Milius (2013) - full transcript

MILIUS (V.O.):
I'm not a pure filmmaker.

MILIUS (V.O.):
I don't sit there and say...

"Oh, the juxtaposition of
images and color and graphics."

MILIUS (V.O.):
I don't give a damn
about that stuff.

So, my whole concept
of what I do...

goes back to the old theme
of telling the story...

of the Homeric thing
of being able to tell the tale
of the Trojan Wars...

again and again and passed down
until finally, you know,
it's written down by somebody.

Nobody knows who Homer was,
you know.

( HELICOPTER HOVERING )

KILGORE (O.S.):
We'll come in low out
of the rising sun.



At about a mile out,
we'll put on the music.

Music?

Yeah, I use Wagner.
Scares the hell out of the
slopes. My boys love it.

( "FLIGHT OF THE VALKYRIES"
PLAYING )

I'm John Milius,
I'm a filmmaker, an historian
and a storyteller.

AL RUDDY (V.O.): John Milius
had more movies made...

than any writer
in the history of Hollywood.

He was really one of the first
guys who said, "Hey, this is
how people talk."

Do I feel lucky?

Well, do ya', punk?

He doesn't write for pussies
and he doesn't write for women.

He writes for men,
because he's a man.

He's not one of those directors
that just goes from one movie to
the next and he's a hired gun.

It has to be in him.



He made the most defining
films of those decades.

This man participated
in or directly wrote
and directed...

these great films with these
great parts in it.

It's pretty staggering
to... to realize the journey
he took to get there.

What's interesting about John
is he has a personality
that is bigger than the movies.

John is such an interesting
person, and such a great
storyteller, just in life.

Francis couldn't tell
a story like John.

George is a great storyteller.
He couldn't tell a story
like John. None of us.

I mean, he's a poet from the top
of his head to the bottom
of his toes.

He likes to blow it up,
bigger than life.

And then he's created this...
persona.

I've heard that he referred
to himself as a Zen anarchist.

This gun-toting kind
of Wild Bill character...

I hear Milius pulled
a gun on some executive.

I like John, because
he says what he thinks...

although I sometimes worry
that he doesn't think.

RANDAL KLEISER (V.O.):
He's the Teddy bear
with an AK-47.

He wanted to make himself
into a legend.

( MUSIC ENDS )

( SOFT MUSIC PLAYING )

MILIUS (V.O.): I grew up
in St. Louis, Missouri.

It was a nice, Midwestern
kind of life, you know?

Everything was normal, you know,
it snowed in the winter.

MILIUS (V.O.):
My family was okay,
they were pretty dysfunctional.

MILIUS (V.O.):
All three children usually were
trying to kill each other.

My dad's father,
my grandfather.

had a shoe company
called Milius Shoe Company.

And he had basically retired
when my dad was young.

MILIUS (V.O.):
My father was quite a bit old,
he was 58 when he sired me.

So I really came from more
of a different generation.

My heroes,
when I was a little kid...

were the incomparable
Gene Autry, Roy Rogers.

John Wayne was an equal
influence.

Oddly enough, Chuck Yeager...

because he broke the sound
barrier and he was the greatest
test pilot.

We'd stayed in St. Louis,
you know, until I was seven.

We'd moved to California.

( MUSIC PLAYING )

AMANDA MILIUS (V.O.):
It was right around the
Bel-Air Country Club.

My dad was becoming,
you know...

a teenager
and he really rebelled.

I think he didn't like that
kind of country club sort
of society.

And I don't think it likes him.

There's something about his
personality that is sort
of oppositional.

If the counter-culture was going
left, he was gonna go right...

to be the opposite of the
counter-culture.

He was trying to be as
controversial in a way as
possible.

So for everything he did, he was
going to push off in a different
direction.

You know, the day would come
when I'd been in school long
enough and I'd be, you know...

drafted or enlist and go to
Vietnam and probably never
come back.

Matter of fact, I didn't
plan on coming back.

MILIUS (V.O.):
I was gonna be a Naval
aviator...

and I planned that I probably
wouldn't live past 26, because
I didn't see any point in it.

You know, he came from a
generation that had an
education...

that espoused learning
about the Classics.

It was his way of living through
those characters...

that he was exercising that sort
of deep-seeded issue within
himself...

to be that guy who goes into the
military and sacrifices his
life...

or is willing to sacrifice
his life.

He couldn't do those things.

Then he had this moment...

where he was kind of aware
of his lack of importance
in the world...

and that he hadn't done
anything of meaning.

And I wandered into a theater,
and they were playing a week
of Kurosawa films.

MILIUS (V.O.):
I saw just about everything
he made.

It never occurred to me
what a director was.

And after seeing those
Kurosawa films...

I realized that the idea
of making films or writing
films or something like that...

and though I wanted
a military career...

I never was able to have
a military career,
because I had asthma.

Um, you know, being a director
is about the next best thing.

MILIUS (V.O.):
And I ended up at USC. SC is
the West Point of Hollywood.

I think at that time there were
only three film schools in the
United States.

WALTER MURCH (V.O.):
It's hard to imagine
that today...

but it was NYU in New York,
USC and UCLA.

BRYAN SINGER (V.O.): What USC
is now is very different than
what it was then.

They were working out
of these small shacks...

MILIUS (V.O.): Which had been
converted into classrooms
and a production stage.

Now it's harder to get into the
film school than med school.

There's thousands and thousands
of students trying to be
directors today.

Back then, there was just
a handful of us.

Sort of the pack at USC,
there was a group of us.

I don't know, probably a dozen
or so who really loved movies.

Really were aggressive and were
very consumed by making
movies...

and we were part of that group.

( MUSIC PLAYING )

Now, John, on the other hand,
was this big, burly guy that was
a complete Californian...

who was a big surfer...

and just had this huge, sort
of dominant physical presence.

I met John in the dark.

It was at a screening of some
student films from the previous
year.

After one film, this voice
from the back, which I came
to recognize as John's voice...

said, "This film doesn't
have enough moxie!"

I remember John came in once,
I'll never forget.

He's probably forgotten this.

He came in, he had a huge
sombrero on, and he came in
looking like a Mexican bandito.

And he was a very intimidating
figure like that.

You gotta remember this was
college in the 60's...

and John's point of view was
considerably different...

than most people's point of view
at the school there.

ANNOUNCER (V.O.):
Draft card burnings became
common...

and the chant of "Hell no, we
won't go!" was the theme of the
protest generation.

Hippies used to wear buttons
that said "Nirvana Now"...

and they had a piece sign
on them.

And it was like Nirvana Now,
you know?

And so I took one of those
buttons and modified it...

so that the peace sign looked
like a B-52... and put
Apocalypse Now.

And then I put one with just a
mushroom cloud, you know, let's
get it over with!

Talking once and he said,
"You know, I'm really a hippie.

People think that I'm
right-wing, but I'm really
a hippie.

It's just that the hippies
wouldn't elect me king
and I want to be king."

There's a story that I believe
to be true...

because I was there, that I've
heard has been denied.

When I did my five-week
project...

we did a wide-screen color movie
with lots of extras and things.

Come to the Five-Week screening,
they wouldn't show it.

It was all finished
and everything.

And the instructor said...

"Well, we don't want to show it,
because none of the other
students are finished...

and this would be an
embarrassment to them."

So, John got really mad at the
teacher and punched him.

GEORGE LUCAS (V.O.):
John was on one
of the opposing crews.

Even though we were on opposing
teams, he would still stand up
for you.

Esprit de corps was very
important to him.

HARRISON FORD (V.O.):
He looks up to John as a big
brother figure.

Obviously there's real loyalty
and friendship between the two
of them and a lot of history.

I'm not sure it's a big brother
or a crazy uncle.

It was George and John, it was
just a group that all the names
were kind of bunched up.

And always orbiting around the
student film festivals that
they would have every year.

So, I saw his short film
before I ever saw John.

"Marcello I'm So Bored".

That was a fabled film, as John
was working on it...

because he was saying,
"This will be the greatest
film ever seen."

One of the characters, I think
it's the Marcello character,
says...

"I'm gonna be big, really big!
I want to be really,
really big"...

and it was obvious that this was
a guy with an enormous talent
for dialogue.

And that was my first exposure
to what a John Milius was.

MILIUS (V.O.):
That and THX basically
papered the walls.

We won a lot of stuff
with those films.

If you went to film school...

the chances of going in the film
industry were still pretty slim.

Forget it,
you're never gonna work.

Don't try to make films that you
think will appeal to Hollywood,
because it's not gonna work.

Any of us had as much
of a chance of getting in...

as the proverbial snowball
in hell.

Even though there was no future,
this was a great moment...

where you could actually make
as many movies as you could
possibly get away with.

STEVEN SPIELBERG (V.O.):
When he was coming up,
of all of them...

John was considered
the shining star.

John was considered the most
talented and the one that was
gonna be the great director.

Willard Huyck got me a job
immediately the summer
I got out...

working at American
International Pictures, AIP.

