Rating: 
Summary: Pathetic, Pointless Defense of a Pathetic 8 Year Effort
Review: "Living Off the Big Screen" is a surprisingly apt sub-title for this book, which comes across as an attempt by the screenwriter to ingratiate himself with those who had paid him so lucratively for the drivel put together for "Up Close & Personal", and who he'd certainly like to have hire (and pay so exorbitantly) him and his wife once again. I give this book a rating of 2 simply because: 1 point for the fact that it's an easy enough read -- no getting tied up in interesting plot convultions or character development or descriptive imagery or poetic prose here, and 1 point for the fact that Hollywood is an intrinsically and perhaps perversely interesting subject to read about. Otherwise, this book makes the unfortunate spectacle of itself by making the screenwriter author seem to epitomize the whining, sniveling, uncreative, self-absorbed, self-important, stenographic, faux au courant high-brow aesthete, money bloated hack stereotype that the industry seems so willing to attach to screenwriters. The writer spends most of the book whining about his health, whining that moviemakers don't seem to find his efforts of staggering artistic worth and merit, name-dropping about hanging out with industry figures, and blathering about exotic locales in which to vacation in between brief stints in other exotic locales in which he and his wife actually "work" on screenplays! He breaks one of Hollywood's most holy conventions by not making himself a sympathetic protagonist. The one thing that this book SHOULD have done, that would certainly have been of interest, would be to shed some light on how he and his wife engage in the creative process together. Most aspiring writers or screenwriters are keenly curious on how the magic comes together for other, established writers, and expounding on how Dunne and his wife crank out the pages would have been an interesting and perhaps valuable service to the writing community. But, lo and behold, Dunne is either too paranoically insecure to reveal his secrets or was to superficially involved in his own writing to realize that readers might enjoy his insight on the writing process rather than his insight on taking meeting notes from producers and spitting venom at studio lawyers. Oh well. Maybe he'll hit these points in Monster 2, the sequel. Can't wait.
Rating: 
Summary: How Unseemly that Alanna Nash comments on "Monster"
Review: Alanna Nash, author of 'Golden Girl', a book peripherally related to Dunne's 'Monster', seems to be attempting to ride the coat-tails of this camisole of a book. How unseemly.
Rating: 
Summary: excellent insider's account
Review: An excellent account of screenwriting and movie making, told in a very sardonic manner. If you liked Memo from David O. Selznick or William Goldman's Adventures in the Screen Trade, or Dunne's own The Studio, you'll probably enjoy this as well.
Rating: 
Summary: A book without heroes
Review: An uneven and conflict-ridden portrayal of Hollywood--and the screenwriting process in particular--written by an astute observer. Dunne, along with his wife, Joan Didion, wrote the screenplay to "Up Close and Personal," starring Robert Redford, Michelle Pfeiffer, and an inescapable Celine Dion song. Dunne introduces the reader to the players: the producer, the studio execs (referred to as "the suits"), the director, the stars, the agents, and the lawyers. As a schematic for the industry, this is a handy reference. But the lasting impression is more disturbing: 1) screenwriters are perpetually underpaid, abused, unappreciated, scapegoated; 2) as a result, screenwriters, such as Dunne, are obsessed with getting paid and getting writing credit, and will stoop to catty tactics (such as sending nasty faxes to studios and their lawyers) to get them; 3) even worse, screenwriters are no better than the other self-absorbed, name-dropping denizens of the movie industry, if Dunne is a representative example. A quick read, but Monster only confirms the worst of what outsiders suspected all along.
Rating:
Summary: A facinating, if not sympthatheic view of writing for H-wood
Review: Dunne gives us a revealing, fly-on-the-wall account of writing movies for the Hollywood system from the viewpoint of one of the privileged (?) few who are highly paid to do just that. MONSTER is a fast, funny, perceptive, and admittedly frustrating read at times - sympathy is hard to come by, considering the stellar paydays involved. Still, it's a highly entertaining personal account. Although it doesn't provide insight into the how-tos of screenwriting (it's not intended to be that kind of book), it humorously addresses the battle of wills and visions that go into getting movies made - and how those same creative battles affect the final product. Anyone who's ever fought over their own creative venture only to see it go down in flames, or at the very least, changed beyond recognition, will relate to this story.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful book on more of the business side of the process.
