I was looking at a Top 50 Directors list I made for my all-time stats page at Letterboxd.
A few that have been named here…
Clint Eastwood is included in my 50, and I named these as my favorites in the notes… Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, Letters From Iwo Jima, High Plains Drifter, A Perfect World, Outlaw Josey Wales, Gran Torino, Richard Jewell
I recall enjoying others that I haven’t seen in ages, and don’t know how well they hold up. I should probably give Bronco Billy, Play Misty for Me, Pale Rider, and Honkytonk Man another look-see.
John Ford was on that list as well, with 10 favorites named… The Searchers, Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, 3 Bad Men, My Darling Clementine, The Quiet Man, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Wagonmaster, Sgt Rutledge, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.
Apart from those, how about Rainer Werner Fassbinder?
He ranked high on my list - are there any fans of his work? Or other German filmmakers from around that time, Herzog, Wenders, etc. (the best German era since the silent period, on through the Weimar Republic era and all that expressionism and such)