John Milius

John Milius
Born John Frederick Milius
(1944-04-11) April 11, 1944
St. Louis, Missouri,
United States
Alma mater University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television
Occupation Screenwriter
Film director
Film producer
Years active 1966–present
Spouse(s) Renee Fabri (1967–1978) (divorced) (2 children)
Celia Milius (1978–?) (divorced)
Elan Oberon (1992–present)

John Frederick Milius (born April 11, 1944) is an American screenwriter, director, and producer of motion pictures. He was one of the writers for the first two Dirty Harry films, received an Academy Award nomination as screenwriter of Apocalypse Now, and wrote and directed The Wind and the Lion, Conan the Barbarian and Red Dawn.

Early life

Milius was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the youngest of three children to Elizabeth (née Roe) and William Styx Milius, who was a shoe manufacturer.[1] When Milius was seven his father sold his business, retired and moved to California, where Milius became an enthusiastic surfer.

At fourteen, Milius' parents sent him to a small private school, the Lowell Whiteman School, in the mountains of Steamboat Springs, Colorado "because I was a juvenile delinquent."[2]

Milius became a voracious reader and started to write short stories. "I had learned very early, to write in almost any style. I could write in fluent Hemingway, or in fluent Melville, or Conrad, or Jack Kerouac, and whatever."[3] He says he was also influenced by the oral story telling of surfers at the time, who had a beatnik tradition.[4]

"My religion is surfing," he said in 1976, adding that "The other thing that influenced me throughout my youth was my involvement with things Japanese. I studied judo, kendo, and painting. I felt more comfortable with things Japanese and with Japanese people than I did with Europeans... feudalism in any country, at any period, fascinates me... I understand the reasoning of people in Asia, it makes sense to me. Zen is very sensible, the whole way of feeling things is logical, whereas many of the Western-motivated things - greed, business sense - I'm not comfortable with, I don't understand their rationale."[5]

Milius attempted to join the Marine Corps and volunteer for Vietnam War service in the late 1960s, but was rejected due to a chronic and sometimes disabling case of asthma.

"I'd have given anything to be a Marine," said Milius. "As a surfer I'd spent a lot of time hanging out with the Marines off Pendleton, and I'd had every intention of joining up.. I was devastated, I felt like I'd been rejected as a human being."[6]

"It was totally demoralizing," he said later. "I missed going to my war. It probably caused me to be obsessed with war ever since."[7] Milius said he was "dying to be able to.. go prove myself in battle-the same as all young men long to do, if they are honest with themselves, whether it's right or wrong or even sane, which is a debate that's been going on since we left the caves. Only there was no way I could found my own unit, so I did the second best, which was to write it. Every writer wishes he could actually be doing the thing he writes about."[6] He later admitted, "I don't know how well I'd have done. I really wanted a military career, to be a general, but I had a hard time polishing shoes. And marching. I was in the ROTC once, and I hate marching... I would have been good in the Mexican Army."[5]

At one stage Milius considered becoming an artist or historian. During a rainy day on a summer vacation in Hawaii, he stumbled upon a movie theatre showing a week of Akira Kurosawa films and fell in love with cinema.[8]

USC

He studied film at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television where his classmates included George Lucas, Basil Poledouris, Randal Kleiser and Don Glut. Milius says he was influenced by his teacher, Irwin Blacker:

He gave you the screenplay form, which I hated so much, and if you made one mistake on the form, you flunked the class. His attitude was that the least you can learn is the form. “I can’t grade you on the content. I can’t tell you whether this is a better story for you to write than that, you know? And I can’t teach you how to write the content, but I can certainly demand that you do it in the proper form.” He never talked about character arcs or anything like that; he simply talked about telling a good yarn, telling a good story. He said, “Do whatever you need to do. Be as radical and as outrageous as you can be. Take any kind of approach you want to take. Feel free to flash back, feel free to flash forward, feel free to flash back in the middle of a flashback. Feel free to use narration, all the tools are there for you to use."[9]

Milius says his writing style was influenced by two novels in particular, Moby Dick and On the Road:

I think Moby Dick is the best work of art ever made... I used to point out the dramatic entrance of characters, how they were threaded through… Moby Dick was a perfect screenplay, a perfect example of the kind of drama that I was interested in. Another great influence on me was... On the Road, which has no tight, linear narrative, but sprawls, following this character. Moby Dick and On the Road are completely different kinds of novels, yet they’re both extremely disciplined. Nothing happens by accident in either of those two books.[9]

Milius reflected his "ambitions stopped at B Westerns... I thought that was a good life. I never wanted to be Hitchcock or some big mogul, I didn't want to be Louis B. Mayer. I wanted to be... Budd Boetticher or something... John Ford."[10] His short films at film school included The Reversal of Richard Sun (1966), Glut (1967) and Viking Women Don't Care (1967). He wrote a documentary, The Emperor (1967), directed by classmate George Lucas, who also edited an animated short Milius directed called Marcello I'm So Bored (1967) with John Strawbridge.

