10 Greatest Directorial Film Debuts
7. Kevin Costner – Dances With Wolves (1990)
The nineties was a special decade for Kevin Costner, with actor soon becoming one of the most recognisable men in Hollywood. Building on his early strong performances in The Untouchables (1987) and Field of Dreams (1989), Costner used his rising profile in Hollywood to form his own production company with producer Jim Wilson.
The company's first produced film was Dances with Wolves, with Costner simultaneously producing, directing and acting in the three-hour Western epic. He had come a long way from that field in Iowa!
The film was both a commercial and critical success. Making $424 million worldwide, Dances with Wolves was nominated for twelve Academy Awards, winning seven. Costner would be awarded with the Best Director Oscar and the film would become the first Western to win Best Picture since Cimarron won all the way back in 1931!
Credited with relaunching the genre, the epic would be followed by another Western Best Picture in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven (1992), with many more classics of the genre to follow in the decades since.
Costner would not return to directing for several years, deciding instead to pursue more acting roles. Whilst Costner has yet to replicate the success of his first directed film, Dances with Wolves remains one of the most critically acclaimed portrayals of American Indian culture in film history.