Hollywood Movies: Their Changing Nature

Award-winning author/screenwriter/playwright Bill Mesce drops by to discuss his book, Reel Change: The Changing Nature of Hollywood, Hollywood Movies and the People Who Go To See Them. Mesce’s other books about movies include Overkill: The Rise and Fall of Thriller Cinema, Peckinpah’s Women: A Reappraisal of Portrayal of Women in the Period Westerns of Sam Peckinpah, and Idols, Icons, Illusions: The Movies We Love and Love To Hate and the People Who Made Them. His screenwriting credits include Road Ends, starring Dennis Hopper, and uncredited work on Brian De Palma’s political thriller Blow Out. What are the most important changes that happened to Hollywood movies? Why can’t an Oscar winner look more like a hit? What makes a Classic movie classic? How did blockbuster films ruin Hollywood? Who was the world’s first screenwriter? What accounts for the disappearing movie private eye? Listen in and find out.

Among Mesce's other books are The Advocate, an acclaimed World War II drama, and Inside the Rise of HBO: A Personal History of the Company That Transformed Television. Mesce spent 27 years working in various capacities in the Corporate Communications area of Home Box Office (HBO). He currently serves as an adjunct instructor at several colleges and universities in New Jersey.