Marcello won best animation at the National Student Film Festival[11] and screened around the country in various festivals; it was praised by Vincent Canby of the New York Times.[12][13] Milius received a job offer to work in animation but he turned it down as he could not see himself "sitting there drawing cell after cell."[14]

Early career

Milius' first completed script was *Los Gringos (1968). "It actually wasn't bad," he later said. It was sort of like The Wild Bunch ... there was a lot of killing and shooting and riding and dust... sombreros.... It was a pretty good idea, actually. It had everything, and it was certainly as original as The Wild Bunch, but it wasn't as skillfully written as later stuff."[15]

He followed this with The Last Resort which was optioned by Michael S Laughlin in 1969.[16] Milius says, "Neither of them were ever made, but I was able to option them. I had them rented out for like $5,000 a year."[17]

The Devil's 8

Milius then got a summer job working at the story department of American International Pictures through a student colleague of his who had begun working there, Willard Huyck. Huyck and Milius worked at AIP under producer Larry Gordon, reading scripts. They eventually collaborated on a rewrite of the screenplay for The Devil's 8 (1968), an action drama about moonshine drivers which ripped off The Dirty Dozen (1968).[18]

Milius' name had been mentioned in a 1968 Time magazine article about the new generation of Hollywood filmmakers, which also referred to George Lucas and Martin Scorsese. This was read by Mike Medavoy, who became Milius' agent. Medavoy called Milius "a badboy mad genius in a teenager's body, but he was a good and fast writer with original ideas."[19]

Milius began to get writing commissions: he did The Texans for Al Ruddy at Paramount, a contemporary version of Red River (1948)[20] (never made although Sam Peckinpah was going to direct it in 1979[21]) – Milius later said it "wasn't very good".[22] He also wrote an original called Truck Driver (aka The Haul) which was purchased by Levy-Garner-Laven.[23] Neither was made.

Milius later said he "didn’t do a good job" with these two early scripts "because in both cases I was influenced by the people who had hired me. They said put this in and put that in, and I went along with it. Every time I went along with something in my whole career it usually didn’t work. Usually there’s a price to pay. You think of selling out, but there is a price to pay. Usually what people want you to do is make it current."[22]

The Crow Killer

Milius then wrote The Crow Killer, a biopic of the mountain man Liver-Eating Johnson. Milius later said this was:

The real breaking point where I knew – and it was almost overnight – that I had become a good writer with a voice... I knew that material. I’d lived in the mountains, I had a trapline, I hunted, and I had a lot of experiences with characters up there. So, it was real easy to write that and there was a humor to it, a kind of bigger-than-life attitude. I was inspired by Carl Sandberg. I read a lot of his poetry and it’s this kind of abrupt description – ‘a train is coming, thundering steel, where are you going? Wichita.’ That great kind of feeling that he had, that’s what I was trying to do there. I remember there was a great poem about American braggarts. You know, American liars – ‘I am the ring-tailed cousin to the such and such that ate so and so and I can do this and I can do that better than Mike Fink the river man...’ I just realized that this was the voice that the script had to have. It was as clear as a bell. I knew that writing was particular to me.[22]

Milius sold the script to Warner Bros in 1970 for $5,000 and Robert Redford agreed to play the lead.

Apocalypse Now

Milius says he was offered $17,000 to rewrite Skin Game (1971) but then Francis Ford Coppola made a counter offer of $15,000 for Milius to write Apocalypse Now.[3] Apocalypse Now was an adaptation of Heart of Darkness set in the Vietnam War which George Lucas intended to direct as a follow up to his first feature THX 1138 (1971).[24] Milius says Coppola:

Offered that wonderful fork in the road where I could go do my own thing rather than just rewrite some piece of crap that would probably be rewritten by somebody else. That was the most important decision I made in my life as a writer. That sort of steered me onto the path of doing my own work and being a little more like a novelist... I tackled an unpopular subject that no one was going to make a movie about where the chances were really slim that I could pull it off. There was no book, nothing but me and the blank page. And that was wonderful because I had followed my heart. One of the nicest times in my life was writing Apocalypse Now.[22]

The commercial failure of THX 1138 delayed production plans for Apocalypse Now. Nonetheless Milius's writing career went from strength to strength. He later said "No one would touch it [Apocalypse Now] because of the Vietnam war. Everyone loved it, it did more for my career than any other script because it was always considered a work of genius; from the minute it came out, it really stirred people up. It's a good script, it's certainly no work of genius. It churns people up, and that's what they think works of genius are supposed to do."[5]

Warner Bros got in other writers to work on The Crow Killer, which would be retitled Jeremiah Johnson. Milius was called back to work on it, and his fee grew each time.

Dirty Harry and Judge Roy Bean

Milius did an uncredited draft of Dirty Harry (1971). He says his contribution to the film was "A lot of guns. And the attitude of Dirty Harry, being a cop who was ruthless. I think it's fairly obvious if you look at the rest of my work what parts are mine. The cop being the same as the killer except he has a badge. And being lonely."[5] Dirty Harry was an enormous box office hit.

