kcmc59's review against another edition
2.0
Somewhat disappointing read. Filled in with stories of other actors who were drinking with/without the main four actors when he didn't seem to find enough to say about them. Bad construction and fact checking a bit off. At one point he comments that Bogart was the only one NOT to get sick on the African Queen shoot because he was such a drinker. When the fact is that Kate Hepburn was the only one who DID get sick because she wasn't. That's just the most glaring one. But more than once I found myself going to other bios and checking his facts and finding him failing.
I actually picked this up because I loved O'Toole's Bios so much and thought they might add some more info to those. O'Toole was always my favorite. Burton was too moody and Reed too scary and Harris too angry. Turns out the drinking was just an amplification of these traits.
Read O'Toole's books. Better written, funnier stories and more kind to other drinking actors.
I actually picked this up because I loved O'Toole's Bios so much and thought they might add some more info to those. O'Toole was always my favorite. Burton was too moody and Reed too scary and Harris too angry. Turns out the drinking was just an amplification of these traits.
Read O'Toole's books. Better written, funnier stories and more kind to other drinking actors.
caitlinxmartin's review against another edition
3.0
This is an odd book. It's basically a collection of anecdotes from the drinking lives of four amazing actors. The anecdotes pretty much follow one basic form: Person X got really drunk, did something stupid, doesn't remember it, doesn't regret it. There is a slight variation where Person X remembers it and regrets it, but this variation doesn't occur often. It's slightly different for each man - with Richard Harris and Oliver Reed there is a fight of some kind, with Richard Burton there is also Elizabeth Taylor (who drank as much or more than he did), and with Peter O'Toole there is always a bon mot. In the end the endless repetition of dumb activities reads like a great advertisement for a 12-step program - the pursuit of fun is all so desperate and boring and soulkilling. I'm a bit undecided as to whether or not this reaction is by design or not - the author is so absent and deadpan it's difficult to know what he might think.
I was reminded of reading Touched with Fire, Kay Redfield Jamison's study of artists and bipolar disease. She neatly punctures the idea that madness and art are romantically and inextricably intertwined and instead dares to wonder how much these individuals might have accomplished had they not suffered from depression. Anyone who has ever been through a severe depression knows that there's nothing romantic or even remotely creative about it. When getting out of bed is your biggest achievement for the day it's hard to produce anything other than tears. I was left to wonder what they all might have been without the booze. It's telling that Peter O'Toole, the only one forced to quit drinking due to health concerns, is the only one of the four still alive.
I was reminded of reading Touched with Fire, Kay Redfield Jamison's study of artists and bipolar disease. She neatly punctures the idea that madness and art are romantically and inextricably intertwined and instead dares to wonder how much these individuals might have accomplished had they not suffered from depression. Anyone who has ever been through a severe depression knows that there's nothing romantic or even remotely creative about it. When getting out of bed is your biggest achievement for the day it's hard to produce anything other than tears. I was left to wonder what they all might have been without the booze. It's telling that Peter O'Toole, the only one forced to quit drinking due to health concerns, is the only one of the four still alive.
edumallo's review
3.0
Una especie de cuento de Navidad en el que en vez de espíritus los guías son cuatro grandes borrachos y desastres generales (y sin embargo o por eso mismo genios) de la actuación británica: Richard Burton, Richard Harrison, Oliver Reed y Peter O'Toole.
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