David O. Russell hasn’t always peddled in satire. Back in the late eighties and early nineties, he was a political activist and union organizer—not typical breeding grounds for comedy. But one decade and four films later, Russell has become one of Hollywood’s most consistently subversive filmmakers. His movies satirize corporate duplicity, religious hypocrisy, sexual identity, American colonialism, consumer culture, metaphysical longing, and blind patriotism. Sometimes all at the same time.

The real rewards of Russell’s films can be found in the details. A Desert Storm soldier complains about sand in his eyes after watching an Iraqi civilian get murdered (Three Kings). An LSD dealer gets belligerent when a dinner guest tries to light up a cigarette (Flirting with Disaster). A suburban father argues that Jesus Christ supports the consumption of petroleum (I Heart Huckabees). It’s these small, throwaway moments—which often don’t have anything to do with the plot—that define the genius of Russell’s satire.

This interview took place in Russell’s home in Los Angeles. Specifically, it took place on a pair of beanbag chairs, as his dog, Fred, repeatedly licked our faces and farted during key moments in our discussion. Russell suspects this was entirely intentional.

—Eric Spitznagel

I. “I THINK THEY COULD RELEASE THIS FILM AND STILL GET WHATEVER FAVORS THEY NEED FROM WASHINGTON.”

THE BELIEVER: Tell me what happened with Three Kings. The last I heard, you were planning to release the film before the election. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Time Warner pulled the plug. What went wrong?

DAVID O. RUSSELL: Well, the problem actually didn’t start with Three Kings. Warner Brothers was excited to put Three Kings out in theaters again, and on a new DVD, but they needed to package it with some new material. Something to justify a re-release. I didn’t have any more deleted scenes, or at least nothing that was worth tacking on to a DVD. So I decided to do a short documentary. Not about the movie itself, but about the situation in Iraq.

BLVR: And that was called Soldiers Pay, right?

DOR: Yeah. It’s nothing fancy. Earlier this year, we [Tricia Regan, Juan Carlos Zaldivar, and I] shot the whole thing in just five weeks. It basically gave people involved in that conflict a chance to speak for themselves, without all the war rhetoric you usually hear. I talked to a few of the Iraqi actors from Three Kings, who had been hired by the State Department as consultants. And I found some returning veterans who were willing to talk about why they went, what they felt about the war, and whether they thought it was...