High Concept: Don Simpson and the Hollywood Culture of Excess

by Charles Fleming

An account of the life and times of the late Don Simpson, who produced films such as Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop and Flashdance and was also reputed to have a legendary appitite for sex and drugs. The author argues that the profligacy and moral emptiness of its key players, continues to drive the excesses of Hollywood.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film, Media Tie In, Biography

300 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1998

About the author

Charles Fleming teaches entertainment reporting at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. He has written for numerous magazines, including LA Weekly, the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, the New York Times, and Vanity Fair. He is the author of High Concept: Don Simpson and the Hollywood Culture of Excess and the coauthor of The Goomba Diet: Living Large, The Goombas Book of Love, A Goombas Guide to Life, My Lobotomy, Three Weeks in October: The Manhunt for the Serial Sniper. He lives in Los Angeles."

Reviews

[Sergio GRANDE · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a city of flaming assholes, Don Simpson was the molten core of the sun.

The biggest, loudest, brashest of them all, he lived a life of pitiful excess that made for an incredible biography. More often than not one needs to remind oneself that this is a biography not fiction.

What a pathetic life, what an entertaining book (unless you're a prude or a moralist, then what the fuck are you doing reading a book about Hollywood's culture of excess?).

One of the best biogs I've ever read, and re-read. And I'll probably read it for a 3rd time some day.

Don Simpson was not the standard by which Hollywood assholes are measured. He was the untouchable all-time record breaker.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You know how Don was," replied his producing partner Jerry Bruckheimer when asked after Don Simpson's death about Simpson's drug and alcohol use.

Simpson, just 52 when he died, spent $75,000 a month on prescription drugs at the height of his substance abuse. At his $4m house in Los Angeles, he died on the toilet clutching a biography of Oliver Stone. His heart, greatly weakened from almost two decades of chemical and physical exertion, had finally just given up on him.

The Stone biography was subtitled, aptly enough, "The Controversies, Excesses and Exploits of a Radical Filmmaker". Don Simpson, as writer Charles Fleming sees it, was this very epitome of Hollywood at its best and its worst. His movies (Flashdance, Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, and The Rock among them) were mostly savaged by critics but grossed billions of dollars, and Simpson was doing what every other successful movie executive in Los Angeles was doing: drinking, drugging, networking, and whoring.

Fleming weaves the excesses of an entire industry in the 1980s and early 1990s around the story of Don Simpson, never judging him but instead quoting what his associates and friends would say about him at his best and his worst. The debauched lifestyles were, and to a degree still are, tolerated because the people living them earned colossal amounts of money for their studios.

To his credit Simpson is portrayed as a workaholic bursting with creativity (no doubt boosted by the incredible amounts of cocaine he'd ingest) who could dictate 40-page memos dissecting every detail in the latest draft of a script he was involved in. He'd pay the medical bills of friends and family, and put his brother through law school. But he was also abusive to assistants and secretaries and loved to throw his considerable (and towards the end of his life, literal) weight around.

At times it's very tough reading; detailed descriptions of Simpson's nocturnal S&M activities with hookers alongside car crashes and cosmetic surgery (Buttock lifts! A penis 'thickening' gone wrong!) alongside fascinating and almost unbelievable details about the films Simpson worked on that will be of note to anyone with a passing interest in how Hollywood really works: Beverly Hills Cop reportedly went through 7 years of development, almost 40 script drafts, multiple lead actors, and several writers, for example.

If any criticism can be applied to Fleming's work it's that there's little insight into what Don Simpson was really like as a person. He appears as more caricature than man.. but then he is also quoted as saying that "We have no obligation to make history. We have no obligation to make art. We have no obligation to make a statement. Our obligation is to make money."

What else was Don Simpson trying to say and trying to be? It's hard to tell. But it's a hell of a ride.

[Carla Remy · Rating 4 out of 5]

10/2011
A few parts of this book were interesting. Don Simpson was definitely a character. Mostly I found it depressing and disgusting. Hollywood is such a sick place where money is the most important thing and if someone makes a big profit they're allowed to behave reprehensibly. Believe me, this is not news to me or anyone. But Simpson took it to a new level - I don't care about the drugs or the whores, but he was so abusive to his underlings.

