THREE! It's the MAGIC number!

I have a theory. Admittedly it may require some explaining, and may not be entirely accurate, but bear with me.

Since a young age I have been obsessive about films – I used to spend Saturday afternoons sat going through the TV guide circling films that I’d heard were good, or that sounded good, and would then set the video recorder overnight and watch them the following evening after school. I never got much homework done but I sure learned a lot about cinema. In doing so I started noticing certain patterns in certain filmmakers’ works, way before I had heard anything about auteur theory, and in particular with the works of what we might call ‘great’ filmmakers.

Yet here’s my point: there are certain filmmakers who fit into that ‘great’ bracket, directors who have made undeniably classic, 5-star films. Then there are those good filmmakers, whose films are of consistent quality, or have at least made decent enough movies for you to have heard of them (if you’re interested the official term for these is metteurs en scene). My theory is that when it comes to those directors we consider great, it really is a matter of quantity over quality.

It seems that in order to be considered truly great, to be spoken of in the same breath as Spielberg and Hitchcock, you have to have made at least 3 undeniably classic films. 1 could be a fluke, 2 makes you on the cusp of brilliance, but you will always be slightly behind those who have reached the magic number.

Let’s look at a few examples: Spielberg and Hitchcock virtually go without saying as almost any 3 of their films will do. But for the sake of argument, and off the top of my head, let’s go for Jaws, E.T. & Schindler’s List, and Psycho, Rear Window & The Birds. Lucas has THX-1138, American Graffiti & Star Wars, and Peter Jackson gets in just on the strength of the Lord of the Rings trilogy alone. Similarly, Scorsese has Raging Bull, Taxi Driver & Goodfellas while his fellow Movie Brat alumnus Coppola has Apocalypse Now and at least 2 Godfather films.

Yet another stalwart of the ‘70s Movie Brat boom was William Friedkin, whose Exorcist and French Connection films are undeniable classics, and yet he remains stuck in limbo with just those 2, never quite making it into the higher class by not managing to repeat his success since. This is an argument that could just as easily be levelled at Coppola, but of course he has 3 and is therefore ‘in’.

It’s an exclusive club, one that requires time effort and not a few mistakes before entry is allowed (Spielberg, Hitchcock and Lucas have all made films of questionable quality as well as some of the greatest films ever made). Jackson is probably the latest entrant, while others would argue for Tarantino or Tim Burton yet both of those are more down to personal preference. Tarantino for example can only lay claim to 2 in Reservoir Dogs & Pulp Fiction, while some would claim the same status for Jackie Brown or Kill Bill. Burton has Edward Scissorhands & Batman, yet while maintaining a top-class oeuvre, he too is victim to subjectivity regarding the greatness of his others.

Even some of those we might consider shoo-ins had to work hard their entire life to get in, never really knowing whether they were there or not. You could argue that Orson Welles deserves his place on the strength of Citizen Kane alone, but Touch of Evil is undeniably his second. His third however remains questionable: both The Magnificent Ambersons & Lady From Shanghai have a case for being classic works each, but both were taken from Welles’ creative control by the studios and so remain flawed masterpieces.

I would love to be proven wrong on this, to be shown a director considered an absolute genius without having to have reached the magic number – after all, no one would be unhappy with another great director out there – but thus far I have not been. Only time will tell...