Adventures in the Screen Trade

Rating:
Summary: "NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING."
Review: The title of this review is the most memorable quote from this book. It became Goldman's motto for why Hollywood cannot predict the results of what the outcome of any project will be. Actually, it has become my personal motto in life. When family relationships don't go the way you expect, when work associates go off the deep end unexpectedly, when the best-trained minds of our time cannot fathom or fix a political or economic disaster, I think of this motto & laugh. Thanks for it, Mr. Goldman.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Anecdotes from a Big Ego
Review: This book is considered sort of a must-read for anyone interested in screenwriting, and I must admit that it was filled with lots of fascinating anecdotes about movie people and insights into what goes into the making of a film.

However, a couple things turned me off. First, It was written in 1982. Other than computers and the internet, there is perhaps no field that has changed more rapidly in the past 18 years than movies. Therefore, the entire book just felt very very dated. Goldman makes constant references to "current" films, many of which turned out to be complete flops or are now unfamiliar altogether. Also, he has a rather amusing habit of making predictions about the future of American cinema, American tastes, and future events in general. Most of them turned out to be completely off base. Finally, there's no question that Mr. Goldman has a huge ego. Perhaps much of that is well-deserved, and he tries to temper it with humble self depreciation, but it still comes across loud and clear. I found that rather off-putting.

Overall, there were parts of this book that I very much enjoyed, and I'm looking forward to reading Which Lie Did I Tell This Time, hoping it will be a more up-to-date version of Adventures in the Screen Trade.

Rating:
Summary: It's A Wonderful Book
Review: This is a great book by any standards. It's about film, for sure, but a lot more besides - it's about what moves us and entertains us, about how we behave, about perception and reality, about the creative act (in any field), about What We Know... file next to Pauline Kael in your 'great film writing' section.

Rating:
Summary: interesting but ego-riddled
Review: This is an entertaining book and an easy read. As an aspiring screenwriter, I found parts of it useful and informative, particularly the first part that talks about stars and their importance in Hollywood. Certainly Goldman knows about attracting stars with his scripts, having written several films starring Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, and others.

His point that "NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING" may be true, but it is especially un-useful for anyone who would like to break into filmmaking. Whether the studio chiefs know anything or not, you have to get them to hire you or you aren't going to go anywhere in movies. "NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING" can be a good excuse if your work is rejected; it has also been a much-quoted line over the years for critics who are very cynical about Hollywood and don't appreciate how hard people have to work to make movies - even the bad ones.

Goldman's Roman Numeral II - "SCREENPLAYS ARE STRUCTURE" - is only minimally useful because he never defines "structure." I think I know what he means by it, but only from my own experience, not from anything in this book.

I agree that his analysis of what made the "Butch Cassidy" screenplay work is interesting and useful. I thought the "DaVinci" story was much better than the script, and George Roy Hill's comments were right on target.

The part of the book that I found very irritating was the "adventures." Goldman was probably the most successful screenwriter around during the period this section covers, rivalled only by Robert Towne. He sold "Butch Cassidy" for $400,000 in 1967 (the equivalent of several million today) and won an Oscar for it, and he also worked on other major films such as President's Men, Marathon Man, Bridge Too Far, etc. He is obviously a great screenwriter and deserves all the success he has had. But his "adventures" do not provide anything approaching a real history of his experiences in movies. For my money, he never really reveals anything interesting or informative about any of these movies. The real point of his stories seems to be: (1) yes, I was there in person with Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman, and Robert Redford, and Laurence Olivier called me "Bill;" and (2) I want it known that the studios hired me to work on "Grand Hotel" and "The Right Stuff" (my name not having appeared in the credits for those films).

Rating:
Summary: interesting but ego-riddled
Review: This is an entertaining book and an easy read. As an aspiring screenwriter, I found parts of it useful and informative, particularly the first part that talks about stars and their importance in Hollywood. Certainly Goldman knows about attracting stars with his scripts, having written several films starring Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, and others.

His point that "NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING" may be true, but it is especially un-useful for anyone who would like to break into filmmaking. Whether the studio chiefs know anything or not, you have to get them to hire you or you aren't going to go anywhere in movies. "NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING" can be a good excuse if your work is rejected; it has also been a much-quoted line over the years for critics who are very cynical about Hollywood and don't appreciate how hard people have to work to make movies - even the bad ones.

Goldman's Roman Numeral II - "SCREENPLAYS ARE STRUCTURE" - is only minimally useful because he never defines "structure." I think I know what he means by it, but only from my own experience, not from anything in this book.

I agree that his analysis of what made the "Butch Cassidy" screenplay work is interesting and useful. I thought the "DaVinci" story was much better than the script, and George Roy Hill's comments were right on target.

