Now available as an ebook for the first time! No one knows the writer's Hollywood more intimately than William Goldman. Two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter and the bestselling author of Marathon Man, Tinsel, Boys and Girls Together, and other novels, Goldman now takes you into Hollywood's inner sanctums...on and behind the scenes for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, and other films...into the plush offices of Hollywood producers...into the working lives of acting greats such as Redford, Olivier, Newman, and Hoffman...and into his own professional experiences and creative thought processes in the crafting of screenplays. You get a firsthand look at why and how films get made and what elements make a good screenplay. Says columnist Liz Smith, "You'll be fascinated.
Adventures in the Screen Trade
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"[This] is that big, sad, funny, incisive, revelatory, gossipy, perception-forming book about Hollywood that publishers have been promoting for years -- and now the real thing is finally here." (St. Louis Post-Dispatch )
"A deliciously honest book...Goldman deserves a special Read of the Year award." (The Plain Dealer (Cleavland) )
"A deliciously honest book...Goldman deserves a special Read of the Year award." (The Plain Dealer (Cleavland) )
About the Author
William Goldman was a screenwriter on such films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men. He lives in New York City.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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More About the Author
William Goldman has been writing books and movies for more than forty years. He has won two Academy Awards (for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men), and three Lifetime Achievement Awards in screenwriting.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Goldman (whose credits include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man, Misery, and the Princess Bride, and who is also a terrific novelist) was the first screenwriter whose name I recognized as having appeared on the credits of several films. He has since become my favorite, so when I found that he had written a book on the workings of the screenwriter in Hollywood--a town for which I have always had great fascination--I knew I had to read it. Unfortunately, it was years before I finally got around to it.
To give you an idea how good I think this book is, I had read Stephen King's Needful Things (app. 800 pages) in five days and that was at that point my quickest pace. Well, I read Adventures in the Screen Trade (including the full script of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid--a terrific read in itself, and alone worth the price of the book--a total of 600 pages) in two days. I just couldn't put the thing down, and I find that phrase to be a cliche of the most odious order. I was reading it at breakfast, on my commute in, at lunch, the commute out, all evening, and before bed. Goldman writes such a gripping story of his experiences in Tinseltown, that I was drawn in, always wondering what was going to happen next.
Only once did my interest flag, and that was halfway through a screen adaptation of a story presented in the book just beforehand. The story was ten pages, the adaptation forty, so I simply felt at that point that I was reading the story over, it was just longer. However, once I got over that and realized that the point of the exercise was to illustrate the differences in form, I read again with relish.
Goldman writes with a nicely conversational style--but not overtly so--that draws you in to his world. I think that this book would be especially of interest to anyone who wants to write for Hollywood (although you may not wish to continue with that dream after reading this), or any writers in general (as he goes over form and structure that is relevant to all writing), or to a fan of the behind-the-scenes workings of Hollywood.
36 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The allusion to the "skin trade" in the title isintentional of course. Goldman is playing the old saw about thescreenwriter as very well-paid whore. Be that as it may, this is an excellent book. If you're even thinking of becoming a screenwriter you ought to read it. You may change your mind, and then again you may not. You'll learn some screenwriting tricks and get a vivid glimpse inside the industry, circa 1982.
Goldman has a style that is as earnest as all heck, emphatic, breezy, engaging, flippant, a little high schoolish-but that plays. He thinks very highly of himself, but he is also a modest man. (Reasonable combination.) He trashes some people here, lionizes some others, but bottom line, he's not afraid to reveal himself, foibles and all. His two main rules of Hollywood are: NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING and SCREENPLAYS ARE STRUCTURE (his caps). He means that nobody knows ahead of time what is going to be a successful movie, and it's a mistake to think that screenplays are mainly dialogue (I used to think that) because what really counts is the structure.
Part One is about "Hollywood Realities" and it's the best part of the book: who controls whom and what, the pecking order, etc. Part Two he calls "Adventures" and it's about what it was like making some of the movies he was involved in; and remember Goldman wrote some top drawer films: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), All the President's Men (1976), to name a couple. This part is also very good. Part Three he calls "Da Vinci" from the title of a short story he wrote as a young man that he turns into a screen play for the edification of his readers. The story is a dog and the screenplay not very readable, but it's good textbook stuff. A highlight is George Roy Hill's acidic comments on the script. I give Goldman credit for including that and I also give him credit for telling it like it is from his POV. He's one very professional, very hard-working writer with a fine understanding of movie psychology, somebody well worth listening to. END
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Like screenwriter William Goldman, I love movies. I love everything about them -- from their scores (especially those by John Williams or James Horner) to the actors (particularly Sean Connery, Gene Hackman, Kevin Spacey and Cary Grant) to the directors (Shyamalan, Cameron, Welles and Reiner) to the screenwriters (Mamet, Shyamalan and, of course, William Goldman).
