Rating: 
Summary: Raunchy & hilarious
Review: Easily Southern's best novel. I must admit I was disappointedwith CANDY and THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN, which I read before this book,.... but BLUE MOVIE delivers the goods with an ourageously sleazy andunfailingly funny portrait of Hollywood power brokers and their sexualhangups. All of the Big Players get their lumps: the Big Studio Head,the Pretentious Director, the Stoned Writer, the Ambitious Starlet,etc. The real strength of the novel is that Southern manages tohumanize his caricatures, thus rendering his satiric bite even morevicious. (Ya gotta love Sid Krassman --- truly a crass man.) Those whobelieve in the V-chip and warning labels on rock albums should stayaway, but for those who like a read on the wild side, BLUE MOVIE willleave you in more stitches than DeNiro as Frankenstein's monster.
Rating:
Summary: Raunchy & hilarious
Review: Easily Southern's best novel. I must admit I was disappointedwith CANDY and THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN, which I read before this book,.... but BLUE MOVIE delivers the goods with an ourageously sleazy andunfailingly funny portrait of Hollywood power brokers and their sexualhangups. All of the Big Players get their lumps: the Big Studio Head,the Pretentious Director, the Stoned Writer, the Ambitious Starlet,etc. The real strength of the novel is that Southern manages tohumanize his caricatures, thus rendering his satiric bite even morevicious. (Ya gotta love Sid Krassman --- truly a crass man.) Those whobelieve in the V-chip and warning labels on rock albums should stayaway, but for those who like a read on the wild side, BLUE MOVIE willleave you in more stitches than DeNiro as Frankenstein's monster.
Rating: 
Summary: Can a porno flick be art?
Review: For those familiar with Southern's screenplay for "Dr Strangelove" and his famously raunchy novel "Candy," "BlueMovie" will be a delightful pousse-cafe. Hot on the heels of his historic collaboration with Stanley Kubrick, Southern explores a simple thesis: what if a great film director decides to make a movie with explicit sex scenes involving A-list actors? (Far-fetched, you say? At one point Mike Nichols was set to direct Julie Andrews in the film version of this book.) But Southern is less interested in making grand statements on cinema and sex than in exploding their myths, preferably with a great gas cloud of black humor. "Blue Movie" is not for the feminist or the easily-shocked; but for the reader in search of the hipster's guide to porno filmmaking, it is indispensable.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable...
Review: light satire about the making of a 'Blue Movie." The world's most accomplished filmmaker decides to make a dirty movie using top-notch actors, excellent production values, and a great script. Personally if I were a woman I'd find the book somewhat offensive and misogynistic, since all of the male characters use the women for their personal goals, sexual and artistic. Politics (racial and sexual) aside, the novel's a light, fun read. The archetypes are all there - the pretentious, artsy director; the perpetually stoned, crazy writer; the sleazy, obscene producer; and the emotionally unstable actress. If you are looking for a light, breezy novel and are not offended by explicit sex and racial stereotypes, then give it a try. It's fairly funny. The dialogue is great. The prose style is in the bare-boned, minimalist style of Raymond Carver. This was my first Southern novel, but I think I'll try some of his other stuff, when I'm looking for something profane and funny. It bears mentioning that the book was dedicated to "the great Stanley K." It's hard not to think if the director in the book was based on Kubrick, with whom Terry worked with on Dr. Strangelove. (BTW - Terry Southern contributed to another seminal film of the 60's - Easy Rider, but you all already knew that)
Rating:
Summary: 1 of the most hilarious books ever !
Review: quite simply a perverted joy,from begining to end..with some of the most hideous and realistic,hollywood characters..continues in
the great traditions of the last tycoon,the day of the locust and what makes sammi run.but with much more monstrous honesty..
a massive underated american classic,but be warned it is filthy.
Rating:
Summary: Stanley K.
Review: Southern dedicates this book to Stanley K., for whom he wrote the Dr. Strangelove screenplay. It would have been GREAT to see Kubrick do an on-screen version of this wonderfully satiric novel!An obvious poke at the Hollywood self-styled 'artistic' community, Blue Movie reads more like an excerpt of Hustler's Letters than a standard novel at times. The world's premiere director, for the sake of 'art', wants to film a porn flick that isn't merely gratuitous sex within a thin plot -- like the stereotypical stag film. However, as the novel unfolds, it becomes apparent to the reader that this is futile despite these grand delusions of art - the story of their escapades mirrors a stereotypical porn movie plotline itself - this book isn't merely ABOUT filming a BLUE MOVIE, it's a self-contained BLUE MOVIE in itself! Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A dark and raunchy satire!
Review: Terry Southern floored me with Candy, and I couldn't wait to read another one of his comic -- albeit raunchy -- satires. Blue Movie did not disappoint me. The story of an accomplished filmmaker's attempt at creating an adult movie with famous actors in it is dark, stark, smut, fun and entertaining. There are a lot of political aspects that might offend some people, but the point of the story is that it's satirical - i.e., truth without apology. I couldn't put this book down. This novel is as outrageous and sinister as Candy. Are you in the bargain for a satirical read? I suggest Blue Movie. Terry Southern is brilliant. I, for one, shall give his other novels a whirl.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Comic Novel
Review: Terry Southern is a vastly underrated deadpan chronicler of the absurd and this novel is a scabrous classic, satirising the attempts of a celebrated director to make the first 'artistic' hardcore movie. Uncannily, Southern anticipated the emergence of 'porno chic' in mid-70s America. As well as chronicling a porn shoot, this book also makes its own unique contribution to the erotic arts, with a stream of wildly unhinged and increasingly tasteless set-piece sex scenes. And isn't that dedication (to 'the great Stanley K.') the most back-handed ever, given that the character based on Kubrick is both pretentious and foolish?
Rating:
Summary: Old Fashioned Raunchy Fun
Review: Terry Southern was one of the 60's bad boys, politically to the Left, not quite avant garde, a "dirty" writer. He has penned a hilarious story about the making of a porn movie. There is nothing to say but that the characters are as outrageous as the action and this is NOT a book that goes from one ribald act to another. It is (truly) about making a "blue movie". I still smile when I think of the dialogue (quote unquote) as the evil, Yankee soldier prepares to deflower the helpless, Southern beauty. The book has a very satisfying ending.
Rating:
Summary: Outrageous, Irreverent Fun
Review: This was my third trip through Terry Southern's version of Hollywood, and I rarely reread. This is one hilarious novel. Funny, erotic, surreal, offensive, all the things a good book should be. The main premise of the book is simple: what if Hollywood's greatest director decided to make a high-budget porn film. Good actors, good lighting, good writer, good director (of course), everything missing from garden-variety smut. They are able to secure funding and Southern takes us through every step of the filming process. Casting, all the behind the scenes politics, rewrites, and especially the shooting. Southern writes explicitly of all the action that is to take place on screen. So, if you are offended by explicit descriptions of varied sex acts, then this book is not for you. Everyone on this film is obsessed by sex, and there is as much going on off screen as there is on. If that were all this book had to offer, I would say skip it, but Terry Southern is a man who can write. This may be smut on the surface, but underneath, it's literature. He knows when euphemism will work better than directness, and when to "cut away" from a scene--when enough is enough. So, if you are interested in what happens during the making of a film--of any kind--then read this book. If you are interested in good writing, then read this book. And, especially, if you want to have a good, rollicking time, then read this book.
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