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Hollywood Animal
He spent his earliest years in post-World War Two refugee camps. He came to America and grew up in Cleveland - stealing cars, rolling drinks, battling priests, nearly going to jail. He became the screenwriter of the world-wide hits Basic Instinct, Jagged Edge and Flashdance. He also wrote the legendary disasters Showgirls and Jade. The rebellion never ended, even as his films went on to gross more than a billion dollars at the box office and he became the most famous - or infamous - screenwriter in Hollywood.
754 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 15, 2003
39 people are currently reading
581 people want to read
About the author
Joe Eszterhas
21 books25 followersJoe Eszterhas is a Hungarian-American screenwriter, known for films such as Jagged Edge, Music Box, Basic Instinct and Showgirls. Before becoming a screenwriter he was a journalist and has also written non-fiction books and memoirs.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 79 reviews
August 1, 2012
This is a terrible, terrible book I could not stop reading. Look for it in a future Silly Show-Biz Book Club entry.
abandoned
August 22, 2015Why on earth do I have a copy of this, signed personally to me by the author? You never know what you will find cleaning on a Saturday.
June 9, 2011
This book started out really good and slowly descended into preachy madness. I wanted to read this considering that Joe Eszterhas was once the most highly paid screenwriter who turned out the most controversial and crappy films, including Showgirls. I have to give him credit, he pulls no punches in revealing the true natures of people from some of the executives and directors he dealt with (including making Michael Ovitz come off like a murderer). I also enjoyed the story of his childhood growing up as refugee in Cleavland. I enjoyed his stories but at times he plays too much "others did it" blaming the failure of almost all his movies on studios, distributors, directors, what have no and stating all the time that his scripts were perfect. This "I didn't mean to" mentality becomes too much when he discusses his divorce and affair with another woman. He mentions beforehand a few one-night stands he has but in discussing the crumbling of his marriage he just expects the reader to identity with him culminating in a pretty awful passage where he argues with his wife and then goes next door to have sex with his mistress. Personally he comes off like an ass while professionally he's really funny. The ending turns preachy when he has a heart attack and goes on and on about religion and finding himself and realizing he doesn't like anyone in Hollywood. For a guy whose made millions working in Hollywood it's hard to stomach his complete mind change and how he absolutely despises Hollywood and how it ruined his life. The book is 700 pages and about 400 is really good, it's the last 300 that becomes difficult. If you're a lover of salacious Hollywood stories the first half is great and skip the second.
April 10, 2022
I don't even like most of his films, but his various memoirs are all extremely entertaining, honest, and illustrative of the rock-star writer's rise and fall in the Hollywood Machine. Even when he was the most sought after screenwriter in Hollywood (getting millions of dollars for even an outline of a story) his scripts rarely ended up on screen as he had written them. Boggles the mind. He also in almost every case, names names. It's very interesting to read the other Hollywood memoirs that name names and compare notes.
Raw and honest, I'd recommend this for any movie buffs. Joe's story is almost a story in itself. (and one of his scripts turned out to be true *after* the movie was made.
September 10, 2016
The most amazing fact: Joe Eszterhas hit Anastas Mikoyan with a rotten tomato.
December 9, 2018
This is a difficult book to rate. I appreciated the storytelling skills displayed, but the main character was the author writing about himself, and he was, er, hard to put it any plainer than this: he was stupendously, unrelentingly and irredeemably through to the bitter end (of the book) utterly awful.
I love a good story and movies are often one avenue for becoming engrossed in a good story. I hate celebrity gossip, and like everyone else, find myself pulled into its vortex without my consent, so avoid celebrity gossip websites and magazines like the plague. All the insider/celebrity storytelling, including the anonymised snippets which broke up the autobiographical material, were scandalously tantalising, as I'm sure they were meant to be, although they are time-warped into the period during which the author's time in Hollywood was at its peak, namely the mid 1980s through to the late 1990s. So it's all a little out-of-date.
The author is an excellent storyteller, but a lousy human being. Dressing up anecdotes about his ghastly behaviour and piteous internal dialogue as some kind of raw honesty, he comes across as a man who has zero self-awareness. As a man who has never grown up, never left behind that Hungarian refugee tag he grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, trying to escape.
