Samuel Fuller

[Alethia]

it'll grow, believe you me.

[kotte]

I haven't seen any of Fuller's work but this thread got me excited about him. I just ordered Criterion's Pickup...and I can't wait to read his biography and watch:

Tigrero: A Film That Was Never Made - By Mika Kaurismäki

In 1954, legendary filmmaker Samuel Fuller was sent by 20th Century Fox to the most remote regions of the Amazon to scout locations for his upcoming film TIGRERO!, a rousing adventure tale that was to star John Wayne, Ava Gardner and Tyrone Power. Fuller brought with him 75 cigars, two cases of whiskey, a gun, and a 16mm camera. There Fuller befriended the Karaja Indians, lived with them, and photographed their ceremonies and way of life. Reluctantly, Fuller returned to Hollywood but the film was never made.
Forty years later, Sam Fuller returns to the Brazilian jungle, bringing with him his friend and fellow filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, a camera crew and the footage he'd shot those many years earlier. The ultimate storyteller, Sam tells Jim about his time with the Karaja, his career in Hollywood and his unique philosophy of life. They show the Karaja the footage Sam shot, conjuring up their friends and loved ones, some who's faces they haven't seen for decades. TIGRERO: A FILM THAT WAS NEVER MADE is priceless travelogue, a meditation on the power of film and the magic of memory, and a loving portrait of a gentle and spiritual culture.

[Alethia]

tigrero is awesome, enjoy the fuck outta that one kotte.

[Gold Trumpet]

I'm not the biggest fan of Pickup as others are. I'll choose Shock Corridor and Naked Kiss, two of his grittier indie films, anyday. Pickup is a decent enough film, but it never really brings you to the temperature that Fuller is capable of the way those other two do.

[kotte]

tigrero is awesome, enjoy the fuck outta that one kotte.

I sure will...

I hope Pickup is a good place to start exploring Fuller. I chose between that one and Naked Kiss.

[Alethia]

personally, i prefer naked kiss but you can't go wrong with pickup no matter where it lands.

[soixante]

Big Red One had a huge impact upon me when I first saw it in 1980.  I was 18, and the main characters were in that age range.  It made me wonder how I would handle the stern test of battle.  It also made me think about what my father went through in WWII.  I had never talked to him about it, but the film made me appreciate what he had been through.  

I love the understated, matter of fact style of the film, leading up to the powerful concentration camp scene, in which Mark Hamill's character finally learns what the war is about, that some causes are worth fighting for.

[rustinglass]

If anybody plans on being in Lisbon towards the end of the month, there will be a screening of "The Big Red One - The Reconstruction" (director's cut) on the 23rd and the 29th at the Indilisboa film festival.

www.indielisboa.com

[rustinglass]

So I saw The Big Red One yeaterday. It's so good! really, I very very rarely enjoy a film as much as I did this one. It will surely be a favourite for years to come. Never having seen the film before, I don't know which scenes were new and which weren't, but, to me it was a perfect film, and to cut anything from it wouldn't do it good. I'm more looking forward for this dvd than anyother film released this year.. or last year.

[Alethia]

amen to that.  the restored version is a masterpeice.  i forgive the truncated version of its few dramatic shortcomings simply because it was butchered.  hopefully, those idiots who title it the worst war picture of all time (and there are quite a few) will shut their mouths when they see this one.  it baffles me as to why they would even open their mouths in such a way to the truncated version, but i won't get into that again.

[modage]

i'm invited to a screening of this tomorrow night but i have to work.  

Join Warner Home Video and special guests Pamela Marvin, Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Kelly Ward, Bobby Di Cicco, Perry Lang, Christa Fuller and Richard Schickel for the Charity Premiere Screening of director Samuel Fuller's THE BIG RED ONE: THE RECONSTRUCTION.



damnit.

[Alethia]

why in the fuck aren't you calling in sick or simply quitting?

[Pubrick]

why in the fuck aren't you calling in sick or simply quitting?

he considers spending time with his girlfriend "work".

[MacGuffin]

'Big Red One' gets bigger
The Big Red One — Special Edition Source: Los Angeles Times
 
SAMUEL FULLER'S 1980 World War II epic "The Big Red One" (Warner Home Video, $27) is bravura filmmaking. It's action-packed, engrossing, dramatic, funny. The performances are strong, and Fuller, who was a member of the First Infantry Division, a.k.a. the Big Red One, stages the combat sequences beautifully.

But the film was heavily diluted when it was released 25 years ago. Lorimar, the now defunct studio that produced it, cut nearly an hour out without Fuller's blessing or guidance. For years, rumors circulated that the excised footage still existed, and when Warner Bros. found a promotion reel for the film in its vault in 1999 that included numerous scenes not featured in the release print, it was decided to try to restore the movie, bringing it as close as possible to the late director's vision.

A former journalist, the scrappy, maverick writer and director made several hard-hitting, uncompromising "B" movies in the 1950s and early '60s that critics adored and that have inspired today's filmmakers. Such films as "The Steel Helmet," "Fixed Bayonets!," "Pickup on South Street," "The Naked Kiss" and "House of Bamboo" buoyed his career.

But by the mid-1960s, his prospects began to fizzle. He directed for TV, moved to France, even acted in other directors' films. "The Big Red One" was supposed to be his comeback.

Shot for just $4 million on a short schedule in Israel, "Big Red One" is based on Fuller's experiences with the First Infantry. It follows a grizzled sergeant (Lee Marvin, in one of his most full-blooded performances) and the four young men of his rifle squad (Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Bobby Di Cicco, Kelly Ward) for the three years they are together on the European front during the war. They land at Omaha Beach on D-day. Fight the Battle of the Bulge. Liberate a concentration camp. And despite the carnage and destruction, the squad makes it through the war unharmed.

Fuller, who died in 1997 at 85, appears in a restored scene as a newsreel photographer.

Extras: The two-disc set is one of the best-produced digital editions of the year and adds immeasurably to the viewing experience. The first disc includes informative commentary from film critic and scholar Richard Schickel, who produced the reconstruction. The second DVD contains a new full-length documentary, "The Real Glory: Reconstructing the Big Red One," which features candid, funny interviews with the cast, as well as a detailed look at how the film was put back together like a big jigsaw puzzle. There are restoration comparisons and alternate scenes that for various reasons were not part of the reconstruction, the 1980 promo reel that kicked off the restoration, and a vintage War Department featurette on the real Fighting First, as well as Schickel's documentary "The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller."

[kotte]

What I love about Fuller is that he considered himself a storyteller above filmmaker (my impression. Please don't ruin it for me). He loved filmmaking and writing but that was just methods or ways for him to tell his stories. Storytelling is the art. The camera, the pen, the brush, the guitar...they're all just tools.
We care too much about things that don't matter when filmmaking is really all about telling a good story.

Enough pretentious blah blah...

eward, tell me more about Tigrero?

I just can't afford it right now and I wanna revel in my moneyless existens.