( MUSIC PLAYING )

BUZZ FEITSHANS (V.O.):
We were known
as King of the B Movie.

MILIUS (V.O.):
We make exploitation
films here.

We make things like
"Rape Squad" or "White Mama,
Black Mama".

I hired two young men, hot-shot
graduates from SC Film School...

a surly rascal named
Willard Huyck...

and the other a bombastic big
guy and darty little eyes...

lot of fire and bullshit,
his name was John Milius.

I was fired
for insubordination...

and Willard was fired
for surliness.

And then we were re-hired the
next Monday to write a script.

I had an idea for a movie...

it was kind of something stolen
from The Dirty Dozen.

But they didn't have enough
money for a full dozen...

so it's called "The Devil's 8".

All right, they're coming
your way. Let me take it.

Wait a second! This thing's
going to explode!

One thing about you, Burl,
you bluff easy, but you make
damn, good whiskey.

It was so bad.

RANDAL KLEISER (V.O.):
There's a kind of a changing
of the guard that happened...

and John was at the forefront
of getting into Hollywood...

because his name was in the
Hollywood Reporter.

And we all went, "Wow, look!
John's name is in the Hollywood
Reporter!"

Because nobody from any film
school had ever gotten into the
business.

And this was like cracking
into it.

PETER BART (V.O.):
Nothing was working about
Hollywood...

and the audience had basically
abandoned the movie business.

The star system had broken
down...

and all the studios were
basically going under.

GEORGE LUCAS (V.O.):
This was in the mid-60's, and
all the people, the Warners...

the Zuckers, the Zanucks...

all the people that created the
industry were retiring...

and selling the studios
to corporations...

that really didn't know that
much about making movies.

So the way people get out
of slumps is by making some
radical choices.

It's a radical choice that
becomes a hit that pulls
everything out of the slump.

It's not by being conventional.

What was clear is that a new
generation had to, you know,
insert itself.

MARTIN SCORSESE (V.O.):
People like Milius
and George Lucas and Coppola...

they all were lucky to come
along at that time.

They fought their way out of the
trenches and into public sight.

They basically went out there
to change the world.

Instead of doors being slammed
in their faces...

the studios were really
welcoming all the new voices.

Man, we were there at the second
California Gold Rush.

We were there at the biggest
moment in movie history.

What can you do?
How can you help us?

And John was a...
you know, he can write.

AL RUDDY (V.O.):
When I was a young,
aspiring producer...

I called up an agent,
a friend of mine, Mike Medavoy.

I walk into Al's office, and
I said, "Look, I represent this
really young, talented guy."

If you hire this guy,
I'll owe you one big.

I'll always be indebted.
Oh, I said okay.

So he gives me the name of this
writer, John Milius.

I drive to the apartment.

Door opens up,
this huge bear of a guy.

The apartment was a little
crowded, just the two
of us being there.

But to complicate matters...

John had a Rhodesian Ridgeback,
which is a large dog.

It's the size of almost
a small Great Dane.

He pushes the dog aside,
now I'm sitting on the couch...

and the dog, he tried to jump
on the couch...

and I'm trying to tell John my
story, what I'm looking for.

And in typical
John Milius-style, he said...

"I'll tell you what, I like your
story, but I'll take the job on
one other condition."

I said, "What's that?" "You just
have to take this dog with you."

( MUSIC PLAYING )

Ladies and gentlemen, you have
no idea how good it makes me
feel to be here today.

I had asked for a bunch
of really interesting Hollywood
writers...

to come and meet with me...

and in comes Malick
and Huycks and John.

I didn't know John,
I just knew of him.

I- I just want to tell you
about this guy, Evel Knievel...

and Milius said, "That's just
great!"

He just saw that that was
Americana...

and a crazy character that
represented America and he
got it.

So, then I tried to negotiate
with him, and I said...

"You know what, John, I'm
already making lots of movies."

I said, "I know, I know you're
an important writer." I said,
"What do you want?"

He said, "I want girls,
gold and guns."

So I called one of my guys and
said go get me some of those old
piston-sprung hookers...

that you know running around
Hollywood.

So they said, "Where is this
gonna be?"

I said, "I have a house in Palm
Springs. Anything he needs you
attend to."

Let me ask you something,
I said, "You want the gold,
we're gonna get that for you...

but would you like some
motorcycles?"

"Motorcycles," he said.

So I got him motorcycles and
he was riding on the motorcycles
and he was in love.

He couldn't wait to get down
to Palm Springs.

A week's gone by and I call my
guys up, I have two guys
attending.

I said, "How's it going?"
They said, "Not good."

I said, "What do you mean, not
good?" He said, "He hasn't
written anything." Uh-huh.

He took the script that this
English guy wrote, Alan Caillou
wrote out by the pool.

He beat it with an oar
until it sunk.

So, I said, "You tell him, and
tell him it comes from me.

He can't take the gun,
there'd be no more riding
the motorcycles...

and the girls won't mount up
if he doesn't come through."

I was in the Plaza Hotel
in New York.

15 telegrams arrive for me.

I realize I've this
incredible film...

on telegrams, starting
to come in...

and it goes like 140 telegrams
or 50 telegrams.

I love what I'm reading.

I think he wrote it
in three days, four days.

And he was now a terror.

( MUSIC PLAYING )

You know, John was definitely,
as a writer, valuable to the
studios.

They loved me because I had
written "Dirty Harry".

PETER BART (V.O.):
You know, John's name's
not even on the script...

but he saved that movie.

Character definition that came
from that great dialogue.

I mean, after two lines from
Dirty Harry, you knew exactly
who he was.

( BELLS RINGS )

Being this is a .44 magnum,
the most powerful handgun
in the world...

and would blow your head
clean off...

you've got to ask yourself
one question.

Do I feel lucky?
Well, do ya, punk?

I think he liked the grandiose.

He liked something that was...
something that would appeal to...

you know, bordering
on the line...

pushing people to the edge
of where you go from reality
to ridiculous.

But sometimes ridiculous
is more fun.

Those kind of lines
always hang with you.

"Dirty Harry" was a big hit.
I did "Magnum Force" after that.

John, you know, was a really
good writer.

I mean, you know, that's how
you become a favorite.

MILIUS (V.O.):
I remember that Frank Wells,
who was the head of the studio.

He summoned me.

There was a note on my desk
when I came in in the morning...

that Mr. Wells would like
to see you.

Oh, my god, the boss!
The head of the whole studio...

wants to see me for lunch today.
What did I do, you know?

I went over there and he said,
"Sit down, John."

He said, "We're very proud
of you, you know, you've done
all these movies here.

You're our best writer."

We really are very proud
of you and we'd like to show...

but, you know, uh...

you have this coat that you
always wear."

John came to my house
for dinner one night...

and we had a nice dinner and
everybody left and that was
that.

And about three days later,
I said to my wife...

"Is something wrong with your
nose, because there's a dead rat
in the house."

I said, "Yeah, yeah, that's my
Spanish suede coat."

And he said, "Do you have it
with you?" And I said, "Why?"

He said,
"We're going to burn it."

And I open the closet door
and almost fainted...

because John had left his coat
in there by mistake. And that
was the dead rat.

Burn my suede coat, but I've had
that... He says, "I want you to
look out...

in the Horseshoe Driveway
there at Warner Brothers."

He says, "See that?
That's a limousine.

You're gonna get in that
limousine and they're gonna take
you to Beverly Hills.

And there's a salesman there,
he's gonna fit you out
with two sport coats...

two tweed sport coats,
the best they have.

Because we're very proud of you
and we want you to look good and
we just want to burn that one."

I'm gonna feel like I'm losing
something, but I guess I'm
gaining something, too.

He says, "That's a good way
to look at it."

I mean, every script of John's
was great, you know.

It didn't necessarily happen
in the first round...

but John was not the greatest
at rewriting himself...

because I think he thought that
everything he wrote was exactly
the way he wanted it.

"Jeremiah Johnson", they really
only shot about 60 percent
of the script.

John Milius' screenplay was
mythical, as all of Milius'
material is mythical.

But John Milius' screenplay was
primarily a piece of violence...

as almost all of Milius'
stuff is.

The original Milius script was
about a guy who ran out and ate
trees and ate livers.

Ripped Indians' bodies apart and
ate the livers and blood and
screamed.

The work that John did dealt
with something very primal...

and very truthful to the human
condition is...

and was not shy in any way
expressing political opinions...

or behavior that was not
fashionable.

In those days, Milius was
terribly proud...

of his sort of macho image
and played it to the hilt.

Half kidding, half not.

You know, he drove around with
a bunch of shotguns in his car
and hunting dogs.

John, you know, was very
charismatic in that way...

because he aspired to be
bigger than life.

Well, I think John, in many
ways, has a kind of jealousy for
the characters he's written...

and would like to slip into
their costumes and play them.

AMANDA MILIUS (V.O.):
Those are the kind
of characters he likes...

so he wants to be like that.

