Untouchable: A Biography of Robert De Niro (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

An unauthorized biography of the Academy Award-winning actor draws on extensive contacts with friends and colleagues to capture the reclusive De Niro's personality on screen and off and explores his remarkable film career and the relationship between the characters he plays and his real life. IP.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Pr; U.S. edition (January 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560251360
• ISBN-13: 978-1560251361
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,887,913 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Anytime, anywhere.", January 28, 2002

By	John (Cleveland, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Untouchable: A Biography of Robert De Niro (Paperback)

It took me a while to decide whether to give this book 3 or 4 stars. As you can see, I decided on the lower number. I have many reasons for this:
1. This is an interesting book, but only because it is about Robert De Niro. Not because the information is presented in an interesting fashion. In fact, my Calculus textbook presents its information more interestingly than this bio. Mr. Dougan either doesn't know how to write, or had his 9 year old write this book for him. The language of his writing is awful. The way he states things is bad (he also uses the word "keen" at least once every 2 pages-what's up with that?)You'll understand what I mean
if you have read this.
3. He doesn't do everything in chronological order. For example, he'll go on for a few pages about a movie De Niro was doing, than he'll suddenly go back five years and tell us about De Niro's relationship with one of his wives or something like that. He could definately have done this in a way so that it isn't so grating on the reader.
4. He uses quotes that are at times unrelated to what he's talking about.
5. He repeats the same information multiple times. For example, I think that he has John Belushi dying about 5 times in 2 chapters. In fact chapters 22 and 23 three begin with almost the exact same sentence ("The death of John Belushi was a devastating blow for De Niro." and "Since the death of John Belushi, De Niro had been taking stock of his life." Tell me that those two chapters don't sound like they are both about the same thing, De Niro dealing with Belushi's death.)
6. He uses unrelated things to make the book seem bigger. For example, a little over two chapters are devoted to John Belushi's life, his relatationship with De Niro, his death, and the investigation after his death.
7. He doesn't have enough actual information about De Niro preparing and making his movies. He tends to spend much more time quoting reviews that various critics gave of De Niro's performances. In fact, I'd say that the critic quotes outnumber actual facts about making the movies 3 to 1.
8. He has absolutely no interviews that he specifically did for this book with anyone who would know anything about De Niro's life, preparing for roles, making his movies, anything! Instead he relies on past interviews that other people have conducted with De Niro and people who know him.
So, overall this was an interesting book since it is the first bio of Robert De Niro that I read. However, that is the only thing it has going for it. Unless you can't find ANYTHING at all better, don't read this. If you have to read this because your library doesn't have any other bios on De Niro (the unfortunate situation that I fell into), then I guess this is okay.
Oh, I almost forgot one more thing:
9. He gets a lot of his facts wrong. For instance, he says that De Niro, playing Vito Corleone in Godfather II, was the only one to say the famous "offer he can't refuse" line. While in fact, Brando says it in the first one when telling Tom Hagen what to do about Woltz, the movie producer, AND Michael (Pacino) also says it in the first one when Fredo asks how he will convince Moe Greene to sell the casino. And those two are just off of my head (he does say that Pacino "alluded" to the famous line while telling Kay about Luca Brasi and the band leader during the wedding scene, but he says that that apparently doesn't count).

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Injustice Done to a Wonderful Actor!, October 29, 1998

By	C. D. Bellizzi (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews

Robert DeNiro is, without a doubt, one of the most engrossing actors ever.

When I noticed that there was a new biography out by Dougan, I was immediately interested in reading it. However, the book has many faults: inconsistent reference to "Robert DeNiro Snr, Robert DeNiro, Robert DeNiro Jnr, Bobby DeNiro" -- to such an extent that the reader at points has to guess to whom the name is referenced! Secondly, the book refers to a painting by Virginia Admiral as having sold for $100, but in the picture caption after page 152 lists $1000 as the selling price. This is just what a reader does NOT need in a biography. When some details are obviously in disagreement, I become much more dubious about any other fact that I don't already know. Defeating, since one usually chooses to buy a biography to learn new things about the subject.

Also, while there are 16 pages of pictures, probably 75% of them are from the British Film Institute -- very common acting pictures. There are no pictures of DeNiro's mother/father/children, and only one picture of each wife. Disappointing.

For a reader who knows relatively little about Robert DeNiro and can overlook the minor inconsistencies, this book will suffice. However, if you are as discerning with the quality of the literature you read as the actors you choose to follow from the theatre, skip this one.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An indepth insight into the genius of DeNiro., June 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Untouchable: A Biography of Robert De Niro (Paperback)

Although the book tends to contradict itself, it does it's best to give us insight into the very elusive actor. The book is nothing more than a compilation of articles and interviews DeNiro has given during his career. Personal recollections of those who've worked with him are thrown in in an attempt to balance the reporting but it is far from a personal history of the most talented actor working today. However, Andy Dugan does his best to print both sides of the less flattering characterstics and adds personal commentary of his own to allow the reader to make their own judgement of what's true and what's slanted criticism. Because it is hard to find any information about DeNiro it is definately worth reading.