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Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood
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58
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
51/100Critics
65/100Scholars
Author:
Ed Zwick
Publisher:
Gallery Books
Date:
February 13, 2024
A career memoir from the director of Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai, Legends of the Fall that gives a dishy, behind-the-scenes look at working with some of the biggest names in Hollywood.
What The Reviewers Say
...a fantastically entertaining memoir that shows the movie business in high definition. It is part how-to guide, peppered with frank lists that crunch hard-won advice into easily digestible bites, and will be useful for young film-makers – but the layperson will inhale it for the gossip and what it reveals about the frankly bewildering systems of power that prop up the entertainment business. Zwick writes briskly and warmly, with a clear eye to keeping things moving. He admits early on that he is pulled between telling a good story and a desire “not to be excommunicated from certain Hollywood parties that I don’t care to attend anyway.' Happily for the reader, the storytelling wins that battle.
Zwick has seen things and done things, and he’s reached a stage of his career—and, 15 years after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, in his life—where he’s unafraid whom he might offend.
Not everyone is remembered so fondly, but the author on the whole comes off as humble about his success and charmingly self-deprecating. Writing in an age of superhero franchises and declining theatrical attendance, he observes with a sigh that 'movies for grown-ups on a large scale,' his métier, 'just aren’t being made these days.' There are notable exceptions to that claim, of course, but his memoir still evokes an era of Hollywood that feels different from our own..
Filled with both behind-the-scenes anecdotes, including his difficulties with Matthew Broderick on Glory and his attempts to wrangle a young Julia Roberts for Shakespeare in Love, and his pointed and insightful tips for directing and writing and thoughtful meditations on making a life in the arts, there’s plenty to enjoy here for film buffs and aspiring creatives alike..