He chain smokes, he is unapologetically unfaithful to his devoted (first) wife Gerri, he is ego-maniacal, he drinks like a fish. None of this is supposition or reading between the lines. He tells us these things, almost like he's … well not so much proud of those things, but that he's owning up to them.
Instead of coming across as courageous self-reflection turned into a redeemed man, it comes across as crass braggadocio. Like a character in a movie, probably played by Joe Pesci, bragging about beating someone's head in with a baseball and having a weird and frightening pride in that "accomplishment".
The part where this lack of true self-awareness comes into play most is in describing the events which led him to be with his current wife, Naomi. The hypocrisy at play during those sequences was loathsome, the ability to defend the indefensible boundless, the self-deceit astounding. These are people deeply lost in the emotional jungle who have no hope of getting out, their moral compass having been lost to them long ago. But then again, by Hollywood, er, 'standards', I guess it didn't seem that bad.
The formatting and punctuation in the book was also strange. Bulleted lists of things that were great about Cleveland. Lots and lots of exclamation points! Like a 15-year-old writing in their diary about Major Stuff! It was juvenile! And annoying!
Apart from Jagged Edge, which I enjoyed enormously (but now I'm going to put it down to great acting, directing and post-production), the other movies Joe Eszterhas has written were juvenile junk. How they grossed anything has less to do with his skill as a screenwriter and more to do with the movie machine into which his words were thrown, I am choosing to conclude.
A strange book, which had its poignant moments (his childhood stories were the most touching, although of course one has to wonder how much of it is true, the author being who he is and memory being what it is).
I also found some of the recalled dialogue from fights he had in Hollywood eye-brow raising. How could one remember exactly, precisely, the words one spoke oneself, and the words ones conversation partner said, 10 years after the fact? And yet, they are written as, yes, dialogue in a film.
The author also includes "copies" of letters he sent, often vile, vicious and delinquent missives, in their entirety. Some go on for pages and pages and pages. I'm not sure if he's trying to convince us of anything with these, they seem strange. Like he's trying to get us over to his side somehow, but in sharing with us these letters, he's achieving the exact opposite of that - reminding us, yet again, of his boundless undeveloped ego and the limits it will whiz by to be assuaged in a town of limitless undeveloped egos.
Read at your own risk... it's like fast food - it can taste good while you're eating it, but you feel sick afterward. Except in this case, I felt sick during the eating part a good bit, too.
But the man can write. Hence the two stars.
I love a good story and movies are often one avenue for becoming engrossed in a good story. I hate celebrity gossip, and like everyone else, find myself pulled into its vortex without my consent, so avoid celebrity gossip websites and magazines like the plague. All the insider/celebrity storytelling, including the anonymised snippets which broke up the autobiographical material, were scandalously tantalising, as I'm sure they were meant to be, although they are time-warped into the period during which the author's time in Hollywood was at its peak, namely the mid 1980s through to the late 1990s. So it's all a little out-of-date.
The author is an excellent storyteller, but a lousy human being. Dressing up anecdotes about his ghastly behaviour and piteous internal dialogue as some kind of raw honesty, he comes across as a man who has zero self-awareness. As a man who has never grown up, never left behind that Hungarian refugee tag he grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, trying to escape.
He chain smokes, he is unapologetically unfaithful to his devoted (first) wife Gerri, he is ego-maniacal, he drinks like a fish. None of this is supposition or reading between the lines. He tells us these things, almost like he's … well not so much proud of those things, but that he's owning up to them.
Instead of coming across as courageous self-reflection turned into a redeemed man, it comes across as crass braggadocio. Like a character in a movie, probably played by Joe Pesci, bragging about beating someone's head in with a baseball and having a weird and frightening pride in that "accomplishment".
The part where this lack of true self-awareness comes into play most is in describing the events which led him to be with his current wife, Naomi. The hypocrisy at play during those sequences was loathsome, the ability to defend the indefensible boundless, the self-deceit astounding. These are people deeply lost in the emotional jungle who have no hope of getting out, their moral compass having been lost to them long ago. But then again, by Hollywood, er, 'standards', I guess it didn't seem that bad.
