Milius

This documentary, in which Bogdanovich, Coppola, Scorsese and Spielberg are brought together, won me over before I even saw it. However, that doesn’t mean that this entertaining portrait of the “zen anarchist” doesn’t have other qualities other than the purely cinephilic. The filmmakers largely saved the informationally poor stories from filming for the closing credits, which are immediately preceded by the only hagiographic, overtly sentimental part of the whole story, which is understandable with respect to Milius’s health after suffering a stroke. Otherwise, the bullish nature of the openly right-wing male chauvinist and self-absorbed lover of guns, surfing and samurai films is portrayed in more colours than is customary in documentaries of this kind. The individual aspects of his “larger than life” persona are commented on mostly by people who should know what they are talking about (e.g. Oliver Stone, who is definitely not indifferent to politics, speaks about Milius’s political naïveté). The exaggeration of form and content in recalling Milius’s excesses (such as Red Dawn), which among other factors may have prevented him from ever really breaking through in liberal Hollywood, makes the film similar to other profiles of filmmaking rebels that also managed to ironise the forged legend in the same breath (particularly The Kid Stays in the Picture and Easy Riders, Raging Bulls). Whether you know New Hollywood from Bonnie and Clyde to Raging Bull or you know Milius only as the director of Conan the Barbarian, you will certainly not be bored by this documentary. 75% (2014.02.10)