A few words about Samuel Fuller

Samuel Fuller with gun
Originally uploaded by livingfilm.

My love and admiration for Samuel Fuller is no secret to almost anybody who knows me. The walls of my apartment are covered with posters and lobby cards from his films. I'm sure he is the director whom I reference more than anybody else, but I wouldn't know because I don't keep track of these things.

Samuel Fuller is kind of odd in the fact that he has been widely influential to directors such as Jean Luc Godard, Martin Scorsese, Jim Jarmusch, and even Steven Speilberg yet, he is very often treated with a smug contempt from critics who act as though the admirable qualities of his films were merely accidental occurrences.

Samuel Fuller's cinema is not one of understatement. His films are sensational, pulpy, and often brutal. These are a product of his growing up working for the New York tabloids, and his Front Line experience during WWII. His films would always reflect his tabloidal roots, newspapers, and headlines are all over his films. Fuller's films also contain an element of the immediate, as if everything happening was breaking news. The Newspaper would be the focus of films such as Park Row and Shock Corridor. Samuel Fuller would also make a string of War films that were praised for their authentic feel, and would bring him the recocnition to make him one of 20th Century Fox's biggest directors during the 1950's.

Samuel Fuller's films also have a strong conviction and sincerity, that I feel gives the sensational elements depth. Not that I feel there is need to excuse the sensational elements of his films, I think they are brilliant!

To quote Martin Scorsese:
" If you don't like Samuel Fuller's films, you don't like cinema. At least you don't understand it."

Pretty tough words, but I can understand how he feels.

There are so many things that I could talk about, and should. But, I am really not prepared to try to write more than my personal feelings for his films in the form of this blog right now, other than to say that his films absolutely amaze me, and inspire me endlessly.

For anyone in the Portland area reading this today, the NW Film Center will be screening two of his films at the Guild, Easter night. The Crimson Kimono & Underworld U.S.A., followed next Thursday with a screening on one of his most popular films The Naked Kiss. If you can make it I highly recommend coming.
I also can't recommend enough Samuel Fuller's entertaining, award winning autobiography A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting, and Filmmaking, it's incredible! If you have any interest in film, or even 20th century history, you will enjoy it.

The title of this post is a link to an essay about Fuller, there are several online, and many each have their own opinions. Feel free to experience Samuel Fuller for yourself.