Milius

Great writer, below average director.

Larger than life as a person.

What's interesting about this documentary about the writer John Milius is that he was befriended with Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola back in the early seventies. All his friends did become famous and legendary directors, while John Milius did not succeed.

John Milius was lauded for his writing talents and his excellent screenplays by an incrowd of directors. But the man was larger than life and in day to day dealings with Hollywood many excecutives didnt fancy dealing with someone who had several wild antics, like gun slinging and threatening to shoot his gun, while he was in business meetings.

In the end this is a portrait of a great writer, but a failed director, whose movie career petered out quite quickly. He is still forever famous for writing "Apocalyse Now" though. If you havent seen that movie yet, you are in for a real treat!

This documentary film is great. Even if you have no interest in the subject or filmmaking or Hollywood or any of it. Why? Because it tells first and foremost the story of a man, who is bigger than life. And it does with interviews and clips, but there is something more this film does. Every once in a while when someone is telling an anecdote the movie will recreate the scene using pictures and photo-collages. It is great, it is very well done and it gives the film a very dynamic feel. And I loved it. Of course, the documentary is well done overall. There is a lot of information presented here, as they go through Milius' whole life. Yet, it was never confusing or jumbled. The movie acts as a biographical film of sorts, and it gives a clear picture of who this guy was, even if some mystery remains. Not only that, but the documentary chronicles very well the culture and the environment from which the likes of Milius' emerged. The sixties, the counter-revolution and all that stuff. How did the Hollywood system operate and how it changed. It is not in focus, but it is present. For instance when they address Milius' politics and how it played with his industry reputation.

In a sense this documentary is the ultimate boomer chronicle. It shows how these guys that smoked weed and partied and were outcasts so to speak, later not only bent the establishment to their knees, but then became the establishment itself. It is the timeless story of how baby-boomer spent their youth and ideals fighting The Man, only to discover they became The Man. But that is just my commentary; the movie does not address this through that angle given that Milius remained somewhat on the fringes (or alternatively at the avant-garde).

Of course, Milius got scammed and lost all his money, but you can see on the margins that his influence (and most importantly his friends in high places) remained untouched. On the other hand, it is interesting to see that even at the top you have to balance artistic integrity and financial success. And maybe Milius was not as successful precisely because he was bolder and more radical in his expression. But you do get the feeling that despite all his fault he was a sincere artist.

This documentary film is important because it adresses a pivotal moment in Western culture, that gave birth to New Hollywood and furthermore the type of movies being made, and ultimately consumed. And Milius was always at the center of it.

I didn't know too much about John Milius before I sat down to watch this documentary, other than that he scripted some great movies and was responsible for one of my favourite fantasy flicks, CONAN THE BARBARIAN. So this was an eye-opening journey for me, and one which was a lot of fun. It's a documentary mainly comprised of talking head footage which looks at Milius's career in Hollywood, his rise, fame, and eventual downfall, in a snappy and amusing way. The requisite clips from his films play out and although familiar they don't lose their charm.

My only real problem with this film was that some of the animated linking scenes were pretty silly but that's a very minor niggle. The sheer breadth and wealth of Hollywood talent that has been assembled here is impressive in itself, with Spielberg and Lucas nestling alongside George Hamilton and Schwarzenegger. A lot of them have very interesting anecdotes to share, anecdotes which when put together build up a good portrait of the maverick that is Milius. While he might not be quite the legend that the filmmakers seem to believe, this is still highly watchable viewing.

"Milius" admirably susses out the life and essence of director, writer and movie maven John Milius, and does so without resorting to hagiography or caricature. Milius the man and the notion put the hook in me, to use his own expression, with his script for "Apocalypse Now" from 1979. He is a master of the outsize soliloquy that is relevant, indelible, written in urgent flaming large font, and always delivered with a sub rosa wink and nod. Milius in life is as bombastic, vexing and complex as his characters, and labels, slogans, and cliché cannot describe him. The filmmakers here do an exceptional job of getting past hype and drama to really figure out what makes Milius tick (or tock, as the case often is). One wishes Coppola in this film were more forthcoming with what must surely be deep insights into Milius he possesses, but aside from this dry spot, "Milius" is a nicely-woven film and warrants a watch.

A look at the life of filmmaker John Milius, the greatest filmmaker nobody knows.

In this documentary, Milius is played up as the best writer of dialogue, someone who recognized how people actually talk. Again and again he is mentioned as the dialogue guy, and Sean Connery thought he was the only one who could write good speeches.

It is certainly interesting to see how close he was with George Lucas at USC, making "Marcello I'm Bored" (1967) together, and more or less being good friends since then. Not knowing much about Lucas, it seemed an odd match.

Milius came up through American International Pictures (though apparently not under Roger Corman) and went on to make "Apocalypse Now", "Jaws", "Dirty Harry" and more... Charlie Sheen loves him, which means something. The UFC is mentioned as connected, with Milius having helped create interest in the sport on the part of investors and television outlets, and John Goodman in "Big Lebowski" may have been influenced by him.