Danny Boyle: In His Own Words

by Amy Raphael, Amy Raphael

Though the director Danny Boyle has long been a cult favorite for films such as Trainspotting and 28 Days Later , it wasn’t until his 2008 indie film Slumdog Millionaire became a surprise blockbuster hit that he joined the ranks of megastar directors. Born in 1956 to a working-class Irish Catholic family in Lancashire, England, Boyle decided against the priesthood and turned instead to drama. He made his feature-film directorial debut with Shallow Grave , which became the the most commercially successful British film of 1995. This and his adaptation of the Irvine Welsh novel Trainspotting were credited with revitalizing cinema in Britain.

In 2008 he directed Slumdog Millionaire , the story of an impoverished child on the streets of Mumbai who competes on India’s variant of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? The film won a directorial Oscar for Boyle and eight Academy Awards in total. Danny Boyle tells the story of this extremely talented director’s rise to fame, in his own words.

Genres: Nonfiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published October 26, 2010

Reviews

[Brent Ecenbarger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anybody interested in reading a 400 page interview with Danny Boyle? Not surprisingly, your answer to that question will strongly correlate to how much you will enjoy reading a 400 page interview with Danny Boyle. For anybody not a film geek, Boyle is a British director best known for Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire. He is an interesting figure in film, as he gets some flack for targeting his films for mass audiences approval. He also bounces around different genres seamlessly. In those respects he’s similar to Ron Howard, and underappreciated by those that worship at the altars of Paul Thomas Anderson or David Fincher. Boyle is also appreciated though for several of his best films coming from low budgets and requiring creative filmmaking techniques. He’s my favorite director, making immensely enjoyable and rewatchable films in any genre he attempts.

The format of the book is a one-on-one interview with the author and Boyle broke up into several chapters about each of his films beginning at Shallow Grave and ending at Slumdog Millionaire. There’s also an introduction chapter where Boyle talks about his journey to becoming a feature film director and two afterwards, one fairly substantial about the making of 127 Hours and another brief on the value of photographs when making films. The most interesting chapter for me was about the The Beach, which featured three near death experiences, drama with Ewan McGregor and plenty of learning experiences for Boyle. I also really liked the chapters on 28 Days Later and A Life Less Ordinary (a movie I really want to rewatch after reading this book).

I’d read a sequel to this book, but that’s more because I love his movies and any discussion of them is sure to bring me enjoyment. My own rankings for Boyle’s filmography would go as follows:
1. 28 Days Later
2. Trainspotting
3. Slumdog Millionaire
4. Yesterday
5. T2 Trainspotting
6. 127 Hours
7. Sunshine
8. Steve Jobs
9. Shallow Grave
10. The Beach
11. A Life Less Ordinary
12. Millions
13. Trance
14. Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise

That’s not relevant to the book review, but if you’re not a cinephile, you should still check out the top 3 on the list and if you love movies you should probably check out the top 10.

[Todd Croak-Falen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genius! I loved it, especially the ending, where he talks about why directors should keep photo albums.

Danny Boyle had kind of fallen off my radar after "The Beach" and "28 Days Later," even though I am one of the few people who actually enjoyed "The Beach." (I read the book first, and was late seeing the movie, so everyone else already lowered my expectations.) But then I came back to him almost by accident with "Sunshine." I couldn't believe a movie like that had been released and then gone to DVD and I hadn't even heard about it. Thankfully, Netflix recommended it to me.

In the special features for "Sunshine," the interview with Danny Boyle really opened my eyes. Here is a guy who is working outside the studio system to create the films he wants to create. He truly is doing what he wants to do, living the life he wants to lead, and getting better and better at it as he goes. So when he hit Oscar jackpot with "Slumdog Millionaire," I was happy for him.

Appropriately enough, while my girlfriend and I were waiting for "127 Hours" to start, we went into a bookstore across the way and I found this book. I started reading, and was instantly hooked. She wound up buying it for me for my birthday later, and I just finished reading it.

I can't tell you how refreshing it is to read the words of someone like Danny Boyle. He's self-aware and (I assume) honest about his work, his style, and the results he's gotten, both good and not-quite-good. He's got an incredible work ethic and a true passion for what he's doing. I think you'll find him inspiring, too.

[Steve Redhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amy Raphael is an excellent interviewer and writer - she produced one of the best accounts of women in rock entitled Never Mind the Bollocks: Women Rewrite Rock, in the 1990s - and has here comprehensively nailed the film director Danny Boyle in a book length series of interviews. I always remember Boyle (and his production and writing team of the time) talking publicly in Manchester about filming Trainspotting after it was in the can and putting previous British pop and youth culture films into the shade. He had a lot to say and you felt there was enough just waiting in the wings for a sustained book like this. In Raphael's book, there is an introductory biographical interview, fascinating in itself, followed by searching interviews with Boyle film by film, from the excellent debut Shallow Grave through to 2008's worldwide smash hit Slumdog Millionaire. Boyle's reflections are riveting and the book as a whole provides us with a great slice of popular cultural history.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good overview/interview with Boyle, up to SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. Even so, I still don't enjoy his films.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very technical, but highly engaging set of interviews with Danny Boyle. Certainly was great to read about Trainspotting, The Beach, and 28 Days Later.