Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting
by William Goldman
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Book Summary Information
Author: William GoldmanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1989-03-10
ISBN: 0446391174
Number of pages: 594
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Book Reviews of Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting
Book Review: Mixed feelings about this book
Summary: 3 Stars
It's hard to review this book. On the one hand, I agree with a lot of what Goldman says (as well as what he says in his follow-up book, "Which Lie Did I Tell?"). There's little doubt, unless you're under 25 and still think digital effects are the reason to go to movies, that Hollywood is rotting from the inside out. On the other hand, I get the feeling that Goldman would be coming up with excuses for why he never really quite made it as big in Hollywood as it looked like he once would, even if none of the problems with Hollywood existed. Because--and here's a secret--Goldman really isn't a great screenwriter. I know I'm going against the trend here. I know he worked on some major 70s films and I know he used to make bread most of us can only dream about, but honestly, his greatest contributions are Butch Cassidy and The Princess Bride, and Butch really isn't a great screenplay (it's a great *idea* for a screenplay, though) and even Princess Bride--despite all the hype in a relatively boring year--is merely so-so. If I had to pick a favorite Goldman work, of all the ones I've seen I'd vote for All The President's Men.
The book is a great introduction to Hollywood for anyone who still have visions of the dream factory dancing in their head. Since the early 1980s, when he wrote this book, things have only gotten more manic, more insecure, more crazy, with the product getting worse and worse every year. (In that sense this book is out of date, and the interested student should read "Which Lie" or some other recent book.) What I find schizophrenic about Goldman's book is that he properly cites the reasons for the decline of Hollywood, yet when he was writing he wasn't exactly turning out paradigm-changing works either. He contributed more than his share of phony, by-the-numbers screenplays; often in this book I get the feeling that Hollywood has just passed him by. And his ideas for movies like The Right Stuff pale compared with what was eventually made. I'm rather glad he walked that picture--one of my favorites of the 1980s--and that Kauffman wrote his own screenplay instead.
Still, some of Goldman's war stories are highly entertaining and revealing. His famous dictum NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING has become mantra among aspiring Hollywood creatives, and it's largely true. And his definition of comic book movies is classic, and much food for thought, especially for aspiring creatives. At the same time, some of his movies are as bad as the ones he rips on.
The book includes the full screenplay to Butch Cassidy. I can't figure out why, other than he can't seem to let go of that one creation. Throughout the book it's "Butch this" and "Butch that," and 20 years later in his sequel ("Which Lie") book he's still on the Cassidy kick. I don't know a film school teacher or anyone else for that matter, besides Goldman himself, who thinks it's a work worthy of study, so the inclusion here strikes me as pure vanity. He also includes an adaptation of a short story he wrote called "Da Vinci." Neither story nor adaptation moved me much. I think he's brave, however, to let something this lame be read, along with critical comments about it, when he was still in the biz at that time. I know I would never show that draft to anyone.
The book is breezy fun, but you might want to either check it out at a library or get a really cheap used copy. Makes a good airplane book--you buy it on one coast, read it over the heartland, and throw it in the trash can when you get off the plane five hours later.
More Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting reviews:
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Summary of Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting
As befits more than twenty years in Hollywood, Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman's sparkling memoir is as entertaining as many of the films he has helped to create. From the writer of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men and Marathon Man, Adventures in the Screen Trade is an intimate view of movie-making, of acting greats such as Redford, Olivier, Newman and Hoffman, and of the trials and rewards of working inside the most exciting business in the world.Entertainers Books
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