Richard Schickel: 11 books

From a legendary film critic and movie fan extraordinaire, the highlights reel of a life spent at the movies Richard Schickel has seen, by his own estimate, more than twenty thousand films. He has been a reviewer since 1965 (long for Time magazine), has written almost forty books on the subject,...

Here, Time's legendary film critic Richard Schickel profiles seven extraordinary actors, reading between their well-spoken lines: Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando, James Cagney, Charlie Chaplin, Gary Cooper, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., and Sir Lawrence Olivier. All of their lives, Schickel writes, could be made into an epic film.

Through extensive, exclusive interviews with Eastwood (and the friends and colleagues of a lifetime), Time magazine film critic Richard Schickel has penetrated a complex character who has always been understood too quickly, too superficially. Schickel pierces Eastwood's monumental reserve to reveal...

In 1973, legendary film critic and historian Richard Schickel and a documentary crew sat down with Academy Award-winning director George Cukor at his Hollywood home. It was a rare opportunity to speak with the man credited with coaxing some of the greatest performances from some of the greatest performers...

“The single most illuminating work on America and the movies” (The Kansas City Star)****: the story of how a shy boy from Chicago crashed Hollywood and created the world’s first multimedia entertainment empire—one that shapes American popular culture to this day. When Walter Elias Disney...

Now with a new afterword: the history and process of moviemaking in general, and of Martin Scorsese's brilliant and varied films in particular, through the words and wit of the master director. With Richard Schickel as the canny and intelligent guide, these conversations take us deep into Scorsese's...

Few figures in film and theater history tower like Elia Kazan. Born in 1909 to Greek parents in Istanbul, Turkey, he arrived in America with incomparable vision and drive, and by the 1950s he was the most important and influential director in the nation, simultaneously dominating both theater and...

Richard Schickel's text, combining critical analysis and a re-interpretation of all the available biographical information, masterfully maps the intersections where a great star's personal history and his screen personality met in a style as elegant, graceful and witty as the actor himself.

Charlie Chaplin - beloved by his generation, nearly forgotten today - was a cinematic visionary in endless conflict with his times. It turns out, legendary film critic Richard Schickel argues, that his life was far more fascinating than any of the Little Tramp's adventures. Here's his story.

Marlon Brando's career could have been made into an epic film. In the first act, he faces the drama of separation and departure from the community that nurtured him; in the next he overcomes a series of trials, leading to a victory of some sort; finally, he relishes a triumphant return and reintegration...

Thanks to iconic roles in films such as The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart was and is known as a tough guy. Yet the more complicated truth about him has, until now, remained out of focus. We have gone thundering past the intersection where personal history and screen character meet and...