Train crash reading - awful but you can't look away. It's also highly entertaining - Eszterhas is a very good writer, even if he does come out of this story almost as bad as Mel Gibson. It's based on the time he wrote a script about the Maccabes for Gibson, which was never made - I remember when it was announced most people assumed it was just a sop to get people off Mel's back about anti-Semitism and that seems to be the case. But there was a long development process which meant several meetings between Eszterhas and Mel, resulting in some memorable encounters.
Everything Mel does in the story feels authentic and all to true - the grey skin, chain smoking, concerns about his balding head, railing at God for turning him old, bitter rants about his second wife, the constant outbursts of rage, entourage of priests and others, innate intelligence (he's no dummy, look at his career), obsessions with enemas and oral sex, receiving blow jobs from women at dinner parties, genuine love for his daughter, sense of humour, desire to confess, overwhelming unhappiness, bitching about Brian Hegeland and Randall Wallace, Richard Donner being the only director he had a good word for, threatening to hire hit men to kill his ex, wanting to convert Jews to Christianity, hating John Lennon.
Eszterhas comes out of it as a dick too - firstly, writing the book at all; almost bragging about ignoring his father for the latter's anti Semitic writing in the 30s and 40s despite all the good his father did for his son since then (cutting the guy off from his grandkids?); taking the job with Mel and not quitting despite what sounds like constant anti-Semitic rants; allowing his 15 year old son to go to Costa Rica and hang out with Mel when he knew Gibson had a temper; only resigning after Gibson had directed his first draft (Eszterhas quotes some dialogue from it which sounds pretty terrible). Eszterhas leaves out the fact he's had only something like one credit in the last 15 years, and by leaking a letter about Gibson he was replaying his old trick against Mike Ovitz back in the early 90s when he was more of a Hollywood player; calling Mel mad because he didn't like Eszterhas' script. He also says he's started having the occasional drink of wine because his doctor said it was okay - the guy was/is an alcoholic, he shouldn't be drinking at all.
I actually wound up having more sympathy for Gibson than Eszterhas - Gibson is clearly a tormented person given a lot of bad lessons by his father who is still alive and has messed with his head; fame and power hasn't been healthy to him - since the 1980s he's been bombarded by people who want to use him. He's managed to channel his madness into some truly memorable cinema - not just as actor but also director and producer. He's full of rage, can't let go of his addictions, probably doesn't have any real friends and is bonkers - but at least he's not a self righteous holier than thou clown.
Still Eszterhas can write and this was so much fun to read.
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