Customer Reviews

MONSTER. LIVING OFF THE BIG SCREEN.

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

John Gregory Dunne is an arrogant, name-dropping monster, himself. So much of the book is poisoned by his self-congratulatory tone. While he was a full participant in all of the events he recounts, he drips superiority as if he were floating (sneeringly) above the action rather than right down in it. The book is so lazily written. Abrupt, disjointed sections; his pacing and sense of time only confuse the reader. He indulges great detail on boring scenes that show himself off while he quickly glances over the scenes that would interest the reader the most. We have absolutely no sense of his wife, Joan Didion. We learn nothing about how he actually writes a script. Nevertheless, I couldn't put the darn thing down. I read it in a few hours and was captivated. It doesn't give nearly enough detail, the analysis is slight, the conclusions absent. But, somehow, I whipped through it and was glad I did. The subject matter is so fascinating that--while he forces us to peer at it through the haze of his ego--I still enjoyed looking. Perhaps more than anything, I enjoyed luxuriating in my hatred of the author.

At a lunch with a studio executive,screenwriter John Dunne was insisting on a story point in the script that he had written with his wife,Joan Didion, the excutive mimed reaching under the table and bringing out,"The Monster",their money, to win the argument. Seven or eight years they toiled on the script that became ,"Up Close and Personal",this is the chronicle of their experiences. Fascinating and sobering, when you realize how things can dissolve and then reappear in a completly different form. It is very well told and forshadows his health problems that cost him his life in 2003, that his wife wrote so exquisitly about in "The Year of Magical Thinking". If how movies get made is of any interest to you this and his other film making tale, "The Studio" will fascinate you.

An excellent account of screenwriting and movie making, told in a very sardonic manner. If you liked Memo from David O. Selznick or William Goldman's Adventures in the Screen Trade, or Dunne's own The Studio, you'll probably enjoy this as well.

I thought that as a professional screenwriter, Mr. Dunne's book might be something to which I could relate. To a certain degree I can--the business as he describes it is a dysfunctional system with no immediate signs of recovery. However, budding scenario writers who do not know should be warned that Mr. Dunne and his wife, the great Joan Didion, do not rely on the big screen exclusively for their livelihood. Mr. Dunne claims early on that heart problems and the Writers Guild's health benefits precipitated their acceptance of the assignment to write the script that came to be called "Up Close and Personal." But the facts are (as recounted in MONSTER) that the Dunnes are capable of high-tailing it to Hawaii or St. Trop when they need to think things over, rub elbows with both literati and gliterati on both coasts, and throw their collective weight around with nasty faxes to studio execs. While this makes for an occasionally entertaining read, it is hardly representative of its subtitle, "Living Off the Big Screen," and suffers from an overall tame but nonetheless self-serving tone. Thus, the whole book suffers from a lack of teeth given the subject. Perhaps that's oddly fitting, though, as "toothless" was the same basic criticism that the Dunnes' screenplay for "Up Close and Personal"--once based on the life of Jessica Savitch--itself received. bilfro@loop.com

Dunne gives us a revealing, fly-on-the-wall account of writing movies for the Hollywood system from the viewpoint of one of the privileged (?) few who are highly paid to do just that. MONSTER is a fast, funny, perceptive, and admittedly frustrating read at times - sympathy is hard to come by, considering the stellar paydays involved. Still, it's a highly entertaining personal account. Although it doesn't provide insight into the how-tos of screenwriting (it's not intended to be that kind of book), it humorously addresses the battle of wills and visions that go into getting movies made - and how those same creative battles affect the final product. Anyone who's ever fought over their own creative venture only to see it go down in flames, or at the very least, changed beyond recognition, will relate to this story.

This tale of life in Hollywood has a bit of dark humor mixed in with the tame tale of the making of the film 'Up Close and Personal'. The lives of the two writers become interwined with those of many Hollywood star directors and Corporations such as DISNEY (a real monster when it comes to movies) A real cautionary tale to try to help take away some of the happy mystique surrounding Hollywood writing, MONSTER is a good read for all those interested in writing for the greatest medium of all, movies

I've read many of the screenwriting how-to books, but this is the first one that tells what actually happens with a screenplay outside in the real world. I've spoken with some major Hollywood writers and heard about their hassles and disillusionment with the system. Almost without exception they begin with a vision, wanting to tell a good story, but are ultimately subject to the whims and studio politics of mid-level executives more interested in business than craft. Anyone contemplating a screenwriting career should read this book--probably more than once.

"Living Off the Big Screen" is a surprisingly apt sub-title for this book, which comes across as an attempt by the screenwriter to ingratiate himself with those who had paid him so lucratively for the drivel put together for "Up Close & Personal", and who he'd certainly like to have hire (and pay so exorbitantly) him and his wife once again.

I give this book a rating of 2 simply because: 1 point for the fact that it's an easy enough read -- no getting tied up in interesting plot convultions or character development or descriptive imagery or poetic prose here, and 1 point for the fact that Hollywood is an intrinsically and perhaps perversely interesting subject to read about. Otherwise, this book makes the unfortunate spectacle of itself by making the screenwriter author seem to epitomize the whining, sniveling, uncreative, self-absorbed, self-important, stenographic, faux au courant high-brow aesthete, money bloated hack stereotype that the industry seems so willing to attach to screenwriters. The writer spends most of the book whining about his health, whining that moviemakers don't seem to find his efforts of staggering artistic worth and merit, name-dropping about hanging out with industry figures, and blathering about exotic locales in which to vacation in between brief stints in other exotic locales in which he and his wife actually "work" on screenplays! He breaks one of Hollywood's most holy conventions by not making himself a sympathetic protagonist.

The one thing that this book SHOULD have done, that would certainly have been of interest, would be to shed some light on how he and his wife engage in the creative process together. Most aspiring writers or screenwriters are keenly curious on how the magic comes together for other, established writers, and expounding on how Dunne and his wife crank out the pages would have been an interesting and perhaps valuable service to the writing community. But, lo and behold, Dunne is either too paranoically insecure to reveal his secrets or was to superficially involved in his own writing to realize that readers might enjoy his insight on the writing process rather than his insight on taking meeting notes from producers and spitting venom at studio lawyers. Oh well. Maybe he'll hit these points in Monster 2, the sequel. Can't wait.

This book is one of the worst behind-the-scenes books I've ever read with regards to film making. Dunne often includes faxes and letters he sent back and forth to the film's principles - the grating tone of these letters spills into the rest of the book. The book reads more like a disjointed diary than a tale of industry politics.

It took eight years to make Up Close and Personal, a movie about a television reporter and her mentor, starring Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer. This book, by one of the screenplay writers, is a must for anyone who wants an example of just how absurd movie making can be. From the original story of Jessica Savitch, an ambitious and ultimately self-destructive young woman, Dunne's screenplay transforms over many years and many rewrites into a story that would get Disney's stamp of approval, which translates into "a feel good movie with an uplifting storyline". Often hilarious and at times moving, Monster gives you a real feeling for the time, skill, and patience it takes to create a screenplay. Just remember this is not an instructional guide to screenplay writing, see it rather as a cautionary tale. After reading this, you may wonder how movies get made at all.