Film

The Typewriter, the Rifle & the Movie Camera (1996)

Director: Adam Simon

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

This documentary covers all the main facets of Sam Fuller's life and career: his years as a copyboy and crime reporter for the Hearst press; his experiences during World War II; his first time behind a camera, at a concentration camp liberated by the US army; and the two decades as a bona fide Hollywood auteur. The format is fun: Tim Robbins interviewing the inimitably brash old codger in Paris; Robbins and Tarantino gleefully checking out the memorabilia in Sam's LA garage; Jim Jarmusch commenting on how Fuller films were preoccupied with the 'American Lie' and how the man himself is not exactly rational; Scorsese on his camera style, the films' emotional authenticity and the ferocious primal force of Fuller's characters; Sam babbling on about Balzac and the art of storytelling, and finally revealing the identity of 'Griff', a moniker that turns up in just about every movie he ever made. Mouth-watering clips.

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