10 Movie “Masterpieces” Critics Hated At First

Summary

• Movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Vertigo faced mixed reviews initially, but are now considered masterpieces.
• Fight Club and Scarface also received negative reviews at first, but later gained cult status and critical acclaim.
• The Big Lebowski and Bonnie and Clyde provoked confusion and controversy, but are now celebrated in film history.

Some movies are so unexpected and revolutionary that it takes a while for critics to understand the vision, and they are torn apart when they are released. Many of the best movies ever made started out with mixed reviews, since their unconventional styles defied classification and confused people. The very qualities that made such movies interesting and unique also meant that critics didn’t know how to approach them.

Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis stirred controversy recently by referring to some of the negative early reactions in a trailer. The quotes for Coppola’s old movies were proven to be fake, but the point that the trailer tries to make is true. Many brilliant movies which are now considered masterpieces were unappreciated upon release. Coppola has seen it happen to his own movies, and so have other cinematic legends, such as Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Ridley Scott.

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Related 10 Movies That Critics Either Loved Or Absolutely Hated

The most divisive movies ever split critics, creating two groups of those who either loved or hated the movie, for sometimes mysterious reasons.

10 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Kubrick’s Revolutionary Sci-Fi Baffled Some Critics

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Director Stanley Kubrick Release Date April 3, 1968 Cast Keir Dullea , Gary Lockwood , William Sylvester , Daniel Richter , Leonard Rossiter , Margaret Tyzack

Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey changed the genre for good. However, by creating something so unusual and experimental, Kubrick alienated plenty of critics. Reviews were extremely polarized, with some immediately recognizing the movie as a leap forward for sci-fi, while others derided it as dull or incomprehensible. Famous film critic Pauline Kael called it “monumentally unimaginative.”

Even the negative reviews of
2001: A Space Odyssey
couldn’t deny the technical mastery and the revolutionary special effects that the movie has.

Even the negative reviews of 2001: A Space Odyssey couldn’t deny the technical mastery and the revolutionary special effects that the movie has. In the years since its release, the film’s reputation has grown. Now that people can see the impact it has had on the sci-fi genre, the negative reviews seem short-sighted. 2001: A Space Odyssey is a lot slower than most sci-fi epics, but this is entirely intentional.

9 The Shining (1980)

The Horror Classic Received Two Razzie Nominations

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Director Stanley Kubrick Release Date June 13, 1980 Cast Danny Lloyd , Shelley Duvall , Jack Nicholson , Scatman Crothers

2001: A Space Odyssey isn’t the only one of Stanley Kubrick’s movies that was ahead of its time. Some critics also struggled to get on board with his psychological horror classic The Shining. Famously, Stephen King disliked the adaptation of his novel, but he wasn’t the only one. A review in Variety accused Kubrick and Jack Nicholson of “destroy[ing] all that was so terrifying about Stephen King’s bestseller.”

Stanley Kubrick and Shelley Duvall were nominated for Worst Director and Worst Actress at the Razzies, although neither of them “won”.

The Shining was nominated for two Golden Raspberry Awards, the parody awards given out to the worst movies of each year. Kubrick and Shelley Duvall were nominated for Worst Director and Worst Actress, although neither of them “won”. Over the years, The Shining has been reevaluated as an iconic horror movie, proving once again that it’s foolish to bet against Stanley Kubrick.

8 Fight Club (1999)

A Muddled Marketing Campaign Didn’t Help David Fincher’s Cult Classic

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Director David Fincher Release Date October 15, 1999 Cast Brad Pitt , Meat Loaf , Edward Norton , Jared Leto , Helena Bonham Carter

Fight Club struggled at the box office, partly due to a misjudged marketing campaign that tried to sell it as an action movie. David Fincher’s movie has frequently defied classification. It is both a psychological thriller and a dark corporate satire, but many critics didn’t know what to make of it. A reviewer for The Boston Globe described Fight Club as “explosively silly” after a promising start.

Fight Club
survived its negative initial reaction, and it became a cult hit after it was released on home video.