George Hamilton hired him to rewrite Evel Knievel (1971), a biopic of the stunt rider. He wrote an original script The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean about the famous judge. He sold it to First Artists for $300,000, then extremely high for a script. This was compensation for Milius not being allowed to direct. Directed by John Huston and starring Paul Newman it was a moderate hit, although Milius disliked the final result. More popular was Jeremiah Johnson.

Milius did some work with David Giler on the script which became The Black Bird.[25] He also did the first draft of the Dirty Harry sequel, Magnum Force (1973).[26] Milius later said "I don't like Magnum Force. Of all the films I had anything to do with, I like it least. They changed a lot of things in a cheap and distasteful manner."[5] However it was successful at the box office.

Director

By now Milius was one of the most sought after screenwriters in Hollywood. His profile was higher than most writers because he was seen as a colourful character with a talent for lively interviews, and his self-styled "Zen Anarchist"/"American samurai" persona made him stand out in Hollywood.[27] For instance, he only rewrote Dirty Harry on the proviso he was given an expensive gun.[28] He was also the inspiration for the character of Big Jim in the enormously successful American Graffiti (1973).[5]

Dillinger

Milius wanted to move behind the camera. "Being a director is the only way anyone will listen to you in Hollywood," he said. "It's the next best thing to being a star."[29]

Gangster films were popular at the time and Milius had written a script on John Dillinger. Milius offered it to American International Pictures for a fraction of his regular fee if they would let him direct it as well.[30][31] AIP agreed. The movie was moderately successful and launched Milius's directing career. He worked on the script for a TV sequel, Melvin Purvis: G-Man (1974), a pilot for a proposed series about Melvin Purvis (there was a second TV movie, but no series), but did not like the direct, Dan Curtis, or the experience of working for TV.[5]

Contemporary film writers grouped Milius in with the emerging "movie brats" generation of filmmakers that also including Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Terence Malick and Martin Scorsese.[32] One of this group was Steven Spielberg who asked John Milius to help him with a scene in Jaws; Milius wrote this overnight and it became one of the most famous scenes in the movie.

In 1974 David Picker announced he would produce Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail directed by Milius and written by Winfred Blevins, about Theodore Roosevelt. The film was never made.[33] Neither was The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy, a proposed biopic about the famous anti-Communist Senator, which Milius declared interest in making.[34]

The Wind and the Lion

Milius next wrote and directed the popular adventure film The Wind and the Lion (1975), which starred Sean Connery and Candice Bergen.

He intended to follow this with Give Your Heart to the Hawks, a story about mountain man Jedediah Smith in the 1820s based a novel by Winfred Blevins[35][36] "It's my interpretation of Jedediah Smith, which might not be exactly historical," said Milius. "It'll be about exploration, about the need to see what's over the next ridge and what that does, what price you pay, to find out. Like Dirty Harry, Smith is a classic lone man, with a searing loneliness about him. A leader of men is always alone."[5] It was never made; neither was Man-Eaters of Kumoan (1976) based on book by Jim Corbett about a tiger hunter in India which Milius worked on.[5]

He did come close to making Extreme Prejudice, based on his script, in 1976. However he decided to make Big Wednesday instead; Extreme Prejudice would be made a decade later, much rewritten, and directed by Walter Hill.

Big Wednesday and The A Team

In 1975, Milius formed his own production company, The A Team, with Buzz Feitshans, who had edited Dillinger. They had a five-year deal with Warner Bros. Milius said, "Our motto is Civitas Sine Prudentia, which really translates to Social Irresponsibility; I believe in it. It's refreshing, it's liberating. Americans are basically socially irresponsible... Who else would have invented the atomic bomb quite the same way? The Nazis would have invented it with the desire to conquer the world; we were the only people that could have invented it with the desire not to conquer the world"[5]

It's first production was an autobiographical surfing picture, Big Wednesday (1978) which he called "a surfing How Green Was My Valley".[5] This was a major commercial disappointment although it has gone on to be a cult film.

Milius' friendship with George Lucas saw him given a percentage of the profits for Star Wars, which Mike Medavoy estimated earned Milius $1.5 million – in exchange Milius gave Lucas a percentage of the profits for Big Wednesday which amounted to nothing.[37]

The A Team made a number of movies not directed by Milius. Notably, they produced the first three films from Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale: (I Wanna Hold Your Hand, 1941 (directed by Steven Spielberg) and Used Cars.[38] He also produced Hardcore, directed by friend Paul Schrader.

Schrader once described Milius' writing as containing too many good lines and scenes. He says Warren Beatty once "told John something I've been telling him too: 'You come too soon and you come too often.' I think that's one of his problems: he's so full of juice he just can't stop coming, rather than holding back and tightening the situation and building characters. That releasing diffuses the energy, the characters are too broad because they never have time to build up the inner strength."[39]

Spielberg said in 1978 that Milius was key to the group of young filmmakers known as the New Hollywood, which included himself, Lucas, and Coppola:

John is our Scoutmaster. He's the one who will tell you to go on a trip and only take enough food, enough water for one day, and make you stay out longer than that. He's the one who says, 'Be a man. I don't want to see any tears.' He's a terrific raconteur, a wonderful story teller. John has more life than all the rest of us put together.[40]

Apocalypse Now

Milius' old agent, Mike Medavoy, helped establish Orion Pictures in 1978 and one of their first movies was going to be East of Suez, written and directed by Milius.[41] It was not made.

