Customer Reviews

Bullets Over Hollywood: The American Gangster Picture From The Silents To "The Sopranos"

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Bullets Over Hollywood: The American Gangster Picture From The Silents To "The Sopranos" by John McCarty (Adjunct Professor of Cinema, Department of Theatre, SUNY, Albany, New York) is an inherently fascinating and copiously informative history of the "mob movie", as it comparatively surveys archetypal criminal stereotypes from the earliest days of silent movie story telling down to the "made for TV" gangland series. Bullets Over Hollywood is replete with anecdotal "behind the scenes" stories and even goes into the minds of the audiences for this enduringly popular genre of film entertainment. The impact of movie gangsters on popular culture has always been immense and immediate from slang to clothing to mannerisms, to career choices. Bullets Over Hollywood is informed, informative (and, enhanced with a photo inserts showcasing some of the greatest moments of mob movies) and a filmography dating back to 1915), and strongly recommended reading for students of American film history and American popular culture.

Bullets Over Hollywood is a worthwhile read, but there's probably better out there. The best part of the book is dedicated to identifying the three main gangster archetypes. The James Cagney type is naturally violent and almost born to be a gangster. The Edward G. Robinson type is greedy and becomes a gangster for riches. The Humprey Bogart type is a haunted criminal who's trapped in a life of crime. There's an entire chapter dedicated to Boris Karloff, which is good and bad. Karloff gangster films aren't well known and I appreciate knowing about them. But considering the many films either left out or receiving little attention, Karloff should take up less space.

That brings me to the horrid treatment of Scarface (original and remake). The 1932 Scarface receives a couple of pages of some interesting analysis, and that's it. It deserves far more. The 1983 Scarface doesn't even get a full page and the author seems to condescend it as well. When Scarface is on your book cover, it's a unspoken obligation the book is going to give it a serviceable treatment. A much better cover would be Karloff, Cagney, Robinson and Bogart; so readers not interested in older stars, beware. The Sopranos get a minimal bit at the end, though it's nothing special.

I honestly haven't read a really good book on gangsters. Thus, (even though it's flawed) Bullets Over Hollywood is technically one of the best in the subject.

I FELT THE BOOK WAS POORLY WRITTEN AND RESEARCHED , IT DISCUSSED MANY MOVIES THAT DON'T REALLY FIT INTO THE GANGSTER MOVIE GENRE AND IRONICALLY WHEN IT LISTED THE FILMS BY YEAR , SCARFACE(1983) WAS NOT LISTED , THOUGH IT IS ON THE COVER OF THE BOOK. I GAVE IT 3 STARS JUST BECAUSE A BOOK ABOUT GANGSTER MOVIES IS COOL , BUT I HAD JUST FINISHED A MORE COMPLETE AND BETTER WRITTEN BOOK ABOUT GANGSTER FILMS CALLED "PUMP EM'FULL OF LEAD" MY OPINION OF COURSE , SO MAYBE I WAS BIAS.