The formatting and punctuation in the book was also strange. Bulleted lists of things that were great about Cleveland. Lots and lots of exclamation points! Like a 15-year-old writing in their diary about Major Stuff! It was juvenile! And annoying!
Apart from Jagged Edge, which I enjoyed enormously (but now I'm going to put it down to great acting, directing and post-production), the other movies Joe Eszterhas has written were juvenile junk. How they grossed anything has less to do with his skill as a screenwriter and more to do with the movie machine into which his words were thrown, I am choosing to conclude.
A strange book, which had its poignant moments (his childhood stories were the most touching, although of course one has to wonder how much of it is true, the author being who he is and memory being what it is).
I also found some of the recalled dialogue from fights he had in Hollywood eye-brow raising. How could one remember exactly, precisely, the words one spoke oneself, and the words ones conversation partner said, 10 years after the fact? And yet, they are written as, yes, dialogue in a film.
The author also includes "copies" of letters he sent, often vile, vicious and delinquent missives, in their entirety. Some go on for pages and pages and pages. I'm not sure if he's trying to convince us of anything with these, they seem strange. Like he's trying to get us over to his side somehow, but in sharing with us these letters, he's achieving the exact opposite of that - reminding us, yet again, of his boundless undeveloped ego and the limits it will whiz by to be assuaged in a town of limitless undeveloped egos.
Read at your own risk... it's like fast food - it can taste good while you're eating it, but you feel sick afterward. Except in this case, I felt sick during the eating part a good bit, too.
But the man can write. Hence the two stars.
May 20, 2021
The most epic memoir I've listened to or read. Spanning from his childhood in internment camps in Hungary to surviving cancer and regaining his faith in Christianity in semi-retirement in his early 60's, with dozens of screenplays--many produced but even more unproduced--to mark the passage of time.
It may get too deep into the weeds of Hollywood business, which could bore those not interested in creativity, writing, or how the film industry works. It's unflinching in how scathing it is towards Hollywood elites, which builds Eszterhas's I Don't Give A Fuck Attitude to gigantic proportions, and includes why Joe believes some films soared while others failed. There are more anecdotes of debauchery and cruelty than any other memoir I've read, with plenty of personal stories that show Eszterhas freely admitting he has blood on his hands.
Some of it's dry. Some of it's redundant. Some of it is outlandish. And yet, I spent 30 hours with the story, and I still walked away impressed by the candor, partially from Joe's (seeming) honesty, and partially because of Scott Brick's narration. (I found out afterwards that Eric Bogosian also has narrated this memoir, which gives some audio FOMO).
Read constantly. Be honest with yourself creatively. Be thoughtful about your work. Make mistakes and admit when you make them. Love freely. Don't follow trends, don't take the easy way with stories. Maybe don't make friends with Sharon Stone. No one in charge knows what they're doing, so don't take any shit, don't suffer fools.
It may get too deep into the weeds of Hollywood business, which could bore those not interested in creativity, writing, or how the film industry works. It's unflinching in how scathing it is towards Hollywood elites, which builds Eszterhas's I Don't Give A Fuck Attitude to gigantic proportions, and includes why Joe believes some films soared while others failed. There are more anecdotes of debauchery and cruelty than any other memoir I've read, with plenty of personal stories that show Eszterhas freely admitting he has blood on his hands.
Some of it's dry. Some of it's redundant. Some of it is outlandish. And yet, I spent 30 hours with the story, and I still walked away impressed by the candor, partially from Joe's (seeming) honesty, and partially because of Scott Brick's narration. (I found out afterwards that Eric Bogosian also has narrated this memoir, which gives some audio FOMO).
Read constantly. Be honest with yourself creatively. Be thoughtful about your work. Make mistakes and admit when you make them. Love freely. Don't follow trends, don't take the easy way with stories. Maybe don't make friends with Sharon Stone. No one in charge knows what they're doing, so don't take any shit, don't suffer fools.
December 14, 2024
Much like the author's career the book starts well, has flashes of originality, and then absolutely collapses under the weight of baffling decisions that makes one question whether the writer ever really knew what they were doing.
