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John Milius

John Frederick Milius 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. 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 wrote the USS Indianapolis monologue in the film Jaws; the sequence performed by Robert Shaw. 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. 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. The novella "Blind Jozef Pronek and Dead Souls" by Aleksandar Hemon features an episode with Milius, who is described as "sitting at a desk sucking on a cigar as long as a walking stick." In 2013 a documentary about his life, titled Milius, was released. Writer Nat Segaloff called Milius: "The best writer of the so-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." 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 [...] 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."


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Born:
Apr 11, 1944 In St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Movie/TV Credits:
36
First Appeared:
In the movie Deadhead Miles 1972-08-08
Latest Project:
Movie A Riddle of Steel: The Definitive History of Conan the Barbarian 2019-08-31
Known For
Filmography
Movie A Riddle of Steel: The Definitive History of Conan the Barbarian Self (archive footage) 2019-08-31
Movie Sword-and-Sandal Self - Director 2019-04-14
Movie Made in Hollywood: Die Welt des Raoul Walsh Self 2017-01-01
Movie Milius Self 2013-03-09
Movie Jaws: The Inside Story Self 2010-06-16
Movie The Craft of Dirty Harry Self 2008-06-03
Movie The Business End: Violence in Cinema Self 2008-06-03
Movie The Evolution of Clint Eastwood Self 2008-06-03
Movie A Moral Right: The Politics of Dirty Harry Self 2008-07-23
Movie The Long Shadow of Dirty Harry Self 2008-07-23
Movie Hollywood Gangster Self 2008-12-27
Movie The Searchers: An Appreciation Self 2006-01-01
Movie Riding Giants John Milius 2004-07-09
Movie A Legacy of Filmmakers: The Early Years of American Zoetrope Self 2004-09-14
Movie Frazetta: Painting with Fire Himself 2003-05-08
Movie Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood Self 2003-03-09
Movie Discovering Treasure: The Story of 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre' Narrator (voice) 2003-09-30
Movie Something to Do with Death Self - Filmmaker 2003-11-18
Movie An Opera of Violence Self - Filmmaker 2003-11-18
Movie The Wages of Sin Self - Filmmaker 2003-11-18
Movie Iron and Beyond Self - Director 2002-11-15
Movie Dino De Laurentiis: The Last Movie Mogul Self 2001-04-01
Movie Dirty Harry: The Original Self - Screenwriter 2001-11-20
Movie The Bridge on the River Kwai: An Appreciation by Filmmaker John Milius Self 2000-11-21
Movie Conan Unchained: The Making of 'Conan' Self 2000-05-30
Movie Hell Hath No Fury: The Making of The Outlaw Josey Wales Narrator 1999-03-30
Movie A Turning of the Earth: John Ford, John Wayne and 'The Searchers' Self (voice) 1998-01-01
Movie In the Teeth of Jaws Self 1997-01-01
Movie The Making of '1941' Unknown 1996-05-28
Movie Shotgun Freeway self 1995-03-01
Movie First Works Self 1989-10-10
Movie Mackendrick: The Man Who Walked Away Self 1986-01-01
Movie Conan the Barbarian Foodseller in Old City (uncredited) 1982-04-02
Movie The Lion Roars Again Self 1975-01-01
Movie Crazy Mama Cop (uncredited) 1975-06-01
Movie Deadhead Miles State Trooper 1972-08-08
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