Adventures of a Suburban Boy

By John Boorman

Book Overview

In Adventures of a Suburban Boy, John Boorman, hailed by the Observer as 'arguably Britain's greatest living director', offers an enthralling memoir of a creative life spent turning dreams into celluloid, and money into light. One of cinema's authentic visionaries, Boorman nevertheless enjoyed an archetypal English suburban boyhood in the 1940s and 50s, attending Catholic school and finding his first employment in a dry-cleaner's. But his abiding passion was for film, and he got his first break during the 'gold rush' era of British television in the 1960s. After directing several innovative documentaries for the BBC, he graduated to motion pictures, first filming pop stars The Dave Clark Five for Catch Us If You Can , before venturing to Los Angeles to make his first Hollywood picture - and his first masterpiece - Point Blank . The film inaugurated Boorman's profound friendship with star Lee Marvin, which also led to a second professional collaboration on Hell in the Pacific . What follows are accounts of Boorman's joys and agonies in the making of such extraordinary pictures as the terrifying backwoods adventure Deliverance , the fantastical epics Zardoz and Exorcist II: The Heretic , the glorious Arthurian legend Excalibur , his magnificent drama of imperilled Amazonian tribes, The Emerald Forest , and his semi-autobiographical, multi-Oscar-nominated Hope and Glory . Among the many friends and collaborators of whom Boorman offers vivid portraits are Lee Marvin, Sean Connery, Richard Burton, Marcello Mastroianni, Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Helen Mirren and Nicol Williamson.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0571216951
• ISBN13: 9780571216956
• Release Date: November 2003
• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Length: 314 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

A fine memoir

My own take on John Boorman is that he CAN be a fine film director and sometimes he is. He's been responsible for some of the very best films of the last 40 years (HELL IN THE PACIFIC, DELIVERANCE, HOPE AND GLORY) and some of the absolute worst as well (ZARDOZ and EXCALIBUR, anybody?). As a memoir writer, however, he's first-rate, and what emerges is an engaging chronicle of his life both in the movies and out of them. His descriptions of how he developed each of his movies are always fascinating, and he has a huge streak of compassion for the people he's encountered throughout his life that makes his stories about them revealing without being vindictive. Boorman has been a director who has been more than willing to fall on his face any number of times reaching for what he believes might be a special cinematic moment, and this wonderful book goes a long way towards explaining the whys and wherefores of those aspirations. It hasn't changed my opinion about ZARDOZ one bit, but I now find it a lot easier to give him a thumbs-up for taking the risk to make it. Recommended.

amazingly enjoyable

I found myself trapped in an airport beginning a longish flight and this book was the single semi-appealing book available; once I started reading I was again trapped by his self-deprecating and insightful wit. How difficult it must be to make a good movie if someone as thoughtful, intelligent and sensitive as this only succeeds a small part of the time. An enjoyable book from the first with the added bonus of glimpses into the real lives of other artists and creators. I may be over-grateful because the book was much more than I expected or hoped - but I don't think so.

suburban boy

Boorman writes with great wit and humility about his career as a filmmaker, working his way up the ladder. He adds interesting stories about legends such as Lee marvin, Toshiro Mafuni, Neil Jordan, etc. He talks about the struggles of having his films made, and the fact that many filmakers ideas never make it to the screen. A very honest nad enlightening autobiography.