Milius

It's a fairly standard talking head movie with lots of clips and interviews. Does a great job of letting you see him and his work. Well done.

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.

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!

Milius (2013)

**** (out of 4)

Wonderful, all-star tribute to writer-director John Milius who is best remembered for the screenplay to countless classics including DIRTY HARRY, JEREMIAH JOHNSON, THE WIND AND THE LION, APOCALYPSE NOW, CONAN THE BARBARIAN and RED DAWN. This documentary traces his early days at USC and how he started working at AIP before moving onto some of the biggest pictures of the 70s and 80s. This documentary covers the wild stories behind the man and how eventually all of his politics became too much and he was pretty much thrown out of Hollywood. Directors Joey Figueroa and Zak Knutson do a marvelous job at telling this story and much like the subject, they don't shy away from telling the truth about Milius. They don't shy away from some of his outrageous antics and they also aren't afraid to ask a pretty basic question about why such a talent just isn't being used as much. The film contains a terrific line up of people being interviewed including the likes of Scorsese, Spielberg, Coppola, Schrader, Stone, Lucas, Dreyfuss, Sam Elliott, Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Ed O'Neil, Stallone, Schwarzenegger and countless others. It's obvious that all of these people hold the subject in high esteem and after watching this documentary I'm sure you will do. The documentary tells a great story and the way it's constructed is another major plus. The interviews are all terrific but we also get plenty of wonderful clips from the movies themselves. There's no doubt that after watching this thing you're going to want to go out and see the movies.

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.