John Milius

John Milius Movies and TV Shows

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."

Personal info

  • Gender: Male
  • Date of birth: 4/11/1944 (80 years old)
  • Place of birth: St. Louis, Missouri, USA
  • nationality: American
  • Net worth: $5,000,000
Year
Genre
IMDB
TMDB
Available on the following streaming services in the United States
Milius
IMDB 7.4
TMDB 71%
role:
Himself
2013

Documentary

7.4
71%
Rome
IMDB 8.7
TMDB 83%
role:
Executive Producer
2005

Action

Adventure

Drama

8.7
83%
1994

Action

Drama

Thriller

6.9
66%
1993

History

Western

6.5
63%
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1991

Action

War & Politics

5.8
55%
1987

Action

Crime

Drama

Thriller

Western

6.6
61%
Red Dawn
IMDB 6.3
TMDB 63%
role:
Director & 1 more
1984

Action

Drama

Thriller

War & Politics

6.3
63%
Uncommon Valor
IMDB 6.3
TMDB 61%
role:
Producer
1983

Action

Drama

War & Politics

6.3
61%
Conan the Barbarian
IMDB 6.9
TMDB 68%
role:
Director & 1 more
1982

Action

Adventure

Sci-Fi & Fantasy

6.9
68%
Used Cars
IMDB 6.7
TMDB 64%
role:
Executive Producer
1980

Comedy

6.7
64%
The Empire Strikes Back
IMDB 8.7
TMDB 84%
role:
Executive Producer
1980

Action

Adventure

Sci-Fi & Fantasy

8.7
84%
1941
IMDB 5.8
TMDB 59%
role:
Story & 1 more
1979

Action

Comedy

War & Politics

5.8
59%
1979

Drama

War & Politics

8.4
83%
Hardcore
IMDB 7.0
TMDB 67%
role:
Executive Producer
1979

Crime

Drama

7.0
67%
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Big Wednesday
IMDB 7.1
TMDB 70%
role:
Writer & 1 more
1978

Comedy

Drama

7.1
70%
The Wind and the Lion
IMDB 6.8
TMDB 67%
role:
Writer & 1 more
1975

Action

Adventure

Drama

History

6.8
67%
Magnum Force
IMDB 7.2
TMDB 72%
role:
Screenplay
1973

Action

Crime

Drama

7.2
72%
Dillinger
IMDB 6.9
TMDB 66%
role:
Writer & 1 more
1973

Action

Crime

Drama

6.9
66%
Jeremiah Johnson
IMDB 7.6
TMDB 74%
role:
Screenplay
1972

Adventure

Western

7.6
74%
Dirty Harry
IMDB 7.7
TMDB 75%
role:
Screenplay
1971

Action

Crime

Thriller

7.7
75%

FAQs

Some movies or TV shows available in the United States starring or involving John Milius are, for example, Milius, Rome and Clear and Present Danger.
The streaming services with the largest selection are Prime Video, iTunes and Amazon.
The best Anystream ratings are The Empire Strikes Back (8.6), Rome (8.5) and Apocalypse Now (8.4).
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