Great movies by first-time directors

[Shellhead]

After all the negativity about Frank Miller directing The Spirit, how about we try to name some great movies by first-time directors? Yeah, I too hate All-Star Batman and Robin, but it still seems possible that Miller might make a decent director.

Some great first movies:

Resevoir Dogs, by Quentin Tarantino
Clerks, by Kevin Smith
Tremors, by Ron Underwood
Donnie Darko, by Richard Kelly
This is Spinal Tap, by Rob Reiner

[HomerJay]

DANCES WITH WOLVES - Kevin Costner
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION - Frank Darabont (1st full-length feature)
ORDINARY PEOPLE - Robert Redford

[meethraa]

DINER by Barry Levinson.

[Athena Bast]

Boyz In The Hood by John Singleton?

[StoneGold]

Slacker, The Producers (the first one, obviously), What's Up Tiger Lilly (although that's kind of a cheat, Take the Money and Run is a better example), Usual Suspects, Evil Dead... that's just off the top of my head.

[meethraa]

Hey, how about CITIZEN KANE?

[Slam_Bradley]

Hey, how about CITIZEN KANE?


That was the first one I thought about. Though Welles did direct two shorts before Kane. But still, he didn't have as much film experience as Miller. Of course Welles was a freakin' genius.

[hoffmandu]

American Beauty-Mendez

[Julusnc]

Blair Witch Project :)

[SnowTrooper]

Clerks all the way.

[StoneGold]

Bruce Lee's Return of the Dragon. Yuen Wo Ping's Snake in Eagle's Shadow. Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Peter Jackson's Brain Dead. John Hughs' Sixteen Candles.

[zombie]

Peter Jackson's Brain Dead.

Wasn't his first movie Bad Taste?

[kalorama]

While most of the examples being cited are 1st time feature debuts, the majority of the directors mentioned had extensive (in some cases, decades) of regular, daily working experience working in film and TV (writing, producing, directing) prior to making their feature debut.

[Slam_Bradley]

Wasn't his first movie Bad Taste?


Yep. And Meet the Feebles was before Brain Dead.

[BoosterBronze]

Equilibrium by Kurt Wimmer

[StoneGold]

While most of the examples being cited are 1st time feature debuts, the majority of the directors mentioned had extensive (in some cases, decades) of regular, daily working experience working in film and TV (writing, producing, directing) prior to making their feature debut.
You mean like the kind of experience you might get co-directing two movies and writing a couple of others?

[StoneGold]

Oh, and lest we forget, Robert Rodriguez's El Mariachi...

[david r]

Steven Spielberg Duel
John Carpenter Dark Star
John Huston The Maltese Falcon
Roman Polanski Knife in the Water
Francis Ford Coppolla Dementia 13
George A. Romero Night of the Living Dead
David Lynch Eraserhead
Clint Eastwood Play Misty For Me

[Magneto_X]

Sky Captain by Kerry Conran