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Quotable Walt Disney

tk

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

For Disneyphiles Only 3 out of 5 stars.
6 of 8 people found this review helpful.

The book is exactly what is claims to be: a collection of quotes attributed to Walt Disney. It is divided into sections according to theme, rather than chronologically, including materials on films and animation, Mickey Mouse, the theme parks, children, family, education, television, art and music, success and failure (there are 16 in all). Some of the quotes are familiar, others less so. Sometimes quotes are repeated in sections.

One of the book's major flaws is lack of context. Quotes are dropped in without explanation. This is quite common for the genre, but it means that the quotes are not useful for anything other than pithy statement unless the reader is already familiar with the context. The quotes do act as quick sound-bites for those interested in a positive look at Walt Disney's rhetoric. I appreciated the correct version of "I make the pictures for entertainment, and then the professors tell me what they mean" (197). Too often the statement gets changed to the plural we, which reconstructs Walt's statements and contributes to the "Cult of Walt Disney." As this example demonstrates, it should be remembered that, despite his claims to teamwork, Walt was interested in representing his vision on screen and elsewhere.

For that very reason, what isn't so useful to this book is its editing of comments and its omissions, both of which ultimately help construct the Cult of Walt Disney. Ellided are the comments about EPCOT (as the community of tomorrow) that state Walt's intention was not to let retirees live in EPCOT, or Walt's belief that EPCOT's residents should not own the land. Of course, these statements were said in a context that talked about urban planning, individuals' committment to community, and the need for control. Still, by editing the comments out, the book presents an overly simplistic picture of a complex man. Also missing are quotes that are critical, like some of Walt's statements during the animator's strike.

It's as if the Quotable Walt Disney simply wants to celebrate the legend and not reveal the man. To be fair, that's what most of these types of books do. But in continuing to reinforce the Cult of Walt Disney, the book avoids presenting Walt Disney as a human being full of incongruities and inconsistencies...it oversimplifies his reactions, influences, and intentions. And by keeping Walt a mythic figure, the Quotable Walt Disney provides a one-sided picture of the man. All on purpose, to be sure, but disappointing nonetheless.

Again, this unbalaced presentation is to be expected from a quote book meant to celebrate Walt Disney, inspire its readers, and reaffirm the ideas that the converted already hold about Walt. But it would have been nice to see more man and less myth in the picture.

For those interested in learning about Walt Disney, I would not recommend this book. It doesn't provide enough information for the basis of the quotes. Instead, read a biography--whether an "official" one like Thomas or 100 Years or the far more satisfying and complex one by Watts. If you're a Disneyphile or looking for a stocking stuffer gift for your favorite fan, sure, pick this up. Just remember that it is exactly what it claims to be: a book of quotations, meant to reinforce the "genius" and legend of Walt Disney and not to suggest the significance and implications of what Walt said.

Editorial Review:

Walt Disney's animated characters moved across the silver screen with the grace of fine actors. His vision revolutionized everything from television to theme parks. But this book is perhaps the preeminent aspect of his legacy - his philosophies and his dreams. Each anecdote lends sometimes simple, sometimes profound observations on life and all of its triumphs and defeats.

The quotes in this charming volume range from the well known to the obscure. Within the pages of Quotable Walt Disney are anecdotes that not only teach important lessons but also illuminate one of America's greatest creative geniuses. It is the perfect book to uplift, enlighten, and inspire.

All His Jazz: The Life And Death Of Bob Fosse

Martin Gottfried

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Winner of an Oscar for Cabaret, a Tony for Pippin’, and an Emmy for Liza with a ‘Z’—all in one year, 1972—Bob Fosse (1927–1987) was one of America’s greatest choreographers and directors. Born in Chicago, young Fosse began his career tap-dancing as part of the Riff Brothers in sleazy strip joints, where he encountered the erotic style that later became his signature. Best known for his Broadway hits (The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, Sweet Charity, and Chicago), he was also a successful movie director. Three of his five films were nominated for Academy Awards: Cabaret, Lenny, and the autobiographical All That Jazz. A compulsive womanizer, he had many affairs, even during his three marriages, the last of which was to actress Gwen Verdon, with whom he shared his most fruitful Broadway collaborations. As his fame grew, so too did his insecurities and addictions. He survived two heart attacks and several epileptic seizures, only to die on a street corner in Washington, D.C., in Verdon’s arms. After his death Fosse became a Broadway legend. Based on interviews with friends, family, and colleagues, this eloquent biography provides a vivid connection between Bob Fosse’s life and his work for stage and screen.