However the following year saw the release of Apocalypse Now, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola rewrote the script, which Milius disliked. "He wanted to ruin it, liberalize it, and turn it into Hair," said Milius in 1976. "He sees himself as a great humanitarian, an enlightened soul who will tell you such wonderful things as he does at the end of GODFATHER II-that crime doesn't pay... Talent-wise, he's no John Ford; character-wise, he's no Steve Spielberg. Francis can't stand to have any other creative influence around... Francis Coppola has this compelling desire to save humanity when the man is a raving fascist, the Bay Area Mussolini."[5]

The film was released in 1979 to great acclaim.

Conan the Barbarian

Milius enjoyed his greatest commercial success as a director with Conan the Barbarian (1982), which made a star of Arnold Schwarzenegger.[42]

Red Dawn

This was followed by the popular, if controversial, Red Dawn (1984).

He helped produce Uncommon Valor (1983) and acted as "spiritual adviser" for Lone Wolf McQuade (1983). He wrote and directed an episode for The New Twilight Zone (1985) and a story of his, "Viking Bikers from Hell" was used in an episode of Miami Vice (1987).

In 1986 it was reported he was writing the script for Fatal Beauty which he hoped to direct with Cher;[43] the film was made by Tom Holland starring Whoopi Goldberg.

A film based on his 1970s script, Extreme Prejudice, released in 1987, though directed by Walter Hill. There was some talk he would direct a movie for HBO, Capone, but it was not made.[44]

Farewell to the King and Flight of the Intruder

In the late 1980s Milius wrote and directed a World War II adventure film Farewell to the King (1989). This flopped at the box office.

In the late 1980s Milius tried to get finding for adaptations of Alan Echert's "The Frontiersman," about settling the Ohio River Valley, and "Half of the Sky," about a Rocky Mountain explorer.[45]

Sean Connery was hired to star in the film of Hunt for the Red October for producer Mace Neufeld based on the Tom Clancy novel. Connery thought the script was "too American" and insisted Neufeld hire John Milius to rewrite the Russian sequences. Connery thought with Milius, he could "get a different sort of image, different speech patterns."[46]

Neufeld then hired Milius to write and direct Flight of the Intruder based on the book by Stephen Coonts. It too was not a financial success.

"I think the culture had changed and that is why my films were less accepted," he reflected later. "I still think those are also great films, Farewell to the King especially."[47]

In 1992 he claimed he was blacklisted for his conservative beliefs in liberal Hollywood, saying his flops were not as forgiven as those from more leftist directors. "It weighs ten times heavier against me," he said. "If you don't share the politically correct vision, then you are an outlaw, you are hunted and there is a price on your head, and if they catch you they will hang you."[48]

Later career

1990s: Screenwriting, Cable TV

The film of Hunt for the Red October had been a big success, however, and Milius remained in high demand as a screenwriter: he did several drafts of another Clancy adaptation, Clear and Present Danger, which was another hit.

Milius worked on a number on unfilmed scripts. There was Bad Iron, a biker movie written by Kent Anderson, which he intended to produce.[49] He was going to direct a film about Alexander the Great starring Jean-Claude Van Damme but that was put on hold when a mini series on the same topic was made by Italian TV.[50][51][52] He wrote Harlot's Ghost, for Francis Ford Coppola based on a novel by Norman Mailer; Milius described it as "a cross between The Godfather and Apocalypse Now. It's about families and duplicity and danger, but this time provoked by the government.".[53] He adapted the Sgt. Rock comics for producer Joel Silver. And also wrote a version of Die Hard 3 co-written with Barry Beckerman.[54]

In the early 1990s he wrote Texas Rangers, about the establishment of that organisation, for Frank Price at Columbia. He was going to direct, but could not raise the finance.[17]

In 1993 he replaced Andrei Konchalovsky as director on The Northmen for Morgan Creek Productions, about an English monk who gets captured by a band of Vikings. "This was inevitable," Milius said of his directing a Viking film. "I've been a practicing pagan for a long time. 'Conan the Barbarian' was really a Viking movie but it was disguised."[55] However financing fell through. He was going to direct an adaptation of Tom Clancy's novel Without Remorse with Gary Sinise and Laurence Fishburne but the project folded in 1995 two weeks before shooting was to commence due to the financial collapse of Savoy Pictures.[56]

A Milius script that was filmed was his biopic of Geronimo for Walter Hill.

He also directed two films for cable: Motorcycle Gang (1994) and Rough Riders (1997). As of 2016 they are the last films Milius has directed.

