| The View From the Bridge: Memories of Star Trek and a Life in Hollywood |  | Author: Nicholas Meyer
Publisher: Viking Adult
Category: Book
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Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 96,075
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Media: Hardcover
Pages: 272
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.430233092
ASIN: B002XULXV0
Publication Date: August 20, 2009
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Product Description
The critically acclaimed director and writer shares his account of the making of the three classic Star Trek films
The View from the Bridge is Nicholas Meyer's enormously entertaining account of his involvement with the Star Trek films: STII: The Wrath of Khan, STIV: The Voyage Home, and STVI: The Undiscovered Country, as well as his illustrious career in the movie business. The man best known for bringing together Sherlock Holmes and Sigmund Freud in The Seven Per-Cent Solution had ironically never been interested in Star Trek until he was brought on board to save the film series.
Meyer shares how he created the script for The Wrath of Khan, the most revered Star Trek film of all, in twelve days-only to have William Shatner proclaim he hated it. He reveals the death threats he received when word got out that Spock would be killed, and finally answers the long-pondered question of whether Khan's chiseled chest is truly that of Ricardo Montalban. Meyer's reminiscences on everyone from Gene Roddenberry to Laurence Olivier will appeal not only to the countless legions of Trekkies, but to anyone fascinated by the inner workings of Hollywood.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 27
 Even on Star Trek everyone's human. September 6, 2009
Found Highways (Las Vegas)
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
The View from the Bridge is the most interesting book about how movies get made I've ever read. Nicholas Meyer talks about the art and the commerce both, and shows how each influences the other.
The way Nicholas Meyer became a screenwriter and movie director in the 1970s was similar to Michael Crichton. Meyer parlayed a screenplay based on his own bestselling detective-adventure novel about Sherlock Holmes and Sigmund Freud (The Seven-Per-Cent Solution: Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D. (Norton Paperback)) into a chance to direct another of his screenplays (Time After Time) about the time-traveling H.G. Wells and Jack the Ripper. After that Meyer began the tradition of making "good" even-numbered Star Trek movies by directing Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Even though Meyer makes it clear he understands making movies like Star Trek is a business (he never would have gotten into what he at first considered ludicrous space opera if not for the money), he never once in this book uses the word "franchise." His films are stories, and he wants audiences to relate to them as tales about real people (as William Shatner said, even on Star Trek everyone is human), not as interchangeable portions of a video game.
The fact that the title of Meyer's memoir alludes to a play by Arthur Miller as well as the bridge of the starship Enterprise proves he means it when he says he intends his work to be art. He characterizes himself as not a creator but a re-creator of stories. This doesn't sound like false modesty because there's very little modesty in the rest of the book.
But no one thinks less of Francis Ford Coppola as a film artist because he made movies from a pulp novel about the mafia or from a book about Africa on high school English reading lists that usually goes unread.
Meyer's early films are his best--The Seven-Per-Cent Solution with Nicol Williamson and Robert Duvall, Time After Time with Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, with Ricardo Montalban, and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. His early TV work is also good--The Night That Panicked America, about Orson Welles's War of the Worlds broadcast, and The Day After, a TV movie staring Jason Robards about the horrific effects of nuclear war that became part of the national debate surrounding the Reagan administration's military policies.
Nicholas Meyer is still making films about real people. I hope he gets to make his Don Quixote.
To explore the strange new world of Hollywood September 4, 2009
wogan (U.S.A.)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I have to admit that when I get a book I scan through it first and initially I was disappointed since I assumed this would be a book mainly about Startrek and giving all the inside gossip about who did and said what. If that's what you are looking for avoid this book; but then you would be missing a fabulous voyage into how films come into existence.
Nicholas Meyer directed or was involved with the Startrek II, IV and VI films. He also is responsible for many other highly regarded films such as The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Time After Time, and The Day After. You begin to realize how refreshing it is not to have a story filled with nasty gossip as you become engrossed in the details of how a motion picture is made; the scripts, the storyboards, the music- how it fits and helps . There is much to learn here, and it is written in an easy, entertaining way. He describes the differences between an American unit and an European one and how e mail and computers have changed the creation of movies. There is a marvelous comparison of successful stories (including the Startrek series) and Horatio Hornblower. This is really a successful voyage in the undiscovered country of making films.