Walt Disney The American Dreamer

Thomas E Tumbusch

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Editorial Review:

Walt Disney has been described as complex, difficult to work with, and a workaholic. This book shows how simple his methods were and how he got so many people to want the same things he did.

He with the help of his brother Roy accomplished more in one life than any other modern entertainment executive. Walt s achievements are well documented. But how did this man, who quit formal education after one year in high school to become an ambulance driver for the Red Cross in France, achieve all the things he did?

Walt once said, If we can dream it, we can do it. Then he showed the world how to give cartoons a heart, make an animated feature film, and build Disneyland. Experts bet on his failure at every turn. When Walt did encounter major setbacks he had a way of turning them into a success. He didn t do it alone. His brother Roy was there his entire life to make his dreams financially possible. Walt carefully built teams of animators, motion picture production executives, and Imagineers who wanted to share his dreams.

This book focuses on how he did it and the key people who helped him. It is a compilation of facts learned through friendships with people who worked directly with Walt Disney while he was alive, plus interviews with others close to Walt.

Skywalking: The Life And Films Of George Lucas, Updated Edition

Dale Pollock

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Well written, bot not accurate... 3 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

An extremely well written book but I find some of the information within to not be entirely true. I have researched Lucas' achievements for nearly the last 20 years and Skywalking paints him to be egomaniacal, something that Lucas is far from.

To add, Lucas pulled his support for the book due to that very issue. Pollock is no doubt a talented writer, and there is some very good info within, but the author should go get a position at The Enquirer if he wants to spread gossip, which is just what he does in the updated version of the book, after Lucas expressed his concerns. Pollock takes several cheap shots at Lucas in a new chapter, unwarranted snips that are obviously meant as retaliation by Pollock. He gives Lucas an unwarranted suckerpunch by mentioning the obviously painful divorce from his wife Marcia. This is a real low blow that you would not suspect from a man of Pollock's stature in the industry.

Moreover, Pollock also mentions that Lucas is sue-happy, threatening to sue anyone who attempts to even mention his Star Wars franchise. This is simply not true. I myself wrote a book about the Star Wars films, and I was in contact on two different occasions with Lucasfilm representatives. Never once did they try to hinder my efforts or threaten me. In fact, they were even encouraging and thankful and always remained professional and courteous.

To add more negativity, Pollock paints incorrect images in his book. He makes it sound as if Harrison Ford considers Lucas to be like a plantation owner. "Master George," so Pollock would like readers to think. This could not be further from the truth. Harrison highly regards Lucas as one of his most admired filmmakers and friends. Ford has said in many interviews that the success of his career came largely from his association with Star Wars. Ford also only signed on to do three Indiana Jones pictures because Lucas was involved. Harrison stated in an interview that he signed on because he "knew the character and abilities of the filmmakers (Lucas/Spielberg) involved." Also, Ford stated in front of millions of viewers at the AFI Lucas award ceremony "I love you man." Doesn't sound to me like Harrison dislikes Lucas.

Furthermore, Pollock states that Lucas is like a hermit, hiding inside the walls of his ranch and secluding himself from the world. However, in another paragraph, Pollock mentions how Lucas must meet and greet over a hundred people a day, per Lucasfilm's daily operations. If I had to do that I'd want to be left alone for some quiet time, too.

Pollock then includes comments by movie critics who feel that Lucas has ruined big budget action films by inspiring other filmmakers to direct "all action" and "no story" films, leaving the movie-goers of today with lackluster action and sci-fi films. This is the biggest error of all. Lucas made Star Wars, a film that touched viewers across the globe -- because of its story and likeable characters -- and brought in the biggest fan explosion that Hollywood has ever seen. Lucas made a good movie that, at the time, was cutting edge and risky. If filmmakers of today can't match Lucas' ability to make a good film, like Star Wars, how can that be blamed on Lucas? Lucas made a good film and it struck a chord then as it does now. Blaming Lucas for ruining films of today is like going to an eatery on the north side of town, getting served a crappy meal, but instead of getting angry with the person who served your meal, you go to another eatery on the south side of town, who had nothing to do with your meal, and blame them. Ridiculous.

