10 Awesome Directors Who Went Totally Insane (For One Movie)

10. Steven Spielberg - 1941 (1979)

1941 When I think of Steven Spielberg, a lot of things spring to mind: Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, his reputation as a true Hollywood professional... his little grey beard. What I don't think, though? Funny. Sure, his movies are imbued with funny moments, and he clearly has a grasp on comic timing, but would I recommend that Steven Spielberg actually attempt to direct a fully-fledged comedy movie with Dan Aykroyd in a lead role? I would not. And yet that's what he decided to do off the back of Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Yes, with the world at his fingertips, Steven Spielberg decided that he'd try to be funny. He'd have a good old go at trying to make the world laugh, having shocked and awed them in his previous movies respectively. And so 1941 was born, a comedy movie that takes place in and around Los Angeles after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and one that Stanley Kubrick apparently said was "great, but not funny." So what was the point? You'll notice the lack of comedies in Spielberg's filmography after this mis-fire. Insanity, but of the temporary kind: Raiders was next.
Contributor

All-round pop culture obsessive.