A Long Strange Trip September 30, 2009
Michael Marcus
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Show business must seem very strange to the outsider, especially if you have any exposure to tabloid media in print or on TV. This book brings it all into perspective. You learn of the process a writer goes through to attain work. You discover what it takes for the writer to develop into a director and you see what that job requires. Your beliefs of what it is like to deal with a movie studio as a director are confirmed but you realize it's not all that bad. Nick does a tremendous job of guiding us through almost 40 years in show business and it's a great journey. Sure it's a biography but the insights you get along the way are fascinating and intriguing. While you are introduced to Nick's life you also get a lesson in the ways of the business. If you're a Trekkie it's an added bonus. The behind the scenes stuff on his work on the Star Trek films is worth the read if that was all you were interested in.
This is the Book October 11, 2009
SLO Writer (San Luis Obispo, CA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have been a fan of Nicholas Meyer for more than 30 years, in awe of his imagination and devotion to craft. His impressive resume is recounted in other reviews posted here, so no need to rehash the obvious. This guy has talent and he has proven himself time and again on both the printed page and the big (and small) screen.
The good news is that "The View from the Bridge" is not a Star Trek book, though a large portion is devoted to the making of Star Trek II, IV, and VI -- as any Trekkie knows, these are the only good ones in the series. Meyer does not disappoint in taking us behind the scenes of each production. His affection for Ricardo Montalban is obvious; his feelings towards Leonard Nimoy after ST VI seem less clear. He's honest enough to fess up to a twinge of guilt in how he battled Gene Roddenberry right before the Star Trek icon died. But this is not idle celebrity gossip -- Meyer takes us through the creative process and shares with us the many battles that were fought to get the end product on the screen. I know a little about the industry, but I was stunned to read of the most intense of arguments over the smallest of issues, i.e. studio heads wondering if anyone knew what "Wrath" meant.
No, to me, this important book will be better received by those more interested in the creative process in Hollywood. Let me be clear: "The View From the Bridge" should be mandatory reading for anyone thinking of trying to write a Hollywood screenplay, anyone who fancies themselves as a director or producer. Yes, the Hollywood of today has changed radically from when Meyer first arrived back in the '70s. However, those creative battles fought by Meyer and other writer-directors rage on today and I guarantee you'll look at the process with fresh eyes after reading this book.
It is also a somber read at times. My god, how can you read about how close Meyer came to making Don Quixote into a movie without feeling his heartache? How refreshing to read a produced writer discuss all the scripts he's written that haven't been made and how the writer has to accept that reality. And I'm not sure I'll ever look at Gene Hackman quite the same way after reading the chapter on "Company Business."
Bottom line: This is the book. Buy it without hesitation. Give it as a gift. Nick Meyer has once again delivered a compelling story, equally entertaining and surprisingly heartfelt, documenting the many creative windmills he's chased over the years. It left me wanting to know more and that is always the sign of a fascinating subject.
How A Writer - And Director - Is Made January 3, 2010
Adam Belanoff (Los Angeles, CA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Many great books of the past two-hundred years fall into a category described by the German word 'bildungsroman' - that is, a coming of age tale documenting the maturing of a protagonist through loss and struggle with the eventual realization of success, rarely unalloyed.
Reading Nicholas Meyer's (very) contemporary autobiography, I was frequently reminded of one of these classic stories; here's a man who by his own admission was a mediocre student (though with exceptional, recognized gifts) who lost a parent at an early age, journeyed into a strange world where he had few personal contacts - and invented himself as the hero of his own story much as he created popular fiction. (For those who don't remember, Meyer's "The Seven Percent Solution" - which he wrote while still in his mid-twenties - spent many months on the New York Times bestseller list before it was made into a critically acclaimed and commercially successful motion picture.)
Yes, he's best known for his "Star Trek" films (generally acknowledged as the most popular features in the franchise) but as "The View From The Bridge" reveals, his work is as distinguished by its variety as its quality ("Sommersby" - his re-interpretation of the 'Martin Guerre' story - and his adaptation of Philip Roth's "The Human Stain" being just two examples.)
Not surprisingly, Meyer's narrative is as compelling as one might expect from the man behind all these motion pictures - and while there's much to be enjoyed by those looking for inside Hollywood (and inside 'Star Trek) anecdotes, this book will be fascinating to anyone interested in how a fine craftsman gains proficiency in his chosen field (albeit that in Mr. Meyer's field, millions of dollars are routinely at stake).
Well-done!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 27
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