Gods and Monsters: Movers, Shakers, and Other Casualties of the Hollywood Machine [Paperback]

Peter Biskind (Author)

Book Description

Series: Nation Books | Publication Date: November 9, 2004

Peter Biskind authored two of the most talked about and read books of the last decade—Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock-'n'-Roll Generation Saved Hollywood and its bestselling sequel Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film. Gods and Monsters chronicles the cause and courses of Hollywood over the last three decades—the super freaks, lowlifes, charlatans and occasional geniuses who have left their bite mark on American culture, as refracted through the trajectory of Peter Biskind's career. The ghosts of McCarthyism and the blacklist haunt Gods and Monsters as do the casualties of the counterculture and the New Hollywood—the story of Sue Menges, the '70s "super-agent" whose career went mysteriously south, is extraordinarily poignant, as is the example of Terence Malick, whose light shone so brightly in the same period but then disappeared until 1997's The Thin Red Line. But at the heart of the book are the likes of Warren Beatty, Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese, Robert Redford and Quentin Tarantino and uber-producers Don Simpson and Harvey Weinstein and their excess lifestyles, all of whom Biskind portrays in great Dickensian detail, charting how they have had a simultaneously strangulating and liberating effect on the industry.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Of late the author of books on the movie industry, Biskind began his career in the 1960s, writing about the intersection of politics and cinema for small leftist journals. Hollywood's move away from substance in the 1980s and, presumably, the need to make a living led him to profiling celebrities for glossies like Vanity Fair and premiere. His early work is represented in this collection by thoughtful essays on topics including anticommunism in director Elia Kazan's work, the espousal of anti-individualism in '50s sf movies, and the portrayal of blue-collar America in '70s films. Later entries, sketching such powerful Hollywood figures as directors Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese, producer Don Simpson, and agents Charlie Feldman and Sue Mengers, are less distinctive but highly engaging. If these pieces collectively lack the impact of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (1998) and Down and Dirty Pictures (2004), which many consider definitive on '70s New American Cinema and '90s indie powerhouse Miramax, respectively, they constitute a less straightforward depiction of the now three-decades-long decline of American cinema. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Nation Books (November 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560255455
• ISBN-13: 978-1560255451
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #769,081 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Peter Biskind is the author of five previous books, including Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. He is a contributor to Vanity Fair and was formerly the executive editor of Premiere magazine. He lives with his family in Columbia County, New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's okay to step out of the cupboard on this one. They aren't scary, December 23, 2008

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Mitchell J. Hall (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gods and Monsters: Movers, Shakers, and Other Casualties of the Hollywood Machine (Paperback)

This book is okay and this is going by the immense standards that this writer has set. Raging bulls and Down and Dirty pictures are some of the most entertaining books I've ever read. Great reads. Yet this one is a little patchy and can easily be passed over.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars disappointed, December 8, 2009

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Tina R (LES, New York) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Gods and Monsters: Movers, Shakers, and Other Casualties of the Hollywood Machine (Paperback)

I was really disappointed with this book. The writing was awful, very disjointed, and egocentric, not really interesting. I had thought it would be great....a subject I am intersested in, etc. But I couldn't finish it...

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For serious film buffs & film scholars...& film makers..., September 30, 2009

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Jfloyd Waggaman "wggmn3" (Bryn Mawr USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gods and Monsters: Movers, Shakers, and Other Casualties of the Hollywood Machine (Paperback)

For anyone seriously interested particularly in American movies & the history of American films...or the history of film (period)...Whether a film buff or film scholar...or film maker...a "must have" in the library of anyone interested in the movies...