McMurtry's modest essays on Hollywood screenwriting and films generally are among the most literate and absorbing in recent memory, especially when set beside William Goldman's Adventures in the Screen Trade. McMurtry does share one quality in common with Goldman in that neither writer much likes to read his own books. McMurty is even harsher on himself than Goldman, who is merely bored by his own novels. McMurtry takes an active hatchet to Horseman, Pass By (filmed as Hud, a movie McMurty thinks far superior to the novel), The Last Picture Show, and Leaving Cheyenne (filmed indifferently as Lovin 'Molly). Unfortunately, he never gets to his present reactions to the adaptation of Terms of Endearment—filmed as a tear-jerker but quite funny and moving, in which Jack Nicholson won an Oscar for a role that wasn't even in the novel. Most of these essays appeared first in American Film, where they seemed more facile than they do now bundled together. In fact, they have hardwon ideas that no screenwriter should overlook. McMurtry refuses to read or work on any project (always a book adaptation) until the very last moment when he's literally flying to Hollywood. Hollywood being so mercurial, the producer's deal may have fallen through before McMurtry has landed. Also, he resists doing first drafts before a director has been taken on. Otherwise, all he's doing is a first reading for the director while producing a digest for the producer to shuck around—a kind of scriptwriting that is death to the soul. He shoots down All the President's Men (its Oscar-winning script was supposedly by Goldman) for reducing a crucial national event by so many dimensions that the picture is a mere doorbell beside the full orchestral tones of Lina Wertmuller's Seven Beauties (also about a social cataclysm). He also is excellent on E.L. Doctorow's anguish over the novel-into-film Ragtime (a book Doctorow must have recognized as overhyped). A top-notch collection.
Pub Date: June 1, 1987
ISBN: 0743216245
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1987
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
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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