Ben Hecht: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures
Written by Adina Hoffman
Narrated by Adina Hoffman
2.5/5
()
About this audiobook
He was, according to Pauline Kael, "the greatest American screenwriter." Jean-Luc Godard called him "a genius" who "invented eighty percent of what is used in Hollywood movies today." Besides tossing off dozens of now-classic scripts-including Scarface, Twentieth Century, and Notorious-Ben Hecht was known in his day as ace reporter, celebrated playwright, taboo-busting novelist, and the most quick-witted of provocateurs. During World War II, he also emerged as an outspoken crusader for the imperiled Jews of Europe, and later he became a fierce propagandist for pre-1948 Palestine's Jewish terrorist underground. Whatever the outrage he stirred, this self-declared "child of the century" came to embody much that defined America-especially Jewish America-in his time.
Hecht's fame has dimmed with the decades, but Adina Hoffman's vivid portrait brings this charismatic and contradictory figure back to life on the page. Hecht was a renaissance man of dazzling sorts, and Hoffman-critically acclaimed biographer, former film critic, and eloquent commentator on Middle Eastern culture and politics-is uniquely suited to capture him in all his modes.
Adina Hoffman
Adina Hoffman is the author of House of Windows: Portraits from a Jerusalem Neighborhood and My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness: A Poet’s Life in the Palestinian Century. She is also the author, with Peter Cole, of Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza, which received the American Library Association’s award for the Jewish book of the year. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, she was awarded one of the inaugural Windham Campbell prizes in 2013. She divides her time between Jerusalem and New Haven.
Related to Ben Hecht
Related audiobooks
The Camera Lies: Acting for Hitchcock Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWe'll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Let There Be Laughter: A Treasury of Great Jewish Humor and What It All Means Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940's Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cary Grant, the Making of a Hollywood Legend Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Selected Essays of Gore Vidal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everybody Behaves Badly: The True Story Behind Hemingway's Masterpiece The Sun Also Rises Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Blame Dennis Hopper: And Other Stories from a Life Lived In and Out of the Movies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Met Someone Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Groucho Marx: The Comedy of Existence Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5NAPOLEON by Stanley Kubrick: World Premiere Recording Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Picturing Peter Bogdanovich: My Conversations with the New Hollywood Director Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Is Not My Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy: Gambling, Drama, and the Unexpected Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Black Museum - Volume 8: A French-English Dictionary & The Gas Receipt Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMurder and the Movies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ghost Light: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife isn't everything: Mike Nichols, as remembered by 150 of his closest friends. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Funny Man: Mel Brooks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be in My Trailer: The Creative Wars Between Directors and Actors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mark Twain: Man in White: The Grand Adventure of His Final Years Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On The Waterfront Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kid Stays in the Picture Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kubrick: An Odyssey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDead Stars Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5New York Movies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Performing Arts For You
Jim Gaffigan: Quality Time Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Julius Caesar: A Fully-Dramatized Audio Production From Folger Theatre Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Macbeth: Fully Dramatized Audio Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gielgud's Hamlet: (Dramatized) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Othello: Fully Dramatized Audio Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Power of Myth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Midsummer Night's Dream: Fully Dramatized Audio Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Way I Heard It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Save the Cat! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Romeo and Juliet: The Fully Dramatized Audio Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When I Was Your Age: Life Lessons, Funny Stories & Questionable Parenting Advice From a Professional Clown Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death of a Salesman Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hamlet: Fully Dramatized Audio Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Grapes of Wrath Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Last Words: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Racing in the Rain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Best of Second City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dirty Daddy: The Chronicles of a Family Man Turned Filthy Comedian Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Life in Parts Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'm Your Huckleberry: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Create: Tools from Seriously Talented People to Unleash Your Creative Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Is this Anything? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of Storytelling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dying of Politeness: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Ben Hecht
4 ratings1 review
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Found it difficult to read - think it was the writing style.