Customer Reviews

Woody Allen: A Biography

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found this book disappointing, although there are some good things in it. Baxter is interesting on the evolution of the distinctive Woody persona, and on Allen's reluctance to acknowledge some of his artistic influences. The passages on the split with Mia Farrow deftly weave scenes of black comedy and harrowing domestic tragedy. A chapter on the fraught production of 'Casino Royale' is entertaining, and there are a few other good anecdotes I hadn't come across before. I didn't know, for example, that in the 60s Allen was taken to a court by a woman who claimed he was her runaway husband, despite the fact that he would have been 13 at the time of their marriage.

Unfortunately, after a fairly early point I found myself unable to trust Baxter's accuracy. Mistakes in the book range from the sophomoric to the libellous. Hibernia is Ireland, not Scotland as Baxter thinks on page 7. It was not Lenny Bruce's wife who performed the orgiastic act attributed to her on page 77, and it took place in LA, not Greenwich Village as Baxter suggests. Worse, he sometimes garbles Allen film plots and even jokes.

More annoying than the falsehoods are the superfluous facts. There is an excess of filler in the form of irrelevant background information. In 'Take The Money And Run' there's a sequence where the Allen character is sent to jail which consists of a lengthy 'March of Time' style newsreel montage depicting the 1950s, followed by the words, 'Virgil, in jail, misses all of it.' This book is often risibly like that. Baxter spends a page describing social upheavals caused by changes to the NYC transport systems, including a brief synopsis of the career of Robert Moses, and then concludes, 'Little of this impinged on Allen's world.' He notes Allen's appearance at a Eugene McCarthy fundraiser and then spends half a page describing the 1968 Chicago convention. One waits for the revelation that Allen was there, haplessly fleeing riot police like his character in 'Bananas'. But no: unable to attempt even a token connection to Allen's life and work, Baxter simply breaks the text at this point and resumes with something different.

A more serious flaw is that, racing non-stop from film to film (a pattern, admittedly, that much of Allen's life has shared), Baxter does not give enough space to considering the people in Allen's life, in particular the women. A partial exception is Mia Farrow, a character analysis of whom Baxter circles around but ultimately shies away from. Diane Keaton gets unaccountably short shrift and so too does Louise Lasser, arguably Woody's dark lady and the inspiration for several of the more interesting characters in his films. Surprisingly, this is one of the many areas on which Eric Lax's 1991 authorized biography is more interesting.

As for the films, Baxter is often curmudgeonly in his analysis of their merits. By quoting the lukewarm early critical reactions much of Allen's work has received unbalanced by more positive later assessments, or emphasizing that critical plaudits often went hand in hand with domestic box office indifference, Baxter comes close to presenting a picture of Allen as a man who has failed miserably at everything to which he has turned his hand.

Indeed, much of this book is dispiriting work. Baxter does not merely describe Allen's famously bleak outlook but manages to communicate it to the reader. It is de rigeur in modern biography, and a guarantor of sales, to suggest that your subject is either a bit of a heel and a creative magpie, or that they have not had much fun out of life; to suggest both at once is merely depressing.

Besides, all of Allen's fans know in our hearts that, a lot of impressive evidence notwithstanding, the hapless romantic clown of the early funny films is the real Woody. Whether you are a fan or not, I recommend Eric Lax's underrated official biography, or Stig Bjorkman's lengthy interview 'Woody Allen on Woody Allen' (1994), hagiographic though they are at times, as far more entertaining and informative than this book.

Having also read Baxter's Kubrick bio, I think that a brief comparison between the two works is necessary, because it will illuminate some of the mistakes that Baxter makes here.

In dealing with Kubrick, the technique of dividing the man's life up into chapters headed by the film he was working on at the time works perfectly, for Kubrick sometimes spent seven years between films. To say a biographical event is part of the "Full Metal Jacket" years actually denotes a grand period in the director's life. For Woody Allen, a man who has directed a film a year for the last thirty-four years, this technique becomes jumbled easily (some chapters need to be grouped by two or three films, which may not otherwise be connected except that the same funny little man wrote and directed them). And Baxter still manages to confuse the reader regarding chronology of events, even though he has such small periods of time to work with.

That being said, he does a fine job explicating the 'Woody' persona (read "mensch") with Woody the man (read "anti-social, calculating genius"). He never panders to paperback Freud wisdom, just giving cold hard truths about the man.

I tended to enjoy the chapters dealing with the films I most enjoyed (late '70's), and felt a constant sense of doom when dealing with the troubled nineties. Surprisingly, Woody doesn't come off as the villain here. That honour goes to Mia, who is portrayed as a manipulative, scheming, materialistic waif-whore. Woody's foibles are justifiably explained, and maybe rightly so. I mean, he's been warning us about his own foibles for years (for a good precursor to the whole Soon-Yin debacle, see Ike and Tracy's relationship in 'Manhattan'). And I think that that's the strength of Baxter's book: he at once is able to separate Woody's art and life, while showing how they are intrinsically related.

