If you’re not checking out Quentin Tarantino’s updates on the New Beverly website, you’re missing out. Not only has he been publishing reviews and recommendations of some of his favorite films, but the filmmaker also recently started publishing old interviews he conducted when he was a wee lad.
The first such interview is with filmmaker John Milius. Milius, of course, is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, who is probably best known as the screenwriter of “Apocalypse Now” and the writer-director of films such as “Conan the Barbarian” and “Red Dawn.” What makes the new interview so interesting isn’t the fact that it’s another example of Tarantino given the opportunity to discuss films with a major director, but it’s the time-capsule aspect of when the interview was conducted (decades ago), and how it gives you insight into the person that Tarantino was barely out of high school.
Tarantino sets the stage for the interview and explains how a 20-year-old aspiring filmmaker was able to speak to Milius:
“This interview with writer-director John Milius was conducted when I was twenty years old (and boy does it show). The last film he had done at the time was ‘Conan the Barbarian.’ I just called up his assistant and told her I was writing a book, and she set me up with an interview with him. I met with him twice for the interview. The first time was in his office on the Paramount lot. The second time was on the set of the film ‘Uncommon Valor,’ which he was producing. He told me he didn’t want Gene Hackman for the lead, he wanted James Arness! Later I was to become friends with Big John. At the beginning of ‘95, before the Academy Awards, I was taken duck hunting by John Milius, Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis. John and I sat in a duck blind all day, sipping whiskey out of a flask, talking about movies and shooting the tail feathers off of ducks. This is only part of it. Later I’ll transcribe more.”
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The interview isn’t nearly as cringe-y as the “Pulp Fiction” filmmaker makes it seem. It’s clear that the young Tarantino is a huge fan of Milius’ work and has a deep knowledge of films. Obviously, you would expect this, given how we know that Tarantino basically has an encyclopedic knowledge of the medium, especially when it comes to the works of folks like Milius.
You can read the first part of the interview on the New Beverly website.