Sounds like Pollock is just jealous. He has an impressive career in the film industry, but he'll never match the iconic status that Lucas has achieved. Really, when you say Dale Pollock who perks up? When you say George Lucas people know what he's done. And this book just makes Pollock seem bitter. Pollock set out to write a controversial book about Lucas, and that's just what he did. Now Pollock bashes Lucas in interviews and has become the mascot for all Lucas-haters. What a shame.

Lucas' reputation as an integral man abounds with those who know him and have seen his efforts. It is a shame that this book doesn't focus on the positives.

A good book but be cautious of what you read...some of it is not true.

Editorial Review:

Updated with information on the "Star Wars" trilogy and prequels, this full-length biography of George Lucas reveals how the director continues to alter the landscape of the film industry. 28 photos.

Shock Value: A Tasteful Book About Bad Taste

John Waters

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The Filthiest Person Alive 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful.

John Waters is fantastic. His true talents are not in his films, but in his writing. He can take the mundane and make it extraordinary, the creepy and strange and make it funny, and the ugliest of the ugly and make them things of beauty. Though he's an old man now, and his movies have gone mainstream, this book is a look back at his hilarious youth and all the mischief making that made him and the Dreamland cast stars.

This book covers the making of all his films, the biographies and interviews with his famed cast members, as well as his inpirations (ex. Rus Meyer). You enjoy their antics and feel as if you are right along side them in the making of their hilarious movies and tasteful adventures in bad taste. You can't put it down and are actually laughing out loud as you read. And he even writes about his family. How punk rock!

One thing he taught me to do was to love my hometown. People never seem to like their hometowns, whether they are in the most flashy of cities or the tiniest one horse town. Life is what you make of it, and John put the hairdo capital of the world (Baltimore) on the map with his hijinx and adoration of all things weird and wonderful. He takes his enemies and makes them into glowing monsters we can all throw rotten tomatos at in his absence. The creepy weirdos aren't monsters, they're glorious, misunderstood creatures we are to embrace. Look for the scariest, craziest places and have the most rip roaring time with the clientele. I've taken his advice and now have the ability to talk to anyone, because there are loads of lonely lunatics out there just dying to be friends with you.

Editorial Review:

To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about. If someone vomits watching one of my films, it's like getting a standing ovation. Thus begins John Waters's autobiography. And what a story it is. Opening with his upbringing in Baltimore ("Charm City" as dubbed by the tourist board; the "hairdo capital of the world" as dubbed by Waters), it covers his friendship with his muse and leading lady, Divine, detailed accounts of how Waters made his first movies, stories of the circle of friends/actors he used in these films, and finally the "sort-of fame" he achieves in America. Complementing the text are dozens of fabulous old photographs of Waters and crew. Here is a true love letter from a legendary filmmaker to his friends, family, and fans.

Buster Keaton: The Persistence of Comedy

Imogen Sara Smith

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Buster Keaton: the Persistence of Comedy tells of the most dazzling and enigmatic of the silent clowns, a man who began his career in vaudeville as one-third of the Three Keatons, joining his parents at age four in their legendarily violent knockabout comedy act. He rose to the peak of his fame and artistic triumph while still in his twenties, directing and starring in a string of classic silent comedies, including his masterpiece, The General, only to fall from grace with shattering swiftness in the early 1930s. The coming of sound and the sea-change it brought to the movie industry, combined with Keaton's loss of creative independence, personal troubles and a severe drinking problem almost ended his career. He persevered through years of eclipse, eventually making a comeback on television in the 1950s and living to see himself acclaimed as one of cinema's immortals. Delving beneath the familiar facts to uncover Keaton's essential character as an artist, The Persistence of Comedy examines his life and work on both sides of the camera to create a rich portrait of the face, the body, the personality and the intelligence that went into his movies and continue to fascinate us because of his embodiment of paradoxes - artist and comic, director and performer, stuntman and subtle actor, icon of the machine age and lyrical portraitist of America's past. Opposing qualities of irony and sweetness, logic and absurdity, passion and impassiveness don't just coexist in Keaton's films and character, they are fused so completely that it is impossible to see where one ends and the other begins. Exploring controversies and unresolved questions, engaging previous criticism and offering new insights, The Persistence of Comedy pays tribute to Keaton's complexity and enduring relevance. His story inspires a meditation on the serious business of his comedy, the comic stance in life and Keaton's own singular, bone-deep version of it. Illustrated with rare stills and drawing from a wide range of sources including never-before uncovered interviews with Keaton's wives, this is an elegant celebration of Buster Keaton for both those already familiar with him and the newcomer.

