Five Favorite Films with Antoine Fuqua
The director of this week's Olympus Has Fallen on his all-time favorite movies.
After rising through the ranks of music video auteurs in the 1990s, director Antoine Fuqua has carved out a feature career behind the camera on a series of tough action thrillers, including Brooklyn's Finest, The Replacement Killers and 2001's Training Day -- for which Denzel Washington took home the Best Actor Oscar. This week he's calling the shots on the year's first White House invasion epic Olympus Has Fallen, a sort of Die Hard-in Washington actioner starring Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman and Aaron Eckhart. We caught up with Fuqua recently, where he talked about his five all-time favorite movies.
The Godfather
(Francis Ford Coppola, 1972; 100% Tomatometer)
The Godfather was one of those movies where, you know, I didn't realize what it meant back then when I was younger, and you love it because it's so gangster, in a way -- it's just as gangster as it gets. But then as you get older you realize it's about something bigger. The Godfather's about choosing business over family; you know [in Part II] when Michael kills his brother in the boat, and you realize what that choice was. It really stuck with me, you know, the bigger picture of what this country was built on and the choices that were made. So that movie I love. And obviously there's the look of it and everything; that's just a beautiful film in many ways.
Apocalypse Now
(Francis Ford Coppola, 1979; 99% Tomatometer)
Apocalypse Now, to me, is one of those movies where visually, I still watch that now and go, "How did he pull that off?" I've heard all the stories -- the heart attacks, the house up for sale, you know, them going into bankruptcy -- all the craziness, and I still watch that movie and go, "How the f-ck did they do that?" I mean, you've got cows being pulled in the air, and the whole military, helicopters flying everywhere... it's so amazing. It should be a complete disaster. It's the best example of "Just stick to it, and keep going," you know. I just love that movie, and some of the memorable performances were just amazing. And it's still one of the most beautiful films ever shot -- no CG; all real.
Scarface (Brian De Palma, 1983; 89% Tomatometer)
I love Scarface. First of all, it's operatic and it's funny, to me -- Scarface is hilarious. It's got amazing humor in it. I don't know if everybody really got the humor when it first came out. It's about the American Dream. I love the fact that it's like, if they're not gonna give it to you, you gotta take it. I've grown up watching all the gangster movies and that's really the essence of all of them: if somebody's not gonna give it to you, you've gotta kick the door down. That's what that movie is really all about. Both of them [De Palma's and Howard Hawks' 1932 original] -- both of them were about that. So that's my love for Scarface; that's the short answer.
The Battle of Algiers
(Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966; 99% Tomatometer)
It's another one of those movies that just feels so real. You watch those scenes and you've got tanks and armies, you know. It's the first film I saw, as far as docudrama film style -- you know, hand-held, very real, in the streets, in the world. And if I'm not mistaken, he only made a couple of films; the filmmaker made it and then he disappeared. He stopped making [fiction] movies. He made one with Marlon Brando and then that was kind of it. But the fact that he pulled off this movie -- it's a masterpiece. I remember watching the movie and feeling like it was a documentary, it felt so real. It's so amazing. The performances of the actors, everything -- it's mind-blowing when you watch it.
Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese, 1973; 98% Tomatometer)
I just love Mean Streets, period. I grew up in my own version of that. Scorsese is a hero of mine. The movie's really about him, you know, as a filmmaker -- you watch Harvey's performance when he goes to the church and he's there on his knees in his version of praying, and you hear the voice-over. What's amazing about that movie is -- now that I've met Scorsese a few times -- I can see that he was sort of in that world. He's said it a few times: "I wasn't sure if I was gonna become a priest or a gangster." [Laughs] And when you see the movie, you see him, and you get that. You see Harvey's character is a little bit of a priest, he's trying to be a good guy but he's in a world of mobsters and he needs to be accepted by that world. I love the elements that Scorsese captured. I love, again, that sort of brave filmmaking -- they didn't have any money to do a parade, but he just captured that ceremony, you know. They put cameras on the roof and shot down. They put you in the middle of a world and you felt like you were really in it. And De Niro, of course, is genius. It's ridiculous how good he is. I could go on and on about why I love those movies, as far as technically, and performance-wise -- but that's the basic essence.
Olympus Has Fallen is in theaters this week.
Janson Jinnistan
Tough guy over here. Oh well, I love all these movies. Coulda used a little Peckinpah and Don Siegel though.
