A Duel of Directors

There are some directors who never really break the boundaries of their chosen genre.  Consider if you will the varying outputs of the Andersons.  Wes Anderson rarely leaves the quirky ground he has claimed for himself in The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore and The Life Aquatic.  Paul WS Anderson on the other hand has almost exclusively confined his output to videogame adaptations such as the Resident Evil franchise, the dire Alien vs Predator and the epic Mortal Kombat (not actually epic).

However, there are others who do bravely switch between genres and often generate quality whatever pool they are paddling in.  I've chosen the four best examples of these mainstream style-hoppers and selected what I consider to be their best film in a number of categories.  The winner is the director with the highest number of stars awarded.  So, going toe-to-toe are Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, Danny Boyle and Stanley Kubrick.
 

Category	Scott	Spielberg	Boyle	Kubrick
Sci-fi	Blade Runner (1982) *****	Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) ****	Sunshine (2007) ****	2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) *****
Historical	Gladiator (2000) *****	Amistad (1997) ****	N/A	Barry Lyndon (1975) ****
Fantasy	Legend (1985) ***	Jurassic Park (1993) ****	N/A	N/A
Children's	N/A	E.T (1982) *****	Millions (2004) ****	N/A
True Story	White Squall (1996) ***	Munich (2005) *****	127 Hours (2010) ****	Spartacus (1960) *****
Action	Robin Hood (2010) ***	Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) *****	Trainspotting (1996) *****	N/A
Crime	Thelma & Louise (1991) *****	Catch Me If You Can (2002) ****	Shallow Grave (1994) ****	The Killing (1956) ****
Comedy	A Good Year (2006) **	1941 (1979) ***	A Life Less Ordinary (1997) ***	Dr Strangelove (1964) *****
War	Black Hawk Down (2001) ****	Saving Private Ryan (1998) *****	N/A	Full Metal Jacket (1997) *****
Horror	Alien (1979) *****	Jaws (1975) *****	28 Days Later (2002) ****	The Shining (1980) *****
Drama	Body of Lies (2008) ****	The Color Purple (1985) ****	Slumdog Millionaire (2008) *****	Lolita (1962) ****
TOTAL	37 stars	48 stars	33 stars	47 stars

Spielberg by Amir Taqi

So the victor is the mighty Spielberg (although to be honest, Kubrick managed only one star less despite having 3 fewer films in the list so it could be argued he's the better director).  A purely imaginary trophy is currently winging it's way to Hollywood-land with Mr Spielberg's name badly inscribed by my own fair hands.

(In case your wondering Paul WS Anderson with Shopping, Mortal Kombat, Event Horizon, Resident Evil, Alien vs Predator & Death Race would have scored a paltry ten stars)