Rating: 
Summary: Easy Gosip Ragging Drugs
Review: This is simply the best inside book on the movie revolt in Hollywood in the late 60s and 70s. Simply amazing gosip but more amazing is the excess of ego and creative genius all so lost to sex and drugs. As a "liberal" I for the first time could see why people hate Hollywood so much. And yet as a fan of so many of the directors discussed in the book I found the whole revolt worthwhile. And now we are left with corporations making the likes of Gladiator and considering giving it an Oscar. If you enjoy the inside story and how ego and creativity empacks risk taking your sure to fine this an enjoyable read.
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Summary: Scandalously fascinating insight into 70s Hollywood....
Review: This book is a terrific read: an amazingly revealing insight into the workings of the Hollywood machine and a convincing explanation of why the film industry is the way it is today. Fascinating for any film fan but truly essential for those particularly interested in Coppola, Scorcese, Altman and the other enfants terribles of the 70s. I learned more than I ever thought I would about the strange habits, curious peccadilloes and psychological frailties of these legendary directors and producers. Seminal figures such as Dennis Hopper, William Friedkin, Peter Bogdanovich and Scorsese all come across as frighteningly deranged, emphasising the fine line that separates genius from insanity - and many of these characters clearly ended up on the wrong side of the divide. One of Biskind's great strengths is that he seeks to portray all sides of the story, and it's hard not to believe the majority of what is reported simply for the fact that if wasn't true you can bet your life that lawsuits would have stopped publication in its tracks.The spirit of the times engendered by the rise of the anti-Vietnam, hippy counterculture, generated a climate where a new form of creativity was allowed to enter the mainstream for the first time. This produced a fabulous glut of films - Bonnie and Clyde, The Godfather, The Exorcist, Taxi Driver, The Deerhunter, Star Wars, MASH and dozens of others. Biskind's belief is that the rise of the super director destroyed this astounding period in Hollywood history - egos and pay checks became so over inflated that eventually the studios realised that they had to seize back control. As a result the industry more or less stopped producing original pictures and opted for the safe bet of formulaic blockbusters which were more likely to draw big crowds - through excessive marketing and merchandising campaigns and extravagant special effects. Biskind's style is compelling and the anectdotal evidence at times hilarious, at others horrific (Peter Bogdanovich's fall from grace is particularly gruesome). 'Easy Riders Raging Bulls' must be one of the best books yet written about Hollywood and one of the best non-fiction books I have read in many years.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to Follow, Kinda Boring
Review: I found it really hard to follow who the heck the author was talking about and who he was quoting. The way it was written, it just didn't flow, seemed choppy.
Rating: 
Summary: A Treasure of a Book
Review: I happened upon this book by accident, and am ever so glad I did. No doubt I, twenty-three years old, now know more about Hollywood films circa the '60s and the '70s than many people who were alive at the time. First, it should be noted that Biskind is a first-rate writer. His writing has appeared in first-rate publications (such as the New York Times Magazine). Those who criticize his writing are, I'm afraid, Hollywood types accustomed to the atrocious grammar of your average Hollywood script. Anyone educated in literature or English will recognize Biskind as a first-rate writer. Second, it should be pointed out that _Easy Riders, Raging Bulls_ is a book sure to infuriate many. When an industry and its key players are exposed to such a searching inquiry as Biskind has made, there will no doubt be bitter resentment in those whose lives and whose industry has been probed. And there lies, I believe, the source of many of the negative reviews found on this site, Amazon.com. The truth is, this book is not gossipy, it is not scandal-obsessed. This book is a formidably-researched, finely-written, scholarly look at the American film world from the mid-60s to the early-80s. Peter Biskind deserves to receive more for writing this oustanding book than the poorly-written and accusatory blatherings of Hollywood people bitter at his investigative successes. Biskind deserves to receive congratulations. Anyone interested in learning for learning's sake will join me in congratulating him on his fine book _Easy Riders, Raging Bulls_.
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Summary: an enjoyable and interesting, but misleading, book
Review: I really liked this book. It's a very entertaining read. Not many of the filmmakers chronicled come off very well as human beings - but somehow Biskind enables them all to retain their humanity. The story of movies in the 70s is extremely absorbing. I take exception to the general thesis that Jaws and then Star Wars created an infantilization of Hollywood that "destroyed" the creative moviemaking prevalent early in the decade. Biskind has only chosen to focus on the films that are remembered today from the 70s, not necessarily those that were most popular with audiences then. Yes, it's true that Godfather, Exorcist, Jaws, and Star Wars were the biggest hits of the decade. But it's not like McCabe and Mrs Miller, Last Picture Show, Mean Streets, Chinatown, and the Conversation made a splash at the box office. In fact, when those movies came out, they were largely ignored by the general public in favor of some huge box office hits that Biskind ignores - such as Towering Inferno, the Sting, Poseidon Adventure, Love Story, Fiddler on the Roof, and Airport. Those hits were the exact same sort of pre-packaged, glossy entertainment Hollywood has always produced. Personally, I like those kinds of movies a lot better than the brutal, gory nihilism of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. But the point is that this is what Hollywood has ALWAYS been about - including in the early 70s - and it is historically inaccurate to suggest that Star Wars and Jaws changed the way the studios did business.
