All those who complain about the liberal domination of Hollywood have never come across John Milius. A film school pal of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, Milius had tried to join the Marine Corp, but was turned away due to his asthma. Instead, he channeled his frustrations into both a life-long obsession with firearms (he was paid for “Jeremiah Johnson” in antique weaponry, and has served on the NRA Board of Directors) and making some of the most masculine, testosterone-filled movies of all time, both as an acclaimed writer and as a director. The basis for both Paul Le Mat’s character in “American Graffiti” and Walter in “The Big Lebowski” — the Coens are friends of Milius, and offered him the part of Jack Lipnick in “Barton Fink” — he’s one of film history’s most singular, colorful characters.
He might not have had the overwhelming success of Lucas or Spielberg, but Milius has been behind more than a few seminal pictures of the 1970s and 1980s, and with the man celebrating his 68th birthday this week, we wanted to highlight his place in film history with a few essential movies of the Milius canon.
“Dillinger” (1973)
The honky-tonk beat of “We’re In The Money” lingers over John Milius’ directorial debut. An old-timey standard that wouldn’t be out of place in a Hollywood film of the ’60s, it’s here deployed to register a melancholy hankering for the old times, a bit of a sarcastic fourth-wall-breaking touch by a man to be forever labeled a moviemaking renegade. It would be the beginning of Milius announcing to the world that he was an old soul with decidedly Old Testament viewpoints. “Dillinger” is brutal, muscular filmmaking, centered on the Dillinger gang as if they were an endangered species, forever looking over their shoulders. Every kinetic shootout and action sequence is drenched in sweat and desperation, suggesting these were the last days not only for this overconfident criminal, but also for this station-to-station way of life. The pressure to settle down and live a life without dodging bullets weighs heavily on Dillinger’s dog-faced posse, but not in the eyes of Warren Oates. Here, as the director’s avatar, he’s determined to go down in a blaze of glory with a wad of cash, confident and cocksure but also aware of Melvin Purvis breathing down his back. While there are many not-very-confident choices made in putting the movie together, which is customary considering it was his first time behind a feature film, “Dillinger” is still loaded with surprisingly visceral action and an overwhelmingly bleak tone that suggests that you don’t need to know how the story ends to guess things don’t go well for our title character.
I keep waiting for "The Essentials: The Films Of George Miller", but I was told his filmography, at 8 features, wasn't big enough (but Whit Stillman got his, with half the films). And now Milus…
Don't get me wrong, John Milus is the man. Loved this piece.
Very nice article, but I believe Milius turns 68 this week.
Nitpicky, but that Conan still if from the terrible sequel and not the original
It's funny to think I'd never heard of this guy (though I knew of and had seen movies he'd written and directed) until a week or so ago when I read Zeroville totally on a whim. A wonderful book — though it kind of fizzles in the end — in which a fictionalized Milius has a pretty big role, and de Palma, Scorsese, Margot Kidder, and others figure in 'cameo' appearances. It's probably the most significant thing to be produced in the last several decades involving Milius — even as obliquely as it does. FYI James Franco secured the rights to the novel last spring — you reported on it at the time but no word has emerged since, and considering how special the novel is I'm surprised there hasn't been more discussion of that development among bloggers and fans
Is he still doing the Ancient Egyptian tv series Pharaoh? I hope he is, Rome was brilliant!
Er, The Wind And The Lion is awesome.
Another person here who thinks the Wind and the Lion is OK.
Farewell to the King isnât a very good movie but it is an interesting one. To me it feels like the âJohn Milius: Greatest Hitsâ movie. Itâs the work of an artist who doesnât have anything new to say and is just regurgitating the material that earned him fame in the first place, but less skilfully.
Another proud fan of Wind And The Lion here. That's a terrific movie–Connery camping it up, Brian Keith as Roosevelt, Candice Bergen's best performance, and the great scene where the Marines seize the palace.
Continuing in the Roosevelt theme I'd also support Milius' HBO miniseries Rough Riders, which foreshadowed his work on "Rome" and is pretty damn good in it's own right.
Another supporter for The Wind and the Lion here. Connery's refusal to drop his thick Scottish accent didn't ruin it any more than The Untouchables or any other films. Despite not sounding like Raisuli he perfectly embodied the arrogance of the character.
Can we at least agree that Goldsmith's score is sublime?
The Wind and the Lion is probably the best movie he directed. Really not sure why you wouldn't list it. Who cares about accents?
milius was the only good conservative director i like besides clint eastwood, mel gibson, sylvester stallone and robert duvall. milius did well with conan the barbarian and red dawn. some of the dirty harrys and jack ryans. very patriotic. too bad about his famous composer basil poledouris who passed away 6 years ago.
Yet another supporter for WIND AND THE LION. I don't see what you have against it but I guess its just a matter of taste. I never cared that much for RED DAWN. I personally think CONAN THE BARBARIAN is his masterpiece and it is a real shame he didn't get to do KING CONAN: CROWN OF IRON. It might have revived the series. That recent "reboot" certainly won't get it going again. Too bad that the "What is good in life" quote is the one everyone remembers. I like much better his prayer to Crom as all the bad guys in the world are riding down on him. "Crom, I've never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it. I know you don't care who lives and who dies, but grant me one thing, Revenge. And if you don't, the hell with you."
The Wind and the Lion is lean, not bloated. Look at the movie as a whole. Great performances, exciting action, crisp dialogue and arguably the best Jerry Goldsmith score combine to make this a classic. It came out the same time as Jaws, and was overshadowed at the time. Nevertheless, it holds up quite well, and while not true historically, it is a fine story.
The Wind and the Lion is an excellent piece of work. Of course if you are under the age of 40, watching a movie that requires paying attention could be a challenge. John Milius is over rated and much of his alleged writing credits you list are undocumented.
The best John Milius moments have all been brought to the screen by other people. His output as a director is often workmanlike and, dare I say, cinematically boring. He’s unable to transcend his influences. When he writes for himself his scripts lack the polish that directors like Coppola, Siegel and Pollack bring out of him.
Not all of his movies are bad. Dillinger and The Wind and the Lion (his strongest overall film) are solid imitation Peckinpah and Lean respectively, and there are moments where Conan nearly achieves the greatness of Kurosawa, but it’s still the effort of a journeyman working in the shadow of a master. And then you have Farewell to the King, a completely stodgy Lean wannabe; the boring Flight of the Intruder; and, of course, Red Dawn, a barely coherent assemblage of sequences lifted from much better war stories, truncated to get to the shooty bits as quickly as possible and staged terribly, and only as fondly remembered as it is because its premise made an impression on a lot of 12 year olds who grew up to write about movies.