6. Martin Scorsese
Many of his peers consider Martin Scorsese to be the greatest contemporary American filmmaker, and while he doesn't end up being the highest ranking director of his era on this list, a case could certainly be made that American movies have never gotten more sophisticated or artistically significant than Scorsese's best work. Breaking through at about the same time as his close friends and contemporaries George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Francis Ford Coppola, Scorsese's films were marked by a stylized realism and a stark brutality that he soon became famous for. Mean Streets established him as a major director but Taxi Driver three years later marked his arrival as a potential all-time great. With Raging Bull in 1981, Scorsese had directed two of the most acclaimed American films of all-time and for the next thirty years he has continued to pile great film after great film onto his legacy. While his films never made as much money as Spielberg or Lucas, he is generally held in higher esteem by critics and analysts. In addition to his actual filmmaking career, Scorsese has led the charge in film preservation, helping restore many classics that might otherwise have been lost or damaged beyond repair. He has also been a prominent director and producer of documentary films, has been omnipresent in the digital vs. film debate, and his presence across the spectrum of filmmaking has made him a sort of public representative for film directors. Scorsese's films are noted for their often dark subject matter, technical proficiency, and raw energy. He has been acclaimed not only by his American peers but by filmmakers as diverse as Ingmar Bergman, Jean-Luc Godard, and Satyajit Ray. Still actively making films, Scorsese has a chance to deepen his legacy through his filmmaking and for his efforts on preserving cinema's past.