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Title: JFK, Nixon, Oliver Stone and Me: An Idealist's Journey from Capitol Hill to Hollywood Hell by Eric Hamburg ISBN: 1-58648-029-4 Publisher: PublicAffairs Pub. Date: 17 September, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.69 (13 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Book Report by Brent Simon - JFK, Nixon, Stone
Comment: JFK, Nixon, Oliver Stone & Me
Eric Hamburg
Public Affairs
reviewed by Brent Simon
A deliciously, amazingly illuminating account of Tinseltown excess, Eric Hamburg's JFK, Nixon, Oliver Stone & Me recounts an idealist's journey from Capitol Hill to Hollywood hell. A terrifically entertaining read disguised with a memoir's overcoat, Hamburg's book details his occupational pilgrimage from legislative assistant under influential House of Representatives member Lee Hamilton to his position at director Stone's Ixtlan Films, where he handled legal and business affairs while also initiating the ideas that would in time come to take shape as the films Nixon and Any Given Sunday.
It's a very personal book, and draws almost exclusively from the author's remembrances and journal entries of the time covered. This means first there is some overlap, both thematically and in detail; Hamburg sometimes repeats himself even closely within the text in a manner unacceptable for top-shelf reportage. He even blatantly misidentifies Reese Witherspoon as Brooke Shields at point. Still, these occasional faux pas (was the book even edited?) do not blunt the tome's power or change its bottom line.
For those interested in the ins and outs of high-end cinematic wheeling and dealing, Hamburg's book is chock full of tasty firsthand details about Oliver Stone's peccadilloes and a myriad of ever-rotating but always kooky projects he pursued in bits and pieces. Of the latter, most intriguing were planned biopics on J. Edgar Hoover and Manuel Noreiga (Al Pacino graciously refused $10 million from a pay-or-play deal when it fell apart), plus movies on Afghanistan, Stone's obsessive hatred of columnist Maureen Dowd (known in various iterations as Media and Power) and even a possible sequel to JFK, which was the project Stone was working on when Hamburg first met him. The details of the director's disastrous personal life are even more vivid and revelatory: Stone's ceaseless drug abuse, irrational flare-ups, legendary cheapness, interpersonal abrasiveness and possible shaping youthful sexual encounter(s) with his mother' yikes!
Most unnerving, though, are Hamburg's stories of his dealings and interactions with Danny Halsted, a former Disney exec who wormed his way into Stone's production company and whom Hamburg refers to here almost exclusively as "Danny the Weasel." To recount the many jaw-dropping instances of Halsted's idiocy, conniving, theft and general disreputable behavior would take too much space here, but suffice to say that it both represents and confirms all the worst you've ever heard or suspected about Hollywood suits masquerading as creative executives. This isn't a horror novel, but at times JFK, Nixon, Oliver Stone & Me ranks right up there with the most unsettling of Stephen King's works.
Rating: 5
Summary: From John Kerry to Oliver Stone
Comment: This book traces the author's journey from speechwriter and legislative aide to Senator John Kerry (who may be our next President) to collaborator and co-producer with Oliver Stone. It provides unique and unusual insights into the worlds of Washington and Hollywood from one who has been on the inside of both. It also contains provocative analysis of Stone's films JFK and Nixon, and presents a very believable scenario linking Dallas to Watergate. Should be read by anyone who is interested in politics and film, or vice versa.
Rating: 1
Summary: JFK, Nixon, Oliver Stone and Me: An Idealist's Journey from
Comment: This book was lousy fluff. The author is a testament to Washington/Hollywood self-absorption, and is very comfortable blaming the USA (and its' alleged CIA/Cuba connections) for all the world's wrongs. Meanwhile, the author is completely star-struck in the company of the totalitarian murderer, Fidel Castro. Go figure.
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Title: Killer Instinct: How Two Young Producers Took on Hollywood and Made the Most Controversial Film of the Decade by Jane Hamsher ISBN: 0767900758 Publisher: Broadway Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title:Nixon - Collector's Edition ASIN: B000063V8K Publisher: Walt Disney Home Video Pub. Date: 04 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.99 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $17.39 |
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Title:Network ASIN: B00004RF9I Publisher: Warner Studios Pub. Date: 16 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $17.38 |
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Title: Regicide: The Official Assassination of John F. Kennedy by Gregory Douglas ISBN: 1591482976 Publisher: Monte Sano Media Pub. Date: 04 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Stalin : The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore ISBN: 1400042305 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 13 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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