Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-And-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood

Biskind, Peter

ISBN 10: 0684809966 / ISBN 13: 9780684809960

Published by Simon & Schuster, New York, 1998

About this Item

A scarce and handsome First Edition, First Printing signed by the author in black ink on the half-title page. From the library of the late Herb Yellin, founder and publisher of Lord John Press. Bound in dark grey and black paper boards, the book is in fine condition with pink metallic titling and clean white endpapers. Includes the original dustjacket also in beautiful condition complete with the original price and protected by an archival dustjacket. The book was the basis of a 2003 documentary film of the same name directed by Kenneth Bowser and narrated by actor William H. Macy. It was screened out of competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. The book created some controversy with some of the directors featured in the book claiming the author did not represent them fairly.

Seller Inventory # 4576

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-And-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster, New York
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0684809966
• ISBN 13: 9780684809960
• Binding: Cloth & Boards
• Edition: First Edition, First Printing.
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine in Archival Plastic Cover
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Books To Films
  • FEATURED AUTHORS
  • Biographies and Memoirs
  • Nonfiction
  • Signed Books less than $300

About this title

Synopsis

In 1969, a low-budget biker movie, Easy Rider, shocked Hollywood with its stunning success. An unabashed celebration of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll (onscreen and off), Easy Rider heralded a heady decade in which a rebellious wave of talented young filmmakers invigorated the movie industry. In Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Peter Biskind takes us on the wild ride that was Hollywood in the '70s, an era that produced such modern classics as The Godfather, Chinatown, Shampoo, Nashville, Taxi Driver, and Jaws. Easy Riders, Raging Bulls vividly chronicles the exuberance and excess of the times: the startling success of Easy Rider and the equally alarming circumstances under which it was made, with drugs, booze, and violent rivalry between costars Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda dominating the set; how a small production company named BBS became the guiding spirit of the youth rebellion in Hollywood and how, along the way, some of its executives helped smuggle Huey Newton out of the country; how director Hal Ashby was busted for drugs and thrown in jail in Toronto; why Martin Scorsese attended the Academy Awards with an FBI escort when Taxi Driver was nominated; how George Lucas, gripped by anxiety, compulsively cut off his own hair while writing Star Wars, how a modest house on Nicholas Beach occupied by actresses Margot Kidder and Jennifer Salt became the unofficial headquarters for the New Hollywood; how Billy Friedkin tried to humiliate Paramount boss Barry Diller; and how screenwriter/director Paul Schrader played Russian roulette in his hot tub. It was a time when an "anything goes" experimentation prevailed both on the screen and off. After the success of Easy Rider, young film-school graduates suddenly found themselves in demand, and directors such as Francis Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, George Lucas, and Martin Scorsese became powerful figures. Even the new generation of film stars -- Nicholson, De Niro, Hoffman, Pacino, and Dunaway -- seemed a breed apart from the traditional Hollywood actors. Ironically, the renaissance would come to an end with Jaws and Star Wars, hugely successful films that would create a blockbuster mentality and crush innovation. Based on hundreds of interviews with the directors themselves, producers, stars, agents, writers, studio executives, spouses, and ex-spouses, this is the full, candid story of Hollywood's last golden age. Never before have so many celebrities talked so frankly about one another and about the drugs, sex, and money that made so many of them crash and burn. By turns hilarious and shocking, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls is the ultimate behind-the-scenes account of Hollywood at work and play.

About the Author

Peter Biskind is the former executive editor of Premiere and former editor in chief of American Film. He is the author of two previous books, Seeing Is Believing: How Hollywood Taught Us to Stop Worrying and Love the Fifties and The Godfather Companion. His work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and Rolling Stone, among other publications. He lives in New York City.