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James Cameron
Director / Screenwriter / Producer
1954 - 
Born August 16, Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada
Key Production Country: USA 
Key Genres: Sci-Fi Action, Science Fiction, Action
Key Collaborators: Bill Paxton (Character Player), Arnold Schwarzenegger (Leading Player), Michael Biehn (Leading Player), Gale Ann Hurd (Producer/Screenwriter), Conrad Buff (Editor), Richard A. Harris (Editor), Mark Goldblatt (Editor), Brad Fiedel (Composer), Peter Lamont (Production Designer), Linda Hamilton (Leading Player)

Recommended: The Terminator (1984)*, Aliens (1986)*, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)*
Worth a Look: The Abyss (1989)
Approach with Caution: True Lies (1994), Titanic (1997), Avatar (2009)
* Listed in TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest Films section.

Links: [ Amazon ] [ IMDB ] [ TCMDB ] [ All-Movie Guide ] [ Film Reference ] [ The 'Amazing' James Cameron Page ] [ Academy of Achievement ] [ Optimus Films Profile ] [ James Cameron on Titanic ] [ Newsweek Interview (2007) ] [ Observer Article (2007) ] [ Flickering Myth Profile ]
Books: [ Dreaming Aloud: The Films of James Cameron ] [ James Cameron ] [ Titanic and the Making of James Cameron: The Inside Story of the Three-Year Adventure That Rewrote Motion Picture History ] [ Dreaming Aloud: The Films of James Cameron ]
 
The Terminator (1984) Aliens (1986)Terminator 2: Judgment DayTitanic (1997)
 
     
  "As a key figure in the contemporary cinema of spectacle, James Cameron has emerged as an important technical innovator with a shrewd sense of commercial judgment. Effectively fusing the science fiction and action genres, the bulk of his work displays an apparent mistrust of technological advancement which is curiously at odds with his extensive deployment of state-of-the-art cinematic technology." - Neil Jackson (Contemporary North American Film Directors, 2002)  
     
  "James Cameron makes big films. Skilful editing, pounding action and dazzling effects, often on huge budgets, are trademarks of his work, in which he seems determined to outdo himself with each succeeding film...Cameron has shown he has few peers in making exciting entertainments the public will flock to see." - David Quinlan (Quinlan's Film Directors, 1999)  
     
  "Sadly, as he aims, ambitiously but all-too-conspicuously, for the mythic, he equates more with better: good business sense in the era of the 'event movie', maybe, but grandiose, simplistic and artistically limiting." - Geoff Andrew (The Director's Vision, 1999)  
     
 
Please note that the rating given for this director (see top-right) is based only on the films we have seen (listed above). Films by this director that we haven't seen include Piranha II: The Spawning (1981) and Ghosts of the Abyss (2003).
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"Because of the enormous financial success of his films, Cameron is one of the most influential figures in filmmaking, while his production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, allows him almost total autonomy in choosing film projects... Although Titanic was successful at the box office and at the awards, it has been criticized for the weakness of the romantic plot at its center, and for its failures as a human drama. In a Cameron film, however, none of this really matters: the director’s real strengths lie in his technical brilliance and his willingness to take risks." - Chris Routledge, International Dictionary of Film and Filmmakers

 
 
Top 250 Directors
501 Movie Directors: A Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers
 
See Also
Kathryn Bigelow
John Carpenter
Cecil B. DeMille
Roland Emmerich
Renny Harlin
Peter Hyams
John McTiernan
Jonathan Mostow
Ridley Scott
Steven Spielberg
Richard Stanley (external link)
Paul Verhoeven
 
James Cameron's Favourites
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Stanley Kubrick, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Stanley Kubrick, The Godfather (1972) Francis Ford Coppola, Taxi Driver (1976) Martin Scorsese, The Wizard of Oz (1939) Victor Fleming. Source: Rotten Tomatoes (2011)
 
 
 
         
         

 

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