What Is Directing?

This morning I thought about all my favorite directors. Billy Wilder, Hal Ashby, Sidney Lumet... And I got to thinking what a director really is. In the old days, a director was the sole voice to the tonal quality of the final picture. Well, in the old OLD days it was actually the producer who shaped it. But somewhere around the 60's and 70's the voice was decidedly on the directors. Their sensibility really permeated throughout the movie. Moreso than the 40's and 50's where for the most part, the studios had a big say. These days directors are useless. They point a camera and try not to cast a shadow on the greenscreen. It is true, there are a handful that still have a bit of autonomy. Martin Scorsese, Coppola, Christopher Nolan or David Fincher are cinema bullies who force their vision onto the screen. In Francis Coppola's case, he is even putting his own money to make his next flick. The director on any film use to have a great deal more respect than before. In some cases, actors dropped everything and took pay cuts so they could work with them. But has anyone ever wondered what that meant? Does is mean an actor just wants to see what knowledge a director has in regards to how they can harness a performance? That they want to adjust their own skills in acting based on experience any of these guys have? I would love to be on a Hal Ashby set to see what direction he gave his actors. For the most part, the script is king. A bad director would have to try hard to fuck up a really great script. A bad script could make a good director look bad. Today, a script translated by a director doesn't really matter. Because everything is done from committee. Particularly the movies that make money. And that is the bottom line. There isn't any studio that would trust Hal Ashby or Sidney Lumet. Unless, perhaps, if the production company was owned by an actor. And they would hire these brilliant storytellers. That's all a director really is. A person who maximizes a story for full effect. It got me thinking how they decide who is "the best director." A dubious distinction I take very little stock in when people are being thrown through drywall.