I just finished one of the best movie books I've ever read, "Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of a New Hollywood" by Entertainment Weekly writer Mark Harris. He writes about the five movies which were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar in 1967 (Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night, and Doctor Dolittle), covering each one from scripting to selling to casting to production, through release and reception, up to Oscar night. Because Harris is so generous with his coverage (and his many interviews with living particants), we get not only lots of information about, for example, The Graduate, but also Mike Nichols' earlier film, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; about not just Bonnie and Clyde, but Beatty's offbeat project Mickey One. We learn that Rex Harrison, star of the colossal bomb Doctor Dolittle, was a total ass to everyone, especially his wife. We get interesting background about Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracy, Rod Stieger, Faye Dunaway, and Dustin Hoffman. The book is very well written, well paced, and structured roughly chronologically so that the stories of all five movies wind through the book more or less equally. The thesis, about the coming of a "new" Hollywood, doesn't quite work--after all, the Hollywood of youth films and social consciousness lasted maybe seven or eight years at most, until Jaws and Star Wars came along to build a new, new Hollywood (meet the new Hollywood, same as the old Hollywood...). But for anyone who remembers the pop culture of the mid-60's (as I just barely do), or anyone who loves movies in general, this book is great fun.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Flicks of '67
I just finished one of the best movie books I've ever read, "Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of a New Hollywood" by Entertainment Weekly writer Mark Harris. He writes about the five movies which were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar in 1967 (Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night, and Doctor Dolittle), covering each one from scripting to selling to casting to production, through release and reception, up to Oscar night. Because Harris is so generous with his coverage (and his many interviews with living particants), we get not only lots of information about, for example, The Graduate, but also Mike Nichols' earlier film, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; about not just Bonnie and Clyde, but Beatty's offbeat project Mickey One. We learn that Rex Harrison, star of the colossal bomb Doctor Dolittle, was a total ass to everyone, especially his wife. We get interesting background about Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracy, Rod Stieger, Faye Dunaway, and Dustin Hoffman. The book is very well written, well paced, and structured roughly chronologically so that the stories of all five movies wind through the book more or less equally. The thesis, about the coming of a "new" Hollywood, doesn't quite work--after all, the Hollywood of youth films and social consciousness lasted maybe seven or eight years at most, until Jaws and Star Wars came along to build a new, new Hollywood (meet the new Hollywood, same as the old Hollywood...). But for anyone who remembers the pop culture of the mid-60's (as I just barely do), or anyone who loves movies in general, this book is great fun.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I've always thought that that year represented a low point in American film. I realize that it's not a popular point of view, but the films of that period feel so much more dated than many films that came earlier. Particularly Bonnie and Clyde. Maybe because I can remember that time (barely), but I can't remember the time when men wore hats (without being taunted).
Post a Comment