A Killer Life: How an Independent Film Producer Survives Deals and Disasters in Hollywood and Beyond

Christine Vachon, Austin Bunn

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

better than film school! 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 12 people found this review helpful.

As an aspiring producer, I have long looked up to the indie queen Christine Vachon, and I was interested to read this book after having read her excellent SHOOTING TO KILL. I read that book when I was back in college, but this book is better. It's definitely more personal - in a way it reads like a memoir.

You feel like you are going through all the trials and tribulations with her. There's a lot of exciting stuff here - she battles the MPAA over Boys Don't Cry -- the bond company takes control of Far From Heaven-- she has interactions with big stars like Jude Law and Julia Roberts.
I have never been to Sundance, but Vachon's Sundance diary takes you through that festival with her.

All this makes for a book that's immensely readable; I couldn't put it down. I really liked the spotlights from other industry figures, agents, studio heads and directors like John Cameron Mitchell (who did my favorite film, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH!) If you are in the industry, want to learn about the industry or are just plain curious about how movies get made, go out and get this book now!

Editorial Review:

A Killer Life is a book about just that: the killer life of an alternative film producer who's forged her own path of success between the disparate pillars of art and commerce. Strong, steady, creative, loyal, funny, artistic, and doggedly determined to produce films that have meaning and substance and staying power in the pantheon of great cinema, Christine Vachon, a member of the Academy and born and bred on the realistic, unforgiving streets of New York City, is one of the most important people working behind the scenes in the film industry today. How did she get there? Why do directors love her? What does it take to produce great movies? What happened on the set of Kids? These answers and more are in her book!

Searching For John Ford: A Life

Joseph McBride

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Hollywood has given us no greater director than John Ford. Between 1917 and 1970, Ford directed and/or produced some 226 pictures, from short silent films to ambitious historical epics and searingly vivid combat documentaries. His major works-- such as Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, They Were Expendable, The Quiet Man, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance-- are cinematic classics. Ford's films about American history are profound explorations of the national character and the crucibles in which that character was forged. Throughout his long and prolific career, Ford became best known for redefining the Western genre, setting his dramas about pioneer life against the timeless backdrop of Monument Valley.

Ford's films earned him worldwide admiration. As a man, however he was tormented and deliberately enigmatic. He concealed his true personality from the public, presenting himself as an illiterate hack rather than as the sensitive artist his films show him to be. He shrewdly guided the careers of some of Hollywood's greatest stars, including John Wayne, Henry Fonda, James Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, and Katharine Hepburn, but he could be abusive, even sadistic, in his treatment of actors. He began his life steeped in the lore of Irish independence and progressive politics; by the end a hawkish Republican and rear admiral in the U.S. Navy, he was lionized by Richard Nixon for creating films that extol the "old virtues" of heroism, duty, and patriotism. Little wonder that those who have written about Ford have either strained to reconcile the daunting paradoxes of his work and personality or avoided them entirely. They have printed the legend and ignored the facts-- or printed the facts and obscured the legend.

In its depth, originality, and insight, Searching for John Ford surpasses all previous biographies of the filmmaker. Encompassing and illuminating Ford's complexities and contradictions, Joseph McBride comes as close as anyone ever will to solving what Andrew Sarris called the "John Ford movie mystery." McBride traces the whole trajectory of Ford's life, from his beginning as "Bull" Feeney, the near-sighted, football-playing son of Irish immigrants in Portland, Maine, through to his establishment as America's most formidable and protean filmmaker. The author of critically acclaimed biographies of Frank Capra and Steven Spielberg, McBride interviewed Ford in 1970 and co-wrote the seminal study John Ford with Michael Wilmington. For more than thirty years, McBride has been exploring the interconnections between Ford's inner life and his work. He interviewed more than 120 of the director's friends, relatives, collaborators, and colleagues. Blending lively and penetrating analyses of Ford's films with an impeccably documented narrative of the historical and psychological contexts in which those films were created, McBride has at long last given John Ford the biography his stature demands. Searching for John Ford will stand as the definitive portrait of an American genius.

