Dennis Hopper: The Wild Ride of a Hollywood Rebel is the first book to cover the entire life and career of flamboyant actor-director Dennis Hopper. Fans of Hopper, film buffs, baby boomers, and readers who are into celebrity scandals will seek out this account of the man who hung out with James Dean and Elvis Presley, created the counterculture classic Easy Rider, and came back big in Blue Velvet overcoming years of alcoholism and drug addiction.
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'Peter Winkler's worthy and well-researched biography pays due attention to Hopper's achievements' - Irish Independent --http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/review-film-dennis-hopper-the-wild-ride-of-a-hollywood-rebel-by-peter-winkler-2952999.html
this enjoyable, well-researched and clear-eyed biography doubles as a cultural history --The Guardian
this enjoyable, well-researched and clear-eyed biography doubles as a cultural history --The Guardian --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
this enjoyable, well-researched and clear-eyed biography doubles as a cultural history --The Guardian
this enjoyable, well-researched and clear-eyed biography doubles as a cultural history --The Guardian --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
About the Author
Peter L. Winkler is an esteemed film historian and writer whose work has appeared in a variety of publications, including CineFan and Playboy.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As a fan of Hopper's...uh... 'energy' for some years now, I've been disappointed and surprised at the lack of a decent Biography available on the man.
(Dennis Hopper: A Madness to His Method by Elena Rodriguez (1987) was a decent effort but seemed incomplete, perhaps because Hopper himself was still in transition at the time).
Winkler's Biography fills the gap well. It's effortlessly readable, detailed and thoroughly researched even if the latter can come across as a little workmanlike at times. Almost every film is covered in some detail (Bar my favourite - see below) while the more significant films; 'Easy Rider' and 'The Last Movie' get their own chapters.
The facts throw up the inevitable contradictions about who actually wrote what etc but that's as it should be. ('There are three sides to every story; My Side, your side and the truth' - Robert Evans. And the truth is often impossible to clarify in any context).
I was hoping to finally find out what exactly precipitated Hopper's final breakdown's in '83. Intriguingly, the evidence offered by Winkler suggests that Dennis imbibed three heavily spiked tequila slammers. The resultant trip caused a meltdown that ultimately led to his sobriety. Yet by Hopper's own account (In the interview he gives in the recent Taschen edition of his photographs) it was enforced withdrawal from his chronic alcohol and cocaine habit that caused his meltdown. Hopper's own reasons are not mentioned here. But this is a moot point. This book is the most authorative account of Hopper's life thus far and the man himself comes across as neither likeable nor exactly hateable but as someone inarguably intoxicated by the agony of being alive.
I just wish there was something on 'White star'.
(Dennis Hopper: A Madness to His Method by Elena Rodriguez (1987) was a decent effort but seemed incomplete, perhaps because Hopper himself was still in transition at the time).
Winkler's Biography fills the gap well. It's effortlessly readable, detailed and thoroughly researched even if the latter can come across as a little workmanlike at times. Almost every film is covered in some detail (Bar my favourite - see below) while the more significant films; 'Easy Rider' and 'The Last Movie' get their own chapters.
The facts throw up the inevitable contradictions about who actually wrote what etc but that's as it should be. ('There are three sides to every story; My Side, your side and the truth' - Robert Evans. And the truth is often impossible to clarify in any context).
I was hoping to finally find out what exactly precipitated Hopper's final breakdown's in '83. Intriguingly, the evidence offered by Winkler suggests that Dennis imbibed three heavily spiked tequila slammers. The resultant trip caused a meltdown that ultimately led to his sobriety. Yet by Hopper's own account (In the interview he gives in the recent Taschen edition of his photographs) it was enforced withdrawal from his chronic alcohol and cocaine habit that caused his meltdown. Hopper's own reasons are not mentioned here. But this is a moot point. This book is the most authorative account of Hopper's life thus far and the man himself comes across as neither likeable nor exactly hateable but as someone inarguably intoxicated by the agony of being alive.
I just wish there was something on 'White star'.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By S. L. Naish
Format:Hardcover
Firstly Peter Winkler should be commended for writing an excellant and well researched book about actor, artist and director Dennis Hopper. The mans life has never been properly commited to page and this book does his varied career justice. However, this book left me a little sad. If you only knew Hopper from Blue Velvet or Easy Rider, after reading this book you'd be thinking that Hopper only did about five or six good films in his career. This is not the case. There are loads of performances worth checking out that this book ignores completly. The Blackout and White Star to mention just two. This book also seems to dismiss Hopper's second moive "The Last Movie" as a failed peice of film art pretention. Hopper should be given more praise for his bravery and candor in atempting to make such a experimental film with Hollywoods money, despite the commercial failure and negative critical response, his artistic vision never wained. This trait is evidenced thoughout his career. This book paints these brave artistic decisions as crazed, druged delusions of granduer.
The divorce from Victoria Duffy fills the last chapter and turns the book into a celebrity gossip feature, that paints Hopper in a very bad light. The only redemption for thne last chapter lies with Winklers inclusion of Kiplings poem "If", a poem that held a speacial meaning for Hopper and a doctrine for how Hopper lived his life.
I thought this book was a great read, but as a Hopper nut i wanted more, because i know there is more, a better book is yet to be written. This will do for now!
The divorce from Victoria Duffy fills the last chapter and turns the book into a celebrity gossip feature, that paints Hopper in a very bad light. The only redemption for thne last chapter lies with Winklers inclusion of Kiplings poem "If", a poem that held a speacial meaning for Hopper and a doctrine for how Hopper lived his life.
I thought this book was a great read, but as a Hopper nut i wanted more, because i know there is more, a better book is yet to be written. This will do for now!
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Ms. K. Hall
Format:Hardcover
This book is a cut above a trashy celebrity biography but it didn't make me like/dislike Dennis Hopper any more or less than I did before I read this book. Not sure if that's good or bad but it's certainly not a book I'm going to remember.
The most annoying thing about this book, however, is the fact that it was not proofread with any sort of attention. Quote marks were misused or dropped so you weren't sure who was saying what or where the quote ended and the author began again; words like to, of, the, were often missing; apostrophes were in the wrong place; words were misspelled - I reckon there was a mistake of some sort on every other page. Why should anyone buy a book that the publisher can't even be bothered to read properly?
The most annoying thing about this book, however, is the fact that it was not proofread with any sort of attention. Quote marks were misused or dropped so you weren't sure who was saying what or where the quote ended and the author began again; words like to, of, the, were often missing; apostrophes were in the wrong place; words were misspelled - I reckon there was a mistake of some sort on every other page. Why should anyone buy a book that the publisher can't even be bothered to read properly?
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