Customer Reviews

Escape from Film School: A Novel

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This story is about a Stuart Thomas who arrives in California during the 60's fleeing the Vietnam draft and lands up in the USC campus; a film school. He is saved from marshals who are trying to arrest him by the chairman of USC's cinema department. Now he has to enrol himself as a student here and starts living out of a car and waitresses to earn a living. ("the hardest part was rising every hour to plunk another dime in the meter."). Here he meets one of his classmates, Veronica Baldwin who later goes on to become his wife. She with his help creates a steamy porn film, `Extra Hot Sauce' which wins the first prize at the national student competition. They raise money from doctors for their production `Brutal Bad Ass Angels'. During the course of his life and career, he meets Ginger Kenton a student and then his girlfriend and divorces his wife. Both the women have a compelling effect on him. His daughter Raynebeaux is the apple of his eye whose fancies make him a creative hack writer.

In this book the author Richard Walter offers an ironical look at the film world and the book is full of `funnies'. The book revolves around American names and events which make it difficult for an outsider to connect with and understand and thus mars the `cuteness' of the book. The wit is interesting but becomes annoying after a while. It is also a poignant tale of a writer who tries to seek solace form various healers and therapists who are almost always on the verge of `enlightening' him when they say "that's all the time we have for today". Another of the persistent scenes is where Stuart keeps getting caught by cops for violations of some silly law and has his rights read n number of times to him.

The author's `hero' comes across as a bit of a obsessive compulsive when during his conversations he ends almost always with using names or words and then "and those are just all the Davids" and likewise.

The word play and the adjectives are interesting. He describes in a graph where Stuart is being taken to jail and he's told that some women give more attention to people who've been convicted (Boasts of such exploits, they assured me moreover, had encouraged firm breasted, pointy-nippled, long-haired, faded-denim-clad women in artsy-craftsy-clikny-clanky earrings and no panties cavalierly to drop their bell-bottoms.) the words are `staccatoed' and rhythmic.

The language is smooth and easy to understand but includes a lot of slang, which might put the reader off. The actions of the male protagonist, being in this near frustrating profession are predictable but the fun lies in the reactions, which are too unpredictable. The plot is extremely sad; almost nonexistent, but the quirkiness, the eccentricity carries the story till the end giving the reader stitches on the side.

The book cover, with a film roll designed on it and a picture of a man running out of the roll is catchy and `pick-me-up' kind.

The author Richard Walter, is a professor at UCLA where he heads the graduate program in film and television writing.

The book makes an intelligent and good read but is too casual to be called a novel.

This book is an entertaining look at film school. There are many Hollywood "in" jokes that I could not begin to appreciate, being an outsider. This book certainly is not literature.

This could be the least funny satire of Hollywood ever written. It barely registers as a novel either. Zippo characters, and though it tries very hard to hip and current and "in," it's clearly from the pen of someone way out of the loop. Sad.

Well, I thought the titles of their "art" films were totally funny. That, and death by sushi. Otherwise, this book was a phat bore. It suffers from saggy-middle syndrome. I read this on a plane. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for easing me into the warm embrace of sleep!

The first chapter of this book was interesting, well-written, and basically did everything a first chapter is supposed to do: it made me want to keep reading. Unfortunately, the book becomes more and more a summation of the years gone by with lots of implausible plot turns, paper-thin characters (even by stereotype Hollywood standards), and repeated, stale jokes.

Being a professor at UCLA, I expected a lot more from Richard Walter. The sad truth is this book lacks a lot. There are some funny lines and quirky scenes but in the all I found it almost annoying. There are no characters I like nor any that are believable. The plot is flat and in the end I questioned what the book was even about. Maybe some people do care about the hollywood scene and what it's like to be a "writer," but I think even those folks are going to expect more from this novel than it offers.

This hilarious book gives us a sharp-eyed view of the screenwriter's lot from the halls of academia through the studio system, by brilliant writer who's seen it all.

"Escape from Film School" is a refreshingly funny and original novel even down to the unique way Walter conveys time shifts. Just when you think - aha! - you know what's coming next, the plot curves in the opposite direction. Walter has a sort of Byronian wit coupled with Keatsian attention to detail. His language jargon changes as smoothly as the decades do, giving the novel a time-encapsulated realistic edge. The plot progresses forward at an exceedingly fast rate - you simply cannot put the book down. However, what I love best is the strength of Walter's women characters. They positively beam with purpose and charisma sharply contrasting the male lead, Stuart. Poor Stuart's only aim is to please. And who could forget that coat rack - its Freudian implications and the way it keeps popping up in the weirdest places is haunting, but I'll leave that for the readers. If someone were smart, they'd buy the rights to this book and make it into a movie!

Richard has written a very witty look at Hollywood and takes on the myth of "making it" in the business! And it doesn't surprise me some chump from NY thinks the premier screenwriting teacher is "out of the loop." Sorry, Mr. Field. The book is right on!

Escape From Film School is as compelling a read as the Guber/Peters non fiction title about how they took Sony for a ride, and as funny as a Neil Simon play. I loved it because it never judges the situation, it "merely" keeps telling a friggin funny story about two fascinating worlds, the film school scene, and the culture in L.A.and it's people,which, spanning three decades,the read flies by as quickly as life. If you want something that's funny, swift,snappy and "names names" , read it. I liked it better than Tom Wolfes current title. I just love the fiction/faction combination. I completely dug it.