Writer-Director John Milius has had a long and eventful career thus far in Hollywood. Often outspoken about his political views and his lack of love for the Hollywood system, he's written and directed numerous films to critical acclaim and strong fan followings, including Magnum Force, The Wind and the Lion, Big Wednesday, Conan the Barbarian , Red Dawn, and Apocalypse Now (for which he shared an Oscar nomination with Francis Ford Coppola).This career-comprehensive interview, conducted in 2001, covers the breadth of Milius's career. It also discusses the early rumblings of a proposed Conan 3, more of which you can learn about in our coverage here

I know... I'm getting hot again. I guess because I'm still colorful.I guess... I don't know. There seems to be suddenly a rebirth of interest in a number of things. I get treated well by the public, and by the film community – even the sort of archival and critical part of it. I mean, the old film critics just excoriated me. But I'm sort of treated well now , by that part of it. But Hollywood itself, they bring me the steaming shovel full of s**t everyday.Yeah, I think that's it ... It's like Jesse James. He became really popular because he lasted so long. You know, there is some degree of truth to the fact that time will dignify anything, too.Yeah, I mean, they start looking at you differently. You know, I find it very strange when movies that I made that were just excoriated – I mean that I was just vilified for – are now looked at as classics.Yeah, I think there's some degree. There was a lot of politicizing in the criticism at the time. A lot of critics had it out for me.Oh yeah. A lot of people thought of me as a threat to Western civilization.Well, they sort of looked at me the way the Romans looked at the Germans, I think.Yeah ... The Hell's Angels, and Sonny Barger, who I know, he was always looked at that way, too. I also thought of myself as the Sonny Barger of the film industry.Well, I mean, people do talk to me. I haven't been made a non-person.Yeah, yeah.Well, you know, I mean, it's never nice to be a non-person. It's not something you look forward to.Well, they just pretend they're not there.Yeah, you don't get to do the work you want to do and stuff. I've always been able to survive by writing, though. They've always sort of held their nose and made deals with me as a writer. But, for a long time, every script I ever wrote got made. Now there's about four or five of them, sitting on shelves. I don't want to tell you, because these are sort of still secret deals, but a number of them are going to get made now. And so it's sort of interesting, you know? These things were sitting around. The administrations who had them written usually were fired and changed or something; new administration came in and it wasn't hip or something.Yeah, there's a lot of that, too.Oh, I don't know – yesterday?There's loosening, but then they tighten it up again, you know. You never know when you're going to be considered un-hip ... The people that really pass judgment on you really have nothing to do with what you do, usually.What would be the perfect situation for me? I think when I started in the business, when I had my first aspirations of being in the business, I sort of pictured an idyllic life. That was to make B Westerns, and I think that if I had been born twenty years before, I'd have probably been killed in World War II – but if I had not been killed in World War II, I would have made B Westerns.I like Westerns, and they made them out of Corriganville, and they weren't pretentious.Films are always pretentious. There's nothing more pretentious than a filmmaker. You know, an egotistical filmmaker who thinks that they're doing God's gift to humanity or something – it's just entertainment. It's not really too much different than the carnies.I don't know. Everybody's a filmmaker today.Yes, it's a strong personality sometimes. But it also shows no restraint and discipline.A lot of them, yeah. But, I mean, egotism is not a good quality. It's not something to be admired or even tolerated. It wouldn't be tolerated in a field commander and it shouldn't be tolerated in a movie director.The filmmakers always have a great level of control. I mean, when I made one of my best films, which I made most recently, Rough Riders – I don't know if you've seen Rough Riders?Well, I think that's one of my very best films. And they had a lot of controls on me, at Turner, and I just ran over them.Oh yeah, they hated me, but I got the film made, didn't I?Well, you know, that's what you have to do. You have to be true to the vision that you start out to do, otherwise what are you even there for?Well, I mean, when somebody comes in and gives you script notes and ideas that they would like about certain things in there, and you don't know who this person is. They have no qualifications, you know? That's just insane. I mean, I'm willing to listen – to anybody. I always listen to anybody. But I'm not going to take orders from somebody like that.And it always is. Especially when they want to take out things, or change things that will vastly change the story that you're going to do, or vastly change the realism of it, or the motivations of characters and things like that.And have no experience. No life experience, no experience in their job, no qualifications ... arbitrary things of what they think they like, or that they want to make a contribution so that they can justify their job or show you who's boss or something like that. I've always had trouble with authority.Yeah, absolutely. And that they've got to make creative decisions to be noticed, and they've got to control the director and everything else – control the creative people, because the creative people are untrustworthy. They're the people that understand commerciality and the bottom line, all this. We're just a bunch of crazy artists who would make things that would have no practical purpose whatsoever if we were left to our own desires, you know?That's because they don't do anything. They're worthless, and they can be replaced. I mean, it's very interesting why they have a high attrition rate, it's because they don't have any skills. They're frauds. They're basically bureaucrats, you know? I'm a general, I do something. I go out and fight wars and win them. They don't do that. They sit back somewhere else and worry about politics.They don't learn. They can't – all they're learning ... their job is to keep their job. It has nothing to do with making good movies. See, we hopefully, filmmakers who are dedicated – the real filmmakers – I think are willing to die to make a good film, what they think is a good film. Once they've made that decision that this is the film, this is the way this film should be, they're willing to die out there. They're willing to put their life, risk everything – and a great example of that is Francis Coppola. He said, "I'll stay here, in the Philippines, I'll do whatever it takes. I'll go mad, I'll do anything, because this is my job and life is to make this film. This is what I'm supposed to do. It doesn't matter – if I die out here, then John will come and replace me. If he dies, then George will come and replace him. If George dies, we'll get Ken Russell."

Continue on to the second page of Ken Plume's interview with John Milius – in which Milius discusses what makes a good studio executive, the impact Spielberg and Lucas's blockbusters had on the industry, his screenwriting process, and more.