This is a very fair, even-handed look at the life of Woody Allen and his films. It is NOT critical of him, as several of the negative reviewers below seem to suggest. The author writes with candor and doesn't censor himself. Those are qualities I expect from a biography. Why read a bigraphy if you don't expect to come across a few warts? I've been a fan of Woody's for over 25 years. I like him. And, I like this book.

I have been a fan of Woody Allen's films for many years. I am especially fond of his earlier body of work. I was extremely disappointed to discover how poorly researched this book was! The author consistently misquotes lines from Allen's most popular films and even gets general plots incorrect! It amazes me how easily books riddled with errors get to print! The book appears to contain some interesting behind-the-scenes trivia, but who knows if it is accurate!

I completely agree with the last review of this book. It also creates a distorted picture of Woody Allen, constantly discussing (and exaggerating) his neurotic tendencies and feebleness with women. It is filled with criticism and pseudo-analysis of him, and only manages to make me angry. I only read the whole book because I'm a big Woody Allen fan, and was hoping to find something that I would enjoy, but I didn't. Poorly written, researched, and a constant negative focus on Woody Allen. Don't read this book if you're new to Woody: it'll make you think he's the worst man in the world.

I read this because I had NO background information on Woody Allen and thought this would be a fun way to get to know him. Consequently, I am knee-deep in Woody Allen movies. I had never been exposed to him before and learned a great deal by reading this book. For the beginner, it's a nice way to be introduced.

I enjoyed this book very much. I liked the author's tone, which was neither worshipful nor condemning. I thought his examination of the films was pretty interesting. His idea that Allen really owes more to Fellini than to Bergman sounded pretty convincing to me.

Face it, any book on Woody Allen becomes instantly obsolescent, because by the time it gets on the shelves, Allen has made at least one more movie that might move his career in a new direction.

I thought this book did a fine job of showing the many changes in Allen's career, from stand-up and TV (stuff that I really wasn't aware of - like Allen subbing for Johnny Carson) to movies and how the movies changed. Baxter's assessments of the many movies seemed mostly on the mark to me.

The definitive work on Woody Allen will only be written after he is dead and thus can no longer make any movies, but until that sad day, I think this book will do very nicely.

For the most part, I found this book well written and informative, although typos occur quite frequently in the hardcover edition.

After a brief background on Allen's childhood, the author titles the chapters after the titles of Allen's films; a beneficial format, because it allows the reader to watch the movie before they read the chapter if they elect to do so.

The author has interesting arguments about why Allen acted the way he did in certain situations, but it is important to note that it doesn't appear that Mr. Baxter actually spoke with Allen during his research for this book. This is not the Gospel on Allen, but it is an interesting body none the less.

This book is supposedly a complete look at Woody Allen but apart from the details of the split with Mia, adds little to the Eric Lax biography of several years ago (Baxter takes a few jibes at Lax, calling attention to those people he failed to interview; perhaps someone should remind Mr. Baxter that he didn't interview absolutely everyone who has come into contact with Woody Allen in the past 60 years either). To his credit, Mr. Baxter seems to have a wealth of financial and contractual information about Woody's films that's seeing the light of day for the first time. The question is, who cares? The book often bogs down in these behind-the-scenes passages and I found myself having to resist the urge to put it down for good. There's also a fairly obvious attempt to create "balance" by throwing dirt Woody's way, none of which is too successful. Let's face it. This imperfect man is a creative genius and, biographies or no biographies, deserves to be respected as such. I still recommend the book to Woody Allen fans, if only to say you've read this latest biography.

I'm no intellectual elitist, but I do like a good Woody Allen film. Mr. Baxter, while delivering a fairly comprehensive look at Allen, inserts a whole lot of high-brow references that recall the snootiest of New Yorker pieces. Yet, at the same time, he seems to look down his nose at the New York intellectual elite (if that's possible). Note to Baxter: next book, leave out the French language phrases.

This book is just too tough on ol' Woody, and at times seems downright mean-sprited. His frequent descriptions of Allen's frumpy, old-man appearance is unduly harsh. Mr. Baxter will look old one day, too. On the other hand, Allen's reputation as tough to work for is certainly fair game.

I did like the organization of chapters/films, and enjoyed the behind-the-scenes information about each project. I noticed, however, that much of Baxter's work seems to be from secondary sources (previously published interviews and the like). Perhaps Mr. Allen caught wind of this project and prevented Baxter from getting the access he needed to close Woody associates. Or maybe they wouldn't talk to a (non-authorized) biographer anyway.

I found the many relevations of Allen's strange personal life both compelling and abhorant. The 'dirt', while quite juicy, at times seemed a little unfair. Many of the stories would be impossible to confirm, though I believe they're probably true.

With Woody Allen: A Biography, I learned a great deal about Woody Allen...perhaps more than I wanted to.