The Big Picture [Hardcover]

William Goldman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2000

Two-time Academy Award Screenwriter William Goldman gives "The Big Picture" on Hollywood, Screenwriting, and the future of American Cinema. Among the essays: Who Killed Hollywood? * Christmas in July * Pushing the Envelope * City of Angels * Anything but Gump * and more.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"The trouble with the Oscar show is that it's too short," William Goldman writes more than once in these infectiously droll essays about Hollywood stars, box office roulette, vintage movie years, and the illogic of Saving Private Ryan. Any other writer would be in deep ironical mode saying that, but the great screenwriter (All the President's Men, The Princess Bride) and giddy movie enthusiast is hardly a "prevailing view" kind of guy. Wouldn't we have gotten Brando himself at the 1973 Oscars, he argues, if he had unlimited time to defend Indian rights to a billion viewers? Would anything have been better than that? Writing irregularly for New York magazine between 1991 and 1999, Goldman promised to explain "the Hollywood mind" to the rest of us--with the mantra always in front of him that "nobody knows anything." Which leaves him open to occasional free association. Gungha Din is "the most important movie ever made," he writes not once but twice. If Miramax is successful it's because the Weinsteins "live above the store." What do you do with Universal giving Sylvester Stallone $60 million after thirteen duds like Tango and Cash? "How long do you think you'd hold if you had those thirteen movies played over and over in a locked room?" Goldman asks. But while there's ephemera galore here, and nothing so very lofty, the guy speed-typing his interior monologues loves movies, and when he runs through the dumb things in Good Will Hunting or the great things about (his "all-time favorite") Cary Grant, just try putting the book down. --Lyall Bush

From Publishers Weekly

The title of Goldman's newest collection of essays is deceptive. Unlike his expansive reflections in Adventures in the Screen Trade, these selections (most of which originally appeared in Premiere, the New York Daily News and New York magazine) narrowly focus on Goldman's once timely film reviews and his commentaries on the 1990-1999 Academy Awards. With two screenwriting Oscars under his belt (for Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men), Goldman is a knowledgeable Hollywood tour guide. On the rare occasions when his predictions are off-target, he's still entertaining. However, this slight and somewhat repetitive collection could have benefited from annotations to make it more accessible to Hollywood outsiders who might be wondering which film finally won the Oscar and how much those projected hits ultimately grossed. Most pleasurable are Goldman's assured opinions ("Giving the Best ActorAactor is the word folksAto Roberto Benigni for his mugging in Life Is Beautiful is, for me, a sin, a disgrace and removes forever the argument from those who felt DeMille's Greatest Show on Earth was the worst Oscar winner ever.") and his contrarianisms ("The trouble with the Oscar show is that it is too short."). Goldman hits his stride with "You Go, Girls!," taking on executives who delude themselves into thinking that every successful movie about women is a fluke, and the "The Emperor's New Fatigues," which lambastes Saving Private Ryan. (Nov.) FYI: Goldman's royalties from this book will be donated to the Motion Picture and Television Fund.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 283 pages
• Publisher: Applause Books; First. edition (February 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557834067
• ISBN-13: 978-1557834065
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #959,075 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ouch! This collection needs an editor!, February 4, 2000

By 

Bonnie MacBird (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Big Picture (Hardcover)

As a 25yr vet of Hollywood, I'm often asked for advice by neophyte writers. I always direct them to two things: William Goldman's ADVENTURES IN THE SCREEN TRADE, and any and all of his screenplays. The man is a genius at screenwriting, and ADVENTURES is witty, brilliant, and dead-on about Hollywood. True to form, this new book contains nuggets of sheer brilliance and some great entertainment. But the unedited (apparently) collection of articles is repetitive, and begins to read as a rant. How many quotes from addlebrained movie execs does it take for us to realize that they can't have an opinion without hedging? How many times must we hear that Mr. Goldman would like the Oscar voting scores revealed and why? I wish he or an editor had spent the time to shape this book into what Mr. Goldman's terrific ideas warrant. He's a much better writer than the sum of this book. Buy this one to read by the pool, but buy his others to laugh and learn from a master.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Light and breezy, but also cynical and witty....., January 23, 2000

By 

Brooke276 (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Big Picture (Hardcover)

While Mr. Goldman is no Pauline Kael in terms of film analysis (he plays fast and loose with language rather than constructing fine-tuned essays), he does have a biting sense of humor and is more than willing to laugh at Hollywood, star power, and yes, even the average American filmgoer. The best essay in the book, "Who Killed Hollywood?," discusses not only the ageless conflict between art and commerce, but the eventual destructiveness of the Oscars, the dearth of talent both behind and in front of the camera (not to mention the corporate suite), and the inevitable nostaligia that creeps in whenever one compares the stars of today with those of the past. Goldman clearly loves the art of cinema and his passion shows at every turn, allowing the reader to have great fun with each successive essay. While the content is a bit repetitive at times (covering the 1990s, he returns again and again to "the biggest star" and Oscar notes), the overall tone is refreshing. Goldman is also willing to admit his love of less-than-noble films (he respects the high-brow, but is more of a populist than he might admit), and he does not shy away from puncturing the self-important and well-respected. A must for film buffs.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A not-bad collection, August 9, 2000

By 

linus (the land of wind and ghosts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Big Picture (Hardcover)

Goldman is always compulsively readable. (If you doubt, track down "Adventures in the Screen Trade," "Hype and Glory," or "The Season," for me his best three books about show biz.) This collection -- and it is very much a collection -- is no exception. If you're a Goldman fan and you missed these short essays in "New York" magazine and "Premiere," the book is worth getting (though perhaps not for the hardcover price Applause is asking -- I'd wait for the paperback myself).

Some of the other generally positive reviews on here have made several negative remarks and they're all true. Embarrassing number of typos. Repetitive. Truly terrible book design -- par for the course with Applause. But I'll say this much: The book kept me a lot more entertained than Goldman's most recent book, "Which Lie Did I Tell?," a somewhat unworthy follow-up to "Screen Trade." And it contains, as one of the other reviewers mentioned, a massive smackdown on "Saving Private Ryan" -- perhaps annoying if you loved the film, but absolutely hilarious if you didn't.

The only serious flaw or bias I detect in Goldman's attitude is that he romanticizes the movie era when he first fell in love with movies -- say, the '40s and '50s -- and constantly uses the classics of his childhood as a stick to beat modern movies with. The fact is, probably there were just as many stupid movies back then as there are now, deservedly forgotten. Movies as an art form are still so young that it seems inaccurate to say they've gone downhill, when in fact there have been many peaks and valleys over the last 100 years. Goldman never seems happier than when he's saying movies have never been worse. (Then later in the book he says they've gotten worse still.) The fact is, there are movies getting made now that wouldn't have stood a chance 10 or even 5 years ago. So, when reading this autopsy on movies from 1990-1998, take it with a grain of salt. And enjoy.