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Critical opinion was fiercely polarized on Fight Club, and the movie’s content was also the topic of some heated ethical debates. Some decried Fincher as immoral for showing such incendiary anti-authority philosophy, coupled with scenes of all-out domestic terrorism and macho violence. Fight Club survived its negative initial reaction, and it became a cult hit after it was released on home video.

7 It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)

Frank Capra’s Christmas Classic Flew Under The Radar

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Director Frank Capra Release Date January 7, 1947 Cast James Stewart , Thomas Mitchell , Lionel Barrymore , Donna Reed , Henry Travers

It’s a Wonderful Life is now recognized as one of the best Christmas movies ever made, and it still gets watched by millions of people when the holiday season rolls around each year. However, initial reaction to Frank Capra’s contemporary adaptation of A Christmas Carol was rather muted. It’s a Wonderful Life failed to break even at the box office, and it was forgotten about for several years.

Once
It’s a Wonderful Life
entered the public domain in the 1970s, it reached a new audience via TV and home media sales.

Critics at the time gave It’s a Wonderful Life mixed reviews. Writing for the New York Times, Bosley Crowther opined that the movie’s artificiality stood in the way of its emotional impact, and he claimed that the film’s major problem was “the sentimentality of it – its illusory concept of life.” Once It’s a Wonderful Life entered the public domain in the 1970s, it reached a new audience via TV and home media sales.

6 Vertigo (1958)

Alfred Hitchcock’s Intriguing Mystery Was Accused Of Being Nonsensical

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Director Alfred Hitchcock Release Date May 9, 1958 Cast Tom Helmore , Barbara Bel Geddes , Kim Novak , James Stewart , Henry Jones

Modern retrospectives of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies often count Vertigo as one of the director’s very best efforts, if not the best. Contemporary reviews were much less kind to Vertigo, as the mystery was accused of having too many plot holes and straying too far from reality. A New York Post review suggested that Hitchcock “thinks he can get away with murder in the logic and realism departments.”

Later reviews have been more aware of the fact that some of
Vertigo
‘s logical leaps are meant to reflect Scottie’s troubled state of mind.

Later reviews have been more aware of the fact that some of Vertigo‘s logical leaps are meant to reflect Scottie’s troubled state of mind, and his struggles to get to grips with the reality in front of him. The movie is now considered one of the finest mystery thrillers ever made. The mystery itself is twisty and absorbing, but Vertigo‘s real strength is the way that it explores Scottie’s character.

5 The Big Lebowski (1998)

The Big Lebowski Defied Expectations, And Confused Critics

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Director Joel Coen , Ethan Coen Release Date March 6, 1998 Cast Julianne Moore , Jeff Bridges , Steve Buscemi , John Turturro , John Goodman , David Huddleston , Phillip Seymour Hoffman

The Big Lebowski is a bona fide cult classic: highly quotable, unusually structured, and not to everyone’s taste. Many critics gave The Big Lebowski negative reviews when it was first released, further proving that it isn’t designed to appeal to everyone. A particularly harsh review from The Guardian described it as “a bunch of ideas shoveled into a bag and allowed to spill out at random.”

The Big Lebowski
is a bona fide cult classic: highly quotable, unusually structured, and not to everyone’s taste.

The supposed randomness of The Big Lebowski is a big part of what makes the movie so special. It’s a shaggy dog story masquerading as a crime thriller. The plot has a case of mistaken identity, some intimidating thugs and a femme fatale, but the main character isn’t too interested in any of this. The Big Lebowski drops a slacker into the middle of an Elmore Leonard story and watches as he bashes his head against the sides. More recent reviews have praised The Big Lebowski as one of the best Coen brothers movies.

4 The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (1967)

American Critics Looked Down On Spaghetti Westerns At First

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Director Sergio Leone Release Date December 29, 1967 Cast Clint Eastwood , Eli Wallach , Lee Van Cleef , Aldo Giuffrè , Luigi Pistilli

During the 1960s, American critics turned their noses up at Spaghetti Westerns, with many believing that European filmmakers shouldn’t be working in such a distinctly American genre. Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is now recognized as one of the best Spaghetti Westerns ever made, but this didn’t save it from some brutal reviews in the American press. Critics seemed determined to destroy the entire idea of Spaghetti Westerns, not just this one movie.