Goldman's book "Adventures in the Screen Trade" is one of the best books I've read in years. It is chock-full of fascinating anecdotes...crisp, witty, honest writing...and enough "dirt" on Hollywood to keep a half dozen gossip columnists busy at their keyboards for days.
So well-written and fun is Goldman's book that I think even if I wasn't a budding screenwriter and avid movie-goer, I still would have found his peek behind the scenes in Hollywood to be an engrossing read.
But for me, a true film nut, this book is indispensable. It contains plenty of tips on how to write screenplays, sure, but the most important lesson I learned from Goldman's book is that Hollywood is a brutal, fickle and cutthroat place to do business and that I'd best develop a thick skin if I'm going to send my screenplays there.
Since reading Goldman's book, I noticed many of the movies I've enjoyed over the years have been written by him -- including Princess Bride (one of my all-time favorites), Magic, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Misery and even the just-released Jurassic Park 3!
"Adventures in the Screen Trade" is a superb book. I highly recommend it.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Scattershot but fairly entertaining
This is really three or four books in one. One of the books is "My Advice to Aspiring Screenwriters. Read more
Published 2 months ago by ghtx
Some good info, but lots of bad language
While Goldman's book is interesting and certainly entertaining, it is riddled with lots of bad language. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Richardson
Entertaining and informative
Goldman is a fine writer, as evidenced by his many top-notch screenplays and novels, and this book is a fine look at what it took to be a screenwriter in Hollywood 30 years ago. Read more
Published 10 months ago by K. Swanson
bo
absolutely hysterical
if this is all true, the author has had a wonderful , if somewhat difficult, time. Read more
if this is all true, the author has had a wonderful , if somewhat difficult, time. Read more
Published 18 months ago by James Adams
Good Advice. But Throw the Last Chapters Away.
Yes, the movie production anecdotes are amusing and they help budding screenwriters realize some of the pitfalls of production. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Texas Jack
*****
This is a great book that covers some of my favorite films. I would just like to say here that I believe Goldman was prompted to write this book after giving a very long and... Read more
Published on February 15, 2010 by ButlinsSeltaeb
Thorough, fun, but dated
This is a good read and in a relaxed style. The movies and people are dated but having said that, this is still very good at describing the basics of how Hollywood works.
Published on June 9, 2009 by Manuel
A Bit Dated, But Still Good
William Goldman, otherwise known as the "Godfather of Screenwriting" has some sagely advice to give, when it comes to the industry. Read more
Published on May 6, 2009 by Jason A. Martin
Tells It Like It Is
This is perhaps the best book about screenwriting and the film business ever written.
Oscar winner William Goldman, who wrote such classic films as HARPER, BUTCH CASSIDY... Read more
Oscar winner William Goldman, who wrote such classic films as HARPER, BUTCH CASSIDY... Read more
Published on September 27, 2008 by Michael B. Druxman
Removing Some of Hollywood's Glitter
Mr. Goldman has written a classic. A great panacea for anyone that gets too starry-eyed over celebrities and aspires to "make it big" in show business. Read more
Published on March 22, 2008 by Franklin the Mouse
Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
It may well be pointless to try and isolate the great powers of the movie industry. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, Paul Newman, South America, Grand Hotel, Los Angeles, Robert Redford, John Wayne, Bridge Too Far, Star Wars, Waldo Pepper, All the President's Men, Jane Fonda, Marathon Man, Clint Eastwood, Barbra Streisand, Best Picture, Dustin Hoffman, Little Pot, Woody Allen, Burt Reynolds, Cary Grant, Central Park, George Roy Hill New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
It may well be pointless to try and isolate the great powers of the movie industry. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, Paul Newman, South America, Grand Hotel, Los Angeles, Robert Redford, John Wayne, Bridge Too Far, Star Wars, Waldo Pepper, All the President's Men, Jane Fonda, Marathon Man, Clint Eastwood, Barbra Streisand, Best Picture, Dustin Hoffman, Little Pot, Woody Allen, Burt Reynolds, Cary Grant, Central Park, George Roy Hill New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 47
books:
See all 47 books this book cites
100
books
cite this book:
See all 100 books citing this book
- Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes on page 165, and page 176
- Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker by George Lucas on page 40, and page 151
- Girls Together by Sherley Anne Williams in Front Matter, and page 163
- The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe on page 235, and page 236
- A Family Affair (Harlequin Superromance No. 205) by Sandra James in Front Matter
See all 47 books this book cites
- Writing For Visual Media by Anthony Friedmann on 7 pages
- Writing for Visual Media, Second Edition by Anthony Friedmann on 7 pages
- What Happens Next?: An Introduction to Screenwriting by Charles Deemer on 6 pages
- Hollywood's Road to Riches by David Waterman on 5 pages
- The Art of Screenwriting by William Packard on 4 pages
See all 100 books citing this book
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