The Last Tycoon

Deniro and superb cast anchor The Last Tycoon
"The Last Tycoon" is a thinly veiled retelling of the life of movie mogul Irving Thalberg. Thalberg made an amazing slew of motion pictures during his short rein as a producer and studio head in the 30's. DeNiro's Monroe Stahr is a mysterious, haunted individual who literally lives only for the movies he's making. It seems his fascinating with the screen makes him unable to communicate with the living all around him.

Writer Harold Pinter's dialog rhythms only enhances the impression that Stahr is in this world but not of it. Ultimately Stahr's intense devotion to appearance dove tails nicely with the themes examined in the book. Pinter fleshes out Fitzgerald's unfinished novel nicely although the film has an unfinished quality as well.

As directed by Hollywood and Broadway veteran Elia Kazan (On The Waterfront, East of Eden, A Streecar Named Desire), The Last Tycoon isn't an easy film to like; many of the characters seem vapid and self serving. In the character...

Many good pieces but not for everyone
The Last Tycoon is one of the last vestiges of old Hollywood merging with new Hollywood. Adapted from the unfinished novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it is an effective tribute to a time when the movie industry was in its infancy. As a fan of the original book I can't decide whether my familiarity with it made me more inclined to like the film or not. I've decided that it did, but I can see where other Fitzgerald fans would think otherwise.

Robert DeNiro stars as Monroe Stahr, a thinly veiled depiction of film pioneer Irving Thalberg, who is burdened by his overwhelming position as a studio production head, by the loss of his movie star wife, and by his weak heart. While DeNiro's portrayal is the centerpiece of the film, there are several other elements involved which lend an extra aura of prestige. Directed by Elia Kazan, the film is technically competent, but, as it is based on a work which its original author left incomplete, the ending is a bit forced and contrived. You can tell...

An Enigmatic and Reclusive Cinema Giant
Monroe Stahr is a high-powered Hollywood executive seen as a creative genius by his studio peers. What makes him so different from so many executive screen depictions is that he is not the boisterously expansive "eat on the run" giant one so frequently sees, but is more of an otherwise faceless bureaucrat who says little and acts only when it is necessary.

"The Last Tycoon" was director Elia Kazan's last film. The 1976 drama was adapted from the final work of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald's friend John O'Hara and others of the literary cognoscenti believed it would be his enduring work, but alas, before he could complete it he succumbed to a fatal heart attack in his apartment at the Laurel Arms in Hollywood, located next door to the Garden of Allah, the author's favorite Southern California residence, but one that was beyond his means at that point of a problem plagued career.

The difficulty with a work of this kind that ends before the creator had an...

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