What Type Of Films Do You Want To Make?

A co-worker asked me this this morning. What type of movie do I like making? I’m not sure. When I was in film school, my biggest influences were really big action movies. “Die Hard” & “Lethal Weapon” come to mind. Where I am now, something about those movies no longer have the appeal they once did. I think because they seem to be a little hollow once you are finish with them. By “hollow” I mean, they are really fun and a nice diversion, but they don’t solve a universal truth. I still love action movies. They’re great fun. But it’s a genre I’m not sure I would ever fully be good at. Quentin Tarantino, while violent and bloody in his movies, don’t really make action movies. He seems to make melodrama. It just happens to have action in them. I suppose most detective/cop stories are melodrama. But his is steeped in “tough guy” dialogue. I use to love one-liners. But those, if done wrong, are really corny. I remember when “Die Hard” came out. Every action movie from that point on had on-liners. It got to a point where they had to address the characters talking like they do. Like in “The Last Boy Scout” Damon Wayans says “this is the part where you rescue me.” Like, they know they are in a movie. “The Last Action Hero” fully addresses this phenomenon. The movie is long and silly, but is often overlooked for the value. Originally it was suppose to be a hard “R” movie. Meaning lots of violence and nudity. Somewhere along the way (probably past the 100 million budget mark) the producers got scared and started to shave off the good parts to accommodate a “PG-13” rating. Thus starting with one movie and ending up with another. That is obviously a mess.

Ultimately, the idea is to determine a specific movie you like to make. For me, maybe the human condition. Director John Sayles has always been an influence.  His ability to blend truth with plot is astounding. And he has no specifics he adheres to. I mean, the guy made a baseball movie (“Eight Men Out”), a coal miners union story (“Matewan”), and a female bonding story “Passion Fish”. The guy is really underrated in who we think the best 20^th century directors were. I think the closest we have now is someone like Paul Thomas Anderson. He goes from “Boogie Nights” to “The Master.” He is even-handed and mature. For the most part, I am not that big of a fan of the actual stories, but the from the stand point of digging great performances from the script, it’s mind boggling.  It’s so weird how when I was younger I found movies like these boring. Could it be that I’m growing up? I want to believe that maybe the concept that reality is stranger than fiction has more merit. I mean, I wouldn’t go as far as making moving poetry like Terence Malick. That stuff is really inaccessible oddball stuff. Maybe that he gets away with the lingering camera has its own awe.