Among many others I recently participated in Scott Feinberg’s “The 100 Greatest Film Books of All Time” survey, the results of which popped in The Hollywood Reporter today (10.12).
What’s the next great topic for a Hollywood expose or tell-all? Six years ago I suggested a book called “Super-Vomit: How Hollywood Infantiles (i.e., Devotees of Comic Books and Video Games) Degraded Theatrical and All But Ruined The Greatest Modern Art Form“?
Here’s another idea — a recent-history book one about how censorious, ultra-sensitive wokesters all but suffocated the film business during the woke terror era (2016 to present)?
Here are the books I put on my top-25 Feinberg list:
(1) Sam Wasson’s “The Big Goodbye” (making of Chinatown book)
(2) Stephen Bach‘s “Final Cut: Dreams and Disasters in the Making of Heaven’s Gate”
(4) Mark Harris‘s “Pictures at a Revolution”
(5) John Gregory Dunne‘s “The Studio”
(6) Leo Braudy‘s “The World in a Frame”
(7) Thomas Schatz‘s “The Genius of the System”
(8) David McClintick‘s “Indecent Exposure”
(9) Otto Freidrich‘s “City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s“,
(10) Julie Salamon‘s “The Devil’s Candy,”
(11) Jack Brodsky and Nathan Weiss‘s “The Cleopatra Papers”
(12) David Thomson‘s “Suspects“ + “The Whole Equation
(13) William Goldman‘s “Which Lie Did I Tell?”
(14) Peter Biskind‘s “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls” and “Down and Dirty Pictures.”
(15) Charles Fleming‘s “High Concept: Don Simpson and the Hollywood Culture of Excess,”
(16) William Goldman‘s “Adventures in the Screen Trade”,
(17) the audio version of Robert Evans‘ “The Kid Stays in the Picture”,
(18) James B. Stewart‘s “Disney War“
(19) Peter Biskind‘s “Seeing is Believing”
(20) Thomas Doherty‘s “Hollywood’s Censor” (the book about Joe Breen)
(21) Jake Ebert and Terry Illiot‘s “My Indecision Is Final”
(22) Nancy Griffin and Kim Masters‘ “Hit and Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood“,
(23) Bruce Wagner‘s “Force Majeure“,
(24) David Thomson‘s “Warren Beatty and Desert Eyes: A Life and a Story“
(25) Nathaniel West‘s “The Day of the Locust”
Six years ago (on 10.12.17) I posted a similar list, titled “30 You Should Have Read By Now.”
Every few years I’ll post a list of the best inside-Hollywood books and then ask for titles I’ve missed. Which is what this is.
(1) David McClintick‘s “Indecent Exposure: A True Story of Hollywood and Wall Street,” (2) Stephen Bach‘s “Final Cut: Dreams and Disasters in the Making of Heaven’s Gate,” (3) Mark Harris‘s “Pictures at a Revolution,” (4) Julia Phillips‘ “You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again,” (5) John Gregory Dunne‘s “The Studio,” (6) Leo Braudy‘s “The World in a Frame,” (7) Thomas Schatz‘s “The Genius of the System” and (8) Lillian Ross‘s “Picture.”
Not to mention (9) Otto Freidrich‘s “City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s“, (10) Julie Salamon‘s “The Devil’s Candy,” (11)Jack Brodsky and Nathan Weiss‘s “The Cleopatra Papers,” (12) David Thomson‘s “Suspects“, (13) “The Whole Equation and (14) “The New Biographical Dictionary of Film,” (15)William Goldman‘s “Which Lie Did I Tell?” and (16) Peter Biskind‘s “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls” and (17) “Down and Dirty Pictures.”
As well as (18) Charles Fleming‘s “High Concept: Don Simpson and the Hollywood Culture of Excess,” (19) William Goldman‘s “Adventures in the Screen Trade”, (20) the audio version of Robert Evans‘ “The Kid Stays in the Picture”, (21) Christine Vachon‘s “Shooting to Kill” and (22) “A Killer Life“, (23) James B. Stewart‘s “Disney War“, (24) Peter Biskind‘s “Seeing is Believing,” Richard Corliss‘ “Talking Pictures: Screenwriters in the American Cinema,” (25) Thomas Doherty‘s “Hollywood’s Censor” (the book about Joe Breen), (26) Jake Ebert and Terry Illiot‘s “My Indecision Is Final,” (27) Stephen Farber and Marc Green‘s “Outrageous Conduct” (John Landis and the Twilight Zone tragedy), (28) Nancy Griffin and Kim Masters‘ “Hit and Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood“, (29) Bruce Wagner‘s “Force Majeure“, and (30) David Thomson‘s “Warren Beatty and Desert Eyes: A Life and a Story“.
I didn’t mention Nathaniel West‘s “The Day of the Locust” as that would have pushed the total to 31.
