Monday, April 27, 2020

Ripped from the Headlines - The Shocking True Stories Behind the Movies' Most Memorable Crimes by Harold Schechter


True Stories make literature so very interesting don’t you think?  

I read  Ripped from the Headlines! and was pulled in.  Some of the stories were who dun it's, some were crimes against others... and some were just court dramas but all were interesting stories. 


The theme of the book it to present a film, discuss the plot points and how the movie stays true to or veers from the real tale.  Mr. Schechter is a crime novelist so it was interesting to read his synopisis of the tales from that perspective and not a filmmaker perspective as well.  

I think this book would make an amazing film theory course book.  It so very much reminded me of film school.  And it was a nice journey back to when I was in film school.  I know that sounds dismissive, it isn’t I loved film school by the way. 

The one thing that I think was sorely missing is more current films sprinkled in.  Most of the films were from the more recent past the most recent movie revealed was 2015.  But I will say perhaps that is when his research was taking place.   

The author indicates that the brevity of the discussion is meant to inspire future viewing of the films and indicates that all the movies are available to see via the various streaming platforms that we have available to us, which is really terrific.

Some of the movies I had never heard of and plan to look into with the book as a refence tool for the story behind the story.

It was a quick read and an interesting one if you are a film, history or film history buff. I really enjoyed it and look forward to having this book available as a reference tool to spark discussions about them when we watch them... which we will!



Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Little A for providing me a review copy... this was a great book that I will use and reread I am sure.

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