He spent his earliest years in post-World War Two 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. (20040624)
Hollywood Animal
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Review
"Incendiary" (Arena )
"Compelling ... As gripping as it is harrowing" (Sunday Times )
"Monstrously entertaining ... you turn the pages faster and faster, with guilty admiration" (Evening Standard )
"I laughed like a hyena reading Hollywood Animal ... I couldn't put it down" (Christopher Bray Literary Review )
"Eszterhas is a wonderful storyteller, and Hollywood Animal is irresistibly entertaining. The gods look down, and we look up, dazzled by the light" (Guardian )
"Compelling ... As gripping as it is harrowing" (Sunday Times )
"Monstrously entertaining ... you turn the pages faster and faster, with guilty admiration" (Evening Standard )
"I laughed like a hyena reading Hollywood Animal ... I couldn't put it down" (Christopher Bray Literary Review )
"Eszterhas is a wonderful storyteller, and Hollywood Animal is irresistibly entertaining. The gods look down, and we look up, dazzled by the light" (Guardian )
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 (20040624)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Geoff Bunn
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.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
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.
By clive
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'd never heard of joe esterhas, but i put him right up there with the best now. His speciality is point of view writing.This must be a screen writer thing but some of the passages were dazzling.
You wonder what he might have written prose wise, but when he was getting four million a script, or even in one case four million for a four page treatment, then even a bestseller would have been a financial disaster.On top of the that all the top hollywood totty wanted to bang him when he was at the top of his game.
You wonder what he might have written prose wise, but when he was getting four million a script, or even in one case four million for a four page treatment, then even a bestseller would have been a financial disaster.On top of the that all the top hollywood totty wanted to bang him when he was at the top of his game.
By brian ingram
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.
By mr sk salt
Format:Paperback
Joe eszterhas is an exceptional thinker and writer. i could not put this book down, absolutely riveting. If you are serious about getting involved with the movie business, wether a producer, director or a writer, you must read this book more than any other. His book on screen writers "devils guide to hollywood (the screen writer as god)" is just as good, an essential for writers.
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