That's his favorite thing,
is the kind of extreme man
that has no fear.

I didn't really believe it that
much, but I thought it was a
gas.

MARTIN SCORSESE (V.O.):
John Milius is, you know, a
symbol of what the 70's was.

Probably at heart, we're not
terribly far apart.

John is a romantic, I think
at heart, like I am, probably.

And he loved the picture
"Jeremiah Johnson" when it
was finished.

(V.O.)
I think that John's sense
of storytelling...

a sense is dramatic,
a sense of the extreme.

He understands that movies need
to be big to be interesting.

He got a job to write
"Judge Roy Bean".

"Judge Roy Bean" was one of the
most brilliant screenplays
I've ever read.

It was just... it was just
magnificent.

You know, polished and good,
you know, just blew everybody
away.

The work reflected a stand that
was impenetratable, you couldn't
change it...

this guy really believed
in what he was saying.

It was sent to Lee Marvin and
Lee Marvin got the script.

His agent had sent it and he was
reading it and he really liked
it and he got drunk.

And he, you know, left it on his
chair, and went off and passed
out somewhere.

And Newman picked it up
and started reading it,
and took it away.

He called his people in
Los Angeles and said, "Buy this
script! I want to do this."

And so they came to me and they
said now we want to buy
the script.

I said, "Fine, I want
to direct it."

They said, "No, no,
that's not possible."

So there were two prices,
one that was very cheap with me
directing it...

and one that kept going up and
up if they wanted it without me.

And they finally paid
the price without me.

MILIUS (V.O.):
In 1972, 1973, that was a hell
of a lot of money.

LAWRENCE GORDON (V.O.):
You know, there is no good
movie without a good script.

The law says that the guilty
shall be punished.

And I say it should be done
in broad daylight in the open,
not sneaking around.

It wasn't at all the same movie.

I mean, Huston wasn't the right
person to direct it...

and Newman certainly wasn't the
right person to act in it.

And they're all terrific people.

Paul Newman is one of the nicest
and most intelligent people
in the world.

I can't say anything against
him, he just wasn't right
for that movie.

As I got to be more
and more expensive...

I knew that there was a certain
amount of power and that
I could parlay...

that into having somebody
let me direct eventually.

I wanted to be a director,
largely out of self defense.

This process of submitting the
script to somebody who was not
a creative person.

Somebody who went to Stanford
or Harvard who had not
a creative, in his words...

not a creative bone in their
body and have them edit
his script.

It utterly frustrated him,
he hated it.

He hated the people who would
review his scripts...

and he thought that it was
a corruption of what he did.

We had this woman who was our
contact with the studio...

and she came in one day
and John started telling
this story to her.

It was a rather detailed story.

When he got through, she just
stood up and said, "That's not
something that we want to do."

I think you better re-think
that...

that's not a really good
story," and she walked out.

John said, "Well, some people
don't like Macbeth."

He had told her the story
of Macbeth and she didn't know!

MARTIN SCORSESE (V.O.):
John Milius, he was a major
figure at that time...

in my eyes and many people,
as a power player in Hollywood.

I gotta 16 millimeter print
of "Hell's Angels",
the Howard Hughes film.

I remember Spielberg, Schrader,
I think, was there, John and a
few others.

And I said you have to see this
thing, because the aerial
sequences are amazing.

And George was about
to make Star Wars.

Anyway, we showed the film,
and of course it was 16
millimeter black and white.

No tinted scenes, no two-color
process, it's kind of a mess.

Yet, the power of the picture
was so strong, the moment the
last reel finished...

John got up and the projector
bulb was still flashing on the
screen.

He said, "I want to say that
this is the kind of film that
should be made!

And it's the kind of thing we
should have our minds into!"

It was a rally to make pictures
that matter...

to feel so strongly about,
to get up and make a speech.

Immediately as the 16 millimeter
film is winding out
of the projector...

this is passion of film making.

What he wanted to do is be able
to control the vision he saw,
he'd be able to carry out.

And I think that that was why
he wanted to direct.

So I called him, told him
I wanted to come by and see him.

He said, "Come over to my house
tonight. I'm having people over
for dinner."

He was holding court at the
table.

He was "big dealing" me, as they
say, and very rude to me.

And I finally got pissed off
and said, "Well, look, thanks,
I gotta go."

"We're you going, big boy?"

And I said, "I'm leaving,
I've had enough of your
bullshit, I'm going."

"I don't write for that
cheap-ass AIP money any more."

"That's okay, I was gonna let
you direct the movie."

He says, "You're gonna let me
direct it?" I says, "Yeah, I'm
gonna let you direct it."

And, of course,
I would have paid him.

John, John Dillinger.

All right, everybody,
hold it right where you are.
This is a robbery.

He wanted to make movies about
adults finally. They were
enormous morality plays.

He didn't romanticize
Dillinger...

in a way that Coppola
romanticized the
Corleone family.

He basically still said that as
interesting a guy John Dillinger
is, he's a criminal.

Who'd you kill, Reed?

Caught my wife and a Bible
salesman, I got them in a
flagrant delecto.

Let him out.

My expectations were very high,
because that was the most money
AIP had ever spent on a movie.

I think they were hoping to just
get their money back.

LAWRENCE GORDON (V.O.): Got
well-reviewed, well-received.
It met every expectation.

I'd put "Dillinger" right up
there with "Bonnie and Clyde".

It was a great folk crime drama.

He took the genre and explored
it to its fullest.

With "Dillinger",
we had to move on.

A lot of John's ethics come
from a time past.

And so a lot of people, when
they see John or talk to John...

they sort of confuse him
in a contemporary sense.

You think of him more as a man
out of his time.

The movie that really is John,
and sort of has a lot of his
personality in it...

and really has a lot of his
sense of his character...

and his beliefs
is "The Wind and the Lion".

Herb Jaffe over at UA liked
"Dillinger", liked me, thought
I was a very talented writer.

And I told him the story
of "The Wind and the Lion",
and he said, "Go to it".

"The Wind and the Lion" is a
crazy movie. I mean great,
entertaining, but crazy.

Let's cast Sean Connery
as a desert prince.

It was fun, you know, and Candy
Bergen who is smitten by him.

This President Roosevelt, he
would try and take it himself?

He certainly would. He is a man
of grit and strong moral fiber.

He does not kidnap women
and children.

And I think Teddy Roosevelt in
that movie is really saying a
lot of John's philosophy.

I mean John loved Teddy
Roosevelt, obviously...

but when Teddy Roosevelt
is describing the American
character...

in terms of the grizzly bear
that he's killed...

that is quintessential
John Milius.

American grizzly bear was
a symbol of the American
character.

Strength, intelligence
and ferocity.

A little blind and reckless
at times, but courageous beyond
all doubt.

It's fabulous.

And I was thinking that he was
making this at the same time
that we were making "Star Wars".

For all the mildness
of George and the wildness
of John...

it's the same story, it's coming
of age, it's history and
adventure.

GEORGE LUCAS (V.O.):
Those people live by the code
that John lives by...

and if you understand that,
you understand John.

We always worked on each other's
projects, just like at school
in the beginning.

I mean, when I did "The Wind
and the Lion", George and his
wife Marsha came...

and she was a great editor
and he was a great editor...

so they told me how to move
scenes around.

And Steven was always around.
Steven and I hung around all the
time, you know.

And so Steven was always over
at my house or something.

We were always thinking
of ideas and stuff.

Spielberg would call him up
every once in a while and say,
"Hey, I need a new idea for
this."

And so John was the idea man.

( THEME TO "JAWS" PLAYING )

Well, John had come down to the
Shark Shack with me several
times.

The Shark Shack was out
in the San Fernando Valley.

And it was where we were
building the mechanical shark
and John really enjoyed it...

because he liked to kind of like
stick his whole body into the
maw of the shark.

You have to imagine John,
who always had some girth,
thrust into the shark.

And all you saw was
his rear end and his legs.

And you would suddenly hear John
yelling "Jaws!"...

and it would echo throughout
the belly of the polyurethane,
mechanical steel shark.

But because of that, you know,
John was interested.

I gave John the script to read,
and John read the script and
thought it was a good script.

I gave him some books, that were
really terrifying books about
tiger hunting...

and he employed a lot of those
ideas in "Jaws".

Steven had a great respect
and admiration for John's
ability with dialogue.

And I said, "John, I got this
scene about the U.S.S.
Indianapolis...

it's only two paragraphs long.

But I think this could be an
epiphany for all the other guys
on the boat.

The Richard Dreyfuss character,
the Roy Scheider character, and
the Robert Shaw character.

To be able to share this kind
of catharsis about what happened
in 1945.

But it's too short, and
Howard's not doing any more
writing on the movie...

and will you take a crack
at this?"

And he said, "Sure!"

MILIUS (V.O.):
I wrote it over the phone.

STEVEN SPIELBERG (V.O.):
I got a ten-page monologue back
from John...

a ten-page monologue which
basically was very close to
what's in the movie.

