Town Without Pity
CROUSE, TIM MARTIN
Town Without Pity The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood By David Thomson Knopf. 402 pp. $27.95. Reviewed by Tim Martin Crouse Writer, producer, director, "The Orchard"; head writer,...
...Frank Capra, an immigrant who understood the sacrifices demanded by the American dream, was at his creative peak during that era...
...A renowned film historian, Thomson has written over a dozen books that explore various aspects of Hollywood...
...The author finds Hollywood films compelling historical documents engaged in a sort of conversation with society: They have reflected the transformations the country has undergone over the last century, and in turn affected it by holding up examples of how Americans should live and behave...
...Although this can sometimes be exhausting to follow, it allows for fascinating glimpses of industry players...
...Early filmmakers also believed that in California they might escape the corruption of the East that had driven up costs...
...But while explaining the whole equation of Hollywood, his knowledge does not always serve him well: Too oftenhe flies off on tangents that only serve to muddy the picture...
...The glitzy, fast-paced lifestyles of Lalaland frequently proved deadly for those lured to the West...
...Film is an art form, but movies are impure works of art produced by a voracious, cutthroat industry...
...The book's title is drawn from a line in F. Scott Fitzgerald's final unfinished novel, The Last Tycoon, sparked by his failed screenwriting career...
...His pinnacle, the 1974 film Chinatown, earned him an Academy Award for best screenplay...
...David Thomson's unorthodox history of Tinseltown focuses on the contradictions surrounding the mechanized illusion...
...The author relishes the seedy, greedy underbelly of the film industry he frequently denigrates...
...He empathized with the common man and exalted in his struggle...
...Greed, betrayals and clashing egos broke up friendships and shattered careers...
...Nevertheless, it is clear that, like the millions who troop to the multiplex every weekend, Thomson also reveres them...
...The development of sound, Technicolor, wide-screen photography, and 3D made movies an experience that could not be duplicated anywhere but in the theater...
...Studio chiefs wanted movies to promote hopefulness and inspire audiences to overcome hardship...
...Thomson further traces Hollywood's political impact through World War II, McCarthyism, Vietnam, and women's liberation...
...Stars like Lillian Gish were painstakingly created and sold to the public, then cast off like used clothing...
...In the end, however, it is apparent that the contradictions of this book mirror those of the town it takes as its subject...
...Perhaps his most notable work is The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, originally published in 1975 and just reissued in a revised and updated edition...
...The tabloids fed their hunger with headlines about the accusations of rape and murder against Roscoe "Fatty'' Arbuckle after the death of Virginia Rappeinl921.Indanger of government action, the industry hastily tapped former Postmaster General and Republican politico Will H. Hays to establish new standards and burnish its image...
...Throughout, Thomson follows the money, relaying box office takes, salaries and budgets across the industry...
...Film studios became factories, turning out the latest product for mass consumption...
...These events were paralleled by critical technical innovations that kept films relevant in the face of ever emerging challenges, particularly television...
...Thomson contends that it left us with a vast legacy of brilliant films, such as Gone with the Wind (1939), that are wildly entertaining if not abundantly meaningful...
...Some stars, Thomson points out, were simply not capable of handling their own careers and depended on studio bosses for guidance...
...The trials and tribulations of screenwriter-director Robert Towne are held up as an amalgam of all that is wrong with what has been called "the dream factory...
...Under his 1930 Production Code, the studios were able to fend off outside intervention and appear socially responsible...
...Towne started out hungry, creative and prolific...
...Investors immediately sought ways to capitalize on the new technology...
...Yet the factory system was not without its bright spots...
...He comprehensively explores the various commercial and creative forces that have built the industry, from the early kinetoscope machines to today's blockbusters...
...Thomson is particularly effective in illustrating how the studios dealt with increasing public disillusionment during the Depression...
...A mob mentality seized the industry, breeding a reputation for debauchery and excess, culminating in the scandals of the 1920s...
...He charts Marlon Brando's ballooning paydays from his first stage appearance to his bloated final film, avivid case forthe argument that money exerts a corrosive influence on the artistic impulse...
...The industry moved out West because it afforded longer shooting days and milder weather...
...Towne's recent work has been on screenplays for Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible blockbusters...
...Thomson also explores how stars like Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford exploited their popularity for more power over their work...
...Along the way he weaves tantalizing tales of triumph, greed and excess...
...Griffith's ambitious Birth of a Nation opened the door to narratives that lasted longer than one reel...
...head writer, MTV2 For almost a century, Hollywood has churned out fantasies that have inspired and warped voyeuristic viewers in darkened theaters...
...Chinatown, which explores the corrupt development of Los Angeles, is a touchstone for the author...
...Many others, including James Cagney, John Garfield and Bette Davis, tried the same thing with disastrous results...
...But he ended up another paranoid, bitter has-been who has long since surrendered his hopes of telling original stories...
...Louis B. Mayer and David O. Selznick—proved no better at handling their personal lives...
...He recounts the making of the film, the jostling for power behind the scenes, and the turmoil around its disappointing 1990 sequel, The Two Jakes...
...As movies became more popular, the challenge grew to pack as many bodies as possible into theaters...
...The public reveled in each salacious story...
...The 1974 film is referred to throughout the book to illustrate Hollywood's evolution...
...Presiding over their lots like insecure tyrants, some of those executives— e.g...
...The Whole Equation opens with a parable about the parasitic nature of Hollywood...
...His films offered the public reassurance that the vision of an America where idealism ultimately triumphed was real...
...He can coolly analyze films as mere commodities...
...Thomson takes us back to the days of the Lumière Brothers and Thomas Alva Edison, when motion pictures were invented and refined on the East Coast...
...It did not take long for the same bullying rapacity to take root in Hollywood...
...In 1919 they formed United Artists with Douglas Fairbanks to gain more control over their films and reap greater financial gains...
...Their stories animate a circuitous, impressionistic narrative that relies heavily on anecdotes...
...In 1915, D.W...
...Thomson implies that Hollywood's seductive promises of fortune and immortality helped ruin Fitzgerald's talent...
Vol. 87 • November 2004 • No. 6
