The last kings of Hollywood Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg--and the battle for the soul of American cinema

Review by Booklist Review

With the enthusiasm of an avid fan, the even hand of a journalist, and the narrative skills of a screenwriter, Fischer interleaves the biographies of three Hollywood titans. This in-depth, behind-the-scenes book describes how Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg influenced one another and together cemented the role of movies in American culture. Fischer explains how they evolved from young, cerebral iconoclasts rebelling against the waning era of the studio system to become a powerful triumvirate that eventually replaced it. Visionaries inspired by memories of the wonders and terrors of childhood, the auteurs celebrated each other while squabbling like siblings. Fischer provides plenty of details about the genesis and development of their blockbuster hits, but the insider anecdotes and psychological profiles elevate this book beyond a dry chronology. He also compassionately reveals the tumultuous friendships, health issues, and sacrifices that accompanied their individual and shared success. Rich in glitterati name-dropping and insight into the minutiae of movie creation, Fischer's tell-all will cause film history buffs to swoon and will assuredly entertain any nostalgic moviegoer.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Writer and film producer Fischer (The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures) explores in this entertaining group biography the lives and works of filmmakers Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg. He begins on the set of the 1968 film Finian's Rainbow, one of the last gasps of Hollywood's Golden Age. After winning a scholarship from Warner Bros., a young Lucas was tasked with observing the film's director, the up-and-coming Coppola. The two had an instant connection and went on to start their own production company, American Zoetrope. Meanwhile, Spielberg, another promising young director, had landed a contract directing TV shows for Universal Studios but was eager to make movies. Fischer documents how the three ushered in a new era of film that rejected the old system of powerful studios controlling production and instead centered high-concept, director-driven blockbusters. Along the way, he chronicles how Coppola transformed The Godfather, a pulpy novel about the Mafia, into a film that "pushed the bounds of the medium"; follows Spielberg's animatronic innovations in Jaws; and traces how Lucas turned his idea for a "sort of space opera thing" into the Star Wars franchise. Throughout, Fischer leverages a novelistic style that makes his extensive research and interviews a pleasure to read. This is a sure-fire hit for cinephiles. (Feb.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

It's a well-known element of cinema legend that the three most successful filmmakers of their generation--Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, and George Lucas--all started their careers at the same time. While their friendships have been discussed in separate books on each man, this exceptional book traces their collective careers, successes, and infrequent failures, in order to illustrate the dawn of a new era in Hollywood. Fischer (The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures) details the three directors' beginnings in student films and their entry into Hollywood at the waning end of the studio system in 1967. Coppola and Lucas soon decamped to San Francisco to start their revolution, while Spielberg remained in Hollywood, with a brief detour to Martha's Vineyard to make a movie about a shark. In the next few years, these men produced Jaws, The Godfather, and Star Wars, and the race was on. Fischer occasionally discusses Martin Scorsese at key elements of overlap in the story, but the primary narrative follows these three directors through the mid-1990s with Spielberg and Lucas's massively successful Indiana Jones franchise, and Coppola's unfortunate downturn as his career slowly drifted away from him. VERDICT An entertaining, informative, and necessary book for all fans of contemporary cinema.--Peter Thornell

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

The story of the filmmaking pioneers who defined New Hollywood. Aspiring American directors who came of age in the late 1960s wanted to develop a new, more personal brand of movies. The vanguard consisted primarily of three white male contemporaries: George Lucas, a graduate of USC film school who loved "underground film, direct cinema, avant-garde, 16mm" movies, not Hollywood fare; Queens native and UCLA film grad Francis Ford Coppola, who had "larger-than-life gregariousness" and was a well-remunerated screenwriter by age 26; and Cincinnati-born Steven Spielberg, who longed to make movies but had to attend Cal State because his high school grades weren't good enough for film school. In this revealing biography, Fischer describes how these three men, along with "intense, skittish, allergic to seemingly everything" Martin Scorsese, led this new era of American moviemaking. The author focuses on the period from 1967, when a young Lucas wandered onto the Warner Bros. lot looking for a job, through 1982 and the release of Spielberg'sE.T. the Extra Terrestrial. He describes the origins of Coppola's Zoetrope Studios and Lucas' Skywalker Ranch, Spielberg's early years directing for television, plus each man's high-grossing successes and their failures, the latter including Coppola's glitzy musicalOne From the Heart. The book devotes far more time to the business side of the film industry than to filmmaking itself. Readers who want the inside scoop on negotiations, boardroom meetings, and the like will be thrilled. Those interested in the technical aspects of film or the directing strategies used to elicit performances inThe Godfather,Star Wars,Jaws, and the rest will come away hungry. Fischer is clearly a fan, noting that Spielberg's and Lucas' early works "were more complex than they were given credit for" and adding that both men "served up comfort better than anyone else," a statement that both fans and detractors are likely to agree on. An industry-focused work on some of cinema's influential figures. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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