The part of the book that I found very irritating was the "adventures." Goldman was probably the most successful screenwriter around during the period this section covers, rivalled only by Robert Towne. He sold "Butch Cassidy" for $400,000 in 1967 (the equivalent of several million today) and won an Oscar for it, and he also worked on other major films such as President's Men, Marathon Man, Bridge Too Far, etc. He is obviously a great screenwriter and deserves all the success he has had. But his "adventures" do not provide anything approaching a real history of his experiences in movies. For my money, he never really reveals anything interesting or informative about any of these movies. The real point of his stories seems to be: (1) yes, I was there in person with Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman, and Robert Redford, and Laurence Olivier called me "Bill;" and (2) I want it known that the studios hired me to work on "Grand Hotel" and "The Right Stuff" (my name not having appeared in the credits for those films).

Rating:
Summary: Unappreciated
Review: William Goldman at his best.

An insider's view of Hollywood. Too much time spent on haircuts. He straddles the fence. He won't bite the hand that that feeds him real hard. Who is or are is Tristan and Isoloda.? What ever happened to Walt in Boys and Girls together?

Enough of the inside humor. It is a good entertaining read.

Signed David Black Nashville Tn

Rating:
Summary: Goldman is a great storyteller.
Review: William Goldman is one of the most successful screenwriters in Hollywood. This book describes how he got in the business, and how he has succeeded. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I found his stories about Olivier, Newman, Redford, etc. very interesting, and I think Goldman would be the perfect person to be seated next to a dinner party -- his anecdotes are funny and revealing. Those looking for guidance on how to make it as a screenwriter will probably be somewhat frustrated by the book, although Goldman does discuss in detail his writing of Butch Cassidy. He also has an interesting section at the end of the book that consists of an idea for a screenplay accompanied by comments from directors and other screenwriters. This book is a must for anyone interested in movies.

Rating:
Summary: Goldman is a great storyteller.
Review: William Goldman is one of the most successful screenwriters in Hollywood. This book describes how he got in the business, and how he has succeeded. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I found his stories about Olivier, Newman, Redford, etc. very interesting, and I think Goldman would be the perfect person to be seated next to a dinner party -- his anecdotes are funny and revealing. Those looking for guidance on how to make it as a screenwriter will probably be somewhat frustrated by the book, although Goldman does discuss in detail his writing of Butch Cassidy. He also has an interesting section at the end of the book that consists of an idea for a screenplay accompanied by comments from directors and other screenwriters. This book is a must for anyone interested in movies.

Rating:
Summary: A must-read for anyone remotely interested in the film biz
Review: Writing screenplays can be a thankless task; producers, directors, and actors all have their own agendas and many are quite willing to sack the writer at the earliest opportunity in order to further those agendas. The salary can be nice, for sure, but you have to wonder sometimes why writers put up with it. Adventures in the Screen Trade will certainly have you asking that question more than once, but it also helps you get inside a writer's head and understand the rewards.

William Goldman wrote Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Princess Bride (both the book and the screenplay), and a ton of other books and screenplays. There's plenty of humor in Adventures, although not of the absurd type found in Princess Bride; it's more of a light-hearted, can-you-believe-this tone that you'd expect to hear from someone who is supposed to give a lecture but decides he wants to drop the pretense and have an informal conversation with the audience.

The book opens with Goldman's analysis of the various elements of the film industry. The heart of the book, though, is probably the middle two sections. Goldman discusses his own adventures in the trade, and devotes at least a chapter to most of the films on which he worked from 1965 to 1979. He talks about the problems he encountered trying to find the "spine" of the stories, the structure that would let him transform an idea into a blueprint for a movie. He discusses the negotiations that tried to navigate through all those agendas - and sometimes succeeded; what connected with an audience and what didn't; and the small thrills that can be a part of the moviemaking process, like Sir Lawrence Olivier asking him if it was OK to rearrange a few words of dialogue in Marathon Man. There is some fairly juicy behind-the-scenes gossip here, but Goldman doesn't come off as vindictive; he's often just as critical of himself as he is of anyone else, and he seems to understand how people with the best of intentions can still wind up making each other's lives difficult.

He also dissects the screenplay to Butch Cassidy - reprinted here in its entirety - in great detail. Both the dissection and the screenplay itself are tremendously useful to anyone who really wants to understand the screenwriting process, even though I'm fairly certain these days that very few people use quite the format that Goldman does. The final section of the book is another boon to those interested in the guts of screenwriting. Goldman takes one of his old short stories, transforms it into a short screenplay, and then gets feedback on the script from top Hollywood professionals in a number of disciplines. It gives an added perspective to the look behind the curtain of filmmaking and balances the memoir elements of the book quite well.

I've reread this book at least five times, and I still enjoy it thoroughly. That I've learned anything is a considerable bonus. For education or enjoyment, you can't beat this book.