Writer-director John Milius is too colorful of a filmmaker not to have his own documentary. Ironically, the man who wrote Apocalypse Now and Dirty Harry as well as writing and directing Conan the Barbarian and Red Dawn has now faded into semi-obscurity behind contemporaries and colleagues such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. While Spielberg and Lucas rode to fame on cutting-edge special effects paired with an appreciation of the sci-fi and adventure genres, Milius came from a completely different place that earned him the admiration of his peers, but also turned him into an outsider and eventually a pariah in Hollywood. In Joey Figueroa and Zak Knutson's documentary Milius, his friends and family come to speak about the greatness about the controversial filmmaker, and how his personality brought him to success, but also may have been part of his professional downfall. After a brief montage of various directors, writers, and actors singing Milius' praises such as Sam Ellliott eloquently remarking, "He doesn't write for pussies and he doesn't write for women. He writes for men, because he's a man" (pussies and women could not be reached for comment), Figueroa and Knutson get to one of the most important points about their subject: Milius wanted to be in the military and was rejected because of his asthma. So he chose what he felt was the next best thing: directing. Milius then follows his rise to stardom, first as a screenwriter and then as a director. Throughout, Milius' peers, friends, and family ...
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