Cinema Tuesdays Review

A few weeks ago, I read Peter Biskind's new book, Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film. It's an exhaustively researched and annotated tome, even if quotes are sometimes used to fit Biskind's idea of the story of independent film in the 1980s and 1990s. Biskind starts with Robert Redford and the creation of the U.S. Film Festival (later Sundance), which, as he posits, quite ironically became a successful non-profit venture that saved a failing for-profit one (no skiing in this part of Utah, because of the altitude). Biskind paints a picture of Redford as a controlling star who wanted to keep his fingers in the Sundance pie even when he should have let it go, as it developed from just a little indie-fest to THE place where deals were made on new films.

Meanwhile, Biskind makes Miramax's Weinsteins (Harvey and Bob) out to be Bad Cop, Worse Cop. Over and over again, Harvey Weinstein blows his top at Miramax staffers, threatens stars and directors, and generally behaves like a jerk. But, he's a jerk who loves movies, and to his credit, he knows how to get a lot of folks to see them. That's why Miramax is so successful at what they do. And while Down and Dirty Pictures is fascinating for its detailed accounts of the behind-the-scenes wrangling over many films we know and love (everything from "Shakespeare in Love" to "Good Will Hunting," to "Cinema Paradiso"), it ultimately fails as an enjoyable read. There are only so many "bad Harvey" stories one can take, and after a while, it gets to be kind of unpleasant. Or maybe it's just that money and movies together make an unpleasant subject. For example, in Down and Dirty Pictures, "Pulp Fiction's" primary achievement was that it raised the bar for how much money an independent film could make. There's scant mention of its cultural impact.

Biskind's earlier book, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, was more entertaining (and just as skewed, as some of its subjects claim). I would rather read soapy stories about the lovin' druggin' seventies auteurs anytime. Despite all the money involved with indie films in the '90s, Down and Dirty Pictures makes the business seem cheap.

4/9/04

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