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Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood

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Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

By: Peter Biskind
Narrated by: Dick Hill
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Summary

 When the low-budget biker movie Easy Rider shocked Hollywood with its success in 1969, a new Hollywood era was born. This was an age when talented filmmakers such as Scorcese, Coppola, and Spielberg, along with a new breed of actors, including DeNiro, Pacino, and Nicholson, became the powerful figures who would make such modern classics as The Godfather, Chinatown, Taxi Driver, and Jaws.

Easy Rider, Raging Bulls follows the wild ride that was Hollywood in the 70s - an unabashed celebration of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll (both on screen and off) and a climate where innovation and experimentation reigned supreme.

©1999 Peter Biskind (P)2008 Brilliance Audio, Inc. Direction & Production Entertainment & Performing Arts Film & TV History & Criticism Screenwriting
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Critic reviews

"Peter Biskind's great, scathing, news-packed history...is one hell of an elixir - salty with flavorsome gossip, sour with the aftertaste of misspent careers, intoxicating with one revelation after another...an 'A.'" ( Entertainment Weekly)
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This is great value for money, its a long and interesting listen.



A friend recommended this book years ago and I couldn't get into it. But it really works as an audio book.

No one really comes out of this book well apart from perhaps Jack Nicholson. These great women and men are reduced to ego-maniac, childish bullies and nerds. Biskind's style is very sensationalist,scurrilous and yet compelling.



The narrator is superb and his delivery is measured, waspish and hilarious.



A great listen.

Bitchy and Sensationalist intrigue from Hollywood

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Tremendous account of Hollywood and amazing filmmakers like Scorsese and Coppola and how they challenged the studio system

Great listen

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It would probably be of more interest to a film studies student or buff. It made me think that the people it talks about are truly a bunch of self absorbed narcissists.

Not the most gripping

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I’m a big film fan , I love movies from the birth of the talkies to the present day. This book should have been right down my street but I didn’t necessarily want to know that my hero’s ( the directors and producers of the 70’s and 80’s ) were very flawed human beings . It’s sad to know that the men who were responsible for some of the greatest films ever made were drug addicts, drunks and megalomaniacs and many had ignominious ends . Perhaps if you want to retain the respect you feel for them , don’t read this book . It is however well written and the audio version is well read .

An insider look at the film makers of the 70’s and 80’s

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This is the story of the hell-raisers and wunderkinds of 1970s cinema. They hoped to do things differently by smashing the power of the studios, and for a while they succeeded. But the strength of the economic forces arrayed against them was simply too strong to sustain any lasting change. By becoming hugely successful - in some cases - they merely boosted the studios’ coffers. They dreamed of being auteurs with something significant to say - but often failed to live up to their own high expectations. Some of their work, however, stands the test of time. They produced many of the best movies ever made. It’s an era of contradictions, defined by excess. Coppola, Scorsese, De Palma, Ashby… some of these big names are still around. Coppola has just made a new movie - Megalopolis (2024). Scorsese is still making brilliant movies and for my money is the great survivor of this generation. Spielberg is another example. But he embraced the commercial opportunities far more willingly than his contemporaries, seeing nothing wrong with making massive blockbusters and reaping the benefits. And in many cases he has combined profit with artistic value. Yet for every survivor, there were more than a few casualties. This highly entertaining book is full of trivia about the sex lives of the protagonists - the moguls, writers, and directors. It’s gossipy, thoroughly researched, and superbly narrated. It was published in the late 1990s. Hollywood has changed a lot even since then, but this book throws the spotlight on a lost era which - seen up close - was full of genius, but also human tragedy and failure. Listen now.

Lost Hollywood

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