Book Review ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ — Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Paperback

Picking through the Goodwill store of forgotten Gen X culture, Quentin Tarantino has come up with yet another musty treasure: the movie novelization. Many of these (Star Wars, E.T.) were huge successes that sold in the millions. They were also a boon to spoiler-seekers; I bought the paperback of The Empire Strikes Back before the movie came out in May 1980.

Today, like so much of what we grew up with in the 1970s, this form has evaporated. The reason people bought novels of movies we’d already seen is that we wanted to experience the movie again, but without the expense and hassle of going to the movies. Before anyone had HBO, and before videocassettes, we had to wait three years before a film would appear on television. But you could buy the novel for less than four dollars and read it again and again. By the mid ’80s, everyone who cared about movies had a VCR, and videotapes became the way to reexperience a favorite film. Novelizations went from being some of the best-selling books in America to irrelevance.

About the Author

Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is the film critic for the Wall Street Journal.

Featured Tags

Manage following

Film

Picking through the Goodwill store of forgotten Gen X culture, Quentin Tarantino has come up with yet another musty treasure: the movie novelization. Many of these (Star Wars, E.T.) were huge successes that sold in the millions. They were also a boon to spoiler-seekers; I bought the paperback of The Empire Strikes Back before the movie came out in May 1980.

Today, like so much of what we grew up with in the 1970s, this form has evaporated. The reason people bought novels of movies we’d already seen is that we wanted to experience the movie again, but without the expense and hassle of going to the movies. Before anyone had HBO, and before videocassettes, we had to wait three years before a film would appear on television. But you could buy the novel for less than four dollars and read it again and again. By the mid ’80s, everyone who cared about movies had a VCR, and videotapes became the way to reexperience a favorite film. Novelizations went from being some of the best-selling books in America to irrelevance.