Otto Preminger: The Man Who Would Be King

Foster Hirsch

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The first full-scale life of the controversial, greatly admired yet often underrated director/producer who was known as “Otto the Terrible.”

Nothing about Otto Preminger was small, trivial, or self-denying, from his privileged upbringing in Vienna as the son of an improbably successful Jewish lawyer to his work in film and theater in Europe and, later, in America.

His range as a director was remarkable: romantic comedies (The Moon Is Blue); musicals (Carmen Jones; Porgy and Bess); courtroom dramas (The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell; Anatomy of a Murder); adaptations of classic plays (Shaw's Saint Joan, screenplay by Graham Greene); political melodrama (Advise and Consent); war films (In Harm's Way); film noir (Laura; Angel Face; Bunny Lake Is Missing). He directed sweeping sagas (from The Cardinal and Exodus to Hurry Sundown) and small-scale pictures, adapting Françoise Sagan's Bonjour Tristesse with Arthur Laurents and Nelson Algren's The Man with the Golden Arm.

Foster Hirsch shows us Preminger battling studio head Darryl F. Zanuck; defying and undermining the Production Code of the Motion Picture Association of America and the Catholic Legion of Decency, first in 1953 by refusing to remove the words "virgin" and "pregnant" from the dialogue of The Moon Is Blue (he released the film without a Production Code Seal of Approval) and then, two yeras later, when he dared to make The Man with the Golden Arm, about the then-taboo subject of drug addiction. When he made Anatomy of a Murder in 1959, the censors objected to the use of the words "rape," "sperm," "sexual climax," and "penetration." Preminger made one concession (substituting "violation" for "penetration"); the picture was released with the seal, and marked the beginning of the end of the Code.

Hirsch writes about how Preminger was a master of the "invisible" studio-bred approach to filmmaking, the so-called classical Hollywood style (lengthy takes; deep focus; long shots of groups of characters rather than close-ups and reaction shots).

He shows us Preminger, in the 1950s, becoming the industry's leading employer of black performers—his all-black Carmen Jones and Porgy and Bess remain landmarks in the history of racial representation on the American screen—and breaking another barrier by shooting a scene in a gay bar for Advise and Consent, a first in American film.

Hirsch tells how Preminger broke the Hollywood blacklist when, in 1960, he credited the screenplay of Exodus to Dalton Trumbo, the most renowed of the Hollywood Ten, and hired more blacklisted talent than anyone else.

We see Preminger's balanced style and steadfast belief in his actors' underacting set against his own hot-tempered personality, and finally we see this European-born director making his magnificent films about the American criminal justice system, Anatomy of a Murder, and about the American political system, Advise and Consent.

Foster Hirsch shows us the man—enraging and endearing—and his brilliant work.

Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood

Todd McCarthy

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Howard Hawks is the first major biography of one of Hollywood's greatest directors, a filmmaker of incomparable versatility whose body of work includes the landmark gangster film Scarface, screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday, the Bogart-Bacall classics To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep, the musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and aviation classics and Westerns like The Dawn Patrol and Rio Bravo. Sometime partner of the eccentric Howard Hughes, drinking buddy of William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, an inveterate gambler and a notorious liar, Hawks was the most modern of the great masters and one of the first directors to declare his independence from the major studios. He played Svengali to Lauren Bacall, Montgomery Clift, and others, but Hawks's greatest creation may have been himself. As The Atlantic Monthly noted, "Todd McCarthy . . . has gone further than anyone else in sorting out the truths and lies of the life, the skills and the insight and the self-deceptions of the work." "A fluent biography of the great director, a frequently rotten guy but one whose artistic independence and standards of film morality never failed." -- The New York Times Book Review; "Hawks's life, until now rather an enigma, has been put into focus and made one with his art in Todd McCarthy's wise and funny Howard Hawks." -- The Wall Street Journal; "Excellent . . . a respectful, exhaustive, and appropriately smartass look at Hollywood's most versatile director." -- Newsweek.