# Great Classics By Young Director
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-classics-by-young-director/833446
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 4, 2019, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-classics-by-young-director/833446 "2019-05-04T00:07:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2019, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-classics-by-young-director/833446/1 "2019-05-04T00:07:01Z")
I consider a classic something made at least 40 years ago… I know most of the ages of directors, but imagine if “One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest” was directed by an 18-year old…
— Or, a young writer if you can’t think of any directors.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2019, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-classics-by-young-director/833446/2 "2019-05-04T00:58:17Z")
_Citizen Kane._ Welles was 26.
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### Author:  [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2019, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-classics-by-young-director/833446/3 "2019-05-04T01:05:33Z")
Steven Spielberg was 29 when he directed _Jaws_. Maybe 28 – it was released when he was 29.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2019, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-classics-by-young-director/833446/4 "2019-05-04T01:10:32Z")
_Battleship Potemkin_ by Sergei Eisenstein was released when he was 27.
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### Author:  [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2019, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-classics-by-young-director/833446/5 "2019-05-04T01:32:01Z")
2 more recent classics, Quentin Tarantino was 28 in 1992 when _Reservoir Dogs_ was released. And Steven Soderbergh was 26, the youngest solo director to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, for _Sex, Lies and Videotape_ in 1989.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2019, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-classics-by-young-director/833446/6 "2019-05-04T01:32:18Z")
The recently deceased John Singleton was 22 when he was nominated for directing Boyz N the Hood.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2019, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-classics-by-young-director/833446/7 "2019-05-04T02:25:59Z")
Charlie Chaplin started directing short subjects at age 25 and started putting out classics two years later.
A bit too recent for your criteria, but Kevin Smith directed _Clerks_ at age 24.
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### Author:  [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2019, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-classics-by-young-director/833446/8 "2019-05-04T05:59:21Z")
George Romero was 28 when he made _Night of the Living Dead_
John Landis was 27 when he made _Animal House_
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### Author:  [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2019, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-classics-by-young-director/833446/9 "2019-05-04T13:16:53Z")
**Clerks,** Kevin Smith, 24 years old