gneumatic 's review for:

Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting by William Goldman

4.0

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I don’t know how practical most of the advice in this book is, as it was published in 1982. Though I’m sure the politics of Hollywood are, in many ways, much the same today as they were in the ‘80s or the ‘40s, for that matter. Which is fine, because Goldman is at his curmudgeonly best when he’s in tea-spilling, tell-all mode. Certainly, he is a great writer - Butch Cassidy, Marathon Man, All the President’s Men, etc. But his insights into craft and process are a hodgepodge that never quite amount to more than the sum of their parts. Still, a fun read that definitely feels like a look behind the curtain into a bygone era.