The View from the Bridge
By Nicholas Meyer
(Viking Adult).
You would think the man who wrote and directed two of the most popular Star Trek movies would be a bit full of himself. You’d think a guy who has lived and worked in the movie business for such a long time (and a guy who is basically a writer) would be beat up and jaded. You’d think a guy who has seen too many deaths to name (one among them his wife) would be pissed at the world. Nicholas Meyer isn’t any of the above. In fact The View from the Bridge might be the most honest, down-to-terra accounting of a life in Hollyweird you’re ever going to read.
Meyer runs through a bit of his youth, but like everything else in “Bridge” it is a breezy autobiographical ride. The meat and taters of the book is his screenwriting (and directing), movies like Time After Time and the Trek movies, which if you’re a trekker like me you’ll find fascinating (if I have any criticism of the book at all it’s that I wanted more Trek anecdotes about cast, crew and spaceships).
Really, what I dug most about The View from the Bridge was Meyer’s ‘voice’, his straight ahead retelling of what he has done and why he’s done it, even if, at the time, he doesn’t truly know his motivations. The View from the Bridge is a good informative entertaining view for anyone interested in movies.
Ralph Greco, Jr.
