Directorial Debuts
 

I was recently watching Blood Simple and was amazed at how good it was for a first film. So what do you think are the best and worst directorial debuts?

Alot of people hated it immensly, but I think a fantastic directorial debut of a director people will remember in twenty years is Eli Roth with Cabin Fever. Love or hate the movie, Eli Roth worked horror to the bone throughout it.

I have yet to see Cabin Fever. I remember when it came out I hoped it would do well because it had one of the kids from Boy Meets World, who I thought was a pretty talented kid...I DIDN'T WATCH IT JUST IN THE HOPES THAT TOPENGA WOULD WEAR A BIKINI....SO QUIT IMPLYING IT!!!

Best: Charles Laughton for The Night of the Hunter .

Worst: Anyone who got there start with Roger Corman.

Best
 

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols)
Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
Blood Simple (Coen Brothers)
À bout de souffle (Jean-Luc Godard)
This Is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner)

Will add more as I think of them.

Best -

Clint - Play Misty For Me (1971)

John Dahl - Kill Me Again (1989)

Takeshi Kitano - Violent Cop (1989)

Danny Boyle - Shallow Grave (1994)

Andrew Dominik - Chopper (2000)

David Mamet - House of Games (1987)

Costner - Dances With Wolves (1990)

Nicholas Hytner - The Madness of King George (1994)

Worst -

How long have you got? :)

Spike Jonze with Being John Malkovich

Orson Welles with Citizen Kane

I'm amazed not one of you has mentioned Mel Brooks for The Producers, easily one of the funniest films ever made. And I also want to add Warren Beatty for Reds, but I think he did something before that.

this definitly isnt the best but i think
Zach Synder did a good job on dawn of the dead (2004) for a first time director

Some that may have not been mentioned...

Zach Braff - Garden State
Sam Mendes - American Beauty
Frank Darabont - Shawshank Redemption
Wes Anderson - Bottle Rocket
Kevin Smith - Clerks
Harold Ramis - Caddyshack
Bill Paxton - Frailty
M. Night Shyamalan - The Sixth Sense
Richard Kelly - Donnie Darko


I'm not 100% that all of these were directorial debuts, but am reasonably confident in saying they were the first mass release/success for each director. If I'm wrong I'm sure someone will be kind enough to correct me.

Rob Marshall ~ Chicago (2002)

Shyamalan made his directorial debut back in 1992 with the film Praying With Anger - seven years before The Sixth Sense. He also made Wide Awake in 1998.

Another one of my favorites is Marlon Brando's first and last film as a director,
One-Eyed Jacks (1961).

Still haven't seen this, must check it out one day. I heard that Brando's original cut was over 5 hours long...

It's disappointing that he never directed another film, I'm sure he probably got the opportunity.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Mitsuo Yanagimachi
As Tears go by - Wong Kar-wai

Orsen Wells with Citizen Kane

I think that Ridley Scott made a very good "feature" debut with The Duelists.

I just rewatched Frailty for the first time in a few years and was once again surprised at just how good it was... Who in the world expected this from Bill Freaking Paxton of all people!?!?

Andrew Niccol - Gattaca
Kevin Conran - Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow