- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Applause Books; 1 edition (Feb 1 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1557834601
- ISBN-13: 978-1557834607
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.5 x 1.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 399 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #656,936 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
"The trouble with the Oscar show is that it's too short," William Goldman writes more than once in these infectiously droll essays about Hollywood stars, box office roulette, vintage movie years, and the illogic of Saving Private Ryan. Any other writer would be in deep ironical mode saying that, but the great screenwriter (All the President's Men, The Princess Bride) and giddy movie enthusiast is hardly a "prevailing view" kind of guy. Wouldn't we have gotten Brando himself at the 1973 Oscars, he argues, if he had unlimited time to defend Indian rights to a billion viewers? Would anything have been better than that? Writing irregularly for New York magazine between 1991 and 1999, Goldman promised to explain "the Hollywood mind" to the rest of us--with the mantra always in front of him that "nobody knows anything." Which leaves him open to occasional free association. Gungha Din is "the most important movie ever made," he writes not once but twice. If Miramax is successful it's because the Weinsteins "live above the store." What do you do with Universal giving Sylvester Stallone $60 million after thirteen duds like Tango and Cash? "How long do you think you'd hold if you had those thirteen movies played over and over in a locked room?" Goldman asks. But while there's ephemera galore here, and nothing so very lofty, the guy speed-typing his interior monologues loves movies, and when he runs through the dumb things in Good Will Hunting or the great things about (his "all-time favorite") Cary Grant, just try putting the book down. --Lyall Bush
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
The title of Goldman's newest collection of essays is deceptive. Unlike his expansive reflections in Adventures in the Screen Trade, these selections (most of which originally appeared in Premiere, the New York Daily News and New York magazine) narrowly focus on Goldman's once timely film reviews and his commentaries on the 1990-1999 Academy Awards. With two screenwriting Oscars under his belt (for Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men), Goldman is a knowledgeable Hollywood tour guide. On the rare occasions when his predictions are off-target, he's still entertaining. However, this slight and somewhat repetitive collection could have benefited from annotations to make it more accessible to Hollywood outsiders who might be wondering which film finally won the Oscar and how much those projected hits ultimately grossed. Most pleasurable are Goldman's assured opinions ("Giving the Best ActorAactor is the word folksAto Roberto Benigni for his mugging in Life Is Beautiful is, for me, a sin, a disgrace and removes forever the argument from those who felt DeMille's Greatest Show on Earth was the worst Oscar winner ever.") and his contrarianisms ("The trouble with the Oscar show is that it is too short."). Goldman hits his stride with "You Go, Girls!," taking on executives who delude themselves into thinking that every successful movie about women is a fluke, and the "The Emperor's New Fatigues," which lambastes Saving Private Ryan. (Nov.) FYI: Goldman's royalties from this book will be donated to the Motion Picture and Television Fund.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Recycling day at the Goldman's,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Big Picture: Cloth Book (Hardcover)
Yes, William Goldman is one of the most renowned screenwriters around but no, these essays have not aged well. If you want to read about handicapping the oscar races from five and six years ago, buy this book. But if you want some real insight into Hollywood, start with any other of the non-fiction books Goldman has written over the years.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Golden Goldman,
By "abdoe" (North Dakota) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Big Picture: Cloth Book (Hardcover)
William Goldman is a good screenwriter. When bad, he is awful. "The Ghost and the Darkness" was terrible, and "The Princess Bride" was so cutesy treacly sugary quirky sweet, I almost went on insulin. But his book here is deadly honest. I thought I was the only person in America who noticed the big breasted girl behind the old guy in "Saving Private Ryan." I thought I was the only person in America who kept wondering where the laughs were in "Shakespeare in Love." I, too, want to see vote totals for the Oscars. I disagree with many of Goldman's opinions of films: "As Good As It Gets" was so in love with its own ideas, it never let the audience in on the joke, "The Shawshank Redemption" is just a combination of every prison film since the 1930s' "The Big House," and Hugh Grant falling in love with the annoyingly insipid Andie MacDowell in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" showed what a dumb character he really was. But at least Goldman is brutally honest in his opinion of the films of the 1990's. This shows you can only take fluff entertainment shows like "Entertainment Tonight" with a grain of salt. Hollywood has been punishing the public for years with junk like "Independence Day" and "The Grinch," Goldman is leading the charge against the money men from Out There.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Quit whining, Goldman!,
By Keith Bailey (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Big Picture: Cloth Book (Hardcover)
Goldman's ranting and raving will soon get onto your nerves, especially since he frequently shows himself to be a hypocrite. In several places he speaks of his dislike for special effect-filled blockbusters, then in other places he says how he loved movies like "Independence Day". It also seems odd how Goldman hasn't written a solid screenplay for some time now, and has written a number of scripts for those blockbuster movies, yet he whines about the "junk" screenplays Hollywood uses. (By the way, he's writing the screenplay for "Jurassic Park 3" - even though he voices slams against Spielberg here!) Everything to him seems to be Hollywood's fault, though he never mentions how even before "Star Wars", audiences were starting to stay away from movies like "McCabe And Mrs. Miller". He certainly never mentions how many independent films come out each year that critics love, but the audience doesn't go to. In short, the audience decides what movies get made. If Goldman is reading this, I dare him to answer these charges. But he probably won't - his next book will probably be more whines yet again about how the final votes in the Academy Awards should be revealed, how movies are "worse than ever", yadayadayada. Goldman, put up or shut up - not only for these charges, but the screenplays you write!
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