Ok, so PTA is definetly one of our favorite directors, but how do you think he compares to other directors? Better in some ways but worse in others? He's great, but does he have what it takes to go against the likes of Scorsese, Spielberg, Tarantino, Kubrick, etc.? Before posting something like "they're different, you can't compare the two", think about it for a minute, and post what you feel is different... i'm sure there will be some that will find similarities as well.
Ok, i'll start...
Since its no fair to compare PTA to Robert Altman, since i'm convinced that they are both one and the same, I think that PTA has lots of similarities to Spielberg. For one, they both like to touch on emotional connections between people. Sure, PTA's movies usually gross around 30 million while Spielberg's gross around 300 million, they still have similar themes... families broken apart and left to deal in the aftermath (Elliot's mom is divorced, the family is left to cope without a father in the house... Frank Mackey's dad leaves while he is left to care for his mom while she dies). Although Spielberg likes to play up the special effects, his stories are really about the characters, just like in a PTA movie, sans the special effects (well, not counting the frogs).