Monster: Living Off the Big Screen

At a lunch with a studio executive,screenwriter John Dunne was insisting on a story point in the script that he had written with his wife,Joan Didion, the excutive mimed reaching under the table and bringing out,"The Monster",their money, to win the argument. Seven or eight years they toiled on the script that became ,"Up Close and Personal",this is the chronicle of their experiences. Fascinating and sobering, when you realize how things can dissolve and then reappear in a completly different form. It is very well told and forshadows his health problems that cost him his life in 2003, that his wife wrote so exquisitly about in "The Year of Magical Thinking". If how movies get made is of any interest to you this and his other film making tale, "The Studio" will fascinate you.

This tough minded, funny book is a warts and all look at the process of screenwriting for a big studio; it's also as hypnotic as staring into a snake pit. Some of the other reviewers seem to be offended by Dunne's egotism and name dropping, but his honest inclusion of them seems to me to be part of the bigger picture. This IS how it's done; these ARE the kinds of behavior involved. Dunne spares no one, least of all himself. The result is very candid, like having drinks with a tired old veteran of the screen wars who has no illusions. Dunne doesn't overwrite like William Goldman (who grows harder to slog through year by year), and his honesty is refreshing. As for the high regard he holds himself and his wife (Joan Didion) in, well, who can write better? A few, but they haven't sat down to tell it all as Dunne has. I couldn't put this book down.

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.

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.

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.