The second half of the book was definitely written in a rush. Providing copies of his "wife's diary" (who writes suspiciously similarly to the author) to cover periods of time that the author has already covered was a bizarre decision that I am sure the editors argued to remove. At best it massively slows down the book. At worst it means that you get to experience the author cheating on his wife and splitting up with her from two different angles - him and the woman he's cheating with - whilst his wife has to make-do with being the victim of the pair.
Read the first chapter of this book and you will get 80% of all the information you need. It's not worth reading the remaining 750 pages to get the extra 20%.
The second half of the book was definitely written in a rush. Providing copies of his "wife's diary" (who writes suspiciously similarly to the author) to cover periods of time that the author has already covered was a bizarre decision that I am sure the editors argued to remove. At best it massively slows down the book. At worst it means that you get to experience the author cheating on his wife and splitting up with her from two different angles - him and the woman he's cheating with - whilst his wife has to make-do with being the victim of the pair.
Read the first chapter of this book and you will get 80% of all the information you need. It's not worth reading the remaining 750 pages to get the extra 20%.
April 12, 2025
This is the entertainment Jordan Belfort wishes his book was. I devoured 'Hollywood Animal' like a pogácsa. I have not read something so engaging in years. Stands to reason that a prolific screenwriter, and one of Hollywood's most iconic, would write such an engaging story.
I was put on to "Hollywood Animal" by excerpts I heard of it from Karina Longworth's "You Must Remember This" podcast, tracing Hollywood's history through the lens of its treatment of sex, erotica, and the ratings system.
Joe is a literary savage, kind of like Bukowski, gruff, incisive, and as well read as he is well pickled. I loved the prominence in the story of his screenplay, "Telling Lies in America." Just how reliable is this narrator, in turn? "Basic Instinct" and "Jagged Edge" left audiences questioning did they understand what just happened? Is Joe manipulating us similarly in the pages of his autobiography?
Loved it. Recommended.
I was put on to "Hollywood Animal" by excerpts I heard of it from Karina Longworth's "You Must Remember This" podcast, tracing Hollywood's history through the lens of its treatment of sex, erotica, and the ratings system.
Joe is a literary savage, kind of like Bukowski, gruff, incisive, and as well read as he is well pickled. I loved the prominence in the story of his screenplay, "Telling Lies in America." Just how reliable is this narrator, in turn? "Basic Instinct" and "Jagged Edge" left audiences questioning did they understand what just happened? Is Joe manipulating us similarly in the pages of his autobiography?
Loved it. Recommended.
August 10, 2021
Screenwriter Joe Eszterhas’ memoir starts off strong, with dueling timelines chronicling his days as a force of Hollywood nature as well as his youth as an immigrant misfit trying to fit in in Cleveland, Ohio. The book starts off strong and is peppered with lots of little details and jokes that pay off later. But at more than 730 pages, “Hollywood Animal” is just too damn long and after a while, it becomes a rambling recollection of marital infidelity, familial fallouts, and Tinseltown treachery. It ends with Joe’s discovery of and recovery from throat cancer — brought on by four decades of smoking and alcohol consumption — and while the near-death experience gives him a new lease on life, it actually makes for a pretty dull denouement for what was supposed to be an exciting memoir of a Hollywood rock star.
January 5, 2018
An astonishing look at the life of one of the most controversial screenwriters of our times.
You get a sense of Eszterhas story telling abilities early in the book, a dramatic surge as he jumps between chapters of his childhood and his Hollywood days, he intertwines these stories often reflecting on how his childhood affected his grown life.
Now, my big question is how much of it is true, as good a storyteller Eszterhas is I am quite certain he has spiced up some things here and there.
All in all an entertaining but albeit long read (the last chapters really drag on) but totally worth it if you're interested in the film industry during the 80's and 90's.
You get a sense of Eszterhas story telling abilities early in the book, a dramatic surge as he jumps between chapters of his childhood and his Hollywood days, he intertwines these stories often reflecting on how his childhood affected his grown life.
Now, my big question is how much of it is true, as good a storyteller Eszterhas is I am quite certain he has spiced up some things here and there.
All in all an entertaining but albeit long read (the last chapters really drag on) but totally worth it if you're interested in the film industry during the 80's and 90's.