04/2023
Actually I have thought of this book a lot. The most remarkable thing to me is the plastic surgery Simpson had. He went from looking like a normal, chubby, guy to a mannequin vampire.

[Steve Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like so many before and after him, Don Simpson, the proverbial 'smartest guy in the room', was uniquely unable to understand how his addiction to alcohol and drugs would kill him just when he least expected it. But understand how to make movies that minted money? This Simpson knew at the level of his DNA. This great book by Fleming takes us along on a two-decade jet-fueled bacchanal of hookers, blow, booze, botox and blowout box office blockbusters -- alliterative bombast entirely fitting to this man of outsized appetites, accomplishments, and ambitions. Simpson was, more than anyone else, the living, breathing, coiffed-mullet epitome of 1980s egomaniacal filmmaking - the cynical foul-mouthed producer bullying and bludgeoning his way to massive financial success.

For a decade and a half, this unlikely, late-blooming man from Alaska spun money in Hollywood like Midas. Through his uncanny sense of what the young, Reagan-era American masses wanted to see at the multiplex, he shattered his peers expectations and Hollywood's box-office records. He was exactly the right bad ass at exactly the right time. For better or worse, Simpson's string of massive hits - co-produced with infinitely more sober partner Jerry Bruckheimer - solidified the orientation of the studios once and for all away from the 'auteur' pieces of the 1970s and toward MTV-soundtrack-soaked tales of plucky underdogs succeeding against all odds in outlandish and attractive worlds. He also by force elevated the creative role of the producer beyond any seen before, sometimes to the great annoyance of the directors and writers working with him. Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun, Days Of Thunder, Bad Boys, The Rock -- all his films were drenched in over-the-top action, pounding pop music, wise-ass dialogue, and aggressive, high-artifice cinematography. But while the critics panned this films as artistically bankrupt stimulus-response mechanisms, mainstream audiences went bananas for them and made Simpson, Bruckheimer, Paramount, and numerous stars rich beyond the dreams of avarice. Simpson's stamp on Hollywood and culture soon became unmistakable. His 'artisitic' sensibility was aped throughout the 90s, past his death, and into the 2000s. It can still be seen everywhere today, even though Simpsonian movies have had their formula grafted off onto 'proven-property' comic book-based franchises, and high-budget star-packed ensemble actioners rather than the original script, mid-budget MO used by Don and Jerry to great profit in their heyday.

But beyond the fun and games of his canon and its making, this book takes us deep into the world of a very troubled individual. While reading it, I couldn't help finding myself feeling quite sorry for Simpson. A thoroughly disgusting Caligula almost all the time, a bully in almost every instance, there emerge fleeting moments of a more tender, vulnerable side. And he was generous with his millions to family and even friends in need. While those flirtations with awkward, actual humanity didn't last long for Simpson, it's clear from early in this biography that for whatever reason he had little control over his extraordinarily potent demons. Though undoubtedly in possession of an above-average IQ, perhaps far above average, Simpson was at his core a gigantically insecure infant of a man and unable to figure out how to escape. The man who knew it all, unfortunately couldn't be taught what he needed most to learn. Enslaved by a constant and enormous fear of inadequacy (no matter how disproved by his incredible real-world successes) Don Simpson was never truly happy. He lashed out at everyone and everything and sought on a daily basis to fill the moon crater of emptiness in his soul by pouring in as many chemicals, prostitutes, dollars, sportscars, surgeries, one-upmanship, and accolades as he could get his fake-tanned, manicured fingers on.

In the end, his was a life much like his high concept films. High on impact and memorability, and low on deep meaning.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing assemblage of anecdotes, development process, and hilariously horrific details about the life of a coked-to-the-gills ego monster gone wild in Hollywood.

Fleming does an incredible job of giving context to the most outrageous, bacchanalian behavior exhibited by Simpson and crew. My favorite scene was when a pair of testosterone implants Simpson had surgically implanted in his buttocks malfunctioned and led to him ripping a door off a trailer in a hulk-style act of aggression. His producing partner, Jerry Bruckheimer, replied, "Whatever you're on, get off it."

