Cheap The Kid Stays in the Picture (DVD) (Robert Evans) (Brett Morgen, Nanette Burstein) Price

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a must-see for movie fans
"The Kid Stays in the Picture," a documentary about famed movie producer and studio head Robert Evans, begins like "The Great Gatsby," a film Evans produced in 1974. To the wistful strains of "What'll I Do?" playing in the background, the camera glides lovingly over the furnishings, pictures and memorabilia that adorn Evans' Bel Air mansion and estate. The comparison is an apt one, for, like Gatsby, Evans was a wunderkind, a handsome young go-getter who knew early on the kind of life he wanted to lead and who willed himself to attain it. With a combination of good looks, charm, ambition and just a bit of plain old-fashioned good luck, he managed to go from being a mediocre movie actor to becoming the head of Paramount Studios in the course of a mere decade. And what a decade it was! Evans had a major hand in not only lifting Paramount from ninth to first place among Hollywood's major studios, but in bringing such films as "Rosemary's Baby," "True Grit," "Love Story," "Chinatown" and, of course, "The Godfather" to movie screens everywhere.

"The Kid Stays in the Picture" is a dream-come-true for hardcore cinephiles, providing a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse into one of the true Golden Ages of Hollywood filmmaking. Evans' story is, in fact, the story of that time, for truly he hobnobbed with virtually every one of the key players responsible for that era. Evans' tale follows a fairly conventional arc for men of his type: the ambitious kid with dreams of larger-than-life glory achieves meteoric success in the entertainment business only to have his ambitions dashed on the shores of rampant egotism, overconfidence and drug addiction. In fact, Evans' life would make perfect fodder for a film of its own, as this documentary and the positive response to it demonstrates. Evans himself narrates the film, and although he tends to be a bit easier on himself than an outsider might have been, he is still willing to chastise himself when he feels it's called for and to render some rather startlingly unflattering assessments of certain major players on the Hollywood scene. He is, also, however, utterly devoted to those he feels have stuck by him through good times and bad, and he is not averse to lavishing praise on others when it is due. One objection to Evans' narration is that he doesn't always speak with the utmost clarity, sometimes making what he says come out garbled and incomprehensible.

As a piece of filmmaking, "The Kid Stays in the Picture" offers a kaleidoscopic array of stills, film clips and reenactments that reflect the temper and mood of the time. Directors Brett Morgan and Nanette Burstein obviously pored through a wealth of material on the subject, culling from it a comprehensive, streamlined and fast-moving narrative that grips the audience with its humor, its sadness and its tribute to the indomitableness of the human spirit. For if Evans' story is about anything, it is about how important it is for each individual to achieve his dreams and how equally vital it is for that same person, once he has fallen down, to pick himself up off the floor so that he can continue pursuing that dream.

"The Kid Stays in the Picture" is a wonderful time capsule for those who love movies. No true film fan should miss it.

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The Stuff of Hollywood Legend.
"The Kid Stays in the Picture" is a documentary based on Robert Evans' autobiography of the same name. Narrated by Evans himself and illustrated with interviews, movie clips, publicity photos and paparazzi footage, "The Kid Stays in the Picture" traces the career of this iconic Hollywood producer from his serendipitous introduction to the film industry in the 1950's to his return to Paramount pictures in the 1990's after a long estrangement. Robert Evans' already had a successful career and great prospects with Evan Picone's fashion house when he was discovered poolside by Norma Shearer and immediately asked to play the part of her late husband in the film "Man of a Thousand Faces ". That kind of incredible, but double-edged, luck would come to characterize Evans' film career and his life. He became a magnet for controversy when Ernest Hemingway demanded that Evans be removed from his second film role, that of Pedro Romero in the film adaptation of Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises". Producer Darryl Zanuck disagreed, however, and declared, "The kid stays in the picture!" to all who would oppose him. Thus, Zanuck gave Robert Evans the title for his future autobiography and a new goal: to become a producer. Robert Evans tells us the story of his surprising meteoric rise to the head of Paramount pictures in 1967, then the 9th most successful studio in Hollywood, and how he transformed Paramount into Hollywood's premier studio. Among the most entertaining stories from that "Second Golden Age" of Hollywood, the 1970's, are Evans' search for a director for Mario Puzo's book "The Godfather" and his insistence that Francis Ford Coppola make the film longer, and his battle of wills with Frank Sinatra to get Roman Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby" finished. Evans speaks honestly of his marriage to actress Ali MacGraw and the legal troubles which ended his tenure at Paramount and left him in financial ruin in the 1980's. Movie buffs and fans of Hollywood lore will enjoy "The Kid Stays in the Picture". Be sure to stick around for Dustin Hoffman's hilarious imitation of Robert Evans which runs during the end credits and perfectly tops off Evans' life story.

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Evans comes out hitting a homerun
Robert Evans was behind a bunch of hollywood masterpieces such as Chinatown, The Marathon Man, Rosemary's Baby and The Godfather (just to name a few) and why he was involved with Popeye I have no clue. He must of been looney. Evans had a wife and child but he was divorced. He did drugs, got into the wrong things, lots of sex and he payed the price for the after math. He was friends with some of the greatest actors, directors and actresses of our time: Jack Nicholson, Mia Farrow, Roman Polanski, James Cagney, Dustin Hoffman and many more I honestly thought this was a good documentary about life in the hollywood eye. My favorite part is during the credits when Dustin Hoffman does the impersonation of Evans, that's a classic right there. If your interested, watch it and if your not, watch it once and then dont.