Books › Easy riders, raging bulls
Easy riders, raging bulls
First published 1998 · 512 pages
A breathless, gossipy, and utterly addictive front-row seat to the brilliant, drug-fueled trainwreck that birthed modern American cinema.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like being cornered at a wild, 1970s Hollywood party by the most observant, sharp-tongued insider in the room. It is a relentlessly propulsive ride through an era of staggering genius and equally staggering hubris. The mood is frenetic and drug-fueled, capturing the exact moment when the inmates took over the asylum, only to slowly burn it down. The prose is punchy, anecdotal, and unapologetically gossipy, stripping away the polished mythology of legendary auteurs to reveal the chaotic, often toxic reality of their creative processes. It traces a tragicomic arc from the exhilarating highs of artistic rebellion to the paranoid, exhausting crash of corporate takeover. Film buffs and lovers of juicy, well-documented cultural histories will devour every scandalous page.
- Mood
- frenetic
- drug-fueled
- chaotic
- grimy-glamour
- Tone
- gossipy
- cynical
- breathless
- irreverent
- anecdotal
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- creative hubris · art versus commerce · toxic genius · cultural rebellion · the hangover of excess
- The writing
- Punchy and relentlessly entertaining, weaving hundreds of interviews into a seamless, cinematic narrative of scandal and triumph.
- The arc
- Moves from the exhilarating rush of breaking the rules to the paranoid, exhausting crash of unchecked ego and addiction.
- Who it's for
- Cinephiles and pop-culture junkies who crave the unvarnished, scandalous truth behind the making of their favorite 1970s masterpieces.
Content notes
- heavy substance abuse
- misogyny
- sexual misconduct
- erratic and violent behavior
About the book
"Easy Riders, Raging Bulls vividly chronicles the exuberance and excess of the times: the startling success of Easy Rider and the equally alarming circumstances under which it was made, with drugs, booze, and violent rivalry between costars Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda dominating the set; how a small production company named BBS became the guiding spirit of the youth rebellion in Hollywood and how, along the way, some of its executives helped smuggle Huey Newton out of the country; how director Hal Ashby was busted for drugs and thrown in jail in Toronto; why Martin Scorsese attended the Academy Awards with an FBI escort when Taxi Driver was nominated; how George Lucas, gripped by anxiety, compulsively cut off his own hair while writing Star Wars; how a modest house on Nicholas Beach occupied by actresses Margot Kidder and Jennifer Salt became the unofficial headquarters for the New Hollywood; how Billy Friedkin tried to humiliate Paramount boss Barry Diller; and how screenwriter/director Paul Schrader played Russian roulette in his hot tub. It was a time when an "anything goes" experimentation prevailed both on the screen and off."--BOOK JACKET.
Description from Open Library.
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