High Concept: Don Simpson and the Hollywood Culture of Indulgence

by Charles Fleming

Book Overview

WhatHit and Runwas to Hollywood financial impropriety, and whatYou'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Againwas to sex, drugs, and self-destruction,High Conceptis to the evolution of today's driving... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0747536112
• ISBN13: 9780747536116
• Release Date: June 1998
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
• Length: 300 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.9" x 10.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Burn Hollywood Burn!

(sigh) I am so terribly pedestrian - how could I stand here and say anything but 'cor blimey guv'nor, more please!' to this tale. Fleming has gone for the tabloid jugular with this book and taken a meaty bite. How could a story such as this be anything but trashy? Thankfully, it makes no bones about what it is. Fleming's day job is writing for Variety, not Literature Boffins R Us! Don Simpson was a rotund dork who was so insecure he had to pay to get laid and then blow away the memories of the day with white powder - that's pretty much the gist of Fleming's story. In between the lists of Don's bathroom cabinet contents are all the little morsels, amusing anecdotes and fabulously 80s one-liners from the people that really run Hollywood. The book is pretty much one of Don'n'Jerry's adrenaline fueled films scratched into paper. Which naturally means you read it with your jaw slightly open, jealous of all the big chests, gleaming teeth and fabulous houses that you as the hoi polloi will never have. It sums up the 1980s perfectly, a snapshot of a decade that not so much looked in the mirror, but leaned over it. Sure, it does nothing for Simpson's character, but then again, a man who lived to such excess as him should not really anticpate that anyone would hold him in high regard. This is the man that inflicted the Tom Cruise of today on us. (And therefore also responsible for Tom Cruise's shabby attempts to get out from under this shadow!) He gave us films that are cinematic fluff. He framed his paychecks. Depth? Like a kiddie swimming pool, my friend. It seems a shame that so many people would not talk about Don because if anything, this book does needs a bit of balance between stories of 'he injected fat into his penis' and 'he made tapes called Bonnie Beats Mary'. The seamy stories come so thick and fast, one whammy after another - it gets quite tiring. However, it would have been a waste striving for balance - Simpson himself was out of kilter completely and told so many white lies about his life to all and sundry, it's doubtable that anyone really knew him after all. I love this book though. Sheer entertainment, no thinking required. Fleming ran with what he had - an all out, free for all juggernaut of a story about people who get what they wish for. And in true Hollywood stylee, all those naughty execs who have been named in the book, and survived Don, will not get burned at all, merely hung up in the hall of fame for Hollywood excess. I have realised that I am completely in the wrong line of work! Let me pitch you this.....

The Secrets of My Excess

Learn how to become a movie mogul, get laid every hour, do cocaine by the second and eventually die on the toilet just like the "King" himself. Truth be told it is a terrible thought that this best-selling Hollywood expose book is based on a dead man written shortly after his death. It's a fair topic - a tab bit tasteless - but fair, because when you are a multi-million dollar figure in Hollywood who has spent money and time on the latest fashion, fast cars, diets and diamonds to get your face into Variety press, then when things come tumbling down, or you go the way of the dodo, you can't expect writers like Charles Fleming to look the other way - and Fleming certainly does not! This book is cruel. It does nothing for Simpson or his family and friends. If you know the man well or have been close to him then this is nothing more than despicable tabloid trash. However the rest of the world may not see it that way. We have an interest. How did the most powerful movie producer in Hollywood live? What made him tick? What did he eat for breakfast and what do people really think about him? Fleming is able to give us an angle, although it is an extremely limited one. It seems that anybody who had a good thing to say about this man just shut up and didn't want to talk to Fleming during his research. Unfortunately, the end result is that the only people who wanted to talk are those who didn't like Simpson much and Fleming's rendition of this producers life is marred almost by a secular group, who... well... to put to bluntly... hated the man's guts.So this book ends up being pure sleaze with a big capitol "S". Fleming for life of him is trying to tell the reader something along the lines of - "Look, I am trying to find the man's good side, really, truly I am, but there are just so many people who hate the guy and want to say something that I just can not avoid them, really I can't." and then to break the monotony of all the bad press he is giving to Simpson, Fleming manages to find a hooker who says - "Gee, he was a sweet man who paid me well in bed." or some burnt out junky who says - "Simpson, oh yeah (sniff) that dude (sniff) we had a really crazy time together (sniff) and he was really nice to people who had powder (sniff)."As soon as Fleming hears the words - Cruise, Gere, Smith, Murphy, Schwarzenegger, Gibson, Stallone, Willis, Johnson he is off like the wind to find out what is there. To be honest this book takes no prisoners and if you are involved in the industry then Fleming is going to give you a Royal shafting with cheese.... extra CHEESE. When all is said and done, and you feel like you have read more Sleaze than all of the editions of National Enquirer put together, you might actually discover that Fleming has a moral to his story - that the life of Don Simpson, although a successful one, is a lesson to learn for all who venture down the path of excess. It is not a bad lesson to learn, however out of millions upon millions of readers who h

Hilarious and True

Charles Fleming perfectly captures the self-destructive genious known as Don Simpson. He chronicles the many highs of the producer of "Top Gun," "Beverly Hills Cop" and other $100-million hits, as well as the lows of this heavy drug abuser. Charles Fleming is a stallion of celebrity journalism.

Lifting the Gloss

Just like Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers overturned the glossy surface of middle America and showed the rotting core underneath, Charles Fleming has lifted back the parties, superstar deals, glitz and excitement we all like to believe Hollywood is floating upon and show the corruption, drugs, and suicidal lifestyles beneath. Don Simpson was not by any means a great producer. He was a successful producer, which is all that matters in Hollywood. He may not have even been a bad man. But he was the epitome of what Hollywood wishes it could be. Eternally young, surrounded by fast cars and endless excesses of sex and substance. Unfortunately, he seemed the only one who failed to realise that it was always only a glitzy dream, and that his body and mind would take only so much. His death is a loss more to Wall St financiers than moviegoers, because as Chalres Fleming accurately said, the high concept movie that he pioneered with partner Bruckheimer (who continues with the tried and true formula to this day with flash hits such as Armageddon) was like the popcorn for sale in the theatre lobby - easy to digest but devoid of flavour. High Concept gave a lot of insights into Hollywood life and the circles in which Don Simpson and probably many more big names live, and if Fleming's research/knowledge are accurate, then this must surely be the insiders bible into how Hollywood works.

Entertaining for all the wrong reasons

Fleming's book is certainly an interesting, and scary insight to the hollywood culture of excess. It shouldn't be interesting and enjoyable, because the people he describes are horrible, and do horrible things, so in that sense it's a bit gossipy, but worth the time and money.