John Milius
ActorView in FlikflixAll Movies & TV Shows
See All- ActionRed Dawn
- ActionConan the Barbarian
- ActionFlight of the Intruder
- ActionRed Dawn
- ActionConan the Barbarian
- DramaApocalypse Now
- ActionRome
- ActionMagnum Force
- ActionDirty Harry
- ActionDirty Harry
- ActionThe Wind and the Lion
- DramaGeronimo: An American Legend
- AdventureJeremiah Johnson
- ActionDillinger
- DramaBig Wednesday
- ComedyThe Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
- CrimeHardcore
- ActionUncommon Valor
- ActionExtreme Prejudice
- ActionFarewell to the King
- DocumentaryMilius
- ActionEvel Knievel
- ActionThe Devil's Eight
- ActionClear and Present Danger
- ActionThe Wind and the Lion
- DramaGeronimo: An American Legend
- ActionDillinger
- DramaBig Wednesday
- ActionFarewell to the King
- ComedyUsed Cars
- DocumentaryHearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse
- Action1941
- Action1941
- ActionCrazy Mama
- DocumentaryRiding Giants
- DocumentaryClint Eastwood: A Cinematic Legacy
- ActionCrazy Mama
- DocumentaryConan Unchained: The Making of 'Conan'
- ActionMotorcycle Gang
- ActionMelvin Purvis G-Man
- DocumentaryDiscovering Treasure: The Story of 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'
- DramaThe Lotus Gun
- DocumentaryThe Bridge on the River Kwai: An Appreciation by Filmmaker John Milius
- WesternRough Riders
- DocumentaryThe Making of '1941'
- DocumentaryA Turning of the Earth: John Ford, John Wayne and 'The Searchers'
- ActionMelvin Purvis G-Man
- DocumentaryThe Searchers: An Appreciation
- AnimationMarcello, I'm Bored
- WesternRough Riders
- DocumentaryIron and Beyond
- DocumentaryDirty Harry: The Original
- DocumentaryThe Emperor
- DocumentaryMackendrick: The Man Who Walked Away
- DocumentaryShotgun Freeway
- DocumentaryFrazetta: Painting with Fire
- DocumentaryA Legacy of Filmmakers: The Early Years of American Zoetrope
- DocumentaryThe Wages of Sin
- DocumentarySomething to Do with Death
- DocumentaryAn Opera of Violence
- DocumentaryThe Business End: Violence in Cinema
- DocumentaryThe Long Shadow of Dirty Harry
- DocumentaryIn the Teeth of Jaws
- DocumentaryFirst Works
- DocumentarySword-and-Sandal
- DocumentaryA Riddle of Steel: The Definitive History of Conan the Barbarian
- DocumentaryA Moral Right: The Politics of Dirty Harry
- DocumentaryThe Craft of Dirty Harry
- DocumentaryEasy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
- DocumentaryThe Lion Roars Again
- ComedyDeadhead Miles
- DocumentaryEasy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
- DocumentaryThe Evolution of Clint Eastwood
Recommended People
About
John Milius
Actor
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."
Information
- Place of Birth
- St. Louis, Missouri, USA
- Known Credits
- 60