Customer Reviews

Backstory 1: Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood's Golden Age (No. 1)

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I own a library of approximately 1,000 titles relating to film-as well as having worked for several years in a film-specific bookshop. That said-this particular volume, a collection of interviews with some of the most important names in the history of screenwriting, is one I'd rank among the top ten must-have titles for anyone seriously interested in movies. It's that good.

First off, in my opinion there's no better source for history than first-person statements of professionals, and that's what these interviews are all about. It's great when a talented author produces an interesting biography or history of the Hollywood studios' "golden age"-but how much better to read the raw, (virtually, presumably) uncensored memories! From this book, with its several dozen subjects, you'll get a taste of just about everything to do with filmmaking: the dealings with the front office, studio politics, actors, directors, censorship, the blacklist(BOTH sides of that terrible period-from SEVERAL perspectives-fascinating and unusual), life in general during the depression and oh, yes--the peculiar job of screenwriting.
I can't think how often I've pulled this one down off the shelf to refresh my memory, and also-it's tremendously entertaining reading--some of it is laugh-out-loud hilarious. These were talented men and women, folks-witty, often brilliant, with a unique perspective on the art of film. Patrick McGilligan does a masterful job of editing; reading his cogent and sensitive introductions to each interview is a great added bonus. My hat's off to him as to all too few other writers on this subject(Kevin Brownlow among them). Really, if you're the least bit interested in the history of Hollywood OR in screenwriting, you've got to have this.