FILM BOOKS… Paperback Celluloid: Elmore Leonard on Film (2023) by Andy Rohmer

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Let’s go Dutch, and from the fresh eyes of a film lover learn more about the influential and creative American writer Elmore Leonard…

 

An examination of the life, writing style and feature films associated with this Western, suspense and crime writer who wrote (Rum) punchy stories before embarking on his screenplay career.

 

Elmore Leonard on a film set

Elmore Leonard: The Crime Novelist and His Movies | The New York Times, The New York Times

 

Say the American author’s name, Elmore Leonard – or his lifelong nickname, “Dutch” – and I am sure many will remember the 1997 crime film that transformed his novel Rum Punch for the big screen. This film was adapted into an immersive, delightful and captivating screenplay, and was seen in the film Jackie Brown (1997).

The script was written by one of the best film screenplay writers, directors and auteurs in filmmaking today, Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino has stated this film’s screenplay – telling of a black air hostess who turned to a life of crime – followed many of the beats of Leonard’s inspiring novel. This American film has the honour of being Tarantino’s only book adaptation (to date).

Jackie Brown was brought to life, in this blaxploitation crime movie with an all-star cast including the titular lead, Pam Grier. She starred in an all star cast along with Bridget Fonda, Robert De Niro and Robert Foster. In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, Tarantino spoke about his lifelong admiration for Leonard’s work HERE.

I have wanted for a long time to adapt Elmore Leonard. He was the first novelist I read as a kid that really of spoke to me.

Personally, I’m a stranger to many of Elmore Leonard’s books, screenplays, short stories and films that he wrote himself and which he inspired others to adapt. However, my knowledge of Elmore Leonard reached new heights after I accepted the invitation to review Andy Rohmer’s book Paperback Celluloid: Elmore Leonard on Film. This is the first of Rohmer’s new book series, Paperback Celluloid,  where he writes about the writing career and the feature films associated with prolific American writers.

Paperback Celluloid: Elmore Leonard on Film is the perfect companion guide for every Elmore Leonard bibliophile or film lover. It can also be savoured for the novice if you are a huge fan of discovering new movies like me or a relative beginner to those literary works about Elmore Leonard. Either way, this is the book to add to your wish list.

This book falls naturally – and physically – into two parts with one half exploring Leonard’s life followed by a deep analysis of his literary work. The second part shares an examination of feature films that represent his works. The physical division is seen in an easy to follow contents page. This addition is ideal for the selective reader to choose the order of reading about these subjects.

Alternatively, the reader can select chapters depending on their needs and wants, in those parts relevant for a film aficionado or a bookworm. Or more specifically if you want to learn more about a particular film or a specific literary aspect. Each of the feature films is explored with quotes, descriptions, analysis and discussion in these individual chapters. Rohmer adds these under a chapter named by the film title, so it’s not hard to find the film or films you want to learn more about.

In this writer’s honest introduction to Leonard Elmore, Rohmer reports to have developed a newly discovered love and deep understanding of his subject. This admiration and knowledge is felt throughout his warm introduction pages and throughout the rest of the book. This joy engages you to read more from the first line of his book. Here, Rohmer states that his sole interest in writing this book was because “I thought it would be fun.”  He expands this by adding his interest was fueled by,

a curiosity in ascertaining to what extent the film adaptations of his novels or original screenplays would lend themselves to orthodox auteur analysis.

Rohmer’s detailed analysis of Leonard’s novels is also seen in the introduction, which includes his intensive knowledge of his works. He summarises these sharing an enviable selection of facts and figures and lists after collating and categorising Leonard’s work over the decades.

Rohmer builds up a creative look at Leonard’s creativity in writing novels and short stories in the crime, caper, police procedural and Western genres. These in time, took a new direction as he tells of Leonard’s strong interest in writing feature films. The introduction adds a list of those books and the title (and release dates) of the film adaptations, making it an exemplary guide for any writer, film or book blogger or writer in either of these fields writing about these films. This introduction would easily take precedence due to Rohmer’s extensive research of his subject.

As Rohmer describes and discusses Leonard’s literary and film work, he stresses that this author’s writing career lasted over 60 years, from 1951 to 2012. He adds that from 1957, 31 feature films were made out of his works until the year before Leonard passed away. These he has divided into;

31 films were made from books (23), scripts (5) and short stories (3).

Due to his considerable familiarity with Leonard’s content, I was surprised to read that like me, Rohmer was at first new to this author and his films before embarking on this book. Yet, from every page in this introduction as he analyses and makes statistics out of those facts and figures or as he collates information for those lists you can feel this lifelong film fan’s dedication to this project. These attributes have made him a worthy authority on this writer.

The first part begins with a short biography of Elmore Leonard’s personal life. It then continues with analyses of Leonard’s writing style. Rohmer divides this analysis of Leonard’s literary works into six short and informative sections listed as Working Methods, Influences, Themes, Style, Periodization and Position in American Literature.

Rohmer’s short biography shares that young Leonard had a love of film and writing from a young age. Like many filmmakers, Leonard shared his love of movies with school friends. As a teen, he wrote a school play based on All Quiet on the Western Front. Rohmer reinforces those influences in his life such as places – such as New Orleans, Detroit and Florida – which were later recreated in Leonard’s novels and influential people such as Leonard’s film idol Gary Cooper, writer Ernest Hemingway and his writing assistant (and fan), Greg Sutter.

