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A review by komet2020
Hollywood Ending : Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence by Ken Auletta
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
HOLLYWOOD ENDING: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence is a biography that does a thorough job of exploring the life of a man who, in certain respects, revolutionized the movie business over the past 30 years. Had this man not given in to his baser self, and not destroyed or undermined the careers of a number of actresses and not been a chronic sexual predator, perhaps he would still be a force in Hollywood today.
Until about 10 years ago, I knew next to nothing about who Harvey Weinstein was, though I had enjoyed some of the successful movies he helped promote and produce like The Crying Game and Good Will Hunting. (Shakespeare in Love I had heard about some years earlier when it came seemingly out of nowhere to win a Best Picture Oscar in the late 1990s, besting Saving Private Ryan for the award (which I was not happy about for I saw Saving Private Ryan, which resonated powerfully with me because my late father was a GI who had fought in Europe during World War II.) It was only when I was watching Seth MacFarlane, the MC for the 2013 Academy Awards mention the nominees for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar and say "Congratulations, you five ladies no longer have to pretend to be attracted to Harvey Weinstein,” followed quickly by a shudder from the audience and some uneasy laughter, that I thought to myself: "Could this be true?" I think I may have had then some inkling of a dark side to Weinstein that was being hushed. But until watching Seth MacFarlane make that remark, I didn't give Harvey Weinstein a second thought.
Ken Auletta has to be congratulated for writing a thorough, well-crafted, engaging, and readable book that gave me a palpable sense of what Harvey Weinstein was like, from his formative years in Queens (New York) to his first taste of success in his 20s as a concert promoter in Upstate New York, onward into his career as a mover and shaker in Hollywood, and his fall from grace in 2017. Frankly, it amazed me that Weinstein, was able to get away for YEARS with some really, awful behavior towards actresses who came into his orbit. Yet, on a certain level, he had a genius for understanding film and how to appeal to moviegoers that was uncanny. For instance: "... since its founding, Miramax [Weinstein's film company until 2004] had dazzled audiences with many celebrated movies and by 1998, it was America's dominant independent movie studio, accounting for an estimated 80 percent market share of all independent movies released in the United States." Furthermore: "...Miramax became the preeminent gatekeeper for the sort of prominent roles that could define an actor's career, as with Gwyneth Paltrow, or revive it, as with John Travolta."
For anyone with a interest in learning about the lives of public figures who rose to the heights of dizzying success in their careers and later self-destructed, HOLLYWOOD ENDING is terrific.
Until about 10 years ago, I knew next to nothing about who Harvey Weinstein was, though I had enjoyed some of the successful movies he helped promote and produce like The Crying Game and Good Will Hunting. (Shakespeare in Love I had heard about some years earlier when it came seemingly out of nowhere to win a Best Picture Oscar in the late 1990s, besting Saving Private Ryan for the award (which I was not happy about for I saw Saving Private Ryan, which resonated powerfully with me because my late father was a GI who had fought in Europe during World War II.) It was only when I was watching Seth MacFarlane, the MC for the 2013 Academy Awards mention the nominees for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar and say "Congratulations, you five ladies no longer have to pretend to be attracted to Harvey Weinstein,” followed quickly by a shudder from the audience and some uneasy laughter, that I thought to myself: "Could this be true?" I think I may have had then some inkling of a dark side to Weinstein that was being hushed. But until watching Seth MacFarlane make that remark, I didn't give Harvey Weinstein a second thought.
Ken Auletta has to be congratulated for writing a thorough, well-crafted, engaging, and readable book that gave me a palpable sense of what Harvey Weinstein was like, from his formative years in Queens (New York) to his first taste of success in his 20s as a concert promoter in Upstate New York, onward into his career as a mover and shaker in Hollywood, and his fall from grace in 2017. Frankly, it amazed me that Weinstein, was able to get away for YEARS with some really, awful behavior towards actresses who came into his orbit. Yet, on a certain level, he had a genius for understanding film and how to appeal to moviegoers that was uncanny. For instance: "... since its founding, Miramax [Weinstein's film company until 2004] had dazzled audiences with many celebrated movies and by 1998, it was America's dominant independent movie studio, accounting for an estimated 80 percent market share of all independent movies released in the United States." Furthermore: "...Miramax became the preeminent gatekeeper for the sort of prominent roles that could define an actor's career, as with Gwyneth Paltrow, or revive it, as with John Travolta."
For anyone with a interest in learning about the lives of public figures who rose to the heights of dizzying success in their careers and later self-destructed, HOLLYWOOD ENDING is terrific.