Movies That Were Disliked By Their Own Directors

Director: Woody Allen

"The film was supposed to be what happens in a guy€™'s mind, and you were supposed to see a stream of consciousness that was mine, and I did the film and it was completely incoherent. Nobody understood anything that went on. The relationship between myself and Diane Keaton was all anyone cared about. That was not what I cared about. That was one small part of another big canvas that I had. In the end, I had to reduce the film to just me and Diane Keaton, and that relationship..."

Director: Steven Spielberg

"too dark, too subterranean, and much too horrific"

Both Spielberg and George Lucas had gone through divorces and this dark and depressing time in their lives was reflected in the final product.

Director: Woody Allen

Allen was very disappointed with Manhattan (1979), telling United Artists that he'd direct another film for them for free if they shelved the movie.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

"€œI undertook €˜Rope€™ as as stunt; that€™s the only way I can describe it. I really don€™t know how I came to indulge in it. The stage drama was played out in the actual time of the story; the action is continuous from the moment the curtain goes up until it comes down again. I asked myself whether it was technically possible to film it in the same way. As an experiment, €˜Rope€™ may be forgiven"

After buying the rights to the film, Hitchcock kept it away from re-release opportunities along with Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) and The Trouble with Harry (1955).

Director: David Fincher

There were many problems during the production of the film, with shooting starting without a finished script. It was often re-written on set and production was shut down several times. Because of this and interference from the studio, Fincher disowned the film and walked away before editing began due him learning that the final product would not be his vision. He rarely talks about the film and is the only director who does not have a director's cut or extended edition for any of the Alien tetralogy. Instead, a non-arroved 'Assembly Cut' has been made for the movie which is reportedly closer to his original vision.

Director: Woody Allen

Another film Woody Allen was disatisfied with was Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), saying:

"Hannah and Her Sisters was a big disappointment because I had to compromise my original intention tremendously to survive with the film"

Director: David Lynch

"Dune I didn't have final cut on. It's the only film I've made where I didn't have, I didn't technically have final cut on The Elephant Man but Mel Brooks gave it to me, and on Dune the film, I started selling out even in the script phase knowing I didn't have final cut, and I sold out, so it was a slow dying- the-death and a terrible terrible experience... I trusted that it would work out but it was very naive and, the wrong move. In those days the maximum length they figured I could have is two hours and seventeen minutes, and that's what the film is, so they wouldn't lose a screening a day, so once again it's money talking and not for the film at all and so it was like compacted and it hurt it, it hurt it"

Lynch also disowned the extended TV version since he had no involvement in it.

Director: Tony Kaye

After completing the filming of the movie, Kaye was told by the studio to make the film longer as it ran at 87 minutes. After a lengthier cut was made (apparently by Edward Norton who locked himself in the editing room and made a version that gave him more screen time) Kaye disowned the film. Bizarrely, he took out advertisements attacking the film and brought a priest, a rabbi and a Tibetan monk into the office of New Line's president to ask for a re-edit. Kaye also wanted his directorial credit to be removed and given to either Alan Smithee or Humpty Dumpty, a request which was refused.

Director: Michael Bay

"We made some mistakes. The real fault with is that it ran into a mystical world. When I look back at it, that was crap. The writer's€™ strike was coming hard and fast. It was just terrible to do a movie where you€™'ve got to have a story in three weeks. I was prepping a movie for months where I only had 14 pages of some idea of what the movie was. It€™'s a BS way to make a movie, do you know what I'€™m saying?"

Bay also expressed disappointment with Bad Boys (1995), citing the script was a "piece of s***.

Director: Joel Schumacher

"I always knew that if you get lucky [enough to be offered a sequel], walk away. But I was shooting A Time To Kill and the studio had been very generous to me, and much was expected of me by the toy manufacturers and the Warner Bros. stores"

Schumacher has public apologized for the film's quality.

Director: Stanley Kubrick

"a bumbling amateur film exercise"

Kubrick went as far as to buy the original negatives of the film and all available prints to ensure no-one would ever see it. A restoration of the only legal print was done in 2012.