The two black-and-white films he made at the beginning of his career (The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon) were both absolutely brilliant, and extremely influential. He made other highly-respected and/or successful films (What's Up, Doc?, Mask, The Cat's Meow), but none matched the quality of those two. He also made a bunch of stinkers. In many ways his career has to be viewed as a disappointment, given how highly he was respected as one of the "New Hollywood" directorial geniuses (right up there with Scorsese and Altman), but his influence is undeniable. RIP.
