Elia Kazan: A Life

This is just about the most insightful book about the theatre, filmmaking and life in general that I have ever read. Is there self-justification here? Sure, but who wouldn’t be guilty of that in their own story.Do I like the guy who emerged? Well, I’m not so sure he did a lot of the time. He is scouring on his own faults and vanities. This was written late in his life and he doesn’t hold back on the self-criticism.Kazan describes his Greek/Turkish forbears and how they came to America. He grew up feeling an outsider, a small guy who looked different; there was a pronounced chip. He studied drama at Yale and then became involved with the Group Theatre – he saw its virtues and its flaws. He worked to support himself and married Molly, a woman whose family had deep roots in America. She was loyal and supportive, they had children together, but he cheated on her – although not unashamedly.Familiar names crop up throughout the book. He tells a good story and is splendidly gossipy, that old cowboy philosophy about never talking about the men you’ve killed or the women you’ve bedded didn’t apply to Elia – the book would have been boring if it had.During the Depression, Kazan became a Communist, driven by an idealised vision of the working class. However Communist Party influence on the arts killed that idealism and he quit the party.He started as an actor, however his talents lay as a director. Success in the theatre led to offers from Hollywood. Although he needed help on the technical aspects of his first film “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”, Kazan learned fast and developed his own style.As WW2 entered its final phase, Kazan felt he was missing the defining experience of his generation. Through contacts he was sent to the Southwest Pacific theatre and got closer to combat than many in the rear areas.After the war he was instrumental in forming the Actors Studio and directed plays that are still seen as landmarks of theatre; “Death of a Salesman” and “A Streetcar Named Desire”. He believed arrogance to be the driving force behind creativity, equating it with confidence. Kazan was arrogant.His description of a relationship he had with Marilyn Monroe reveals how older men of position and power in Hollywood zeroed in on her – he was one of them. Eventually he introduced her to Arthur Miller.For some, his decision to name names during the blacklist era in 1952 will be the most compelling part of the book. As Kazan tells it, pressure was brought to bear and he was close to kissing his film career goodbye. It cost him friends. Although he condemned the political opportunism of the hearings, he states that he had become anti-communist, believing the Party had attempted to influence all forms of communication. Tellingly though, he finishes the section with, “Here I am, thirty-five years later, still worrying over it”.Kazan felt that the films and plays that followed were his best work, shaped in part by the experience – “On the Waterfront” was his revenge.He gives brilliant insights into all his movies, and in the telling Kazan rivals Niven’s “The Moon’s a Balloon” or “Bring on the Empty horses”. He broke away from stage-bound studio productions and shot on location enduring the discomforts. His observations on people he knew throughout his career, Brando, Zanuck, Tennessee Williams, are as penetrating as a laser.His fortunes seesawed. He is honest about his mistakes with the Lincoln Centre Repertory Theatre. He returned to Turkey to exorcise demons in his most personal creation: “America America”. There were other affairs and great tragedy; he bares his soul as he describes the death of Molly.Writing became more important than making movies; as a healing process, it proved more effective than psychoanalysis. He was troubled and thoughtful on the passing of his second wife and the death of friends. Although he knew he could not record the end of his life’s journey, his own death, he wanted no mawkish memorial.References to Blacks, Jews, Catholics and WASPs may surprise; he knew some would consider him vulgar. A complex man, he needed to be tough – and arrogant. Written 15 years before he died, few artists have left such a record; it’s unique.

I learned a great deal about acting, directing, Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando. I don’t think I’d like being around Kazan, however, I couldn’t put this book down for its richness and candor. A great autobiography.

Elia Kazan is best known for directing stars Marlon Brando and James Dean in their movie breakthroughs. This is a honest book, in which Elia Kazan puts his heart and soul on the page, sparing nothing, even if it paints him in a bad light.I found the political talk a little tedious and the inner details of the sexual experiences a little too detailed, but at heart I felt this a very brave and enlightening book, which bettered my understanding on the collaborations in developments of stage plays and movie scripts.This book will definitely make you appreciate On The Waterfront more.

A marvelous, well-written, thoughtful, informative book. Worked on for more than a decade, and based on an earlier decade of fiction writing, it encompasses so much: the author's life and loves; his character assessments of dozens of Broadway and Hollywood moguls, producers, directors, and actors; his insights into the crafts of writing, directing and acting; his observations on how people live their lives and deal with death. I am grievously sad that I have now finished this book. I had hoped -- for selfish reasons -- to spread out its 800-plus pages over a longer period, but I kept coming back to it, and, over the past two days, have found myself mourning its impending end. Of the half dozen interesting, informative books on Hollywood in the Golden Age I've read over the past year -- and this includes two wonderful books by Budd Schulberg -- Elia Kazan's memoir is at the pinnacle.

The sheer honesty of this autobiography is the most astonishing thing i took away from this book.The writing style is unassailable.Despite all his marital infidelities confessed, I came out loving him and wishing I had met him. What a man! How he went from a "disappointment" to one of the most respected theatre and film directors of the twentieth century, is an inspirational tale on its own. "Ignore any rejections," he writes at the end, "and do my best to live by my own standards, not hang my life on the esteem of others, not need their praise or need to achieve the accomplishments they expected from me and feel defeated when I didn't." The best book I have read in many years. As soon as I finished this autobiography, I ordered this author's other book: "The Arrangement." I'm afraid to start it for fear I might not do my work, once I start reading it.I am not a movie-going person, but I have to go watch some of his movies. Incredible life, Elia Kazan lived.