He also claims to have done "a little bit of stuff" on the script for Saving Private Ryan.[17]

2000s

In 2000 Milius was hired to work as a creative consultant with the Institute for Creative Technologies to pre visualise the challenges to peace that America will face and the advanced virtual reality technologies necessary to train U.S. troops for the future. "Through his enormous body of work, John has shown a deep understanding of the human condition and the ways that conflict can be resolved," said ICT executive director Richard Lindheim. "Furthermore our efforts will benefit greatly from his vision of the world in the near future, and the techniques and procedures that will be needed to maintain security."[57]

That year he also wrote two biopics: Le May for Robert Zemeckis, about Curtis Le May, and Manila John, about John Basilone, which he was going to make for HBO. Warner Bros wanted him to update Dirty Harry and he wanted them to fund a version of The Iliad; there was also talk he would make The Alamo for HBO. In the early 2000s he worked on King Conan: Crown of Iron (2001–02), a sequel to Conan the Barbarian.[58][59] He also developed Jornada del Muerto (Journey of Death) (2003), a biker film starring Triple H[60] and wrote a pilot for a TV show for UPN, Delta, about a military special ops team that takes on terrorists.[61] None of these movies were made.[17]

Texas Rangers (2001) was eventually made, Milius says his script was substantially rewritten.

Embezzlement Scandal

Milius suffered a major financial reversal in the late 1990s and early 2000s when his accountant embezzled funds from him - an estimated $3 million in all.[62]

He tried to get a job as a staff writer on the TV show Deadwood; showrunner David Milch was reluctant as he did not consider Milius a staff writer. Milius pleaded that he needed the money in order to pay for his son's tuition at law school. Milch offered to pay the fees.

Milius' career recovered when helped create the HBO/BBC television series Rome.[63] This meant he was able to repay the money to Milch.

He wrote some pilots which did not go to series - Dodge City (circa 2005) – a Western series for CBS,[64] and Saigon Bureau (2008) – about the AIP Bureau of photojournalists in the Vietnam War, a collaboration with Chris Noth based on the book Requiem.[65]

In 2007, Milius was the recipient of the Austin Film Festival's Distinguished Screenwriter Award. He said his favourite films were The Wind and the Lion, Big Wednesday and Conan.[66]

Health issues

In 2010 John Milius was working on a new project, a film biography of Genghis Khan[2] and a proposed TV series called Phraraoh set during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut[67] when he had a stroke. For a while Milius was unable to speak or move but he ultimately recovered.

Video games

In March 2011, Milius was a story consultant for the video game Homefront,[68][69] about a North Korean conquest of America.

Influence

Milius has long claimed to be an outsider in Hollywood. In 2001 he stated:

I've always been considered a nut. They kind of tolerate me. It's certainly affected me. I've been blacklisted for a large part of my career because of my politics—as surely as any writer was blacklisted back in the 1950s. It's just that my politics are from the other side, and Hollywood always veers left.[70]

He wrote a number of iconic film lines such as "Charlie don't surf" and "I love the smell of napalm in the morning," from Apocalypse Now, and the famous Dirty Harry one-liners delivered by Clint Eastwood, including "Go ahead, make my day" and "Ask yourself one question, 'do I feel lucky?' Well, do you punk?". Milius also had a hand in the USS Indianapolis monologue in the film Jaws;[40] the sequence was performed by Robert Shaw. When Spielberg asked him to punch up the screenplay for Saving Private Ryan, Milius suggested the Normandy cemetery bookends where Ryan, now an elderly hero of World War II, in a moment of survivor guilt, asks his wife "Did I live a good life?"[71]

After his work on Rough Riders (1997), Milius became an instrumental force in lobbying Congress to award President Theodore Roosevelt the Medal of Honor (posthumously), for acts of conspicuous gallantry while in combat on San Juan Hill.[72] Milius made two films featuring Roosevelt: The Wind and the Lion (where he was played by Brian Keith) and the made-for-TV film Rough Riders (where Tom Berenger took the role).

The character of John Milner from the 1973 George Lucas film American Graffiti was inspired by Milius, who was a good friend of Lucas while they were at USC film school. Likewise, the character Walter Sobchak in the 1998 film The Big Lebowski, made by his friends the Coen Brothers, was partly based on Milius.[73] Aleksandar Hemon's novella "Blind Jozef Pronek and Dead Souls" features an episode with Milius, who is described as "sitting at a desk sucking on a cigar as long as a walking stick."

Milius was also instrumental during the startup of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) organization: it was his idea to use the octagon-shaped cage, and his association with UFC helped provide interest and investors to the startup UFC.[74]

In 2013 a documentary about his life, titled Milius, was released.[75][76]

Writer Nat Segaloff called Milius:

The best writer of the co-called USC Mafia, a tight-knit group that resuscitated—some say homogenised American cinema in the 1970s... Raised on Ford, Hawks, Lean and Kurosawa, shaped by filmmakers as disparate as Fellini and Delmer Daves, Milius favours history books over comic books, character over special effects, and heroes with roots in reality, time, place and customs. Milius' stories reflect his own deeply held ethic, which embraces the values of tradition, adventure, spiritualism, honour and an intense loyalty to friends... Although he privately chafes at his public image as a gun-toting, liberal baiting provocateur, he allows himself to be painted as such, at times even holding the brush. He plays the Hollywood game like a pro, yet sticks to his own rules; he is a romantic filmmaker who avoids love scenes; his movies contain violence, yet no death in them is without meaning.[77]

