Title: MAD MAN. MADDENING DIRECTOR. GOOD READ.
Product review: Kazan may well have been one of Hollywood's most hated men --- in 1952, he "named names" of peers and pals that were Communists during McCarthy's maniacal manhunt, something for which almost no one forgave him; so strong was Hollywood's hatred that when Kazan was chosen, in 1999, to receive an Honorary Oscar, he was publicly condemned as a traitor. But there's no arguing that Kazan was also a damn good director. (Think On the Waterfront, Gentleman's Agreement, A Face in the Crowd.) Noted film scholar Richard Schickel has penned a frank, unflinching biography, as smart as it is shrewd. Schickel's decision to put Kazan's decried decision into the context of its time and the director's life illuminates the personalities and preoccupations of the man who reshaped the way we look at theater and film.
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