Like the title of the book, Elia Kazan's autobiography is simple and direct. It is also powerful and often fascinating. The famed director of plays and movies like A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE details his rise from a humble beginning in New York, so adept at the practical details of stagecraft he was given the nickname "Gadg" (for "gadget") which he bore all his life among friends. He ultimately became one of America's best and most successful directors, widely known and an influence on two generations of actors. Kazan's controversial role in "naming names" before federal investigators opened up a rift between him and some of his closest friends and associates; those interested in his life will want to read his take on this unnerving period of our history. Recommended, especially for those interested in midcentury American theater and the many movies it spawned.

Before I read this book, I knew a little about Elia Kazan. For example, I knew that he had been a successful Hollywood film director in the late forties and early fifties. Indeed, I had seen some of his films: East Of Eden, in particular, came to mind. I had also read somewhere that he had also been a prominent and successful theatre director on Broadway; that he had given the likes of Marlon Brando and James Dean their first starts; that he was one of the influential people behind the advent of the Method Acting style; and finally, that he had been a ‘friendly’ witness—that means naming names, of course--at the HUAC hearings in the early fifties: what a snake, I thought!But hey, I’ve now read the book, and I know the real story and the real Elia Kazan. The book is an 800+ page epic. And an epic in every sense of the word. Kazan’s autobiography is a long, brooding, and fascinating recall of his eventful life. He has, as he acknowledges in the later pages, lived a variegated and full life, he has no regrets about any of it, and he realises that he has been fortunate to have led such an interesting life. And ‘interesting’ it certainly is. The book, though, is no glamorous odyssey of a life lived in Broadway and Hollywood; neither is it a chronicle of the great and the good of America’s creative talent. Yes, there are valuable insights and vivid portraits of people like Harold Clurman, Lee Strasberg, Clifford Odets, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando and John Steinbeck. You will also meet some of Hollywood’s movie moguls, particularly Darryl Zanuck at Fox. Yes, those stories are told, but all in the context of the main enterprise: the laying down for posterity of the intimate detail of the life of one of America’s most celebrated creative talents of the middle of the twentieth century. Kazan unashamedly reveals his inner thoughts, his recollections, reasons, reminiscences and experiences—whether they show him in a good, bad or indifferent light. The book is brutally frank and you can only admire the author’s unstinting honesty—possibly a cathartic aspect to the work aided Kazan along the way.Remarkable for a book of this size, there is never a hint of unevenness or flagging. It’s an enthralling, engrossing book from start to finish. Much of life’s rich tapestry, to use the euphemistic cliché, is explored here. Kazan is clearly an astute and perceptive observer of life. Life essentially means human beings, of course, and this brings us to the essence of the book, human nature, particularly the behaviour between man and woman. Manipulation, expediency, lust, deceit, hurt, love, the passion and the platonic: it’s all here in a very stark black and white. Yet still the book continually sparkles, even when the reader faces some genuinely sad and pitiful moments, particularly relating to Kazan’s fiercely supportive and loyal first wife, Molly. There is no cherry-picking of ‘the good times’ in this book: highs and lows, triumph and disaster, they all co-exist side by side. Kazan doesn’t shirk from revealing his overwhelming determination at the time to have his cake and eat it ie. a loving wife at home and a passionate mistress outside.Apart from the inherent problems that male/female relationships spawn, if you forgive the pun, Kazan also talks extensively about his rather frustrating and unfulfilling time at college; his less-than-perfect relationship with his father; reflections on the life of a Greek immigrant family trying to make their way in the ‘new world’, in this case, New York; more reflections on Greeks, this time those living in another ‘foreign’ country, Turkey (where Kazan’s parents had emigrated from), and the altered behaviour necessary to survive amongst ‘the enemy’; and, of course, he describes the whys and wherefores of his ‘friendly’ HUAC testimony, and the subsequent vitriol directed against him as a consequence from many quarters, including so-called ‘friends’; we learn of the unsavoury modus operandi of both the Communist Party in America and the HUAC authorities in the late forties and early fifties; and Kazan’s single-mindedness and determination as, post-HUAC, he persevered and produced his best work as a film director; also, an interesting account of how Kazan’s second wife, Barbara, and her confused but brave struggle against cancer; and so on.The book is a courageous and brutally honest self-expose, if you like, of a man who has remained largely silent over the years. He doesn’t gloss over his extra-marital activities, and the hard-heartedness and guile required on his part to maintain his passionate love for his mistress and, at the same time, his more platonic love for his first wife. This reflects the ‘insoluble’ (Kazan’s word) nature of man’s relationship with the opposite sex.The book is beautifully-written—quality throughout--and the prose intimate, inviting and lucid. The honesty and intimacy of Kazan’s words, as he describes his thoughts, feelings and rationale at the time, ensure that you live his life with him, and by the end of the book, you also feel you’ve been through one hell of a life.Over a year ago, I read an excellent book called A Child Of The Century, Ben Hecht’s autobiography, published in the fifties. I never thought I’d read another autobiography to match or surpass it. I have, and it’s called A Life, by Elia Kazan. Waste no more time and buy this book. Alternatively borrow it, but whatever you do, read it!!

One of the best autobiographies I've ever read couldn't put it down,read it years ago,enjoyed it so much this time

A wonderful read, even if you can't buy into the self-conceit of the writer. Great history of mid Twentieth Century American theatre.

Arrived early, as described. Very happy. Thank you

A very good biography, maybe a bit too long just because sometimes Kazan repeats the same things more than once. A true account of a very rich life, a genius which doesn't always recognize the beautiful work he has done in cinema and probably in theatre, I am not a witness in this regard so I cannot say. I reccomand it very much to whom loves cinema and theatre also from the inside, from a professional point of view.