10 Great Directors Who Made Terrible Debut Films

Stanley Kubrick is one of the most celebrated and influential filmmakers of all time but his infamously meticulous and obsessive eye over his own films was often his downfall.

Famously Kubrick wanted no one to see his debut anti-war film Fear and Desire and years later referred to it as "a presumptuous failure" and "not a film I remember with any pride, except for the fact it was finished." The film did not fare well at the box office and as a result meant the famous auteur was forced to direct other people's scripts to recoup the money lost for the studio.

The irony of Kubrick's hatred of his first venture into films was that it was well regarded by critics and has since been reevaluated on Rotten Tomatoes with an 80% approval rating.