Random Directors Who Hated Their Own Movies (15 items)

• 

  (#13) Jerry Lewis - The Day The Clown Cried

  Jerry Lewis's single unreleased film is about a German clown who's sent to work in Auschwitz where he leads children to their deaths in the gas chamber. It should come as no surprise that the infamous movie never made it past the rough cut. Until recently, Lewis never planned to release the film, considering it a massive embarrassment and a complete miscalculation.  The only surviving print of the film has been given to the Library of Congress. Fear not, film fans: The Day The Clown Cried will finally have a very small release in 2025. 
• 

  (#4) Tony Kaye - American History X

  The making of American History X has more twists and turns that your average Hollywood film. Although it began as Kaye's first directorial feature, after he began to cut the film down to a bare-bones 87 minutes, the film's producers suggested that he work with the film's star, Edward Norton, to beef the film back up. Kaye balked, then he brought in a priest, a rabbi, and a Tibetan monk in to the office of New Line’s president, elaborately asking for an extension on editing his cut of the film. The president said no, that they were going to release the version he and Norton put together. After the film was released, Kaye tried to get his name scratched from the film, but the Directors Guild said no dice. 
• 

  (#5) Michael Bay - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

  Michael Bay is such a big director that he never has to explain any of his films. Even if they're awful (which most of them are), the movies still often rake in over a billion dollars apiece, so who cares? In 2011, Bay went on record to say that the second Tranformers movie, Revenge of the Fallen, "was crap." He places most of the blame on the writers strike that took place prior to the shooting of the film. 
• 

  (#2) Steven Spielberg - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

  Remembered by many children of the '80s as the Indiana Jones movie that made them fear for the well-being of their beating hearts, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is still a rare black mark on Steven Spielberg's resume, according to the director. The dark tone of the film is attributed to the nasty breakups that Spielberg and his producing partner George Lucas were going through at the time; Lucas and his wife Marcia Griffin divorced, and Spielberg and his girlfriend Kathleen Carey split after three years.
• 

  (#15) Mathieu Kassovitz - Babylon A.D.

  Anyone who's had the distinct pleasure of seeing Babylon A.D. will know that the Vin Diesel-starring scifi stinker is a big mess. According to some, Mathieu Kassovitz (the film's director) was an egomaniac who was unprofessional for ducking out of promotional duties. But Kassovitz insists that the film that could have been was gummed up by Fox and their lawyers. If you're looking for an out, it's always safe to blame the lawyers. 
• 

  (#14) Arthur Hiller - An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn

  When Arthur Hill set out to film an acerbic take down of the film industry, he probably didn't realize that his life would become an ironic extension of the parody he was committing to film. After seeing the final cut of his film about a director whose film is taken from him by the studio, he had his name struck from the credits, but it was too late. The film bombed and essentially killed the career of plenty of people involved with it. 

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking