Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business

Interesting in parts, but those parts end all too quickly. Best off borrowing this book and skipping to the good bits.

Entertaining.. expect down to earth film set gossip, if that's even possible. A good read.

bit wanky but quite insightful!

Fucking perfect. I am never, ever gonna even try and explain anything about the show business, or screenwriting, or Jews, ever again. I can never do it as well as Mamet has here. If you are interested in the above-listed things...this is your book. Favorite quote: "The audience will not suffer, wonder, discover or rejoice to any extent greater than to which the writer has been...more

Fucking perfect. I am never, ever gonna even try and explain anything about the show business, or screenwriting, or Jews, ever again. I can never do it as well as Mamet has here. If you are interested in the above-listed things...this is your book. Favorite quote: "The audience will not suffer, wonder, discover or rejoice to any extent greater than to which the writer has been subjected." Oh.    hide

Moderately interesting book if you're interested in hearing the truth about the movie business and also some theories about what makes a good movie too. Mamet is a well respected director and screenwriter (Wag The Dog, Glengarry Glen Ross) and he's obviously been down in the trenches for quite a while now. This is a collection of essays from him on a variety of topics, some more interesting than...more

Moderately interesting book if you're interested in hearing the truth about the movie business and also some theories about what makes a good movie too. Mamet is a well respected director and screenwriter (Wag The Dog, Glengarry Glen Ross) and he's obviously been down in the trenches for quite a while now. This is a collection of essays from him on a variety of topics, some more interesting than others, and some more pretentious than others. He is a little wordy at times, and also references a lot of older movies that younger readers may not have seen (myself included). But overall he makes a lot of good points and gives refreshingly honest opinions so you have to respect that.   hide