Review
THIS TERRIBLE BUSINESS HAS BEEN GOOD TO ME: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
by Norman Jewison
Key Porter Books, 304 pp.
The great thing about memoirs by moviemakers is that their stories are so far removed from everyday life and populated with so many superstars that, even if the author can’t write, the anecdotes often make up for it.
However, in the case of This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me, Canadian film director Norman Jewison actually can write, which makes the volume that much more delicious.
Unlike most autobiographies, Jewison spends a mere fraction of the book talking about his youth, quickly jumping into his world travels with the military, his first shot at the entertainment business in the U.K. and his formative years at the CBC. From that point it’s not long before he is regaling readers with backstage anecdotes about Judy Garland, his rehearsal tactics with Frank Sinatra and how Tony Curtis was a huge help to his career. It quickly becomes apparent reading the book that, while many people will only remember Jewison as the director of Oscar-winning films In the Heat of the Night and Moonstruck, he actually has a huge catalogue of work that ranges from the satirical comedy of The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming and the legendary musicals Jesus Christ Superstar and Fiddler on the Roof to the recently remade Rollerball and Thomas Crown Affair. So, while this book is entertaining as a series of stories linked together under the umbrella of autobiography, as a marketing tool it’s brilliant. As much as I was interested in finding out about the cool detachment of Steve McQueen and the young Al Pacino, I was equally interested in actually seeing all of Jewison’s cinematic efforts.
As a Canadian who has spent most of his professional career abroad, Jewison is also able to tie the book together with his outsider’s perspective on the many different worlds that he has lived in. The book isn’t a vehicle for his political or world views, but in between contract negotiations in Hollywood and location shooting in New York, he manages to sneak them in, elevating his journal, ever so slightly, above your average puff-piece rehash.
Given the performance of Jewison’s most recent films (does anyone even remember that he directed Bogus?), it’s clear that as a film director he is past his prime; but This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me shows that his storytelling ability remains intact.
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