Best debut movies ever

[zeppelin]

I'm talking about directorial debuts, not actors or writers or anything else. And I'm not counting shorts as debuts, only feature-length movies.

My 10 favorite debuts:

1. This is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner)
2. Sling Blade (Billy Bob Thornton)
3. Toy Story (John Lasseter)
4. 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet)
5. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper)
6. Pleasantville (Gary Ross)
7. The Kid (Charlie Chaplin)
8. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones)
9. Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze)
10. Badlands (Terrence Malick)

[mcquade]

QT- reservoir dogs
kevin smith - clerks

[mcquade]

some others-

john singleton-boyz in the hood
the hughes bros-menace 2 society
the wachowski brothers-bound
sam raimi-evil dead
michael moore-roger and me
jan de bont - speed
robert rodriguez-el mariachi

[Frank the Tank]

Robert Harmon - The Hitcher

[Tayzlor]

01. Badlands (Terrence Malick)
02. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
03. George Washington (David Gordon Green)
04. Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze)
05. The 400 Blows (François Truffaut)
06. Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper)
07. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton)
08. House of Games (David Mamet)
09. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston)
10. Body Heat (Lawrence Kasdan)

[Bonham]

Play Misty for Me - Clint Eastwood
House of 1000 Corpses - Rob Zombie
Night of the Living Dead - George Romero
Boondock Saints - Troy Duffy

[Cronos]

House Of 1000 Corpses - Rob Zombie
Dark Star - John Carpenter
Duel - Steven Spielberg
Night of the Living Dead - George Romero
Boondock Saints - Troy Duffy
Evil Dead - Sam Raimi
El Mariachi Robert Rodriguez
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre -Tobe Hooper
Pleasantville - Gary Ross

[The Other]

Also Sam Mendes for AMERICAN BEAUTY

[bnuz_17]

Coens - Blood Simple
PT Anderson - Hard Eight

[Addi88]

Garden State (Zach Braff)

[LordSimen]

The Usual Suspects - Brian Singer

... Atleast, I think that's his debut. o_O

[bigred760]

Originally posted by LordSimen
The Usual Suspects - Brian Singer

... Atleast, I think that's his debut. o_O


'fraid not - he directed the short Lion's Den and then the full length Public's Den before becoming famous for The Usual Suspects.



As far as my favorite debuts go:

QT's Reservoir Dogs
Braff's Garden State
Gilliam's & Jones' Monty Python and the Holy Grail

[Gian-Sergio]

Martin Scorsese's Who's That Knocking At My Door

[KyleG]

Robert Redford - Ordinary People

[jaw2929]

David Fincher - Alien 3 (I think it was his first)

[rufio]

Tarantino with Reservior Dogs

[Katsumoto]

Malick with Badlands

[morricone]

Orson Welles' Citizen Kane

there is no doubt

[the_sneaker]

Sam Mendes for American Beauty
Sidney Lumet for 12 Angry Men
Richard Kelly for Donnie Darko
Bill Paxton for Frailty
Quentin Tarantino for Reservoir Dogs
Tony Kaye for American History X
Troy Duffy for The Boondock Saints
Jared Hess for Napolean Dynamite
Scott Kalvert for The Basketball Diaries
Sam Raimi for The Evil Dead
Zach Braff for Garden State
Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones for Monty Python and the Holy Grail
M. Night Shyamalan for The Sixth Sense
Tom Hanks for That Thing You Do

[jimmyjdmb]

Richard Kelly - Donnie Darko
Shane Calluthe - Primer
Sam Raimi - The Evil Dead
Orson Welles - Citizen Kane
Quentin Tarantino - Reservoir Dogs

[QUENTIN]

1.) Medium Cool (Haskell Wexler)
2.) Harlan County, USA (Barbara Kopple)
3.) Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
4.) Gates of Heaven (Errol Morris)
5.) Panther Panchali (Satajit Ray)
6.) sex, lies, and videotape (Steven Soderbergh)
7.) Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett)
8.) The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut)
9.) Fresh (Boaz Yakin)
10.) George Washington (David Gordon Green)

The next ten:

Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard)
Badlands (Terrence Malick)
Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze)
Hiroshima Mon Amour (Alain Resnais)
The Maltese Falcon (John Huston)
Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio)
Blue Collar (Paul Schrader)
L'Atalante (Jean Vigo)
Brick (Rian Johnson)
L'Age D'Or (Luis Bunuel)

[Hucksta G]

1. Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly)
2. American Beauty (Sam Mendes)
3. American History X (Tony Kaye)
4. The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabondt)
5. (500) Days of Summer (Marc Webber)
6. Garden State (Zack Braff)
7. Dances with Wolves (Kevin Costner)
8. Gone Baby Gone (Ben Affleck)
9. Say Anything... (Cameron Crowe)
10. V for Vendetta (James McTeigue)

[dannywalker17]

My Favorite Directorial Debuts:

American Beauty (Sam Mendes)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
Garden State (Zach Braff)
Ordinary People (Robert Redford)
Toy Story (John Lasseter)
Frailty (Bill Paxton)
Brick (Rian Johnson)
The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabondt)
V for Vendetta (James McTeigue)
(500) Days of Summer (Marc Webber)
12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet)
Pleasantville (Gary Ross)
Clerks (Kevin Smith)
Speed (Jan de Bont)
The Maltese Falcon (John Huston)

[SS-Block]

Head says Citizen Kane; heart says The Night of the Hunter.

I love Badlands too. Imdb lists some other film, not TCM, as Hooper's first.

[hoojib127]

"The Sixth Sense" was Shyamalan's THIRD film, folks. :confused:

Not yet mentioned:

John Cassavetes - "Shadows"
Roman Polanski - "Knife in the Water"
Milos Forman - "Black Peter"
George Lucas - "THX 1138"
David Lynch - "Eraserhead"
Alan Parker - "Bugsy Malone"
Ridley Scott - "The Duellists"
John Sayles - "Return of the Secaucus 7"
Barry Levinson - "Diner"
Atom Egoyan - "Next of Kin"
David O. Russell - "Spanking the Monkey"
Noah Baumbach - "Kicking and Screaming"
Wes Anderson - "Bottle Rocket"
Darren Aronofsky - "Pi"
Christopher Nolan - "Following"
Sofia Coppola - "The Virgin Suicides"
Marc Forster - "Everything Put Together"

[darknite125]

The Maltese Falcon-John Huston
Citizen Kane-Orson Welles
Moon-Duncan Jones
Following-Christopher Nolan
12 Angry Men-Sydney Lumet
Texas Chainsaw Massacre-Tobe Hooper
6th Sense-M Night Shamylan
The Evil Dead-Sam Raimi

[overwatch]

6th Sense-M Night Shamylan

That was Shyamalan's third feature.

[Matchbox225]

I'll post a few that haven't been mentioned yet.

Victor Erice - The Spirit Of The Beehive
Elia Kazan - A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
Peter Bogdanovich - Targets
Carroll Ballard - The Black Stallion
Claire Denis - Chocolat
Pavel Lungin - Taxi Blues
Tom McCarthy - The Station Agent

[ilovemovies]

I think American Beauty and Shawshank Redemption are tops for me.

V for Vendetta, Frailty, Reservoir Dogs, Toy Story, Speed, American History X, That Thing You Do!, Bad Boys, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Chicago and Bound are also great movies that I love.

[hoojib127]

A few more that sprung to mind since my previous post:

David Lean (and Noel Coward) - "In Which We Serve"
Jacques Tati - "Jour de Fete"
Gus Van Sant - "Mala Noche"
Guy Maddin - "Tales from the Gimli Hospital"

[Le_Big_Mac]

1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
2. Badlands (Terrence Malick)
3. Eraserhead (David Lynch)
4. Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman)
5. 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet)
6. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard)
7. George Washington (David Gordon Green)
8. Gates of Heaven (Errol Morris)
9. Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio)
10. This Is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner)

Honorable Mentions:

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones)
Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino)
The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut)
Clerks (Kevin Smith)
The Kid (Charlie Chaplin)
Harlan County, U.S.A. (Barbara Kopple)
The Producers (Mel Brooks)
sex, lies, and videotape (Steven Soderbergh)
House of Games (David Mamet)
Ordinary People (Robert Redford)

[hoojib127]

Walkabout (Nicolas Roeg)

You're not counting "Performance"?

[Le_Big_Mac]

You're not counting "Performance"?

Oops.

[APzombie]

There have been a lot of excellent debuts listed. My favorite throughout the years has changed, but for now it's Todd Fields' In the Bedroom.

A lot of debuts are filled with earnestness and urgency, as if they were a calling card. In the Bedroom has a patients and rhythm to it that most filmmakers don't find until they have matured in the craft.

[Antonio141]

QT's Reservoir Dogs is the first film that came to mind.
Also Donnie Darko, but its been downhill for Richard Kelly ever since!

[Canto]

Duncan Jones - Moon