Escape from Film School: A Novel (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "That was the last thing we heard before the Blaupunkt blew, midway across the Penn Pike..." (more)
Key Phrases: extra hot sauce, film school, earthly idea, Ginger Kenton, Brutal Bad-ass Angels, Slade Sloan (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Real-life events and fiction merge in Walter's fresh take on the movie business and the film schools at USC and UCLA, which train Hollywood's future big-time writers and producers. Stuart Thomas dodges the Vietnam draft of the 1960s by going to Hollywood, hiding out in a ratty shack on the USC campus. When draft marshals come to arrest him, the chairman of USC's cinema department rescues the scrappy young man by claiming him as a student. Self-styled geek Stuart enrolls and, living out of his car, helps classmate Veronica Baldwin to create her steamy student sex flick, Extra Hot Sauce, writing and editing her film by adding improvisational Fellini/Goddard accents. The film takes first prize in the national student competition, Stuart and Veronica marry and Stuart scripts a feature, which she directs. They raise funds from doctors and rent theaters to screen Brutal Bad-Ass AngelsAan adventure cut directly from 1970s film lore. Walter is a legendary teacher and chair of UCLA's film and TV writing program; much of his clever, entertaining novel is candidly informed by his own experiences. He traces Stuart's exploits from film school to a stupefying turn at Universal Studios, back again to USC, on to UCLA as a teacher and, finally, as a prolific hack writer. This hilarious sendup of the film industry is balanced by the author's evocative treatment of three decades of Hollywood's cultural transformations. Agent, Jane Dystel. (July)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

It is 1966 and Stuart Thomas, the protagonist in this first-person roman clef, has two life choices: either enroll in USC's film school or get drafted and sent to Vietnam. He chooses the former and never leaves the business. Along the way he makes low-budget films, marries and divorces a fellow student, and becomes a well-paid Hollywood writer and a professor at UCLA's film school. The story itself is an extended observation about the film industry, where Faustian bargains are so commonplace as to be hardly worth noting. And given the setting and theme, the namedropping here and there is never aggravating. However the novel's structure, especially the abrupt time changes, is more filmic than literary, and some of the gags, such as a scene where one discovers the Hells Angels are not the violent psychopaths depicted in the movies but a bunch of prissy do-gooders, are worse than television comedy. Still, this novel is entertaining enough for the summer. Frank Caso

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 243 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (July 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312205376
• ISBN-13: 978-0312205379
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,627,050 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars full of 'funnies' yet annoying, October 25, 2003

By	"anumeha" (India) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Escape from Film School (Paperback)

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, August 27, 1999

By A Customer

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.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Is this supposed to be funny???, June 12, 1999

By A Customer

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.