Hey kids! The Arrow posted a kick ass interview with genre legend George Romero the other day, and if you missed it then you need to go check it out here.
Then you can feast on some of these tidbits from an interview Romero gave to MTV.com that hits a few different notes. The most interesting to me are encapsulated below:
But for Romero himself, the question of his own place in movie history hardly warrants thinking about.
“That’s not what motivates me,” the director says, his generally genial voice betraying a hint of irritation when asked about his influence. A tall, white-haired veteran of the cultural and political upheavals of the ’60s who still proudly exudes the radicalism and speaks the language of those heady years, Romero is comfortable with his outsider status.
“I don’t live in Hollywood,” he says. “I don’t think of myself that way. I’m still learning, man. All I think is, ‘Boy, if I could only be better at this.’ You know? [Legendary director] John Ford made 200 movies. He probably had every trick in his hip pocket, you know, man? I don’t feel like I have all those tricks. Yeah, I’m able to design shots a little better, choreograph scenes a little better, move the eye better, but I certainly haven’t learned how to do it all.”
Man, if only all of Hollywood could manage that mixture of humility and ambition, we’d have a lot more movies to get excited about this summer! And even better, he’s just as confused about what to do with this crazy world as the rest of us:
“Look, man, I was a cat who thought the ’60s were going to reform the world — that it was gonna be peace and love. And it didn’t work. I can’t really date when it all changed, but Vietnam and Martin Luther King Jr. and the Kennedy brothers getting killed and … I mean, Jesus Christ, man! It just never changes — and now look where we are.”
This last nugget I thought was particularly interesting:
“I’d love to make a Tarzan movie, man, because you go back to the movies that you loved as a kid, you know? One of those movies with a schooner going down the Amazon, with guys shooting poison darts at you. Those were the movies that I loved. Guilty pleasures and craftsmanship. That’s what gets me every time — movies that carry you through.”
I for one would love to see that. Sounds like it would be a helluva good time!
Now you can check out the full interview if ya like.