It was the perfect way
of letting the world know...

and the perfect way for us
to know about his personality,
about Quint.

Japanese submarine slammed two
torpedoes into our side, Chief.

It was coming back from the
island of Tinian.

The Lady had just delivered the
bomb, the Hiroshima bomb.

Robert Shaw read all ten pages
and he loved every word...

but Robert said, "I can't say
all this, it's too much to
memorize."

It was a very compelling speech,
but it was a movie by itself. It
was a movie within a movie.

So Robert Shaw sat down and
Robert cut the speech in half.

He did all the editing himself.
He brought it down to five
pages.

Another thing about a shark,
he's got lifeless eyes...

black eyes like a doll's eyes.

My favorite shot in the story
of that scene...

is when he's in the middle of it
and there's this shot on me and
I'm going...

What can you say when you
hear a story like that?

But it's Milius' words and
Shaw's editing that wound up
in the final film.

He has, of course, the gift
of the writer.

He knows how to write lines that
deliver, sum up everything...

and it's not that the scenes
of the lines really stand out...

it's that they sum up the story
and the picture they're
a part of.

He knows how to put
the words together.

I had the opportunity at that
point, there was a crossroads...

where I was gonna rewrite
something else
at Warner Brothers...

but I didn't like the way the
movies were done...

and they had tried again
and again in Hollywood to do
Heart of Darkness.

Orson Welles had tried it and
all these other people had tried
it and nobody could do it.

Nobody could lick
"Heart of Darkness".

That was like waving a red flag
in front of a bull.

And I was always talking about
how I want do a Vietnam movie.

Nobody in Hollywood wanted to
touch the hot button of Vietnam
at that time.

It had "The Deer Hunter" but
Apocalypse Now" is different.

WALTER MURCH (V.O.): And nobody
wanted to make a kind of
renegade film about the war...

which is what "Apocalypse Now"
in its DNA is.

And it was a great moment,
because I took that fork in the
road that...

you know, was dangerous.

But I said I really should
do my own work.

One of my favorite movies was
"Dr. Strangelove"...

and I wanted to do a kind
of "Dr. Strangelove"
about the Vietnam War...

and shoot it in 16 millimeter
and have it be very realistic...

and John had this completely
series of crazy incidents...

that he had gleaned from
veterans that had come back.

and friends of his
that had been over there.

It was his way of exorcising
that inability to be that
hero...

to be that guy who goes into the
military and sacrifices his
life...

or is willing
to sacrifice his life.

He couldn't do those things,
so instead he wrote about it.

And very few people have that,
it's a God-given talent.
That's a talent that he had.

He might have gone to school
and been taught it...

but ultimately that's something
he had within himself.

MILIUS (V.O.): When I took
something that was an absolute
masterpiece of literature...

and had to do it, had to
make it into something,
I couldn't make it...

I couldn't take that and say
I'm just gonna do an adaptation
of "Heart of Darkness".

I had to change "Heart of
Darkness" severely and increase
its horsepower tremendously...

to make something
that would equal the book.

And I think I roundly
succeeded, but only by upping
the ante tremendously.

So I was around George
a lot and Francis.

They were always talking about
Milius and "Apocalypse Now".

I heard it talked about
so often.

GEORGE LUCAS (V.O.): I told
Francis, I said, "Look, if I
don't get THX off the ground...

I'm gonna go with John and
we're gonna try to do this
thing 'Apocalypse Now'".

MILIUS (V.O.):
It was a Zoetrope project when
Francis Coppola had his big
deal at Warner Brothers.

BRYAN SINGER (V.O.): Zoetrope
felt very much at the time like
a group of filmmakers...

who were trying to do what
Chaplin and Pickford...

and all those folks were doing
back at United Artists.

Form a company of filmmakers
for filmmakers, by filmmakers.

The word got around that after,
I think, "Godfather II"...

for the conversation, maybe,
it was said that Francis
was gonna direct it.

You know, he was very happy
when Francis took over
"Apocalypse Now".

Francis' vision of "Apocalypse
Now" was about 180 degrees off
from what George's vision was.

Francis was gonna do this giant,
grand thing...

and I was gonna do this crazy
documentary-ish anti-war film,
which was not what John wanted.

At one point Francis turned
to him and told him, he said...

"Just write every scene you've
ever thought of and ever wanted
to put in a movie."

You smell that?
Do you smell that?

What?

Napalm, son. Nothing else
in the world smells like that.

I love the smell of napalm
in the morning.

The line everybody remembers
is him kind of inhaling
and saying...

"I love the smell of napalm
in the morning."

Yeah, people come up to me on
the street today like, "I love
the smell of napalm".

I'm more like,
"I never knew it."

The fact that that line got
picked out by history as an
emblematic line is something...

it's very hard to track.

Having said that, "Charlie don't
surf." is a button line.

Well, I mean, it's pretty
hairy in there, isn't it?
It's Charlie's Point.

Charlie don't surf.

What he does is he writes very
dynamic and interesting
and compelling characters...

and then the dialogue comes
from the character.
"Charlie don't surf."

That doesn't sound good coming
from me, but coming from,
you know...

the character that Robert Duvall
played, it's magnificent.

During some of the ADR,
I guess it would have been
John and Francis...

weren't pleased with the tone
of the VOICEOVER work.

What if he were here... the man
they call insane?

I'm sorry, Martin, I liked the
tone you had before starting.
This is a little too light now.

He had a pistol in his
satchel...

and he walked up and he put down
his Colt 45, 1911 government
model.

My dad's a total pacifist,
like hates weapons.

Martin Sheen looked and went,
"What's this for?"
"Put your hand on it.

This is loaded, take a little
CS, one out the spout,
cocked and locked. Now read it."

Dad said it made him nervous.

He was distracted enough by it
not to obsess or focus too much
on how he was delivering stuff.

WILLARD (V.O.):
Charging a man with murder
in this place...

is like handing out speeding
tickets at the Indy 500.

I took the mission. What the
hell else was I gonna do?

Not a lot of writers can do
what John has done.

It feels like a guy who takes
the world of words seriously...

and somebody who knows how
to frame a large concept
or construct.

And let a great actor say a
great line, but the line also
feels like it's winking at you.

The line feels like it's
serious...

but there's also entertainment
value within the line.

Everything memorable
of "Apocalypse Now" was
invented by John Milius.

The horror.

The horror.

He really was taken and swept
away by Conrad...

and the journey or the voyage
of the individual to some form
of self-realization.

Despite what his politics are
outside of the film's...

the agenda in the film is
always, even though it becomes
about courage and honor...

it's really about fear.

It's about how people deal
with fear...

and that is the writer part
of him that I identify with...

where there is a dark place that
has to do with "Do I have the
guts to do this?"

You know, it is about
"The Heart of Darkness".

He understands the heart.

I was flying back to LA
with Francis and he says..

"I'm willing to die
making this movie.

And if I die making this movie,
George will take over.

And if George dies, you'll take
over. And somehow this movie
will get made."

OLIVER STONE (V.O.):
John invested his soul
in that movie and it shows.

It's a beautiful epic.

Coppola and John did amazing
things, they took it out of
this world, which is wonderful.

It's a larger than life movie.

It's Sturm and Drang,
it's Wagner, it's opera.

It was a fitting tribute...

to go someplace dressed
in clothes that John
wouldn't be caught dead in...

but out of respect for the
Academy, he wore, because
he was nominated.

ANNOUNCER (V.O.):
And the award goes to... Kramer
vs. Kramer.

But "Apocalypse", you know,
was beat out in every regard...

from a picture most people
don't remember today.

The Academy, in their wisdom,
just said well, "Kramer", a
little film.

You know, a personal film,
not a big historical epic.

That's the irony
of popular success.

And it made perfect sense,
it made perfect sense that
after the Oscars...

John would want to go to a place
that he feels comfortable in.

Not at so much the Governor's
Ball, but to Tommy's Burger...

and just sit there in full
tuxedo, all of us.

One of the greatest Oscar
after parties I ever went to.

Glory, and all those things
are quite empty words.

Awards and money and everything
else, are always hollow.

The only reward you ever get is
when somebody really likes it
and it moved them, you know?

A guy came up who'd gotten the
Medal of Honor and thanked me
for making the movie.

He said, "At least somebody
understands what we have to do
and why we are soldiers."

That's the only reward
you ever get.

People who try to go
their own way...

and find what is the relevant
art for themselves...

very often are out of synch
by being a little ahead
of the time.

We'd all started making pictures
late 60's, early 70's.

Milius, Coppola, Steven
Spielberg, George Lucas.

Schrader, Terry Malick was
there.

We shared that perspective
of having a film say what we
wanted it to say.

Your good writing is somewhat
autobiographical, because that's
really what you feel.

That's the passion
that comes out.

And John kind of saw surfing as
this wonderful art-Zen-Buddhist,
Kurosawa kind of thing.

MILIUS (V.O.):
Even though I regularly went
surfing and I was still good...

