 DOWN AND DIRTY PICTURES: Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film.
Peter Biskind. Simon and Schuster. 2004. This mostly absorbing book looks at how the business of making
independent films grew from small change operations to multi-million dollar deal-making mostly because of the efforts of Miramax, headed by the brother team of Bob and Harvey Weinstein. [Biskind recounts how Nathan Lane joked
that he thought the film Monsters Inc. was about the Weinsteins.]
Pulp Fiction was the indie that changed the way the
world viewed independent films, which once were small and personal and grainy and now became slick, huge, star-driven items
with budgets almost as big as a film from the major studios. Biskind also looks at the other independent distributors and
producers as well as the independent arms of the big studios, but mostly he focuses on the Sundance Festival, which presented
many of these movies and became their first port of call, and on Harvey Weinstein, a colorful, horrible character who seems
determined to make people see him like Harry Cohen or Daryl Zanuck or one of the other famous movie moguls of times gone by.
The book goes behind the scenes to show how deals are made and discarded, lies are told, fortunes won, careers destroyed,
and movies chopped up and ruined by careless distributors and Harvey “Scissorhands” Weinstein. Robert Redford
is portrayed as being too busy with his own concerns to make an effective manager of the Sundance Institute and all of its
divisions, but most of the quotes about him come from disgruntled ex-employees. [The trouble with people like the Weinstein
brothers is that anti-Semites think that the diverse Jewish community only consists of people like them. Let us remember that
Donald Trump and many other moguls like him are just as greedy and vulgar and aren't Jewish.] Another important part of this
book is that it really explains why so many unworthy films and actors are nominated for Oscars, as it's all part of the pressure
and wheeling and dealing (and wining and dining) that goes on inside the studios and distribution companies, all of whom use
all of their clout to make sure their people better win. Most people watching
the Academy Awards couldn't care less which company produced which picture and are unaware that some Oscar nights are merely
battles between two or three giant companies trying not to boost art but only to increase their coffers. William Schoell.
 HELLO, HE LIED and other truths from the Hollywood Trenches. Lynda
Obst. Little, Brown and Company; 1996. Obst is a producer of some successful (Sleepless
in Seattle) if somewhat undistinguished films who has put together a book detailing her
adventures in Hollywood with advice for prospective producers, especially of the female gender. The book is not without value
for such readers, and has an intrinsic interest as an insider's view of Hollywood, but anyone expecting gossip about the stars
or a really “good read” (although the book is rather well written) should look elsewhere. The average movie buff
may get tired of the tome long before the final pages. Obst describes a Hollywood that most people are already familiar with,
where staying on top matters much more than friendship or anything else, a world unto itself full of self-absorbed people
that Obst describes as smart but sound rather stupid. Obst, who first got a position at the New York Times through connections, worked her way west to switch from journalism to motion pictures. She comes
off as someone trying to be nice even as she tries to find herself and gain as much personal "power" as possible. Her book
is intelligent in its way, but also a little sad. Obst seems to be too close to it all to really see it for the crap it is.
Her book may be of some value to would-be female executives, as she gives wise advice on what to do and what to avoid to get
to and stay on the top. William Schoell
 CREATURE FEATURES MOVE GUIDE STRIKES AGAIN. John Stanley. Creatures at Large Press; 1994. Capsule
reviews of horror/sci fi/fantasy and related films written by former horror host Stanley over many years and collected into
one volume. The reviews show a discrepancy of style, with some being geared to frat boys with their emphasis on boobs and
very bad puns, and others offering some cogent, if hardly in-depth [given their brevity] criticism. His write-up on The
Sentinel is on-target, but his review of Terror out of the Sky, a killer bee movie, notes that the telefilm is [groan] “bees-ily directed by Lee H. Katzin.” Stanley
seems to be the only person who actually liked the dreadful Captain America feature
with Matt Salinger, saying it “captures the flavor of the original” [not the movie I saw!] and the Cesar Romero starrer The Jungle, which he deems a “terrific adventure” and actually seems to think was filmed in India!
He thinks the awful, almost campy remake of Lord of the Flies is superior to
Peter Brook's devastating original and credits screenwriter Richard Maibaum for the love affair between Bond and Tracey in
On Her Majesty's Secret Service when it was a basic part of Ian Fleming's original
novel. By far the most hilarious gaffe is when he credits Leonard Bernstein
(!!!) with the score for Bill Cosby's unfunny stinker [aside from those frogs that “hop” a car out of a
parking lot] Leonard Part Six instead of Elmer Bernstein. And any book that receives
a testimonial from the moronic “Joe Bob Briggs” can't be all good. On the other hand, Stanley has dug up some
interesting forgotten movies, including some even I had never heard of, and the book is fun in its limited way. For a book
supposedly about “Creature Features,” however, Stanley seems to have little love in his heart for many beloved
old monster movies.
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