Below the Line: Anatomy of a Successful Movie

by Meredith Jordan

Below the Anatomy of a Successful Movie is a nonfiction narrative about how major motion pictures are made today using one movie as a vehicle. The author, a journalist embedded with the production of "Last Vegas," follows the people behind the scenes and stops along the way to explain process and different aspects of the business. The movie stars are well known -- Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline and Mary Steenburgen – but in this book they play supporting roles. Instead, the leads are the people behind the camera, the director (Jon "The Meg" Turteltaub) and a huge cast of artists and artisans, designers and creators, overseers, office and logistical support, editors and musicians. Below the Line proves movies are a collaborative art form.

487 pages, Paperback

Published October 31, 2018

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an engrossing book in many ways and is at times a real page-turner. It's about how a movie, Last Vegas (which I haven't seen) was made. I'm not sure who the audience for the book is--it's too technical in places for the general reader, like me. (I wish I had known about the glossary in the back before I started reading.) But it is still almost completely accessible. It might be a good text for a film studies class, although it is very long and expensive for that. There were times when I wanted more information or explanation of a subject; other times when the same ground is covered redundantly. What I really would have liked were some line drawings or photos. For example, the first part of the book tells about how the Atlanta production offices were set up, and it would really have been helpful to have a map of the building to go with the descriptions. Similarly, some photos of the sets would have been good to go with the descriptions of how the production team scouted, decorated, and otherwise prepared the many locations for the movie. Same with the costumes. The author's focus was on the crew and their work, but I enjoyed the descriptions of the actors', director's, and other "above the line" people's work. The author hints at near-interference from the studio executives but doesn't explain it well; she also suggests that one of the actors was harder to work with than the others but seems to excuse that because he is supposedly the truly big name, busy, famous, great actor, which seems like letting someone who should have been working well with others get a pass. (When you've got Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Robert DeNiro, Kevin Kline, and Mary Steenburgen starring in a movie, one of them really can't be considered the Big Cheese.) Finally, the book could have used another run past a good copy editor in places. All that aside, I thought it was interesting, and it seems from the bibliography that not many books about how movies are made have been written the past decade or so, and in that way it fills a needed place.