Simpson was never able to get off the drugs, and eventually died while on his toilet, reading a bio of Oliver Stone. With him died much of the excess of the Hollywood '80s, but his "high concept" approach to movie making has permeated the business and, regrettably, lives on in all the awful shit Hollywood pumps out summer after summer.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing itself is smug and sanctimonious, and all its "look how stinky and depraved Hollywood is!" posturing has not aged all that well, but man Don Simpson was a fascinating character. An awesome, blustering, self-loathing out-0f-control mogul, a figure of all Id and insecurity and $10,000 a day in coke and hookers that helped invent modern action movies. Its very inside-baseball for a Hollywood 20 years gone, but that just makes it more appealing for me. RIP Don.

[Brian J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outrageous, shocking (but not surprising), and ultimately sad account of mega-producer Don Simpson, as well as a dissection of excess-driven Hollywood movie-making in the 1980s. This was such an enjoyable read, and I’d recommend it to any cinephile seeking to further understand the insane process of how a giant blockbuster gets to the big screen. Well researched and expertly written, this ranks as one of the best tomes on Hollywood ever written. A true expose.

[Tolendi Kaken · Rating 2 out of 5]

Это как читать телефонный справочник. Несчастный Дон с его пороками поместится в 2-3 страницы, остальное просто вода под видом портрета фабрики грез того периода.

[Jack Kavanagh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cocaine is bad for you

[Ramon · Rating 3 out of 5]

When this book is good, it's really good. Charles Fleming does a great deep dive into Don Simpson's producing career and how the decisions he and Jerry Bruckheimer made as producing partners shaped the future of blockbuster filmmaking, and it's compellingly written. He also provides a rough biography of Don Simpson's life, which was interesting, and he calls out when Simpson is an unreliable primary source, which was often, making much of Simpson's biography potential fiction. He makes Simpson seem like both the best and worst person to love and to spend time with, the party animal who then takes the party way, way too far. For most of the book, I couldn't tell exactly how Fleming felt about Simpson.

The back half of the book gets into Hollywood's drug use, and much of this is just lists of people and the amount of money they spent on drugs, and the threads kind of get lost. He presents this in this Hollywood Babylon kind of way, like it's shocking and you should know and care, but I already did and didn't, even back in 1998.

Then, in the closing chapters about Simpson's rehab, death, and the year that followed, he's in full on asshole mode, criticizing Simpson, Simpson's friends (hereafter referred to as "cronies"), and the movies that Simpson and Bruckheimer made together and apart. It's a weird, savage turn, as Fleming's opinions really shine through, and it's a bummer, because if I wanted to know what Charles Fleming thought about Con Air, I'd get a book of Charles Fleming's film reviews, not a biography of Don Simpson.

For better and worse, Don Simpson changed an industry.

[Ryan Hannay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A guilty pleasure for sure, I'd read stories about movie producer Don Simpson but had no idea how insane his life really was. He's like a Frankenstein's monster of every bad Hollywood stereotype.

Really a disgusting person, which is why he fit perfectly in Hollywood in the 80s and 90s. It's probably a good thing Simpson died decades ago, as I don't think he would have survived social media and the #metoo movement. Fun read that taught me way more than I needed to know about the dangers of penis enlargement surgery.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting look at the life of Hollywood film producer Don Simpson and the "high concept" movie formula he and his producing partner Jerry Bruckheimer perfected. If you've ever heard films described as "Jaws on a spaceship" or "Die Hard on a boat," you know the formula too.

Good read, although a bit poorly edited. Author repeats himself several times & seems to have a chip on his shoulder as regards the "cowards" who refused to talk to him.

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely wild account of the culture of excess that reached its zenith in 1980s Hollywood and then never let up. The pervasive vulgarity on display, while endlessly entertaining, made it clear as day why this book has gone out of print and is nearly impossible to track down.

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A much better read than I anticipated. Lots of inside dirt and interesting stuff. Only real issue was the author repeats himself in a number of places.

