- Hardcover: 730 pages
- Publisher: Hutchinson; First Edition edition (2 Feb 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0091800048
- ISBN-13: 978-0091800048
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.4 x 5.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 930,830 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Hollywood Animal
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Product Description
Book Description
'Eszterhas is a wonderful storyteller, and Hollywood Animal is irresistibly entertaining. The gods look down, and we look up, dazzled by the light' Guardian
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
He spent his earliest years in post-World War II refugee camps. He came to America and grew up in Cleveland - stealing cars, rolling drinks, battling priests, nearly going to jail. He became the screenwriter of the world-wide hits "Basic Instinct", "Jagged Edge" and "Flashdance". He also wrote the legendary disasters "Showgirls" and "Jade". The rebellion never ended, even as his films went on to gross more than a billion dollars at the box office and he became the most famous - or infamous - screenwriter in Hollywood. Jo Eszterhas is a complex and paradoxical figure: part outlaw and outside combined with equal parts romantic and moralist. More than one person has called him 'the devil'. He has been referred to as 'the most reviled name in America' but "Time" asked, "If Shakespeare were alive today, would his name be Joe Eszterhas?' and he was the first screenwriter picked as one of the industry's 100 Most Powerful People. But there are many more laters to this extraordinary work. It is the story of a Hungarian street kid who survives a life filled with obstacles and pain...a chronicle of a love affair that is sensual, glorious, and unending...an excruciatingly detailed look at a man facing down the greatest enemy he's ever fought: the cancer inside him. ..and perhaps most importantly, "Hollywood Animal" is the heartbreraking story of a father and son that redefines the concepts of love and betrayal.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I couldn't put this down and had to finish it once I'd started, despite its 700+ page length. It's a brilliant insider account of the madness, back-stabbing and self-destruction that goes on in Hollywood. I've only seen a few of Eszterhas' films (Basic Instinct, Jagged Edge, Hearts of Fire), but his account of sex, drugs, drinking, marriage breakdown and big money deals he was involved with in La La Land in the 1990s is utterly compelling.
Eszterhas started out as a journalist but became a record-breaking screenplay writer in the 1980s. One treatment he wrote (in 4 hours) was sold for $4 million. A major Hollywood star sleeps with him to thank him for making her career. Bob Dylan's dogs dump on his doorstep. He forgets how to go shopping. Every paragraph has the structure of a mini screenplay, ending on some sort of shocking revelation or denouement.
Eszterhas gives you all the vicarious thrills you'd want. But what makes the book so thrilling is his skillful use of a variety of different voices. He writes movingly about his childhood and his relationship with his parents (discovering a dark secret at the heart of his father's biography). He presents occasional vignettes about subsidiary Hollywood players (such as the surgeon who had gold disks - not medical certificates - on his wall). And the book really moves up a gear when he quotes verbatim from the diary of the woman who eventually becomes his second wife. He spares us none of the grissly details about the breakdown of his marriage, his alcoholism (swigs of schnapps and bottles of beer all day plus 4 bottles of wine a night), and his illness. A thrilling, tragic, but ultimately uplifting autobiography of a Hollywood icon.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I think the "Hollywood Animal" has lived a much more interesting life than his screenplays and it would probably make a really good movie. He's done it all--the drugs, the woman, the business. The book is a bit gruff, but then so is Mr.E. A definte must read for anyone who loves books about Hollywood, but if you'd like one that's no so gruff, try a "Take Your Shirt Off" or a "You'll Never Eat Lunch..." instead.
Format:Paperback
I bought this book, purely because of the reviews while browsing Amazon and elsewhere. I am very pleased i did. It is most interesting and the way it is written means it does not have to be read compulsively in one go. Thus ideal for bedtime or on holiday.
This is a living as its happening 'biography' by an excellent writer. His writing style is excellent, easy and enjoyable and you can see why he is so successful as a Screenwriter. Any of his experiences it seems could be expanded into a novel.
Yes the context is Hollywood and the Film industry but also about life and personal relationships in the most intense way. He has lived and enjoyed life and now we can experience and appreciate it.
As a wealthy writer he can handle some of lifes problems in a different way to Mr office worker and reading about his life and Marin County lifestyle is interesting in itself.
This is a living as its happening 'biography' by an excellent writer. His writing style is excellent, easy and enjoyable and you can see why he is so successful as a Screenwriter. Any of his experiences it seems could be expanded into a novel.
Yes the context is Hollywood and the Film industry but also about life and personal relationships in the most intense way. He has lived and enjoyed life and now we can experience and appreciate it.
As a wealthy writer he can handle some of lifes problems in a different way to Mr office worker and reading about his life and Marin County lifestyle is interesting in itself.
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