Milius himself once said:

Never compromise excellence. To write for someone else is the biggest mistake that any writer makes. You should be your biggest competitor, your biggest critic, your biggest fan, because you don’t know what anybody else thinks. How arrogant it is to assume that you know the market, that you know what’s popular today—only Steven Spielberg knows what’s popular today. Only Steven Spielberg will ever know what’s popular. So leave it to him. He’s the only one in the history of man who has ever figured that out. Write what you want to see. Because if you don’t, you’re not going to have any true passion in it, and it’s not going to be done with any true artistry.[17]

Personal life

Milius is a self-proclaimed Zen anarchist, but he also publicly aligns himself with conservative factions in Hollywood and he was interviewed in the documentary Rated R: Republicans in Hollywood. He has also been consultant to a military think tank, the Institute for Creative Technologies.[70] Milius said:

I’m not a reactionary — I’m just a right-wing extremist so far beyond the Christian Identity people like that and stuff, that they can’t even imagine. I’m so far beyond that I’m a Maoist. I’m an anarchist. I’ve always been an anarchist. Any true, real right-winger if he goes far enough hates all form of government, because government should be done to cattle and not human beings.[78]

For years Milius was a member of the Board of Directors of the National Rifle Association, where he was a leader (with Charlton Heston) in resisting a takeover attempt by advocates of the so-called Militia Movement.

"I'd like to be Jack Hawkins in Bridge on the River Kwai," said Milius. "I call myself romantic. I believe in a lot of 19th century ideals: chivalry, honour, loyalty, romantic love."[79]

Milius is Jewish[80] and has been married three times.[81] His current marriage (since 1992) is to actress Elan Oberon (who appeared in Red Dawn as the woman behind the counter at the store, his 1989 film Farewell to the King and who is seen—and heard—singing Garryowen in Rough Riders).

He has two children by his first wife, Renee Fabri (m. 7 January 1967), and one child by his second wife, Celia Kaye (m. 26 February 1978).

Milius was a passionate surfer for much of his life but gave it up when he turned fifty.[47]

Milius suffered financial reversals when a good friend absconded with his money. He also had a stroke which left him unable to speak or walk. However, he recovered.[82]

Selected credits

Milius also made cameo appearances in The New Twilight Zone, Conan the Barbarian, Big Wednesday, Crazy Mama, The Wind and the Lion and Deadhead Miles.

