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Lets look at some well loved films to discuss:
Script.
Big Lebowski: Script trumps Director, a ridiculous amount of quotable lines here and custom written for a wonderful cast. Competently directed but not really ground breaking.

Robo cop: Again competently directed and full of flair but it's gloriously tasteless script wins the day.

Nearly Every comedy film: Bit of a no brainer, Scott Pilgrim is the only exception i can think of (though not hot fuzz or shaun, pegg and frost's natural chemistry/quips kept them afloat not the hackneyed pastiches employed by the director (same guy))

Transformers: Lol, but........... The fast shot, messy, impossible to follow, action scenes were bookended by surprisingly funny and believeable bits of dialogue between the principal cast.

Director
Dark Knight: Woeful, Awful, dire script (the bit where Aaron Eckhart shouts 'YOU CAN'T GIVE IN!!!' is HILARIOUSLY cheesy. Don't get me started on the cringey heavy handedness presented in the dinner scene. /argument.) but really well directed, visually stunning and furiously brutal, can you say with all honesty that the first scene (the best one, end of) is about the lines? To be fair joker's line about how there is nothing batman can do to him is a (sole) highlight. Suppose inception is worth shoving in here.

Saving Private Ryan: No?

Psycho etc..... Hitchcock, Kubrick, yadda yadda.......

It is harder to pick films where the script totally wins out but isn't it the intense pieces of dialogue that stick with you?
Discuss.

Every movie Charlie Chaplain has ever been in.

The Dialogue is such masterfully crafted script that I weep once the golden tones reach my ears to create a blissful state.

Perkustin wrote:Lets look at some well loved films to discuss:
Script.
Big Lebowski: Script trumps Director, a ridiculous amount of quotable lines here and custom written for a wonderful cast. Competently directed but not really ground breaking.

Umm, the script was written by the same two people who directed.

Robo cop: Again competently directed and full of flair but it's gloriously tasteless script wins the day.

You're really underplaying Verhoeven's direction, which is almost masterful. Not to mention the subtle edges he added to the script, by having Murphy not just killed, but crucified with firearms. And when Robocop triumphs at the end he is shown as if he's walking on water... because he's Jesus. Now, you might think Jesus didn't go around shooting people, but as Verhoeven explains, his movie is about the American Jesus, who going to carry a high calibre weapon or two.

Which really brings me to the problem with what you're trying to do here. The script and the direction are not that clearly defined. A director will work with the scriptwriter, and the script will frequently change from scene to scene. And he will add details to the movie that can turn a good script into a great one.

Nor is it that easy to seperate the script from the direction, by just assuming that what the characters say is the script, and everything else is direction. You note that The Dark Knight had some pretty painful dialogue, and I agree. But one of the big strengths of that film is in the construction - it moves from scene to scene logically, steadily building the stakes. It never feels the need to stop and dump exposition, stop the action to demonstrate character, or throw in action that says nothing about character.

That's sort of the problem you're dealing with here. It's kind of the problem that film academies have in deciding what was great scripting and what was great directing, and why those awards are generally a bit of mess. It's kind of why a brilliantly constructed script like Inglorious Basterds can get beaten out by an entirely workmanlike script like Hurt Locker for the Oscar.

And if those guys can't sort it out, given they write scripts for a living, what hope do we have?