Review: Few times have I been so compelled to finish a book as I finished this one. Of course, I have had a long time fascination with the inner workings of H-wood, which is to so many of us something of a mystery (including, I am sure, some of those who make a living there). This book offers an undressed view at two established and respected writers (John Dunne and his more well known wife Joan Didion) who over a span of eight years accept a screenwriting project and alternately work on it to its long delayed completion. Over the eight years, we get a sense of the "industry" as projects come and go and status' rise and fall and financial needs rather than passion or interest motivate what projects are to be taken and when. This by no means an account of your garden variety H-wood screenwriter. John Dunne and Joan Didion are both along in years and have work in the literary and screenwriting field for some time. Neither are starving young artists; however, they rely on the financing of the entertainment industry to maintain their comfortable lifestyle. What this book does is give us an opportunistic window to a project that in one way itself became a monster, and in another way became a perfect structure to provide an account of the typical dealings in H-wood. It's up to the reader to decide if the author and his wife are "prima donnas." I did not get that sense. To keep from being taken advantage of, you must be tough, and maybe it rubs some people the wrong way. I do not understand how Dunne "name dropped" either. Many people he dealt with through the course of the book are names we recognize. Would it be preferred if he went the way of a gossip column by writing "a certain legendary so and so who..." and "a leggy blonde actress" type of lines? One of the things that interested me about this story is the dispassionate though dogged effort with which the writer and his wife pursued Up Close & Personal. Usually books are written about great or even just notable movies. Maybe I should save this for another review, but Up Close & Personal is, to me, neither great nor even notable except to say that an insightful book about H-wood was written because of it. Another thing. I do not fault MONSTER for it, but I wish with it had been included one of the early drafts of the script when still centered on Jessica Savitch. That is a movie that sounds like it would be worthwhile.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful book on more of the business side of the process.
Review: Few times have I been so compelled to finish a book as I finished this one. Of course, I have had a long time fascination with the inner workings of H-wood, which is to so many of us something of a mystery (including, I am sure, some of those who make a living there). This book offers an undressed view at two established and respected writers (John Dunne and his more well known wife Joan Didion) who over a span of eight years accept a screenwriting project and alternately work on it to its long delayed completion. Over the eight years, we get a sense of the "industry" as projects come and go and status' rise and fall and financial needs rather than passion or interest motivate what projects are to be taken and when. This by no means an account of your garden variety H-wood screenwriter. John Dunne and Joan Didion are both along in years and have work in the literary and screenwriting field for some time. Neither are starving young artists; however, they rely on the financing of the entertainment industry to maintain their comfortable lifestyle. What this book does is give us an opportunistic window to a project that in one way itself became a monster, and in another way became a perfect structure to provide an account of the typical dealings in H-wood. It's up to the reader to decide if the author and his wife are "prima donnas." I did not get that sense. To keep from being taken advantage of, you must be tough, and maybe it rubs some people the wrong way. I do not understand how Dunne "name dropped" either. Many people he dealt with through the course of the book are names we recognize. Would it be preferred if he went the way of a gossip column by writing "a certain legendary so and so who..." and "a leggy blonde actress" type of lines? One of the things that interested me about this story is the dispassionate though dogged effort with which the writer and his wife pursued Up Close & Personal. Usually books are written about great or even just notable movies. Maybe I should save this for another review, but Up Close & Personal is, to me, neither great nor even notable except to say that an insightful book about H-wood was written because of it. Another thing. I do not fault MONSTER for it, but I wish with it had been included one of the early drafts of the script when still centered on Jessica Savitch. That is a movie that sounds like it would be worthwhile.