Rating:
Summary: highly entertaining and fun
Review: I read lots of entertainment books and this was the best since goldman's adventures in the screen trade. for everyone who loved the classic movies of the 70's and are familiar with all the directors who came of age then, you'll love this book. A lot of fun and highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: A Trashy but Entertaining Look at the 70s Film Generation
Review: Easy Riders, Raging Bulls is a director-to-diretor, movie-to-movie account of the New Hollywood generation of the 70s. What is so amazing about this book is how well its author Peter Biskind has researched and structured it. Sadly much of the books potential is ruined with the blatant gossip and repetitive style. The book begins by talking about how the films Bonnie and Clyde and Easy Rider really started the New Hollywood generation by putting their movies in demand. The book continues to talk about such films as MASH, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show, The Godfather, The Exorcist, Chinatown, Jaws, Taxi Driver, Star Wars, The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, Raging Bull, and many others in great detail. It also gives a lot of gritty and often sex and drug oriented gossip on some of your favorite filmmakers including Coppola, Beatty, Lucas, Scorsese, Spielberg, Bogdonavich, Friedkin, and Altman, which is entertaining and often compelling for the first 100 pages, but then it becomes disgusting. The redeeming qualities of the book are that it explains the process of how each of these films were made, and the small bios on the different filmmakers it gives. This book could've been written much better, and it's sad to see the true knowlegde that the writer possesses of the industry and the era, be presented in such a self-indulgent and lude way. I suppose that this book book does appeal to a lot of people , but not to me, even as a bonafide movie-buff.
Rating:
Summary: Reads like a trashy, engrossing novel
Review: As a non-movie type, but one who loves reading about the intrigues and excesses of that culture, I found this book a great read. Biskind's style was at times confusing (interchanging first and last names, using pronouns), but he still makes his point. The people in this book were, for the most part, extremely talented and found their true niche in the movie industry. But, man, did they have issues! Even if half of this is true, it's a wonder that most of them made it into the 80's. About 2/3 of the way through the book got very depressing since the stories were all the same: hard drugs, more hard drugs, excessive drinking, violent temper tantrums, being double crossed by a good friend, etc. etc. But, it is fascinating to read about this group of people who have had a major impact on millions for over 30 years.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Look at the Films of the 70s
Review: This is bar none one of the most interesting books I've ever read. I realize that some of the anecdotes and stories may not be true, but aside from that, you really get an insider's view on the key players who helped to make the movies what they are today. As a huge fan of Scorsese, and barely alive when Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull were released, it was interesting to me to see the initial reaction of the studios and the public to his films. (Who would ever believe that Raging Bull wasn't a huge hit?) And George Lucas and the building of Star Wars, this phenomenal hit, that no one thought was going to do anything (except him, of course. He knew.) The thing is, all of these guys are great directors, but it seems that none of them know how to bring in a film on a budget. Very funny. The book definitely ends on a down note, and you really feel sorry for them, especially for Coppola, who never quite achieved what he set out to. I would recommend this movie to anyone who has an interest in the movies, especially the movies of the 70s and the impact that they had.
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Summary: Forget the directors - give us the films!
Review: A major disappointment, given the quality of Biskind's "Seeing is Believing." As with most professions, there are drug addicts, wife beaters, and megalomaniacs among movie makers. Biskind seems to think such information will shock his readers, forgetting such information was made public via the popular press at the time it happened. It's a sad story, no doubt, but we've heard it all before. Biskind is excellent in interpreting films in "Seeing is Believing," but for some reason he prefers to tell us about sex and drugs among the New Hollywood elite. Rock and roll? Biskind fails to mention the Steppenwolf soundtrack to "Easy Rider," an omission which either betrays Biskind's attitude to rock and roll or his inability to take New Hollywood soundtracks seriously. In the rare passages where Biskind gets down to analyzing the films instead of their makers, he can truly carry the reader along with him. I would love to hear more about the real message of "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," for instance. In the first chapter, though, Biskind is carried away by the notion that New Hollywood begins with "Bonnie and Clyde," a dubious notion at best. Biskind ignores the contributions of Hitchcock, even though Bogdanovich is a Hitchcock groupie. Ignoring the work of Sidney Lumet in the 60s and 70s makes it difficult to take Biskind seriously. Biskind forces his criticism into the procrustean bed of his concept of New Hollywood and he alone decides who belongs and who does not. Still, there are some laugh-out-loud funny passages, especially the exchange between Alan Ladd, Jr. and Grace Kelly at a Fox board of directors meeting. I read this book over my vacation, and I'm not sorry I did. However, I expected a lot more, based on "Seeing is Believing." Next time: c'mon, Peter - forget the directors and give us the films!
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