[ePub] What Just Happened?: Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line by Art Linson in Arts-Photography

Review

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful. The short version of how movies are madeBy Rick SpellI like books on Hollywood biz and this one fits the bill by a real pro. Art Linson. Anyone involved with classics like Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Fight Club and Heat knows his way around the business and how it has changed in the last 30 years. Linson throws one kink in the normal Hollywood tell-all. He introduces a fictitious former studio head that has lunches with Linson generating a lively dialog of the business by to former players.While I enjoyed this book. I have one major complaint. There are only four Hollywood stories in the book. Its like Linson has found his hit and can issue many sequels so he does so little at a time. The book is only 180 pages and is a very fast read. Also. the stories are not in great depth. For example. he describes the movie The Edge with Alec Baldwin and Anthony Hopkins. He does a good job describing how these two are selected and the great respect he has for both actors. But the story line quickly ends as Baldwin shows up overweight and with a long beard. Linson has to deliver the bad news that he must change his appearance. End of story. Lets move on to the next.While this story is anticlimactic after a flirtation with Robert Deniro in the movie. I like Linsons writing style for the subjects. Its short. uncomplicated and humorous. Other stories covered include Pushing Tin. Great Expectations and The Fight Club. All interesting stories but all written about very briefly.Irrespective. I still recommend this book if you enjoy reading Hollywood stories. Linson had a great career and Im sure there is another book coming in the future.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. If you like insider Hollywood stories. this is for you.By A CustomerIm a Hollywood junkie. so I enjoyed this book. Art Linson isnt nearly the natural storyteller that William Goldman is. meaning the book isnt quite the joy Goldmans books were to read. but. on the other hand. Art is a PRODUCER and he sees films further through than Goldman and his stories are a deeper vision. The device used in the book. of the author talking to another has-been. is (as it was noted) very. VERY annoying and I suggest you just skip it by (it adds nothing). The book is a quick. one-sitting read. and its as frivolous as a cookie wafer. Art certainly whines -- and Im sure "Great Expectations" bombed because it was a bad movie. not because "Titanic" had the same scene in it (Art even implies the naked-drawing idea was stolen!) -- but if Art wasnt a whiny guy who took no responsibility...he wouldnt have written this book. So the trade-off is okay with me.0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. A Zany Laff Riot.By Steven DaedalusWe dont usually think of producers as "literate types." Theyre the guys with the million-dollar Armani wardrobes and the thousand-dollar Gucci Pucci shoes up on their huge shiny desks. The last thing they ever wrote. aside from their signatures. was a high school term paper on the three branches of government.But Art Linson is a different breed. His memoirs -- for thats what these are -- are informative. perceptive. sometimes hilarious. unsentimental. and treat the reader as intelligent enough to understand messages that are left covert.It reminds me a little of William Goldmans experiences as described in "Adventures in the Skin Trade" and his second book. which was even more entertaining but the title of which I forget. The difference is that Goldman viewed events from the perspective of the underdog. the screenwriter. whereas Linson sees things from the top. as a movie producer.Theres no particular sentimentality in the book. Linson doesnt heap his calumny on any special individuals. Betrayals and insincerity come with the territory. Its the way things work. and Linson spreads his cynicism around generously. A friend of his "pissed everybody off by dying of a cerebral aneurism" at an early age. And hes got moviespeak down pat. If you send a script to an actor and he replies. "Its a good movie." that means "no." If he says "Im interested." that means "maybe."Theres no hogwash about esthetic integrity. "Were just trying to make quality movies here." Instead he expresses a certain envy of the people who establish and inherit a franchise like the Rocky movies or the Die Hards. He doesnt envy them for the product. but for their luck. Their futures are secure. while nobody elses is.Hes anything but egotistical. He limns in the development of his flops (eg.. "Sunset Strip") more in sorrow than in anger. And his description of the first studio viewing of the controversial "Fight Club" is neither angry nor said. Its frankly hysterically funny. The expressions on the bloodless faces of the men and women shuffling out of the screening. The comments -- "I dont care what anybody says. I think its still a good movie."The internal dynamics of the movie business are explored. maybe not thoroughly but accurately. We get to know the structure of the Hollywood totem pole. The guy at the top whose head is on the chopping block. The guy like the head of marketing who has little to lose. no matter how he handles the distribution of the movie. because he can always claim it was lousy to begin with and nothing could have saved it. The temperamental star. Alec Baldwin. who is supposed to be a greedy and murderous fashion photographer in "The Edge" but shows up porky and with a full beard. looking the way his co-star Anthony Hopkins is supposed to look. then throwing a tantrum when it is tentatively suggested that the beard might as well go.Theres a complete screenplay tacked on at the end for reasons I didnt quite get. And I dont think Ill bother with more of the many felicities in the book. Ill bet Linson had fun writing it. I know I would have. Some might find it boring if theyre not film buffs or pros. or if theyre not especially interested in descriptions of an alien life style. The rest will read it with relish.