The artistically lauded but politically tainted film director reveals his method and insights in this capacious interview collection. In 1971, director (later producer) Young persuaded Kazan, his favorite director, to sit for hundreds of interviews, on the stipulation that they would be published in book form only after Kazan’s autobiography appeared. It was worth the wait. Young’s book records Kazan’s views on each of his films, from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) through The Visitors (1972), with Young commenting on Kazan’s final work, The Last Tycoon (1976), for which there was no interview. The most interesting material provided by this psychologically oriented director (co-founder of the Actors Studio) is his takes on actors, about whom he is extremely perceptive, and on the role of character in films. Kazan says his films are sparked by a protagonist with an “inner conflict” that results in meaningful change. Brando was ideal for him: “mature and adolescent at the same time.” In James Dean he immediately spotted “vicious hatred and anger because of love frustrated.” Whether discussing actors, editing, or scoring, Kazan presents himself as a humanist. Though pressed, he refuses to codify his technique: “You develop your own methodology each time out.” As for Kazan’s decision to name names to the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1952, Young (whose family was affected by the blacklist) probes but opens no new ground. The director reiterates that he acted “out of principle . . . I thought that was the right thing to do.” Kazan’s revelations prompt interest in less-seen films (Wild River) and generate questions about what makes for enduring art. What is the alchemy of immediacy and universality that makes On the Waterfront a classic but Gentlemen’s Agreement an antique? Though debate over Kazan’s ethics continues, his works stand, and his reflections on them make this a valuable piece of film history. (60 b&w illustrations, not seen)
Pub Date: June 1, 1999
ISBN: 1-55704-338-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Newmarket Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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