Unfortunately, Fuqua seems to have no idea what "Scarface" was supposed to be about. The moral of the film isn't "take it!", but rather the old story of how Pride comes before the Fall. I don't have any idea how so many people get such an idiotic interpretation from what should be a fairly clear dramatic structure. And thanks also for the GFII spoiler, dude.
Given his focus on "realism" in the last two choices, it's curious why Fuqua consistently sticks to a highly artificial and manipulative style of camerawork and editing himself. Maybe, if realism and critiques of capitalism are the things he most admires in films, he should take some serious and meticulous notes while watching "Killing Them Softly". Unfortunately, like Tony Montana, audiences these days prefer "FLASH" and empty style to dialogue, allegory and ideas in their movies.
"Olympus Has Fallen" is going to fail, regardless...
Mar 19 - 07:08 PM
Paul Smith
Theme of Scarface is how Pride comes before the Fall? That is a rather silly notion. If that is the case then the movie sucked. Your using your brain a little too much, slightly over thinking a basic movie, overrated one at that. The movies is actually more about this immigrant taking the American Dream with a social backdrop of the mass immigration policy that allowed the influx of Cubans refugees many who were ex-convicts and also suffered from mental diseases than pride before the fall.
Mar 20 - 07:50 AM
Janson Jinnistan
You might be using your brain too little. Tony's dead, bloody body under the sign "The World is Yours" is an image that speaks for itself. He consumed himself with pride and greed. Cubans are hardly the only people infected with these mental diseases.
Mar 20 - 10:25 AM
Paul Smith
Scarface is hardly a complex movie with complex characters. There is no brain needed for the movie. He was greedy, ok. I did'nt say Cubans are the only ones with mental diseases, I was giving you historical context for the movie.
Mar 21 - 10:13 AM
Janson Jinnistan
Here's some historical context: Oliver Stone wrote the script with two things expressly in mind - his cocaine addiction (and the destructive pride it inspires in its users) and as a revenge tale on Hollywood, who Stone considered to be the real greedy gangsters in L.A.
Mar 21 - 10:43 AM
Eli Elliott
No, that's what the story is about, and the story, and all the components it's made up of, is what should guide the audience to an understanding of the larger theme. There's a difference between seeing a movie, and watching one.
Mar 20 - 02:12 PM
Paul Smith
Excuse me, sometimes there is a larger theme, all movies do not have a larger theme though. Scarface does not have a larger theme and is not a complex movie.
Mar 21 - 10:15 AM
Paul Smith
The movie Scarface is a basic immigrant storied based on a specific time period. Obviously Tony suffered from mental issues which was a reflection of that time and a number of the immigrants that came over. Scarface is a popcorn crime drama set in Miami, foh with this nonsense about larger themes...it wasnt no damn character study
Mar 21 - 10:19 AM
Janson Jinnistan
Gee, I wonder who did think the film had a larger theme about being consumed by pride? Oh! Oliver Stone, that guy who wrote the damn script. Huh. Maybe he knows from whence he speaks, eh?
Mar 21 - 10:35 AM
Paul Smith
If that is the case he did a shit job writing the movie
Mar 21 - 01:25 PM
Janson Jinnistan
And who are you, Philip Roth or something?
Mar 21 - 01:38 PM
Paul Smith
I don't care what he had on his mind that does not mean he did it in a realistic or effective manner. I do not know why we are still arguing about a movie that is woefully overrated...Not written well either by the way.
Mar 21 - 01:30 PM
Janson Jinnistan
You're the one arguing. The facts are on my side.
Mar 21 - 01:38 PM
Infernal Dude
Ummm, have any of you watched Scarface? It's about greed and excess backfiring on you. He sacrifices everyone for nothing. It is a rather deep movie with iconic crime scenes that have made it appealing to many demographics.
Mar 21 - 08:05 PM
Paul Smith
It is about as deep as a kiddie pool. It is a popcorn flick. You know what movie is much better, Carlito's Way.
Mar 25 - 12:48 PM
Janson Jinnistan
"Carlito's Way" is better, but you're still wrong about the meaning of "Scarface".
Mar 25 - 05:00 PM
Kevin Fernandez
The beauty of movies, and art in general, is to inspire the viewer/audience to draw their own conclusions. Yes, the auteur might have a direction in mind, but for some of you guys to deny others' interpretations and "deepness" of the movie is arrogance at its highest. (Funny that arrogance/pride should come up in comments to a movie that has similar themes)
Mar 25 - 01:20 PM
Janson Jinnistan
Not all "interpretations" are equal, or equally subjective. The point of critical thinking is to decipher and articulate the meaning of a work of art.
Mar 25 - 04:59 PM