"My characters are not violent or vile. They're everyday people. They have some money, but find themselves discontented with their own loneliness, their own mortality, the sameness of life." Championing a gritty, unencumbered approach to filmmaking, John Cassavetes directed his art toward a new front

Anxiety, Event, Gritty, Intense, Intimate, Open-ended, Psychological, Sincere, Sprawling

"Waaaake up!" yells DJ Mister Senor Love Daddy at the start of Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" -- a call to awareness that seems to be the message of all Lee's movies. Lee isn't interested in forcing any one ideology down his audience's throat; instead, he wants to expose us to the issues that preoc

African american fiction, In-your-face, Political, Urban

Director John Huston lit up the screen with riveting adaptations of genres ranging from modern epic ("Moby Dick") to Southern Gothic ("Reflections in a Golden Eye," "Night of the Iguana") and pulp fiction ("The Maltese Falcon"). Fiercely independent and uncompromising in his cinematic style, John Hus

Epic, Expansive, Film noir and neo-noir

Both spiritual father and sustaining mother to an infant art, D. W. Griffith expanded the artistic horizons of audiences, safely shepherding cinema into adulthood and nurturing its unique language. Malcontent as a mere film actor, Griffith joined Biograph Studios in 1908 as a writer and director, del

Classic hollywood, Epic, Grand, Mythic, Pioneering, Political, Silent film