Why do so many great directors make lower quality films in their later years?

[grey ghost]

George Lucas, John Carpenter, Steven Spielberg, etc.

All their classic films were early in their career.

So what happens to these directors over time?

[AniNate]

Spielberg's still making good films, they're just not the big blockbuster hits he was into earlier.

 

Clint Eastwood and Ridley Scott are better examples (American Sniper notwithstanding). My best guess is they've grown more impatient with the filmmaking process in later years and let small mistakes slip by more often than they used to, which eventually merge into bigger mistakes.

Edited July 3, 2015 by tribefan695

[Plain Old Tele]

It's a few factors. I think to some degree it's an almost automatic tendency to settle into one way of doing things. Another is just the sheer physical exhaustion of production. Long days over months at a time take a huge toll... and what happens isn't necessarily mistakes, but simply the focus or attention to adjust something. And lastly, sometimes the lack of limitations. Without limits, the almost inevitable option is to try an easier, simpler, or "more complete" option, whereas when you have some sort of budgetary or technical limitation, thinking ways around that can result in something strikingly new or better.

[Kvikk Lunsj]

Lack of creative a lot of directors make the films they dreaming there whole life right away. There ideas they been thinking of for 10-30 years. 

[grey ghost]

Lack of creative a lot of directors make the films they dreaming there whole life right away. There ideas they been thinking of for 10-30 years.

Boom goes the dynamite!

I think this is it.

I gotta give someone like Spielberg credit. They mastered so many worlds. A true adapter of stories.

[AASixteen16]

There are a few reasons why I think this happens.

 

1. They are past their prime. They had their heyday and are now simply basking in the sun. I mean if I was someone like Ridley Scott or Stanley Kubrick and I had already done Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, etc. I'd just sit back, relax, and enjoy the fruits of my labor. I made a dent and left my mark on pop culture and history. I can die happy. At least that's how I see it.

 

2. Ties together with the notion of their prime being behind them. They no longer have as much ambition, passion, or enthusiasm for their projects like they used to. When you are young, you have the motivation, the push, the drive to strive to make something epic, memorable, and awesome. Once you have achieved that and more, you settle into this mold or routine of same old, same old, much like any other job. Something that was once new and exciting and exhilarating has now become tedious, repetitive, and boring. You no longer have the same desire to do it as you once had before.

 

3. The money. Some directors know that they have already made their magnum opus, or at least have a few films or so that they have great pride in having made. At this point in their lives, they simply don't care as much, and are in it probably more for the money than the passion of making a certain film. Much like a regular job itself. "I have been promoted to District Manager, I have a nice steady income, I can settle down. Even if the job is a chore, it provides my paycheck, so why bother?" 

 

Those are my three cents, at least.