10 Directors Who Bounced Back With A Vengeance After Failed Movies

2) The Coen Brothers: From The Ladykillers To No Country For Old Men

The Failure

Joel and Ethan Coen have a pretty solid record. Between them, they’ve been responsible for some of the best movies of the past 30 years; one could even argue they’ve only ever made one bad film. For many, that would be The Ladykillers, the most glaring misfire in the Coens’ back catalogue; and, almost as though they’d been waiting for the Coens to blink, critics pounced on The Ladykillers back in 2004 and savaged it. Some would say it was a just response.

The Comeback

You can’t throw too many superlatives at No Country for Old Men, a film that almost feels like a reinvention for the Coens after The Ladykillers. Less wordy than any Coens movie before or since, No Country is proof that two of the best writers of dialogue in the land also know their way around a set-piece, and then some. The film won four Oscars, including Best Picture, and put the Coens back in everyone’s good books, where they’ve remained ever since.