Partly because of this, those directors aren't discussed much, while other important figures of that era, such as Michael Cimino, aren't mentioned at all. Of course, many of the author's interview subjects were badly burned by the book, especially Altman and William Friedkin, so one can hardly blame them for not participating here. The documentary, written and directed by Kenneth Bowser, who also made Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer (1990), emulates the format and style of Biskind's book very closely. This same uneasy but completely engrossing story is carried over in the BBC's film version of Easy Riders/Raging Bulls (2003).

I was hurt and embarrassed for Ellie, and I thought Francis was pretty disgusting, the way he treated his wife.' I'm only sorry he didn't live longer and suffer more.' Or Marcia Lucas on Francis Coppola: 'It was no secret that Francis was a major pussy hound.Francis would be feeling up some babe in the pool.

The back cover alone had more honest rage than a tall stack of standard Hollywood books, such as Robert Altman's heartwarming tribute to producer Don Simpson: 'Simpson was a bad guy, a bum,' he told Biskind, 'It's a big plus for our industry that he.

The book was also deliciously salacious and inflammatory and gossipy. He documented how, for a brief dozen years, they were able to make a series of incredibly daring, watershed films, and how drugs and alcohol contributed to the decline of what might have been a new Golden Age of American cinema. Instead of a book of film theory or one dominated by behind-the-scenes histories, he zeroed in on this weird scenario, exploring how studios entrusted millions of dollars to unproven, unstable, and in some cases completely out-of-control talent. Biskind rightly recognized the degree in which the personal and professional lives of these budding directors and their actor friends and associates intersected. First published in 1998, it offered a mostly insightful overview of those tumultuous years in the film biz, roughly between 19, when desperate studio heads gave unprecedented freedom to a new generation of filmmakers: Coppola, Scorsese, Spielberg, Bogdanovich, Altman, Milius, Ashby, Lucas, Friedkin. Peter Biskind's Easy Riders/Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood was one of the most entertaining movie books to come along in years.

Easy riders raging bulls