[Debra Pawlak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excess. A life of total excess. That's all I can think of to say about this book. Author Charles Fleming details the Hollywood lifestyle of big-time producer Don Simpson who died in 1996 at the age of 52 from drugs, alcohol and some extremely hard living. Simpson was not a likeable person. He was self-destructive and the only business he could have possibly succeeded at was filmmaking. Not many others would have put up with him. He was very good at his job and because he knew how to make money in the movie industry, his peers often looked the other way. He had no real friends and it seems having any kind of life partner was a sign of weakness to him. Let's face it--the man who brought us 'Top Gun', 'Days of Thunder', and 'Beverly Hills Cop' was not the kind of man you would want to call friend. He was a guy that Hollywood types wanted to network with, but relationship-wise, it ended there. He was fine for a good time (hookers included), but not much else--unless you wanted to use him to hobnob with the filmmaking elite. I found this book very disturbing and unless you have a strong constitution, you may or may not finish it. Each chapter was more of the same--drinking, drugging, screwing--and not necessarily in that order. Don Simpson could have led the life of royalty, instead he chose a destructive path to an early grave. It saddens me to think that someone who was so smart and creative made such terrible choices.

[Andrew Tollemache · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don Simpson died 26 years ago, but his influence lives on oddly enough. This Summer's 'Top Gun: Maverick" even revived the old "Simpson-Bruckheimer" producer credit to honor the legendary partnership from a generation ago that spawned so many massive films like TopGun, Beverly Hills Cop (1 & 2. We dont acknowledge 3), FlashDance, The Rock etc.
Simpson's claim to fame was his ability to take simple premises like a magazine article on hunky Navy jet pilots and create a high concept film Top Gun. The book describes Simpson as a manic and very erratic personality who could stay up all night coming up with all types of off the wall concepts for future films and then working with his more functional producing partner, jerry Bruckheimer, turn them into box office gold.
Simpson dies at age 52 in 1996 of heart failure bought on by titanic cocaine use and just about every pharmacuetical known to man in his system. Behind the manic, errratic work like was a man haunted by numerous impulses and demons. Not just drugs, but food and aggro sexual impulses drove a man almost destined to burn out too soon. His friend of 20 years, Disney CEO Michael Eisner, is reported to have said the following when notified of Simpson's OD/heart failure: I have been expecting to get this call for the last 20 years.

[Fer Galan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished High Concept, I really liked how descriptive the book was, and how the author portrayed Don Simpson, I liked in the beginning how he used the lion quote and how Simpson would do everything headfirst, but suffered due to his excessive lifestlye that would borderline on insane just to keep up with what he thought he was supposed to do. I think it's really sad that Simpson spent most of his life trying to forget the kid he was and trying to show people that he was this or that, at the end of the day I think he only wanted to belong, but he couldn't keep up with his lie and this life he had curated. Sadly many movie stars as Fleming mentions in the book near the end, begin to act offscreen like they would do on onscreen, they disregard the consequences believing their indispensable to the movie industry, and by acting out they believe they will be the talk of the town. Much like the High Concept movie it's all rock and roll and fast cars, until reality hits, but unlike the high concept movie many die before they get a shot at redemption. For instance when the author chronicles Simpson's death, and describes his planned activities. As a reader we know Don will die at any moment, but will still try to get his image back on track go on the diet, start producing movies, I also really liked that despite Simpson being this out of the world character his death was fairly boring, he collapsed with a book in hand on the bathroom. It made me depressed he didn't go out with a bang, for such a character he truly did deserve a better death, sadly his excess would only control him and the show he was trying to put on, Simpson acted like the High Concept movie the only difference was no redemption and no bang, perhaps only terminal loneliness. An amazing book if you want to read about the seedy underbelly of Hollywood.

[ForenSeek · Rating 5 out of 5]

A totally insane, raucously entertaining book about a borderline sociopathic film producer who did mountains of cocaine, crashed cars, urinated on prostitutes, and erased all traces of intelligence from Hollywood action movies. The book is written in a lively prose that transfers you to 80's Los Angeles in a second, and you almost feel like its subject is standing right next to you, making you nervous as to what he might come up with next. Along the way towards Simpson's early grave, we meet people like Tom Cruise, Tony Scott, Paul Schrader, Jerry Bruckheimer, and other notable film figures. Highly recommended as a cautionary tale about what happens when a mortal man is given unlimited money and unlimited power - hell, even Simpson himself (not exactly a person prone to self-reflection) admitted towards the end of his life that he may have lived a happier existence if he had been less financially successful. Quite an irony, eh?