I realized that I wasn't
as good anymore.

And that I was drifting away
from the beach and from the
people.

And that in time, I probably
would drift so far away that I
really didn't know it anymore.

So I parlayed all that into
saying, "Well, I want to do
my personal film.

I want to do a film
about surfing."

GERRY LOPEZ (V.O.) I mean,
Hollywood, you know, hadn't
done surfing that much justice.

You know, the Hollywood version
of surfing was pretty far off
from what the reality of it was.

Beach Blanket Bingo

That's the name of the
That's the name of the

That's the name of the game

They never really got it.

John got in touch with me...

and, you know, it's John's style
to just have conversations
with people...

in a way of gathering material.

DENNY AABERG (V.O.):
You know, we'd get lunch
and sit down...

and turn on a tape recorder
and start talking stories.

When we started in the late
50's, early 60's...

surfing really wasn't
a nationwide word, you know?

A lot of people didn't
understand surfing.

It took some guts to go out
there in big waves
and challenge yourself.

( THEME TO "BIG WEDNESDAY"
PLAYING )

Everybody expected that to be
the small movie that does
really well...

it was going to be the picture
that year at Warner Brothers.

But sometimes, I think the
producers would get a little
impatient..

because John liked to take
his time, you know?

I got a note one time
from Warner Brothers,
and they said...

"We would like you to make some
changes to the script and we're
sending over some ideas.

And would you please blue-page
this script for us...

so that we can see
our changes?"

John took the thing and he said,
"Okay, here are the pages that
we gave them.

Go out and put them on blue
paper and then send them
back to them."

And that's what we did.

We gave them the original script
on blue pages...

and we got a call and they said,
"Oh, it's fantastic!"

So obviously nobody had ever
read them.

STEVEN SPIELBERG (V.O.):
You know he is the 300-pound
gorilla.

I mean, people loved him,
people hated him.

John was always, and I think
is today, regarded as kind
of a maverick.

You know, this wild anarchist,
is that fair to say?

( SURF ROCK FADES UP )

DENNY AABERG (V.O.)
"Big Wednesday", as John says,
was a very personal movie.

Both of us drew from people we
knew from the beach.

We tried to make it as real
as possible, and authentic...

so all those characters,
one way or another, were based
on somebody we actually knew.

The name The Bear, really wasn't
so much his nickname...

although The Bear character
in "Big Wednesday" was really
based on him...

somebody that had a commanding
presence and then it was the
storyteller...

and the leader of the group,
you know, and all those things
that John is.

WILLIAM KATT (V.O.):
He was very much the commander
of that set...

and John really commanded that
setting like a general.

Many, many, many lunches,
we'd find John in the water.

He'd have the water cleared and
he'd be out there surfing.

( MUSIC CONTINUES )

If Gary Busey or myself
or Jan or Michael...

if we didn't know our lines or
we were uncertain about it, we
could get John to tell a story.

And that would buy us
at least an hour.

But all of that is part of that
package of John Milius.

He's still very much
in control of the set...

and the one thing you can't say
about John Milius is that he
wastes time.

GERRY LOPEZ (V.O.):
I think "Big Wednesday" is a
romantic movie.

The romance is surfing,
you know, and John's tremendous
love for that time of his life.

I'm doing a lot of surfing, man.

No, just when it's necessary.

Let's go ride some waves.

NAT SEGALOFF (V.O.):
Well, I think that was a big
part of John's childhood.

Growing up and becoming a man
and learning how to tell
stories.

There's never been a surfing
movie in history like
"Big Wednesday".

It wasn't a documentary.

JACK (V.O.)
My friends and I would sleep
in our cars...

and the smell of the offshore
wind would often wake us.

And each morning, we knew this
would be a special day.

STEVEN SPIELBERG (V.O.):
I'd wanted to see
"Big Wednesday"...

long before it was ever
released, because it didn't
release...

it was allowed to escape.

They had these partnerships and
they basically sold the movie...

and once they had sold the
movie, there wasn't any
incentive...

for them to put more money
into the advertising and
publicity department.

It was killed by the executives
at Warner Brothers.

Sort of a "Yes, we like it, but
we don't really believe in it."

It wasn't received as well as
had been anticipated, only in
the coastal cities.

But there were some people who
simply didn't like John...

didn't like the Kurosawa-ness
he was trying to give
the film...

and thought it was too mythical
and metaphoric.

GERRY LOPEZ (V.O.):
Boy, the reviews were bad...

you know, they called it the
"Endless Bummer".

They had to pull it
from distribution.

I don't think the criticism
hurt John.

He felt that it affected how
many people saw his movies...

and I think for any of those
guys, it was about getting
people to see their movies.

There was a whole new generation
of films that were kind
of coming into the fold.

He wanted to be John Ford,
and he wanted to have those
movies that got out there.

Francis, George Lucas, Steven
Spielberg and John Milius...

were sort of the Four Horsemen
of the Apocalypse, or whatever
you want to call it.

The enfant terrible of a new
generation in Hollywood.

Well, of course, George went and
did "Star Wars" and Steven was
coming off "Close Encounters"...

and movies were starting to move
into that blockbuster arena.

I first met John as a young
screenwriter in Hollywood
in the mid-70's, late 70'S...

he was quite successful
and well-known as the author
of "Apocalypse Now".

I met him and he was a
blustering...

fascinated by guns and my own
experience in Vietnam...

and asked me a lot of questions
and, John had a love of war
which I didn't.

So we were coming at it
from completely different points
of view...

and I guess he saw me as a lefty
and I saw him as a crazed
right-wing nut case.

But we enjoyed each other,
we laughed and I had written
"Conan the Barbarian".

What I liked about "Conan"
and I think what John liked
about it...

was that there was a primal
presence behind it.

And that was Howard's
celebration of the
barbarian...

and the barbarian's ethos in
drinking and eating, sex, life.

It seemed like that was
something he worked on more than
anything I can remember.

And he religiously worked on it,
all the time...

and constantly was reworking it,
and really was passionate
about it.

And that was really the sort of,
you know, if anything,
a comeback.

I knew that that was a very,
very important project to John.

We ended up selling the damn
thing to Dino De Laurentiis.

He had the intention of scoring
as much cash as he could
and getting out.

And as John wrapped up
the conversation,
he said...

"Well, Conan had to spend time
on the wheel of pain and I had
to spend time with Dino."

( "MAMBO ITALIANO" PLAYING )

OLIVER STONE (V.O.): When he
was working with Dino on Conan,
John loves to have an enemy.

Dino had, at the time, a huge
desk, it was enormous...

and John and I were sitting
in two chairs on the other side
of this huge desk.

And the chairs were very low, so
when you were sitting there just
normally, the desk was here.

Dino said, "Well, who do you
want to be in this movie?"

And we said, "Arnold
Schwarzenegger."

And he jumped up on top of his
desk and walked across the desk,
and said...

"I'm not doing this movie
with Arnold Schwarzenegger!"

And John said, "Oh, okay, okay."
He sits down, he says, "Now, who
you want?"

John sat there, he said,
"Dustin Hoffman."

"Ah, get out!
Go make the movie."

Well, I loved what he did
with Conan...

and he was sort of responsible
for getting Arnold going
with that picture.

REPORTER (V.O.): I was thinking
very clearly about it, you
created Arnold Schwarzenegger.

MILIUS (V.O.):
You know when I was trying to
talk Dino into using Arnold...

I said if we could have Arnold,
we'd have to build him.

I was always told that my body
and my accent...

would be all obstacles
to being a leading man...

and so John kind of has
confirmed the opposite.

He totally understood
you know, my style of acting.

Conan, what is best in life?

To crash your enemies,
see them driven before you.

And hear the lamentation
of their women.

When Arnold got on the set,
I heard him say...

"John, I'm not an actor like
these guys...

so you tell me what to do,
when to do it and how to do it."

John's eyes lit up. I think
there's nothing more he wanted
to hear than that.

When that was achieved, all
Arnold had to do was stand
there...

be in front of the camera
and listen... and execute.

He didn't have to think, didn't
have to rationalize, didn't have
to think about character...

and I says, "John, would you
direct me that way, too?"

Because it was a wonderful way
to work.

If you trust your director...

just count on him to tell you
when to twitch, when to blink,
when to breathe.

Now that's real trust.

He really made it a joy
to get into acting...

and it made it a joy to be part
of a big project like that.

I think my favorite movie that
John directed was "Conan".

It just had a very strong
effect on me as a kid.

CLINT EASTWOOD (V.O.):
That picture did well.

The first one,
which was R-rated...

got a lot of protest
from parents whose kids
went to see it...

and who found it to be extremely
gruesome and extremely bloody.

And it basically is just
a movie comic book.

If anybody thought it was
violent...

I believe it was because the
violence was effective.

Now John doesn't kill people
in his films unless there's
a reason.

He doesn't have violence
or death...

unless there's an important
dramatic reason for it.

