With last week’s announcement that Martin Scorcese and Leonardo DiCaprio are teaming up for the fourth time to adapt Dennis Lehane’s “Shutter Island” to the big screen, we couldn’t help but ponder — where will Scorcese/DiCaprio rank on the all-time list of best actor/director tandems? Here’s our Top 10:
10. Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder
Notables: Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, The Producers
Back before he was printing money on Broadway, Brooks was the mastermind behind legit social satires featuring little-to-no Catskills-caliber Jewish jokes (though plenty of farts). Flanking Wilder’s historic role as Willy Wonka were three equally notable performances as a bumbling accountant, a veteran gunfighter, and an egomaniacal doctor, with Wilder’s comic composure providing the necessary grounding to Brooks’ increasingly irreverent plots. Even if he wasn’t fortunate enough to be a part of “Silence of the Hams”.
9. Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman
Notables: Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2
Where would the dormroom poster industry be today of Tarantino and Thurman hadn’t hooked up for the Oscar-winning, eminently (mis)quotable, visionary masterpiece of making-John-Travolta-tolerable cinema that was “Pulp Fiction”? Let’s just thank god for “Scarface” and “Animal House” or there’d be a lot of student lodgings with bare walls.
8. John Ford and John Wayne
Notables: The Searchers, The Quiet Man, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Sparing us all the obligatory arguments about Ford “defining the American West” with his sweeping, desolate camera shots and Wayne’s anabashedly American Americanness, there’s just no denying that Ford and Wayne — tag team partners on more than 20 films — are simply one of the most prolific duos in celluloid history. Additionally, their work has been cited as a primary influence by directors from Kurosawa to Spielberg to whoever directed “Three Amigos.”
7. Christopher Guest and Himself
Notables: Waiting For Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind
Not that you couldn’t make an argument for Guest / Levy, or Guest / O’Hara, but as much as he tries to spread the camera time around — an early cut of “Guffman” barely focused on Corky St. Clair — Christopher Guest is almost always the funniest part of his own movies. Which other actor/director could have made you legitimately root for the bloodhound? Well, besides Tyler Perry, of course.
6. Billy Wilder and Jack Lemmon
Notables: Some Like it Hot, The Apartment, Irma La Douce
Not many tandems managed to produce a Best Picture winner and one of about two comedies to ever be mentioned on AFI’s Greatest Films list (cause comedy can’t count as art) in their lifetimes, but it only took Wilder and Lemmon two years (1959 and 1960) to do just that. Lemmon’s quirky charm is so engaging, it’s easy to laugh away while subconsciously absorbing Wilder’s darker messages, which don’t actually require any grumpyness or oldness.
5. Alfred Hitchcock and Jimmy Stewart
Notables: Rear Window, Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much
As much as Hitchock is (rightfully) praised for his genre-defining reinvention of cinematography and special effects, just try to imagine how immediately unwatchable his movies would be nowadays if the lead actor had been, say, the non-Carey Elwes dude from the first “Saw” movie? If anyone could do believable frantic acting, it was Stewart, although the cartoonish character he’s been reduced to in our memories too often overshadows how legitimately talented he was. At being a cartoonish character.
4. Woody Allen and Diane Keaton
Notables: Annie Hall, Manhattan, Manhattan Murder Mystery
The last ten years of cinema have been marked with a distinct absence of legitimate female leads, save a couple Oscar baiters (”Erin Brokovich”) and historical Oscar baiters (”Walk the Line”). Keaton’s characters in “Annie Hall” and “Manhattan” are both uniquely, believably desirable, even though one is a frustratingly imperfect semi-ditz, the other a pretentious, belligerent intellectual. Both roles are truly unforgettable, even if they weren’t (gasp!) actual people from history. Is that even allowed?
3. Elia Kazan and Marlon Brando
Notables: On the Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire, Viva Zapata!
The fact that you could easily toss Coppola/Brando in this spot and have it fit might appear to be more of a testament to the actor’s magnetism than to Kazan’s ability, but that wouldn’t be completely fair; Phil Jackson won six NBA titles with Michael Jordan, but does that automatically make Jackson any less of a coach? “Streetcar” and “Waterfront” won a combined twelve Oscars bewteen them, in addition to 19 Grammy Awards, 63 Golden Globes, and three NBA titles of their own.
2. Tim Burton and Johnny Depp
Notables: Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride
There simply isn’t another actor / director pair in our lifetimes where mention of one individual so immediately calls to mind the existence of the other. While some of their more recent achievments — from “Sleepy Hollow” to “Corpse Bride” to “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” — have their ups and downs, the absurd, gothic appeal of “Scissorhands” and the tragic likeability of “Ed Wood” are both testaments to Depp’s ability to disappear flawlessly into major characters despite everyone knowing it’s him going into the movie. Kind of like a Bizarro Robin Williams.
1. Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro
Notables: Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver
A pretty obvious number one choice, and with good reason. It’s a match made in Big Apple Heaven; a director obsessed with cramming as much substance, detail, and nuance as is possible to fit in a lean, 290-minute film, and an actor intent on preparing for roles by gaining 60 pounds, working as an actual cab driver for two weeks, or getting jailed then stalking a family and threatening them (I may have made up the last one). Regardless, Scorsese dropped one of America’s greatest actors into legendary role after legendary role, which would have more or less just been a favor to the American moviegoing public if the films hadn’t also contained such artistic merit. I’m pretty sure Marty directed “Showtime” too, right?
Honorable Mentions: Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, John Woo and Chow Yun Fat, Francis Ford Coppola and Marlon Brando, Wes Anderson and Bill Murray, Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Monsters, Michael Bay and Explosions, George Lucas and Hayden Christiansen, Guy Who Directed the “Police Academy” Movies / Guy Who Played Proctor
Any more we’re leaving out? Throw ‘em in the comments!
