Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Forty Something Years in Hollywood
Ed Zwick
Gallery Books/An Imprint of Simon & Schuster  (February (2024)

Four decades of swimming laps in the Hollywood blender

Here’s an IMDb mini biography provided by Humanitas Official Website: “Zwick moves deftly between the roles of writer, director and producer. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his direction of the 1989 critically acclaimed Civil War drama, Glory. He received his second Golden Globe nomination as a director for Legends of the Fall. Zwick received an Academy Award as one of the producers of Shakespeare in Love, as well as a second nomination for Traffic. He wrote, directed and produced the feature film The Last Samurai. Zwick continues to work with his partner, Marshall Herskovitz, at their company Bedford Falls (founded in 1985) where they created Thirtysomething, My So-Called Life, Once and Again, and Blood Diamond.” Also, Zwick also produced and/or directed more than a dozen films, including Trial by Fire (2018), Defiance (23008), and The Siege (1998).”

A brief excerpt from Zwick’s comments in the Introduction: ” Rereading these chapters, I realize while setting out to write about what I’ve learned making movies. I’ve in fact ended up highlighting what moviemaking has taught me about life. Though told in the guise of Hollywood anecdotes, each one turns out to be a a surprising lesson:  about mentors, monsters, and the meaning of friendship, about the perils of meeting your idols, the complexity of success and the nobility of failure. Taken together, these stories can also be read as a kind of pilgrim’s progress: a sentimental journey from innocence to experience. More parable than practical instruction, some are moral tales, others aspire to high comedy.”

Of special interest to me are his close working relationships with several of my favorite movie actors. They include (in alpha order)  Daniel Craig, Tom Cruise, Matt Damon, Leonardo DeCaprio, Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, and Denzel Washington.

The specific “hits, flops, and other illusions” are best revealed by Zwick in context, within his lively narrative.  Rating films is a highly subjective exercise. In fact, that’s also true of sports (e.g. Mantle or Mays, Brown or Sanders,  Nicklaus or Woods) and other  categories of performance. Suffice to say that Zwick has 40+ years of experience in “Hollywood” (best viewed as a culture than asc a location)  and worked closely with many (if not most) of the “stars” who include but are not limited to actors. He is a talented raconteur. And he obviously loves making movies.

You’ll enjoy this book if you enjoy watching movies and are curious to know much more about (a) how they are made, (b) why some aren’t, and (c) how relationships develop — and break down — between and among those involved.

* * *

To learn more about Ed Zwik and his work, please click here.