I think he took a genre...

that up until that time had
been very tongue-in-cheek...

very swashbuckling...

and made it savage and sexual
and violent and magical.

And it pre-dated,
and yet...

inspired a slew,
an endless slew...

of fantasy realm pieces that we
see now like "Game of Thrones".

I think it encapsulated all
the things that John was always
taken with...

outside of the movie business,
that he thought he could bring
into the movie business.

Ironically, I think met much
of that sensibility...

is what exists in a lot of the
really successful comic
book-type movies...

that are being made today, and I
think John was probably a bit
ahead of his time.

REPORTER (O.C.): Would you have
wanted to continue doing it?

Yeah, I would have loved to have
made a trilogy.

If I had done the other two
of the trilogy...

he would have been a marvelous
hero like Achilles.

He would have been a hero who
sulked and ran away and was
forced into things...

and had great rages,
great melancholies...

and unfortunately
I never got to do that.

He made the most defining films
of those decades.

I mean, he... I think he
ultimately was very political...

so even though his films
were really heightened,
like "Conan"...

they captured part of the
political zeitgeist
at that time.

"Ten Soldiers" was a very
interesting screenplay...

by a young filmmaker
named Kevin Reynolds.

When I read it, I said to
myself...

this could be a fascinating
low budget movie with an
anti-war statement.

Either smartly or foolishly,
I approached John about it.

I always felt there was another
Milius who was not the NRA...

Teddy Roosevelt Milius...

but that he would see that it's
possible to use this setting...

to make an interesting
anti-war picture, if you will.

( OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING )

What's going on here,
my friend?

( SOLDIER SPEAKING RUSSIAN )

MILIUS (V.O.):
The conventional war,
the limited nuclear exchange...

was something we had been
hearing about a lot in the
news, you know.

It's a very alarming prospect,
a limited nuclear exchange...

because that's... it will lead
to the type of war described
in the movie.

They're gonna kill us,
all of us!

So why should we be different?

( SCREAMING )

Because we live here!

Instead of making
"Lord of the Flies"...

he was going to make a picture
who's sensibility was a little
more NRA-ish.

Well, "Red Dawn" came out at a
time where there was a lot of
sensitivity...

and desire for some kind
of harmony between the
United States and Russia.

So to say, "Well, what if we
went the other way?"

I mean, that was not a very
popular thing...

and yet it was a question we
were all asking at that time.
What would that be like?

It was a fear we were all
living with.

But again, that's just the kind
of button pushing he was doing
at that time.

PETER BART (V.O.):
And John was really just doing
kind of a kid fantasy...

about what would happen
if the bad guys came
and took over my town?

Not bad for a bunch of kids,
huh?

Your mom'd be real proud.

Wolverines!

I just always felt like there
was a child-like quality...

about John in the midst of all
of the bravado and intelligence
that came through.

And it, like,
kind of drove it all.

I have a healthy sense
of the absurd.

But he's not only that guy.

I think it shows the utter
futility, a certain desperate
futility of war.

And in the end of the movie,
in spite of all the heroism
and valor shown...

and the reasons and the revenges
on both sides and everything
else.

All that's left is a plaque,
you know, a lonely plaque...

in some desolate battlefield
that no one ever goes to.

ERICA (V.O.)
In the early days
of World War III...

guerillas, mostly children,
placed the names of their
lost upon this rock.

They fought here alone
and gave up their lives...

so that this nation shall not
perish from the earth.

He's not afraid to take
responsibility for his beliefs.

And even more than his
beliefs...

he's not afraid to kind of like
look the dragon in the face.

He is the guy who we ride into
battle with "Ride of the
Valkyries" blasting.

I mean, he is that guy.

That's a tough thing to do,
take responsibility for that...

for really saying things.

Perfect example, and you know,
I mean, I almost hate to say
it...

but it's something that John,
you know...

I remember at one point, John,
in a somewhat joking mood...

He said, "My fantasy...",
it's insane...

"was to fly across tree tops
and drop fire on children."

And then that big smile.

DARREN DALTON (V.O.):
There's not a lot of people
in Hollywood gonna say that.

Well, is he setting me up?
Is he telling the truth?
What's going on and...

yeah, okay, that maybe could
happen. Oh, no, that's bullshit.

No, that wouldn't happen.
Well, it might happen.

And I thought,
I fucking love this guy.

( THEME MUSIC PLAYING )

COMMENTATOR (V.O.):
We look at the film that has
taken America by storm.

A new American film has just
been released in London...

that's already breaking box
office records in America.

Soviet officials have gone
on the offensive...

against what they see as an
American 35 millimeter weapon.

So, then what is this picture
that had landslide Reagan...

and his erstwhile saber-rattler,
Alexander Haig cheering lustily
in their seats?

Well, I'll tell you, it's called
"Red Dawn" and it's a piece
of right-wing jingoism.

In America, it caused
a political storm.

They are promoting
international hatred.

"Red Dawn",
directed energetically...

but crudely by John Milius,
is frankly ludicrous.

But I think it's more than that,
I think it's highly
irresponsible.

I think this is really a program
designed for high school
students...

not very bright high school
students.

And by way of a footnote,
let me add that the...

U.S. National Coalition
On TV and Movie Violence...

the trans-Atlantic chapter
of the Mary Whitehouse
brigade...

has declared "Red Dawn" to be
the most violent film ever.

It definitely had
a cultural impact.

And although it was
a huge hit...

it was not a hit among the
people who supposedly are the
opinion makers.

DARREN DALTON (V.O.):
Well, I took a lot of heat
after doing the movie.

I remember one director
in particular, I don't
remember his name.

You know, I just came in for
a reading for a movie, maybe
a year or two afterwards.

And he said, "Oh, I see you were
in "Red Dawn", "Red Dawn".

Why would you do a movie
like "Red Dawn"?

That movie, more than anything,
made him a pariah for a long
time.

You just didn't want to be
around this guy...

because his politics
were just too out there.

We never set out to make
a pro-war movie.

Whether it's intentional
or unintentional...

John's work is filled
with humanity...

and filled with ambiguity far
more than his politics are.

And I love John, I love his
character, and there's a
wonderful side to him...

but I would never for one second
would think that he has any
sense of reality.

And it's funny probably for me
to say that to you...

but I just don't think...
he's a cartoon when
it comes to politics.

There's no progress in his
thinking, it's just the
right-wing...

I won't even say right-wing,
because he thinks they're nut
cases now.

But back in those days,
everything he said about
libertarianism...

he still believes in, he hasn't
grown as a man that way.

"Red Dawn" brings us into a
discussion of the R-word in
Hollywood, which is Republican.

There is definitely a...

a preference, a political
preference in Hollywood.

And there's a contention
among the Republicans
and right-wingers...

that they don't have as many
opportunities as liberals or
left-wingers do...

because Hollywood is basically
a left-wing town.

And I think if you are a little
outspoken like John, it can... it
can backfire on you.

Especially when other people
are very adamant...

and extremely political,
no question about it.

He made himself into this
showman of the right
in the period where...

not that it's changed that much,
but Hollywood was defiantly
liberal.

I think John actually enjoyed
making people uncomfortable.

Um, he would say and do things
for the shock value.

Yeah, it's hard to understand
John in terms of... I mean,
I know John the person...

and he's sweet, lovable,
wonderful, honest...

very loyal, you know,
great guy.

And then he's created
this... persona.

He once told me something
really interesting.

He said, "I may not be the
strongest guy or the most
well-armed...

but you can put me in a room
with a pencil and a piece of
paper and I can kill anybody."

Discussing the persona
of John Milius and how
he would use this...

and of course we've got him
wanting a gun every time
he makes a deal.

Well, I remember we went into
a meeting with Dan Melnick...

who was running MGM at the time.

Melnick was gonna give us his
script notes. He's the president
of the studio.

John comes in and he pulls out
a pistol and he says...

"I just want you to know where
we all stand on this, Dan."

What kind of notes is the head
of the studio gonna give you...

when there's a .45 automatic
sitting there on the table?

John just did it for effect,
but it was a great effect and
made everybody tell stories.

Well, once these stories
started getting around...

you know, we're all paid
professional liars
in Hollywood...

we embellish these stories,
they get embellished in the
telling and, you know...

not too many people in Hollywood
knew anybody that was running
around with a gun.

Any of those stories, like
a portion of those stories...

one of them maybe, you know,
but a few of them.

If in fact they're true...

you know, that doesn't push up
one's stock...

in terms of being in demand
to come in and be embraced
by a studio.

Back in school, it was a little
more obvious that it was a
created persona.

And it was built out
of his passion...

and it was built out of his
passion for samurai, for Teddy
Roosevelt...

for, you know, people he admired
and things he admired...

he constructed a character...

that embodied all the things
he admired and loved.

And that character is very
outrageous.

There are filmmakers, you know,
John Milius is one of them...

who have a kind of tough guy
front or bravado.

But it's partly show business
and they use this front,
who knows...

maybe to mask insecurities or
what have you, but it's an act.

