Book - Admit One: A Journey into Film
Author – Emmett James
2007
“If you have every truly loved a film, you will surely find yourself within these pages” is a caption, on the back of the book, that truly expresses the feelings that Emmett James writes with in this childhood to adult story of his life so far.
I went back in time with him at the beginning of each new chapter as he used a movie title to describe the content of each section. He is detailed in his writing about his childhood of family outings to the movie theater, where he went from falling asleep before the movie began to sitting through a whole movie. His love of movies spread from just going to the movies to wanting to be an actor. He doesn’t get the support for his acting in England, so he decides to try making it in Hollywood. Emmett James gives a wide eye view of how hard it can be for those people trying to ‘make it’ in Hollywood. He explores having to live in a YMCA, forge his travel papers to stay in the U.S., disguise himself to get in to an Academy Awards party, be characters he didn’t like and knock on the door of a producer’s house to try and get part. His break finally comes when he gets a small part in a BIG movie called “Titanic.”
Even after finishing this book, I am unsure about how I feel about it. When I first started, Emmett James’ candor and English slang usage about his life almost turned me off to the book. I slowly got use to his writing style and respected his ability to speak so openly about life. He did make me smile and laugh at his use of relating certain movie titles to different parts of his life. “Grease” reminds me of a special summer camp I went to that changed my life before going in to high school.
I am glad I finished the book. It definitely was an eye opening view in to the life of an actor and the extremes he had to go through to achieve a dream he had since childhood of being in the movies.
Rating: 3.5 / 5 stars
Author – Emmett James
2007
“If you have every truly loved a film, you will surely find yourself within these pages” is a caption, on the back of the book, that truly expresses the feelings that Emmett James writes with in this childhood to adult story of his life so far.
I went back in time with him at the beginning of each new chapter as he used a movie title to describe the content of each section. He is detailed in his writing about his childhood of family outings to the movie theater, where he went from falling asleep before the movie began to sitting through a whole movie. His love of movies spread from just going to the movies to wanting to be an actor. He doesn’t get the support for his acting in England, so he decides to try making it in Hollywood. Emmett James gives a wide eye view of how hard it can be for those people trying to ‘make it’ in Hollywood. He explores having to live in a YMCA, forge his travel papers to stay in the U.S., disguise himself to get in to an Academy Awards party, be characters he didn’t like and knock on the door of a producer’s house to try and get part. His break finally comes when he gets a small part in a BIG movie called “Titanic.”
Even after finishing this book, I am unsure about how I feel about it. When I first started, Emmett James’ candor and English slang usage about his life almost turned me off to the book. I slowly got use to his writing style and respected his ability to speak so openly about life. He did make me smile and laugh at his use of relating certain movie titles to different parts of his life. “Grease” reminds me of a special summer camp I went to that changed my life before going in to high school.
I am glad I finished the book. It definitely was an eye opening view in to the life of an actor and the extremes he had to go through to achieve a dream he had since childhood of being in the movies.
Rating: 3.5 / 5 stars
1 comment:
I reviewed _Admit One_ and felt similarly to you - the language was a bit off-putting at first, but I think it toned down, and he used a unique device (the connection to films) to show his journey to achieving his dream.
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