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OverviewIn March 1980 Francis Coppola purchased the dilapidated Hollywood General Studios facility with the hope and dream of creating a radically new kind of studio, one that would revolutionize filmmaking, challenge the established studio machinery, and, most importantly, allow him to make movies as he wished. With this event at the center of Whom God Wishes to Destroy, Jon Lewis offers a behind-the-scenes view of Coppola's struggle-that of the industry's best-known auteur-against the changing realities of the New Hollywood of the 1980s. Presenting a Hollywood history steeped in the trade news, rumor, and gossip that propel the industry, Lewis unfolds a lesson about power, ownership, and the role of the auteur in the American cinema. From before the success of The Godfather to the eventual triumph of Apocalypse Now, through the critical upheaval of the 1980s with movies like Rumble Fish, Hammett, Peggy Sue Got Married, to the 1990s and the making of Bram Stoker's Dracula and Kenneth Branagh's Frankenstein, Francis Coppola's career becomes the lens through which Lewis examines the nature of making movies and doing business in Hollywood today. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Jon LewisPublisher: Duke University Press Imprint: Duke University Press Edition: New edition Dimensions: Width: 22.90cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 15.20cm Weight: 0.354kg ISBN: 9780822318897ISBN 10: 082231889 Pages: 208 Publication Date: 14 February 1997 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Awaiting stock  The supplier is currently out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out for you. Table of ContentsReviewsWhom God Wishes to Destroy is a marvelously entertaining yarn on the perks and pitfalls of a Hollywood player, as well as the cautionary tale of a creative 'genius' who begins to believe hsi own publicity. . . . Lewis's clear and enjoyable prose makes the book a must read for all those interested in the complex exchange between industry and artistry in contemporary Hollywood. <br>--Justin Wyatt, Detour Magazine “Lewis demonstrates a marvelous ability to combine, with both rigor and innovation, a productive attentiveness to the stylistic aspects of filmic works themselves and a sharp capacity to situate those works within the economics and politics of an industry. His book offers the necessary detail on Coppola’s films and career while also using the case of Coppola as a model to say larger, more far-reaching things about today’s Hollywood and the place, or non-place, of the creative figure within it.”—Dana Polan, author of In a Lonely Place The inflated title of this readable narrative nicely captures the bloated egos everywhere on a display in the Hollywood of the 1980s. It's a saga of art and commerce that Lewis illustrates with the rise and fall of Francis Coppola's moviemaking career. Lewis (English/Oregon State Univ.), of course, sides with Coppola as a brilliant auteur constantly in battle with capitalist vulgarians and dim-witted critics. After the successes of the Godfather films and Apocalypse Now - which is where this book begins - Coppola held most of the marbles. And his ambition led him to create Zoetrope Studios, a means for controlling the production and distribution of his future movies. But Lewis fails to see that Coppola's grandiose remarks, his creative hubris, his contempt for mass audiences, all backed him into the overpriced exercises that he directed in the '80s, most notoriously One From the Heart. Relying on industry publications (and no new primary research), Lewis documents the elaborate efforts to finance Coppola's films. But the heart of the drama is the failure of Zoetrope, which Lewis blames on the collusion of the big six studios who felt threatened by the feisty newcomer. The arrogant Coppola hocked the house on One From the Heart, a self-indulgent bit of whimsy that Lewis considers terrific...because of all its confusion. He faults Hollywood for its understandable later efforts to reign in the once-bankable genius. Coppola's spotty record from the late '80s (Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club, etc.) resulted, in Lewis's view, from his humiliating need to compromise with the moneymen. Lewis only hints at the more intriguing story here - that the prerelease hype on movies is increasingly more important than the films themselves. Not a hard-hitting investigation, Lewis's academic study isn't too strong on critical insight, either. But it's a compelling tale, nonetheless, told jargon-free. (Kirkus Reviews) Author InformationJon Lewis is Professor of English at Oregon State University and the author of The Road to Romance and Ruin: Teen Films and Youth Culture. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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