And in this town, they don't
think like John thinks.

Less today than ever.

There's a danger in that whole
business of misunderstanding
of the situation.

Yes, it's a collaborative art,
yet usually one person winds up
with the credit and the blame.

The breaking point for me...

came when the Saturday Review
put out a cover.

Title of the cover was
The Brutalists.

And it was about the generation
of young men in Hollywood...

who were addicted to violence...

and I really wanted to get out
of that pigeon hole...

because I knew that once they
have you in that hole...

you don't ever get out...

and I don't think John ever got
out, and I think it did hurt
his career.

I think probably John
is his own worst enemy...

and I think
it's a different time.

You know, the people who could
make that transition from 70's
and you know...

even the early 80's where
it was a different kind
of filmmaking then.

It was the auteur.

And that kind of doesn't
suit well now...

in the kind of way that the
studio system's been taken over
by large corporations.

There is a pressure that goes
on being inside a corporation...

that is often about conformity
or, I'll say...

not wanting to risk one's job.

Um, which I think then sort
of forces the creative
process...

into a,
I think narrower window.

Because there's a lot more
marketing people...

that are running it today
than there were in those days.

He has a really unique voice
and for whatever reason...

it didn't get altered
by the process over time.

But you get this public persona
and it becomes a part of you.

I mean, whether you like it or
not, the way the world perceives
you creates a persona...

and that persona becomes real
in the media, in the outside
world...

and, you know, movies
and everything that's done
about you, books...

they use that persona rather
than the real deal.

I think that's the one place
where John shot himself
in the foot.

That should have been the time
when John grabbed everything.

We had just come off
of "Red Dawn"...

you know, the movie before
"Red Dawn" was "Conan".

It was very hard
to get him the work.

I've been blacklisted probably
since then, you know?

I've been blacklisted as surely
as anybody in the 50's.

I don't believe that much
in a blacklisting idea...

because I have been always out
there as a Republican.

They don't care if you're a
Libertarian, if you're an
independent...

if you decline to state if
you're Republican or Democrat,
that means nothing to Hollywood.

They don't care if you're...
if you're Lenin himself.

In Hollywood, the only thing
that means is money.

And whenever there's money
involved, you know, you're...

hand in hand with that is fear.

You know, so people are afraid
all the time...

and a guy like John that's a big
personality, you know, I'm sure
scares people.

It's funny that he would say
he'd been blacklisted...

because he came up in that
generation that finally changed
the way movies were made...

and movies were graded
by your success.

But if you say enough shit,
or do enough shit, as in the
case of Milius...

something...
you're bound to...

you're bound to pay at some
point on some level.

You know, if you go four years,
and it was...

"Farewell To the King",
I think, was 1990.

And so by the time a movie
like that comes out, that's...

gosh, that's six years
after "Red Dawn".

He showed a certain naivety...

which is also fundamental
to John Milius.

He doesn't realize that
in Hollywood...

executives with little talent
have long memories.

MILIUS (V.O.):
I've been very, very powerful
with my influence...

on the Revolutionary
Committee...

being that I'm the head
of the IWA, the International
Writers Army...

that are the terror arm of the
Writer's Guild, you know?

You know, and they have stopped
me in many of my projects...

one of which was to blow up
Jeff Katzenberg's car.
This is a symbol.

For a long time,
people would put up with John...

to get the screenplays
they wanted.

But when it came to "We had to
put up with all of this to get
the screenplay?"...

and we still haven't made the
movie, let's get rid of him as
the director.

And all those guys he came up
with, Lucas and Spielberg
and Randal Kleiser...

those guys, when they got to be
successful, they could kind of
write their own ticket.

And he chose not to be
those guys.

He chose to not make projects
that didn't interest him
as a filmmaker.

I think that's maybe where his
real purity lies.

As a writer,
he could do anything.

You have to be interested
in your work.

At a certain point, cashing a
paycheck is not what it's about.

ED O'NEILL (V.O.): I've read
scripts that John has written
that have never been done...

and I read one in particular
I'll never forget he wrote.

One about Texas Rangers, that
I think he kind of had an
earmark for Clint Eastwood...

when Eastwood would have been
perfect, you know?

You wonder how they wouldn't do
it, you know, when they do so
much shit.

Well, you know, like
Sean Connery, for example...

never did anything John didn't
rewrite his part.

I got a call and, "Mr. Neufeld?"

I said, "Yeah."
He said, "Sean Connery."

I said, "Why not?"

"There aren't enough big
speeches in this movie for me."

John was working in the office
right next to me and the door
was open...

and I quickly remembered that
John had done "The Wind and the
Lion" with Sean.

So, I said,
"Well, what about John Milius?"

He said, "Oh, he's great.
I love John, do you think
you can get him?"

I said, "Just a moment..."
and I put the phone on hold...

and I ran into the next office.

I said to John, "I've got Sean
Connery on the phone.

He's about ready to do
'The Hunt For Red October'...

but he says he needs
some big speeches."

John said,
"Well, I'm great at that."

Once more, we play
our dangerous game...

a game of chess, against our old
adversary, the American Navy.

Basically John saved me on
"The Hunt For Red October".

It became easy to not call him,
except finally to do those
rewrites, you know...

and you could make a very good
living doing that...

but he couldn't be that
person as a director.

It had to mean something to him,
because he knew about the
toil...

and the sum total of blood,
sweat and effort...

it demanded to get a movie made.

He just couldn't divorce
himself from that.

He had to be the guy
who committed.

He wasn't satisfied with just
writing. He wanted to direct.

And in between "Red Dawn", um,
until the current...

until now is really
"Flight of the Intruder"
and "Rough Riders"...

I think are two over a 20...
that's something like a 20-year
period.

And I always find myself
wondering, too, if,
during those rewrites...

it took up so much of his time
that by the time he got ready to
make another movie...

his moment had passed.

ETHAN MILIUS (V.O.):
Chuck Reedy was a close
friend of my father's.

He was also, at the same time,
my dad's accountant.

If you were to characterize
somebody as a best friend...

Chuck Reedy would have been
my dad's best friend.

There was something seedy
about him and you could see
it from a mile away.

Unfortunately my dad
couldn't.

My dad discovered that Chuck
was essentially...

stealing money from my dad.

He was about the worst
I've ever seen him.

He had lost a substantial
amount of money.

I don't think that he thought
that he'd ever be able to earn
back the money again.

That absolutely crushed my dad.

I was at dinner with John,
all was not well...

and the subject of the
conversation...

was about John wanting
to write on "Deadwood".

John was trying to get on as
a staff writer with David Milch,
and David Milch said...

"I'm not doing it. I can't...
you're not a staff writer.

You wrote 'Apocalypse Now'.

I couldn't walk in the office
and see you in there with the
fucking staff writers".

And John said,
"My son's going to law school."

And he had basically committed
to paying for law school...

and then decommitted
and said, "I can't afford it,
I can't do it."

"And I can't afford to send him
there. I can't get arrested."

You know, he laid it out,
"I'm broke."

And Milch said,
"I'll pay for his law school."

And John says, "It's three
years, are you fucking crazy?"
He said, "No, I'll do it."

And then he said something along
the lines of, I have a friend
who has scholarships.

Here's the kicker. I was having
lunch with David Milch.

And he came in and said, "Would
you believe this? This fucking
crazy Milius paid me back?"

He said, "He's the first
motherfucker that ever paid me
back in my life."

When John did "Rome",
John paid him back.

OLIVER STONE (V.O.):
But he hadn't directed
anything...

since "Flight of the Intruder"
and "Rough Riders".

So I think he's now working
on "Genghis Khan"...

which he's been working on,
this opus he's wanted to tell
for, my god, 20 years.

John and I actually hadn't
spoken for a number of years...

because we had had a
disagreement at the end
of "Farewell To the King".

It wasn't until "Genghis Khan"
came along that we got back
in business.

And when we sat down
to talk about
"Genghis Khan"...

we shared the same idea that
this could be both a great
film...

and a fitting re-entry
for John Milius...

both as the director of the film
and the screenwriter.

And the more that John got into
what it must have been like
for Genghis Khan...

to have conquered the known
world, the more we became taken
with the whole idea...

that this is one of those great
untold stories of history.

It's kind of the culmination of
a lot of the themes that I think
that he's written about.

There's something when a
creative person has an idea...

and it is, you know...

they've become in love with it
and it lives within them.

And that's what he had,
he was just amazingly involved
in it.

It was his passion.
He wanted to make this movie.

The only director that could
have been better than
John Milius...

to direct "Genghis Khan" would
have been Attila the Hun.

And since he's dead,
it goes to Milius.

But if it's going to be Milius
directing John Milius'
"Genghis Khan"...

audiences are expecting
a little bit of rape...

a little bit of pillage.

Great characters facing
great moral dilemmas.

John said, "You're right,
then you have to let me write
the second draft."

JOHN PLASTER (V.O.):
I'd been with John
in New York for three days.

Doing research was always fun
with John, because it was
interesting research for me.