Novel

References

  1. ↑ "John Milius Biography (1944–)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
  2. 1 2 Thom Patterson, "Apocalypse writer: Most scripts today 'are garbage' ", CNN, 9 March 2009 accessed 2012
  3. 1 2 IGN interview accessed 5 January 2012
  4. ↑ Segaloff p 280
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Thompson, Richard (July-Aug 1976). "STOKED". Film Comment 12.4. pp. 10–21. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. 1 2 VALKYRIES OVER IRAQ Weschler, LawrenceAuthor InformationView Profile. Harper's Magazine311.1866 (Nov 2005): 65-77
  7. ↑ Ken Plume, "Interview with John Milius", IGN, 7 May 2003 accessed 5 January 2012
  8. ↑ Segaloff p 276-277
  9. 1 2 "Interview with John Milius". Creative Screenwriting.
  10. ↑ IGN interview p 6 accessed 5 January 2012
  11. ↑ ANNUAL COMPETITION: 'A' GRADES FOR FILM FESTIVAL STUDENTS FILM FESTIVAL Thomas, Kevin. Los Angeles Times (1923–Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 22 Jan 1968: c1.
  12. ↑ Honored Student Movies Shown Here By VINCENT CANBY. New York Times (1923–Current file) [New York, N.Y] 18 Apr 1968: 58
  13. ↑ AT MUSEUM OF ART: ANIMATED FILMS ENTER THE CINEMA LIMELIGHT Thomas, Kevin. Los Angeles Times (1923–Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 24 May 1968: c1
  14. ↑ Segaloff p 281
  15. ↑ IGN interview with Milius accessed 5 January 2012
  16. ↑ MOVIE CALL SHEET: 'BARQUERO' ROLE TO MATHEWS Martin, Betty. Los Angeles Times (1923–Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 14 June 1969: a9.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 Bauer, Erik (March–April 2000). "John Milius". Creative Screenwriting. Vol. 7.
  18. ↑ Segaloff p 282
  19. ↑ Medavoy p 6
  20. ↑ Medavoy p 173
  21. ↑ Chow Tells $60 Million Film Schedule Thomas, Kevin. Los Angeles Times (1923–Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 05 Oct 1979: f39.
  22. 1 2 3 4 "John Milius: American Outsider", American Screenwriter 27 May 2013 accessed 10 June 2014
  23. ↑ MOVIE CALL SHEET: 'BIG' ROLE FOR CAROL WHITE Martin, Betty. Los Angeles Times (1923–Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 19 Feb 1971: i9.
  24. ↑ Movies Leaving 'Hollywood' Behind: Studio System Passe Film Forges Ahead By MEL GUSSOW Special to The New York Times. New York Times (1923–Current file) [New York, N.Y] 27 May 1970: 36.
  25. ↑ The Spadework Behind a 'Falcon' Remake: Spadework Behind Remake of 'Falcon' A Remake of 'Falcon' Warga, Wayne. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 15 Sep 1974: q1.
  26. ↑ "MOVIE CALL SHEET: MCCARTHY, RAQUEL TO COSTAR IN 'BOMBER'". Los Angeles Times. 26 Apr 1972. p. h12.
  27. ↑ Farber, Stephen (16 Sep 1973). "What's So Super About This Superdirector?". New York Times. p. 135.
  28. ↑ Hollywood's Script Door: Tom Mankiewicz, Tonic for Ailing Screenplays The Script Doctor By Paul Attanssio Washington Post Staff WriterLOS ANGELES. The Washington Post (1974–Current file) [Washington, D.C] 03 Mar 1985: G1.
  29. ↑ Gottschalk Jr, Earl C. (31 July 1975). "Focus on Filmland: Young Screenwriters, New Hollywood Breed, Zoom to Superstardom They Receive Up to $400,000 For Scripts and the Right To Direct Own Material Crisp Nostalgia or Rehash? Focus of Filmland: Screenwriters Are Zooming to New Superstardom". Wall Street Journal. p. 1.
  30. ↑ Harmetz, Aljean (4 Aug 1974). "The dime-store way to make movies-and money". New York Times. p. 202.
  31. ↑ "An Interview with John Milius – IGN". Au.movies.ign.com. 2003-05-07. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
  32. ↑ Alumni of Film School Now 'Star' as Directors: 24,000 Students On '10. Best' Lists Wayne vs. Godard A Different Mood' By PAUL GARDNER. New York Times (1923–Current file) [New York, N.Y] 30 Jan 1974: 24.
  33. ↑ "Warner's to Distribute Films of David Picker". Los Angeles Times. 21 Nov 1974. p. h23.
  34. ↑ News of the Screen: Machines and Man From Bartram Book Czech Director Looks at 'Cuckoo' Carol Burnett Plans Own Movie 'Life and Times Of Joe McCarthy' By A. H. WEILER. New York Times (1923–Current file) [New York, N.Y] 13 Oct 1974: 78
  35. ↑ MOVIE CALL SHEET: MILIUS TACKLES A NEW MOUNTAIN Murphy, Mary. Los Angeles Times (1923–Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 11 June 1975: e20.
  36. ↑ 'Wind and the Lion'--a look behind MGM epic: Comments from its 'superstars' and its writer-director Deliberate distortion? False image? By David Sterritt. The Christian Science Monitor (1908–Current file) [Boston, Mass] 28 July 1975: 26.
  37. ↑ Medavoy p 8
  38. ↑ ZEMECKIS PUTS HIS HEART AND SOUL IN 'ROMANCING THE STONE' Pollock, Dale. Los Angeles Times (1923–Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 29 Mar 1984: m1.
  39. ↑ Thompson, Richard (Mar/Apr 1976). "SCREEN WRITER TAXI DRIVER's Paul Schrader". Film Comment12.2. pp. 6–19, 64. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  40. 1 2 Lindsey, Robert (28 May 1978). "THE NEW NEW WAVE OF FILM MAKERS: A YOUNG GROUP OF WRITER-DIRECTORS HAS MOVED INTO POSITIONS OF POWER IN HOLLYWOOD. ALL FRIENDS THEY TRADE IDEAS, HELP ONE ANOTHER TO GET JOBS, AND EVEN SHARE IN PROFITS FROM ONE ANOTHER'S FILMS. FILM MAKERS". New York Times. p. SM3.
  41. ↑ Harmetz, Aljean (29 Mar 1978). "Travolta the Producer Signs 2-Film Pact: Percentage of 'Fever'". New York Times. p. C21.
