Word: goldman
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Actors, or more correctly, "stars," usually fall into the latter category. Goldman realizes how much pressure our dearly idolized must undergo to maintain their prestige; he also realizes that if he's fifteen pages into a script and its star has yet to appear, he'll probably be told that his text is "misstructured." Stars, he asserts, demand that all the witty lines come from their characters' mouths, all the clever ideas from their characters' heads...
...biggest bastard of all turns out to be glamour-boy Robert Redford and Goldman should know, having worked with him on five films. Redford caused one of Goldman's projects to be cancelled because, after the phenomenal success of Butch Cassidy, he felt uneasy playing a character who was "kind of weak." During their fourth collaboration. All the President's Men, Redford refused to entrust Goldman with his home phone number. Then, out of jealousy for co-star Dustin Hoffman's character, he demanded that Goldman write in a love interest for him; and, in what Goldman justifiably terms...
...want to hear sleazy? One producer okayed a script about New Zealand simply because he'd never been there and wanted a paid vacation. Agent David Begelman lied to Goldman, saying a famous director had had a nervous breakdown, so that Goldman would turn to one of Begelman's clients instead. And director Alan Pakula (Sophiz's Choice, Klute) told Goldman to give him versions of All the President's Men that were both longer and shorter, harder and softer. "Don't deprive me of any riches," Pakula said...
SUCH HORROR stories more than make up for Goldman's glibness, as when he writes off the "world view" of the top-name directors he's worked with in one all-caps assault: "THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF WHAT THEY HAVE TO 'SAY' CANNOT COVER THE BOTTOM OF EVEN A SMALL TEACUP." This blanket statement unravels in the book's last section, in which Goldman describes trying to rewrite his old short story "Da Vinci" as a screenplay and handing it to a respected editor, cinematographer, composer, designer, and director for comments. Not only does the director, George Roy Hill, have...
Because, careening along in Goldman's "world view," if you will there just isn't time for perspective. Histories of failed projects, cruddy judgements and outright lunacy paint a decidedly one-sided portrait. As the first one in on a project, the writer inevitably feels the dilution of his own vision each step of the way. Adventures's off-the-tongue-and-into-the-tape recorder style attracts and nauseates at the same time, especially when Goldman gets self-effacing about his early years, or misty-eyed about being haunted by his own limitations, or arriving at universal "human truths...