rewarded with Oscars for their performances, but for me Kevin Bacon holds the whole thing together. His is the less showy role and he’s the glue to the movie for a friendship that has long since eroded. When he’s asked to interrogate a friend over the possible murder of his other friend’s daughter, Bacon shines like never before. 

Masterpiece: Unforgiven Hidden Gem: A Perfect World

Brian DePalma – Too many critics sell him short for being derivative of Hitchcock. Yes, DePalma is guilty of more references than an episode of Family Guy, but there is a method to his madness. By hyper-stylizing the violence and sex for today’s audience, it forces us to re-examine the current world around us. In essence, DePalma does what is generally unheard of today in Hollywood – he asks the audience to think. Compare his Scarface to the original version, you not only get a history lesson in American film, but also in American crime.

Great Scene: With apologies to Angie Dickinson’s shower scene in Dressed to Kill, DePalma created one of the most iconic movie characters, quotes, and scenes in one fell swoop in Scarface where the whole of Miami storms the Bastille. I’ve watched enough episodes of “MTV’s Cribs” to know that athletes and rappers alike dig on Tony Montana.

Masterpiece: Scarface  Hidden Gem: Dressed to Kill

John Ford – He used to hold John Wayne in the palm of his hand. Anyone who can make The Duke tremble in fear gets on the list. Needless to say, Ford also got the best performances out of Wayne, and here is where you can see his true genius. Regarded as a major influence by everybody else on this list, Ford certainly is the grand statesman of the group. Oh and by the way, nobody made Monument Valley look better than this guy – the state of Utah should pay the guy’s family royalties.

Great Scene: There’s a reason that every Intro. to Film class in America will show you the last scene in The Searchers before the final is handed out. It’s because the scene has become so ingrained in the movie making landscape it has become a part of the collective unconsciousness. Someone has to be the Neil Armstrong of such things.

Masterpiece: The Searchers  Hidden Gem: Stagecoach

Quentin Tarantino – The perfect filmmaker for the Internet generation of fans. QT’s is a hybrid of pop culture, sin, violence, TV, and irony – all mixed up in a blender, served piping hot. He didn’t necessarily reinvent the lexicon of film, he more or less threw the vocabulary out the window, while extending his middle finger. Created from a culture of sampling and homage, Tarantino was the right guy at the right time to glue the puzzle pieces back together. His quote taken from True Romance sums up the spirit of this list the best. “I’d rather have a gun and not need it, than need a gun and not have it.” Sound about right to me.

Great Scenes: Two things happened as Jules and Vincent discussed the virtues of fast food in Europe during Pulp Fiction. One, audiences were blown away at the novelty of the scene. Two, screenwriters across Tinsel Town were busy trying to plagiarize it without getting caught.

Masterpiece: Reservoir Dogs  Hidden Gem: Three Four Rooms ("The Man from Hollywood" segment)*

Martin Scorsese – Known as the grandfather of MTV, Scorsese revolutionized movie making. His kinetic camera, needle drops, quick cuts, and complicated tracking shots changed how movies are made. Inspired by the French New Wave, Scorsese is also a true film historian. It’s not too much of an accolade to say Scorsese is to movies as painting is to Picasso. Because of him, we are where we are. And along the way, Scorsese happened to revitalize one of American films only true genres – the gangster picture.

Great Scene: I’ll admit my bias right up front. I think this is the single-greatest shot in film history. After Jake LaMotta (DeNiro) gets the crap beat out of him by Sugar Ray Robinson in Raging Bull, a despondent Jake yells to Sugar, “You never knocked me down Ray. You never knocked me down.” As the camera slowly pans from Jake on the ropes in something akin to a crucifixion stance, it moves beyond his gloves to a pool of blood. In black and white slow motion the blood drips down. It is incredibly haunting. It is incredibly beautiful. And it is incredibly difficult to pull off both of those sentiments at the same time.

Masterpiece: Goodfellas  Hidden Gem: After Hours

John Woo – His American entries have been hit or miss (Face/Off = good, Mission: Impossible 2 = bad), but Woo really cut his teeth on his Hong Kong films. And in so doing, shone a much-needed light on an entire film movement that had gone ignored for too long. Like ballets of blood, Woo orchestrated his famous shootout scenes past typical Hollywood fare, beyond comic book limitations, to operas of disaster. The carnage is so well made that it stops being violent and resembles the making of a Jackson Pollack painting.

Great Scene: Honestly, every single shootout scene in Hard-Boiled is must-see movie mastery.

Masterpiece: Hard-Boiled Hidden Gem: The Killer

Sam Peckinpah – He didn’t do it first, but he did it best. For his movies and his life. This hard-drinking, tough-talking son of a bitch put it all up there on the screen and goddamn anyone who didn’t appreciate it. Slow motion was Sam’s best friend, next to whiskey that is, and both were heavily employed on his sets. The old adage: “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” Well, none of that matters to the dog if there’s a shady-looking dude with a sawed-off shotgun barreling down the alley at you – that was Sam. His genius even earned him the Monty Python parody treatment, where buckets of blood spilled freely at a picnic in the English countryside (rather than in a shootout). After seeing it, it was rumored Sam wanted to fight them.

Great Scene: Picture a film that starts with a pack of red ants devouring a scorpion and ends with an ultra-violent, incredibly bloody shootout between bank robbers and lawmen with innocents caught in the middle of the shrapnel. This film does exist folks; it’s The Wild Bunch and it proves why Sam belongs on this list.

Masterpiece: The Wild Bunch  Hidden Gem: Convoy

Honorable Mention – Michael Cimino. With early entries like The Deer Hunter, Heaven’s Gate, and Year of the Dragon, Cimino was well on his way to cementing a place on this list. Then, things got a little weird. Cimino became a bit of a recluse and started to dress in women’s clothes. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But in order to make this list – that’s a definite no-no.

*Thanks goes to Digg.com user pants428 for pointing out the error.