De Niro: A Biography [Hardcover]

As other reviews have corresctly pointed out, Baxter's research into his subject has been meticulous... the information on De Niro's training for his craft, his family life, relations with the opposite sex, his pathological perfectionism is terrific. Baxter spends the first half of his book really filling in the bits that as a fan you would want to be aware of. Equally, and to the author's eternal credit, despite Mr Baxter's undoubted credentials as a fan, he does not fall in the trap of fauning over every aspect of De Niro's career preferring instead to cast critical eye over performances and indeed over the man's personality in certain instances. This book undeniably makes for interesting reading, the subject matter alone guarantees it, Baxter himself has done a fine job in creating a cohesive biography of a man who is notoriously private and guarded.

I only have one criticism of this book, sadly for me it's quite a big one. As the book nears half way it seemed to me that it descends into a basic filmography. By this i mean that as we begin to get into De Niro's career as a film star Baxter begins to concentrate a little too much on plots, storylines, characters when there might be more interest in the actor's relations with those he was working with, his own aspirations and indeed the paths his career was taking at specific times and reasons for those. These are all areas that ARE tackled but sparsely in my opinion, it must be noted that due to the nature of the subject information can be difficult to gather in this area.

This is undoubtedly a good book, any fan of Robert De Niro would enjoy it and it is also a worthy addition to any film fan's collection. However, i know what happens in Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Brazil etc etc, the filmography should've been confined to the appendices in my opinion. It felt, for the last 150 pages like i was reading a series of film reviews and that was not why i picked this book up.