# What is the best directorial debut film of the 1970s?

> The 1970s New Hollywood era was defined by bold, visionary debut films. From Badlands to Eraserhead, which debut announced a major filmmaking talent most powerfully?

*By YPB Team · Published June 4, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-directorial-debut-film-of-the-1970s*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Badlands** — score 1000/1000
   Terrence Malick's 1973 debut — a lyrical, operatic road-trip crime film inspired by the Starkweather killings.
2. **Sorcerer** — score 527/1000
   William Friedkin's 1977 revisit to Wages of Fear — not a debut but his defining personal project of the era.
3. **Coma** — score 483/1000
   Michael Crichton's 1978 medical thriller debut — a paranoid hospital mystery with strong feminist undertones.
4. **THX 1138** — score 467/1000
   George Lucas's 1971 debut — a stark sci-fi dystopia predating Star Wars with uncompromising vision.
5. **American Graffiti** — score 395/1000
   George Lucas's 1973 second film — a nostalgic ensemble coming-of-age classic and the genesis of Happy Days.
6. **Hard Times** — score 307/1000
   Walter Hill's 1975 debut — a Depression-era bare-knuckle fighting film with Charles Bronson at his stoic best.
7. **The Texas Chain Saw Massacre** — score 282/1000
   Tobe Hooper's 1974 debut — a raw, sun-baked proto-slasher that redefined what horror could be.
8. **Eraserhead** — score 198/1000
   David Lynch's 1977 midnight-movie debut — a surrealist industrial nightmare of parenthood and anxiety.
9. **Sisters** — score 57/1000
   Brian De Palma's 1972 psychological horror debut — a Hitchcockian twin-terror film with Bernard Herrmann score.
10. **Assault on Precinct 13** — score 57/1000
   John Carpenter's 1976 second film — a lean, Hawksian siege thriller made for $100,000.
11. **Dark Star** — score 57/1000
   John Carpenter's 1974 debut — a low-budget sci-fi dark comedy about a bored crew on a deep-space mission.
12. **The Duellists** — score 1/1000
   Ridley Scott's 1977 debut — a Napoleonic epic of obsessive honor between two hussar officers.

Tags: movies, 70s, directorial debut, new hollywood