Showing @ Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Thu 26 – Fri 27 Jun
Samantha Fuller / USA / 2011 / 80 mins
For those who know the name of Sam Fuller, it conjures up an image of a cigar chewing maverick, a maker of hard boiled war and crime flicks. This documentary, directed by his daughter, paints an equally tough picture but gives us the complex, uncompromising and ambitious man underneath.
From newsboy to crime reporter to screenwriter and novelist, through WWII and on to his career behind the camera Fuller, to borrow from Sinatra, always did it his way. It would be easy to see him as just another rugged America individualist but in every new career he went into, he found himself in another community.
Fuller’s own words from his autobiography read by actors and filmmakers who have known or worked with him, such as Joe Dante, William Friedkin, Jennifer Beals and Mark Hamill, are blended with previously unseen 16mm footage shot by Fuller from the war onwards. The picture that emerges is of a man with huge self-confidence but also self-awareness.
Fuller’s already had the accolade of a retrospective at the EIFF a few years ago, but this is a great and loving tribute to a man who could never be mistaken for a Hollywood phoney.
Showing as part of Edinburgh International Film Festival 2014
Comments