Rohmer then tells more about Leonard’s writing career stating that he declined work in the family business as he began writing as a copywriter. He began writing short stories and novels in both the Western in his time off work, favouring the role of the outsider or underdog. Later after the Western genre became less popular, he wrote about the crime genre (although Rohmer stresses this writer dismissed the idea of being categorised).

His novel writing then made a transition into writing for TV and then feature film screenplays with memorable characters. In the 1960s when writing these novels, Rohmer notes Leonard as a fan of the movies, with his “eye” on movie rights often easily made the transition to writing his own screenplays in films attracting all-star casts.

Throughout this biographical chapter and the literary works analysis, these anecdotes and facts are supported by a wide selection of literature. These works are referenced by Rohmer who has a good eye for pertinent and engaging details. These provide a rounded picture of the future writer and are a refreshing guide for any writer or one who enjoys Leonard’s literary works. Rohmer must be commended for his thoroughness and his honesty, as he will admit gaps in his knowledge.

Leonard’s style as seen in celluloid in his and those adapted screenplays is examined in depth in part 2, with an analytical, fresh and insightful look at these works. This selection of films was referred to in his introduction as “mouthwatering” for him as a self confessed lifelong film lover with a selection of crime, police procedural and Western movies. This lengthy section encompasses his film adaptations shown at the cinema from the late 1950s to the early 2010s. But takes a more interesting route as these are written about in the order the books relating to these films were published.

Each of the feature films based on his work is written about independently and these film analyses can be read independently of each other or used as a reference guide to those works which were adapted into screenplays with other writers. Rohmer’s joy of these films waxes and wanes in his balanced, informative and analytical writing. And like he hoped “fun” it was, as despite his at times opposite views, his enthusiasm for this project remains infectious, with his vivid descriptions of those films in his visual odyssey exploring these crime and western works.

It’s clear from these insightful and small – but succinct – reviews of these films, that Rohmer has an unbridled enthusiasm and honest look at feature films. He engages you in his analysis of those feature films encompassing his film adaptations shown at the cinema from the late 1950s to the early 2010s.

These films in the order of book publication begin with the western, Three Ten To Yuma (1957) and a film about the movie industry, Be Cool (2005). Rohmer analyses feature film remakes from this author independently in separate chapters and these include two films 3:10 to Yuma (1957 and 2007). Both of these films were based on the same short story, Three-Ten to Yuma. Or should crime be your thing, two feature films were based on his crime novel of the same name, The Big Bounce (1969 and 2004).

Movies include prolific casts including the Clint Eastwood Western and titular character, Joe Kidd (1972) and the crime film, Get Shorty (1995) starring John Travolta, Renee Russo and Danny DeVito. Rohmer’s film discussion is embellished with introductory quotes from each of the movies, a synopsis and facts on its running time, crew, significant chapters and awards.

Rohmer wraps up his findings of this project with his honest conclusions. Then in a final chapter adds a treasure trove of Elmore Leonard related works and a bibliography refers to those literature lists seen in abundance throughout this book.

To conclude, Rohmer’s in-depth, well-researched and analytical material makes his book the ideal viewing and reading companion. Rohmer writes genially as a strong advocate for this author’s work. Rohmer is like a bird and it’s young, as he collects and then shares with his readers all the relevant, interesting and appealing information. He always supports this with many trusted published sources including other biographies and websites.

Rohmer gives a rounded and therefore more personal touch to his book with some facts that surprise and fascinate readers. He explains that in Leonard’s school days, Leonard earned his (lifelong), nickname, Dutch and those reasons behind this. Also in 1987, Leonard made the Sexiest Man of the Year Llst, as voted for in Playboy and was nicknamed the “Dickens of Detroit”.

Rohmer excludes an analysis of 5 TV series adaptations from Leonard’s books, although these are briefly mentioned in short descriptions in the introduction. Perhaps in a future edition, Rohmer may well add those TV adaptations to a later updated book. This then also possibly would include future feature film adaptations, that have yet to be dreamt of or have more recently been considered by new filmmaker readers of Leonard’s works.

These future films may or may not be made by Quentin Tarantino, who added in the earlier referenced The Guardian interview  that after Pulp Fiction,

Then it turned around that we were able to acquire three more Elmore Leonard novels; after the success of Pulp Fiction, they just became available, one of them being Rum Punch.

As the best things come in threes, who knows if a Tarantino trilogy of Leonard’s movies is on the horizon. This director has stated empathetically that he is directing one more movie.

But should Tarantino be Justified in counting three movies as one film trilogy… I hope this is with Andy Rohmer riding shotgun beside him. Both director and writer then sharing their in-depth, nuanced and analytical knowledge of the works of Elmore Leonard, could in more time, together write more worthy adaptations of another of Leonard’s 45 novels of westerns and crime.

But until then, take a dip into the next Andy Rohmer book series, coming out later this year and named, Flickering Capers – Donald Westlake on Film. If this book’s themes are like this book, it will be another refreshing read into an American writer’s written work in novels and then a deep dive into his movies. But one thing is sure, it won’t leave you treading water.

 

A disclaimer and personal thank you to Andy Rohmer for allowing me to write this post and for sending me this book for review. Financial compensation was not received for this post. All opinions expressed here are my own. If you are involved in the entertainment industry and would like to be featured or promoted here, please drop a line to me via my Contact Me Page.