We were going out to dinner
and it's just a continuing
conversation.

We're walking down stairs
to his car...

and in mid-step John stops
talking...

and I'd just asked him
a question.

And I asked him again,
"John, what do you think
about this scene?"

He didn't say anything.

I knew something was wrong,
I immediately got in front
of him...

and I looked into his face...

and he was disoriented
and he was twitching
on one side of his face.

Well, I knew right away
that it was a stroke.

So I was calling 911
as I was shaking him
and keeping him awake.

And again,
by the grace of God...

there just happened to be an
ambulance only... not even
ten minutes away.

ETHAN MILIUS (V.O.):
And then I remember getting
the phone call...

hearing that my dad
had a stroke.

I went into the hospital room
and he was in the ICU.

He was sitting in that room and
it was absolutely horrendous.

To see your dad, who is never
at a loss for words, and there
was no communication at all.

And we weren't sure, like,
if you know, if he was going
to have any brain functioning.

And he wasn't communicating,
so we had no idea what was
going to happen.

Everything I've ever talked to
you about is about his
communicating, his storytelling.

That's how people know him.
He's a guy who likes talking
and now he can't.

I can't think of a...

I can't think
of a worse thing...

ever happening to a person
who I knew.

And I'm talking about beyond
people who have died
before their time.

But I'm talking about a
raconteur, one of the greatest
raconteurs of my generation...

losing the ability to speak.

It's the worst thing that's ever
happened to any of my friends.

I think I had my iPhone with me,
and I would play music
for him...

and around that time,
I had gotten some of the music
from "Conan".

( THEME FROM "CONAN" PLAYING )

I had played that, you know,
because I thought something
he could recognize...

and I started seeing a reaction.

And that was the first time he'd
really communicated with anyone.

It was awesome. It was like he's
going to... you know, this...

it's not as bad as it could be.

And slowly he made, you know...

slight, incremental increases
in his ability.

After the stroke,
we stopped everything.

In November of... what are we
now? 2011?

November of 2010, John moved
back to the West Coast...

to start his physiotherapy
and his speech therapy.

THERAPIST (O.C.):
Usually we can...

MILIUS (O.C.):
Okay, okay, okay, now, yes.
( slightly slurred speech )

Now if you want
to go back to... there.

Yeah.

See, you can see
all the...

He's had physical therapy, um,
he's had speech therapy and
occupational therapy.

So, what do you
want to type?

Um, okay, uh.

Choose send.

Okay, area...

are... no, um...

s... uh, shar...

Okay...
Where's your thing?

And you can see, just by sitting
there and you talk to him...

and you can see the frustration
is there, he's...

the words are all in there,
they just can't come out.

And that's... how horrible that
must had to be.

ANDRE MORGAN (V.O.):
Incrementally, it's quite easy
for me to see the progress...

he's making, but I'm not living
it on the day-by-day basis.

And I know, from when
I'm here, part of his
frustration is...

he has the thought,
he can't articulate it.

John, J... J... no.

I think he absolutely
is progressing and he's able
to communicate his ideas...

and he's got a tablet
that he writes on.

You know, by filling
in certain points...

you can actually have
a conversation.

Unit 101?

Yes, yes, okay, okay.

Okay, yeah. See?

You need to spend more time
with me, man. I speak John.

You know, so I'm very confident
that he will get there...

but it's a journey
of 1,000 miles.

And it's every day,
heavy lifting.

He's making progress.
He's coming back.
He's working really hard.

Okay, yes! Yeah, oh, no.
Oh, no!

But when you get in a room
with John, he's still John...

his laugh hasn't changed.

His ability to express a joke...

not even in words anymore,
but his ability to get you
to laugh hasn't changed...

and he still fills the room
with his presence.

He clearly is not where
he was before...

but he has made incredible
strides in terms of his ability
to communicate...

and clearly understands
everything that's going around
him.

John was very distraught,
because as you probably know...

shooting has been an integral
part of his life for many years.

It takes a tremendous amount...

of concentration,
eye-hand coordination.

John couldn't grasp the gun
properly...

I put it in his hand,
wrapped his hand around it,
put the gun up.

First target he missed,
very disappointed.

( GUN FIRES )

The second target he missed,
disappointed, didn't want
to continue.

The third target.

MAN (O.C.):
Pull!

JOHN STRONG (V.O.):
He hit it dead center.

MAN (O.C.):
Nice shot!

And he got the biggest smile
on his face...

that I've ever seen on his face.

And it was like his
rebirth. I'm back.

( ROCK MUSIC PLAYING )

So he's been going for a while.
He goes a lot...

and he's been getting better
and better and better.

His motor skills,
hand-eye coordination...

the computer... perfect.

Even though his speech ability
is still being reformulated...

his memory is intact.

He remembered all of the things
we had talked about.

As of five weeks ago,
when I saw him last...

he had finished going
through "Genghis Khan"...

and taking out a lot of the
excess dialogue.

So, why don't you become my
partner as a producer
on the film?

He clearly continues to want
to see that, maybe not
directing it himself.

But he wants to see that movie
expressed as the vision
he created it.

( SOFT MUSIC PLAYING )

MICHAEL MANN (V.O.):
I think what John's going
through right now...

kind of evidences, you know,
the big heart of this guy.

And the, you know,
and the tremendous courage...

he has to overcome...

which I'm positive he will,
one way or another...

the kind of handicaps imposed
by the stroke he had.

John'll come back
from anything...

and I hope that he comes back
enough to where he's telling
stories again...

and I don't mean sitting around
on the set telling them.

But putting 'em on paper and
getting 'em on paper and
directing films again.

Having his material
committed to film.

We had a dinner up in the colony
one night, where a pizza guy
came in...

and delivered a pizza and then
was walking out, and saw one
of the bear boards...

and came back in and was just
like, "Man, you're John..."...

he was like, "My whole life was
changed..." One of those things.

But I think, um...

the rumors of his vanishing...

from the Hollywood scene have
been greatly exaggerated...

and, as General Macarthur
said...

"He not only will come back...

but he is back."

Go ahead, make my day.

( MUSIC FADES UP )

We got him.

(AUDIENCE CHEERS)

REPORTER (O.S.):
Late Saturday morning, the U.S.
got its big break.

An Iraqi in custody told the
military where to find Sadam.

Nine hours later, U.S. troops
launched Operation Red Dawn.

Blowing away doors...

600 soldiers
of the Army's 4th Infantry...

and the top secret task
force 121 of Special Forces...

attacked two separate farm
houses southeast of Tikrit...

code named Wolverine One
and Wolverine Two.

That's got to make him happy
to know they used one of his
titles as an operation.

Rarely do you meet a guy,
he's not perfect by any means...

who has humor, gravitas,
knowledge, spirit...

and the balls to deliver.

And it's important that they
know that John Milius was
responsible for a lot...

of the great stuff
that came out of those pieces.

You think I'm fucking around
here? Mark it zero!

Well, we would always talk about
how that guy is just like Dad.

And seeing that character and
within a second you're like
that is uncanny.

Hell, I'd get you a tow by 3:00
this afternoon with nail polish.

I didn't use any kind
of a model, but...

I'd be afraid to meet him.

John Milius, Rorion Gracie...

and Art Davie started
the UFC back in 1993.

John and I used to sit on the
mat after the classes...

and develop the concept for how
should we create the arena...

where the guys could go and
fight without giving the
competitor...

the opportunity to run away.

So John would say,
"What about a moat with
alligators or sharks...

or an electric fence
or something like that, you
know?"

I says John, come on
and write an episode,
it was a phone call.

Come up and write an episode.

"Great, I got something I want
to do." Called "Viking Bikers
From Hell".

So I bought it
on the title alone.

A lot of the seminal directors
of my childhood...

at least the commercially
successful ones, site it
as their inspiration.

You know John made a lot of
careers through his screenplays.

The amazing body of work the guy
has created, and at the end
of the day...

if somebody asked me to describe
who the dude was, I'd say he was
a storyteller.

I had lunch with Steven and
George once, we were just
talking about the past...

and they told me that they all
swapped points on three
movies...

"Star Wars", "Big Wednesday" and
"Close Encounters".

And Steven says, "I'm still
seeing money from "Star Wars".

And Lucas is like, "Yeah,
whatever happened to our
'Big Wednesday' money?"

Think about it. Three guys
swapping their gross points.

Who does that now? I mean,
it's hard enough to get any
gross points.

You can imagine what
it was like back then.

And when he hired us to do
"1941", he says, "You need guns,
boys! You need guns!"

John gave us each Colt .45
automatics.

John says, "I know, we need
to go over to Francis' house.

And I remember Francis
was making pizza.

And Coppola is just outraged,
"John , what are you doing?
This is terrible."

He says, "Look, I'm making
pizza, this gives life."

He said,
"Guns symbolize death."

I don't recall that moment,
no doubt John wrote it.

Pretty good
at making shit up, huh?

MAN (O.C.):
That's awesome.