Shooting Midnight Cowboy:

Glenn Frankel worked for many years at The Washington Post, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1989. He has taught journalism at Stanford University and the University of Texas at Austin, where he directed the School of Journalism. He has won the National Jewish Book Award, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and is a Motion Picture Academy Film Scholar. He is the bestselling author of The Searchers and High Noon, and lives in Arlington, Virginia.


Review Quotes:
This tremendous volume offers the most detailed explication of how a movie is made that I have ever read . . . When Frankel praises [director John Schlesinger] for his 'natural curiosity, humor' and 'keen eye for quirky stories and intriguing characters, ' he could be talking about himself . . . What takes this book from good to great is his graceful writing and the intelligence [Frankel] brings to everything he examines . . . Much more than a page-turner. It's the first essential work of cultural history of the new decade. --Charles Kaiser, The Guardian
 
Frankel does a remarkable job telling the story of how [ Midnight Cowboy] happened. He's such a gifted storyteller that you don't even have to be familiar with the film to find the book fascinating . . . A must-read for anyone interested in cinematic history, and an enthralling look at Schlesinger's 'dark, difficult masterpiece.' --Michael Schaub, NPR
 
With Shooting Midnight Cowboy, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Frankel completes an illuminating trilogy about men and their cinematic milestones . . . As with his previous two studies, the new book employs a wide lens, taking in not only John Schlesinger's role in getting the movie made but also those of producer, screenwriter, cast, crew, and an all-but-forgotten novelist . . . [A] definitive account. --Abby McGanney Nolan, The Boston Globe
 
Frankel is both exacting and tender in his depiction of [his subjects] . . . He is that increasingly rare and precious thing: a commentator who recognizes that people and their relationships are infinitely complex . . . This book is indispensable . . . At once addictively readable and profoundly humane. --Hannah McGill, Sight & Sound
 
Frankel's book is generous with context . . . [it shows] us the 'what if's and the 'but for's hiding in the backstory of the finished product. --Louis Menand, The New Yorker
 
[ Shooting Midnight Cowboy is] doggedly reported and researched, built around collision courses between ambitious artists working in this most collaborative of mediums . . . Frankel puts it all together with narrative verve, telling a propulsive tale about creativity, commerce and loss. --Chris Vognar, USA Today
 
[Frankel] is a smooth writer and sure-footed narrator who uses this volume to excavate the cultural landscape of postwar America . . . He uncovers the rich details that gave the movie its texture and authenticity . . . [ Shooting Midnight Cowboy] will satisfy anyone interested in how a long-shot movie about two underdogs became an American original. --James S. Hirsch, The Washington Post
 
In this outstanding work . . . [Glenn Frankel] covers every facet of [ Midnight Cowboy's] creation . . . In a canny move, Frankel places the film in historical context, detailing major world events at the time of the shoot, including the Vietnam War, New York's 'downward path to seemingly terminal decline, ' and the Stonewall riots . . . Interviews with the film's surviving principals add immediacy, and descriptions of small production details enhance the book's power . . . A rare cinema book that is as mesmerizing as its subject." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
 
"A vivid chronicle . . . Frankel offers behind-the-scenes anecdotes . . . [and] also renders the social upheaval of the era--the Stonewall riots, antiwar protests, racial unrest--and the window between the collapse of old Hollywood's heavy censorship and the rise of the profit-oriented blockbusters when Midnight Cowboy was made. This enthralling account of a boundary-breaking film is catnip for film buffs." --Publishers Weekly