February 2, 2020
This is perhaps one of the most interesting, revealing and entertaining books one could ever read about the film industry. Eszterhas has written a book that demonstrates the reason he became the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood. There is one thing that mystifies me about the author. His supposed loathing of the business and its excesses and backstabbing sucked him in to its vortex rather than him resisting it. He checked all the boxes of the movie business traps. Infidelity, drugs, booze, betrayal etc. The ultimate iconoclast, independent rebel became all that he loathed. Having said all this, i still loved the book. Joe, we hardly knew ye!
October 9, 2022
Deep, raw and hilarious, this is definitely up there with the best Hollywood books of all time. Me and you against the world, Joe — the director serves the screenwriter's vision, not the other way around.
Half a point deducted for the inclusion of Naomi's diary, which unnecessarily lengthens an already lengthy book and another half a point deducted for what a melodramatic queen Eszterhas turns into when rationalizing why he won't go see his dying father. Just drive to the hospital, jackass.
Half a point deducted for the inclusion of Naomi's diary, which unnecessarily lengthens an already lengthy book and another half a point deducted for what a melodramatic queen Eszterhas turns into when rationalizing why he won't go see his dying father. Just drive to the hospital, jackass.
September 1, 2019
Long and rather epic rant about the life of a well known screenwriter. Having only known about him through his movies, I was captivated to find him to be quite open about his experiences working in the industry. Quite a long read, starts to drag towards the end, but captivating look at an industry through the eyes of one of the highest paid screenwriters of all time.
April 30, 2021
I gave this a better rating just because it was totally different and I enjoyed reading a different format. It's an autobiography of a screen writer...whose movies I haven't really seen...Basic Instinct and Showgirls and some I really enjoyed Jagged Edge , Flashdance and Music Box. Did get a little preachy at the end but with good reason. Lots of name dropping.....
September 16, 2021
A truly amazing memoir on the life of Hollywood's number one earning screenwriter that switches between benders with ladies, blow while namedropping every celebrity you've ever heard to an incredibly touching father and son story that is actually the real meat of the book. 730 pages have never been this interesting, really touching and reflective while also being totally insane.
July 11, 2022
This was a nearly 30-hour audiobook, and I’m not sure why i read it, other than the fact that it’s often referenced on a podcast i like. But dude’s a good writer! A questionable human being. And he managed to make a compelling story of his life & career. I even teared up once. Anyway, it’s done now!
November 23, 2017
I don't know why I started to read this but it kept me interested until the last few pages when he found g*d and it got a bit tedious....I also think that these sorts of memoirs require sets of photos so we know who these people are...
December 5, 2025
A very self-indulgent and egotistical retelling of a colorful life with some provocative Hollywood bridge burning tales along the way. I liked some of the behind the scenes accounts of his more notable works, but it’s clear he is borderline obsessed with Sharon Stone and has no chill about it.
January 4, 2018
Long-winded, but fun and vivid writing. If you've seen any of his films, you should check this book out.
February 6, 2020
3.5 stars
April 6, 2020
Rambling tales, but a nice read about the very tough life of making it as a screenwriter, an overlooked hustle in the movie business.
August 23, 2020
Kiss and tell name dropping. Yawn.
June 5, 2022
Read in 2004. Memoir by famed screenwriter Eszterhas was interesting.
May 22, 2023
No detail too small, apparently.
February 12, 2025
This book is so insanely unhinged. Dude was out of his mind. Also serves as a wild account of what the film business was like on the nineties.
March 22, 2010
Hmmm. I'd say five brilliant stars for all the parts that displayed truth and raw emotional honesty -- meaning all the chapters that showed him in Cleveland as a boy and teenager. The authenticity of his dear mother getting dressed up in cocktail attire just to eat a simple meal at a diner, or his father saving all his hard-earned cash to buy the young Joe a bad-ass car were carefully and lovingly drawn (Eszterhas is a shockingly effective writer when he has a mind to be).
But a big negative 850 stars for the rest of the Hollywood ego maniacal nonsense. Joe Eszterhas manages to portray himself as an arrogant pig in nearly every instance. Baffling, since he's the author, that he doesn't consider his ego to be a character flaw even after the fact. What are you supposed to feel when reading that except pity? And what came out of this mess? Um, Showgirls.
