Book Analysis sample

David Mamet’s Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business is one of the latest books written by David Mamet. The book is about the sharp views that Mamet makes about the movie business and the inner doings of Hollywood. On 30th November 1947 Lenore June gave birth to a boy in Chicago who was named David Alan Mamet. Mamet’s mother Lenore June was a teacher and his father Bernard Morris who was an attorney. (Film Makers, Pp 1)Mamet is an American movie director, writer, novelist, dramatist, and a screenwriter.

He is famous for his works which are well-known among people for their clever, short, and at times offensive dialogue and his mysterious styled phrasing sense. (Film Makers, Pp 1) Mamet has received a number of award nominations like he got nominated for Tony Award for Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988). He was acknowledged with Oscar suggestion for Wag the Dog (1997) and The Verdict (1982) as a playwright. (Film Makers, Pp 1)

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Some of his recent books include The Old Religion written in1997, it is a novel about the execution of Leo Frank; Five Cities of Refuge: Weekly Reflections on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy written in 2004, an explanation of the Torah, The Wicked Son written in 2006, contains a deep study of the Jewish self-hatred and anti-Semitism; and Bambi vs. Godzilla, a book having sour comments and is a collection of essays on the movie business. (Gabriel Steinfeld, Pp1) In this book Mamet gives us a revolutionary inside look at Hollywood from the point of view of a film-maker.

The title brings together an impressive, arresting and a weird metaphor that is "Bambi vs. Godzilla," which refers to an old underground small cartoon, with long and graceful subtitle which is expressed in more literary language that showed off his intelligence. The subtitle which is “On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business” shows that this book is a collection of essays on different phases of film making which includes production, direction, behind-the-scene stories etc. The book consists of eight major sections and forty-odd short chapters.

The eight major sections contains the titles such as “The Screenplay” ( this section provides the steps to effective skill writing), “Technique” , “Genre” and “Some Principles” are the sections that covers the areas of film criticism , “The Good People of Hollywood” (this section of the books covers dissimilar topics, that are mostly related to the power dynamics that take place behind the scenes of movies), “The Repressive Mechanism” (this section is somewhat freely linked by the subject of power and the relation of art to it), “Passing Judgment” ( this section covers the part of acting and criticism), “Crimes and Misdemeanors” (covers the portion of the cheats and the dishonesty that big names make in the Hollywood). (Gabriel Steinfeld, Pp1) He in details explains what happens at the studios, what happens during the shooting of a movie and various questions which arise in the mind of a common man.

Mamet presents a clear-cut view of the deepest and the secret inner workings of the general movie industry and particularly concentrates on Hollywood in the book. Mamet provides entertaining, astonishing, and willingly gives the answers to questions about almost every portion of filmmaking, right from the concept to script and to the screen. (Gabriel Steinfeld, Pp1) Before Bambi vs. Godzilla Mamet wrote and directed a drama Spartan in 2004, which was very much mishandled by Warner Bros. they didn’t knew how to present this drama to audience so after a short period of time they dumped this drama. The way Spartan was handled and treated Mamet could be expected to reveal his anger and rage through this book he had for the studios and the film industry.

Even though several of these pieces were written before the Spartan misfortune, Mamet showed his disapproval for the present structure and organization of conventional cinema and to show his disapproval he does not even waits for the main chapters to start he begins it from the introduction of the book. (Gabriel Steinfeld, Pp1) In the book Mamet covers a wide range of topics that range from “How Scripts Got So Bad” to the “Manners in Hollywood. ” He takes us gradually through some of his personal favorite movie stunts and directorial tricks, and clearly in the film speaks aloud the fact that it is the craft and the crew that make great films not the actors and producers.

He also tells the audience in the books that who are his preferred and much loved performers and what are his favorite films, according to him who he thinks is the most ideal actor that would bring elegance to the screen, and who he thinks should never have showed on screen. (Christopher Hirst, Pp1) Modern or Post-modern? Mamet was post-modern in his artistic perspective. He has used to portray art which is considered to be in disagreement to a number of features of modernization, or to have appeared or developed in its consequences. In common activities for instance inter-media, setting up art, theoretical art and multimedia, mainly connecting video are illustrated as postmodern.

The qualities linked with the exploit of the expression postmodern in art incorporates bricolage, utilization of vocabulary significantly as the fundamental creative constituent, collage, generalization, misappropriation, representation of user or accepted civilization and presentation art. The book is written about the present situation of Hollywood. David Mamet speaks about the flaws of the film industry. His way of writing and his ideas clearly shows that he is a man of modern culture. He looks at the modern situation of the film industry and suggests ideas that could make drastic changes in the film industry of today and those would pertain in the future. The choice usually Mamet makes for his actors would be disapproved or ignored by the current film-makers but if they looked through Mamet’s point of view Hollywood would very soon start to produce well-crafted and outstanding movies of its time.

(Christopher Hirst, Pp1) References Christopher Hirst ,Paperbacks: Bambi Vs Godzilla, by David Mamet, (2008) Retrieved 01-02-2009, from http://www. independent. co. uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/paperbacks-bambi-vs-godzilla-by-david-mamet-864393. html Gabriel Steinfeld , Book reviews: Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose and Practice of the Movie Business, by David Mamet,(2009) Retrieved 01-02-2009, http://www. helium. com/items/536905-book-reviews-bambi-vs-godzilla-nature-purpose-practice-movie-business-david Film Makers, David Mamet. Media Pro Tech Inc. (2006). Retrieved from: http://www. filmmakers. com/artists/mamet/biography/index. htm

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