[Erlend Bergsagel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Story of Don Simpson.

He was a producer behind movies such as as Flash Dance, Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, Days of Thunder and more.
Personally he was living the life of Hollywood culture of excess. Girls, sex and drugs.

Every story in this book is true and well documented, or else it would get sued. But no people very close to Don Simpson has sad anything about him.
There is a lot of stories but you don't get close to or get to now more of the person Don Simpson. What was his demons, what drove him.
In a way the book is a kind of high concept story of the life of Don Simpson in Hollywood.
Maybe a little bit harsh, but I liked the book. I just wanted it to go a little bit deeper into Don Simpson.

[Stuart Bannerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

One the most interesting biographies of a filmmaker that Ive read, and ive read this book a few times over the years, whilst there is the excitement of Hollywood and what its like to be a high concept film producer, there is also the sadness of watching a very talented producer, hitting that self destruct button on parts of his life and his career. Highly recommended for those familiar with the world of filmmaking and for those who are curious about what goes on behind the screen. Youll be shocked.

[John Bleasdale · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. The subject is garish. There’s plenty of dirty gossip and scandal. The image of Hollywood as a whole is fascinating. But the problem is Charles Fleming seems to have glued the whole thing together from articles and not bothered rereading it. There are so many repetitions, a blow bag full of cliched phrases and the order is at times incoherent. So great material but like one of Simpson’s movies a bit careless in execution.

[Ian Carpenter · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 This was a gift from a friend. I've definitely read too many excesses of Hollywood books but this one is very well written and Simpson is an interesting if extremely dark figure (especially today). Fleming dives deeply into anything Simpson touches - so, if its cocaine consumption he goes into detail about all the cocaine use of all the stars of that period, most of their trips to rehab, some of the different rehab facilities, etc. You'll either love or get tired of that.

[Mitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this... It works as both a portrait of Don Simpson's career and his inner life, but also the world of Hollywood in the 80s/90s and how the industry was overwhelmed by blockbuster filmmaking. The book doesn't aspire to be anything more than it is, it never feels stretched out or grasping for meaning. Just a really well written account of the life of a deeply fucked up man and the impact he had on the American popular consciousness.

[Ernest · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don Simpson was raised in a strict Baptist Church family in Alaska. His later excesses in Hollywood might be his rebellion / rejection of his upbringing. His huge success in the film industry provided him the power, wealth and contacts to explore his desires tragically to the point of depravity. His death sadly says much about that lifestyle. If I sound judgemental then read about his life and get back to me.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Way too repetitive. The author uses the same quotes or stories multiple times throughout the book. 275 pages that honestly could have been condensed into 175.

The stories about Don Simpson are wild. He clearly had a feel for what audiences wanted in the 80s (Flashdance, Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop).

But good lord, that man loved excess. Drugs, sex, food. Plastic surgery. Not a shocking end.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poorly written Hollywood gossipy trash that's also highly entertaining trashy gossip. Sex, drugs, and movies, and a lot of horrible people doing ridiculous and awful things. I don't know, man, it was the 80s/90s? Worth your time if you want all the gorey details on which movie dudes loved prostitutes and cocaine the most.

[Justin Malone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Moments of excellent prose, but lacks insight into Simpson’s psyche and its cultural/critical analysis could fit on a cereal box. It adopts the voice and journalistic distance of “sophisticated” culture writing like you’d find in The Atlantic or The New Yorker but it’s mostly just lurid Page Six anecdotes.

[Venatici · Rating 4 out of 5]

A life of fame and fortune while the self destruct lever is firmly pulled. A tragic, sordid yet enthralling account of a true maverick who's films made millions and subsequently sowed the seeds of his destruction. A riveting and well told tale of Hollywood excess and, frankly, sheer madness.

[Emilie · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'auteur passe la moitié de son livre à côté de son sujet, mais dans les rares moments où il se concentre sur l'industrie du cinéma en tant que telle et l'impact de Simpson sur cette industrie, alors là le livre devient passionnant et on apprend énormément de choses.

[MacDara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hollywood gossip of the '80s & '90s, if that's your thing then you'll love it. Otherwise it's a bit flimsy, apart from the odd juicy anecdote and leering naming of names. The only real substance(s) here are being abused.