SAM FULLER
Talk about direct…
If it’s a taut, violent drama driven by propulsive camera movement and a no-nonsense attitude, chances are you’re watching a movie by Sam Fuller (1912-97). Critics have long described the director’s distinctive style as ‘tabloid’, largely because that’s the world Fuller came from. He started his career as a New York crime reporter and brought a journalist’s pithy, punchy voice to his movies.
Before ever calling “action” on set, Fuller actually saw it in WW2, fighting in Africa and Europe with the 1st Infantry Division. The experience informed the tough sensibility of his movies, especially his career-spanning run of war flicks. Fuller chronicled the Korean War while it was happening in The Steel Helmet and Fixed Bayonets! and returned to his own past in the autobiographical The Big Red One.
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efitting his reporter’s background, Fuller worked fast, releasing 12 films during the 1950s across many genres: war movies, westerns, noirs and more. Despite often working with big stars, Fuller preferred actors who typified the hard-boiled worlds of his stories, notably fellow ex-vet Gene Evans, star of five Fuller films.
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ven within the studio system, Fuller tended to write, produce and direct his films. By the early 1960s, he was fully independent, leading to cult classics Shock Corridor and The Naked Kiss. Such maverick credentials virtually exiled him from Hollywood during the 1970s, and a late-career renaissance was derailed by controversy over 1982’s misunderstood, anti-racism drama White Dog. Fuller never directed in the United States again.
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nderappreciated as a journeyman in the US, Fuller was revered in France by the critics-turned-directors of the French New Wave. Jean-Luc Godard cast his hero in 1965’s Pierrot Le Fou, where Fuller delivered the quote he’s most famous for: “Film is like a battleground. There’s love, hate, action, violence, death… in one word: emotion.” Today, Fuller is still the directors’ director, beloved by Scorsese, Tarantino and Jarmusch. Simon Kinnear