Most Influential Person. . .

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Thomas Jefferson is the most influential person in *my* life, at any rate.

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What about Locke? He influenced almost all the founding fathers, especially Jefferson.

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

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Steven Speilberg or George Lucas? Perhaps Walt Disney?

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I'm sorry but these guys are wayyyyyyy not influential, with the exception of Disney's influence as a producer of merchandise and theme park atmosphere.As far as cartoons go it was Fleischer that really had a major influence on quality cartooning (for movies).And as far as cinema goes, no one beats Akira Kurasawa. As much as I like spielberg and lucas (they are entertaining), those guys are just sifters of known styles. Heck, star wars was based on a Kurasawa film.I think the closest anyone comes to knocking that guys influence on cinema, would have to be Ford, Hitchcock, Kubrick, or Scorcese. You have to be inventive and set new standards to be claimed an influence.And before anyone complains I want to repeat I am not knocking the quality of other directors or their works. I really love Woody Allen, even as a director, but his influence on cinema is not that huge, more influential perhaps on screenwriting and acting within cinema... his directing style is pretty unoriginal.

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

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to opinions about whether producers like Lucas and Speilberg were influential.

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This is true, but it is not just opinion on what they might have influenced. Neither of them did anything to influence movies themselves, only peripheral aspects of the movies.Both men, especially Lucas pioneered merchandising techniques that have definitely influenced (and in my mind adversely so) the movie industry.They have also influence the nature of special effects in movies. Once again Lucas more so, through his increased use of digital imagery.But as far as movies as movies ar concerned, both men are HIGHLY derivative. I don't even think they would claim otherwise. They both use the techniques founded almost a century ago in the cliff hanger serials (perils of pauline, flash gordon, etc etc). They also picked up story ideas and special camera techniques from men like Kurasawa and Hitchcock.This is not to say they are not skilled, and not entertaining. They are very very good directors. But what you see them doing on screen as directors is not new... just well done.My guess is Lucas would disagree the most because of his use of digital imagery. Having used both film and video and being an early pioneer (even if unknown and extremely low budget) of digital video for movies... I would debate that point. That is about making things easy for a director, not making a real change in something that audiences are watching.

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

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I dunno -- George Lucas almost destroyed serious sci-fi in movies -- which are only just recovering.

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I see what you are saying but that is more about influencing a fluctuation in a medium, instead if actually influencing the medium.In response to your earlier post regarding DWG and Sergio Leone etc etc...I do not necessarily disagree. Especially Sergio Leone. Not sure I'd agree with Peckinpah, but I'd probably be in the minority opinion saying that.There are still some others which deserve mention too (Dario Argento, Mario Bava, and Howard Hawks had great influence on horror films). I just think that the greatest influences on film stylewise as directors were Akira Kurasawa, Ford, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Scorcese, and perhaps Coppola.I agree that sci-fi has tanked since Lucas, but I think that this is because of his producer role and pioneering merchandising. Now almost all movies have to have merchandising and ESPECIALLY SCI-FI MUST have merchandising options. Got to have the action figure and the video game!Sometimes we get a PK Dick number which defies merchandising, but this is really a minority.I will have to mention a couple post starwars sci-fi pics which I think were real and influential: Alien, The Thing, and Blade Runner. The first two were influenced by Hawks and Dick respectively, but the first was wholly original and they all introduced new visions of science fiction, that unfortunately only got bastardized when combined with merchandising scifi.

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

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Guess I just like his movies, and feel that his influence on film is still felt at least in Tarrantino's work.

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Yeah yeah, and Peck may have influenced Rodriguez and John Woo (who was also an obvious influence on Tarantino). I'd rather switch than fight on Peckinpah... I know I'd be outgunned.

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I'm not sure about including Coppola -- except that I love Apocalypse Now!

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Believe it or not, he's the guy that came up with tinting film yellowish to make it seem older in flashbacks, or movies about other time periods.

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Except that Alien isn't that original -- look at It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958) and Planet of the Vampires for instance. Ridley Scott basically made Alien exceptional.

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While Alien had many influences including Planet of the Vampires (liked that movie), and Queen of Blood (which was aka Planet of Vampires, not sure which one you meant but probably this second one), as well as the story Flight of the Space Beagle.But its origin really seems based most in the movie Dark Star which was made by John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon (the screenwriter of Alien) back in 1974. Not sure if you've seen that but its got a section where crew member (I think it's O'Bannon) has to go searching the ship for an alien they picked up on a planet. It is much more humorous but the idea is the same and one "locker area" appears nearly identical to one they put into Alien (perhaps as an homage). O'Bannon says he wrote Alien as a blowup of that idea... so in this Alien predates Star Wars, which I guess proves your point!PS--- I agree with your assessment that Leone's greatest western was Once Upon a Time in the West. Fonda as a cold blooded killer? Oh man.[This message has been edited by holmes, 02-25-2004]

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)