Andrew Dominik
Americans are not renowned for having a sense of irony.
I always feel that crime films are about capitalism because it is a genre where it is perfectly acceptable for all the characters to be motivated by the desire for money. In some ways, the crime film is the most honest American film because it portrays Americans as I experience a lot of them, in Hollywood, as being very concerned with money.
I don't think human beings have changed in 2,000 years.
Sometimes you do complete run-throughs of scenes, sometimes you break scenes down into little bits. It just depends on what the actors like to do. It's almost like jamming.
Sometimes you see a movie and you can really feel that it's an actor putting in a performance. Someone said 'cut' and they're back in their trailer having a coffee or getting their hair done.
A lot of writing's going down dead ends that don't go anywhere.
To me, regardless of who's in office, the government is strangled by business. And the government's priorities are dictated by business. I mean, why does America, even after healthcare reform, still not have free universal healthcare? I'm sure it has something to do with the insurance lobby.
I don't know whether crime is dictating business or business is dictating crime.
Obviously, a power player in a criminal organization doesn't have to persuade anyone. He can just do what he wants.
America's moved so much of its production and manufacturing offshore, it's become a nation of middlemen.
Everybody is always trying to make the best movie they can. It's a process.
Anything that's memorable about a movie is often what a test audience will object to because they're being asked to be experts. They just compare the film they finished watching to all of the other films that they've seen.
I like test screenings. I like to see a movie with an audience of strangers. I think it tells you a lot.
When you ask a bunch of people to see a film, and then invite them to comment on it and tell them it's a work-in-progress, they feel bound to offer an opinion.
Films that score very high with test audiences generally tend to not be so great. But, there's a lot of money involved in making movies, and it's a way for people to reassure themselves, who have spent money, and it's also a way to work out how to market a movie.
I really believed Obama when he spoke in 2008, but I remember watching his victory speech after this last election and it was the same speech. Exactly the same speech. I felt like he didn't even believe it anymore. He seemed to be tired of saying the same thing.
Masculine ideals have become very confused in the modern world.
It seems like women don't want men to be men anymore. They want men to be women. But they really don't want what they say they want. It's very weird.
Crime is a job and it's boring. It's also unpleasant.
I write a number of screenplays, and I've never really come up with a part for a movie star.
Actors look for characters. If they read a well-written character, and if they think the director's not an idiot, they're going to sign up and do some acting.
I'm not a very efficient filmmaker. There's a lot of guys, filmmakers like the Coen Brothers who shoot a whole movie and maybe don't use 12 setups. I'm in awe of people like that; I'm just not that guy.
For me, the movie's always evolving as I'm doing it. I throw things in as we shoot, and I take things out as we go. I want to create a whole life and then select the pieces that best sort of describe it later, you know? So there's a lot of wastage when I make a film.
Once you do something violent in a film, you don't have to do too much. You do it once and the feeling of violence just stays there, do you know what I'm saying?
Actors have either got to play something that's close to them, or something that's the complete opposite.
When men organize themselves into groups, and they make rules based on common or self-interest, it's always tangled and political.
I read books all the time. I'm just half looking for something to do; I mostly just read for pleasure. Occasionally I stumble across something that could be a movie, but I don't put a book down just because I don't see a movie in it, either.
I actually don't like westerns much. I like good westerns, but it isn't my preferred genre. There are all kinds of westerns: acid westerns, '70s westerns, Nicholas Ray's neurotic westerns. The ones I tend to like are nutso westerns.
There's been about 75 movies about Jesse James, and I've seen about four of them. He's usually portrayed as this plucky rebel who's got no choice but to turn to crime, because the railway's hassling his mother. But he wasn't like that.
In Australia, we point out a person's weaknesses as a way of saying 'I see you and I accept you'. If you do that with Americans, they instantly take offence.
The crime film is the most honest American film.Collection: Honest
I think the film gives you a picture of a person. It gives you a complete picture.Collection: Thinking
I always feel that crime films are about capitalism.Collection: Film
Jesse James is like a Leonard Cohen song, I wanted to do something that was like a pop song.Collection: Song
The fantasy gives you the courage to feel things.Collection: Giving
Obviously, a power player in a criminal organization doesnt have to persuade anyone. He can just do what he wants.Collection: Player
It's obviously a lot more of a political undertaking making a movie in Hollywood and it's a business there. In Australia, they don't expect films to make money; whereas in America they're counting on it.Collection: Political
I'm from the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school of screenwriting. I just like to preserve what works and ignore what doesn't work.Collection: School
I'm sure part of the fascination with the film is voyeuristic - that we go to see somebody who's been struck by lightning.Collection: Film
It's a wonderful thing to go to work and have no idea what you're going to do.Collection: Wonderful
It always surprises me in films that killers seem so gleeful about killing people.Collection: People
I imagine that in a closed, hermetic society like the mob, where everybody knows each other, it must be really, really unpleasant to have to kill people. It's the sort of thing you really want to avoid.Collection: People
I like violence to be upsetting. The only reason to do it subtley is if doing it subtley makes it more effective somehow.Collection: Upset
You obviously can't cast Brad [Pitt] as an everyman guy because he just brings way too much baggage.Collection: Guy
As a filmmaker, it's important to sit there and feel embarrassed. If you feel embarrassed by something, you cut it.Collection: Cutting
It's very difficult to lie to yourself about certain things. I'm not necessarily convinced about how information is gathered and I don't think the credence that's given to it is valid.Collection: Lying