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Anybody who loves big American popcorn movies should find High Concept and Easy Riders, Raging Bulls thoroughly engrossing. Ultimately, though, both also seem as depressing as a Swedish art-house film. Simpson's fate reflects the shame heaped on his whores: his heart failed while he sat on the toilet reading a biography of Oliver Stone. Biskind's book ends with a death too: the 1988 demise of brilliant but burned-out director Hal Ashby, whose Coming Home, The Last Detail and Shampoo were touchstone films of the '70s. Other directors fared only a little better, ushering in the '80s and '90s with divorces, addictions and bankruptcy. Indeed, the last chapter's title is the final line of dialogue from Easy Rider: "We blew it."
How fitting. Look at any recent film by the Former Artist Known as Coppola. Check your local theater marquee, where endless variations of the same $100 million jokey-action movie are displayed. Or consider that the company making the most maverick pictures today, Miramax, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Disney. It's enough to make you want to stay home and read a book.