Rating:
Summary: Prima Donna Writer Whines About Hollywood
Review: I bought this book used for $2 and that's about all it was worth. Which isn't to say it doesn't tell an interesting story, but not quite in the way it intends. John Gregory Dunne and his wife Joan Didion are Hollywood screenwriters. In this book, Dunne writes the story of the travails of writing the script for the movie "Up Close and Personal" (a terrible movie, to be sure, despite the fact that it grossed over $100 million worldwide). It is clear that his intention with this book was to garner sympathy for screenwriters (principally himself) - the hell the industry puts them through while writing and rewriting (and rewriting) scripts and the industry's inappreciativeness for all of their hard work. The book backfires though, because the reader ends up with little sympathy for Dunne who comes off as an egotistical, difficult to work with, prima donna writer with very little talent, and even fewer good character traits. The interesting part of this story is not the travails of the writer nor the ins and outs of writing this script, but rather, the dynamic between the "studio" and "the writer" both of whom are difficult and both of whom have a very excessive view of their worth to the project (and neither of which any one of us would want to work with, not if we were in our right minds anyway.) Even more interesting is how Dunne is compulsive about showing the studio in the worst possible light, without realizing he himself comes off as badly as they do. True, this movie takes eight years to make, with hundreds of rewrites (literally) along the way. Dunne and his wife initiate the project (which was originally supposed to be the story of the news anchor Jessica Savitch,) then after several rewrites of the script they're fired. Several other writers are brought in and many new rewrites are undertaken. Then Dunne and his wife are rehired. The story keeps changing. They rewrite and rewrite. In the meanwhile, a director is hired who, apparently, is impossible to work with, and the producer quits. Then Dunne and his wife quit. Then there are new writers and more rewrites. Then, Dunne and his wife are rehired. Then they rewrite and rewrite. Then the movie is made. They continue to rewrite, scene after scene, all through the shooting of the film. Throughout this process, Dunne both grandstands and whines. And grandstands and whines. And whines. About how the studio is destroying their script by constantly asking them to change the characters and the story. About how the studio is too demanding. About how the studio is not paying them enough. About how difficult the studio is to get along with. About this and about that. Never mind that Dunne is equally as difficult and demanding. This book just about takes you to the limit of your patience with this man. And yet, it's compulsive reading. You're privy to a powerstruggle (for control of the script) of the Hollywood kind, and you leave this book with a renewed appreciation of the egos involved in Tinsletown and with a sort of amazement that movies, in general, ever actually get made at all, given the process and the players involved.
Rating:
Summary: Screenwriting, (some) warts and all
Review: I thought that as a professional screenwriter, Mr. Dunne's book might be something to which I could relate. To a certain degree I can--the business as he describes it is a dysfunctional system with no immediate signs of recovery.However, budding scenario writers who do not know should be warned that Mr. Dunne and his wife, the great Joan Didion, do not rely on the big screen exclusively for their livelihood. Mr. Dunne claims early on that heart problems and the Writers Guild's health benefits precipitated their acceptance of the assignment to write the script that came to be called "Up Close and Personal." But the facts are (as recounted in MONSTER) that the Dunnes are capable of high-tailing it to Hawaii or St. Trop when they need to think things over, rub elbows with both literati and gliterati on both coasts, and throw their collective weight around with nasty faxes to studio execs. While this makes for an occasionally entertaining read, it is hardly representative of its subtitle, "Living Off the Big Screen," and suffers from an overall tame but nonetheless self-serving tone. Thus, the whole book suffers from a lack of teeth given the subject. Perhaps that's oddly fitting, though, as "toothless" was the same basic criticism that the Dunnes' screenplay for "Up Close and Personal"--once based on the life of Jessica Savitch--itself received. bilfro@loop.com
Rating: 
Summary: A realistic view from the screenwriting trenches.
Review: I've read many of the screenwriting how-to books, but this is the first one that tells what actually happens with a screenplay outside in the real world. I've spoken with some major Hollywood writers and heard about their hassles and disillusionment with the system. Almost without exception they begin with a vision, wanting to tell a good story, but are ultimately subject to the whims and studio politics of mid-level executives more interested in business than craft. Anyone contemplating a screenwriting career should read this book--probably more than once.
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