  42. ↑ MILIUS: MIGHT MAKES A RITE: JOHN MILIUS Pollock, Dale. Los Angeles Times (1923–Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 14 May 1982: h1.
  43. ↑ "Dirty Harriet". Los Angeles Times. 27 July 1986.
  44. ↑ Modderno, Craig (21 June 1987). "OUTTAKES: THE SEQUEL MOB MENTALITY". Los Angeles Times. p. K84.
  45. ↑ Thompson, Anne (16 Feb 1989). "A rebel adapts John Milius will meet Hollywood halfway". Chicago Tribune. p. 12.
  46. ↑ Goddard, Peter (17 Feb 1990). "Portrait of the star as perfectionist". Toronto Star. p. F1.
  47. 1 2 "Exclusive Interview: John Milius on 'Milius'". Craveonle. 6 Jan 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
  48. ↑ Stanley, Alessandra (31 May 1992). "Hidden Hollywood: Political conservatives in the film industry say they are out of fashion. Many choose silence. Hidden Hollywood". New York Times. p. V1.
  49. ↑ "O'Malley & Gratteau INC.". Chicago Tribune. 3 May 1990. p. D28.
  50. ↑ http://articles.latimes.com/1990-01-28/entertainment/ca-1134_1_van-damme
  51. ↑ O'Malley & Collin INC.: [NORTH SPORTS FINAL, C Edition] Kathy O'Malley and Dorothy Collin. Chicago Tribune (pre-1997 Fulltext) [Chicago, Ill] 09 May 1990: 22.
  52. ↑ Landon writing new TV movie to introduce another series: [1* Edition] Beck, Marilyn; STACY JENEL SMITH. The Province [Vancouver, B.C] 20 Sep 1990: 61
  53. ↑ Goldstein, Patrick (15 Dec 1991). "1,334 Pages Too Much? Mailer's CIA Novel Is Coppola's Movie by Milius". Los Angeles Times. p. N29.
  54. ↑ Wells, Jeffrey (1 November 1992). "'Die Hard 3' Blown Out of the Water by 'Siege'". Los Angeles Times. p. F16.
  55. ↑ "Conan director hits film Valhalla after nabbing Viking flick". The Province. 16 Apr 1993. p. B7.
  56. ↑ Busch, Anita M. (5 November 1995). "Savoy Without 'Remorse'". Variety.
  57. ↑ "John Milius to Serve as Creative Consultant With Institute for Creative Technologies". PR Newswire. 12 June 2000. p. 1.
  58. ↑ "Arnold Schwarzenegger Set To Return As The Cimmerian Warrior In 'The Legend Of Conan'". Geeksofdoom.com. 2012-10-26. Retrieved 2015-09-10.
  59. ↑ "5 Things You Might Not Know About John Milius' 'Conan The | The Playlist". Blogs.indiewire.com. 1982-05-14. Retrieved 2015-09-10.
  60. ↑ http://www.upi.com/Triple-H-has-two-film-roles/38311063734280/
  61. ↑ Adalian, Josef (9 December 2002). "A-list will fuel UPN dramas". Variety.
  62. ↑ Horst, Stephanie (3 December 2003). "Police charge Milius' accountant". Variety.
  63. ↑ stpatric. "Rome (TV Series 2005–2007)". IMDb. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  64. ↑ "New Conan Movie Has a Director!" Movies online March 2005 accessed 10 July 2014
  65. ↑ "Chris Noth" Interviews By Kathy Henderson Broadway Buzz November 10, 2008 accessed 10 July 2014
  66. ↑ Austin Film Festival Archived September 24, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
  67. ↑ Hopewell, John; Keslassy, Elsa (April 9, 2010). "Milius moves back in time with 'Pharaoh'.". Variety.
  68. ↑ Good, Owen. "Red Dawn's Writer Didn't Actually Write Homefront's Script, Say Ex-Developers [UPDATE]". Kotaku.
  69. ↑ "'Apocalypse Now' And 'Red Dawn' Scribe John Milius Writing THQ's 'Homefront'". G4tv.
  70. 1 2 David D'Arcy, "Go ahead, pinko liberals, make my day", The Guardian, 8 November 2001 accessed 5 January 2012
  71. ↑ D'Arcy, David (November 8, 2001). "Go ahead, pinko liberals, make my day – David D'Arcy meets John Milius, Hollywood's right-wing, cigar-chomping, gun-toting mover and shaker". The Guardian.
  72. ↑ Ken Plume (May 7, 2003). "An Interview with John Milius, page 15". IGN.
  73. ↑ "One of the inspirations for the character of Walter is the Coen Brothers' friend, writer-director John Milius, an infamously bombastic right-winger with an obsession with all things militaristic." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/trivia
  74. ↑ A Man Named Milius, and His Imprint on The UFC Archived April 9, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  75. ↑ "Quint says the SXSW 2013 documentary about John MILIUS is what is best in life!", Ain't It Cool News, March 15, 2013 accessed 2 May 2013
  76. ↑ SXSW Film explores wild life of a Hollywood iconoclast By Shawn Badgley, Austin Chronicle 5 March 2013 accessed 2 May 2013
  77. ↑ Segaloff p 275-276
  78. ↑ JOY IN THE STRUGGLE: A LOOK AT JOHN MILIUS Film Threat, 8 March 1999 accessed 5 January 2012
  79. ↑ Thompson, Douglas (17 Jan 1988). "Hollywood and vines: Nick Nolte and director John Milius know it's a jungle out there". Chicago Tribune. p. K14.
  80. ↑ Ken P. "An Interview with John Milius – Movies Feature at IGN". Uk.movies.ign.com. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
  81. ↑ Biography for John Milius at the Internet Movie Database
  82. ↑ John DeFore. "Milius: SXSW Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  83. ↑ Colon, Gilbert (13 September 2014). "John Milius, Motorcycle Muse to Sons of Anarchy". Bare Bones E-Zine.
  84. ↑ FILM CLIPS: 'TELEFON' TO LINK BRONSON, SIEGEL Kilday, Gregg. Los Angeles Times (1923–Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 30 Aug 1976: f7.
  85. ↑ "Back to the Beach" by Leonard Klady Los Angeles Times 4 Dec 1988 accessed 2 May 2013

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