Raging Bulls, Easy Riders
July 4th 2006 10:19
Being a bit of a massive film nerd (see the Old Movies blog for proof), I read a lot of film-based books. Now, if someone came up to me and said 'Reccomend me a book about movies, one book only motherfucker - reccomend it!' I'd.. well, I'd probably be a little worried that they were calling me a motherfucker, and it probably wouldn't happen anyway, but let's suppose for a moment that it did... I'd easily reccomend the book 'Raging Bulls, Easy Riders' by Peter Biskend.
Essentially a companion book to the documentary of the same name, this book is choc-full of astounding pieces of controversial film history probably better left uncovered (fortunately for us, they weren't). You don't need to have seen the documentary to read the book, I haven't seen the documentary - and the book is significantly broader in scope than the doco and has a lot more in it, making full use of Peter Biskend's extensive and exhaustive research.
Basically, the book follows the rise of American film in the 70s - one of the most radical and experimental eras in mainstream Hollywood. It starts with the making of 'Easy Rider' by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, in all it's drug-crazed and wife-beating glory, and charts it's success through to the rise of producers like Robert Evans and today's directorial royality (Scorcese, Spielberg, Coppola, Altman, Lucas, etc, etc), to the era's unofficial end with Scorcese's masterpiece 'Raging Bull'. Biskend interviews all the top names available - actors, directors, producers and writers alike - and picks up all sorts of jaw-dropping stories of sleaze, suicide, murder, drugs, piss-throwing and pornography, especially in regards to the very big falls almost all of them experienced around the decades end.
It's in-depth without wallowing in over-egged technical details and it's broad in scope so as to not bore anyone who is only interested in certain aspects of 70s film. It's also fantasically well-written, succinctly descriptive when pinning down the characters of these men who unleashed their egos onto the world via film, and it peaked my interest in various films I'd hadn't really heard of before. It doesn't shy away from the truth or contradictory opinions either, it's even-handed and Biskend acknowledges all his sources and never once jumps the gun or makes assumptions, which makes the scandals all the more juicy.
Simply put, this is the best book about film I've ever read, and I'm yet to hear anyone interested in film literature disregard it's quality and standing. It also helps that it's about an amazing and revolutionary time in Hollywood-filmmaking and that it covers the behind-the-scenes processes that made possible critically-acclaimed films such as 'Five Easy Pieces', 'Nashville', 'The Godfather', 'The Conversation', 'Jaws', 'Star Wars', 'The French Connection', 'The Exorcist', 'Apocalypse Now', 'Taxi Driver', 'Being There', 'Mean Streets', 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' and 'Chinatown', just to mention a few. This is a must for any film fan.
Raging Bulls, Easy Riders by Peter Biskend
Essentially a companion book to the documentary of the same name, this book is choc-full of astounding pieces of controversial film history probably better left uncovered (fortunately for us, they weren't). You don't need to have seen the documentary to read the book, I haven't seen the documentary - and the book is significantly broader in scope than the doco and has a lot more in it, making full use of Peter Biskend's extensive and exhaustive research.
Basically, the book follows the rise of American film in the 70s - one of the most radical and experimental eras in mainstream Hollywood. It starts with the making of 'Easy Rider' by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, in all it's drug-crazed and wife-beating glory, and charts it's success through to the rise of producers like Robert Evans and today's directorial royality (Scorcese, Spielberg, Coppola, Altman, Lucas, etc, etc), to the era's unofficial end with Scorcese's masterpiece 'Raging Bull'. Biskend interviews all the top names available - actors, directors, producers and writers alike - and picks up all sorts of jaw-dropping stories of sleaze, suicide, murder, drugs, piss-throwing and pornography, especially in regards to the very big falls almost all of them experienced around the decades end.
It's in-depth without wallowing in over-egged technical details and it's broad in scope so as to not bore anyone who is only interested in certain aspects of 70s film. It's also fantasically well-written, succinctly descriptive when pinning down the characters of these men who unleashed their egos onto the world via film, and it peaked my interest in various films I'd hadn't really heard of before. It doesn't shy away from the truth or contradictory opinions either, it's even-handed and Biskend acknowledges all his sources and never once jumps the gun or makes assumptions, which makes the scandals all the more juicy.
Simply put, this is the best book about film I've ever read, and I'm yet to hear anyone interested in film literature disregard it's quality and standing. It also helps that it's about an amazing and revolutionary time in Hollywood-filmmaking and that it covers the behind-the-scenes processes that made possible critically-acclaimed films such as 'Five Easy Pieces', 'Nashville', 'The Godfather', 'The Conversation', 'Jaws', 'Star Wars', 'The French Connection', 'The Exorcist', 'Apocalypse Now', 'Taxi Driver', 'Being There', 'Mean Streets', 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' and 'Chinatown', just to mention a few. This is a must for any film fan.
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