2024-09-03
Ryder, a writer and director, tells of working on a classic cult film in this memoir of moviemaking.
In 1978, the author worked as a location scout on the movieThe Warriors, which tells a story about New York City gang members encountering all sorts of danger as they travel from Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx to Coney Island in Brooklyn. The film, which was based on Sol Yurick’s 1965 novel, was shot on location, and according to Ryder, locating a place in New York to, for example, blow up a car made for particularly challenging work. Partway through the shoot, the author got an opportunity to perform in front of the camera, when director Walter Hill asked him to play a member of a gang known as the Baseball Furies. It was a role that required continuous running, heavy makeup, and even some stunt work: “There’s an unspoken rule among stuntmen—never let ’em know you’re hurt,” he notes at one point. The book skips around in time to other projects that the author worked on; at one point, for instance, he tells of how he helped to direct basketball scenes in the 1991 filmFather of the Bride. He also gives readers a taste of what it’s like to appear at fan conventions and how hard it is to pursue a screenwriting career. The author even pitches a few ideas to the reader, including a project tentatively titledThe Warlords in which old stars from a movie very much likeThe Warriorssave the day at a convention. Although tales of unsold screenplays and projects that never went anywhere are common in this type of memoir, Ryder’s short, energetic chapters move quickly. Perhaps only diehard film buffs will want a behind-the-scenes look at the now-forgotten 1976 Sean Connery vehicleThe Next Man, but many readers will be interested in what it was like to be asked to come out and play withThe Warriors.
A lively, flash-bang look at an offbeat show-business career.