Now that the debate over the legitimacy of the Spaghetti Western genre has died down, critics have reevaluated
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
as a masterpiece.

Charles Champlin quipped in the Los Angeles Times that the movie should be titled “The Bad, the Dull and the Interminable,” and plenty of other movie reviewers shared his opinion. Now that the debate over the legitimacy of the Spaghetti Western genre has died down, critics have reevaluated The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as a masterpiece, and it frequently appears in lists of the best movies ever made.

3 Alien (1979)

Alien’s Mixed Reviews Didn’t Reflect Its Mastery Of Sci-Fi And Horror

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Director Ridley Scott Release Date June 22, 1979 Cast Sigourney Weaver , Tom Skerritt , John Hurt , Veronica Cartwright , Harry Dean Stanton , Ian Holm , Yaphet Kotto , Bolaji Badejo

When Alien was first released in 1979, only a few creators could see and understand Ridley Scott’s vision. While the movie was praised for its tense atmosphere and H. R. Giger’s terrifying creature designs, many reviewers found the story to be lacking. A review in the magazine Time Out described Alien as an “empty bag of tricks whose production values and expensive trickery cannot disguise imaginative poverty.”

When
Alien
was first released in 1979, only a few creators could see and understand Ridley Scott’s vision.

Although it didn’t receive the best reviews, Alien had impressive box office numbers. Like many horror movies, audiences were much more appreciative of Alien than critics were. It took a few years for reviewers to catch up to the public consensus, and Alien finally got the respect that it deserved. Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley became a sci-fi icon, and the Alien franchise was born.

2 Bonnie & Clyde (1967)

Some Critics Weren’t Prepared For The Seismic Change That Bonnie And Clyde Represented

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Director Arthur Penn Release Date July 18, 1967 Cast Warren Beatty , Faye Dunaway , Michael J. Pollard , Gene Hackman , Estelle Parsons , Denver Pyle

Bonnie and Clyde was hugely controversial when it was first released, with detractors suggesting that the movie glorified criminality and violence. Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were already prominent figures in America’s cultural mythology, but their violent crime spree had never been portrayed in such gory detail before. A New York Times review slammed Bonnie and Clyde as “a cheap piece of bald-faced slapstick comedy.”

A New York Times review slammed
Bonnie and Clyde
as
“a cheap piece of bald-faced slapstick comedy.”

Bonnie and Clyde is now seen as a landmark in the history of American cinema, and one of the pioneering films of the New Hollywood era. Although it was a game-changer in many ways, there was no shortage of critics who panned the movie. Even if a reviewer accepted the graphic depictions of violence, they might have found problems with the grim characters at the heart of the story, which was unlike the Old Hollywood standard.

1 Scarface (1983)

Scarface Was Shockingly Violent At The Time

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Director Brian De Palma Release Date December 9, 1983 Cast Al Pacino , Michelle Pfeiffer , Robert Loggia , Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio , Miriam Colon , F. Murray Abraham

Bonnie and Clyde shocked some reviewers with its depictions of graphic violence, but Scarface was even more gory and difficult to watch for some. Many critics saw Scarface‘s violence as cheap and unnecessary, especially those who felt that the story wasn’t as fleshed out as the action scenes. David Ansen wrote in Newsweek that Scarface was “grand, shallow, decadent entertainment.”

Many critics saw
Scarface
‘s violence as cheap and unnecessary, especially those who felt that the story wasn’t as fleshed out as the action scenes

Scarface also courted controversy due to its depiction of Cuban immigrants as violent criminals. More recently, critics and audiences have reappraised Scarface as a bold, unflinching crime drama about the short-term benefits and long-term negatives of crime. Like all the best crime movies, it is more than a morality play about individual criminals, as it sets its sights on the system that encourages such greed and violence.

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