Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

This book is about the rise and fall of the New Hollywood and, at the same time, is about lessons on how to survive when changes occur in the film industry.

The first lesson is: don't destroy the good relationships you have with your family, especially if they support and work with you on your projects. Peter Bogdanovich can be the best example in this case, because one of the reasons for his success was his wife, Polly Platt. When Bogdanovic's producer asked him if he had an idea for a film, she suggested to them Larry McMurtry's novel The Last Picture Show, and the rest is history. Then he started to have an affair with the star of his film, Cybil Shepherd, during film production. Peter and Polly separated but still worked with each other. He had a good run during that period, until Polly finally decided to break up with him creatively. Since then, he hasn't made a movie that was a hit.

The second most important thing is to focus on your field first, strengthen it, and then move to other categories. Francis Ford Coppola can be a good example. The man knew he was good at adapting others works to the screen but hated that and tried to write original scripts that didn't succeed as he hoped. I don't blame him on that one, but I blame him for trying to be a producer on top of writing and directing his movies; it was a bit too early to do so. I know that he wanted total control over his movies, but he still chose to do it the wrong way. I hope his upcoming film Megalopolis is not a repetition of what happened last time, but the writing is on the wall. I wish he'd do something different this time, so we could experience a wonderful movie.

The last one I can think of is to avoid drugs; don't ruin yourself. For this one, you can fix it by quitting the drugs or the addiction that you are suffering from as soon as possible. Scorsese is a good example in this case. He suffered from drug abuse for many years, until he was on the verge of death. He survived and then managed to turn his career around. It took him a decade, but at least he continued to work on what he enjoyed doing.