Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood by Peter Biskind, there is more at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/maybe-you-have-some-ideas-click-on-link.html - 9 out of 10

 

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood by Peter Biskind, there is more at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/maybe-you-have-some-ideas-click-on-link.html

 

9 out of 10

 

As a cinephile, I must say that this book was exhilarating, and it caused some pain at the same time, for most of the film makers included, that is all the demi gods of 1960s and 1970s, come out rather discredited, what with the drugs they took, all, with just a few exceptions, the abuses, dishonesty, mean acts

 

We know from the splendid Intellectuals https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/intellectuals-by-paul-johnson.html by Paul Johnson about the luminaries, Leo Tolstoy, Henrik Ibsen, Ernest Hemingway, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and how awful they could be outside their magnum opera, so thespians and directors could obey the same rules

The name of this enchanting book comes from the independent movie that has caused a sensation, it is now a classic, but was made with very little money by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, with a fundamental contribution from Jack Nicholson, landing a role that would launch his career, albeit Robert Evans has his own story

 

Robert Evans is one of the prominent characters in Easy Riders Raging Bulls, he started as an actor, then he was the head of Paramount and producer – he was instrumental in the making of The Godfather, Chinatown and some other master works – and he wrote his own version of the story of that period, the Kid Stays in The Picture https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-kid-stays-in-picture-by-robert-evans.html

According to Evans, they were auditioning, and he had to see this thespian for some major role, when Jack Nicholson would come in and attract the attention of Bob Evans, who insisted on getting him, and when the crew kept talking about the fellow they were supposed to see, Evans insisted he wants Jack Nicholson

 

There is also the part where Al Pacino and his beginnings are revealed, though I remember it is in The Kid Stays in the Picture, not if you have it in Easy Riders as well – the thing is, there are films, inuendo that are present in both works, if with a different perspective, the third major book on films would be Adventures…

Adventures in The Screen Trade https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/adventures-in-screen-trade-by-william.html is the best one on motion pictures, if you ask me, giving readers insight into how they make films, revealing the dark side, all by the one who took two Oscars, for Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid and All The President’s Men

Francis Ford Coppola is one of the giants of the Trade, notwithstanding the fact that his latest production, Megalopolis is nominated not for many Academy Awards, but for the Razzie for worst picture of the year, and furthermore, Coppola has used his own money to produce it, and it was a commercial and critical disaster

 

In This book, we get the unsavory side of the director, celebrated for what some see as the best movie of all time, The Godfather, but also the infidelity, arrogance, how he lived lavishly in the Philippines, during the making of Apocalypse Now, which was plagued with all the misfortunes possible, very near calamity, but also a great creation

They started with Harvey Keitel in the lead role, but they abandoned the idea, Martin sheen was brought in, but he had a heart attack, and then the crew would send messages home saying the filming is done, fortunately, Martin Sheen would recover, and quite quickly, otherwise, the motion picture would not have been completed

 

As it was, it cost a ton of money, the filming took a very long time, nearly bankrupted Coppola – he is shown at the end of the book in his vineyard, where he sits at this table, and signs bottles of wine for visitors at his wine making property – if he still has it, after Megalopolis turned out to bomb so badly at the box office

Coppola has had clashes with Evans and others, even with Geroge Lucas, the latter is another figure that is disgraced in my eyes, not that I am crazy about Star Wars, in fact, I very much prefer American Graffiti, he appears arrogant, the only one to have achieved independent status, able to do what he wants, without the studios

 

And what about Spielberg? The venerated patriarch is really a sorry figure in so many ways, weak, cheap, would not give any funds for others, even friends, a quite obnoxious man is the conclusion, unless of course we do not give credit to Peter Biskind and say this is not true, or at the very least, much exaggerated

That is the feeling I had when reading The Kid Stays in The Picture, the ego of Evans was ever present, and credibility was quite low, William Goldman on the other hand is someone you believe when you read his wonderful Adventures in The Screen Trade, he then writes about how difficult it is to produce some scripts

 

You need the audience to believe you, or else they walk out of the cinema, and he gives the example of what happened to the Queen, when a stranger walked into her bedroom, if you put that in a film, the public will not take it, and then he had scenes from World War II that really happened, but looked unbelievable

Peter Bogdanovich is another big disappointment for me, I mean I loved The Last Picture Show, also Paper Moon, but to find how he took on with Cybill Shepherd, while his spouse was working on the movie – actually, this quite pathetic, I am a cheater and point the finger – and then his Trump like delusion of grandeur, oh my god, he talked about himself as if he was Frank Capra, or much better, such superior airs and pretentiousness

 

 Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/maybe-you-have-some-ideas-click-on-link.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’