Andrew Dominik Quotes

It always surprises me in films that killers seem so gleeful about killing people.

I like test screenings. I like to see a movie with an audience of strangers. I think it tells you a lot.

The crime film is the most honest American film.

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.

I think the film gives you a picture of a person. It gives you a complete picture.

As a filmmaker, it's important to sit there and feel embarrassed. If you feel embarrassed by something, you cut it.

I like violence to be upsetting. The only reason to do it subtley is if doing it subtley makes it more effective somehow.

Americans are not renowned for having a sense of irony.

It's a wonderful thing to go to work and have no idea what you're going to do.

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.

I always feel that crime films are about capitalism.

Masculine ideals have become very confused in the modern world.

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.

I'm sure part of the fascination with the film is voyeuristic - that we go to see somebody who's been struck by lightning.

Jesse James is like a Leonard Cohen song, I wanted to do something that was like a pop song.

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.

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.

The fantasy gives you the courage to feel things.

You obviously can't cast Brad [Pitt] as an everyman guy because he just brings way too much baggage.

Obviously, a power player in a criminal organization doesnt have to persuade anyone. He can just do what he wants.