Profile Of A Writer: Mailer

Posterity will decide whether Norman Mailer the writer or Norman Mailer the man was responsible for his preeminent position in American arts and letters over the last 25 years. This profile, directed by German director Hans-Jorg Weyhmuller, shows Mailer to be alternately engaging and boring. Although very candid, some of the more interesting aspects of Mailer's life have been glossed over (namely, his stabbing of his second wife), and too much time is spent on his three experimental (and universally drubbed) film efforts. In the balance, however, Mailer's views on marijuana, the prostitute side of writing, the black movement (which he interestingly explores by way of Ali's boxing career), and the process of creation, itself, are never less than interesting. (Unfortunately, some of Mailer's most well- known ideas: cancer as a metaphor for society, his keen political analyses, or his personal commitment to existentialism, are never broached.) The film concludes with Mailer's interpretations of Gary Gilmore's life, and his writing of The Executioner's Song. Recommended, where large literature collections would make this useful. (See PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST: THE REAL WORLD OF ANDREW WYETH for availability).