It's admirable toward the end of the memoir when he has the guts to leave Hollywood and raise his four young sons outside of that bubble. His humility when forging conversations with (the actor) Jeff Daniels is apparent as well, and you think he's learned something after all. Still, I am left wondering if Eszterhas has done a noble thing in leaving, or has he just beaten Hollywood to the punch, running like hell before they had a chance to call his bluff? I'll never know, and I doubt if he does.
But a big negative 850 stars for the rest of the Hollywood ego maniacal nonsense. Joe Eszterhas manages to portray himself as an arrogant pig in nearly every instance. Baffling, since he's the author, that he doesn't consider his ego to be a character flaw even after the fact. What are you supposed to feel when reading that except pity? And what came out of this mess? Um, Showgirls.
It's admirable toward the end of the memoir when he has the guts to leave Hollywood and raise his four young sons outside of that bubble. His humility when forging conversations with (the actor) Jeff Daniels is apparent as well, and you think he's learned something after all. Still, I am left wondering if Eszterhas has done a noble thing in leaving, or has he just beaten Hollywood to the punch, running like hell before they had a chance to call his bluff? I'll never know, and I doubt if he does.
August 2, 2012
Fascinating memoir from a fascinating human being. Joe Eszterhas is the extreme example of the badass screenwriter who was more willing to tell you to f*ck off/break your neck if he felt you were trying to... well, f*ck with his words. That's all you have when you're a writer and you have to stand up to what you believe in. Even if the threats come raining down. You get to get inside his head as he tells you his truth of working on his famous movies like Basic Instant or the infamous failures like Showgirls. And you get to see his early life as he slowly develops into the persona he is well known for. Every human being is flawed but not every human being is daring and straight talking like Joe Eszterhas. Definitely a damn good read if you're a screenwriter too... or want a entertaining read about dirty parts of Hollywood. He also has another book I was recommended to read, called: "The Devil's Guide to Hollywood: The Screenwriter as God!" Definitely got to check that one out.
May 28, 2007
Disclaimer: I haven't actually read this in sequence. It usually sits in our bathroom, and I pick it up from time to time. There's an image for you.
My husband always gripes about how I leave it author portrait-side up. It unnerves him. I just like the idea of this grizzly man hack screenwriter looking up at you while you perform your daily routine.
Anyway, what I've read so far has been pretty entertaining. I love how Eszterhas clearly sees himself as incredibly erudite and approached "Showgirls" so seriously, yet the book feels like it's narrated by a giant roast beef sandwich. He is sometimes so misguided, it's lovable. He is also fiercely proud of his Cleveland roots. I think he would love that someone wrote that sentence.
Oh, and Sharon Stone loves getting hash pipes as birthday presents, and Debra Winger is loved by cast and crew. Good stuff.
My husband always gripes about how I leave it author portrait-side up. It unnerves him. I just like the idea of this grizzly man hack screenwriter looking up at you while you perform your daily routine.
Anyway, what I've read so far has been pretty entertaining. I love how Eszterhas clearly sees himself as incredibly erudite and approached "Showgirls" so seriously, yet the book feels like it's narrated by a giant roast beef sandwich. He is sometimes so misguided, it's lovable. He is also fiercely proud of his Cleveland roots. I think he would love that someone wrote that sentence.
Oh, and Sharon Stone loves getting hash pipes as birthday presents, and Debra Winger is loved by cast and crew. Good stuff.
October 7, 2008
He's a piece of work, but not exactly the piece of work I assumed him to be when I picked up the book. The narrative loses steam when a bout with throat cancer rather literally puts the fear of God into the guy, but it's still a blunt, engaging, touching, and provocative - if perhaps not perfectly honest - book. But what would I expect from a guy who could write Showgirls and Basic Instinct as well as The Music Box and Telling Lies in America? He's too complex a beast with too wild a life for even a talented writer like himself to capture with complete accuracy. Does he cut himself too much slack sometimes, or rewrite himself into the hero's role too transparently? Sure. But, by the end, you at least realize that facile labels like "misogynist" or "smutpeddler" are both unfair and wildly inaccurate.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 79 reviews