Late last night, after my daughter drifted off to dream of the splendor of the battlefield and ice cream and with the tapping of rain hitting my roof, I was able to sit down to watch a story about one of the greatest storytellers of them all. I was first excited to see that “Milius” was 1 hour and 43 minutes. Usually these types of films are a little over an hour and that’s all. What can you say? John had accomplished a lot in life. All the biggest directors in Hollywood seemed to be involved with interviews including Spielberg, Lucas, Coppola and Eastwood so my expectations ran high with what I perceived the quality would be.
The tone in the opening was very well done to set up John’s charisma, machismo and bravado. It captured my attention immediately and really got me excited to watch the film. I especially liked some of the opening quotes from John’s children, who were included throughout the entire film. There were many of John’s friends included as well to help paint the portrait of the “man”, not just the film-maker.
The early life pieces were really captivating as it exposed things about John I had not known. It really put into perspective how he was formed as a person. From childhood, to his early adult life, to the military and finally his decision on entering film school as pretty much the next logical step from a military career. The USC Film school pieces were fantastically interwoven with commentary from Spielberg, Coppola, Lucas and Randal Kleiser. It wasn’t hard to hear them speak about how, of all the USC prospects, John was regarded as the most talented and the best storyteller.
“Milius” , through participant commentary, was successful in perpetuating the stigma of John Milius. His co-star’s, fellow directors and Hollywood top brass shared stories of the exploits of a renegade. A maverick, that had taken Hollywood script writing by the throat and squeezed with delight. George Hamilton, whose words scribed the title of this review, told of John’s request for the above in exchange for writing a script. Hamilton grinned affectionately as he told of John being held up in George’s Palm Springs Villa to write, only to be reported back that John had beaten a script to pieces in a pool and delighted in riding motorcycles all day. At Hamilton’s protest, John sent Hamilton over 150 telegrams with a script that he had written in under three days.
“Milius” goes on to talk about John’s success with Apocalypse Now, Big Wednesday and Conan the Barbarian. It spent the large portion of its run focused on what happen to John after his involvement in the film “Red Dawn”. I guess I never really thought of it before but there is a huge gap from “Red Dawn” until his next major project. 5 years to be exact. John describes it as blacklisted, but his associates describe it as punishment for contempt. Especially outspoken against John in “MIlius” is Oliver Stone. While he has only a few parts in which he comments, there seems to be no love lost for John.
The hardest part to watch, for me, was the part of the film surrounding John’s stroke and the temporary loss of the power of speech. Hearing Spielberg describe it “besides death, it was the worst thing that had ever happen to a friend of mine” almost brought me to tears. It was a proper juxtaposition for what the film-makers of “MIlius” had attempted. They had built up John to be a mountain and then humbled him with one swift motion. They referred to him in the film as a bear, a mountain, a burly individual who brandishes guns and would drop bombs on children (Darren Dalton’s recollection) and then suddenly, he is John Milius the man. A man that had to learn to speak again and hold things again and tell stories again. I respect John Milius more after watching this documentary and the world should too.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is a guest star in this documentary and we see him in his Governor's office for his interview contributions. My TheArnoldFans official film review is 9 out of 10 stogies (only a 9 because they didn’t interview me).
“In the all new episodes of Game of Thrones they talk about “Valerian Steel”//Hope John is loving this show// & you are too. Love Sandy”
“Do you have Netflix?”
“No, but why…I want to know”
“The new Milius Documentary is on there and I hear it is awesome. I’m going to start watching it in like 5 minutes”
“I don’t have Netflix. I want to watch it. = /”
How many lucky people out there get to have this text conversation with Sandahl Bergman as they get ready to sit down and watch the newest Netflix documentary “Milius”? Not many, but Cromisgod is certainly one of them.
